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diff --git a/37735.txt b/37735.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..88f5a78 --- /dev/null +++ b/37735.txt @@ -0,0 +1,11023 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook of Bird Neighbors, by Neltje Blanchan + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: Bird Neighbors + An Introductory Acquaintance with One Hundred and Fifity + Birds Commonly Found in the Gardens, Meadows, and Woods + About Our Homes + +Author: Neltje Blanchan + +Release Date: October 12, 2011 [EBook #37735] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK BIRD NEIGHBORS *** + + + + +Produced by Juliet Sutherland, Tom Cosmas and the Online +Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net + + + + + + + + + + + [Illustration: GOLDFINCH] + + + BIRD NEIGHBORS. AN + INTRODUCTORY ACQUAINTANCE + WITH ONE HUNDRED AND FIFTY + BIRDS COMMONLY FOUND IN + THE GARDENS, MEADOWS, AND + WOODS ABOUT OUR HOMES + + BY + NELTJE BLANCHAN + + WITH INTRODUCTION BY + JOHN BURROUGHS + + WITH MANY PHOTOGRAPHIC ILLUSTRATIONS + IN COLOR AND IN BLACK AND WHITE + + [Printer's Logo] + + GARDEN CITY NEW YORK + DOUBLEDAY, PAGE & COMPANY + 1923 + + + + + COPYRIGHT, 1904, 1922, BY + DOUBLEDAY, PAGE & COMPANY + + COPYRIGHT, 1897, BY + DOUBLEDAY & MCCLURE COMPANY + + COLOURED PLATES COPYRIGHTED, 1897, BY + THE NATURE STUDY PUBLISHING COMPANY + CHICAGO, ILL. + + ALL RIGHTS RESERVED, INCLUDING THAT OF TRANSLATION + INTO FOREIGN LANGUAGES, INCLUDING THE SCANDINAVIAN + + PRINTED IN THE UNITED STATES + AT + THE COUNTRY LIFE PRESS, GARDEN CITY, N. Y. + + + + +TABLE OF CONTENTS + + + PAGE + + INTRODUCTION BY JOHN BURROUGHS vii + + PREFACE ix + + LIST OF COLORED PLATES xi + + I. BIRD FAMILIES: + + Their Characteristics and the Representatives of Each + Family included in "Bird Neighbors" 1 + + II. HABITATS OF BIRDS 17 + + III. SEASONS OF BIRDS 25 + + IV. BIRDS GROUPED ACCORDING TO SIZE 33 + + V. DESCRIPTIONS OF BIRDS GROUPED ACCORDING TO COLOR: + + Birds Conspicuously Black 39 + + Birds Conspicuously Black and White 51 + + Dusky, Gray, and Slate-colored Birds 65 + + Blue and Bluish Birds 97 + + Brown, Olive or Grayish Brown, and Brown and + Gray Sparrowy Birds 113 + + Green, Greenish Gray, Olive, and Yellowish Olive Birds 167 + + Birds Conspicuously Yellow and Orange 187 + + Birds Conspicuously Red of any Shade 213 + + INDEX 229 + + + + +PREFACE + + +Not to have so much as a bowing acquaintance with the birds that nest +in our gardens or under the very eaves of our houses; that haunt our +wood-piles; keep our fruit-trees free from slugs; waken us with their +songs, and enliven our walks along the roadside and through the woods, +seems to be, at least, a breach of etiquette toward some of our most +kindly disposed neighbors. + +Birds of prey, game and water birds are not included in the book. The +following pages are intended to be nothing more than a familiar +introduction to the birds that live near us. Even in the principal +park of a great city like New York, a bird-lover has found more than +one hundred and thirty species; as many, probably, as could be +discovered in the same sized territory anywhere. + +The plan of the book is not a scientific one, if the term scientific +is understood to mean technical and anatomical. The purpose of the +writer is to give, in a popular and accessible form, knowledge which +is accurate and reliable about the life of our common birds. This +knowledge has not been collected from the stuffed carcasses of birds +in museums, but gleaned afield. In a word, these short narrative +descriptions treat of the bird's characteristics of size, color, and +flight; its peculiarities of instinct and temperament; its nest and +home life; its choice of food; its songs; and of the season in which +we may expect it to play its part in the great panorama Nature unfolds +with faithful precision year after year. They are an attempt to make +the bird so live before the reader that, when seen out of doors, its +recognition shall be instant and cordial, like that given to a friend. + +The coloring described in this book is sometimes more vivid than that +found in the works of some learned authorities whose conflicting +testimony is often sadly bewildering to the novice. In different parts +of the country, and at different seasons of the year, the plumage of +some birds undergoes many changes. The reader must remember, +therefore, that the specimens examined and described were not, as +before stated, the faded ones in our museums, but live birds in their +fresh, spring plumage, studied afield. + +The birds have been classed into color groups, in the belief that this +method, more than any other will make identification most easy. The +color of the bird is the first, and often the only, characteristic +noticed. But they have also been classified according to the +localities for which they show decided preferences and in which they +are most likely to be found. Again, they have been grouped according +to the season when they may be expected. In the brief paragraphs that +deal with groups of birds separated into the various families +represented in the book, the characteristics and traits of each clan +are clearly emphasized. By these several aids it is believed the +merest novice will be able to quickly identify any bird neighbor that +is neither local nor rare. + +To the uninitiated or uninterested observer, all small, dull-colored +birds are "common sparrows." The closer scrutiny of the trained eye +quickly differentiates, and picks out not only the Song, the Canada, +and the Fox Sparrows, but finds a dozen other familiar friends where +one who "has eyes and sees not" does not even suspect their presence. +Ruskin says: "The more I think of it, I find this conclusion more +impressed upon me, that the greatest thing a human soul ever does in +this world is to _see_ something. Hundreds of people can talk for one +who can think, but thousands can think for one who can see. To see +clearly is poetry, prophecy, and religion--all in one." + +While the author is indebted to all the time-honored standard +authorities, and to many ornithologists of the present day--too many +for individual mention--it is to Mr. John Burroughs her deepest debt +is due. To this clear-visioned prophet, who has opened the blind eyes +of thousands to the delights that Nature holds within our easy reach, +she would gratefully acknowledge many obligations; first of all, for +the plan on which "Bird Neighbors" is arranged; next, for his patient +kindness in reading and annotating the manuscript of the book; and, +not least, for the inspiration of his perennially charming writings +that are so largely responsible for the ready-made audience now +awaiting writers on out-of-door topics. + + * * * * * + +It is hoped that the illustrations in this edition of "Bird Neighbors" +will do much to add to the pleasure and profit of the reader. Through +the courtesy of the National Association of Audubon Societies, the +pictures painted by artists who are specialists in bird portraiture +embellish this book. Each portrait has been examined and corrected +when necessary by an authority. The birds are pictured as they are in +life, each according to its own habit of existence. + +The author takes this opportunity to express her appreciation of the +work the National Association of Audubon Societies has done and is +doing to prevent the slaughter of birds in all parts of the United +States, to develop bird sanctuaries and inaugurate protective +legislation. Indeed to it, more than to all other agencies combined, +is due the credit of eliminating so much of the Prussian like cruelty +toward birds that once characterized American treatment of them, from +the rising generation. + + NELTJE BLANCHAN. + + + + +THE NATURE LIBRARY + +By JOHN BURROUGHS + + +I do not propose in these introductory remarks to this Nature Library +to discuss the merits or the character of the separate volumes further +than to say that they are all by competent hands and, so far as I can +judge, entirely reliable. While accurate and scientific, I have found +them very readable. The treatment is popular without being +sensational. + +This library is free from the scientific dry rot on the one hand and +from the florid and misleading romanticism of much recent nature +writing on the other. It is a safe guide to the world of animal and +plant life that lies about us. And that is all the wise reader wants. +He should want to explore this world for himself. Indeed, +nature-study, as it appeals to us in books, fails of its chief end if +it does not send us to nature itself. What we want is not the mere +facts about the flowers or the animals--we want through them to add to +the resources of our lives; and I know of nothing better calculated to +do this than the study of nature at first hand. To add to the +resources of one's life--think how much that means! To add to those +things that make us more at home in the world; that help guard us +against ennui and stagnation; that invest the country with new +interest and enticement; that make every walk in the fields or woods +an excursion into a land of unexhausted treasures; that make the +returning seasons fill us with expectation and delight; that make +every rod of ground like the page of a book in which new and strange +things may be read; in short, those things that help keep us fresh and +sane and young, and make us immune to the strife and fever of the +world. + +The main thing is to feel an interest in Nature--an interest that +leads to a loving unconscious study of her. Not entirely a scientific +interest, but a human interest as well; science upon the one hand and +an appreciation of the mystery, the beauty, and the bounty of life +upon the other. The child feels a human interest in nature: when the +schoolgirls come to school with their hands full of wild flowers, or +the boys make excursions to the woods in May for wintergreens, or +black birch, or crinkle root, they are all moved by an interest that +is old and deep-seated in the race. Now, if to this interest and +curiosity we can add a little science, just enough to guide them, we +lift these feelings to another plane and give them a longer lease of +life. The boy will not be so likely to rob birds' nests after the +savage in him has been humanized by a touch of real knowledge and he +has come to look upon the bird as something worthy of naming and +studying and that has its place in the economy of the fields and +woods. + +A touch of real knowledge--how humanizing and elevating it is! Simply +to learn that all the plants have been studied and named, even the +humblest; that they all have vital relations with one another--family +ties; that the great biological laws are operative in them also; that +the deep, mysterious principle of variation, which is at the bottom of +Darwin's theory of the origin of the species, is working in the +lowliest plant we tread upon; to know that the chain of cause and +effect runs through the whole organic world, binding together its +remotest parts; that everywhere is plan, development, evolution--to +know these and kindred things--a few of the fundamentals of +science--is a joy to the spirit and a light to the mind. + +Science in the world is like the surveyor and the engineer in a new +country; it opens up highways for the mind; it bridges the chasms and +marshes; it gives us dominion over the wild; it brings order out of +chaos. What a maze, what a tangle the world is till we come to look +upon it with the clews and solutions in mind which science affords! +The heavens seem a haphazard spatter of stars, the earth a wild jumble +of plants, and animals, and blind forces all struggling with one +another--confusion, contradiction, failure everywhere. And so it was +to the early men, and so it still is to those who have not the light +of science, but so it need not remain to the child born into the world +to-day. The great mysteries of life and death, of final causes and +ultimate ends, still remain and will continue, but nature now, +compared with the nature of a few centuries ago, is like a land +subdued and peopled and cultivated compared with a pathless +wilderness. And yet I would not in this connection, when considering +the field of natural history, lay too much stress upon the scientific +aspects of the question. To the real nature-lover the bird in the bush +is worth much more than the bird in the hand, because the nature-lover +is not after a specimen: he is after a living fact; he is after a new +joy in life. + +It is an important part, but by no means the main part of what +ornithology holds for us, to be able to name every bird on sight or +call. To love the bird, to appreciate its place in the landscape and +in the season, to relate it to your daily life, to divine its +character, to know it emotionally in your heart--that is much more. To +know the birds as the sportsman knows his game; to experience the same +thrill, purged of all thoughts of slaughter; to make their songs music +in your life--this is indeed something to be desired. + +The same with botany. I regard its class-room uses as very slight. The +educational value of the technical part is almost _nil_. But the +humanizing value of a love of the flowers, the hygienic value of a +walk in their haunts, the A|sthetic value of the observation of their +forms and tints--these are all vital. The scientific value which +attaches to your knowledge of the names of their parts or of their +families--what is that? Their habits are interesting; their means of +fertilization are interesting; the part insects play in their +lives--the honey-yielders, the pollen-yielders, their means of +scattering their seeds, and so forth--all are interesting. To know +their habitats and seasons; to have associations with them when you go +fishing; to land your trout in a bed of bee-palm or jewel-weed; to +pluck the linnA|a in the moss on the Adirondack mountain you are +climbing; to gather pond-lilies from a boat with your friend; to pluck +the arbutus on the first balmy day of April; to see the scarlet +lobelia lighting up a dark nook by the stream as you row by in August; +to walk or drive past vast acres of purple loosestrife, looking like a +lake or sea of color--this is botany with something back of it, and +the only place to learn it is where it grows. The botany that trails +the days and the season and the woods and the fields with it--that is +the kind that has educational value in it. + +I confess I have not much sympathy with the laboratory study of +nature, except for economic purposes. Nature under the dissecting +knife and the microscope yields important secrets to the students of +biology, but the unprofessional students want but little of all this. +I know a young woman who took a post-graduate course in biology at a +noted summer school, and the one thing she learned was that certain +bacilli were found only in the aqueous humor of the eyes of white +mice. The world is full of curious facts like that, that have no human +interest or educational value whatever. + +If one could number all the trees of the forest and all the leaves +upon the trees, what would it profit him? To know the different kinds +of trees when you see them, and the function of the leaves upon +them--that were more worth while. I have read studies of leaves that +were just as profitless as to know their numbers. I have heard +discourses upon the changes in the plumage of certain water-fowl from +youth to age, and from one moult to another, that were as profitless +and wearisome as studying the variations of the leaves or their +numbers. + +I hardly know why I am impatient when people come to me with their +hands full of different leaves and ask me what tree is this from, and +this, and this? If your business is not with trees, if you live in the +city and care mainly for city things, why bother about the trees, +unless for the pleasure of it during your summer excursions into the +country; and if it affords you pleasure, you will not want any one to +tell you: you will want to identify the trees themselves. + +The same with the birds. The main profit of this branch of natural +history is in the pursuit--not in the name, but in the bird. It is the +chase that allures the sportsman, and it is the chase that profits the +nature-student. Did you ever receive a gift of brook-trout by express? +How pitiful they look--stale fish only! But the trout you brought in +at night after threading for miles the mountain stream: its voice all +day in your ears; its sparkle all day in your eyes; the love of its +beauty and purity all day in your heart; wading through bee-balm or +jewel-weed; skirting wild pastures; starting the grouse or the +woodcock with their young; surprising bird and beast at their home +occupations--these were trout with a flavor. + +Whatever opens up new doors or windows for us into the world about us, +whatever widens the field of our interests and sympathies, has some +sort of value--moral, intellectual, or A|sthetic. But much of the +so-called nature-study opens no new doors or windows; it affords no +mental satisfaction, or illumination, or A|sthetic pleasure; it is +mainly pottering with dry, unimportant facts and details. Do you know +the edelweiss of our own matchless arbutus after you have merely +analyzed and classified them? No more than you know a man after having +weighed and measured him. The function of things is always +interesting. What do they do? How do they pay their way in the rigid +economy of nature? How do they survive? How does the bulb of the +common fawn-lily[1] get deeper and deeper into the ground each year? +Why does the wild ginger hide its blossom when nearly all other plants +flaunt theirs? Why are the plants of the common mouse-ear +(_antennaria_)[2] always in groups, one sex here, another there, as if +prohibited from mingling by some moral code in nature? Why do nearly +all our trees have a twist to the right or the left--hard woods one +way, and soft woods the other? Why do the roots of trees flow through +the ground like "runnels of molten metal," often separating and +uniting again while the branches are thrust out in right lines or +curves? Why is our common yellow birch more often than any other tree +planted upon a rock? Why do oaks or chestnuts so often spring up where +a pine or hemlock forest has been cleared away? Why does lightning so +commonly strike a hemlock tree or a pine or an oak, and rarely or +never a beech? Why does the bolt sometimes scatter the tree about, and +at others only plow a channel down its trunk? Why does the bumblebee +complain so loudly when working upon certain flowers? Why does the +honey-bee lose the sting when it stings a person, while the wasp, the +hornet, and the bumblebee do not? How does the chimney-swallow get the +twigs it builds its nest with? From what does the hornet make its +paper? + +One of Herbert Spencer's questions was, Why do animals and birds of +prey have their eyes in front, and others, as sheep and domestic fowl, +on the side of the head? Man, then, by the position of his eyes +belongs to the predaceous animals. I have never been greatly +interested in spiders, but I have always wanted to know how a certain +spider managed to stretch her cable squarely across the road in the +woods about my height from the ground? Why are mud turtles so wild? +Why is the excrement of the young of some birds carried away by the +parents, while with others it is voided from the nest? Among certain +of our birds the family relation, more or less marked, is kept up a +long time after the young have left the nest. One sees the parent +birds and the young going about in loose flocks often till late into +the fall. Of what birds is this true? + + [1] The adder's tongue. + + [2] Everlasting. + +The questions I have suggested are not important; they do not hold the +key to any great storehouse of natural knowledge. Their only value is +as a means to quicken the powers of observation. We see vaguely, +diffusely. Concentrate the attention--not to the extent of missing +total effects, as the specialist so often does, but for the purpose of +reading correctly the play of life that is constantly going about us. + +Nature's book is like any other book: you must open the covers; you +must fix your eyes upon the text; you must get into the spirit of it. +When you have read one sentence correctly you are so much the better +prepared to read the next one. + +A world of nature about us that we are quite apt to be oblivious to, +except as it results in our annoyance, is the insect world. We do not +take an intelligent interest in the ants, or the bees, or the moths, +or the butterflies, yet here is a field of observation that will amply +repay one. One day in a great city I saw a butterfly calmly winging +its way high above the crowded street. I knew it was the monarch +(_Anosia plexippus_), probably the greatest traveler of all our +butterflies. It is quite certain that they migrate to the South in the +fall, and that many return in the spring. I learn from Mr. Holland's +Butterfly Book in this library that they have even crossed both +oceans--of course, by catching a ride on vessels--and are now found in +Australia and in the Philippines, and they have been collected in +England. Have you not seen its chrysalis suspended from some weed or +bush, looking like the trunk from some tiny warrior encased in +pale-green armor, riveted with gold-headed rivets, a broad, heavy +shield over the abdomen, and plate upon plate over the shoulders and +back? It is a milkweed butterfly, and will serve as a good +introduction to this new world of winged life. Early last spring I +found upon the window of my cabin in the woods a butterfly that had +evidently hybernated in some snug crack or corner of the building. +This was the mourning cloak, with me the first vernal butterfly. When +one sees this butterfly dancing through the open sunny woods in March +or early April he may know spring has really come and that the first +hepatica will soon open its blue eye. + +Mr. Howard's Insect Book ought to start many of its readers to +observing flies and bees and prying into their life-histories, many of +which are as yet not fully known. Not a farm-boy but knows of the big +fat grubs in cows' backs in the spring. It was always a mystery to me +how they got there. Now it is known that the creature has traveled all +the way from the cow's stomach, where the egg of its parent--the +bot-fly--was hatched, making its way slowly "through the connective +tissues of the cow, between the skin and the flesh, penetrating +gradually along the neck, and ultimately reaching a point beneath the +skin on the back of the animal." + +We have only to look into nature a little more closely and intently, +to whet our powers of observation by the use of such books as this +Nature Library contains, to add vastly to our pleasure in and our +knowledge of the world that lies about us. + + + + +INTRODUCTION + + +I write these few introductory sentences to this volume only to second +so worthy an attempt to quicken and enlarge the general interest in +our birds. The book itself is merely an introduction, and is only +designed to place a few clews in the reader's hands which he himself +or herself is to follow up. I can say that it is reliable and is +written in a vivacious strain and by a real bird lover, and should +prove a help and a stimulus to any one who seeks by the aid of its +pages to become better acquainted with our songsters. The pictures, +with a few exceptions, are remarkably good and accurate, and these, +with the various grouping of the birds according to color, season, +habitat, etc., ought to render the identification of the birds, with +no other weapon than an opera glass, an easy matter. + +When I began the study of the birds I had access to a copy of Audubon, +which greatly stimulated my interest in the pursuit, but I did not +have the opera glass, and I could not take Audubon with me on my +walks, as the reader may this volume, and he will find these colored +plates quite as helpful as those of Audubon or Wilson. + +But you do not want to make out your bird the first time; the book or +your friend must not make the problem too easy for you. You must go +again and again, and see and hear your bird under varying conditions +and get a good hold of several of its characteristic traits. Things +easily learned are apt to be easily forgotten. Some ladies, beginning +the study of birds, once wrote to me, asking if I would not please +come and help them, and set them right about certain birds in dispute. +I replied that that would be getting their knowledge too easily; that +what I and any one else told them they would be very apt to forget, +but that the things they found out themselves they would always +remember. We must in a way earn what we have or keep. Only thus does +it become _ours_, a real part of us. + +Not very long afterward I had the pleasure of walking with one of the +ladies, and I found her eye and ear quite as sharp as my own, and that +she was in a fair way to conquer the bird kingdom without any outside +help. She said that the groves and fields, through which she used to +walk with only a languid interest, were now completely transformed to +her and afforded her the keenest pleasure; a whole new world of +interest had been disclosed to her; she felt as if she was constantly +on the eve of some new discovery; the next turn in the path might +reveal to her a new warbler or a new vireo. I remember the thrill she +seemed to experience when I called her attention to a purple finch +singing in the tree-tops in front of her house, a rare visitant she +had not before heard. The thrill would of course have been greater had +she identified the bird without my aid. One would rather bag one's own +game, whether it be with a bullet or an eyebeam. + +The experience of this lady is the experience of all in whom is +kindled this bird enthusiasm. A new interest is added to life; one +more resource against ennui and stagnation. If you have only a city +yard with a few sickly trees in it, you will find great delight in +noting the numerous stragglers from the great army of spring and +autumn migrants that find their way there. If you live in the country, +it is as if new eyes and new ears were given you, with a +correspondingly increased capacity for rural enjoyment. + +The birds link themselves to your memory of seasons and places, so +that a song, a call, a gleam of color, set going a sequence of +delightful reminiscences in your mind. When a solitary great Carolina +wren came one August day and took up its abode near me and sang and +called and warbled as I had heard it long before on the Potomac, how +it brought the old days, the old scenes back again, and made me for +the moment younger by all those years! + +A few seasons ago I feared the tribe of bluebirds were on the verge of +extinction from the enormous number of them that perished from cold +and hunger in the South in the winter of '94. For two summers not a +blue wing, not a blue warble. I seemed to miss something kindred and +precious from my environment--the visible embodiment of the tender sky +and the wistful soil. What a loss, I said, to the coming generations +of dwellers in the country--no bluebird in the spring! What will the +farm-boy date from? But the fear was groundless: the birds are +regaining their lost ground; broods of young blue-coats are again seen +drifting from stake to stake or from mullen-stalk to mullen-stalk +about the fields in summer, and our April air will doubtless again be +warmed and thrilled by this lovely harbinger of spring. + + JOHN BURROUGHS. + + _August 17, 07._ + + + + +LIST OF COLOURED PLATES + + + FACING PAGE + + GOLDFINCH--_Frontispiece_ + KINGBIRD 12 + MOCKING-BIRD 13 + CROW 28 + RED-WINGED BLACKBIRD 29 + PURPLE MARTIN 44 + DOWNY WOODPECKER 45 + TOWHEES 58 + ROSE-BREASTED GROSBEAKS 59 + BOBOLINKS 74 + PHOEBE 75 + CHICKADEE 78 + TUFTED TITMOUSE 79 + CATBIRD 86 + WHITE-BREASTED NUTHATCH 87 + CHESTNUT-SIDED WARBLER 94 + BLUE BIRD 95 + KINGFISHER 102 + BLUE JAY 103 + BARN SWALLOW 110 + MOURNING DOVE 111 + HOUSE WREN 118 + BROWN THRASHER 119 + VEERY 126 + WOOD THRUSH 127 + FLICKER 134 + MEADOWLARK 135 + HORNED LARK 138 + WHIPPOORWILL 139 + NIGHT HAWK 154 + YELLOW-BILLED CUCKOO 155 + CEDAR WAXWING 158 + CHIPPING SPARROW 159 + SONG SPARROW 166 + TREE SPARROW 167 + WHITE-THROATED SPARROW 170 + TREE SWALLOW 171 + RUBY-THROATED HUMMINGBIRDS 186 + RUBY-CROWNED KINGLET 187 + REDSTART 190 + BALTIMORE ORIOLE 191 + CARDINAL 198 + SCARLET TANAGER 199 + RED CROSSBILL 226 + PURPLE FINCH 226 + ROBIN 226 + ORCHARD ORIOLE 227 + + + + +LIST OF HALF-TONE PLATES + + + FACING PAGE + + CROW ON NEST 16 + BLUE-WINGED WARBLER ALIGHTING TO FEED HER YOUNG 17 + YOUNG FLICKERS ON DAY OF LEAVING NEST 24 + WINTER VISITORS: REDPOLLS 25 + YOUNG KINGFISHERS 48 + GRACKLE'S NEST AND YOUNG 49 + YELLOWBIRD'S NEST, SHOWING COWBIRD'S EGG 54 + BROTHER AND SISTER ROSE-BREASTED GROSBEAKS, TWO + WEEKS OLD 55 + ROSE-BREASTED GROSBEAKS, SIX DAYS OLD 55 + CHIMNEY SWIFT 66 + YOUNG CRESTED FLYCATCHERS WITH HAIR STANDING ON END 106 + YOUNG MOCKING-BIRD 107 + HUNGRY YOUNG MOCKING-BIRDS 107 + A CHESTNUT-SIDED WARBLER FAMILY 122 + THE WOOD THRUSH HEARS THE CLICK OF THE CAMERA 123 + YELLOW-BILLED CUCKOOS THE DAY BEFORE LEAVING NEST 202 + FIELD SPARROW BABIES 203 + MOTHER OVENBIRD IN NEST; A BABY BIRD ON IT 218 + THE ROBIN'S MUD-WALLED NURSERY 219 + + + + + BIRD FAMILIES + + THEIR CHARACTERISTICS AND THE REPRESENTATIVES + OF EACH FAMILY INCLUDED IN "BIRD NEIGHBORS" + + + + +_Order Coccyges_: CUCKOOS AND KINGFISHERS + + +_Family CuculidA|_: CUCKOOS + +Long, pigeon-shaped birds, whose backs are grayish brown with a bronze +lustre and whose under parts are whitish. Bill long and curved. Tail +long; raised and drooped slowly while the bird is perching. Two toes +point forward and two backward. Call-note loud and like a tree-toad's +rattle. Song lacking. Birds of low trees and undergrowth, where they +also nest; partial to neighborhood of streams, or wherever the tent +caterpillar is abundant. Habits rather solitary, silent, and +eccentric. Migratory. + + Yellow-billed Cuckoo. + Black-billed Cuckoo. + + +_Family AlcedinidA|_: KINGFISHERS + +Large, top-heavy birds of streams and ponds. Usually seen perching +over the water looking for fish. Head crested; upper parts slate-blue; +underneath white, and belted with blue or rusty. Bill large and heavy. +Middle and outer toes joined for half their length. Call-note loud and +prolonged, like a policeman's rattle. Solitary birds; little inclined +to rove from a chosen locality. Migratory. + + Belted Kingfisher. + + + + +_Order Pici_: WOODPECKERS + + +_Family PicidA|_: WOODPECKERS + +Medium-sized and small birds, usually with plumage black and white, +and always with some red feathers about the head. (The flicker is +brownish and yellow instead of black and white.) Stocky, +high-shouldered build; bill strong and long for drilling holes in bark +of trees. Tail feathers pointed and stiffened to serve as a prop. Two +toes before and two behind for clinging. Usually seen clinging erect +on tree-trunks; rarely, if ever, head downward, like the nuthatches, +titmice, etc. Woodpeckers feed as they creep around the trunks and +branches. Habits rather phlegmatic. The flicker has better developed +vocal powers than other birds of this class, whose rolling tattoo, +beaten with their bills against the tree-trunks, must answer for their +love-song. Nest in hollowed-out trees. + + Red-headed Woodpecker. + Hairy Woodpecker. + Downy Woodpecker. + Yellow-bellied Woodpecker. + Flicker. + + + + +_Order Macrochires_: GOATSUCKERS, SWIFTS, AND HUMMING-BIRDS + + +_Family CaprimulgidA|_: NIGHTHAWKS, WHIPPOORWILLS, ETC. + +Medium-sized, mottled brownish, gray, black, and white birds of heavy +build. Short, thick head; gaping, large mouth; very small bill, with +bristles at base. Take insect food on the wing. Feet small and weak; +wings long and powerful. These birds rest lengthwise on their perch +while sleeping through the brightest daylight hours, or on the ground, +where they nest. + + Nighthawk. + Whippoorwill. + + +_Family MicropolidA|_: SWIFTS + +Sooty, dusky birds seen on the wing, never resting except in chimneys +of houses, or hollow trees, where they nest. Tips of tail feathers +with sharp spines, used as props. They show their kinship with the +goatsuckers in their nocturnal as well as diurnal habits, their small +bills and large mouths for catching insects or the wing, and their +weak feet. Gregarious, especially at the nesting season. + + Chimney Swift. + + +_Family TrochilidA|_: HUMMING-BIRDS + +Very small birds with green plumage (iridescent red or orange breast +in males); long, needle-shaped bill for extracting insects and nectar +from deep-cupped flowers, and exceedingly rapid, darting flight. Small +feet. + + Ruby-throated Humming-bird. + + + + +_Order Passeres_: PERCHING BIRDS + + +_Family TyrannidA|_: FLYCATCHERS + +Small and medium-sized dull, dark-olive, or gray birds, with big heads +that are sometimes crested. Bills hooked at end, and with bristles at +base. Harsh or plaintive voices. Wings longer than tail; both wings +and tails usually drooped and vibrating when the birds are perching. +Habits moody and silent when perching on a conspicuous limb, telegraph +wire, dead tree, or fence rail and waiting for insects to fly within +range. Sudden, nervous, spasmodic sallies in midair to seize insects +on the wing. Usually they return to their identical perch or lookout. +Pugnacious and fearless. Excellent nest builders and devoted mates. + + Kingbird. + Ph[oe]be. + Wood Pewee. + Acadian Flycatcher. + Great Crested Flycatcher. + Least Flycatcher. + Olive-sided Flycatcher. + Yellow-bellied Flycatcher. + Say's Flycatcher. + + +_Family AlaudidA|_: LARKS + +The only true larks to be found in this country are the two species +given below. They are the kin of the European skylark, of which +several unsuccessful attempts to introduce the bird have been made in +this country. These two larks must not be confused with the meadow +larks and titlarks, which belong to the blackbird and pipit families +respectively. The horned larks are birds of the ground, and are seen +in the United States only in the autumn and winter. In the nesting +season at the North their voices are most musical. Plumage grayish and +brown, in color harmony with their habitats. Usually found in flocks; +the first species on or near the shore. + + Horned Lark. + Prairie Horned Lark. + + +_Family CorvidA|_: CROWS AND JAYS + +The crows are large black birds, walkers, with stout feet adapted for +the purpose. Fond of shifting their residence at different seasons +rather than strictly migratory, for, except at the northern limit of +range, they remain resident all the year. Gregarious. Sexes alike. +Omnivorous feeders, being partly carnivorous, as are also the jays. +Both crows and jays inhabit wooded country. Their voices are harsh and +clamorous; and their habits are boisterous and bold, particularly the +jays. Devoted mates; unpleasant neighbors. + + Common Crow. + Fish Crow. + Northern Raven. + Blue Jay. + Canada Jay. + + +_Family IcteridA|_: BLACKBIRDS, ORIOLES, ETC. + +Plumage black or a brilliant color combined with black. (The meadow +lark a sole exception.) Sexes unlike. These birds form a connecting +link between the crows and the finches. The blackbirds have strong +feet for use upon the ground, where they generally feed, while the +orioles are birds of the trees. They are both seed and insect eaters. +The bills of the bobolink and cowbird are short and conical, for they +are conspicuous seed eaters. Bills of the others long and conical, +adapted for insectivorous diet. About half the family are gifted +songsters. + + Red-winged Blackbird. + Rusty Blackbird. + Purple Grackle. + Bronzed Grackle. + Cowbird. + Meadow Lark. + Western Meadow Lark. + Bobolink. + Orchard Oriole. + Baltimore Oriole. + + +_Family FringillidA|_: FINCHES, SPARROWS, GROSBEAKS, + BUNTINGS, LINNETS, AND CROSSBILLS + +Generally fine songsters. Bills conical, short, and stout for cracking +seeds. Length from five to nine inches, usually under eight inches. +This, the largest family of birds that we have (about one-seventh of +all our birds belong to it), comprises birds of such varied plumage +and habit that, while certain family resemblances may be traced +throughout, it is almost impossible to characterize the family as +such. The _sparrows_ are comparatively small gray and brown birds with +striped upper parts, lighter underneath. Birds of the ground, or not +far from it, elevated perches being chosen for rest and song. Nest in +low bushes or on the ground. (Chipping sparrow often selects tall +trees.) Coloring adapted to grassy, dusty habitats. Males and females +similar. Flight labored. About forty species of sparrows are found in +the United States; of these, fourteen may be met with by a novice, and +six, at least, surely will be. + +The _finches_ and their larger kin are chiefly bright-plumaged birds, +the females either duller or distinct from males; bills heavy, dull, +and conical, befitting seed eaters. Not so migratory as insectivorous +birds nor so restless. Mostly phlegmatic in temperament. Fine +songsters. + + Chipping Sparrow. Pine Siskin (or Finch). + English Sparrow. Purple Finch. + Field Sparrow. Goldfinch. + Fox Sparrow. Redpoll. + Grasshopper Sparrow. Greater Redpoll. + Savanna Sparrow. Red Crossbill. + Seaside Sparrow. White-winged Red Crossbill. + Sharp-tailed Sparrow. Cardinal Grosbeak. + Song Sparrow. Rose-breasted Grosbeak. + Swamp Song Sparrow. Pine Grosbeak. + Tree Sparrow. Evening Grosbeak. + Vesper Sparrow. Blue Grosbeak. + White-crowned Sparrow. Indigo Bunting. + White-throated Sparrow. Junco. + Lapland Longspur. Snowflake. + Smith's Painted Longspur. Chewink. + + +_Family TanagridA|_: TANAGERS + +Distinctly an American family, remarkable for their brilliant plumage, +which, however, undergoes great changes twice a year, Females +different from males, being dull and inconspicuous. Birds of the +tropics, two species only finding their way north, and the summer +tanager rarely found north of Pennsylvania. Shy inhabitants of woods. +Though they may nest low in trees, they choose high perches when +singing or feeding upon flowers, fruits, and insects. As a family, the +tanagers have weak, squeaky voices, but both our species are good +songsters. Suffering the fate of most bright-plumaged birds, immense +numbers have been shot annually. + + Scarlet Tanager. + Summer Tanager. + + +_Family HirundinidA|_: SWALLOWS + +Birds of the air, that take their insect food on the wing. Migratory. +Flight strong, skimming, darting; exceedingly graceful. When not +flying they choose slender, conspicuous perches like telegraph wires, +gutters, and eaves of barns. Plumage of some species dull, of others +iridescent blues and greens above, whitish or ruddy below. Sexes +similar. Bills small; mouths large. Long and pointed wings, generally +reaching the tip of the tail or beyond. Tail more or less forked. Feet +small and weak from disuse. Song a twittering warble without power. +Gregarious birds. + + Barn Swallow. + Bank Swallow. + Cliff (or Eaves) Swallow. + Tree Swallow. + Bough-winged Swallow. + Purple Martin. + + +_Family AmpelidA|_: WAXWINGS + +Medium-sized Quaker-like birds, with plumage of soft browns and grays. +Head crested; black band across forehead and through the eye. Bodies +plump from indolence. Tail tipped with yellow; wings with red tips to +coverts, resembling sealing-wax. Sexes similar. Silent, gentle, +courteous, elegant birds. Usually seen in large flocks feeding upon +berries in the trees or perching on the branches, except at the +nesting season. Voices resemble a soft, lisping twitter. + + Cedar Bird. + Bohemian Waxwing. + + +_Family LaniidA|_: SHRIKES + +Medium-sized grayish, black-and-white birds, with hooked and hawk-like +bill for tearing the flesh of smaller birds, field-mice, and large +insects that they impale on thorns. Handsome, bold birds, the terror +of all small, feathered neighbors, not excluding the English sparrow. +They choose conspicuous perches when on the lookout for prey: a +projecting or dead limb of a tree, the cupola of a house, the +ridge-pole or weather-vane of a barn, or a telegraph wire, from which +to suddenly drop upon a victim. Eyesight remarkable. Call-notes harsh +and unmusical. Habits solitary and wandering. The first-named species +is resident during the colder months of the year; the latter is a +summer resident only north of Maryland. + + Northern Shrike. + Loggerhead Shrike. + + +_Family VireonidA|_: VIREOS OR GREENLETS + +Small greenish-gray or olive birds, whitish or yellowish underneath, +their plumage resembling the foliage of the trees they hunt, nest, and +live among. Sexes alike. More deliberate in habit than the restless, +flitting warblers that are chiefly seen darting about the ends of +twigs. Vireos are more painstaking gleaners; they carefully explore +the bark, turn their heads upward to investigate the under side of +leaves, and usually keep well hidden among the foliage. Bill hooked at +tip for holding worms and insects. Gifted songsters, superior to the +warblers. This family is peculiar to America. + + Red-eyed Vireo. + Solitary Vireo. + Warbling Vireo. + White-eyed Vireo. + Yellow-throated Vireo. + + +_Family MniotiltidA|_: WOOD WARBLERS + +A large group of birds, for the most part smaller than the English +sparrow; all, except the ground warblers, of beautiful plumage, in +which yellow, olive, slate-blue, black, and white are predominant +colors. Females generally duller than males. Exceedingly active, +graceful, restless feeders among the terminal twigs of trees and +shrubbery; haunters of tree-tops in the woods at nesting time. +Abundant birds, especially during May and September, when the majority +are migrating to and from regions north of the United States; but they +are strangely unknown to all but devoted bird lovers, who seek them +out during these months that particularly favor acquaintance. Several +species are erratic in their migrations and choose a different course +to return southward from the one they travelled over in spring. A few +species are summer residents, and one, at least, of this tropical +family, the myrtle warbler, winters at the north. The habits of the +family are not identical in every representative; some are more +deliberate and less nervous than others; a few, like the Canadian and +Wilson's warblers, are expert flycatchers, taking their food on the +wing, but not usually returning to the same perch, like true +flycatchers; and a few of the warblers, as, for example, the +black-and-white, the pine, and the worm-eating species, have the +nuthatches' habit of creeping around the bark of trees. Quite a number +feed upon the ground. All are insectivorous, though many vary their +diet with blossom, fruit, or berries, and naturally their bills are +slender and sharply pointed, rarely finch-like. The yellow-breasted +chat has the greatest variety of vocal expressions. The ground +warblers are compensated for their sober, thrush-like plumage by their +exquisite voices, while the great majority of the family that are +gaily dressed have notes that either resemble the trill of midsummer +insects or, by their limited range and feeble utterance, sadly belie +the family name. + + Bay-breasted Warbler. Nashville Warbler. + Blackburnian Warbler. Palm Warbler. + Blackpoll Warbler. Parula Warbler. + Black-throated Blue Warbler. Pine Warbler. + Black-throated Green Warbler. Prairie Warbler. + Black-and-white Creeping Warbler. Redstart. + Blue-winged Warbler. Wilson's Warbler. + Canadian Warbler. Worm-eating Warbler. + Chestnut-sided Warbler. Yellow Warbler. + Golden-winged Warbler. Yellow Palm Warbler. + Hooded Warbler. Ovenbird. + Kentucky Warbler. Northern Water Thrush. + Magnolia Warbler. Louisiana Water Thrush. + Mourning Warbler. Maryland Yellowthroat. + Myrtle Warbler. Yellow-breasted Chat + + +_Family MotacillidA|_: WAGTAILS AND PIPITS + +Only three birds of this family inhabit North America, and of these +only one is common enough, east of the Mississippi, to be included in +this book. Terrestrial birds of open tracts near the coast, +stubble-fields, and country roadsides, with brownish plumage to +harmonize with their surroundings. The American pipit, or titlark, has +a peculiar wavering flight when, after being flushed, it reluctantly +leaves the ground. Then its white tail feathers are conspicuous. Its +habit of wagging its tail when perching is not an exclusive family +trait, as the family name might imply. + + American Pipit, or Titlark. + + +_Family TroglodytidA|_: THRASHERS, WRENS, ETC. + +_Subfamily MiminA|_: THRASHERS, MOCKING-BIRDS, AND CATBIRDS + +Apparently the birds that comprise this large general family are too +unlike to be related, but the missing links or intermediate species +may all be found far South. The first subfamily is comprised of +distinctively American birds. Most numerous in the tropics. Their long +tails serve a double purpose--in assisting their flight and acting as +an outlet for their vivacity. Usually they inhabit scrubby undergrowth +bordering woods. They rank among our finest songsters, with +ventriloquial and imitative powers added to sweetness of tone. + + Brown Thrasher. + Catbird. + Mocking-bird. + + + [Illustration: KINGBIRD] + + [Illustration: MOCKING-BIRD] + + +_Subfamily TroglodytinA|_: WRENS + +Small brown birds, more or less barred with darkest brown above, much +lighter below. Usually carry their short tails erect. Wings are small, +for short flight. Vivacious, busy, excitable, easily displeased, quick +to take alarm. Most of the species have scolding notes in addition to +their lyrical, gushing song, that seems much too powerful a +performance for a diminutive bird. As a rule, wrens haunt thickets or +marshes, but at least one species is thoroughly domesticated. All are +insectivorous. + + Carolina Wren. + House Wren. + Winter Wren. + Long-billed Marsh Wren. + Short-billed Marsh Wren. + + +_Family CerthiidA|_: CREEPERS + +Only one species of this Old World family is found in America. It is a +brown, much mottled bird, that creeps spirally around and around the +trunks of trees in fall and winter, pecking at the larvA| in the bark +with its long, sharp bill, and doing its work with faithful exactness +but little spirit. It uses its tail as a prop in climbing, like the +woodpeckers. + + Brown Creeper. + + +_Family ParidA|_: NUTHATCHES AND TITMICE + +Two distinct subfamilies are included under this general head. + +The nuthatches (_SittinA|_) are small, slate-colored birds, seen +chiefly in winter walking up and down the barks of trees, and +sometimes running along the under side of branches upside down, like +flies. Plumage compact and smooth. Their name is derived from their +habit of wedging nuts (usually beech-nuts) in the bark of trees, and +then hatching them open with their strong straight bills. + + White-breasted Nuthatch. + Red-breasted Nuthatch. + +The titmice or chickadees (_ParinA|_) are fluffy little gray birds, the +one crested, the other with a black cap. They are also expert +climbers, though not such wonderful gymnasts as the nuthatches. These +cousins are frequently seen together in winter woods or in the +evergreens about houses. Chickadees are partial to tree-tops, +especially to the highest pine cones, on which they hang fearlessly. +Cheerful, constant residents, retreating to the deep woods only to +nest. + + Tufted Titmouse. + Chickadee. + + +_Family SylviidA|_: KINGLETS AND GNATCATCHERS + +The kinglets (_RegulinA|_) are very small greenish-gray birds, with +highly colored crown patch, that are seen chiefly in autumn, winter, +and spring south of Labrador. Habits active; diligent flitters among +trees and shrubbery from limb to limb after minute insects. Beautiful +nest builders. Song remarkable for so small a bird. + + Golden-crowned Kinglet. + Ruby-crowned Kinglet. + +The one representative of the distinctly American subfamily of +gnatcatchers (_PolioptilinA|_) that we have, is a small blue-gray bird, +whitish below. It is rarely found outside moist, low tracts of +woodland, where insects abound. These it takes on the wing with +wonderful dexterity. It is exceedingly graceful and assumes many +charming postures. A bird of trees, nesting in the high branches. A +bird of strong character and an exquisitely finished though feeble +songster. + + Blue-gray Gnatcatcher. + + +_Family TurdidA|_: THRUSHES, BLUEBIRDS, ETC. + +This group includes our finest songsters. Birds of moderate size, +stout build; as a rule, inhabitants of woodlands, but the robin and +the bluebird are notable exceptions. Bills long and slender, suitable +for worm diet. Only casual fruit-eaters. Slender, strong legs for +running and hopping. True thrushes are grayish or olive-brown above; +buff or whitish below, heavily streaked or spotted. + + Bluebird. + Robin. + Alice's Thrush. + Hermit Thrush. + Olive-backed Thrush. + Wilson's Thrush (Veery). + Wood Thrush. + + + + +Order _ColumbA|_: PIGEONS AND DOVES + + +Family _ColumbidA|_: PIGEONS AND DOVES + +The wild pigeon is now too rare to be included among our bird +neighbors; but its beautiful relative, without the fatally gregarious +habit, still nests and sings _a-coo-oo-oo_ to its devoted mate in +unfrequented corners of the farm or the borders of woodland. +Delicately shaded fawn-colored and bluish plumage. Small heads, +protruding breasts. Often seen on ground. Flight strong and rapid, +owing to long wings. + + Mourning or Carolina Dove. + + + [Illustration: CROW ON NEST.] + + [Illustration: BLUE-WINGED WARBLER ALIGHTING TO FEED HER YOUNG.] + + + + +II + +HABITATS OF BIRDS + + +BIRDS OF THE AIR CATCHING THEIR FOOD AS THEY FLY + +Acadian Flycatcher, Great Crested Flycatcher, Least Flycatcher, +Olive-sided Flycatcher, Say's Flycatcher, Yellow-bellied Flycatcher, +Kingbird, Ph[oe]be, Wood Pewee, Purple Martin, Chimney Swift, Barn +Swallow, Bank Swallow, Cliff Swallow, Tree Swallow, Rough-winged +Swallow, Canadian Warbler, Blackpoll, Wilson's Warbler, Nighthawk, +Whippoorwill, Ruby-throated Humming-bird, Blue-gray Gnatcatcher. + + +BIRDS MOST FREQUENTLY SEEN IN THE UPPER HALF OF TREES + +Scarlet Tanager, Summer Tanager, Baltimore Oriole, Orchard Oriole, +Chickadee, Tufted Titmouse, Blue-gray Gnatcatcher, nearly all the +Warblers except the Ground Warblers; Cedar Bird, Bohemian Waxwing, the +Vireos, Robin, Red Crossbill, White-winged Crossbill, Purple Grackle, +Bronzed Grackle, Redstart, Northern Shrike, Loggerhead Shrike, Crow, +Fish Crow, Raven, Purple Finch, Tree and Chipping Sparrows, Cardinal, +Blue Jay, Kingbird, the Crested and other Flycatchers. + + +BIRDS OF LOW TREES OR LOWER PARTS OF TREES + +Black-billed Cuckoo, Yellow-billed Cuckoo, the Sparrows, the Thrushes, +the Grosbeaks, Goldfinch, Summer Yellowbird and other Warblers; the +Wrens, Bluebird, Mocking-bird, Catbird, Brown Thrasher, Maryland +Yellowthroat, Yellow-breasted Chat. + + +BIRDS OF TREE-TRUNKS AND LARGE LIMBS + +Hairy Woodpecker, Downy Woodpecker, Red-headed Woodpecker, +Yellow-bellied Woodpecker, Flicker, White-breasted Nuthatch, +Red-breasted Nuthatch, Brown Creeper, Chickadee, Tufted Titmouse, +Golden-crowned Kinglet, Ruby-crowned Kinglet, Black-and-white Creeping +Warbler, Blue-winged Warbler, Worm-eating Warbler, Pine Warbler, +Blackpoll Warbler, Whippoorwill, Nighthawk. + + +BIRDS THAT SHOW A PREFERENCE FOR PINES AND OTHER EVERGREENS + +Chickadee, Tufted Titmouse, the Nuthatches, Brown Creeper, the +Kinglets, Pine Warbler, Black-and-white Creeping Warbler and all the +Warblers except the Ground Warblers; Pine Siskin, Cedar Bird and +Bohemian Waxwing (in juniper and cedar trees), Pine Grosbeak, Red +Crossbill, White-winged Crossbill, the Grackles, Crow, Raven, Pine +Finch. + + +BIRDS SEEN FEEDING AMONG THE FOLIAGE AND TERMINAL TWIGS OF TREES + +The Red-eyed Vireo, White-eyed Vireo, Warbling Vireo, Solitary Vireo, +Yellow-throated Vireo, Golden-crowned Kinglet, Ruby-crowned Kinglet, +Black-billed Cuckoo, Yellow-billed Cuckoo, Yellow Warbler or Summer +Yellowbird, nearly all the Warblers except the Pine and the Ground +Warblers; the Flycatchers, Blue-gray Gnatcatcher. + + +BIRDS THAT CHOOSE CONSPICUOUS PERCHES + +Northern Shrike, Loggerhead Shrike, Kingbird, the Wood Pewee, the +Ph[oe]be and other Flycatchers, the Swallows, Kingfisher, Crows, +Grackles, Blue Jay and Canada Jay; the Song, the White-throated, and +the Fox Sparrows; the Grosbeaks, Cedar Bird, Goldfinch, Robin, Purple +Finch, Cowbird, Brown Thrasher while in song. + + +BIRDS OF THE GARDENS AND ORCHARDS + +Bluebird, Robin; the English, Song, White-throated, Vesper, +White-crowned, Fox, Chipping, and Tree Sparrows; Ph[oe]be, Wood Pewee, +the Least Flycatcher, Crested Flycatcher, Kingbird, Brown Thrasher, +Wood Thrush, Mocking-bird, Catbird, House Wren; nearly all the +Warblers, especially at blossom time among the shrubbery and fruit +trees; Cedar Bird, Purple Martin, Eaves Swallow, Barn Swallow, Purple +Finch, Cowbird, Baltimore and Orchard Orioles, Purple Grackle, Bronzed +Grackle, Blue Jay, Crow, Fish Crow, Chimney Swift, Ruby-throated +Humming-bird, the Woodpeckers, Flicker, the Nuthatches, Chickadee, +Tufted Titmouse, the Cuckoos, Mourning Dove, Junco, Starling. + + +BIRDS OF THE WOODS + +The Warblers almost without exception; the Thrushes, the Woodpeckers, +the Flycatchers, the Winter and the Carolina Wrens, the Tanagers, the +Nuthatches and Titmice, the Kinglets, the Water Thrushes, the Vireos, +Whippoorwill, Nighthawk, Kingfisher, Cardinal, Ovenbird, Brown +Creeper, Tree Sparrow, Fox Sparrow, White-throated Sparrow, +White-crowned Sparrow, Junco. + + +BIRDS SEEN NEAR THE EDGES OF WOODS + +The Wrens, the Woodpeckers, the Flycatchers, the Warblers, Purple +Finch, the Cuckoos, Brown Thrasher, Wood Thrush, Cowbird, Brown +Creepers, the Nuthatches and Titmice, the Kinglets, Chewink; the +White-crowned, White-throated, Tree, Fox, and Song Sparrows; +Humming-bird, Bluebird, Junco, the Crossbills, the Grosbeaks, +Nighthawk, Whippoorwill, Mourning Dove, Indigo Bird, Brown Thrasher. + + +BIRDS OF SHRUBBERY, BUSHES, AND THICKETS + +Maryland Yellowthroat, Ovenbird (in woods); Myrtle Warbler, Mourning +Warbler, Yellow-breasted Chat, and other Warblers during the +migrations; the Shrikes; the White-throated, the Fox, the Song, and +other Sparrows; Chickadee, Junco, Chewink, Rose-breasted Grosbeak, +Cowbird, Red-winged Blackbird, Catbird, Mocking-bird, Wilson's Thrush, +Goldfinch, Redpolls, Maryland Yellowthroat, White-eyed Vireo, Hooded +Warbler. + + +BIRDS SEEN FEEDING ON THE GROUND + +The Sparrows, Junco, Meadowlark, Horned Lark, Chewink, Robin, +Ovenbird, Pipit or Titlark, Redpoll, Greater Redpoll, Snowflake, +Lapland Longspur, Smith's Painted Longspur, Rusty Blackbird, +Red-winged Blackbird, the Crows, Cowbird, the Water Thrushes, +Bobolink, Canada Jay, the Grackles, Mourning Dove; the Worm-eating, +the Prairie, the Kentucky, and the Mourning Ground Warblers; Flicker. + + +BIRDS OF MEADOW, FIELD, AND UPLAND + +The Field and Vesper Sparrows, Bobolink, Meadowlark, Horned Lark, +Goldfinch, the Swallows, Pipit or Titlark, Cowbird, Redpoll, Greater +Redpoll, Snowflake, Junco, Lapland Longspur, Smith's Painted Longspur, +Rusty Blackbird, Crow, Fish Crow, Nighthawk, Whippoorwill; the Yellow, +the Palm, and the Prairie Warblers; the Grackles, Flicker, Bluebird, +Indigo Bird. + + +BIRDS OF ROADSIDE AND FENCES + +The Sparrows, Kingbird, Crested Flycatcher, Yellow-breasted Chat, +Indigo Bird, Bluebird, Flicker, Goldfinch, Brown Thrasher, Catbird, +Robin, the Woodpeckers, Yellow Palm Warbler, the Vireos. + + +BIRDS OF MARSHES AND BOGGY MEADOWS + +Long-billed Marsh Wren, Short-billed Marsh Wren; the Swamp, the +Savanna, the Sharp-tailed, and the Seaside Sparrows; Red-winged +Blackbird. + + +BIRDS OF WET WOODLANDS AND MARSHY THICKETS + +Northern Water Thrush, Louisiana Water Thrush, Ovenbird, Winter Wren, +Carolina Wren, Ph[oe]be; Wood Pewee and the other Flycatchers; +Wilson's Thrush or Veery, Blue-gray Gnatcatcher, Yellow-breasted Chat; +the Canadian, Wilson's Black-capped, the Maryland Yellowthroat, the +Hooded, and the Yellow-throated Warblers. + + +BIRDS FOUND NEAR SALT WATER + +Fish Crow, Common Crow, Bank Swallow, Tree Swallow, Savanna Sparrow, +Sharp-tailed Sparrow, Seaside Sparrow, Horned Lark, Pipit or Titlark. + + +BIRDS FOUND NEAR STREAMS AND PONDS + +Kingfisher, the Swallows, Northern Water Thrush, Louisiana Water +Thrush, Ph[oe]be, Wood Pewee, the Flycatchers, Winter Wren, Wilson's +Black-capped Warbler, the Canadian and the Yellow Warblers. + + +BIRDS THAT SING ON THE WING + +Bobolink, Meadowlark, Indigo Bird, Purple Finch, Goldfinch, Ovenbird, +Kingbird, Vesper Sparrow (rarely), Maryland Yellowthroat, Horned Lark, +Kingfisher, the Swallows, Chimney Swift, Nighthawk, Song Sparrow, +Red-winged Blackbird, Pipit or Titlark, Mocking-bird. + + + [Illustration: YOUNG FLICKERS ON DAY OF LEAVING NEST] + + [Illustration: WINTER VISITORS: REDPOLLS] + + + + + III + + SEASONS OF BIRDS + + + THE SEASONS OF BIRDS IN THE VICINITY OF NEW YORK OR, + APPROXIMATELY, OF THE FORTY-SECOND DEGREE OF LATITUDE + + THE LATITUDE OF NEW YORK IS TAKEN AS AN ARBITRARY DIVISION + FOR WHICH ALLOWANCES MUST BE MADE FOR OTHER LOCALITIES + + +PERMANENT RESIDENTS + + Hairy Woodpecker. Swamp Sparrow. + Downy Woodpecker. Song Sparrow. + Yellow-bellied Woodpecker. Cedar Bird. + Red-headed Woodpecker. Cardinal. + Flicker. Carolina Wren. + Meadowlark. White-breasted Nuthatch. + Prairie Horned Lark. Tufted Titmouse. + Blue Jay. Chickadee. + Crow. Robin. + Fish Crow. Bluebird. + English Sparrow. Goldfinch. + Social Sparrow. Starling + + +WINTER RESIDENTS AND VISITORS + + BIRDS SEEN BETWEEN NOVEMBER AND APRIL + + English Sparrow. Red-breasted Nuthatch. + Tree Sparrow. Tufted Titmouse. + White-throated Sparrow. Chickadee. + Swamp Sparrow. Robin. + Vesper Sparrow. Bluebird. + White-crowned Sparrow. Ruby-crowned Kinglet. + Fox Sparrow. Golden-crowned Kinglet. + Song Sparrow. Brown Creeper. + Snowflake. Carolina Wren. + Junco. Winter Wren. + Horned Lark. Pipit. + Meadowlark. Purple Finch. + Pine Grosbeak. Goldfinch. + Redpoll. Pine Siskin. + Greater Redpoll. Lapland Longspur. + Cedar Bird. Smith's Painted Longspur. + Bohemian Waxwing. Evening Grosbeak. + Hairy Woodpecker. Cardinal. + Downy Woodpecker. Blue Jay. + Yellow-bellied Woodpecker. Red Crossbill. + Flicker. White-winged Crossbill. + Myrtle Warbler. Crow. + Northern Shrike. Fish Crow. + White-breasted Nuthatch. Kingfisher. + + + [Illustration: CROW] + + [Illustration: RED-WINGED BLACKBIRD (Upper Figure, Male; + Lower Figure, Female)] + + +SUMMER RESIDENTS + + BIRDS SEEN BETWEEN APRIL AND NOVEMBER + + Mourning Dove. Red-winged Blackbird. + Black-billed Cuckoo. Rusty Blackbird. + Yellow-billed Cuckoo. Orchard Oriole. + Kingfisher. Baltimore Oriole. + Red-headed Woodpecker. Purple Grackle. + Hairy Woodpecker. Bronzed Grackle. + Downy Woodpecker. Crow. + Yellow-bellied Woodpecker. Fish Crow. + Flicker. Raven. + Whippoorwill. Blue Jay. + Nighthawk. Canada Jay. + Chimney Swift. Chipping Sparrow. + Ruby-throated Humming-bird. English Sparrow. + Kingbird. Field Sparrow. + Wood Pewee. Fox Sparrow. + Ph[oe]be. Grasshopper Sparrow. + Acadian Flycatcher. Savanna Sparrow. + Crested Flycatcher. Seaside Sparrow. + Least Flycatcher. Sharp-tailed Sparrow. + Olive-sided Flycatcher. Swamp Song Sparrow. + Yellow-bellied Flycatcher. Song Sparrow. + Say's Flycatcher. Vesper Sparrow. + Bobolink. Rose-breasted Grosbeak. + Cowbird. Blue Grosbeak. + Indigo Bird. Yellow-breasted Chat. + Scarlet Tanager. Maryland Yellowthroat. + Purple Martin. Mocking-bird. + Barn Swallow. Catbird. + Bank Swallow. Brown Thrasher. + Cliff Swallow. House Wren. + Tree Swallow. Carolina Wren. + Rough-winged Swallow. Long-billed Marsh Wren. + Red-eyed Vireo. Short-billed Marsh Wren. + White-eyed Vireo. Alice's Thrush. + Solitary Vireo. Hermit Thrush. + Warbling Vireo. Olive-backed Thrush. + Yellow-throated Vireo. Wilson's Thrush or Veery. + Black-and-white Warbler. Wood Thrush. + Black-throated Green Warbler. Meadowlark. + Blue-winged Warbler. Western Meadowlark. + Chestnut-sided Warbler. Prairie Horned Lark. + Golden-winged Warbler. White-breasted Nuthatch. + Hooded Warbler. Chickadee. + Pine Warbler. Tufted Titmouse. + Prairie Warbler. Chewink. + Parula Warbler. Purple Finch. + Worm-eating Warbler. Goldfinch. + Yellow Warbler. Cardinal. + Redstart. Robin. + Ovenbird. Bluebird. + Northern Water Thrush. Cedar-Bird. + Louisiana Water Thrush. Loggerhead Shrike. + + +SPRING AND AUTUMN MIGRANTS ONLY, OR RARE SUMMER VISITORS + + The following Warblers: + + Bay-breasted. Myrtle. + Blackburnian. Nashville. + Blackpolled. Wilson's Black-capped. + Black-throated Blue. Palm. + Canadian. Yellow Palm. + Magnolia. Blue-gray Gnatcatcher. + Mourning. Summer Tanager. + + + + +MIGRATIONS OF BIRDS IN VICINITY OF NEW YORK + + +FEBRUARY 15 TO MARCH 15 + +Bluebird, Robin, the Grackles, Song Sparrow, Fox Sparrow, Red-winged +Blackbird, Kingfisher, Flicker, Purple Finch. + + +MARCH 15 TO APRIL 1 + +Increased numbers of foregoing group; Cowbird, Meadowlark, Phoebe; the +Field, the Vesper, and the Swamp Sparrows. + + +APRIL 1 TO 15 + +The White-throated and the Chipping Sparrows, the Tree and the Barn +Swallows, Rusty Blackbird, the Red-headed and the Yellow-bellied +Woodpeckers, Hermit Thrush, Ruby-crowned Kinglet, Pipit; the Pine, the +Myrtle, and the Yellow Palm Warblers; Goldfinch. + + +APRIL 15 TO MAY 1 + +Increased numbers of foregoing group; Brown Thrasher; Alice's, the +Olive-backed, and the Wood Thrushes; Chimney Swift, Whippoorwill, +Chewink, the Purple Martin, and the Cliff and the Bank Swallows; Least +Flycatcher; the Black-and-white Creeping, the Parula, and the +Black-throated Green Warblers; Ovenbird, House Wren, Catbird. + + +MAY 1 TO 15 + +Increased numbers of foregoing group; Wilson's Thrush or Veery; +Nighthawk, Ruby-throated Humming-bird, the Cuckoos, Crested +Flycatcher, Kingbird, Wood Pewee, the Marsh Wrens, Bank Swallow, the +five Vireos, the Baltimore and Orchard Orioles, Bobolink, Indigo Bird, +Rose-breasted Grosbeak, Scarlet Tanager, Maryland Yellowthroat, +Yellow-breasted Chat, the Water Thrushes; and the Magnolia, the +Yellow, the Black-throated Blue, the Bay-breasted, the Chestnut-sided, +and the Golden-winged Warblers. + + +MAY 15 TO JUNE 1 + +Increased numbers of foregoing group; Yellow-bellied Flycatcher, +Mocking-bird, Summer Tanager; and the Blackburnian, the Blackpoll, the +Worm-eating, the Hooded, Wilson's Black-capped, and the Canadian +Warblers. + + +JUNE, JULY, AUGUST + +In June few species of birds are not nesting; in July they may rove +about more or less with their increased families, searching for their +favorite foods; August finds them moulting and moping in silence, but +toward the end of the month, thoughts of returning southward set them +astir again. + + +AUGUST 15 TO SEPTEMBER 15 + +Bobolink, Cliff Swallow, Scarlet Tanager, Yellow-bellied Flycatcher, +Purple Martin; the Blackburnian, the Worm-eating, the Bay-breasted, +the Chestnut-sided, the Hooded, the Mourning, Wilson's Black-capped, +and the Canadian Warblers; Baltimore Oriole, Humming-bird. + + +SEPTEMBER 15 TO OCTOBER 1 + +Increased numbers of foregoing group; Wilson's Thrush, Wood Thrush, +Kingbird, Wood Pewee, Crested Flycatcher; the Least, the Olive-sided, +and the Acadian Flycatchers; the Marsh Wrens, the Cuckoos, +Whippoorwill, Rose-breasted Grosbeak, Orchard Oriole, Indigo Bird; the +Warbling, the Solitary, and the Yellow-throated Vireos; the +Black-and-white Creeping, the Golden-winged, the Yellow, and the +Black-throated Blue Warblers; Maryland Yellowthroat, Yellow-breasted +Chat, Redstart. + + +OCTOBER 1 TO 15 + +Increased numbers of foregoing group; Hermit Thrush, Catbird, House +Wren, Ovenbird, the Water Thrushes, the Red-eyed and the White-eyed +Vireos, Wood Pewee, Nighthawk, Chimney Swift, Cowbird, Horned Lark, +Winter Wren, Junco; the Tree, the Vesper, the White-throated, and the +Grasshopper Sparrows; the Blackpoll, the Parula, the Pine, the Yellow +Palm, and the Prairie Warblers; Chickadee, Tufted Titmouse. + + +OCTOBER 15 TO NOVEMBER 15 + +Increased numbers of foregoing group; Wood Thrush, Wilson's Thrush or +Veery, Alice's Thrush, Olive-backed Thrush, Robin, Chewink, Brown +Thrasher, Ph[oe]be, Shrike; the Fox, the Field, the Swamp, the +Savanna, the White-crowned, the Chipping, and the Song Sparrows; the +Red-winged and the Rusty Blackbirds; Meadowlark, the Grackles, +Flicker, the Red-headed and the Yellow-bellied Woodpeckers; Purple +Finch, the Kinglets, the Nuthatches, Pine Siskin. + + + + +IV + +BIRDS GROUPED ACCORDING TO SIZE + + +SMALLER THAN THE ENGLISH SPARROW + + Humming-bird. The Redpolls. + The Kinglets. Goldfinch. + The Wrens. Pine Siskin. + All the Warblers not Savanna Sparrow. + mentioned elsewhere. Grasshopper Sparrow. + Redstart. Sharp-tailed Sparrow. + Ovenbird. Chipping Sparrow. + Chickadee. Field Sparrow. + Tufted Titmouse. Swamp Song Sparrow. + Red-breasted Nuthatch. Indigo-Bunting. + White-breasted Nuthatch. Warbling Vireo. + Blue-gray Gnatcatcher. Yellow-throated Vireo. + Yellow-bellied Flycatcher. Red-eyed Vireo. + Acadian Flycatcher. White-eyed Vireo. + Least Flycatcher. Brown Creeper. + + +ABOUT THE SIZE OF THE ENGLISH SPARROW + + Purple Finch. Junco. + The Crossbills. Song Sparrow. + The Longspurs. Solitary Vireo. + Vesper Sparrow. The Water-thrushes. + Seaside Sparrow. Pipit or Titlark. + Tree Sparrow. Downy Woodpecker. + + +LARGER THAN THE ENGLISH SPARROW AND SMALLER THAN THE ROBIN + + Yellow-bellied Woodpecker. The Grosbeaks: Evening, Blue, + Chimney Swift (apparently). Pine, Rose-breasted, and Cardinal. + The Swallows (apparently). Snowflake. + Kingbird. White-crowned Sparrow. + Crested Flycatcher. White-throated Sparrow. + Phoebe. Fox Sparrow. + Olive-sided Flycatcher. The Tanagers. + Wood Pewee. Cedar Bird. + Horned Lark. Bohemian Waxwing. + Bobolink. Yellow-breasted Chat. + Cowbird. The Thrushes. + Orchard Oriole. Bluebird. + Baltimore Oriole. + + + ABOUT THE LENGTH OF THE ROBIN LONGER THAN THE ROBIN + + Red-headed Woodpecker. Mourning Dove. + Hairy Woodpecker. The Cuckoos. + Red-winged Blackbird. Kingfisher. + Rusty Blackbird. Flicker. + Loggerhead Shrike. Raven. + Northern Shrike. Crow. + Mocking-bird. Fish Crow. + Catbird. Blue Jay. + Chewink. Canada Jay. + Purple Martin (apparently). Meadowlark. + Starling. Whippoorwill (apparently). + Nighthawk (apparently). + The Grackles. + Brown Thrasher. + + + + +V + +DESCRIPTIONS OF BIRDS GROUPED ACCORDING TO COLOR + + +BIRDS CONSPICUOUSLY BLACK + + Common Crow. + Fish Crow. + American Raven. + Purple Grackle. + Bronzed Grackle. + Rusty Blackbird. + Red-winged Blackbird. + Purple Martin. + Cowbird. + Starling. + +See also several of the Swallows; the Kingbird, the Phoebe, the Wood +Pewee and other Flycatchers; the Chimney Swift; and the Chewink. + + + The Common Crow + + (_Corvus Aamericanus_) Crow family + + _Called also_: CORN THIEF + + (Illustrations facing pp. 16 and 28) + + + _Length_--16 to 17.50 inches. + + _Male_--Glossy black with violet reflections. Wings appear + saw-toothed when spread, and almost equal the tail in length. + + _Female_--Like male, except that the black is less brilliant. + + _Range_--Throughout North America, from Hudson Bay to the Gulf + of Mexico. + + _Migrations_--March. October. Summer and winter resident. + + +If we have an eye for the picturesque, we place a certain value upon +the broad, strong dash of color in the landscape, given by a flock of +crows flapping their course above a corn-field, against an October +sky; but the practical eye of the farmer looks only for his gun in +such a case. To him the crow is an unmitigated nuisance, all the more +maddening because it is clever enough to circumvent every means +devised for its ruin. Nothing escapes its rapacity; fear is unknown to +it. It migrates in broad daylight, chooses the most conspicuous +perches, and yet its assurance is amply justified in its steadily +increasing numbers. + +In the very early spring, note well the friendly way in which the crow +follows the plow, ingratiating itself by eating the larvA|, field mice, +and worms upturned in the furrows, for this is its one serviceable act +throughout the year. When the first brood of chickens is hatched, its +serious depredations begin. Not only the farmer's young fledglings, +ducks, turkeys, and chicks, are snatched up and devoured, but the +nests of song birds are made desolate, eggs being crushed and eaten on +the spot, when there are no birds to carry off to the rickety, coarse +nest in the high tree top in the woods. The fish crow, however, is the +much greater enemy of the birds. Like the common crows, this, their +smaller cousin, likes to congregate in winter along the seacoast to +feed upon shell-fish and other sea-food that the tide brings to its +feet. + +Samuels claims to have seen a pair of crows visit an orchard and +destroy the young in two robins' nests in half an hour. He calculates +that two crows kill, in one day alone, young birds that in the course +of the season would have eaten a hundred thousand insects. When, in +addition to these atrocities, we remember the crow's depredations in +the corn-field, it is small wonder that among the first laws enacted +in New York State was one offering a reward for its head. But the more +scientific agriculturists now concede that the crow is the farmer's +true friend. + + + Fish Crow + + (_Corvus ossifragus_) Crow family + + + _Length_--14 to 16 inches. About half as large again as the + robin. + + _Male and Female_--Glossy black, with purplish-blue + reflections, generally greener underneath. Chin naked. + + _Range_--Along Atlantic coast and that of the Gulf of Mexico, + northward to southern New England. Rare stragglers on the + Pacific coast. + + _Migrations_--March or April. September. Summer resident only + at northern limit of range. Is found in Hudson River valley + about half-way to Albany. + +Compared with the common crow, with which it is often confounded, the +fish crow is of much smaller, more slender build. Thus its flight is +less labored and more like a gull's, whose habit of catching fish that +may be swimming near the surface of the water it sometimes adopts. +Both Audubon and Wilson, who first made this species known, record its +habit of snatching food as it flies over the southern waters--a rare +practice at the north. Its plumage, too, differs slightly from the +common crow's in being a richer black everywhere, and particularly +underneath, where the "corn thief" is dull. But it is the difference +between the two crows' call-note that we chiefly depend upon to +distinguish these confusing cousins. To say that the fish crow says +_car-r-r_ instead of a loud, clear _caw_, means little until we have +had an opportunity to compare its hoarse, cracked voice with the other +bird's familiar call. + +From the farmer's point of view, there is still another distinction: +the fish crow lets his crops alone. It contents itself with picking up +refuse on the shores of the sea or rivers not far inland; haunting the +neighborhood of fishermen's huts for the small fish discarded when the +seines are drawn, and treading out with its toes the shell-fish hidden +in the sand at low tide. When we see it in the fields it is usually +intent upon catching field-mice, grubs, and worms, with which it often +varies its fish diet. It is, however, the worst nest robber we have; +it probably destroys ten times as many eggs and young birds as its +larger cousin. + +The fishermen have a tradition that this southern crow comes and goes +with the shad and herring--a saw which science unkindly disapproves. + + + American Raven + + (_Corvus corax principalis_) Crow family + + + _Called also_: NORTHERN RAVEN + + _Length_--26 to 27 inches. Nearly three times as large as a + robin. + + _Male and Female_--Glossy black above, with purplish and + greenish reflections. Duller underneath. Feathers of the + throat and breast long and loose, like fringe. + + _Range_--North America, from polar regions to Mexico. Rare + along Atlantic coast and in the south. Common in the west, and + very abundant in the northwest. + + _Migrations_--An erratic wanderer, usually resident where it + finds its way. + +The weird, uncanny voice of this great bird that soars in wide circles +above the evergreen trees of dark northern forests seems to come out +of the skies like the malediction of an evil spirit. Without uttering +the words of any language--Poe's "Nevermore" was, of course, a poetic +license--people of all nationalities appear to understand that some +dire calamity, some wicked portent, is being announced every time the +unbirdlike creature utters its rasping call. The superstitious folk +crow with an "I told you so," as they solemnly wag their heads when +they hear of some death in the village after "the bird of ill-omen" +has made an unwelcome visit to the neighborhood. It receives the +blame for every possible misfortune. + +When seen in the air, the crow is the only other bird for which the +raven could be mistaken; but the raven does more sailing and less +flapping, and he delights in describing circles as he easily soars +high above the trees. On the ground, he is seen to be a far larger +bird than the largest crow. The curious beard or fringe of feathers on +his breast at once distinguishes him. + +These birds show the family instinct for living in flocks large and +small, not of ravens only, but of any birds of their own genera. In +the art of nest building they could instruct most of their relatives. +High up in evergreen trees or on the top of cliffs, never very near +the seashore, they make a compact, symmetrical nest of sticks, neatly +lined with grasses and wool from the sheep pastures, adding soft, +comfortable linings to the old nest from year to year for each new +brood. When the young emerge from the eggs, which take many curious +freaks of color and markings, they are pied black and white, +suggesting the young of the western white-necked raven, a similarity +which, so far as plumage is concerned, they quickly outgrow. They +early acquire the fortunate habit of eating whatever their parents set +before them--grubs, worms, grain, field-mice; anything, in fact, for +the raven is a conspicuously omnivorous bird. + + + [Illustration: PURPLE MARTIN] + + [Illustration: DOWNY (figs. 1 and 2) and HAIRY WOODPECKERS (fig 3)] + + + Purple Grackle + + (_Quiscalus quiscula_) Blackbird family + + _Called also_: CROW BLACKBIRD; MAIZE THIEF; KEEL-TAILED GRACKLE + + (Illustration facing p. 49) + + + _Length_--12 to 13 inches. About one-fourth as large again as + the robin. + + _Male_--Iridescent black, in which metallic violet, blue, + copper, and green tints predominate. The plumage of this + grackle has iridescent bars. Iris of eye bright yellow and + conspicuous. Tail longer than wings. + + _Female_--Less brilliant black than male, and smaller. + + _Range_--Gulf of Mexico to 57th parallel north latitude. + + _Migrations_--Permanent resident in Southern States. Few are + permanent throughout range. Migrates in immense flocks in + March and September. + + +This "refined crow" (which is really no crow at all except in +appearance) has scarcely more friends than a thief is entitled to; +for, although in many sections of the country it has given up its old +habit of stealing Indian corn and substituted ravages upon the +grasshoppers instead, it still indulges a crow-like instinct for +pillaging nests and eating young birds. + +Travelling in immense flocks of its own kind, a gregarious bird of the +first order, it nevertheless is not the social fellow that its cousin, +the red-winged blackbird, is. It especially holds aloof from mankind, +and mankind reciprocates its suspicion. + +The tallest, densest evergreens are not too remote for it to build its +home, according to Dr. Abbott, though in other States than New Jersey, +where he observed them, an old orchard often contains dozens of nests. +One peculiarity of the grackles is that their eggs vary so much in +coloring and markings that different sets examined in the same groups +of trees are often wholly unlike. The average groundwork, however, is +soiled blue or greenish, waved, streaked, or clouded with brown. These +are laid in a nest made of miscellaneous sticks and grasses, rather +carefully constructed, and lined with mud. Another peculiarity is the +bird's method of steering itself by its tail when it wishes to turn +its direction or alight. + +Peering at you from the top of a dark pine tree with its staring +yellow eye, the grackle is certainly uncanny. There, very early in the +spring, you may hear its cracked and wheezy whistle, for, being aware +that however much it may look like a crow it belongs to another +family, it makes a ridiculous attempt to sing. When a number of +grackles lift up their voices at once, some one has aptly likened the +result to a "good wheel-barrow chorus!" The grackle's mate alone +appreciates his efforts as, standing on tiptoe, with half-spread wings +and tail, he pours forth his craven soul to her through a disjointed +larynx. + +With all their faults, and they are numerous, let it be recorded of +both crows and grackles that they are as devoted lovers as +turtle-doves. Lowell characterizes them in these four lines: + + "Fust come the black birds, clatt'rin' in tall trees, + And settlin' things in windy Congresses; + Queer politicians, though, for I'll be skinned + If all on 'em don't head against the wind." + + * * * * * + +The Bronzed Grackle (_Quiscalus quiscula A|neus_) differs from the +preceding chiefly in the more brownish bronze tint of its plumage and +its lack of iridescent bars. Its range is more westerly, and in the +southwest it is particularly common; but as a summer resident it finds +its way to New England in large numbers. The call-note is louder and +more metallic than the purple grackle's. In nearly all respects the +habits of these two birds are identical. + + + Rusty Blackbird + + (_Scolecophagus carolinus_) Blackbird family + + _Called also_: THRUSH BLACKBIRD; RUSTY GRACKLE; RUSTY ORIOLE; + RUSTY CROW; BLACKBIRD + + + _Length_--9 to 9.55 inches. A trifle smaller than the robin. + + _Male_--In full plumage, glossy black with metallic + reflections, intermixed with rusty brown that becomes more + pronounced as the season advances. Pale straw-colored eyes. + + _Female_--Duller plumage and more rusty, inclining to gray. + Light line over eye. Smaller than male. + + _Range_--North America, from Newfoundland to Gulf of Mexico + and westward to the Plains. + + _Migrations_--April. November. A few winter north. + +A more sociable bird than the grackle, though it travel in smaller +flocks, the rusty blackbird condescends to mingle freely with other +feathered friends in marshes and by brooksides. You can identify it by +its rusty feathers and pale yellow eye, and easily distinguish the +rusty-gray female from the female red-wing that is conspicuously +streaked. + +In April flocks of these birds may frequently be seen along sluggish, +secluded streams in the woods, feeding upon the seeds of various water +or brookside plants, and probably upon insects also. At such times +they often indulge in a curious spluttering, squeaking, musical +concert that one listens to with pleasure. The breeding range is +mostly north of the United States. But little seems to be known of the +birds' habits in their northern home. + +Why it should ever have been called a thrush blackbird is one of those +inscrutable mysteries peculiar to the naming of birds which are so +frequently called precisely what they are not. In spite of the +compliment implied in associating the name of one of our finest +songsters with it, the rusty blackbird has a clucking call as +unmusical as it is infrequent, and only very rarely in the spring does +it pipe a note that even suggests the sweetness of the redwing's. + + + Red-winged Blackbird + + (_Agelaius ph[oe]niceus_) Blackbird family + + _Called also_: SWAMP BLACKBIRD; RED-WINGED ORIOLE; RED-WINGED STARLING + + (Illustration facing p. 29) + + + _Length_--Exceptionally variable--7.50 to 9.80 inches. Usually + about an inch smaller than the robin. + + _Male_--Coal-black. Shoulders scarlet, edged with yellow. + + _Female_--Feathers finely and inconspicuously speckled with + brown, rusty black, whitish, and orange. Upper wing-coverts + rusty black, tipped with white, or rufous and sometimes + spotted with black and red. + + _Range_--North America. Breeds from Texas to Columbia River, + and throughout the United States. Commonly found from Mexico + to 57th degree north latitude. + + _Migrations_--March. October. Common summer resident. + +In oozy pastures where a brook lazily finds its way through the farm +is the ideal pleasure ground of this "bird of society." His notes, +"_h'-wa-ker-ee_" or "_con-quer-ee_" (on an ascending scale), are +liquid in quality, suggesting the sweet, moist, cool retreats where he +nests. Liking either heat or cold (he is fond of wintering in Florida, +but often retreats to the north while the marshes are still frozen); +enjoying not only the company of large flocks of his own kind with +whom he travels, but any bird associates with whom he can scrape +acquaintance; or to sit quietly on a tree-top in the secluded, +inaccessible bog while his mate is nesting; satisfied with cut-worms, +grubs, and insects, or with fruit and grain for his food--the +blackbird is an impressive and helpful example of how to get the best +out of life. + +Yet, of all the birds, some farmers complain that the blackbird is the +greatest nuisance. They dislike the noisy chatterings when a flock is +simply indulging its social instincts. They complain, too, that the +blackbirds eat their corn, forgetting that having devoured innumerable +grubs from it during the summer, the birds feel justly entitled to a +share of the profits. Though occasionally guilty of eating the +farmer's corn and oats and rice, yet it has been found that nearly +seven-eighths of the redwing's food is made up of weed-seeds or of +insects injurious to agriculture. + +This bird builds its nest in low bushes on the margin of ponds or low +in the bog grass of marshes. From three to five pale-blue eggs, +curiously streaked, spotted, and scrawled with black or purple, +constitute a brood. Nursery duties are soon finished, for in July the +young birds are ready to gather in flocks with their elders. + + "The blackbirds make the maples ring + With social cheer and jubilee; + The red-wing flutes his 'O-ka-lee!'" + + --_Emerson._ + + + [Illustration: YOUNG KINGFISHERS] + + [Illustration: GRACKLE'S NEST AND YOUNG.] + + + Purple Martin + + (_Progne subis_) Swallow family + + (Illustration facing p. 44) + + + _Length_--7 to 8 inches. Two or three inches smaller than the + robin. + + _Male_--Rich glossy black with bluish and purple reflections; + duller black on wings and tail. Wings rather longer than the + tail, which is forked. + + _Female_--More brownish and mottled; grayish below. + + _Range_--Peculiar to America. Penetrates from Arctic Circle to + South America. + + _Migrations_--Late April. Early September. Summer resident. + +In old-fashioned gardens, set on a pole over which honeysuckle and +roses climbed from a bed where China pinks, phlox, sweet Williams, and +hollyhocks crowded each other below, martin boxes used always to be +seen with a pair of these large, beautiful swallows circling overhead. +But now, alas! the boxes, where set up at all, are quickly monopolized +by the English sparrow, a bird that the martin, courageous as a +kingbird in attacking crows and hawks, tolerates as a neighbor only +when it must. + +Bradford Torrey tells of seeing quantities of long-necked squashes +dangling from poles about the negro cabins all through the South. One +day he asked an old colored man what these squashes were for. + +"Why, deh is martins' boxes," said Uncle Remus. "No danger of hawks +carryin' off de chickens so long as de martins am around." + +The Indians, too, have always had a special liking for this bird. They +often lined a hollowed-out gourd with bits of bark and fastened it in +the crotch of their tent poles to invite its friendship. The Mohegan +Indians have called it "the bird that never rests"--a name better +suited to the tireless barn swallow, Dr. Abbott thinks. + +Wasps, beetles, and all manner of injurious garden insects constitute +its diet--another reason for its universal popularity. It is simple +enough to distinguish the martins from the other swallows by their +larger size and iridescent dark coat, not to mention their song, which +is very soft and sweet, like musical laughter, rippling up through the +throat. + + + Cowbird + + (_Molothrus ater_) Blackbird family + + _Called also_: BROWN-HEADED ORIOLE; COW-PEN BIRD; COW BLACKBIRD; + COW BUNTING + + + _Length_--7 to 8 inches. About one-fifth smaller than the robin. + + _Male_--Iridescent black, with head, neck, and breast + glistening brown. Bill dark brown, feet brownish. + + _Female_--Dull grayish-brown above, a shade lighter below, and + streaked with paler shades of brown. + + _Range_--United States, from coast to coast. North into + British America, south into Mexico. + + _Migrations_--March. November. Common summer resident. + +The cowbird takes its name from its habit of walking about among the +cattle in the pasture, picking up the small insects which the cattle +disturb in their grazing. The bird may often be seen within a foot or +two of the nose of a cow or heifer, walking briskly about like a +miniature hen, intently watching for its insect prey. + +Its marital and domestic character is thoroughly bad. Polygamous and +utterly irresponsible for its offspring, this bird forms a striking +contrast to other feathered neighbors, and indeed is almost an anomaly +in the animal kingdom. In the breeding season an unnatural mother may +be seen skulking about in the trees and shrubbery, seeking for nests +in which to place a surreptitious egg, never imposing it upon a bird +of its size, but selecting in a cowardly way a small nest, as that of +the vireos or warblers or chipping sparrows, and there leaving the +hatching and care of its young to the tender mercies of some already +burdened little mother. It has been seen to remove an egg from the +nest of the red-eyed vireo in order to place one of its own in its +place. Not finding a convenient nest, it will even drop its eggs on +the ground, trusting them to merciless fate, or, still worse, +devouring them. The eggs are nearly an inch long, white speckled with +brown or gray. (Illustration facing p. 54.) + +Cowbirds are gregarious. The ungrateful young birds, as soon as they +are able to go roaming, leave their foster-parents and join the flock +of their own kind. In keeping with its unclean habits and unholy life +and character, the cowbird's ordinary note is a gurgling, rasping +whistle, followed by a few sharp notes. + + + The Starling + + (_Sturnus vulgaris_) + + + _Length_--8 to 9 inches. Weight about equals that of robin, + but the starling, with its short, drooping tail, is chunkier + in appearance. + + _Male_--Iridescent black with glints of purple, green, and + blue. On back the black feathers, with iridescence of green, + and bronze, are tipped with brown, as are some of the tail and + wing feathers. In autumn and early winter feathers of sides of + head, breast, flanks and underparts are tipped with white, + giving a gray, mottled appearance. During the winter most of + the white tips on breast and underparts wear off. Until the + first moult in late summer the young birds are a dark + olive-brown in color, with white or whitish throat. These + differences in plumage at different seasons and different ages + make starlings hard to identify. Red-winged blackbirds and + grackles are often mistaken for them. From early spring till + mid-June, starling's rather long, sharp bill is yellow. Later + in summer it darkens. No other black bird of ours has this + yellow bill at any season. + + _Female_--Similar in appearance. + + _Range_--Massachusetts to Maryland. Not common beyond 100 + miles inland. (Native of northern Europe and Asia.) + + _Migrations_--Permanent resident, but flocks show some + tendency to drift southward in winter. + +This newcomer to our shores is by no means so black as he has been +painted. Like many other European immigrants he landed at or near +Castle Garden, New York City, and his descendants have not cared to +wander very far from this vicinity, preferring regions with a pretty +numerous human population. The starlings have increased so fast in +this limited region since their first permanent settlement in Central +Park about 1890 that farmers and suburban dwellers have feared that +they might become as undesirable citizens as some other Europeans--the +brown rat, the house mouse, and the English sparrow. But a very +thorough investigation conducted by the United States Bureau of +Biological Survey (Bulletin No. 868, 1921) is most reassuring in its +results. + +Let us first state the case for the prosecution: (1) the starling must +plead guilty to a fondness for cultivated cherries; (2) he is often a +persecutor of native birds, like the bluebird and flicker; (3) his +roosts, where he sometimes congregates in thousands in the autumn, are +apt to become public nuisances, offensive alike to the eye, the nose +and the ear. + +But these offences are not so very serious after all. He does not eat +so many cherries as our old friend the robin, though his depredations +are more conspicuous, for whereas the robins in ones and twos will +pilfer steadily from many trees for many days without attracting +notice, a crowd of starlings is occasionally observed to descend _en +masse_ upon a single tree and strip it in a few hours. Naturally such +high-handed procedure is observed by many and deeply resented by the +owner of the tree, who suffers the steady but less spectacular raids +of the robins without serious disquiet. + +Less can be said in defense of the starling's scandalous treatment of +some native birds. "Unrelenting perseverance dominates the starling's +activities when engaged in a controversy over a nesting site. More of +its battles are won by dogged persistence in annoying its victim than +by bold aggression, and its irritating tactics are sometimes carried +to such a point that it seems almost as if the bird were actuated +more by a morbid pleasure of annoying its neighbors than by any +necessity arising from a scarcity of nesting sites.... + +"In contests with the flicker the starling frequently makes up in +numbers what disadvantage it may have in size. Typical of such combats +was the one observed on May 9, at Hartford, Conn., where a group of +starlings and a flicker were in controversy over a newly excavated +nest. The number of starlings varied, but as many as 6 were noted at +one time. Attention was first attracted to the dispute by a number of +starlings in close proximity to the hole and by the sounds of a tussle +within. Presently a flicker came out dragging a starling after him. +The starling continued the battle outside long enough to allow one of +its comrades to slip into the nest. Of course the flicker had to +repeat the entire performance. He did this for about half an hour, +when he gave up, leaving the starlings in possession of the nest.... + +"Economically considered, the starling is the superior of either the +flicker, the robin, or the English sparrow, three of the species with +which it comes in contact in its breeding operations. The eggs and +young of bluebirds and wrens may be protected by the use of nest boxes +with circular openings 1-1/2 inches or less in diameter. This leaves +the purple martin the only species readily subject to attack by the +starling, whose economic worth may be considered greater than that of +the latter, but in no case was the disturbance of a well-established +colony of martins noted." + +As for the nuisance of a big established roost of starlings, it may be +abated by nightly salvos of Roman candles or blank cartridges, +continued for a week or at most ten days. + +So much for the starling in his aspect as an undesirable citizen. +Government investigators, by a long-continued study, have discovered +that his good deeds far outnumber his misdemeanors. Primarily he feeds +on noxious insects and useless wild fruits. Small truck gardens and +individual cherry trees may be occasionally raided by large flocks +with disastrous results in a small way. But on the whole he is a +useful frequenter of our door-yards who pays his way by destroying +hosts of cut-worms and equally noxious insects. "A thorough +consideration of the evidence at hand indicates that, based on food +habits, the adult starling is the economic superior of the robin, +catbird, flicker, red-winged blackbird, or grackle." Need more be said +for him? + + + + +BIRDS CONSPICUOUSLY BLACK AND WHITE + + Red-headed Woodpecker + Hairy Woodpecker + Downy Woodpecker + Yellow-bellied Woodpecker + Chewink + Snowflake + Rose-breasted Grosbeak + Bobolink + Blackpoll Warbler + Black-and-white Creeping Warbler + + +See also the Swallows; the Shrikes; Nuthatches and Titmice; the +Kingbird and other Flycatchers; the Nighthawk; the Redstart; and the +following Warblers: the Myrtle; the Bay-breasted; the Blackburnian; +and the Black-throated Blue Warbler. + + + Red-headed Woodpecker + + (_Melanerpes erythrocephalus_) Woodpecker family + + _Called also_: TRI-COLOR, RED-HEAD + + + _Length_--8.50 to 9.75 inches. An inch or less smaller than + the robin. + + _Male and Female_--Head, neck, and throat crimson; breast and + underneath white; back black and white; wings and tail blue + black, with broad white band on wings conspicuous in flight. + + _Range_--United States, east of Rocky Mountains and north to + Manitoba. + + _Migrations_--Abundant but irregular migrant. Most commonly + seen in Autumn, and rarely resident. + +In thinly populated sections, where there are few guns about, this is +still one of the commonest as it is perhaps the most conspicuous +member of the woodpecker family, but its striking glossy +black-and-white body and its still more striking crimson head, +flattened out against the side of a tree like a target, where it is +feeding, have made it all too tempting a mark for the rifles of the +sportsmen and the sling-shots of small boys. As if sufficient +attention were not attracted to it by its plumage, it must needs keep +up a noisy, guttural rattle, _ker-r-ruck, ker-r-ruck,_ very like a +tree-toad's call, and flit about among the trees with the restlessness +of a flycatcher. Yet, in spite of these invitations for a shot to the +passing gunner, it still multiplies in districts where nuts abound, +being "more common than the robin" about Washington, says John +Burroughs. + +All the familiar woodpeckers have two characteristics most prominently +exemplified in this red-headed member of their tribe. The hairy, the +downy, the crested, the red-bellied, the sapsucker, and the flicker +have each a red mark somewhere about their heads as if they had been +wounded there and bled a little--some more, some less; and the figures +of all of them, from much flattening against tree-trunks, have become +high-shouldered and long-waisted. + +The red-headed woodpecker selects, by preference, a partly decayed +tree in which to excavate a hole for its nest, because the digging is +easier, and the sawdust and chips make a softer lining than green +wood. Both male and female take turns in this hollowing-out process. +The one that is off duty is allowed "twenty minutes for refreshments," +consisting of grubs, beetles, ripe apples or cherries, corn, or +preferably beech-nuts. At a loving call from its mate in the hollow +tree, it returns promptly to perform its share of the work, when the +carefully observed "time is up." The heap of sawdust at the bottom of +the hollow will eventually cradle from four to six glossy-white eggs. + +This woodpecker has the thrifty habit of storing away nuts in the +knot-holes of trees, between cracks in the bark, or in decayed fence +rails--too often a convenient storehouse at which the squirrels may +help themselves. But it is the black snake that enters the nest and +eats the young family, and that is a more deadly foe than even the +sportsman or the milliner. + + [Illustration: YELLOWBIRD'S NEST, SHOWING COWBIRD'S EGG] + + [Illustration: BROTHER AND SISTER ROSE-BREASTED GROSBEAKS, + TWO WEEKS OLD] + + [Illustration: ROSE-BREASTED GROSBEAKS, SIX DAYS OLD.] + + + The Hairy Woodpecker + + (_Dryobates villosus_) Woodpecker family + + (Illustration facing p. 45) + + + _Length_--9 to 10 inches. About the size of the robin. + + _Male_--Black and white above, white beneath. White stripe down + the back, composed of long hair-like feathers. Bright-red + band on the nape of neck. Wings striped and dashed with black + and white. Outer tail feathers white, without bars. White + stripe about eyes and on sides of the head. + + _Female_--Without the red band on head, and body more brownish + than that of the male. + + _Range_--Eastern parts of United States, from the Canadian + border to the Carolinas. + + _Migrations_--Resident throughout its range. + +The bill of the woodpecker is a hammering tool, well fitted for its +work. Its mission in life is to rid the trees of insects, which hide +beneath the bark, and with this end in view, the bird is seen clinging +to the trunks and branches of trees through fair and wintry weather, +industriously scanning every inch for the well-known signs of the +boring worm or destructive fly. + +In the autumn the male begins to excavate his winter quarters, +carrying or throwing out the chips, by which this good workman is +known, with his beak, while the female may make herself cosey or not, +as she chooses, in an abandoned hole. About her comfort he seems +shamefully unconcerned. Intent only on his own, he drills a perfectly +round hole, usually on the under side of a limb where neither snow nor +wind can harm him, and digs out a horizontal tunnel in the dry, +brittle wood in the very heart of the tree, before turning downward +into the deep, pear-shaped chamber, where he lives in selfish +solitude. But when the nesting season comes, how devoted he is +temporarily to the mate he has neglected and even abused through the +winter! Will she never learn that after her clear-white eggs are laid +and her brood raised he will relapse into the savage and forget all +his tender wiles? + +The hairy woodpecker, like many another bird and beast, furnishes much +doubtful weather lore for credulous and inexact observers. "When the +woodpecker pecks low on the trees, expect warm weather" is a common +saying, but when different individuals are seen pecking at the same +time, one but a few feet from the ground, and another among the high +branches, one may make the prophecy that pleases him best. + +The hairy woodpeckers love the deep woods. They are drummers, not +singers; but when walking in the desolate winter woods even the +drumming and tapping of the busy feathered workmen on a resonant limb +is a solace, giving a sense of life and cheerful activity which is +invigorating. + + + The Downy Woodpecker + + (_Dryobates pubescens_) Woodpecker family + + (Illustration facing p. 45) + + + _Length_--6 to 7 inches. About the size of the English sparrow. + + _Male_--Black above, striped with white. Tail shaped like a + wedge. Outer tail feathers white, and barred with black. + Middle tail feathers black. A black stripe on top of head, and + distinct white band over and under the eyes. Red patch on + upper side of neck. Wings, with six white bands crossing them + transversely; white underneath. + + _Female_--Similar, but without scarlet on the nape, which is white. + + _Range_--Eastern North America, from Labrador to Florida. + + _Migrations_--Resident all the year throughout its range. + +The downy woodpecker is similar to his big relative, the hairy +woodpecker, in color and shape, though much smaller. His outer tail +feathers are white, barred with black, but the hairy's white outer +tail feathers lack these distinguishing marks. + +He is often called a sapsucker--though quite another bird alone merits +that name--from the supposition that he bores into the trees for the +purpose of sucking the sap; but his tongue is ill adapted for such +use, being barbed at the end, and most ornithologists consider the +charge libellous. It has been surmised that he bores the numerous +little round holes close together, so often seen, with the idea of +attracting insects to the luscious sap. The woodpeckers never drill +for insects in live wood. The downy actually drills these little holes +in apple and other trees to feed upon the inner milky bark of the +tree--the cambium layer. The only harm to be laid to his account is +that, in his zeal, he sometimes makes a ring of small holes so +continuous as to inadvertently damage the tree by girdling it. The +bird, like most others, does not debar himself entirely from fruit +diet, but enjoys berries, especially poke-berries. + +He is very social with birds and men alike. In winter he attaches +himself to strolling bands of nuthatches and chickadees, and in summer +is fond of making friendly visits among village folk, frequenting the +shade trees of the streets and grapevines of back gardens. He has even +been known to fearlessly peck at flies on window panes. + +In contrast to his large brother woodpecker, who is seldom drawn from +timber lands, the little downy member of the family brings the comfort +of his cheery presence to country homes, beating his rolling tattoo in +spring on some resonant limb under our windows in the garden with a +strength worthy of a larger drummer. + +This rolling tattoo, or drumming, answers several purposes: by it he +determines whether the tree is green or hollow; it startles insects +from their lurking places underneath the bark, and it also serves as a +love song. + + + Yellow-bellied Woodpecker + + (_Sphyrapicus varius_) Woodpecker family + + _Called also_: THE SAPSUCKER + + + _Length_--8 to 8.6 inches. About one-fifth smaller than the robin. + + _Male_--Black, white, and yellowish white above, with + bright-red crown, chin, and throat. Breast black, in form of + crescent. A yellowish-white line, beginning at bill and + passing below eye, merges into the pale yellow of the bird + underneath. Wings spotted with white, and coverts chiefly + white. Tail black; white on middle of feathers. + + _Female_--Paler, and with head and throat white. + + _Range_--Eastern North America, from Labrador to Central America. + + _Migrations_--April. October. Resident north of Massachusetts. + Most common in autumn. + +It is sad to record that this exquisitely marked woodpecker, the most +jovial and boisterous of its family, is one of the very few bird +visitors whose intimacy should be discouraged. For its useful appetite +for slugs and insects which it can take on the wing with wonderful +dexterity, it need not be wholly condemned. But as we look upon a +favorite maple or fruit tree devitalized or perhaps wholly dead from +its ravages, we cannot forget that this bird, while a most abstemious +fruit-eater, has a pernicious and most intemperate thirst for sap. +Indeed, it spends much of its time in the orchard, drilling holes into +the freshest, most vigorous trees; then, when their sap begins to +flow, it siphons it into an insatiable throat, stopping in its orgie +only long enough to snap at the insects that have been attracted to +the wounded tree by the streams of its heart-blood now trickling down +its sides. Another favorite pastime is to strip the bark off a tree, +then peck at the soft wood underneath--almost as fatal a habit. It +drills holes in maples in early spring for sap only. If it drills +holes in fruit trees it is for the cambium layer, a soft, pulpy, +nutritious under-bark. + +These woodpeckers have a variety of call-notes, but their rapid +drumming against the limbs and trunks of trees is the sound we always +associate with them and the sound that Mr. Bicknell says is the +love-note of the family. + +Unhappily, these birds, that many would be glad to have decrease in +numbers, take extra precautions for the safety of their young by +making very deep excavations for their nests, often as deep as +eighteen or twenty inches. + + + The Chewink + + (_Pipilo erythrophthalmus_) Finch family + + _Called also_: GROUND ROBIN; TOWHEE; TOWHEE BUNTING; TOWHEE GROUND + FINCH; GRASEL + + + _Length_--8 to 8.5 inches. About one-fifth smaller than the + robin. + + _Male_--Upper parts black, sometimes margined with rufous. + Breast white; chestnut color on sides and rump. Wings marked + with white. Three outer feathers of tail striped with white, + conspicuous in flight. Bill black and stout. Red eyes; feet + brown. + + _Female_--Brownish where the male is black. Abdomen shading + from chestnut to white in the centre. + + _Range_--From Labrador, on the north, to the Southern States; + west to the Rocky Mountains. + + _Migrations_--April. September and October. Summer resident. + Very rarely a winter resident at the north. + +The unobtrusive little chewink is not infrequently mistaken for a +robin, because of the reddish chestnut on its under parts. Careful +observation, however, shows important distinctions. It is rather +smaller and darker in color; its carriage and form are not those of +the robin, but of the finch. The female is smaller still, and has an +olive tint in her brown back. Her eggs are inconspicuous in color, +dirty white speckled with brown, and laid in a sunken nest on the +ground. Dead leaves and twigs abound, and form, as the anxious mother +fondly hopes, a safe hiding place for her brood. So careful +concealment, however, brings peril to the fledglings, for the most +cautious bird-lover may, and often does, inadvertently set his foot on +the hidden nest. + +The chewink derives its name from the fancied resemblance of its note +to these syllables, while those naming it "towhee" hear the sound +_to-whick_, _to-whick_, _to-whee_. Its song is rich, full, and +pleasing, and given only when the bird has risen to the branches above +its low foraging ground. + +It frequents the border of swampy places and bushy fields. It is +generally seen in the underbrush, picking about among the dead leaves +for its steady diet of earthworms and larvA| of insects, occasionally +regaling itself with a few dropping berries and fruit. + +When startled, the bird rises not more than ten or twelve feet from +the earth, and utters its characteristic calls. On account of this +habit of flying low and grubbing among the leaves, it is sometimes +called the ground robin. In the South our modest and useful little +food-gatherer is often called grasel, especially in Louisiana, where +it is white-eyed, and is much esteemed, alas! by epicures. + + [Illustration: TOWHEE (Upper Figure, Female; Lower Figure, Male)] + + [Illustration: ROSE-BREASTED GROSBEAK (Upper Figure, Female; + Lower Figure, Male)] + + + Snowflake + + (_Plectrophenax nivalis_) Finch family + + _Called also_: SNOW BUNTING; WHITEBIRD; SNOWBIRD; SNOW LARK + + + _Length_--7 to 7.5 inches. About one-fourth smaller than the + robin. + + _Male and Female_--Head, neck, and beneath soiled white, with + a few reddish-brown feathers on top of head, and suggesting an + imperfect collar. Above, grayish brown obsoletely streaked + with black, the markings being most conspicuous in a band + between shoulders. Lower tail feathers black; others, white + and all edged with white. Wings brown, white, and gray. + Plumage unusually variable. In summer dress (in arctic + regions) the bird is almost white. + + _Range_--Circumpolar regions to Kentucky (in winter only). + + _Migrations_--Midwinter visitor; rarely, if ever, resident + south of arctic regions. + +These snowflakes (mentioned collectively, for it is impossible to +think of the bird except in great flocks) are the "true spirits of the +snowstorm," says Thoreau. They are animated beings that ride upon it, +and have their life in it. By comparison with the climate of the +arctic regions, no doubt our hardiest winter weather seems luxuriously +mild to them. We associate them only with those wonderful midwinter +days when sky, fields, and woods alike are white, and a "hard, dull +bitterness of cold" drives every other bird and beast to shelter. It +is said they often pass the night buried beneath the snow. They have +been seen to dive beneath it to escape a hawk. + +Whirling about in the drifting snow to catch the seeds on the tallest +stalks that the wind in the open meadows uncovers, the snowflakes +suggest a lot of dead leaves being blown through the all-pervading +whiteness. Beautiful soft brown, gray, and predominating +black-and-white coloring distinguish these capricious visitors from +the slaty junco, the "snowbird" more commonly known. They are, indeed, +the only birds we have that are nearly white; and rarely, if ever, do +they rise far above the ground their plumage so admirably imitates. + +At the far north, travellers have mentioned their inspiriting song, +but in the United States we hear only their cheerful twitter. Nansen +tells of seeing an occasional snow bunting in that desolation of +arctic ice where the _Fram_ drifted so long. + + + The Rose-breasted Grosbeak + + (_Habia ludoviciana_) Finch family + + (Illustrations facing pp. 55 and 59) + + + _Length_--7.75 to 8.5 inches. About one-fifth smaller than the + robin. + + _Male_--Head and upper parts black. Breast has rose-carmine + shield-shaped patch, often extending downward to the centre of + the abdomen. Underneath, tail quills, and two spots on wings + white. Conspicuous yellow, blunt beak. + + _Female_--Brownish, with dark streakings, like a sparrow. No + rose-color. Light sulphur yellow under wings. Dark brown, + heavy beak. + + _Range_--Eastern North America, from southern Canada to + Panama. + + _Migrations_--Early May. September. Summer resident. + +A certain ornithologist tells with complacent pride of having shot +over fifty-eight rose-breasted grosbeaks in less than three weeks +(during the breeding season) to learn what kind of food they had in +their crops. This kind of devotion to science may have quite as much +to do with the growing scarcity of this bird in some localities as the +demands of the milliners, who, however, receive all of the blame for +the slaughter of our beautiful songsters. The farmers in Pennsylvania, +who, with more truth than poetry, call this the potato-bug bird, are +taking active measures, however, to protect the neighbor that is more +useful to their crop than all the insecticides known. It also eats +flies, wasps, and grubs. + +Seen upon the ground, the dark bird is scarcely attractive with his +clumsy beak overbalancing a head that protrudes with stupid-looking +awkwardness; but as he rises into the trees his lovely rose-colored +breast and under-wing feathers are seen, and before he has had time to +repeat his delicious, rich-voiced warble you are already in love with +him. Vibrating his wings after the manner of the mocking-bird, he +pours forth a marvellously sweet, clear, mellow song (with something +of the quality of the oriole's, robin's, and thrush's notes), making +the day on which you first hear it memorable. This is one of the few +birds that sing at night. A soft, sweet, rolling warble, heard when +the moon is at its full on a midsummer night, is more than likely to +come from the rose-breasted grosbeak. + +It is not that his quiet little sparrow-like wife has advanced notions +of feminine independence that he takes his turn at sitting upon the +nest, but that he is one of the most unselfish and devoted of mates. +With their combined efforts they construct only a coarse, unlovely +cradle in a thorn-bush or low tree near an old, overgrown pasture lot. +The father may be the poorest of architects, but as he patiently sits +brooding over the green, speckled eggs, his beautiful rosy breast just +showing above the grassy rim, he is a sufficient adornment for any +bird's home. + + + The Bobolink + + (_Dolichonyx oryzivorus_) Blackbird family + + _Called also_: REEDBIRD; MAYBIRD; MEADOW-BIRD; AMERICAN ORTOLAN; + BUTTER-BIRD; SKUNK BLACKBIRD + + (Illustration facing p. 74) + + + _Length_--7 inches. A trifle larger than the English sparrow. + + _Male_--_In spring plumage_: black, with light-yellow patch on + upper neck, also on edges of wings and tail feathers. Rump and + upper wings splashed with white. Middle of back streaked with + pale buff. Tail feathers have pointed tips. _In autumn + plumage_, resembles female. + + _Female_--Dull yellow-brown, with light and dark dashes on + back, wings, and tail. Two decided dark stripes on top of + head. + + _Range_--North America, from eastern coast to western + prairies. Migrates in early autumn to Southern States, and in + winter to South America and West Indies. + + _Migrations_--Early May. From August to October. Common summer + resident. + +Perhaps none of our birds have so fitted into song and story as the +bobolink. Unlike a good child, who should "be seen and not heard," he +is heard more frequently than seen. Very shy, of peering eyes, he +keeps well out of sight in the meadow grass before entrancing our +listening ears. The bobolink never soars like the lark, as the poets +would have us believe, but generally sings on the wing, flying with a +peculiar self-conscious flight horizontally thirty or forty feet above +the meadow grass. He also sings perched upon the fence or tuft of +grass. He is one of the greatest _poseurs_ among the birds. + +In spring and early summer the bobolinks respond to every poet's +effort to imitate their notes. "Dignified 'Robert of Lincoln' is +telling his name," says one; "Spink, spank, spink," another hears him +say. But best of all are Wilson Flagg's lines: + + ... "Now they rise and now they fly; + They cross and turn, and in and out, + and down the middle and wheel about, + With a 'Phew, shew, Wadolincon; + listen to me Bobolincon!'" + +After midsummer the cares of the family have so worn upon the jollity +of our dashing, rollicking friend that his song is seldom heard. The +colors of his coat fade into a dull yellowish brown like that of his +faithful mate, who has borne the greater burden of the season, for he +has two complete moults each year. + +The bobolinks build their nest on the ground in high grass. The eggs +are of a bluish white. Their food is largely insectivorous: +grasshoppers, crickets, beetles, spiders, with seeds of grass +especially for variety. + +In August they begin their journey southward, flying mainly by night. +Arriving in the Southern States, they become the sad-colored, +low-voiced rice or reed bird, feeding on the rice fields, where they +descend to the ignominious fate of being dressed for the plate of the +epicure. + +Could there be a more tragic ending to the glorious note of the gay +songster of the north? + + + Blackpoll Warbler + + (_Dendroica striata_) Wood Warbler family + + + _Length_--5.5 to 6 inches. About an inch smaller than the + English sparrow. + + _Male_--Black cap; cheeks and beneath grayish white, forming a + sort of collar, more or less distinct. Upper parts striped + gray, black, and olive. Breast and under parts white, with + black streaks. Tail olive-brown, with yellow-white spots. + + _Female_--Without cap. Greenish-olive above, faintly streaked + with black. Paler than male. Bands on wings, yellowish. + + _Range_--North America, to Greenland and Alaska. In winter, to + northern part of South America. + + _Migrations_--Last of May. Late October. + +A faint "_screep_, _screep_," like "the noise made by striking two +pebbles together," Audubon says, is often the only indication of the +blackpoll's presence; but surely that tireless bird-student had heard +its more characteristic notes, which, rapidly uttered, increasing in +the middle of the strain and diminishing toward the end, suggest the +shrill, wiry hum of some midsummer insect. After the opera-glass has +searched him out we find him by no means an inconspicuous bird. A +dainty little fellow, with a glossy black cap pulled over his eyes, he +is almost hidden by the dense foliage on the trees by the time he +returns to us at the very end of spring. Giraud says that he is the +very last of his tribe to come north, though the bay-breasted warbler +has usually been thought the bird to wind up the spring procession. + +The blackpoll has a certain characteristic motion that distinguishes +him from the black-and-white creeper, for which a hasty glance might +mistake him, and from the jolly little chickadee with his black cap. +Apparently he runs about the tree-trunk, but in reality he so flits +his wings that his feet do not touch the bark at all; yet so rapidly +does he go that the flipping wing-motion is not observed. He is most +often seen in May in the apple trees, peeping into the opening +blossoms for insects, uttering now and then his slender, lisping, +brief song. + +Vivacious, a busy hunter, often catching insects on the wing like the +flycatchers, he is a cheerful, useful neighbor the short time he +spends with us before travelling to the far north, where he mates and +nests. A nest has been found on Slide Mountain, in the Catskills, but +the hardy evergreens of Canada, and sometimes those of northern New +England, are the chosen home of this little bird that builds a nest of +bits of root, lichens, and sedges, amply large for a family twice the +size of his. + + + Black-and-white Creeping Warbler + + (_Mniotilta varia_) Wood Warbler family + + _Called also_: VARIED CREEPING WARBLER; BLACK-AND-WHITE CREEPER; + WHITEPOLL WARBLER + + + _Length_--5 to 5.5 inches. About an inch smaller than the + English sparrow. + + _Male_--Upper parts white, varied with black. A white stripe + along the summit of the head and back of the neck, edged with + black. White line above and below the eye. Black cheeks and + throat, grayish in females and young. Breast white in middle, + with black stripes on sides. Wings and tail rusty black, with + two white cross-bars on former, and soiled white markings on + tail quills. + + _Female_--Paler and less distinct markings throughout. + + _Range_--Peculiar to America. Eastern United States and + westward to the plains. North as far as the fur countries. + Winters in tropics south of Florida. + + _Migrations_--April. Late September. Summer resident. + +Nine times out of ten this active little warbler is mistaken for the +downy woodpecker, not because of his coloring alone, but also on +account of their common habit of running up and down the trunks of +trees and on the under side of branches, looking for insects, on which +all the warblers subsist. But presently the true warbler +characteristic of restless flitting about shows itself. A woodpecker +would go over a tree with painstaking, systematic care, while the +black-and-white warbler, no less intent upon securing its food, +hurries off from tree to tree, wherever the most promising _menu_ is +offered. + +Clinging to the mottled bark of the tree-trunk, which he so closely +resembles, it would be difficult to find him were it not for these +sudden flittings and the feeble song, "_Weachy_, _weachy_, _weachy_, +_'twee_, _'twee_, _'tweet_," he half lisps, half sings between his +dashes after slugs. Very rarely indeed can his nest be found in an old +stump or mossy bank, where bark, leaves, and hair make the downy +cradle for his four or five tiny babies. + + + + +DUSKY AND GRAY AND SLATE-COLORED BIRDS + + Chimney Swift Junco + Kingbird White-breasted Nuthatch + Wood Pewee Red-breasted Nuthatch + Ph[oe]be and Say's Ph[oe]be Loggerhead Shrike + Crested Flycatcher Northern Shrike + Olive-sided Flycatcher Bohemian Waxwing + Least Flycatcher Bay-breasted Warbler + Chickadee Chestnut-sided Warbler + Tufted Titmouse Golden-winged Warbler + Canada Jay Myrtle Warbler + Catbird Parula Warbler + Mocking-bird Black-throated Blue Warbler + +See also the Grayish Green and the Grayish Brown Birds, particularly +the Cedar Bird, several Swallows, the Acadian and the Yellow-bellied +Flycatchers; Alice's and the Olive-backed Thrushes; the Louisiana +Water Thrush; the Blue-gray Gnatcatcher; and the Seaside Sparrow. See +also the females of the following birds: Pine Grosbeak; White-winged +Red Crossbill; Purple Martin; and the Nashville, the Pine, and the +Magnolia Warblers. + + + [Illustration: CHIMNEY SWIFT (_One-half natural size_)] + + + Chimney Swift + + (_ChA|tura pelagica_) Swift family + + _Called also:_ CHIMNEY SWALLOW; AMERICAN SWIFT + + (Illustration facing p. 66) + + + _Length_--5 to 5.45 inches. About an inch shorter than the + English sparrow. Long wings make its length appear greater. + + _Male and Female_--Deep sooty gray; throat of a trifle lighter + gray. Wings extend an inch and a half beyond the even tail, + which has sharply pointed and very elastic quills, that serve + as props. Feet are muscular, and have exceedingly sharp claws. + + _Range_--Peculiar to North America east of the Rockies, and + from Labrador to Panama. + + _Migrations_--April. September or October. Common summer resident. + +The chimney swift is, properly speaking, not a swallow at all, though +chimney swallow is its more popular name. Rowing towards the roof of +your house, as if it used first one wing, then the other, its flight, +while swift and powerful, is stiff and mechanical, unlike the +swallow's, and its entire aspect suggests a bat. The nighthawk and +whippoorwill are its relatives, and it resembles them not a little, +especially in its nocturnal habits. + +So much fault has been found with the misleading names of many birds, +it is pleasant to record the fact that the name of the chimney swift +is everything it ought to be. No other birds can surpass and few can +equal it in its powerful flight, sometimes covering a thousand miles +in twenty-four hours, it is said, and never resting except in its +roosting places (hollow trees or chimneys of dwellings), where it does +not perch, but rather clings to the sides with its sharp claws, partly +supported by its sharper tail. Audubon tells of a certain plane tree +in Kentucky where he counted over nine thousand of these swifts +clinging to the hollow trunk. + +Their nest, which is a loosely woven twig lattice, made of twigs of +trees, which the birds snap off with their beaks and carry in their +beaks, is glued with the bird's saliva or tree-gum into a solid +structure, and firmly attached to the inside of chimneys, or hollow +trees where there are no houses about. Two broods in a season usually +emerge from the pure white, elongated eggs. + +What a twittering there is in the chimney that the swifts appropriate +after the winter fires have died out! Instead of the hospitable column +of smoke curling from the top, a cloud of sooty birds wheels and floats +above it. A sound as of distant thunder fills the chimney as a host of +these birds, startled, perhaps, by some indoor noise, whirl their way +upward. Woe betide the happy colony if a sudden cold snap in early +summer necessitates the starting of a fire on the hearth by the +unsuspecting householder! The glue being melted by the fire, "down comes +the cradle, babies and all" into the glowing embers. A prolonged, heavy +rain also causes their nests to loosen their hold and fall with the soot +to the bottom. + +Thrifty New England housekeepers claim that bedbugs, commonly found on +bats, infest the bodies of swifts also, which is one reason why wire +netting is stretched across the chimney tops before the birds arrive +from the South. + + + Kingbird + + (_Tyrannus tyrannus_) Flycatcher family + + _Called also:_ TYRANT FLYCATCHER; BEE MARTIN + + (Illustration facing p. 12) + + + _Length_--8 inches. About two inches shorter than the robin. + + _Male_--Ashy black above; white, shaded with ash-color, + beneath. A concealed crest of orange-red on crown. Tail black, + terminating with a white band conspicuous in flight. Wing + feathers edged with white. Feet and bill black. + + _Female_--Similar to the male, but lacking the crown. + + _Range_--United States to the Rocky Mountains. British + provinces to Central and South America. + + _Migrations_--May. September. Common summer resident. + +If the pugnacious propensity of the kingbird is the occasion of its +royal name, he cannot be said to deserve it from any fine or noble +qualities he possesses. He is a born fighter from the very love of +it, without provocation, rhyme, or reason. One can but watch with a +degree of admiration his bold sallies on the big, black crow or the +marauding hawk, but when he bullies the small inoffensive birds in +wanton attacks for sheer amusement, the charge is less entertaining. +Occasionally, when the little victim shows pluck and faces his +assailant, the kingbird will literally turn tail and show the white +feather. His method of attack is always when a bird is in flight; then +he swoops down from the telegraph pole or high point of vantage, and +strikes on the head or back of the neck, darting back like a flash to +the exact spot from which he started. By these tactics he avoids a +return blow and retreats from danger. He never makes a fair +hand-to-hand fight, or whatever is equivalent in bird warfare. It is a +satisfaction to record that he does not attempt to give battle to the +catbird, but whenever in view makes a grand detour to give him a wide +berth. + +The kingbird feeds on beetles, canker-worms, and winged insects, with +an occasional dessert of berries. He is popularly supposed to prefer +the honey-bee as his favorite tidbit, but the weight of opinion is +adverse to the charge of his depopulating the beehive, even though he +owes his appellation bee martin to this tradition. One or two +ornithologists declare that he selects only the drones for his diet, +which would give him credit for marvellous sight in his rapid motion +through the air. The kingbird is preA"minently a bird of the garden and +orchard. The nest is open, though deep, and not carefully concealed. +Eggs are nearly round, bluish white spotted with brown and lilac. With +truly royal exclusiveness, the tyrant favors no community of interest, +but sits in regal state on a conspicuous throne, and takes his grand +flights alone or with his queen, but never with a flock of his kind. + + + Wood Pewee + + (_Contopus virens_) Flycatcher family + + + _Length_--6.50 inches. A trifle larger than the English sparrow. + + _Male_--Dusky brownish olive above, darkest on head; paler on + throat, lighter still underneath, and with a yellowish tinge + on the dusky gray under parts. Dusky wings and tail, the wing + coverts tipped with soiled white, forming two indistinct bars. + Whitish eye-ring. Wings longer than tail. + + _Female_--Similar, but slightly more buff underneath. + + _Range_--Eastern North America, from Florida to northern + British provinces. Winters in Central America. + + _Migrations_--May. October. Common summer resident. + +The wood pewee, like the olive-sided flycatcher, has wings decidedly +longer than its tail, and it is by no means a simple matter for the +novice to tell these birds apart or separate them distinctly in the +mind from the other members of a family whose coloring and habits are +most confusingly similar. This dusky haunter of tall shady trees has +not yet learned to be sociable like the ph[oe]be; but while it may not +be so much in evidence close to our homes, it is doubtless just as +common. The orchard is as near the house as it often cares to come. An +old orchard, where modern insecticides are unknown and neglect allows +insects to riot among the decayed bark and fallen fruit, is a happy +hunting ground enough; but the bird's real preferences are decidedly +for high tree-tops in the woods, where no sunshine touches the +feathers on his dusky coat. It is one of the few shade-loving birds. +In deep solitudes, where it surely retreats by nesting time, however +neighborly it may be during the migrations, its pensive, pathetic +notes, long drawn out, seem like the expression of some hidden sorrow. +_Pe-a-wee_, _pe-a-wee_, _pewee-ah-peer_ is the burden of its plaintive +song, a sound as depressing as it is familiar in every walk through +the woods, and the bird's most prominent characteristic. + +To see the bird dashing about in his aA"rial chase for insects, no one +would accuse him of melancholia. He keeps an eye on the "main chance," +whatever his preying grief may be, and never allows it to affect his +appetite. Returning to his perch after a successful sally in pursuit +of the passing fly, he repeats his "sweetly solemn thought" over and +over again all day long and every day throughout the summer. + +The wood pewees show that devotion to each other and to their home, +characteristic of their family. Both lovers work on the construction +of the flat nest that is saddled on some mossy or lichen-covered limb, +and so cleverly do they cover the rounded edge with bits of bark and +lichen that sharp eyes only can detect where the cradle lies. +Creamy-white eggs, whose larger end is wreathed with brown and lilac +spots, are guarded with fierce solicitude. + +Trowbridge has celebrated this bird in a beautiful poem. + + + Ph[oe]be + + (_Sayornis ph[oe]be_) Flycatcher family + + _Called also:_ DUSKY FLYCATCHER; BRIDGE PEWEE; WATER PEWEE + + (Illustration facing p. 75) + + + _Length_--7 inches. About an inch longer than the English + sparrow. + + _Male and Female_--Dusky olive-brown above; darkest on head, + which is slightly crested. Wings and tail dusky, the outer + edges of some tail feathers whitish. Dingy yellowish white + underneath. Bill and feet black. + + _Range_--North America, from Newfoundland to the South + Atlantic States, and westward to the Rockies. Winters south of + the Carolinas, into Mexico, Central America, and the West + Indies. + + _Migrations_--March. October. Common summer resident. + +The earliest representative of the flycatcher family to come out of +the tropics where insect life fairly swarms and teems, what does the +friendly little ph[oe]be find to attract him to the north in March +while his prospective dinners must all be still in embryo? He looks +dejected, it is true, as he sits solitary and silent on some +projecting bare limb in the garden, awaiting the coming of his tardy +mate; nevertheless, the date of his return will not vary by more than +a few days in a given locality year after year. Why birds that are +mated for life, as these are said to be, and such devoted lovers, +should not travel together on their journey north, is another of the +many mysteries of bird-life awaiting solution. + +The reunited, happy couple go about the garden and outbuildings like +domesticated wrens, investigating the crannies on piazzas, where +people may be coming and going, and boldly entering barn-lofts to find +a suitable site for the nest that it must take much of both time and +skill to build. + +_Pewit_, _ph[oe]be_, _ph[oe]be_; _pewit_, _ph[oe]be_, they contentedly +but rather monotonously sing as they investigate all the sites in the +neighborhood. Presently a location is chosen under a beam or rafter, +and the work of collecting moss and mud for the foundation and hair +and feathers or wool to line the exquisite little home begins. But the +labor is done cheerfully, with many a sally in midair either to let +off superfluous high spirits or to catch a morsel on the wing, and +with many a vivacious outburst of what by courtesy only we may name a +song. + +When not domesticated, as these birds are rapidly becoming the +ph[oe]bes dearly love a cool, wet woodland retreat. Here they hunt and +bathe; here they also build in a rocky bank or ledge of rocks or +underneath a bridge, but always with clever adaptation of their nest +to its surroundings, out of which it seems a natural growth. It is one +of the most finished, beautiful nests ever found. + +A pair of ph[oe]bes become attached to a spot where they have once +nested; they never stray far from it, and return to it regularly, +though they may not again occupy the old nest. This is because it soon +becomes infested with lice from the hen's feathers used in lining it, +for which reason too close relationship with this friendly +bird-neighbor is discouraged by thrifty housekeepers. When the baby +birds have come out from the four or six little white eggs, their +helpless bodies are mercilessly attacked by parasites, and are often +so enfeebled that half the brood die. The next season another nest +will be built near the first, the following summer still another, +until it would appear that a colony of birds had made their homes in +the place. + +Throughout the long summer--for as the ph[oe]be is the first +flycatcher to come, so it is the last to go--the bird is a tireless +hunter of insects, which it catches on the wing with a sharp click of +its beak, like the other members of its dexterous family. + + * * * * * + +Say's Ph[oe]be (_Sayornis saya_) is the Western representative of the +Eastern species, which it resembles in coloring and many of its +habits. It is the bird of the open plains, a tireless hunter in midair +sallies from an isolated perch, and has the same vibrating motion of +the tail that the Eastern ph[oe]be indulges in when excited. This bird +differs chiefly in its lighter coloring, but not in habits, from the +black pewee of the Pacific slope. + + + Great-crested Flycatcher + + (_Myiarchus crinitus_) Flycatcher family + + _Called also_: CRESTED FLYCATCHER + + (Illustration facing p. 106) + + + _Length_--8.50 to 9 inches. A little smaller than the robin. + + _Male and Female_--Feathers of the head pointed and erect. + Upper parts dark grayish-olive, inclining to rusty brown on + wings and tail. Wing coverts crossed with two irregular bars + of yellowish white. Throat gray, shading into sulphur-yellow + underneath, that also extends under the wings. Inner vane of + several tail quills rusty red. Bristles at base of bill. + + _Range_--From Mexico, Central America, and West Indies + northward to southern Canada and westward to the plains. Most + common in Mississippi basin; common also in eastern United + States, south of New England. + + _Migrations_--May. September. Common summer resident. + +The most dignified and handsomely dressed member of his family, the +crested flycatcher has, nevertheless, an air of pensive melancholy +about him when in repose that can be accounted for only by the pain he +must feel every time he hears himself screech. His harsh, shrill call, +louder and more disagreeable than the kingbird's, cannot but rasp his +ears as it does ours. And yet it is chiefly by this piercing note, +given with a rising inflection, that we know the bird is in our +neighborhood; for he is somewhat of a recluse, and we must often +follow the disagreeable noise to its source in the tree-tops before we +can catch a glimpse of the screecher. Perched on a high lookout, he +appears morose and sluggish, in spite of his aristocratic-looking +crest, trim figure, and feathers that must seem rather gay to one of +his dusky tribe. A low soliloquy, apparently born of discontent, can +be overheard from the foot of his tree. But another second, and he has +dashed off in hot pursuit of an insect flying beyond our sight, and +with extremely quick, dexterous evolutions in midair, he finishes the +hunt with a sharp click of his bill as it closes over the unhappy +victim, and then he returns to his perch. On the wing he is +exceedingly active and joyous; in the tree he appears just the +reverse. That he is a domineering fellow, quite as much of a tyrant as +the notorious kingbird, that bears the greater burden of opprobrium, +is shown in the fierce way he promptly dashes at a feathered stranger +that may have alighted too near his perch, and pursues it beyond the +bounds of justice, all the while screaming his rasping cry into the +intruder's ears, that must pierce as deep as the thrusts from his +relentless beak. He has even been known to drive off woodpeckers and +bluebirds from the hollows in the trees that he, like them, chooses +for a nest, and appropriate the results of their labor for his +scarcely less belligerent mate. With a slight but important and +indispensable addition, the stolen nest is ready to receive her four +cream-colored eggs, that look as if a pen dipped in purple ink had +been scratched over them. + +The fact that gives the great-crested flycatcher a unique interest +among all North American birds is that it invariably lines its nest +with snake-skins if one can be had. Science would scarcely be worth +the studying if it did not set our imaginations to work delving for +plausible reasons for Nature's strange doings. Most of us will +doubtless agree with Wilson (who made a special study of these +interesting nests and never found a single one without cast +snake-skins in it, even in districts where snakes were so rare they +were supposed not to exist at all), that the lining was chosen to +terrorize all intruders. The scientific mind that is unwilling to +dismiss any detail of Nature's work as merely arbitrary and haphazard, +is greatly exercised over the reason for the existence of crests on +birds. But, surely, may not the sight of snake-skins that first greet +the eyes of the fledgling flycatchers as they emerge from the shell be +a good and sufficient reason why the feathers on their little heads +should stand on end? "In the absence of a snake-skin, I have found an +onion skin and shad scales in the nest," says John Burroughs, who +calls this bird "the wild Irishman of the flycatchers." + + + [Illustration: BOBOLINK (Upper Figure, Male; Lower Figure, Female)] + + [Illustration: THE PH[OE]BE] + + + Olive-sided Flycatcher + + (_Contopus borealis_) Flycatcher family + + + _Length_--7 to 7.5 inches. About an inch longer than the + English sparrow. + + _Male and Female_--Dusky olive or grayish brown above; head + darkest. Wings and tail blackish brown, the former sometimes, + but not always, margined and tipped with dusky white. Throat + yellowish white; other under parts slightly lighter shade than + above. Olive-gray on sides. A tuft of yellowish-white, downy + feathers on flanks. Bristles at base of bill. + + _Range_--From Labrador to Panama. Winters in the tropics. + Nests usually north of United States, but it also breeds in + the Catskills. + + _Migrations_--May. September. Resident only in northern part + of its range. + +Only in the migrations may people south of Massachusetts hope to see +this flycatcher, which can be distinguished from the rest of its kin +by the darker under parts, and by the fluffy, yellowish-white tufts of +feathers on its flanks. Its habits have the family characteristics: it +takes its food on the wing, suddenly sallying forth from its perch, +darting about midair to seize its prey, then as suddenly returning to +its identical point of vantage, usually in some distended, dead limb +in the tree-top; it is pugnacious, bold, and tyrannical; mopish and +inert when not on the hunt, but wonderfully alert and swift when in +pursuit of insect or feathered foe. The short necks of the flycatchers +make their heads appear large for their bodies, a peculiarity slightly +emphasized in this member of the family. + +High up in some evergreen tree, well out on a branch, over which the +shapeless mass of twigs and moss that serves as a nest is saddled, +four or five buff-speckled eggs are laid, and by some special +dispensation rarely fall out of their insecure cradle. A sharp, loud +whistle, _wheu--o-wheu-o-wheu-o_, rings out from the throat of this +olive-sided tyrant, warning all intruders off the premises; but +however harshly he may treat the rest of the feathered world, he has +only gentle devotion to offer his brooding mate. + + + Least Flycatcher + + (_Empidonax minimus_) Flycatcher family + + _Called also_: CHEBEC + + + _Length_--5 to 5.5 inches. About an inch smaller than the + English sparrow. + + _Male_--Gray or olive-gray above, paler on wings and lower + part of back, and a more distinct olive-green on head. + Underneath grayish white, sometimes faintly suffused with pale + yellow. Wings have whitish bars. White eye-ring. Lower half of + bill horn-color. + + _Female_--Is slightly more yellowish underneath. + + _Range_--Eastern North America, from tropics northward to Quebec. + + _Migrations_--May. September. Common summer resident. + +This, the smallest member of its family, takes the place of the more +southerly Acadian flycatcher, throughout New England and the region of +the Great Lakes. But, unlike his Southern relative, he prefers +orchards and gardens close to our homes for his hunting grounds rather +than the wet recesses of the forests. _Che-bec_, _che-bec_, the +diminutive olive-pated gray sprite calls out from the orchard between +his aA"rial sallies after the passing insects that have been attracted +by the decaying fruit, and chebec is the name by which many New +Englanders know him. + +While giving this characteristic call-note, with drooping jerking +tail, trembling wings, and uplifted parti-colored bill, he, looks +unnerved and limp by the effort it has cost him. But in the next +instant a gnat flies past. How quickly the bird recovers itself, and +charges full-tilt at his passing dinner! The sharp click of his little +bill proves that he has not missed his aim; and after careering about +in the air another minute or two, looking for more game to snap up on +the wing, he will return to the same perch and take up his familiar +refrain. Without hearing this call-note one might often mistake the +bird for either the wood pewee or the ph[oe]be, for all the three are +similarly clothed and have many traits in common. The slightly larger +size of the ph[oe]be and pewee is not always apparent when they are +seen perching on the trees. Unlike the "tuft of hay" to which the +Acadian flycatcher's nest has been likened, the least flycatcher's +home is a neat, substantial cup-shaped cradle softly lined with down +or horsehair, and placed generally in an upright crotch of a tree, +well above the ground. + + + The Chickadee + + (_Parus atricapillus_) Titmouse family + + _Called also_: BLACK-CAPPED TITMOUSE; BLACK-CAP TIT + + (Illustration facing p. 78) + + + _Length_--5 to 5.5 inches. About an inch smaller than the + English sparrow. + + _Male and Female_--Not crested. Crown and nape and throat + black. Above gray, slightly tinged with brown. A white space, + beginning at base of bill, extends backward, widening over + cheeks and upper part of breast, forming a sort of collar that + almost surrounds neck. Underneath dirty white, with pale + rusty-brown wash on sides. Wings and tail gray, with white + edgings. Plumage downy. + + _Range_--Eastern North America. North of the Carolinas to + Labrador. Does not migrate in the North. + + _Migrations_--Late September. May. Winter resident; permanent + resident in northern parts of the United States. + +No "fair weather friend" is the jolly little chickadee. In the depth +of the autumn equinoctial storm it returns to the tops of the trees +close by the house, where, through the sunshine, snow, and tempest of +the entire winter, you may hear its cheery, irrepressible +_chickadee-dee-dee-dee_ or _day-day-day_ as it swings around the +dangling cones of the evergreens. It fairly overflows with good +spirits, and is never more contagiously gay than in a snowstorm. So +active, so friendly and cheering, what would the long northern winters +be like without this lovable little neighbor? + +It serves a more utilitarian purpose, however, than bracing +faint-hearted spirits. "There is no bird that compares with it in +destroying the female canker-worm moths and their eggs," writes a +well-known entomologist. He calculates that as a chickadee destroys +about 5,500 eggs in one day, it will eat 138,750 eggs in the +twenty-five days it takes the canker-worm moth to crawl up the trees. +The moral that it pays to attract chickadees about your home by +feeding them in winter is obvious. Mrs. Mabel Osgood Wright, in her +delightful and helpful book "Birdcraft," tells us how she makes a sort +of a bird-hash of finely minced raw meat, waste canary-seed, +buckwheat, and cracked oats, which she scatters in a sheltered spot +for all the winter birds. The way this is consumed leaves no doubt of +its popularity. A raw bone, hung from an evergreen limb, is equally +appreciated. + +Friendly as the chickadee is--and Dr. Abbott declares it the tamest +bird we have--it prefers well-timbered districts, especially where +there are red-bud trees, when it is time to nest. It is very often +clever enough to leave the labor of hollowing out a nest in the +tree-trunk to the woodpecker or nuthatch, whose old homes it readily +appropriates; or, when these birds object, a knot-hole or a hollow +fence-rail answers every purpose. Here, in the summer woods, when +family cares beset it, a plaintive, minor whistle replaces the +_chickadee-dee-dee_ that Thoreau likens to "silver tinkling" as he +heard it on a frosty morning. + + "Piped a tiny voice near by, + Gay and polite, a cheerful cry-- + Chick-chickadeedee! saucy note + Out of sound heart and merry throat, + As if it said, 'Good-day, good Sir! + Fine afternoon, old passenger! + Happy to meet you in these places + Where January brings few faces.'" + --_Emerson._ + + + Tufted Titmouse + + (_Parus bicolor_) Titmouse family + + _Called also_: CRESTED TITMOUSE; CRESTED TOMTIT + + (Illustration facing p. 79) + + + _Length_--6 to 6.5 inches. About the size of the English sparrow. + + _Male and Female_--Crest high and pointed. Leaden or ash-gray + above; darkest on wings and tail. Frontlet, bill, and + shoulders black; space between eyes gray. Sides of head dull + white. Under parts light gray; sides yellowish, tinged with red. + + _Range_--United States east of plains, and only rarely seen so + far north as New England. + + _Migrations_--October. April. Winter resident, but also found + throughout the year in many States. + +"A noisy titmouse is Jack Frost's trumpeter" may be one of those few +weather-wise proverbs with a grain of truth in them. As the chickadee +comes from the woods with the frost, so it may be noticed his cousin, +the crested titmouse, is in more noisy evidence throughout the winter. + +One might sometimes think his whistle, like a tugboat's, worked by +steam. But how effectually nesting cares alone can silence it in +April! + +Titmice always see to it you are not lonely as you walk through the +woods. This lordly tomtit, with his jaunty crest, keeps up a +persistent whistle at you as he flits from tree to tree, leading you +deeper into the forest, calling out "_Here-here-here!_" and looking +like a pert and jaunty little blue jay, minus his gay clothes. Mr. +Nehrling translates one of the calls "_Heedle-dee-dle-dee-dle-dee!_" +and another "_Peto-peto-peto-daytee-daytee!_" But it is at the former, +sharply whistled as the crested titmouse gives it, that every dog +pricks up his ears. + +Comparatively little has been written about this bird, because it is +not often found in New England, where most of the bird _litterateurs_ +have lived. South of New York State, however, it is a common resident, +and much respected for the good work it does in destroying injurious +insects, though it is more fond of varying its diet with nuts, +berries, and seeds than that all-round benefactor, the chickadee. + + + [Illustration: CHICKADEE] + + [Illustration: _National Association of Audubon Societies_ + _See page 37_ TUFTED TITMOUSE] + + + Canada Jay + + (_Perisoreus canadensis_) Crow and Jay family + + _Called also_: WHISKY JACK OR JOHN; MOOSE-BIRD; MEAT-BIRD; + VENISON HERON; GREASE-BIRD; CANADIAN CARRION-BIRD; CAMP ROBBER + + + _Length_--11 to 12 inches. About two inches larger than the robin. + + _Male and Female_--Upper parts gray; darkest on wings and tail; + back of the head and nape of the neck sooty, almost black. + Forehead, throat, and neck white, and a few white tips on wings + and tail. Underneath lighter gray. Tail long. Plumage fluffy. + + _Range_--Northern parts of the United States and British + provinces of North America. + + _Migrations_--Resident where found. + +The Canada jay looks like an exaggerated chickadee, and both birds are +equally fond of bitter cold weather, but here the similarity stops +short. Where the chickadee is friendly the jay is impudent and bold; +hardly less of a villain than his blue relative when it comes to +marauding other birds' nests and destroying their young. With all his +vices, however, intemperance cannot be attributed to him, in spite of +the name given him by the Adirondack lumbermen and guides. "Whisky +John" is a purely innocent corruption of "Wis-ka-tjon," as the Indians +call this bird that haunts their camps and familiarly enters their +wigwams. The numerous popular names by which the Canada jays are known +are admirably accounted for by Mr. Hardy in a bulletin issued by the +Smithsonian Institution. + +"They will enter the tents, and often alight on the bow of a canoe, +where the paddle at every stroke comes within eighteen inches of them. +I know nothing which can be eaten that they will not take, and I had +one steal all my candles, pulling them out endwise, one by one, from a +piece of birch bark in which they were rolled, and another peck a +large hole in a keg of castile soap. A duck which I had picked and +laid down for a few minutes, had the entire breast eaten out by one or +more of these birds. I have seen one alight in the middle of my canoe +and peck away at the carcass of a beaver I had skinned. They often +spoil deer saddles by pecking into them near the kidneys. They do +great damage to the trappers by stealing the bait from traps set for +martens and minks and by eating trapped game. They will sit quietly +and see you build a log trap and bait it, and then, almost before your +back is turned, you hear their hateful _ca-ca-ca!_ as they glide down +and peer into it. They will work steadily, carrying off meat and +hiding it. I have thrown out pieces, and watched one to see how much +he would carry off. He flew across a wide stream, and in a short time +looked as bloody as a butcher from carrying large pieces; but his +patience held out longer than mine. I think one would work as long as +Mark Twain's California jay did trying to fill a miner's cabin with +acorns through a knot-hole in the roof. They are fond of the berries +of the mountain ash, and, in fact, few things come amiss; I believe +they do not possess a single good quality except industry." + +One virtue not mentioned by Mr. Hardy is their prudent saving from the +summer surplus to keep the winter storeroom well supplied like a +squirrel's. Such thrift is the more necessary when a clamorous, hungry +family of young jays must be reared while the thermometer is often as +low as thirty degrees below zero at the end of March. How eggs are +ever hatched at all in a temperature calculated to freeze any sitting +bird stiff, is one of the mysteries of the woods. And yet four or five +fluffy little jays, that look as if they were dressed in gray fur, +emerge from the eggs before the spring sunshine has unbound the icy +rivers or melted the snowdrifts piled high around the evergreens. + + + Catbird + + (_Galeoscoptes carolinensis_) Mocking-bird family + + _Called also_: BLACK-CAPPED THRUSH + + (Illustration facing p. 86) + + + _Length_--9 inches. An inch shorter than the robin. + + _Male and Female_--Dark slate above; below somewhat paler; top + of head black. Distinct chestnut patch under the tail, which + is black; feet and bill black also. Wings short, more than two + inches shorter than the tail. + + _Range_--British provinces to Mexico; west to Rocky Mountains, + rarely to Pacific coast. Winters in Southern States, Central + America, and Cuba. + + _Migrations_--May. November. Common summer resident. + +Our familiar catbird, of all the feathered tribe, presents the most +contrary characteristics, and is therefore held in varied +estimation--loved, admired, ridiculed, abused. He is the veriest "Dr. +Jekyll and Mr. Hyde" of birds. Exquisitely proportioned, with finely +poised black head and satin-gray coat, which he bathes most carefully +and prunes and prinks by the hour, he appears from his toilet a Beau +Brummell, an aristocratic-looking, even dandified neighbor. Suddenly, +as if shot, he drops head and tail and assumes the most hang-dog air, +without the least sign of self-respect; then crouches and lengthens +into a roll, head forward and tail straightened, till he looks like a +little, short gray snake, lank and limp. Anon, with a jerk and a +sprint, every muscle tense, tail erect, eyes snapping, he darts into +the air intent upon some well-planned mischief. It is impossible to +describe his various attitudes or moods. In song and call he presents +the same opposite characteristics. How such a bird, exquisite in +style, can demean himself to utter such harsh, altogether hateful +catcalls and squawks as have given the bird his common name, is a +wonder when in the next moment his throat swells and beginning +_phut-phut-coquillicot_, he gives forth a long glorious song, only +second to that of the wood thrush in melody. He is a jester, a +caricaturist, a mocking-bird. + +The catbird's nest is like a veritable scrap-basket, loosely woven of +coarse twigs, bits of newspaper, scraps, and rags, till this rough +exterior is softly lined and made fit to receive the four to six +pretty dark green-blue eggs to be laid therein. + +As a fruit thief harsh epithets are showered upon the friendly, +confiding little creature at our doors; but surely his depredations +may be pardoned, for he is industrious at all times and unusually +adroit in catching insects, especially in the moth stage. + + + The Mocking-bird + + (_Mimus polyglottus_) Mocking-bird family + + (Illustrations facing pp. 13 and 107) + + + _Length_--9 to 10 inches. About the size of the robin. + + _Male and Female_--Gray above; wings and wedge-shaped tail + brownish; upper wing feathers tipped with white; outer tail + quills white, conspicuous in flight; chin white; underneath + light gray, shading to whitish. + + _Range_--Peculiar to torrid and temperate zones of two Americas. + + _Migrations_--No fixed migrations; usually resident where seen. + +North of Delaware this commonest of Southern birds is all too rarely +seen outside of cages, yet even in midwinter it is not unknown in +Central Park, New York. This is the angel that it is said the catbird +was before he fell from grace. Slim, neat, graceful, imitative, +amusing, with a rich, tender song that only the thrush can hope to +rival, and with an instinctive preference for the society of man, it +is little wonder he is a favorite, caged or free. He is a most devoted +parent, too, when the four or six speckled green eggs have produced as +many mouths to be supplied with insects and berries. + +In the Connecticut Valley, where many mocking-birds' nests have been +found, year after year, they are all seen near the ground, and without +exception are loosely, poorly constructed affairs of leaves, feathers, +grass, and even rags. + +With all his virtues, it must be added, however, that this charming +bird is a sad tease. There is no sound, whether made by bird or beast +about him, that he cannot imitate so clearly as to deceive every one +but himself. Very rarely can you find a mocking-bird without +intelligence and mischief enough to appreciate his ventriloquism. In +Sidney Lanier's college note-book was found written this reflection: +"A poet is the mocking-bird of the spiritual universe. In him are +collected all the individual songs of all individual natures." Later +in life, with the same thought in mind, he referred to the bird as +"yon slim Shakespeare on the tree." His exquisite stanzas, "To Our +Mocking-bird," exalt the singer with the immortals: + + "Trillets of humor,--shrewdest whistle-wit-- + Contralto cadences of grave desire, + Such as from off the passionate Indian pyre + Drift down through sandal-odored flames that split + About the slim young widow, who doth sit + And sing above,--midnights of tone entire,-- + Tissues of moonlight, shot with songs of fire;-- + Bright drops of tune, from oceans infinite + Of melody, sipped off the thin-edged wave + And trickling down the beak,--discourses brave + Of serious matter that no man may guess,-- + Good-fellow greetings, cries of light distress-- + All these but now within the house we heard: + O Death, wast thou too deaf to hear the bird? + + * * * * * + + Nay, Bird; my grief gainsays the Lord's best right. + The Lord was fain, at some late festal time, + That Keats should set all heaven's woods in rhyme, + And Thou in bird-notes. Lo, this tearful night + Methinks I see thee, fresh from Death's despite, + Perched in a palm-grove, wild with pantomime + O'er blissful companies couched in shady thyme. + Methinks I hear thy silver whistlings bright + Meet with the mighty discourse of the wise,-- + 'Till broad Beethoven, deaf no more, and Keats, + 'Midst of much talk, uplift their smiling eyes + And mark the music of thy wood-conceits, + And half-way pause on some large courteous word, + And call thee 'Brother,' O thou heavenly Bird!" + + + Junco + + (_Junco hyemalis_) Finch family + + _Called also_: SNOWBIRD; SLATE-COLORED SNOWBIRD + + + _Length_--5.5 to 6.5 inches. About the size of the English sparrow. + + _Male_--Upper parts slate-colored; darkest on head and neck, + which are sometimes almost black and marked like a cowl. Gray + on breast, like a vest. Underneath white. Several outer tail + feathers white, conspicuous in flight. + + _Female_--Lighter gray, inclining to brown. + + _Range_--North America. Not common in warm latitudes. Breeds + in the Catskills and northern New England. + + _Migrations_--September. April. Winter resident. + +"Leaden skies above; snow below," is Mr. Parkhurst's suggestive +description of this rather timid little neighbor, that is only starved +into familiarity. When the snow has buried seed and berries, a flock +of juncos, mingling sociably with the sparrows and chickadees about +the kitchen door, will pick up scraps of food with an intimacy quite +touching in a bird naturally rather shy. Here we can readily +distinguish these "little gray-robed monks and nuns," as Miss Florence +Merriam calls them. + +They are trim, sprightly, sleek, and even natty; their dispositions +are genial and vivacious, not quarrelsome, like their sparrow cousins, +and what is perhaps best about them, they are birds we may surely +depend upon seeing in the winter months. A few come forth in +September, migrating at night from the deep woods of the north, where +they have nested and moulted during the summer; but not until frost +has sharpened the air are large numbers of them seen. Rejoicing in +winter, they nevertheless do not revel in the deep and fierce arctic +blasts, as the snowflakes do, but take good care to avoid the open +pastures before the hard storms overtake them. + +Early in the spring their song is sometimes heard before they leave us +to woo and to nest in the north. Mr. Bicknell describes it as "a crisp +call-note, a simple trill, and a faint, whispered warble, usually much +broken, but not without sweetness." + + + White-breasted Nuthatch + + (_Sitta carolinensis_) Nuthatch family + + _Called also_: TREE-MOUSE; DEVIL DOWNHEAD + + (Illustration facing p. 87) + + + _Length_--5.5 to 6 inches. A trifle smaller than the English sparrow. + + _Male and Female_--Upper parts slate-color. Top of head and + nape black. Wings dark slate, edged with black, that fades to + brown. Tail feathers brownish black, with white bars. Sides of + head and underneath white, shading to pale reddish under the + tail. (Female's head leaden.) Body flat and compact. Bill + longer than head. + + _Range_--British provinces to Mexico. Eastern United States. + + _Migrations_--October. April. Common resident. Most prominent + in winter. + + "Shrewd little haunter of woods all gray, + Whom I meet on my walk of a winter day-- + You're busy inspecting each cranny and hole + In the ragged bark of yon hickory bole; + You intent on your task, and I on the law + Of your wonderful head and gymnastic claw! + + The woodpecker well may despair of this feat-- + Only the fly with you can compete! + So much is clear; but I fain would know + How you can so reckless and fearless go, + Head upward, head downward, all one to you, + Zenith and nadir the same in your view?" + + --_Edith M. Thomas._ + +Could a dozen lines well contain a fuller description or more apt +characterization of a bird than these "To a Nuthatch"? + +With more artless inquisitiveness than fear, this lively little +acrobat stops his hammering or hatcheting at your approach, and +stretching himself out from the tree until it would seem he must fall +off, he peers down at you, head downward, straight into your upturned +opera-glasses. If there is too much snow on the upper side of a +branch, watch how he runs along underneath it like a fly, busily +tapping the bark, or adroitly breaking the decayed bits with his bill, +as he searches for the spider's eggs, larvA|, etc., hidden there; yet +somehow, between mouthfuls, managing to call out his cheery _quank!_ +_quank!_ _hank!_ _hank!_ + +Titmice and nuthatches, which have many similar characteristics, are +often seen in the most friendly hunting parties on the same tree. A +pine woods is their dearest delight. There, as the mercury goes down, +their spirits only seem to go up higher. In the spring they have been +thought by many to migrate in flocks, whereas they are only retreating +with their relations away from the haunts of men to the deep, cool +woods, where they nest. With infinite patience the nuthatch excavates +a hole in a tree, lining it with feathers and moss, and often +depositing as many as ten white eggs (speckled with red and lilac) for +a single brood. + + + Red-breasted Nuthatch + + (_Sitta canadensis_) Nuthatch family + + Called also: CANADA NUTHATCH + + (Illustration facing p. 87) + + + _Length_--4 to 4.75 inches. One-third smaller than the English + sparrow. + + _Male_--Lead-colored above; brownish on wings and tail. Head, neck, + and stripe passing through eye to shoulder, black. Frontlet, + chin, and shoulders white; also a white stripe over eye, meeting + on brow. Under parts light, rusty red. Tail feathers barred with + white near end, and tipped with pale brown. + + _Female_--Has crown of brownish black, and is lighter beneath + than male. + + _Range_--Northern parts of North America. Not often seen south + of the most northerly States. + + _Migrations_--November. April. Winter resident. + +The brighter coloring of this tiny, hardy bird distinguishes it from +the other and larger nuthatch, with whom it is usually seen, for the +winter birds have a delightfully social manner, so that a colony of +these Free masons is apt to contain not only both kinds of nuthatches +and chickadees, but kinglets and brown creepers as well. It shares the +family habit of walking about the trees, head downward, and running +along the under side of limbs like a fly. By Thanksgiving Day the +_quank!_ _quank!_ of the white-breasted species is answered by the +_tai-tai-tait!_ of the red-breasted cousin in the orchard, where the +family party is celebrating with an elaborate _menu_ of slugs, +insects' eggs, and oily seeds from the evergreen trees. + +For many years this nuthatch, a more northern species than the +white-breasted bird, was thought to be only a spring and autumn +visitor, but latterly it is credited with habits like its congener's +in nearly every particular. + + + [Illustration: CATBIRD] + + [Illustration: WHITE-BREASTED NUTHATCH, Upper Figures, Male and Female + RED-BREASTED NUTHATCH, Lower Figures, Male and Female] + + + Loggerhead Shrike + + (_Lanius ludovicianus_) Shrike family + + + _Length_--8.5 to 9 inches. A little smaller than the robin. + + _Male and Female_--Upper parts gray; narrow black line across + forehead, connecting small black patches on sides of head at + base of bill. Wings and tail black, plentifully marked with + white, the outer tail feathers often being entirely white and + conspicuous in flight. Underneath white or very light gray. + Bill hooked and hawk-like. + + _Range_--Eastern United States to the plains. + + _Migrations_--May. October. Summer resident. + +It is not easy, even at a slight distance, to distinguish the +loggerhead from the Northern shrike. Both have the pernicious habit of +killing insects and smaller birds and impaling them on thorns; both +have the peculiarity of flying, with strong, vigorous flight and much +wing-flapping, close along the ground, then suddenly rising to a tree, +on the lookout for prey. Their harsh, unmusical call-notes are similar +too, and their hawk-like method of dropping suddenly upon a victim on +the ground below is identical. Indeed, the same description very +nearly answers for both birds. But there is one very important +difference. While the Northern shrike is a winter visitor, the +loggerhead, being his Southern counterpart, does not arrive until +after the frost is out of the ground, and he can be sure of a truly +warm welcome. A lesser distinction between the only two +representatives of the shrike family that frequent our +neighborhood--and they are two too many--is in the smaller size of the +loggerhead and its lighter-gray plumage. But as both these birds +select some high, commanding position, like a distended branch near +the tree-top, a cupola, house-peak, lightning-rod, telegraph wire, or +weather-vane, the better to detect a passing dinner, it would be quite +impossible at such a distance to know which shrike was sitting up +there silently plotting villainies, without remembering the season +when each may be expected. + + + Northern Shrike + + (_Lanius borealis_) Shrike family + + _Called also_: BUTCHER-BIRD; NINE-KILLER + + + _Length_--9.5 to 10.5 inches. About the size of the robin. + + _Male_--Upper parts slate-gray; wing quills and tail black, + edged and tipped with white, conspicuous in flight; a white + spot on centre of outer wing feathers. A black band runs from + bill, through eye to side of throat. Light gray below, tinged + with brownish, and faintly marked with waving lines of darker + gray. Bill hooked and hawk-like. + + _Female_--With eye-band more obscure than male's, and with more + distinct brownish cast on her plumage. + + _Range_--Northern North America. South in winter to middle portion of + United States. + + _Migrations_--November, April. A roving winter resident. + +"Matching the bravest of the brave among birds of prey in deeds of +daring, and no less relentless than reckless, the shrike compels that +sort of deference, not unmixed with indignation, we are accustomed to +accord to creatures of seeming insignificance whose exploits demand +much strength, great spirit, and insatiate love for carnage. We cannot +be indifferent to the marauder who takes his own wherever he finds +it--a feudal baron who holds his own with undisputed sway--and an ogre +whose victims are so many more than he can eat, that he actually keeps +a private graveyard for the balance." Who is honestly able to give the +shrikes a better character than Dr. Coues, just quoted? A few offer +them questionable defence by recording the large numbers of English +sparrows they kill in a season, as if wanton carnage were ever +justifiable. + +Not even a hawk itself can produce the consternation among a flock of +sparrows that the harsh, rasping voice of the butcher-bird creates, +for escape they well know to be difficult before the small ogre swoops +down upon his victim, and carries it off to impale it on a thorn or +frozen twig, there to devour it later piecemeal. Every shrike thus +either impales or else hangs up, as a butcher does his meat, more +little birds of many kinds, field-mice, grasshoppers, and other large +insects than it can hope to devour in a week of bloody orgies. +Field-mice are perhaps its favorite diet, but even snakes are not +disdained. + +More contemptible than the actual slaughter of its victims, if +possible, is the method by which the shrike often lures and sneaks +upon his prey. Hiding in a clump of bushes in the meadow or garden, he +imitates with fiendish cleverness the call-notes of little birds that +come in cheerful response, hopping and flitting within easy range of +him. His bloody work is finished in a trice. Usually, however, it must +be owned, the shrike's hunting habits are the reverse of sneaking. +Perched on a point of vantage on some tree-top or weather-vane, his +hawk-like eye can detect a grasshopper going through the grass fifty +yards away. + +What is our surprise when some fine warm day in March, just before our +butcher, ogre, sneak, and fiend leaves us for colder regions, to hear +him break out into song! Love has warmed even his cold heart, and with +sweet, warbled notes on the tip of a beak that but yesterday was +reeking with his victim's blood, he starts for Canada, leaving behind +him the only good impression he has made during a long winter's visit. + + + Bohemian Waxwing + + (_Ampelis garrulus_) Waxwing family + + _Called also_: BLACK-THROATED WAXWING; LAPLAND WAXWING; + SILKTAIL + + + _Length_--8 to 9.5 inches. A little smaller than the robin. + + _Male and Female_--General color drab, with faint brownish + wash above, shading into lighter gray below. Crest + conspicuous, being nearly an inch and a half in length; + rufous at the base, shading into light gray above. + Velvety-black forehead, chin, and line through the eye. Wings + grayish brown, with very dark quills, which have two white + bars; the bar at the edge of the upper wing coverts being + tipped with red sealing-wax-like points, that give the bird + its name. A few wing feathers tipped with yellow on outer + edge. Tail quills dark brown, with yellow band across the end, + and faint red streaks on upper and inner sides. + + _Range_--Northern United States and British America. Most + common in Canada and northern Mississippi region. + + _Migrations_--Very irregular winter visitor. + +When Charles Bonaparte, Prince of Canino, who was the first to count +this common waxwing of Europe and Asia among the birds of North +America, published an account of it in his "Synopsis," it was +considered a very rare bird indeed. It may be these waxwings have +greatly increased, but however uncommon they may still be considered, +certainly no one who had ever seen a flock containing more than a +thousand of them, resting on the trees of a lawn within sight of New +York City, as the writer has done, could be expected to consider the +birds "very rare." + +The Bohemian waxwing, like the only other member of the family that +ever visits us, the cedar-bird, is a roving gipsy. In Germany they say +seven years must elapse between its visitations, which the +superstitious old cronies are wont to associate with woful stories of +pestilence--just such tales as are resurrected from the depths of +morbid memories here when a comet reappears or the seven-year locust +ascends from the ground. + +The goings and comings of these birds are certainly most erratic and +infrequent; nevertheless, when hunger drives them from the far north +to feast upon the juniper and other winter berries of our Northern +States, they come in enormous flocks, making up in quantity what they +lack in regularity of visits and evenness of distribution. + +Surely no bird has less right to be associated with evil than this +mild waxwing. It seems the very incarnation of peace and harmony. Part +of a flock that has lodged in a tree will sit almost motionless for +hours and whisper in softly hissed twitterings, very much as a company +of Quaker ladies, similarly dressed, might sit at yearly meeting. +Exquisitely clothed in silky-gray feathers that no berry juice is ever +permitted to stain, they are dainty, gentle, aristocratic-looking +birds, a trifle heavy and indolent, perhaps, when walking on the +ground or perching; but as they fly in compact squads just above the +tree-tops their flight is exceedingly swift and graceful. + + + Bay-breasted Warbler + + (_Dendroica castanea_) Wood Warbler family + + + _Length_--5.25 to 5.75 inches. A little smaller than the + English sparrow. + + _Male_--Crown, chin, throat, upper breast, and sides dull + chestnut. Forehead, sides of head, and cheeks black. Above + olive-gray, streaked with black. Underneath buffy. Two white + wing-bars. Outer tail quills with white patches on tips. + Cream-white patch on either side of neck. + + _Female_--Has more greenish-olive above. + + _Range_--Eastern North America, from Hudson's Bay to Central + America. Nests north of the United States. Winters in tropical + limit of range. + + _Migrations_--May. September. Rare migrant. + +The chestnut breast of this capricious little visitor makes him look +like a diminutive robin. In spring, when these warblers are said to +take a more easterly route than the one they choose in autumn to +return by to Central America, they may be so suddenly abundant that +the fresh green trees and shrubbery of the garden will contain a dozen +of the busy little hunters. Another season they may pass northward +either by another route or leave your garden unvisited; and perhaps +the people in the very next town may be counting your rare bird +common, while it is simply perverse. + +Whether common or rare, before your acquaintance has had time to ripen +into friendship, away go the freaky little creatures to nest in the +tree-tops of the Canadian coniferous forests. + + + Chestnut-sided Warbler + + (_Dendroica pennsylvanica_) Wood Warbler family + + _Called also_: BLOODY-SIDED WARBLER + + (Illustrations facing pp. 94 and 122) + + + _Length_--About 5 inches. More than an inch shorter than the + English sparrow. + + _Male_--Top of head and streaks in wings yellow. A black line + running through the eye and round back of crown, and a black + spot in front of eye, extending to cheeks. Ear coverts, chin, + and underneath white. Back greenish gray and slate, streaked + with black. Sides of bird chestnut. Wings, which are streaked + with black and yellow, have yellowish-white bars. Very dark + tail with white patches on inner vanes of the outer quills. + + _Female_--Similar, but duller. Chestnut sides are often + scarcely apparent. + + _Range_--Eastern North America, from Manitoba and Labrador to + the tropics, where it winters. + + _Migrations_--May. September. Summer resident, most common in + migrations. + +In the Alleghanies, and from New Jersey and Illinois northward, this +restless little warbler nests in the bushy borders of woodlands and +the undergrowth of the woods, for which he forsakes our gardens and +orchards after a very short visit in May. While hopping over the +ground catching ants, of which he seems to be inordinately fond, or +flitting actively about the shrubbery after grubs and insects, we may +note his coat of many colors--patchwork in which nearly all the +warbler colors are curiously combined. With drooped wings that often +conceal the bird's chestnut sides, which are his chief distinguishing +mark, and with tail erected like a redstart's, he hunts incessantly. +Here in the garden he is as refreshingly indifferent to your interest +in him as later in his breeding haunts he is shy and distrustful. His +song is bright and animated, like that of the yellow warbler. + + + Golden-winged Warbler + + (_Helminthophila chrysoptera_) Wood Warbler family + + + _Length_--About 5 inches. More than an inch shorter than the + English sparrow. + + _Male_--Yellow crown and yellow patches on the wings. Upper + parts bluish gray, sometimes tinged with greenish. Stripe + through the eye and throat black. Sides of head, chin, and + line over the eye white. Underneath white, grayish on sides. A + few white markings on outer tail feathers. + + _Female_--Crown duller; gray where male is black, with olive + upper parts and grayer underneath. + + _Range_--From Canadian border to Central America, where it winters. + + _Migrations_--May. September. Summer resident. + +After one has seen a golden-winged warbler fluttering hither and +thither about the shrubbery of a park within sight and sound of a +great city's distractions and with blissful unconcern of them all, +partaking of a hearty lunch of insects that infest the leaves before +one's eyes, one counts the bird less rare and shy than one has been +taught to consider it. Whoever looks for a warbler with gaudy yellow +wings will not find the golden-winged variety. His wings have golden +patches only, and while these are distinguishing marks, they are +scarcely prominent enough features to have given the bird the rather +misleading name he bears. But, then, most warblers' names are +misleading. They serve their best purpose in cultivating patience and +other gentle virtues in the novice. + +Such habits and choice of haunts as characterize the blue-winged +warbler are also the golden-winged's. But their voices are quite +different, the former's being sharp and metallic, while the latter's +_zee, zee, zee_ comes more lazily and without accent. + + + Myrtle Warbler + + (_Dendroica coronata_) Wood Warbler family + + _Called also_: YELLOW-RUMPED WARBLER; MYRTLE-BIRD; + YELLOW-CROWNED WARBLER + + + _Length_--5 to 5.5 inches. About an inch smaller than the + English sparrow. + + _Male_--_In summer plumage_: A yellow patch on top of head, + lower back, and either side of the breast. Upper parts bluish + slate, streaked with black. Upper breast black; throat white; + all other under parts whitish, streaked with black. Two white + wing-bars, and tail quills have white spots near the tip. _In + winter_: Upper parts olive-brown, streaked with black; the + yellow spot on lower back the only yellow mark remaining. + Wing-bars grayish. + + _Female_--Resembles male in winter plumage. + + _Range_--Eastern North America. Occasional on Pacific slope. + Summers from Minnesota and northern New England northward to + Fur Countries. Winters from Middle States southward into + Central America; a few often remaining at the northern United + States all the winter. + + _Migrations_--April. October. November. Also, but more rarely, + a winter resident. + +The first of the warblers to arrive in the spring and the last to +leave us in the autumn, some even remaining throughout the northern +winter, the myrtle warbler, next to the summer yellowbird, is the most +familiar of its multitudinous kin. Though we become acquainted with it +chiefly in the migrations, it impresses us by its numbers rather than +by any gorgeousness of attire. The four yellow spots on crown, lower +back, and sides are its distinguishing marks; and in the autumn these +marks have dwindled to only one, that on the lower back or rump. The +great difficulty experienced in identifying any warbler is in its +restless habit of flitting about. + +For a few days in early May we are forcibly reminded of the Florida +peninsula, which fairly teems with these birds; they become almost +superabundant, a distraction during the precious days when the rarer +species are quietly slipping by, not to return again for a year, +perhaps longer, for some warblers are notoriously irregular in their +routes north and south, and never return by the way they travelled in +the spring. + +But if we look sharply into every group of myrtle warblers, we are +quite likely to discover some of their dainty, fragile cousins that +gladly seek the escort of birds so fearless as they. By the last of +May all the warblers are gone from the neighborhood except the +constant little summer yellowbird and redstart. + +In autumn, when the myrtle warblers return after a busy enough summer +passed in Canadian nurseries, they chiefly haunt those regions where +juniper and bay-berries abound. These latter (_Myrica cerifera_), or +the myrtle wax-berries, as they are sometimes called, and which are +the bird's favorite food, have given it their name. Wherever the +supply of these berries is sufficient to last through the winter, +there it may be found foraging in the scrubby bushes. Sometimes driven +by cold and hunger from the fields, this hardiest member of a family +that properly belongs to the tropics, seeks shelter and food close to +the outbuildings on the farm. + + + Parula Warbler + + (_Compsothlypis americana_) Wood Warbler family + + _Called also_: BLUE YELLOW-BACKED WARBLER + + + _Length_--4.5 to 4.75 inches. About an inch and a half shorter + than the English sparrow. + + _Male and Female_--Slate-colored above, with a greenish-yellow + or bronze patch in the middle of the back. Chin, throat, and + breast yellow. A black, bluish, or rufous band across the + breast, usually lacking in female. Underneath white, sometimes + marked with rufous on sides, but these markings are variable. + Wings have two white patches; outer tail feathers have white + patch near the end. + + _Range_--Eastern North America. Winters from Florida southward. + + _Migrations_--April. October. Summer resident. + +Through an open window of an apartment in the very heart of New York +City, a parula warbler flew this spring of 1897, surely the daintiest, +most exquisitely beautiful bird visitor that ever voluntarily lodged +between two brick walls. + +A number of such airy, tiny beauties flitting about among the blossoms +of the shrubbery on a bright May morning and swaying on the slenderest +branches with their inimitable grace, is a sight that the memory +should retain into old age. They seem the very embodiment of life, +joy, beauty, grace; of everything lovely that birds by any possibility +could be. Apparently they are wafted about the garden; they fly with +no more effort than a dainty lifting of the wings, as if to catch the +breeze, that seems to lift them as it might a bunch of thistledown. +They go through a great variety of charming posturings as they hunt +for their food upon the blossoms and tender fresh twigs, now creeping +like a nuthatch along the bark and peering into the crevices, now +gracefully swaying and balancing like a goldfinch upon a slender, +pendent stem. One little sprite pauses in its hunt for the insects to +raise its pretty head and trill a short and wiry song. + +But the parula warbler does not remain long about the gardens and +orchards, though it will not forsake us altogether for the Canadian +forests, where most of its relatives pass the summer. It retreats only +to the woods near the water, if may be, or to just as close a +counterpart of a swampy southern woods, where the Spanish or Usnea +"moss" drapes itself over the cypresses, as it can find here at the +north. Its rarely beautiful nest, that hangs suspended from a slender +branch very much like the Baltimore oriole's, is so woven and +festooned with this moss that its concealment is perfect. + + + [Illustration: CHESTNUT-SIDED WARBLER] + + [Illustration: BLUEBIRD] + + + Black-throated Blue Warbler + + (_Dendroica cA|rulescens_) Wood Warbler family + + + _Length_---5.30 inches. About an inch shorter than the English + sparrow. + + _Male_--Slate-color, not blue above; lightest on forehead and + darkest on lower back. Wings and tail edged with bluish. + Cheeks, chin, throat, upper breast, and sides black. Breast + and underneath white. White spots on wings, and a little white + on tail. + + _Female_--Olive-green above; underneath soiled yellow. Wing-spots + inconspicuous. Tail generally has a faint bluish tinge. + + _Range_--Eastern North America, from Labrador to tropics, + where it winters. + + _Migrations_--May. September. Usually a migrant only in the + United States. + +Whoever looks for this beautifully marked warbler among the bluebirds, +will wish that the man who named him had possessed a truer eye for +color. But if the name so illy fits the bright slate-colored male, how +grieved must be his little olive-and-yellow mate to answer to the name +of black-throated blue warbler when she has neither a black throat nor +a blue feather! It is not easy to distinguish her as she flits about +the twigs and leaves of the garden in May or early autumn, except as +she is seen in company with her husband, whose name she has taken with +him for better or for worse. The white spot on the wings should always +be looked for to positively identify this bird. + +Before flying up to a twig to peck off the insects, the birds have a +pretty vireo trick of cocking their heads on one side to investigate +the quantity hidden underneath the leaves. They seem less nervous and +more deliberate than many of their restless family. + +Most warblers go over the Canada border to nest, but there are many +records of the nests of this species in the Alleghanies as far south +as Georgia, in the Catskills, in Connecticut, northern Minnesota and +Michigan. Laurel thickets and moist undergrowth of woods in the United +States, and more commonly pine woods in Canada, are the favorite +nesting haunts. A sharp _zip_, _zip_, like some midsummer insect's +noise, is the bird's call-note, but its love-song, _zee_, _zee_, +_zee_, or _twee_, _twea_, _twea-e-e_, as one authority writes it, is +only rarely heard in the migrations. It is a languid, drawling little +strain, with an upward slide that is easily drowned in the full bird +chorus of May. + + + + +BLUE AND BLUISH BIRDS + + Bluebird + Indigo Bunting + Belted Kingfisher + Blue Jay + Blue Grosbeak + Barn Swallow + Cliff Swallow + Mourning Dove + Blue-gray Gnatcatcher + +Look also among Slate-colored Birds in preceding group, particularly +among the Warblers there, or in the group of Birds conspicuously, +Yellow and Orange. + + + The Bluebird + + (_Sialia sialis_) Thrush family + + _Called also_: BLUE ROBIN + + (Illustration facing p. 95) + + + _Length_--7 inches. About an inch longer than the English sparrow. + + _Male_--Upper parts, wings, and tail bright blue, with rusty + wash in autumn. Throat, breast, and sides cinnamon-red. + Underneath white. + + _Female_--Has duller blue feathers, washed with gray, and a + paler breast than male. + + _Range_--North America, from Nova Scotia and Manitoba to Gulf + of Mexico. Southward in winter from Middle States to Bermuda + and West Indies. + + _Migrations_--March. November. Summer resident. A few + sometimes remain throughout the winter. + +With the first soft, plaintive warble of the bluebirds early in March, +the sugar camps, waiting for their signal, take on a bustling +activity; the farmer looks to his plough; orders are hurried off to +the seedsmen; a fever to be out of doors seizes one: spring is here. +Snowstorms may yet whiten fields and gardens, high winds may howl +about the trees and chimneys, but the little blue heralds persistently +proclaim from the orchard and garden that the spring procession has +begun to move. _Tru-al-ly_, _tru-al-ly_, they sweetly assert to our +incredulous ears. + +The bluebird is not always a migrant, except in the more northern +portions of the country. Some representatives there are always with +us, but the great majority winter south and drop out of the spring +procession on its way northward, the males a little ahead of their +mates, which show housewifely instincts immediately after their +arrival. A pair of these rather undemonstrative, matter-of-fact lovers +go about looking for some deserted woodpecker's hole in the orchard, +peering into cavities in the fence-rails, or into the bird-houses +that, once set up in the old-fashioned gardens for their special +benefit, are now appropriated too often by the ubiquitous sparrow. +Wrens they can readily dispossess of an attractive tenement, and do. +With a temper as heavenly as the color of their feathers, the +bluebird's sense of justice is not always so adorable. But sparrows +unnerve them into cowardice. The comparatively infrequent nesting of +the bluebirds about our homes at the present time is one of the most +deplorable results of unrestricted sparrow immigration. Formerly they +were the commonest of bird neighbors. + +Nest-building is not a favorite occupation with the bluebirds, that +are conspicuously domestic none the less. Two, and even three, broods +in a season fully occupy their time. As in most cases, the mother-bird +does more than her share of the work. The male looks with wondering +admiration at the housewifely activity, applauds her with song, feeds +her as she sits brooding over the nestful of pale greenish-blue eggs, +but his adoration of her virtues does not lead him into emulation. + + "Shifting his light load of song, + From post to post along the cheerless fence," + +Lowell observed that he carried his duties quite as lightly. + +When the young birds first emerge from the shell they are almost +black; they come into their splendid heritage of color by degrees, +lest their young heads might be turned. It is only as they spread +their tiny wings for their first flight from the nest that we can see +a few blue feathers. + +With the first cool days of autumn the bluebirds collect in flocks, +often associating with orioles and kingbirds in sheltered, sunny +places where insects are still plentiful. Their steady, undulating +flight now becomes erratic as they take food on the wing--a habit that +they may have learned by association with the kingbirds, for they have +also adopted the habit of perching upon some conspicuous lookout and +then suddenly launching out into the air for a passing fly and +returning to their perch. Long after their associates have gone +southward, they linger like the last leaves on the tree. It is indeed +"good-bye to summer" when the bluebirds withdraw their touch of +brightness from the dreary November landscape. + +The bluebirds from Canada and the northern portions of New England +and New York migrate into Virginia and the Carolinas; the birds from +the Middle States move down into the Gulf States to pass the winter. +It was there that countless numbers were cut off by the severe winter +of 1894-95, which was so severe in that section. + + + Indigo Bunting + + (_Passerina cyanea_) Finch family + + _Called also_: INDIGO BIRD + + + _Length_--5.5 to 6 inches. Smaller than the English sparrow, + or the size of a canary. + + _Male_--In certain lights rich blue, deepest on head. In + another light the blue feathers show verdigris tints. Wings, + tail, and lower back with brownish wash, most prominent in + autumn plumage. Quills of wings and tail deep blue, margined + with light. + + _Female_--Plain sienna-brown above. Yellowish on breast and + shading to white underneath, and indistinctly streaked. Wings + and tail darkest, sometimes with slight tinge of blue in outer + webs and on shoulders. + + _Range_--North America, from Hudson Bay to Panama. Most common + in eastern part of United States. Winters in Central America + and Mexico. + + _Migrations_--May. September. Summer resident. + +The "glowing indigo" of this tropical-looking visitor that so +delighted Thoreau in the Walden woods, often seems only the more +intense by comparison with the blue sky, against which it stands out +in relief as the bird perches singing in a tree-top. What has this +gaily dressed, dapper little cavalier in common with his dingy sparrow +cousins that haunt the ground and delight in dust-baths, leaving their +feathers no whit more dingy than they were before, and in temper, as +in plumage, suggesting more of earth than of heaven? Apparently he has +nothing, and yet the small brown bird in the roadside thicket, which +you have misnamed a sparrow, not noticing the glint of blue in her +shoulders and tail, is his mate. Besides the structural resemblances, +which are, of course, the only ones considered by ornithologists in +classifying birds, the indigo buntings have several sparrow-like +traits. They feed upon the ground, mainly upon seeds of grasses and +herbs, with a few insects interspersed to give relish to the grain; +they build grassy nests in low bushes or tall, rank grass; and their +flight is short and labored. Borders of woods, roadside thickets, and +even garden shrubbery, with open pasture lots for foraging grounds +near by, are favorite haunts of these birds, that return again and +again to some preferred spot. But however close to our homes they +build theirs, our presence never ceases to be regarded by them with +anything but suspicion, not to say alarm. Their metallic _cheep_, +_cheep_, warns you to keep away from the little blue-white eggs, +hidden away securely in the bushes; and the nervous tail twitchings +and jerkings are pathetic to see. Happily for the safety of their +nest, the brooding mother has no tell-tale feathers to attract the +eye. Dense foliage no more conceals the male bird's brilliant coat +than it can the tanager's or oriole's. + +With no attempt at concealment, which he doubtless understands would +be quite impossible, he chooses some high, conspicuous perch to which +he mounts by easy stages, singing as he goes; and there begins a loud +and rapid strain that promises much, but growing weaker and weaker, +ends as if the bird were either out of breath or too weak to finish. +Then suddenly he begins the same song over again, and keeps up this +continuous performance for nearly half an hour. The noonday heat of an +August day that silences nearly every other voice, seems to give to +the indigo bird's only fresh animation and timbre. + + + [Illustration: BELTED KINGFISHER (Upper Figure, Female; + Lower Figure, Male)] + + [Illustration: BLUE JAY] + + + The Belted Kingfisher + + (_Ceryle alcyon_) Kingfisher family + + _Called also_: THE HALCYON + + (Illustration facing p. 48) + + + _Length_--12 to 13 inches. About one-fourth as large again as + the robin. + + _Male_--Upper part grayish blue, with prominent crest on head + reaching to the nape. A white spot in front of the eye. Bill + longer than the head, which is large and heavy. Wings and the + short tail minutely speckled and marked with broken bands of + white. Chin, band around throat, and underneath white. Two + bluish bands across the breast and a bluish wash on sides. + + _Female_--Female and immature specimens have rufous bands + where the adult male's are blue. Plumage of both birds oily. + + _Range_--North America, except where the Texan kingfisher + replaces it in a limited area in the Southwest. Common from + Labrador to Florida, east and west. Winters chiefly from + Virginia southward to South America. + + _Migrations_--March. December. Common summer resident. Usually + a winter resident also. + +If the kingfisher is not so neighborly as we could wish, or as he used +to be, it is not because he has grown less friendly, but because the +streams near our homes are fished out. Fish he must and will have, and +to get them nowadays it is too often necessary to follow the stream +back through secluded woods to the quiet waters of its source: a +clear, cool pond or lake whose scaly inmates have not yet learned +wisdom at the point of the sportsman's fly. + +In such quiet haunts the kingfisher is easily the most conspicuous +object in sight, where he perches on some dead or projecting branch +over the water, intently watching for a dinner that is all +unsuspectingly swimming below. Suddenly the bird drops--dives; there +is a splash, a struggle, and then the "lone fisherman" returns +triumphant to his perch, holding a shining fish in his beak. If the +fish is small it is swallowed at once, but if it is large and bony it +must first be killed against the branch. A few sharp knocks, and the +struggles of the fish are over, but the kingfisher's have only begun. +How he gags and writhes, swallows his dinner, and then, regretting his +haste, brings it up again to try another wider avenue down his throat! +The many abortive efforts he makes to land his dinner safely below in +his stomach, his grim contortions as the fishbones scratch his +throat-lining on their way down and up again, force a smile in spite +of the bird's evident distress. It is small wonder he supplements his +fish diet with various kinds of the larger insects, shrimps, and +fresh-water mollusks. + +Flying well over the tree-tops or along the waterways, the kingfisher +makes the woodland echo with his noisy rattle, that breaks the +stillness like a watchman's at midnight. It is, perhaps, the most +familiar sound heard along the banks of the inland rivers. No love or +cradle song does he know. Instead of softening and growing sweet, as +the voices of most birds do in the nesting season, the endearments +uttered by a pair of mated kingfishers are the most strident, rattly +shrieks ever heard by lovers It sounds as if they were perpetually +quarrelling, and yet they are really particularly devoted. + +The nest of these birds, like the bank swallow's, is excavated in the +face of a high bank, preferably one that rises from a stream; and at +about six feet from the entrance of the tunnel six or eight clear, +shining white eggs are placed on a curious nest. All the fishbones and +scales that, being indigestible, are disgorged in pellets by the +parents, are carefully carried to the end of the tunnel to form a +prickly cradle for the unhappy fledglings. Very rarely a nest is made +in the hollow trunk of a tree; but wherever the home is, the +kingfishers become strongly attached to it, returning again and again +to the spot that has cost them so much labor to excavate. Some +observers have accused them of appropriating the holes of the +water-rats. + +In ancient times of myths and fables, kingfishers or halcyons were +said to build a floating nest on the sea, and to possess some +mysterious power that calmed the troubled waves while the eggs were +hatching and the young birds were being reared, hence the term +"halcyon days," meaning days of fair weather. + + + Blue Jay + + (_Cyanocitta cristata_) Crow and Jay family + + (Illustration facing p. 103) + + + _Length_--11 to 12 inches. A little larger than the robin. + + _Male and Female_--Blue above. Black band around the neck, + joining some black feathers on the back. Under parts dusky + white. Wing coverts and tail bright blue, striped transversely + with black. Tail much rounded. Many feathers edged and tipped + with white. Head finely crested; bill, tongue, and legs black. + + _Range_--Eastern coast of North America to the plains, and + from northern Canada to Florida and eastern Texas. + + _Migrations_--Permanent resident. Although seen in flocks + moving southward or northward, they are merely seeking happier + hunting grounds, not migrating. + +No bird of finer color or presence sojourns with us the year round +than the blue jay. In a peculiar sense his is a case of "beauty +covering a multitude of sins." Among close students of bird traits, we +find none so poor as to do him reverence. Dishonest, cruel, +inquisitive, murderous, voracious, villainous, are some of the +epithets applied to this bird of exquisite plumage. Emerson, however, +has said in his defence he does "more good than harm," alluding, no +doubt, to his habit of burying nuts and hard seeds in the ground, so +that many a waste place is clothed with trees and shrubs, thanks to +his propensity and industry. + +He is mischievous as a small boy, destructive as a monkey, deft at +hiding as a squirrel. He is unsociable and unamiable, disliking the +society of other birds. His harsh screams, shrieks, and most +aggressive and unmusical calls seem often intended maliciously to +drown the songs of the sweet-voiced singers. + +From April to September, the breeding and moulting season, the blue +jays are almost silent, only sallying forth from the woods to pillage +and devour the young and eggs of their more peaceful neighbors. In a +bulky nest, usually placed in a tree-crotch high above our heads, from +four to six eggs, olive-gray with brown spots, are laid and most +carefully tended. + +Notwithstanding the unlovely characteristics of the blue jay, we could +ill spare the flash of color, like a bit of blue sky dropped from +above, which is so rare a tint even in our land, that we number not +more than three or four true blue birds, and in England, it is said, +there is none. + + + Blue Grosbeak + + (_Guiraca cA|rulea_) Finch family + + + _Length_--7 inches. About an inch larger than the English sparrow. + + _Male_--Deep blue, dark, and almost black on the back; wings + and tail black, slightly edged with blue, and the former + marked with bright chestnut. Cheeks and chin black. Bill heavy + and bluish. + + _Female_--Grayish brown above, sometimes with bluish tinge on + head, lower back, and shoulders. Wings dark olive-brown, with + faint buff markings; tail same shade as wings, but with + bluish-gray markings. Underneath brownish cream-color, the + breast feathers often blue at the base. + + _Range_--United States, from southern New England westward to + the Rocky Mountains and southward into Mexico and beyond. Most + common in the Southwest. Rare along the Atlantic seaboard. + + _Migrations_--May. September. Summer resident. + +This beautiful but rather shy and solitary bird occasionally wanders +eastward to rival the bluebird and the indigo bunting in their rare +and lovely coloring, and eclipse them both in song. Audubon, we +remember, found the nest in New Jersey. Pennsylvania is still favored +with one now and then, but it is in the Southwest only that the blue +grosbeak is as common as the evening grosbeak is in the Northwest. +Since rice is its favorite food, it naturally abounds where that +cereal grows. Seeds and kernels of the hardest kinds, that its heavy, +strong beak is well adapted to crack, constitute its diet when it +strays beyond the rice-fields. + +Possibly the heavy bills of all the grosbeaks make them look stupid +whether they are or not--a characteristic that the blue grosbeak's +habit of sitting motionless with a vacant stare many minutes at a time +unfortunately emphasizes. + +When seen in the roadside thickets or tall weeds, such as the field +sparrow chooses to frequent, it shows little fear of man unless +actually approached and threatened, but whether this fearlessness +comes from actual confidence or stupidity is by no means certain. +Whatever the motive of its inactivity, it accomplishes an end to be +desired by the cleverest bird; its presence is almost never suspected +by the passer-by, and its grassy nest on a tree-branch, containing +three or four pale bluish-white eggs, is never betrayed by look or +sign to the marauding small boy. + + + [Illustration: YOUNG CRESTED FLYCATCHERS WITH HAIR STANDING ON END.] + + [Illustration: Copyright, 1900, by A. R Dugmore + HUNGRY YOUNG MOCKING-BIRDS] + + [Illustration: YOUNG MOCKING-BIRD] + + + Barn Swallow + + (_Chelidon erythrogaster_) Swallow family + + (Illustration facing p. 110) + + + _Length_--6.5 to 7 inches. A trifle larger than the English + sparrow. Apparently considerably larger, because of its wide + wing-spread. + + _Male_--Glistening steel-blue shading to black above. Chin, + breast, and underneath bright chestnut-brown and brilliant + buff that glistens in the sunlight. A partial collar of + steel-blue. Tail very deeply forked and slender. + + _Female_--Smaller and paler, with shorter outer tail feathers, + making the fork less prominent. + + _Range_--Throughout North America. Winters in tropics of both + Americas. + + _Migrations_--April. September. Summer resident. + +Any one who attempts to describe the coloring of a bird's plumage +knows how inadequate words are to convey a just idea of the delicacy, +richness, and brilliancy of the living tints. But, happily, the +beautiful barn swallow is too familiar to need description. Wheeling +about our barns and houses, skimming over the fields, its bright sides +flashing in the sunlight, playing "cross tag" with its friends at +evening, when the insects, too, are on the wing, gyrating, darting, +and gliding through the air, it is no more possible to adequately +describe the exquisite grace of a swallow's flight than the glistening +buff of its breast. + +This is a typical bird of the air, as an oriole is of the trees and a +sparrow of the ground. Though the swallow may often be seen perching +on a telegraph wire, suddenly it darts off as if it had received a +shock of electricity, and we see the bird in its true element. + +While this swallow is peculiarly American, it is often confounded with +its European cousin _Hirundo rustica_ in noted ornithologies. + +Up in the rafters of the barn, or in the arch of an old bridge that +spans a stream, these swallows build their bracket-like nests of clay +or mud pellets intermixed with straw. Here the noisy little broods +pick their way out of the white eggs curiously spotted with brown and +lilac that were all too familiar in the marauding days of our +childhood. + + + Cliff Swallow + + (_Petrochelidon lunifrons_) Swallow family + + _Called also_: EAVE SWALLOW; CRESCENT SWALLOW; + ROCKY MOUNTAIN SWALLOW + + + _Length_--6 inches. A trifle smaller than the English sparrow. + Apparently considerably larger because of its wide + wing-spread. + + _Male and Female_--Steel-blue above, shading to blue-black on + crown of head and on wings and tail. A brownish-gray ring + around the neck. Beneath dusty white, with rufous tint. + Crescent-like frontlet. Chin, throat, sides of head, and tail + coverts rufous. + + _Range_--North and South America. Winters in the tropics. + + _Migrations_--Early April. Late September. Summer resident. + +Not quite so brilliantly colored as the barn swallow, nor with tail so +deeply forked, and consequently without so much grace in flying, and +with a squeak rather than the really musical twitter of the gayer +bird, the cliff swallow may be positively identified by the rufous +feathers of its tail coverts, but more definitely by its +crescent-shaped frontlet shining like a new moon; hence its specific +Latin name from _luna_ = moon, and _frons_ = front. + +Such great numbers of these swallows have been seen in the far West +that the name of Rocky Mountain swallows is sometimes given to them; +though however rare they may have been in 1824, when DeWitt Clinton +thought he "discovered" them near Lake Champlain, they are now common +enough in all parts of the United States. + +In the West this swallow is wholly a cliff-dweller, but it has learned +to modify its home in different localities. As usually seen, it is +gourd-shaped, opened at the top, built entirely of mud pellets +("bricks without straw"), softly lined with feathers and wisps of +grass, and attached by the larger part to a projecting cliff or eave. + +Like all the swallows, this bird lives in colonies, and the +clay-colored nests beneath the eaves of barns are often so close +together that a group of them resembles nothing so much as a gigantic +wasp's nest. It is said that when swallows pair they are mated for +life; but, then, more is said about swallows than the most tireless +bird-lover could substantiate. The tradition that swallows fly low +when it is going to rain may be easily credited, because the air +before a storm is usually too heavy with moisture for the winged +insects, upon which the swallows feed, to fly high. + + + Mourning Dove + + (_Zenaidura macroura_) Pigeon family + + _Called also_: CAROLINA DOVE; TURTLE DOVE + + (Illustration facing p. 111) + + + _Length_--12 to 13 inches. About one-half as large again as + the robin. + + _Male_--Grayish Drown or fawn-color above, varying to bluish + gray. Crown and upper part of head greenish blue, with green + and golden metallic reflections on sides of neck. A black spot + under each ear. Forehead and breast reddish buff; lighter + underneath. (General impression of color, bluish fawn.) Bill + black, with tumid, fleshy covering; feet red; two middle tail + feathers longest; all others banded with black and tipped + with ashy white. Wing coverts sparsely spotted with black. + Flanks and underneath the wings bluish. + + _Female_--Duller and without iridescent reflections on neck. + + _Range_--North America, from Quebec to Panama, and westward to + Arizona. Most common in temperate climate, east of Rocky + Mountains. + + _Migrations_--March. November. Common summer resident; not + migratory south of Virginia. + +The beautiful, soft-colored plumage of this incessant and rather +melancholy love-maker is not on public exhibition. To see it we must +trace the _a-coo-o, coo-o, coo-oo, coo-o_ to its source in the thick +foliage in some tree in an out-of-the-way corner of the farm, or to an +evergreen near the edge of the woods. The slow, plaintive notes, more +like a dirge than a love-song, penetrate to a surprising distance. +They may not always be the same lovers we hear from April to the end +of summer, but surely the sound seems to indicate that they are. The +dove is a shy bird, attached to its gentle and refined mate with a +devotion that has passed into a proverb, but caring little or nothing +for the society of other feathered friends, and very little for its +own kind, unless after the nesting season has passed. In this respect +it differs widely from its cousins, the wild pigeons, flocks of which, +numbering many millions, are recorded by Wilson and other early +writers before the days when netting these birds became so fatally +profitable. + +What the dove finds to adore so ardently in the "shiftless housewife," +as Mrs. Wright calls his lady-love, must pass the comprehension of the +ph[oe]be, that constructs such an exquisite home, or of a bustling, +energetic Jenny wren, that "looketh well to the ways of her household +and eateth not the bread of idleness." She is a flabby, spineless +bundle of flesh and pretty feathers, gentle and refined in manners, +but slack and incompetent in all she does. Her nest consists of a few +loose sticks, without rim or lining; and when her two babies emerge +from the white eggs, that somehow do not fall through or roll out of +the rickety lattice, their tender little naked bodies must suffer from +many bruises. We are almost inclined to blame the inconsiderate mother +for allowing her offspring to enter the world unclothed--obviously not +her fault, though she is capable of just such negligence. Fortunate +are the baby doves when their lazy mother scatters her makeshift nest +on top of one that a robin has deserted, as she frequently does. It +is almost excusable to take her young birds and rear them in +captivity, where they invariably thrive, mate, and live happily, +unless death comes to one, when the other often refuses food and +grieves its life away. + +In the wild state, when the nesting season approaches, both birds make +curious acrobatic flights above the tree-tops; then, after a short +sail in midair, they return to their perch. This appears to be their +only giddiness and frivolity, unless a dust-bath in the country road +might be considered a dissipation. + +In the autumn a few pairs of doves show slight gregarious tendencies, +feeding amiably together in the grain fields and retiring to the same +roost at sundown. + + + Blue-gray Gnatcatcher + + (_Polioptila cA|rulea_) Gnatcatcher family + + _Called also_: SYLVAN FLYCATCHER + + + _Length_--4.5 inches. About two inches smaller than the + English sparrow. + + _Male_--Grayish blue above, dull grayish white below. Grayish + tips on wings. Tail with white outer quills changing gradually + through black and white to all black on centre quills. Narrow + black band over the forehead and eyes. Resembles in manner and + form a miniature catbird. + + _Female_--More grayish and less blue, and without the black on head. + + _Range_--United States to Canadian border on the north, the + Rockies on the west, and the Atlantic States, from Maine to + Florida; most common in the Middle States. A rare bird north + of New Jersey. Winters in Mexico and beyond. + + _Migrations_--May. September. Summer resident. + +In thick woodlands, where a stream that lazily creeps through the +mossy, oozy ground attracts myriads of insects to its humid +neighborhood, this tiny hunter loves to hide in the denser foliage of +the upper branches. He has the habit of nervously flitting about from +twig to twig of his relatives, the kinglets, but unhappily he lacks +their social, friendly instincts, and therefore is rarely seen. +Formerly classed among the warblers, then among the flycatchers, while +still as much a lover of flies, gnats, and mosquitoes as ever, his +vocal powers have now won for him recognition among the singing birds. +Some one has likened his voice to the squeak of a mouse, and Nuttall +says it is "scarcely louder," which is all too true, for at a little +distance it is quite inaudible. But in addition to the mouse-like +call-note, the tiny bird has a rather feeble but exquisitely finished +song, so faint it seems almost as if the bird were singing in its +sleep. + +If by accident you enter the neighborhood of its nest, you soon find +out that this timid, soft-voiced little creature can be roused to +rashness and make its presence disagreeable to ears and eyes alike as +it angrily darts about your unoffending head, pecking at your face and +uttering its shrill squeak close to your very ear-drums. All this +excitement is in defence of a dainty, lichen-covered nest, whose +presence you may not have even suspected before, and of four or five +bluish-white, speckled eggs well beyond reach in the tree-tops. + +During the migrations the bird seems not unwilling to show its +delicate, trim little body, that has often been likened to a +diminutive mocking-bird's, very near the homes of men. Its graceful +postures, its song and constant motion, are sure to attract attention. +In Central Park, New York City, the bird is not unknown. + + + [Illustration: BARN SWALLOW] + + [Illustration: MOURNING DOVE] + + + + +BROWN, OLIVE OR GRAYISH BROWN, AND BROWN AND GRAY SPARROWY BIRDS + + House Wren Bank Swallow and + Carolina Wren Rough-winged Swallow + Winter Wren Cedar Bird + Long-billed Marsh Wren Brown Creeper + Short-billed Marsh Wren Pine Siskin + Brown Thrasher Smith's Painted Longspur + Wilson's Thrush or Veery Lapland Longspur + Wood Thrush Chipping Sparrow + Hermit Thrush English Sparrow + Alice's Thrush Field Sparrow + Olive-backed Thrush Fox Sparrow + Louisiana Water Thrush Grasshopper Sparrow + Northern Water Thrush Savanna Sparrow + Flicker Seaside Sparrow + Meadowlark and Sharp-tailed Sparrow + Western Meadowlark Song Sparrow + Horned Lark and Swamp Song Sparrow + Prairie Horned Lark Tree Sparrow + Pipit or Titlark Vesper Sparrow + Whippoorwill White-crowned Sparrow + Nighthawk White-throated Sparrow + Black-billed Cuckoo + +See also winter plumage of the Bobolink, Goldfinch, and Myrtle +Warbler. See females of Red-winged Blackbird, Rusty Blackbird, the +Grackles, Bobolink, Cowbird, the Redpolls, Purple Finch, Chewink, +Bluebird, Indigo Bunting, Baltimore Oriole, Cardinal, and of the +Evening, the Blue, and the Rose-breasted Grosbeaks. See also Purple +Finch, the Redpolls, Mourning Dove, Mocking-bird, Robin. + + + House Wren + + (_Troglodytes aA"don_) Wren family + + (Illustration facing p. 118) + + + _Length_--4.5 to 5 inches. Actually about one-fourth smaller + than the English sparrow; apparently only half as large + because of its erect tail. + + _Male and Female_--Upper parts cinnamon-brown. Deepest shade + on head and neck; lightest above tail, which is more rufous. + Back has obscure, dusky bars; wings and tail are finely + barred. Underneath whitish, with grayish-brown wash and faint + bands most prominent on sides. + + _Range_--North America, from Manitoba to the Gulf. Most common + in the United States, from the Mississippi eastward. Winters + south of the Carolinas. + + _Migrations_--April. October. Common summer resident. + +Early some morning in April there will go off under your window that +most delightful of all alarm-clocks--the tiny, friendly house wren, +just returned from a long visit south. Like some little mountain +spring that, having been imprisoned by winter ice, now bubbles up in +the spring sunshine, and goes rippling along over the pebbles, +tumbling over itself in merry cascades, so this little wren's song +bubbles, ripples, cascades in a miniature torrent of ecstasy. + +Year after year these birds return to the same nesting places: a box +set up against the house, a crevice in the barn, a niche under the +eaves; but once home, always home to them. The nest is kept +scrupulously clean; the house-cleaning, like the house-building and +renovating, being accompanied by the cheeriest of songs, that makes +the bird fairly tremble by its intensity. But however angelic the +voice of the house wren, its temper can put to flight even the English +sparrow. Need description go further? + +Six to eight minutely speckled, flesh-colored eggs suffice to keep the +nervous, irritable parents in a state bordering on frenzy whenever +another bird comes near their habitation. With tail erect and head +alert, the father mounts on guard, singing a perfect ecstasy of love +to his silent little mate, that sits upon the nest if no danger +threatens; but both rush with passionate malice upon the first +intruder, for it must be admitted that Jenny wren is a sad shrew. + +While the little family is being reared, or, indeed, at any time, no +one is wise enough to estimate the millions of tiny insects from the +garden that find their way into the tireless bills of these wrens. + +It is often said that the house wren remains at the north all the +year, which, though not a fact, is easily accounted for by the coming +of the winter wrens just as the others migrate in the autumn, and by +their return to Canada when Jenny wren makes up her feather-bed under +the eaves in the spring. + + + Carolina Wren + + (_Thryothorus ludovicianus_) Wren family + + _Called also_: MOCKING WREN + + + _Length_--6 inches. Just a trifle smaller than the English sparrow. + + _Male and Female_--Chestnut-brown above. A whitish streak, + beginning at base of bill, passes through the eye to the nape + of the neck. Throat whitish. Under parts light buff-brown. + Wings and tail finely barred with dark. + + _Range_--United States, from Gulf to northern Illinois and + southern New England. + + _Migrations_--A common resident except at northern boundary of + range, where it is a summer visitor. + +This largest of the wrens appears to be the embodiment of the entire +family characteristics: it is exceedingly active, nervous, and easily +excited, quick-tempered, full of curiosity, peeping into every hole +and corner it passes, short of flight as it is of wing, inseparable +from its mate till parted by death, and a gushing lyrical songster +that only death itself can silence. It also has the wren-like +preference for a nest that is roofed over, but not too near the homes +of men. + +Undergrowths near water, brush heaps, rocky bits of woodland, are +favorite resorts. The Carolina wren decidedly objects to being stared +at, and likes to dart out of sight in the midst of the underbrush in a +twinkling while the opera-glasses are being focussed. + +To let off some of his superfluous vivacity, Nature has provided him +with two safety-valves: one is his voice, another is his tail. With +the latter he gesticulates in a manner so expressive that it seems to +be a certain index to what is passing in his busy little +brain--drooping it, after the habit of the catbird, when he becomes +limp with the emotion of his love-song, or holding it erect as, alert +and inquisitive, he peers at the impudent intruder in the thicket +below his perch. + +But it is his joyous, melodious, bubbling song that is his chief +fascination. He has so great a variety of strains that many people +have thought that he learned them from other birds, and so have called +him what many ornithologists declare that he is not--a mocking wren. +And he is one of the few birds that sing at night--not in his sleep or +only by moonlight, but even in the total darkness, just before dawn, +he gives us the same wide-awake song that entrances us by day. + + + Winter Wren + + (_Troglodytes hiemalis_) Wren family + + + _Length_--4 to 4.5 inches. About one-third smaller than the + English sparrow. Apparently only half the size. + + _Male and Female_--Cinnamon-brown above, with numerous short, + dusky bars. Head and neck without markings. Underneath rusty, + dimly and finely barred with dark brown. Tail short. + + _Range_--United States, east and west, and from North Carolina + to the Fur Countries. + + _Migrations_--October, April. Summer resident. Commonly a + winter resident in the South and Middle States only. + +It all too rarely happens that we see this tiny mouse-like wren in +summer, unless we come upon him suddenly and overtake him unawares as +he creeps shyly over the mossy logs or runs literally "like a flash" +under the fern and through the tangled underbrush of the deep, cool +woods. His presence there is far more likely to be detected by the ear +than the eye. + +Throughout the nesting season music fairly pours from his tiny throat; +it bubbles up like champagne; it gushes forth in a lyrical torrent and +overflows into every nook of the forest, that seems entirely pervaded +by his song. While music is everywhere, it apparently comes from no +particular point, and, search as you may, the tiny singer still +eludes, exasperates, and yet entrances. + +If by accident you discover him balancing on a swaying twig, never far +from the ground, with his comical little tail erect, or more likely +pointing towards his head, what a pert, saucy minstrel he is! You are +lost in amazement that so much music could come from a throat so tiny. + +Comparatively few of his admirers, however, hear the exquisite notes +of this little brown wood-sprite, for after the nesting season is over +he finds little to call them forth during the bleak, snowy winter +months, when in the Middle and Southern States he may properly be +called a neighbor. Sharp hunger, rather than natural boldness, drives +him near the homes of men, where he appears just as the house wren +departs for the South. With a forced confidence in man that is almost +pathetic in a bird that loves the forest as he does, he picks up +whatever lies about the house or barn in the shape of food--crumbs +from the kitchen door, a morsel from the dog's plate, a little seed in +the barn-yard, happily rewarded if he can find a spider lurking in +some sheltered place to give a flavor to the unrelished grain. Now he +becomes almost tame, but we feel it is only because he must be. + +The spot that decided preference leads him to, either winter or +summer, is beside a bubbling spring. In the moss that grows near it +the nest is placed in early summer, nearly always roofed over and +entered from the side, in true wren-fashion; and as the young +fledglings emerge from the creamy-white eggs, almost the first lesson +they receive from their devoted little parents is in the fine art of +bathing. Even in winter weather, when the wren has to stand on a rim +of ice, he will duck and splash his diminutive body. It is recorded of +a certain little individual that he was wont to dive through the icy +water on a December day. Evidently the wrens, as a family, are not far +removed in the evolutionary scale from true water-birds. + + + [Illustration: HOUSE WREN] + + [Illustration: BROWN THRASHER] + + + Long-billed Marsh Wren + + (_Cistothorus palustris_) Wren family + + + _Length_--4.5 to 5.2 inches. Actually a little smaller than + the English sparrow. Apparently half the size. + + _Male and Female_--Brown above, with white line over the eye, + and the back irregularly and faintly streaked with white. + Wings and tail barred with darker cinnamon-brown. Underneath + white. Sides dusky. Tail long and often carried erect. Bill + extra long and slender. + + _Range_--United States and southern British America. + + _Migrations_--May. September. Summer resident. + +Sometimes when you are gathering cat-tails in the river marshes an +alert, nervous little brown bird rises startled from the rushes and +tries to elude you as with short, jerky flight it goes deeper and +deeper into the marsh, where even the rubber boot may not follow. It +closely resembles two other birds found in such a place, the swamp +sparrow and the short-billed marsh wren; but you may know by its long, +slender bill that it is not the latter, and by the absence of a bright +bay crown that it is not the shyest of the sparrows. + +These marsh wrens appear to be especially partial to running water; +their homes are not very far from brooks and rivers, preferably those +that are affected in their rise and flow by the tides. They build in +colonies, and might be called inveterate singers, for no single bird +is often permitted to finish his bubbling song without half the colony +joining in a chorus. + +Still another characteristic of this particularly interesting bird is +its unique architectural effects produced with coarse grasses woven +into globular form and suspended in the reeds. Sometimes adapting its +nest to the building material at hand, it weaves it of grasses and +twigs, and suspends it from the limb of a bush or tree overhanging the +water, where it swings like an oriole's. The entrance to the nest is +invariably on the side. + +More devoted homebodies than these little wrens are not among the +feathered tribe. Once let the hand of man desecrate their nest, even +before the tiny speckled eggs are deposited in it, and off go the +birds to a more inaccessible place, where they can enjoy their home +unmolested. Thus three or four nests may be made in a summer. + + + Short-billed Marsh Wren + + (_Cistothorus stellaris_) Wren family + + + _Length_--4 to 5 inches. Actually about one-third smaller than + the English sparrow, but apparently only half its size. + + _Male and Female_--Brown above, faintly streaked with white, black, + and buff. Wings and tail barred with same. Underneath white, with + buff and rusty tinges on throat and breast. Short bill. + + _Range_--North America, from Manitoba southward in winter to + Gulf of Mexico. Most common in north temperate latitudes. + + _Migrations_--Early May. Late September. + +Where red-winged blackbirds like to congregate in oozy pastures or +near boggy woods, the little short-billed wren may more often be heard +than seen, for he is more shy, if possible, than his long-billed +cousin, and will dive down into the sedges at your approach, very much +as a duck disappears under water. But if you see him at all, it is +usually while swaying to and fro as he clings to some tall stalk of +grass, keeping his balance by the nervous, jerky tail motions +characteristic of all the wrens, and singing with all his might. +Oftentimes his tail reaches backward almost to his head in a most +exaggerated wren-fashion. + +Samuels explains the peculiar habit both the long-billed and the +short-billed marsh wrens have of building several nests in one season, +by the theory that they are made to protect the sitting female, for it +is noticed that the male bird always lures a visitor to an empty nest, +and if this does not satisfy his curiosity, to another one, to prove +conclusively that he has no family in prospect. + +Wild rice is an ideal nesting place for a colony of these little marsh +wrens. The home is made of sedge grasses, softly lined with the softer +meadow grass or plant-down, and placed in a tussock of tall grass, or +even upon the ground. The entrance is on the side. But while fond of +moist places, both for a home and feeding ground, it will be noticed +that these wrens have no special fondness for running water, so dear +to their long-billed relatives. Another distinction is that the eggs +of this species, instead of being so densely speckled as to look +brown, are pure white. + + + Brown Thrasher + + (_Harporhynchus rufus_) Thrasher and Mocking-bird family + + _Called also_: BROWN THRUSH; GROUND THRUSH; RED THRUSH; BROWN + MOCKING-BIRD; FRENCH MOCKING-BIRD; MAVIS + + (Illustration facing p. 119) + + + _Length_--11 to 11.5 inches. Fully an inch longer than the robin. + + _Male_--Rusty red-brown or rufous above; darkest on wings, which + have two short whitish bands. Underneath white, heavily + streaked (except on throat) with dark-brown, arrow-shaped spots. + Tail very long. Yellow eyes. Bill long and curved at tip. + + _Female_--Paler than male. + + _Range_--United States to Rockies. Nests from Gulf States to + Manitoba and Montreal. Winters south of Virginia. + + _Migrations_--Late April. October. Common summer resident. + + "There's a merry brown thrush sitting up in a tree; + He is singing to me! He is singing to me! + And what does he say, little girl, little boy? + 'Oh, the world's running over with joy!'" + +The hackneyed poem beginning with this stanza that delighted our +nursery days, has left in our minds a fairly correct impression of the +bird. He still proves to be one of the perennially joyous singers, +like a true cousin of the wrens, and when we study him afield, +he appears to give his whole attention to his song with a +self-consciousness that is rather amusing than the reverse. "What +musician wouldn't be conscious of his own powers," he seems to +challenge us, "if he possessed such a gift?" Seated on a conspicuous +perch, as if inviting attention to his performance, with uplifted head +and drooping tail he repeats the one exultant, dashing air to which +his repertoire is limited, without waiting for an encore. Much +practice has given the notes a brilliancy of execution to be compared +only with the mocking-bird's; but in spite of the name "ferruginous +mocking-bird" that Audubon gave him, he does not seem to have the +faculty of imitating other birds' songs. Thoreau says the +Massachusetts farmers, when planting their seed, always think they +hear the thrasher say, "Drop it, drop it--cover it up, cover it +up--pull it up, pull it up, pull it up." + +One of the shatterings of childish impressions that age too often +brings is when we learn by the books that our "merry brown thrush" is +no thrush at all, but a thrasher--first cousin to the wrens, in spite +of his speckled breast, large size, and certain thrush-like instincts, +such as never singing near the nest and shunning mankind in the +nesting season, to mention only two. Certainly his bold, swinging +flight and habit of hopping and running over the ground would seem to +indicate that he is not very far removed from the true thrushes. But +he has one undeniable wren-like trait, that of twitching, wagging, and +thrashing his long tail about to help express his emotions. It swings +like a pendulum as he rests on a branch, and thrashes about in a most +ludicrous way as he is feeding on the ground upon the worms, insects, +and fruit that constitute his diet. + +Before the fatal multiplication of cats, and in unfrequented, sandy +locations still, the thrasher builds her nest upon the ground, thus +earning the name "ground thrush" that is often given her; but with +dearly paid-for wisdom she now most frequently selects a low shrub or +tree to cradle the two broods that all too early in the summer +effectually silence the father's delightful song. + + + Wilson's Thrush + + (_Turdus fuscescens_) Thrush family + + _Called also_: VEERY; TAWNY THRUSH + + (Illustration facing p. 126) + + + _Length_--7 to 7.5 inches. About one-fourth smaller than the robin. + + _Male and Female_--Uniform olive-brown, with a tawny cast above. + Centre of the throat white, with cream-buff on sides of throat + and upper part of breast, which is lightly spotted with + wedge-shaped, brown points. Underneath white, or with a faint + grayish tinge. + + _Range_--United States, westward to plains. + + _Migrations_--May. October. Summer resident. + +To many of us the veery, as they call the Wilson's thrush in New +England, is merely a voice, a sylvan mystery, reflecting the sweetness +and wildness of the forest, a vocal "will-o'-the-wisp" that, after +enticing us deeper and deeper into the woods, where we sink into the +spongy moss of its damp retreats and become entangled in the wild +grapevines twined about the saplings and underbrush, still sings to us +from unapproachable tangles. Plainly, if we want to see the bird, we +must let it seek us out on the fallen log where we have sunk exhausted +in the chase. + +Presently a brown bird scuds through the fern. It is a thrush, you +guess in a minute, from its slender, graceful body. At first you +notice no speckles on its breast, but as it comes nearer, obscure +arrow-heads are visible--not heavy, heart-shaped spots such as +plentifully speckle the larger wood thrush or the smaller hermit. It +is the smallest of the three commoner thrushes, and it lacks the ring +about the eye that both the others have. Shy and elusive, it slips +away again in a most unfriendly fashion, and is lost in the wet tangle +before you have become acquainted. You determine, however, before you +leave the log, to cultivate the acquaintance of this bird the next +spring, when, before it mates and retreats to the forest, it comes +boldly into the gardens and scratches about in the dry leaves on the +ground for the lurking insects beneath. Miss Florence Merriam tells of +having drawn a number of veeries about her by imitating their +call-note, which is a whistled _wheew, whoit_, very easy to +counterfeit when once heard. "_Taweel-ab, taweel-ab, twil-ab, +twil-ab!_" Professor Ridgeway interprets their song, that descends in +a succession of trills without break or pause; but no words can +possibly convey an idea of the quality of the music. The veery, that +never claims an audience, sings at night also, and its weird, sweet +strains floating through the woods at dusk, thrill one like the +mysterious voice of a disembodied spirit. + +Whittier mentions the veery in "The Playmate": + + "And here in spring the veeries sing + The song of long ago." + + + [Illustration: A CHESTNUT-SIDED WARBLER FAMILY.] + + [Illustration: THE WOOD THRUSH HEARS THE CLICK OF THE CAMERA] + + + Wood Thrush + + (_Turdus mustelinus_) Thrush family + + _Called also_: SONG THRUSH; WOOD ROBIN; BELLBIRD + + (Illustrations facing pp. 123 and 127) + + + _Length_--8 to 8.3 inches. About two inches shorter than the + robin. + + _Male and Female_--Brown above, reddish on head and shoulders, + and shading into olive-brown on tail. Throat, breast, and + underneath white, plain in the middle, but heavily marked on + sides and breast with heart-shaped spots of very dark brown. + Whitish eye-ring. + + _Migrations_--Late April or early May. October. Summer resident. + +When Nuttall wrote of "this solitary and retiring songster," before +the country was as thickly settled as it is to-day, it possibly had +not developed the confidence in men that now distinguishes the wood +thrush from its shy congeners that are distinctly wood birds, which it +can no longer strictly be said to be. In city parks and country +places, where plenty of trees shade the village streets and lawns, it +comes near you, half hopping, half running, with dignified +unconsciousness and even familiarity, all the more delightful in a +bird whose family instincts should take it into secluded woodlands +with their shady dells. Perhaps, in its heart of hearts, it still +prefers such retreats. Many conservative wood thrushes keep to their +wild haunts, and it must be owned not a few liberals, that discard +family traditions at other times, seek the forest at nesting time. But +social as the wood thrush is and abundant, too, it is also eminently +high-bred; and when contrasted with its tawny cousin, the veery, that +skulks away to hide in the nearest bushes as you approach, or with the +hermit thrush, that pours out its heavenly song in the solitude of the +forest, how gracious and full of gentle confidence it seems! Every +gesture is graceful and elegant; even a wriggling beetle is eaten as +daintily as caviare at the king's table. It is only when its +confidence in you is abused, and you pass too near the nest, that +might easily be mistaken for a robin's, just above your head in a +sapling, that the wood thrush so far forgets itself as to become +excited. _Pit, pit, pit_, sharply reiterated, is called out at you +with a strident quality in the tone that is painful evidence of the +fearful anxiety your presence gives this gentle bird. + +Too many guardians of nests, whether out of excessive happiness or +excessive stupidity, have a dangerous habit of singing very near them. +Not so the wood thrush. "Come to me," as the opening notes of its +flute-like song have been freely translated, invites the intruder +far away from where the blue eggs lie cradled in ambush. +"_Uoli-a-e-o-li-noli-nol-aeolee-lee!_" is as good a rendering into +syllables of the luscious song as could very well be made. Pure, liquid, +rich, and luscious, it rings out from the trees on the summer air and +penetrates our home like a strain of music from a stringed quartette. + + + Hermit Thrush + + (_Turdus aonalaschkA| pallasii_) Thrush family + + _Called also_: SWAMP ANGEL; LITTLE THRUSH + + + _Length_--7.25 to 7.5 inches. About one-fourth smaller than + the robin. + + _Male and Female_--Upper parts olive-brown, reddening near the + tail, which is pale rufous, quite distinct from the color of + the back. Throat, sides of neck, and breast pale buff. + Feathers of throat and neck finished with dark arrow-points at + tip; feathers of the breast have larger rounded spots. Sides + brownish gray. Underneath white. A yellow ring around the eye. + Smallest of the thrushes. + + _Range_--Eastern parts of North America. Most common in the + United States to the plains. Winters from southern Illinois + and New Jersey to Gulf. + + _Migrations_--April. November. Summer resident. + +The first thrush to come and the last to go, nevertheless the hermit +is little seen throughout its long visit north. It may loiter awhile +in the shrubby roadsides, in the garden or the parks in the spring +before it begins the serious business of life in a nest of moss, +coarse grass, and pine-needles placed on the ground in the depths of +the forest, but by the middle of May its presence in the neighborhood +of our homes becomes only a memory. Although one never hears it at its +best during the migrations, how one loves to recall the serene, +ethereal evening hymn! "The finest sound in Nature," John Burroughs +calls it. "It is not a proud, gorgeous strain like the tanager's or +the grosbeak's," he says; "it suggests no passion or emotion--nothing +personal, but seems to be the voice of that calm, sweet solemnity one +attains to in his best moments. It realizes a peace and a deep, solemn +joy that only the finest souls may know." + +Beyond the question of even the hypercritical, the hermit thrush has a +more exquisitely beautiful voice than any other American bird, and +only the nightingale's of Europe can be compared with it. It is the +one theme that exhausts all the ornithologists' musical adjectives in +a vain attempt to convey in words any idea of it to one who has never +heard it, for the quality of the song is as elusive as the bird +itself. But why should the poets be so silent? Why has it not called +forth such verse as the English poets have lavished upon the +nightingale? Undoubtedly because it lifts up its heavenly voice in the +solitude of the forest, whereas the nightingales, singing in loud +choruses in the moonlight under the poet's very window, cannot but +impress his waking thoughts and even his dreams with their melody. + +Since the severe storm and cold in the Gulf States a few winters ago, +where vast numbers of hermit thrushes died from cold and starvation, +this bird has been very rare in haunts where it used to be abundant. +The other thrushes escaped because they spend the winter farther +south. + + + Alice's Thrush + + (_Turdus aliciA|_) Thrush family + + _Called also_: GRAY-CHEEKED THRUSH + + + _Length_--7.5 to 8 inches. About the size of the bluebird. + + _Male and Female_--Upper parts uniform olive-brown. Eye-ring + whitish. Cheeks gray; sides dull grayish white. Sides of the + throat and breast pale cream-buff, speckled with arrow-shaped + points on throat and with half-round dark-brown marks below. + + _Range_--North America, from Labrador and Alaska to Central + America. + + _Migrations_--Late April or May. October. Chiefly seen in + migrations, except at northern parts of its range. + +One looks for a prettier bird than this least attractive of all the +thrushes in one that bears such a suggestive name. Like the +olive-backed thrush, from which it is almost impossible to tell it +when both are alive and hopping about the shrubbery, its plumage above +is a dull olive-brown that is more protective than pleasing. + +Just as Wilson hopelessly confused the olive-backed thrush with the +hermit, so has Alice's thrush been confounded by later writers with +the olive-backed, from which it differs chiefly in being a trifle +larger, in having gray cheeks instead of buff, and in possessing a few +faint streaks on the throat. Where it goes to make a home for its +greenish-blue speckled eggs in some low bush at the northern end of +its range, it bursts into song, but except in the nesting grounds its +voice is never heard. Mr. Bradford Torrey, who heard it singing in the +White Mountains, describes the song as like the thrush's in quality, +but differently accented: "_Wee-o-wee-o-tit-ti-wee-o!_" + +In New England and New York this thrush is most often seen during its +autumn migrations. As it starts up and perches upon a low branch +before you, it appears to have longer legs and a broader, squarer tail +than its congeners. + + + [Illustration: VEERY OR WILSON'S THRUSH] + + [Illustration: WOOD THRUSH] + + + Olive-backed Thrush + + (_Turdus ustulatus swainsonii_) Thrush family + + _Called also_: SWAINSON'S THRUSH + + + _Length_--7 to 7.50 inches. About one-fourth smaller than the + robin. + + _Male and Female_--Upper parts olive-brown. Whole throat and + breast yellow-buff, shading to ashy on sides and to white + underneath. Buff ring around eye. Dark streaks on sides of + throat (none on centre), and larger, more spot-like marks on + breast. + + _Range_--North America to Rockies; a few stragglers on Pacific + slope. Northward to arctic countries. + + _Migrations_--April. October. Summer resident in Canada. + Chiefly a migrant in United States. + +Mr. Parkhurst tells of finding this "the commonest bird in the Park +(Central Park, New York), not even excepting the robin," during the +last week of May on a certain year; but usually, it must be owned, we +have to be on the lookout to find it, or it will pass unnoticed in the +great companies of more conspicuous birds travelling at the same time. +White-throated sparrows often keep it company on the long journeys +northward, and they may frequently be seen together, hopping sociably +about the garden, the thrush calling out a rather harsh note--_puk! +puk!_--quite different from the liquid, mellow calls of the other +thrushes, to resent either the sparrows' bad manners or the +inquisitiveness of a human disturber of its peace. But this gregarious +habit and neighborly visit end even before acquaintance fairly begins, +and the thrushes are off for their nesting grounds in the pine woods +of New England or Labrador if they are travelling up the east coast, +or to Alaska, British Columbia, or Manitoba if west of the +Mississippi. There they stay all summer, often travelling southward +with the sparrows in the autumn, as in the spring. + +Why they should prefer coniferous trees, unless to utilize the needles +for a nest, is not understood. Low trees and bushes are favorite +building sites with them as with others of the family, though these +thrushes disdain a mud lining to their nests. Those who have heard the +olive-backed thrush singing an even-song to its brooding mate compare +it with the veery's, but it has a break in it and is less simple and +pleasing than the latter's. + + + Louisiana Water Thrush + + (_Seiurus motacilla_) Wood Warbler family + + + _Length_--6 to 6.28 inches. Just a trifle smaller than the + English sparrow. + + _Male and Female_--Grayish olive-brown upper parts, with + conspicuous white line over the eye and reaching almost to the + nape. Underneath white, tinged with pale buff. Throat and line + through the middle, plain. Other parts streaked with very dark + brown, rather faintly on the breast, giving them the speckled + breast of the thrushes. Heavy, dark bill. + + _Range_--United States, westward to the plains; northward to + southern New England. Winters in the tropics. + + _Migrations_--Late April. October. Summer resident. + +This bird, that so delighted Audubon with its high-trilled song as he +tramped with indefatigable zeal through the hammocks of the Gulf +States, seems to be almost the counterpart of the Northern water +thrush, just as the loggerhead is the Southern counterpart of the +Northern shrike. Very many Eastern birds have their duplicates in +Western species, as we all know, and it is most interesting to trace +the slight external variations that different climates and diet have +produced on the same bird, and thus differentiated the species. In +winter the Northern water thrush visits the cradle of its kind, the +swamps of Louisiana and Florida, and, no doubt, by daily contact with +its congeners there, keeps close to their cherished traditions, from +which it never deviates farther than Nature compels, though it +penetrate to the arctic regions during its summer journeys. + +With a more southerly range, the Louisiana water thrush does not +venture beyond the White Mountains and to the shores of the Great +Lakes in summer, but even at the North the same woods often contain +both birds, and there is opportunity to note just how much they +differ. The Southern bird is slightly the larger, possibly an inch; it +is more gray, and it lacks a few of the streaks, notably on the +throat, that plentifully speckle its Northern counterpart; but the +habits of both of these birds appear to be identical. Only for a few +days in the spring or autumn migrations do they pass near enough to +our homes for us to study them, and then we must ever be on the alert +to steal a glance at them through the opera-glasses, for birds more +shy than they do not visit the garden shrubbery at any season. Only +let them suspect they are being stared at, and they are under cover in +a twinkling. + +Where mountain streams dash through tracts of mossy, spongy ground +that is carpeted with fern and moss, and overgrown with impenetrable +thickets of underbrush and tangles of creepers--such a place is the +favorite resort of both the water thrushes. With a rubber boot +missing, clothes torn, and temper by no means unruffled, you finally +stand over the Louisiana thrush's nest in the roots of an upturned +tree immediately over the water, or else in a mossy root-belaced bank +above a purling stream. A liquid-trilled warble, wild and sweet, +breaks the stillness, and, like Audubon, you feel amply rewarded for +your pains though you may not be prepared to agree with him in +thinking the song the equal of the European nightingale's. + + + Northern Water Thrush + + (_Seiurus noveboracensis_) Wood Warbler family + + _Called also_: NEW YORK WATER THRUSH; AQUATIC WOOD WAGTAIL; + AQUATIC THRUSH + + + _Length_--5 to 6 inches. A trifle smaller than the English + sparrow. + + _Male and Female_--Uniform olive or grayish brown above. Pale + buff line over the eye. Underneath, white tinged with + sulphur-yellow, and streaked like a thrush with very dark + brown arrow-headed or oblong spots that are also seen + underneath wings. + + _Range_--United States, westward to Rockies and northward + through British provinces. Winters from Gulf States southward. + + _Migrations_--Late April. October. Summer resident. + +According to the books we have before us, a warbler; but who, to look +at his speckled throat and breast, would ever take him for anything +but a diminutive thrush; or, studying him from some distance through +the opera-glasses as he runs in and out of the little waves along the +brook or river shore, would not name him a baby sandpiper? The rather +unsteady motion of his legs, balancing of the tail, and sudden jerking +of the head suggest an aquatic bird rather than a bird of the woods. +But to really know either man or beast, you must follow him to his +home, and if you have pluck enough to brave the swamp and the almost +impenetrable tangle of undergrowth where the water thrush chooses to +nest, there "In the swamp in secluded recesses, a shy and hidden bird +is warbling a song;" and this warbled song that Walt Whitman so adored +gives you your first clue to the proper classification of the bird. It +has nothing in common with the serene, hymn-like voices of the true +thrushes; the bird has no flute-like notes, but an emphatic smacking +or chucking kind of warble. For a few days only is this song heard +about the gardens and roadsides of our country places. Like the +Louisiana water thrush, this bird never ventures near the homes of men +after the spring and autumn migrations, but, on the contrary, goes as +far away from them as possible, preferably to some mountain region, +beside a cool and dashing brook, where a party of adventurous young +climbers from a summer hotel or the lonely trout fisherman may startle +it from its mossy nest on the ground. + + + Flicker + + (_Colaptes auratus_) Woodpecker family + + _Called also_: GOLDEN-WINGED WOODPECKER; CLAPE; PIGEON + WOODPECKER; YELLOWHAMMER; HIGH-HOLE OR HIGH-HOLDER; + YARUP; WAKE-UP; YELLOW-SHAFTED WOODPECKER + + (Illustrations facing pp. 24 and 134) + + + _Length_--12 to 13 inches. About one-fourth as large again as + the robin. + + _Male and Female_--Head and neck bluish gray, with a red + crescent across back of neck and a black crescent on breast. + Male has black cheek-patches, that are wanting in female. + Golden brown shading into brownish-gray, and barred with black + above. Underneath whitish, tinged with light chocolate and + thickly spotted with black. Wing linings, shafts of wing, and + tail-quills bright yellow. Above tail white, conspicuous when + the bird flies. + + _Range_--United States, east of Rockies; Alaska and British + America, south of Hudson Bay. Occasional on Pacific slope. + + _Migrations_--Most commonly seen from April to October. + Usually resident. + +If we were to follow the list of thirty-six aliases by which this +largest and commonest of our woodpeckers is known throughout its wide +range, we should find all its peculiarities of color, flight, noises, +and habits indicated in its popular names. It cannot but attract +attention wherever seen, with its beautiful plumage, conspicuously +yellow if its outstretched wings are looked at from below, +conspicuously brown and white if seen upon the ground. At a distance +it suggests the meadowlark. Both birds wear black, crescent breast +decorations, and the flicker also has the habit of feeding upon the +ground, especially in autumn, a characteristic not shared by its +relations. + +Early in the spring this bird of many names and many voices makes +itself known by a long, strong, sonorous call, a sort of proclamation +that differs from its song proper, which Audubon calls "a prolonged +jovial laugh" (described by Mrs. Wright as "_Wick, wick, wick, +wick!_"), and differs also from its rapidly repeated, mellow, and most +musical _cuh, cuh, cuh, cuh, cuh_, uttered during the nesting season. + +Its nasal _kee-yer_, vigorously called out in the autumn, is less +characteristic, however, than the sound it makes while associating +with its fellows on the feeding ground--a sound that Mr. Frank M. +Chapman says can be closely imitated by the swishing of a willow wand. + +A very ardent and ridiculous-looking lover is this bird, as, with tail +stiffly spread, he sidles up to his desired mate and bows and bobs +before her, then retreats and advances, bowing and bobbing again, very +often with a rival lover beside him (whom he generously tolerates) +trying to outdo him in grace and general attractiveness. Not the least +of the bird's qualities that must commend themselves to the bride is +his unfailing good nature, genial alike in the home and in the field. + +The "high-holders" have the peculiar and silly habit of boring out a +number of superfluous holes for nests high up in the trees, in +buildings, or hollow wooden columns, only one of which they intend to +use. Six white eggs is the proper number for a household, but Dr. +Coues says the female that has been robbed keeps on laying three or +even four sets of eggs without interruption. + + + Meadowlark + + (_Sturnella magna_) Blackbird family + + _Called also_: FIELD LARK; OLDFIELD LARK + + (Illustration facing p. 135) + + + _Length_--10 to 11 inches. A trifle larger than the robin. + + _Male_--Upper parts brown, varied with chestnut, deep brown, + and black. Crown streaked with brown and black, and with a + cream-colored streak through the centre. Dark-brown line + apparently running through the eye; another line over the eye, + yellow. Throat and chin yellow; a large, conspicuous black + crescent on breast. Underneath yellow, shading into buffy + brown, spotted or streaked with very dark brown. Outer tail + feathers chiefly white, conspicuous in flight. Long, strong + legs and claws, adapted for walking. Less black in winter + plumage, which is more grayish brown. + + _Female_--Paler than male. + + _Range_--North America, from Newfoundland to the Gulf of + Mexico, and westward to the plains, where the Western + meadowlark takes its place. Winters from Massachusetts and + Illinois southward. + + _Migrations_--April. Late October. Usually a resident, a few + remaining through the winter. + +In the same meadows with the red-winged blackbirds, birds of another +feather, but of the same family, nevertheless, may be found flocking +together, hunting for worms and larvA|, building their nests, and +rearing their young very near each other with the truly social +instinct of all their kin. + +The meadowlarks, which are really not larks at all, but the +blackbirds' and orioles' cousins, are so protected by the coloring of +the feathers on their backs, like that of the grass and stubble they +live among, that ten blackbirds are noticed for every meadowlark, +although the latter is very common. Not until you flush a flock of +them as you walk along the roadside or through the meadows and you +note the white tail feathers and the black crescents on the yellow +breasts of the large brown birds that rise towards the tree-tops with +whirring sound and a flight suggesting the quail's, do you suspect +there are any birds among the tall grasses. + +Their clear and piercing whistle, "_Spring o' the y-e-a-r, Spring o' +the year!_" rings out from the trees with varying intonation and +accent, but always sweet and inspiriting. To the bird's high vantage +ground you may not follow, for no longer having the protection of the +high grass, it has become wary and flies away as you approach, calling +out _peent-peent_ and nervously flitting its tail (again showing the +white feather), when it rests a moment on the pasture fence-rail. + +It is like looking for a needle in a haystack to try to find a +meadowlark's nest, an unpretentious structure of dried grasses partly +arched over and hidden in a clump of high timothy, flat upon the +ground. But what havoc snakes and field-mice play with the +white-speckled eggs and helpless fledglings! The care of rearing two +or three broods in a season and the change of plumage to duller winter +tints seem to exhaust the high spirits of the sweet whistler. For a +time he is silent, but partly regains his vocal powers in the autumn, +when, with large flocks of his own kind, he resorts to marshy feeding +grounds. In the winter he chooses for companions the horned larks, +that walk along the shore, or the snow buntings and sparrows of the +inland pastures, and will even include the denizens of the barn-yard +when hunger drives him close to the haunts of men. + + * * * * * + +The Western Meadowlark or Prairie Lark (_Sturnella magna neglecta_), +which many ornithologists consider a different species from the +foregoing, is distinguished chiefly by its lighter, more grayish-brown +plumage, by its yellow cheeks, and more especially by its richer, +fuller song. In his "Birds of Manitoba," Mr. Ernest E. Thompson says of +this meadowlark: "In richness of voice and modulation it equals or +excels both wood thrush and nightingale, and in the beauty of its +articulation it has no superior in the whole world of feathered +choristers with which I am acquainted." + + + Horned Lark + + (_Otocoris alpestris_) Lark family + + _Called also_: SHORE LARK + + (Illustration facing p. 138) + + + _Length_--7.5 to 8 inches. About one-fifth smaller than the + robin. + + _Male_--Upper parts dull brown, streaked with lighter on edges + and tinged with pink or vinaceous; darkest on back of head, + neck, shoulders, and nearest the tail. A few erectile feathers + on either side of the head form slight tufts or horns that are + wanting in female. A black mark from the base of the bill + passes below the eye and ends in a horn-shaped curve on + cheeks, which are yellow. Throat clear yellow. Breast has + crescent-shaped black patch. Underneath soiled white, with + dusky spots on lower breast. Tail black, the outer feathers + margined with white, noticed in flight. + + _Female_--Has yellow eye-stripe; less prominent markings, + especially on head, and is a trifle smaller. + + _Range_--Northeastern parts of North America, and in winter + from Ohio and eastern United States as far south as North + Carolina. + + _Migrations_--October and November. March. Winter resident. + +Far away to the north in Greenland and Labrador this true lark, the +most beautiful of its genus, makes its summer home. There it is a +conspicuously handsome bird with its pinkish-gray and chocolate +feathers, that have greatly faded into dull browns when we see them in +the late autumn. In the far north only does it sing, and, according to +Audubon, the charming song is flung to the breeze while the bird soars +like a skylark. In the United States we hear only its call-note. + +Great flocks come down the Atlantic coast in October and November, and +separate into smaller bands that take up their residence in sandy +stretches and open tracts near the sea or wherever the food supply +looks promising, and there the larks stay until all the seeds, buds of +bushes, berries, larvA|, and insects in their chosen territory are +exhausted. They are ever conspicuously ground birds, walkers, and when +disturbed at their dinner, prefer to squat on the earth rather than +expose themselves by flight. Sometimes they run nimbly over the frozen +ground to escape an intruder, but flying they reserve as a last +resort. When the visitor has passed they quickly return to their +dinner. If they were content to eat less ravenously and remain +slender, fewer victims might be slaughtered annually to tickle the +palates of the epicure. It is a mystery what they find to fatten upon +when snow covers the frozen ground. Even in the severe midwinter +storms they will not seek the protection of the woods, but always +prefer sandy dunes with their scrubby undergrowth or open meadow +lands. Occasionally a small flock wanders toward the farms to pick up +seeds that are blown from the hayricks or scattered about the +barn-yard by overfed domestic fowls. + + * * * * * + +The Prairie Horned Lark (_Otocoris alpestris praticola_) is similar to +the preceding, but a trifle smaller and paler, with a white instead of +a yellow streak above the eye, the throat yellowish or entirely white +instead of sulphur-yellow, and other minor differences. It has a far +more southerly range, confined to northern portions of the United +States from the Mississippi eastward. Once a distinctly prairie bird, +it now roams wherever large stretches of open country that suit its +purposes are cleared in the East, and remains resident. This species +also sings in midair on the wing, but its song is a crude, +half-inarticulate affair, barely audible from a height of two hundred +feet. + + + [Illustration: FLICKER] + + [Illustration: MEADOWLARK] + + + American Pipit + + (_Anthus pensilvanicus_) Wagtail family + + _Called also_: TITLARK; BROWN OR RED LARK + + + _Length_--6.38 to 7 inches. About the size of a sparrow. + + _Male and Female_--Upper parts brown; wings and tail dark + olive-brown; the wing coverts tipped with buff or whitish, and + ends of outer tail feathers white, conspicuous in flight. + White or yellowish eye-ring, and line above the eye. + Underneath light buff brown, with spots on breast and sides, + the under parts being washed with brown of various shades. + Feet brown. Hind toe-nail as long as or longer than the toe. + + _Range_--North America at large. Winters south of Virginia to + Mexico and beyond. + + _Migrations_--April. October or November. Common in the United + States, chiefly during the migrations. + +The color of this bird varies slightly with age and sex, the under +parts ranging from white through pale rosy brown to a reddish tinge; +but at any season, and under all circumstances, the pipit is a +distinctly brown bird, resembling the water thrushes not in plumage +only, but in the comical tail waggings and jerkings that alone are +sufficient to identify it. However the books may tell us the bird is a +wagtail, it certainly possesses two strong characteristics of true +larks: it is a walker, delighting in walking or running, never hopping +over the ground, and it has the angelic habit of singing as it flies. + +During the migrations the pipits are abundant in salt marshes or open +stretches of country inland, that, with lark-like preference, they +choose for feeding grounds. When flushed, all the flock rise together +with uncertain flight, hovering and wheeling about the place, calling +down _dee-dee_, _dee-dee_ above your head until you have passed on +your way, then promptly returning to the spot from whence they were +disturbed. Along the roadsides and pastures, where two or three birds +are frequently seen together, they are too often mistaken for the +vesper sparrows because of their similar size and coloring, but their +easy, graceful walk should distinguish them at once from the hopping +sparrow. They often run to get ahead of some one in the lane, but +rarely fly if they can help it, and then scarcely higher than a +fence-rail. Early in summer they are off for the mountains in the +north. Labrador is their chosen nesting ground, and they are said to +place their grassy nest, lined with lichens or moss, flat upon the +ground--still another lark trait. Their eggs are chocolate-brown +scratched with black. + + + Whippoorwill + + (_Antrostomus vociferus_) Goatsucker family + + (Illustration facing p. 139) + + + _Length_--9 to 10 inches. About the size of the robin. + Apparently much larger, because of its long wings and wide + wing-spread. + + _Male_--A long-winged bird, mottled all over with reddish + brown, grayish black, and dusky white; numerous bristles + fringing the large mouth. A narrow white band across the upper + breast. Tail quills on the end and under side white. + + _Female_--Similar to male, except that the tail is dusky in + color where that of the male is white. Band on breast buff + instead of white. + + _Range_--United States, to the plains. Not common near the sea. + + _Migrations_--Late April to middle of September. Summer resident. + +The whippoorwill, because of its nocturnal habits and plaintive note, +is invested with a reputation for occult power which inspires a +chilling awe among superstitious people, and leads them insanely to +attribute to it an evil influence; but it is a harmless, useful night +prowler, flying low and catching enormous numbers of hurtful insects, +always the winged varieties, in its peculiar fly-trap mouth. + +It loves the rocky, solitary woods, where it sleeps all day; but it is +seldom seen, even after painstaking search, because of its dull, +mottled markings conforming so nearly to rocks and dry leaves, and +because of its unusual habit of stretching itself lengthwise on a tree +branch or ledge, where it is easily confounded with a patch of lichen, +and thus overlooked. If by accident one happens upon a sleeping bird, +it suddenly rouses and flies away, making no more sound than a passing +butterfly--a curious and uncanny silence that is quite remarkable. +When the sun goes down and as the gloaming deepens, the bird's +activity increases, and it begins its nightly duties, emitting from +time to time, like a sentry on his post or a watchman of the night, +the doleful call which has given the bird its common name. It + + "Mourns unseen, and ceaseless sings + Ever a note of wail and woe," + +that our Dutch ancestors interpreted as "_Quote-kerr-kee_" and so +called it. They had a tradition that no frost ever appeared after the +bird had been heard calling in the spring, and that it wisely left for +warmer skies before frost came in the autumn. Prudent bird, never +caught napping! + +It is erratic in its choice of habitations, even when rock and +solitude seem suited to its taste. Very rarely is this odd bird found +close to the seashore, and in the Hudson River valley it keeps a half +mile or more back from the river. + +The eggs, generally two in number, are creamy white, dashed with dark +and olive spots, and laid on the ground on dry leaves, or in a little +hollow in rock or stump--never in a nest built with loving care. But +in extenuation of such carelessness it may be said that, if disturbed +or threatened, the mother shows no lack of maternal instinct, and +removes her young, carrying them in her beak as a cat conveys her +kittens to secure shelter. + + + [Illustration: HORNED LARK (_One-half natural size_)] + + [Illustration: WHIP-POOR-WILL] + + + Nighthawk + + (_Chordeiles virginianus_) Goatsucker family + + _Called also_: NIGHTJAR; BULL-BAT; MOSQUITO HAWK; + WILL-O'-THE-WISP; PISK; PIRAMIDIG; LONG-WINGED GOATSUCKER + + (Illustration facing p. 154) + + + _Length_--9 to 10 inches. About the same length as the robin, + but apparently much longer because of its very wide + wing-spread. + + _Male and Female_--Mottled blackish brown and rufous above, + with a multitude of cream-yellow spots and dashes. Lighter + below, with waving bars of brown on breast and underneath. + White mark on throat, like an imperfect horseshoe; also a band + of white across tail of male bird. These latter markings are + wanting in female. Heavy wings, which are partly mottled, are + brown on shoulders and tips, and longer than tail. They have + large white spots, conspicuous in flight, one of their + distinguishing marks from the whippoorwill. Head large and + depressed, with large eyes and ear-openings. Very small bill. + + _Range_--From Mexico to arctic islands. + + _Migrations_--May. October. Common summer resident. + +The nighthawk's misleading name could not well imply more that the +bird is not: it is not nocturnal in its habits, neither is it a hawk, +for if it were, no account of it would be given in this book, which +distinctly excludes birds of prey. Stories of its chicken-stealing +prove to be ignorant rather than malicious slanders. Any one disliking +the name, however, surely cannot complain of a limited choice of other +names by which, in different sections of the country, it is quite as +commonly known. + +Too often it is mistaken for the whippoorwill. The nighthawk does not +have the weird and woful cry of that more dismal bird, but gives +instead a harsh, whistling note while on the wing, followed by a +vibrating, booming, whirring sound that Nuttall likens to "the rapid +turning of a spinning wheel, or a strong blowing into the bung-hole of +an empty hogshead." This peculiar sound is responsible for the name +nightjar, frequently given to this curious bird. It is said to be made +as the bird drops suddenly through the air, creating a sort of +stringed instrument of its outstretched wings and tail. When these +wings are spread, their large white spots running through the feathers +to the under side should be noted to further distinguish the +nighthawk from the whippoorwill, which has none, but which it +otherwise closely resembles. This booming sound, coming from such a +height that the bird itself is often unseen, was said by the Indians +to be made by the shad spirits to warn the scholes of shad about to +ascend the rivers to spawn in the spring, of their impending fate. + +The flight of the nighthawk is free and graceful in the extreme. +Soaring through space without any apparent motion of its wings, +suddenly it darts with amazing swiftness like an erratic bat after the +fly, mosquito, beetle, or moth that falls within the range of its +truly hawk-like eye. + +Usually the nighthawks hunt in little companies in the most sociable +fashion. Late in the summer they seem to be almost gregarious. They +fly in the early morning or late afternoon with beak wide open, +hawking for insects, but except when the moon is full they are not +known to go a-hunting after sunset. During the heat of the day and at +night they rest on limbs of trees, fence-rails, stone walls, +lichen-covered rocks or old logs--wherever Nature has provided +suitable mimicry of their plumage to help conceal them. + +With this object in mind, they quite as often choose a hollow surface +of rock in some waste pasture or the open ground on which to deposit +the two speckled-gray eggs that sixteen days later will give birth to +their family. But in August, when family cares have ended for the +season, it is curious to find this bird of the thickly wooded country +readily adapting itself to city life, resting on Mansard roofs, +darting into the streets from the house-tops, and wheeling about the +electric lights, making a hearty supper of the little, winged insects +they attract. + + + Black-billed Cuckoo + + (_Coccyzus erythrophthalmus_) Cuckoo family + + _Called also_: RAIN CROW + + + _Length_--11 to 12 inches. About one-fifth larger than the + robin + + _Male_--Grayish brown above, with bronze tint in feathers. + Underneath grayish white; bill, which is long as head and + black, arched and acute. Skin about the eye bright red. Tail + long, and with spots on tips of quills that are small and + inconspicuous. + + _Female_--Has obscure dusky bars on the tail. + + _Range_--Labrador to Panama; westward to Rocky Mountains. + + _Migrations_--May. September. Summer resident. + + "O cuckoo! shall I call thee bird? + Or but a wandering voice?" + +From the tangled shrubbery on the hillside back of Dove Cottage, +Keswick, where Wordsworth and his sister Dorothy listened for the +coming of this "darling of the spring"; in the willows overhanging +Shakespeare's Avon; from the favorite haunts of Chaucer and Spenser, +where + + "Runneth meade and springeth blede," + +we hear the cuckoo calling; but how many on this side of the Atlantic +are familiar with its American counterpart? Here, too, the cuckoo +delights in running water and damp, cloudy weather like that of an +English spring; it haunts the willows by our river-sides, where as yet +no "immortal bard" arises to give it fame. It "loud sings" in our +shrubbery, too. Indeed, if we cannot study our bird afield, the next +best place to become acquainted with it is in the pages of the English +poets. But due allowance must be made for differences of temperament. +Our cuckoo is scarcely a "merry harbinger"; his talents, such as they +are, certainly are not musical. However, the guttural cluck is not +discordant, and the black-billed species, at least, has a soft, mellow +voice that seems to indicate an embryonic songster. "_K-k-k-k, +kow-kow-ow-kow-ow!_" is a familiar sound in many localities, but the +large, slim, pigeon-shaped, brownish-olive bird that makes it, +securely hidden in the low trees and shrubs that are its haunts, is +not often personally known. Catching a glimpse only of the +grayish-white under parts from where we stand looking up into the tree +at it, it is quite impossible to tell the bird from the yellow-billed +species. When, as it flies about, we are able to note the red circles +about its eyes, its black bill, and the absence of black tail +feathers, with their white "thumb-nail" spots, and see no bright +cinnamon feathers on the wings (the yellow-billed specie's +distinguishing marks), we can at last claim acquaintance with the +black-billed cuckoo. Our two common cuckoos are so nearly alike that +they are constantly confused in the popular mind and very often in the +writings of ornithologists. At first glance the birds look alike. +Their haunts are almost identical; their habits are the same; and, as +they usually keep well out of sight, it is not surprising if confusion +arise. + +Neither cuckoo knows how to build a proper home; a bunch of sticks +dropped carelessly into the bush, where the hapless babies that emerge +from the greenish eggs will not have far to fall when they tumble out +of bed, as they must inevitably do, may by courtesy only be called a +nest. The cuckoo is said to suck the eggs of other birds; but, surely, +such vice is only the rarest dissipation. Insects of many kinds and +"tent caterpillars" chiefly are their chosen food. + + + Yellow-billed Cuckoo + + + (_Coccyzus americanus_) Cuckoo family + + Called _also_: RAIN CROW + + (Illustrations facing pp. 155 and 202) + + + _Length_--11 to 12 inches. About one-fifth longer than the + robin. + + _Male and Female_--Grayish brown above, with bronze tint in + feathers. Underneath grayish white. Bill, which is as long as + head, arched, acute, and more robust than the black-billed + species, and with lower mandible yellow. Wings washed with + bright cinnamon-brown. Tail has outer quills black, + conspicuously marked with white thumb-nail spots. Female + larger. + + _Range_--North America, from Mexico to Labrador. Most common + in temperate climates. Rare on Pacific slope. + + _Migrations_--Late April. September. Summer resident. + +"_Kak, k-kuk, k-kuk, k-kuk!_" like an exaggerated tree-toad's rattle, +is a sound that, when first heard, makes you rush out of doors +instantly to "name" the bird. Look for him in the depths of the tall +shrubbery or low trees, near running water, if there is any in the +neighborhood, and if you are more fortunate than most people, you will +presently become acquainted with the yellow-billed cuckoo. When seen +perching at a little distance, his large, slim body, grayish brown, +with olive tints above and whitish below, can scarcely be +distinguished from that of the black-billed species. It is not until +you get close enough to note the yellow bill, reddish-brown wings, and +black tail feathers with their white "thumb-nail" marks, that you know +which cuckoo you are watching. In repose the bird looks dazed or +stupid, but as it darts about among the trees after insects, +noiselessly slipping to another one that promises better results, and +hopping along the limbs after performing a series of beautiful +evolutions among the branches as it hunts for its favorite "tent +caterpillars," it appears what it really is: an unusually active, +graceful, intelligent bird. + +A solitary wanderer, nevertheless one cuckoo in an apple orchard is +worth a hundred robins in ridding it of caterpillars and inch-worms, +for it delights in killing many more of these than it can possibly +eat. In the autumn it varies its diet with minute fresh-water +shell-fish from the swamp and lake. Mulberries, that look so like +caterpillars the bird possibly likes them on that account, it devours +wholesale. + +Family cares rest lightly on the cuckoos. The nest of both species is +a ramshackle affair--a mere bundle of twigs and sticks without a rim +to keep the eggs from rolling from the bush, where they rest, to the +ground. Unlike their European relative, they have the decency to rear +their own young and not impose this heavy task on others; but the +cuckoos on both sides of the Atlantic are most erratic and irregular +in their nesting habits. The overworked mother-bird often lays an egg +while brooding over its nearly hatched companion, and the two or three +half-grown fledglings already in the nest may roll the large greenish +eggs out upon the ground, while both parents are off searching for +food to quiet their noisy clamorings. Such distracting mismanagement +in the nursery is enough to make a homeless wanderer of any father. It +is the mother-bird that tumbles to the ground at your approach from +sheer fright; feigns lameness, trails her wings as she tries to entice +you away from the nest. The male bird shows far less concern; a no +more devoted father, we fear, than he is a lover. It is said he +changes his mate every year. + +Altogether, the cuckoo is a very different sort of bird from what our +fancy pictured. The little Swiss creatures of wood that fly out of the +doors of clocks and call out the bed-hour to sleepy children, are +chiefly responsible for the false impressions of our mature years. The +American bird does not repeat its name, and its harsh, grating "_kuk, +kuk_," does not remotely suggest the sweet voice of its European +relative. + + + Bank Swallow + + (_Clivicola riparia_) Swallow family + + _Called also_: SAND MARTIN; SAND SWALLOW + + + _Length_--5 to 5.5 inches. About an inch shorter than the + English sparrow, but apparently much larger because of its + wide wing-spread. + + _Male and Female_--Grayish brown or clay-colored above. Upper + wings and tail darkest. Below, white, with brownish band + across chest. Tail, which is rounded and more nearly square + than the other swallows, is obscurely edged with white. + + _Range_--Throughout North America south of Hudson Bay. + + _Migrations_--April. October. Summer resident. + +Where a brook cuts its way through a sand bank to reach the sea is an +ideal nesting ground for a colony of sand martins. The face of the +high bank shows a number of clean, round holes indiscriminately bored +into the sand, as if the place had just received a cannonading; but +instead of war an atmosphere of peace pervades the place in midsummer, +when you are most likely to visit it. Now that the young ones have +flown from their nests that your arm can barely reach through the +tunnelled sand or clay, there can be little harm in examining the +feathers dropped from gulls, ducks, and other water-birds with which +the grassy home is lined. + +The bank swallow's nest, like the kingfisher's, which it resembles, is +his home as well. There he rests when tired of flying about in pursuit +of insect food. Perhaps a bird that has been resting in one of the +tunnels, startled by your innocent house-breaking, will fly out across +your face, near enough for you to see how unlike the other swallows he +is: smaller, plainer, and with none of their glinting steel-blues and +buffs about him. With strong, swift flight he rejoins his fellows, +wheeling, skimming, darting through the air above you, and uttering +his characteristic "giggling twitter," that is one of the cheeriest +noises heard along the beach. In early October vast numbers of these +swallows may be seen in loose flocks along the Jersey coast, slowly +making their way South. Clouds of them miles in extent are recorded. + +Closely associated with the sand martin is the Rough-winged Swallow +(_Stelgidopteryx serripennis_), not to be distinguished from its +companion on the wing, but easily recognized by its dull-gray throat +and the absence of the brown breast-band when seen at close range. + + + Cedar Bird + + (_Ampelis cedrorum_) Waxwing family + + _Called also_: CEDAR WAXWING; CHERRY-BIRD; CANADA ROBIN; + RA%COLLET + + (Illustration facing p. 158) + + + _Length_--7 to 8 inches. About one-fifth smaller than the + robin. + + _Male_--Upper parts rich grayish brown, with plum-colored + tints showing through the brown on crest, throat, breast, + wings, and tail. A velvety-black line on forehead runs through + the eye and back of crest. Chin black; crest conspicuous; + breast lighter than the back, and shading into yellow + underneath. Wings have quill-shafts of secondaries elongated, + and with brilliant vermilion tips like drops of sealing-wax, + rarely seen on tail quills, which have yellow bands across the + end. + + _Female_--With duller plumage, smaller crest, and narrower + tail-band. + + _Range_--North America, from northern British provinces to + Central America in winter. + + _Migrations_--A roving resident, without fixed seasons for + migrating. + +As the cedar birds travel about in great flocks that quickly exhaust +their special food in a neighborhood, they necessarily lead a nomadic +life--here to-day, gone to-morrow--and, like the Arabs, they "silently +steal away." It is surprising how very little noise so great a company +of these birds make at any time. That is because they are singularly +gentle and refined; soft of voice, as they are of color, their plumage +suggesting a fine Japanese water-color painting on silk, with its +beautiful sheen and exquisitely blended tints. + +One listens in vain for a song; only a lisping "_Twee-twee-ze_," or "a +dreary whisper," as Minot calls their low-toned communications with +each other, reaches our ears from their high perches in the cedar +trees, where they sit, almost motionless hours at a time, digesting +the enormous quantities of juniper and whortle berries, wild +cherries, worms, and insects upon which they have gormandized. + +Nuttall gives the cedar birds credit for excessive politeness to each +other. He says he has often seen them passing a worm from one to +another down a whole row of beaks and back again before it was finally +eaten. + +When nesting time arrives--that is to say, towards the end of the +summer--they give up their gregarious habits and live in pairs, +billing and kissing like turtle-doves in the orchard or wild +crab-trees, where a flat, bulky nest is rather carelessly built of +twigs, grasses, feathers, strings--any odds and ends that may be lying +about. The eggs are usually four, white tinged with purple and spotted +with black. + +Apparently they have no moulting season; their plumage is always the +same, beautifully neat and full-feathered. Nothing ever hurries or +flusters them, their greatest concern apparently being, when they +alight, to settle themselves comfortably between their over-polite +friends, who are never guilty of jolting or crowding. Few birds care +to take life so easily, not to say indolently. + +Among the French Canadians they are called RA(C)collet, from the color of +their crest resembling the hood of the religious order of that name. +Every region the birds pass through, local names appear to be applied +to them, a few of the most common of which are given above. + +Of the three waxwings known to scientists, two are found in America, +and the third in Japan. + + + Brown Creeper + + (_Certbia familiaris americana_) Creeper family + + + _Length_--5 to 5.75 inches. A little smaller than the English + sparrow. + + _Male and Female_--Brown above, varied with ashy-gray stripes + and small, lozenge-shaped gray mottles. Color lightest on + head, increasing in shade to reddish brown near tail. Tail + paler brown and long; wings brown and barred with whitish. + Beneath grayish white. Slender, curving bill. + + _Range_--United States and Canada, east of Rocky Mountains. + + _Migrations_--April. September. Winter resident. + +This little brown wood sprite, the very embodiment of virtuous +diligence, is never found far from the nuthatches, titmice, and +kinglets, though not strictly in their company, for he is a rather +solitary bird. Possibly he repels them by being too exasperatingly +conscientious. + +Beginning at the bottom of a rough-barked tree (for a smooth bark +conceals no larvA|), the creeper silently climbs upward in a sort of +spiral, now lost to sight on the opposite side of the tree, then +reappearing just where he is expected to, flitting back a foot or two, +perhaps, lest he overlooked a single spider egg, but never by any +chance leaving a tree until conscience approves of his thoroughness. +And yet with all this painstaking workman's care, it takes him just +about fifty seconds to finish a tree. Then off he flits to the base of +another, to repeat the spiral process. Only rarely does he adopt the +woodpecker process of partly flitting, partly rocking his way with the +help of his tail straight up one side of the tree. + +Yet this little bird is not altogether the soulless drudge he appears. +In the midst of his work, uncheered by summer sunshine, and clinging +with numb toes to the tree-trunk some bitter cold day, he still finds +some tender emotion within him to voice in a "wild, sweet song" that +is positively enchanting at such a time. But it is not often this song +is heard south of his nesting grounds. + +The brown creeper's plumage is one of Nature's most successful feats +of mimicry--an exact counterfeit in feathers of the brown-gray bark on +which the bird lives. And the protective coloring is carried out in +the nest carefully tucked under a piece of loosened bark in the very +heart of the tree. + + + Pine Siskin + + (_Spinus pinus_) Finch family + + _Called also_: PINE FINCH; PINE LINNET + + + _Length_--4.75 to 5 inches. Over an inch smaller than the + English sparrow. + + _Male and Female_--Olive-brown and gray above, much streaked + and striped with very dark brown everywhere. Darkest on head + and back. Lower back, base of tail, and wing feathers pale + sulphur-yellow. Under parts very light buff brown, heavily + streaked. + + _Range_--North America generally. Most common in north + latitudes. Winters south to the Gulf of Mexico. + + _Migrations_--Erratic winter visitor from October to April. + Uncommon in summer. + +A small grayish-brown brindle bird, relieved with touches of yellow on +its back, wings, and tail, may be seen some winter morning roving on +the lawn from one evergreen tree to another, clinging to the pine +cones and peering attentively between the scales before extracting the +kernels. It utters a call-note so like the English sparrow's that you +are surprised when you look up into the tree to find it comes from a +stranger. The pine siskin is an erratic visitor, and there is always +the charm of the unexpected about its coming near our houses that +heightens our enjoyment of its brief stay. + +As it flies downward from the top of the spruce tree to feed upon the +brown seeds still clinging to the pigweed and goldenrod stalks +sticking out above the snow by the roadside, it dips and floats +through the air like its charming little cousin, the goldfinch. They +have several characteristics in common besides their flight and their +fondness for thistles. Far at the north, where the pine siskin nests +in the top of the evergreens, his sweet-warbled love-song is said to +be like that of our "wild canary's," only with a suggestion of +fretfulness in the tone. + +Occasionally some one living in an Adirondack or other mountain camp +reports finding the nest and hearing the siskin sing even in +midsummer; but it is, nevertheless, considered a northern species, +however its erratic habits may sometimes break through the +ornithologist's traditions. + + + Smith's Painted Longspur + + (_Calcarius pictus_) Finch family + + + _Length_--6.5 inches. About the size of a large English sparrow. + + _Male and Female_--Upper parts marked with black, brown, and + white, like a sparrow; brown predominant. Male bird with more + black about head, shoulders, and tail feathers, and a whitish + patch, edged with black, under the eye. Underneath pale brown, + shading to buff. Hind claw or spur conspicuous. + + _Range_--Interior of North America, from the arctic coast to + Illinois and Texas. + + _Migrations_--Winter visitor. Without fixed season. + +Confined to a narrower range than the Lapland longspur, this bird, +quite commonly found on the open prairie districts of the middle West +in winter, is, nevertheless, so very like its cousin that the same +description of their habits might very well answer for both. Indeed, +both these birds are often seen in the same flock. Larks and the +ubiquitous sparrows, too, intermingle with them with the familiarity +that only the starvation rations of midwinter, and not true +sociability, can effect; and, looking out upon such a heterogeneous +flock of brown birds as they are feeding together on the frozen +ground, only the trained field ornithologist would find it easy to +point out the painted longspurs. + +Certain peculiarities are noticeable, however. Longspurs squat while +resting; then, when flushed, they run quickly and lightly, and "rise +with a sharp click, repeated several times in quick succession, and +move with an easy, undulating motion for a short distance, when they +alight very suddenly, seeming to fall perpendicularly several feet to +the ground." Another peculiarity of their flight is their habit of +flying about in circles, to and fro, keeping up a constant chirping or +call. It is only in the mating season, when we rarely hear them, that +the longspurs have the angelic manner of singing as they fly, like the +skylark. The colors of the males, among the several longspurs, may +differ widely, but the indistinctly marked females are so like each +other that only their mates, perhaps, could tell them apart. + + + Lapland Longspur + + (_Calcarius lapponicus_) Finch family + + _Called also_: LAPLAND SNOWBIRD; LAPLAND LARK BUNTING + + + _Length_--6.5 to 7 inches. A trifle larger than the English + sparrow. + + _Male_--Color varies with season. _Winter plumage_: Top of + head black, with rusty markings, all feathers being tipped + with white. Behind and below the eye rusty black. Breast and + underneath grayish white, faintly streaked with black. Above, + reddish brown with black markings. Feet, which are black, have + conspicuous, long hind claws or spur. + + _Female_--Rusty gray above, less conspicuously marked. Whitish + below. + + _Range_--Circumpolar regions; northern United States; + occasional in Middle States; abundant in winter as far as + Kansas and the Rocky Mountains. + + _Migrations_--Winter visitors, rarely resident, and without a + fixed season. + +This arctic bird, although considered somewhat rare with us, when seen +at all in midwinter is in such large flocks that, before its visit in +the neighborhood is ended, and because there are so few other birds +about, it becomes delightfully familiar as it nimbly runs over the +frozen ground, picking up grain that has blown about from the barn, +when the seeds of the field are buried under snow. This lack of fear +through sharp hunger, that often drives the shyest of the birds to our +very doors in winter, is as pathetic as it is charming. Possibly it is +not so rare a bird as we think, for it is often mistaken for some of +the sparrows, the shore larks, and the snow buntings, that it not only +resembles, but whose company it frequently keeps, or for one of the +other longspurs. + +At all seasons of the year a ground bird, you may readily identify the +Lapland longspur by its tracks through the snow, showing the mark of +the long hind claw or spur. In summer we know little or nothing about +it, for, with the coming of the flowers, it is off to the far north, +where, we are told, it depresses its nest in a bed of moss upon the +ground, and lines it with fur shed from the coat of the arctic fox. + + + Chipping Sparrow + + (_Spizella socialis_) Finch family + + _Called also_: CHIPPY; HAIR-BIRD; CHIP-BIRD; SOCIAL SPARROW + + (Illustration facing p. 159) + + + _Length_--5 to 5.5 inches. An inch shorter than the English + sparrow. + + _Male_--Under the eye, on the back of the neck, underneath, + and on the lower back ash-gray. Gray stripe over the eye, and + a blackish brown one apparently through it. Dark red-brown + crown. Back brown, slightly rufous, and feathers streaked with + black. Wings and tail dusty brown. Wing-bars not conspicuous. + Bill black. + + _Female_--Lacks the chestnut color on the crown, which is + streaked with black. In winter the frontlet is black. Bill + brownish. + + _Range_--North America, from Newfoundland to the Gulf of + Mexico and westward to the Rockies. Winters in Gulf States and + Mexico. Most common in eastern United States. + + _Migrations_--April. October. Common summer resident, many + birds remaining all the year from southern New England + southward. + +Who does not know this humblest, most unassuming little neighbor that +comes hopping to our very doors; this mite of a bird with "one talent" +that it so persistently uses all the day and every day throughout the +summer? Its high, wiry trill, like the buzzing of the locust, heard in +the dawn before the sky grows even gray, or in the middle of the +night, starts the morning chorus; and after all other voices are +hushed in the evening, its tremolo is the last bed-song to come from +the trees. But however monotonous such cheerfulness sometimes becomes +when we are surfeited with real songs from dozens of other throats, +there are long periods of midsummer silence that it punctuates most +acceptably. + +Its call-note, _chip! chip!_ from which several of its popular names +are derived, is altogether different from the trill which must do duty +as a song to express love, contentment, everything that so amiable a +little nature might feel impelled to voice. + +But with all its virtues, the chippy shows lamentable weakness of +character in allowing its grown children to impose upon it, as it +certainly does. In every group of these birds throughout the summer we +can see young ones (which we may know by the black line-stripes on +their breasts) hopping around after their parents, that are often no +larger or more able-bodied than they, and teasing to be fed; drooping +their wings to excite pity for a helplessness that they do not possess +when the weary little mother hops away from them, and still +persistently chirping for food until she weakly relents, returns to +them, picks a seed from the ground and thrusts it down the bill of the +sauciest teaser in the group. With two such broods in a season the +chestnut feathers on the father's jaunty head might well turn gray. + +Unlike most of the sparrows, the little chippy frequents high trees, +where its nest is built quite as often as in the low bushes of the +garden. The horsehair, which always lines the grassy cup that holds +its greenish-blue, speckled eggs, is alone responsible for the name +hair-bird, and not the chippy's hair-like trill, as some suppose. + + + English Sparrow + + (_Passer domesticus_) Finch family + + _Called also_: HOUSE SPARROW + + + _Length_--6.33 inches. + + _Male_--Ashy above, with black and chestnut stripes on back + and shoulders. Wings have chestnut and white bar, bordered by + faint black line. Gray crown, bordered from the eye backward + and on the nape by chestnut. Middle of throat and breast + black. Underneath grayish white. + + _Female_--Paler; wing-bars indistinct, and without the black + marking on throat and breast. + + _Range_--Around the world. Introduced and naturalized in + America, Australia, New Zealand. + + _Migrations_--Constant resident. + +"Of course, no self-respecting ornithologist will condescend to +enlarge his list by counting in the English sparrow--too pestiferous +to mention," writes Mr. H. E. Parkhurst, and yet of all bird neighbors +is any one more within the scope of this book than the audacious +little gamin that delights in the companionship of humans even in +their most noisy city thoroughfares? + +In a bulletin issued by the Department of Agriculture it is shown that +the progeny of a single pair of these sparrows might amount to +275,716,983,698 in ten years! Inasmuch as many pairs were liberated in +the streets of Brooklyn, New York, in 1851, when the first importation +was made, the day is evidently not far off when these birds, by no +means meek, "shall inherit the earth." + +In Australia Scotch thistles, English sparrows, and rabbits, three +most unfortunate importations, have multiplied with equal rapidity +until serious alarm fills the minds of the colonists. But in England a +special committee appointed by the House of Commons to investigate +the character of the alleged pest has yet to learn whether the +sparrow's services as an insect-destroyer do not outweigh the injury +it does to fruit and grain. + + + Field Sparrow + + (_Spizella pusilla_) Finch family + + _Called also_: FIELD BUNTING; WOOD SPARROW; BUSH SPARROW + + (Illustration facing p. 203) + + + _Length_--5.5 to 5.75 inches. A little smaller than the + English sparrow. + + _Male_--Chestnut crown. Upper back bright chestnut, finely + streaked with black and ashy brown. Lower back more grayish. + Whitish wing-bars. Cheeks, line over the eye, throat, pale + brownish drab. Tail long. Underneath grayish white, tinged + with palest buff on breast and sides. Bill reddish. + + _Female_--Paler; the crown edged with grayish. + + _Range_--North America, from British provinces to the Gulf, + and westward to the plains. Winters from Illinois and Virginia + southward. + + _Migrations_--April. November. Common summer resident. + +Simply because both birds have chestnut crowns, the field sparrow is +often mistaken for the dapper, sociable chippy; and, no doubt because +it loves such heathery, grassy pastures as are dear to the vesper +sparrow, and has bay wings and a sweet song, these two cousins also +are often confused. The field sparrow has a more reddish-brown upper +back than any of its small relatives; the absence of streaks on its +breast and of the white tail quills so conspicuous in the vesper +sparrow's flight, sufficiently differentiate the two birds, while the +red bill of the field sparrow is a positive mark of identification. + +This bird of humble nature, that makes the scrubby pastures and +uplands tuneful from early morning until after sunset, flies away with +exasperating shyness as you approach. Alighting on a convenient +branch, he lures you on with his clear, sweet song. Follow him, and he +only hops about from bush to bush, farther and farther away, singing +as he goes a variety of strains, which is one of the bird's +peculiarities. The song not only varies in individuals, but in +different localities, which may be one reason why no two +ornithologists record it alike. Doubtless the chief reason for the +amusing differences in the syllables into which the songs of birds are +often translated in the books, is that the same notes actually sound +differently to different individuals. Thus, to people in Massachusetts +the white-throated sparrow seems to say, "_Pea-bod-y, Pea-bod-y, +Pea-bod-y!_" while good British subjects beyond the New England border +hear him sing quite distinctly, "_Sweet Can-a-da, Can-a-da, +Can-a-da!_" But however the opinions as to the syllables of the field +sparrow's song may differ, all are agreed as to its exquisite quality, +that resembles the vesper sparrow's tender, sweet melody. The song +begins with three soft, wild whistles, and ends with a series of +trills and quavers that gradually melt away into silence: a serene and +restful strain as soothing as a hymn. Like the vesper sparrows, these +birds sometimes build a plain, grassy nest, unprotected by overhanging +bush, flat upon the ground. Possibly from a prudent fear of field-mice +and snakes, the little mother most frequently lays her bluish-white, +rufous-marked eggs in a nest placed in a bush of a bushy field. Hence +John Burroughs has called the bird the "bush sparrow." + + + Fox Sparrow + + (_Passerella ilica_) Finch family + + _Called also_: FOX-COLORED SPARROW; FERRUGINOUS FINCH; + FOXY FINCH + + + _Length_--6.5 to 7.25 inches. Nearly an inch longer than the + English sparrow. + + _Male and Female_--Upper parts reddish brown, varied with ash + gray, brightest on lower back, wings, and tail. Bluish slate + about the head. Underneath whitish; the throat, breast, and + sides heavily marked with arrow-heads and oblong dashes of + reddish brown and blackish. + + _Range_--Alaska and Manitoba to southern United States. + Winters chiefly south of Illinois and Virginia. Occasional + stragglers remain north most of the winter. + + _Migrations_--March. November. Most common in the migrations. + +There will be little difficulty in naming this largest, most plump and +reddish of all the sparrows, whose fox-colored feathers, rather than +any malicious cunning of its disposition, are responsible for the name +it bears. The male bird is incomparably the finest singer of its +gifted family. His faint _tseep_ call-note gives no indication of his +vocal powers that some bleak morning in early March suddenly send a +thrill of pleasure through you. It is the most welcome "glad surprise" +of all the spring. Without a preliminary twitter or throat-clearing of +any sort, the full, rich, luscious tones, with just a tinge of +plaintiveness in them, are poured forth with spontaneous abandon. Such +a song at such a time is enough to summon anybody with a musical ear +out of doors under the leaden skies to where the delicious notes issue +from the leafless shrubbery by the roadside. Watch the singer until +the song ends, when he will quite likely descend among the dead leaves +on the ground and scratch among them like any barn-yard fowl, but +somehow contriving to use both feet at once in the operation, as no +chicken ever could. He seems to take special delight in damp thickets, +where the insects with which he varies his seed diet are plentiful. + +Usually the fox sparrows keep in small, loose flocks, apart by +themselves, for they are not truly gregarious; but they may sometimes +be seen travelling in company with their white-throated cousins. They +are among the last birds to leave us in the late autumn or winter. Mr. +Bicknell says that they seem indisposed to sing unless present in +numbers. Indeed, they are little inclined to absolute solitude at any +time, for even in the nesting season quite a colony of grassy +nurseries may be found in the same meadow, and small companies haunt +the roadside shrubbery during the migrations. + + + [Illustration: NIGHTHAWK] + + [Illustration: YELLOW-BILLED CUCKOO] + + + Grasshopper Sparrow + + (_Ammodramus savannarum passerinus_) Finch family + + _Called also_: YELLOW-WINGED SPARROW + + + _Length_--5 to 5.4 inches. About an inch smaller than the + English sparrow. + + _Male and Female_--A cream-yellow line over the eye; centre of + crown, shoulders, and lesser wing coverts yellowish. Head + blackish; rust-colored feathers, with small black spots on + back of the neck; an orange mark before the eye. All other + upper parts varied red, brown, cream, and black, with a drab + wash. Underneath brownish drab on breast, shading to soiled + white, and without streaks. Dusky, even, pointed tail feathers + have grayish-white outer margins. + + _Range_--Eastern North America, from British provinces to Cuba. + Winters south of the Carolinas. + + _Migrations_--April. October. Common summer resident. + +It is safe to say that no other common bird is so frequently +overlooked as this little sparrow, that keeps persistently to the +grass and low bushes, and only faintly lifts up a weak, wiry voice +that is usually attributed to some insect. At the bend of the wings +only are the feathers really yellow, and even this bright shade often +goes unnoticed as the bird runs shyly through an old dairy field or +grassy pasture. You may all but step upon it before it takes wing and +exhibits itself on the fence-rail, which is usually as far from the +ground as it cares to go. If you are near enough to this perch you may +overhear the _zee-e-e-e-e-e-e-e_ that has earned it the name of +grasshopper sparrow. If you persistently follow it too closely, away +it flies, then suddenly drops to the ground where a scrubby bush +affords protection. A curious fact about this bird is that after you +have once become acquainted with it, you find that instead of being a +rare discovery, as you had supposed, it is apt to be a common resident +of almost every field you walk through. + + + Savanna Sparrow + + (_Ammodramus sandwichensis savanna_) Finch family + + _Called also_: SAVANNA BUNTING + + + _Length_--5.5 to 6 inches. A trifle smaller than the English + sparrow. + + _Male and Female_--Cheeks, space over the eye, and on the bend + of the wings pale yellow. General effect of the upper parts + brownish drab, streaked with black. Wings and tail dusky, the + outer webs of the feathers margined with buff. Under parts + white, heavily streaked with blackish and rufous, the marks on + breast feathers being wedge-shaped. In the autumn the plumage + is often suffused with a yellow tinge. + + _Range_--Eastern North America, from Hudson Bay to Mexico. + Winters south of Illinois and Virginia. + + _Migrations_--April. October. A few remain in sheltered + marshes at the north all winter. + +Look for the savanna sparrow in salt marshes, marshy or upland +pastures, never far inland, and if you see a sparrowy bird, unusually +white and heavily streaked beneath, and with pale yellow markings +about the eye and on the bend of the wing, you may still make several +guesses at its identity before the weak, little insect-like trill +finally establishes it. Whoever can correctly name every sparrow and +warbler on sight is a person to be envied, if, indeed, he exists at +all. + +In the lowlands of Nova Scotia and, in fact, of all the maritime +provinces, this sparrow is the one that is perhaps most commonly seen. +Every fence-rail has one perched upon it, singing "_Ptsip, ptsip, +ptsip, zee-e-e-e-e_" close to the ear of the passer-by, who otherwise +might not hear the low grasshopper-like song. At the north the bird +somehow loses the shyness that makes it comparatively little known +farther south. Depending upon the scrub and grass to conceal it, you +may almost tread upon it before it startles you by its sudden rising +with a whirring noise, only to drop to the ground again just as +suddenly a few yards farther away, where it scuds among the underbrush +and is lost to sight. Tall weeds and fence-rails are as high and +exposed situations as it is likely to select while singing. It is most +distinctively a ground bird, and flat upon the pasture or in a +slightly hollowed cup it has the merest apology for a nest. Only a few +wisps of grass are laid in the cavity to receive the pale-green eggs, +that are covered most curiously with blotches of brown of many shapes +and tints. + + + Seaside Sparrow + + (_Ammodramus maritimus_) Finch family + + _Called also_: MEADOW CHIPPY; SEASIDE FINCH + + + _Length_--6 inches. A shade smaller than the English sparrow. + + _Male and Female_--Upper parts dusky grayish or olivaceous + brown, inclining to gray on shoulders and on edges of some + feathers. Wings and tail darkest. Throat yellowish white, + shading to gray on breast, which is indistinctly mottled and + streaked. A yellow spot before the eye and on bend of the + wing, the bird's characteristic marks. Blunt tail. + + _Range_--Atlantic seaboard, from Georgia northward. Usually + winters south of Virginia. + + _Migrations_--April. November. A few remain in sheltered + marshes all winter. + +The savanna, the swamp, the sharp-tailed, and the song sparrows may +all sometimes be found in the haunts of the seaside sparrow, but you +may be certain of finding the latter nowhere else than in the salt +marshes within sight or sound of the sea. It is a dingy little bird, +with the least definite coloring of all the sparrows that have +maritime inclinations, with no rufous tint in its feathers, and less +distinct streakings on the breast than any of them. It has no black +markings on the back. + +Good-sized flocks of seaside sparrows live together in the marshes; +but they spend so much of their time on the ground, running about +among the reeds and grasses, whose seeds and insect parasites they +feed upon, that not until some unusual disturbance in the quiet place +flushes them does the intruder suspect their presence, Hunters after +beach-birds, longshoremen, seaside cottagers, and whoever follows the +windings of a creek through the salt meadows to catch crabs and eels +in midsummer, are well acquainted with the "meadow chippies," as the +fishermen call them. They keep up a good deal of chirping, +sparrow-fashion, and have four or five notes resembling a song that is +usually delivered from a tall reed stalk, where the bird sways and +balances until his husky performance has ended, when down he drops +upon the ground out of sight. Sometimes, too, these notes are uttered +while the bird flutters in the air above the tops of the sedges. + + + Sharp-tailed Sparrow + + (_Ammodramus caudacutus_) Finch family + + + _Length_--5.25 to 5.85 inches. A trifle smaller than the + English sparrow. + + _Male and Female_--Upper parts brownish or grayish olive, the + back with black streaks, and gray edges to some feathers. A + gray line through centre of crown, which has maroon stripes; + gray ears enclosed by buff lines, one of which passes through + the eye and one on side of throat; brownish orange, or buff, + on sides of head. Bend of the wing yellow. Breast and sides + pale buff, distinctly streaked with black. Underneath whitish. + Each narrow quill of tail is sharply pointed, the outer ones + shortest. + + _Range_--Atlantic coast. Winters south of Virginia. + + _Migrations_--April. November. Summer resident. + +This bird delights in the company of the dull-colored seaside sparrow, +whose haunts in the salt marshes it frequents, especially the drier +parts; but its pointed tail-quills and more distinct markings are +sufficient to prevent confusion. Mr. J. Dwight, Jr., who has made a +special study of maritime birds, says of it: "It runs about among the +reeds and grasses with the celerity of a mouse, and it is not apt to +take wing unless closely pressed." (Wilson credited it with the +nimbleness of a sandpiper.) "It builds its nest in the tussocks on the +bank of a ditch, or in the drift left by the tide, rather than in the +grassier sites chosen by its neighbors, the seaside sparrows." + +Only rarely does one get a glimpse of this shy little bird, that darts +out of sight like a flash at the first approach. Balancing on a +cat-tail stalk or perched upon a bit of driftwood, it makes a feeble, +husky attempt to sing a few notes; and during the brief performance +the opera-glasses may search it out successfully. While it feeds upon +the bits of sea-food washed ashore to the edge of the marshes, it +gives us perhaps the best chance we ever get, outside of a museum, to +study the bird's characteristics of plumage. + +"Both the sharp-tailed and the seaside finches are crepuscular," says +Dr. Abbott, in "The Birds About Us." They run up and down the reeds +and on the water's edge long after most birds have gone to sleep. + + + Song Sparrow + + (_Melospiza fasciata_) Finch family + + (Illustration facing p. 166) + + + _Length_--6 to 6.5 inches. About the same size as the English + sparrow. + + _Male and Female_--Brown head, with three longitudinal gray + bands. Brown stripe on sides of throat. Brownish-gray back, + streaked with rufous. Underneath gray, shading to white, + heavily streaked with darkest brown. A black spot on breast. + Wings without bars. Tail plain grayish brown. + + _Range_--North America, from Fur Countries to the Gulf States. + Winters from southern Illinois and Massachusetts to the Gulf. + + _Migrations_--March. November. A few birds remain at the north + all the year. + +Here is a veritable bird neighbor, if ever there was one; at home in +our gardens and hedges, not often farther away than the roadside, +abundant everywhere during nearly every month in the year, and yet was +there ever one too many? There is scarcely an hour in the day, too, +when its delicious, ecstatic song may not be heard; in the darkness of +midnight, just before dawn, when its voice is almost the first to +respond to the chipping sparrow's wiry trill and the robin's warble; +in the cool of the morning, the heat of noon, the hush of evening-- +ever the simple, homely, sweet melody that every good American has +learned to love in childhood. What the bird lacks in beauty it +abundantly makes up in good cheer. Not at all retiring, though never +bold, it chooses some conspicuous perch on a bush or tree to deliver +its outburst of song, and sings away with serene unconsciousness. Its +artlessness is charming. Thoreau writes in his "Summer" that the +country girls in Massachusetts hear the bird say: "_Maids, maids, +maids, hang on your teakettle, teakettle-ettle-ettle._" The call-note, +a metallic _chip_, is equally characteristic of the bird's +irrepressible vivacity. It has still another musical expression, +however, a song more prolonged and varied than its usual performance, +that it seems to sing only on the wing. + +Of course, the song sparrow must sometimes fly upward, but whoever +sees it fly anywhere but downward into the thicket that it depends +upon to conceal it from too close inspection? By pumping its tail as +it flies, it seems to acquire more than the ordinary sparrow's +velocity. + +Its nest, which is likely to be laid flat on the ground, except where +field-mice are plentiful (in which case it is elevated into the crotch +of a bush), is made of grass, strips of bark, and leaves, and lined +with finer grasses and hair. Sometimes three broods may be reared in a +season, but even the cares of providing insects and seeds enough for +so many hungry babies cannot altogether suppress the cheerful singer. +The eggs are grayish white, speckled and clouded with lavender and +various shades of brown. + +In sparsely settled regions the song sparrows seem to show a fondness +for moist woodland thickets, possibly because their tastes are +insectivorous. But it is difficult to imagine the friendly little +musician anything but a neighbor. + + + [Illustration: CEDAR WAXWING (_One-half natural size_)] + + [Illustration: CHIPPING SPARROW] + + + Swamp Song Sparrow + + (_Melospiza georgiana_) Finch family + + _Called also_: SWAMP SPARROW; MARSH SPARROW; RED GRASS-BIRD; + SWAMP FINCH + + + _Length_--5 to 5.8 inches. A little smaller than the English + sparrow. + + _Male_--Forehead black; crown, which in winter has black + stripes, is always bright bay; line over the eye, sides of the + neck gray. Back brown, striped with various shades. Wing-edges + and tail reddish brown. Mottled gray underneath, inclining to + white on the chin. + + _Female_--Without black forehead and stripes on head. + + _Range_--North America, from Texas to Labrador. + + _Migrations_--April. October. A few winter at the north. + +In just such impenetrable retreats as the marsh wrens choose, another +wee brown bird may sometimes be seen springing up from among the +sedges, singing a few sweet notes as it flies and floats above them, +and then suddenly disappearing into the grassy tangle. It is too +small, and its breast is not streaked enough to be a song sparrow, +neither are their songs alike; it has not the wren's peculiarities of +bill and tail. Its bright-bay crown and sparrowy markings finally +identify it. A suggestion of the bird's watery home shows itself in +the liquid quality of its simple, sweet note, stronger and sweeter +than the chippy's, and repeated many times almost like a trill that +seems to trickle from the marsh in a little rivulet of song. The +sweetness is apt to become monotonous to all but the bird itself, that +takes evident delight in its performance. In the spring, when flocks +of swamp sparrows come north, how they enliven the marshes and waste +places! And yet the song, simple as it is, is evidently not uttered +altogether without effort, if the tail-spreading and teetering of the +body after the manner of the ovenbird, are any indications of +exertion. + +Nuttall says of these birds: "They thread their devious way with the +same alacrity as the rail, with whom, indeed, they are often +associated in neighborhood. In consequence of this perpetual brushing +through sedge and bushes, their feathers are frequently so worn that +their tails appear almost like those of rats." But the swamp sparrows +frequently belie their name, and, especially in the South, live in dry +fields, worn-out pasture lands with scrubby, weedy patches in them. +They live upon seeds of grasses and berries, but Dr. Abbott has +detected their special fondness for fish--not fresh fish particularly, +but rather such as have lain in the sun for a few days and become dry +as a chip. + +Their nest is placed on the ground, sometimes in a tussock of grass or +roots of an upturned tree quite surrounded by water. Four or five +soiled white eggs with reddish-brown spots are laid usually twice in a +season. + + + Tree Sparrow + + (_Spizella monticola_) Finch family + + _Called also_: CANADA SPARROW; WINTER CHIPPY; TREE BUNTING; + WINTER CHIP-BIRD; ARCTIC CHIPPER + + (Illustration facing p. 167) + + + _Length_--6 to 6.35 inches. About the same size as the English + sparrow. + + _Male_--Crown of head bright chestnut. Line over the eye, + cheeks, throat, and breast gray, the breast with an indistinct + black spot on centre. Brown back, the feathers edged with + black and buff. Lower back pale grayish brown. Two whitish + bars across dusky wings; tail feathers bordered with grayish + white. Underneath whitish. + + _Female_--Smaller and less distinctly marked. + + _Range_--North America, from Hudson Bay to the Carolinas, and + westward to the plains. + + _Migrations_--October. April. Winter resident. + +A revised and enlarged edition of the friendly little chipping +sparrow, that hops to our very doors for crumbs throughout the mild +weather, comes out of British America at the beginning of winter to +dissipate much of the winter's dreariness by his cheerful twitterings. +Why he should have been called a tree sparrow is a mystery, unless +because he does not frequent trees--a reason with sufficient +plausibility to commend the name to several of the early +ornithologists, who not infrequently called a bird precisely what it +was not. The tree sparrow actually does not show half the preference +for trees that its familiar little counterpart does, but rather keeps +to low bushes when not on the ground, where we usually find it. It +does not crouch upon the ground like the chippy, but with a lordly +carriage holds itself erect as it nimbly runs over the frozen crust. +Sheltered from the high, wintry winds in the furrows and dry ditches +of ploughed fields, a loose flock of these active birds keep up a +merry hunt for fallen seeds and berries, with a belated beetle to give +the grain a relish. As you approach the feeding ground, one bird gives +a shrill alarm-cry, and instantly five times as many birds as you +suspected were in the field take wing and settle down in the scrubby +undergrowth at the edge of the woods or by the way-side. No still cold +seems too keen for them to go a-foraging; but when cutting winds blow +through the leafless thickets the scattered remnants of a flock seek +the shelter of stone walls, hedges, barns, and cozy nooks about the +house and garden. It is in midwinter that these birds grow most +neighborly, although even then they are distinctly less sociable than +their small chippy cousins. + +By the first of March, when the fox sparrow and the bluebird attract +the lion's share of attention by their superior voices, we not +infrequently are deaf to the modest, sweet little strain that answers +for the tree sparrow's love-song. Soon after the bird is in full +voice, away it goes with its flock to their nesting ground in Labrador +or the Hudson Bay region. It builds, either on the ground or not far +from it, a nest of grasses, rootlets, and hair, without which no true +chippy counts its home complete. + + + Vesper Sparrow + + (_Po[oe]cetes gramineus_) Finch family + + _Called also_: BAY-WINGED BUNTING; GRASSFINCH; GRASS-BIRD + + + _Length_--5.75 to 6.25 inches. A little smaller than the + English sparrow. + + _Male and Female_--Brown above, streaked and varied with gray. + Lesser wing coverts bright rufous. Throat and breast whitish, + striped with dark brown. Underneath plain soiled white. Outer + tail-quills, which are its special mark of identification, are + partly white, but apparently wholly white as the bird flies. + _Range_--North America, especially common in eastern parts + from Hudson Bay to Gulf of Mexico. Winters south of Virginia. + + _Migrations_--April. October. Common summer resident. + +Among the least conspicuous birds, sparrows are the easiest to +classify for that very reason, and certain prominent features of the +half dozen commonest of the tribe make their identification simple +even to the merest novice. The distinguishing marks of this sparrow +that haunts open, breezy pasture lands and country waysides are its +bright, reddish-brown wing coverts, prominent among its dingy, pale +brownish-gray feathers, and its white tail-quills, shown as the bird +flies along the road ahead of you to light upon the fence-rail. It +rarely flies higher, even to sing its serene, pastoral strain, restful +as the twilight, of which, indeed, it seems to be the vocal +expression. How different from the ecstatic outburst of the song +sparrow! Pensive, but not sad, its long-drawn silvery notes continue +in quavers that float off unended like a trail of mist. The song is +suggestive of the thoughts that must come at evening to some New +England saint of humble station after a well-spent, soul-uplifting +day. + +But while the vesper sparrow sings oftenest and most sweetly in the +late afternoon and continues singing until only he and the +rose-breasted grosbeak break the silence of the early night, his is +one of the first voices to join the morning chorus. No "early worm," +however, tempts him from his grassy nest, for the seeds in the pasture +lands and certain tiny insects that live among the grass furnish meals +at all hours. He simply delights in the cool, still morning and +evening hours and in giving voice to his enjoyment of them. + +The vesper sparrow is preA"minently a grass-bird. It first opens its +eyes on the world in a nest neatly woven of grasses, laid on the +ground among the grass that shelters it and furnishes it with food and +its protective coloring. Only the grazing cattle know how many nests +and birds are hidden in their pastures. Like the meadowlarks, their +presence is not even suspected until a flock is flushed from its +feeding ground, only to return to the spot when you have passed on +your way. Like the meadowlark again, the vesper sparrow occasionally +sings as it soars upward from its grassy home. + + + White-crowned Sparrow + + (_Zonotrichia leucophrys_) Finch family + + + _Length_--7 inches. A little larger than the English sparrow. + + _Male_--White head, with four longitudinal black lines marking + off a crown, the black-and-white stripes being of about equal + width. Cheeks, nape, and throat gray. Light gray underneath, + with some buff tints. Back dark grayish brown, some feathers + margined with gray. Two interrupted white bars across wings. + Plain, dusky tail; total effect, a clear ashen gray. + + _Female_--With rusty head inclining to gray on crown. Paler + throughout than the male. + + _Range_--From high mountain ranges of western United States + (more rarely on Pacific slope) to Atlantic Ocean, and from + Labrador to Mexico. Chiefly south of Pennsylvania. + + _Migrations_--October. April. Irregular migrant in Northern + States. A winter resident elsewhere. + +The large size and handsome markings of this aristocratic-looking +Northern sparrow would serve to distinguish him at once, did he not +often consort with his equally fine-looking white-throated cousins +while migrating, and so too often get overlooked. Sparrows are such +gregarious birds that it is well to scrutinize every flock with +especial care in the spring and autumn, when the rarer migrants are +passing. This bird is more common in the high altitudes of the Sierra +Nevada and Rocky Mountains than elsewhere in the United States. There +in the lonely forest it nests in low bushes or on the ground, and +sings its full love-song, as it does in the northern British +provinces, along the Atlantic coast; but during the migrations it +favors us only with selections from its repertoire. Mr. Ernest +Thompson says, "Its usual song is like the latter half of the +white-throat's familiar refrain, repeated a number of times with a +peculiar, sad cadence and in a clear, soft whistle that is +characteristic of the group." "The song is the loudest and most +plaintive of all the sparrow songs," says John Burroughs. "It begins +with the words _fe-u, fe-u, fe-u_, and runs off into trills and +quavers like the song sparrow's, only much more touching." Colorado +miners tell that this sparrow, like its white-throated relative, sings +on the darkest nights. Often a score or more birds are heard singing +at once after the habit of the European nightingales, which, however, +choose to sing only in the moonlight. + + + White-throated Sparrow + + (_Zonotrichia albicollis_) Finch family + + _Called also_: PEABODY BIRD; CANADA SPARROW + + (Illustration facing p. 170) + + + _Length_--6.75 to 7 inches. Larger than the English sparrow. + + _Male and Female_--A black crown divided by narrow white line. + Yellow spot before the eye, and a white line, apparently + running through it, passes backward to the nape. Conspicuous + white throat. Chestnut back, varied with black and whitish. + Breast gray, growing lighter underneath. Wings edged with + rufous and with two white cross-bars. + + _Range_--Eastern North America. Nests from Michigan and + Massachusetts northward to Labrador. Winters from southern New + England to Florida. + + _Migrations_--April. October. Abundant during migrations, and + in many States a winter resident. + +"_I-I, Pea-body, Pea-body, Pea-body_," are the syllables of the +white-throat's song heard by the good New Englanders, who have a +tradition that you must either be a Peabody or a nobody there; while +just over the British border the bird is distinctly understood to say, +"_Swee-e-e-t Can-a-da, Can-a-da, Can-a-da._" "_All day, whit-tle-ing, +whit-tle-ing, whit-tle-ing,_" the Maine people declare he sings; and +Hamilton Gibson told of a perplexed farmer, Peverly by name, who, as +he stood in the field undecided as to what crop to plant, clearly +heard the bird advise, "_Sow wheat, Pev-er-ly, Pev-er-ly, Pev-er-ly._" +Such divergence of opinion, which is really slight compared with the +verbal record of many birds' songs, only goes to show how little the +sweetness of birds' music, like the perfume of a rose, depends upon a +name. + +In a family not distinguished for good looks, the white-throated +sparrow is conspicuously handsome, especially after the spring moult. +In midwinter the feathers grow dingy and the markings indistinct; but +as the season advances, his colors are sure to brighten perceptibly, +and before he takes the northward journey in April, any little lady +sparrow might feel proud of the attentions of so fine-looking and +sweet-voiced a lover. The black, white, and yellow markings on his +head are now clear and beautiful. His figure is plump and +aristocratic. + +These sparrows are particularly sociable travellers, and cordially +welcome many stragglers to their flocks--not during the migrations +only, but even when winter's snow affords only the barest gleanings +above it. Then they boldly peck about the dog's plate by the kitchen +door and enter the barn-yard, calling their feathered friends with a +sharp _tseep_ to follow them. Seeds and insects are their chosen food, +and were they not well wrapped in an adipose coat under their +feathers, there must be many a winter night when they would go +shivering, supperless, to their perch. + +In the dark of midnight one may sometimes hear the white-throat softly +singing in its dreams. + + + [Illustration: SONG SPARROW] + + [Illustration: TREE SPARROW] + + + + +GREEN, GREENISH GRAY, OLIVE, AND YELLOWISH OLIVE BIRDS + + Tree Swallow Warbling Vireo + Ruby-throated Humming-bird Ovenbird + Golden-crowned Kinglet Worm-eating Warbler + Ruby-crowned Kinglet Acadian Flycatcher + Solitary Vireo Yellow-bellied Flycatcher + Red-eyed Vireo Black-throated Green Warbler + White-eyed Vireo + +Look also among the Olive-brown Birds, especially for the Cuckoos, +Alice's and the Olive-backed Thrushes; and look in the yellow group, +many of whose birds are olive also. See also females of the Red +Crossbill, Orchard Oriole, Scarlet Tanager, Summer Tanager. + + + Tree Swallow + + (_Tacbycineta bicolor_) Swallow family + + _Called also_: WHITE-BELLIED SWALLOW + + (Illustration facing p. 171) + + + _Length_--5 to 6 inches. A little shorter than the English + sparrow, but apparently much larger because of its wide + wing-spread. + + _Male_--Lustrous dark steel-green above; darker and shading + into black on wings and tail, which is forked. Under parts + soft white. + + _Female_--Duller than male. + + _Range_--North America, from Hudson Bay to Panama. + + _Migrations_--End of March. September or later. Summer resident. + + "The stork in the heaven knoweth her appointed times: and the + turtle and the crane and the swallow observe the time of their + coming."--Jeremiah, viii. 7. + +The earliest of the family to appear in the spring, the tree swallow +comes skimming over the freshly ploughed fields with a wide sweep of +the wings, in what appears to be a perfect ecstasy of flight. More shy +of the haunts of man, and less gregarious than its cousins, it is +usually to be seen during migration flying low over the marshes, +ponds, and streams with a few chosen friends, keeping up an incessant +warbling twitter while performing their bewildering and tireless +evolutions as they catch their food on the wing. Their white breasts +flash in the sunlight, and it is only when they dart near you, and +skim close along the surface of the water, that you discover their +backs to be not black, but rich, dark green, glossy to iridescence. + +It is probable that these birds keep near the waterways because their +favorite insects and wax-berries are more plentiful in such places; +but this peculiarity has led many people to the absurd belief that +the tree swallow buries itself under the mud of ponds in winter in a +state of hibernation. No bird's breathing apparatus is made to operate +under mud. + +In unsettled districts these swallows nest in hollow trees, hence +their name; but with that laziness that forms a part of the degeneracy +of civilization, they now gladly accept the boxes about men's homes +set up for the martins. Thousands of these beautiful birds have been +shot on the Long Island marshes and sold to New York epicures for +snipe. + + + [Illustration: WHITE-THROATED SPARROW] + + [Illustration: TREE SWALLOW] + + + Ruby-throated Humming-bird + + (_Trochilus colubris_) Humming-bird family + + (Illustration facing p. 171) + + + _Length_--3.5 to 3.75 inches. A trifle over half as long as + the English sparrow. The smallest bird we have. + + _Male_--Bright metallic green above; wings and tail darkest, + with ruddy-purplish reflections and dusky-white tips on outer + tail-quills. Throat and breast brilliant metallic-red in one + light, orange flame in another, and dusky orange in another, + according as the light strikes the plumage. Sides greenish; + underneath lightest gray, with whitish border outlining the + brilliant breast. Bill long and needle-like. + + _Female_--Without the brilliant feathers on throat; darker + gray beneath. Outer tail-quills are banded with black and + tipped with white. + + _Range_--Eastern North America, from northern Canada to the + Gulf of Mexico in summer. Winters in Central America. + + _Migrations_--May. October. Common summer resident. + +This smallest, most exquisite and unabashed of our bird neighbors +cannot be mistaken, for it is the only one of its kin found east of +the plains and north of Florida, although about four hundred species, +native only to the New World, have been named by scientists. How does +it happen that this little tropical jewel alone flashes about our +Northern gardens? Does it never stir the spirit of adventure and +emulation in the glistening breasts of its stay-at-home cousins in the +tropics by tales of luxuriant tangles of honeysuckle and clematis on +our cottage porches; of deep-cupped trumpet-flowers climbing over the +walls of old-fashioned gardens, where larkspur, narcissus, roses, and +phlox, that crowd the box-edged beds, are more gay and honey-laden +than their little brains can picture? Apparently it takes only the +wish to be in a place to transport one of these little fairies either +from the honeysuckle trellis to the canna bed or from Yucatan to the +Hudson. It is easy to see how to will and to fly are allied in the +minds of the humming-birds, as they are in the Latin tongue. One +minute poised in midair, apparently motionless before a flower while +draining the nectar from its deep cup--though the humming of its wings +tells that it is suspended there by no magic--the next instant it has +flashed out of sight as if a fairy's wand had made it suddenly +invisible. Without seeing the hummer, it might be, and often is, +mistaken for a bee improving the "shining hour." + +At evening one often hears of a "humming-bird" going the rounds of the +garden, but at this hour it is usually the sphinx-moth hovering above +the flower-beds--the one other creature besides the bee for which the +bird is ever mistaken. The postures and preferences of this beautiful +large moth make the mistake a very natural one. + +The ruby-throat is strangely fearless and unabashed. It will dart +among the vines on the veranda while the entire household are +assembled there, and add its hum to that of the conversation in a most +delightfully neighborly way. Once a glistening little sprite, quite +undaunted by the size of an audience that sat almost breathless +enjoying his beauty, thrust his bill into one calyx after another on a +long sprig of honeysuckle held in the hand. + +And yet, with all its friendliness--or is it simply fearlessness?--the +bird is a desperate duellist, and will longe his deadly blade into the +jewelled breast of an enemy at the slightest provocation and quicker +than thought. All the heat of his glowing throat seems to be +transferred to his head while the fight continues, sometimes even to +the death--a cruel, but marvellously beautiful sight as the glistening +birds dart and tumble about beyond the range of peace-makers. + +High up in a tree, preferably one whose knots and lichen-covered +excrescences are calculated to help conceal the nest that so cleverly +imitates them, the mother humming-bird saddles her exquisite cradle to +a horizontal limb. She lines it with plant-down, fluffy bits from +cat-tails, and the fronds of fern, felting the material into a circle +that an elm-leaf amply roofs over. Outside, lichens or bits of bark +blend the nest so harmoniously with its surroundings that one may +look long and thoroughly before discovering it. Two infinitesimal, +white eggs tax the nest accommodation to its utmost. + +In the mating season the female may be seen perching--a posture one +rarely catches her gay lover in--preening her dainty but sombre +feathers with ladylike nicety. The young birds do a great deal of +perching before they gain the marvellously rapid wing-motions of +maturity, but they are ready to fly within three weeks after they are +hatched. By the time the trumpet-vine is in bloom they dart and sip +and utter a shrill little squeak among the flowers, in company with +the old birds. + +During the nest-building and incubation the male bird keeps so +aggressively on the defensive that he often betrays to a hitherto +unsuspecting intruder the location of his home. After the young birds +have to be fed he is most diligent in collecting food, that consists +not alone of the sweet juices of flowers, as is popularly supposed, +but also of aphides and plant-lice that his proboscis-like tongue +licks off the garden foliage literally like a streak of lightning. + +Both parents feed the young by regurgitation--a process disgusting to +the human observer, whose stomach involuntarily revolts at the sight +so welcome to the tiny, squeaking, hungry birds. + + + Ruby-crowned Kinglet + + (_Regulus calendula_) Kinglet family + + _Called also_: RUBY-CROWNED WREN; RUBY-CROWNED WARBLER + + (Illustration facing p. 187) + + + _Length_--4.25 to 4.5 inches. About two inches smaller than + the English sparrow. + + _Male_--Upper parts grayish olive-green, brighter nearer the + tail; wings and tail dusky, edged with yellowish olive. Two + whitish wing-bars. Breast and underneath light yellowish gray. + In the adult male a vermilion spot on crown of his ash-gray + head. + + _Female_--Similar, but without the vermilion crest. + + _Range_--North America. Breeds from northern United States + northward. Winters from southern limits of its breeding range + to Central America and Mexico. + + _Migrations_--October. April. Rarely a winter resident at the + North. Most common during its migrations. + +A trifle larger than the golden-crowned kinglet, with a vermilion +crest instead of a yellow and flame one, and with a decided preference +for a warmer winter climate, and the ruby-crown's chief distinguishing +characteristics are told. These rather confusing relatives would be +less puzzling if it were the habit of either to keep quiet long enough +to focus the opera-glasses on their crowns, which it only rarely is +while some particularly promising haunt of insects that lurk beneath +the rough bark of the evergreens has to be thoroughly explored. At all +other times both kinglets keep up an incessant fluttering and +twinkling among the twigs and leaves at the ends of the branches, +jerking their tiny bodies from twig to twig in the shrubbery, hanging +head downward, like a nuthatch, and most industriously feeding every +second upon the tiny insects and larvA| hidden beneath the bark and +leaves. They seem to be the feathered expression of perpetual motion. +And how dainty and charming these tiny sprites are! They are not at +all shy; you may approach them quite close if you will, for the birds +are simply too intent on their business to be concerned with yours. + +If a sharp lookout be kept for these ruby-crowned migrants, that too +often slip away to the south before we know they have come, we notice +that they appear about a fortnight ahead of the golden-crested +species, since the mild, soft air of our Indian summer is exactly to +their liking. At this season there is nothing in the bird's "thin, +metallic call-note, like a vibrating wire," to indicate that he is one +of our finest songsters. But listen for him during the spring +migration, when a love-song is already ripening in his tiny throat. +What a volume of rich, lyrical melody pours from the Norway spruce, +where the little musician is simply practising to perfect the richer, +fuller song that he sings to his nesting mate in the far north! The +volume is really tremendous, coming from so tiny a throat. Those who +have heard it in northern Canada describe it as a flute-like and +mellow warble full of intricate phrases past the imitating. Dr. Coues +says of it: "The kinglet's exquisite vocalization defies description." + +Curiously enough, the nest of this bird, that is not at all rare, has +been discovered only six times. It would appear to be over-large for +the tiny bird, until we remember that kinglets are wont to have a +numerous progeny in their pensile, globular home. It is made of light, +flimsy material--moss, strips of bark, and plant-fibre well knit +together and closely lined with feathers, which must be a grateful +addition to the babies, where they are reared in evergreens in cold, +northern woods. + + + Golden-crowned Kinglet + + (_Regulus satrapa_) Kinglet family + + _Called also_: GOLDEN-CROWNED GOLDCREST; FIERY-CROWNED WREN + + (Illustration facing p. 187) + + + _Length_--4 to 4.25 inches. About two inches smaller than the + English sparrow. + + _Male_--Upper parts grayish olive-green; wings and tail dusky, + margined with olive-green. Underneath soiled whitish. Centre + of crown bright orange, bordered by yellow and enclosed by + black line. Cheeks gray; a whitish line over the eye. + + _Female_--Similar, but centre of crown lemon-yellow and more + grayish underneath. + + _Range_--North America generally. Breeds from northern United + States northward. Winters chiefly from North Carolina to + Central America, but many remain north all the year. + + _Migrations_--September. April. Chiefly a winter resident + south of Canada. + +If this cheery little winter neighbor would keep quiet long enough, we +might have a glimpse of the golden crest that distinguishes him from +his equally lively cousin, the ruby-crowned; but he is so constantly +flitting about the ends of the twigs, peering at the bark for hidden +insects, twinkling his wings and fluttering among the evergreens with +more nervous restlessness than a vireo, that you may know him well +before you have a glimpse of his tri-colored crown. + +When the autumn foliage is all aglow with yellow and flame this tiny +sprite comes out of the north, where neither nesting nor moulting +could rob him of his cheerful spirits. Except the humming-bird and the +winter wren, he is the smallest bird we have. And yet, somewhere +stored up in his diminutive body, is warmth enough to withstand zero +weather. With evident enjoyment of the cold, he calls out a shrill, +wiry _zee, zee, zee_, that rings merrily from the pines and spruces +when our fingers are too numb to hold the opera glasses in an attempt +to follow his restless flittings from branch to branch. Is it one of +the unwritten laws of birds that the smaller their bodies the greater +their activity? + +When you see one kinglet about, you may be sure there are others not +far away, for, except in the nesting season, its habits are distinctly +social, its friendliness extending to the humdrum brown creeper, the +chickadees, and the nuthatches, in whose company it is often seen; +indeed, it is likely to be in almost any flock of the winter birds. +They are a merry band as they go exploring the trees together. The +kinglet can hang upside down, too, like the other acrobats, many of +whose tricks he has learned; and it can pick off insects from a tree +with as business-like an air as the brown creeper, but with none of +that soulless bird's plodding precision. + +In the early spring, just before this busy little sprite leaves us to +nest in Canada or Labrador--for heat is the one thing that he can't +cheerfully endure--a gushing, lyrical song bursts from his tiny +throat--a song whose volume is so out of proportion to the bird's size +that Nuttall's classification of kinglets with wrens doesn't seem far +wrong after all. + +Only rarely is a nest found so far south as the White Mountains. It is +said to be extraordinarily large for so small a bird; but that need +not surprise us when we learn that as many as ten creamy-white eggs, +blotched with brown and lavender, are no uncommon number for the +pensile cradle to hold. How do the tiny parents contrive to cover so +many eggs and to feed such a nestful of fledglings? + + + Solitary Vireo + + (_Vireo solitarius_) Vireo or Greenlet family + + _Called also_: BLUE-HEADED VIREO + + + _Length_--5.5 to 7 inches. A little smaller than the English + sparrow. + + _Male_--Dusky olive above; head bluish gray, with a white line + around the eye, spreading behind the eye into a patch. Beneath + whitish, with yellow-green wash on the sides. Wings dusky + olive, with two distinct white bars. Tail dusky, some quills + edged with white. + + _Female_--Similar, but her head is dusky olive. + + _Range_--United States to plains, and the southern British + provinces. Winters in Florida and southward. + + _Migrations_--May. Early October. Common during migrations; + more rarely a summer resident south of Massachusetts. + +By no means the recluse that its name would imply, the solitary vireo, +while a bird of the woods, shows a charming curiosity about the +stranger with opera-glasses in hand, who has penetrated to the deep, +swampy tangles, where it chooses to live. Peering at you through the +green undergrowth with an eye that seems especially conspicuous +because of its encircling white rim, it is at least as sociable and +cheerful as any member of its family, and Mr. Bradford Torrey credits +it with "winning tameness." "Wood-bird as it is," he says, "it will +sometimes permit the greatest familiarities. Two birds I have seen, +which allowed themselves to be stroked in the freest manner, while +sitting on the eggs, and which ate from my hand as readily as any pet +canary." + +The solitary vireo also builds a pensile nest, swung from the crotch +of a branch, not so high from the ground as the yellow-throated +vireo's nor so exquisitely finished, but still a beautiful little +structure of pine-needles, plant-fibre, dry leaves, and twigs, all +lichen-lined and bound and rebound with coarse spiders' webs. + +The distinguishing quality of this vireo's celebrated song is its +tenderness: a pure, serene uplifting of its loving, trustful nature +that seems inspired by a fine spirituality. + + + Red-eyed Vireo + + (_Vireo olivaceus_) Vireo or Greenlet family + + _Called also_: THE PREACHER + + + _Length_--5.75 to 6.25 inches. A fraction smaller than the + English sparrow. + + _Male and Female_--Upper parts light olive-green; well-defined + slaty-gray cap, with black marginal line, below which, and + forming an exaggerated eyebrow, is a line of white. A brownish + band runs from base of bill through the eye. The iris is + ruby-red. Underneath white, shaded with light greenish yellow + on sides and on under tail and wing coverts. + + _Range_--United States to Rockies and northward. Winters in + Central and South America. + + _Migrations_--April. October. Common summer resident. + +"You see it--you know it--do you hear me? Do you believe it?" is +Wilson Flagg's famous interpretation of the song of this commonest of +all the vireos, that you cannot mistake with such a key. He calls the +bird the preacher from its declamatory style: an up-and-down warble +delivered with a rising inflection at the close and followed by an +impressive silence, as if the little green orator were saying, "I +pause for a reply." + +Notwithstanding its quiet coloring, that so closely resembles the +leaves it hunts among, this vireo is rather more noticeable than its +relatives because of its slaty cap and the black-and-white lines over +its ruby eye, that, in addition to the song, are its marked +characteristics. + +Whether she is excessively stupid or excessively kind, the +mother-vireo has certainly won for herself no end of ridicule by +allowing the cowbird to deposit a stray egg in the exquisitely made, +pensile nest, where her own tiny white eggs are lying; and though the +young cowbird crowd and worry her little fledglings and eat their +dinner as fast as she can bring it in, no displeasure or grudging is +shown towards the dusky intruder that is sure to upset the rightful +heirs out of the nest before they are able to fly. + +In the heat of a midsummer noon, when nearly every other bird's voice +is hushed, and only the locust seems to rejoice in the fierce +sunshine, the little red-eyed vireo goes persistently about its +business of gathering insects from the leaves, not flitting nervously +about like a warbler, or taking its food on the wing like a +flycatcher, but patiently and industriously dining where it can, and +singing as it goes. + +When a worm is caught it is first shaken against a branch to kill it +before it is swallowed. Vireos haunt shrubbery and trees with heavy +foliage, all their hunting, singing, resting, and home-building being +done among the leaves--never on the ground. + + + White-eyed Vireo + + (_Vireo noveboracensis_) Vireo or Greenlet family + + + _Length_--5 to 5.3 inches. An inch shorter than the English + sparrow. + + _Male and Female_--Upper parts bright olive-green, washed with + grayish. Throat and underneath white; the breast and sides + greenish yellow; wings have two distinct bars of yellowish + white. Yellow line from beak to and around the eye, which has + a white iris. Feathers of wings and tail brownish and edged + with yellow. + + _Range_--United States to the Rockies, and to the Gulf regions + and beyond in winter. + + _Migrations_--May. September. Summer resident. + +"Pertest of songsters," the white-eyed vireo makes whatever +neighborhood it enters lively at once. Taking up a residence in the +tangled shrubbery or thickety undergrowth, it immediately begins to +scold like a crotchety old wren. It becomes irritated over the merest +trifles--a passing bumblebee, a visit from another bird to its tangle, +an unsuccessful peck at a gnat--anything seems calculated to rouse its +wrath and set every feather on its little body a-trembling, while it +sharply snaps out what might perhaps be freely constructed into +"cuss-words." + +And yet the inscrutable mystery is that this virago meekly permits the +lazy cowbird to deposit an egg in its nest, and will patiently sit +upon it, though it is as large as three of her own tiny eggs; and when +the little interloper comes out from his shell the mother-bird will +continue to give it the most devoted care long after it has shoved her +poor little starved babies out of the nest to meet an untimely death +in the smilax thicket below. + +An unusual variety of expression distinguishes this bird's voice from +the songs of the other vireos, which are apt to be monotonous, as they +are incessant. If you are so fortunate to approach the white-eyed +vireo before he suspects your presence, you may hear him amusing +himself by jumbling together snatches of the songs of the other birds +in a sort of potpourri; or perhaps he will be scolding or arguing with +an imaginary foe, then dropping his voice and talking confidentially +to himself. Suddenly he bursts into a charming, simple little song, as +if the introspection had given him reason for real joy. All these +vocal accomplishments suggest the chat at once; but the minute your +intrusion is discovered the sharp scolding, that is fairly screamed at +you from an enraged little throat, leaves no possible shadow of a +doubt as to the bird you have disturbed. It has the most emphatic call +and song to be heard in the woods; it snaps its words off very short. +"_Chick-a-rer chick_" is its usual call-note, jerked out with great +spitefulness. + +Wilson thus describes the jealously guarded nest: "This bird builds a +very neat little nest, often in the figure of an inverted cone; it is +suspended by the upper end of the two sides, on the circular bend of a +prickly vine, a species of smilax, that generally grows in low +thickets. Outwardly it is constructed of various light materials, bits +of rotten wood, fibres of dry stalks, of weeds, pieces of paper +(commonly newspapers, an article almost always found about its nest, +so that some of my friends have given it the name of the politician); +all these materials are interwoven with the silk of the caterpillars, +and the inside is lined with fine, dry grass and hair." + + + Warbling Vireo + + (_Vireo gilvus_) Vireo or Greenlet family + + + _Length_--5.5 to 6 inches. A little smaller than the English + sparrow. + + _Male and Female_--Ashy olive-green above, with head and neck + ash-colored. Dusky line over the eye. Underneath whitish, + faintly washed with dull yellow, deepest on sides; no bars on + wings. + + _Range_--North America, from Hudson Bay to Mexico. + + _Migrations_--May. Late September or early October. Summer + resident. + +This musical little bird shows a curious preference for rows of trees +in the village street or by the roadside, where he can be sure of an +audience to listen to his rich, continuous warble. There is a +mellowness about his voice, which rises loud, but not altogether +cheerfully, above the bird chorus, as if he were a gifted but slightly +disgruntled contralto. Too inconspicuously dressed, and usually too +high in the tree-top to be identified without opera-glasses, we may +easily mistake him by his voice for one of the warbler family, which +is very closely allied to the vireos. Indeed, this warbling vireo +seems to be the connecting link between them. + +Morning and afternoon, but almost never in the evening, we may hear +him rippling out song after song as he feeds on insects and berries +about the garden. But this familiarity lasts only until nesting time, +for off he goes with his little mate to some unfrequented lane near a +wood until their family is reared, when, with a perceptibly happier +strain in his voice, he once more haunts our garden and row of elms +before taking the southern journey. + + + Ovenbird + + (_Seiurus aurocapillus_) Wood Warbler family + + _Called also_: GOLDEN-CROWNED THRUSH; THE TEACHER; WOOD + WAGTAIL; GOLDEN-CROWNED WAGTAIL; GOLDEN-CROWNED ACCENTOR + + (Illustration facing p. 218) + + + _Length_--6 to 6.15 inches. Just a shade smaller than the + English sparrow. + + _Male and Female_--Upper parts olive, with an orange-brown + crown, bordered by black lines that converge toward the bill. + Under parts white; breast spotted and streaked on the sides. + White eye-ring. + + _Range_--United States, to Pacific slope. + + _Migrations_--May. October. Common summer resident. + +Early in May you may have the good fortune to see this little bird of +the woods strutting in and out of the garden shrubbery with a certain +mock dignity, like a child wearing its father's boots. Few birds can +walk without appearing more or less ridiculous, and however gracefully +and prettily it steps, this amusing little wagtail is no exception. +When seen at all--which is not often, for it is shy--it is usually on +the ground, not far from the shrubbery or a woodland thicket, under +which it will quickly dodge out of sight at the merest suspicion of a +footstep. To most people the bird is only a voice calling, "_Teacher, +Teacher, Teacher, Teacher, TEACHER!_" as Mr. Burroughs has interpreted +the notes that go off in pairs like a series of little explosions, +softly at first, then louder and louder and more shrill until the bird +that you at first thought far away seems to be shrieking his +penetrating crescendo into your very ears. But you may look until you +are tired before you find him in the high, dry wood, never near water. + +In the driest parts of the wood, here the ground is thickly carpeted +with dead leaves, you may some day notice a little bunch of them, that +look as if a plant, in pushing its way up through the ground, had +raised the leaves, rootlets, and twigs a trifle. Examine the spot +more carefully, and on one side you find an opening, and within the +ball of earth, softly lined with grass, lie four or five cream-white, +speckled eggs. It is only by a happy accident that this nest of the +ovenbird is discovered. The concealment could not be better. It is +this peculiarity of nest construction--in shape like a Dutch +oven--that has given the bird what DeKay considers its "trivial name." +Not far from the nest the parent birds scratch about in the leaves +like diminutive barn-yard fowls, for the grubs and insects hiding +under them. But at the first suspicion of an intruder their alarm +becomes pitiful. Panic-stricken, they become fairly limp with fear, +and drooping her wings and tail, the mother-bird drags herself hither +and thither over the ground. + +As utterly bewildered as his mate, the male darts, flies, and tumbles +about through the low branches, jerking and wagging his tail in +nervous spasms until you have beaten a double-quick retreat. + +In nesting time, at evening, a very few have heard the "luxurious +nuptial song" of the ovenbird; but it is a song to haunt the memory +forever afterward. Burroughs appears to be the first writer to record +this "rare bit of bird melody." "Mounting by easy flight to the top of +the tallest tree," says the author of "Wake-Robin," "the ovenbird +launches into the air with a sort of suspended, hovering flight, like +certain of the finches, and bursts into a perfect ecstasy of +song--clear, ringing, copious, rivalling the goldfinch's in vivacity +and the linnet's in melody." + + + Worm-eating Warbler + + (_Helmintherus vermivorus_) Wood Warbler family + + + _Length_--5.50 inches. Less than an inch shorter than the + English sparrow. + + _Male and Female_--Greenish olive above. Head yellowish brown, + with two black stripes through crown to the nape; also black + lines from the eyes to neck. Under parts buffy and white. + + _Range_--Eastern parts of United States. Nests as far north as + southern Illinois and southern Connecticut. Winters in the + Gulf States and southward. + + _Migrations_--May. September. Summer resident. + +In the Delaware Valley and along the same parallel, this inconspicuous +warbler is abundant, but north of New Jersey it is rare enough to give +an excitement to the day on which you discover it. No doubt it is +commoner than we suppose, for its coloring blends so admirably with +its habitats that it is probably very often overlooked. Its call-note, +a common chirp, has nothing distinguishing about it, and all +ornithologists confess to having been often misled by its song into +thinking it came from the chipping sparrow. It closely resembles that +of the pine warbler also. If it were as nervously active as most +warblers, we should more often discover it, but it is quite as +deliberate as a vireo, and in the painstaking way in which it often +circles around a tree while searching for spiders and other insects +that infest the trunks, it reminds us of the brown creeper. Sunny +slopes and hillsides covered with thick undergrowth are its preferred +foraging and nesting haunts. It is often seen hopping directly on the +dry ground, where it places its nest, and it never mounts far above +it. The well-drained, sunny situation for the home is chosen with the +wisdom of a sanitary expert. + + + Acadian Flycatcher + + (_Empidonax virescens_) Flycatcher family + + _Called also_: SMALL GREEN-CRESTED FLYCATCHER; SMALL PEWEE + + + _Length_--5.75 to 6 inches. A trifle smaller than the English + sparrow. + + _Male_--Dull olive above. Two conspicuous yellowish wing-bars. + Throat white, shading into pale yellow on breast. Light gray + or white underneath. Upper part of bill black; lower mandible + flesh-color. White eye-ring. + + _Female_--Greener above and more yellow below. + + _Range_--From Canada to Mexico, Central America, and West + Indies. Most common in south temperate latitudes. Winters in + southerly limit of range. + + _Migrations_--April. September. Summer resident. + +When all our northern landscape takes on the exquisite, soft green, +gray, and yellow tints of early spring, this little flycatcher, in +perfect color-harmony with the woods it darts among, comes out of the +south. It might be a leaf that is being blown about, touched by the +sunshine filtering through the trees, and partly shaded by the young +foliage casting its first shadows. + +Woodlands, through which small streams meander lazily, inviting swarms +of insects to their boggy shores, make ideal hunting grounds for the +Acadian flycatcher. It chooses a low rather than a high, conspicuous +perch, that other members of its family invariably select; and from +such a lookout it may be seen launching into the air after the passing +gnat--darting downward, then suddenly mounting upward in its aA"rial +hunt, the vigorous clicks of the beak as it closes over its tiny +victims testifying to the bird's unerring aim and its hearty appetite. + +While perching, a constant tail-twitching is kept up; and a faint, +fretful "_Tshee-kee, tshee-kee_" escapes the bird when inactively +waiting for a dinner to heave in sight. + +In the Middle Atlantic States its peeping sound and the clicking of +its parti-colored bill are infrequently heard in the village streets +in the autumn, when the shy and solitary birds are enticed from the +deep woods by a prospect of a more plentiful diet of insects, +attracted by the fruit in orchards and gardens. + +Never far from the ground, on two or more parallel branches, the +shallow, unsubstantial nest is laid. Some one has cleverly described +it as "a tuft of hay caught by the limb from a load driven under it," +but this description omits all mention of the quantities of blossoms +that must be gathered to line the cradle for the tiny, cream white +eggs spotted with brown. + + + Yellow-bellied Flycatcher + + (_Empidonax flaviventris_) Flycatcher family + + + _Length_--5 to 5.6 inches. About an inch smaller than the + English sparrow. + + _Male_--Rather dark, but true olive-green above. Throat and + breast yellowish olive, shading into pale yellow underneath, + including wing linings and under tail coverts. Wings have + yellowish bars. Whitish ring around eye. Upper part of bill + black, under part whitish or flesh-colored. + + _Female_--Smaller, with brighter yellow under parts and more + decidedly yellow wing-bars. + + _Range_--North America, from Labrador to Panama, and westward + from the Atlantic to the plains. Winters in Central America. + + _Migrations_--May. September, Summer resident. More commonly a + migrant only. + +This is the most yellow of the small flycatchers and the only Eastern +species with a yellow instead of a white throat. Without hearing +its call-note, "_pse-ek-pse-ek_," which it abruptly sneezes rather +than utters, it is quite impossible, as it darts among the trees, +to tell it from the Acadian flycatcher, with which even Audubon +confounded it. Both these little birds choose the same sort of +retreats--well-timbered woods near a stream that attracts myriads of +insects to its spongy shores--and both are rather shy and solitary. +The yellow-bellied species has a far more northerly range, however, +than its Southern relative or even the small green-crested flycatcher. +It is rare in the Middle States, not common even in New England, +except in the migrations, but from the Canada border northward its +soft, plaintive whistle, which is its love-song, may be heard in every +forest where it nests. All the flycatchers seem to make a noise with +so much struggle, such convulsive jerkings of head and tail, and +flutterings of the wings that, considering the scanty success of their +musical attempts, it is surprising they try to lift their voices at +all when the effort almost literally lifts them off their feet. + +While this little flycatcher is no less erratic than its Acadian +cousin, its nest is never slovenly. One couple had their home in a +wild-grape bower in Pennsylvania; a Virginia creeper in New Jersey +supported another cradle that was fully twenty feet above the ground; +but in Labrador, where the bird has its chosen breeding grounds, the +bulky nest is said to be invariably placed either in the moss by the +brookside or in some old stump, should the locality be too swampy. + + + Black-throated Green Warbler + + (_Dendroica virens_) Wood Warbler family + + + _Length_--5 inches. Over an inch smaller than the English + sparrow. + + _Male_--Back and crown of head bright yellowish olive-green. + Forehead, band over eye, cheeks, and sides of neck rich + yellow. Throat, upper breast, and stripe along sides black. + Underneath yellowish white. Wings and tail brownish olive, the + former with two white bars, the latter with much white in + outer quills. In autumn, plumage resembling the female's. + + _Female_--Similar; chin yellowish; throat and breast dusky, + the black being mixed with yellowish. + + _Range_--Eastern North America, from Hudson Bay to Central + America and Mexico. Nests north of Illinois and New York. + Winters in tropics. + + _Migrations_--May. October. Common summer resident north of + New Jersey. + +There can be little difficulty in naming a bird so brilliantly and +distinctly marked as this green, gold, and black warbler, that lifts +up a few pure, sweet, tender notes, loud enough to attract attention +when he visits the garden. "_See-see, see-saw_," he sings, but there +is a tone of anxiety betrayed in the simple, sylvan strain that always +seems as if the bird needed reassuring, possibly due to the rising +inflection, like an interrogative, of the last notes. + +However abundant about our homes during the migrations, this warbler, +true to the family instinct, retreats to the woods to nest--not always +so far away as Canada, the nesting ground of most warblers, for in +many Northern States the bird is commonly found throughout the summer. +Doubtless it prefers tall evergreen trees for its mossy, grassy nest; +but it is not always particular, so that the tree be a tall one with a +convenient fork in an upper branch. + +Early in September increased numbers emerge from the woods, the +plumage of the male being less brilliant than when we saw it last, as +if the family cares of the summer had proved too taxing. For nearly a +month longer they hunt incessantly, with much flitting about the +leaves and twigs at the ends of branches in the shrubbery and +evergreens, for the tiny insects that the warblers must devour by the +million during their all too brief visit. + + + [Illustration: RUBY-THROATED HUMMINGBIRD] + + [Illustration: GOLDEN- AND RUBY-CROWNED KINGLETS] + + + + +BIRDS CONSPICUOUSLY YELLOW, AND ORANGE + + Yellow-throated Vireo Prairie Warbler + American Goldfinch Wilson's Warbler or Black-cap + Evening Grosbeak Yellow Warbler or + Blue-winged Warbler Summer Yellowbird + Canadian Warbler Yellow Redpoll Warbler + Hooded Warbler Yellow-breasted Chat + Kentucky Warbler Maryland Yellowthroat + Magnolia Warbler Blackburnian Warbler + Mourning Warbler Redstart + Nashville Warbler Baltimore Oriole + Pine Warbler + +Look also among the Yellowish Olive Birds in the preceding group; and +among the Brown Birds for the Meadowlark and Flicker. See also Parula +Warbler (Slate) and Yellow-bellied Woodpecker (Black and White). + + + Yellow-throated Vireo + + (_Vireo flavifrons_) Vireo or Greenlet family + + + _Length_--5.5 to 6 inches. A little smaller than the English + sparrow. + + _Male and Female_--Lemon-yellow on throat, upper breast; line + around the eye and forehead. Yellow, shading into olive-green, + on head, back, and shoulders. Underneath white. Tail dark + brownish, edged with white. Wings a lighter shade, with two + white bands across, and some quills edged with white. + + _Range_--North America, from Newfoundland to Gulf of Mexico, + and westward to the Rockies. Winters in the tropics. + + _Migrations_--May. September. Spring and autumn migrant; more + rarely resident. + +This is undoubtedly the beauty of the vireo family--a group of neat, +active, stoutly built, and vigorous little birds of yellow, greenish, +and white plumage; birds that love the trees, and whose feathers +reflect the coloring of the leaves they hide, hunt, and nest among. +"We have no birds," says Bradford Torrey, "so unsparing of their +music: they sing from morning till night." + +The yellow-throated vireo partakes of all the family characteristics, +but, in addition to these, it eclipses all its relatives in the +brilliancy of its coloring and in the art of nest-building, which it +has brought to a state of hopeless perfection. No envious bird need +try to excel the exquisite finish of its workmanship. Happily, it has +wit enough to build its pensile nest high above the reach of small +boys, usually suspending it from a branch overhanging running water +that threatens too precipitous a bath to tempt the young climbers. + +However common in the city parks and suburban gardens this bird may be +during the migrations, it delights in a secluded retreat overgrown +with tall trees and near a stream, such as is dear to the solitary +vireo as well when the nesting time approaches. High up in the trees +we hear its rather sad, persistent strain, that is more in harmony +with the dim forest than with the gay flower garden, where, if the +truth must be told, its song is both monotonous and depressing. Mr. +Bicknell says it is the only vireo that sings as it flies. + + + American Goldfinch + + (_Spinus tristis_) Finch family + + _Called also_: WILD CANARY; YELLOWBIRD; THISTLE BIRD + + (See frontispiece) + + + _Length_--5 to 5.2 inches. About an inch smaller than the + English sparrow. + + _Male_--_In summer plumage_: Bright yellow, except on crown of + head, frontlet, wings, and tail, which are black. Whitish + markings on wings give effect of bands. Tail with white on + inner webs. _In winter plumage_: Head yellow-olive; no + frontlet; black drab, with reddish tinge; shoulders and throat + yellow; soiled brownish white underneath. + + _Female_--Brownish olive above, yellowish white beneath. + + _Range_--North America, from the tropics to the Fur Countries + and westward to the Columbia River and California. Common + throughout its range. + + _Migrations_--May--October. Common summer resident, frequently + seen throughout the winter as well. + +An old field, overgrown with thistles and tall, stalky wild flowers, +is the paradise of the goldfinches, summer or winter. Here they +congregate in happy companies while the sunshine and goldenrod are as +bright as their feathers, and cling to the swaying slender stems that +furnish an abundant harvest, daintily lunching upon the fluffy seeds +of thistle blossoms, pecking at the mullein-stalks, and swinging +airily among the asters and Michaelmas daisies; or, when snow covers +the same field with a glistening crust, above which the brown stalks +offer only a meagre dinner, the same birds, now sombrely clad in +winter feathers, cling to the swaying stems with cheerful fortitude. + +At your approach, the busy company rises on the wing, and with +peculiar, wavy flight rise and fall through the air, marking each +undulation with a cluster of notes, sweet and clear, that come +floating downward from the blue ether, where the birds seem to bound +along exultant in their motion and song alike. + +In the spring the plumage of the goldfinch, which has been drab and +brown through the winter months, is moulted or shed--a change that +transforms the bird from a sombre Puritan into the gayest of +cavaliers, and seems to wonderfully exalt his spirits. He bursts into +a wild, sweet, incoherent melody that might be the outpouring from two +or three throats at once instead of one, expressing his rapture +somewhat after the manner of the canary, although his song lacks the +variety and the finish of his caged namesake. What tone of sadness in +his music the man found who applied the adjective _tristis_ to his +scientific name it is difficult to imagine when listening to the notes +that come bubbling up from the bird's happy heart. + +With plumage so lovely and song so delicious and dreamy, it is small +wonder that numbers of our goldfinches are caught and caged, however +inferior their song may be to the European species recently introduced +into this country. Heard in Central Park, New York, where they were +set at liberty, the European goldfinches seemed to sing with more +abandon, perhaps, but with no more sweetness than their American +cousins. The song remains at its best all through the summer months, +for the bird is a long wooer. It is nearly July before he mates, and +not until the tardy cedar birds are house-building in the orchard do +the happy pair begin to carry grass, moss, and plant-down to a crotch +of some tall tree convenient to a field of such wild flowers as will +furnish food to a growing family. Doubtless the birds wait for this +food to be in proper condition before they undertake parental duties +at all--the most plausible excuse for their late nesting. The cares +evolving from four to six pale-blue eggs will suffice to quiet the +father's song for the winter by the first of September, and fade all +the glory out of his shining coat. As pretty a sight as any garden +offers is when a family of goldfinches alights on the top of a +sunflower to feast upon the oily seeds--a perfect harmony of brown and +gold. + + + [Illustration: REDSTART (Upper Figure, Female; Lower Figure, Male)] + + [Illustration: BALTIMORE ORIOLE (Upper Figure, Male; + Lower Figure, Female)] + + + Evening Grosbeak + + (_Coccothraustes vespertinus_) Finch family + + + _Length_--8 inches. Two inches shorter than the robin. + + _Male_--Forehead, shoulders, and underneath clear yellow: dull + yellow on lower back; sides of the head, throat, and breast + olive-brown. Crown, tail, and wings black, the latter with + white secondary feathers. Bill heavy and blunt, and yellow. + + _Female_--Brownish gray, more or less suffused with yellow. + Wings and tail blackish, with some white feathers. + + _Range_--Interior of North America. Resident from Manitoba + northward. Common winter visitor in northwestern United States + and Mississippi Valley; casual winter visitor in northern + Atlantic States. + +In the winter of 1889-90 Eastern people had the rare treat of becoming +acquainted with this common bird of the Northwest, that, in one of its +erratic travels, chose to visit New England and the Atlantic States, +as far south as Delaware, in great numbers. Those who saw the evening +grosbeaks then remember how beautiful their yellow plumage--a rare +winter tint--looked in the snow-covered trees, where small companies +of the gentle and even tame visitors enjoyed the buds and seeds of the +maples, elders, and evergreens. Possibly evening grosbeaks were in +vogue for the next season's millinery, or perhaps Eastern +ornithologists had a sudden zeal to investigate their structural +anatomy. At any rate, these birds, whose very tameness, that showed +slight acquaintance with mankind, should have touched the coldest +heart, received the warmest kind of a reception from hot shot. The few +birds that escaped to the solitudes of Manitoba could not be expected +to tempt other travellers eastward by an account of their visit. The +bird is quite likely to remain rare in the East. + +But in the Mississippi Valley and throughout the northwest, companies +of from six to sixty may be regularly counted upon as winter neighbors +on almost every farm. Here the females keep up a busy chatting, like a +company of cedar birds, and the males punctuate their pauses with a +single shrill note that gives little indication of their vocal powers. +But in the solitude of the northern forests the love-song is said to +resemble the robin's at the start. Unhappily, after a most promising +beginning, the bird suddenly stops, as if he were out of breath. + + + Blue-Winged Warbler + + (_Helminthophila pinus_) Wood Warbler family + + _Called also_: BLUE-WINGED YELLOW WARBLER + + (Illustration facing p. 17) + + + _Length_--4.75 inches. An inch and a half shorter than the + English sparrow. + + _Male_--Crown of head and all under parts bright yellow. Back + olive-green. Wings and tail bluish slate, the former with + white bars, and three outer tail quills with large white + patches on their inner webs. + + _Female_--Paler and more olive. + + _Range_--Eastern United States, from southern New England and + Minnesota, the northern limit of its nesting range, to Mexico + and Central America, where it winters. + + _Migrations_--May. September. Summer resident. + +In the naming of warblers, bluish slate is the shade intended when +blue is mentioned; so that if you see a dainty little olive and yellow +bird with slate-colored wings and tail hunting for spiders in the +blossoming orchard or during the early autumn you will have seen the +beautiful blue-winged warbler. It has a rather leisurely way of +hunting, unlike the nervous, restless flitting about from twig to twig +that is characteristic of many of its many cousins. The search is +thorough--bark, stems, blossoms, leaves are inspected for larvA| and +spiders, with many pretty motions of head and body. Sometimes, hanging +with head downward, the bird suggests a yellow titmouse. After blossom +time a pair of these warblers, that have done serviceable work in the +orchard in their all too brief stay, hurry off to dense woods to nest. +They are usually to be seen in pairs at all seasons. Not to "high +coniferous trees in northern forests"--the Mecca of innumerable +warblers--but to scrubby, second growth of woodland borders, or lower +trees in the heart of the woods, do these dainty birds retreat. There +they build the usual warbler nest of twigs, bits of bark, leaves, and +grasses, but with this peculiarity: the numerous leaves with which the +nest is wrapped all have their stems pointing upward. Mr. Frank +Chapman has admirably defined their song as consisting of "two +drawled, wheezy notes--_swee-chee_, the first inhaled, the second +exhaled." + + + Canadian Warbler + + (_Sylvania canadensis_) Wood Warbler family + + _Called also_: CANADIAN FLYCATCHER; SPOTTED CANADIAN WARBLER + + + _Length_--5 to 5.6 inches. About an inch shorter than the + English sparrow. + + _Male_--Immaculate bluish ash above, without marks on wings or + tail; crown spotted with arrow-shaped black marks. Cheeks, + line from bill to eye, and underneath clear yellow. Black + streaks forming a necklace across the breast. + + _Female_--Paler, with necklace indistinct. + + _Range_--North America, from Manitoba and Labrador to tropics. + + _Migrations_---May. September. Summer resident; most abundant + in migrations. + +Since about one-third of all the song-birds met with in a year's +rambles are apt to be warblers, the novice cannot devote his first +attention to a better group, confusing though it is by reason of its +size and the repetition of the same colors in so many bewildering +combinations. Monotony, however, is unknown in the warbler family. +Whoever can rightly name every warbler, male and female, on sight is +uniquely accomplished. + +The jet necklace worn on this bird's breast is its best mark of +identification. Its form is particularly slender and graceful, as +might be expected in a bird so active, one to whom a hundred tiny +insects barely afford a dinner that must often be caught piecemeal as +it flies past. To satisfy its appetite, which cannot but be dainty in +so thoroughly charming a bird, it lives in low, boggy woods, in such +retreats as Wilson's black-capped warbler selects for a like reason. +Neither of these two "flycatcher" warblers depends altogether on +catching insects on the wing; countless thousands are picked off the +under sides of leaves and about the stems of twigs in true warbler +fashion. + +The Canadian's song is particularly loud, sweet, and vivacious. It is +hazardous for any one without long field practice to try to name any +warbler by its song alone, but possibly this one's animated music is +as characteristic as any. + +The nest is built on the ground on a mossy bank or elevated into the +root crannies of some large tree, where there is much water in the +woods. Bits of bark, dead wood, moss, and fine rootlets, all carefully +wrapped with leaves, go to make the pretty cradle. Unhappily, the +little Canada warblers are often cheated out of their natural rights, +like so many other delightful song-birds, by the greedy interloper +that the cowbird deposits in their nest. + + + Hooded Warbler + + (_Sylvania mitrata_) Wood Warbler family + + + _Length_--5 to 5.75 inches. About an inch shorter than the + English sparrow. + + _Male_--Head, neck, chin, and throat black like a hood in + mature male specimens only. Hood restricted, or altogether + wanting in female and young. Upper parts rich olive. Forehead, + cheeks, and underneath yellow. Some conspicuous white on tail + feathers. + + _Female_--Duller, and with restricted cowl. + + _Range_--United States east of Rockies, and from southern + Michigan and southern New England to West Indies and tropical + America, where it winters. Very local. + + _Migrations_--May. September. Summer resident. + +This beautifully marked, sprightly little warbler might be mistaken in +his immaturity for the yellowthroat; and as it is said to take him +nearly three years to grow his hood, with the completed cowl and cape, +there is surely sufficient reason here for the despair that often +seizes the novice in attempting to distinguish the perplexing +warblers. Like its Southern counterpart, the hooded warbler prefers +wet woods and low trees rather than high ones, for much of its food +consists of insects attracted by the dampness, and many of them must +be taken on the wing. Because of its tireless activity the bird's +figure is particularly slender and graceful--a trait, too, to which we +owe all the glimpses of it we are likely to get throughout the summer. +It has a curious habit of spreading its tail, as if it wished you to +take special notice of the white spots that adorn it; not flirting it, +as the redstart does his more gorgeous one, but simply opening it like +a fan as it flies and darts about. + +Its song, which is particularly sweet and graceful and with more +variation than most warblers' music, has been translated +"_Che-we-eo-tsip, tsip, che-we-eo_," again interpreted by Mr. Chapman +as "You must come to the woods, or you won't see me." + + + Kentucky Warbler + + (_Geothlypis formosa_) Wood Warbler family + + + _Length_--5.5 inches. Nearly an inch shorter than the English + sparrow. + + _Male_--Upper parts olive-green; under parts yellow; a yellow + line from the bill passes over and around the eye. Crown of + head, patch below the eye, and line defining throat, black. + + _Female_--Similar, but paler, and with grayish instead of + black markings. + + _Range_--United States eastward from the Rockies, and from + Iowa and Connecticut to Central America, where it winters. + + _Migrations_--May. September. Summer resident. + +No bird is common at the extreme limits of its range, and so this +warbler has a reputation for rarity among the New England +ornithologists that would surprise people in the middle South and +Southwest. After all that may be said in the books, a bird is either +common or rare to the individual who may or may not have happened to +become acquainted with it in any part of its chosen territory. Plenty +of people in Kentucky, where we might judge from its name this bird is +supposed to be most numerous, have never seen or heard of it, while a +student on the Hudson River, within sight of New York, knows it +intimately. It also nests regularly in certain parts of the +Connecticut Valley. "Who is my neighbor?" is often a question +difficult indeed to answer where birds are concerned. In the chapter, +"Spring at the Capital," which, with every reading of "Wake Robin," +inspires the bird-lover with fresh zeal, Mr. Burroughs writes of the +Kentucky warbler: "I meet with him in low, damp places, in the woods, +usually on the steep sides of some little run. I hear at intervals a +clear, strong, bell-like whistle or warble, and presently catch a +glimpse of the bird as he jumps up from the ground to take an insect +or worm from the under side of a leaf. This is his characteristic +movement. He belongs to the class of ground warblers, and his range is +very low, indeed lower than that of any other species with which I am +acquainted." + +Like the ovenbird and comparatively few others, for most birds hop +over the ground, the Kentucky warbler _walks_ rapidly about, looking +for insects under the fallen leaves, and poking his inquisitive beak +into every cranny where a spider may be lurking. The bird has a +pretty, conscious way of flying up to a perch, a few feet above the +ground, as a tenor might advance towards the footlights of a stage, to +pour forth his clear, penetrating whistle, that in the nesting season +especially is repeated over and over again with tireless persistency. + + + Magnolia Warbler + + (_Dendroica maculosa_) Wood Warbler family + + _Called also_: BLACK-AND-YELLOW WARBLER; SPOTTED WARBLER; + BLUE-HEADED YELLOW-RUMPED WARBLER + + + _Length_--4.75 to 5 inches. About an inch and a half smaller + than the English sparrow. + + _Male_--Crown of head slate-color, bordered on either side by + a white line; a black line, apparently running through the + eye, and a yellow line below it, merging into the yellow + throat. Lower back and under parts yellow. Back, wings, and + tail blackish olive. Large white patch on the wings, and the + middle of the tail-quills white. Throat and sides heavily + streaked with black. + + _Female_--Has greener back, is paler, and has less distinct + markings. + + _Range_--North America, from Hudson Bay to Panama. Summers + from northern Michigan and northern New England northward; + winters in Central America and Cuba. + + _Migrations_--May. October. Spring and summer migrant. + +In spite of the bird's name, one need not look for it in the glossy +magnolia trees of the southern gardens more than in the shrubbery on +New England lawns, and during the migrations it is quite as likely to +be found in one place as in the other. Its true preference, however, +is for the spruces and hemlocks of its nesting ground in the northern +forests. For these it deserts us after a brief hunt about the tender, +young spring foliage and blossoms, where the early worm lies +concealed, and before we have become so well acquainted with its +handsome clothes that we will instantly recognize it in the duller +ones it wears on its return trip in the autumn. The position of the +white marks on the tail feathers of this warbler, however, is the clue +by which it may be identified at any season or any stage of its +growth. If the white bar runs across the _middle_ of the warbler's +tail, you can be sure of the identity of the bird. A nervous and +restless hunter, it nevertheless seems less shy than many of its kin. +Another pleasing characteristic is that it brings back with it in +October the loud, clear, rapid whistle with which it has entertained +its nesting mate in the Canada woods through the summer. + + + Mourning Warbler + + (_Geothlypis philadelphia_) Wood Warbler family + + _Called also_: MOURNING GROUND WARBLER + + + _Length_--5 to 5.6 inches. About an inch smaller than the + English sparrow. + + _Male_--Gray head and throat; the breast gray; the feathers + with black edges that make them look crinkled, like crape. The + black markings converge into a spot on upper breast. Upper + parts, except head, olive. Underneath rich yellow. + + _Female_--Similar, but duller; throat and breast buff and + dusky where the male is black. Back olive-green. + + _Range_--"Eastern North America; breeds from eastern Nebraska, + northern New York, and Nova Scotia northward, and southward + along the Alleghanies to Pennsylvania. Winters in the + tropics."--_Chapman._ + + _Migrations_--May. September. Spring and autumn migrant. + +Since Audubon met with but one of these birds in his incessant +trampings, and Wilson secured only an immature, imperfectly marked +specimen for his collection, the novice may feel no disappointment if +he fails to make the acquaintance of this "gay and agreeable widow." +And yet the shy and wary bird is not unknown in Central Park, New York +City. Even where its clear, whistled song strikes the ear with a +startling novelty that invites to instant pursuit of the singer, you +may look long and diligently through the undergrowth without finding +it. Dr. Merriam says the whistle resembles the syllables "_true, true, +true, tru, too_, the voice rising on the first three syllables and +falling on the last two." In the nesting season this song is repeated +over and over again with a persistency worthy of a Kentucky warbler. +It is delivered from a perch within a few feet of the ground, as high +as the bird seems ever inclined to ascend. + + + [Illustration: CARDINAL] + + [Illustration: SCARLET TANAGER Male, in mature plumage, perching; + female on nest.] + + + Nashville Warbler + + (_Helminthophila ruficapilla_) Wood Warbler family + + + _Length_--4.75 to 5 inches. About an inch and a half smaller + than the English sparrow. + + _Male_--Olive-green above; yellow underneath. Slate-gray head + and neck. Partially concealed chestnut patch on crown. Wings + and tail olive-brown and without markings. + + _Female_--Dull olive and paler, with brownish wash underneath. + + _Range_--North America, westward to the plains; north to the + Fur Countries, and south to Central America and Mexico. Nests + north of Illinois and northern New England; winters in + tropics. + + _Migrations_--April. September or October. + +It must not be thought that this beautiful warbler confines itself to +backyards in the city of Nashville simply because Wilson discovered it +near there and gave it a local name, for the bird's actual range +reaches from the fur trader's camp near Hudson Bay to the adobe +villages of Mexico and Central America, and over two thousand miles +east and west in the United States. It chooses open rather than dense +woods and tree-bordered fields. It seems to have a liking for hemlocks +and pine trees, especially if near a stream that attracts insects to +its shores; and Dr. Warren notes that in Pennsylvania he finds small +flocks of these warblers in the autumn migration, feeding in the +willow trees near little rivers and ponds. Only in the northern parts +of the United States is their nest ever found, for the northern +British provinces are their preferred nesting ground. One seen in the +White Mountains was built on a mossy, rocky ledge, directly on the +ground at the foot of a pine tree, and made of rootlets, moss, needles +from the trees overhead, and several layers of leaves outside, with a +lining of fine grasses that cradled four white, speckled eggs. + +Audubon likened the bird's feeble note to the breaking of twigs. + + + Pine Warbler + + (_Dendroica vigorsii_) Wood Warbler family + + _Called also_: PINE-CREEPING WARBLER + + + _Length_--5.5 to 6 inches. A trifle smaller than the English + sparrow. + + _Male_--Yellowish olive above; clear yellow below, shading to + grayish white, with obscure dark streaks on side of breast. + Two whitish wing-bars; two outer tail feathers partly white. + + _Female_--Duller; grayish white only faintly tinged with + yellow underneath. + + _Range_--North America, east of the Rockies; north to + Manitoba, and south to Florida and the Bahamas. Winters from + southern Illinois southward. + + _Migrations_--March or April. October or later. Common summer + resident. + +The pine warbler closely presses the myrtle warbler for the first +place in the ranks of the family migrants, but as the latter bird +often stays north all winter, it is usually given the palm. Here is a +warbler, let it be recorded, that is fittingly named, for it is a +denizen of pine woods only; most common in the long stretches of pine +forests at the south and in New York and New England, and +correspondingly uncommon wherever the woods-man's axe has laid the +pine trees low throughout its range. Its "simple, sweet, and drowsy +song," writes Mr. Parkhurst, is always associated "with the smell of +pines on a sultry day." It recalls that of the junco and the social +sparrow or chippy. + +Creeping over the bark of trees and peering into every crevice like a +nuthatch; running along the limbs, not often hopping nervously or +flitting like the warblers; darting into the air for a passing insect, +or descending to the ground to feed on seeds and berries, the pine +warbler has, by a curious combination, the movements that seem to +characterize several different birds. + +It is one of the largest and hardiest members of its family, but not +remarkable for its beauty. It is a sociable traveller, cheerfully +escorting other warblers northward, and welcoming to its band both the +yellow redpolls and the myrtle warblers. These birds are very often +seen together in the pine and other evergreen trees in our lawns and +in the large city parks. + + + Prairie Warbler + + (_Dendroica discolor_) Wood Warbler family + + + _Length_--4.75 to 5 inches. About an inch and a half shorter + than the English sparrow. + + _Male_--Olive-green above, shading to yellowish on the head, + and with brick-red spots on back between the shoulders. A + yellow line over the eye; wing-bars and all under parts bright + yellow, heavily streaked with black on the sides. Line through + the eye and crescent below it, black. Much white in outer tail + feathers. + + _Female_--Paler; upper parts more grayish olive, and markings + less distinct than male's. + + _Range_--Eastern half of the United States. Nests as far north + as New England and Michigan. Winters from Florida southward. + + _Migrations_--May. September. Summer resident. + +Doubtless this diminutive bird was given its name because it prefers +open country rather than the woods--the scrubby undergrowth of oaks, +young evergreens, and bushes that border clearings being as good a +place as any to look for it, and not the wind-swept, treeless tracts +of the wild West. Its range is southerly. The Southern and Middle +States are where it is most abundant. Here is a wood warbler that is +not a bird of the woods--less so, in fact, than either the summer +yellowbird (yellow warbler) or the palm warbler, that are eminently +neighborly and fond of pasture lands and roadside thickets. But the +prairie warblers are rather more retiring little sprites than their +cousins, and it is not often we get a close enough view of them to +note the brick-red spots on their backs, which are their +distinguishing marks. They have a most unkind preference for briery +bushes, that discourage human intimacy. In such forbidding retreats +they build their nest of plant-fibre, rootlets, and twigs, lined with +plant-down and hair. + +The song of an individual prairie warbler makes only a slight +impression. It consists "of a series of six or seven quickly repeated +_zees_ the next to the last one being the highest" (Chapman). But the +united voices of a dozen or more of these pretty little birds, that +often sing together, afford something approaching a musical treat. + + + Wilson's Warbler + + (_Sylvania pusilla_) Wood Warbler family + + _Called also_: BLACK-CAP; GREEN BLACK-CAPPED WARBLER; + WILSON'S FLYCATCHER + + + _Length_--4.75 to 5 inches. About an inch and a half shorter + than the English sparrow. + + _Male_--Black cap; yellow forehead; all other upper parts + olive-green; rich yellow underneath. + + _Female_--Lacks the black cap. + + _Range_--North America, from Alaska and Nova Scotia to Panama. + Winters south of Gulf States. Nests chiefly north of the + United States. + + _Migrations_--May. September. Spring and autumn migrant. + +To see this strikingly marked little bird one must be on the sharp +lookout for it during the latter half of May, or at the season of +apple bloom, and the early part of September. It passes northward with +an almost scornful rapidity. Audubon mentions having seen it in Maine +at the end of October, but this specimen surely must have been an +exceptional laggard. + +In common with several others of its family, it is exceedingly expert +in catching insects on the wing; but it may be known as no true +flycatcher from the conspicuous rich yellow of its under parts, and +also from its habit of returning from a midair sally to a different +perch from the one it left to pursue its dinner. A true flycatcher +usually returns to its old perch after each hunt. + +To indulge in this aA"rial chase with success, these warblers select +for their home and hunting ground some low woodland growth where a +sluggish stream attracts myriads of insects to the boggy neighborhood. +Here they build their nest in low bushes or upon the ground. Four or +five grayish eggs, sprinkled with cinnamon-colored spots in a circle +around the larger end, are laid in the grassy cradle in June. Mr. H. +D. Minot found one of these nests on Pike's Peak at an altitude of +11,000 feet, almost at the limit of vegetation. The same authority +compares the bird's song to that of the redstart and the yellow +warbler. + + + [Illustration: YELLOW-BILLED CUCKOOS THE DAY BEFORE LEAVING NEST.] + + [Illustration: FIELD SPARROW BABIES.] + + + Yellow Redpoll Warbler + + (_Dendroica palmarum hypochrysea_) Wood Warbler family + + _Called also_: YELLOW PALM WARBLER + + + _Length_--5.5 to 5.75 inches. A little smaller than the + English sparrow. + + _Male and Female_--Chestnut crown. Upper parts brownish olive; + greenest on lower back. Underneath uniform bright yellow, + streaked with chestnut on throat, breast, and sides. Yellow + line over and around the eye. Wings unmarked. Tail edged with + olive-green; a few white spots near tips of outer quills. More + brownish above in autumn, and with a grayish wash over the + yellow under parts. + + _Range_--Eastern parts of North America. Nests from Nova + Scotia northward. Winters in the Gulf States. + + _Migrations_--April. October. Spring and autumn migrant. + +While the uniform yellow of this warbler's under parts in any plumage +is its distinguishing mark, it also has a flycatcher's trait of +constantly flirting its tail, that is at once an outlet for its +superabundant vivacity and a fairly reliable aid to identification. +The tail is jerked, wagged, and flirted like a baton in the hands of +an inexperienced leader of an orchestra. One need not go to the woods +to look for the restless little sprite that comes northward when the +early April foliage is as yellow and green as its feathers. It prefers +the fields and roadsides, and before there are leaves enough on the +undergrowth to conceal it we may come to know it as well as it is +possible to know any bird whose home life is passed so far away. +Usually it is the first warbler one sees in the spring in New York and +New England. With all the alertness of a flycatcher, it will dart into +the air after insects that fly near the ground, keeping up a constant +_chip, chip_, fine and shrill, at one end of the small body, and the +liveliest sort of tail motions at the other. The pine warbler often +bears it company. + +With the first suspicion of warm weather, off goes this hardy little +fellow that apparently loves the cold almost well enough to stay north +all the year like its cousin, the myrtle warbler. It builds a +particularly deep nest, of the usual warbler construction, on the +ground, but its eggs are rosy rather than the bluish white of others. + +In the Southern States the bird becomes particularly neighborly, and +is said to enter the streets and gardens of towns with a chippy's +familiarity. + + * * * * * + +Palm Warbler or Redpoll Warbler (_Dendroica palmarum_) differs from +the preceding chiefly in its slightly smaller size, the more +grayish-brown tint in its olive upper parts, and the uneven shade of +yellow underneath that varies from clear yellow to soiled whitish. It +is the Western counterpart of the yellow redpoll, and is most common +in the Mississippi Valley. Strangely enough, however, it is this +warbler, and not _hypochrysea_, that goes out of its way to winter in +Florida, where it is abundant all winter. + + + Yellow Warbler + + (_Dendroica A|stiva_) Wood Warbler family + + _Called also_: SUMMER YELLOWBIRD; GOLDEN WARBLER; YELLOW POLL + + + _Length_--4.75 to 5.2 inches. Over an inch shorter than the + English sparrow. + + _Male_--Upper parts olive-yellow, brightest on the crown; + under parts bright yellow, streaked with reddish brown. Wings + and tail dusky olive-brown, edged with yellow. + + _Female_--Similar; but reddish-brown streakings less distinct. + + _Range_--North America, except Southwestern States, where the + prothonotary warbler reigns in its stead. Nests from Gulf + States to Fur Countries. Winters south of the Gulf States, as + far as northern parts of South America. + + _Migrations_--May. September. Common summer resident. + +This exquisite little creature of perpetual summer (though to find it +it must travel back and forth between two continents) comes out of the +south with the golden days of spring. From much living in the sunshine +through countless generations, its feathers have finally become the +color of sunshine itself, and in disposition, as well, it is nothing +if not sunny and bright. Not the least of its attractions is that it +is exceedingly common everywhere: in the shrubbery of our lawns, in +gardens and orchards, by the road and brookside, in the edges of +woods--everywhere we catch its glint of brightness through the long +summer days, and hear its simple, sweet, and happy song until the end +of July. + +Because both birds are so conspicuously yellow, no doubt this warbler +is quite generally confused with the goldfinch; but their distinctions +are clear enough to any but the most superficial glance. In the first +place, the yellow warbler is a smaller bird than the goldfinch; it has +neither black crown, wings, nor tail, and it does have reddish-brown +streaks on its breast that are sufficiently obsolete to make the +coloring of that part look simply dull at a little distance. The +goldfinch's bill is heavy, in order that it may crack seeds, whereas +the yellow warbler's is slender, to enable it to pick minute insects +from the foliage. The goldfinch's wavy, curved flight is unique, and +that of his "double" differs not a whit from that of all nervous, +flitting warblers. Surely no one familiar with the rich, full, +canary-like song of the "wild canary," as the goldfinch is called, +could confuse it with the mild "_Wee-chee, chee, cher-wee_" of the +summer yellowbird. Another distinction, not always infallible, but +nearly so, is that when seen feeding, the goldfinch is generally below +the line of vision, while the yellow warbler is either on it or not +far above it, as it rarely goes over twelve feet from the ground. + +No doubt, the particularly mild, sweet amiability of the yellow +warbler is responsible for the persistent visitations of the cowbird, +from which it is a conspicuous sufferer. In the exquisite, neat little +matted cradle of glistening milkweed flax, lined with down from the +fronds of fern, the skulking housebreaker deposits her surreptitious +egg for the little yellow mother-bird to hatch and tend. But +amiability is not the only prominent trait in the female yellow +warbler's character. She is clever as well, and quickly builds a new +bottom on her nest, thus sealing up the cowbird's egg, and depositing +her own on the soft, spongy floor above it. This operation has been +known to be twice repeated, until the nest became three stories high, +when a persistent cowbird made such unusual architecture necessary. + +The most common nesting place of the yellow warbler is in low willows +along the shores of streams. + + + Yellow-breasted Chat + + (_Icteria virens_) Wood Warbler family + + _Called also_: POLYGLOT CHAT; YELLOW MOCKING BIRD + + + _Length_--7.5 inches. A trifle over an inch longer than the + English sparrow. + + _Male and Female_--Uniform olive-green above. Throat, breast, + and under side of wings bright, clear yellow. Underneath + white. Sides grayish. White line over the eye, reaching to + base of bill and forming partial eye-ring. Also white line on + sides of throat. Bill and feet black. + + _Range_--North America, from Ontario to Central America and + westward to the plains. Most common in Middle Atlantic States. + + _Migrations_--Early May. Late August or September. Summer + resident. + +This largest of the warblers might be mistaken for a dozen birds +collectively in as many minutes; but when it is known that the jumble +of whistles, parts of songs, chuckles, clucks, barks, quacks, whines, +and wails proceed from a single throat, the yellow-breasted chat +becomes a marked specimen forthwith--a conspicuous individual never to +be confused with any other member of the feathered tribe. It is indeed +absolutely unique. The catbird and the mocking-bird are rare mimics; +but while the chat is not their equal in this respect, it has a large +repertoire of weird, uncanny cries all its own--a power of throwing +its voice, like a human ventriloquist, into unexpected corners of the +thicket or meadow. In addition to its extraordinary vocal feats, it +can turn somersaults and do other clown-like stunts as well as any +variety actor on the Bowery stage. + +Only by creeping cautiously towards the roadside tangle, where this +"rollicking polyglot" is entertaining himself and his mate, brooding +over her speckled eggs in a bulky nest set in a most inaccessible +briery part of the thicket, can you hope to hear him rattle through +his variety performance. Walk boldly or noisily past his retreat, and +there is "silence there and nothing more." But two very bright eyes +peer out at you through the undergrowth, where the trim, +elegant-looking bird watches you with quizzical suspicion until you +quietly seat yourself and assume silent indifference. "_Whew, whew!_" +he begins, and then immediately, with evident intent to amuse, he +rattles off an indescribable, eccentric medley until your ears are +tired listening. With bill uplifted, tail drooping, wings fluttering +at his side, he cuts an absurd figure enough, but not so comical as +when he rises into the air, trailing his legs behind him +stork-fashion. This surely is the clown among birds. But any though he +is, he is as capable of devotion to his Columbine as Punchinello, and +remains faithfully mated year after year. However much of a tease and +a deceiver he may be to the passer-by along the roadside, in the +privacy of the domestic circle he shows truly lovable traits. + +He has the habit of singing in his unmusical way on moonlight nights. +Probably his ventriloquial powers are cultivated not for popular +entertainment, but to lure intruders away from his nest. + + + Maryland Yellowthroat + + (_Geothlypis trichas_) Wood Warbler family + + _Called also_: BLACK-MASKED GROUND WARBLER + + + _Length_--5.33 inches. Just an inch shorter than the typical + English sparrow. + + _Male_--Olive-gray on head, shading to olive-green on all the + other upper parts. Forehead, cheeks, and sides of head black, + like a mask, and bordered behind by a grayish line. Throat and + breast bright yellow, growing steadily paler underneath. + + _Female_--Either totally lacks black mask or its place is + indicated by only a dusky tint. She is smaller and duller. + + _Range_--Eastern North America, west to the plains; most + common east of the Alleghanies. Nests from the Gulf States to + Labrador and Manitoba; winters south of Gulf States to Panama. + + _Migrations_--May. September. Common summer resident. + +"Given a piece of marshy ground with an abundance of skunk cabbage and +a fairly dense growth of saplings, and near by a tangle of green brier +and blackberry, and you will be pretty sure to have it tenanted by a +pair of yellowthroats," says Dr. Abbott, who found several of their +nests in skunk-cabbage plants, which he says are favorite cradles. No +animal cares to touch this plant if it can be avoided; but have the +birds themselves no sense of smell? + +Before and after the nesting season these active birds, plump of form, +elegant of attire, forceful, but not bold, enter the scrubby pastures +near our houses and the shrubbery of old-fashioned, overgrown gardens, +and peer out at the human wanderer therein with a charming curiosity. +The bright eyes of the male masquerader shine through his black mask, +where he intently watches you from the tangle of syringa and snowball +bushes; and as he flies into the laburnum with its golden chain of +blossoms that pale before the yellow of his throat and breast, you are +so impressed with his grace and elegance that you follow too +audaciously, he thinks, and off he goes. And yet this is a bird that +seems to delight in being pursued. It never goes so far away that you +are not tempted to follow it, though it be through dense undergrowth +and swampy thickets, and it always gives you just glimpse enough of +its beauties and graces before it flies ahead, to invite the hope of a +closer inspection next time. When it dives into the deepest part of +the tangle, where you can imagine it hunting about among the roots and +fallen leaves for the larvA|, caterpillars, spiders, and other insects +on which it feeds, it sometimes amuses itself with a simple little +song between the hunts. But the bird's indifference, you feel sure, +arises from preoccupation rather than rudeness. + +If, however, your visit to the undergrowth is unfortunately timed and +there happens to be a bulky nest in process of construction on the +ground, a quickly repeated, vigorous _chit, pit, quit_, impatiently +inquires the reason for your bold intrusion. Withdraw discreetly and +listen to the love-song that is presently poured out to reassure his +plain little maskless mate. The music is delivered with all the force +and energy of his vigorous nature and penetrates to a surprising +distance. "_Follow me, follow me, follow me_," many people hear him +say; others write the syllables, "_Wichity, wichity, wichity, +wichity_"; and still others write them, "_I beseech you, I beseech +you, I beseech you_," though the tones of this self-assertive bird +rather command than entreat. Mr. Frank Chapman says of the +yellowthroats: "They sing throughout the summer, and in August add a +flight-song to their repertoire. This is usually uttered toward +evening, when the bird springs several feet into the air, hovers for a +second, and then drops back to the bushes." + + + Blackburnian Warbler + + (_Dendroica blackburniA|_) Wood Warbler family + + _Called also_: HEMLOCK WARBLER; ORANGE-THROATED WARBLER; + TORCH-BIRD + + + _Length_--4.5 to 5.5 inches. An inch and a half smaller than + the English sparrow. + + _Male_--Head black, striped with orange-flame; throat and + breast orange, shading through yellow to white underneath; + wings, tail, and part of back black, with white markings. + + _Female_--Olive-brown above, shading into yellow on breast, + and paler under parts. + + _Range_--Eastern North America to plains. Winters in tropics. + + _Migrations_--May. September. Spring and autumn migrant. + +"The orange-throated warbler would seem to be his right name, his +characteristic cognomen," says John Burroughs, in ever-delightful +"Wake Robin"; "but no, he is doomed to wear the name of some +discoverer, perhaps the first who robbed his nest or rifled him of his +mate--Blackburn; hence, Blackburnian warbler. The _burn_ seems +appropriate enough, for in these dark evergreens his throat and breast +show like flame. He has a very fine warble, suggesting that of the +redstart, but not especially musical." + +No foliage is dense enough to hide, and no autumnal tint too brilliant +to outshine this luminous little bird that in May, as it migrates +northward to its nesting ground, darts in and out of the leafy shadows +like a tongue of fire. + +It is by far the most glorious of all the warblers--a sort of +diminutive oriole. The quiet-colored little mate flits about after +him, apparently lost in admiration of his fine feathers and the ease +with which his thin tenor voice can end his lover's warble in a high +Z. + +Take a good look at this attractive couple, for in May they leave us +to build a nest of bark and moss in the evergreens of Canada--that +paradise for warblers--or of the Catskills and Adirondacks, and in +autumn they hurry south to escape the first frosts. + + + Redstart + + (_Setophaga ruticilla_) Wood Warbler family + + _Called also_: YELLOW-TAILED WARBLER + + (Illustration facing p. 190) + + + _Length_--5 to 5.5 inches. + + _Male_--_In spring plumage_: Head, neck, back, and middle + breast glossy black, with blue reflections. Breast and + underneath white, slightly flushed with salmon, increasing to + bright salmon-orange on the sides of the body and on the wing + linings. Occasional specimens show orange-red. Tail feathers + partly black, partly orange, with broad black band across the + end. Orange markings on wings. Bill and feet black. _In + autumn_: Fading into rusty black, olive, and yellow. + + _Female_--Olive-brown, and yellow where the male is orange. + Young browner than the females. + + _Range_--North America to upper Canada. West occasionally, as + far as the Pacific coast, but commonly found in summer in the + Atlantic and Middle States. + + _Migrations_--Early May. End of September. Summer resident. + +Late some evening, early in May, when one by one the birds have +withdrawn their voices from the vesper chorus, listen for the +lingering "_'tsee, 'tsee, 'tseet_" (usually twelve times repeated in a +minute), that the redstart sweetly but rather monotonously sings from +the evergreens, where, as his tiny body burns in the twilight, Mrs. +Wright likens him to a "wind-blown firebrand, half glowing, half +charred." + +But by daylight this brilliant little warbler is constantly on the +alert. It is true he has the habit, like the flycatchers (among which +some learned ornithologists still class him), of sitting pensively on +a branch, with fluffy feathers and drooping wings; but the very next +instant he shows true warbler blood by making a sudden dash upward, +then downward through the air, tumbling somersaults, as if blown by +the wind, flitting from branch to branch, busily snapping at the tiny +insects hidden beneath the leaves, clinging to the tree-trunk like a +creeper, and singing between bites. + +Possibly he will stop long enough in his mad chase to open and shut +his tail, fan-fashion, with a dainty egotism that, in the peacock, +becomes rank vanity. + +The Germans call this little bird _roth Stert_ (red tail), but, like +so many popular names, this is a misnomer, as, strictly speaking, the +redstart is never red, though its salmon-orange markings often border +on to orange-flame. + +In a fork of some tall bush or tree, placed ten or fifteen feet from +the ground, a carefully constructed little nest is made of moss, +horsehair, and strippings from the bark, against which the nest is +built, the better to conceal its location. Four or five whitish eggs, +thickly sprinkled with pale brown and lilac, like the other warblers', +are too jealously guarded by the little mother-bird to be very often +seen. + + + Baltimore Oriole + + (_Icterus galbula_) Oriole and Blackbird family + + _Called also_: GOLDEN ORIOLE; FIREBIRD; GOLDEN ROBIN; + HANG-NEST; ENGLISH ROBIN + + (Illustration facing p. 191) + + + _Length_--7 to 8 inches. About one-fifth smaller than the + robin. + + _Male_--Head, throat, upper part of back glossy black. Wings + black, with white spots and edgings. Tail-quills black, with + yellow markings on the tips. Everywhere else orange, shading + into flame. + + _Female_--Yellowish olive. Wings dark brown, and quills + margined with white. Tail yellowish brown, with obscure, + dusky bars. + + _Range_--The whole United States. Most numerous in Eastern + States below 55A deg. north latitude. + + _Migrations_--Early May. Middle of September. Common summer + resident. + +A flash of fire through the air; a rich, high, whistled song floating +in the wake of the feathered meteor: the Baltimore oriole cannot be +mistaken. When the orchards are in blossom he arrives in full plumage +and song, and awaits the coming of the female birds, that travel +northward more leisurely in flocks. He is decidedly in evidence. No +foliage is dense enough to hide his brilliancy; his temper, quite as +fiery as his feathers, leads him into noisy quarrels, and his +insistent song with its martial, interrogative notes becomes almost +tiresome until he is happily mated and family cares check his +enthusiasm. + +Among the best architects in the world is his plain but energetic +mate. Gracefully swung from a high branch of some tall tree, the nest +is woven with exquisite skill into a long, flexible pouch that rain +cannot penetrate, nor wind shake from its horsehair moorings. Bits of +string, threads of silk, and sometimes yarn of the gayest colors, if +laid about the shrubbery in the garden, will be quickly interwoven +with the shreds of bark and milkweed stalks that the bird has found +afield. The shape of the nest often differs, because in unsettled +regions, where hawks abound, it is necessary to make it deeper than +seven inches (the customary depth when it is built near the homes of +men), and to partly close it at the top to conceal the sitting bird. +From four to six whitish eggs, scrawled over with black-brown, are +hatched by the mother oriole, and most jealously guarded by her now +truly domesticated mate. + +The number of grubs, worms, flies, caterpillars, and even cocoons, +that go to satisfy the hunger of a family of orioles in a day, might +indicate, if it could be computed, the great value these birds are +about our homes, aside from the good cheer they bring. + +There is a popular tradition about the naming of this gorgeous bird: +When George Calvert, the first Lord Baltimore, worn out and +discouraged by various hardships in his Newfoundland colony, decided +to visit Virginia in 1628, he wrote that nothing in the Chesapeake +country so impressed him as the myriads of birds in its woods. But the +song and color of the oriole particularly cheered and delighted him, +and orange and black became the heraldic colors of the first lords +proprietors of Maryland. + + Hush!'tis he! + My Oriole, my glance of summer fire, + Is come at last; and ever on the watch, + Twitches the pack-thread I had lightly wound + About the bough to help his housekeeping. + Twitches and scouts by turns, blessing his luck, + Yet fearing me who laid it in his way. + Nor, more than wiser we in our affairs, + Divines the Providence that hides and helps. + _Heave, ho! Heave, ho!_ he whistles as the twine + Slackens its hold; _once more, now!_ and a flash + Lightens across the sunlight to the elm + Where his mate dangles at her cup of felt. + + --_James Russell Lowell._ + + + + +BIRDS CONSPICUOUSLY RED OF ANY SHADE + + Cardinal Grosbeak + Summer Tanager + Scarlet Tanager + Pine Grosbeak + American Crossbill and the White-winged Crossbill + Redpoll and Greater Redpoll + Purple Finch + Robin + Orchard Oriole + +See the Red-winged Blackbird (Black). See also the males of the +Rose-breasted Grosbeak, the Woodpeckers, the Chewink (Black and +White), the Red-breasted Nuthatch, the Bay-breasted and the +Chestnut-sided Warblers (Slate and Gray); the Bluebird and Barn +Swallow (Blue); the Flicker (Brown); the Humming-bird and the Kinglets +(Greenish Gray); and the Blackburnian and Redstart Warblers, and the +Baltimore Oriole (Orange). + + + Cardinal Grosbeak + + (_Cardinalis cardinalis_) Finch family + + _Called also_: CRESTED REDBIRD; VIRGINIA REDBIRD; VIRGINIA + NIGHTINGALE; CARDINAL BIRD + + (Illustration facing p. 198) + + + _Length_--8 to 9 inches. A little smaller than the robin. + + _Male_--Brilliant cardinal; chin and band around bill black. + Beak stout and red. Crest conspicuous. In winter dress, wings + washed with gray. + + _Female_--Brownish yellow above, shading to gray below. Tail + shorter than the male's. Crest, wings, and tail reddish. + Breast sometimes tinged with red. + + _Range_--Eastern United States. A Southern bird, becoming more + and more common during the summer in States north of Virginia, + especially in Ohio, south of which it is resident throughout + the year. + + _Migrations_--Resident rather than migrating birds, remaining + throughout the winter in localities where they have found + their way. Travel in flocks. + +Among the numerous names by which this beautiful bird is known, it has +become immortalized under the title of Mr. James Lane Allen's +exquisite book, "The Kentucky Cardinal." Here, while we are given a +most charmingly sympathetic, delicate account of the bird "who has +only to be seen or heard, and Death adjusts an arrow," it is the +cardinal's pathetic fate that impresses one most. Seen through less +poetical eyes, however, the bird appears to be a haughty autocrat, a +sort of "F. F. V." among the feathered tribes, as, indeed, his title, +"Virginia redbird," has been unkindly said to imply. Bearing himself +with a refined and courtly dignity, not stooping to soil his feet by +walking on the ground like the more democratic robin, or even +condescending below the level of the laurel bushes, the cardinal is +literally a shining example of self-conscious superiority--a bird to +call forth respect and admiration rather than affection. But a group +of cardinals in a cedar tree in a snowy winter landscape makes us +forgetful of everything but their supreme beauty. + +As might be expected in one of the finch family, the cardinal +is a songster--the fact which, in connection with his lovely +plumage, accounts for the number of these birds shipped in cages +to Europe, where they are known as Virginia nightingales. Commencing +with a strong, rich whistle, like the high notes of a fife, +"_Cheo-cheo-cheo-cheo_," repeated over and over as if to make perfect +the start of a song he is about to sing, suddenly he stops, and you +learn that there is to be no glorious performance after all, only a +prelude to--nothing. The song, such as it is, begins, with both male +and female, in March, and lasts, with a brief intermission, until +September--"the most melodious sigh," as Mr. Allen calls it. Early in +May the cardinals build a bulky and loosely made nest, usually in the +holly, laurel, or other evergreen shrubs that they always love to +frequent, especially if these are near fields of corn or other grain. +And often two broods in a year come forth from the pale-gray, +brown-marked eggs, bearing what is literally for them the "fatal gift +of beauty." + + + Summer Tanager + + (_Piranga rubra_) Tanager family + + _Called also_: REDBIRD; SMOOTH-HEADED REDBIRD + + + _Length_--7.5 inches. About one-fourth smaller than the robin. + + _Male_--Uniform red. Wings and tail like the body. + + _Female_--Upper parts yellowish olive-green; underneath + inclining to orange-yellow. + + _Range_--Tropical portions of two Americas and eastern United + States. Most common in Southern States. Rare north of + Pennsylvania. Winters in the tropics. + + _Migrations_--In Southern States: April. October. Irregular + migrant north of the Carolinas. + +Thirty years ago, it is recorded that so far north as New Jersey the +summer redbird was quite as common as any of the thrushes. In the +South still there is scarcely an orchard that does not contain this +tropical-looking beauty--the redbird _par excellence_, the sweetest +singer of the family. Is there a more beautiful sight in all nature +than a grove of orange trees laden with fruit, starred with their +delicious blossoms, and with flocks of redbirds disporting themselves +among the dark, glossy leaves? Pine and oak woods are also favorite +resorts, especially at the north, where the bird nowadays forsakes the +orchards to hide his beauty, if he can, unharmed by the rifle that +only rarely is offered so shining a mark. He shows the scarlet +tanager's preference for tree-tops, where his musical voice, calling +"_Chicky-tucky-tuk_," alone betrays his presence in the woods. The +Southern farmers declare that he is an infallible weather prophet, his +"_WET, WET, WET_," being the certain indication of rain--another +absurd saw, for the call-note is by no means confined to the rainy +season. + +The yellowish-olive mate, whose quiet colors betray no nest secrets, +collects twigs and grasses for the cradle to be saddled on the end of +some horizontal branch, though in this work the male sometimes +cautiously takes an insignificant part. After her three or four eggs +are laid she sits upon them for nearly two weeks, being only rarely +and stealthily visited by her mate with some choice grub, blossom, or +berry in his beak. But how cheerfully his fife-like whistle rings out +during the temporary exile! Then his song is at its best. Later in the +summer he has an aggravating way of joining in the chorus of other +birds' songs, by which the pleasant individuality of his own voice is +lost. + +A nest of these tanagers, observed not far from New York City, was +commenced the last week of May on the extreme edge of a hickory limb +in an open wood; four eggs were laid on the fourth of June, and twelve +days later the tiny fledglings, that all look like their mother in the +early stages of their existence, burst from the greenish-white, +speckled shells. In less than a month the young birds were able to fly +quite well and collect their food. + + + [Illustration: MOTHER OVENBIRD IN NEST; A BABY BIRD ON IT.] + + [Illustration: THE ROBIN'S MUD-WALLED NURSERY] + + + Scarlet Tanager + + (_Piranga erythromelas_) Tanager family + + _Called also_: BLACK-WINGED REDBIRD; FIREBIRD; CANADA TANAGER; + POCKET-BIRD + + (Illustration facing p. 199) + + + _Length_--7 to 7.5 inches. About one-fourth smaller than the + robin. + + _Male_--_In spring plumage_: Brilliant scarlet, with black + wings and tail. Under wing coverts grayish white. _In autumn_: + Similar to female. + + _Female_--Olive-green above; wings and tail dark, lightly + margined with olive. Underneath greenish yellow. + + _Range_--North America to northern Canada boundaries, and + southward in winter to South America. + + _Migrations_--May. October. Summer resident. + +The gorgeous coloring of the scarlet tanager has been its snare and +destruction. The densest evergreens could not altogether hide this +blazing target for the sportsman's gun, too often fired at the +instigation of city milliners. "Fine feathers make fine birds"--and +cruel, silly women, the adage might be adapted for latter-day use. +This rarely beautiful tanager, thanks to them, is now only an +infrequent flash of beauty in our country roads. + +Instinct leads it to be chary of its charms; and whereas it used to be +one of the commonest of bird neighbors, it is now shy and solitary. An +ideal resort for it is a grove of oak or swamp maple near a stream or +pond where it can bathe. Evergreen trees, too, are favorites, possibly +because the bird knows how exquisitely its bright scarlet coat is set +off by their dark background. + +High in the tree-tops he perches, all unsuspected by the visitor +passing through the woods below, until a burst of rich, sweet melody +directs the opera-glasses suddenly upward. There we detect him +carolling loud and cheerfully, like a robin. He is an apparition of +beauty--a veritable bird of paradise, as, indeed, he is sometimes +called. Because of their similar coloring, the tanager and cardinal +are sometimes confounded, but an instant's comparison of the two birds +shows nothing in common except red feathers, and even those of quite +different shades. The inconspicuous olive-green and yellow of the +female tanager's plumage is another striking instance of Nature's +unequal distribution of gifts; but if our bright-colored birds have +become shockingly few under existing conditions, would any at all +remain were the females prominent, like the males, as they brood upon +the nest? Both tanagers construct a rather disorderly-looking nest of +fibres and sticks, through which daylight can be seen where it rests +securely upon the horizontal branch of some oak or pine tree; but as +soon as three or four bluish-green eggs have been laid in the cradle, +off goes the father, wearing his tell-tale coat, to a distant tree. +There he sings his sweetest carol to the patient, brooding mate, +returning to her side only long enough to feed her with the insects +and berries that form their food. + +Happily for the young birds' fate, they are clothed at first in +motley, dull colors, with here and there only a bright touch of +scarlet, yellow, and olive to prove their claim to the parent whose +gorgeous plumage must be their admiration. But after the moulting +season it would be a wise tanager that knew its own father. +His scarlet feathers are now replaced by an autumn coat of olive +and yellow not unlike his mate's. + + + Pine Grosbeak + + (_Pinicola enucleator_) Finch family + + _Called also_: PINE BULLFINCH + + + _Length_--Variously recorded from 6.5 to 11 inches. Specimen + measured 8.5 inches. About one-fifth smaller than the robin. + + _Male_--General color strawberry-red, with some slate-gray + fleckings about head, under wings, and on legs. Tail brown; + wings brown, marked with black and white and slate. A + band-shaped series of markings between the shoulders. + Underneath paler red, merging into grayish green. Heavy, + conspicuous bill. + + _Female_--Ash-brown. Head and hind neck yellowish brown, each + feather having central dusky streak. Cheeks and throat + yellowish. Beneath ash-gray, tinged with brownish yellow + under tail. + + _Range_--British American provinces and northern United States. + + _Migrations_--Irregular winter visitors; length of visits as + uncertain as their coming. + +As inseparable as bees from flowers, so are these beautiful winter +visitors from the evergreen woods, where their red feathers, shining +against the dark-green background of the trees, give them charming +prominence; but they also feed freely upon the buds of various +deciduous trees. + +South of Canada we may not look for them except in the severest winter +weather. Even then their coming is not to be positively depended upon; +but when their caprice--or was it an unusually fierce northern +blast?--sends them over the Canada border, it is a simple matter to +identify them when such brilliant birds are rare. The brownish-yellow +and grayish females and young males, however, always seem to be in the +majority with us, though our Canadian friends assure us of the +irreproachable morals of this gay bird. + +Wherever there are clusters of pine or cedar trees, when there is a +flock of pine grosbeaks in the neighborhood, you may expect to find a +pair of birds diligently feeding upon the seeds and berries. No +cheerful note escapes them as they persistently gormandize, and, if +the truth must be confessed, they appear to be rather stupid and +uninteresting, albeit they visit us at a time when we are most +inclined to rapture over our bird visitors. They are said to have a +deliciously sweet song in the nesting season. When, however, few +except the Canadian _voyageurs_ hear it. + + + American Crossbill + + (_Loxia curvirostra minor_) Finch family + + _Called also_: RED CROSSBILL + + (Illustration facing p. 226) + + + _Length_--6 to 7 inches. About the size of the English + sparrow. + + _Male_--General color Indian red, passing into brownish gray, + with red tinge beneath. Wings (without bands), also tail, + brown. Beak crossed at the tip. + + _Female_--General color greenish yellow, with brownish tints. + Dull-yellowish tints on head, throat, breast, and underneath. + Wings and tail pale brown. Beak crossed at tip. + + _Range_--Pennsylvania to northern British America. West of + Mississippi, range more southerly. + + _Migrations_--Irregular winter visitor. November. Sometimes + resident until April. + +It is a rash statement to say that a bird is rare simply because you +have never seen it in your neighborhood, for while you are going out +of the front door your _rara avis_ may be eating the crumbs about your +kitchen. Even with our eyes and ears constantly alert for some fresh +bird excitement, our phlegmatic neighbor over the way may be enjoying +a visit from a whole flock of the very bird we have been looking and +listening for in vain all the year. The red crossbills are capricious +little visitors, it is true, but by no means uncommon. + +About the size of an English sparrow, of a brick or Indian red color, +for the most part, the peculiarity of its parrot-like beak is its +certain mark of identification. + +Longfellow has rendered into verse the German legend of the crossbill, +which tells that as the Saviour hung upon the cross, a little bird +tried to pull out the nails that pierced His hands and feet, thus +twisting its beak and staining its feathers with the blood. + +At first glance the birds would seem to be hampered by their crossed +beaks in getting at the seeds in the pine cones--a superficial +criticism when the thoroughness and admirable dexterity of their work +are better understood. + +Various seeds of fruits, berries, and the buds of trees enlarge their +bill of fare. They are said to be inordinately fond of salt. Mr. +Romeyn B. Hough tells of a certain old ice-cream freezer that +attracted flocks of crossbills one winter, as a salt-lick attracts +deer. Whether the traditional salt that may have stuck to the bird's +tail is responsible for its tameness is not related, but it is certain +the crossbills, like most bird visitors from the far north, are +remarkably gentle, friendly little birds. As they swing about the pine +trees, parrot-fashion, with the help of their bill, calling out _kimp, +kimp_, that sounds like the snapping of the pine cones on a sunny day, +it often seems easily possible to catch them with the hand. + +There is another species of crossbill, called the White-winged (_Loxia +leucoptera_), that differs from the preceding chiefly in having two +white bands across its wings and in being more rare. + + + The Redpoll + + (_Acanthis linaria_) Finch family + + _Called also_: REDPOLL LINNET; LITTLE SNOWBIRD; LESSER REDPOLL + + (Illustration facing p. 25) + + + _Length_--5.25 to 5.5 inches. About an inch shorter than the + English sparrow. + + _Male_--A rich crimson wash on head, neck, breast, and lower + back, that is sometimes only a pink when we see the bird in + midwinter. Grayish-brown, sparrowy feathers show underneath + the red wash. Dusky wings and tail, the feathers more or less + edged with whitish. Soiled white underneath; the sides with + dusky streaks. Bill sharply pointed. + + _Female_--More dingy than male, sides more heavily streaked, + and having crimson only on the crown. + + _Range_--An arctic bird that descends irregularly into the + northern United States. + + _Migrations_--An irregular winter visitor. + +"Ere long, amid the cold and powdery snow, as it were a fruit of the +season, will come twittering a flock of delicate crimson-tinged birds, +lesser redpolls, to sport and feed on the buds just ripe for them on +the sunny side of a wood, shaking down the powdery snow there in their +cheerful feeding, as if it were high midsummer to them." Thoreau's +beautiful description of these tiny winter visitors, which should be +read entire, shows the man in one of his most sympathetic, exalted +moods, and it is the best brief characterization of the redpoll that +we have. + +When the arctic cold becomes too cruel for even the snowbirds and +crossbills to withstand, flocks of the sociable little redpolls flying +southward are the merest specks in the sullen, gray sky, when they can +be seen at all. So high do they keep that often they must pass above +our heads without our knowing it. First we see a quantity of tiny +dots, like a shake of pepper, in the cloud above, then the specks grow +larger and larger, and finally the birds seem to drop from the sky +upon some tall tree that they completely cover--a veritable cloudburst +of birds. Without pausing to rest after the long journey, down they +flutter into the weedy pastures with much cheerful twittering, to feed +upon whatever seeds may be protruding through the snow. Every action +of a flock seems to be concerted, as if some rigid disciplinarian had +drilled them, and yet no leader can be distinguished in the merry +company. When one flies, all fly; where one feeds, all feed, and by +some subtle telepathy all rise at the identical instant from their +feeding ground and cheerfully twitter in concert where they all alight +at once. They are more easily disturbed than the goldfinches, that are +often seen feeding with them in the lowlands; nevertheless, they quite +often venture into our gardens and orchards, even in suburbs +penetrated by the trolley-car. + +Usually in winter we hear only their lisping call-note; but if the +birds linger late enough in the spring, when their "fancy lightly +turns to thoughts of love," a gleeful, canary-like song comes from the +naked branches, and we may know by it that the flock will soon +disappear for their nesting grounds in the northern forests. + + * * * * * + +The Greater Redpoll (_Acanthis linaria rostrata_) may be distinguished +from the foregoing species by its slightly larger size, darker upper +parts, and shorter, stouter bill. But the notes, habits, and general +appearance of both redpolls are so nearly identical that the birds are +usually mistaken for each other. + + + Purple Finch + + (_Carpodacus purpureus_) Finch family + + _Called also_: PURPLE LINNET + + (Illustration facing p. 226a) + + + _Length_--6 to 6.25 inches. About the same size as the English + sparrow. + + _Male_--_Until two years old_, sparrow-like in appearance like + the female, but with olive-yellow on chin and lower back. + _Afterwards_ entire body suffused with a bright raspberry-red, + deepest on head, lower back, and breast, and other parts only + faintly washed with this color. More brown on back; and wings + and tail, which are dusky, have some reddish-brown feathers. + Underneath grayish white. Bill heavy. Tail forked. + + _Female_--Grayish olive-brown above; whitish below; finely + streaked everywhere with very dark brown, like a sparrow. + Sides of breast have arrow-shaped marks. Wings and tail + darkest. + + _Range_--North America, from Columbia River eastward to + Atlantic, and from Mexico northward to Manitoba. Most common + in Middle States and New England. Winters south of + Pennsylvania. + + _Migrations_--March. November. Common summer resident. Rarely + individuals winter at the north. + +In this "much be-sparrowed country" of ours familiarity is apt to +breed contempt for any bird that looks sparrowy, in which case one of +the most delicious songsters we have might easily be overlooked. It is +not until the purple finch reaches maturity in his second year that +his plumage takes on the raspberry-red tints that some ornithologists +named purple. Oriental purple is our magenta, it is true, but not a +raspberry shade. Before maturity, but for the yellow on his lower back +and throat, he and his mate alike suggest a song-sparrow; and it is +important to note their particularly heavy, rounded bills, with the +tufts of feathers at the base, and their forked tails, to name them +correctly. But the identification of the purple finch, after all, +depends quite as much upon his song as his color. In March, when +flocks of these birds come north, he has begun to sing a little; by +the beginning of May he is desperately in love, and sudden, joyous +peals of music from the elm or evergreen trees on the lawn enliven the +garden. How could his little brown lady-love fail to be impressed with +a suitor so gayly dressed, so tender and solicitous, so deliciously +sweet-voiced? With fuller, richer song than the warbling vireo's, +which Nuttall has said it resembles, a perfect ecstasy of love pours +incessantly from his throat during the early summer days. There is a +suggestion of the robin's love-song in his, but its copiousness, +variety, and rapidity give it a character all its own. + +In some old, neglected hedge or low tree about the country-place a +flat, grassy nest, lined with horsehair, contains four or five green +eggs in June, and the old birds are devotion itself to each other, and +soon to their young, sparrowy brood. + +But when parental duties are over, the finches leave our lawns and +gardens to join flocks of their own kind in more remote orchards or +woods, their favorite haunts. Their subdued warble may be heard during +October and later, as if the birds were humming to themselves. + +Much is said of their fondness for fruit blossoms and tree buds, but +the truth is that noxious insects and seeds of grain constitute their +food in summer, the berries of evergreens in winter. To a bird so gay +of color, charming of voice, social, and trustful of disposition, +surely a few blossoms might be spared without grudging. + + + The American Robin + + (_Merula migratoria_) Thrush family + + _Called also_: RED-BREASTED OR MIGRATORY THRUSH; + ROBIN-REDBREAST + + (Illustrations facing pp. 219 and 226b) + + + _Length_--10 inches. + + _Male_--Dull brownish olive-gray above. Head black; tail + brownish black, with exterior feathers white at inner tip. + Wings dark brownish. Throat streaked with black and white. + White eyelids. Entire breast bright rusty red; whitish below + the tail. + + _Female_--Duller and with paler breast, resembling the male in + autumn. + + _Range_--North America, from Mexico to arctic regions. + + _Migrations_--March. October or November. Often resident + throughout the year. + +It seems almost superfluous to write a line of description about a +bird that is as familiar as a chicken; yet how can this nearest of our +bird neighbors be passed without a reference? Probably he was the very +first bird we learned to call by name. + +The early English colonists, who had doubtless been brought up, like +the rest of us, on "The Babes in the Wood," named the bird after the +only heroes in that melancholy tale; but in reality the American robin +is a much larger bird than the English robin-redbreast and less +brilliantly colored. John Burroughs calls him, of all our birds, "the +most native and democratic." + +How the robin dominates birddom with his strong, aggressive +personality! His voice rings out strong and clear in the early morning +chorus, and, more tenderly subdued at twilight, it still rises above +all the sleepy notes about him. Whether lightly tripping over the lawn +after the "early worm," or rising with his sharp, quick cry of alarm, +when startled, to his nest near by, every motion is decided, alert, +and free. No pensive hermit of the woods, like his cousins, the +thrushes, is this joyous vigorous "bird of the morning." Such a +presence is inspiriting. Does any bird excel the robin in the great +variety of his vocal expressions? Mr. Parkhurst, in his charming +"Birds' Calendar," says he knows of "no other bird that is able to +give so many shades of meaning to a single note, running through the +entire gamut of its possible feelings. From the soft and mellow +quality, almost as coaxing as a dove's note, with which it encourages +its young when just out of the nest, the tone, with minute gradations, +becomes more vehement, and then harsh and with quickened reiteration, +until it expresses the greatest intensity of a bird's emotions. Love, +contentment, anxiety, exultation, rage--what other bird can throw such +multifarious meaning into its tone? And herein the robin seems more +nearly human than any of its kind." + +There is no one thing that attracts more birds about the house than a +drinking-dish--large enough for a bathtub as well; and certainly no +bird delights in sprinkling the water over his back more than a robin, +often aided in his ablutions by the spattering of the sparrows. But +see to it that this drinking-dish is well raised above the reach of +lurking cats. + +While the robin is a famous splasher, his neatness stops there. A +robin's nest is notoriously dirty within, and so carelessly +constructed of weed-stalks, grass, and mud, that a heavy summer shower +brings more robins' nests to the ground than we like to contemplate. +The color of the eggs, as every one knows, has given their name to the +tint. Four is the number of eggs laid, and two broods are often reared +in the same nest. + +Too much stress is laid on the mischief done by the robins in the +cherry trees and strawberry patches, and too little upon the quantity +of worms and insects they devour. Professor Treadwell, who +experimented upon some young robins kept in captivity, learned that +they ate sixty-eight earthworms daily--"that is, each bird ate +forty-one per cent. more than its own weight in twelve hours! The +length of these worms, if laid end to end, would be about fourteen +feet. Man, at this rate, would eat about seventy pounds of flesh a +day, and drink five or six gallons of water." + + + [Illustration: RED CROSSBILL] + + [Illustration: PURPLE FINCH (Upper Figure, Male; Lower Figure, + Female)] + + [Illustration: ROBIN] + + [Illustration: ORCHARD ORIOLE (Upper figure, adult male; middle + figure, young male; Lower Figure, Female)] + + + Orchard Oriole + + (_Icterus spurius_) Blackbird and Oriole family + + _Called also_: ORCHARD STARLING; ORCHARD HANG-NEST + + + _Length_--7 to 7.3 inches. About one-fourth smaller than the + robin. + + _Male_--Head, throat, upper back, tail, and part of wings + black. Breast, rump, shoulders, under wing and tail coverts, + and under parts bright reddish brown. Whitish-yellow markings + on a few tail and wing feathers. + + _Female_--Head and upper parts olive, shading into brown; + brighter on head and near tail. Back and wings dusky brown, + with pale-buff shoulder-bars and edges of coverts. Throat + black. Under parts olive, shading into yellow. + + _Range_--Canada to Central America. Common in temperate + latitudes of the United States. + + _Migrations_--Early May. Middle of September. Common summer + resident. + +With a more southerly range than the Baltimore oriole and less +conspicuous coloring, the orchard oriole is not so familiar a bird in +many Northern States, where, nevertheless, it is quite common enough +to be classed among our would-be intimates. The orchard is not always +as close to the house as this bird cares to venture; he will pursue an +insect even to the piazza vines. + +His song, says John Burroughs, is like scarlet, "strong, intense, +emphatic," but it is sweet and is more rapidly uttered than that of +others of the family. It is ended for the season early in July. + +This oriole, too, builds a beautiful nest, not often pendent like the +Baltimore's, but securely placed in the fork of a sturdy fruit tree, +at a moderate height, and woven with skill and precision, like a +basket. When the dried grasses from one of these nests were stretched +and measured, all were found to be very nearly the same length, +showing to what pains the little weaver had gone to make the nest neat +and pliable, yet strong. Four cloudy-white eggs with dark-brown spots +are usually found in the nest in June. + + + + +INDEX + + _The figures in black-faced type indicate the page upon which + the biography of the bird is given._ + + + Accentor, Golden-crowned (_see_ Ovenbird), 180. + + + Bellbird (_see_ Wood Thrush), 123. + + Bird, Blue (_see_ Bluebird), 99. + Butcher (_see_ Northern Shrike), 87. + Butter (_see_ Bobolink), 61. + Cardinal (_see_ Cardinal Grosbeak), 215. + Cedar, 9, 19, 20, 21, 27, 29, 36, =144=. + Cow-pen (_see_ Cowbird), 49. + Grass (_see_ Vesper Sparrow), 162. + Grease (_see_ Canada Jay), 79. + Meadow (_see_ Bobolink), 61. + Meat (_see_ Canada Jay), 79. + Moose (_see_ Canada Jay), 79. + Myrtle (_see_ Myrtle Warbler), 92. + Peabody (_see_ Vesper Sparrow), 165. + Potato Bug (_see_ Rose-breasted Grosbeak), 60. + Thistle (_see_ American Goldfinch), 190. + + Blackbird (_see_ Rusty Blackbird), 46. + and Oriole family, 6. + Cow (_see_ Cowbird), 49. + Crow (_see_ Purple Grackle), 44. + Red-winged, 6, 21, 22, 23, 28, 30, 32, 36, =47=. + Rusty, 6, 22, 28, 30, 32, 36, =46=. + Skunk (_see_ Bobolink), 61. + Swamp (_see_ Red-winged Blackbird), 47. + Thrush (_see_ Rusty Blackbird), 46. + + Black-cap (_see_ Wilson's Warbler), 202. + + Bluebird, 14, 19, 20, 21, 22, 27, 28, 29, 30, 36, =99=. + + Bobolink, 7, 22, 23, 28, 30, 31, 36, =61=. + + Bull-bat (_see_ Nighthawk), 138. + + Bullfinch, Pine (_see_ Pine Grosbeak), 219. + + Bunting, Bay-winged (_see_ Vesper Sparrow), 162. + Cow (_see_ Cowbird), 49. + Field (_see_ Field Sparrow), 152. + Indigo, 8, 21, 22, 23, 29, 30, 31, 35, =101=. + + Bunting, Lapland Lark (_see_ Lapland Longspur), 148. + Savanna (_see_ Savanna Sparrow), 155. + Snow (_see_ Snowflake), 59. + Towhee (_see_ Chewink), 58. + Tree (_see_ Tree Sparrow), 161. + + Buntings, the, 7. + + + Camp Robber (_see_ Canada Jay), 79. + + Canary, Wild (_see_ American Goldfinch), 190. + + Cardinal (_see_ Cardinal Grosbeak), 215. + + Carrion-bird, Canadian (_see_ Canada Jay), 79. + + Catbird, 12, 19, 20, 21, 22, 29, 30, 31, 36, =80=. + + Catbirds, the, 12. + + Cedar Bird (_see_ Bird, Cedar), 144. + + Chat, Polyglot (_see_ Yellow-breasted Chat), 206. + Yellow-breasted, 12, 19, 21, 22, 29, 30, 31, 36, =206=. + + Chebec (_see_ Least Flycatcher), 75. + + Cherry-bird (_see_ Cedar Bird), 144. + + Chewink, 8, 21, 29, 30, 32, 36, 58. + + Chickadee, 14, 19, 20, 21, 27, 28, 29, 31, 35, =76=. + family (_see_ Titmouse family), 13. + + Chip-bird (_see_ Chipping Sparrow), 149. + + Chipper, Arctic (_see_ Tree Sparrow), 161. + + Chippy (_see_ Chipping Sparrow), 149. + Meadow (_see_ Seaside Sparrow), 156. + Winter (_see_ Tree Sparrow), 161. + + Clape (_see_ Flicker), 130. + + Corn Thief (_see_ Common Crow), 41. + + Cowbird, 7, 20, 21, 22, 28, 30, 31, 36, =49=. + + Creeper, Brown, 13, 20, 21, 28, 35, =145=. + family, 13. + + Crossbill, American, 8, 19, 20, 28, =220=. + Red (_see_ American Crossbill), 220. + White-winged Red, 8, 19, 20, 28, =221=. + + Crossbills, the, 7, 21, 35. + + Crow and Jay family, 6. + + Crow, Common, 6, 19, 20, 21, 22, 27, 28, 36, =41=. + Fish, 6, 19, 20, 21, 22, 27, 28, 36, 42. + Rain (_see_ Black-billed Cuckoo) 139; also Yellow-billed Cuckoo, 141. + Rusty (_see_ Rusty Blackbird), 46. + + Cuckoo family, 3. + Black-billed, 3, 19, 20, 21, 28, 30, 31, 36, =139=. + Yellow-billed, 3, 19, 20, 21, 28, 30, 31, 36, =141=. + + + Devil Downhead (_see_ White-breasted Nuthatch), 84. + + Dove, Carolina (_see_ Mourning Dove), =108=. + family (see Pigeon and Dove family), 15. + Mourning, 15, 21, 22, 28, 36, =108=. + Turtle (_see_ Mourning Dove), 108. + + + Finch family, 7. + Ferruginous (_see_ Fox Sparrow), 153. + Foxy (_see_ Fox Sparrow), 153. + Gold (_see_ Goldfinch), 190. + Grass (_see_ Vesper Sparrow), 162. + Pine (_see_ Pine Siskin), 146. + Purple, 8, 19, 20, 21, 23, 28, 29, 30, 32, 35, =223=. + Seaside (_see_ Seaside Sparrow), 156. + Swamp (_see_ Swamp Song Sparrow), 160. + Towhee Ground (_see_ Chewink), 58. + + Firebird (_see_ Scarlet Tanager), 218. + + Flicker, 4, 19, 21, 22, 27, 28, 30, 32, 36, =130=. + + Flycatcher, Acadian, 5, 19, 22, 28, 31, 35, =182=. + Canadian (_see_ Canadian Warbler), 194. + Crested (_see_ Great Crested Flycatcher), 72. + Dusky (_see_ Ph[oe]be), 71. + family, 5, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23. + Great Crested, 5, 19, 20, 22, 28, 30, 31, 35, =72=. + Least, 5, 19, 20, 22, 28, 30, 31, 35, =75=. + Olive-sided, 5, 19, 28, 31, 36, =74=. + Say's, 5, 19, 22, 28, =72=. + Small Green-crested (_see_ Acadian Flycatcher), 182. + Sylvan (_see_ Blue-gray Gnatcatcher), 110. + Tyrant (_see_ Kingbird), 68. + Wilson's (_see_ Wilson's Warbler), 202. + Yellow-bellied, 5, 19, 22, 28, 31, 35, =183=. + + + Gnatcatcher, Blue-gray, 14, 19, 20, 22, 29, 35, =110=. + + Gnatcatcher family, 14. + + Goatsucker family, 4. + Long-winged (_see_ Nighthawk), 138. + + Goldcrest, Golden-crowned (_see_ Golden-crowned Kinglet), 174. + + Goldfinch, 8, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 27, 28, 29, 30, 35, =190=. + European, 191. + + Grackle, Bronzed, 7, 19, 20, 21, 22, 28, 30, 32, 36, =46=. + Keel-tailed (_see_ Purple Grackle), 44. + Purple, 7, 19, 20, 21, 22, 28, 30, 32, 36, =44=. + Rusty (_see_ Rusty Blackbird), 46. + + Grasel (_see_ Chewink), 58. + + Grass-bird, Red (_see_ Swamp Song Sparrow), 160. + + Greenlet family (_see_ Vireo family), 10. + + Grosbeak, Blue, 8, 28, 36, =105=. + Cardinal, 8, 21, 27, 28, 29, 36, =215=. + Evening, 8, 28, 36, =192=. + Pine, 8, 20, 27, 36, =219=. + Rose-breasted, 8, 21, 28, 30, 31, 36, =60=. + + Grosbeaks, the, 7, 19, 20, 21. + + + Hair-bird (_see_ Chipping Sparrow), 149. + + Halcyon (_see_ Belted Kingfisher), 102. + + Hang-nest (_see_ Baltimore Oriole), 211. + Orchard (_see_ Orchard Oriole), 227. + + Hawk, Mosquito (_see_ Nighthawk), 138. + + Heron, Venison (_see_ Canada Jay), 79. + + High-hole or High-holder (_see_ Flicker), 130. + + Humming-bird family, 5. + Ruby-throated, 5, 19, 21, 28, 30, 31, 35, =170=. + + + Indigo Bird (_see_ Indigo Bunting), 101. + + + Jay, Blue, 6, 19, 20, 21, 27, 28, 36, =104=. + Canada, 6, 20, 21, 22, 28, 36, =79=. + family (_see_ Crow and Jay family), 6. + + Junco, 8, 21, 22, 27, 31, 35, =83=. + + + Kingbird, 5, 19, 20, 22, 23, 28, 30, 31, 35, =68=. + + Kingfisher, Belted, 3, 20, 21, 23, 28, 30, 36, =102=. + family, 3. + + Kinglet family, 14. + Golden-crowned, 14, 20, 21. 28, 32, 35, =174=. + Ruby-crowned, 14, 20, 21, 28, 30, 32, 35, =172=. + + + Lark, Brown or Red (_see_ American Pipit), 135. + family, 5. + Field (_see_ Meadowlark), 132. + Horned, 6, 21, 22, 23, 27, 31, 36, =134=. + Meadow (_see_ Meadowlark), 132. + Oldfield (_see_ Meadowlark), 132. + Pine (_see_ Pine Siskin), 146. + Prairie (_see_ Western Meadowlark), 133. + Prairie Horned, 6, 22, 27, 29, =135=. + Purple (_see_ Purple Finch), 223. + Redpoll (_see_ Redpoll), 222. + Shore (_see_ Horned Lark), 134. + Snow (_see_ Snowflake), 59. + Tit (_see_ American Pipit), 135. + + Linnets, the, 7. + + Longspur, Lapland, 8, 22, 28, 35, =148=. + Smith's Painted, 8, 22, 28, 35, =147=. + + + Maize Thief (_see_ Purple Grackle), 44. + + Martin, Bee (_see_ Kingbird), 68. + Purple, 9, 19, 21, 29, 30, 31, 36, =48=. + Sand (_see_ Bank Swallow), 143. + + Mavis (_see_ Brown Thrasher), 121. + + Maybird (_see_ Bobolink), 61. + + Meadowlark, 7, 21, 22, 23, 27, 29, 30, 32, 36, =132=. + Western, 7, 21, 22, 23, 27, 29, 36, =133=. + + Mocking-bird, 12, 19, 20, 21, 29, 36, =81=. + Brown (_see_ Brown Thrasher), 121. + French (_see_ Brown Thrasher), 121. + Yellow, 206. + + Mocking-birds, the, 12. + + + Nighthawk, 4, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 28, 30, 31, 36, =138=. + + Nightingale, European, 125. + Virginia (_see_ Cardinal Grosbeak), 215. + + Nightjar (_see_ Nighthawk), 138. + + Nine-killer (_see_ Northern Shrike), 87. + + Nuthatch, Canada (_see_ Red-breasted Nuthatch), 85. + family, 13, 21. + Red-breasted, 13, 20, 28, 32, 35, =85=. + White-breasted, 13, 20, 27, 29, 32, 35, =84=. + + + Oriole, Baltimore, 7, 19, 21, 28, 30, 31, 36, =211=. + Brown-headed (_see_ Cowbird), 49. + family (_see_ Blackbird and Oriole family), 6. + Golden (_see_ Baltimore Oriole), 211. + Orchard, 7, 19, 21, 28, 30, 31, 36, =227=. + Red-winged (_see_ Red-winged Blackbird), 47. + Rusty (_see_ Rusty Blackbird), 46. + + Ortolan, American (_see_ Bobolink), 61. + + Ovenbird, 12, 21, 22, 23, 29, 30, 31, 35, =180=. + + + Pewee, Bridge (_see_ Ph[oe]be), 71. + Small (_see_ Acadian Flycatcher), 182. + Water (_see_ Ph[oe]be), 71. + Wood, 5, 19, 20, 22, 23, 28, 30, 31, 36, =69=. + + Ph[oe]be, 5, 19, 20, 22, 23, 28, 30, 32, 35, =71=. + Say's, 72. + + Pigeon and Dove family, 15. + + Pipit, American, 12, 21, 22, 23, 28, 30, 35, =135=. + + Pipits, the, 12. + + Piramidig (_see_ Nighthawk), 138. + + Pisk (_see_ Nighthawk), 138. + + Pocket-bird (_see_ Scarlet Tanager), 218. + + Preacher, the (_see_ Red-eyed Vireo), 176. + + + Raven, American, 6, 19, 20, 28, 36, =43=. + Northern (_see_ American Raven), 43. + White-necked, 44. + + RA(C)collet (_see_ Cedar Bird), 144. + + Redbird, Black-winged (_see_ Scarlet Tanager), 218. + Crested (_see_ Cardinal Grosbeak), 215. + (_see_ Summer Tanager), 216. + Smooth-headed (_see_ Summer Tanager), 216. + Virginia (_see_ Cardinal Grosbeak), 215. + + Redhead (_see_ Red-headed Woodpecker) 53. + + Redpoll, 8, 21, 22, 27, 35, =222=. + Greater, 8, 21, 22, 27, 35, =223=. + Lesser (_see_ Redpoll), =222=. + + Redstart, 12, 19, 29, 31, 35, =210=. + + Reedbird (_see_ Bobolink), 61. + + Robin, American, 14, 19, 20, 21, 22, 27, 28, 29, 30, 32, =225=. + Blue (_see_ Bluebird), 99. + Canada (_see_ Cedar Bird), 144. + English (_see_ Baltimore Oriole), 211. + Golden (_see_ Baltimore Oriole), 211. + Ground (_see_ Chewink), 58. + Redbreast (_see_ American Robin), 225. + Wood (_see_ Wood Thrush), 123. + + + Sapsucker (_see_ Yellow-bellied Woodpecker), 57. + + Shrike family, 9. + Loggerhead, 10, 19, 20, 21, 29, 36, =86=. + Northern, 10, 19, 20, 21, 27, 32, 36, =87=. + + Silktail (_see_ Bohemian Waxwing), 88. + + Siskin, Pine, 8, 20, 28, 32, 35, =146=. + + Skylark, European, 5. + + Snowbird (_see_ Junco), 83; also Snowflake, 59. + Lapland (_see_ Lapland Longspur), 148. + Little (_see_ Redpoll), 222. + Slate-colored (_see_ Junco), 83. + + Snowflake, 8, 22, 27, 36, =59=. + + Sparrow, Bush (_see_ Field Sparrow), 152. + Canada (see Tree Sparrow), 161; + also White-throated Sparrow, 165. + Chipping, 7, 19, 20, 22, 27, 28, 30, 35, =149=. + English, 7, 20, 22, 27, 28, =151=. + Field, 7, 22, 28, 30, 32, =152=. + Fox, 7, 20, 21, 22, 27, 28, 29, 32, 36, =153=. + Fox-colored (_see_ Fox Sparrow), =153=. + Grasshopper, 7, 22, 28, 31, 35, =154=. + House (_see_ English Sparrow), 151. + Marsh (_see_ Swamp Song Sparrow), 160. + Savanna, 7, 22, 28, 32, 35, =155=. + Seaside, 7, 22, 28, 35, =156=. + Sharp-tailed, 7, 22, 28, 35, =157=. + Social (_see_ Chipping Sparrow), 149. + Song, 8, 20, 21, 22, 23, 27, 28, 30, 35, =158=. + Swamp (_see_ Swamp Song Sparrow), 160. + Swamp Song, 8, 22, 27, 28, 30, 32, 35, =160=. + Tree, 8, 19, 20, 21, 22, 27, 31, 35, =161=. + Vesper, 8, 20, 22, 23, 27, 28, 30, 31, 35, =162=. + White-crowned, 8, 20, 21, 22, 27, 32, 36, =164=. + White-throated, 8, 20, 21, 22, 27, 30, 31, 36, =165=. + Wood (_see_ Field Sparrow), 152. + Yellow-winged (_see_ Grasshopper Sparrow), 154. + + Sparrows, the, 7, 19, 21, 22. + + Starling, 50 + Orchard Starling, 227 + Red-winged (_see_ Red-winged Blackbird), 47. + + Swallow, Bank, 9, 19, 22, 23, 29, 30, 35, =143=. + Barn, 9, 19, 21, 22, 23, 29, 30, 35, =106=. + Chimney (_see_ Chimney Swift), 67. + Cliff, 9, 19, 21, 22, 23, 29, 30, 31, 35, =107=. + Crescent (_see_ Cliff Swallow), 107. + Eave (_see_ Cliff Swallow), 107. + family, 9, 20, 22, 23. + Rocky Mountain (_see_ Cliff Swallow), 107. + Rough-winged, 9, 19, 22, 23, 29, 35, =144=. + Sand (_see_ Bank Swallow), 143. + Tree, 9, 19, 22, 23, 29, 30, 35, =169=. + White-bellied (_see_ Tree Swallow), 169. + + Swamp Angel (_see_ Hermit Thrush), 125. + + Swift, American (_see_ Chimney Swift), 67. + + Swift, Chimney, 5, 19, 21, 23, 28, 30, 31, 35, =67=. + family, 4. + + + Tanager, Canada (_see_ Scarlet Tanager), 218. + family, 8, 21. + Scarlet, 8, 19, 28, 30, 31, 36, =218=. + Summer, 8, 19, 29, 36, =216=. + + Teacher, the (_see_ Ovenbird), 180. + + Thrasher, Brown, 12, 19, 20, 21, 22, 29, 30, 32, 36, =121=. + + Thrashers, the, 12. + + Thrush, Alice's, 15, 29, 30, 32, 36, =126=. + Aquatic (_see_ Northern Water Thrush), 129. + Black-capped (_see_ Catbird), 80. + Brown (_see_ Brown Thrasher), 121. + family, 14, 19, 21. + Gray-cheeked (_see_ Alice's Thrush), 126. + Golden-crowned (_see_ Ovenbird), 180. + Ground (_see_ Brown Thrasher), 121. + Hermit, 15, 29, 30, 31, 36, =125=. + Little (_see_ Hermit Thrush), 125. + Louisiana Water, 12, 21, 22, 23, 29, 30, 31, 35, =128=. + New York (_see_ Northern Water Thrush), 129. + Northern Water, 12, 21, 22, 23, 29, 30, 31, 35, =126=. + Olive-backed, 15, 29, 30, 32, 36, =127=. + Red (_see_ Brown Thrasher), 121. + Red-breasted or Migratory (_see_ American Robin), 225. + Song (_see_ Wood Thrush), 123. + Swainson's (_see_ Olive-backed Thrush), 127. + Tawny (_see_ Wilson's Thrush), 122. + Wilson's, 15, 21, 22, 29, 30, 31, 32, 36, =122=. + Wood, 15, 20, 21, 29, 30, 31, 32, 36, =123=. + + Tit, Black-capped (_see_ Chickadee), 76. + + Titlark (_see_ American Pipit), 135. + + Titmouse Black-capped (_see_ Chickadee), 76. + Crested (_see_ Tufted Titmouse), 78. + family, 13, 21. + Tufted, 14, 19, 20, 21, 27, 28, 29, 31, 35, =78=. + + Tomtit, Crested (_see_ Tufted Titmouse), 78. + + Torch-bird (_see_ Blackburnian Warbler), 209. + + Towhee (_see_ Chewink), 58. + + Tree-mouse (_see_ White-breasted Nuthatch), 84. + + Tricolor (_see_ Red-headed Woodpecker), 53. + + Veery (see Wilson's Thrush), 122. + + Vireo, Blue-headed (_see_ Solitary Vireo), 175. + family, 10, 19, 21, 22. + Red-eyed, 10, 20, 22, 29, 30, 31, 35, =176=. + Solitary, 10, 20, 22, 29, 30, 31, 35, =175=. + Warbling, 10, 20, 22, 29, 30, 31, 35, =179=. + White-eyed, 10, 20, 21, 22, 29, 30, 31, 35, =177=. + Yellow-throated, 10, 20, 22, 29, 30, 31, 35, =189=. + + Wagtail, Aquatic Wood (_see_ Northern Water Thrush), 129. + Golden-crowned (_see_ Ovenbird), 180. + Wood (_see_ Ovenbird), 180. + + Wagtails, the, 12. + + Wake-up (_see_ Flicker), 130. + + Warbler, Bay-breasted, 11, 29, 30, 31, =90=. + Black-and-white Creeping, 10, 20, 29, 30, 31, =64=. + Black-and-yellow (_see_ Magnolia Warbler), 197. + Blackburnian, 11, 29, 31, =209=. + Black-masked Ground (_see_ Maryland Yellowthroat), 207. + Blackpoll, 11, 19, 20, 29, =63=. + Black-throated Blue, 11, 29, 30, 31, =95=. + Black-throated Green, 11, 29, 30, =184=. + Bloody-sided (_see_ Chestnut-sided Warbler), 90. + Blue-headed Yellow-rumped (_see_ Magnolia Warbler), 197. + Blue-winged, 11, 20, 29, =193=. + Blue-winged Yellow (_see_ Blue-winged Warbler), 193. + Blue Yellow-backed (_see_ Parula Warbler), 94. + Canadian, 11, 19, 22, 23, 29, 31, =194=. + Chestnut-sided, 11, 29, 30, 31, =90=. + Golden (_see_ Yellow Warbler), 204. + Golden-winged, 11, 29, 30, 31, =91=. + Green Black-capped (_see_ Wilson's Warbler), 202. + Hemlock (_see_ Blackburnian Warbler), 209. + Hooded, 11, 21, 22, 20, 31, =195=. + Kentucky, 11, 22, =196=. + Magnolia, 11, 29, 30, =197=. + Mourning, 11, 21, 22, 29, =198=. + Mourning Ground (_see_ Mourning Warbler), 198. + Myrtle, 11, 21, 27, 29, 30, =92=. + Nashville, 11, 29, =199=. + Orange-throated (_see_ Blackburnian Warbler), 209. + Palm, 11, 22, 29, =204=. + Parula, 11, 29, 30, 31, =94=. + Pine, 11, 20, 29, 30, 31, =200=. + Pine Creeping (_see_ Pine Warbler), 200. + Prairie, 11, 22, 29, 31, =201=. + Redpoll (_see_ Palm Warbler), 204. + Ruby-crowned (_see_ Ruby-crowned Kinglet), 172. + Spotted (_see_ Magnolia Warbler), 197. + Spotted Canadian (_see_ Canadian Warbler), 194. + Wilson's, 12, 19, 22, 23, 29, 31, =202=. + Worm-eating, 12, 20, 22, 29, 31, =181=. + Yellow, 12, 19, 20, 22, 23, 29, 30, 31, =204=. + Yellow-crowned (_see_ Myrtle Warbler), 92. + Yellow Palm (_see_ Yellow Redpoll Warbler), 203. + Yellow Redpoll, 12, 22, 29, 30, 31, =203=. + Yellow-rumped (_see_ Myrtle Warbler), 92. + Yellow-tailed (_see_ Redstart), 210. + + Waxwing, Black-throated (_see_ Bohemian Waxwing), 88. + Bohemian, 9, 19, 20, 27, 36, =88=. + Cedar (_see_ Cedar Bird), 144. + family, 9. + Lapland (_see_ Bohemian Waxwing), 88. + + Whisky Jack or John (_see_ Canada Jay) 79. + + Whitebird (_see_ Snowflake), 59. + + Whippoorwill, 4, 19, 20, 21, 22, 28, 31, 35, =136=. + + Will-o'-the-Wisp (_see_ Nighthawk), 138. + + Woodpecker, Downy, 4, 19, 27, 28, 35, =55=. + family, 3, 21, 22. + Golden-winged (_see_ Flicker), 130. + Hairy, 4, 19, 27, 28, 36, =54=. + Pigeon (_see_ Flicker), 130. + Red-headed, 4, 19, 27, 28, 30, 32, 36, =53=. + Yellow-bellied, 4, 19, 27, 28, 30, 32, 35, =57=. + Yellow-shafted (_see_ Flicker), 130. + + Wood Warbler family, 10, 19, 20, 21, 35. + + Wren, Carolina, 13, 21, 22, 27, 28, 29, =116=. + family, 13, 19, 21, 22, 35. + Fiery-crowned (_see_ Golden-crowned Kinglet), 174. + House, 13, 20, 29, 30, 31, =115=. + Long-billed Marsh, 13, 22, 29, 30, 31, =119=. + Mocking (_see_ Carolina Wren), 116. + Ruby-crowned (_see_ Ruby-crowned Kinglet), 172. + Short-billed Marsh, 13, 29, 30, 31, =120=. + Winter, 13, 21, 22, 23, 28, 31, =117=. + + + Yarup (_see_ Flicker), 130. + + Yellowbird (_see_ American Goldfinch) 190. + Summer (_see_ Yellow Warbler), 204. + + Yellowhammer (_see_ Flicker), 130. + + Yellow Poll (_see_ Yellow Warbler), 204. + + Yellowthroat, Maryland, 12, 19, 21, 22, 23, 29, 30, 31, =207=. + + + + +Transcriber's Notes + +With the exception of the correction detailed below, the text is a +transcription of the original printed book. Several minor corrections +were made where punctuation was missing (comma or period) or +formatting differed from that used for similar sections elsewhere. +Several forms of the verb travel appear with an alternative spelling +than is common in the present era. For example, travelled and +travelling are used. The OE/oe ligatures are displayed as [OE] and +[oe] respectively. The placeholders for the book's images were moved +so that they are between the descriptive passages rather than interrupt +the "flow" of the text by just moving them between paragraphs as is +typically done. + + + Page Correction + ===== ================================== + v COLORED PLATES => COLOURED PLATES + and page number xi => xviii + 162 Pooc[oe]tes -- Po[oe]cetes + 226 that => than + 229 Vesper Sparrow => White-throated + 232 Louisiana Water Thrush: 125 => 128 + 232 Northern Water Thrush: 126 => 129 + + +Emphasis Notation + + _Text_ - Italic + + =Text= - Bold + + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Bird Neighbors, by Neltje Blanchan + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK BIRD NEIGHBORS *** + +***** This file should be named 37735.txt or 37735.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + http://www.gutenberg.org/3/7/7/3/37735/ + +Produced by Juliet Sutherland, Tom Cosmas and the Online +Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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