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A /APPLIED IN/MGE Ir

^^ 1653 East Main Street

S^S Rochester, New York 14609 USA

'-^ (716) *82 - 0300 - Phone

^S (716) 288- 5989 -Fax

Bird World

A BIRD BOOK FOR CHILDREN

J. H. STICKNEY

ASSIiiTKD BV

RALPH HOFFMANN

BOSTON U S.A.
GINN & COMPANY, PUBLISHERS

Cbe Stbnuram |)rest
1902

iP^mp

CorvHir.HT, i8q8
By GINN & COMPANY

ALL RIGHTS RESKHVBD

■«

TO ITS PUBLISHERS AMU BSPECIALLV TO

Ar. 5u0tin W. Smttb

VNtJER WHOSE AUSPICES IT WAS BEGUN

AND TO WHOSE KINDNESS AND COUNSEL I OWE SO MUCH

THIS LITTLE BOOK IS DEDICATED

AS A TOKEN OF GRATITUDE AND REGARD

^mm.

P K K F A C E.

TT may be of interest to some of our readers to know under
what guidance ihey are to make this little journey i to the
f^orders of Bird World.

First, then, the plan and direction come from the author
of some books they have known as the Stick'-ey Readers. It
may be thought worth while to ventuic on this new pleasure
trip under the same leadership.

Second, a gentleman has been found to act as special

inductor, — one who has lived closer to Bird World than any
us. For years he has known by sight and sound all our
New England birds, and many, if not most, of our chance
summer and winter visitors, beside having particularly intimate
acquaintance with some which we too shall be glad to »»--^et.
A number of the stories which follow are based upon his own
personal observations. You will find his name upon ti .■ title
page. He is a director in the Audubon Society for the Pro-
tection of Birds, which makes it certain that the citizens of
Bird World are as safe in his hands as are we. You have thus
the combined powers of two who are both friends of young
people and of birds.

PREFACE.

A third point of interest lies in having true portraits of
birds by the distinguished artist, Mr. Ernest Seton Thompson, for
which you must thank our generous publishers, as also for the
color photographs which help us to see better how the living
birds we are arning to recognize really look. A number of
other kindnesses have helped us to make this book attractive
and instructive. The use of drawings by Mr. Ridgway was
most kindly allowed us by Dr. Merriam, of the Department of
Agriculture, at Washington. Other sketches were made for us
by Mr. Knobel, and by arrangement with the publishers of the
Ospr^ we have the use of several attractive portraits and
sketches. For the use of the Snowy Egret we are indebted to

Miss S. J. Eddy.

We also express our obligation to visitors we have met in
Bird World, some of whose names occur in our record, for bits
of testimony and song. In return we commend the books they
have given to the world to be read when this " younger book "
has prepared you for them. Among them are : Birds of Village
and Field, Miss Florence Merriam ; Citizen Bird, Mrs. Mabel
Osgood Wright ; Winter Neighbors, Neltjo TManchan ; Bird Life,
F. A. Chapman ; and the writings of Mrs. Olive Thome Miller.

fe.- >^4r>6>'«..;.J&S^^-

CONTENTS.

The Goldfinch

The Phoe!)e » .

Verses

The Robin

The Oriole

Heralds of the Summer . .

The Bluebird

The Coming of the Birds . .

The Indigo Bird

The Story of a Grouse . . . ,

Bird Acquaintance

Bills of Fare

Gull Dick

Verses

The Owl . . .

The Scarlet Tanager . . . .

The Politest Bird

A Family of Backwoodsmen .
The Downy Woodpecker .

The Flicker

The Sapsucker

A Second Sparrow Study
The Song Sparrow and the
Chipping Sparrow . . . .
How Birds Pass the Night

The Blue Jay

Bird Homes

THe Nest as ars Hvei-:

TAGS

3
6

7
II

'3
'5
i8

24
26
29
30
31
36

37
40

41
44
47
49

54
56

The Kingbird 5,

The Warbler Family
A Clever Wren ; ,

Audubon
Wren
The Wren .
At the Bath .
The Catbird

Verses .
Nest Builders
The Swallows

Verses .

and the House

67
68

69
70

73
75
78

79
84

The Barn Swallow }J6

The Red- winged Blaokbird .

About Birds' Toes

Bob White

Audubon and the Phoebes . .

How Young Birds Get Fed . .

Food of Birds

When a Bird Changes his Clothes

A Bird in the Hand 106

Bird Passports i , ,

The Bird of Many Names .

The Bobolink

Gypsy Birds ,2^

Foster- Mothers ,23

Two Father Birds 125

Bom in a Boat 128

95
98

100

'03

"7
119

rjmi..m^M^. "i^irM?:J-m?K;?T2ss*:

Vlll

CONTENTS.

PAGB

How the Wood Duck Gets her

Young to the Water . . .13°
The Great Caravan Route • 13'
Bird World in Winter . ■ ■ • I3S
Bird Lodgings in Winter . . .138

Verses '39

The Eagle '40

The Chickadee U'

A Bird- Paradise '42

Versea '43

The Sea-Gull '44

A Great Traveler '45

The Redstart '5°

The Humming Bird '5'

As Free as a Bird '55

PAGB

To the Great and General Court

of Massachusetts ' 5^

Thirds' Enemies '62

Families in Bird World .... 169

Feathers and Flight t72

Flight '78

The Snowy Egret »8o

The Wood Thrush «83

The Brown Thrush '84

Hawks ., '86

Bird Language '9°

Some Strange Bird Music . • .193

Bird Bills '95

Appendix '99

Index 212

FULL-PAGE ILLUSTRATIONS AND COLORED PICTURES.

A Pair of Goldfinches . . .

Robin colored

Oriole

Yellow Warbler . •
Bluebird

Owl "

Scarlet Tanager . . "

Cedar Bird . • • • "
Downy Woodpecker . "
Tl.e Song Sparrow . . . .
A Pair of Kingbirds . . . .

PAGB
I

• 9

• '3

. 16

•.3

• 36

• 37

• 40

• 5'
. 64

Thrushes

PAGB

• 67
. 84
. 96
. 100
. 136

Louisiana Water

A Happy Pair

Part of a Quail Family . . . ■

Black-throated Green Warblers .

Winter life

Herring Gulls and their Nesting

Places

Thfe Redstart

A Pair of Orioles « 5^

A Useful Hawk ....•• 188
The Wood Thrush »92

144
150

?^«^S5^i^JSi?r^MPS*

!t-';..

fwm^s^;^^m':i^^.wms- .

A PAIR OF GOLDFINCHES.

'^m^^mi^w^M^^' i^'m-'f^^^sr, ,^.>%

r*^>. ..■M--J^^\.iiMSiM

BIRD WORLD.

^t^K"

THE GOLDFINCH.

SINCE there must be a first bird for us to meet in
this long visit we are to make together in Bird
World, and some of us have to choose which one, sup-
pose we let it be the pretty confiding Goldfinch,
who with his mate shall stand upon the threshold to

receive us.

This old pasture where little grows but weeds and
thistles is a favorite place with the Goldfinches.
Thistlebird is one of the names by which they are
known. There is no merrier bird than the Goldfinch.
He spends the pleasantest part of the year, the spring
months, when other birds are busiest, singing and
enjoying the sunshine. When winter comes, instead
of leaving us he sta- with a hapny company of friends,
feeding on weeds t stand above the snow, twitter-
ing and calling sweetly to his companions. It is not
strange, then, that the Goldfinch has many friends and
no enemies.

2 BIRD WORLD.

The little Goldfinches are cradled in the softest of
silk— nothing lf.>s than thistledown. With thi** the
mother lines the nest, which is generally built late in
June, when thistles have begun to ripen. The thistle
is a good friend to the Goldfinch, for its seeds are a
favorite food.

When the little Goldfinches leave the nest, they are
by no means as brightly colored as their father. No
canary-colored vest or black cap is provided for them,
but very sober brownish suits. When April comes
again, you will see some of them looking a little
brighter, and in a few weeks they will come into as
bright plumage as their father. The others, the
females, still keep the darker color, like their mother.

The Goldfinch flies in great curves, and as he goes
dov.nward he begins a pretty little twitter which he
finishes on the upward curve. Through the wide air,
over fields and farms, he swings along with his bright
" De-rt'^^-de, de-rt^^-de, de-rt'^-^-de." Not the coldest or
wettest weather can make him utter a complaining
note. Perhaps you know some boy or girl who is
cheerful and lively all the day and all the year.

_ ..J^

THE PHCEBE.

MEAR Boston there is a little stream celebrated by
A ^ an American poet who loved birds. It is called
Beaver Brook, and the
scenery abc t it is so
beautiful that, partly by
gift and partly by pur-
chase, a large tract of
land has been set apart
for a Park, or Reserva-
tion as it is called, so
that its beauty can be
preserved and people be
free to visit it whenever
they wish.

At the head of the
brook are two ponds, and between the two is a little
bridge under which the water all the ysar rushes
foaming and splashing. When the poet Lowell used
to visit the brook, there was a mill at this spot, and
the foaming water used to turn a big mill wheel and
help the dusty miller grind the grain which his neigh-
bors brought.

Fig. 1. — Phoebe.

• '3 ■ t4/'ff-:s'.'4i'.

BIRD WORLD.

About the last of March every year a citizen of
Massachusetts, who has spent the winter farther south,
returns to the spot and calls out his name from the
trees about the shore, " Phoe-bee ! Phoe-bee ! " stopping
now and then to dart over the water for a gnat or fly,
and snapping his tail when he returns to the tree.

An old man who has lived in the neighborhood for
many years says that when he was a boy, seventy
years ago, the Phoebe came every year just as it does
to-day, and he and his sister visited the mill every
April to find the neat, well-built nest which the bird
placed on the rafters of the mill.

The buzzing and whirring of the wheel, and the
grinding sound made by the heavy millstones did not
disturb either the parent birds or their young. The
miller knew them and gladly let them use his roof for
shelter.

The boy and his sister loved them too, and never
stole the nest nor frightened them. To-day the mill
is torn down, but on the very spot where it stood
they find the bridge, and under it the strong beams
that support it. Here they still build their nest ; the
water foams and splashes below them ; people, and
sometimes horses and wagons, tramp over them, but
they have no fear. In spite of all the changes, they
prefer their old home to any other.

The old man and his sister nul^ soon pass away,

THE rmEHE. 5

and even the younger people who now M'sit the spot
will sometime die too, but if the state, which now
owns the ponds, leaves the bridge and the trees and
bushes on its banks, I feel sure that every springtime
the Phoebe's note will be heard in the last days of
March, and the pretty moss-covered nest will be built
under the bridge.

The young birds will learn to fly off and catch
msects on the wing, and will snap their tails too, as
their parents do ; and some day, when their parents
die, they will come and build nests under the bridge.
No one knows when they first came to this spot, nor
how long they will continue to return.

Note. _ It was my happy privilege to live for srven years in the cot-
tage upon the estate to which the ponds belonged before Massachusetts
made a present of them to all its nature-loving citizens.

It must have been this same Phoebe who called to me from the pine
grove across the street so often in its plaintive way. Once when I was
.II I took turns in fancying, first, that Phcbe was lost and wished to
be found ; and second, that some one was staying away too long and
must be called home to ease an anxiou. heart. But the note is hardly
Ike a call ; ,t sounds more like a sweet, loving memory that takes this
way of expressing itself. How glad I should have been then to know
that I was living at the ancestral home of this ancient family !

J. H. S.

BIRD WORLD.

WHY ROBIN DID NOT SING IN THE SOUTH.

Ik I ever tried a note
Something rose within my throat.

'T was because my heart was true
To the north and sptingtime new ;

My mind's eye a nest could see
In yon old forked apple tree !

EijiTH Thomas

JV-V.

Fig. 2. — Robin.

They 'll come again to the apple tree, —

Robin and all the rest, —
When the orchard branches are fair to see

In the snow of blossoms dressed,
And the prettiest thing in the world will be
The building of the ne ^t.

Mrs. M. E. Sangstek.

W^MM

THE ROBIN.

[^ONG before you are awake, the Robins have had

V > " "^°'""'"^' "^^'^^•^^^ -^ung a very jolly choT

visited two or three cherry trees and hv thl\

have breaL-fn«f^^ j ^ ' ^^ ^"^ ^""^ you

ta..-n/;:rrLTir u: " '"='^- '-^^ -^

twice . >ar«e; ';,:!•:; if Tongef'^r:;.-'::'^
br.ght orange in color '^ ' ""'' "

Instead of squabbling and scratching in the midc ■
top elrand^t'^'T "^ '" ""^''^ 'o 'louses o'e^

-PS id thenSr^i^XT^ra;:- ' '-

Fruit IS very dear to the RobJn A/ •

Hun'ti^g forr;;sTn,;T r"^ "r- '- •-

share with him hfn T \^ ^ "^"""'^ ^^''e to

pulls and pulir'till tL "''' ^""'^'' °'^ ^''^ ^^^^ '-^nd
pulls, till the poor worm he is seeking has

JilRD WORLD.

life

to let go, and after some hard pounding by Robin's
sharp bill, it is carried off to the nest for the little
ones, or gulped df)vv i by Robin himself.

Mr. James RusseJ Lowell calls the Robin's nest
*' an adobe house." Perhaps some of you have read
how people in Colorado build houses of dried clay,
which bakes in the sun. This is called adobe, and
both the Robin and the Swallow know how to build
in this fashion.

Four eggs of " robin's egg blue," laid early in May,
hatch into very ugly and very hungry youngsters.
Their b:g yellow mouths are opened wide whenever
the mother or father comes near. These parents are
kept busy all day and every day for a fortnight till the
young birds grow big, till feathers cover their naked
little bodies, and one of them steps to the edge of the
mud nest and looks out.

This is an anxious time for the parents. Soon the
boldest youngster tries his wings and makes for a
neighboring twig. If he misses it and flutters down
to the ground, the parents fly back and forth, making
a great outcry which collects many other bira^,. If
no cat comes prowling about, th- little one tries again
and perhaps gets safely off, but often a bunch of gray
feathers tells the sad story of his short life.

When the young birds who escape all the dangers
from cats and hawks, are strong enough to find foou

THE ROB IX. o

for themselves, the parents build another nest and rear
another brood. Meanwhile the first brood fly each
night to some neighboring grove where they are joined
by other young Robins from miles around. The birds
assemble in such numbers that the pattering of their

Robin.

wmgs on the leaves, while they are arranging their
places for the night, sounds like falling rain.

Not only do the young birds come to these " roosts "
as they are called, but father-Robins also, who cannot
help their wives after sun--t, Jo'n their children, or
perhaps show them the Wc y.

BIRD WORLD.

One eentleman, who watched a family of Robins
near his house, writes : " The female came and took
possession of the nest for the night I saw her
brooding the young till it became so dark that I could
distinguish nothing. On the following evening the
male fed the young at about the same hour, then flew
to the top of a spruce tree, and after singing a good-
nicrht to wife and babies, took a direct flight for the
roost. The female then fed the young and settled

herself in the nest."

By the time you have learned the birds names, and
begun to watch their habits, you may wonder whether
there is anything new for you to find out.

You mav think, that if so many people have studied
them for a hundred years, they will have found out
all their interesting ways. But do not be discouraged
Nothing could be more interesting than this habit ot
the Robins of assembling every summer night in these
.reat companies; and yet, though the Robin is every-
where common, and has been studied by hundreds of
bird students, it was only eight years ago that anything
was written about " Robin roosts."

THE ORIOLE.

f T is in May when woodlands are green with swell-
* ing buds and spreading leaves, and fragrant with
the sweet wild flowers, that the brilliant Oriole appears

among us.

Very early one morning I heard his clear whistle
and hastened to find him. He looked down upon me
rather inquiringly, as if he wanted to say, " What do
you think of me.?" and my heart answered, " I think
you are beautiful ! "

He was alone for a few days, busy as a bird could
be, trying to select a house lot. He flew from tree to
tree, in orchard, garden, and yard. A tall, stately elm
seems to please him best, and when the shy little lady
he is to make his wife is coaxed to the tallest branch,
she demurs, as she knows the peril of building there,'
and with a decision he does not quite relish she tells
him a lower branch would suit her better.

She begins very soon to collect materials for build-
ing, singing as she works, making long journeys for
the hair and twine necessary for her home. After
nest come eggs, and after eggs baby birds. The
proud and happy father shows his love as well by the
care he takes, and the watchfulness, as by the songs

BIRD WORLD.

he pours from his full throat. Often he seems to
say to the mother, "Run out now and stretch a

Oriole.

little"; and she goes, but not for very long. Why
is it that mothers think no one can be quite so con-
tent and happy with their babies as themselves .?

K'- ^^

Summer Warbler, or Vellowbird.

HERALDS OF THE SUMMEP.

IF we make a residence in Bird World in such a place
that our doors and windows open out upon hedges
or shrubbery, or upon a garden, we shall not need to
search for this little bird in the picture. He will come
to us with his pretty yellow mate.

J ■'■"f*r\, -

,^ BIRD WORLD.

The gentleness of the summer Yellowbirds wins
our love. They are as sunny in their temper as in
their looks. " Pretty is that pretty does " never need

put them to shame. , .. . j i:u«

The Cowbirds have long since found it out and, like
the naucrhty birds they are, have taken advantage o
it; but gentle people, if they will not quarrel will not
always suffer their own plans to be turned aside. The
Cowbird sometimes f^nds his match, as we sha 1 see.
The following little word-picture will show you how a
Yellowbird's nest looked to Mr. Keyscr, and what
the bird did when she found herself imposed upon.

" The nest of the Summer Warbler was a dainty
structure, composed of downy material, and deftly
lod-ed among the twigs of a sapling at the foot of a
cliff A cold spring gurgled from the rocks near by ;
the willows and buttonwood trees bent to the balmy
breeze, and the tinkling of the brook mingled with
the songs of many birds.

" Our little strategist comes home and finds a Low-
bird's egg dropped ^nto her nest. She begins forih-
with to add another story, and this leaves the interloper
in the cellar, with a floor between it and her warm
breast I have found several of these exquisite towers
that were three stories high, in the top of which the
little bird sat perched like a goddess on the summit
of Olympia."

■^■--S-

THE BLUEBIRD.

DO you believe that a Bluebird would think of com-
ing to New Engl-ind in February?

One bright, crisp morning in the last month of
winter, I heard a clear, lively, little song that I knew,
and of course I hastened to find my friend, the Blue-
bird. The " Blue Robin" little children sometimes call
him, and indeed he is a cousin to the Robin family.

He was very cunning at hiding in the old apj)lc
tree, and very shy when I found him.

Soon there was a nest, and a little later a family of
five, one beinij a ffuest who had traveled north for the
first time, perhaps, and was not in haste to have the
care of a family. He never did any work, but flitted
about as if made simply to enjoy himself and be
admired.

If you had seen him, you would have thought it
very natural Such a putting together of heavenly
blue, and warm, rich, yellowish red would be enough
to turn any head that was not full of earnest purpose.

The home was built by the bird mother in the
orchard where I could easily watch it, and we became
very good friends, these dear Bluebirds and I. They

BIRD WORLD.

ate the crumbs I gave them, and my joy in them was
complete when they came boldly to my door.

Bluebird.

Mother Bluebird, as perhaps you may know, is more
quietly dressed than her gallant mate. It is not that

THE BLUEBIRD.

she would not take good care of a bright costume, for
birds are tidy in their persons ; but she thinks more
of safety than of looks, and it might be inconvenient
to have to fly out of harm's reach just when home
could least spare her.

A pair of Robins with very red breasts built a nest
close by, and seemed to be good neighbors. How
did I know, do you ask? Well, for one thing they
formed a chorus, and before sunrise I would hear
them singii together.

^ Pot rlirad

The above diagram explains some names often used in describing a bird.

THE COMING OF THE BIRDS.

I N the lesson on the Oriole you read that he came
I in May when buds were bursting into flowers. 1
wonder whether you asked yourself, as you read,
where he had come from and why he had not come

before. .

These are questions that the very wisest men have
found it hard to answer. Without hurrying to answer
them now, — for if you read further there will be more
about these things,— let us ask some country boy
when the birds come back and which come first.

If our friend has sharp eyes and ears, he will know
that early in March he hears the first Robin, and
with him' come the gentle Bluebird, the noisy Black-
birds, and the cheery Song Sparrow. The Phoebe
waits a fortnight till the flies and gnats begin to stir,
for his food does not lie on the ground like that of
the birds just mentioned.

In April come many more birds, but May is the
great month for the returning tribes. The names
alone of all those that come in the warm days of early
May would fill a page. Bird World in the north is
like a seaside summer place, very empty in winter,
but stirring with life in summer.

Ib-'JL'*.^

THE INDIGO BIRD.

\TOVV that we are on Bluebirds, let us give a
A ^ thought to a smaller Bluebird without the bright
breast.

The Indigo bird seems to be all blue till, looking
closely, we see a greenish cast in some lights, and
a trace of brownish color on under parts and wings
and tail.

The Bluebird, as I told you, though smaller than the
Robin, is a near relative ; the Indigo bird is perhaps
as near a cousin to the Sparrow. Lady Indigo wears
brown for the most part, only adding her husband's
"colors," as a good wife should, on shoulders and
outer tail webs.

This is a wise precaution, for these birds do not
carry on their family affairs high out of harm's way,
but build a nest in a low bush or on tall, stiff grasses.
They will build by the roadside sooner than close by
our homes, and they do not respond with confidence
to our friendly advances.

But, while they nest and feed on or near the ground
you will most often see one swinging from a topmost
twig of a tall tree, when its song makes you search
for the singer.

JUKI! noKi.n.

I )„ not look for them anK„.g the very earliest birds ,
,h V n ake up to us for coming later to the b.rd con-
erf of the year, by singing away on m August, «he„
many of the other birds are resting the.r voices. If
YOU are walking or riding on a country road well lined
vvi.h shrubs and trees, i should be surprised if you do
not before sumn,er ends, looking up, see the male
Indi-o bird -a little blue canary you will think
_o^ the outer end of a high twig; or, once m
a summer, you may come upon the ^^^-^f"'^^
mother dusting herself as mother-hens do and com-
ing from her bath feeling as clean as you do coming
from yours.

What if the sky is clouded ?

What if the rain comes down ?
They are all dressed to meet it

In waterproof suits of brown.

BLUEBIRD.

"So the Bluebirds have contracted, have they for a house?
And a nest is under way for little Mr. Wren ?
Hush, dear, hush : Be quiet, quiet as a mouse."

THE STORY OF A GROUSE.

j WAS born in the swamp at the foot of this hill,
* under the laurel ; and as soon as I broke through
the shell, I ran off over the dry leaves with my brothers
and sisters.

There were ten of us, and from June, when we
were born, till August we kept close to our mother.
The whole family wandered here and there through
the swamp, and though we children sometimes ran off
too far, we found each other again by peeping and by
listening for our mother's cluck.

Once a man and two children came upon us sud-
denly and we all hurried off among the leaves, where
we squatted down and kept as quiet as we could.
Or mother, however, ran out in front of the man,
trailing her wings close to the ground, and keeping
his attention till she felt sure we were well hidden.
Then she ran off through the bushes. Presently we
heard her cluck and each of us answered with a faint
peep and one after another we came out from our hid-
ing places. Then our mother took us quickly off
into the deep bushes to a place of safety.

We found enough to eat all summer ; berries were
plentiful and we became skilful in catching the spi-

:V«rf

BIRD WORl.n.

,lers and beetles that ran over the K'™";"- ^he"
we were verv little we spent the niyht under our
^.tJuVs wings, poking our heads out through the
feathers when it grew light.

Whit we disliked most was the cold ram that

s.>metimer fell, chilling us through our feathers, and

iin-ventini: us from finding food.

'^ \l^ kept together till the fall and since then, though

.hi are'man; Crouse in these woods, we have neve

nd a family •reunion. By the fall, too, we had all

1 ,„ rtv orettv well ; we were strong of wing,
earned to ny picuy "■-", ,

and at night we tiew into trees and roosted on th.

branches. . , ^Up

Nov, l.e.,.u> tlic season when men came mto the

woods to shoot us, and though I escaped myself, I

often saw the fallen feathers of less fortunate b.rds^
The sound of the guns, and an experience had

with a fox who almost caught me because vvas
™«ting too near the ground, taught me a va uab e

lesson, so that now, without boastmg, I may claim to

l^i> T nrettv wary old bird.

I v':ell remember the falling of the first snow m
November, and yet 1 was not so surprised a^you m.gh
imagine. It seemed natural to see the white masses
"vering the vines and leaves ; and I found that feath-
ers had grown on my toes so that ■'. was almost as
it I walked on snowshoes. When I tound out that

TJtE STORY 01' A GROUSE.

the buds of many of the bushes were fine eating, I felt
no desire to leave the woods where I was born.

So here I stay, year in and year out. In March I
have a favorite log where I always drum. You can
hear my strokes a mile away, and when I am drum-
ming I spread out my tail and blow out my feath-
ers, till there is no handsomer bird in the swamp.

Each year I see and hear the Ovenbirds that come
to rest on my log, and they tell me of their journeys
southward in the fall, and the fine woods they find
where there is never snow, but I think my own woods
are best. I should be a foolish Grouse to fly so far
into an unknown country when my feathers keep me
so warm and buds are so easy to find.

i 'i-

.■I^M

BIRD ACQUAINTANCE.

HOW many birds are you sure you would kiKuv by
si<rht? ' You can tell an English Sparrow from
a Robin'or Bluebird, and you would not mistake the
Sununer Yellowbird or the Oriole ])erhaps.

Will vou not begin to get into closer acquamtance
,vith th J citizens of^Bird World ? Let us stop searching
for new birds and study awhile some that we already
know. The h:nglish Sparrow is the commonest of
all and vou will not need to go far to f^nd one.

As I write, there is one within a few feet of me in
the pear-tree branches outside my window.

What is it that we wish to know ? First, by what
marks shall we recognize him when he comes again.
The male and female Sparrows differ, and the young
at different ages. We will try to remember where
this one is slate color, and where brown, where light
colored, and where darker, whether the color is in
patches, bars, or streaks, whether it shades into an-
other color or ends distinctly. The diagram of a
bird on page 17 will help us in stating what we .see.

Now we must record what we have learned, to see
if it f^ts the next Sparrow. This one may be a Cock
Sparrow, and that may be a lady-bird; or this may be

-^*

BIRD ACQ UA1\TANCK.

a bird a year or two old, and the next one but a few-
months. It will take time to learn them all.

Now we are ready to study the ways of our little
visitor in the tree. See him rub his bill, first on this
side and then that, against the branch on which he
l^erches. Is it to dry it, or to sharpen it, or to polish
it ? Half the time it may be only a habit.

He is on a bare branch, but how he pecks and
jjecks; if you watch, you may see him swallow.
When he has gone, go and see if there are grubs or
insects in the cracks of the bark.

While you have been looking, he has hopped to
new places to rub his bill and peck as before. He
goes to a topmost branch and you sec his under parts.
The branch is too large for him to grasp with his toes,
but he clings, and head and tail help him to keep his
balance. Perhaps he will stretch one wing so that its
quills stand all apart; and see him lift the little brown
feathers under his chin, or where his chin should be.
Do you know how much birds can lift and loosen
their feathers if they wish, or how tightly they can
hug them.? If you saw them held loosely on a cold
day or night, they would make Cock Sparrow seem a
much larger bird.

If you have looked with real interest at one little
half-despised Sparrow, something has been left in your
heart which will remain and grow.

.= ■/;■*•;■'

BILLS OF FARE.

A CERTAIN family in a country town is often
A joined at dinne'r by some friends who are con-
tent with " just the bones."

Doers, vou will say; but they are not dogs. Turn
to pa<;e ui and you will see one of these little guests,
and i? vou look closely you will see that though he
cannot ^,^et as much off a bone as a dog yet his beak
is stoutV'UOUgh and his eye sharp enough to pick the

last bit of gristle. , , . n i u ^ if

He docs not come to these people s table, but it
the window is open he is almost within reach of the
children's hands. There is an old apple tree just out-
side the dining-room, and on its branches there a ways
hangs a ham or mutton bone. This is visited almost
everv day in winter until it is picked clean. _

Sometimes the Downy Woodpecker drills into the
tough tendrons, and occasionally a fat bluish gray
bird with white under parts- Nuthatch is his name
— joins the Chickadees at their feast. '

Where are the other winter birds? you will ask.
Cannot the little Kinglet and the Creeper have their
share ?

■.^^'t^.J^.

BILLS OF FARE. 27

The people who put out the bones would be glad
enough to welcome them, and from what I know of
the Chickadee's manners, I think he would be the last
to treat them rudely, if they came ; but yet they are
never seen clinging to the bone and picking at the
frozen scraps.

To ask a hungry Creeper to have a piece of gristle
would be as cruel as the Stork was to his friend
Reynard. No one is quicker than a Creeper when it
is a question of prying a canker-worm's eggs out of
a crevice in the bark, but he cannot use his slender
bill for such rough work as hacking frozen meat.

Up in Vermont is another family who spread a
table for their bird friends. The bone hung up by
the first family serves the Chickadee for a chair, a
table and food also; but the birds which visit this
family eat a different food, which is spread out for
them on a board nailed to the top of a post. They
have different bills from those of either the bone-
pickers or the Creepers.

" Finches " do you ask } " Seed eaters } "

Four or five different kinds of Finches come to this
board. Tree Sparrows, Snowbirds, and occasionally
some very pretty rosy-colored birds called Redpoll
Linnets. If you were near enough to the table on
which the food is spread, you could hear the seeds
crack in their strong bills, and though their bills are

^^€lP*^SS

HIRD WORLD.

so thick they have s' h ,Joints and can pick up very

small seeds.

Vou see you can learn much about a bird's food by
examining his bill. You would not need to ask a
Sparrow or a Swallow what he would like to eat. But
if you made out a bird's bill of fare by his bill alone
you might make a very great mistake.

Sometime perhaps you will read about the Toucan,
a handsome South American bird whose bill is as
thick as his body, and nearly as long. You would
expect him to crack Brazil nuts with ease, and would
be greatly surprised to see him in the forests of the
Amazon chattenng with his comrades in the tops of
tall fruit trees, and holding in the end of his enor-
mous beak fruit no bigger than a cherry.

Birds' beaks are like tools; some, you can guess at
once, are to be used for chiseling or digging; how
others are used it is harder to guess; and to under-
stand some we have to find the owner and watch him
at his work.

"GULL DICK."

r\N the second of October, 1894, the men on a
^^ certain lightship in Narragansett Bay were
looking eagerly to see whether an old friend had
returned to spend the winter with them.

For twenty-two years a Gull had appeared each
October and flown about the ship in search of food,
till April, when he had disappeared for the summer.

The men on a lightship see so little to amuse them,
that they soon noticed this Gull and offered him food.
He on his part grew bolder until he learned to vi: .
the ship regularly, as soon as morning came, and to
remain near it until it was time for him to return to
the rocks, where he spent the night. His favorite
food was pork or fish cut into pieces as large as a
hen's egg. He came closer to the ship than the other
Gulls, and the crew recognized him by certain marks
on his wings.

There was much satisfaction aboard the lightship
when " Gull Dick " appeared on this particular morning,
but he seemed to have taken a long journey, and to
have suffered somewhat from storms.

His plumage was ragged and his movements were
-ither more feeble than they used to be. The men

BIRD WOKl.n.

said to each other, "'Gull Dick ' is getting old. This
mav be his last winter with us."

they gave him all the food he wanted, for he seemed
very huiTgry. All through the winter he came regu-
larly for his meals, driving off the other Gulls if they
came too near his food. The crew fed him for the
last time early in April ; the next day he doubtless
started for the north, but what happened to him there
no one knows. Old age, or a fierce storm, may have
carried him off, or perhaps another bird attacked
him ; at any rate, he failed to return in the fall, and
the men in the lightship have lost their pet, " Gull
Dick."

TO A WATERFOWL.

Whith'':r, 'midst falling dew,
While tjlow the heavens with the last steps of day,
Far through their rosy depths, dost thou pursue

Thy solitary way ?

Vainly the fowler's eye
Might mark thy distant flight to do thee wrong,
As. darkly painted on the crimson sky.

Thy figure floats along.

Seek 'st thou the plashy brink
Of weedy lake, or marge of river wide,
Or vl'here the rocking bi'lows rise and sink

On the chafed ocean side ?

Bkvant.

THE OWL.

MO one can mistake an owl. In every country

where owls are found (and they are found nearly

everywhere), their wise-looking, solemn faces are well

known. What is it that gives the owl this look, so

grave that we have the saying "wise as an owl ".?

Look at the picture and notice that the eyes are
placed far forward, and that around each large eye is
a broad circle or disk of flat feathers. These circles
of feathers make the eyes seem even larger, and go
far toward giving the bird its solemn look.

An owl's beak and claws are curved and strong.
They resemble those of another family which includes
the Hawks and Eagles, who also live by violence.

Hawks, if they are robbers, are at any rate like the
robber barons of old, dependent on their strength and
swiftness as much as on surprise. The owl is more
like a stealthy thief, and his success depends almost
wholly on silence and secrecy. Twilight is his favor-
ite time, or moonlight nights. His feathers, moreover,
are edged with such soft down that an owl might pass
directly over your head and you would hardly^'hear it.
Think of the whistling of a pigeon's wings and you
will see how remarkable this silence is. Here s

BIRD VORLD.

then the secret of the owl's success, — broad, power-
ful wines on which he relies for stealthy, noiseless
flight ; Targe eyes, like a cat's, which gather up all
the dim light ; and sharp, strong claws which seue
and tear his victim. An owl is a cat on wings.

It was long believed that an owl could not see by
day, and that he hunted on the darkest nights. Prob-
.->,bly neither statement is true. The owl can see as
well, if not better, in the daytime than we can ; but if
there is no light he cannot see at all. Why does he
iiide 'by day, you will ask, in the barn or belfry, or in
the hollow tree, and only come out at dusk ?

If a pickpocket had a certain mark by which every
one knew him the moment he appeared, it would be
easy to avoid him, and he would probably have to get
his living by honest work; the owl is known the mo-
ment he is' seen, and the fuss the little birds make
when he happens to appear in the daytime would warn
his victims and keep him hungry till he starved.

No one who has seen an owl surrounded by a crowd
of furious birds, scolding and flying excitedly about,
can forget the scene. It seems as if they were calling
him " rascal," " thief," and " murderer." Sometimes a
cheerful little Chickadee, looking over an apple tree,
jnits its head into a hollow trunk, and instantly his
feathers bristle, and he calls loudly to his friends,
"There's an owl in here, there's an owl in here!"

jwr •:^».-:

THE OlFL.

Owl.

They answer in the greatest excitement, and all the
birds round about come to peer in at the villain.
You can imagine, therefore, that the owl does a better
business, and leads a more peaceful life, if he puts off
his tour of the orchard till evening.

'»' ■9':i -i^-V

filKI) WORLD.

Hut what do owls find in the twilight when the
birds are asleep? Have you ever heard a mouse at
night running backward and forward in the walls?

Besides the mice who share your house with you,
there are many wild mice in the fields, and they are
most active at night. In winter, if snow falls in the
night, you may find their tracks all about in the morn-
ing. Sometimes the track ends abruptly, there are
signs of a scuffle, and i)erhaps a little blood mark may
be seen in the white snow. This is where the poor
mouse gave a pitiful shriek as the sharp claws of an
owl pierced his back.

Under the apple tree, in whose hollow trunk the
owl spends the day, you will pick up curious little
bunches — pellets they are called — of fur, and on
opening one of them you will find the skull and other
bones of a mouse or bird. Instead of picking the flesh
off the bones as a hawk would, the owl crushes the
skull and large bones, and swallows his victim head first ;
then in his stomach the indigestible portions, the fur,
feathers, or bones, are rolled into this curious pellet
and cast forth.

The commonest owl near cities is called the
Screech Owl ; he is not larger than a small chicken,
is reddish ijrav, with two tufts of feathers like ears.
His note is a mournful but gentle wailing sound, and
is often heard on moonlight nights in the autumn.

THE OIVL.

One of these owls spent the winter once in the
Washington Klni, and many j)eopIc saw the little
tenant of this famous tree sitting at the edge of his
home and sending out his mournful "who. hoo, hoc.
hoo" over the Cambridge Common.

The larger owls live in the deep woods, and their
hooting is loud and often terrifying to those who first
hear it. In the frozen north lives the Snowy Owl,
whose brownish feathers turn almost white in winter!
On the western plains lives a curious member of the
family, the Burrowing Owl. His home is a burrow,
often the deserted home of some prairie dog.

The owl has long been much abused and attacked
for its sinful manner of life. It is only lately that
people have discovered how much good most owls do.
Many owls have been shot and their stomachs opened,'
but instead of small birds being the favorite food, the
greater part was found to consist of mice and insects,
both of which injure the farmer's crops.

We are sorry that the owl occasionally kills a sonjr
bn-d, but if he is really of such help to the farmer,
ought we not to protect him, and when we hear his
trembling voice in the still moonlight, think of him
not so much as a midnight robber as a sort of police-
man guarding the farms, gardens, and fields .?

Scarlet Tmager.

THE SCARLET TANAGER.

THE male Tanager gives up its scarlet color when
nesting time is over, but wears the velvety jet
black of his wings. A dull olive green is the color
of the female, and of the male when the scarlet is
drojiped. Its song resembles that of the Robin, but

is not so free

and

clear.

HFl

The Cedar Bird

THE POLITEST BIRD.

\^E can all tell what would happen if we should

^ ' throw a piece of bread into the street, under

the trees where the Sparrows are chattering. What

BIRD WORLD.

a noisy group there would soon be about the bread ;
and if some lucky fellow should fly off with a large
crumb, how the others would hurry after, and leave
him no peaceful moment in which to eat it.

Country boys and girls know, too, how very ill-
mannered even motherly old hens will be, and how
undignified they will look if you throw a handful of
grain into their midst.

You will therefore be surprised, I feel sure, at the
story I am going to tell you about the politest bird I
know. No princess in a fairy tale could be brought
up by her anxious parents to have better manners
than this handsome bird.

His name and his picture you will find on the
preceding page, and some of you who live among the
hills where the red cedars stand covered all winter
with spicy smelling berries, will know from his name
what he eats in winter and early spring.

When you hear that he is called Cherry Bird as
well, you will all know what he eats in summer, and I
think you will wish you could get your cherries as
easily as he can his.

One morning in August a gentleman saw several
Cedar Birds fly into a small tree on which bunches of
wild cherries were hanging. On one limb he saw
two birds sitting side bv side, one of them with a
cherry in his beak.

■^^^r^m^

THE POLITEST BIRD.

Did he gobble it down as fast as he could, or did
the second bird rush at him and snatch it from him ?

You will hardly guess what happened. The bird
who had the cherry hopped along the limb with a
motion which would almost do for a bow, and offered
the cherry to the second bird. This one's manners,
however, were just as good, and he, too, hopped back
and returned the cherry to the first bird.

The cherry was passed in this way from one to the
other nearly half a dozen times, each bird making a
hop and a bow, as if to say, " I cannot think of eating
it; I would much rather that you took it."

We must not expect to find such great politeness
as these Cedar Birds showed common among birds;
in fact, their food is often so hard to obtain that we
cannot blame a hungry bird who has little ones to
feed for snatching it as quickly as he can.

If there are no tables set for the birds, where each
can find his food at his own place, and no one to set
them an example, we shall hardly expect them to have
good table manners. We can remember the Cedar
Birds, however, and when next we see the noisy
Sparrows we will beg them to take a lesson from their
politer relatives.

••l«m'i

Downy Woodpeck

A FAMILY OF BACKWOODSMEN.

IN the great forests of Maine and northern New
* York none of the sounds can be heard which are
so familiar to us who live in busy towns — no factory
whistles, no bells, no trains of cars with their noisy

e^S^^S^^^S^^

•,^wmR/imf?si!:^Kn

A FAMILY OF BACKWOODSMEN.

engines. The stillness is broken only by the distant
ring of the wood-chopper's axe.

If you follow the sound, you may come upon a
strong, broad-shouldered man, swinging a bright axe
and covering the ground around the foot of a tree
with the clean, sweet-smelling chips. A little distance
off is another wood-chopper, giving such blows that
you may sometimes hear him half a mile away. He
also strews chips far and wide.

The tool of this second woodman is more like a
chisel, and he never parts with it, for it is his long,
powerful bill. His neck is tremendously strong, so
that by drawing back his head he can strike a blow
which tears off great sheets of decaying bark, or even
large chips of sound wood.

This wood-chopper, or woodpecker, as he is com-
monly called, is the largest of his family, and is only
found where there are tall trees and plenty cf them.
Like the lumbermen, he is found only in the wild,
unsettled parts of the country, and when the forests
are cut down he moves on to fresh woods.

THE DOWNY WOODPECKER.

There are plenty of trees, as you know, among
farms or even in the city parks, though they do not
form dense forests. Here the smaller members of the

,:jjr-:y-'^f ^Br^'^r'

iT,

BIRD WORLD.

;1
if

.11

Woodpecker Family, one of whom you may see in the
colored picture, find wood enough to keep them well
employed.

They visit the orchards and the groves, rapping and
chiseling the dead or dying limbs. But why are they
so busy, these hewers of wood : With what purpose
do they cut into the trees or tear off the bark .? If
you see one cutting in spring, and watch closely, you
will find it working day after day at the same limb,
and cutting into it a round hole, which finally becomes
so deep that the bird disappears inside, coming out
now and then with chips, or flying for food and rest.

This hole is a nest. When it is deep enough, the
mother lays five or six pure white eggs, not on straw
or hair, but on fine chips which have fallen to the
bottom. Here the young are hatched and fed. In a
day or two they find the chips a rather hard seat, and
climb by their feet to the sides of the hole, till they
are ready to peep out into the world outside.

Sometimes in the autumn you will see a wood-
pecker again drilling a hole, this time for his winter
retreat ; for the most of these birds spend the winter
where they were born. Now, however, the birds work
alone, for they have lived in the lonely woods so much
that they do not care for company, and each bird
keeps pretty much by himself in the daytime, and
sleeps in his own home by night.

A FAMILY OF BACKWOODSMEN.

The woodpecker builds his house with his bill,
just as Abraham Lincoln's father cut the logs for
his house with his sharp axe. Besides this very
important work, the woodpecker's bill is used in
a way that is even more necessary. By its help he
finds food for himself, his wife, and' his children.

When we hear him tapping at the dead limb, he is
searching for insects, grubs, and beetles, that live in
the decayed wood ; he bores into the wood till he
reaches them, but then his bill cannot open wide
enough in the small hole to seize the grub. What
shall he do } He has not gone as far as this to lose
his prize.

His tongue is as well suited for seizing the insect
as his bill was for finding it. It is
like a whaler's harpoon, and though ^==*=^=*^
he keeps it in his bill he can dart it Tongue onv„i,pecker
out to twice the length of the bill;
and not only is It barbed to seize the grub, but it is
coated with slime so that any little flies or eggs will
be sure to stick to it. Thus, when he has found his
dinner he darts out his tongue, strikes it into the
unlucky grub, and the next moment has despatched
that, and thrust it out for another.

lilKD WORLD.

THE FLICKER.

The commonest woodpecker is in several ways so
different from the rest of his family that he deserves

special mention. He
has a number of
names, but perhaps
is most commonly
called the Flicker,
from his note, and
the Golden-winged
Woodpecker, from
the golden yellow
of the under side
of his wings.
He is a gay bird
if you see him near. He has a red band on his neck,
black mustaches, and round, black dots over his gray
breast. He lives more commonly among farms than
in the deep woods, and in battle he would be no
match for his cousins of the backwoods.

Nor could the Flicker chop into the trees at such a
rate as they, for his bill is more slender, slightly
curved, and not so square at the tip. In fact, to get
his favorite food he has no chopping to do. When
he finds an ant-hill he stands on the ground and,
darting out his tongue, with accurate aim glues one
after another of the helpless victims to its tip.

Fio. 4. — Flicker.

^S'.«'J5i

WSHF

•m iv-^--'i'/\,-. :■

^^ET

'■-.W,.>.*S'

A FAMILY OF BACKWOODSMEN.

The little Downy Woodpecker is rarely or never
seen on the ground, but the Flicker spends much of
his time there. He sits differently, too, when he is
on a tree; not along it, like his relatives, but across, as
most birds do. If you were to consult the head of the
family, the big, black woodpecker of the north, he
might shake his head and say, " I am afraid Cousin
Flicker is degenerating. If he does not look out
and mend his ways, he won't be a woodpecker at all
before long."

But how is little Downv able to stand a.-^ vou
see him in the picture, and how does he manage to
dodge around the trunk of a trce, as I have often seen
him do-f"

In the first place, his tail feathers: are very stiff, and
end in such sharp points that by pressing them cinse
to the rough bark he can get a great deal of support
from them. You will hear later of another bird, who
uses his tail to climb chimneys with. Then, too, his
claws are arranged, not like a sparrow's, three in front
and one behind, but in pairs, two in front and two
behind.

One of the hind pair, however, can be moved off
to the side, and with this, if he is suddenly pursued,
he can pull himself so quickly to the other side of
the tree that even a hawk cannot strike him.

There are many other interesting things to learn

;ia- '

i i

4J|

KT ^"Ki

■' ■ i- ^"1

j^/iV/? WORLD.

about this Woodpecker Family. The Flickers, for
instance, bring up their babies on a strange diet and
feed them in a remarkable way. First, they eat che
food themselves and prepare it in the stomach for the
tender stomachs of the little ones. Then, when they
see the wide-yawning beaks of their little nestlings,
they put their own far down inside them and pump
uj) the soft food from their own stomachs to give it to
their little ones.

None of the woodpeckers, as I have said before,
are sociable birds. They do not feed in flocks, though
the Flickers do get together a little, and the little
Downy is often found in winter with a company of
Chickadees, or other small winter birds.

Many of the larger woodpeckers are downright
savages, preferring the wild forests, keeping far from
men, and when caught, giving fierce blows with their
powerful bills, and refusing to be tamed.

A famous lover of American birds, Alexander Wil-
son, caught a southern woodpecker once, called, from
his pure white bill, the Ivory-billed. He took it home,
and as he went throuijh the streets, the constant cries
of the bird made people stop and stare at him. He
left it in his room, but when he returned, after an
hour, the brave bird had nearly cut a hole through the
window-sash, and would in a few minutes have escaped
from his prison. Wilson then tied the bird to his

-■f^«p ^^«'5fBBSsgJ7myiii"-.i«« i3B''a)K:?jsTf^^''.~?««w;-.--w-!

A FAMILY OF JiACKWOODSMKX,

table and went out again, only to find, on his return,
that the table was ruined by the powerful blows of the
bill. The bird refused to eat and at last died, brave
and fierce to the end.

THE SAPSUCKER, OR YELLOW-BELLIED WOODPECKER.

This is the only one of the family that can justly be
called the enemy
of the farmer, and
examination has
proved thajt he
does, on the

' %%?: v^-! ; 1

'■k

whole, more good -^*7'|?.^
than harm. ^^

Figure 5 shows
the little pits he
drills, in regular
lines, in the bark
of forest trees and
sometimes in
apple trees; and
when the pits fill
with sap he
drinks it as if it
were nectar itself.

Fig.

yellow-bellied Woodpeckel".

Harmful in.sects are attracted by

5^fi!7^viS'

HIKl) WON I. IK

I
1

1 \

this sap, when it runs, and the number that are
destroyed by the birds is thought to balance the loss
to the tree, though it sometimes happens that the
tree dies in a year or two from being so bled by them.

Those of you who have seen maple sugar made
from the sap of the sugar maple will think the bird
very cunning to find a sugar camp for his own.

Another woodpecker does an equally curious thing.

I was riding one day in a park in southern California,

and a tree was pointed out to me that had holes as

close as these of the Sapsucker filled with acorns. A

woodpecker had bored the holes and filled them for

a winter store. The nuts were wedged in so tightly

it would not have been c-c^^y to get them out. In

the same line, but showing even greater intelligence,

is the use in Mexico of a hollow stalk. The birds

make holes and press acorns through them in autumn,

so that they drop one by one till the hollow tube is

filled. When other food fails the woodpecker draws

out his acorns, not from the place at which he put

them in but from the floor of his storehouse.

I \

A SECOND SPARROW STUDY.

'X'HIS time it is a little company of sparrows on

* the ground. Here we have all the ages and

varieties. We call them brown birds; but see the

gray, slate, tan. and other browns almost to black.

Trace the colors in wing and tail feathers; note
the shapes and sizes of patches. Did you know that
the wing feathers were bird finger nails numbered in
different species according to their need .!* Pairs of
tail feathers, too, have their convenient length, differ-
ent in sparrows, swallows, and other species. Watch
the sparrows as they rise into the air; some birds
which fly well could not do it so easily. The tail
helps to tell the story of rising and falling.

Get the wing of a fowl and see from what bones the
quills grow out — primary, secondary, and coverts;
that is, quills of the hand, quills of the middle joint,
and quills of the upper joint.

The cut of the wings and tail would make a bird-
study all by itself; we can begin it while we are
learning to know the birds.

The size of the bird is another point for study; we
begin it when two or more birds are compared.

By this time you have gained more than you can

t ■

B/A'J^ IVOK/.l'

that have to "^^\\^^ \1\^ ^^,^,1 that yor .na
cameras more 4"'^'\b- ^^ »^« ^"'^ ^^j',, ,„a

.,.u hivf be«' '1 <*> be a naturalist l'U( u n.

V^Z. sec- l.u. .mcc. and that ..1..,.^ ■ ■ on ,

seen but yourself. -,1 ,

U is.L fasluo. tu r.d .at,U with en

Span—,; first, fo, com.nR , ; A"' '"^^ ' '

" , . . , Hill thi- lirsi 'H ' did I

then lor thriving so. Bittheni.i

„f thrir own accord. »,n.!.t is n... trfau.

air iiKulc their voics more sha p tlian -^

fi^of the- have driven av it. s -,

!™>, "^' 'VI -el ' . >-ven 'hat, the may - ot

'"' " ,od. On. ,.,houl'knov as well as
have mean, to d, U" _^^^ ,„.

:e;/und;"n En- sh'..irro. ways, and soon

r^^: them all b.u.U ,:un. "^^^ :Z:Z
son who would n ,ss the act. ...cheev.n: ,t ..rowmes
wito stay when .■ er birds ..re gone.

iish

come
it our
>. It

ft~

r I

THE SONG SPARROW.

I! I

THE SONG SPARROW AND THE CHIPPING SPARROW.

SOME birds are like the shyest wild flowers, living
far from people's homes and very hard to find.
Others are like the buttercups and dandelions, which
grow everywhere on our lawns and in city parks. I
suppose by many people the jolly little dandelions are
called weeds. One bird is almost like a weed.

Though he, too, lives along the waysides and in
the parks and gardens, no one would compare the
Song Sparrow to a weed, for he gives much pleasure by
singing a clear, merry song as soon as the February
snows have melted. All summer he sings, and on
into the fall. Even in the winter, on warm days, he
sometimes shows that he remembers his little summer
melody.

Look at our beautiful representative opposite, as he
rests on the big dock weed over the water and pours
out his song. Would you know that he was a spar-
row if you had no one to help you .'*

In the first place, he is about the size of an English
Sparrow, though more slender, and his colors are
a plain gray-brown. But you have learned that a
female English Sparrow is also gray and brown.
That is true; many sparrows have these colors, but

BIRD WORLD.

the gray and brown of the Song Sparrow is in streaks
or lines, not in unbroken patches, as in the Enghsh

Sparrow. ., i i

The slender figure, the long tail, and a general
neat look will help you to tell the American bird
from the foreigner. The Song Sparrow is shy, and
will hide in the nearest bush, while you all know we
can hardly call the English Sparrow shy.

CHIPPING SPARROW.

Another native sparrow is the Chipping Sparrow.
He is still slimmer than the Song Sparro^N , and \years
a cap of dull reddish brown.

The Song Sparrow builds on the sT-ound, often
hiding her nest under a tuft of grass or in a thicket.
Chippy builds in bushes and always lines her nest
with hairs from a horse's mane or tail. You do not
see vvhere the bird gets them ? She hunts along the
fence or posts, where a horse stands, and finds them
caught on some crack in the wood.

You learned when you read about the English
Sparrow that the male and female diffx<. in looks,
but the male Song Sparrows and Chipp -: Sparrows
look just like the female. It is only whta the male
flies to the top of a bush or to the limb of a tree, and
raising his head pours out a song from his little throat.

THE SPARROW.

that you know which is which. Both these birds are
much the color of dry leaves, grass, and the ground
on which they spend their lives. Can you tell why t

The Chipping Sparrow's name refers to his song,
which sounds like the syllable chip repeated quickly,
— chip, chip, chip, etc.

These two native sparrows have short, thick bills
like that of the English Sparrow, but I think they
make better use of them than he does. If you could
examine the bill very closely, you would see that,
though it is so short and thick, the tip is quite sharp
and delicate. With this tip the sparrow picks up seeds
so fine that you could hardly see them. Remember
that their eyes are not only sharp, but are not so far
from the ground as yours. These seeds are then
crushed in their strong bills, the husk rolled out
and the kernel eaten. All over the ground the little
sparrows hunt, and many a weed which would grow
up to plague the farmer is destroyed by them. Hun-
dreds of insects, too, — moths, beetles, and grubs, —
they find and eat.

Let' us record in our notebooks what we have
learned by comparing the three sparrows we have
met, — the English Sparrow, the Song Sparrow, and
the Chipping Sparrow.

HOW BIRDS PASS THE NIGHT.

YOU must <^ret up very early if you expect to find
the birds still asleep; they go to bed as soon as
it is dark, and have had their first breakfast long
before vou are awake.

No one need call them ; the first faint light m the
east finds them up, ready for a long and active day.

If you should happen to go out before the birds are
awake, or should startle them in the evening afte.'
they have gone to bed, where do you think you would
find them, and how would their beds look ?

Many of you, I have no doubt, think of them as
sleepincrall ni'.,dit in their nests, cuddling close to each
other, and warmed and protected by their mother.
It is true that for two or three weeks of their lives
young nestlings sleep in the nests or holes where they
have%een hatched, and chicks which have no nests
hide their downy bodies under their mother's wings;
but this lasts but a short time, and after the young
birds leave the nests, at the age of two or three weeks,
they never again sleep in a bed.

No stretching out of tired limbs on comfortable
mattresses, no soft pillows for tired heads, no tucking
in, and no one to say " Good night." All these com-

HOW BIRDS PASS THE NIGHT.

forts you look forward to when bedtime comes, but
how would you fe^^l to hear your mother say instead,
" It is bedtime now, stand on one leg and go to
sleep "; or if she expected you to hang all night from
a crack in the wall; or, worst of all, if your bed con-
sisted of a pool of water, on which you were peace-
fully to float with your head tucked under your arm ?
Almost all the singing birds, after they leave the
nest, perch on a twig as your canary does, the hind
toe bent around to meet the front toes, the feathers
fluffed out, the head snugly hidden under the wing.

Parrots hang themselves up at night by their beaks,
and woodpeckers in their holes and Chimney Swifts in
chimneys hold themselves up by their feet and their
stiff tail feathers. Hawks and owls stand upright
while they sleep, but hens and turkeys bend their feet
so that their breasts rest on the perch. The wading
birds, herons, storks, and also the geese draw up one
foot, hide it in the soft feathers, and close their eyes.

Their balance must be easier to keep than ours.
There are many things besides standing on one foot,
which are easier for birds than for us, and positions
which they take easily when awake naturally suit
them best for sleeping. If you or I coul( float as
easily as a duck, and if we wore waterproof down
quilts, a night on an icy lake might seem as pleasant
to us as one in a bed.

THE BLUE JAY.

lent

Fig. e. — Blue Jay.

iwiunardlyknow
what he is.

But if he is with
two or three jolly
friends, and the weather is pleasant, he fills the woods
with his screams and calls. They are not sweet
sounds, but are not unpleasant to hear, particularly
in winter, when few birds are here. Some are like
a hawk's cry, and some like an ungreased vvheel-

barrow. ,

While the Jay is making these sounds, he otten
hops up the tree, from one branch to the next, or
accompanies his cries with an odd motion of his
wings and tail. He is a good deal of a clown, and

If!

THE BL L E J A Y.

as a pet amusing. He learns to speak a few words,
which is a great * in a bird.

It is not safe t. > e valuables about where he can
reach them, for he is a great collector. When he is
free, he gathers acorns and chestnuts and stores them
in hollow trees.

The Jay has without doubt planted many trees
where they would not otherwise have been found, for
he drops the nuts as he flies off with them, and if
they fall into good soil the Jay's children's children
long after may gather fruit from the trees that will

spring up.

The Jay's neighbors do not like him particularly,
for he has one very bad habit. He cannot resist egg
hunting. But for this he might not be regarded with
disfavor, for he sometimes renders good service. In
fact, when an owl comes into the woods the Jay is
often the first to discover him and announce his
presence to the other birds.

The Jay is closely related to the Crow in this coun-
try, and in Europe to the jackdaw and magpi'- The
whole family are talkative, bustling birds, very 'ight-
fingered we should call them if they had fingers, but
for all that they are amusing, and we should miss
them if they were gone.

i I

BIRD HOMES.

E pity any boy who has no home ; kind people
give money to provide a place where he can
have a bed at night, a roof over his head, fire and food.
Animals rarely have homes, and yet no one pities
them. They have their hair, fur, or shell covering to
keep off rain; they sleep on the ground without
catching cold, so that they really have no need of a
home such as we are accustomed to.

Certain animals, as you probably are already think
ing, do have caves, dens, or burrows in which they
spend the night, the cold or wet weather, or to which
they flee for safety. Most of these animals, you will
see, are intelb'gent ; in fact, the more wisdom the
animal has learned in Nature's great school, the more
likely he is to have a place which is his own,

Ijirds, you will say, are intelligent, and yet they
spend the night or rainy weather in thick trees and
have no homes.

This is true of m. st of them, during most of their
lives, and from what you know of feathers, you can
yourselves tell why they do not need roofs or warmth..
But imagine a bird without feathers. He would need
warmth and shelter surely. Then think when it is

BIRD HOMES.

that a bird lacks feathers. In the moulting season ?
Hardly ; few fall at a time, so that he is never wholly
without covering. When the bird leaves the shell "i
That is the time, surely, when he needs protection,
and the wise and loving bird-mother goes to work, long
before even her eggs are laid, to build the home for her
young. This we call a nest ; it is really a nursery, is
it not, a home, not for the parents, but for the young
birds ?

THE NEST AS AN OVEN.

The nest is first used as an oven. What does the
bird bake in this oven? Where does she get the
heat ? The last question is the easier and you can
answer it yourself by holding your pussy cat against
your cheek. Where does the warmth come from.!*
Not all from the fur, but from the warm blood running
through her veins.

So the bird's little body is warm, warmer even than
your cat's. To keep the warmth of the fire an oven is
made with walls and a door ; so a nest is often built
with walls ; the mother herself is the door. When
she snuggles down on the eggs ,ery little warmth can

escape.

But what is she baking? The eggs themselves.
As the little seeds grow or develop when the earth is

HIKD nOKI.D.

Ill

warm, so the little bodies of the birds grower develop
in the warm eggs, till what looked like nothing but
yellow and white liquid hatches out a little bird with
claws, beak, and the beginnings of feathers.

All this the bird feels, even if she does not think it
as we think thoughts, so that when she is mated and
her mate and she have chosen the best spot for their
nest, she works very busily at building, or weaving, or

Fig. 7. — Bird Homes.

carpentering, whatever her nature tells her she can do
best, and before the eggs are ready she has a nest
in which to lay them. (The double nest in the pic-
ture is quite a curiosity. It belonged to Chipping

Sparrows.)

I have spoken as if all birds felt alike and built
nests which all served as ovens and as homes for

■^rgswismi^^w^:}!-

BIND HOMES.

the young. No one, till he reads or learns a great
deal about birds, can imagine what an extraordinary
variety of nests there are.

In the first place, a large number of the water birds,
ducks, and divers, and all the family to which our hen
belongs, do not need a nest in which the young shall
stay. For their young come out of the shell warmly
clothed in such thick down, that they can either
paddle right off in the cool water or run about on the
land ; we call them chicks, and the others, who are
naked and helpless when hatched, we call nestlings.
At night their mother's feathers are their beds; no
need of a nursery for them.

The eggs have to be baked, however, so that often
the nests of such birds are warm and snug, especially
if they are in damp or cold places. If the eggs are
laid in sunnv places, on the hot sea sand or rocks, for
instance, there is no need of walls, and in such places
the nest hardly deserves the name; it is really noth-
ing but a hollow in the sand or a shelf on th/i rocks.

Many gulls lay their eggs in this careless way.
There are certain cunning animals who like raw eggs
very much, ad they come prowling about, break the
shells, and later eat young birds as well.

Certain birds, to escape these four-legged thieves,
have moved up a story and built platforms in the
trees. These had to be pretty strong, however, for

Z«ai''K'-^'.V-M*3S5ar=lr

lURD WORLD.

the mother bird may be large, as in the case of the
heron, so that the platform must hold her as well as
the eggs. Here is real building to be done ; sticks to
be laid in a more or less clever fashion. In a lati i
lesson we shall see more of the ways of bird
builders.

KiG. S. -„, Kgg of Canada Jay; ^ of Crow UUckb.r.l: ., "f W.kkI pecker.

>"'"

THE KINGBIRD.

I N Wilson's time, Tyrant Flycatcher was the name
I by which this bird was commonly known, and this
name, though clumsier, really tells more about his
nature than Kingbird.
A tyrant in Greece
was a man who drove
out the reigning king
or rightful ruler. The
eagle has long been
called the King of
Birds, though by this
nothing more was
meant than r'^^ he
was am.:,: t' ih-'^ most

Fig. 9. — Kingbird

powerful and majestic

birds. Even the eagle,

however, is attacked and driven off by this Tyrant

Flycatcher.

Eagles are scarce to-day, and a battle between the
two birds is a rare sight, but it is a common sight to
see the Kingbird attack and drive off a Crow— a bird
nearly three times as large as himself.

Those of you that have read or heard about the

BIRD WORLD.

Spanish Armada remember how the little English
ships outsailed the large, unwieldy Spanish vessels,
ran close under their guns, fired, and were off again
before the Spanish ships could return the fire ; so the
Kip<?bird, mounting above the Crow, darts upon him
froui' above and flies off before the clumsy Crow can

strike him.

Occasionally the Kingbird actually settles upon the
Crow's head or back, and rides some distance before
the Crow can shake him off. When you learn that
the Kingbird attacks all birds, great and small, who
come near him, and with a harsh twitter drives them
away, you will fancy him a very unpleasant bird to
have about. But you will have a greater respect for
him when you learn that it is only in the breed'ng
season that the Kingbird loses his temper so easily,
and it is but fair to say that it is only birds that
wander into the neighborhood of his wife and nest
that he drives away so rudely.

Flycatcher was the name by which he was known,
for outside the swallows we have no more skilful fly-
catcher. From the wire on which he is sitting, the
post, or the mullein stalk, he flies out a short distance,
makes a sweep, and returns to his perch. If you are
near him, you hear at some time during his short jour-
ney a sharp click, like the snapping of a watch case.
That sourd means death to some winged insect. All

I. n

A PAIR OF KINGBIRDS.

¥^ w».irt ^*fr*Mi^

i^.^.

THE KINGBIRD.

clay long the Kingbird sits in some place where he
can watch in the air about him, and all day long his
bill closes over flies, gnats, and beetles.

Many, if not most, of the insects which he seizes are
at sorhe time of their lives harmful to the farmer, so
that the Kingbird's work in feeding himself and his
children destroys thousands of the farmer's enemies.

A Kingbird's nest is very easily found. You can
imagine that a bird that guards his home so thor-
oughly will take no great pains to conceal it. It is a
rather bulky nest, often placed in apple trees, and
looks very warm and comfortable. The outside is
very apt to be ornamented with clusters of withered
flowers of certain plants, and often long strings of
pack thread hang from the nest. Inside, the eggs
and the young rest on horsehair.

The Kingbird's colors are brown and white, with
:i dark, almost black, head and tail. Curiously enough,
a few feathers on the head are colored bright scarlet,
hut so few are the feathers and so well concealed, as
a rule, that you would see many Kingbirds very near
\()u without ever seeing this red patch.

When the bird is angry, however, or excited, he
can, like most fly-catchers, lift slightly the feathers of
ills head, so that probably many of the birds he has
based have seen more of the red than you have.

The female Kingbird lacks these red feathers, but.

-0 ^t**Km~

B//iD JVOA'Ln.

VJ/J

unlike the female Bluebird ." 1 Oriole, looks otherwise
exactly like the male. See whether this was true of
the other fly-catchers of which you have read.

When the Kingbird's young have left the nest, and
no longer need "protection, the family stay in the
north a very short time. By September they have
left New England, and in the winter are in Cen-
tral America. Who of you know why they should
leave a country where there are winter frosts ? Is it
because they themselves are afraid of cold ?

I think you would all have liked for once to see the
Kingbird get the worst of a battle, which Wilson long
ago^observed. We all like to see any one who is
a little inclined to bully others given a lesson. This
Kingbird attacked a Red-headed Woodpecker on a
fence rail. Every time he swept down expecting to
give the woodpecker a smart rap on the head, the
woodpecker pulled with his third toe and slipped
around the rail, so that the Kingbird struck only the
empty air. The woodpecker saved himself in this
way so many times that it seemed to Mr. Wilson that
he was enjoying the game. It would not be strange,
from what \ve know of the woodpecker, if he enjoyed
a joke. We hardly expect the Kingbird to do so.
All kinds of birds have their place, and we honor this
one because he is brave and useful.

^:ivrit '-w

ff^^

LOUISIANA WATER THRUSHES,

-^r— ■;■•.• .-- ~irr.-»^o/A;--t?f:i^J«r.''«a!!f:...i

THE WARBLERS.

YOU have already heard about the Owls and the
Woodpeckers, two families, the members of
which are easy to recognize. The Warblers are
another large Bird World family. They are not
named, as you might well suppose, from their fine
voices, for few of them can sing as well even as your
old friend the Robin. But, like many birds who lack
fine voices, the Warblers make up for their loss by
fine feathers and a very dainty appearance. Yellow,
orange, and blue are very common colors among
them, and they are nearly all small, neat-looking
birds. The Ovenbird, which gets its name from its
oven-shaped nest, is a Warbler, and its cousins, the
Water Thrushes, which you see on the opposite page,
lK4ong, of course, to the same family. You will find
the pictures of three other Warblers in this book ;
two of them are the Redstart and the Summer Yellow-
bird. Can you find the third.?

11!

A CLEVER WREN.

WHEN a pair of House Wrens decide that they
want to build their nest in a certain place, it
takes a good deal to prevent them from doing so.
Sometimes several birds, who build in similar situa-
tions, all want one particular spot, — a knot hole in
a tree or a bird box. Bluebirds, White-bellied Swal-
lows and House Wrens often struggle violently m
nesting time, and, as in other struggles, it is not
always the largest bird that wins.

A gentleman once saw a pair of wrens outwit some
swallows in the following manner. There had been a
loner struggle over a box, built on the house, with the
usual round hole for an entrance. The wrens had
pulled twigs into the box. The swallows had
promptly pulled them out. The scolding of the
wrens and the sharp twitter of the swallows were
heard all day about the box.

One morninfi the wren was seen hauling along an
unusuallv stout twig, as thick as a kad pencil. It
was too heavy to carry strai-ht to the box, but he
manacred to get it into the lower branches of a pear
tree. Tnd finally up t > the box. Here he was met by
the she-bird, and t.^gether they pulled one end mto

■ .*; «*1iita'

^ CLEVER WKEN.

the hole, and there they fa.^tened it, so that it blocked
the entrance. When the swallows returned, they
could not squeeze past it. They tried to pull it out,
but it had evidently been secured inside. The little
wrens could push past easily ; and having now the
field to themselves, raised their brood in peace.

All day long the wren mother goes backwards and
forwards bringing flies and insects or whatever food
she can find. A lover of birds once .vatchec' this
bird, and saw her go 278 times in a day.

A number of wrens' nests are ur t^r'* One
wonders whether they are built to take . hige in
during severe weather.

AUDUBON AND THE HOUSE WREN.

A Wren lived just outside Audubon's window, and
amused him with his bright song. " Having procured
some flies and spiders," says Audubon, " I now and
then threw some of them towards him, when he would
seize them with great alacrity, eat some himself, and
carry the rest to his mate. In this manner he became
daily more acquainted with u. , entered the room, and
once or twice sang while there. One morning, sud-
denly closing the window, I easily caught him an-^
held him in my hand, and finished his likencL-s, after
wliich I restored him to liberty."

~»-iT^: ■ '^i5fl; ,*?««;-.

'■■>••

^1 !!1

THE WREN.

()U have all laughed at the old vv

an who lived
- Tn a'shoe! but"to a House Wren this would not
seem so strange a home. Let me tell you a few of
the odd nesting places this bird has chosen.

Generally she builds in a hole in a tree ( r m a bird
box, but almost anything which is hollow inside seems
to do. One nest tha- I saw was in the broken end of
a waterspout. Instead of water coming out of it, the
little wrens slipped in and out, carrymg sticks and

straws for a nest.

Another bird thought the inside of an awning
would make a f^ne home, but when the middle of the
day came, the awning had to come down to shade the
windows, and all ihe rubbish rolled out. The next
morning the bird was up early, and before noon had
collected another mass of sticks. Day after day the
wren kept up the attempt, declining to make use ot
a box which was nailed up near by.

Perhaps the strangest story comes from Washing-
ton. A workman hung his coat up for a little while,
and vhen he took it down and put his hand in the
pocket be vvrs astonished to find sticks and feathers
in it and r%cn more so when a wren appeared near

^kv- >i

THE WREN.

by and scolded him
furiously for presum-
inir to wear his own
coat.

He was a kind-
hearted man and would
gladly have lent the
wren his coat pocket
if he had been able to
do without it ; how-
ever, it came out all
right, for he hung up
an old coat instead,
and the happy birds
laid their eggs and
hatched them in the
place of their own
choosing.

House Wrens and
cats are great enemies.
The moment the little
bird spies the cat
prowling about, she
chatters and scolds, so that all the neighboring birds
know what the trouble is about. I am afraid Pussy
has s:iven the wren srood cause now and then to fear
and dislike her.

Kii;. 10. — Long-billed Marsh Wren.

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BIRD WORLD.

Our wren is a cousin of Jenny Wren, the favorite
of all English children. Jenny is a smaller bird, and
she stays in England all the year, while our wren
leaves us in the fall for the south, where she can find
the insects which she eats.

Like the swallow and the Bluebird, the wren seems
glad to make his home near the homes of people, and
no one has ever accused him of doing anything but
good to the farmer or gardener.

To find the birds of the picture, — the Long-billed
Marsh Wrens, — we must go to some soft, wet place,
which in early spring may require the use of high
rubber boots. These birds are near cousins of the
House Wren, but choose to live among the cat-tails.
They have learned to weave, and instead of nesting
in holes or boxes they make their homes of rushes.
Regular basket-work it is, and the almost globular
nests hung in the reeds may hold eight or nme
chocolate eggs.

|«pr™^r-

AT THE BATH.

If AVE you ever watched a canary going through
* * its morning bath? The thoroughness of the
cleansing is only matched by the bird's enjoyment of
it. But there is as much more pleasure in seeing a
free bird go through its daily wetting and drying and
preening as there is in every other free act of a free
bird.

Our little street gamins, English Sparrows, choos-
ing a mud puddle rather than go a little out of town
for a clean pool, are not worthy to represent the birds
of dainty ways.

One of my pleasant bird memories is of a little
stream, hardly more than a handbreadth wide, flowing
down a hill slope, from a spring in the neighborhood
of Saratoga, and making a little nest in the hollow of
a rock. I could almost have enclosed the brooklet
with my arms and measured its depth with my lead
pencil ; but for pretty sentiment, and the pleasure it
gave to the comers and goers at Elim, the summer
cottage of my friend, it will "go on forever." I could
fancy the birds saw from afar that single bright spot
on the steep hill — a jewel, dropped by a princess
of another world, with a ribbon on either side.

Miii

BIRD WORLD.

The birds did not come to it as early in the morn-
ing as I should have expected ; perhaps they liked to
wait till the water should be wurmed a little, or per-
haps in Bird World a bath after eating is not thought
to be unhealthy. However that may be, from eight
o'clock, in rapid turn, in ones, twos, seldom more than
threes, they kept the 4ittle " Bath " in constant use till
evening twilight.

Such water lovers some of them were ! They made
it a shower bath by sending the splashes high over
their heads. They shook each feather in the water
for wetness and out of it for dryness. So clear was
the pure spring water, that it seemed like bathmg m

a mirror. , . r

Some of the birds would stop and preen their feath-
ers before they left the spot, but others would go to
the trees to complete their dainty toilets. Boys and
girls who think it a burden to keep their hair m
proper fashion should take a lesson from the birds.
Feathers have their price in care^taking as well as
other beautiful apparel.

It is not probably true that birds are afraid of cold
water. Tree Sparrows will spend from three to five
minutes, it is said, in water that flows directly from
melting snow, acting all the while as if the fluttering
of their wings and tails was perfect glee.

%^ia«f«?gKSiPBSsrffii4ifcjcr3\,x '^^r^j^

mmmm

wmmmmmmmmm

THE CATBIRD. •

He sits on a bra'ich of yon blossoming tree,

This mad-cnp cousin of Robin and Tlirush,
And sings without ceasing the whole morning long ;

Now wild, now tender, the wayward song
That Hows from his soft, gray, fluttering throat ; •

But often he stops in his sweetest note.
And shaking a flower from the blossoming bough,
Drawls out, " Mi-eu, mi-ow ! "

Edith M. Thomas.

LJOW often it happens that people are known by
A * their least agreeable trait. The harsh catcall,
"Mieu, miow! " is the least musical of the many notes
the Catbird utters. By his own song he is worthy a
place with singers of highest rank. It is this that
exasperates us so; but is it so much more strange
that he does not always employ his best powers than
that we do not live up to our best all the time .''

The Catbird is the Mocking Bird of the north.
May and June are the months when his song seems
to come from the heart. Later in the season he
amuses himself with a variety of vocal entertain-
ments.

If you can read into his little picture, — slate color
for the upper parts, lighter slate and gray for under

I ??:i^v

■ •^'-mm'.Mii"JA%i:

) w

BIRD WORLD.

parts, and black for a crown, and a tail that the owner
is continually jerking, — you may surprise yourself
by discovering the bird some day, for he is by no
means unfamiliar with the thickets around village
homes. If you should ttiink you had done so, make
quite sure by looking for a reddish patch on the
under side of the tail, and a black bill.

It is said that a cat is fonder of places than of
persons. Not so c ar little Catbird, as a story told by
Miss Merriam has shown us. It is of a gentle old
lady, who lived in a cottage behind an old-fashioned
garden, whose rose-covered trellises, lilacs, and other
shrubs and tre' s made it a happy spot for a resting
place or a summer home both for birds and people.

The Catbird was the ''comrade and favorite " of the
owner of the cottage, who loved all birds and flowers.
The bird would call for her in the morning, till she
came to answer him with a whistle ; then he would
be satisfied, and would find a perch and pour out his
morning song. This would be repeated many times
a day in the little rests he took from his domestic

duties.

It was plain that the bird was fond of her society,
for when it happened one summer that the lady was
away from home when he came north, and the place
looked deserted, he found another place in which
to build his nest. When the old lady returned, she

■^^>^^:^m^''^^^'''^:mm-wfm^

i^ii'j.

1^^^^

THE CATBIRD.

missed her pet of many years, but as summer went
on, was sure that it was he who sometimes appeared
and sung to her in the garden at sunset.

All the bird students agree that the Catbird loves
to have a listener.

" Come forth ! " my Catbird calls to me,
" And hear me sing my cavatina " —

Lowell writes, and there are evil-minded critics who,
therefore, blame the bird for vanity ; but let us agree
with those who love the merry song and the good-
natured but capricious little singer.

This is one of the birds who has been so often on
trial for his life, because his ways have been so little

f^^I

'm^'^"^

BIRD WORLD.

known. Such an individual should have cuo of the
best of lawyers to plead his case. Several have
volunteered their services, and Mr. Nehrling's testi-
mony rests on special study. He says that the bird's
usefulness as an insect destroyer is so great that the
food it steals is of little * >iportance, and that "for
every cherry it takes, it c a thousand insects."

TO A SKYLARK.

JOYOUS as the morning,
Thou art laughing and scorning ,
Thou hast a nest for thy love and thy rest.

Happy, happy liver.
With a soul as strong as a mountain river,
Pouring out praise to the Almighty Giver,
Joy and jollity be with us both !
Alas ! my journey, rugged and uneven,
Through prickly moors or dusty ways must wind ;
But hearing thee, or others of thy kind,
As full of gladness and as free of heaven,
1, with my fate contented, will plod on.
And hope for higher raptures, when life's day is done.

C. KoSSETTI.

'^^^^mm^im

NEST BUILDERS.

AS we said in an earlier lesson, the building of a
^ nest is a matter requiring skill to plan and deft-
ness to execute. We should do such work with
hands, but a little thought will show you how unfit a
bird's toes are for it.

The bill is the bird's best tool, and is, as you have

Fig. 12.— Osprey's Nest.

learned, a chisel, a nut cracker, and a spade ; but ^ ou
may have yet to learn that it is a mason's trowel, and
even a needle.

^ Hollows in the ground, a bunch of seaweed, rude
platforms of sticks are among the simplest kinds of

yM}.-cr^T^m:^

'TW'^i^^mKE':^mmmmmfm^'%

I i

Bf/fl) WOULD.

nests. The Osprey, or Fishhawk, uses plenty of
material but not much skill, and as he adds to his
nest each year, it often becomes a huge pile, big
enough to fill a wagon. Such a Fishhawk's nest is
shown in Fig. 12.

Before I describe the more wonderful woven struc-
ture which the word nest calls up to our minds, let me
speak of two more styles of building, — the holes in
sand or w^ood, and the plastered nests of mud.

The woodpecker's chisel enables him to make a
hole to order where he wants it, but many other birds,
such as Bluebirds and owls, love the natural hollows
in decayed limbs.

The birds that li\ e in holes in the earth generally
choose sand; you can imagine why they 1 -efer it to
clay ; and river banks give them a chance to build
horizontally rather than perpendicularly.
What advantage is this to them .?
One bird, the Burrowing Owl, digs out a long,
winding passage underground, at the end of which
he has a chamber for his nest.

The mud nests, or plastered nests, are built of wet
mud, taken in the bird's bill and stuck to rocks or
walls of houses. Have Swallows build a nest shaped
sometb".ig like a bottle, all of grains of mud. These
birds gather about mud puddles in May, dinping in
their bills., fluttering, twittering, lighting, and flying

'^^^^sm^-Mm^^m^^r'^^m^-^^mmi

NEST BUILDERS.

off, a happy and pretty company of masons. Some-
times in very wet weather their bottIe-«haped homes
crumble and fall to pieces, though they, too, know
that eaves will serve them as an umbrella.

We come now to the woven nests. Of these there
are so many and of such variety that whole books
could be written about them. Very few, however, are
more graceful and more cleverly built than our own
Oriole's ; the nest is so common on our elms that we
do not realize how wonderful a work it is.

Look at a piece of felt, such as is used in making
soft hats. You see it is made of small threads closely
woven together. An Oriole's nest is like a felt pouch.
First, the Oriole fastens strong string or thread, which
he has twitched off from fibrous bark, to the twigs to
which he has chosen to hang the pouch. These serve
as a framework for the nest and must be very strong.
How does he fasten them ? Just as you would, except
that he ties his knots with his beak. He makes a
loop, sticks the end through, and pulls it tight.

When the sk -'leton is finished, it shows the depth
and general shape of the nest. This is generally as
long as a man's hand. The bottom is rounded and
the neck narrowed a little. Now comes the weaving.
Short threads snatched from ropes, clotheslines, bits
c tow or milkweed stalks are woven in and out
through the first long threads, till the nest is so thick

BIRD WORLD

. 4

M '.-.

and strong that it often hangs through the rain and
snow of two winters after the bird has used it.

There is generally a lining in the round end on
which the eggs are laid. Here the mother sits swing-
ing in the wind till the young are hatched, and there
they swing like sailor boys in a snug hammock.
The leaves above them keep off the sun and rain.
What bird could wish for a better home ?

Few American birds are such skilful weavers as the
Oriole, and none dare to hang their nests so close to
the ends of twigs. The other weavers, too, generally
use coarser material. Instead of fine woolen or silken
threads they use roots, grass, tough barks, or even
twigs ; but many make wonderfully neat nests for all
that. We have room to speak of only two before
we leave America and hear about some foreign nest
builders.

The Humming Bird's nest is as tiny as its owner;
it is a Hale cup saddled on a twig and generally
covered on the outside with the same gray lichens
which grow on the twig itself. At a distance it looks
like a little gray knot on a knotty bough, and most
eyes, even if they rest on it, fail to see it.

The Song Sparrow and many of his family build
on the ground and weave into the nest so much dry
grass that the nest, half hidden under a tuft, is very
hard to make out. It is only when the mother bird

■JS^^XfLL

NEST BUILDERS.

flies out from under our feet, as it were, that we see
it and its pretty speckled eggs.

In foreign countries nests are built in much the
same styles and for much the same purposes as here.
When the weather is " irm, of course the nests need
not be so warmly built but wherever little nal-ed birds
arc born, shelter must be provided for ., and

skilful bills are cutting, weaving, plaster jr even
sewing to make a home for the coming young. " Sew-
ing, you ask, "Can a bird sew?" Yes, and the bill
is its needle. The little bird who sews lives in India,
and is so famous for its si il that people call it the
Tailor-bird. It builds in the gardens, and several
people have written about it. Here is what one
gentleman says: " It makes its nest of cotton, wool,
and various other soft mater'als, and draws together
one leaf or more, generally two leaves, on each side
of the nest and stitches t n togethr;r with cotton,
either woven by itsei*, or cotton thread picked up,
and after passing the > in vad through the leaf it makes
a knot at the ■ 'd to h v a.''

-•',*%, .

■^•■^i*^'^,

THE SWALLOWS.

How can I tell the signals and the signs
By which one heart another heart divines ?

WHAT would n't we give to know what it is they
are saying! — these two happy birds. I have
watched pairs and companies of swallows ever since
I was a child, and I cannot yet find any words that
tell all that I think it is.

A year or two ago I watched a swallow family ai
Baker's Island, a few miles out from the N rth Shore
of Massachusetts Bay, for a whole afternoon, just
when the young ones were proving their wings and
learning to fly. My piazza faced the bay from the
top of a cliff, and, to keep the Island cows from going
too near the edge, a single rail fence had been set up.
It was from one of these rails that the start was to be
made and the lesson given.

A few yards away wy family were learning to swim,
and I looked from one bit of teaching to the other,
like a school inspector. I am sure I do not need to
tell which class took the prize of my highest approval.
The swallow children were so near in size to their
parents, that I only knew the teachers by their ster.dy
flight. There were three in the class, but I was quite

. -n

A HAPPY PAIR.

■kfe'Tl-'C

i':i:JfC-\'rti.'is;v4';

THE SWALLOWS.

sure that one stayed in its place on the rail till almost
the last moment. I tried to make myself acquainted
with each, but a shout from the swimmers and bathers
would draw my attention to them just at a critical
time, and I could not be perfectly sure the flyers did
not change places. What might a real bird student
have done, if he had been interested to know the
swallow's ways.f*

He might have searched the little island over to
learn where this family went when the lesson ended,
and seen what they did the next day, and the next ;
and if he had watched and studied with heart as well
as eyes, there might have been something to give to
bird-lovers in a poem or stor}'. This is what is being
done to make Bird World better understood.

THE DEPARTURE OF THE SWALLOW.

And is the swallow gone?

Who beheld it ?

Which way sailed it ?
Farewell bade it none ?

No mortal saw it go :
But who doth hear
Its summer cheer

As it flitteth to and fro ?

So the freed spirit flies !

From its surrounding rlay

It steals away,
Like the swallow from the skies.

Whither.? wherefore doth it go.'

'T is all unknown ;

We feel alone
That a void is left below.

William Hownr.

'M-t'^M'

THE BARN SWALLOW.

WHEN a farmer builds a new barn, he plans
stalls for his horses, stanchions for his cows,
pens and coops for the pigs and hens, and often in
the attic he cuts holes and builds httle ledges for

^'' One'guest who is quite sure to wish to come he
hardly ever arranges for; but when the barn is fin-
ished and its great door stands wide open^ some soft
May dav, the ^swallow flies in and out, and, perching
on the wide beams under the roof, chooses a pl ace for
his nest. One farmer that I knew, thought of the
swallows when he built his barn, and drove a horse-
shoe into a beam. Each year the swallows build a
nest on this support. .

Although the farmer does not exactly invite the
swallows. Vet nearly all farmers are glad to have them
come glad to hear them twittering on the ridgepole,
ghd to see them flying over the grass or up into the
bricrht sky. " The swallows have come is one ot
the^est bits of news which the farmer's children can
brincr to their mother. It tells that summer is near,
just Is the first Bluebirds brought notice that winter
was over.

'^'..VT'^mi^m

THE BARN SWALLOW.

You have read already about the mud nests of the

swallows ; in them cue young are fed, and from them

the young are coaxed by their parents to try their

wings. They fly only a short distance at first, their

parents %ing past them, calling and showing them

how easy it is. Soon the wings of the little ones

grow stronger, and before many days t' young are

skilful enough in the

air to taVe food from

their parents while they

are flying. This is one

of the prettiest sights

to be seen in Bird

World. The parent

gives a note which

means " Come on, I

have something for

you." The young bird

flies toward the old

one, and as they meet

both fly upward, their I'lls touch, and the food passes

from one to the other.

Wonderful wings swallows have, and wonderfully
skilful and graceful is their flight. Backwar nd for-
ward they pass, now with a sudden turn to th. side, or
a little upward one over a hedge, turning corners, slip-
ping between men and horses, all without an effort.

Flo. 1-5. — Swallow.

'II I IP iil I liliti III liimillilll .>'3^M£ii.V'«'^^' -«.

iSl

BIRD WORLD.

When the autumn comes, the tireless wings are
croin- to carry them to Mexico or Yucata., where
Cw U find'old friends, Kingbirds and Bobo mk^
and where new insects will taste as good to them as
New England flies and gnats. , ^ „.

Watch' a swallow hunting! Every tm.e he tu_n
quickly in his course, to this side or to that, another
insect has passed into that wide-open mouth. Count
them for a minute. The number quickly runs in o the
tens and twenties. Now remember that a swallow is
on his feet, we should say, -on his wings the swallows
would call it,-from four o'clock in the coming o
six at night, and longer in the June days. Multiply
the minutes; fourteen times sixty is over eignt hun-
dred is it not ? Now, supposin ; he caught ten insects
aminute,-and this is probably too few, -you can
see that a dozen swallows would make away with a
larcre army of insects, nearly all of which would plague
the" cattle, or feed upon the farmer's fruit or vege-
tables The farmer has no better cr more hard-
working servant than the swallow. He has a good
righi, has he not, to the shelter, for a month or so, of
the farmer's barn ?

TEE RED-WINGED BLACKBIRD.

■Mr/

Fust comes the blackbird clatterin' on tall trees,
And settlin' things in windy congresses.

Lowell.

'T'HERE is a little beetle that lives on water-lily
* leaves ; and if any insect were safe from attack,
you would think it might be this one. Several times,
however, I have seen ^

Red-wi nged Black-
birds light on the
leaves, as they floated
on the water, and pick
off the beetles. Thi .
shows us how the
birds pry into every-
thing, and attack our
insect enemies in every
part of nature.

The Red-wing is
never far from the water, and often builds his nest in
the bushes or sedges that grow over slow streams
or ponds. In March and April he sits for hours on
the top of some bush, spreading his wings to show
his scarlet epaulets, and singing his loud cheerful

Fl<;. 14. — Red-winged Blackbird.

-mw^MtT-jm^-.

BIRD WORLD.
90

*Uof notes and whistles ;
.. Okalee." He has many "'^er noKs a ^.^^^

in fact the blackb.rd .s a "°-y/f^^'^^„ „,ue th.
particularly at ^f '^1:"' "« e dow" to sleep. H
marshes nng ^.^'"^ .^^J^ ighborhood, the black-
tiid^^arl'tuS an^a w-h&m. much disturbed

drives the blackbirds mto -"f" ^'^ He "o^'h
first warm March ^-^J^^^\rZ^, flocks, and
again. The males come fi-' '" S^ ^ Uon

wait for their partners. t ^s alway 4^._,^ ^^
whether the first spnng bird will

'\ '^•^'-^'rs'bo^klo^tm read about Bird Fami-

Later in this dook yuu ^plated to each

lies, different ^inds of b.rds who are rel ted ^^_^^

other, just as yo" have distant cousmshav. g ^^^^

names. When you come to know x^ha ^

"P the '-"^i^.tfoJe efyttere^ting acquain^
^-rhrBoboHnlTe Ori'ole, the la.y Cowbird,
Tnd the Meadow L-'^ are among Jh^^^^^ ^^^

What different hab.ts these ereatu
nests in the long grass, one in tall elms, one

swamps, and one makes no nest at all.

w^'^^ffwmss^^s^m'^^;m^st^jmSi-MUsi':^x^:i^

ABOUT BIRDS' TOES.

THE animals in Wonderland, you remember, were
always very much surprised that Alice was not
constructed just as they were themselves; in fact they
seemed rather to look down upon her because she
was different.

If Alice had met a large number of our North
American birds, I think they would have been very
scornful about the uselessness of her toes. We may
think of them as saying, " What can you do with
them?"

" Can yovi catch fish or mice ? " " No ! " Then
the hawks and owls w^ould have turned their backs.

" Of course you can climb with them ? " " No."

Then the woodpeckers would have nothing
more to say.

A fat duck would waddle up and comfort
her by saying that she
thought climbing perfectly
absurd and dangerous as
well. " But of course your
toes are webbed to help you
•swim," she might add. If you were Alice, you would
have to confess that you could not swim very well

Fig. 15. — Duck's Foot.

wX^i^rWi-j}.

\ 1

BIRD nOK/D.
„„yway, and that you used your hands more than
'"Neither do you .cratch for seeds or worms, like

for she uses her toes mainly to walk on, as you
'^N^e of the birds, however, have as many toes as

• u 17 t F,o , ,._ Foot of Sonp Sparrow.

p,j;_ ,(,. _ Dstrich Foot. « "'■ /•

u . Four is the larcrest and commonest num-
C,ru:i,y'r..;d so th^t three toes pom. forwar
and one back. This arrangemen .s^ be^ -ted

thumb, which would help very little .f .t could not be

brought up under >'<»". ""fff; .^^^ j^^s are wide

\ r thaT llr: Sectc'an tl'ltched and held
apart, so that a lar^^c u j

U. The I^'^'^';-^ J,^'^„Vs e se "d all tJe
slippery prey, can turn one loc

*ft..>*K<-:i^.., fgrti Jk'^ife**:

im.

ABOUT BIRDS' TOES.

owls can do the same, so that they have a very firm
grasp.

In the woodpeckers and parrots tht ^ are always
two hind toes, but some other tree-climbers, like the
little Brown Creeper, get up a tree just as cleverly
with the usual arrangement of toes.

The little sooty brown birds, who live in your
chimneys and are called Swifts, from their great speed,

Fig. i8. — Grouse Foot.

Fig. 19. — Foot of Flicker.

have short, weak toes which they use very little. In
England there is a swift whose four toes all point
forward, but the bird spends nearly all day on the
wing, so that he does not need his feet for perching.
Notice the short hind toes of the duck and the grouse
(Figs. 15, 18), birds which flatten out the foot in
walking.

The hen's hind toe, as you must know, does not
touch the ground, and in some birds this toe has
been used so little that it has practically disappeared.

y^,sv ^v^=.;

'tjmm^m^m:.

i I

B//in WOJil.D.
94

Many birds, therefore, have only three, and generally
these are ciU front toes . ^^

Beside the Swift, who spends so much time

. . \morican birds who cannot perch

lir there are two American ui^-i ,

air, tntrt Whip-poor-wiU and tht

in the usual way; they art ^^"/H^l ^sp a

Night Hawk. Their toes are ^ooj^t to g P

lin.l3 stout enough to ^^\'^^Jl^lJU
on the ground or along, not across, a large

Fu;. 20. — Chimney Swift.

.JIU'UJIWW

BOB WHITE.

HALF a mile away you can hear Bob White whis-
tling his name, " Bob White ! " " Bob White ! "
The sound is so distinct that dogs, when they hear it
first, show that they take it for the call of a human
being. Following the sound and keeping a sharp
lookout, you may find him on the fence rail, and if
you creep cautiously near, you will see what a hand-
some bird he is.

His throat is pure white, his head marked with
black and white, and his short, fat body a rich brown.
Why is he whistling so clearly ?

If you answer him, — for you can learn to whistle
the notes almost as clearly as he does, — you may see
a very fierce little Quail com*- flying to the spot where
you are hidden, for the whisviing of the Quail, like the
drumming of the Grouse, is a call to his mate and a
challenge to all his rivals.

Under the blackberry vines, along the wall, or in a
tuft of grass in the open fields, his mate is covering,
or trying to cover, a set of eggs which it would be a
joy for you to see — row within row of pure white
beautiful eggs, sometimes as many as twenty in a
nest.

m^ v-#^r- 'i:;:5S5j»-jf j^ML^^ifc^tj^^

BIRD WORLD.

When the little ones hatch, they come ^^»^ ^^'^^^^

J£^:i down, and run t^^^"^^^^
,oung Grouse or arnyard ch en . rh ■ ^P^^^^_^^

r^^fo'^dtr'th:^:::' at th^e approach of hawUs

or prowling cats. ^ ^^,^5

Like the Grouse, ^^ Qj^JXe G ^^.e, the flock

where he -s born b t, -^^^^^ ,„.,,her all

:ireSirad*-ting 1 trees they have a

.erysociablehahitofspend.^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

s.x::rtx-^:]--c^,-^

rdt-:d'tr:f:slai;:sUd the people o.

Pompeii. ^ Q j|g scratch

When the winter is not too severe, tnt vj
the snow away, hunting for seeds -d grain H th.
have not been hunted or pursued too much, t_l.e>
sometimes become very tame, ..d come shyly into
the barnyard or about the house for food^

In the summer, berries and corn and wheat

BOH WIIITK.

have dropped from the ears are crushed by their
short, stout bills, and they fill out their daily bill of
fare with grubs and insects.

The wings of a Quail, though strong, are short in
comparison with the weight of his body. They are
also somewhat concave, like the inner side of a watch
crystal, so that when the bird flies the rapid strokes
and the shape of the wing make a loud whirring

sound.

Quails are not as common as they once were. Too
many of them, instead of wandering about the pas-
tures, hang in the markets, their pretty feathers soiled
and a little stain of blood telling the story of their
death-; but if the extermination were to become com-
plete, the only ones to be benefited would be such real
enemies to our crops as the potato beetle and the cut-
worm. In Wisconsin they were brought back by a
state law, as song birds were said to be in Killing-
worth.

I ■

AUDUBON AND THE PHCEBES.

A PAIR of Phoebes once built in a cave near
Audubon's house. He visited them so often,
and was so careful not to frighten them, that they
finally paid no more heed to his presence than if he
had been a post. He was therefore able to learn
much about their manner of life; he found out ; ow
often eggs were laid, and how long the female .sat
upon th'em. As the young grew up he handled them
frequently, so that they, too, grew accustomed to hmi.
As they grew older he tied bits of thread to their
legs, but these they always pulled off. When, how-
ever, they became so used to the threads that they
allowed them to remain on their legs, Audubon
wound a silver thread on the leg of each, "loose
enough not to hurt" them, "but so fastened that no
exertion of the birds could remove it." Soon the
birds left the nest and in the autumn went south.

The next spring Audubon hunted up all the
Phoebe's nests in the neighborhood and caught the
females as thev sat upon the nest. Do you not
imagine that he was pleased to f^nd that on the legs
of two birds was a light, silver thread ?

<mi

HOW YOUNG BIRDS GET FED.

ONE afternoon in July I watched six little Barn
Swallows sitting on the roof of a barn. They
had evidently left their nest only a few days before,
but their wings were already strong enough to carry
them back to the roof if they fluttered off-
Soon the father approached, and was greeted by
six gaping mouths. The little bird sitting nearest
him iiot the mouthful, and an instant later got another
from the mother. Six times in succession he was fed,
neither parent regarding the five other yellow throats.
This seemed unfair, and foolish as well. I thought
little birds must be starved one dav and fed toe full
the next. I waited a few moments and the mystery-
was solved. The little fellow who had been getting
so much soon had all he wanted. The next time the
parents came his mouth was shut, and one of the other
five got the mouthful.

When a cat or a dog has had enough, he stops eat-
ing. It must be so with little birds ; when one has
had enough, he shuts his mouth and eyes and dozes
while his brothers and sisters get their meal I fear,
though, that when there are six mouths to fill, the
last is hardly closed before the first opens again.

■

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I i
1 i

i s

FOOD OF BIRDS.

BY carpentering, by painting, by siMing goods,—
by so many different kinds of work that it would
be hard to make a list of them all, — your fathers
provide your daily food.

Long ago, in the old forests of England or Ger-
many, our ancestors got their own food by hunting,
fishing, keeping cattle, and by a little farming. To-
day this work is done for us, but the birds have still
to do their foraging for themselves.

Birds eat the things which you eat, and besides
have the whole insect world to hunt in. You can
often tell by a bird's appearance what he eats, and
when you have found that out, you can ge" -rally tell
where he will choose to live, and what many of his
habits of life are. When you see the wide mouth of
a swallow, and his long, slende r wings, you will decide
that if any bird could catch the hosts of flies, gnats,
and beetles that fill the air in summer, certainly the
swallow should be well fitted for such hunting. When
you remember that hard frosts kill these flying insects,
you will feel sure that you will find no swallows here
in winter. The long, sharp bill of a heron, and his
long, naked feet seem well fitted for spearing frogs

BLACK-THROATED GREEN WaRBLERS.

fc<.v{^

FOOD OF BIRDS.

lOl

and fish in shallow water. Herons must therefore live
near water, and in winter go where the swamps are
not frozen.

Such birds as Crows eat many kinds of food ; what-
ever they can get, in fact. In spring the farmer's
corn tastes sweet to them, but the grubs and beetles
are good food, too, and they find that no one will
shoot them for taking the grubs, while eating corn
means taking son ■ risk. In fall and winter, nuts are
also added to the Crow's bill of fare. Near the sea-
shore, dead fish and other sea animals which are
found on the shore vary the food in winter. I am
ashamed to say that eggs, and even young birds, are
sometimes devoured by the Crow. When a bird is
so easily pleased, and has such a wide choice, he can
stay all the year round.

Seed-eating birds, like the sparrows, can find seeds
on the weeds and grasses even in winter, and the little
bark inspectors find eggs, cocoons, and sleepy beetles
in the cracks of the bark, so that winter does not
frighten them away. Many of the sea birds, especially
the divers, can find fish or shellfish in the winter sea,
where it does not freeze over.

Did you ever think why the Pine Warbler loved the
pines, and the Summer Yellowbird preferred the
willows } Not because either of them eats the seeds
or leaves of these trees, but because in them each

' i <

J02 ///^'^^ ll'OA'/./l

finds the insects he has learned to catch. Sometimes
a bird's food depends so largely on a certain tree that
he will have to leave a town, if these trees are all cut

down. . , . 1 r r J

Sometimes birds have found a certam kmd of food
or a way of getting food so different from that of any
other bird that their bills or feet have gradually
changed, and they have become more and more
dependent on this way of getting their livmg. The
woodpecker's tongue is a long, hooked brush, with
which he rakes out grubs from deep holes, the Hum-
ming Bird's tongue is a tube through which he sucks
honey, and the Flamingo's bill is a sieve through
which he strains muddy water as a whale strams the
sea water through his whalebone meshes.

You could find mar stories about the strungo food
or feeding habits of bii as. First, however, look about
you, if you can, and find out what the birds that are
your own neighbors eat, and how they get it. Take
the common birds, the Robin, the Chipping Sparrow,
the Kingbird, and the Gull, and watch them till you
see them getting and eating their dinner. Then you
will be all the 'more interested in the interesting
stories you will find in the books. You will learn,
too, what patience and sharp sight people come
to have who watch birds and find out all their
secrets.

K^.^;vif'-

WHEN A BIRD CHANGES HIS CLOTHES.

DO you know how important the masts of a sailing
ship are ? If they are broken, the ship is help-
less. It drifts about wherever the wind blows it.

A bird's wing and tail feathers are as important for
its safety as the mast and sails of a ship. The strong,
powerful quill Teathers enable it to fly rapidly through
the air to get its food and to avoid its enemies. It
is important that the feathers of both wings should
be uninjured, for the bird would be unable to guide
its flight if one wing were much less strong than the
other.

Feathers get worn by use, some even get broken,
and if the bird could not replace them it would have
hard work, after a year or two, to make the old
weatherworn ones do their work.

Nature, however, provi(' s the birds with a new
suit of clothes every year. After the /oung are
hatched, when the old birds no longer need their
swiftness and strength to get the daily food for their
children, the feathers of almost all birds begin to
drop out ; not at once, for that would leave the
bird naked and helpless, but gradually and, in the
case of the wing feathers, fairly evenly. As fast as

I04

BIRD WORLD.

the feathers drop out others grow out to take their
places, and in a month or so the bird has a new suit
I,f fine strong feathers, all ready to carry him to his
distant winter home.

With many of the birds of the Duck and Goose
family, the moulting goes on so quickly that the bird
h.s scarcely enough feathers to enable him to fly.
He hides during these unhappy weeks in dis ant
swamps, hoping that no enemy will attack him t.U he
is ready to fly again. He must feel like a cripple
and try his wings Impatiently, longing for the day
when he can be off again through the air

In the case of many gay-colored male birds, this
summer moult leaves them very shabby-looking 1 he
Bobolink loses all his gay black and uliite, and comes
out in August in brown and yellonish, bke his wife
and children. He probably does not feel so proud of
his -ood looks as before, but I think he is safer. The
black and white was so bright that his enemies could
easily see him, but now he can slip away among the
brown grasses and hardly be noticed.

Many male birds are not content with one suit of
feathers a year. They have to have another new suit,
or part of one, in the spring, and of the gayest colors
and feathers. Red and blue and yellow appear on
the shoulders, in the tail, on the head, neck, and
breast, in patches, bars, bands, streaks. In fact m every

WHEN A BIRD CHANGES HIS CLOTHES. I05

way that can make the bird attractive. The little
fellows know very well what a fine appearance they
now make. If there is any bit of color that does not
show well, they take pains to bow or bend, or to spread
wing or tail to display it. All these bright feathers
are moulted again and the winter suit put on. So
the suits change with the seasons, till the little life
is ended.

The Humming Birds are a perpetual pleasure. I
shall never forget the surprise of joy the first time
one alighted on my sleeve and rested, as much at
home as if I were a stick or harmless twig.

Sparrows and Nuthatches had often alighted on
my head as I stood musing over my flowers, but to
have this tiny spark of brilliant life come to anchor,
as it were, on anything so earthly as my arm was
indeed a nine days' wonder. Now it has grown to be
an old story, but it is never any less delightful. —
Celia Thaxter, An Island Garden.

A BIRD IN THE HAND.

EVERY boy or girl who knows the winter woods
has seen, hanging from the forked twigs of bushes
or low trees, shallow, cup-shaped nests like that in the

picture.

These woodland nests are generally built by the
Red-eyed Vireo, a bird whose enticing song and
gentle manners soon win affection, if one learns to
know him. The nest in the picture, however, is that
of his cousin, the Yellow-throated Vireo, whose dis-
position is even more confiding than the Red-eye's.

I have always liked Yellow-throated Vireos, because
of the careless, confident way in which the male sings
on the nest; and when a pair of these vireos appeared
last May in an apple tree just outside my dining-room
window, I was prepared to give them a very cordial
welcome. I had no idea, however, when the female
finally selected a twig and fell to weaving, how impor-
tant a member of our household she would become,
and what charming associations she was destined to
weave about the tree.

It was the seventeenth of May when she began the
nest. By night it seemed to me finished, but to her
trained c-yc it was still insecure. All the next morn-

A BIRD JN THE HAND.

lo:

ing she kept at work, and at noon I could easily see
that the alls were much thicker and more smoothly
covei <1.

Or ti e tweiit} -second of May there was one egg in
the nco'; , tb- next morning, a second. On the twenty-
sixth I placed a short ladder against the tree, so that
when I climbed it my head was level with the nest
and within two feet of it.

I climbed the ladder twice, to accustom the bird to
her strange visitor, and the third time I offered her
a cankerworm. She took it, but flew off with it.

The next morning I made the fourth ascent of the
ladder and offered the vireo a large black ant, which
I caught on the tree itself. She swallowed it without
leaving the nest, and a dozen more disappeared as
quickly as I could give them to her. These black
ants were evidently considered very choice food, and
as there were large colonies of them in the hollows of
the tree, there was always a busy line following up
or down the limb against which the ladder rested.
The simplest way, therefore, to feed my friend was to
stand on the ladder, waylay each passing ant and offer
it to her.

The next morning, on my fifth ascent, she again
ate freely from my hand and from my lips. She even
left her eggs and perched on the edge of the nest,
reaching forward if I held the ant too far from her ;

io8

BIRD WORLD.

and when I had desolated the highway of ants and
was descending the ladder, she flew from the limb
below the nest to the top rung of the ladder, and atte":
I fed her there, to the next rung, following me some
distance. The male, whom I soon learned to distm-
guish by the richer yellow of his throat, w^as naturally
Sroused and indignant at this intrusion. While his
mate was eating peacefully from my hand, he flew
backward and forward close to my head, uttermg a
harsh, scolding note, which I never heard from the

female.

In about a week after he first witnessed the perform-
ance, the male became, to a certain extent, reconciled
to his wife's strange conduct. He did not dart at my
head so often, and ' e developed a habit which gave
me a much higher opinion of his character, — flying
to the nest when the female followed me and keeping
the eggs warm during her absence.

Onte, indeed, while I was feeding her on the nest,
some time after he had grown used to me, I heard
him scolding more violently than ever. I wondered
at his renewed vigilance, till I saw that he was watch-
ing, not me, but a male vireo. His anger at my intru-
sion had been somewhat modified by astonishment,
but the presence of another bird was an occurrence
he understood and felt competent to deal with.

The male never fed from my hand, although he

ji?V*'"'

A BIRD I\ THE HAND

109

often remained in the nest until I came very near. I
knew him at once by his retracted head and angry
eyes. ''ie female's head was always extended to see
what I was bringing her,
and her eyes were intelli-
gent and gentle.

He was a true barbarian,
I fear, but I learned to re-
spect him thoroughly. He
defended his home and
family as well as he could,
and he was extremely ac-
tive, a little later, in feeding
the young. I told my
friends, of course, of the
rar*? friendship which I had
formed, and several came
to see the vireo eat from
my hand. Not only did
their presence under the

tree seem to make no difference in her appetite, but
when one of them climbed the ladder I had to admit
that she took food from his hand as readily as she
had from mine. At no time did she discriminate
between her admirers. Any one who brought black
ants was welcome.

On the twenty-eighth of May I put her courage to

Fig. 21. — Vellow-throated Vireo.

f-^iC-fv-"

BIRD WORLD.

a severe test. She was standing on the edge of the
nest, the better to reach for the food which I r ^'-red
her, and her composure was so great and my w \ so
near, that I ventured to close it over her and lo carry
her toward me.

She did not seem alarmed at this strange experi-
ence ; her heart was not beating at a rapid rate, but I

Fig. 22. — Vireo and Nest.

think the position was too unusual to be comfortable.
She seemed pleased to be put down, although she
remained where I placed her and continued her

meal.

If I put an ant on the palm of my hand, she pre-
ferred to hover or to fly over and take the ant on the
wing; yet on the third of June I induced her to perch
on my finger.

./ JilRP IX THE HAXD.

I I I

I managed this by putting a box containing ants
in the pahii of my hand, but letting it show between
my fingers. She wanted the ants and saw only one
way to get at them. She alighted, therefore, on my
finger and thrust her bill down into the box. She
also learned to eat from the box placed upon my
head.

In order to photograph the bird in these character-
istic positions, we had to do an amount of climbing
and cutting in the tree, which was in itself a severe
test of her composure. The camera, too, on its
tripod, was tied in place only a foot or two away, and
remained there night and day, covered by a black
cloth ; but neither this strange object nor the removal
of twigs and branches all around the nest seemed to
disturb the vireo in the least.

By the eighteenth of June the young were hatched,
and as soon as they no longer needed the protection
of her body, the mother treated herself to long and
well-earned absences. Once she was away so long
that I became greatly worried about her, but she
returned at" length, and ate once more, the last time,
from my hand.

She unconsciously gave me cause, during this last
interview, to think of her a little more constantly than
I liked. While I looked up at her as she fed, there
fell into my eye a fragment of the ant she was eating

I 12

BIRD WORLD.

til!

— an experience that forbids me to recommend formic
acid as an eye lotion.

But I forgave her, of course, and, as I say, this was
the last I saw of her. y\t the end of two days I went
away for the summer. When I returned, in Septem-
ber, the well-worn nest was all that I could connect
with the family I had watched. Often when I look
at it I think of its brave architect and builder. I
remember how helpless her little body felt in my
hand, and I wonder what long journeys she is making

now-.

Most of all, I wonder whether she will escape all
the perils of the way and return to me next spring.
The chances are many that I shall not see my vireo
again, but if she returns next May the warmest wel-
come and the largest ants will be waiting for her.

Redstarts, like all little birds, are "feathered appe-
tites," and this means the destruction of innumerable
insects, health of shade trees, and the perfecting of
flowers. — C. C. Abbott.

The happy birds that change their sky

To build and brood ; that live their life

From land to land.

Tennyson's In Memoriam.

BIRD PASSPORTS.

r^O you know what a passport is?
^-^ In all parts of our country orderly persons may
move about freely without exciting suspicion. In
countries differently governed stricter rules prevail,
and circumstances are liable to arise in which it is
necessary to be quickly and easily identified, and to
have the protection of one's own country.

If none of you have done so, many of your parents
have had to pass, during a single summer, through
France, Germany, Italy, Switzerland, if not through
cities of Austria, Turkey, Russia, and perhaps coun-
tries of Asia and Africa. The form of protection in
such cases is a written passport signed by one of the
highest officers of our government. On the following
page is a copy of such a passport.

If any wrong should come to one holding this paper,
he can appeal to his government to see that it is
righted, as far as is possible ; and if he himself does
violence or injury, his government is made responsible
for his wrongdoing.

You can see that such a paper must not be trans-
ferred from person to person. To make sure that
the holder of it is the rightfu' owner, he is carefully
described in the document, as you see.

I n 1 1-

ii I i

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i^.X.y^^^i^r'

BIRD J'ASSrORTS.

115

" But what," you ask, " has this to do with birds ? "
Only this: the birds are the greatest travelers in the
world. They must go, in the different seasons of the
year, where the food they need is most plentiful. If
they do not have to "sow or reap or gather into
barns," it is also true that they must glean and forage
day by day to meet their needs. They are happiest
in summer time in northern latitudes; but when frost
comes and the insects are safe in winter cocoons, they
must go where summer heat lasts the long year
through. Traveling is not so much a pastime as a
necessity.

Going high over our heads, they do not ask our
leave. Their frequent way stations are the tree tops,
the marsh grasses, and all sorts of open or hidden
ways. Some go singing, like the old-time Troubadours.

The migration of different kinds of birds is becom-
ing better known every year, and as they are interest-
ing \' itors we are all glad to know when they will
come our way, and how we may know them as they
pass. While they accept our hospitality without ask-
ing for it, with very few exceptions (hardly worthy
to be named), they are of the greatest service to us.
Longfellow's " Birds of Killingworth " tells what this
service is.

Now, I am sure you can see how it is that an exact
description of every known bird would be of oreat use

Ii6

I^IKD WOK in.

for many different reasons. You and I would be olad
to have so good a statement of the birds we wish to
know that when we see a bird we may be helped in
finding out what bird it is. And students who wish
to know the family relations of different birds are glad
of strict bird jiassports for that purpose. Those who
have in times past shot birds, thinking they would get
better crops, need to learn what birds have deserved
their thanks instead.

If we think of this, we shall find more pleasure in
the bird books written for older students, which have
seemed to contain nothing but dull statements. We
shall p; them as wc do dictionaries.

There is another idea connected with this matter
of j)assports. As you grow older and study birds for
vourselves, vou will wish to compare what you learn
with what others know. To do this well and easily
you must be able to make out the passports, or
descriptions, which are used in bird study.

Many birds are so much alike that it often requires
quite a'full description to enable any one who knows
to tell which of several birds you have in mind. It is
the object of this lesson to start you in making descrip-
tions tor yourselves, as well as in using those of other
people.

■jrTir i

THE BIRD OF MANY NAMES.

s!At4'/'/i :^/ilw.^^.;//

f N our world we arc apt to express an opinion of
* persons who in different places pass under differ-
ent names. To appear in full wedding suit of three
striking colors in New England in May and June,
then to don a snuffy
brown traveling suit
under the names of
Reed and Rice in
different localities
of the south, and in
Cuba to assume a
foreign name, while
at least two other
names are held in
good faith by peo-
ple somewhere else,
would need explana-
tion.

But we know little of the use of names in Bird
World. A few birds tell us plainly what they like to
be called: Whip-poor-will, Bob White, Chickadee; for
the most part we have put our own, often very stupid,
names upon them.

Fic. 2^.— FJolxilink.

ii8

lilRI) irohTD.

A Bobolink is a much-beloved bird in New Eng-
land. It would seem a crime against nature to shoot
him, and there would be no motive save to enrich a
museum or milliner's window.

But in South Carolina or Cleorgia a farmer might
be pardoned for finding a way to save his crops from
the Rice Birds, and if he, for his part, gets morsels for
his table, he would not be half paid for the young rice
grains that the great flocks of jjassing birds devour.

By the time those that have escaped the perils of
gunners reach Central America, they are said to be
dainty eating as Butter Birds for those whose con-
sciences let them secure them, and we cannot blame
the people nmch, since the birds keep their gay holi-
day, wear their bright plumage, sing their gay songs
with us, and make themselves much less attractive in
the land of their winter exile.

The female bird wears only the yellowish brown
with dashes of light and dark on wings, tail, and back.

"It

■

Modest and sliy as a nun is she,
Pretty and quiet, with plain brown wings,
Passing at home a patient life,
Broods in the grass while her husband sings,
" Bob-o-link, Bob-o-link,
ijpink, Spank, Spink."

THE BOBOLINK.

BOBOLINK! that in the meadow*
Or beneath the orchard's shadow
Keepest up a constant rattle
Joyous as my children's prattle,
Welcome to the north again !
Welcome to mine ear thy strain,
Welcome to m-'ne eye the sight
Of thy buff, tl \ <; ck, and white.
Brighter plumes Juay greet the sun
By the banks of Amazon ;
Sweeter tones may weave the spell
Of enchanting Philomel ;
But the tropic bird would fail,
And the English nightingale.
If we should compare their worth
With thine endless, gushing mirth.

A single note, so sweet and low.
Like a full heart's overflow.
Forms the prelude ; but the strain
Gives us no such tone again,
For the wild and saucy song
Leaps and skips the notes amt)ng.

I20

BIRD WORLD.

•-

With such quick and \sportive play,
Ne'er was madder, merrier lay.

Nor care nor fear thy bosom knows ;
Kor thee a tempest never blows;
But when Qur northern summer 's o'er
By Delaware's or Schuylkill's shore
The wild rice lifts its airy head,
And royal feasts for thee are spread.
And when the winter threatens there.
Thy tireless wings yet own no fear,
But bear thee to more southern coasts,
Far beyond the reach of frosts.

Bobolink! still may thy gladness
Take from me all taints of sadness;
Fill my soul with trust unshaken
In that Being who has taken
Care for every living thing
In summer, winter, fall, and spring.

Thomas Hill.

f I

If I were a bird, in building my nest, I should fol-
low the example of the Bobolink, placing it in the
midst of a broad meadow, where there was no spear
of grass, or flower, or growth unlike another to mark
its site.— Bi'UKoudHs.

GYPSY BIRDS.

'T'HERE are many land birds whose whole lives are
^ passed almost in the same spot, and others that
make great journeys twice a year ; both kinds, how-
ever, the stay-at-homes as well as the travelers, are
regular in their habits.

You can tell where to find them or when to expect
them, sometimes almost to a day. Orioles, for instance,
reach Massachusetts, almost every year, in the first
week of May and leave in the last week of August.

Regular habits like these do not suit gypsies nor
the Gypsy Birds; they wander from place to place
wherever they find the food they like. Sometimes
they appear in the fall in great numbers, and stay
through the winter and late into the spring. The
next year and the next they are absent; perhaps ten
years elapse before they revisit the place.

The best known of the gypsy birds are the Cross-
bills, whose strange pair of scissors you find among
the bird bills illustrated on page 197. The handsom-
est gypsies in Bird World are the Pine Grosbeaks ;
the most lovable ones are the Linnets. All these live
in the far north, where snow lies on the ground for
the greater part of the year, in the great pine and

122

BIRD WORLD.

I 5
>

spruce forests, or still further north where the white
birches grow, and the owls and foxes are white as the
white snow.

No one knows when to expect these gypsies. Any
winter they may appear; the rosy-colored Linnets,
in flocks of hundreds, light on the birches and scatter
the seed-wings over the snow. The Crossbills go
to the spruce cones for their seeds, and the Gros-
beaks eat, I am sorry to say, not only the seeds but
the buds as well. However, they come so rarely that
they do little harm, and they are so beautiful and so
tame that every one welcomes them.

Probably if you were to put on your snowshoes and
travel far northward when you heard that these birds
had come, till you should come to the great forests
where they were born, you would discover why they
had come south.

Not that they fear the cold, for they often live
happily where the thermometer goes down to 30°
below zero. No, you would look at the trees, and if
you saw that the birches, for some reason, had had p
poor crop of seeds, as sometimes the apple tree's crop
fails, or that there were few cones on the spruces, you
would make up your mind that the gypsy birds had
wandered south for food.

FOSTER-MOTHERS.

r^O you know what a foster-mother is?
*-^ If you have read Hans Andersen's famous story,
The Ugly Duckling you will remember that the
duck mother found a strange egg in her nest, and
when it hatched, the bird that came out was larger by
half than her own ducklings. So ugly and awkward
it was that all the creature'' in the farmyard pecked
at it. The good mother, though she was ashamed of
it, tried to protect it, and treated it kindly.

Birds which hatch eggs which they did not them-
selves lay are called foster-mothers, and there are
more of them in Bird World than most people
suppose.

If you are walking in the fields, you may come
across a strange sight, — a young bird, considerably
larger than a sparrow, squatting on the ground with
beak wide open and wings hanging down. In a
moment he will squall loudly, and then run a few
steps in the direction of a smaller bird which is busily
hunting for insects or grubs. When the smaller bird
finds something, she hurries to the lazy youngster
and gives it to him ; but he has hardly swallowed
it before his mouth is open for more. He gives his

124

BIRD WORLD.

little foster-mother no peace, and you wonder she is
not utterly worn out. If you caught the two birds
and looked at their passports, you could find very
little close family resemblance, and would feel sure
that the young bird was no true child of the other.

But where are the bird's own brood? Did she
have none, and has she adopted an orphan ?

This is the sad part of the story, for even in Bird
World there are some very rascally characters, it
would seem, and the truth about them must be told.
The little Vireo or Redstart had built her nest and
laid her eggs in it; but one morning, while she had
left it for a moment to get food, a larger bird had
come sneaking through the bushes and had dropped
her own big egg into the nest, among the pretty little
ones that really belonged there.

When the Vireo or Redstart came back, she expected
to settle herself comfortably on the nest, with her bill
and tail and little black eye just showing over the
edge, to brood and brood all the long day. What 's
to be done? She calls in great excitement to her
mate, and the pair have a long consultation, but they
are not strong to throw the egg out, and if they desert
the nest their own precious eggs will never hatch, so
they decide to make the best of it, not knowing that
what they call best is really the very worst. For, as
soon as the mother settles down, the big egg gets all

FOSTER-MOTHERS.

^25

the warmth of her body, and hatches a day or two
before the others, or if they hatch at the same time,
the big stranger needs so much more food that the
real children are in danger of being but half fed.

It is a sad story, is it not? The lazy Cowbird
mother shirks all the work which we praise birds for
doing. She makes no nest, she takes no pains to feed
and protect her young. All her life she simply eats
and sleeps and looks about her for some smaller bird
whom she can deceive.

The pleasant part of the story is the kindness of
the poor Redstart mother to her foster-child. She has
probably lost her own brood, but instead of pecking
the stranger to death, she feeds him, working day
after day over him till he is big enough to fly away,
which he does without a word of thanks.

Do you wonder how the Cowbird came by so odd
a name ? Like most bird names, some habit of the
bird suggested it. These birds are often seen in
small flocks following cattle in pastures. It does not
require great shrewdness to guess that it is not the
cows, but the insects to be found upon them in warm
weather, that attract the birds. If they do service to
the cattle, we are glad to give them credit, but it is said,
on good authority, that every Cowbird means the loss
of a whole brood of Redstarts, Yellow Warblers, Vireos,
or other birds of which we cannot have too many.

"■*^

■ ■ *'}'»?^

..■■•S'i^'--

TWO FATHER BIRDS.

' il

YOU have discovered before now that birds, like
people, have very different habits and characters.
Even in the birds about you, the difference between
a lazy Cowbird mother and such a careful, loving
parent as the Grouse is very noticeable.

The birds I am going now to tell you about are
natives of countries far from America. One is well
known to you ; some of you have perhaps seen an
Ostrich at a circus. The other is not nearly so
famous, but he is almost as interesting. He belongs
to the sandpiper family, and is called the Ruff.

The Rutf's name comes probably from a wonderful
collar of feathers which grow each spring beneath and
around his throat. They are so thick that they form
a shield, and the bird uses them, as such. The Ruffs
choose places to which they return each night simply
to fence with their bills. These bills are long but not
very sharp, so that they never injure each other, but
they fight as fiercely as if they meant to kill one
another. Many male birds of other kinds fight in the
breeding season, but with the Ruffs it seems to be
merely for the sake of fighting, for they keep it up
even after the female is sitting on her eggs. Instead
of keeping near her, as many males do, to protect her

nVO FATHER BIRDS.

127

and the nest from enemies, the Ruff spends his time
with the other males, fighting continual duels, until
the summer comes. Then his collar gradually drops
off, and the males that have been fighting all the
spring go off together in
peaceful flocks.

The male Ostrich has
a very different charac-
ter from the quarrelsome
and neglectful Ruff. The
Ostrich, like our barn-
yard rooster, has several
hens. All lay eggs in the
same nest, which is noth-
ing but a pit scraped out
in the sand. In this
sometimes thirty eggs are laid. Every night the male
Ostrich broods on this great pile. If the young are
threatened, the male defends them, or tries to lead the
enemy astray by pretending that he is wounded or
lame, just as the mother Grouse does here.

Of the two fathers, the Ruff is by far the hand-
somer. The bare red neck of the Ostrich is ugly
enough, but uglier when compared with the Ruff's
fine collar. Ask their wives, however, about it, and
perhaps they will say, " Handsome is that handsome
does."

Fig. 24.— The Ruff.

BORN IN A BOAT.

THERE is no bird more skilful in diving than the
Grebe. He has a trick of sinking out of sight
which is so wonderful that you hardly believe that the
bird has been in sight at all. Or if he is in a hurry
he turns head over heels like a duck, and then the
game is to guess where he will come up. It may be
to the right, to the left, far or near, and sometimes
you will think he has never come up at all. If a
Grebe is fired ar, he will start at the flash of the
powder and be safe under water before the shot
reaches the spot where he was.

When the mother Grebe is swimming about with
her little ones, teaching them to dive after minnows
and bolt them down whole, she will often take them
for a very curious ride. They get on her back, grasp
her feathers tightly with their feet, and she dives
while they hold bravely on. I watched a mother
once who had only a single chick, though the family
is usually large. When the pair saw me, the little
fellow swam to his mother and she prepared to take
him down in the usual wav. But either she went too
fast or he lost his hold, for when she disappeared he
was washed off, and sat there bobbing up and down

BORN IN A BOAT.

129

on the ripple she had left, turning about like a walnut
shell, the picture of helplessness and loneliness.

I wonder what the poor mother thought when she
came up in some quiet spot and found that her baby
had been lost. She did not return while I waited,
but I have no doubt they were soon reunited, and very
glad she must have been that it was only a wave that
had carried him off, and not a snake or a pickerel.

But you are waiting to hear about the boat in which
he was born. It does n't sail about, it is true, but it
is really a boat at anchor.

The mother Grebe makes a nest of coarse reeds
woven together. The nest is fastened to reeds that
are growing out of the water, and often rests upon
the water. It gets water soaked, of course, but the
shell, with its lining of skin, keeps the moisture out.
The eggs are kept warm by the mother bird, and
warm moisture does not keep the young from
hatching.

Grebes are most graceful in the water, but seem
out of place on shore. Their feet are placed so far
back in their bodies that they can hardly walk or
stand.

i ^

lit

I" ''i

HOW THE WOOD DUCK GETS HER YOUNG
TO THE WATER.

AV E R Y interesting story it would make to describe
all the modes by which young children and
animals are carried from place to place by their
parents. The Indian papoose travels long distances
on its mother's back; young opossums also ride on
their mothers' backs, but to get a firmer hold wind
their little tails round that of their mother. The
mother kangaroo keeps her little children in a pouch
or fold of her skin ; little toads, of one kind, live in
holes in their mother's back.

Young birds do little traveling before they learn
to use their wings or legs. The Wood Duck, Yinvj-
ever, builds her nest in the hollow of a tree, and when
the young ducks hatch, she wishes, like all other
ducks, to introduce them at once to the water. You
have seen a mother cat carry her kittens in her mouth.
She holds them tight, but does not hurt them. So
the Wood Duck takes her downy little ducklings with
her broad bill and flies to the ground. Her family is
large ; over a dozen trips are sometimes needed from
the nest to the ground. Then the procession starts
off for the water, and the little ducks paddle off as
easily as if they had not been born on land.

;~-^' *J!%ivikiVv.

THE GREAT CARAVAN ROUTE.

WOU remember that the old (irouse boasted that
* he kept warm and well fed even when the ground
was frozen and covered with snow. If you were to
walk through his woods in January, you would find
tracks in the snow, and at last he would start up from
under the bushes ahead of you, with a whirr that
would frighten you the first time you heard it. And
when he had flown off, how silent the woods would
be ! You might walk for miles and meet less than
half a dozen birds.

In spring the edges of the woods and the fields
near by would ring with bird music, but now a few
lisping notes from the Kinglets and Chickadees, the
scream of a Blue Jay, or the caw of a Crow would be
the only sounds made by birds.

Not quite the only ones, after all, for the little
Downy Woodpecker pays his visits to the grubs at
all seasons, and wakes them from their winter sleep
by knocking politely at their doors.

Where have the birds gone } Where is the Oven-
bird, a..^; the Tanager? Where are the thrushes
and the vireos.?

It is easy to tell you where they are, but much
harder to say how they got there. If you wished to

l.V.

BJKD WOHI.D.

visit ihe i^i.!lKls wlicre those birds winter, the forests
where flowers .ilways bloom and insects are never
killed by frost, ^ou must go either by train to IHor-
ida, and t i .lossby steamer from Tan, pa Bay to
Havana, < • :uw can take other steam'^rs which sail
directly nom lj( ston. New York, and other eastern
cities to '"> ^\''.s!. Indies. Unless yoit live on some
main liu:. vf>v! '''i^ ha e first to tra^ >. ! a shorter or
longer di 'uncc, as the case may be by sifle lines,
which bring you ;u Hie big city where the steamers
or the fast express trains start. The birds, as you
know, can take neither train nor boat. How is it
they are in New 1 ngland ii. September, and in
November already in Cuba?

You may have read how from Samai and or
Irkutsk the lines of camels stai i for a long and diffi-
cult journey across the ti'sert. Many fall exhausted
by the way, or are attacked ad killed by highway-
men. Merchants, often of different tribes, for' i a
company for mutual protection. In tlie Vfr an
deserts the caravans tinci pleasant s})Ots ca, d oas*
where they halt to refresh tliemselves fron^ he \
or springs, and to rest a little before the take
their journeving again.

The birds, too, form caravans before th*. • start on
their long j<'urn'*ys in the fall. They h e their
meeting places where differtiit tribes a.ssenibi Thr-'.

TIIH 'iKF.ir C.I/iAl iX A'Ol . F.

an the Nhips of the air as the .uik l^ arc ships of the
desert.

Oftfii lue caravan is overt, vCn b) a storm and
many birds die, or, v\ len they are resting in some
friendly thi-ket or g ve v bbers in the shape of

It is by iiO nicrii-.s an easy
tar the larger part of the birds
ic summei mak' it not once but

hav ks aiiarl thc^i
joi y, and y"t, n,

that are vvi
twice \ yt
Sonv
3 diflT iilt>

a> ir

leard

f fb

froi;
whi

o ' v-el by da\ cind these have
.ng way. Many of you have

he 1 asant autu ii days, far above, the honk
Id gt ese, and you can imaiine that the old
»t the head of the great V-sha ed line, can find,
ill great height, landmarks ir ;vr rs and lakes
! h(. has passed before and n? mbers.
*^ most of the birds go by nig. you think of

\. ibh '- hawks you will guess wli nd for them

hi ioun y is far harder. But even ight, if it is

c ear, poi.ds shine and the mountains, loom up dark
n d large, and the old birds that have been that way
before find landmarks to steer by.

They call from t-'ino to time, and the rest of the

caravan coming behmd answer them. On they fly

t dawn, when they drop down, tired and hungry, to

est through the day, and perhaps for several days,

before they take another night journey.

134

BIRD WORLD.

I •

I I

I I-

It is while they are resting in this way in the
thickets, or perhaps in the orchards or gardens of the
towns, that men who are fond of birds discover them
and learn how they are getting on in their journeys.
It may come about some time that a telegram may be
sent to the daily papers saying that such and such
birds are at Charleston or Savannah or Tampa. This
would please many readers, but we must wait till we
are much more kindhearted than many people are
now, or it would be no kindness to the birds.

If you were to go out some morning in September
and find strange birds in your garden scratching
under the currant bushes, or merely hiding and resting,
and the next morning find them missing, you would
know that your city or town was on the great caravan
route from the frozen north to the sunny south.

As for myself, I am turned hammock contractor
for the Orioles, taking my pay in " notes." I throw
strings out of the window and they snap at them at
once. They sit in the cherry tree hard by and war-
ble, " Hurry up, hurry up !" I never found out before
just what they said. But if you listen you will find
that this is what they first say. — Lowell.

BIRD WORLD IN WINTER.

WE will go well out of city or village, and, as
birds are creatures of habit, we will take
counsel of some one whose long acquaintance with
them has let him into their secrets, to know where to
find them.

Are we afraid to venture out directly after a storm ?
The way to some partial clearing in the woods may
be rough, but where tiny birds can be merry and
ligh' hearted we will not mind if the frost stings our
ears and finger-tips.

The woods in this case are in Ohio, and the one to
tell us of them is Mr. Leander S. Keyser. The first
sound that echoes through the woods is the vigorous
bugle of the hardy Carolina Wren. The most of the
winter birds go in straggling flocks, but this little
hero of many storms is apt to be alone.

Mr. Chapman calls this restless, excitable bird a
" feathered Jack-in-a-box," bobbing about, gesticulating
with his expressive tail, and seldom in sight more
than a minute at a time. He sings as he goes, with
a vocabulary so rich he has been called the Mocking
Wren.

How can we help shivering to see a little commu-
nity of Tree Sparrows holding a winter carnival in

I i

I {

■- «

I u

136

BMn WORLD.

the new-fallen snow ? When once we have had their
tracks or footprints pointed out to us, we may be sure
we shall find them in our own neighborhoods also in
winter. In the wildest wind and snow flurries the
Tree Sparrows will keep up their cheerful chirp, while
they flit about on the snow as if it were down, picking
seeds from grass stems and weed stalks. Emerson
defines a weed as a plant man has not yet found a
use for. We and the sparrows have found a use for
weeds.

Sometimes the tracks showed that the birds had
taken a bite, as it were, and then had flitted across
the snow to another spot ; deepened hollows showed
where they had wallowed in the drifts for mere fun,
as boys delight to do. Brave little sparrows, you are
better comrades than we thought.

" I have seen birds," says Mr. Keyser, " taking pool-
baths, shower-baths, dew-baths, and dust-baths. Who
will say they never take a snow-bath } "

Here in the very middle of winter we are watching
a Ju-^co. He finds a feast of juicy berries on the dog-
wood tree, picks one, dashes down into the snow and
nibbles it, then flings the seed away, standing leg-
deep in ice crystals until he has eaten it up. The
rest of the birds eat their berries where they find them
on the trees. Tree Sparrows come to the dogberry
tree also, but they reject the pulp and bore the pit for

ran

^vmmimm

^9m

WINTER LIFE.
KINGLETS. A BROWN CREEPER

[:•

BIRD WORLD IN WINTER.

its tiny kernel, while Robins, Bluebirds, and the rest
swallow the berry whole when they come to it.

One little story that Mr. Keyser tells shall end our
January visit. It is about a Junco.

" From a cornfield I witnessed a little scene that
filled me with delight. At some distance I perceived
a snowbird eating seeds from the raceme of a tall
weed, which bent over in a graceful arch beneath its
dainty burden. I climbed the fence and crept cau-
tiously nearer to get a better view of the little diner-
out. What kind of a discovery do you suppose I
made } I could scarcely believe my eyes.

" There beneath the weed, hopping about on the
snow, were a Tree Sparrow and a Junco, picking up
the seeds that their companion above was shaking
down. It was such a pretty little comedy that I
laughed aloud for pure delight. It seemed for all the
world like a boy in an apple tree shaking down the
mellow fruit for his playmates, who were gathering it
from the ground as it fell. Farther on in the woods
I saw a Junco dart up to a weed too small to afford
him a comfortable perch, give it a shake which would
bring down a quantity of seeds, and then flit below
and eat them from the white tablecloth."

(

B7TID LODGINGS IN WINTER.

\yW"E have been told what Robins do at night; but
» » Robindom is but a small part of Bird World.
It does not matter mi'ch on summer nights, but in
early February and March, or even in the storms of
April and May, we might rest better if we knew just
how the birds we were so glad to see in the morning
sunshine were faring now that the sun has cone down.
It is quite plain that nothing troubles a bird much
but fear ()f enemies and scarcity of food. If he can
keep the little heart within him warm and safe, he
will make a merry life. Since it was found out what
Robins do, bird students have been watching late and
rising before dawn to solve the kindly problem of
birds' night quarters.

The first thought is that they would be in bushes
and trees ; but it seems that the Snowbirds are much
more likely to be on, or in, or near the ground, unless
they find holes in old trees as woodpeckers do. In
little mounds of sod thrown up by the frost a neat
little entrance has often been found to lead to the
snug, cosy bedroom of a Snowbird. Little hollowed
places, such as field m.ice make in summer, have been
taken and, with a little grass pulled over, have sheltered

BIRD LODGINGS IN WINTER.

139

Juncos as nicely as could be wished. A brush pile
left by wood-choppers has given protection to some
little mixed colony. Tall grass will de Meadow-

larks and Red-winged Blackbirds, and ^ bushes,

into which the owl or bigger creatures could not
crawl, may protect a spot where a covering of leaves
makes comfort enough for the brave little sojourners.
If we stop to think, we shall see that a tall tree top
would be a much colder place ; and while the birds
will make the best of what they have, they will seek
far to find comfort.

THE BIRD.

Hither thou com'st. The busy wind all night
Blew through thy lodging, where thy own warm wing
Thy pillow was. Many a sullen storm,
For which coarse man seems much the fitter born,

Rain'd on thy bed

And harmless head ;
And now as fresh and cheerful as the light
Thy little heart in early hymns doth sing
Unto the IVovidence, whose unseen arm
Curb'd them, and cloth'd thee well and warm.
All things that be praise Him ; and had
Their lesson taught them when first made.

Henry Vaughan.

THE EAGLE.

IT is hard to tell just how the Bald Eagle came to be
our national emblem. It certainly is not from the
character of the bird, for he is a sort of tramp, and
sometimes even a thief. I think it must have been
from his splendid power of flight, and the fine appear-
ance he makes when he is soaring high in the sky.
An eagle with his great wings outspread looks so
majestic and so powerful that he might easily, in such
an attitude, represent the power and greatness of a
nation.

Watch a Bald Eagle getting his dinner, and much
of your respect for him will vanish. If he does not
steal it, he picks it up here and there like a street-
dog, — a dead fish by the shore of a lake, or a dead
lamb which the dogs have killed. He often watches
an Osprey or Fishhawk till he sees him catch a fish,
and then chases him till the hawk with a scream ot
disappointment drops the meal for which he has
worked. The eagle pi I:s it up, and enjoys the ill-
gotten food.

Let us try to gain for our national er ^em such a
reputation that people will think only cs the power
and majesty of the eagle, and forget his lazy and
thievish habits.

THE CHICKADEE.

A POET was once walking in the Concord woods
in winter. The snow was deep ; it was bitterly
cold ; his home was a long way off. He stumbled
along, feeling so dis-
couraged and so help-
less that it seemed as
though he must give
up the struggle.

Just then he heard a
bright, cheerful note,
and in the twigs above
him he saw a Chicka-
dee hopping about as
gaily as if it were
spring, and calling such
a brisk greeting that it
seemed he must be
really glad to see a fellow-traveler.

The poet felt ashamed that such a "little scrap of
valor " could face the storm all day and all night, with-
out ever losing his courage or even his cheerfulness;
he determined to take the bird for his model, and like
him be merry and brave, no matter how discouraging
life might sometimes seem.

Fig. 2;. — Chickadee.

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A BIRD-PARADISE.

MANY of the islands in the I'acific Ocean are so
small that no people live on them ; but they are
large enough for multitudes of birds to make them
their homes. Winter never comes to these islands,
and the birds spend their whole lives on the same
spot where they and their forefathers were born.

Occasionally it happens that vessels touch at these
islands, that their crew may get fresh water or explore
the shores and draw maps such as you have in your
geographies. When these sailors or map-makers land,
they find to their surprise that the birds have no fear
of their strange visitors.

Instead of flying to the tops of trees or hiding in
bushes, the birds walk about men's feet or light on
their shoulders. When some men rode on horses, the
birds lighted on the backs of the horses and picked at
the saddles to see what these new contrivances were.
When one explorer was picking up shells along the
beach, a little bird followed him, almost snatching the
shells out of his hands in its curiosity to know what
the man was doing.

Why were the birds so fearless ? They were no more
stupid than their cousins here. Their courage came

' ^^"fii^firs^aEs^ir^R

--/ rURD-rARADJSK.

from their ignorance of the harm men could do. No
men had ever hunted them. The guns which they
saw and the noise of the firing meant nothing to
them ; to our birds it means broken wings and blood-
stained feathers.

It seems a pity, does it not, that it is only where
man is not known that he is not feared. If we all
had treated birds kindly, man would be loved best
where he is best known.

LiTTi.E birds sit on the telegraph wires

And chitter, and flitter, and fold their wings ,

Maybe they thinic that for them and their sires,
Stretched always, on purpose, those wonderful strings,

And perhaps the Thought that the world inspires
Did plan for the birds, among other things.

Little things light on the lines of our lives, —

Hopes and joys and acts of to-day,
And we think that for these the Lord contrives,

Nor c tch what the hidden lightnings say;
Yet, from end to end. His meaning: arrives,

And His word runs, underneath, all the way.

•Mrs. a. u. T. VVhitnev.

^BSSLn.i^ms^^^^mES^^'*:.

^'i-:..

THE SEA-GULL.

FAR f'om the loud sea beaches,
Where he goes fishing and crying
Here in the inland garden,
Why is the sea-gull flying?

Here are no fish to dive for ;

Here is the corn and lea ;
Here are the green trees rustling

Hie away home to the sea!

Fresh is the river water.

And quiet among the rushes;
This is no home for the sea-gull,

But for the rooks and thrushes.

Pity the bird that has wandered *

Pity the sailor ashore !
Hurry him home to the ocean.

Let him come here no more !

High on the sea-cliff ledges.

The white gulls are trooping and crying ;
Here among rooks and roses,

Why is the sea-gull flying ?

Robert Louis Stevenson.

HERRING GULLS AND THEIR NESTING PLACES.

H-'

I J'l^i'1lifsr'^A^\**■rl^^^w^

A GREAT TRAVELER.

A good south wind sprung up behind,
The Albatross did follow,
And every day, for food or play.
Came to the mariner's hollo !

in mist or cloud, on mast or shroud.

It perched for vespers nine ;

While all the night, through fog-smoke white,

Glimmered the white moonshine.

IF the little birds went to school instead of being
* taught at home, what do you suppose would be
the most important study ? Arithmetic ? No, indeed.
The very wisest of them can't count up to ten. Gram-
mar ? Not at all. They don't even know the Parts
of Speech, though they have certainly heard Excla-
mations enough.

Would it be geography.? Yes. I suppose most
birds would have to have geography every day in the
week. At any rate, the old birds know enough about
it, and practice almost every hour what they know.

The old Grouse you read about knew every bush
and clump of ferns in his swamp, and the little paths
which led up to the hill, and the pine grove above the
swamp. He knew its products and its climate, where

mil iiimi III II III iwliiiiii imii iii im ■ ii w

146

BIRD WO A' LP.

the buds and berries grew, and wliat kind of wind
and sky meant rain.

But, after all, the Grouse would not have been the
best teacher of geography the birds could have found
for their school. He knew the swamp and the woods
around it, but a j;jurney to the next swamp would
have seemed to him quite a long one.

In fact, you remember, he rather prided himself on
being a -rtay-at-home, and when his friend the Oven-
bird told him about the beautiful southern forests, I
can fancy him listening politely, but not carin;^- much
about them.

1 he Ovenbird would make a better teacher, would
he not ? Think, for a moment, what he sees every
year of his life: the dry oak woods of the north are
his home in the summer; he knows them almost as
well as the Grouse does, and can find his way about
from the little brook where the fat spiders live, to the
dry bank where his mate has built her little oven.
Then in October he spends a few days in New York
State, flies across the broad Hudson, and then on to
the shores of Chesapeake Bay. A week or two later
he would be taking his way over the fallen needles of
the great Georgia pines, and the next week watching
the alligators in a Florida swamp.

Here a few of his friends think it warm enough
to spend the winter, but he flies over the warm Gulf

A GREAT TRAVELER.

Stream, over the coral islands, and comes to some
little island of the West Indies, where the great palms
wave along the shore. Here there are spiders enough
for him and for all his northern and southern friends.

He sees the beautiful white Herons and the red
Flamingoes, but side by side with him in the bushes
are some friends who have made the long journey
from the north in his company, Maryland Yellow-
throats and Summer Yellowbirds, and higher up in
the trees Redstarts and Vireos.

While the Grouse is up in the pine trees where the
snow is falling steadily, the Ovenbird hides in thicke"st
bushes from the West Indian hurricanes, which lash
the tall palms on the shore.

But your geography teacher tells you about lands
further away, — about the white snow fields of Green-
land, about the great Pacific Ocean, and the wonder-
ful jungles of India, where the tigers steal through
the long grass ; or the forests of the Amazon on our
own side of the world, where the monkeys make rope-
laJders of themselves over the streams.

I do not think there is any bird that has seen all
these places; the great white Owl has traveled much
in the north, and could tell many an interesting story
of the hare and the grouse, which try to escape his
keen eyes by turning white themselves in winter.

But he never ventures into the Amazon forests or

■vWlrrMi mtk r,'

148

B/J?D IVOJiLD.

the Indian jungle; he is dressed too warmly to enjoy
the climate, for one thing, nor does he understand the
kind of hunting he would have to do then . He
needs wide plains where he can fly silently for miles
and miles until he finds a hare crouching behind a
hummock. And the Toucan of Brazil and the Horn-
bill of India would find no fruit in the barren north
country.

Perhaps the greatest traveler, after all, is the bird
mentioned in the verses at the head of this story.

Fig. 26. - Showing Great Length of Albatross' Wings.

This traveler's name shows his manner of life, — the
Wandering Albatross. He travels all over the south-
ern seas from the Cape of Good Hope to Cape Horn
and around again; people have watched him from
their ships, and every one who has seen him has
wondered at his huge wings and the skill with which
he uses them.

He never seems to hurry or to work hard, even
against a fierce wind ; now on one side of the ship,
now on the otlicr, now low over tlie water, now high
in the air. often without a stroke of his wings.

A GREAT TRAVELER.

149

Perhaps the best testimonial he could bring, when
he applied for his position as Bird School-teacher,
would be the following record taken from the wing
of an Albatross which the captain of a sailing vessel
had caught :

"'December 8th, 1847. Ship Euphrates, Edwards, New Bed-
ford. 16 months out. . . . Lat. 43° 00' South. Long. 148° 40'
West. Thick, foggy, with rain.'

" On the opposite side it reads : ' This was taken from the neck
of a Goney [Albatross], on the coast of Chili, by Hiram Luther,
Dec. 20th, 1847. In Lat. 45° 50' South. Long. 78° 27' West.
Taken out of a small bottle tied round the bird's neck.'

"The shortest distance between Capt. Edwards's position,
.;bout 800 miles east of New Zealand, and Capt. Luther's position
off the coast of Chili in the vicinity of Juan Fernandez, is about
3400 miles. The bird, therefore, covered at least this distance in
the twelve days which intervened between its release and capture."

THE REDSTART.

IN the West Indies, although there are many bright-
colored birds which are natives of the islands, our
little Redstart is known as Candelita, the little torch.

Unlike several of the bright-colored birds, such as
the Tanager and the Indigo Bird, he does not lose his
brilliant colors in the autumn ; the orange patches on
his shoulders gleam against his black head all winter
in the tropical forests, where he flits about, spreading
his yellow tail and catching insects among the leaves.

By May he is back in New England helping his
mate select the best fork in a tree for their pretty
nest. If you see the female searching for building
material, put out wool or cotton batting, and for a
reward you may see where she flies with it and find
the nest.

The little Redstart is one of the unhappy birds on
whom the Cowbird forces her ugly young ones, but
he brings up the strangers faithfully.

Nothing but good can be said of either the male or
the female Redstart ; they catch countless insects,
cheer us by their beauty and pretty ways, and bring
lip their young to be hard-working and cheerful like
themselves.

^^'i<

THE HUMMING BIRD.

THERE is always great excitement when a Hum-
ming Bird's nest is found. It is so rarely seen,
so skilfullj' and beautifully made, that it seems more
like a bit of bird life from fairy land than a real bird's
nest. The nest is generally saddled on a dead twig
and covered with the gray lichen which clothes dead
twigs, so that unless you see the little mother sitting
in it, you pass it by for a gray, lichen-covered knob.
Look into ii and see the two tiny white eggs not
larger than pea beans.

If the nest looks like that of a fai) y bird, th'^ parents
look even more like strangers in ihe Bird World.
Among the great gaudy flowers of the tropics, Hum-
ming Birds probably seem more in place. Here,
however, their quick whirring flight, their silence,
their sudden coming and going, make the sight of
one something to remember and be glad for. People
who love flowers and live among them are oftenest
visited by these tiny birds. Often the bird seems to
have a regular route, and comes to the same garden
and the same flowers at nearly the same hour of the
day.

"*■

J V'iiri',rA»"r41Lif.

»52

HIKD HON 1.1).

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Oiice, uhile sitting oti a piazza in the country, al^mg
wlii h there grew many lluwcrs which ti '' Humming
liird loved, a lady saw two of them go tli igh a very
remarkabU' and beautifi ' movement. The two birds
hovered in the air about ten feet apart, their wings
beating so fast that it was impossible to see them.
Suddenly the birds shot down and passed each other,
then up, till each stopped in the position which the
other one had held. This movement they repeated
several times. It seemed as if the birds were execut-
ing some beautiful dance.

South and North America are the only countries
which possess Humming Birds. In the eastern part
of the United States we have only one , pecies, but
in California several are found, and as one goes
southward, they become more numerous; in South
America there are several hundred species. Among
these are some of the most gorgeous colors in nature.
The throat and neck feathers particularly shine with
changeable colors, like brilliant jewels. The bills of
the bitds, too, are extremely interesting. Some are
long and curved, sf) that the bird can feed from the
honey at the bottom of the long tube-like flowers. It
is a sad sight in South America to see the boxes of
Humming Birds' skins pulled from their poor, bleed-
ing; little bodies and sent to the milliner's to decorate

women s

hats.

TIJF 'fUMMING BJA'JJ,

»53

Our Humming Bird, the Ruby-throated, lives, as
you kn(.w, on the sweet nectar of flowers. Birds
often fly into the open windows in summer, and, if
caught, are easily tamed. They will live on sugar
and water, and many stories are told of their pretty
ways in captivity. The prettiest sight, however, must
have been to see them dart off happily again when
their captors released them.

We have been taught how many plants need insects
to bring their pollen for some other plant to fertilize
their blossoms. The Humming Bird renders this
service. We are not sure he would do so simply for
the sweets the deep chalices contain, but he knows
that where honey is insects are sure to be, and he
inserts his long curved bill.

I like sometimes, on a cool, clear night in Septem-
ber, to think of the little Humming Birds away up in
the darkness, their wings buzzing and their long bills
pointing straight for the West Indies. Twice a year
the little mites take a journey of thousands of miles in
the night times, coming back when our spring returns
and our flowers are again in bloom.

All of us know the habit of the Humming Bird of
poising himself in the air and keeping up a quick
vibration of his wings, so that they can hardly be seen
as wings at all.

Humming Birds are said to be little centers of pas-

MICROCOPY RESOLUTION TEST CHART

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^^ 1653 East Main Street

S^S Rochester. New York 14609 USA

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^S (716) 288 - 5989 - Fax

154

BIRD WORLD.

sion If they do not find in a flower the honey or
insects they expected, they will sometimes tear it to
pieces, as if in a great rage.

The Humming Bird nest is the most exquisite
little fabric you can imagine. It is like a fairy thing
Its tiny white eggs are not larger than the smallest
bean, and the naked little ones when they hatch have
been compared to bluebottle flies.

j,-,y 27. _ Kose-breasted Grosbeak.

sJ-.-vA^'stvi^v f3?^ii3 ,ini®3W!BP ■■».'afl?:>7f «*« faia#s?s;<^r

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AS FREE AS A BIRD.

EVERY good thing in the world must be earned.
A bird would have less care and fewer moments
of anxiety if it lived in a cage, if it were sheltered in
stormy times, protected from enemies, and provided
with food. But the bird prefers, as you would, I hope,
to run the dangers of a free life for the sake of its
pleasures.

In ordinary seasons, and for the greater part of the
year, these pleasures are many. Chief among them
in the case of many birds must be the joy of having
wings. When an Ovenbird mounts high in air, and
then, closing his wings, shoots down a hundred feet
or more. It seems as if he must enjoy the rush of the
air and the speed of his flight.

Hawks often soar in great curves, hardly moving
their wings, but rising on the up-current of air, till
they seem mere specks in the blue sky. They do this
with no apparent purpose, but as if it were a sport.
Some of the water birds — the Gannets, for instance
— have such powerful wings that the fiercest winds
cannot drive them out of their course; they circle
about in tremendous storms as if they enjoyed the
wild scene.

'56

B/A'D IV0RL7).

It is in nesting time, of course, that birds suffer the
most anxiety. When any strange creature approaches
the nest, the mother's restless eye watches anxiously.
The father is often near at hand, and if the nest or
young are threatened, an outcry is raised at once.

The day the young first fly and the succeeding ones,
till they are skilful and strong, are times of watchful-
ness. Belt there are many happy hours even in nest-
ing time. Bright, sunny days come, when the male
sings for hours from some tree near by, and the female
broods on the nest, happy to feel the warm eggs under

her.

When the young are old enough to care for them-
selves, then the birds' holiday begins, and it often
lasts till the following spring. Nothing to do now
but to get food from the thick patches of weeds or
the numerous insects. An eye must be kept out for
the shadow of a hawk's wing, and by the game birds
for the approach of a gunner; but many birds run
little risk even from these enemies. Many of the
birds flock together at this season; many sleep in
great companies, and at night, when they go to bed,
they make as much noise and have as jolly a time as
a band of children.

A bird's memory is too short to remember suffering
for long, and his little brain does not look forward, as
our-s do, to evil that may come. His nature teaches

•ma^rz. ..•a!aflraai^'."?^E&!i.*^.'«rir*-3?3«6

A PAIR OF ORIOLES

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AS FREE AS A BIRD.

157

him to be wide-awake, but he does not borrow trouble.
When it rains, he hides in some thick shelter ; when
it is cold, he fluffs out his feat^ ^rs ; when the sun
comes out, he sings again from joy. A poet once
envied the fishes their " sweet, silver life wrapped in
round waves," but a bird has all the pleasures that a
fish can enjoy, and the sun, the warmth, and song
besides.

Fig. 28. — Cedar Bird.

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5rn"-~ 7iic:-?;

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TO THE GREAT AND GENERAL COURT OF
MASSACHUSETTS.

lFi\ the Song birds of Massachusetts and their Play-
fellows, make this our humble pdition}

J/f/E know more about you than yon think we do. We
^ know how good yon are. We have hopped about the
roofs an ' looked in at the ivindows of the houses you luzve
built for poor and sick and hungry people and little lame and
deaf and blind children. We have built our nests in the
trees and sung many a song as we flew about the gardens and
parks you have made so beautiful for your own children,
especially your poor children, to play tn.

Every year we fly a great way over the country, keeping alt
the time where t''e sun is bright and zvarm ; and rve know
that whenever you do anything, other people all over the great
land betiveen n,, . ' and the great lakes find it out, and
pretty soon -l " ^ do the same thing. We know; we

know. We a>e . .m ncans fjist as you are. Some of tis, like
some of you, came from across the great sea, but most of the
birds like us have lived here a long while ; and birds like us
welcomed your fathers zvhen they came here many years ago.
Our fathers and mothers have always done their best lo please
your fathers and mothers.

1 This petition, reduced in size from the original manuscript now
lying in the Massachusetts State House, was written by Hon. George F.
Hoar and illuminated by Miss Ellen Hale.

ja.'ur-'mTJinBr , u mn- »i-

SONG BIRDS OF MASSACHi'SETTS.

»59

i,i;2

Fig. 29. — Song Birds of Massachusetts.

Now we / ave a sad story to tell you. Thought-
less or bad people are trying to destroy us. They
kill us because our feathers are beautiful. Even
pretty and sweet girls, who we should think wou: I
be our best friends, kill our brothers and children

' - - -St,.*

i6o

fUKD MORLr.

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ill

so thai tluy may wear thiir plnuiagc on tlnir hats. Sonw-
tiiuis people kill us from mere %>.>antonttess. Cruel boys
destroy our uests ami steal our eggs and our young ones.
People with guns and snares lie in wai; to kill us, as if the
place for a bird zvere not in the sky, alive, but in a shop
windo'tv, or under a glass case. If this goes on much longer,
all your song birds will be gone. Already, tve are told, in
some other countries that used to be full of birds, they are
almost gone. Even the nightingales are being all killed in
Italy.

Now we humbly pray that you will stop all this, and will
save us from this sad fate. Yon have already made a law
that no one shall kill a harmless song bird or destroy our nests
or our eggs. Will yon please to make another that no one
shall wenr our feathers, so that no one will kill us to gii
them f We ivant them all ourselves. Your pretty girls are
pretty enough without them. We are told that it is as easy
for you to do it as for Blackbird to whistle.

If you xvill, we kno7v how to pay you a hundred times over.

We will teach your children to keep themselves clean and neat.

We zvill shoiv them how to live together in peace and love and
to agree as 7ve do in our nests. We zvill build f>retty houses
which you ivill like to see. We will play about your gardens
and flower beds, — ourselves like fioivers on ivings, — zvithout
any cost to you. We xvill destroy the ivicked insects and
worms that spoil your cherries and currants and plums and
apples an-i roses. We will give you our best songs and make
tre spring more beautiful and :hc summer sweeter to you.

Every June morning whin yon go out into the field. Oriole

SONG lilKDS OI' MASSACJU SKITS, l6l

and Hlackbird and Bobolink ivill Jty after yon and make the
day more delightfnl to yon ; and ivhen yon go home tired at

^andown. Vesper Sparrozv xvill tell yon hozv grateful we are.
When we sit on yon r porch afte>- dark, Fife Bird and Hennit
Thrnsh and IVjnd Thmsk will sing to yon ; and even Whip-

poor- 7vill will cheer np a little. We know where we are safe.

In a little while all the birds will come to -v in Massachn-

setts again, and everybody who loves mnsic -will like to make

a summer home with you.

I i

BIRDS' ENEMIES.

NONE of us know what it is to live in the - idst
of enemies; to go to bed at night worn ring
whether Indians are not hiding in the darkness wait-
ing to burn our house and carry us off prisoners.

Many children, two hundred years ago, when the
French and Indians were at va^ with the settlers, saw
their fathers load their guns at night and go to sleep,
ready to run with them to the blockhouse if th(
alarm were sounded.

The birds, like the early settlers, are never free
from fear. Their enemies are so nui^perous, so fierce,
so quick, that they must be constantly on the wptch,
and, like the early settlers, have to guard, not them-
selves only, but their young ones and their eggs.

Most of the birds' enemies are looking for a meal,
and hope to pick the flesh off the bones oi some
plump Robin or Quail. A few are af ra ' of the .-.'larp
bills of the old birds, and so prowl about, hoping to
seize the helpless young when their parents are away
for a moment, or to break and open the eggs and eat
the uncooked omelet which they find in them.

Some go about boldly by day, either soaring high
overhead or sitting motionless on some lookout post,

mm.

HJJiJJS' EiWiiMJFS.

'^3

and the eyes of such enemies are so sharp that most
birds prefer to keep near bushes or trees so that
they may dive into them at the first sight of their foe.
Chickadees fly from tree to tac, and if they come to
an open space they slip over, one by one, as hurriedly
as nossible. A hat thrown up when they are starting
f as them so that they hurry back to shelter.

' V e midday enemies are mostly hawks, swilc, stroncr
robbers, with crooked claws and powerful bills. So!-e
of them have very long wings, sc that they can go
like an arrow at their victim, and when ihey reach
him and strike their talons into his breast, the force
of their flight often strikes him to the ground, where
the hawk's hooked oill soon makes an end of the
unfortunate bird.

Other enemies fly softly about at dusk. You have
already read about the owls and know how the birds
hate the sight of them. There is another night wan-
derer whom many of the birds fear and despise as
much as they do an owl. It is an animal of which
you are probably very fond, your own gentle Pussy
But if Pussy were four or perhaps ten times as big as
you are, and you saw her big yd!, ^a eyes glarin<r ..t
your little brothers and sisters ox frien-s, reac to
spring at them and eat them, you would set up a' cry
of warning, too, just as the wrens do when they see
her. Many a poor mother-Robin has seen her young

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164

B/HD WOULD.

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ones carried off by cats when they were too young to
fly far, but too eager to see the world to stay any
longer in the nest.

Another little animal whom you like very much is
no friend of the birds. The little Red Squirrel, who
runs up the tree so nimbly, scolding and shaking his
tail, and stopping to nibble a nut, eats something
besides nuts if he gets a chance. I once saw two
Robins who were very much excited. They scolded
and flew wildly about, dashing now and then to their
nest, which I could s* ^ on the limb of a tree. Pres-
ently, as I watched the nest, I saw a squirrel lift his
head up only to duck it again, as the angry birds
made a dash at him. The rascal was evidently
squatting in the midst of the eggs, breaking them
open and feasting upon the contents. It must have
been a sad sight for the mother when he left the nest,
those eggshells, stained and broken, which she had
left so glossy and blue a few minutes before.

Another egg thief is a bird whose love for his own
eggs ought to t( vich him better, if they get as far as
love for one another in Bird World. In one of Mr.
Audubon's famous pictures he has drawn a saucy Blue
Jay, who has stuck his bill into an egg and holds it
up ready to fly off with it. This trick he has learned
with acorns and chestnuts.

The enemy that the birds would fear most would

■ kii

BIRDS' ENEMIES.

165

be the snake. If you have been well brought up and
know your Alice in Wonderland, you remember how
frightened the pigeon was when Alice grew so tall
that her long neck reached up through the trees.
" You 're a snake," said the pigeon, and would have
nothing to do with her.

Many a poor bird, sitting in her nest, concealed
from all enemies, has heard a rustling in the leaves
and seen the flat head of the snake, the cold, shiny
eyes, and the forked tongue. If she has young in the
nest she tries to drive the snake off, and her cries
bring other birds; but sometimes the snake is too
strong for them and the young are swallowed before
the mother's eyes. Not even birds that build in ponds
are safe, for snakes can swim as well as climb. How
is it, then, that birds manage to protect themselves
from so many enemies .? The list is long already, and
yet we have not mentioned the foxes, the crows, the
Butcher Bird, and other marauders and thieves.

To begin with, if the bird's enemies are sly, the
bird itself is wide-awake. Watch a wren in a stone
wall, or a Song Sparrow in a brush heap, and see how
he slips in and out like a mouse. No matter how
busily the bird is feeding or frolicking, he never for-
gets that danger may be near, and on the first sign of
an enemy all is silence and the place is apparently
deserted.

1 66

BIRD WORLD.

Illhf

It is very strange to walk where birds are singing
all about, and to notice that they have suddenly
become silent and motionless. If you look up, there
is probably a hawk flying overhead. The birds have
seen him before you have, and dare not move a
feather that will attract attention. Most of their long
journeys are performed at night. Many of them
make even their shorter journeys from place to place
about their homes by slipping from bush to bush or
along stone walls and thickets.

Only birds that are strong and swift of wing feel
free to fly straight through the air. Some birds are
so skilful in the air that they take no pains to conceal
themselves ; if the hawk is swift, they are swifter. It
would be waste of time for most hawks to chase a
swallow; the swallows know it and fly boldly about
in the open sky.

To protect the young and the eggs is a harder
matter. If an enemy finds these, there is no escape.
The bird, therefore, tries to hide the nest or to place
it out of reach. It is only when winter comes and
the trees and branches are bare that we see all about
us th<. lests which, though full last spring of eggs and
young, were never noticed.

By putting the nest behind protecting leaves,
under a tuft of grass or a loose piece of bark, by build-
ing it of material colored like the ground or twigs on

?i'..-Wi^'':^n.--fcttr--»->«.'-rSB!'»S!"^-JS,

BIRDS' en£;mies.

167

which it rests, the bird hopes to conceal it from all
strange eyes. When she sits, her own sober colors
and quiet position prevent her from being noticed.

The Oriole hangs her pendent nest at the ends of
long twigs, for the squirrels do not care to trust their
weight at the tips of long branches, and the nest is
too deep for other creatures to get into. The wood-
pecker's holes are too narrow to admit any enemies
besides snakes, so that neither woodpeckers nor Orioles
take great pains to conceal their nests.

Many birds that live on the ground have still
another way of keeping enemies from discovering
their nests, — a way which it takes courage to carry
out, and which wins our respect. The mother bird
often attracts attention to herself, and so leads us away
from the nest, by pretending lamenvs; and fluttering
slowly off in the opposite direction.

Many birds, too, though very cowardly when they
themselves are attacked, show surprising courage in
defending their nests and young. The hen, for
example, is by no means brave, but she covers her
chickens with her wings at sight of a hawk and looks
him boldly in the face.

When we see the birds thus kept in constant fear
by such a variety of enemies, liable to attack in any
place, by day or night, does it not seem hard that
those to whom they can give the greatest pleasure,

iir II III III 'iiiii rvKi^ar*

riaiK»'wi-,ac7-3''Sf^'3:

1 i . '

•'1 1 '-

' ii

t J:

1 68

B/Ji£>- WORLD.

who ought to be their chief protectors and friends,
are often their worst enemies ?

Men can do them more harm than all their other
enemies combined. They hunt the old birds for food,
and sometimes for mere amusement; and thought-
less boys take their eggs to gratify a passing whim.
Women wear the feathers and even the bodies of birds
on their hats. If every one could come into Bird
World as we have done, and could learn to know and
love the birds, I think the Feathered Folk would have
one less enemy, and by and by be much more happy
and confiding:.

Fig. 30.— The Bluebird.

FAMILIES IN BIRD WORLD.

yHERE are often families of people, the children
of which resemble one or both parents so closely
!l u^."""^ knowing the parents is able to recognize
the chi dren. This resemblance of parent and child
IS due to the law of inheritance. Children will be like
their parents all through nature.

There is, however, another law not so easy to under-
stand as the law of inheritance, according to which
-wo children of the same parents will differ from each
other in a thousand little ways. We can see this very
easily among our friends; brothers and sisters are
alike and yet different. Only in very rare cases is it
hard to tell them apart. This law also holds true
throughout nature, and though it is often hard for
our eyes to see differences among animals, it i. easy
to see ma litter of pups or a family of kittens how
different m size, marking, and disposition the differ-
ent individuals are.

Ther two laws have been at work in the world for
ages, a^ between them, and with the help of one or
two other laws, the earth has been peopled with a
wonderful multitude of plants and animals of all kinds.

Students of iiatural history, by looking for resem-

170

BIRD WORLD.

blances and differences, try to trace back the descent
o*^ all these creatures and plants, and to discover how
many are descended from the sa le ancestor.

When books on natural history speak of this or
that family of birds, the words do not mean parents
and thcr four or five children ; they mean all the
birds which resemble each other so closely that they
probably have descended from the same bird. It is
like a clan in Scotland, where in thousands of houses
you find people who belong to one great family ; they
are all related, and many can trace their relationship
to the head or chief of their clan.

In some cases it is easy in Bird World to see the
relationship in a great family ; in others it is not evi-
dent at the first glance. The Ducks, for instance,
form a great family which any one could separate ;
their webbed feet, their bills, their peculiar shape, all
serve to mark them as distinct from other families
and related to each other.

Parrots form another large and easily defined family.
Owls resemble each other all over the world. In the
F'lycatcher family and the Sparrow family the resem-
blance is not so easily seen, but close examination
shows that the birds have the same style of wing,
that the wings and tail have the same relative length
or the same general shape. Colors vary more than
the shape of the bills, wings, and feet, so that in the

FAMILIES IN BIRD WORLD. 171

same family there may be very plain or very bright
birds. It is only by examining the bill that we dis-
cover that the bright-colored Rose-breasted Grosbeak,
for instance, is really a sparrow.

Families are often related to other families; the
Ducks are related to the Swans and to the Geese
Herons and Storks are related. One of the strangest
relationships is that between the Chimney Swift and
the Humming Bird, birds so different in appearance
and in habits. For a long time the Swift was thought
to be a member of the Swallow Umily, but though
his habits are similar, he is not at all a near relation.

Birds seem to know* very little of their family rela-
tionships. If different species have the same habits
they flock together. It is true the different species
of the swallow family often gather in great flocks, but
other flocks are often seen, made up of warblers
vireos. Kinglets, and Chickadees, birds belonging to
four different fa.nilies.

The Duck family and the Hen family (to which the
Grouse, Turkey, and Guinea Fowl belong) have, in one
way, been the most useful family to man, for they
have supplied so many domestic birds. The hawks
and owls have probably been the most fiercely attacked
by man. The family of perching birds, which include
nearly all our singing birds, — sparrows, thrushes
warbl-s, swallows, etc., -are best beloved by man'

\ i>

ffi

FEATHERS AND FLIGHT.

IF you were swimming, would you spread your fingers
apart or close them ? When you have answered
this question and thought a little about your reasons,
you will understand more easily what I am going to
tell vou about a bird's feather. The air through which
the bird makes its way must
be swept aside, just as the
water is swept by your closed
fingers or by the blade of an ^.
oar. If the air could blow
through between the wing
feathers, the bird could not
get ahead.

Look now at the strong feather in Fig. 32, or,
better still, examine a feather itself. You see a shaft
running the length of the feather, and from it runs a
long row of barbs, as they are called — short, stout
ones from the outer side of the shaft, longer, more
slender ones from the inner side. Try to separate
two of these barbs by stretching out the whole row.
Do you see how they hold together .'' When you have
finally pulled two of them apart, pass the forward one
— the one nearer the tip of the feather — under the

Fk;. 31. — Contour Feather.

sfjCsit-i&'«^:*s*'i ^H!!*i^HKs;g§e^!»3a5^»iEj;. »^@nsBiffi""v'i4KPiM:5a:siiii«ii^--'5

FEATHERS AND FLIGHT. ly^

rear one, and you will see that they unite again. With
a n^icroscope you can find the hooks by which one
barb holds fast to the one in fro. i of it. Now we

Fio. 32. _ Wing Feather

The strong feathers, which the bird uses like oars
a,e -the wings and tail. The shorter feathers wWh

wav butt'tt' '""'• '"' ''^^* '°™ -^''^ ■■" "'•^ ^-e
dry. When a bird has had his feathers ruffled or wet

b, it thatT' r"' '"1 ""^='"S«^ "^^^ *'«h his'
b.I^ so that they he smoothly in their proper places

Some birds have feathers which have grown in such
peculiar forms that they are used in special w^yt

Fig. 33.- Strong Feather of Chimney Swift, ^^^^n CreCpCr haVC Stiff

„,.,,,. , or spiny tail feathers

which half support the bird in climbing. Many sepa
rate feathers of tropical birds grow into beautiful or
wonderful forms. The Birds of Paradise have many
such ornamental feathers.

'•'I

174

BIRD WORLD.

S ;

iiS

Did you know that hair and nails were really pieces
of a very peculiar skin, nothing more ? They grow
from the skin, and though they seem so different, they

Fig. 34. — Wing of Bam Swallow.

are really made of the same material. So with birds'
feathers. They look first like little pimples in the
bird's skin ; out of this the feather pushes and grows
till it reaches its proper size. When the feathers are
worn by winds and by the twigs of trees, the new

Fl(i. 35. — Wing of (.iiouse.

feather pushes up through the skin, and the old
feather falls out.

The little barbs at the tips of the smaller feathers
give the color to the bird, the lower parts of the

FRATHERS AND FIJGllT.

Fig. 36. — Sparrow's Wing.

feather being overlaid and concealed by the ot ler
feathers. The breast feathers of a Robin, for instance,
are dull gray ex( ept at the tips, which are bright bay.'

Some birds wear orf
the tips of these
feathers by l)riishing
them so -tantly,

just as a n p^ets

worn dow 1 if he

rest of H thf is

of a dift color,

the bird may change his appearance gn wi^hcu:

changing a feather.

You have read, or will read,
about several birds that cannot
fly. The Dodo could not, and
the Apteryx cannot to-day.
But you will never hear of a
bird without feathers. Nor
will you hear of feathered
creatures that are not birds.
Fur and scales and hair clothe
the other creatures of the
world. The mark of the bird
is to be clothed in feathers.

To fly — to go from one place in the air to
another further on — a bird must take strokes with

Fig. yi. — Tail of Flicker.

■F

■■■•^■^

i 1

if ;

176

H/AD WORLD.

his wings. On the end of the wing are the long
primary feathers, like the fingers of our hand. These
and the secondaries close to them form a strong web
which the L rd can hold out at full length or bend
at the elbow. The whole wing is joined to the body
at the shoulder in such a way that the wing moves
forward and down, not straight up and down. It is

Fig. 38. — Tail of Snowbird.

Fig. 39. — Tail of Snowbird.

this forward motion which pushes the bird along, and
the downward stroke which keeps him from falling.
Some birds — Kingbirds, for example — take rapid
strokes, so that they fly in a straight line without
falling between the strokes. Woodpeckers, on the
other hand, fall some distance between each stroke,
so that their flight is a succession of curves.

The length of a bird's wing is important to notice.
A long, narrow wing gives a more power' \ sweep

'Si, t i -I •

FKATHKKS AND FI.IGHT.

and makes a swift flyer. Notice the ease with which
a swallow cuts through the air, and then compare
the sb .^e of his wing with that of the sparrow's. A
long, broad wing is very useful for birds like the eagles
and vultures, who spend much time soaring at great

Fig. 4r._ Tail of Barn Swallow.

Fig. 41.— Tail of Dove.

heights. The outspread wings and tail keep them up
for hours with little effort on their part.

rt is much harder for a bird to start to fly than to
.go on, unless in a strong wind. Why this is so, it
would be hard for you to understand. Some birds,
like the Albatross, can remain on the wing for days,
but if caught and placed on the deck of a steamer'
they cannot rise and fly off. On the ocean they run
a long distance :. .pping the water and getting under
way, as it is Ccuetl br, ..■ ^hey can rise into the air.

.15''% r. ' ';%:»s^ t v^pesar

Ejri^ia-»;>"-V''a--iM.''-*lii5.i4 r^,'-:-~ii&.iV~-*:

;; !

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t i ■

178

BIRD WORLD.

When you read about feathers, you learned that all
birds had feathers, but that there were some who could
not fly, I think you have now learned enough about
flight to see why this is so. The heavy birds with
short wings — the Auk and the Ostrich — cannot
support such weight in the air, so must get along
with swimming and running and diving. The long-
winged swallow and the broad-winged hawk are as
much at home in the air as the fish is in the water.

FLIGHT.

Have you ever wondered why it is that a bird
flies so surely and straight where he wants to go,
while a butterfly flits about in such a haphazard way }

Those of you who have had to do with boats will
know what ballast is, and how necessary it is to a
boats even, steady progress. The weight of the boat
should be well down in the water. The bird is like
a well-ballasted boat. The heavy muscles and the
stomach, with its weight of food, are all in the "hold,"
so to speak, — all down as low as possible, — and the
expanse ot the wing is not great enough to out-
balance this. In the case of the butterfly the wing
expanse is so great and the weight of the body so little
that the insect flutters about, driven out of its course
by every breath of air.

FEATHERS AND FLIGHT.

A boat is so built that it floats even when no work
IS done with the oars, but if a bird stops flying, it will
fall to the ground. The bird's flight is, therefore,
more like swimming, in which a person tries not only
to keep up, but to get ahead as well.

Often, however, a bird ceases to take wing strokes

but instead of falling to the earth, he glides on through

the air. This is because he keeps both wings and tail

spread, and the air, as you well know, will not let a

broad surface fall as quickly as a narrow one. If a

bird wants to fall quickly, -if a hawk, for instance

sees a mouse below him, or a lark wants to shoot

down to his mate, — he shuts his tail and brings his

vvings close to his body. Suppose the mouse had

vanished before the hawk reached the ground, the

hawk, by opening tail and wings again, will stop his

downward falling and turn it into an upward and

onward course. The broad wings and tail help, then

to support the bird in the air, and the tail acts as a

brake to cheek his motion.

THE SNOWY EGRET.

H H

THIS beautiful bird takes advantage of our being
in .Bird World to interest us in the saving of his
family from utter destruction.

The food of the Heron family is in watery places,
and they get it for the most part by wading. The
long legs and neck show how nature has provided
the birds for their place. For their beauty she gave
them an almost fatal gift. If you were to count in an
audience of ladies the soft, light, graceful feathers,
called aigrettes, worn in black, white, yellow, blue, —
all colors, — you can guess in advance the pitiful story
the bird of our lesson has to tell, for he is the Snowy
Egret.

The case is one of the most pitiful in Bird
World. To meet the demand of fashion, the plume-
lets have to be cut from the bird when they first
come to perfection. All that has been said of birds'
weddinfj suits shows that this is the time when the
wearer of the plumes is most necessary to his family.
So absorbed is he in what goes to make up family
life that he forgets to exercise the wary habits which
the Nature-fairy sets over against her dangerous gift
of beautiful adornment.

THE SNOWY EGRET.

i8i

At nesting time these birds are so in love with
each other and with their babies that they are stupid
in watching against danger ; and this is a time when
some man, who has become an expert gunner, takes

Fig. 42. — Snowy Egret.

an order for supplying a hundred or a thousand
aigrettes to a millinery rouse. He knows where in
Florida, Mississippi, or Texas marshes he may expect
to find a great colony of the birds he wants. So
noisy are they he has no difficulty in locating them.
You can imagine the rest of the story. It is as if

ifi

l82

BIRD WORLD.

the mothers and fathers of a village were to be taken
away and no provision made for four or five little
children in every home.

The parents have a quick death, falling under the
marksman's shot, but it takes some time for the brave
little ones waiting for food to cease crying and pain-
fully wait their release.

Remember, this had to happen that the graceful
aigrettes might make a pretty hat a little prettier than
something else might have made it, and you will wish
to bt: ome the bird's champion to save its race from
so needless a destruction.

He prayeth well, who loveth well
Both man and bird and beast.

He prayeth best, who loveth best
All things both great and small ;

For the dear God who loveth us,
He made and loveth all.

COLERIIMiE.

THE WOOD THRUSH.

P ARLY in this book you saw what would probably
^ be called the handsomest song bird in Bird
World, the Scarlet Tanager ; but most people would
rather live near a Wood Thrush than a Tanager, in
spite of his plain brown and white suit. For this
Thrush is the finest of all our many songsters; his
notes are as rich and sweet as an organ's or those of
a stringed instrument. Early in May he reaches
New England, but when the hot days of August
come, he stops singing, and before October he leaves
for the south, where, silent and shy, he hides in the
woods till April comes again.

Mr. Samuels says: " The thrushes are the birds that
rid the soil of noxious insects that are not preyed
upon by other birds."

Warblers capture insects in the foliage of trees;
flycatchers, those that are flying about; swallows,'
those which have escaped all these; woodpeckers,
those in the larval state in the wood; wrens, nut-
hatches, titmice, and creepers eat the eggs on anu
under the bark, but the thrushes subsist on those
which destroy the vegetation on the surface of the
earth.

■w-

THE BROWN THRUSH.

HIS is the "merry brown thrush" of the poem,
whose message to children was that the world

Bxa. 43. — Brown Thrasher.

would n't continue to "run over with joy" unless they
were as good as could be.

Its more common name, Brown Thrasher, comes
from its wren-like habit of thrashing its tail.

While it looks like the Thrushes, it acts like the
wrens, and it is contended that it is not really a Thrush
at all.

Very good and pleasant things are said of its
dashing, exultant song. It is more distinct than
most bird songs, and there are many different ways

THE BROWN THRUSH.

185

of rendering it into our kind of language. Thoreau
tells us that the farmers who hear it first in planting
time agree in making it say, " Drop it, drop it, cover
it up, cover it up, pull it up, pull it up." The ringing
notes can be heard quite a third of a mile away.

This picture only shows its general appearance. If
you compare it with the Robin, you will see that the
wings are shorter, and the tail longer in proportion.

In color it has rust red,, but it is on the back,
rather than the breast, which latter is white, with
black spots shaped like arrowheads, all pointed for-
ward. The two white oands across the wings also
help to distinguish .t.

It builds its nest either on the ground or in some
high bush, and its eggs are speckled with reddish
brown ; but when it intends to sing, it is apt to fly to
the topmost twig of a high tree, like another bird we
have met in our Bird- World journey.

HAWKS.

I WAS once watching a flock of sparrows feeding
and singing, flying after each other or up to the
fence posts, when suddenly the singing stopped, and

not a bird stirred a
feather. I 1 oked up,
and in the ^<y I saw
a small hawk soaring
and flapping; till he
was out of sight, you
would have believed
the field was empty;
then the singing and
fluttering began again.
Often the little hawk
comes up so silently
that he sees the birds
before they have a
chance to " play 'pos-
sum." Then a chase
begins, the little birds trying to reach bushes where
they can slip into a tangle, the hawk trying to strike
or seize them with his curved toes, — talons they are
called.

Pu;. 44. — Cooper's Hawk.

HAWKS. 187

Stories are told of small birds taking refuge with
men, and of hawks so bold that they have pursued
their prey into a barn or even an open window.

^^W^?^^'^

\|^>^-^

Fig. 45. — Head of Hawk.

The fate which awaits a bird whom the hawk
overtakes is terrible enough to explain the silent
fright which a hawk's appearance produces. In a

Fig. 46. — Foot of Hawk.

crowded city street I saw a hawk catch a sparrow
and carry him screaming with pain and terror to the
limb of an elm. The poor little fe^'ow was dead, the
sharp claws having pierced his breast. The hawk

I.S8

'iJA'/) WORLD.

now bent over, holding ..ic sparrow to the limb, and
tore the feathers out, plucking them as we pluck a
chicken. Then he took mouthfuls of the flesh with
his sharp, curved bill.

An o\Vl would have swallowed the sparrow, feath-
ers, bones, and all, and afterwards thrown out a ball
of feathers and bones. So that when you find the
feathers of a bird in the woods, you can lay the blame
on the Hawk, Cat, or Fox, but not on the Owl.

To seize a bird which can also fly needs swiftness
and boldness ; so that the hawks which live on other
birds have long wings and a daring spirit. Some of
the fiercest are very small, while some of the large
hawks rarely catch birds, but live on caterpillars,
moths, frogs, and mice.

When a farmer misses his chickens one after
another and, getting angry, finally takes down his
gun, he may shoot a friend instead of an enemy.
The bird shown in l^g. 44 and a cousin of his, called
the Sharp-shinned Hawk, are the real offenders ; anc'
the large hawk, called the Hen Hawk, is innocent.

You know that when a man is tried in court for
some wrongdoing, we are careful to give him a
chance to defend himself, and we never call him
guilty till we have proof. The hawks cannot come
to us to defend themselves, so that we ought to be
very careful to get proof before we condemn them to

Itii

i «

life

HA IV AS.

189

death. We ought to be especially careful if, by kill-
ing the wrong hawk, we should destroy a friend who
protects our crops from mice and hurtful insects.

Hawks were much used in former times to hunt
with. They were carefully trained, as dogs are now,
and taught to fly after any large birds whom the
hunters wanted to kill, and to come back at the sound
of a whistle. " To hunt with hawk and hound " is a
phrase often found in old writers. Ladies often had
their favorite hawks, and carried them on their wrists.
That such a savage bird could be tamed is surprising,
but falconry seems a cruel sport which I am glad
is no longer fashionable.

lil

u i-

BIRD LANGUAGE.

BIRDS have not as much to say Uj '. ich other as
men have. A bird's voice is used rather more
as we use a bell, to give important warnings and
announcements. The fire bell warns people of dan-
ger to property. The doorbell rings when some one
wishes to see a friend. The dinner-bell calls us to
our food.

The parts of our speech that are most like the
birds' ordinary language are what we call exclama-
tions, — Look out! Hallo! Stop! Ho! As soon as
you begin to make sentences, you are telling each
other thoughts which are too difficult for birds to
understand.

The common sounds which birds make can there-
fore be divided into two or three classes. They are
generally called call notes, alarm notes, and recog-
nition notes. The cock gives a call note when he
has found something to eat ; when the hens hear it,
they run to the spot. Alarm notes are given by the
hen when she wishes her chickens to hide under her
wing, or by any bird when he is suddenly startled.

Recognition notes are used very largely by birds
who travel in companies, and are given and answered

BIRD J. A NG CAGE.

191

constantly, so that the different members of the
band may keep together. The Bobolink has a call
note unlike that of any other American bird, a rich
chink, which is often heard from the sky in the clear
autumn nights. Who knows what the Bobolink is
doing up there in the darkness instead of sleeping in
the long grass ?

The call notes are often used by the birds on vari-
ous other occasions ; the bird has so few words that
he must make them do for several purposes. If a
bird \^ excited, even if he is not actually afraid, he
often gives his alarm note, and if he is pleased he
gives his call note, without meaning to call his friends.
A hen has a peculiar drawling note which she uses
when she feels hapoy, and, by changing it a little, she
expresses the unhappiness she feels in wet or unpleas-
ant weather. A mother bird has often many little
low and gentle notes which she uses to her young in
the nest, and often this same baby talk is used by the
parents to each other. Lastly, the young have notes
of their own which generally mean, "Come! come!
I am so hungry."

If birds had no other notes than these which I have
mentioned, many which are now famous the world
over, and beloved by nearly all people, would be
almost unknown.

There is a bird in Europe whose call note is very

I-

•4-^-

..^^

192

BIRD V ORLD.

unpleasant and his plumage very plain ; he is shy and
has no amusing or pleasing ways, and yet poets in all
countries have sung about hi- and people have
traveled long distances to hear him sing.

The song of the Nightingale or of any of the great
song birds is the greatest blessing which birds have
for men. If there were no singing birds, the woods
and fields in spring would seem silent and dreary.
The song delights men, not only because it is a cheer-
ful or beautiful sound, but because the bird is saying
something when he sings which men say too, — the
best thing that they ever say.

The Nightingale, when singing, is trying to express
the great love he feels for his mate, and for the little
children which he has or hopes to have. First he
calls her to him with a song. He sings loudly so that
she can hear him wherever she is, and can come to
him. Then, when they have chosen the place for
their nest, and she is sitting patiently, day after day,
on the eggs she has laid, he sings to her to encourage
her to sit still, so that the eggs which are so precious
to both of them may hatch, and the little birds, more
precious even than the eggs, may be born.

If the nest is destroyed, there is nothing left to sing
for, unless the birds should have courage enough to
build another nest, and then the song begins again.

\.,Ma

! i

THE WOOD THRUSH.

WmiA

•jiSEm

-*■:>■■ -i

Sm^M^.

SOME STRANGE BIRD MUSIC.

"THE music which the Chinese make, or the noise
which they call music, is not very pleasant to
our ears, and the savage races make still more hideous
sounds to express their joy. Birds, too, differ very
much m the character of the sounds by which thev
^ express their feelings. When the Skylark knovvs that
his mate is sitting in her nest in the wheat, and brood-
ing the eggs from which his dear young are to hatch
he cannot keep on the ground, but r .junts far into the
sky, singing and singing, sometimes for ten minutes
at a time. People listen and wonder at the beauty of
his song. -^

There is a large bird, long-legged and an awkward
flyer, with a long, sharp bill with which he spears
unfortunate frogs. He lives in the marshes, and his
brown dress is striped so that when he stands motion-
less among the tall grass or cat-tails, you would take
him for a stake, or a bunch of the reeds themselves.
He IS called the Bittern, or, by the country people,
btake-Dnver or Thunder- Pumper.

The last name describes very well the sound which
he makes when his mate is sitting on her damp nest
'n the cat-tails. To cheer her and remind her that he

194

BIRD WORLD.

ndertaking for the

is near and will protect her, he makes sounds which
resemble the syllables unk-a-clmnk, made way down in
one's throat, and these sounds he urters so loud that
they can be easily heard half a mile away.

It seems to be a considerable
Bittern to say all this. He first seems to fill his
breast with air, and then to force it out with violent
convulsions.

The notes sound as if they came through water,
and in the old days, before people learned to watch
closely, it was commonly believed that the Bittern
put his bill into a hollow reed, or that he stuck his
bill into the mud and water.

The woodpeckers express their feelings in a very
characteristic way. The bill which w^e have seen
them use for a chisel now becomes a drumstick, and
beats on some dry limb a tattoo which can be heard
far through the forest. The Flicker, who, you remem-
ber, has become more civilized than many of his
family, has a fancy for a finer kind of a drum ; he
sometimes beats a tin roof or tin pan, often returning
to the same spot day after day.

All these strange sounds made by the woodpeckers
and the Bittern express to their mates the same feel-
ings which the Skylark puts into beautiful song.

BIRD BILLS.

r\N the two following pages are the heads of several
^^ different birds. — birds not only of different
kinds, but of different families and of very different
ways of life. Some of them belong to families about
which you have already read. You can find a back-
woodsman among them with his chisel, and a Grouse
with his all-round bill, useful for crushing grain, gather-
ing fruit, or seizing insects. The Flamingo and Duck
both strain water through their bills, but the Flamingo
turns his upside down so that you could almost say
that he stood on his head to eat. Some of the other
birds have bills of very strange shape. The gypsy
Crossbill has a pair of scissors with which he cuts
pine seeds, and the Humming Bird has a tube that
enters the deepest floweis. Look through your book
for birds of other families. Herons, Owls, Hawks, and
Gulls; compare their bills with these, and with each
other, and try to find out how each bird is helped by
the particular shape of his bill.

lip
•i 11

Kider Duck.

Grnuse.

I' lainingo.

fUi. 47. --Bird Uill>
ii/)

Nuthatch.

Hairy Woodpecker.

Humming Bird.

Cliiinni'v ."^wift.

Red-winged blackbird.

Crossbill.

Cardinal.

Fra. 48. — Bird Bills.

IHi

"97

11)11

S'' ''

1 *

x^'UitL -»■ i

APPENDIX.

-- ,1

you mil find on following pages some keys, as they are called,
which are to help you unlock some of the secrets of Hird
Word, and particularly to ..elp you learn the names c 5 any strange
b ds which you may meet. Be sure to remember that you may
often, even wuh their help, make mistakes, and keep a sharp watch
of any b,rd wh.ch you think you have identified, to see whether
Its actions, voice, or habits may strengthen or weaken your cor.rt-
dence that you are right.

Your eyes need be very sharp to work with the keys. Thev
will ask you whether the bird had a rounded tail or a square one'
whether the bill was long or short or stout or slender'what the
colors were and where they were.

Perhaps it will help you to observe a living bird accurately, if
the\ook' ^l/^'^-'y- y- can the bird pictures on the pageLf
he book Their colors, it is true, are not given except in a few
cases, but you can see that the tail feathers of some have " thumb-
marks of some light color, that there are bars across the wings
of others, and that these bars are formed sometimes of solid color
sometimes by rows of spots. Examine the tails to see whether thJ
outer or inner feathers are the longer ; you will see that some tail
feathers are sharp and probably rtout. The bills will show many
points of difference, and tell much about the birds' feeding habits.

resSnTof V:^^^^:>,lr^!J^'^^^'^^ ^^^ —onest summer
one or two other birds whose genera, ^PpJL:'i;:;J';::^^;;t::;-^

2O0

.iJ'rENDJX.

I)ucn otiiittetl in oilier to ^iiiiplifv tlic key as nnali a;* |K)HsiI)lt;. It is not
fxpi.ctfd that younj{ chililttn will lif ahlf tu u^sf the key without assistunie,
and it is hoped that in any case it will ser\' nieiely as an inicntive to further
.itid closer ohservatioii of the living l)iril.J

BIRDS GROUPED BY A COLOR STANDARD.

litKDS SlIoWINi. MUCH UkOWN.

A. I'pper parts plain brown; under parts white, or white with

streaks or spots.
/)'. I'pper parts streaked ; under parts li;;hl, or lighter colored.
( ■. I'lwn-colort'd.
1>. lirownish-olive.

A. (i) Not streaked or spotted below.

a. Longer than a Robin. Cuckoo.

/'. .Small bird with ^hort tail. House Wren.
A. (2) Spotted (jr marked beiow.

a. Tail virv louii. Brown Thrasher.

b. Head browner than back and tail ; entire

under parts heavily marked. Wood
Thrush.

c. Head, back, and tail tawny; breast lightly

spotted. Wilson's I'hrush. Veery.
/>'. (i) Bird larger than a Robin.

a. Tail feathers white : breast yellow with a

black crescent. Lives in grassy fields.
Meadow Lark.

b. Rump white ; flight undulating. Generally

lights on the side of a large limb or tree
trunk. Flicker.
-. Rarelv seen before dusk. Whip-poor-will.

■4>

A/'/'EADJX.

20 1

lot

ler

ire
)d

tly

is.

lly
ee

B. (2) Small birds with the sparrow bill.
Breast streaked.

Flight nervous, jerky. Common every-
where. Song bright and cheerful. Song
Sparrow.
Tail shorter than in a ; a line over each
eye and through the crown. Lives in
grassy fields. Song weak. Savanna
Sparrow. (See also Gray Birds.)
Breast not streaked.

a. Tail long, notched ; breast ashy gray.
Crown chestnut ; black line through eye.
Common about dooryards ; not at all shy.
Chipping Sparrow.

b. Throat whitish ; breast grayish ; crown
and wings chestnut in spring. Lives in
swampy places ; rather shy. Swamp
Sparrow.

c. Bill light-colored ; breast buffy-white. Lives
in bushy pastures. Field Sparrow.

Bill stout ; throat (in male) black ; wing bars
white ; sides of head chestnut. (Female
brown above, dirty white below.) Com-
mon in city and village streets. English
Sparrow. •

C. Fawn-colored. Black line through the eye ; tail tipped

with yellow. Often shows a crest. Cedar Bird.

D. Brownish-olive. Under parts white, streaked with black.

Walks. Common in woodland. Ovtnbird.

i i

202

APPENDIX.

BIRDS MOSTLY GRAY.

A. Olive-gray. Rarely, if ever, seen on the ground.

B. Brownish-gray. Back streaked.

C. Slate-gray.

A. (i) Birds that sit on exposed perches ; tail held directly
beneath the bird.

a. No conspicuous wing-bars. Bird jerks the tail

after alighting. Note, phoe-be. Phoebe.

b. Two white wing-bars ; tail not jerked. Note,

pefee-wee. Wood Peewee.

c. Resembles ^, but smaller. Note, a sharp

che-bec, snapped out with a jerk of the
head. Chebec , or Least Flycatcher,

A. (2) Birds that hunt in the branches of trees. Tail quite

short.

a. White line over eye. Song made up of

brolcen phrases. Red-eyed Vireo.

b. No white line. Song a slow, continuous

warble. Warbling Vireo. (Cf. p. 199
B (2), a)

B. A sparrow, seen on the ground or at the edges of fields.

a. Breast streaked ; tail shows two white outer
feathers. Song strong and sweet. Ves-
per sparrow.

C. a. Found in bushy places about houses. Cap

and tail black. Catbird.

APPENDIX.

203

BLACK AND WHITE BIRDS.

Upper parts black, streaked or spotted with white.

a. Larger than an English Sparrow. Bill stout ;
back white; wings spotted with white.
Male has a red patch on the back of
head. Found in winter also. Downy
Woodpecker.

b. Smaller than an English Sparrow. Bill
slender; entire bird striped with black
and white. Black and White Creeper.

Whole head, crown, cheeks, and throat black. Large
birds.

Rose color on the breast. Wings and back

showing white. Rose-breasted Grosbeak.

Sides of breast chestnut. Tail showing

large, white spots. Common in clearings.

Chewink or Towhee Bunting.

C. Head not wholly black. Breast and belly white.

a. Larger than sparrow. Entire under parts

white ; tail tipped with white. Kingbird.

b. Smaller than sparrow. Throat and cap

black. Feeds among branches, to which
it clings. Chickadee.

^. Whole under parts black. Lives in grassy fields. Bobo-
link.

»04

APPENDIX.

BIRDS SHOWING CONSIDERABLE YELLOW OR ORANGE.

.'/. Birds showing black and yellow, or black and orange.

B. Birds showing yellow but no black.

C. Top of head yellow.

A. (i) Orange and blacc. (Females without orange.)

a. Larger than sparrow. Bill long, back yellow,

breast orange. Note, a loud whistle. Oriole.

b. Smaller than sparrow. Mostly black, show-

ing patches of orange at the shoulders,
and yellow in the outspread tail. Redstart.

A. (2) Yellow and black. Birds all smaller than sparrow.

a. Mostly light yellow. Forehead, wings, and

tail black. Goldfinch. (Female wi«^'^out
black.)

b. Throat yellow. Black band through the eye.

Hides in bushes near water. (Female
without black.) Maryland Yellow-throat.

c. Throat black ; sides of head yellow. Lives

in evergreens. Black-throated Green War-
bler.

B. {i) Entire bird yellow ; wings and ta'^ duller. Song,

bright, lively. Summer Yellowbird.

B. (2) : ' roat yellow.

a. Common in street trees. Song made up of

loud, rich phrases. Yellow-throated Vireo.

b. Common in pines. Song, a slow trill. Pine

Warbler.
C ( I ) Under parts white ; a narrow strip of chestnut along
the sides.
Chestnut-sided Warbler.

Found in clearings and roadside bushes.

API'ENDJX.

205

HALF THE BIRD OR MORE SOME SHADE OF RED,

(For birds showing patches of red or orange, see Black, and
Black and Orange.)

A. Head rose red. Back and tail brownish. Purple Finch.

B, Entire bird scarlet, except black wings and tail. Scarlet

Tanager.
C Breast bay ; head black ; wings and tail brown. liobin.

//.

BIRDS CHIEFLY BLACK.

Seen chiefly on the ground.

a. Larger than a pigeon. Note caw. Crow.

b. Larger than a robin. Bill and tail long.

Head and back glossy, with purple or
bronze reflections. Crow Blackbird or
Purple Crackle.

c. A little smaller than a robin. Male has

scarlet epaulets. Bill long, sharp. (Fe-
male blackish-brown, streaked.) Red-
winged Blackbird.

d. Smaller than c. Head rich brown. Walks

on the ground, often near cattle. (Female
dull brown.) Cowbird.
Seen always in the air.

a. Wings long, curved; tail short, cigar--haped.
Chimney Swift.

206

APPENDIX.

BLUE OR BLUE-GRAY BIRDS.

A. Larger than a Robin.

a. Wings and tail marked with black and white ;

coliu- black. Seen in trees. Blue Jay.

b. No black ; collar white. Seen flying over

water or near it. Kingfisher.

B. Smaller than a Robin.

a. Entirely blue, except brown wings and tail.

Bird the size of a sparrow; seen on the
tops of trees or in thickets. (Female
brown.) Indigo Bird.

b. Breast chestnut. Larger than a sparrow.

Seen in orchards or near country houses.
Bluebird.

c. Blue-gray ; under parts white ; tail short.

Seen on the trunks or large limbs of
trees, often with head downward. Nut-
hatch.

■J\

APPENDIX.

207

COMMON SUMMER

FOUND NEAR HOUSES, IN

Robin,

Cuckoo.

Chebec.

Kingbird.

Catbird.

Goldfinch.

Cedar Bird.

Wood Thrush.*

Screech Owl.

Red-eyed Vireo.*

Yellow-throated Vireo.

House Sparrow.

Song Sparrow.

Barn Swallow.

Redstart.

Crow Blackbird.

Chimney Swift.

IN GROVES.

Sparrow Hawk.

BIRDS OF NEW ENGLAND.
ORCHARDS, OR ALONG STREETS.

Oriole.

Phcebe.

Flicker.

Cowbird.

Bluebird.

Purple Finch.

Chickadee.*

House Wren.

Humming Bird.

Warbling Vireo.

Yellow Warbler.

Chipping Sparrow.

Cliff Swallow.

White-bellied Swallow.

Rose-breasted Grosbeak.

Downy Woodpecker.

IN OPEN WOODS.

Mourning Dove.

L-row.

Ovenbird.

Nuthatch.

Barred Owl.

Scarlet Tanager.

Sharp-shinned Hawk.

Black-throated Green Warbler

FOUND IN WOODS.

Grouse.

Blue Jay.

Wood Pewee.

Pine Warbler.

Whip-poor-will.

Black and White Creeper.

♦ Found also ir wood's.

PiiP

208

Bobolink.
Bay-winged Bunting.

APPENDIX.

FOUND IN MEADOWS.

Meadowlark.
Savanna Sparrow.

FOUND IN BUSHV PASTURES.

Chewink.
Brown Thrasher.
Night Hawk.
Chestnut-sided Warbler.

Quail.

Indigo Bird.
Field Sparrow.

FOUND IN SWAMPY PI.ACKS.

Veery.
Wood Duck.
Marsh Hawk.
Red-winged Blackbird.

Bittern.
Green Heron.
Swamp Sparrow.
Maryland Yellow-throat.

Kingfisher.
Spotted Sandpiper,

FOUND ON RIVER OR LAKE SHORES.

Bank Swallow.

FOUND SOUTH AND WEST OF NEW ENGLAND.

Cardinal Grosbeak.
Carolina Wren.

Red-headed Woodpecker.
Turkey Buzzard.

'luli

APPENDIX.

COMMON WINTER BIRDS OF NEW ENGLAND.

209

Grouse.

Kinglet.

Chickadee.

Screech Owl.

Go'.dfinch.

Tree Sparrow.

Red-shouldered Hawk.

Crow.
Blue Jay.
Nuthatch.
Butcher Bird.
Purple Finch.
Brown Creeper,
Downy Woodpecker.

IN SOUTHERN NEW ENGLAND, ESPECULLV NEAR THE SEA.

Robin. Flicker,

S"°*bird. Song Sparrow.

Meadow Lark.

Redpoll.
Snowflake,
Red Crossbill,

OCCASIO^AL WINTER VISITORS,

Cedar Bird.
Snowy Owl.
Pine Grosbeak.

2IO

A/TEND/X.

BIRDS IN WHICH THK I'WO SEXKS ARE ALIKE.

Gull.

Blue Jay.

Screech Owl.

Heron.

Song Sparrow.

Kingbird.

Crow.

Chipping Sparrow.

Meadow Lark.

Phcbbe.

Bank Swallow

Red-eyed Vireo.

Cuckoo.

Ovenbird.

Brown Thrasher

Catbird.

House Wren.

Nuthatch.

Swift.

Chickadee.

Brown Creeper.

Grouse.

Cedar Bird.

Wood Thrush.

Sandpiper.

BIRDS IN WHICH THE TWO SEXES ARE MARKEDLY UNLIKE.

Oriole.
Chewink.
Cowbird.
Tanager.
Purple Finch.

Bobolink.
Bluebird.
Goldfinch.
Indigo Bird.
Redstart.

Humming Bird.
Barn Swallow.
Red-winged Blackbird.
R ;se-breasted Grosbeak.

BIRDS IN WHICH THE TWO SEXES ARE SIMILAR, BUT
DISTINGUISHABLE.

Quail.
Hawks.
Yellow Warbler.

Flicker.
Kingfisher.

Crow Blackbird.
Downy Woodpecker.

SOME BRILLIANT MALES WHO CHANGE INTO PLAIN CLOTHES

IN THE FALL.

Bobolink. Goldfinch. Tanager. Indigo Bird.

APPENDIX.

211

BIRDS ACCUSED OF DOING HARM IN FARM OR GARDEN.

These birds are still on trial. Perhaps you can form an

opinion about some of them from what you have read.
Large Hawks. Bobolink.

Screech Owl. Catbird.

Sapsucker. Cedar Bird.

Kingbird. Butcher Bird.

J*y- Crow Blackbird.

^'■°*- Red-winged Blackbird,

^o^'"- English Sparrow.

BIRDS UNDOUBTEDLY INJURIOUS.

Cooper's Hawk. Sharp-shinned Hawk.

BIRDS UNIVERSALLY CONSIDERED BENEFICIAL TO MAN.

Name of Bird.

Phoebe.

Oriole.

Cuckoo.

Kinglet.

Chickadee.

Brown Creeper.

Flicker.

Bluebird.

Nuthatch.

Swallows.

Warblers.

Red-eyed Vireo.

Meadow Lark.

Chipping Sparrow.

Rose-breasted Grosbeak

Downy Woodpecker.

Enemy Destroyed.

Gnats.

Beetles.

Tent Caterpillars.

Insects' Eggs.

Ants.

Grubs.

Flies.

Caterpillars.

Grasshoppers.

Currant Worms.

Potato Bugs.

Borers.

IN DHX.

Albatross, 145-149, 177.
Audubon, 98.

Bills, 27, 28, 41, 79, 100. 102, 195-197.

Bird Language, 190-192.

Bird Music, 193, 194.

Bittern, 193, 194.

Bluebird, 15-17, 168.

Blue Jay, 56, 57, 164.

Bobolink, 1 17-120.

Bob White, 95-97-

Brown Creeper, 26, 27.

Brown Thrush, 184, 185.

Burrowing Owl, 35, 80.

Cardinal, 197.

Caro'ii.d Wren, 135.

Catbird, 75-78.

Cedar Bird, 37-39. «S7-

Cherry Bird, 38.

Chickadee, 26, 27, 32, 141, 163.

Chimney Swift, 93, 94, 173, rg7.

Chipping Sparrow, 52, 53, 60.

Cowbird, 14, 123-125.

Crossbill, 121, 122, 197.

Crow, 101.

Diagram of bird, 17.

Dove, 177.

Downy Woodpecker, 26, 41-43, 45.

Duck's Bill, 196.

Duck's Foot, 91.

Kagle, 140.

•'•ggs. SQ-'Jz-

Knemies, Birds', 162-168.

Knglish Sparrow, 24, 25, 50

Families, 1 69-171.
Feathers, 103-105, 172-178.
Fish Hawk, 80, 92, 140.
Flamingo, 195, 196.
Flicker, 44-46,93, 175.
Flight, 178, 179.
Food, 26-28, I0O-I02.

Golden-winged Woodpecker, 44.

Goldfinch, i, 2.

Grebe, 12S, 129.

Grouse, 21-23,93, 145-147. »74. '96-

Gull Dick, 29, 30.

Gypsy Birds, 121, 122.

Hawks, 186-189.

Heron, 180.

House Wren, 68-72.

Humming Bird, 105, 151-154.

Indigo Bird, 19, 20.

Islands, 142, 143.

Ivo'- hilled Woodpecker, 46.

Junco, 137.

Kingbird, 63-661
Kinglet, 26.

IXDKX.

.21

Marsh Wren, 71, 72.
Migration, 18, 98, 115, 131-134,

Nest of

Bobolink, 130.

Chipping Sparrow, 52.

Eave Swallow, 80.

(ioldfinch, 2.

Humming Bird, 82, 154.

Kingbird, 65.

Oriole, 81.

Osprey, 80.

Phcebe, 4.

Robin, 8.

Song Sparrow, 52.

Tailor Bird, 83.

Woodpecker, 42.

Wren, 68, 70, 72.

Yellowbird, 14.

Yellow-throated Vireo, 106.
Nests, S9-6i, 79-83, 166, 167.
Night in Bird World, 54, 55.
Nuthatch, 26, 197.

Oriole, 11, 12, 81, 82.
Osprey, 79, 80, 140.
Ostrich, 92, 127, 178.
Ovenbird, 23, 146, 147, 155.
Owls, 31-35.

Burrowing, 35.

Screech, 34.

Snowy, 35.

Passports, Bird, 11 3-1 16.
Petition, Song Birds', 158-161.
Phoebe, 3-5, 98.

Quail, 95-97.

Redstart, 112, 124, 125, 150.
146. Red-winged Blackbird, 89, 90, 197.
Robin, 6-10, 164.
Robin " roosts," 9.
Rose-breasted Grosbeak, 1 54.
Ruff, 126, 127.

Sapsucker, 47, 48.
Scarlet Tanager, 36.
Screech Owl, 34.
Snowbird, 176.
Snowy Egret, 180-182.
Snowy Owl, 35.
SoTig Sparrow, 51, 52, 82, 92.
Sparrows, 24, 49-53, 175.

Chipping, 52, 53, 60.

English, 24, 25, 50. ■

Song, 51, 52.

Tree, 27, 135-137.
Summer Warbler, 13, 14.
Summer Yellowbird, 13, 14.
Swallows, 68, 84-88.

Bam, 86-88, 99, 174, 177.

Eave, 80.

White-bellied, 68.

Taiior Bird, 83.
Thistlebird, i.
Toes, 91-94.
Tongue of

Humming Bird, 102.

Woodpecker, 43, 102.
Toucan, 28.
Tree Sparrow, 27, 135, 137.

Vireos, 124.

Red-eyed, 106.
Yellow-throated, 106-112.

.V-.

214

JNDEX.

Warblers, 67.

WinRs, 49' 9' • '03> •7<J.

W inter. Hircl World in. ij IJQ

Wo.jd Duck, \y

Woodpeckers, 40-48, 194, 197.

Uowny, 26, 41-43. 45.

Flicker, 44-46.

f i>>Iden-winKe»l, 44.

Ivory billed, 4^'

Kttlheaded, W..

W<i<idpecker <ntinued.
Yellow bellied, 47, 4S.
Wood Thrush. 183.

Y« iov scllitrd Woodpecker, 47.
\ ellow-throateii Vireo, \ (>-\\2.
Ydk'W-winged Woodpei <er, 47, 4S.
Youiig 111 lis, 61

ow ted. 46, fJO-