Bppletons' 1bome IReabino 
 
 EDITED BY 
 WILLIAM T. HARRIS, A.M., LL. D. 
 
 UNITED STATES COMMISSIONER OF EDUCATION 
 
 DIVISION I 
 
 NATURAL HISTORY 
 
or THE 
 
 UNIVERSITY 
 
 or 
 
Driving away the birds. 
 
APPLETONS' HOME READING BOOKS 
 
 THE 
 
 STORY TH F E BIRDS 
 
 BY 
 
 JAMES NEWTON BASKET!, M. A. 
 
 ASSOCIATE MEMBER OF THE AMERICAN ORNITHOLOGISTS' UNION 
 
 NEW YORK 
 D. APPLETON AND COMPANY 
 
 1897 
 
GENERAL 
 
 COPYRIGHT, 1896, 
 BY D. APPLETON AND COMPANY. 
 
TO HIS TWO BOYS ESPECIALLY, 
 
 WHO HAVE HELPED HIM IN OBSERVING AND HAVE 
 STIMULATED HIM IN STUDY, 
 
 AND TO THE 
 YOUNGER STUDENTS OF THE NATION GENERALLY, 
 
 THIS LITTLE BOOK IS DEDICATED BY THE AUTHOR, 
 
 BECAUSE, 
 
 AS HERE AND THERE HE HAS SPOKEN TO THEM OF BIRDS, 
 
 HE HAS FOUND IN THEIR BRIGHT FACES AND PATIENT INTEREST 
 
 HIS GREATEST INSPIRATION. 
 
 
 44 
 
PUBLISHEKS' NOTE. 
 
 THROUGH the courtesy of Mr. Frank M. Chapman, 
 Assistant Curator of the Department of Mammalogy 
 and Ornithology in the American Museum of Natural 
 History, New York city, the publishers have used in 
 this volume several of the admirable cuts prepared 
 for his standard work, Handbook of Birds of East- 
 ern North America. The full-page pictures, which 
 are credited in the list of illustrations, reproduce 
 groups in the American Museum of Natural History. 
 These pictures, like some of the line drawings in the 
 text, were made under Mr. Chapman's personal super- 
 vision, and the publishers desire to make special ac- 
 knowledgment to Mr. Chapman for their use in this 
 volume. 
 
 vi 
 
ESTTKODUCTION TO THE HOME EEADING 
 BOOK SEEIES BY THE EDITOR 
 
 THE new education takes two important direc- 
 tions one of these is toward original observation, 
 requiring the pupil to test and verify what is taught 
 him at school by his own experiments. The infor- 
 mation that he learns from books or hears from his 
 teacher's lips must be assimilated by incorporating it 
 with his own experience. 
 
 The other direction pointed out by the new edu- 
 cation is systematic home reading. It forms a part. of 
 school extension of all kinds. The so-called " Univer- 
 sity Extension " that originated at Cambridge and Ox- 
 ford has as its chief feature the aid of home reading by 
 lectures and round-table discussions, led or conducted 
 by experts who also lay out the course of reading. 
 The Chautauquan movement in this country prescribes 
 a series of excellent books and furnishes for a goodly 
 number of its readers annual courses of lectures. The 
 teachers' reading circles that exist in many States pre- 
 scribe the books to be read, and publish some analysis, 
 commentary, or catechism to aid the members. 
 
 Home reading, it seems, furnishes the essential 
 basis of this great movement to extend education 
 
viii EDITOR'S INTRODUCTION. 
 
 beyond the school and to make self -culture a habit 
 of life. 
 
 Looking more carefully at the difference between 
 the two directions of the new education we can see 
 what each accomplishes. There is first an effort to 
 train the original powers of the individual and make 
 him self -active, quick at observation, and free in his 
 thinking. Next, the new education endeavors, by the 
 reading of books and the study of the wisdom of the 
 race, to make the child or youth a participator in the 
 results of experience of all mankind. 
 
 These two movements may be made antagonistic 
 by poor teaching. The book knowledge, containing as 
 it does the precious lesson of human experience, may 
 be so taught as to bring with it only dead rules of 
 conduct, only dead scraps of information, and no 
 stimulant to original thinking. Its contents may be 
 memorized without being understood. On the other 
 hand, the self -activity of the child may be stimulated 
 at the expense of his social well-being his originality 
 may be cultivated at the expense of his rationality. 
 If he is taught persistently to have his own way, to 
 trust only his own senses, to cling to his own opinions 
 heedless of the experience of his fellows, he is pre- 
 paring for an unsuccessful, misanthropic career, and 
 is likely enough to end his life in a madhouse. 
 
 It is admitted that a too exclusive study of the 
 knowledge found in books, the knowledge which is 
 aggregated from the experience and thought of other 
 people, may result in loading the mind of the pupil 
 with material which he can not use to advantage. 
 
EDITOR'S INTRODUCTION. i x 
 
 Some minds are so full of lumber that there is no 
 space left to set up a workshop. The necessity of 
 uniting both of these directions of intellectual activity 
 in the schools is therefore obvious, but we must not, 
 in this place, fall into the error of supposing that it is 
 the oral instruction in school and the personal influ- 
 ence of the teacher alone that Excites the pupil to ac- 
 tivity. Book instruction is not always dry and theo- 
 retical. The very persons who declaim against the 
 book, and praise in such strong terms the self -activity 
 of the pupil and original research, are mostly persons 
 who have received their practical impulse from read- 
 ing the writings of educational reformers. Very few 
 persons have received an impulse from personal con- 
 tact with inspiring teachers compared with the num- 
 ber that have received an impulse from such books as 
 Herbert Spencer's Treatise on Education, Kousseau's 
 Emile, Pestalozzi's Leonard and Gertrude, Francis 
 W. Parker's Talks about Teaching, G. Stanley 
 Hall's Pedagogical Seminary. Think in this connec- 
 tion, too, of the impulse to observation in natural sci- 
 ence produced by such books as those of Hugh Miller, 
 Faraday, Tyndall, Huxley, Agassiz, and Darwin. 
 
 The new scientific book is different from the old. 
 The old style book of science gave dead results where 
 the new one gives not only the results, but a minute 
 account of the method employed in reaching those re- 
 sults. An insight into the method employed in dis- 
 covery trains the reader into a naturalist, an historian, 
 a sociologist. The books of the writers above named 
 have done more to stimulate original research on the 
 
x EDITOR'S INTRODUCTION. 
 
 part of their readers than all other influences com- 
 bined. 
 
 It is therefore much more a matter of importance 
 to get the right kind of book than to get a living 
 teacher. The book which teaches results, and at the 
 same time gives in an intelligible manner the steps of 
 discovery and the methods employed, is a book 
 which will stimulate the student to repeat the ex- 
 periments described and get beyond these into fields 
 of original research himself. Every one remem- 
 bers the published lectures of Faraday on chemistry, 
 which exercised a wide influence in changing the style 
 of books on natural science, causing them to deal 
 with method more than results, and thus to train 
 the reader's power of conducting original research. 
 Eobinson Crusoe for nearly two hundred years has 
 stimulated adventure and prompted young men to 
 resort to the border lands of civilization. A library 
 of home reading should contain books that stimulate 
 to self -activity and arouse the spirit of inquiry. The 
 books should treat of methods of discovery and evo- 
 lution. All nature is unified by the discovery of 
 the law of evolution. Each and every being in the 
 world is now explained by the process of development 
 to which it belongs. Every fact now throws light on 
 all the others by illustrating the process of growth in 
 which each has its end and aim. 
 
 The Home Reading Books are to be classed as 
 follows : 
 
 First Division. Natural history, including popular 
 scientific treatises on plants and animals, and also de- 
 
EDITOR'S INTRODUCTION. xi 
 
 scriptions of geographical localities. The branch of 
 study in the district school course which corresponds 
 to this is geography. Travels and sojourns in distant 
 lands ; special writings which treat of this or that 
 animal or plant, or family of animals or plants ; any- 
 thing that relates to organic nature or to meteorol- 
 ogy, or descriptive astronomy may be placed in this 
 class. 
 
 Second Division. Whatever relates to physics or 
 natural philosophy, to the statics or dynamics of air or 
 water or light or electricity, or to the properties of 
 matter ; whatever relates to chemistry, either organic 
 or inorganic books on these subjects belong to the 
 class that relates to what is inorganic. Even the so- 
 called organic chemistry relates to the analysis of 
 organic bodies into their inorganic compounds. 
 
 Third Division. History and biography and eth- 
 nology. Books relating to the lives of individuals, and 
 especially to the social life of the nation, and to the 
 collisions of nations in war, as well as to the aid that 
 one gives to another through commerce in times of 
 peace ; books on ethnology relating to the manners 
 and customs of savage or civilized peoples ; books on 
 the primitive manners and customs which belong to 
 the earliest human beings books on these subjects be- 
 long to the third class, relating particularly to the hu- 
 man will, not merely the individual will but the social 
 will, the will of the tribe or nation ; and to this third 
 class belong also books on ethics and morals, and on 
 forms of government and laws, and what is included 
 under the term civics or the duties of citizenship. 
 
xii EDITOR'S INTRODUCTION. 
 
 Fourth Division. The fourth class of books in- 
 cludes more especially literature and works that make 
 known the beautiful in such departments as sculpture, 
 painting, architecture and music. Literature and art 
 show human nature in the form of feelings, emotions, 
 and aspirations, and they show how these feelings 
 lead over to deeds and to clear thoughts. This de- 
 partment of books is perhaps more important than 
 any other in our home reading, inasmuch as it teaches 
 a knowledge of human nature and enables us to un- 
 derstand the motives that lead our fellow-men to 
 action. 
 
 To each book is added an analysis in order to aid 
 the reader in separating the essential points from the 
 unessential, and give each its proper share of atten- 
 tion. 
 
 W. T. HABBIS. 
 
 WASHINGTON, D. C., November. 16, 1896. 
 
PEEFACE. 
 
 WANT of space precludes, either in the text or 
 preface of this little work, the proper acknowledg- 
 ment of the specific sources from which many of the 
 facts and conclusions have been drawn. The obliga- 
 tions are confessed, however, and the result is just the 
 author's presentation of bits of his own experience 
 and deduction, along with much that is well known 
 to all modern ornithologists. 
 
 The little book, therefore, has its limitations, and 
 does not pretend to tell the whole story of the birds, 
 even if could be told. Its aim is simply to present in 
 a rather unusual yet popular way the more striking 
 scientific features of their probable development. 
 
 From this standpoint the predominance of the 
 anthropomorphic element in the discussions may be 
 criticised, but the author is assured from his experi- 
 ence as a lecturer before the students of all grades 
 from grammar schools to universities, and even before 
 popular audiences, that this is the best form for pro- 
 voking interest. 
 
 If it be thought that too much effort has been ex- 
 pended in trying to account for so many facts, it may 
 
x i v THE STORY OF THE BIRDS. 
 
 be replied that a phenomenon to-day is of little use, 
 or at least has little significance, till it is classified or 
 placed under some theory or hypothesis. If the hy- 
 potheses advanced here should not always meet the 
 critic's approval, or seem not always to be wholly jus- 
 tified from every point of view, they are still better 
 than no setting whatever. There is more stimulation 
 to thought, more assistance to memory, more rousing 
 of attention in an imperfect or even an incorrect hy- 
 pothesis than in none at all. 
 
 In interesting rather than instructing, in guiding 
 the observation of the inexperienced into proper 
 channels, in suggesting slightly to the student what 
 to look for among the birds, and what to do with a 
 fact when found, the author hopes that this little 
 volume may find a mission. 
 
 J. K B. 
 
 MEXICO, Mo., September, 1896. 
 
ANALYSIS OF 
 THE STORY OF THE BIRDS. 
 
 WITH STUDY HINTS. 
 
 THE following 1 brief analysis of the chapters is made 
 with the hope of better enabling the reader to recall or 
 review the essential facts and principles mentioned. 
 
 The suggestions for study are intended only as stimuli 
 in the observation of such simple examples as may fall in 
 the average reader's way without special excursions, 
 slaughter, and dissections. 
 
 CHAPTER I. The early ancestry of the birds lies in the primi- 
 tive vertebrates, but within the reptiles and lizards, shown chiefly 
 through skeleton and methods of multiplication ; the large egg 
 not found elsewhere. A bird is characterized by wearing 
 feathers. 
 
 Suggestions for Study. Read in encyclopaedias about Dino- 
 saurs, Pterodactyls, and the Archceopteryx. Consult any work on 
 zoology for characteristics of the five groups of vertebrates. 
 
 CHAPTER II. How birds first flew. First use of feathers 
 and tail. 
 
 For Study. Examine a bat's wing, and compare with Ptero- 
 dactyl ; note how insects fly ; parachutes of the flying rodents, 
 lemurs, etc. Observe action of a bird's tail in alighting or sud- 
 denly rising. 
 
 CHAPTER III. Use of wings in climbing. Claws on modern 
 birds noted. Skeleton and muscles of fore leg much modified in 
 wing. Wings did not grow out as wings. Birds may have walked 
 1 xv 
 
xv i THE STORY OF THE BIRDS. 
 
 before flying, perhaps crawled. Had birds more than one origin 
 among the reptiles ? 
 
 For Study. Examine the skeleton of the wing of table fowl 
 in connection with figure on page 13. Notice the separation and 
 superposition of the breast muscles of a cooked bird. Dissect an 
 English sparrow for further study. 
 
 CHAPTER IV. Plumage was acquired by birds for warmth, 
 not lightness ; quickly modified for flight. Skin pores suppressed 
 to preserve heat also. Hollow bones and various air spaces used 
 as reservoirs of air on account of scant lungs. 
 
 For Study. Note heavy downs on a duck's body, and the 
 hook vanes on its flight quills. Observe the hollow, marrowless 
 bones of table fowls. Cut windpipe of dead bird, insert tube and 
 blow, noting inflation of body. 
 
 CHAPTER V. Plumage grows in symmetrical tracts with bare 
 spaces between. Diagnostic value of this arrangement. Did 
 plumage originate in patches? The pattern much subject to 
 environment and habit and much modified since the beginning. 
 
 For Study. Examine picked poultry in market and note the 
 clustering of the papillce. Look at any nestling of song bird 
 (canary or sparrow) and, if possible, a woodpecker or chimney 
 swift. 
 
 CHAPTER VI. Downs are of two kinds nestling and adult. 
 The first grow in the pockets (papillce) of the latter and of the 
 large feathers, and are pushed out. Downs may be degenerate 
 feathers; often ornamental; sometimes powdery in tracts. 
 Downs not usually present in bare tracts except in aquatic birds. 
 Aftershafts formerly prevailed more generally. Moas had strictly 
 double-stemmed feathers. Downs developed as needed. All 
 nestlings of early birds hatched downy. Naked nestling a later 
 development (see Chapter XX). 
 
 For Study. Note difference in downs and their arrangement 
 in ducks and chickens, and the nakedness of any little bird's 
 nestling. See the aftershaft on some of the body feathers of 
 common hen. Examine some down under a magnifier. 
 
 CHAPTER VII. The plumage is a product of the skin purely 
 originating beneath the epidermis. Scales were changed to 
 feathers. Barrel of feathers evidently once flat. The necessities 
 of flight doubtless made them tubular and caused the vanes to 
 
ANALYSIS OF THE STORY OF THE BIRDS. X vii 
 
 become hooked together and air-resisting. Solid vanes also pro- 
 tecting to body. Plumage modified much in Nature in keeping 
 with the bird's comfort, safety, and beauty. 
 
 For Study. Examine any ordinary wing or tail feather. 
 Note the infolding of edges of shaft ; run a fine wire or bristle 
 along the groove into the barrel. Observe that the end is closed 
 by a membrane. See the tendency to flossiness near the body. 
 Note ornamental degeneration of other feathers, as cocks' tail 
 feathers, peacock and lyre-bird plumes, and ostrich tips. 
 
 CHAPTER VIII. Molt occurs with all birds in the fall. Some 
 have various molts, according to needs. Molt necessary for re- 
 pair and change of ornament and color ; affected strongly by 
 environment; now probably a much hurried-up process. Old 
 feather usually falls out now, but perhaps was formerly pushed 
 out. New colors are also produced by wearing away or shedding 
 the feather's tips. 
 
 For Study. Note molt of young chicken. See dead center or 
 " pith " of cast-off feather. Note in English sparrow the differ- 
 ence in color of the plumage beneath and on the surface. Ob- 
 serve the young males' acquisition of black throat patch, etc. 
 Observe nestling down on tips of large feathers of a fully fledged 
 young bird yet in nest. 
 
 CHAPTER IX. Ornament may be incidental, but usually has 
 purpose ; may prevail anywhere on the body or extremities ; is 
 often displayed and appreciated ; may be a matter of shape, but 
 usually of color, or both combined. Brilliancy a special feature 
 of the birds ; rarely lost or subdued, but intensified by progress. 
 Both form and color ornamentation may at times harmonize well 
 with surroundings and become protection. 
 
 Origin of choice discussed. Ornament may be only a sign of 
 vigor or conjugal capacity. Instances of appreciation. Males 
 usually have more ornament. Some females pretty and males 
 plain. Relations between ornament and style of nest and nest- 
 ing. Color of female more nearly the primitive color of species. 
 
 For Study. Note wattles, hackles, and tail plumes of roosters, 
 "speculum " on wing of drakes, etc. See the duskiness of female 
 cardinal, indigo bird, bluebird, rose-breasted grosbeak, etc. 
 
 CHAPTER X. Signal or recognition colors prevail largely 
 among birds. Nature's care about the race makes altruism auto- 
 
xv iii THE STORY OF THE BIRDS. 
 
 matic. Color calls usually white and mostly visible from the 
 rear ; often concealed except in flight, depending on motion for 
 display ; often ornamental. Doubtless brilliant colors and orna- 
 ments may answer the same purpose. Whirring flight, wing 
 strokes, and vocal cries as substitutes. Brotherly affection among 
 birds. 
 
 For Study. Note white wing bars of English sparrows, jays, 
 etc., and the whirring flight of many flocking birds. Observe the 
 little by-talks of small chickens as they run and feed. 
 
 CHAPTER XI. The weapons of the primitive birds were pre- 
 eminently their teeth, which were lost, perhaps, because of changed 
 habits induced by flight. Early weapons useful more especially 
 in prey taking. Special weapons were developed in fighting ri- 
 vals. Wing spur the earliest of these, perhaps; leg spur later, 
 and confined mostly to one group. Birds' weapons not orna- 
 mented, but probably have given way to other forms of emula- 
 tion, as song, antics, etc. Battle is often mere bluff, chasing^ 
 inflation, etc. Birds have no shields. Weapons a means of ad- 
 vancing the race. 
 
 For Study. Note armament of chickens, turkeys, and various 
 birds of prey. Compare pictures of the sheep and antelopes, and 
 see the curved and lyrated forms full of the curves of beauty. 
 
 Note. There is no such thing as a poison beak or gland 
 among the birds, newspaper paragraphs to the contrary notwith- 
 standing. 
 
 CHAPTER XII. The play of birds sometimes seems humorous 
 purely, but it usually has the purpose of charming or displaying 
 pretty parts. Instances noted. Females often play back, not al- 
 ways. Some antics take the form of ecstasies. 
 
 Odor has no special glands among birds as among mammals 
 and reptiles, with one exception; but odors are evidently quite 
 distinctive, and doubtless have purpose in them in some cases. 
 Some birds smell keenly, but vultures hunt largely by sight. 
 Mud probers use smell in searching, but some other forms have 
 no nostrils. 
 
 For Study. Note little chickens' mock fights, crows tumbling 
 in flight, turkeys strutting, pigeons pouting, house sparrows whir- 
 ling, etc. Note incidental odors of fish eaters. Put the hand in 
 a laying Guinea-hen's nest and see if she abandons it. 
 
ANALYSIS OF THE STORY OF THE BIRDS. x ix 
 
 CHAPTER XIII. Song primarily a call or cry, but now a 
 charming factor. It is the latest acquisition, the song bird hav- 
 ing a special throat for it. Song still has rivalry in it. Various 
 tones for various emotions in many birds. Song as a calling or 
 advertising, as a serenading, a cheering, a rejoicing, a warning, a 
 threatening, an exasperating, and a subduing factor. 
 
 For Study. Note the spring songs and incubating songs of 
 birds; also their revival at the second nesting period and their 
 absence usually in late summer. Note answering crow of cocks, 
 gobble of turkeys, coo of doves, whistle of quails, etc. 
 
 CHAPTER XIV. The mating time of our middle-latitude birds 
 extends from January to July. Pairing of resident birds often a 
 matter of association. Perhaps many migrants stay from year to 
 year paired, and, though separated in migration, return to same 
 spot. There is always a charming procedure, however, each year, 
 which may be short or long. 
 
 Polygamy largely prevails among the low birds. Males of 
 higher birds very devoted to mate in brooding season. Some 
 similar instances among low birds, but many males of these de- 
 sert their families. Birds of prey long noted as pairing for life. 
 
 For Study. Note early " hooting " of owls. Note thistle bird 
 or goldfinch in flocks late in June. Watch birds of orchard and 
 yard for love antics, especially jays, blackbirds, and flickers. 
 
 CHAPTER XV. Lost mate is soon replaced by either sex. 
 Doubtless many unmated birds extant. Experiments noted. 
 The widowed call. Darwin's note of incompatibility of temper. 
 Polygamous tendencies in high birds. Results of environment 
 and opportunity on all this. 
 
 For Study. Among English sparrows if either parent be 
 killed the other soon finds a helper. Even if both are destroyed 
 others will feed the crying young, or birds of a different species 
 will sometimes care for each other's orphan nestlings. Is the 
 acquisition of a new partner as much parental as conjugal ? 
 
 CHAPTER XVI. Incubation found among a few reptiles only. 
 It is probably an acquired habit in birds, the lowest showing 
 least of it. Perhaps began in the time necessary to the act of 
 depositing eggs subsequent to the first. Earliest birds may have 
 covered eggs with sand or hotbed stuif as reptiles and mega- 
 podes do yet. Change of place and climate may have necessitated 
 

 X x THE STORY OF THE BIRDS. 
 
 incubation. Style of nest likely also a factor of the amount 
 needed. 
 
 For Study. Note the duration of incubation of various do- 
 mestic and wild birds near. Observe the relations between size 
 of parent, of egg, of nestling, and of time incubated ; also rela- 
 tion of style of nest to number of young and the time they stay 
 in nest. Observe also duration of laying period and time used 
 in depositing each egg. Report to some ornithological journal. 
 
 CHAPTER XVII. The style of a nest affected both by in- 
 herited tendencies and present surroundings. Centers of origin 
 thus hinted. Different building seasons (early or late) affect the 
 structure. No fossil nest, no embryology of nesting, but present 
 elements hint past development. Platform, cup, and lining likely 
 represent three different stages of progress. The " natural-selec- 
 tion " element of structure and location mentioned. The lining 
 the most recent and constant feature. Intricate nests made for 
 comfort of nestling or sitting parent. Tree building a great 
 nest-developing element. Nests often ornamented or at least 
 concealed by mimicry of surroundings in form and color ; shaped 
 also by color of sitter. 
 
 For Study. Note that nests of hens, geese, turkeys, etc., are 
 mere hollows, showing little structure. Note just above them 
 pigeons moving the material, but making poor nest. Separate 
 platform, cup, and lining of old robin's nest. Note chipping 
 sparrow's tendency to emphasize the lining and omit the plat- 
 form. Note frequent simple cups (not purses) of Baltimore 
 oriole. Make notes of variations in all nests examined. 
 
 CHAPTER XVIII. A few birds seem quite fastidious about 
 nesting material and location. The sham nests of wrens and 
 gallinules mentioned and purpose discussed. The trades of 
 birds. Old nests not usually used a second time except in holes, 
 etc. Frequent theft of each other's material and nesting sites. 
 Nest repairing by owls, eagles, and ospreys. 
 
 For Study. Watch blackbirds and any old nests that are in 
 the yard. Nail up gourds, cans, and boxes anywhere that they 
 can be observed, with holes too small for sparrows, and thus at- 
 tract house wrens, tits, and chickadees for study. 
 
 CHAPTER XIX. All colors and markings of birds' eggs once 
 likely had purpose in them. Earliest birds' eggs probably pure 
 
ANALYSIS OF THE STORY OF THE BIRDS. X xi 
 
 white, as are reptiles. Harmony with the place of deposit (after 
 nests became open) the origin of color and spottings. Primitive 
 hole builders all had white eggs likely. Some colored eggs now 
 tend to blanching. Eggs hint relationships slightly by color, 
 markings, and shapes. Various modifying factors noted (page 
 119). 
 
 For Study. Note ellipsoidal shape of pigeon's egg, and how 
 globular and smooth are those of woodpeckers. In any broken 
 marked egg view spots if possible from inside. Wash any colored 
 egg with weak acid (even a brownish hen's egg) and note how 
 superficial is the color. Note that some hen eggs are spotted 
 and see the great variations, even in same clutch, of the eggs of 
 the English sparrow. 
 
 CHAPTER XX. All primitive birds likely had precocial nest- 
 lings, the altricial being a recent degeneration brought about 
 likely by tree building. Other causes conjectured. Some re- 
 marks on relations of size of egg to parent and nestling and on 
 size of yolk to " white." The hint from dormant eggs in oviduct 
 that birds once laid more eggs at once than they do now. Naked- 
 ness of nestling may be the result of hole building and parental 
 brooding. Herons, hawks, pigeons, etc., now in the transition 
 state, perhaps. 
 
 For Study. Note the ease with which the " egg tooth " slips 
 on newly hatched duck or chicken, and how it is scarcely sepa- 
 rable on a nestling sparrow or pigeon even. Note that the pigeon, 
 while naked and helpless, is much less so than the sparrow. Ob- 
 serve how very naked is a young chimney swift or woodpecker. 
 
 CHAPTER XXL Precocial birds do not carry food to or put it 
 in the mouths of their young generally. Nature's provision for 
 the precocial's sustenance till it can eat well. Altricials thrust 
 food upon their young. Regurgitation practiced by many parents, 
 especially \ow birds. Peculiarities of hornbills, pigeons, and 
 flickers. Parental devotion instanced. 
 
 For Study. Observe the canary regurgitating to her young 
 for the first few days. If a flicker's nest is near, after the young 
 come to the orifice (in a few days after hatching), note the parents' 
 pumping process. Watch the swifts and swallows after the 
 young are on the wing and they are circling around. 
 
 CHAPTER XXII. Birds' food primitively was evidently largely 
 
xx ii THE STORY OF THE BIRDS. 
 
 animal, as shown by their teeth. Subsequent loss of teeth neces- 
 sitated gizzard in grain eaters. Flesh eaters now do not need it. 
 Various feeding habits noted. Peculiarities of Apteryx, snipe, 
 and woodcock's beak, rail form's feet, penguin's wings, geese 
 form's bill fringes, pelican's sac, heron's spear, and birds of prey's 
 talons, terribly hooked upper mandible, etc. 
 
 For Study. Note elevated rear toe out of the way in the 
 scratching fowls and (in the market) the soft sensitive beaks of 
 snipes and plovers. Note that birds with strongly decurved 
 beaks are usually ground or water feeders. 
 
 CHAPTER XXIII. A bird's implements are related to its habits ; 
 instance the bill of the Apteryx. Examples of habit preceding struc- 
 ture and of structure inducing habit. Parrots, cuckoos, and wood- 
 peckers as illustrations. Habits noted as compensating for defec- 
 tive structure. Interesting and striking variation between swifts 
 and humming birds. Various feeding habits. Habit away ahead 
 of structure in the water ousels. 
 
 For Study. Note with a glass the outspread outer rear toe of 
 woodpecker on a tree trunk. Observe that a nuthatch head down- 
 ward stretches a leg far back up the tree as a squirrel. Observe 
 nutcrackerlike bill of parrot, and crushing and cutting form of 
 cardinal's bill an extreme example of the seed -eating finch forms. 
 
 CHAPTER XXIV. Roosting with the breast on the perch or 
 support is usual with most birds. Waders stand and hawk forms 
 never squat. Some midocean haunters may sleep on the wing. 
 Some aquatic birds sleep floating. Picarian birds sleep in holes 
 often. Woodpeckers and swifts roost in an upright position, usu- 
 ally in cavities. All birds using a perch strain the toe tendons in 
 squatting till automatic clasping is effected. There are different 
 methods of accomplishing this in different birds. 
 
 Some parrots hang (head down) by one foot, some by both, and 
 others hang by the beak. 
 
 For Study. Place the finger in the grasp of any freshly slain 
 bird and bend the leg up to the body. Note the automatic clasp 
 as the bird appears to squat. In such birds as sleep with head 
 under the wing note if the right wing is used, since this is the 
 position in the shell before hatching. 
 
 CHAPTER XXV. Toe arrangement and peculiarities very help- 
 ful in diagnosing, but do not always indicate kinship. Various 
 
ANALYSIS OF THE STORY OF THE BIRDS. xx iii 
 
 styles defined. Swimming membranes are, perhaps, rather recent 
 developments. They are transient (or seasonal) now in some am- 
 phibians. They speak confidently of habits. The bird's foot is 
 based on the lizard's. Prestige of the middle front (third) toe dis- 
 cussed. Peculiarity of leg bones the fusion and stiffening of 
 parts for better running. Loss of rear toe and the various tendon 
 arrangements mentioned. 
 
 For Study. Notice feet of ducks and chickens. Dissect out 
 tendons and note their uses. Observe that the very tendons are 
 bony in the turkey. What does this mean ? Note in the ostrich 
 (at the menagerie) that for speed afoot purely almost no toes are 
 needed, and that bird's toes now are preserved for clasping and 
 swimming. 
 
 CHAPTER XXVI. The wing, after fluttering-up flight came, was 
 variously modified. Each new need made a new shape. Ground 
 haunters have usually broad, short, round, concave wings. Pen- 
 guins' wings not long used as such, perhaps. Long wings mean 
 long flight. Chest muscles (quality and quantity) are compensating 
 factors, however. Instances in ducks and plovers. The soaring 
 wing noted. Soaring largely a matter of skill. Flight by flap- 
 ping largely a matter of propelling rather than lifting after the 
 bird once starts. The number, shape, length, set of the wing 
 quills. 
 
 For Study. Make a collection of, and label such wings as fall 
 in your way without special slaughter, and note shape in connec- 
 tion with the bird's flight habits. Observe difference between 
 those of duck and hen, hawk and plovers, sparrow and quails. 
 Place no confidence in the collection on the hats of any feminine 
 assembly. They are usually trimmed to suit the aesthetics of the 
 milliner. 
 
 CHAPTER XXVII. Birds have a definite home region and love 
 it, and, in the extreme north, are driven from it by stress of weather 
 and scarcity of food. They return to it in the spring. View of 
 glacial theory of migration and the probability that the tendency to 
 conceal nests and get apart send southern birds north. Some mi- 
 grate afoot partly, but flight is the great factor of the seasonal move- 
 ments. Some migrations very direct, others straggling, many day 
 birds moving at night high up. Migration may change social 
 habits. Coast lines, rivers, mountains, act as guiding factors. 
 
xxiv THE STORY OF THE BIRDS. 
 
 Islands thronged and special routes often adhered to. Instinct 
 of direction discussed. Leadership of old ones not always present 
 to guide young. Birds often get lost. Curious instances of hunt- 
 ers " crossings " and " fly lines." 
 
 For Study. Keep a record of coming and going of migrants, 
 as noted from window or walk. Get a correspondent north and 
 south of you to warn you to " look out." Learn the migrating 
 haunts of various birds in your region, such as certain bushy 
 swales, wood borders, etc. Keep your ears open at night (when 
 out) for a migrant's call. 
 
 CHAPTER XXVIII. A bird's ideas of geography, climatology, 
 direction, etc., oft inherited from its ancestors, but much comes 
 by experience. The distribution of the birds hints much of 
 geology. Instance our great plains and the meeting of Hudson's 
 Bay and the Gulf of Mexico formerly. 
 
 Birds seem to know their proper nest, number of eggs, or 
 clutch. Instances of vireos appearing to count. Peculiarity that 
 the sight of the proper nest number should suppress the forma- 
 tion of other eggs in oviduct. Laying not always controllable. 
 Effects of weather, fright, etc., on this. Migrant sea bird's exact 
 estimate of time. 
 
 For Study. Watch for cowbird's egg and nests about you. 
 Destroy them. Take an egg away each day from some .laying 
 bird and note if she will lay more than her usual number to re- 
 place the loss. After one or two eggs are laid fill out her clutch 
 with sparrow eggs, and note if she ceases to lay. 
 
 CHAPTER XXIX. Losses have often been large gains to birds. 
 Instances noted in feet, leg, wing, teeth, intestines, carotids, pri- 
 maries, palate, etc. Habits also lost down to a vestige, which 
 hints former relationship. Instances of ousels, grebes, hoactzins, 
 gallinules, rails, geese, etc. Also in nests and in hoarding of 
 bright things by crow forms. 
 
 For Study. Note in a book any peculiar habits of a bird. 
 Think if this occurs in any other akin to it. Are the crow of 
 cock and croak of pigeon similar they are kindred groups. 
 Note that the brooding domestic pigeon strikes at your hand 
 with her wing, and recall that many pigeons have wing spurs, 
 Is the rooster's strut with one wing a vestige or a rudiment of the 
 turkey's and peafowl's and other pheasants' perfection of the art ? 
 
ANALYSIS OF THE STORY OF THE BIRDS. X XV 
 
 Does the fact that he snaps his wing over his back before crow- 
 ing imply that the ruffed grouse may do the same in drumming? 
 
 CHAPTER XXX. This chapter is itself an analysis. 
 
 For Study. If interested in the kinship of the birds, read up, 
 if possible, from cyclopaedia or other source a bit about the con- 
 necting links (see " connecting links " in index). 
 
 Some of those of especial interest on the diagram are the 
 Apteryx (or kiwi), between groups 4 and 8, the tinaraous (4-5), the 
 button quails (5-9), the hoactzin (7, between 5 and 8 and 5 and 
 26), jacanas (8-9), the sand grouse and geophaps (between 5-6 
 and 6-9), the bustards and thick-knees (8-9), the mesites (10-15 ?), 
 trumpeters (10-5?), the seriem.as (10-16), the secretary bird (15- 
 16), the flamingo (14, between 13 and 15), the screamers (13-5?), 
 the dromas (9-19-22), the sea runners (22-21), the sun-grebes and 
 finfoots (8-12), the tropic bird (19-20), the oil bird and frog- 
 mouth (17-27), the owl-parrot (17-24!) the broadbill and lyre bird 
 (31 and 32), as bordering on to the Passeres. 
 
 Within these latter such links as cowbird, bobolink, wagtails, 
 honey creepers, wrentits, dippers, etc., may be interesting. 
 
 CHAPTER XXXI. An analysis itself. 
 
 For Study. If further interested, compare the orders men- 
 tioned here with descriptions of orders in any zoological text- 
 book. Compare the keys to the orders in Chapman's Handbook, 
 Ridgway's Manual, or Coues's Key. 
 
 Examine the claws, toes, shank, wing shape, primaries, beak, 
 nostrils, and tail shape of every bird falling in your way. 
 
 CHAPTER XXXII. The essentials of home study of birds are 
 principally interest and attention. Small facilities followed up 
 may do much. Window views of creepers, nuthatches, titmice, 
 chickadees, kinglets, woodpeckers, sapsuckers, warblers generally, 
 vireos, hummingbirds, snowbirds, blackbirds, flickers, jays, screech 
 owls, mocking birds, robins, bluebirds, orioles, cowbirds, and house 
 ^vrens are noted as being obtained without effort. 
 
 Finally. If you have read this book thoughtfully, you will 
 feel a new and affectionate interest in our feathered friends, and 
 when you are out of doors you will look for the birds, and learn 
 many useful lessons from them. 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 CHAPTER PAGE 
 
 I. A BIRD'S FOREFATHERS 1 
 
 II. HOW DID THE BIRDS FIRST FLY, PERHAPS? . . 6 
 
 III. A BIRD'S FORE LEG 10 
 
 IV. WHY DID THE BIRDS PUT ON SOFT RAIMENT?. . 16 
 
 V. THE CUT OF A BIRD'S FROCK 21 
 
 VI. ABOUT A BIRD'S UNDERWEAR 25 
 
 VII. A BIRD'S OUTER WRAP . ... 30 
 
 VIIL A BIRD'S NEW SUIT 37 
 
 IX. " PUTTING ON PAINT AND FRILLS " AMONG THE BIRDS 44 
 
 X. COLOR CALLS AMONG THE BIRDS .... 53 
 
 XL WAR AND WEAPONS AMONG THE BIRDS ... 59 
 
 XII. ANTICS AND ODOR AMONG THE BIRDS ... 69 
 
 XIII. THE MEANING OF MUSIC AMONG BIRDS ... 77 
 
 XIV. FREAKS OF BACHELORS AND BENEDICTS IN FEATHERS 84 
 
 XV. STEP-PARENTS AMONG BIRDS 90 
 
 XVI. WHY DID BIRDS BEGIN TO INCUBATE? ... 96 
 
 XVII. WlIY 1)0 THE BIRDS BUILD SO? . . . . 101 
 
 XVIII. FASTIDIOUS NESTING HABITS OF A FEW BIRDS. . 109 
 XIX. WHAT MEAN THE MARKINGS AND SHAPES OF BIRDS- 
 EGGS? 116 
 
 XX. WHY TWO KINDS OF NESTLINGS? .... 123 
 
 XXI. HOW SOME BABY BIRDS ARE FED .... 130 
 
 XXII. HOW SOME GROWN-UP BIRDS GET A LIVING . . 136 
 
 XXIII. TOOLS AND TASKS AMONG THE BIRDS . , . 144 
 
 xxvii 
 
xxviii THE STORY OF THE BIRDS. 
 
 CHAPTER PAGE 
 
 XXIV. HOW A BIED GOES TO BED 154 
 
 XXV. A LITTLE TALK ON BIRDS' TOES .... 161 
 
 XXVI. THE WAY OF A BIRD IN THE AIR . . . .169 
 
 XXVII. HOW AND WHY DO BIRDS TRAVEL? . . . 177 
 
 XXVIII. WHAT A BIRD KNOWS ABOUT GEOGRAPHY AND 
 
 ARITHMETIC 186 
 
 XXIX. PROFIT AND LOSS IN THE BIRDS . . . 1 ( J2 
 
 XXX. A BIRD'S MODERN KINSFOLK 201 
 
 XXXI. AN INTRODUCTION TO THE BIRD . . . "* . 213 
 
 XXXII. ACQUAINTANCE WITH THE BIRD .... 230 
 
 INDEX , 251 
 
LIST OF FULL-PAGE ILLUSTEATIONS. 
 
 PAGE 
 
 Driving away the birds Frontispiece 
 
 Song sparrow and swamp sparrow. (Chapman) . . .17 
 
 Louisiana water thrush. (Chapman) 39 
 
 Ruffed grouse displaying pretty parts. (Chapman) . . 44 
 Bobolink. (Chapman) . . . . . . .51 
 
 Thrushes. (Chapman) 80 
 
 Little blue heron. (Chapman) ... ^ ... 101 
 Sparrow hawk. (Chapman) . . . ^ . . . . 119 
 Least flycatcher. Phoebe. (Chapman) ..... 121 
 Pied-billed grebe and young. (Chapman) .... 135 
 Woodcock and precocial young. (Chapman) .... 137 
 
 Clapper rail. (Chapman) . . 139 
 
 Hairy woodpecker. Yellow-bellied sapsucker. (Chapman) . 149 
 Meadow lark. (Chapman) ....... 151 
 
 A rookery 159 
 
 Spotted sandpiper and young. (Chapman) .... 173 
 A byway of the birds . . . . . . . .179 
 
 A landmark in the birds' highway 183 
 
 The vireos. (Chapman) 239 
 
 White-throated sparrow. White-crowned sparrow. (Chap- 
 man) 246 
 
THE STORY OF THE BIRDS. 
 
 CHAPTEE I. 
 
 A BIRD'S FOREFATHERS. 
 
 THE birds form one of the five great groups of 
 the vertebrates, and of course their ancestry began 
 when the backbone was a gristly cord on the lower 
 border of the fishes. Perhaps we might begin later, 
 when the backbone of the higher fish-forms had be- 
 come bony and jointed and a brain case had expanded 
 upon its forward end ; for birds are certainly brainy 
 creatures. Later still, we might set our beginning 
 when the numerous rays of the fins of fishes gave 
 way to the few fingers and toes of the four-footed, 
 land-tending amphibians, and where the fringed gill 
 of the water breather yielded to the simple lung sac 
 of the air breather ; for our bird has certainly four 
 limbs only, with few fingers and toes on each, and it 
 is the best adapted to air breathing of all earth's 
 creatures. Or possibly our story might begin at that 
 point where the young ceased to have a tadpole or 
 larval state, but began at once to resemble its parents 
 2 1 
 
2 THE STORY OF THE BIRDS. 
 
 as soon as it was hatched or born ; for we shall see 
 later that a baby bird at once begins to look like his 
 mother (Chapter IX). 
 
 Perhaps we might set out at that parting of the 
 ways between the reptiles and the mammals and be- 
 tween the reptiles and the amphibians, where the 
 large egg comes in and the young are capable of being 
 nourished for a long time independent of the parent 
 or of position in the water ; for the yolk of the bird's 
 egg feeds the young bird till hatched, and in some 
 cases a short while after, and the hatching is inde- 
 pendent of water. 
 
 Then there is the region of better or more cellular 
 lungs that we might begin at, or that of a better or 
 more extensively chambered heart with warm blood 
 pulsing through it ; but that would be getting up 
 within the realm of the bird itself almost at least 
 upon the border land. Yet the duckbill (with its kin) 
 has all these traits and lays an egg and incubates it, 
 but it is not a bird or in the line of the bird's ancestry. 
 
 Surely we may say that bird ward tendencies were 
 set up when Nature began by skin appendages to carry 
 the lizards through the air ; but the development of 
 this might have missed the bird completely, for these 
 lizards are certainly not the ancestors of the bird any 
 more than bats are its fellows or descendants. They 
 were only evolved out of the same conditions. 
 
 Here, indeed, however, is the true region, for the 
 dawning of bird life closely follows the dawning of 
 vertebrate flight. Had there been no tendency to fly, 
 the true bird could never have been developed. The 
 
A BIRD'S FOREFATHERS. 3 
 
 ancestral outlook of the birds, therefore, lies in the 
 aspirations of the lizards. 
 
 But real bird life begins higher up the line still, 
 where flight became very special not by skin, but 
 by scales with some changes wrought in them. So far 
 as our knowledge goes, no creature except a bird ever 
 flew by feathers. It may be possible that there were 
 some soft modifications of the scales among the active 
 terrestrial reptiles, but, so far as we now know, nothing 
 but a bird has ever w r orn feathers except a woman 
 and a savage. Better to say that nothing but a bird 
 grows feathers. 
 
 Birds show that their forefathers were among the 
 reptiles by the following characters common to both, 
 and by many others too technical for our discus- 
 sion : 
 
 The large egg noted, found nowhere else except 
 in that three-way connecting link between birds, 
 reptiles, and mammals the duckbill group ; by the 
 lack of complete diaphragm below the heart and 
 lungs ; by having only a single ball-and-socket joint 
 where the head turns on the neck, whereas the mam- 
 mals and amphibians have two ; by many peculiarities 
 of structure about the head, especially by having the 
 lower jaw connected to the skull by an intervening 
 (quadrate) bone not found in the mammals. So also 
 there are peculiar arrangements of the circulatory sys- 
 tem and of the bones of the feet, etc., that are found 
 only in these two groups. Finally, as distinctive of 
 the groups, they neither pass through a tadpole or in- 
 complete state after birth, as the amphibians, or have 
 
THE STORY OF THE BIRDS. 
 
 Archseopteryx macroura, Berlin specimen (after Seeley). 
 
A BIRD'S FOREFATHERS. 5 
 
 special glands (mammce) to nourish their young as the 
 mammals. 
 
 While they differ from each other in the bird hav- 
 ing hot blood and feathers (instead of cold blood and 
 scales), great naturalists are inclined to make one class 
 cf the two groups. The oldest bird which we know 
 of yet is the fossil Archceopteryx, and had not the print 
 of the feathers on its wings, tail, and legs been left in 
 the rocks along with its bones, it is probable that it 
 would have been classed simply as a flying lizard. 
 
 Thinking back over what has been noted, we may 
 say of the bird that it is 
 
 A back-boned, four-limbed, lung-breathing, egg- 
 laying, hot-blooded, feather-covered, upright-walking 
 creature, having its fore legs adapted to flight ; for, 
 however flightless a bird may be now, there is suffi- 
 cient evidence that it has come out of an ancestry 
 whose wings were once really complete and useful. 
 
 Whether all birds have had the same forefather 
 is a much discussed question out of place in this con- 
 nection, but it is further slightly referred to in Chap- 
 ter III. 
 
CHAPTEK II. 
 
 HOW DID THE BIRDS FIRST FLY, PERHAPS ? 
 
 NATURE seems rarely surprised in the demands 
 made o'f her. She is usually well up to the emer- 
 gency, and often seems to be looking ahead. 
 
 The great instrument of dry land invasion was the 
 backbone, and this was developed in the water ; and 
 the great instrument of vertebrate invasion of the 
 " upper, deep " was the wing, largely developed, per- 
 haps, before its owners made any attempts at flutter- 
 ing up. 
 
 The wing as we see it now is much modified by 
 the growth of feathers and its adaptation to flight by 
 them, but there were reptiles that walked in an upright 
 position and exhibited many birdlike characteristics 
 before the dawn of the flight quill. 
 
 From the structure of the skeleton it is the opin- 
 ion of some eminent naturalists that birds not only 
 walked uprightly and hopped bipedally in trees before- 
 they flew, but that they flew before they had wing 
 feathers ; and of many others think that they at least 
 crawled about trees before they flew, as the frequent 
 presence of wing claws yet indicates, and as a few in- 
 stances of modern young birds crawling and climbing 
 by these claws hint. 
 
HOW DID THE BIRDS FIRST FLY, PERHAPS! 7 
 
 Across the front re-entering angle of a bird's wing 
 now the skin is expanded into a double membrane, 
 which, when the wing is opened, is kept tight and 
 spread out by a special ligament and muscle stretched 
 from shoulder to wrist, to use the figure of our own 
 arm. This muscle appears as if it had been stripped 
 up from the region of our biceps to support the wing 
 automatically when folded, but it is a distinct devel- 
 opment and not stripped up. It is not at all improb- 
 
 Pteroelactyl. 
 
 able that the very, very early birds may have used 
 this skinny expansion on the fore leg to break the 
 shock of a downward leap (whether made bipedally 
 or quadrupedally), or it may have been so extensive 
 then as to enable them to sail downward, as the flying 
 squirrels- and others do now by a special development 
 
8 THE STORY OP THE BIRDS. 
 
 of the skin behind the armpit and in front of the 
 flank. 
 
 Skin-flying, as we have seen, was very fashionable 
 in those days. The Pterodactyl group had true, con- 
 tinuous flight by the skin of their little fingers, and 
 some arboreal frogs may have been easing the jar of 
 a downward leap then as now by the expansion of the 
 skin between their toes. It is not likely, however, 
 that birds attained true continuous flight by means of 
 this membrane, which is called the patagium, but 
 that it was simply the first instrument upon which the 
 forefathers of the bird first launched themselves into 
 the air. Some thinkers are inclined to believe that, 
 even after the coming of feathers, this membrane was 
 a factor in flying. 
 
 But doubtless in time feathers or plumous scales 
 growing projectingly from the rear of the arm and 
 from other regions, became similarly useful in resist- 
 ing the air, and were finally, in connection with the 
 wing, the exclusive instruments of flight. That 
 feathers were used at first as means of sailing down 
 only is strongly hinted in so complete a bird as the 
 Archceopteryx. It had doubtless continuous flight, 
 but the bony part of its tail was longer than its body, 
 and each vertebra (or joint) had a flat feather project- 
 ing from each side like the hairs on a squirrel's tail. 
 Likewise the "drumstick" of the leg was feathered 
 so that, outspread as the squirrel in his leap, the an- 
 cestors of this bird had likely sailed down from high 
 places. 
 
 Indeed, it is just probable that the Archceopteryx 
 
HOW DID THE BIRDS FIRST FLY, PERHAPS? 9 
 
 itself could not rise directly from a flat surface, but 
 had to climb some eminence from which to launch 
 itself. If it could rise from the earth, it was doubt- 
 less only against a hard wind, wherein its feathered 
 tail and legs (tibice) would act as a kite while it flut- 
 tered forward with its wings. In view of this great 
 length of tail still persisting in so well developed a 
 bird, it seems quite probable that it (and all the flying 
 lizards below it) could go forward only against the 
 wind or in a perfect calm. To go with the wind they 
 had to flutter backward likely as many insects do 
 yet. While these long tails were quite helpful at 
 first, they were shortened later, that the bird might 
 better turn around and fly forward under any con- 
 dition. Their loss was doubtless gradual, with the 
 development of better wings. 
 
 Perhaps there is no better place than this to com- 
 bat the popularly prevailing idea that a bird's tail acts 
 as the rudder of a boat. To a slight extent in some 
 birds it may, but where the wing is perfected, as in 
 the swifts, the albatross and others, turning is effected 
 at once with a very scant tail ; and its use in flight 
 always has more reference to the up-and-down move- 
 ments than to the lateral. It comes into play in 
 alighting (as a brake) or in rising (as a kitelike sur- 
 face), and is used dexterously by the soaring birds in 
 balancing themselves against varying currents of 
 wind. Hence we see that the earlier and later uses 
 of the tail of birds are very much the same, and that 
 a large lot of unreadable history lies in the jainmed- 
 up caudal vertebrae of the modern flier. 
 
CHAPTER III. 
 
 A BIRD'S FORE LEG. 
 
 OF course, it is apparent that the wing of a bird 
 corresponds to the front leg of a quadruped, but it is 
 not so evident at a glance that it is a leg or the result 
 of a leg's modification. Yet, to the student of the 
 skeletons of birds as an entire group, taken in con- 
 nection with the skeletons of reptiles, especially liz- 
 ards, no other opinion can well prevail. 
 
 The modifications of limbs by loss of digits from 
 the twenty rays of the fish's fin to the single toe of 
 the horse is interesting. This degeneration soon 
 reached five digits normally in the reptiles, especially 
 in the rear ; but in those that were most birdlike, of 
 which the fossils are known, it ran lower both on 
 hand and foot. 
 
 The earliest bird we know had four toes and three 
 fingers, and this is the normal yet. 
 
 In this half -reptilian Archceopteryx already noted 
 all the bones of the fingers were free from each other, 
 and if a thumb were present it was alongside the others 
 and of about equal length with them. In all later birds 
 the thumb, so called, is much shorter than the other 
 fingers and has fewer number of joints, and, except in 
 
 10 
 
A BIRD'S FORE LEO. H 
 
 penguins, is entirely free. The other two fingers are 
 not only inclosed in the same skin and other tissues, 
 but their bones at the base are fused together in such 
 a way as to form a strong wing tip. In very young 
 birds they are free. Birds, bats, and the fossil-flying 
 lizards all fly (or flew) largely by their fingers, and the 
 last almost solely by the little finger. 
 
 The claws on the fingers of the Archceopteryx were 
 perhaps useful, as we have seen, in climbing. 
 
 Many more birds than we usually suspect show 
 vestiges yet of claws on the fingers. Our turkey vul- 
 ture, some ostrich forms, some swans and others, 
 even up as high as the thrush forms, have claws vari- 
 ously located on the wing tips of the adult. Some 
 young gallinules have these claws so functional that 
 they can pull themselves about over reeds and grass 
 with them, and in an allied bird in South America, 
 
 Wing of young hoactzin, showing claws. 
 
 the hoactzin, the young, while yet unfledged, can climb 
 in a crawling attitude over bushes and among the 
 branches of trees. In this latter case the claws are 
 shed when the nestling is fully feathered. 
 
 Besides having the front paw thus fused and mit- 
 tened, the modern bird's fore leg is otherwise much 
 
12 THE STORY OF THE BIRDS. 
 
 modified. There being small use in flexing the fingers, 
 there are very slight muscles on the forearm. The 
 hand is not flexed to any great extent by tendons, but 
 by a peculiar mechanical union of the two bones of 
 the forearm. We have already noticed the use of the 
 muscle and tendon which spreads the patagium, or 
 skin fold, but the modern use of this tendon is more 
 apparent, since, by its elasticity, it holds the wing 
 when at rest automatically folded. This it can more 
 easily do, since it stretches directly across the front 
 angle and furnishes one of the few instances in Na- 
 ture where a muscle pulls at the long end of a lever. 
 
 This ligament and its membrane has another use 
 that of forming and maintaining a comparatively 
 straight edge to the wing in all its positions in flight, 
 and it is just probable that this has always been its 
 sole use. If we conceive ligaments at C binding rd, 
 sc, and the end of me at I together, and that ul, cu 
 are similarly bound to mo near 0, it will be seen that 
 when C is drawn toward A, the point D will auto- 
 matically approach JS without any muscular effort 
 exercised on CD. 
 
 There are many instances in Nature, however, 
 where an old instrument, after ceasing to be useful in 
 the old capacity, is put at new work under new con- 
 ditions. The bird's fore leg is itself, as a whole, one 
 of the most striking. 
 
 Many of these changes have come about at the 
 demand for lightness at the wing's extremity, but 
 other changes have been wrought for the sake of 
 proper balance during flight. In quadrupeds and 
 
A BIRD'S FORE LEG. 
 
 13 
 
 man the muscles that open the arms or fore legs away 
 from the body lie mostly between the shoulders. But 
 suspended by the wings, the bird might be too top- 
 heavy if the region between them were piled high 
 
 Skeleton of duck's wing (after Coues). 
 
 h, humerus ; rd, radius ; ul, ulna, showing pits, pts, where the secondary 
 flight quills enter slightly; sc and cu, carpals, forming the wrist; 
 d*, so-called thumb ; me, me, the hand bone, composed of three bones 
 fused into one girder-shaped piece, one for each digit; the "thumb" 
 abutting against a short one at the base ; d 9 , the middle and longest 
 digit; fi? 4 , outer digit, inclosed in tissue with d 3 . 
 
 with muscles. So these muscles are placed below 
 upon the chest, and by their weight help to keep the 
 bird in proper position during flight ; and they effect 
 their lifting power upon the wing by means of ten- 
 dons that run up over a pulley. Perhaps in all the 
 modifications of the bird's fore leg this is the greatest. 
 
14 THE STORY OF THE BIRDS. 
 
 There are some other changes, such as the change 
 of the direction in the hinging of the bird wrist and 
 the pitting of the bones (to better suit the attachment 
 of wing quills), but we can not discuss these here. 
 
 There is no biological evidence that wings ever 
 sprouted out of birds (or any other vertebrate) as 
 wings. Short, vestigial wings of some ostrich forms 
 and fossil birds all show traces of having degenerated 
 from a wing once good and complete, but which has 
 lost its parts by disuse as a fanner. Neither can we 
 say that bird wings, as we know them now, were the 
 cause of flight, but rather, as we saw in the last chap- 
 ter, they are the result of it. 
 
 So likewise it is probable that the use of feathers 
 in their present form was simply an incident to con- 
 ditions begun long before they were useful in flight. 
 But while there is no doubt that feathers are not ne- 
 cessary to flight, there is every reason to believe that 
 much of their present structure, when complete, is 
 the result of their special adaptation to its demands, 
 and that they have been a large factor in modifying a 
 bird's fore leg. 
 
 The placing of this muscle on the chest and the 
 development of the greater one that overlies it, by 
 which the down stroke of the wing is made, were evi- 
 dently brought about by the demands for fluttering 
 up, while the fore leg began at first to be modified as 
 an instrument for getting down. This great change 
 in wing muscles must then have been comparatively 
 later. 
 
 Perhaps there is no better place than this to speak 
 
A BIRD'S FORE LEG. 15 
 
 sparingly of bipedal motion in birds. While the 
 Archceopteryx could evidently stand upright, and had 
 almost a perfect perching foot with a limb-clasping, 
 opposable toe, there is much about the bones of its 
 feet and legs that implies that it did not come from 
 an upright ancestry very far back. But some of 
 the ostrich forms, living and fossil, which have their 
 skeletons adapted to running, show such close re- 
 semblance to some fossil reptiles which are known to 
 have walked bipedally long before flight that they 
 tend to give us the impression that they are lineal de- 
 scendants of these terrestrial reptiles. The absence 
 of any muscle-holding ridge on their breast bones and 
 the smallness of these breast muscles may imply that 
 they had never attained to fluttering up flight, and 
 that their wings had degenerated from an imperfect 
 condition as their bipedal motion had further developed. 
 This is not likely the case, however. In such other birds, 
 akin to the strain of the Archceopteryx, perfect bi- 
 pedal motion seems to have been the result rather of 
 the fore leg's complete development into a model pin- 
 ion, while it was useful at first to walk or crawl with. 
 
 It may be, therefore, as held by many thinkers, 
 that by more than one route the birds have come out 
 of the region of the reptiles; but others feel that 
 every wing to-day, from penguin to thrush, is the de- 
 scendant of a single type in the beginning, modified 
 by various developments and degenerations. 
 
 Certain it is that if we knew the history of a bird's 
 fore leg, we should know a great deal more about its 
 forefathers. 
 
OHAPTEK IV. 
 
 WHY DID THE BIRDS PUT ON SOFT RAIMENT ? 
 
 NATURE is a great preserver of her energies. 
 I Only in the growing and sowing of many seeds does 
 she appear wasteful, but this is the truest economy. 
 
 She expects adversity and accident, and prepares 
 to meet both, as if she had learned her lesson grad- 
 ually by experience. 
 
 The bird was likely her first hot-blooded animal. 
 Certainly it was among the first. For the invasion of 
 earth and air, as we have seen, she needed a better 
 furnace and fanner, and a better fuel carrier than 
 any reptile or fish had. So she added more cham- 
 bers to the heart (or to her liquid fuel pump) and 
 more cells to the lungs (or flues to her boiler), till 
 the blood pulsed hot and throbbing with power in 
 the new creature. 
 
 Except perhaps the smaller winged insects, no ani- 
 mal works at a higher pressure than the flying birds. 
 Their normal temperature (104 F.) is high fever heat 
 in man. They burn fuel fast. No other vertebrate 
 expends so much per hour or for so long a time at a 
 stretch. It is like " an ocean greyhound " in minia- 
 ture. 
 
 16 
 
Song sparrow and swamp sparrow, both of the same genus, Melospiza. 
 
WHY DID THE BIRDS PUT ON SOFT RAIMENT? 17 
 
 Heat is power ; we know that. It is at present 
 the source of all energy, we know that, and we Hst 
 our doors, double our windows that we may preserve 
 it when we need it. We clothe ourselves in flannels 
 and heavy outer coats that we may live by it, and 
 jacket the steam pipes and boilers of our locomotives 
 that we may more economically move by it. 
 
 Nature having a good boiler now proposes to 
 jacket it to prevent 
 loss by radiation, and 
 hence the mission of 
 fur and feathers, as 
 seen in the toes 
 of arctic birds, be- 
 ing feathered to the 
 claws. This is also 
 the meaning of the 
 dense downs of the 
 water birds. 
 
 It is not likely, 
 however, that the 
 bird was clothed 
 previous to its show 
 of extra energy. Na- 
 ture's charity is the 
 best, and she gives 
 only in the line of our needs, and usually at their 
 promptings. Feathers were not necessary to flight, 
 as we have seen, but they greatly advanced it. " Un- 
 to him that hath it shall be given " is a law of Nature 
 as well as Revelation, and in preserving the bird's 
 
 Foot of snowy owl. 
 
18 THE STORY OF THE BIRDS. 
 
 energy she gave it a better means through its cover- 
 ing of hooking on to the air. Because of its struggle 
 upward she gave the bird in its soft apparel a new fin 
 for a new element. 
 
 Nature shows her heat-preserving tendencies in 
 the bird by another change which was radical. The 
 fishes and reptiles had various external pores, as also 
 have some mammals. Through them they moistened 
 the skin with various secretions for various purposes, 
 perhaps for lubrication in the fishes. To a quiet, lazy 
 land creature, as a tree frog, Nature could even give 
 oxygen by dampening its surface ; and others could 
 thus breathe through the skin solely while beneath 
 the water. But in a bird which moved so rapidly, 
 any surface moisture would tend to cool it too much 
 and to weaken it. Besides, it would dampen the 
 plumage another thing not desirable. So the pores 
 of the skins of birds were largely suppressed, and the 
 dire possibility of cleaving the air at a hundred miles 
 an hour in a high state of perspiration was prevented. 
 It is possible that this, too, was the result of flight by 
 a long line of fitting survivals ; for chilling the sur- 
 face closes the pores, as we well know when we " take 
 cold." 
 
 Scales in no way tended toward heat preservation. 
 In fact, they were rather fitted to dissipate and radiate 
 it. Perhaps this may have been one of their purposes. 
 The primary mission of cold blood was adaptation, 
 without shock, of the creature to a constantly cold or 
 watery environment. But a bird invaded a realm of 
 various degrees of temperature. The one best clothed 
 
WHY DIB THE BIRDS PUT ON SOFT RAIMENT? 19 
 
 for extremes could migrate over the greatest range of 
 climate, and a better development of feathers meant 
 a better development of flight and the finding of 
 newer and better food regions in fact, progress gen- 
 erally. They traveled on their good clothes literally 
 as some persons do figuratively. It was a wonderful 
 step, therefore, when the ancestors of our modern 
 birds first donned soft raiment. 
 
 It may be well before closing this chapter to 
 say that, contrary to the usual popular impression, 
 feathers were not given birds to make them light. 
 Feathers have weight of their own, and from this 
 standpoint birds would be better off without them. 
 It is true that some seeds are floated in the air by 
 vegetable downs, and that some spiders migrate on 
 gossamers ; but there is a very small limit to these 
 uses of fluffy substances not reaching up to the 
 weight of the bird, even if it were designed to float 
 (only) in the air. 
 
 It is well known that weight is necessary to actual 
 flight, and, as a rule, the heaviest birds are among the 
 best fliers especially the best soarers. Even a but- 
 terfly could not go against the wind if it had not some 
 weight. 
 
 There is no doubt, however, that the flight quills 
 are made as light as possible consistent with stiffness 
 and strength, and that the tubular form of the barrel 
 (toothpick part) and pithy nature of the shaft are 
 partly brought about by these demands ; and doubt- 
 less all the plumage is affected by these conditions, 
 first set up in wing and tail. But mere lightness is 
 
20 THE STORY OF THE BIRDS. 
 
 no more the cause of feathers being plumous, than it 
 is of hair being furry. 
 
 In this connection also, though not exactly in 
 order, it may be said that there is much doubt if any 
 of the spaces about the body or in the bones of birds 
 are filled with air for the purpose of buoyancy. 
 
 It is not known that a bird inflates itself during 
 flight, and the plumage is certainly very compact at 
 this time. 
 
 All bones that are tubular are surely so for the 
 sake of putting the material into the best shape for 
 strength combined with lightness ; and in the birds 
 they are devoid of marrow, often doubtless to admit 
 air, since they have openings connected with ducts 
 leading to the lungs and other air spaces. But if 
 mere lightness were the only object their interiors 
 should be vacuums, since air is heavier than nothing 
 at all. 
 
 Air cavities in bones and tissues, especially of 
 birds, are probable aids or supplements to scant lung 
 surface, demanded by a very active life ; for they are 
 found in the non -flying ostrich forms, and even in 
 many heavy but active fossil reptiles. Some air 
 spaces and sacs in birds, reptiles, and amphibians, 
 and even mammals, have other uses not discussable 
 here. To return to our topic, it is likely that, if we 
 knew how a bird first put on feathers, we should 
 know more of the biography of its fore leg. 
 
CHAPTEE Y. 
 
 THE CUT OF A BIRD'S FROCK. 
 
 THE color of a bird's coat has been much empha- 
 sized since Mr. Darwin found it a matter of so much 
 significance, but it is not known so generally that the 
 cut of the garment, its gores, seams, plackets, puffs, 
 etc., tell more of a bird's position in feathered society 
 than its colors. But fissures and rents here do not 
 mean poverty or a low condition in fact, rather the 
 contrary, since only the lowest birds now have cloth- 
 ing over the entire body. 
 
 It would be very tedious, even if it could be done, 
 to notice all the various arrangements of plumage in 
 the different groups of birds. The feathers grow in 
 rather symmetrical tracts, with intervening bare spaces 
 and, at times, with interrupting bare patches, causing 
 forks and various changes in these tracts. 
 
 The most characteristic of these are the tracts on 
 the top and bottom of the bird, which are normally 
 median. That beneath in most birds has rather con- 
 stantly in the center of it a bare space, which may be 
 held there by the habit and effect of incubation, but 
 the bare spot in the back tract is more variable in its 
 position, and is often entirely wanting. 
 
 21 
 
22 THE STORY OF THE BIRDS. 
 
 In the very young birds these often give the frock 
 the appearance of having a V-shape front and back 
 a thing pardonable enough in a baby, but which is 
 decently covered up by the overlapping of the feath- 
 ered tracts as the bird grows older. Bare skin is 
 used as ornament in adult birds, as well as in the 
 ballet and the best society, but always modestly on 
 the extremities of feet or head. In fact, as we come 
 up higher among birds, where monogamy, gallantry, 
 devotion, and decency prevail, we do not find it at 
 all the oscines, or prima donnas in feathers, in no 
 sense needing the decollete to make them attractive. 
 Even the bare space in the back is wanting here. 
 
 Feather tracts (after Coues). 
 
 Lower surface of a swift, showing Upper surface of a swift, showing 
 tracts and bare spaces on ab- the forking of feather tracts on 
 
 domen, neck, etc. back, etc. 
 
 Besides these two bare tracts there are many others. 
 Some of those extending upon the neck are very 
 helpful also in showing the kinship of birds. 
 
 Among the birds of the group known as the 
 PicaricB, where the yoke-toes and other abnormalities 
 
THE CUT OP A BIRD'S FROCK. 23 
 
 of feet so largely prevail, the bare tract on the back 
 is placed variously. A glance at a nestling swift or 
 woodpecker, in comparison with a nestling sparrow 
 or robin, will show a striking difference in the ar- 
 rangement of the plumage. 
 
 There stands directly between the ostrich forms 
 and the fowl forms a singular group known as Tina- 
 mous, which have so many characteristics of each that 
 
 Swifts. 
 
 systematists have wrangled much over its position. 
 It is resting now, perhaps rather securely, in the fowl 
 group, partly because its plumage shows bare tracts, 
 as no ostrich form does. 
 
 The origin and purpose of the various tracts is yet 
 rather obscure, and will doubtless remain so. Only 
 the ostrich forms, the penguins, the screamers (and 
 
24 THE STORY OP THE BIRDS. 
 
 the toucans, perhaps), have their bodies solidly cov- 
 ered. But the embryos (which may tell us so much 
 of the history of the race) in the ostrich forms have 
 the feather tracts well defined, and so have some fos- 
 sil penguins. We are justified, then, in thinking that 
 the primitive birds had their plumage in patches. 
 
 The wise men tell us that feathers are modified 
 scales, and it may be that these modifications had 
 different centers or places of beginning; but since 
 the patterns now show so much variety, it is evident 
 that the original arrangements have been very striking- 
 ly changed somewhere in the less remote past. But 
 why these patterns should tend now to prevail so dis- 
 tinctly, and to be rather more than less definite in the 
 higher groups, is not so apparent. It may be that 
 after the plumage grew longer and spread well over 
 the entire surface from different centers, as it does 
 now, these bare tracts were all protected from any 
 external influence tending to change them, and they 
 persist now unmodified. Since solidly feathered birds 
 are largely degenerate and flightless, we can not resist 
 feeling that bare tracts are in some undefinable way 
 connected with flight. At any rate, if we knew why 
 a bird cut its frock so, we should certainly know a 
 great deal more about why it put on soft raiment and 
 about its history in general just as the fashions of a 
 people help us to judge of its customs and character. 
 
CHAPTER VI. 
 
 ABOUT A BIRD'S UNDERWEAR. 
 
 IT is just possible that underwear is a late acqui- 
 sition with the birds as it has been with man, although 
 there are some indications pointing otherwise. If 
 feathers are modified scales, it seems scarcely prob- 
 able that they were at first so soft and plumous as 
 the present downs are, and yet the strong barbed and 
 hooked flight quills and external body feathers which 
 we see now are evidently of later development. 
 
 Underwear now with the bird is the first consid- 
 eration, and the swaddling clothes of all little birds 
 form the beginnings or the germs of all subsequent 
 plumage. In the same sockets in which the nestling 
 downs grow, the larger feathers grow and push out 
 their tiny predecessors upon their tips, making the 
 little bird really wear, for a little while, his slight 
 under garment as an overcoat. So likewise those 
 downs which are found among the plumage of adult 
 birds, and which, differing strongly from the swad- 
 dling down, form a bird's true underwear, also push 
 the nestling downs out. 
 
 These adult downs may be degenerate feathers, or 
 they may be very primitive ones, we can not say ; but 
 
 25 
 
26 THE STORY OF THE BIRDS. 
 
 certain it is that there are many degenerate feathers 
 especially noticeable in such flightless birds as the 
 apteryx and others, where the plumage has lost its 
 hooks and become slightly hairlike. Some of these 
 degenerations are a source of great beauty, as seen in 
 the plumage of peacocks, lyre birds and others, where 
 the loss of some part of the feather produces the flossy 
 effect. Similarly in the so-called bristles about the 
 beak the feather has lost everything but barrel and 
 shaft. There are many of these among the dense 
 plumage also. 
 
 So in its degenerate condition, if such it be, a 
 bird's underwear may be made extremely ornamental 
 at places where it can show, as ours does in cuffs, col- 
 lars and frills, sometimes. This is especially notice- 
 able in the condor's ruche of down about the neck 
 and on the cottony tufts about the flanks of some 
 smaller birds, which seem to have antedated the 
 modern charmer in exhibiting just the daintiest bits 
 of tantalizing white in a very effective manner. 
 
 Nay, it may be that the birds have outdone us in 
 another respect here. In the herons and their kin, in 
 the goatsucker group and others (usually nocturnal) 
 are found, rather symmetrically placed, certain tracts 
 of downs that are constantly undergoing slow oxida- 
 tion or breaking down into powders which usually 
 show externally. Some of these are front only, some 
 are rear and some birds have them at both places. 
 Their purpose has not been determined yet, but it 
 has been asserted that in herons at least these spots 
 are phosphorescent at night, and that fish are thereby 
 
ABOUT A BIRD'S UNDERWEAR. 27 
 
 lured within easy reach. If this should be true, it 
 may be that some others charm or signal to their 
 mates in this way, as the fireflies do, by this sort of 
 fireworks formed by the cremation of the ragged 
 edges of the underwear. These things are not very 
 probable, and even the phosphorescence needs con- 
 firmation, but certainly here is hinted a very interest- 
 ing method of changing winter flannels. 
 
 Most birds show the presence of downs in the 
 bare tracts only, and not within the feather tracts 
 already noted. If then these downs be regarded as 
 degenerate feathers, the bare spaces would appear to 
 be more recent than the feather tracts ; but if these 
 downs be primitive forms of feathers, Nature may 
 now be attempting to fill these " clearings " with an 
 undergrowth. 
 
 Water birds only and those close akin to them 
 have these downs over the entire body. Since the 
 water-haunting kinds of kingfishers (and not other 
 insect-eating kinds), and the water ousel or dipper 
 only among the wren-thrush forms, have these downs 
 similarly arranged all over the body, it seems quite 
 evident that the growth of underwear is influenced 
 by environment or habit, inasmuch as these last birds 
 are comparatively recent. 
 
 The tinamous alone have the downs confined to 
 the feather tracts only. 
 
 Birds have another feature of their underwear 
 worth noting. Many of the contour or body feathers 
 of some show a second feather growing out of the top 
 of the barrel (or toothpick part), directly beneath the 
 
28 THE STORY OP THE BIRDS. 
 
 first. This is the case (even more marked) with their 
 downs also. In the adult cassowaries and emeus this 
 aftershaft (as it is called) is as large as the other or 
 true feathers, but in their nestling downs it is smaller, 
 showing quite probably that its size in their case is a 
 later development. 
 
 If it were once a general form of underwear it 
 was a fashion easily changed ; for many lower, and 
 most of the higher, birds seemed to have abandoned 
 it. It is scarcely found at all upon the tail and wing 
 quills, and in some birds it persists among the downs 
 only. 
 
 Besides thickening the plumage its purpose is not 
 apparent. The only hint perhaps a faint one of 
 its origin is that some ostrich forms (the lowest living 
 birds) have double-stemmed feathers. In some moas 
 (now extinct) the feather-producing sockets tend to 
 pair and merge into each other on the neck (likewise 
 producing double-stemmed feathers), but they are far 
 apart on the rest of the body. It may be possible 
 that the clustering of papillae or feather-growing 
 pockets has left certain places f eatherless ; and here 
 may lie one step back in the formation of bare tracts. 
 We feel sure that all birds once had after-shafted 
 plumage. But what made the papillae cluster ? After 
 all, if we knew more of the style of a bird's under- 
 wear we might understand why it has cut its frock so. 
 All of this shows how very, very young the oldest of 
 our modern birds are that is, how comparatively 
 recent many of their modifications have been. 
 
 Downs now seem developed on birds according to 
 
ABOUT A BIRD'S UNDERWEAR. 29 
 
 their needs, though some doubtless remain as a heri- 
 tance from a past condition, as those on the helpless 
 nestlings of hawks, owls and others. 
 
 Arctic and water birds have the downs dense and 
 fine, while many birds of southern origin have them 
 comparatively scant. In those young birds which 
 run at once from the nest when hatched (precocial) 
 the down is found in great abundance. It is incased 
 before hatching in a membranous tube to keep it dry, 
 but this soon bursts when exposed and the little plumes 
 expand, making the chick fluffy and comfortable. 
 
 In such birds as remain long in the nest after 
 hatching (altricial) there are various grades of the 
 amount of nestling down, as noted. It has been ob- 
 served that among those that evidently have nested 
 long in holes (and lay white eggs usually) the young 
 are noticeably naked. They have no need of swaddling 
 clothes when so well protected. On the contrary, 
 some of such birds as are hatched without a mother 
 (megapodes) leave the eggs fully feathered and ready 
 for flight, having doffed their down while in the shell. 
 
 There is no nestling, however, without some down 
 at hatching, and the style and extent of a little bird's 
 underwear tend at once to indicate whether its posi- 
 tion be high or low in feathered society, just as an 
 American Senator is said once to have exhibited his 
 night robe to indicate his social standing. 
 
CHAPTER VII. 
 
 THE skin is the primary outer garment of every 
 animal. It is more than this. It is a very important 
 excretory organ, "the largest gland in the body." 
 Besides this, it assists the lungs in reptiles and others 
 in oxidizing the blood. To the lowest creatures it is 
 lungs, stomachs, legs and tentacles, with perhaps 
 other functions. 
 
 But it has been more than this. It has been the 
 source to all organisms of their greatest progress. 
 Every class of creatures has moved by it, every form 
 of motion has employed it swimming, crawling, walk- 
 ing, climbing, flying from protozoon to mammal. 
 Perhaps, as we have seen, the bird itself first flew 
 directly by means of it. 
 
 But it has been more than this even. It has been 
 the great builder of other parts of the body. From 
 the waste of lime it shaped the shell of the mollusc, 
 and formed of chitin the outside skeletons of the crus- 
 taceans and insects. While it is not demonstrated 
 that the backbone had a dermal origin, as it may, we 
 know the appendicular skeleton of toes and limbs had 
 its origin in skin folds and sank inward to meet the 
 
 30 
 
A BIRD'S OUTER WRAP. 31 
 
 vertebra. The nervous system began superficially, 
 Spencer thinks, and the spinal marrow begins on the 
 surface in embryos now as a flat strap. The eye and 
 the ear (and doubtless other organs) began superficially 
 in some creatures, and yet show traces often of the 
 path by which they have gone inward. 
 
 All this great work is possible to the skin because 
 of its exterior position exposing it so much to the ef- 
 fects of environment. It was " in touch " with every- 
 thing and plastic to every demand of the organism. 
 
 After the inside skeleton was formed, it demanded 
 so much of the lime and magnesia of the body that 
 the skin seems to have had at first little material out 
 of which to build an outside skeleton or covering, 
 though, so to speak, it seems to have turned its atten- 
 tion that way. The first efforts seem to have been by 
 folds or thickenings of the skin itself. These folds 
 formed pockets into which a hornlike substance a 
 new material which appeared to dawn with the back- 
 bone formed, and it finally grew out and pierced the 
 outer layer, or epidermis, as in the fish scales. The 
 reptiles have in most cases kept the primitive skin 
 fold, rendered horny in places, as best suited to their 
 haunts and habits, but many amphibians and some 
 fishes have lost them nearly altogether, or had them 
 sink again beneath the surface. 
 
 Perhaps some of the reptiles, especially the bird- 
 like, upright walkers, may have burst their epidermis 
 by the great growth of their scales, as the feathers of 
 the birds do now. But it is astonishing, even yet, to 
 note in birds how resisting the outer skin is, as though 
 
32 THE STORY OF THE BIRDS. 
 
 its integrity were dying hard ; for the papillae, or 
 points out of which the feathers grow, rise up high, 
 and long membranous sheaths follow the feathers out 
 as much as an inch or more in some nestlings. 
 
 By this rupture of the epidermis the skin ceased 
 to build or secrete the outside skeleton or covering 
 from the mere surface, but grew it from these papillae, 
 or pockets (representing the original folds), in the 
 form of scales, feathers and fur. Only in the arma- 
 dillos and a few rodents, where excess of material 
 must have prevailed, did Nature in any high animal 
 tend to return to a shell-like covering. 
 
 How the soft condition of feathers and fur came 
 about we can only conjecture, with hardly grounds 
 for that ; only we feel assured that it was at the de- 
 mands of warmth. Hair may have been a fibrous 
 breaking down of horny scales, since we know now 
 that there is a very intimate relation between horns 
 and hair. Some kinds of horns are made of hairs 
 glued together, and nearly all horns are skin prod- 
 ucts. 
 
 Hairs, or similar plumous particles, may have 
 arisen on the new scale as helpful in throwing off the 
 old skin above it a loosening agent. They are 
 found now, it is said, performing this office in some 
 snakes and crayfish. Here they dry down hard later. 
 Possibly, after the skin was punctured by the scale, 
 they may have grown out with it, and losing their 
 use as skin looseners (since now the epidermis was 
 broken up), they persist as part of the outer cov- 
 ering. 
 
A BIRD'S OUTER WRAP. 33 
 
 It is necessary still to slied the epidermis, but 
 birds and mammals get rid of it in particles almost 
 imperceptibly. Some penguins, however, are said to 
 exhibit the old reptilian habit by shedding theirs in 
 great flakes with feathers attached. 
 
 It is quite probable that originally the barrel or 
 toothpick part of the feather was flat, and that the 
 gradual incurving of the edges finally resulted in 
 welding it into a tube. This tube thus inclosed a 
 glandular core, which nourishes the feather till it cut 
 itself off from further food by the closing of the lower 
 end of the barrel. We sometimes call the dried-up 
 cells of this gland " the pith." 
 
 The tubular form was not necessary till flight be- 
 gan, as no strain could previously be put upon the 
 quills. But strain demands strength, and the tubular 
 form is the strongest arrangement of a definite 
 amount of material consistent also with lightness. 
 Likewise, until flight came, the development of the 
 shaft (the rest of the stem) was not demanded. The 
 shaft, however, may have been simply the result of 
 the natural growth or general progress of the feather 
 beyond the surface. The downs, which appear primi- 
 tive now, have practically no shafts, but this may be 
 the result of degeneration. 
 
 As flight has influenced so much the structure of 
 feathers, the vanes were doubtless at first flossy, and 
 perhaps without barbules, or little side vanes upon 
 the vanes. Thsse were subsequently added with 
 hooks to hold the barbs together into one solid, air- 
 resisting surface. The Archceopteryx, the most primi- 
 
34 THE STORY OP THE BIRDS. 
 
 tive bird known, which had imperfect and yet devel- 
 oping means of flight, had even its wing quills flossy 
 near the base and air-resisting near the tips only. 
 The modern flyers have theirs solid-vaned nearly 
 throughout. 
 
 Since air-tight vanes are useful to keep out rain 
 and keep in warmth, and are yet found on the tips of 
 nearly all body or contour feathers, it might appear 
 that the barbules developed hooks for this purpose. 
 But in degenerate birds, as the apteryx and others, 
 as we have seen, where flight has ceased the plumage 
 has become loose and flossy. Also, where Nature has 
 provided against wind and water she has usually done 
 it with plumous feathers and dense downs, as noticed 
 in the aquatic and arctic birds. Still, there can be no 
 doubt that this hooked condition of the external part 
 of feathers adds to the comfort, and yet more to the 
 prevention of friction of the air in flight. These 
 hooks and barbules (and even the barbs) are further 
 modified or entirely lost at other demands, such as 
 touch, hearing, noiseless flight, water resisting, etc., 
 but more especially in keeping with ornaments by 
 shape and structure of plumage. 
 
 Upon the bird's outer wrap, as we have seen, Na- 
 ture has wrought some of the most skillful of her 
 handiwork, hinting in the garment's frayings the story 
 of the wearer, writing in hieroglyphs of color upon 
 the surface something of its hopes and fears, and in 
 the plainer blotchings spelling out its haunts and 
 habits. 
 
 So, likewise, in various stages of the suit's acquisi- 
 
A BIRD'S OUTER WRAP. 35 
 
 tion she may shadow certain epochs in the bird's great 
 past, but writing upon top of writing may make the 
 old manuscript hard to read. 
 
 Here, in the downy young of some species that are 
 now water or shore haunters purely, the little coat is 
 striped longitudinally as if the race had once been 
 grass hunters, as the grouses and partridges are yet ; 
 and there among some that are more terrestrial now and 
 slightly striped as adults is the solid-colored downy 
 youngster that tells of a watery past. (See cut of 
 land rails.) 
 
 Mottled feathers on the young where the old birds 
 are now solid-colored shadow a time when they flat- 
 tened themselves upon the pebbly beach, perhaps to 
 escape discovery; and the drabbish grays hint of 
 dead-grass hiding. The brown chestnuts in the adult, 
 as in the quail and ruffed grouse, tell of a long ances- 
 try among the dead leaves under deciduous trees. 
 Peculiar corklike and black mottlings, especially on 
 the back, are signs of a habit of tree-trunk climbing, 
 as upon the brown creeper, or at least of rough bark, 
 as a back-ground for the setting, as in the owls. 
 
 All these are tinged with the very emotions of the 
 creature : the fear of the enemy that flew above, or 
 the caution of the prey that crouched beneath. 
 
 More than this. Doubtless for the sake of ex- 
 pressing more, Nature has stained, with pigments of 
 brighter hues, the bird's outer wrap, tinting it here 
 and leaving it untouched there, as if with a painter's 
 art, and burnishing, carving, and grating it here, and 
 leaving it untouched there, as if with a graver's skill ; 
 
36 THE STORY OP THtf BIRDS. 
 
 so that exquisite patterns and delicate blendings may 
 prevail and dazzling splendors may flash out for 
 purpose. But that is another topic. 
 
 If we could read all that is written upon the outer 
 wrap we should have much of the story of the birds, 
 for they have made " broad their phylacteries," like 
 the Pharisees, and enlarged the fringes of their gar- 
 ments, in keeping with much of their past. 
 
CHAPTER VIII. 
 A BIRD'S NEW SUIT. 
 
 ALL birds get new suits at least once a year, 
 changing in the fall. Some change in the spring 
 also, either partially or wholly, while others have as 
 many as three changes perhaps, to a slight extent, a 
 few more. 
 
 The first class often have only one style of color 
 the year through, though we shall see that this is not 
 always the case ; the second don a sort of wedding 
 garment in the spring, or put bright patches of color 
 or special trimmings or ornaments upon the old suit ; 
 while the third dress rather to suit the surroundings, 
 as the ptarmigans. This latter class also put on frills 
 and stains by means of these changes, and all sorts of 
 gradations are found between the classes. 
 
 It seems now that the manner and frequency of 
 changing the dress is something that has been easily 
 modified in the past, since we find, as Mr. Darwin 
 notes, that the number and manner of molts vary 
 strikingly in birds that are near akin and apparently 
 much alike in habits. Like colors, molt seems to have 
 been readily influenced by external conditions. The 
 spring molt is often only partial a patch or a plume 
 
 37 
 
38 THE STORY OP THE BIRDS. 
 
 here and there. Precocial birds, which leave the nest 
 at once, shoot out their wing quills before grown, in 
 keeping with the demands of safety in their exposed 
 conditions, and they get a new and better set later. 
 Altricial birds wait till they are nearly grown to ac- 
 quire their wing quills (fit for flight), and do not 
 usually renew them that season. In some species 
 some ornamental plumes also are shed in a few 
 weeks after they are acquired, long before the nor- 
 mal fall molt, while other plumes are worn the year 
 around. 
 
 The fall molt seems necessary on account of the 
 wear and fading of the plumage, brought about by the 
 business of the year, and, as Darwin suggests, in keep- 
 ing with the demands of warmth for the coming win- 
 ter. Incidentally with it often go the heavy plumes 
 acquired in the nesting season, but, as noted, not al- 
 ways. Since we are sure that many of these orna- 
 ments are of comparatively recent origin, the getting 
 rid of these could not be the purpose of the autumnal 
 change. 
 
 While we may feel that the purpose of the spring 
 molt is ornament, and that the object of intermediate 
 molts is protective coloring, yet we are hopelessly in 
 the dark about how these changes of suit were origi- 
 nally brought about or why a change should so fre- 
 quently result so suddenly in a new color. 
 
 The molts may have originated, of course, in the 
 necessity for repair, as noted ; for it is well known 
 that there can be as many renewals of the feather as 
 there are losses, so that (within the limits of the bird's 
 
Louisiana water thrush. 
 
A BIRD'S NEW SUIT. 39 
 
 strength) there can be any number of molts, depend- 
 ing upon demands. 
 
 But why there should be such an intimate connec- 
 tion between change of dress and change of color is 
 a matter not so evident, as it is that certain of these 
 molts noiv are for the purpose of changing either the 
 shape or color of the feathers for certain ends, as 
 ornament, safety, etc. 
 
 In some birds (for instance, our red- headed wood- 
 pecker) there are certain spots, or series of spots, form- 
 ing bars that tend to cross the wing, say, in the first 
 plumage, but extend more completely across it in the 
 next. The spot in the first case may be upon one vane 
 only of a wing quill in the young of the year, and extend 
 over the other vane during the next season ; and until 
 the molt occurs there may be no change in the size 
 and outline of these spots. There are innumerable 
 instances of this sort of thing with all degrees of gra- 
 dation between the incomplete and the complete state, 
 where rows of spots merge into lines, and where, 
 working the other way, lines break up into spots. 
 These are dependent, as seen in the last chapter, upon 
 the past habits of the bird. These young water 
 thrushes and song sparrows are less spotted below 
 than the adults, but young snowbirds (junco) and 
 robins are more marked than their parents. 
 
 It is claimed by some that now all new colors 
 are acquired by molt, and by others that in some 
 instances (young hawks) an infusion or loss, as the 
 case may be, of pigment takes place as the feather 
 forms, and continues so long as it grows. The battle 
 
40 THE STORY OF THE BIRDS. 
 
 is now on about the matter. Whatever may be the 
 case now, the impression can not but arise that the 
 gradual infusion of color must have prevailed at one 
 time, and that both methods may obtain together yet ; 
 for we shall see that some new colors are acquired by 
 the joint effect of molt and the fraying off of the 
 feather tips. 
 
 Nature now is often a great shortener of processes 
 that were once doubtless tedious, and changes were 
 likely hurried up here as elsewhere. In some tree- 
 toads that never go near the water to hatch their 
 eggs, the young pass through the tadpole state while 
 in the egg, and some omit it altogether a remarkable 
 hurrying-up process ; and in connection with our 
 present topic we have seen that some birds (brush 
 turkeys) pass one molt before they are hatched, be- 
 cause of the emergency of quick flight at the demands 
 of the parentless condition. 
 
 Likewise this process of coloration by molt can 
 now be hurried up in such young birds as have a 
 change of color. By plucking out the present feather, 
 the new one grows out at once in keeping with the 
 hue and pattern of the next molt, which would have 
 occurred normally some months hence. Thus we 
 may see a possible suggestion of the purpose of 
 extra molts, and how, after this law was once es- 
 tablished, some of the color changes may have come 
 about. 
 
 It takes some birds yet as many as five years to 
 acquire complete adult plumage ; and the various 
 changes which they pass through are found to depend 
 
A BIRD'S NEW SUIT. 41 
 
 upon food, climate, and environment generally. It 
 may be shown also that color depends upon the same 
 thing, since some birds that have color in the wild 
 state, show no tint of it when confined. Color and 
 molt, therefore, may in part have come out of the 
 same conditions. 
 
 Their development, however, has been so gradual 
 that the maturity of the birds frequently outruns the 
 maturity of the apparel, and they marry and rear 
 families while yet in their baby clothes. 
 
 Since there is such an intimate relation, as can be 
 noticed in any animal, between vigor and color, it can 
 be seen how unknown physiological agencies (such 
 as congestions brought about by pressure, use, etc.) 
 may have been set up which have produced changes 
 in the whole texture and life of the feather through 
 conditions of the feather-growing follicle or pocket. 
 Out of this crests, plumes, and other abnormal struc- 
 tures, along with the presence or absence of pigment, 
 may have come ; and they may have been subsequent- 
 ly intensified by selection and heredity. Thus it is 
 well known that if the skin follicles of a colored 
 bird or mammal be injured at a certain place the 
 feathers or hairs come in there again white ; that if 
 an ostrich plume be twisted in pulling, thus twisting 
 the pocket, a twisted plume will ever after grow from 
 it ; that if certain parts of the skin of some birds be 
 anointed with certain substances the feathers at the 
 next molt come in having a different and abnormal 
 color ; and that the Javanese and other Eastern peo- 
 ples have learned the art of preventing the molt of 
 
42 THE STORY OF THE BIRDS. 
 
 certain feathers (on certain birds), whereby they grow 
 to immense length. 
 
 As hinted, Nature has rather recently given some 
 birds a paradoxical method of acquiring a new suit by 
 wearing out its old one. What a convenient thing 
 that would be for some of the rest of us ! 
 
 Much of the colors of a bird's feathers or the 
 brilliancy rather is on the tips only. Beneath, fre- 
 quently a contrasting color may prevail. Some of 
 these tips fray easily or are actually shed often in 
 certain places only. This wear allows the color be- 
 neath to show, The male English sparrow gets his 
 black throat patch largely in this way, and the male 
 bobolink puts on his wedding garment by taking off 
 his traveling suit, though he has a spring molt also. 
 Likewise some birds with faint external tints lose 
 them in this manner, and some young birds get a new 
 shape to the extremities of the flight quills thus. 
 
 There are some other evidences that Nature has 
 changed her first method of giving the bird a new 
 suit. Now, usually the old feather closes at the lower 
 end of the barrel, and, shutting itself off from nutri- 
 ment, it really ceases to grow and falls out ; but, as 
 we have seen, the nestling downs, which probably 
 type a very primitive state, are not so closed, but are 
 pushed out on the tips of the forming adult feathers 
 or adult downs. This is the case in all the subsequent 
 molts of the cassowaries, which go about for a while 
 with their old suit raggedly hanging to their new one. 
 
 Molt therefore may, primarily, have begun as a 
 renewal process rather than a destructive one, de- 
 
A BIRD'S NEW SUIT. 43 
 
 pendent not upon the falling of the old feather, but 
 upon vigor of growth infused into the new. 
 
 The still more ancient and reptilian method of 
 shedding the skin and feathers in flakes, as is said to 
 be the case with some penguins, has been referred to, 
 and doubtless indicates a still more remote manner 
 that the birds had of changing costumes. 
 
 If we knew why they have been so freakish in 
 their fashions we should know more of their history. 
 Over it all there now seems to run a law of pattern 
 affecting the nutrition and structure of the follicle, 
 the falling of the feather, the fraying of the tip, the 
 pigmentation of the vane, the microscopic grating and 
 filmy glossing of the very barbules, to aid the bird in 
 putting on a new suit that shall become the occasion. 
 
CHAPTEE IX. 
 
 IN the previous chapter something has been said 
 of how these are put on, but in this the reason for it 
 is talked about. Ornament prevails throughout Na- 
 ture. Much of it may be incidental to the mere form 
 and structure of the material, but its existence for 
 purpose can not well be denied. Its voluntary dis- 
 play is very evident in the birds. Display argues ap- 
 preciation, at least as expected if not given ; and 
 appreciation implies choice and desire to possess. 
 Thus love and beauty have come down the ages hand 
 in hand. 
 
 Ornament is not confined to any part of the body. 
 Choice has no law. Nothing is more freakish. It is 
 a law unto itself. Some persons marry for face ; oth- 
 ers for form. While one indites a " ballad to his 
 mistress's eyebrow," another raves over the arch of 
 her instep. It is so with the birds. Ornamentation 
 may run from beak to toe, according to the fancy, 
 doubtless, of the chooser or admirer. 
 
 In the charming season some feathered Juliet may 
 be ravished by the lengthened beak of her Eomeo, as , 
 in some finches ; or by the extra pieces he has piled 
 
 44 
 
I 
 
 1 
 
 bij 
 
 1 
 f 
 
" PUTTING ON PAINT AND FRILLS." 45 
 
 upon it, or by the novel frills he has given the loose 
 skin at the corner of his mouth, as in some auks ; or 
 by the congested warts, wattles, and snout-like ap- 
 pendages about his head and the bright hues of the 
 skin around them, as in the turkeys and pheasants. 
 
 Nudity is used by birds aesthetically, but much 
 more limitedly than in the average art gallery. 
 
 Others are delighted by plumous crests, trains, 
 etc., and the much spreading of the tails and wings, 
 often when they are not remarkably colored. Oth- 
 ers still among "the sex" seem humorously influ- 
 enced into a tenderer state by antics, sometimes con- 
 nected with the display of ornament and sometimes 
 not, as if he who made the biggest clown of himself 
 was the favored suitor. Her appreciation of this sort 
 of " being agreeable " is often more demonstrative 
 than that of any other, for she joins in the fun and 
 plays back at the charmer with a sort of Barkislike 
 willingness. In other cases she may be so apathetic 
 as to simply stand by while she is being fought for, 
 and is led off by the victor, whose ornaments seem 
 only to have served the purpose of exasperating his 
 rival. This is strikingly noticeable in the male tur- 
 key's hatred of brilliant colors, especially red. 
 
 Nevertheless, color is certainly the most general 
 and the most refined form of ornamentation. It also, 
 like change of shape, may occur anywhere on the 
 bird. The tip of the beak may be tinted or its entire 
 length may be crossed with colored bars in the charm- 
 ing season only. Above the eye a colored scale may 
 shoot out, as in the ptarmigan (which his rival at- 
 
46 THE STORY OF THE BIRDS. 
 
 tempts to pluck away), or even the iris may turn red, 
 green, or golden. The inflated air sacs may be beauti- 
 fully orange, and the usually dull-hued feet may grow 
 pink or yellow, blue or greenish even banded in 
 some cases, like striped hose. 
 
 But the greatest display of color is well known 
 to be upon the plumage. Here the mere act of stain- 
 ing runs nearly the entire spectrum, but, not content 
 with this, ornamentation again dominates structure 
 and provokes polish and general prismatic effects till 
 pigment is merely subservient to splendor, and the 
 love for distinct hues yields to the beauty of their 
 blending. 
 
 Many of the brilliant gorgets of the humming 
 birds and others, viewed with the proper angle, give 
 any or all the colors of the spectrum. 
 
 Brilliancy seems always to have been progressive. 
 Birds grow yearly more aesthetic. There is little, if 
 any, evidence that any bird has ever receded one step 
 from ornamentation or dressed in duller hues after 
 having once been brilliant. With only a few known 
 exceptions, no young bird is more brilliant than its 
 most brilliant parent, thus not indicating degenera- 
 tion of color. There are some cases of one color hav- 
 ing been substituted for another. Some have changed 
 the style of ornamentation for a better one ; some, as 
 the thrushes and others, have lost spots which were 
 incidentally ornamental, perhaps, but not selected or 
 appreciated by its mate as such. 
 
 It seems the more remarkable since, as we shall 
 see later (Chapter XXIX), in many other respects 
 
"PUTTING ON PAINT AND FRILLS." 47 
 
 most birds have degenerated, to some extent. Their 
 feathers also, as we have seen, have degenerated, but 
 rarely, if ever, at the expense of ornament, and per- 
 haps nearly always to enhance it. Beautiful downs, 
 plumes, and remarkable structural effects, as in pea- 
 cocks, lyre birds and others, are the results of degen- 
 eration. 
 
 Birds do not appear to give up their ornaments 
 for safety even. They are there by beauty as the Mo- 
 hammedan is by his beard or the Chinaman by his 
 pigtail : better die than lose caste. Doubtless many 
 species have been swamped, " like other people," by 
 " putting on too many frills." It is easy to see how 
 such a bird as our peacock, cumbered as he is, would 
 easily fall a victim to a newly introduced adept 
 enemy, as a fox, for instance. 
 
 Arrangement for protection (by natural selection 
 or otherwise), such as mimicry of haunt, may slightly 
 rearrange the plume, or cut the patch of color into 
 an imitating pattern, or push it a little around out of 
 sight, but the law is that it must not eliminate it. 
 The two interests may be combined, however. A 
 certain night hawk has two beautiful wing plumes 
 which it sheds after the nesting season. It roosts 
 on the ground, and they project up and resemble the 
 grass plumes among which it squats, and they are thus 
 protective. The patterns of the beautiful chestnut 
 parts of the woodcock and some partridges mimic 
 well the dead leaves ; and the black breast spot on the 
 wrybill (which, with a beak bent to the right, feeds 
 around stones in the water always with the same side 
 
48 THE STORY OP THE BIRDS. 
 
 inward) is pushed considerably from the left to make 
 it less conspicuous. 
 
 It is " beauty ever onward " with the birds. In 
 this they are ahead of us, for we have had our lapses 
 into dark periods in art. 
 
 As to the origin of choice, which seems so mysteri- 
 ous and freakish, it does not appear unreasonable that 
 some of it may not have arisen as a matter of associa- 
 tion, as suggested by Grant Allen, though the idea is 
 usually ridiculed. If a bird delights in a certain bril- 
 liant fruit, leaf, or bud, the chance presence of a sim- 
 ilar color, markings, or shape in her mate, especially 
 if displayed in a love antic, may cause her to like him 
 better than a suitor without the resemblance ; and in- 
 heritance would easily intensify all this. The splen- 
 dor of the hummers and of other tropical birds may 
 possibly be thus accounted for. Perhaps the original 
 turkey's snout-like appendage above his beak may 
 have suggested to his mate a luscious worm. 
 
 There is only one instance where ornament in 
 birds takes on a pictorial or perspective effect the 
 well-known ball-and-socket arrangement of the Argus 
 pheasant. Here is an instance where color has per- 
 haps been lost, to a slight extent, for this higher artis- 
 tic effect of shade and perspective. Mr. Darwin has 
 ingeniously shown that these balls in black and white 
 have been formed by the merging of slightly chest- 
 nut-colored spots. Now, this may have arisen by a 
 fancied resemblance, at least in the estimation of the 
 female, of these balls to some form of nut of which 
 she was fond. When the male displays them, he 
 
"PUTTING ON PAINT AND FRILLS." 49 
 
 quivers the wing till the balls seem to dance in their 
 sockets, perhaps resembling some seed shaking in its 
 hull or some berry quivering in its husk, thus arous- 
 ing pleasant associations, till the bird, like some others, 
 loved her lover because he " looked nice enough to 
 eat." 
 
 It is difficult, of course, to see how female choice 
 should be so delicate as to be influenced by the finest 
 shades of color and shape, as indicated in the forma- 
 tion of these " eyes " in the pheasant's tail or those in 
 the tail of the peacock. Often, especially in such low 
 birds as these, where splendor and weapons both pre- 
 vail, the female seems quite indifferent while the bat- 
 tle or display prevails, and she is won by the law of 
 battle or persistence of pursuit alone. 
 
 It may be that variations of color were set up 
 originally (by laws that we do not understand) inde- 
 pendent of any choice, and have been intensified rather 
 by food, climate, health, and vigor generally, as we 
 saw in the last chapter, until selection by the female 
 of the brightest, healthiest, and most vigorous or suc- 
 cessful in battle would tend to bring color onward in 
 the males up to the point where it stood not as an ex- 
 pression of beauty, but simply as the sign of all that 
 was desirable in a wooer otherwise. 
 
 It is well known, of course, that Mr. Darwin held 
 that all these ornaments were brought about by the 
 aesthetic appreciation and choice of the female. This 
 view is now rather generally accepted, but there are a 
 few thinkers to whom it does not seem probable. This 
 is no place for this discussion, for or against, but to 
 
50 THE STORY OF THE BIRDS. 
 
 the student of birds there is shown much that implies 
 that ornaments and their display are large factors in 
 courtship. 
 
 Whether or not choice always is influenced by or- 
 namentation when the female selects a partner for the 
 season, it is certain that it is often present and flaunted 
 in a very conspicuous way. 
 
 There are some striking evidences of appreciation 
 of ornament among birds. The female " widow " 
 bird is said to desert her mate if he loses his orna- 
 ments. Whiddah bird is the proper name, but 
 " widow " bird is colloquial, doubtless on account of 
 the resemblance in sound. It is not likely that her 
 disposition to make a " grass widow " of herself in 
 this way has anything to do with it. Other instances 
 might be noted, but perhaps those circumstances con- 
 nected with the courting tactics of the bower and 
 garden birds, where neat runways, green, moss-cov- 
 ered, gardenlike little lawns, ornamented with vari- 
 ous bright objects, enable a very plain bird to show 
 his sweetheart pretty things, and to soften her feel- 
 ings by the aesthetic influence of these and by pretty 
 mazy motions over, through, and near them. 
 
 Sometimes it is the female that is attractively col- 
 ored, whereupon she does the wooing making a dis- 
 play of her pretty parts, performing antics, wearing 
 the spurs, and doing the fighting and screaming in a 
 very modern fashion, while her literally henpecked 
 husband does the incubating and rears the family 
 with a meekness that should inherit all the dry 
 land of the planet. The new woman was here in' 
 
XvTBFT 
 , 
 
 ( UNIVf 
 X. 
 
Bobolink, showing brilliant black and buff male and sparrowlike, 
 inconspicuous female. 
 
"PUTTING ON PAINT AND FRILLS/' 51 
 
 feathers a long time before she arrived in baggy pan- 
 taloons. 
 
 This state is found in low birds, however, instead 
 of high ones an experiment tried and rejected before 
 any great aesthetic progress was made by our feath- 
 ered neighbors. 
 
 It is much more frequent, however, that the mates 
 of brilliant males are plain, or even somber in their 
 dress. Color has progressed in one sex only. It is 
 usually considered that females are kept back from 
 brilliancy for the sake of safety while incubating, thus 
 not being conspicuous ; and a series of interesting 
 considerations come in here concerning the relation 
 between color of bird, style of nest, and markings of 
 eggs, which the limits of this little book prevents us 
 from discussing. An instance showing plumage vari- 
 ation in the sexes is given in the illustration of the 
 bobolink. 
 
 Many bright-hued and conspicuous males, how- 
 ever, now assist their mates in sitting ; but this may be 
 a recent habit, permitted by greater safety on account 
 of the changed conditions, brought about by the dis- 
 appearance of some former enemy, and induced by a 
 tendency to progress in helping his mate. 
 
 That in many cases where the two sexes differ in 
 splendor it is the color of the female which is primi- 
 tive is shown by the fact that the young male is apt 
 to look like his mamma at first, hinting a time when 
 the sexes were alike. In other cases, where there 
 was no danger, the female has also become brilliant, 
 perhaps because of change of nesting and other habits, 
 
52 THE STORY OF THE BIRDS. 
 
 which have permitted her also to acquire or inherit 
 color with safety. 
 
 Birds not only change their habits, as we shall see 
 (Chapters XXIII and XXIX), but they actually have 
 exhibited some aesthetic or moral progress, a question 
 the special discussion of which we shall again have to 
 pass over. 
 
 A great deal of the story of the birds is involved 
 in why they put on " paint and frills." 
 
CHAPTER X. 
 
 COLOR CALLS AMONG THE BIRDS. 
 
 THIS is an age of badges and uniforms. Every 
 society has its ribbon, every college its "colors." 
 Nations have long had their flags, and armies their 
 banners. Still we are much behind the times in all 
 this compared with the birds and mammals. 
 
 Nature has always been concerned about the race, 
 and seems to have cared for the individual only as a 
 means of preserving the species. 
 
 The first form of natural increase was doubtless 
 the sacrifice of individuality only, as when a simple 
 cell fissured into two. Here was the possibility of 
 immortality. But later she demanded the sacrifice of 
 life also to build a higher organism, as when the 
 young budded out and broke away and left the 
 mother a shapeless, helpless trunk ; or burst forth and 
 left her a lifeless sac. Later still, as the organism grows 
 higher, both life and individuality are spared awhile 
 to cherish the offspring to subject the parent to the 
 great laws of love and labor. 
 
 But altruism had a higher mission still than the re- 
 lation of parent and children. Parental interest, after 
 all, is a selfish one, for it is exercised toward a part 
 
 53 
 
54: THE STORY OF THE BIRDS. 
 
 of self. But society interests were also developed, in 
 which every individual was made in some sense his 
 brother's keeper. Wonderful social instincts were 
 organized among insects, fishes, birds, and mammals. 
 With these came voluntary social calls, so frequently 
 noted in the chirps of birds.* These naturally grew 
 out of mother calls and nestling cries for food, and 
 out of their little by-talks. 
 
 But Nature was not content yet ! An individual 
 might forget his social duties, as many individuals 
 have. Where these are necessary for the good of 
 the race she has made them involuntary. She has 
 fastened them upon external features so indelibly 
 that a mother unconsciously calls her young and a 
 frightened member of a flock mechanically warns and 
 guides his following fellows. She has made altruism 
 automatic by habits crystallized in structure and by 
 calls and cheers that are dyed in color. In some 
 cases she has made the bird almost literally " wear his 
 heart upon his sleeve." 
 
 Usually these are on fleeing, flocking, defenseless 
 creatures. Antelopes are social, crepuscular, depend- 
 ing on flight for safety, and usually have a leader. 
 They are conspicuously white in the rear, that those 
 following the weaker brothers may be guided into 
 safety. The mother hides her young, and, returning 
 to it, presents a broad white breast mark as a maternal 
 signal. Similarly the deer hoists a white tail, and the 
 cottony patch of the rabbit answers the same purpose. 
 
 But the hare's is a sadder story. Now he is soli- 
 tary and selfish. Once he was (like the European 
 
COLOR CALLS AMONG THE BIRDS. 
 
 55 
 
 rabbit), perhaps, an exemplary parent and brother, and 
 led his little family around and guided it in safety to 
 the burrow. But now his altruism is 
 only a vestige. He has become trav- 
 eled and selfish, and learned to 
 make a tramplike bed for each 
 night's rest in a new re- 
 gion. Farther away 
 from home (out West 
 and South) the cottony 
 signal is growing dull, 
 and Nature stamps on 
 his very fur the ten- 
 dency of his feelings. 
 Birds strikingly ex- 
 hibit these social or sig- 
 nal colors on various parts 
 of the body. They may 
 be conspicuous head mark- 
 ings, as in some plovers ; 
 throat patches, as in our Bob- 
 white and wild (Canada) goose ; 
 rump spots, as in the flicker or 
 lapwing ; various tail spots, tips, 
 or blotches, or the entire whiteness of one or more 
 tail feathers ; wholly or partially white feathers among 
 the wing quills, or white blotches or bars upon the 
 smaller feathers of the wing more conspicuous usu- 
 ally when spread in flight. There are many other 
 forms the entire wing or back or some other part 
 being conspicuous. 
 
 Lapwing. 
 
56 THE STORY OF THE BIRDS. 
 
 When it is to the interest of the bird to be incon- 
 spicuous while perching, these marks may be entirely 
 concealed, as in the white rump patch of the flicker, 
 which is usually hidden by the closed wings ; or in 
 the white outer tail feathers of the snowbirds and 
 others, which, except when spread in flight, are hid- 
 den under the others. 
 
 Other birds are white beneath and protectively 
 colored above. The "teetering" of the little "tip- 
 up" sandpipers is doubtless the vestige of a signal 
 wrought in the display of white underwear with the 
 "peek-a-boo" up-and-down motion. From above 
 their colors harmonize with their haunt. 
 
 These " recognition colors " may be also modified 
 or used for ornament, since many of them are more 
 conspicuous in males than females, as in Bobwhite, 
 the English sparrow, and others. In fact, Mr. Wallace, 
 who first emphasized these markings as thus useful, 
 thought that the purpose of all brilliancy and pe- 
 culiar patterns in the males might be simply recog- 
 nition markings, whereby the feathered maiden might 
 know her beau when she saw him ; but it is more 
 probable that primarily brilliant colors were usually 
 intended for ornament only or the expression of vigor. 
 White, however, is often used as ornament also. 
 
 While not literally within the scope of our topic, 
 there are among the birds other social signs and ex- 
 pressed solicitations for each other's welfare, which 
 might as well be mentioned here because they are of 
 a similar nature and origin. 
 
 The well-known assemblage of crows, jays, and 
 
COLOR CALLS AMONG THE BIRDS. 
 
 57 
 
 Outer tail feather white, shown only in flight. 
 
 others at the presence of an enemy is one of the 
 lowest social feelings based on the most sinister com- 
 munity of interest. 
 
 Certain birds have a whirring flight when first 
 flushed, and others have purposely designed wing 
 whistles, as in 
 doves and wood- 
 cocks. Others in- 
 cidentally strike 
 their wings to- 
 gether over their 
 backs as they begin 
 to fly. Yet more 
 voluntary is the little " chit " or back talks of many 
 birds as they feed accompanied sometimes, as in the 
 snowbirds, by the little flit of the white tail feathers 
 a sort of " I-am-with-you " kind of signal in the toil 
 for daily bread. 
 
 Then there are those most conscious, deliberate, 
 altruistic vocal calls of the flocking birds, where so 
 long as a single member is astray the whole remain- 
 ing flock will risk its safety in calling the wandering 
 brother in- a beautiful instance of the love for the 
 lost one that runs all through Nature a hint of the 
 concern of the ninety and nine about the hundredth 
 one, away down here in feathers. 
 
 Many a man walking homeward from his bloody 
 work among the birds plumes himself upon his be- 
 nevolence as he thinks of giving a quail or grouse to 
 an invalid or an appreciative friend, and prides him- 
 self upon his culture and civilization, when, if he 
 
58 THE STORY OF THE BIRDS. 
 
 would turn and listen to the call of brother unto 
 brother in the gloaming, while the smoke of his gun 
 is still floating in the damp air, he would feel if he 
 has cultivated the art of feeling that he has left 
 much of the altruism of his age behind him in the 
 bushes. 
 
CHAPTEE XI. 
 
 WAR AND WEAPONS AMONG THE BIRDS. 
 
 CONTRASTED with our last reflections comes the sad 
 commentary upon the birds' moral progress that 
 bluff and battle are such conspicuous features of 
 their history. Like our most civilized nations, while 
 professing the best of feelings for their fellow, the 
 birds, if they do not make large appropriations for de- 
 fenses, at least secure peace with honor by a large dis- 
 play of warlike talk and tactics. Still, as we shall see, 
 the folks in feathers, like their neighbors, show in 
 their higher development a tendency to use weapons 
 as a last resort and to depend upon milder and more 
 refined means of settling disputes. 
 
 While some of the Dinosaurs had spurs on their 
 thumbs, as a certain ploverlike bird has now, it is prob- 
 able, primarily, that birds inherited no weapons from 
 their ancestors except teeth ; and, like all early weap- 
 ons, these were developed at the demands of prey 
 taking rather than of war among themselves. With 
 the change of the character of the food these were 
 lost, especially as the extra advantages of flight, run- 
 ning, and pouncing from above came about. This is 
 all that we can say about why a bird lost its teeth. 
 
 59 
 
60 THE STORY OF THE BIRDS. 
 
 Its discussion would involve the exposition of anatom- 
 ical details and changes in habit and in the digestive 
 tract not practical in this little book. 
 
 With changed habits or changed food supply 
 came about certain special means of prey taking, de- 
 veloping some utensils that were weapons indeed 
 against everything, and some which were adapted only 
 to the special needs. For instance, the beaks of cranes, 
 shaped for piercing a fish or frog, makes a dog howl, 
 but that of a swift or goatsucker, shaped for tak- 
 ing flying insects, is harmless against an enemy. Of 
 course, again, the hooked beak and terrible talons of 
 the birds of prey are all-around weapons. So far as 
 we can see, every modification of beak and claw of 
 birds is made purely at the demands of food taking. 
 In the true sense, therefore, these can not be taken 
 as true weapons, except in their incidental use in de- 
 fense. 
 
 Our topic turns, therefore, upon special weapons, 
 and the evidence is that these came in not as a neces- 
 sity of procuring food, nor even for fighting an enemy 
 of the species, but as a peculiar means of overcoming 
 a rival some fellow-sufferer in the toils of a charmer. 
 Within the species war and love have come down the 
 ages together. 
 
 Mr. Darwin has shown that within the mammals, 
 at least, many weapons are nearly useless against any- 
 thing but a rival within the species, or at least have a 
 poor use outside of this. One antelope has to get 
 down on his knees and put his nose far back under 
 himself to bring his horns into play. While this is 
 
WAR AND WEAPONS AMONG THE BIRDS. 61 
 
 very effective against his bellicose fellow who accepts 
 this style of battle, it places him much at the mercy 
 of other outside enemies, as a leopard or wolf. Ex- 
 pert use of these special means of fighting in others 
 are very effective, however, as instanced in the wild 
 hog, rhinoceros, and horned cattle. Still, the evidence 
 is that the weapons and styles were developed while 
 fighting rivals the result of some apparently peculiar 
 agreed-upon style of battle. For instance, victory in 
 some lizards consists in throwing the rival upon his 
 back, whereupon he at once yields the palm ; and it 
 would not be at all strange if a kind of hook for 
 effecting this topsy-turvy movement should develop 
 upon their snouts. 
 
 The lowest bird now living that is specially armed 
 is the cassowary among the ostrich forms, which, be- 
 sides having the inner toe elongated and armed with 
 a long straight claw, has the shortened and otherwise 
 useless wing quills converted into spines. These it 
 uses effectively against all enemies. But it is more 
 likely that this latter form is a very special and com- 
 paratively modern weapon, since it is not found else- 
 where. 
 
 Besides the special arming of beak and toe, the 
 lowest special weapon is doubtless the wing spur, 
 brought about by a very natural use of striking with 
 the wing in battles among the males. Even the very 
 low fossil divers show its probable existence upon 
 their wings while they yet had teeth. That it is a 
 special development within the species is shown by its 
 many different locations on the wing in different birds. 
 
62 THE STORY OF THE BIRDS. 
 
 That the spur is a weapon of rivalry is shown by 
 its larger development upon the wings of the males 
 (though some females have it) and by the fact that 
 where it exhibits itself only as a knob it tends to sub- 
 side (in some plovers) after the fighting season is over. 
 Its development thus by use may also be implied from 
 the fact that while in some species of a family it is a 
 well-developed spur, in others it is only a mere cal- 
 losity on the wing's bend, as seen in the swans and 
 others. In the spur-winged goose it is strongly 
 marked, but in our ordinary geese there is only the 
 habit of striking a very effective blow with the " butt 
 of the wing," as any one may observe in a goose fight. 
 The writer has a very vivid remembrance of a time 
 when, having the experience of about five summers 
 only, he undertook to be too familiar with some fluffy 
 goslings, and received upon his forehead a very prac- 
 tical demonstration that an old gander had knuckles 
 on his wings. 
 
 Nearly all the low birds appear to have had ances- 
 tors with this style of weapons. Among the fowl 
 forms some of the brush-turkey tribe have rudimen- 
 tary spurs upon the wings; there is a spur-winged 
 pigeon ; many plover forms show them variously, 
 and at the junction of these and the rail forms is the 
 jacana, similarly armed. At the bottom of the goose- 
 duck group is the screamer, with double wing spurs, 
 tying this group backward, while triangularly between 
 the birds of prey, the herons, and cranes, and doubt- 
 less older than all, is the spur- winged secretary bird. 
 Dr. F. A. Lucas notes that when wing spurs are 
 
WAR AND WEAPONS AMONG THE BIRDS. 63 
 
 present the bird is apt to have wattles about the 
 head. 
 
 The only other special weapon in birds is the leg 
 spur, confined almost exclusively to the fowl forms. 
 The ostriches strike downward and forward with their 
 feet, a habit which perhaps came about by the degen- 
 eration of the wing and the great use of the leg in run- 
 ning. This striking habit is shown in the fowl group, 
 and the leg spur is probably developed in keeping 
 with it. These spurs also show all degrees of devel- 
 opment from mere knobs to the terrible stiletto of 
 the game chicken. Some pheasants have more than 
 one. 
 
 Wing spurs seem to be a growth of or from the 
 bone, but all leg spurs are likely of surface or skin 
 origin, and only after considerable growth do they 
 attach themselves to the bones and acquire a bony 
 core. 
 
 Sharp edges of wing bones may be noted as a 
 modification looking weapon ward, and in turkeys and 
 others there is doubtless a hardening of the lower end 
 of the breastbone. 
 
 It is not denied that in Nature there are not spe- 
 cial precautions and weapons against such enemies as 
 might prey upon the owner. The skin secretions of 
 toads and others, the spines of some lizards, the so- 
 called quills of hedgehogs and porcupines, the shells 
 of many creatures, are evidences of a protective ar- 
 mor. The birds have very little, if any, of this. 
 Whenever they do possess special capacities for being 
 disagreeable, such as those, for instance, incidental to 
 
64: THE STORY OF THE BIRDS. 
 
 their feeding habits, they are apt to be conscious of 
 their use, as is seen in petrels and vultures ejecting 
 the offensive contents of their stomachs as a means of 
 offense and defense. 
 
 In some mammals it is quite evident that their 
 weapons have been changed in shape at the demands 
 of ornamentation, but there is nothing of this among 
 the birds. Thus horns of deer have been unneces- 
 sarily branched even till there is danger to both con- 
 testants in fighting. This has no reference to victory. 
 Those of sheep, antelopes, and goats have been beauti- 
 fully corrugated, curled into spirals, or curved into 
 lyre shapes till they are almost useless in their origi- 
 nal purpose, and are now only butting implements at 
 their bases. But, unless we except the occasional 
 lengthening of beak during the charming season, there 
 is nothing of this kind in the birds. Ornament seems 
 to have seized on other parts. 
 
 There is evidence among the mammals that one 
 style of weapon has given place to another, as where 
 ruminants, acquiring horns, have lost their weapon- 
 like canine (" eye" and " stomach ") teeth. Some deer 
 that have no horns still shoot out tusks like a wild 
 boar. 
 
 So it is not improbable that weapons, once ac- 
 quired, have been gradually lost in birds, as other 
 methods of winning wives have been developed. 
 The spur comes no further up in the scale than the 
 pigeons and hawk forms. Color and display are per- 
 haps younger than special weapons, and it is certain 
 that song is a more recent form of overcoming a rival 
 
WAR AND WEAPONS AMONG THE BIRDS. 65 
 
 than fighting ; for no true song bird is specially 
 armed, if we except the adaptations of the beak in 
 shrikes. 
 
 Audubon notes that the yellow-shafted wood- 
 pecker (nicker) never fights his rival, but depends 
 upon antics, chuckles, etc., to win his mate ; but he is 
 a vigorous defender of his nesting hole when he is at 
 home. 
 
 We can not go into various forms of battle among 
 the birds. In many it has degenerated into mere 
 bluif ; others fight ridiculously. Audubon notes that 
 snipes and woodcocks push each other around harm- 
 lessly with their long beaks. "While many song birds 
 fight vigorously, others simply vie with each other in 
 a sort of musical rivalry, as we shall see later, sub- 
 stituting music for war and showing a tendency 
 toward a cultured form of arbitration. 
 
 In others battle is mere chase, the bird on his 
 home tree having the best conscience and the intruder 
 the poorest. Repeated evidences of this exhibition 
 of how " conscience makes cowards of us all " may be 
 observed daily when different species of birds nest 
 near each other an instance again of morals well 
 braced by retribution low down among the brutes. 
 In others the battle consists in the mere sham of 
 pretension, as they inflate themselves, and take on 
 terrifying attitudes. In other creatures there is found 
 a form of protection, wherein by color, shape, pose or 
 gesture a harmless animal will mimic one that is dan- 
 gerous or disgusting, thereby gaining safety. But, so 
 far as known, there is nothing like a terrifying mim- 
 
66 
 
 THE STORY OF THE BIRDS. 
 
 icry among the birds, unless the resemblance which 
 the European cuckoo has to the European sparrow 
 hawk be such. It has been thought that, because of 
 this, the former can more easily frighten smaller birds 
 
 Sparrow hawks. 
 
 away from their nests while it deposits its egg within 
 them. By reference to the illustrations, this resem- 
 blance can be noted. 
 
 Among mammals there are some forms of shields, 
 but, so far as known, while some birds carry swords, 
 
WAR AND WEAPONS AMONG THE BIRDS. 67 
 
 none carry bucklers. The hackles of cocks, some 
 plovers', ruffs, etc., while having the appearance of 
 shields, seem merely terrifying or ornamental instru- 
 ments, for there is no doubt that one highly orna- 
 mented male can tantalize or humiliate his rival by 
 the exhibition of his own beauty. Birds know each 
 other's weak places and beauty spots, and direct their 
 attacks at them; and it frequently happens here as 
 elsewhere that a bird is weakest where he is prettiest. 
 
 The European cuckoo. 
 
 From our standpoint, the weapon seems a cruel 
 instrument, but in the purposes of Nature it has been 
 a means of progress and betterment of the species. 
 The outlook for a higher development, when moral 
 growth found poor soil for its lodgment, lay in some 
 sort of suppression of the weak and sickly and in the 
 survival or predominance of the strong and healthy. 
 
68 THE STORY OF THE BIRDS. 
 
 Death, any way, is the great doom that comes out 
 of the wear and tear of time and activity, and " Na- 
 ture red in tooth and claw," as the great poet puts it, 
 is no worse than Nature rank with decay and ruin, as 
 it would still be if rapine had never prevailed. As it 
 is, a wise Power has arranged it so that out of death 
 and sacrifice to others shall come the highest of possi- 
 bilities the best there is in life. The mission of the 
 weapon, in Nature as in Eden, is to keep the way of 
 the tree of life, that nothing shall become immortal 
 in its frailties before it has had all the opportunities 
 of progress. 
 
CHAPTEK XII. 
 
 ANTICS AND ODOR AMONG THE BIRDS. 
 
 BIRDS are much given to antics, and seem at times to 
 display a sense of humor. There is such a thing as play 
 among birds, but nothing to compare with its extent 
 among the mammals. Not all are confined to charm- 
 ing seasons and tactics. Female birds sometimes seem 
 to display the most reckless sort of capers with each 
 other when there is no Adonis to admire. But among 
 the males it must be admitted that many of them pay 
 their partners the poor compliment of acting as if he 
 who made the biggest clown of himself was the most 
 favored a state of affairs found too often among 
 other bipeds. 
 
 Antics doubtless have their origin in an excess of 
 energy usually accompanying youth or occasions of 
 special vigor. In very young animals exercise is 
 necessary to proper development of their muscles, 
 and to the acquisition of skill in using them. Thus 
 all young things may tend to play especially if active 
 in after life ; and the antics of adult birds is a sort of 
 grown-up sport. 
 
 Terns, crows, waxwings, and others have sorts of 
 games with their food sometimes, and the gambols of 
 
70 THE STORY OP THE BIRDS. 
 
 little chickens in the barnyard are a matter of every- 
 day observation in summer. 
 
 This latter is almost invariably a mock fight ; and 
 in this many antics of all creatures man not excepted 
 have their origin. Mock chases and retreats are 
 the basis of many sports, and an especial charming 
 factor found running all through Nature is that tan- 
 talizing " you-can't-catch-me " kind of daring that 
 little girls exhibit and big girls recover from with 
 effort. 
 
 But among cranes, plover forms and their rela- 
 tions, and among owls and many others, there seems 
 to be a distinct exhibition of the merely grotesque or 
 clownishness of motion a struggle at the purely 
 awkward for its own sake, as if the bird were trying 
 to provoke a laugh. This often occurs after the pair 
 are mated, and the females join in heartily. 
 
 Other antics evidently have distinct reference to 
 the tender state only, especially those among the 
 grouses, bustards, etc. These often have regular 
 meeting places, or some old male will trumpet forth 
 that the occasion has arrived when these affairs must 
 be settled, and all come at his call. Then they assem- 
 ble, and pairing is preceded by the most formal 
 waltzes, minuets, and general " walk around s," in 
 which both sexes take part. There comes in much 
 strutting, swelling, booming, and cackling on the part 
 of the males, throwing defiance at each other till, like 
 other " cake walks " and "hoe downs," the whole ends 
 in a many-cornered fight among the gallants. In the 
 attempt to present a large appearance, we can readily 
 
 
ANTICS AND ODOR AMONG THE BIRDS. 71 
 
 see one mission of the air spaces beneath the skins of 
 birds. 
 
 Again, a single snipe or woodcock may get his 
 " intended " off entirely to herself, and exhibit in pe- 
 culiar dances and jigs that he is hers and hers only, 
 or he may arise high on the wing and cut the most 
 peculiar capers and gyrations in the air, either pro- 
 testing to her in the grass beneath the most earnest 
 devotion, or advertising to her his whereabouts and 
 his Barkis-like condition. It is quite likely that in 
 this latter case he is trying to induce her to come to 
 the try sting place, and does not know just where she 
 is yet. In some sandpipers the male's crop is inflated 
 as he flies a state which he doubtless thinks adds to 
 his appearance. 
 
 This brings us to that more usual form of antic 
 involving the display of pretty parts. So certain is a 
 bird to make such display that in many cases the style 
 of the antic can be predicted from the position of the 
 color or ornament. The strutting of peacock and 
 turkey cock scarcely needs mention. 
 
 A most striking and familiar instance among 
 our small birds is seen in the flicker, already noted, 
 as not fighting his rival. His back is protectively 
 colored, except there is a white rump spot which acts 
 as a signal or banner color during flight, but is usually 
 hidden by the wings when the bird is against a tree 
 trunk. There is also a red stripe across his nape. 
 But his lower parts in front are beautifully polka- 
 dotted, a black crescent or locket lies across his chest, 
 and his wings and tail are lined with a beautiful yel- 
 
72 THE STORY OP THE BIRDS. 
 
 low, with the shafts of the quills golden. From the 
 corner of the mouth on each side runs backward two 
 black lines like a mustache. Out West this line may 
 be red, and other slight changes prevail. 
 
 AVhen he wishes to charm his sweetheart he mounts 
 a very small twig near her, so that his fore parts shall 
 not be hidden as he sits upright in regular wood- 
 pecker attitude, and he lifts his wings, spreads his 
 tail, and begins to nod right and left as he exhibits 
 his mustache to his charmer, and sets his jet locket 
 first on one side of the twig and then the other. He 
 may even go so far as to turn his head half around to 
 show her the pretty spot on his " back hair." In 
 doing all this he performs the most ludicrous antics, 
 and has the silliest of expressions of face and voice as 
 if in losing his heart, as some one phrases it, he had lost 
 his head also. For days after she has evidently said 
 yes, he keeps it up to assure her of his devotion, and, 
 while sitting crosswise on a limb, a sudden movement 
 of hers, or even a noise made by one passing, will set 
 him to nodding from side to side. To all this she 
 usually responds in kind. 
 
 This movement of hers has also some significance. 
 Excepting the mustache, she also is ornamented as 
 he, and she plays back at him in a similar peek-a-boo 
 fashion. 
 
 The author once found two female flickers assid- 
 uously courting the same male, and they were out- 
 Heroding Herod in their importunities. Numerous 
 other examples of this sort could be given. 
 
 The song flight of such birds as the European lark 
 
ANTICS AND ODOR AMONG THE BIRDS. 
 
 73 
 
 is rather too dignified to be called an antic it is rather 
 an ecstasy ; but it partakes of the same nature, and in 
 our meadow lark, lark bunting, yellow-breasted chat, 
 and others, it is often rather undignified. Our mocker 
 has it also along with a peculiar falling or fluttering 
 down flight in song, which seems the utmost abandon 
 purely to the emotions of his own music. 
 
 
 Skylarks. 
 
 Among the reptiles and many mammals odor is 
 a large factor as a weapon, as a charm, and as an ad- 
 vertisement of position a sort of down- wind call, in 
 many cases quite searching. 
 
74: THE STORY OF THE BIRDS. 
 
 Odor is a very low form of being either offensive 
 or agreeable among animals, and the birds are ahead 
 of us in getting away from it ; for, with the exception 
 of the musk duck, no bird secretes a specially odorous 
 substance for any purpose. Man, the parasite of the 
 parasites, yet robs every creature of its perfume when 
 he likes it, and hints his kinship backward in musk 
 and unguents and such things. It seems not improb- 
 able that he may have once passed through a state 
 when he was free from the necessity of its use before 
 the dawn of soap, since clean little babes have an agree- 
 able odor ; but his betterment, like that of the birds, 
 lies in a less use of perfumes and a larger use of water. 
 
 Of course, in every organism there is some odor 
 as the result of food, necessary excretions of the skin, 
 etc., but in some there are specially significant odors 
 connected with glands for their secretion. We can 
 not stop to discuss these latter, interesting as they are, 
 since they lie outside of the class of birds. From the 
 suppression of the pores of the skin at the base of the 
 feathers, corresponding to those which open at the 
 base of the hairs in mammals (to oil them), birds have 
 less of these incidental odors than most creatures. 
 This suppression is compensated for in them by open- 
 ings in the oil gland, whereby a special oiling and 
 waterproof substance is emitted which the bird ap- 
 plies, as needed, to its plumage. 
 
 It is remarkable, however, that this should be free 
 from noticeable odor, since in some mammals where 
 similar special openings occur, the secretion, to phrase 
 it mildly, is rather redolent. 
 
ANTICS AND ODOR AMONG THE BIRDS. 75 
 
 Birds certainly have odors, however, which, while 
 not so evident to us, are easily detected by dogs, foxes, 
 weasels, etc. These odors are in many cases distinc- 
 tive, since an experienced setter often shows that he 
 knows what kind of birds are under his point. These, 
 arising solely from food, insensible perspiration, breath, 
 oil gland, etc., are not, however, so characteristic as in 
 the mammals, since they distinguish each other and 
 their individual young by scent. No chance for a 
 Prince and Pauper romance there. But birds do not 
 seem to recognize their young this way, else the cow- 
 bird could not so frequently foist her squab upon the 
 others. 
 
 There is much in the stronger existence of odor 
 in flocking birds and in their behavior in reassem- 
 bling after being scattered, to imply that their odor 
 has been intensified or developed for some such social 
 purpose. Those that are ground haunters are strongly 
 odorous to dogs when adult, but their very downy 
 young before they fly seem scarcely so at all, so that 
 experienced noses fail to " locate " them even when 
 they are near by. This would imply also that the 
 acquisition of these special gamy odors (as they are 
 styled) is rather recent, as in all probability are the 
 social habits. 
 
 The sense of smell in some birds is quite keen. 
 This is well shown in some carrion eaters, notwith- 
 standing their large dependence on sight, and in the 
 snipe forms, which to some extent probe the ground 
 for food at the proper place by it. The Apteryx is 
 said to snuffle like a dog while it hunts in the dark. 
 
76 THE STORY OF THE BIRDS. 
 
 Some of the fowl forms and others perhaps can de- 
 tect, hours afterward, that the human hand has been 
 in their nests. Others who hunt solely by sight have 
 this sense less developed, and the nostrils are almost 
 entirely suppressed in some pelican forms. 
 
 There are some unexplained appearances of the 
 voluntary suppression of odor in the game birds 
 which are rather well attested. These may be due to 
 its dissipation during flight, or the suppression of skin 
 secretions during fright, as often happens in any 
 animal. 
 
CHAPTER XIII. 
 
 THE MEANING OF MUSIC AMONG BIRDS. 
 
 Music now among birds has primarily in it the 
 purpose of charming, and represents, perhaps, the 
 highest feature of their progress. 
 
 If it were not for its connection with other court- 
 ing tactics it ought to end the story of the birds in- 
 stead of coming near its middle. With them it is the 
 capstone of the great pyramid of the art of pleasing, 
 and man only at the tip of the other twig of develop- 
 ment has vied with his friend in feathers in expressing 
 the refinements of the emotions in vocal melody. It 
 is doubtless as recent in the progress of his culture as 
 it is in theirs, for in birds battle, and perhaps even 
 color and "frills," may have been inherited from 
 the reptiles. They are there now at any rate, and 
 odor we have seen was doubtless rampant long be- 
 fore the bird. Special weapons came in early after 
 all these, and perhaps antics as now seen are as old as, 
 at least, or older than, the wing. But song must have 
 waited long upon the feather. The reptiles doubtless 
 groaned and roared, and the frogs trilled monoto- 
 nously, but there were no modulations that were in 
 any way melodious till the dawn of the avian syrinx. 
 
 77 
 
78 TITK STORY OP THE BIRDS. 
 
 No other creature has a throat like a bird. It has 
 placed its singing apparatus at the forks of its 
 bronchial tubes, and left all the rest of its vocal cav- 
 ity to modulation. The greatest prima donna has no 
 such instrument to play upon. 
 
 Nightingale. 
 
 True bird music has developed solely within the 
 birds, for the lower birds have not the modulating 
 apparatus that the higher or oscine kinds have, there 
 being a great difference in kind and number of mus- 
 cles, which we can not discuss here. The lower birds 
 with down on their nestlings can (usually) scream or 
 squeak only, or at best issue a pleasant, slightly mod- 
 ulated whistle. 
 
 Song, therefore, is largely an invention of bipeds, 
 
THE MEANING OF MUSIC AMONG BIRDS. 79 
 
 and there is an evident connection between the tree 
 top and the high place (in every respect) and music. 
 No original water haunter or ground builder ever 
 sang. Every melody is a march a command to 
 move onward to every ear that can truly compre- 
 hend it. 
 
 Yet music with the birds has been perverted or 
 has yet the trail of the lower passions over it. Per- 
 haps if a brief general definition of bird song were 
 attempted none would be better than " a vocal effort 
 intended to please." Yet this would fall far short of 
 all that song may sometimes mean. While the pleas- 
 ing feature may be very basic, song may have a more 
 primitive element of being a mere call for assemblage 
 or the other feature of advertising the singer's posi- 
 tion. 
 
 This calling feature is doubtless low down in all 
 vocal effort. It may be only an offshoot from the 
 social expressions and by -talks of young birds in the 
 nest, or it may be that all calls have come out of dis- 
 tress cries provoked by pain, hunger, fear, or anger. 
 The language of these is very primitive and uni- 
 versally understood. If a dog howls in pain, the 
 mother birds near by will shriek and scold in sym- 
 pathy, not at the dog, but at the common enemy. 
 
 Out of the consoling tones of parents the tender 
 calls may have had their origin, and a desire to please 
 and attract, by selective action and actual practice, 
 may have developed these into the highest song. 
 
 Other birds which have a single tone for all pur- 
 poses fear, distress, rejoicing, scolding, cheering, 
 
80 THE STORY OP THE BIRDS. 
 
 calling, fighting, and pleasing indicate the probable 
 development of all music from one source. 
 
 Spring songs of migrant birds are made by males 
 frequently that come on ahead of the tide of females, 
 and are doubtless an advertisement of position and 
 condition of heart, as well as a serenade and a solicita- 
 tion. In these cases birds that have usually lowly 
 haunts may mount the tip sprays of tall trees, as they 
 sing, and abandon all else to melody till this engross- 
 ing business is over. Such are our robins, thrushes, 
 wrens, indigo birds, chewinks, etc. For four years 
 the writer observed a single red-winged blackbird to 
 sit upon the only brush near a meadow pond, and, for a 
 while in the spring, gurgle out his " con-ker-ee-e " 
 and lift his gaudy epaulets, combining acting with 
 melody. It is probable that it was the same bird 
 each year. 
 
 Song doubtless may appear to have a mere cheer- 
 ing effect or that of a serenade purely. The nightin- 
 gale and many others sing mostly after the mate be- 
 gins to sit. Others appear to sing as they go about 
 their work, but usually when the young are hatched 
 and the father is busy worm hunting he is silent. 
 The sudden acquisition to the family of from four to 
 eight hungry mouths might dampen the melody of 
 many of us. 
 
 Song sometimes seems to have in it the element 
 of rejoicing in anticipation. We can not resist the 
 impression that this is the cause of the bluebird's early 
 song. 
 
 In the fall many blackbirds get together and sing 
 
Thrushes. 
 
THE MEANING OF MUSIC AMONG BIRDS. 81 
 
 in concert at the evident freedom from care that they 
 have reached and the prospect of the juicy pulp of 
 the farmer's roasting ear. But this is quite different 
 from the wheezy, asthmatic effort by which the male 
 in the spring won his wife. 
 
 Likewise the meadow lark has a giggling sort of 
 rejoicing which is very different from his true song. 
 
 After molt, many birds sing out of the usual sea- 
 son, as if they were conscious of and glad at the ap- 
 pearance of a new suit of clothes and at the departure 
 of the great physical strain which growing new feath- 
 ers entails. 
 
 These are evidences of rejoicing, and no bird sings 
 when not well. As to whether a bird sings when sad 
 or not, we can surely say that many sing when a mate 
 is lost, the song then being a call doubtless purely ; 
 but we shall see under Step-parents among Birds 
 (Chapter XV) that there is considerable doubt as to 
 whether this is intended for the ear of the quick or 
 the dead. There is no doubt that songs of some birds 
 are simple expressions or overflow of energy, since 
 the most nervous and restless, as wrens, finches, 
 vireos, etc., sing most tirelessly. A bird may some- 
 times sing just as a boy shouts or a girl giggles. 
 
 We have noticed in the last chapter that some 
 songs are evident calls to assemblies and combats, as 
 the booms of the grouse, and many are challenges and 
 defyings that do not lead always to battle. Bobwhite, 
 for instance, sings after mating rather than before it. 
 He has a slight tendency to take more than one wife 
 sometimes, and with his cry he warns his rival with 
 
82 THE STORY OF THE BIRDS. 
 
 similar tendencies to keep off his domain and away 
 from his beloved. Several males will reply to each 
 other's boastings and threats, much as our common 
 chicken. 
 
 In fact, this is a larger use of song than is usually 
 estimated, and its highest use that of musical rivalry 
 or emulation has come out of it. Near the writer's 
 home a circle of as many as five rose-breasted gros- 
 beaks have been heard singing, each taking turns at 
 his rollicking warbling, while all the others keep re- 
 spectful silence. 
 
 But not always does such consideration prevail, 
 for some use song as a means of encounter almost. 
 The gentle dove will break in upon his rival's " coo " 
 sometimes, and whip-poor-wills will often get near 
 each other and try to drown each other's voices out by 
 jumbling up ridiculously and rapidly their usually de- 
 liberate calls. Likewise the turkey's gobble is intended 
 to drown the challenge of his rival. 
 
 But this reminds us that many birds have different 
 tones for various phases of their emotions. The tur- 
 key's gobble is purely his challenge or defiance, but 
 he has a tender, low call besides. Yet his vocabulary 
 is so incomplete that he uses this last as his war cry 
 while fighting. Burroughs has noted that the battle 
 cry of the bluebird is his melody which he uses for 
 all purposes, except when he sets up that pessimistic 
 wail of his at the prospect of his autumnal departure. 
 
 Likewise, when the rose -breasted grosbeak fights 
 he sings melodiously. 
 
 Other birds, especially thrushes, robins, catbirds, 
 
THE MEANING OF MUSIC AMONG BIRDS. 83 
 
 etc., are well provided with distinct scolding notes 
 and distress cries, and many, like some boys, fight 
 crying all the time. 
 
 Some have a distinct tone for all the cries, but 
 the " attempt to please " the true song or serenade 
 can usually be distinguished by the manner of its 
 delivery. 
 
 There is much else about the accompaniments of 
 song, the mechanics of song, where rattles, quill snaps, 
 air swoops, ventriloquial effects, and various other fea- 
 tures of charming, challenging, and calling come in, 
 but our limits prevent their discussion. Likewise the 
 topics of how songs are acquired, or the instincts of 
 song, and what songs tell of a bird's associations, of 
 its mimicry of and influence by others, etc., are in- 
 teresting, as well as the relations of song to size, color, 
 structure, climate and weather. 
 
CHAPTER XIV. 
 
 FREAKS OF BACHELORS AND BENEDICTS IN FEATHERS. 
 
 WE have seen much of the agencies and tactics 
 that birds use in charming, but the features of when, 
 where, and to what extent and degree the feathered gal- 
 lant is enthralled has not been mentioned. If St. 
 Valentine's Day is a time of love letters and tokens 
 because, as it has been asserted, the birds pair on that 
 day, the custom must be based in an age and climate 
 very different from ours. Farther south, of course, 
 from the average of our latitude, some resident birds 
 may be mated by the 14th of February, but within 
 the climate of our middle latitude (35 to 40) the 
 pairing is much later. 
 
 Again, at any point it is very variable in different 
 birds, ranging in extremes in the limits noted from 
 January to July. Some of the birds of prey are 
 either paired in early winter or else have married for 
 life, and many of our large owls, which hoot and 
 " boo-hoo-hoo " and dance so ludicrously to captivate, 
 began perhaps last fall, since their eggs are sometimes 
 found in early February. 
 
 This might make this eerie bird of night, instead 
 of the dove, the appropriate symbol of the valentine, 
 
 84 
 
FREAKS OF BACHELORS AND BENEDICTS. 85 
 
 especially since it slightly " forces the season," and he 
 might become generally the emblem of love as well 
 as of wisdom. It might be unkind to imply that his 
 great folly at this period has any bearing on the sug- 
 gested change, except that the clownlike antics of 
 both himself and mate while under the tender influ- 
 ence tend to impair their reputation for dignity and 
 wise demeanor. 
 
 It is likely that with those winter birds that stay 
 with us, pairing is often the result of mere associa- 
 tion ; but there is never just simply " an understand- 
 ing." So far as the author's observations go, there is 
 always a distinct event, when he asks for her heart by 
 some special expression, and he speaks, in some way, 
 of the wealth of beauty and devotion he has to offer. 
 
 This period may last for only a moment, as exhib- 
 ited by jays and others, or it may be a matter of 
 philandering for days, as the flickers, already noted, 
 often exhibit. It is certain also that there are some 
 long engagements among the birds, or long sieges of 
 charming at any rate. Nearly all put on their wed- 
 ding suits, and many exhibit the tactics of love long 
 before the housekeeping begins. Our little American 
 goldfinch or thistle bird (sometimes called " wild cana- 
 ry") dons his beautiful lemon-yellow suit early in 
 spring, and sings charmingly of all that he hopes, but 
 that more somber sweetheart of his does not name the 
 day till somewhere near July. She is waiting till the 
 thistle down is right to line her home to the proper 
 tint, and she has her ideas about the color proprieties 
 of the wedding as well as its other sentiments. 
 
86 THE STORY OP THE BIRDS. 
 
 Among the birds that come to us in the spring the 
 case may be different) and weddings and housekeeping 
 follow fast after arrival. Very few, if any, migrant 
 birds come to us paired, because, as noted, the males, 
 especially of good singers, come first. They, taking 
 up a definite location, determine often the region 
 where the nest will eventually be, but the female 
 usually has a word to say about its exact situation. 
 In the case of the blackbird that chose the pond bush, 
 there was never any redwing's nest near it. 
 
 There is some evidence that among ducks and 
 some low birds an agreement is reached before the 
 northward migration begins, or at least while they are 
 on the way later ; but the small birds mostly pass us 
 unpaired, and their " wedding journey " is usually be- 
 fore marriage. Bobolinks go by us in the spring in 
 unpaired groups, the males very much dressed up, and 
 singing in concert as if each now was practicing for a 
 special occasion further on ; and it is probable that 
 all the songsters, wherever they stop in their journey, 
 sing, although no feminine ear be near to heed. It 
 may be that when the male reaches the end of his 
 travels arid begins the announcement of his loverlike 
 condition, he has " a girl that he has left behind him " 
 whom he expects to meet him in the region of last 
 year's romance, and the peculiar little variations in 
 the songs of various individuals may be for her recog- 
 nition. It is just as likely, however, that his wife for 
 this season will be a " summer girl " only, and that his 
 old flame has "gone with a handsomer man." It 
 may happen, therefore, that both he and she may 
 
FREAKS OF BACHELORS AND BENEDICTS. 87 
 
 have as many partners as there are years in their little 
 lives. 
 
 To such birds as rear more than one brood there 
 may be a second or third spring of the season, when 
 the tactics of charming are again resumed. The re- 
 vival of song about the end of June, when the first 
 fledglings are able to care for themselves, is very no- 
 ticeable. While most birds retain the same mates for 
 all the year, there is just a hint sometimes that some 
 get a new partner for each nesting occasion. We 
 shall see in the next chapter that birds have no scru- 
 ples about second marriages the same season when 
 there is the slightest occasion for them. 
 
 Neither have some any compunctions about taking 
 more than one wife at one time. Especially is this the 
 case among the lower families. While in all the 
 groups there are some that exhibit both tendencies 
 (i. e., one wife and many wives), yet, as the birds have 
 developed music and the more refined methods of 
 charming, they have become monogamous (one wife 
 only), and exhibit during the nesting season all the 
 tender little gallantries that make up so much of love 
 and life. The hornbill walls his wife into a hole with 
 mud, and feeds her while she incubates (see Chapter 
 XXI). Many others bring choice delicacies to their 
 incubating mates. Others still take their turns at sit- 
 ting, in constructing nest, feeding of young, etc. 
 Some males construct the nest alone, and many 
 among the lower forms (ostriches, etc.) take exclusive 
 charge of the young when hatched. As noted in 
 some plover forms, the males do all the incubating, 
 
88 THE STORY OF THE BIRDS. 
 
 while the females usurp all the masculine privileges, 
 having it leap year all the time in their circle. 
 
 Other little birds, while unusually devoted in song 
 and frivolous attentions, are content to sing only, 
 while the wife does the work. As a rule, the female 
 builds the nest among our higher birds, though both 
 may work. Frequently the male brings material 
 which the female shapes into the structure. 
 
 Down among the polygamous birds, as ostriches, 
 fowl forms, etc., there is an occasional fatherly devo- 
 tion that is striking. Thus the male ostrich not only 
 scoops the sand cup for the eggs, but does half the 
 incubating, though he may have in the wild state 
 plenty of wives to divide the duty up among, and he 
 takes the more dangerous night time as his portion. 
 Besides this, as noted, he rears the young exclusively, 
 and shows his love of babes to such an extent that he 
 will steal them forcibly from his neighbor. 
 
 Our Bob white takes the first brood under his care, 
 hovering them from storm, and talking baby talk to 
 them like a mother, while his mate incubates the sec- 
 ond brood. 
 
 But others of the birds of this level are far from 
 being "model husbands and fathers." Our com- 
 mon rooster is usually indifferent to the chicks, 
 and our turkey cock will frequently kill them if 
 he can. 
 
 Usually the males of the true grouses nearly al- 
 ways polygamous desert their wives as soon as they 
 go to sitting, and leave them till the family is entirely 
 brought up, when they again selfishly join the flock, 
 
FREAKS OF BACHELORS AND BENEDICTS. 89 
 
 Among some ducks a similar habit prevails, but some 
 geese and swans are devoted to mate and young. 
 
 While some birds, as noted, like eagles, etc., pair 
 for life, the tender relation is usually ended as soon 
 as the nesting season is over, even among our most 
 gallant birds. The flocking birds, after the coming 
 in of the males, may all stay together, but the others 
 usually separate. Burroughs notes that the male^of 
 our least woodpecker ungallantly drives his mate 
 away, and takes the home-nesting hole exclusively as 
 his winter roosting place ; and the writer once saw a 
 female downy woodpecker excavating in November a 
 hole in a fallen tree top, and was able to read as he 
 ran the reason for this winter work. 
 
 While fishes and some lower creatures paired, per- 
 haps, in the long ago, or do now, at least, monogamy 
 and gallantry first found their great development in 
 the birds ; and while some of them have made small 
 progress, they seem, upon the whole, to have done 
 about as well as some others who have had better 
 opportunities. 
 
CHAPTEE XV. 
 
 STEP-PAKENTS AMONG BIRDS. 
 
 ARE there any old maids or bachelors among the 
 birds ? any remated ones after the usual pairing sea- 
 son has passed ? 
 
 It would seem so, or else there are divorces or the 
 worst kind of desertion of mates. In the writer's 
 yard a kingbird was once industriously and noisily 
 thrashing all the other birds, especially a favorite 
 mocker. A stone was cast the tyrant's way merely 
 to frighten him, which unfortunately slew him. He 
 was given decent burial, and certain glances of con- 
 dolence were thrown up to his widow with her lonely 
 home upon the limb, filled perhaps with gaping or- 
 phans. 
 
 But by the afternoon of the next day she had 
 married again, and the new husband was just as as- 
 siduously thrashing his neighbors as his predecessor. 
 The dead bird was actually dug up to avoid the con- 
 viction that he had come to life and scratched out. 
 Later, personal observations and the reading of the 
 record of others were thoroughly convincing that 
 within the same season there may be many second 
 marriages in feathers, and that the question of the 
 
 90 
 
STEP-PARENTS AMONG BIRDS. 
 
 91 
 
 Sadducees (In heaven whose wife will she be ?) does not 
 worry the birds much. White, of Selborne, notes 
 many similar instances, and others have experimented 
 till they determined that as many as seven successive 
 
 Magpie and nest. 
 
 spouses would be found very quickly by suddenly 
 bereft pies, daws, rooks, owls, hawks, eagles, and 
 others of either sex. 
 
92 THE STORY OP THE BIRDS. 
 
 The new wife or husband has the very commend- 
 able virtue of taking up the work where the " dear 
 departed " left it off anywhere from the earliest 
 stages of nest building to the feeding of the young. 
 It would seem that the new bird would like to begin 
 anew, but in this and other respects it seems a model 
 step-parent. 
 
 If the male is left he at once begins to sing or call. 
 This may appear as a wail for his first love, but it 
 looks later wonderfully like a serenade to his second. 
 Sbme persons have been cruel enough to shoot female 
 nightingales on the nest, that the male may break 
 again into song. 
 
 The purpose of this song is more certainly indi- 
 cated in those cases where females sing in widow- 
 hood which are usually nonmusical at other times. 
 Others who can not sing have peculiar widowhood 
 cries that are well understood by the gallants. But 
 since others of them have neither of these means of 
 announcement, and can not don the draperies and 
 colors of mourning as a visual advertisement, and 
 dress better in their bereavement than they did in 
 their first partner's lifetime, it is difficult to see how 
 they so quickly marry again. There may, therefore, 
 be a large number of unmated birds, among which 
 the widow " has her eye out," and whose whereabouts 
 she well knows. 
 
 Sometimes they may be persistently near. In the 
 author's yard there has nested for years a pair of 
 house wrens, presumably the same birds. One sea- 
 son they were annoyed (or rather the husband was) 
 
STEP-PARENTS AMONG BIRDS. 93 
 
 by the presence of another male which pried around 
 the nest persistently, notwithstanding the occasional 
 thrashing he got. There can be little doubt that had 
 the rightful husband died the other would have been 
 installed at once in his stead. 
 
 But why these unmated birds do not find each 
 other and let other folk's spouses alone is more of a 
 mystery. 
 
 It may be that they are young and inexperienced 
 in partner catching, and fail in the struggle with 
 widows and widowers in the fascinating arts, just as 
 others do. 
 
 It is not at all improbable, as Mr. Darwin notes, 
 that there are certain incompatibilities of temper and 
 taste that occur among birds which prevent them from 
 finding just the right partners among each other till 
 it is too late ; or they may also have been unfortunate 
 in losing a partner. They may have mutually agreed 
 to separate because they could not agree, for there are 
 some very creditable records of mated birds disagree- 
 ing about many things. 
 
 It is to be feared that there is a less excusable 
 feature in all this, and while constancy is the rule 
 above polygamy, some individuals of any species may 
 sigh for change, even in a summer marriage, and de- 
 sert their mates for others. Nuttall notes that a Bal- 
 timore oriole had quite a tendency to linger in the 
 society of his neighbor's spouse, and that his wife 
 won him back again ; and there are various instances 
 of connubial vagaries in both sexes. Even that beau- 
 tiful constancy so long emphasized in song and senti- 
 
94 
 
 THE STORY OF THE BIRDS. 
 
 mental literature the constancy of the dove group 
 will not bear too close inspection, since even Aristotle 
 
 denied it so long ago, and 
 his views have been con- 
 firmed by others. 
 Mr. Darwin thought 
 also that perhaps in 
 more instan ces than 
 is usually suspected 
 birds were associ- 
 ated in triplets 
 two of one sex with 
 one of the other 
 and he instances some, 
 and that this was a 
 loose union easily 
 broken when a better 
 situation was open. 
 Such things are noticeable 
 among domestic geese, etc. 
 The writer recently received a letter from a Nebraska 
 observer, asking why he so frequently saw three crows 
 together in nesting season ; and he went on to say 
 that there was a song about "three black crows," 
 probably founded on a similar basis. But he omitted 
 his address (and a stamp of course), so that he could 
 never be answered from this source, unless this little 
 book falls into his hands and gives him the above 
 inkling. 
 
 Birds may change their habits with regard to de- 
 votion to mates with change of environment. The 
 
 Daw. 
 
STEP-PARENTS AMONG BIRDS. 95 
 
 mallard duck is monogamous in the wild state, and a 
 Mormon of the Mormons when domesticated. 
 
 Very closely allied genera or families even spe- 
 cies differ strikingly in permanent habits, as we saw 
 in the last chapter. Again, they may hint their kin- 
 ship in their frailties. Our crow blackbirds are mo- 
 nogamous, but show some quite Lotharian tendencies ; 
 the red-winged or swamp blackbird is polygamous 
 usually, and the cowbirds on the border of the family 
 are indifferent to any connubial ties whatever. The 
 weakness of NuttalPs oriole may have been an inherited 
 tendency, since he is in the same family with all these. 
 
 Of course, among the purely polygamous birds such 
 vagaries count little, and step-parents may occur with- 
 out death, as with the ostriches, for instance, where 
 many females lay in the same nest. Mr. Darwin notes 
 a correlation which may tend to prevail between bril- 
 liancy of color and polygamy, so that any bird that is 
 pretty may be liable to suspicion as a flirt a very natu- 
 ral conclusion, tending to hold beyond the feather. 
 But the writer has observed in the male cardinal the 
 most unselfish paternal interest, where, unmated him- 
 self, he helped a pair of blackbirds feed their young. 
 
 Of course, there is yet that other form of step- 
 parents, blameless except for its stupidity, where one 
 bird hatches and rears the young of another, to the 
 injury and loss of its own, as seen in the parasitic 
 habits of the American cowbird and European cuckoo. 
 
 The adoption by a common hen of any bird that 
 she has hatched, as a duck, is a form of step-parental 
 affection common in almost any barnyard. 
 
CHAPTEE XVI. 
 
 WHY DID BIRDS BEGIN TO INCUBATE ? 
 
 have followed the bird's story thus far by the 
 development of changes in its structure slightly and 
 in its outer covering more extensively. This latter 
 led us on into its emotions (and their reflex effect 
 upon structure and color of plumage) and into the 
 development of a love for beauty and music and some 
 other general aesthetic feelings till we have reached 
 some of its tendencies toward the unselfish. From this 
 standpoint we shall now go again to near the bird's 
 origin, and note its progress away from the reptiles 
 through incubation, nest building, egg coloring, young 
 rearing, and kindred topics. 
 
 This may be styled another account of the genesis 
 of the birds, parallel with and corroborative of the 
 first. 
 
 After this a few miscellaneous side lights will 
 follow, and our task is done. 
 
 Since all reptiles have eggs, many of which are 
 hatched outside of the body, as are those of the birds, 
 and since only one quite unbirdlike family of reptiles 
 the large constricting snakes show any tendency 
 
WHY DID BIRDS BEGIN TO INCUBATE? 97 
 
 toward incubation, an interesting question may arise 
 as to the origin of this habit among the birds. 
 
 Since the lowest birds, or those showing nearer 
 relationship to the reptiles in structure, practice incu- 
 bation less closely than do the higher groups (some 
 even ignoring it altogether), we feel justified in in- 
 ferring that the early birds left their eggs to be 
 hatched by natural heat, and that incubation, as we 
 now know it, came in after feathers. 
 
 While the coiling of the python and other similar 
 snakes around their eggs may seem like incubation, it 
 may be really more a matter of maternal watchful- 
 ness. The temperature of the eggs are said to be 
 elevated by the act, however, but this may be due in 
 part to their own heat incidental to the mere act of 
 hatching, for the development of life means the de- 
 velopment of some heat. Since all reptiles are cold- 
 blooded, they have little heat to impart to their eggs, 
 and incubation can have little significance with them. 
 In fact, it has been suggested that the parent has 
 coiled about the eggs to warm itself from them, and 
 in this way, at least among reptiles, the habit of in- 
 cubating may have had its origin. 
 
 But, strange to say, the opposite idea has been 
 advanced in the case of birds that is, that, being in- 
 tensely hot-blooded, they began first to sit upon their 
 eggs in order to cool their breasts. In keeping with 
 this view it may be noted that one thing is fairly es- 
 tablished now that at the incubating period the 
 breast and abdomen of the sitting bird are in a state 
 of congestion, and, of course, the circulation and heat 
 
98 THE STORY OF THE BIRDS. 
 
 in these parts are much increased. It is said that the 
 cruel experiment has been tried of baring and burn- 
 ing the breast of a common rooster, whereupon he at 
 once began sitting on eggs to cool himself. 
 
 All this, if true, leaves the increased circulation at 
 this particular season yet to be accounted for, but in- 
 cubation itself may have come about in such a man- 
 ner as to develop both the habit and congestion to- 
 gether, for the mere act of sitting long in one place 
 tends to make the breast warm, while the increasing 
 heat of the hatching eggs tends also to heighten the 
 temperature. Now the rhythm, or regular recur- 
 rence, of a physiological condition is well known to 
 be easily established, just as we train ourselves to 
 hunger or to desire sleep at certain intervals. Birds 
 exhibit these physiological rhythms in other ways 
 than this. 
 
 Since so many birds even after laying one egg be- 
 gin at once to sit before others are deposited, it may 
 be that incubation began in the act of laying. It is 
 well known that an egg begins to hatch even before 
 it is laid, and in many reptiles its embryo is' thus per- 
 fected within the body. It is not impossible that such 
 birds as lingered long over the prior eggs before or in 
 the act of laying the succeeding ones, or rested on 
 them a while from the exhaustion of the act, or possi- 
 bly took to roosting on them to protect them, had their 
 young more surely and quickly hatched out, and 
 hence, by inheritance of the tendency, natural selec- 
 tion could easily intensify the habit. 
 
 Besides the sun-hatching tendencies exhibited by 
 
WHY DID BIRDS BEGIN TO INCUBATE? 99 
 
 most reptiles, and to some extent by the ostrichlike 
 birds (in the wild state), there is another interesting 
 example of the similarity of nesting habits between 
 some early birds and some reptiles. The crocodiles 
 generally are known to bury their eggs in the hot sand, 
 but some indicate progress by excavating deep holes 
 and placing in them, with their eggs, much vegetable 
 material, so that a sort of hotbed is formed, and the 
 eggs are hatched by the heat generated by decay. 
 Among the megapodes, or brush turkeys, of the Aus- 
 tro-Malaysian regions, a similar habit prevails. Some- 
 times this is varied into a surface compost heap which 
 many birds, acting together, raise and use in common. 
 Like the reptiles, the eggs are deposited in the night. 
 But the bird out-Herods Herod in the lack of further 
 paternal interest, for some of the crocodiles feed their 
 young after they escape to the water, and in some 
 measure they guard the place of deposit ; but the little 
 brush turkey and his kin are always orphans. 
 
 A sense, therefore, of the need of more heat or 
 heat differently, or more constantly, applied may 
 therefore lie at the base of incubation. Conditions 
 might easily have arisen that demanded a change, for 
 birds, as we have frequently seen, are easily influenced 
 by changes in environment. Thus the ostrich doubt- 
 less leaves its eggs to be hatched in the sand by the 
 sun in some hot regions, but in others, and especially 
 under domestication, it practices incubation, and it has 
 in all probability changed its habits to some extent 
 since the time of Job (xxxix, 14). 
 
 "With the early birds conditions quite likely arose 
 
100 THE STORY OF THE BIRDS. 
 
 as the result of permanently leaving the shores for re- 
 gions where sand for burial was not convenient or the 
 sun's heat was not sufficient, and the egg being laid 
 upon the bare ground or rock, incubation was necessary. 
 This would naturally result also from migration into a 
 cooler region or from a permanent change of climate. 
 
 In the varying amount of incubating heat required 
 to hatch eggs of the same size but from different spe- 
 cies there is a hint that the habit of sitting has been 
 progressive. In tropical regions it is sometimes quite 
 difficult to hatch a bird's egg under a common hen, 
 because too much heat is applied, and an explosion 
 usually results ; and, as we shall see in the next chap- 
 ter, birds of southern origin build cooler nests than 
 those from the north. Some birds sit longer than 
 others on eggs of nearly the same size. As a rule, the 
 time of incubation is roughly in proportion to the size 
 of the eggs, and it may vary from seven days in the 
 smaller birds to forty in the largest. It is well known 
 also that some birds sit much closer than others. 
 Likewise the second clutches, where more than one 
 brood is laid, hatch a little the quicker often, doubt- 
 less because of the greater warmth of the more ad- 
 vanced season. 
 
 This, varying amount of heat now also has some 
 relation to the condition of the nestling when hatched, 
 whether downy or naked, but that bears on another 
 topic (see Chapter XX). Our space precludes the 
 discussion of the incubating habits of the various spe- 
 cies, but some of them have been referred to in other 
 chapters. Others will come up later, 
 

 
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 2 
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CHAPTEE XVII. 
 
 WHY DO THE BIRDS BUILD SO ? 
 
 IF we walk out and study the architecture and 
 building habits of our feathered neighbors we find 
 that they seem to drop into much the same natural 
 divisions as our human associates. Some are still 
 clinging to the traditions of their fathers and some 
 are wide-awake and abreast of the times, and all are 
 more or less influenced by circumstances either past 
 or present. 
 
 Here, now, we shall find those " feather-bed folks " 
 the nuthatches, titmice, chickadees, and others 
 sweltering in hot weather at the bottom of deep holes 
 on mattresses of fur and down, all because, no doubt, 
 their ancestors, as they came down to us on the edge 
 of the ice waves, needed these winter linings. Now the 
 bird going on has carried them to the Gulf. So the 
 blue jay here in June must have a bit of wool to stop 
 the chinks in his log-cabin home, and the shrike or 
 butcher bird is still barbarous enough to line his wig- 
 wam with the coverings of his quarry. 
 
 Then there are the tanagers, the grosbeaks, the 
 cardinals, the cuckoos and others, which, by their 
 greater development under the tropics and their dis- 
 9 101 
 
102 
 
 THE STORY OF THE BIRDS. 
 
 tribution, habits, colors, etc., show themselves to be 
 of Southern origin, building up North here light, airy, 
 basketlike, saucer-shaped nests, like those their ances- 
 tors were cradled in under the equator. Some swal- 
 lows, however, evidently from the South, use feathers. 
 
 European house swallow. 
 
 Some southern birds' eggs, as noted in the last 
 chapter, require less heat to hatch them than those of 
 their hothouse friends. And here is the crested fly- 
 
WHY DO THE BIRDS BUILD SOI 103 
 
 catcher, always trying to have a cast-off snake's skin 
 for upholstering, because it may have frightened away, 
 perhaps, some enemy of his forefathers. 
 
 That type of all that is proper, our mourning dove, 
 may be in the same category, though she shows some 
 tendency to improve with the years ; for that old 
 broken-wing bit of hypocrisy which she still exhib- 
 its very dramatically shows that her ancestry were 
 ground builders, and hints her very close kinship to 
 the fowl forms (Gallince). Now, however, she fre- 
 quently pens her eggs in by a few straws and twigs 
 laid on a rail, a flat stump top, a limb, or even upon 
 the platform of thick evergreen needles. But in 
 structure it is a poor affair at best and shows the 
 shortness of her pedigree. She is only the second re- 
 moval from an ostrich. She has caught the spirit of 
 the age, however, and locates her nest according to 
 the emergencies never, it is said, failing to use the 
 tall cacti mit on the Southern plains to lift her eggs 
 and younkabove the preying reptiles. Even here at 
 home we JJfaj note that she never tries the pious 
 fraud upon man or dog when her nest is high up and 
 safe, as if she knew an emergency when she saw it. 
 In fact, it seems that she is often adverse to need- 
 less industry or effort ; for while she may place her 
 first few straws up in a tree, she is quite inclined (in 
 the Middle "West at least) to place her second clutch 
 in some already prepared bare depression among the 
 grain stubble without the slightest sign of structure. 
 She has lost her tendency upward these dog days and 
 has gone back through sheer laziness to the old style 
 
104 THE STORY OF THE BIRDS. 
 
 of her ancestors. Ninety-five degrees in the shade 
 takes a deal of energy and progress out of us all, and 
 we show a very degenerative tendency toward primitive 
 habits, as the loose robe and the summer tent often 
 indicate. 
 
 Doubtless many other birds are influenced by this 
 element of laziness, for the second nests of most birds 
 are rarely so well built as the first. Even so neat a 
 bird as the chipping sparrow has been seen relining 
 an abandoned catbird's home for its second brooding. 
 But there is no doubt also that there are sloven in- 
 dividuals among the respective species of our neigh- 
 bors, for some are much neater than others. 
 
 Again some, as we have seen in the dove, are 
 much inclined to be influenced by circumstances. 
 These may be brought about by conditions of safety 
 or convenience of material. Nests of the same birds 
 differ in the latter according as they may be in, say, 
 a hemp-, a cotton- or a wool-growing region. An ex- 
 treme case is that of the little bird, which, straying 
 into the crater of the volcanoes on the Sandwich 
 Islands, builds its home of the spun glass about it 
 and of course should not throw stones at anybody. 
 Another bird is reported to have built its nest in 
 Switzerland of fragments of the mainsprings and hair- 
 springs of watches thrown outside a factory, and is 
 entirely up to date with a steel structure or at least a 
 woven-wire mattress. 
 
 Ornithological records are full of instances of 
 change both in progress and degeneration of nest 
 building. But further instances are precluded by 
 
WHY DO THE BIRDS BUILD SO! 105 
 
 our limits. The subject is in itself a study, and a 
 literature already. 
 
 Before we close, however, let us glance a mo- 
 ment at the probable origin and development of nest 
 building. 
 
 While we have fossil birds, and fossil eggs even, 
 it is unfortunate for us that we have no fossil nests. 
 Neither have we an embryology of nests in the true 
 sense from which we may infer something of their 
 beginnings. Young birds build cruder nests than 
 their parents do, but this is a matter purely doubtless 
 of experience or the lack of it. Still it is a law that 
 if the individual can progress then so may the race. 
 We have seen that birds may grow more expert under 
 changed conditions. We have also some hints of the 
 route up which modern nest building has come through 
 the study of the nests of the lowest birds now living. 
 
 While some fishes now build nests, there is noth- 
 ing of the kind among the reptiles, except perhaps one 
 of the snakes of India, and the hotbed habits of some 
 crocodiles already noted. The nest, therefore, as we 
 know it has been developed wholly within the birds, 
 and, like incubation, is not an inheritance. 
 
 As a simple cup -shaped depression in the bare 
 sand or earth, it may have indeed been the same as 
 the reptiles' sand scrape with the lid left off for incu- 
 bating. Many birds yet use such a pretense, and a 
 few, especially among those laying only one or two 
 eggs, hatch their young out on bare flat surfaces, as 
 rocks, etc. 
 
 Doubtless, however, the first step toward a nest 
 
106 THE STORY OP THE BIRDS. 
 
 was a hollo wed -out place in soil that was not neces- 
 sarily sandy, especially if the early birds, as is quite 
 likely, laid many eggs. Under this condition a de- 
 pression was necessary to hold the eggs well together 
 while being incubated. 
 
 Conditions of migrations or change of tempera- 
 ture may also have arisen wherein such eggs as had 
 something under them were more likely to be hatched 
 out, and this sort of natural selection might have in- 
 tensified the tendency to seek grassy places and set up 
 structure, or at the least shaping of the material at 
 hand. We shall see something of a hint of this prog- 
 ress in the color of the bird's egg. 
 
 But it was not until birds began to build in trees 
 that much progress was likely made in intricate nest 
 structure. Such birds as we now find building neat 
 nests on the ground belong to families that are largely 
 tree builders, and their ground-nesting habit is evi- 
 dently comparatively recent. 
 
 It is probable that even the first nests in trees 
 were merely rude platforms as we find yet among low 
 birds that build there. If we except one bird among 
 the stork forms (Scopus), few if any elaborate nests 
 belong below the perchers and their near relatives. 
 Even these complete nests often have the primitive 
 platform first, then the cup on that, and lastly the 
 lining. 
 
 That the lining is comparatively recent is shown 
 by this sequence and by the fact that it is usually the 
 last thing that a bird changes ; but the platform may 
 often be omitted. Some birds are so concerned about 
 
WHY DO THE BIRDS BUILD SO! 1Q7 
 
 the lining as to always have roots of the same color 
 or hairs of the same fineness and character, or other 
 special material. In a few cases the nest consists of 
 the lining only. 
 
 Intricate and comfortable nests have come about 
 more likely for the comfort and safety of the young 
 than for that of the eggs. In all the low birds, which 
 are chiefly ground builders, the young flee at once 
 from the nest or stay in it only a little while, and it 
 has small relation to their comfort. Others, who build 
 no nests but have helpless young, lay their eggs on or 
 under rocks, upon high cliffs or inaccessible islands, 
 and the safety of their nestlings is thus assured. But 
 when birds began building in trees (for the further 
 safety of young perhaps) better structure became 
 necessary. It is said that now the birds that build 
 the best nests have their young remain longest in 
 them. It has been asserted that this long babyhood 
 permits the youngster to better study the parental 
 type of architecture, and thus better nests still are 
 the result ; but it seems quite evident that the nest 
 is built better because there is so much longer need 
 of it. 
 
 There can be no doubt that a bird may take de- 
 light in the skill of its work and the beauty of its 
 home as well as in its plumage, etc. Their aesthetic 
 natures (in some birds) are doubtless factors in the 
 betterment of their homes. 
 
 Hummingbirds, gnatcatchers and others garnish 
 the outside of their nests with lichens, silks, etc., and 
 many others show by the arrangement of the lining a 
 
108 THE STORY OF THE BIRDS. 
 
 mechanical form of ornament. One bird in India 
 studs the outside of its nest with fireflies that glow at 
 night. It has been claimed, however, that this orna- 
 mentation is purely to make the nest conform to the 
 color of its surroundings, or that the purpose of the 
 fireflies is to frighten away some enemy. But it can 
 not be denied that a love of beauty and skill enters 
 into nest building in the higher birds. Nevertheless 
 the modern nest is often shaped by the builder's at- 
 tempts at concealing it. Nest concealing, we shall see 
 later, is a large factor in bird life, perhaps affecting 
 migration. We can not enter into details. Every 
 boy knows how snugly a bird's home can be tucked 
 away. 
 
 There is no doubt but that in the past, at least, 
 there has been an intimate relation between the style 
 or shape (and location) of the nest and the color of 
 the sitting bird in order to conceal her. The style of 
 nest that she has used may have affected her color, or 
 she, having the color first, may have built her nest to 
 suit her complexion more likely the latter, when we 
 know all the facts. It is an interesting question which 
 has developed a real philosophy of bird's nests. The 
 naturalists were for a while " cheek by jowl " over it, 
 but we can not discuss it further. 
 
CHAPTEK XVIII. 
 
 FASTIDIOUS NESTING HABITS OF A FEW BIRDS. 
 
 BEFORE leaving the subject of nests, it might be 
 well to notice a few instances of a certain fastidious- 
 ness in building and some other peculiarities. No 
 attempt at even mentioning all could be hoped for. 
 The topic of nests alone is a specialty in ornithology. 
 
 Mr. Darwin had considerable trouble in convinc- 
 ing the world that birds exercised choice in selecting 
 their mates, but the most casual observer may note 
 how very fastidious they are in choosing the proper 
 location and material for their homes especially the 
 latter. Even such a sloven builder as our dove has 
 been seen to pick up and reject as many as half a 
 dozen straws before finding one to suit. 
 
 After a certain substance is once chosen, however, 
 bird's continue to use that from a certain definite 
 region. Thus a Dick-cissel (black-throated bunting) 
 selected one year all her straws from the midst of a 
 meadow which seemed to the observer to have the 
 same material on its nearer edge. It may be just pos- 
 sible that a convenient dead weed on which her mate 
 sat and sang while she worked had something to do 
 with it, for he went with her to the neighborhood of 
 
 109 
 
110 
 
 THE STORY OP THE BIRDS. 
 
 the nest and sang there and then preceded her to the 
 dead weed again. But it is more probable that he 
 merely persuaded himself that he was "bossing the 
 job." 
 
 Robin's are quite given to selecting more than one 
 site, building a little there and abandoning it for an- 
 
 - 
 
 Singing while his mate builds. 
 
 other. This often appears as the result of seeing that 
 they have made a mistake. But other birds seem to 
 be merely unable to settle upon a location. 
 
 The palm for this sort of fickleness the world over 
 belongs to the wren tribe, as exhibited in the great 
 number of their well-known " sham " nests. 
 
FASTIDIOUS NESTING HABITS OP A PEW BIRDS. HI 
 
 It may be readily noted in the familiar house 
 wren, which fills every cavity about the place with 
 sticks before it selects one for the real nest. Various 
 theories have been advanced to account for this tend- 
 ency in our nearest feathered neighbor, all of which 
 are partly plausible, but none of which account for all 
 the facts. It appears to be a matter of pure selfish- 
 ness, as held by Burroughs and others, as if he did 
 not want any other bird to enjoy these cavities a 
 sort of dog-in-the manger spirit ; but his cousins the 
 marsh wrens and the tule wrens of California, and 
 others which do not use holes, build a number of 
 these sham nests in the grass, sometimes quite near 
 each other, only one of which is said ever to be used. 
 The writer was sure one year that the extra holes 
 were held for the second (or even third) broods, since 
 the birds used one of them thus that season, but the 
 next year they occupied for the second nest a cavity 
 that they had not filled at the beginning of the season. 
 This may, however, still seem the reason generally, 
 and the minds of these individual birds may have been 
 changed ; but the fact of the tule and marsh wrens 
 never so using their extra nests, if true, is against this 
 view. 
 
 In England these extra nests are called " cock 
 nests," because it is asserted that the male roosts in 
 them while his mate is sitting, and the first brood of 
 young occupy them at night while the second are 
 being hatched. But the writer has found both the 
 male and subsequent broods "roosting out" in the 
 crotch of a maple while the mother incubated. 
 
112 THE STORY OF THE BIRDS. 
 
 Another plausible theory is that the male wren 
 builds and pretends to defend these sham nests to 
 divert the attention of an enemy from the real nest 
 and his sitting mate. There is no reason why the 
 bird should not be capable of such deception. But 
 the nearness to each other of the nests of the tule 
 wren is somewhat against this view. 
 
 It may be, however, that these extra nests once 
 had some such purpose, and they are still built by 
 force of inherited habit. One other bird at least has 
 a nest with a vestibule for the male to sleep in, and 
 various birds resort to deception about their nests. 
 Or it may be that this extra building is the result of 
 the great surplus energy of these birds, just as great 
 abundance of their song may be. 
 
 Ofttimes the male alone fills the cavity with twigs 
 and the female comes, burrows into the center of the 
 mass, and lines it with straws and feathers. A male 
 house wren was once observed to pile such a mass 
 under a back porch while his mate was on the first 
 nest. So far as known she came to inspect it only 
 once, and then evidently rejected it. Some of these 
 sham nests may be attempts of the male to please his 
 wife, and their rejection may be just the usual femi- 
 nine fastidiousness about housekeeping affairs. 
 
 Something similar has been noted in the nesting 
 of the purple gallinule, an aquatic bird. 
 
 Birds have been rather naturally but unscientifi- 
 cally classified in their nest building according to the 
 manner of making the nest, as carpenters (hole diggers 
 in wood), plasterers (much mud in nest), weavers, felt- 
 
FASTIDIOUS NESTING HABITS OF A FEW BIRDS. H3 
 
 ers, basket makers, etc. These things are very appar- 
 ent when the nest is at hand, and the styles may be 
 combined as in the robin's nest. 
 
 The swifts might be styled cementers, since their 
 nests largely consists of twigs glued together by a 
 sticky saliva, secreted especially during the nesting 
 season. Of course it is well known that one Chinese 
 swift omits the twigs altogether. 
 
 It is probable that many birds which build such 
 neat, compact nests, also use saliva in felting, espe- 
 cially the hummingbirds, which are next of kin to the 
 swifts. It is well known that the woodpecker uses 
 no nest material at all except the fine chips of the 
 digging, feeling perhaps that if he finishes his home 
 in hardwood his young can do without the upholster- 
 ing. Here is a striking illustration that the habits of 
 the young and the style of the nest are related, since 
 little woodpeckers after a few days do not sit upon 
 the bottom, but cling constantly to the sides of the 
 cavity. There is little need of a mattress. 
 
 It would be interesting, of course, to note the 
 many striking or unusual locations of nests and their 
 peculiarities of material, use and structure ; but it 
 would take a volume, and reference must be had to 
 special works on the subject. 
 
 Something of the relations of nest and egg colors 
 will be noted in the next chapter. 
 
 It is likely that no birds use the same nest to 
 rear a subsequent brood in the same season, but they 
 nearly always build the second nest in the same region. 
 But many birds that build in holes use the same hole, 
 
114 THE STORY OF THE BIRDS. 
 
 and perhaps part of the same material over again. 
 Such are bluebirds, chickadees, wrens, crested flycatch- 
 ers, and some swallows. Of course with the wood- 
 peckers, house cleaning in the spring is simply the 
 
 Sand martins. 
 
 result of the year's disinfection. Sand martins or 
 bank swallows and some woodpeckers make new 
 holes each year. But where a bluebird takes an- 
 other bird's nest, she is often quite particular about 
 
FASTIDIOUS NESTING HABITS OF A FEW BIRDS. H5 
 
 scratching out all the other's material. This is true 
 of some others. Other birds, however, steal or ap- 
 propriate each other's material, and are even so 
 sloven as to take the old material out of a last year's 
 nest. Others again appropriate the abandoned nests 
 which have already been used that season, and refit 
 them to rear their own second brood in. 
 
 Eagles, owls, and others of that sort repair slightly 
 from year to year the same nest. Owls also are great 
 users of abandoned hawks' nests. Of course it is well 
 known that the ospreys, if not disturbed, will continue 
 indefinitely to heap rubbish upon their nests until 
 their bulk is very great. 
 
 The saying, therefore, "Useless as a last year's 
 birds' nest " is meaningless from the standpoint of 
 some birds. 
 
CHAPTEE XIX. 
 
 WHAT MEAN THE MARKINGS AND SHAPES OF 
 EGGS ? 
 
 HOWEVER varied and beautiful the markings of 
 birds' eggs are now, we can not help feeling that 
 either at present or in the past these spots, streaks, 
 etc., and their colors, have some reference to use or 
 purpose. The most plausible view is that these were 
 for protection. Such eggs as best mimicked the 
 place where they were deposited would most likely 
 escape detection by egg-eating enemies, and the 
 chicks hatched from these would most likely lay 
 similarly marked eggs again. 
 
 The earliest birds with highly marked eggs are the 
 plover forms, whose eggs were chiefly deposited per- 
 haps on the pebbly shore, and well harmonized with 
 the various colors of small stones. Such are still 
 strikingly protected in this way. But among the 
 higher birds there are now many instances of marked 
 contrast between the color of the nest lining and that 
 of the egg. At least one bird insists upon black roots 
 to line her home with, while her eggs are conspicu- 
 ously light-colored. 
 
 Mr. Wallace, the great naturalist, revived an old 
 116 
 
THE MARKINGS AND SHAPES OF BIRDS' EGGS. 
 
 theory that these contrasting markings (such as nearly 
 black heavy blotches on a white ground) were in- 
 tended to make the egg hard to detect when viewed 
 through the branches of trees from above, claiming 
 that the light and dark markings imitated light and 
 shadow spots caused by the spaces between the 
 leaves. It seems more probable, however, that these 
 markings are now an inheritance from a past con- 
 dition, when they were imitative, and that the bird 
 has changed its building habit, and of course can not 
 so soon change its physiological habit by laying eggs 
 to suit the surroundings. It is well known that the 
 standard theory is that the ancestors of our birds here 
 in the temperate zone were once resident in regions far 
 north or far south of us ; that ours is a region that 
 has been colonized and not a creative or developing 
 center. Now, the bird that once built its nest near 
 the pole when that region was tropical may have had 
 its eggs marked well in keeping with the lining ma- 
 terial there used ; but when the ice-cap drove it south 
 it could no longer match its nest to its eggs because 
 the old material was not at hand. 
 
 Birds, as we have seen, are usually very constant 
 in the use of the same lining material when it can be 
 obtained, but they are also easily influenced by con- 
 venience. A bird which formerly, as it advanced 
 from the arctics, lined its nest with grayish fern, 
 wool or lichens, may now use flax fiber in Dakota, 
 black roots or horsehair in Missouri, and sheep's wool 
 or cotton in Texas. Some such instances are actually 
 known to occur. 
 10 
 
118 THE STORY OF THE BIRDS. 
 
 Usually such birds as have long built in holes have 
 their eggs white. But there are many hole builders 
 that lay beautifully marked eggs, as the sparrow hawks 
 and others. The case here is perhaps similar. The 
 eggs were originally marked in keeping with an ex- 
 posed nest, and they retain in their hieroglyphics the 
 history of the family, if we could only read it. Doubt- 
 less every marked bird's egg is a palimpsest story of 
 the bird, with pedigree after pedigree written over it. 
 Some of the white eggs of hole builders have perhaps 
 never been colored or marked, but others doubtless 
 may be blank by losing their family record. Among 
 the colored eggs of many birds to-day there are tend- 
 encies toward an occasional white egg, and in the 
 bluebirds these are rather frequently found. It is 
 possible that, since their eggs are no longer more use- 
 ful when colored than when plain, the bluebird of 
 the very far future may lay a white egg, if it persist 
 in hole building. 
 
 If we had space some evidences could be cited 
 that the coloring and marking of eggs are compara- 
 tively recent. It is shown by the deposit of color in 
 the oviduct, occurring usually when the egg is low 
 down only, and then upon the outer layers of the 
 shell chiefly. In some grouses and ptarmigans the 
 color can be readily rubbed off when the egg is first 
 laid. 
 
 On the other hand, in a few birds there is evi- 
 dence which seems to show that there is a tendency 
 toward losing color. In the cormorants and similar 
 forms, in cuckoos and others, the outer layer of the 
 
Sparrow hawk, young, and nesting hole. 
 
THE MARKINGS AND SHAPES OF BIRDS' EGGS. 119 
 
 shell is usually incomplete and uncolored, while that 
 below is a bluish green. Many of the hawk forms 
 appear (as they have grown more arboreal in their 
 building) to have a tendency to lose those strong 
 markings, and to dilute the deep stains which charac- 
 terize the eggs of their ancestral relatives, the vul- 
 tures. So also the flycatchers usually lay strongly 
 marked eggs, but the Phoebe's are only specked occa- 
 sionally, and the least flycatcher's are always wholly 
 white. 
 
 Eggs frequently hint, though not always very re- 
 liably, the kinship of the bird ; and, strange to say, 
 their very great variations may sometimes seem in- 
 clined to point one way and sometimes the other. In 
 fact, many of these variations must be the result of the 
 double strain of kinship that comes into every family. 
 Our crow blackbird lays two forms of eggs one 
 rather crowlike and one zigzagged, like those of the 
 orioles. In its true kinship the bird stands where its 
 eggs indicate, between the oriole forms and the crow- 
 jay forms. 
 
 It would be interesting had we space to note the 
 character of these markings and the relations they 
 seem to sustain, to the ground colors ; to the num- 
 ber in the clutch ; to the earliness or lateness of the 
 clutch ; to the size of the egg, and even to the size of 
 the bird ; to the result of hybridism ; to the character 
 of food ; to the effect of fertilization ; to the change 
 of climate ; and to the general bearing of the environ- 
 ment. Few things are more fascinating than the study 
 of birds' eggs in this light. 
 
120 THE STORY OF THE BIRDS. 
 
 The color of the egg is something that has been 
 wholly developed within the birds, since no known 
 reptile's egg is even stained. Neither are these colors 
 incident to the material of the shell, since carbonate 
 and phosphate of lime, of which it is largely com- 
 posed, are naturally white. They are evidently very 
 specially stained. The first stains may have been 
 blood stains, and certain relations have been asserted 
 between these and the bile stains ; so that the condition 
 of the bird's liver, as with the rest of us, may have 
 had much to do with what it has done. 
 
 It is altogether probable that there was a time 
 when eggs, if colored at all, were all unspotted. So 
 far as the present " ground " colors are noted they 
 seem to consist largely of drabs and buffs, and various 
 mixtures (often with these) of blue and green. It 
 can be readily seen how these tints once set up could 
 be intensified till they harmonized with sand, soil or 
 growing (blue-greenish) vegetation. Later reddish 
 browns show themselves in spots. Some low birds 
 in and near the Ostrich group show similar solid 
 hues. 
 
 This last may probably indicate some progress in 
 nest building, since these colors better harmonize with 
 dead grass, the use of which in the early nesting sea- 
 son may hint of loose material and therefore of struc- 
 ture. 
 
 These reddish-brown spots and all others, as lilacs, 
 lavenders, grays, etc., may have come in as a tendency 
 to the degeneration and breaking up of ground color, 
 in keeping with changes of nesting sites and all other 
 
Least fly catcher. Phoebe. 
 
THE MARKINGS AND SHAPES OF BIRDS' EGGS. 121 
 
 things noted as affecting egg coloration ; especially 
 since, as already mentioned, spottings of the older 
 type, that are deep seated in the shell, are not devel- 
 oped until we get up to the pebble haunters (or shore 
 birds) a second removal from the ostriches. The 
 faint spots and darker stains on the eggs of the Fowl 
 groups show evidence of being recent, as noted con- 
 cerning ptarmigans. 
 
 Oology, however, is not regarded as an exact 
 science, and while its indications are sometimes strik- 
 ing and interesting, confirming other hints of kin- 
 ship, they must usually be taken, on account of the 
 many influences mentioned, with considerable caution. 
 
 Birds' eggs usually differ in shape also, in a gener- 
 al way, from those of the reptiles, which last are near- 
 ly always globular or ellipsoidal i. e., elongated with 
 both ends alike. But birds' eggs, with some excep- 
 tion in woodpeckers, owls and their near kin, always 
 show a true ovoidal shape i. e., elongated with one 
 end smaller or more pointed than the other. The 
 word oval comes from the Latin ovum, an egg, and 
 does not mean an equal ended compressed hoop or 
 ellipse, as is often popularly thought. It has been 
 suggested that this shape is the natural result of the 
 upright position of the* bird while the egg is forming, 
 thus making the lower end the larger, but the owls 
 and woodpeckers are the most upright birds in posi- 
 tipn, and yet they lay the most globular eggs. Another 
 theory of shape is that eggs were, so shaped among 
 low birds (from which they now retain their pe- 
 culiarities by inheritance) by their being laid on flat 
 
122 THE STORY OF THE BIRDS. 
 
 surfaces without any nest. In order that they might 
 roll around in a circle and not roll away or off of a 
 bluff, etc., one end is made larger than the other. Of 
 course the most pointed egg would be the safest, and 
 hence the tendency would be increased. It is a fact 
 that this style of egg tends to prevail among the flat 
 rock builders of to-day. 
 
 Again, it has been found that certain plover 
 forms, which lay very pointed eggs, always keep the 
 three or four in their nest with the points to the cen- 
 ter replacing them when disturbed so that the nar- 
 row breast may better cover them; or possibly, as 
 among some fowl forms (quails) where many eggs are 
 laid, they may be made pointed so as to lie closer 
 packed in two layers. It may be noticed by the 
 reader in the kinship diagram (Chapter XXX) that 
 these pointed eggs, running from fowls through plov- 
 ers, gulls and auks, tend along a line of strong con- 
 secutive kinships. 
 
 The pigeons lay eggs alike at both ends, but 
 roundish and much elongated, while the grebes lay 
 likewise equally ended eggs, but both very pointed. 
 
 The structure and grain of the shell also bear on 
 the relationship of birds, but this and other interest- 
 ing things about the development of the egg and its 
 hatching, etc., are beyond our scope. 
 
CHAPTEE XX. 
 
 WHY TWO KINDS OF NESTLINGS ? 
 
 FEW tilings about birds are more interesting than 
 the condition of the young when hatched and the 
 various features connected with the duration of their 
 babyhood. 
 
 Doubtless all young of the primitive birds were 
 precocial, or hatched with eyes open, with down or 
 possibly coarser feathers, and able to run and forage 
 at once (or very soon) for themselves. Such is the 
 case with the lower birds now, and such exclusively 
 is the case with the reptiles. 
 
 Of course it is well known also that the higher 
 birds (usually the smaller) are hatched naked, blind 
 and helpless, and are fed in their nests by the parents 
 for a longer or shorter season. Between the extremes 
 of these and the precocials are all degrees of grada- 
 tions both in strength and covering the two last 
 features varying independently of each other. 
 
 But the altricial condition has . generally the ap- 
 pearance of being the result of premature hatching, 
 and there are a few things that tend to confirm this 
 view of it. 
 
 At least there can be little doubt that the altricial 
 123 
 
124 THE STORY OF THE BIRDS. 
 
 condition has come out of the precocial a sort of de- 
 generate process consequent perhaps upon changed 
 conditions. True, in certain reptiles there is a prema- 
 ture hatching of the eggs within the body, but the 
 young comes forth as perfect as by the slower process 
 of external heat. 
 
 In the mammals generally a premature condition 
 of the young at birth is strikingly within the lower 
 forms as in the marsupials and its perfection be- 
 fore birth is evidently a later or higher development. 
 Still, since some (such as kittens and puppies) in the 
 higher mammals are much more helpless and blind 
 than others (as pigs and calves), it is evident that the 
 condition of babyhood is even here quite variable, 
 depending upon some unexplained influence. It is 
 probable therefore that some change of habit or envi- 
 ronment, by selective agency or otherwise, has effected 
 this change in birds. While we can never know what 
 it was, we can glance tentatively at the problem and 
 note some interesting possible factors of the change. 
 
 First, the condition of the nestling seems to de- 
 pend largely upon the relative size of the egg, both to 
 that of the parent and to that of the young at hatch- 
 ing. Precocial birds generally lay much larger eggs 
 in proportion to the parent's size than do the altricials. 
 But there are striking variations among the precocials 
 for reasons noted later in connection with the number 
 of eggs. Second, in relation of egg size to that of 
 nestling, altricial eggs appear as if they were too small 
 for the further development or perfection of the em- 
 bryo. This development may depend upon absolute 
 
WHY TWO KINDS OP NESTLINGS? 
 
 125 
 
 room within the shell or upon the presence of the 
 necessary food for further growth, or upon both. 
 Possibly the latter may be merely a lessening of the 
 proportion of the white of the egg to the yolk, since 
 it is well known that precocial birds have a surplus 
 
 English land rails a typical precocial family young solid colored, 
 adults striped. 
 
 of yolk at hatching, which is drawn directly within 
 the body to sustain the bird till it can provide for 
 itself ; but all that of the altricial bird is used up 
 while yet within the shell. Since the white is used 
 up first, it may be a matter of decrease in the white, 
 especially since it is known that the size of the yolk is 
 complete before the white begins to form. All this 
 would imply a more rapid transit of the egg through 
 
126 THE STORY OF THE BIRDS. 
 
 the oviduct, and hence a greater rate of egg deposition 
 might occur. The result, from whatever standpoint 
 considered, is a smaller egg, which produces a prema- 
 ture hatching and much subsequent provision of food 
 by the parent while the young is yet helpless. Another 
 little fact bears on our hypothesis. In precocial birds 
 the egg tooth (or limelike'" pip " on the tip of the beak 
 by which, in hatching, the shell is broken) is shed in a 
 few days after they are out ; but in the altricials it 
 persists much longer, showing that the period during 
 which its use was normal was once perhaps much 
 longer or later after incubation first began than now. 
 So likewise the naked and helpless condition hints the 
 same, since the hotbed-hatched megapode (brush tur- 
 key), as we have seen, is hatched not only with the 
 ability to run, but passes the downy state within the 
 egg and is able at once to fly feebly also. 
 
 What then could have brought about this decrease 
 in the relative size of the egg or change in proportion 
 of white to yolk if such exists ? It is a difficult ques- 
 tion, since progress of the bird seems to imply a less- 
 ening of the relative size of the egg and a degener- 
 ation of the nestling. It is noticed in a general way 
 (of course with exceptions) that the relative size of a 
 bird's egg varies with the number in the clutch or 
 with the capacity of the bird to cover many. Often 
 perhaps it varies with both, or one condition may 
 limit the other. The largest egg (for the size of the 
 parent) is that of the Apteryx perhaps, and it is single. 
 
 The number of eggs in a clutch appears to de- 
 pend other things being equal upon the danger 
 
WHY TWO KINDS OF NESTLINGS? 127 
 
 to which a bird is exposed, especially noticeable in 
 many ground haunters. But other correlations may 
 compensate where the eggs are few, such as fre- 
 quency of broods, safety of perch or haunts, or other 
 peculiar habits, such as in the nocturnal, swamp- 
 dwelling habit of the Apteryx. A bird may also, by 
 size or peculiar weapons, be able to defend itself or 
 its nest or it may have special means of escape. 
 
 A bird might acquire the habit of laying many eggs 
 while it was yet a ground haunter, which would not be 
 kept up when its progeny became tree haunters ; for 
 it can be shown that the laying bird has some physio- 
 logical control over the number of eggs she deposits 
 for one brood, as we shall see (in Chapter XXVIII). 
 At present most altricial birds are either tree builders 
 or occupy holes or burrows in the earth or under 
 rocks, or else nest on high cliffs or islands inaccessible 
 to their enemies below man. But this start for pre- 
 serving the race by a large number of eggs was doubt- 
 less set up before birds acquired such safe nesting 
 habits. While the number of nestlings is now de- 
 creased because safe position does not require so 
 many, the nestling itself is still held helpless ; for it 
 can be readily seen that where the nest is safely lo- 
 cated, a helpless nestling remaining in it till it can fly 
 perfectly is the better condition. 
 
 The fact that all birds now after laying the usual 
 nest number have in them yet other little dormant 
 eggs which can be developed to order when needed 
 for replacing broken ones or for second or third 
 broods, is a strong hint that they (or their ancestors 
 
128 THE STORY OP THE BIRDS. 
 
 rather) may have laid all these eggs at a single sitting. 
 At least there is the possibility of such a thing ; and 
 this faculty is largely developed in tree - haunting 
 birds. Many ground builders, however, as our Bob- 
 white, lay great numbers of eggs at one sitting as 
 often as three times a year. 
 
 But the mere habit of tree building or other safe 
 nesting habits may of itself be sufficient to account 
 for the altricial condition, except perhaps the naked- 
 ness. Those nestlings that stayed longest in the nest 
 would be most likely to be reared ; hence heredity and 
 selection would tend to maintain the altricial condition 
 when once started. Few things now are so destruc- 
 tive of little birds as their premature escape from 
 the nest. 
 
 Likewise the nakedness may have come about 
 gradually without the influence of the small egg or 
 premature hatching. It is well known that many 
 nestlings that are long helpless in the nest are well 
 covered with down, as young hawks, owls, herons, 
 etc., and that this downy state, as noted in Chapter 
 VI, disappears almost exclusively as soon as (coming 
 up the line of the bird's development) the hole-build- 
 ing, Picarian group is reached (see diagram, Chapter 
 XXX). . It does not seem improbable, therefore, that 
 the down has been lost by disuse, because in holes 
 there is no need for it. It is especially noticeable 
 that the young of hole builders in this group are the 
 nudest known. Since the higher birds (perchers) 
 come out of the region of these white-egged, hole- 
 homing ancestors, the naked nestlings in them are 
 
WHY TWO KINDS OF NESTLINGS? 129 
 
 inherited and kept from dying or acquiring more 
 down by the extra care of the mother in sitting over 
 them. 
 
 Recently some new terms, as substitutes for pre- 
 cocial and altricial have been proposed, which in their 
 translations are more expressive of the real facts than 
 the old terms. The first are called NidifugcB, or 
 nest fleers, and the second Nidicclce, or nest stayers 
 or nest inhabitants. But in further discussion we 
 shall use the old adjectives. 
 
 11 
 
CHAPTEE XXI. 
 
 HOW SOME BABY BIEDS ARE FED. 
 
 IT is well known that among the precocial birds 
 strictly there is no carrying of food by the parent 
 directly to the young, but the latter are led and 
 sometimes carried to places of plenty and allowed to 
 help themselves. Often the mother will capture food 
 for them, or partially chew it or break it up and 
 scratch it out, but only in a few cases does she put it 
 directly into their mouths. 
 
 When the precocial nestling is hatched it has not 
 used up, as we have noted, all the yolk of the egg 
 which is its food before coming forth, but a portion 
 of it is drawn directly within its body, and furnishes 
 it nourishment till it is strong enough " to pick up a 
 living " ; but the naked, helpless altricial nestling 
 uses all its yolk up, and must be fed at once or 
 perish. 
 
 It is a peculiarity of many of the low birds that 
 feed the helpless young in the nest that they regur- 
 gitate (or throw up) the contents of their own crops 
 or stomachs directly into the mouths of their young. 
 This is especially true of the fish eaters, the cor- 
 morant, it is said, being able to digest off the skin 
 
 130 
 
HOW SOME BABY BIRDS ARE FED. 131 
 
 of the fish between the place of capture and the 
 nest. 
 
 In this respect the petrels go further and convert 
 the fish into an oily substance which is ejected for 
 the young. The baby petrel revels in the delights of 
 a cod-liver-oil diet from the start. 
 
 The Pigeon group is very peculiar even among 
 this kind of birds, in that the young inserts its beak 
 into that of the parent and finds there at first not 
 half -digested food but a curdlike secretion, or, rather 
 more accurately, the thickenei and " peeled up " lin- 
 ing of the parent's crop. Until the young are about 
 nine days' old this occurs in both parents, as an un-v 
 explained physiological result of incubation. Toward 
 the last of this period this curd is mixed largely with 
 the food of the parent, and gradually ceases to form 
 till the youngster finds for his dinner only bread 
 without cheese. 
 
 Only among the hornbills perhaps is there found 
 anything similar. Here the male at the nesting sea- 
 son walls his mate into a hollow tree, plastering up 
 all the opening except a small hole. Through this 
 he brings her and in due time her single nestling- 
 food, which is usually fruit. This is ejected from his 
 stomach not the crop. In casting it up the entire 
 mass is inclosed in a gelatinous envelope or pellicle, 
 which is a temporary lining of his stomach. The 
 wrapper goes along with the goods, and the little bird 
 and his mother have long antedated us in taking things 
 in capsules. This is a very convenient arrangement. 
 Even in the higher birds this regurgitating habit pre- 
 
132 THE STORY OF THE BIRDS. 
 
 vails quite extensively. Some of the most refined, as 
 the purple finch and others, are noted as using it. 
 Doubtless many others will yet be found with this habit, 
 especially while the nestlings are very young. It is 
 only rather recently that our Eastern flicker or golden- 
 shafted woodpecker was discovered practicing this 
 method exclusively. Here the parent drives his long 
 sharp beak very forcibly down the nestling's throat, 
 and, while the youngster holds on for dear life and a 
 dinner, a long-continued wriggling process either 
 pumps the baby full or the parent empty. Both 
 parents feed the young, and both in this instance 
 incubate. But where only the female sits she is 
 usually fed by the male in the same manner that he 
 feeds the children. 
 
 While this regurgitation method is quite popular 
 among the Picarian birds, this flicker is the only 
 woodpecker, with us at least, that is known to prac- 
 tice it. Others are seen to enter their holes with food 
 in their beaks, and the redhead frequently sits outside 
 and pounds and pulps the morsel before taking it in. 
 
 In case of the flickers, one nestling usually occu- 
 pies the opening of the hole till it is satisfied, when 
 it drops back and another takes its place. In other 
 cases it seems hard to determine how the parent 
 knows which one she fed last, since all seem usually 
 equally hungry. It is surprising how early the altri- 
 cial nestling makes this demand for food. In a few 
 minutes after the shell is off it lifts its little head 
 and gapes from ear to ear the most expressive sign 
 in all Nature. 
 
HOW SOME BABY BIRDS ARE FED. 133 
 
 Even among birds which feed their young in the 
 usual way there are doubtless many interesting habits 
 that would repay study. Thus, swifts and swallows 
 bundle insects under their tongues (literally as a sweet 
 morsel), and after the young leave the nest they are 
 fed upon the wing. By some sign the parent indi- 
 cates her readiness, whereupon both fly directly up- 
 ward till they meet, when the morsel is delivered. 
 Robins bunch great masses of earthworms in tjieir 
 beaks, while others, as our bluebirds, carry them singly. 
 In the case of this bird it has been noticed that if 
 the male find the mother within delivering her mor- 
 sel, he often awaits till she comes out and delivers his 
 to her, much as if he thought she understood this 
 baby-feeding business much the better, and she takes 
 it into the nest. 
 
 Closely connected with this topic is the care gen- 
 erally that bird parents exercise for their young. 
 During the time of their weakness there is usually no 
 more devoted mother than she in feathers. With the 
 exception of the female ostrich, noted by Job, this 
 prevails even among the lowest birds; and except 
 among cowbirds and cuckoos in the higher groups, 
 there is no farming out the baby and carrying a lap- 
 dog. Man by selective action has suppressed the 
 motherly instincts in some chickens. But the birds 
 with respect to this have no reason to blush in the 
 presence of " our best society," 
 
 The care for her chicks by the common hen is a type 
 of the motherly care of all the fowl forms ; and there 
 are no more devoted mothers than the ducks, though 
 
THE STORY OP THE BIRDS. 
 
 they do less for their young because the young can 
 do more for themselves. On one hand (see diagram, 
 Chapter XXX), toward the divers, the grebe forces 
 the young to dive beneath her wings, and a kindred 
 form (the finfoot) flies with the nestling clinging to 
 the plumage. Mother ducks and others carry their 
 young in their beaks or upon their backs to the water ; 
 and on this side of the fowls, the woodcock takes her 
 young from place to place in her toe-grasps, at the 
 demands of food or safety. 
 
 Hawks, ospreys, owls and others fairly heap food 
 upon the nest around their young. It is well known, 
 of course, how rapidly a nestling grows, and how it 
 often uses each day a quantity of food equaling its 
 own weight. This involves an immense amount of 
 labor on the part of the parent ; and it frequently 
 happens that the bird must change its habit of feed- 
 ing itself and search out a different kind of food for 
 its young as is the case with the seed eaters, which 
 feed the nestling on worms. 
 
 This devotion of the parent first found its highest 
 development in birds. Some fishes, it is true, cared 
 for the young, and some crocodiles, among the rep- 
 tiles, eject food from their stomachs on the water for 
 their young. But the marsupial sac in the lowest 
 mammals was perhaps a close second, while it is often 
 stated that snakes swallow their young to protect them 
 from danger. 
 
 It is interesting to note that the three-cornered 
 duckbill, or platypus, is said to voluntarily eject its 
 milk upon the water, whence it is drawn in by the 
 
Pied-billed grebe and young. 
 
HOW SOME BABY BIRDS ARE FED. 135 
 
 young a case of dilution rather antedating that of 
 the newspaper milkman, and a case of casting bread 
 (and milk as well) upon the waters antedating the 
 precept of the Preacher. 
 
CHAPTEE XXII. 
 
 HOW SOME GROWN-UP BIKDS GET A LIVING. 
 
 WHILE, as noted, some birds give their young 
 food differing from that which they eat when grown, 
 yet the rule is that parent and children fare alike. 
 This is peculiarly the case with fish eaters and neces- 
 sarily so with the regurgitators. 
 
 Our last topic, therefore, leads us into this. 
 
 At the time when the ancestors of many of our 
 modern birds all had teeth the diet was evidently 
 not vegetable, but was more likely of fish and other 
 aquatic life. It is probable that either the bird ceased 
 to fare upon flesh or else took to gulping its food 
 whole without chewing. The lowest of birds now 
 the ostrich forms are noted for their " most uncom- 
 mon bolts " ; but their wholesale swallowing of hard 
 substances is a necessary consequence of the loss of 
 teeth and not the cause of it. The birds are the first 
 users of artificial teeth, but they shifted them from 
 the mouth to the stomach, and the dawn of the gizzard 
 doubtless came in with the loss of the fang in the jaw. 
 
 Flesh eaters, it is well known, have small use for 
 the tough, muscular, grinding pouch, with its pebbles 
 and other triturating things ; and in them it is often 
 
 136 
 
8 
 
 o 
 -d 
 
HOW SOME GROWN-UP BIRDS GET A LIVING. 137 
 
 a loose sac. We can, therefore, often look into a 
 bird's digestive apparatus and read much of his story. 
 Some delicate traces of ancestry and ancestral habits 
 are written there which are found nowhere else. But 
 they are too technical for the scope of this little book. 
 Some slight reference to them will occur elsewhere 
 incidentally. 
 
 JSTow, in glancing at the feeding habits of some of 
 the birds, the reader is referred to Chapter XXXI, 
 where will be found the groups in an accepted order, 
 and to the diagram in Chapter XXX, where the kin- 
 ship is indicated. 
 
 The ostrich forms usually just " pick up a living," 
 and are followed in this respect by the fowls and 
 pigeons. The fowls scratch the earth and its cover- 
 ing, and eat both animal and vegetable findings. But 
 the pigeons do not scratch usually, though placed in 
 the old group Rasores, or Scrapers, and are almost if 
 not entirely confined to seeds (with us) and to fruits 
 (in the tropics). Some little seed- and worm-eating 
 birds among the perchers also scratch, but with both 
 feet instead of one, unlike the fowl forms. 
 
 One bird, however, among the ostrich forms feeds 
 by probing the soft mud for living things. It has a 
 long, softly tipped beak, with the nostrils directly in 
 the end of it, and surely uses the sense of smell in 
 feeding. It is the Apteryx of New Zealand a small, 
 almost wingless, totally flightless and flossy-feathered 
 bird. 
 
 In its long decurved, flexible beak there is a hint 
 of the ancestry (as we shall see later) of all the inud- 
 
138 THE STORY OF THE BIRDS. 
 
 probing snipe forms. Some of these have the upper 
 prong of the beak so flexible that it can be bent into 
 a hook with which to pull the earthworm out. Many 
 others of them have beaks that are soft at or near the 
 tip to feel with, and all have . the nostrils low down 
 and grooves along the beak to allow them to smell. 
 All feed in water, swamps, or rather damp earth, and 
 largely neglect vegetable diet, especially seeds. All 
 except woodcocks have their legs naked above the 
 joint for wading. In this Plover-snipe group there 
 are many peculiar shapes, curves, etc., given the bill 
 in keeping with feeding habits. Some are bent down, 
 others up, and one sidewise to feed around under 
 stones. One is spoon-shaped at the end, and another 
 is flat and thin, like a knife, vertically to probe narrow 
 crevices. Likewise their feet are modified for simple 
 running by the loss or elevation of the rear toe, and 
 by the growth of two kinds of swimming membranes. 
 
 Near by their cousins the rails show a stronger 
 likeness to the Apteryx in structure, shape, and habit, 
 but not in beak. Their feet are simply spread by the 
 lengthening of toes (but not webbed) that they may 
 walk over scums and slush, but their hind toe is low 
 and clasping that they may climb up reeds also. So 
 important is this arrangement that a form (the ja- 
 canas) that stands between these and the plovers, in 
 order to preserve the typical raillike foot and yet get 
 much spread, has its claws very greatly elongated, 
 that it may walk on floating leaves, lily pads, etc. 
 These do not dive as a rule for food. 
 
 But on the other side of the rails are the galli- 
 
HOW SOME GROWN-UP BIRDS GET A LIVING. 139 
 
 nules, which are more aquatic, have swimming mem- 
 branes on their feet, and while vegetable feeders to 
 some extent they dive for food ; and beyond are the 
 grebes divers almost strictly with legs set far back 
 for it, but rather shallow water haunters. Beyond 
 still are the loons often called divers which haunt 
 deeper waters and live on fish only, being able to fly 
 under water, and actually pursue and capture the fish. 
 Further waterward still are the auks, with very short 
 wings and habits that keep them always at sea and 
 rarely in the air except when migrating. Further on 
 this aquatic trend finds at the south pole its extreme 
 in the penguins, whose wings have lost their feathery 
 form and appear as fins, and flight under water is all 
 that is left to them since flight in the air was aban- 
 doned. They are almost helpless afoot on land. 
 
 More landward from the grebe-loon region starts 
 the geese, ducks and swans. Some (sea) ducks dive 
 exclusively for fish, and have teethlike notches in the 
 edges of their beaks ; other ducks and the geese haunt 
 the edges of the water w r here it is shallow, and have 
 strainers on the margins of their flat scooping bills to 
 let the water through and yet retain the small animal 
 creatures. Many eat vegetable green parts and seeds 
 also, and some geese graze almost exclusively and have 
 long legs a sort of storkward or waderward hint. 
 The swan develops the long neck for reaching from 
 the surface, and the flamingo has both long legs and 
 neck and retains a strainer beak, but, unlike the goose 
 forms, the beak is bent down, and he uses it upside 
 down, as if standing on his head. He has the fringes, 
 12 
 
140 THE STORY OP THE BIRDS. 
 
 therefore, on the upper prong of his bill. He is a con- 
 necting link in feeding habits between the geese with 
 long legs, the swans with long necks, and the waders 
 which have both, but omit the bill fringes. 
 
 Now, lying near all these short- winged divers, and 
 also stretching out on one edge toward the plovers 
 and on another toward the storkljke waders, is a group 
 of divers that fly well. The gull forms, which are 
 most ploverlike, feed much awdng by picking up 
 from the water's surface floating things. They swim 
 on the surface, rarely diving deep. Some of them 
 pursue other birds that have prey, rob the fish out of 
 the pouch of the pelican and are freebooters generally. 
 In many respects they have the spirit of the birds 
 of prey. They dart also upon fish from above, and 
 one plows the water in flight with a knifelike beak in 
 hopes of running through a shoal of fishes. 
 
 In them flight has found a high development. 
 Occasionally terns feed over the land, darting grace- 
 fully down, seizing a worm, etc., tossing it into the 
 air and catching it again all without alighting. The 
 petrel forms feed similarly, diving slightly, and are 
 the most exclusively midocean haunters of all birds. 
 
 Some of the Pelican -cormorant group feed by div- 
 ing from the air on to fish beneath the surface, as 
 gannets, and others by pursuing the fish beneath the 
 surface, as the cormorants. They are wonderfully 
 cushioned with air spaces beneath the skin to resist 
 shock in striking the water, and most of them have a 
 sack below the bill to store fish in or to act as a scoop 
 or net in surface fishing. 
 
HOW SOME GROWN-UP BIRDS GET A LIVING. 
 
 Now, running toward the plovers in one direc- 
 tion, toward the rails in the other, toward the geese 
 forms in a third, and the pelican forms in the fourth, 
 with some bird-of-prey tendencies in the fifth, is a 
 group of birds known as waders, composed of two 
 orders the crane forms and the heron or stork forms. 
 These two do not show such strong relationship ex- 
 cept in feeding habits. Both are usually characterized 
 by long wading legs " with the pants rolled up high," 
 and long, narrow and sharp-pointed beaks for spearing 
 and reaching deep into the water. They often thrust 
 the beak unopened into the prey. Some heron forms, 
 however (spoonbill, ibis), 
 have a spoon-shaped bill, 
 bent bills, boat - shaped 
 bills, etc., in keeping with 
 their habits, and the beak 
 is also varied in the crane 
 forms. One of these, the 
 seriema, has a hawk- 
 shaped beak. We can not 
 dwell upon the peculiar- 
 ities of the 
 these groups, 
 the forms, as storks, are 
 almost exclusively up- 
 land. 
 
 The seizing claws and 
 tearing hooked beaks of 
 all the birds of prey render their method of feeding well 
 known. Here is the first use of the foot as a prey- 
 
 feeding of 
 Some of 
 
 A typical seizing foot of the bald 
 eagle. (Chapman.) 
 
142 THE STORY OF THE BIRDS. 
 
 grasping member, and here conies in the first tendency 
 among the birds to prey on each other. This, how- 
 ever, had prevailed long ago among the lower creatures, 
 and in the land-haunting reptiles that show nearest 
 kinship to birds there were evident modifications for 
 preying upon each other. In these cases the rule is 
 that the prey is captured with the foot and usually 
 killed with it. The most terrible armament of talons 
 prevail and a remarkable development of strength of 
 grasp. The hook on the beak alone, with the jaws 
 closed, is frequently used to lay out a victim, as the 
 lion uses his unsheathed paw. 
 
 Some of the low forms of this group, as the car- 
 rion vultures, are not so well armed. Indeed, they 
 scarcely have a foot fit for grasping. They are won- 
 derfully endowed for soaring flight, keen sight and 
 scent, depending mostly upon the former two. From 
 these run all gradations to the true falcons which eat 
 nothing that they slay not themselves, and rarely 
 attack a sitting object. In them is found not neces- 
 sarily the highest form of flight, but its best form for 
 darting upon a victim. Perhaps in all Nature there 
 is nothing so fine as an exhibition of skill and daring 
 as the swoop of a bird of prey, though there is no 
 comparison in bravery with the attacks of some mam- 
 mals. 
 
 The owls are usually night prowlers. They are 
 endowed with large eyes and soft flight by means of 
 specially shaped, recurved feather tips, so that they may 
 noiselessly steal upon their prey. The ear is also so 
 shaped as to gather sounds from below. They are 
 
HOW SOME GROWl^-UP BIRDS GET A LIVING. 143 
 
 not, as a rule, so cannibalistic as the hawks. While 
 the larger catch fowls, the smaller owls subsist mostly 
 upon small mammals. 
 
 Of course, it is well known that the osprey takes 
 fish exclusively, grabbing them with its feet. Both 
 
 Peregrine falcon, the most skilled bird of prey. 
 
 it and the owls have the outer toe well spread back- 
 ward to increase the certainty of grasp a sort of 
 shotgunlike arrangement that a skilled marksman as 
 an eagle or falcon would disdain. Kites are large 
 consumers of snakes, eating them as they fly, and the 
 secretary bird makes war upon them also, striking 
 them down with its spurred wings. 
 
CHAPTEE XXIII. 
 
 TOOLS AND TASKS AMONG THE BIRDS. 
 
 may look at this question of a bird providing 
 for its comfort in a more philosophic and helpful way 
 than that of simply narrating the kind of food and the 
 feeding habits. We see in many groups a general type 
 of beaks all adapted to similar uses, as when all birds 
 had teeth ; but when birds grew older they branched 
 into some forms with tools very peculiarly shaped 
 (specialized) for specific purposes. Thus the beak of 
 the Apteryx, already noted, is very different from that 
 of its fellow ostrich forms. 
 
 Now, we can never know whether the ancestors 
 of this bird, by some sudden and extensive variation, 
 were endowed with a longer beak than the usual clap- 
 trap shape of the others and then took to prodding 
 with it, or whether it took to prodding first with an 
 ordinary beak and by the slightest favorable varia- 
 tions developed the present shape. This latter case 
 would be an instance where the usual natural-selec- 
 tion argument would prevail, as follows : The bird 
 having the longest beak would prod the deepest ; the 
 one with the slimmest, sharpest beak would thrust 
 the quickest ; the one with the most sensitive beak 
 
 144 
 
TOOLS AND TASKS AMONG THE BIRDS. 
 
 would feel the surest ; and the one having the nos- 
 trils nearest the tip would smell the best. Hence in 
 the struggle for existence in the ancient swamps the 
 birds that had all these fortuitous combinations 
 would most likely survive and be the ancestors of 
 other fortunately endowed birds. But this view does 
 not at all account for the reason why one of these 
 good qualities does not develop beyond the other; 
 why the long bill might not be better than the sensi- 
 tive bill, and why feeling highly developed might not 
 suppress smell. There is what is called a " nice cor- 
 relation " of all these factors here that mere selection 
 does not account for. Neither can the effects of use 
 only account for the change, since there is surely 
 nothing in the act of prodding that would tend to 
 make a beak slimmer and softer in fact, just the 
 contrary. There is then in the making of this tool 
 other forces that we know not of which nicely balance 
 all these shaping factors to a certain end, as if a Great 
 Power of Purpose throbbed beneath them all. 
 
 Nevertheless it can in most instances be shown 
 that all forms of organisms have been brought about 
 gradually, and we can frequently see many of the 
 developing forces ; and in our present discussion we 
 may perceive how the tool has usually been adapted 
 to the task. Some species of Apteryx have shorter 
 beaks than others. Thus the change in the style of 
 feeding or the nature of the food at hand may have 
 set up the fringes on the bills and tongues of ducks ; 
 the pelican's rear toe was webbed forward with the 
 others (from an evident condition when it was once 
 
146 THE STORY OF THE BIRDS. 
 
 free and opposable) at the demands of better swim- 
 ming, and the flamingo's bill is bent down and fringed 
 on its upper prong only, not that he should feed as if 
 standing on his head, but because he did do it. 
 
 All these cases partake of the same nature generally 
 as the development of the bird's wing : not so much 
 that it might fly as that it attempted it. Nature does 
 her best for any creature in its chosen environment. 
 If the snake insists on wriggling instead of running on 
 legSj she takes away the useless organs, and adapts 
 the creature by alterations and neat adjustments of 
 other parts for his new mode of motion. If creatures 
 haunt caves, then useless eyes go ; if they ride on 
 others, they lose legs and wings ; and if they haunt 
 the stomachs of others, they may even lose their 
 stomachs. 
 
 But there are other instances where the task 
 seems to come about because the tool is ready at 
 hand. Certain habits are set up because the ability, 
 capacity or means for practicing them are present. 
 Thus the practice of the vultures, petrels and other 
 organisms in ejecting disgusting food for defense is 
 the result of the capacity for doing it, which is purely 
 incidental to their manner of feeding. 
 
 So likewise a creature in a new environment may 
 carry with it an old tool of some ancestor, which was 
 quite useful in the former state for a certain purpose, 
 but may remain for a while or forever a useless ves- 
 tige in the present. Again, it may be used here for 
 another purpose and retained in this new capacity ; 
 and its presence may set up new habits. Let us 
 
TOOLS AND TASKS AMONG THE BIRDS. 147 
 
 glance now at the feeding habits of a few higher 
 birds in this light. 
 
 Next after the owls (in our arrangement at Chap- 
 ter XXX) come the parrots. Some systematists think 
 them akin to owls, as shown by the white egg, reversed 
 outer toe, hooked beak, etc., common to both. Now, 
 if the parrot inherited these from the owls, he uses 
 the toe arrangement not as a grabber so much as a 
 hand to hold food in while he eats, and the hooked 
 tip of the beak is not a tearing instrument, but a 
 means of preventing substances from slipping out 
 while being ground against the filelike surface in the 
 roof of the mouth. Evidently this bony file is a de- 
 velopment depending upon the hook, a case where an 
 old tool in a new use provokes others. Still, this old 
 tool may cause its own use, if the old conditions 
 should prevail. When sheep became abundant in 
 New Zealand a certain parrot left off fruit eating, and 
 with its hooked beak dug holes in the animal as effec- 
 tively as did ever any eagle. 
 
 But another new use of hooked beak and paired 
 toes may have kept these tools present and useful in 
 the parrots, and set up the new habits of climbing 
 and roosting by them. 
 
 The case of the paired toes in the cuckoos is much 
 more difficult. They are not close akin to owls, and 
 it is likely that other conditions have brought this 
 arrangement about. Their near relatives (and prob- 
 able ancestors) are the plantain eaters fruit eaters by 
 name and habit but our cuckoos are mostly cater- 
 pillar consumers and spider eaters. That, since ac- 
 
148 THE STORY OF THE BIRDS. 
 
 quiring paired toes, their habits have largely changed 
 is shown by some of them, as road runners, taking to 
 ground haunting a condition where two toes in the 
 rear is really in the way, since the best-formed birds 
 for running either lose the rear toe or have it small 
 and much elevated. The cuckoos' remote ancestry 
 runs by the way of the trees doubtless where paired 
 toes were useful in clinging. 
 
 We will dwell a little upon the interesting group 
 of the woodpeckers and pass on more hurriedly, for 
 we can not discuss all the peculiarities of these very 
 remarkable birds. 
 
 In the woodpeckers there is a wonderful series of 
 specializations or modifications of the usual tools in 
 keeping with an upright position on a tree trunk 
 and the habit of digging into it. The outer toe is 
 reversed alongside of the rear when at rest, but in use 
 it is often set out horizontally, ready to pull the bird 
 suddenly around the trunk. It seems as if its rever- 
 sion might have come about through its use in this 
 way. Evidently it is not now needful in limb clasp- 
 ing, since few woodpeckers sit across small limbs ; 
 neither is it necessary in climbing as the woodpecker 
 climbs a well-known method, very unlike that of the 
 parrots. The ordinary type of foot is as good if not 
 better for simply ascending a trunk, as seen in nut- 
 hatches, brown creepers, etc., which are more agile on 
 an upright surface. Besides, the typical foot for 
 simply clinging to rough upright surfaces has all the 
 toes front, as seen in some swifts. Some wood- 
 peckers even have the true rear (or inner back) toe 
 
Hairy woodpecker. Yellow-bellied sapsucker. 
 Note the side reach of reversed outer toe. 
 
TOOLS AND TASKS AMONG THE BIRDS. 149 
 
 gone and the outer reversed in its place. It is not 
 improbable that this true rear toe disappeared in 
 these birds by disuse because of this constant up- 
 right posture, and that the outer is there because of 
 the dodging around habit. Later habits of occasional 
 sitting across limbs have prevented the rear toes of 
 others from going, and have given the outer toe also 
 a limb-grasping use. In keeping also with this up- 
 right posture the tail feathers are stiffened and spi- 
 nous at the tip, to aid in supporting the body. 
 
 The great specializations in favor of these birds, 
 bearing directly on feeding habits, are the strong 
 chisel- pointed straight beak and the long protruding, 
 horn-tipped and barbed tongue, especially covered 
 with slime. The beak is also much stiffened, and the 
 tongue, besides being slimy to hold the grub, is so set 
 that it may be darted/tfr out with great force to pierce 
 it. Our flickers feed on the ground partly, digging for 
 ants and using the tongue for capture, and the near 
 kin of the woodpeckers, the wrynecks, pick up all 
 their living this way. If the woodpecker change his 
 habit his beak may change with him, since the earth- 
 digging flicker's beak is not especially chisellike, but 
 sharp pointed and curved down. 
 
 Nature may compensate by special habits for 
 many deficiencies of special tools. The imperfection 
 of a tool may set up a new task or lighten one. To 
 illustrate : Both woodpeckers and nuthatches nest in 
 holes. The former opens his by splintering all the 
 wood into a solid tree away, but a nuthatch with 
 his poor beak makes punctures in a circle, and 
 
150 THE STOKY OP THE BIRDS. 
 
 cuts a bung- shaped piece out of the side of some 
 cavity ; the woodpecker rarely uses a knothole for a 
 beginning ; but the nuthatch (European) may plaster 
 
 up with mud a (too 
 large) natural opening 
 or (American) enlarge 
 one to suit. 
 
 Out the other way, beyond 
 the owls, runs another group of 
 birds that are mostly insect eat- 
 
 The head of nuthatch. n i i / n 
 
 ers, nymg by night usually, as 
 the whip-poor-will, night hawks, etc. Some of the 
 lower forms, like the owls, eat mice, but normally 
 they are all provided with broad deep gapes, and 
 some have hairlike feathers on each side to broaden 
 their aim in catching flying things in the gloom. 
 
 Close akin to these are the swifts, with similar 
 habits by day, and out from these, with similar wings, 
 comes the hummingbirds. These get a mixed diet 
 of insects and honey, and doubtless got their hum- 
 ming habits because flowers were too weak for them 
 to perch upon. In them the beak, like that of the 
 Apteryx, has gone from the widest in their ancestors 
 near the swifts to the slimmest known in Nature, so 
 as to pick ont the gnat ; and the tongue has grown 
 long and fringe- tipped to lap up the nectar, and is 
 thin and membranous on the edge that it may be 
 rolled into tubes to absorb it. 
 
 Other members of this Picarian group feed upon 
 fruits and small animals, and have various interesting 
 habits. The kingfishers, as we know them, dart 
 
TOOLS AND TASKS AMONG THE BIRDS. 151 
 
 down upon fish, but many of them in the tropics feed 
 on insects. There is in this last division of these 
 birds a peculiar tendency to have an abnormal bunch- 
 ing of the toes or to be deficient in the number of 
 
 o 
 
 joints ; and they nearly all have weak legs. This all 
 comes about doubtless by the little use of their feet 
 while feeding, drinking, etc., so much upon the wing. 
 The trogons have the inner toe reversed. 
 
 But we must pass on. We can touch only upon 
 the more interesting phases of feeding among the 
 true perchers or Passeres. 
 
 Of our American birds the lowest of these in our 
 arrangement is the flycatcher family, of which our 
 kingbird, phoebe, crested flycatcher and w r ood pewee 
 are types. They take their food mostly flying, and 
 have broad flat bills with outlying bristles. Some 
 birds, as woodpeckers, nuthatches, etc., with slim 
 beaks take flies also awing. 
 
 The crow forms, including jays, blackbirds, etc., 
 are well known to be omnivorous, with a taste for eggs 
 and nestlings, sprouting corn, etc. At its finchward 
 margin is the meadow lark, a digger, and the orioles 
 that hang at the twig tips in search of gnats. All 
 are really useful to the farmer and horticulturist 
 when taken the year through. More finchward are 
 the cowbird and bobolink, with stout short seed- 
 crushing beaks, and are evidently connecting links. 
 
 The finch forms (including sparrows, buntings, 
 
 grosbeaks, tanagers, towhees, etc.) have usually a 
 
 strong crushing beak, often with cutting edges (as 
 
 the cardinals), and are typical seed eaters, but their 
 
 13 
 
152 THE STORY OF THE BIRDS. 
 
 diet is by no means strictly vegetable. Towhees 
 scratch in the leaves for grubs, wagtails haunt the 
 edge of swamps for little living things, and the 
 honey creeper feeds on juices and nectars. 
 
 The warbler forms, into which the finch forms 
 grade, feed variously also, but they use little vege- 
 table matter. Some have ground -haunting and even 
 swamp-haunting habits, others have fringed tongues 
 hinting of juices and nectars, while tree-trunk ex- 
 ploring, as in the creepers, nuthatches, titmice, etc., 
 also prevails. 
 
 The vireos or greenlets are strictly arboreal and, 
 having a hook on the beak, they have been thought 
 by some to lead toward the butcher bird or shrike, 
 which has many of the habits of a bird of prey. Its 
 only endowment that way is a strong hooked beak 
 and muscular build. It usually kills little birds by 
 piercing the brain or snatching off the head or un- 
 jointing the neck at the head, and it is so expert at 
 it that the motions can not be always perceived the 
 act being even sometimes accomplished while both 
 birds are flying. Its food also is mice, grasshop- 
 pers, etc. It has the habit of impaling its victims 
 on thorns, apparently as a feature of storing or 
 hoarding. 
 
 The wrens appear akin to the warbler forms via 
 the wren-tits, and are almost exclusively insect or grub 
 eaters, sometimes tackling spiders also so large as to 
 make quite a battle. 
 
 Thrashers also eat fruit in season. Bluebirds in 
 the thrush forms eat fruit in winter only, but the 
 
TOOLS AND TASKS AMONG THE BIRDS, 153 
 
 robin eats anything. The other thrushes confine 
 themselves more to an insect diet. 
 
 Here comes in again a striking example of how 
 habit may precede structure the task outrun the 
 tool as exemplified by the dippers or water ousels. 
 They stand on the border where the wrens merge 
 into the thrushes and have no external endowments 
 that are not possessed by either, and yet they are as 
 aquatic almost as a duck. They not only feed on the 
 margin, but they dive into rapid streams, walk on 
 their bottoms, and sw r im against their currents by a 
 fluttering of the wings. It shows what a strong will 
 may do in spite of special tools. The only effect thus 
 far that these habits and new environments have had 
 is to thicken the down beneath the feathers. When 
 the bird wishes to fly it simply shakes the water out 
 of its plumage and is gone much as a wren goes. 
 
 Above the thrushes we have no American birds. 
 There are some Old World caterpillar eaters, and a 
 peculiar group of flycatchers, with the usual shaped 
 beak and gape. These are thought to stand near the 
 thrushes, and near to these last perhaps stand the 
 swallows with their swiftlike shape and habits. 
 
 We have seen enough to feel that while a bird in 
 his way of getting a living may differ widely from 
 his near associates, yet he may show as he eats his 
 feathered social status and hint the story of his de- 
 velopment in the use of his knife and his fork. 
 
CHAPTER XXIV. 
 
 HOW A BIRD GOES TO BED. 
 
 SLEEPING follows eating as a necessary conse- 
 quence in many animals, and our present topic is not 
 so far removed from the last as it might appear. Of 
 course, young altricial birds are always abed till they 
 can fly, for the nest is not only a typical cradle, but 
 many that are built on bough tips or hang suspended 
 are literally such. The purpose of their location and 
 style of structure was not to rock the nestlings to 
 sleep, however, but to provide for them safety by 
 putting them where an enemy could not easily get to 
 them. Thus must the facts in the case dispose of the 
 sentiment. 
 
 But precocial nestlings must go to bed, and " as 
 a hen gathereth her chickens under her wing," so is 
 the usual procedure where the parents literally put 
 the children to sleep. Later, when too large for this, 
 the young crouch on the ground around the parent or 
 fly up to roost near her. 
 
 Only a few birds are so social as to sit in the com- 
 pact clusters seen in our Bob -whites, where with tails 
 inward they all actually touch each other, with a head 
 out every way for watching and for easy escape with- 
 
 154 
 
HOW A BIRD GOES TO BED. 155 
 
 out interference. Floods in the wooded bottoms may 
 compel them to roost in trees, however. Our Western 
 partridges nearly all roost in trees. 
 
 We should at first have mentioned that all the 
 ostrich forms roost squatting on the earth. Only the 
 Apteryx (kiwi) among them has a rear toe, whence 
 there is little hope of perching. But this bird rolls 
 itself into a fluffy ball with scarcely a sign of neck 
 and head or beak apparent. But the ostrich proper 
 squats peculiarly, and leaves his form and long neck 
 projecting high. The cassowary, however, sits humped 
 in a very awkward way upon the tarsi (lower part of 
 legs) and end of his tail, as if he would like to get 
 farther down if his stiff joints would allow him. 
 
 All the pigeons and fowl forms roost with their 
 breasts flat down upon the perch or surface beneath 
 them. All the former roosts in trees or holes, perhaps, 
 having a good perching foot. Grouses usually sit a 
 little apart from each other on the ground. When the 
 snow is deep each may make him a kind of burrow 
 in the drifts in winter. 
 
 One branch of the Fowl group has a very good, 
 long, low down rear toe like a pigeon, and are quite 
 arboreal some of them, as the curassows, even nest- 
 ing in trees. 
 
 Many of the oceanic water birds roost on rocks at 
 regular places, others on the water doubtless, and 
 some, as the petrels, albatrosses, etc., must be able to 
 sleep a little while flying or else do without sleep for 
 considerable periods, since they have been known to 
 follow slow-going vessels for great lengths of time. 
 
156 THE STORY OF THE BIRDS. 
 
 The Goose-duck groups sleep sometimes floating 
 on water, often squatting at its edge. Sometimes 
 they may squat simply on the feeding ground in 
 fields, but usually they have favorite couches, at least 
 during the winter season, to which they will travel- 
 often after dark as much as a hundred miles, coming 
 back next day to a favorite larder. There are some 
 exceptions to these methods. 
 
 The plovers sleep variously, but all out of trees of 
 course. The waders generally sleep standing usually 
 on one leg, since one is found often much stronger 
 than the other. Some are said to have a locking 
 mechanism to prevent the joint bending while asleep. 
 Storks, however, rest in a squatting position at times. 
 Many ducks and geese also rest standing on one foot 
 with the head under the wing. There can be little 
 doubt that many of these birds have sentinels that 
 watch while others sleep. All birds, however, are 
 light sleepers and are apt to cry out or fly at the least 
 sign of danger. 
 
 The birds of prey have the peculiarity of roosting 
 standing on both feet, never allowing the body to 
 touch the perch. In the great capacity of their ten- 
 don arrangement for grasping, a crouch brings, per- 
 haps, a painful tension on their toes, or they may in- 
 herit their standing tendencies from heronlike ances- 
 tors. Most birds above them in the Picarian group 
 (that perch) have the breast down, and all the Passer es 
 roost thus. Near the fowl forms (practicing this) is 
 that singular bird so frequently mentioned, the hoactziii 
 (pronounced wah-zeen) of South America, which is 
 
HOW A BIRD GOES TO BED. 157 
 
 specially adapted to this habit by having a callous 
 bare notch in its breast (and breastbone) which fits 
 snugly over a small branch. Many mammals, as 
 camels, etc., have similar callosities (bare, hard places) 
 to lie upon, but this is the only bird that " takes up 
 its bed and walks." This squatting position is espe- 
 cially helpful to birds in automatically clasping the 
 limb when asleep, since these tendons in running 
 around the outside of the (then) Z-shaped legs are in- 
 cidentally tightened by it. 
 
 It has been usual to note that birds have a special 
 muscle (the ambiens) whose sole purpose is to so au- 
 tomatically render the 
 toes clasping. But 
 since it flexes the in- 
 ner and middle toes 
 only and has no effect 
 upon the hind toe, its 
 use in connection with 
 roosting is not strik- 
 ing. Since it is not 
 found at all in the A fieldfare. 
 
 true perchers (Pas- 
 seres) and is found largely in low birds, many of 
 which do not perch, it likely has (or has had) more 
 to do with swimming than perching. 
 
 Picarian birds, which nest so largely in holes, are 
 apt to roost there ; but it does not always follow, as 
 has been broadly asserted (Burroughs), that a bird al- 
 ways roosts in the same kind of place in which it nests. 
 This is contradicted in turkeys, Western quails, house 
 
158 
 
 THE STORY OF THE BIRDS. 
 
 wrens, and White, of Selborne^ notes that while the 
 fieldfare nests in trees it sleeps upon the ground. It 
 is of course well known that some parrots suspend 
 themselves head downward from boughs during sleep 
 and that others sleep hanging by the hooks of their 
 beaks on the insides of cavities. Swifts and wood- 
 peckers sleep in cavities usually in the upright posi- 
 tion, braced by toes and spinous tail feathers. 
 
 Lodgings for the little birds. 
 
 As noted, the Passer es all sleep sitting, though 
 some squat on the ground. It is not possible to at- 
 tempt here the roosting habits of all such as are known 
 even, and some general statements must suffice. 
 
HOW A BIRD GOES TO BED. 159 
 
 Under the edges of hay and fodder stacks, in 
 dense cedars or other evergreen trees, in the midst 
 of dense dead leaves still clinging to their branches, 
 at tangling intersections of bare vines and in any place 
 where there is the combination of concealment and 
 the scantiest protection from wind or rain, you may 
 expect to find a little feathered sleeper. Sometimes 
 these places are used only once, and again they may 
 be resorted to for a few successive nights or for all 
 winter. It may be noticed that if you simply scare 
 the bird away from his couch in passing, he will re- 
 sume it when you are gone. 
 
 Of course, some birds, as rooks, crows, many sea 
 birds and others, have definite rookeries, used for long 
 periods. Even our blackbirds show their kinship 
 crowwards by their selection in late summer of a 
 constant location for sleeping. But many others 
 lodge tramplike wherever night overtakes them. 
 This is necessarily the case while migrating, when 
 birds stop at night. 
 
 Birds go to bed in various ways, and even in the 
 same tree select different locations on different nights. 
 Thus, turkeys seem to deliberate a long time about 
 flying up, and blackbirds sit around and seem to quar- 
 rel a long time about favorite berths, but a house wren 
 jumps into a tree crotch like a boy into a cold couch, has 
 his head under his wing, and is asleep in ten seconds. 
 
 Quails and grouses sometimes walk to their couch 
 and sometimes fly to the region of it with a low, soft, 
 noiseless flight, that their enemies may not hear them 
 or be able to trail them. 
 
160 THE STORY OP THE BIRDS. 
 
 Besides the placing of the head under the wing 
 practiced by many birds, many small sleepers make 
 special dispositions of their plumage as a sort of night 
 robe. They usually fluff it up till their shape is much 
 changed. It has been asserted that this is done to pre- 
 vent their heat's radiation, but it is more likely a simple 
 protective measure whereby the appearance of the 
 body is made quite unbirdlike at least, and often very 
 like a knot on the limb. A few birds feel safer on a 
 bare perch where they can see around well, as turkey 
 vultures and others. 
 
CHAPTEK XXV. 
 
 A LITTLE TALK ON BIRDS TOES. 
 
 WE have seen already that a bird's toes are largely 
 connected with its feeding habits, and we have dis- 
 cussed rather specially those of the birds of prey, the 
 parrots, cuckoos, kingfishers, swifts, etc. Others that 
 are equally interesting we have not noticed. 
 
 Let us outline the usual arrangements of the toes, 
 using the old terms that were once made so much of 
 in classification. 
 
 To begin at the true perchers and 
 go backward, there is first the foot with 
 three perfect unwebbed toes in front 
 and with the rear toe alone behind, and 
 completely opposable to the front mid- 
 dle one. It is quite 
 likely that the ear- 
 liest birds had a 
 foot something like 
 this, though not so 
 complete in all its Foot of robin7 a typical percher> 
 parts. It may 
 
 have come on down to the present unmodified, but 
 there are some hints from the study of its tendons 
 
 161 
 
162 THE STORY OF THE BIRDS. 
 
 that it is a modern development. This we shall see 
 is suggested by some other things also. 
 
 The next style of toe arrangement is the SYN- 
 DACTYLE foot of the Kingfisher group, with inner and 
 middle front toes sheathed together in a common sac 
 up to near the tips. (See illustrations to Chapter 
 XXXI.) 
 
 The ZYOODACTYLE toes of parrots, woodpeckers, 
 cuckoos, etc., are paired or yoked, two behind, two 
 before. The outer is usually reversed, but in the 
 trogons it is the inner a more natural arrangement. 
 There are variations and gradations in each of these 
 two divisions. The owls and osprey have the outer 
 toe capable of either a forward or backward position, 
 and this toe is said to be " versatile." Some abnor- 
 mal deficiency in the number of joints lies on the 
 border of the syndactyle arrangement found in some 
 swifts and kingfishers. 
 
 The next peculiarities come in through the various 
 arrangement and extent of the swimming membranes. 
 Even in the high birds there are some hints of the 
 presence of these, and in the birds of prey as we go 
 down they are quite evident as small webs at the base 
 of the front toes ; so also in pigeons and the fowl 
 forms. But it is as we approach the aquatic birds 
 that we find their development useful, although some 
 of these have toes as destitute of them as a finch. 
 
 Perhaps all birds swim a little when they drop 
 into the water, but often many of the perchers persist 
 in wing-flapping and merely float. But a baretoed 
 wader will swim gracefully at once, and a fowl form 
 
A LITTLE TALK ON BIRDS' TOES. 103 
 
 is near enough akin to them to strike out very boldly 
 for a few minutes. 
 
 There are various gradations of the extent of the 
 web along the toes or the fullness of its front margin 
 between them. When it comes only half way up or 
 thereabout on the front toes only, the foot is styled 
 SEMIPALMATE ; when it extends to the claws (though 
 it may be cut back much between the toes) it is sim- 
 ply PALMATE, and when there is a membrane between 
 all the toes, binding even the rear toe forward with 
 the rest, the foot is said to be TOTIPALMATE, as seen 
 only in the pelican forms. Some ducks, however, 
 have a thin membrane hanging to the opposable and 
 elevated rear toe, seemingly much as if it had been 
 torn loose from the totipalmate form. 
 
 Then there is the swimming foot that is slightly 
 palmate at its base, but has flaps upon the margins of 
 the toes, as in gallinules, grebes, phalaropes, etc. In 
 some of these the membranes are distinct, for each 
 joint of the toe is lobed, while in others, as the 
 grebes, the membranes are nearly straight-edged. In 
 grebes the rear toe has also a membrane. This style 
 of foot has the appearance of a palmate foot that has 
 been split down part way between the toes, but it is 
 much more likely that these membranous margins 
 have been developed up. 
 
 In fact, all swimming membranes are likely but 
 simple and often recent developments of the skin on 
 the margin of the toes necessarily flattened beneath 
 by the bird's weight. As they appear to be easily ac- 
 quired and lost, it is not improbable that they have 
 
THE STORY OP THE BIRDS. 
 
 been at times more extensive or less so in the bird's 
 past history. Even some dogs acquire them while 
 others have not, and they are so easily influenced that 
 some dry-land amphibians put them on at the social 
 season when they go into the water and shed them 
 when they leave. Many birds, as our Northern 
 grouses, expand the same margin into a fringed 
 snowshoe to use in winter to broaden their tread, 
 and they shed it again in summer. A close study 
 of webs is therefore interesting as bearing upon the 
 history of the bird's recent habits, but we can not fol- 
 low it further here, except to say that since webs may 
 come and go so easily, it is not at all probable that 
 any bird inherited a webbed foot from any reptilian 
 ancestor. So far as we can now see, it is more likely 
 that most of the modifications of the feet for special 
 uses were made within the birds by their own peculiar 
 habits. 
 
 It is true that the reptiles' feet were also modified 
 for similar purposes, showing how sensitive to. use and 
 environment the foot has always been. We have 
 seen that such reptiles as walked upright (bipedally) 
 had birdlike feet, rather like those of the ostrich forms 
 of to-day ; and it may be possible that tree-haunting 
 habits had given some of them, that were immediate 
 ancestors of the birds, opposable hind toes for limb 
 grasping, just as the toes of the chameleons are 
 bunched for this purpose, and as the first toe of some 
 low mammals, as opossums and others, is opposable. 
 
 The bird's foot, however, shows every indication 
 of being based upon the type of that of the lizards. 
 
A LITTLE TALK OX BIRDS' TOES. 165 
 
 In these last there are normally five toes, all placed 
 forward. The first and fifth are shorter than the 
 others, and doubtless in the three-toed foot it was 
 these marginal toes that were gone, just as the ostrich 
 and many mammals of to-day have lost those on each 
 edge of the foot. 
 
 Now, in the lizard's hind foot the first toe has 
 two joints ; the second toe, three joints ; the third 
 toe, four joints ; the fourth toe, five joints ; and the 
 fifth toe only four joints, as in the third. The bird 
 omits the fifth toe, but its remaining four run exactly 
 in the same order as to number of joints as the first 
 four of the lizards do. 
 
 If we did not consider these things we could not 
 see why a bird now should seem (by the greatest num- 
 ber of joints) to have its outer toe the most prominent, 
 when it is usually its third or middle front toe, which 
 is really 'the longest, strongest and most useful. The 
 extra number of joints in the outer toe is simply a 
 vestige of past prestige when this digit also was more 
 centrally located. 
 
 If we glance at a bird's wing or a fish's fin (even in 
 pictures), we see that their long tips are always on or 
 near the edge farthest away from the body. Flying and 
 swimming strokes are made more effective by this ar- 
 rangement, because the outer edge moves most and 
 fastest. Hence, at a time when lizards were aquatic 
 and a toe, like the ray of a fin, was simply an instru- 
 ment to hang a swimming membrane upon, the outer 
 was necessarily the longest, and this was manifested 
 in the increased number of joints. 
 14 
 
166 THE STORY OF THE BIRDS. 
 
 But we shall see in the next chapter that when 
 sudden spurts of speed are required by fluttering in a 
 fluid as air or water, a shorter, rounded fanning mem- 
 ber is demanded. Hence, in keeping with safety, the 
 fin, foot or wing has had its outer rays, toes or quills 
 shortened. Now we can, therefore, see how the next 
 to the outer toe in lizards became the longest, and 
 how when the shorter fifth was lost in the birds they 
 were left with their outer toe having the greatest 
 number of joints. 
 
 It is evident, however, that neither limb clasping 
 or walking on a flat surface would have any tendency 
 to preserve this prestige, but would tend to develop 
 the middle front (or third) toe into the stronger by its 
 greater use in its central position. Hence, we find its 
 joints (though only four) usually lengthened and en- 
 larged in perching and walking birds, until it is de- 
 cidedly the most prominent. This same tendency to 
 strengthen the middle toe (horse) or pair of toes (cows, 
 hogs) and to lessen the size of the outer, or abolish 
 them altogether (horse, antelope), is strikingly seen 
 in many mammals and is an interesting study. 
 
 Among the diving birds of long ago and in some 
 low aquatic birds now the use or need of this outer toe 
 to make a backward and outward paddling stroke more 
 effective has brought out again the prestige of this 
 outer five-jointed toe, and it is here not only the long- 
 est, but very much the largest in some cases a pos- 
 sible instance of redevelopment when an old tool is 
 used at an old task in an old environment. 
 
 In the leg, above the bird's toe, are many interest- 
 
A LITTLE TALK ON BIRDS' TOES. 167 
 
 ing things that bear on their story, but we can only 
 glance at them. Beyond what in them seems to be 
 the ankle (though really at the knuckles in our hand) 
 the bones that were separate in the reptiles are fused 
 together to form a stiff, slim, light, swiftly moving 
 shank (tarsus), a condition brought about in most oth- 
 er creatures at the 
 demands of speed 
 afoot. So also in 
 most birds, except 
 penguins (and in an 
 occasional specimen 
 
 * Foot of cormorant a typical diver show- 
 
 any where), the Small- ing prestige of outer toe. 
 
 er bone (fibula) of 
 
 the next joint (drumstick) is partly gone or much fused 
 to the other (tibia). Since the reptiles and Archce- 
 opteryx have this bone complete and separate, it seems 
 hard to resist the impression that this arrangement 
 also was brought about for speed while running, and 
 that all birds except penguins have come from ances- 
 tors that once became terrestrial after having acquired 
 flight. There are some other things that bear in the 
 same direction, but we shall have to forego them. 
 
 Returning to the bird's toes in this connection, 
 it is evident that the rear or first one, when lost, is 
 always lost in connection with terrestrial or at least 
 nonperching habits ; and so far as we can note its 
 gradations, it always tends to be opposable and ele- 
 vated before going. 
 
 Perhaps in nothing about a bird's toes lies more 
 of its history than in the tendons that flex each one 
 
168 THE STORY OF THE BIRDS. 
 
 of them, and in the various interfacings, fusions, split- 
 tings and crossings that they exhibit in various groups. 
 In the feet of the five-toed lizards one great flat strap, 
 with a little splitting up in the most regular order, 
 bent their toes all by a common pull, but in the birds 
 there began with the separate use of the opposable 
 first toe a series of changes and separations, reunit- 
 ings and resplitting of strands, till in the true perch- 
 ers the hind toe appropriates to itself the sole use of 
 a distinct tendon. When some swifts put all their 
 toes front, Nature gave them again something similar 
 to the flat strap of the reptiles, even upon the very 
 border of the Passer es. 
 
 Thus we can see how there lies yet largely unread 
 in the arrangement, the webbing, the jointing, and es- 
 pecially in the arrangements for bending, a large chap- 
 ter of the story of the birds. 
 
CIIAPTEK XXVI. 
 
 THE WAY OF A BIKD IN THE AIR. 
 
 have seen that perhaps the first flight of the 
 bird was sailing down, and that it likely first devel- 
 oped a wing adapted solely to this sort of flight. But 
 when flight came in perfection, and birds began to 
 depend upon it as a means of motion and escape, the 
 wing must be shaped for getting up also, and getting 
 up quickly, to avoid an enemy. 
 
 There can be no doubt, therefore, that the wing 
 has undergone many modifications, being shortened 
 or lengthened, widened or narrowed, concaved or flat- 
 tened (beneath) and variously outlined to suit the 
 habits. Here, again, the task has shaped the tool. 
 
 We have seen in the last chapter that all birds ex- 
 cept penguins show evidences of having once been 
 terrestrial, using the leg so much that the wing set 
 up a tendency to degenerate or shorten. This resulted 
 among some fossil forms in complete loss of wing and 
 in various grades of degeneration. Some doubtless 
 retained the use of the wing to a small extent in true 
 flight. Out of these latter have likely come the low 
 short- winged birds which we now find so near the 
 ostrich forms, as the fowls on the dry land side and 
 
 169 
 
170 THE STORY OP THE BIRDS. 
 
 the rails on the aquatic. Some of these latter have 
 such poor wings that it has been believed by some 
 unthinking folks that they turn to frogs in the fall 
 instead of migrating a theory on a par with that 
 which formerly held that swallows hibernate in the 
 mud of shallow ponds. 
 
 A redevelopment of the wing as some of the birds 
 took more to flight again has probably given us, out 
 of the region between these two short- winged groups, 
 such long-winged birds as some of the plovers, all 
 the gulls, petrels, pelicans, and some others. The fast 
 hawks, the swifts, etc., have also shorter winged kins- 
 folk, out from which they may have come. 
 
 Others, as the divers, have remained short-winged 
 because of the small amount of flight resorted to, since 
 they depend upon swimming and diving so largely as 
 a means of escape and foraging. 
 
 It is not improbable that the penguins, with finlike 
 wings and reptilelike drumstick (with both bones pres- 
 ent), and their many other very primitive peculiarities, 
 may have been aquatic ever since their early develop- 
 ment, and that their ancestors went directly from flight 
 to water, never having, as noted, passed through a 
 ground -haunting ancestry. Some of them are said 
 to make no use at all of their feet in swimming ex- 
 cept as rudders, and they strike first with one wing 
 and then with the other in diving a very unflight- 
 like motion, as if they began swimming before they 
 ceased crawling. Still, a biological study of the struc- 
 ture of their wings hints of a time of flight in their 
 past, but that their wings were never brought to a 
 
THE WAY OF A BIRD IN THE AIR. 
 
 state of perfection in fact, but little beyond that 
 of the Archceopteryx. The peculiar pocket found 
 among some of them, for hatching the egg in, hints 
 that they may have diverged from the bird stem at 
 an early period. 
 
 These suggestions are given to add interest to our 
 study of the shape of wings in this chapter, and the 
 deductions might not be sustained if all the facts were 
 presented, nor is it likely that they will be indorsed 
 by all the students of bird flight. 
 
 Whatever the origin may be, we find ground- 
 haunting birds now usually with wings that are short 
 and round, so that they may be fluttered rapidly, and 
 that are broad and concave beneath, so as to resist 
 the air greatly. The hollow side of a curved disk 
 resists the air more than if it were flat, and very much 
 more than the convex side. 
 
 Such birds as persist in ground-haunting, skulking 
 and hiding habits need such wings for suddenly hurl- 
 ing themselves up when discovered or chased; and 
 short flight only is desired that they may again hide, 
 run, etc. Hence, there is nothing in their habits to 
 develop a better wing. In fact, there is no better 
 wing for their purposes. But such birds as wish to 
 sustain themselves in long continuous flight need a 
 wing that is a little longer and which does not require 
 so much effort, at least such rapid strokes, to keep 
 the flyer up and going. The longer the flight the 
 longer the wing usually. "We may find all grades of 
 length also according to habits. 
 
 In birds that are given to long continuous flights 
 
172 THE STORY OP THE BIRDS. 
 
 the tip of the wing is usually formed by the outer 
 feather, or else the next one or two are very little 
 longer than the outer ; and the wing is not so broad 
 or concave, nor is it fluttered so rapidly as in the short 
 flyers. 
 
 Usually such birds do not suffer themselves to be 
 approached, or they are tree haunters or haunt other 
 safe places. Sometimes birds combine ground habits 
 with very long flight, especially in migration, and a 
 few long-winged birds, as the snipes, may skulk and 
 hide and allow themselves to be approached ; but 
 when they fly up they do not rise so quickly upward. 
 They usually go swiftly away near the ground. 
 
 In fact, only a very few light birds among those 
 that are long-winged can fly quickly directly upward. 
 They must skim away in order to get up. Some of 
 these, as the albatrosses, boobies, etc., can not rise 
 from a flat surface, but must paddle along awhile 
 with their feet till they get agoing. This is also the 
 case with some rather short yet pointed winged water 
 birds, as loons, some ducks, etc., which can be watch- 
 ful and have no need to rise directly upward. 
 
 But many of the grouse forms can hurl themselves 
 directly from the earth into the air with tremendous 
 velocity, especially when their muscles are fresh ; for 
 they are not only endowed with a special wing, but 
 with rather unusually large chest muscles, which are 
 capable of great exertion for a short while only. 
 
 A great compensation for deficiencies in various 
 wings is found in both the quantity (bulk) and quality 
 of these chest muscles. In some plovers, with such 
 
THE WAY OP A BIRD IN THE AIR. 173 
 
 long perfect wings, these muscles are scant, in keeping 
 with the light body and long slow stroke ; but in ducks, 
 where the wing is shorter yet shaped for long jour- 
 neys, these muscles are ample and the stroke is very 
 rapid ; and in both these and plovers the tissues are 
 tough and almost tireless in their action. This quality 
 of the tissue often shows in the color of the flesh. 
 Short-range flyers are often " white-meated " a poor 
 characteristic for long continuous use, but specially 
 adapted to the gridiron and platter. The best flight 
 muscles are usually black. Ducks have both quantity 
 and quality, and with an elegantly shaped but short 
 wing they make rapid and long flights by working 
 their passage very industriously. 
 
 Wing of solitary sandpiper, a typical wing for continuous flight, with 
 the elongated tertiaries of a ground haunter. 
 
 Again, there is a kind of wing that is adapted to 
 the highest and latest style of flight, the capacity of 
 sailing when once well up either with or against the 
 wind, or of even getting up higher, without any flap- 
 ping whatever. There doubtless comes in here also 
 something else besides the shape of the wing ; for 
 while the albatross and others are most expert at sail- 
 ing and gyrating with an almost perfect wing, which 
 is light and hollow-boned, carrying a proportionately 
 
174 TITE STORY -OF THE BIRDS. 
 
 light body, certain rather heavy vultures float for 
 great periods in the air with a much shorter, broader, 
 and more rounded wing. Just how the thing is done 
 is by no means settled, but to some extent it must be 
 a matter of skill on the part of the flyer. It is not 
 probable, however, that any sort of wing could do it. 
 
 While albatrosses and others appear so to float 
 continuously in calms, it is fairly certain that this sort 
 of flight is connected with strong horizontal currents 
 by nice adjustment of wing, tail, neck, etc. It has 
 been asserted that upward currents are always pre- 
 vailing also, but this is not proved yet. 
 
 Various theories have been (and are being) ad- 
 vanced, but none of them yet account for all the 
 facts, and many are based upon assumptions not yet 
 established. In this outlook lies our human hopes of 
 flying, and upon it some most abstruse physics are 
 brought to bear, too technical for our discussion. 
 
 But we may glance a few minutes at how a bird 
 progresses by flapping. As the quills all lap under 
 each other with their longer vanes backward, the wing 
 is nearly air-tight as the down stroke is made, and it 
 becomes loose, like the slats of a window blind, on 
 the upstroke. We can see, therefore, how flapping 
 lifts. Likewise, the downstroke is more rapid or at 
 least more forcible than the upstroke, and the air is 
 much more resisting to a rapid stroke than to a slow 
 one. Again, the difference in the shape of the lower 
 and upper side of the wing is helpful, as noted. 
 
 Now, since the feathers have either their tips or 
 their wider vanes backward, as the wing is extended, 
 
THE WAY OF A BIRD IN THE AIR. 175 
 
 these both tend on the downstroke to bend upward, 
 and as the air resists them on the downstroke it 
 glides out behind the wing and tends, like the blades 
 of a propeller, to push the bird forward. This alone 
 would be enough for slow motion, but after a bird is 
 well up the wings reach forward and strike backward 
 as they go down. 
 
 It is well established that a flying bird needs noth- 
 ing but propulsion after getting a start, since the un- 
 der surface of both wings, the body and the tail, by 
 being slightly tilted up front, tend to lift the bird as 
 it goes forward, just as a kite rises when drawn rap- 
 idly by a string. In this case, as in many others, 
 rising or keeping up means going. But a bird may 
 so adjust itself as not to go when it flutters, as seen in 
 hawks, shrikes, bluebirds, etc. 
 
 There are many other features of a bird's wing, 
 such as are shown by the length, number, arrangement 
 and special shape of the individual flight quills, and the 
 
 Wing of broad-winged hawk, with notched primaries another way of 
 narrowing the tip of a wide wing to fit it for soaring. 
 
 probable causes that have brought about their short- 
 ening or suppression, their narrowing, tapering off, 
 etc., but our discussion can not include them. 
 
 There are also some correlations, not well under- 
 stood, between the number of primaries (quills in the 
 
176 THE STORY OF THE BIRDS. 
 
 hand or tip joint of the wing) and the scaly condition 
 of the shank and the number and arrangement of the 
 song muscles. Higher birds have also fewer seconda- 
 ries (quills growing out of the middle joint of the 
 wing) than the lower birds, and many birds with 
 sharp-pointed long wings, which feed on the ground 
 much, have the feathers which grow out of the upper 
 joint of the wing (tertiaries) next the body very long, 
 as if they were in some way intended as an arrange- 
 ment for rapid rising, which Nature was trying to put 
 in without shortening, broadening or concaving the 
 wing. 
 
 One can look at a bird's wing and know much of 
 its way through the air, and draw some strong infer- 
 ences about its story. 
 
CHAPTEE XXVII. 
 
 HOW AND WHY DO BIRDS TRAVEL ? 
 
 WHILE birds appear so free and roving, they usu- 
 ally have rather definite homes or home regions, re- 
 maining in these their entire lives if not forced away ; 
 and many use the same tree or other location from 
 year to year to nest in. It is certain that where a 
 bird rears its young is its home, and this is surely th* 
 home and native place of the nestling. 
 
 But stress of cold and scarcity of food may, and 
 often does cause the birds to travel, and they take 
 their well-known journeys southward at the approach 
 of the winter. Such as live on flying insects are com- 
 pelled to go. 
 
 But all the birds do not travel. Some stay in the 
 same region the year around, enduring the cold and 
 picking up a living in spite of the departure of the 
 insect and the berry. Why, then, do others leave us ? 
 It would seem that they, too, might learn the art of 
 living in and enduring the severities of the winter, 
 and save themselves the great labor and danger of a 
 long journey which is so often fatal to many. 
 
 It is one of the theories of the migration of birds 
 north of the equator that many of them originated 
 
 177 
 
178 THE STORY OF THE BIRDS. 
 
 around the north pole, on all the continents near .it, 
 at a time when this region was tropical in climate, as 
 it evidently once was, judging from its fossils ; and 
 that as the great ice-cap formed over it and covered 
 the earth, gradually extending away southward, per- 
 haps to the Ohio Valley on our continent, it drove be- 
 fore it many of the birds, fleeing for their safety. 
 There was no opportunity to temper themselves to 
 the climate, no chance whatever to live upon the bare 
 ice only. But when summer came each year the great 
 ice wave would recede a little, and the birds would 
 follow it back and build their nests as near as possible 
 to the old home location, placing them often, no doubt, 
 under the very brow of the glacier. In time the ice 
 receded to its present limit, and the habit once set up 
 has caused many birds to follow it yet. Others have 
 set the limit farther south, with all degrees of gra- 
 dation, for the old tropical climate never came again 
 to the arctics. 
 
 If this view be correct it will be readily seen that 
 the habit of migration thus set up and continued 
 would prevent the traveling birds from becoming 
 hardened to winter or adapting themselves to a win- 
 ter diet, because the first cool blast, or even the dim- 
 ming and lowering toward the south of the autumn 
 sun, would send them south, doubtless, with the in- 
 herited impression that the great ice billow was creep- 
 ing down yet only a short distance north of them ; 
 just as the little kitten while yet blind hisses at the 
 odor of the friendly dog, because his tribe has so long 
 been the enemy of its ancestry. 
 
15 
 
A byway of the birds. 
 
HOW AND WHY DO BIRDS TRAVEL? 179 
 
 But experience has, nevertheless, crept into some 
 of the birds, and many that doubtless formerly went 
 south with their tribe now remain and endure our 
 winters. Others that could well stay still go yet, 
 while with some others still the old tendency seems 
 stronger at some seasons than others, and they may 
 go or they may stay, according to some fancy that is 
 not often apparent. Thus all the nickers or redheads 
 may leave a certain region one winter, though it be 
 milder than the one previous, when they stayed ; and 
 it is certain (in some regions at least) that robins, blue- 
 birds, and. others remain all the year around (or tend 
 to remain) much more frequently than formerly when 
 they find a friendly haunt. 
 
 There is another element in migration that is in 
 direct opposition apparently to that just noticed. 
 Birds of evident southern origin, having most of 
 their species resident south, as humming birds, tana- 
 gers, etc., and showing by their nest, as noted (Chap- 
 ter XVII), their hot-weather habits, also come north 
 to rear their young, whence they have never been 
 driven by an ice-cap. We can readily see why all 
 birds should flee at the hint of cold weather, but why 
 should these (as it grows warmer) make the northern 
 trip ? If they were ever of northern origin when the 
 arctics were tropical, it seems probable that for a long 
 time their ancestors have resided permanently in the 
 south, and their northward tendencies seem quite re- 
 cent. Only a few of them have acquired the habit. 
 
 Here, however, may come in a factor in nest 
 building which also influences the northern bird as 
 
180 THE STORY OF THE BIRDS. 
 
 well as the southern. All birds except the most 
 social seem to like to get apart from others in nest- 
 ing, and even in the social kinds one colony usually 
 pre-empts all of a certain region. The tendency to 
 conceal the nest is very strong in many birds, and 
 such as turkeys, guineas, etc., of our domestic birds 
 even steal away at this season. Here, then, from a 
 crowded condition might be set up a movement from 
 any center in any direction, and the northward spring 
 migration of southern birds may be only an inci- 
 dental portion of this motion. Doubtless much of 
 the distribution of birds a topic our little book will 
 have to omit depends upon this tendency and the 
 seeking of new food fields. This latter may also be 
 one element of this form of migration. 
 
 Having once come up north and made their homes 
 (nests) here, the tendency of the young bird is to re- 
 main in his native region, and to be driven south only 
 by stress of weather and famine. But if food be pres- 
 ent we find many of these southern birds learning to 
 endure northern winters, such as doves, mockers, car- 
 dinals, flickers, etc. 
 
 But the question that most concerns us is how the 
 bird travels. Flight of course is the usual means, 
 though a few, such as quails, turkeys, etc., move south- 
 ward afoot often. But flight makes extensive migra- 
 tion possible. It is said that some plovers that nest 
 in Labrador winter in Patagonia, their long wings 
 easily carrying them this great distance. But even 
 short-winged birds make long flights at this season. 
 There are doubtless some long migrations made in a 
 
HOW AND WHY DO BIRDS TRAVEL ! 181 
 
 single continuous flight, while others consist of a sort 
 of straggling from place to place with stops for food, 
 water, or rest. The migration of the same birds may 
 differ in this respect at different seasons or different 
 stages of the journey. Or different flocks or individ- 
 uals may differ much from others in their migrating 
 habits for the time. 
 
 Where the flights are long and continuous it fre- 
 quently happens that birds go in great flocks or 
 streams, some that are solitary at other times being 
 very social now. 
 
 Such flights are apt to be at great altitudes, so far 
 as to be usually out of sight. Star gazers have seen 
 them pass their telescopes in the night (for these 
 long flights extend over nights, especially if the 
 moon shines), and they are able to estimate by the 
 sharpness of the focus how high these bird nebulae 
 are. Two, three, and even more miles have been as- 
 serted. An observer on a certain island where birds 
 rest speaks also of single birds coming down from the 
 unseen heights and alighting. 
 
 Often after approaching land and nearing the end 
 of the journey, our little birds stop short of home and 
 drift up, singing and feeding. Thus we may note the 
 loitering of the Peabody sparrow, purple finch, and 
 various thrushes, etc. The Baltimore oriole rides up 
 on the great spring wave of the opening leaf and ex- 
 panding catkin, and the warblers, vireos, etc., wait till 
 the full flush of summer is here, and beat northward 
 part of the way through tree top and tangle to the 
 music of the insect's gauzy wings. 
 
182 THE STORY OP THE BIRDS. 
 
 While over water or great stretches of land where 
 they do not care to alight the route of birds may be 
 rather direct between points far apart, unless, as is 
 often the case, they are deflected by winds ; but 
 where there are coast lines tending in the right direc- 
 tion they are apt to be roughly followed, and inland 
 great streams and wooded borders are followed. This 
 last is likely because of the opportunities of rest, food, 
 and shelter or proper haunt that they may offer. Even 
 at sea birds are apt to lay their journeys by islands, 
 and these islands will lie for ages in their routes. Or- 
 dinary land birds are recorded as resting sometimes 
 by simply floating for a while upon the water in mid- 
 ocean. 
 
 The island of Heligoland, in the North Sea (or 
 German Ocean), has for generations been the resting 
 place for migrants to and from northern Europe. It 
 is said that the bird routes now over the Mediterra- 
 nean Sea are over shallow places that were once isth- 
 muses. Bird routes even through the air are apt to 
 be very permanent when once established, and these 
 over the Mediterranean were probably set up by fol- 
 lowing the land beneath when it was visible, and are 
 followed now by the heritance of habit. Columbus 
 was influenced in his voyage by following one of these 
 bird " aerial lanes," and was led on to the West Indies 
 instead of Florida. These bird flights are said to be 
 there to-day at the same season of the year. 
 
 But by far the most interesting question about the 
 migration of birds is, What guides them ? There is 
 quite a tendency among modern students to assert 
 

HOW AND WHY DO BIRDS TRAVEL? 183 
 
 that the bird is guided by the topography of the land, 
 the stars, the waves, etc., attributing the direction 
 taken solely to the reasoning powers of the bird, just 
 as it knows how to flee when you approach it. But 
 there are some statements concerning certain practices 
 in migration that are much in the way of this view. 
 It has been maintained that the old birds guide the 
 young, but observers upon this island of Heligoland 
 and other places often find the young birds preceding 
 the old ones. Again the old ones in other instances 
 precede the young so far as to be in no sense a 
 guide. Thus the European cuckoo is said to be out 
 of England and into Africa, while its fledgeling is 
 yet being fed by some duped finch or warbler at the 
 north. % 
 
 There can be no doubt, however, that birds reason 
 about their course, as we have seen, turning aside to 
 feeding grounds and laying their courses by or along- 
 side of great landmarks. It is claimed also that hom- 
 ing pigeons are guided wholly by the "lay of the 
 land," etc., in taking up their direction, since they 
 often circle for a while. 
 
 But with all this the knack of returning quickly, 
 often in a direct line, to the old home so frequently 
 displayed by lower animals when carried away in 
 sacks by circuitous paths is in all probability instinc- 
 tive or intuitive. 
 
 So the capacity of the young bird for starting in 
 the proper direction is no more remarkable than the 
 fact that without instruction it should desire to go. 
 Both may be an inherited habit, or, if you choose, an 
 
THE STORY OF THE BIRDS. 
 
 instinct. Birds, however, often lose their routes and 
 grow confused in fogs, darkness, storms, etc. Their 
 instinct of direction is not unerring. They are cer- 
 tainly within limits reasoning creatures, and a yield- 
 ing to the influences of reason may sometimes confuse 
 instinct as well as aid it. We can not here enter into 
 any discussion of instinct. It is not impossible, how- 
 ever, for its pure manifestations to be more nearly 
 unerring than we think. But it is an inheritance 
 from the past out of which all present experience 
 and intelligence tend to lead, and the Great Beyond 
 of all creatures lies above it. If we could separate it, 
 we might find it perfect for its purposes and unerring 
 when its promptings only were obeyed. Especially 
 would this be true if the same conditions and envi- 
 ronment could prevail now which were present when 
 the instinct was evolved. In so many cases> however, 
 as we shall see in Chapter XXIX, the conditions have 
 outgrown the instinct or fixed habit ; and the bird 
 stands tied to the past with the emergencies of the 
 present pressing upon it. 
 
 There are some other peculiarities concerning daily 
 bird routes hunter's " crossings," so called whereby 
 upon a certain day all wild geese will enter a field at 
 or near a certain point, though one flock can not see 
 the other ahead of it, and certain deflections in the 
 " fly lines " of plovers, etc., which show that birds are 
 peculiarly endowed with some sense of direction not 
 yet understood. But no dissection hints of any special 
 organ originating it. 
 
 After fifty years of study of the migration of birds 
 
HOW AND WHY DO BIRDS TRAVEL? 185 
 
 upon the island of Heligoland, Herr Gatke declares 
 that we are no nearer than ever to the solution of the 
 problem, as to what guides the bird. The study, how- 
 ever, of how and why a bird travels may show us many 
 features of the story. 
 
CHAPTER XXVIII. 
 
 WHAT A BIRD KNOWS ABOUT GEOGRAPHY AND 
 ARITHMETIC. 
 
 THAT a bird has received its ideas of geography 
 from its ancestors there can be but little doubt. If 
 some progenitor had not once gone south, or set up 
 the habit of going south, no nestling now would yearn 
 for the sunny land as the winter approaches. But 
 just how it holds through the ages, this experience of 
 its forefathers, we only can say in our ignorance that 
 the capacity for this is a special endowment of low 
 creatures that man does not possess. If instinct be 
 not an inspiration, the faculties out of which it is 
 evolved are as remarkable as the thing itself. 
 
 But we can sometimes see where a knowledge of 
 geography in the feathered learners is a matter purely 
 of experience, the proper direction or " short cut " 
 being not instinctively perceived. Thus it is stated 
 that such bobolinks as have gone West and are build- 
 ing beyond the Rocky Mountains have not yet learned 
 how to take a short cut south to their winter homes 
 by passing west of the Gulf of Mexico, but must re- 
 turn (as they worked their way out) to the Atlantic 
 slope, and go south as their tribe has done for ages. 
 
 186 
 
A BIRD'S GEOGRAPHY 'AND ARITHMETIC. 187 
 
 Geologists hint tliat in the long ago the Gulf waters 
 extended north till they met those of Hudson Bay, 
 and that our plains were once the bottom of a shallow 
 ocean whose beaches were the highlands of the Appa- 
 lachian and Kocky Mountain regions respectively. 
 
 There is much in the distribution and migration 
 of our birds to confirm this. At any rate, there are 
 on our continent two great divisions of migrant birds, 
 those from the east going south, usually on the east 
 side of the Gulf, and passing on mostly by the West 
 Indies, and those from the west going southwest of 
 the Gulf and passing on by the Isthmus. 
 
 Except in a few instances, which, like those of the 
 bobolink, are comparatively recent, our great plains 
 west of Missouri have been almost as complete a bar- 
 rier to the mixture of the birds of the two regions as 
 the original waste of waters was. 
 
 Now these two masses of bird life show consider- 
 able resemblance to each other, but frequently differ 
 in genera and species. Often, however, only the 
 slightest variations in coloration are evident between 
 Eastern and Western species. In some instances (as 
 the flickers, meadow larks, etc.) it is evident that they 
 have intergraded across the plains, but in others the 
 line of kinship more likely runs around by South 
 America or by the arctic landed regions, where the 
 intergradations were made. In a few cases, some 
 Western birds show their kinship from Asia, by the 
 way of the Aleutian Isles say, and some Eastern birds 
 have a cousinly line running across to Europe via 
 Iceland. 
 
188 
 
 THE STORY OP THE BIRDS. 
 
 While a bird knows geography only in the line of 
 its needs or its forefathers' uses, it may tell us a great 
 deal of a condition of the earth that no human eye 
 has ever seen. Taking the world over, we can look 
 back through the bird's inherited knowledge and get 
 glimpses of ancient geography away beyond our old- 
 est records. The entire subject of the distribution of 
 birds and other animals is full of such suggestions. 
 
 In connection with what a bird knows we may 
 mention its knowledge of numbers. All creatures 
 
 appear to distinguish 
 between many and 
 few, and all know 
 the value or force 
 of great numbers. 
 Wolves become 
 fierce when the pack 
 is large, and jays, 
 crows, and others are 
 valiant in their attack 
 on owl and eagle after 
 they have called up a crowd. 
 But it seems that within 
 a small limit birds have a correct, 
 or nearly correct, estimate of the 
 number of objects present. This 
 is especially noticeable in the behavior of some birds 
 with regard to the proper number of eggs that should 
 be in the nest before they begin to incubate, or 
 rather before they stop laying. Many birds do not 
 have a definite number in their clutch, but all have 
 
 A crow. 
 
A BIRD'S GEOGRAPHY AND ARITHMETIC. 189 
 
 a limit which they rarely exceed or fall very far 
 short of. 
 
 Others are much more definite. Thus, as noted 
 among some plovers, three or four eggs are very 
 regularly the rule. With a few it is definitely three. 
 We have seen already that a bird can lay more eggs 
 than she usually deposits, having a reserve, it seems, 
 for emergencies, such as robbery, etc. She soon fills 
 another nest if one is broken up. 
 
 If also, in many birds, as they are laying, an egg 
 be taken daily, the mother will continue to replace it, 
 to the limit of her egg-laying capacity, so long as she 
 perceives the number too small ; and one may, in this 
 way, just at this time get an egg or eggs for study 
 without destroying the bird's prospects. Now this 
 argues that the bird can count up to her needs in this 
 respect. 
 
 It is not likely, however, that she has a " one-two- 
 three," etc., sort of appreciation of the numbers as she 
 goes along. It may be just an estimate in the lump 
 of when the nest is properly filled. 
 
 As noted, the cowbirds are well known to be para- 
 sitic upon other birds in laying their eggs. Meadow- 
 larks' nests have been found with their proper number 
 of eggs deposited, but with one or more thrown out 
 and a cowbird's egg or eggs in their place. It appears 
 as if the parasitic mother felt that there were too many 
 in the nest for hers to have the proper chance in incu- 
 bation. 
 
 It would be straining our theory too far to sup- 
 pose that she instinctively knew what was the proper 
 
190 THE STORY OF THE BIRDS. 
 
 number for various species to cover and hatch surely, 
 and that she deposited her own or threw out the 
 other's eggs accordingly. But that she has some 
 ideas of her own may be inferred from the foregoing 
 case, and from the fact that where there are already 
 many eggs in the nest the cowbird deposits only one 
 
 or few. But if she gets 
 to a nest early she may 
 lay many in it, as seen 
 in the following cases of 
 record : 
 
 A vireo, while build- 
 ing, had deposited in her 
 
 Red-eyed vireo. (Natural size.) nest a Sufficient number 
 
 of cowbird eggs to come 
 
 within one of her usual complement. She deposited 
 only the one egg needed, and immediately began to 
 incubate. Another vireo was found where her clutch 
 was completely filled by the time her nest was finished, 
 and she went to sitting without laying any eggs at all. 
 
 Here the vireo certainly knew her nest number, 
 and it may be just possible that the cowbird did also, 
 though this is not very probable. 
 
 It is not easy to see how the sight of a proper 
 number of eggs in her nest should so affect the bird's 
 physiology as to render her able at once to cease lay- 
 ing. Dissection often shows many small eggs yet un- 
 formed. Laying does not always, however, appear to 
 be a matter wholly voluntary, for it is well known that 
 at the beginning of the nesting season a bird may have 
 to deposit an egg anywhere before she can build ; or 
 

 A BIRD'S GEOGRAPHY AND ARITHMETIC. 191 
 
 even some may lay while yet on their way north long 
 before they reach the nesting region. 
 
 It can not be the mere act of incubating that sus- 
 pends egg laying, for many birds begin to sit so soon 
 as a single egg is laid, where from four to eight are laid 
 afterward. We have seen, however, that incubation 
 does affect the circulation, even of the males, making 
 the crop of the male pigeon secrete and scale up a 
 peculiar curdlike substance. 
 
 Outside influences, such as fright, sudden cold, or 
 bad weather generally, may affect a bird so as to cause 
 it to cease laying, as may be observed in any barnyard. 
 
 It seems a little remarkable that a bird having so 
 much mathematical perception should not be better 
 able to know its own egg as well as its number. But 
 many seem to be unable to see that they are duped or 
 else are wholly indifferent to the fraud. There is the 
 well-known instance, however, of the summer yellow- 
 bird's building another floor above the false egg, thus 
 showing her knowledge, but she has been more fre- 
 quently observed feeding the squabby cowbird's nes- 
 tling than rejecting its egg. There are times, how- 
 ever, when the cowbird's egg is found pierced or 
 thrown out of the nest by various birds. But this is 
 off of our topic. 
 
 There are some facts recorded that show that, 
 besides the very prompt return, almost to the day, of 
 some migrants, birds have an accurate estimate of how 
 many days lapse between certain events that recur 
 regularly. Do they count, or just " feel it in their 
 
 bones " ? 
 
 16 
 
CHAPTEE XXIX. 
 
 PROFIT AND LOSS IN THE BIRDS. 
 
 WE have seen that birds in growing to be birds 
 have lost much ; in growing to be better birds they 
 have lost more. "With them, as elsewhere, loss often 
 has its compensations, and has been the means of 
 gain. 
 
 They have mounted higher, in some* instances, on 
 part of "their dead selves" at least. Let us look 
 back a little : 
 
 They flew first by the loss of a pair of legs, or the 
 use of their fore limbs as such, and they flew better 
 by losing some fingers, perhaps, and at least the sep- 
 arate use of all ; better still, by the loss of tail, or its 
 great length at least. 
 
 After they became runners and used their wings 
 less, such of them as depended on escape afoot lost 
 most of the fibula, or the smaller of the leg bones, 
 that they might run better. Likewise, later they lost 
 some muscles that were necessary in running, swim- 
 ming, or moving the tail even ; and they had various 
 adhesions of the tendons in keeping with their wants. 
 
 They took on certain organs as they had need, 
 and lost these new ones as readily when they became 
 
 193 
 
PROFIT AND LOSS IN THE BIRDS. 
 
 193 
 
 useless by change of habit. But some v of them per- 
 sist yet as vestiges of past conditions. When birds 
 took to water they developed webs between the toes, 
 and their toe tendons split up and spread out to each 
 digit, in keeping with very complicated needs. Ves- 
 tiges of these persist (in the fowls, birds of prey, 
 and others) with peculiar arrangements of tendons to 
 pull the outer toes in under the middle, as if to offer 
 little resistance to the water on the forward swimming 
 stroke. Many of the lower birds that are not swim- 
 mers retain a muscle whose sole use was to close the 
 front toes automatically when the leg is bent. 
 
 Head of gannet (1) and cormorant (2) showing abortive nostrils. 
 
 Some of the diving birds have lost their nostrils, 
 and others which gulp their food, judging of its fit- 
 ness by sight only, have lost their tongues. An un- 
 used organ always tends to go, at least till it gets out 
 of the way. Internally also have come about great 
 changes and losses. 
 
194: THE STORY OF THE BIRDS. 
 
 Cceca, a part of the digestive tract, seems once to 
 have been necessary in all birds to the digestion of 
 such food as they then used. Now they are very 
 variable, and some birds are entirely destitute of 
 them, or such vestiges of them as remain are useless. 
 Likewise gizzards have been developed and lost, or 
 become loose, thin sacs rather ; and other internal 
 organs have been changed. The very loops and ar- 
 rangements of viscera hint much of the route of 
 development. 
 
 A very peculiar loss among some birds is that of 
 one carotid artery. Usually it is the right that is 
 gone, or the two may be merged into one. This 
 change may have come about in keeping with the de- 
 mand or needs of the brain's blood supply. Perhaps 
 when the bird became hot-blooded with a very active 
 heart, the brain received too much blood in the in- 
 tense exercise of flying. In mammals this blood sup- 
 ply is sometimes regulated by crooking the artery. 
 This suppression of the carotids is very variable in 
 different groups or different members of the same 
 group. It seems to be something easily and recently 
 influenced. 
 
 In losing the skin pores, birds, as we have seen, 
 found some compensation in the development of the 
 oil gland, but some of them have even lost that. 
 
 We have already seen how parts of feathers have 
 been lost for beauty. 
 
 In some way not well understood, except that it 
 may imply progress away from the reptiles, the 
 higher and more songful birds have lost many scales 
 
PROFIT AND LOSS IN THE BIRDS. 
 
 195 
 
 upon their legs, or rather the scales have all merged 
 into one sheath. The shanks of the melodious thrushes 
 are, for part of the way, entirely scaleless (see cut, 
 page 161). We can not see how this can in any way 
 be a compensation ; so that the best we can do is to 
 cloak our ignorance by 
 calling it a correlation. 
 Since the bird left the 
 reptilian state by losing 
 scales partly, this may be 
 regarded by some as 
 merely the result of a 
 scale-losing momentum ; 
 but why it should be co- 
 ordinated with, or ac- 
 companied by more than 
 three pairs of song mus- 
 cles we can not say, un- 
 less the acquisition of 
 song muscles is also the 
 highest development 
 away from the lizards. 
 The loss of one or two 
 primary wing quills seems 
 to run quite unexplain- 
 ably almost parallel with these last two changes also. 
 Lastly, besides the loss of teeth, there have been 
 great changes in the skull, in keeping with progress 
 or degeneration, especially in the bones of the palate 
 or skull floor. These seem to be related to the bird's 
 brain, or its intelligence, and to its habits. They are 
 
 Melodious thrushes. 
 
196 THE STORY OF THE BIRDS. 
 
 too technical even to mention here. The relations 
 between them remain more nearly constant than any 
 other one feature of structure in single groups. They 
 perhaps come nearer indicating the progress of the 
 bird than any one set of characters. This is likely, 
 because they are so near the brain ; for whenever the 
 body loses an old tool or acquires a new one, some 
 change must be made in the brain to correspond to 
 its use, and this change affects the skull and the bones 
 adjoining it. 
 
 But profit and loss among the birds have not been 
 confined to structure only, but habits also, as we have 
 seen, are lost and gained. It may be interesting, 
 on this next-to-the-last glance at the Story of the 
 Birds, to see what such habits may hint of history. 
 
 We have already had some of the habits that are 
 shaped by structure under Tools and Tasks, Chapter 
 XXIII. It is the habits which, independent of 
 structure, seem so freakish frequently, or rather it is 
 the vestiges of such habits that we shall now notice. 
 The formation of new habits is going on among the 
 birds constantly, but only observation and study from 
 day to day can interpret these. 
 
 We saw early that structure of the embryo or 
 young may indicate phases through which the race 
 has passed, as the frog's young are fishlike, etc. So 
 likewise there may be a sort of embryology of habit. 
 If we find a young bird exhibiting a peculiar habit 
 not practiced when old, we are led to believe that 
 some adult ancestors once practiced this regularly, or 
 that some living (and usually lower) relation does so 
 
PROFIT AND LOSS IN THE BIRDS. 197 
 
 yet. While indications of this sort are not by any 
 means always reliable, they are often probable, and 
 are valuable in confirming other indications. Fre- 
 quently they can be verified in some lower group or 
 in some near relations. 
 
 Thus little water ousels, when chased before they 
 can fly, run and dodge about, but make no attempt to 
 dive, although an old one, slightly wing-wounded, 
 will dive at once to escape. Now, when we recall 
 that this little bird's ancestry among the wrens and 
 thrushes is not at all aquatic, his dry-land tactics will 
 be better understood. Only recently has his tribe 
 taken to water. 
 
 Something similar appears among the grebes, 
 which have kinsfolk landward. Sometimes, as al- 
 ready mentioned, the little ones crawl upon the 
 mother's back, and she swims away from danger with 
 them, and, if pressed, puts her wings above them 
 &&&. forces them to dive. Now they can dive as well, 
 or better, than she, but it seems strange that they 
 have not yet the instinct to do it at once at the dan- 
 ger signal, bat prefer to scatter and hide in the reeds 
 and grass, like their landward cousins, the fowl forms. 
 See diagram of kinships in the next chapter. 
 
 In this diagram it will be noted that the hoactzin 
 stands as a connecting link between some fowl forms 
 on one side and the gallinules, leading to some very 
 aquatic kinsfolks, on the other. There is a little habit 
 that hints that their ancestors were once more aquatic, 
 for, while the adult birds avoid the water, they build 
 their nests over it ; and should the young, in trying 
 
198 THE STORY OP THE BIRDS. 
 
 to escape, drop into it, they both swim and dive read- 
 ily. Another hint here : As noted, these young ho- 
 actzins crawl on bushes by wing claws ; some galli- 
 nules do the same when young, and very young 
 grebes, Prof. Newton notes, move as if crawling on 
 " all fours." Recalling the swimming of some pen- 
 guins by alternate strokes of the wings, already men- 
 tioned, you may see that this little strain of habit 
 runs well down the line of divers on the diagram. 
 
 But interesting vestiges or faint exhibitions of 
 habits, which also hint of history or relationship, 
 may crop out even in adult birds. The impression is 
 prevailing now that geese, ducks, swans, etc., may 
 find their ancestry among the grebes and loons, or 
 near them. Now, here runs the habit of covering the 
 eggs in the nest. Some rails quite landward all 
 grebes, and the ducks especially do this. Some of 
 the latter use their own down. Further on, the do- 
 mestic goose simply picks up a few straws and throws 
 them at her eggs as she leaves them. Again, grebes 
 build floating nests often, and some rails on one side 
 and some other birds on the other side do the same. 
 
 These instances of hinted kinship through nests 
 are too numerous for our space. Often they are quite 
 apparent and constant within the group. Thus, as 
 noted, most Picarian birds use holes; all vireos or 
 greenlets build basket-shaped nests suspended at the 
 brim ; the thrushes like a little plastering ; the finches 
 want upholstering, usually of hair or very fine fibers ; 
 the tits and their cousins, the w r rens, wish fur and 
 feathers ; and the jays, a lining of rootlets, etc. 
 
PROFIT AND LOSS IN THE BIRDS. 199 
 
 In the variations from these standard shapes, as in 
 the variations of eggs, a bird may show its kinship 
 either onward or back. Thus the jays sometimes (or 
 some of them, rather) have a twiggy nest, like a crow's 
 on one side, or a mud-cemented affair, like the black- 
 bird's, on the other. 
 
 Often it is only one or two individual species of a 
 group that will vary toward a kindred group, and this 
 may crop out on different continents. Our orioles 
 have been thought to resemble structurally the weaver 
 birds ; and our Baltimore beauty builds a nest some- 
 what similar to theirs. Brown creepers and warblers 
 are faintly akin. One warbler builds as the creeper a 
 striking breaking away from the customs of the family. 
 Wrens and tits, of which last the nuthatch is a mem- 
 ber, are akin, and the warblers are near by. One 
 warbler runs on a tree as a nuthatch, and wrens may 
 be seen sometimes running similarly head downward 
 on a tree trunk. Some wrens build much like the 
 tits in holes. We have just noted the kinship of 
 wrens and water ousels. The strain runs by the way 
 of the so-called water thrushes, which are really war- 
 blers. Now, the ousel builds a domed nest near 
 water, one water thrush, called the ovenbird, often 
 does the same, and nearly every wren's nest is domed. 
 
 Lastly, it is now well known to bird students that 
 crows, ravens, jays, and magpies have a great pro- 
 pensity to steal and hoard bright objects; that the 
 birds of paradise are just crows in fine feathers, and 
 the umbrella bird is a crow dressed as a drum major. 
 In the whole family is an appreciation of pretty 
 
200 THE STORY OF THE BIRDS. 
 
 things. But close akin to these latter are the garden 
 and bower birds, already mentioned as ornamenting 
 their bowers and love promenades with bright objects. 
 These use bright objects sensibly, but the magpies, 
 etc., show their kinship in the little vestige of know- 
 ing how to steal and hide them only, but not how to 
 use them. 
 
 We have already seen how a bird's building habits 
 may show something of where it originated, whether 
 north or south. 
 
 Enough has been said to show that every glance 
 out of the window may be interesting, and that every 
 vestige of either habit or structure is like an island 
 now a mere point above the surface, which indicates 
 the isthmus, long since sunken out of sight, that once 
 lay perhaps between the two great continents of Then 
 and Now. 
 
CHAPTEE XXX. 
 
 WE have already said much of a bird's kinsfolk. 
 In fact, the whole story of the birds, as we have seen, 
 lies in their relationships, and how they have branched 
 away from each other. This last topic will be a sort 
 of summary statement of all that is past. 
 
 Here, then, is a little diagram that may help us to 
 see this kinship as it now presents itself, taking all 
 the indications into consideration. It does not follow 
 that this is a scheme of classification. Little, attempt 
 at order is intended, though something of the usual 
 arrangement crops out. Neither is it intended to 
 imply always that the upper group is older than the 
 lower, but that most of its ties of kinship lie above 
 rather than below. In order that the diagram may 
 be read easily, the low forms are placed at the top 
 and the high forms at the bottom. But, of course, 
 development is usually spoken of as being upward. 
 If we think of the newer forms as "coming down 
 from the past," our diagram will be appropriate. 
 
 The small circles represent groups that are strik- 
 ingly distinguished from each other in popular dis- 
 cussion, and the question of orders, families, etc., with 
 
 201 
 
202 
 
 THE STORY OF THE BIRDS. 
 
 'REPTILESV 
 I DINOSAURS 
 
 
 
 ARCHAEOPTERYX Long Tail and Teeth 
 
 Teeih No Long Tail 
 
 ICHTHYORNIS 
 
 No Teeth below this 
 
 I'D 
 
 No Keel 
 
 __pRECpCIAL_ 
 
 "ALTRIOAL "" 
 
 \ With KeeL 
 
 1 6 ) HAWKS, EAGLES, VULTURES 
 BIRDS OF PREY 
 
 Picariae 
 
A BIRD'S MODERN KINSFOLK. 203 
 
 their interminable prefixes of " subs " and " supers," 
 and with their refinements of subdivisions, is omitted. 
 The lines between the circles represent ties of kinship. 
 When dotted, the kinship is faint or apparent only. 
 
 The first great circle represents the reptiles with 
 the birdlike Dinosaurs on the birdward margin. Next 
 is the Archmopteryx as the earliest known branch from 
 the bird stem. Doubtless other fossils nearer the rep- 
 tiles exist and may be found yet. 
 
 Hesperornis and Ichthyornis are simply thrown in 
 as birds of a later period, still having teeth but with 
 short tails. These Prof. Marsh found in Kansas. 
 Ichthyornis was perhaps like a tern or gull, and flew 
 well with a keel or ridge on its breastbone. Hes- 
 perornis was a diver, with imperfect wings and no 
 keel. While it was not at all ostrichlike, the degen- 
 erate wings and keel show that the same general con- 
 ditions affected it that affected them. There are nu- 
 merous other fossils in this region and further on that 
 we can not note. 
 
 The members of the Ostrich group are regarded 
 as the lowest living birds, not because they are flight- 
 less, but because their structure generally is quite rep- 
 tilian. They early took to running, developed large 
 legs, lost the use of their wings, and quite likely their 
 keels. Some persons think, however, that they never 
 had keels. They form the keelless division of modern 
 birds. 
 
 Out of these run at least two quite distinct strains 
 of kinship. That to the fowl forms (line 4-5) is by 
 the way of the dry-land tendency, passing through by 
 
204 THE STORY OF THE BIRDS. 
 
 the peculiar birds called tinamous ; and the second- 
 that is, the rails (4-8) runs through the nocturnal 
 swamp-haunting habits of the Apteryx, already noted 
 under Chapters' XXII and XXIII. * 
 
 Onward the fowl forms, including chickens, tur- 
 keys, guineas, peafowls, pheasants, grouses, par- 
 tridges, quails, curassows, brush turkeys, etc., have 
 three strains of kinship going out of them. The first 
 and closest is that toward the pigeon forms, there 
 being two birds which are nearly as much one as the 
 other. In fact, the sand grouse lies as a three-way 
 connecting link between these two groups and the 
 plover forms (6-9 and 5-9). Beyond this the pigeons 
 have no well-marked kinship. They are the tip of 
 their twig. 
 
 There is also a more direct tie line (5-9) between 
 fowl forms and plovers. The button quails of the 
 former group form an immediate connecting link. 
 
 The third strain from the fowls runs to the rail 
 forms via that remarkable bird the hoactzin (5-7-8), 
 since it is thought to stand between the curassows 
 and the gallinules. From the hoactzin runs a faint 
 line down to the cuckoos. 
 
 Besides the lines 8-4 and 8-7 the rail forms have 
 three other very marked ties. The jacanas are a con- 
 necting link between these and the plovers (8-9), and 
 the courlan or " crying bird " between them and the 
 cranes (8-10). Toward the grebes there is also a 
 strong tie out through the aquatic gallinules (still in 
 the Rail group) and via some very peculiar forms 
 known as finfoots and sun-grebes (8-12). 
 

 A BIRD'S MODERN KINSFOLK. 205 
 
 More landward the plover forms show a strong 
 strain (9-10) onward to the crane forms via the bus- 
 tards and others"; but more waterward (and it may 
 be backward) is shown their remarkable kinship to 
 the Gull group (9-19). The gulls should not be so 
 far away as shown on the diagram, but their other 
 affinities place them there. This last kinship was over- 
 looked for a long time, and, as noted under eggs, is 
 said to have been first observed on account of the re- 
 semblance between the markings and shape of the 
 eggs of the two groups. To the student it is now ap- 
 parent from structure. 
 
 Returning to the cranes, they show a faint kinship 
 to herons (10-15), but nothing like so close as their 
 great resemblance in form would imply. In fact, we 
 shall see that the heron forms get their closest ties 
 from the aquatic side. It appears as if herons came 
 from the water to the land, and cranes from the land 
 to the water, and both becoming waders acquired 
 similar structure from similar habits, a case where the 
 task influenced the tool again. 
 
 Among .the crane forms is found one genus of re- 
 markable birds, the seriemas, that have beaks and 
 habits quite hawklike, and suggest the necessity of 
 the dotted line (10-16). This group shows great va- 
 riation from its most railward extremes to its most 
 heronward or hawkward limit. 
 
 Having run these landward lines let us now go up 
 to the grebes, the only remaining route from the rails 
 which we have not followed. Since these and all the 
 divers are very low birds, and are always placed low- 
 
206 THE STORY OP THE BIRDS. 
 
 est in all modern classifications (after the ostriches), 
 it seems likely that we should have begun with them. 
 But starting at the ostriches, the kinship has led us 
 along in this way. 
 
 Four arrow lines (12, 18, 21, and 23) are drawn 
 backward out of each member of the great Diver 
 group, to show a rather probable kinship behind them 
 among the fossil divers quite independent of the 
 tie ostrichward. 
 
 Grebes are akin to loons perhaps more closely 
 than their appearance shows, but their closest tie is 
 more likely toward the rail forms. Below them, on 
 our diagram, is also a faint strain (12-13) running to 
 the goose forms. 
 
 The Goose group shows by its digestive system 
 that it may have its origin in the Great Beyond be- 
 tween the grebes and loons, as indicated by the up- 
 ward arrow. An arrow also runs toward the Fowl 
 group, since, via the screamers, they point that way 
 slightly also. To the right (13-20) there are some in- 
 dications of resemblance to the pelican forms, but 
 their closest relationship leads off via the flamingo 
 toward the Heron group (13-14 and 15). See the 
 notes about feeding methods (Chapter XXII), where 
 some dry-land members of this great group are men- 
 tioned. Some petrels also have faint laminated 
 (strainerlike) beaks. 
 
 In structure the flamingo is a connecting link be- 
 tween goose forms and stork forms, but it is closer 
 to the latter. In its rough egg and some of its struc- 
 ture it is like the pelican forms (14-20), and in its 
 
A BIRD'S MODERN KINSFOLK. 207 
 
 nesting habits resembles some of the petrel forms (14- 
 22) slightly. 
 
 Having come to the heron forms by a second 
 route, let us go up to the loons (18) and come again. 
 
 Perhaps the loons are akin to the penguins (18-23) 
 rather more strongly via the auks (18-21-23) than 
 directly. The gull line (18-19) is fairly strong. 
 
 Besides the ploverward and loonward ties, gulls 
 are strongly akin to auks (19-21), and faintly to the 
 pelican forms via the tropic bird in this latter group, 
 which is quite gull-like. A faint line, perhaps (19-22), 
 should run to the petrels via the sea runners. Both 
 petrels and gulls are very long winged, and stay in 
 the air more than on the water. 
 
 The affinities of the pelican forms have long puz- 
 zled the students. They do not appear at a glance to 
 be nearly related anywhere ; but their structure sets 
 much more strongly along the heron-stork direction 
 (20-15) than any other. That to the flamingoes is in 
 a similar direction. This brings us again to the Heron 
 group. 
 
 Going up again, we begin at the penguins. While 
 they are in shape and habit something like the other 
 divers, especially the auks, it has been seriously 
 doubted if they have any near modern kinsfolk. 
 They stand far apart in structure and distribution, 
 since they only, of the divers, center around the 
 south pole. It seems not improbable that if they 
 had no keels they would be placed below the ostrich 
 forms all things considered, though, the skeleton of 
 the ostrich is probably more reptilian. Some auks, 
 IT 
 
208 THE STORY OF THE BIRDS. 
 
 also, have become flightless by the degeneration of 
 the wings in size, but not in structure. 
 
 The auks' strongest tie is that to the gulls (21-19), 
 already noted ; but via the sea runners in the petrel 
 forms a strain runs petrelward also (21-22). 
 
 The petrels, like the penguins, are not closely con- 
 nected, but tend to tie up slightly in many directions. 
 A faint hint runs even to the plovers. In structure 
 of head some petrel forms are like some pelican forms. 
 They also, as noted, have an intimation of relation- 
 ship to the heron forms, via the albatross and flamin- 
 go, as noted, but this is not to be stressed at all. 
 
 We have now come to the heron forms by several 
 different sources. Their kinship backward is evidently 
 strongest toward the goose forms, and next, perhaps, 
 toward the Pelican group. But downward to the 
 birds of prey, via the secretary bird, is a strong tie 
 so much so that for years this last bird was thought 
 to be a stork rather than a vulture. 
 
 The Bird-of-Prey group, besides this last noted 
 strain, is thought by some to be akin to the fowls 
 (see arrow line) by the way of the carrion-eating vul- 
 tures and the curassows. Some of the former have 
 weak elevated rear toes like fowls, and some of the 
 latter have hooked beaks with their nostrils opening- 
 through or at the edge of a skinny membrane at the 
 base of the beak, like hawks, etc. A similarity of 
 toe-tendon arrangement also exists between fowls and 
 some birds of prey. 
 
 The owls are placed with the birds of prey on ac- 
 count of the structure of bill and claws, but their 
 
A BIRD'S MODERN KINSFOLK. 209 
 
 relationship in structure otherwise is not so close. 
 The osprey and owls each can reverse the rear toe, 
 and some hawks have faces rather owllike ; but many 
 students tend to think that owls are really closer akin 
 down toward the Picarian birds (17-24: and 17-27), 
 than along line 17-16 toward the hawks. 
 
 Out of the owls may run two lines, as noted in 
 Chapters XXII and XXIII. The one to the parrots 
 appears faint structurally, but the white egg, hooked 
 beak, with skinny membrane (the cere) at the base, 
 and the reversed toes may justify line 17-24. One 
 parrot resembles the owls so closely as to be called 
 the " owl parrot." 
 
 Parrots are not otherwise related strongly, but 
 their paired toes place them near the cuckoos and 
 woodpeckers in the usual classification. 
 
 Cuckoos are also quite apart from others except 
 the plantain eaters, but they send back line 26-24, 
 and take slight hold on the fowl forms via the ho- 
 actzin. 
 
 Woodpeckers have grouped around them a lot of 
 other forms which we shall not name. The associ- 
 ation is based largely on toe peculiarities, but the 
 group has an evident hint of kinship toward the true 
 perchers (arrow lines 25-30). 
 
 The other strain out of the owls is based upon re- 
 semblance and nocturnal and other habits, but is not 
 so strong structurally. It is likely that it is closer than 
 that to the parrots. It runs into the great Goatsucker 
 group via some very peculiar birds. Beyond the goat- 
 suckers (i. e., whip-poor-wills, nighthawks, etc.) are 
 
210 THE STORY OF THE BIRDS. 
 
 the swifts, akin beyond further still to the humming 
 birds. These latter stand on the border of the true 
 perchers. 
 
 Starting from the swifts, in another direction are 
 the collies, leading toward the Kingfisher group. This 
 kinship is not very definite. 
 
 The birds hereabout the kingfishers are too tedious 
 and irregular in kinship for our discussion. The mot- 
 mots on our southern border have toes like the king- 
 fisher. Farther apart are the trogons, which are un- 
 like any other birds, in reversing the inner toe. 
 
 From somewhere in this chaos come the broadbill 
 and the lyre bird with striking, yet not perfect Pas- 
 serine qualities. The latter has song muscles, and 
 yet a down-covered nestling a wonderful connect- 
 ing link. 
 
 The Passeres, or true perchers, are unique in hav- 
 ing a single and distinct tendon to bend the rear toe, 
 and it only. The humming birds are the nearest ap- 
 proach to it. Roughly, there are the clamatorial Pas- 
 seres, who have not a good singing syrinx, and the 
 Oscines, whose song muscles are many and admirably 
 arranged to change pitch and volume in their tones. 
 Between these are some gradations, and in the true 
 singers there are some, like the crow, that are not so 
 musical as some low plovers, grouses, and quails. 
 They either do not care for music or have not 
 learned to sing. 
 
 No further attempt will be made at noting kinship 
 in the families of Passeres than is done in Chapter 
 XXIII, which can be referred to. Some have thought 
 
A BIRD'S MODERN KINSFOLK. 211 
 
 that the crow-jay forms are the highest birds, because 
 their brains and digestive systems show greatest per- 
 fection. Others think the thrushes the highest, be- 
 cause of the perfection of song muscles and the scale- 
 less condition of the shank, already noted. 
 
 Indeed, in looking over our diagram we must not 
 be misled by its order of arrangement. While the 
 fowls, rails, plovers, herons, gulls, etc., may each by 
 their varying diverging lines of kinship seem to be 
 centers of development for other groups around them, 
 we can not always assert that they are so. Nearly all 
 groups have yet in them some very old forms. The 
 secretary bird in the hawks shows evidence of being 
 as old as the screamer in the geese, and as the brush 
 turkeys or curassows in the fowls ; and away up later 
 cuckoos are tied to a bird (the hoactzin) so reptilian as 
 to crawl by claws, and yet have a naked nestling, while 
 the lyre bird with song muscles has young that are 
 downy like a precocial bird's. 
 
 Instead of looking at the lines running between 
 these little circles as branches of a tree, we should 
 have a better presentation if we imagined ourselves 
 directly above the tree, and that the circles repre- 
 sented the branches sawed off at different levels which 
 we saw " end on." The kinship, then, would be in- 
 dicated not only by nearness of the circles to each other, 
 and by the tie lines between, but also by the regions 
 on the trunk out of which the branches grew. These, 
 of course, we can not see. Thus the hawks (say), 
 while apparently high, may have their limb run into 
 the trunk below the limb bearing the fowls. The 
 
212 THE STORY OP THE BIRDS. 
 
 hoactzin may be a living twig from the old stem that 
 started the fowl-pigeon-plover-rail clusters ; and an- 
 other twig, sprouting near it, may have grown away 
 on up to the cuckoos. 
 
 To such as will put a bit of study on matters of 
 this sort, the story of the birds has various interesting 
 readings. 
 
 The broken, irregular, single line upon the diagram 
 divides the precocial from the altricial birds. No. 7 
 and some forms between 8 and 12 have naked and 
 rather helpless nestlings. Except these and the pi- 
 geons, all birds above the line E have downy nes- 
 tlings, all below it (except the lyre bird) have com- 
 paratively naked young. 
 
 The double broken line touching the edge of the 
 ostrich forms, and passing through the rail-plover- 
 crane-heron forms leaving a few of them dry-land- 
 ward cuts off to themselves the aquatic birds. It 
 may be noted how nearly it corresponds to the other 
 line, as if dense down had been developed at the 
 promptings of the aquatic habit. 
 
CHAPTEE XXXI. 
 
 AN INTRODUCTION TO THE BIRD. 
 
 KNOWING the bird by the usual keys is often a 
 great bugbear to the untrained bird lover. 
 
 Let us see, if you should have in hand a bird be- 
 longing anywhere within the United States, whether 
 you can read this supplementary chapter through with- 
 out knowing to which of the groups on our diagram 
 your specimen belongs. 
 
 The linear arrangement of the orders here is that 
 of the American Ornithologists' Union. 
 
 (1) Ostrich forms (Struthiones) are known by their 
 great size, or by the small, flightless wings combined 
 with a nonswimming foot, or by hairlike plumage, 
 with the nostrils in the end of the beak. All ostrich 
 forms now in the United States have been imported 
 or are reared from imported parents, and are kept in 
 confinement. 
 
 Now, if your bird is evidently aquatic, with short 
 legs and swimming toes, begin at the next paragraph 
 (2) ; if it has long legs, bare above the joints (a wader, 
 evidently), skip to paragraph (14) of this chapter ; if 
 the feet and legs are not at all aquatic, but the feath- 
 ers extend down to the joint, go to paragraph (21) ; 
 if toes are only two in front, or if the outer and middle 
 
 213 
 
214 
 
 THE STORY OP THE BIRDS. 
 
 are grown together without a web, go on to (30) and 
 (31) ; if shank is sharp in rear, toes unwebbed, go at 
 once to (47). 
 
 (2) But if your bird belongs to any group of the 
 order of DIVERS, its legs will be set far back, its toes 
 membraned for swimming, its bill not fringed or 
 toothed, and it will sit upon its tail, which is very short, 
 and in the grebes absent. They are called Pygapodes 
 because of this sitting posture when they stand. 
 
 (3) If the wing is fiiilike, its feathers scaly, it is a 
 PENGUIN. If wing ordinarily feathered and useful, 
 but sometimes rather short, the bird may be 
 
 a. Foot of a grebe, b. Foot of a loon. c. Foot of an auk. 
 
 (4) First, with three toes only, an AUK form; 
 with four toes it is, 
 
 (5) Second, a GREBE, if toes are simply lobed 
 (and no tail) ; and 
 
 (6) Third, a LOON, if the toes are webbed. 
 
 (7) Now, possibly the bird is not as at paragraph (2). 
 Its legs may be a little far back, but its beak is fringed, 
 or there are other peculiarities. So we pass on. 
 
AN INTRODUCTION TO THE BIRD. 
 
 215 
 
 (8) It may have the nostrils ordinary and the 
 beak with a distinct angle on its lower edge (where 
 the taper starts toward the point of the lower prong), 
 and webs between the three front toes only. Or pos- 
 sibly the lower prong of the beak is much longer than 
 the upper. Then your bird is one of the GULL forms. 
 
 Some other birds have this style of beak, but then 
 the nostrils are tubular, or the rear toe is webbed to 
 
 A foot and some bills of the gull forms. 
 
 the inner, or there are no useful webs at all on the 
 foot. 
 
 (9) If the bird has tubular nostrils and webbed 
 front toes it is surely a PETREL form. In the last 
 two groups the wings are very long. 
 
 For ducks, geese, swans, and flamingoes alone 
 have fringed or toothed beaks, combined with webbed 
 feet and ordinary nostrils. If you find a bird with 
 
216 
 
 THE STORY OF THE BIRDS. 
 
 anything like a tooth or notches on the beak and 
 unwebbed feet, go on at once to paragraph (21). 
 
 Bills and feet of some petrel forms. 
 
 (10) If your specimen has the rear toe connected 
 to the second by a complete web from claw to claw, 
 it is one of the PELICAN forms. Some of the ducks 
 
 have lobes on the 
 rear toe, but they are 
 not completely if at 
 all connected for- 
 
 Typical foot of a pelican form. 
 
 ward. 
 
 If the bird has a 
 fringed or serrate bill 
 it is one of the goose-duck forms. 
 
 (11) If your gooselike bird has a straight bill (i. e., 
 not bent down) and, first, its neck longer than the 
 body, or a naked (loral) space between the bill and 
 eye, it is a SWAN ; if the neck is shorter than the 
 body or the loral space feathered, it is then a GOOSE, 
 
AN 1NTBODUCTION TO THE BIRD. 21 Y 
 
 provided the bare shank is longer than the middle 
 toe, not counting the claw ; and it is a DUCK if the 
 shank is the shorter. Usually geese have the scales on 
 the front lower end 
 of the shank, netlike 
 (reticulate) in pat- 
 tern, and ducks have 
 the scales on the 
 front of the shank 
 usually elon- 
 gated cross- 
 wise and in 
 not more than 
 two rows (scu- 
 
 tellate} T^llt Cringed ( a ) an< ^ serrate (6) bills of the goose forms. 
 
 the tree ducks (Dendrocygna, not wood ducks) are an 
 exception to this, their shanks being reticulate. 
 
 (12) But if the bill is fringed and bent down, the 
 bird is a FLAMINGO. Its legs and neck are unusually 
 long, and with us it is found usually in Florida only. 
 
 If the tubular nostril appears without the webbed 
 foot, go on to paragraph (41), where some goatsuckers 
 show a similar nose, like a double-barreled shotgun. 
 Sometimes a petrel shows a little fringe on its beak, 
 but its style of nostrils prevents any confusion with 
 the goose-duck group. 
 
 (13) Our bird may not have any of the foregoing 
 peculiarities. Then we must see if the legs are feath- 
 ered down to the joint at the upper end of the shank 
 (or tarsus). If so, we pass on to paragraph number 
 21, unless the bill is soft, long, and slim, for prob- 
 
218 
 
 THE STORY OP THE BIRDS. 
 
 ing in the mud the woodcock forming a single ex- 
 ception. 
 
 (14) If the legs are bare above the joint or the 
 bill long, soft, and suited to probe with (woodcock), 
 there come in here three great 
 groups to be distinguished. 
 According to our diagram 
 there are four, for while the 
 cranes and rails are in the 
 same order, their respective 
 kinships to other groups have 
 caused their separation in our Q 
 scheme. 
 
 By the 
 way, if the 
 leg is just 
 noticeably 
 bare above 
 the joint 
 
 and the outer and middle toes grown together half- 
 way, pass on to the kingfishers at paragraph (38). 
 
 (15) Now, if 
 there is a distinct 
 naked space (not 
 even growing any 
 hairlike feathers) 
 running around 
 the eye or between 
 the eye and bill 
 (lores), or if the legs are long and the claws like hu- 
 man nails (I~bises\ or if the length of the bird is more 
 
 Feet of ducks showing scutellate fronts of shanks. 
 
 Bent bill of flamingo. 
 
AN INTRODUCTION TO THE BIRD. 
 
 219 
 
 than twenty-six inches and the bill is spoon-shaped 
 at the tip (or the bill broad and boat-shaped), your 
 bird belongs to the HERON forms. 
 
 Bills of heron forms showing naked loral spaces. 
 
 This naked space around the eye characterizes the 
 flamingo, swans, and the pelican forms also all rather 
 near relatives of the Heron group. 
 
 (16) But if none of these last conditions prevail, 
 and the space between the bill and eye is feathered, 
 at least with apparent hairs, why, then 
 
 Bill and head of a crane. 
 
 (17) If the bird is over thirty-six inches long, 
 it is a CKAKE. These usually have the rear toe ele- 
 
220 
 
 THE STORY OF THE BIRDS. 
 
 vated, and short, while herons, storks, bitterns, etc., with 
 similar beaks, have rather long rear toes low down. 
 
 If, however, the bird is less than thirty-six inches 
 long, then 
 
 Bills of some rails. 
 
 (18) If it has its wings short and rounded at the 
 tip the outer quill never so long as the next two or 
 
 Bill and foot of coot. 
 
 three and, combined with this, the bill never soft at 
 the tip or slim for probing like a woodcock's, and 
 
AN INTRODUCTION TO THE BIRD. 
 
 221 
 
 the front toes long and slim without any membranes, 
 your bird is surely a KAIL proper. Or if there are 
 marginal membranes to the long toes and a horny 
 shield upon the head at the base of the bill (see d and 
 e\ the bird is still in the RAIL group, and is a coot (toe 
 membranes lobed) or a gallinule (toes with straight 
 margins). All are skulking swamp haunters, but the 
 last swim and dive readily, especially the coots. 
 
 (19) But if the wing is long, narrow, and pointed, 
 with the first quill as long as the next ones, or else 
 the bill long, slim, and soft-tipped, or if the foot 
 is membrane without any shield upon the forehead, 
 or if the bill is spoon-shaped at the tip, or is long, 
 keen, and bent down or up (or one side in one Old- 
 
 Some typical ploverine bills. 
 
 World specimen), and the length is less than twenty- 
 six inches, you can set your bird down as one of the 
 PLOVER forms. 
 
 In many of these the rear toe is wanting, and in 
 all, when present, it is much elevated. In only one 
 real plover (not snipes, sandpipers, etc.) is there any 
 rear toe. 
 
 (20) Now, if the legs are feathered to the joints 
 and the bill never like a woodcock's, you have left 
 
222 THE STORY OF THE BIRDS. 
 
 all waders and swimmers behind, and had better look 
 closely at your specimen. You may find vestiges of 
 webs between the toes in the fowls and birds of prey 
 especially, but other things will show you that the 
 bird is not aquatic, such as the feathered legs, just 
 mentioned. From this on webs are vestigial and not 
 considered. 
 
 (21) Now, if the shank is evidently sharp-edged 
 in the rear, or if the hind claw be straight and much 
 longer than the front ones, or if the foot is ordinary 
 and there are bristles at the gape combined with a 
 length of rear toe and its claw that is not less than 
 that of the inner toe and its claw, then pass on to 
 paragraph (44). 
 
 But if the feet have two toes only before, or the 
 outer and middle toes bound together for halfway ; 
 if the toes are armed with terrible talons and have 
 warty pads under each joint ; if the beak is strongly 
 hooked in connection with any toe peculiarities ; if 
 the nostrils open into each other so they may be seen 
 through (i. e., perforate), or if they open under soft 
 swollen fleshy flaps, or through or at the edge of a flat 
 (feathered or naked) membrane, called a cere, stretched 
 across the beak at the forehead ; if the gape is deep 
 and wide, with the bill short on top, combined with 
 either a shank that is round in the rear or with a hind 
 toe and claw whose combined length is less than that 
 of the inner toe and claw ; or if the bird is small and 
 brilliant, with insectlike flight or with a beak like a 
 large needle, then you may stop here. 
 
 (22) If the hind toe is strikingly elevated and 
 
AN INTRODUCTION TO THE BIRD. 223 
 
 your bird found well within our borders, especially 
 North, it is apt to be one of the FOWL forms, but not 
 necessarily so in Texas. Some fowls or Gallince have 
 the hind toe down, and you can not be sure till you 
 see that your bird has 
 
 No fleshy swollen flap over 
 the nostrils (though sometimes a 
 soft membranous scale); no per- 
 foration of nostrils; no sharp- 
 curved toe talons ; no abnormal 
 arrangement of toes except eleva- 
 tion of the rear ; no deep broad gape ; no size under 
 five inches combined with needlelike bill. If all these 
 negatives prevail, the bird is a FOWL form, whether 
 the rear toe be up or down. 
 
 The only fowl in the United States with, rear toe 
 entirely down is the Texas guan. 
 
 (23) If the "Gird has not all the foregoing negative 
 characteristics it may be more easily distinguished. 
 
 (24) With soft fleshy flaps over the nostrils (claws 
 ordinary), it is a PIGEON form. 
 
 For fear you may mistake these flaps for a cere, 
 see that the claws are blunt and the nostrils never 
 perforate. Some of our ground 
 doves are quite partridgelike in ap- 
 pearance, but their beaks are long, 
 narrow, and rather straight on top, 
 while those of partridges are stout. 
 
 i ,-,-,-, ? -, Typical bill of the 
 
 short, broad, and much curved on F pigeons. 
 top. But, as noted in the last 
 chapter, the pigeons and fowls grade so imperceptibly 
 18 
 
224: THE STORY OF THE BIRDS. 
 
 into each other in some birds that even dissection is 
 puzzled to separate them. 
 
 (25) If the bill is strongly hooked and a flat, skin- 
 like membrane (cere) is across it on top near the head, 
 your bird is either a bird of prey or a parrot. 
 
 (26) If a BIED OF PEEY, there are never two toes 
 permanently in the rear, and the claws tend to be very 
 
 Head of vulture. Head of a hawk. 
 
 sharp and curved, or else the nostrils are perforate 
 and head naked. 
 
 (27) If the head is wholly naked, nostrils perfo- 
 rate, it is a VULTURE. 
 
 (28) If the head is not wholly naked, and the eyes 
 are on the side of the head, or else the nostrils open 
 through the cere and the outer toe does not bend 
 back easily by the rear one, it is a Hawk or EAGLE. 
 
 (29) If the eyes are far forward, with a feathered 
 disk around each ; or the nostrils open at the edge of 
 the cere, and the outer toe easily turns back by the 
 rear one, the bird is an OWL. 
 
 One owl has a hawklike face, but its nostrils are 
 within the cere, and has its feet feathered to the 
 claws, a tendency not strong in the hawks. 
 
 The owls all have the outer toe capable of turn- 
 
AN INTRODUCTION TO THE BIRD. 
 
 225 
 
 ing either front or rear on the perch ; so also has 
 the osprey only in the hawks, but it has no disk 
 
 Heads of owls. 
 
 about the eye, which is well on the side of the head. 
 (30) But, referring again to (25) 
 If with this hooked beak (the cere is often f eath- 
 
 (a) Foot of owl; (b) foot of hawk. 
 
 ered) we find the outer toe permanently reversed, the 
 bird is a PARROT. 
 
 (31) Now, if the 
 beak is not strongly 
 hooked, as at (25), you 
 have two classes. If 
 the toes are normal- 
 ly arranged, pass on 
 
 to (40). Head and foot of parrot. 
 
226 
 
 THE STORY OF THE BIRDS. 
 
 (32) But if toes are either only two in front, or 
 the outer and middle are bound together, then 
 
 First, if the bill is long, 
 straight, and chisel -shaped ver- 
 tically and the tail feathers are 
 pointed and stiff, supporting the 
 bird on the tree trunk in an 
 upright position, go to (39). If 
 not, you have one of that won- 
 derful group of birds called by 
 American ornithologists the Coc- 
 cyges or CUCKOO forms ; though 
 how a kingfisher can be a 
 
 Bill and foot of cuckoo. 
 
 cuckoo form you may never see. 
 Under this head 
 
 (33) If toes are only two in front : 
 
 (34) First, outer toe reversed, bill smooth-edged 
 and curved down, it is a CUCKOO. 
 
 (35) Second, if inner toe reversed, bill notched 
 like a saw (serrate) on the edge, it is a TEOGON. 
 
 (36) But if three 
 toes are front, but 
 the outer is bound 
 
 to the middle for -< 
 half of its length, 
 
 3_ 
 4- 
 
 then 
 
 (37) First, if bill Bill and foot of kingfisher. 
 
 is saw-toothed, MOTMOT. 
 
 (38) Second, bill smooth, KINGFISHER. 
 
 (39) Again, if (see 32) the bill is long, straight, 
 and has the tip thin and chisel-shaped vertically (a), 
 
AN INTRODUCTION TO THE BIRD. 
 
 227 
 
 or the tail feathers are pointed and stiff and the bird 
 sits upright on trunks usually or with the direction of 
 the limb, it is a WOODPECKER. Some of these have 
 only one toe rear and two front (5). 
 
 (40) Referring to the last part of (31), if the toes 
 are not abnormally arranged (i. e., two only in front 
 
 Bill and feet of woodpeckers. 
 
 or two grown together), then all that is left is an 
 order known as the Machrochires, or long- (literally 
 large-) handed birds. 
 
 (41) If the bill is wide and short, and the gape 
 deep (associated with a rear toe much shorter than 
 the inner), it is 
 
 (42) First, if tail 
 feathers soft and round 
 at tip, GOATSUCKER 
 form. 
 
 (43) Second, if tail 
 feathers stiff and spi- 
 nous at tip, a SWIFT. 
 
 (44) But if bill is 
 
 -, IT TI Typical head and foot of goatsucker. 
 
 long and slim like a 
 
 needle, the gape ordinary, and the bird very small, 
 
 with insectlike flight, it is a HUMMING BIRD. 
 
228 
 
 THE STORY OF THE BIRDS. 
 
 Goatsuckers have the middle toe unusually long 
 and the others short. Swifts tend to have the rear 
 
 __ toe elevated and grasp- 
 
 sidewise. 
 
 ng 
 
 Hum- 
 
 Head and tail feathers of a swift. 
 
 Head of humming bird. 
 
 Head and foot of a true lark. 
 
 ming birds have typical perching feet, and except in 
 appearance they are not easily distinguished from 
 Passeres by any external trait, except that they have 
 
 only six secondaries, 
 while all true per- 
 chers have more. 
 
 (45) But if none 
 of these fit your bird, 
 you will find that it 
 has, with a normal, unwebbed foot, either a shank 
 sharp in the rear, the edge being formed by the meet- 
 ing of the two smooth plates on the sides ; or else the 
 
 shank is round in the 
 rear and the hind toe 
 has a long straight claw 
 (true lark) ; or the shank 
 is round and the bill is 
 rather short and flat- 
 tened, with very notice- 
 able bristles at the cor- 
 
 Broad beak and bristles of flycatcher ners f tne m uth, and 
 a round shanked percher. Combined With this the 
 
AN INTRODUCTION TO THE BIRD. 
 
 229 
 
 rear toe and claw are as long as the inner toe and its 
 claw. Then it is one of the PASSEEES. 
 
 (46) If leg round in rear and hind claw never ex- 
 ceedingly long and straight, it is one of the CLAMA- 
 TOEES. 
 
 (47) If the shank is sharp in the rear, or if round 
 with the rear claw long and straight, it is one of the 
 OSCINES. 
 
 The highest type of passerine foot, showing 
 unbroken rear side plate, forming the sharp 
 edge of oscine shank. 
 
CHAPTER XXXII. 
 
 ACQUAINTANCE WITH THE BIRD. 
 
 THE brief Story of the Birds is done. You know 
 a little of their structure, their history, their pedi- 
 grees, costumes, customs, and their general develop- 
 ment as science sees it now. But to know the aims 
 and purposes of the individual bird when you meet it 
 the acquaintance with the bird itself this, unlike 
 the kingdom of heaven, cometh only with much ob- 
 servation. 
 
 It is not meant that you need know the name, 
 though that is better for the purpose of comparing 
 notes and reading bird literature. Some of the best 
 of observers, so far as their own pleasure was con- 
 cerned, have had names of their own for the species ; 
 but so closely had they noted every feature of color, 
 song, haunt, and habit, that no field ornithologist 
 would have much difficulty in knowing the bird from 
 their name or description. 
 
 Not every one has opportunities for observing the 
 bird, but many that have only see them. A bird is 
 just a feathered biped to them, nothing more. Oth- 
 ers feel that only in the deep woods or long walks 
 should they put on their habits of Nature study, and 
 
 230 
 
ACQUAINTANCE WITH THE BIRD. 231 
 
 yet, as Dr. Cones has well said of the robin, the study 
 of many birds may be simply a turn of the head, a 
 keen, appreciative ear, or a quick eye at the proper 
 moment, all combined, of course, with an abiding 
 interest. 
 
 Attention may do much under difficulties, where 
 the field is small. Neither need " physical disabili- 
 ties " or the lack of opportunities of travel stand in 
 the way if the heart is right. One of our most ob- 
 servant field ornithologists is paralyzed on one side ; 
 another, young and rising, has only one arm ; and a 
 third, with an international reputation, is a woman, 
 hampered with skirts and a great surplus of flesh. 
 
 My study has an octagonal end with three win- 
 dows looking southeast, south, and southwest respec- 
 tively. They are high, and the blinds are kept well 
 up that the tree tops and the sky may be seen. Within 
 the view directly from my desk there are (or have been) 
 a half dozen elms, a walnut tree, two Siberian crabs, 
 a wild crab, several rose bushes, an old stump, two 
 trellises, and a flat-topped fence all within fifty feet. 
 
 By leaning a little away from my desk I can see 
 eastward many rather low evergreens (pines), and, 
 towering high above them, a honey locust, whose 
 long, slim, bare limbs in early spring form a favorite 
 perch for many observant migrants. 
 
 On my table stands on its large end an opera glass 
 or small field glass, with a focus constantly set for this 
 view, and with simply a paper cap (to exclude the 
 dust) over the eyepiece end of it. If it were shut 
 snugly in its case, the bird might be in another town- 
 
232 THE STORY OF THE BIRDS. 
 
 ship before the glass could be got out and focused. 
 An opera glass is rather better than a field glass, be- 
 cause the focus is deeper and the field larger very 
 convenient qualities when the bird is skipping around. 
 Its defining powers should be excellent. 
 
 In the drawer of the desk lies a notebook. Par- 
 don the egotism now while we attempt to see from it 
 what a single point of view, occupied for a few years 
 only, may reveal of the Story of the Birds by glances 
 at the proper time 
 
 THROUGH THE WINDOW PANE. 
 
 For two winters some of the most interesting vis- 
 itors that I had were a pair of brown creepers rather 
 rare birds in the region. In many rambles I have 
 seen but one other elsewhere. Their behavior led us 
 to think that they were members of the same family. 
 They kept near each other, and came and went to- 
 gether. Their visits were usually about a fortnight 
 apart; they always made almost exactly the same 
 round among the elms. They began at the bottom 
 of each, and ascended in rather crude spirals, rarely 
 passing far into the limbs. When they wished to re- 
 explore the bark they fluttered down again, never 
 backing as a woodpecker may, or running head down- 
 ward as a nuthatch. I could see with the glass the 
 keen bill thrust into the deep corrugations of the 
 bark and note the long, stiffened tail feathers and 
 long rear claw. There was no pecking or driving at 
 the tree just the gentlest sort of thrusting and the 
 closest inspection. What a wonderful range of focus 
 
ACQUAINTANCE WITH THE BIRD. 233 
 
 that eye has which can see insect eggs a half inch 
 away and distinguish the bark of an elm several rods 
 off! 
 
 The third winter only one came. It had a little 
 " chit " of a call, and the children wondered if it were 
 talking of its absent mate. It took the same trees in 
 the same regular order that the others had, and we 
 felt that it was one of the old friends. It was re- 
 markable to note how much like the tree bark the 
 backs of these birds were. Since they are so strik- 
 ingly color-protected and build their nests in secluded 
 places in the deep woods and lay many eggs, it seems 
 strange that they should be so rare. 
 
 Over the rough bark of these same trees the nut- 
 hatches frequently crawl also. They are little bluish- 
 gray birds, with white undervests sometimes a little 
 soiled. Their tails are ridiculously short, and never 
 touch the tree ; neither does the body, unless they are 
 suddenly affrighted, when they crouch and look, with 
 their beaks extended, much like a knot with a broken 
 twig in it. I have sometimes put the bird into this 
 attitude by clapping my hands loudly near the win- 
 dow. It is an impulse that seems to come to the bird 
 before flight, especially if the head should be down- 
 ward. 
 
 This bird's arrival is sudden, and seems often to 
 be distinguished by turning a somersault before alight- 
 ing, head downward, on the tree trunk, as if he had 
 changed his mind so suddenly about alighting that it 
 unbalanced him. 
 
 In the woods this busybody is " quanking " much 
 
234: THE STOftY OF THE BIRDS. 
 
 of the time, but here he is silent, as though he feared 
 that he might interrupt some one. It is more prob- 
 able that he fears some one might interrupt him. He 
 is very much absorbed in his work when he once gets 
 down to it, and boys sometimes slip up on the other 
 side of the tree and throw a hat over him. He comes 
 much oftener than the creepers. 
 
 I once glanced out and found two nuthatches at 
 what I then supposed was a new habit, but I after- 
 ward saw that others had noted it as an old trick of 
 his. One spring day some little gnats were engaged 
 in their little crazy love waltzes in the air, forming 
 little whirling clouds, and the birds left off bark- 
 probing and began capturing insects on the wing. 
 They were awkward about it with their short wings, 
 and had to alight frequently to rest. I went out to 
 them, and so absorbed were they that they allowed me 
 to approach within a yard of a limb that they came 
 to rest upon, where they would sit and pant till they 
 "caught their breath," when they went at it again. 
 They seemed fairly to revel in a new diet and a new 
 exercise. 
 
 These are frequently accompanied by the tufted 
 titmouse and the black-capped chickadee. This is an 
 association frequently noted by bird students. There 
 seems to be no reason for it, except that the birds 
 are all akin. The nuthatch, however, seems very ex- 
 clusive, staying down on the trunk while the others 
 explore the small limbs, and frequently hang back 
 downward at the twig tips. Others have noticed the 
 kinglets as frequently being in this procession, but I 
 
ACQUAINTANCE WITH THE BIRD. 
 
 235 
 
 have never seen it thus in my yard. But the titmouse 
 and chickadee come so often together, without the 
 others, that I found the boys had the impression that 
 the titmouse with the crest was the male and the black 
 cap was his wife. I had to resort to the books to con- 
 vince them otherwise, my ornithological prestige not 
 being sufficient. 
 
 One late winter and early spring I was awakened 
 every morning by what Thoreau calls the " fee-bee " 
 call of the black-capped chickadee. It came about 
 the same time of the clock from a limb not ten feet 
 from my bed. -The tones are noted for their purity 
 a clear, sweet sol mi of the vocal scale the first note 
 highest. To my ear it seems to be " see bee ! " I 
 studied this special bird, and learned to know his song 
 from others. On my way down the street, if I went 
 early, I found him later 
 in other back yards, sing- - 
 ing like a troubadour for 
 his breakfast, announc- 
 ing that he had come for 
 the contents of last even- 
 ing's crumb pan. 
 
 The tufted titmouse 
 also has a spring song 
 that sugary sap-rising 
 call to " Peter - peter- 
 peter" to get about his spiles and sugar troughs. 
 He also is fond of the dog scrap in the back yard, 
 and steals it off and hides it like a jay sometimes. 
 His resemblance to a small blue jay is quite remark - 
 
 Tufted titmouse. (Natural size.) 
 
236 THE STORY OF THE BIRDS. 
 
 able. I would bind little bits of meat skin to the 
 limbs for these birds, but the blue jays would devour 
 them. 
 
 These last two little birds are very greedy about 
 meat. In the old days, when the " smokehouses " of 
 the rural regions were of logs un chinked, these little 
 fellows dug into the hams and middlings, and the 
 crested tit is especially known as " meat-eater " among 
 some old Southern folk yet. 
 
 To induce them to build with me, I put up 
 gourds with holes too small for the sparrows, but 
 nothing but the house wrens ever used them. In my 
 region the tits are rather deep-woods builders. 
 
 Sometimes the downy woodpecker comes in this 
 crowd but of tener alone. He is especially fond of a 
 bone. The dog likes to gnaw his under the window, 
 so that he can watch that his master does not go out 
 without him. Here he may leave it, and the little 
 bird will steal up to it, rarely flying directly, but 
 jumping awkwardly along the ground from a near 
 tree. It is pitiable to note his anxiety and fear along 
 with his enjoyment. ]STo matter how good it tastes 
 he must leave it occasionally, fly to the tree, and 
 sneeze up his courage awhile. This on-the-ground 
 business seems queer to him, and he is not comfort- 
 able unless his claws grasp the bark occasionally. 
 Then he creeps to the bone again, sneezing at me 
 to see if I am dangerous. 
 
 His larger cousin, the hairy woodpecker, comes 
 not so often now as formerly, when the Siberian 
 crabs had so many grubs in them. 
 
ACQUAINTANCE WITH THE BIRD. 237 
 
 One of the trees died in spite of his diligence, but 
 he has cleaned the grubs out of the others. He 
 would work hard on the far side from me (which 
 happened to be the grub side), and would throw one 
 eye around every second or so to watch the great ogre 
 with tubular eyes that sat in the glass cage there. 
 How I wished I could say to him that it was all right, 
 and that I was grateful for his services ; but my si- 
 lence was my best greeting. If I could not save him 
 from the labor of eating his bread in the sweat of his 
 face, I wanted to relieve him from that of getting his 
 grub in the fear of his heart ; but I could not. 
 
 These two little woodpeckers are frequently mis- 
 called " sapsuckers." But they do not eat sap. They 
 do, in plumage, and in a general way, resemble the 
 sapsuckers, but the latter lacks the horny barbed 
 tongue to spear the grub with, and sips the sap of 
 trees and does not dig for grubs. (See plate facing 
 page 149.) 
 
 For a long time I could not see this last bird, 
 though it left its girdlings on the pines in the yard and 
 evidently passed me every spring. Many birds stun 
 themselves against my window panes as if they tried 
 to fly through the half octagon ; or perhaps they see 
 the reflection of trees in the glass. The first time I 
 ever saw this sapsucker was just after one had stunned 
 herself in this way. I picked her up, kept her all 
 day, when she seemed to revive. I threw her up 
 late that afternoon and she alighted in an elm, but 
 next morning she was dead, but still clinging upright 
 as if alive. 
 
238 
 
 THE STORY OF THE BIRDS. 
 
 Later I have noted many other individuals in my 
 yard, and have learned to know their plumage mark- 
 ings and their flight even. 
 
 The window pane has shown me other birds this 
 way a rare warbler now and then and others still 
 that my look outside would not detect. The only 
 male humming bird I ever saw on my place was try- 
 
 Black-throated blue warbler. (Reduced.) 
 
 ing to come in at my window pane, but when I arose 
 to let him in he left. I wish that I could take to 
 myself the compliment that he desired to visit me, 
 but I fear he thought the reflection of his pretty self 
 was a rival, and he wished to fight it. Female hum- 
 mers come often, but males are strikingly absent. 
 
The vireos come out on the twig tip not three yards from the glass. 
 
ACQUAINTANCE WITH THE BIRD. 239 
 
 Above, the vireos come out on a twig tip not three 
 yards from the glass, and " keep everlastingly at it " 
 with their warbling. Once I saw the cuckoo on an 
 outer elm swing head down to get a caterpillar, and 
 then fall with dangling feet and swing to the larva 
 with his beak to jerk it loose. Then he fell further, 
 caught himself in the air with his wings, alighted and 
 slung his prey till he eviscerated it dexterously and 
 then swallowed it. Again, I have had the purple 
 finch stop with me and sing his charming song to 
 his mate, and heard her warble back in response a 
 rather rare thing in birds. 
 
 Referring again to the kinglets, they come at a 
 certain early spring date before the leaves are fully 
 expanded, and flutter upward, while they take some- 
 thing from beneath the budding leaf or twig. It is 
 a peculiar motion, which with their restless ways, olive- 
 green color, and small size, readily distinguishes them. 
 It is rare that one is still. But the ruby-crowned 
 sometimes favors me with a song, and as it is a little 
 long, he usually is quiet till done. It is one of the 
 sweetest little lullabylike strains that comes to me. 
 One day I saw him in the rosebush just near volun- 
 tarily expand the plumage of his crown and show the 
 brilliant golden -ruby feathers beneath. Usually they 
 are mostly concealed. It was a rare treat, and vis- 
 ible to me only because of my rather exalted view. 
 He usually reserves this display for his mate, but he 
 was here among some snowbirds and tree sparrows, 
 and seemed to be trying to make these plain folks 
 envious of the pretty feathers in his hat. 
 
24:0 THE STORY OF THE BIRDS. 
 
 Of course the snowbirds come. They like the 
 seeds of the u wet weather " grass near the window. 
 As they feed they constantly flit out the white tail 
 feather as a signal, but one rushes fiercely at his fel- 
 low if he feeds too near. The tree sparrow also feeds 
 with them. This association is perhaps a fellow feel- 
 ing because both are so far from 
 home now. I fall out a little 
 with the tree sparrow, because 
 he does not sing in the yard. In 
 the woods he is musical at inter- 
 vals all winter. Sometimes in 
 Golden-crowned kinglet, gprfng my glass shows the Oregon 
 
 (Natural size.) P. / fc 
 
 snowbird stopping among the 
 others, as he goes up North. Later the snowbird fair- 
 ly giggles under the pines at the prospect of his jour- 
 ney ; and, taking his song all around, it is better than 
 none a great deal, and is cheering because it is always 
 a dirge to winter. 
 
 The number of birds that come in view depends 
 upon the weather. I often wonder where they are 
 when not with me. Even a walk on some days will 
 scarcely reveal a feather. I suspect that this is as 
 largely a matter of sitting still and keeping silent as 
 it is the result of retiring to deeper cover. 
 
 After the blackbirds come to the yard, however, 
 they stay, rain or shine. Six or eight couples nest 
 with us regularly, and, till ready for business, they 
 perch on the honey locust, especially about " retiring 
 time," and have a sort of wheezy concert. Then they 
 go below and have a little quarreling about upper and 
 
ACQUAINTANCE WITH THE BIRD. 241 
 
 lower berths in the pines. If there is any wind at all 
 they always perch on the bleak twigs of the locust 
 with their heads toward it true as weather vanes. 
 Later in the season they walk the sward with a lordly 
 stride and a dignified " chuck," very different from 
 the undignified fluffing up and asthmatic serenade 
 that prevailed before pairing. Later still they choose, 
 after their young are out, some one else's yard for a 
 roost, and my gratitude goes with them. 
 
 In late summer the sward is a favorite resort 
 for the young flickers. They dig into the little ant 
 hills. In the spring one of them is sure to find 
 that the top of the box where the newsboy leaves 
 the paper is an excellent drum on which to sound 
 his "alarm to wake the spring up," as Thoreau 
 has it. 
 
 He gets so engrossed at this that the boys have 
 crept up by stages and thrown a hat over him. Of 
 course with all this racket he can not hear footsteps, 
 or see anything but stars, probably. Sometimes, 
 too, several assemble in the elm near the fence, and 
 go through their silly love antics. After all, this is 
 better than fighting, but it has always lessened my re- 
 spect for a bird that otherwise showed such dignity 
 and common sense. " Love makes fools of us all," 
 some one says, but no one beneath my window is so 
 silly as the flicker. Over the fence is the usual hole 
 in a decaying apple tree where a pair nest. 
 
 One April day, just at dusk, I saw a flicker settle 
 into a crotch of an elm near the fence. I went out 
 and she was evidently intending to sleep there, but 
 
242 THE STORY OF THE BIRDS. 
 
 some one passed and she left. Next night she came 
 again, and was there when I left her. Next April 
 I chanced at the same time of day to see the flash of 
 a wing at the same spot. It was the flicker again, 
 and by stealing around I saw with the glass that it 
 was a female. Was it the same ? I can only think 
 so. Perhaps it was on its migratory journey farther 
 North, and not acquainted with the best (hotels) 
 sleeping places of the region, else she would more 
 likely have been in some hole. But I found her 
 sleeping there later through the summer. Many 
 flickers doubtless roost in exposed places. 
 
 The jay is nearly always in view, and I saw him 
 one spring make the flicker almost ashamed of him- 
 self, while he danced on the ground before his mate. 
 His pirouettes were as graceful as those of the aver- 
 age dancer, and he always kept his back with its bril- 
 liant markings toward his partner. Like some others, 
 he may have felt that his strong points lay neither in 
 his head nor his heart ; so he went in strongly on his 
 feet and his figure. 
 
 I often wonder if they are the same that are 
 hatched in the yard. From a certain suspiciousness 
 1 suspect not. But this is a poor criterion. Many 
 birds, as robins, are wild in winter and confiding in 
 summer. The little boy had a pet jay one summer 
 which, when grown, escaped to his parents. I often 
 met him out, when he would whine back an answer 
 to my call, and flutter his wings begging me to come 
 and feed him, but never suffering a near approach. 
 Inasmuch as he left us late in the fall I suspected 
 
ACQUAINTANCE WITH THE BIRD. 243 
 
 that he migrated ; and the winter jays in my yard 
 may be from farther North. 
 
 I like the jay in the winter. He gets upon the 
 elm limbs and vigorously hammers an acorn, or 
 takes a wild crab to the fence top and splits it for its 
 seeds. Away from the callow nestling and the newly 
 laid egg of other birds he picks up an honest living, 
 and is fairly respectable so much does decency de- 
 pend upon environment. He is rarely "loud" in 
 winter, unless he finds a luckless screech owl, and he 
 wears his good clothes all the year round. I saw him 
 engaged in the walnut tree one day in late summer in 
 a manner that made me fear that his bath had not 
 been sufficiently effectual. He would pluck off a leaf, 
 lift his wing and rub it into his plumage. I saw him 
 do it repeatedly ; and since walnut leaves have a pun- 
 gent odor and are disagreeable to insects, I feared that 
 he had some guests that he was trying to get rid of. 
 If this theory should be correct, here was a case of a 
 bird using perfumes, with at least good intentions. 
 
 Seops, the screech owl much to the discomfort of 
 the jays spent a summer with us once, and in his 
 shuddering way, gave us several evening serenades 
 from the trellis. I suspect that he was a bachelor. 
 When winter came he hunted a home in the shaft 
 ventilating the unused cellar under the woodhouse. 
 It was smooth inside and he fell to the basement be- 
 low, where he was found, evidently some weeks later, 
 in such a state of fasting that his sins must have 
 come up heavily before him. He became the house- 
 hold pet for a while, but always remained meditative, 
 
244 THE STORY OF THE BIRDS. 
 
 refusing to eat except at night, and refusing to sit in 
 our laps unless his back was stroked. He never grew 
 gentle and was set free. Next winter, either he or 
 another like him, made the mistake about the cellar 
 shaft again. Both were of the red phase, and we 
 wondered if the second one were the old Scops, with 
 a bad memory. 
 
 Once a mocker wintered in the yard. It was, per- 
 haps, a female turned out of a cage too late to mi- 
 grate. 
 
 Of course robins and bluebirds came about in 
 abundance, and a volume could be written about their 
 vagaries. Since beginning this chapter, I have seen 
 two robins fighting out on or near the fence. After 
 a struggle they each sat awhile on the top plank and 
 rested. I admired the methodical manner of their 
 madness. There was no bantering or strutting or 
 feinting or swearing at each other, or calling names 
 between the rounds. "When they had got their breath 
 they went at it again, and rolled and tumbled on the 
 ground till one fled. The robin times himself well 
 and impresses one as being a success. Sometimes I 
 play a joke on him by pegging down one end of a 
 twine string, at which he pulls as he flutters up with 
 it toward his nest. It takes several attempts to con- 
 vince him that some one is experimenting with his 
 perseverance. 
 
 I glanced out the other direction once and saw two 
 female bluebirds fighting. One was our home bird 
 with a nest in the yard, the other was a stranger try- 
 ing to get the hole for herself and husband. The 
 
ACQUAINTANCE WITH THE BIRD. 245 
 
 males fluttered above the battle with an appearance as 
 if they were both shocked at the performance always 
 musical for they have no scolding note, and fight 
 singing. Shortly the home bird bore the other down 
 in the watering trough. She got a little damp her- 
 self, but was able to fly. Her mate followed her up 
 to the home box caroling of her prowess. But she 
 looked indeed as "mad as a wet hen," and seemed 
 to say by her manner that if he were half a man 
 she would not have to do everything. I went out 
 and took the other female out of the water where she 
 was rapidly chilling to death, being too exhausted to 
 rise. She simply floated, flapped her wings and cried 
 piteously, like her tribe's autumn call. I wrapped 
 her in flannels, put her near the kitchen stove, and 
 she recovered. I have often seen similar fights with 
 all four birds engaged. It is as musical as an opera 
 and has more sense in it. 
 
 So the rose-breasted grosbeaks have come under 
 my window to fight. They, too, are always musical 
 in battle, but their crimson breast spots give the affair 
 quite a gory aspect. Sometimes I am aware of a bat- 
 tle outside merely by the sound of snapping beaks 
 that come through the open window. Usually the 
 jays, robins, and blackbirds, which are much of a size, 
 settle these matters between them early, and live 
 peaceably afterward. 
 
 Of course, my standpoint shows me many transient 
 birds. For many springs the olive- backed thrushes 
 have stopped over with us for weeks, getting more 
 abundant and confiding each year, and breaking re- 
 
24:6 THE STORY OF THE BIRDS. 
 
 cently into song. At first I could not well identify 
 this bird through a glass. The " distinct orbital ring " 
 of the books was not so distinct. And the spots on 
 the breast at one time did not appear as at another. 
 I did not want to shoot one, so I wrote the Smithso- 
 nian folks about their specimens. There was a throat 
 stripe that bothered me, and not till I read from Mrs. 
 O. T. Miller that the spots on the breast of the wood 
 thrush form a line when the bird bunches itself for 
 sleep, did it flash upon me about my olive backs. A 
 mark was a stripe or a series of spots according to the 
 position of the bird. I subsequently found a flicker 
 with his mustache in spots like a stripling's. 
 
 Through the window pane I have had under my 
 glass various warblers, and identified them without 
 slaughter. In the rosebush just beneath me I saw 
 the yellow-crowned notching the leaves I know 
 not why, for he did not swallow the bits saw both 
 the eastern and western Maryland yellowthroat come 
 on the same day ; and beneath this bush the ovenbird 
 has made his mincing steps once. The white-crowned 
 sparrows and the Peabody birds, or white-throated 
 sparrows, scratch beneath the one that is farther 
 out, and the latter linger around for weeks, trying 
 to get through with their wailing song and rarely 
 doing it. 
 
 The goldfinches, the orioles, and others are around 
 in season, but the Baltimore will not honor me any 
 more with a long nest, but builds a shallow cup above 
 me ; rather, he does honor me with the shallow nest, 
 for it shows that he puts great confidence in my pro- 
 
White-throated sparrow. 
 White-crowned sparrow. 
 
ACQUAINTANCE WITH THE BIRD. 
 
 247 
 
 tection. The orchard oriole prefers my neighbor's or- 
 chard just beyond, but feeds in my yard ; and last sum- 
 mer, a little fellow that had married without his wed- 
 ding garment, brought the sole output of the season 
 a squabby cowbird into the wild crab to feed him. I 
 went out, and as I stood under the squab, and he was 
 constantly " chitting " for more food, there flew down 
 to him a female cow- 
 bird and sat near 
 him and seemed in- 
 terested in him. I 
 waited patiently to 
 see if she would 
 break the record by 
 feeding him ; but in 
 a few minutes she 
 flew off with her 
 
 " glassy " Call (as Immature plumage of male orchard oriole 
 i - all the body yet yellow, but the 
 
 Burroughs has so throat b]ack 
 well called it) after 
 
 her mates. I could but wonder if the youngster was 
 hatched from her egg, and if any maternal feeling had 
 been stirred in her breast by the call of this babe of her 
 own blood. It may have been a remembrance only of 
 her own babyhood, for cowbirds do not have this " chit " 
 when they are grown. Well, I was studying the devel- 
 opment of young birds' wings and wanted a specimen, 
 and as the life of every cowbird means the death of 
 several other little bird's equally useful, and these 
 young people were being seriously imposed upon, I 
 took this orphan off their hands. Some birds I have 
 
248 THE STORY OF THE BIRDS. 
 
 to discourage occasionally the sparrows always ; and 
 when a jay just lies around and watches for the young 
 wren, he receives some very warm suggestions about 
 space being better than company. 
 
 Over the fence but we can't go over the fence 
 in this little book. 
 
 Of all the little birds, he that gets nearest to me 
 through the window pane or elsewhere is the house 
 wren. He is a little loud, and does not get along well 
 with his neighbors, but I love him for his stimulating 
 presence and his confidence. We have spoken else- 
 where of his greedy building habits. He soon took 
 possession of all the gourds set for the chickadees, 
 filled them full of rubbish, working long sticks in 
 miraculously, and singing all the time. He fights 
 anything light weight or heavy jeers at every bird, 
 and trusts none of them. I saw the pair utterly rout 
 a pet squirrel that had run up their home tree. They 
 struck him repeatedly on the side of the head. The 
 mother wren can find more grubs, worms, etc., to the 
 minute than any hunter under my window. One day 
 I saw her dig up a very large beetle, and she seemed 
 to get something from him, as she rolled him over, 
 though she was wonderfully afraid of him. When I 
 went out I saw under a magnifier that he was infected 
 with spiderlike parasites, but while rather large for 
 parasites my unaided eye did not detect them. 
 
 Working in the garden one day I found the male 
 wren almost at my feet, and taking out my opera 
 glass I saw that he was spider hunting. He soon 
 found a large woolly one and was quite afraid of it, 
 
ACQUAINTANCE WITH THE BIRD. 249 
 
 for it threatened to run at the bird. I never saw him 
 quite so timid before. But he tiptoed around it and 
 put in a stroke now and then, till finally he was rising 
 high on his legs and driving his beak home fearfully. 
 Before " the finish " I interfered, and he walked only 
 a few feet away as I inspected his prey. Then I 
 stuck a straw by it and walked around him that he 
 might again renew the battle. But although he 
 searched diligently he could not find it. I was dis- 
 appointed in his powers of location, but I felt more 
 charitably toward him after I myself had again 
 searched and could not even find the straw I had 
 stuck up. I thought that his trill from the apple tree 
 had a strain of irony in it. 
 
 A few evenings later, just at dusk, as I was push- 
 ing the lawn mower under a maple, he came and 
 nestled down into a little basketlike crotch just over 
 my hat, and, after watching me a few seconds, put his 
 head under his wing and went to sleep. I got a box 
 and mounted up with my face not a foot away. I 
 could easily have taken him in my hand. Fearing 
 that he might be ill I spoke to him. He raised his 
 head, looked into my eyes a moment, and again put 
 his head under his wing. I crept away from him. 
 Next night I stole out and again found him in another 
 little crotch near by, sleeping so soundly that he never 
 seemed to know that I had looked in upon him, nor 
 that toward his little feathered form my heart had 
 gone out so warmly. 
 
 Why should not a man love a bird ? If the palm 
 of one should clasp the pinion of the other there 
 
250 THE STORY OF THE BIRDS. 
 
 would come together two of the greatest implements 
 God and Nature have ever given any creatures to ex- 
 plore the world with ; and when the two bipeds gaze 
 at each other eye to eye, the intelligence in the one 
 might well take off its hat to the subtle instincts in 
 the other. 
 
INDEX. 
 
 Acquaintance with birds, 230. 
 
 Aftershaft, 28. 
 
 Air currents, in flight, 174. 
 
 Air sacs, colored, 46, 140. 
 
 Air spaces, not for buoyancy, sup- 
 plementing lungs, 20 ; in pelican 
 forms, 140. 
 
 Albatross, flight and wing, 172, 173. 
 
 Allen, Grant, on origin of choice, 48. 
 
 Altricial birds, without down usu- 
 ally, 29 ; molt of wing quills of, 
 38 ; affected by hatching heat, 100 ; 
 traits of, 123-125 ; origin of a de- 
 generation, 124 ; mostly tree build- 
 ers, 127 ; outlined on diagram, 202. 
 
 Altruism, 52 ; automatic, 53 ; invol- 
 untary, 57. 
 
 Ambiens muscle, 157, 193. 
 
 Amphibians, differ from birds, how, 
 3. 
 
 Antelopes, signal marks on, 54 ; pe- 
 culiar weapons of some, 60. 
 
 Antics, as charming factors, 45 ; with 
 display and choice, 48 ; chapter on, 
 69 ; vigor, 69 ; on the wing, 71 ; 
 older than wing, 77. 
 
 Apteryx (Kiwi), with hairlike plu- 
 mage, 34 ; smell of, 75 ; lays largest 
 egg relatively, 126 ; feeding habits 
 of, 137 ; kinship of, 138, 204 ; origin 
 of beak of, 145, 150 ; roosting of, 
 155. 
 
 Aquatic birds, and downs, 27 ; feet 
 of, 161 et seq.; outline on diagram, 
 202 ; near precocial, 214 ; diagnosed 
 213 et seq. 
 
 Archceopteryx, lizardlike, feathers 
 on legs and tail of, 5, 8 ; flight of, 
 9 ; bones of wing free, 10 ; thumb 
 of, alongside, 10 ; use of claws, 11 ; 
 bipedal motion of, 15 ; quills par- 
 tially flossy, 34 ; leg of, 167, 202, 
 203. 
 
 Arctics, origin of birds in, 117, 178, 
 179. 
 
 Argus pheasant, 58. 
 
 Asia, some birds from, 187. 
 
 Attention in bird study, 231. 
 
 Audubon, notes on flicker and wood- 
 pecker battles, 65. 
 
 Auks, skin about bill of, 45 ; kinship 
 and aquatic habits, 139, 207, 208. 
 
 Backbone, origin of, 1 ; in water, 6 ; 
 on skin, 30. 
 
 Bare tracts, 22 ; and flight, 24 ; on 
 aquatic birds, 27. 
 
 Barrel of feather, 27 ; once flat, 33. 
 
 Battle, indifference of female to, 45 ; 
 by females, 50 ; in general, 59. 
 
 Beak (bill), lengthened in charming 
 season, 44 ; colored, 45 ; bent side- 
 wise, 47 ; modified for food taking 
 only, 60 ; of Apteryx flexible, 137 ; 
 of snipes, etc., bent into a hook, 
 138 ; fringed in ducks, 139 ; knife- 
 like in a gull form, 140 ; sac be- 
 neath in pelican group, 140 ; pierc- 
 ng in waders and hooked in birds of 
 prey, 141 ; of Apteryx, 150 ; affected 
 by use and environment, 145, 146 ; 
 of parrots hooked, file in roof of, 
 
 21 
 
 251 
 
252 
 
 THE STORY OF THE BIRDS. 
 
 147 ; of flycatchers, broad and with 
 bristles, 151 ; of cowbird and bobo- 
 link, 151 ; of finches, 152 ; parrots 
 sleeping suspended by, 158 ; of 
 gulls, 215 ; with horny shield, 221 ; 
 notched, 216, 226 ; chisel-shaped, 
 226, 227 ; cere on, 223, 224. 
 
 Beauty, down the ages with love, 44 ; 
 ever onward, 48 ; tantalizing, 67 ; 
 and polygamy, 95. 
 
 Bipedal motion, 15. 
 
 Bird, forefathers of, 1 : definition 
 of, 5 ; flight of, before feathers, 6 ; 
 crawling by wings of, 6 ; tempera- 
 ture of, 15 ; degenerate plumage of 
 flightless, 24 ; degeneration of, gen- 
 erally, 47, 192 et seq. ; have no pro- 
 tective armor, 64, 67 ; losing weap- 
 ons, 64 ; various tones of, for 
 various emotions, 83 ; unmated, 84, 
 93 ; resident, pairing, 85 ; long en. 
 gagements of, 85 ; spring bird wed- 
 ding and housekeeping, 86 ; incu- 
 bation of, and pedigree, 96 ; con- 
 stancy to one nest material, 109 ; 
 do not farm out the baby, 133 ; 
 highest parental devotion among, 
 134 ; first users of false teeth, 136 ; 
 how they scratch, 137 ; feeding 
 habit and pedigree, 153 ; light 
 sleeping, 156 ; knowledge gener- 
 ally, 186 et seq. and weather, 240 ; 
 identification of, 213 et seq. 
 
 Bird of paradise, a crow form, 199. 
 
 Bird of prey, with all-around weap- 
 ons, 60 ; a pair for life, 84 ; feed- 
 ing young, 134 ; kinship of, 208 ; 
 cere of, 208 ; and identification by 
 223, 224. 
 
 Blackbird, lays two kinds of eggs, 
 119 r red -winged, trysting place of, 
 constant, 82 ; latter polygamous, 
 95 ; rookeries of, 159 ; nesting and 
 roosting, 240, 241. 
 
 Blood, hot, 17 ; cold, 18. 
 
 Bluebird, fighting, 82, 244; nesting 
 habits, 114 ; white egg of, 118 ; 
 feeding young, 182, 183. 
 
 Bobolink, wedding garment of, 42 ; 
 migrating unpaired, 86 ; beak 
 sparrowlike, 151 ; distribution west 
 and return migration, 186. 
 
 Bob white, signal marks on, 55 ; 
 throat patch ornamental, 56 ; sings 
 after mating, 81 ; male caring for 
 young, 88 ; roosting, 154 ; roosting 
 flight, 159. 
 
 Bones of wing (ill.), 13 ; why tubular, 
 20 ; in albatross, etc., 173. 
 
 Bower bird, using bowers and bright 
 things in courtship, 50, 200 ; a crow 
 form, 200. 
 
 Brain, relations to body and skull, 
 196. 
 
 Breast, bare tracts on, 22 ; bare in 
 incubation, 98 ; touching perch in 
 roosting, 156, 157. 
 
 Brilliancy, progressive, 46, 48 ; of 
 fruit and sexual selection, 48 ; and 
 polygamy, 95 ; rarely sacrificed. 47. 
 
 Bristles, degenerate feathers, 26 ; 
 around beaks of flycatchers, etc. 
 (see illustration of whip-poor-will), 
 151. 
 
 Broadbill, 210. 
 
 Brown creeper and warblers, 199 ; 
 author's notes on, 231, 232 ; pro- 
 tective markings, 35. 
 
 Brush turkey (see MEGAPODES) with 
 wing spurs, 62 ; hatching methods, 
 99 ; flight from shell, 29, 40, 126 ; 
 kinship of, 204 ; an old type, 211. 
 
 Burnish of feathers, 35. 
 
 Burroughs, John, note on downy 
 woodpecker, 85 ; on bluebird's 
 fighting, 82 ; on house-wren build- 
 ing, 111 ; on roosting and nesting 
 places, 157. 
 
 Bustard, grotesque antics of, 70 ; 
 kinship of, 205. 
 
 Butcherbird. (See SHRIKE.) 
 
 Cceca, 194. 
 
 Calls by color, 53 ; as ornament, 56. 
 Cardinal feeding young blackbird, 
 101. 
 
INDEX. 
 
 253 
 
 Carotid arteries, fused or aborted, 
 194. 
 
 Cassowary, after shaft on, 28 ; weap- 
 ons of, 61 ; roosting humped, 155 ; 
 peculiar molt of, 42. 
 
 Catbird's scolding endowments, 82. 
 
 Caterpillar eaters, 153 ; cuckoo evis- 
 cerating, 239. 
 
 Cere, 222 ; feathered in parrots, 
 225. 
 
 Chameleon's toe peculiarities, 164. 
 
 Chat, yellow-breasted, flight antics 
 of, 73. 
 
 Chest muscles, 13 ; color and char- 
 acter of, 172. 
 
 Chewink (towhee), song position, 
 80 ; feeds scratching, 152. 
 
 Chickadees, hot nest, 101 ; habits, 
 114, 234. 
 
 Choice, of mates, origin of, 48 ; re- 
 finements of, 49 ; of nest material, 
 109. 
 
 Clamatores, 229. 
 
 Clasping, automatic, 156, 157 ; effect 
 of, on middle toe, 166. 
 
 Claws, on Archceopteryx, 6, 11 ; on 
 modern birds, 11 ; hoactzin crawl- 
 ing by, 11 ; modified for food tak- 
 ing, 141 ; elongated, on cassowary, 
 61 ; on jacana, 138 ; on larks (ill.), 
 228 ; like human nails in ibises, 
 218. 
 
 Clutch, 188, 189. 
 
 Cock nests, 111. 
 
 Collies, kinship, 210. 
 
 Color, and molt, 38 ; slow acquisi- 
 tion of, 40 ; and food, climate, en- 
 vironment, and vigor, 41, 49 ; sub- 
 stitution of, 46 ; loss of, for sake 
 of perspective in Argus pheasant, 
 48 ; and nest, 51 ; color calls, 53 ; 
 younger than weapons, 64 ; of egg, 
 116 ; of egg, in oviduct, 118 ; on 
 bird's eggs only, 120 ; ground, of 
 eggs, 120 ; of Eastern and Western 
 birds, 187. 
 
 Columbus and bird routes, 182. 
 
 Condor's ruche of down, 26. 
 
 Connecting links : flamingo, 140 ; 
 Apteryx, 138 ; jacana, 138 ; duck- 
 bill, 1, 3, 135 ; waders, 141 ; owls, 
 150 ; wren-tits, 152 ; cowbird and 
 bobolink, 151 ; hoactzin, 197 ; sand 
 grouse, 204 ; bustard, 205 ; sea run- 
 ners, 207 ; tropic bird, 207 ; herons 
 and secretary bird, 208 ; collies, 
 210. 
 
 Cormorants, eggs of, rough, 118 ; re- 
 gurgitating fish, 131 ; feeding hab- 
 its, 140. 
 
 Coues, E., on robin, 231. 
 
 Counting, 188 et seq. 
 
 Courlan, kinship of, 204. 
 
 Courtship, and antics, 48 ; and song, 
 77 et seq.; and ornament, 44-52. 
 
 Cowbirds, odor of, not destructive, 
 75 ; do not marry, 95 ; parasitic 
 in nesting, 95, 189, etc.; bill and 
 feeding, 189 ; baby call sparrow- 
 like, 247. 
 
 Cranes, beak of, 60 ; .playing, 70 ; the 
 group's feeding habits, 141 ; kinship 
 of, 205 ; identifying, 219. 
 
 Crests, and spring molt, 38 ; as orna- 
 ments, 45. 
 
 Crop, peeling up in pigeons, 131 ; in- 
 flated in a sandpiper, 71. 
 
 Crows, flocking, 56 ; playing, 69 ; 
 omnivorous, 151 ; crow form's love 
 of bright objects, 199 ; not musical, 
 210 ; highest bird, 211. 
 
 Cuckoos (European), mimicry of 
 sparrow hawk (ill.), 66 ; migrat- 
 ing before young, 183 ; parasitic, 
 95 r (American) cool nest of, 101 ; 
 (generally) peculiar eggs of, 118 ; 
 paired toes and feeding habit, 147 ; 
 kinship of, 209 ; identifying, 226 ; 
 eviscerating caterpillars, 239. 
 
 Curassow, kinship of, 204 ; an old 
 type, 211. 
 
 Darwin, Charles, on color, 21 ; on 
 molt, 37, 38 ; on ornaments of Ar- 
 gus pheasant, 48 ; on sex selection, 
 49 ; on weapons, 60 ; on unmated 
 
254: 
 
 THE STORY OF THE BIRDS. 
 
 birds, 93, 94 ; on relations of bril- 
 liancy and polygamy, 95. 
 
 Degeneration of wing, 5, 15 ; of fore- 
 leg, 6-15 ; of wing in flightless 
 birds, 24, 34 ; of feathers, 25, 26, 
 36 ; of downs, 33 ; of nests, 104 ; of 
 internal organs, 193, 194; of fibula, 
 167. 
 
 Defense (see WEAPONS, etc.) by bad 
 odor, 63, 64. 
 
 Dendrocygna, 217. 
 
 Diagnosing bird, 213 et seq. 
 
 Diagram of kinship, 202 et seq. 
 
 Dick-cissel and nest material (ill.), 
 109, 110. 
 
 Digestion tract and history, 137, 195. 
 
 Digits, loss of, and normal number, 
 10. 
 
 Dinosaurs, bones of, 20 ; spurs on, 
 59 ; relations to birds, 202, 203. 
 
 Discrimination often poor in birds, 
 191. 
 
 Display, with appreciation and 
 choice, 44, 50 ; of plumage marks, 
 46 ; of Argus pheasant, 49 ; by fe- 
 male, 50 ; younger than weapons, 
 64 ; substituted for battle, 65 ; style 
 of, predicted from markings, 71 ; 
 of flicker, 241, 242. 
 
 Divers, identifying, 214. 
 
 Divine agency, 145. 
 
 Doves, wing whistles of, 57 ; varying 
 style of nest, 103 ; interrupting 
 rival's song, 82 (see PIGEONS). 
 
 Downs, generally treated, 25 et seq. ; 
 striped or mottled, 35 ; molted be- 
 fore hatching, 126. 
 
 Duckbill, a mammal laying and in- 
 cubating eggs, 2, 3 ; suckles young, 
 134. 
 
 Ducks, mallard's morals changed, 
 95 ; carrying young, 134 ; feeding 
 habits, 139; bill and tongue fringed, 
 145 ; paddling water to rise, 172 ; 
 chest muscles of, 173 ; ancestry 
 of, 198 ; covering eggs with their 
 down, 198 ; identifying, 217 ; free 
 ducks, 217. 
 
 Eagle, paired for life, 89 ; repairing 
 nest yearly, 115 ; foot of (ill.), 141 ; 
 use of beak closed, 142. 
 
 Ear of owls, 142. 
 
 Egg, where the large comes in, 2 ; 
 meaning of markings of, 116 ; and 
 kinship, 119, 206 ; and environ- 
 ment, 119 ; hybridism affecting, 
 119 ; relative size of, 125 ; of pre- 
 cocials and altricials, 124 ; size of 
 yolk in, 126 ; transit down oviduct, 
 118, 126 ; size of, and number, 126 ; 
 size of, and young, 127 ; dormant, 
 127, 189 ; carried in penguin's 
 pocket, 171 ; proper number in 
 clutch, 188 ; bird counting, 189. 
 
 Egg tooth, 126. 
 
 Embryology of bare tracts, 24 ; of 
 nests, 105 ; of habit, 196. 
 
 Emeu, aftershaft on, 28. 
 
 Environment and downs, 27 ; and 
 molt, 40 ; and color, 41 ; and mat- 
 ing customs, 84, 94 ; and nests, 
 104 ; and eggs, 119 ; and new use 
 of old tool, habits, 146. 
 
 Epidermis, 31 ; shedding, 33 ; flaked, 
 in penguins, 33, 43 (see SKIN). 
 
 Escape, and clutch number. 169 ; of 
 ousels and grebes, 197 ; by shorter 
 wing or fin, 166, 171, 174 ; by skulk- 
 ing, 171. 
 
 Europe, birds from. 187. 
 
 Exoskeleton from the skin, 31 ; on 
 some mammals. 32. 
 
 Experience, 179 ; lack of, in young 
 grebes, 197. 
 
 Eye, colored, as ornament, 45, 46 ; 
 degenerate, 32 ; on side of head in 
 hawks, 224 ; range of focus of, 234. 
 
 Fastidiousness of birds, 109. 
 
 Feathers, from scale, 8, 24, 25 ; not 
 necessary to flight, 14, 17; but 
 shaped by it, 14 ; not given for 
 buoyancy, 19 ; but warmth, 17, 32 ; 
 influencing flight, 33 ; original 
 shape of, 33 ; renewals of, 38, 40 ; 
 degenerated for ornament, 47 ; 
 
INDEX. 
 
 255 
 
 feathers and song, 77 ; lining for 
 nests, 198 (see CRESTS and PLUMES). 
 
 Feeding habits, of young, 130 et seq. ; 
 of adults, 136 et seq. ; affected by 
 tool and environment, 147. 
 
 Feet, ornamented. 46 ; modified for 
 feeding, 138; of birds of prey, 
 141 ; of reptiles and vultures, 142 ; 
 of osprey, 143 ; as rudders in pen- 
 guins, 170; identifying by, 213 et seq. 
 
 Felting, 113. 
 
 Female, antics of, 45, 69, 70, 72 ; 
 armed and ornamented, 51 ; colors 
 of, primitive and changed by nest- 
 ing habits, 51, 108 ; responding in 
 courtship, 70-72; not incubating, 
 88 ; building solely, 88 ; singing 
 after bereavement, 92. 
 
 Fibula, degenerate, 167. 
 
 Fieldfare, 158. 
 
 Finches, beak lengthened, 44 ; pur- 
 ple, regurgitating, 132 ; on border 
 of crow group, 151 ; feeding habits 
 of, 151 ; nest lining of, 198. 
 
 Finfoot, carrying young, 134 ; kin- 
 ship of, 204. 
 
 Fireflies, as nest ornament, 108 ; sig- 
 nal mates, 27. 
 
 Flamingo, neck, beak, and feeding 
 habits, 139 ; illustrated on, 218 ; 
 identifying, 217. 
 
 Flapping, fluttering, in sudden ris- 
 ing, 171 ; shape of wing and, 174, 
 175. 
 
 Flesh eaters, teeth and gizzard of, 
 136. 
 
 Flicker, rump spot on, 55 ; courting 
 antics, of 70, 72, 85 ; not fighting, 
 65 ; regurgitating for young, 132 ; 
 feeding on ground, 149 ; merging 
 of species, 187 ; habits, 241, 242 ; 
 mustache in spots on, 246, 
 
 Flight, before birds, by skin, 2 ; by 
 feathers, 3, 14 ; in aspirations of 
 lizards, 3 ; and weight, 19 ; and 
 bare tracts, 24 ; from moment of 
 hatching, 29, 40, 126 ; and feathers, 
 34 ; sounds of, as a signal, 57 ; un- 
 
 der water, 139, 153 ; noiseless in 
 owls, 142 ; while eating, 143 ; and 
 wing shape, 171 ; soaring, 179 ; 
 and migration, 174 ; how effected, 
 174, 175. 
 
 Flight quills, basis of plumage, 19 ; 
 shape, number, etc., 175, 176. 
 
 Flycatchers, crested habits, 114 ; va- 
 riation of eggs of, 119 ; feeding and 
 bristles of, 151. 
 
 Flying lizards, 3, 8. 
 
 Fly lines, 184. 
 
 Flocking birds, and odor, 75 ; and 
 altruistic calls and marks of, 53-57. 
 
 Follicles, 28 ; feather pockets, origin 
 of, 31 ; injured and twisted plumes, 
 etc., 41. 
 
 Food, and color of bird, 41 ; of eggs, 
 119 ; and migration, 177. 
 
 Fossils. See Archceopteryx, Hespe- 
 rorm's, Ichthyornis, MOAS, PEN- 
 GUINS, etc. 
 
 Fowl forms, and bare tracts, 23 ; beak 
 of (ill.), 223. 
 
 Fowls, sense of smell in, 76 ; egg 
 markings of recent. 121 ; motherly 
 care in, 133 ; scratching, 137 ; short 
 wings of, 169 ; kinship of, 202, 203 ; 
 identifying, 222, 223. 
 
 Fraying of feather tips and color, 40, 
 42. 
 
 Frogs (toads), arboreal, 8 ; breathing 
 by skin, 18 ; tadpole state of, hur- 
 ried up, 40. 
 
 Fruit and sex selection, 48, 49. 
 
 GallinoB (fowls), 223. 
 
 Gallinules, feeding habits, 139 ; hab- 
 its of young, 197. 
 
 Gape, in feeding, 151 ; in identifica- 
 tion, 223-228. 
 
 Garden bird, use of bright things in 
 charming, 50, 200. 
 
 Geography and birds, 186-188. 
 
 Gizzard, 136. 
 
 Glass, for observing birds, 232 ; nest 
 of, 104. 
 
 Gnatcatchers, ornamenting nest, 107. 
 
256 
 
 THE STORY OF THE BIRDS. 
 
 Goatsuckers, with powder downs, 
 26 ; beak of, not a weapon, 60 ; feed- 
 ing methods, 150 ; kinship of, 209 ; 
 nostrils slightly tubular, 217 ; iden- 
 tifying, 227. 
 
 Goldfinch (American), long engage- 
 ments of, nest, etc., 85. 
 
 Goose, Canada, signal marks of, 55 ; 
 male, a devoted parent, 62, 89 ; 
 kinship by habit of covering eggs, 
 198 ; the group identified, 215 ; dis- 
 tinguished from ducks, 217,218(ill.). 
 
 Grebes, eggs, double-pointed, 122 ; 
 mother's care of young (ill.), 134, 
 197 ; feeding habits, 139 ; instinct 
 to hide and kinship, 197 ; crawling 
 by wings, 198 ; floating nest of, 198 ; 
 covering eggs, 198 ; kinship of, 202, 
 203 ; identifying, 214. 
 
 Grosbeak, cool nest of, 101 ; fighting 
 musically, 244 ; singing responsive- 
 ly, 82. 
 
 Ground color of eggs, origin of, 120. 
 
 Grouse, ruffed, color of, 35 ; antics 
 (ill.), 70 ; deserting mate, 88 ; col- 
 or of egg erasable, 118 ; roosting 
 flight of, 159 ; sudden rising and 
 wing shape, 172. 
 
 Guan, Texas, 223. 
 
 Guidance of migrant, 184, 185. 
 
 Gulf of Mexico's extension and bird 
 life, 187. 
 
 Gulls, feeding, freebooters, 140 ; 
 kinship of, 205 et seq. ; identifying, 
 215. 
 
 Habits, changed, 52, 99, 134 ; of near 
 species, 95 ; how set up by old tool, 
 146 ; illustrated by parrots, 147 ; 
 preceding structure, 153 ; migra- 
 ting of various birds, 181; and use- 
 less organs, 193; fixed, are instincts, 
 184 ; hint of history, 196 et seq. 
 
 Hair and horns, 32 ; removing epi- 
 dermis, 32 et seq. 
 
 Hare, why white tail of, 54. 
 
 Hatching, by sun, 98, 99 ; varying 
 heat of, 100 ; hatching heat and 
 
 nest shape, 102 ; premature, 126- 
 128 ; egg tooth in, 126 ; in pen- 
 guin's pocket, 171. 
 
 Haunt, mimicry of, 35, 38, 47, 56, 87. 
 
 Hawks, inheriting downy nestling, 
 29 ; eggs of, losing color, 119 ; 
 nighthawk, so called, 150. 
 
 Head, under wing in sleep, 159, 160, 
 249 ; hidden by Apteryx, 155 ; 
 naked in vultures, 224. 
 
 Heart, change of, 2. 
 
 Heligoland and migrants, 182. 
 
 Herons, with powder downs, 26 ; 
 forms feeding, 141 ; kinship, 205- 
 208 ; identifying, 219 ; nest a plat- 
 form (ill.), 106. 
 
 Hesperornis (fossil), 202, 203. 
 
 Hoactzin, claws rn wing, 11 ; pecul- 
 iar roosting habit, 156, 157 ; habits 
 of young and kinship, 197 ; kin- 
 ship generally, 204 ; very old and 
 reptilian, 211, 212. 
 
 Hole builders, using same hole again, 
 114 ; have white eggs often, 118 ; 
 mostly altricial, 127 ; nestling 
 naked, 128, 149. 
 
 Homes, 177 ; homing instinct, 183. 
 
 Hornbill, manner of feeding mate 
 and young, 131. 
 
 House w T ren, rival males, 92 ; sham 
 nests of, 111 ; sleeping out, 159 ; 
 nest, location, 236 ; habits of, gen- 
 erally, 248, 250. 
 
 Hudson's Bay, extension of, 187. 
 
 Hummingbirds, color of, 46 ; ori- 
 gin of splendor, 48 ; ornamenting 
 nest, 107 ; feeding, 150 ; identify- 
 ing, 227 ; only six secondaries, 228 
 (ill.) ; male at window, 238. 
 
 Ibises, 218. 
 
 Ice-cap and migration, 178. 
 
 Ichthyornis (fossil), 202, 203. 
 
 Identification, various, 213 et seq. 
 
 Incubation, in general, origin of, 96 
 et seq. ; male's assistance and at- 
 tention in, 50, 87, 88 ; and migra- 
 tion, 100 ; affecting crop, 131. 
 
INDEX. 
 
 257 
 
 Indigo birds, song perch, 80. 
 Inflation, not known in flight, 20 ; 
 
 for terrifying, 65. 
 Inheritance, of tastes, 48 ; of webs 
 
 not probable, 186 ; of migratory 
 
 routes, 182 ; miraculous elements 
 
 in, 186 ; of habit, 183. 
 Instincts, social, 54 ; migratory not 
 
 infallible, not all explainable, 186 ; 
 
 some, of adults not yet acquired by 
 
 young, 197 ; very subtle, 250. 
 
 Jacana, wings of, spurred, 62; sharp 
 edge of wing bone, 63 ; kinship of, 
 139 ; claws elongated, 139. 
 
 Jays, flocking for effect, 188 ; short 
 courtship of, 85 ; nest of blue jay. 
 101 ; like rootlets as lining, kinship 
 show by it, 199 ; jay as a winter as- 
 sociate, 242, 243. 
 
 Joints of toes, 102, 163. 
 
 Keel, meaning of its absence, 15. 
 Key to groups, 214 et seq. 
 Kingbird, remarriage of, 90. 
 Kingfisher, solid downs on, 27 ; not 
 
 on insect-eating, 27 ; fishing, 150 ; 
 
 kinship of, 210 ; identifying by 
 
 toes, 226. 
 
 Kinglets, habits of, 234, 239. 
 Kinship, by feather tracts, 22 ; by 
 
 eggs, 119 ; by pointed eggs, 122 ; 
 
 by sundry traits, 150-153 ; through 
 
 viscera, 137, 206 ; through nests, 
 
 198 ; diagram of, and chapter on, 
 
 202 et seq. 
 Knob on wing, 62. 
 
 Landmarks in migrating, 183. 
 Lapwing, white signal rump spot 
 
 (ill), 55. 
 
 Lark bunting, song flight of, 73. 
 Laying, influenced or suppressed, 
 
 127, 189, 190. 
 Leg, converted into a wing, 10, 192 ; 
 
 naked above joint of waders, 141 ; 
 
 locked during sleep, 156 ; bones of, 
 
 167 ; correlations of scales on, 176, 
 
 194, 195 ; of geese and ducks (ill.), 
 217 ; feathered to joint, 217 ; bare 
 in kingfisher, 218: with shank 
 sharp, 222 ; as rudder in penguins, 
 170. 
 
 Lightness not necessary to flight, 19, 
 20. 
 
 Lining of nest, of goldfinch, 85 ; a re- 
 cent element, 106, 107 ; and color 
 of egg, 116 ; constancy and varia- 
 tion of, 117. . 
 
 Loitering in migration, 181. 
 
 Loons, flight of, under water and 
 feeding habits, 139 ; paddling when 
 rising, 172 ; kinship of, 207 ; iden- 
 tifying, 214. 
 
 Lores (space between bill and eye) 
 naked in heron forms and kin, 
 218. 
 
 Lung, a loose sac, 1 ; becomes cellu- 
 lar, 2 ; helped by air spaces, 20. 
 
 Lyre bird, degeneration of feathers, 
 26, 47 ; kinship of, 210 ; downy 
 nestling and song muscles of, 211. 
 
 Machrochires, 227 
 
 Males, incubating, 50, 87 ; displaying 
 ornaments, 44, 52 (ill.) ; feeding sit- 
 ting mate, 87 ; deserting sitting 
 mate, 88 ; taking nest hole to 
 roost in, 89 ; song of, after bereave- 
 ment, 92. 
 
 Mammals differ from birds, how, 3. 
 
 Marriage (see PAIRING), second, 87, 
 90, 92 ; and environment, 94. 
 
 Marsh wrens nesting, 111. 
 
 Marsupial sac, 134. 
 
 Mates, for season, years, or life. 84, 
 86, 89, 90, 92 ; inconstancy of, 93. 
 
 Meadow lark, song flight of, 73 ; 
 feeding and kinship, 151 ; inter- 
 grading species, 187 ; and cow- 
 bird, 189. 
 
 Megapodes, hatched fit for flight, 29, 
 40 ; pass downy state in egg, 126 ; 
 nest building, 99. 
 
 Migration, and plumage, 19 ; and 
 song and pairing in, 86 ; and nest 
 
258 
 
 THE STORY OF THE BIRDS. 
 
 concealing, 108, 180; of bobolink 
 west, 186 ; and wing shape and 
 length, 172 ; a chapter on, 177 ; 
 theory of, 178 ; estimating time of, 
 191 ; routes of, 184 ; and Heligo- 
 land, 182 ; and telescopes, 181 ; 
 young birds starting first in, 183. 
 
 Miller, Mrs. O. T., on bird spots, 246. 
 
 Mimicry, 35 ; by molt, 38 ; by orna- 
 ment, 47 ; of sandpiper, 56 ; of 
 others, 65 (ill.) ; of haunt, 87. 
 
 Moas (fossil), double-stemmed feath- 
 ers of, 28. 
 
 Mocking bird, song flight of, 73 ; win- 
 ter in North, 244. 
 
 Molt, 37-41 ; and color, 38 ; and re- 
 pair, 38. 
 
 Moral progress, 52 ; by conscience, 
 65 ; by monogamy, 87. 
 
 Motmots, toes and kinship, 210 ; 
 identifying by notched bill, 226. 
 
 Muscles, changed, 10 et seq. ; lost, 
 193 ; ambiens, 157, 193. 
 
 Music (see SONG), 77 et seq. ; rivalry 
 in, 65 ; a march, 78. 
 
 Nature, looking ahead. 6 ; preserv- 
 ing energy, 16 ; shortening pro- 
 cesses, 40 ; care of race, 53 ; doing 
 her best, 146 ; compensations of, 
 149, 172, 192. 
 
 Nest (see Chapters XVII and XVIII), 
 affecting color of female, 51 ; lo- 
 cated region of, by male, 86 ; built 
 by which sex, 87, 88 ; of mega- 
 podes, 99 ; and bird, origin of, 
 102 ; not fossil, but origin hinted, 
 105 ; concealing of, and ornamen- 
 tation, 107 ; second, in the season, 
 113 ; repairing of, 115 ; site of, and 
 egg colors, 121 ; and migration, 179, 
 180 ; and distribution, 179, 180 ; 
 floating, 198 ; of glass and watch 
 springs, 104. 
 
 Nestling. See YOUNG. 
 
 Newton, Alfred, on grebe's crawling, 
 198. 
 
 Nidicolce, 129. 
 
 Nidifugce, 129. 
 
 Nighthawk, protective plume of, 47 ; 
 
 feeding of, 150. 
 Nostrils, suppressed, 76, 193 ; at end 
 
 of beak in Apteryx, 137 ; tubular 
 
 in petrels, 215 ; in goatsuckers, 
 
 217 ; flaps and ceres over, 222, 224 ; 
 
 perforate in vultures, 224. 
 Nudity not used much in birds, 22, 
 
 45. 
 Nuthatch, nest of, 101 ; opening hole, 
 
 how, 150 ; feeding awing, 151, 234 ; 
 
 notes on, 233, 234. 
 Nuttall, note on oriole, 93, 95. 
 
 Odor (see Chapter XII), strong in rep- 
 tiles and mammals, 73 ; incidental 
 to food, etc., 74, 75 ; in flocking 
 birds, 75 ; voluntary suppression 
 of, 76. 
 
 Oil gland, 74, 194. 
 
 Oology, 121. 
 
 Orioles, feeding, 151 ; nesting, 199 ; 
 nest, changes in, 246 ; marrying in 
 baby clothes (ill.), 247. 
 
 Ornament, as charming, 44 ; exas- 
 perating, 45 ; as signaling, 56 ; by 
 shape and color of feather, 45 ; 
 style of, changed, 46 ; not sacri- 
 ficed for safety, 47 ; often flaunted, 
 50. 
 
 Ornamenting nest, 50 ; bowers and 
 gardens, 50, 200. 
 
 Opossum's opposable toe, 164. 
 
 Oscines, 78, 176, 194, 195, 229. 
 
 Osprey, repairing nest annually, 115 ; 
 kinship of, 209. 
 
 Ostrich, kin to reptiles, 15 ; air 
 spaces in, 20 ; the group without 
 bare tracts, 23 ; plumes of twisted, 
 41 ; method of fighting, 63 ; male's 
 care of young and incubating, 87 ; 
 sand hatching of, 99 ; feeding hab- 
 its, 137 ; kinship of, generally, 202, 
 203 ; identifying, 213. 
 
 Ousel (water), its downs, 27 ; feeding 
 
 ' habits, 153 ; young not diving, 197 ; 
 domed nest of, and kinship, 199. 
 
INDEX. 
 
 259 
 
 Ovenbird, nest domed, 199 ; mincing 
 steps of, 246. 
 
 Oviduct, egg colors in, 118 ; egg, 
 size in, 120. 
 
 Owls (ill.), 17, 225 ; grotesque play 
 of, and pairing, 84 ; repairing old 
 hawk's nest, 115 ; globular eggs 
 of, 121 ; feeding habits of, 142 ; 
 kinship of, 147, 208, 209 ; identify- 
 ing, 224 ; screech, a winter pet, 
 244, 245. 
 
 Pairing (see MATES and MARRIAGES), 
 
 time of, 84-86. 
 Palmate, foot, 163. 
 Papillae, clustered, 28 ; rising up, 32. 
 Parrots, feeding and beak, 147 ; 
 
 sleeping habits, 158 ; kinship, 209 ; 
 
 identifying, 225. 
 Partridges (see QUAIL), mimicry of, 
 
 47. 
 Passeres, origin of, 128 ; feeding, 151 
 
 et seq. ; destitute of ambiens, 157 ; 
 
 grasping automatic in sleep, 157 ; 
 
 squatting on roost, 158 ; typical 
 
 foot of (ill.), 161 ; toe tendons, 169 ; 
 
 kinship of, 210 ; order of families, 
 
 211 ; identifying, 229. 
 Patagium and muscle, 7. 
 Pattern, 35 ; and molt, 39 ; ruling 
 
 all, 43 ; protecting, 47. 
 Peacocks, ornamented by feather 
 
 degeneration, 26, 47. 
 Pelican (forms), feeding, 140 ; rear 
 
 toe webbed forward, 145 ; kinship, 
 
 207 ; identifying, 216. 
 Penguins, with no bare tracts, 23 ; 
 
 inclosed thumb, 11 ; fossil, with 
 
 bare tracts, 24 ; shed epidermis in 
 
 flakes, 33, 43 ; flight under water 
 
 and feet as rudders, 139, 171 ; leg 
 
 bones separate, 167 ; never strictly 
 
 terrestrial, 169 ; alternate wing 
 
 stroke, 170 ; pocket for egg, 171 ; 
 
 kinship, 207 ; identifying, 214. 
 Perchers. See Passeres. 
 Perspective in ornament, 48. 
 Petrels, ejecting food in defense, 64, 
 
 146 ; to feed young, 131 ; adult 
 feeding of, 140 ; kinship of, 207, 
 208 ; identifying, 215. 
 
 Pewee, feeding, 151 ; eggs of, 119. 
 See FLYCATCHER. 
 
 Pheasant, Argus, shaded spots on, 
 loss of color in, 48 ; its display, 49 ; 
 more than one leg spur in some, 63. 
 
 Phoebe. See PEWEE. 
 
 Picarice, feather tracts of, 22 ; hole 
 builders largely, 198 ; regurgita- 
 tors, 132 ; feeding habits of, 150 ; 
 toe peculiarities, 22, 150 ; roost in 
 holes largely, 157 ; kinship of, 
 209. 
 
 Pigeons with wing spurs, 62 ; egg 
 shape, 122 ; regur gitating food 
 131 ; not scratching, 137; kinship, 
 204 ; nostril flaps, 223 ; grading 
 into fowls, 224. 
 
 Pigment, infusion of, during growth, 
 39 ; range of, 46 ; eggs of, 120. 
 
 Play, 69, 70. 
 
 Plantain eaters, 147, 209. 
 
 Plovers (and plover forms), color 
 calls on, 55 (ill.) ; weapons of, 59 ; 
 wing spurs of, 62, 63 ; grotesque 
 play of, 70 ; males incubating, 87, 
 88 ; pointed eggs of, 122 ; wing 
 shape of (ill.), 172 ; chest muscles 
 of, 173 ; migration of, 180 ; egg 
 number, 122 ; kinship of group, 
 202-204, 205 ; identifying, 221. 
 
 Plumage, and migration, 19 ; and 
 bare tracts, 23 ; once in patches, 
 24 ; solid in flightless birds, 24 ; 
 down seems the germs of, 25 ; 
 where degenerate, 26 ; tells much 
 of history, 34 ; and color, 35 ; slow 
 acquisition of complete, 40 ; ar- 
 rangement of, in sleep, 155, 159. 
 
 Plume, 37, 38. 
 
 Polygamy, and song, 87 ; and weap- 
 ons, 62, 64 ; and fatherly devotion, 
 88 ; and brilliancy, 95. 
 
 Powder downs, 26, 27. 
 
 Precocials, with down, 29 ; molt of 
 wing quills, 38 ; heat affecting 
 
260 
 
 THE STORY OF THE BIRDS. 
 
 state of, 100 ; traits of, 123-125 ; 
 diagram of, 202, 212. 
 
 Primaries, shank, song, and flight, 
 and, 176. 
 
 Progress (see MORAL), and music, 77, 
 87 ; by monogamy, 89 ; by incuba- 
 tion, 96 ; shown by eggs and nest 
 building, 120. 
 
 Protection, by mimicry of haunt and 
 molt, 38 ; of ptarmigans, 37 ; by 
 ornament, 47 ; by mimicry of oth- 
 ers (ill.), 66. 
 
 Protective armor not found in birds, 
 63. 
 
 Ptarmigan, molt protective, 37 ; scale 
 over eye ornamental, 45 ; egg col- 
 ors rubbing off, 118. 
 
 Pterodactyl (ill., 7), 8. 
 
 Purpose, divine, 145. 
 
 Pygapodes, 214. 
 
 Quails, mimicry of haunt in, 35 ; 
 pointed eggs of, 122 ; roosting hab- 
 
 - its, 154 ; and flight, 159. 
 
 Quills, barrels of, once flat, 33 ; flight, 
 influencing rest of feathers, 33 ; 
 of Archceopteryx flossy, 34 ; con- 
 verted into spines, 61 ; on mam- 
 mals, 63. 
 
 Rails, with wing spurs, 62 ; feeding 
 habits and kinship, 138 ; short- 
 winged, 170 ; identifying, 221. 
 
 Rasores, 137. 
 
 Recognition colors as ornamental, 
 56. 
 
 Regurgitating of food in defense, 63, 
 64 ; to feed young, 130. 
 
 Rejoicing differing from song, 81. 
 
 Reptiles, relations to birds, 3 ; bird 
 routes out from, 15 ; air spaces in 
 fossil, 20 ; feathers on, 31 ; incu- 
 bating, 96, 97 ; nest building, 99, 
 105 ; eggs uncolored, 120. 
 
 Resting of migrants, 182. 
 
 Road runner, a cuckoo, 148. 
 
 Robin, feather tracts on young, 23 ; 
 
 spots on young, 39 ; many nesting 
 sites, 110 ; feeding young, 133 ; 
 ubiquity, 231 ; fighting, 244. 
 
 Rookeries, 159 (ill.). 
 
 Roosting habits (Chapter XXIV), of 
 parrots, 147 ; of Western quails, 
 159 ; roosting situations (ill.), 159. 
 
 Routes of migration, 184. 
 
 Safety, sacrificed to ornament, 47. 
 Saliva in building, 113. 
 Sand grouse, a connecting link, 204. 
 Sand martin, nesting, 114. 
 Sandpiper, teetering, 56 ; inflating 
 
 crop, 71 (ill.). 
 Sapsucker, 237, 238. 
 Scales, not heat preserving, 18 ; ori- 
 gin of, 31. 
 
 Scopus, nest of, 106. 
 Screamers, no bare tracts, 23 ; wing 
 
 spurs, 62 ; kinship, 206 ; old type, 
 
 211. 
 
 Sea runner, kinship of, 207. 
 Second broods, 127 ; marriages, 91. 
 Secondaries, number of, 176, 228. 
 Secretary bird, kinship and wing 
 
 spurs of, 62, 208 ; striking snakes, 
 
 143 ; an old type, 211. 
 Selection, sexual, 47, 49 ; natural, 
 
 122, 145. 
 
 Semipalmate foot, 163. 
 Sentinels, 156. 
 Seriema, haw r klike, 205. 
 Shape of egg, 121. 
 Sheep killed by parrots, 147. 
 Shrikes, beak of, feeding habits, and 
 
 kinship, 102. 
 Sight, 76, 142. 
 
 Skeleton, dermal origin of, 30, 31. 
 Skin, flight by, 7, 8 ; on front of wing, 
 
 7 ; the great builder, 30 ; in touch 
 
 with everything, 31 ; ornamented 
 
 and as ornament, 22, 45 ; pores of 
 
 suppressed, 18, 194. 
 Skull, brain and, history, 195. 
 Sleep, on wing, 155 ; on water, 156. 
 
 See ROOSTING. 
 Slowness in building, 104. 
 
INDEX. 
 
 261 
 
 Smell, sense of, 75 ; in vultures, 142. 
 See ODOR. 
 
 Snakes, incubating, 97 ; nest build- 
 ing, 105 ; swallowing their young, 
 134 ; eaten by birds, 143 ; degen- 
 erated from lizards, 146. 
 
 Snipe, antics of, 71 ; shape of wing 
 and skulking, 172 (.ill., 173) ; feeding 
 habits of, 137, 138. 
 
 Snowbird, spots on young, 39 ; white 
 tail feather conceal d, 56 ; con- 
 sciously flitted, 57, 280. 
 
 Soaring, wing for, 173 ; weight for, 
 19. 
 
 Social expressions, various, 56, 57 ; 
 habits in migration, 181. 
 
 Song, and battle, 65, 82 ; flight dur- 
 ing, 72 ; came in with the birds, 77 ; 
 and bipeds, 78 ; definition of. 79 ; 
 position during, 80 ; and health or 
 vigor, 81 ; rivalry in, 82 ; associa- 
 tions of, 83 ; of migrants en route, 
 86 ; revival of, in summer, 87 ; and 
 polygamy, 87 ; after bereavement, 
 92 ; correlations of song muscles, 
 primaries, and scales, 176, 195. 
 
 Sparrows, bare tracts on, 23 ; Eng- 
 lish, color of, by fraying, 42 ; and 
 color calls on, 56 ; Peabody and 
 white- crowned (ill.), 246. 
 
 Spoonbill, 141. 
 
 Spots, and stripes, on young, 39 ; on 
 eggs, 121. 
 
 Spun glass, nest of, 104. 
 
 Spurs, on females, 50 ; on wing, 61, 
 62 ; on most low bird^ ancestors, 
 62 ; on leg in fowl forms only, 63 ; 
 the spur's limit upward, 143. 
 
 Steel nest, 104. 
 
 Step-parents (Chapter XV), 90. 
 
 Stomach lost in parasites, 146. 
 
 Sungrebe, kinship, 204. 
 
 Swan, male devoted to young, 89 ; 
 neck, 139 ; identifying, 216. 
 
 Swifts, plumage tracts, 23 ; beak not 
 a weapon, 60 ; cementing nest, 113 ; 
 feeding young on wing, 133 ; feed- 
 ing generally, 150 ; toe tendons of, 
 
 169 ; kinship of, 210 ; identification 
 
 arid toes, 227. 
 Swimming, membranes for, 162 ; by 
 
 wings, 139, 153 ; membranes shed 
 
 by some amphibians, 164 ; birds 
 
 generally, 214-217 ; toes lobed, 22 ; 
 
 membranes vestigial, 222 ; with 
 
 feet as rudders, 170. 
 Syndactyle toes (see YOKE TOES), 162. 
 Syrinx, dawn of, 77, 210. 
 
 Tail, bones of, long in first birds, 9 ; 
 its use now in flight, 9 ; feathers 
 on, affecting plumage, 19 ; color 
 calls on, 55 ; feathers of, stiff, 199, 
 202, 227. 
 
 Talons, 222. 
 
 Teeth, inherited, 59 ; lost and arti- 
 ficial used, 136 ; notches in sea- 
 ducks, 139, 202. 
 
 Telescopes and migrants, 181. 
 
 Tendons, of birds in sleep, 156, 157 ; 
 of birds generally and of lizards, 
 168 ; of Passer es, 210. 
 
 Terns, playing, 69, 140. 
 
 Tertiaries, elongated, 176. 
 
 Thrashers feeding, 152. 
 
 Thrushes, endowed for scolding, 82, 
 83 ; feeding, 153 ; with best song 
 muscles and scaleless shanks, 211 ; 
 olive-backed, ways, 245, 246. 
 
 Thumb, 10, 11. 
 
 Tibia, 167. 
 
 Tmamous, and feather tracts, downs 
 on, 27 ; kinship, 202-204. 
 
 Titmice, nesting, 101 ; notes on, 235, 
 236. 
 
 Toads (see FROG), skin secretions pro- 
 tective, 63. 
 
 Toes, of early birds. 10; rear, wanting 
 in plovers, 138, 221, 222 ; outer, ver- 
 satile in owls and ospreys, 143 ; 
 yoked (see YOKE TOES), in cuckoos, 
 parrots, etc., 147; rear, lost, 148, 
 167 ; peculiar in Picarice, 151 ; in- 
 ner, reversed, 151, 226 ; and armed 
 in cassowary. 61 ; talk on (Chapter 
 XXVI), 161 ; deficient in joints, 162 ; 
 
262 
 
 THE STORY OP THE BIKDS. 
 
 rear, opposable in some reptiles, 
 164 ; elevated in cranes, 220 ; in 
 fowls mostly, 222 ; identifications 
 by, Chapter XXXI. 
 
 Tongue, protrudable, 149; absent, 193. 
 
 Tool and task (Chapter XXIII), 144. 
 
 Totopalmate foot (ill.). 167, 216. 
 
 Toucans, no bare tracts on, 24. 
 
 Towhee bunting. See CHEWINK. 
 
 Tracts in plumage (ill.), 21, 22. 
 
 Trades in birds building, 112. 
 
 Trees and nesting, 106, 107 ; and al- 
 tricials, 127. 
 
 Tree haunters, 128 ; and number of 
 eggs, 127, 128 ; ducks as, 217. 
 
 Triplets, association of birds in, 93. 
 
 Trogons, toes and kinship, 210 ; iden- 
 tifying, 226. 
 
 Tropic bird, a connecting link, 207. 
 
 Tropics, former home of some birds, 
 101, 117, 179. 
 
 Turkeys, wattles and hatred of red, 
 45 ; snout, 48 ; male kills young, 
 88 ; roosting habits, 159. 
 
 Umbrella bird, a crow form, 199. 
 
 Vestiges, 146. 
 
 Vigor, choice and color, 49 ; originat- 
 ing antics, 69. 
 
 Vireos, feeding and kinship, 152 ; 
 counting cowbird's eggs, 142 ; all 
 nest alike, 198 ; persistent singing, 
 239. 
 
 Vultures, ejecting disgusting food in 
 defense, 64, 146 ; feet of some, not 
 very grasping, 142 ; flight, sight, 
 etc., 142 ; kinship by nostril, naked 
 head, etc., 224. 
 
 Waders, kinship and feeding habits, 
 141. 
 
 Wallace on color calls, 56 ; his the- 
 ory of egg markings, 116. 
 
 Warblers (warbler forms), feeding 
 and kinship of, 152 ; one nests as 
 creeper, 199 ; yellow - crowned, 
 notching leaves, 246. 
 
 Water thrush, spots on, 39 ; nest of, 
 199. 
 
 Wattles, 45 ; associated with wing 
 spurs, 63. 
 
 Watch springs, nest of, 104. 
 
 Waxwing playing, 69. 
 
 Weapons, generally (Chapter XI), 59 ; 
 not ornamented in birds, 64 ; not 
 cruel, but progressive, 67 ; and 
 number of eggs, 127. 
 
 Wedding garment, 42. 
 
 Weight needful in best flight, 19, 173. 
 
 Whip-poor-will (ill.), battling by 
 voice, 82; feeding of, 150. See 
 GOATSUCKERS. 
 
 White, used as a signal, 54 et seq.; 
 ornamental, 56 ; of eggs, 125, 
 216. 
 
 White, of Selborne, notes on remar- 
 riage of birds, 91 ; on roosting of 
 fieldfare, 158. 
 
 " Whiddah " (" widow ") bird desert- 
 ing disgraced mate, 50. 
 
 Window pane, glances through, 232 ; 
 rare birds under, 238. 
 
 Wing, how developed, 6 ; claws on, 
 climbing by, 6 ; is a bird's (or liz- 
 ard's) foreleg, 10-14 ; automatic 
 folding of, its bones and muscles, 
 12-14 ; vestigial now, 14 ; affecting 
 plumage, 19 ; often marked or col- 
 ored, 55 ; sounds as signals and 
 calls, 57 ; weapons on, 61, 62 ; in 
 prey taking, 143 ; shaped for sud- 
 den rising, 166 ; changes in, 169 ; 
 all have been once useful in flight, 
 14, 15, 170 ; shape of, 171-175 (ill.). 
 
 Woodcock, mimicry of haunt, 47 ; 
 wing whistles of, 57 ; antics of, 71 ; 
 carrying young, 134, 218. 
 
 Woodpeckers, tracts on, 23 : spots 
 on redhead's wing, 39 ; male 
 downy ungallant, 89 ; use no nest 
 lining, 113 ; young cling to sides of 
 cavity, 113 ; lay globular white 
 eggs, 121 ; only one regurgitates, 
 132 ; traits generally, 149 ; catching 
 flies awing, 151 ; kinship of, 209; 
 
INDEX. 
 
 263 
 
 identifying by toes and beak, 227 ; 
 ways of some, 236 et seq. 
 
 Wrens, many sham nests, 111 ; nest- 
 ing habits, 114 ; feeding and kin- 
 ship of, 152 ; nesting like tits and 
 ousels, 199. See HOUSE WREN. 
 
 Wrist of birds unlike mammals, 14. 
 
 Wrybill, concealment of breast spot, 
 47 ; beak bent, 48. 
 
 Wryneck, feeding habit and kinship, 
 149. 
 
 Yellowthroats (Maryland), 246. 
 
 Young, rarely more brilliant than 
 parent, 46 ; spots on, 39 ; resem- 
 bling mother usually, 51 ; have 
 
 little odor, 75 ; cared for by male, 
 87, 88 ; and nest, 107, 113 ; why two 
 kinds of (Chapter XX), 13 ; pre- 
 cocial the first condition, 124 ; their 
 degeneration altricial, 124; how fed 
 (Chapter XXI), 130 ; altricial need 
 food at once, 132 ; carried by par- 
 ent, 134 ; faring like parent, 136 ; 
 altricial and cradle, 154 ; starting 
 south untaught, 183 ; of hoactzin 
 naked, 211. 
 
 Yoke toes of Picarice, 22, 147, 157 ; 
 identifications by, 226. 
 
 Yolk of egg, 125, 126, 130, 209. 
 
 Zygodactyle toes, 151, 162. 
 
 THE END. 
 
D. APPLETON & CO.'S PUBLICATIONS. 
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