UC-NRLF B 3 301 ;,, :"-..,;: i mi :;.,:;,:' ' ' ; ------ -. . ' ' : -'.. Bits. on.t BIOLOGY U1RA1Y BIRDCRAFT PLATE I. ^ ^^^ 7^ BIRDCRAFT A FIELD BOOK OF TWO HUNDRED SONG GAME, AND WATER BIRDS BY WITH FULL-PAGE PLATES CONTAINING 128 BIRDS IN THE NATURAL COLOURS, AND OTHER ILLUSTRATIONS gotk MACMILLAN AND CO. AND LONDON 1895 All rights reserved MABEL OSGOOD WRIGHT AUTHOR OF " THE FRIENDSHIP OF NATURE " BIOLOGY LIBRARY COPYRIGHT, 1895, BY MACMILLAN AND CO. J. S. Gushing & Co. Berwick & Smith . Norwood, Mass., U.S.A. 3. A RECORD OF HAPPY FIELD DAYS ABOUT HOME \VALT5STEiN, FAIRFIELD, CONN, MARCH 1, 1895 M85665 HAST THOU NAMED ALL THE BIRDS WITHOUT A GUN? EMERSON. AND THE BIRDS SANG ROUND HIM, O'ER HIM, "DO NOT SHOOT US, HIAWATHA! " SANG THE OPECHEE, THE ROBIN, SANG THE BLUEBIRD, THE OWAISSA, "DO NOT SHOOT US, HIAWATHA! " LONGFELLOW. TABLE OF CONTENTS. PAGE TO THE READER xi INTRODUCTORY CHAPTERS : THE SPRING SONG 3 THE BUILDING OF THE NEST 11 THE WATER-BIRDS 21 BIRDS OP AUTUMN AND WINTER 25 HOW TO NAME THE BIRDS 35 SYNOPSIS OF FAMILIES A_.^ 4 . 43 BIRD BIOGRAPHIES: PERCHING SONG-BIRDS . >,-".! . * , 57 PERCHING SONGLESS BIRDS. . . .' 182 BIRDS OP PREY '**} ^ PIGEONS, QUAILS, GROUSE . . . . .*.'. . . . 225 SHORE AND MARSH BIRDS . . ... , . 231 SWIMMING BIRDS 255 KEY TO THE BIRDS 281 INDEX OF ENGLISH NAMES 309 INDEX OF LATIN NAMES . . 315 LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS. PLATE I. 1. Bluebird/ 2. Long-billed Marsh Wren. 3. Hermit Thrush. 4. Winter Wren. 5. Carolina Wren. G. Wood-Thrush. 7. Golden-crowned Kinglet, Female. Frontispiece 8. Golden-crowned Kinglet, Male. 9. American Robin. 10. Catbird. 11. House Wren. 12. Indigo Bunting. 13. Brown Thrasher. OPP. PAGE PLATE II. 1. Yellow-breasted Chat. 2. Chestnut-sided Warbler. :j. Black-throated Green War- bler. 4. Water Thrush. 5. Bay-breasted Warbler. 0. Yellow Warbler. 7. Hooded Warbler. 8. Myrtle Warbler. 9. Black-throated Blue War bier, Female. 10. Black-throated Blue War- bler, Male. 11. Blue-winged Warbler. 12. Yellow-throated Vireo. 13. Maryland Yellow-throat. 14. Worm-eating Warbler. 15. Magnolia Warbler. 1C. Kentucky Warbler. 17. Parula Warbler. 18. American Goldfinch. 19. Ovenbird. PLATE III 125 Humming- 1. Ruby-throated bird, Male. 2. Ruby-throated Humming- bird, Female. 3. Nighthawk. 4. Cliff Swallow. 5. Tree Swallow (White-bel- lied Swallow), Male. 6. Tree Swallow (White-bel- lied Swallow), Female. 7. Bank Swallow. 8. Chimney Swift. 9. Whip-poor-will. 10. Barn Swallow. LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS. PLATE IV 1. Cardinal. j 9. 2. Orchard Oriole, Male. 3. Orchard Oriole, Female. 10. 4. Blackburnian Warbler. 5. Baltimore Oriole, Male. 11. C. Baltimore Oriole, Female, i 12. 7. Rose-breasted Grosbeak, 13. Female. 14. 8. Rose-breasted Grosbeak, Male. OPP. PAGE . 137 Red-winged Blackbird, Male. Red-winged Blackbird, Female. American Redstart. Scarlet Tanager. Pine Grosbeak. American Crossbill. PLATE V. 151 1. Red-eyed Vireo. 2. White-crowned Sparrow. 3. Pine Siskin (Pine Finch). 4. Vesper Sparrow. 5. Chipping Sparrow. 6. Tree Sparrow. 7. Cedar Wax wing. 8. Grasshopper Sparrow. 9. Snowflake. 10. Towhee. 11. Song Sparrow. 12. Field Sparrow. 13. White-throated Sparrow. 14. Junco. 15. Purple Finch. 16. Fox Sparrow. PLATE VI 1. Mourning Dove, Male. 2. Mourning Dove, Female. 3. Passenger Pigeon, Male. 4. Cowbird, Male. 5. Cowbird, Female. 0. Purple Crackle. 7. Belted Kingfisher, Male. 171 8. Belted Kingfisher (young). 9. Meadowlark. 10. Bobolink, Male. 11. Bobolink, Female. 12. Blue Jay, Male. 13. Blue Jay, Female. PLATE VII 1. Yellow-billed Cuckoo. 2. Olive-sided Flycatcher. 3. Northern Shrike. 4. Phoebe. 183 5. Acadian Flycatcher. 0. Black-billed Cuckoo. 7. Kingbird. 8. Horned Lark. PLATE VIII. . . 197 1. White-breasted Nuthatch, Male. 2. White-breasted Nuthatch, Female. 3. Yellow-bellied Sapsucker. 4. Chickadee. 5. Hairy Woodpecker. 6. Red-headed Woodpecker. 7. Flicker, Male. 8. Flicker, Female. 9. Downy Woodpecker. 10. Brown Creeper. 11. Red-breasted Nuthatch. LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS. PLATE IX. 1 1. Red-shouldered Hawk. 2. Great Horned Owl. 3. Short-eared Owl. 4. American Barn Owl. OPP. PAGE . 206 5. Barred Owl. 6. American Long-eared Owl. 7 and 8. Screech Owls. PLATE X. . "- ; ' 1. Sharp-shinned Hawk. 2. Marsh Hawk. 8. American Sparrow Hawk. 4. American Osprey (Fish Hawk). 215 5. Red-tailed Hawk. 6. Bald Eagle. 7. Cooper's Hawk. PLATE XL . 1. Knot. 2. Wilson's Snipe. 3. Golden Plover. 4. Greater Yellow Legs. 5. Bob-white, Quail. 6. Bob-white, Quail, Female. 7. Bob-white, Quail (young). 227 8. Semipalmated Sandpiper. 9. Bartramian Sandpiper. 10. Woodcock. 11. Semipalmated Plover (Ring Plover). 12. Ruffed Grouse, Partridge. 245 1. Clapper Rail. 2. Virginia Rail. 3. Black-crowned NightHeron. 4. American Bittern. 5. Great Blue Heron. 6. Sora (Carolina Rail). 7. Florida Gallinule. 8. Green Heron. PLATE XIII. . . . 1. Turnstone. 2. Killdeer Plover. 3. Canada Goose. 4. Piping Plover. 5. Horned Grebe summer). 250 (male 6. Horned Grebe, Female. 7. Horned Grebe (winter). 8. Black-bellied Plover. 9. Knot (winter). 10. Loon. PLATE XIV. .... . 1. Wood Duck.- 2. Mallard. 3. Redhead. 4. American Merganser. 5. Brant. 255 6. Bufflehead. 7. Old Squaw. 8. Pintail. 9. Canvasback. 10. Black Duck. 1 In the case of the Hawks and Owls, the measurements given are of the females, as they are larger than the males. XI LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS. PLATE XV. . 1. Herring Gull (summer). 2. Herring Gull (young, in winter). 3. Laughing Gull (young). 4. Common Tern. OPP. PACK . 269 5. Herring Gull (winter). 0. Bonaparte's Gull. 7. Dovekie. 8. Wilson's Petrel. The birds contained in these plates have been adapted and grouped from Audubon's "Birds of America," Dr. Warren's "Birds of Penn- sylvania," De Kay's "Ornithology of the State of New York," and from Mr. J. L. Kidgway's illustrations to Dr. A. K. Fisher's "Hawks and Owls of the United States." xii TO THE READER. Do you want to know the birds and call them by their familiar names ? You may do so if you will, provided you have keen eyes and a pocket full of patience; patience is the salt of the bird-catching legend. The flowers silently await your coming, from the wayside wild rose to the shy orchid entrenched in the depths of the cool bog, and you may examine and study them at your leisure. With the birds it is often only a luring call, a scrap of melody, and they are gone. Yet in spite of this you may have a bowing and even a speaking acquaintance with them. The way is plain for those who wish to study the science of ornithology and have time to devote to the pursuit ; its literature is exhaustive, and no country offers a more inter- esting variety of species than our own. But for the novice, who wishes to identify easily the birds that surround him, to recognize their songs and give them their English names, the work at first seems difficult. There are many scien- tific terms, containing their own definitions, that lose force and exactness when translated into simpler language, requir- ing a dozen words to give the meaning of one. There is a comforting fact, however, for the novice, that while scientific nomenclature has been and is constantly changing, the com- mon names, that science also recognizes, remain practically unchanged. Our Bluebird bears the same name as in Audu- bon's day, and the Meadowlark, who has been moved from one genus to another, is called the Meadowlark still. xiii TO THE READER. In speaking of the common names of birds, I would draw a sharp line between the English names recognized by the text books and the American Ornithologists' Union, and the purely local titles. Local names, whether of flowers or birds, are often a hindrance to exact knowledge, because they frequently stand for more than one object. For example, I have heard the term Redbird applied alike to the Baltimore Oriole, Scarlet Tanager, and Cardinal ; but a knowledge of the recognized common names of a bird will enable the student to find its species in any of the manuals. Allowing that you wish to name the birds, do not be held back by minor considerations. You are not to be excluded from the pleasures of this acquaintance even if you are obliged to spend most of your life in the city. The bird- quest will lend a new attraction to your holidays, and you will be led toward the nearest park or along the front of river or harbour. Bradford Torrey gives, in his inimitable way, an account of the birds (some seventy species) which he saw on Boston Common, and Frank M. Chapman lists one hundred and thirty odd species which he has seen in Central Park, New York. 1 The museums also are open to you, and their treasury of skilfully preserved birds offers the advantage of close inspection. The taxidermist's art has reached great per- fection lately, and in the place of bird mummies, stuffed and mounted each in the stiff attitude of its neighbour, without the tribal marks of pose or expression, as much alike as the f our-and-twenty blackbirds that were baked in the pie, we now see the birds as individuals in their homes. The American Museum of Natural History, New York, has sixty such bird groups which show the Chimney Swift, nesting on his little bracket, the Ruffed Grouse rustling through the leaves with her tiny brown chicks, the Baltimore Oriole and its swinging nest, or the Black Duck guarding its bed i Mr. Chapman, Assistant Curator of the Department of Birds and Mam- mals of the Museum of Natural History, has recently completed an excel- lent Visitor's Guide to the Museum's Collection of Birds, found within fifty miles of New York City, in which all birds seen in Central Park are spe- cially noted. xiv TO THE READER. of marsh-grass. We Americans have not yet thoroughly acquired the habit of regarding the museums as great picture books, and yet such they are, and in this connection I wish to express my gratitude to Dr. J. A. Allen, Curator of the Department of Birds and Mammals of the American Museum of Natural History, for much valuable assistance and advice in connection with this book. If you are not a dweller in a large city, but live in a suburban town with a few shrubs in your yard or a vine over your door, you have the wherewithal to entertain bird guests who will talk to you so cheerily that you will soon be led to discover that there is a lane or a bit of woods within walking distance, where you may hear more of such delightful conversation. Read the " Bird Songs about Wor- cester," l by the late Harry Leverett Nelson, a graphic as well as charming account of the birds to be found in the neighbourhood of a rural city, and you will be encouraged. And you who through circumstance, rather than choice perhaps, live in the real country and, as yet, feel the isola- tion more than the companionableness of Nature, who love the flowers in a way, but find them irresponsive, I beg of you to join this quest. You will discover that you have neighbours enough, friends for all your moods, silent, melo- dious, or voluble; friends who will gossip with you, and yet bear no idle tales. If you wish to go on this pleasant quest, you must take with you three things, a keen eye, a quick ear, and loving patience. The vision may be supplemented by a good field- glass, and the ear quickened by training, but there is no substitute for intelligent patience. A mere dogged persist- ency will not do for the study of the living bird, and it is to the living bird in his love-songs, his house-building, his haunts, and his migrations, that I would lead you. The gun that silences the bird voice, and the looting of nests, should be left to the practised hand of science ; you have no excuse for taking life, whether actual or embryonic, as 1 Boston : Little, Brown & Co. XV TO THE READER. your very ignorance will cause useless slaughter, and the egg-collecting fever of the average boy savours more of the greed of possession than of ornithological ardour. Finally, whoever you are who read these pages, spare for me a little of your hoard of the same patience with which you are to study the birds, if, while striving to lead you through the wood-path, I often stumble or retrace my steps. M. O. W. INTRODUCTORY CHAPTERS. THE SPRING SONG. THE BUILDING OF THE NEST. THE WATER-BIRDS. BIRDS OF AUTUMN AND WINTER. INTRODUCTORY CHAPt^RS. THE SPRING SONG. What tidings hath the Swallow heard That bids her leave the lands of summer For woods and fields where April yields Bleak welcome to the blithe newcomer ? BOURDILLON. THE trees are leafless, and there are snow patches in nooks and corners ; the air is laden with chilly gusts, but at noon a little softness creeps into it; the days, though gray, hold twelve hours of light, and the vernal equinox is at hand. Come to the window, my friend, you who are going to spend some days, weeks, or months upon the bird-quest. You say that you see nothing but the bare trees, not even "the sun making dust and the grass growing green," like sister Anne in the fairy tale. Open your window, or better still, go into the porch, for a procession is soon to pass, and you must hear the music. Listen ! on the branch of the oak where the leaves still cling is the bugler, the Song Sparrow, calling through the silence, " They come ! They come ! They come ! Prepare the way." Then presently, instead of tramping feet, you will hear the rustling of the innumerable wings of the bird army. Happy for you if it is a long time in passing and if a large part of it camps for the season. Usually it sends forward a few scouts, and then a company or two, before the brigade, clad in its faultless dress uniform, sweeps on, singing the greatest choral symphony of Nature, the Spring Song. There are many reasons, both of fact and of fancy, why it is best to begin the study of birds in the spring. The 3 INTRODUCTORY CHAPTERS. untrained eye becomes gradually accustomed to its new vocation^ before it is overtaxed. The matter of eyesight is \o tlie; i^r^t importance in the study of the living bird. Is your sight sufficiently good to allow you to exercise it in this i sp&yfc .The trijc^s tb.at you study will not be in the hand, 1 'but in the b\islu You may be accustomed to an out-door life, you may comprehend at a glance all the details of a landscape, or be able to detect a particular flower fields away; but in the quest of a bird which is oftentimes on the wing, your eyes will be obliged to distinguish certain details in a mov- ing object backgrounded by a dazzling sky, and at the next moment refocus, to discover a bird, with perhaps very dull plumage, who is eluding you by circling in the black shadows of the pines. Thus you will be either peering into dim recesses or facing the strongest light twenty times to a single chance of seeing a bird in a clear light, with his plumage accentuated by a suitable background. If you squint and cannot face the sun, you must study birds in the museums, or learn to know them by their songs alone; a field-glass will lengthen the sight, but it will not give the ability to endure light. Many people think that a bird wears the same plumage and sings the same songs all the year round, and expect to identify it by some easy and inflexible rule, which shall apply to all seasons and circumstances, but this is im- possible. When the birds come to us in spring they wear their perfect and typical plumage and are in the best voice, as befits those who are going courting. The male wears the most showy, or at least the most distinctly marked coat, and is generally slightly larger than the female, except in the case of Owls and a few others, where the female is the larger. In many families there is very little variation between the colouring of the male and female, and at a short distance you would probably notice none, except that the female is the paler of the two. But sometimes the differ- ence is so marked that the novice invariably mistakes the 4 THE SPRING SONG. female for a bird of another species ; hence the importance of describing the plumage of both sexes. The Scarlet Tanager has a green mate (there is great wis- dom in this a brilliant brooding bird would betray the location of the nest); the female Hummingbird lacks the ruby throat of her spouse ; and the wife of the sleek black, white, and buff Bobolink wears sober br&wn. When the birds arrive in the spring, these colour distinctions are marked ; but after the nesting time, which occurs mostly in May and June, a fresh complication arises. The young birds on leaving the nest, though fully grown perhaps and capable of strong flight, often wear hybrid feathers in which the characteristics of both parents are mingled. Soon after this time the summer moulting takes place, for the majority of birds moult twice a year. August is the time of this moulting. The jubilant love-song ceases, and the birds, dishevelled and moping, keep well in the shelter of the trees or retreat to the woods, as they are weakened and their power of flight is diminished. After the moulting comes another disturbing element, not only for the novice, but for those well versed in bird ways ; with many birds the colours of the spring plumage are either wholly changed or greatly modified, and though the song may be in a measure renewed for a brief season, it is infrequent and not always true. The young birds are now associating with the old and adding their attempts at warbling, so that I think the snares that lie in the way of beginning the study of Song-birds after midsummer are quite evident. The male Bobolink, after moulting, becomes brown like the female ; the American Goldfinch, a late moulter, turns a dull olive ; the Bluebird fades and takes a rusty hue ; many Warblers lose their identifying bands and streaks while the Baltimore Oriole keeps his flaming feathers. After this moulting the bird's life as an individual ceases for a season ; he is no longer swayed by sex, but by the flock- ing impulse of self-preservation, and in this case it is not always birds of a feather that flock together. In the early spring, when the relaxing touch of the sun is 5 INTRODUCTORY CHAPTERS. felt, the second moulting occurs, and the feathers that have borne the wear and tear of winter give place to the fresh new coat, and the bird throat swells with the Spring Song. From a residential standpoint, we have four distinct grades of birds to consider: I. The summer residents : Those birds which, coming to us in the spring, rear their young, and after shifting about somewhat in late summer, retreat more or less southward for the winter. II. The residents: Comprising those species which are represented by individuals all the year round. III. The winter residents : The birds who are inhabitants of boreal regions, breeding beyond the northern border of the United States, coming only to us in winter, and retiring northward at the time of the general upward migration. IV. The migrants : Birds that are with us for a few weeks in spring, en route from the south to their more northern breeding haunts, and are also visible for a similar period during the return trip in autumn. We may class with these the casual visitors that appear for a brief visit either summer or winter. The two movements of bird life in spring and fall are known as the great migrations, some birds being plentiful in spring and quite rare in the autumn, and vice versa, as the path chosen for the upward and downward trip may not be the same. The individuals belonging to these classes will be specified in turn, and they are mentioned here to show you that if you do not begin the bird-quest in spring, in time to meet the army of migrants, you may miss some of the most interesting species. Conspicuous among the birds that lodge with us in April and May, letting us hear their song for a brief period, is the great Fox Sparrow, the White-throated and White-crowned Sparrows, the group of lovely Warblers, and, rarest of all, the Hermit Thrush, whose heavenly notes of invocation, if once heard, are never forgotten. THE SPRING SONG. If you are ready for this quest when the sun crosses the equinox the 21st of March, you will be in good time, and your labours will be lightened by studying the birds as they come one by one, hearing each voice in a solo, before all have gathered in late May and individual notes blend in the chorus. In this locality there is very little general upward movement before the vernal equinox, for the weather is too capricious. A few Song Sparrows and Bluebirds begin to sing, but the Yellowbirds that have wintered with us are still wearing their old coats, and have not broken into song. Last spring (1894) I noted in my diary the return of the Song Sparrows March 5, but the flocks of Bluebirds and Robins did not come until the 13th, when a flock of a hun- dred or more Fox Sparrows also arrived, and the White- throated Sparrows followed them. The birds oftentimes arrive singly or by twos or threes, and then again suddenly in great flocks. One afternoon there may not be a White-throat in sight, the next morning they will be feeding upon the ground like a drift of brown leaves. Almost all birds migrate at night, and every dawn will show you some new arrival, pluming and drying his feathers in the first rays of the sun. Birds who depend upon insect diet, Lke the Phoebe, the commonest of the fly- catchers, may arrive too soon, before insect life has quick- ened, and suffer much through their miscalculation. Often the appearance of individuals of a species does not indicate the beginning of the general return, as they may be birds that have not gone far away, but have merely been roving about all winter. From the last of March until the first of June the spring migration is in full swing, some of the earlier birds to arrive will have passed on, before the Tanagers and Black-polls, the latest of the Warblers, appear. The last week of May the Spring Song is at its height ; let us look at the order in which the singers begin and end their daily music. You must be up in the long twilight that precedes dawn, if you wish to hear the little precentor the Chipping. Sparrow give the signal on his shrill pitch pipe. Then 7 INTRODUCTORY CHAPTERS. the Song Sparrow sounds his reveille of three notes and a roulade " Maids, maids, maids, put your kettle-ettle on." The Robin answers with his clarion notes, and the Bluebird, mildly plaintive, seems to regret that the quiet night is past, and sighs " Dear, dear, think of it, think of it." Then the various Swallows begin their twitterings, and the Chimney Swift redoubles his winged pursuit of insects, and the Purple Martins, rising in pairs, coquette in mid-air, and their cheerful warble seems to drop from the clouds. As it becomes light, the Phoebe joins his " Pewit, phoebe-a," with the Wood Pewee's "Pewee, pewee peer," and the Field Sparrow whistles and trills somewhat in the key of the Chipping Sparrow. Then up from the meadow wells the song of the Bobolink, our only bird that rivals the English Lark in singing and soaring, pouring out its delicious melody with virile fervour, while in the same field the Meadowlark rings his bell-like " Spring o' the year, spring o' the year ! " and the Indigo Bunting lisps from the briars. One by one, the Oriole, the Song and Wood Thrushes, the Mourning Dove, Catbird, Towhee, Wrens, Warblers, Chat, and the obstreperous Yireos chime in. These are the birds that you may hear in your garden and the near-by meadows. Down in the lowlands the Red-winged Blackbird " flutes his okalee," the Crows keep up an incessant cawing, and in the woods between these lands and the marshes, the Herons cry; while from the marshes themselves the Snipe call. The flocking Sandpipers " peep " from the beach edge, and the migrating Ducks call as they settle in the flags. Above the inland woods the Nighthawk, the Whip-poor- will's kinsman, skirling, circles a few times before hiding from day. There are Hawk cries, as Cooper's Hawk (the dreaded chicken-killer) bears a tender morsel to her nest- lings already well fledged, who are in the top of the tall hickory, and the Quail whistles " Bob- white ! Poor Bob- white ! " the Ruffed Grouse clucks henlike, and the Wood- cock calls like his brother Snipe. It is in these woods, within sound of running water, that you may hear the Veery, though he is not so much the bird 8 THE SPRING SONG. of dawn as of twilight, and in this same spot some day the Hermit Thrush may give a rehearsal for your private ear, of the music with which he will soon thrill the northern woods. This is the Matin Song. When it ceases, you must watch for the individual birds as they go to and fro, feeding or building, or perching on some favourite twig to sing, either to their mates or from pure exultation. From nine o'clock in the morning until five in the afternoon, the principal singers are the Bobolink, Meadowlark, Vireos; the Red- start, who declares that every morsel he swallows is " Sweet, sweet, sweeter ! " the Black-throated Green Warbler, who flashes his yellow feathers calling, " Will you co-ome, will you co-ome, will you?" the sprightly Maryland Yellow- throat, who almost beckons as he dashes about laughing, " Follow me, follow me " ; the Baltimore Oriole, who alter- nately blows his mellow horn or complains querulously ; and the Song Sparrow, who sings equally at all times. Towards five o'clock the Evensong begins, and the Purple Finch, perching in the elm top, warbles in continuous bursts " List to me, list to me, hear me, and I'll tell you, you, you," each peal being more vigorous than the last. The Wood Thrushes take up their harp-like "Moli Uoli-, aeo- lee-lee," the Vesper Sparrow tunes, the birds of morning follow, one by one ; but there are new voices that we did not hear in the matinal that continue after the chorus is hushed the Eose-breasted Grosbeak, the Veery, and the Whip-poor-will. The Veery rings his echo notes in the morning also, but his evensong is the best ; and, as the dusk deepens, his notes have a more solemn quality. The Grosbeak has a sweet, rounded, warbling song that it is difficult to render in sylla- bles intelligently, but when you hear it in the twilight you will know it, because it is unlike anything else. The Mock- ingbird is not heard freely as a night singer in this latitude, but further south he gives his real song only to the night wind ; not his mocking, jeering ditty of squeaks and cat- calls, but his natural heart-song; and when you hear it, you may listen for the martial note of the Cardinal, who seems 9 INTRODUCTORY CHAPTERS. to tell the hours, adding to each " All's well." Then the Whip-poor-will calls, and the Owls answer, hooting, laugh- ing, purring, according to the specific note. When you go through garden, lane, and wood, on your happy quest, circling the marshes that will not yield you foothold, remember that if you wish to hear the Spring Song and identify the singers, you must yourself be in tune, and you must be alert in keeping the record, lest the troop slip by through the open doorway of the trees, leaving you to regret your carelessness all the year. As you listen to the song and look at the birds, many will disappear, and you will know that these are the migrants who have gone to their various breeding haunts ; and that those who are busy choosing their building sites, and are carrying straw, clay and twigs, are the summer residents. Then you must glide quietly among the trees to watch the next scene of the bird year the building of the nest which is the motive of the Spring Song, and you will feel that in truth " Hard is the heart that loveth nought In May." 10 THE BUILDING OF THE NEST. Know'st thou what wove yon woodbird's nest Of leaves, and feathers from her breast ? EMERSON. MAY and June are the nesting months. Some impatient Bluebirds and Robins begin in April, and the lonely Owls and larger Hawks breed even in February and March, while, on the other hand, the Goldfinches and Cedar Waxwings wait until July ; and other birds, who raise several broods in a season, like the Robins, Sparrows, Swallows, and Wrens, continue laying through July and straggle into August, but the universal song and nesting belong to May and June. In early May the singing is wildly spontaneous, the birds are unguarded in their movements and constantly show themselves ; but when they have mated, a sense of responsi- bility comes over the gay minstrels, and they become more wary. The soberly clad wife cautions secrecy ; there is so much to discuss that must be whispered only in the echo- less depths of the branches, for the great question of the season, the location of the nest, is to be settled, and quickly, too. There are many things that the bird couple have to con- sider : the home must be within convenient distance of the proper food supply ; there must be some protection from sun and rain, even if it is only a few leaves, or a tuft of grass ; and then loom up the enemies to be avoided, birds of prey, squirrels, snakes, and man. Of the four, the birds seem to dread man the least, and are constantly appealing to him, and taking him into their confidence as a protector against the others. Poor little birds ! they do not realize that man with all his higher intelligence is really the most relentless of all. The other enemies kill for food only, man kills for food casually, for decorative feathers wantonly, and 11 INTRODUCTORY CHAPTERS. for scientific research, plausibly, with the apology that the end and aim is knowledge. Are not the lives of hundreds of song-birds a high price for the gain of a doubtful new species, which only causes endless discussion as to whether it really is a species or merely a freak ? One ornithologist proudly makes the record that, in the space of less than three weeks, he shot fifty-eight Rose-breasted Grosbeaks, to ascertain their average article of diet, and this slaughter was in the breeding season ! There is also the stubbornly ignorant farmer, who measures only by dollars and cents and sets his hand against all birds, because half a dozen kinds in the excess of their friendliness invite themselves to supper in his berry patch, and think that no perch is so suitable for their morning singing as a cherry tree in June. Now is the time to study all the best attributes of bird life, the period when we may judge the birds by our own standard, finding that their code of manners and morality nearly meets our own. We see them as individuals having the same diversity of character as people of different nations, and it is in the homes that we can best see their ruling instincts. Each bird now has a mind of his own and devel- ops his own ideas. He is master of many arts. If you wish to see all this, habit yourself in sober colours, wear soft, well-tried shoes, and something on your head that shall conceal rather than betray your presence, Mrs. Olive Thorne Miller's leaf-covered hat is a clever invention. Do you realize how large you appear to the bird, whose eyes have twenty-five times the magnifying power of our own ? Walk gently but naturally, do not step on dry branches, but at the same time avoid a mincing gait. Have you not noticed in the sick-room, that a light easy tread is far less distracting than a fussy tiptoeing? Do not make sudden motions, especially of the arms, a writer has said that birds are much more afraid of man's arms than of man himself. Go through the lanes where the bushes hedge and the trees arch, thread between the clumps of crabs and briars that dot waste pastures, watch every tree and vine in the garden, skirt the hay meadows (their owners will hardly let 12 THE BUILDING OF THE NEST. you tramp through them), for there will be Bobolinks in the timothy. Best of all, swing a hammock in the old orchard, and, lying in it, you will see and hear so much that, wonder- ing greatly, you will agree with Burroughs when he says, "I only know that birds have a language which is very expressive and which is easily translatable into the human tongue." After watching the skill that builds the nest, it is dif- ficult to overestimate the individual beauty of some of the structures. Comparatively few, outside of the charmed cir- cle, know the diversity of form and materials shown in nest building, and the wonderful adaptability of both, by the bird, to its special needs. The length of time which a nest remains in use varies with different birds. Burroughs says in the chapter on Birds' Nests, in his perennial " Wake Robin," 1 " The birds may be divided, with respect to this and kindred points, into five general classes. First, those that repair or appropriate the last year's nest, as the Wren, Swallow, Bluebird, Great- crested Flycatcher, Owls, Eagles, Fish Hawks, and a few others. Secondly, those that build anew each season, though frequently rearing more than one brood in the same nest. Of these the Phoebe-bird is a well-known example. Thirdly, those that build a new nest for each brood, which includes the greatest number of species. Fourthly, a limited number that make no nest of their own, but appropriate the aban- doned nests of other birds. Finally, those who use no nest at all, but deposit their eggs in the sand, which is the case with a large number of aquatic fowls." Birds' nests are often regarded as merely aggregations of sticks and straws twisted together more or less careless ly ; on the whole, rather monotonous, dirty affairs. I know an observant farmer who understands all the weather signs and a great deal of woodcraft, and spends his year in the pasture, field, brush lot, and woods ; but whose ideas of birds' nests are purely conventional. He does not call any structure 1 " Wake Robin," by John Burroughs, Houghton, Mifflin & Co., Boston and New York. 13 INTRODUCTORY CHAPTERS. a nest, unless it follows the pattern of a Robin's or Sparrow's. I asked him one day if there were many kinds of nests in his neighbourhood. " Wall/' he said, leaning on his axe (for it was the wood-chopping season) and giving a reminiscent gaze through -the brush, "there's plenty o' birds, but, bless yer, not half on 'em makes any reg'lar sort o' nests. Sparrers and Kobins does, an' Catbirds an' Crows ; but Swallers ony makes mud-pies, an' Humbirds jest sets down right where- ever they see a round o' moss on a branch, and the warmth o' them makes the moss grow up a bit, but I don't call that a nest. The Hangbird (Oriole) he strings up a bag in a tree, an' them Bed-eyed Warblers (Vireos) hooks a mess o' scraps in a twig fork, but those ain't real nests : an' tree- mice (Nuthatches) don't have none at all, jest stuffs a few feathers in a hole, I seen one to-day ; " and after turning over his wood he produced an upright branch containing the feather-lined bed of the White-breasted Nuthatch. Spend a month on the bird-quest, or a week even, and your eyes will be opened to the possibilities, and you will become alive to the fact, that the feathered race has its artisans the same as the human brotherhood. Weavers whose looms antedate all man's inventions, masons, car- penters, frescoers, decorators, and upholsterers, its skilled mechanics, and shiftless, unskilled labourers, and its para- sitic tramps, who house their young at the expense of others. As for varied materials, hay, sticks, feathers, hair, moss, bark, fur, hog-bristles, dandelion-down, mud, catkins, seed- pods, lichens, paper, rags, yarn, and snake skins, are only a part of the bird architect's list of usable things. You must not hope to identify all the nests possible to your locality in a single season, or even in three or four, but be always on the watch. If you fail to see the birds build, which is the easiest and surest way of knowing the nest, when the autumn comes and the leaves fall away many nests will be revealed in places where you never thought they existed, and you will learn where to look another season. If these nests are of marked types, you can iden- tify them even in the autumn, and it will give you a new 14 THE BUILDING OF THE NEST. interest in the waning season ; something to look for in the naked woods, a motive for winter walks. Though many of the frailer structures melt away or are torn down by high winds, the more carefully woven ones often remain over the winter. On looking out one morning last January, after a night when a light, thawing snow had been followed by a sharp freeze, I was surprised and fascinated by the appearance of an Oriole's nest which hung from an elm near the house, and which had been invisible before. Its gray pocket was brimful of soft snow, which was oozing out of the top like foam, while the outside was coated with thin ice, which accentuated the woven strands and hung down in fantastic icicles scintillating in the sun. Another winter day I was attracted by seeing a field- mouse run from a tuft of grass at the root of a small bush, and I found there a nest, presumably that of a Song Spar- row, containing two Sparrow eggs and one belonging to the Cowbird. The nest had evidently been abandoned on account of the alien egg, and it made a convenient hiding- place for the mouse, who had nibbled at the eggs and found their contents dried away. In the autumn and winter you may appropriate the nests you find, and examine and pull them apart with a freedom which, if indulged in during the spring or early summer, would give many a bird the heart- ache and an added distrust of bipeds. Do you remember the January entry in Thoreau's journal? "Another bright winter's day, to the woods to see what birds' nests' are made of." Now if you are interested, awake, and clear-eyed, go out as I have said, and I will lead you, figuratively, telling you what you may find as a foretaste. Begin near at home ; go through the garden first, then to the nearest field and the bit of marsh-bordered wood. Do not go further than where you may walk without ceremony or fuss. Never make a laborious tour of the bird-quest, or think that you must live in a tent remote from people, in order to name the majority of our every-day birds. 15 INTRODUCTORY CHAPTERS. My first tramping-ground was the garden, enclosing eight acres of varied land, flowers, brush, open, plenty of trees, deciduous and evergreen, and a little pool of clear water. During the seasons of which I have the record forty species of birds have nested within its borders, and oftentimes many pairs of the same species ; for example, as last year, when the garden sheltered five pensile nests of the Eed-eyed Vireo. These forty nests were located in the following manner : Robin : In vines, hedge, and trees. Wood Thrush : Spruces, bushes. Catbird : Syringa bushes, and other shrubs. Bluebird : Hole in old tree and bird-house. Wren : Little houses and in outbuildings. Yellow Warbler : Apple tree and elder bushes. Maryland Yellow-throat : Tall grass and bushes. Chat : Barberry bush. Eedstart: Spruces. Tanager : Swamp oak. Barn Swallow : Hay loft. Martin : Bird-house. Eed-eyed Vireo : Sugar-maple, apple tree, and birches. White-eyed Vireo: Beech. English Sparrow : Everywhere, until banished. Purple Finch : Old quince-hedge. Goldfinch : Sugar-maples. Vesper Sparrow : Smoke-bush. Grasshopper Sparrow : Under small spruce. Song Sparrow : In many places, hedge, bushes, ground. Chipping Sparrow : High in evergreens, also in shrubs. Field Sparrow : Meadow-sweet bush. Towhee : On ground under a wild grape tangle. Cowbird : Eggs found in the nests of a dozen different birds, par lieu larly the Song Sparrow's. Orchard Oriole : Old apple tree. Baltimore Oriole : Elms on lawn. Crow : Top of spruce. Kingbird : In pear tree. Phoebe : On beams in shed, also on bracket supporting the porch. Chimney Swift : In brick-chimney. Hummingbird : Cedars, elm, beech, and high in a spruce. Yellow-billed Cuckoo : Wild tangle of vines, etc. 16 THE BUILDING OF THE NEST. Flicker : Sassafras and hickory. Hairy Woodpecker: Hickory. Mourning Dove : White pines. Quail : Under a thick, wild hedge. Screech Owl : Hollow sassafras. Barred Owl (only once) : In a sycamore. Cedar-bird : Old cherry tree. You may add to these, as nests perfectly possible to find, those of the birds of marshy-edged meadows, the Bobolink, Meadowlark, and the Eed-winged Blackbird; the Rose-breasted Grosbeak, nesting in bushy pastures ; the White-bellied Swallow of bird-boxes and hollow trees ; the Bank Swallow, who burrows holes in railroad cuts, river and other sand-banks, where you may also discover the Kingfisher's home. In the river and creek marshes you will find the torch-shaped nests of the Long-billed Marsh- wren and the tussock nests of the Sharp-tailed Finch and the Seaside Sparrow. In swampy woods you may discover a heronry, or at least some single nests of the Green Heron, or the familiar Black-crowned Night Heron ; and, perhaps, in some great tree leaning over the water you will see the huge platform-nest of the Osprey. The Marsh Hawks, Least Bittern, and Marsh Owls choose similar locations, and in the heart of the fresh-water marshes the Clapper and Virginia Rails, the Spotted Sandpiper and Woodcock, breed, though the latter more frequently nests in dry woods near a swamp. Inland woods, especially if traversed by a stream, will yield countless nests : on the ground, the Veery's, the Oven- bird's hut, and the Ruffed Grouse's heap of leaves ; above, in the trees, nests of the Blue Jay, Yellow-throated and War- bling Vireo, and the White-breasted Nuthatch. In drier woods the Blue- winged Warbler builds upon the ground; and the Black-throated Green Warbler nests in the hem- locks ; while in high rocky woods you will see the eggs of the Whip-poor-will and Nighthawk, lying in depressions of the ground, and with your glass discern the nests of Hawks and Owls in the tree tops. c 17 INTRODUCTORY CHAPTERS. " I am poorly situated ; there are no birds in my vicinity except Robins and Wrens," you say. Nonsense ! it is impos- sible. You make me feel as Dean Hole, the genial ecclesias- tical rose-grower did when certain lazy amateur gardeners, after admiring his rose garden, said that they could not grow roses because their soil was unsuitable, exclaiming, " Oh, what a garden yours is for roses ! Old Mr. Drone, our gardener, tells us he never saw such soil as yours nor so bad a soil as ours for roses." And the Dean dryly exclaimed, " Herein lies a fact in horticulture, Mr. Drone always has a bad soil." Get the best possible results from your limited area, and if it is anything better than a back yard, you need not be discouraged. The difficulty with us Americans is that we are accustomed to a limitless extent of country, and scram- ble carelessly over it, in our amateur scientific investiga- tions, as well as in other ways, instead of thoroughly studying home first. If the English naturalists ranged as wildly as we do, they would exhaust the island, and fall off the edge in a month. White, of Selborne, has left us a book that is classic, from his knowledge of one county, and our Thoreau has given us the perfect literature of wood- craft from his intimate knowledge of a comparatively small area. The first nest that you will probably find, and one that will confront you at every turn, will be the Robin's. Com- mon, rough in structure, and anything but pretty, it is a type nevertheless ; being partly made of sticks and lined with clay, it is a combination of carpentry and masonry. The Wood Thrush also uses mud in a similar manner, but builds more neatly. Sparrows you will find lodged every- where, in the hedge, under bushes, by thick grass tufts, their individual nests being so much alike that it is diffi- cult to distinguish them apart. Dried grass and fine roots are the chief materials used by them, with the exception of the little Chipping Sparrow, who combines horsehair and pine-needles with the grasses, which, together with its delicacy and small size, identify the nest. 18 THE BUILDING OF THE NEST. Next conies the Catbird, with a twig lattice, and the Wren, with a feather-lined pile in the little house provided for her ; or, lacking the house, she uses an old hat or boot leg, instead. The Thrasher chooses a stout bush, and tosses together a bunch of grape-vine bark, sedge grass, and strong tendrils, in a way to correspond with his bravura, music. The Purple Finch sets his large, sparrow-like nest in a high bush ; you must visit it often, for you will always hear good music close by. The Flicker utilizes a soft place in the swamp maple, boring his nest hole with great accuracy ; the Yellow War- bler and Hummingbird strip the soft wool that wrapped the big, juicy Osmunda ferns in their winter sleep. The Warbler mixes the fernwool with cobwebs and milkweed flax, taking it to the apple tree; while the Hummingbird bears his load to a mossed cedar branch, and rounds a two- inch nest, blending it with the- branch until it looks merely as if lichens had encrusted a raised knot hole. Next you will admire the work of the weavers, the Orioles and Vireos. The darned basket of the Orchard Oriole is, perhaps, set in the strawberry-apple tree, as if to catch its early fruit ; he makes his beak point his shuttle ; as Coues says, antedating Elias Howe, who invented a needle with the eye at the point ; and the Baltimore Oriole treads flax from old milk- weed stalks, gathering his string far and near. The Balti- more Oriole builds too well to work quickly ; and the pouch, sometimes eight inches deep, swings freely and firmly from its branch, so placed as to be safe from above and below. The Vireos make a little pocket (like a stocking heel set between the knitting-needles) which is fastened firmly in the fork of a small branch. Woven into it are papers, scraps of hornets' nests, and flakes of decayed wood. The Solitary Vireo adds hair and fur to his, and the Eed-eyed Vireo, the wings of moths and other insects, cocoons, and snake skins. It was in the nest of this Vireo, that Hamil- ton Gibson found twisted a bit of newspaper, whose single legible sentence read: "... have in view the will of God." 19 INTRODUCTORY CHAPTERS. To go into much detail now may confuse you wholly, and you will find that every bird has a description of its haunts, nest, and eggs, in its particular division ; this sketch is only to show you the possibilities. There is one more nest that I must mention, the prettiest thing that you may ever hope to find when, on the quest, the lace hammock of the Parula Warbler. You must search for it early in June, in remote but rather thin woods, but never very far away from running water; often it is on a branch that overhangs a stream. Sometimes it will be on a slender birch twig and sometimes on the terminal spray of the hemlock-spruce. It is suspended lightly, like a watch-pocket with the opening on one side, and made of a delicate lace-work from the gray- white usnea moss, that grows on old trees. The whole fabric swaying in the breeze is the work of the two little birds with slate-blue backs and yellow breasts, who are watching you so anxiously. -No, you must not take it now ; it will keep until they are through with it, for it is much more durable than it appears. The building of the nest will raise many questions in your mind. Do both birds take part in building? Does the female select the site and do the work and the male simply supply her with materials ? Very pretty tales are told of the rejection of unsuitable stuff by the particular wife of a non-discriminating spouse and the consequent squabble. Alack ! did not the labour question, as well as that of the equality of the sexes, begin as near to Eden as the building of the nest ? But in spite of this there are still nests ! 20 THE WATER-BIRDS. With mingled sound of horns and bells, A far-heard clang, the Wild Geese fly, Storm sent from Arctic moors and fells, Like a great arrow through the sky. WHITTIER. WHEN you think of the Water-birds, you say, perhaps, that they are uninteresting, have no song, and inhabit marshy and desolate places ; the Gulls are picturesque, to be sure, but as for the others, Snipe, Eail, and Ducks, they are only Game-birds and so much food, of a variety that does not particularly suit your palate. This is because you have regarded them as mere merchandise, and have never seen or considered them as living birds, winging their way over the lonely marshes and wind-swept beaches, clad in feathers that blend in their hues the sky, the water, the mottled sands of the shore, the bronzed splendour of the seaweeds, and the opalescence that lines the sea-shell. Though in a sense they are songless, their call notes are keyed in harmony with the winds that they combat, and the creaking reeds that hide their nests, and their signalling cries rise as distinctly above the more melodious sounds of Nature as the whistle of the distant buoy sounding above the surf. The very remoteness of the Water-birds gives them a charm for certain natures. They do not build in the garden and come about your door craving attention ; you must not only go half-way to meet them, but all the way, and that too right cautiously. There is an invigorating spice of adventure when the bird-quest tends shoreward, whether it is the banks of a river or lake that furnishes shelter and sustenance alike to the nesting bird and the restless migrant ; or the shore of the sea with its possibilities and changing moods, the sea that stretches infinitely on, ribbed by light- 21 INTRODUCTORY CHAPTERS. guarded reefs, where the Gulls flock and the Petrels dash in the wake of cautious ships, its arms reaching landward until the bay, where the Wild Ducks float, laps the shore, where the Sandpipers patter ; and creeping on through the land as a sluggish creek, traverses the marshes where the Rail clamours about his half-floating nest, and finally ming- ling with fresh downward currents loses its way among gaunt trees, where the Herons and Bitterns build, and is absorbed by some low, wood-girt meadow, where the last earth-filtered drops make mud, from which the Snipe and Woodcock probe their insect food, and give a deeper green to the coarse grasses where the Plover pipes. The Water-birds have another claim also upon your at- tention ; you may study them in autumn and winter, and they fill many gaps in the bird year by their presence at seasons when the Land-birds are few. The majority of Water- birds come to us as migrants, or as winter visitors : the Herons, Bitterns, several of the Eails, a few Plovers, and Sandpipers breed in our marshes, and the beautiful Wood Duck nests in the river copse. When these birds breed, however, the high tides and spring-flooded meadows render it very difficult to approach the nests, or to gain a satisfac- tory knowledge of the birds themselves, and the same diffi- culty obtains in watching the migrants on their upward course. But in autumn the conditions are changed, espe- cially in seasons of summer drought, and as the Land-birds withdraw, one by one, you will have the leisure to go shore- ward. The Plovers, Eails, and Sandpipers begin to gather in early August, and from that time until the rivers and creeks are ice coated, the Water-fowls will be passing every day, and from twilight until dawn. Various Ducks will go over the garden itself, and next day you will find them feed- ing in the sluggish marsh pools, where you gathered the cat- tail-flags and rose-mallows, or else floating on the mill-pond in the place of the summer lilies. The Gulls return to the bar and shore islands, from their breeding-haunts at the eastern end of the Sound. The old 22 THE WATER-BIRDS. charcoal burner, coining down from the hills with his dusky load, after the first light snow, tells of the Wild Geese that passed over his clearing the night before, and settled on the Forge Pond, and that when long John Hunt went after them in the morning, his gun kicked and knocked him into the worse bog hole ; whereupon the whole flock flew away, laughing fit to kill themselves ; and adding with a hoarse chuckle, " Sarved him right, too ; never gives nuthin' he gits to neighbours, allers sends ? em to N'York." In November and December, the hardy but inedible Sea Ducks return from the north, and settle noisily in their winter quarters; and all through the fall the lighthouse- keeper sends ashore some of the rarer migrants that, dazed and storm-blown, have dashed to death against his tower; and, as a bird-lover, he will find you out. If, in the autumn or early winter, you should chance to spend a little time among the lakes, or along the real sea-coast, from Massa- chusetts southward to the Chesapeake, a new pathway of delight will stretch before you, read of the Sea-birds that Celia Thaxter entertained at Appledore in her Island Gar- den. And now that many people take their outings about the eastern shore, overrunning the pleasant islands, you too, may see the summer nesting of the Gulls and Terns, birds that before you had considered mysterious wanderers from the north. These Water-birds, that count space as nothing and dis- tance the swiftest locomotive in their flight, ever on the wing from the very necessities of their existence, always bring with them some of the atmosphere of their native haunts. The Wild Ducks, hanging in the market-stall, still wear on their wings a patch of rainbow colour, as if stamped there by the sun and mist through which they took their first flight. Call these birds songless, give them any names you please, they will remain mysteries, coming out of the sky and disappearing again in its horizon, pushing on to an invisible haven; because their homes are so remote we do not realize that they are like other birds, and we forget, when the garden trees are full of nests and sway 23 INTRODUCTORY CHAPTERS. with ecstatic music, that the Water-fowl, hastening along at twilight, is swayed by the same longings, that they guide him surely to his journey's close. And soon that toil shall end, Soon shalt thou find a summer home, and rest, And scream among thy fellows : reeds shall bend Soon o'er thy sheltered nest. BRYANT. 24 BIRDS OF AUTUMN AND WINTER. Dimly I catch the throb of distant flails : Silently overhead the Hen-hawk sails, With watchful, measuring eye and for his quarry waits. LOWELL. DURING the last week in August there is a decided stii among the feathered folk. The summer residents who have been moulting in seclusion for the last month, emerge from their retreats and are joined by flocks of others of similar species, who have summered further north and who will remain with us for several weeks before beginning their downward trip. By calling certain species resident, it does not necessarily mean that the same individuals remain in one place for the entire year. Except in the breeding-season all birds rove about, even if they do not absolutely migrate, guided in their course by the food supply and the weather. The food supply is the more potent motive of the two, for many insect-eating birds like the Flycatchers and Vireos could winter with us in the protection of hedges and evergreens ; but with the coming of frost their food is cut off. Even the seed-eating birds, like the hardy Goldfinches, Buntings, and Juncos, are often driven to begging about barns and granaries when a sudden snow-storm covers the low herbs and grasses upon whose seeds they subsist. It is during the last week in August that the Baltimore Orioles gather, and pipe with an anxious note in their voices, as much as to say, " It is very pleasant here still, but we must be off before the leaves grow thin and betray us to our enemies." The Kingbirds swoop and call, going nearer to the house than usual. With September comes the first decisive gathering of the bird clans. The Swallows flock in the low meadows and on the edge of the beaches, 25 INTRODUCTORY CHAPTERS. flying and counter-flying, as if to strengthen their wings for the long journey ; hordes of them wintering as far south as the Bahamas. The cheery Yellow Warblers disappear from the orchards, and the Veery comes from the moist woods and scratches in the shrubbery. Now you may look for the numerous Warblers as they pass ; but you must be alert, for they go silently and may only stop for a day. The length of time that migrating birds remain varies greatly with different seasons ; during some autumns they linger, and then again, without any apparent reason, they hurry along, arriving and departing sometimes the same night, so that you will be unconscious that they have passed at all. The most conspicuous summer residents that slip away during September, are the Baltimore Orioles, Veeries, Chats, Wood Thrushes, Flycatchers, Eose-breasted Grosbeaks, and Bobolinks. The Chimney Swifts go in the wake of the Swallows, and closely resemble them in habit if not in anatomical structure. We miss these birds of the air sadly, for their beautiful flights are the great feature of early September. The voiceless brown Bobolinks are driven from the shelter of the reeds and marsh-grasses by the gunners, and in early evening, if you go down the lane, their clinking, metallic call can be heard as .they fly over. The Wood Thrushes leave quietly ; gathering for a week or so in low trees, at this season their only note is a dry chirp resembling the shaking of peas in a sieve. The last of the month the Chickadees emerge and become prominent, and the Juncos arrive in straggling flocks. The Eobins flock in great numbers, and occasionally give a sweet, reminiscent song; the Bluebirds are legion and bustle about, calling, as Burroughs says they do in autumn, "Bermuda! Bermuda!" The Goldfinches are no longer yellow, but you can always distinguish them by their dip- ping flight. Purple Grackles and Ked-winged Blackbirds are also gathering, and the Wrens are peeping in and out, but they have forgotten how to scold. The scanty music is furnished chiefly by the faithful Song Sparrow, the 2C BIRDS OF AUTUMN AND WINTER. Purple Finch, and the Chicadee; there are individuals of every species who do a little autumn singing, but it is heard only from solitary voices. Meanwhile, the tiny Ruby-crowned Kinglet, and the Myrtle, Palm, and Bay-breasted Warblers make us a visit, and the Brown Creeper, Black and White Warblers, and White-breasted Nuthatches circle the trees. By the first of October, the Blue Jays have returned from the deep woods where they nested, and are in full scream, as is their wont. Hermit Thrushes come and go, together with the Thrashers. The Tanagers disappear, and the Vireos one and all are packing their belongings. The lively Red-eyed Vireo, who has preached and laughed at you all summer from the maples, is taking a farewell peep under every bit of loose bark, determined not to leave one insect behind. You miss the Catbirds also, and in looking for them you will find an occasional Pine Finch or Winter Wren. Quail and Ruffed Grouse (Partridge) scramble furtively along road- sides and through the stubble fields, and the Osprey fishes more boldly. All the while the various Warblers are trooping by, young and old together ; if you have not recognized them in spring, you will be sadly puzzled now. The White-throated Sparrows hop along the paths, giving a few sweet notes, " Pe- peabody-peabody-peabody," but without the springtime fervour, and the rarer White-crowned Sparrows show them- selves warily. In fact, the greater part of this family are on the move, and even the ranks of Song Sparrows are thinning. The Black-throated Green and the Black-throated Blue Warblers come about the spruces again; the Phoebes vanish and the trim Towhee no longer hops jauntily among the briars. If there is an early frost the flocks go quickly, but otherwise all the birds linger. We have Hummingbirds here in the garden through October, unless the weather is very gusty ; for I think that all birds dread wind more than cold. The third week of October sees the last of the Golden- crowned Thrushes and Maryland Yellow-throats, the Fox 27 INTRODUCTORY CHAPTERS. Sparrows pay a flying visit, and the Red-breasted Nuthatches settle down. Even if there has been no hard frost, Novem- ber is sure to bring it, and then in the afterglow, the illusive Indian summer, we begin to realize that the song-birds have left us. Grackles we have and Meadowlarks, but the Robins and Bluebirds are diminishing, and after the middle of November the birds that you see may safely be called winter residents. The Blue Jay becomes very conspicuous now, and in late November walks you will constantly see his pointed crest, while his harsh notes no longer jar upon your ear, but sound companionable. Most likely he is nutting, and jeering and laughing at the squirrels who are filling their paunches under the same tree. If, however, "he laughs best who laughs last," the squirrels have decidedly the best of it, for they frequently find the holes where the Jays hide their plunder and rob them. Golden-crowned Kinglets, with their dainty little heads on one side, peep into every crevice in the apple trees, giving a shrill, wiry call, the Winter Wrens are settled in their old quarters about the woodpile, Pine Warblers come in bus- tling flocks, White-throated Sparrows appear at rare intervals, and three, at least, of the Woodpeckers. If December is moderately snowy and not too cold, you will see a distinct change even among the winter residents. The Horned Larks become quite tame, and together with the Meadowlarks keep near the upland farms, and if the rivers are free from ice the Kingfisher still constitutes him- self their guardian. The Tree Sparrow takes the place that the Chipping Sparrow filled in summer, resembling it both in appearance and note, and the Cedar-birds come from their warm coverts and feast upon the remaining berries which are now completely ripe and soft. The Shrike is in his element seeing his victims afar through the leafless trees, the Hawks grow bold and circle over the meadows by the hour, and the Barred Owl, with strange blue-black eyes, leaves the wood with the Great Horned Owl, to forage in the brush and in open pastures. 28 BIRDS OF AUTUMN AND WINTER. If you hear a snapping noise in the pines do not think that it is merely the cones springing open, for you will find a small flock of Red Crossbills, whose warped beaks seem particularly adapted to tearing the scales from the cones and liberating the pungent seeds. Middle December is the time for the showy Pine Grosbeaks, whose stout bodies and brilliant colouring at once reveal their identity; they are sometimes abundant here but usually straggle about in pairs ; and great flocks of the hardy American Goldfinches may be seen if seed-bearing plants are not buried up by the snow. The Crows are very hungry and prowl around the stacks of dry corn stalks, going to the shore for clams and drift scraps, and returning at night to their inland cedar roosts. This is the season that you may successfully give them poisoned corn, thus justly killing some of these cannibals who create such havoc every spring among the nests of our Song-birds. An occasional Purple Finch flies out of the evergreens, though it is a difficult bird to recognize at this season, and the Pine Siskin constantly flits in and out, swinging itself under the cones and terminal sprays like an acrobat, and this is the time for Snow Buntings and the little Redpoll Linnets. If there are severe storms in the month, accompanied by north- east gales, many of these birds appear on the very crest of the storm, and when it ceases troop from the evergreens in a half-famished condition, searching for bare places where a few seeds may be found. The Redpoll feeds in the same localities and in the same manner as the American Gold- finch, and, having a similar call note, it is quite easy, at a little distance, to mistake one for the other. Now you may catch a glimpse of the great Snow Owls. You will be more likely to find them back of the shore, along the line of salt marshes and woody stubble, than further inland. The marshes do not freeze so easily or deeply as the iron-bound uplands, and field-mice are more plentiful in them. This alert and powerful Owl is so fleet of wing that he can follow and capture a Snow Bunting or a Junco in its most rapid flight if his appetite is whetted. Woodpeckers have mostly drifted southward, and this is the 29 INTRODUCTORY CHAPTERS. time of greatest hardship for all birds that depend in any way upon insect food. The Robins leave, except for a few individuals ; the Quails come from the brush and feed with the Meadow and Horned Larks. The four resident Hawks the Sharp-shinned, Cooper's, the Red-tailed, and Red- shouldered are now the only inhabitants of the woods and remote pastures; there is something invigorating in the way in which they sail through the lonely air. Food is very scarce, mice are snowed under, rabbits do not ven- ture far from their burrows, and it is too early for young chickens. Besides, the farmer's wife, knowing Hawk ways, keeps her poultry safely guarded in a sunny place in view of the kitchen window. Alas ! for the flocks of Snow Buntings that have been tempted too far afield. Every time a Hawk swoops, and dropping suddenly wheels back to its perch, there is one Bunting less to return to its boreal birthplace. The Shrike drops on his prey with the thud and click of the guillotine ; the Hawk flashes through the air with the curv- ing sweep of the scimiter. The Brown Creeper is seen daily winding about the tree trunks ; if it is severely cold and there is much ice he only comes at mid-day and works on the sunny side of the tree, while his friends, the Chickadees, call encouragingly to him. January, with us, is the month of all the year that comes the nearest to being birdless; there are days when not even a Crow is seen ; then a mild streak follows, and the murmur- ings of the Chickadees, Bluebirds, and Goldfinches give cheer, and if you tie some bits of fat meat or well-covered bones to the branches of a tree in a sheltered spot you will be sur- prised at the number of visitors that will come to dine. With February the days begin to lengthen visibly, and a reaction sets in. There is a return movement among the Robins, who have gone but a short distance southward, and the Buntings travel in large flocks. Late in the month a thaw brings the Kingfisher back, and at any time you may expect to hear the Song Sparrow in his old haunts, in fact, you may have heard him early in the month, or in January even, but now it is his spring song, only needing companion- 30 BIRDS OF AUTUMN AND WINTER. ship and the mellowing effects of mild weather to bring it to perfection. The Snow Owls are thinking of going northward, unless barred by an early March storm, and the Meadowlarks that have braved the winter sing a full month before the migrating flocks arrive. When March comes in, even if it does roar like a lion, a single day may change the charac- ter of the bird life about you and you will imagine that the Snow Owls, Shrikes, Pine Finches, and Horned Larks are under orders to vanish before the spring flocks of Fox Spar- rows, Robins, and Bluebirds can appear. But when March comes the ear is listening for the Spring Song and the win- ter-birds are quickly forgotten, unless you happen to have a stuffed Owl to preside in solemn silence in your library, per- forming its mission of looking wise quite as well as a piece of bric-a-brac as it did in life. Is not the Owl's general immobility the reason why it was chosen for the pet of the Goddess of Wisdom ? Doubtless her ancient ladyship knew that her protege would never take the trouble to contradict her and never express a decided opinion, and thus would pass for the incarnation of knowledge. Winter is the only season when you may point a gun at a bird, and then never at a Song-bird, but you may do these a favour by shooting some of their enemies, the Jays, English Sparrows, and one or two Hawks and Owls. Yet you must spare both Hawks and Owls with these exceptions, since Dr. A. K. Fisher has given conclusive evidence of their value to agriculture. Never shoot even a G-ame-bird, or Wild Duck, merely for the sake of killing, and remember when on the bird-quest to keep your hands free from all destruction of life, so that you may answer in the affirmative the question, "Hast thou named all the birds without a gun? " 31 HOW TO NAME THE BIRDS. HOW TO NAME THE BIKDS. IN studying the birds as you see them about you, try to acquire the habit of gauging the size, general colour, and poise at a glance, gaining the details, if possible, afterward. Impress upon yourself the location in which you saw the bird, its occupation, its method of feeding, whether, if upon the ground, it walked or hopped. Was it dashing through the air or skimming low over the meadows, uttering a twit- tering cry and turning and curving sharply as it caught insects in its wide mouth ? If so, you must look for it in the Swallow Family. Was it a brown or olive-backed bird somewhat of the build of the Eobin but smaller, with a light-coloured breast more or less speckled, scratching among the bushes for the insects upon which it feeds ? You must look for it in the Thrush Family, and if you do not place it there search among the Ground Warblers. Or was it a tiny olive- gray bird that caught your eye as it peeped about the twigs of the orchard trees in the autumn, turning its head and looking at you sidewise, showing every now and then its gold and scarlet crest? Then you must look among the Kinglets. If you keep a note-book and pencil in your pocket when you are on the bird-quest, many particulars can be jotted down to refresh your memory when consulting the reference book. In rapidly gauging the size of a particular bird do not think in inches, but compare it mentally with some bird that is familiar to you. Say to yourself, Is it as large as a Robin, a Bluebird, or a Chippy ? 35 HOW TO NAME THE BIRDS. Read the Synopsis of Bird Families 1 to gain an idea of their groupings, and if you fail to locate your bird in this way go through the Key 2 very slowly, not jumping hastily at conclusions, but following every reasonable clue. It is im- possible to make such a key absolutely trustworthy, when it is necessarily based upon the more superficial qualities, and is arranged to guide those who rely upon impressions of colour gained from a bird, perhaps many feet distant. In condensing the attributes of each bird into a reference table to precede its biography, its length in inches is given as a means of comparison, especially in referring to the illustrations ; for in adapting the bird portraits from many sources it has been impossible to grade them according to a mathematical scale. In these tables I have endeavoured to give only such broad descriptions of plumage as shall be recognizable with a field-glass, noting the difference in colour- ing between male and female when it is at all marked, and giving when possible the accentuated value of the song and call notes in syllables. Not that any literal meaning may be attributed to them, but that the sound of these syllables, when repeated aloud, may aid in identifying the song with the singer. Critics who do not understand the motive of this syllabication, call it nonsense, and consider it merely a sentimentalist's attempt to make the birds talk. I only know that it has been a great help to me, and that it has aided many people who depend even more upon the ear than the eye in their study of birds. Thoreau and Emerson understood it thoroughly, and Burroughs has formulated much of the language, so that it does not lack champions. The seasons of bird migration, or residence, are in accord- ance with records of this part of New England (southern Connecticut), both from the notes of Rev. James Linsley, Mr. C. K. Averill of Bridgeport, and others, and also from my own diaries. Allowance must therefore be made by those living further north or south, as in the spring migra- tion birds will arrive in Delaware two weeks earlier than in i Page 43. 2 p age 281 (1). 36 HOW TO NAME THE BIRDS. Connecticut, and in Maine not for a week or two later. The breeding-haunts are indicated, and the nest and eggs men- tioned, when they are either accessible to the student, or, when belonging to northern latitudes, of special interest. The range of the bird for the year is taken from the Check- list of the American Ornithologists' Union, which is the acknowledged authority. The nomenclature is also that of the A. O. U. Check-list, the first English name and the Latin title being according to its tenets. In some cases I have added one or more English names, because they are universally understood and are more or less used in the manuals and state publications. In modern science, classification follows the method of natural evolution, grading from the lowest forms to the highest. Under this system the Diving Water-birds should head the list, and the Thrush Family of Song-birds end it. Some time ago a different system obtained, that of beginning with the highest orders and descending in the scale, and the birds in this book are so arranged. The reason for doing this is that it presents the Song-birds first, and it is to these that you will be first attracted, and, finding many of them familiar, you will be led by easy stages to the Birds of Prey and the Water-birds, which probably you have had less chance to know. If, however, you prefer to habituate your- self to the more modern method, all that you have to do is to begin at the end of the book and work backward. The two hundred birds chosen for description from the A. 0. U. list of over nine hundred species of North Ameri- can Birds are selected as being those which will be the most likely to interest bird-lovers living in the temperate parts of the country, and especially in the Middle and Eastern States. If birds are included that are rarer (in other locali- ties) than species that are omitted, it is owing to marked characteristics or some interesting traits of the particular birds. The mazes of classification are omitted. As a novice who wishes to recognize the birds by sight, you have no need of their services beyond learning the English and Latin names 37 HOW TO NAME THE BIRDS. of the birds, and that of the order and family to which they belong; then you must buy a good manual to answer all further queries, either Eidgway's, 1 Coues's, 2 or Chapman's 3 will serve your purpose. Bidgway's follows the modern method, Coues's is altogether charming, and Chapman's is both modern, simple, and comprehensive . It is the same as when beginning the study of history : you first wish to learn the name of a character, for what he was famous, and how he appeared ; then with a distinct realization of the man's per- sonality in your mind, you take an interest which, at first, would have been impossible, in looking into his ancestry, and finding precisely what union of races and families pro- duced his particular type. Inverted evolution, or working from effect to cause, is the simplest way to interest popular attention in any branch of science. If people accept a tangible fact and go no further, they have at least gained some information ; if they possess the thinking-faculty, and desire to find the causes, they are one step on the right road. Of course this method, if method it can be called, lies open to the charge of superfici- ality, and to the saying that " when science and sentiment meet, sentiment loses its case." There is, of course, a species of maudlin sentiment that is the proverbial cloak of inaccu- racy, the variety that weaves touching but perfectly im- possible tales and fables about natural facts. This is the sentiment that originated the story of the self-sacrifice of the Pelican in feeding its young from the blood of its own breast. Whereas the Pelican belongs to a class of birds who, after taking their food into the crop and partly digest- ing it, bring it up again to feed their offspring. The act of pressing the bill against the distended crop to dislodge the food, sometimes irritates the skin ; hence the conclusion was drawn that it drew its own blood. 1 " A Manual of North American Birds," Robert Ridgway. 2 "Key to North American Birds," Dr. Elliott Coues, Boston: Estes & Lauriat. 8 " Manual of the Birds of Eastern North America," Frank M. Chap- man, New York: D. Appleton & Co. 38 HOW TO NAME THE BIRDS. There may be also in the study of birds a sentiment that is born of fact and accuracy, provable by all scientific re- quirements, which will render the bird-quest a recreation, and not a mental discipline; being a bridge where those who can go no further, may rest and enjoy intelligently the beauty and music of the bird world. Of course a little learning may be a dangerous thing, but it is only so when we overestimate the extent of our limited scope, and try to speak a language of which we only know the alphabet. Nature is to be studied with the eyes of the heart, as well as of the microscope, and ever so scanty a knowledge of our feathered brothers helps us to feel that the realms of Nature are very near to the human heart and its sympathies, and that " the truth of Nature is a part of the truth of God : to him who does not search it out, darkness ; to him who does, infinity.' 7 39 SYNOPSIS OF BIRD FAMILIES. SYNOPSIS OF BIRD FAMILIES. LAND-BIRDS. ORDER PASSERES: PERCHING BIRDS. SUB-ORDER OSCINES: SINGING BIRDS. THE birds of this Order have the most highly complex vocal organs, the term Oscines being derived from the Latin, signifying those birds whose songs were regarded in past times as augural. Family Turdidae : Thrushes. Page 57. 7 Species. 1 Birds of moderate size and stoutish build, bills of mod- erate length, sexes of nearly similar plumage. Melodious singers, feeding chiefly on the ground. The American Robin and the Bluebird belong to this family. The true Thrushes vary through browns and olives on the back, with light breasts more or less spotted, and tails that are wider at the tip than at the base. Insectivorous birds, also casual fruit-eaters. Hoppers. Family Sylviidae : Kinglets. Page 68. 2 Species. Very small insectivorous birds, feeding in the trees. General tone of plumage olivaceous, with highly coloured crown patch. Song, during the spring migration, rich and powerful for such small birds. Seen here only in autumn, winter, and early spring. 1 Number of species described. 43 SYNOPSIS OF BIRD FAMILIES. Family Paridae : Nuthatches and Titmice. Page 71. 4 Species. Birds seen creeping conspicuously about tree trunks, especially in autumn and winter, frequently walking head downward. The Nuthatches have compactly feathered bodies, straight bills, are varied grayish above, with some- what ruddy breasts. The Titmice are alert, sprightly little birds, with gray, white, and black feathers, one having a crest and the other a black cap and white cheeks. They feed also about trees. Family Certhiidee : Creepers. Page 75. 1 Species. This bird is slender, with a long, sharp bill, much mottled, brownish plumage and a long tail. It is seen creeping spirally about trees in fall and winter. Family Troglodytidse : Wrens, Thrasher, Catbird, etc. Page 76. 8 Species. Insectivorous birds and highly accomplished singers. The Wrens are all small, and more or less barred and washed with browns, while the tail is usually held erect. The Catbird (which really belongs to a sub-family) is dark slate with a black cap, the Mockingbird gray and olive, and the Thrasher is like a great red-brown Thrush with speckled breast, and a long tail with which he continually beats the air. Family Motacillidae : Pipits, etc. Page 87. 1 Species. American Pipit, Titlark. Brownish bird, with long, pointed wings, slender bill, and outer tail-feathers white; seen in stubble fields as a migrant in late fall and spring. Peculiar, wavering flight. Family Mniotiltidae : 'Wood Warblers. Page 88. 30 Species. Beautifully plumed, graceful birds, which, with the excep- tion of a few species, are practically unknown or rather 44 LAND-BIRDS. unnamed by people in general. These Warblers inhabit the woods, feeding among the trees, or, in some species, upon the ground. They comprise both migrants and sum- mer residents ; of small size, bills slender, shorter than the head, wings pointed and usually shorter than the tail. All but a few Ground Warblers have brightly coloured or much varied plumage, ranging through all shades of olive, yel- low, red, orange, brown, and black. They have sweet, lisp- ing songs, which are neither full nor varied. The well-known Yellow Warbler belongs to this class ; also the Black and White Warbler. The exceptions to this rule are the Oven- bird, Water Thrush, and the Louisiana Water Thrush, which are Ground Warblers, having sober, Thrush-like plumage and exquisite voices, and the Chat, which has brilliant green and gold plumage and a clear, loud voice, mocking and whistling by turns. Family Vireonidae : Vireos. Page 116. 5 Species. Birds of small size, bills hooked at tip shorter than the head. Sexes alike in colouring ; the plumage (remain- ing quite constant at all seasons) is generally olivaceous above and whitish or yellow below. One species has red and one white eyes. All are musical and persistent singers of a colloquial type, feeding and singing in orchard or forest trees, according to the species. A family easily confused with the Warblers, unless its superior vocal abilities are remembered. Family Laniidae : Shrikes. Page 122. 1 Species. Carnivorous birds, bold, handsome, and quarrelsome, bills sharply hooked at end ; general colour gray and black, bris- tles at nostrils, and muscular feet. In winter and early spring they may be seen perching in the bare trees, where they are on the watch for small birds, upon which they prey. 45 SYNOPSIS OF BIRD FAMILIES. Family Ampelidae : Waxwings, etc. Page 124. 1 Species. Birds of six or seven inches in length, stout-bodied, head with a conspicuous crest ; beautifully soft, quaker plumage, tail tipped with yellow, red ivax-like tips to the wing coverts, straight black bill. Sexes similar ; a resident bird. Family Hirundinidae : Swallows. Page 125. 5 Species. Birds of the air in the fullest sense. " Bill flat, broad, triangular." Mouth opening to below the eyes ; long, strong wings, small feet, which are seldom used ; broad head and stout neck ; the tail more or less forked. Sexes similar ; song, a pleasant, twittering warble. The plumage in some species is dull, but in others beautifully iridescent above and ruddy below. All insectivorous birds and summer residents. Family Tanagridae : Tanagers. Page 131. 1 Species. A brilliantly coloured family undergoing great changes of plumage during the year, the colours of the sexes being wholly different, the males having much red about them. Bill short, the long, pointed wings exceeding the tail in length. Family Fringillidae : Finches, Sparrows, etc. Page 133. 28 Species. The largest family of North American Birds, comprising one-seventh of all our birds. These birds are true seed- eaters, though they feed their young largely on an insectiv- orous diet. "The bill approaches nearest the ideal cone, combining strength to crush seeds with delicacy of touch to secure minute objects." (Dr. Coues.) The family contains birds of every size and colour, sexes either similar or unlike, Finches, Buntings, Linnets, Grosbeaks, Crossbills, and Spar- rows, whose traits it is impossible to describe in general terms. 46 LAND-BIRDS. Family Icteridae : Blackbirds, Orioles, etc. Page 165. 8 Species. Forming a link between the Finch and Crow families and containing, beside Blackbirds and Orioles, the Meadowlark, Bobolink, and Cowbird. Sexes unlike. All species but the Orioles have large, muscular feet adapted to walking, and feed on or near the ground. They are both seed and insect eaters, and vary much in size and colour. The predominat- ing hues are black, white, orange-red, and what Dr. Coues calls a "niggled pattern" of brown in the Meadowlark. Musically the species are divided, half being highly vocal and half casually so. Family Corvidae : Crows, Jays, etc. Page 177. 3 Species. The Crows are large black birds, having bills as long as the head, stout feet suitable for walking, pointed wings longer than the tail, appearing saw-toothed in flight. Gre- garious ; sexes alike. The Jays are a great contrast to the Crows, being crested and having conspicuous plumage in which blue predominates. Both Crows and Jays are partly carnivorous, and though having harsh voices, moderate them to a not unpleasing song in the breeding season. Family Alaudidae : Larks. Page 180. 1 Species. True Larks, kin of the European Skylark, and not to be confused with Meadowlarks or Titlarks. Our species, a Shore Lark, seen here only in the fall and winter, is highly musical in the breeding-season. It has very long, straight hind claws, long, pointed wings, and two slender, feathered ear tufts that give it the name of Horned Lark. SUB-ORDER CLAMATORES: SONGLESS PERCHING BIRDS. Birds with but poorly developed singing apparatus, the vocal muscles being either small or few. 47 SYNOPSIS OF BIRD FAMILIES. Family Tyrannidse : Tyrant Flycatchers. Page 182. 8 Species. Insectivorous birds of small and medium size, with or without erectile crests, having broad bills tapering to a sharp point, and large mouths. Colouring ranging from brown to olive-gray, with yellow washes on the breast. Usually having harsh voices, one or two species, however, possessing plaintive call notes. To be distinguished from other birds of a general, similar appearance, who piirsue insects upon the wing by the " habit of perching in wait for their prey upon some prominent outpost, in a peculiar atti- tude, with the wings and tail drooped and vibrating in readi- ness for instant action ; and of dashing into the air, seizing the passing insect with a quick movement and a click of the bill, and then returning to their stand." (Dr. Cones.) ORDER MACROCHIRES : WHIP-POOR-WILLS, SWIFTS, ETC. Family Caprimulgidae : Whip-poor-wills, Night-hawks, etc. Page 190. 2 Species. Medium-sized, heavy birds with long wings, short, thick heads and gaping, bristly mouths, taking their insect food on the wing (the Whip-poor-will is strictly nocturnal in habit). When at rest they either perch lengthwise, on a branch or sit on the ground. Family Micropodidae : Swifts. Page 193. 1 Species. The bird known commonly as the Chimney Swallow, but which is in reality a Swift and closely allied to the Night- hawk, being a nocturnal as well as diurnal feeder. Family Trochilidse : Hummingbirds. Page 194. 1 Species. Very small birds, with long, needle-like bills, small feet, iridescent green plumage (ruby throat in male), and rest- less, darting flight. Feeding among flowers. 48 LAND-BIRDS. ORDER PICI: WOODPECKERS. Family Ficidae : Woodpeckers. Page 196. 5 Species. Birds of small and medium size, feeding as they creep around the branches and trunks of trees. They are of stocky, compact build, with strong, straight bills (one species has a slightly curving bill), mottled and variegated plumage, and red markings about the head. To be distinguished from other creepers by their superior size, and the fact that they seldom, if ever, walk head dowmvard. ORDER COCCYGES: CUCKOOS. Family Cuculidae : Cuckoos. Page 202. 2 Species. Medium-sized tree-birds, with softly-tinted gray and brown- ish plumage, most noticeable at the time of apple blossoms, when they feed upon the nests of the tent-caterpillar. Family Alcedinidae : Kingfishers. Page 204. 1 Species. Common birds of streams and ponds. Head crested, long bill. Lead blue plumage above, light breast banded with blue. Seen perching on stumps and dead trees over the water watching for fish. ORDER RAPTORES : BIRDS OF PREY. Family Strigidee : Barn Owls. Page 206. 1 Species. Family Bubonidae : Horned Owls. Page 207. 7 Species. Stoutly-built birds, varying in length from eight inches to two feet, with and without feathered ear-tufts (horns), and having mottled loose plumage, feathered disks around the eyes, hooked beaks, and muscular feet. The family comprises both diurnal and nocturnal species. SYNOPSIS OF BIRD FAMILIES. Family Falconidae : Hawks, Eagles, etc. Page 215. 8 Species. Diurnal Birds of Prey, with mottled and streaked plumage, no horns or eye disks ; of graceful build, and dashing, rapid flight. The family includes the Osprey and the American Eagle. ORDER COLUMB^l: PIGEONS. Family Columbidse : Doves and Pigeons. Page 225. 2 Species. Wood Doves, with delicately-shaded, and often glossy plu- mage, small heads and full breasts, long, pointed wings, and soft, cooing voices. Often seen feeding on the ground like the domestic Pigeon. ORDER GALLING: GALLINACEOUS BIRDS (Birds scratching on the ground like barnyard fowls). Family Tetraonidse : Grouse, Partridges. Page 227. 2 Species. Comprising our two most familiar Game-birds, the Ruffed Grouse (Partridge) and the Quail, birds with mottled feathers of varied browns, the Partridge having feathered legs. The female rears the young, who leave the nest when hatched, following her as a brood, after the manner of chickens. ORDER LIMICOL-S3 : SHORE-BIRDS (Waders). Family Aphrizidse : Turnstones. Page 231. 1 Species. Small Shore-birds (8 inches long) with pied plumage, seen turning over stones on rocky beaches, in search of marine insects, etc. Family Charadriidae : Plovers (Popular Game-birds). Page 232. 6 Species. A large and important family of Shore-birds, frequenting both fresh and salt water. They have Pigeon-like bills 50 LAND-BIRDS. which are never longer than the head. In size they vary from small to medium (7 to 12 inches); the plumage undergoes many variations owing to season and age, but the sexes are nearly alike. The neck is short, the head bullet-shaped, and the body usually stout ; the wings are longer than the tail. They are generally seen in flocks during the migrations, as the majority of species breed far north. They fly and run with great rapidity, and inhabit dry uplands, as well as the vicinity of ponds, and the seashore. They all have pleasing call notes, and one species has a melodious, piping whistle. Family Scolopacidae : Sandpipers, Snipes, etc. Page 236. 11 Species. Another large family, inhabiting inland meadows as well as salt marshes and the seashore, including Wood- cock and Snipe, both well-known Game-birds (that probe for their food in the mud with their bills), and the less familiar Sandpipers. Bills not Pigeon-shaped; usually many times longer than the head. Plumage mottled and streaked with neutral tints and sober colours. Voices peculiar, vary- ing according to the species. Snipe are among the most delicately flavoured of Game- birds, and Sandpipers comprise the smallest of the Waders. The Snipe group may be easily distinguished from the rest by the plain, unbarred tail. The Tattlers are a long- legged, noisy species, not probing for their food in the mud, but picking it up in the vicinity of flats and sand bars. ORDER PALUDICOL-Si : RAILS, GALLINULES, COOTS. Family Rallidae : Rails. Page 245. 5 Species. "Birds of medium and small size, generally with com- pressed body and large, strong legs, enabling them to run rapidly and thread with ease the mazes of the reedy marshes to which they are almost exclusively confined; while, by means of their long toes, they are prevented from 61 SYNOPSIS OF BIRD FAMILIES. sinking in the mire or floating vegetation. . . . The head is completely feathered ; the general plumage is ordinarily of subdued and blended coloration, lacking much of the variegation commonly observed in Shore-birds ; the sexes are usually alike, and the changes of plumage not great with age or season. The food is never probed for in the mud, but gathered from the surface of the ground and water." (Coues.) ORDER HERODIONES: HERONS, ETC. Family Ardeidae (Marsh Birds). Page 250. 5 Species. Long-legged, long-necked, long-billed birds, often beau- tifully crested in the breeding-season, and having broad, generous wings. They nest in trees in swampy places. Their voices are harsh, and they undergo great changes of plumage, and must be recognized by the novice more by general shape than detailed colour description. They may often be seen standing on one leg on the edge of ponds or swamps in the attitude of the Storks of Andersen's " Fairy Tales." ORDER ANSERES: LAMELLIROSTRAL SWIMMERS. Family Anatidae : Ducks, Geese, etc. Page 255. 16 Species. Stoutly-built birds of rivers and seashore, with varied and beautiful plumage of a type familiar to every one. " Body full, heavy, flattened beneath, neck of variable length, head large, eyes small. . . . Wings of moderate length (rarely very short), stiff, strong, pointed, conferring rapid, vigorous, whistling flight ; a Wild Duck at full speed is said to make ninety miles an hour. . . . Legs short, knees buried in the general integument, toes palmate." (Coues.) LAND-BIRDS. ORDER TUBINARBS: TUBE-NOSED SWIMMERS. Family Frocellaridae : Shearwaters, Petrels, etc. Page 268. 1 Species. The various Petrels are comprised in this family ; they are off-shore birds of Gull-like appearance. Dr. Coues says of one group, that their " flight is peculiarly airy and flicker- ing, more like that of a butterfly than like ordinary birds ; they are almost always seen on the wing, appearing to swim little if any, and some, if not all, breed in holes in the ground like Bank Swallows." ORDER LONGIPENNES: LONG-WINGED SWIMMERS. Family Laridae : Gulls and Terns. Page 269. 7 Species. Off-shore birds, breeding on the coastwise islands. The Gulls are large and stout, with hooked bills, large feet, and strong wings that make their flight even and steady, and not impulsive and dashing like the Terns'. They both dive for their food and glean it from the surface of the water. The Terns are more slender, have greater rapidity in flying, and. forked tails; the tails of the Gulls are never forked. ORDER PYGOPODES: DIVING BIRDS. Family Alcidae : Auks, etc. Page 275. 1 Species. Our species, the Dovekie or Sea Dove, is an off-shore bird seen usually about lighthouses and flying in the wake of vessels. It is a rather small-sized, dusky bird, white below, with a clumsy, awkwardly-shaped body, and long wings. Family Urinatoridee : Loons. Page 276. 2 Species. Stout divers with long bodies, legs set very far back, bob- tailed, long twisting necks, and plumage which is more or less spotted above and plain below. We see them only in the migrations, as they breed in the far north. 53 SYNOPSIS OF BIRD FAMILIES. Family Pygopodes : Grebes. Page 277. 2 Species. Very dexterous diving birds of 'lakes and rivers, as well as of salt water, variously crested in the breeding-season ; their bodies are held upright by the posterior position of the legs ; they are practically tailless, and, though smaller, bear a close resemblance to the Loons. BIRD BIOGRAPHIES. PERCHING SONG-BIRDS. PERCHING SONGLESS BIRDS. BIRDS OF PREY. PIGEONS, QUAILS, GROUSE. SHORE AND MARSH BIRDS. SWIMMING BIRDS. PERCHING SONG-BIRDS. ORDER PASSERES: PERCHING BIRDS. SUB-ORDER OSCINES: SINGING BIRDS. FAMILY TURDID^E: THRUSHES. Wood Thrush: Turdus mustelinus. PLATE I. FIG. 0. Length : 7.50-8 inches. Male and Female : Above tawny, deepest on head, tail olivaceous. Sides of throat light buff, middle of throat, breast, and belly white ; sprinkled on sides with heart-shaped or triangular dark-brown spots. Whitish eye ring, bill dark brown, feet flesh-coloured. Song : A melody in which some notes have the effect of a stringed accompaniment. The syllables are uttered deliberately, about four seconds apart " Uoli a-e-o-li, uoli uoli uol aeolee- lee!" Season : Early May to October. Breeds : Throughout the eastern United States. Nest : Of small twigs with a mud lining, sometimes saddled upon the boughs of evergreens not far from the trunk, or in small trees and bushes. Eggs : Four usually, similar in colour to the Robin's, but smaller. Range : Eastern United States to the Plains, north to southern Michi- gan, Ontario, and Massachusetts, south in winter to Guatemala and Cuba. Next to the American Robin, the Wood Thrush is the most widely known of its tribe. He is an exquisite vocalist, the tones having a rare quality of rolling vibrance, and often as he utters his placid notes, each one full and delib- erate, the song seems like the music of a flute and an 57 Thrashes SONG-BIRDS. seolian harp strung in the trees. "Uoli," he begins, and after pausing continues, "Aeolee-lee" (the last syllable having the harp quality),, "Uoli-uoli aeolee-lee." First softly, then modulating, reiterating sometimes for an hour together ; but compassing in these few syllables the whole range of pure emotion. The Wood Thrush is called shy by many writers, but here in Connecticut it is both abundant and sociable, feed- ing about the lawn in company with Eobins, though it keeps more in shelter, skirting the shrubbery, as it scratches. Two pairs nested last season in the spruces below the lawn. Their nests so closely resemble the best efforts of the Robin, and the eggs being of a like colour, that I had mistaken them until I saw the Thrushes in possession. These nests were made wholly of sticks, and lined thinly with clay, but two others that I found in the woods showed more varied materials. One was placed, some six feet from the ground, in a cedar bush close to a pool. The mud used to line the nest was full of Sphagnum, and of the water- soaked seed vessels of the sweet-pepper bush, which, min- gled with dry beech leaves, made the nest very picturesque, while the mud was barely visible through the bedding of the runners of Potentilla, to whose stems some identifying leaves still clung. The second nest was in a laurel bush on the top of high rocks in Samp-Mortar woods. It was beautifully stuccoed with lichens and lined with the hair-like roots that cover the surface of leaf mould. The Wood Thrush builds the middle or last of May, and as it comes often the very first day of the month and con- tinues singing well into July, it gives us a goodly season of song. Wood Eobin is one of its local names, but this is used, somewhat at random, for other Thrushes. Wilson's Thrush ; Veery : Turdus fuscescens. Length: 7-7.50 inches. Male and Female : No eye ring. Above evenly olive-brown, with a tawny cast. Throat buff, flecked on the sides with fine arrow- 58 SONG-BIRDS. Thrushes shaped brown spots. Breast and under parts white. Bill dark above, lower mandible light. Feet light. Song : Ringing, echo-like. Professor Ridgway indicates it thus : "Taweel 'ah taweel 'ah, twil-ah, twil-ah !" Season : Early May to October. Breeds : According to Coues, in the northerly part of its range, but it also breeds freely in our river groves and in the more southern portion of the Middle States. Nest : Built either upon or near the ground, of sticks and twigs like that of the Wood Thrush, but lacking the mud. Eggs : Like Robin and Wood Thrush, of a greenish blue, but smaller than either. Range: Eastern United States to the Plains, north to Manitoba, Ontario, Anticosti, and Newfoundland. The Veery, the most slender and graceful of the Thrushes, ^is with us all the season, but it is so shy and elusive in its ways of slipping through the trees and underbrush in swampy woodlands that it seems scarcely an actual pres- ence. Change a word in Wordsworth's verses on the Cuckoo and the description is perfect : " O Veery I shall I call thee bird, Or but a wandering voice ? " When it first arrives, and before mating, the Veery is seen frequently in the garden, prying under dead leaves and in low bushes like all its insect-eating kin, but when it retires to the woods to nest all but the voice seems to vanish. That wonderful, haunting voice ! It was a woodland mystery to me not so very long ago ; a vocal Will-o'-the-Wisp. Lead- ing on and on, up and down river banks, into wild grape tangles and clinging brush, then suddenly ceasing and leav- ing me to return as best I might. There came a time, however, when a few pairs, mating before they left the garden in the spring, surprised us by singing while in view, and the same season we took a leis- urely drive through the country to see the orchards in bloom, and stopped for the night at a hospitable farmhouse in a hollow that winds between banks clad with laurel and hem- locks up to the old village of Redding Kidge. 59 Thrushes SONG-BIRDS. We were told that the woods were full of birds "that sang all night," so we walked up the lane road, the soft light coming partly from the setting sun and partly from the high May moon. The waterfall resounded from where the hills dropped suddenly to the hollow. A single Whip-poor-will darting from the woods almost brushed my face and uttered his mournful call in my ear. Above the waterfall was a chain of ponds, and sitting on the rail of a separating bridge we listened and waited. A fox crept down to the water to drink, and as the wind blew toward us he did not suspect our proximity and lapped at leisure, the clear moonlight showing his shabby, faded spring coat. Suddenly from the woody banks the Veeries began their song. They had been singing by twos and threes ever since sunset, but now the sound was as of a full chorus compared to the humming of a few voices. From all sides the notes rang : " Taweel