CORNELL UNIVERSITY LIBRARY 
 
 3 1924 090 264 841 
 
 LABORATORY 
 
 OF ORNITHOLOGY 
 
 LIBRARY 
 
 dWXx^ 
 
 CORNELL UNIVERSITY LIBRARY 
 
Cornell University 
 Library 
 
 The original of this book is in 
 the Cornell University Library. 
 
 There are no known copyright restrictions in 
 the United States on the use of the text. 
 
 http://www.archive.org/details/cu31924090264841 
 
Birds of the West 
 
 AN ACCOUNT OF THE LIVES 
 
 AND THE LABORS OF OUR 
 
 FEATHERED FRIENDS 
 
 CHARLES E. HOLMES 
 
 PRESIDENT OF THE STATE AUDUBON SOCIETY 
 OF SOUTH DAKOTA 
 
 1907 
 
 HAMMOND & STEPHENS «3. 
 
 FREMONT, NEBRASKA 
 
 Copyright 1907 by H. & S. Co. 
 
THIS BOOK IS DEDICATED 
 TO THOSE WHO READ IT. 
 
 
The author of this little volume is not a scientist, he is only a 
 nature-lover and he would be astonished and disappointed if every- 
 one should agree with all that he has written. He has found a 
 pleasure in tramping about the woods and the streams, in seeing 
 nature at first hand and an almost equal pleasure in reading of what 
 others have seen and loved. 
 
 It would be nice indeed to give credit where credit is due but 
 where should I begin and where could I end ? A father and mother 
 who taught me to see things and to love them, an old half-breed 
 Indian who in my childhood showed me many a sacred spot of 
 earth, an old shoemaker who now in his ninetieth year and "livin' 
 on borrowed time" still has the heart of a ten-year-old, lumum- 
 bered bevies of school children who have followed me "up hill and 
 down dale ' ' giving me a thousand eyes with which to see, Audubon 
 Wilson, Nuttall, Thoreau, Burroughs, Seton and many more may 
 claim a share of whatever of worth there may be within these 
 covers. 
 
 ■^-The Author. ' 
 
INTRODUCTION. 
 
 Many a time I have asked my friends the question "What is 
 life?" and have received such answers as "To be" and "To ex- 
 ist", but it was left for a little black-eyed and black-skinned boy 
 in a school where I was speaking, to give to me the answer that has 
 pleased me most. He said "It is to see things, Sir" and so it is 
 if only we see with our mind's eye as well as with our "lamps". 
 
 To know 
 
 "Of the wild bee's morning chase, 
 
 Of the wild flower's time and place, 
 Flight of fowl, and habitude 
 
 Of the tenants of the wood; 
 How the tortoise bears his shell, 
 
 How the woodchuck digs his cell, 
 And the ground mole sinks his weU; 
 
 How the robin feeds her young. 
 How the oriole's nest is hung." 
 
 To know these things is to add to the resources of our lives, 
 and mightily so, if our knowledge is at first hand. To be sure, 
 most of it has to be served to us and usually it is creamed and 
 sugared for us. Oftentimes it has to be spiced to suit our jaded 
 mental palates. It is for that reason that we should do well to hark 
 back to nature. 
 
 Let us get acquainted with the birds. They will take us over 
 the earth, the sea and the sky. They will reveal to us the best of 
 nature's secrets. 
 
 We shall learn something of the skunk cabbage when we see 
 the dapper little yellow-throat building her home within it, choos- 
 ing to endure its horrid odor for the protection that it gives to her 
 helpless little babies. 
 
 We shall learn that snakes crawl out of their skins when we 
 find the crested flycatcher working a cast-off skin into her nest to 
 scare her enemies away. 
 
 We shall get a genuine pleasure in knowing that the little 
 bird we call a petrel was named after Saint Peter because it walks 
 upon the water. 
 
BIRDS OF THE WEST 
 
 When we are afield we shall learn of the trees in which the 
 birds spread their tiny couches and swing their airy cradles. 
 
 Ve shall find the sparrow's nest in a tangle of vetch, the deep 
 green eggs of the catbird in the meshes of the wild grape and the 
 leaf-colored lady chewink sitting on her nest, her bright red eye 
 snapping like a spark among the leaves as though she were about 
 to set the forest afire rather than have vis intrude upon her soli- 
 tude. 
 
 We shall see a ruby-throated hmnmingbird building an imita- 
 tion knot upon a tree-limb and using it as a nest and we shall ad- 
 mire the genius of somebody or of something. Shall we not? 
 
 Shall we not wonder which is the cleverer, the cowbird that 
 lays her egg in the yellow warbler's nest to avoid the duties of 
 maternity, or the yellow warbler that build's a false bottom above 
 the cowbird 's egg to avoid running an orphanage? I found such 
 a nest in a wild gooseberry bush on the shore of Lake lierm.iii . 
 Lake county, S. D., a few years ago and it was so deep that I more 
 than half believe that it was a "three-decker", but ris there was 
 but one egg buried within it, I shall report it a "double-decker". 
 
 The bugs, the bees, the moths, the butterflies, the flowers, every- 
 thing is to be found where the birds are. One should feel a sense 
 of shame to admit that he cannot tell an anemone from a bluebell 
 nor a grosbeak from an oriole, especially if he is old enough to 
 tell a dime from a penny or stage money from a bank note. 
 
 Let us not be worried by the two schools of nature-lovers. 
 One sees only the leaden side and the other only the golden side 
 of the statue and their lances never draw blood. Instead of trying 
 to flnd human nature in the birds, let us study man a little to see 
 if he has within him something of bird nature. When we see him go- 
 ing up a telephone pole by means of "climbers", we see only a 
 cheap imitation of the method of the woodpeckers that carry their 
 spikes on the ends of their tail-feathers and when we find an old 
 crow hiding tiny and shiny things among the leaves within the hol- 
 low of an old tree-stump and visiting his treasury every little while 
 to look over his wealth, can we not recall many a miserly old human 
 crow that is doing the same thing? 
 
 If we have never learned a lesson in politeness from the cedar 
 waxwing it is our own fault, for though there were a thousand of 
 them in a single tree-top, he would never jostle his branch-mate, 
 
BIRDS OP THE WEST 
 
 not for a whole cedar swamp, and he would hardly think of eat- 
 ing as much as a newly found worm until he had offered it to 
 the nearest lady. 
 
 I wonder if the brown thrasher did not teach us how to sing, 
 the ovenbird how to teach, the vireo how to preach, the goldfinch 
 how to bathe and the turtle dove how to love? Do you suppose 
 that the wren taught the women how to scold, that the blue jay 
 taught the men how to swear and that the English sparrow taught 
 them to hang around down town? 
 
 Now let us discard our conceit and let us give a better character 
 to the lower animals. Let us stop calling our faithful dog a pup 
 and a cur and let us be fair to the birds. The much abused lark 
 always stays at home nights and though the skylark is a high-flier, 
 the poet says that he ' ' sings at Heaven 's gate ' '. Why, if a man were 
 a "regular nighthawk", he would retire soon after dark, for the 
 nighthawk never flies at night. The hiunan "jay" is quite differ- 
 ent from the bird of that name for the little fellow is a swell dresser 
 and very, very wise. The stork, poor fellow ! He has some awful re- 
 sponsibilities thrust upon him. 
 
 If a man were not so often as crazy as a loon, if he were half 
 as wise as an owl, if he only had an eye like an eagle's, were less 
 gullible and less of a cuckoo, he would not cherish prejudices that 
 lead him to kiU any of our birds, for it is a very rare bird that has 
 a ledger balance in red ink. He would not repeat the hue and cry 
 against every bird that eats anything of commercial value. Of 
 course some of the birds are sinners some of the time, but "let 
 him among you that is without sin, cast the first stone". 
 
 Just think of it! In order to get a law upon our statute 
 books to protect our song birds, it has often been necessary to per- 
 mit the killing of blackbirds. Why ? Because the farmer begrudges 
 the little corn he eats. If he were to open his eyes and open also 
 a blackbird's little "tummy", he would find it full of cutworms 
 instead of corn. Of course he eats a little corn now and then, very 
 little, but he buys it and he pays for it. When he follows the 
 farmer's plow from morning tiU night, what do you suppose he 
 is doing? 
 
 Gardeners, who do not know, shoot the rose-breasted gros- 
 beak whose choice of food is the potato bug. A pint of them is 
 short rations for the little fellow. Besides, he is handsome, a dear 
 
BIRDS OF THE WEST 9 
 
 little husband, and he sings like a concert tenor. Nurserymen re- 
 joice when they hear the voice of the cuckoo echoing from some hid- 
 den corner of their orchard, for they know that the cankerworms 
 are at their last banquet. 
 
 We accuse the mosquito of carrying fever germs and no doubt 
 it is guilty. Think how many human lives must be saved by the 
 nighthawks, chimneyswifts and the swallows, yet gunners, I beg 
 pardon, "sportsmen", practice on them because they are swift of 
 flight. The kingbird is charged with eating honey-bees but he eats 
 only the drones except when he guesses wrong. Do you think he 
 is any more anxious to swallow a bee with a stinger than you are 7 
 Still people must have their pleasure and if the little birds must 
 be shot, shoot the English sparrows for if there are Mormons in the 
 bird-world, they are guilty, and if feather emblems must adorn 
 your hats, use the goose-quill, for honestly "a bird in a bush is 
 worth two on a hat". 
 
 When we begin to appreciate the worth of things rather than 
 their values, we begin to live. Then a frog means more than a 
 pair of edible legs, and I have seen the very hmnan little fellows 
 put their hands over their faces to ward off the blows that were 
 to send them to the market. Is not a quail on its nest better than 
 a quail on toast? Does it not bear the same relation to birds that 
 the trout does to fishes, just a little dearer than most of the others 1 
 Neither was made to lie in the market and if they must be taken 
 let it be where the feathered choir is chanting a requiem and the 
 heather bells are tolling. 
 
10 BIRDS OP THE WEST 
 
 ROLL OF HONOR. 
 
 THE BIRDS. 
 For service in the cause of humanity ; for making the fields to 
 flash with color, the lakes to laugh with music and for making the 
 trees the very "peaks of song", for teaching the conrage for pio- 
 neering, the joy of honest toil, the virtue of happy mating, the 
 spirit of devoted parentage and the satisfaction in an "ever so 
 humble" home; for singing with their work and revealing to us 
 the life in natiire that "lifts us to the skies". 
 
 THE ROBINS. 
 
 For labor upon our la-svns ; for stirring childhood's fancies 
 and awakening in old hearts the illusions of their childhood. 
 
 THE LARKS. 
 For tireless hours of toil upon our farms, clearing them of in- 
 sects and the seeds of noxious weeds; for singing in every field 
 and from every fence-post ; for making morning the beginning of a 
 day and evening the promise of another. 
 
 THE BLUEBIRDS. 
 For picking up the berries of the ivy and the brier ; for clear- 
 ing our gardens of grubs, our waysides of pests upon the wing 
 and for giving a song to the early winds to tell us that we may re- 
 joice at the bursting of the buds. 
 
 THE CUCKOOS. 
 For stripping our trees of caterpillars, our gardens of spiders, 
 our fields of beetles and for minding their own business. 
 
 THE HAWKS. 
 For their restless hunting of rodents and reptiles and for hav- 
 ing eyes that see in a half-blind world. 
 
 THE KILLDEERS. 
 For their fight against the boll-weevil and the Rocky Mountain 
 locust and for the love of their little fuzzy babies. 
 
BIRDS OP THE WEST 11 
 
 THE WOODPECKERS. 
 For destroying ants, moths, beetles and weed-seeds; for their 
 tremulous tattoos and awakening calls of springtime. 
 
 THE KINGFISHERS. 
 
 For lessening the swarms of beetles, crickets and grasshoppers 
 and reminding us that ours are "halcyon" days, if we but make 
 them so. 
 
 THE GROSBEAKS. 
 For destroying potato-bugs and caterpillars ; for one of the 
 sweetest sounds in nature that makes us glad to stop in our hurry 
 that we may look and listen. 
 
 THE SWALLOWS. 
 For killing the germ-bearing mosquitoes ; for suffering saved 
 to the beasts of the field and for their ' ' cheerful twittering from the 
 
 straw-built shed". 
 
 THE NATIVE SPARROWS. 
 
 For using thousands of tons of weed-seed that will never choke 
 the grain nor the flowers ; for their infinite presence and their un- 
 numbered songs. 
 
 THE UNKNOWN LIVING. 
 
 For working without reward and singing without applause. 
 
 THE UNKNOWN DEAD. 
 That have fallen on broken wing during the wild nights ; that 
 by unhappy flight have been the prey of natural enemies and men. 
 
12 BIRDS OP THE WEST 
 
 THE FOOD OP BIRDS. 
 
 The problem of bread-winning? It is the same mighty problem 
 for bird, beast, fish, or man. It prescribes to each of them where he 
 shall make his home; whether or not he shall migrate, and if he 
 does, it names for him the very time and place of his migration. 
 
 With birds, it largely determines the size and shape of their 
 bills, the shape and character of their feet, the length of their 
 wings, the shape of their tails, the color of their plumage and the 
 number of their eggs. 
 
 There is a little bird known as the red cross-bill, and a Ger- 
 man fable says that the little fellow twisted its bill by trying to puU 
 the nails from the Savior 's cross, and that in doing so, its breast was 
 reddened by the Savior's blood. Science, that so often spoils a 
 pretty story, says that the crossing of its bill has resulted from 
 its fondness for the seeds of the pine cone. I remember the first 
 one that I ever saw. I was so sorry for him because he had twisted 
 his little bill. 
 
 Now, the butcher needs different tools from those of the garden- 
 er, so it is natural enough that the butcherbird, the owl, the hawk 
 and the eagle that slaughter what they eat, should have beaks that 
 are sharp and curve downwards, so that they can cut and tear 
 steaks out of their slaughtered victims. The avocet and the wood- 
 cock are so fond of worms that nature has given them very long 
 beaks so that they can drill into the muddy earth where the worms 
 are crawling. The bill of the avocet turns upward and many claim 
 that the woodcock can turn his upward too, so that he can make 
 a regular hook of it and more easily pull forth the worms. 
 
 Kingfishers, fish hawks and mergansers catch fishes. The king- 
 fisher has a strong beak and a very, very sharp one so that it easily 
 sinks it into its victim. The fish hawk, when it dives into the water 
 for its fish, trusts to its specially favored feet to hold it, while the 
 merganser has a bill that is like a set of saw-blades and a fish has lit- 
 tle chance of escape from its serrate jaws. 
 
 You have noticed the sifting machines on the side of the beak 
 of a spoonbill duck. The duck will gobble a mouthful of minnows 
 or snails or a combination of mud and food but he has little trou- 
 ble in sifting the objectionable matter out. 
 
BIRDS OP THE WEST 13 
 
 The woodpecker being more or less a carpenter, is provided with 
 a well tempered, well sharpened, hammer-like bill that enables him 
 to drill holes of almost any size either for the securing of food or 
 the construction of a home. 
 
 No doubt the canna, the nasturtium and the trumpet-creeper 
 are as anxious to have the hummingbird work for them and fertil- 
 ize them as the hummingbird is to have them run a nectary for 
 him, so while the flowers have developed a deep cup to shut the 
 moths out, they have made it necessary for the hiunmingbird to 
 grow a long bill in order to reach the nectar. It is a pretty part- 
 nership they have entered into, the little boycotters. 
 
 The swallows and flycatchers have opened their mouths so 
 wide and so much and so long to let the flies in, that their mouths 
 reach from ear to ear. 
 
 The food of birds has a direct bearing upon the size and shape 
 of theirfeet. I called attention to the needle-pointed talons of the fish 
 hawk that enable him to grasp with certainty the fish beneath the 
 water and easily handle him within his native element. "What a 
 feat it is ! Here is the problem upon which you may ponder. A 
 fish hawk is flying in a circle at the rate of twenty miles an hour 
 while the wind is blowing thirty miles an hour. He is four hundred 
 feet above the surface of a river that is flowing ten miles an hour. 
 Six feet below the surface of the river a fish is swimming with the 
 stream at the rate of twenty-five miles an hour. On account of the 
 refraction of light the fish is two feet away from where he seems 
 to be and it is four o'clock in the afternoon. Don't you think you 
 would rather trust a fish hawk's instinct than your own math- 
 ematics? That is just the problem that a baby fish hawk solves as 
 unerringly as its father does. 
 
 A woodpecker must certainly have sharp and strong toes to 
 enable him to cling so easily to the sides of barkless trees. 
 
 It is a rule of nature to discard the useless things. If you will 
 notice a cow's foot you will see that two of its hind toes no longer 
 touch the ground and are little better than warts. The horse has 
 only one toe left upon each foot. If the nighthawk, the swifts and 
 the swallows don't use their feet more, they will soon have feet 
 as small in proportion as those of a Chinese princess. 
 
 Swimming birds are web-footed for they must often pursue 
 their prey even under water. The mergansers can paddle fast 
 
14 BIRDS OF THE WEST ^_ 
 
 enough under water to catch fishes. The petrel will spread his 
 wings and with his webbed feet wiU not only walk upon the water 
 as Peter did, but he will run. 
 
 Wading birds have very long legs and feet, well adapted to 
 tramping out any delicious morsels that are concealed in the mud 
 beneath the shallow water. 
 
 The albatross has a wing-spread of twelve or fourteen feet 
 and I am sure that I should want even more than that if I made 
 such trips as he does over the ocean. The swallows are on the vdng 
 nearly aU the time and they often have to make very sudden turns 
 to catch passing flies. It is therefore reasonable that there should 
 be little to them but wings, but a quail or a prairie chicken that 
 makes only short flights and does not migrate has little need of 
 very long wings. 
 
 Some of the birds make use of their tails to steer them either 
 in flight or while swimming under the water and all birds find 
 their tails of considerable service in making a landing upon a perch. 
 
 As to color of plumage and its bearing upon food supply, 
 there is mostly indirect relation, but it is claimed for some of the 
 water birds that they have the power of illuminating their under 
 plumage for the attraction of fishes and it is well known that birds 
 often take the color of their surroundings, for they wish to be in- 
 conspicuous both when they are preying and being preyed upon. 
 
 Tou may ask, "What has the question of diet to do with their 
 egg-laying?" Birds have quite a problem to solve when the task 
 of feeding their young is before them. A young bird is an awful 
 eater. Aa abundant food supply that is available for a long season 
 will mean to many birds an extra family per season, and to many 
 more a larger family. Tou know how quality and quantity of food 
 affect the domestic hen and I am quite sure that when times are 
 good and living is easily made, our human brothers more readily 
 assume the duties of the Benedicts. 
 
BIRDS OF THE WEST 15 
 
 BIRD-DESTRUCTION. 
 
 The great instinct of bird life as of all life is the instinct of 
 self-preservation. It is therefore a matter of great concern to 
 birds just how and where to construct their nests so that they may 
 live with least danger to themselves and rear their families with 
 the greatest certainty. The decrease in bird life during the last 
 few years has been due mostly to shot guns, but there are so many 
 sources of danger to birds that some naturalists doubt that any 
 of them "die a natural death" meaning, of course, a death without 
 violence. At Luverne, Minnesota, a few years ago several acres 
 were found covered with lapland longspurs that had met death by 
 encountering a severe storm during their northern migration. Have 
 you not seen dozens of dead birds lying beneath a line of telegraph 
 wires? Think too of the thousands of chickens, grouse and quail 
 that are frozen or smothered during the cold and snowy winters, 
 and of the havoc wrought to nests by fires and floods, by the prairie ' 
 wind and the farmer's plough. 
 
 Let us see what means are used by the birds for their own 
 protection. Against winds and rain the oriole builds a swinging 
 nest at the extremity of a tree-limb. The robin plasters its nest 
 with mud to give it strength. The grebe builds a nest that will 
 float upon the water. The orchard oriole and the warblers fasten 
 their nests securely to the boughs of bushes and of trees. The red- 
 winged blackbird ties its nest to marsh reeds or the limbs of small 
 trees in western tree claims. Woodpeckers, chickadees, bluebirds, 
 phoebes and house wrens drill holes into trees or make use of holes 
 drilled by other birds. The barn swallow and the phoebe often 
 build under bridges. Eaves swallows, ovenbirds and meadow larks 
 generally roof their nests and many birds go far enough into the 
 forest to get away from the severity of the storms. Sand swallows 
 dig into sand banks and English sparrows often take posses- 
 sion of their burrows. Bob whites and plovers lay pointed eggs 
 and the wind cannot blow them very far away. Mourning doves 
 and nighthawks seem not to have learned how to secure adequate 
 protection from storms but they have ways of their own for self- 
 protection, especially against squirrels, snakes and men, the former 
 often feigning lameness when its nest is approached and the latter 
 removing its eggs to a new location. 
 
16 BIRDS OF THE WEST 
 
 Many birds build like the oriole, far out upon the small 
 branches of trees or cover their eggs, as do many of the ducks, with 
 feathers or dry grass. Orchard orioles make their nests of green 
 grass so that when new they are very difficult to find. Blackbirds, 
 phoebes and barn swallows often build above water, taking the risk 
 of drowning their young rather than the dangers from living ene- 
 mies. Many birds, especially females, grow to resemble in color 
 their nest material or other surroundings. This is true of the che- 
 wink, the indigo-bird, and most of the sparrows and ground-nesters. 
 Birds often trust to the good fortune of being undiscovered but if 
 discovered, like Bob white, the cuckoos and the dove they feign lame- 
 ness, or like the wrens and the kingfishers they scold, or like eagles 
 and hawks, they fight. Flight is the natural method of escape if 
 the home is not involved, though birds like the loon and the grebe 
 and some of the ducks trust to diving beneath the water. 
 
 To protect themselves from other birds is a very difficult prob- 
 lem. Small birds that live in cavities in trees or the earth are 
 naturally protected from larger birds that are unable because of 
 their size to enter their small homes. In that way, even the smaller 
 woodpeckers and the sand swallows are protected. The most prac- 
 ticed method, however, seems to be to select places for homes that 
 are rarely frequented by bird enemies. Birds that come into the 
 city are in less danger from hawks, crows, jays, shrikes and cow- 
 birds, though they must endure the annoyance of English spar- 
 rows. The yellow warbler often builds in the prickly gooseberry 
 bush, the swift in chimneys, and the kingfisher in a hole in the 
 ground that he permits to become such a stench that no self-re- 
 specting creature would go near it. All in all, it is quite a prob- 
 lem to build so as to be protected against so many dangers and at 
 the same time to be near good building material and a generous 
 food-supply. Surely the little birds have their troubles and are 
 entitled to our friendship. 
 
 The next generation will feel and know that all creatures have 
 the inalienable right to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness, if 
 they grant the same to others. Do you think that the Creator in- 
 tended that there should be a penalty for beauty? 
 
 Beauty is almost a synonym of "good" and of "true". Yet 
 birds are slaughtered because they are beautiful. Even a throne 
 gained by wading through slaughter no longer calls for the respect 
 
AMERICAN GOLDFINCH 
 
 Upper Figure, Male; Lowfr Figure, Femal 
 
 (One- half natural size) 
 
BIRDS OF THE WEST 17 
 
 of mankind and personal adornment that calls for innocent life 
 will be despised by the daughters of those who think to steal re- 
 flected beauty from a pretty bird. It is "Mothers causing the 
 death of mothers" and for the sake of vanity. Public sentiment 
 is fast shaping itself and the woman who jauntily tosses her plumes 
 to the breezes with the vain thought that she has a pretty face, will 
 soon learn that enlightened sentiment is thinking about her thought- 
 lessness or her heartlessness. Shoot birds if you must but shoot 
 them with a camera or level a pair of opera glasses at them. You 
 will not be violating either a written or an unwritten law by doing 
 so. You will find the pursuit as fascinating and the results more 
 lasting. You will find therein an appeal to your better nature. The 
 days when wild life was valued only for food and raiment have 
 passed with barbarous races. 
 
 You should never shoot even the game birds in the springtime. 
 Why? Because your only justification can be that they are needed 
 for food, which is rarely true. As a rule spring shooting is only 
 to satisfy a desire to kill which masquerades under the name of 
 sport. As for song birds they should never be killed. 
 
 If any birds are needed for food, it is well to Iniow that those 
 that migrate are thin and tough from long flight, and ducks espe- 
 cially having had more of a fish diet than in the fall when grains 
 are available, offer a flesh that is at its worst. 
 
 All birds are more trustful and less fearful when love warms 
 their little hearts and for them the springtime is the time of court- 
 ship and marriage. The loss of a single bird may mean one less nest- 
 ful of babies and there are enough natural enemies of the mating 
 and nesting bird without the unnatural enmity of man. 
 
 It is estimated that during the last twenty-five years, the num- 
 ber of birds has decreased one-half. That would not be so bad if 
 if it were not for the fact that the most beautiful birds are the ones 
 that have decreased mOst rapidly. The scarlet tanager, the passen- 
 ger pigeon, the bluebird and the egret are fast going while the 
 most undesirable birds such as the English sparrow are fast com- 
 ing. 
 
18 BIRDS OF THE WEST 
 
 BIRD SPORTS. 
 
 Nearly all forms of animal life have a way of playing. You 
 have seen horses have jolly good times just for fun. Nothing is 
 prettier than to watch a family of foxes at play unless it is to watch 
 the antics of puppies and kittens. Do you think that such cheerful 
 livers as birds have no games to play at? 
 
 I have seen sandhill cranes do a mighty pretty cake walk and 
 some very fancy jigs; and a number of tiny sandpipers did what 
 I should call a cotillion, if it were done in a ballroom by common 
 folks. 
 
 Tou have no doubt seen robins play tag upon a lawn and what 
 sport a game of tag would have been to us in our boyhood days if 
 we had only had wings. Did you ever see a cat play with a mouse ? 
 Terns (often improperly called gulls) play catch with fishes. A 
 tern will carry a fish high into the air only to drop it, when sud- 
 denly another tern will catch it on the fly and go upward with it 
 only to drop it to a third tern and so on until they are weary of the 
 game. 
 
 When a gull carries a clam to a great height and drops it, it 
 does so in order to crack the clam-shell, for, if the shell is not bro- 
 ken, the gull will carry it to a greater height the second time and 
 the third time to a still greater height. Pretty fair intelligence? 
 
 I shall always think that the redstart turns its many somer- 
 saults just for the fun of it and I have seen one turn every min- 
 ute for half an hour apparently for the principal reason that she 
 had a spectator. 
 
 Do you suppose that bitterns have a sense of humor? I fear 
 not, yet they surely would inspire it within you if you should see 
 one standing for hours on one foot trying to fool the frogs into 
 the belief that he is a part of the scenery. He's an unlucky frog 
 who happens to come within the bittern's sphere of influence. 
 
 The ruffed grouse drums upon a log with his breast and wings 
 and the woodpeckers drum with their bills upon hollow tree stumps. 
 It is no doubt a means they employ to win their brides, but it is 
 sport just the same. Young men and old men get playful too when 
 they are sparking. 
 
BIRDS OF THE WEST 
 
 19 
 
 The high dive of the nighthawk, the tossing of a fish into 
 the air and catching it before swallowing it, as the cormorant 
 does, the strutting and pufSng and blowing of prairie chickens, 
 the soaring of larks, hawks and eagles are only useftd means of 
 bird enjoyment. Speaking of concerts, ask the blackbirds. 
 
20 BIRDS OP THE WEST 
 
 BIRD INTELLIGENCE. 
 
 It is not probable that female birds know that they resemble 
 their environment in color nor that they gather materials for their 
 nests that will be inconspicuous. Naturally grass birds use grass 
 because it is most available. White strings and bright objects so 
 often woven into nests are surely not put into them for the pur- 
 pose of concealing them and as to the former problem we may 
 say that it is part of Nature's plan and let it go at that. We do 
 not know all of Nature's secrets but Ave may have the pleasure of 
 guessing — half of life is used in that way. 
 
 It is not my intention to convey the impression in these arti- 
 cles that birds do much, if any, reasoning, or that they are so won- 
 derful in themselves, but I do wish to show that they are beautiful 
 and wonderful as a part of the great, natural plan and I shou.ld 
 rather be guilty of romancing than to rob them of the least bit that is 
 theirs. It will be too bad if the crusade against the ' ' Nature fakers ' ' 
 goes to the extent of robbing childhood of the fairies and of Santa 
 Claus. Our keenest joys in life could be "shot to pieces" by the 
 arrows of reason, and if we should live neither in the past nor in 
 the present, the game of life would hardly be worth the candle, so if 
 these articles are at any point more imaginative than real, no 
 apology need be applied for. The man who is not fooled most of 
 the time is rare and the one who thinks he is rarely fooled is often 
 the one who is fooled most of the time, and if while we are being 
 fooled we are having our sympathies deepened, our loves strength- 
 ened and our lives brightened, there need be little worry as to 
 whether the fish-hawk after a dive into the water on a hot day, 
 shakes itself over its nestful of eggs to cool them off or just happens 
 to do so. 
 
 The writings of the anti-" Nature fakers", who would be so 
 strictly honest that they would not attribute anything like human 
 reason to the birds, are almost brimming over with unconscious ad- 
 mission of what they so severely condemn. After the pretty story 
 is told it is unhappy that the secret is let out that it probably isn't 
 true. When we are told of two pretty singers having a singing con- 
 
BIRDS OP THE WEST 
 
 21 
 
 test or two pretty dressers having a strutting contest to win the 
 wing of a female in marriage, it is too bad to tell us that they prob- 
 ably did not know what they were doing. 
 
 That there is Nature faking goes without saying, but it is to 
 be hoped that the reaction against idealization of the non-human 
 will not cut the heart out of Nature. 
 
22 BIRDS OF THE WEST ^ 
 
 CONSTITUTION OP THE AUDUBON BIRD CLUB OF 
 
 _ SCHOOL. 
 
 Article I. — Name. 
 
 The name of this organization shall be The Audubon Bird Club 
 of School. 
 
 .•3 
 
 Article II. — Objects. 
 
 The objects for which this club is formed are: (1) to study 
 the birds; (2) to protect the birds; (3) to attract birds around 
 our school, and about our homes ; (4) to observe with suitable cere- 
 monies some day in spring to be known as Bird Day; (5) to ac- 
 quire a library of nature books and nature literature; (6) to plant 
 trees and shrubs in school grounds and along highways. 
 
 Article III. — Members. 
 
 All pupils of this school are eligible for membership. All per- 
 sons who attend the meeting for organization shall be eoiisidered 
 charter members. Thereafter members shall be duly proposed and 
 elected. The teachers of the school shall be honorary members. 
 
 Article IV. — Meetings. 
 
 Meetings shall be held at least twice each month, or on the 
 eaU of the president for a suitable reason. 
 
 Article V. — Dues. 
 
 The dues shaU. not exceed two cents per month. 
 
 Article VI. — Officers. 
 
 The officers of this club shall be a president, a vice president, 
 a secretary and a treasurer. The term of office shall not exceed 
 three months. The duties of the officers shall be as follows : Presi- 
 dent, to preside at all meetings; vice president, to preside in the 
 absence of the president; secretary, to record the proceedings of 
 all meetings and to conduct the necessary correspondence of the 
 club; treasurer, to collect all dues and pay all biUs authorized by 
 the club. 
 
BIRDS OF THE WEST 23 
 
 Article VII. — Committees. 
 
 The committees of this club shall be: Committee on feeding 
 birds in winter; committee on nesting houses; committee on drink- 
 ing and bathing fountains ; committee on plants to attract birds 
 around our school and homes ; committee on protection of birds 
 during the nesting season; committee on law (to post warning no- 
 tices and to report violations of the bird laws to the proper author- 
 ities) ; committee on preparing a local list of birds ; committee on 
 a bird library for the school. These committees shall be appointed 
 by the president, who shall also determine their size. The member 
 first named shall be chairman. 
 
 •" Article VIII. — Duties of Committees. 
 
 The duties of these committees shall be to collect information 
 on the topics suggested by the name of the committee and to re- 
 port at the meetings, giving suggestions to the members on the 
 best method of procedure. It shall also be the duty of the com- 
 mittees to assist the members in carrying on their various lines 
 of work and to learn the results of the members' efforts. A re- 
 port of these results and of the work done by each committee shall 
 be given at the regular meetings of the club. 
 
 Article IX. — Amendments. 
 
 Any amendments to this constitution may be adopted by a two- 
 thirds vote of the members present at any regular meeting, notice 
 of such amendment having been presented at the previous meet- 
 ing. 
 
Cuckoos, 
 
 Order, Coccyges. 
 Family, Cuculidae. 
 
 387. YELLOW-BILLED CUCKOO. (Rain Crow.) Goccyzus 
 americanus. Eleven inches long. Olive-gray above. Ashy white be- 
 low. Slim, graceful body. Bill slightly curved. White spots the size 
 of your finger-nail on tail feathers. Lower mandible yellow. Nests 
 only a few feet above ground. Eggs pale blue-green. 
 
 388. BLACK-BILLED CUCKOO. (Rain Crow.) Coccyzus ery- 
 throphthalmus. Eleven inches long. Olive-gray above. Ashy white 
 below. Slim, graceful body. Bill slightly curved. White spots on tips 
 of tail feathers, but not "finger-nail" shaped as in the yellow-billed 
 cuckoo. Bill entirely black. Red eye-ring. Nests only a few feet 
 above ground. Eggs pale blue-green. 
 
 YELLOW-BILLED CUCKOO. 
 
 ' ' Gulp ! Gulp ! Gulp ! Gulp ! Gulp ! ' ' will come to your ears 
 from your garden sometime. You will wonder if a tree-toad is 
 tit-tiing ambitious to sing a bird note or if a mocking bird is trying 
 to sing frogtime. If you follow the gulping you will very likely 
 see a yellow-billed cuckoo, perhaps a black-billed one. When I was 
 a little boy we used to sing in school a song that started out ' ' Softly 
 the cuckoo is calling now". I want to tell you quietly that who- 
 ever wrote that song never heard a real cuckoo but got his bird 
 knowledge from a cuckoo clock. 
 
 Cuckoos are usually very fond of concealment and j-ou will 
 very often have a hard time to get a satisfactory view of one. I 
 have approached them while they were sitting on their eggs think- 
 ing that they would be less shy at that time, biTt they actually slide 
 from their nests very much as a fish slides over a dam, and away 
 they go into the underbrush as though they were very, very help- 
 less. They are not half as much afraid of people out here in the 
 west as they are in the east. Probably they see them oftener be- 
 
BIRDS OP THE WEST 25 
 
 cause there are fewer trees. However, they are quite a different 
 bird in other ways. They build better nests because the winds 
 blow harder and I believe they lay more eggs, for I have never 
 found less than four in Dakota, but in New England I seldom have 
 seen more than two. 
 
 They say that in Old England they don't build nests at all, 
 but lay in other birds' nests as our cowbird does. Sometimes as 
 many as seven eggs are found in a single nest, but it is possible that 
 some other lady cuckoo thought that it would be all right as long 
 as it was all in the family. Whatever faults they have, they have 
 one merit and that is their appetite for tent caterpillars. If you 
 ever have a cuckoo in your orchard you ought to respectfully take 
 your hat off every time that you see him. Don't let anyone fool 
 you into the superstition that he is a bird of evil omen or that he 
 is a rain erow and runs the weather bureau or anything of the kind. 
 He isn't. He's after that bunch of cobwebs that is full of worms 
 that you will see up in the top of your apple tree. 
 
 The cuckoo gives us one of the marvels of birdlife. The young 
 ones, twenty-four hours before leaving their nests, haven 't a feather 
 on them except long pinfeathers that make them look like baby 
 porcupines, but almost in the twinkling of an eye they blossom 
 forth like a rose and almost in the moment of your talking they 
 take wing and are gone. Isn't it a wonder? 
 
Kingfishers, 
 
 Order, Coccyges. 
 Family, Alcedinidae. 
 
 390. BELTED KINGFISHER. Ceryle Alcyon. Twelve Inches 
 long. Long crest on head. Bluish-gray above, white below. White 
 spot in front of eye. White collar and blue-gray hand across the 
 breast. Large head with long, strong bill for catching fishes. Eggs 
 white. Nests in a hole in the ground near water. 
 
 BELTED KINGFISHER. 
 
 This is the famous "Halcyon" that built a floating nest upon 
 the sea and had the power of making fair weather wherever the 
 nest floated. Those were "halcyon days" according to the fable. 
 
 Really the truth about its nest is this. Into a hole in the bank 
 by the side of a stream, that looks as though it had been the home 
 of a water rat, our halcyon creeps and there belches forth fish 
 bones and fish scales that were not digested. These are gathered 
 for a nest that would make you think that he has no sense of smell. 
 Possibly with a view to concealing his disgorged pellets so that they 
 will not betray his whereabouts to his enemies, he went within and 
 finally made use of them for nest material. 
 
 The kingfisher is pretty in the air for he sails along with even 
 flight and has the air of knowing where he is going and of having 
 an errand at the end of his journey. He catches his fish with his 
 strong beak and his presence is an evidence that there are fishes 
 in the stream nearby. They are not necessarily good ones nor large 
 ones, for all fishes look alike to him. 
 
 Speaking of fish-tackling, the kingfisher will often tackle one 
 far too large for him, but unlike the merganser, he will throw it out 
 and try it over and over until it goes down. The merganser swal- 
 lows his as far as he can and lets the end of it digest while his 
 mouth is stopped up for an hour or so with the body of the un- 
 swallowed fish. 
 
 If the kingfisher 's squawk may be called a song or even music, 
 
BIRDS OF THE WEST 
 
 27 
 
 it woiild be well for him to wear the sign that was put on the church 
 organ in a wild western town — "Don't shoot the organist! He's 
 doing the best he can. ' ' If there is any proper adjective to describe 
 — well, there is none. 
 
 Withal they are good parents, thoroughly domestic, love their 
 homes as long as there is good fishing near them, mind their own 
 business and usually have plenty of it. 
 
Woodpeckers. 
 
 Order, I'ici. 
 Family, Picidae. 
 
 Family Characteristics: Sharp, pointed bills for drumming or drill- 
 ing about the trunks and limbs of trees. Red patch on head or throat 
 or both. Alight upon the sides of tree trunks supporting themselves 
 by their tails. They live upon grubs, worms and ants. The sapsucker 
 occasionally injures trees by drilling too many holes into their bark. 
 
 412a. NORTHERN FLICKER. (Golden-winged Woodpecker. 
 Wakie-up. High-.hole. Yellow-hammer.) Colaptes auratus luteus. 
 Length 12 inches. Red spot on head. Black crescent on throat. White 
 spot on back near tail. Brownish gray above, barred with black. Black 
 spots on breast. Much yellow on body. Bill slightly curved. Yellow 
 under wings. Black cheek stripes. Tail feathers sharply pointed and 
 used as a support. Nests in holes in rotten trees. Eggs white. Dip- 
 ping motion in flight. 
 
 413. RED-SHAPTBD FLICKER. Colaptes cafer collaris. Sim- 
 ilar to northern flicker but has red feathers under wings and tail and 
 red cheek stripes. 
 
 406. RED-HEADED WOODPECKER. (Tricolor.) Melanerpes 
 erythrocephalus. Nine and one-half inches long. Head and neck deep 
 red. Plain black above. Belly, half of wings and rump plain white. 
 The three colors are distinct. Eggs white. Dipping motion in flight. 
 A "striking" bird with an awful voice. 
 
 3 94c. DOWNY WOODPECKER. Dry abates pubescens. About the 
 size of the English sparrow. Distinctly black and white above in bars 
 or bands. White below. Red feathers on lower part of head. A 
 friendly little fellow and always busy after wood-borers. 
 
 393a. HAIRY WOODPECKER. Dryobates villosus. About nine 
 inches long. Resembles the downy woodpecker except in size. Outer 
 tail feathers are white. Almost entirely white belly and a white verti- 
 cal line down the back. Like all woodpeckers they build nearer the 
 ground in the west than in the east. 
 
 402. SAPSUCKER. Sphyrapicns varius. Eight and one-half 
 inches long. Body black, white and yellow mingled. Yellow belly. 
 
BIRDS OP THE WEST 29 
 
 Head and throat red in male, but white in female. It sometimes 
 girdles trees with the holes it drills. 
 
 NOTE. — In Sioux Falls, S. D., a beautiful albino flicker was reared 
 in the summer of 1907. Its plumage was spotless cream-white ex- 
 cept for the red spot on the head. 
 
 NORTHERN FLICKER. 
 
 Almost any day in the early springtime you can hear a shrill- 
 voiced bird rapidly repeating a single tenor note. No, he is not just 
 home from college, even though he does wear that jaunty red skull 
 cap and yell like an Indian. If you can count fast enough you will 
 hear that note as many as fifty times. This peculiar springtime yell 
 suggested to someone, once upon a time, the quivering light of a 
 dying candle and he therefore called the bird a "flicker". 
 
 I was once with a crowd in a hotel listening to a wandering 
 minstrel as he was playing Chopin in masterly style upon the par- 
 lor piano. Presently a big fellow stepped up to the door, listened 
 a while without rapture, then suddenly lifting his wood-splitting 
 voice, he shrieked, "Aw, play something!" That is the way I feel 
 when I hear a flicker. Your father may have known him by the 
 name wakeup, or yellowhammer, or highhole, for he has more aliases 
 than a crook, but they were given him with the best of intentions, 
 for no bird could have a hundred nicknames, pet names, scientifia 
 names and unscientific names that was not a favorite with man. 
 The flicker is certainly a great favorite because he is interesting, 
 for, on the quiet, I shall tell you that all of the woodpeckers have 
 red hair and tempers to match. 
 
 When they are drilling a hole for a nest they beat a very 
 rapid tattoo upon the tree that they have chosen for a home and 
 there is good reason to believe that, like many of our human kind, 
 they get great satisfaction from the mere sound of their knocking, 
 and I am told that at Yankton they have been seen drumming on 
 the water-works staudpipe. My ! It must sound good to them ! 
 
 When a small boy, I was told that I might go to a nest where 
 the mother bird was laying and take all the eggs but one, and if 
 I should leave some corn in the nest the mother would keep on 
 laying all summer. I was bad enough to try it and carried away 
 about thirty eggs before I tired of the contest. Pretty eggs they 
 are, waxy white in color except as the golden yolks show through 
 them. 
 
30 BIRDS OF THE WEST 
 
 The males come north first and I am quite sure that a short 
 time ago I saw the first meeting of a pair of flickers as Lady 
 Flicker arrived from the south. There were many demonstrations 
 of affection, and why not? Were they not together after a long 
 separation and a perilous journey? And were they not just about 
 to start up house-keeping? 
 
 With such large families as they raise, a nestful always, it 
 is no wonder that they violate woodpecker traditions and go down 
 to the ground for ants and bugs and worms, and it is no wonder 
 that with so many little flickers in the nest, there is much jostling 
 among them to see which one shall get his little open bill the high- 
 est when mama comes with grub or grubs. If you really want to 
 hear a buzz that buzzes, you should listen at a nest that is full of 
 hungry little flickers. 
 
 Think of the ants the little fellows will eat ! And so fond are 
 flickers of that special diet that nature has given them a specialized 
 tongue to eat the ants with. No lover of trees should ever shoot 
 a flicker. Does he not know that ants bore into the wood of trees 
 and make places in which to herd lice? The lice give nectar just 
 as a cow gives milk, and the ants milk them. Yes, my critical 
 friend, ten per cent of the flicker's diet is fruit, but ninety per 
 cent of that fruit is wild fruit, and the flicker is one of Nature's 
 agents for the distribution of fruit seeds, and since the birds have 
 planted the seeds of most of the wild fruit that there is in the 
 world, the man who never made two blades of grass to grow where 
 one grew before should give up trying to outhammer the flicker. 
 
 SAPSUCKER. 
 
 No wonder that Mrs. Sapsucker's hair has turned white for 
 her husband is a wife-beater and there are good grounds for di- 
 vorce especially on rainy days when the old man hits her over 
 the head with his hammer-like beak that easily drills holes even 
 into wood. The Mrs. meekly gets out into the drenching rain and 
 lets her lord and master climb into the deep hole that has been ex- 
 cavated in the rotten tree-trunk. 
 
 If he would confine his drillings to rotten trees he would not 
 forever be persona non grata to the horticulturists, but he drills 
 into the greenest trees just to start the sap and then gets food and 
 drink all at once, for the flies and the bugs come up for a drink and 
 
BIRDS OF THE WEST 31 
 
 are snapped up. He then takes a drink of tree juice and often 
 varies his diet with a few mouthfuls of the soft cambium layer just 
 under the bark. 
 
 Many a dead tree testifies to the ravages of this slave of the 
 drink habit. 
 
 As with all the woodpeckers, he has the habit of tattooing on 
 the dead limbs or trunks of trees jnst for the fun of it and as he 
 is an extremist in every way, he indulges very largely in aU wood- 
 pecker sports. I have never heard of a wife ever leaving her hus- 
 band in spite of his intemperance, inhuman cruelty and in- 
 compatible temper. Possibly she has religious scruples, or more 
 likely she never stays in one place long enough to gain a residence. 
 
 Woodpeckers are hardy birds and are little afraid of cold 
 for they are tree dwellers and their homes afford them the best 
 of protection. They usually lay a large number of white eggs and 
 except from the gunners they can generally protect themselves. 
 Under such circumstances they come north very early and only 
 the question of food supply causes them to niigrate at all. 
 
Goatsuckers. 
 
 Order, Machrochires. 
 Family, Ctipriimilgidae. 
 
 Family characteristics: Tliey fly mostly at eventide and alight 
 upon their perches lengthwise. They have dull gray or hrown plumage 
 and lay their eggs upon the ground without making a nest. Their feet 
 are poorly developed. 
 
 420c. NIGHTHAWK. (Bull-bat.) Chordeiles virginianus, sennetti. 
 About the robin's length but less plump. Wings longer than tail. Dull 
 black and white mottling abovie, almost a drab. Breast lighter color. 
 White rings on wings noticeable in flight. Utters its note in flight. 
 White patch on throat. Lays two grayish mottled eggs on the ground, 
 often at the ledge of a flat rock. Great insect-eater. Often seen in 
 companies. 
 
 416. WHIPPOORWILL. (Chuck-Will's-Widow.) Antrostomus 
 carolinensis. Nearly as long as a robin, it resemebles a nighthawk but 
 has brown mottling instead of gray and is without the white rings on 
 its wings. Throat almost black, outer tail feathers white at extrem- 
 ities. To most people it is only a voice at eventide, it is so rarely 
 seen. Its only song is "Whippoorwill", "Whippoorwill". Lays two 
 
 mottled eggs on the dry leaves in the woods. Feeds on locusts and in- 
 sects generally. Sings "Whippoorwill" until late in the evening. 
 
 NIGHTHAWK. 
 
 A relative of the chimnej'-swift, this is no hawk at all and he 
 seldom flies by night. Neither is he entitled to the names "goat- 
 sucker ' ' and ' ' bull bat ' ' for he is never guilty of the implication of 
 the former name and he is not a bat at all for the bat is not a bird 
 but a member of the monkey family. That such a number of im- 
 proper names "hang 'round him still" shows how many guesses 
 masquerade as truth. Like the swift he is a wide-mouthed insect- 
 eater and a boon to man. 
 
 Watch him as he alternately mounts and floats into the upper 
 air, for "Heaven is not reached at a single bound", and when he 
 has passed almost from your view, you will see him drop like a fall- 
 

 
 Upper Figures— CHESTNUT- BACKED BLUEBIRD 
 
 Order — Passeres Familyn-TuRDip^ 
 
 Genus— Si ALIA Species— Mexican a 
 
 Subspecies— Bairdi 
 
 Lower Figures— BLUEBIRDS 
 
 Order — Passeres 
 Genus — Sialia 
 
 Famiiy— TuRDiD.e 
 Species^SiALis 
 
BIRDS OP THE WEST 33 
 
 ing star and as soon as the sound can reach you, you will hear a 
 noise like the blowing into the bung-hole of an empty barrel or 
 the bellowing of a distant bull. It is only the rustle of his wings. 
 
 Do you think that these airy flights are ever equalled by the 
 bugs and flies ? It is doubtful. They go up there for the same rea- 
 son that a little boy climbs a hill in winter-time, just for the fun of 
 coming down ; for the same reason that a balloonist takes to his 
 parachute or the long-haired lady makes the high dive at the 
 circus. 
 
 I have seen a bird perch within fifteen feet of me and for fif- 
 teen minutes turn little somersaults for no apparent reason but 
 my pleasure. It was no doubt its method of catching insects. I 
 will tell you about him later. He 's a sweet little bird, trimmed with 
 orange and his little wife has lemon-colored trimmings but she's 
 just as sweet. 
 
 By day the nighthawk sits upon fence-rails as often as any- 
 where for they are nearly his color and he always sits his mount 
 lengthwise contrary to the custom of other birds, so that both his 
 color and position are nicely suited to prevent detection. They 
 build no nest, but two finely spotted eggs are laid usually at the 
 outer edge of a flat rock, and it is said that when disturbed, they 
 will carry their eggs away to a place of safety by grasping them in 
 their claws. 
 
 It is quite a custom among birds that make little or no nest, 
 to lay sharply pointed eggs so that when the wind blows, their 
 eggs will roll about in circles and never be blown away, but the 
 nighthawk does not follow this custom as the quails and plovers 
 do, possibly because she trusts to removing them to a better pro- 
 tected home. 
 
 No one should ever kill the little nighthawk (he's only half as 
 big as he looks) for he spends his time eating mosquitos and moths. 
 Why, that's the reason that he flies at eventide. Once in a while he 
 comes to town to gather the harvest of bugs that circle about the 
 electric lights. Pretty wise for a bird. 
 
Swifts, 
 
 Order, Macrochires. 
 Family, Micropodidae. 
 
 423. CHIMNEY SWIFT. (Chimney Swallow.) Chaetura pelagi- 
 ca. Five and one-half inches long — English sparrow six inches. Very 
 wide wing-spread. Dark mouse-color. Almost never seen sitting. 
 Cousin to the nighthawk. Twitter as they fly. Glue their nests to 
 the inner walls of chimneys. 
 
 The pies that mother used to make were certainly good and the 
 old stone chimneys that grandfather used to make were wonder- 
 ful. They were large enough for a real Santa Claus to come down 
 and at the bottom of them were fire places with their hanging 
 cranes, their brass andirons and fires all aglow with glory. No 
 rascals were reared within their flickering shadows. The family 
 sat about them in a circle, for there was such a thing as a family 
 circle before the family triangles became so common. How the 
 swallows twittered in those old chimneys! There must have been 
 hundreds of them sitting upon the edges of their nests of sticks and 
 glue, for they glued their nests to the sides of the chimney walls 
 very much as the swallows of China do, that build the edible nests, 
 and every little whUe a nest of babies would fall down the chimney 
 because they had grown too heavy, for the nest or the glue had be- 
 come melted by a fire thoughtlessly started to burn up some waste 
 paper or to take the dampness out of the air of an unexpected 
 cold day. Poor little things, there was nothing to do but put the 
 fire out and save the rest of them. 
 
 How many evenings I have watched them circling like mad 
 and twittering in their rapid flight as they were clearing the even- 
 ing air of mosquitos. These winged cigars, for that is what they 
 look like, move their wings so fast that scientists cannot tell whether 
 they flap them together or alternately. And the sport came when 
 they went to bed on the side of the nestful of little white eggs. 
 Like streaks of darkness they shot to a point a, few yards above 
 
BIRDS OF THE WEST 35 
 
 the top of the chimney, then dropped zigzagging into it as though 
 they were pieces of paper falling through the air. They don 't weigh 
 very much more. Company after company would tvimble in until 
 you would think that the chimney could hold no more. 
 
 Once upon a time they lived in hollow trees and if we cover 
 our chimneys and build them much smaller they will go back to 
 the hollow trees again. Then look out for bugs. 
 
 How do you suppose they get the twigs with which to build 
 their nests? They just shoot through a tree and catch a twig while 
 in full motion and when they get into a chimney they support them- 
 selves on the side of the chimney by their tail feathers which have 
 spurs on them. If I were to build an airship I'd take a chimney 
 swift for a pattern. Did you ever see one ? If not you will recog- 
 nize him when you do for he is well named and I think he is swift 
 enough to fly around the world in forty days and forty nights. 
 
Humming birds. 
 
 Order, Macrochires. 
 Family, Trochilidae. 
 
 4 28. RUBY-THROATED HUMMINGBIRD. Trochilus coluhris. 
 The smallest ot our birds. Bright irridescent green above. Chin black. 
 Ruby-colored throat. Gray beneath. Long, needle-like bill. Female 
 without ruby throat. Eggs white. 
 
 "Breathes there a man with soul so dead" that he does not 
 exclaim when he sees a ruby-throat 1 A flash, a humming about the 
 canna bed, a flash to the nasturtiums and away. Gone like a reverie 
 at eventide, a lost chord, an artist's dream, a bubble on a reed, the 
 evidence of things not seen. Sipping the honey dew while the rosy 
 petals pale before its jeweled throat, wishing to be gone and gone 
 ere the wish were made, the very spirit of the honeysuckle of yester- 
 year, it leaves you looking at the flower, its silent partner in the 
 little world of miracles. Did it not set you wondering? Did you 
 not feel the mystery of the flowers, the mystery of life? Did you 
 feel that it needed a song other than the song without words that 
 trembled from your heart strings ? 
 
 Now you stand by the side of its nest, of gauzy lichens, of 
 flufi'y plant-down and the spirits of dead flowers. Every tiny bit 
 a miracle of nature molded about the silken breast of the sprightly 
 little mother, so that when she floats upon it, her little heart will 
 warm the waxen eggs to life. You cannot raise a hand against it. 
 
 Twice I have seen them, wee, little knots saddled upon the 
 apple boughs, half hidden by the leaves, and twice were days made 
 memorable for life. There was the brook making the merry sun- 
 beams dance as it sped to the silent pool below; the apple trees 
 were opening their myriad pink chalices for the drowsy bees that 
 wheeled among them ; the leaves wore the waxy green of the early 
 Maytime; in the garden the lilac buds were bursting; the air was 
 fresh with the breath of lilies ; the aromatic trees gave back the 
 spicy odors of a burning censer and a thousand muffled bits of 
 insect music made chorus for the humming of the ruby-throat. And 
 the old house stood there in spotless white and green as though it 
 thought it were the center of the landscape, but not for me — they 
 were all but the settings of that fairy little nest. 
 
Flycatchers, 
 
 Order, Passeres. 
 Family, Tyrannidae. 
 
 Family Characteristics: Generally drab above and white beneath 
 or dark olive above and pale yellow beneath. 
 
 The kingbirds are noisy. The phoebe and pewee call their names 
 plaintively. Flycatchers usually sally forth for insects returning at 
 once to their original perches. Their bills are short and their mouths 
 wide and they generally have small hairs at the base of the bill. De- 
 voted partners, they are usually seen in pairs. They are the greatest 
 insect destroyers known unless it be the swallows. 
 
 444. KINGBIRD. (Beebird.) Tyrannus tyrannus. Eight inches 
 long. Black above. White beneath. Black tail, edged with white 
 band. Has a concealed red crest. Usually four eggs, spotted with 
 brown. A great bug- and fly-eater. 
 
 447. ARKANSAS KINGBIRD. Tyrannus verticalis. Nine Inches 
 long. Easily known from its resemblance in habits to the kingbird. 
 Brownish drab above, pale yellow below. Black tail. A great chatterer. 
 Its nest and eggs are almost exactly like those of the kingbird and it 
 has also the concealed crest of red. Very common. 
 
 459. OLIVE-SIDED FLYCATCHER. Nuttallornis Borealis. Seven 
 inches long. Olive on sides with light yellow throat. Dark olive above, 
 points darkest, the head, wings and tail being an olive-black. It has 
 strongly the characteristics of its family. 
 
 452. CRESTED FLYCATCHER. Myiarchus crinitus. Nine inches 
 long. Distinguished by a crest. Olive above and light yellow be- 
 low except for dark gray throat. Brown points. Two white wing-bars. 
 
 467. LEAST FLYCATCHER. (Chebec.) Empidonax minimus. 
 Slightly smaller than an English sparrow. Olive gray above, dull white 
 below. Its two white wing-bars and the calling of its name, chebec, 
 serve to Identify it. 
 
 456. PHOEBE. Sayornis pJioeie. Seven inches long. Black 
 brownish-gray, darkest on crown. Breast yellowish white. Looks like 
 a pocket edition of kingbird. Record — ^never did wrong. Pronounces 
 his name often. Nests under bridges. Eggs white. Insect-eater. 
 
 461. WOOD PEWEE. Gontopus virens. About the size of an 
 English sparrow. Dull olive above, dull gray below. Calls its name, 
 "pe-wee", "pe-wee", "pe-wee", at long intervals. Resembles phoebe, 
 but la smaller. Two white wing-bare. 
 
38 BIRDS OF THE WEST 
 
 KINGBIRD. 
 
 This king is a tyrant if another bird gives consent. A better 
 name than kingbird would be "the blufSng flycatcher" for he is 
 king neither by right of regal beauty nor kingly manner. He is a 
 tantalizer of birds. 
 
 Who has not seen him sally forth from his perch, tap some 
 passing bird upon the head and return? When we see him high 
 in the air in pursuit of a crow or a hawk, we smile to think that 
 those big birds are being whipped by the little kingbird, but they 
 hardly know that he is following them. They have business and 
 regard him about as you would a barking "black and tan." 
 
 He always strikes from behind and never fights wing to wing. 
 
 If he would only attend to his business of eating bugs and 
 canker worms he would be a much beloved bird. Many people 
 think that he eats bees and he does, but only the drones — except 
 when he makes the wrong guess. It must be quite a trick to tell 
 a drone from a worker when they are in full flight. How in the 
 world do you suppose they do it? Some think it is due to keen 
 sight but I have often wondered if the buzzing of the drones is 
 not on a lower key and if it is not hearing rather than sight that 
 aids them. 
 
 The male bird has a concealed crest that is rose-colored and 
 it is claimed for him that he throws the feathers of his head forward 
 when a bee approaches, thus offering him a sort of a milliner's 
 rose as a decoy. The bee makes a bee-line for it and finds a pair 
 of open jaws, thus supplying a dinner rather than getting one. 
 
 When I was a little boy, my Sunday school teacher told me 
 that the birds were all called together soon after the dawn of 
 creation and told that the one that went highest into the air should 
 be king of the birds, so they all started upward together. One 
 after another, mud-hen, prairie chicken, sparrow, swallow and the 
 rest fell to the ground exhausted, leaving the old eagle apparently 
 the winner, when suddenly the kingbird that had concealed him- 
 self on the eagle's back shot upward and won the title. 
 
 The principal inconsistency in this story is that the bee-bird 
 kept still long enough to fool the eagle, for he is an incessant chat- 
 terer. However, a little color is lent to the story, for he is forever 
 trying to get upon the backs of the big birds. 
 
BIRDS OF THE WEST 39 
 
 The kingbird in late summer is very common and his nest en- 
 tirely exposed. It is a serviceable nest of silver-colored weeds and 
 white wrapping twine and bits of wool, and the four pretty eggs 
 with chestnut blotches are guarded very carefully. If you go near 
 the nest, you will get a fearful scolding for they then become the 
 most demonstrative of birds and trust to defending their nests 
 rather than concealing them. 
 
 PHOEBE. 
 
 A translation into English of their bird notes has given us 
 the names of a few of our birds. The chick-a-dee, the whip-poor- 
 will, the chewink, the cuckoo and the phoebe all pronounce their 
 names for you. 
 
 The phoebe builds a wonderful nest. It is made of mud, ve- 
 neered with moss and lined with feathers and bits of wool. Sure- 
 ly no nest is better calculated to keep the eggs and babies warm. 
 Like many another good thing there is often a drawback. Such 
 a nicely feathered nest is in danger of being converted into a bug 
 house and it is not unusual to find a brood of phoebe 's babies lying 
 dead within their abandoned home, the poor little victims of para- 
 sites. 
 
 Once upon a time they built their nests far from the haunts of 
 men and I have found them on the sides of cliffs near the water, 
 but now they come closer to town and build around old mills and 
 abandoned houses. I am almost sorry that they are doing this, 
 for all animals learn bad habits in town. City culture is an awfully 
 bad thing for them. 
 
 As you drive along country roads you are almost sure to find 
 a phoebe 's nest if you look under the bridges, but do not confuse 
 them with the barn swallow, that also builds his muddy nest be- 
 neath the bridge. There will be little trouble in telling them apart 
 if you are watchful, for the barn swallow always wears his purple 
 swallow-tail coat while phoebe dresses like a Quaker. 
 
 In climbing to reach a phoebe 's nest, I once loosened it so 
 that it would not rest longer in its place, so I set it upon a nearby 
 beam, but the phoebe didn't mind my interference a bit and went 
 on with her household duties. Most birds would have abandoned 
 their nests vinder such eirciunstanees. 
 
 The cry of the phoebe is a plaintive one. You eould easily 
 
40 BIRDS OP THE WEST 
 
 imagine that the little mother had been killed and that her mate 
 who without promising to do it loves and cherishes her until death 
 parts them, is sadly calling for her. Every springtime the hus- 
 band comes north two weeks before his wife to look up a location 
 or to busy himself around the old home ; then he will sit for hours 
 and call ' ' Phoebe ! Phoebe ! Phoebe ! ' ' drooping his tail and crying 
 as though he were nearly dead from loneliness. What he lives on at 
 that time is hard to tell, for his chosen insect food is still unhatched. 
 You may be sure that all of the flycatchers pay their way and are 
 worth their pay. 
 
 Once I saw a hunter level his gun at a phoebe as he sat upon 
 a willow branch calling his mate ; I saw it fall and as I rushed to 
 take it in my hand I found it only wounded. 
 
 And oh, the silken jacket, 
 
 And the little yellow vest. 
 
 And oh, the little throbbing heart. 
 
 And oh, oh, all the rest, 
 
 And the little eyes that sparkled 
 
 As I took him in my hand, 
 
 And I fear he thought I did it 
 
 For he didn't understand. 
 
Larks. 
 
 Order, Passeres. 
 Family, Alaudidae. 
 
 474b. PRAIRIE HORNED LARK. Octocoris alpestris praticola. 
 Length seven and one-half inches. Black line extending from sides of 
 mouth and black necklace. Back, pale wine-colored brown. Yellowish 
 white throat. Black tail, except in flight when white feathers are visi- 
 ble. Past little roadrunner. Found by the roadside in the fields es- 
 pecially on the plains. 
 
 What do you think of a little bird with horns ? Do you think 
 that he must be very, very bad ? No so, for they are not real horns, 
 only some long feathers that stick up from the sides of his head 
 like feathers on a lady's hat. The lady lark wishing perhaps, to set 
 the ladies of society a good example, never wears plumes even in her 
 Easter bonnet. It is only the gentleman lark that wears them, 
 but it may be that he belongs to some secret society and the plumes 
 are a part of his regalia and that may be the reason that he got the 
 name of "lark". 
 
 It is April now, but they have already nested, not the meadow- 
 larks, for they are too busy giving concerts, but the horned-larks 
 that have spent the winter with us. He's the "early bird", but 
 he's too early for the worm. The sparrow-like nest and the spar- 
 row-like eggs and the sparrow-like bird would lead you to suspect 
 that he is a sparrow, but he is not. He is the first cousin and near- 
 est American relative of the European skylark, of which Shelley 
 sang: 
 
 ' ' Higher still and higher. 
 
 Prom the earth thou springest; 
 
 Like a cloud of fire, 
 
 The blue deep thou wingest. 
 
 And singing still dost soar and soaring ever singest. " 
 
 Our horned-lark, it is said, often shows the family character- 
 istic by a song-flight, but while I have seen the flight, I have never 
 
42 BIRDS OP THE WEST 
 
 heard the musie "till the sweet-voiced bird hiis flown," aad then 
 only the spirit of a song. 
 
 On the unsettled prairie land west of the Missouri river, it is 
 the most eonunon of all birds, but in the more thickly settled parts 
 of the west it is far less numerous. While you are driving out into 
 the country you may see many of them flying over the fields, but 
 if you wish to get a good view of one, watch the road-ruts ahead of 
 you. When you come upon him he will squat down into the dust, 
 trusting to his similarity in color to deceive you ; he will pull in 
 his horns too, hoping (not hopping, he never hops) thus to escape 
 notice. If he sees that you are aware of his presence, he will take 
 to his heels and run up the road like a racer and if he cannot beat 
 you he will take to his wings. 
 
 His diet is a prairie diet of bugs and seeds and his book ac- 
 count with man always shows a balance in his favor for there is 
 never a charge against him. 
 
Crows and Jays. 
 
 Order, Passeres. 
 Family, Corvidae. 
 
 Family Characteristics: The crows are black, the jays largely 
 blue. Harsh voices. Mischievous and intelligent birds of large size. 
 They will eat meat, grain or anything else. They are of no great 
 economic value, but as a part of the landscape they could hardly be 
 spared. 
 
 488. AMERICAN CROW. Corvus Americanus. Seventeen Inches 
 long. Black all over with violet gloss. Nests in tall forest trees. A 
 social bird. Can be Identified by his cry, "Caw!" "Caw!" Very in- 
 telligent. 
 
 477. BLUE JAY. Cyanocitta cristata. Eleven inches long. Blue 
 above. Black collar. Wings and tail blue with white stripes. Breast 
 dull white. Bill black. Has a crest. A brilliant bird but mischievous. 
 
 484. CANADA JAY. (Camp Robber.) Perisoreus canadensis. 
 Twelve inches long. Gray above and beneath. Darker tints on wings 
 and tail. Dull black on back of head and neck. Lighter gray on 
 breast. Throat and neck white. Very sociable and even bold. 
 
 475. MAGPIE. Pica pica hudsonica. Nineteen inches long. Tail 
 long for a bird of its size. Black except wings and breast which have 
 much white. Common along parts of Missouri River and Black Hills. 
 Very intelligent and mischievous. Bill black. Nest very large and 
 contains almost anything. Eats almost anything. It is said to be 
 unlucky if you see only one. 
 
 486a. NORTHERN RAVEN. Corvus Corax principalis. Two feet 
 long. Resembles the common crow. Not common though seen occa- 
 sionally along the Missouri River. Color a blue-black. Nests on cliffs 
 and places hard to reach. Most birds of this family have greenish 
 eggs heavily blotched. Eats refuse. 
 
 AMERICAN CROW. 
 
 Although the crow is a bird of conspicuous plumage, of bad re- 
 pute and has had a price set upon his head by many bountiful 
 states, he seems to increase rapidly and to thrive everywhere. He 
 does so entirely because he has the shrewdness so generally char- 
 acteristic of birds of the black feather. 
 
44 BIRDS OF THE WEST 
 
 Whoever has tried to climb up to the rickety old crow's nest 
 in the very top of a tall tree, knows what a job it is, and the very 
 beauty of the blotched green eggs will often stay his hand from rob- 
 bing. 
 
 That expression ' ' an eye like an eagle 's ' ' coidd just as 
 well be "an eye like a crow's" for nothing escapes him. He knows 
 when you have a gun and when you haven't. He can detect poi- 
 soned corn better than you can tell mushrooms from toadstools, 
 and you can sneak up on the sentinel-guarded goose better than you 
 can on him. 
 
 He is a miser and uses old stumps as safety deposit vaults. 
 Down under the bed of leaves within a hollow stump may be foimd 
 bits of broken glass, pieces of crockery and tia and many another 
 eye-charmer placed there by this hoarder of wealth. Now and then 
 he will visit his treasures, will kick away the leaves, pick his prizes 
 over and over as though to count them, and then he will bury them 
 again. 
 
 Any assertion that the crow can siag should be challenged for 
 "caws" — a bad pun to be sure, but he deserves it. 
 
 Among his other deeds that are almost as bad as his croaking 
 song, is his destruction of the young of other birds, his acts of 
 gluttony when he finds a nestful of eggs and his thievery of corn. 
 
 On the other side of the ledger and to his credit are the facts 
 that he eats fieldmice, worms, and carrion, and looks pretty at a 
 distance. 
 
 For him as for the English sparrow and other birds that have 
 the worst charged up against them, we need no protective laws. 
 Even destructive laws have little effect. 
 
 With all his meanness there is a fascination about him and the 
 poets have not been able to forget him. 
 
 BLUE JAY. 
 
 Pine feathers do not always make fine birtis, if they did the 
 jay would never be hauled before the court. He has often had to 
 stand trial for tearing to pieces the nests of other birds, of eating 
 their eggs and even their young. There is hardly a bird-crime 
 that has not been charged against him, from larceny, mayhem, and 
 kidnaping to murder, yet he is such an aristocrat that he generally 
 gets acquitted — even the federal court of the biological department 
 
BIRDS OP THE WEST 45 
 
 at Washington on final appeal looked so lightly on his misdeeds 
 that it let him out on parole. As a matter of fact he does more good 
 than evil. 
 
 A bird with a voice like his would arouse your suspicion at 
 all times. If you should see him get angry you would be sure that 
 much of his talk should not be printed and when he makes love he 
 does it not as a dove would, nor as a gentleman should, but much as 
 a conceited French count might propose to an American heiress. He 
 bows and scrapes and dances and jabbers. You see this refers to 
 the male jay for though the words "garrulous" and "girl" are 
 said to have a common origin, it is not especially the lady jay that 
 is loquacious. 
 
 He is conceited beyond endurance and the only two things in 
 his favor are his personal appearance and the fact that he plants 
 seeds, nuts and especially acorns. 
 
 It would be too bad to lose him, for we have so few birds in 
 blue. The bluebird, the indigo bunting, the kingfisher and the jay 
 are about all. Nature is sparing of her blue and what is true of the 
 birds is true of the flowers. Perhaps rarity made purple the royal 
 color. Sir John Lubbock says that flowers pass through the stages 
 of green, white, yellow, and often red, before becoming blue. 
 
 Like most of the family (crow), the jay builds a bulky nest 
 in almost any kind of a tree and of almost any old thing from twigs 
 to weeds and from roots to rags. Once in a while mud is used and 
 the four eggs are mud-colored and apparently mud-spotted. Mi- 
 nerva would have done better to have made him her favorite bird 
 instead of the owl, and she probably would have done so if he did 
 not have the persistent habit of talking too much. In other respects 
 he is wiser than an owl. 
 
 CANADA JAY. 
 
 About fifteen years ago while camping in the Black Hills we 
 had spread our table upon the ground beneath a large tree near a 
 bubbling spring, when to our surprise a number of birds of the 
 above description, swooped silently down upon the festive board and 
 helped themselves with the utmost freedom and good fellowship. 
 We were so astonished and even pleased that we welcomed the 
 coming guest but when they began to carry our lunch away with 
 
46 BIRDS OP THE WEST 
 
 them we felt like speeding the parting guest with something less 
 desirable than a Godspeed. 
 
 Talk about nerve ! And table manners ! They were as long on 
 one as they were short on the other. 
 
 Campers say that they will even ride down the river with 
 them in their boats and steal anything from a bar of soap to a sad 
 die of vension, returning for bits of it at regular intervals until they 
 are bloody from tip to tail. As they do not care for wind nor 
 weather, often sitting on their eggs so early in the spring that every- 
 thing freezes but the eggs and themselves, they store up, or lay 
 down, meat for the winter. Their energy and providence are about 
 all the good that is evident in them unless you admire that kind of 
 mischief that is open and above board as his is, for he is a real 
 free-booter — very free. 
 
 They are not as saucy as their cousins, the blue jays, and don't 
 really try to steal, for they just assume that the world owes them a 
 living and they take it. A favorite name for them is Whiskey 
 John, a name that sounds somewhat like the name that the Indians 
 gave them. It is a misnomer but doubtless they would drink whis- 
 key if they could get it for they have never been kno\\'n to refuse 
 anything. 
 
 MAGPIE. 
 
 Along the Missouri River and in the Black HiUs, magpies are 
 to be found in fairly large numbers. They are possessed by devils 
 if such things are possible, and they can think of more mischief than 
 a crowd of bad boys. They are easily tamed and become interest- 
 ing pets, though you must be prepared to have your ink-bottles 
 tipped over and your papers scattered about the room. A pet mag- 
 pie owned by so near a friend of mine that I felt that I owned two- 
 thirds of the bird, had a habit of going to the station as often as a 
 train came in and riding out of town a mile or two before return- 
 ing by his easy and graceful flight. One day he failed to return 
 and it is probable that having gone inside one of the cars, he be- 
 came the property of some bird-fancier within. It was a common 
 habit of "Mag" to pester the cat and "Tabby" seemed to submit 
 as though she had to do it. 
 
 Magpies build very large bulky nests and have all kinds of 
 strange conceits that lead them to work fancy articles into them. 
 
BIRDS OF THE WEST 47 
 
 Glass, old bits of broken crockery and such stuff help to gratify 
 ''Mag's" vanity. It would be exaggerating to say that magpies 
 are of very great economic value, but they are mighty interesting 
 and we can't afford to lose them. 
 
 Caged canary birds are not very valuable economically, but 
 there are many people who enjoy them and that is the only justi- 
 fication for depriving them of their liberty. It would take some 
 one stronger in logic than I am to justify such a procedure in any 
 event. But then "God made the world for man alone" is the 
 theory and religion of many men. 
 
Blackbirds and Orioles, 
 
 Order Passeres. 
 Family, Icteridae. 
 
 Family Characteristics: Black or black in combination with white, 
 yellow or red. They generally live in colonies. The blackbirds and 
 grackles have rather harsh voices but the bobolink, the meadow lark 
 and the orioles are among our finest singers. They live on insects, 
 worms and seeds and the small amount of grain they eat is nothing 
 compared with the good that they do. 
 
 498. RED-WINGED BLACKBIRD. Agelaius phoeniceus. Length 
 nine inches. Male entirely black except a patch of scarlet on his 
 wings. The scarlet seems tipped with yellow. Female without red on 
 wings and mottled black and dull drab. Common about swamps and 
 marshes. 
 
 509. RUSTY BLACKBIRD. Scolecophagus Garolinus. About 
 nine inches long. Rusty black with bluish reflections on neck. No 
 special color markings as with most blackbirds. Light yellow eyes. 
 
 495. COWBIRD. Molothrus ater. Seven and one half-inches long. 
 Black all over. Copper-colored reflections on neck of male bird. Fe- 
 male brownish-black. Bats eggs of other birds. 
 
 510. BREWER BLACKBIRD. Scolecophagus cyanocephalus. 
 About nine inches long. Entirely black with strong purple reflections. 
 Yellow eyes are a noticeable characteristic. Apparently a small-sized 
 grackle. Common in the Black Hills. 
 
 497. YELLOW-HEADED BLACKBIRD. Xanthocephalus Xan- 
 thocephalus. Somewhat larger than the more common red-winged 
 blackbird and usually found in company with them. Entire head bright 
 yellow. Wings with white patches. Hoarse voice when it tries to sing. 
 Nests are fastened to rushes like the red-wing's. Very common. 
 
 511b. BRONZED GRACKLE. Quiscalus quiscula aeneus. Twelve 
 and one-half inches long. Entirely black except for a purple and bronze 
 luster, strongest on body. Yellow eyes. Called "crow blackbird". 
 Nests in colonies. Has a harsh voice. Bulky nests of mud and dry 
 grass. They walk much of the time and steer themselves In flight by 
 their tails. Their voices are bad but their services give them a credit 
 balance. 
 

 KILLDEER 
 Order— LiM ICO Lvt Family— CHARAnRiiD« 
 
 Genus— -^GiALJTis 
 
 Species — Vocifera 
 
BIRDS OF THE WEST 49 
 
 511. PURPLE GRACKLB. Quiscalus quiscula. Twelve and one- 
 half Inches long. Entirely black with purple luster. Yellow eyes. 
 Called "crow blackbird". Harsh voice. Nests in colonies. Bulky nests 
 of mud and dry grass. Differs from the bronzed grackle in having 
 indistinctly barred plumage. 
 
 501b. WESTERN MEADOW LARK. Sturnella magna neglecta. 
 About the length of the robin but a little larger. Brown and yellow 
 above. Yellow throat. Black collar. Two white feathers in tail, very 
 noticeable in flight. Good singer. Nests often roofed over and hard to 
 find. Very common on the prairies. 
 
 507. BALTIMORE ORIOLE. Icturus galbula. Nearly eight Inches 
 long. Black head. Wings black and barred with white. Body bright 
 orange. Tail yellow and black. Female yellow and brown instead of 
 orange and black. Builds a high, hanging nest, most often in elms. 
 
 506. ORCHARD ORIOLE. Icturus spurius. About an inch long- 
 er than the English sparrow. The smallest of the blackbirds. Mostly 
 black above with black head, throat and tail. Orange-chestnut below. 
 Chestnut on wings. Would never be thought of as a blackbird but as 
 an oriole. Nest is made of green grass. A valuable insect destroyer. 
 
 494. BOBOLINK. (Swamp Blackbird, Rice Bird, Reed Bird.) 
 Dolichonix oryzivorus. Seven inches long. Mostly black. Yellowish- 
 white hood. More or less white on wings and tail. Female mostly 
 yellowish-brown. Sings while flying. 
 
 RED-WINGED BLACKBIRD. 
 
 As you wander about a marshy place where the cat-o 'nine- 
 tails grow, you will almost surely see a number of red-wings. 
 They are sociable birds as are most birds of black feather, 
 sociable among themselves, but they wiU lose no time in letting 
 you know that you are not a welcome visitor. Their cry at such 
 time is as full of fear and sorrow as an earthly note can be and 
 much in contrast to the piping of his "Co-ka-lee" as he sits above 
 his nesting mate. When you approach his nest that is carefully 
 fastened to the reeds he will hover above you and almost betray 
 its location. The chances are that you will have to wade to see 
 it, as they know how to cheat the squirrels and abnost every- 
 thing else except their arch-enemies, men. What a shame that 
 they are so often put upon the list of birds that may be kiUed 
 with impunity! 
 
 When you have reached the nest, leave it alone, but notice 
 
50 BIRDS OP THE WEST 
 
 the peculiar marking upon the eggs. They look as though a three- 
 year-old baby had been given the little pale blue eggs and a fine 
 brush full of black paiat and told to decorate them. Of course 
 no two are alike. If you don't find a cowbird's egg in every 
 nest it will be a wonder for the redwing is so amiable that she 
 never objects. 
 
 If you could see the tons of bugs and worms that they eat 
 in a season, you would never kill one of them. Why, chinch- 
 bug salad and cut-worm pudding are always on their menu in 
 season. 
 
 For some reason every farmer wants his "four and twenty 
 blackbirds baked into a pie" or worse than that, wants to see 
 how many of them he can kill at one shot, for they often are 
 in very large flocks as they make the valleys ring with their 
 choruses. If you never heard a blackbird chorus in which the 
 redwings, the yellow-heads, the rustys and the grackles join, you 
 have missed the prettiest melody of bird music. 
 
 Mr. Farmer, please stop shooting them. Don't you remem- 
 ber how, while you were wearily trudging behind your plow, 
 they followed in your furrow and ate the bugs and the grubs 
 and the worms, keeping you company and cheering you with 
 their songs? Is corn so dear that you will not give them a very 
 little share of what they earn? 
 
 COWBIRD. 
 
 Did you ever see a lot of small birds hanging around where 
 the cows are, now sitting on their backs, now if the sun is hot, 
 walking in the cow's shadow eating files and bugs that are bother- 
 ing them? They were cow birds. 
 
 There are sacred birds of Egjqpt that walk into the very 
 throats of the crocodiles and eat the bloodsuckers, and the 
 crocodiles never harm them. Doubtless the cows would never 
 harm their faithful little friends the cow birds, even if they 
 could, for that would surely dissolve the partnership. The cow 
 says to the bird "I will let you use me as a perch, I will let you 
 keep cool in my shadow, I will decoy bugs for you and scare 
 hoppers out of the grass with my nose; all that I want you to do 
 is to eat 'skeeters'. " "All right" says the cow bird in an under- 
 tone — and that is about all that he ever says. 
 
BIRDS OP THE WEST 51 
 
 But let me tell you the bad things about him. True, we 
 should never speak ill of anybody, but I'll tell just you, for I 
 know that you will never mention it. He is a very lazy bird. 
 He and his wife never build a house. When nesting time comes 
 lady bunting goes about until she finds a suitable nest be- 
 longing to another bird, and she lays her eggs in it; 
 the next egg she will very likely lay in another nest. In 
 that way she imposes upon the red-wing blackbird, the yellow 
 warbler, the vireo, the lark bunting, the chewink and the spar- 
 row. So you see she does not always seek the nest of a smaller 
 bird as many people think, though she generally does that very 
 thing. The reason for choosing a smaller bird's nest is that her 
 baby would crowd the smaller babies out if there were not room 
 in the nest for all. She seems to me to use even a better method. 
 She is quite sure to get her eggs into the nest fairly early and 
 her eggs hatch sooner than those of the larger birds and her 
 babies mature faster and in that way are quite able to hold their 
 own. The eggs of some birds you know, will hatch in a week 
 while others require as long as three weeks. 
 
 She has another method of making sure that her young will 
 get an even start and that is to kick the other bird's egg out of 
 the nest. 
 
 They say that the reason the cowbird never builds a nest 
 is that she lays her eggs so many days apart that the first will 
 spoil by the time the last one is laid. You may believe that 
 theory if j^ou wish to ; I think that the tendency to get lazy is as 
 strong among birds as among men and that the cow bird, a mem- 
 ber of our smartest bird family has found this labor-saving 
 method, for being fairly lazy she probably built a poor nest that 
 was easily blown to pieces ; then when she wanted to lay she found 
 herself with no nest of her own, so made use of the nest of an- 
 other. 
 
 In the fall when the blackbirds flock, the cow birds join them 
 but they take little part in the splendid choruses that come from 
 the tree top that holds a thousand blackbirds, for they have only 
 a little far-away note and I fear a real song would be too hard 
 work for them. 
 
52 BIRDS OP THE WEST 
 
 MEADOW LARK. 
 
 Nothing in bird life seems more certain to me than that our 
 meadow lark sings with a clearer and a fuller voice than its eastern 
 brother. He sings more and oftener too. Every morning bright 
 and early the voice of the lark is the first to reach my ear, for 
 there is a splendid specimen that starts in with its favorite song, 
 "I'm a pretty creature" and sings it almost under my very 
 window. I should miss it more than the striking of the clock 
 that tells me it is time to "arise and shine". As often happens 
 this particular lark has a song of his own not sung by others of 
 his species, a very rich song that at first fooled me into the be- 
 lief that a mocking-bird was near. 
 
 I have often seen one of them take his place on the top of 
 a telephone pole and start in upon his repertoire, singing each 
 song seven times at short intervals then changing to another song 
 and so on until seven songs were sung. Of course there was not 
 always perfect accuracy in the count for you must remember 
 that the lark is an artist and not a scientist. 
 
 Of course if you "know a hawk from a hand-saw" you know 
 the meadow lark with his yellow shirt-waist cut V-shaped and 
 edged with black at the top of the corsage. You have seen one 
 walking about on almost every acre of our western prairies, but 
 you have never seen many of their nests, for they use the dried 
 grass with which to build them and arch them over so that the 
 exit is on the side. They even build at times a sort of covered 
 run-way so that they may sneak without detection a few feet 
 away from the nest before flying. 
 
 There are many of them shot every year by "sports," none 
 of course by sportsmen, for they are constantly rising before the 
 hunters and their flight is wonderfully like that of the prairie- 
 chicken, so they make good birds to try the gun on. 
 
 Who would ever think that he is a blackbird? That's his 
 family. Why not? He walks; he flocks; he sings; he loves the 
 meadows; he eats worms and larvae; he is sociable and has al- 
 most every habit of the blackbird. 
 
 Though useful beyond measure and perfectly harmless he 
 has many enemies and must lay six eggs at a nesting and must 
 nest three times in a season. What are his enemies, do you ask? 
 
BIRDS OP THE WEST 63 
 
 Oh, squirrels and owls and hawks and snakes and men — about 
 in that order I should say. 
 
 BALTIMORE ORIOLE. 
 
 When Lord Baltimore established his colony in Maryland 
 he was much impressed by the number of bright plumaged birds 
 that he saw. The one, however, that wore the colors of the 
 Baltimore family (orange and black) soon became the "Balti- 
 more Oriole". 
 
 The word Oriole means "golden". Perched upon one of the 
 outer branches of an elm tree the oriole will attract you at first 
 by his song that has both volume and melody. You will glance 
 up at him and you will feel at once that an aristocrat has ap- 
 peared among the birds. 
 
 His less conspicuous mate is working a miracle. She is 
 building a castle in the air. Far out on the tip of a swaying 
 branch she is weaving horsehair, strings, yarn and plant fiber 
 into the prettiest nest imaginable. It is a swinging nest, narrow 
 at the top and very deep, for it must exclude the rain and keep 
 the hawks and jays from getting at its contents. What enemy 
 but a winged one can reach it? 
 
 Of all the birds this one seems to me to have attained the 
 greatest perfection in the construction of its nest. Squirrels can- 
 not run to it, snakes cannot crawl to it, boys cannot climb to it. 
 It looks almost like a wasp's nest and I doubt that the birds care 
 to fly to it. 
 
 It is woven thinly enough above to be airy and thickly 
 enough below to be warm and, swinging like a cradle, it makes 
 poets of the baby birds. 
 
 There are few moths, worms and caterpillars around where the 
 orioles are. 
 
 I am sure that when you first saw the male bird in full 
 plumage you agreed with Lady Oriole : 
 
 "For good Mrs. 0. who sat hatching her eggs 
 And only just left them to stretch her poor legs. 
 And pick for a minute the worm she preferred 
 Thought there never was seen such a beautiful bird." 
 
54 BIRDS OP THE WEST 
 
 BOBOLINK. 
 
 A man would have to be pretty small himself to shoot so small 
 a bird as Robert o 'Lincoln just to gratify his appetite, but a 
 mouth that will moisten at turtles and tripe, eels and frog-legs 
 and possum and skunk will fairly water at the sight of a plate 
 of bobolinks. 
 
 No doubt he is a dainty morsel especially when he has grown 
 fat in the rice fields of the south where he is known as the rice- 
 bird and the reedbird, but how absurd it is to want to eat every- 
 thing that is dainty. 
 
 He sings a very pretty song while on the wing, something 
 that few birds ever do, though of course many of them shout a 
 characteristic note or two. But the bobolink starts upward with 
 his song and as he reaches his climax, he floats away to earth 
 again as lightly as a flake of falling snow. In New England he 
 is thought to say "The devil, the devil is in all people for putting 
 in Bill Prentice as justice of the peace". I fear that Bill was 
 beaten by the bobolinks the next time he ran. 
 
 In the west the bobolink is often confused with the lark 
 bunting which is smaller and wears no hood. 
 
 Though our cheerful little friend has many names, Robert 
 'Lincoln, nicknamed bobolink, is his real name, more aristocratic 
 than "skunk-black-bird" which is given him because of his seem- 
 ing fondness for that malodorous plant of the marshes. Per- 
 haps he often places his nest near it mth the hope that his enemies 
 will keep their distance. 
 
 It is hard to find the nest of Lady Bob for she will sneak 
 away to quite a distance before she will take to her wings and if 
 you come upon her while she is sitting upon her eggs she will 
 very likely crouch and trust to luck for a moment for she wears 
 her feathers to match her nest. 
 
 How strange it is that man is the greatest enemy of the birds ! 
 Squirrels and snakes are not in the same class with him for he 
 destroys in one way or another as many as are destroyed by all 
 other causes. How many nests are turned under by the plow ! 
 How many go up in smoke at the burning of the fields in spring- 
 time! How many fall when man, arm in arm with death, goes 
 forth in search of food or feathers ! They are going. The scarlet 
 
BIRDS OF THE WEST 55 
 
 tanager, the tricolor, the cardinal, the indigo bird, the bobolink, 
 a million billion beauties and a billion trillion songs! Forty per 
 cent decrease in twenty years ! Let us have peace ! 
 
sparrows^ Finches^ Buntings and 
 Grosbeaks, 
 
 Order, Passeres. 
 Family, Fringillidae. 
 
 Family Characteristics: They have very short bills for seed-eat- 
 ing. Those grouped as sparrows vary little from the English sparrow 
 in size and color. Those grouped as finches vary largely as to size 
 and color. The grosbeaks as their name implies, have remarkably 
 heavy bills and the bunting group are sparrow size but darker in color. 
 The finches are generally good singers and nest low either in the grass 
 or in bushes. They live largely on the seeds of noxious weeds, such as 
 thistle, fox-tail grass and sorrel and are therefore of very great value to 
 gardeners and farmers. Though awkward about catching insects, they 
 often vary their bread diet with a little meat. 
 
 ENGLISH SPARROW. Passer domesticus. Six inches long. Came 
 to America in 1851. Our ever present street gamin. Too well known 
 to require close description. Constantly working and chirping. Builds 
 bulky nests in awnings, trees or any old place. Male has black upp'er 
 breast as most conspicuous marking. 
 
 560. CHIPPING SPARROW. Spizella socialis. Called also the 
 social sparrow but he is less sociable in the west than in the east. 
 Nearly an inch smaller than the English sparrow it can be told by its 
 chestnut crown, white line over the eye and dull ash-colored breast. 
 Its note is "Chip", "Chip", repeated at long intervals. Its nest is al- 
 ways lined with horse hair and placed higher above ground than that 
 of any of the sparrows. 
 
 563. FIELD SPARROW. Spizella pusilla. About a half-inch small- 
 er than the English sparrow. Brown above with chestnut crown, 
 white below. Wings barred with white. Bill brownish-red. Long 
 tail. Fond of fields and low bushes. Often mistaken for the chipping 
 sparrow which, however, has a black bill. 
 
 585. FOX SPARROW. Passerella iliaca. Nine inches long. Cin- 
 namon color on back. Darkest on wings and tail. Grayish-white be- 
 neath. Two white wing-bars. 
 
 581. SONG SPARROW. Meloapiza melodia. The size of the 
 
BIRDS OF THE WEST 
 
 English sparrow. Loves the small bushe* by the roadside. Dull brown 
 in streaks above. Gray with dark streaks below. Noticeable black 
 spot on upper breast. Special tail motion in ilight. Sweet linger. 
 
 540a. VESPER SPARROW. Poocoetes gramineus confinis. About 
 the size of its English cousin. Brown in streaks above. White with 
 dark streaks below. Shoulder patches pale russet. White tail feathers 
 noticeable in flight . A roadside and grass bird. Often sings in its up- 
 ward flight. Loves the roadside. 
 
 558. WHITE-THROATED SPARROW. Zenotrychia anicolUs. 
 Nearly an inch longer than the English sparrow. Generally seen in 
 flocks during migration. Top of head with two black stripes separated 
 by a white oae. Throat noticeably white. White wing-bars. Called 
 "Peabody Bird" from its song "See, see, Peabody, Peabody, Peabody." 
 Quite common in early spring. 
 
 554. WHITE-CROWNED SPARROW. Zenotrichia leucophrys. An 
 inch longer than the English sparrow. Crown not white but with sever- 
 al black and white stripes. Resembles its white-throated cousin but 
 is without the white throat. 
 
 559a. TREE SPARROW. Spizella monticola ochracea. The size 
 of the English sparrow. Streaked brown above. Dusky white below. 
 Chestnut patch on head. Black spot on center of breast. Has two 
 white wing-bars. 
 
 546a. GRASSHOPPER SPARROW. Ammodramus savannarum 
 Mmaculatus. Five inches long. Called grasshopper sparrow because 
 its song resembles the buzzing of that insect. Perches often on wire 
 fences. Brown above with varied sparrow-like markings. Drab be- 
 low. Top of head rusty black. Sits quite erect and often sings from 
 weed stalks. Does not often fly when startled but hides. 
 
 FINCHES. 
 
 536. LAPLAND LONGSPUR. Calcarius Lapponicus. Nearly an 
 inch longer than the English sparrow. Generally seen in flocks. Brown 
 above with black markings, gray below. Given their name because 
 they nest so far north and because their hind toe-nail is so long. Has 
 white wing-bars. Sings on the wing. 
 
 567. JUNCO. Junco hyemalis. The size of the English sparrow. 
 One of the snow birds. Slate-colored above. Males almost black on 
 head and neck. White beneath. A winter bird. Seen in flocks. 
 
 517. PURPLE FINCH. Carpodacus purpureus. About the size 
 of the English sparrow. Not purple except on head but raspberry red. 
 Brown above. Dull white below. Usually seen in flocks as a. winter 
 visitant. Tall Indented. 
 
 534. SNOWFLAKE. Passerina nivalis. An inch longer than the 
 
58 BIRDS OP THE WEST 
 
 English sparrow. Streaked brown above, white below. Wings white. 
 Tail, black and white. Bill yellowish. Distinctly a snow bird and lover 
 of the storm. Winter visitant. Usually seen in flocks. 
 
 529. GOLDFINCH. Astragalinus tristis. (Called wild canary 
 and thistle bird.) Length five inches. Mostly bright yellow. Head 
 and wings of male black. Plies with a dipping motion. Fond of 
 thistles and sunflowers. Nests in August. 
 
 BUNTINGS. 
 
 598. INDIGO BUNTING. Cyanospiza cyanea. Six inches long. 
 Size of English sparrow but more graceful and slender body. The 
 color of indigo. Female brown with yellowish-brown breast. 
 
 605. LARK BUNTING. Calamospiza melanocorys. About the 
 size of the English sparrow. Entirely black except on wings which 
 have white patches. Often mistaken for bobolink but has no yellowish- 
 white hood and is smaller. Plies a short distance into the air singing, 
 then almost floats to a perch. 
 
 60 4. DICKCISSEL. Spiza Americana. The size of the English 
 sparrow. Often seen on fences and telegraph wires with tail hanging. 
 Pale yellow below with black mark on upper breast. Brownish above. 
 Sings a great deal. 
 
 528. REDPOLL. Acanthis linaria. A little smaller than the 
 English sparrow. Redpoll means redhead but the redpoll has only 
 a reddish head. Grayish breast and lower back. Black chin. White 
 below. Winter birds in this latitude usually seen in large flocks. 
 
 521. AMERICAN CROSSBILL. Loxia curvirostra minor. Eng- 
 lish sparrow size. The crossing of the bill is a sure mark of identiflca- 
 tion. Throat and breast reddish and wings brown. Fond of the seeds 
 of the pine cones. 
 
 587. CHE WINK. (Towhee.) Pipilo erythropthalmus. Eight 
 inches long. Black above. Breast white. Sides chestnut. Tail feath- 
 ers noticeably white in flight. Eyes red. Female brown where male 
 is black. 
 
 GROSBEAKS. 
 
 595. ROSE-BREASTED GROSBEAK. Zamelodia ludoviciana. 
 Eight inches long. Male, black above. Breast rose-color and rose- 
 color under wings. White markings on wings and tail, very notice- 
 able in flight. Bill strong and very thick. Excellent singer. 
 
 514a. EVENING GROSBEAK. Coccothraustes vespertinus mon- 
 tanus. About eight inches long. Greenish-yellow is the principal 
 color especially below. Bright yellow forehead and above the eyes. 
 
BIRDS OF THE WEST 59 
 
 Wings and tail nearly black. Bill strong and very thick. White 
 patches on wings and more or less brownish on sides. 
 
 593. CARDINAL GROSBEAK. Cardinalis cardinalis. About 
 nine inches long. Cardinal except around the beak which is black. 
 Viery thick and strong beak. Well crested. Rare in this latitude. 
 
 515a. PINE GROSBEAK. Pinicola enucleator montana. About 
 eight inches long. Red with brown extremities. Wings tipped with 
 dull white. Has a strong beak which is the distinguishing mark of 
 grosbeaks. 
 
 ENGLISH SPARROW. 
 
 He does not require six months in which to establish a resi- 
 dence, for he is at home anywhere and everywhere. If he should 
 increase .as rapidly during the next fifty years as he has in the 
 last ten years it will keep him busy finding a place to roost. He 
 seems to have unlimited resources. He will build a nest in a little 
 less than no time and often one cock sparrow will have two new nests 
 vmder way before his first one is finished. If lady sparrows were 
 hens there would be millions in the poultry business for they are 
 regular little sleight-of-wing performers when it comes to produc- 
 ing eggs; and very likely they could produce eggs from your hat 
 or your pockets if they wanted to. 
 
 They were introduced into this country to eat the worms atd 
 bugs from the trees in eastern parks. They have done their work, 
 and done it well, but the question remains unanswered ' ' What can 
 now be introduced to eat the sparrows?" The remedy seems al- 
 most as bad as the disease. 
 
 You cannot help admiring this little disciple of Roosevelt, 
 for, first of all, he is a fighter from Scraptown and is bound to 
 have peace if he has to fight for it. He will kill his brother in 
 a duel and he will fight as many as eight others at a single time. 
 Once I saw a little sparrow fight his shadow through a window 
 glass until his face swelled up so that his eyes were nearly shut. 
 I afterwards heard that he returned every day, for two weeks to 
 renew the fight. He is a worker from Busyville too. Let down 
 an awning and often a nest with eggs will tumble out. It makes 
 little difference to them, however, for work will begin at once on 
 another nest. They will build in trees, barns, vines, in a deserted 
 woodpecker's hole, in a hole in a sandbank and in a multitude 
 of other places. They have no fear of wind nor weather and dur- 
 
60 BIRDS OP THE WEST 
 
 ing the coldest days of winter often go down chimneys to spend 
 the night and keep warm. Possibly you may have seen a flock 
 of the little fellows playing in the snow and showing evidence 
 that they have slept the night before in the coal bin. 
 
 He is against race suicide. Different forms of life use dif- 
 ferent means of preserving their species. Some do it by produc- 
 ing a multitude of young of which many survive just because 
 their enemies cannot kill all of them; some regard life as a battle 
 in which the fittest will survive and therefore they prepare to 
 fight their way through it, while some live in localities not in- 
 habited by their natural enemies. Which method does the En- 
 glish sparrow use? All of them and several more besides. 
 
 Bird-lovers concede him to the gunner to satisfy the love of 
 carnage, that element of savagery still left to man, but it is too 
 bad that they so often have to throw the blackbirds to the tigers, 
 too. You need waste no sympathy upon the sparrow, however, 
 for he can take care of himself and a wife or two and a dozen 
 or more children and if there is a creature on earth that looks 
 out for number one any better than he does, you would do well 
 to find him. He hasn't many friends, but he doesn't care. 
 
 CHIPPING SPARROW. 
 
 In the east a little bird used to come regularly to the door- 
 step when grandmother shook the tablecloth and with a constant 
 "Chip", "Chip", "Chip" between bites, gathered every little 
 crumb. It was the commonest bird of all until its English cousin 
 arrived. It is a far less common bird in Dakota. 
 
 It gets up at a very early hour and sits up pretty late for such 
 a little bird but only to sing its song over and over again for 
 it is a musical little fellow and often wakes up in the night and 
 trills a dreamy song or two. 
 
 What a delicate little nest it builds! And it always lines it 
 with horse-hair. I used to watch them come to the wooden hitch- 
 ing posts and tug at the hairs that had been pulled out of the 
 horses' manes. Some of them came pretty hard too, but they had 
 to have them. 
 
 Every little bird has a choice of material for its home. I 
 have never seen an Arkansas flycatcher's nest that did not have 
 white wrapping twine in it, nor a kingbird's without cotton or 
 
BIRDS OF THE WEST 61 
 
 wool, nor a phoebe bird's without moss, and the only time that 
 the great crested flycatcher's nests have been found without 
 cast-off snake skins in them, they had onion peels and fish scales 
 as substitutes. 
 
 Probably there are no more indulgent parents than chipping 
 si^arrows. They would make you think that they feed each other if 
 you did not see the look of youth upon the face of the big booby bird 
 who opens his wide mouth to receive the crumb from his little 
 mother, and when she flies away for more, he tags on behind to be 
 sure of getting the next morsel that she finds, and he will coax 
 for it just as hard as a real boy will coax for a piece of bread and 
 butter. 
 
 Every bird has a certain food which Nature has provided 
 and in the gathering of which it has become an adept. When 
 you first ate macaroni, you did not do it as an Italian would ; you 
 probably made a mess 'of it. So when a chippie eats moths, it is 
 in strong contrast to the phoebe. It had better stick to seeds and 
 crumbs if it cares at all for manners. 
 
 The nest that holds the four dotted blue eggs of the chippie 
 is built very often in apple trees which are pretty high for spar- 
 rows, and chippie is the only sparrow that goes to the trees to 
 build his home and it is usually so far out among the leaves that 
 it is hardly visible, but the lazy eowbird finds it, the polygamous 
 loafer. 
 
 FOX SPARROW. 
 
 Arriving at the Milwaukee station a few days ago to meet 
 a train, I learned that it was twenty minutes late, so I slipped 
 across the track to the island to see and hear. At once I heard 
 the drumming of a hairy woodpecker who had found a very re- 
 sonant limb and he was sounding his love tattoo to a maiden of 
 his kind who very soon came fluttering to him. I saw the newly 
 sprouting gooseberry bush that last year was the home of my 
 yellow warbler; I noted that the redwinged blackbird had not 
 yet returned to claim the little circle of marsh near by. A 
 grackle and his mate spread their keel tails and sailed away from 
 me with a murmur of disapproval. A flicker watched me sus- 
 spieiously from a rotten tree and countless English sparrows 
 fluttered busily about. Soon a bird song burst upon my ear — a 
 
62 BIRDS OF THE WEST 
 
 sparrow song I was sure. I stood in silence for a while fearing 
 to take a chance of missing it by intrusion. Presently I glanced 
 before me and there sat a beautiful fox sparrow. We looked 
 each other over, stared deep into each other's eyes. If he thought 
 as well of me as I did of him, he has been thinking of me almost 
 ever since. He was the singer of the wonderful song. 
 
 Just a little sparrow ! I wonder where he is to-night while the 
 snowy blizzard is raging. Poor little minstrel! Tucked away in 
 the hole of a fence post? Perhaps he turned his back upon the 
 storm and on swift wing is riding on its breast to southern sunny 
 fields. Perhaps bewildered and blinded he has crushed his little 
 life out against the tower of some tall building, or lies with broken 
 wing beneath a network of wires. 
 
 "There have been souls, 
 
 Children of heavenly song 
 
 That have been stayed in their wild dreamy flight 
 
 And fallen unseen, unknown 
 
 As silently 
 
 In the dark night. 
 
 Tet someone pities them 
 
 And someone loves 
 
 Them for the simple tribute that they bring 
 
 To Him who marketh 
 
 E'en the sparrow's fall 
 
 On broken wing. ' ' 
 
 He is less sociable than most of the social sparrow family, 
 yet he was in company with a flock of tree sparrows at the time I 
 saw him. I fear that you think ill of the sparrows because you 
 are so familiar with the little gamin of the streets but he is 
 quite alone in his unpopularity, as other members of his family 
 are entirely respectable. 
 
 I wanted to see the little fox sparrow get down upon the 
 ground and scratch for he doesn 't do it as other birds do with first 
 one foot and then the other but he digs in with both at once, 
 really gets there with both feet. 
 
 He is called also the foxy finch, not that he possesses any un- 
 usual shrewdness but just because he is the color of the red fox. 
 As a fact, I judge from the meek expression of his face that he 
 
BIRDS OP THE WEST 63 
 
 could easily be imposed upon. All he wants is to be left alone 
 while he helps the other sparrows to keep the weeds from posses- 
 sing the earth. 
 
 Just as I was about to start him from his perch, his mate 
 came flying to him and I fear that she whispered something about 
 me for they both flew hastily away. Then the whistle blew. 
 
 JUNCO. 
 
 These little "birds of a feather flock together" and are rare- 
 ly seen except in flocks for they go farther north to break up in- 
 to pairs for their nesting. They have a reputation for shyness, 
 yet they flit about the roadsides flying as though in fright, 
 in and out of the brush and the smaller trees. Many birds 
 like the meadow lark, the vesper sparrow and the junco 
 have two white feathers in their tails that are not visible 
 except in flight when they become quite conspicuous. Did you 
 ever hear the expression "showing the white feather" meaning to 
 turn your back and "light out"? I imagine that I have suggested 
 to you the origin of it. 
 
 Especially when the juncos wear their little black cowl they 
 look like the monks and nuns of bird land and their little backs 
 are just the color of the clouds on a winter's day and their 
 breasts the color of the snow. 
 
 If you would see them, you must look closely and watch for 
 the flash of their white feathers as they flit about you as though 
 you were a human hawk. You have doubless seen thousands of 
 them but have glanced at them only as you do at the sparrow 
 for which you have probably mistaken them. 
 
 They will soon take wings for a colder clime, to Manitoba or 
 somewhere across the Canadian border to build their nests around 
 the fallen trees, but when our summer friends, our fair weather 
 friends, have gone to their sunny winter homes, the tireless little 
 juncos will come to us again to spend the winter and gather 
 the weed seeds from our roadsides and, if very hungry, even the 
 crumbs from our doorsteps. 
 
 The notes of the juncos are as sweet as they can be. They 
 have a quality like that of the bluebirds, a sort of far away, al- 
 most ventriloqual note that suggests the dreariness of the winter 
 and early springtime. It is a whistle, a trill and a warble that 
 
64 BIRDS OP THE WEST 
 
 makes you feel that the bird is singing for its own delight and not 
 for yours, for if you come too near, the bushes will soon be un- 
 tenanted and the music stilled. 
 
 INDIGO BUNTING. 
 
 There are fortunately some birds that require only to be 
 seen to be identified. The indigo bird is one of them. You would 
 liever make a mistake in him, but his mate hasn't an indigo 
 feather. She's done in sepia and is an indigo bird only by courte- 
 sy. Her husband is the blue-feathered aristocrat and he's some- 
 thing of a snob too. As he is a cousin to the sparrows that are 
 such common birds, he no doubt feels that he is the swell member 
 of the family and looks down upon his relatives. 
 
 Nearly everyone that I have ever seen was posing upon a 
 telegraph or telephone wire. That is about as high as they ever 
 fly and that is higher than sparrows generally rise. 
 
 The male is a rather pretty singer but disappointing. He 
 starts out with his song as though he were going to make the 
 valleys and the woodland ring with his rapid warble and then 
 it frazzles out and fades away and you feel as though he thought 
 to himself ' ' Oh, what 's the use of singing to common people ! ' ' 
 He always acts about his singing as though he were just home 
 from conservatory and wanted to be coaxed. 
 
 Emerson says that the theory of compensation runs through 
 everything and it is true that while Nature is lavish enough with 
 her gifts she keeps a pretty nice balance after all. The birds 
 of brightest plimiage are rarely those of sweetest song. Tour 
 flicker with his fancy vest has a voice like an auctioneer and 
 your blue jay with his loud clothes has a gambler's voice as well. 
 The wood duck is probably the best dressed bird in the country, 
 but he has a poor ear and a poor voice for music. When it comes 
 to solo work with its tone placing and phrasings and tremulos 
 give us the brown thrasher or the plain gray catbird and for 
 choruses give us the blackbird. 
 
 The indigo bird seems to have a well trained voice. 
 
 He is one of the birds that make you feel that he is a long 
 way from home, for he is rare in Dakota and very unlike any 
 others of our birds. He really shows royal tropical colors and you. 
 
^awrt Mo#jjF>a|i- 
 
 RED-WINGED BLACKBIRD 
 (Upper Figure, Male; Lower Figure, Female) 
 Order — Passeres Family — IcTERio^t 
 
 Genus^AcELAius 
 
 Species — Fhceniceus 
 
BIRDS OF THE WEST 65 
 
 would almost suspect that he had escaped from the cage of the 
 King of the Isle of Spice. 
 
 I have always noticed him by a roadside and his nest is 
 always low rather than high up in the branches, and I have no 
 doubt he chooses such a place for his nest because his worst 
 enemies are the birds of prey. All of them except always the blue 
 jay, who is not really a bird of prey, but only a degenerate, spend 
 their time and build their nests away from the haunts of men. 
 Thus the little song birds frequent the thoroughfares. If we 
 could only get the butcher-bird to move to town, away would go 
 the English sparrows. However he comes to town only occasional- 
 ly but when he does he has a high old time cleaning up the spar- 
 rows. 
 
 CHEWINK. 
 
 In Connecticut where it is more common than in the west, 
 this was my favorite bird. As a child there were many fancies 
 that clung about the bird and it seemed to me that the "chewink" 
 was making love to the "towhee" for his mate, to a novice is an 
 entirely different bird. 
 
 Rarity makes almost anything a prize whether it be diamonds, 
 charity, books, sweetbreads or the rara avis. 
 
 Last summer I searched a long time for a nest. The birds 
 betrayed by their anxiety that it was near and it is a wonder that 
 the nest and its eggs were not crushed for it was on the ground 
 among the dry leaves that were in abundance in the little thick- 
 et. In fact it was made of them. If it had been stepped upon, 
 several cowbird eggs would have disappeared too, for the little 
 nest was packed full of the eggs of both birds. As it was, the 
 cowbird eggs disappeared mysteriously and the chewink was the 
 gainer by my visit. 
 
 There is always a special fascination for the birds among 
 whom the females are wholly different from the males as is the 
 case with the chewink, the indigo bird, the grosbeak, the red- 
 start, the oriole, the goldfinch and most of our very conspicuous 
 birds, and there is a reason or an instinct in nature for the female 
 to be less conspicuous, for they spend so much time upon their 
 nests that their enemies have a far better chance to detect and 
 secure them. 
 
 5 ,,....-.-. 
 
66 BIRDS OF THE WEST 
 
 If the man behind the gun had been a part of nature's plan 
 I have no doubt that all birds would have had more somber colors. 
 What a life it must be to be in the enemy 's country all the time ! 
 
 By the way, the chewink is the bird that Thomas Jefferson 
 discovered upon his farm and became so much interested in. 
 He wrote with great interest to the scientists of his time about it 
 and it became his special favorite. 
 
 ROSE-BREASTED GROSBEAK. 
 
 In a little while, as soon as the buds have burst upon the 
 maple trees, you will be startled at the song of the grosbeak which 
 will faU upon your ear with an amazing sweetness. You will 
 never forget the day. That song is as full of music as its little 
 heart is full of love. 
 
 FoUow the song and you will find it coming from one of the 
 prettiest birds that ever spread a wing. If you say "Handsome 
 is that handsome does", and "Is not the blue jay pretty and 
 pretty bad too?" the answer is "The grosbeak is pretty and pretty 
 good too". 
 
 As he sits high up in the tree-top trying to fill the world 
 with music, he looks as though his throat had burst from the full- 
 ness of his song and his heart's blood had stained his throbbing 
 breast. Not so with his modest mate. Never a red feather in 
 her trousseau, just a brown and yellow to catch her feUow. 
 
 As though it were not enough to be pretty and to sing sweet- 
 ly, the grosbeak is handy about the house. He helps make up the 
 nest. He helps to get dinner. He even does his share in the 
 nursery, sitting part of the time upon the eggs or singing mamma 
 and babies to sleep in their little cradle of straw. 
 
 Yes, even at midnight when the reflected light of the rounded 
 moon sheds a radiance upon his cradled loved ones, he will watch 
 above them and warble to the night the echo of his day-song. If 
 you must shoot him, shoot him then. 
 
 He has been called the potato-bug bird because of his diet, 
 however, his gross beak tells us that he cracks nuts and seeds for 
 food as well. 
 
 He may be plentiful in some localities but it is doubtful, 
 for millinery "has marked him for her own" and "Death loves 
 a shining mark". His presence in gardens creates the farmer's 
 
BIRDS OF THE WEST 67 
 
 suspicion but he would no more eat his filthy garden truck than 
 he would sing rag-time. 
 
 It is wrong to charge too much against the milliners. Let it 
 be said that the slaughter of birds for hats is ceasing, but the 
 reports of the National association show that it has not wholly 
 ceased. It will cease when high-minded women refuse to wear 
 as badges of cruelty the nuptial plumes of the bride-grooms of 
 the air. 
 
 GOLDFINCH. 
 
 They say that all blackberries are red when they are green, 
 so too, many members of the blackbird family are without black 
 plumage. Neither is every bird a yellowbird that is yellow. 
 
 You should have no trouble in knowing the goldfinch when 
 you see him for he wears a golden jacket with black sleeves and a 
 tiny black cap. Little Mrs. Finch goes around bareheaded like 
 all the girls and is very modest in her dress. 
 
 In birdland you know, the boys dress better than the girls. 
 Domestication seems to upset every thing. And why shouldn't 
 they dress better? In birdland the boys are always the ones 
 that propose and they must look their best and they always get 
 a nice new spring suit in preparation for their May or June wed- 
 dings. You ask if it is not necessary for the girls to dress prettily 
 to attract them? Oh, no. They all get married anywaJ^ There 
 are no such things as bachelors and old maids among them. Alas ! 
 There are widows, and widowers and very many little orphans 
 because boys and men and women and girls are not all dead yet. 
 It is not a part of Nature's plan by any means. 
 
 You will find goldfinches in flocks except during the short 
 nesting season, for they are regular little gypsies. You can 
 never tell when you will see them, the little nomads! Last Decem- 
 ber a flock of them hung around Pierre for a few days even while 
 the snow was on the ground. That made no difference for they 
 wallowed in it or clung to the sides of weeds to gather their 
 favorite seeds. 
 
 They are the greatest little bathers you ever saw. After a 
 rain, sometime, you may see a puddle of water with its outer 
 edge just trimmed with yellow and black and a real wreath of 
 spray will enclose it. They will come and go, rising and dipping. 
 
BIRDS OP THE WEST 
 
 dipping and rising and chirping a succession of sweet little notes 
 aU tuned to your ear and to your heart. 
 
 They brood in August. Why? Because the prickly weeds 
 don't have their seeds ready for the goldfinch babies until then. 
 And they must feed them on thistle seeds and they must line 
 their little nests with thistle down, the very soul and spirit of 
 the flowers. 
 
Swallows, 
 
 Order, Passeres. 
 Family, llirundinidue. 
 
 Family Characteristics: Five and one-half to seven and one-half 
 inches long. Wide wing-spread. Nearly always seen on the wing. 
 Live in colonies and twitter rather than sing. From dark gray to 
 purplish black above with breasts from white to buff. 
 
 They live on mosquitoes, moths and insects of nearly all varieties 
 and work without ceasing. No birds can be of more value. They 
 are real pest-destroyers. 
 
 613. BARN SWALLOW. Hirundo erythrogastra. Six and one- 
 half inches long. Blue-black above, russet beneah. Large wing- 
 spread. Forked tail. Very common. Nests in barns and under 
 bridges. 
 
 611. PURPLE MARTIN. (A swallow.) Progne suUs. Seven and 
 one half inches long. Male black with purple luster. Wings longer 
 than tail. Tail forked. Female gray beneath and faded above. Seen 
 in town where it nests in boxes or under cornices. 
 
 612. EAVES SWALLOW. (Cliff Swallow.) PetrocheUdon luni- 
 frons. Length of English sparrow. Wide wing-spread. Bluish-drab 
 above. An inconspicuous gray crescent about the neck. Soiled white 
 benieath. Best identified by gourd-shaped, mud nests built under the 
 eaves of barns or on the sides of cliffs. Tail without forks. 
 
 616. BANK SWALLOW. Riparia riparia. Somewhat shorter 
 than the English sparrow. Its wide wing-spread makes it look larger 
 than it is. Gray above shaded to brown. White below. Tail not 
 swallow-tailed. Nests in holes dug in sand banks and railroad cuts. 
 
 614. TREE SWALLOW. Tachycineta Ucolor. Nearly English 
 sparrow length. Wide wing-spread. Bluish-green reflections above, 
 white beneath. Tail slightly forked. Nests in hollow trees when it 
 can and, therefore, is rare on the prairies. 
 
 CHIMNEY SWALLOW. This is not a swallow but a member of 
 the swift family. 
 
70 BIRDS OF THE WEST 
 
 BARN SWALLOW. 
 
 "One swallow does not make a summer", but he does what 
 he can, for when he begins his "twitteriug from the straw-built 
 shed", you may know that summer is in the making. You can 
 tell him by his bluish broadcloth coat with its swallow-tails and 
 his russet colored velvet vest which he never forgets to wear. As 
 usual in bird-land the ladies are more quietly dressed than their 
 husbands, so I am not describing them in these articles, leav- 
 ing you to judge them by the company they keep. 
 
 'i'he hrst thing that you will notice about the barn swallow 
 will be his poetry oi motion. With light body and large wing- 
 spread, he can dart and skun and circle as though he possessed a 
 magic charm that bamed gravitation, i'or miles he will circle 
 about you as you drive along the country roads, keeping his 
 mouth wide open to gather m the tlies that gather about your 
 horses. I>id you ever see them as they glide above the sui'face 
 of a quiet pond, dippmg lightly into the water and setting in 
 motion the ever widenmg circles? There is no prettier sight. 
 
 Whoever called this little hycatching swallow a bird of evil 
 omen was either wise or foolish ; foolish if he knew no better, wise 
 if he was the farmer who iirst told it to some mischievous boys to 
 keep them from killing his swallows for they are birds of value 
 to the farmer and add much fat and contentment to the poor 
 fly-bitten cattle. 
 
 Do not mistake them for the eaves swallows that have taken 
 the eaves of the barn for the settlement of their colony and peek 
 at you from the tiny holes in their gourd-shaped nests of mud. 
 You must go inside the barn or out under the shed to find the 
 feather-lined home of the barn swallow. Both nests are made of 
 pellets of mud mingled with straw, but the barn swallow as he 
 lives under shelter makes no roof to his house. You can hardly 
 tell by looking at the long, thin-shelled, lightly spotted eggs, what 
 kind of swallows will some out of them, they are so nearly alike, 
 but it makes little difference anyway. They will catch about the 
 same number of mosquitos for you. 
 
BIRDS OP THE WEST 71 
 
 PURPLE MARTIN— (A SWALLOW.) 
 
 As you are walking up the main street of almost any town 
 in the state, your ear will catch the conversation of a little colony 
 of martins. "Every interpretation of their thought is a melody. 
 Their household words are songs." 
 
 Glancing upward to the telephone wire you will very likely 
 see them perching upon it, the males so deep a purple that they 
 are almost black. 
 
 They will not rest there long for they spend most of their 
 time upon the wing and if you will watch them you will soon see 
 that they have chosen for a home a place within the ridge of a 
 store building which they enter at a knot hole or by an opening- 
 made by the weather-warped boards. 
 
 There was a time when a little birdhouse placed upon a pole 
 would bring blue birds or martins to you in numbers, but now 
 the English sparrow exercises his squatter right, and while either 
 bird can whip tiie sparrow, he doesn't care for the job of makmg 
 that his exclusive occupation, so he moves on rather than be con- 
 stantly annoyed. 
 
 The purple martin is one of the birds that like the passenger 
 pigeon has suffered a frightful decrease in numbers withm the 
 last decade. The birds that live in colonies are the ones that 
 suffer most. 
 
 "To kill two birds with one stone" is fascinating and to many 
 people it is bliss to shoot into a colony of birds and cover the ground 
 with the dead and dying. Now and then a fellow will do it but he 
 is the one who fishes with a seine. It takes only half as many 
 letters to spell his name as it does to spell martin. 
 
 When the boU-weevU scared the cotton planters until they 
 feared that the cotton plant would perish from the earth, the 
 martin was one of the birds that went to the rescue, for like all 
 the swallows he is fond of flying insects. Probably there are no 
 birds of greater value than those of the swallow family, and if 
 any man feels that he must shoot a martin, let him do it on the 
 wing for the martin is sportsmanlike enough to take its own game 
 that way. 
 
72 BIRDS OF THE WEST 
 
 BANK SWALLOW. 
 
 Perfect little darters and skimmers through the air, they 
 seem to be letting the wind toss them about and play with them 
 while they abandon themselves to the fun of it, yet they are 
 gathering a good square meal of flying insects. 
 
 They have learned the protective value of digging little holes 
 in the side of a sand bank where hardly anything can reach them 
 but feathered enemies and if they are larger than the swallows 
 they will find great difficulty ia entering the front door of the 
 little cave-dweller's home. 
 
 The inevitable English sparrows make good use of these 
 cyclone cellars in bad weather and often make their winter homes 
 within them. At the remote end of each cave, which is usually 
 the depth of an arm 's length, they place a bit of hay and swallow- 
 like line the nest with a liberal supply of feathers. Their eggs 
 are white, very thin shelled as are those of all swallows, and the 
 swallow crop is a pretty sure one. 
 
 The swallows are communistic and you will find colonies of 
 them in railroad cuts, in sand banks and in the sides of cliffs. 
 Certainly he has the best of the others of his kin in respect of 
 his nesting but they are nearer than he is to their food supply for 
 they keep closer to the cattle sheds, but what to a swallow is the 
 flight of a mile? 
 
 If science were to give medals to the birds that live 
 "For the heaven that smiles above them 
 And the good that they can do" 
 
 I have no doubt that the little swallows would each wear a gold 
 medal about his pretty throat. The boll-weevil, the dreaded 
 stegomyia and others of his like find in the swallows their im- 
 placable foes. Already the cry has come from the south "Save 
 the swallows. 
 
Waxwings. 
 
 Order, Passeres. 
 Family, Ampelidae. 
 
 619. CEDAR WAXWING. Ampelis cedrorum. Length seven 
 inches. Brown above. Crested. Breast yellowish-brown. Red spots 
 on wings resembling wax. Black band sieparating hat from jacket. Yel- 
 low band across end of tail feathers. 
 
 CEDAR WAXWING. 
 
 Very much of a globe-trotter is this very pretty bird with 
 his brown panne-velvet jacket and crested hat to match. The 
 most sociable of birds, he travels in such large flocks that the 
 supply of worms, bugs and berries upon which he feeds is soon 
 exhausted in a given neighborhood, when he moves on. He is 
 of an exclusive family, only three varieties having been found, 
 two in America, the third in Japan and they look more like Jap- 
 anese than they do like American birds. The name is given them 
 because their wings have small red spots that look as though 
 melted wax had been dropped upon them. 
 
 They have society appetities and perfect table manners and 
 when you see a dozen of them sitting upon a limb do not be 
 surprised if another should suddenly arrive and taking his place 
 quietly at the end of the limb, offer a choice worm to his nearest 
 friend with a soft remark in an undertone. Tou will probably 
 not understand the remark but doubtless it was "After you, 
 Alphonse", or something of the kind. Then Alphonse will pass 
 it along to Gaston and Gaston to Leon and so on, until it has been 
 passed to the end of the table and returned, when it is very daintily 
 eaten by the original giver. They are so fond of juniper berries 
 even in a state of decomposition that there is a suspicion that 
 they like an after-dinner cordial. 
 
 When you see the top of a tree just loaded with them, you will 
 find here and there a lonely outpost in adjoining trees and if 
 there is cause for alarm, the colony will rise and adjourn in cir- 
 cliag flight to a place of greater safety. 
 
74 BIRDS OP THE WEST 
 
 As they are so fond of evergreen trees, they are not of wide 
 distribution and are not generally regarded as common in this 
 section, but, in fact, there are very many of them as you will find 
 out after identifying your first one. 
 
 They nest late in the year, probably because they wait till 
 the berries are ripe, as it must be quite a job for waxwings to 
 feed their young and they certainly must hate to take a chance 
 of soiling their pretty clothes by doing such work. Their nests 
 are not very well made and into all that I have ever seen they had 
 woven some white wrapping twine. During the period of nest- 
 ing they are very lonesome and spend much of the time billing 
 and kissing each other. 
 
Shrikes. 
 
 Order, Passeres. 
 Family, Laniidae. 
 
 621. NORTHERN SHRIKE. Lanius horealis. Robin size and 
 larger than its relative, the loggerhead. Slate color above and light 
 slate color beneath. Wings and tail black with a few white feathers. 
 Black patch runs horizontally backward from bill beyond the eye. 
 Slightly curved beak. 
 
 622. LOGGERHEAD SHRIKE. Lanius ludovicianus. Nine inches 
 long. Bird mostly gray except wings, tail and cheeks, which are black. 
 White feathers in tail. Bill hooked. Very common in Black Hills. 
 
 LOGGERHEAD SHRIKE. 
 
 Sitting on his lookout, the dead limb of a tree that overlooks 
 an open space where the smallest birds have their feeding grounds, 
 there is a cannibalistic villian waiting and silently plotting a 
 multitude of crimes. Presently you will see him swoop down 
 upon them and such a scattering you never saw in your life. No 
 human beings ever fled before a cyclone with greater fear than 
 do the little birds at the approach of this outlaw, for some one of 
 them loses its life and its body is borne in the butcher's beak and 
 hung upon a thorn or upon the barb of a wire fence as a butcher 
 hangs his beef. 
 
 I have seen that easy downward glide with hardly the move- 
 ment of a wing and with the speed of a ski-jumper at the foot 
 of his slide, and it seemed hardly possible that it ended in mur- 
 der for it was the very poetry of motion. 
 
 Have you not seen little birds hanging on a barb? Perhaps 
 you have seen the little gopher dangling from a wire fence and 
 thought that the small boy had put him there. No, it was the 
 loggerhead shrike. And why does he hang them there? Because 
 he kills many times as much as he can eat. He just hungers 
 and thirsts for bird blood. 
 
76 BIRDS OF THE WEST 
 
 Why is it, do you think, that a bird like the shrike, that can 
 kill almost anything that flies, if it is not so very much bigger 
 than he is, that lays four eggs or more and builds his nest out of 
 reach of snakes, still remains a rare bird? It must have an 
 enemy somewhere. While in the country last summer I came 
 upon a shrike's nest and its four eggs were broken as though a 
 tiny biU had just tapped them. Can it be possible that the smaller 
 birds thus keep down their enemies? What a daring deed for a 
 little bird ! He was the David of his race. 
 
 There is just one use to which this bird could be put. If 
 he would come to town and kill English sparrows, he would be 
 worth while, not that the killing of sparrows is to be especially 
 commended, but we can spare them best and they are like the Chi- 
 nese ; the loss of a few of them would not put the race in danger 
 of extermination. 
 
Vireos, 
 
 Order, Passeres. 
 Family, Vireonidae. 
 
 Family Characteristics: Mostly heard from the foliage of trees 
 where they feed. Though common, they are rarely seen. Small birds 
 about the size of sparrows, but more suggestive of the warblers. Their 
 plumage is a combination of yellow, drab, gray and white. They live 
 almost entirely on bugs and Insects which they find on trees. 
 
 624. RED-EYED VIREO. Vireo oUvaceus. Slightly longer than 
 the English sparrow. Called "Teacher" because of Its song. Light 
 olive above, white below. Long, white mark over its eyes. Keeps well 
 in hiding among the tree-leaves. Eyes red. Points light yellow. 
 
 627. WARBLING VIREO. Yireo Oilvus. Nearly an Inch shorter 
 than the English sparrow. Habits similar to those of the red-eyed 
 vireo. Olive-gray above, yellowish-white below. Sides of breast and 
 shoulders pale yellow. White line through the eye. 
 
 6 2 6. PHILADELPHIA VIREO. Vireo PMladelpUcus. Over an 
 inch shorter than the English sparrow. Olive above, lighter on crown. 
 Yellow below. White line over the eye. 
 
 631. WHITE-EYED VIREO. Vireo noveioracensis. Nearly an 
 inch shorter than the English sparrow. Olive above, white below. 
 Sides yellowish. White wing-bars. A yellow line around its white 
 eyes identify it. 
 
Warblers. 
 
 Order, Pusseres. 
 Family, Mniotiltidae. 
 
 Family Characteristics: Smaller than English sparrow. So-called 
 wild canary is a type. Color yellow and olive as a rule. Restless and 
 active. 
 
 They live mainly on small insects which they find on trees and 
 shrubs and on the seeds of noxious weeds. 
 
 652. YELLOW WARBLER. Dendroica aestiva. Five inches long. 
 Light olive above. Light yellow beneath. Wings and tail darker and 
 edged with brown. 
 
 655. MYRTLE WARBLER. Dendroica coronata. A little shorter 
 than the English sparrow. Blue back. White throat. More or less 
 black streaks on otherwise dull white breast. Distinguishing marks 
 are yellow patches on head, each side of breast and lower back. Wings 
 lightly barred with white. 
 
 687. REDSTART. Setophaga ruticUla. The size of the yellow- 
 bird. Mostly black above. Breast white and orange. Tail orange 
 and black. Female lemon color where male is orange. 
 
 6 81a. NORTHERN YELLOWTHROAT. Geothylpis tricTias occiden- 
 talis. Five inches long. Olive green above. Yellow beneath, deepest 
 on throat. With a black mask. 
 
 662. BLACKBURNIAN WARBLER. Dendroica Blachhurniae. 
 Warbler size. Throat orange. Head orange and black, yellow and 
 white beneath. Points black with some white. 
 
 654. BLACK-THROATED BLUE WARBLER. Dendroica caeru- 
 lescens. Warbler size. Throat black, white beneath. Slaty-blue above. 
 White spots on wings and tail. 
 
BIRDS OF THE WEST 79 
 
 648. PARULA WARBLER. Compsothylpis Americana. Warbler 
 size. Slaty-blue above with a light olivie patch on the back. Yellow 
 below growing lighter towards tail. Wings have white spots. 
 
 673. PRAIRIE WARBLER. Dendroica discolor. Warbler size. 
 Olive above, spotted with red. Yellow beneath. Wings barred with 
 yellow. Sides black, starting from eye. 
 
 636. BLACK AND WHITE CREEPING WARBLER. Mniotilta 
 varia. Warbler size. Black and white stripes above. White leye-ring. 
 Black and white stripes beneath. Points faded black. Creeps about 
 trees much as woodpeckers do. 
 
 674. OVENBIRD. Seiurus aurocapillus. See thrushes. Actually 
 a warbler, but resembles thrushes more. 
 
 661. BLACK POLL WARBLER. Dendroica striata. Warbler 
 size. Black crown. Olive and black above, lighter towards tail. White 
 with black stripes below. 
 
 YELLOW WARBLER. 
 
 If you see a bird a little smaller than the English sparrow, 
 trimmer, neater and better dressed, with olive coat and yellow 
 vest, no matter what stripes, dots, collars and neckties he may 
 wear, you are quite safe in calling it a warbler. 
 
 Sparrow, swallow, finch, thrush and many other names are 
 like Smith, Jones, Brown and Robinson, the names of families, 
 and to merely call a bird a warbler is not enough to mark him. 
 
 The month of May is the warbler's month and so is Septem- 
 ber, for in those months we see most of them in migration. Active 
 and nervous little birds, they flit about the tips of the branches 
 up-side-down or down-side-up, restlessly searching for the tiny 
 eggs, bugs or seeds upon which they live. 
 
 A good type is the yellow warbler, the sprite that many of 
 you know as the wild canary. It is a dear little bird and I will 
 tell you some of its good qualities. It is pretty, industrious and 
 domestic. It sings sweetly, builds skillfully and makes the 
 world better for having lived. What more could you ask of a 
 little bird? 
 
 All birds have strong likes and dislikes. Each tree-nesting 
 bird has its favorite tree. The waxwing loves the cedar ; the cross- 
 bill, the pine; the flicker, the chestnut or the apple in the east, 
 the Cottonwood in the west; the oriole loves the ehn; the yellow 
 warbler, well, it likes the one that the Irishman wanted to be 
 
 ,^'jm\m of OmithoiogJ 
 ill Sapsucker Woods 
 e9W%ll University 
 Wf.m.. New York l^^ 
 
80 BIRDS OF THE WEST 
 
 hanged upon when given his choice of trees, the gooseberry bush. 
 Its second choice is the willow. 
 
 I will tell you of a very clever act of the yellow warbler, leav- 
 ing it to Burroughs and to Seton whether it is an act of reason 
 or of instinct. When the parasitic cowbird lays its egg in a yellow 
 warbler's nest, the warbler builds a false bottom over it and runs 
 the side walls up so as to make a second nest above for its own 
 egg, thus refusing to make its home an asylum for cowbirds. 
 
 It is a wonderful nest that it builds and must be seen to be 
 appreciated. It is made of the silver-colored liber of plants, the 
 silk of caterpillars, tiny bits of wool and fern down. What a 
 warm little nest it must be ! The yellow warbler raises but one 
 family a year and it must do it very carefully. 
 
 MYRTLE WARBLER. 
 
 It is always a pleasure to find one of the warblers, especially 
 one that is new to us. The myrtle warbler, however, is one of our 
 commonest visitants but is always of interest to a bird-lover. 
 They never reveal themselves to you at a single glance for they 
 are so very restless that there is ever something new for you, 
 though you have known them for years. 
 
 A flock of at least a dozen of the myrtle birds spent a morn- 
 ing in one of my trees where, a few days before, the kinglets 
 made merry with the bugs. They were very familiar, probably 
 because they were finding a royal feast. 
 
 It is too bad that some of our warblers cannot be renamed. 
 The redstart for example has a German name that means "red- 
 taU." but redstarts do not have red tails. They are either or- 
 ange or lemon. Probably they were called that for the same rea- 
 son that a grove (lucus) in Latin was named from the Latin 
 word lux, meaning light, because there is little light in a grove. 
 
 The Blackburnian warbler, that pretty little bunch of flame, 
 was named after Blackburn, whoever he was. Very likely he was 
 the first man to kill one. 
 
 The worm-eating warbler has a repulsive name and it means 
 little more than to speak of the seed-eating sparrow or an insect- 
 eating flycatcher. 
 
 The myrtle warbler is said to eat the berries of the myrtle, 
 hence his name. Though a very small part of his diet is myrtle 
 
ROSE-BREASTED GROSBEAK 
 (Upper Figure, Male: Lowhr Figure, Femat-e) 
 
 Order — Passkkes 
 Genus— Zamelodia 
 
 Family — -Fki ngi lli D.t 
 Species — Ludoviciana 
 
BIRDS OP THE WEST 81 
 
 berries, yet the name is a very pretty one and far better than most 
 ^f them. 
 
 If you wish to see the warblers you may begin your search, 
 for May is their month and most of them will be gone ere long 
 across the Canadian border. Look for them busily engaged in 
 the small branches of the trees and shrubs, looking for tiny in- 
 sects and their eggs. No birds are as well groomed. They are 
 clean and neat all the time with every feather in place upon 
 their snug little bodies. Of their economic and aesthetic value 
 there can be no doubt and when it comes to music — why, they are 
 warblers. 
 
 REDSTART. 
 
 This is one of the dearest little birds and he dresses like a little 
 child when he is going to speak a piece and he is just as conscious 
 of the fact that he holds the center of the stage. You can ap- 
 proach him very closely when he will spread out his tiny wings, flut- 
 ter them a second and then dart out into the air to turn a somer- 
 sault for you. Sailing back to his perch he will glance at you 
 as much as to say "How is that for high?" Again and again he 
 will repeat the performance, snapping up a tiny fly each time 
 very much as the fly-cathers do. 
 
 The man who named him was color-blind if he really meant 
 what he said, for redstart means redtail and that is precisely 
 what the little bird has not. Yet these homely names given to the 
 birds, though they are so often wrong give them a touch of 
 familiarity that their Latin names do not. For example ' ' Setophaga 
 ruticilla" doesn't mean as much to us as redstart. 
 
 No doubt the little fellow's tail should receive recognition, 
 not because of its color, but because he is so proud of it. He will 
 spread it out like a fan and show as much pride in it as a woman 
 in the train of her party gown. You will recognize him at once 
 as a warbler but you may well depend upon his somersault as 
 the surest means of identification. 
 
 I wonder if anyone lives who can identify all the warblers 
 at a glance? I should like to see his picture. 
 
82 BIRDS OP THE WEST 
 
 NORTHERN TELLOWTHROAT. 
 
 The greatest pleasure that comes from bird study is the con- 
 stant surprise that awaits you. I was once studying a cat bird 
 that evidently thought that I was on forbidden ground and was 
 doing his best to frighten me away, when I literally felt the 
 presence of a then invisible spectator. Presently I glanced down 
 at the root of the willowy underbrush before me and saw a pair 
 of bright eyes no bigger than tiny beads fastened upon me. I 
 had never seen the little bird before and it seemed at first as 
 though he were a little outlaw, for across his eyes he wore a 
 black mask, which, however, did not conceal his look of suspi- 
 cion. He was only a little detective, hiding there to see what I 
 was doing. As soon as he saw that I had discovered him, he darted 
 away, but not very far, so I followed him, only to find that he 
 was leading me by easy stages away from his sphere of living. 
 After I had made my notes of his personal appearance I retired, 
 thinking that perhaps he would cease his orders for me to ''quit' 
 quit! quit!" and would give vent to his joy at my departure. I 
 was soon rewarded by his joyous song, "Witchity, witchity, 
 witchity, " which is now all that I need to hear, that I may know 
 that there is a northern yellowthroat nearby. Either his little 
 black mask or his buoyant song will serve to tell him from the 
 large family of warblers that come north during the month of 
 May. I think it is always hard for a beginner to tell the warblers 
 apart and the sparrows, too. There are so many kinds and they 
 are all so much alike. It is nearly always easy to say "That is 
 a warbler" or "That is a sparrow," but it is not so easy to tell 
 just which sparrow or warbler it is. You will know the yellow- 
 throat at once, for he has all the delicacy and refinement of the 
 warbler family. He is neat and aristocratic, active, mostly yellow 
 and wholly lovable. The sparrows are usually quite plain, com- 
 mon and democratic and just as lovable, excepting always, our 
 English cousins, the little tyrants. 
 
 The northern yellowthroat is the little bird that, in the east 
 where the skunk cabbage grows, actually builds his nest in the 
 very heart of it, for its enemies would hardly care to approach 
 that horrid weed. Some have claimed that the yellowthroat can- 
 not smell, but it is safer, I think, to say that the very alert little 
 
BIRDS OF THE WEST 
 
 83 
 
 fellow has an extra sense rather than one less than the other 
 birds. He knows the value of good protection and he knows that 
 one can get used to almost anything. His other name is the black- 
 masked ground warbler — an awfully big name for such a little 
 bird. 
 
Mockingbirds, 
 
 Order, Passeres. 
 Family, Miminae. 
 
 Family Characteristics; Long tailed, slender, graceful birds, a 
 little smaller than a robin. Excellent mimics o£ other birds. Bush- 
 nesters. They eat worms and insects and aside from being a delight 
 to the eye and ear, they are of great value to the horticulturalist. 
 
 703a. MOCKING BIRD. Mivius polyglottos leucopterus. Nine 
 and one-half inches long. Robin ten inches. Drab above, light drab 
 below. Irregularly marked with brown and white. Best identified 
 by its song which is imitative of all birds. 
 
 7 5. BROWN THRASHER. Toxostoma riifum. About the size 
 of the robin but tail longer by an inch. Bright cinnamon color above. 
 Breast white with many brown arrow-shaped spots. Eyes yellow. 
 
 704. CATBIRD. Oaleoscoptes carolinensis. Nine inches long. 
 Very gray bird. Top of head black. Chestnut feathers under tail. 
 
 BROWN THRASHER. 
 
 The only bird that I have ever placed in captivity was a 
 brown thrasher. He had never done me wrong, nor had he 
 wronged another, for I took him from his mother's nest against 
 her protest, which although in bird language was perfectly intel- 
 ligible. I imprisoned him because he was pretty and would sing. 
 When he sang his first song, I was surprised at the sorrowful 
 strain. It was not like the song of the wild bird which is the very 
 ecstasy of music. In a short time he became so gentle that I let 
 him out of his cage and at night he always returned to his perch 
 for sleep. He often sang in his sleep, dreaming no doubt that he 
 was free. Finally I ventured to hang the cage out of doors so 
 that he might have a little more of freedom. For a while he 
 returned to his cage at night but at last he took wings. I feared 
 that he had met the enemy and was theirs, for many a cat had 
 looked at him with a long, lingering look. The following spring 
 
BIRDS OF THE WEST ' 85 
 
 a brown thrasher came to my doorstep and ate some egg crumbs 
 that I threw to him. I believe it was Dick. 
 
 The mocking-bird, the cat bird and the brown thrasher are the 
 birds that give us the greatest variety of songs, but they are very 
 shy and keep a distance from the abodes of men. If man were 
 gentler with them, they would soon trust him. Birds are not 
 afraid of horses and cows. You may ride a horse almost into a 
 flock of geese, the wariest of birds.' I once saw a humming bird 
 take nectar from the flowers in the hand of a friend. 
 
 Perhaps it is not wrong to keep canary birds in cages. They 
 have been reared in captivity and like Byron's prisoner of 
 Chillon may have lost the love of liberty. Perhaps to them 
 "Stone walls do not a prison make 
 
 Nor iron bars a cell — " 
 for their song seems as buoyant as you could wish. 
 
 The four pretty finely dotted brown eggs in the nest nicely 
 wrought of roots, grass and fibre is a mighty tempting thing to 
 leave alone and the sparkling yellow eye of the frightened mother 
 as you come upon her will help you on your way. Then they will 
 have a chance to go on digging for worms in your garden or your 
 lawn. They will charge you nothing for their services for the 
 only bill that they present they use for digging. 
 
 CATBIRD. 
 
 Some men go through the world on the theory that it is al- 
 ways best to avoid trouble either by never troubling trouble 
 till trouble troubles them, or by keeping so far in the background 
 that they are seldom seen, and some fight their way through the 
 world along the line of greatest resistance or try to make good by 
 running a bluff. It is just the same with birds. Our catbird is 
 not much afraid of snakes for her nest is not on the ground. She 
 is afraid mostly of other birds and thinks that a good cold bluff 
 is her best resource. When an enemy approaches she will imitate 
 a cat as well as she can by ruffling up her maltose feathers to make 
 herself look as large as possible and letting out a series of cat-calls. 
 
 Tabby probably learned to hiss from hearing a snake and if 
 you should see a 'wild goose raise its long neck above the rushes 
 near the edge of a pond and hear the hissings that it will make at 
 you, you would be doing well if you did not feel that creepy 
 
BIRDS OF THE WEST 
 
 sensation that possesses you when you just miss stepping on a 
 snake. 
 
 The catbird is not generally liked because it is far easier in 
 this world to notice bad qualities than good ones. Some one has 
 called him the Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde among birds. Surely 
 there is no neater, trimmer or more graceful bird while he is 
 singing one of the sweetest of bird songs, but when he flattens him- 
 self out in fear or anger and ruffles up his feathers and hisses 
 his resentment at you he is very far from being a beauty. 
 
 If ever a bird lays a pretty egg it is the lady catbird. It 
 is an intense green and four of them are laid in a neat nest made 
 of fine roots and trimmed on the outside with little strips of 
 grapevine bark. As the material indicates, it will be found most 
 often near swamps or on the edge of ponds and rivers. 
 
 He is the American mockingbird unless the brown thrasher 
 has won the honor. The votes are not all counted yet. I am al- 
 most tempted to call him my favorite bird, for while he is called 
 the "Mr. Hyde" of bird life he is not really so. He assumes 
 that part only to make his enemies think that he is tough and that 
 they had better move on. As soon as they are gone, he comes 
 off his perch like a gentleman, smoothes down his pretty gray 
 suit, and pours out his soul in a paeon of great joy. 
 
 Like nearly all of the birds the catbird is a friend of man, 
 and does far more good than harm. I think the only charge ever 
 preferred against him is that he likes an occasional cherry, but 
 he doesn't have to have it stained with coal-tar dye to allure him 
 nor must he have one with every potion. As a friend of mine said 
 to me the other day. "If the birds eat more of my cherries than 
 I can spare, I will plant more cherry trees." Why shouldn't 
 man do that much for the birds? If he doesn't w^ant to lose 
 his cherries let him plant mulberry trees. The birds like mul- 
 berries better and mulberries look more like caterpillars anyway. 
 
Wrens. 
 
 Order, Passeres. 
 Family, Troglodytidae. 
 
 Family Characteristics: Brownish-gray color. Small size. Rapid 
 wing-motion in flight. Nervous and active. Song bubbling over. Often 
 throw their tails backward. 
 
 Destroyers of ants and their eggs as well as all varieties of small 
 insects. 
 
 721. HOUSE WREN. Troglodytes Aedon. Pour and one-halt 
 inches long. Brownish-gray above. Dusky white breast. 
 
 722. WINTER WREN. Troglodytes hiemalis. Four and one- 
 fourth inches long. Light brown. Finely barred above and below. Car- 
 ries tail over his back most of the time. Bubbling songster. 
 
 7 24. SHORT-BILLED MARSH WREN. Gistothorus stellaris. Four 
 inches long. Brown above, white below. Wings and tail lighter and 
 barred. Shy, quick and nervous. Builds several nests among reeds. 
 
 725. LONG-BILLED MARSH WREN. Gistothorus palustris. Simi- 
 lar to short-billed variety, but an inch longer and has a whitish line 
 above the eye. 
 
 HOUSE WREN. 
 
 "When you see a gingery little cinnamon-gray bird with his 
 tail straight up and hear his rippling, bubbling song, you had 
 better make your first guess "a wren." When you hear this 
 little singer you will not be prepared to dispute the fellow who 
 says that he can pour a quart of water out of a pint bottle. 
 
 A little Jewish boy in speaking of a new suit that he was 
 wearing, held his coat sleeve up to me and exhibiting a well- con- 
 cealed green thread in an otherwise gray suit, said "See, it has 
 an inwizzable stripe." So the little wren has many fine in- 
 wizzable bars across his back, wings and tail. 
 
 If you would like to see a family of these little bits of ambi- 
 tion raised right at your very door, put up a little bird-box right 
 
BIRDS OF THE WEST 
 
 away. Cut the liole in the box the size of a silver quarter to keep 
 the sparrows out. Put up two boxes if you have time, for they 
 will enjoy making use of both of them if not otherwise occupied. 
 Tou will enjoy watching them work. Tou will see them put in 
 sticks that you would never think they could handle and you will 
 find this very impatient bird a bird of remarkable perseverance. 
 Then when they have carried in enough sticks and straws and 
 what-not, they'll lay a feather bed on top of them and Jennie 
 will lay from six to nine tiny, finely dotted pink eggs and if you 
 go near the home then, you'll get an awful scolding for Jennie 
 is just a bit shrewish. When the stork finally lands, the real 
 work begins and woe to the ant colony that happens to be near 
 for it had better hide those eggs and woe to all other tiny living 
 things — for business ! There are many mouths to feed and a whole 
 house to keep clean too, and if there is a tidy little house-keeper 
 in the world it is Jennie. 
 
 Of course they don't have to have fancy bird-houses, they 
 will use almost any suitable place. I have seen a nest in a rural 
 mail box, in an old shoe, in a hole in a brick wall. They would 
 almost build a nest in your hair if you would keep your pocket 
 full of ant eggs. 
 
 As birds nest near the best feeding-grounds, it is needless to 
 say that wrens are of great service to you, especially if you have 
 a garden, and as they are always in danger of cats it is well to 
 place your wren-box where a cat can't reach it. Some friends 
 of mine whose cat had killed a mother wren, took the baby-wrens 
 into their home to raise them and to keep the little fellows well 
 fed it took three of them the greater part of their time and one 
 day after they had begim to fly they thought they had lost them 
 but later they found them snuggled down in a cup at the top of 
 their chandelier. Their experience became one of the happiest 
 of their bird-memories. 
 
Chickadees and Nuthatches, 
 
 Order, Passerea. 
 Family, Paridae. 
 
 Family Characteristics: Permanent residents. More or less black 
 and white. Smaller than sparrows. Gather food from limbs and 
 trunks of trees. Not red-headed like woodpeckers nor do tbey support 
 themselves by their tail-feathers. Insect-eaters and of special value 
 to horticulturalists. 
 
 735. CHICKADEE. Parus atricapillus. An Inch shorter than 
 the English sparrow. Crown and throat black. Gray above with white 
 cheeks. Soiled white below. Most easily identified by its note. 
 
 727. WHITE-BREASTED NUTHATCH. Sitta carolinensis. Length 
 six inches. Black crown and neck. Bluish-drab above with some white 
 on points. White below. Climbs trees up or down head first. Active 
 and nervous. Called "Devil-downhead." Bill rather long. 
 
 728. RED-BREASTED NUTHATCH. Sitta canadensis. Hardly 
 five Inches long. Bluish-drab above. Head marked with black and 
 white. Neck black. Breast brownish-red. Some white on points. 
 
 731. TUFTED TITMOUSE. Baeolophus Ucolor. Six inches long. 
 Crested. Drab above, dull white below. Dull black cap and black bill. 
 Rare on the prairies as are all birds that nest in tree-holes. 
 
 CHICKADEE. 
 
 This little black-capped titmouse can be told on sight by the 
 merest novice. His black cap and downy feathers are not the 
 only telltales but his manner of hopping about the trees as well. 
 It makes no difference to him whether he is above or beneath them 
 provided always he can find the eggs of the cankerworm and a 
 good supply of tiny insects. 
 
 Every little while he will pronounce his name for you too 
 " Chiek-a-dee-dee-dee-dee ". There is no mistaking it. You could 
 not pronounce it better yourself. 
 
 He is called one of the snow-birds and he certainly delights 
 
90 BIRDS OP THE WEST 
 
 in the storm. Cheerful at all times he wins your affection at once 
 and holds it forever, for you cannot help loving a courageous 
 heart especially when you find it done up in so small a package. 
 
 It is a rare bird on the treeless plains for it chooses for its 
 nesting place the deserted homes of other birds in dead tree-limbs, 
 yet it is a common visitor and even a winter resident along the 
 tree-lined rivers. 
 
 For some reason the snowbirds seem to keep in hiding un- 
 til the weather is thoroughly spoiled, when they come forth in 
 numbers from somewhere to revel in it. 
 
Kinglets, 
 
 Order, Passerts. 
 Family, Sylviidae. 
 
 749. RUBY-CROWNED KINGLET. Begulus calendula. Four and 
 one-half inches long. Olive above. Wings and tail olive-yellow. White 
 bars on wrings. Breast grayish-yellow. Red spot on head o£ some 
 males. 
 
 748. GOLDEN-CROWNED KINGLET. Regulus sqtrapa. A trifle 
 over four inches long. Similar to the ruby-crowned kinglet except 
 the patch on the head is orange instead of red and it has a white line 
 above the eye. 
 
 RUBY-CROWNED KINGLET. 
 
 While starting from home this morning (there is always 
 something new to be seen) I saw as many as a dozen tiny king- 
 lets in the elm tree in front of my home. The little acrobats 
 were climbing and darting and falling about the tips of the 
 boughs among the elm flowers taking every tiny bug in sight and 
 it is safe to say not a guilty one escaped. Except the humming 
 birds, we have no smaller birds than they. They are not bigger 
 than a minute but such little bundles of energy you never did 
 see. I walked right up to them to study them for they were too 
 busy to notice me. I looked hard to find the ruby crown which is 
 small at best and wanting in the females, but they did not keep 
 still long enough to give me more than a wee flash, just enough 
 to let me know which kinglet had come to visit me. The English 
 sparrows stood around like a gang of ragmuffins and watched 
 and glared but they made no demonstrations. They stood there 
 like stuffed birds. Bundles of energy themselves I guess they 
 were just paralyzed to see the kinglets work. 
 
 Here to-day, gone to-morrow — you are lucky if you see more 
 than here and there a stray one, but you will be paid for every 
 moment you give them. I wonder how many kinds of birds come 
 in a season to the very tree upon which I saw the kinglets this 
 
BIRDS OP THE WEST 
 
 morning. I should guess as many as forty. Do you know I have 
 almost given up speaking of any birds as "rare", for just as I 
 have said that such and such a bird is seldom seen, I turn and 
 find a flock of them feeding on my lawn. I think that more than 
 half of "rarity" is in our eyes. Many a man doubtless thinks 
 there are few birds in his locality while it may be that there is a 
 wren's nest in a hole at the top of his porch, the nest of a vireo 
 in the top of his elm tree, a robin's nest in his apple tree, a blue- 
 bird's nest in his garden, sparrows all around him and a hundred 
 swifts in his chimney. Surely if he watches, he will see the little 
 kinglets, for they have a little work to do for everybody. 
 
Thrushes. 
 
 Order, Passeres. 
 Family, Turdida.e. 
 
 Family Characteristics: Six to ten inches long, graceful in form 
 and gifted in song. Except the robin redbreast and bluebird, thrushes 
 are brown abovie with whitish breast marked with arrow-shaped spots. 
 
 Their food consists mostly of earth-worms and insects with a little 
 wild fruit for sauce. Of great service in groves and gardens and upon 
 lawns. 
 
 761. ROBIN REDBREAST. Merula migratoria. Ten inches long . 
 Everybody knows him. 
 
 766. BLUEBIRD. Sialia sialis. Length seven inches. Brighf. 
 blue above. Breast light claret-red. 
 
 75 5. WOODTHRUSH. Hylocichla mustelina. Eight inches long. 
 Brown above, lightest toward head. White below with arrow-shaped 
 spots on sides of breast. White eye-ring. White throat. A familiar 
 bird. 
 
 756. WILSON'S THRUSH. (Veery). Turdus fuscesoens. Seven 
 and one-half inches long. Tawny-brown above, white below with 
 arrow-shaped spots. Buff in front of wings. Common though shy. 
 Has no eye-ring as other thrushes do. 
 
 758a. OLIVE-BACKED THRUSH. Hylocichla usUilata stoainsonii. 
 Seven and one-half inches long. Olive-brown above. Yellowish breast, 
 white beneath. Yellowish eye-ring. Throat and breast spotted. 
 
 759. HERMIT THRUSH. Hylocichla guttata. Seven and one- 
 half inches long. Olive-brown above. Brighter toward tail which 
 serves to distinguish it from the wood thrush. Yellow eye-ring whereas 
 wood thrush has white eye-ring. 
 
 674. OVENBIRD or GOLDEN-CROWNED THRUSH. Seiurus 
 aurocapilliis. Olive above, crown of old-gold edged b'y black lines. 
 Breast spotted like the thrushes. White eye-ring. See under warblers. 
 
94 BIRDS OF THE WEST 
 
 ROBIN REDBREAST. 
 
 Of course you know the robin redbreast, who isn't a robin at 
 all but only a thrush — Only a thrush ? Well, it is quite an honor 
 to belong to that cultured family. They are vocalists of the 
 highest order. The brown thrasher, the wood thrush, the her- 
 mit thrush are all country cousins of the redbreast, and what a 
 quartette of singers they are. 
 
 When our ancestors, the Pilgrim Fathers, those famous three 
 brothers, stepped from the Mayflower, the first bird they saw they 
 called the robin. He was the bird that covered the "Babes in the 
 Woods" with leaves, you know, and the name has clung to him 
 ever since. Well, that was probably the limit of the Pilgrim 
 Fathers as to bird lore. 
 
 How he can sing ! What a nicely trained voice he has ! 
 Modulation, accentuation, pitch, crescendo, diminuendo, everything 
 that Caruso knows, he knows, and when he comes north in 
 early spring time, the world takes his word for it — that spring has 
 come. Somehow we give the little fellow credit for knowing more 
 about the weather than the weather bureau knows. Did you ever 
 notice his white eyelids? Can you tell him from his wife, with 
 his darker head and brighter breast ? Did you ever hear him sound 
 his note of alarm when you have come upon him suddenly while 
 he is courting his ladylove? And how he pulls upon that worm! 
 He throws out his chest like a Dutchman at a saengerfest and 
 swallows it as though it were a sausage. And what an appetite ! 
 Why if you could eat as much between sunrise and sunset as a baby 
 robin, it would take 280 pounds of steak to feed you, and about all 
 the baby robin gets is earthworms from the lawn. You say the rob- 
 ins steal cherries? Maybe. Tou and I have done that. We knew 
 better but the robins don't. Maybe the very seed from which the 
 cherry tree grew was dropped by a robin. He is entitled to a few 
 of the cherries and he very kindly takes them from the top of the 
 tree where you couldn't get them anyway. If he should fly into 
 your pantry and open a can of preserves he ought not to be 
 censured. 
 
 Last October I saw three varieties of thrushes, the brown 
 thrasher, Wilson's thrush and the redbreast all pulling worms 
 from the lawn of a friend of mine who thinks I am having a 
 brain-storm because I am writing these articles. How often you 
 
BIRDS OP THE WEST 95 
 
 have seen Mr. Robin hopping over a lawn( he doesn't walk as the 
 meadow lark does.) Suddenly he stops, turns his head sideways 
 as though he hears a worm crawling through the dirt, then stabbing 
 his bill into the earth he pulls forth a long earthworm without 
 breaking him. Don't you always break them when you dig fish- 
 bait and try to pull one out? 
 
 It is too bad Lady Robin is such a dirty house keeper, but then 
 she has a mud house and it is harder to keep clean than most 
 houses. No wonder they love to bathe in the spray of a fountain ! 
 A few years ago I was out bird hunting and came upon a nest of 
 dried grass and upon looking into it saw a robin's egg. There was 
 little chance to mistake the "robin-blue" egg but who would dream 
 that a robin ever built a home without mud-plaster? Presently 
 Lady Robin appeared and confirmed my guess that it was her 
 home. But why no mud? Because, the poor things — that very 
 dry season they couldn 't find any ; if they could it dried before they 
 could get it to the nest. Like other Dakotans of that time, 
 they were adjusting themselves to circumstances. Bad boys shoot 
 very many robins and if any one finds out "who killed Cock Robin" 
 send word to me. Who was it do you say? "It was the Sparrow 
 with his bow and arrow?" Yes, that English sparrow again. 
 While he never kills the robin, I imagine he annoys him awfully. 
 A short time ago I saw a robin in the top of a tree singing away as 
 hard as he could and on an adjacent branch were a dozen English 
 sparrows who were listening to the music. They didn't like it be- 
 cause he had come but they didn't do much but "rubber" at him. 
 He didn't care. He had a little spring poetry to recite and besides 
 he has the very important duty of playing the role of "harbinger 
 of spring. ' ' And how soon he is gone ! What is it Longfellow says 1 
 
 "Turn, turn my wheel 
 
 All life is brief; 
 
 What now is bud will soon be leaf ; 
 
 What now is leaf will soon decay : 
 
 Tomorrow will be another day. 
 The wind blows east, 
 The wind blows west, 
 
 The blue eggs in the robin's nest 
 
 Will soon have wings and beak and breast 
 
 And flutter and fly away." 
 
96 BIRDS OF THE WEST 
 
 BLUEBIRD. 
 
 When the bluebird comes, we know that South Dakota 's state 
 flower, the anemone, will soon push its buds into the sunlight 
 for the wind's caresses. Could we have chosen a better emblem than 
 this royal wind-flower? And when we see tiny specks of blue 
 floating upon the winds of March as though the sun in bursting 
 through the clouds had broken bits of blue heaven and sent them 
 floating down to us in song, we feel that there could be no better 
 sign of the awakened life of another year. That these loving little 
 gentle folks should brave the blasts of early springtime is accounted 
 for only on the theory that 
 
 "The bravest are the tenderest 
 The loving are the daring." 
 
 The bluebird's motto, it seems to me, is "live and let live." 
 Even the English sparrow, the inquisitor of bird life, is treated 
 with respect, and rather than go to law (in bird-land "might 
 makes right") about the possession of a bird-house, a tree hole 
 or the abandoned home of a woodpecker, the bluebird generally 
 moves on and the sparrow often doesn't move in. (Little dog 
 in the manger.) 
 
 However, if the bluebird has moved in, he can lay aside his 
 heavenly disposition for a while and show you something of the 
 courageous heart that braved the storm. Then Mr. Sparrow moves 
 on. 
 
 It is often asked if the same bird returns year after year 
 to the same spot. No doubt many varieties do so and the blue- 
 bird is one of them. Not only does he return but when he starts 
 north he leaves his wife to follow him later. As I am writing 
 the little fellow who lives at 1007 South Main avenue in the little 
 house to which I have given him a perennial lease, in considera- 
 tion of work in my garden, has arrived but his wife has not yet 
 joined him. Just now he and I are trying to drive out some ten- 
 ants who have not paid their rent. When the little nest of grass 
 is finished, four pale-blue eggs will be laid which will open upon 
 four tiny almost black little babies that will keep papa and mamma 
 very busy until they too have learned to find worms and to catch 
 insects. 
 
BALTIMORE ORIOLE 
 
 (Upper Figure, Male; Lower Figure, Female) 
 
 Order — Pai^shkhs Fami)/ — Icterid/€ 
 
 Genus— Icterus Species— Calbu la 
 
BIRDS OP THE WEST 97 
 
 Late in the season another family will be raised and possibly 
 a third and when at last the little home is broken up and you no 
 more see the even and easy flight of your little neighbors nor hear 
 their gentle and almost distant call note you had better make sure 
 that the storm windows are on and that there is plenty of coal 
 in the cellar and you may think of your little friends sailing south 
 upon the winds, their backs reflecting the blue of heaven and 
 their breasts the southern sun. 
 
 OVENBIRD. six inches long. The size ot an English sparrow. Olive 
 brown above with a golden-brown crown. White beneath with the char- 
 acteristic thrush spots on the breast. Small white ring about the 
 eyes. One of the birds that walk. 
 
 OVENBIRD. 
 
 In spite of the fact that scientists classify this little bird as 
 a wood warbler his wonderful similarity to the thrushes will lead 
 you to think of him as one of them. If it is not a thrush, and we 
 must take the scentists' word for it, one thing is sure, it is trying 
 as hard to make a thrush of itself as the flicker is. Both of them de- 
 part from the habits of their kind, "come off their perches" and 
 get down to earth. Well, the thrush family is thoroughlj' respect- 
 able and the flicker is not to be blamed, but the ovenbird need 
 never be ashamed of the warblers. 
 
 Few birds are of greater interest. To see one of them walk- 
 ing among the dead leaves, actually walking seems very queer 
 for so small a bird and the moving of its head and neck back- 
 ward and forward, rooster-like when it walks gives it a dignity 
 that is very striking. 
 
 Ovenbirds like cuckoos are often spoken of as very shy but in 
 the west they seem to be surprisingly familiar. I have walked 
 to within a few feet of them and have observed as little timidity 
 among them as is to be expected from robins. The scarcity of 
 trees in the west subjects all birds to more frequent exposure 
 and doubtless explains in part what many people have often re- 
 marked, the greater familiarity of western birds. 
 
 The name ovenbird is given to it because of the shape of its 
 nest which is entered from the side and very prettily arched 
 above. 
 
 7 
 
Grebes, 
 
 Order, Pygopodes. 
 Family, Podicipidae. 
 
 6. PIED-BILLED GREBE. Podilymbus podiceps. Thirteen and 
 a halt inches long. Dull brownish drab above and white below except 
 for his black throat. This little "dabchick" can be identified by the 
 black band around the middle of his bill and by his short tail. He is 
 one of several birds that the boys call "hell-divier". His long lobed 
 toes enable him to prove his title to the name. Can be found on al- 
 most any Western pond and even in the wet places along railroad 
 tracks. 
 
 2. RED-NECKED GREBE or HOLBOBLL'S GREBE. Golymbus 
 holboelii. Nineteen inches long. The red neck of this grebe is his 
 special marking though he has a black crown and a small black crest 
 to give beauty to an otherwise dull body. Dusky above and grayish 
 white below. 
 
 4. EARED GREBE. Golymbus nigricollis californicus. Thir- 
 teen inches long. The yellow tufts of feathers extending backward 
 from the eyes are the conspicuous marks. Head black. Sides brown. 
 Back dull black. Breast white. 
 
 PIBD-BILLBD GREBE. 
 
 One of the most interesting of birds is this little fellow that 
 is so often mistaken for a duck. "Hell-diver" they call him and 
 surely he is an artist in the water. Many a gunner has seen his 
 shot scatter over the surface of the pond where a second before 
 he saw this elusive bird, for just as the gun flashed the "dab- 
 chick" "ducked" quicker than a flash and did not reappear until 
 he was at a safe distance from the gunner. Scientists tell us 
 that he belongs to the lowest order of bird life and is but little 
 removed from the reptiles but he is all the more interesting if 
 that be true. 
 
 The grebe builds a floating nest and lays its white eggs in 
 a slight depression on its weed-raft. The heat of its body, the 
 
BIRDS OP THE WEST 99 
 
 warm sun beating down upon the muddy, half-decomposed nest 
 of rushes and possibly even the warm water, all help to call the 
 little divers from their dirty eggshells and when they have arrived 
 you need not fear, as a friend of mine did, that they will drown 
 if they tiunble out of the nest. They will really be "in their 
 element." The little fellows must have a good time floating about 
 in their nest or taking a ride upon their mamma's back while she 
 is passing dainty morsels up to them to satisfy their constant 
 hunger. It is no use to shoot them for they are pretty poor iipon 
 the table but they are mighty pretty on the pond. 
 
Loons. 
 
 Order, Pygopodes. 
 Family, Podicijndae. 
 
 7. COMMON LOON (GREAT NORTHERN DIVER). Gavia imber. 
 Thirty-two inches long. A diver in deep water. Head and neck blacli 
 streamed with white. Blacli above, barred and streaked with white 
 beneath. Tail feathers short. Their cry resembles human laughter. 
 
 A great old diver is the laughing loon. Whether silly peo- 
 ple are loony or Inny depends upon whether they possess the 
 characteristics of the loon or have been moon-struck. Just why 
 anj'one should charge the loon with a lack of wisdom is hard to 
 guess for they are about as wise as any bird that swims. Unlike 
 the grebes, they sail to the deep water where they go after big 
 game. They are poor land birds and are almost as helpless as a 
 "fish out of water" but once in the center of the lake, they are 
 the perfection of ease, swimming being easier to them than fly- 
 ing. 
 
 Museums are seldom without a "stuffed" loon and most of 
 the birds that we see in collections are literally "stuffed" but 
 rarely mounted. Water birds seem to be favorites with cheap 
 taxidermists who seemingly will not be satisfied until they can 
 row about as "the only loons upon the lake." 
 
Gulls and Terns. 
 
 Order, I.o)i//ij>e)uies. 
 Family, Laridue. 
 
 Family characteristics: In tiie West, tlie gulls are usually seen 
 in very large flocks during migration either gathering worms in time 
 of plowing or bugs during harvesting. Their prevailing bluish-gray 
 color, wide wing-spread and easy flight make them easy to identify. 
 Terns are the only birds mistaken for them but the little black tern 
 that skims over our ponds is easily recognized. Terns can be dis- 
 tinguished from gulls by the way they point their bills downward in 
 flight rather than straight ahead of them. Their bills are straight 
 whereas the bills of the gulls curve downward at the point and are 
 slightly enlarged near the tip. 
 
 5 9. FRANKLIN GULL. Larus Franklinii. About fourteen 
 inches long. Wide wing-spread. Head black with white eye-ring. 
 Upper parts "gull-blue" or pearl gray. Breast white with beautiful 
 rose tint. Bill red. Tips of wing feathers black tipped with white. 
 
 60. BONAPARTE GULL. Larus Philadelphia. About fourteen 
 inches long. Wide wing-spread. Head black. Upper parts "gull- 
 blue" or pearl gray. Under parts white. Tips of wing feathers black. 
 Bill black. Feet red. 
 
 77. BLACK TERN. Hydrochelidon nigra surinamensis. Length 
 nine and one-half inches. Almost wholly black above. Tail slate 
 color. Lower body white beneatli. Feet black. Bill black. May be 
 seen on almost any inland pond skimming the surface of the water 
 with bills turned downward. Nests on muskrat houses or bundles of 
 dead reeds. Often mistaken for a gull. 
 
 69. FORSTBR TERN. Sterna forsteri. Fourteen and one-half 
 inches long. Light pearl gray above. White below. Top of head 
 black. Bill red with black tip. Legs red. Tail split deeply. 
 
 BONAPARTE GULL. 
 
 Who has not seen the flocks of gulls that hy thousands visit 
 the fields of the Mississippi valley? What a pretty sight it is to 
 see them sailing silently above us ! The world must be a moving 
 
102 BIRDS OP THE WEST 
 
 picture to them. Multitudes of these beautiful sea birds make an 
 annual flight from the Mexican Gulf to Manitoba and northward 
 to nest. Graceful beyond compare they seem to be merely float- 
 ing through the air, turning their heads now this way now that, 
 and stopping their flight not even while scratching their pretty 
 heads with their toes. 
 
 It is a pretty long journey that they make to their northern 
 summer resorts, but they are rapid in flight having a very wide 
 wingspread aud much smaller bodies than their appearance in- 
 dicates and it w^ould take them only four or five days, or even less, 
 to make the tiip if they did not visit along the way, but they stop 
 over in springtime to eat worms from the newly plowed fields and 
 in the fall to gather grasshoppers from the newly harvested grain. 
 Remember they ne\'er harm the grain. 
 
 Alas, the poor gulls are awfully imposed upon. It is a favor- 
 ite pastime with some of the terns or sea swallows to pursue and 
 annoy the gulls until they drop any choice morsel of food which 
 they may be carrying when the terns secure the booty thus cheat- 
 ing the gullible gull out of it. The gulls are shot by thousands 
 for commerce, their plumage being especiallj- desirable for hat 
 trimmings but it is a waning practice for the womau who parades 
 the streets these days wearing upon her hat the badge of bird 
 nrotherhood is fast learning that whatever of reflected beauty 
 she acquires from the pretty plume is offset by a loss of esteem 
 from those she meets. An old saying is "Whatever of coin goes 
 into a man's purse comes out of his soul", and it is just as true 
 of "Whatever of plumage goes upon a woman's hat." 
 
Pelicans. 
 
 Order, Steganspodes. 
 Family, I'elicaaidue. 
 
 125. WHITE PELICAN. Pelecanus erythrorhynchos. Almost 
 entirely white but some blaclc feathers on wings. The large yellow 
 pouch hanging from the lower mandible of this bird and his pure 
 white plumage are enough to distinguish him. If more is needed 
 the small hook at the extremity of the upper mandible and the rud- 
 der-like projections above it will make the identification complete. 
 
 The white pelican is one of the strangest looking birds that 
 visit us. In size half Vfay between a goose and a swan, its long 
 neck is terminated by one of the oddest heads among birds, beasts 
 or fishes. The lower jaw or mandible, if you prefer, has hanging 
 beneath it a large pouch that looks as though it had been painted 
 yellow. It can doubtless hold a quart or more of frogs, small 
 fishes and reptiles and such other water food as can be found. 
 The upper mandible has a small hook at its extremity that enables 
 it to hold with certainty whatever it seizes. Thej^ are wholly white 
 except upon the wings, the larger feathers of which are nearly 
 black. Why sportsmen should delight in shooting one of these 
 useful and certainly harmless oddities can be explained only on 
 the theory that men love to kill whatever is rare. Pelicans cross 
 the Dakotas in fairly large numbers stopping at the small lakes to 
 load up with provisions before continuing their northern journey. 
 Wounded birds often become very tame, a fact that is characteristic 
 of nearly all wild life. It is doubtless true that we should be 
 greatly surprised at the familiarity of birds and mammals if they 
 could know that we would not harm them. Whether or not the 
 pelican is the taxidermist's delight would be hard to say but 
 most of the dead ones have been mounted— I beg your pardon, 
 I should say "stuffed" — and most of them miserably so. 
 
 I recently met a lady who is "stuffing" birds as a business 
 
104 
 
 BIRDS OF THE WEST 
 
 who does not know anything whatever of wild life and is just 
 as apt as not to mount a chimney swift upon a yellow warbler's 
 nest or a grebe upon an apple bough. I really think that she 
 should use oyster dressing and stuiif only domestic fowl. 
 
Ducks^ Geese and Swans, 
 
 Order, Anseres. 
 Family, Anatidae. 
 
 Family characteristics: Water birds having bills with strainers 
 on the sides. They usually have plate-like bills like those of the 
 common duck. Strong fliers, expert swimmers and divers. Feet 
 are webbed and legs are short. They live on small fishes, snails and 
 the small animal life of ponds, lakes and rivers. Many of them feed 
 on water-weeds like eel grass (called wild celery.) They visit grain- 
 fields in season to pick up waste grain. They are much prized as 
 game food and millions are shot on the prairie lakes every year both 
 for food and for sport, mainly the latter. 
 
 DUCKS. 
 
 132. MALLARD. Anas hoschas. Nearly two feet long. 
 Head dark green. Has a white collar. Breast chestnut. Gray be- 
 low. Dark gray above. Speculum purplish green. Several small 
 tall feathers are curled. The female is dark brown above. Buff 
 breast and purplish green speculum on wings. 
 
 140. BLUE-WINGED TEAL. Querquedula discors. Sixteen 
 Inches long. Best told by its size, the blue speculum on its wings 
 and the white in front of its eyes. Nests in large numbers in this 
 latitude. Habits like those of the green winged teal. 
 
 13 9. GREBN-WINGBD TEAL. Nettion carolinensis. A beauti- 
 ful little duck about fifteen Inches long with a cinnamon-colored head 
 marked with green on the sides and having a green speculum on its 
 wings. Slightly crested. Feeds in shallow water tipping up to feed 
 on the vegetation on the bottom. A good table duck. 
 
 141. CINNAMON TEAL. Querquedula cyanoptera. Sixteen Inches 
 long. Cinnamon colored head, breast and sides, light blue on wings but 
 with green speculum. Much more of the cinnamon color than on the 
 green winged teal. Most abundant in the far west. 
 
 14 2. SPOONBILL. Spatula clypeata. During spring migration a 
 very pretty duck marked with green, black, blue and white. Can 
 be surely identified by its wide, flat, spoon-like bill and size midway 
 
106 BIRDS OF THE WEST 
 
 between mallards and teals. About twenty inches long. A very 
 common duck. 
 
 14 3. PINTAIL. Dafila acuta. The pintail is not really as large 
 as the mallard but it is about four inches longer, its unusual length 
 being due to its having a long sv/an-like neck and long "pintail" 
 feathers. It has a purplish speculum on its wings and more or less 
 brown, white and gray upon its body. 
 
 13 6. WIDGEON. Mareca penelope. 19 inches long. Bill blue 
 tipped with black, top of head whitish but most of head marked with 
 black. Body gray with v/avy black markings, russet green speculum 
 on black and white. Rare. 
 
 137. BALDPATB. Anas americana. Nineteen inches long. Top 
 of head whitish edged with green. Bill blue tipped with black. Plu- 
 mage mostly grayisli, white belov.', green speculum. Make a whis- 
 tling noise in flight. Rob other ducks of their food. 
 
 135. GADWALL. Chaulelasmas streperus. 20 Inches long. A 
 gray duck with a flat crest. Body marked with black and white lines 
 across the gray. White below. Rump black. V/ings black, white and 
 brown. 
 
 144. WOOD DUCK. Aix sponsa. A foot and a half long. This 
 has been called the best dressed bird of our latitude. Its many rich 
 colors and its crest will be sufficient to identify it. It has a variegated 
 bill and a purple and green head striped with white. White throat. 
 Spotted breast. Body many colored. It nests in hollow trees and 
 carries its young in its bill from its nest to the water. Rare. 
 
 147. CANVASBACK. Aythya vaUisneria. Twenty to 
 twenty-two inches long. Head and upper neck dark red. Long neck 
 nearly black. Body nearly white. Tail dark drab. Eyes red. 
 
 146. REDHEAD. Aythya americana. Nineteen inches long. Similar 
 in size and markings to the canvasback but has a thicker head and a 
 shorter bill, the head rising more abruptly from the base of the bill. 
 Breast nearly black, but white under parts. Sides and back gray, 
 finely waved with black. 
 
 153. BUPPLEHEAD or BUTTERBALL. Charitonetta alheola. 
 Fifteen inches long. It has a very large head for so small a duck 
 and therefore named for the buffalo. Bill short. Prevailing colors 
 are black above and white below. Head banded with white though 
 mostly purplish. Tail gray. Neck and sides white. Not highly prized. 
 
 149. BLUEBILL or SCAUP DUCK. Aythya afflnis. Sixteen 
 Inches long. Bill a pale blue. Head black with green neflections. 
 White below and black above with fine wavy barring. Found late in 
 the fall in large numbers. 
 
BIRDS OF THE WEST 107 
 
 167. RUDDY DUCK. Erismatura jamaicensis. Fifteen IncheB 
 long. Top of head black and cheeks white. Brown above. Gray 
 below. Bill blue and short. Mostly chestnut colored above. A good 
 diver. Often carries tail erect on the water. 
 
 151. GOLDEN-BYE. Clangula clangula americana. Head dark 
 green with a white spot at base of bill, white neck and breast. Black 
 above. More or less white on wing. Female with much brown above. 
 Sometimes called "whistlers". 
 
 MERGANSERS OR FISH DUCKS. 
 
 129. AMERICAN MERGANSER. Merganser Americanus. Over two 
 feet long. Called "flsh-duck" because of diet and "saw-blU" because 
 of tooth-like projections from the sides of its narrow bill. Black and 
 white above and white below. Head black with greenish reflections 
 and crested. Bill red. Loves cold water. 
 
 130. RED-BREASTED MERGANSER. Merganser serrator. Near- 
 ly two feet long. Black head crested, and having greenish reflections. 
 Black back, white neck, white on wings. Body gray, brown and 
 buff. Nearly white below. Bill not flat like a duck's but narrow and 
 edged with tooth-like projections. The flesh of this duck is generally 
 highly flavored with its fishy food. 
 
 131. HOODED MERGANSER. Lophodytes cucullatus. Seven- 
 teen inches long. Conspicuous black and white crest. Black and 
 brown above, sides brown, white below. White speculum. Saw-billed. 
 Too pretty a bird to shoot and not a good table duck. 
 
 (jtEESE. 
 
 172. CANADA GOOSE, Branta Canadensis.. Three feet long. 
 Black head and neck and some white on the sides of the head. Gray 
 body. 
 
 169. LESSER SNOW GOOSE or WHITE BRANT. About two 
 feet long. Plumage white with tips of wings black. 
 
 169a. GREATER SNOW GOOSE or WHITE BRANT. Chen 
 hyperborea nivalis. About three feet long. They are white with tips 
 of wings black. 
 
 SWANS. 
 
 181. TRUMPETER SWAN. Olor buccinator. Five and a half 
 feet long. All white with black feet and bill. Very long neck. Named 
 from its bugle-like note. 
 
 180. WHISTLING SWAN. Olor ColumUanus. Four and a half 
 feet long. White with black feet and bill and a yellow spot in front 
 of the eyes. 
 
108 BIRDS OF THE WEST 
 
 CANVASBACK DUCK. 
 
 What a reputation this duck Jiasi iJut like every other good 
 thing it has its imitation as weil as its reputation. The widgeon 
 or baid-pate is the name of the duck that is oiten sold m swell 
 restaurants for the canvasback and tlic principal diherence in 
 taste is that the bald-pate is sweeter and tenderer. Why not? 
 Does not the canvasback duck dive and swim to tne bottom oi tiie 
 pond to pull up the wild celery (eel grass) only to hnd when it 
 reaches the surface that a bald-pate is there to take it away from 
 him and eat it"/ 'fnus the baid-pate gels the celery and the can- 
 vasback gets the exercise. Keulieads too, gee paniiea on as ctin- 
 vasuacks, for trie birds resemble eacii ointr so mucli lUtii ^viicii 
 a few oi the teil-iaie wing leathers are xjulied out of the redhead, 
 an expert has to guess them apart. As far as good, juicy diicks 
 go, the redhead, baid-pate, the spoon-bui, the Olue bifl, the mallard, 
 the teal and the pin-tail all have admirers who prefer them to the 
 canvasback. The really poor duck you know is tiie one mat 
 eats the most hshes for he takes the tish flavor and chasing them 
 toughens his muscles. 
 
 "iSweet land of liberty!" And land of license too. How 
 many are the ducks shot m the spriugiime when they are 
 gentlest, tor love is warming in their flulfy breasts and tliey are 
 choosing their mates for the season. Thin and tired from their 
 long migration, the pot-himters have a merry springtime knock- 
 ing them down. Let them shoot the canvas-backs in the faU, if 
 they will. They will earn the name of sportsmen if they get more 
 than they can carry, for the canvasback is a clever and w'atcliful 
 bird. But shooting them in the springtime? It's like taking 
 candy from a baby. 
 
 A man told me recently that he never shot the female ducks, 
 but only the males as he did not wish to break up their nesting. 
 He is a very wise man and could probably tell a drone from a 
 honey-bee if he saw them flying through the air. As a matter 
 of fact few gtumers can tell them apart after they (the ducks) 
 are dead. So imagination and self-deception are used to justify 
 wrongdoing. 
 
BIRDS OF THE WEST 109 
 
 AMERICAN MERGANSER. 
 
 Many people call it the "Saw-bill Duck," some call it the 
 "Fish Duck" and others the " Shelldrake. " None of the names 
 are calculated to whet one's appetite, yet the names sound far 
 better than the duck tastes. 
 
 Last fall a friend of mine came proudly up the street with 
 a string of ducks that tested his strength. Rushing to him to see 
 what he had I found no two alike. There were a mallard, a 
 green-winged teal, a Ijald-pate, a pin-tail, a blue-bill, a redhead, a 
 canvas-liack, a spoon-bill and a merganser. It seemed rather odd 
 that there should be no duplication, but it shows how thoroughly 
 we are in the path of duck migration. 
 
 As I enthused over them and pointed out their beauty and 
 peculiarities, he became interested and as I gave more time to 
 the merganser than all the others, because of its peculiar bill 
 and flashy colors, he thought he would delight me by offering it to 
 me for mj^ supper. He did that very thing ! Now, few delicacies 
 are sweeter to me than a good, fat, juicy wild duck done just so 
 that a suggestion of red blood follows the knife when it is cut, 
 but my admiration for a merganser ends just where the feathers 
 penetrate the skin, so I refused to rob him of his choicest duck 
 and took two others in lieu thereof, namely a bald-pate and a blue- 
 bill. Give me those and you may have your canvas-backs and 
 mallards. 
 
 Why does the merganser taste so? Because he eats small 
 fishes and frogs, and fishes and frogs like onions and cabbage are 
 not so very good second-hand. The merganser being able to pur- 
 sue and catch a fish under water becomes very muscular and 
 when you get both kinds of strength in your meat, it becomes 
 too strong for any use. 
 
 There is every reason to believe that the merganser nests 
 very rarely below the line of the British possessions. Mrs. Mer- 
 ganser's reputation as a housewife and mother is above reproach 
 and is similar to that of the wood duck that goes into seclusion 
 during the nesting season, using a tree-hole for a home and lining 
 it with the down she plucks from her own breast. Meanwhile the 
 old man goes away into still deeper seclusion and changes his 
 pretty garments for a new suit. 
 
110 BIRDS OF THE WEST 
 
 Oh I fear that great beauty too often has its drawbacks. 
 The theory of compensation is at work all the while. 
 
 MALLARD. 
 
 Probably of all ducks the mallard is the most popular in this 
 western section of the country. This is due in part to its size 
 and in part to the fact that it is just as finely flavored as any 
 of them. Tou get a little more of a good .thing when you get a 
 mallard. The same ducks in different sections of the country have 
 different food values for few if any creatures are more "What 
 they eat" than are ducks. A celery-fed duck becomes almost 
 worthless when it feeds on fish. 
 
 Our common barnyard duck is a domesticated mallard and 
 domestication has made him a mormon for it is not believed that 
 in the wild state they mate for less than life. 
 
 As with most ducks the male has little to do with rearing 
 the young. The female gathers leaves, grass and the like, for 
 a nest, lines it with down from her own breast and leaves it only 
 at short intervals during the breeding season. The drake mean- 
 while follows a duck habit and goes into seclusion for a moult 
 and it is said that for a while he is not able to fly at all. 
 
 They migrate by sexes, the males preceding the females who 
 follow with their broods. Foxy sportsmen often pride themselves 
 on the fact that they shoot only males which is often true dur- 
 ing the male migration. 
 
 The ponds of the interior are fine feeding grounds for tliem 
 and they may often be seen tipping up but rarely if ever diving 
 for buds, seeds, grains and small mollusks. If you see them dive 
 you may be quite sure that they are trying to avoid danger.. 
 
 They are very fond of the farmer's corn but the farmer 
 seems never to care. He has his gun loaded for the hawks and 
 owls that are doing him far greater service and far less damage. 
 Of course the mallard's fondness for the farmer's corn is all in 
 favor of fijie flesh and you may be sure that a corn-fed mallard 
 is a luxury. 
 
 Mallards are sportive, alert and wary, so much so that they 
 do not descend at once to the water as the teals do but circle 
 about over the sedges to be sure that there is no lurking danger. 
 
Herons and Bitterns. 
 
 Order, Herodiones. 
 Family, Ardeidae. 
 
 191. LEAST BITTERN. Botaurus exilis. Almost fourteen inches 
 long. A suggestion ot a crest. Head and upper body black with 
 greenish sheen. Body brown, red, buff, green and yellow in vary- 
 ing shades. Feet, bill and eyes greenish yellow. Found about creeks 
 and marshes. Distinctly a marsh wader. 
 
 190. AMERICAN BITTERN. Botaurus lentiginosus. Two and a 
 half feet long. Legs long and unfeathered as befits a wading bird. 
 Four toes. Long bill and head suitable for frog-catching. Mixed 
 brown, black, buff, slate and yellow in color. Throat white. Called 
 also "thunder-pump" and "stakedriver" from its cry. 
 
 194. GREAT BLUE HERON or BLUE CRANE. Ardea Herodias. 
 Nearly four feet long. Subdued blue above. White head with black 
 patch above the eye running into a pretty crest. General characteristics 
 of wading birds with long legs and yellow bill. Larger than the Ameri- 
 can bittern. Black legs and feet. Long bill, yellow. 
 
 201. LITTLE GREEN HERON. Ardea virescens. About a foot 
 and a half long. Crested and plumed. White throat and a mixture 
 of green, yellovif and brown upon the body. Dark green head and bill 
 with chestnut neck. Found like others of its kind along the edges of 
 marshes. 
 
 202. BLACK CROWNED NIGHT HERON. Nycticorax nycticorax 
 naevius. About two feet long. Conspicuous white trailing crest during 
 nestihg. Upper parts dull black especially crown and back, under parts 
 white including throat, middle parts gray. Bill nearly black, eyes 
 red, legs yellow. 
 
 AMERICAN BITTERN. 
 
 If a person should try to describe every little change of color 
 in this bird, he would have to describe each separate feather, yet 
 he is easily identified for he is the most common of our big waders. 
 
 As you are riding along in the train, passing a lake or a small 
 
112 BIRDS OF THE WEST 
 
 stream edged with sedges, you will often see one "fly up the creek" 
 (that's another name he has.) He is seared half to death but at 
 that he flies rather leisurely as he does everything and soon drops 
 to hiding into the rushes a few rods away. 
 
 He is ' ' patience on a monument ' ' and thinks nothing of stand- 
 ing on one leg for two hours waiting for a frog or a snake or a 
 lizard or a tadpole to come within reach, when like a flash the 
 jig is up and the frog is down. He is named also the ''thunder 
 pump" for the reason that the "boom" of the bittern sounds 
 like an old broken down pump trying to raise water. "Stake- 
 driver" is another name, and "Bog-bull," and there are others. 
 
 Of course you don't have to ride in a railroad train to see 
 them. It will pay you to make them a friendly call. Perhaps 
 you could find a crude nest on the ground at the edge of the marsh 
 and if you should, you would be well paid for your tramp. 
 
 Often on a short trip by rail I have identified from forty to 
 fifty difilerent kinds of birds. It is good recreation and makes 
 the time and journey pass quickly. Often you must recognize 
 your bird at long range solely by its flight but many birds taken 
 by surprise will scurry from the side of the track and give you a 
 good view of them. You will cover a large territory in that way 
 and reach the water birds as well as the song birds. 
 
 Watch for a bittern. If you keep your lamps lighted you will 
 see him on almost any trip with his flat outstretched head and his 
 long legs hanging out behind as a rudder, sailing over the rushes 
 by the roadside. 
 
BELTED KINGFISHER 
 (Upper Figure, Female; Lower Figure, Male) 
 Order — Coccyges Family — Alcedini d.e 
 Genus — Gerylh Species— Alcyon 
 
Cranes. 
 
 Order, Paludicolae. 
 Family, Gruidae. 
 
 206. SANDHILL CRANE. (Jrus Mexicana. Forty-four Inches 
 
 long with red skin conspicuous on its head. Its plumage Is gray, 
 
 wings darkest. Its beak Is long and sharp. Legs very long for wa- 
 ding. 
 
 204. WHOOPING CRANE. (White Crane.) Orus Americana. 
 Fifty inches long. It has white plumage with black wing-feathers. 
 Like the sandhill crane it has red skin on its head. Legs very long 
 for wading. 
 
 SANDHILL CRANE. 
 
 To be waixJering along the edge of an inland lake and sudden- 
 ly see the neck of a sandhill crane rise out of the rushes is an ex- 
 perience that will never be forgotten. There is something snakj' 
 about it. The bird itself is almost a freak of nature, absolutely 
 without grace yet suggestive enough to appeal to the orientals 
 along with the dragon as means of expressing their artistic feel- 
 ings. They always look best on a cloisonne vase. Last year at 
 Lake Andes flocks of them were seen flying in single file, their 
 long necks piercing the air and their long legs dragging almost 
 horizontally behind them. Great numbers of them are often seen 
 during their migration sailing very high in the air and shrieking 
 a note that will almost give you the shivers. 
 
 They are fighters of the highest order and use their long 
 pointed beaks as spears, often driving them clear through the 
 bodies of their enemies. In the sandhills of Nebraska, the in- 
 habitants prize them as a table luxury, claiming that their flesh is 
 savory especially in the fall. Surely one of them would make a 
 meal for the neighbors. 
 
 With aU their awkwardness they are an aristocratic look- 
 ing bird. You respect their size and they are credited with hav- 
 
114 BIRDS OF THE WEST 
 
 ing the very aristocratic tendency of getting pretty giddy at 
 times. Along about pairing off time they have unusual demonstra- 
 tions. Very likely the Sioux Indians learned their ghost dances 
 from them for one is a repetition of the other. They will dance 
 in circles and scream and whirl about until they fall to earth 
 exhausted. Even the ladies indulge in these dances and are rather 
 forward with their courting. Oh, in birdland they say that the 
 lady phalarope does all the courting. She is the real new woman. 
 Two large soiled white eggs laid upon a floating nest of dead 
 rushes was what I once found on the edge ol a lake in Nebraska 
 and I have often wondered what the mother crane did with her 
 legs when she sat upon her eggs. 
 
Coots and Rails. 
 
 Order, Faludicolae. 
 Family, Rallidae. 
 
 221. AMERICAN COOT. Fulica Americana. About fifteen inches 
 long. Stout white bill with brown spot near the end. Color solidly 
 dark lead color almost a black. Are readily tamed and become very 
 sociable. 
 
 212. VIRGINIA RAIL. RaUm Yirginianus. About the size of 
 the robin but longer legged. Olive brown above. Chestnut on wings. 
 Dark cheeks, white chin. Breast brown. Wings short and flies poorly. 
 A bird of the marshes. Very shy. 
 
 214. CAROLINA RAIL. Porzana Carolina. A little smaller than 
 the robin. Brown above, gray breast and white belly. Forehead 
 black, throat black, bill yellow. A marsh bird with fairly long legs. 
 Very shy and generally keeps concealed in tall grass or reeds. 
 
 COOT. 
 
 Coots and grebes are all of them grouped in popular fancy 
 under the name "miidhens" and "hell-divers." They are the 
 birds that you have often seen upon the edges of ponds sunning 
 themselves and you very likely thought that they were ducks. 
 Tou can readily distinguish the American coot by his black plu- 
 mage and his white pointed bill. If you should eat one you might 
 "confound" him but never with a duck. 
 
 In New England they often speak of a worthless fellow as 
 a "poor coot" but whatever of ill you mav say of him when he 
 is on land, you can never accuse him of being slow or awkward 
 when in his native element. If by any chance you pride yourself 
 upon your ability as a marksman, the coot may be able to convince 
 you to the contrary for if the word of some sportsmen can be 
 believed, the coot can actually dodge a bullet. Upon almost 
 any of the inland prairie lakes they may be seen either resting 
 upon-some projection in the shallow water or bobbing their heads 
 backward and forward as they swim to deeper water to find good 
 diving. 
 
Phalarope, 
 
 Order, Liniic<jlue. 
 
 Fanii ly , Phalaropodidae. 
 
 2 24. WILSON'S PHALAROPE. Steganopus tricolor. Nine Inches 
 long. Very long, delicate bill. Swimmers as well as waders. Blue- 
 gray above. Brown below. Black stripes along the sides ot head and 
 neck. Female does the love-making. The male does the nest build- 
 ing and incubating. The lady phalarope is the real new woman among 
 the birds. 
 
Snipe and Sandpipers. 
 
 Order, Limic(jlae. 
 Family, Scolnpacidae. 
 
 264. CURLEW. Numeniiis Longirostris. Length nearly two 
 feet of which about seven inches is bill. Mostly buff-colored with 
 irregular streaks of black and light and dark chestnut. Bill curves 
 downward. 
 
 230. JACK SNIPE or WILSON'S SNIPE. Gallinago delicata. 
 Eleven inches long. Bill long and delicate. UpiJer parts striped with 
 buff and dull drab. Stripes black above. White below. Plumage 
 generally striped and spotted. Rather common around ponds and 
 lakes where he probes for food. 
 
 2 54. GREATER YELLOW LEGS. Totanus melanoleucus. 
 Thirteen and one half inches long. Black mottled with gray and 
 white above. Tail mostly white though marked with gray. White 
 below spotted and barred with black. 
 
 255. LESSER YELLOW LEGS. Totanus flavipes. Ten and one half 
 inches long. Black above with white marking. White below with 
 black marking. Tail white. A common wader. Almost identical 
 with the large variety except as to size. 
 
 228. WOODCOCK. Philohela minor. Eleven inches long. Very 
 long bill. Prominent eyes. Like the undertaker you can track him 
 by his holes in the ground. Mottled brown above. Brown below. A 
 favorite with hunters. Legs very yellow. 
 
 2 42. LEAST SANDPIPER. Tringa minutilla. Six Inches long. 
 A common wader. Best identified by its size. Dusky brown above. 
 Black toward the tail. Gray and white below. Active and easily 
 scared. Generally seen in flocks. 
 
 261. UPLAND PLOVER (Bartramian Sandpiper). Bartramia 
 Longicauda. Twelve inches long. Brown and gray above with more 
 or less black barring. Beneath white with buff stain. Bill and legs 
 yellow and long. Generally found on the open prairies away from 
 water. 
 
118 BIRDS OF THE WEST 
 
 263. SPOTTED SANDPIPER called "Tip-up". AcHHs macularia. 
 Seven and one half inches long. Brownish-olive above, white below 
 and spotted. The little fellows teeter up and down as they walk 
 about the edges of ponds searching for food. 
 
 CURLEAV. 
 
 A few years ago when the food value of game birds appealed 
 more strongly to me than their aesthetic value, I was shooting 
 ducks on the lakes in the sandhills of Nebraska. As a curlew 
 flew over I took a long-distance shot at it and crippled it. Such 
 a cry as it gave I have never heard before nor since. It was 
 such cries as that that caused the ancients to believe in the trans- 
 migration of souls. 
 
 Presently curlews began to come from every direction and 
 to fly in a circle above me, setting up such a weeping and wail- 
 ing that I would have given my day of anticipated sport if I 
 could have raised the wounded bird to the air again. Shy and 
 wary almost beyond belief they seemed to lose their fear and 
 come to their wounded comrade with an appeal to take their lives 
 as well. 
 
 AVhat on earth can be done with a wounded bird? Can you 
 look it in the eye and wring its neck? A man who can do that is 
 fit for treason. And the echo of that cry! Twenty years has 
 not dulled it. 
 
 An aquatic bird with bill adapted to fishing for small sea 
 food, it strangely comes in great numbers to spend the summer 
 in the loneliest part of the prairies, the sandhills of Nebraska 
 and the Bad Lands of Dakota. It seems to court solitude, to steal 
 from the rapture of the lonely shore to the pleasure of the path- 
 less prairies and the silence of the inland sand dunes. Surely 
 no bird is better suited to be the genius of solitary places. 
 
 UPLAND PLOVER (BARTRAMIAN SANDPIPER). 
 
 It seems almost like fate that a bird like the plover that 
 has done so much for man should be so rapidly passing. In the 
 grasshopper times no agency was so effective and none cost as 
 little. It was worth its weight in gold and I think that is the rea- 
 son that one variety is called the golden plover. Anyone who has 
 been in Dakota long, can remember when there was a plover on 
 
BIRDS OF THE WEST 119 
 
 almost every fence post. He can remember the plover call, the 
 flight on trembling wings and as he alighted on the post, how 
 carefully he adjusted his wings as though every feather must 
 be perfectly placed. What slender legs and tiny neck. What a 
 prim little body ! But how rare ! 
 
 Sportsmen have bagged about all of them and would go on 
 bagging and bagging until there is never a quail or a chicken or 
 a plover left. The plover should be restored to his rightful place 
 in the field. How often you have seen it fly about the dog in 
 order to entice him away from either its nest or its yoimg. Nest, 
 did I say? Hardly a nest but a little depression wallowed in 
 the grass and jammed full with four good big pointed eggs that 
 seem to me to be every bit as big as the bird's body. I would not 
 believe for a long time that the little fellow laid the muddy look- 
 ing things. What little rolls of fuzz come out of them too! 
 Pretty little babies they are — one of the triumphs of creative art. 
 The plover is a dainty morsel for the epicure but only a 
 mouthful for the glutton who generally gets him. It is murder 
 to kill a plover, murder in the first degree, with malice afore- 
 thought, as cool and deliberate as the aim that lays him low. 
 Civilization (if it is) takes its toll. As it comes westward it 
 carries evil and death with it and mars and scars the beautiful face 
 of things. No more rag-dolls for our babies that they may have 
 something to make their little minds work (The little boy in 
 "Helen's Babies" didn't like "boughten dollies") but they open 
 and close their eyes now and when you press them they cry 
 ''Mamma," "Mamma". In a little while they'll sulk and get 
 to swearing. 
 
 Let us make a plea for the plover, let us make it possible for 
 the children yet unborn to hear its whistle upon the mooiiand 
 calling them forth to tune their hearts with Nature. Let them 
 no more hear the "Bang! Bang! Bang!" that all too soon is mak- 
 ing a silent prairie. 
 
Avocet. 
 
 Order, Liniicolae. 
 Family, Recurvirostridae. 
 
 225. AMERICAN AVOCBT. Recurvirostra Americana. Sixteen 
 inches long. Very long bill curved upward. Long-legged wader. 
 Head and neck pinkish brown. Wings black and white. A very 
 pretty, refined and delicate bird. 
 
Plovers. 
 
 Order, Lunicolae. 
 Family, Charadriidae. 
 
 272. GOLDEN PLOVER. Charadrius dominicus. Ten inches 
 long. Yellow and white spots on dull black above. Black below. 
 Black throat and face. 
 
 273. KILDEER. Aegialitis vocifera. About ten inches long. 
 Can be recognized by his call which he constantly repeats "killdeer, 
 killdeer, killdeer." The two black bands on white breast serve to 
 identify him. Long legs. Fast runner. 
 
Grouse and Quails. 
 
 Order, Gallinae. 
 Family, Tetraonidae. 
 
 Family Characteristics: Tliese are the wild types of our do- 
 mestic chicken. They have heavy, thick breasts, and short wings 
 used rapidly in flight. Their breeding habits are similar to those of 
 domestic fowl. They are most valuable game birds for food. Great 
 destroyers of hoppers and bugs. 
 
 305. PRAIRIE CHICKEN. Tympanuchus Americanus. A foot 
 and a half long. Heavy breast. Light brown above. Heavily barred 
 with black. Dull white below barred with brown. Small bunches of 
 large feathers hang from either side of the neck of the male bird. 
 Has air-sacs on the sides of throat. The favorite game bird of the 
 west. 
 
 30Sb. SHARP TAILED GROUSE. Pedioecetes phasianellus 
 campestris. Generally a little smaller and lighter than the prairie 
 chicken. Dull whitish below. Has no extra large feathers on neck 
 as the prairie chicken has. In other respects very similar. 
 
 309. SAGE HEN. Centrocereus urophasianus. About two feet 
 long. Mottled gray above barred with brown and black, yellow sacs 
 on sides of throat. Larger than others of its kind. Most common in 
 Wyoming and west of the Missouri River. Flesh tastes strongly of 
 wild sage except whien very young. Color drab, much mixed and 
 barred. 
 
 289. BOB WHITE. Colinus Virginianus. About ten inches long. 
 Male has white throat, female has yellow throat. Buff and brown 
 above and below with more or less black markings above. Calls his 
 name. 
 
 QUAIL or BOB WHITE. 
 
 Bob white is as trim a bird as you will see in a Sabbath 
 day's journey or even in a month of Sundays. It is too bad for 
 bim that he is so plump and still worse that he is so delicate a 
 morsel. As a matter of fact, he is only a morsel at best. Surely 
 quails must breed very fast to perpetuate themselves for there is 
 
BIRDS OP THE WEST 123 
 
 no bird that is in such constant danger. First of all, they nest 
 upon the ground and lay white eggs. That means that snakes and 
 squirrels have easy times finding them. Then in winter they 
 huddle together to keep warm, sitting in a compact circle with 
 their tails together, and they are often buried beneath the snow 
 and smothered. No bird is hunted by man more than they 
 are so that it is no wonder that they must lay a nest full of eggs 
 and if the mother is shot the little widower must climb upon 
 the nest and play mother. Pot-shooting is easy with them for 
 their great fondness for each other causes them to keep well 
 huddled, but no true sportsman could be guilty of taking a shot 
 at a flock sitting upon the ground. Why even the birds known 
 as fly-catchers catch their flies only on the wing. Hunting- 
 madness seems to be on the increase and unless something is done 
 to check it our game birds will be reduced to such small num- 
 bers that the day's shooting will bring small returns. 
 
 We are too ready to overlook the aesthetic value of game birds. 
 Some of our wild ducks are of wonderful beauty. In fact, it 
 is doubtful if the wood-duck has a rival. And bob white ! Who 
 says he is not a work of art? He is to birds what the speckled 
 trout is to fishes. 
 
 I should hate to think that the time is near when I shall not 
 see now and then a qiiail running in the roadside ahead of my 
 carriage and actually jumping to one side as I pass. 
 
 Bob white whistles his own name and should always be 
 called by the name he chooses for himself. 
 
Doves and Pigeons. 
 
 Order, Colnmlxxe. 
 Family, Columhidae. 
 
 Family Characteristics: "Dove-color" or soft irridescent brown- 
 ish drab. Rarely seen alone, generally in pairs or flocks. Rapid 
 fliers. Two white eggs at a sitting. Can be recognized from similar- 
 ity to our common pigeon. They have very large crops for birds of 
 their size and live mostly on the seeds of weeds. They are the far- 
 mer's best friend. 
 
 316. MOURNING DOVE. (Turtle Dove.) Zenaidura Macroura. 
 Length twelve inches. Bluish drab or "dove color" above. Breast 
 lighter. A sheen on neck the color of the iris flower. Black bill. 
 Red feet. 
 
 315. PASSENGER PIGEON. Ectopistes migratorius. So rare 
 that a description is not needed. The bird is almost extinct though 
 men living today can remember when flocks of them almost obscured 
 the sunlight. Their nesting in colonies made them easy prey for 
 gunners. 
 
 MOURNING DOVE (TURTLE DOVE). 
 
 There are birds as well as blossoms that follow m the trail 
 of the traveler, and many of them have shared with the settler 
 the difficulties and the dangers of readjustment. How much 
 longer, I wonder, will it take the mourning dove to learn that she 
 must build a better nest if she would rear her young where the 
 Dakota zephyrs outmoan her? Thousands of their nests are 
 scattered by "every stormy wind that blows," and many a pair 
 of bare babies fall to earth, never to rise again. It doubtless took 
 them decades to become "as wise as serpents" and to change the 
 location of their "wiekyups" from the ground to the trees in 
 order to save their babies from being swallowed alive, and by the 
 time they learn the capers of our winds, nature may temper the 
 storms until they become as "harmless as doves." The winds 
 can't blow always, you know. Nothing does. 
 
BIRDS OP THE WEST 125 
 
 The dove and his mate are more constant than you and 
 your shadow, for they are chummy in the darkest days, and I 
 think if Lovey should die Dovey would die, too. Don't you? 
 Did you ever see them billiu^u' and cooing? No? Then you don't 
 know what love is. 
 
 Next to loving, doves like weed seed anct nine thousand seeds 
 of ragweed or hawkweed or foxtail or pigeon grass are often 
 gathered by a dove in a day. On a single Dakota farm a ton of 
 weed seed goes to furnish a season's food for the doves. Alas, the 
 farmers never pay the dove debt. It is a charge, I fear, a charge 
 of shot, that the dove too often gets, for there is almost a whole 
 mouthful of meat on the little fellow's breast, don't you know? 
 
 It is too bad that they are so trustful. And how ready the 
 mother is to sacrifice her life for the little one.s ! If you approach 
 her nest while she has her two white eggs or her fledgelings under 
 her wings, she will tumble to earth, as much as to say, "Take me! 
 See, I cannot fly!" and if you follow her she will lure you away 
 where you belong, for you have little right to intrude upon her 
 nursery. 
 
 The dove isn't vain, he isn't pretty enough. He is content 
 just to be good. He is so awkward that if the wind blows at all 
 he has all he can do to keep his balance on a fence wire. He is 
 not very smart, either, and is generally at the foot of his class in 
 school, but he is industrious, and he is good and that is something, 
 isn't it? 
 
 In "Locksley Hall" it says: 
 "In the spring a fuller crimson comes upon the robin's breast; 
 In the spring the wanton lapwing gets himself another crest ; 
 In the spring a livelier iris comes upon the burnished dove ; 
 In the spring a j^oung man's fancy lightly turns to thoughts ol 
 
 love." 
 
 You see that the dove, with the awakened world, feels the 
 spirit of the springtime, for when he comes there is "calling, 
 cooing, wooing everywhere," and he is always the dove of peace, 
 the bearer of the myrtle. 
 
Vultures, 
 
 Order, Haptores. 
 Family, Cathartidae. 
 
 3 2 5. TURKEY VULTURE. Cathartes Aura. Two and one-kalf 
 feet long. A scavenger among the birds, the "buzzard" is beautiful 
 in inverse ratio to its distance from you. As it soars on easy flight 
 very high above you it is grace itself. Near you it is repulsive. Its 
 head is unfeathered, its color black, and its habits untidy. It resides 
 where it can iind the most carrion. 
 
Hawks and Eagles. 
 
 Order, Raptores, 
 Family, Falconidae. 
 
 Family Characteristics: Large, ferocious birds with curved talons 
 and beak for grasping and tearing their prey. They feed upon 
 gophers, field mice, birds, snakes, lizards, frogs and grasshoppers 
 with an occasional meal of domestic fowl, that delicacy being a 
 favorite meal only of Cooper's hawk, the sharp-shinned hawk and 
 the goshawk. 
 
 360. SPARROW HAWK. Falco sparverius. The size of a robin. 
 A common prairie hawk. Cheeks with black stripes. Barred brown 
 above. Top of head blue. Cries "killy, killy." 
 
 331. MARSH HARRIER. Circus hudsonius. Twenty inches long. 
 A ruff about the face like an owl's. Brownish gray streaked with 
 white above, with white patch on lower back. Bristles at base of 
 bill. Under parts white specked with brown. Plies low and slowly 
 over marshes. A very valuable hawk and the farmer's friend. 
 
 3 3 9. RED SHOULDERED HAWK. Buteo Uneatus. Eighteen 
 inches long. Dull red breast and shoulders lightly barred. Darker 
 above. Black tail, barred with white. 
 
 3 37b. RED-TAILED HAWK. Buteo borealis calurus. Twenty 
 inches long. Dull red tail, banded near the end with black or brown 
 and white. Brown above, dull white or buff below; varies greatly in 
 plumage. 
 
 3 3 3. COOPER'S HAWK. Accipiter Cooperii. Sixteen Inches 
 long. Our common "chicken hawk." White below spotted with 
 brown. Black on top of head. Back bluish gray. Tail with three 
 or four black bands and rounded at the end. Tip white. Should be 
 shot if any hawks deserve shooting. 
 
 334. AMERICAN GOSHAWK. Accipiter atricapillus. Twenty two 
 inches long. Whitish below with irregular gray markings. Bluish- 
 drab above. Black on head. Tail banded below. A first class villain. 
 
 33 2. SHARP-SHINNED HAWK. Accipiter velox. An Inch longer 
 than the robin. Dull bluish brown above. White below with brown 
 
128 BIRDS OP THE WEST 
 
 spots and bars. Tail with three or four bands of black and white 
 at the tip with short wings and long tail, he is a rapid dods»r and 
 a terror to small birds. He needs a gun. 
 
 3 4 2. SWAINSON'S HAWK. Buteo Swainsonii. Twenty inches 
 long. A prairie hawk. White beneath with brown band across Its^ 
 breast. Throat white. Tail fully banded. One of the most valuable 
 birds on earth and perfectly harmless. 
 
 327. SWALLOW-TAILED KITE. Elanoides forficatus. Twenty- 
 one inches long. Blue-black above except head. Head and under- 
 neath pure white. Tail forked. 
 
 3 4 8. ROUGH-LEGGED HAWK. Archihuteo ferrugineus. Twen- 
 ty-two and a half inches long. White below streaked with brown, 
 especially on flanks. Reddish brown above. Tall white. Called 
 "squirrel hawk." 
 
 349. GOLDEN EAGLE. Aquila chrysaetus. Thirty-three Inches 
 long. Head and neck golden on the back. Plumage brown. Tail 
 mostly white. Legs with white feathers. Young birds generally 
 darker than older ones. 
 
 352. BALD EAGLE. Haliaetus leucocephalus. Thirty-three Inches 
 long. Head and neck white. Body brownish. Beak yellow. Tall 
 rounded. Our national bird. 
 
 GOLDEN EAGLE. 
 
 This, the king of birds, favorite of Jove, the thunderer, 
 messenger of that great god of the Romans who sat upon Olympus' 
 height, that was borne by Roman soldiers upon the tops of their 
 standards that like flags were carried before the Roman legions, 
 was the type of all that was watchful, brave and daring. 
 
 The Indian takes "Eagle" for his name, wears its feathers 
 on his war dress and tips his arrows with them so that they 
 will fly straight to the heart of his enemy. 
 
 The eagle whose picture adorns our coins can whip any 
 living thing of its size. He is a fit emblem of our national life, for 
 he is quiet and peaceful except in matters of business, when he 
 always gets what he goes after. 
 
 On the edge of the Bad Lands, I once climbed a precipice to 
 see an eagle's nest. It was hard and dangerous climbing and I 
 should never dare do it again. At last I reached the eyrie where 
 two very yoimg eaglets were resting in their feather-lined nest 
 of coarse twigs laid flat upon the edge of the precipice. I was 
 
BLUE JAY 
 
 Order —Passeres 
 
 Genus^-CVANOCITTA 
 
 Family; — CoRviD^ 
 Species— Cristata 
 
BIRDS OP THE WEST 129 
 
 watching the curved beaks of the eaglets when I heard a rush of 
 wings like the storm-wind and a snap of the old eagle's beak 
 that was as loud as the crack of a pistol. I had seen him circling 
 a mile or more above me but I did not dream that his eagle eye 
 was keeping watch over that little speck below. I clutched the 
 harder to the walls of the precipice and began my retreat expect- 
 ing every minute to hear the whirlwind of those mighty wings 
 again or to have my brains hanging from that hooked beak. 
 
 Eagles are getting scarcer every year. They are now found 
 only in the mountains and unsettled regions. Ranchmen shoot 
 them because they steal their lambs and Indians want their feathers 
 for adornment. Really they do but little harm, living mostly on 
 prairie chickens, prairie dogs and smaller mammals. We can 
 spare a few lambs to preserve the noblest of our birds. I fear 
 that modern methods of civilization would exterminate all forms 
 of life except what can be eaten. Think of a world of chickens 
 and geese and beeves and hogs and men! Why not save a few 
 things for sentiment's sake? 
 
 HAWKS. 
 
 There are three kinds of hawks that may as well be Idlled as 
 not. You may tell them by the fact that they wear mostly blue 
 feathers. They afe the sharp-shinned hawk, called the little 
 blue darter, and ten inches in length, Cooper's hawk or big 
 blue darter sixteen inches in length, and the goshawk or blue hen 
 hawk, twenty-two inches long. Add two inches to each of the 
 above and you will get the length of the females. 
 
 This trio of villains are pirates of the high winds. The 
 domestic chickens that they eat are of little consequence in com- 
 parison with the large number of useful song and game birds 
 whose hearts are actually pierced by their vicious claws and 
 whose throats are cut by their murderous beaks. Swift of wing 
 so that ducks going at one hundred miles an hour can be over- 
 taken and the most artful of dodgers, a trick learned fi-om chas- 
 ing smaller birds, there is little chance of escape for bird or beast 
 that starts on the race for life. 
 
 Such birds never sing, they give yells as piercing as their 
 claws. Like many little boys "they should be seen but not heard," 
 and they should be seen only long enough to permit a gun to be 
 
130 BIRDS OP THE WEST 
 
 properly pointed. They are birds of beauty, grace and dignity, 
 qualities which are worthy of a better character, but their pretty 
 plumage could be put to no better use than to furnish wings to 
 arrows that may quiver in their hearts, and it would be no more 
 than justice that the same plumage that warms their nests should 
 drink the last life drop of their bleeding breasts. 
 
Owls. 
 
 Order, Jiaptores. 
 Family, Hubonidae. 
 
 Family Characteristics: Large birds of prey with curved beak 
 and sharp, curved talons. Large faces with firmly set eyes. If you 
 walk around them they must turn their heads in order to see you. 
 Usually dull brown in color much mottled and their legs are generally 
 feathered. They live largely on rats and mice, grasshoppers and 
 snakes and are therefore of great value. The small amount of do- 
 mestic fowl that they eat is hardly worth notice. 
 
 3 7 6. SNOWY OWL. Nyctea nyctea. Two feet long. Mostly snow 
 white. Often mottled with drab. Very yellow eyes. Feathered socks. 
 
 3 7 8. BURROWING OWL. Speotyto cuniculario hypogaea. Most- 
 ly brown above. More or less white beneath. No horns. Does not 
 wear socks. You can tell him by his size and the place where you 
 find him. 
 
 3 7 5a. WESTERN HORNED OWL. Buljo Tirgiiiianus pallescens. 
 Twenty-two inches long. Named from the upright feathers that pro- 
 ject above the ears like horns. A genuine night owl. Mottled brown 
 above. Buffy white below. This is the owl that when the old maid 
 prayed for a husband asked "Who? Who?" to which the maid is said 
 to have replied. "Anybody good Lord". Both a bad and a good bird. 
 
 373. SCREECH OWL. Megascops asio. Nine inches long. Small 
 feathers projecting upward from the sides of the head suggesting horns. 
 Dull-brown plumage. Screech dismally at night. A very valuable aid 
 to the farmer. 
 
 368. BARRED OWL. Syrnium nehulosum. Twenty inches long. 
 Upper half of the bird barred with dark brown or whitish. Tail and 
 wings banded. Dark brown above. Streaked white below. 
 
 367. SHORT-EARED OWL. Asio Accipitrinus. Fifteen inches 
 long. A real prairie owl with short horns and yellow eyes. White 
 eye-brows and black ring about the eyes. Dark yellowish-brown above. 
 Buffy white below. Irregularly barred all over. 
 
132 BIRDS OF THE WEST 
 
 SNOWY OWL. 
 
 Many men stuff birds but none of them becomes a taxidermist 
 until he has put up a snowj' owl. Most of these birds that are 
 in our latitude are either in museums or private collections or 
 are soon to go there. 
 
 They make swell targets. They have two large owl's eyes 
 that are better than bull's eyes and outer rings around them too. 
 They are not fit for food unless it be for other owls, but for all 
 that they are just as good for targets. Why, I can think of noth- 
 ing that interferes with their target-value. I vpish that some- 
 body could. How would it be to enact a law that whoever shoots 
 one shall eat it? 
 
 They probably will not become extinct for some time for no 
 Arctic explorer has been far enough north as yet to get beyond 
 their range. What specters they must be in the Arctic nights to 
 the smaller inhabitants of the icy plains ! 
 
 As these owls depend for their food wholly upon what they 
 kill, they have become expert hunters. They can catch a duck 
 on the wing or a hare on the foot and many a fish loses his life 
 by venturing too near the little island of sea-weeds upon which a 
 snovsfy owl is sitting and singing "I'm waiting and watching for 
 thee. ' ' 
 
 I have a friend who started on a short trip with a cage con- 
 taining two owls, one a snowy owl and the other as near as I 
 could judge from his description a long eared owl. When he 
 arrived at his destination, he called a friend to see his owls. The 
 snowy owl was apparently all that the cage contained. Doubtless 
 if they could have seen what the snowy owl contained they would 
 have ceased to wonder. 
 
 Just west of the Missouri river in the least settled regions 
 he is a common visitor wearing his frostiest suit and feeding upon 
 the multitudes of sparrow-like birds that throng the open plains, 
 but as that region becomes more thickly settled, he will be driven 
 to the north or go to join the dodo and the auk and be gathered 
 to his feathered fathers and his patron saint, Minerva. Alas! 
 Wisdom i.si so rare ! 
 
BIRDS OF THE WEST 133 
 
 BURROWING 0\¥L. 
 
 This smallest of the owls is about the size of the robin but 
 being an owl, he is top-heavy and sits up like a judge. He really 
 takes himself seriously. Whenever I look one of them in the eye, 
 I feel like laughing at his apparent dignity. 
 
 He lives by the chase otherwise his eyes would not be in the 
 front of his head like a hen's. If sheep were in the habit of 
 chasing wolves, their eyes would be in front and wolves would 
 wear their eyes on the side. Man with his eyes in front has ever 
 been on the watch for something to prey upon. That's just as 
 sure as it is that a bird with a hooked beak like our little owl, 
 loves meat. I don't know whether this is also true of man or not. 
 
 An owl cannot make goo-goo eyes for the reason that he can- 
 not turn his eyes sideways. Did you ever try to walk around 
 one? If you noticed it you would recall that he had to turn his 
 whole head around to follow you. Did it not seem to you that 
 his head was on a pivot and could turn around and around and 
 around? Try the next one you see and see if you can't get him 
 to wring his neck off. 
 
 This little owl you will often see where there is a prairie- 
 dog town and there are many people who will tell you that there 
 can be found at the bottom of its hole a happy family of rattle- 
 snakes, prairie-dogs and owls. No doubt the three are at times 
 in the same hole but at such times the prairie-dog is inside the owl 
 and the owl inside the rattlesnake. 
 
 You may be tempted to inquire why this little owl chooses 
 to make its home in the deserted burrow of the prairie-dog but 
 you must remember that he lays many white eggs and hatches 
 out many hungrj^ little owls, so you should not blame him for 
 getting a home with as little labor as possible, and placing it in 
 the heart of the city whose inhabitants when young are such fine 
 food. And how interesting is this little fowl with his brood of 
 owlets sunning themselves at the mouth of their burrow! Tou 
 may be sure that it keeps the prairie-dogs as busy as guinea pigs 
 to raise enough little pups to feed them. Don't shoot this little 
 bunch of feathers on stilts. He eats rats, mice, gophers, and 
 never anything that you would eat anyway. 
 
 Except as to his diet the owl is always overrated. He is 
 
134 BIRDS OP THE WEST 
 
 never as big as he looks for he is mostly fuss and feathers and 
 I fear that he is rather tough. At least I have heard that charge 
 made against the boiled owl. He doesn't know very much in spite 
 of his reputed wisdom. He just looks wise, and has his counter- 
 part in the big-headed, goggle-eyed, long haired variety of sages 
 that like the moping owd of Gray complain mostly to the moon. 
 
Non-Game Birds, 
 
 Arranged by colors to assist in identification. 
 
 Black. American Eaven, Common Crow, Bronzed Crackle, 
 Purple Crackle, Cowbird, Rusty Blackbird, Brewer's Blackbird, 
 Purple Martin. 
 
 Black-white. Lark Bunting, Bobolink, Hairy Woodpecker, 
 Downy Woodpecker, Snowflake, Rose-breasted Grosbeak in flight, 
 BlackpoU Warbler, Black-and-white Creeping Warbler, Magpie, 
 Red-headed Woodpecker. 
 
 Black-red. Scarlet Tanager, Red-winged Blackbird, Red- 
 headed Woodpecker, Chewink, Rose-breasted Grosbeak, Orchard 
 Oriole. 
 
 Black-yellow. Yellow-headed Blackbird, Goldfinch, Evening 
 Grosbeak, Northern Yellowthroat. 
 
 Black-orange. Baltimore Oriole, Redstart. 
 
 Blue. Indigo Bird, Blue Jaj', Bluebird, Kingfisher. 
 
 Blue-gray. Mourning Dove. 
 
 Brown. Brown Thrasher, Fox Sparrow. 
 
 Brown-olive. AVood Thrush, Hermit Thrush, Wilson's 
 Thrush, Olive-backed Thrush. 
 
 Brown-gray. House Wren, Winter Wren, Marsh Wren, 
 Whippoorwill, Cedar Waxwing. 
 
 Gray. Cat-bird, Chimney Swift, Juneo, Night-hawk. 
 
 Gray-black. Chickadee, Northern Shrike, Loggerhead Shrike. 
 
 Gray with whitish breast. Kingbird, Phoebe, Wood Pewee, 
 Olive-sided Flycatcher, Least Flycatcher, Canada Jay, Mocking- 
 birds Tufted Titmouse, Bank Swallow, Black-billed Cuckoo, 
 Yellow-billed Cuckoo, White-breasted Nuthatch, Lapland Long- 
 spur. 
 
 Olive with light olive breast. Golden-crowned Kinglet, Ruby- 
 crowned Kinglet, Red-eyed Vireo, Philadelphia Vireo, Wai'bling 
 Vireo, Prairie Warbler, Arkansas Kingbird. 
 
136 BIRDS OP THE WEST 
 
 Red-headed. Red-headed "Woodpecker, Northern Flicker, 
 Red-shafted Flicker, Downy Woodpecker, Hairy Woodpecker, 
 Ruby-crowned Kinglet. 
 
 Red or reddish. Cardinal Grosbeak, Red Crossbill, Redpoll, 
 Purple Finch, Orchard Oriole, Robin Redbreast. 
 
 Red-white-black. Rose-breasted Grosbeak, Red-headed Wood- 
 pecker. 
 
 Slate. Junco. 
 
 Slate-yellow-white. Myrtle Warbler, Parula Warbler, Black- 
 throated Blue Warbler. 
 
 Sparrow-like. Chipping Sparrow, English Sparrow, Field 
 Sparrow, Grasshopper Sparrow, Song Sparrow, Tree Sparrow, 
 White-crowned Sparrow, White-throated Sparrow, Lapland Long- 
 spur. 
 
 Yellow. Yellow W^arbler. Nearly all warblers have some 
 yellow. 
 
 Yellow-breasted. Meadow-lark, Prairie Horned Lark, Dick- 
 cissel. Yellow-breasted Chat, Blaekburnian Warbler, Arkansas 
 Kinebird. 
 
INDEX 
 
 A 
 
 Avocet. American 120 
 
 B 
 
 Baldpate 10 6 
 
 Bee-bird, same as King-bird 37 
 
 Bittern, American Ill 
 
 — Least Ill 
 
 Blackbird, Brewer 4 8 
 
 — Redwing 4 8 
 
 — Rusty 48 
 
 — Yellow-headed 4 8 
 
 Bluebill 106 
 
 Bluebird 93 
 
 Bobolink 4 9 
 
 Bob-white 122 
 
 Brant, see Goose 107 
 
 Bufflehead 106 
 
 Bunting, Indigo 58 
 
 — L,ark 58 
 
 Butcher-bird, see Shrike 75 
 
 Butterball, see Bufflehead 10 6 
 
 Buzzard, see Vulture 126 
 
 c 
 
 Camp-robber, see Canada Jay 43 
 
 Canary, Wild see Yellow Warbler 78 
 
 Canvasback 106 
 
 Catbird 84 
 
 Chebec, see Least Flycatcher 37 
 
 Chewink 58 
 
 Chickadee 89 
 
 Coot, American 115 
 
 Cowbird 48 
 
 Crane, Blue see Great Blue Heron Ill 
 
 — Whooping 113 
 
 — Sandhill 113 
 
 Crow, American 43 
 
 Crossbill, American 58 
 
138 INDEX 
 
 Cuckoo, Black-billed 2 4 
 
 — Yellow-billed 2 4 
 
 Curlew - - 117 
 
 D 
 
 Dickcissel 58 
 
 Dove, Mourning 124 
 
 — Turtle, see Mourning Dove 124 
 
 Duck, Baldpate 10 6 
 
 — Bluebill : 106 
 
 — Blue-winged Teal 105 
 
 — Bufflebead 10 6 
 
 — Canvasback —.10 6 
 
 — Cinnamon Teal 105 
 
 — Gadwall 106 
 
 — Golden-eye — 107 
 
 — Mallard 10 5 
 
 — Pintail — 10 6 
 
 — Redhead 106 
 
 — Ruddy - 107 
 
 — Scaup, see Bluebill 106 
 
 — Spoonbill - 10 5 
 
 — Widgeon 10 6 
 
 — Wood - 106 
 
 E 
 
 Eagle, Bald 128 
 
 — Golden 128 
 
 F 
 
 Fish Duck, see Mergansers 107 
 
 Flicker, Northern ; 28 
 
 — Red-shafted 28 
 
 Flycatcher, Crested 3 7 
 
 — Least 37 
 
 — Olive-sided 37 
 
 Fly-up-the-creek, see American Bittern Ill 
 
 G 
 
 Gadwall ..10 6 
 
 Goatsucker, see Nighthawk 32 
 
 Golden-eye 107 
 
 Goldfinch 58 
 
 Goose, Canada 10 7 
 
 — Snow 10 7 
 
 Grackle, Bronzed „.. 4 8 
 
INDEX 139 
 
 — Purple 4 9 
 
 Grebe, Eared _- 9 8 
 
 — Holboell's see Red-necked Grebe 98 
 
 — Red-necked 9 8 
 
 — Pied-billed 98 
 
 Grosbeak, Cardinal 5 9 
 
 — Evening 58 
 
 — Pine 59 
 
 — Rose-reasted 5 8 
 
 Grouse, Sharp-tailed 12 2 
 
 Gull, Bonaparte's 101 
 
 — Franklin's 101 
 
 H 
 
 Hair-bird, see Chipping Sparrow. 56 
 
 Hawk, American Goshawk 127 
 
 — Cooper's 127 
 
 — Marsh 127 
 
 — Red-shouldered 127 
 
 — Red-tailed 12 7 
 
 — Rough-legged 128 
 
 — Sharp-shinned 127 
 
 — Sparrow 127 
 
 — Swainson's 128 
 
 HeroB, Black-crowned Night Ill 
 
 — Great Blue Ill 
 
 — Little Green Ill 
 
 High-hole, see Flicker 28 
 
 High-holder, see Flicker 28 
 
 Hummingbird, Ruby-throated 36 
 
 J 
 
 Jack-snipe •- 11'? 
 
 Jay, Blue ^3 
 
 — Canada 43 
 
 Junco 5 7 
 
 K 
 
 Killdeer 121 
 
 Kingbird, Arkansas 3 7 
 
 — Bee-bird .. 37 
 
 Kingfisher, Belted 26 
 
 Kinglet, Golden-crowned 91 
 
 — Ruby-crowned 91 
 
 Kite, Swallow-tailed 128 
 
140 IJNDEX 
 
 L 
 
 Lark, Meadow - 4 9 
 
 — Prairie Horned 41 
 
 Longspur, Lapland 5 7 
 
 Loon 100 
 
 M 
 
 Magpie 43 
 
 Mallard 105 
 
 Martin, Purple 69 
 
 Meadow Lark 4 9 
 
 Merganser, American 10 7 
 
 — Hooded 107 
 
 — Red-breasted 107 
 
 Mocking-bird 84 
 
 Moose-bird, see Canada Jay 43 
 
 Mud-hen, see Coot and Grebe 115, 98 
 
 N 
 
 Nighthawk . 3 2 
 
 Nuthatch, Red-breasted 89 
 
 — White-breasted 8 9 
 
 o 
 
 Oriole, Baltimore - 49 
 
 — Orchard 4 9 
 
 Ovenbird 79 
 
 Owl, Barred .131 
 
 — Burrowing .131 
 
 — Screech 131 
 
 — Short-eared 131 
 
 — Snowy 131 
 
 — Western Horned 131 
 
 P 
 
 Pelican, White !....103 
 
 Pewee, Wood 37 
 
 Phalarope, Wilson's 116 
 
 Phoebe 3 7 
 
 Pigeon, Passenger .- 124 
 
 Pintail 106 
 
 Plover, Golden 12 1 
 
 — Upland, see Bartramian Sandpiper 117 
 
 Prairie Chicken 122 
 
 Purple Pinch 57 
 
INDEX 141 
 
 Q 
 
 Quail see Bob-white . 122 
 
 E, 
 
 Rail, Carolina 11.") 
 
 — Virginia 11 r> 
 
 Raincrow, see Cuclvoo _ 24 
 
 Raven, Northern 4o 
 
 Redhead 10 6 
 
 Redpoll 5 8 
 
 Redstart 7 8 
 
 Reed Bird, see Bobolink 49 
 
 Ricebird, see Bobolink 49 
 
 Robin 93 
 
 S 
 
 Sage-hen 122 
 
 Sandpiper, Bartramian 117 
 
 — Least 117 
 
 — Spotted lis 
 
 Sapsucker 2 8 
 
 Sawbill 107 
 
 Scaup, see Bluebill 106 
 
 Shrike, Northern 7ri 
 
 — Loggerhead 7Fi 
 
 Snipe, Jack 117 
 
 — Wilson's 117 
 
 Snowflake 5 7 
 
 Sparrow, Chipping _. 5 6 
 
 — English 'i6 
 
 — Field .... "6 
 
 — Fox 5 6 
 
 — Grasshopper 57 
 
 — Song 5G 
 
 — Tree 5 7 
 
 — Vesper 5 7 
 
 — White-crowned 5 7 
 
 — White-throated 5 7 
 
 Spoonbill 10 5 
 
 Stake-driver, see American Bittern Ill 
 
 Swallow, Bank 6 9 
 
 — Barn 69 
 
 — Chimney, see Swift 69 
 
 — Cliff, see Eaves 69 
 
 — Eaves .. 69 
 
 — Tree 69 
 
142 INDEX 
 
 Swan, Trumpeter 107 
 
 — Whistling 107 
 
 Swift, Chimney 34 
 
 T 
 
 Teal, Blue-winged 105 
 
 — Cinnamon .105 
 
 — Green-winged 10 5 
 
 Tern, Black 101 
 
 — Forster 101 
 
 Thistlebird, see Goldfinch ., 58 
 
 Thrasher, Brown 84 
 
 Thrush, Golden-crowned 93 
 
 — Hermit 93 
 
 — Olive-backed ..; 93 
 
 — Wilson's 93 
 
 — Wood .- 93 
 
 Thunderpump, see American Bittern Ill 
 
 Tip-up, see Spotted Sandpiper 118 
 
 Titmouse, Tufted 89 
 
 Towhee, See Chewink 58 
 
 V 
 
 Veery, see Wilson^s Thrush 93 
 
 Vireo, Philadelphia 77 
 
 — Red-eyed 77 
 
 — Warbling 77 
 
 — White-eyed 77 
 
 Vulture 126 
 
 w 
 
 Warbler, Blackburnian 78 
 
 ( — BlackpoU _ 79 
 
 — Black-throated Blue 78 
 
 — Black-and-white Creeping 79 
 
 — Myrtle 78 
 
 — Parula 79 
 
 — Prairie 79 
 
 — Yellow Yg 
 
 Waxwing, Cedar Y3 
 
 Whippoorwill 32 
 
 Widgeon ^qq 
 
 Woodcock -^ij 
 
 Wood Duck -^Qg 
 
 Woodpecker, Downy 28 
 
 — Golden-winged, see Flicker -. 28 
 
INDEX 143 
 
 — Hairy 2 8 
 
 — Red-headed 28 
 
 Wren, House 87 
 
 — Marsh 8 7 
 
 — Winter 8 7 
 
 Y 
 
 Yarup, see Flicker 28 
 
 Yellowlegs, Greater 117 
 
 — Lesser 117 
 
 Yellowthroat, Northern 7 8