BI RD ^^^ An Introductory Acquciint"ance iiiith One Hundred and Fifty of Our Common Birds : DOUBLED AY, PAGE • AND COMPANY • Cornell Lab 0/ Ornithology y Adelson Library at Sapsucker Woods lluscrarion of Bank Swallow by Louis Agassi; Fuerres CORNELL UNIVERSITY LIBRAHY 3 1924 090 113 758 '¥}. 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/cu31924090113758 BIRD NEIGHBORS AMERICAN GOLDFINCH. y& Life-size. BIRD NEIGHBORS, an INTRODUCTORY ACQUAINTANCE WITH ONE HUNDRED AND FIFTY BIRDS COMMONLY FOUND IN THE GARDENS, MEADOWS, AND WOODS ABOUT OUR HOMES BY NELTJE BLANCHAN WITH INTRODUCTION BY JOHN BURROUGHS WITH MANY PHOTOGRAPHIC ILLUSTRATIONS IN COLOR AND IN BLACK AND WHITE NEW YORK DOUBLEDAY, PAGE & COMPANY 1908 oRkO(TM Copyright, 1904, by Doubleday, Page & Company Copyright, 1897, by Doubleday & McClure Company Colored plates copyrighted, 1897, by The Nature Study Publishing Company Chicago, III, TABLE OF CONTENTS Introductory Remarks to "The Nature Library" Introduction by John Burroughs .... Preface List of Colored Plates List of Half-Tone Plates I. Bird Families: Their Characteristics and the Representatives of Each Family included in " Bird Neighbors " II. Habitats of Birds III. Seasons of Birds IV. Birds Grouped According to Size . V. Descriptions of Birds Grouped According to Color Birds Conspicuously Black .... Birds Conspicuously Black and White . Dusky, Gray, and Slate-colored Birds Blue and Bluish Birds Brown, Olive or Grayish Brown, and Brown and Gray Sparrowy Birds .... Green, Greenish Gray, Olive, and Yellowish Olive Birds . Birds Conspicuously Yellow and Orange Birds Conspicuously Red of any Shade . Index PAGE vii xvii xix xxi xxiii I «7 25 33 39 51 65 97 "3 167 187 213 229 THE NATURE LIBRARY AND WHAT IT MEANS TO THE READER BY JOHN BURROUGHS THE NATURE LIBRARY By JOHN BURROUGHS I DO NOT propose in these introductory remarks to this Nature Library to discuss the merits or the character of the sepa- rate volumes further than to say that they are all by competent hands and, so far as I can judge, entirely reliable. While accu- rate and scientific, I have found them very readable. The treat- ment is popular without being sensational. This library is free from the scientific dry rot on the one hand and from the florid and misleading romanticism of much recent nature writing on the other. It is a safe guide to the world of animal and plant life that lies about us. And that is all the wise reader wants. He should want to explore this world for himself. Indeed, nature-study, as it appeals to us in books, fails of its chief end if it does not send us to nature itself. What we want is not the mere facts about the flowers or the animals — we want through them to add to the resources of our lives; and I know of nothing better calculated to do this than the study of nature at first hand. To add to the resources of one's life — think how much that means! To add to those things that make us more at home in the world; that help guard us against ennui and stagnation; that invest the country with new interest and enticement; that make every walk in the fields or woods an excursion into a land of unexhausted treasures; that make the returning seasons fill us with expectation and delight; that make every rod of ground like the page of a book in which new and strange things may be read; in short, those things that help keep us fresh and sane and young, and make us immune to the strife and fever of the world. The main thing is to feel an interest in Nature — an interest that leads to a loving unconscious study of her. Not entirely a scientific interest, but a human interest as well ; science upon the one hand and an appreciation of the mystery, the beauty, and the bounty of life upon the other. The child feels a human inter- The Nature Library est in nature: when the schoolgirls come to school with their hands full of wild flowers, or the boys make excursions to the woods in May for wintergreens, or black birch, or crinkle root, they are all moved by an interest that is old and deep-seated in the race. Now, if to this interest and curiosity we can add a little science, just enough to guide them, we lift these feelings to another plane and give them a longer lease of life. The boy will not be so likely to rob birds' nests after the savage in him has been humanized by a touch of real knowledge and he has come to look upon the bird as something worthy of naming and studying and that ihas its place in the economy of the fields and woods. A touch of real knowledge — how humanizing and elevating it is! Simply to learn that all the plants have been studied and named, even the humblest ; that they all have vital relations with one another — family ties; that the great biological laws are operative in them also; that the deep, mysterious principle of variation, which is at the bottom of Darwin's theory of the origin of the species, is working in the lowliest plant we tread upon ; to know that the chain of cause and effect runs through the whole organic world, binding together its remotest parts; that every- where is plan, development, evolution — to know these and kin- dred things — a few of the fundamentals of science — is a joy to the spirit and a light to the mind. Science in the world is like the surveyor and the engineer in a new country; it opens up highways for the mind; it bridges the chasms and marshes; it gives us dominion over the wild; it brings order out of chaos. What a maze, what a tangle the world is till we come to look upon it with the clews and solu- tions in mind which science affords! The heavens seem a haphazard spatter of stars, the earth a wild jumble of plants, and animals, and blind forces all struggling with one another — con- fusion, contradiction, failure everywhere. And so it was to the early men, and so it still is to those who have not the light of science, but so it need not remain to the child born into the world to-day. The great mysteries of life and death, of final causes and ultimate ends, still remain and will continue, but nature now, compared with the nature of a few centuries ago, is like a land subdued and peopled and cultivated compared with a pathless wilderness. The Nature Library And yet I would not in this connection, when considering the field of natural history, lay too much stress upon the scientific aspects of the question. To the real nature-lover the bird in the bush is worth much more than the bird in the hand, because the nature-lover is not after a specimen: he is after a living fact; he is after a new joy in life. It is an important part, but by no means the main part of what ornithology holds for us, to be able to name every bird on sight or call. To love the bird, to appreciate its place in the landscape and in the season, to relate it to your daily life, to divine its character, to know it emotionally in your heart — that is much more. To know the birds as the sportsman knows his game; to experience the same thrill, purged of all thoughts of slaughter; to make their songs music in your life — this is indeed something to be desired. The same with botany. I regard its class-room uses as very slight. The educational value of the technical part is almost nil. But the humanizing value of a love of the flowers, the hygienic value of a walk in their haunts, the aesthetic value of the observation of their forms and tints — these are all vital. The scientific value which attaches to your knowledge of the names of their parts or of their families — what is that ? Their habits are interesting; their means of fertilization are interesting; the part insects play in their lives — the honey-yielders, the poUen-yielders, their means of scattering their seeds, and so forth — all are interest- ing. To know their habitats and seasons; to have associations with them when you go fishing; to land your trout in a bed of bee- palm or jewel- weed; to pluck the linnsea in the moss on the Adirondack mountain you are climbing; to gather pond-lilies from a boat with your friend; to pluck the arbutus on the first balmy day of April; to see the scarlet lobelia lighting up a dark nook by the stream as you row by in August; to walk or drive past vast acres of purple loosestrife, looking like a lake or sea of color — this is botany with something back of it, and the only place to learn it is where it grows. The botany that trails the days and the season and the woods and the fields with it — ^that is the kind that has educational value in it. I confess 1 have not much sympathy with the laboratory study of nature, except for economic purposes. Nature under the dissecting knife and the microscope yields important secrets xi The Nature Library to the Students of biology, but the unprofessional students want but little of all this. I know a young woman who took a post- graduate course in biology at a noted summer school, and the one thing she learned was that certain bacilli were found only in the aqueous humor of the eyes of white mice. The world is full of curious facts like that, that have no human interest or educational value whatever. If one could number all the trees of the forest and all the leaves upon the trees, what would it profit him? To know the different kinds of trees when you see them, and the func- tion of the leaves upon them — that were more worth while. I have read studies of leaves that were just as profitless as to know their numbers. I have heard discourses upon the changes in the plumage of certain water-fowl from youth to age, and from one moult to another, that were as profitless and weari- some as studying the variations of the leaves or their numbers. I hardly know why 1 am impatient when people come to me with their hands full of different leaves and ask me what tree is this from, and this, and this ? If your business is not with trees, if you live in the city and care mainly for city things, why bother about the trees, unless for the pleasure of it during your summer excursions into the country; and if it affords you pleasure, you will not want any one to tell you : you will want to identify the trees themselves. The same with the birds. The main profit of this branch of natural history is in the pursuit — not in the name, but in the bird. It is the chase that allures the sportsman, and it is the chase that profits the nature-student. Did you ever receive a gift of brook- trout by express? How pitiful they look — stale fish only! But the trout you brought in at night after threading for miles the mountain stream: its voice all day in your ears; its sparkle all day in your eyes; the love of its beauty and purity all day in your heart; wading through bee-balm or jewel-weed; skirting wild pastures; starting the grouse or the woodcock with their young; surprising bird and beast at their home occupations — these were trout with a flavor. Whatever opens up new doors or windows for us into the world about us, whatever widens the field of our interests and sympathies, has some sort of value — moral, intellectual, or aesthetic. But much of the so-called nature-study opens no new The Nature Library doors or windows; it affords no mental satisfaction, or illumin- ation, or aesthetic pleasure ; it is mainly pottering with dry, unim- portant facts and details. Do you know the edelweiss of our own matchless arbutus after you have merely analyzed and classified them ? No more than you know a man after having weighed and measured him. The function of things is always interesting. What do they do ? How do they pay their way in the rigid economy of nature ? How do they survive ? How does the bulb of the common fawn-lily' get deeper and deeper into the ground each year ? Why does the wild ginger hide its blossom when nearly all other plants flaunt theirs ? Why are the plants of the common mouse-ear {antennartaY always in groups, one sex here, another there, as if prohibited from mingling by some moral code in nature ? Why do nearly all our trees have a twist to the right or the left — hard woods one way, and soft woods the other ? Why do the roots of trees flow through the ground like "runnels of molten metal," often separating and uniting again, while the branches are thrust out in right lines or curves ? Why is our common yellow birch more often than any other tree planted upon a rock ? Why do oaks or chestnuts so often spring up where a pine or hemlock forest has been cleared away ? Why does lightning so commonly strike a hemlock tree or a pine or an oak, and rarely or never a beech ? Why does the bolt sometimes scatter the tree about, and at others only plow a channel down its trunk ? Why does the bumblebee complain so loudly when working upon certain flowers ? Why does the honey-bee lose the sting when it stings a person, while the wasp, the hornet, and the bumblebee do not ? How does the chimney-swallow get the twigs it builds its nest with ? From what does the hornet make its paper ? One of Herbert Spencer's questions was. Why do animals and birds of prey have their eyes in front, and others, as sheep and domestic fowl, on the side of the head ? Man, then, by the position of his eyes belongs to the predaceous animals. I have never been greatly interested in spiders, but I have always wanted to know how a certain spider managed to stretch her cable squarely across the road in the woods about my height from the ground ? Why are mud turtles so wild ? Why is the excre- 1 The adder's tongue, z Everlasting. The Nature Library ment of the young of some birds carried away by the parents, while with others it is voided from the nest ? Among certain of our birds the family relation, more or less marked, is kept up a long time after the young have left the nest. One sees the parent birds and the young going about in loose flocks often till late into the fall. Of what birds is this true ? The questions I have suggested are not important; they do not hold the key to any great storehouse of natural knowledge. Their only value is as a means to quicken the powers of observa- tion. We see vaguely, diffusely. Concentrate the attention — not to the extent of missing total effects, as the specialist so often does, but for the purpose of reading correctly the play of life that is constantly going about us. Nature's book is like any other book: you must open the covers; you must fix your eyes upon the text; you must get into the spirit of it. When you have read one sentence correctly you are so much the better prepared to read the next one. A world of nature about us that we are quite apt to be oblivious to, except as it results in our annoyance, is the insect world. We do not take an intelligent interest in the ants, or the bees, or the moths, or the butterflies, yet here is a field of obser- vation that will amply repay one. One day in a great city I saw a butterfly calmly winging its way high above the crowded street. I knew it was the monarch (Anosia plexippus), probably the greatest traveler of all our butterflies. It is quite certain that they migrate to the South in the fall, and that many return in the spring. I learn from Mr. Holland's Butterfly Book in this library that they have even crossed both oceans — of course, by catching a ride on vessels — and are now found in Australia and in the Philippines, and they have been collected in England. Have you not seen its chrysalis suspended from some weed or bush, looking like the trunk from some tiny warrior encased in pale-green armor, riveted with gold-headed rivets, a broad, heavy shield over the abdomen, and plate upon plate over the shoulders and back? It is a milkweed butterfly, and will serve as a good introduction to this new world of winged life. Early last spring I found upon the window of my cabin in the woods a butterfly that had evidently hybernated in some snug crack or corner of the building. This was the mourning cloak, with me the first vernal butterfly. When one sees this butterfly dancing through The Nature Library the open sunny woods in March or early April he may know spring has really come and that the first hepatica will soon open its blue eye. Mr. Howard's Insect Book ought to start many of its readers to observing flies and bees and prying into their life-histories, many of which are as yet not fully known. Not a farm-boy but knows of the big fat grubs in cows' backs in the spring. It was always a mystery to me how they got there. Now it is known that the creature has traveled all the way from the cow's stomach, where the egg of its parent — the bot-fly — was hatched, making its way slowly "through the connective tissues of the cow, between the skin and the flesh, penetrating gradually along the neck, and ultimately reaching a point beneath the skin on the back of the animal." We have only to look into nature a little more closely and intently, to whet our powers of observation by the use of such books as this Nature Library contains, to add vastly to our pleasure in and our knowledge of the world that lies about us. XV INTRODUCTION I WRITE these few introductory sentences to this volume only to second so worthy an attempt to quicken and enlarge the gen- eral interest in our birds. The book itself is merely an introduc- tion, and is only designed to place a few clews in the reader's hands which he himself or herself is to follow up. I can say that it is reliable and is written in a vivacious strain and by a real bird lover, and should prove a help and a stimulus to any one who seeks by the aid of its pages to become better acquainted with our songsters. The pictures, with a few exceptions, are remarkably good and accurate, and these, with the various group- ing of the birds according to color, season, habitat, etc., ought to render the identification of the birds, with no other weapon than an opera glass, an easy matter. When 1 began the study of the birds I had access to a copy of Audubon, which greatly stimulated my interest in the pursuit, but I did not have the opera glass, and I could not take Audubon with me on my walks, as the reader may this volume, and he will find these colored plates quite as helpful as those of Audubon or Wilson. But you do not want to make out your bird the first time; the book or your friend must not make the problem too easy for you. You must go again and again, and see and hear your bird under varying conditions and get a good hold of several of its characteristic traits. Things easily learned are apt to be easily for- gotten. Some ladies, beginning the study of birds, once wrote to me, asking if I would not please come and help them, and set them right about certain birds in dispute. I replied that that would be getting their knowledge too easily; that what 1 and any one else told them they would be very apt to forget, but that the things they found out themselves they would always remem- ber. We must in a way earn what we have or keep. Only thus docs it become ours, a real part of us. Not very long afterward I had the pleasure of walking with one of the ladies, and I found her eye and ear quite as sharp as my own, and that she was in a fair way to conquer the bird king- dom without any outside help. She said that the groves and fields, through which she used to walk with only a languid inter- est, were now completely transformed to her and afforded her the keenest pleasure; a whole new world of interest had been disclosed to her ; she felt as if she was constantly on the eve of some new discovery; the next turn in the path might reveal to her a new warbler or a new vireo. I remember the thrill she seemed to experience when I called her attention to a purple finch singing in the tree-tops in front of her house, a rare visitant she had not before heard. The thrill would of course have been greater had she identified the bird without my aid. One would rather bag one's own game, whether it be with a bullet or an eyebeam. The experience of this lady is the experience of all in whom is kindled this bird enthusiasm. A new interest is added to life ; one more resource against ennui and stagnation. If you have only a city yard with a few sickly trees in it, you will find great delight in noting the numerous stragglers from the great army of spring and autumn migrants that find their way there. If you live in the country, it is as if new eyes and new ears were given you, with a correspondingly increased capacity for rural enjoyment. The birds link themselves to your memory of seasons and places, so that a song, a call, a gleam of color, set going a sequence of delightful reminiscences in your mind. When a soli- tary great Carolina wren came one August day and took up its abode near me and sang and called and warbled as I had heard it long before on the Potomac, how it brought the old days, the old scenes back again, and made me for the moment younger by all those years ! A few seasons ago I feared the tribe of bluebirds were on the verge of extinction from the enormous number of them that perished from cold and hunger in the South in the winter of '94. For two summers not a blue wing, not a blue warble. I seemed to miss something kindred and precious from my environment — the visible embodiment of the tender sky and the wistful soil. What a loss, I said, to the coming generations of dwellers in the counVy— no bluebird in the spring 1 What will the farm-boy date from ? But the fear was groundless : the birds are regaining their lost ground; broods of young blue-coats are again seen drifting from stake to stake or from mullen-stalk to mullen-stalk about the fields in summer, and our April air will doubtless again be warmed and thrilled by this lovely harbinger of spring. John Burroughs. August 17, '97, PREFACE Not to have so much as a bowing acquaintance with the birds that nest in our gardens or under the very eaves of our houses; that haunt our wood-piles; keep our fruit-trees free from slugs; waken us with their songs, and enliven our walks along the roadside and through the woods, seems to be, at least, a breach of etiquette toward some of our most kindly disposed neighbors. Birds of prey, game and water birds are not included in the book. The following pages are intended to be nothing more than a familiar introduction to the birds that live near us. Even in the principal park of a great city like New York, a bird-lover has found more than one hundred and thirty species ; as many, probably, as could be discovered in the same sized territory anywhere. The plan of the book is not a scientific one, if the term scientific is understood to mean technical and anatomical. The purpose of the writer is to give, in a popular and accessible form, knowledge which is accurate and reliable about the life of our common birds. This knowledge has not been collected from the stuffed carcasses of birds in museums, but gleaned afield. In a word, these short narrative descriptions treat of the bird's char- acteristics of size, color, and flight; its peculiarities of instinct and temperament; its nest and home life; its choice of food; its songs; and of the season in which we may expect it to play its part in the great panorama Nature unfolds with faithful precision year after year. They are an attempt to make the bird so live before the reader that, when seen out of doors, its recognition shall be instant and cordial, like that given to a friend. The coloring described in this book is sometimes more vivid than that found in the works of some learned authorities, whose conflicting testimony is often sadly bewildering to the novice. In different parts of the country, and at different seasons of the year, the plumage of some birds undergoes many changes. The reader must remember, therefore, that the specimens examined and described were not, as before stated, the faded ones in our museums, but live birds in their fresh, spring plumage, studied afield. The birds have been classed into color groups in the belief that this method, more than any other, will make identification most easy. The color of the bird is the first, and often the only, characteristic noticed. But they have also been classified accord- ing to the localities for which they show decided preferences and in which they are most likely to be found. Again, they have been grouped according to the season when they may be expected. In the brief paragraphs that deal with groups of birds separated into the various families represented in the book, the characteristics and traits of each clan are clearly emphasized. By these several aids it is believed the merest novice will be able to quickly identify any bird neighbor that is neither local nor rare. To the uninitiated or uninterested observer, all small, dull- colored birds are "common sparrows." The closer scrutiny of the trained eye quickly differentiates, and picks out not only the Song, the Canada, and the Fox Sparrows, but finds a dozen other familiar friends where one who "has eyes and sees not" does not even suspect their presence. Ruskin says: "The more I think of it, I find this conclusion more impressed upon me, that the greatest thing a human soul ever does in this world is to see something. . . . Hundreds of people can talk for one who can think, but thousands can think for one who can see. To see clearly is poetry, prophecy, and religion — all in one." While the author is indebted to all the time-honored standard authorities, and to many ornithologists of the present day, — too many for individual mention, — it is to Mr. John Burroughs her deepest debt is due. To this clear-visioned prophet, who has opened the blind eyes of thousands to the delights that Nature holds within our easy reach, she would gratefully acknowledge many obligations: first of all, for the plan on which "Bird Neigh- bors " is arranged ; next, for his patient kindness in reading and annotating the manuscript of the book; and, not least, for the inspiration of his perennially charming writings that are so largely responsible for the ready-made audience now awaiting writers on out-of-door topics. Neltje Blanchan. LIST OF COLORED PLATES FACING PAGE Goldfinch — Frontispiece Kingbird 4 Mocking-bird 12 Crow 41 Bronzed Crackle .44 Red-winged Blackbird 48 Downy Woodpecker 54 Yellow-bellied Sapsucker 56 Towhees 58 Rose-breasted Crosbeaks 60 Bobolinks 62 Black and White Creeping Warbler .... 64 Chimney Swift 67 Wood Pewee 68 Phcebe 72 Chickadee 76 Catbird 80 White-breasted Nuthatch 84 Northern Shrike 86 Myrtle Warbler 92 Indigo Bird 100 Kingfisher 102 Blue Jay .104 Barn Swallow 106 House Wren nj Long-billed Marsh Wrens 118 FACING PAGE Wilson's Thrush . . . « . . • .122 Hermit Thrush 124 Flicker 130 Meadowlark 132 Whippoorwill 136 Yellow-billed Cuckoo 142 Cedar Waxwing I44 Brown Creeper 146 Song Sparrow 158 Ruby-throated Humming-birds . . . . .170 Ruby-crowned Kinglet 172 Red-eyed Vireo 176 Warbling Vireo 178 Blue-winged Yellow Warbler 192 Yellow Warbler 204 Yellow-breasted Chat 206 Blackburnian Warbler 208 Baltimore Oriole 210 Cardinal 215 Scarlet Tanager 218 Red Crossbills 220 Orchard Oriole 226 LIST OF HALF-TONE PLATES Two Crow on Nest Blue-winged Warbler Alighting to Feed Her Young Young Flickers on Day of Leaving Nest Winter Visitors : Redpolls .... Young Kingfishers Crackle's Nest and Young .... Yellowbird's Nest, Showing Cowbird's Egg . Brother and Sister Rose-breasted Grosbeaks, Weeks Old Rose-breasted Grosbeaks, Six Days Old Young Crested Flycatchers with Hair Standing on End Young Mocking-Bird Hungry Young Mocking-Birds A Chestnut-sided Warbler Family. The Wood Thrush Hears the Click of the Camera Yellow-billed Cuckoos the Day Before Leaving Nest Field Sparrow Babies Mother Ovenbird in Nest ; a Baby Bird on It The Robin's Mud-walled Nursery .... PAGE 6 lO 20 28 36 46 50 60 60 74 82 82 90 124 140 152 180 224 BIRD FAMILIES THEIR CHARACTERISTICS AND THE REPRESENTATIVES OF EACH FAMILY INCLUDED IN "BIRD NEIGHBORS" BIRD FAMILIES THEIR CHARACTERISTICS AND THE REPRESENTATIVES OF EACH FAMILY INCLUDED IN "BIRD NEIGHBORS" Order Coccyges: CUCKOOS AND KINGFISHERS Family Cuculidce: CUCKOOS Long, pigeon-shaped birds, whose backs are grayish brown with a bronze lustre and whose under parts are whitisli. Bill long and curved. Tail long ; raised and drooped slowly while the bird is perching. Two toes point forward and two backward. Call-note loud and like a tree-toad's rattle. Song lacking. Birds of low trees and undergrowth, where they also nest ; partial to neighborhood of streams, or wherever the tent caterpillar is abundant. Habits rather solitary, silent, and eccentric. Migratory. Yellow-billed Cuckoo. Black-billed Cuckoo. Family Alcedinidce : KINGFISHERS Large, top-heavy birds of streams and ponds. Usually seen perching over the water looking for fish. Head crested ; upper parts slate-blue ; underneath white, and belted with blue or rusty. Bill large and heavy. Middle and outer toes joined for half their length. Call-note loud and prolonged, like a policeman's rattle. Solitary birds ; little inclined to rove from a chosen local- ity. Migratory. Belted Kingfisher. Order Pici: WOODPECKERS Family Picidce: WOODPECKERS Medium-sized and small birds, usually with plumage black and white, and always with some red feathers about the head. 3 Bird Families (The flicker is brownish and yellow instead of black and white.) Stocky, high-shouldered build ; bill strong and long for drilling holes in bark of trees. Tail feathers pointed and stiffened to serve as a prop. Two toes before and two behind for clinging. Usually seen clinging erect on tree-trunks ; rarely, if ever, head downward, like the nuthatches, titmice, etc. Woodpeckers feed as they creep around the trunks and branches. Habits rather phlegmatic. The flicker has better developed vocal powers than other birds of this class, whose rolling tattoo, beaten with their bills against the tree-trunks, must answer for their love-song. Nest in hollowed-out trees. Red-headed Woodpecker. Hairy Woodpecker. Downy Woodpecker. Yellow-bellied Woodpecker. Flicker. Order Macrochires: GOATSUCKERS, SWIFTS, AND HUM- MING-BIRDS Family Caprimulgidce : NIGHTHAWKS, WHIPPOORWILLS, ETC. Medium-sized, mottled brownish, gray, black, and white birds of heavy build. Short, thick head ; gaping, large mouth ; very small bill, with bristles at base. Take insect food on the wing. Feet small and weak ; wings long and powerful. These birds rest lengthwise on their perch while sleeping through the brightest daylight hours, or on the ground, where they nest. Nighthawk. Whippoorwill. Family MicropoUdce : SWIFTS Sooty, dusky birds seen on the wing, never resting except in chimneys of houses, or hollow trees, where they nest. Tips of tail feathers with sharp spines, used as props. They show their kinship with the goatsuckers in their nocturnal as well as diurnal habits, their small bills and large mouths for catching insects on Bird Families the wing, and their weak feet. Gregarious, especially at the nesting season. Chimney Swift. Family Trochilidce : HUMMING-BIRDS Very small birds with green plumage (iridescent red or orange breast in males); long, needle-shaped bill for extracting insects and nectar from deep-cupped flowers, and exceedingly rapid, darting flight. Small feet. Ruby-throated Humming-bird. Order Passeres : PERCHING BIRDS Family Tyrannidce : FLYCATCHERS Small and medium-sized dull, dark-olive, or gray birds, with big heads that are sometimes crested. Bills hooked at end, and with bristles at base. Harsh or plaintive voices. Wings longer than tail ; both wings and tails usually drooped and vibrating when the birds are perching. Habits moody and silent when perching on a conspicuous limb, telegraph wire, dead tree, or fence rail and waiting for insects to fly within range. Sudden, nervous, spasmodic sallies in midair to seize insects on the wing. Usually they return to their identical perch or lookout. Pug- nacious and fearless. Excellent nest builders and devoted mates. Kingbird. Phoebe. Wood Pewee. Acadian Flycatcher. Great Crested Flycatcher. Least Flycatcher. Olive-sided Flycatcher. Yellow-bellied Flycatcher. Say's Flycatcher. Family Alaudidce : LARKS The only true larks to be found in this country are the two species given below. They are the kin of the European skylark, of which several unsuccessful attempts to introduce the bird have 5 Bird Families been made in this country. These two larks must not be con- fused with the meadow larks and titlarks, which belong to the blackbird and pipit families respectively. The horned larks are birds of the ground, and are seen in the United States only in the autumn and winter. In the nesting season at the North their voices are most musical. Plumage grayish and brown, in color harmony with their habitats. Usually found in flocks ; the first species on or near the shore. Horned Lark. Prairie Horned Lark. Family Corvidce : CROWS AND JAYS The crows are large black birds, walkers, with stout feet adapted for the purpose. Fond of shifting their residence at dif- ferent seasons rather than strictly migratory, for, except at the northern limit of range, they remain resident all the year. Gre- garious. Sexes alike. Omnivorous feeders, being partly car- nivorous, as are also the jays. Both crows and jays inhabit wooded country. Their voices are harsh and clamorous ; and their habits are boisterous and bold, particularly the jays. De- voted mates ; unpleasant neighbors. Common Crow. Fish Crow. Northern Raven. Blue jay. Canada Jay. Family Icteridce : BLACKBIRDS, ORIOLES, ETC. Plumage black or a brilliant color combined with black. (The meadow lark a sole exception.) Sexes unlike. These birds form a connecting link between the crows and the finches. The blackbirds have strong feet for use upon the ground, where they generally feed, while the orioles are birds of the trees. They are both seed and insect eaters. The bills of the bobolink and cow- bird are short and conical, for they are conspicuous seed eaters. Bills of the others long and conical, adapted for insectivorous diet. About half the family are gifted songsters. Red-winged Blackbird. Rusty Blackbird. 6 Bird Famiiies Purple Crackle. Bronzed Crackle. Cowbird. Meadow Lark. Western Meadow Lark. Bobolink. Orchard Oriole. Baltirnore Oriole. Family Fringillidce: FINCHES, SPARROWS, CROSBEAKS, BUNTINCS, LINNETS, AND CROSSBILLS Cenerally fine songsters. Bills conical, short, and stout for cracking seeds. Length from five to nine inches, usually under eight inches. This, the largest family of birds that we have (about one-seventh of all our birds belong to it), comprises birds of such varied plumage and habit that, while certain family re- semblances may be traced throughout, it is almost impossible to characterize the family as such. The sparrows are comparatively small gray and brown birds with striped upper parts, lighter underneath. Birds of the ground, or not far from it, elevated perches being chosen for rest and song. Nest in low bushes or on the ground. (Chipping sparrow often selects tall trees.) Coloring adapted to grassy, dusty habitats. Males and females similar. Flight labored. About forty species of sparrows are found in the United States ; of these, fourteen may be met with by a novice, and six, at least, surely will be. Iht finches and their larger kin are chiefly bright-plumaged birds, the females either duller or distinct from males ; bills heavy, dull, and conical, befitting seed eaters. Not so migratory as insectivorous birds nor so restless. Mostly phlegmatic in temperament. Fine songsters. Chipping Sparrow. English Sparrow. Field Sparrow. Fox Sparrow. Grasshopper Sparrow. Savanna Sparrow. Seaside Sparrow. Sharp-tailed Sparrow. Bird Families Song Sparrow. Swamp Song Sparrow. Tree Sparrow. Vesper Sparrow. White-crowned Sparrow. White-throated Sparrow. Lapland Longspur. Smith's Painted Longspur. Pine Siskin (or Finch). Purple Finch. Goldfinch. Redpoll. Greater Redpoll. Red Crossbill. White-winged Red CrossbilL Cardinal Grosbeak. Rose-breasted Grosbeak. Pine Grosbeak. Evening Grosbeak. Blue Grosbeak. Indigo Bunting. Junco. Snowflake. Chewink. Family Tanagridce : TANAGERS Distinctly an American family, remarkable for their brilliant plumage, which, however, undergoes great changes twice a year. Females different from males, being dull and inconspicuous. Birds of the tropics, two species only finding their way north, and the summer tanager rarely found north of Pennsylvania. Shy inhabitants of woods. Though they may nest low in trees, they choose high perches when singing or feeding upon flowers, fruits, and insects. As a family, the tanagers have weak, squeaky voices, but both our species are good songsters. Suffering the fate of most bright-plumaged birds, immense numbers have been shot annually. Scarlet Tanager. Summer Tanager. 8 Bird Families Family Hirundinidce : SWALLOWS Birds of the air, that take their insect food on the wing. Migratory. Flight strong, skimming, darting ; exceedingly graceful. When not flying they choose slender, conspicuous perches like telegraph wires, gutters, and eaves of barns. Plu- mage of some species dull, of others iridescent blues and greens above, whitish or ruddy below. Sexes similar. Bills small ; mouths large. Long and pointed wings, generally reaching the tip of the tail or beyond. Tail more or less forked. Feet small and weak from disuse. Song a twittering warble without power. Gregarious birds. Barn Swallow. Bank Swallow. Cliff (or Eaves) Swallow. Tree Swallow. Bough-winged Swallow. Purple Martin. Family Ampelidce : WAXWINGS Medium-sized Quaker-like birds, with plumage of soft "browns and grays. Head crested ; black band across forehead and through the eye. Bodies plump from indolence. Tail tipped with yellow ; wings with red tips to coverts, resembling sealing- wax. Sexes similar. Silent, gentle, courteous, elegant birds. Usually seen in large flocks feeding upon berries in the trees or perching on the branches, except at the nesting season. Voices resemble a soft, lisping twitter. Cedar Bird. Bohemian Waxwing. Family Laniidce : SHRIKES Medium-sized grayish, black-and-white birds, with hooked and hawk-like bill for tearing the flesh of smaller birds, field- mice, and large insects that they impale on thorns. Handsome, bold birds, the terror of all small, feathered neighbors, not ex- cluding the English sparrow. They choose conspicuous perches when on the lookout for prey : a projecting or dead limb of a 9 Bird Families tree, the cupola of a house, the ridge-pole or weather-vane of a barn, or a telegraph wire, from which to suddenly drop upon a victim. Eyesight remarkable. Call-notes harsh and unmusical. Habits solitary and wandering. The first-named species is resi- dent during the colder months of the year; the latter is a summer resident only north of Maryland. Northern Shrike. Loggerhead Shrike. Family Vireonidce. : VIREOS OR GREENLETS Small greenish-gray or olive birds, whitish or yellowish underneath, their plumage resembling the foliage of the trees they hunt, nest, and live among. Sexes alike. More deliberate in habit than the restless, flitting warblers that are chiefly seen darting about the ends of twigs. Vireos are more painstaking gleaners ; they carefully explore the bark, turn their heads up- ward to investigate the under side of leaves, and usually keep well hidden among the foliage. Bill hooked at tip for holding worms and insects. Gifted songsters, superior to the warblers. This family is peculiar to America. Red-eyed Vireo. Solitary Vireo. Warbling Vireo. White-eyed Vireo. Yellow-throated Vireo. Family OAniotiltidce : WOOD WARBLERS A large group of birds, for the most part smaller than the English sparrow ; all, except the ground warblers, of beautiful plumage, in which yellow, olive, slate-blue, black, and white are predominant colors. Females generally duller than males. Ex- ceedingly active, graceful, restless feeders among the terminal twigs of trees and shrubbery ; haunters of tree-tops in the woods at nesting time. Abundant birds, especially during May and September, when the majority are migrating to and from regions north of the United States; but they are strangely unknown to all but devoted bird lovers, who seek them out during these months that particularly favor acquaintance. Several species are erratic in lo Bird Families their migrations and choose a different course to return southward from the one they travelled over in spring. A few species are sum- mer residents, and one, at least, of this tropical family, the myrtle warbler, winters at the north. The habits of the family are not identical in every representative ; some are more deliberate and less nervous than others ; a few, like the Canadian and Wilson's warblers, are expert flycatchers, taking their food on the wing, but not usually returning to the same perch, like true flycatchers; and a few of the warblers, as, for example, the black-and-white, the pine, and the worm-eating species, have the nuthatches' habit of creeping around the bark of trees. Quite a number feed upon the ground. All are insectivorous, though many vary their diet with blossom, fruit, or berries, and naturally their bills are slen- der and sharply pointed, rarely finch-like. The yellow-breasted chat has the greatest variety of vocal expressions. The ground warblers are compensated for their sober, thrush-like plumage by their exquisite voices, while the great majority of the family that are gaily dressed have notes that either resemble the trill of mid- summer insects or, by their limited range and feeble utterance, sadly belie the family name. Bay-breasted Warbler. Blackburnian Warbler. Blackpoll Warbler. Black-throated Blue Warbler. Black-throated Green Warbler. Black-and-white Creeping Warbler. Blue- winged Warbler. Canadian Warbler. Chestnut-sided Warbler. Golden-winged Warbler. Hooded Warbler. Kentucky Warbler. Magnolia Warbler. Mourning Warbler. Myrtle Warbler. Nashville Warbler. Palm Warbler. Parula Warbler. Pine Warbler. Prairie Warbler. II Bird Families Redstart. Wilson's Warbler. Worm-eating Warbler. Yellow Warbler. Yellow Palm Warbler. Ovenbird. Northern Water Thrush. Louisiana Water Thrush. Maryland Yellowthroat. Yellow-breasted Chat. Family Motacillidce: WAGTAILS AND PIPITS Only three birds of this family inhabit North America, and of these only one is common enough, east of the Mississippi, to be included in this book. Terrestrial birds of open tracts near the coast, stubble-fields, and country roadsides, with brownish plumage to harmonize with their surroundings. The American pipit, or titlark, has a peculiar wavering flight when, after being flushed, it reluctantly leaves the ground. Then its white tail feathers are conspicuous. Its habit of wagging its tail when perching is not an exclusive family trait, as the family name might imply. American Pipit, or Titlark. Family Troglodytidce : THRASHERS, WRENS, ETC. Subfamily Mimince: THRASHERS, MOCKING-BIRDS, AND CATBIRDS Apparently the birds that comprise this large general family are too unlike to be related, but the missing hnks or inter- mediate species may all be found far South. The first subfamily is comprised of distinctively American birds. Most numerous in the tropics. Their long tails serve a double purpose — in assist- ing their flight and acting as an outlet for their vivacity. Usually they inhabit scrubby undergrowth bordering woods. They rank among our finest songsters, with ventriloquial and imitative powers added to sweetness of tone. Brown Thrasher. Catbird. Mocking-bird. 12 MOCKINGBIRD. 3 Life- size. Bird Families Subfamily Troglodytince : WRENS Small brown birds, more or less barred with darkest brown above, much lighter below. Usually carry their short tails erect. Wings are small, for short flight. Vivacious, busy, excitable, easily displeased, quick to take alarm. Most of the species have scolding notes in addition to their lyrical, gushing song, that seems much too powerful a performance for a diminutive bird. As a rule, wrens haunt thickets or marshes, but at least one species is thoroughly domesticated. All are insectivorous. Carolina Wren. House Wren. Winter Wren. Long-billed Marsh Wren. Short-billed Marsh Wren. Family Certhiidce: CREEPERS Only one species of this Old World family is found in Amer- ica. It is a brown, much mottled bird, that creeps spirally around and around the trunks of trees in fall and winter, pecking at the larvae in the bark with its long, sharp bill, and doing its work with faithful exactness but little spirit. It uses its tail as a prop in cHmbing, like the woodpeckers. Brown Creeper. Family Paridce : NUTHATCHES AND TITMICE Two distinct subfamilies are included under this general head. The nuthatches (Sittince) are small, slate-colored birds, seen chiefly in winter walking up and down the barks of trees, and sometimes running along the under side of branches upside down, like flies. Plumage compact and smooth. Their name is derived from their habit of wedging nuts (usually beechnuts) in the bark of trees, and then hatching them open with their strong straight bills. White-breasted Nuthatch. Red-breasted Nuthatch. The titmice or chickadees (Parince) are fluffy little gray birds, the one crested, the other with a black cap. They are also 13 Bird Families expert climbers, though not such wonderful gymnasts as the nuU hatches. These cousins are frequently seen together in winter woods or in the evergreens about houses. Chickadees are partial to tree-tops, especially to the highest pine cones, on which they hang fearlessly. Cheerful, constant residents, retreating to the deep woods only to nest. Tufted Titmouse. Chickadee. Family Sylviidx : KINGLETS AND GNATCATCHERS The kinglets (ReguUnce) axe. very small greenish-gray birds, with highly colored crown patch, that are seen chiefly in autumn, winter, and spring south of Labrador. Habits active ; diligent flitters among trees and shrubbery from limb to limb after minute insects. Beautiful nest builders. Song remarkable for so small a bird. Golden-crowned Kinglet. Ruby-crowned Kinglet. The one representative of the distinctly American subfamily of gnatcatchers (PolioptilincE) that we have, is a small blue-gray bird, whitish below. It is rarely found outside moist, low tracts of woodland, where insects abound. These it takes on the wing with wonderful dexterity. It is exceedingly graceful and assumes many charming postures. A bird of trees, nesting in the high branches. A bird of strong character and an exquisitely finished though feeble songster. Blue-gray Gnatcatcher. Family Turdidce : THRUSHES, BLUEBIRDS, ETC. This group includes our finest songsters. Birds of moderate size, stout build ; as a rule, inhabitants of woodlands, but the robin and the bluebird are notable exceptions. Bills long and slender, suitable for worm diet. Only casual fruit-eaters. Slen- der, strong legs for running and hopping. True thrushes are grayish or olive-brown above; buff or whitish below, heavily streaked or spotted. Bluebird. Robin. 14 Bird Families Alice's Thrush. Hermit Thrush. Olive-backed Thrusn. Wilson's Thrush (Veery). Wood Thrush. Order Columhce : PIGEONS AND DOVES Family Columbidce : PIGEONS AND DOVES The wild pigeon is now too rare to be included among our bird neighbors ; but its beautiful relative, without the fatally gre- garious habit, still nests and sings a-coo-oo-oo to its devoted mate in unfrequented corners of the farm or the borders of woodland. Delicately shaded fawn-colored and bluish plumage. Small heads, protruding breasts. Often seen on ground. Flight strong and rapid, owing to long wings. Mourning or Carolina Dove. 15 il HABITATS OF BIRDS HABITATS OF BIRDS BIRDS OF THE AIR CATCHING THEIR FOOD AS THEY FLY Acadian Flycatcher, Great Crested Flycatcher, Least Fly- catcher, Olive-sided Flycatcher, Say's Flycatcher, Yellow-bellied Flycatcher, Kingbird, PhcEbe, Wood Pewee, Purple Martin, Chimney Swift, Barn Swallow, Bank Swallow, Cliff Swallow, Tree Swallow, Rough-winged Swallow, Canadian Warbler, Blackpoll, Wilson's Warbler, Nighthawk, Whippoorwill, Ruby- throated Humming-bird, Blue-gray Gnatcatcher. BIRDS MOST FREQUENTLY SEEN IN THE UPPER HALF OF TREES Scarlet Tanager, Summer Tanager, Baltimore Oriole, Orchard Oriole, Chickadee, Tufted Titmouse, Blue-gray Gnatcatcher, nearly all the Warblers except the Ground Warblers ; Cedar Bird, Bohe- mian Waxwing, the Vireos, Robin, Red Crossbill, White-winged Crossbill, Purple Crackle, Bronzed Crackle, Redstart, Northern Shrike, Loggerhead Shrike, Crow, Fish Crow, Raven, Purple Finch, Tree and Chipping Sparrows, Cardinal, Blue Jay, Kingbird, the Crested and other Flycatchers. BIRDS OF LOW TREES OR LOWER PARTS OF TREES Black-billed Cuckoo, Yellow-billed Cuckoo, the Sparrows, the Thrushes, the Grosbeaks, Goldfinch, Summer Yellowbird and other Warblers; the Wrens, Bluebird, Mocking-bird, Catbird, Brown Thrasher, Maryland Yellowthroat, Yellow-breasted Chat. BIRDS OF TREE-TRUNKS AND LARGE LIMBS Hairy Woodpecker, Downy Woodpecker, Red-headed Woodpecker, Yellow-bellied Woodpecker, Flicker, White- 19 Habitats of Birds breasted Nuthatch, Red-breasted Nuthatch, Brown Creeper, Chickadee, Tufted Titmouse, Golden-crowned Kinglet, Ruby- crowned Kinglet, Black-and-white Creeping Warbler, Blue- winged Warbler, Worm-eating Warbler, Pine Warbler, BlackpoU Warbler, Whippoorwill, Nighthawk. BIRDS THAT SHOW A PREFERENCE FOR PINES AND OTHER EVERGREENS Chickadee, Tufted Titmouse, the Nuthatches, Brown Creeper, the Kinglets, Pine Warbler, Black-and-white Creeping Warbler and all the Warblers except the Ground Warblers ; Pine Siskin, Cedar Bird and Bohemian Waxwing (in juniper and cedar trees). Pine Grosbeak, Red Crossbill, White-winged Cross- bill, the Crackles, Crow, Raven, Pine Finch. BIRDS SEEN FEEDING AMONG THE FOLIAGE AND TER- MINAL TWIGS OF TREES The Red-eyed Vireo, White-eyed Vireo, Warbling Vireo, Solitary Vireo, Yellow-^throated Vireo, Golden-crowned King- let, Ruby-crowned Kinglet, Black-billed Cuckoo, Yellow-billed Cuckoo, Yellow Warbler or Summer Yellowbird, nearly all the Warblers except the Pine and the Ground Warblers ; the Fly- catchers, Blue-gray Gnatcatcher. BIRDS THAT CHOOSE CONSPICUOUS PERCHES Northern Shrike, Loggerhead Shrike, Kingbird, the Wood Pewee, the Phoebe and other Flycatchers, the Swallows, King- fisher, Crows, Crackles, Blue Jay and Canada Jay; the Song, the White-throated, and the Fox Sparrows ; the Grosbeaks, Cedar Bird, Goldfinch, Robin, Purple Finch, Cowbird, Brown Thrasher while in song. BIRDS OF THE GARDENS AND ORCHARDS Bluebird, Robin; the English, Song, White-throated, Vesper, White-crowned, Fox, Chipping, and Tree Sparrows; Phoebe, Wood Pewee, the Least Flycatcher, Crested Flycatcher, Kingbird, Brown Thrasher, Wood Thrush, Mocking-bird, Catbird,. House 2o YOUNG FLICKERS ON DAY OF LEAVING NEST. Habitats of Birds Wren ; nearly all the Warblers, especially at blossom time among the shrubbery and fruit trees; Cedar Bird, Purple Martin, Eaves Swallow, Barn Swallow, Purple Finch, Cowbird, Baltimore and Orchard Orioles, Purple Crackle, Bronzed Crackle, Blue Jay, Crow, Fish Crow, Chimney Swift, Ruby-throated Humming- bird, the Woodpeckers, Flicker, the Nuthatches, Chickadee, Tufted Titmouse, the Cuckoos, Mourning Dove, J unco. BIRDS OF THE WOODS The Warblers almost without exception ; the Thrushes, the Woodpeckers, the Flycatchers, the Winter and the Carolina Wrens, the Tanagers, the Nuthatches and Titmice, the Kinglets, the Water Thrushes, the Vireos, Whippoorwill, Nighthawk, Kingfisher, Cardinal, Ovenbird, Brown Creeper, Tree Sparrow, Fox Sparrow, White-throated Sparrow, White-crowned Sparrow, J unco. BIRDS SEEN NEAR THE EDGES OF WOODS The Wrens, the Woodpeckers, the Flycatchers, the Warblers, Purple Finch, the Cuckoos, Brown Thrasher, Wood Thrush, Cow- bird, Brown Creepers, the Nuthatches and Titmice, the Kinglets, Chewink; the White-crowned, White-throated, Tree, Fox, and Song Sparrows ; Humming-bird, Bluebird, Junco, the Crossbills, the Grosbeaks, Nighthawk, Whippoorwill, Mourning Dove, Indigo Bird, Brown Thrasher. BIRDS OF SHRUBBERY, BUSHES, AND THICKETS Maryland Yellowthroat, Ovenbird (in woods) ; Myrtle Warbler, Mourning Warbler, Yellow-breasted Chat, and other Warblers during the migrations ; the Shrikes ; the White-throated, the Fox, the Song, and other Sparrows; Chickadee, Junco, Che- wink, Rose-breasted Grosbeak, Cowbird, Red-winged Black- bird, Catbird, Mocking-bird, Wilson's Thrush, Goldfinch, Red- polls, Maryland Yellowthroat, White-eyed Vireo, Hooded Warbler. BIRDS SEEN FEEDING ON THE GROUND The Sparrows, Junco, Meadowlark, Horned Lark, Chewink, Robin, Ovenbird, Pipit or Titlark, Redpoll, Greater Redpoll, Habitats of Birds Snowflake, Lapland Longspur, Smith's Painted Longspur, Rusty Blackbird, Red- winged Blackbird, the Crows, Cowbird, the Water Thrushes, Bobolink, Canada Jay, the Crackles, Mourning Dove; the Worm-eating, the Prairie, the Kentucky, and the Mourning Ground Warblers ; Flicker. BIRDS OF MEADOW, FIELD, AND UPLAND The Field and Vesper Sparrows, Bobolink, Meadowlark, Horned Lark, Goldfinch, the Swallows, Pipit or Titlark, Cow- bird, Redpoll, Greater Redpoll, Snowflake, Junco, Lapland Long- spur, Smith's Painted Longspur, Rusty Blackbird, Crow, Fish Crow, Nighthawk, Whippoorwill; the Yellow, the Palm, and the Prairie Warblers; the Crackles, Flicker, Bluebird, Indigo Bird. BIRDS OF ROADSIDE AND FENCES The Sparrows, Kingbird, Crested Flycatcher, Yellow-breasted Chat, Indigo Bird, Bluebird, Flicker, Goldfinch, Brown Thrasher, Catbird, Robin, the Woodpeckers, Yellow Palm Warbler, the Vireos. BIRDS OF MARSHES AND BOGGY MEADOWS Long-billed Marsh Wren, Short-billed Marsh Wren; the Swamp, the Savanna, the Sharp-tailed, and the Seaside Sparrows; Red-winged Blackbird. BIRDS OF WET WOODLANDS AND MARSHY THICKETS Northern Water Thrush, Louisiana Water Thrush, Oven- bird, Winter Wren, Carolina Wren, Phoebe; Wood Pewee and the other Flycatchers ; Wilson's Thrush or Veery, Blue-gray Gnatcatcher, Yellow-breasted Chat ; the Canadian, Wilson's Black-capped, the Maryland Yellowthroat, the Hooded, and the Yellow-throated Warblers. BIRDS FOUND NEAR SALT WATER Fish Crow, Common Crow, Bank Swallow, Tree Swallow, Savanna Sparrow, Sharp-tailed Sparrow, Seaside Sparrow. Horned Lark, Pipit or Titlark. 32 Habitats of Birds BIRDS FOUND NEAR STREAMS AND PONDS Kingfisher, the Swallows, Northern Water Thrush, Louisiana Water Thrush, Phoebe, Wood Pewee, the Flycatchers, Winter Wren, Wilson's Black-capped Warbler, the Canadian and the Yellow Warblers. BIRDS THAT SING ON THE WING Bobolink, Meadowlark, Indigo Bird, Purple Finch, Gold- finch, Ovenbird, Kingbird, Vesper Sparrow (rarely), Maryland Yellowthroat, Horned Lark, Kingfisher, the Swallows, Chimney Swift, Nighthawk, Song Sparrow, Red-winged Blackbird, Pipit or Titlark, Mocking-bird. Ill SEASONS OF BIRDS THE LATITUDE OF NEW YORK IS TAKEN AS AN ARBITRARY DIVISION FOR WHICH ALLOW- ANCES MUST BE MADE FOR OTHER LOCALITIES THE SEASONS OF BIRDS IN THE VICINITY OF NEW YORK OR, APPROXIMATELY, OF THE FORTY-SECOND DEGREE OF LATITUDE PERMANENT RESIDENTS Hairy Woodpecker. Downy Woodpecker. Yellow-bellied Woodpecker. Red-headed Woodpecker. Flicker. Meadowlark. Prairie Horned Lark. Blue Jay. Crow. Fish Crow. English Sparrow. Social Sparrow. Swamp Sparrow. Song Sparrow. Cedar Bird. Cardinal. Carolina Wren. White-breasted Nuthatch. Tufted Titmouse. Chickadee. Robin. Bluebird. Goldfinch. WINTER RESIDENTS AND VISITORS BIRDS SEEN BETWEEN NOVEMBER AND APRIL English Sparrow. Tree Sparrow. White-throated Sparrow. Swamp Sparrow. Vesper Sparrow. White-crowned Sparrow. Fox Sparrow. Song Sparrow. Snowflake. junco. Horned Lark. Meadowlark. Pine Grosbeak. Redpoll. Greater Redpoll. Cedar Bird. Bohemian Waxwing. Hairy Woodpecker. Downy Woodpecker. Yellow-bellied Woodpecker. Flicker. Myrtle Warbler. Northern Shrike. White-breasted Nuthatch. 27 Seasons of Birds Red-breasted Nuthatch. Tufted Titmouse. Chickadee. Robin. Bluebird. Ruby-crowned Kinglet. Golden-crowned Kinglet. Brown Creeper. Carolina Wren. Winter Wren. Pipit. Purple Finch. Goldfinch. Pine Siskin. Lapland Longspun Smith's Painted Longspur. Evening Grosbeak. Cardinal. Blue Jay. Red Crossbill. White-winged CrossbilL Crow. Fish Crow. Kingfisher. SUMMER RESIDENTS BIRDS SEEN BETWEEN APRIL AND NOVEMBER Mourning Dove. Black-billed Cuckoo. Yellow-billed Cuckoo. Kingfisher. Red-headed Woodpecker. Hairy Woodpecker. Downy Woodpecker. Yellow-bellied Woodpecker. Flicker. Whippoorwill. Nighthawk. Chimney Swift. Ruby-throated Humming-bird. Kingbird. Wood Pewee. Phoebe. Acadian Flycatcher. Crested Flycatcher. Least Flycatcher. Olive-sided Flycatcher. Yellow-bellied Flycatcher. Say's Flycatcher. Bobolink. Cowbird. Red-winged Blackbird. Rusty Blackbird. Orchard Oriole. Baltimore Oriole. Purple Crackle. Bronzed Crackle. Crow. Fish Crow. Raven. Blue Jay. Canada Jay. Chipping Sparrow. English Sparrow. Field Sparrow. Fox Sparrow. Grasshopper Sparrow. Savanna Sparrow. Seaside Sparrow. Sharp-tailed Sparrow. Swamp Song Sparrow. Song Sparrow. Vesper Sparrow. Rose-breasted Grosbeak. Blue Grosbeak. 28 V/INTER VISITORS: REDPOLLS. i: Seasons of Birds Indigo Bird. Scarlet Tanager. Purple Martin. Barn Swallow. Bank Swallow. Cliff Swallow. Tree Swallow. Rough-winged Swallow. Red-eyed Vireo. White-eyed Vireo. Solitary Vireo. Warbling Vireo. Yellow-throated Vireo. Black-and-white Warbler. Black-throated Green Warbler. Blue-winged Warbler. Chestnut-sided Warbler. Golden-winged Warbler. Hooded Warbler. Pine Warbler. Prairie Warbler. Parula Warbler. Worm-eating Warbler. Yellow Warbler. Redstart. Ovenbird. Northern Water Thrush. Louisiana Water Thrush. Yellow-breasted Chat. Maryland Yellowthroat. Mocking-bird. Catbird. Brown Thrasher. House Wren. Carolina Wren. Long-billed Marsh Wren. Short-billed Marsh Wren. Alice's Thrush. Hermit Thrush. Olive-backed Thrush. Wilson's Thrush or Veery. Wood Thrush. Meadowlark. Western Meadowlark. Prairie Horned Lark. White-breasted Nuthatch. Chickadee. Tufted Titmouse. Chewink. Purple Finch. Goldfinch. CardinaL Robin. Bluebird. Cedar Bird. Loggerhead Shrike. SPRING AND AUTUMN MIGRANTS ONLY, OR RARE SUMMER VISITORS The following Warblers Bay-breasted. Blackburnian. Black-polled. Black-throated Blue. Canadian. Magnolia. Mourning. Myrtle. Nashville. Wilson's Black-capped. Palm. Yellow Palm. Blue-gray Gnatcatcher. Summer Tanager. 29 Seasons of Birds MIGRATIONS OF BIRDS IN VICINITY OF NEW YORK FEBRUARY 1 5 TO MARCH 1 5 Bluebird, Robin, the Crackles, Song Sparrow, Fox Sparrow, Red-winged Blackbird, Kingfisher, Flicker, Purple Finch. MARCH 15 TO APRIL I Increased numbers of foregoing group; Cowbird, MeadoW' lark, Phoebe ; the Field, the Vesper, and the Swamp Sparrows. APRIL I TO 15 The White-throated and the Chipping Sparrows, the Tree and the Barn Swallows, Rusty Blackbird, the Red-headed and the Yellow-bellied Woodpeckers, Hermit Thrush, Ruby-crowned Kinglet, Pipit ; the Pine, the Myrtle, and the Yellow Palm War- blers; Goldfinch. APRIL 15 TO MAY I Increased numbers of foregoing group; Brown Thrasher; Alice's, the Olive-backed, and the Wood Thrushes ; Chimney Swift, Whippoorwill, Chewink, the Purple Martin, and the Cliff and the Bank Swallows ; Least Flycatcher ; the Black-and-white Creeping, the Parula, and the Black-throated Green Warblers ; Ovenbird, House Wren, Catbird. MAY I TO 15 Increased numbers of foregoing group; Wilson's Thrush or Veery; Nighthawk, Ruby-throated Humming-bird, the Cuckoos, Crested Flycatcher, Kingbird, Wood Pewee, the Marsh Wrens, Bank Swallow, the five Vireos, the Baltimore and Orchard Ori- oles, Bobolink, Indigo Bird, Rose-breasted Grosbeak, Scarlet Tana- ger, Maryland Yellowthroat, Yellow-breasted Chat, the Water Thrushes; and the Magnolia, the Yellow, the Black-throated Blue, the Bay-breasted, the Chestnut-sided, and the Golden- winged Warblers. 30 Seasons of Birds MAY 15 TO JUNE I Increased numbers of foregoing group ; Yellow-bellied Fly- catcher, Mocking-bird, Summer Tanager ; and the Blackburnian, the BlackpoU, the Worm-eating, the Hooded, Wilson's Black- capped, and the Canadian Warblers. JUNE, JULY, AUGUST In June few species of birds are not nesting; in July they may rove about more or less with their increased families, search- ing for their favorite foods ; August finds them moulting and mop- ing in silence, but toward the end of the month, thoughts of returning southward set them astir again. AUGUST 15 TO SEPTEMBER 1 5 Bobolink, Cliff Swallow, Scarlet Tanager, Yellow-bellied Flycatcher, Purple Martin; the Blackburnian, the Worm-eating, the Bay-breasted, the Chestnut-sided, the Hooded, the Mourning, Wilson's Black-capped, and the Canadian Warblers; Baltimore Oriole, Humming-bird. SEPTEMBER 1 5 TO OCTOBER I Increased numbers of foregoing group ; Wilson's Thrush, Wood Thrush, Kingbird, Wood Pewee, Crested Flycatcher; the Least, the Olive-s'ded, and the Acadian Flycatchers; the Marsh Wrens, the Cuckoos, Whippoorwill, Rose-breasted Grosbeak, Orchard Oriole, Indigo Bird; the Warbling, the Solitary, and the Yellow-throated Vireos; the Black-and-white Creeping, the Golden-winged, the Yellow, and the Black-throated Blue War- blers ; Maryland Yellowthroat, Yellow-breasted Chat, Redstart. OCTOBER I TO 15 Increased numbers of foregoing group ; Hermit Thrush, Cat- bird, House Wren, Ovenbird, the Water Thrushes, the Red-eyed and the White-eyed Vireos, Wood Pewee, Nighthawk, Chimney Swift, Cowbird, Horned Lark, Winter Wren, Junco; the Tree, the Vesper, the White-throated, and the Grasshopper Sparrows; the BlackpoU, the Parula, the Pine, the Yellow Palm, and the Prairie Warblers ; Chickadee, Tufted Titmouse. 31 Seasons of Birds OCTOBER 15 TO NOVEMBER 1 5 Increased numbers of foregoing group ; Wood Thrush, Wil- son's Thrush or Veery, Alice's Thrush, Olive-backed Thrush, Robin, Chewink, Brown Thrasher, Phoebe, Shrike; the Fox, the Field, the Swamp, the Savanna, the White-crowned, the Chipping, and the Song Sparrows ; the Red- winged and the Rusty Blackbirds ; Meadowlark, the Crackles, Flicker, the Red-headed and the Yellow-bellied Woodpeckers; Purple Finch, the Kinglets, the Nuthatches, Pine Siskin. 32 IV BIRDS GROUPED ACCORDING TO SIZE BIRDS GROUPED ACCORDING TO SIZE SMALLER THAN THE ENGLISH SPARROW Humming-bird. The Kinglets. The Wrens. All the Warblers not mentioned elsewhere. Redstart. Ovenbird. Chickadee. Tufted Titmouse. Red-breasted Nuthatch, White-breasted Nuthatch. Blue-gray Gnatcatcher. Yellow-bellied Flycatcher. Acadian Flycatcher. Least Flycatcher. The Redpolls. Goldfinch. Pine Siskin. Savanna Sparrow. Grasshopper Sparrow. Sharp-tailed Sparrow. Chipping Sparrow. Field Sparrow. Swamp Song Sparrow. Indigo Bunting. Warbling Vireo. Yellow-throated Vireo. Red-eyed Vireo. White-eyed Vireo. Brown Creeper. ABOUT THE SIZE OF THE ENGLISH SPARROW Purple Finch. The Crossbills. The Longspurs. Vesper Sparrow. Seaside Sparrow. Tree Sparrow. Junco. Song Sparrow. Solitary Vireo. The Water-thrushes. Pipit or Titlark. Downy Woodpecker. LARGER THAN THE ENGLISH SPARROW AND SMALLER THAN THE ROBIN Yellow-bellied Woodpecker. Chimney Swift (apparently). The Swallows (apparently). Kingbii-d. Crested Flycatcher. Phoebe. 35 Birds Grouped According to Size Olive-sided Flycatcher. Wood Pewee. Horned Lark. Bobolink. Cowbird. Orchard Oriole. Baltimore Oriole. The Grosbeaks : Evening, Blue, Pine, Rose-breasted, and Car- dinal. Snowflake. White-crowned Sparrow. White-throated Sparrow. Fox Sparrow. The Tanagers. Cedar Bird. Bohemian Waxwing. Yellow-breasted ChaL The Thrushes. Bluebird. ABOUT THE LENGTH OF THE ROBIN Red-headed Woodpecker. Hairy Woodpecker. Red-winged Blackbird. Rusty Blackbird. Loggerhead Shrike. Northern Shrike. Mocking-bird. Catbird. Chewink. Purple Martin (apparently). LONGER THAN THE ROBIN Mourning Dove. The Cuckoos. Kingfisher. Flicker. Raven. Crow. Fish Crow. Blue Jay. Canada Jay. Meadowlark. Whippoorwill (apparently) Nighthawk (apparently) The Crackles. Brown Thrasher. 36 YOUNG KINGFISHERS. DESCRIPTIONS OF BIRDS GROUPED ACCORDING TO COLOR BIRDS CONSPICUOUSLY BLACK Common Crow Fish Crow American Raven Purple Crackle Bronzed Crackle Rusty Blackbird Red-winged Blackbird Purple Martin Cowbird See also several of the Swallows; the Kingbird, the Phoebe, the \Vood Pewee, and other Flycatchers; the Chimney Swift; and the Chewink. BIRDS CONSPICUOUSLY BLACK The Common Crow (Corous Americanus) Crow family Called also : CORN THIEF Length — 16 to 17.50 inches. Male — Glossy black with violet reflections. Wings appear saw- toothed when spread, and almost equal the tail in length. Female — Like male, except that the black is less brilliant. Range — Throughout North America, from Hudson Bay to the Gulf of Mexico. Migrations — March. October. Summer and winter resident. If we have an eye for the picturesque, we place a certain value upon the broad, strong dash of color in the landscape, given by a flock of crows flapping their course above a corn-field, against an October sky ; but the practical eye of the farmer looks only for his gun in such a case. To him the crow is an unmitigated nuisance, all the more maddening because it is clever enough to circumvent every means devised for its ruin. Nothing escapes its rapacity ; fear is unknown to it. It migrates in broad day- light, chooses the most conspicuous perches, and yet its assur- ance is amply justified in its steadily increasing numbers. In the very early spring, note well the friendly way in which the crow follows the plow, ingratiating itself by eating the larvae, field mice, and worms upturned in the furrows, for this is its one serviceable act throughout the year. When the first brood of chickens is hatched, its serious depredations begin. Not only the farmer's young fledglings, ducks, turkeys, and chicks, are snatched up and devoured, but the nests of song birds are made desolate, eggs being crushed and eaten on the spot, when there are no birds to carry off to the rickety, coarse nest in the high tree top in the woods. The fish crow, however, is the much 41 Conspicuously Black greater enemy of the birds. Like the common crows, this, their smaller cousin, likes to congregate in winter along the seacoast to feed upon shell-fish and other sea-food that the tide brings to its feet. Samuels claims to have seen a pair of crows visit an orchard and destroy the young in two robins' nests in half an hour. He calculates that two crows kill, in one day alone, young birds that in the course of the season would have eaten a hundred thousand insects. When, in addition to these atrocities, we remember the crow's, depredations in the corn-field, it is small wonder that among the first laws enacted in New York State was one offering a reward for its head. But the more scientific agriculturists now concede that the crow is the farmer's true friend. Fish Crow (Corvus ossifragus) Crow family Length — 14 to 16 inches. About half as large again as the robin. Male and Female — Glossy black, with purplish-blue reflections, generally greener underneath. Chin naked. Range — Along Atlantic coast and that of the Gulf of Mexico, northward to southern New England. Rare stragglers on the Pacific coast. Migrations — March or April. September. Summer resident only at northern limit of range. Is found in Hudson River valley about half-way to Albany. Compared with the common crow, with which it is often confounded, the fish crow is of much smaller, more slender build. Thus its flight is less labored and more like a gull's, whose habit of catching fish that may be swimming near the surface of the water it sometimes adopts. Both Audubon and Wilson, who first made this species known, record its habit of snatching food as it flies over the southern waters — a rare practice at the north. Its plumage, too, differs slightly from the common crow's in being a richer black everywhere, and particularly underneath, where the "corn thief" is dull. But it is the dif- ference between the two crows' call-note that we chiefly depend upon to distinguish these confusing cousins. To say that the fish crow says car-^-r instead of a loud, clear caw, means little 42 Conspicuously Black until we have had an opportunity to compare its hoarse, cracked voice with the other bird's familiar call. From the farmer's point of view, there is still another dis- tinction: the fish crow lets his crops alone. It contents itself with picking up refuse on the shores of the sea or rivers not far inland; haunting the neighborhood of fishermen's huts for the small fish discarded when the seines are drawn, and treading out with its toes the shell-fish hidden in the sand at low tide. When we see it in the fields it is usually intent upon catching field- mice, grubs, and worms, with which it often varies its fish diet. It is, however, the worst nest robber we have ; it probably destroys ten times as many eggs and young birds as its larger cousin. The fishermen have a tradition that this southern crow comes and goes with the shad and herring— a saw which science unkindly disapproves. American Raven (Corvus cor ax principalis) Crow family Called also: NORTHERN RAVEN Length — 26 to 27 inches. Nearly three times as large as a robin. Male and Female — Glossy black above, with purplish and greenish reflections. Duller underneath. Feathers of the throat and breast long and loose, like fringe. Range — North America, from polar regions to Mexico. Rare along Atlantic coast and in the south. Common in the west, and very abundant in the northwest. Migrations — An erratic wanderer, usually resident where it finds its way. The weird, uncanny voice of this great bird that soars in wide circles above the evergreen trees of dark northern forests seems to come out of the skies like the malediction of an evil spirit. Without uttering the words of any language — Poe's "Nevermore" was, of course, a poetic license — people of all nationalities appear to understand that some dire calamity, some wicked portent, is being announced every time the unbirdlike creature utters its rasping call. The superstitious folk crow with an "I told you so," as they solemnly wag their heads when they hear of some death in the village after "the bird of ill-omen" has 43 Conspicuously Black made an unwelcome visit to the neighborhood. It receives the blame for every possible misfortune. When seen in the air, the crow is the only other bird for which the raven could be mistaken; but the raven does' more sailing and less flapping, and he delights in describing circles as he easily soars high above the trees. On the ground, he is seen to be a far larger bird than the largest crow. The curious beard or fringe of feathers on his breast at once distinguishes him. These birds show the family instinct for living in flocks large and small, not of ravens only, but of any birds of their own gen- era. In the art of nest building they could instruct most of their relatives. High up in evergreen trees or on the top of cliffs, never very near the seashore, they make a compact, symmetrical nest of sticks, neatly lined with grasses and wool from the sheep pastures, adding soft, comfortable linings to the old nest from year to year for each new brood. When the young emerge from the eggs, which take many curious freaks of color and mark- ings, they are pied black and white, suggesting the young of the western white-necked raven, a similarity which, so far as plu- mage is concerned, they quickly outgrow. They early acquire the fortunate habit of eating whatever their parents set before them — grubs, worms, grain, field-mice; anything, in fact, for the raven is a conspicuously omnivorous bird. Purple Crackle (Quiscalus quiscula) Blackbird family Called also : CROW BLACKBIRD ; MAIZE THIEF ; KEEL- TAILED CRACKLE Length— 12 to 13 inches. About one-fourth as large again as the robin. Jl/a/if— Iridescent black, in which metallic violet, blue, copper, and green tints predominate. The plumage of this grackle has iridescent bars. Iris of eye bright yellow and conspic- uous. Tail longer than wings. Female— htss brilliant black than male, and smaller. Iiange—G\Ai of Mexico to 57th parallel north latitude. Migrations— Perrmnent resident in Southern States. Few are permanent throughout range. Migrates in immense flocks in March and September. 44 w 1-1 u . w '^ z o Conspicuously Black This "refined crow" (which is really no crow at all except in appearance) has scarcely more friends than a thief is entitled to ; for, although in many sections of the country it has given up its old habit of stealing Indian corn and substituted ravages upon the grasshoppers instead, it still indulges a crow-like instinct for pillaging nests and eating young birds. Travelling in immense flocks of its own kind, a gregarious bird of the first order, it nevertheless is not the social fellow that its cousin, the red-winged blackbird, is. It especially holds aloof from mankind, and mankind reciprocates its suspicion. The tallest, densest evergreens are not too remote for it to build its home, according to Dr. Abbott, though in other States than New Jersey, where he observed them, an old orchard often contains dozens of nests. One peculiarity of the grackles is that their eggs vary so much in coloring and mark- ings that different sets examined in the same groups of trees are often wholly unlike. The average groundwork, however, is soiled blue or greenish, waved, streaked, or clouded with brown. These are laid in a nest made of miscellaneous sticks and grasses, rather carefully constructed, and lined with mud. Another pecu- liarity is the bird's method of steering itself by its tail when it wishes to turn its direction or alight. Peering at you from the top of a dark pine tree with its staring yellow eye, the grackle is certainly uncanny. There, very early in the spring, you may hear its cracked and wheezy whistle, for, being aware that however much it may look like a crow it belongs to another family, it makes a ridiculous attempt to sing. When a number of grackles lift up their voices at once, some one has aptly likened the result to a "good wheel-barrow chorus ! " The grackle's mate alone appreciates his efforts as, standing on tiptoe, with half-spread wings and tail, he pours forth his craven soul to her through a disjointed larynx. With all their faults, and they are numerous, let it be re- corded of both crows and grackles that they are as devoted lovers as turtle-doves. Lowell characterizes them in these four lines : " Fust come the black birds, datt'rin' in tall trees, And settlin' things in windy Congresses ; Queer politicians, though, for I'll be skinned If all on 'em don't head against the wind." • • * • • 45 Conspicuously Black The Bronied Grachle {Quiscalus quiscula ceneus) differs from the preceding chiefly in the more brownish bronze tint of its plumage and its lack of iridescent bars. Its range is more west- erly, and in the southwest it is particularly common ; but as a summer resident it finds its way to New England in large num- bers. The call-note is louder and more metallic than the purple grackle's. In nearly all respects the habits of these two birds are identical. Rusty Blackbird (Scolecophagus carolinus) Blackbird family Called also : THRUSH BLACKBIRD ; RUSTY CRACKLE ; RUSTY ORIOLE ; RUSTY CROW ; BLACKBIRD Length — 9 to 9.55 inches. A trifle smaller than the robin. Male— In full plumage, glossy black with metallic reflections, intermixed with rusty brown that becomes more pronounced as the season advances. Pale straw-colored eyes. Female — Duller plumage and more rusty, inclining to gray. Light line over eye. Smaller than male. Range — North America, from Newfoundland to Gulf of Mexico and westward to the Plains. Migrations — April. November. A few winter north. A more sociable bird than the grackle, though it travel in smaller flocks, the rusty blackbird condescends to mingle freely with other feathered friends in marshes and by brooksides. You can identify it by its rusty feathers and pale yellow eye, and easily distinguish the rusty-gray female from the female redwing that is conspicuously streaked. In April flocks of these birds may frequently be seen along sluggish, secluded streams in the woods, feeding upon the seeds of various water or brookside plants, and probably upon insects also. At such times they often indulge in a curious spluttering, squeaking, musical concert that one listens to with pleasure. The breeding range is mostly north of the United States. But little seems to be known of the birds' habits in their northern home. Why it should ever have been called a thrush blackbird is one of those inscrutable mysteries peculiar to the naming of birds 46 GRACKLE'S NEST AND YOUNG. Conspicuously Black which are so frequently called precisely what they are not. In spite of the compliment implied in associating the name of one of our finest songsters with it, the rusty blackbird has a clucking call as unmusical as it is infrequent, and only very rarely in the spring does it pipe a note that even suggests the sweetness of the redwing's. Red-winged Blackbird (Agelaius phceniceus) Blackbird family Called also: SWAMP BLACKBIRD ; RED-WINGED ORIOLE ; RED-WINGED STARLING Length — Exceptionally variable — 7.50 to 9.80 inches. Usually about an inch smaller than the robin. Male — Coal-black. Shoulders scarlet, edged with yellow. Female — Feathers finely and inconspicuously speckled with brown, rusty black, whitish, and orange. Upper wing- coverts rusty black, tipped with white, or rufous and some- times spotted with black and red. Range — North America. Breeds from Texas to Columbia River, and throughout the United States. Commonly found from Mexico to 57th degree north latitude. Migrations — March. October. Common summer resident. In oozy pastures where a brook lazily finds its way through the farm is the ideal pleasure ground of this "bird of society." His notes, " k'-wa-ker-ee" or " con-quer-ee" (on an ascending scale), are liquid in quality, suggesting the sweet, moist, cool retreats where he nests. Liking either heat or cold (he is fond of wintering in Florida, but often retreats to the north while the marshes are still frozen) ; enjoying not only the company of large flocks of his own kind with whom he travels, but any bird associates with whom he can scrape acquaintance ; or to sit quietly on a tree-top in the secluded, inaccessible bog while his mate is nesting ; satisfied with cut-worms, grubs, and insects, or with fruit and grain for his food — the blackbird is an impressive and helpful example of how to get the best out of life. Yet, of all the birds, some farmers complain that the black- bird is the greatest nuisance. They dislike the noisy chatterings when a flock is simply indulging its social instincts. They 47 Conspicuously Black complain, too, that the blackbirds eat their corn, forgetting that having devoured innumerable grubs from it during the summer, the birds feel justly entitled to a share of the profits. Though occasionally guilty of eating the farmer's corn and oats and rice, yet it has been found that nearly seven-eighths of the red- wing's food is made up of weed-seeds or of insects injurious to agriculture. This bird builds its nest in low bushes on the margin of ponds or low in the bog grass of marshes. From three to five pale-blue eggs, curiously streaked, spotted, and scrawled with black or purple, constitute a brood. Nursery duties are soon finished, for in July the young birds are ready to gather in flocks with their elders. " The blackbirds make the maples ring With social cheer and jubilee ; The red-wing flutes his ' 0-ka-lee ! ' " —Emerson. Purple Martin (Progne subis) Swallow family Length — 7 to 8 inches. Two or three inches smaller than the robin. Male—K\ch glossy black with bluish and purple reflections ; duller black on wings and tail. Wings rather longer than the tail, which is forked. Female — More brownish and mottled ; grayish below. Range — Peculiar to America. Penetrates from Arctic Circle to South America. Migrations — Late April. Early September. Summer resident. In old-fashioned gardens, set on a pole over which honey- suckle and roses climbed from a bed where China pinks, phlox, sweet Williams, and hollyhocks crowded each other below, martin boxes used always to be seen with a pair of these large, beautiful swallows circling overhead. But now, alas ! the boxes, where set up at all, are quickly monopolized by the English spar- row, a bird that the martin, courageous as a kingbird in attacking crows and hawks, tolerates as a neighbor only when it must. ' Bradford Torrey tells of seeing quantities of long-necked squashes dangling from poles about the negro cabins all through 48 RED-WINGED BLACKBIRD. ^2 Life-size. Conspicuously Black the South. One day he asked an old colored man what these squashes were for. "Why, deh is martins' boxes," said Uncle Remus. "No danger of hawks carryin' off de chickens so long as de martins am around." The Indians, too, have always had a special liking for this bird. They often lined a hollowed-out gourd with bits of bark and fastened it in the crotch of their tent poles to invite its friend- ship. The Mohegan Indians have called it "the bird that never rests" — a name better suited to the tireless barn swallow, Dr. Abbott thinks. Wasps, beetles, and all manner of injurious garden insects constitute its diet — another reason for its universal popularity. It is simple enough to distinguish the martins from the other swallows by their larger size and iridescent dark coat, not to mention their song, which is very soft and sweet, like musical laughter, rippling up through the throat. Cowbird (Molothrus ater) Blackbird family Called also: BROWN-HEADED ORIOLE; COW-PEN BIRD; COW BLACKBIRD ; COW BUNTING Length — 7 to 8 inches. About one-fifth smaller than the robin. Male — Iridescent black, with head, neck, and breast glistening brown. Bill dark brown, feet brownish. Female — Dull grayish-brown above, a shade lighter below, and streaked with paler shades of brown. Range — United States, from coast to coast. North into British America, south into Mexico. Migrations — March. November. Common summer resident. The cowbird takes its name from its habit of walking about among the cattle in the pasture, picking up the small insects which the cattle disturb in their grazing. The bird may often be seen within a foot or two of the nose of a cow or heifer, walk- ing briskly about like a miniature hen, intently watching for its insect prey. Its marital and domestic character is thoroughly bad. 49 Conspicuously Black Polygamous and utterly irresponsible for its offspring, this bird forms a striking contrast to other feathered neighbors, and indeed is almost an anomaly in the animal kingdom. In the breeding season an unnatural mother may be seen skulking about in the trees and shrubbery, seeking for nests in which to place a sur- reptitious egg, never imposing it upon a bird of its size, but se- lecting in a cowardly way a small nest, as that of the vireos or warblers or chipping sparrows, and there leaving the hatching and care of its young to the tender mercies of some already burdened little mother. It has been seen to remove an egg from the nest of the red-eyed vireo in order to place one of its own in its place. Not finding a convenient nest, it will even drop its eggs on the ground, trusting them to merciless fate, or, still worse, devouring them. The eggs are nearly an inch long, white speckled with brown or gray. Cowbirds are gregarious. The ungrateful young birds, as soon as they are able to go roaming, leave their foster-parents and join the flock of their own kind. In keeping with its unclean habits and unholy life and character, the cowbird's ordinary note is a gurgling, rasping whistle, followed by a few sharp notes. 50 BIRDS CONSPICUOUSLY BLACK AND WHITE Red-headed Woodpecker Hairy Woodpecker Downy Woodpecker Yellow-bellied Woodpecker Chewink Snowflake Rose-breasted Grosbeak Bobolink Black-poll Warbler Black-and-white Creeping Warbler See also the Swallows; the Shrikes; Nuthatches and Titmice: the Kingbird and other Flycatchers; the Nighthawk; the Redstart; and the following Warblers: the Myrtle; the Bay-breasted; the Blackburnian; and the Black-throated Blue WarbUr. BIRDS CONSPICUOUSLY BLACK AND WHITE Red-headed Woodpecker (Melanerpes erythrocephalus) Woodpecker family Called also: TRI-COLOR ; RED-HEAD Length — 8. 50 to 9.75 inches. An inch or less smaller than the robin. Male and Female — Head, neck, and throat crimson ; breast and underneath white; back black and white; wings and tail blue black, with broad white band on wings conspicuous in flight. Eange — United States, east of Rocky Mountains and north to Manitoba. Migrations— Ahxmdzni but irregular migrant. Most commonly seen in Autumn, and rarely resident. In thinly populated sections, where there are few guns about, this is still one of the commonest as it is perhaps the most conspicuous member of the woodpecker family, but its striking glossy black-and-white body and its still more striking crimson head, flattened out against the side of a tree like a target, where it is feeding, have made it all too tempting a mark for the rifles of the sportsmen and the sling-shots of small boys. As if suffi- cient attention were not attracted to it by its plumage, it must needs keep up a noisy, guttural rattle, her-r-ruck, ker-r-ruch, very like a tree-toad's call, and flit about among the trees with the restlessness of a fly-catcher. Yet, in spite of these invita- tions for a shot to the passing gunner, it still multiplies in dis- tricts where nuts abound, being "more common than the robin" about Washington, says John Burroughs. All the familiar woodpeckers have two characteristics most prominently exemplified in this red-headed member of their tribe. The hairy, the downy, the crested, the red-bellied, the sapsucker, and the flicker have each a red mark somewhere about 53 Conspicuously Black and White their heads as if they had been wounded there and bled a little — some more, some less ; and the figures of all of them, from much flattening against tree-trunks, have become high-shouldered and long-waisted. The red-headed woodpecker selects, by preference, a partly decayed tree in which to excavate a hole for its nest, because the digging is easier, and the sawdust and chips make a softer lining than green wood. Both male and female take turns in this hollowing-out process. The one that is off duty is allowed "twenty minutes for refreshments," consisting of grubs, beetles, ripe apples or cherries, corn, or preferably beech-nuts. At a loving call from its mate in the hollow tree, it returns promptly to perform its share of the work, when the carefully observed " time is up." The heap of sawdust at the bottom of the hollow will eventually cradle from four to six glossy-white eggs. This woodpecker has the thrifty habit of storing away nuts in the knot-holes of trees, between cracks in the bark, or in decayed fence rails — too often a convenient storehouse at which the squirrels may help themselves. But it is the black snake that enters the nest and eats the young family, and that is a more deadly foe than even the sportsman or the milliner. The Hairy Woodpecker (Dryobates villosus) Woodpecker family Length— () to lo inches. About the size of the robin. Ma/e—B\a.ck and white above, white beneath. White stripe down the back, composed of long hair-like feathers. Bright- red band on the nape of neck. Wings striped and dashed with black and white. Outer tail feathers white, without bars. White stripe about eyes and on sides of the head. Female— Without the red band on head, and body more brown- ish than that of the male. Jiange— Eastern parts of United States, from the Canadian bor- der to the Carolinas. Migrations — Resident throughout its range. The bill of the woodpecker is a hammering tool, well fitted for its work. Its mission in life is to rid the trees of insects, 54 DOWNY WOODPECKER. Life-size. Conspicuously Black and White which hide beneath the bark, and with this end in view, the bird is seen clinging to the trunks and branches of trees through fair and wintry weather, industriously scanning every inch for the well-known signs of the boring worm or destructive fly. In the autumn the male begins to excavate his winter quar- ters, carrying or throwing out the chips, by which this good workman is known, with his beak, while the female may make herself cosey or not, as she chooses, in an abandoned hole. About her comfort he seems shamefully unconcerned. Intent only on his own, he drills a perfectly round hole, usually on the under side of a limb where neither snow nor wind can harm him, and digs out a horizontal tunnel in the dry, brittle wood in the very heart of the tree, before turning downward into the deep, pear- shaped chamber, where he lives in selfish solitude. But when the nesting season comes, how devoted he is temporarily to the mate he has neglected and even abused through the winter ! Will she never learn that after her clear-white eggs are laid and her brood raised he will relapse into the savage and forget all his tender wiles ? The hairy woodpecker, like many another bird and beast, fur- nishes much doubtful weather lore for credulous and inexact ob- servers. " When the woodpecker pecks low on the trees, expect warm weather" is a common saying, but when different individ- uals are seen pecking at the same time, one but a few feet from the ground, and another among the high branches, one may make the prophecy that pleases him best. The hairy woodpeckers love the deep woods. They are drummers, not singers; but when walking in the desolate winter woods even the drumming and tapping of the busy feathered workmen on a resonant limb is a solace, giving a sense of life and cheerful activity which is invigorating. The Downy Woodpecker (Dryobates pubescensj Woodpecker family Length— 6 to 7 inches. About the size of the English sparrow. Male — Black above, striped with white. Tail shaped like a wedge. Outer tail feathers white, and barred with black. Middle tail feathers black. A black stripe on top of head, and distinct white band over and under the eyes. Red patch on upper 55 Conspicuously Black and White side of neck. Wings, witli six white bands crossing them transversely ; white underneath. Female— Similar, but without scarlet on the nape, which is white. Jiange— Eastern North America, from Labrador to Florida. Migrations— Resident all the year throughout its range. The downy woodpecker is similar to his big relative, the hairy woodpecker, in color and shape, though much smaller. His outer tail feathers are white, barred with black, but the hairy's white outer tail feathers lack these distinguishing marks. He is often called a sapsucker— though quite another bird alone merits that name— from the supposition that he bores into the trees for the purpose of sucking the sap ; but his tongue is ill adapted for such use, being barbed at the end, and most orni- thologists consider the charge libellous. It has been surmised that he bores the numerous little round holes close together, so often seen, with the idea of attracting insects to the luscious sap. The woodpeckers never drill for insects in live wood. The downy actually drills these little holes in apple and other trees to feed upon the inner milky bark of the tree — the cambium layer. The only harm to be laid to his account is that, in his zeal, he sometimes makes a ring of small holes so continuous as to inad- vertently damage the tree by girdling it. The bird, like most others, does not debar himself entirely from fruit diet, but enjoys berries, especially poke-berries. He is very social with birds and men alike. In winter he attaches himself to strolling bands of nuthatches and chickadees, and in summer is fond of making friendly visits among village folk, frequenting the shade trees of the streets and grapevines of back gardens. He has even been known to fearlessly peck at flies on window panes. In contrast to his large brother woodpecker, who is seldom drawn from timber lands, the little downy member of the family brings the comfort of his cheery presence to country homes, beating his rolling tattoo in spring on some resonant limb under our windows in the garden with a strength worthy of a larger drummer. This rolling tattoo, or drumming, answers several purposes: by it he determines whether the tree is green or hollow ; it startles insects from their lurking places underneath the bark, and it also serves as a love song. 56 YELLOW-BELLIED SAPSUCKER. S Life-size. Conspicuously Black and White Yellow-bellied Woodpecker (Sphyrapicus varius) Woodpecker family Called also: THE SAPSUCKER Length — 8 to 8.6 inches. About one-fifth smaller than the robin. Male — Black, white, and yellowish white above, with bright-red crown, chin, and throat. Breast black, in form of crescent. A yellowish-white line, beginning at bill and passing below eye, merges into the pale yellow of the bird underneath. Wings spotted with white, and coverts chiefly white. Tail black ; white on middle of feathers. Female — Paler, and with head and throat white. Range — Eastern North America, from Labrador to Central America. Migrations — April. October. Resident north of Massachusetts. Most common in autumn. It is sad to record that this exquisitely marked woodpecker, the most jovial and boisterous of its family, is one of the very few bird visitors whose intimacy should be discouraged. For its useful appetite for slugs and insects which it can take on the wing with wonderful dexterity, it need not be wholly con- demned. But as we look upon a favorite maple or fruit tree devitalized or perhaps wholly dead from its ravages, we cannot forget that this bird, while a most abstemious fruit-eater, has a pernicious and most intemperate thirst for sap. Indeed, it spends much of its time in the orchard, drilling holes into the freshest, most vigorous trees ; then, when their sap begins to flow, it siphons it into an insatiable throat, stopping in its orgie only long enough to snap at the insects that have been attracted to the wounded tree by the streams of its heart-blood now trickling down its sides. Another favorite pastime is to strip the bark off a tree, then peck at the soft wood underneath — almost as fatal a habit. It drills holes in maples in early spring for sap only. If it drills holes in fruit trees it is for the cambium layer, a soft, pulpy, nutritious under-bark. These woodpeckers have a variety of call-notes, but their rapid drumming against the limbs and trunks of trees is the sound we always associate with them and the sound that Mr. Bicknell says is the love-note of the family. Unhappily, these birds, that many would be glad to have 57 Conspicuously Black and White decrease in numbers, take extra precautions for the safety of tiieir young by making very deep excavations for their nests, often as deep as eighteen or twenty inches. The Chewink {Pipilo erythrophthalmus) Finch family Called also: GROUND ROBIN ; TOWHEE ; TOWHEE BUNT- ING ; TOWHEE GROUND FINCH ; GRASEL Lengthr—^ to 8. 5 inches. About one-fifth smaller than the robin. Male — Upper parts black, sometimes margined with rufous. Breast white; chestnut color on sides and rump. Wings marked with white. Three outer feathers of tail striped with white, conspicuous in flight. Bill black and stout. Red eyes ; feet brown. Female — Brownish where the male is black. Abdomen shading from chestnut to white in the centre. Range — From Labrador, on the north, to the Southern States ; west to the Rocky Mountains. Migrations — April. September and October. Summer resident. Very rarely a winter resident at the north. The unobtrusive little chewink is -not infrequently mistaken for a robin, because of the reddish chestnut on its under parts. Careful observation, however, shows important distinctions. It is rather smaller and darker in color; its carriage and form are not those of the robin, but of the finch. The female is smaller still, and Has an olive tint in her brown back. Her eggs are in- conspicuous in color, dirty white speckled with brown, and laid in a sunken nest on the ground. Dead leaves and twigs abound, and form, as the anxious mother fondly hopes, a safe hiding place for her brood. So careful concealment, however, brings peril to the fledglings, for the most cautious bird-lover may, and often does, inadvertently set his foot on the hidden nest. The chewink derives its name from the fancied resemblance of its note to these syllables, while those naming it "towhee" hear the sound to-whick, to-which, to-whee. Its song is rich, full, and pleasing, and given only when the bird has risen to the branches above its low foraging ground. It frequents the border of swampy places and bushy fields. 58 TOWHEES. Ya Life-size. Conspicuously Black and White It is generally seen in the underbrush, picking about among the dead leaves for its steady diet of earthworms and larvae of in- sects, occasionally regaling itself with a few dropping berries and fruit. When startled, the bird rises not more than ten or twelve feet from the earth, and utters its characteristic calls. On ac- count of this habit of flying low and grubbing among the leaves, it is sometimes called the ground robin. In the South our modest and useful little food-gatherer' is often called grasel, especially in Louisiana, where it is white-eyed, and is much esteemed, alas! by epicures. Snowflake (Plectrophenax nivalis) Finch family Called also : S^O"^ BUNTING; WHITEBIRD ; SNOWBIRD; SNOW LARK Length — 7 to 7. 5 inches. About one-fourth smaller than the robin. Male and Female — Head, neck, and beneath soiled white, with a few reddish-brown feathers on top of head, and suggesting an imperfect collar. Above, grayish brown obsoletely streaked with black, the markings being most conspicuous in a band between shoulders. Lower tail feathers black ; others, white and all edged with white. Wings brown, white, and gray. Plumage unusually variable. In summer dress (in arctic regions) the bird is almost white. Range — Circumpolar regions to Kentucky (in winter only). Migrations—Uxd-winXtr visitor; rarely, if ever, resident south of arctic regions. These snowflakes (mentioned collectively, for it is impossible to think of the bird except in great flocks) are the "true spirits of the snowstorm," says Thoreau. They are animated beings that ride upon it, and have their life in it. By comparison with the climate of the arctic regions, no doubt our hardiest winter weather seems luxuriously mild to them. We associate them only with those wonderful midwinter days when sky, fields, and woods alike are white, and a "hard, dull bitterness of cold" drives every other bird and beast to shelter. It is said they often pass the night buried beneath th6 snow. They have been seen to dive beneath it to escape a hawk. Whirling about in the drifting snow to catch the seeds on 59 Conspicuously Black and White the tallest stalks that the wind in the open meadows uncovers, the snowflakes suggest a lot of dead leaves being blown through the all-pervading whiteness. Beautiful soft brown, gray, and predominating black-and-white coloring distinguish these capri- cious visitors from the slaty junco, the "snowbird" more com- monly known. They are, indeed, the only birds we have that are nearly white ; and rarely, if ever, do they rise far above the ground their plumage so admirably imitates. At the far north, travellers have mentioned their inspiriting song, but in the United States we hear only their cheerful twitter. Nansen tells of seeing an occasional snow bunting in that desola- tion of arctic ice where the Fram drifted so long. The Rose-breasted Grosbeak (Habia ludoviciana) Finch family Length — 7.75 to 8. 5 inches. About one-fifth smaller than the robin. Male — Head and upper parts black. Breast has rose-carmine shield-shaped patch, often extending downward to the centre of the abdomen. Underneath, tail quills, and two spots on wings white. Conspicuous yellow, blunt beak. Female — Brownish, with dark streakings, like a sparrow. No rose-color. Light sulphur yellow under wings. Dark brown, heavy beak. Range — Eastern North America, from southern Canada to Panama. Migrations — Early May. September. Summer resident. A certain ornithologist tells with complacent pride of having shot over fifty-eight rose-breasted grosbeaks in less than three weeks (during the breeding season) to learn what kind of food they had in their crops. This kind of devotion to science may have quite as much to do with the growing scarcity of this bird in some localities as the demands of the milliners, who, however, receive all of the blame for the slaughter of our beautiful songsters. The farmers in Pennsylvania, who, with more truth than poetry, call this the potato-bug bird, are taking active measures, how- ever, to protect the neighbor that is more useful to their crop than all the insecticides known. It also eats flies, wasps, and grubs. Seen upon the ground, the dark bird is scarcely attractive with his clumsy beak overbalancing a head that protrudes with stupid- 60 BROTHER AND SISTER ROSE-BREASTED GROSBEAKS, TWO WEEKS OLD ROSE-BREASTED GROSBEAKS, SIX DAYS OLD. ROSE-BREASTED GROSBEAK. J^ Life-size. Conspicuously Black and White looking awkwardness ; but as he rises into the trees his lovely rose-colored breast and under-wing feathers are seen, and before he has had time to repeat his delicious, rich-voiced warble you are already in love with him. Vib'-ating his wings after the manner of the mocking-bird, he pours forth a marvellously sweet, clear, mellow song (with something of the quality of the oriole's, robin's, and thrush's notes), making the day on which you first hear it memorable. This is one of the few birds that sing at night. A soft, sweet, rolling warble, heard when the moon is at its full on a midsummer night, is more than likely to come from the rose-breasted grosbeak. It is not that his quiet little sparrow-like wife has advanced notions of feminine independence that he takes his turn at sitting upon the nest, but that he is one of the most unselfish and devoted of mates. With their combined efforts they construct only a coarse, unlovely cradle in a thorn-bush or low tree near an old, overgrown pasture lot. The father may be the poorest of archi- tects, but as he patiently sits brooding over the green, jspeckled eggs, his beautiful rosy breast just showing above the grassy rim, he is a sufficient adornment for any bird's home. The Bobolink (Dolichonyx oryiivorus) Blackbird family Called also: REEDBIRD; MAYBIRD; MEADOW-BIRD; AMERI- CAN ORTOLAN ; BUTTER-BIRD ; SKUNK BLACKBIRD Length — 7 inches. A trifle larger than the English sparrow. Male — In spring plumage: black, with light-yellow patch on upper neck, also on edges of wings and tail feathers. Rump and upper wings splashed with white. Middle of back streaked with pale buff. Tail feathers have pointed tips. In autumn plumage, resembles female. Female — Dull yellow-brown, with light and dark dashes on back, wings, and tail. Two decided dark stripes on top of head. Range — North America, from eastern coast to western prairies. Migrates in early autumn to Southern States, and in winter to South America and West Indies. Migrations — Early May. From August to October. Common summer resident. 61 Conspicuously Black and White Perhaps none of our birds have so fitted into song and story as the bobolink. Unlilte a good child, who should "be seen and not heard," he is heard more frequently than seen. Very shy, of peering eyes, he keeps well out of sight in the meadow grass before entrancing our listening ears. The bobolink never soars like the lark, as the poets would have us believe, but gen- erally sings on the wing, flying with a peculiar self-conscious flight horizontally thirty or forty feet above the meadow grass. He also sings perched upon the fence or tuft of grass. He is one of the greatest poseurs among the birds. In spring and early summer the bobolinks respond to every poet's effort to imitate their notes. "Dignified 'Robert of Lin- coln ' is telling his name," says one; " Spink, spank, spink," an- other hears hini say. But best of all are Wilson Flagg's lines : . . . " Now they rise and now they fly ; They cross and turn, and in and out, and down the middle and wheel about, With a ' Phew, shew, Wadolincon ; listen to me Bobolincon ! ' " After midsummer the cares of the family have so worn upon the jollity of our dashing, rollicking friend that his song is seldom heard. The colors of his coat fade into a dull yellowish brown like that of his faithful mate, who has borne the greater burden of the season, for he has two complete moults each year. The bobolinks build their nest on the ground in high grass. The eggs are of a bluish white. Their food is largely insectivo- rous : grasshoppers, crickets, beetles, spiders, with seeds of grass especially for variety. In August they begin their journey southward, flying mainly by night. Arriving in the Southern States, they become the sad- colored, low-voiced rice or reed bird, feeding on the rice fields, where they descend to the ignominious fate of being dressed for the plate of the epicure. Could there be a more tragic ending to the glorious note of the gay songster of the north ? 62 Conspicuously Black and White Blackpoli Warbler (Dendroica striata) Wood Warbler family Length — 5. 5 to 6 inches. About an inch smaller than the English sparrow. Male — Black cap; cheeks and beneath grayish white, forming a sort of collar, more or less distinct. Upper parts striped gray, black, and olive. Breast and under parts white, with black streaks. Tail olive-brown, with yellow-white spots. Female — Without cap. Greenish-olive above, faintly streaked with black. Paler than male. Bands on wings, yellowish. Range — North America, to Greenland and Alaska. In winter, to northern part of South America. Migrations — Last of May. Late October. A faint " screep, screep," like "the noise made by striking two pebbles together," Audubon says, is often the only indication of the blackpoll's presence; but surely that tireless bird-student had heard its more characteristic notes, which, rapidly uttered, increasing in the middle of the strain and diminishing toward the end, suggest the shrill, .wiry hum of some midsummer insect. After the opera-glass has searched him out we find him by no means an inconspicuous bird. A dainty little fellow, with a glossy black cap pulled over his eyes, he is almost hidden by the dense foliage on the trees by the time he returns to us at the very end of spring. Giraud says that he is the very last of his tribe to come north, though the bay-breasted warbler has usually been thought the bird to wind up the spring procession. The blackpoli has a certain characteristic motion that distin- guishes him from the black-and-white creeper, for which a hasty glance might mistake him, and from the jolly little chickadee with his black cap. Apparently he runs about the tree-trunk, but in reahty he so flits his wings that his feet do not touch the bark at all; yet so rapidly does he go that the flipping wing-motion is not observed. He is most often seen in May in the apple trees, peeping into the opening blossoms for insects, uttering now and then his slender, lisping, brief song. Vivacious, a busy hunter, often catching insects on the wing like the flycatchers, he is a cheerful, useful neighbor the short time he spends with us before travelling to the far north, where he mates and nests. A nest has been found on Slide Mountain, in the Catskills, but the hardy evergreens of Canada, and some- 63 Conspicuously Black and White times those of northern New England, are the chosen home of this little bird that builds a nest of bits of root, lichens, and sedges, amply large for a family twice the size of his. Black-and-white Creeping Warbler (Mniotilta varia) Wood Warbler family Called also : VARIED CREEPING WARBLER ; BLACK-AND- WHITE CREEPER; WHITEPOLL WARBLER Length — 5 to 5. 5 inches. About an inch smaller than the English sparrow. Male — Upper parts white, varied with black. A white stripe along the summit of the head and back of the neck, edged with black. White line above and below the eye. Black cheeks and throat, grayish in females and young. Breast white in middle, with black stripes on sides. Wings and tail rusty black, with two white cross-bars on former, and soiled white markings on tail quills. Female — Paler and less distinct markings throughout. Hange — Peculiar to America. Eastern United States and west- ward to the plains. North as far as the fur countries. Win- ters in tropics south of Florida. Migrations — April. Late September. Summer resident. Nine times out of ten this active little warbler is mistaken for the downy woodpecker, not because of his coloring alone, but also on account of their common habit of running up and down the trunks of trees and on the under side of branches, looking for insects, on which all the warblers subsist. But presently the true warbler characteristic of restless flitting about shows itself. A woodpecker would go over a tree with painstaking, systematic care, while the black-and-white warbler, no less intent upon securing its food, hurries off from tree to tree, wherever the most promising menu is offered. Clinging to the mottled bark of the tree-trunk, which he so closely resembles, it would be diificult to find him were it not for these sudden flittings and the feeble song, " Weachy, weachy, weachy, 'twee, 'twee, 'tweet," he half lisps, half sings between his dashes after slugs. Very rarely indeed can his nest be fouad in an old stump or mossy bank, where bark, leaves, and hair make the downy cradle for his four or five tiny babies. BLACK AND WHITE WARBLER. Life-size. DUSKY AND GRAY AND SLATE-COLORED BIRDS Chimney Swift Kingbird Wood Pewee Phoebe and Say's Phoebe Crested Flycatcher Olive-sided Flycatcher Least Flycatcher Chickadee Tufted Titmouse Canada Jay Catbird Mocking-bird Junco White-breasted Nuthatch Red-breasted Nuthatch Loggerhead Shrike Northern Shrike Bohemian Waxwing Bay-breasted Warbler Chestnut-sided Warbler Golden-winged Warbler Myrtle Warbler Parula Warbler Black-throated Blue Warbler See also the Grayish Green and the Grayish Brown Birds, particularly the Cedai Bird, several Swallows, the Acadian and the Yellow-bellied Flycatchers; Alice's and the Olive-backed Thrushes; the Louisiana Water Thrush; the Blue-gray Gnat- catcher; and the Seaside Sparrow. See also the females of the following birds: Pine Grosbeak; White-winged Red Crossbill; Purple Martin; and the Nashville, the Pine, and the Magnolia Warblers. CHIMNEY S\V1FT. % Life-size. DUSKY, GRAY, AND SLATE-COLORED BIRDS Chimney Swift (Chcetura pelagica) Swift family Called also: CHIMNEY SWALLOW; AMERICAN SWIFT Length — 5 to 5.45 inches. About an inch shorter than the Eng- lish sparrow. Long wings make its length appear greater. Male and Female — Deep sooty gray ; throat of a trifle lighter gray. Wings extend an inch and a half beyond the even tail, which has sharply pointed and very elastic quills, that serve as props. Feet are muscular, and have exceedingly sharp claws. Range — Peculiar to North America east of the Rockies, and from Labrador to Panama. Migrations — April. September or October. Common summer resident. The chimney swift is, properly speaking, not a swallow at all, though chimney swallow is its more popular name. Rowing towards the roof of your house, as if it used first one wing, then the other, its flight, while swift and powerful, is stiff and mechan- ical, unlike the swallow's, and its entire aspect suggests a bat. The nighthawk and whippoorwill are its relatives, and it resem- bles them not a little, especially in its nocturnal habits. So much fault has been found with the misleading names of many birds, it is pleasant to record the fact that the name of the chimney swift is everything it ought to be. No other birds can surpass and few can equal it in its powerful flight, sometimes covering a thousand miles in twenty-four hours, it is said, and never resting except in its roosting places (hollow trees or chim- neys of dwellings), where it does not perch, but rather clings to the sides with its sharp claws, partly supported by its sharper tail. Audubon tells of a certain plane tree in Kentucky where he counted over nine thousand of these swifts clinging to the hollow trunk. ■67 Dusky, Gray, and Slate-colored Their nest, which is a loosely woven twig lattice, made of twigs of trees, which the birds snap off with their beaks and carry in their beaks, is glued with the bird's saliva or tree-gum into a solid structure, and firmly attached to the inside of chimneys, or hollow trees where there are no houses about. Two broods in a season usually emerge from the pure white, elongated eggs. What a twittering there is in the chimney that the swifts appropriate after the winter fires have died out ! Instead of the hospitable column of smoke curling from the top, a cloud of sooty birds wheels and floats above it. A sound as of distant thunder fills the chimney as a host of these birds, startled, perhaps, by some indoor noise, whirl their way upward. Woe betide the happy colony if a sudden cold snap in early summer necessitates the starting of a fire on the hearth by the unsuspecting householder! The glue being melted by the fire, " down comes the cradle, babies and all " into the glowing embers. A prolonged, heavy rain also causes their nests to loosen their hold and fall with the soot to the bottom. Thrifty New England housekeepers claim that bedbugs, commonly found on bats, infest the bodies of swifts also, which is one reason why wire netting is stretched across the chimney tops before the birds arrive from the South. Kingbird (Tyrannus tyrannus) Flycatcher family Called also: TYRANT FLYCATCHER; BEE MARTIN Length — 8 inches. About two inches shorter than the robin. Male—kshy black above ; white, shaded with ash-color, beneath. A concealed crest of orange-red on crown. Tail black, ter- minating with a white band conspicuous in flight. Wing feathers edged with white. Feet and bill black. Female~S\m\\zr to the male, but lacking the crown. Range— Umltdi States to the Rocky Mountains. British provinces to Central and South America. Migrations — May. September. Common summer resident. If the pugnacious propensity of the kingbird is the occasion of its royal name, he cannot be said to deserve it from any fine or noble qualities he possesses . He is a born fighter from the very 68 WOOD PEWEE. g Life-size. Dusky, Gray, and Slate-colored love of it, without provocation, rhyme, or reason. One can but watch with a degree of admiration his bold sallies on the big, black crow or the marauding hawk, but when he bullies the small inoffensive birds in wanton attacks for sheer amusement, the charge is less entertaining. Occasionally, when the little vic- tim shows pluck and faces his assailant, the kingbird will literally turn tail and show the white feather. His method of attack is always when a bird is in flight; then he swoops down from the telegraph pole or high point of vantage, and strikes on the head or back of the neck, darting back like a flash to the exact spot from which he started. By these tactics he avoids a return blow and retreats from danger. He never makes a fair hand-to-hand fight, or whatever is equivalent in bird warfare. It is a satisfaction to record that he does not attempt to give battle to the catbird, but whenever in view makes a grand detour to give him a wide berth. The kingbird feeds on beetles, canker-worms, and winged insects, with an occasional dessert of berries. He is popularly supposed to prefer the honeybee as his favorite tidbit, but the weight of opinion is adverse to the charge of his depopulating the beehive, even though he owes his appellation bee martin to this tradition. One or two ornithologists declare that he selects only the drones for his diet, which would give him credit for marvel- lous sight in his rapid motion through the air. The kingbird is preeminently a bird of the garden and orchard. The nest is open, though deep, and not carefully concealed. Eggs are nearly round, bluish white spotted with brown and lilac. With truly royal exclusiveness, the tyrant favors no community of interest, but sits in regal state on a conspicuous throne, and takes his grand flights alone or with his queen, but never with a flock of his kind. Wood Pewee (Contopus virens) Flycatcher family Length — 6. 50 inches. A trifle larger than the English sparrow. Male — Dusky brownish olive above, darkest on head ; paler on throat, lighter still underneath, and with a yellowish tinge on the dusky gray under parts. Dusky wings and tail, the wing coverts tipped with soiled white, forming two indistinct bars. Whitish eye-ring. Wings longer than tail. Female — Similar, but slightly more buff underneath. 69 Dusky, Gray, and Slate-colored Jiange— Eastern North America, from Florida to northern British provinces. Winters in Central America. Migrations — May. October. Common summer resident. The wood pewee, like the olive-sided flycatcher, has wings decidedly longer than its tail, and it is by no means a simple matter for the novice to tell these birds apart or separate them distinctly in the mind from the other members of a family whose coloring and habits are most confusingly similar. This dusky haunter of tall shady trees has not yet learned to be sociable like the phoebe; but while it may not be so much in evidence close to our homes, it is doubtless just as common. The orchard is as near the house as it often cares to come. An old orchard, where modern insecticides are unknown and neglect allows insects to riot among the decayed bark and fallen fruit, is a happy hunting ground enough; but the bird's real preferences are decidedly for high tree-tops in the. woods, where no sunshine touches the feathers on his dusky coat. It is one of the few shade-loving birds. In deep solitudes, where it surely retreats by nesting time, however neighborly it may be during the migrations, its pensive, pathetic notes, long drawn out, seem like the expression of some hidden sorrow. Pe-a-wee, pe-a-wee, pewee-ah-peer is the burden of its plaintive song, a sound as depressing as it is familiar in every walk through the woods, and the bird's most prominent characteristic. To see the bird dashing about in his aerial chase for insects, no one would accuse him of melancholia. He keeps an eye on the "main chance," whatever his preying grief may be, and never allows it to affect his appetite. Returning to his perch after a successful sally in pursuit of the passing fly, he repeats his "sweetly solemn thought" over and over again all day long and every day throughout the summer. The wood pewees show that devotion to each other and to their home, characteristic of their family. Both lovers work on the construction of the flat nest that is saddled on some mossy or lichen-covered limb, and so cleverly do they cover the rounded edge with bits of bark and lichen that sharp eyes only can detect where the cradle lies. Creamy-white eggs, whose larger end is wreathed with brown and lilac spots, are guarded with fierce' solicitude. Trowbridge has celebrated this bird in a beautiful poem. 70 Dusky, Gray, and Slate-colored Phoebe (Sayornis phoebe) Flycatcher family Called also ; DUSKY FLYCATCHER ; BRIDGE PEWEE ; WATER PEWEE Length — 7 inches. About an inch longer than the English sparrow. Male and Female — Dusky olive-brown above ; darkest on head, which is slightly crested. Wings and tail dusky, the outer edges of some tail feathers whitish. Dingy yellowish white underneath. Bill and feet black. Range — North America, from Newfoundland to the South At- lantic States, and westward to the Rockies. Winters south of the Carolinas, into Mexico, Central America, and the West Indies. Migrations — March. October. Common summer resident. The earliest representative of the flycatcher family to come out of the tropics where insect life fairly swarms and teems, what does the friendly little phoebe find to attract him to the north in March while his prospective dinners must all be still in embryo ? He looks dejected, it is true, as he sits solitary and silent on some projecting bare limb in the garden, awaiting the coming of his tardy mate ; nevertheless, the date of his return will not vary by more than a few days in a given locality year after year. Why birds that are mated for life, as these are said to be, and such de- voted lovers, should not travel together on their journey north, is another of the many mysteries of bird-life awaiting solution. The reunited, happy couple go about the garden and out- buildings like domesticated wrens, investigating the crannies on piazzas, where people may be coming and going, and boldly entering barn-lofts to find a suitable site for the nest that it must take much of both time and skill to build. Pewit, phoebe, phoebe ; pewit, phoebe, they contentedly but rather monotonously sing as they investigate all the sites in the neighborhood. Presently a location is chosen under a beam or rafter, and the work of collecting moss and mud for the founda- tion and hair and feathers or wool to line the exquisite little home begins. But the labor is done cheerfully, with many a sally in midair either to let off superfluous high spirits or to catch a morsel on the wing, and with many a vivacious outburst of what by courtesy only we may name a song. 71 Dusky, Gray, and Slate-colored When not domesticated, as these birds are rapidly becoming, the phoebes dearly love a cool, wet woodland retreat. Here they hunt and bathe ; here they also build in a rocky bank or ledge of rocks or underneath a bridge, but always with clever adaptation of their nest to its surroundings, out of which it seems a natural growth. It is one of the most finished, beautiful nests ever found. A pair of phoebes become attached to a spot where they have once nested ; they never stray far from it, and return to it regularly, though they may not again occupy the old nest. This is because it soon becomes infested with lice from the hen's feathers used in lining it, for which reason too close relationship with this friendly bird-neighbor is discouraged by thrifty house- keepers. When the baby birds have come out from the four or six little white eggs, their helpless bodies are mercilessly attacked by parasites, and are often so enfeebled that half the brood die. The next season another nest will be built near the first, the fol- lowing summer still another, until it would appear that a colony of birds had made their homes in the place. Throughout the long summer — for as the phoebe is the first flycatcher to come, so it is the last to go — the bird is a tireless hunter of insects, which it catches on the wing with a sharp click of its beak, like the other members of its dexterous family. Say's Phoebe (Sayornis soya) is the Western representative of the Eastern species, which it resembles in coloring and many of its habits. It is the bird of the open plains, a tireless hunter in midair sallies from an isolated perch, and has the same vibrat- ing motion of the tail that the Eastern phoebe indulges in when excited. This bird differs chiefly in its lighter coloring, but not in habits, from the black pewee of the Pacific slope. Great-crested Flycatcher (Myiarchus crinitus) Flycatcher family Called also: CRESTED FLYCATCHER Length — 8. 50 to 9 inches. A little smaller than the robin. Male and Female— Vtslhers of the head pointed and erect. Upper parts dark grayish-olive, inclining to rusty brown on wings and tail. Wing coverts crossed with two irregular bars of yellowish white. Throat gray, shading into sulphur-yellow 72 0t^0»iimm!s«imi!im>. Dusky, Gray, and Slate-colored underneath, that also extends under the wings. Inner vane of several tail quills rusty red. Bristles at base of bill. Range — From Mexico, Central America, and West Indies north- ward to southern Canada and westward to the plains. Most common in Mississippi basin ; common also in eastern United States, south of New England. Migrations — May. September. Common summer resident. The most dignified and handsomely dressed member of his family, the crested flycatcher has, nevertheless, an air of pensive melancholy about him when in repose that can be accounted for only by the pain he must feel every time he hears himself screech. His harsh, shrill call, louder and more disagreeable than the king- bird's, cannot but rasp his ears as it does ours. And yet it is chiefly by this piercing note, given with a rising inflection, that we know the bird is in our neighborhood ; for he is somewhat of a recluse, and we must often follow the disagreeable noise to its source in the tree-tops before we can catch a glimpse of the screecher. Perched on a high lookout, he appears morose and sluggish, in spite of his aristocratic-looking crest, trim figure, and feathers that must seem rather gay to one of his dusky tribe. A low soliloquy, apparently born of discontent, can be overheard from the foot of his tree. But another second, and he has dashed off in hot pursuit of an insect flying beyond our sight, and with extremely quick, dexterous evolutions in midair, he finishes the hunt with a sharp click of his bill as it closes over the unhappy victim, and then he returns to his perch. On the wing he is exceedingly active and joyous ; in the tree he appears just the reverse. That he is a domineering fellow, quite as much of a tyrant as the notorious kingbird, that bears the greater burden of opprobrium, is shown in the fierce way he promptly dashes at a feathered stranger that may have alighted too near his perch, and pursues it beyond the bounds of justice, all the while screaming his rasping cry into the intruder's ears, that must pierce as deep as the thrusts from his relentless beak. He has even been known to drive off woodpeckers and bluebirds from the hollows in the trees that he, like them, chooses for a nest, and appropriate the results of their labor for his scarcely less belligerent mate. With a slight but important and indispensable addition, the stolen nest is ready to receive her four cream-colored eggs, that look as if a pen dipped in purple ink had been scratched over them. 73 Dusky, Gray, and Slate-colored The fact that gives the great-crested flycatcher a unique in- terest among all North American birds is that it invariably lines its nest with snake-skins if one can be had. Science would scarcely be worth the studying if it did not set our imaginations to work delving for plausible reasons for Nature's strange doings. Most of us will doubtless agree with Wilson (who made a special study of these interesting nests and never found a single one without cast snake-skins in it, even in districts where snakes were so rare they were supposed not to exist at all), that the lining was chosen to terrorize all intruders. The scientific mind that is unwilling to dismiss any detail of Nature's work as merely arbitrary and haphazard, is greatly exercised over the reason for the existence of crests on birds. But, surely, may not the sight of snake-skins that first greet the eyes of the fledgling flycatchers as they emerge from the shell be a good and sufficient reason why the feathers on their little heads should stand on end? "In the absence of a snake-skin, 1 have found an onion skin and shad scales in the nest," says John Burroughs, who calls this bird "the wild Irishman of the flycatchers." Olive-sided Flycatcher (Contopus borealis) Flycatcher family Length^-'] to 7.5 inches. About an inch longer than the English sparrow. Male and Female— Tinsky olive or grayish brown above; head darkest. Wings and tail blackish brown, the former some- times, but not always, margined and tipped with dusky white. Throat yellowish white ; other under parts slightly lighter shade than above. Olive-gray on sides. A tuft of yellowish- white, downy feathers on flanks. Bristles at base of bill. Range — From Labrador to Panama. Winters in the tropics. Nests usually north of United States, but it also breeds in the Catskills. Migrations — May. September. Resident only in northern part of its range. Only in the migrations may people south of Massachusetts hope to see this flycatcher, which can be distinguished from the rest of its kin by the darker under parts, and by the fluffy, yel- 74 Dusky, Gray, and Slate-colored Towish-white tufts of feathers on its flanks. Its habits have the family characteristics: It takes its food on the wing, suddenly sallying forth from its perch, darting about midair to seize its prey, then as suddenly returning to its identical point of vantage, usually in some distended, dead limb in the tree-top; it is .pug- nacious, bold, and tyrannical; mopish and inert when not on the hunt, but wonderfully alert and swift when in pursuit of insect or feathered foe. The short necks of the flycatchers make their heads appear large for their bodies, a -peculiarity slightly em- phasized in this member of the family. High up in some evergreen tree, well out on a branch, over which the shapeless mass of twigs and moss that serves as a nest is saddled, four or five buff-speckled eggs are laid, and by some special dispensation rarely fall out of their insecure cradle. A sharp, loud whistle, wheu — o-wheu-o-wheu-o, rings out from the throat of this olive-sided tyrant, warning all intruders off the premises ; but however harshly he may treat the rest of the feathered world, he has only gentle devotion to offer his brooding mate. Least Flycatcher (Empidonax minimus) Flycatcher family Called also : C H E B E C Length — 5 to 5.5 inches. About an inch smaller than the English sparrow. Male — Gray or olive-gray above, paler on wings and lower part of back, and a more distinct olive-green on head. Under- neath grayish white, sometimes faintly suffused with pale yellow. Wings have whitish bars. White eye-ring. Lower half of bill horn-color. Female — Is slightly more yellowish underneath. Range — Eastern North America, from tropics northward to Quebec, Migrations — May. September. Common summer resident. This, the smallest member of its family, takes the place of the more southerly Acadian flycatcher, throughout New England and the region of the Great Lakes. But, unlike his Southern rela- tive, he prefers orchards and gardens close to our homes for his hunting grounds rather than the wet recesses of the forests. Che-bec, che-bec, the diminutive olive-pated gray sprite calls out 7$ Dusky, Gray, and Slate-colored from the orchard between his aerial sallies after the passing insects that have been attracted by the decaying fruit, and chebec is the name by which many New Englanders know him. While giving this characteristic call-note, with drooping, jerking tail, trembling wings, and uplifted parti-colored bill, he looks unnerved and limp by the effort it has cost him. But in the next instant a gnat flies past. How quickly the bird recovers itself, and charges full-tilt at his passing dinner! The sharp click of his little bill proves that he has not missed his aim ; and after careering about in the air another minute or two, looking for more game to snap up on the wing, he will return to the same perch and take up his familiar refrain. Without hearing this call- note one might often mistake the bird for either the wood pewee or the phoebe, for all the three are similarly clothed and have many traits in common. The slightly larger size of the phcebe and pewee is not always apparent when they are seen perching on the trees. Unlike the "tuft of hay" to which the Acadian flycatcher's nest has been likened, the least flycatcher's home is a neat, substantial cup-shaped cradle softly lined with down or horsehair, and placed generally in an upright crotch of a tree, well above the ground. The Chickadee (Parus atricapillus) Titmouse family Called also: BLACK-CAPPED TITMOUSE; BLACK-CAP TIT Length — 5 to 5.5 inches. About an inch smaller than the English sparrow. Male and Female — Not crested. Crown and nape and throat black. Above gray, slightly tinged with brown. A white space, beginning at base of bill, extends backwards, widen- ing over cheeks and upper part of breast, forming a sort of collar that almost surrounds neck. Underneath dirty white, with pale rusty-brown wash on sides. Wings and tail gray, with white edgings. Plumage downy. Jiange — Eastern North America. North of the Carolinas to Lab- rador. Does not migrate in the North. Migrations — Late September. May. Winter resident ; perma- nent resident in northern parts of the United States. No "fair weather friend " is the jolly little chickadee. In the depth of the autumn equinoctial storm it returns to the tops of 76 CHICKADEE. About Life-size. Dusky, Gray, and Slate-colored the trees close by the house, where, through the sunshine, snow, and tempest of the entire winter, you may hear its cheery, irrepressible chickadee-dee-dee-dee or day-day-day as it swings around the dangling cones of the evergreens. It fairly over- flows with good spirits, and is never more contagiously gay than in a snowstorm. So active, so friendly and cheering, what would the long northern winters be hke without this lovable little neighbor ? It serves a more utilitarian purpose, however, than bracing faint-hearted spirits. " There is no bird that compares with it in destroying the female canker-worm moths and their eggs," writes a well-known entomologist. He calculates that as a chickadee destroys about 5,500 eggs in one day, it will eat 138,750 eggs in the twenty-five days it takes the canker-worm moth to crawl up the trees. The moral that it pays to attract chickadees about your home by feeding them in winter is obvious. Mrs. Mabel Osgood Wright, in her delightful and helpful book "Birdcraft," tells us how she makes a sort of a bird-hash of finely minced raw meat, waste canary-seed, buckwheat, and cracked oats, which she scatters in a sheltered spot for all the winter birds. The way this is consumed leaves no doubt of its popularity. A raw bone, hung from an evergreen limb, is equally appreciated. Friendly as the chickadee is — and Dr. Abbott declares it the tamest bird we have — it prefers well-timbered districts, especially where there are red-bud trees, when it is time to nest. It is very often clever enough to leave the labor of hollowing out a nest in the tree-trunk to the woodpecker or nuthatch, whose old homes it readily appropriates ; or, when these birds object, a knot-hole or a hollow fence-rail answers every purpose. Here, in the sum- mer woods, when family cares beset it, a plaintive, minor whistle replaces the chickadee-dee-dee that Thoreau likens to "silver tink- ling " as he heard it on a frosty morning. " Piped a tiny voice near by. Gay and polite, a cheerful cry — Chick-chickadeedee I saucy note Out of sound heart and merry throat, As if it said, ' Good-day, good Sir ! Fine afternoon, old passenger ! Happy to meet you in these places Where January brings few faces.' " — EmersfU, 77 Dnsky, Gray, and Slate-colored Tufted Titmouse (Parus bicolor) Titmouse family Called also : CK^Sl^U TITMOUSE; CRESTED TOMTIT Length — 6 to 6. 5 inches. About the size of the English sparrow. Male and Female — Crest high and pointed. Leaden or ash-gray above ; darkest on wings and tail. Frontlet, bill, and shoul- ders black; space between eyes gray. Sides of head dull white. Under parts light gray; sides yellowish, tinged with red. Range — United States east of plains, and only rarely seen so far north as New England. Migrations — October. April. Winter resident, but also found throughout the year in many States. " A noisy titmouse is Jack Frosts trumpeter " may be one of those few weather-wise proverbs with a grain of truth in them. As the chickadee comes from the woods with the frost, so it may be noticed his cousin, the crested titmouse, is in more noisy evi- dence throughout the winter. One might sometimes think his whistle, like a tugboat's, worked by steam. But how effectually nesting cares alone can silence it in April ! Titmice always see to it you are not lonely as you walk through the woods. This lordly tomtit, with his jaunty crest, keeps up a persistent whistle at you as he flits from tree to tree, leading you deeper into the forest, calling out " Here-bere-bere!" and looking like a pert and jaunty little blue jay, minus his gay clothes. Mr. Nehrling translates one of the calls " Heedle-dee- dle-dee-dle-dee ! " and another " Peto-peto-peto-daytee-daytee ! " But it is at the former, sharply whistled as the crested titmouse gives it, that every dog pricks up his ears. Comparatively little has been written about this bird, because jt is not often found in New England, where most of the bird litterateurs have lived. South of New York State, however, it is a common resident, and much respected for the good work it does in destroying injurious insects, though it is more fond of varying its diet with nuts, berries, and seeds than that all-round benefactor, the chickadee. 78 Dusky, Gray, and Slate-colored Canada Jay (Perisoreus canadensis) Crow and Jay family Called also: WHISKY JACK OR JOHN; MOOSE-BIRD; MEAT- BIRD; VENISON HERON; GREASE-BIRD; CANADIAN CARRION-BIRD; CAMP ROBBER Length— 1 1 to 12 inches. About two inches larger than the robin. Male and Female — Upper parts gray; darkest on wings and tail; back of the head and nape of the neck sooty, almost black. Forehead, throat, and neck white, and a few white tips on wings and tail. Underneath lighter gray. Tail long. Plu- mage fluffy. .ffa«^(r— Northern parts of the United States and British provinces of North America. Migrations — Resident where found. The Canada jay looks like an exaggerated chickadee, and both birds are equally fond of bitter cold weather, but here the similarity stops short. Where the chickadee is friendly the jay is impudent and bold; hardly less of a villain than his blue relative when it comes to marauding other birds' nests and destroying their young. With all his vices, however, intemperance cannot be attributed to him, in spite of the name given him by the Adi- rondack lumbermen and guides. "Whisky John" is a purely innocent corruption of " Wis-ka-tjon," as the Indians call this bird that haunts their camps and familiarly enters their wigwams. The numerous popular names by which the Canada jays are known are admirably accounted for by Mr. Hardy in a bulletin issued by the Smithsonian Institution. "They will enter the tents, and often alight on the bow of a canoe, where the paddle at every stroke comes within eighteen inches of them. I know nothing which can be eaten that they will not take, and I had one steal all my candles, pulling them out endwise, one by one, from a piece of birch bark in which they were rolled, and another peck a large hole in a keg of cas- tile soap. A duck which I had picked and laid down for a few minutes, had the entire breast eaten out by one or more of .these birds. I have seen one alight in the middle of my canoe and peck away at the carcass of a beaver I had skinned. They often spoil deer saddles by pecking into them near the kidneys. They 79 Dusky, Gray, and Slate-colored do great damage to the trappers by stealing the bait from traps set for martens and minks and by eating trapped game. They will sit quietly and see you build a log trap and bait it, and then, almost before your back is turned, you hear their hateful ca-ca-ca! as they glide down and peer into it. They will work steadily, carrying off meat and hiding it. I have thrown out pieces, and watched one to see how much he would carry off. He flew across a wide stream, and in a short time looked as bloody as a butcher from carrying large pieces; but his patience held out longer than mine. I think one would work as long as Mark Twain's California jay did trying to fill a miner's cabin with acorns through a knot-hole in the roof They are fond of the berries of the mountain ash, and, in fact, few things come amiss ; I believe they do not possess a single good quality except industry." One virtue not mentioned by Mr. Hardy is their prudent saving from the summer surplus to keep the winter storeroom well sup- plied like a squirrel's. Such thrift is the more necessary when a clamorous, hungry family of young jays must be reared while the thermometer is often as low as thirty degrees below zero at the end of March. How eggs are ever hatched at all in a tempera- ture calculated to freeze any sitting bird stiff, is one of the mys- teries of the woods. And yet four or five fluffy little jays, that look as if they were dressed in gray fur, emerge from the eggs before the spring sunshine has unbound the icy rivers or melted the snowdrifts piled high around the evergreens. Catbird (Galeoscoptes carolinensis) Mocking-bird family Called also : hLkCK-CA??^Y> THRUSH Length — 9 inches. An inch shorter than the robin. Male and Female— Vi2x\i slate above; below somewhat paler; top of head black. Distinct chestnut patch under the tail, which is black; feet and bill black also. Wings short, more than two inches shorter than the tail, .ffa;^^— British provinces to Mexico ; west to Rocky Mountains, rarely to Pacific coast. Winters in Southern States, Central America, and Cuba. Migrations — May. November. Common summer resident. 80 CATBIRD. (Galeoscoptes carolinensis). g Life-size. Dusky, Gray, and Slate-colored Our familiar catbird, of all the feathered tribe, presents the most contrary characteristics, and is therefore held in varied esti- mation — loved, admired, ridiculed, abused. He is the veriest "Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde" of birds. Exquisitely proportioned, with finely poised black head and satin-gray coat, which he bathes most carefully and prunes and prinks by the hour, he ap- pears from his toilet a Beau Brummell, an aristocratic-looking, even dandified neighbor. Suddenly, as if shot, he drops head and tail and assumes the most hang-dog air, without the least sign of self-respect ; then crouches and lengthens into a roll, head forward and tail straightened, till he looks like a little, short gray snake, lank and limp. Anon, with a jerk and a sprint, every muscle tense, tail erect, eyes snapping, he darts into the air intent upon some well-planned mischief. It is impossible to describe his various attitudes or moods. In song and call he presents the same opposite characteristics. How such a bird, exquisite in style, can demean himself to utter such harsh, altogether hateful catcalls and squawks as have given the bird his common name, is a wonder when in the next moment his throat swells and be- ginning phut-phut-coquillicot , he gives forth a long glorious song, only second to that of the wood thrush in melody. He is a jes- ter, a caricaturist, a mocking-bird. The catbird's nest is like a veritable scrap-basket, loosely woven of coarse twigs, bits of newspaper, scraps, and rags, till this rough exterior is softly lined and made fit to receive the four to six pretty dark green-blue eggs to be laid therein. As a fruit thief harsh epithets are showered upon the friendly, confiding little creature at our doors; but surely his depredations may be pardoned, for he is industrious at all times and unusually adroit in catching insects, especially in the moth stage. The Mocking-bird (OAimus polyglottus) Mocking-bird family Length — 9 to ID inches. About the size of the robin. Male and Female — Gray above; wings and wedge-shaped tail brownish; upper wing feathers tipped with white; outer tail quills white, conspicuous in flight; chin white; under- neath light gray, shading to whitish. Range — Peculiar to torrid and temperate zones of two Americas. Migrations — No fixed migrations ; usually resident where seen. Dusky, Gray, and Slate-colored North of Delaware this commonest of Southern birds is all too rarely seen outside of cages, yet even in midwinter it is not unknown in Central Park, New York. This is the angel that it is said the catbird was before he fell from grace. Slim, neat, graceful, imitative, amusing, with a rich, tender song that only the thrush can hope to rival, and with an instinctive preference for the society of man, it is little wonder he is a favorite, caged or free. He is a most devoted parent, too, when the four or six speckled green eggs have produced as many mouths to be sup- plied with insects and berries. In the Connecticut Valley, where many mocking-birds' nests have been found, year after year, they are all seen near the ground, and without exception are loosely, poorly constructed affairs of leaves, feathers, grass, and even rags. With ail his 'virtues, it must be added, however, that this charming bird is a sad tease. There is no sound, whether made by bird or beast about him, that he cannot imitate so clearly as to deceive every one but himself. Very rarely can you find a mocking-bird without intelligence and mischief enough to appre- ciate his ventriloquism. In Sidney Lanier's college note-book was found written this reflection: " A poet is the mocking-bird of the spiritual universe. In him are collected all the individual songs of all individual natures." Later in life, with the same thought in mind, he referred to the bird as "yon slim Shakespeare on the tree." His exquisite stanzas, "To Our Mocking-bird," exalt the singer with the immortals : " Trillets of humor, — shrewdest whistle-wit — ■ Contralto cadences of grave desire, Such as from off the passionate Indian pyre Drift down through sandal-odored flames that split About the slim young widow, who doth sit And sing above, — midnights of tone entire, — Tissues of moonlight, shot with songs of fire ; — Bright drops of tune, from oceans infinite Of melody, sipped off the thin-edged wave And trickling down the beak, — discourses brave Of serious matter that no man may guess, — Good-fellow greetings, cries of light distress — All these but now within the house we heard : O Death, wast thou too deaf to hear the bird ? 82 r >i 8 en ?Q f h-i lO 1— I o D o >< >< o Dusky, Gray, and Slate-colored ' Nay, Bird ; my griel gainsays the Lord's best right. The Lord was fain, at some late festal time. That Keats should set all heaven's woods in rhyme, And Thou in bird-notes. Lo, this tearful night Methinks I see thee, fresh from Death's despite. Perched in a palm-grove, wild with pantomime O'er blissfril companies couched in shady thyme. Methinks 1 hear thy silver whistlings bright Meet with the mighty discourse of the wise, — Till broad Beethoven, deaf no more, and Keats, 'Midst of much talk, uplift their smiling eyes And mark the music of thy wood-conceits, And half-way pause on some large courteous word. And call thee ' Brother,' O thou heavenly Bird ! " Junco (Junco hyemalis) Finch family Called also: SNOWBIRD; SLATE-COLORED SNOWBIRD length — 5.5 to 6.5 inches. About the size of the English sparrow. Male — Upper parts slate-colored ; darkest on head and neck, which are sometimes almost black and marked hke a cowl. Gray on breast, like a vest. Underneath white. Several outer tail feathers white, conspicuous in flight. Female — Lighter gray, inclining to brown. Range — North America. Not common in warm latitudes. Breeds in the Catskills and northern New England. Migrations — September. April. Winter resident. "Leaden skies above; snow below," is Mr. Parkhurst's sug- gestive description of this rather timid little neighbor, that is only starved into familiarity. When the snow has buried seed and berries, a flock of juncos, mingling sociably with the sparrows and chickadees about the kitchen door, will pick up scraps of food with an intimacy quite touching in a bird naturally rather shy. Here we can readily distinguish these "little gray-robed monks and nuns," as IVliss Florence Merriam calls them. They are trim, sprightly, sleek, and even natty ; their disposi- tions are genial and vivacious, not quarrelsome, like their sparrow cousins, and what is perhaps best about them, they are birds we may surely depend upon seeing in the winter months. A few come forth in September, migrating at night from the deep 83 Dusky, Gray, and Slate-colored woods of the north, where they have nested and moulted during the summer ; but not until frost has sharpened the air are large numbers of them seen. Rejoicing in winter, they nevertheless do not revel in the deep and fierce arctic blasts, as the snowflakes do, but take good care to avoid the open pastures before the hard storms overtake them. Early in the spring their song is sometimes heard before they leave us to woo and to nest in the north. Mr. Bicknell describes it as "a crisp call-note, a simple trill, and a faint, whispered warble, usually much broken, but not without sweetness." White-breasted Nuthatch (Sitta carolinensis) Nuthatch family Called also: TREE-MOUSE; DEVIL DOWNHEAD Length — 5. 5 to 6 inches. A trifle smaller than the English sparrow. Male and Female — Upper parts slate-color. Top of head and nape black. Wings dark slate, edged with black, that fades to brown. Tail feathers brownish black, with white bars. Sides of head and underneath white, shading to pale reddish under the tail. (Female's head leaden.) Body flat and com- pact. Bill longer than head. Range — British provinces to Mexico. Eastern United States. Migrations — October. April. Common resident. Most promi- nent in winter. " Shrewd little haunter of woods all gray. Whom 1 meet on my walk of a winter day — You're busy inspecting each cranny and hole In the ragged bark of yon hickory bole ; You intent on your task, and I on the law Of your wonderful head and gymnastic claw ! The woodpecker well may despair of this feat- Only the fly with you can compete ! So much is clear ; but I fain would know How you can so reckless and fearless go, Head upward, head downward, all one to you, Zenith and nadir the same in your view ? " —Edith M. Thomas. Could a dozen lines well contain a fuller description or more apt characterization of a bird than these " To a Nuthatch " ? 84 WHITE-BREASTED NUT HATCH. Life-size. Dusky, Gray, and Slate-colored With more artless inquisitiveness than fear, this lively little acrobat stops his hammering or hatcheting at your approach, and stretching himself out from the tree until it would seem he must fall off, he peers down at you, head downward, straight into your upturned opera-glasses. If there is too much snow on the upper side of a branch, watch how he runs along underneath it like a fly, busily tapping the bark, or adroitly breaking the de- cayed bits with his bill, as he searches for the spider's eggs, larvae, etc., hidden there; yet somehow, between mouthfuls, managing to call out his cheery quank ! quanh I hank ! hank ! Titmice and nuthatches, which have many similar charac- teristics, are often seen in the most friendly hunting parties on the same tree. A pine woods is their dearest delight. There, as the mercury goes down, their spirits only seem to go up higher. In the spring they have been thought by many to migrate in flocks, whereas they are only retreating with their relations away from the haunts of men to the deep, cool woods, where they nest. With infinite patience the nuthatch excavates a hole in a tree, lining it with feathers and moss, and often depositing as many as ten white eggs (speckled with red and lilac) for a single brood. Red-breasted Nuthatch (Sitta canadensis) Nuthatch family Called also: CANADA NUTHATCH Length— 4, to 4.75 inches. One-third smaller than the English sparrow. Male — Lead-colored above; brownish on wings and tail. Head, neck, and stripe passing through eye to shoulder, black. Frontlet, chin, and shoulders white ; also a white stripe over eye, meeting on brow. Under parts light, rusty red. Tail feathers barred with white near end, and tipped with pale brown. Female — Has crown of brownish black, and is lighter beneath than male. Range — Northern parts of North America. Not often seen south of the most northerly States. Migrations — November. April. Winter resident. The brighter coloring of this tiny, hardy bird distinguishes it from the other and larger nuthatch, with whom it is usually 8S Dusky, Gray, and Slate-colored seen, for the winter birds have a delightfully social manner, so that a colony of these Free masons is apt to contain not only both kinds of nuthatches and chickadees, but kinglets and brown creepers as well. It shares the family habit of walking about the trees, head downward, and running along the under side of limbs like a fly. By Thanksgiving Day the quankf quank! of the white-breasted species is answered by the tai-tai-tait! of the red- breasted cousin in the orchard, where the family party is cele- brating with an elaborate menu of slugs, insects' eggs, and oily seeds from the evergreen trees. For many years this nuthatch, a more northern species than the white-breasted bird, was thought to be only a spring and autumn visitor, but latterly it is credited with habits like its congener's in nearly every particular. Loggerhead Shrike (Lanius ludovicianus) Shrike family Length — 8.5 to 9 inches. A little smaller than the robin. Male and Female — Upper parts gray ; narrow black line across forehead, connectmg small black patches on sides of head at base of bill. Wings and tail black, plentifully marked with white, the outer tail feathers often being entirely white and conspicuous in flight. Underneath white or very light gray. Bill hooked and hawk-like. Range — Eastern United States to the plains. Migrations — May. October. Summer resident. It is not easy, even at a slight distance, to distinguish the loggerhead from the Northern shrike. Both have the pernicious habit of killing insects and smaller birds and impaling them on thorns ; both have the peculiarity of flying, with strong, vigorous flight and much wing-flapping, close along the ground, then suddenly rising to a tree, on the lookout for prey. Their harsh, unmusical call-notes are similar too, and their hawk-like method of dropping suddenly upon a victim on the ground below is iden- tical. Indeed, the same description very nearly answers for both birds. But there is one very important difference. While the Northern shrike is a winter visitor, the loggerhead, being his South- ern counterpart, does not arrive until after the frost is out of the ground, and he can be sure of a truly warm welcome. A lesser 86 GREAT NORTHERN SHRIKE. Ab )ut 34 Life-size. Dusky, Gray, and Slate-colored distinction between the only two representatives of the shrike family that frequent our neighborhood— and they are two too many— is in the smaller size of the loggerhead and its \ighter-gray plumage. But as both these birds select some high, commanding position, like a distended branch near the tree-top, a cupola, house-peak, lightning-rod, telegraph wire, or weather-vane, the better to detect a passing dinner, it would be quite impossible at such a distance to know which shrike was sitting up there silently plotting villainies, without remembering the season when each may be expected. Northern Shrike (Lanius borealis) Shrike family Called also: BUTCHER-BIRD; NINE-KILLER Length — 9.5 to 10.5 inches. About the size of the robin. Male — Upper parts slate-gray; wing quills and tail black, edged and tipped with white, conspicuous in flight; a white spot on centre of outer wing feathers. A black band runs from bill, through eye to side of throat. Light gray below, tinged with brownish, and faintly marked with waving lines of darker gray. Bill hooked and hawk-like. Female — With eye-band more obscure than male's, and with more distinct brownish cast on her plumage. £ange — Northern North America. South in winter to middle portion of United States. Migrations — November. ApriL A roving winter resident. "Matching the bravest of the brave among birds of prey in deeds of daring, and no less relentless than reckless, the shrike compels that sort of deference, not unmixed with indignation, we are accustomed to accord to creatures of seeming insignificance whose exploits demand much strength, great spirit, and insatiate love for carnage. We cannot be indifferent to the marauder who takes his own wherever he finds it — a feudal baron who holds his own with undisputed sway — and an ogre whose victims are so many more than he can eat, that he actually keeps a private graveyard for the balance." Who is honestly able to give the shrikes a better character than Dr. Coues, just quoted ? A few offer them questionable defence by recording the large numbers 87 Dusky, Gray, and Slate-colored of English sparrows they kill in a season, as if wanton carnage were ever justifiable. Not even a hawk itself can produce the consternation among a flock of sparrows that the harsh, rasping voice of the butcher- bird creates, for escape they well know to be difficult before the small ogre swoops down upon his victim, and carries it oflF to impale it on a thorn or frozen twig, there to devour it later piecemeal. Every shrike thus either impales or else hangs up, as a butcher does his meat, more little birds of many kinds, field- mice, grasshoppers, and other large insects than it can hope to devour in a week of bloody orgies. Field-mice are perhaps its favorite diet, but even snakes are not disdained. More contemptible than the actual slaughter of its victims, if possible, is the method by which the shrike often lures and sneaks upon his prey. Hiding in a clump of bushes in the meadow or garden, he imitates with fiendish cleverness the call-notes of little birds that come in cheerful response, hopping and flitting within easy range of him. His bloody work is finished in a trice. Usually, however, it must be owned, the shrike's hunt- ing habits are the reverse of sneaking. Perched on a point of vantage on some tree-top or weather-vane, his hawk-like eye can detect a grasshopper going through the grass fifty yards away. What is our surprise when some fine warm day in March, just before our butcher, ogre, sneak, and fiend leaves us for colder regions, to hear him break out into song ! Love has warmed even his cold heart, and with sweet, warbled notes on the tip of a beak that but yesterday was reeking with his victim's blood, he starts for Canada, leaving behind him the only good impres- sion he has made during a long winter's visit. Bohemian Waxwing (Ampelis garrulusj Waxwing family Called also : BLACK-THROATED WAXWING ; LAPLAND WAXWING; SILKTAIL Length— i to 9.5 inches. A little smaller than the robin. Male and Female — General color drab, with faint brownish wash above, shading into lighter gray below. Crest conspicuous, 88 Dusky, Gray, and Slate-colored being nearly an inch and a lialf in length ; rufous at the base, shading into light gray above. Velvety-black forehead, chin, and line through the eye. Wings grayish brown, with very dark quills, which have two white bars ; the bar at the edge of the upper wing coverts being tipped with red sealing-wax- like points, that give the bird its name. A few wing feathers tipped with yellow on outer edge. Tail quills dark brown, with yellow band across the end, and faint red streaks on upper and inner sides. Range — Northern United States and British America. Most com- mon in Canada and northern Mississippi region. Migrations — Very irregular winter visitor.^ When Charles Bonaparte, Prince of Canino, who was the first to count this common waxwing of Europe and Asia among the birds of North America, published an account of it in his "Synopsis," it was considered a very rare bird indeed. It may be these wax- wings have greatly increased, but however uncommon they may still be considered, certainly no one who had ever seen a flock containing more than a thousand of them, resting on the trees of a lawn within sight of New York City, as the writer has done, could be expected to consider the birds "very rare." The Bohemian waxwing, like the only other member of the family that ever visits us, the cedar-bird, is a roving gipsy. In Germany they say seven years must elapse between its visitations, which the superstitious old cronies are wont to associate with woful stories of pestilence — ^just such tales as are resurrected from the depths of morbid memories here when a comet reappears or the seven-year locust ascends from the ground. The goings and comings of these birds are certainly most erratic and infrequent; nevertheless, when hunger drives them from the far north to feast upon the juniper and other winter berries of our Northern States, they come in enormous flocks, making up in quantity what they lack in regularity of visits and evenness of distribution. Surely no bird has less right to be associated with evil than this mild waxwing. It seems the very incarnation of peace and harmony. Part of a flock that has lodged in a tree will sit almost motionless for hours and whisper in softly hissed twitterings, very much as a company of Quaker ladies, similarly dressed, might sit at yearly meeting. Exquisitely clothed in silky-gray feathers that no berry juice is ever permitted to stain, they are 89 Dusky, Gray, and Slate-colored dainty, gentle, aristocratic-looking birds, a trifle heavy and indo- lent, perhaps, when walking on the ground or perching; but as they fly in compact squads just above the tree-tops their flight is exceedingly swift and graceful. Bay-breasted Warbler (Dendroica castanea) Wood Warbler family Length — 5.25 to 5.75 inches. A little smaller than the English sparrow. Male — Crown, chin, throat, upper breast, and sides dull chest- nut. Forehead, sides of head, and cheeks black. Above olive-gray, streaked with black. Underneath buffy. Two white wing-bars. Outer tail quills with white patches on tips. Cream-white patch on either side of neck. Female — Has more greenish-olive above. Range — Eastern North America, from Hudson's Bay to Central America. Nests north of the United States. Winters in tropical limit of range. Migrations— lAzy. September. Rare migrant. The chestnut breast of this capricious little visitor makes him look like a diminutive robin. In spring, when these warblers are said to take a more easterly route than the one they choose in autumn to return by to Central America, they may be so sud- denly abundant that the fresh green trees and shrubbery of the garden will contain a dozen of the busy little hunters. Another season they may pass northward either by another route or leave your garden unvisited ; and perhaps the people in the very next town may be counting your rare bird common, while it is simply perverse. Whether common or rare, before your acquaintance has had time to ripen into friendship, away go the freaky little creatures to nest in the tree-tops of the Canadian coniferous forests. Chestnut-sided Warbler (Dendroica pennsylvanica) Wood Warbler family Called also: BLOODY-SIDED WARBLER Length — About 5 inches. Over an inch shorter than the English sparrow. Male—lo'p of head and streaks in wings yellow. A black line 90 A CHESTNUT-SIDED WARBLER FAMILY. Dusky, Gray, and Slate-colored running through the eye and round back of crown, and a black spot in front of eye, extending to cheeks. Ear coverts, chin, and underneath white. Back greenish gray and slate, streaked with black. Sides of bird chestnut. Wings, which are streaked with black and yellow, have yellowish-white bars. Very dark tail with white patches on inner vanes of the outer quills. Female — Similar, but duller. Chestnut sides are often scarcely apparent. Range — Eastern North America, from Manitoba and Labrador to the tropics, where it winters. Migrations — May. September. Summer resident, most common in migrations. In the Alleghanies, and from New Jersey and Illinois north- ward, this restless little warbler nests in the bushy borders of woodlands and the undergrowth of the woods, for which he for- sakes our gardens and orchards after a very short visit in May. While hopping over the ground catching ants, of which he seems to be inordinately fond, or flitting actively about the shrubbery after grubs and insects, we may note his coat of many colors — patchwork in which nearly all the warbler colors are curiously combined. With drooped wings that often conceal the bird's chestnut sides, which are his chief distinguishing mark, and with tail erected like a redstart's, he hunts incessantly. Here in the garden he is as refreshingly indifferent to your interest in him as later in his breeding haunts he is shy and distrustful. His song is bright and animated, like that of the yellow warbler. Golden-winged Warbler ( Helminthophila chrysoptera) Wood Warbler family Length — About 5 inches. More than an inch shorter than the English sparrow. Male — Yellow crown and yellow patches on the wings. Upper parts bluish gray, sometimes tinged with greenish. Stripe through the eye and throat black. Sides of head, chin, and line over the eye white. Underneath white, grayish on sides. A few white markings on outer tail feathers. Female — Crown duller ; gray where male is black, with olive upper parts and grayer underneath. 91 Dusky, Gray, and Slate-colored Hange— From Canadian border to Central America, where it . winters. Migrations — May. September. Summer resident. After one has seen a golden- winged warbler fluttering hither and thither about the shrubbery of a park within sight and sound of a great city's distractions and with blissful unconcern of them all, partaking of a hearty lunch of insects that infest the leaves before one's eyes, one counts the bird less rare and shy than one has been taught to consider it. Whoever looks for a warbler with gaudy yellow wings will not find the golden-winged vari- ety. His wings have golden patches only, and while these are distinguishing marks, they are scarcely prominent enough feat- ures to have given the bird the rather misleading name he bears. But, then, most warblers' names are misleading. They serve their best purpose in cultivating patience and other gentle virtues in the novice. Such habits and choice of haunts as characterize the blue- winged warbler are also the golden-winged's. But their voices are quite different, the former's being sharp and metallic, while the latter's ;(ee, ^ee, ^ee comes more lazily and without accent. Myrtle Warbler (Dendroica coronata) Wood Warbler family Called also: YELLOW-RUMPED WARBLER; MYRTLE- BIRD; YELLOW-CROWNED WARBLER Length — 5 to 5.5 inches. About an inch smaller than the English sparrow. Male — In summer plumage : A yellow patch on top of head, lower back, and either side of the breast. Upper parts blu- ish slate, streaked with black. Upper breast black ; throat white; all other under parts whitish, streaked with black. Two white wing-bars, and tail quills have white spots near the tip. In winter : Upper parts olive-brown, streaked with black; the yellow spot on lower back the only yellow mark remaining. Wing-bars grayish. Female— Ktstmh\ts male in winter plumage. Jiange—Ezstem North America. Occasional on Pacific slope. Summers from Minnesota and northern New England north- ward to Fur Countries. Winters from Middle States south- 92 MYRTLE WARBLER, Life- size. Dusky, Gray, and Slate-colored ward into Central America; a few often remaining at the northern United States all the winter. Migrations— k'^xW. October. November. Also, but more rarely, a winter resident. The first of the warblers to arrive in the spring and the last to leave us in the autumn, some even remaining throughout the northern winter, the myrtle warbler, next to the summer yellow- bird, is the most familiar of its multitudinous kin. Though we become acquainted with it chiefly in the migrations, it impresses us by its numbers rather than by any gorgeousness of attire. The four yellow spots on crown, lower back, and sides are its distin- guishing marks; and in the autumn these marks have dwindled to only one, that on the lower back or rump. The great diffi- culty experienced in identifying any warbler is in its restless habit of flitting about. For a few days in early May we are forcibly reminded of the Florida peninsula, which fairly teems with these birds ; they become almost superabundant, a distraction during the precious days when the rarer species are quietly slipping by, not to return again for a year, perhaps longer, for some warblers are notoriously irregular in their routes north and south, and never return by the way they travelled in the spring. But if we look sharply into every group of myrtle warblers, we are quite likely to discover some of their dainty, fragile cous- ins that gladly seek the escort of birds so fearless as they. By the last of May all the warblers are gone from the neighborhood except the constant little summer yellowbird and redstart. In autumn, when the myrtle warblers return after a busy enough summer passed in Canadian nurseries, they chiefly haunt those regions where juniper and bay-berries abound. These latter (Myrica cerifera), or the myrtle wax-berries, as they are some- times called, and which are the bird's favorite food, have given it their name. Wherever the supply of these berries is sufficient to last through the winter, there it may be found foraging in the scrubby bushes. Sometimes driven by cold and hunger from the fields, this hardiest member of a family that properly belongs to the tropics, seeks shelter and food close to the outbuildings on the farm. 93 Dusky, Gray, and Slate-colored Parula Warbler (Compsothlypis americana) Wood Warbler family Called also: BLUE YELLOW-BACKED WARBLER Length — 4.5 to 4.75 inches. About an inch and a half shorter than the English sparrow. Male and Female — Slate-colored above, with a greenish-yellow or bronze patch in the middle of the back. Chin, throat, and breast yellow. A black, bluish, or rufous band across the breast, usually lacking in female. Underneath white, some- times marked with rufous on sides, but these markings are variable. Wings have two white patches ; outer tail feathers have white patch near the end. Range — Eastern North America. Winters from Florida southward. Migrations — April. October. Summer resident. Through an open window of an apartment in the very heart of New York City, a parula warbler flew this spring of 1897, surely the daintiest, most exquisitely beautiful bird visitor that ever voluntarily lodged between two brick walls. A number of such airy, tiny beauties flitting about among the blossoms of the shrubbery on a bright May morning and swaying on the slenderest branches with their inimitable grace, is a sight that the memory should retain into old age. They seem the very embodiment of life, joy, beauty, grace ; of everything lovely that birds by any possibility could be. Apparently they are wafted about the garden; they fly with no more effort than a dainty lifting of the wings, as if to catch the breeze, that seems to lift them as it might a bunch of thistledown. They go through a great variety of charming posturings as they hunt for their food upon the blossoms and tender fresh twigs, now creeping like a nuthatch along the bark and peering into the crevices, now grace- fully swaying and balancing like a goldfinch upon a slender, pendent stem. One little sprite pauses in its hunt for the insects to raise its pretty head and trill a short and wiry song. But the parula warbler does not remain long about the gar- dens and orchards, though it will not forsake us altogether for the Canadian forests, where most of its relatives pass the summer. It retreats only to the woods near the water, if may be, or to just as close a counterpart of a swampy southern woods, where the 94 Dusky, Gray, and Slate-colored Spanish or Usnea ' ' moss " drapes itself over the cypresses, as it can find here at the north. Its rarely beautiful nest, that hangs suspended from a slender branch very much like the Baltimore oriole's, is so woven and festooned with this moss that its con- cealment is perfect. Black-throated Blue Warbler (Dendroica ccerulescens) Wood Warbler family Length — 5.30 inches. About an inch shorter than the English sparrow. Male — Slate-color, not blue above ; lightest on forehead and darkest on lower back. Wings and tail edged with bluish. Cheeks, chin, throat, upper breast, and sides black. Breast and underneath white. White spots on wings, and a little white on tail. Female — Olive-green above ; underneath soiled yellow. Wing- spots inconspicuous. Tail generally has a faint bluish tinge. Range — Eastern North America, from Labrador to tropics, where it winters. Migrations — May. September. Usually a migrant only in the United States. Whoever looks for this beautifully marked warbler among the bluebirds, will wish that the man who named him had pos- sessed a truer eye for color. But if the name so illy fits the bright slate-colored male, how grieved must be his little olive- and-yellow mate to answer to the name of black-throated blue warbler when she has neither a black throat nor a blue feather! It is not easy to distinguish her as she flits about the twigs and leaves of the garden in May or early autumn, except as she is seen in company with her husband, whose name she has taken with him for better or for worse. The white spot on the wings should always be looked for to positively identify this bird. Before flying up to a twig to peck off the insects, the birds have a pretty vireo trick of cocking their heads on one side to in- vestigate the quantity hidden underneath the leaves. They seem less nervous and more deliberate than many of their restless family. Most warblers go over the Canada border to nest, but there are many records of the nests of this species in the AUeghanies as far south as Georgia, in the Catskills, in Connecticut, northern 95 Dusky, Gray, and Slate-colored Minnesota and Michigan. Laurel tliickets and moist undergrowth of woods in the United States, and more commonly pine woods in Canada, are the favorite nesting haunts. A sharp ^ip, ^ip, like some midsummer insect's noise, is the bird's call-note, but its love-song, ^ee, ^ee, T^ee, or twte, twea, twea-e-e, as one authority writes it, is only rarely heard in the migrations. It is a languid, drawling little strain, with an upward slide that is easily drowned in the full bird chorus of May. 96 BLUE AND BLUISH BIRDS Bluebird Indigo Bunting Belted Kingfisher Blue Jay Blue Grosbeak Barn Swallow Cliff Swallow Mourning Dove Blue-gray Gnatcatcher Look also among Slate-colored Birds in preceding group, particularly among the Warblers there, or in the group of Birds conspicuously Yellow and Orange. BLUE AND BLUISH BIRDS The Bluebird (Sialia sialis) Thrush family Called also: BLUE ROBIN Length — 7 inches. About an inch longer than the English sparrow. Male — Upper parts, wings, and tail bright blue, with rusty wash in autumn. Throat, breast, and sides cinnamon-red. Under- neath white. Female — Has duller blue feathers, washed with gray, and a paler breast than male. £ange — ^North America, from Nova Scotia and Manitoba to Gulf of Mexico. Southward in winter from Middle States to Ber- muda and West Indies. Migrations — March. November. Summer resident. A few some- times remain throughout the winter. With the first soft, plaintive warble of the bluebirds early in March, the sugar camps, waiting for their signal, take on a bust- ling activity ; the farmer looks to his plough ; orders are hurried off to the seedsmen ; a fever to be out of doors seizes one : spring is here. Snowstorms may yet whiten fields and gardens, high winds may howl about the trees and chimneys, but the little blue heralds persistently proclaim from the orchard and garden that the spring procession has begun to move. Tru-al-ly, tru-al-ly, they sweetly assert to our incredulous ears. The bluebird is not always a migrant, except in the more northern portions of the country. Some representatives there are always with us, but the great majority winter south and drop out of the spring procession on its way northward, the males a little ahead of their mates, which show housewifely instincts imme- diately after their arrival. A pair of these rather undemonstrative, matter-of-fact lovers go about looking for some deserted wood- pecker's hole in the orchard, peering into cavities in the fencp- 99 Blue and Bluish rails, or into the bird-houses that, once set up in the old-fashioned gardens for their special benefit, are now appropriated too often by the ubiquitous sparrow. Wrens they can readily dispossess of an attractive tenement, and do. With a temper as heavenly as the color of their feathers, the bluebird's sense of justice is not always so adorable. But sparrows unnerve them into cowardice. The comparatively infrequent nesting of the bluebirds about our homes at the present time is one of the most deplorable results of unrestricted sparrow immigration. Formerly they were the commonest of bird neighbors. Nest-building is not a favorite occupation with the bluebirds, that are conspicuously domestic none the less. Two, and even three, broods in a season fully occupy their time. As in most cases, the mother-bird does more than her share of the work. The male looks with wondering admiration at the housewifely activity, applauds her with song, feeds her as she sits brooding over the nestful of pale greenish-blue eggs, but his adoration of her virtues does not lead him into emulation. " Shifting his light load of song, From post to post along the cheerless fence," Lowell observed that he carried his duties quite as lightly. When the young birds first emerge from the shell they are almost black ; they come into their splendid heritage of color by degrees, lest their young heads might be turned. It is only as they spread their tiny wings for their first flight from the nest that we can see a few blue feathers. With the first cool days of autumn the bluebirds collect in flocks, often associating with orioles and kingbirds in sheltered, sunny places where insects are still plentiful. Their steady, undu- lating flight now becomes erratic as they take food on the wing— - a habit that they may have learned by association with the king- birds, for they have also adopted the habit of perching upon some conspicuous lookout and then suddenly launching out into the air for a passing fly and returning to their perch. Long after their associates have gone southward, they linger like the last leaves on the tree. . It is indeed " good-bye to summer " when the blue- birds withdraw their touch of brightness from the dreary Novem- ber landscape. The bluebirds from Canada and the northern portions of New INDIGO BUNTING. About Life-size. Blue and Bluish England and N.ew York migrate into Virginia and the Carolinas ; the birds from the Middle States move down into the Gulf States to pass the winter. It was there that countless numbers were cut off by the severe winter of 1894-95, which was so severe in that section. Indigo Bunting (Passerina cyanea) Finch family Called also: INDIGO BIRD Length — 5.5 to 6 inches. Smaller than the English sparrow, or the size of a canary. Male — In certain lights rich blue, deepest on head. In another light the blue feathers show verdigris tints. Wings, tail, and lower back with brownish wash, most prominent in autumn plumage. Quills of wings and tail deep blue, margined with light. Female — Plain sienna-brown above. Yellowish on breast and shading to white underneath, and indistinctly streaked. Wings and tail darkest, sometimes with slight tinge of blue in outer webs and on shoulders. Range — North America, from Hudson Bay to Panama. Most common in eastern part of United States. Winters in Central America and Mexico. Migrations — May. September. Summer resident. The "glowing indigo" of this tropical-looking visitor that so delighted Thoreau in the Walden woods, often seems only the more intense by comparison with the blue sky, against which it stands out in relief as the bird perches singing in a tree-top. What has this gaily dressed, dapper little cavalier in common with his dingy sparrow cousins that haunt the ground and de- light in dust-baths, leaving their feathers no whit more dingy than they were before, and in temper, as in plumage, suggesting more of earth than of heaven ? Apparently he has nothing, and yet the small brown bird in the roadside thicket, which you have misnamed a sparrow, not noticing the glint of blue in her shoul- ders and tail, is his mate. Besides the structural resemblances, which are, of course, the only ones considered by ornithologists in classifying birds, the indigo buntings have several sparrow- like traits. They feed upon the ground, mainly upon seeds of grasses and herbs, with a few insects interspersed to give relish lOI Blue and Bluish to the grain ; they build grassy nests in low bushes or tall, rank grass ; and their flight is short and labored. Borders of woods, roadside thickets, and even garden shrubbery, with open pasture lots for foraging grounds near by, are favorite haunts of these birds, that return again and again to some preferred spot. But however close to our homes they build theirs, our presence never ceases to be regarded by them with anything but suspicion, not to say alarm. Their metallic cheep, cheep, warns you to keep away from the little blue-white eggs, hidden away securely in the bushes ; and the nervous tail twitchings and jerkings are pathetic to see. Happily for the safety of their nest, the brood- ing mother has no tell-tale feathers to attract the eye. Dense foliage no more conceals the male bird's brilliant coat than it can the tanager's or oriole's. With no attempt at concealment, which he doubtless under- stands would be quite impossible, he chooses some high, con- spicuous perch to which he mounts by easy stages, singing as he goes ; and there begins a loud and rapid strain that promises much, but growing weaker and weaker, ends as if the bird were either out of breath or too weak to finish. Then suddenly he begins the same song over again, and keeps up this continuous performance for nearly half an hour. The noonday heat of an August day that silences nearly every other voice, seems to give to the indigo bird's only fresh animation and timbre. The Belted Kingfisher (Ceryle alcyon) Kingfisher family Called also: THE HALCYON Length — 12 to 13 inches. About one-fourth as large again as the robin. Male — Upper part grayish blue, with prominent crest on head reaching to the nape. A white spot in front of the eye. Bill longer than the head, which is large and heavy. Wings and the short tail minutely speckled and marked with broken bands of white. Chin, band around throat, and underneath white. Two bluish bands across the breast and a bluish wash on sides. Female — Female and immature specimens have rufous bands where the adult male's are blue. Plumage of both birds oily. 102 •^i&i^^m/iim < « ihAh KINGFISHER. I Life-size. Blue and Bluish ^a«^^— North America, excejDt where the Texan kingfisher replaces it in a limited area in the Southwest. Common from Labrador to Florida, east and west. Winters chiefly from Virginia southward to South America. Migrations— lAzxch. December. Common summer resident. Usually a winter resident also. If the kingfisher is not so neighborly as we could wish, or as he used to be, it is not because he has grown less friendly, but because the streams near our homes are fished out. Fish he must and will have, and to get them nowadays it is too often necessary to follow the stream back through secluded woods to the quiet waters of its source : a clear, cool pond or lake whose scaly inmates have not yet learned wisdom at the point of the sportsman's fly. In such quiet haunts the kingfisher is easily the most con- spicuous object in sight, where he perches on some dead or pro- jecting branch over the water, intently watching for a dinner that is all unsuspectingly swimming below. Suddenly the bird drops — dives ; there is a splash, a struggle, and then the "lone fisher- man " returns triumphant to his perch, holding a shining fish in his beak. If the fish is small it is swallowed at once, but if it is large and bony it must first be killed against the branch. A few sharp knocks, and the struggles of the fish are over, but the kingfisher's have only begun. How he gags and writhes, swallows his dinner, and then, regretting his haste, brings it up again to try another wider avenue down his throat ! The many abortive efforts he makes to land his dinner safely below in his stomach, his grim contortions as the fishbones scratch his throat-lining on their way down and up again, force a smile in spite of the bird's evident distress. It is small wonder he supplements his fish diet with various kinds of the larger insects, shrimps, and fresh- water mollusks. Flying well over the tree-tops or along the waterways, the kingfisher makes the woodland echo with his noisy rattle, that breaks the stillness like a watchman's at midnight. It is, per- haps, the most familiar sound heard along the banks of the inland rivers. No love or cradle song does he know. Instead of soften- ing and growing sweet, as the voices of most birds do in the nesting season, the endearments uttered by a pair of mated king- fishers are the most strident, rattly shrieks ever heard by lovers. 103 Blue and Bluish It sounds as if they were perpetually quarrelling, and yet they are really particularly devoted. The nest of these birds, like the bank swallow's, is excavated in the face of a high bank, preferably one that rises from a stream ; and at about six feet from the entrance of the tunnel six or eight clear, shining white eggs are placed on a curious nest. All the fish- bones and scales that, being indigestible, are disgorged in pellets by the parents, are carefully carried to the end of the tunnel to form a prickly cradle for the unhappy fledglings. Very rarely a nest is made in the hollow trunk of a tree; but wherever the home is, the kingfishers become strongly attached to it, returning again and again to the spot that has cost them so much labor to exca- vate. Some observers have accused them of appropriating the holes of the water-rats. In ancient times of myths and fables, kingfishers or halcyons were said to build a floating nest on the sea, and to possess some mysterious power that calmed the troubled waves while the eggs were hatching and the young birds were being reared, hence the term "halcyon days," meaning days of fair weather. Blue Jay (Cyanocitta cristata) Crow and Jay family Length — 1 1 to 12 inches. A little larger than the robin. Male and Female — Blue above. Black band around 'the neck, join- ing some black feathers on the back. Under parts dusky white. Wing coverts and tail bright blue, striped trans- versely with black. Tail much rounded. Many feathers edged and tipped with white. Head finely crested ; bill, tongue, and legs black. Range — Eastern coast of North America to the plains, and frorn northern Canada to Florida and eastern Texas. Migrations — Permanent resident. Although seen in flocks mov- ing southward or northward, they are merely seeking hap- pier hunting grounds, not migrating. No bird of finer color or presence sojourns with us the year round than the blue jay. In a peculiar sense his is a case of "beauty covering a multitude of sins." Among close students of bird traits, we find none so poor as to do him reverence. Dis- honest, cruel, inquisitive, murderous, voracious, villainous, are 104 BLUE JAY. g Life-size. Blue and Bluish some of the epithets applied to this bird of exquisite plumage. Emerson, however, has said in his defence he does "more good than harm," alluding, no doubt, to his habit of burying nuts and hard seeds in the ground, so that many a waste place is clothed with trees and shrubs, thanks to his propensity and industry. He is mischievous as a small boy, destructive as a monkey, deft at hiding as a squirrel. He is unsociable and unamiable, disliking the society of other birds. His harsh screams, shrieks, and most aggressive and unmusical calls seem often intended maliciously to drown the songs of the sweet-voiced singers. From April to September, the breeding and moulting season, the blue jays are almost silent, only sallying forth from the woods to pillage and devour the young and eggs of their more peaceful neighbors. In a bulky nest, usually placed in a tree-crotch high above our heads, from four to six eggs, olive-gray with brown spots, are laid and most carefully tended. Notwithstanding the unlovely characteristics of the blue jay, we could ill spare the flash of color, like a bit of blue sky dropped from above, which is so rare a tint even in our land, that we number not more than three or four true blue birds, and in Eng- land, it is said, there is none. Blue Grosbeak (Guiraca ccetulea) Finch family Length — 7 inches. About an inch larger than the English sparrow. Male — Deep blue, dark, and almost black on the back ; wings and tail black, slightly edged with blue, and the former marked with bright chestnut. Cheeks and chin black. Bill heavy and bluish. Female — Grayish brown above, sometimes with bluish tinge on head, lower back, and shoulders. Wings dark olive-brown, with faint buff markings ; tail same shade as wings, but with bluish-gray markings. Underneath brownish cream-color, the breast feathers often blue at the base. Range — United States, from southern New England westward to the Rocky Mountains and southward into Mexico and be- yond. Most common in the Southwest. Rare along the Atlantic seaboard. Migrations — May. September. Summer resident. This beautiful but rather shy and solitary bird occasionally Blue and Bluish wanders eastward to rival the bluebird and the indigo bunting in their rare and lovely coloring, and eclipse them both in song, Audubon, we remember, found the nest in New Jersey. Penn- sylvania is still favored with one now and then, but it is in the Southwest only that the blue grosbeak is as common as the evening grosbeak is in the Northwest. Since rice is its favorite food, it naturally abounds where that cereal grows. Seeds and kernels of the hardest kinds, that its heavy, strong beak is well adapted to crack, constitute its diet when it strays beyond the rice-fields. Possibly the heavy bills of all the grosbeaks make them look stupid whether they are or not — a characteristic that the blue gros- beak's habit of sitting motionless with a vacant stare many min- utes at a time unfortunately emphasizes. When seen in the roadside thickets or tall weeds, such as the field sparrow chooses to frequent, it shows little fear of man un- less actually approached and threatened, but whether this fearless- ness comes from actual confidence or stupidity is by no means certain. Whatever the motive of its inactivity, it accomplishes an end to be desired by the cleverest bird ; its presence is almost never suspected by the passer-by, and its grassy nest on a tree- branch, containing three or four pale bluish-white eggs, is never betrayed by look or sign to the marauding small boy. Barn Swallow (Chelidon erytbrogaster) Swallow family Length — 6. 5 to 7 inches. A trifle larger than the English sparrow. Apparently considerably larger, because of its wide wing- spread. Male — Glistening steel-blue shading to black above. Chin, breast, and underneath bright chestnut-brown and brilliant buff that glistens in the sunlight. A partial collar of steel-blue. Tail very deeply forked and slender. Female — Smaller and paler, with shorter outer tail feathers, mak- ing the fork less prominent. Range — Throughout North America. Winters in tropics of both Americas. Migrations — April. September. Summer resident. Any one who attempts to describe the coloring of a bird's plumage knows how inadequate words are to convey a just idea 106 Blue and Bluish Of the delicacy, richness, and brilliancy of the living tints. But, happily, the beautiful barn swallow is too familiar to need descrip- tion. Wheeling about our barns and houses, skimming over the fields, its bright sides flashing in the sunlight, playing "cross tag " with its friends at evening, when the insects, too, are on the wing, gyrating, darting, and gliding through the air, it is no more possible to adequately describe the exquisite grace of a swallow's flight than the glistening buff of its breast. This is a typical bird of the air, as an oriole is of the trees and a sparrow of the ground. Though the swallow may often be seen perching on a telegraph wire, suddenly it darts off as if it had received a shock of electricity, and we see the bird in its true element. While this swallow is peculiarly American, it is often con- founded with its European cousin Hirundo rustica in noted ornithologies. Up in the rafters of the barn, or in the arch of an old bridge that spans a stream, these swallows build their bracket-like nests of clay or mud pellets intermixed with straw. Here the noisy little broods pick their way out of the white eggs curiously spotted with brown and lilac that were all too familiar in the marauding days of our childhood. Cliff Swallow (Petrochelidon lunifrons) Swallow family Called also: HAVE SWALLOW; CRESCENT SWALLOW; ROCKY MOUNTAIN SWALLOW Length — 6 inches. A trifle smaller than the English sparrow. Apparently considerably larger because of its wide wing- spread. Male and Female — Steel-blue above, shading to blue-black on crown of head and on wings and tail. A brownish-gray ring around the neck. Beneath dusty white, with rufous tint. Crescent-like frontlet. Chin, throat, sides of head, and tail coverts rufous. Jiange—^or\h and South America. Winters in the tropics. Migrations— 'Early April. Late September. Summer resident. Not quite so brilliantly colored as the barn swallow, nor with tail so deeply forked, and consequently without so much 107 Blue and Bluish grace in flying, and with a squeak rather than the really musi- cal twitter of the gayer bird, the cliff swallow may be posi- tively identified by the rufous feathers of its tail coverts, but more definitely by its crescent-shaped frontlet shining like a new moon ; hence its specific Latin name from luna— moon, and/roKS=front. Such great numbers of these swallows have been seen in the far West that the name of Rocky Mountain swallows is some- times given to them ; though however rare they may have been in 1824, when DeWitt Clinton thought he "discovered" them near Lake Champlain, they are now common enough in all parts of the United States. In the West this swallow is wholly a cliff-dweller, but it has learned to modify its home in different localities. As usually seen, it is gourd-shaped, opened at the top, built entirely of mud pellets ("bricks without straw"), softly lined with feathers and wisps of grass, and attached by the larger part to a projecting cliff or eave. Like all the swallows, this bird lives in colonies, and the clay- colored nests beneath the eaves of barns are often so close to- gether that a group of them resembles nothing so much as a gigantic wasp's nest. It is said that when swallows pair they are mated for life ; but, then, more is said about swallows than the most tireless bird-lover could substantiate. The tradition that swallows fly low when it is going to rain may be easily credited, because the air before a storm is usually too heavy with moisture for the winged insects, upon which the swallows feed, to fly high. Mourning Dove (Zenaidura macroura) Pigeon family Called also : ChKOUHA DOVE ;. TURTLE DOVE Length — 12 to i^ inches. About one-half as large again as the robin. Male — Grayish brown or fawn-color . above, varying to bluish gray. Crown and upper part of head greenish blue, with green and golden metaUic reflections on sides of neck. A black spot under each ear. Forehead and breast reddish buff; lighter underneath. (General impression of color, bluish fawn.) Bill black, with tumid, fleshy covering; feet red; two middle tail feathers longest ; all others banded with black 108 Blue and Bluish and tipped with ashy white. Wing coverts sparsely spotted with black. Flanks and underneath the wings bluish. Female — Duller and without iridescent reflections on neck. Range — North America, from Quebec to Panama, and westward to Arizona. Most common in temperate climate, east of Rocky Mountains. Migrations — March. November. Common summer resident ; not migratory south of Virginia. The beautiful, soft-colored plumage of this incessant and rather melancholy love-maker is not on public exhibition. To see it we must trace the a-coo-o, coo-o, coo-oo, coo-o to its source in the thick foliage in some tree in an out-of-the-way corner of the farm, or to an evergreen near the edge of the woods. The slow, plaintive notes, more like a dirge than a love-song, penetrate to a surprising distance. They may not always be the same lovers we hear from April to the end of summer, but surely the sound seems to indicate that they are. The dove is a shy bird, attached to its gentle and refined mate with a devotion that has passed into a proverb, but caring little or nothing for the society of other feathered friends, and very little for its own kind, unless after the nesting season has passed. In this respect it differs widely from its cousins, the wild pigeons, flocks of which, numbering many millions, are recorded by Wilson and other early writers before the days when netting these birds became so fatally profitable. What the dove finds to adore so ardently in the "shiftless housewife," as Mrs. Wright calls his lady-love, must pass the comprehension of the phoebe, that constructs such an exquisite home, or of a bustling, energetic Jenny wren, that "looketh well to the ways of her household and eateth not the bread of idle- ness." She is a flabby, spineless bundle of flesh and pretty feathers, gentle and refined in manners, but slack and incompe- tent in all she does. Her nest consists of a few loose sticks, without rim or lining; and when her two babies emerge from the white eggs, that somehow do not fall through or roll out of the rickety lattice, their tender little naked bodies must suffer from many bruises. We are almost inclined to blame the incon- siderate mother for allowing her offspring to enter the world unclothed— obviously not her fault, though she is capable of just such negligence. Fortunate are the baby doves when their lazy mother scatters her makeshift nest on top of one that a robin has 109 Blue and Bluish deserted, as she frequently does. It is almost excusable to take her young birds and rear them in captivity, where they invariably thrive, mate, and live happily, unless death comes to one, when the other often refuses food and grieves its life away. In the wild state, when the nesting season approaches, both birds make curious acrobatic flights above the tree-tops; then, after a short sail in midair, they return to their perch. This appears to be their only giddiness and frivolity, unless a dust- bath in the country road might be considered a dissipation. In the autumn a few pairs of doves show slight gregarious tendencies, feeding amiably together in the grain fields and retir- ing to the same roost at sundown. Blue-gray Gnatcatcher (Polioptila cceruleaj Gnatcatcher family Called also .- SYLVAN FLYCATCHER Length — 4. 5 inches. About two inches smaller than the English sparrow. Male — Grayish blue above, dull grayish white below. Grayish tips on wings. Tail with white outer quills changing gradu- ally through black and white to all black on centre quills. Narrow black band over the forehead and eyes. Resembles in manner and form a miniature catbird. Female — More grayish and less blue, and without the black on head. Range — United States to Canadian border on the north, the Rockies on the west, and the Atlantic States, from Maine to Florida ; most common in the Middle States. A rare bird north of New Jersey. Winters in Mexico and beyond. Migrations — May, September. Summer resident. In thick woodlands, where a stream that lazily creeps through the mossy, oozy ground attracts myriads of insects to its humid neighborhood, this tiny hunter loves to hide in the denser foliage of the upper branches. He has the habit of nervously flitting about from twig to twig of his relatives, the kinglets, but unhap- pily he lacks their social, friendly instincts, and therefore is rarely seen. Formerly classed among the warblers, then among the fly- catchers, while still as much a lover of flies, gnats, and mosquitoes as ever, his vocal powers have now won for him recognition Blue and Bluish among the singing birds. Some one has likened his voice to the squeak of a mouse, and Nuttall says it is "scarcely louder," which is all too true, for at a little distance it is quite inaudible. But in addition to the mouse-like call-note, the tiny bird has a rather feeble but exquisitely finished song, so faint it seems almost as if the bird were singing in its sleep. If by accident you enter the neighborhood of its nest, you soon find out that this timid, soft-voiced little creature can be roused to rashness and make its presence disagreeable to ears and eyes alike as it angrily darts about your unoffending head, peck- ing at your face and uttering its shrill squeak close to your very ear-drums. All this excitement is in defence of a dainty, lichen- covered nest, whose presence you may not have even suspected before, and of four or five bluish-white, speckled eggs well be- yond reach in the tree-tops. During the migrations the bird seems not unwilling to show its delicate, trim little body, that has often been likened to a di- minutive- mocking-bird's, very near the homes of men. Its grace- ful postures, its song and constant motion, are sure to attract attention. In Central Park, New York City, the bird is not unknown. Ill BROWN, OLIVE OR GRAYISH BROWN, AND BROWN AND GRAY SPARROWY BIRDS House Wren Carolina Wren Winter Wren Long-billed Marsh Wren Short-billed Marsh Wren Brown Thrasher Wilson's Thrush or Veery Wood Thrush Hermit Thrush Alice's Thrush Olive-backed Thrush Louisiana Water Thrush Northern Water Thrush Flicker Meadowlark and Western Meadowlark Horned Lark and Prairie Horned Lark Pipit or Titlark Whippoorwill Nighthawk Black-billed Cuckoo Yellow-billed Cuckoo Bank Swallow and Rough- winged Swallow Cedar Bird Brown Creeper Pine Siskin Smith's Painted Longspur Lapland Longspur Chipping Sparrow English Sparrow Field Sparrow Fox Sparrow Grasshopper Sparrow Savanna Sparrow Seaside Sparrow Sharp-tailed Sparrow Song Sparrow Swamp Song Sparrow Tree Sparrow Vesper Sparrow White-crowned Sparrow White-throated Sparrow See also winter plumage of the Bobolink, Goldfinch, and Myrtle Warbler. See females of Red-winged Blackbird, Rusty Blackbird, the Crackles, Bobolink, Cow- bird, the Redpolls, Purple Finch, Chewink, Bluebird, Indigo Bunting, Baltimore Oriole, Cardinal, and of the Evening, the Blue, and the Rose-breasted Grosbeaks. See also Purple Finch, the Redpolls, Mourning Dove, Mocking-bird, Robin. HOUSE WREN. About Life-size, BROWN, OLIVE OR GRAYISH . BROWN, AND BROWN AND GRAY SPARROWY BIRDS House Wren (Troglodytes aedonj Wren family Length — ^4.5 to 5 inches. Actually about one-fourth smaller than the English sparrow ; apparently only half as large because of its erect tail. Male and Female — Upper parts cinnamon-brown. Deepest shade on head and neck; lightest above tail, which is more rufous. Back has obscure, dusky bars ; wings and tail are finely barred. Underneath whitish, with grayish-brown wash and faint bands most prominent on sides. Range — North America, from Manitoba to the Gulf Most com- mon in the United States, from the Mississippi eastward. Winters south of the Carolinas. Migrations — April. October. Common summer resident. Early some morning in April there will go off under your window that most delightful of all alarm-clocks — the tiny, friendly house wren, just returned from a long visit south. Like some little mountain spring that, having been imprisoned by winter ice, now bubbles up in the spring sunshine, and goes rippling along over the pebbles, tumbling over itself in merry cascades, so this little wren's song bubbles, ripples, cascades in a minia- ture torrent of ecstasy. Year after year these birds return to the same nesting places: a box set up against the house, a crevice in the barn, a niche under the eaves; but once home, always home to them. The nest is kept scrupulously clean ; the house-cleaning, like the house-building and renovating, being accompanied by the cheer- iest of songs, that makes the bird fairly tremble by its intensity. But however angelic the voice of the house wren, its temper can put to flight even the English sparrow. Need description go further ? Brown, Olive or Grayish Brown, and Brown and Gray Sparrowy Birds Six to eight minutely specified, flesh-colored eggs suffice to keep the nervous, irritable parents in a state bordering on frenzy whenever another bird comes near their habitation. With tail erect and head alert, the father mounts on guard, singing a per- fect ecstasy of love to his silent little mate, that sits upon the nest if no danger threatens ; but both rush with passionate malice upon the first intruder, for it must be admitted that Jenny wren is a sad shrew. While the little family is being reared, or, indeed, at any time, no one is wise enough to estimate the millions of tiny in- sects from the garden that find their way into the tireless bills of these wrens. It is often said that the house wren remains at the north all the year, which, though not a fact, is easily accounted for by the coming of the winter wrens just as the others migrate in the autumn, and by their return to Canada when Jenny wren makes up her feather-bed under the eaves in the spring. Carolina Wren (Tbryothorus ludovicianus) Wren family Called also: MOCKING WREN Length — 6 inches. Just a trifle smaller than the English sparrow. Male and Female — Chestnut-brown above. A whitish streak, be- ginning at base of bill, passes through the eye to the nape of the neck. Throat whitish. Under parts light bufif-brown. Wings and tail finely barred with dark. Range— UmttA States, from Gulf to northern Illinois and southern New England. Migrations — A common resident except at northern boundary of range, where it is a summer visitor. This largest of the wrens appears to be the embodiment of the entire family characteristics : it is exceedingly active, nervous, and easily excited, quick-tempered, full of curiosity, peeping into every hole and corner it passes, short of flight as it is of wing, inseparable from its mate till parted by death, and a gushing lyrical songster that only death itself can silence. It also has the wren-like preference for a nest that is roofed over, but not too near the homes of men. ii6 Brown, Olive or Grayish Brown, and Brown and Gray Sparrowy Birds Undergrowths near water, brush heaps, rocky bits of wood- land, are favorite resorts. The Carolina wren decidedly objects to being stared at, and likes to dart out of sight in the midst of the underbrush in a twinkling while the opera-glasses are being focussed. To let off some of his superfluous vivacity, Nature has pro- vided him with two safety-valves : one is his voice, another is his tail. With the latter he gesticulates in a manner so expres- sive that it seems to be a certain index to what is passing in his busy little brain — drooping it, after the habit of the catbird, when he becomes limp with the emotion of his love-song, or holding it erect as, alert and inquisitive, he peers at the impudent intruder in the thicket below his perch. But it is his joyous, melodious, bubbling song that is his chief fascination. He has so great a variety of strains that many people have thought that he learned them from other birds, and so have called him what many ornithologists declare that he is not — a mocking wren. And he is one of the few birds that sing at night— not in his sleep or only by moonlight, but even in the total darkness, just before dawn, he gives us the same wide- awake song that entrances us by day. Winter Wren (Troglodytes hiemalis) Wren family Length — 4 to 4. 5 inches. About one-third smaller than the Eng- lish sparrow. Apparently only half the size. Male and Female— Cinnzmon-hrown above, with numerous short, dusky bars. Head and neck without markings. Under- neath rusty, dimly and finely barred with dark brown. Tail short. Hange — United States, east and west, and from North Carolina to the Fur Countries. Migrations — October. April. Summer resident. Commonly a winter resident in the South and Middle States only. It all too rarely happens that we see this tiny mouse-like wren in summer, unless we come upon him suddenly and over- take him unawares as he creeps shyly over the mossy logs or runs literally " like a flash " under the fern and through the tan- 117 Brown, Olive or Grayish Brown, and Brown and Gray Sparrowy Birds gled underbrush of the deep, cool woods. His presence there is far more lilcely to be detected by the ear than the eye. Throughout the nesting season music fairly pours from his tiny throat; it bubbles up like champagne; it gushes forth in a lyrical torrent and overflows into every nook of the forest, that seems entirely pervaded by his song. While music is every- where, it apparently comes from no particular point, and, search as you may, the tiny singer still eludes, exasperates, and yet entrances. If by accident you discover him balancing on a swaying twig, never far from the ground, with his comical little tail erect, or more likely pointing towards his head, what a pert, saucy minstrel he is ! You are lost in amazement that so much music could come from a throat so tiny. Comparatively few of his admirers, however, hear the exqui- site notes of this little brown wood-sprite, for after the nest- ing season is over he finds little to call them forth during the bleak, snowy winter months, when in the Middle and Southern States he may properly be called a neighbor. Sharp hunger, rather than natural boldness, drives him near the homes of men, where he appears just as the house wren departs for the South. With a forced confidence in man that is almost pathetic in a bird that loves the forest as he does, he picks up whatever lies about the house or barn in the shape of food — crumbs from the kitchen door, a morsel from the dog's plate, a little seed in the barn-yard, happily rewarded if he can find a spider lurking in some sheltered place to give a flavor to the unrelished grain. Now he becomes almost tame, but we feel it is only because he must be. The spot that decided preference leads him to, either win- ter or summer, is beside a bubbling spring. In the moss that grows near it the nest is placed in early summer, nearly always roofed over and entered from the side, in true wren-fash- ion ; and as the young fledglings emerge from the creamy- white eggs, almost the first lesson they receive from their devoted little parents is in the fine art of bathing. Even in winter weather, when the wren has to stand on a rim of ice, he will duck and splash his diminutive body. It is recorded of a certain little individual that he was wont to dive through the icy water on a December day. Evidently the wrens, as a family, are not far removed in the evolutionary scale from true water-birds. ii8 LONG-BILLED MARSH WREN. Nearly Life-size. Brown, Olive or Grayish Brown, and Brown and Gray Sparrowy Birds Long-billed Marsh Wren (Cistothorus palustris) Wren family Length — 4.5 to 5.2 inches. Actually a little smaller than the Eng- lish sparrow. Apparently half the size. Male and Female — Brown above, with white line over the eye, and the back irregularly and faintly streaked with white. Wings and tail barred with darker cinnamon-brown. Un- derneath white. Sides dusky. Tail long and often carried erect. Bill extra long and slender. Range — United States and southern British America. Migrations — May. September. Summer resident. Sometimes when you are gathering cat-tails in the river marshes an alert, nervous little brown bird rises startled from the rushes and tries to elude you as with short, jerky flight it goes deeper and deeper into the marsh, where even the rubber boot may not follow. It closely resembles two other birds found in such a place, the swamp sparrow and the short-billed marsh wren ; but you may know by its long, slender bill that it is not the latter, and by the absence of a bright bay crown that it is not the shyest of the sparrows. These marsh wrens appear to be especially partial to running water; their homes are not very far from brooks and rivers, preferably those that are affected in their rise and flow by the tides. They build in colonies, and might be called inveterate singers, for no single bird is often permitted to finish his bubbling song without half the colony joining in a chorus. Still another characteristic of this particularly interesting bird is its unique architectural effects produced with coarse grasses woven into globular form and suspended in the reeds. Some- times adapting its nest to the building material at hand, it weaves it of grasses and twigs, and suspends it from the limb of a bush or tree overhanging the water, where it swings like an oriole's. The entrance to the nest is invariably on the side. More devoted homebodies than these little wrens are not among the feathered tribe. Once let the hand of man desecrate their nest, even before the tiny speckled eggs are deposited in it, and off go the birds to a more inaccessible place, where they can enjoy their home unmolested.- Thus three or four nests may be made in a summer. 119 Brown, Olive or Grayish Brown, and Brown and Gray Sparrowy Birds Short-billed Marsh Wren (Cistothorus stellaris) Wren family Length — 4 to 5 inches. Actually about one-third smaller than the English sparrow, but apparently only half its size. Male and Female — Brown above, faintly streaked with white, black, and buff. Wings and tail barred with same. Under- neath white, with buff and rusty tinges on throat and breast Short bill. Range — North America, from Manitoba southward in winter to Gulf of Mexico. Most common in north temperate latitudes. Migrations — Early May. Late September. Where red-winged blackbirds like to congregate in oozy pastures or near boggy woods, the little short-billed wren may more often be heard than seen, for he is more shy, if possible, than his long-billed cousin, and will dive down into the sedges at your approach, very much as a duck disappears under water. But if you see him at all, it is usually while swaying to and fro as he clings to some tall stalk of grass, keeping his balance by the nervous, jerky tail motions characteristic of all the wrens, and singing with all his might. Oftentimes his tail reaches backward almost to his head in a most exaggerated wren-fashion. Samuels explains the peculiar habit both the long-billed and the short-billed marsh wrens have of building several nests in one season, by the theory that they are made to protect the sit- ting female, for it is noticed that the male bird always lures a visitor to an empty nest, and if this does not satisfy his curiosity, to another one, to prove conclusively that he has no family in prospect. Wild rice is an ideal nesting place for a colony of these little marsh wrens. The home is made of sedge grasses, softly lined with the softer meadow grass or plant-down, and placed in a tussock of tail grass, or even upon the ground. The entrance is on the side. But while fond of moist places, both for a home and feeding ground, it will be noticed that these wrens have no special fondness for running water, so dear to their long-billed relatives. Another distinction is that the eggs of this species, instead of being so densely speckled as to look brown, are pure white. Brown, Olive or Grayish Brown, and Brown and Gray Sparrowy Birds Brown Thrasher (Harporhynchus rufusj Thrasher and Mocking-bird family Called also: BROWN THRUSH ; GROUND THRUSH ; RED THRUSH ; BROWN MOCKING-BIRD ; FRENCH MOCK- ING-BIRD; MAVIS Length — 1 1 to 1 1. 5 inches. Fully an inch longer than the robin. Male — Rusty red-brown or rufous above ; darkest on wings, which have two short whitish bands. Underneath white, heavily streaked (except on throat) with dark-brown, arrow-shaped spots. Tail very long. Yellow eyes. Bill long and curved at tip. Female — Paler than male. Range — United States to Rockies. Nests from Gulf States to Manitoba and Montreal. Winters south of Virginia. Migrations — Late April. October. Common summer resident. " There's a merry brown thrush sitting up in a tree; He is singing to me ! He is singing to me ! And what does he say, little girl, little boy ? ' Oh, the world's running over with joy ! ' " The hackneyed poem beginning with this stanza that de- lighted our nursery days, has left in our minds a fairly correct impression of the bird. He still proves to be one of the peren- nially joyous singers, like a true cousin of the wrens, and when we study him afield, he appears to give his whole attention to his song with a self-consciousness that is rather amusing than the reverse. "What musician wouldn't be conscious of his own powers," he seems to challenge us, "if he possessed such a gift .?" Seated on a conspicuous perch, as if inviting attention to his per- formance, with uplifted head and drooping tail he repeats the one exultant, dashing air to which his repertoire is limited, with- out waiting for an encore. Much practice has given the notes a brilliancy of execution to be compared only with the mocking- bird's ; but in spite of the name "ferruginous mocking-bird" that Audubon gave him, he does not seem to have the faculty of imitating other birds' songs. Thoreau says the Massachusetts farmers, when planting their seed, always think they hear the thrasher say, " Drop it, drop it — cover it up, cover it up— pull it up, pull it up, pull it up." 121 Brown, Olive or Grayish Brown, and Brown and Gray Sparrowy Birds One of the shatterings of childish impressions that age too often brings is when we learn by the books that our "merry brown thrush " is no thrush at all, but a thrasher — first cousin to the wrens, in spite of his speckled breast, large size, and certain thrush-like instincts, such as never singing near the nest and shunning mankind in the nesting season, to mention only two. Certainly his bold, swinging flight and habit of hopping and run- ning over the ground would seem to indicate that he is not very far removed from the true thrushes. But he has one undeniable wren-like trait, that of twitching, wagging, and thrashing his long tail about to help express his emotions. It swings like a pendulum as he rests on a branch, and thrashes about in a most ludicrous way as he is feeding on the ground upon the worms, insects, and fruit that constitute his diet. Before the fatal multiplication of cats, and in unfrequented, sandy locations still, the thrasher builds her nest upon the ground, thus earning the name "ground thrush" that is often given her ; but with dearly paid-for wisdom she now most frequently selects a low shrub or tree to cradle the two broods that all too early in the summer effectually silence the father's delightful song. Wilson's Thrush (Turdusfuscescens) Thrush family Called also: VEERY; TAWNY THRUSH Length — 7 to 7.5 inches. About one-fourth smaller than the robin. Male and Female — Uniform olive-brown, with a tawny cast above. Centre of the throat white, with cream-buff on sides of throat and upper part of breast, which is lightly spotted with wedge-shaped, brown points. Underneath white, or with a faint grayish tinge. Range — United States, westward to plains. Migrations — May. October. Summer resident. To many of us the veery, as they call the Wilson's thrush in New England, is merely a voice, a sylvan mystery, reflecting the sweetness and wildness of the forest, a vocal "will-o'-the-wisp" that, after enticing us deeper and deeper into the woods, where we sink into the spongy moss of its damp retreats and become 1 22 WILSON'S THRUSH. % Life-size. Brown, Olive or Grayish Brown, and Brown and Gray Sparrowy Birds entangled in the wild grape-vines twined about the saplings and underbrush, still sings to us from unapproachable tangles. Plainly, if we want to see the bird, we must let it seek us out on the fallen log where we have sunk exhausted in the chase. Presently a brown bird scuds through the fern. It is a thrush, you guess in a minute, from its slender, graceful body. At first you notice no speckles on its breast, but as it comes nearer, obscure arrow-heads are visible — not heavy, heart-shaped spots such as plentifully speckle the larger wood thrush or the smaller hermit. It is the smallest of the three commoner thrushes, and it lacks the ring about the eye that both the others have. Shy and elusive, it slips away again in a most unfriendly fashion, and is lost in the wet tangle before you have become acquainted. You determine, however, before you leave the log, to cultivate the acquaintance of this bird the next spring, when, before it mates and retreats to the forest, it comes boldly into the gardens and scratches about in the dry leaves on the ground for the lurk- ing insects beneath. Miss Florence Merriam tells of having drawn a number of veeries about her by imitating their call-note, which is a whistled wheew, whoit, very easy to counterfeit when once heard. " Taweel-ab, taweel-ah, twil-ah, twil-ahl" Professor Ridgeway interprets their song, that descends in a succession of trills without break or pause ; but no words can possibly con- vey an idea of the quality of the music. The veery, that never claims an audience, sings at night also, and its weird, sweet strains floating through the woods at dusk, thrill one like the mysterious voice of a disembodied spirit. Whittier mentions the veery in " The Playmate" : " And here in spring the veeries sing The song of long ago." Wood Thrush (Turdus mustelinus) Thrush family Called also: SONG THRUSH; WOOD ROBIN; BELLBIRD Length— i to 8.3 inches. About two inches shorter than th, robin. Male and Female — Brown above, reddish on head and shoulderv and shading into olive-brown on tail. Throat, breast, ana 'underneath white, plain in the middle, but heavily marked 123 Brown, Olive or Grayish Brown, and Brown and Gray Sparrowy Birds on sides and breast with heart-siiaped spots of very dark brown. Whitish eye-ring. Migrations — Late April or early May. October. Summer resident When Nuttall wrote of "this solitary and retiring songster," before the country was as thickly settled as it is to-day, it possi- bly had not developed the confidence in men that now distin- guishes the wood thrush from its shy congeners that are distinctly wood birds, which it can no longer strictly be said to be. In city parks and country places, where plenty of trees shade the village streets and lawns, it comes near you, half hopping, half running, with dignified unconsciousness and even familiarity, all the more delightful in a bird whose family instincts should take it into secluded woodlands with their shady dells. Perhaps, in its heart of hearts, it still prefers such retreats. Many conservative wood thrushes keep to their wild haunts, and it must be owned not a few liberals, that discard family traditions at other times, seek the forest at nesting time. But social as the wood thrush is and abundant, too, it is also eminently high-bred ; and when contrasted with its tawny cousin, the veery, that skulks away to hide in the nearest bushes as you approach, or with the hermit thrush, that pours out its heavenly song in the solitude of the forest, how gracious and full of gentle confidence it seems ! Every gesture is graceful and elegant; even a wriggling beetle is eaten as daintily as caviare at the king's table. It is only when its confidence in you is abused, and you pass too near the nest, that might easily be mistaken for a robin's, just above your head in a sapling, that the wood thrush so far forgets itself as to become excited. Pit, pit, pit, sharply reiterated, is called out at you with a strident quality in the tone that is painful evidence of the fearful anxiety your presence gives this gentle bird. Too many guardians of nests, whether out of excessive hap- piness or excessive stupidity, have a dangerous habit of singing very near them. Not so the wood thrush. " Come to me," as the opening notes of its flute-like song have been freely trans- lated, invites the intruder far away from where the blue eggs lie cradled in ambush. " Uoli-a-e-o-li-noli-nol-aeolee-lee ! " is as good a rendering into syllables of the luscious song as could very well be made. Pure, liquid, rich, and luscious, it rings out from the trees on the summer air and penetrates our home like a strain of music from a stringed quartette. 124 HERMIT THRUSH. I Life-size. THE WOOD THRUSH HEARS THE CLICK OF THE CAMERA. Brown, Olive or Grayish Brown, and Brown and Gray Sparrowy Birds Hermit Thrush (Turdus aonalaschkce pallasii) Thrush family Called also: SWAMP ANGEL; LITTLE THRUSH Length— '].2'j to 7.5 inches. About one-fourth smaller than the robin. Male and Female — Upper parts olive-brown, reddening near the tail, which is pale rufous, quite distinct from the color of the back. Throat, sides of neck, and breast pale buff. Feathers of throat and neck finished with dark arrow-points at tip ; feathers of the breast have larger rounded spots. Sides brownish gray. Underneath white. A yellow ring around the eye. Smallest of the thrushes. i?««^(?— Eastern parts of North America. Most common in the United States to the plains. Winters from southern Illinois and New Jersey to Gulf Migrations — April. November. Summer resident. The first thrush to come and the last to go, nevertheless the hermit is little seen throughout its long visit north. It may loiter awhile in the shrubby roadsides, in the garden or the parks in the spring before it begins the serious business of life in a nest of moss, coarse grass, and pine-needles placed on the ground in the depths of the forest, but by the middle of May its presence in the neighborhood of our homes becomes only a mem- ory. Although one never hears it at its best during the migra- tions, how one loves to recall the serene, ethereal evening hymn ! "The finest sound in Nature," John Burroughs calls it. "It is not a proud, gorgeous strain like the tanager's or the grosbeak's," he says; "it suggests no passion or emotion — nothing personal, but seems to be the voice of that calm, sweet solemnity one attains to in his best moments. It realizes a peace and a deep, solemn joy that only the finest souls may know." Beyond the question of even the hypercritical, the hermit thrush has a more exquisitely beautiful voice than any other American bird, and only the nightingale's of Europe can be com- pared with it. It is the one theme that exhausts all the ornithol- ogists' musical adjectives in a vain attempt to convey in words any idea of it to one who has never heard it, for the quality of the song is as elusive as the bird itself But why should the poets be so silent ? Why has it not called forth such verse as the I2S Brown, Olive or Grayish Brown, and Brown and Gray Sparrowy Birds English poets have lavished upon the nightingale ? Undoubtedly because it lifts up its heavenly voice in the solitude of the forest, whereas the nightingales, singing in loud choruses in the moon- light under the poet's very window, cannot but impress his waking thoughts and even his dreams with their melody. Since the severe storm and cold in the Gulf States a few win- ters ago, where vast numbers of hermit thrushes died from cold and starvation, this bird has been very rare in haunts where it used to be abundant. The other thrushes escaped because they spend the winter farther south. Alice's Thrush (Turdus alicicB) Thrush family Called also: GRAY-CHEEKED THRUSH Length — 7. 5 to 8 inches. About the size of the bluebird. Male and Female — Upper parts uniform olive-brown. Eye-ring whitish. Cheeks gray; sides dull grayish white. Sides of the throat and breast pale cream-buff, speckled with arrow- shaped points on throat and with half-round dark-brown marks below. Hange — North America, from Labrador and Alaska to Central America. Migrations — Late April or May. October. Chiefly seen in migra- tions, except at northern parts of its range. One looks for a prettier bird than this least attractive of all tht thrushes in one that bears such a suggestive name. Like the olive-backed thrush, from which it is almost impossible to tell it when both are alive and hopping about the shrubbery, its plu- mage above is a dull olive-brown that is more protective than pleasing. Just as Wilson hopelessly confused the olive-backed thrush with the hermit, so has Alice's thrush been confounded by later writers with the olive-backed, from which it differs chiefly in being a trifle larger, in having gray cheeks instead of buff, and in possessing a few faint streaks on the throat. Where it goes to make a home for its greenish-blue speckled eggs in some low bush at the northern end of its range, it bursts into song, but except in the nesting grounds its voice is never heard. Mr. 126 Brown, Olive or Grayish Brown, and Brown and Gray Sparrowy Birds Bradford Torrey, who heard it singing in the White Mountains, describes the song as like the thrush's in quality, but differently accented: " IVee-o-wee-o-fit-ti-wee-o 1 " In New England and New York this thrush is most often seen during its autumn migrations. As it starts up and perches upon a low branch before you, it appears to have longer legs and a broader, squarer tail than its congeners. Olive-backed Thrush (Turdus ustulatus swainsonii) Thrush family Called also: SWAINSON'S THRUSH Length — 7 to 7.50 inches. About one-fourth smaller than the robin. Male and Female — Upper parts olive-brown. Whole throat and breast yellow-buff, shading to ashy on sides and to white underneath. Buff ring around eye. Dark streaks on sides of throat (none on centre), and larger, more spot-like marks on breast. Range — North America to Rockies ; a few stragglers on Pacific slope. Northward to arctic countries. Migrations — April. October. Summer resident in Canada. Chiefly a migrant in United States. Mr. Parkhurst tells of finding this "the commonest bird in the Park (Central Park, New York), not even excepting the robin," during the last week of May on a certain year ; but usually, it must be owned, we have to be on the lookout to find it, or it will pass unnoticed in the great companies of more conspicuous birds travelling at the same time. White-throated sparrows often keep it company on the long journeys northward, and they may frequently be seen together, hopping sociably about the garden, the thrush calling out a rather harsh ViO\t—puh I puh ! — quite different from the liquid, mellow calls of the other thrushes, to resent either the sparrows' bad manners or the inquisitiveness of a human disturber of its peace. But this gregarious habit and neighborly visit end even before acquaintance fairly begins, and the thrushes are off for their nesting grounds in the pine woods of New England or Labrador if they are travelling up the east coast, or to Alaska, British Columbia, or Manitoba if west of the 127 Brown, Olive or Grayish Brown, and Brown and Gray Sparrowy Birds Mississippi. There they stay ail summer, often travelling south- ward with the sparrows in the autumn, as in the spring. Why they should prefer coniferous trees, unless to utilize the needles for a nest, is not understood. Low trees and bushes are favorite building sites with them as with others of the family, though these thrushes disdain a mud lining to their nests. Those who have heard the olive-backed thrush singing an even-song to its brooding mate compare it with the veery's, but it has a break in it and is less simple and pleasing than the latter's. Louisiana Water Thrush (Seiurus motacilla) Wood Warbler family Length— 6 to 6.28 inches. Just a trifle smaller than the English sparrow. Male and Female — Grayish olive-brown upper parts, with con- spicuous white line over the eye and reaching almost to the nape. Underneath white, tinged with pale buff. Throat and line through the middle, plain. Other parts streaked with very dark brown, rather faintly on the breast, giving them the speckled breast of the thrushes. Heavy, dark bill. Range— VimXjtdL States, westward to the plains ; northward to southern New England. Wmters in the tropics. Migrations — Late April. October. Summer resident. This bird, that so delighted Audubon with its high-trilled song as he tramped with indefatigable zeal through the hammocks of the Gulf States, seems to be almost the counterpart of the Northern water thrush, just as the loggerhead is the Southern counterpart of the Northern shrike. Very many Eastern birds have their duplicates in Western species, as we all know, and it is most interesting to trace the slight external variations that differ- ent climates and diet have produced on the same bird, and thus differentiated the species. In winter the Northern water thrush visits the cradle of its kind, the swamps of Louisiana and Florida, and, no doubt, by daily contact with its congeners there, keeps close to their cherished traditions, from which it never deviates farther than Nature compels, though it penetrate to the arctic regions during its summer journeys. With a more southerly range, the Louisiana water thrush does not venture beyond the White Mountains and to the shores of the Great Lakes in summer, but even at the North the same 128 Brown, Olive or Grayish Brown, and Brown and Gray Sparrowy Birds woods often contain both birds, and there is opportunity to note just how much they differ. The Southern bird is slightly the larger, possibly an inch ; it is more gray, and it lacks a few of the streaks, notably on the throat, that plentifully speckle its Northern counterpart; but the habits of both of these birds appear to be identical. Only for a few days in the spring or autumn migra- tions do they pass near enough to our homes for us to study them, and then we must ever be on the alert to steal a glance at them through the opera-glasses, for birds more shy than they do not visit the garden shrubbery at any season. Only let them suspect they are being stared at, and they are under cover in a twinkling. Where mountain streams dash through tracts of mossy, spongy ground that is carpeted with fern and moss, and over- grown with impenetrable thickets of underbrush and tangles of creepers — such a place is the favorite resort of both the water thrushes. With a rubber boot missing, clothes torn, and temper by no means unruffled, you finally stand over the Louisiana thrush's nest in the roots of an upturned tree immediately over the water, or else in a mossy root-belaced bank above a purling stream. A liquid-trilled warble, wild and sweet, breaks the still- ness, and, like Audubon, you feel amply rewarded for your pains, though you may not be prepared to agree with him in thinking the song the equal of the European nightingale's. Northern Water Thrush (Seiurus noveboracensis) Wood Warbler family Called also : NEW YORK WATER THRUSH ; AQUATIC WOOD WAGTAIL; AQUATIC THRUSH Length — 5 to 6 inches. A trifle smaller than the English sparrow. Male and Female — Uniform olive or grayish brown above. Pale buff line over the eye. Underneath, white tinged with sul- phur-yellow, and streaked like a thrush with very dark brown arrow-headed or oblong spots that are also seen underneath wings. Range — United States, westward to Rockies and northward through British provinces. Winters from Gulf States south- ward. Migrations — Late April. October. Summer resident. 129 Brown, Olive or Grayish Brown, and Brown and Gray Sparrowy Birds According to the books we have before us, a warbler; but •who, to look at his speckled throat and breast, would ever take him for anything but a diminutive thrush ; or, studying him from some distance through the opera-glasses as he runs in and out of the little waves along the brook or river shore, would not name him a baby sandpiper ? The rather unsteady motion of his legs, balancing of the tail, and sudden jerking of the head suggest an aquatic bird rather than a bird of the woods. But to really know either man or beast, you must follow him to his home, and if you have pluck enough to brave the swamp and the almost impene- trable tangle of undergrowth where the water thrush chooses to nest, there " In the swamp in secluded recesses, a shy and hiddjen bird is warbling a song ; " and this warbled song that Walt Whit- man so adored gives you your first clue to the proper classification of the bird. It has nothing in common with the serene, hymn-like voices of the true thrushes ; the bird has no flute-like notes, but an emphatic smacking or chucking kind of warble. For a few days only is this song heard about the gardens and roadsides of our country places. Like the Louisiana water thrush, this bird never ventures near the homes of men after the spring and autumn migrations, but, on the contrary, goes as far away from them as possible, preferably to some mountain region, beside a cool and dashing brook, where a party of adventurous young climbers from a summer hotel or the lonely trout fisherman may startle it from its mossy nest on the ground. Flicker (Colaptes auratus) Woodpecker family Called also: GOLDEN-WINGED WOODPECKER; CLAPE ; PIGEON WOODPECKER ; YELLOWHAMMER ; HIGH- HOLE OR HIGH-HOLDER; YARUP ; WAKE-UP; YELLOW-SHAFTED WOODPECKER Length — 12 to 13 inches. About one-fourth as large again as the robin. Male and Female— We&d and neck bluish gray, with a red crescent across back of neck and a black crescent on breast. Male has black cheek-patches, that are wanting in female. Golden brown shading into brownish-gray, and barred with black above. Underneath whitish, tinged with light chocolate 130 Brown, Olive or Grayish Brown, and Brown and Gray Sparrowy Birds and thickly spotted with black. Wing linings, shafts of wing, and tail-quills bright yellow. Above tail white, con- spicuous when the bird flies. Range — United States, east of Rockies ; Alaska and British Amer- ica, south of Hudson Bay. Occasional on Pacific slope. Migrations — Most commonly seen from April to October. Usu- ally resident. If we were to follow the list of thirty-six aliases by which this largest and commonest of our woodpeckers is known throughout its wide range, we should find all its peculiarities of color, flight, noises, and habits indicated in its popular names. It cannot but attract attention wherever seen, with its beauti- ful plumage, conspicuously yellow if its outstretched wings are looked at from below, conspicuously brown and white if seen upon the ground. At a distance it suggests the meadowlark. Both birds wear black, crescent breast decorations, and the flicker also has the habit of feeding upon the ground, especially in autumn, a characteristic not shared by its relations. Early in the spring this bird of many names and many voices makes itself known by a long, strong, sonorous call, a sort of proclamation that differs from its song proper, which Audubon calls " a prolonged jovial laugh " (described by Mrs. Wright as "Wick, wick, wick, wick!"), and differs also from its rapidly repeated, mellow, and most musical cub, cub, cub, cub, cub. uttered during the nesting season. Its nasal kee-yer, vigorously called out in the autumn, is less characteristic, however, than the sound it makes while associat- ing with its fellows on the feeding ground — a sound that Mr. Frank M. Chapman says can be closely imitated by the swishing of a willow wand. A very ardent and ridiculous-looking lover is this bird, as, with tail stiffly spread, he sidles up to his desired mate and bows and bobs before her, then retreats and advances, bowing and bobbing again, very often with a rival lover beside him (whom he generously tolerates) trying to outdo him in grace and general attractiveness. Not the least of the bird's qualities that must commend themselves to the bride is his unfailing good nature, genial alike in the home and in the field. The "high-holders" have the peculiar and silly habit of bor- ing out a number of superfluous holes for nests high up in the 131 Brown, Olive or Grayish Brown, and Brown and Gray Sparrowy Birds trees, in buildings, or hollow wooden columns, only one of which they intend to use. Six white eggs is the proper number for a household, but Dr. Coues says the female that has been robbed keeps on laying three or even four sets of eggs without interruption. Meadowlark (Sturnella magna) Blackbird family Called also: FIELD LARK; OLDFIELD LARK Length — lo to 1 1 inches. A trifle larger than the robin. Male — Upper parts brown, varied with chestnut, deep brown, and black. Crown streaked with brown and black, and with a cream-colored streak through the centre. Dark-brown line apparently running through the eye ; another line over the eye, yellow. Throat and chin yellow ; a large, conspicuous black crescent on breast. Underneath yellow, shading into buffy brown, spotted or streaked with very dark brown. Outer tail feathers chiefly white, conspicuous in flight. Long, strong legs and claws, adapted for walking. Less black in winter plumage, which is more grayish brown. Female — Paler than male. Range— ^oxih America, from Newfoundland to the Gulf of Mexico, and westward to the plains, where the Western meadowlark takes its place. Winters from Massachusetts and Illinois southward. Migrations — April. Late October. Usually a resident, a few re- maining through the winter. In the same meadows with the red-winged blackbirds, birds of another feather, but of the same family, nevertheless, may be found flocking together, hunting for worms and larvse, building their nests, and rearing their young very near each other with the truly social instinct of all their kin. The meadowlarks, which are really not larks at all, but the blackbirds' and orioles' cousins, are so protected by the coloring of the feathers on their backs, like that of the grass and stub- ble they live among, that ten blackbirds are noticed for every meadowlark, although the latter is very common. Not until you flush a flock of them as you walk along the roadside or through the meadows and you note the white tail feathers and the black crescents on the yellow breasts of the large brown birds that rise 132 Brown, Olive or Grayish Brown, and Brown and Gray Sparrowy Birds towards the tree-tops with whirring sound and a flight suggest- ing the quail's, do you suspect there are any birds among the tall grasses. Their clear and piercing whistle, "Spring o' the y-e-a^r. Spring o' the year ! " rings out from the trees with varying in- tonation and accent, but always sweet and inspiriting. To the bird's high vantage ground you may not follow, for no longer having the protection of the high grass, it has become wary and flies away as you approach, calling out peent-peent and nervously flitting its tail (again showing the white feather), when it rests a moment on the pasture fence-rail. It is like looking for a needle in a haystack to try to find a meadowlark's nest, an unpretentious structure of dried grasses partly arched over and hidden in a clump of high timothy, flat upon the ground. But what havoc snakes and field-mice play with the white-speckled eggs and helpless fledglings ! The care of rearing two or three broods in a season and the change of plumage to duller winter tints seem to exhaust the high spirits of the sweet whistler. For a time he is silent, but partly regains his vocal powers in the autumn, when, with large flocks of his own kind, he resorts to marshy feeding grounds. In the winter he chooses for companions the horned larks, that walk along the shore, or the snow buntings and sparrows of the inland pastures, and will even include the denizens of the barn-yard when hunger drives him close to the haunts of men. The Western Meadowlark or Prairie Lark (Sturnella magna neglecta), which many ornithologists consider a different species from the foregoing, is distinguished chiefly by its lighter, more grayish-brown plumage, by its yellow cheeks, and more espe- cially by its richer, fuller song. In his "Birds of Manitoba" Mr. Ernest E. Thompson says of this meadowlark : "In richness of voice and modulation it equals or excels both wood thrush and nightingale, and in the beauty of its articulation it has no superior in the whole world of feathered choristers with which I am acquainted." 133 Brown, Olive or Grayish Brown, and Brown and Gray Sparrowy Birds Horned Lark (Otocoris alpestris) Lark family Called also: SHORE LARK Length — 7. 5 to 8 inches. About one-fifth smaller than the robin. Male— Upper parts dull brown, streaked with lighter on edges and tinged with pink or vinaceous ; darkest on back of head, neck, shoulders, and nearest the tail. A few erectile feathers on either side of the head form slight tufts or horns that are wanting in female. A black mark from the base of the bill passes below the eye and ends in a horn-shaped curve on cheeks, which are yellow. Throat clear yellow. Breast has crescent-shaped black patch. Underneath soiled white, with dusky spots on lower breast. Tail black, the outer feathers margined with white, noticed in flight. Female — Has yellow eye-stripe; less prominent markings, espe- cially on head, and is a trifle smaller. Range — Northeastern parts of North America, and in winter from Ohio and eastern United States as far south as North Carolina. Migrations — October and November. March. Winter resident. Far away to the north in Greenland and Labrador this true lark, the most beautiful of its genus, makes its summer home. There it is a conspicuously handsome bird with its pinkish-gray and chocolate feathers, that have greatly faded into dull browns when we see them in the late autumn. In the far north only does it sing, and, according to Audubon, the charming song is flung to the breeze while the bird soars like a skylark. In the United States we hear only its call-note. Great flocks come down the Atlantic coast in October and November, and separate into smaller bands that take up their resi- dence in sandy stretches and open tracts near the sea or wher- ever the food supply looks promising, and there the larks stay until all the seeds, buds of bushes, berries, larvae, and insects in their chosen territory are exhausted. They are ever conspicu- ously ground birds, walkers, and when disturbed at their dinner, prefer to squat on the earth rather than expose themselves by flight. Sometimes they run nimbly over the frozen ground to escape an intruder, but flying they reserve as a last resort. When the visitor has passed they quickly return to their dinner. If they were content to eat less ravenously and remain slender, fewer 134 Brown, Olire or Grayish Brown, and Brown and Gray Sparrowy Birds victims might be slaughtered annually to tickle the palates of the epicure. It is a mystery what they find to fatten upon when snow covers the frozen ground. Even in the severe midwinter storms they will not seek the protection of the woods, but always prefer sandy dunes with their scrubby undergrowth or open meadow lands. Occasionally a small flock wanders toward the farms to pick up seeds that are blown from the hayricks or scat- tered about the barn-yard by overfed domestic fowls. The Prairie Horned Lark (Otocoris alpestris praticola) is similar to the preceding, but a trifle smaller and paler, with a white instead of a yellow streak above the eye, the throat yellow- ish or entirely white instead of sulphur-yellow, and other minor differences. It has a far more southerly range, confined to north- ern portions of the United States from the Mississippi eastward. Once a distinctly prairie bird, it now roams wherever large stretches of open country that suit its purposes are cleared in the East, and remains resident. This species also sings in midair on the wing, but its song is a crude, half-inarticulate affair, barely audible from a height of two hundred feet. American Pipit (Anthus pensilvanicus) Wagtail family Called also: TITLARK; BROWN OR RED LARK Length — 6.^8 to 7 inches. About the size of a sparrow. Male and Female — Upper parts brown ; wings and tail dark olive- brown ; the wing coverts tipped with buff or whitish, and ends of outer tail feathers white, conspicuous in flight. White or yellowish eye-ring, and line above the eye. Un- derneath light buff brown, with spots on breast and sides, the under parts being washed with brown of various shades. Feet brown. Hind toe-nail as long as or longer than the toe. Range — North America at large. Winters south of Virginia to Mexico and beyond. Migrations — April. October or November. Common in the United States, chiefly during the migrations. The color of this bird varies slightly with age and sex, the under parts ranging from white through pale rosy bnown to a 13s Brown, Olive or Grayish Brown, and Brown and Gray Sparrowy Birds reddish tinge; but at any season, and under all circumstances, the pipit is a distinctly brown bird, resembling the water thrushes not in plumage only, but in the comical tail waggings and jerk- ings that alone are sufficient to identify it. However the books may tell us the bird is a wagtail, it certainly possesses two strong characteristics of true larks : it is a walker, delighting in walking or running, never hopping over the ground, and it has the angelic habit of singing as it flies. During the migrations the pipits are abundant in salt marshes or open stretches of country inland, that, with lark-like preference, they choose for feeding grounds. When flushed, all the flock rise together with uncertain flight, hovering and wheeling about the place, calling down dee-dee, dee-dee above your head until you have passed on your way, then promptly returning to the spot from whence they were disturbed. Along the roadsides and pastures, where two or three birds are frequently seen to- gether, they are too often mistaken for the vesper sparrows because of their similar size and coloring, but their easy, graceful walk should distinguish them at once from the hopping sparrow. They often run to get ahead of some one in the lane, but rarely fly if they can help it, and then scarcely higher than a fence-rail. Early in summer they are off for the mountains in the north. Labrador is their chosen nesting ground, and they are said to place their grassy nest, lined with lichens or moss, flat upon the ground — still another lark trait. Their eggs are chocolate-brown scratched with black. Whippoorwill (Antrostomus vociferus) Goatsucker family Length — 9 to 10 inches. About the size of the robin. Apparently much larger, because of its long wings and wide wing- spread. Male— A. long-winged bird, mottled all over with reddish brown, grayish black, and dusky white ; numerous bristles fringing the large mouth. A narrow white band across the upper breast. Tail quills on the end and under side white. Female — Similar to male, except that the tail is dusky in color where that of the male is white. Band on breast buff instead of white. Range — United States, to the plains. Not common near the sea. Migrations— \jaX& April to middle of September. Summer resident. 136 Brown, Olive or Grayish Brown, and Brown and Gray Sparrowy Birds The whippoorwill, because of its nocturnal habits and plain- tive note, is invested with a reputation for occult power which inspires a chilling awe among superstitious people, and leads them insanely to attribute to it an evil influence ; but it is a harmless, useful night prowler, flying low and catching enor- mous numbers of hurtful insects, always the winged varieties, in its peculiar fly-trap mouth. It loves the rocky, solitary woods, where it sleeps all day ; but it is seldom seen, even after painstaking search, because of its dull, mottled markings conforming so nearly to rocks and dry leaves, and because of its unusual habit of stretching itself length- wise on a tree branch or ledge, where it is easily confounded with a patch of lichen, and thus overlooked. If by accident one happens upon a sleeping bird, it suddenly rouses and flies away, making no more sound than a passing butterfly — a curious and uncanny silence that is quite remarkable. When the sun goes down and as the gloaming deepens, the bird's activity increases, and it begins its nightly duties, emitting from time to time, like a sentry on his post or a watchman of the night, the doleful call which has given the bird its common name. It " Mourns unseen, and ceaseless sings Ever a note of wail and woe," that our Dutch ancestors interpreted as " Quote-kerr-kee" and so called it. They had a tradition that no frost ever appeared after the bird had been heard calling in the spring, and that it wisely left for warmer skies before frost came in the autumn. Prudent bird, never caught napping ! It is erratic in its choice of habitations, even when rock and solitude seem suited to its taste. Very rarely is this odd bird found close to the seashore, and in the Hudson River valley it keeps a half mile or more back from the river. The eggs, generally two in number, are creamy white, dashed with dark and olive spots, and laid on the ground on dry leaves, or in a little hollow in rock or stump— never in a nest built with loving care. But in extenuation of such careless- ness it may be said that, if disturbed or threatened, the mother shows no lack of maternal instinct, and removes her young, carrying them in her beak as a cat conveys her kittens to secure shelter. 137 Brown, Olive or Grayish Brown, and Brown and Gray Sparrowy Birds Nighthawk (Chordeiles virginianus) Goatsucker family Called also: NIGHTJAR; BULL-BAT; MOSQUITO HAWK; WILL-O'-THE-WISP; PISK ; PIRAMIDIG ; LONG- WINGED GOATSUCKER Length — 9 to ID inches. About the same length as the robin, but apparently much longer because of its very wide wing-spread. Male and Female — Mottled blackish brown and rufous above, with a multitude of cream-yellow spots and dashes. Lighter below, with waving bars of brown on breast and under- neath. White mark on throat, like an imperfect horseshoe; also a band of white across tail of male bird. These latter markings are wanting in female. Heavy wings, which are partly mottled, are brown on shoulders and tips, and longer than tail. They have large white spots, conspicuous in flight, one of their distinguishing marks from the whippoor- will. Head large and depressed, with large eyes and ear- openings. Very small bill. Range — From Mexico to arctic islands. Migrations — May. October. Common summer resident. The nighthawk's misleading name could not well imply more that the bird is not : it is not nocturnal in its habits, neither is it a hawk, for if it were, no account of it would be given in this book, which distinctly excludes birds of prey. Stories of its chicken-stealing prove to be ignorant rather than malicious slan- ders. Any one disliking the name, however, surely cannot com- plain of a limited choice of other names by which, in different sections of the country, it is quite as commonly known. Too often it is mistaken for the whippoorwill. The night- hawk does not have the weird and woful cry of that more dismal bird, but gives instead a harsh, whistling note while on the wing, followed by a vibrating, booming, whirring sound that Nuttall likens to "the rapid turning of a spinning wheel, or a strong blowing into the bung-hole of an empty hogshead." This pecu- liar sound is responsible for the name nightjar, frequently given to this curious bird. It is said to be made as the bird drops sud- denly through the air, creating a sort of stringed instrument of its outstretched wings and tail. When these wings are spread, their large white spots running through the feathers to the under side 138 Brown, Olive or Grayish Brown, and Brown and Gray Sparrowy Birds should be noted to further distinguish the nighthawk from the whippoorwill, which has none, but which it otherwise closely resembles. This booming sound, coming from such a height that the bird itself is often unseen, was said by the Indians to be made by the shad spirits to warn the scholes of shad about to ascend the rivers to spawn in the spring, of their impending fate. The flight of the nighthawk is free and graceful in the ex- treme. Soaring through space without any apparent motion of its wings, suddenly it darts with amazing swiftness like an erratic bat after the fly, mosquito, beetle, or moth that falls within the range of its truly hawk-like eye. Usually the nighthawks hunt in little companies in the most sociable fashion. Late in the summer they seem to be almost gregarious. They fly in the early morning or late afternoon with beak wide open, hawking for insects, but except when the moon is full they are not known to go a-hunting after sunset. During the heat of the day and at night they rest on limbs of trees, fence- rails, stone walls, lichen-covered rocks or old logs — wherever Nature has provided suitable mimicry of their plumage to help conceal them. With this object in mind, they quite as often choose a hollow surface of rock in some waste pasture or the open ground on which to deposit the two speckled-gray eggs that sixteen days later will give birth to their family. But in August, when family cares have ended for the season, it is curious to find this bird of the thickly wooded country readily adapting itself to city life, resting on Mansard roofs, darting into the streets from the house- tops, and wheeling about the electric lights, making a hearty sup- per of the little, winged insects they attract. Black-billed Cuckoo fCoccy^us erythrophthalmus) Cuckoo family Called also: RAIN CROW Length— 1\ to 12 inches. About one-fifth larger than the robin. Male — Grayish brown above, with bronze tint in feathers. Un- derneath grayish white ; bill, which is long as head and black, arched and acute. Skin about the eye bright red. Tail long, and with spots on tips of quills that are small and inconspicuous. 139 Brown, Olive or Grayish Brown, and Brown and Gray Sparrowy Birds Female — Has obscure dusky bars on the tail. .ffa«^