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Kird Day Book

Hlay the Sebenth
Nineteen Hundred and Hifteen

ISSUED BY
DEPARTMENT OF GAME AND FISH
JOHN H. WALLACE, JR., Commissioner
MISS SOPHIA WATTS, Secretary

BROWN FRINTING CO. MONTGOMERY,

PRESS
BROWN PRINTING CO,
MONTGOMERY
ALABAMA

FOREWORD

From year to year the Department of Game and Fish,
through the wisdom and foresight of its Commissioner,
prepares and sends out an elaborate bulletin giving explicit
information and material for the observance of Bird Day
in our public schools.

This pamphlet, which is a work of art, is eagerly sought
and used in every county and most of the schools of the
State. No other agency is doing so much to conserve our
birds and to preserve in our children the sympathetic in-
stinct which statutes and constitutions are powerless to incul-
cate. It is with exceeding gratification, therefore, that I
designate Friday, May 7, as Bird Day for Alabama schools
and in so doing I desire to unreservedly commend the work
and to again bespeak on the part of the teachers of the State
a wider and saner attitude towards God’s creatures every-
where, which must of necessity result from a State-wide
compliance with the plan and purpose of this book.

Sincerely,

Supt. of Education.

SUGGESTED PROGRAM FOR BIRD DAY
+B

Invocation.

Reading: Life of Audubon.

Talk by teacher, superintendent or some prominent game
protectionist on the subject of the conservation of birds,
animals and fish, and their relation to man.

Recitation: The Brookside and the Hillside. Redwing.

Reading: How to Go A-Birding. The Duty of the Citi-
zen Toward Wild Life.

Essay on the Oven-Bird, Last of the Wild Pigeon, or
Sage Hen.

Recitation: Bird Biography. Elegy—Written in Spring.
The Meeting of the Waters. Hawk’s Challenge. .

Reading: Early Spring. Alabama Game Laws. In-
sects are the True Rulers of the Universe.

Essay on the slaughter of birds for ornamentation. By
pupil.

Recitation: There Was a Cherry-tree. Robert Burns.
The Birds. The Spirit of the Eagle. The Little Minister.
The Sagamore.

Paper on King Rail, The Barn Owl, The Dowitcher, The
Gadwall.

Recitation: Beauties of Nature. A Grosbeak in the
Garden. The Throstle. To a Water-fowl.

Reading—The Worm the Bird Did Not Eat. The
Phoebe Bird.

Recitation: Fishing. O Pumpkin Pie. The Song of
the Brook.

Adjourn to a suitable place and plant a tree or shrub
that will be dedicated to the birds.

Bird Sanctuaries—and a practical demonstration of Bird
Houses, Bird Baths and Bird Feeding Devices.

JOHN JAMES AUDUBON

1780-1851
oe

HOUGH of French parentage, and during his early years

educated in France, Audubon was born in Louisiana, and
Gwyay] always called the United States of America “his own beloved
country,’ and returned to it when about eighteen. He
married in 1808, Lucy Bakewell, the daughter of an English neigh-
bor. He took his wife to Louisville, Ky., where he opened a store
“which went on prosperously when I attended to it,” he writes later,
“but birds were birds then as now, and my thoughts were turning
toward them as the objects of my greatest delight. I shot, I drew,
I looked on nature only; my days were happy beyond human con-
ception and beyond this I really cared not.”

. ad

Leaving Louisville and many kind friends behind them they went
to Henderson, Ky. “Like my family the village was quite small.
The latter consisted of six or eight houses; the former of my wife,
myself and a small child. Few as the houses were we fortunately
found one empty. It was a log cabin. * * * ‘The woods were
amply stocked with game, the rivers with fish, and now and then
the hoarded sweets of the industrious bees were brought from some
hollow tree to our table.”

In spite of strenuous endeavors to keep his wandering tendencies
under control and to earn support for his family, his various under-
takings failed, partly through his own lack of business capacity,
but still more through the dishonesty of those in whom he implicitly
trusted. At last “I parted with every particle of property I had to
my creditors, keeping only the clothes I wore on that day, my origi-
nal drawings, and my gun.” “Nothing was left to me but my humble
talents. Were those talents to remain dormant under such exi-
gencies? Was I to see my beloyed Lucy and children suffer and
want bread? Was I to repine because I had acted like an honest
man’? Was I inclined to cut my throat in foolish despair? No!

6 Bird Day Book

I had talents, and to them I instantly resorted.” For a time he
found successful occupation in drawing portraits in black chalk,
but never lost an opportunity to add to his collection of drawings
of birds, which he now began to think of publishing.

In 1821 he took a position as tutor in a family near New Orleans,
His wife also taught, and by their united exertion their boys, Victor
and John, were put to school and a happy home life secured for
a few years. In 1826 the proceeds of a successful dancing class,
$2,000, with his own and his wife’s savings, enabled him to sail
with his beloved drawings for England, the goal of his hopes for
many years. Letters from friends in America brought him new
friends in England and Scotland, “who praised my Birds, and I felt
the praise to be honest.” All praise for his drawings delighted him,
but the social attentions showered on him and the demands for pa-
pers on many subjects, Birds, Quadrupeds, Indians, tried him not a
little. “A man who never looked into an English grammar and who
has forgotten most of what he learned in French and Spanish ones—
a man who has always felt awkward and shy in the presence of a
stranger—a man habituated to ramble alone, with his thoughts
usually bent on the beauties of nature herself—this man, me, to be
seated opposite Dr. Brewster in Edinburgh reading one of my puny
efforts at describing habits of birds that none but an Almighty
Creator can ever know, was ridiculously absurd.” He naively
writes: “The Captain (Basil Hall) wishes to write a book, and
he spoke of it with as little concern as I should say, “I will draw a
duck ;’ is it not surprising?” His pictures were exhibited, he was
made a member of the leading scientific societies, and, best of all,
his plans for publication took definite shape; the methods and cost
of printing were agreed upon, and subscribers began to enroll them-
selves. He returned to America, and to procure further material
for his great undertaking he journeyed from Labrador to the Flor-
ida Keys. “In all climates and all weathers, scorched by burning
suns, drenched by piercing rains, frozen by the fiercest colds; now
_ diving fearlessly into the densest forest, now wandering alone over
the most savage regions; in perils, in difficulties, in doubts, with
no companions to cheer his way—listening only to the sweet music
of birds or to the sweeter music of his own thoughts, he faithfully
kept his path. The records of man’s life contains few nobler exam-
ples of strength of purpose and indefatigable energy.”

Alabama, 1915. | 7

The great work was completed in 1838 and, when bound, con-
sisted of four elephant folios containing 1,065 life-size portraits of
birds in their natural surroundings. ‘The text was published sep-
arately under the title, ‘Ornothological Biography.’ Later (in 1844)
the original plates, reduced by the camera lucida, were published
with a part of the text in seven octavo volumes as ‘The Birds of
America.’ ”

After a futile attempt at city life in New York, the family
home was established in a beautiful woodland region on the banks
of the Hudson, now Audubon Park and included within the city
limits.

There, after many short journeys and one long and difficult one
up the Missouri to the mouth of the Yellowstone, surrounded by
children and grandchildren, with his beloved wife by his side, the
long, active life ended peacefully.

Zi

8 Bird Day Book

OUR PATRIOTS WERE NIMRODS
+B

ROM the beginning there has been implanted in the being

of man an impulse to pursue and take the wild denizens of
Sea) the animal kingdom. Whether it be for sport or for food,
z for numberless centuries man of high and low degree, in
every country and every clime, has roamed the forests and matched
his skill against the fleetness and cunning of its wary creatures.
Indeed, even now in every thinly populated land where game exists
in abundance a man lives according to his skill as a sportsman.

The royal hunts led by the kings of Europe into the forests in
quest of the stag and wild boar were inspired by the same impulse
that impelled the savages of darkest Africa, the Aboriginees of
Central and South America and the Eskimoes of the Arctic Circle.

On account of having been trained to hit the running deer in the
forests, during the War of the Revolution, the patriots under Wash-
ington poured into the soldiers of George III such a deadly and
effective fire as to put them to rout and compel the tyrant to accord
us the freedom which we now enjoy.

During the War of 1812, the soldiers under Andrew Jackson,
equipped with sporting rifles, having been trained to bring down
squirrels from the tallest trees of Tennessee by merely hitting them
through the eye, by taking aim at every man at which they fired
instead of shooting “breast high,” made every shot count a kill and
won for our country the battle of New Orleans, one of the greatest
victories recorded in the annals of our brilliant history.

The effective work done by the Alabama soldiers on the firing-
line in the War Between the States was due to the fact that they
were trained in the hunting field and were thus enabled to place
deadly missiles, with unerring aim.

It can thus be well said that game not only furnishes a medium of
healthful recreation and enjoyment but that it likewise trains in its
pursuit the men of the country in the art of the use of fire-arms and
renders them valiant and almost invincible foemen when they
respond to the call to arms.

Alabama, 1915. 9

Re

THE MEETING OF THE WATERS
+O

HERE is not in the wide world.a valley so sweet
As the vale in whose bosom the bright waters meet ;
Oh! the last rays of feeling and life must depart,
Ere the bloom of that valley shall fade from my heart.

Yet it was not that nature had shed o’er the scene
Her purest of crystal and brightest of green;

*T was not her soft magic of streamlet or hill,
Oh! no—it was something more exquisite still.

*T was that friends, the beloved of my bosom, were near,
Who made every dear scene of enchantment more dear,
And who felt how the best charms of nature improve,
When we see them reflected from looks that we love.

Sweet vale of Avoca! how calm could I rest
In thy bosom of shade, with the friends I love best,
Where the storms that we feel in this cold world should cease,
And our hearts, like thy waters, be mingled in peace.
—Thomas Moore.

im

10 Bird Day Book

3s

THE THROSTLE
+34

66@. UMMER is coming, summer in coming
I know it, I know it, I know it.
Light again, leaf again, life again, love again.”
Yes, my wild little poet.

Sing the new year in under the blue,
Last year you sang it as gladly,
“New, new, new, new!” Is it then so new
That you should carol so madly? )

“Love again, song again, nest again, young again,”
Never a prophet so crazy!
And hardly a daisy as yet, little friend,
See, there is hardly a daisy.

“Here again, here, here, here, happy year!”
O warble, unchidden, unbidden!
Summer is coming, is coming, my dear,
And all the winters are hidden.
—Alfred Tennyson.

B

Alabama, 1915. 11

MY WISH
Be
cop tl ANY little word of mine
May make a life the brighter,
If any little song of mine
May make a heart the lighter,
God help me speak the little word,
And take my bit of singing
And drop it in some lonely vale,
To set the echoes ringing.

“Tf any little love of mine

May make a life the sweeter,

If any little care of mine
May make a friend’s the fleeter,

If any life of mine may ease
The burden of another,

God give me love, and care, and strength
To help my toiling brother.”

—Endeavor Herald.

A
REDPOLL

oe

HE male of this species has a rosy breast, but the female
has not. In winter these northern birds may be found in
RAH flocks gathering seeds from weeds by the roadside and

stonewalls. Their actions greatly resemble those of our
Goldfinch, but their flight is more rapid.

The song of the Redpoll is strong, sweet and canary-like. The
nest is constructed at low elevations in bushes or trees; the eggs are
three to five in number, and are pale greenish blue with brown
specks. These birds breed in the extreme north, and winter south
to the northern part of the United States.

The sup-species are Holboell Redpool, which is slightly larger,
and the Greater Redpoll, which is still larger and darker.

The Greenland Redpoll is a larger and much whiter species
found in Greenland and migrating to Labrador in winter.
vy AN —Bird Guide.

Note: See ‘Mustration on front cover.

Bird Day Book

THE REDWING

oe

HEAR you, Brother, I hear you,
Down in the alder swamp,

Springing your woodland whistle

To herald the April romp!

First of the moving vanguard, |
In front of the spring you come,

Where flooded waters sparkle,
And streams in the twilight hum.

You sound the note of the chorus
By meadow and woodland pond,
Til, one after one up-piping,
A myriad throats respond.

I see you, Brother, I see you,
With scarlet under young wing,

Flash through the ruddy maples,
Leading the pageant of spring.

Earth has put off her raiment
Wintry and worn and old,

For the robe of a fair young siby]l,
Dancing in green and gold.

I heed you, Brother. Tomorrow
I, too, in the great employ,
Will shed my old coat of sorrow
For a brand new garment of joy.
—Bliss Carman.

Alabama, I915.

Re

TO A REDBIRD IN FEBRUARY
+B

HOU flamelet from the fire of spring,
Lit sudden on an ashen tree,
The year has but begun to be!
Where didst thou learn that limpid thing
Thou singest ere thy fellows sing—
Clear crystal notes that spill and drench thee,
Yet cannot quench thee?

Prophet are thou, or troubadour?

Doth a dead April’s memory

Waken this perfect minstrelsy,

Or vision of a lovely flower

In some predestined, imminent hour

So shake and rend thy little spirit
Thou canst not bear it?

Ah .. . gone! but still the high refrain.
All the gray bough with green is drest,

A bar of amber breaks the west,

A fragrance filters through the rain.
That which was dead sl:all live again!

The last chill doubt of the earth has cherished.

Lo, it hath perished!
—Nancy Byrd Turner.

R

13

14 Bird Day Book

RED-TAILED HAWK
Be

HIS bird is about two feet in length, and is one of our largest
hawks. The adults have the tail reddish brown, hence its
name. They breed in the United States, Mexico, Costa
Rica, Canada and Alaska, and winter generally in the United

States and south to Guatemala.

The red-tailed hawk, or “hen-hawk,” as .it is commonly called,

is one of the best known of all our birds of prey, and is a widely
distributed species of great economic importance. Its habit of sit-
ting on some prominent limb or pole in the open, or flying with
measured wing beat Over prairies and sparsely wooden areas on the
lookout for its favorite prey, causes it to be noticed by the most
indifferent observer. Although not an omnivorous as the red-shoul-
dered hawk, it feeds on a variety of food, as small mammals, snakes,
frogs, insects, birds, crawfish, centipedes and even carrion. In
regions where rattlesnakes abound it destroys considerable numbers
of the reptiles. Although it feeds to a certain extent on poultry
and birds, it is nevertheless entitled to general protection on account
of the insistent warfare it wages against field mice and other small
rodents and insects that are so destructive to young orchards, nurs-
ery stock and farm produce. Out of 530 stomachs examined, 457,
or 85 per cent, contained the remains of mammal pests, such as field
mice, pine mice, rabbits, several species of ground squirrels, pocket
gophers and cotton rats, and only 62 contained the remains of poul-
try or game birds.
—Brological Survey Bulletin.

291 RED-TAILED HAWK. COPYRIGHT 1900, BY A. W. MUMFORD, CHICAGO
: YZ Life-size.

Alabama, 1915.

HAWK’S CHALLENGE
+Be

INTER or Summer, what care I ?>—
The tilled or the untilled plain?
My lot is cast in the blue abyss,
And the lordly sun’s domain.
Over the broad champaign I float,
And over the sparkling sea;
I mount at will to the peak of heaven,
And rejoice that I am free,
Ko, keeo, kilio, keeo!
I exult that I am free!

KO, ktleo, ye groundlings born,

Of the tribes that reap and sow,—

Blesing and ban to me are one,

As up and aloft I go!

There are quaking hearts below, I ween,
For this black shape in the sky ;

For the Hawk’s breed has a Hawk’s blood,
And a Hawk of the Hawks am I.
Ko, keeo, kileo, keeo!

A Hawk of the Hawks am [!
—Dora Read Goodale.

R

THE HAWK
+34

LIFE, at every meal, rapacious hawk!
Spare helpless innocence!

—Troth, pleasant talk!
Yon swallow snaps more lives up in a day
Than in a twelvemonth I could take away.
But hark, most gentle censor, in your ear,
A word, a whisper,—you,—are you quite clear?
Creation’s groans, through ocean, earth and sky,
Ascend from all that walk, or swim, or fly.

15

16 Bird Day Book

HOW TO GO A-BIRDING
++

T HAS seemed to me that, instead of calling on the birds
aT personally, it might be pleasant to tell how to conduct our
visits and observations. What is the modus operandi of bird

study ?

We would suggest, first, that one should go a-birding with his
heart. Nature requires undivided attention. She can brook no
rival if you would win from her the choice secrets of her being. If
you give her only half a mind, she will give you but half of her
revelation. You must give her your confidence before she will
become communicative. Dismiss your ledgers, your politics, your
family wrangles, the annoyances of the schoolhouse, from your
thought when you go consorting with Nature. You must have a
bird in the heart if you would see and appreciate the bird in the
bush. It is the heart, too, that*sharpens the eyes. Not all persons
can become bird students because not all have the requisite enthus-
iasm; not all are enrapport.

Odd as it may appear, I would say, do not be too scientific. Not
one word would I utter in disparagement of the specialist and the
technical student, providing he feels certain that he can add some-
thing new and valuable to science; but for popular amateur bird
study I should protest against the slaughter of feathered innocents
either for identification or structural research. Do not look upon
birds as mere anatomical specimens. You need not kill and dissect
birds to know all that is necesary about their structure; for there
are many scientific books that will tell you all about their physiology
and anatomy.

Study birds as sentient creatures, as interesting individuals, with
wonderful instinct and intelligence. The bird anatomist loves science
more than he loves birds, or he would never want to kill them and
take them apart.

If you really love the birds you will want to study them just
as they are in their outdoor haunts, where they obey the impulses

Alabama, 1915. 17

of their volatile nature. To do this a good opera glass is a requisite.
It partly annihilates distance, and brings the bird up to your eyes.
You should get one with a large eye-piece, for with a small one you
will find some difficulty in focussing the binocular upon the desired
object. Be sure to avoid a glass that has bright colors, which will
reflect the gleam of the sun into your eyes. Dark colors are best.

A bird key or manual is indispensible for purposes of identifica-
tion. Somehow, you cannot enjoy the bird’s society until you know
its cognomen. A bird’s name may even be very inapt, and yet—well,
there is something in a name, even if it seems un-Shakespearian to
say so. It is a wonderful satisfaction to know that the flitting piece
of diminution in yonder tree is a golden-crowned kinglet, and not a

warbler or a vireo. I refer to the English names now in vogue
among scientific men. * * *

Do you ask when you had better begin the study of birds? Now!
In bird study, as in most right pursuits, “now is the accepted time.”
—Leander S. Keyser.

18

Bird Day Book

BIRD BIOGRAPHY
Be

HAT bird is our emblem?
I, said the eagle,
In strength I am regal;
I’m America’s emblem.

Who sings on the wing?
I, said the skylark ;
From dawn until dark,
I sing on the wing.

Whose feathers are downy?
Mine, said the goose,
They’re put to good use,
My feathers are downy.

Who builds a hang-nest?
I, said the oriole,

In shape like a bowl,

I build my hang-nest.

Who’s pet of the household?
I, said canary,

A right yellow fairy.

I am pet of the household.

Who’s poetry’s bird?
I, said the dove,

For I coo of love.
I’m poetry’s bird.

Who loves to chatter?

I, said the blackbird,

My harsh voice is heard,
I love to chatter.

Alabama, I915.

19

Whose legs are long?
Mine, said the crane,
I’ve more legs than brain.
My legs are long.

Who whistles ‘Bob White ?”

I, said the quail,

Across wood and dale.

I whistle “Bob White.” 2

What bird is handsome?
I, said the jay,

With plumes blue and gray.
I’m very handsome.

S

20 Bird Day Book

MARBLED GODWIT
++

HE coot is a most remarkable bird, at home equally in the
of shore birds, the present species measuring about eighteen
y} inches in length, including the long up-curved bill. They

breed in the interior from Saskatchewan south to North
Dakota and winter from the Gulf coast and Lower California south-
ward. They only casually occur on either the Atlantic or Pacific
coasts during migration. Their three or four creamy-buff eggs,
spotted with yellowish-brown, are laid in scantily lined depressions
on the ground in the vicinity of water; as usual with birds of this
order, the eggs are pear-shaped and very large compared with the
body of the bird.

They are highly prized for the table and eagerly hunted when-
ever they appear on the marshes; ordinarily, they are rather shy,
but since they come to imitations of their calls and to decoys stuck
up in the mud, their shyness does not avail them. They are com-
monly known as brown marlins or spike-bills.

Bi

COOT
+34

—Game Birds.

HE cot is a most remarkable bird, at home equally in the
water or on land in marshes. Plumage gray like that of
GRASi the Florida Gallinude, but secondaries tipped with white,
bill white with a black band or spots in the middle, practi-
cally no frontal plate, and the toes each with a lobed web. Coots
swim and dive fully as well as any of our ducks, and are frequently
seen on bays and in rivers in company with them, or in flocks of their
own kind. While swimming they have a habit of nodding the head
in time to the strokes of their feet. They are to be found through-
out the United States and southern Canada.

—Game Birds.

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Alabama, I915.

21

VACATION TIME

Sen a

LL THE world is set in rhyme,

Now it is vacation time,
And a swelling flood of joy
Brims the heart of every boy;
No more rote and no more rule,
No more staying after school;
Nothing but to play and play
Through an endless holiday.

Morn or afternoon, may all

Swing the bat and catch the ball;
Nimble-footed, race and run
Through the meadows in the sun.
Chasing winged scraps of light,
Butterflies in daring flight;

Or where the willows lean and look
Down at others in the brook;
Frolic loud the stream within,
Every arm a splashing fin.

Where the thorny thicket bar,
There the sweetest berries are;
Where the shady banks make dim
Pebbly pools, the shy trout swim;
Where the boughs are mossiest,
Builds the humming bird a nest ;—
There are haunts the rover seeks,
Touch of tan upon his cheeks,
And within his heart the joy
Known to no one but a boy.

All the world is set to rhyme.
Now it is vacation time.

22

Bird Day Book

THE JOY OF TODAY
+B+

OU needn’t be rich to be happy,
You needn’t be famous to smile;

There are joys for the poorest of toilers.

If only he’ll think them worth while.
There are blue skies and sunshine a-plenty

And blossoms for all to behold;
And always the bright days outnumber

The dark and the cheerless and cold.

Sweet sleep’s not a gift of the wealthy,
And love’s not alone for the great;

For men to grow old and successful

It isn’t joy’s custom to wait.

The poorest of toilers has blessings

His richer companions may crave;

And many a man who has riches
Goes sorrowing on to the grave.

You'll never be happy tomororw
If you are not happy today ;
If you’re missing the joys that are present
And sighing for joys far away.
The rose will not bloom any fairer
In the glorious years that may be;
Great riches won’t sweeten its fragrance
Nor help you its beauties to see.

Today is the time to make merry,
Tis folly for fortune to wait;
You'll not find the sky any bluer
If ever you come to be great.
You'll not find your joy’s any brighter,
No matter what fortune you win;
Make the most of life’s sunshine this minute
Tomorrow’s too late to begin.
—Edgar A. Guest in Detroit Free Press.

Alabama, I915. | 23

BIRD MINSTRELSY
Ge

WOULD like to say a few words in behalf of the little
birds that flutter in the tree tops and wing their merry way
hither and thither, searching for insects and making the

whole world glad with their soulful liquid music. Did any
one ever take time to think how lonely they would be these bright
spring mornings if, by any chance, the birds had forgotten to come
back here from their migratory flight. Our loss would be greater
than it is possible to imagine. But notwithstanding the cruel treat-
ment they sometimes receive, we have the assurance they will return
with each new springtime, to cheer our hearts with their joyous
minstrelsy.

“And when you think of this, remember, too,
*Tis always morning somewhere, and above
The awakening continents, from shore to shore,
Somewhere the birds are singing evermore.”

The most valuable possession of a living creature is its life—life
is the foundation of all values, for a.dead thing can value nothing.
To kill one bird does more to darken the world for us than to destroy
a myriad of the lower and more sluggish forms of life, and to kill
it uselessly and wantonly is a near approach to murder. Birds are
like human beings in that they not only enjoy themselves, but they are
a source of joy to others—to their mates, their young, and also to
the best and most admirable part of human-kind. The flash of a
bird’s wings in a tree top, the twitter of its song, may bring pure
pleasure to a hundred people in a single day.

Aside from this, birds have a utility to man which no intelligent
person can ignore; they serve us by putting a check on the increase
of weeds, destructive insects, and other agencies which do us harm

24 Bird Day Book

by diminishing the returns from our lands; and birds as a class can
be made even more useful to us if we take the trouble to learn their
habits, their foods, etc. ;

The teachers of Alabama, by observing Bird Day in their schools,
can be of invaluable aid in instructing the children of our State
relative to the benefits derived from bird life. As you know, the
tending of a flower bed, the training of a vine, the planting of a tree,
the tender care bestowed upon it, the eager watching for new devel-
opments in its growth, create an interest in it; so also with the study
of birds. The building of bird-houses, the encouraging of birds to
live in them, the love-making of the mates, the sight of the young
birds in the nest, all engender a love for them, and will for many a
child prove “the open seasame” into the changed circle of those
forces of the out-door world which purify, refine and ennoble the
heart of man, and give a sense of ownership that causes the pupil to
feel that he is an integral part of that world.

Alabama, 1915.

THE SAGAMORE
+e

ND thou, remembered Sagamore,
Some fairy pencil traced thy shore,
With most artistic beauties rife,
Ere sturdy Nature gave it life;
The woods that skirt thy verdant side
Bow over thee in love and pride,
And lay their shadows there to rest
Upon the pillow of thy breast;
No sounds of harsh discordance press
To mar thy blessed peacefulness.
The old pines murmur whisperingly,
As if in earnest praise of thee;
And troops of brilliant loving birds
Sing their delights in joyous words,
Responsive to thine own sweet speech
That breaks in music on thy beach.
Among thy haunts again we’ve played,
Again along thy shore we’ve strayed,
And bowed like pilgrims at a shine
Before thy beauties so divine!
Again our foreheads, warm and glowing,
Have felt thy crystal coolness flowing,
And love has strengthened in the beam
Reflected from thy shore and stream.
—B. P. Shillaber.

25

Bird Day Book

THE BEAUTIES OF NATURE
+Oe

DMIRING Nature in her mildest grace,
These northern scenes with weary feet I trace;

O’er many a winding dale and painful steep,
Th’ abodes of coveyed grouse and timid sheep,
My savage journeyed, curious I pursue,
Till famed Breadalbane opens to my view,
The meeting cliffs each deep-sunk glen divides,
The woods, wild scattered, clothe their ample sides.
Th’ outstretching lake, embosomed ’mong the hills,
The eye with wonder and amazement fills ;
The Tay meandering sweet in infant pride,
The palace rising on his verdant side;
The lawns wood-fringed in Nature’s native taste;
The hillocks dropped in Nature’s careless haste;
The arches striding o’er the new-born stream;
The village glittering in the noontide beam.

*K *K * * * * *

Poetic ardors in my bosom swell,

Lone wandering by the hermit’s mossy cell;
The sweeping theatre of hanging woods,

Th’ incessant roar of headlong tumbling floods.

* *K * *K * * *

Here Poesy might wake her heaven-taught lyre,
And look through Nature with creative fire;
Here, to the wrongs of fate half reconciled,
Misfortune’s lightened steps might wander wild;
And Disappointment in these lonely bounds
Find balm to soothe her bitter, rankling wounds.
Here heart-struck Grief might heavenward stretch her scan,
And injured Worth forget and pardon man.
—Burns.

Alabama, 1915.

SONG OF THE BROOK
+e

ITH many a curve my banks I fret
By many a field and fallow
And many a fairy foreland set
With willow weed and mallow.

I chatter, chatter, as I flow
To join the brimming river ;

For men may come and men may go,
But I go on forever.

I steal by lawns and grassy plots;
I slide by hazel covers;

I move the sweet forget-me-nots
That grow for happy lovers.

I slip, I slide, I gloom, I glance,
Among my skimming swallows;

I make the netted sunbeam dance
Against my sandy shallows.

And out again I curve and flow
To join the brimming river,
For men may come and men may go,
But I go on forever.
—Alfred Tennyson.

27

Bird Day Book

MY HEART IS IN A GARDEN OF ROSES
+e

Y HEART is a garden of roses,
And for thee a posey I twine;
Love’s honey dew on them reposes,
And all of its sweetness is thine.

There breathes from my garden of roses
The odorous breath of the spring;

A fragrance as fresh as from oases
Cool winds o’er the desert bring.

Fair queen of my garden of roses,

My heart is thy home and thy throne;
I make thee a crown of sweet posies,

For this flow’ry kingdom’s thine own.

At morn my fair garden of roses

Is awakened by strains of sweet song;
At eve, when in Dreamland it dozes,

A thousand bright visions throng.

Traversing my garden of roses,
Are walks lined with lovely parterres ;
Each step some new landscape discloses,
Far-veiled in the Edenly airs.

Come into my garden of roses,
And walk with me, hand in hand,
Unto where life’s golden gate closes,
At home in the sunset land.

Alabama, 1915. 29

ORIOLES, SWALLOWS, AND NIGHTHAWKS VALUABLE
IN DESTROYING THE COTTON-BOLL WEEVIL

oe

F ALL the birds known as natural enemies of the cotton-boll
weevil, orioles, swallows and nighthawks are the most im-
portant, according to the Biological Survey. Insect special-
ists of the bureau have made extensive investigations of the

subject, which have developed that there are 60 kinds of birds that

eat the weevil.

Mat Lie
(eed

The nighthawk, or bullbat, catches the weevils on the wing in
considerable numbers, especially during their migration. Unfor-
tunately, the nighthawk is shot for sport or eaten for food in some
sections of the South, but its value for good is infinitesimal as com-
pared with the services it renders the cotton grower and other agri-
culturists, and every effort should be made to spread broadcast a
knowledge of its usefulness as a weevil destroyer, with a view to its
complete protection. The orioles, barn swallow, rough-wing swal-
low, bank swallow, cliff swallow, and the martin are all persistent
enemies of the boll weevil.

From the standpoint of the farmer and the cotton grower these
swallows are among the most useful birds. Especially designed by
nature to capture insects in midair, their powers of flight and endur-
ance are unexcelled, and in their own field they have no competitors.
Their peculiar value to the cotton grower consists in the fact that,
like the nighthawk, they capture boll weevils when flying over the
fields, which no other birds do. Flycatchers snap up the weevils near
trees and shrubbery. Wrens hunt them out when concealed under
bark or rubbish. Blackbirds catch them on the ground, as do the
killdeer, titlark, meadow lark, and others; while orioles hunt for
them on the bolls. But it is the peculiar function of swallows to
catch the weevils as they are making long flights, leaving the cotton

30 Bird Day Book

fields in search of hiding places in which to winter or entering them
to continue their work of devastation.

Martins are not at all fastidious about the outward appearance
of their dwellings, and a large gourd suspended from the top of a
dead tree or a pole, or any kind of a weather-tight box or barrel,
however rude, when divided into compartments answers their needs
as well as the most costly and ornamental house. The rooms should
be about 4%4 inches wide, 7 inches high, and 8 inches deep, with
entrance about 3 inches in diameter. They will not build close to
the ground, having a wholesome fear of cats and other invaders;
hence the houses should be elevated from the ground not less than
15 feet. Drinking water is essential for martins and all other swal-
lows, and the presence of a small pond, lake, or river greatly in-
creases the chances for colonization.

—U. S. Agri. Dept. Bulletin.

Alabama, 1915.

R

IN THE MORNING-GLORY’S HEART
+Be

HERE’S a star in the morning-glory’s heart,
A star of a wondrous hue;
A simple thing, but ‘tis more than art
And the brush of man can do.

It is resting there on the petals wide;
A shadow it seems to be

Of one of the myriad stars that ride,
All gold, in the night’s deep sea.

O, golden star of the autumn night,
While your twinkling watch is on,
Is your shadow cast by a higher light
And touched by the dew of dawn?

Does it fall on the morning-glory’s heart,
A star of a wondrous hue,

A simple thing which is more than art
In the hand of man can do?

Ah, well, if the things are true that seem!
The star shadow out of the sea
Is only bit of the earthly dream
Of the glories that are to be.
—O. C. H. in “Columbus Dispatch.”

et

32

Bird Day Book

.

I KILLED A ROBIN
+B

KILLED a robin. The little thing,
With a scarlet breast and a glossy wing,
That comes in the apple tree to sing.

I flung a stone as he twittered there;
I only meant to give him a scare,
But off it went and hit him square.

A little flutter—a little cry—
Then on the ground I saw him lie;
I didn’t think he was going to die.

But as I watched him I soon could see
He never would sing for you and me
Any more on the apple tree.

Never more in the morning light,
Never more in the sunshine bright,
Trilling his song in gay delight.

And I’m thinking every summer day

How never, never I can repay
The little life I took away.

Re

Alabama, 1915. 33

GADWALL
+34

HESE birds, which measure about twenty-one inches in
length, are cosmopolitan in distribution, but in America are
GYAN} nowhere as abundant as other species. They frequent
marshes about fresh-water lakes and ponds, breeding chiefly
in the interior and western America and being only casually found
during migrations on the Atlantic coast north of Chesapeake Bay.
Compared to other species, the drake is rather poorly plumaged,
the black, white and chestnut on the wings only serving to break the
monotony of the general coloring.

—Game Birds.

4

“IN MY DREAMS”
+B

N MY dreams there are forests with turbulent streamlets,
Where trout flash their gold in the noon-day sun.
In my land of Arcady the silence is soothing.
Each hour bears new joys ere the daylight is done.

In my dreams comes the hum of the reel o’er swift waters,
The thrill of each struggle brings sure cease to cares,
Whilst a melodic symphony in harmony with nature,
Is flowing from swelling throats, warbling sweet airs.

In my dreams there steals o’er me the deep peace of evening,
E’ry night folds its shroud round the forests of pine,

A memory of night winds that woo me to slumber,
To dream of the morrow and joys which are mine.

Frank J. Parsons.
2BB

34 Bird Day Book

KING RAIL
+34

HESE are the largest of the true rails, measuring about
eighteen inches in length. They are much brighter colored
both above and below than the similar sized Clapper Rails.
They inhabit almost exclusively fresh-water marshes in

eastern North America, breeding throughout the Eastern States and

wintering in the Southern ones. Their form is typical of that of
the rail family: long bill, long legs and short tail, the latter often
carried erect over the back. They are very sly and secretive in all
their habits, keeping well under cover of rushes or marsh grass, and
doing most of their feeding after dark. It is very difficult to flush
them, particularly without a dog. Their flight is very weak and
fluttering; they fly but a few yards before dropping into the pro-
tecting grass again. On the ground, however, they are very active
and quite graceful, running swiftly and threading their way with
ease through the densest of weeds, rushes or brush. At night the

marshes often resound with their loud, exposive, grunting calls.

Their food consist of aquatic insects, seeds, roots and grasses,
which impart a delicate flavor to their flesh and put them in the
game-bird class, although the sport of shooting them is confined
largely to one’s ability to make them fly, for once awing they are
so easy a mark that even a novice can seldom miss one.

—Game Birds.

Alabama, 1915. 35

“MARRIAGE OF ANIMALS”
Be

URPRISING though the statement may seem, it is a fact,
borne out by the careful scientists, that practically every
form of marriage contract known to men, from free love to
the soul-mate theory, can be found in the animal world.
Male animals even have their bachelor clubs, and that wonderful
naturalist, Ernest Thompson Seton, has related how little societies
of animals are established among the deer and antelopes. These
societies usually consist of three or four young bucks, which range
and feed together in perfect friendship. They are quite happy until
some lady deer intrudes. But once a doe joins the herd, good-bye
to peace. The brothers fight among themselves while the doe looks
on and enjoys the sport until one of them drives off the others and
goes away with her.

There are four distinct forms of marriage among monogamous
. animals. The first closely resembles the trial marriage, and is the
type represented by the moose. The male selects as she pleases him
and when she no longer charms he promptly divorces her and finds
another mate.

The second type of animal marriage is that which lasts during
the breeding season only. Some animals seek their mates again
next season, but among rats, rabbits and squirrels the separation is
permanent, although among foxes, coyotes and smaller animals the
father, who presumably hates the worries of domestic life, usually
stays away until the children have been reared and then returns.

The third type of animal marriage is that common among wild
geese, pigeons and possibly owls. The union lasts through life, and
if one of the pair dies the other never seeks a second mate, but
mourns disconsolately until death.

The fourth type of marriags is the nearest approach to the ideal
married life, and curiously enough is found most commonly among
wolves. Wolves marry for life, and only the death of one leaves
the other free to marry again. Furthermore, there is even a genu-
ine display of chivalry and affection between such animals. It is
recorded that two wolves in the London zoo were very jealous of
each other and frequently quarreled. One day during an unusually
furious dispute the male approached the female angrily as if to bite
her, but just as he reached her stopped, as if held back by some-
thing within him. The female then approached timidly, gently
licked his face and domestic happiness was once more restored.

: —Wilmington News.

36

___ Bird Day Book

IN JUNE
+Be

AN this be true, this golden summer time,
With dewy roses making sweet the dreamy June,
And soft winds playing tho’ the tender leaves
While drift the glowing stars and ghostly moon?
The sleeping flowers are pale to silver gray,
Can this be summer time: And you away?

The shadows in the pines play hide and seek,
The warm air with their fragrance slowly fills,
The nesting birds are still, with folded wings;
The somber mists of night shut out the hills.
Can all this dreamy time pass swift away?
Will June not wait your coming, dear, one day?
—June Paget Davies.

3

THE ENCHANTMENT
++

WONDER how the robin’s throat
Hath caught the rain’s sweet dripping note,
That little falling, pelting sound,
Liquidly clear and crystal round.
The very heart-tune of the Spring,
Enchanted of the sky and ground,
That conjures life from everything.

No ancient, age-worn witchery,
No incantation, could set free
The fast-bound dead; yet here each day,
Robin and rain in mystic way

Bring life back greenly ; ah, and now
One’s heart and pulse obey

That lure of music! Listen now

Alabama, 1915. | 37

INSECTS ARE THE TRUE RULERS OF THE UNIVERSE

MAN AND ALL HIS WORKS WOULD SOON BE AT
THEIR MERCY IF IT WERE NOT FOR BIRDS

o3-o-

MONG the zoological articles in the Smithsonian annual
report is one on the value of birds to man, in which the
author, James Buckland, of London, makes the astonishing
statement that although man imagines himself the dominant

power of the earth, he is nothing of the sort; the true lords of the
universe being the insects. For although man has attained predomi-
nance over the most fierce and powerful animals and most deadly
reptiles, he and his works would be of little avail before an attack
of insects, which include a greater number of species than all other
living creatures combined. Some 300,000 species have been de-
scribed, while possibly twice that number still remain unknown.

The author says that these incomputable hordes feed on nearly
all living animals and practically all plants, and multiply into pro-
digious numbers in an incredibly short time. Computations show
that one species developing 13 generations a year would, if unchecked
to the twelfth generation, multiply to 10 sextillions of individuals;
while a single pair of the well-known gypsy moths, if unchecked,
would produce in eight years enough progeny to destroy all the
foliage of the United States. One pair of potato bugs, he states,
would develop unchecked 60,000,000 in a single season, at which
rate of multiplication the potato plant would not long survive.

According to Mr. Buckland’s article, insects are quite as astound-
ing in their consuming qualities as in their rate of increase; a cater-
pillar eats twice its weight in leaves a day, and, in proportion, a
horse would consume a ton of hay in 24 hours. Certain flesh-eating
larve consume 200 times their original weight in 24 hours; in this
manner an infant would devour 1,500 pounds of meat during the
first day of its life. It is reported by a specialist that the food taken
by a silk worm in 56 days equals 86,000 times its original weight.
All of which facts show what tremendous destruction insects may
cause.

38 Bird Day Book

Through its predominating insect diet, and on account of its
exceedingly rapid digestion, the bird becomes the most indispensable
balancing force of nature; without its assistance, man, with his
poisons, the weather and animals, as well as the parasitic predaceous
insects, would be helpless. The author then states how the bird is
a benefit to man in a great number of ways; in checking insect inva-
sions, in preserving forests and orchards; their service in the mead-
ows and gardens; their value in protecting live stock, and their
usefulness in the preservation of health and elimination of disease.

Remarkable instances of the birds’ service to man include the
introduction of the English sparrow into New Zealand with the
resulting elimination of the thistle and the caterpillar, which were
ruining the land and crops, and the saving of Australian agricul-
ture from the grasshoppers by the straw-necked ibis, in individual .
craws of which an average of 2,400 grasshoppers was found. The
story of Frederick the Great, wherein he is alleged to have ordered
all small birds killed because the sparrows had pecked at some of his
cherries, and the resulting lack of fruit but fine crop of caterpillars
two years later, proves a graphic lesson. The “Scalp Act” of Penn-
sylvania, which paid in bounties $90,000 for the extermination of
hawks and owls, lost for the state $3,850,000 in damage to agricul-
ture, due to the increase of small rodents which resulted. When
Montana was free from hawks and owls it became so overrun with
destructive rodents that the legislature offered rewards for. them—a
task which the banished hawks and owls had performed free of
charge. But during the first six months such large sums of money
were paid out that a special session of the legislature was called to
repeal the act before the state went bankrupt. In 1912 Lord Kitche-
ner pointed out the necessity of prohibiting the destruction of certain
Egyptian birds, which prevented insect pests.

In closing Mr. Buckland makes a plea for the preservation of all
birds as a valuable natural resource, stating that if their destruction
is not checked, there will be wrought a mischief, a universal disaster,
greater than words can express.

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Alabama, 1915. 39

WOOD DUCK
+Be

EARLY everyone is agreed that Wood Ducks are the most
beautiful of any species found in this or any other country.
The exquisitely colored and crested head, the iridescent
glossy back and the delicately marked flanks combine to

produce an effect that cannot be surpassed. Even the female is

more beautiful than that of other species.

Beauty proves fatal to them, however, for they are hunted, not
only for sport and food, but for their feathers, some of which are
used in fly-tying. Wood Ducks are oft-times called “Summer
Ducks” because they are a warm-weather species and sometimes
termed “Bridal Ducks” because of their beauty which is associated
with bridal robes.

They frequent wooded lakes or creeks, where they occasionally
perch in the trees, but more often are found along the shores or
floating among the grass of lagoons. ‘Their note, which is sometimes
uttered as they take wing, is a single sharply whistled ‘“oeeck.”
They are of local occurrence and breed throughout the United States
and southern Canada, but they are yearly becoming more scarce in
all portions of their range. Their nests are in the cavities of trees,
but not necessarily near the water’s edge. The ducklings either
flutter down the tree trunk or are carried to the ground in the bill
of the mother.

—Game Birds.

AQ my Bird Day Book

ou

TO A WATERFOWL
+e

Whither, mid’st falling dew,
While glow the heavens with the last steps of day,
Far through their rosy depths, dost thou pursue
Thy solitary way?

Vainly the fowler’s eye
Might mark thy distant flight to do thee wrong.
As darkly seen against the crimson sky,

Thy figure floats along.

All day thy wings have fanned,
At that far height, the cold, thin atmosphere,
Yet stoop not, weary, to the welcome land,
Though the dark night is near.

And soon that toil shall end;

Soon shalt thou find a summer home, and rest,
And scream among thy fellows; reeds shall bend
Soon, o’er thy sheltered nest.

—William Cullen Bryant.

3)

Alabama, 1915. 41

&

FISHING
+34

OU ask me, why I love this fishing,
Why, by some quiet stream I care to stray,

When far from out the south a-blowing,
The wind comes gently at the break of day.

You ask me, why I love to harken

As o’er the mossy stones, the waters sing.
Why, often there, I stop and ponder

The message that those laughing waters bring.

I answer: Have you tried this fishing,

When ’round your soul life’s weary burdens lie?
Have you gone forth and heard the waters

That sing of peace, beneath God’s open sky?

Of peace and rest, rest for one weary.
Of strength to throw aside some long-borne care.
That joy one finds a-fishing,
Such have I found beside the waters there.

Re

42

Bird Day Book

APRIL’S DAY
+e

N THE tall elm tree sat the robin bright,

Through the rainy April day,

And he carolled clear with a pure delight
In the face of the sky so gray,

And the silver rain through the blossoms dropped,
And fell on the robin’s coat.

And his brave red breast, but he never stopped
Singing his cheerful note.

For, oh, the fields were green and glad,
And the blissful life that stirred

In the earth’s wide breast was full and warm
In the heart of the little bird.

The rain-cloud lifted, the sunset light
Streamed wide over valley and hill

As the plains of heaven the land grew bright
And the warm south wind was still.

Then loud and clear called the happy bird,
And rapturously he sang.
Till wood and meadow and riverside
With jubilant echoes rang.
But the sun dropped down in the great west,
And he hushed his song at last,
All nature softly sang to rest.
And the April day had passed.
—Celia Thaxter.

Alabama, 1915. 43

DICKCISSEL
+34

HE, male of this species is beautifully blended with yellow,
white and gray, and has a black throat patch and brown
shoulders. The female is duller. In the middle portions of
the United States these birds, or Black-throated Buntings, as

they are commonly called, are very numerous, frequenting dry,

bushy fields or prairies. They are very persistent songsters, al-
though their song is weak and has little melody. In July and August,
when many birds are silent, they continue their plaintive chant:
even on the most sultry days.

The song is a simple chanting, “chip, chip, che-che-che.”’ ‘The
nest is made either on the ground, in bushes or thistles or in trees,
being constructed of weeds, grasses, rootlets, corn husks, etc. There

are four or five eggs in number, which are plain bluish white and
hardly distinguishable from those of the Bluebird.

The Dickcissel breed in North America east of the Rockies,
from the Gulf States north to the northern part of the United States;
they are rare in the Atlantic States north to Connecticut.

—Bird Guide.

OWS

Bird Day Book

THE BIRDS
Be

IS spring and the birds are here again,
Who blithely carol forth their lay;
Each morn they swell their warbling throats
To greet the new, the budding day.

The robin on a topmost spray,

With breast of red and coat of brown,
Sings gaily at the dawn of day,

A song no care can drown.

The bluebird flitting here and there,
With flash of color and burst of song,
Sings of a mossy nest so rare,
On which the sun shines all day long.

The meadow lark, with song so sweet,
Soars toward the vaulted sky and sings
A lay that thrills with joyousness
And to our hearts great pleasure brings.

With carol sweet as silver chimes,
O birds, ye heralds of the spring,
What harmony to us you bring,
And gladness in our darkest times.
—Herbert Wilson.

FLICKER.

Alabama, I 915. 6

WELCOME TO THE BIRDS
Ge

ARK, hear the merry chorus,
List to the song so sweet,

From every tree-top o’er us,
Mountain and valley round us,

Echo the glad refrain,

Comes a carol meet;
Bidding us all be joyous,—

Join in the gladsome strain,
Cherish with kindly feeling,

Each little bird so dear,
Ever about us flitting,

Bringing us heartfelt cheer ;
Throats that are never weary;

Gaily they chant their lay,
Birdies are ever cheery, |

Make us like them, we pray.

Re

THE DOWNY WOODPECKER
+Oe

HE, Downy is a drummer-boy, his drum a hollow limb;
If people listen or do not, it’s all the same to him.

He plays a Chinese melody, and plays it with a will,

Without another drumstick but just his little bill;
And he isn’t playing all for fun, nor just to have a lark,

He’s after every kind of bug or worm within the bark;
Or, if there is a coddling moth, he’ll get him without fail,

While holding firmly to the tree with all his toes, and tail.
He is fond of every insect, and every insect egg;

He works for everything he gets, and never has to beg.
From weather either cold or hot he never runs away;

So, when you find him present, you may hope that he will stay.

—Garrett Newkirk.

46 Bird Day Book

EARLY SPRING
B+

OW much more habitable a few birds make the fields! At
the end of the winter, when the fields are bare and there is
nothing to relieve the monotony of withered vegetation, our
life seems reduced to its lowest terms. But let a bluebird

come and warble over them, and what a change! The note of the
first bluebird in the air answers to the purling rill of melted snow
beneath. It is evidently soft and soothing, and, as surely as the
thermometer, indicates a higher temperature. It is the accent of the
south wind, its vernacular. It is modulated by the south wind.

The song sparrow is more sprightly, mingling its notes with the
rustling of the brush along the water sides, but it is at the same time
more terrene than the bluebird. The first woodpecker (flicker)
comes screaming into the empty house and throws open doors and
windows wide, calling out each of them to let the neighbors know
of its return. * * * * When the blackbird gets to a con-
queree he seems to be dreaming of the sprays that are to be and on
which he will perch. The robin does not come singing, but utters
a somewhat anxious or inquisitive peep at first. The song sparrow
is immediately most at home of those I have named.

Each new year is a surprise to us. We find that we had vir-
tually forgotten the note of each bird, and when we hear it again
it is remembered like a dream, reminding us of a previous state of
existence.’ How happens it that the associations it awakens are
always pleasing, never saddening, reminiscences of our sanest hours?
The voice of nature is always encouraging.

—H. D. Thoreau.

Alabama, 1915.

ROBERT BURNS
+B+

HAT bird, in beauty, flight or song,
Can with the Bard compare,
Who sang as sweet, and soar’d as strong,
As ever child of air?

His plume, his note, his form, could Burns
For whim or pleasure change;

He was not one, but all by turns,
With transmigration strange.

The Blackbird, oracle of spring,
When flow’d his moral lay;

The Swallow wheeling on the wing,
Capriciously at play.

The Humming-bird, from bloom to bloom,
Inhaling heavenly balm;

The Raven, in the tempest’s gloom;
The Halcyon, in the calm.

In “auld Kirk Alloway,” the Owl,
At witching time of night;

By “bonnie Doon,” the earliest Fowl
That carroll’d to the light.

He was the Wren amidst the grove,
When in his homely vein;

At Brannockburn the Bird of Jove,
With thunder in his train.

The Woodlark, in his mournful hours;
The Goldfinch, in his mirth;

The Thrush, a spendthrift of his powers,
Enrapturing heaven and earth.

48

The Swan, in majesty and grace,
Contemplative and still:

But roused,—no Falcon, in the chase,
Could like his satire kill.

The Linnet in simplicity,
In tenderness the Dove;

But more than all beside was he
The Nightingale in love.

Oh! had he never stoop’d to shame,
Nor lent a charm to vice,

How had Devotion loved to name
The Bird of Paradise!

Peace to the dead !—In Scotia’s choir
Of Minstrels great and small,

He sprang from his spontaneous fire,
The Phoenix of them all.

&

Alabama, 1915. . Ad

YELLOW-BELLIED SAPSUCKER
+B

HE sapsucker is about eight and a half inches in length, and

is the only woodpecker having top of head from base of
GZS} bill red, combined with a black patch on breast. They breed
in the northern half of the United States and southern half
of Canada, and winter in most of the States and south to Costa
Rica. The yellow-bellied sapsucker is rather silent and suspicious
and generally manages to have a tree between himself and the
observer. Hence the bird is much better known by its works than
its appearance. The regular girdles of holes made by this bird are
common on a great variety of trees; in all about two hundred and
fifty kinds are known to be attacked. Occasionally young trees are
killed outright, but more loss is caused by stains and other blemishes
in the woods which result from sapsucker punctures. These blem-
ishes, which are known as bird pecks, are especially numerous in
hickory, oak, cypress and yellow poplar. Defects due to sapsucker
work cause an annual loss to the lumber industry estimated at
$1,250,000. The food of the yellow-bellied sapsucker is about half
animal and half vegetable. Its fondness for ants counts slightly in
its favor. It eats also wasps, beetles (including, however, very few
wood-boring species), bugs, and spiders. The two principal com-
ponents of the vegetable food are wild fruits of no importance and
cambium (the layer just beneath the bark of trees). In securing
the cambium the bird does the damage above described. The yellow-
bellied sapsucker, unlike other woodpeckers, thus does comparatively
little good and much harm.

—Biological Survey Bulletin.

ih

_THE WOODPECKER
++

AP, rap, rap, rap, I hear thy knocking bill.

Then thy strange outcry, when the woods are still.
—Thus am I ever laboring for my bread,
And thus give thanks to find my table spread.

50

O PUMPKIN PIE
+Ge

PUMPKIN pie!

Athwart thy face
A hundred fancies may I trace!
I see the glint of summer sun,
And twilight, when the day is done;
The sober peace of musing cows
Who on the meadow grasses browse;
The radiant glory of the morn
That sweeps across the nodding corn.
A thousand happy fancies start:
When thou are nestling near my heart.

O pumpkin pie!

I hear the breeze
That whispered in the maple trees;
I see the swaying fields of wheat,

And hear the birdsongs, clear and sweet;

And, low across the land at night,

I catch the ballad of delight—

The chant the cricket sings in glee;
And summer comes again to me.

O pumpkin pie! Thus dost thou cast
Thy joyous glamour o’er the past.

O pumpkin pie!

Within thy breast
These gladsome summer fancies rest;
The golden sunshine and the dew

Bird Day Book

Have paid their tribute through and through.

The song the lark trilled in the air

Within thy form is echoed there;
For all these things of joy to me

Were caught and firmly held by thee.

O pumpkin pie! For all thou didst

I welcome thee unto my midst!

—Copyright by Wilbur D. Nesbit.

aE 2. an

ed

AMERICAN BALD EAGLE.

.F wow : A aT LU 4

Die
»+
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Alabama, 1915. 51

AMERICAN BALD EAGLE
B+

HE Eagle does not acquire its white head and tail under its

fourth year. The head is fully feathered, and the name
“Bald” refers solely to its white appearance. Up to three
years of age it is of the same general color as the golden
Eagle, and to distinguish the two species it is necessary to look at
the lowest joint of the leg. If it is naked, the bird is a Bald Eagle,
but if it is covered with feathers quite down to the toes, it is a
golden agle.

As a rule—to which there are numerous exceptions—the Bald
Eagle is found along rivers, and the shores of lakes and ponds con-
taining fish. Fish are its favorite food, and lambs are purely sup-
plementary. As a regular thing, it catches fish out of the water,
with neatness and despatch; but when it sees an osprey fly by with a
large fish in its talons, the Eagle does not hesitate to levy tribute on
the subject bird. Taken thus at a great disadvantage the fish-hawk
has no option but to drop its fish, and go away to catch another,
while the Eagle catches the prize before it touches the water and
bears it away.

In its distribution, this Eagle ranges over the whole of North
America from Mexico to Kamchatka. Considering the size of the
bird, it holds its own remarkably well, even in New England. In
Florida it is very abundant all along the Indian River, and in one
locality in the State of Washington it is so numerous that its depreda-
tions on the flocks of sheep-raisers are cause for serious complaint
and reprisals.

In the East so many Eagles are caught alive and offered for sale
that it is a difficult matter to find sale for one at $10. This bird so
seldom destroys domestic animals, or game-birds, there is no excuse
for its destruction save possibly in a few far-western localities where

52 Bird Day Book

it happens to be very numerous, and evinces a particular fondness
for lambs.

For many reasons it has become almost a fashion among writers
to denounce the Bald Eagle, and declare it a shame that such a
bird ever was chosen as our national standard-bearer. Some have
asserted that the brave and high-minded wild-turkey would have
been more appropriate!

Against all of this, I have nothing to say. The American Eagle
needs no defense from me. Whether

“He clasps the crag with hooked hands,
Close to the sun in lonely lands,”

or perches defiantly on the United States coat-of-arms, with a brow
to threaten or command, he is beloved by at least seventy-two mil-
lion people who will rise as one whenever he is really in need of
defenders. Abroad, it once was well-nigh an international fashion
to flout this bird, and the standard he bears; but since May 1, 1900,
that fashion has gone out. Abroad, those who do not respect this
bird fear him, wholesomely. At home, it is quite time for all
strangers to secure an introduction to him, and for some of those
who should be his friends but are not, to write him down no longer.
—American Natural History.

ows

Alabama, 1915. | | 53

THE SPIRIT OF THE EAGLE
+Be

ALF wakened by a moonbeam’s farewell kiss,
The pool within the forest meadow lay
And smoked with early mists. O’er night’s abyss
The errant breezes of arriving day
Brushed with their fairy hands the sleeping pines,
Hailed forth the ruddy legions of the sun
To fill the East with ruby of old wines,
And called the jeweled birds out one by one,
Till presently within the wood there fell
A thrush’s chiming, like a crystal bell.
That sylvan note in elfin echoes ran
From hill to hill, from grove to honeyed grove,
And as a dream voice in the ear of Pan
Presaging day, its liquid music strove
To rouse the slumbrous god. Fragrant and cool
The respirations of the quickening dawn
Breathed o’er the wood; then lo! beside the pool
Blushing and ivory-limbed, white nymph and Faun
Leaped joyously; or borne on shaggy brute
Trafficked in cherry blooms and wood-sweet fruit.

The low moon set. The wood folk brave with song
Romped wildly in their Bacchanalian glee
Till one among this gallant festive throng
Blew the shrill silver horn that bade them flee,
And even at the warning, from the glade
The voice of something sorely wounded cried.
Headlong they fled as from the pine tree’s shade
A white doe broke the thicket. In her side
An arrow drove her on with bitter pain,
And flecked her silky flank with crimson stain.

Straight to the pool she blindly made her way,

Ah, piteous sight to those bright morning skies!
For reaching it she stumbled, fell and lay

Half in the water, with soft dewy eyes

54

Bird Day Book

In terror backward gazing toward the wood;
_ And when the East was bathed in golden light,
Came Acteon and in the meadow stood,
Searching with eager glance to left and right.
He saw her! gave a loud triumphant cry,
And plucked an arrow from his war-girth thigh.

But there he paused. Out of the morning blue
Swift as a plummet dropped from Zeus’ throne
With sword-shaped pinions dipped in sunrise hue,
A great gold eagle plunged, a living stone,
Ah, then it was the hunter stayed his hand,
For with its mighty wings spread dark and wide,
The bird in cooling shadow gently fanned
The stricken deer; and hovering by her side
Wrenched at the arrow that had laid her low,
And filled the air with screams of fiercest woe.

Oh, Acteon, be gone ere yet the dawn
Hath dried from vine and leaf the crystal dew;
Go, go! ere Dryad, Nymph and bearded Faun
Come to avenge the death of her ye slew.
But look! Fate holds him and he waits too long,
The meadow seethes in anger and dismay ;
The eagle claps his wings, ten thousand strong
Flash creatures of the forest forth to slay!
And he who reaped the life blood of the doe,
The king of birds strikes earthward with a blow!

So are the weaker championed by the strong;
So doth the hunter with the hunted bleed;
And so the eagle’s battle ringing song
Doth voice for man a brave immortal creed!
—Paul Brandreth.

PASSENGER PIGEON.

Alabama, 1915. ; 5d

LAST OF WILD PIGEONS DIES
+e

EWS of the death in Cincinnati of Martha, the last wild
pigeon in the world, according to all ornithological records,
was conveyed recently to P. Gilbert Pearson, general execu-
tive officer of the National Audubon Societies, in a telegram

from Eugene Swope, the Ohio agent of the societies at Cincinnati.

The death of Martha, according to Mr. Pearson, is a calamity of as

great importance in the eyes of naturalists as the death of a Kaiser

to Germans throughout the world. ,

Martha had been in poor health for several years in her cage at
the Zoological Garden in Cincinnati. Many efforts had been made

to find a mate for her, or to discover some other specimen of the
wild pigeon, but they were without avail. According to all ornitholo-
gical data available, Martha was the last of her tribute in the world.

Members of the National Audubon Societies some time ago of-
fered a prize of $1,500 to any one who could find a wild pigeon nest.
All that was necessary was to find the nest, telegraph C. F. Hodge,
a naturalist of Clark University, and to await the findings of orni-
thologists whom he would immediately dispatch to the scene to
investigate the genuineness of the find. The Audubon Societies
received on an average 100 false alarms a year, but in not a single
case was the nest reported found to be a wild pigeon’s. Instead
almost every such nest was found to be that of an ordinary turtle
dove. The wild pigeon resembles the ordinary wild dove, but is
considerably larger.

The extinction of the wild pigeon was the more amazing be-_
cause of the vast extent to which it had flourished in this country
prior to 1865. Wild passenger pigeons used to travel over the
country by millions. Audubon himself told of their roosting in cer-

56 Bird Day Book

tain parts of Kentucky in territory covering a space three miles
long, which was almost literally hidden by them. Hundreds of
farmers, he tells, used to camp on the outside of the vast roosting
pigeon host and shoot them by the thousands from the edge of their
resting place. The birds were fed by thousands to the farmers’
hogs after each night’s killing.

The slaughter raged for years with nets, traps, and guns, and
by 1884 there were very few of the wild pigeons seen in the country.
Several years ago they had dwindled down to a few specimens left
in captivity in Milwaukee and in the Cincinnati Zoo. Martha’s
mate died about four years ago, and though:a prize of $1,000 was
offered for any one who could find another bird to take its place,
Martha remained in solitary widowhood until she died.

Martha herself was hatched in captivity in the Cincinnati Zoo.
At the time of her death she was twenty-nine years old. Her last
illness had been a matter of concern to ornithologists the world over,
and the Cincinnati agent of the Audubon Societies had been in-
structed to communicate at once with leading ornithologists and
naturalists of the country as soon as she died.

Alabama, 1915. 57

SAGE HEN
+Be

HIS, the largest of American grouse, measuring about
twenty-eight inches in length and weighing up to eight
pounds, is found in western North America from British
Columbia and Assiniboia to central California and Colorado.
The hen bird is considerably smaller than the cock, measuring but
twenty-three inches in length.

These great birds inhabit the Great Basin and arid plains
throughout their range, where sage is the prevailing brush. They
are strictly terrestrial fowl, feeding almost wholly on sage leaves
which impart a disagreeable taste to their flesh. They remain com-
mon only in regions remote from civilization, for their large bodies
offer such an easy mark even though their flight be swift, that they
soon become scarce after the country becomes settled.

Because of their great size, the actions of cock birds during
mating season are even more ludicrous than those of other grouse
The air sacs on the neck are enormously inflated until the whole
breast is balloon-shaped and then he slides along over the bare
ground for some distance on this improvised pneumatic tire. While
expelling the air, he produces a great variety of cackling and
rumbling noises. At the end of this season the feathers on the
breast are worn away by this constant friction with the ground,
leaving only the stiff shafts at their ends.

—Game Birds.

Bird Day Book

ELEGY—WRITTEN IN SPRING
+B | 2

OOSED from the bands of frost, the verdant ground
Again puts on her robe of cheerful green,
Again puts forth her flowers; and all around
Smiling, the cheerful face of Spring is seen.

Behold! the trees new deck their withered boughs ;
Their ample leaves, the hospitable plane,

The taper elm, and lofty ash disclose;
The blooming hawthorn variegates the scene.

The lily of the vale, of flowers the queen,
Puts on the robe she neither sewed nor spun;
The birds on ground, or on the branches green,
Hop to and fro, and glitter in the sun.

Soon as o’er eastern hills the morning peers,
From her low nest the tufted lark upsprings;
And, cheerful singing, up the air she steers;
Still high she mounts, still loud and sweet she sings.

Now is the time for those who wisdom love,
Who love to walk in virtue’s flowery road,
Along the lovely paths of Spring to rove,
And follow Nature up to Nature’s God.
—Michael Bruce.

F
RANE OE:

#

“2

WILD TURKEY.

4 Life size

Alabama, 1915. 59

WILD TURKEY
Be

ILD Turkeys are the largest and finest of game birds and the
originators of the common domestic turkeys. They are
BQzq] found in their several races in eastern and southern United
States, north to Pennsylvania and west to Texas; formerly
north to New England. They frequent wooded districts and are
by nature very wary and shy, yet they are very easily trapped and
it was this means that has driven them from most of their former
range. At present they are taken chiefly by trailing or by calling.
They have a remarkable keen sense of sight and smell and a strong
pair of legs with which to run away, as well as good wings if neces-
sity demands their use. With plenty of cover, the turkey is pretty
capable of caring for himself.

—Game Birds.

AN, NES

SEASONABLE
+B+

AME a glimpse of black and orange from the maples o’er
the way,
Where the oriole was trilling to his mate.
The blackbird in the willows whistled merrily all day,
So we thought our winter woolens out of date.

The robin’s merry music awakened us at dawn
And the grass was showing green along the street,
But something seemed to tell us that we better keep em on,
Although to lay ’em off would be a treat.

We heard the tree-toads chirping in the trees, a little bit,
We began to think the spring was really here.

*T was such a forward season that we donned our Porosknit,
Then the weather changed so quick, we thought it queer.

We'd no sooner got ’em on than the mercury went down,
So we slid back in those woolens mighty soon.

Now, we're just agoin’ to wear ’em, let the weather smile or frown
And we'll never take ’em off again ’till June.

—A. W. Whitehead.

Bird Day Book

“THE BROOKSIDE AND THE HILLSIDE”
Oe

HE stream beneath a bridge had made a pool
Of dusky water, fring’d with sedge and reeds,

Where water lilies their white vases oped
Each with a gem of gold within its heart.
On the slant bank the wild rosebushes grew,
All their pink petals to the view disclos’d,
Their images reflected in the wave.
Here flew the bright kingfishers, blue and gold,
Foll’wing in flight the windings of the stream;
And here a bird with snow-white, downy breast,
The water-ouzel, dipping its black bill,
Perched on a mossy stone, or skimmed the wave:

It was a fairy scene to charm the eye!
Down the swift stream, amid the shadow’s dusk,
The gnat swarms hovered, and the minnows bright
Twinkled and lighten’d in the sweeping tide,
And leaped the trout where insects sought the wave.
The sweetest song-birds from each bending twig
And coppice pour’d their souls in liquid strains;
And heavens above were sunshine, and the earth
Rejoiced in a full fruition of the day;
Delicious were the bird-hymns, and most sweet
The trickling murmur of the running brook.”

—John Keats.

Alabama, 1915. 61

STRIVE, WAIT AND PRAY
+e

TRIVE: yet I do not promise
The prize you dream of today
Will not fade when you think to grasp it,
And melt in your hand away;
But another and holier treasure,
You would now perchance disdain,
Will come when your toil is over,
And pay you for all your pain.

Wait: yet I do not tell you
The hour you long for now
Will not come with its radiance vanished,
And a shadow upon its brow;
Yet, far through the misty future,
With a crown of starry light,
An hour of joy you know not
Is winging her silent flight.

Pray: though the gift you ask for
May never comfort your fears—
May never repay your pleadings—
Yet pray, and with hopeful tears;
An answer, not that you long for,
But diviner will come one day;
Your eyes are too dim to see it,
Yet strive, and wait, and pray.
—Adelade A. Proctor.

62 | Bird Day Book

Bi

THE PARABLE OF THE DAY
B+

HE autumn day is weaving
Shimmering mist o’er brook and bower;

With golden wand it touches ©

Rustling leaf and fading flower ;
Its shuttle is unwinding

Wondrous tinted threads of song,
And binding every shadow

With the sunset’s crimson thong.

Love’s golden loom is weaving
Brightest hope o’er every life,

And stilling with a glowing promise
Every throb of pain and strife.

While from its shuttle ’tis unsnarling
Many threads of somber woe,

Tis lacing all in rich designing
For the weft of evening glow.

—Mary Grace Hayes.

Bi

Alabama, 1915. 63

TOWHEE OR CHEWINK
+e

HIS is a bird of the swamps, brushy pastures and open wood-
lands. They are ground birds and usually are found scratch-
ing among the leaves; the male, with his black, white and
brown clothes, makes a conspicuous object, while the female,

with her brown and white dress, harmonizes with the leaves so that

it is difficult to see her. While his mate is sitting on her nest, the
male will frequently sit in a tree top and persistently sing for many
minutes at a time.

The song is a loud and clear, “tow-hee-e-e,” or “see-tow-hee-e-e,”
with the last notes tremulous; the call is a sharp “chewink.’ ‘The
nest is usually on the ground, but rarely in bushes; it is made of
strips of bark, grass and leaves. The eggs are white with reddish-
brown dots over the whole surface.

The Chewink breeds in eastern North America, from the Gulf
States to Southern Canada, and it winters in the Southern States.

A sub-species is the White-eyed Towhee, which has white eyes
instead of red and has less white on the tail; it is found on the South
Atlantic coast.

—Bird Guide.

64 Bird Day Book

A LITTLE MINISTER

oe

KNOW a little minister who has a big degree;

Just like a long-tailed kite he flies his D. D. D. D. D.
His pulpit is old-fashioned, though made out of growing pine;
His great-grandfather preached in it in days of auld lang syne.

Sometimes this little minister forgets his parson’s airs—

I saw him turn a somersault right on the pulpit stairs ;

And once, in his old meeting-house, he flew. into the steeple,
And rang a merry chime of bells to call the feathered people.

He has a tiny help-meet, too, who wears a gown and cap,
And is so very wide-awake she seldom takes a nap;

She preaches also sermonettes, with headlets one, two, three,
In singing monosyllables beginning each with D.

But O her little minister she does almost adore—

I’ve heard her call her sweet D. D. full twenty times or more.
And his pet polysyllable—why, did you hear it never?

He calls her Phe-be B, so dear, I’d listen on forever.

Now if there is a Bright Eyes small who'd like to go with me,
And on his cautious tiptoes ten creep softly to a tree,

I'll coax this little minister to quit his leafy perch,

And show this little boy or girl the way to go to church.

And where his cozy parsonage his hidden in the trees,

And how in summer it is full of little D. D. D.’s;

And if Bright Eyes will prick his ears he’ll hear the titmice say,

“Good-morning!” which in Chicadese is always, “Day, day, day.”
—Ella Gilbert Ives.

Alabama, 1915.

THE GOLDEN TREASURY
+Be

HE Attic warbler pours her throat
Responsive to the cuckoo’s note,
The untaught harmony of Spring:
While, whispering pleasure as they fly,
Cool Zephyrs thro’ the clear blue sky
Their gather’d fragrance fling.

Where’er the oak’s thick branches stretch
A broader, browner shade,

Where’er the rude and moss-grown beech
O’er canopies the glade,

Beside some water’s rushy brink

With me the Muse shall sit, and think

(At ease reclined in rustic state)

How vain the ardor of the crowd,

How low, how little are the proud,
How indigent the great!

Still is the toiling hand of Care;
The panting herds repose:

Yet hark, how thro’ the peopled air
The busy murmur glows!

The insect-youth are on the wing,

Eager to taste the honeyed Spring

And float amid the liquid noon:

Some lightly o’er the current skim,

Some show their gayly-gilded trim
Quick-glancing to the sun.

3 BB

65

66 Bird Day Book

THE CONSERVATION OF WILD LIFE IN ALABAMA

one

RIOR to the enactment of our present system of game and

bird conservation we struggled along under the operation of
CNeR) local game laws that were totally inefficient and non-enforce-
“= able. Each year every species of wild life was being rapidly
depleted. Hundreds of thousands of our live quail were trapped
and shipped to northern markets, while thousands of dozens of
these birds were slaughtered by pot-hunters and expressed to dis-
tant cities where they brought fancy prices at restaurants.

Deer and wild turkey were disappearing; doves were growing
fewer ; squirrels were deplorably scarce.

If a census of the game in Alabama had been taken in 1907 and
then again in 1914 the result would undoubtedly show that during
the last seven years game and birds have increased in Alabama at
least two-fold. The cause of the multiplication of the wild species
is due to the following reasons:

(a) The close season on game is universally respected.

(b) The transportation of game to points within and without
the State by common-carriers has been absolutely stopped.

(c) The sale of game, except in remote instances and then only
very surreptitiously, has ceased. The pot-hunter therefore having
been deprived of enjoying the monetary fruits of his murderous
vocation has stopped the butchery of game.

(d) The prerequisite of persons hunting outside of their voting
precinct of residence without licenses has kept hundreds of members
of the idle and worthless classes found in towns and cities, out of
the fields and forests.

(e) The provision of the law requiring written permission to
hunt on lands has reduced the area over which hunting was formerly
done and therefore has permitted game to increase in many localities
without molestation.

Alabama, 1915. 67

(f) The bag-limit has been respected by all true sportsmen who
have compelled many game-hogs, by fear of prosecution and moral
suasion, to abide its terms.

(g) The farmers have realized the value of birds and game and
have resisted its wholesale slaughter on their possessions.

(h) Public sentiment has become thoroughly awakened as to
the value of birds and game, and except in notoriously lawless com-
munities, has compelled the observance of our conservation statutes.

It must be realized that it is impossible to enact an unbreakable
law. Men are constantly committing offenses punishable by death,
although they have full knowledge of the penalty of their crime in
the event of conviction. A man-made law that does not embrace a
portion of the decalogue is popularly construed to envolve no moral
wrong; it is therefore difficult to secure convictions for offenses like
smoking on street cars, expectorating on the sidewalks or exceeding
the speed-limit prescribed for motor cars. No man feels called
upon to report his neighbor for such offenses, and the local peace
officers are notoriously inactive, hence but few prosecutions for the
class of offenses cited follow.

It is imperative therefore that if a conservation law is to be
enforced it must be committed to a specially constituted department,
aided and augmented by vigilant special law officers, or wardens,
whose specific duty it is to bring all offenders against it promptly
to justice.

All other systems of enforcing conservation statutes have been
tried and have been abandoned for the reason that they have proven
woeful failures. In forty-seven States the enforcement of the game
laws is entrusted to game commissioners.

A law is observed for the following reasons:
(a) Because the individual favors that particular law.

(b) Because it is the law, and the individual, though he may
oppose it, is a law-abiding citizen.

(c) Fear of apprehension and of subsequent punishment.

The enforcement of a conservation statute therefore is not merely

a matter of education and civilization, but of constant vigilance as
well.

68 Bird Day Book

The benefits arising under our conservation laws, as well as the
by-products such as keeping the negroes at work during the hunt-
ing season, and worthless pilferers of small stock and poultry out
of the fields, are so great that the great mass of our people regard
the statutes for the conservation of their natural resources of field,
forest and streams as the most popular laws enacted in fifty years.

The wild life of Alabama is steadily coming back. Deer and
turkey each year are seen in numbers in counties from which they
had practically disappeared twenty years ago. Indeed, a citizen of
Tuscaloosa county has for the past two years written the Com-
missioner of Game and Fish, each season, demanding pay for his
anuanl pea crop which he alleges sty been destroyed by herds of
the State’s deer.

It is safe to assert that Alabama is far ahead of any other South-
ern State in game, bird and fish conservation, being the pioneer in
the South in this regard and that the laws rank along with those of
the older States of the North and East.

There is therefore guaranteed to our people and to posterity a
fair and reasonable supply of game which bids fair to increase to the
point when, as of yore, Alabama will become a hunter’s paradise,
a veritable sportsman’s elysium.

Pe ae ee ee ee ee ee?

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e. ; a. a
oe ah ks. ee oie
9 é e ‘x we

Alabama, 1915. 69

BARN OWL
Be

HIS Owl is about seventeen inches in length. Its facial disk
is not circular as in our other owls; the plumage above is
@Yay, pale yellow, and beneath varying from silky white to pale

bright tawny. It is a resident of Mexico, in the southern
United States and north to New York, Ohio, Nebraska and Cali-
fornia.

The barn owl, often called monkey-faced owl, is one of the
most beneficial of the birds of prey, since it feeds almost exclu-
sively on small mammals that injure farm produce, nursery and
orchard stock. It hunts principally in the open and consequently
secures such mammals as pocket gophers, field mice, common rats,
house mice, harvest mice, kangaroo rats and cotton rats. It occa-
sionally captures a few birds and insects. At least a half bushel of
the remains of pocket gophers have been found in the nesting cavity
of a pair of these birds. Remembering that a gopher has been
known in a short time to girdle seven apricot trees worth $100 it is
hard to overestimate the value of the service of a pair of barn owls.
1,247 pellets of the barn owl collected from the Smithsonian towers
contained 3,100 skulls of which 3,004, or 97 per cent, were of mam-
mals ; 92, or 3 per cent, of birds; and 4 were of frogs. The bulk con-
sisted of 1,987 field mice, 656 house mice and 210 common rats.
The birds eaten were mainly sparrows and blackbirds. This valu-
able owl should be rigidly protected throughout its entire range.
—Buiological Survey Bulletin.

Re

THE OWL
++

LUE-EYED, strange-voiced, sharp-beak’d, ill-omen’d fowl,
What are thou?
—What I ought to be, an owl;
But if I’m such a scarecrow in your eye,
You’re a much greater fright in mine ;—good-bye!

70 i Bird Day Book

A SONG OF THE FALL
+e

TATELY pine and quaking asp and berry bush where the blue
grouse drums,
Willow leaf that borders the brook, and last few flowers where the
wild bee hums;
And down the glade to the lowlands, Boy, to the sod and fallow and
fen,
Where the ferns skirt up to the service-bush, with the twit of the
willow hen;
For that is the way
At the close of day
We hear the song of the wild.

Across the waste where the sage is rank, and the blue marsh lies
in the sun, .
The sage cock struts, but beckons not, the day is not yet done;
A western breeze sighs in rustling ease where the thick green tulles
sway,
And bittern shrieks, and nightbirds talk to the sinking orb of day—
Listen, the din!
When the flight comes in
To answer the voice of the night.

Bronze-green head of the mallard drake, keen and alert at the turn,
The old wild song of passing swan, the wierdness of coot and hern;
Gadwall and teal in the fading blue and wise old duck of ebon hue,
And rasping talk of things that squawk are heard in the broad-bill
crew—
Now, Boy, find
That good old blind
And we'll list to the song of fall.

Alabama, 1915. 71

Cold gray eye, with snap in the air and rush of wings o’erhead
And sprinkle of rain is a joyful cause and sun’s glare turns to red;
Mark to the right! and the quick, short snap that pops from the
tube of steel,
And feathered flock drives up from the shock with many a dart and
reel—
Ho, for the bird, Boy!
Charge! You are heard, Boy!
Wait for the speeding flight!

Muscle and bone, and the blood-red tone—gifts of the golden wild;
Quick’ning pulse, and the huntsman’s pride, and tender heart of a

child

That does not kill, nor wanton slay, but follows man-made law of
the day

With the pagan tang that always sang in the blood of the primal
way—

So, eyes down the wind, Boy!
Follow and find, Boy!
Ho, for the autumn flight!
; —Chas. G. Sumner.

ekis

72 Bird Day Book

DOWITCHER
+34

OWITCHERS are divided into two races ; the present, which
is the eastern form, and the Long-billed Dowitcher, which is
supposed to be chiefly western. The former probably
breeds in northern Ungava and Arctic Islands and migrates

chiefly along the Atlantic coast; the latter breeds along the Arctic

coast west of Hudson Bay and migrates through the western part
of Mississippi Valley, both wintering from the Gulf States to South

America. Since the distinction is dependent wholly upon size and

length of bills, and these features among shore birds are always

very variable, they may well be considered as one variety, as in all
probability they are.

Like most of the sandpipers a great difference exists between
the summer and winter plumage, the latter being composed only of
grays and whites. Although very small, only a trifle more than ten
inches in length, they are shot in great quantities; while quite wary,
they very readily decoy and consequently are very easy to secure.
They are known by a great variety of names, most common of
which are red-breast, snipe, robin snipe, brown snipe, German snipe
and gray-back, some referring to the summer and some to the
winter plumages. They are quite gregarious and are usually seen in
large flocks during migrations, though sometimes a few mix with
flocks of other species.

—Game Birds.

Alabama, 1915. 3

ROSE-BREASTED GROSBEAK
+e

HE male of this species is black and white with rose breast
and under wing coverts, but the female resembles a large
striped sparrow in color. The center of abundance of these
beautiful creatures is in the northern half of eastern United

States. In beauty and song they fully atone for what the northern-

ers lose because of the southerly distribution of the Cardinal. They

are found in swamps, small patches of woods and sometimes in
orchards and gardens. They are rather quiet birds, that is, they do
not move about much, but they can easily be found by their song.

The song is a rich, full, whistling carol, almost without exception
immediately preceded by a sharp chip. ‘The call is a deep-toned
chirp. The nest is a loose, frail cradle of twigs at low elevations in
trees or thickets; the eggs are bluish green spotted with brow.

These birds breed in the northern half, east of the Rockies, and
in southern Canada. They winter in Central America.

—Bird Guide.

Mo fh

BIRDS IN THE NIGHT
++

IRDS in the night that softly call,

Winds in the night that strangely sigh,
Come to me, help me, one and all,
And murmur, murmur, murmur, murmur, baby’s lullaby,
Lullaby, Lullaby, Lullalulla, Lullalullaby, Lullaby Baby,
While the hours run, Fair may the day be,
When night is done, Lullaby, Baby, while the hours run,
Lullaby, Lullaby, Lullaby, Lullaby, Lullaby.

Life may be sad for us that wake,

Sleep, little bird, and dream not why.

Soon is the sleep but God can break,

When angels whisper, whisper, angels whisper lullaby,
Lullaby, Lullaby, Lullalulla, Lullalullaby, Lullaby Baby,
While the hours run, Fair may the day be,

When night is done, Lullaby, Baby, while the hours run,
Lullaby, Lullaby, Lullaby, Lullaby, Lullaby.

74

Bird Day Book

TO A PIPE, I
+Be

ARENT of Fancy and its lovely dream!
Brother of Solace and close-clinging Hope;
You shall be near me when I vainly grope,
Earthward along Faith’s full umblemished stream ;
Thrice blessed Pipe—you will forever teem
With such delights—there is no slope,
So green, could ease me—when you ope
Lo, wide the door on Life’s most sunny beam!
Call me an hour for redeeming thought ;
(Some musing hour, some undisturbed hour)
And do not wake me—let me quiet be,
With all the world of friendship in my power.
Then in the wavering smoke shall sorrows flee,
And many a face shall rise where I have sought.

TO A PIPE, II

Then I’ll recline among enraptured scenes!
A brook—a meadow—and blue skies :—
And all those things of shadowy emprise ;

Such as the twilight on far-fading greens;

Some shape of summer that forever gleans,
Stillness and joy—such as entice
Us to dear Nature’s breast. To rise

Far—far above to deeper—deathless, means.

Then I’ll depart—and in my heart no fear ;

Wreathed all around I will be Memory’s King—

Some wandering nomad, ever at his quest,
Or risen high, on an engoldened wing:

So shall I pierce beyond our Heaven’s Rest,
Or melt to rain in the blue atmosphere!

Alabama, I915.

AN OLD ORCHARD IN WINTER

oe

T WAS years ago, and no one knows
Just who planted the orchard rows,
Bedded and firmed the tender feet
Of the Twenty Ounce and the Golden Sweet,
And the straggling clan whose branches meet
Over Pomona’s little aisles.

A tumbledown wall and an old rail fence
Guard the orchard with poor pretense;

And pilferers, footed and winged, come there
Even in winter, when boughs are bare,

And the nuthatch hunts for his meager share,
Peering and pecking this way and that,

First up, then down, like an acrobat. .

Deer stroll in from the mountain pass

Gratefully nosing the buried treat

Of fruit, frost-bitten, and brown, and sweet,

Brought to light by their trampling feet ;

And up where weathering crabapples cling

The grosbeaks cavil and feast and sing.

All winter long to the Golden Sweet

And the Twenty Ounce and the trees that meet,

Neglected and old, in this wild retreat

Come bird and beast in their need akin,

And make the old orchard their wayside inn.
—Florence Boyce Davis, in “The Scoop.”

=I

Ol

Bird Day Book

A GROSBEAK IN THE GARDEN
+e

HEN through the heaviness and clamoring throng
Of mortal ways I hear the mellow song
Of birds, the birds seem sent to me.
If this be my insanity,
As men will measure it—so let it be!

When shadows that no will can drive away
Entomb me, then no sermon blesseth day,
More true and sweet than that pure note

My ear hath caught afloat

From out the garden grosbeak’s fervent throat.

Thou, crimson-caped messenger of God,
Seem’st not to feel the thorned and bitter rod
Of Life—thy hours are joyously beguiled
With melodies so wild!

In sooth, thy creed is trusting as a child!

Full knowing that thy living days are brief
Thou grudgest even an hour for sober grief;
Thy poems are scattered free, without a name,
Nor hast thou thought of fame!

Is my unpaid aspiring yet my blame?

The world is wide ’twixt man and worlds divine,

And hearts are dull to such a song as thine;

But I have heard. Sing on, from tree to tree,

As thou has sung to me,—

And more shall find the God that guideth thee!
Ivan Swift, Harbor Springs, Michigan.

Alabama, 1915. \ 3 V7

THE GAME LAW
+B

ROHIBITS the killing of wild birds other than the game
birds enumerated below, except English sparrows, hawks,
MpGey Owls and crows, The open season on game birds is as fol-

lows: Wild turkey gobblers, from December 1st to April
1st ; quail, November 1st to March 1st; doves, August Ist to March
1st; swan, geese, brant, ducks, rails, coots, mud hens, sand pipers,
woodcocks and curlews, September 1st to March 15th; snipe and
plover, November 1st to May Ist.

The killing of wild turkey hens is at all times prohibited.

Prohibits any pitfall, deadfall, scaffold, cage, snare, trap, net,
salt lick, baited hook or baited field, or any other similar device, or
any drug, poisonous chemicals or explosives, for the purpose of
injuring, capturing or killing any protected bird or animal; also
prohibits hunting protected birds or animals between dark and day-
light. Unlawful to kill or capture any song or insect destroying
bird at any time.

Open season on deer, November Ist to January 1st, and prohibits
killing of doe, or female deer, at all times.

Open season on squirrels from October 1st to the following
March Ist.

Fixes the following limits for each person in one day: One
deer, two turkeys, and twenty-five game birds.

Prohibits the sale or offering for sale of protected game birds
or animals.

Prohibits the shipping or carrying of game except openly and in
the possession of those who have hunter’s license, as required by
law. Prohibits carriers from accepting game to be carried in any
other way, either within the State or without the State. Prohibits
absolutely the carrying or shipping of live game.

Makes it unlawful to hunt on the land of another without written
permission.

78 Bird Day Book

OVEN-BIRD
+e

HIS bird has an orange brown head, bordered by black; there
is no white on the wings or tail. Oven-birds are found in
open woods where they build their arched nests on the

ground among the leaves or pine needles. It is the peculiar
oven-like construction of their nests that give them their name.
They are essentially ground birds, only mounting to the lower
branches of trees to sing or when scolding an intruder.

The song is a peculiar ascending note resembling the word
teacher, repeated five or six times and gathering strength and vol-
ume with each syllable; the call is a sharp chip.

The nest is made of leaves, strips of bark and grass arched over
the top so as to leave a very small opening; it is placed on the
ground in woods. There are four to six white eggs spotted with
reddish brown.

Oven-birds breed throughout eastern North America, in the
northern half of the United States and north to Labrador; they
winter chiefly south of the United States.

—Bird Guide.

ows

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Alabama, 1915.

ie

THERE WAS A CHERRY-TREE
+G+

HERE was a cherry-tree. Its bloomy snows
Cool even now the fevered sight that knows
No more its airy visions of pure joy—
As when you were a boy.

There was a cherry-tree. The Blue-jay set
His blue against its white—O blue as jet

He seemd there then!—But now—Whoever knew
He was so pale a blue!

There was a cherry-tree—Our child-eyes saw
The miracle :—Its pure white snows did thaw
Into a crimson fruitage, far too sweet
But for a boy to eat.

There was a cherry tree, give thanks and joy !—
There was a bloom of snow—There was a boy—
There was a Blue-jay of the realest blue—
And fruit for both of you.
| —James Whitcomb Riley.

he

79

80 Bird Day Book

THE DAYS GONE BY
+e

THE days gone by! O the days gone by!
The apples in the orchard, and the pathway through the rye;
The chirrup of the robin, and the whistle of the quail
As he piped across the meadows sweet as any nightingale;
When the bloom was on the clover, and the blue was in the sky,
And my happy heart brimmed over, in the days gone by.

el

THE FLYCATCHER CLASS
+O

HE Flycatcher bird is a lively bird,
And a way of his own hath he,
To perch perchance on a weed or a post
Or the outer branch of a tree.

There, turning his head from side to side,
He looks with an eager eye,

Above, below, and all around,
For insects as they fly.

On seeing one, he’s off like a flash,
For a capture quick, and then,
With easy, dancing flight, returns

To his chosen perch again.

Oh, the Flycatcher birds are lively birds,
And sportsmen every one,

They always take their game on the wing,
Without the noise of a gun.

—By permission of Dr. Garrett Newkirk.

Alabama, 1915. 81

THE WORM THE BIRD DID NOT EAT
B+

HEN you find a worm in the fruit you are eating—don’t
| 4 blame the worm, nor the dealer who sold you the fruit, but
blame the man, woman, or boy who killed the bird that

would have eaten the worm. Men hunters, women and girl
bird wearers, and boy shooters and collectors of eggs—all these are
to blame for the worms in the fruit and vegetables.

BOYS AND GUNS AND CAMERAS

Think of the hardening, degrading effect on the boys who go
around shooting at birds and other animals. Think also of the
great danger to everybody. The children themselves are often
injured. Many cases of eyes partially or wholly destroyed by toy
guns have been reported.

Think of the softening, uplifting effect on the boys who go
around with cameras taking pictures of birds and other animals.
They have the fun of getting the pictures. Their friends have the
pleasure of receiving copies of the photograph. No one is injured by
their sport.

John D. Barry says: “What we want to believe, we believe on
the slightest excuse. Fashion gives women an excellent excuse for
believing that it is right to wear feathers and birds in their hats,
and on their backs, animal skins and furs. It will take some time
before they will let themselves accept their share and responsibility
in the barbarity.”’

—Western Humane Press Committee.

82 Bird Day Book

PHOEBE
+Oe

PHOEBE is always associated with old bridges and bubbling
brooks. Nearly every bridge which is at all adapted for the
purpose has its Phoebe home beneath it, to which the same
pair of birds will return year after year, sometimes building
a new nest, sometimes repairing the old. They seem to be of a
nervous temperament, for, as they sit upon their usual look-out
perch, their tails are continually twitching as though in anticipation
of the insects that are sure to pass sooner or later.

A jerky, emphatic “phoe-be” with the accent on the second syl-
lable, and still further accented by a vigorous flirt of the tail, com-
prises the principle note of this bird.

The nest is made of mud, grass and moss, plastered to the sides
of beams or logs under bridges, culverts or barns. In May or June
four or five white eggs are laid.

These birds breed in North America east of the Rockies, north
to southern Canada, and winter in the southern United States and
southward.

—Bird Guide.

ows

Alabama, 1915. | 83

TO A PHOEBE-BIRD
+Oe

NDER the eaves, out of the wet,
You nest within my reach;
You never sing for me and yet
You have a golden speech.

You sit and quirk a rapid tail,
Wrinkle a ragged crest,

Then pirouet from tree to rail
And vault from rail to nest.

And when in frequent, witty fright
You grayly slip and fade,

And when at hand you re-alight
Demure and unafraid,

And when you bring your brood its fill
Of iridescent wings

And green legs dewy in your bill,
Your silence is what sings.

Not of a feather that enjoys
To prate or praise or preach,
O Pheebe, with your lack of noise,
What eloquence you teach!
Witter Bynner.

84 Bird Day Book

BALTIMORE ORIOLE
+Oe

HE male of this bird is orange and black, while the female
is dull yellowish and gray. They are sociable birds and
seem to like the company of mankind, for their nests are,
from choice, built as near as possible to houses, often being

where they can be reached from windows. As they use a great

deal of string in the construction of their nests, children often get
amusement by placing bright-colored pieces of yarn where the
birds will get them, and watch them weave them into their homes.

The song is a clear, querulous, varied whistle or warble, and the
call is a plaintive whistle. The nest is a pensile structure, often
hanging eight or ten inches below the supporting rim, and swaying
to and fro with every breeze. They lay five or six white eggs,
curiously scrawled with blackish brown.

These birds breed east of the Rockies, north to New Brunswick
and Manitoba, and winter in Central America.
—Bird Guide.

Zz

BALTIMORE ORIOLE.

s

Alabama, 1915.

LAST NIGHT
+B

AST night the nightingale woke me,
Last night when all was still;
It sang in the golden moonlight,
From out the woodland hill,
I opened my window so gently;
I looked on the dreaming dew,
And O; the bird, my darling, was singing,
Singing of you, of you.

I think of you in the day time,
I dream of you by night,

I wake—and would you were here, love,
And tears are blinding my sight,

I hear a low breath in the lime tree,
The wind is floating through,

And O! the night, my darling,
Is sighing, sighing for you.

O! think not I can forget you;
I could not though [ would,
I see you in all around me—
The stream, the night, the wood,
The flowers that slumber so gently,
The stars above the blue,
Heaven itself, my darling,
Is praying, praying for you!

—From the Swedish, by Theophile Marztals.

85

86

Bird Day Book

$i

AFTER THE RAIN
+34

HE rain has ceased, and in'my room
The sunshine pours an airy flood;
And on the church’s dizzy vane
The ancient Cross is bathed in blood.

From out the dripping ivy-leaves,
Antiquely carven, gray and high,
A dormer, facing westward, looks
Upon the village like an eye.

And now it glimmers in the sun,

A square of gold, a disk, a speck:

And in the belfry sits a Dove

With purple ripples on her neck.
—Thomas Bailey Aldrich

%

Alabama, 1915. | 87

MUTUAL AID AMONG WILD ANIMALS
+Be

HE gregarious habit is very generally in animated nature,
especially among mammals and birds. Those animals of a
solitary kind are decidedly in the minority; and, owing to
their compartively unprotected condition, they are con-

stantly exposed to the attacks of their natural enemies, while the

associated animals are saved by the wisdom and acuteness of their
wisest members, and by the strength which results from united
action.

A great many hoofed animals, such as antelopes, deer, goats and
elephants, live in herds; which are not mere irregular crowds, but
regular organized bands, with definite conventions, and with a
power of united resistance which frequently enables them to success-
fully withstand the attacks of predatory carnivores. Most monkeys,
as individuals, are comparatively defenseless, and, as a rule, are not
disposed to come to close quarters with their enemies; yet, when in
a body, they are often formidable, and are frequently able to help
one another out of difficulties.

Brehm relates how he encountered a troop of baboons which
were able to defy his dogs and to retreat in good order up the
heights. A baby baboon being left behind called loudly for help.
One of the large males courageously returned, went to the young
one and carried it up the heights in trumph—the dogs being too
much astonished, apparently, to make any attack.

A rabbit is generally supposed to be a stupid little animal, yet
he makes an excellent sentinel in keeping watch while the others
are feeding. On seeing danger, he kicks the earth in his burrow
violently, by means of which the whole warren becomes alarmed and
flees to safety.

Some of the most successful carnivorous animals, such as wolves,
hunt in packs; and many birds of prey, such as eagles, vultures and
kites act in unison for the purpose of destroying their quarry. Com-
bination, for the purposes of defense, has its counterpart in combi-
nation for attack. In each case the united action is usually associated
with the practice of posting sentinels to warn the rest, or of sending
out scouts to reconnoiter.

88

Bird Day Book

OUR LITTLE MARTYRS
+Be

HALL we care when nesting time
Brings no birds from any clime—
Not a voice or ruby wing,
Not a single nest to swing,
Midst the reeds, or higher up
Like a dainty fairy cup;
Not a single little friend,
All the way as foosteps wend
Here and there through every clime,
Not a bird at any time?

Does it matter? Do we care

What the feathers women wear

Cost the world? Must all birds die?
May they never, never fly

Safely through their native air?
Slaughter meets them everywhere.

Scorned be the hands that touch such spoil—

Let women pity and recoil

From traffic barbarous and grave

And quickly strive the birds to save.
—George Klingle.

Alabama, 1915.

TRIMMING THE CLOTHES-LINE
Be

I’m happy when the birds come back,
I’ve something then to do;

If you don’t mind a little work
Perhaps you'd like it, too.

I get a lot of pretty strings,

Some red, some white, some blue,
And on a line out in the yard

I hang them up in view.

Sometimes I lay them on the ground,
And bits of lace, as well;

For just what stuff will best suit birds
Is sometimes hard to tell.

They know our yard is a good place
Variety to find;

And my! they’re often such a while
In making up their mind.

But before night I’ve sold clean out,
Im tired as I can be;

Yet when the birds chirp back their thanks
And sing sweet songs to me,

I’m ready next day to begin
To trim my line anew,
In colors like the flag we love—
The red, the white and blue.
—By Helen M. Richardson.

90 | Bird Day Book

DUTY OF THE CITIZEN TOWARD WILD LIFE
BY WILLIAM T. HORNADAY

One

(Dr. Hornaday, the author of “The American Natural History,” has
written this sketch expressly for the Alabama Bird Day Book.)

E HOLD that the real men and women of today owe to
posterity a duty in the preservation of wild life that cannot
conscientiously be ignored. The wild life of the word is not
ours, to dispose of wholly as we please. We hold it in trust,
for the benefit of ourselves, and equal benefits to those who come
after us. As honorable guardians we have no right to waste and
squander the heritage of our children and grandchildren. It is our
duty to stay the hand that strives to apply the torch.

We received from the hand of Nature a marvelous continent,
overflowing with an abundance of wild life. But we do not own it
all; that it is not all ours to destroy if we choose. Nature was a mil-
lion years, or more, in developing the picturesque moose, the odd
mountain goat and the unique antelope. Shall we destroy and exter-
minate those species in one brief century? ‘The young Americans
of the year 2015 will read of those wonderful creatures, and if they
find none of them alive how will they characterize the men of 1915?
I, for one, do not wish in 2015 to be classed with the swine of Mauri-
tius that exterminated the dodo.

The most advanced educators of America are awake to the vital
necessity of forest conservation. The twenty-one forestry schools
now in existence in our country have for their foundations the neces-
sity for forest conservation. Educators and statesmen, and the men
of means who support good works, all are awake to the vital neces-
sity of systematic effort in arresting the march of forest destruction
and providing for the perpetuation of our forest wealth. If by
neglect of duty we were to allow the vandals to sweep off all timber
from the United States during the present century, we would be
regarded as monsters. Fifty years hence, our children would blush
for their parents. And yet, in effect, through our mistaken princi-
ples and the dominant influence of the destroyers, we are now, at
this hour, permitting and witnessing the annihilation of our game-
birds and game-quadrupeds, everywhere in the United States outside

Alabama, 1915. 91

of a very few real preserves. If my iteration of this fact is likely to
be regarded as tiresome, it should be remembered that only the
quick awakening of this nation, and the quick application of stern
remedies, can save the patient.

In the protection of wild life, it seems to me that the average
citizen does not even begin to realize his own power. I know it, and
a. great many other men know it, because we have seen the results
that have been accomplished by the private citizen on the firing-line.
If the defenders of wild life can succeed in reaching and arousing
the private citizen, the wild life of our country can even yet be saved
from the general annihilation that threatens it. The appeal for new
help must be made to the men and women of America who do not
go hunting, and who do not kill wild creatures!

Speaking generally, I think that we have gone with the gunners
about as far as we can. I fear that they will concede no more than
they already have conceded, and the new measures they are willing
to concede I believe are utterly inadequate to the saving of our wild
life. Asa class and a mass, the gunners are unwilling to grant long
close seasons, of five or ten years, and therefore we must secure
those long close seasons without their aid!

The accomplishment of a great reform nearly always means the
enactment of new laws in the face of strong opposition. Every
great reform always treads on a great many toes; and the owners
of many of those toes will not only cry out, but many of them will
fight. A bill to stop the sale of game always arouses the opposition
of the market-gunners, the game-dealers and the hotel and restau-
rant interests. The game-dealers are natural fighters, and in fighting
for their selling privileges they hire lawyers in abundance and spend
money liberally. As business men, they know how to appeal to the
business men in any legislature, and their opposition is a very serious
matter. The way to counteract it is to overwhelm it, in the Legisla-
ture and before the Governor, with appeals and demands from the
press and from men and women who have no selfish interests to
serve and no axes to grind, in behalf of imperilled nature. Men who
are moved to leave their mirth and their employment, and journey
to their State capitol to appear at hearings before committees in
behalf of the wild life of the people at large, always command very
respectful attention, and in about nineteen cases out of every twenty,
if the cause of the people is adequately represented, the friends of
wild life do not appeal in vain.

92 Bird Day Book

It is impossible for me to state with sufficient emphasis the neces-
sity for immediate action and quick results in the saving of wild life.
The assaults that are being made on the forests of the United States
are in no way comparable with it. At one swoop the creation of
vast national forest reserves arrests the hands of the timber de-
stroyer ; but there are no such corresponding reserved areas for wild
life. Beside the vast extent of the reserved forests, the national
parks and game-preserves are lost in utter insignificance.

Already a great amount of basic educational work for wild life
has been done. There are few intelligent persons to whom the sub-
ject is new. The public mind now is so sensitive to impressions
regarding wild life it is possible to secure, by a few months of effort,
results that even five years ago were wildly. impossible. Our task
today is not the educating of the masses, but the arousing of the
conscientious citizen to the point of positive action.

One determined man who is reasonably intelligent can promote
and direct a movement that will secure the enactment of a new law,
provided he is industrious and sufficiently determined. The man
who starts a movement must make up his mind to follow it up, direct
its fortunes, stay with it when the storms of criticism and opposi-
tion beat upon it, and never give up until it is signed by the Governor
or the President. A leader must be willing to sacrifice his personal
convenience, the most of his pleasures, and keep at his work when
his friends are asleep or at the theatre.

The saving of the wild life and forests of the world is a duty
that by no means is confined to a small group of persons who work
for nothing and subsist on their own enthusiasm. The savings of
the fauna of a nation is a national task. It is literally everybody’s
business. It rests upon the shoulders of the educated and the intelli-
gent, and the motives that prompt it are not found in the breasts of
the sordid and the ignorant. The educated people of the United
States and Canada now are called upon to protect their own from the
Goths and Vandals of the army of destruction who are strangers to
the higher sentiments.

Alabama, 1915.

ALPHABETICAL LIST OF THE PRINCIPAL BIRDS
FOUND IN ALABAMA

one

Anhinga
American Bittern
Least Bittern

Florida Red-winged Blackbird

Red-winged Blackbird
Bluebird

Bobolink

Bobwhite

Indigo Bunting
Turkey Buzzard
Cardinal

Catbird
Yellow-breasted Chat
Chewink

Carolina Chickadee
Chuck-will’s-Widow
American Coot
Florida Cormorant
Cowbird

Sand-hill Crane
American Crow
Brown Creeper

Fish Crow
Black-billed Cuckoo
Yellow-billed Cuckoo
Hudsonian Curlew
Ground Dove
Mourning Dove
Dowitcher
Long-billed Dowitcher
Baldpate Duck
Black Duck
Buffle-head Duck
Canvasback Duck
Gadwall

Mallard Duck
American Merganser
Hooded Merganser
Pintail Duck

Redhead Duck
Ring-necked Duck
Scaup Duck

Lesser Scaup Duck
Shoveller Duck
Blue-winged Teal Duck
Green-winged Teal Duck
Wood Duck

Bald Eagle

American Gold-finch
Purple Finch

Flicker

Northern Flicker
Acadian Flycatcher
Alder Flycatcher
Crested Flycatcher
Least Flycatcher
Olive-sided Flycatcher
Wood Pewee
Yellow-bellied Flycatcher
Florida Gallinule
Purple Gallinule
Marbled Godwit
Canada Goose

Snow Goose
Boat-tailed Grackle
Bronzed Grackle
Purple Grackle

Rusty Grackle
Horned Grebe
Pied-billed Grebe

94

Blue Grosbeak

American Herring Gull
Bonaparte Gull

Laughing Gull

Ring-billed Gull
Broad-winged Hawk
Cooper Hawk

Duck Hawk

Fish Hawk

Florida Red-shouldered Hawk
Marsh Hawk

Pigeon Hawk

Red-tailed Hawk
Red-shouldered Hawk
Sharp-shinned Hawk
Sparrow Hawk

Great Blue Heron

Little Blue Heron

Green Heron

Louisiana Heron
Black-crowned Night Heron
Yellow-crowned Night Heron
Ward Heron

Ruby-throated Hummingbird
Wood Ibis

Blue Jay

Kingbird

Belted Kingfisher
Golden-crowned Kinglet
Ruby-crowned Kinglet
Mississippi Kite
Swallow-tailed Kite

Loon

Purple Martin

Meadowlark

Florida Meadowlark
Mockingbird

Florida Nighthawk
Brown-headed Nuthatch
Red-breasted Nuthatch

Bird Day Book

White-breasted Nuthatch
Baltimore Oriole
Orchard Oriole

Oven Bird

Barn Owl

Barred Owl

Florida Barred Owl
Great Horned Owl
Long-eared Owl

Screech Owl
Short-eared Owl

White Pelican
American Pipit
Black-bellied Plover
Kildeer

Piping Plover
Semi-palmated Plover
Upland Plover

Wilson Plover

King Rail

Louisiana Clapper Rail
Sora Rail

Virginia Rail

Redpoll

American Redstart
American Robin
Southern Robin
Sanderling

Least Sandpiper
Pectoral Sandpiper
Semi-palmated Sandpiper
Solitary Sandpiper
Spotted Sandpiper
White-rumped Sandpiper
Yellow-bellied Sapsucker
Sooty Shearwater
Loggerhead Shrike
Migrant Shrike

Pine Siskin

Black Skimmer

Alabama, 1915.

Wilson Snipe
Bachman Sparrow
Chipping Sparrow
English Sparrow

Field Sparrow

Fisher Seaside Sparrow
Fox Sparrow
Grasshopper Sparrow
Henslow Sparrow
Lark Sparrow

Leconte Sparrow
Nelson Sparrow
Savanna Sparrow
Song Sparrow

Swamp Sparrow
Vesper Sparrow
White-throated Sparrow
Bank Swallow

Barn Swallow

Cliff Swallow
Rough-winged Swallow
Tree Swallow
Chimney Swift
Scarlet Tanager
Summer Tanager
Black Tern

Cabot Tern

Caspian Tern

Common Tern
Gull-billed Tern

Least Tern

Royal Tern

Brown Thrasher
Bicknell Thrush
Gray-checked Thrush
Hermit Thrush
Louisiana Water Thrush
Olive-backed Thrush
Water Thrush

Wilson Thrush

Wood Thrush

Tufted Titmouse
Wild Turkey

Ruddy Turnstone
Bay-breasted Warbler
Blackburnian Warbler
Black and. White Warbler
Black-poll Warbler
Black-throated Warbler

Black-throated Green Warbler

Blue-winged Warbler
Cairns Warbler
Canadian Warbler
Cerulean Warbler
Chestnut-sided Warbler
Golden-winged Warbler
Hooded Warbler
Kentucky Warbler
Magnolia Warbler
Mourning Warbler
Myrtle Warbler
Orange-crowned Warbler
Palm Warbler

Parula Warbler

Pine Warbler

Prairie Warbler
Prothonotary Warbler
Swainson Warbler
Sycamore Warbler
Tennessee Warbler
Worm-eating Warbler
Yellow Warbler
Yellow-palm Warbler
Yellow-throated Warbler
Cedar Waxwing
Western Willet
Whip-Poor-Will
American Woodcock
Downy Woodpecker
Pileated Woodpecker

96

Red-bellied Woodpecker
Red-cockaded Woodpecker
Red-headed Woodpecker
Southern Hairy Woodpecker
Bewick Wren

Carolina Wren

House Wren

Louisiana Marsh Wren
Short-billed Marsh Wren
Winter Wren

White-eyed Vireo

Bird Day Book

Red-eyed Vireo
Warbling Vireo
White-tyed Vireo
Yellow-throated Vireo
Black Vulture

Greater Yellowlegs
Yellowlegs

Florida Yellow-throat
Maryland Yellow-throat
Northern Yellow-throat

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