ibrartes

Smithsonian Institution

Alexander Wetmore

19406 Sixth Secretary 1 O56

Birds of the West

AN ACCOUNT OF THE LIVES
AND THE LABORS OF OUR
FEATHERED FRIENDS

LIBRARIES
BY
CHARLES E. HOLMES
PRESIDENT OF THE STATE AUDUBON SOCIETY
OF SOUTH DAKOTA

1907
HAMMOND & STEPHENS CO.
FREMONT, NEBRASKA

Copyright 1907 by H. & S. Co.

THIS BOOK IS DEDICATED
TO THOSE WHO READ IT.

PREFACE.

The author of this little volume is not a scientist, he is only a
nature-lover and he would be astonished and disappointed if every-
one should agree with all that he has written. He has found a
pleasure in tramping about the woods and the streams, in seeing
nature at first hand and an almost equal pleasure in reading of what
others have seen and loved.

It would be nice indeed to give credit where credit is due but
where should I begin and where could I end? A father and mother
who taught me to see things and to love them, an old half-breed
Indian who in my childhood showed me many a sacred spot of
earth, an old shoemaker who now in his ninetieth year and ‘‘livin’
on borrowed time’’ still has the heart of a ten-year-old, unnum-
bered bevies of school children who have followed me ‘‘up hill and
down dale’’ giving me a thousand eyes with which to see, Audubon
Wilson, Nuttall, Thoreau, Burroughs, Seton and many more may
claim a share of whatever of worth there may be within these

covers.
—The Author.

INTRODUCTION.

Many a time I have asked my friends the question ‘‘ What is
life?’’ and have received such answers as ‘‘To be’’ and ‘‘To ex-
ist’’, but it was left for a little black-eyed and black-skinned boy
in a school where I was speaking, to give to me the answer that has
pleased me most. He said ‘‘It is to see things, Sir’’ and so it is
if only we see with our mind’s eye as well as with our ‘‘lamps’’.

To know

‘‘Of the wild bee’s morning chase,
Of the wild flower’s time and place,
Flight of fowl, and habitude
Of the tenants of the wood;
How the tortoise bears his shell,
How the woodchuck digs his cell,
And the ground mole sinks his well;
How the robin feeds her young,
How the oriole’s nest is hung.’’

To know these things is to add to the resources of our lives,
and mightily so, if our knowledge is at first hand. To be sure,
most of it has to be served to us and usually it is creamed and
sugared for us. Oftentimes it has to be spiced to suit our jaded
mental palates. It is for that reason that we should do well to hark
back to nature.

Let us get acquainted with the birds. They will take us over
the earth, the sea and the sky. They will reveal to us the best of
nature’s secrets.

We shall learn something of the skunk cabbage when we see
_ the dapper little yellow-throat building her home within it, choos-
ing to endure its horrid odor for the protection that it gives to her
helpless little babies.

We shall learn that snakes crawl out of their skins when we
find the crested flycatcher working a cast-off skin into her nest to
scare her enemies away.

We shall get a genuine pleasure in knowing that the little
bird we call a petrel was named after Saint Peter because it walks
upon the water.

BIRDS OF THE WEST 7

When we are afield we shall learn of the trees in which the
birds spread their tiny couches and swing their airy cradles.

We shall find the sparrow’s nest in a tangle of vetch, the deep
green eggs of the catbird in the meshes of the wild grape and the
leaf-colored lady chewink sitting on her nest, her bright red eye
snapping like a spark among the leaves as though she were about
to set the forest afire rather than have us intrude upon her soli-
tude. ’

We shall see a ruby-throated hummingbird building an imita-
tion knot upon a tree-limb and using it as a nest and we shall ad-
mire the genius of somebody or of something. Shall we not?

Shall we not wonder which is the cleverer, the cowbird that
lays her egg in the yellow warbler’s nest to avoid the duties of
maternity, or the yellow warbler that build’s a false bottom above
the cowbird’s egg to avoid running an orphanage? I found such
a nest in a wild gooseberry bush on the shore of Lake Hermeu
Lake county, S. D., a few years ago and it was so deep that I more
than half believe that it was a ‘‘three-decker’’, but as there was
but one egg buried within it, I shall report it a ‘‘double-decker’’.

The bugs, the bees, the moths, the butterflies, the flowers, every-
thing is to be found where the birds are. One should feel a sense
of shame to admit that he cannot tell an anemone from a bluebell
nor a grosbeak from an oriole, especially if he is old enough to
tell a dime from a penny or stage money from a bank note.

Let us not be worried by the two schools of nature-lovers.
One sees only the leaden side and the other only the golden side
of the statue and their lances never draw blood. Instead of trying
to find human nature in the birds, let us study man a little to see
if he has within him something of bird nature. When we see him go-
ing up a telephone pole by means of ‘‘climbers’’, we see only a
cheap imitation of the method of the woodpeckers that carry their
spikes on the ends of their tail-feathers and when we find an old
crow hiding tiny and shiny things among the leaves within the hol-
low of an old tree-stump and visiting his treasury every little while
to look over his wealth, can we nat recall many a miserly old human
crow that is doing the same thing?

If we have never learned a lesson in politeness from the cedar
waxwing it is our own fault, for though there were a thousand of
them in a single tree-top, he would never jostle his branch-mate,

8 BIRDS OF THE WEST

not for a whole cedar swamp, and he would hardly think of eat-
ing as much as a newly found worm until he had offered it to
the nearest lady.

I wonder if the brown thrasher did not teach us how to sing,
the ovenbird how to teach, the vireo how to preach, the goldfinch
how to bathe and the turtle dove how to love? Do you suppose
that the wren taught the women how to scold, that the blue jay
taught the men how to swear and that the English sparrow taught
them to hang around down town?

Now let us discard our conceit and let us give a better character
to the lower animals. Let us stop calling our faithful dog a pup
and a cur and let us be fair to the birds. The much abused lark
always stays at home nights and though the skylark is a high-flier,
the poet says that he ‘‘sings at Heaven’s gate’’. Why, if a man were
a ‘‘regular nighthawk’’, he would retire soon after dark, for the
nighthawk never flies at night. The human ‘‘jay’’ is quite differ-
ent from the bird of that name for the little fellow is a swell dresser
and very, very wise. The stork, poor fellow! He has some awful re-
sponsibilities thrust upon him. :

If a man were not so often as crazy as a loon, if he were half
as wise as an owl, if he only had an eye like an eagle’s, were less
gullible and less of a cuckoo, he would not cherish prejudices that
lead him to kill any of our birds, for it is a very rare bird that has
a ledger balance in red ink. He would not repeat the hue and ery
against every bird that eats anything of commercial value. Of
course some of the birds are sinners some of the time, but ‘“‘let
him among you that is without sin, cast the first stone’’.

Just think of it! In order to get a law upon our statute |
books to protect our song birds, it has often been necessary to per-
mit the killing of blackbirds. Why? Because the farmer begrudges
the little corn he eats. If he were to open his eyes and open also
a blackbird’s little ‘‘tummy’’, he would find it full of cutworms
instead of corn. Of course he eats a little corn now and then, very
little, but he buys it and he pays for it. When he follows the
farmer’s plow from morning till night, what do you suppose he
is doing?

Gardeners, who do not know, shoot the rose-breasted gros-
beak whose choice of food is the potato bug. A pint of them is
short rations for the little fellow. Besides, he is handsome, a dear

BIRDS OF THE WEST 9

little husband, and he sings like a concert tenor. Nurserymen re-
joice when they hear the voice of the cuckoo echoing from some hid-
den corner of their orchard, for they know that the cankerworms
are at their last banquet.

We accuse the mosquito of carrying fever germs and no doubt
it is guilty. Think how many human lives must be saved by the
nighthawks, chimneyswifts and the swallows, yet gunners, I beg
pardon, ‘‘sportsmen’’, practice on them because they are swift of
flight. The kingbird is charged with eating honey-bees but he eats
only the drones except when he guesses wrong. Do you think he
is any more anxious to swallow a bee with a stinger than you are?
Still people must have their pleasure and if the little birds must
be shot, shoot the English sparrows for if there are Mormons in the
bird-world, they are guilty, and if feather emblems must adorn
your hats, use the goose-quill, for honestly ‘‘a bird in a bush is
worth two on a hat’’.

When we begin to appreciate the worth of things rather than
their values, we begin to live. Then a frog means more than a
pair of edible legs, and I have seen the very human little fellows
put their hands over their faces to ward off the blows that were
to send them to the market. Is not a quail on its nest better than
a quail on toast? Does it not bear the same relation to birds that
the trout does to fishes, just a little dearer than most of the others?
Neither was made to lie in the market and if they must be taken
let it be where the feathered choir is chanting a requiem and the
heather bells are tolling.

10 BIRDS OF THE WEST

ROLL OF HONOR.

THE BIRDS.

For service in the cause of humanity; for making the fields to
flash with color, the lakes to laugh with music and for making the
trees the very ‘‘peaks of song’’, for teaching the courage for pio-
neering, the joy of honest toil, the virtue of happy mating, the
spirit of devoted parentage and the satisfaction in an ‘‘ever so
humble’’ home; for singing with their work and revealing to us
the life in nature that ‘“‘lifts us to the skies’’.

THE ROBINS.

For labor upon our lawns; for stirring childhood’s fancies
and awakening in old hearts the illusions of their childhood.

THE LARKS.

For tireless hours of toil upon our farms, clearing them of in-
sects and the seeds of noxious weeds; for singing in every field
and from every fence-post; for making morning the beginning of a
day and evening the promise of another.

THE BLUEBIRDS.

For picking up the berries of the ivy and the brier; for clear-
ing our gardens of grubs, our waysides of pests upon the wing
and for giving a song to the early winds to tell us that we may re-
joice at the bursting of the buds.

THE CUCKOOS.

For stripping our trees of caterpillars, our gardens of spiders,
our fields of beetles and for minding their own business.

THE HAWKS.

For their restless hunting of rodents and reptiles and for hav-
ing eyes that see in a half-blind world.

THE KILLDEERS.

For their fight against the boll-weevil and the Rocky Mountain
locust and for the love of their little fuzzy babies.

BIRDS OF THE WEST 11

THE WOODPECKERS.

For destroying ants, moths, beetles and weed-seeds; for their
tremulous tattoos and awakening calls of. springtime.

THE KINGFISHERS.
For lessening the swarms of beetles, crickets and grasshoppers

and reminding us that ours are “‘haleyon’’ days, if we but make
them so.

THE GROSBEAKS.
For destroying potato-bugs and caterpillars; for one of the

sweetest sounds in nature that makes us glad to stop in our hurry
that we may look and listen.

THE SWALLOWS.

For killing the germ-bearing mosquitoes; for suffering saved
to the beasts of the field and for their ‘‘cheerful twittering from the
straw-built shed’’.

THE NATIVE SPARROWS.

For using thousands of tons of weed-seed that will never choke
the grain nor the flowers; for their infinite presence and their un-
numbered songs.

THE UNKNOWN LIVING.

For working without reward and singing without applause.

THE UNKNOWN DEAD.

That have fallen on broken wing during the wild nights; that
by unhappy flight have been the prey of natural enemies and men.

12 BIRDS OF THE WEST

THE FOOD OF BIRDS.

The problem of bread-winning? It is the same mighty problem
for bird, beast, fish, or man. It prescribes to each of them where he
shall make his home; whether or not he shall migrate, and if he
does, it names for him the very time and place of his migration.

With birds, it largely determines the size and shape of their
bills, the shape and character of their feet, the length of their
wings, the shape of their tails, the color of their plumage and the
number of their eggs.

There is a little bird known as the red cross-bill, and a Ger-
man fable says that the little fellow twisted its bill by trying to pull
the nails from the Savior’s cross, and that in doing so, its breast was
reddened by the Savior’s blood. Science, that so often spoils a
pretty story, says that the crossing of its bill has resulted from
its fondness for the seeds of the pine cone. I remember the first
one that I ever saw. I was so sorry for him because he had twisted
his little bill.

Now, the butcher needs different tools from those of the garden-
er, so it is natural enough that the butcherbird, the owl, the hawk
and the eagle that slaughter what they eat, should have beaks that
are sharp and curve downwards, so that they can cut and tear
steaks out of their slaughtered victims. The avocet and the wood-
cock are so fond of worms that nature has given them very long
beaks so that they can drill into the muddy earth where the worms
are crawling. The bill of the avocet turns upward and many claim
that the woodcock can turn his upward too, so that he can make
a regular hook of it and more easily pull forth the worms.

Kingfishers, fish hawks and mergansers catch fishes. The king-
fisher has a strong beak and a very, very sharp one so that it easily
sinks it into its victim. The fish hawk, when it dives into the water
for its fish, trusts to its specially favored feet to hold it, while the
merganser has a bill that is like a set of saw-blades and a fish has lit-
tle chance of escape from its serrate jaws.

You have noticed the sifting machines on the side of the beak
of a spoonbill duck. The duck will gobble a mouthful of minnows
or snails or a combination of mud and food but he has little trou-
ble in sifting the objectionable matter out.

BIRDS OF THE WEST 13

The woodpecker being more or less a carpenter, is provided with
a well tempered, well sharpened, hammer-like bill that enables him
to drill holes of almost any size either for the securing of food or
the construction of a home.

No doubt the canna, the nasturtium and the trumpet-creeper
are as anxious to have the hummingbird work for them and fertil-
ize them as the hummingbird is to have them run a nectary for
him, so while the flowers have developed a deep cup to shut the
moths out, they have made it necessary for the hummingbird to
grow a long bill in order to reach the nectar. It is a pretty part-
nership they have entered into, the little boycotters.

The swallows and flycatchers have opened their mouths so
wide and so much and so long to let the flies in, that their mouths
reach from ear to ear.

The food of birds has a direct bearing upon the size and shape
of their feet. I called attention to the needle-pointed talons of the fish
hawk that enable him to grasp with certainty the fish beneath the
water and easily handle him within his native element. What a
feat it is! Here is the problem upon which you may ponder. A
fish hawk is flying in a circle at the rate of twenty miles an hour
while the wind is blowing thirty miles an hour. He is four hundred
feet above the surface of a river that is flowing ten miles an hour.
Six feet below the surface of the river a fish is swimming with the
stream at the rate of twenty-five miles an hour. On account of the
refraction of light the fish is two feet away from where he seems
to be and it is four o’clock in the afternoon. Don’t you think you
would rather trust a fish hawk’s instinct than your own math-
ematics? That is just the problem that a baby fish hawk solves as
unerringly as its father does.

A woodpecker must certainly have sharp and strong toes to
enable him to cling so easily to the sides of barkless trees.

It is a rule of nature to discard the useless things. If you will
notice a cow’s foot you will see that two of its hind toes no longer
touch the ground and are little better than warts. The horse has
only one toe left upon each foot. If the nighthawk, the swifts and
the swallows don’t use their feet more, they will soon have feet
as small in proportion as those of a Chinese princess.

Swimming birds are web-footed for they must often pursue
their prey even under water. The mergansers can paddle fast

14 BIRDS OF THE WEST

enough under water to catch fishes. The petrel will spread his
wings and with his webbed feet will not only walk upon the water
as Peter did, but he will run.

Wading birds have very long legs and feet, well adapted to
tramping out any delicious morsels that are concealed in the mud
beneath the shallow water.

The albatross has a wing-spread of twelve or fourteen feet
and I am sure that I should want even more than that if I made
such trips as he does over the ocean. The swallows are on the wing
nearly all the time and they often have to make very sudden turns
to catch passing flies. It is therefore reasonable that there should
be little to them but wings, but a quail or a prairie chicken that
makes only short flights and does not migrate has little need of
very long wings.

Some of the birds make use of their tails to steer them either
in flight or while swimming under the water and all birds find
their tails of considerable service in making a landing upon a perch.

As to color of plumage and its bearing upon food supply,
there is mostly indirect relation, but it is claimed for some of the
water birds that they have the power of illuminating their under
plumage for the attraction of fishes and it is well known that birds
often take the color of their surroundings, for they wish to be in-
conspicuous both when they are preying and being preyed upon.

You may ask, ‘‘ What has the question of diet to do with their
egg-laying?’’ Birds have quite a problem to solve when the task
of feeding their young is before them. A young bird is an awful
eater. An abundant food supply that is available for a long season
will mean to many birds an extra family per season, and to many
more a larger family. You know how quality and quantity of food
affect the domestic hen and I am quite sure that when times are
good and living is easily made, our human brothers more readily
assume the duties of the Benedicts.

BIRDS OF THE WEST 15

BIRD-DESTRUCTION.

The great instinct of bird life as of all life is the instinct of
self-preservation. It is therefore a matter of great concern to
birds just how and where to construct their nests so that they may
live with least danger to themselves and rear their families with
the greatest certainty. The decrease in bird life during the last
few years has been due mostly to shot guns, but there are so many
sources of danger to birds that some naturalists doubt that any
of them “die a natural death’’ meaning, of course, a death without
violence. At Luverne, Minnesota, a few years ago several acres
were found covered with lapland longspurs that had met death by
encountering a severe storm during their northern migration. Have
you not seen dozens of dead birds lying beneath a line of telegraph
wires? Think too of the thousands of chickens, grouse and quail
that are frozen or smothered during the cold and snowy winters,
and of the havoc wrought to nests by fires and floods, by the prairie
wind and the farmer’s plough.

Let us see what means are used by the birds for their own
protection. Against winds and rain the oriole builds a swinging
nest at the extremity of a tree-limb. The robin plasters its nest
with mud to give it strength. The grebe builds a nest that’ will
float upon the water. The orchard oriole and the warblers fasten
their nests securely to the boughs of bushes and of trees. The red-
winged blackbird ties its nest to marsh reeds or the limbs of small
trees in western tree claims. Woodpeckers, chickadees, bluebirds,
phoebes and house wrens drill holes into trees or make use of holes
drilled by other birds. The barn swallow and the phoebe often
build under bridges. Eaves swallows, ovenbirds and meadow larks
generally roof their nests and many birds go far enough into the
forest to get away from the severity of the storms. Sand swallows
dig into sand banks and English sparrows often take posses-
sion of their burrows. Bob whites and plovers lay pointed eggs
and the wind cannot blow them very far away. Mourning doves
and nighthawks seem not to have learned how to secure adequate
protection from storms but they have ways of their own for self-
protection, especially against squirrels, snakes and men, the former
often feigning lameness when its nest is approached and the latter
removing its eggs to a new location. |

16 BIRDS OF THE WEST

Many birds build like the oriole, far out upon the small
branches of trees or cover their eggs, as do many of the ducks, with
feathers or dry grass. Orchard orioles make their nests of green
grass so that when new they are very difficult to find. Blackbirds,
phoebes and barn swallows often build above water, taking the risk
of drowning their young rather than the dangers from living ene-
mies. Many birds, especially females, grow to resemble in color
their nest material or other surroundings. This is true of the che-
wink, the indigo-bird, and most of the sparrows and ground-nesters.
Birds often trust to the good fortune of being undiscovered but if
discovered, like Bob white, the cuckoos and the dove they feign lame-
ness, or like the wrens and the kingfishers they scold, or like eagles
and hawks, they fight. Flight is the natural method of escape if
the home is not involved, though birds like the loon and the grebe
and some of the ducks trust to diving beneath the water.

To protect themselves from other birds is a very difficult prob-
lem. Small birds that live in cavities in trees or the earth are
naturally protected from larger birds that are unable because of
their size to enter their small homes. In that way, even the smaller
woodpeckers and the sand swallows are protected. The most prac-
ticed method, however, seems to be to select places for homes that
are rarely frequented by bird enemies. Birds that come into the
city are in less danger from hawks, crows, jays, shrikes and cow-
birds, though they must endure the annoyance of English spar-
rows. The yellow warbler often builds in the prickly gooseberry
bush, the swift in chimneys, and the kingfisher in a hole in the
ground that he permits to become such a stench that no self-re-
specting creature would go near it. All in all, it is quite a prob-
lem to build so as to be protected against so many dangers and at
the same time to be near good building material and a generous
food-supply. Surely the little birds have their troubles and are
entitled to our friendship.

The next generation will feel and know that all creatures have
the inalienable right to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness, if
they grant the same to others. Do you think that the Creator in-
tended that there should be a penalty for beauty?

Beauty is almost a synonym of ‘‘good”’ and of ‘‘true’’. Yet
birds are slaughtered because they are beautiful. Even a throne
gained by wading through slaughter no longer calls for the respect

AMERICAN GOLDFINCH
Upper FiGureE, MALE; Lower FIGURE, FEMALE
(One-half natural size)

BIRDS OF THE WEST LT

of mankind and personal adornment that calls for innocent life
will be despised by the daughters of those who think to steal re-
fiected beauty from a pretty bird. It is ‘‘Mothers causing the
death of mothers’’ and for the sake of vanity. Public sentiment
is fast shaping itself and the woman who jauntily tosses her plumes
to the breezes with the vain thought that she has a pretty face, will
soon learn that enlightened sentiment is thinking about her thought-
lessness or her heartlessness. Shoot birds if you must but shoot
them with a camera or level a pair of opera glasses at them. You
will not be violating either a written or an unwritten law by doing
so. You will find the pursuit as fascinating and the results more
lasting. You will find therein an appeal to your better nature. The
days when wild life was valued only for food and raiment have
passed with barbarous races.

You should never shoot even the game birds in the springtime.
Why? Because your only justification can be that they are needed
fer food, which is rarely true. As a rule spring shooting is only
to satisfy a desire to kill which masquerades under the name of
sport. As for song birds they should never be killed.

If any birds are needed for food, it is well to know that those
that migrate are thin and tough from long flight, and ducks espe-
cially, having had more of a fish diet than in the fall when grains
are available, offer a flesh that is at its worst.

All birds are more trustful and less fearful when love warms
their little hearts and for them the springtime is the time of court-
ship and marriage. The loss of a single bird may mean one less nest-
ful of babies and there are enough natural enemies of the mating
and nesting bird without the unnatural enmity of man.

It is estimated that during the last twenty-five years, the num-
ber of birds has decreased one-half. That would not be so bad if
if it were not for the fact that the most beautiful birds are the ones
that have decreased most rapidly. The scarlet tanager, the passen-
ger pigeon, the bluebird and the egret are fast going while the
most undesirable birds such as the English sparrow are fast com-
ing.

18 BIRDS OF THE WEST

BIRD SPORTS.

Nearly all forms of animal life have a way of playing. You
have seen horses have jolly good times just for fun. Nothing is
prettier than to watch a family of foxes at play unless it is to watch
the antics of puppies and kittens. Do you think that such cheerful
livers as birds have no games to play at?

I have seen sandhill cranes do a mighty pretty cake walk and
some very fancy jigs; and a number of tiny sandpipers did what
I should call a cotillion, if it were done in a ballroom by common
folks.

You have no doubt seen robins play tag upon a lawn and what
sport a game of tag would have been to us in our boyhood days if
we had only had wings. Did you ever see a cat play with a mouse?
Terns (often improperly called gulls) play catch with fishes. A
tern will carry a fish high into the air only to drop it, when sud-
denly another tern will catch it on the fly and go upward with it
only to drop it to a third tern and so on until they are weary of the
game.

When a gull carries a clam to a great height and drops it, it
does so in order to crack the clam-shell, for, if the shell is not bro-
ken, the gull will carry it to a greater height the second time and
the third time to a still greater height. Pretty fair intelligence?

I shall always think that the redstart turns its many somer-
saults just for the fun of it and I have seen one turn’ every min-
ute for half an hour apparently for the principal reason that she
had a spectator.

Do you suppose that bitterns have a sense of humor? I fear
not, yet they surely would inspire it within you if you should see
one standing for hours on one foot trying to fool the frogs into
the belief that he is a part of the scenery. He’s an unlucky frog
who happens to come within the bittern’s sphere of influence.

The ruffed grouse drums upon a log with his breast and wings
and the woodpeckers drum with their bills upon hollow tree stumps.
It is no doubt a means they employ to win their brides, but it is
sport just the same. Young men and old men get playful too when
they are sparking. .

BIRDS OF THE WEST 19

The high dive of the nighthawk, the tossing of a fish into
the air and catching it before swallowing it, as the cormorant
does, the strutting and puffing and blowing of prairie chickens,
the soaring of larks, hawks and eagles are only useful means of
bird enjoyment. Speaking of concerts, ask the blackbirds.

20 BIRDS OF THE WEST

BIRD INTELLIGENCE.

It is not probable that female birds know that they resemble
their environment in color nor that they gather materials for their
nests that will be inconspicuous. Naturally grass birds use grass
because it is most available. White strings and bright objects so
often woven into nests are surely not put into them for the pur-
pose of concealing them and as to the former problem we may
say that it is part of Nature’s plan and let it go at that. We do
not know all of Nature’s secrets but we may have the pleasure of
guessing—half of life is used in that way.

It is not my intention to convey the impression in these arti-
eles that birds do much, if any, reasoning, or that they are so won-
derful in themselves, but I do wish to show that they are beautiful
and wonderful as a part of the great, natural plan and I should
rather be guilty of romancing than to rob them of the least bit that is
theirs. It will be too bad if the crusade against the ‘‘ Nature fakers’’
goes to the extent of robbing childhood of the fairies and of Santa
Claus. Our keenest joys in life could be ‘‘shot to pieces’’ by the
arrows of reason, and if we should live neither in the past nor in
the present, the game of life would hardly be worth the candle, so if
these articles are at any point more imaginative than real, no
apology need be applied for. The man who is not fooled most of
the time is rare and the one who thinks he is rarely fooled is often
the one who is fooled most of the time, and if while we are being
fooled we are having our sympathies deepened, our loves strength-
ened and our lives brightened, there need be little worry as to
whether the fish-hawk after a dive into the water on a hot day,
shakes itself over its nestful of eggs to cool them off or just happens
to do so.

The writings of the anti-‘‘Nature fakers’’, who would be so
strictly honest that they would not attribute anything like human
reason to the birds, are almost brimming over with unconscious ad-
mission of what they so severely condemn. After the pretty story
is told it is unhappy that the secret is let out that it probably isn’t
true. When we are told of two pretty singers having a singing con-

BIRDS OF THE WEST 21

test or two pretty dressers having a strutting contest to win the
wing of a female in marriage, it is too bad to tell us that they prob-
ably did not know what they were doing.

That there is Nature faking goes without saying, but it is to
be hoped that the reaction against idealization of the non-human
will not cut the heart out of Nature.

22 BIRDS OF THE WEST

CONSTITUTION OF THE AUDUBON BIRD CLUB OF
MOU TS Lana WM ac neat SCHOOL.
Article I.—Name.

The name of this organization shall be The Audubon Bird Club
(0) AMAA UR UN Ct Re School.

Article II.—Objects.

The objects for which this club is formed are: (1) to study
the birds; (2) to protect the birds; (3) to attract birds around
our school, and about our homes; (4) to observe with suitable cere-
monies some day in spring to be known as Bird Day; (5) to ac-
quire a library of nature books and nature literature; (6) to plant
trees and shrubs in school grounds and along highways.

Article I1I.—Members.

All pupils of this school are eligible for membership. All per-
sons who attend the meeting for organization shall be considered
charter members. Thereafter members shall be duly proposed and
elected. The teachers of the school shall be honorary members.

Article IV.—Meetings.

Meetings shall be held at least twice each month, or on the
call of the president for a suitable reason.

Article V.—Dues.
The dues shall not exceed two cents per month.
Article VI.—Officers.

The officers of this club shall be a president, a vice president,
a secretary and a treasurer. The term of office shall not exceed
three months. The duties of the officers shall be as follows: Presi-
dent, to preside at all meetings; vice president, to preside in the
«bsence of the president; secretary, to record the proceedings of
all meetings and to conduct the necessary correspondence of the
club; treasurer, to collect all dues and pay all bills authorized by
the club.

BIRDS OF THE WEST 23

Article VII.—Commuittees.

The committees of this club shall be: Committee on feeding
birds in winter; committee on nesting houses; committee on drink-
ing and bathing fountains; committee on plants to attract birds
around our school and homes; committee on protection of birds
during the nesting season; committee on law (to post warning no-
tices and to report violations of the bird laws to the proper author-
ities) ; committee on preparing a local list of birds; committee on
a bird library for the school. These committees shall be appointed
by the president, who shall also determine their size. The member
first named shall be chairman.

‘ Article VIII—Duties of Committees.

The duties of these committees shall be to collect information
on the topics suggested by the name of the committee and to re-
port at the meetings, giving suggestions to the members on the
best method of procedure. It shall also be the duty of the com-
mittees to -assist the members in carrying on their various lines
of work and to learn the results of the members’ efforts. A re-
_ port of these results and of the work done by each committee shall
be given at the regular meetings of the club.

Article 1X .—Amendments.

Any amendments to this constitution may be adopted by a two-
thirds vote of the members present at any regular meeting, notice
of such amendment having been presented at the previous meet-
ing. i

Cuckoos.

Order, Coccyges.
Family, Cuculidae.

387. YELLOW-BILLED CUCKOO. (Rain Crow.) Coccyzus
americanus. Eleven inches long. Olive-gray above. Ashy white be-
low. Slim, graceful body. Bill slightly curved. White spots the size
of your finger-nail on tail feathers. Lower mandible yellow. Nests
only a few feet above ground. Eggs pale blue-green.

388. BLACK-BILLED CUCKOO. (Rain Crow.) Coccyzus ery-
throphthalmus. Eleven inches long. Olive-gray above. Ashy white
below. Slim, graceful body. Bill slightly curved. White spots on tips
of tail feathers, but not ‘‘finger-nail’’ shaped as in the yellow-billed
cuckoo. Bill entirely black. Red eye-ring. Nests only a few feet
above ground. Eggs pale blue-green.

YELLOW-BILLED CUCKOO.

“Gulp! Gulp! Gulp! Gulp! Gulp!’’ will come to your ears
from your garden sometime. You will wonder if a tree-toad is
ectiing ambitious to sing a bird note or if a mocking bird is trying
to sing frogtime. If you follow the gulping you will very likely
see a yellow-billed cuckoo, perhaps a black-billed one. When I was
a little boy we used to sing in school a song that started out ‘‘ Softly
the cuckoo is calling now’’. I want to tell you quietly that who-
ever wrote that song never heard a real cuckoo but got his bird
knowledge from a cuckoo clock.

Cuckoos are usually very fond of concealment and you will
very often have a hard time to get a satisfactory view of one. I
have approached them while they were sitting on their eggs think-
ing that they would be less shy at that time, but they actually slide
from their nests very much as a fish slides over a dam, and away
they go into the underbrush as though they were very, very help-
less. They are not half as much afraid of people ont here in the
west as they are in the east. Probably they see them oftener be-

BIRDS OF THE WEST 25

cause there are fewer trees. However, they are quite a different
bird in other ways. They build better nests because the winds
blow harder and I believe they lay more eggs, for I have never
found less than four in Dakota, but in New England I seldom have
seen more than two.

They say that in Old England they don’t build nests at all,
but lay in other birds’ nests as our cowbird does. Sometimes as
many as seven eggs are found in a single nest, but it is possible that
some other lady cuckoo thought that it would be all right as long
as it was all in the family. Whatever faults they have, they have
one merit and that is their appetite for tent caterpillars. If you
ever have a cuckoo in your orchard you ought to respectfully take
your hat off every time that you see him. Don’t let anyone fool
you into the superstition that he is a bird of evil omen or that he
is a rain crow and runs the weather bureau or anything of the kind.
He isn’t. He’s after that bunch of cobwebs that is full of worms
that you will see up in the top of your apple tree.

The cuckoo gives us one of the marvels of birdlife. The young
ones, twenty-four hours before leaving their nests, haven’t a feather
on them except long pinfeathers that make them look like baby
porcupines, but almost in the twinkling of an eye they blossom
forth like a rose and almost in the moment of your talking they
take wing and are gone. Isn’t it a wonder?

Kingfishers.

Order, Coccyges.
Family, Alcedinidae.

390. BELTED KINGFISHER. Ceryle Alcyon. Twelve inches
long. Long crest on head. Bluish-gray above, white below. White
spot in front of eye. White collar and blue-gray band across the
breast. Large head with long, strong bill for catching fishes. Eggs
white. Nests in a hole in the ground near water.

BELTED KINGFISHER.

This is the famous ‘‘Haleyon’’ that built a floating nest upon
the sea and had the power of making fair weather wherever the
nest floated. Those were ‘‘haleyon days’’ according to the fable.

Really the truth about its nest is this. Into a hole in the bank
by the side of a stream, that looks as though it had been the home
of a water rat, our halcyon creeps and there belches forth fish
bones and fish scales that were not digested. These are gathered
for a nest that would make you think that he has no sense of smell.
Possibly with a view to concealing his disgorged pellets so that they
will not betray his whereabouts to his enemies, he went within and
finally made use of them for nest material.

The kingfisher is pretty in the air for he sails along with even
flight and has the air of knowing where he is going and of having
an errand at the end of his journey. He catches his fish with his
strong beak and his presence is an evidence that there are fishes
in the stream nearby. They are not necessarily good ones nor large
ones, for all fishes look alike to him.

Speaking of fish-tackling, the kingfisher will often tackle one
far too large for him, but unlike the merganser, he will throw it out
and try it over and over until it goes down. The merganser swal-
lows his as far as he can and lets the end of it digest while his
mouth is stopped up for an hour or so with the body of the un-
swallowed fish.

If the kingfisher’s squawk may be called a song or even music,

BIRDS OF THE WEST 27

it would be well for him to wear the sign that was put on the church
organ in a wild western town—‘‘Don’t shoot the organist! He’s
doing the best he can.’’ If there is any proper adjective to describe
—well, there is none. :

Withal they are good parents, thoroughly domestic, love their
homes as long as there is good fishing near them, mind their own
business and usually have plenty of it.

Woodpeckers.

Order, Pici.
Family, Picidae.

Family Characteristics: Sharp, pointed bills for drumming or drill-
ing about the trunks and limbs of trees. Red patch on head or throat
or both. Alight upon the sides of tree trunks supporting themselves
by their tails. They live upon grubs, worms and ants. The sapsucker
occasionally injures trees by drilling too many holes into their bark.

412a. NORTHERN FLICKER. (Golden-winged Woodpecker.
Wake-up. High-hole. Yellow-hammer.) Colaptes auratus luteus.
Length 12 inches. Red spot on head. Black crescent on throat. White
spot on back near tail. Brownish gray above, barred with black. Black
spots on breast. Much yellow on body. Bill slightly curved. Yellow
under wings. Black cheek stripes. Tail feathers sharply pointed and
used as a support. Nests in holes in rotten trees. Eggs white. Dip-
ping motion in flight.

413. RED-SHAFTED FLICKER. Colaptes cafer collaris. Sim-
ilar to northern flicker but has red feathers under wings and tail and
red cheek stripes.

406. RED-HEADED WOODPECKER. (Tricolor.) Melanerpes
erythrocephalus. Nine and one-half inches long. Head and neck deep
red. Plain black above. Belly, half of wings and rump plain white.
The three colors are distinct. Eggs white. Dipping motion in flight.
A “striking’’ bird with an awful voice.

894c. DOWNY WOODPECKER. Dryobates pubescens. About the
size of the English sparrow. Distinctly black and white above in bars
or bands. White below. Red feathers on lower part of head. A
friendly little fellow and always busy after wood-borers.

393a. HAIRY WOODPECKER. Dryobates villosus. About nine
inches long. Resembles the downy woodpecker except in size. Outer
tail feathers are white. Almost entirely white belly and a white verti-
cal line down the back. Like all woodpeckers they build nearer the
ground in the west than in the east.

402. SAPSUCKER. Sphyrapicus varius. Eight and one-half
inches long. Body black, white and yellow mingled. Yellow belly.

BIRDS OF THE WEST 29

Head and throat red in male, but white in female. ‘It sometimes
girdles trees with the holes it drills.

NOTE.—In Sioux Falls, S. D., a beautiful albino flicker was reared
in the summer of 1907. Its plumage was spotless cream-white ex-
cept for the red spot on the head.

NORTHERN FLICKER.

Almost any day in the early springtime you can hear a shrill-
voiced bird rapidly repeating a single tenor note. No, he is not just
home from college, even though he does wear that jaunty red skull
cap and yell like an Indian. If you can count fast enough you will
hear that note as many as fifty times. This peculiar springtime yell
suggested to someone, once upon a time, the quivering light of a
dying candle and he therefore called the bird a ‘‘flicker’’.

I was once with a crowd in a hotel listening to a wandering
minstrel as he was playing Chopin in masterly style upon the par-
lor piano. Presently a big fellow stepped up to the door, listened
a while without rapture, then suddenly lifting his wood-splitting
voice, he shrieked, ‘‘ Aw, play something!’’ That is the way I feel ©
when I hear a flicker. Your father may have known him by the
name wakeup, or yellowhammer, or highhole, for he has more aliases
than a crook, but they were given him with the best of intentions,
for no bird could have a hundred nicknames, pet names, scientific
names and unscientific names that was not a favorite with man.
The flicker is certainly a great favorite because he is interesting,
for, on the quiet, I shall tell you that all of the woodpeckers have
red hair and tempers to match.

When they are drilling a hole for a nest they beat a very
rapid tattoo upon the tree that they have chosen for a home and
there is good reason to believe that, ike many of our human kind,
they get great satisfaction from the mere sound of their knocking,
and I am told that at Yankton they have been seen drumming on
the water-works standpipe. My! It must sound good to them!

When a small boy, I was told that I might go to a nest where
the mother bird was laying and take all the eggs but one, and if
I should leave some corn in the nest the mother would keep on
laying all summer. I was bad enough to try it and carried away
about thirty eggs before I tired of the contest. Pretty eggs they

are, waxy white in color except as the golden yolks show through
them.

30 BIRDS OF THE WEST

The males come north first and I am quite sure that a short
time ago I saw the first meeting of a pair of flickers as Lady
Flicker arrived from the south. There were many demonstrations
of affection, and why not? Were they not together after a long
separation and a perilous journey? And were they not just about
to start up house-keeping ?

With such large families as they raise, a nestful always, it
is no wonder that they violate woodpecker traditions and go down
to the ground for ants and bugs and worms, and it is no wonder
that with so many little flickers in the nest, there is much jostling
among them to see which one shall get his little open bill the high-
est when mama comes with grub or grubs. If you really want to
hear a buzz that buzzes, you should listen at a nest that is full of
hungry little flickers.

Think of the ants the little fellows will eat! And so fond are
flickers of that special diet that nature has given them a specialized
tongue to eat the ants with. No lover of trees should ever shoot
a flicker. Does he not know that ants bore into the wood of trees
and make places in which to herd lice? The lice give nectar just
as a cow gives milk, and the ants milk them. Yes, my critical
friend, ten per cent of the flicker’s diet is fruit, but ninety per
cent of that fruit is wild fruit, and the flicker is one of Nature’s
agents for the distribution of fruit seeds, and since the birds have
planted the seeds of most of the wild fruit that there is in the
world, the man who never made two blades of grass to grow where
one grew before should give up trying to outhammer the flicker.

SAPSUCKER.

No wonder that Mrs. Sapsucker’s hair has turned white for
her husband is a wife-beater and there are good grounds for di-
voree especially on rainy days when the old man hits her over
the head with his hammer-like beak that easily drills holes even
into wood. The Mrs. meekly gets out into the drenching rain and
lets her lord and master climb into the deep hole that has been ex-
cavated in the rotten tree-trunk.

If he would confine his drillings to rotten trees he would not
forever be persona non grata to the horticulturists, but he drills
into the greenest trees just to start the sap and then gets food and
drink all at once, for the flies and the bugs come up for a drink and

BIRDS OF THE WEST 31

are snapped up. He then takes a drink of tree juice and often
varies his diet with a few mouthfuls of the soft cambium layer just
under the bark.

Many a dead tree testifies to the ravages of this slave of the
drink habit.

As with all the woodpeckers, he has the habit of tattooing on
the dead limbs or trunks of trees just for the fun of it and as he
is an extremist in every way, he indulges very largely in all wood-
pecker sports. I have never heard of a wife ever leaving her hus-
band in spite of his intemperance, inhuman cruelty and in-
compatible temper. Possibly she has religious scruples, or more
likely she never stays in one place long enough to gain a residence.

Woodpeckers are hardy birds and are little afraid of cold
for they are tree dwellers and their homes afford them the best
of protection. They usually lay a large number of white eggs and
except from the gunners they can generally protect themselves.
Under such circumstances they come north very early and only
the question of food supply causes them to migrate at all.

Goatsuckers.

Order, Machrochires.
Family, Cauprimulgidae.

Family characteristics: They fly mostly at eventide and alight
upon their perches lengthwise. They have dull gray or brown plumage
and lay their eggs upon the ground without making a nest. Their feet
are poorly developed.

420c. NIGHTHAWK. (Bull-bat.) Chordeiles virginianus, sennetti.
About the robin’s length but less plump. Wings longer than tail. Dull
black and white mottling above, almost qa drab. Breast lighter color.
White rings on wings noticeable in flight. Utters its note in flight.
White patch on throat. Lays two grayish mottled eggs on the ground,

often at the ledge of a flat rock. Great insect-eater. Often seen in
companies.

416. WHIPPOORWILL. (Chuck-Will’s-Widow.) Antrostomus
carolinensis. Nearly as long as a robin, it resemebles a nighthawk but
has brown mottling instead of gray and is without the white rings on
its wings. Throat almost black, outer tail feathers white at extrem-
ities. To most people it is only a voice at eventide, it is so rarely
seen. Its only song is ‘‘Whippoorwill’’, ‘‘Whippoorwill’’. Lays two
mottled eggs on the dry leaves in the woods. Feeds on locusts and in-
sects generally. Sings ‘‘Whippoorwill’’ until late in the evening.

NIGHTHAWK.

A relative of the chimney-swift, this is no hawk at all and he
seldom flies by night. Neither is he entitled to the names ‘‘goat-
sucker’’ and ‘‘bull bat’’ for he is never guilty of the implication of
the former name and he is not a bat at all for the bat is not a bird
but a member of the monkey family. That such a number of im-
proper names ‘‘hang ’round him still’? shows how many guesses
masquerade as truth. Like the swift he is a wide-mouthed insect-
eater and a boon to man.

Watch him as he alternately mounts and floats into the upper
air, for ‘‘Heaven is not reached at a single bound’’, and when he
has passed almost from your view, you will see him drop like a fall-

Upper FigureES—CHESTNUT-BACKED BLUEBIRD

Order—PAasSERES Family—TurpDID&
Genus—SIALIA Species—MExICANA
SUBSPECIES—BAIRDI

Lower FigurES—BLUEBIRDS

Order—PassERES Famiiy—TurRDIDA&
Genus—SIALIA Species—SIALIS

BIRDS OF THE WEST 33

ing star and as soon as the sound can reach you, you will hear a
noise like the blowing into the bung-hole of an empty barrel or
the bellowing of a distant bull. It is only the rustle of his wings.

Do you think that these airy flights are ever equalled by the
bugs and flies? It is doubtful. They go up there for the same rea-
son that a little boy climbs a hill in winter-time, just for the fun of
coming down; for the same reason that a balloonist takes to his
parachute or the long-haired lady makes the high dive at the
circus.

I have seen a bird perch within fifteen feet of me and for fif-
teen minutes turn little somersaults for no apparent reason but
my pleasure. It was no doubt its method of catching insects. I
will tell you about him later. He’s a sweet little bird, trimmed with
orange and his little wife has lemon-colored trimmings but she’s
just as sweet.

By day the nighthawk sits upon fence-rails as often as any:
where for they are nearly his color and he always sits his mount

_lengthwise contrary to the custom of other birds, so that both his
color and position are nicely suited to prevent detection. They
build no nest, but two finely spotted eggs are laid usually at the
outer edge of a flat rock, and it is said that when disturbed, they
will carry their eggs away to a place of safety by grasping them in
their claws.

It is quite a custom among birds that make little or no nest,
to lay sharply pointed eggs so that when the wind blows, their
eggs will roll about in circles and never be blown away, but the
nighthawk does not follow this custom as the quails and plovers
do, possibly because she trusts to removing them to a better pro-
tected home.

No one should ever kill the little nighthawk (he’s only half as
big as he looks) for he spends his time eating mosquitos and moths.
Why, that’s the reason that he flies at eventide. Once in a while he
comes to town to gather the harvest of bugs that eircle about the
electric lights. Pretty wise for a bird.

Swifts.

Order, Macrochires.
Family, Micropodidae.

423. CHIMNEY SWIFT. (Chimney Swallow.) Chaetura pelagi-
ca. Five and one-half inches long—English sparrow six inches. Very
wide wing-spread. Dark mouse-color. Almost never seen sitting.
Cousin to the nighthawk. Twitter as they fly. Glue their nests to
the inner walls of chimneys.

The pies that mother used to make were certainly good and the
old stone chimneys that grandfather used to make were wonder-
ful. They were large enough for a real Santa Claus. to come down
and at the bottom of them were fire places with their hanging
eranes, their brass andirons and fires all aglow with glory.. No
rascals were reared within their flickering shadows. The family
sat about them in a circle, for there was such a thing as a family
circle before the family triangles became so common. How the
swallows twittered in those old chimneys! There must have been
hundreds of them sitting upon the edges of their nests of sticks and
glue, for they glued their nests to the sides of the chimney walls
very much as the swallows of China do, that build the edible nests,
and every little while a nest of babies would fall down the chimney
because they had grown too heavy, for the nest or the glue had be-
come melted by a fire thoughtlessly started to burn up some waste
paper or to take the dampness out of the air of an unexpected
cold day. Poor little things, there was nothing to do but put the
fire out and save the rest of them.

How many evenings I have watched them circling like mad
and twittering in their rapid flight as they were clearing the even-
ing air of mosquitos. These winged cigars, for that is what. they
look like, move their wings so fast that scientists cannot tell whether
they flap them together or alternately. And the sport came when
they went to bed on the side of the nestful of little white eggs.
Like streaks of darkness they shot to a point « few yards above

BIRDS OF THE WEST 35

the top of the chimney, then dropped zigzagging into it as though
they were pieces of paper falling through the air. They don’t weigh
very much more. Company after company would tumble in until
you would think that the chimney could hold no more.

Once upon a time they lived in hollow trees and if we cover
our chimneys and build them much smaller they will go back to
the hollow trees again. Then look out for bugs.

How do you suppose they get the twigs with which to build
their nests? They just shoot through a tree and catch a twig while
in full motion and when they get into a chimney they support them-
selves on the side of the chimney by their tail feathers which have
spurs on them. If I were to build an airship I’d take a chimney
swift for a pattern. Did you ever see one? If not you will recog-
nize him when you do for he is well named and I think he is swift
enough to fly around the world in forty days and forty nights.

ree

.

GZ

Humming birds.

Order, Macrochires.
Family, Trochilidae.

428. RUBY-THROATED HUMMINGBIRD. Trochilus colubris.
The smallest of our birds. Bright irridescent green above. Chin black.
Ruby-colored throat. Gray beneath. Long, needle-like bill. Female
without ruby throat. Eggs white.

‘“Breathes there a man with soul so dead’’ that he does not
exclaim when he sees a ruby-throat? A flash, a humming about the
canna bed, a flash to the nasturtiums and away. Gone like a reverie
at eventide, a lost chord, an artist’s dream, a bubble on a reed, the
evidence of things not seen. Sipping the honey dew while the rosy
petals pale before its jeweled throat, wishing to be gone and gone
ere the wish were made, the very spirit of the honeysuckle of yester-
year, it leaves you looking at the flower, its silent partner in the
little world of miracles. Did it not set you wondering? Did you
not feel the mystery of the flowers, the mystery of life? Did you
feel that it needed a song other than the song without words that
trembled from your heart strings?

Now you stand by the side of its nest, of gauzy lichens, of
fluffy plant-down and the spirits of dead flowers. Every tiny bit
a miracle of nature molded about the silken breast of the sprightly
little mother, so that when she floats upon it, her little heart will
warm the waxen eggs to life. You cannot raise a hand against it.

Twice I have seen them, wee, little knots saddled upon the
apple boughs, half hidden by the leaves, and twice were days made
memorable for life. There was the brook making the merry sun-
beams dance-as it sped to the silent pool below; the apple trees
were opening their myriad pink chalices for the drowsy bees that
wheeled among them; the leaves wore the waxy green of the early
Maytime; in the garden the lilac buds were bursting; the air was
fresh with the breath of lilies; the aromatic trees gave back the
spicy odors of a burning censer and a thousand muffled bits of
insect music made chorus for the humming of the ruby-throat. And
the old house stood there in spotless white and green as though it
thought it were the center of the landscape, but not for me—they
were all but the settings of that fairy little nest.

Flycatchers.

Order, Passeres.
Family, Tyrannidae.

Family Characteristics: Generally drab above and white beneath
or dark olive above and pale yellow beneath.

The kingbirds are noisy. The phoebe and pewee call their names
plaintively. Flycatchers usually sally forth for insects returning at
once to their original perches. Their bills are short and their mouths
wide and they generally have small hairs at the base of the bill. De-
voted partners, they are usually seen in pairs. They are the greatest
insect destroyers known unless it be the swallows.

444, KINGBIRD. (Beebird.) Tyrannus tyrannus. Hight inches
long. Black above. White beneath. Black tail, edged with white
band. Has a concealed red crest. Usually four eggs, spotted with
brown. A great bug- and fly-eater.

447. ARKANSAS KINGBIRD. Tyrannus verticalis. Nine inches
long. Easily known from its resemblance in habits to the kingbird.
Brownish drab above, pale yellow below. Black tail. A great chatterer.
Its nest and eggs are almost exactly like those of the kingbird and it
has also the concealed crest of red. Very common.

459. OLIVE-SIDED FLYCATCHER. WNuttallornis Borealis. Seven
inches long. Olive on sides with light yellow throat. Dark olive above,
points darkest, the head, wings and tail being an olive-black. It has
strongly the characteristics of its family.

452. CRESTED FLYCATCHER. Myiarchus crinitus. Nine inches
long. Distinguished by a crest. Olive above and light yellow be-
low except for dark gray throat. Brown points. Two white wing-bars.

467. LEAST FLYCATCHER. (Chebec.) Empidonax minimus.
Slightly smaller than an English sparrow. Olive gray above, dull white
below. Its two white wing-bars and the calling of its name, chebec,
serve to identify it.

456. PHOEBE. Sayornis phoebe. Seven inches long. Black
brownish-gray, darkest on crown. Breast yellowish white. Looks like
a pocket edition of kingbird. Record—never did wrong. Pronounces
his name often. Nests under bridges. Eggs white. Insect-eater.

461. WOOD PEWEE. Contopus virens. About the size of an
English sparrow. Dull olive above, dull gray below. Calls its name,
“‘pe-wee’’, ‘‘pe-wee’’, “‘pe-wee’’, at long intervals. Resembles phoebe,
but is smaller. Twe white wing-bars.

38 BIRDS OF THE WEST

KINGBIRD.

This king is a tyrant if. another bird gives consent. A better
name than kingbird would be ‘‘the bluffing flyeatcher’’ for he is
king neither by right of regal beauty nor kingly manner. He is a
tantalizer of birds.

Who has not seen him sally forth from his perch, tap some
passing bird upon the head and return? When we see him high
in the air in pursuit of a crow or a hawk, we smile to think that
those big birds are being whipped by the little kingbird, but they
hardly know that he is following them. They have business and
regard him about as you would a barking ‘‘black and tan.’’

He always strikes from behind and never fights wing to wing.

If he would only attend to his business of eating bugs and
eanker worms he would be a much beloved bird. Many people
think that he eats bees and he does, but only the drones—except
when he makes the wrong guess. It must be quite a trick to tell
a drone from a worker when they are in full flight. How in the
world do you suppose they do it? Some think it is due to keen
sight but I have often wondered if the buzzing of the drones is
not on a lower key and if it is not hearing rather than sight that
aids them.

The male bird has a concealed crest that is rose-colored and
it is claimed for him that he throws the feathers of his head forward
when a bee approaches, thus offering him a sort of a milliner’s
rose as a decoy. The bee makes a bee-line for it and finds a pair
‘of open jaws, thus supplying a dinner rather than getting one.

When I was a little boy, my Sunday school teacher told me
that the birds were all called together soon after the dawn of
creation and told that the one that went highest into the air should
be king of the birds, so they all started upward together. One
after another, mud-hen, prairie chicken, sparrow, swallow and the
rest fell to the ground exhausted, leaving the old eagle apparently
the winner, when suddenly the kingbird that had concealed him-
self on the eagle’s back shot upward and won the title.

The principal inconsistency in this story is that the bee-bird
kept still long enough to fool the eagle, for he is an incessant chat-
terer. However, a little color is lent to the story, for he is forever
trying to get upon the backs of the big birds.

BIRDS OF THE WEST 39

The kingbird in late summer is very common and his nest en-
tirely exposed. It is a serviceable nest of silver-colored weeds and
white wrapping twine and bits of wool, and the four pretty eggs
with chestnut blotches are guarded very carefully. If you go near
the nest, you will get a fearful scolding for they then become the
most demonstrative of birds and trust to defending their nests
rather than concealing them.

PHOEBE.

A translation into English of their bird notes has given us
the names of a few of our birds. The chick-a-dee, the whip-poor-
will, the chewink, the cuckoo and the phoebe all pronounce their
names for you.

The phoebe builds a wonderful nest. It is made of mud, ve-
neered with moss and lined with feathers and bits of wool. Sure-
ly no nest is better calculated to keep the eggs and babies warm.
Like many another good thing there is often a drawback. Such
a nicely feathered nest is in danger of being converted into a bug
house and it is not unusual to find a brood of phoebe’s babies lying
dead within their abandoned home, the poor little victims of para-
sites.

Once upon a time they built their nests far from the haunts of
men and I have found them on the sides of cliffs near the water,
but now they come closer to town and build around old mills and
abandoned houses. I am almost sorry that they are doing this,
for all animals learn bad habits in town. City culture is an awfully
bad thing for them.

As you drive along country roads you are almost sure to find
a phoebe’s nest if you look under the bridges, but do not confuse
them with the barn swallow, that also builds his muddy nest be-
neath the bridge. There will be little trouble in telling them apart
if you are watchful, for the barn swallow always wears his purple
swallow-tail coat while phoebe dresses like a Quaker.

In climbing to reach a phoebe’s nest, I once loosened it so
that it would not rest longer in its place, so I set it upon a nearby
beam, but the phoebe didn’t mind my interference a bit and went
on with her household duties. Most birds would have abandoned
their nests under such circumstances.

The cry of the phoebe is a plaintive one. You could easily

40 BIRDS OF THE WEST

imagine that the little mother had been killed and that her mate
who without promising to do it loves and cherishes her until death
parts them, is sadly calling for her. Every springtime the hus-
band comes north two weeks before his wife to look up a location
or to busy himself around the old home; then he will sit for hours
and call ‘‘Phoebe! Phoebe! Phoebe!’’ drooping his tail and crying
as though he were nearly dead from loneliness. What he lives on at
that time is hard to tell, for his chosen insect food is still unhatched.
You may be sure that all of the flycatchers pay their way and are
worth their pay.

Once I saw a hunter level his gun at a phoebe as he sat upon
a willow branch calling his mate; I saw it fall and as I rushed to
take it in my hand I found it only wounded.

And oh, the silken jacket,

And the little yellow vest,

And oh, the little throbbing heart,

And oh, oh, all the rest,

And the little eyes that sparkled

As I took him in my hand,

And I fear he thought I did it

For he didn’t understand.

~~

Larks.

Order, Passeres.
Family, 'Alaudidae.

474b. PRAIRIE HORNED LARK. Octocoris alpestris praticola.
Length seven and one-half inches. Black line extending from sides of
mouth and black necklace. Back, pale wine-colored brown. Yellowish
white throat. Black tail, except in flight when white feathers are visi-
ble. Fast little roadrunner. Found by the roadside in the fields es-
pecially on the plains.

What do you think of a little bird with horns? Do you think
that he must be very, very bad? No so, for they are not real horns,
only some long feathers that stick up from the sides of his head
like feathers on a lady’s hat. The lady lark wishing perhaps, to set
the ladies of society a good example, never wears plumes even in her
Easter bonnet. It is only the gentleman lark that wears them, .
but it may be that he belongs to some secret society and the plumes
are a part of his regalia and that may be the reason that he got the
name of ‘‘lark’’.

It is April now, but they have already nested, not the meadow-
larks, for they are too busy giving concerts, but the horned-larks
that have spent the winter with us. He’s the ‘‘early bird’’, but
he’s too early for the worm. The sparrow-like nest and the spar-
row-like eggs and the sparrow-like bird would lead you to suspect
that he is a sparrow, but he is not. He is the first cousin and near-
est American relative of the European skylark, of which Shelley
sang:

‘Higher still and higher,

From the earth thou springest;

Like a cloud of fire,

The blue deep thou wingest,

And singing still dost soar and soaring ever singest.’’

Our horned-lark, it is said, often shows the family character-
istie by a song-flight, but while I have seen the flight, I have never

42 BIRDS OF THE WEST

heard the musie ‘‘till the sweet-voiced bird has flown,’’ and then
only the spirit of a song.

On the unsettled prairie land west of the Missouri river, it is
the most common of all birds, but in the more thickly settled parts
of the west it is far less numerous. While you are driving out into
the country you may see many of them flying over the fields, but
if you wish to get a good view of one, watch the road-ruts ahead of
you. When you come upon him he will squat down into the dust,
trusting to his similarity in color to deceive you; he will pull in
his horns too, hoping (not hopping, he never hops) thus to escape
notice. If he sees that you are aware of his presence, he will take
to his heels and run up the road like a racer and if he cannot beat
you he will take to his wings.

His diet is a prairie diet of bugs and seeds and his book aec-
count with man always shows a balance in his favor for there is
never a charge against him.

Crows and Jays.

Order, Passeres.
Family, Corvidae.

Family Characteristics: The crows are black, the jays largely
blue. Harsh voices. Mischievous and intelligent birds of large size.
They will eat meat, grain or anything else. They are of no great
economic value, but as a part of the landscape they could hardly be
spared.

488. AMERICAN CROW. Corvus Americanus. Seventeen inches
long. Black all over with violet gloss. Nests in tall forest trees. A
social bird. Can be identified by his cry, “Caw!” “Caw!” Very in-
telligent.

477. BLUE JAY. Cyanocitta cristata. Eleven inches long. Blue
above. Black collar. Wings and tail blue with white stripes. Breast
dull white. Bill black. Has acrest. A brilliant bird but mischievous.

484. CANADA JAY. (Camp Robber.) Perisoreus canadensis.
‘I'welve inches long. Gray above and beneath. Darker tints on wings
and tail. Dull black on back of head and neck. Lighter gray on
breast. Throat and neck white. Very sociable and even bold.

475. MAGPIE. Pica pica hudsonica. Nineteen inches long. Tail
long for a bird of its size. Black except wings and breast which have
much white. Common along parts of Missouri River and Black Hills.
Very intelligent and mischievous. Bill black. Nest very large and
contains almost anything. Eats almost anything. It is said to be
unlucky if you see only one.

486a. NORTHERN RAVEN. Corvus Corax principalis. Two feet
long. Resembles the common crow. Not common though seen occa-
sionally along the Missouri River. Color ‘a blue-black. Nests on cliffs
and places hard to reach. Most birds of this family have greenish
eggs heavily blotched. Eats refuse.

AMERICAN CROW.

Although the crow is a bird of conspicuous plumage, of bad re-
pute and has had a price set upon his head by many bountiful
states, he seems to increase rapidly and to thrive everywhere. He
does so entirely because he has the shrewdness so generally char-
acteristic of birds of the black feather.

44 BIRDS OF THE WEST

Whoever has tried to climb up to the rickety old erow’s nest
in the very top of a tall tree, knows what a job it is, and the very
beauty of the blotched green eggs will often stay his hand from rob-
bing.

That expression ‘‘an eye like an eagle’s’’ could just as
well be ‘‘an eye like a crow’s’’ for nothing escapes him. He knows
when you have a gun and when you haven’t. He can detect poi-
soned corn better than you can tell mushrooms from toadstools,
and you can sneak up on the sentinel-guarded goose better than you
can on him.

He is a miser and uses old stumps as safety deposit vaults.
Down under the bed of leaves within a hollow stump may be found
bits of broken glass, pieces of crockery and tin and many another
eye-charmer placed there by this hoarder of wealth. Now and then
he will visit his treasures, will kick away the leaves, pick his prizes
over and over as though to count them, and then he will bury them
again.

Any assertion that the crow can sing should be challenged for
‘“caws’’—a bad pun to be sure, but he deserves it.

Among his other deeds that are almost as bad as his croaking
song, is his destruction of the young of other birds, his acts of
gluttony when he finds a nestful of eggs and his thievery of corn.

On the other side of the ledger and to his credit are the facts
that he eats fieldmice, worms, and carrion, and looks pretty at a
distance.

For him as for the English sparrow and other birds that have
the worst charged up against them, we need no protective laws.
Even destructive laws have little effect.

With all his meanness there is a fascination about him and the
poets have not been able to forget him.

BLUE JAY.

Fine feathers do not always make fine birds, if they did the
jay would never be hauled before the court. He has often had to
stand trial for tearing to pieces the nests of other birds, of eating
their eggs and even their young. There is hardly a bird-crime
that has not been charged against him, from larceny, mayhem, and
kidnaping to murder, yet he is such an aristocrat that he generally
gets acquitted—even the federal court of the biological department

BIRDS OF THE WEST 45

at Washington on final appeal looked so lightly on his misdeeds
that it let him out on parole. As a matter of fact he does more good
than evil.

A bird with a voice lke his would arouse your suspicion at
all times. If you should see him get angry you would be sure that
much of his talk should not be printed and when he makes love he
does it not as a dove would, nor as a gentleman should, but muchas
aconceited French count might propose to an American heiress. He
bows and scrapes and dances and jabbers. You see this refers to
the male jay for though the words ‘‘garrulous’’ and ‘‘girl’’ are
said to have a common origin, it is not especially the lady jay that
is loquacious.

He is conceited beyond endurance and the only two things in
his favor are his personal appearance and the fact that he plants
seeds, nuts and especially acorns.

It would be too bad to lose him, for we have so few birds in
blue. The bluebird, the indigo bunting, the kingfisher and the jay
are about all. Nature is sparing of her blue and what is true of the
birds is true of the flowers. Perhaps rarity made purple the royal
eolor. Sir John Lubbock says that flowers pass through the stages
of green, white, yellow, and often red, before becoming blue.

Like most of the family (crow), the jay builds a bulky nest
in almost any kind of a tree and of almost any old thing from twigs
to weeds and from roots to rags. Once in a while mud is used and
the four eggs are mud-colored and apparently mud-spotted. Mi-
nerva would have done better to have made him her favorite bird
instead of the owl, and she probably would have done so if he did
not have the persistent habit of talking too much. In other respects
he is wiser than an owl.

CANADA JAY.

About fifteen years ago while camping in the Black Hills we
had spread our table upon the ground beneath a large tree near a
bubbling spring, when to our surprise a number of birds of the
above description, swooped silently down upon the festive board and
helped themselves with the utmost freedom and good fellowship.
We were so astonished and even pleased that we welcomed the
coming guest but when they began to carry our lunch away with

46 BIRDS OF THE WEST

them we felt like speeding the parting guest with something less
desirable than a Godspeed.

Talk about nerve! And table manners! They were as long on
one as they were short on the other.

Campers say that they will even ride down the river with
them in their boats and steal anything from a bar of soap to a sad-
dle of vension, returning for bits of it at regular intervals until they
are bloody from tip to tail. As they do not care for wind nor
weather, often sitting on their eggs so early in the spring that every-
thing freezes but the eggs and themselves, they store up, or lay
down, meat for the winter. Their energy and providence are about
all the good that is evident in them unless you admire that kind of
mischief that is open and above board as his is, for he is a real
free-booter—very free.

They are not as saucy as their cousins, the blue jays, and don’t
really try to steal, for they just assume that the world owes them a
living and they take it. A favorite name for them is Whiskey
John, a name that sounds somewhat like the name that the Indians
gave them. It is a misnomer but doubtless they would drink whis-
key if they could get it for they have never been known to refuse
anything.

MAGPIE.

Along the Missouri River and in the Black Hills, magpies are
to be found in fairly large numbers. They are possessed by devils
if such things are possible, and they can think of more mischief than
a crowd of bad boys. They are easily tamed and become interest-
ing pets, though you must be prepared to have your ink-bottles
tipped over and your papers scattered about the room. A pet mag-
pie owned by so near a friend of mine that I felt that I owned two-

thirds of the bird, had a habit of going to the station as often as a
train came in and riding out of town a mile or two before return-
ing by his easy and graceful flight. One day he failed to return
and it is probable that having gone inside one of the cars, he be-
came the property of some bird-fancier within. It was a common
habit of ‘‘Mag’’ to pester the cat and ‘‘Tabby’’ seemed to submit
as though she had to do it.

Magpies build very large bulky nests and have all kinds of
strange conceits that lead them to work fancy articles into them.

BIRDS OF THE WEST 47

Glass, old bits of broken crockery and such stuff help to gratify
‘‘Mag’s’’ vanity. It would be exaggerating to say that magpies
are of very great economic value, but they are mighty interesting
and we ean’t afford to lose them.

Caged canary birds are not very valuable economically, but
there are many people who enjoy them and that is the only justi-
fication for depriving them of their liberty. It would take some
one stronger in logic than I am to justify such a procedure in any
event. But then ‘‘God made the world for man alone’’ is the
theory and religion of many men.

Blackbirds and Orioles.

Order Passeres.
Family, JZcteridae.

Family Characteristics: Black or black in combination with white,
yellow or red. They generally live in colonies. The blackbirds and
grackles have rather harsh voices but the bobolink, the meadow lark
and the orioles are among our finest singers. They live on insects,
worms and seeds and the small amount of grain they eat is nothing
compared with the good that they do.

498. RED-WINGED BLACKBIRD. Agelaius phoeniceus. Length
nine inches. Male entirely black except a patch of scarlet on his
wings. The scarlet seems tipped with yellow. Female without red on
wings and mottled black and dull drab. Common about swamps and
marshes.

509. RUSTY BLACKBIRD. Scolecophagus Carolinus. About
nine inches long. Rusty black with bluish reflections on neck. No
special color markings as with most blackbirds. Light yellow eyes.

495. COWBIRD. Molothrus ater. Seven and one half-inches long.
Black all over. Copper-colored reflections on neck of male bird. Fe-
male brownish-black. Eats eggs of other birds.

510. BREWER BLACKBIRD. Scolecophagus cyanocephalus.
About nine inches long. Entirely black with strong purple reflections.
Yellow eyes are a noticeable characteristic. Apparently a small-sized
grackle. Common in the Black Hills.

497. YELLOW-HEADED BLACKBIRD. JXanthocephalus Xan-
thocephalus. Somewhat larger than the more common red-winged
blackbird and usually found in company with them. Entire head bright
yellow. Wings with white patches. Hoarse voice when it tries to sing.
Nests are fastened to rushes like the red-wing’s. Very common.

511b. BRONZED GRACKLE. Quiscalus quiscula aeneus. Twelve
and one-half inches long. Entirely black except for a purple and bronze
luster, strongest on body. Yellow eyes. Called ‘“‘crow blackbird’.
Nests in colonies. Has a harsh voice. Bulky nests of mud and dry
grass. They walk much of the time and steer themselves in flight by
their tails. Their voices are bad but their services give them a credit
balance.

Bree HONsFArs a

= 490.8 mm

KILLDEER

Order—LiMIcoLa& Family—CHARADRIIDA&
Genus—EGIALITIS Species—VocIFERA

BIRDS OF THE WEST 49

511. PURPLE GRACKLE. Quwiscalus quiscula. Twelve and one-
half inches long. Entirely black with purple luster. Yellow eyes.
Called “crow blackbird’’. Harsh voice. Nests in colonies. Bulky nests
of mud and dry grass. Differs from the bronzed grackle in having
indistinctly barred plumage.

501b. WESTERN MEADOW LARK. Sturnella magna neglecta.
About the length of the robin but a little larger. Brown and yellow
above. Yellow throat. Black collar. Two white feathers in tail, very
noticeable in flight. Good singer. Nests often roofed over and hard to
find. Very common on the prairies.

507. BALTIMORE ORIOLE. Icturus galbula. Nearly eight inches
long. Black head. Wings black and barred with white. Body bright
orange. Tail yellow and black. Female yellow and brown instead of
orange and black. Builds a high, hanging nest, most often in elms.

506. ORCHARD ORIOLE. Icturus spurius. About an inch long-
er than the English sparrow. The smallest of the blackbirds. Mostly
black above with black head, throat and tail. Orange-chestnut below.
Chestnut on wings. Would never be thought of as a blackbird but as
an oriole. Nest is made of green grass. A valuable insect destroyer.

494. BOBOLINK. (Swamp Blackbird, Rice Bird, Reed Bird.)
Dolichoniz oryzivorus. Seven inches long. Mostly black. Yellowish-
white hood. More or less white on wings and tail. Female mostly
yellowish-brown. Sings while flying.

RED-WINGED BLACKBIRD.

As you wander about a marshy place where the cat-o’nine-
tails grow, you will almost surely see a number of red-wings.
They are sociable birds as are most birds of black feather,
sociable among themselves, but they will lose no time in letting
you know that you are not a welcome visitor. Their ery at such
time is as full of fear and sorrow as an earthly note can be and
much in contrast to the piping of his ‘‘Co-ka-lee’’ as he sits above
his nesting mate. When you approach his nest that is carefully
fastened to the reeds he will hover above you and almost betray
its location. The chances are that you will have to wade to see
it, as they know how to cheat the squirrels and almost every-
thing else except their arch-enemies, men. What a shame that
they are so often put upon the list of birds that may be killed
with impunity!

When you have reached the nest, leave it alone, but notice
4

50 BIRDS OF THE WEST

the peculiar marking upon the eggs. They look as though a three-
year-old baby had been given the little pale blue eggs and a fine
brush full of black paint and told to decorate them. Of course
no two are alike. If you don’t find a cowbird’s egg in every
nest it will be a wonder for the redwing is so amiable that she
never objects.

If you could see the tons of bugs and worms that they eat
in a season, you would never kill one of them. Why, chinch-
bug salad and cut-worm pudding are always on their menu in
season.

For some reason every farmer wants his ‘‘four and twenty
blackbirds baked into a pie’’ or worse than that, wants to see
how many of them he can kill at one shot, for they often are
in very large flocks as they make the valleys ring wlth their
choruses. If you never heard a blackbird chorus in which the
redwings, the yellow-heads, the rustys and the grackles join, you
have missed the prettiest melody of bird music.

Mr. Farmer, please stop shooting them. Don’t you remem-
ber how, while you were wearily trudging behind your plow,
they followed in your furrow and ate the bugs and the grubs
and the worms, keeping you company and cheering you with
their songs? Is corn so dear that you will not give them a very
little share of what they earn?

COWBIRD.

Did you ever see a lot of small birds hanging around where
the cows are, now sitting on their backs, now if the sun is hot,
walking in the cow’s shadow eating flies and bugs that are bother-
ing them? They were cow birds.

There are sacred birds of Egypt that walk into the very
throats of the crocodiles and eat the bloodsuckers, and the
crocodiles never harm them. Doubtless the cows would never
harm their faithful little friends the cow birds, even if they
could, for that would surely dissolve the partnership. The cow
says to the bird ‘‘I will let you use me as a perch, I will let you
keep cool in my shadow, I will decoy bugs for you and scare
hoppers out of the grass with my nose; all that I want you to do
is to eat ‘skeeters’.’’? ‘‘ All right’’ says the cow bird in an under-
tone—and that is about all that he ever says.

BIRDS OF THE WEST 51

But let me tell you the bad things about him. True, we
should never speak ill of anybody, but I'll tell just you, for I
know that you will never mention it. He is a very lazy bird.
He and his wife never build a house. When nesting time comes
lady bunting goes about until she finds a suitable nest be-
longing to another bird, and she lays her eggs in _ it;
the next egg she will very likely lay in another nest. In
that way she imposes upon the red-wing blackbird, the yellow
warbler, the vireo, the lark bunting, the chewink and the spar-
row. So you see she does not always seek the nest of a smaller
bird as many people think, though she generally does that very
thing. The reason for choosing a smaller bird’s nest is that her
baby would crowd the smaller babies out if there were not room
in the nest for all. She seems to me to use even a better method.
She is quite sure to get her eggs into the nest fairly early and
her eggs hatch sooner than those of the larger birds and her
babies mature faster and in that way are quite able to hold their
own. The eggs of some birds you know, will hatch in a week
while others require as long as three weeks.

She has another method of making sure that her young will
get an even start and that is to kick the other bird’s egg out of
the nest.

They say that the reason the cowbird never builds a nest
is that she lays her eggs so many days apart that the first will
spoil by the time the last one is laid. You may believe that
theory if you wish to; I think that the tendency to get lazy is as
strong among birds as among men and that the cow bird, a mem-
ber of our smartest bird family has found this labor-saving
method, for being fairly lazy she probably built a poor nest that
was easily blown to pieces; then when she wanted to lay she found
herself with no nest of her own, so made use of the nest of an-
other.

In the fall when the blackbirds flock, the cow birds join them
but they take little part in the splendid choruses that come from
the tree top that holds a thousand blackbirds, for they have only
a little far-away note and I fear a real song would be too hard
work for them.

52 BIRDS OF THE WEST i
MEADOW LARK.

Nothing in bird life seems more certain to me than that our
meadow lark sings with a clearer and a fuller voice than its eastern
brother. He sings more and oftener too. Every morning bright
and early the voice of the lark is the first to reach my ear, for
there is a splendid specimen that starts in with its favorite song,
‘“‘T’m a pretty creature’’ and sings it almost under my very
window. I should miss it more than the striking of the clock
that tells me it is time to ‘‘arise and shine’’. As often happens
this particular lark has a song of his own not sung by others of
his species, a very rich song that at first fooled me into the be-
lief that a mocking-bird was near.

I have often seen one of them take his place on the top of
a telephone pole and start in upon his repertoire, singing each
song seven times at short intervals then changing to another song
and so on until seven songs were sung. Of course there was not
always perfect accuracy in the count for you must remember
that the lark is an artist and not a scientist.

Of course if you ‘‘know a hawk from a hand-saw’’ you know
the meadow lark with his yellow shirt-waist cut V-shaped and
edged with black at the top of the corsage. You have seen one
walking about on almost every acre of our western prairies, but
you have never seen many of their nests, for they use the dried
grass with which to build them and arch them over so that the
exit is on the side. They even build at times a sort of covered
run-way so that they may sneak without detection a few feet
away from the nest before flying.

There are many of them shot every year by ‘‘sports,’’ none
of course by sportsmen, for they are constantly rising before the
hunters and their flight is wonderfully like that of the prairie-
chicken, so they make good birds to try the gun on.

Who would ever think that he is a blackbird? That’s his
family. Why not? He walks; he flocks; he sings; he loves the
meadows; he eats worms and larvae; he is sociable and has al-
most every habit of the blackbird.

Though useful beyond measure and perfectly harmless he
has many enemies and must lay six eggs at a nesting and must
nest three times in a season. What are his enemies, do you ask?

BIRDS OF THE WEST 53

Oh, squirrels and owls and hawks and snakes and men—about
in that order I should say.

BALTIMORE ORIOLE.

When Lord Baltimore established his colony in Maryland
he was much impressed by the number of bright plumaged birds
that he saw. The one, however, that wore the colors of the
Baltimore family (orange and black) soon became the ‘‘Balti-
more Oriole’’.

The word Oriole means ‘‘golden’’. Perched upon one of the
outer branches of an elm tree the oriole will attract you at first
by his song that has both volume and melody. You will glance
up at him and you will feel at once that an aristocrat has ap-
peared among the birds.

His less conspicuous mate is working a miracle. She is
building a castle in the air. Far out on the tip of a swaying
branch she is weaving horsehair, strings, yarn and plant fiber
into the prettiest nest imaginable. It is a swinging nest, natrow
at the top and very deep, for it must exclude the rain and keep
the hawks and jays from getting at its contents. What enemy
but a winged one can reach it?

Of all the birds this one seems to me to have attained the
greatest perfection in the construction of its nest. Squirrels can-
not run to it, snakes cannot crawl to it, boys cannot climb to it.
It looks almost like a wasp’s nest and I doubt that the birds care
to fly to it.

It is woven thinly enough above to be airy and _ thickly
enough below to be warm and, swinging like a eradle, it makes
poets of the baby birds.

There are few moths, worms and caterpillars around where the
orioles are.

I am sure that when you first saw the male bird in full
plumage you agreed with Lady Oriole:

‘

‘‘For good Mrs. O. who sat hatching her eggs

And only just left them to stretch her poor legs,
And pick for a minute the worm she preferred

Thought there never was seen such a beautiful bird.’’

54 BIRDS OF THE WEST

BOBOLINK.

A man would have to be pretty small himself to shoot so small
a bird as Robert o’Lincoln just to gratify his appetite, but a
mouth that will moisten at turtles and tripe, eels and frog-legs
and possum and skunk will fairly water at the sight of a plate
of bobolinks.

No doubt he is a dainty morsel especially when he has grown
fat in the rice fields of the south where he is known as the rice-
bird and the reedbird, but how absurd it is to want to eat every-
thing that is dainty.

He sings a very pretty song while on the wing, something
that few birds ever do, though of course many of them shout a
characteristic note or two. But the bobolink starts upward with
his song and as he reaches his climax, he floats away to earth
again as lightly as a flake of falling snow. In New England he
is thought to say ‘‘The devil, the devil is in all people for putting
in Bill Prentice as justice of the peace’’. I fear that Bill was
beaten by the bobolinks the next time he ran.

In the west the bobolink is often confused with the lark
bunting which is smaller and wears no hood.

Though our cheerful little friend has many names, Robert
O’Lincoln, nicknamed bobolink, is his real name, more aristocratic
than ‘‘skunk-black-bird’’ which is given him because of his seem-
ing fondness for that malodorous plant of the marshes. Per-
haps he often places his nest near it with the hope that his enemies
will keep their distance.

It is hard to find the nest of Lady Bob for she will sneak
away to quite a distance before she will take to her wings and if
you come upon her while she is sitting upon her eggs she will
very likely crouch and trust to luck for a moment for she wears
her feathers to match her nest.

How strange it is that man is the greatest enemy of the birds!
Squirrels and snakes are not in the same class with him for he
destroys in one way or another as many as are destroyed by all
other causes. How many nests are turned under by the plow!
How many go up in smoke at the burning of the fields in spring-
time! How many fall when man, arm in arm with death, goes
forth in search of food or feathers! They are going. The scarlet

BIRDS OF THE WEST 55

tanager, the tricolor, the cardinal, the indigo bird, the bobolink,
a million billion beauties and a billion trillion songs! Forty per
cent decrease in twenty years! Let us have peace!

Sparrows, Finches, Buntings and
Grosbeaks.

Order, Passeres.
Family, P’ringillidae.

Family Characteristics: They have very short bills for seed-eat-
ing. Those grouped as sparrows vary little from the English sparrow
in size and color. Those grouped as finches vary largely as to size
and color. The grosbeaks as their name implies, have remarkably
heavy bills and the bunting group are sparrow size but darker in color.
The finches are generally good singers and nest low either in the grass
or in bushes. They live largely on the seeds of noxious weeds, such as
thistle, fox-tail grass and sorrel and are therefore of very great value to
gardeners and farmers. Though awkward about catching insects, they
often vary their bread diet with a little meat.

ENGLISH SPARROW. Passer domesticus. Six inches long. Came
to America in 1851. Our ever present street gamin. Too well known
to require close description. Constantly working and chirping. Builds
bulky nests in awnings, trees or any old place. Male has black upper
breast as most conspicuous marking.

560. CHIPPING SPARROW. Spizella socialis. Called also the
social sparrow but he is less sociable in the west than in the east.
Nearly an inch smaller than the English sparrow it can be told by its
chestnut crown, white line over the eye and dull ash-colored breast.
Its note is ‘“‘Chip’’, ““Chip’’, repeated at long intervals. Its nest is al-
ways lined with horse hair and placed higher above ground than that
of any of the sparrows. ~»

563. FIELD SPARROW. Spizella pusilla. About a half-inch small-
er than the English sparrow. Brown above with chestnut crown,
white below. Wings barred with white. Bill brownish-red. Long
tail. Fond of fields and low bushes. Often mistaken for the chipping
sparrow which, however, has a black bill.

585. FOX SPARROW. Passerella iliaca. Nine inches long. Cin-
namon color on back. Darkest on wings and tail. Grayish-white be-
neath. Two white wing-bars.

581. SONG SPARROW. Melospiza melodia. The size of the

BIRDS OF THE WEST 57

English sparrow. Loves the small bushes by the roadside. Dull brown
in streaks above. Gray with dark streaks below. Noticeable black
spot on upper breast. Special tail motion in flight. Sweet singer.

540a. VESPER SPARROW. Poocoetes gramineus confinis. About
the size of its English cousin. Brown in streaks above. White with
dark streaks below. Shoulder patches pale russet. White tail feathers
noticeable in flight . A roadside and grass bird. Often sings in its up-
ward flight. Loves the roadside.

558. WHITE-THROATED SPARROW. Zenotrychia albicollis.
Nearly an inch longer’ than the English sparrow. Generally seen in
flocks during migration. Top of head with two black stripes separated
by a white one. Throat noticeably white. White wing-bars. Called
‘‘Peabody Bird” from its song ‘‘See, see, Peabody, Peabody, Peabody.”
Quite common in early spring.

554. WHITE-CROWNED SPARROW. Zenotrichia leucophrys. An
inch longer than the English sparrow. Crown not white but with sever-
al black and white stripes. Resembles its white-throated cousin but
is without the white throat.

559a. TREE SPARROW. Spizella monticola ochracea. The size
of the English sparrow. Streaked brown above. Dusky white below.
Chestnut patch on head. Black spot on center of breast. Has two
white wing-bars.

546a. GRASSHOPPER SPARROW. Ammodramus savannarum
bimaculatus. Five inches long. Called grasshopper sparrow because
its song resembles the buzzing of that insect. Perches often on wire
fences. Brown above with varied sparrow-like markings. Drab be-
low. Top of head rusty black. Sits quite erect and often sings from
weed stalks. Does not often fly when startled but hides.

FINCHES.

536. LAPLAND LONGSPUR. Calcarius Lapponicus. Nearly an
inch longer than the English sparrow. Generally seen in flocks. Brown
above with black markings, gray below. Given their name because
they nest so far north and because their hind toe-nail is so long. Has
white wing-bars. Sings on the wing.

567. JUNCO. Junco hyemalis. The size of the English sparrow.
One of the snow birds. Slate-colored above. Males almost black on
head and neck. White beneath. A winter bird. Seen in flocks.

517. PURPLE FINCH. Carpodacus purpureus. About the size
of the English sparrow. Not purple except on head but raspberry red.
Brown above. Dull white below. Usually seen in flocks as a winter
visitant. Tail indented.

534. SNOWFLAKE. Passerina nivalis. An inch longer than the

58 BIRDS OF THE WEST

English sparrow. Streaked brown above, white below. Wings white.
Tail, black and white. Bill yellowish. Distinctly a snow bird and lover
of the storm. Winter visitant. Usually seen in flocks.

529. GOLDFINCH. Astragalinus tristis. (Called wild canary
and thistle bird.) Length five inches. Mostly bright yellow. Head
and wings of male black. Flies with a dipping motion. Fond of
thistles and sunflowers. Nests in August.

BUNTINGS.

598. INDIGO BUNTING. Cyanospiza cyanea. Six inches long.
Size of English sparrow but more graceful and slender body. The
color of indigo. Female brown with yellowish-brown breast.

605. LARK BUNTING. Calamospiza melanocorys. About the
size of the English sparrow. Entirely black except on wings which
have white patches. Often mistaken for bobolink but has no yellowish-
white hood and is smaller. Flies a short distance into the air singing,
then almost floats to a perch.

604. DICKCISSEL. Spiza Americana. The size of the English
sparrow. Often seen on fences and telegraph wires with tail hanging.
Pale yellow below with black mark on upper breast. Brownish above.
Sings a great deal.

528. REDPOLL. Acanthis linaria. A little smaller than the
English sparrow. Redpoll means redhead but the redpoll has only
a reddish head. Grayish breast and lower back. Black chin. White
below. Winter birds in this latitude usually seen in large flocks.

521. AMERICAN CROSSBILL. Lovwvia curvirostra minor. Eng-
lish sparrow size. The crossing of the bill is a sure mark of identifica-
tion. Throat and breast reddish and wings brown. Fond of the seeds
of the pine cones. ’

587. CHEWINK. (Towhee.) Pipilo erythropthalmus. Bight
inches long. Black above. Breast white. Sides chestnut. Tail feath-
ers noticeably white in flight. Eyes red. Female brown where male
is black.

GROSBEAKS.

595. ROSE-BREASTED GROSBEAK. Zamelodia ludoviciana.
Eight inches long. Male, black above. Breast rose-color and rose-
color under wings. White markings on wings and tail, very notice-
able in flight. Bill strong and very thick. Excellent singer.

51l4a. EVENING GROSBEAK. Coccothraustes vespertinus mon-
tanus. About eight inches long. Greenish-yellow is the principal
eolor especially below. Bright yellow forehead and above the eyes.

BIRDS OF THE WEST 59

Wings and tail nearly black. Bill strong and very thick. White
' patches on wings and more or less brownish on sides.

593. CARDINAL GROSBEAK. Cardinalis cardinalts. About
nine inches long. Cardinal except around the beak which is black.
Very thick and strong beak. Well crested. Rare in this latitude.

515a. PINE GROSBEAK. Pinicola enucleator montana. About
eight inches long. Red with brown extremities. Wings tipped with
dull white. Has a strong beak which is the distinguishing mark of
grosbeaks.

ENGLISH SPARROW.

‘He does not require six months in which to establish a resi-
dence, for he is at home anywhere and everywhere. If he should
increase as rapidly during the next fifty years as he has in the
last ten years it will keep him busy finding a place to roost. He
seems to have unlimited resources. He will build a nest in a little
less than no time and often one cock sparrow will have two new nests
under way before his first one is finished. If lady sparrows were
hens there would be millions in the poultry business for they are
regular little sleight-of-wing performers when it comes to produc-
ing eggs; and very likely they could produce eggs from your hat
or your pockets if they wanted to.

They were introduced into this country to eat the worms and
bugs from the trees in eastern parks. They have done their work,
and done it well, but the question remains unanswered ‘‘ What can
now be introduced to eat the sparrows?’’ The remedy seems al-
most as bad as the disease.

You cannot help admiring this little disciple of Roosevelt,
for, first of all, he is a fighter from Scraptown and is bound to
have peace if he has to fight for it. He will kill his brother in
a duel and he will fight as many as eight others at a single time.
Once I saw a little sparrow fight his shadow through a window
glass until his face swelled up so that his eyes were nearly shut.
I afterwards heard that he returned every day, for two weeks to
renew the fight. He is a worker from Busyville too. Let down
an awning and often a nest with eggs will tumble out. It makes
little difference to them, however, for work will begin at once on
another nest. They will build in trees, barns, vines, in a deserted
woodpecker’s hole, in a hole in a sandbank and in a multitude
of other places. They have no fear of wind nor weather and dur-

60 BIRDS OF THE WEST

ing the coldest days of winter often go down chimneys to spend
the night and keep warm. Possibly you may have seen a flock
of the little fellows playing in the snow and showing evidence
that they have slept the night before in the coal bin.

He is against race suicide. Different forms of life use dif-
ferent means of preserving their species. Some do it by produc-
ing a multitude of young of which many survive just because
their enemies cannot kill all of them; some regard life as a battle
in which the fittest will survive and therefore they prepare to
fight their way through it, while some live in localities not in-
habited by their natural enemies. Which method does the En-
glish sparrow use? All of them and several more _ besides.

Bird-lovers concede him to the gunner to satisfy the love of
carnage, that element of savagery still left to man, but it is too
bad that they so often have to throw the blackbirds to the tigers,
too. You need waste no sympathy upon the sparrow, however,
for he can take care of himself and a wife or two and a dozen
or more children and if there is a creature on earth that looks
out for number one any better than he does, you would do well
to find him. He hasn’t many friends, but he doesn’t eare.

CHIPPING SPARROW.

In the east a little bird used to come regularly to the door-
step when grandmother shook the tablecloth and with a constant
‘*Chip’’, ‘‘Chip’’, ‘‘Chip’’ between bites, gathered every little
erumb. It was the commonest bird of all until its English cousin
arrived. It is a far less common bird in Dakota.

It gets up at a very early hour and sits up pretty late for such
a little bird but only to sing its song over and over again for
it is a musical little fellow and often wakes up in the night and
trills a dreamy song or two.

What a delicate little nest it builds! And it always lines it
with horse-hair. I used to watch them come to the wooden hitch-
ing posts and tug at the hairs that had been pulled out of the
horses’ manes. ‘Some of them came pretty hard too, but they had
to have them.

Every little bird has a choice of material for its home. I
have never seen an Arkansas flyeatcher’s nest that did not have
white wrapping twine in it, nor a kingbird’s without cotton or

BIRDS OF THE WEST 61

wool, nor a phoebe bird’s without moss, and the only time that
the great crested flycatcher’s nests have been found without
cast-off snake skins in them, they had onion peels and fish scales
as substitutes.

Probably there are no more indulgent parents than chipping
sparrows. They would make you think that they feed each other if
you did not see the look of youth upon the face of the big booby bird
who opens his wide mouth to receive the crumb from his little
mother, and when she flies away for more, he tags on behind to be
sure of getting the next morsel that she finds, and he will coax
for it just as hard as a real boy will coax for a piece of bread and
butter.

Every bird has a certain food which Nature has provided
and in the gathering of which it has become an adept. When
you first ate macaroni, you did not do it as an Italian would; you
probably made a mess of it. So when a chippie eats moths, it is
in strong contrast to the phoebe. It had better stick to seeds and
crumbs if it cares at all for manners.

The nest that holds the four dotted blue eggs of the chippie
is built very often in apple trees which are pretty high for spar-
rows, and chippie is the only sparrow that goes to the trees to
build his home and it is usually so far out among the leaves that
it is hardly visible, but the lazy cowbird finds it, the polygamous
loafer.

FOX SPARROW.

Arriving at the Milwaukee station a few days ago to meet
a train, I learned that it was twenty minutes late, so I slipped
across the track to the island to see and hear. At once I heard
the drumming of a hairy woodpecker who had found a very re-
sonant limb and he was sounding his love tattoo to a maiden of
his kind who very soon came fluttering to him. I saw the newly
sprouting gooseberry bush that last year was the home of my
yellow warbler; I noted that the redwinged blackbird had not
yet returned to claim the little circle of marsh near by. <A
grackle and his mate spread their keel tails and sailed away from
me with a murmur of disapproval. A flicker watched me sus-
spiciously from a rotten tree and countless English sparrows
fluttered busily about. Soon a bird song burst upon my ear—a

62 BIRDS OF THE WEST

sparrow song I was sure. I stood in silence for a while fearing
to take a chance of missing it by intrusion. Presently I glanced
before me and there sat a beautiful fox sparrow. We looked
each other over, stared deep into each other’s eyes. If he thought
as well of me as I did of him, he has been thinking of me almost
ever since. He was the singer of the wonderful song.

Just a little sparrow! I wonder where he is to-night while the
snowy blizzard is raging. Poor little minstrel! Tucked away in
the hole of a fence post? Perhaps he turned his back upon the
storm and on swift wing is riding on its breast to southern sunny
fields. Perhaps bewildered and blinded he has crushed his little
life out against the tower of some tall building, or lies with broken
wing beneath a network of wires.

‘“There have been souls,

Children of heavenly song

That have been.stayed in their wild dreamy flight
And fallen unseen, unknown

As silently

In the dark night.

Yet someone pities them

And someone loves

Them for the simple ine that they bring
To Him who marketh

K’en the sparrow’s fall

On broken wing.’’

He is less sociable than most of the social sparrow family,
yet he was in company with a flock of tree sparrows at the time I
saw him. I fear that you think ill of the sparrows because you
are so familiar with the little gamin of the streets but he is
quite alone in his unpopularity, as other members of his family
are entirely respectable.

I wanted to see the little fox sparrow get down upon the
ground and scratch for he doesn’t do it as other birds do with first
one foot and then the other but he digs in with both at once,
really gets there with both feet.

He is called also the foxy finch, not that he possesses any un-
usual shrewdness but just because he is the color of the red fox.
As a fact, I judge from the meek expression of his face that he

BIRDS OF THE WEST 63
Ei OTL I ae

could easily be imposed upon. All he wants is to be left alone
while he helps the other sparrows to keep the weeds from posses-
sing the earth.

Just as I was about to start him from his perch, his mate
came flying to him and I fear that she whispered something about
me for they both flew hastily away. Then the whistle blew.

JUNCO.

These little ‘‘birds of a feather flock together’’ and are rare-
ly seen except in flocks for they go farther north to break up in-
to pairs for their nesting. They have a reputation for shyness,
yet they flit about the roadsides flying as though in fright,
in and out of the brush and the smaller trees. Many birds
like the meadow lark, the vesper sparrow and the junco
have two white feathers in their tails that are not visible
except in flight when they become quite conspicuous. Did you
ever hear the expression ‘‘showing the white feather’’ meaning to
turn your back and ‘‘light out’’? I imagine that I have suggested
to you the origin of it. |

Especially when the juncos wear their little black cowl they
look like the monks and nuns of bird land and their little backs
are just the color of the clouds on a winter’s day and their
breasts the color of the snow.

If you would see them, you must look closely and watch for
the flash of their white feathers as they flit about you as though
you were a human hawk. You have doubless seen thousands of
them but have glanced at them only as you do at the sparrow
. for which you have probably mistaken them.

They will soon take wings for a colder clime, to Manitoba or
somewhere across the Canadian border to build their nests around
the fallen trees, but when our summer friends, our fair weather
friends, have gone to their sunny winter homes, the tireless little
juncos will come to us again to spend the winter and gather
the weed seeds from our roadsides and, if very hungry, even the
erumbs from our doorsteps.

The notes of the juncos are as sweet as they can be. They
have a quality like that of the bluebirds, a sort of far away, al-
most ventriloqual note that suggests the dreariness of the winter
and early springtime. It is a whistle, a trill and a warble that

64 BIRDS OF THE WEST

makes you feel that the bird is singing for its own delight and not
for yours, for if you come too near, the bushes will soon be un-
tenanted and the music stilled.

INDIGO BUNTING.

There are fortunately some birds that require only to be
seen to be identified. The indigo bird is one of them. You would
never make a mistake in him, but his mate hasn’t an indigo
feather. She’s done in sepia and is an indigo bird only by courte-
sy. Her husband is the blue-feathered aristocrat and he’s some-
thing of a snob too. As he is a cousin to the sparrows that are
such common birds, he no doubt feels that he is the swell member
of the family and looks down upon his relatives.

Nearly everyone that I have ever seen was posing upon a
telegraph or telephone wire. That is about as high as they ever
fly and that is higher than sparrows generally rise.

The male is a rather pretty singer but disappointing. He
starts out with his song as though he were going to make the
valleys and the woodland ring with his rapid warble and then
it frazzles out and fades away and you feel as though he thought
to himself ‘‘Oh, what’s the use of singing to common people!”’
He always acts about his singing as though he were just home
from conservatory and wanted to be coaxed.

Emerson says that the theory of compensation runs through
everything and it is true that while Nature is lavish enough with
her gifts she keeps a pretty nice balance after all. The birds
of brightest plumage are rarely those of sweetest song. Your
flicker with his fancy vest has a voice like an auctioneer and
your blue jay with his loud clothes has a gambler’s voice as well.
The wood duck is probably the best dressed bird in the country,
but he has a poor ear and a poor voice for music. When it comes
to solo work with its tone placing and phrasings and tremulos
give us the brown thrasher or the plain gray ecatbird and for
choruses give us the blackbird.

The indigo bird seems to have a well trained voice.

He is one of the birds that make you feel that he is a long
way from home, for he is rare in Dakota and very unlike any
others of our birds. He really shows royal tropical colors and you

i
j

Brvce HonjnsFar r» - |

RED-WINGED BLACKBIRD
(UpPER Ficure, Mace; Lower FiGcure, FEMALE)

Order —PASSERES Family —IcTERID&
Genus—AGELAIUS Species—PHENICEUS

BIRDS OF THE WEST 65

would almost suspect that he had escaped from the cage of the
King of the Isle of Spice.

I have always noticed him by a roadside and his nest is
always low rather than high up im the branches, and I have no
doubt he chooses such a place for his nest because his worst
enemies are the birds of prey. All of them except always the blue
jay, who is not really a bird of prey, but only a degenerate, spend
their time and build their nests away from the haunts of men.
Thus the little song birds frequent the thoroughfares. If we
could only get the butcher-bird to move to town, away would go
the English sparrows. However he comes to town only occasional-
ly but when he does he has a high old time cleaning up the spar-
rows.

CHEWINK.

In Connecticut where it is more common than in the west,
this was my favorite bird. As a child there were many fancies
that clung about the bird and it seemed to me that the ‘‘chewink’’
was making love to the ‘‘towhee’’ for his mate, to a novice is an
entirely different bird.

Rarity makes almost anything a prize whether it be diamonds,
charity, books, sweetbreads or the rara avis.

Last summer I searched a long time for a nest. The birds
betrayed by their anxiety that it was near and it is a wonder that
the nest and its eggs were not crushed for it was on the ground
among the dry leaves that were in abundance in the little thick-
et. In fact it was made of them. If it had been stepped upon,
several cowbird eggs would have disappeared too, for the little
nest was packed full of the eggs of both birds. As it was, the
cowbird eggs disappeared mysteriously and the chewink was the
gainer by my visit.

There is always a special fascination for the birds among
whom the females are wholly different from the males as is the
ease with the chewink, the indigo bird, the grosbeak, the red-
start, the oriole, the goldfinch and most of our very conspicuous
birds, and there is a reason or an instinct in nature for the female
to be less conspicuous, for they spend so much time upon their
nests that their enemies have a far better chance to detect and

secure them.
5

66 BIRDS OF THE WEST

If the man behind the gun had been a part of nature’s plan
I have no doubt that all birds would have had more somber colors.
What a life it must be to be in the enemy’s country all the time!

By the way, the chewink is the bird that Thomas Jefferson
discovered upon his farm and became so much interested in.
He wrote with great interest to the scientists of his time about it
and it became his special favorite.

ROSE-BREASTED GROSBEAK.

In a little while, as soon as the buds have burst upon the
maple trees, you will be startled at the song of the grosbeak which
will fall upon your ear with an amazing sweetness. You will
never forget the day. That song is as full of music as its little
heart is full of love.

Follow the song and you will find it coming from one of the
prettiest birds that ever spread a wing. If you say ‘‘Handsome
is that handsome does’’, and ‘‘Is not the bluejay pretty and
pretty bad too?’’ the answer is ‘‘The grosbeak is pretty and pretty
good too’’.

As he sits high up in the tree-top trying to fill the world
with music, he looks as though his throat had burst from the full-
ness of his song and his heart’s blood had stained his throbbing
breast. Not so with his modest mate. Never a red feather in
her trousseau, just a brown and yellow to catch her fellow.

As though it were not enough to be pretty and to sing sweet-
ly, the grosbeak is handy about the house. He helps make up the
nest. He helps to get dinner. He even does his share in the
nursery, sitting part of the time upon the eggs or singing mamma
and babies to sleep in their little cradle of straw.

Yes, even at midnight when the reflected light of the rounded
moon sheds a radiance upon his cradled loved ones, he will watch
above them and warble to the night the echo of his day-song. If
you must shoot him, shoot him then.

He has been called the potato-bug bird because of his ae
however, his gross beak tells us that he cracks nuts and seeds for
food as well.

He may be plentiful in some localities but it is doubtful,
for millinery ‘‘has marked him for her own’’ and ‘‘Death loves
a shining mark’’. His presence in gardens creates the farmer’s

BIRDS OF THE WEST 67

suspicion but he would no more eat his filthy garden truck than
he would sing rag-time.

It is wrong to charge too much against the milliners. Let it
be said that the slaughter of birds for hats is ceasing, but the
reports of the National association show that it has not wholly
ceased. It will cease when high-minded women refuse to wear
as badges of cruelty the nuptial plumes of the bride-grooms of
the air.

GOLDFINCH.

They say that all blackberries are red when they are green,
so too, many members of the blackbird family are without black
plumage. Neither is every bird a yellowbird that is yellow.

You should have no trouble in knowing the goldfinch when
you see him for he wears a golden jacket with black sleeves and a
tiny black cap. Little Mrs. Finch goes around bareheaded like
all the girls and is very modest in her dress.

In birdland you know, the boys dress better than the girls.
Domestication seems to upset every thing. And why shouldn’t
they dress better? In birdland the boys are always the ones
that propose and they must look their best and they always get
a nice new spring suit in preparation for their May or June wed-
dings. You ask if it is not necessary for the girls to dress prettily
to attract them? Oh, no. They all get married anyway. There
are no such things as bachelors and old maids among them. Alas!
There are widows, and widowers and very many little orphans
because boys and men and women and girls are not all dead yet.
It is not a part of Nature’s plan by any means.

You will find goldfinches in flocks except during the short
nesting season, for they are regular little gypsies. You can
never tell when you will see them, the little nomads! Last Decem-
ber a flock of them hung around Pierre for a few days even while
the snow was on the ground. That made no difference for they
wallowed in it or clung to the sides of weeds to gather their
favorite seeds. ,

They are the greatest little bathers you ever saw. After a
rain, sometime, you may see a puddle of water with its outer
edge just trimmed with yellow and black and a real wreath of
spray will enclose it. They will come and go, rising and dipping,

68 BIRDS OF THE WEST

dipping and rising and chirping a succession of sweet little notes
all tuned to your ear and to your heart.

They brood in August. Why? Because the prickly weeds
don’t have their seeds ready for the goldfinch babies until then.
And they must feed them on thistle seeds and they must line
their little nests with thistle down, the very soul and spirit of
the flowers.

Swallows.

Order, Passeres.
Family, Hirundinidae.

Family Characteristics: Five and one-half to seven and one-half
inches long. Wide wing-spread. Nearly always seen on the wing.
Live in colonies and twitter rather than sing. From dark gray to
purplish black above with breasts from white to buff.

They live on mosquitoes, moths and insects of nearly all varieties
and work without ceasing. No birds can be of more value. They
are real pest-destroyers.

613. BARN SWALLOW. J4Hirundo erythrogastra. Six and one-
half inches long. SBlue-black above, russet beneah. Large wing-
spread. Forked tail. Very common. Nests in barns and under

bridges.

611. PURPLE MARTIN. (A swallow.) Progne subis. Seven and
one half inches long. Male black with purple luster. Wings longer
than tail. Tail forked. Female gray beneath and faded above. Seen
in town where it nests in boxes or under cornices.

612. EAVES SWALLOW. (Cliff Swallow.) Petrochelidon luni-
frons. Length of English sparrow. Wide wing-spread. Bluish-drab
above. An inconspicuous gray crescent about the neck. Soiled white
beneath. Best identified by gourd-shaped, mud nests built under the
eaves of barns or on the sides of cliffs. Tail without forks.

616. BANK SWALLOW. Riparia riparia. Somewhat shorter
than the English sparrow. Its wide wing-spread makes it look larger
than it is. Gray above shaded to brown. White below. Tail not
swallow-tailed. Nests in holes dug in sand banks and railroad cuts.

614. TREE SWALLOW. Tachycineta bicolor. Nearly English
sparrow length. Wide wing-spread. Bluish-green reflections above,
white beneath. Tail slightly forked. Nests in hollow trees when it
can and, therefore, is rare on the prairies.

CHIMNEY SWALLOW. This is not a swallow but a member of
the swift family.

70 BIRDS OF THE WEST

BARN SWALLOW.

‘One swallow does not make a summer’’, but he does what
he can, for when he begins his ‘‘twittering from the straw-built
shed’’, you may know that summer is in the making. You can
tell him by his bluish broadcloth coat with its swallow-tails and
his russet colored velvet vest which he never forgets to wear. As
usual in bird-land the ladies are more quietly dressed than their
husbands, so { am not describing them in these articles, leav-
ing you to judge them by the company they keep.

‘he first thing that you will notice about the barn swallow
will be his poetry oi motion. With light body and large wing-
spread, he can dart and skim and circle as though he possessed a
magic charm that baiiied gravitation. t'or miles he will cirele
about you as you drive along the country roads, keeping his
mouth wide open to gather in the flies that gather about your
horses. Did you ever see them as they glide above the surtace
of a quiet pond, dipping lightly into the water and setting in
motion the ever widening circles? ‘here is no prettier sight.

Whoever called this little flycatching swallow a bird of evil
omen was either wise or foolish; foolish if he knew no better, wise
if he was the farmer who first told it to some mischievous boys to
keep them from killing his swallows for they are birds of value
to the farmer and add much fat and contentment to the poor
fly-bitten cattle.

Do not mistake them for the eaves swallows that have taken
the eaves of the barn for the settlement of their colony and peek
at you from the tiny holes in their gourd-shaped nests of mud.
You must go inside the barn or out under the shed to find the
feather-lined home of the barn swallow. Both nests are made of
pellets of mud mingled with straw, but the barn swallow as he
lives under shelter makes no roof to his house. You ean hardly
tell by looking at the long, thin-shelled, lightly spotted eggs, what
kind of swallows will some out of them, they are so nearly alike,
but it makes little difference anyway. They will catch about the
same number of mosquitos for you.

BIRDS OF THE WEST 71

PURPLE MARTIN—(A SWALLOW.)

As you are walking up the main street of almost any town
in the state, your ear will catch the conversation of a little colony
of martins. ‘‘Every interpretation of their thought is a melody.
Their household words are songs.”’

Glancing upward to the telephone wire you will very likely
see them perching upon it, the males so deep a purple that they
are almost black.

They will not rest there long for they spend most of their
time upon the wing and if you will watch them you will soon see
that they have chosen for a home a place within the ridge of a
store building which they enter at a knot hole or by an opening
made by the weather-warped boards.

There was a time when a little birdhouse placed upon a pole
would bring blue birds or martins to you im numbers, but now
the English sparrow exercises his squatter right, and while either
bird can whip the sparrow, he doesn’t care for the job of making
that his exclusive occupation, so he moves on rather than be con-
stantly annoyed.

The purple martin is one of the birds that like the passenger
pigeon has suftered a frightful decrease in numbers within the
last decade. ‘ihe birds that lve in colonies are the ones that
suffer most.

‘*'o kill two birds with one stone’’ is fascinating and to many
people it is bliss to shoot into a colony of birds and cover the ground
with the dead and dying. Now and then a fellow will do it but he
is the one who fishes with a seine. It takes only half as many
letters to spell his name as it does to spell martin.

When the boll-weevil scared the cotton planters until they
feared that the cotton plant would perish from the earth, the
martin was one of the birds that went to the rescue, for like all
the swallows he is fond of flying insects. Probably there are no
birds of greater value than those of the swallow family, and if
any man feels that he must shoot a martin, let him do it on the
wing for the martin is sportsmanlike enough to take its own game
that way.

72 BIRDS OF THE WEST

BANK SWALLOW.

Perfect little darters and skimmers through the air, they
seem to be letting the wind toss them about and play with them
while they abandon themselves to the fun of it, yet they are
gathering a good square meal of flying insects.

They have learned the protective value of digging little holes
in the side of a sand bank where hardly anything can reach them
but feathered enemies and if they are larger than the swallows
they will find great difficulty in entering the front door of the
little cave-dweller’s home.

The inevitable English sparrows make good use of these
eyelone cellars in bad weather and often make their winter homes
within them. At the remote end of each cave, which is usually
the depth of an arm’s length, they place a bit of hay and swallow-
like line the nest with a liberal supply of feathers. Their eggs
are white, very thin shelled as are those of all swallows, and the
swallow crop is a pretty sure one.

The swallows are communistic and you will find colonies of
them in railroad cuts, in sand banks and in the sides of cliffs.
Certainly he has the best of the others of his kin in respect of
his nesting but they are nearer than he is to their food supply for
they keep closer to the cattle sheds, but what to a swallow is the
flight of a mile?

If science were to give medals to the birds that live
‘‘For the heaven that smiles above them
And the good that they can do’’

I have no doubt that the little swallows would each wear a gold
medal about his pretty throat. The boll-weevil, the dreaded
stegomyia and others of his like find in the swallows their im-
placable foes. Already the cry has come from the south ‘‘Save
the swallows.

Waxwings.

Order, Passeres.
Family, Ampelidae.

619. CEDAR WAXWING. Ampelis cedrorum. Length seven
inches. Brown above. Crested. Breast yellowish-brown. Red spots
on wings resembling wax. Black band separating hat from jacket. Yel-
low band across end of tail feathers.

CEDAR WAXWING.

Very much of a globe-trotter is this very pretty bird with
his brown panne-velvet jacket and crested hat to match. The
most sociable of birds, he travels in such large flocks that the
supply of worms, bugs and berries upon which he feeds is soon
exhausted in a given neighborhood, when he moves on. He is
of an exclusive family, only three varieties having been found,
two in America, the third in Japan and they look more like Jap-
anese than they do like American birds. The name is given them
because their wings have small red spots that look as though
melted wax had been dropped upon them.

They have society appetities and perfect table manners and
when you see a dozen of them sitting upon a limb do not be
surprised if another should suddenly arrive and taking his place
quietly at the end of the limb, offer a choice worm to his nearest
friend with a soft remark in an undertone. You will probably
not understand the remark but doubtless it was ‘‘After you,
Alphonse’’, or something of the kind. Then Alphonse will pass
it along to Gaston and Gaston to Leon and so on, until it has been
passed to the end of the table and returned, when it is very daintily
eaten by the original giver. They are so fond of juniper berries
even in a state of decomposition that there is a suspicion that
they lke an after-dinner cordial.

Whenyou see the top of a tree just loaded with them, you will
find here and there a lonely outpost in adjoining trees and if
there is cause for alarm, the colony will rise and adjourn in eir-
cling flight to a place of greater safety.

74 BIRDS OF THE WEST '

As they are so fond of evergreen trees, they are not of wide
distribution and are not generally regarded as common in this
section, but, in fact, there are very many of them as you will find
out after identifying your first one.

They nest late in the year, probably because they wait till
the berries are ripe, as it must be quite a job for waxwings to
feed their young and they certainly must hate to take a chance
of soiling their pretty clothes by doing such work. Their nests
are not very well made and into all that I have ever seen they had
woven some white wrapping twine. During the period of nest-
ing they are very lonesome and spend much of the time billing
and kissing each other.

Shrikes.

Order, Passeres.
Family, Laniidae.

621. NORTHERN SHRIKE. Lanius borealis. Robin size and
larger than its relative, the loggerhead. Slate color above and light
slate color beneath. Wings and tail black with a few white feathers.
Black patch runs horizontally backward from bill beyond the eye.
Slightly curved beak.

622. LOGGERHEAD SHRIKE. Lanius ludovicianus. Nine inches
long. Bird mostly gray except wings, tail and cheeks, which are black.
White feathers in tail. Bill hooked. Very common in Black Hills.

LOGGERHEAD SHRIKE.

Sitting on his lookout, the dead limb of a tree that overlooks
an open space where the smallest birds have their feeding grounds,
there is a cannibalistic villian waiting and silently plotting a
multitude of crimes. Presently you will see him swoop down
upon them and such a scattering you never saw in your life. No
human beings ever fled before a cyclone with greater fear than
_ do the little birds at the approach of this outlaw, for some one of
them loses its life and its body is borne in the butcher’s beak and
hung upon a thorn or upon the barb of a wire fence as a butcher
hangs his beef.

I have seen that easy downward glide with hardly the move-
ment of a wing and with the speed of a ski-jumper at the foot
of his slide, and it seemed hardly possible that it ended in mur-
der for it was the very poetry of motion.

Have you not seen little birds hanging on a barb? Perhaps
you have seen the little gopher dangling from a wire fence and
thought that the small boy had put him there. No, it was the
loggerhead shrike. And why does he hang them there? Because
he kills many times as much as he can eat. He just hungers
and thirsts for bird blood.

76 BIRDS OF THE WEST

Why is it, do you think, that a bird like the shrike, that can
kill almost anything that flies, if it is not so very much bigger
than he is, that lays four eggs or more and builds his nest out of
reach of snakes, still remains a rare bird? It must have an
enemy somewhere. While in the country last summer I came
upon a shrike’s nest and its four eggs were broken as though a
tiny bill had just tapped them. Can it be possible that the smaller
birds thus keep down their enemies? What a daring deed for a
little bird! He was the David of his race.

There is just one use to which this bird could be put. If
he would come to town and kill English sparrows, he would be
worth while, not that the killing of sparrows is to be especially
commended, but we can spare them best and they are like the Chi-
nese; the loss of a few of them would not put the race in danger
of extermination.

Vireos.

Order, Passeres.
Family, Vireonidae.

Family Characteristics: Mostly heard from the foliage of trees
where they feed. Though common, they are rarely seen. Small birds
about the size of sparrows, but more suggestive of the warblers. Their
plumage is a combination of yellow, drab, gray and white. They live
almost entirely on bugs and insects which they find on trees.

624. RED-EYED VIREO. Vireo olivaceus. Slightly longer than
the English sparrow. Called ‘‘Teacher’’ because of its song. Light
olivie above, white below. Long, white mark over its eyes. Keeps well
in hiding among the tree-leaves. Eyes red. Points light yellow.

627. WARBLING VIREO. Vireo Gilvus. Nearly ‘an inch shorter
than the English sparrow. Habits similar to those of the red-eyed
vireo. Olive-gray above, yellowish-white below. Sides of breast and
shoulders pale yellow. White line through the eye.

626. PHILADELPHIA VIREO. Vireo Philadelphicus. Over an
inch shorter than the English sparrow. Olive above, lighter on crown.
Yellow below. White line over the eye.

631. WHITE-EYED VIREO. Vireo noveboracensis. Nearly an
inch shorter than the English sparrow. Olive above, white below.
Sides yellowish. White wing-bars. A yellow line around its white
eyes identify it.

Warblers.

Order, Pusseres.
Family, Mniotiltidae.

Family Characteristics: Smaller than English sparrow. So-called
wild canary is a type. Color yellow and olive as a rule. Restless and
active.

They live mainly on small insects which they find on trees and
shrubs and on the seeds of noxious weeds.

652. YELLOW WARBLER. Dendroica aestiva. Five inches long.
Light olive above. Light yellow beneath. Wings and tail darker and
edged with brown.

655. MYRTLE WARBLER. Dendroica coronata. A little shorter
than the English sparrow. Blue back. White throat. More or less
black streaks on otherwise dull white breast. Distinguishing marks
are yellow patches on head, each side of breast and lower back. Wings
lightly barred with white.

687. REDSTART. Setophaga ruticilla. The size of the yellow-
bird. Mostly black above. Breast white and orange. Tail orange
and black. Female lemon color where male is orange.

68la. NORTHERN YELLOWTHROAT. Geothylpis trichas occiden-
talis. Five inches long. Olive green above. Yellow beneath, deepest
on throat. With a black mask.

662. BLACKBURNIAN WARBLER. Dendroica Blackburniae.
Warbler size. Throat orange. Head orange and black, yellow and
white beneath. Points black with some white.

654. BLACK-THROATED BLUE WARBLER. Dendroica caeru-
lescens. Warbler size. Throat black, white beneath. Slaty-blue above.
White spots on wings and tail.

BIRDS OF THE WEST 79

648. PARULA WARBLER. Compsothylpis Americana. Warbler
size. Slaty-blue above with a light olive patch on the back. Yellow
below growing lighter towards tail. Wings have white spots.

673. PRAIRIE WARBLER. Dendroica discolor. Warbler size.
Olive above, spotted with red. Yellow beneath. Wings barred with
yellow. Sides black, starting from eye.

636. BLACK AND WHITE CREEPING WARBLER. MUMniotilta
varia. Warbler size. Black and white stripes above. White eye-ring.
Black and white stripes beneath. Points faded black. Creeps about
trees much as woodpeckers do.

674. OVENBIRD. Seiurus aurocapillus. See thrushes. Actually
a warbler, but resembles thrushes more.

661. BLACK POLL WARBLER. Dendroica striata. Warbler
size. Black crown. Olive and black above, lighter towards tail. White
with black stripes below.

YELLOW WARBLER.

If you see a bird a little smaller than the English sparrow,
trimmer, neater and better dressed, with olive coat and yellow
vest, no matter what stripes, dots, collars and neckties he may
wear, you are quite safe in calling it a warbler.

Sparrow, swallow, finch, thrush and many other names are
like Smith, Jones, Brown and Robinson, the names of families,
and to merely call a bird a warbler is not enough to mark him.

The month of May is the warbler’s month and so is Septem-
ber, for in those months we see most of them in migration. Active
and nervous little birds, they flit about the tips of the branches
up-side-down or down-side-up, restlessly searching for the tiny
eggs, bugs or seeds upon which they live.

A good type is the yellow warbler, the sprite that many of
you know as the wild canary. It is a dear little bird and I will
tell you some of its good qualities. It is pretty, industrious and
domestic. It sings sweetly, builds skillfully and makes the
world better for having lived. What more could you ask of a
little bird?

All birds have strong likes and dislikes. Hach tree-nesting
bird has its favorite tree. The waxwing loves the cedar; the cross-
bill, the pine; the flicker, the chestnut or the apple in the east,
the cottonwood in the west; the oriole loves the elm; the yellow
warbler, well, it likes the one that the Irishman wanted to be

80 BIRDS OF THE WEST

hanged upon when given his choice of trees, the gooseberry bush.
Its second choice is the willow.

I will tell you of a very clever act of the yellow warbler, leav-
ing it to Burroughs and to Seton whether it is an act of reason
or of instinct. When the parasitic cowbird lays its egg in a yellow
warbler’s nest, the warbler builds a false bottom over it and runs
the side walls up so as to make a second nest above for its own
egg, thus refusing to make its home an asylum for cowbirds.

It is a wonderful nest that it builds and must be seen to be
appreciated. It is made of the silver-colored fiber of plants, the
sulk of caterpillars, tiny bits of wool and fern down. What a
warm little nest it must be! The yellow warbler raises but one
family a year and it must do it very carefully.

MYRTLE WARBLER.

It is always a pleasure to find one of the warblers, especially
one that is new to us. The myrtle warbler, however, is one of our
commonest visitants but is always of interest to a_ bird-lover.
They never reveal themselves to you at a single glance for they
are so very restless that there is ever something new for you,
though you have known them for years.

A flock of at least a dozen of the myrtle birds spent a morn-
ing in one of my trees where, a few days before, the kinglets
made merry with the bugs. They were very familiar, probably
because they were finding a royal feast.

It is too bad that some of our warblers cannot be renamed.
The redstart for example has .a German name that means ‘‘red-
tail’’ but redstarts do not have red tails. They are either or-
ange or lemon. Probably they were called that for the same rea-
son that a grove (lucus) in Latin was named from the Latin
word lux, meaning light, because there is little light in a grove..

The Blackburnian warbler, that pretty little bunch of flame,
was named after Blackburn, whoever he was. Very likely he was
the first man to kill one.

The worm-eating warbler has a repulsive name and it means
little more than to speak of the seed-eating sparrow or an insect-
eating flycatcher.

The myrtle warbler is said to eat the berries of the myrtle,
hence his name. Though a very small part of his diet is myrtle

ROSE-BREASTED GROSBEAK

(UpPER Ficure, Mate: Lower Figure, FEMALE)

Order—PAssERES Family—FRINGILLIDA
Ganus—ZAMELODIA Species —LupDoviciIANA

BIRDS OF THE WEST 81

berries, yet the name is a very pretty one and far better than most
yf them.

If you wish to see the warblers you may begin your search,
for May is their month and most of them will be gone ere long
across the Canadian border. Look for them busily engaged in
the small branches of the trees and shrubs, looking for tiny in-
sects and their eggs. No birds are as well groomed. They are
clean and neat all the time with every feather in place upon
their snug little bodies. Of their economic and aesthetic value
there can be no doubt and when it comes to music—why, they are
warblers.

REDSTART.

This is one of the dearest little birds and he dresses like a little
child when he is going to speak a piece and he is just as conscious
of the fact that he holds the center of the stage. You can ap-
proach him very closely when he will spread out his tiny wings, flut-
ter them a second and then dart out into the air to turn a somer-
sault for you. Sailing back to his perch he will glance at you
as much as to say ‘‘How is that for high?’’ Again and again he
will repeat the performance, snapping up a tiny fly each time
very much as the fly-cathers do.

The man who named him was ecolor-blind if he really meant
what he said, for redstart means redtail and that is precisely
what the little bird has not. Yet these homely names given to the
birds, though they are so often wrong give them a touch of
familiarity that their Latin names do not. For example ‘‘Setophaga
ruticilla’’ doesn’t mean as much to us as redstart.

No doubt the little fellow’s tail should receive recognition,
not because of its color, but because he is so proud of it. He will
spread it out like a fan and show as much pride in it as a woman
in the train of her party gown. You will recognize him at once
as a warbler but you may well depend upon his somersault as
the surest means of identification.

I wonder if anyone lives who can identify all the warblers

at a glance? I should like to see his picture.
6

82 BIRDS OF THE WEST

NORTHERN YELLOWTHROAT.

The greatest pleasure that comes from bird study is the con-
stant surprise that awaits you. I was once studying a cat bird
that evidently thought that I was on forbidden ground and was
doing his best to frighten me away, when I literally felt the
presence of a then invisible spectator. Presently I glanced down
at the root of the willowy underbrush before me and saw a pair
of bright eyes no bigger than tiny beads fastened upon me. I
had never seen the little bird before and it seemed at first as
though he were a little outlaw, for across his eyes he wore a
black mask, which, however, did not conceal his look of suspi-
cion. He was only a little detective, hiding there to see what I
was doing. As soon as he saw that I had discovered him, he darted
away, but not very far, so I followed him, only to find that he
was leading me by easy stages away from his sphere of living.
After I had made my notes of his personal appearance I retired,
thinking that perhaps he would cease his orders for me to ‘‘quit*
quit! quit!’? and would give vent to his joy at my departure. I
was soon rewarded by his joyous song, ‘‘Witchity, witchity,
witchity,’’ which is now all that I need to hear, that I may know
that there is a northern yellowthroat nearby. Hither his little
black mask or his buoyant song will serve to tell him from the
large family of warblers that come north during the month of
May. I think it is always hard for a beginner to tell the warblers
apart and the sparrows, too. There are so many kinds and they
are all so much alike. It is nearly always easy to say ‘‘That is
a warbler’’ or ‘‘That is a sparrow,’’ but it is not so easy to tell
just which sparrow or warbler it is. You will know the yellow-
throat at once, for he has all the delicacy and refinement of the
warbler family. He is neat and aristocratic, active, mostly yellow
and: wholly lovable. The sparrows are usually quite plain, com-
mon and democratic and just as lovable, excepting always, our
English cousins, the little tyrants.

The northern yellowthroat is the little bird that, in the east
where the skunk cabbage grows, actually builds his nest in the
very heart of it, for its enemies would hardly care to approach
that horrid weed. Some have claimed that the yellowthroat can-
not smell, but it is safer, I think, to say that the very alert little

BIRDS OF THE WEST 83

fellow has an extra sense rather than one less than the other
birds. He knows the value of good protection and he knows that
one can get used to almost anything. His other name is the black-
masked ground warbler—an awfully big name for such a little
bird.

Mocking birds.

Order, Passeres.
Family, Miminae.

Family Characteristics: Long tailed, slender, graceful birds, a
little smaller than a robin. Excellent mimics of other birds. Bush-
nesters. They eat worms and insects and aside from being a delight
to the eye and ear, they are of great value to the horticulturalist.

703a. MOCKING BIRD. Mimus polyglottos leucopterus. Nine
and one-half inches long. Robin ten inches. Drab above, light drab
below. Irregularly marked with brown and white. Best identified
by its song which is imitative of all birds.

705. BROWN THRASHER. Toxsostoma rufum. About the size
of the robin but tail longer by an inch. Bright cinnamon color above.
Breast white with many brown arrow-shaped spots. Eyes yellow.

704. CATBIRD. Galeoscoptes carolinensis. Nine inches long.
Very gray bird. Top of head black. Chestnut feathers under tail.

BROWN THRASHER.

The only bird that I have ever placed in captivity was a
brown thrasher. He had never done me wrong, nor had he
wronged another, for I took him from his mother’s nest against
her protest, which although in bird language was perfectly intel-
ligible. I imprisoned him because he was pretty and would sing.
When he sang his first song, I was surprised at the sorrowful
strain. It was not like the song of the wild bird which is the very
ecstasy of music. In a short time he became so gentle that I let
him out of his cage and at night he always returned to his perch
for sleep. He often sang in his sleep, dreaming no doubt that he
was free. Finally I ventured to hang the cage out of doors so
that he might have a little more of freedom. For a while he
returned to his cage at night but at last he took wings. I feared
that he had met the enemy and was theirs, for many a cat had
looked at him with a long, lingering look. The following spring

BIRDS OF THE WEST 85

a brown thrasher came to my doorstep and ate some egg crumbs
that I threw to him. I believe it was Dick.

The mocking-bird, the cat bird and the brown thrasher are the
birds that give us the greatest variety of songs, but they are very
shy and keep a distance from the abodes of men. If man were
gentler with them, they would soon trust him. Birds are not
afraid of horses and cows. You may ride a horse almost into a
flock of geese, the wariest of birds. I once saw a humming bird
take nectar from the flowers in the hand of a friend.

Perhaps it is not wrong to keep canary birds in cages. They
have been reared in captivity and lke Byron’s prisoner of
Chillon may have lost the love of liberty. Perhaps to them

‘*Stone walls do not a prison make

Nor iron bars a cell—’’
for their song seems as buoyant as you could wish.

The four pretty finely dotted brown eggs in the nest nicely
wrought of roots, grass and fibre is a mighty tempting thing to
leave alone and the sparkling yellow eye of the frightened mother
as you come upon her will help you on your way. Then they will
have a chance to go on digging for worms in your garden or your
lawn. They will charge you nothing for their services for the
only bill that they present they use for digging.

CATBIRD.

Some men go through the world on the theory that it is al-
ways best to avoid trouble either by never troubling trouble
till trouble troubles them, or by keeping so far in the background
that they are seldom seen, and some fight their way through the
world along the line of greatest resistance or try to make good by
running a bluff. It is just the same with birds. Our eatbird is
not much afraid of snakes for her nest is not on the ground. She
is afraid mostly of other birds and thinks that a good cold bluff
is her best resource. When an enemy approaches she will imitate
a cat as well as she can by ruffling up her maltese feathers to make
herself look as large as possible and letting out a series of cat-calls.

Tabby probably learned to hiss from hearing a snake and if
you should see a wild goose raise its long neck above the rushes
near the edge of a pond and hear the hissings that it will make at
you, you would be doing well if you did not feel that creepy

86 BIRDS OF THE WEST

sensation that possesses you when you just miss stepping on a
snake.

The catbird is not generally liked because it is far easier in
this world to notice bad qualities than good ones. Some one has
called him the Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde among birds. Surely
there is no neater, trimmer or more graceful bird while he is
singing one of the sweetest of bird songs, but when he flattens him-
self out in fear or anger and ruffles up his feathers and hisses
his resentment at you he is very far from being a beauty.

If ever a bird lays a pretty egg it is the lady catbird. It
is an intense green and four of them are laid in a neat nest made
of fine roots and trimmed on the outside with little strips of
grapevine bark. As the material indicates, it will be found most
often near swamps or on the edge of ponds and rivers.

He is the American mockingbird unless the brown thrasher
has won the honor. The votes are not all counted yet. I am al-
most tempted to call him my favorite bird, for while he is called
the ‘‘Mr. Hyde’’ of bird life he is not really so. He assumes
that part only to make his enemies think that he is tough and that
they had better move on. As soon as they are gone, he comes
off his perch like a gentleman, smoothes down his pretty gray
suit, and pours out his soul in a paeon of great joy.

Like nearly all of the birds the catbird is a friend of man,
and does far more good than harm. I think the only charge ever
preferred against him is that he likes an occasional cherry, but
he doesn’t have to have it stained with coal-tar dye to allure him
nor must he have one with every potion. As a friend of mine said
to me the other day. ‘‘If the birds eat more of my cherries than
I can spare, I will plant more cherry trees.’’ Why shouldn’t
man do that much for the birds? If he doesn’t want to lose
his cherries let him plant mulberry trees. The birds like mul-
berries better and mulberries look more like caterpillars anyway.

' Wrens.

Order, Passeres.
Family, Troglodytidae.

Family Characteristics: Brownish-gray color. Small size. Rapid
wing-motion in flight. Nervous and active. Song bubbling over. Often
throw their tails backward.

Destroyers of ants and their eggs as well as all varieties of small
insects.

721. HOUSE WREN. Troglodytes Aedon. Four and one-half
inches long. Brownish-gray above. Dusky white breast.

722. WINTER WREN. Troglodytes hiemalis. Four and one-
fourth inches long, Light brown. Finely barred above and below. Car-
ries tail over his back most of the time. Bubbling songster.

724. SHORT-BILLED MARSH WREN. Cistothorus stellaris. Four
inches long. Brown above, white below. Wings and tail lighter and
barred. Shy, quick and nervous. Builds several nests among reeds.

725. LONG-BILLED MARSH WREN. Cistothorus palustris. Simi-
lar to short-billed variety, but an inch longer and has a whitish line
above the eye.

HOUSE WREN.

When you see a gingery little cinnamon-gray bird with his
tail straight up and hear his rippling, bubbling song, you had
better make your first guess ‘‘a wren.’? When you hear this
little singer you will not be prepared to dispute the fellow who
says that he can pour a quart of water out of a pint bottle.

A little Jewish boy in speaking of a new suit that he was
wearing, held his coat sleeve up to me and exhibiting a well- con-
cealed green thread in an otherwise gray suit, said ‘‘See, it has
an inwizzable stripe.’’ So the little wren has many fine in-
wizzable bars across his back, wings and tail.

If you would like to see a family of these little bits of ambi-
tion raised right at your very door, put up a little bird-box right

88 BIRDS OF THE WEST

away. Cut the hole in the box the size of a silver quarter to keep
the sparrows out. Put up two boxes if you have time, for they
will enjoy making use of both of them if not otherwise occupied.
You will enjoy watching them work. You will see them put in
sticks that you would never think they could handle and you will
find this very impatient bird a bird of remarkable perseverance.
Then when they have carried in enough sticks and straws and
what-not, they’ll lay a feather bed on top of them and Jennie
will lay from six to nine tiny, finely dotted pink eggs and if you
go near the home then, you’ll get an awful scolding for Jennie
is just a bit shrewish. When the stork finally lands, the real
work begins and woe to the ant colony that happens to be near
for it had better hide those eggs and woe to all other tiny living
things—for business! There are many mouths to feed and a whole
house to keep clean too, and if there is a tidy little house-keeper
in the world it is Jennie.

Of course they don’t have to have fancy bird-houses, they
will use almost any suitable place. I have seen a nest in a rural
mail box, in an old shoe, in a hole in a brick wall. They would
almost build a nest in your hair if you would keep your pocket
full of ant eggs. .

As birds nest near the best feeding-grounds, it is needless. to
say that wrens are of great service to you, especially if you have
a garden, and as they are always in danger of cats it is well to
place your wren-box where a cat can’t reach it. Some friends
of mine whose eat had killed a mother wren, took the baby-wrens
into their home to raise them and to keep the little fellows well
fed it took three of them the greater part of their time and one
day after they had begun to fly they thought they had lost them
but later they found them snuggled down in a cup at the top of
their chandelier. Their experience became one of the happiest
of their bird-memories.

Chickadees and Nuthatches.

Order, Pusseres.
Family, Paridae.

Family Characteristics: Permanent residents. More or less black
and white. Smaller than sparrows. Gather food from limbs and
trunks of trees. Not red-headed like woodpeckers nor do they support
themselves by their tail-feathers. Insect-eaters and of special value
to horticulturalists.

735. CHICKADEE. FParus atricapillus. An inch shorter than
the English sparrow. Crown and throat black. Gray above with white
cheeks. Soiled white below. Most easily identified by its note.

727. WHITE-BREASTED NUTHATCH. Sitta carolinensis. Length
six inches. Black crown and neck. Bluish-drab above with some white
on points. White below. Climbs trees up or down head first. Active
and nervous. Called ‘‘Devil-downhead.’”’ Bill rather long.

728. RED-BREASTED NUTHATCH. Sitta canadensis. Hardly
five inches long. Bluish-drab above. Head marked with black and
white. Neck black. Breast brownish-red. Some white on points.

731. TUFTED TITMOUSE. Baeolophus bicolor. Six inches long.
Crested. Drab above, dull white below. Dull black cap and black bill.
Rare on the prairies as are all birds that nest in tree-holes.

CHICKADEE.

This little black-capped titmouse can be told on sight by the
merest novice. His black cap and downy feathers are not the
only telltales but his manner of hopping about the trees as well.
It makes no difference to him whether he is above or beneath them
provided always he can find the eggs of thé cankerworm and a
good supply of tiny insects.

Every little while he will pronounce his name for you too
‘“ Chick-a-dee-dee-dee-dee’’. There is no mistaking it. You could
not pronounce it better yourself.

He is called one of the snow-birds and he certainly delights

90 BIRDS OF THE WEST

in the storm. Cheerful at all times he wins your affection at once
and holds it forever, for you cannot help loving a courageous
heart especially when you find it done up in so small a package.

It is a rare bird on the treeless plains for it chooses for its
nesting place the deserted homes of other birds in dead tree-limbs,
yet it is a common visitor and even a winter resident along the
tree-lined rivers.

For some reason the snowbirds seem to keep in hiding un-
til the weather is thoroughly spoiled, when they come forth in
numbers from somewhere to revel in it.

PR

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YZ Se Ey
Wy:

Kinglets.

Order, Pusseres.
Family, Sylviidae.

749. RUBY-CROWNED KINGLET. Regulus calendula. Four and
one-half inches long. Olive above. Wings and tail olive-yellow. White
bars on wings. Breast grayish-yellow. Red spot on head of some
males.

748. GOLDEN-CROWNED KINGLET. Regulus satrapa. A trifle
over four inches long. Similar to the ruby-crowned kinglet except
the patch on the head is orange instead of red and it has a white line
above the eye.

RUBY-CROWNED KINGLET.

While starting from home this morning (there is always
something new to be seen) I saw as many as a dozen tiny king-
lets in the elm tree in front of my home. The little acrobats
were climbing and darting and falling about the tips of the
boughs among the elm flowers taking every tiny bug in sight and
it is safe to say not a guilty one escaped. Except the humming
birds, we have no smaller birds than they. They are not bigger
than a minute but such little bundles of energy you never did
see. I walked right up to them to study them for they were too
busy to notice me. I looked hard to find the ruby crown which is
small at best and wanting in the females, but they did not keep
still long enough to give me more than a wee flash, just enough
to let me know which kinglet had come to visit me. The English
sparrows stood around like a gang of ragmuffins and watched
and glared but they made no demonstrations. They stood there
like stuffed birds. Bundles of energy themselves I guess they
were just paralyzed to see the kinglets work.

Here to-day, gone to-morrow—you are lucky if you see more
than here and there a stray one, but you will be paid for every
moment you give them. I wonder how many kinds of birds come
in a season to the very tree upon which I saw the kinglets this

92 BIRDS OF THE WEST

morning. J should guess as many as forty. Do you know I have
almost given up speaking of any birds as ‘‘rare’’, for just as I
have said that such and such a bird is seldom seen, I turn and
find a flock of them feeding on my lawn. I think that more than
half of ‘‘rarity’’ is in our eyes.. Many a man doubtless thinks
there are few birds in his locality while it may be that there is a
wren’s nest in a hole at the top of his porch, the nest of a vireo
in the top of his elm tree, a robin’s nest in his apple tree, a blue-
bird’s nest in his garden, sparrows all around him and a hundred
swifts in his chimney. Surely if he watches, he will see the little
kinglets, for they have a little work to do for everybody.

FSF AX,
RISA

Thrushes.

Order, Pusseres.
Family, Zurdidae.

Family Characteristics: Six to ten inches long, graceful in form
and gifted in song. Except the robin redbreast and bluebird, thrushes
are brown above with whitish breast marked with arrow-shaped spots.

Their food consists mostly of earth-worms and insects with a little

wild fruit for sauce. Of great service in groves and gardens and upon
lawns.

761. ROBIN REDBREAST. Merula migratoria. Ten inches long.
Everybody knows him.

766. BLUEBIRD. Sialia sialis. Length seven inches. Bright
blue above. Breast light claret-red.

755. WOODTHRUSH. AHylocichla mustelina. Bight inches long.
Brown above, lightest toward head. White below with arrow-shaped

spots on sides of breast. White eye-ring. White throat. A familiar
bird.

756. WILSON’S THRUSH. (Veery). Yurdus fuscescens. Seven
and one-half inches long. Tawny-brown above, white below with
arrow-shaped spots. Buff in front of wings. Common though shy.
Has no eye-ring as other thrushes do.

758a. OLIVE-BACKED THRUSH. JHylocichla ustulata swainsonii.
Seven and one-half inches long. Olive-brown above. Yellowish breast.
white beneath. Yellowish eye-ring. Throat and breast spotted.

759. HERMIT THRUSH. AHylocichla guttata. Seven and one-
half inches long. Olive-brown above. Brighter toward tail which
serves to distinguish it from the wood thrush. Yellow eye-ring whereas
wood thrush has white eye-ring.

674. OVENBIRD or GOLDEN-CROWNED THRUSH. Seirus
aurocapillus. Olive above, crown of old-gold edged by black lines.
Breast spotted like the thrushes. White eye-ring. See under warblers.

94 BIRDS OF THE WEST

ROBIN REDBREAST.

Of course you know the robin redbreast, who isn’t a robin at
all but only a thrush—Only a thrush? Well, it is quite an honor
to belong to that cultured family. They are vocalists of the
highest order. The brown thrasher, the wood thrush, the her-
mit thrush are all country cousins of the redbreast, and what a
quartette of singers they are.

When our ancestors, the Pilgrim Fathers, those famous three
brothers, stepped from the Mayflower, the first bird they saw they
called the robin. He was the bird that covered the ‘‘Babes in the
Woods’’ with leaves, you know, and the name has clung to him
ever since. Well, that was probably the limit of the Pilgrim
Fathers as to bird lore.

How he can sing! What a: nicely trained voice he has!
Modulation, accentuation, pitch, crescendo, diminuendo, everything
that Caruso knows, he knows, and when he comes north in
early spring time, the world takes his word for it— that spring has
come. Somehow we give the little fellow credit for knowing more
about the weather than the weather bureau knows. Did you ever
notice his white eyelids? Can you tell him from his wife, with
his darker head and brighter breast? Did you ever hear him sound
his note of alarm when you have come upon him suddenly while
he is courting his ladylove? And how he pulls upon that worm!
He throws out his chest like a Dutchman at a saengerfest and
swallows it as though it were a sausage. And what an appetite!
Why if you could eat as much between sunrise and sunset as a baby
robin, it would take 280 pounds of steak to feed you, and about all
the baby robin gets is earthworms from the lawn. You say the rob-
ins steal cherries? Maybe. You and I have done that. We knew
better but the robins don’t. Maybe the very seed from which the
cherry tree grew was dropped by a robin. He is entitled to a few
of the cherries and he very kindly takes them from the top of the
tree where you couldn’t get them anyway. If he should fly into
your pantry and open a can of preserves he ought not to be
censured.

Last October I saw three varieties of thrushes, the brown
thrasher, Wilson’s thrush and the redbreast all pulling worms
from the lawn of a friend of mine who thinks I am having a
brain-storm because I am writing these articles. How often you

BIRDS OF THE WEST 95

have seen Mr. Robin hopping over a lawn( he doesn’t walk as the
meadow lark does.) Suddenly he stops, turns his head sideways
as though he hears a worm crawling through the dirt, then stabbing
his bill into the earth he pulls forth a long earthworm without
breaking him. Don’t you always break them when you dig fish-
bait and try to pull one out?

It is too bad Lady Robin is such a dirty house keeper, but then
she has a mud house and it is harder to keep clean than most
houses. No wonder they love to bathe in the spray of a fountain!
A few years ago I was out bird hunting and came upon a nest of
dried grass and upon looking into it saw a robin’s egg. There was
little chance to mistake the ‘‘robin-blue’’ egg but who would dream
that a robin ever built a home without mud-plaster? Presently
Lady Robin appeared and confirmed my guess that it was her
home. But why no mud? Because, the poor things—that very
dry season they couldn’t find any; if they could it dried before they
could get it to the nest. Like other Dakotans of that time,
they were adjusting themselves to circumstances. Bad boys shoot
very many robins and if any one finds out ‘‘who killed Cock Robin”’
send word to me. Who was it do you say? ‘‘It was the Sparrow
with his bow and arrow?’’ Yes, that English sparrow again.
While he never kills the robin, I imagine he annoys him awfully.
A short time ago I saw a robin in the top of a tree singing away as
hard as he could and on an adjacent branch were a dozen English
sparrows who were listening to the music. They didn’t like it be-
cause he had come but they didn’t do much but ‘‘rubber’’ at him.
He didn’t care. He had a little spring poetry to recite and besides
he has the very important duty of playing the role of ‘‘harbinger
of spring.’’ And how soon he is gone! What is it Longfellow says?

‘“‘Turn, turn my wheel
All life is brief;
What now is bud will soon be leaf;
What now is leaf will soon decay:
Tomorrow will be another day.
The wind blows east,
The wind blows west,
The blue eggs in the robin’s nest
Will soon have wings and beak and breast
And flutter and fly away.’’

96 BIRDS OF THE WEST

BLUEBIRD.

When the bluebird comes, we know that South Dakota’s state
flower, the anemone, will soon push its buds into the sunlight
forthe wind’s caresses. Could we have chosen a better emblem than
this royal wind-flower? And when we see tiny specks of blue
floating upon the winds of March as though the sun in bursting
through the clouds had broken bits of blue heaven and sent them
floating down to us in song, we feel that there could be no better
sign of the awakened life of another year. That these loving little

gentle folks should brave the blasts of early springtime is accounted
for only on the theory that

‘“The bravest are the tenderest
The loving are the daring.’’

The bluebird’s motto, it seems to me, is ‘‘live and let live.’’
Even the English sparrow, the inquisitor of bird life, is treated
with respect, and rather than go to law (in bird-land ‘‘might
makes right’’) about the possession of a bird-house, a tree hole
or the abandoned home of a woodpecker, the bluebird generally
moves on and the sparrow often doesn’t move in. (Little dog
in the manger.)

However, if the bluebird has moved in, he ean lay aside his
heavenly disposition for a while and show you something of the
courageous heart that braved the storm. Then Mr. Sparrow moves
on.

It is often asked if the same bird returns year after year
to the same spot. No doubt many varieties do so and the blue-
bird is one of them. Not only does he return but when he starts
north he leaves his wife to follow him later. As I am writing
the little fellow who lives at 1007 South Main avenue in the little
house to which I have given him a perennial lease, in considera-
tion of work in my garden, has arrived but his wife has not yet
joined him. Just now he and I are trying to drive out some ten-
ants who have not paid their rent. When the little nest of grass
is finished, four pale-blue eggs will be laid which will open upon
four tiny almost black little babies that will keep papa and mamma

very busy until they too have learned to find worms and to eatch
insects.

BALTIMORE ORIOLE

(UprER Ficure, MALE; Lower FiGurE, FEMALE)

Order — PASSERES Family —IcTERID&
Genus—IcTERUS Species—GALEBULA

BIRDS OF THE WEST 97

Late in the season another family will be raised and possibly
a third and when at last the little home is broken up and you no
more see the even and easy flight of your little neighbors nor hear
their gentle and almost distant call note you had better make sure
that the storm windows are on and that there is plenty of coal
in the cellar and you may think of your little friends sailing south
upon the winds, their backs reflecting the blue of heaven and
their breasts the southern sun.

OVENBIRD. Six inches long. The size of an English sparrow. Olive
brown above with a golden-brown crown. White beneath with the char-
acteristic thrush spots on the breast. Small white ring about the
eyes. One of the birds that walk.

OVENBIRD.

In spite of the fact that scientists classify this little bird as
a wood warbler his wonderful similarity to the thrushes will lead
you to think of him as one of them. If it is not a thrush, and we
must take the scentists’ word for it, one thing is sure, it is trying
as hard to make a thrush of itself as the flicker is. Both of them de-
part from the habits of their kind, ‘‘come off their perches’’ and
get down to earth. Well, the thrush family is thoroughly respect-
able and the flicker is not to be blamed, but the ovenbird need
never be ashamed of the warblers.

Few birds are of greater interest. To see one of them walk-
ing among the dead leaves, actually walking seems very queer
for so small a bird and the moving of its head and neck back-
ward and forward, rooster-like when it walks gives it a dignity
that is very striking.

Ovenbirds lke cuckoos are often spoken of as very shy but in
the west they seem to be surprisingly familiar. I have walked
to within a few feet of them and have observed as little timidity
among them as is to be expected from robins. The scarcity of
trees in the west subjects all birds to more frequent exposure
and doubtless explains in part what many people have often re-
marked, the greater familiarity of western birds.

The name ovenbird is given to it because of the shape of its
nest which is entered from the side and very prettily arched

above.
q

Grebes.

Order, Pygopodes.
Family, Podicipidae.

6. PIED-BILLED GREBE. Podilymbus podiceps. Thirteen and
a half inches long. Dull brownish drab above and white below except
for his black throat. This little ‘‘dabchick’’ can be identified by the
black band around the middle of his bill and by his short tail. He is
one of several birds that the boys call “‘hell-diver’’. His long lobed
toes enable him to prove his title to the name. Can be found on al-
most any Western pond and even in the wet places along railroad
tracks.

2. RED-NECKED GREBE or HOLBOELL’S GREBE. Colymbus
holboelii. Nineteen inches long. The red neck of this grebe is his
special marking though he has a black crown and a small black crest
to give beauty to an otherwise dull body. Dusky above and grayish
white below.

4. EARED GREBE. Colymbus nigricollis californicus. Thir-
teen inches long. The yellow tufts of feathers extending backward
from the eyes are the conspicuous marks. Head black. Sides brown.
Back dull black. Breast white.

PIED-BILLED GREBE.

One of the most interesting of birds is this little fellow that
is so often mistaken for a duck. ‘‘Hell-diver’’ they call him and
surely he is an artist in the water. Many a gunner has seen his
shot scatter over the surface of the pond where a second before
he saw this elusive bird, for just as the gun flashed the ‘‘dab-
chick’’ ‘‘ducked’’ quicker than a flash and did not reappear until
he was at a safe distance from the gunner. Scientists tell us
that he belongs to the lowest order of bird life and is but little
removed from the reptiles but he is all the more interesting if
that be true.

The grebe builds a floating nest and lays its white eggs in
a slight depression on its weed-raft. The heat of its body, the

BIRDS OF THE WEST 99

warm sun beating down upon the muddy, half-decomposed nest
of rushes and possibly even the warm water, all help to call the
little divers from their dirty eggshells and when they have arrived
you need not fear, as a friend of mine did, that they will drown
if they tumble out of the nest. They will really be ‘‘in their
element.’’ The little fellows must have a good time floating about
in their nest or taking a ride upon their mamma’s back while she
is passing dainty morsels up to them to satisfy their constant
hunger. It is no use to shoot them for they are pretty poor upon
the table but they are mighty pretty on the pond.

Loons.

Order, Pygopodes.
Family, Podicipidae.

7. COMMON LOON (GREAT NORTHERN DIVER). Gavia imber.
Thirty-two inches long. A diver in deep water. Head and neck black
streaked with white. Black above, barred and streaked with white
beneath. Tail feathers short. Their cry resembles human laughter.

A great old diver is the laughing loon. Whether silly peo-
ple are loony or luny depends upon whether they possess the
characteristics of the loon or have been moon-struck. Just why
anyone should charge the loon with a lack of wisdom is hard to
euess for they are about as wise as any bird that swims. Unlike
the grebes, they sail to the deep water where they go after big
game. They are poor land birds and are almost as helpless as a
‘‘fish out of water’’ but once in the center of the lake, they are
the perfection of ease, swimming being easier to them than fly-
ing.

Museums are seldom without a ‘‘stuffed’’ loon and most of
the birds that we see in collections are literally ‘‘stuffed’’ but
rarely mounted. Water birds seem to be favorites with cheap
taxidermists who seemingly will not be satisfied until they can
row about as ‘‘the only loons upon the lake.’’

Gulls and Terns.

Order, Longipennes.
Family, Laridae.

Family characteristics: In the West, the gulls are usually seen
in very large flocks during migration either gathering worms in time
of plowing or bugs during harvesting. Their prevailing bluish-gray
color, wide wing-spread and easy flight make them easy to identify.
Terns are the only birds mistaken for them but the little black tern
that skims over our ponds is easily recognized. Terns can be dis-
tinguished from gulls by the way they point their bills downward in
flight rather than straight ahead of them. Their bills are straight
whereas the bills of the gulls curve downward at the point and are
slightly enlarged near the tip.

59. FRANKLIN GULL. Larus Franklinii. About fourteen
inches long. Wide wing-spread. Head black with white eye-ring.
Upper parts ‘“‘gull-blue”’ or pearl gray. Breast white with beautiful
rose tint. Bill red. Tips of wing feathers black tipped with white.

60. BONAPARTE GULL. Larus philadelphia. About fourteen
inches long. Wide wing-spread. Head black. Upper parts ‘‘gull-
blue” or pearl gray. Under parts white. Tips of wing feathers black.
Bill black. Feet red.

77. BLACK TERN. AHydrochelidon nigra surinamensis. Length
nine and one-half inches. Almost wholly black above. Tail slate
color. Lower body white beneath. Feet black. Bill black. May be
seen on almost any inland pond skimming the surface of the water
with bills turned downward. Nests on muskrat houses or bundles of
dead reeds. Often mistaken for a gull.

69. FORSTER TERN. Sterna forsteri. Fourteen and one-half
inches long. Light pearl gray above. White below. Top of head
black. Bill red with black tip. Legs red. Tail split deeply.

BONAPARTE GULL.

Who has not seen the flocks of gulls that by thousands visit
the fields of the Mississippi valley? What a pretty sight it is to
see them sailing silently above us! The world must be a moving

102 BIRDS OF THE WEST

picture to them. Multitudes of these beautiful sea birds make an
annual flight from the Mexican Gulf to Manitoba and northward
to nest. Graceful beyond compare they seem to be merely float-
ing through the air, turning their heads now this way now that,
and stopping their flight not even while scratching their pretty
heads with their toes.

It is a pretty long journey that they make to their northern
summer resorts, but they are rapid in flight having a very wide
wingspread and much.smaller bodies than their appearance in-
dicates and it would take them only four or five days, or even less,
to make the trip if they did not visit along the way, but they stop
over in springtime to eat worms from the newly plowed fields and
in the fall to gather grasshoppers from the newly harvested grain.
Remember they never harm the grain.

Alas, the poor gulls are awfully imposed upon. It is a favor-
ite pastime with some of the terns or sea swallows to pursue and
annoy the gulls until they drop any choice morsel of food which
they may be carrying when the terns secure the. booty thus cheat-
ing the gullible gull out of it. The gulls are shot by thousands
for commerce, their plumage being especially desirable for hat
trimmings but it is a waning practice for the woman who parades
the streets these days wearing upon her hat the badge of bird
motherhood is fast learning that whatever of reflected beauty
she acquires from the pretty plume is offset by a loss of esteem
from those she meets. An old saying is ‘‘ Whatever of coin goes
into a man’s purse comes out of his soul’’, and it is just as true
of ‘‘Whatever of plumage goes upon a woman’s hat.’’

Pelicans.

Order, Steganspodes.
Family, Pelicanidae.

125. WHITE PELICAN. Pelecanus erythrorhynchos. Almost
entirely white but some black feathers on wings. The large yellow
pouch hanging from the lower mandible of this bird and his pure
white plumage are enough to distinguish him. If more is needed
the small hook at the extremity of the upper mandible and the rud-
der-like projections above it will make the identification complete.

The white pelican is one of the strangest looking birds that
visit us. In size half way between a goose and a swan, its long
neck is terminated by one of the oddest heads among birds, beasts
or fishes. The lower jaw or mandible, if you prefer, has hanging
beneath it a large pouch that looks as though it had been painted
yellow. It can doubtless hold a quart or more of frogs, small
fishes and reptiles and such other water food as can be found.
The upper mandible has a small hook at its extremity that enables
it to hold with certainty whatever it seizes. They are wholly white
except upon the wings, the larger feathers of which are nearly
black. Why sportsmen should delight in shooting one of these
useful and certainly harmless oddities can be explained only on
the theory that men love to kill whatever is rare. Pelicans cross
the Dakotas in fairly large numbers stopping at the small lakes to
load up with provisions before continuing their northern journey.
Wounded birds often become very tame, a fact that is characteristic
of nearly all wild life. It is doubtless true that we should be
ereatly surprised at the familiarity of birds and mammals if they
could know that we would not harm them. Whether or not the
pelican is the taxidermist’s delight would be hard to say but
most of the dead ones have been mounted—I beg your pardon,
I should say ‘‘stuffed’’—and most of them miserably so.

I recently met a lady who is ‘‘stuffing’’ birds as a business

104 BIRDS OF THE WEST

who does not know anything whatever of wild life and is just
as apt as not to mount a chimney swift upon a yellow warbler’s
nest or a grebe upon an apple bough. I really think that she
should use oyster dressing and stuff only domestic fowl.

Ducks, Geese and Swans.

Order, Anseres.
Family, Anatidae.

Family characteristics: Water birds having bills with strainers
on the sides. They usually have plate-like bills like those of the
common duck. Strong fliers, expert- swimmers and divers. Feet
are webbed and legs are short. They live on small fishes, snails and
the small animal life of ponds, lakes and rivers. Many of them feed
on water-weeds like eel grass (called wild celery.) They visit grain-
fields in season to pick up waste grain. They are much prized as
game food and millions are shot on the prairie lakes every year both
for food and for sport, mainly the latter.

DUCKS.

132. MALLARD. Anas _ boschas. Nearly two feet. long.
Head dark green. Has a white collar. Breast chestnut. Gray be-
low. Dark gray above. Speculum purplish green. Several small
tail feathers are curled. The female is dark brown above. Buff
breast and purplish green speculum on wings.

140. BLUE-WINGED TEAL. Querquedula_ discors. Sixteen
inches long. Best told by its size, the blue speculum on its wings
and the white in front of its eyes. Nests in large numbers in this
latitude. Habits like those of the green winged teal.

139. GREEN-WINGED TEAL. Nettion carolinensis. A beauti-
ful little duck about fifteen inches long with a cinnamon-colored head
marked with green on the sides and having a green speculum on its
wings. Slightly crested. Feeds in shallow water tipping up to feed
on the vegetation on the bottom. A good table duck.

141. CINNAMON TEAL. Querquedula cyanoptera. Sixteen inches
long. Cinnamon colored head, breast and sides, light blue on wings but
with green speculum. Much more of the cinnamon color than on the
green winged teal. Most abundant in the far west.

142. SPOONBILL. Spatula clypeata. During spring migration a
very pretty duck marked with green, black, blue and white. Can
be surely identified by its wide, flat, spoon-like bill and size midway

106 BIRDS OF THE WEST

between mallards and teals. About twenty inches long. A very
common duck.

143. PINTAIL. Dajfila acuta. The pintail is not really as large
as the mallard but it is about four inches longer, its unusual length
being due to its having a long swan-like neck and long ‘‘pintail’’
feathers. It has a purplish speculum on its wings and more or less
brown, white and gray,upon its body.

136. WIDGEON. Mareca penelope. 19 inches long. Bill blue
tipped with black, top of head whitish but most of head marked with
black. Body gray with wavy black markings, russet green speculum
on black and white. Rare.

1387. BALDPATE. Anas americana. Nineteen inches long. Top
of head whitish edged with green. Bill blue tipped with black. Plu-
mage mostly grayish, white below, green speculum. Make a _ whis-
tling noise in flight. Rob other ducks of their food.

135. GADWALL. Chaulelasmus streperus. 20 inches long. A
gray duck with a flat crest. Body marked with black and white lines
across the gray. White below. Rump black. Wings black, white and
brown.

144. WOOD DUCK. Aix sponsa. A foot and a half long. This
has been called the best dressed bird of our latitude. Its many rich
colors and its crest will be sufficient to identify it. It has a variegated
bill and a purple and green head striped with -white. White throat.
Spotted breast. Body many colored. It nests in hollow trees and
carries its young in its bill from its nest to the water. Rare.

147. CANVASBACK. Aythya vallisneria. Twenty to
twenty-two inches long. Head and upper neck dark red. Long neck
nearly black. Body nearly white. Tail dark drab. Eyes red.

146. REDHEAD. Aythya americana. Nineteen inches long. Similar
in size and markings to the canvasback but has a thicker head and a
shorter bill, the head rising more abruptly from the base of the bill.
Breast nearly black, but white under parts. Sides and back gray,
finely waved with black. 7

153. BUFFLEHEAD or BUTTERBALL. Charitonetta. albeola.
Fifteen inches long. It has a very large head for so small a duck
and therefore named for the buffalo. Bill short. Prevailing colors
are black above and white below. Head banded with white though
mostly purplish. Tail gray. Neck and sides white. Not highly prized.

149. BLUEBILL or SCAUP DUCK. Aythya affinis. Sixteen
inches long. Bill a pale blue. Head black with green reflections.
White below and black above with fine wavy barring. Found late in
the fall in large numbers.

BIRDS OF THE WEST 107

167. RUDDY DUCK. Erismatura jamaicensis. Fifteen inches
long. Top of head black and cheeks white. Brown above. Gray
below. Bill blue and short. Mostly chestnut colored above. A good
diver. Often carries tail erect on the water.

151. GOLDEN-EYE. Clangula clangula americana. Head dark
green with a white spot at base of bill, white neck and breast. Black
above. More or less white on wing. Female with much brown above.
Sometimes called ‘‘whistlers’’.

MERGANSERS OR FISH DUCKS.

129. AMERICAN MERGANSER. Merganser Americanus. Over two
feet long. Called ‘‘fish-duck” because of diet and “‘saw-bill’ because
of tooth-like projections from the sides of its narrow bill. Black and
white above and white below. Head black with greenish reflections
and crested. Bill red. Loves cold water.

130. RED-BREASTED MERGANSER. Merganser serrator. Near-
ly two feet long. Black head crested, and having greenish reflections.
Black back, white neck, white on wings. Body gray, brown and
buff. Nearly white below. Bill not flat like a duck’s but narrow and
edged with tooth-like projections. The flesh of this duck is generally
highly flavored with its fishy food.

131. HOODED MERGANSER. Lophodytes cucullatus. Seven-
teen inches long. Conspicuous black and white crest. Black and
brown above, sides brown, white below. White speculum. Saw-billed.
Too pretty a bird to shoot and not a good table duck.

GEESE. —

172. CANADA GOOSE. Branta Canadensis.. Three feet long.

Black head and neck and some white on the sides of the head. Gray
body.

169. LESSER SNOW GOOSE or WHITE BRANT. About two
feet long. Plumagie white with tips of wings black.

169a. GREATER SNOW GOOSE or WHITE BRANT. Chen
hyperborea nivalis. About three feet long. They are white with tips
of wings black.

SWANS.

181. TRUMPETER SWAN. Olor buccinator. Five and a half
feet long. All white with black feet and bill. ‘Very long neck. Named
from its bugle-like note.

180. WHISTLING SWAN. Olor Columbianus. Four and a half
feet long. White with black feet and bill and a yellow spot in front
of the eyes.

108 BIRDS OF THE WEST

CANVASBACK DUCK.

What a reputation this duck has! But like every other good
thing it has its imitation as well as its reputation. The widgeon
or bald-pate is the name of the duck that is often sold in swell
restaurants for the canvasback and the principal difference in
taste is that the bald-pate is sweeter and tenderer. Why not?
Does not the canvasback duck dive and swim to the bottom of the
pond to pull up the wild celery (eel grass) only to find when it
reaches the surface that a bald-pate is there to take it away from
him and eat it? Thus the bald-pate gets the celery and the can-
vasback gets the exercise. Redheads too, get palmed ott as can-
vasbacks, for the birds resemble each other so much that when
a few of the tell-tale wing feathers are pulled out of the redhead,
an expert has to guess them apart. As far as good, juicy ducks
go, the redhead, bald-pate, the spoon-bill, the blue bill, the mallard,
the teal and the pin-tail all have admirers who prefer them to the
canvasback. The really poor duck you know is the one that
eats the most fishes for he takes the fish flavor and chasing them
toughens his muscles.

‘‘Sweet land of liberty!’’ And land of license too. How
many are the ducks shot in the springtime when they are
gentlest, for love is warming in their fluffy breasts and they are
choosing their mates for the season. Thin and tired from their
long migration, the pot-hunters have a merry springtime knock-
ing them down. Let them shoot the canvas-backs in the fall, if
they will. They will earn the name of sportsmen if they get more
than they can carry, for the canvasback is a clever and watchful
bird. But shooting them in the springtime? It’s like taking
candy from a baby.

A man told me recently that he never shot the female ducks,
but only the males as he did not wish to break up their nesting.
He is a very wise man and could probably tell a drone from a
honey-bee if he saw them flying through the air. As a matter
of fact few gunners can tell them apart after they (the ducks)
are dead. So imagination and self-deception are used to justify
wrongdoing.

BIRDS OF THE WEST 109

AMERICAN MERGANSER.

Many people eall it the ‘‘Saw-bill Duck,’’ some eall it the
**Wish Duck’’ and others the ‘‘Shelldrake.’? None of the names
are caleulated to whet one’s appetite, yet the names sound far
better than the duck tastes.

Last fall a friend of mine came proudly up the street with
a string of ducks that tested his strength. Rushing to him to see
what he had I found no two alike. There were a mallard, a
green-winged teal, a bald-pate, a pin-tail, a blue-bill, a redhead, a
canvas-back, a spoon-bill and a merganser. -It seemed rather odd
that there should be no duplication, but it shows how thoroughly
we are in the path of duck migration.

As I enthused over them and pointed out their beauty and
peculiarities, he became interested and as I gave more time to
the merganser than all the others, because of its peculiar bill
and flashy colors, he thought he would delight me by offering it to
me for my supper. He did that very thing! Now, few delicacies
are sweeter to me than a good, fat, juicy wild duck done just so
that a suggestion of red blood follows the knife when it is cut,
but my admiration for a merganser ends just where the feathers
penetrate the skin, so I refused to rob him of his choicest duck
and took two others in leu thereof, namely a bald-pate and a blue-
bill. Give me those and you may have your canvas-backs and
mallards.

Why does the merganser taste so? Because he eats small
fishes and frogs, and fishes and frogs like onions and cabbage are
not so very good second-hand. The merganser being able to pur-
sue and catch a fish under water becomes very muscular and
when you get both kinds of strength in your meat, it becomes
too strong for any use.

There is every reason to believe that the merganser nests
very rarely below the line of the British possessions. Mrs. Mer-
ganser’s reputation as a housewife and mother is above reproach
and is similar to that of the wood duck that goes into seclusion
during the nesting season, using a tree-hole for a home and lining
it with the down she plucks from her own breast. Meanwhile the
old man goes away into still deeper seclusion and changes his
pretty garments for a new suit.

110 BIRDS OF THE WEST

Oh I fear that great beauty too often has its drawbacks.
The theory of compensation is at work all the while.

MALLARD.

Probably of all ducks the mallard is the most popular in this
western section of the country. This is due in part to its size
and in part to the fact that it is just as finely flavored as any
of them. You get a little more of a good thing when you get a
mallard. The same ducks in different sections of the country have
different food values for few if any creatures are more ‘‘ What
they eat’’ than are ducks. A celery-fed duck becomes almost
worthless when it feeds on fish.

Our common barnyard duck is a domesticated mallard and
domestication has made him a mormon for it is not believed that
in the wild state they mate for less than life.

As with most ducks the male has little to do with rearing
the young. The female gathers leaves, grass and the like, for
a nest, lines it with down from her own breast and leaves it only
at short intervals during the breeding season. The drake mean-
while follows a duck habit and goes into seclusion for a moult
and it is said that for a while he is not able to fly at all.

They migrate by sexes, the males preceding the females who
follow with their broods. Foxy sportsmen often pride themselves
on the fact that they shoot only males which is often true dur-
ing the male migration.

The ponds of the interior are fine feeding grounds for them
and they may often be seen tipping up but rarely if ever diving
for buds, seeds, grains and small mollusks. If you see them dive
you may be quite sure that they are trying to avoid danger..

They are very fond of the farmer’s corn but the farmer
seems never to care. He has his gun loaded for the hawks and
owls that are doing him far greater service and far less damage.
Of course the mallard’s fondness for the farmer’s corn is all in
favor of fine flesh and you may be sure that a corn-fed mallard
is a luxury.

Mallards are sportive, alert and wary, so much so that they
do not descend at once to the water as the teals do but circle
about over the sedges to be sure that there is no lurking danger.

Herons and Bitterns.

Order, Herodiones.
Family, Ardeidue.

191. LEAST BITTERN. Botauwrus ezilis. Almost fourteen inches
long. A suggestion of a crest. Head and upper body black with
greenish sheen. Body brown, red, buff, green and yellow in vary-
ing shades. Feet, bill and eyes greenish yellow. Found about creeks
and marshes. Distinctly a marsh wader.

190. AMERICAN BITTERN. Botaurus lentiginosus. Two and a
half feet long. Legs long and unfeathered as befits a wading bird.
Four toes. Long bill and head suitable for frog-catching. Mixed
brown, black, buff, slate and yellow in color. Throat white. Called
also ‘“‘thunder-pump” and ‘“‘stakedriver’’ from its ery.

194. GREAT BLUE HERON or BLUE CRANE. Ardea Herodias.
Nearly four feet long. Subdued blue above. White head with black
patch above the eye running into a pretty crest. General characteristics
of wading birds with long legs and yellow bill. Larger than the Ameri-
can bittern. Black legs and feet. Long bill, yellow.

201. LITTLE GREEN HERON. Ardea virescens. About a foot
and a half long. Crested and plumed. White throat and a mixture
of green, yellow and brown upon the body. Dark green head and bill
with chestnut neck. Found like others of its kind along the edges of
marshes.

202. BLACK CROWNED NIGHT HERON. WNycticoraxr nycticorar
naevius. About two feet long. Conspicuous white trailing crest during
nesting. Upper parts dull black especially crown and back, under parts
white including throat, middle parts gray. Bill nearly black, eyes
red, legs yellow.

AMERICAN BITTERN.

If a person should try to describe every little change of color
in this bird, he would have to describe each separate feather, yet
he is easily identified for he is the most common of our big waders.

As you are riding along in the train, passing a lake or a small

112 BIRDS OF THE WEST

stream edged with sedges, you will often see one ‘‘fly up the creek’’
(that’s another name he has.) He is seared half to death but at
that he flies»rather leisurely as he does everything and soon drops
to hiding into the rushes a few rods away.

He is ‘‘patience on a monument”’ and thinks nothing of stand-
ing on one leg for two hours waiting for a frog or a snake or a
lizard or a tadpole to come within reach, when like a flash the
jig is up and the frog is down. He is named also the “thunder
pump’’ for the reason that the ‘‘boom’’ of the bittern sounds
like an old broken down pump trying to raise water. ‘‘Stake-
driver’’ is another name, and ‘‘Bog-bull,’’ and there are others.

Of course you don’t have to ride in a railroad train to see
them. It will pay you to make them a friendly call. Perhaps
you could find a crude nest on the ground at the edge of the marsh
and if you should, you would be well paid for your tramp.

Often on a short trip by rail I have identified from forty to
fifty different kinds of birds. It is good recreation and makes
the time and journey pass quickly. Often you must recognize
your bird at long range solely by its flight but many birds taken
by surprise will scurry from the side of the track and give you a
good view of them. You will cover a large territory in that way
and reach the water birds as well as the song birds.

Watch for a bittern. If you keep your lamps lighted you will
see him on almost any trip with his flat outstretched head and his
long legs hanging out behind as a rudder, sailing over the rushes
by the roadside.

BELTED KINGFISHER
(UppER FIGURE, FEMALE; LOWER FiGuRE, MALE)
Order — CoccyGEs Family — ALCEDINIDA
Genus—CERYLE Species —ALcyon

Cranes.

Order, Paludicolae.
Family, Gruidae.

206. SANDHILL CRANE. Grus Mevicana. Forty-four inches
long with red skin conspicuous on its head. Its plumage is gray,
wings darkest. Its beak is long and sharp. Legs very long for wa-
ding.

204. WHOOPING CRANE. (White Crane.) Grus Americana.
Fifty inches long. It has white plumage with black wing-feathers.
Like the sandhill crane it has red skin on its head. Legs very long
for wading.

SANDHILL CRANE.

To be wandering along the edge of an inland lake and suddeii-
ly see the neck of a sandhill crane rise out of the rushes is an ex-
perience that will never be forgotten. There is something snaky
about it. The bird itself is almost a freak of nature, absolutely
without grace yet suggestive enough to appeal to the orientals
along with the dragon as means of expressing their artistic feel-
ings. They always look best on a cloisonne vase. Last year at
Lake Andes flocks of them were seen flying in single file, their
long necks piercing the air and their long legs dragging almost
horizontally behind them. Great numbers of them are often seen
during their migration sailing very high in the air and shrieking
a note that will almost give you the shivers.

They are fighters of the highest order and use their long
pointed beaks as spears, often driving them clear through the
bodies of their enemies. In the sandhills of Nebraska, the in-
habitants prize them as a table luxury, claiming that their flesh is
savory especially in the fall. Surely one of them would make a
meal for the neighbors.

With all their awkwardness they are an aristocratic look-

ing bird. You respect their size and they are credited with hav-
8

114 BIRDS OF THE WEST

ing the very aristocratic tendency of getting pretty giddy at
times. Along about pairing off time they have unusual demonstra-
tions. Very likely the Sioux Indians learned their ghost dances
from them for one is a repetition of the other. They will dance
in circles and scream and whirl about until they fall to earth
exhausted. Even the ladies indulge in these dances ana are rather
forward with their courting. Oh, in birdland they say that the
lady phalarope does all the courting. She is the real new woman.

Two large soiled white eggs laid upon a floating nest of dead
rushes was what I once found on the edge of a lake in Nebraska
and I have often wondered what the mother crane did with her
legs when she sat upon her eggs.

Gee

Coots and Rails.

Order, Paludicolae.
Family, Rallidae.

221. AMERICAN COOT. Fulica Americana. About fifteen inches
long. Stout white bill with brown spot near the end. Color solidly
dark lead color almost a black. Are readily tamed and become very
sociable.

212. VIRGINIA RAIL. fRallus Virginianus. About the size of
the robin but longer legged. Olive brown above. Chestnut on wings.
Dark cheeks, white chin. Breast brown. Wings short and flies poorly.
A bird of the marshes. Very shy.

214. CAROLINA RAIL. Porzana Carolina. A little smaller than
the robin. Brown above, gray breast and white belly. Forehead
black, throat black, bill yellow. A marsh bird with fairly long legs.
Very shy and generally keeps concealed in tall grass or reeds.

COOT.

Coots and grebes are all of them grouped in popular fancy
under the name ‘‘mudhens’’ and ‘“‘hell-divers.’’ They are the
birds that you have often seen upon the edges of ponds sunning
themselves and you very likely thought that they were ducks.
You ean readily distinguish the American coot by his black plu-
mage and his white pointed bill. If you should eat one you might
*‘confound’’ him but never with a duck.

In New England they often speak of a worthless fellow as
a ‘‘poor coot’’ but whatever of ill you may say of him when he
is on land, you can never accuse him of being slow or awkward
when in his native element. If by any chance you pride yourself
upon your ability as a marksman, the coot may be able to convince
you to the contrary for if the word of some sportsmen can be
believed, the coot can actually dodge a bullet. Upon almost
any of the inland prairie lakes they may be seen either resting
upon some projection in the shallow water or bobbing their heads
backward and forward as they swim to deeper water to find good
diving.

Phalarope.

Order, Limicolae.
Family, Phalaropodidue.

224. WILSON’S PHALAROPH. Steganopus tricolor. Nine inches
long. Very long, delicate bill. Swimmers as well as waders. Blue-
gray above. Brown below. Black stripes along the sides of head and
neck. Female does the love-making. The male does the nest build-
ing and incubating. The lady phalarope is the real new woman among
the birds.

Snipe and Sandpipers.

Order, Limicolae.
Family, Scolopacidue.

264. CURLEW. Numenius Longirostris. Length nearly two
feet of which about seven inches is bill. Mostly buff-colored with
irregular streaks of black and light and dark chestnut. Bill curves
downward.

230. JACK SNIPE or WILSON’S SNIPE. Gallinago delicata.
Eleven inches long. Bill long and delicate. Upper parts striped with
buff and dull drab. Stripes black above. White below. Plumage
generally striped and spotted. Rather common around ponds and
lakes where he probes for food.

254. GREATER YELLOW LEGS. Totanus melanoleucus.
Thirteen and one half inches long. Black mottled with gray and
white above. Tail mostly white though marked with gray. White
‘pelow spotted and barred with black.

255. LESSER YELLOW LEGS. Totanus flavipes. Ten and one half
inches long. Black above with white marking. White below with
black marking. Tail white. A common wader. Almost identical
with the large variety except as to size.

228. WOODCOCK. Philohela minor. Eleven inches long. Very
long bill. Prominent eyes. Like the undertaker you can track him
by his holes in the ground. Mottled brown above. Brown below. A
favorite with hunters. Legs very yellow.

242. LEAST SANDPIPER. Tringa minutilla. Six inches long.
A common wader. Best identified by its size. Dusky brown above.
Black toward the tail. Gray and white below. Active and easily
seared. Generally seen in flocks.

261. UPLAND PLOVER (Bartramian Sandpiper). Bartramia
Longicauda. Twelve inches long. Brown and gray above with more
or less black barring. Beneath white with buff stain. Bill and legs
yellow and long. Generally found on the open prairies away from
waiter,

118 BIRDS OF THE WEST

263. SPOTTED SANDPIPER called ‘‘Tip-up”’. Actitis macularia.
Seven and one half inches long. Brownish-olive above, white below
and spotted. The little fellows teeter up and down as they walk
about the edges of ponds searching for food.

CURLEW.

A few years ago when the food value of game birds appealed
more strongly to me than their aesthetic value, I was shooting
ducks on the lakes in the sandhills of Nebraska. As a curlew
flew over I took a long-distance shot at it and crippled it. Such
a cry as it gave I have never heard before nor since. It was
such cries as that that caused the ancients to believe in the trans-
migration of souls.

Presently curlews began to come from every direction and
to fly in a circle above me, setting up such a weeping and wail-
ing that I would have given my day of anticipated sport if I
could have raised the wounded bird to the air again. Shy and
wary almost beyond belief they seemed to lose their fear and
come to their wounded comrade with an appeal to take their lives
as well.

What on earth can be done with a wounded bird? Can you
look it in the eye and wring its neck? A man who ean do that is
fit for treason. And the echo of that cry! Twenty years has
not dulled it.

An aquatic bird with bill adapted to fishing for small sea
food, it strangely comes in great numbers to spend the summer
in the loneliest part of the prairies, the sandhills of Nebraska
and the Bad Lands of Dakota. It seems to court solitude, to steal
from the rapture of the lonely shore to the pleasure of the path-
less prairies and the silence of the inland sand dunes. Surely
no bird is better suited to be the genius of solitary places.

UPLAND PLOVER (BARTRAMIAN SANDPIPER).

It seems almost like fate that a bird like the plover that
has done so much for man should be so rapidly passing. In the
erasshopper times no agency was so effective and none cost as
little. It was worth its weight in gold and I think that is the rea-
son that one variety is called the golden plover. Anyone who has
been in Dakota long, can remember when there was a plover on

BIRDS OF THE WEST 119

almost every fence post. He can remember the plover call, the
flight on trembling wings and as he alighted on the post, how
carefully he adjusted his wings as though every feather must
be perfectly placed. What slender legs and tiny neck. What a
prim little body! But how rare!

Sportsmen have bagged about all of them and would go on
bagging and bagging until there is never a quail or a chicken or
a plover left. The plover should be restored to his rightful place
in the field. How often you have seen it fly about the dog in
order to entice him away from either its nest or its young. Nest,
did I say? Hardly a nest but a little depression wallowed in
the grass and jammed full with four good big pointed eggs that
seem to me to be every bit as big as the bird’s body. I would not
believe for a long time that the little fellow laid the muddy look-
ing things. What little rolls of fuzz come out of them too!
Pretty little babies they are—one of the triumphs of creative art.

The plover is a dainty morsel for the epicure but only a
mouthful for the glutton who generally gets him. It is murder
to kill a plover, murder in the first degree, with malice afore-
thought, as cool and deliberate as the aim that lays him low.
Civilization (if it is) takes its toll. As it comes westward it
carries evil and death with it and mars and scars the beautiful face
of things. No more rag-dolls for our babies that they may have
something to make their little minds work (The little boy in
‘*Helen’s Babies’’ didn’t like “‘boughten dollies’’) but they open
and close their eyes now and when you press them they cry
‘“‘Mamma,’’ ‘‘Mamma’’. In a little while they’ll sulk and get
to swearing.

Let us make a plea for the plover, let us make it possible for
the children yet unborn to hear its whistle upon the moorland
calling them forth to tune their hearts with Nature. Let them
no more hear the ‘‘Bang! Bang! Bang!’’ that all too soon is mak-
ing a silent prairie.

Avocet.

Order, Limicolue.
Family, Recurvirostridae.

225. AMERICAN AVOCET. Recurvirostra Americana. Sixteen
inches long. Very long bill curved upward. Long-legged wader.
Head and neck pinkish brown. Wings black and white. A very
pretty, refined and delicate bird.

Plovers.

Order, Limicolae.
Family, Charadriidae.

272. GOLDEN PLOVER. Charadrius dominicus. Ten inches
long. Yellow and white spots on dull black above. Black below.
Black throat and face.

273. KILDEER. Aegialitis vocifera. About ten inches long.
Can be recognized by his call which he constantly repeats ‘‘killdeer,
killdeer, killdeer.”’ The two black bands on white breast serve to
identify him. Long legs. Fast runner.

Grouse and Quails.

Order, Gallinae.
Family, Zetraonidae.

Family Characteristics: These are the wild types of our do-
mestic chicken. They have heavy, thick breasts, and short wings
used rapidly in flight. Their breeding habits are similar to those of
domestic fowl. They are most valuable game birds for food. Great
destroyers of hoppers and bugs.

305. PRAIRIE CHICKEN. Tympanuchus Americanus. A _ foot
and a half long. Heavy breast. Light brown above. Heavily barred
with black. Dull white below barred with brown. Small bunches of
large feathers hang from either side of the neck of the male bird.
Has air-sacs on the sides of throat. The favorite game bird of the
west.

308b. SHARP TAILED GROUSE. Pedioecetes phasianellus
campestris. Generally a little smaller and lighter than the prairie
chicken. Dull whitish below. Has no extra large feathers on neck
as the prairie chicken has. In other respects very similar.

309. SAGE HEN. Centrocereus urophasianus. About two feet
long. Mottled gray above barred with brown and black, yellow sacs
on sides of throat. Larger than others of its kind. Most common in
Wyoming and west of the Missouri River. Flesh tastes strongly of
wild sage except when very young. Color drab, much mixed and
barred.

289. BOB WHITE. Colinus Virginianus. About ten inches long.
Male has white throat, female has yellow throat. Buff and brown
above and below with more or less black markings above. Calls his
name.

QUAIL or BOB WHITE.

Bob white is as trim a bird as you will see in a Sabbath
day’s journey or even in a month of Sundays. It is too bad for
him that he is so plump and still worse that he is so delicate a
morsel. As a matter of fact, he is only a morsel at best. Surely
quails must breed very fast to perpetuate themselves for there is

BIRDS OF THE WEST 123

no bird that is in such constant danger. First of all, they nest
upon the ground and lay white eggs. That means that snakes and
squirrels have easy times finding them. Then in winter they
huddle together to keep warm, sitting in a compact circle with
their tails together, and they are often buried beneath the snow
and smothered. No bird is hunted by man more than they
are so that it is no wonder that they must lay a nest full of eggs
and if the mother is shot the little widower must climb upon
the nest and play mother. Pot-shooting is easy with them for
their great fondness for each other causes them to keep well
huddled, but no true sportsman could be guilty of taking a shot
at a flock sitting upon the ground. Why even the birds known
as fly-catchers catch their flies only on the wing. MHunting-
madness seems to be on the increase and unless something is done
to check it our game birds will be reduced to such small num-
bers that the day’s shooting will bring small returns.

We are too ready to overlook the aesthetic value of game birds.
‘Some of our wild ducks are of wonderful beauty. In fact, it
is doubtful if the wood-duck has a rival. And bob white! Who
says he is not a work of art? He is to birds what the speckled
trout is to fishes.

I should hate to think that the time is near when I shall not
see now and then a quail running in the roadside ahead of my
carriage and actually jumping to one side as I pass.

Bob white whistles his own name and should always be
ealled by the name he chooses for himself.

Doves and Pigeons.

Order, Columbae.
Family, Columbidae.

Family Characteristics: ‘‘Dove-color’’ or soft irridescent brown-
ish drab. Rarely seen alone, generally in pairs or flocks. Rapid
fliers. Two white eggs ata sitting. Can be recognized from similar-
ity to our common pigeon. They have very large crops for birds of
their size and live mostly on the seeds of weeds. They are the far-
mer’s best friend.

316. MOURNING DOVE. (Turtle Dove.) Zenaidura Macroura.
Length twelve inches. Bluish drab or “dove color’? above. Breast
lighter. A sheen on neck the color of the iris flower. Black bill.
Red feet.

315. PASSENGER PIGEON. JEctopistes migratorius. So rare
that a description is not needed. The bird is almost extinct though
men living today can remember when flocks of them almost obscured
the sunlight. Their nesting in colonies made them easy prey for
gunners.

MOURNING DOVE (TURTLE DOVE).

There are birds as well as blossoms that follow in the trail
of the traveler, and many of them have shared with the settler
the difficulties and the dangers of readjustment. How much
longer, I wonder, will it take the mourning dove to learn that she
must build a better nest if she would rear her young where the
Dakota zephyrs outmoan her? Thousands of their nests are
scattered by ‘‘every stormy wind that blows,’’ and many a pair
of bare babies fall to earth, never to rise again. It doubtless took
them decades to become ‘‘as wise as serpents’’ and to change the
location of their ‘‘wickyups’’ from the ground to the trees in
order to save their babies from being swallowed alive, and by the
time they learn the capers of our winds, nature may temper the
storms until they become as ‘‘harmless as doves.’’ The winds
can’t blow always, you know. Nothing does.

BIRDS OF THE WEST 125

The dove and his mate are more constant than you and
your shadow, for they are chummy in the darkest days, and I
think if Lovey should die Dovey would die, too. Don’t you?
Did you ever see them billing and cooing? No? Then you don’t
know what love is.

Next to loving, doves like weed seed and nine thousand seeds
of ragweed or hawkweed or foxtail or pigeon grass are often
gathered by a dove in a day. On a single Dakota farm a ton of
weed seed goes to furnish a season’s food for the doves. Alas, the
farmers never pay the dove debt. It is a charge, I fear, a charge
of shot, that the dove too often gets, for there is almost a whole
mouthful of meat on the little fellow’s breast, don’t you know?

It is too bad that they are so trustful. And how ready the
mother is to sacrifice her life for the httle ones! If you approach
her nest while she has her two white eggs or her fledgelines under
her wings, she will tumble to earth, as much as to say, “‘Take me!
See, I cannot fiy!’’ and if you follow her she will lure you away
where you belong, for you have little right to intrude upon her
nursery.

The dove isn’t vain, he isn’t pretty enough. He is content
just to be good. He is so awkward that if the wind blows at all
he has all he can do to keep his balance on a fence wire. He is
not very smart, either, and is generally at the foot of his class in
school, but he is industrious, and he is good and that is something,
isn’t it?

In ‘‘Locksley Hall’’ it says:

‘‘In the spring a fuller crimson comes upon the robin’s breast;

In the spring the wanton lapwing gets himself another crest;

In the spring a livelier iris comes upon the burnished dove;

In the spring a young man’s fancy lightly turns to thoughts of
love.’

You see that the dove, with the awakened world, feels the
spirit of the springtime, for when he comes there is ‘‘ealling,
cooing, wooing everywhere,’’ and he is always the dove of peace,
the bearer of the myrtle.

Vultures.

Order, Raptores.
Family, Cathartidae.

325. TURKEY VULTURE. Cathartes Aura. Two and one-half
feet long. A scavenger among the birds, the ‘‘buzzard” is beautiful
in inverse ratio to its distance from you. As it soars on easy flight
very high above you it is grace itself. Near you it is repulsive. Its
head is unfeathered, its color black, and its habits untidy. It resides
where it can find the most carrion.

Hawks and Eagles.

Order, Raptores,
Family, Yalconidae.

Family Characteristics: Large, ferocious birds with curved talons
and beak for grasping and tearing their prey. They feed upon
gophers, field mice, birds, snakes, lizards, frogs and grasshoppers
with an occasional meal of domestic fowl, that delicacy being a
favorite meal only of Cooper’s hawk, the sharp-shinned hawk and
the goshawk. 1

360. SPARROW HAWEK. Falco sparverius. The size of a robin.
A common prairie hawk. Cheeks with black stripes. Barred brown
above. Top of head blue. Cries ‘‘killy, killy.”

331. MARSH HARRIER. Circus hudsonius. Twenty inches long.
A ruff about the face like an owl’s. Brownish gray streaked with
white above, with white patch on lower back. Bristles at base of
bill. Under parts white specked with brown. Flies low and slowly
over marshes. A very valuable hawk and the farmer’s friend.

339. RED SHOULDERED HAWK. Buteo lineatus. WBighteen
inches long. Dull red breast and shoulders lightly barred. Darker
above. Black tail, barred with white.

337b. RED-TAILED HAWK. Buteo borealis calurus. Twenty
inches long. Dull red tail, banded near the end with black or brown
and white. Brown above, dull white or buff below; varies greatly in
plumage.

333. COOPER’S HAWK. Accipiter Cooperii. Sixteen inches
long. Our common “chicken hawk.’ White below spotted with
brown. Black on top of head. Back bluish gray. Tail with three
or four black bands and rounded at the end. Tip white. Should be
shot if any hawks deserve shooting.

334. AMERICAN GOSHAWK. Accipiter atricapillus. Twenty two
inches long. Whitish below with irregular gray markings. Bluish-
drab above. Black on head. Tail banded below. A first class villain.

332. SHARP-SHINNED HAWK. Accipiter velox. An inch longer
than the robin. Dull bluish brown above. White below with brown

128 BIRDS OF THE WEST

spots and bars. Tail with three or four bands of black and white
at the tip with short wings and long tail, he is a rapid dodger and
a terror to small birds. He needs a gun.

342. SWAINSON’S HAWK. Buteo Swainsonii. Twenty inches
long. A prairie hawk. White beneath with brown band across its
breast. Throat white. Tail fully banded. One of the most valuable
birds on earth and perfectly harmless.

3827. SWALLOW-TAILED KITE. Elanoides forficatus. Twenty-
one inches long. Blue-black above except head. Head and under-
neath pure white. Tail forked.

348. ROUGH-LEGGED HAWK. Archibuteo ferrugineus. Twen-
ty-two and a half inches long. White below streaked with brown,
especially on flanks. Reddish brown above. Tail white. Called
“squirrel hawk.’’

349. GOLDEN EAGLE. Aquila chrysaetus. Thirty-three inches
long. Head and neck golden on the back. Plumage brown. Tail
mostly white. Legs with white feathers. Young birds generally
darker than older ones.

352. BALD EAGLE. Haliaetus leucocephalus. Thirty-three inches
long. Head and neck white. Body brownish. Beak yellow. Tail
rounded. Our national bird.

GOLDEN EAGLE.

This, the king of birds, favorite of Jove, the thunderer,
messenger of that great god of the Romans who sat upon Olympus’
height, that was borne by Roman soldiers upon the tops of their
standards that like flags were carried before the Roman legions,
was the type of all that was watchful, brave and daring.

The Indian takes “Eagle’’ for his name, wears its feathers
on his war dress and tips his arrows with them so that they
will fly straight to the heart of his enemy.

The eagle whose picture adorns our coins can whip any
living thing of its size. He is a fit emblem of our national life, for
he is quiet and peaceful except in matters of business, when he
always gets what he goes after.

On the edge of the Bad Lands, I once climbed a precipice to
see an eagle’s nest. It was hard and dangerous climbing and I
should never dare do it again. At last I reached the eyrie where
two very young eaglets were resting in their feather-lined nest
of coarse twigs laid flat upon the edge of the precipice. I was

BLUE JAY

Order —PASSERES Family — Corvip&
Genus—CyYANOocITTA Species—CRISTATA

BIRDS OF THE WEST 129

watching the curved beaks of the eaglets when I heard a rush of
wings like the storm-wind and a snap of the old eagle’s beak
that was as loud as the crack of a pistol. I had seen him circling
a mile or more above me but I did not dream that his eagle eye
was keeping watch over that little speck below. I clutched the
harder to the walls of the precipice and began my retreat expect-
ing every minute to hear the whirlwind of those mighty wings
again or to have my brains hanging from that hooked beak.

Eagles are getting scarcer every year. They are now found
only in the mountains and unsettled regions. Ranchmen shoot
them because they steal their lambs and Indians want their feathers
for adornment. Really they do but little harm, living mostly on
prairie chickens, prairie dogs and smaller mammals. We can
spare a few lambs to preserve the noblest of our birds. I fear
that modern methods of civilization would exterminate all forms
of life except what can be eaten. Think of a world of chickens
and geese and beeves and hogs and men! Why not save a few
things for sentiment’s sake?

HAWKS.

There are three kinds of hawks that may as well be killed as
not. You may tell them by the fact that they wear mostly blue
feathers. They are the sharp-shinned hawk, called the little
blue darter, and ten inches in length, Cooper’s hawk or big
blue darter sixteen inches in length, and the goshawk or blue hen
hawk, twenty-two inches long. Add two inches to each of the
above and you will get the length of the females.

This trio of villains are pirates of the high winds. The
domestic chickens that they eat are of little consequence in com-
parison with the large number of useful song and game birds
whose hearts are actually pierced by their vicious claws and
whose throats are cut by their murderous beaks. Swift of wing
so that ducks going at one hundred miles an hour can be over-
taken and the most artful of dodgers, a trick learned from chas-
ing smaller birds, there is little chance of escape for bird or beast
that starts on the race for life.

Such birds never sing, they give yells as piercing as their
elaws. Like many little boys ‘‘they should be seen but not heard,’’

and they should be seen only long enough to permit a gun to be
9

130 BIRDS OF THE WEST

properly pointed. They are birds of beauty, grace and dignity,
qualities which are worthy of a better character, but their pretty
plumage could be put to no better use than to furnish wings to
arrows that may quiver in their hearts, and it would be no more
than justice that the same plumage that warms their nests should
drink the last life drop of their bleeding breasts.

Owls.

Order, Raptores.
Family, Bubonidae.

Family Characteristics: Large birds of prey with curved beak
and sharp, curved talons. Large faces with firmly set eyes. If you
walk around them they must turn their heads in order to see you.
Usually dull brown in color much mottled and their legs are generally
feathered. They live largely on rats and mice, grasshoppers and
snakes and are therefore of great value. The small amount es do-
mestic fowl that they eat is hardly worth notice.

376. SNOWY OWL. Nyctea nyctea. Two feet long. Mostly snow
white. Often mottled with drab. Very yellow eyes. Feathered socks.

378. BURROWING OWL. Speotyto cuniculario hypogaea. Most-
ly brown above. More or less white beneath. No horns. Does not
wear socks. You can tell him by his size and the place where you
find him.

375a. WESTERN HORNED OWL. Bubo Virginianus pallescens.
Twenty-two inches long. Named from the upright feathers that pro-
ject above the ears like horns. A genuine night owl. Mottled brown
above. Buffy white below. This is the owl that when the old maid
prayed for a husband asked ‘‘Who? Who?” to which the maid is said
to have replied. ‘‘Anybody good Lord’’. Both a bad and a good bird.

373. SCREECH OWL. Megascops asio. Nine inches long. Small
feathers projecting upward from the sides of the head suggesting horns.
Duil-brown plumage. Screech dismally at night. A very valuable aid
to the farmer.

368. BARRED OWL. Syrnium nebulosum. Twenty inches long.
Upper half of the bird barred with dark brown or whitish. Tail and
wings banded. Dark brown above. Streaked white below.

367. SHORT-EARED OWL. Asio Accipitrinus. Fifteen inches
long. <A real prairie owl with short horns and yellow eyes. White
eye-brows and black ring about the eyes. Dark yellowish-brown above.
Buffy white below. Irregularly barred all over.

132 BIRDS OF THE WEST

SNOWY OWL.

Many men stuff birds but none of them becomes a taxidermist
until he has put up a snowy owl. Most of these birds that are
in our latitude are either in museums or private collections or
are soon to go there.

They make swell targets. They have two large owl’s eyes
that are better than bull’s eyes and outer rings around them too.
They are not fit for food unless it be for other owls, but for all
that they are just as good for targets. Why, I ean think of noth-
ing that interferes with their target-value. I wish that some-
body could. How would it be to enact a law that whoever shoots
one shall eat it?

They probably will not become extinct for some time for no
Arctie explorer has been far enough north as yet to get beyond
their range. What specters they must be in the Arctic nights to
the smaller inhabitants of the icy plains!

As these owls depend for their food wholly upon what they
kill, they have become expert hunters. They can catch a duck
on the wing or a hare on the foot and many a fish loses his life
by venturing too near the little island of sea-weeds upon which a
snowy owl is sitting and singing “‘I’m waiting and watching for
thee.’’

I have a friend who started on a short trip with a cage con-
taining two owls, one a snowy owl and the other as near as I
could judge from his description a long eared owl. When he
arrived at his destination, he called a friend to see his owls. The
snowy owl was apparently all that the cage contained. Doubtless
if they could have seen what the snowy owl contained they would
have ceased to wonder.

Just west of the Missouri river in the least settled regions
he is a common visitor wearing his frostiest suit and feeding upon
the multitudes of sparrow-like birds that throng the open plains,
but as that region becomes more thickly settled, he will be driven
to the north or go to join the dodo and the auk and be gathered
to his feathered fathers and his patron saint, Minerva. Alas!
Wisdom is so rare!

BIRDS OF THE WEST 133

BURROWING OWL.

This smallest of the owls is about the size of the robin but
being an owl, he is top-heavy and sits up like a judge. He really
takes himself seriously. Whenever I look one of them in the eye,
I feel like laughing at his apparent dignity.

He lives by the chase otherwise his eyes would not be in the
front of his head lke a hen’s. If sheep were in the habit of
chasing wolves, their eyes would be in front and wolves would
wear their eyes on the side. Man with his eyes in front has ever
been on the watch for something to prey upon. That’s just as
sure as it is that a bird with a hooked beak like our little owl,
loves meat. I don’t know whether this is also true of man or not.

An owl cannot make goo-goo eyes for the reason that he can-
not turn his eyes sideways. Did you ever try to walk around
one? If you noticed it you would recall that he had to turn his
whole head around to follow you. Did it not seem to you that
his head was on a pivot and could turn around and around and
around? ‘Try the next one you see and see if you can’t get him
to wring his neck off.

This little owl you will often see where there is a prairie-
dog town and there are many people who will tell you that there
ean be found at the bottom of its hole a happy family of rattle-
snakes, prairie-dogs and owls. No doubt the three are at times
in the same hole but at such times the prairie-dog is inside the owl
and the owl inside the rattlesnake.

You may be tempted to inquire why this little owl chooses
to make its home in the deserted burrow of the prairie-dog but
you must remember that he lays many white eggs and hatches
out many hungry little owls, so you should not blame him for
getting a home with as little labor as possible, and placing it in
the heart of the city whose inhabitants when young are such fine
food. And how interesting is this little fowl with his brood of
owlets sunning themselves at the mouth of their burrow! You
may be sure that it keeps the prairie-dogs as busy as guinea pigs
to raise enough little pups to feed them. Don’t shoot this little
bunch of feathers on stilts. He eats rats, mice, gophers, and
never anything that you would eat anyway.

Except as to his diet the owl is always overrated. He is

134 BIRDS OF THE WEST

never as big as he looks for he is mostly fuss and feathers and
I fear that he is rather tough. At least I have heard that charge
made against the boiled owl. He doesn’t know very much in spite
of his reputed wisdom. He just looks wise, and has his counter-
part in the big-headed, goggle-eyed, long haired variety of sages
that like the moping owl of Gray complain mostly to the moon.

Non-Game Birds.

Arranged by colors to assist in identification.

Black. American Raven, Common Crow, Bronzed Grackle,
Purple Grackle, Cowbird, Rusty Blackbird, Brewer’s Blackbird,
Purple Martin.

Black-white. Lark Bunting, Bobolink, Hairy Woodpecker,
Downy Woodpecker, Snowflake, Rose-breasted Grosbeak in flight,
Blackpoll Warbler, Black-and-white Creeping Warbler, Magpie,
Red-headed Woodpecker.

Black-red. Scarlet Tanager, Red-winged Blackbird, Red-
headed Woodpecker, Chewink, Rose-breasted Grosbeak, Orchard
Oriole.

Black-yellow. _ Yellow-headed Blackbird, Goldfinch, Evening
Grosbeak, Northern Yellowthroat.

Black-orange. Baltimore Oriole, Redstart.

Blue. Indigo Bird, Blue Jay, Bluebird, Kingfisher.

Blue-gray. Mourning Dove.

Brown. Brown Thrasher, Fox Sparrow.

Brown-olive. Wood Thrush, Hermit Thrush, Wilson’s
Thrush, Olive-backed Thrush.

Brown-gray. House Wren, Winter Wren, Marsh Wren,
Whippoorwill, Cedar Waxwing.

Gray. Cat-bird, Chimney Swift, Junco, Night-hawk.

Gray-black. Chickadee, Northern Shrike, Loggerhead Shrike.

Gray with whitish breast. Kingbird, Phoebe, Wood Pewee,
Olive-sided Flycatcher, Least Flycatcher, Canada Jay, Mocking-
bird, Tufted Titmouse, Bank Swallow, Black-billed Cuckoo,
Yellow-billed Cuckoo, White-breasted Nuthatch, Lapland Long-
spur.

Olive with light olive breast. Golden-crowned Kinglet, Ruby-
crowned Kinglet, Red-eyed Vireo, Philadelphia Vireo, Warbling
Vireo, Prairie Warbler, Arkansas Kingbird.

136 BIRDS OF THE WEST

Red-headed. Red-headed Woodpecker, Northern Flicker,
Red-shafted Flicker, Downy Woodpecker, Hairy Woodpecker,
Ruby-crowned Kinglet.

Red or reddish. Cardinal Grosbeak, Red Crossbill, Redpoll,
Purple Finch, Orchard Oriole, Robin Redbreast.

Red-white-black. Rose-breasted Grosbeak, Red-headed Wood-
pecker.

Slate. Junco.

Slate-yellow-white. Myrtle Warbler, Parula Warbler, Black-
throated Blue Warbler.

Sparrow-like. Chipping Sparrow, English Sparrow, Field
Sparrow, Grasshopper Sparrow, Song Sparrow, Tree Sparrow,
White-crowned Sparrow, White-throated Sparrow, Lapland Long-
spur.

Yellow. Yellow Warbler. Nearly all warblers have some
yellow.

Yellow-breasted. Meadow-lark, Prairie Horned Lark, Dick-
eissel, Yellow-breasted Chat, Blackburnian Warbler, Arkansas
Kingbird.

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BUC HOTS DING ESCO mS MIG r. sacar ete ae Lee i ie ae G5
BULLER DAIL WSGOuUbUMLe NGA Geis. 2.02 asst Nl ee aed 106
TE TAAZ I Sa |S SG TEN LAVA UM lr ees NS aR EN oe RE eM Re 126
C
CAaMiporoppers SCC Canada GUY! ee we ce te eek eee ee 43
Canarnyenwild.see Yellow Warbler. <.:.2% 2.20 3 i 8s 78
CENA IST UPN OTS 6 a tas a eal AOL gg cP ene a BA SE a EE OE ALA Ma aI MR Von 106
COEF OM ECD Eyal Sa SM ASS a 2 a SAL NOT Sa SW SUE eC Renee Hen Ree Peer 84
Sitenec pee leant. Whycatcher 2400520 co heed kee ee 37
CONS SIN ES Lk Boh So nS NES Me a LR ACS PCR BB ED 58
CEILS CS () | SSE SS I Dg aN A AE SUA a RR ee Be 89
(COOP PAINT ICA Nor ustaten es bette ret emanate ti ule Da lS I oot aba
Or ADEE TT ER A ig EL OLA Ea an, WOR Rf ave OIE ED Bee ees Oo R Gare eee eee 48
Crane; Blue, see Great) Blue Elerom 22272-2525. 2S eee eel il lal
AAA SOLO G CNN alr sauele te Nard Ray AE) AES DRED 9 OE ENNiey bee a Beano eT BEE EE te 14083
PASE S EW 05 I aT DAS a ses ee ETN les Pe 8 ELE Ses Ocal oe eee Le At ON BP er er em Sa 113
Crowe PANN CRIGAT Werte i riee epi (eee Ee LY Coa Ub aE bale ea ys Deku 43

TOSS wl Aver 1G anes owe tere rea MUI sl hee ves ie ea te esta se a 58

138 INDEX

Cuckoo} (Black piled yj ey Ly Pe 1a UE GN SSIS i a A 24
SOVIGLIOW=DINLO dees cei MAUL DUN LO Ac a EE LS ea aR 24
(1 Dad Re gpa MOAT aa PHU Ae UAE Se SVEN EVE CHOATE AWS AMO ENE AUN US it ovale) n bali
D
IDIGEGISSOT Morea Le aia Le TL RI SIS SPRL LUA el ee a AU 58
OVE 5] NEO UT IVD ANA RN eA AALS UN A WP AL ca 124
——hurtle;, see Mourning) Dove ei eae A Cet 124
DUCKS TES aL Dea Ge eee aa ANT CAN AFM A OMA UES 106
Geel ol We) 010 HUM BAU eae A UID Wee DIAN SAU MPO ari MNE LRT DM TEC SE RDS im LUC 106
——— BLUC= WAN SEG) ea) ees eNOS RNs ee A eee pe 105
= SUT OTO AG ee OMU AC NRL LCA CIN ANZAC a MUR OTH aS AN CO 106
EET VASP Re ye ae IO ALEC I CENT LUG e atl ea LS LA LAU an 106
CPM NATION (ESAT Ue a SUE Tab aL NN SoH ele dL CON 105
ee CER CURE TL fs Se RE ced age INOS RCM ts | 106
== OLE ENCYCLO RU Mae ID Day UA SA a 107
eA 2 We Lycee ne ee Pa ae IE ate OAL US De a UID aL Se 105
reel oii 0 0 #2 HU MR ee eR i Seo A RAD Ree Se neu Pan UM NAMEN L UR SNA Gh) 106
EVO (ECE Mae PUTA AUS LR a ITU An AS ILLES Va A 106
my CULL DD 3) SSCS SES LU TODD ee eA Le BO SU LD a 106
—— POO MDP UM sae ee NAN i a SL NT Aaa 105
eV ECL SON ER Ae EON RTC a ee Ke OP Ne 106
eV OO Chi ee UNGER LO USA i eee 106
E
NSE. Bet evan B21 6 lpreme SRMMe NEL Manian Mine igen eoM MLL Ne ges I EH ge SI MLAHT Ri NIN Ueber ANT A 128
OT eras eke ee eee NOC CA eae ee ua eee eee ee 128
F
Bish Dwek: Seen Mereansers eC eMule Tie Uae ELC LAIMA fe a na ae 107 :
EMLIGkeSR MINOT EET ee UNRATE AR oc 28
= “Red-=snahted sides eC Oy ae SLU Ry SSeS Co 0 ala ce 28
ML ycatecher (Crested ge wy) IZ Al ise eRe A ae a VIN tN Nang Ss Ba tl
CAS GeO Se IN LUI IO SUA ND SARL Ua ne at
= OLIVE=STMeG | Men EMO Ny LARA Whe IN CIA ALUSNC IA AAS SL 37
Fly-up-the-creek, see American Bittern -...-.....2..22222202222222-2 222 2ee eee eee al ual
G
ZIT By yee ANU Me ee UA A Reg HC a OPO ga OI MLOERS TU LY MUSOU eae BIBER DOO a ol 106
Goatsuckerisee INTIS ntl wie eS A L 8374
GOlden eye NOTE MILA TE AN ce ARO ULM ELL A a a 107
LO Co4 Kebab ave) oi eullaees auc utara IW Uheas EAU ELA NA AMAL USL NSLS MN UAE DUONG AA Na URC aga AT Nee 58
GOOSE} (i: Cara ai UTA Ne OLA SOU EN EULA LA Ns a 107
TNO Wi ee aN AIM AA TR LY VEZ a A OSs 107

COTE AV trig 01 (ey la ie AeA AU IR Ge Ber ee Cee eee eee 49
Grebe, Hare oni. 2o oes eee tennant ac eee tac creer e enn cn genre seen ane wane ne senn nanan 98
= Holpoell’s'see)| Red-necked. | Grebe). see 98
et 215 caval ed batay 0 loi eins ANB G NE IONS NCEA STI OAS UL aaa RU CI SE eS ps a AO ee eA 98
sat reg Ke atria Lis ta SUN A Se OAR NL UAL aNd GUL SA ala 98
GPOSDew ia Oar Taal ee eet wenn Man aue ian Atanee gaanee noted annokan ae annmmacamsan 59
STD hyperate abet Leu OL AA eC Se eee ear eae 58
ey BAG aU OE COS NY a EST MDT NUE BI NCH ne OC a ee es 59
ES CET CAS UC Cinema neu Wl bue Miu ea UNE DUR anne Se ULC Ten) Akt oles Uecanwan Se 58
Grouse, Sharp-tailed --..........-------------------+---------2---22--2 nc nnen nnn e nnn cnn 122
Gull, Bonaparte’s -........--.-.-2--.--------s--2-------20t enone enn nee nn ee esecnen cane ccc enecee scene 101
LLY TS Try ald eet ey Lae EO USE I et IO A Re eee ee 101
H
Hair-bird, see Chipping Sparrow...........--.--..---------------------------------02--0- 56
Hawk, American Goshawk .........--------------------+--2--02--22--2--n enone 127
ECO OOD STS ee eee be ae ia He Ue eee aaa ede ee tate eo oadcacme ns anasmaee 127
a Mae E ST Diy OU NA UL aE PR Ie eee 127
Sj Oya G ARH EVO EH Kg (2 Cayo (tae i ale NU NC SCI I RE Ea me 127
eS er re PTH (26 be aul ie eR SIRS ARR RA AU Sear 127
SOME Ble Chine ee ieee Unie acl ub awer Uaaelte Mente enee ie too eae cea 128
SS arp SINS ee a ew a scene neh dennanns WAT
ESTE i a0 IU UU OE uy Ce RLU ere aon Ee Beare 127
ATTN CNTR eae en BE A) IA DE ee oe ce eee eee 128
Heron, Black-crowned Night ...........------------------------2----2---00eooceeccte 111
St ETE BITS] A ey tue IE SIN UP NN UL URL EPR SE Ee aE aha bal
EET AEH OO TL ete eee ee UNL UCU OURS SUE SAD ALUN San Ieee Selden ara 111
High-hole, see Flicker -_..-....--.--00-.21-----------------2e---oen ene c ene n cee ences ne ceenetc ees 28
High-holder, see Flicker -....-........--..---------------------2----n een eeencneccenee 28
Hummingbird, Ruby-throated ..-.....-.....--.-.---------------------t-----------0--00-00-- 3
J
TILLEY ara (ES a A TSAI eee EI eae eee ooo re rahe l
eee DRY et egy CE Se EA GN ON Oe a aL ee ee oe 3
SU TE Tia FT Nitti el OU CU LAN a LOS UL OSU OI page 43
RT UTY GON) oO eae DUA OLENA ROTEIA DOME MMA NLA ee A SR ae a ee LU eI en dara a hace aoa Bit
K
TESA UG Ie ae Ae UU A SI UI AI GNC e EES SS I OL eae ete to 121
Main ebird)) Arkansas ee a eee Ne ly a Cana Reel ae andeaanaannannonasaesecenneecn 37
EOS PL i ee eee eC DY RR eL Re UN oT CI CALLE RAL LESS: LoS eae eee 37
Rane tisher| Bele yee wea ee ae SUNN EC oe eA ne, eaten eda ouaesosconucanmmc ence 26
Kinglet, Golden-crowned. ...---.2.-2--------------2--------2220-----2-rencnen ence anen ene neeee 91
EEUU CL OWL CGI) Per eee ean oles Muu KURA WALA SE Ne ev ICSE Ma tne eat alaa 91

Kate.) Swallow tailed i nee eee Ee Uist oto saeapnma mama 128

140 INDEX

L
ards" Mie ado 28. bet ig Vee TO SINT AAS RATED RN UES ELE 49
=— Pranic HVOrIMe Gd: 2052s oe lL s Res OE Ee dS 41
Longe spur, Wier Len dy hoc Mec ai NaN AS EL A et eae ag ne SW
TAO OT M2 Poe eS ee alse ee ap A Late eR Le at) ea ar) bee 100
M
IWike xi 0p Ce ieee ee yn nee Perea Dare GRen BE Ne Aube ween ROM eke Maeva CNIS (ES Sealer ot ke iso 43
VAT Garr hp se ee NE SI aE Blanes oe TS IL EA eae OA ee 105
1A Ee Wh Gas caged 4 V1) Capes aenee tule oats WD ae aR eN aM ORE ADE Seat iien | RI SCI RUMEN Ay oo 69
WTC adie wri Trey rey: fo Ses 22 oy LUE ee ROT Se a 49
Merganser; America m |) sles CRA wl U ANG iy ae Sid ee eae ee 107
—Hooded ......... RE UERE LS AU SS SE URN ps sasel REM Bree HLS eine BU, ce ae 107
= “VEG DREASTE Gi ee Ais Sve rear StU AE Se DeLee 107
Mio Gia = Patra EN Tae CI Ree BES a ULE Sagan eh A pe Oe Le 84
Moose=bird:seet Canada Vay eaten De RELI eee eee See EAN 43
Mud=hen.'see:'Cootvanidi | Grebe niu ve iain Weis Eee eer eee eee ieee a eae a We aye ys
N
1 ira aly oz yur ch Ms We eR Ry A RnR LL Sa Reh nee AMD MME RE Ld aN Eg alchohol Si NO ld ay
Nuthatch Red=breastedi ise ss) aes eA EULA ane keels Ny ale eee eee 89
Wihite-breasted | ein ile vii nu WE cLg wee L gull Jel pa Le eS ne 89
O
Oriole: Baltimore. cic es er NU WN Ee ane ae Pele NV ee a 49
= OP CM ATA eke Us UNE i hehe eee a ne 49
© VS TDD IT Chi yas ree I ACESS NS ele Rn A OS aa 79
Oil Ba ERS Sih hl BOSE i a SN Fee EAS aes a BE a at A 131
cE UNTO WIM se eh rs LS RAG TTL 9 leat kG Wey
eS CREE CH i sik eet NON ee LIT eI UCAS 2 NEG Ue Sa a ibasil
—— SNOPt-CATedy iver al SEOUL 3 eee an a ipiil
STOW IY! eee ee bea aah Mind TE Dek ak eRe PB er aketal
= Westen “SElOnMed) | oe seeteU ast id ee Lae Rh a ue ate ee 131
P
P SLI AME VVC! ao eee ee an de Te 2 UN UD Lag CON EN eC LS 5 a RN Oe 103
PE WiEGR WOO! | en iiie SURF MONA COE Loa BONN Uae AA A CaN ALS sae a Ease Sey 8 2 3
Phalarope; | Wilsons sich coy Wisse Be Ue Miksce Gabe Sn ans y ack Ek Ee ne 116
| Bal oY 0X) OY = pba aeaers MOe Mee EN VER RAN NEB ODaRe Paes AN MRR NERVOUS Su Rae ean et a A By Tl
Pigeon," PASSOMP SRT pete WT SI ON ols eee cea IA sae gua Ca eT 124
1 eth 1162 98 Nese nina EL aS AT TN eee Oe em Ue oRe Lee EN yeh ECA ASMP CET mie LN bia ll 106
POV ETS) GOV em ey ee NO ENA Bt ial Aug LEE oi DEN WLR a Re ila
—— Upland: see Bartramian’, Sandpiper joi eee ain UY)
Prairie) Chicken: 20 2) Ave Se UAE BY AG AL es AUS CEng ea RECN ae 122

Pupp let im CH Aye lO CCE i see A Se EAU Ley AP Oe LN ee OS bid

INDEX 141

Q
BP UrcU ee aOR WIE LG gener one Sg norco eee ses a eecun a meta each Guat du iceiauaals dbleysn wee 122
R
EC ea M rei en MTN GD Be tepleree nee Gehan tat ele Peau nents TA NOW CN NS Re IE Ay Noni ly caea 115
SNA eS AN EH YEN AS SO OE SE Pe et SAU SY Ga ae pee eA ec RH PR IS CLE ER 115
tin GLO Wapseen GLC OO) He ucLka ui mute seo ca nbs Peer aaNet ct ba 24
EVAAVIC TN AP ON GTO EN CTBT RARE ene stoi. teeane alee aoc reser Co oe Une. Ue Na Ui 2 CUE 3
PES SCL © eal merce ters Sat res nary eng ee s ue Cees NI Were Nee re eae TIN ENS EU Dalle) Se RUE 106
TANS TO OCU telat eens feet AE ce ees eee aed len EEE Me ye Pek peeb a) Eg ee PRUE Es Lage ae 58
DRNGXEISUE IE - cee he gecesi om Sag SUE AN VEER ID Ae RRL el earn MASE ELA 78
FC COR SING seSC Or Es ONO WIM ke ene tee eh Ee ee ee cg eee ee UL aes 49
RICE OTE SCCM EOD Oli erst ucectest esses saele nt Uae ie ea ee une 49
FESS Cp TL ra eer ee ree isle eee A eae piecet DL AN: EL MR EUs RIE es a ea 3
Ss
SEAFEKST VEIT) aha aaa aes Ue gE ead a SNE Roe any eae eA FE 122
Sap Sr amaes ob eTMNT In py eer er a ena EY Ais Ou Se TENS ee a ae Adee ally;
ASI LSS excite cases rat NAT eres 8 NL Ee SEA Ra a PLE LALO Spe SO Bee ta ibaliy(
STS] NOL SO ly) Seas URE GS PSL SIG EERE ee PATE A eed en Ne Valter eee Rg Ra ee 118
STAN OVEN TIGL Veer of Cpe sa I 2 Ee Gi a eae Ee ree AR ae sD PMR D AVE OCR Ole LARA Seated, 28
vey WWII LI Ebereen we mae ae sebor es Ales tee Sige 1S eee Pesto Nucla 2 2 le Dt de ele 107
SCCEUU EVE STEREO i 212107 [pS a AAR Ae OO mee oR Tr Ru Int REE aE 106
SHARC OTe e) NYS eh aly REM Us GENS UTE OP i ON be SU eee TOE ein Ort yee eens PU 15
SS CO ECT eet oe eng etal Un teite MS SUP eH ASS INE BE 75
SHOT CYS CLE d Len SESS Shs 2k ERR ah EFS MAR 2 AN RDU eS TE Wm it cou Ege ee Lge iL
SV ETS ORAS) ees 5S: ApS DRT BSUS enV OEE ae 2 SU ANA a TUDE ONES i ee aye
SOMO Ny SUEUR a ce ed STA RN SAS RE RI 2) SD ORE Od AEE ORS Lee ee aNG Lee LE ue tated af
PSYC EON, AAC Chl aut oy oh alee: Weg Ss ee AE eS BA Tea une Le RCSB aNAE sie be nie Ss ee RR eC Se 56
FEAT SS need te eel ae g eee venceesa eet aE EAE TS) FAG EAN hw A) A CU aN 56
See ENL Ui y cone sens ORE cect Sort eae a POI SR ee ele ee es al ee ace 56
BES en NS OE NEUE Vive Ve SE Sy so7en, Gav Oe CR LO anc Eno add SEN DS 56
CLASS HOD Ply ee roe ee ee ere eee Sey anes ay SPEDE TU 57
SSS TN et te de oa nts Se SNE Cas Pe fa OLR Re ORVLY AMO ch ea b Hh eG e RL aE AX 56
wo ET OC ieyteeine Soe de Bebe HOUNL Da RAN IVER EE Rietton tants ee RAMU AIE INE On ULL clu hy Sth 347
= WOS DCI eeree aCe ee cue ebe ail Ae Wem eet in el Feo DRUMS a Ag
= VWNTG—-CHOWWAMG Gansta ee Rn eat ty ur Le a Oey Mile Bil
= W) BLUe-CnT OA bed teeta en sa eee eee Sten ee LE Vs ea 57
SDOODIDUEN Uo satiy areas me ees reer As ea ube here e reer ty oy eed ty 8 Wel Geb hae 105
Stake-driver,, See Amentean MBiIGGeTM ee ee tle Ye ad Eee Rad ee artoe 1st
SW. LLO Wise Esc eee nee ek eae eee EU ight e eiesiaeke aoe Wry EAS 69
15}. a 1 Mga sade ge asac gs CeCe UC Tse Lcles VOT WINS WoC Re Vi ae re San neUS Cod 00 RV PROPER 69
= AUNTY Ms SCCM SO Wilt cee se rere eae ee eT ole iL 69
= OLE yi SECON Ma VES me ie ts eterna ee Euan se ey alin ev 69
Fee) Op (eto ete MRR SEP) ON RS ary SN ed SC Se 69

142 INDEX

SSVI COT eee UY PO UA ISSA RUC A A GH RL 107

ees YA) OU ES) HAD OY =A MRO unas al UTL PUR ee UDA A RU Me SLD R UNA DUN AN ha NSA Mtn Mae cal 107

SW DEE. Cobra ys (0s er RU AE OTE ROLLA LeU anes PSA UR UILTD IVEKI OSE Reese 34
T

Peal VB TS=wWaAM SOG sO wa ene ca alee ae lel Mii Ae TN A LOL Os 105,

eo) TTY TNA, LAO TD CS SAI Ie UA A I AINA 105

ara en RE CN ee ree Came cu ty aerate ee 105

A) Dc oh a MNT 2 Hed a PARA eA LG aD nam AL OUEST MR I USD ALG il 101

eel HOF Rm} R=) UNH EUTM a eh CARI AEE eA ODI AG AAD AL RL RCNA) Hs NOLS Ha ape YL 101

Mhistlebind (Sees) Gol GE mie Hye aA yO LN Ne a a a LN A 58

TED TASTES VE TOW TN UGTA aap Th) ad NA RU RC et ca WEA a et CC 84

THruUsh)) GOLMSN-CrO WS eee ee RON ATT NN eS SLD NT A a CLE 93

TTD co GIL EN yt a anal Nie eRe ME UE HUE MAI sR KS MAUL 93

——Olive=Dache dite Uae AGEN eI UL OTA LU LET Aa IR aN EAC te ea 93

WV ATS OT 5 Oke Rene UN eISSN cal NLU SRA A NORA 93

a WW OO | sees LUCCA DU LC UU Ae Ue VN UP 93

Thunderpump;) see: AmericGam) Bitter 22.282 ee Ue TAT Ne ana ee li aati

Lip-up. see: Spotted) Sand pipe (yee GEN ae cereal eC Len eae 118

ETE OUMSE HEEL! Gi yee OO A AA AO CIE Ue a 0 Ls a 89

Towhee, See Cire yy ira Be Ue UNBAN GV aA DR ee WA 58
V

MEELY,,) SEO WLISOTRS | Ears Bie iy Me ES NIN IR eS ae eR ARC 93

Wareo' Pine de lip Tig lies 2 Ceo Me AUVs WE A AL SR As LO 77

Pad a a(2X0 FS WK £1 0 [AM MUNILQMn Uti eh MIEN) BID MO CON DOR NAV ca pA MU Le UR HN GEA URES SS Bais ar

a VEL LD eas UNL GOA LE er ION ORR AUS AU LA aa AL Sc Thr

Sa WV MICS SVS UNA 2 ERR SUSUR AN UALS ALC NASD aH a a Ted

NV ACU Gurr ise al RAL ae La SG Sie UCD e NUR ete Ao CLE CCIE SU 126
W

Warblers (Blac kip unremr ein yo! eer EU Oe TOL AE NCA Od 78

‘ —Blackpoll eee 79

——Black-Chroaved DUE) (eC EAU CUCU nN UENO LCE ee 78

——Black=and=white) (Cree piri eye ea Yai B NS AC idee Ue Oy a 79

ce ENYA it B= YR AN reseed EN SA RE CUA EC BUA AUR 78

ee RUT UM ED, ype a LDN ALLO NL PHA RI NZ NUL IN NT Ae i Lc eg 19

Serr CoH RC WH pK = YEE AL RIO LRSM EIT RL NSU EL ea LSU SAR SADE 79

ceed AC =) HO) ANP EPNERUIU Re Ma AL EAMG OD) RAIL ra Ve, CaS LISP NR Lea eS Ny NUN 78

Vex wale ear MOT ACA UCAS SEU ae RU Meee ASL ae ee Oa LN ce 73

Whippoorwill -........ POL N SAISON AEN RAINE ASBUCL SAME SUR DA ONIN OD NC Aes ain oe

WTO TN ee TNA ie UMAR STARR aL LRU Au LL LR 106

NVOOG COCK NU ALIEN NAA Stats AND TCU OMS te UM STAI LA ALU TA Waly

WACO GE EDUC AM i Oe OGM UO ALISON IL Cea LLTALGN aA Ue ee ve eae Ey 106

WiOOdPECKET DOW TY LAR LE Oe SLAC MOAT MIS NEE ee SUG ee 28

——_ Golden=winzed SES ITC ree EN NE La ELS DU 28

INDEX 143

eh EEN A (a LU DEY AE NCU RU a A ATO 28
= PVC ECAC UM el vnatin i ery Sa une cin wav ca ened AU ARM ALUM ca On MeL UN eth 28
Vga) TANCES TSS Ma a DUN ONIN A IRL MR CR MNO 87
secs EEN SS eH CML CAUCE Sa Ze INI gO INSIGNIA 87
= WV ARE GGT ies er ALU Sk BL a LUI UN SLUTSL SA AA EE Oe Ros IMM 87
4)
ET UD ASCO MLC iO Tih se steamers rao unU nl uu aMn aD ULOY KL MLL eC nega OAC OND. WA Cl SMe 28
IMellOWICES ey Grea Very cesra. so necce eu ceul AUN LKE ANU TRU CML NANA NSN SEU AU a aba
See DRS ESIS SH gl eal is La AUNTIE CA UL eNOS OA DAHA ONO NAC RRC ai bits

Py a ay

Cite if '
HT CIP) bore
A ay

ni

vel tj

Ton

nhbird OQL683.W4H74
Birds of the West,