E> ae eet e || > ll ae F ‘ ae oF ics eo 2b OF OL OE a mae” Na” ll | Wy CORNELL LAB of ORNITHOLOGY LIBRARY at Sapsucker Woods Gs 2 Illustration of Bank Swallow by Louis Agassiz Fuertes Cornell University Library QL 681.043 “Wain 3 1924 022 538 098 sm Cornell University Library The original of this book is in the Cornell University Library. There are no known copyright restrictions in the United States on the use of the text. http :/Awww.archive.org/details/cu31924022538098 Puiate I. BARN SWALLOW. CLIFF SWALLOW. TREE SWALLOW. BANK SWALLOW. BIRD-LIFE BOC DYE ie i Be UD oP OUR COMMON BIRDS OLOGY LABORATORY OF ORNITHOLOG 459 SAPSUCKER WOODS ROAD ITHACA, NEW YORK 14850 FRANK M. CHAPMAN ASSISTANT CURATOR OF THE DEPARTMENT OF MAMMALOGY AND ORNITHOLOGY IN THE AMERICAN MUSEUM OF NATURAL HISTORY ; MEMBER OF THE AMERICAN ORNITHOLOGISTS’ UNION i AUTHOR OF HANDBOOK OF BIRDS OF EASTERN NORTH AMERICA, ETC, WITH SEVENTY-FIVE FULL-PAGE PLATES AND NUMEROUS TEXT DRAWINGS By ERNEST SETON THOMPSON AUTHOR OF ART ANATOMY OF ANIMALS, THE BIRDS OF MANITOBA, ETC. NEW YORK D. APPLETON AND COMPANY 1897 TO Dr. J. A. ALLEN THIS BOOK IS DEDICATED AS A TOKEN OF RESPECT AND AFFECTION FROM ONE WHO FOR NINE YEARS HAS WORKED AT HIS SIDE. PREFACE. How unusual it is to meet any one who can correctly name a dozen of our birds! One may live in the country and still know only two or three of the one hundred and fifty or more kinds of birds that may be found during the year. Nevertheless, these gay, restless creatures, both by voice and action, constantly invite our attention, and they are far too interesting and beautiful to be ignored. No one to whom Nature appeals should be without some knowledge of these, the most attractive of her animate forms. The scientific results to be derived from the study of birds are fully realized by the naturalist. But there are other results equally important. I would have every one know of them: results that add to our pleasure in field and wood, and give fresh interest to walks that before were eventless; that quicken both ear and eye, making us hear and see where before we were deaf and blind. Then, to our surprise, we shall discover that the forests and pastures we have known all our lives are tenanted by countless feathered inhabitants whose companionship will prove a source of endless enjoyment. I would enter a special plea for the study of birds in the schools; for the more general introduction of ornithology in natural-history courses. Frogs and cray- fish serve an excellent purpose, but we may not en- counter either of them after leaving the laboratory ; whereas birds not only offer excellent opportunities for v vi PREFACE. study, but are always about us, and even a slight famil- iarity with them will be of value long after school days are over. Popular interest must precede the desire for purely technical knowledge. The following pages are not ad- dressed to past masters in ornithology, but to those who desire a general knowledge of bird-life and some ac- quaintance with our commoner birds. The opening chapters of this book briefly define the bird, its place in Nature and its relation to man, and outline the leading facts in its life-history. The concluding chapters pre- sent the portraits, names, and addresses of upward of one hundred familiar birds of eastern North America, with such information concerning their comings and goings as will lead, I trust, to their being found at home. After this introduction the student may be left on the threshold, with the assurance that his entrance to the innermost circles of bird-life depends entirely on his own patience and enthusiasm. Frank M. Cuapman. American Museum or Natura History, New York city, January, 1897. CONTENTS. CHAP. I.—THE BIRD, ITS PLACE IN NATURE AND RELATION TO MAN . Place in Nature—Relation to man. II.—THE LIVING BIRD Factors of evolution—The wing, its form and uses— The tail, its form and uses—The foot, its form and uses —The bill, its form and uses. III.—Cotors oF BIRDS Color and age—Color and season—The molt—Color and food—Color and climate—Color and haunt and habit— Color and sex. IV.—THE MIGRATION OF BIRDS Extent of migration—Times of migration—Manner of migration—Origin of migration. V.—THE VOICE OF BIRDS Song—Call-notes. VI.—THE NESTING SEASON e . F ‘ é : Time of nesting—Mating—The nest—The eggs—The young. ViI.—How To IDENTIFY BIRDS A bird’s biography. FIELD KEY TO OUR common LAND Birps . vii PAGE 1 14 35 48 62 64 71 5 viii CONTENTS, PAGE Tue Water BIRDs . é . 2 : if . . . 84 Diving Birds—Long-winged Swimmers—Tube-nosed Swim- mers—Lamellirostral Swimmers—Herons, Storks, Ibises, ete. —Cranes, Rails, ete.—Shore Birds. Tae Lanp Birps . ‘ : : e i i . 110 Gallinaceous Birds—Pigeons and Doves—Birds of Prey— Cuckoos, Kingfishers, ete. — Woodpeckers — Goatsuckers, Swifts, and Hummingbirds—Perching Birds. LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS. FULL-PAGE PLATES. PLATE PAGE T.—Barn, Cliff, Bank, and Tree Swallows . Frontispiece IJ.—Pied-billed Grebe . 7 F : : : . . 85 II.—Loon ‘ ; ‘ ; ee . 87 IV.—Herring Gull: Botrets : i 89 V.—Wood Duck ; Pintails; Mallards; ‘Ghee winged Teal ; Blue-winged Teal; Canada Geese. F 98 VI.—Little Green Heron; Black-crowned Night Havas : Great Blue Heron . ‘ ; . 97 VII.—American Bittern; Sora ‘ is : ss : . 99 VIII.—American Coot; Clapper Rail . ; . ‘ . 101 1X.—Wilson’s Snipe. ° ‘ . 105 X.—Common Tern; Seniipalnintell Sandpiper ; Semipal- mated Plover . . : a ‘ i . 107 XI.—Spotted Sandpiper ; Killdeer ‘ : ; : . 109 XII.—Ruffed Grouse. ‘ ; : ; ‘ . 113 XIIT.—Mourning Dove. : : g . ; i . 115 XIV.—Red-shouldered Hawk . ‘ : ie < « Ta XV.—Marsh Hawk . i ‘ : ri : ; ‘ . 119 XVI.—Sparrow Hawk .. 5 . ; : : . 121 XVII.—Sharp-shinned Hawk . : : ; : ; . 128 XVIII.—American Osprey . r é ‘ . ‘ : . 125 X1X.—Short-eared Owl . , : 3 : ‘ . 127 XX.—Sereech Owl. . . ea hs oe “RO XXI.—Barred Owl . é ; ‘ ‘ ; j ‘ . 181 XXIL—Yellow-billed Cuckoo . . . «. «ss 188 XXIII.—Belted Kingfisher . . : : ‘ . P . 185 XXIV.—Downy Woodpecker. . . : 3 ‘ . 187 XXV.—Red-headed Woodpecker. : : ; : . 139 XXVI.—Flicker . : . . : z . 41 XXVII.—Nighthawk ; Whip- poor-will F : = e . 143 ix x LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS. PLATE XXVIII.—Chimney Swift . : XX1X.—Ruby-throated Hummingbird , XXX.—Kingbird F . XXXI.—Crested Flycatcher XXXII.—Pheebe , XXXIII.—Wood Pewee XXXIV.—Horned Lark XXXV.—Baltimore Oriole XXXVI.— Orchard Oriole XXXVII.—Purple Grackle . XXXVIII.—Bobolink XXXIX.—Meadowlark XL.—Cowbird XLI.—Song Sparrow XLIIL—Swamp Sparrow . XLIII.—Field Sparrow XLIV.—Vesper Sparrow . XLV.—Chipping Sparrow XLVI.—White-throated ene XLVII.—Fox Sparrow XLVIIL.—Junco . XLIX.—Tree Sparrow ‘ L.—Redpoll; Snowflake . LI.—American Crossbill; Pine Giosteak: , LIl.—American Goldfinch . LIII.—Purple Finch LIV.—Rose-breasted Grosbéak LV.—Towhee LVI.—Dickcissel LVII.—Cedar Waxwing . LVIII.—Northern Shrike . LIX.—Red-eyed Vireo; Yellow- throated Tiras : LX.—Black and White Warbler . LXI.—Myrtle Warbler ; Black-throated Gisch Warbler LXII.—Redstart LXIIL—Oven-bird . : LXIV.—Maryland Y¥ellow-throat LXV.—Yellow-breasted Chat LXVI.—Mockingbird LXV1I.—Brown Thrasher. LXVIIL—House Wren ‘ : LXIX.—Long-billed Marsh Wren : LXX.—Brown Creeper; Chickadee PAGE 145 147 151 153 155 157 159 165 167 169 171 173 175 177 179 181 183 185 187 ‘189 191 193 195 197 199 201 203 205 209 217 219 223 225 227 229 231 233 235 289 241 243 245 247 LXXI.—Red-breasted Nuthatch ; White-breasted Nuthatch LXXII.—Golden-crowned iste prev enae ee LXxXUI—Veery . ; . LXXIV.— Wood ‘Phagh LXXV.—Hermit Thrush LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS. PLATE FIGURES IN THE TEXT. FIG. . Restoration of the Archxopteryx, a toothed, reptilelike bird of the Jurassic period . End of spearlike tongue of Pileated Woodpecker . Tip of tail of (a) Downy Woodpecker, (6) Brown Creeper, to show the pointed ee in tails of creeping birds of different families . . Young Hoatzin, showin: use of ached ere in dinbing . Short, rounded wing and large foot of Little Black Rail, a ter- restrial bird . Long, pointed wing and cual toot of Pree Syratlone, an aérial bird . Frigate-bird . Great Auk, showing relatively anni wine $ . Wing of Woodcock, showing three outer attenuate feathers : . Jacana, showing spurred wing and elongated toes . . Tail-feathers of Motmot (Momotus subrufescens), showing newly. grown feathers and results of self-inflicted mutilation 2. Lobed foot of Coot (Fulica americana), a swimming bird of the Rail family . Lobed foot of a Phalarope (Cr enor dian paleeat dius a swim- ming bird of the Snipe family . Flamingo, showing relative length of legs ant = ina ale ing bird . . Foot of Fish Hawk, showing lange tees enil auiciiles on nites surface of toes . Naked toes of Ruffed Grouse! in summer ; fringed fies of Ruffed Grouse in winter . Decurved bill of Sickle-bill Hinauigated . Serrate bill of Merganser, a fish-eating bird . Probelike bill of Woodcock, showing extent to wiih mopar mandible can be moved. . Recurved bill of Avocet . . Bill of Spoonbill Sandpiper xl PAGE » 249 . 258 . 255 » 257 » 259 PAGE 14 16 17 18 18 19 21 24 24 26 27 27 28 29 29 31 32 32 32 33 xii LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS. PAGE FIG. 22. Curved bill of female, straight bill of male Huia-bird . . 33 23. Feathers from back of Snowflake, showing seasonal changes in form and color due to wearing off of tips 38 24. Eggs of (a) Spotted Sandpiper and (2) Catbird, to show differ- ence in size of eggs of precocial and altricial birds of same . 68 size. i th ie ee ig 25. Topography of a ind. eh “he ‘i i . . 7 BIRD-LIFE. CHAPTER I. THE BIRD: ITS PLACE IN NATURE AND RELATION TO MAN. The Bird’s Place in Nature.*—About thirteen thousand species of birds are known to science. The structure of many of these has been carefully studied, and all have been classified, at least provisionally. Taken as a whole, the class Aves, in which all birds are placed, is more clearly defined than any other group of the higher animals. That is, the most unlike birds are more closely allied than are the extremes among mam- mals, fishes, or reptiles, and all living birds possess the distinctive characters of their class. When compared with other animals, birds are found to occupy second place in the scale of life. They stand between mammals and reptiles, and are more closely re- lated to the latter than to the former. In fact, certain extinct. birds so clearly connect living birds with rep- tiles, that these two classes are sometimes placed in one group—the Sauropsida. * On the structure of birds read Coues’s Key to North American Birds, Part II (Estes & Lauriat); Headley, The Structure and Life of Birds; Newton’s Dictionary of Birds—articles, Anatomy of Birds and Fossil Birds; Martin and Moale’s Handbook of Vertebrate Dissection, Part II, How to Dissect a Bird; Shufeldt’s Myology of the Raven (Macmillan Co.). 2 1 9 CHARACTERS OF BIRDS. The characters that distinguish birds from mammals on the one hand, and from reptiles on the other, are more apparent than real. Thus flight, the most striking of a bird’s gifts, is shared by bats among mammals. Egg-lay- ing is the habit of most reptiles and of three mammals (the Australian duckbill and the echidnas). But incuba- tion by one or both of the parents is peculiar to birds, though the python is said to coil on its eggs. Birds breathe more rapidly than either mammals or reptiles, and their pneumaticity, or power of inflating numerous air-sacs and even certain bones, is unique. The temperature of birds ranges from 100° to 112°, while in mammals it reaches 98° to 100°, and in the com- paratively cold-blooded reptiles it averages only 40°. The skull in mammals articulates with the last verte- bra (atlas) by two condyles or balls; in birds and reptiles by only one. In mammals the heart has four chambers ; in birds and reptiles there are but three. Mammals and reptiles both have teeth, a character possessed by no existing bird; but fossil birds appar- ently prove that early in the development of the class all birds had teeth. Thus we might continue the comparison, finding that birds have no universal peculiarities of structure which are not present in some degree in either mammals or reptiles, until we come to their external covering. The reptile is scaled, and so is the fish ; the mammal is haired, and so are some insects; but birds alone possess feathers. They are worn by every bird—a fit clothing for a body which is a marvelous combination of beauty, lightness, and strength. There is good evidence for the belief that birds have descended from reptilian ancestors. This evidence con- sists of the remains of fossil birds, some of which show marked reptilian characters and, as just said, are toothed. ANCESTORS OF BIRDS. 8 It is unnecessary to discuss here the relationships of the birdlike reptiles, but, as the most convincing argument in support of the theory of the reptilian descent of birds, I present a restoration of the Archeopteryx, the earliest known progenitor of the class Aves. This restoration is Fie. 1.—Restoration of the Archeopteryx, a toothed, reptilelike bird of the Jurassic period. (About 1/, natural size.) based on an examination of previous restorations in con- nection with a study of the excellent plates which have been published of the fossils themselves.* Two speci- mens have been discovered ; one being now in the British Museum, the other in the Berlin Museum. They were both found in the lithographic slates of Solenhofen, in Bavaria, a formation of the Jurassic period, and, together, furnish the more important details of the structure of this reptilelike bird. This restoration, therefore, while doubtless inaccurate * For recent papers on the Archeopteryx see Natural Science (Macmillan Co.), vols. v-viii. 4 = DISTRIBUTION OF BIRDS. in minor points, is still near enough to the truth to give a correct idea of this extraordinary bird’s appearance. The Archeopteryx was about the size of a Crow. Its long, feathered tail is supposed to have acted as an aéro- plane, assisting in the support of the bird while it was in the air, but its power of flight was doubtless limited. It was arboreal and probably never descended to the earth, but climbed about the branches of trees, using its large, hooked fingers in passing from limb to limb. The wanderings of this almost quadrupedal creature must necessarily have been limited, but its winged de- scendants of to-day are more generally distributed than are any other animals.* They roam the earth from pole to pole; they are equally at home on a wave-washed coral reef or in an arid desert, amid arctic snows or in the shades of a tropical forest. This is due not alone to their powers of flight but to their adaptability to vary- ing conditions of life. Although, as I have said, birds are more closely related among themselves than are the members of either of the other higher groups of animals, and all birds agree in possessing the more important distinguishing characters of their class, yet they show a wide range of variation in structure. This, in most instances, is closely related to habits, * On the distribution of animals read Allen, The Geographical Distribution of North American Mammals, Bulletin of the American Museum of Natural History, New York city, iv, 1892, pp. 199-244; four maps. Allen, The Geographical Origin and Distribution of North American Birds considered in Relation to Faunal Areas of North America, The Auk (New York city), x. 1893, pp. 97-150; two maps. Merriam, The Geographic Distribution of Life in North America, with Special Reference to Mammalia, Proceedings of the Biological Society of Washington, vii, 1892, pp. 1-64; one map. Merriam, Laws of Tem- perature Control of the Geographic Distribution of Terrestrial Ani- mals and Plants, National Geographic Magazine (Washington), vi, 1894, pp. 229-238; three maps. RELATION OF BIRDS TO MAN. 5 which in birds are doubtless more varied than in any of the other higher animals. Some birds, like Penguins, are so aquatic that they are practically helpless on land. Their wings are too small to support them in the air, but they fly under water with great rapidity, and might be termed feathered porpoises. Others, like the Ostrich, are terrestrial, and can neither fly nor swim. Others still, like the Frigate Birds, are aérial. Their small feet are of use only in perching, and their home is in the air. If now we should compare specimens of Penguins, Ostriches, and Frigate-birds with each other, and with such widely different. forms as Hummingbirds, Wood- peckers, Parrots, and others, we would realize still more clearly the remarkable amount of variation shown by birds. This great difference in form is accompanied by a corresponding variation in habit, making possible, as before remarked, the wide distribution of birds, which, together with their size and abundance, renders them of incalculable importance to man. Their economic value, however, may be more properly spoken of under The Relation of Birds to Man.—The relation of birds to man is threefold—the scientific, the economic, and the esthetic. No animals form more profitable subjects for the scientist than birds. The embryologist, the morphol- ogist, and the systematist, the philosophic naturalist and the psychologist, all may find in them exhaustless mate- rial for study. It is not my purpose, however, to speak here of the science of ornithology. Let us learn some- thing of the bird in its haunts before taking it to the laboratory. The living bird can not fail to attract us; the dead bird—voiceless, motionless—we will leave for future dissection. The economic value of birds to man lies in the service they render in preventing the undue increase of insects, 6 ECONOMIC VALUE OF BIRDS, in devouring small rodents, in destroying the seeds of harmful plants, and in acting as scavengers. Leading entomologists estimate that insects cause an annual loss of at least two hundred million dollars to the agricultural interests of the United States. The state- ment seems incredible, but is based upon reliable sta- tistics. This, of course, does not include the damage done to ornamental shrubbery, shade and forest trees. But if insects are the natural enemies of vegetation, birds are the natural enemies of insects. Consider for a mo- ment what the birds are doing for us any summer day, when insects are so abundant that the hum of their united voices becomes an almost inherent part of the atmosphere. In the air Swallows and Swifts are coursing rapidly to and fro, ever in pursuit of the insects which constitute their sole food. When they retire, the Nighthawks and Whip-poor-wills will take up the chase, catching moths and other nocturnal insects which would escape day-flying birds. The Flycatchers lie in wait, darting from ambush at passing prey, and with a suggestive click of the bill returning to their post. The Warblers, light, active crea- tures, flutter about the terminal foliage, and with almost the skill of a Hummingbird pick insects from leaf or blossom. The Vireos patiently explore the under sides of leaves and odd nooks and corners to see that no skulker escapes. The Woodpeckers, Nuthatches, and Creepers attend to the tree trunks and limbs, examining carefully each inch of bark for insects’ eggs and larvee, or exca- vating for the ants and borers they hear at work within. On the ground the hunt is continued by the Thrushes, Sparrows, and other birds, who feed upon the innumer- able forms of terrestrial insects. Few places in which insects exist are neglected ; even some species which pass their earlier stages or entire lives in the water are preyed upon by aquatic birds. ECONOMIC VALUE OF BIRDS. q Birds digest their food so rapidly, that it is difficult to estimate from the contents of a bird’s stomach at a given time how much it eats during the day. The stomach of a Yellow-billed Cuckoo, shot at six o’clock in the morning, contained the partially digested remains of forty-three tent caterpillars, but how many it would have eaten be- fore night no one can say. Mr. E. H. Forbush, Ornithologist of the Board of Agriculture of Massachusetts, states that the stomachs of four Chickadees contained one thousand and twenty- eight eggs of the cankerworm. The stomachs of four other birds of the same species contained about six hundred eggs and one hundred and five female moths of the cankerworm. The average number of eggs found in twenty of these moths was one hundred and eighty-five; and as it is estimated that a Chickadee may eat thirty female cankerworm moths per day during the twenty-five days which these moths crawl up trees, it follows that in this period each Chickadee would de- stroy one hundred and thirty-eight thousand seven hun- dred and fifty eggs of this noxious insect. Professor Forbes, Director of the Illinois State Lab- oratory of Natural History, found one hundred and seventy-five larvee of Bibio—a fly which in the larval stage feeds on the roots of grass—in the stomach of a single Robin, and the intestine contained probably as many more. Many additional cases could be cited, showing the intimate relation of birds to insect-life, and emphasizing the necessity of protecting and encouraging these little- appreciated allies of the agriculturist. The service rendered man by birds in killing the small rodents so destructive to crops is performed by Hawks and Owls—birds the uninformed farmer con- siders his enemies. The truth is that, with two excep- 8 ECONOMIC VALUE OF BIRDS. tions, the Sharp-shinned and Cooper’s Hawk, all our com- moner Hawks and Owls are beneficial. In his exhaust- _ive study of the foods of these birds Dr. A. K. Fisher, Assistant Ornithologist of the United States Department of Agriculture, has found that ninety per cent of the food of the Red-shouldered Hawk, commonly called “Chicken Hawk” or “Hen Hawk,” consists of injurious mammals and insects, while two hundred castings of the Barn Owl contained the skulls of four hundred and fifty- four small mammals, no less than two hundred and twenty- five of these being skulls of the destructive field or meadow mouse. Still, these birds are not only not protected, but in some States a price is actually set upon their heads! Dr. C. Hart Merriam, Ornithologist and Mammalogist of the United States Department of Ayriculture, has estimated that in offering a bounty on Hawks and Owls, which resulted in the killing of over one hundred thou- sand of these birds, the State of Pennsylvania sustained a loss of nearly four million dollars in one year and a half! As destroyers of the seeds of harmful plants, the good done by birds can not be overestimated. From late fall to early spring, seeds form the only food of many birds, and every keeper of cage-birds can realize how many a bird may eat ina day. Thus, while the Chickadees, Nut- hatches, Woodpeckers, and some other winter birds are ridding the trees of myriads of insects’ eggs and larve, the granivorous birds are reaping a crop of seeds which, if left to germinate, would cause a heavy loss to our agri- cultural interests. As scavengers we understand that certain birds are of value to us, and therefore we protect them. Thus the Vultures or Buzzards of the South are protected both by law and public sentiment, and as a result they are not only exceedingly abundant, but remarkably tame. But ECONOMIC VALUE OF BIRDS, 9 we do not realize that Gulls and some other water birds are also beneficial as scavengers in eating refuse which, if left floating on the water, would often be cast ashore to decay. Dr. George F. Gaumer, of Yucatan, tells me that the killing of immense numbers of Herons and other littoral birds in Yucatan has been followed by an increase in human mortality among the inhabitants of the coast, which he is assured is a direct result of the destruction of birds that formerly assisted in keeping the beaches and bayous free from decaying animal matter. Lack of space forbids an adequate treatment of this subject, but reference to the works and papers mentioned below* will support the statement that, if we were de- prived of the services of birds, the earth would soon become uninhabitable. Nevertheless, the feathered protectors of our farms and gardens, plains and forests, require so little encour- agement from us—indeed, ask only tolerance—that we accept their services much as we do the air we breathe. We may be in debt to them past reckoning, and still be unaware of their existence. But to appreciate the beauty of form and plumage of * Notes on the Nature of the Food of the Birds of Nebraska, by 8. Aughey; First Annual Report of the United States Entomological Commission for the Year 1877, Appendix ii, pp. 18-62. The Food of Birds, by S. A. Forbes; Bulletin No. 3, Illinois State Laboratory of Natural History, 1880, pp. 80-148. The Regulative Action of Birds upon Insect Oscillations, by S. A. Forbes, ibid., Bulletin No. 6, 1883, pp. 8-82. Economic Relations of Wisconsin Birds, by F. H. King; Wisconsin Geological Survey, vol. i, 1882, pp. 441-610. Report on the Birds of Pennsylvania, with Special Reference to the Food Habits, based on over Four. Thousand Stomach Examinations, by B. H. War- ren; Harrisburg, E. K. Meyers, State Printer, large 8vo, pp. 484, plates 100. The English Sparrow in North America, especially in its Rela- tion to Agriculture, prepared under the Direction of C. Hart Merriam, by Walter B. Barrows; Bulletin No. 1, Division of Economie Orni- thology and Mammalogy of the United States Department of Agricul- 10 JESTHETIC RELATIONS OF BIRDS. birds, their grace of motion and musical powers, we must know them. Then, too, we will be attracted by their high mental development, or what I have elsewhere spoken of as “their human attributes. Man exhibits hardly a trait which he will not find reflected in the life of a bird. Love, hate; courage, fear; anger, pleasure ; vanity, modesty; virtue, vice; constancy, fickleness; gen- erosity, selfishness; wit, curiosity, memory, reason—we may find them all exhibited in the lives of birds. Birds have thus become symbolic of certain human character- istics, and the more common species are so interwoven in our art and literature that by name at least they are known to all of us.” The sight of a bird or the sound of its voice is at all times an event of such significance to me, a source of such unfailing pleasure, that when I go afield with those to whom birds are strangers, I am deeply impressed by the comparative barrenness of their world, for they live in ignorance of the great store of enjoyment which might ‘be theirs for the asking. I count each day memorable that brought me a new friend among the birds. It was an event to be recorded in detail. A creature which, up to that moment, existed ture, 1889. The Hawks and Owls of the United States in their Rela- tion to Agriculture. prepared under the Direction of C. Hart Mer- riam, by A. K. Fisher; Bulletin No. 3, ibid., 1898. The Common Crow of the United States, by Walter B. Barrows and E. A. Schwarz; Bulletin No. 6, ibid., 1895. Preliminary Report on the Food of Woodpeckers, by F. E. L. Beal; Bulletin No. 7, ibid., 1895. (See also other papers on the food of birds in the Annual Report and Year- book of the United States Department of Agriculture.) Birds as Protectors of Orchards, by E. H. Forbush; Bulletin No. 3, Massachu- setts State Board of Agriculture, 1895, pp. 20-32. The Crow in Mas- sachusetts, by E. H. Forbush; Bulletin No. 4, ibid., 1896. How Birds affect the Farm and Garden, by Florence A. Merriam; re- printed from ‘“ Forest and Stream,” 1896, 16mo, pp. 31. Price, 5 cents. AISTHETIC RELATIONS OF BIRDS. 11 for me only as a name, now became an inhabitant of my woods, a part of my life. With what a new interest I got down my books again, eagerly reading every item concerning this new friend; its travels, habits, and notes; comparing the observations of others with what were now my own ! The study of birds is not restricted to any special sea- son. Some species are always with us. Long after the leaves have fallen and the fields are bare and brown, when insect voices are hushed, and even some mammals are sleeping their winter sleep, the cheery Juncos flit about our doorstep, the White-throats twitter cozily from the evergreens, Tree Sparrows chatter gayly over their breakfast of seeds, and Crows are calling from the woods. Birds are the only living creatures to be seen; what a sense of companionship their presence gives; how deso- late the earth would seem without them ! The ease with which we may become familiar with these feathered neighbors of ours robs ignorance of all excuses. Once aware of their existence, and we shall see a bird in every bush and find the heavens their pathway. One moment we may admire their beauty of plumage, the next marvel at the ease and grace with which they dash by us or circle high overhead. But birds will appeal to us most strongly through their songs. When your ears are attuned to the music of birds, your world will be transformed. Birds’ songs are the most eloquent of Nature’s voices: the gay carol of the Grosbeak in the morning, the dreamy, midday call of the Pewee, the vesper hymn of the Thrush, the clang- ing of Geese in the springtime, the farewell of the Blue- bird in the fall—how clearly each one expresses the senti- ment of the hour or season ! Having learned a bird’s language, you experience an increased feeling of comradeship with it. You may even 12 AISTHETIC RELATIONS OF BIRDS. share its emotions as you learn the significance of its notes. No one can listen to the song of the Mockingbird without being in some way affected; but in how many hearts does the tink of the night-flying Bobolink find a response? JI never hear it without wishing the brave little traveler Godspeed on his long journey. As time passes you will find that the songs of birds bring a constantly increasing pleasure. This is the result of association. The places and people that make our world are ever changing; the present slips from us with growing rapidity, but the birds are ever with us. The Robin singing so cheerily outside my window sings not for himself alone, but for hundreds of Robins I have known at other times and places. His song recalls a March evening, warm with the promise of spring; May mornings, when all the world seemed to ring with the voices of birds; June days, when cherries were ripening ; the winter sunlit forests of Florida, and even the snow- capped summit of glorious Popocatepetl. And so it is with other birds. We may, it is true, have known them for years, but they have not changed, and their familiar notes and appearance encourage the pleasant self-delusion that we too are the same. The slender saplings of earlier years now give wide- spreading shade, the scrubby pasture lot has become a dense woodland. Boyhood’s friends are boys no longer, and, worst of all, there has appeared another generation of boys whose presence is discouraging proof that for us youth has past. Then some May morning we hear the Wood Thrush sing. Has he, too, changed? Not one note, and as his silvery voice rings through the woods we are young again. No fountain of youth could be more potent. A hundred incidents of the long ago be- come as real as those of yesterday. And here we have the secret of youth in age which every venerable natural- AESTHETIC RELATIONS OF BIRDS. 13 ist I have ever met has convincingly illustrated. I could name nearly a dozen, living and dead, whom it has been my valued privilege to know. All had passed the allotted threescore and ten, and some were over fourscore. The friends and associates of their earlier days had passed away, and one might imagine that they had no interest in life and were simply waiting for the end. But these veterans were old in years only. Their hearts were young. The earth was fair; plants still bloomed, and birds sang for them. There was no idle waiting here; the days were all too short. With what boyish ardor they told of some recent discovery ; what inspiration there was in their enthusiasm ! So I say to you, if you would reap the purest pleas- ures of youth, manhood, and old age, go to the birds and through them be brought within the ennobling influences of Nature. CHAPTER ILI. THE LIVING BIRD. Factors of Hvolution.—lf while in the fields we ob- serve birds with an appreciative eye, we shall soon be impressed with the great diversity shown in their struc- ture and habits. The Fish Hawk plunges from the air into the water and grasps its prey with merciless talons. The Hummingbird daintily probes a flower. The Wood- pecker climbs an upright trunk, props itself with its stiff, pointed tail-feathers, while with its chisel-shaped bill it excavates a grub and then impales it with its spearlike tongue. These birds tell us a wonderful story SOS RRS SSS NGS th caw Fie. 2.—End of spearlike tongue of Pileated Woodpecker. (Much enlarged.) of adaptation to the conditions of life, and, knowing that they have descended from a common ancestor, we ask, “Why do they now differ so widely from one another ?” Biologists the world over are trying to satisfactorily answer this question, and it is impossible for me to even mention here all the theories which they have advanced. However, some knowledge of the most im- portant ones is essential if you would study the relation between the bird and its haunts and habits. The Dar- win- Wallace theory of Natural Selection, in more or less 14 EVOLUTION OF BIRDS. 15 modified forms, is accepted by most naturalists. As originally presented, it assumed that the continued exist- ence of any animal depended upon its adaptation to its manner of life. Among a large number of individuals there is much variation in size, form, and color. Some of these variations might prove favorable, others unfa- vorable. Those which were favorable would give to the individual possessing them an advantage over its fellows, and, by what is termed WVatural Selection, it would be preserved and its favorable characters transmitted to its descendants. But the less fortunate individuals, which lacked the favorable variation, would be handicapped in the race for life and be less likely to survive. Without necessarily opposing this theory, the follow- ers of Darwin’s predecessor, Lamarck, attach more im- portance to the direct action of environment on the ani- mal—that is, the influence of climate, food, and habit. The effect of the first two I will speak of in treating of color; the last we may use to illustrate the difference in these two theories by asking the question, “Is habit due to structure, or is structure the result of habit?” Has Nature, acting through natural selection, preserved those variations which would best fit a bird to oceupy its place in the world, and are its habits the outcome of the characters thus acquired, or have the changes which during the ages have occurred in a bird’s home, forcing it to alter its habits, been followed by some consequent change in structure, the result of use or of disuse? For my part, I answer “ Yes” to both questions, and turn to our stiff-tailed, spear-tongued Woodpecker to explain my reply. I can readily understand how the shape of these tail-feathers is the result of habit, for the same or similar structure exists among many birds having no close relationship to one another, but all of which agree in their peculiar use of the tail as a prop; the Creep- 16 EVOLUTION OF BIRDS. ers, Woodhewers, and Swifts, even some Finches and the Bobolink, that use their tail to support them when perched on swaying reeds, have the feathers more or less pointed and stiffened. Furthermore, this is just the result we should expect from a habit of this kind. But Fie. clear of tail of (2) Downy Woodpecker and of (b) Brown Creeper, to show the pointed shape in tails of creeping birds of different families. (Natural size.) T do not understand how the Woodpecker’s spear-tipped tongue could have resulted from the habit of impaling grubs, and in this case I should be inclined to regard structure as due to a natural selection which has pre- served favorable variations in the form of this organ. I have not space to discuss this subject more fully, but trust that enough has been said to so convince you of the significance of habit, that when you see a bird in the bush it will not seem a mere automaton, but in each movement will give you evidence of a nice adjustment to its surroundings. Remember, too, that evolution is a thing of the present as well as of the past. We may not be able to read the earlier pages in the history of a species, but the record of to-day is open to us if we can learn to interpret it. This may be made clearer, and the importance of a study of habit be emphasized, if I briefly outline the rela- tion between the wings, tail, feet, and bill of birds and the manner in which they are used. We are in the field, not in the dissecting room ; our instrument is a field glass, not a scalpel, and in learning the functions of these four FORM AND HABIT: THE WING. 17 organs we shall direct our attention to their external form rather than their internal structure. The Wing.—Birds’ wings are primarily organs of locomotion, but they are also used as weapons, as musical instruments, in expressing emotion, and they are some- Fie. 4—Young Hoatzin, showing nes of hooked fingers in climbing. (After ucas. ) times the seat of sexual adornment. Asan organ of loco- motion the wing’s most primitve use is doubtless for climbing. Gallinules, for instance, have a small spur on the wrist or “bend of the wing,” and the young birds use it to assist their progress among the reeds. A more striking instance of this nature is shown by that singular South American bird, the Hoatzin (Opisthocomus cris- 3 18 FORM AND HABIT: THE WING. tatus). The young of this bird have well-developed claws on the thumb and first finger, and long before they can fly they use them as aids in clambering about the bushes, very much as we may imagine the Archeeopteryx did. In the adult these claws are wanting. Some eminently aquatic birds, as Grebes and Pen- guins, when on land, may use their wings as fore legs in scrambling awkwardly along ; while some flightless birds, for example, the Ostrich, spread their wings when run- ning. ; But let us consider the wing in its true office, that of an organ of flight, showing its range of variation, and finally its degradation into a flightless organ. Among flying birds the spread wings measure in extent Fre. 5— Short, rounded wing and lange from about three inches in Poof Lite Black Rall tere the smallest Hummingbird to twelve or fourteen feet in the Wandering Albatross. The relation between shape of wing and style of flight is so close that if you show an ornithologist a bird’s wing he can generally tell you the character of its owner’s flight. The ex- tremes are shown by the short-winged ground birds, Fie. 6.—Long, pointed wing and small foot of Tree Swallow, an aérial bird. (3/, natural size.) such as Rail, Quail, Grouse, certain Sparrows, etc., and long-winged birds, like the Swallows and Albatrosses. There is here a close and, for the ground-inhabiting FORM AND HABIT: THE WING, 19 birds, important relation between form and_ habit. Many terrestrial species rely on their dull, protective covering to escape observation, taking wing only when danger is so near that it is necessary for them to get under way at once. Consequently, Quail, Partridges, and Grouse, much to the amateur sportsman’s discom- fiture, spring from the ground as though thrown from a catapult, and reach their highest speed within a few yards of the starting point, while the Albatross is obliged to face the wind and run some distance over the ground or water before slowly lifting itself into the air. There, however, it can remain for hours or even days without once alighting. The Frigate Bird, or Man-o’-War Bird, has a body scarcely larger than that of a chicken, but its tail is one foot and a half in length, and its wings measure seven to Fic, 7.—Frigate Bird. (Expanse of wings, 7 to 8 feet.) eight feet in extent. Having this enormous spread of sail, its flight is more easy and graceful than that of any living bird. I have seen hundreds of these birds floating in the air, facing the wind, without apparent change of position or the movement of a pinion, for long intervals of time. From this extreme development of the wing as a flight-organ, let us turn to those birds who have not the power of flight. The Ostrich, Rhea, Emu, and Cassowary are familar representatives of this group. It is generally believed that these birds have lost the power 90 FORM AND HABIT: THE WING. of flight, and that as their wings, through disuse, became functionless, their running powers correspondingly in- creased. This, however, is theory, but there are birds which have become flightless through some apparently known cause. They may be found among such widely separated families as Grebes, Auks, Ducks, Rails, Galli- nules, Pigeons, and Parrots. One of the characteristic water birds of our North Atlantic coasts is the Razor-billed Auk. It is a strictly aquatic species, nearly helpless on land, which, as a rule, it visits only when nesting. Its egg is laid in the crevice of a rocky cliff, frequently at some height from the sea. During the winter it migrates southward as far as Long Island. Flight is therefore a necessary faculty, and we find the bird with well-developed wings, which it uses effectively. We can, however, imagine conditions under which it would not be necessary for the Razor-bill to fly. It might become a permanent resident of isolated islands, laying its egg on accessible beaches. Already an expert diver, obtaining its food in the water, it would not be obliged to rise into the air, and, as a result of dis- use, the wings would finally become too small to support it in aérial flight, though fully answering the purpose of oars. Apparently this is what has happened in the case of the Razor-billed Auk’s relative, the flightless, extinct Great Auk. The Razor-bill is sixteen inches long and its wing measures eight inches, while the Great Auk, with a length of thirty inches, has a wing only five and three fourths inches in length. Aside from this differ- ence in measurements these birds closely resemble each other. So far as we are familiar with the Great Auk’s habits, they agreed with those of the hypothetical case I have just mentioned, and we are warranted, I think, in assuming that the bird lost the power of flight through disuse of its wings. FORM AND HABIT: THE WING. 21 In antarctic seas we find the arctic Auks replaced by the Penguins, a group in which all the members are flightless. They are possessed of remarkable aquatic Fic. 8.—Great Auk, showing relatively small wing. (Length of bird, 30 inches ; of wing, 5°75 inches.) powers, and can, it is said, outswim even fish. They nest only on isolated islands, where they are not exposed to the attack of predaceous mammals. Among Grebes and Ducks we have illustrations of the way in which swimming birds may become tempo- rarily flightless. With most land-inhahiting birds flight is so important a faculty that any injury to the wings is apt to result fatally. It is necessary, therefore, that the power of flight shall not be impaired. Conse- quently, when molting, the wing-feathers are shed slowly and symmetrically, from the middle of the wing both inwardly and outwardly; the new feathers ap- pear so quickly that at no time are there more than two or three quills missing from either wing. But the 99 FORM AND HABIT: THE WING. aquatic Grebes and Ducks, protected by the nature of their haunts and habits, lose all their wing-feathers at once, and are flightless until their new plumage has grown. It might then be supposed that permanently flightless forms would be found among the Grebes and Ducks. But these birds are generally migratory, or, if resident, they usually inhabit bodies of fresh water where local conditions or droughts may so affect the food supply that change of residence would become necessary. However, on Lake Titicaca, Pern, there actually is a Grebe which has lived there long enough to have lost the use of its wings as flight-organs. Rails are such ground-lovers, and fly so little, that we should expect to find flightless forms among them when the surroundings were favorable for their development. In New Zealand, that island of so many flightless birds, the requirements are evidently fulfilled, and we have the flightless Wood Hens. Here, too, lives the flightless Gallinule, Votornis, and in this family of Gallinules, birds not unlike Coots, there are at least four flightless species inhabiting islands—one in the Moluccas, one in Samoa, one on Tristan d’Acunha, and one on Gough Island. The last two islands are about fifteen hundred miles from Cape Good Hope, and have evidently never been connected with a continent. There seems little reason to doubt, therefore, that the ancestors of the Gallinules now inhabiting these islands reached them by the use of their wings, and that these organs have since become too small and weak to support their owners in the air. Other cases might be cited; for instance, the Dodo of Mauritius among Pigeons, and the Kakapo (Stringops) of New Zealand among Parrots; but if the illustrations already given have not convinced you that disuse of the wings may result in loss of flight, let FORM AND HABIT: THE WING, 23 me take you finally to the poultry yard, where in the waddling Duck you will see an undeniable instance of degeneration. As the seat of sexual characters the wing is some- times most singularly developed or adorned. The males of the Argus Pheasant and Pennant-winged Nightjar have certain feathers enormously lengthened ; the Stand- ard-bearer has white plumes growing from the wing ; and there are many other cases in which the wing presents sex- ual characters, not alone through display, but also by use as a musical organ. I do not refer to the whistling sound made by the wings of flying Doves or Ducks, or the humming of Hummingbirds, but to sounds volun- tarily produced by birds, and evidently designed to an- swer the purpose of song. A simple form of this kind of “music” is shown by the cock in clapping his wings before crowing, in the “drumming” of Grouse, or in the “ booming” of Night- hawks, as with wings set they dive from a height earth- ward. The male Cassique (Osténops) of South America, after giving voice to notes which sound like those pro- duced by chafing trees in a gale, leans far forward, spreads and raises his large orange and black tail, then vigorously claps his wings together over his back, mak- ing a noise which so resembles the cracking of branches that one imagines the birds learned this singular per- formance during a gale. The birds mentioned thus far have no especial wing structure beyond rather stiffened feathers; but in the Woodcock, some Paradise-birds and Flycatchers, Guans, Pipras, and other tropical birds, certain wing-feathers are singularly modified as musical instruments. Some- times the outer primaries are so narrowed that little but the shaft or midrib is left, as in both sexes of the Wood- cock, when the rapid wing-strokes are accompanied by a 94 FORM AND HABIT: THE WING. high, whistling sound. In other cases the shafts of the wing-feathers may be much enlarged and horny, when the bird makes a sin- gular snapping sound in flight. If you recall the supplicating manner of “<=> a young bird as with Fic. 9.—Wing of Woodcock, showing three < ‘ outer attenuate feathers. (2/, natural gently fluttering wings a) it begs for food, you will recognize one of several ways in which the wings may express emotion. Birds also threaten with their wings, as any hen with chicks will testify, and from this Fig. 10.—Jacana, showing spur on wing (natural size) and elongated toes (1/ natural size). gesture to the actual delivery of a blow is but a step, Swans, Pigeons, and Chickens can deal forcible blows with their wings. Screamers, Lapwings, and Jacanas FORM AND HABIT: THE TAIL. 95 have formidable spurs on their wings, which they are supposed to use in combat. The Tail—Except when sexually developed, the shape of the tail is largely governed by the character of its owner’s flight. Male Lyre-birds, Pheasants, Fowls, Hummingbirds, and many others furnish well-marked instances of the tail as a sexual character. Indeed, as the least important to the bird of the four external organs we are speaking of, the tail is more often sexually modified than any of the other three. ; The main office of the tail, however, is mechanical, to act as a rudder in flight and a “balancer” when perch- ing. Short-tailed birds generally fly in a straight course, and can not make sharp turns, while long-tailed birds can pursue a most erratic course, with marvelous ease and grace. The Grebes are practically tailless, and their flight is comparatively direct, but the Swallow-tailed Kite, with a tail a foot or more in length, can dash to right or left at the most abrupt angle. Among tree-creeping birds, which always climb up- ward, the tail is used as a brace or prop. This character, as has been said, is possessed by all Woodpeckers, by the quite different W oodhewers of South America, the Brown Creep- ers of temperate regions, and other birds (see Figs. 3 and 4). The two middle feathers in the tail of the Motmot, of the American tropics, end in a racket-shaped disk, the result of a unique habit. Similarly shaped feathers are found in the tails of some Hummingbirds and Old World Kingfishers, but in the Motmot this peculiar shape is due to a self-inflicted mutilation. The newly grown feathers, as shown in the accompanying figure, lack the terminal disk, but as soon as they are grown, the birds begin to pick at the barbs, and in a short time the shaft is de- nuded, in some species for the space of an inch, in others for as much as two inches. 26 FORM AND HABIT: THE TAIL. This singular habit is practiced by numerous species of Motmots, ranging from Mexico to Brazil. It is there- fore of undoubted age, and we can only speculate upon its use and origin. Young birds from the nest, reared Fre. 11.—Central tail-feathers of Motmot (Momotus subrufescens), showing newly grown feathers (at the left) and results of self-inflicted mutilation. in confinement where they were isolated from others of their kind, trimmed their tail-feathers soon after they were grown.* The habit, therefore, is inherited, but the mutilation, although it has doubtless been practiced for countless generations, has not become inherent, unless we consider the constriction in the vane of the feather at the place where it is to be trimmed an indication of inheritance. The Motmot gesticulates with its tail in a remarkable manner, swinging it from side to side, so that it suggests the pendulum of a clock, or sweeping it about in circles with a movement which reminds one of. a bandmaster flourishing his baton. We shall find in other species, also, that the tail, more than any other organ, is used to express emotion. Recall its twitching and wagging ; how it is nervously spread or “jetted,’ showing the white * See Cherrie, The Auk (New York city), vol. ix, 1892, p. 322. FORM AND HABIT: THE FEET. OF outer feathers, as in the Meadowlark. The tail may also be expressive of disposition. Compare the drooped tail of a pensive Flycatcher with the uptilted member of an inquisitive Wren. But it is when displaying its beauties that a bird speaks most eloquently with its tail. Can anything ex- ceed the pompous pride of a Turkey cock strutting in * swollen glory, with tail stiffly spread? The Peacock erects his tail in a similar manner, but it is entirely con- cealed by the train of gorgeous feathers which it par- tially supports. The Feet.—As the feet share with the wings the re- sponsibilities of locomotion, there is often a close rela- tion between these organs. For example, short-winged terrestrial species like Quails, Grouse, and Rails have well- developed feet, but such aérial creatures as Swifts and Swallows have exceedingly small feet (see Figs. 3 and 4). The aquatic Grebes and Divers are practically helpless on land, but the Ostrich can outrun the horse; while in the perching birds the foot is so specialized that by the auto- Fic. 12.—Lobed foot of a Coot, a Fie. 13.—Lobed foot of a Phala- swimming bird of the Rail rope, a swimming bird of the family. (2/3 natural size.) Snipe family. (Natural size.) matic action of certain tendons the birds are locked to their perches while sleeping. A webbed foot implies abil- ity to swim, and we find this character present in all the 28 FORM AND HABIT: THE FEET. water-loving Divers, Auks, Gulls, Cormorants, and Ducks. In the wading Herons and marsh-inhabiting Rails and Gallinules the web is absent, but it reappears in the form of lobes on the toes of the aquatic Coots of the same family. Some shore-inhabiting Snipe have the bases of the toes united by webs, but the Phalaropes, of two species, have lobed toes not unlike those of the Coots, and are true swimming Snipe living on the sea for long periods. Length of foot is largely dependent upon length of neck. This is illustrated by the Herons, and is particu- larly well shown by the long-necked Flamingo, which has a foot twelve inches long. Its toes are webbed, and it can wade in deep water and search for food on the bottom by immersing its long neck and its head. In the tropical Ja- canas the toes and toe- nails are much length- ened, enabling the bird to pass over the water on aquatic plants. I have seen these birds walking on small lily Fie. 14—Flamingo, showing relative length ee wHich sani be- of legs and neck in a wading ‘bird. neath their weight, giv- (Much reduced.) . ‘ : ing one the impression that they were walking on the water (see Fig. 10). Many ground-feeding birds use the feet in scratching for food; Chickens are familiar examples. Towhees and FORM AND HABIT: THE FEET. 29 Sparrows use both feet in searching for food, jumping quickly backward and throwing the leaves behind them. Parrots use their foot as a hand. Some Hawks carry nesting material in it, and all birds of prey strike their quarry with their strongly curved claws, which are then used to carry, or hold it while it is being torn by the bill. The foot of the Fish Hawk is a magnificent organ. The nails are strong and well curved ; the inner surface of the toes is set with sharp, horny spikes, and the outer toe is partly reversible, so that the bird grasps its slippery prey from four dif- ferent points. As a weapon the foot is especially effective, the use of spurs being too well known to require comment. Os- Fic. 15.—Foot of Fish Hawk, showing large claws, and spicules on under surface of toes. - (3/, natural sizes) ; triches kick with their feet, and can, it is said, deliver a blow powerful enough to fell a man, But by far the best instance of modification in the structure of the feet is furnished by Grouse. It is an Fre. 16.—Naked toes of Ruffed Grouse in summer; fringed toes of Ruffed Grouse in winter. (2/, natural size.) unusual case of seasonal adaptation in form. During the summer the toes of Grouse are bare and slender, but as 30 FORM AND HABIT: THE BILL. these birds are largely ground-haunters, and most of them inhabit regions where the snowfall is heavy, the toes in winter acquire a comblike fringe on either side. Practi- cally, therefore, Grouse don snowshoes in the fall, and wear them until the following spring. The Bill.—Of the four organs we are considering, the bill is beyond question the most important. We have seen that a bird may be wingless and practically tailless, and may almost lose the use of its feet; but from the moment the bill breaks the eggshell and liberates the chick, the bird’s life is dependent upon its services. The variety of offices performed by the bill, and the correspondingly numerous forms it assumes, are, doubtless, without parallel in the animal world. The special modification of the fore limbs as flight- organs deprives birds of their use for other important services, and consequently we have a biped which, so far as their assistance goes, is without arms or hands. As a result, the duties which would naturally fall to these members are performed by the bill, whose chief office, therefore, is that of a hand. Occasionally it is sexually adorned, as in the Puffins, several Auks, Ducks, and the White Pelicans, which, during the nesting season, have some special plate, knob, or color on the bill. With the Woodpeckers it is a musical instrument—the drumstick with which they beat a tattoo on some resounding limb. Owls and some other birds, when angry or frightened, snap their mandibles together like castanets. But it is as a hand that the bill gives best evidence of adaptation to or by habit. Among families in which the wings, tail, and feet are essentially alike in form, the bill may present great vari- ation——proof apparently of its response to the demands made upon it. All birds use it as a comb and brush with which to FORM AND HABIT: THE BILL. 81 perform their toilet, and, pressing a drop of oil from the gland at the root of the tail, they dress their feathers with their bill. Parrots use the bill in climbing, and its hawklike shape in these birds is an unusual instance of similarity in structure accompanying different habits. Birds which do not strike with their feet may use the bill as a weapon, but the manner in which it is em- ployed corresponds so closely with the method by which a bird secures its food, that as a weapon the bill pre- sents no special modifications. In constructing the nest the bill may be used as a trowel, an auger, a needle, a chisel, and as several other tools. But as a hand the bill’s most important office is that of procuring food; and wonderful indeed are the forms it assumes to supply the appetites of birds who may require a drop of nectar or a tiny insect from the heart of a flower, a snake from the marshes, a clam or mussel from the ocean’s beach, or a fish from its waters. The bill, therefore, becomes a forceps, lever, chisel, hook, hammer, awl, probe, spoon, spear, sieve, net, and knife— in short, there is almost no limit to its shape and uses. With Hummingbirds the shape of the bill is appar- ently related to the flowers from which the bird most frequently procures its food. It ranges in length from a quarter of an inch in the Small-billed Hummer (Aéero- LEA . q rhynchus) to five inches in /#” the Siphon-bill (Docimastes), Y SS: which has a bill longer than Fie. 17.—Decurved bill of Bickle- its body, and is said to feed bill Hummingbird. (Natural from the long-tubed trumpet ey flowers. The Avocet Hummer (Avocettula) has a bill curved slightly upward, but in the Sickle-billed Hummer (Eutoxeres) it is curved downward to form half a circle, and the bird feeds on flowers having a similarly curved 82 FORM AND HABIT: THE BILL. corolla. In the Tooth-billed Hummer (Androdon) both mandibles are finely serrate at the end, the upper one being also hooked, and the bird feeds on insects which it captures on the surface of leaves and other places. Among the Woodhewers (Dendrocolaptide) of South America there is fully as much variability, which reflects -——~ equally variable feeding A habits. Some species have short, stout, straight bills, others exceedingly long, . slender, curved ones. Fie. 18.—Serrate bill of Merganser, a fish- Mergansers, Gannets, An- eating bird. (1/2 natural size.) es st d ater bir ds that catch fish by pursuing them under water, have sharply serrate mandibles, which aid them in holding their slippery prey. Some shore birds (Limicole) use the bill as a probe, Fie. 19.—Probelike bill of Woodcock, showing extent to which upper mandi- ble can be moved. (2/, natural size.) when it may be six inches in length and straight, or curved downward. It has recently been learned that Fia, 20.—Recurved bill of Avocet. (2/, natural size.) several of these probing Snipe, notably the Woodcock, have the power of moving the end of the upper mandi- FORM AND HABIT: THE BILL. 83 ble, which better enables them to grasp objects while probing. In the Avocet the bill is curved upward, and the bird swings it from side to side, scraping the bottom in its search for food. The New Zealand Wrybill has its bill turned to the right for the ter- minal third, and the bird uses it as a crooked probe to push under stones in hunting for its prey. The Siberian Spoonbill Sandpiper has a most singular bill, which is much enlarged at the end, suggesting a flat-ended forceps. The Roseate Spoonbill, an entirely different bird, has a somewhat similarly shaped bill, a striking instance of the occurrence of the same form in families which are not closely related. But probably the most remarkable instance of relation Fie. 21.—Bill of Spoonbill Sand- piper. (Natural size.) Fie. 22.—Curved bill of female, a of male Huia-bird. (1/, natural size. between the form of the bill and feeding habits is fur- nished by the Huia-bird of New Zealand. The male of this species has a comparatively short, straight bill, while 4 34 FORM AND HABIT: THE BILL. that of the female is long and curved. The birds feed on larve, which they find in dead wood. The male hammers and chisels away the wood very much as Wood- peckers do, while the female uses her bill as a probe. We have, therefore, the singular case of two forms of the bill arising in the same species as a result of or caus- ing a corresponding difference in habit. CHAPTER IIL. COLORS OF BIRDS.* Tue almost endless range of variation in the colors and pattern of coloration of birds’ plumage has attracted the attention of many philosophic naturalists. Why, for example, should birds from some regions always be darker than those from other regions; why should ground-inhabiting birds generally wear a dull or neutral tinted costume; and why should the male, with few ex- ceptions, be brighter than the female ? For answer I will outline some of the leading facts and theories in connection with this interesting subject. In the first place, however, it will be necessary for us to have some idea of the extent of individual change in color, that is, the various phases of color, which a bird may pass through during different periods of its life.t * Consult Poulton, Colors of Animals (D. Appleton & Co.). Gadow, in Newton’s Dictionary of Birds—articles, Color and Feathers. Bed- dard, Animal Coloration (Macmillan Co.). Keeler, Evolution of the Colors of North American Land Birds; occasional papers, California Academy of Sciences (San Francisco), iii, 1893. Also Allen, reviews of last two works, The Auk (New York city), x, 1893, pp. 189-199, 378-380. Allen, Alleged Changes of Color in the Feathers of Birds without Molting; Bulletin of the American Museum of Natural His- tory, New York city, viii, 1896, pp. 18-44. Chadbourne, Individual Dichromatism in the Screech Owl; The Auk, xiii, 1896, pp. 821-325, and xiv, 1897, pp. 33-39, one plate. + The term color, as here used, means practically the plumage or dress of birds. 35 36 COLOR AND AGE, Color and Age.—All birds have a special nestling plumage. With those that run or swim at birth, such as Grouse, Snipe, and Ducks, this is a full suit of down, which may be worn for several weeks. With those birds which are helpless when hatched—for instance, Robins, Sparrows, and Orioles—this downy covering is so scanty that they are practically naked. This birth dress is followed by a new growth, known as the “ first plumage.” Down-covered birds do not acquire this for some time, but with those birds that are born nearly naked it begins to grow soon after they are hatched, and is almost complete when they leave the nest. The first plumage is often unlike that of either parent; for ex- ample, the spotted plumage of the Robin. It is worn for several months by some species—certain Snipe and others —but with most land birds it is soon exchanged for the costume they will wear through the winter, usually termed the “immature plumage.” This may resemble that of either parent respectively—that is, immature males may be like adult males and immature females like adult females, as with the Bob-white and Cardinal Gros- beak; or the immature birds of both sexes may resemble the adult female, as with the Hummingbird and Bobolink. Again, the immature birds of both sexes may be unlike either of the adults, as with the Eagle and most Hawks; or the immature female may resemble the adult female, while the immature male is unlike cither parent, as in the case of the Rose-breasted Grosbeak and Scarlet Tanager. When both parents are alike, the young generally resem- ble them, and this happens among most of our land birds ; for example, the Flycatchers, Crows and Jays, many Sparrows, Vireos, Wrens, and Thrushes. Immature birds, differing from the adults, may ac- quire the adult plumage the next spring, as with the Bobolink, or they may then don a second or transition COLOR AND SEASON. 37 plumage, and not assume the dress of maturity until the second or even the third spring, which is the case with the Orchard Oriole. Color and Season.—Quite apart from the changes in color due to age, a bird may throughout its life change costumes with the seasons. Thus, the male Bobolink after the nesting season, exchanges his black, white, and buff nuptial suit for a sparrowlike dress resembling that of his mate. The Scarlet Tanager sheds his gay body plumage and puts on the olive-green colors of the fe- male, without changing, however, the color of his black wings and tail. The following spring both birds resume the more conspicuous coats. A more or less similar change takes place among many birds in which the male is brighter than the female, but, among land birds, when the adults of both sexes are alike, there is little or no seasonal change in color. The Molt.*—These changes in plumage, as far as they are understood, are accomplished by the molt, frequently followed by a wearing off of the differently colored ter- minal fringe which is found on the new feathers of some birds. It has been stated that birds change color without changing their plumage, either by a chemical alteration in the pigment of the feathers resulting in a new color, or by the actual gain of new pigment from the body; but I know of no instance in which this has been proved, nor do I believe that the latter change is possible. The whole. subject offers an excellent field for observation and ex- periment. There is a great and as yet but little understood variation in the molting of birds. Not only may closely * See Stone, The Molting of Birds, with Special Reference to the Plumages of the Smaller Land Birds of Eastern North America, Pro- ceedings of the Philadelphia Academy of Natural Science, 1896, pp. 108-167, two plates. 38 THE MOLT. related species molt differently, but the manner and time of molting among individuals of the same species may vary according to their sex, age, and physical condition. At the close of the nesting season al/ birds renew their entire plumage by molting. The following spring, before the nesting season, most birds molt their body feathers, retaining those of the wing and tail. white Hine over the eye; eye-ring and wing-bars white; a fing, unsuspicious bird ; flits abou the outer branches of trees and shrubs; wings eeitiehved nervously ; note, cack; song, a remarkably loud, musical whistle; Sept. and Oct.; Apl. and May. Rusy-crownep KineLer, page 252. 0. Back gray or bluish gray. 1, Length 6°50 inches ; a gray, crested bird ; forehead black ; no white in the tail; note, a whistled peto, peto, or hoarse de-de-de-de; resi- dent from New York city southward. . . Turrep Trr, page 250. 62. Length 8:50 inches; a white band at the end of the tail; a con- cealed orange-red crest; a bird of the air, catching its insect food on the wing, and occasionally sallying forth from its exposed perch in pursuit of a passing Crow; note, an unmusical, steely chatter; May to Sept. . . .. ... . . . . . Kuinepinn, page 150. e. Back brown. cl. Length 5°00 inches; a nervous, restless, excitable bird ; tail often carried erect; song sweet, rapid and rippling, delivered with aban- don; Apl. 25to Oct... . . . . . House Wren, page 240. oe, Length 12°25 fucheas slim, ‘pewwentede birds with long tails; flight short and noiseless ; ment in a tree, not in an exposed position; note, tut-tut, danbselidle and cow-cow; May to Oct. YELLOW-BILLED Cuckoo, Baten “BILLED Cuckoo, page 132. B. Back brownish, streaked. a. Crown rufous or chestnut without streaks. a, Length 5:25 inches; bill black; a whitish line over the eye; a familiar bird of lawns and door-yards ; song, a monotonous chippy- chippy-chippy; Apl.to Nov. . . Curprinc Sparrow, page 186. a2, Length 5°70 inches; bill reddish brown, back rufous or rufous- brown; wing-bars and eye-ring whitish ; haunts dry, bushy ficlds and pastures; song, a musical, plaintive cher-wee, cher-wee, cher- wee, checo, dee-dee-dee-dee; Apl.to Nov. Freip Sparrow, page 182. a’. Length 5-90 inches; forehead black; crown and wings chestnut- rufous; flanks pale grayish brown ; haunts marshes; song, a rapidly repeated weet-weet-weet, etc.; Mch. to Nov. Swamp Sparrow, page 160. 6. Crown not rufous or chestnut. 61, Length 6°75 inches ; crown blackish, with a central whitish stripe ; throat white; breast gray; a yellow spot before the eye; haunts in and about thickets and bushy woodlands; song, a high, clear, musical whistle ; call-note, chink. WHITE-THROATED SPaRRow, page 188. 62, Length 5:20 inches; bill slender; a white line over the eye; tail carried erect; haunts reedy marshes; call-note scolding; song rip- pling; May to Oct... . Lone-zittep Marsu Wren, page 244. 7 89 FIELD KEY TO COMMON BIRDS. 2. Under parts white or whitish, streaked or spotted. A, Back streaked. u. Length 6°10 inches ; outer tail-feathers white, showing conspicuously when the bird flies; haunts dry fields and roadsides; song musical ; Apl.to Nov... . . . . . VESPER SPARROW, page 184. Outer tail-feathers ae ne. 1. Length 6:30 inches; breast with numerous spots tending to form one large spot in its center; haunts on or near the ground, generally in the vicinity of bushes; call-note, chimp; song musical; a per- a manent resident . . . . ‘ . . Sone Sparrow, page 178. 62, Length 6°85 inches; breast proves with one spot in its center; Oct. to Apl . . . . TREE Sparrow, page 194. B. Back not streaked ; reatey eoeted, a. Length 11°40 wine ne tail 5:00 inches; wing-bars white ; upper parts, wings, and tail Gneht cinnamon-brown ; haunts undergrowth ; sings from an exposed and generally elevated position ; song loud, striking, and continuous; Apl. 25 to Oct. . . Brown TuRasHER, page 240. b. Length under 9-00 inches; tail under 3:00 inches; no wing-bars; back reddish or cinnamon-brown. 61, Length 8°25 inches; breast and sides heavily marked with large, round, black spots; head and upper back brighter than lower back and tail; call-note, a sharp pit or liquid guirt; May to Oct. Woop Turusu, page 256. b2, Length 7-15 inches; breast with wedge-shaped black spots; sides unspotted, washed with brownish ashy ; tail reddish brown, brighter than back ; cates a low chuck; Apl. 10 to May 10; Oct. and Nov. .. . . Hermit Tanna, page 258. 08. Length 7°50 ‘adlie anes mn east lightly spotted with small, wedge- shaped, brownish spots ; tail the same color as the back ; sides white; eall-note, a clearly whistled wheeu; May to Sept. Wixson’s Turusn, page 254, c. Length under 9:00 inches; tail under 3:00 inches ; no wing-bars ; back olive-green. @. Length 6:10 inches; center of crown pale brownish bordered by black; haunts on or near the ground in woodland; a walker; song, a ringing crescendo, teacher, teacher, TEacnER, TEACHER, TEACHER; May to Sept. . . . . . . OVEN-BIRD, page 232. 8. Under parts not white or whitish, all one color, without streaks. A. Length 8°50 inches; slate-color; cap and tail black; inhabits the lower growth ; call-note, nasal; song highly musical and varied; Apl. 2toOct . . . . « CATBIRD, wee 237. B. Length 7:20 cnehieee ee bows cee plenensly crested; a black line through the eye; tail tipped sate yellow; generally seen in small flocks; note thin and weak . . . . . Crpar Waxwine, page 216. C. Length 5°50 inches; under parts cream-buff; a conspicuous whitish line over the eye; upper parts reddish brown; movements active; tail carried erect; haunts lower growth; notes loud and striking; resident from New York city southward . . . . Carotina WREN, page 244. FIELD KEY TO COMMON BIRDS. 83 4, Throat and upper breast black or slate-color, very different from the white or chestnut belly. A, Throat black. «. Belly and rump chestnut; head, wings, and tail black; length 7:30 inches; haunts orchards and shade trees; song highly musical; May to Sone « Om . . Orcuarp ORIOLE, page 166 b. Belly white; sides reddieh nes: tail black and white; length 8°35 inches ; swab peas eal -note, chewink or goes Apl. 25 to Oct... Sime aga Sle ack & cae ve, “SOE, nae 204, B. Throat slate aglon: u. Back and wings slate-color; outer tail-feathers and belly white; length 6°25 inches; haunts generally on or near the ground about shrubbery ; Oct. to Aple a 4 <3: - . . « JuNco, page 192, 5. Throat streaked with black and white ; ned of under parts reddish brown ; upper parts grayish slate-color; length 10°00 inches . Rosin, page 260. THE WATER BIRDS. DIVING BIRDS. (ORDER PYGOPODES.) GREBES. (FAMILY PODICIPIDA.) Tue study of water birds requires special advantages and equipments, among which are a suitable location, much time, and a gun. Our coasts and shores are be- coming so popular as “resorts ” that many of the former haunts of waterfowl] are now thickly populated, and the birds are comparatively rare. Furthermore, the larger number of our water birds nest in the far North and winter in the South, visiting the Middle States only while on their migrations. It is evident, therefore, that if we would become familiar with these birds, we must devote ourselves especially to their pursuit. There are, however, some species, notably those which frequent bodies of fresh water and nest in this latitude, Pied-billed Grebe, Which deserve to be ranked among our Podilymbus podiceps. commoner birds. Of these, one of the pune best known, by name at least, is the Pied-billed Grebe, whose aquatic powers have given it the expressive title of Hell-diver. Under favorable conditions this little Grebe may breed anywhere from the Argentine Republic to British Amer- ica, but in the Middle States it occurs chiefly as a spring and fall migrant. When nesting, a quiet, reedy pond or lake is chosen for a home, the nest being made on a pile of decaying vegetation. The eggs, four to eight in num- ber, are dull white, more or less stained by the nesting material, which the parent bird rarely fails to place over 84 Nn /hompsone PuarTE II. PIED-BILLED GREBE. Length, 13°50 inches. Summer plumage, upper parts blackish brown ; throat and spot on bill black ; fore neck brownish, rest of under parts grayish white. Winter plumage, similar, but without black on throat or bill. 85 86 LOON. them when leaving the nest. The young are born covered with down and can swim at birth. The Pied-billed Grebe is one of our most aquatic birds. When pursued, it prefers diving to flight, and the marvelous rapidity with which it can disappear from the surface of the water, to reappear in a quite unexpected place, justifies its reliance on its own natatorial powers. It can swim under water with only its bill exposed, when it becomes practically invisible. Grebes are quite helpless on land. They can not even stand erect on their toes, as most birds do, but, when resting, support themselves on the whole length of the foot or tarsus (see Fig. 8, the Great Auk). On the wing Grebes resemble small Ducks,-but their pointed bill and their feet stretched out behind the rudi- mentary tail will serve to distinguish them. Loons. (FAMILY URINATORIDZ.) The Loon, like its small relative the Grebe, is known to almost every one by name, but only those who have Toaa visited its summer haunts among the Urinator imber. Northern lakes and heard its wild call Ele iy can be said to know it. Nuttall writes of its ery as “the sad and wolfish call of the solitary Loon, which, like a dismal echo, seems slowly to invade the ear, and, rising as it proceeds, dies away in the air.” It “may be heard sometimes for two or three miles, when the bird itself is invisible, or reduced almost to a speck in the distance.” The Loon is as aquatic in habits as the Grebe, but is much stronger on the wing. It migrates by day, and probably also by night, and we may some- times see it passing over—a large, ducklike bird—in March and October. When on land, it is nearly helpless, progressing awk- PuateE Iil. LOON. Length, 32.00 inches. Summer plumage, upper parts and fore neck black and white ; breast and belly white. Winter plumage, upper parts dark grayish ; under parts white. 87 88 HERRING GULL. wardly by the use of feet, wings, and bill. For this rea- son it nests near the water’s edge, often where it can slide from the eggs directly into its true element. The nest is a slight depression in the earth, in which are laid two elliptical eggs, in color olive-brown, slightly spotted with blackish. LONG-WINGED SWIMMERS. (ORDER LONGIPENNES.) GULLS AND TERNS. (FAMILY LARID A.) No birds are more widely distributed than the Gulls and Terns. Some species are pelagic, visiting the land Herring Gull, only at long intervals and when nest- Larus argentatis ing; others live along the coast, and smithsonianus. several species resort to inland waters. pemcaaied About one hundred species are known, fifty being Gulls and fifty Terns. The former are, as a rule, larger, stouter birds than the latter, and, generally speaking, are more maritime. The commonest of the ten species found in the Eastern States is the Herring Gull. It nests from Maine northward, and is found southward along our coast from October 1 to April. This is the Gull we see in such numbers in our bays and harbors, - flying gracefully and apparently aimlessly about, but in reality ever keeping its bright black eyes fixed on the water in search of some floating morsel, which it deftly picks from the surface. It frequently follows vessels, hanging over the stern day after day, and deserting its post only to feed on scraps thrown overboard from the galley. There are said to be reliable records of these birds following the same vessel from the Irish coast to New York Harbor. Gulls do excellent service in devouring much refuse that would otherwise be cast ashore to decay; but, useful PuateE IV. HERRING GULL. Length, 24:00 inches. Adult, back and wings pearl-gray ; end of primaries marked with black ; rest of plumage white. Young, dark grayish, primaries and tail brownish black. PETRELS. Length, 750 inches. Black, upper tail-coverts white. i 89 90 COMMON TERN. as they are as scavengers, I feel that their place in Nature is to animate the barren wastes of the sea. How, when at sea, the presence of a single Gull changes the whole aspect of Nature! The great expanse of water, which before was oppressive in its dreary lifelessness, is trans- formed by the white-winged Gulls into a scene of rare beauty. Every voyager, be he naturalist or not, admires their grace of form and motion. They seem born of the waves, and as much a part of the ocean as the foamy whitecaps themselves. The beautiful Terns or Sea Swallows are even more graceful than the Gulls. They are slenderer birds, lighter Common Tern, 2d more active on the wing, with long, Sterna hirundo. forked tails and pointed bills. They bldte arrive from the South in May and re- main until September, nesting in colonies. Terns are littoral rather than pelagic, seldom being found far from the shore. Like the Gulls, they seem so in harmony with their surroundings that no coast view is perfect from which the Terns are missing. They add the requisite touch of life, and make still more impressive the thunder of the surf dashing over rocks or curling in long, combing waves on the beach. During recent years these birds have been killed in such numbers for millinery purposes that on the middle Atlantic coast the only survivors exist on’ three or four uninhabited islets. If one protests against the merciless destruction of these exquisite creatures the excuse is, “Well, what good are they ?”—an answer betraying such an utter lack of appreciation of beauty that explanation seems hopeless. But can we not learn, before it is too late, that these birds are even more deserving of protec- tion than the works of art we guard so zealously ? PETRELS. 91 TUBE-NOSED SWIMMERS. (ORDER TUBINARES.) PETRELS. (FAMILY PROCELLARIID 2.) Petrels, or “ Mother Carey’s Chickens,” are true chil- dren of the sea. Their home is the ocean, and they come to land only when nesting. To the Jandsman, therefore, they are strangers, but to most people who have been to sea they are known as the little, white-rumped swallow- like birds who on tireless wing follow in the wake of the ship day after day, patiently waiting for the food which experience tells them will be thrown overboard. Two species of Petrels are found off our coasts, Wil- son’s and Leach’s. The former has a yellow area in the webs of the toes and a square tail, while Leach’s Petrel has the webs of the toes wholly black and a slightly forked tail. These differences, however, would not be appre- ciable at a distance. Wilson’s Petrel nests in certain islands of the southern hemisphere in February, and later migrates northward, reaching our latitude in May and spending the summer, or what in fact is its winter, in the North Atlantic. It is, therefore, probably the Petrel most frequently seen by transatlantic voyagers at this season. Leach’s Petrel nests on our coasts from Maine north- ward, arriving from the South in May. The nest is raade in a burrow in the ground or beneath a rock, and a single white egg is laid. Generally one of the birds spends the day on the nest while its mate is at sea, but at night the incubating bird leaves the nest, its place being taken probably by the one who has been feeding during the day. Petrels, Plate IV. 92 DUCKS. LAMELLIROSTRAL SWIMMERS. (ORDER ANSERES.) Ducks, GEESE, AND SWANS. (FAMILY ANATIDZ.) This family contains some two hundred species, and is represented in all parts of the world. It includes five subfamilies: the Mergansers (Merging), or Fish-eating Ducks; the Pond or River Ducks (Anatine), the Bay or Sea Ducks (Puldiguline); the Geese (Anserine) ; ; and the Swans (Cygnine). Ducks, like all hunted birds, are exceedingly wild, and comparatively few species will come within reach of the student’s opera-glass. The group may therefore be reviewed briefly. The Mergansers or Shelldrakes, num- bering three species, have narrow, serrate bills which enable them to hold the fish they pursue and catch under water (see Fig. 18). The River Ducks have little or no lobe or flap on the hind toe. In this group belong our Mallard, Widgeon, Sere Pintail, Blnue-winged and Green-winged inte a Teals, Black Duck, Wood Duck, and others. All but the last two nest in the North and are found in our latitude only during their spring and fall migrations, or, if the weather be mild, in the winter. The Black Duck and Wood Duck nest rarely in the Middle States. All these birds feed in shallow water by “ dabbling” or “tipping,” terms which will be readily understood by any one who has watched domesticated Ducks feeding. The Bay and Sea Ducks, on the contrary, are divers, and may descend to the bottom in water more than one hundred and fifty feet in depth. They are to be dis- tinguished from the River Ducks by the presence of a flap or lobe on the hind toe. The commoner members of PuLaTE V. 1 WOOD DUCK. 2 PINTAIL. 3 MALLARD. 93 Fra a fe On the Tree -top Puate LXVII. BROWN THRASHER. Length, 11°40 inches. Upper parts bright reddish brown ; under parts white and black ; eyes yellow. 17 241 249 HOUSE WREN. only long enough to give voice to his feelings in fidgetty, scolding notes, or an effervescing, musical trill, with the force of which his small body trembles. It is a wonder- ful outburst of song, and the diminutive singer’s enthu- siasm and endurance are even more remarkable. The song occupies about three seconds, and I have heard a Wren, in response to a rival, sing at the rate of ten songs a minute for two hours at a time. The House Wren nests in almost any kind of suitable hole or cavity, and will frequently take possession of a bird box, if the House Sparrows have not already set up a claim to the same property. To prevent intrusion from the Sparrows, the entrance to the house should be made not larger than a quarter of a dollar. Whatever be the site the Wrens select, their surplus energy is em- ployed in completely filling it with twigs, half a bushelful being sometimes brought with endless pains. The nest proper is composed of dried grasses, and is placed in the center of this mass. Even in egg-laying the exhaustless vitality of Wrens is shown, as many as six or eight eggs being deposited. In color they are uniformly and mi- nutely speckled with pinkish brown. The House Wren arrives from the South late in April and remains until October. Shortly before its departure in the fall a Wren comes from the Winter Wren, North that resembles the House Wren Troylodytes hiemalis. \ ‘ in appearance, but is smaller and has the under parts pale brown, the breast and belly being finely barred with a darker shade of the same color. This is the Winter Wren, a bird that nests from north- ern New England northward and southward along the crests of the Alleghanies to North Carolina. It remains with us in small numbers throughout the winter, return- ing to its summer home in April. Mr. Burroughs writes of the Winter Wren’s song as a “ wild, sweet, rhythmical PiaTe LXVIII. HOUSE WREN. Length, 5°00 inches. Upper parts brown, marked with black and grayish ; under parts grayish white. 243 244 WRENS. cadence that holds you entranced,” but while with us the ‘bird’s only note is an impatient chimp, chimp, suggest- ing the Song Sparrow’s call-note. The Carolina Wren is a more southern bird than the House Wren. It is of only local distribution north of Carolina Wren, S0uthern New Jersey, and is rarely Thryothorus found north of the vicinity of New ludovicianus. York city, where it appears to be in- creasing in numbers and is found throughout the year. This Wren is half an inch longer and decidedly heavier than the House Wren; its upper parts are bright cinna- mon, its under parts washed with the same color, and a conspicuous white line passes from the bill over the eye. The Carolina Wren is an exceedingly musical bird, and its loud whistled calls are among the most character- istic bird notes in the South. They are numerous and varied, the most common resembling the syllables whee- udel, whee-udel, whee-udel, and tea-kettle, tea-kettle, tea- kettle. The haunts of most marsh-inhabiting birds are as sharply defined as the limits of their ranges. The Long- Long-billed billed Marsh Wren is not known in Marsh Wren, the East north of Massachusetts, but I Vistothorus palustris. would as soon expect to find one of PlateLXIX. — these birds in Greenland as out of a marsh. They arrive from the South early in May and remain until October, living in marshes where cat-tails grow, to which they may attach their bulky, globular nests of reeds and grasses. With the superabundant vigor of Wrens they build more nests than they can possibly occupy, and many will be examined before the five to six dark brown eggs are found. The Marsh Wren is quite as active and irrepressible as the other members of his family. His call is the cus- PuaTeE LXIX. s LONG-BILLED MARSH WREN. \ Length, 5°20 inches. - Upper ‘parts brown, black, and white, a white line over eye ; under parts white, sides brownish. 245 246 BROWN CREEPER. tomary scolding cack; his song, a bubbling, trickling tinkle that can not be called musical, but to my mind is indescribably attractive. It is often sung in the air, and in marshes where Wrens are abundant bird after bird may be seen springing a few feet above the reeds, sing- ing his song, and then dropping back again, CREEPERS. (FAMILY CERTHIID 2.) Of the twelve known members of this family, the Brown Creeper is the only one inhabiting the New mer World. It is a northern bird, breed- rown Creeper, : : Certhia familiaris ing at sea level only from Maine north- americana. ward, but extending southward in the cacaes Alleghanies to North Carolina. Sev- eral western races are found in the Rocky Mountain region and Sierra Madres. Our eastern bird migrates southward late in September, and from that date until April it may be found from Massachusetts to Florida. The Creeper, like a Woodpecker, never climbs head downward, but, using his stiff, pointed tail-feathers (see Fig. 34) as a prop, winds rapidly up the trunks of trees in his apparently never-ending search for insects’ eggs and larvee hidden in crevices in the bark. If the Wrens are the most active birds, the Creeper is the most dili- gent. Except when it was stopping to secure some tid- bit, I can not remember seeing a Creeper resting. He usually begins at the base of a tree and climbs in a seri- ous, intent way for a certain distance, and then, without a moment’s pause, drops down to the bottom of the next tree and continues his search. The Creeper’s only notes while with us are a thin, fine squeak; but Mr. Brewster tells us that during the nesting season he has an exquisitely tender song of four notes. Tres Ketel pec! PiaTeE LXX. CHICKADEE. Length, 5°25 inches. Crown and throat black ; cheeks white ; back gray ; belly white, washed with brownish. BROWN CREEPER. Length, 5°65 inches. Upper parts brown, rusty, and white; under parts white. 247 248 CHICKADEE. TITMICE AND NUTHATCHES. (FAMILY PARIDZ.) Comparing the Titmice with the Nuthatches, the former may be described as short-billed birds with long tails who do not creep, the latter as long-billed birds with short tails who do creep. The two groups are, in fact, quite distinct, and by some systematists are placed in separate families. ; The Titmice number some seventy-five species, four of which are found in eastern North America. The Chickadee, commonest and most generally distrib- Parus atricapilius. uted is the Black-capped Chickadee, HUE La which is found from Labrador to Mary- land and in the Alleghanies southward to North Carolina. Farther south it is replaced by the closely allied Carolina Chickadee. Throughout the greater part of its range the Chickadee is found at all seasons, but it is less common in the middle and southern New England States in summer than in win- ter, and is most numerous during its migration in October. It is with winter that these merry little black and white midgets are generally associated. Their tameness, quaint notes, and friendly ways make them unusually com- panionable birds; one need not lack for society when Chickadees are to be found. Many of their notes are especially conversational in character, and in addition to the familiar chickadee call, they have a high, sweet, plaintive two- or three-noted whistle. The Chickadee nests about the middle of May, select- ing some suitable cavity or making one for himself in a decayed trunk or limb and lining it with moss, plant- down, and feathers. The eggs, five to eight in number, are white, spotted and speckled, chiefly at the larger end, with cinnamon or reddish brown. PLATE LXXI. RED-BREASTED NUTHATCH. Length, 460 inches. Male, crown and line through eye black ; back gray ; under parts rusty. Female, similar, but black replaced by gray. WHITE-BREASTED NUTHATCH. Length, 6:05 inches. Male, crown black ; back gray ; face and under parts white. Female, similar, but crown slaty. 249 250 WHITE-BREASTED NUTHATCH. The Tufted Titmouse is a more southern bird than the Chickadee and is rarely found north of northern New Jersey, where, however, it remains throughout the year. It is six inches in length, gray above, whitish below, with a black forehead, reddish brown sides, and a con- spicuous crest. Its usual call is a whistled peto, peto, peto, which it will utter for hours at atime. It has also a de-de-de-de call, suggesting the Chickadee’s well-known notes, but louder and more nasal. With no especial structure other than slightly enlarged toe nails, the Nuthatches still differ markedly from other ite iceawted birds in the ease with which they run Nuthatch, Up or down tree trunks. The tail is Sitta carolinensis. short and square and is not used in Plate LXXI. climbing. The bill is rather slender, but proves an effective instrument in removing insects’ eggs and larve from crevices in the bark and even in excavating a nesting hole in some decayed limb. Several species also use it to crack or “hatch” nuts after they have wedged them in a convenient crevice. Of the three species of Nuthatches found in eastern North America the White-breasted is the most common and generally distributed, being a permanent resident from Florida to northern New England. Like many resident birds, it nests early, the five to eight eggs being depos- ited about April 20. They are white, thickly and evenly spotted and speckled with reddish brown and lavender. This Nuthatch’s usual call-note is a loud yank, yank, while its song is a singular, tenor hah-hah-hah- hah-hah. The Red-breasted Nuthatch is a more northern bird than its larger, white-breasted cousin. At sea level it nests from Maine northward, but in the higher parts of Tufted Titmouse, Parus bicolor. GOLDEN-CROWNED KINGLET. 251 the Alleghanies it breeds as far southward as North Caro- lina. It comes to us from the north early in Septem- eee ber, and in the winter may be found in Nuthatch, Varying numbers from Massachusetts to Sitta canadensis. the Gulf States. Its call-note is ie higher, thinner, and more drawled than the vigorous yank, yank of the White-breasted Nuthatch, and suggests the sound produced by a penny trumpet. KINGLETS, GNATCATCHERS, ETC. (MAMILY SYLVIIDZ.) Of the three subfamilies included in this family we have representatives in eastern North America of only two—the two Kinglets of the subfamily Lequ- line and the Blue-gray Gnatcatcher of the subfamily Polioptiline. The Gnatecatcher is a southern bird, oc- curring only locally or as a straggler north of Maryland. The Kinglets are both more northern in their distri- bution. The Golden-crowned Kinglet nests from the north- ern tier of States northward and southward along the Sulton wont crests of the Alleghanies to North Car- Kinglet, Olina. In its autumnal migration it Regulus satrapa. yeaches the vicinity of New York city Plate LXXIT about September 20, and during the winter may be found in varying numbers from Maine to Florida. The Golden-crown flits about the terminal twigs in its search for insect food and reminds one somewhat of the smaller, tree-inhabiting Warblers in habits. Its call is a fine #2, #2, one of the highest and least noticeable notes uttered by birds. Its song, which is rarely heard except in its nesting range, is described by Mr. Brewster as begin- ning with a succession of five or six fine shrill, high-pitched, 252 RUBY-CROWNED KINGLET. somewhat faltering notes, and ending with a short, rapid, rather explosive warble. The Ruby-crowned Kinglet is a more northern bird in summer and a more southern bird in winter than the Golden-crown, rarely being found at the latter season north of South Carolina. Throughout the Middle States it oc- Hub yesupaell curs as an abundant spring and fall mi- Kinglet, grant, passing northward from April 10 Regulus calendula. +o May 10 and southward between Sep- Plate LXX11. tember 20 and October 20. The Ruby- crown resembles the Golden-crown in habits, but is more active. Females and young males lack the ruby crown- patch, but their white eye-ring, impatient, wrenlike little note, and manner of nervously twitching their wings are characteristic. Taking the small size of the bird into consideration, the Ruby-crown’s song is one of the most marvelous vo- cal performances among birds. As Dr. Coues remarks, the sound-producing organ is not larger than a pinhead, and the muscles that move it are almost microscopic shreds of flesh; still, the bird’s song is not only surpass- ingly sweet, varied, and sustained, but is possessed of suf- ficient volume to be heard at a distance of two hundred yards. Fortunately, the Ruby-crown sings both on its spring and fall migrations. THRUSHES, BLUEBIRDS, ETC. (FAMILY TURDID A.) On the basis of certain details of structure .Thrushes are generally assigned highest rank in the class Aves. Without pausing to discuss the value of the characters on which this classification is made, there can be no question that from an esthetic standpoint the Thrushes possess in a greater degree than any other birds those qualifications which make the ideal bird. There are many birds with Puate LXXI. GOLDEN-CROWNED KINGLET. Length, 4°05 inches. Male, crown orange, yellow. and black; back olive- green ; under parts whitish. Female, similar, but crown without orange. RUBY-CROWNED KINGLET. Length, 4°40 inches. Adult male, crown-patch ruby ; back olive-green ; under parts whitish. Adult female and young, similar, but no crown-patch. 253 254 VEERY. brighter plumage, more striking voices, and more inter- esting habits, but there are none whose bearing is more dis- tinguished, whose songs are more spiritual. The brilliant Hummingbirds and Tanagers excite our admiration, but the gentle, retiring Thrushes appeal to our higher emo- tions; their music gives voice to our noblest aspirations. Five of the true Thrushes of the genus Z’urdus are found in eastern North America. Three of them may be mentioned here—the Veery, Wood Thrush, and Her- mit Thrush—a peerless trio of songsters. The Veery’s mysterious voice vibrates through the air in pulsating circles of song, like the strains of an Afolian harp. The Wood Thrush’s notes are ringing and bell-like; he sounds the matin and vesper chimes of day, while the Hermit’s hymn echoes through the woods like the swelling tones of an organ in some vast cathedral. But it is impossible to so describe these songs that their charm will be understood. Fortunately, all three birds are abundant, and a brief account of their haunts and habits will enable any one to find them. The Veery, or Wilson’s Thrush, winters in Central America, and nests from northern Illinois and northern Veaty, New Jersey northward to Manitoba and Turdus fuscescens. Newfoundland and southward along the Plate LXXIIT A JIeghanies to North Carolina. Itcomes to us in the spring, about May 1, and remains until Sep- tember 15. Near the middle of May it begins to build its nest, placing it on or near the ground. Its eggs are greenish blue, and resemble in color those of the Wood Thrush, but are slightly smaller. The Veery’s favorite haunts are low, damp woods with an abundant undergrowth. It is a more retiring bird than the Wood Thrush, and is rarely seen far from tracts of woodland. It is to be distinguished from our other Thrushes by the uniform cinnamon color of its A Wroed land Mystery Puate LXXIII. VEERY. Length, 7°50 inches. Upper parts, wings, and tail uniform light cinnamon ; breast buffy, light marked with cinnamon ; belly white ; sides grayish. 255 256 WOOD THRUSH. upper parts, faintly spotted breast, and particularly by its notes. The Veery’s characteristic calls are a clearly whistled whée-o or whée-you, the first note the higher, and a some- what softer tdo-whee or tewed, in which the first note is the lower. Its song is one of the most mysterious and thrilling sounds to be heard in the woods. Elsewhere I have described it as “a weird, ringing monotone of blended alto and soprano tones. ... It has neither break nor pause, and seems to emanate from no one place. If you can imagine the syllables vee-r-r-hu [or vee-ry] repeated eight or nine times around a series of intertwining circles, the description may enable you to recognize the Veery’s song.” The Wood Thrush is a more southern bird than the Veery, breeding from as far south as Florida, north- Wood Thrush, Ward to southern Vermont and Minne- Turdus mustelinus, sota. It winters in Central America Plate LXXIV. —_ and reaches us in the spring, about April 30, and remains until October 1. Its nest is built about the middle of May, and is generally placed in a sapling some eight feet from the ground. The eggs are greenish blue. The Wood Thrush is not such a recluse as the Veery. He is, it is true, a wood lover, and shares with the Veery his secluded haunts, but he seems equally at home in maples and elms about our houses, or even in the more quiet village streets. He is therefore more often heard than his mysterious relative, and, as a voice, is familiar to many who do not know the singer’s name. The call-notes of the Wood Thrush are a liquid guért and sharp pet-pit. The latter is an alarm note, which, when the bird fears for the safety of its young, is uttered with much increased force and rapidity. It can be closely imitated by striking two large pebbles together. WeiWe Alarm _ PLATE LXXIV. WOOD THRUSH. Length, 8°30 inches. Upper parts bright, rusty cinnamon, brightest on back and crown ; under parts white everywhere, except center of belly, with large, rounded black spots. = 18 258 HERMIT THRUSH. The song of the Wood Thrush is wholly unlike that of the Veery. It opens with the flutelike a ; : . Ao notes and is sung disconnectedly, being ——— ez broken by pauses and by low notes, au- oi dible only when one is near the singer. The Hermit Thrush is a more northern bird than either the Veery or the Wood Thrush. It rarely nests at Hermit Thrush, °° level south of Vermont or northern Turdus aonalaschke Michigan, but in the higher portions of pallasid. Maseachnsetis and on the crests of the Plate LXXV. Catskills and Alleghanies in Pennsyl- vania, it is also found breeding. It winters from south- ern Illinois and New Jersey southward to the Gulf, it being the only member of its genus to inhabit the east- ern United States at that season. Its spring- migrations occur between April 5 and May 10, and in the fall we see it from October 15 to November 25, while occasion- ally it may winter. During its migrations the Hermit Thrush usually fre- quents woodlands, where it may often be seen on or near the ground. Like the Veery, it is a ground-nester, and its eggs, though slightly lighter in color, resemble those of the Veery and Wood Thrush in being plain, bluish green. When alighting, the Hermit has a characteristic habit of gently raising and lowering its tail, and at the same’ time uttering a low chuck. Sometimes it sings during the winter, in Florida, and also while migrating : but if you would hear this inspired songster at his best, you must visit him in his summer home. The Hermit’s song resembles that of the Wood Thrush in form, but it is more tender and serene. O spheral, spheral! O holy, holy! Mr. Burroughs writes the its opening notes, and there is something about the words which seems to express the spirit of heavenly peace with which the bird’s song is imbued. Come to me. YA po, a. £ iS PLATE LXXV. HERMIT THRUSH. Length, 715 inches. Upper parts and wings dark cinnamon-brown ; tail bright reddish brown ; under parts white ; breast spotted with black ; sides washed with brownish ; belly white. 259 260 ROBIN. It seems a long step from these gentle, refined Thrushes to their comparatively prosaic cousin, the famil- iar Robin. But the Robin has his place, and in March his cheery song is quite as effective as the Hermit’s Robin, Merula migratoria. hymn in June. During the summer Robins are distributed through- out North America from the Gulf States and southern end of the Mexican tableland, northward to Labrador and Alaska. In the winter they may be found in numbers from Virginia southward, small flocks and single birds being occasionally met with as far north as Massachu- setts. Robins are among our earliest migrants, appear- ing in the vicinity of New York city between February 20 and March 1. Nesting is begun about April 15, the mud-lined nest and greenish blue eggs being too well known to require description. Two, or even three broods may be raised. In June, the young of the first brood with some adult males resort each night to a chosen roost, often frequented by many thousands of birds. The fall migration begins in September, but the birds are with us in roving bands until December. About the time that we first hear the Robin’s ringing welcome to spring we may listen for the Bluebird’s more gentle greeting. Doubtless the bird has been with us all winter, for Blue- birds winter in small numbers as far north as southern Connecticut, often living near groves of cedars, which offer them both food and shelter. In the Southern States they are far more abundant at this season, gathering in flocks containing hundreds of indi- viduals. The Bluebird is the first of our smaller birds to begin housekeeping, and early in April it may be seen pro- specting about the site of last year’s nest in a bird box or Bluebird, Sialia sialis. BLUEBIRD. 261 hollow tree, and the bluish white eggs will probably be laid before the middle of the month. No bird’s song is more associated with the return of spring than the Bluebird’s; nor is there a bird’s note more expressive of the passing season than the Bluebird’s autumn call of far-away, far-away. Acanthis linaria, 194. Accipiter cooperi, 122. velox, 122. Actitis macularia, 103. Aigialitis semipalmata, 108. vocifera, 108. Agelaius pheeniceus, 166. Aggressive coloration, 44. Aigrette plumes, 38. Alaudide, 158. Albatross, 18, 19. Alcedinide, 134. Ampelide, 216. Ampelis cedrorum, 216. Anatide, 92. Androdon, 82. Anhingas, 32. Anseres, 92. Antrostomus vociferus, 146. Archxopteryx, 3, 4, 18. Ardea herodias, 95. virescens, 96. Ardeide, 94. Asio accipitrinus, 126. wilsonianus, 128. Auk, Great, 20. Razor-billed, 20. Auks, 20, 21, 28, 30. Avocet, 32, 83. Avocettula, 31. Bill, the, as a hand, 30. as a musical instrument, 30. as a weapon, 31. sexual adornment of, 30. uses of, 30. INDEX. Birds, altricial, 69. ancestors of, 2. beauty of, 9. bill of, 30. biography of, 73. characters of, 2. colors of, 35. distribution of, 4. economic value of, 5. eggs of, 68. evolution of, 14. feet of, 27. | field key to, 75. flightless, 19. grace of, 10. how to identify, 71. mating of, 65. mental development of, 10. migration of, 48. musical powers of, 10. nests of, 65. number of species of, 1. place in Nature of, 1. precocial, 69. relation to man of, 5. scientific value of, 5. songs of, 11, 62. tail of, 25. topography of, 74. voice of, 62. wings of, 17. young of, 70. Bittern, American, 98. Blackbird, Crow, 168. Redwinged, 166. Blackbirds, 55, 163. 263 264 Bluebird, 49, 260. Bobolink, 16, 36, 87, 88, 54, 55, 60, 63, 170. Bob-white, 36, 110. Bonasa umbellus, 111. Botaurus lentiginosus, 98. Bubonide, 124. Bull-bat, 144. Bunting, Bay-winged, 182. Black-throated, 210. Indigo, 68, 206. Snow, 196. Butcher-bird, 218. Buteo borealis, 120. lineatus, 116. Butter-bird, 172. Buzzard, Turkey, 115. Buzzards, 8. Call-notes, significance of, 63. Canaries, 39. Caprimulgide, 142. Cardinal, 207. Cardinalis cardinalis, 207. Carpodacus purpureus, 200. Cassique, 23. Cassowary, 19. Catbird, 69, 237. Cathartes aura, 115. Cathartide, 115. Certhia familiaris americana, 246. Certhiide, 246. Ceryle alcyon, 136. Cheetura pelagica, 146. Chambergo, 172. Charadriide, 106. Chat, Yellow-breasted, 236, Chebee, 156. Chelidon erythrogaster, 214. Chewink, 204. Chickadee, 7, 8, 70, 248. Carolina, 248. Chippy, 186. Red-capped, 194. Winter, 194. Chondestes grammacus, 208. Chordeiles virginianus, 144. Circus hudsonius, 120. INDEX. Cistothorus palustris, 244. Clamatores, 150. Clape, 140. Clivicola riparia, 214. Coecyges, 182. Coceyzus americanus, 182. erythrophthalmus, 134. Colaptes auratus, 140. Colinus virginianus, 110. Colors of birds, 35. Color and age, 36. and climate, 39. and food, 39. and haunt and habit, 41. and sex, 45. Columbe, 112. Columbide, 112. Contopus virens, 158. Coot, 27, 28, 100. Cormorants, 69. Corvide, 161. Corvus americanus, 161. Cowbird, 176. Creeper, Brown, 16, 25, 246. Creepers, 6, 15, 16, 246. Crossbill, American, 196. Crow, American, 161. Crow-duck, 100. Cuckoo, Black-billed, 134. Yellow-billed, 7, 132. Cuculide, 132. Cyanocitta cristata, 163. Deceptive coloration, 44. Dendrocolaptide, 32. Dendroica estiva, 228. coronata, 228, virens, 228. Dickcissel, 210. Directive colors, 44. Diving Birds, 84. Docimastes, 31. Dolichonyx oryzivorus, 170. Dove, Carolina, 112. Mourning, 112. Dryobates pubescens, 138. villosus, 138. Duck, Black, 92. ) INDEX. Duck, Broadbill, 94. Bufflehead, 94. Canvasback, 94. Hider, 94. Old Squaw, 94. Redhead, 94. Ruddy, 94. Scaup, 94. Wood, 92. Ducks, 20, 21, 22, 23, 28, 30, 36, 67. Eagle, Bald, 124. Eggs of birds, 68. Egret, White, 95. Empidonax minimus, 156. Emu, 19, 69, 70. Ereunetes pusillus, 106. Eutoxeres, 31, Falco sparverius, 120. Falconide, 116. Feet, the, as hands, 29. as weapons, 29. effects of use and disuse of, 27. seasonal change in structure of, 29. uses of, 27. Field-glass. 72. Finch, Grass, 182. Lark, 208. Purple, 39, 200. Finches, 42, 178. Firebird, 164. Fish Hawk, 66. Flamingo, 28, 39. Flicker, 68, 140. Flycatcher, Arizona Crested, 154. Crested, 68, 152. Great Crested, 152. Least, 156. Flycatchers, 6, 27, 44, 149. Frigate Birds, 5, 19. Fringillide, 178. Fulica americana, 100. Galeoscoptes carolinensis, 237. Galline, 110. Gallinago delicata, 104. Gallinules, 17, 20, 22. 265 Gannets, 32. Geothlypis trichas, 234. Glacial period, 59. Gnatcatcher, Blue-gray, 251. Goldfinch, 198. Goose, Canada, 94. Grackle, Bronzed, 168. Purple, 168. Grebe, Pied-billed, 84. Grebes, 18, 20, 21, 22, 25, 27. Grosbeak, Cardinal, 36. Pine, 198. Rose-breasted, 36, 202. Grouse, Ruffed, 29, 111. Grouse, 18, 19, 23, 27, 29, 36, 41, 62. Gull, Herring, 88. Gulls, 9, 67. Haliaetus leucocephalus, 124. Hangnest, 164. Harporhynchus rufus, 240. Hawk, Chicken, 116, 118. Cooper’s, 8, 116, 122. Fish, 14, 29, 123. Hen, 116. Marsh, 64, 120. Red-shouldered, 116. Red-tailed, 120. Sharp-shinned, 8, 116, 122. Sparrow, 120. Hawks, 7, 8, 29, 36, 44, 55, 65. Hell-diver, 84. Herodiones, 94. Heron, Black-crowned Night, 96. Great Blue, 95. Little Green, 96. Snowy, 95. Herons, 28. High-hole, 68, 70, 140. Hirundinide, 211. Hoatzin, 17. Huia-bird, 33. Hummingbird, Avocet, 31. Ruby-throated, 148. Sickle-billed, 31. Siphon-billed, 31. Small-billed, 31. Tooth-billed, 32. 266 INDEX. Hummingbirds, 5, 6, 14, 18, 28, 25, 31, 42, 67, 69, 70, 148. Ibis, Scarlet, 39. [cteria virens, 236. Icteride, 163. Icterus galbula, 164, spurius, 166. Jacana, 24, 28. Jay, Blue, 162. Junco, 192. Junco hyemalis, 192. Juncos, 41, 44. Key to common birds, 75. Killdeer, 108. Kingbird, 150. Kingfisher, Belted, 136. Kinglet, Golden-crowned, 251, Ruby-crowned, 252. Laniide, 218. Lanius borealis, 218. Lark, Horned, 41, 55, 158. Prairie Horned, 160. Laride, 88, Larus argentatus smithsonianus, 88. Lighthouses, 56, 57. Limicolz, 32, 102. Longipennes, 88. Loon, 86. Loxia curvirostra minor, 196. Macrochires, 142. Mallard, 92. Man-o’-war Bird, 19. Marsh Fen, 100. Martin, Purple, 212, 216. Mating of birds, 65. Meadowlark, 27, 44, 174. Megascops asio, 128. Melanerpes erythrocephalus, 140. Melospiza fasciata, 178. georgiana, 180. Mergansers, 32, 92. Merula migratoria, 260. Micropodida, 146. Microrhynchus, 31. Migration of birds, 48. cause of, 59. effects of changes of climate on, 59. extent of, 49. highways, 55, 60. manner of, 54. nocturnal, 55, 56, 57. origin of, 58. times of, 49. Mimus polyglottos, 238. Mniotilta varia, 226. Muiotiltide, 224. Mockingbird, 238. Molothrus ater, 176. Molt, the, 37. Momotus subrufescens, 25 Motmot, 25. Mud-hen, 100. Myiarchus crinitus, 152. Natural selection, 14, 15, 65. Nesting season, 64. Nest of birds, 65. Nighthawk, 6, 28, 144. Notornis, 22. Nuthatch, Red-breasted, 250. White-breasted, 251. Nuthatches, 6, 8. Nycticorax nycticorax nevius, 96. Octoris alpestris, 158. Opera-glass, 72. Opisthocomus cristatus, 17. Oriole, Baltimore, 164. Orchard, 37, 164, 165. Orioles, 42, 44, 55, 163. Ortolan, 172. Oscines, 150. Osprey, American, 122. Ostinops, 23. Ostrich, 5, 18, 19, 27, 29, 69, 70. Otocoris alpestris, 158. Oven-bird, 231, 282, Owl, Barn, 8. Barred, 130. Great Horned, 128. Long-eared, 126. INDEX. 267 Owl, Screech, 41, 128. Plovers, 41, 49, 106. Short-eared, 126. Podilymbus podiceps, 84. Snowy, 44. Podicipide, 84. Owls, 7, 8, 80, 65, 124, Poocetes gramineus, 184. Ox-eye, 106. Porzana carolina, 100. Procellariide, 91. Paludicole, 98. Progne subis, 216. Pandion haliaétus carolinensis, 122. Protective coloration, 42. Paride, 248. colors, 41. Parrots, 5, 20, 29, 31, 39, 40. Ptarmigans, 44. Partridge, 19, 67, 110, 111. Pygopodes, 84. Parus atricapillus, 248. bicolor, 250. Quail, 110. Passer domesticus, 184. Quails, 18, 19, 27, 41, 67. Passerella iliaca, 190. Quiscalus quiscula, 168. Passeres, 149. Passerina cyanea, 206. Rail, Clapper, 100. Peabody-bird, 188. King, 100. Peacock, 27. Little Black, 100. Penguins, 5, 18, 21. Yellow, 100. Peeps, 106. Virginia, 100. Permanent residents, defined, 53. Rails, 18, 20, 22, 27, 98. Petrel, Leach’s, 91. Rallide, 98. Wilson’s, 91. Rallus crepitans, 100. Petrochelidon lunifrons, 214. Raptores, 115. Pewee, Wood, 68, 158. Recognition colors, 44 Phalarope, 27, 28, 70. Redpoll, 194. Pheasant, 111. Redstart, 229, 230. Philohela minor, 102. Reedbird, 170. Pheebe, 151. Regulus calendula, 252. Pici, 136., satrapa, 251. Picide, 136. Rhea, 19. Pigeon, Carrier, 61. Ricebird, 172. Wild, 112. Robin, 7, 12, 36, 49, 55, 63, 260. Pigeons, 20. Golden, 164. Pinicola enucleator, 198. Pintail, 92. Salmon, 58. Pipilo erythrophthalmus, 204. Sandpiper, Semipalmated, 106. Piquebois jaune, 140. Spoonbill, 33. Piranga erythromelas, 211. Spotted, 69, 103. Plectrophenax nivalis, 196. Sauropsida, 1. Plover, Black-breasted, 108. Sayornis phoebe, 154. Golden, 108. Scolopacide, 102. Killdeer, 108. Scoters, 94. Piping, 108. Seals, 58. Wilson’s, 108. Setophaga ruticilla, 280. Ring-necked, 108. Seiurus aurocapillus, 232. Semipalmated, 108. Sexual characters, secondary, 45. 268 Sexual selection, 46, Shelldrakes, 92. Shrike, Loggerhead, 218, 219. Northern, 218. Sialia sialis, 260, Signaling colors, 44. Sitta canadensis, 251. carolinensis, 250. Snipe, Wilson’s, 104. Snipes, 28, 36, 41, 43, 49, 67. Snowbird, Slate-colored, 192. White, 196. Snowflake, 38, 196. Songs of birds, 62. Sora, 100. Sparrow, Chipping, 186. English, 184. Field, 182. Fox, 190. House, 174, 184. Song, 40, 178. Swamp, 180. Tree, 193, 194. Vesper, 183, 184. White-crowned, 190. White-throated, 188. Sparrows, 6, 18, 41, 48, 49, 67, 178. Spinus tristis, 198. Spiza americana, 210. Spizella pusilla, 182. monticola, 194. socialis, 186. Spoonbill, Roseate, 33. Squawk, 96. Stake Driver, 98. Sterna hirundo, 90. Sturnella magna, 174. Summer residents, defined, 53. Sylviide, 251. Syrnum nebulosum, 130. Swallow, Bank, 212, 214. Barn, 212, 213, 214. Cliff, 212, 213, 214. Eave, 214. Rough-winged, 215. Tree, 212, 218, 215. Swallows, 6, 27, 55, 211. Swan, Trumpeter, 94. INDEX. Swan, Whistling, 94. Swift, Chimney, 146. Swifts, 6, 15, 27, 55, 142. Tachycineta bicolor, 215. Tail, the, expression of emotion with, 26. relation between form of, and flight. 25. sexual characters in, 25. uses of, 25. Tanager, Scarlet, 86, 87, 211. ‘Tanagers, 42, 44, 210. Tanagride, 210. Teal, Blue-winged, 92. Green-winged, 92. Telescope, 56, 57. Tern, Common, 90. Tetraonide, 110. Thrasher, Brown, 240. Thrush, Brown, 240. Hermit, 258. Wilson’s, 254. Wood, 12, 256. Thrushes, 6, 55, 67, 252. Thryothorus ludovicianus, 244. Titmouse, Tufted, 250. Towhee, 44, 204. Transient visitants, defined, 54. Trochilide, 146. Trochilus colubris, 148. Troglodytes aédon, 240. hiemalis, 242. Troglodytide, 237. Tubinares, 91. Turdida, 252. Turdus aonolaschke pallasii, 258. fuscescens, 254. mustelinus, 256. Turkey, 27. Tyrannide, 149. Tyrannus tyrannus, 150. Urinator imber, 86. Urinatoride, 86. Veery, 63, 254. Vireo flavifrons, 222. INDEX. Vireo gilvus, 222. noveboracensis, 222. olivaceus, 221. Vireo, Red-cyed, 221. Warbling, 222. White-eyed, 222. Yellow-throated, 222. Vireos, 6, 55, 220. Vireonida, 220. Vulture, Black, 115. Turkey, 115. Vultures, 8. Warbler, Black and White, 225, 226. Black-throated Green, 227, 228. Myrtle, 227, 228. Yellow, 228. Warblers, 6, 42, 55, 224, Water Witch, 85. Waxwing, Cedar, 216. Whip-poor-will, 6, 146. Widgeon, 92. Wing, the, as a musical instrument, 23. as a Weapon, 24. effects of use and disuse of, 18, 20. expression of emotion with, 24. molt of feathers of, 21. 269 Wing, sexual characters in, 28. uses of, 17. Winter residents, defined, 53. Woodcock, 28, 32, 48, 102. Woodhewers, 15, 25, 32. Woodpecker, Downy, 16, 187, 138. Hairy, 138. Pileated, 14. Red-headed, 140. Woodpeckers, 5, 6, 8, 14, 15, 16, 25, 30, 64, 67, 69, 136. Wren, Carolina, 244. House, 240. ; Long-billed Marsh, 244. Winter, 242. Wrens, 55, 287. Wrybill, 33. Yellowbird, 198. Yellow-hammer, 140. Yellow-throat, Maryland, 238, 234, Young birds, 70. Yucker, 140. Zamelodia ludoviciana, 202. Zenaidura macroura, 112. Zonotrichia albicollis, 188. Zonotrichia leucophrys. 189. THE END. HANDBOOK OF BIRDS OF EASTERN NORTH AMERICA. WITH INTRODUCTORY CHAPTERS ON TIE STUDY OF ORNITHOLOGY, HOW TO IDENTIFY BIRDS, AND HOW TO COLLECT AND PRESERVE BIRDS, THEIR NESTS, AND EGGS, By FRANK M. CHAPMAN. With Twenty full-page Plates and One Hundred and Fifty Cuts in the Text. 12mo. Library Edition, cloth, $3.00; Pocket Edition, in flexible covers, $3.50. PLAN OF THE WORK. TuE author’s position has not only given him exceptional oppor- tunities for the preparation of a work which may be considered as authoritative, but has brought him in direct contact with beginners in the study of birds, whose wants he thus thoroughly understands. The technicalities so confusing to the amateur are avoided, and the prob- lem of identification, either in the field or study, is reduced to its simplest terms. ‘The book treats of all the birds, some five hundred and forty in number, which have been found east of the Mississippi River, and from the Arctic Ocean to the Gulf of Mexico, and is thus .of use in any part of this region. Its special features are: (1) Chrono- logical tables of migration and nesting, or ornithological calendars, which tell us what events are occurring in the bird world at a given time. (2) A chart of the principal colors used in describing the birds and their eggs, which fixes with comparative exactness the meaning of the terms employed. (8) An illustrated key to families, which, with its accompanying explanatory text, so graphically represents the char- acters upon which families are based that a bird may at once be placed in its proper group. (4) Analytical keys to the species in all (except nestling) plumages. (5) Field keys to the Sparrows and Warblers. (6) A concise statement of a bird’s comparative numbers and season when present, with the dates of arrival and departure of the migra- tory species at Washington, D.C., Long Island (water-birds), Sing Sing. N.Y., and Cambridge, Mass. (7) Biographical sketches, many of which were contributed by the leading writers on the habits of our birds. The subjects of distribution, migration, comparative numbers, nests and eggs, having been formally treated in paragraphs, these sketches are devoted to a brief account of a bird’s haunts, notes, and characteristic habits, with the especial object of aiding in its identifi- eation in the field. (OVER) HANDBOOK OF BIRDS.—(Continued,) OPINIONS OF ORNITHOLOGISTS AND OF THE PRESS, “The ‘ Handbook ° is thoroughly original in conception and execution, and con- tains features entirely novel and of special merit. It is written in simple, nontech- nical language, with special reference to the needs of amateurs and bird-lovers, yet with an accuracy of detail that makes it a standard authority on the birds of eastern North America,”"—J. A. Allen, Editor of The Auk. ‘This is far and away the best book of the kind that has appeared in this or any other country for many years; it is easily first, and with a long interval among numerous recent competitors for public favor... . The author has scored a brilliant success ; his prescriptions can be taken from cover to cover with the assnrance that they will cure any case, short of invincible ignorance. . . . In its own field it will stand for an indefinite period without a possible rival.”°—EViott Coues,in The Nation. “The plan and originality of the ‘Handbook,’ its copious illustrations, bountiful keys, succinct accounts of habits, convenient size, and low price insure its wide pop- ularity, while as a handbook of the birds of eastern North America itis bound to supersede all other works. It is a boon to the amateur, a convenience to the profes- sional, and will prove a help and incentive to the study of birds.”—C. Tart Merriam, Chief of thz U. 8. Biological Survey, Department of Agriculture, Washington, D. C. “Tam delighted with the ‘Handbook.’ It hag several new features valuable for beginners, by which identification is greatly simplified. . . . The illustrations are particularly excellent, and the whole is so entirely trustworthy and up to date that I can heartily recommend it.”— Olive Thorne Miller. ‘‘I have examined the ‘Handbook’ with the greatest satisfaction. It is what I hoped for, what we have all waited for—a true manual, covering a broad field, but not too broad, and crammed with knowledge, but brightened throughout with pleas- ant description ; a book, I should think, for every student of birds, whether he knows much or little; invaluable, certainly, for all earnest amateurs.” — Bradford Torrey. “Without doubt the most satisfactory work of its kind that has appeared. . . . It is and will remain an authority, and is indispensable to all who would become fa’ miliar with our bird life.”"—Publie Opinion. “The best key to our Eastern birds that has yet been published. . . . Will be speedily recognized as an authoritative book on birds.”’—Philadelphia Ledger. ‘The combination of popular and scientific has been nowhere so successfully accomplished.”— The Bookman. “ A delightful and alluring introduction to this fascinating study.”.—MWew York Examiner. “Here at last is the book we all want.”—W. Y. Evangelist. ‘* By long odds the best book on the subject that has ever yet becn written.’’— Our Animal Friends. ‘‘ Nothing has been neglected in the structure of the work, and one can but ap- plaud the masterly manner in which its scheme has been carried out.”— The Dial. “Tt is a remarkably well-conceived work admirably carried out.” — Adlantic Monthly. “Tt should be in the hands not only of every student of ornithology but of every individual who loves Nature and outdoor life.""—Sunday-School Times. D. APPLETON AND COMPANY, PvstisHers, 72 FirtH AVENUE, New YORE. Se aN ~ . \ aS a AK aS ak we SRN