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Keep Your Card in this Pocket 1 3 1148 00396 6561 ?0 i 8 '49 JAN 17 1978 25BW WHAT I HAVE DONE WITH BIRDS CHARACTER STUDIES OF NATIVE AMERICAN BIRDS WHICH, THROUGH FRIENDLY ADVANCES, I INDUCED TO POSE FOR ME, OR SUCCEEDED IN PHOTOGRAPHING BY GOOD FORTUNE, WITH THE STORY OF MY EXPERIENCES IN OBTAINING THEIR PICTURES By GENE STRATTON-PORTER Author of The Song of the Cardinal, Freckles, etc. INDIANAPOLIS THE BOBBS-MERRILL COMPANY PUBLISHERS ' «• » l **•••?* • m * •*'• •• » « • « .••••• • ' • ••••« pt- t * 9 *»fi**« ••• A •••:.•: «". »• , V V V - ! .•*•«•• COPYRIGHT 1907 THE BOBBS-MERRILL COMPANY Jr 5 , tfNftAPR14 WHAT I HAVE DONE WITH BIRDS "The kernels of nuts and the resins of trees, The nectar distilled by the wild honey-bees, Should be thrown in together, to flavor my words With the zest of the woods and the joy of the birds !" — Thompson. LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS PAGE Brooding Cuckoo Frontispiece Male Cardinal Doing Sentinel Duty xxii Owl 1 Dusky Falcon 3 Chicken-hawk 7 Black Vulture 11 Sheilpoke 15 Cardinal Grosbeaks Courting 19 Baby Grosbeak 22 Kingfisher 23 Young Tanager 25 Hen's Nest Containing Egg of Chicken-hawk 25 Hen Brooding on Egg of Chicken-hawk 26 Brooding King Rail 30 LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS— Continued PAGE Rail Hiding Egg 31 Nest of King Rail 35 Eggs of King Rail 39 Pair of Young Bell-birds 42 Nest of Wood Robin With Snake Skin 43 Nest of Wood Thrush 45 Young Bell-bird Hiding Under Leaf 50 Barn Owl 52 Owl Head 53 Barn Owl Leaving Its Home 55 The Face a Perfect Heart Shape 61 Young Killdeer 64 The Killdeer Nest 65 Baby Killdeer Just From Shell 72 The Black Vulture's Nest With Egg and Young 74 The Black Vulture's Front Door 75 "Little Chicken" 77 Young Vulture Three-fourths Grown 81 Full-grown Vulture 85 Vulture Taking Flight 88 Young Loggerhead Shrikes 90 Pair of Young Shrikes 91 Nest and Eggs of Shrike 94 Pair Half -grown Shrikes 95 Young Shrikes 99 Purple Martin 102 A Martin Double House 103 Martin Standing Sentinel 108 Cat-bird Nest and Eggs 110 Young Cat-bird Ill Pair of Young Cat-birds 113 Cat-birds ..119 LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS— Continued PAGE Kingfishers on Favorite Fishing Log 122 Waiting For Lunch 123 Father Kingfisher 129 Young Kingfishers at Entrance to Nest 135 Kingfisher Flats 139 Cuckoo Eggs in Abandoned Nest of Larger Bird 142 Brooding Cuckoo 143 Typical Cuckoo Nest 146 Evolution of Cuckoos, — Pair in Nest 150 Pair Leaving Nest 150 Pair One Day From Nest 151 Mother Cuckoo Brooding While I Worked Behind Her 156 Ready for the Mercies of the World 159 Great Blue Heron 162 Heron Swallowing Frog 163 Indian River Plover 168 Pair of Young Doves 170 Nest of Doves on Fence 171 Pair of Young Doves in Nest 176 Black -masked Warbler and Cow-birds 178 Cow-birds Clustering About Cattle 179 Nest of Indigo Finch Containing Egg of Cow -bird ;183 Nest of Red-eyed Vireo With Cow-bird Egg 187 Pair of Young Vireos 190 Nest of Song Sparrow With Walled-in Egg of Cow-bird. . .191 Pair of Young Cow-birds 194 Male Cardinal Grosbeak Taking Sun-bath 196 Young Cardinals 197 Nest and Eggs of Cardinals 199 Male Cardinal Singing 203 Male Cardinal 207 Nest and Eggs of Robin 210 LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS— Continued PAGE Robin on Bench 211 Nest and Young Robins 215 Robin on Limb 223 Blue Jay Calling 226 Jay on Stump 227 Nest and Eggs of Jay 228 Mother Jay and Nestling 230 Mother Jay and Nestling With Open Bill 231 Male and Female Jays Feeding Young 233 Young Jays Ready to Fly . .237 Young Jay 240 Humming-bird on Rose 242 A Chilly Humming-bird 243 Nest of Humming-bird 248 Grown Quail . 250 Quail Nest 251 Nest of Shells., .257 TO BOB BURDETTE BLACK WHO HAD A HAND IN IT THANKS ARE DUE TO OUTING, THE METROPOLITAN AND THE LADIES' HOME JOURNAL FOR THE PRIVILEGE OF REPRODUCING PICTURES COPYRIGHTED BY THEM CONTENTS CHAPTER PAGE I What I Have Done With Birds 1 II The "Queen" Rail— In a Swamp 31 III The Wood Thrush— In the Valley of the Wood Robin 43 IV The Barn Owl— In Deep Forest 53 V The Killdeer— On the Ground 65 VI The Black Vulture— In the Limberlost. 75 VII The Loggerhead Shrike— In Field Trees 91 VIII The Purple Martin— In the Air 103 IX The Cat-bird— In Thickets Ill X The Belted Kingfisher— In Embankments 123 XI The Yellow-Billed Cuckoo— In Small Thickly Leaved Trees 143 XII The Blue Heron— In the Great Lake Regions 163 XIII The Mourning Dove— In Deep Wood 171 XIV The Cow-bird— In the Pastures 179 XV The Cardinal Grosbeak— In Small Trees and Bushes 197 XVI Robin— In the Dooryard. 211 XVII The Blue Jay— In the Orchard 227 XVIII The Humming-bird— At the Cabin 243 XIX The Quail— On the Ground 251 WHAT I HAVE DONE WITH BIRDS Cried Falco Sparverius: "I chased a mouse up this log." Hooted Scops Asio : "I chased it down a little red lane." "The bubbling brook doth leap when I come by, Because my feet find measure with its call ; The birds know when the friend they love is nigh, For I am known to them, both great and small. The flower that on the lonely hillside grows Expects me there when spring its bloom has given ; And many a tree and bush my wanderings knows, And e'en the clouds and silent stars of heaven." — Very. CHAPTER I WHAT I HAVE DONE WITH BIRDS The greatest thing possible to do with a bird is to win its confidence. In a few days' work about most nests the birds can be taught so to trust me, that such studies can be made as are here presented of young and old, male and female. I am not superstitious, but I am afraid to mistreat a bird, and luck is with me in the indulgence of this fear. In all my years of field work not one study of a nest, or of any bird, has been lost by dealing fairly with my subjects. If a nest is located where access is impossible without moving it, an ex- posure is not attempted, and so surely as the sun rises on another morning, another nest of the same species is found within a few days, where a reproduction of it can be made. Recently, in summing up the hardships incident to securing one study of a brooding swamp-bird, a prominent nature lover and editor said to me most emphatically, "That is not a woman's work." "I do not agree with you," I answered. "In its hardships, in wading, swimming, climbing, in hidden dangers suddenly to be confronted, in abrupt changes from heat to cold, and from light to dark, field photography is not a woman's work; but in the matter of finesse in approaching the birds, in limitless patience in await- ing the exact moment for .the best exposure, in the tedious and WHAT I HAVE DONE WITH BIRDS delicate processes of the dark room, in the art of winning bird babies and parents, 'it is not a man's work. No man ever has had the patience to remain with a bird until he secured a real character study of it. A human mother is best fitted to understand and deal with a bird mother." This is the basis of all my field work, — a mute contract be- tween woman and bird. In spirit I say to the birds, "Trust me and I will do by you as I would be done by. Your nest and young shall be touched as I would wish some giant, surpassing my size and strength as I surpass yours, to touch my cradle and baby. I shall not tear down your home and break your eggs or take your naked little ones from the nest before they are ready to go, and leave them to die miserably. I shall come in colors to which you are accustomed, and move slowly and softly about, not approach- ing you too near until your confidence in me is established. I shall be most careful to feed your young what you feed them; drive away snakes and squirrels, and protect you in every way possible to me. Trust me, and go on with your daily life. For what small disturbance is unavoidable among you, forgive me, and through it I shall try to win thousands to love and shield you." That I frequently have been able to teach a bird to trust me completely, these studies prove; but it is possible to go even fur- ther. After a week's work in a location abounding in every bird native to my state, the confidence of the whole feathered popula- tion has been won so that I could slip softly in my green dress from nest to nest, with not the amount of disturbance caused by the flight of a Crow or the drumming of a Woodpecker. This was proved to me when one day I was wanted at home, and a member of my family came quietly and unostentatiously, as she thought, through the wood to tell me. Every Wren began scold- ing. Every Cat-bird followed her with imperative questions. WISDOM DUSKY FALCON 'A Dusky Falcon is beautiful and most intelligent'* WHAT I HAVE DONE WITH BIRDS Every Jay was on a high perch sounding danger signals. With a throb of great joy came the realization that I was at home and accepted of my birds ; this other was a stranger, and her presence was feared and rejected. So upon this basis I have gone among the birds, seeking not only to secure pictures of them by which family and species can be told, but also to take them perching in characteristic locations as they naturally alight in different circumstances; but best and above all else, to make each picture prove without text the disposi- tion of the bird. A picture of a Dove that does not make that bird appear tender and loving, is a false reproduction. If a study of a Jay does not prove the fact that it is quarrelsome and obtrusive it is useless, no matter how fine the pose or portrayal of markings. One might write pages on the wisdom and cunning of the Crow, but one study of the bird that proved it would obviate the neces- sity of the text. A Dusky Falcon is beautiful and most intelli- gent, but who is going to believe it if you illustrate the statement with a sullen, sleepy bird, which serves only to furnish markings for natural -history identification? If you describe how bright and alert a Cardinal is, then see to it that you get a study of a Cardinal which emphasizes your statements. A merry war has waged in the past few years over what the birds know ; and it is all so futile. I do not know what the birds know, neither do you, neither does any one else, for that matter. There is no possible way to judge of the intelligence of birds, save by our personal experience with them, and each student of bird life will bring from the woods exactly what he went to seek, be- cause he will interpret the actions of the birds according to his temperament and purpose. If a man seeking material for a volume on natural history, trying to crowd the ornithology of a continent into the working lifetime of one person, goes with a gun, shooting specimens to 5 WHAT I HAVE DONE WITH BIRDS articulate and mount from which to draw illustrations, he will no doubt testify that the birds are the wildest, shyest things alive, because that has been his experience with them. If he goes with a note-book, a handful of wheat and the soul of a poet, he will write down the birds as almost human, because his own great heart humanizes their every action. I go with a camera for the purpose of bringing from the fields and forests characteristic pictorial studies of birds, and this book is to tell and prove to you what my experiences have been with them. I slip among them in their parental hour, obtain their like- nesses, and tell the story of how the work was accomplished. I was born in the country and grew up among the birds in a place where they were protected and fearless. A deep love for, and a comprehension of, wild things runs through the thread of my dis- position, peculiarly equipping me to do these things. In one season, when under ten years of age, I located sixty nests, and I dropped food into the open beaks in every one of them. Soon the old birds became so accustomed to me, and so con- vinced of my good intentions, that they would alight on my head and shoulders in a last hop to reach their nests with the food they had brought. Playing with the birds was my idea of fun. Pets were my sort of dolls. It did not occur to me that I was learning anything that would be of use in after years; now comes the realization that knowledge acquired for myself in those days is drawn upon every time I approach the home of a bird. When I decided that the camera was the only method by which to illustrate my observations of bird life, all that was necessary to do was to get together my outfit, learn how to use it, to compound my chemicals, to develop and fix my plates, and tone and wash my prints. How to approach the birds I knew better than any- thing else. This work is to tell of and to picture my feathered friends of 6 ANGER CHICKEN-HAWK I once snapped a Chicken-hawk with a perfect expression of anger on his face" WHAT I HAVE DONE WITH BIRDS the woods in their homes. When birds are bound to their nests and young by the brooding fever, especially after the eggs have quick- ened to life, it is possible to cultivate, by the use of unlimited pa- tience and bird sense, the closest intimacy with them and to get almost any pose or expression you can imagine. In living out their lives, birds know anger, greed, jealousy, fear and love, and they have their playtimes. In my field ex- periences I once snapped a Chicken-hawk with a perfect expres- sion of anger on his face, because a movement of mine disturbed him at a feast set to lure him within range of my camera. No miser ever presented a more perfect picture of greed than I fre- quently caught on the face of a young Black Vulture to which it was my daily custom to carry food. Every day in field work one can see a male bird attack another male, who comes fooling around his nest and mate, and make the feathers fly. Did humanity ever present a specimen scared more than this Sheilpoke when he dis- covered himself between a high embankment and the camera, and just for a second hesitated in which direction to fly? Sometimes by holding food at unexpected angles young birds can be coaxed into the most astonishing attitudes and expressions. I use four cameras suited to every branch of field work, and a small wagon-load of long hose, ladders, waders and other field paraphernalia. Backgrounds never should be employed, as the use of them ruins a field study in two ways. At one stroke they destroy at- mosphere and depth of focus. Nature's background, for any nest or bird, is one of ever shifting light and shade, and this forms the atmosphere without which no picture is a success. Nature's background is one of deep shadow, formed by dark interstices among the leaves, dense thick- ets and the earth peeping through; and high lights formed by WHAT I HAVE DONE WITH BIRDS glossy leaves, flowers and the nest and eggs, if they are of light color. Nature revels in strong contrasts of light and shade, sweet and sour, color and form. The whole value of a natural-history picture lies in reproducing atmosphere, which tells the story of out-door work, together with the soft high lights and velvet shad- ows which repaint the woods as we are accustomed to seeing them. It is not a question of timing; on nests and surroundings all the time wanted can be had; on young and grown birds, snap shots must be resorted to in motion, but frequently, with them, more time than is required can be given. It is a question of whether you are going to reproduce nature and take a natural-history pic- ture, or whether you are going to insert a background and take a sort of flat Japanese, two-tone, wash effect, fit only for decora- tion, never to reproduce the woods. Also in working about nests when the mother bird is brooding, the idea is, or should be, to make your study and get away speed- ily ; and this is a most excellent reason from the bird's side of the case as to why a background never should be introduced. In the first place, if you work about a nest until the eggs become chilled the bird deserts them, and a brood is destroyed. On fully half the nests you will wish to reproduce, a background could not be inserted without so cutting and tearing out foliage as to drive the bird to desert; to let in light and sunshine, causing her to suffer from heat, and so to advertise her location that she becomes a prey to every thoughtless passer. The birds have a right to be left exactly as you find them. It is a good idea when working on nests of young birds, where you have hidden cameras in the hope of securing pictures of the old, and must wait some time for them to come, to remember that nestlings are accustomed to being fed every ten or fifteen min- utes, and even oftener. If you keep the old ones away long, you 10 p cr