Bird observations near Chicago

z.-

suerer

Bkd Observations

Near
Chicago

Ellen Drummond Farwell

Introduction \y
MaryDnimmond

U&A ULstraiions

Rivatefy Printed

Copyrighted 1919

by
John V. Farwell

FOREWORD

Ellen Drummond Farwell loved birds
for many reasons, but especially because
they seemed to her the spiritual in nature.

To her their songs expressed the spon-
taneous joy and gladness of a life, seem-
ingly higher and freer in some respects
than our own.

During the last years of her life, as her
duties and pleasures became more and
more restricted, she spent some of her
happiest moments observing the birds on
our place and in the neighborhood. Once
in the South and once abroad she made
notes of what she saw.

As Mr. Henry Oldys and some other
trained observers, in reading these notes,
felt that quite a number of bird lovers, old
and young, would enjoy comparing their
notes with these, and that in so doing some
little additional knowledge might be re-
corded, I decided at their suggestion to
print a small edition for personal friends
and a few others who might enjoy having
them.

JOHN V. FARWELL.
Ardleigh, January 20,

CONTENTS

Page

Foreword 5

Introduction 1 1

Warblers Identified, Elmhurst and

Lake Forest 17

List of Birds that We Have Found

Nesting in Ardleigh and Edgewood 1 9

List of Birds Observed at Augusta,

Ga 21

Number of Species Observed at One

Time 23

General Observations 25

Bird Observations in Europe 169

Notes Made from Collection of Birds
in Illinois Building at the World's

Fair 185

Birds Observed at Savannah, Ga.. . . 189

Observations before July, 1896, were
made generally in Elmhurst, after that
generally in Lake Forest.

[7]

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS

Portrait of Mrs. Farwell. . . .Frontispiece

Opposite page
Spotted Sand Piper 17

Nest of Meadow Lark 23

Ardleigh 25

Young Chicadee 40

Nest of Indigo Bunting 62

Great Horned Owl (captive) 74

Young Phoebes 77

Nashville Warbler 142

Nest of Field Sparrow 188

The photographs from which these illus-
trations were made were taken by Henry
Emerson Tuttle through whose courtesy
they are used.

[9]

INTRODUCTION

It is hoped that these "Bird Observa-
tions" by Ellen Drummond Farwell may
be welcomed by bird students, because of
the accuracy and extent of their observa-
tions and the possibility that they may
supply some new data, particularly as to
bird songs. By Mrs. Farwell's personal
friends they will also be welcomed as
bringing back to them the thought of one
whose mental ability, true Christian love-
liness and nobility of character created a
personality always uplifting and strength-
ening in its influence.

Partly through the influence of Mrs.
Sara A. Hubbard, to whom many can trace
their first interest in birds, and partly, it
sometimes seemed, because of a kinship
between the birds, the least earthly of the
animal creation,

"Whose habitations in the tree-tops even,
Are half-way houses on the road to
Heaven,"

and her own deeply spiritual nature, she
turned more and more to bird study with
much interest and pleasure. Like most

Introduction

bird students, she soon formed the habit
of jotting down her experiences and the
"observations" are the result — kept, it
need hardly be said — with no thought of
their being seen by any but her closest
friends and fellow bird lovers.

For a number of years, in spite of long
intervals oF illness, these notes were kept,
the last being entered not many days be-
fore her death.

It was a very curious fact that while the
ordinary songs of the birds did not rouse
her from her light morning sleep, an un-
usual note would waken her at once ; that,
in the spring before her death, when all
she could see and hear of the birds was
from her bed, a Hermit Thrush should
sing his lovely song near her window
seemed like a special benediction. His
song is rarely heard in this latitude and
her joy in it was great. Her hearing was
very acute and she knew all the common
and most of the uncommon notes of the
birds of this region.

Mrs. Farwell was not only a bird
student but a bird lover and this implied,
with one like her, that, as much happiness
came to her from the birds, so she must
do for their happiness all in her power

[12]

Introduction

and so it was that she was one of the
chief organizers of the Illinois Audubon
Society (April, 1897), and served, either
as director or vice-president, till her death.
Must we not feel that her chief wish, in
the publication of these notes, would be
that they might help, in their measure, the
cause of bird protection which was so
near her heart, and for which she worked
so earnestly and well?

MARY DRUMMOND.
Lake Forest, January 20, 1919.

[13]

BIRD OBSERVATIONS NEAR
CHICAGO

Spotted Sandpiper
Brooding Young **

BIRD OBSERVATIONS

WARBLERS IDENTIFIED

Elmhurst and Lake Forest

BAY-BREASTED,

BLACK AND WHITE,

BLACK-THROATED BLUE,

BLACK-THROATED GREEN,

BLACKBURNIAN,

BLACK-POLL,

CANADIAN,

CAPE MAY,

CERULEAN,

CHESTNUT-SIDED,

CONNECTICUT,

GOLDEN-WINGED,

MAGNOLIA,

MOURNING,

MYRTLE,

MARYLAND YELLOW-THROAT,

NASHVILLE,

ORANGE-CROWNED,

OVEN-BIRD,

PARULA,

[17]

Bird Observations

PINE,
PALM,

REDSTART,

TENNESSEE,

WILSON'S,

WATER-THRUSH,

LOUISIANA WATER-THRUSH,

YELLOW,
YELLOW-BREASTED CHAT.

In Georgia.

YELLOW-THROATED,
HOODED.

[18]

List begun in IQOJ ', but including former
years also

ATBIRD, yellow warbler, robin, blue
jay, scarlet tanager, towhee, redstart,
red-eyed vireo, great crested flycatcher,
phoebe, wood thrush, flicker, red-headed
woodpecker, cedar bird, chimney swift,
indigo bird, brown thrasher, song sparrow,
house wren.

August 8, JQOI. Saw first fall migrant,
a young warbler, what species I could not
decide.

May 2 and j, igo2. After a warm day,
and a shower the night of May ist, I
observed twenty-three new immigrants,
fourteen of them warblers, in the two
days.

[19]

LIST OF BIRDS OBSERVED AT
AUGUSTA, GA.

March 20, 1895

JUNCO, robin, chipping sparrow, white-
throated sparrow, black and white
creeper, tufted titmouse, mocking bird,
cardinal, blue jay, downy woodpecker,
flicker, chickadee, brown creeper, hermit
thrush, field sparrow, sapsucker, towhee
bunting, golden kinglet, brown thrasher,
bluebird, vesper sparrow, goldfinch, yel-
low-throated warbler, Carolina chickadee,
loggerhead shrike, crow, gnatcatcher,
white-eyed vireo, ruby kinglet, turkey buz-
zard, red headed woodpecker, mourning
dove, swift, yellow-throated vireo, Phila-
delphia vireo, kingbird, summer tanager,
red-eyed vireo, wood pewee, myrtle
warbler, hooded warbler, fish crow (?).

[21]

Arched. Nest of
Meadow Lark *

NUMBER OF SPECIES OBSERVED
AT ONE TIME

(Elmhurst)

Ji/JAY 19, 1893. I saw and heard
<*•*<•• thirty-three species of birds.

October 18, 1893. I identified sixteen
species, an unusual number for this time
of year.

May 9, 1894. Fifty species, red-winged
blackbird, bluebird, bobolink, indigo bunt-
ing, catbird, cowbird, crow, flicker, gold-
finch, rosebreast, grackle, bluejay, king-
bird, ruby kinglet, meadow lark, shore
lark, Baltimore oriole, oven bird, robin,
chipping, song, field, white-throated, white
crowned and vesper sparrows, barn swal-
low, swift, scarlet tanager, brown thrasher,
olive-backed and wood thrushes, che-
wink, black and white creeper, Blackbur-
nian, black-throated blue, black-throated
green, chestnut-sided, magnolia, myrtle,
Nashville, pine, Tennessee, yellow and
palm warblers, red-headed woodpecker,
house wren, mourning dove, Acadian fly-
catcher, sycamore warbler (?) redstart
(fourteen warblers).

May 10, 1894. Twelve species of war-

[23]

Bird Observations

biers in two hours in the morning. On
this day I saw three Blackburnians, one
bay-breasted, one black-throated blue, two
chestnut sided and a parula in one tree.
Warblers very abundant this year.

May 15, i8g4. Eleven species war-
blers.

May 7, 1895. Eleven species warblers.

[24]

GENERAL OBSERVATIONS

May 12, IQ05, at Lake Forest,
noted fifty-seven species

BLUEBIRD, bobolink, indigo bird, cat-
bird, cowbird, crow, Acadian fly-
catcher, yellow-bellied flycatcher, chebec,
phoebe, blue grey gnatcatcher, goldfinch,
humming bird, jay, kingbird, ruby kinglet,
nighthawk, Baltimore oriole, robin, sap-
sucker, red-headed woodpecker, house
sparrow, song sparrow, vesper sparrow,
white-throated sparrow, swift, tanager,
brown thrasher, grey-checked thrush, wood
thrush, olive-backed thrush, Wilson's
thrush, towhee, red-eyed vireo,* yellow
throated-vireo. (Warblers), black-throat-
ed green, black-throated blue, black and
white creeper, Blackburnian, Canadian,
chestnut-sided, Cape May, magnolia,
myrtle, Maryland yellow-throat, oven
bird, orange-crowned,* parula, palm,
Tennessee, Wilson's, yellow, water thrush,
redstart, house wren, whip-poor-will.

May 75, 1906. Noted fifty-six species,
Lake Forest. Catbird, house wren, brown

* Not absolutely certain.

Bird Observations

thrasher, cowbird, red-wing, blackbird,
grackle, Baltimore oriole, meadow lark,
bobolink, robin, wood thrush, Wilson's
thrush, bluebird, towhee, blue jay, crow,
swift, martin, chickadee, mourning dove,
kingbird, phoebe, pewee, great crested fly-
catcher, chebec, red-headed woodpecker,
downy, sapsucker, flicker, chipping spar-
row, field, vesper, song and house sparrow,
indigo bird, rose-breasted grosbeak, gold-
finch, tanager, red-eyed vireo, solitary
vireo, yellow-throated vireo, coot, Virginia
rail, Carolina rail, yellow, cerulean, black-
throated blue, black-throated green, black
and white creeper, chestnut-sided, redstart,
oven bird, Blackburnian and Maryland
yellow-throat warblers, also a Louisiana
Water-thrush (probably a Louisiana),
and whip-poor-will.

[26]

(Lake Forest)

Jl/JAY 18, igoi. Twelve species
IV 1 warblers. Bay-breasted, black and
white creeper, Blackburnian, black-
throated blue, Canadian, redstart, yellow,
oven bird, Tennessee, Louisiana water
thrush, chestnut-sided and magnolia.

May 12, 1904. Sixteen species war-
blers, all in Lake Forest village.

May 14, 1904. Saw from my window
and porch 10 species warblers. Redstart,
black throated blue, Blackburnian, magno-
lia, yellow, Wilson's, Canadian, black and
white creeper, Tennessee, black-poll.

May 14, 1906. Sixteen species, Black-
throated blue, black-throated green, Black-
burnian, black and white creeper, Cana-
dian, chestnut-sided, magnolia, myrtle,
Maryland yellow-throat, oven bird, Ten-
nessee, yellow, Wilson's, water thrush,
Louisiana water thrush, redstart.

May 14, igoj. Thirteen warblers,
forty-nine species in all, beside some her-
ons, probably black crowned night, and a
vireo, probably red eyed.

May 16, K)OJ. Sixteen warblers, four-
teen of them on the ground on our place

[27]

Bird Observations

(the mourning on F. D.'s screen porch).
They have been tumbling and flitting about
the lawn all day, rarely in the trees. Such
a view of warblers I have never seen.
They were all so wonderfully tame, and
would feed within a few feet of us. It
was a moderate day as to temperature, a
light westerly wind and partly sunny.
Species : Black and white creeper, bay
breasted, Blackburnian, Canadian, chest-
nut sided, Cape May, golden-winged, mag-
nolia, Maryland yellow-throat, mourning,
redstart, Wilson's, yellow, oven bird, and
in the Durand ravine, Louisiana Water-
Thrush and orange crowned warbler.

May 23, 1907. Saw eleven species,
nine of them close to the house. They
were on the roof a great deal, dashing af-
ter insects. It was after twenty-four
hours of heavy, wet weather. Black-
throated blue and green, Connecticut
(male and female), orange-crowned (seen
against the roof plainly), redstart, mag-
nolia, Maryland yellow-throat, Cape
May, Grinnell's water thrush, chestnut
sided, yellow. This has been a cold, late
spring and warblers are very late in going
through. The trees, too, are not yet in
leaf, so one can see them very plainly. I

[28]

Bird Observations

saw many individuals of most of the above
kinds.

May 27, 7907. Two Cape Mays, sev-
eral redstarts, a Wilson, a chestnut-sided,
a Canadian, and of course some yellow
warblers all in our yard this morning; also
at Mr. Day's and here, the magnolia,
black-throated blue and Blackburnian.

May 28, igoj. This remarkable spring
the warblers are still lingering and still
mostly flying very low. Observed today
the black throated green and blue, Cape
May, Wilson's, magnolia, yellow, redstart,
Canadian, Maryland yellow-throat, pa-
rula, a mourning (probably).

igo8. A few myrtles and palms came
in an early migration wave about the mid-
dle of April as reported by Mrs. Moss
and others. (I was ill in bed.) This was
followed by a remarkable spell of con-
tinued cold and northeast winds, from
about April 23 to May 9, when very warm
weather set in. This cold weather ended
with several days of fierce northeast
storm. No warblers were reported as far
as I know in this period of over two
weeks. I only saw one, (which I could
not identify) and a water thrush, which I
heard.

Bird Observations

May ii, 1908. I saw eleven species
and heard the water thrush.

May 27, 1908. Noted fifty-one species
of birds: Wood thrush, bluebird, robin,
northern yellow-throated, redstart and yel-
low warblers, Baltimore and orchard
orioles, song, field, vesper and grasshopper
sparrows, Dickcissel, goldfinch, scarlet
tanager, redwing, yellow-headed blackbird,
grackle, cowbird, flicker, red-headed wood-
pecker, indigo bird, red-eyed vireo, war-
bling vireo, barn and cave swallows, mar-
tin, brown thrasher, catbird, house wren,
blue jay, cedar bird, coot, bittern, black
tern, bobolink, phoebe, kingbird, crested
flycatcher, pewee, meadow lark, shore
lark, kingfisher, swift, mourning warbler,
mourning dove, rose-breasted grosbeak,
veery, chewink, nighthawk, oven bird.

May /J; 1909. Thirteen warblers,
myrtle, magnolia, Tennessee, black-
throated green, black-throated blue, black
and white, Blackburnian, yellow, redstart,
golden-winged, oven bird, chestnut-sided
and Cape May. On May 14, 1909, four-
teen warblers, same as preceding except
myrtle and golden-winged, with parula,
water thrush and Nashville added.

[30]

Bird Observations

May 25, 19 io- Noted eleven warblers
from Kay's balcony.

May 22-23, 1910. First "rush" of
warblers on our place; very cold May.

June 5, 19 10. Many migrant warblers
still here.

AMERICAN BITTERN

J\/[dY 14, 1906. Found one roosting
•*• '-*• in a thorn tree not one hundred
feet from the house. He sat there as long
as we wanted to study him, and we came
as near as we liked, he following us all the
time with his strange yellow eye. He sat
like a ten pin on the branch, his neck and
bill stretched straight up and a front view
looking like this :

his eyes looking perfectly round, not fore-
shortened to an oval, a most curious and
weird effect. He still sat there, immov-
able, when we left. What protective col-
oring. His stripes look like brown reeds,
and his light colored bill looks like the tip
of one.

[32]

COW BLACKBIRD

April 3, 1894

(Elmhurst)

* I AHE cowbirds mingle a good deal with
A the grackles when migrating. They
are easily distinguished from them by
their smaller size and less conspicuous
tails. The males have brown heads and
necks and black bodies; the females are
grey all over. They utter while flying a
peculiar long whistling note, ending with a
quickly repeated trembling note on a little
higher key. It is rather a plaintive song
— if it can be called a song — and is quite
different from the scratching, cackling
notes of most blackbirds. They only
seem to practice this song a comparatively
short time in the year, in April and May.
I have also heard them utter a harsh rat-
tle while flying, much like the rattled notes
of the meadow lark. I think the females
made this note but am not sure.

May, IQ06. The males make a noise
just like the gurgle of water through a
long necked bottle.

[33]

BLACK-THROATED BUNTING

8, i89.4..
May 7, 1895
May 12, 1896

(Elmhurst)

THE incessant chee-chee-chee-chee-chee
of this bird may get monotonous
when heard too often, but it is always a
delightful sound to me. Its reedy quality
attracts me ; and it always means long June
days and sunny prairies to me. It is essen-
tially a denizen of the meadows. Few
birds are more abundant or more promi-
nent than these buntings are here. They
mount on posts or tall grasses and shout
at you energetically as you drive by, not
in the least alarmed at your presence. In
Lake Forest they are not so abundant. I
only see a few birds out west.

May 27, 1908. I saw two and heard
two more when going out to Libertyville
today. I have not seen or heard one since
1904.

[34]

BLUEBIRD

March 2, 1893
March 5, 1894

THE pair that built in my box in 1893
raised two broods. In 1894 they
began building. May 3d, 1895, I have
seen no sign of a bluebird up to this time
— May 13 — and no one else has seen one
here either. It is most remarkable. May
28, still no bluebirds. July 14, heard one
warble today, the first one of the season.
The latter part of July, 1895, I saw a
family of six birds. September, 1895, I
heard one warble, the first one observed
near our house this year, the others were
seen on drives.

^\

[35]

CARDINAL GROSBEAK

I OBSERVED this bird first at Harrow-
gate, Tennessee, in April, 1894, and be-
came very familiar with him in Augusta,
Georgia, in March, 1895, and in other
southern trips. But I had never seen him
in our northern regions till today, April
4, 1902. A female has been seen with
him by Emerson Turtle, but I saw only
the one bird, a male. He sang, and the
song impressed me as very varied; the
opening notes like a robin's warble, then
a few chords, a warble too, but with the
double sound which the veery has, only, of
course, bold and loud. His whistles always
have inflection in them.

April 75, 1909. Saw and heard a male
cardinal at the Byron Smith's. He sang
frequently, a loud clear whistle. Mrs.
Burnap reported that she saw him yester-
day and two females were with him.

June 5, 19 10. A cardinal woke me with
his loud sweet whistle this morning.
Never heard one on our place before. He
was in the maple by my window. He sang
several times.

[36]

Bird Observations

June ig and 26, igio. Sang both these ,

days; must be nesting near here.

May 5, igi2. Heard today and many
days after on our place.

June ig and 20. Again.

[37]

CATBIRD

May 4, 1894
April 27, 189 6
May 8, 1897

I THINK each year that I have learned
all the catbird's odd ways, but each
spring as he returns he surprises me with
some new vagaries either in song or be-
havior. He seems to revel in the un-
expected.

May 30 1895. At 2 130 this morning
I woke up and the first sound I heard was
the soft singing of a catbird in the trees
across the field. It sounded strange in the
darkness of the night, and the strangest
part of it was that he kept on singing in a
broken, meditative sort of way for a full
hour. By that time the first streaks of
dawn began to appear, and the chorus of
other birds drowned his voice.

[38]

CEDAR BIRD

April 3, 1893
(Elmhurst)

NOT a common bird here. Much
commoner in Lake Forest.
August 9, IQOI. Found a nest in a
nearby elm containing four eggs ; how late
in the season !

[39]

CHICKADEE

August 25, 1893
(Elmhurst)

/TpHESE birds do not seem as plentiful
•*• here as the books report them in the
east. The quality of their note, chick-a-
dee-dee, is something like that of the che-
wink's call note, strident, but sweeter and
of course much fainter and finer. The
plaintive clear minor whistle of two notes,
the first higher, the second a half note
lower, I have also frequently heard.

April II, 1903. A note I did not rec-
ognize at first I found to be that of this
bird. It sounded like a blackbird in the
distance. It was a decided cut-cut-ca-da-
cut strongly emphasized at the end, and
rather harsh, not contented as a hen
gives it.

[40]

Young Chlcadee

CAROLINA CHICKADEE

March 29, 189$
(Georgia)

LIKE our northern bird, but without
the white edges to the tail. The note
is described most accurately in Torrey's
Florida Sketch Book, four notes, very/
sweet.

COWBIRD

24, 1905. Heard a loud rasping
ker-chee-e-e" in the woods, utterly
unlike any note I ever heard a cowbira
utter before. I felt sure it was some
strange flycatcher note till I saw the bird.
He uttered it many times, such a queer,
grating sound. It never occurred to me it
could be anything but a flycatcher till I
watched the bird do it.

BROWN CREEPER

Spring, 1893
October 13, 1893
April 3, 1894

AW one in Lake Forest as late as May
13 in 1907.

[43]

AMERICAN CROSSBILL

November I, 189$
August 23, 189 6

MY attention was attracted this after-
noon by a flock of about twenty
birds flying vigorously and directly to-
wards some spruce trees near me. They
were uttering a clear, whistling chirp con-
stantly as they flew. I was sure they were
birds I was unfamiliar with, and when
they settled on the tops of the spruces and
I brought my glass to bear on them I was
delighted to recognize this long-looked for
species. There were a few bright colored
males, but most of them were the plainer
olive females and the striped young birds.
They were exceedingly tame, and were
busily engaged in crawling up and down
the branches and crunching the cone seeds
in their bills. They made a decided noise
with their wings when they fluttered about,
louder than that of an English sparrow.
Their crossed bills and short tails are con-
spicuous points.

August, 1896. I saw a large flock to-
day as I was sitting on the porch of our
new house. I recognized them at once by
the notes. Most of them were young birds.

BLACK-BILLED CUCKOO

ll/IAY ig, igo2. I find this species
*rJ. much less common here than the
yellow billed; saw one unmistakably this
morning.

1 45]

YELLOW-BILLED CUCKOO

(Lake Forest)

A PRIL 29, 1901. Had a fine view of
<*1 this bird in a bare tree. How rufous
his wings are and his bill looks as if it
were all yellow and not just the lower
mandible, at least it looks so in the sun.
No notes from this bird today. I wish I
could tell his notes from the black-billed.
Was it this bird that has been giving a low
coo at intervals for several days? (July
31, 1901) or the black-billed? I could
only see that it was a cuckoo, not a bittern
as we first thought. He keeps this cooing
up for hours; so different from his loud
co w-co w-co w-i ng.

[46]

ACADIAN FLYCATCHER

MAY 30, 1907. Watched two on the
barn fence for a long time. They
tilt their tails as the phoebe does, only it
is a much more nervous and rapid motion
than the phoebe's. A wood pewee was on
the same fence uttering his sweet wail
many times, and I could compare the two
to great advantage. The Acadian looked
so small and green beside the pewee. His
wings were so barred and his eye ring so
noticeable.

[47]

GREAT-CRESTED FLYCATCHER

June 13, 1894
June 2, 1895
May 8, 1897
May 21, 1898

THIS fellow just lit on a branch near
me on the road to the spring for a
minute, and then was off and away, and I
saw no more of him this summer of 1894.
In Lake Forest, June 2, 1895, I again
saw him and heard him give his loud wild
cry, but I have not yet had a satisfactory
study of the bird.

June 75, 1895. I nad quite a good look
at the great-crest today. The sulphur yel-
low is so conspicuous underneath.

May, 1906. When he flies he looks al-
most as long as a cuckoo.

[48]

LEAST FLYCATCHER

...., 1893
May 12,

IN my four years of bird study (1895)
I have only observed this little fellow
twice ; never have heard him utter a sound.

[49]

OLIVE-SIDED FLYCATCHER

MRS. HUBBARD pointed this bird
out to me once on a high oak in our
yard. I do not know what year, perhaps
about 1904 or 1905, but I had a poor study
of him on that day. Today, May 13,
1907, I watched him as long as I wanted
to in a most favorable situation. He was
perched on the dead stub of a tree, on the
bluff on the Buckingham place, and as the
tree was below me he was nearly on a level
with me. He is a powerful looking bird.
Such a strong bill, and such vigorous move-
ments as he had! He would dart at in-
sects a great distance away, but always
returned to the same stub at the top of the
tree. I noticed that he always faced south,
no matter at what angle he lit on the stub
he always took his position facing me and
turned his eye towards the sun, which was
bright and hot, without blinking. It was
the same when I went to the west of him :
he still faced south, so it was evidently not
done with the object of keeping an eye on
me. Was it that he saw the insects better
between the sun and himself, I wonder?

[50]

FLORIDA GALLINULE

MAY 18, 1 902. We were walking in
the McCormTicks' ravine when I
chanced to see a bird sitting perfectly still
on a high crotch of a maple. We all
viewed it through our glasses as long as
we wanted to. Saw the leaden black
breast and the brilliant red patch above the
bill. It never moved, except to turn its
head now and then for, I should think,
twenty minutes. It looked like a rail, but
I had never heard of one such an extraor-
dinary color. Finally John and John
Case threw stones to make it fly, but it
simply craned its neck over to look at
them. They banged the tree with a big
stick, but it would not budge. Finally as
we were turning to go it crept stealthily up
the sloping branch of the tree, and settled
itself in another position, where we left it,
and hurried home to look up our remark-
able bird. It uttered no sound of any
kind.

[50

U. OF ILL

BLUE-GREY GNATCATCHER

April, 1894
(Tennessee)

April 3, 1895
(Georgia)

April 26, 1896
(Lake Forest)

May 5, 1897
(Lake Forest)

IN Tennessee when I saw this bird I
heard nothing but the soft little mew it
gives as it flutters around among the
branches. But here in Augusta I have had
a fine view of two of these tiny birds and
heard the song many times. Such a sweet,
varied, soft, little song, something like a
goldfinch's, but with almost as much vari-
ety in it as a thrasher's. It seems to me
the faintest, tiniest little song and just
suited to the size of the bird.

April, 1896. There are several of these
little birds around our new house as it is
building.

May 5, 1897. Saw a pair back of our
garden.

[52]

GOLDFINCH
January 14, igoi

SAW and heard numbers of this
species.

[53]

WILD GOOSE
January 4, igoi

1AW a flock flying south and have seen
them at intervals through December.

54]

BONAPARTE'S GULL

(Lake Forest)
April 28

WHAT a little beauty this gull is ! His
black head, pearl grey wings, and
flashing white under parts are a pleasure
to see as he wheels and turns over the
lake. He is one of the smaller gulls, and
is very graceful in his movements.

\.ss~\

EVENING GROSBEAK

April 1 6, 1896
April 26, 1896

FLOCKS of a dozen or fifteen of these
handsome birds have been here
(Lake Forest) since the first of the month.
They are so tame it is easy to study them,
and their call note, a loud, metallic whis-
tle, without any inflection in it, proclaims
their presence unfailingly. The note re-
minds me of one of the notes of the tufted
titmouse. The whistle is accompanied by
a sort of rattling trill at intervals. They
seem to have disappeared now (May 5).
February 19, 1902. Saw a flock of fif-
teen, seven males and eight females in
Fannie Tuttle's yard. They were on a
bare spot on the ground under a maple,
feeding on the maple seeds, apparently,
and were so tame and close together that
I had fourteen of them in the field of my
glass at one time. The notes could be
heard some distance away. The loud
"peep, peep" reminded me of a little
chicken's peep, when it is very loud, and
the little sorter rattle sounded like the
soft rolled R a chicken gives as it cuddles

[56]

Bird Observations

under its mother's wing. The loud "peep"
is more of a whistle than a chicken gives,
but heard at a distance it reminds one of
it.

March 3, 1902. Saw a large flock.
Counted fifty-two and some others escaped
me. There must have been sixty or
seventy in the flock. They have been seen
here constantly now for three weeks.

March 2j. Still here.

April 4, 1901. Saw and heard many
this morning. The rattled note reminded
me of a car conductor's whistle.

April 15, 1902. Saw two full colored
males and a number of females.

April ii, 1909. Saw several males and
females. Have been here all winter, but
this was my first view of them.

April 18. Still here; a large flock in
the ravine near President Nollen's house.

May 6. Heard several.

May 7. Saw seven grosbeaks and
heard others. Seems remarkable that they
are still here. It has been very cold up to
May 5, when it was 86°; May 6, was
over 70°.

May 14, 1909. Still here.

[57]

ROSE-BREASTED GROSBEAK

Spring, 1892
May 9, 1893
May 3, 1894
May 2, 1896

ESE birds are regular in their com-
ing, and are among our best known
birds here, though they are never plentiful.
The male is a beautiful singer, his sweet,
melodious warble resembling a robin's,
only it is much more finished, sweeter, with
a softer and more oriole-like quality. He
is one of our most constant and fearless
singers during June. Later in the summer
he is entirely silent.

September I, 1895. I heard one warble
quite a long song, and as sweet in quality
as his spring song. I have heard this bird
sing exultantly as he soared in the air, after
the manner of a bobolink. Both male and
female throw themselves in the air and
turn graceful somersaults in pursuit of in-
sects. The male utters a loud chirp which
is very unmusical, like the squeak of a
wheel which needs oiling. The grosbeaks
were very common here in the spring and
summer of 1895. One would hear six or

[58]

Bird Observations

eight singing in the course of a morning
walk.

May 15, igoi. Counted eight females
and three males on Alcott school lawn.
Miss Burt said that in the morning they
counted thirty.

[59

BLACK-CROWNED NIGHT
HERON

(Elmhurst)

HERE is a large and remarkable col-
A ony of these birds which nests in the
Bryan's place every year. They occupy the
tops of the evergreens there, and the
squawking clamor they make, especially
towards evening, can be heard over here.
They fly over our place every night about
sunset, on their way to the creek for fish,
uttering their loud "quauk" as they go;
their white breasts gleaming in the light,
and their wings "opening and shutting"
with the regular flight which most water
birds have.

June 75, 189$. I visited this heronry
this morning and found the remnants of
egg-shells thickly scattered on the ground
under the nests. They were as large as
hen's eggs, of a robin's egg blue in color.

[60]

GREEN HERON

Ji/TAY g, igoi. One sat on a small tree
•iVJ- on the edge of our bluffs for about
five minutes, and I viewed him through
our big glass. He is a most curious and
weird looking bird. His yellow iris and
voracious looking bill give him an uncanny
look. He hunched himself together and
would then stretch his neck up to an in-
credible height. He looked much larger
flying than sitting on the tree. This is
the second one I have identified here. I
saw his legs and feet very plainly and
they certainly looked a bright flesh pink,
not olive as the books say.

[61]

INDIGO BIRD

July 20, 1893
May 7, 1894
May 4, 1896
May 10, 1897
May 19, 1898

THE blue of the indigo bunting is very
different from that of the bluebird,
darker and more metallic looking, but very
brilliant in the sunshine. The light colored,
thick bill is a distinguishing mark. Song
a little like a goldfinch's — sweeter, less
jumbled together, more of a "set song."

May 12, 1903. Saw four birds on the
lawn east of house, three of them high
colored, the other blue but not so deep
and brilliant. Close to them were two
goldfinches and a white crowned sparrow,
a beautiful company. All were eating
dandelion seeds.

May 30, 1907. Saw one male and two
females eating dandelion seeds. What a
reddish hue the lady birds have.

[62]

Nest of Indigo Bunting

JUNCO

1892
(Elmhurst)

THE arrival of these flocks of: slate
colored snow birds is always a sign
of approaching winter. They feed on the
ground. They utter frequently a low
t'sip, t'sip, and sometimes the whole flock
will light on the lower branches of a clump
of evergreens and keep up a continuous
low, sweet, twittering, which is pleasant to
hear at a season when there are so few
bird notes.

March, 1894. I watched one sitting
quite high in a tree who threw his head
back and sang with all his might. His
song began quite likt a canary's, with
some little runs and trills, but did not have
the variety or brilliancy of that songster,
as he soon relapsed into his customary
sweet twittering.

[63]

KING BIRD

May 20, i8g3
(Elmhurst)

KINGBIRDS seem to fly out further
in their flights after insects than other
flycatchers. Their motions are very grace-
ful and beautiful.

[64]

GOLDEN-CROWNED KINGLET

1892

March 26, 1893
March 21, 1894
December 2, 1894
September 29, 1895

(Elmhurst)

THE stripe of vivid orange on the head
is always visible and not sometimes
concealed as in the ruby-crowned. The
note is exceedingly thin, scarcely audible
at times. It is not at all shy and will often
allow you to get within ten feet of him.
The faint squeaking uzie" is usually re-
peated three times.

March, 1902. Have never heard any
other sound from them except this zie-
zie-zie.

March, 1907. Heard a song I thought
must be a warbler song, faint and uninter-
esting in character, but new. Found sev-
eral gold crests and one or two sang fre-
quently. I followed them for some time.
Description in Chapman's Handbook ex-
cellent. First time I ever heard this spe-
cies sing.

RUBY-CROWNED KINGLET

1892

April 9, 1893
September 22, 1893
September 24, 189$

(Elmhurst)

THE smallest birds — these and the
golden crowned — in this part of
the country except the humming birds and
winter wrens. General coloring and habits
much like some warblers, but they are
smaller, and the shape is not so long and
thin. The expression of the eye is quite
different too, caused by a round yellowish
mark around the eye, while the warbler's
eye markings are usually horizontal. This
gives him a wide-eyed, surprised look.
The ruby lifts his wings constantly in a
restless way, more than the golden. The
ruby spot on the head is plainly visible all
the time in the spring in some individuals,
and is not concealed at all. Kinglets are
much hardier than warblers, coming
earlier and staying later. I have heard
the ruby utter a harsh, chattering, scold-
ing series of notes, much like a house

[66]

Bird Observations

sparrow, and quite loud. It is much like
that of a winter wren. The song I have
heard a number of times, a deliciously
sweet fairy-like performance.

April 24, 1902. Heard three different
individuals singing this morning. All had
the chattering notes, interspersed with a
hurried louder whistle, very like the
"cher-o-kee, cher-o-kee" of the Carolina
wren. This part of the song could be
heard some distance, though of course it
was not as loud as the wren's.

April 1 6, 1903. Saw a kinglet with a
gorgeous ruby crown, and supposed a fe-
male must be near whose attention he was
trying to attract, but I soon saw another
male, also showing his ruby spot. There
was a little sparring and then the one I had
first seen flew away, his whole head look-
ing like a living coal of fire.

April 27, 1907. Heard five kinglets
singing this morning as I walked to Julia
Thompson's.

[67]

PRAIRIE HORNED LARK

Autumn, 1892
June 28, 1893

(Elmhurst)

I SEE this beautiful bird here at inter-
vals through most of the year. I heard
one sing quite a sweet little warble from
the top of the fence when the ground was
covered deep with snow. They utter a
number of notes beside this warble. They
have a lonely sounding "peep-peep" as
they fly off from the road in scattering
flocks, and they also utter some loud sweet
notes, having a quality not unlike those of
the meadow lark, though fewer in num-
ber. The yellow under the bill varies
greatly in different individuals. In the
birds where the color is pale, the species
is probably the "Prairie" variety, the
others the "Horned" simply. They are
not at all shy, yet I have never observed
them venture within the confines of a
village.

[68]

HOODED MERGANSER

April 28
(Lake Forest)

SAW three in the lake; they dive like
loons. The white back of the crest
was most conspicuous, only it looked yel-
low in the strong afternoon sunlight.
They stay under water quite a while, and
throw themselves down, when they start
to dive, with the utmost vigor.

[69]

MOCKING BIRD

March 21, 1895
(Augusta, Ga.)

THE song is so like that of the brown
thrasher, and yet it is more varied,
and seems to me to have less of the bold
dash of that bird, and more sweet melody
in it. But it introduces more cat-calls and
uncouth noises, so that it is not as dignified
a performance as that of the brown
thrasher.

April 1st. On hearing the song more
often it seems less attractive to me than
the thrasher's, though more remarkable.

[70]

RED-BREASTED NUTHATCH

September 7, 1894
August 29,

I NOTICE a great deal of variety in
the coloring of the breasts of these
birds. Some are as bright a bay as many
robins, and others have only a pale yel-
lowish-red wash over the white.

WHITE-BREASTED NUTHATCH

April 75, 1894
(Tennessee)

I HAVE never yet seen these birds in
Elmhurst (1895). I wonder why they
are not here. The red-breasted I see every
autumn. I enjoyed my one and only sight
of this bird when I saw him in the Tennes-
see woods. He is too marked a bird to
be mistaken for any other, even on a first
acquaintance. In 1896, in January, I saw
these birds in Lake Forest.

April, 1896. They are abundant here.

[72]

ORCHARD ORIOLE

SAW and heard this bird today after
having watched for him for nine years
of bird study. Found him in a tree near
Atteridge's farm, a mature male. Song
beautiful, full, vigorous, rich, finer than
the Baltimore.

May II, 1903. I have seen two orioles
in our grounds for two days, and this
morning I saw three, two mature males
and an immature male of the second
year, really a handsomer bird than the
others with his trim olive coat and jet
black face. The orchard oriole has a very
difficult song to describe, a full, flowing
warble, interjected with the characteristic
blackbird note of the orioles at frequent
intervals, but it is not loud enough to spoil
the beauty of the song.

May 23, igoj. Saw a young male some
days ago, in song, and today saw an old
male in our yard.

[73]

GREAT HORNED OWL

A PRIL 22, IQ02. Saw him in the ra-
-** vine back of the Henry Durand
place (bird class). What a big fellow he
is ! And what remarkable ears or horns !
A most weird looking bird. It is strange
that in all my bird study I have seen so
few owls. This and the screech owl are
the only ones I am acquainted with.

[74]

Great Horhed Owl
(captive)

WILSON'S PHALAROPE

May 28, 1895

MRS. HUBBARD and I spied two of
these handsome birds in a small
pond on the road to the spring. We had
the most satisfactory study of them. They
allowed us to come within about fifteen
feet of them, and we watched them as long
as we wanted to. There were two of
them, both females, possibly, as these are
described as the more brilliant of the two
sexes. They were most conspicuous,
striking birds, with their gleaming white
breasts, black stripe through the eye, run-
ning into chestnut on the neck and back,
and the broad white stripe on the back of
the head and neck. They were most un-
concerned about our presence, and went on
wading in the puddle and feeding in the
water as calmly as if we had been miles
away. One bird was very belligerent to
the other one and drove it away numbers
of times. There was another smaller bird
with these two beauties, apparently of the
same family, but it was striped with grey
and brown on the back, and plain white
underneath, a sparrowy looking creature.

[75]

Bird Observations

He was quite unconcerned while the fights
were going on between the other two. He
tallied exactly with the description of the
immature phalarope, but how could he
have been that at this time of the year?
On the whole I never had a finer chance to
study a new bird than I did this time. The
phalaropes uttered no sound except a
plaintive "tweet, tweet," now and then.

[76]

Ypung Phoebe s

PHOEBE

1896

A PAIR nested on our west gable,
before our Ardleigh house was fin-
ished.

July 6, 1901. This is the sixth year
phoebes have nested on the house. I
wonder if it is the same pair. Three years
under the roof of the porch, twice under
the porch, and once on the gable. This
year they began nesting May I7th, began
sitting June 3rd, and the young flew July
6th.

April 20, 1902. Phoebes began nesting
on the top of the porch pillar, their fourth
year on this identical spot.

May 3rd. Began sitting.

May ijth. One just hatched, four
other eggs in nest.

May i8th. All hatched.

June 2nd. Five lusty birds flew out of
the nest today.

June 1 5th. The same pair (presumably)
began to investigate the old nest again,
and on the I7th I saw the female sitting.

19 10. Phoebes still nesting on our
house. This is the fifteenth consecutive
year.

[77]

PINE SISKIN

J\/fAY 20 , 1907. A flock of sixty birds,
* rl. counted through my glass, and with
others I could not count scattered about,
feeding on dandelion seeds, was what I
saw at the Winter Club this afternoon. A
number of goldfinches were with them, but
the siskins were much more numerous.
Their notes first attracted my attention,
a great deal of goldfinch like chatter, but
with a constant burr or buzz interspersed
with it, that distinguished it from the
familiar song of that bird. I could get
quite near the birds, they seemed unsus-
picious, and to have the same gentle, con-
fiding natures that the goldfinches have.
How striped they were ! All over, just
the yellowish bars on the wings to break
the effect. I wish we could induce them
to stay and eat up our dandelion seeds.

May 14, igog. A flock in the Granger's
yard. The burr in the notes very notice-
able.

[78]

PIPIT

June 28, 1893
May 28, 1895

WHEN I first saw pipits running along
the road I thought they were shore
larks. Their movements and size are so
like the lark's. But a nearer view shows
them to be very different. They appear
dappled all over except on the lower
breast, and they lack the black markings
around the head which the lark has.

[79]

PURPLE FINCH

October I, 1895
April, 1896

ELMHURST has never yielded a single
example of this bird, as far as I have
yet discovered. I saw my first specimens
in Lake Forest, John Ferry pointing them
out to me. There was quite a flock of
them feeding on the seeds of the ironwood
trees. They were all in sparrowy dress,
without the reddish hue they acquire later
in the year. Their manners resemble those
of the grosbeak, and they reminded me
of the way that bird twists about after
food, and almost crawls over the branches
like a parrot. They look like small edi-
tions of the female rose-breasted. The
thick bills and deeply forked tails of these
finches aid in identifying them. In April,
1896, I saw them again in Lake Forest,
this time the males had their rosy colors.

May, IQOO. Am sure I heard the song,
so loud and melodious, a little like the
warbling vireo's; did not see the bird, but
heard the song several times.

April, igoi. Heard the song numbers
of times and saw the birds, later heard

[so]

Bird Observations

them various times and saw one male in
fine summer plumage, and he really did
look very purple in the sunlight. The
song, when I first heard it, made me think
of a warbling vireo, trying to sing like a
goldfinch. Such a variety of notes, and
yet the song was short. A few days later
the song I heard was more flute-like,
louder, and fuller — but still short.

February 75, 1903. Saw a flock of
about fifteen birds in our grounds. They
were very silent. The males had a dusky
purplish hue. There were several inches
of snow on the ground, and it was still
snowing.

[81]

CAROLINA RAIL

Jl/JAY 8, 1905, in the pond west of
«*Kf Libertyville, there must have been
many of them.

May i $, 1906. One in marsh west of
Convent Crossing, Lake Forest. Such a
loud cackle of alarm as he gave, but
looked as tranquil and tame as possible
while he paddled about close to me. Why
don't the books speak of his yellow bill,
and of the Virginia's red one? The two
birds were both together there. Some of
their loud explosive notes make me think
of a chat.

[82]

VIRGINIA RAIL

MAY 15, 1906. Saw my first one in
marsh west of track at Convent
Crossing. He cack-ed and kuk-ed, and
waded about very near me. His bill
looked so red. No book speaks of a red
bill, but this one certainly looked so.

[83]

LOGGERHEAD SHRIKE

April 24, 1894
May 28, 1895

I NEVER see this shrike here in num-
bers, but it is a regular summer resi-
dent, and in my drives over the prairies
I usually see one or two individuals.

May 28, 1895. We found five young
shrikes, hardly able to fly, in a thorn hedge
today. They were lovely little fellows,
their plumage as soft as eiderdown, and
they huddled close together, three of them
on one branch, and looked as innocent of
being members of a murderous race as if
they were turtle doves. We found the re-
mains of a small bird, supposably of a
house sparrow, impaled upon a thorn
near by their nest. The parent birds were
nowhere visible, though we passed the
place both morning and afternoon.

THE plumage of this bird seems dull
beside that of the Loggerhead, with
its clear pearl greys, black and white,
which I see here so often in summer. I
have seen this bird only once so far. It
sat on a lonely tree by the roadside and
uttered a curious low-pitched gurgling
noise, unlike any other note I ever heard.

[85]

FOX SPARROW

SONG varies very much in different in-
dividuals, always sweet, rich and me-
lodious.

March 24, 1902. Singing in our grounds.
The song has a decided melody and form.
The first note single, several others in
couples, then something of a jumble, a
pure whistle. A quiet repose about it,
though.

April 8, 1903. Watched one sing a long
time. Such purity, such delicious sweet-
ness of tone ! Hardly any two songs alike,
yet all about the same length, often ending
with a little soliloquy, as it were, some-
times a slightly chattered note or two. All
the songs had form, and had a large range
of notes.

March 31 , 1908. So many singing, if
one starts the whole flock begins to sing.
The Asso. hymn "True hearted, whole
hearted, faithful and loyal," recalls the
form if you accent strongly the heart both
times and the ful in faithful.

[86]

GRASSHOPPER SPARROW

June 21, 1895

I HAVE heard the feeble insect-like
trill of this bird several times, but have
never been able to identify it till today.
We were driving near Addison, and Edith ft J
Skeele and I heard the note and followed
up the" bird. He flew from one weed to
another, singing with his head thrown
back, and with an energy worthy of a
better cause. His song is so weak, just a
low trill, without any of the strident
qualities of the chipping sparrow. It can
only be heard a very short distance off. He
is one of the smallest sparrows; the head
showing the narrow median and the wider
superciliary stripes very plainly; the wing
tinged with yellow towards the front.

, , HOUSE SPARROW

Jl/TAY 29, 1902. A single pair are try-
•LT-L ing to nest on Frank F.'s house.
This morning I was awakened at 4:15 by
the squawking of one of the pair, presum-
ably the male. After listening to its
monotonous chirping for ten minutes I was
impressed with the number of times it re-
peated its note, and at what regular inter-
vals it was uttered. I began to count the
/squawks, and counted one thousand one
I hundrecft : twenty-seven of them with
scarcely a variation in time or tone. Then
it stopped for two or three minutes, began
again, and this time I counted three hun-
dred sixty chirps, when I grew tired of
counting and went to sleep. At 6 rjo when
I awakened, the same bird was holding
forth.

June 25, 1897

SAW four or five of these birds in a field
about six miles west of Lake Forest.
They were singing when I first noticed
them, a sweet song, something; between a
goldfinch and a vesper sparrow. Their
marked heads and white bordered tails
(the latter almost as conspicuous; as a
mourning dove's) make them easy to
identify. They were very unsuspicious.

June 28, 1897. Saw three more near
Lake Forest.

[89]

SAVANNAH SPARROW

Jl/fAY 8, igoi. Saw two sparrows
•*Kf which I took to be this species, but
am not quite positive. Song, a faint whirr,
but too little of it to tell. The yellow in
front of eye most marked, but one of the
birds certainly seemed to have a spot on
the breast like a song sparrow. (No such
mark in the books.) Its breast was quite
striped.

[90]

SWAMP SPARROW

Ji/JAY i, 1903. First view of this bird
•» '•*• after all these years of bird study.
He was in a swampy place west of the Wai-
den gate. How he did flirt his tail and bob
about! As active as a wren or a water
thrush, indeed the tilting of his tail was
very much like the latter bird. Then he
would drop down into the grass and run
through it like a mouse. He is smaller
and more conspicuously striped than most
of the plain sparrows, and the chestnut
on head and wings is very striking. I
heard no song, only a small weak chirp.

May 6, 1904. In our garden, a single
bird, so restless and active. On first seeing
it flit in and out of the bushes before I saw
the colors, I thought it was a warbler.
This bird chirped continually, not such a
very weak chirp.

April 24, 1905. In our garden again,
two of them, chirping constantly, quite
loudly. Such restless, active birds, and so
pretty. There were decided streaks on this
bird's breast, not dark, very light, but
plainly visible.

April 29, 1906. Close to our front door
in the bushes — tilting his tail as usual.

[91]

Bird Observations

Colors so bright and rufous, such a chest-
nut crown. A pretty fellow indeed. Ran
like a mouse between bushes, and was very
active, but not as shy as some I've seen. »

[92]

March 75, 1894
(Elmhurst)

MY first sight of this bird was as I was
walking along the village road one
windy morning. I knew him at once, he
was so like the chippy, only he seemed
warmer colored, and a little lighter. The
reddish cap was very marked. He is a
trim, aristocratic looking bird, much more
so than the chippy, I think.

March 1 6, 1894. Saw a large flock,
they sang a great deal, a very sweet song,
but somewhat thin, quite varied, something
of the goldfinch quality. They trill like a
canary.

November 4. Saw spot on breast and
two white wing bars, very distinct.

[93]

WHITE-CROWNED SPARROW

April 17, 1894

(Tennessee)
May 9, 1896
May 5, 7*97
May 19, 1898

I HEARD this species sing for the first
time this morning, May 7, 1900. Again
May 9th saw a flock and many of them
in song. A very sweet, rather plaintive
song, opening with a few notes in quality
like the vesper sparrows, but in form a
little like the meadow lark's, and ending
with a few hoarse notes.

May 8, 1901. Saw seven birds on one
small tree, nearly all sang. Quite a va-
riety in their songs as to the pitch of the
notes, but all had the clear meadowlark
whistles first, and then the lower, harsher
notes. A peculiar and distinctive song.

May 16, 1901. Waked up at 5 a. m.
by an unfamiliar song. A clear, sweet
whistle, just like this:

[94]

Bird Observations

No husky trill after it, yet I think it
must have been the white crown.

May 18. Several here still, and singing,
the song as when I first heard it, not the
whistle.

[9Sl

ROUGH-WINGED SWALLOW

• April 20, 1895
(Washington)

I SAW numbers of these birds out in the
park, and watched some of them fly
in and out of a nest hole in a high rocky
bank. They are without the grey band
across the breast which the bank swallow
has, and are much the soberest of the fam-
ily. They look so much shorter than the
barn swallow, and gleam white and then
brown as they fly in the sunlight.

[96]

SCARLET TANAGER

May 10, 1893
May 9, 1894
May 4, 1896
May 8, 1897

I HAVE known the male of this species
ever since I was a child, but have never
known its song till May, 1894. Its warble
is like the robin's, but louder, more
solemn, without the cheerful, everyday
quality of the latter's song. It intersperses
its song at times with its call of "chip-
chirr," which is such a marked and char-
acteristic note.

[97]

April gt 1895
(Georgia)

I WAS walking home to the Bon Air
today, and my attention was attracted
by a curious clicking noise in a tree near by.
It sounded like a chisel slipping on stone,
not in the least like a whistle, or the trilling
or warbling of most birds. I looked up
and there was the summer tanager on a
branch not far off. He is so handsome
with his bright red plumage, though he
does not look such a vivid scarlet as our
tanager. He is smaller, too. He did not
seem at all shy, and I had a fine chance
of observing him. He uttered his clicking
notes at intervals while he hunted about
the tree for insects. They sounded like
"kick-up," "kick-up" to me, and sometimes
"kick-a-poo," the first notes higher than
the others. They were not very loud.

April ii, 1895. Heard and saw him
again today. This time he ran six or
seven notes rapidly together, each with
the sharp "click" to it.

April ijth. Heard a tanager sing this

[98]

Bird Observations

morning. I heard this song like a robin
at a distance and was sure it must be the
tanager, and sure enough there was his
red coat among the branches. I do not
recall any other bird who sings so much
like a robin as he does. The cadence and
inflection of the warble seem almost
identical with that of the robin, yet the
quality is different, and has something of
the scarlet tanager's individuality in it. I
found, too, that the song is more broken
than the robin's, being repeated at inter-
vals, instead of being an uninterrupted
strain.

April 1 6th. This tanager utters some-
times a curious squawking note very like a
woodpecker. It is loud, and uttered at in-
tervals from the top of some tall tree, so
that until I discovered the small red object
sitting up in a high pine and watched his
bill open and shut I would not believe that
there was not some new and large species
of woodpecker up there.

[99]

GREEN-WING TEAL

May 27, 1895

THE only wild duck I have ever seen
around here, except the flocks one
sees flying through the sky in the spring
and fall. This solitary individual was
in a marsh on the road to the spring.
His chestnut head and neck, light back and
breast, and the white crescent on his side
just ahead of the wing, were his striking
marks.

GREY-CHEEKED THRUSH

May 12, 1896

THE absence of the yellow eye ring
is the only way to distinguish this
thrush from the olive-backed. It sings a
low, sighing sort of a song, here, not its
full song.

May 12, 1896. I heard and saw one
sing in this way. I have always thought
these faint breathed notes, which I have
heard so often issuing from the depths of
some evergreen tree, came from the veery,
but was undeceived today. It is a peculiar
song, unlike any other, as if wet rubber
were rubbed together; it rises a little and
dies away, rises and dies away, in a sort
of cadence — all as if it were singing under
its breath.

May loth. I saw a thrush which seemed
to be the grey cheeked and which sang in
the same way, but this and the occurrence
of 1896 as noted above are doubtless cases
of mistaken identity. No doubt both birds
were veeries, which goes to prove that
that bird varies a good deal as to his color-
ing, and is by no means always so tawny.

[101]

HERMIT THRUSH

Spring, 1892
April 3, 1893
October n, 1893
March 22, 1894

VERY plentiful here during spring mi-
gration, apparently not so much so
in fall, and more shy in latter season. The
olive head and back and decidedly rufous
tail make it easy to distinguish from other
thrushes.

April 77, 1912. Was awakened at 5
a. m. by this thrush singing in a tree close
to my window. Sang clearly about this
number of notes :

I have often heard the bird in S. W. Har-
bor, Me. This song was an unmistakable
thrush song. It could not have been any-
thing but the Hermit at so early a date. I
did not see the bird, however, being ill in
bed. I have not heard of its singing dur-
ing migration in this locality before,
neither had Mr. B. T. Gault, of Glen

[ 102 ]

Bird Observations

Ellyn, to whom I wrote. But he feels, as
I do, that I have made no mistake in being
sure that it is a Hermit.

[ 103 J

OLIVE-BACKED THRUSH

April, 1893
April 28, 1894
August 30, 1894

* I A HESE thrushes are here in great
-1 numbers the first part of May, one
of the commonest birds in, the spring mi-
grations. They come around the house
constantly, in spite of the fact that there
is almost no cover for them. I have
studied them with great care, but find it
difficult to be certain whether there are
any gray-cheeked thrushes among them.
The orbital ring does not seem very dis-
tinct in many of them, and yet they all
have some, which the gray cheeks are not
supposed to have at all. They utter a
loud snapping chirp when alarmed. I
heard one singing a twittering song softly
to himself once, the way the tawny thrush
does.

[ 104]

TAWNY THRUSH

(Veery)

May 19, 1893
May n, 1895
May 1 6, 1896

' I A HE first acquaintance I had with this
•*- thrush was in White Birch. It was
singing softly to itself, in a twittering sort
of way. I did not see it that day, but Mrs.
Hubbard, who was with me, told me it
was the Wilson's thrush.* Afterwards
I saw the bird under an evergreen in our
yard at Wheaton.

May n, 1895. I nacl a fine study of the
veery in White Birch. The bird hopped
about on the road not ten feet from us,
and stayed there as long as. Edith Skeele (•
and I wanted to look at it. It is so much
more delicately colored than any of the
other thrushes — the back and tail a light
fulvous brown, the throat without spots,
and the spots on the breast very faint. The
markings about the eye and down from
the bill are also exceedingly faint, not dark
as in the olive-back and Hermit. The
upper breast has a wash of decidedly

* See grey-cheeked thrush.
[105]

Bird Observations

tawny color across it, changing to whitish
lower down on the breast. The veery is
never as abundant here as the other
thrushes.

May 1 6, 1896. I heard a veery give a
loud, curious, whistle this afternoon, then
a whining "whee-oo" several times, quite
a different sound from any other note I
ever heard from a thrush.

May ii, 1897. I found two veeries
this a. m., both very easy to approach.
They seem less shy than other thrushes.
One had almost no perceptible spots on his
breast, in the other they were quite dis-
tinct. Both uttered the peculiar complain-
ing call. One made a series of odd
whining clucks, then changed the key sud-
denly to a low one, and then changed
again, so that he had quite a variety, and
confused me at first as to what bird it
could be.

June 26, 1911. Heard a veery near
Stone Gate. Nearly every summer a pair
nests in the woods west of our house. I
have never found the nest, but I have
heard them singing or giving their peculiar
whining calls all through June and July.

[106]

TUFTED TITMOUSE

March 20, 1895
(Augusta, Ga.)

THE notes of this bird resemble so
closely those of the chickadee that at
first one cannot tell them apart. In ap-
pearance it bears a general resemblance to
the cedar bird, but is smaller and less ex-
quisitely colored. The titmouse has a clear
whistle consisting of three, sometimes
four, notes all on exactly the same key, and
without inflection or variation, a simple,
plain whistle, unlike the cardinal's in this.
It also has a more common note, a whis-
tle of two quickly repeated notes, the sec-
ond note about four notes higher than the
first; the two are generally given four or
five times in quick succession. All the tit-
mouse's notes seem to me to lack melody,
and the pathos which is as characteristic
of the chickadee's whistle. They are emi-
nently prosaic. The notes always remind
me of a penny whistle.

April nth, Georgia. One feels as if
there was always more to learn about the
titmouse's notes. This morning I heard

[

Bird Observations

two or three notes squeaked out like a
wheel of a barrow, and found it to be this
versatile bird.

[108]

TOWHEE BUNTING

li/fARCH n, 1904. I saw one bird,
IV 1. and on the I2th I saw two males
over near the Stone Gate, and another
when I reached home, presumably three
birds — remarkably early migration.

[ 109]

PHILADELPHIA VIREO

1894

April 5, 1895

(Georgia)

SMALLER than the other vireos, except
the white-eyed, or perhaps the war-
bling, this bird looks more like the latter,
except that it is yellower. The breast,
especially, is perceptibly washed with yel-
low on the sides. The song I have had
a fine opportunity of hearing here in
Georgia. It is quite unlike the other vireos,
has more snap to it, beginning with a
sharp "whit-tee," followed by some war-
bled notes. This is repeated several
times at quite short intervals, and then a
new refrain is taken up. Altogether the
song lacks the monotony of the red-eye's
entirely. Sometimes it begins with "whit-
whit-whit" before the warble, each note
sharp, and with the snapping quality of
some of the white-eye's notes.

[no]

SOLITARY VIREO

]\/IAY 18, i go i. Saw the second I have
* VJ- seen this spring. I rarely see more
than one or two in a season and have never
heard them sing. I think this is the most
beautiful of all the vireos.

June 12, 1893
May 9, 1894
May, 1895
May 12, 1896

A GREYER and slightly smaller bird
than the red-eyed vireo. I first saw
this bird sitting on its nest in a cottonwood
tree, warbling sweetly as it sat there (the
males sit as well as the females) . In 1 893.
The birds do not seem abundant around
here. I have observed perhaps half a
dozen this summer.

June 21, 1895. Edith and I saw another
nest today, this time in an apple orchard.
The bird was plainly visible sitting on it.
The nest looked as if it had cotton on the
outside. The song of these vireos is a
lovely, smooth, flowing warble, meander-
ing in rhythm something as the grosbeak's
is. It is one of my favorite bird songs.
It is soft and dreamy, quite unlike the
energetic notes of the red-eye.

[112]

WHITE-EYED VIREO

April i, 189$
(Georgia)

THIS vireo is the last one of the vireos
(except Bell's) which I have learned
to know. I have seen and heard sing, two
of them this morning, and certainly they
are the most extraordinary of the family
as far as song goes. It is a curious sput-
tering performance, resembling that of the
catbird, "only more so." This is the clown
vireo, surely, and April ist is an ap-
propriate day to become acquainted with
them. This species is as small as the war-
bling vireo.

YELLOW-THROATED VIREO

1894

April 5, 1895

(Georgia)
May, 1895
May 4, 1896
May 8, 1897
May 12, 1898

W

E found this vireo nesting on the
road to the spring, the male and
female alternating in sitting on the eggs.
Edith Skeele and I watched them for an
'Hour, and it was very interesting to see one
slip silently off the nest as the other came
up. The coloring of this bird is very
beautiful. The song is shorter than that
of the red-eyed, deeper in tone, and not
quite so varied and flexible, but it is richer
in quality, and louder. In general char-
acter, however, it resembles the red-eye's
song more than that of any other vireo.
(I have not yet heard the solitary sing.)
But I think it is, if anything, morejieliber-
> v jite and repeated at longer intervals. I
have only observed one pair of these birds
in Elmhurst, but in Georgia I have had
ample opportunity to study them. Every

Bird Observations

morning I hear one singing among the
oaks in front of the hotel, and it keeps
it up for hours at a time.

BAY-BREASTED WARBLER

May 10, 1894
May, 1895
May 29, 1897

HP HERE is no mistaking this handsome
A warbler with his unusual coloring of
rich bay, cream and cinnamon. There is
no other warbler in the least like it.

May 24, 1894. Heard them sing their
monotonous, saw-filing note, one of the
poorest and weakest of the warbler songs.

May 18, 1901. Saw several in the "chat
woods." No song. They were uncom-
monly thick for bay-breasteds, which are
usually a rare bird here in Lake Forest.
Mrs. Hubbard and I must have seen at
least four, probably more.

[116]

BLACK AND WHITE CREEPER

1892

August 30, 1894

August 25, 1895

NO matter what other members of the
warbler family fail to appear in
the spring this one is always on hand. I
suppose one reason one always sees him is
that he is not at all shy, but allows a very
near approach. I saw this bird in Ten-
nessee and in Georgia when I was there,
and in both places heard the thin, wiry
song, a small, saw-filing sound, with the
harshness taken out — one of the thinnest
of bird notes.

BLACKBURNIAN WARBLER

May 6, 1894
May 7, 1895
May 6, 1896
May 14,

THE Blackburnian does not seem at all
shy in spite of his flaming throat and
black and white stripes which make him so
conspicuous. The song is not unusual, a
little husky, and about the usual warbler
length. I heard one May 24, 1894, which
was a fine singer — for his kind — a jumbled
succession of notes changing to another
jumble four notes higher, rather longer
than usual.

May 12, 1894. Saw several of these
birds together today.

May 8, 1896. One sang a jumbled suc-
cession of notes, about the usual warbler
length, ascending in key, ending in an alter-
nated, very high squeak.

May 12, 1896. Heard one sing just this
way again.

May 18, 1901. Saw five males and
three females over in the "chat woods,"
and there must have been many more;
none were singing.

[118]

Bird Observations

May 17, 1902. Knew the song when I
heard it today, a rising squawk at the end.
Not a musical song.

May 7, 1905. The squeak at the end
gets very attenuated and fine, and very
high pitched. First part of song sounded
very like redstart's.

BLACK-POLL WARBLER

May 28,
May 12, 1894
May 7, 1895
May 8, 1896

I NEVER like to see this bird appear
because it means that the "warbler
season" is nearly over, as it is usually
about the last to come. This bird, though
striped with black and white, as the black
and white creeper is, is far less beautiful.
The song is a little like the creeper's, but
is more hesitating, and lacks the ease of
the creeper's song. It is "saw-filing,"
though, and unmusical. It sometimes sings
so low that it might be mistaken for an
insect, but at other times it is quite loud,
though never heard at much of a distance.

May, 1894. A closer analysis of the
song gives it did-did-did, hesitating, un-
musical, staccato, not a "saw-filing" in time
(that is, one note does not follow another
as part of it, as in the song of the creeper
and the bay-breasted; each note is sepa-
rate ) .

May 14, 1904. Seen against the grass
what a brilliant bird a spring male is!

[ 120]

BLACK-THROATED BLUE
WARBLER

1892

September 20, 1893
May 5, 1894
May 7, 1895
September 22, 1895
May II, 1897

/~PHE plumage of all the warblers is
•*- smooth and beautiful, but that of this
bird particularly so. It is the darkest of
all the family. The female, though green,
can easily be identified by the fleck of clear
white on the wings. Its chirp is an ex-
tremely fine thin squeak. The song is low,
hoarse, and without the vibrating quality.
I never see this bird in flocks, as the Yel-
low, Palm and Pine Warblers come some-
times, but in small numbers it is a very
regular visitant.

May n, 1894. The song is certainly
like the opening notes of the black
throated green's in quality.

May 18, 1901. I like his queer, coarse
little song. It is usually three or four
notes long. He is such a fearless fellow.
He seems to prefer to work towards you
rather than away from you in his tree
peregrinations.

[121]

BLACK-THROATED GREEN
WARBLER

May 10, 1893
September 22,
May 3, 1894
September 6, 1894
September 1 , 189$
May 4, 1896
May 8, 1897

T SOMETIMES think this bird is hand-
-»• somer than the Blackburnian, even, he
is such a beauty, with his yellow sided
head, green back and jet black V on his
throat. In autumn this last is obscure or
wanting, but the black stripes on side of
breast are always plainly visible. The
song is one of the most beautiful of all the
warblers, more of a melody or tune in it,
and with a sweetly deliberate quality in it.
It has a lovely quaver in the middle notes,
higher than the first and last. It is such a
satisfaction to be able to identify this bird
so unfailingly in the autumn, when so many
of the family are so puzzling.

[ 122 ]

CANADA WARBLER

May 19, 1893
May 15, 1894
August 30, 1894
May 18, 1896
May 20, 1898

NEVER a common bird here. It is one
of the many dark-backed, yellow-
breasted warblers but the back is bluish
instead of the usual olive, and the crescent
of spots on the breast differs from the cus-
tomary stripes of many of the warblers.

May, 1896. Heard its song, loud, jum-
bled, slightly resembling the indigo bird's;
varies a good deal, often begins with a
little whirr or snap.

May 37, 1901. One has been singing
at intervals all day here in our grounds. A
bright, sweet little song, something of the
red-eyed vireo's flexibility in it. He seems
to me to say "t'le'we, t'lee we, t'le'we,
t'lee we, t'l'it wit," but it is a difficult song
to put into syllables. It has a more liquid
and a more uncertain sound than the busi-
nesslike red-start's.

May 22, 1903. Has been singing for
three or four days around the house.

[ 123 1

Bird Observations

There have been several here today. Song
as above described, varies a good deal in
loudness, is sometimes not loud at all.

May 14, 1^04. Two flitted close to me
on our lawn for a long time. They usually
appear singly, these birds, but this time
these two males stayed together for an
hour or two.

May 18, 1906. Several have been here
for several days. At a distance one bird I
heard certainly did sound a little like an
indigo bird, but more liquid and less cer-
tain in form. He began often with "chip-
chip," twice or thrice repeated, and he
often continued his song quite as long as
the indigo does — it went on and on, as it
were.

May 24, 1908. One sang at frequent
intervals all day yesterday and today. Did
not begin with a whirr or snap once; not
as loud or bright or long as some indi-
viduals I have heard; uncertain quality
very apparent, wavering, varied, no def-
inite "form." Bird seemed very shy.

June 5. Two singing in my yard today,
one been singing constantly for many
days. They always stay here some time
in migration.

[124]

CAPE MAY WARBLER

May 18, 1893
May 12, 1894
May 7, 1895
May 12, 1896
May 20, 1898

DIFFERENT individuals vary very
much, I find, in the brilliancy of the
coloring. The brighter ones are beauties,
The orange-yellow neck and side of head
give it the appearance of a yellow-headed
bird, almost as much as the black-throated
green warbler. The chestnut ear patches
are almost lacking in many specimens.
They seem to prefer orchards; they are
very plentiful at times. Song not remark-
able, a thin but rather sweet squeak, re-
peated several times.

May, 1897. The song impresses me as
one of the thinnest and least musical of the
warbler songs.

May 7 ', 1905. What a study of one
today, in the Joseph Durand ravine, just
below us on a bare, small tree, a few feet
away, as long as we wanted to watch him !
He ran his bill industriously and faithfully
up and down the twigs, eating bark lice

[125]

Bird Observations

eggs ; they could not have been insects. He
kept at this as long as we watched him,
ten or fifteen minutes.

May 27, 1907. Many Cape Mays, male
and female, have been in our yard since
May 1 4th. This cold, backward spring
prevents their going north. They seem to
be a rather pugnacious bird, and are ex-
tremely lively, darting out at other birds
and driving them off. They have been
feeding in the barberry blossoms, and
along the branches. They have a thin,
sharp chirp, like the click of two pebbles
struck together, quite characteristic.

May 19, 1908. Cape May's have been
thicker than I've ever seen them this year.
It's been cool and very wet, and a poor
year for most warblers, but they seem to
thrive. The females are abundant today,
such dusky, striped birds. They feed so
much on insects (supposedly) in the cen-
ters of the barberry blossoms and reach
away out on the ends of the branches to
get them.

[126]

CERULEAN WARBLER

May 5, 1896
May 8, 1897
May 16, i

I WAS attracted to these birds by their
marked song. Several were singing in
the tops of the trees in our place where
our new house is building. The song is
four repeated notes, then four more a lit-
tle higher in key, ending with a sort of
burr-r-r. It has something of the quality
of the black-throated blue's song. They
all seemed to sing just alike, a quick, de-
cisive song. The collar of grey blue across
the throat is plainly visible on the white
under parts (and the under parts are about
all one sees of these dwellers in the tree
tops).

May 6th. Heard them again — the
four notes repeated first are all on one
key — the last ones a quick, upward, chro-
matic run — ending in the burr-r-r.

May idth. Still here, incessant singers.

June i8th. Still here. They must be
resting here, it is so late. Heard numbers
of them, and saw one on a comparatively
low tree, the first good view I have yet

[ 127]

Bird Observations

had. They were singing constantly and I
find they vary the song a good deal. Some-
times it is snorter, and only two notes at
first, but it always has that upward run,
and that sweet whirring sound, like a lit-
tle wheel. It is unlike any other warbler
song, I think.

May 24, 1905. Heard one sing a song
very like the red-start's "shree-shree-
shree" in form, but the voice was the soft,
husky, wheeling song of the cerulean. He
sang many times and never had the up-
ward run once.

May 21, 1908. Watched one sing for
half an hour, song like the one of May
24, 1905. No upward run. This bird
came very near and moderately low, yet
the blue never looked bright, always dull
and greyish. I wonder if the individual
males differ much in brightness of color,
for it seems as if the dulness of some
birds was not only because I did not see
them in a good light.

[128]

CHESTNUT-SIDED WARBLER

J\/fAY 18, i go i. Saw a female — never
J.VJL remember seeing one before. She
is a pale edition of the male, just a touch
of chestnut, and her yellow cap duller.
The male sang, a song almost exactly like
the yellow warbler in form, but lacking the
piercing quality of that bird's song.

May, 1902. Heard a very full sweet
song from this bird, quite loud, much more
pleasing and rounder than the yellow.

May IQ, /po/. The song struck me as
very like the yellow's, but less piercing,
and the finale had more of a twist to it.

[ 129]

CONNECTICUT WARBLER

May 29, 1894
May 1 6, 1896
May 21, 1897
May 20, 1898

I SAW this bird first on a low tree in the
main street of Elmhurst. I followed
the loud, ringing, wheedle-dee, wheedle-
dee, wheedle-dee, supposing of course I
should see a Maryland Yellow-throat,
when what was my surprise to find it the
Connecticut warbler. I watched it sing
many times. The song is almost exactly
like the Maryland. It is often repeated
three times, sometimes only twice. Its
ash-colored head and yellow breast and
under parts, with no white on wings make
it a sober bird. The ash terminating
abruptly into yellow on the breast is the
distinguishing mark, and the light ring
around the eye enables one to identify it
as a Connecticut and not a light-colored
mourning warbler which it otherwise
closely resembles.

May, 1896. The loud ringing song at-
tracted me again to this bird in Lake For-
est this morning. It utters the first two

[ 130 1

Bird Observations

notes without the third quite often. It is a
remarkable song, heard at a long distance,
but seldom uttered. It is a more vigorous
and resonant song, than the yellow-
throat's, but the form of it very similar.
It is a hard bird to see, for though it al-
lows you to come quite close it keeps con-
stantly in the thick foliage, usually in
hedges, or the lower part of spruces.

May 77. Have heard it again. On
more familiar acquaintance it sounds more
like "too-too-whit" than the syllables of
the yellow-throat. Mrs. Hubbard is with
me today, and has heard it too.

May, 1897. A fine study of the bird,
the best I ever had. How loud and strik-
ing the song is ! It seems less and less like
the yellow-throat's. He shakes his little
body all over when he sings, wings and tail
vibrate furiously, and he throws his head
away back. He sings from a low branch
and then dives down into a thicket and is
quiet for a time.

May 25, /po/. A Connecticut warbler
stayed in the thicket south of our library
window for a long time. I watched him
through the long field glass. He stood
for some minutes motionless on the
ground, evidently watching some other

[131]

Bird Observations

birds in a tree. He looked like a little
gnome or sprite against the dark back-
ground, and when he faced me he looked
like a spectacled brownie with his light eye
rings. He's a great bird to keep under
cover and I never had such a long and
satisfactory view of one before.

GOLDEN-WINGED WARBLER

May 25, i goo

FOUND him after a long chase in the
"chat woods" west of Fort Sheridan.
The song first attracted me, and was many
times repeated. An indolent, rather
wheezy tnree, or usually four, notes, all
on one note. Like the cerulean's a little
in quality only, or a little of the black-
throated blue and green's huskiness. A
lazy song, very distinctive, not loud, often
repeated. Syllables that recall it to me,
"S'h, hush, hush, hush," the last three
slightly quicker than the first, but all
drawled and insect-like.

Ju\ie 8th. The same bird still in the
same place. Can he be nesting? Sang just
as constantly as before. Had fine views
of him, and was struck with the vividness
of his yellow crown.

May 14, IQOI. Saw him in our own
grounds and heard the song again. First
description tallies exactly with the second
impression, not always the case with bird
songs. I have now seen this warbler
three times this spring. He probably did
not nest in the chat woods last year, as I
never saw him after June 8th.

[ 133]

HOODED WARBLER

April 16, 1895
(Georgia)

I FOLLOWED the loud song of this
warbler for a long time in the thick
woods this morning before I discovered
what bird it came from. It was a vigor-
ous, rather short warbler song, sounding
like the syllables in "Yes, yes, yes, I know
it," with an upward inflection on the "I
know." There were a number of these
warblers in the woods but I only saw two.
The song of the second was longer, and
not so marked in its inflections, so that I
did not recognize it as coming from the
same species till I saw the bird. This is
certainly one of the most striking of the
warblers. The black hood, extending
round both front and back of the neck and
the back part of the head, encircles the
brilliant yellow of the forehead and the
part around the eye. The contrast makes
the yellow appear more gorgeous than al-
most any other bit of warbler coloring,
except, perhaps, the throat of Blackburn s
warbler.

[I34J

MAGNOLIA WARBLER

Spring, 1893
May 8, 1894
May, 1895
May 77, 189 6
May n, 1897

THIS bird ranks close to the Black-
burnian and black-throated green
warblers in brilliancy.

May 75, 1894. I heard the song, quite
sweet, warbled, something like the first
"whee-chee-tee" of the Maryland yellow-
throat, but it is broken off, in fact the bird
never seemed to finish it. It is not nearly
as long as the yellow-throat's song, but it
is sweet and melodious.

May 24th. It varies its song a good
deal, but retains the broken off, interrupted
effect, and is always musical and sweetly
warbled.

July 14, 1905. S. W. Harbor, Me.
Song "whit-chee, whit-chee, whit-chee,
wee-up," the last very hurried and broken
at the end, the whole sounding at a dis-
tance as broken off and abrupt as the
Acadian Flycatcher. Heard another song
among the thick woods for days and days,

r 135 ]

Bird Observations

but could never see the bird. Was it the
magnolia? It said uwhit-che-tee, wee-up,"
over and over again.

July 25, 1905. Female magnolia with
insect in her bill chirped almost as loud
and as harshly as a house sparrow, then
changed to the usual warbler chirp, then
to a faint " 'tsip" like a kinglet. She
changed back and forth in these various
chirps many times.

May, 1906. Lake Forest. Yes, I think
that S. W. Harbor bird was the magnolia
without a doubt. This one said "veni
vidi, vici" over and over to me, in the
same tone of voice.

[136]

MARYLAND YELLOW-THROAT

May 13, 1894
May 21, 1897

THESE warblers keep in the dense
thickets and evergreens, usually low
down, so they are hard to see, but the
song, as constant as the red-eyed vireo's,
betrays their whereabouts. The song, well
described by "whee-che-tee," three and
sometimes four times repeated, is loud and
seems to me to have more of the red-eyed
vireo's quality than the warbler songs
usually have. It is a vigorous and marked
song. Yet I have heard the Connecticut
warbler sing exactly like it.

May 14, 1906. This sang "wit-che-tee,
wit-che-tee, wit-che-tee, wee-chee-hall-or-
ee," a little variation after each thrice re-
peated wit-che-tee.

May 20, 1907. Saw a female Mary-
land yellow-throat today. Such a charm-
ing little creature as she was, carrying her
tail like a little wren. She had quite a
tinge of reddish on her forehead, and the
yellow of the under tail coverts was plain-
ly visible. She stepped along in the grass
with such a dainty air — she seemed as
pretty and winning as the male.

[ 137]

MOURNING WARBLER

May 27, 1898
(Lake Forest)

HAVE watched for this bird all these
years and never seen him till today.
The dark line around eye and back of it
distinguishes it readily from the Connecti-
cut warbler. No song heard.

May 26, igoo. Saw a fine male, the
breast markings very dark. Sang con-
stantly, a pretty song, flexible, whistled,
less in volume than the Connecticut war-
bler, but reminding one a little of it. It
was repeated three or four times always,
the syllables seemed like "hall-or-ree,
hall-or-ree, hall-or-ree," and sometimes
ending with a "whoit, whoit" on a lower
key at the end. A slight resemblance to
the oven-bird's, and yet so much less loud
and beating. It is louder at the end,
though, than at the beginning.

June 7, igoo. Heard him singing con-
stantly in one place, but got a poor view
of him. He was a regular will-o'-the-wisp
and led me a chase. I never saw a bird
seem so shy.

[ 138 ]

Bird Observations

May 29, 1903. Saw him and heard the
song constantly, quality as described, but
form different, more monotonous, less of it
and not three times repeated, just four or
five liquid notes, not to be described in
syllables.

May 25, igo8. One sang for nearly an
hour, and when I came back two hours
later he was still singing in the same spot.
The song was loud, and uttered with al-
most no variation the entire time I listened
to it. It was a rapid, rolling whistle, "hall-
or-ee," three or four times repeated, the
liquid, rolling sound being very pro-
nounced, a noticeable and attractive song.
Saw the bird well and watched him sing.
He is a shy bird, though, and keeps well
out of sight. I must have followed him
three-quarters of an hour before I caught
a glimpse of him.

May 27, 1908. Had good view of fe-
male— hard to tell from male Connecticut
— but the eye ring was not conspicuous
nor consecutive. Throat was whitish in
middle otherwise breast was a pure French
grey color. Under parts quite yellow, a
lovely bird.

June 6, 1909. Have seen and heard
the mourning warbler several times since

[ 139 ]

Bird Observations

May 28th on our place, near the house.
Singing constantly.

June 6th. Sang nearly all day.

MYRTLE WARBLER

April 3, 1893
September 20, 1893
April 22, 1894
% October II, 1895
May 5, 1897
April 17, 1898

THE earliest to arrive of the whole
warbler family, and individuals either
linger here or pass through up to the mid-
dle of May. They also stay here some
autumns till the end of November. The
white tail feathers and yellow rump show
plainly while flying. It is less restless than
most of the warblers, and sometimes sits
still on a tree. The chirp is loud, and ro-
bust in tone, not a thin squeak.

April 21, 1898. Heard song for first
time. Very varied, sweet, liquid, some-
times quite long. This bird sang con-
stantly while I watched him, and it seemed
as if he changed his song dozens of times.
Yet it is a genuine warbler song, recogniz-
able as such at once.

NASHVILLE WARBLER

September 25, 1893
May 9, 1894
May 10, 1897
May 13, 1898

coloring of the Nashville is
•*• . in plain washes without distinctive
marks. Upper parts olive, head and sides
of neck bluish ash, throat pure yellow shad-
ing to lighter yellow underneath. It is the
yellowest of the plain warblers.

May 10, 1897. I heard its song, some-
what jumbled, a little like a goldfinch, but
I only heard it a few times.

May, 1898. Had fine study of song.
Description in Chapman's book perfect.
First note very high, repeated several
times, second note lower and uttered
rapidly like a chipping sparrow's. Rather
an insignificant and unmusical song.

July, 1905. Heard a warbler — always
invisible — for several weeks at S. W.
Harbor, Me., sing over and over a never
varying song — six notes all alike, then a
rapid trill like a chippy. Was it the Nash-
ville? It was not just like what I had

[142]

Nashville Warbler

Bird Observations

heard before, and I never saw a Nashville
once at S. W.

May g, 1906. Heard a song very like
the above out my window, and looking
out saw the Nashville, no doubt the Mt.
Desert bird, but his song in migration is
less pronounced and vigorous.

I 143 1

ORANGE-CROWNED WARBLER

Jl/TAY 16, 1907. Twice before I have
J-VJ- identified this bird, only once to my
own satisfaction, but today I had a fine,
close study of him, or her, I think it was.
Such a darkish, dull bird, and perceptible
eye ring, especially top and bottom, a small
darkish line through the eye. Side of head
all washed with olive, not separated into
dark and almost white by a horizontal eye
line as in the Tennessee.

OVEN BIRD

May 19, 1893
May 6, 1894
May, 1895
April 29, 1896

I ALWAYS see the oven bird here in
the village in the spring migration, and
usually in the fall also, but in summer it
takes to the thick woods, where its loud
remarkable "whip-tee" can be heard rat-
tled off with great energy at almost any
hour of the day. In June, 1894, Jidith
Skeele and I found a young oven bird sit-
ting serenely on a branch while the parent
bird shouted in vigorous tones in the neigh-
borhood. But the little bird was not at
all afraid of us, and ate some large worms
which we presented to it.

[145]

PARULA WARBLER

May 10, 1894

(Elmhurst)
May n, i8gj
(Lake Forest)

THE triangular patch of greenish yel-
low is plainly seen on the back of this
bird. The throat and breast are golden
yellow, with a wash of grey across the
lower throat, and the yellow ends rather
abruptly in the white of the under parts.

May II, 1897. Only the second time I
have seen this bird, and only one individual
this time, and no song either time.

May 28, iQOf. Heard two sing. Song
a little like the cerulean's, but more rasp-
ing, not so deliberate, a trill, with an up-
ward break at the end.

[146]

PALM WARBLER

May 5, 1894
May 6, 1895
September 29, 1895
May 7, 1898

THE chestnut on this bird's head is
almost as bright as that of the chip-
ping sparrow and the line dividing this
from the cheek quite as conspicuous only
it is yellow. It is a very lively warbler,
flirting its tail constantly, and running on
the ground like a wren. It is remarkable
how closely it resembles the Carolina
wren when seen in this way.

Lake Forest, May 4, 1901. Watched
a palm warbler sing this morning, the first
time I ever heard the song. It is some-
thing between the chipping sparrow and
the black and white creeper, a monotonous
che-we, che-we, che-we.

April 27, 1906. Saw three, and two at
least were singing, a rather canary-like
trill, not a noticeable song. It likes the
fences along the roadsides — and flirts in
and out tilting his tail constantly.

[147]

PINE WARBLER

September g, 1893
May 4, 1894
August 30, 1894
September I, 1895

* I AHE white wing bars are a distinctive
-*• mark in identifying this bird. They
seem more plentiful in the fall than in the
spring. In September, 1803, the whole
village seemed to be full or them. Their
note at this time was the typical warbler
squeak, uttered very often.

April 2J, 1906, Lake Forest. The pine
warbler does not seem to me as dainty and
aristocratic a bird as most of his family.
The one I saw today had very inconspicu-
ous wing bars — hardly noticeable.

[148]

May 13, 1893
May, 1894
May 7, 1895
April 30, 1896
May 9, 1897

THE redstart is supposed to nest here
but I seldom see it in summer, though
it is always a common migrant in the
spring. It always seems as if there were
so many miniature males and females in
proportion to the brilliant old male birds.
The song is very like many of the other
warbler songs (now confusing they are!)
but it is apt to end its zie-zie-zie with a
break at the end, giving it a sharp, unfin-
ished sort of termination. Sometimes they
sing as a black and white creeper does, a
sort of saw filing, but not so thin in quality.

TENNESSEE WARBLER

September 7, 1893
May 8, 1894
September, 1894
May 6, 1896
May 14,

SUCH a plain little warbler compared
with the gayer members of the family!
It it so like the warbling vireo in color, only
the line through the eye is more obscure.

May 75, 1894. I saw tnis species sing
frequently, a very loud song beginning
with a sort of sawing two note trill, rather
harsh and very staccato, but hesitating in
character, increasing to a rapid trill almost
exactly like a chipping sparrow's. A
noticeable but not especially musical song.

May 10, 1895. I again heard many of
these birds sing. They seem to be one of
the most constant and vociferous singers of
any of our warblers.

May 14, 1904. Seen against the grass
this bird is far from dull. Head so bluish,
and back so green, and all so soft and
delicately tinted.

[150]

WATER-THRUSH

April 24, 1898
(Lake Forest)

FINE view of bird in the south ravine.
He is so yellow below, especially
towards the tail. His legs looked so pink
and clean. I have seen this bird in Elm-
hurst (I suppose) at least twice, but have
never been able to get a good enough view
of him to be sure he was not the Louisiana.
April 23, 1904. Had fine study of one.
Saw his streaked chin and dull whitish line
over eye, sang constantly, always the same
song: three notes "wee-wee-wee" (all
same note) then "wee-chy, wee-chy" — not
so loud and piercing — the whole song, I
mean, as many I have heard. I hope I
can learn the difference between the songs
of the two water thrushes. Individuals
differ so, it is hard to distinguish which
species is singing.

[151]

LOUISIANA WATER-THRUSH

May 5,
May, 1898

(Lake Forest)

I HEARD a loud, sweet song in our ra-
vine this morning and thought at first
it was an indigo bird, but soon noticed that
it was wilder and less regular in the open-
ing notes. The song was repeated almost
at regular intervals, like a warbler's song,
but not quite so often. I only saw the bird
once, but his whitish line over his eye was
most conspicuous.

May n, 1897. He has been here con-
stantly now for nearly a week. He con-
fines his ramblings entirely to our ravine
and occasionally a few neighboring ones.
I have had a fine study of him this a. m.
which I have found a difficult thing to get,
as he is extremely shy. He waded along
the edge of the brook, singing from time to
time, and showing his white throat and
long superciliary white line most clearly.
The song is about eight notes, uttered
nearly all day. Two notes low, two high

Bird Observations

and then about four low again and more
rapid. He left May igth.

June 21, 1898. Heard the water thrush
again, so he must be breeding here. In
May I saw several of these birds.

May 18, igoi. Identified one today
past a doubt. Saw the white throat, and
how white the breast was, compared with
the short-billed!

April 20, 1902. Heard and saw one
sing. Except for the three opening notes
I never would have recognized the song.
The first three notes were the usual clear,
piercing water thrush whistle, but the rest
was an intricate jumble of fine notes far
softer, and of an entirely different quality,
quite a song, not a brief note or two. He
repeated this song several times, always
beginning with the three piercing notes. I
saw him finely, his white, unstreaked chin,
and pure white underparts.

May 14, 1904. Song consisted of three
notes "wee-wee-wee," then uwhit-chee,
whit-chee," followed by a confused and
less loud jumble — reminded me of song of
Canada warbler, only louder.

May 4, 1905. Close to me, no doubt
that it was the Louisiana. Sang number of
times, always the same, a liquid, rolling

[153]

Bird Observations

"wit-wit-wit," seven notes in all, louder in
the middle.

April 20, 1906. Still struggling to tell
the songs of the two water thrushes apart
Watched a Louisiana today — he sang the
song exactly as heard May 14, 1904, ex-
cept that the jumble did not usually follow.
Heard a second bird sing an intricate low
song, as if to himself, as jumbled as a gold-
finch's, but with the "wee-wee-wee" thrown
in every now and then. Thought this bird
was a noveboracensis, but am not sure.

[154]

WILSON'S BLACK-CAP WARBLER

May 13, 1893
May 21, 1895
May 25, 1897
May 21, 1898

THE first glimpse I had of this pretty
warbler was in the currant bushes at
Cherry Farm in Elmhurst. He looked yel-
lower than the books describe him, and
with his jet black cap he was quite a con-
spicuous bird. I have not seen him again
till May, 1895. The side view of his black
cap makes him look as if he had a black
stripe over his eye. This warbler seems to
be one of our least common species.

May 75, 1895. Saw him again this
afternoon on the road to the spring.

May 25, 1897. Watched this warbler
for an hour back of our garden. He came
several times within five ft. of me and was
as friendly as possible. He sang re-
peatedly, a full, chord-like "chee-chee-
chee" followed by a goldfinch trill, varied
somewhat as to this latter, but usually the
prelude the same.

May I9th. The black cap has been un-
commonly abundant this year. I have seen

[155]

Bird Observations

him four or five different times, and usu-
ally I see him but once or twice. Saw one
sing today, a jumbled, not loud, warbler
song, with a warbled or vibrating qual-
ity in it, not the "zie, zie."

May 28, 1907. This bird twitches his
tail nervously with the rotary motion the
cat-bird has, and also lifts his wings at the
same time as the ruby kinglet does.

May 24, IQIO, and later, been singing
constantly, quality a little like mourning
warbler's " 't'le, t'le, t'le, t'le, chee, chee,
chee," quite loud and ringing, watched him
sing.

[156]

YELLOW WARBLER

May 10, 1893
May 5, 1894
May 7, 1895
April 30, 1896
May 8, 1897

PLAIN golden yellow, the back tinged
with green and the breast more or less
distinctly streaked with brown. One of the
few warblers that nests here.

May 18, 1901. How abundant this
bird is at Ardleigh ! At this time of the
year redstarts and yellow warblers mo-
nopolize our woods. He always seems to
me to say "hip-hip-hip-hip, hip-hurrah-
hurrah."

[ 157 ]

YELLOW-BREASTED CHAT

May 12, 1898
(Lake Forest)

I HAVE been watching for this bird for
years but have never seen it till today.
I rode out to the woods west of Ft. Sheri-
dan and while there heard the queerest
loud whistle followed by a rapid scolding.
As this issued from a thick bush I thought
of a chat at once, but could see nothing.
This whistling and scolding was repeated
at intervals from various parts of the wood
and I followed, determined to see him if
possible. But after following the queer
sounds for an hour or so I was just giving
up and going home when there he was on a
low bush some distance ahead of me, but
near enough to see his gorgeous yellow
breast clearly. He hopped about and
stayed long enough for me to see him as
much as I wanted to, and came nearer so I
could distinguish all his markings. His
"song" is certainly the most remarkable
one I ever heard. All his notes are so loud
and imperative. He whistles as clearly as
a quail, but louder, chatters like a giant

[158]

Bird Observations

wren, caws like a crow, and makes queer
guttural sounds that are unlike anything1 1
ever heard. It is all so loud and each note
so distinctive and different that the varia-
tions of a catbird or brown thrasher sink
into sparrow twitterings beside it.

July 2-5, 1898. Heard him again, on
second date heard two birds. (Was one
the female?) One sang a much louder
and more varied "song" than the other. It
was in the Ft. Sheridan woods. He must
have nested here.

May 12, 1902. Mrs. Moss and I heard
one just west of the Chat woods, and after
stalking him for a short time saw him on a
bare tree where he sat and jerked out his
ejaculations for a long time. He after-
wards changed to two other trees, in both
of which we had simply perfect views of
him. He pumps himself into this position

when "singing," with his throat and rump
protruding most grotesquely. I never had
a better study of any bird. The mate an-
swered him, so I hope they will nest here
again. The unmistakable and constantly

[159]

Bird Observations

recurring "kouk" in his song makes it easy
to identify, not to mention its other pe-
culiarities.

YELLOW-THROATED WARBLER

March 29, 1895
(Georgia)

T CERTAINLY thought I saw this
-1 handsome bird in Elmhurst a year ago,
and yet it had a striped back. I cannot
be sure that I did. This one in Georgia
has a blue-ash back, and with the black tri-
angle back of his eyes, and his bright yel-
low throat is certainly almost as beautiful
as the magnolia warbler. His song was
quite loud, and varied, usually about six
or eight notes and then a trill on another
key. An unmistakable "warbler song" to
my way of thinking, and not like the in-
digo's as the book says.

April 75, 1895. I saw this bird again
here in Georgia and the song this time con-
sisted of several notes ending in a trill very
much like a chipping sparrow.

[161]

WHIP-POOR-WILL

May 8, 1897
May 7, 1898

(Lake Forest)

I USED to hear these birds constantly
around our old farm at Winfield, and
once I think I saw two of them. But here
in Elmhurst I have never yet ( 1 895 ) heard
one.

May 8, 1897. Kitty Pomeroy and I
started up a whip-poor-will in the ravine.
It lit on a branch near us, and sat there as
long as we wanted to look at it, and then
as we came near it flew off as silently as a
bat. In the evening we heard two answer-
ing each other in the thick woods. They
are plentiful here (later).

May 77, /po/. One flew down on the
walk twenty ft. from where we were sit-
ting. He seemed to lie sidewise on the
path instead of perching, and after a min-
ute or two flitted silently away.

[162]

CAROLINA WREN

April 30, 1894
(Elmhurst)

SAW a pair feeding in the Sturges
garden, mostly on the ground, but they
frequently flew into a tree, when the male
would throw back his head and give a
sweet, twittering wren song, not nearly so
exultant or gushing as the house wren's.
He sang this song many times and did
nothing else. These birds appear quite
unlike the other wrens, being larger, and
the rusty yellow under parts, the long dark
streak over the eye, and the rump much
brighter than the rest of the back (the one
I saw looked almost greenish red), dis-
tinguish it from the house wren or Bewick's
wren. These birds when on the ground
would run very fast, and every now and
then would flirt up into the air with a regu-
lar redstart rush and tumble.

May 3rd. Have seen them again. The
male sang as before, nothing else.

Spring, i8gg and igoo. Saw and heard
this bird frequently in Virginia and North
Carolina. Do not feel sure of it always

[163]

Bird Observations

as distinguished from Bewick's, as far as
the song is concerned.

August 13, 1900. Was awakened about
five a. m. here at Ardleigh by the clear
whistle "willy-way, willy-way, willy-way,"
outside of my window.

August 22nd. Still here, have heard
him several times in the garden, but have
not seen him yet. Heard him up to the last
of September at intervals.

October loth. Saw and heard him
again, good view of him.

October ijth. Here still.

June 27, IQOI. Heard him again.

August gth. Has been here at frequent
intervals since June 2yth, and several times
I have seen two birds.

November 24th. Heard again !

December //, igoi. Heard a vigorous
"wren scolding" and saw a Carolina wren
sitting on the woodbine on our east porch.
He stayed there ten or fifteen minutes, and
seemed to be pulling off bits of bark. I
could not detect any berries. He was cold,
and sat down on his feet a great deal. It
was only i° above zero, and it was — 13°
two days ago. He did not sing, but
scolded a great deal, and bobbed his tail
over his head. He let me come very near.

[164]

Bird Observations

His tail and wings and rump were very
rufous, the breast slightly washed with
yellowish rufous, and the light stripes over
his eyes were very grey, not white.

May ig, igo2. This bird has been here
for weeks and is undoubtedly nesting here.
How I wish I could find the nest ! Saw a
pair in the McCormick ravine, near the
lake, a few days after this last entry.

June 24-th. Heard the song for the first
time since last note.

October 30, igo2. The wren has been
here at intervals all the fall. This a. m.
I saw two, presumably a pair. One sang
steadily for nearly twenty minutes, chang-
ing its song many times. He would repeat
the same roundelay several times, and then
start on another, repeat that, and so on.

August 12, igo8. Heard one again,
after an interval of four years in which I
have not seen or heard a trace of one.
Twice a few days before this date I
thought I heard one in the distance, but
this a. m. he was close by and singing
loudly.

August 1 4th. Still here.

July i , igog. The wren has been here
all the spring and sung constantly. He
must have nested in the near vicinity. Is
still singing daily.

[165]

WINTER WREN

April 8, 1897
(Chicago Heights)

Fall, 1897
April 77, i8g8

(Lake Forest)

I GOT a fine study of this wren on my
first sight of him. He stayed in a hol-
low of the wood as long as I wanted to
look at him, and frisked about not ten
feet away from me, peering out at me every
now and then, but otherwise quite uncon-
cerned.

April, 1898. Heard a fragment of its
song, too little to tell much about it, and he
would not repeat it.

October 8, 1900. One bobbed at me
from a nearby branch most vigorously,
and scolded me well. He chirped a great
deal, two chirps uttered in quick succession,
the last a note higher than the first, quite
a distinctive, double sort of chirp. His
scolding, a small chatter, reminds me of
the ruby crowned Kinglet's.

[Iff]

Bird Observations

December 8, 1907. A winter wren
came on the porch this morning and flitted
in and out of the railing and sat on the top
of it for some time. It was a mild day, no
snow. I have never seen one so late be-
fore.

[167]

BIRD OBSERVATIONS
IN EUROPE

BIRD OBSERVATIONS IN EUROPE

July, August and September , 1906

yULY 1 6th. Stormy Petrel. A small
flock flying back and forth at the stern
of the ship in mid-ocean. They looked so
small and so black, and the rump so white.
They flew like martins, and kept close to
the water. They followed the ship for
some days.

July 20th. Herring Gulls. Seen before
land was in sight. As we came nearer land
they came in crowds, and followed the ship
for food.

July 20th. Lesser Black-Backed Gulls.
I felt satisfied it was this species that
mingled with the herring gulls — though
their backs were not black, but brownish,
not in full plumage yet.

July 20th. Puffin. Close to the English
coast one of these queer birds was sitting
in the water. His bill gave him the effect
of wearing a red mask, and he looked like
a clown. He half tumbled, half flew out
of the way of the ship.

July 2 1 st. House Sparrow. First bird

^ Bird Observations

heard in France, and noted in many cities
and villages afterwards.

July 2$th. Vevey. Black-headed Gull.
Numbers of them sitting on the blue
waters of Lake Geneva, and later in the
morning flying gracefully over it. Hand-
some birds, beautifully marked, and giving
a most charming effect seen against the
turquoise blue of the lake with the moun-
tains for a background.

July 2$th. Vevey. Swallow. Many
flying about the hotel and over the lake,
pretty fellows, and though marked rather
differently from our barn swallow looking
much like it as they fly.

July 2$th. Vevey. Martin. Associated
with the swallows, but the white rump
and much less deeply forked tail made it
easy to distinguish. Smaller than o.ur mar-
tin, only five and one-half inches.

July 26th. Vevey. Greenfinch. Saw one
close to the hotel, all olive green and yel-
low, saw the yellow rump plainly. He had
a very heavy bill. He sang a very sweet
song, trill after trill, on varied keys, all
•soft and attractive, sometimes a warble
introduced, but mostly the trills.

July 2"jth. Vevey. Common Buzzard.
He has been sailing over the lake daily,

[

Bird Observations

a sinister, dark bird, his wings flapping like
a crow, sometimes soaring; tail long, a
falcon beak, the ends of his wings having
the quills spread apart like the fingers of
a hand. He seemed to be looking for food
from the ships, I thought, for he would
dive down once in awhile, as if he were
pouncing on his prey.

July 30th. Zermatt. Swift.

July 30th. Zermatt. Saw large black
or very dark birds, larger (I should think)
than a crow, soaring over the mountains
at the Staffel-Alp, a dozen or so. They
had conspicuous yellow bills. What were
they? Do not think their bills were
hooked like a hawk, but am not sure.
(This was Coracias des Alpes, Fregilus
graculus.)

July ^oth. Zermatt. Chaffinch. Saw a
handsome male in the road, and later near
the hotel a female feeding a young one, no
song.

August 2jth. Common everywhere.

August ist. Baveno, Italy. Black-Cap
Fauvette. Studied songs of two birds,
both undoubtedly blackcaps (Sylvia atie-
capilla) though they were difficult to see,
as they kept in the tops of high, thick trees.

But I had several fairly good views of

[ 173]

Bird Observations

them, and could see the blackcap, slender
black bill, ash grey breast, and the greyish
olive back, no white marks. Movements
were like our vireos', only a little quicker.
They sang in the garden back of the hotel
from 6 a. m. to 7 -.30 p. m. with no very
long intervals. I never heard so much song
from any species. Song varied very much.
Heard at a distance, or when sung softly
it was much like our warbling vireo's.
When full it was much more vigorous,
brilliant, varied, and with an oriole quality.
At its best it was as loud and lively as a
Japanese robin's. The ordinary intervals
were about the same length as a warbling
vireo's. Often the bird began with a few
sputtering notes, and he introduced a great
many small chips and chirps between the
songs. Sometimes he would whistle three
or four notes all on one note during his
song, quite noticeable. Song usually
"worked upwards'' in key as a ruby king-
let's does, — as the song went on — higher
at the end than at the beginning. Still
this was not always so. There is quite a
suggestion of the purple finch in it. At its
best it was a loud, noticeable and very
beautiful and varied song. Birds seemecl
very shy, though they sang over my head

[174]

Bird Observations

for hours, but almost never came low, only
saw one do it once. The two would an-
swer each other as they sang. A most
interesting study. The day was very hot
and sunny, but it did not seem to affect
them.

August 2nd. Heard them again all day
and got several views of one, also a female.
Kay saw them too, black cap of male very
distinct as he leaned his head down. We
were doing nothing but staying in the
garden, as it was very warm, and it took
long patience to see the birds. One male,
while he flitted about a good deal, seldom
left the vicinity of four or five trees near
where we sat.

August 3rd. Baveno. Isola Madre.
Heard a loud, bright, challenging song,
sung over and over, beginning with several
rapid notes all on one key, and then a
warble, all bright, noticeable, #nd gay.
The gardener said it was a "fringuello,"
chaffinch, and I believe it was.

August ^rd. Baveno. Saw gulls in the
lake, all the primaries tipped conspicuously
with black, and just like description of the
Common Gull.* Also saw terns, but could
not tell which kind.

* L/ttcns ridibundus have black primaries and
often no black on head.

[175]

Bird Observations

August i fth. Lugano. Gold crest?
Heard in the tops of the pines, same note,
it seemed to me, as that of our kinglet.

August 20th. Tellsplatte. Lake Lu-
cerne. Spotted Flycatcher. No mistaking
this fellow, so like our flycatchers in his
ways, and general appearance.

August 20th. Tellsplatte. Nuthatch.
More like our red breasted than the white
in coloring, heard no note.

August 20th. Tellsplatte. Willow
wren probably (or Chiffchaff?). Had a
fine view of this bird, as he was most con-
fiding. Color of back seemed a duller
olive than the willow wren's, otherwise
description the same. There was a dark
line through the eye as well as the yel-
lowish one over it, and the primaries were
some of them yellowish, and others dark.
No white on tail or wings. No song heard.
Also saw a tit today, but could not identify
it. Must have been the blue or marsh tit,
seemed rather a greenish bird in the light
I saw it in.

August 23rd. Grindelwald. Crow.

August 2 ^rd. Grindelwald. Pied Wag-
tail (?). Only a glimpse of a slim light
colored bird with a black throat and neck
(looked like a black bib) , long tail, rather.

[176]

Bird Observations

Saw the black throat and breast unmistak-
ably and don't think there is much doubt
that he was the wagtail.

August 27th. Grindelwald. Great Tit-
mouse. Notes very varied, some of them
like our chickadee, a very pretty bird, and
a very active one. Saw also today a bird
that looked the size and type of a bluebird
on a fence, close at hand, slaty grey, very
dark all over, no white, except lighter on
belly, under tail and back of belly certainly
seemed to be a chestnut. Eye and bill and
legs very black. No white marks. Bird
seemed to act like a thrush, but too small
for the blackbird. What could it have
been? Seemed shy.

August 2jth. Spiez. Blackbird. Sooty
black all over, except head brown on top
and breast darkly mottled with brown.
Size about eight or nine inches. Acted
like robin, pulling up and listening for
worms on lawn. Build of brown thrasher,
somewhat. No yellow bill or orbit, was
it a female? Yes, or young male bird.
Bird very near. Saw it perfectly.

August 28th. Saw another just like
description, but it seemed not so long a
bird to me this time, more like our robin.

[ 177]

Bird Observations

August 28th. Aschi. Wagtails. Saw
about a dozen running about on the low
roof of a chalet in a meadow, flying down
to the meadow occasionally, but mostly
sunning and preening themselves on the
roof. One was evidently the pied, or the
continental form, motacilla alba. In the
one I saw at Grindelwald the breast seemed
to have the black end in this shape
at the bottom, not as in the picture,
The other wagtails were young pieds or
the yellow, which ? They answered to the
description in Hudson "top of head, lore,
nape, back and scapulars greenish olive,
bright yellow streak over the eye, lower
parts sulphur yellow," except that they did
not seem as brightly colored as that, and
they had a noticeable grey spot, rather
large, on the breast, the coloring about the
throat, sides of head, etc., was quite yel-
lowish, outer tail feathers white. Wag-
tails do not carry their tails as high as our
water thrushes, drag them more, but the
motion is otherwise quite similar. Were
these birds motacilla rayii or flava (Euro-
pean form of yellow), or young of lugu-
brir? Watched them a long time in excel-
lent light.

August 2gth. Saw three wagtails this

Bird Observations

a. m. very close too, all alike. Had grey
upper parts, a pure grey, no olive, wings
edged with white (each feather), and a
white bar, tail with white outer feathers.
No black on throat or breast except a
large dark spot in the middle, forehead
and sides of head and stripes over eye
light, but not white, breast and belly with-
out yellow, whitish.

August 2Qth. Spiez, Magpie. Came
suddenly into sight in an apple tree. Splen-
did big fellow in his black and white.
Chased a chaffinch ( ?) out of the tree.

August 2gth. Spiez. Coal Titmouse.^
Followed the song, a sweet, clear "Hall-or-
ree, hall-or-ree, hall-or-ree," then after
while a change, on a different key, "which-
er-ree," several times, the form reminding
me of the Carolina wren, the tone of our
chickadee's phoebe note, only not so plain-
tive, gayer, and a little thinner. He sat on
a telegraph wire and sang over and over.
I had heard the same notes in Grindelwald,
but could not trace them. He looks very
much like our chickadee, as does also — in
less degree — the marsh titmouse.

August 2Qth. Spiez. Marsh Titmouse.
Head and nape jet black, but no black on

[179]

Bird Observations

throat. Saw two, one seemed to be keep-
ing company with the coal tit.

August 2gth. Spiez. Blue Titmouse.
Just a glimpse of him, no such study as I've
had of the great and the coal, but enough
to be sure of his identity. Saw him well
later.

August 28th-2gth. Spiez. Nightingale.
Saw a bird dash out from shrubs near a
garden wall, chase an insect and back sev-
eral times, something like a flycatcher.
Watched him again next day near an old
barn in an orchard. Size and coloring
seemed to answer exactly to the nightin-
gale. He was very rufous on the tail and
wings, light brown upper parts, and dull
whitish breast, bill black, something like a
bluebird's in shape (I should think) , faint
trace of light orbital ring, coloring on the
whole something like our veery, only no
spots on breast. What was it?

(Luscinia Philomela, in Paris Collec-
tion.)

August 30th. Had fine study of him,
he was chasing flies over a cabbage patch
(not pressing his breast against a thorn!).
Bill was as above, legs and feet dark flesh
color. He had a timid, thrush-like air, but
would let me get quite near, he lifted his

[180]

Bird Observations

wings nervously once in awhile. He
caught his food on the ground or made
sallies after it in the air, and often lit on
the top of a bean pole where I could see
him to perfection. He could be nothing
else but the nightingale, I feel sure. If I
could only have heard his songs ! (Proved
to be above by collection in Paris.)

August joth. Spiez. Goldfinch. A
pretty flock in a sunny meadow, all chirp-
ing together like our birds, but not quite
so sweet a note. Charming birds, they
were, but they did not stay long to be in-
spected. I saw a handsome male, though,
with his red front. Chaffinches abound
everywhere. Today, September 2nd, one
came right on to the porch where we were
sitting. They are so tame.

September 2nd. St. Beatenberg. Wren.
Scolded just like our wren and acted and
looked very like him.

September 2nd. St. Beatenberg. Ruti-
cilla tithys. Black Redstart. Had a good
study of this bird, have had glimpses of
him before in other places. He kept low,
fed on the ground, flew in and out from
stone piles and thickets. Size of bluebird,
bill similar also, like a thrush bill. Upper
parts dark bluish slate, lower the same,

[181]

Bird Observations

less bluish and not quite so dark, still not
at all light, whole bird as dark as a junco,
tail chestnut underneath, and with same
color on the outer feathers (saw this
plainly). Bird lifted his tail nervously
quite often, and appeared shy, but came
fairly near. Slight trace of light eye ring.
Might have been a colaris, Alpine accen-
tor, which is a little larger than modularis.
Ruticilla tithys is this bird, some specimens
very black, som;e just like above. Paris-
Jardin des Plantes, verified bird notes.
Wagtails were all albas that I saw, and
though none had as little black on the
breast as the birds I saw they must have
been young ones, for no other motacillas
were like them. No young in collection
except two very young birds.

[182]

(England)

September 1 6th. Henley-on-Thames.
Robin. So small compared with ours, and
with such dainty, shy ways (but he isn't
shy, really), a pretty fellow.

September 20th. Leamington. Abund-
ant wherever I've been, and singing con-
stantly even in dark damp weather. A
tinkling song, stuttering a little at the out-
set, very varied, sweet — resembles slightly
the shore lark's, but much more of a song.
Sings from bushes close to you, or a coping,
or from a housetop, as one did from a
house opposite Shakespere's in Stratford.

September i6th. Henley-on-Thames.
Heron, Dabchick, Moor Hen, Starling (a
great flock), Rooks, Missal Thrush (a
pair), Kingfisher, Pied Wagtail (Mota-
cilla lugubris) , several of these pointed out
to me by Mr. Crisp — and not very good
views of them. Starlings I saw well at
Magdalene College, Oxford, afterwards,
and rooks are everywhere, noticeable espe-
cially about the top of Guy's Tower, War-
wick Castle.

September 2ist. Lichfield. Jackdaws
in crowds about the spire of the cathedral.

September 24th. Rowsley. Robins

[183]

Bird Observations

everywhere, and singing constantly — such
a bubbling, rippling little song, all of a
light and gentle character, but no two
alike.

Rowsley. Song Thrush. Not a very
good look at him, looked so yellowish on
the sides of his breast.

[184]

NOTES MADE FROM COLLEC-
TION OF BIRDS IN ILLINOIS
BUILDING AT THE WORLD'S
FAIR

PIPITS. Fawn breast and belly, with
a few grey spots, short white mark over
eye, back slate, outer tail feathers white.

CUCKOOS. Only difference is black
billed species has ebony black bill, the
yellow billed has lower madible and part
of upper yellow.

SWALLOWS. The rough-winged is the
only dull grey swallow, and this is white on
vent. Bank swallow, conspicuous white
throat, grey breast and white belly, back
dark greyish brown.

TUFTED TITMOUSE resembles Cedar
bird in shape, though colors are duller; has
no black line through eye, back grey.

BOHEMIAN WAXWING. Quite a little
larger than Cedar bird. Breast of latter
shades into pure white on belly and under
tail, the Bohemian has belly same color as
breast, cinnamon brown, and feathers
under tail decidedly red. Bohemian here
in winter.

SHRIKES. Loggerhead seems much
higher colored than Northern. Sharp jet

[185]

Bird Observations

black heavy mark through eye, throat pure
white, breast almost so. Northern has
breast with fine vermicular markings, which
make it look much duller; black marks not
so conspicuous. Loggerhead here in
winter.

ORCHARD ORIOLE. One of the darkest
colored birds we have. I can think of none
except blackbirds, crows, and chewinks
which are blacker.

HORNED LARK. Prairie and Shore both
here in winter. Latter has yellow stripes
on head and throat yellow, where the for-
mer has white.

NUTHATCHES. White-breasted has only
one broad black stripe on top of head, red
breasted has several narrow ones.

FLYCATCHERS. Crested: belly yellow,
breast grey. Olive sided: large birds,
white throat extending down in narrow line
through middle of breast, breast sided with
dark grey, quite a marked bird.

PHOEBE. White of throat extends half
way around neck, showing at sides
plainly; it does not extend so far in
Pewee. The Pewees are darker and more
slate colored than some of the Phoebes,
some individuals of the latter being
brownish and marked in stripes and dots.

[186]

Bird Observations

THRUSHES. It is very difficult to dis-
tinguish the Olive-backed from the Grey-
cheeked. The throat of the Olive-backed
is whiter, and breast spots rather darker
and more clearly defined; it also has a
marked ring of yellowish around eye, but
the Grey-cheeked has this also, though not
so distinctly. Breast spottings of both
these thrushes are darker and more dis-
tinct than those of Wilson's Thrush (the
Veery, or Tawny Thrush) ; the latter has
rather faint tawny spots, which do not ex-
tend far down from the throat.

VIREOS. The Warbling is the dullest
colored and one of the smallest. It has a
wavering white line over the eye which
stops just in front of eye. The Red-eyed
has a straight white line over the. eye
which extends to bill, giving a striped ap-
pearance to side of head; the Red-eyed is
also decidedly green on the back and a
much prettier and more elegant looking
bird than the Warbling. Bell's Vireo is
dull like the Warbling, but much smaller,
the smallest of the family. Philadelphia
vireo, a lovely bird, soft, delicate coloring,
with faint wash of yellow on breast, back
tinged with ashy red. Yellow-throated
vireo, throat bright yellow (much yellower

[187]

Bird Observations

than the Yellow-bellied Flycatcher), dis-
tinct white marks on wing. The White-
eyed vireo looks like a feeble edition of
the Yellow-throated, washes of faint yel-
low on sides of breast and yellowish line
over eye. Blue-headed vireo, very marked
bird, slate blue head, line over and around
eye white, throat pure white, shading to
ashy on breast, a migrant.

WARBLERS. Tennessee as dull as the
Warbling vireo, dullest of all except the
Orange-crowned. The Tennessee has
whiter throat than latter, and top of head
is slate colored, of the Orange-crowned,
reddish.

SPARROWS. Field sparrow, dull and
grey in color, no marks on breast, prevail-
ing color dark. Leconte's, a little like
Snowflake in color, light, warm tints pre-
vailing. White-throated has plain grey
breast below its white throat. Savanna
resembles white-throated in its markings,
having the striped appearance to the head,
but the breast is heavily striped with black
radiating from throat. Fox sparrow,
very large, breast marked with large irreg-
ular reddish spots. White-crowned spar-
row, equally large; no white on throat,
breast plain ash.

[188]

Nest of Field Sparrow

BIRDS OBSERVED AT SAVAN-
NAH, GEORGIA, FEBRUARY 20-
MARCH 12, 1907

BIRDS OBSERVED AT SAVANNAH,

GEORGIA, FEBRUARY 20-

MARCH 12, 1907

SONG SPARROW,

VESPER SPARROW,

WHITE-THROATED SPARROW,

MOCKING BIRD,

CARDINAL,

CAROLINA CHICKADEE,

PURPLE FINCH,

TURKEY BUZZARD,

MEADOW LARK,

TOWHEE,

BLUE JAY,

FISH CROW,

ROBIN,

CAROLINA WREN,

TUFTED TITMOUSE,

MYRTLE WARBLER,

WAXWING,

GOLDFINCH,

BROWN THRASHER,

KINGFISHER,

FLICKER,

RED-HEADED WOODPECKER,

LOGGERHEAD SHRIKE,

CHIPPING SPARROW,

BLUEBIRD,

[191]

Bird Observations

* PINE WARBLER,

RUSTY BLACKBIRD,

RED-WINGED BLACKBIRD,

MARSH HAWK,

WHITE-EYED TOWHEE,

DOWNY WOODPECKER,

CHICKADEE,

MOURNING DOVE,

BROWN-HEADED NUTHATCH,

HERMIT THRUSH,

TREE SPARROW,

BOB WHITE,

KILLDEER,

GOLDEN-CROWNED KINGLET,

f YELLOW-THROATED WARBLER

(Forty species).

* Heard what I suppose to be the Pine war-
bler's song many times, birds always in tops of
pines, breast decidedly yellow, could not see wing
bars or back. Song a sweet trill, tremulous as the
field sparrow's, and soft, not strident like a chip-
py's trill.

t Song begins a little like yellow warbler's, but
not so piercing, and ends with an abrupt little up-
ward quaver, quite unfamiliar.

[ 192]

UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS-URBANA

BIRD OBSERVATIONS NEAR CHICAGO CHGO