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ALBERT R. MANN
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Cornett University

Gift of

Wiliam E. Davis, Jr.

CORNELL UNIVERSITY LIBRARY

DATE DUE

Robin Family

Cock Robin, who stands at the back, has just brought
and delivered a load of wild red cherries.. His mate, who
was brooding at the moment, did not leave the nest, but

hopped to one side, and presently returned to her post,
where you see her in the picture.

THE HOME LIFE
OF WILD BIRDS

A New Method of
the Study and
Photography of Birds

Francis Hopart HERRICK

With 141 Original Wlustrations from Wature
by the Hutbor

G. P. PUTNAM’S SONS

The Rnickerbocker Press

NEW YORK AND LONDON
1901

FRANCIS HOBART HERRICK

Set up and electrotyped May, rgoz. Reprinted July, 1907

lens
~ Ohi -

The Tnickerbocker Press, Tew Work

TO THE MEMORY
OF

MY FATHER AND MOTHER

COME LEAT GS LIVE WITH THE BIRDS!

PREP ACE:

N studying the habits of wild birds two important problems are at once encountered,
that of approach and the control of the position of the nest. My first experiments
were made with Redwing Blackbirds and Cedar Waxwings, and I soon perceived
that an important principle was involved, which every subsequent experiment tended to
confirm. Wishing to test its value as fully as possible, every available nest which came
to hand was utilized, without the exercise of choice in regard to species.

The observations were made for the most part in central New Hampshire, in the
towns of Northfield and Tilton, and pertain to the common birds of the country.

I am indebted to my sister for many practical and valuable suggestions.

FRANCIS HOBART HERRICK.

WESTERN RESERVE UNIVERSITY,
ADELBERT COLLEGE, CLEVELAND, OHIO, April, Igor,

CONTENTS.
CHAPTER
PREFACE

LIsT OF ILLUSTRATIONS .
INTRODUCTION .
I.—A New METHOD OF BIRD STUDY AND PHOTOGRAPHY
II.—ILLUSTRATIONS OF THE METHOD: THE CEDAR-BIRD; THE BALTIMORE
ORIOLE; THE REDWING BLACKBIRD, AND THE KINGBIRD .
IIJ.—TENT AND CAMERA: THE TOOLS OF BIRD-PHOTOGRAPHY
IV.—THE ROBIN AT ARM’S LENGTH; A STUDY OF INDIVIDUALITY
V.—THE CEDAR-BIRD . : : : : ‘ ‘ 4 .
VI.—RED-EYED VIREOS
VII.—THE NEST-HOLE OF THE BLUEBIRD
VIII.—MINUTE OBSERVATIONS ON CATBIRDS
IX.—THE REARING OF THE NIGHT Hawk
X.—THE KINGFISHERS AND THEIR KING Row. . $ :
XI.—CARE OF YOUNG AND NEST. : : : : ; ‘ 3
I.—BROODING AND FEEDING THE YOUNG.
II.--CLEANING THE NEST.
XII.—THE ForcE OF HABIT . : : ‘ : : F : ei
XIII.—FEAR IN BIRDS
XIV.—TAMING WILD BIRDS WITHOUT A CAGE

INDEX

vil

vill

ILLUSTRATIONS,

PAGE
Robin Family. Cock Robin, who stands at the back, has just brought and delivered a
load of wild red cherries. His mate, who was brooding at the moment, did
not leave the nest, but hopped to one side, and presently returned to her post,
where you see her in the picture. Lens 97% inch focus; speed %; stop 323
time 4 second; plate, Seeds’ No. 27 ‘‘ gilt edge’’ (which should be under-
stood as generally used in this work) ; distance of object 4 feet; full sun;
July 28, r900 lt. ‘ ‘ : : : ; : ; ; : Front splece
Adult Cedar-bird . : ; i ; : : : ; ‘ . Title
Footprints of Kingfisher when nee ehiés ee old Imprint from living bird : ‘ il
Head of Cock Robin with large katydid and angleworm in bill . : : : : lv
In the hill country of New Hampshire, overlooking Northfield and ‘Tilton, which is
screened by the hill in foreground. To the south, on the left, stands Mt.
Kearsarge ; toward the northern horizon Ragged Mt. ; ; vl
Automatic signclen elite of a young bird, illustrated in a Cedar Waxwing 12 see old
C2e « : ; 3 , : ; : ; : ; ; : . vil
Chipping Guam aiming” at a yellow “target”. : : : : : ! . vill
Kingbird perched in characteristic manner above its nest in an apple tree : ; . Xiv
Head of Red-tailed Hawk with frill erect. Four months old. : hs eI
Fic. 1.—Observation tent beside Cedar-bird’s nest, which was taken w ith its brant from
pine tree and carried to open field. At this nest the series shown on pages 11,
57-61 was made : : : : : : . : : 2
Fic. 2.—Tent in bushy pasture, marking position of nest of Chestnut-sided Warblers 4
Fic. 3.—Nearer view of same tent and nest, showing brooding bird : 5
Fic. 4.—Truncated elm, riddled by a the lower nest-hole recently Aen
by Bluebirds 6
Fic. 5.—Tent and Bluebird’s nest. ‘Compare Pies. 10, 59- és
Fic. 6,—kKingbird’s nesting tree, and nesting branch—removed and mounted on stalees
—with tent. The tent-cloth is laid in position at one end of peak, and ready
to be drawn over frame. The Kingbird pictures were all made on this spot. 8
Fic. 7.—Female Kingbird astride nest,—the later brooding attitude. ‘ : : 9
Fic. 8.—Kingbird family, the female partly hidden at the back. It was an easy matter
to focus directly upon the head of the standing or brooding bird . , : 9
Fic. 9.—Cedar-bird about to feed young by regurgitation. Photographed at the nest
shown in Figs. 1, 12, and 13. Zeiss Anastigmat, Ser. ii a, 64 inch; speed {;
distance about 30 inches, in fullsun : : : : ; : = aT

5. 30
3 3s Conk feeding cluster of cant ingbede,
S. 32.—Cock standing at nest immediately after serving 5 feed, ad acy for the duty af

Illustrations

. I10.—Female Bluebird with cricket at converted nest-hole of Flicker

11.—Female Chestnut-sided Warbler standing over young. Compare Fig. 3

. 12.—Cedar-bird’s nest in pine, 15 feet from the ground. Upstretched neck of the

old bird could be seen at a point just beneath the upper arrow-head. Nesting
bough carried to field beyond, and mounted as shown in Figs. 1 and 13
13.—Nesting branch of Cedar-bird set up in field and tent pitched beside it. Com-
pare Figs. 1 and 12 : : : :
14.—Oriole inspecting young. Still timid to a degree

. 15.—Oriole inspecting nest. Behavior freer than in last

16.—Tent in swamp, fronting Redwing Blackbird’s nest

;. 17.—kKingbird feeding young, and balancing herself with uplifted wings é
>. 18.—Male Kingbird serving a Cicada or harvest-fly, which a youngster is striving to

master. Its efforts were not in vain

>. I9.—Unequal contest between Kingbirds and a drasow: fy. This insect was crushed

and served up piecemeal

. 20.—Kingbirds serving a dragon-fly, whose wings anit seiclk: Re body are seen pro-

truding from the mouth of one of the young .

. 21.—Male Redwing Blackbird feeding a young one

oe ’

22.—Female “' bristling ’’ to keep cool, while shielding the young on morning of a
hot day. July 11, rg00 ;

23 —Kingbird out of its nest at age of eighiteen days; wits power of flight wall de-
veloped. July 13, 1900

24.—Tent, folded for carrying, cameras, and plate. bap=the eee of bitd: photography

. 25.—Brown Thrush entering her nest to brood 2 :
. 26.—Robin in an April snow. Wade Park, Cleveland, ‘Olio, April 4, 1900. X 3
. 27.—Head of Cock Robin, life-size x 44 : : : : : : :
s. 28.—Head of female Robin, life-size x 44. The slime on her bill is from the

throat of a young bird

: (aie Robin brooding

inspection and cleaning
33.—Female Robin cleaning nest

>, 34.—Head of brooding female, life-size x 2} : :
+. 35.—Cedar-bird chorus. The young, with wings spiead ead a- auivee with open

mouth and upstretched necks are calling to the silent mother. Life-size x 3

G. 36.—Cedar-bird family group, the male with full throat and black cherry in bill
+. 37.—Cedar-bird approaching nest of young which are nearly ready to fly
5. 38.—The same bird standing at nest with full gullet,—a little later in day after one

of the young had left

‘1G. 39.—The Cedar-bird approaches with alosea bill Buk full ‘heoat : :
‘1G. 40.—After feeding she inspects the young and in this instance appears to be sitting

with tail resting on the branch, but this is probably not the case

‘IG, 41.—She tosses up her head, and produces a cherry

‘1G. 42.—She is startled at a strange sound

:. 43.—She looks curiously at the tent while fae peneins nest

PAGE
13
14

Fic.
Fic. 4
Fic.
Fie,

Fic.

Illustrations

44.—She stands like a statuette while inspecting her family
45.—She devours what is sometimes removed from the nest
46.—The sac is taken directly from the cloaca of the young bird
47.—A young Waxwing from this nest on the morning of flight, in natural atibuce
expressive of fear. July 19, 1900 : : ; : E : .
48.—Cedar-bird, thirty-six hours old. ‘Typical instinctive response to sound or
vibration of nest. The stub-wings are used for support

Cedar-bird standing at nest after delivery of food

Fic

Fic,
Fic.
Fic.
Fic.
Fic.

Fic.
Fic.
Fic.
Fic.
Fic.
Fic.
Vic.
Fic.
Fic.
Fic.
Fic.
Fic.

Fic.
Fic.
Fic.

Fic.
Fic.
Fic.
Fic.
Fic.
Fic.
Fic.

Fic.

49.—Male Red-eyed Vireo standing over nest. Life-size x3 .
50.—Female Red-eyed Vireo with a neuropterous (?) insect in bill
51.—Feeding a nestling ;
52.—Female inspecting the nest in thie chainaniie manner
53.—Male standing over the young . : : : : ; ; :
54.—Female Red-eyed Vireo cautiously inspecting nest. Compare with the freer
manner illustrated in Fig. 52. July 5, 1900 .
5.—Approaching to inspect the nest and drawing back .
6.—Cautiously feeding the young
57.—Inspecting nest at a distance :
58. oF oung birds from this nest just before flight
59.—Female Bluebird on point of ooo nest-hole
60.—Taking grasshopper to young . :
61,—Standing at entrance with green insect-larva in eal,
62.—Female Bluebird cleaning the nest
63.—Cleaning the nest
64.—Cleaning the nest ; :
65.—Taking a final glance around bore entering nest- Hole anh eee :
66.—Female Catbird bringing to young a limp dragon-fly, the large Lschuna heros,
which has just issued from its pupa-skin
67.—Catbird inspecting her young
68.—Catbird cleaning the nest
69.—Night Hawk on bare ground, and eposhells oa high: it eiveneed three days
before
70.—Night Hawk apenas dines dove ola
71.—Night Hawk about nine days old
72.—Night Hawk about twelve days old .
73.—Night Hawk about sixteen days old
74.—Front-face view of bird shown in Fig. 72 : :
75.—Young Night Hawk in enclosure w ae it retuned ww ale: to fly
76.—Tunnel of Kingfisher (on the right) in sand-bank overgrown with pines, pei
country road. Northfield, New Hampshire. August, 1899
77.—Nest of rg00 in same bank and pinbal bly of same pair. Kingfisher taking fish
to young. Lens 93’; inch; speed ; stop 8; time #4; second; distance g ft. 8
n.; fullsun. July 24, 1900 : ; : : ; : : :
78.—Kingfisher backing out of tunnel. A stream of sand is started from the opening
at every entrance and exit
79.—Five Kingfishers from chamber at end of nels patextinatety nine ealtigs sia.

July 19, 1900

os mn

PAGE

Fic.
Fic.
Fic.
Fic.
Fic.

Illustrations

x. 80.—Posed in line, biting and pulling

. 81.—Posed in row to illustrate habit of sitting still

Gc, 82.—King-row at a later stage—birds thirteen days old

+, 83.—Kingfisher at nine days, showing feather tubes and tracts

84.—At thirteen days. The wing-quills show one half inch of the blue- fae eit:
tipped feather-shafts

>. 85.—Kingfisher at fifteen days. Nearly all feathers patily dinghsathed
. 86.—liingfishers eighteen days old. The bright blue of the upper parts and the

white and chestnut bands across the breast are now very prominent

. 87.—Kingfishers twenty-two days old. To illustrate how they break ranks and walk

backwards, when placed in line. The second on the left has already taken a
few backward steps

. 88.—Female Brown Thrush brooding: Lens 974 inch; speed %; stop 32; time 4 sec-

ond; distance 4 feet in full sun. July 13, rg0o

c. 89.—Female Robin brooding. Attitude of keen attention

go.—Female Redwing Blackbird feeding a young bird

: ee same bird awaiting the reflex response of the throat and eullet of young.

If not forthcoming, the food is withdrawn, and another is tested

. 92.—Female Kingbird standing over young with drooping wings to ward off the sun.

Typical brooding attitude during last days of life at nest

. 93.—Kingbirds rending an unruly grasshopper

sc. 94.—Helping a grampus down the throat of a Kingbird

. 95.—The male grampus, Corydalus cornutus. Full size, from life

s. 96.—Female Chestnut-sided Warbler bristling to keep cool while brooding on a hae

June day

. 97.—The same bird in the more common aeiuide of ‘Boeliae ain the carly life af

the young. Lens Zeiss Anastigmat, Ser. ii a; 64 inch; speed 4; stop 32;
time + second; distance 3 feet in full sun. June 23, 1900 : ; :
98.—Male Chestnut-sided Warbler brings food for his little children. His mate, who
is brooding, receives it into her own bill, but does not taste a particle herself.

G. 99.—Female Chestnut-sided Warbler brooding with throat puffed out and head-

feathers erect ; ; : .
too.—Female Brown Thrush seeing fond well down i in ‘the throat, Point of bill is
on level with external ear of young
1o1.—The same bird cleaning the nest
102.—Cedar-bird taking sac from cloaca of young
103.—Female Kingbird cleaning the nest
104.—Baltimore Oriole feeding its young
105.—The same bird in another attitude .

A Hatful of Kingfishers

Fic,
Fic.

Fic.
Fic.
Fic.
Fic.

106.—Male Redwing Blackbird iepediig nest : ; ‘ ; 5 :

107.—The same bird engaged in the same occupation. To illustrate the formation
of habits in the daily routine

108.—Cock with a large a

10g.—Cock “‘ taking aim”’

110.—Cock ready to inspect the nest

r11.—Female Robin inspecting the nest in a ‘rnieal: aeetude

IOL
IOlL

I02

102

103

104
105
106
107
108
109
TIO
112

II2
113
113
114
114

Fic.

Fic.
Figs
Fic.

Fic.
Fic.

Fic.
Fic.
Fic.
Fic.
Fic.
Fic.

Fic;

Fic.

Illustrations

112.—Female Kingbird inserting an insect in the throat of a fledgling

113.—Cedar-bird’s eggs with two blind and naked young oe six hours old

114.—The same : : :

115.—The same, aucceatins different phases ae instinctive Henao

116.—Kingfishers twenty-four days old, perce to illustrate fearlessness, when cepa
of flight :

117.—Young Cedar-birds at nest, in hata teristic atutiide: Ginger the intone af
fear and ready for flight. For pia oaaa see page 60

118.—Brown Thrush startled on nest

119.—Cock Robin startled by alarm call of his mate i

120.—Red-tailed Hawk worried. Instinctive attitude expressive of oe nd serving
to inspire fear :

121.—Young Cowbird sanding at nest of Mannaie W ales its fester narents

122.—Young Cowbird, as it appeared when found, completely filling the nest, having
smothered its rightful occupants . ; :

123.—Male Kingbird standing at nest, and young in eharactertete attitude

124.—Female Robin, engaged in nest-cleaning

125.—Female Red-eyed Vireo feeding the young

126.—Her mate ready to inspect and clean the nest

127.—Offering food to a Chestnut-sided Warbler, tamed etnout a cage :

128.—Chestnut-sided Warbler family, the male above the nest on which sits his
brooding mate

129.—Female Chestnut-sided W arblet taking a peep at the nest, W hich then soneitned
eggs or young birds barely hatched

130.—The same bird inspecting her young after feeding nen

Xill
PAGE
115
118
118
118

INTRODUCTION.

O describe and illustrate a new means of studying animal behavior, and to record
a what has been learned by its aid concerning the lives of some of our common
birds is the main purpose of this volume. It is a popular study of birds in action

and is chiefly concerned with the homes or nests and their occupants.

While the desire has been present to make these pages readable, no effort has been
spared to render them accurate. Many of the observations are new; nearly all are
original, and every statement of fact is believed to be true as it stands.

The wish to give a human interest to every phase of animal activity is of very ancient
origin and has done too much already in spreading the seeds of popular error and super-
stition concerning animal life and lore. Animals should be studied as animals which they
are, and not as human beings which they have never been and are not likely ever to
become.

The constant reading of human attributes into the activities of animals is to begin at
the wrong end, and isadrag on the progress of accurate knowledge. We should first study
the animal as far as possible from its own standpoint, and learn with exactness the facts
of its life, taking care not to press analogies farther than the observed facts will warrant.
Ignorance of anatomy as well as of physiology, and the desire to find in the doings of ani-
mals a marvelous counterpart of human powers of intelligence and reason have already
stocked our libraries with fables, anecdotes, and stories, many of which make delightful
reading, but possess little value for the modern student.

The first duty of the narrator of natural as well as civil history is to tell the truth,
and to the naturalist belongs also the privilege of showing that the lives of the higher ani-
mals, when fully and clearly revealed, possess a more vital interest than the puppet dressed
in human clothes, however admirable the latter may be as a work of art.

I trust that the reader will not misunderstand these remarks. Is it denied that
animals possess intelligence or any powers of reason? Not at all! Such questions de-
pend largely upon our definitions of words, and without fresh observations are usually
fruitless of result. What is criticized is the gross anthropomorphism which characterizes
much that is written upon the actions of animals. If I am an offender in this direction,
I hope it is only in a minor degree. I am anxious to attribute to the animal every power
which it is actually known to possess, and look for the roots of human instinct and intel-

xvi Introduction.

ligence all along the line of animal evolution. It tends only to confusion, however, to
call those acts of association which lead to acquired habits, instincts, or the countless
mechanical or chemical reactions of organisms to external stimuli, the expressions of
intelligence and thought. ‘Go to the ant thou sluggard!”’ is good advice, but one should
bring from the ant a trustworthy account of how it performs its wonderful works. It is im-
portant to distinguish the root from the bud, as well as from the perfected flower and fruit.

Although this is not a treatise on animal behavior, a general working theory has been
adopted and will now be given. Every animal at birth inherits with its bodily organs the
power to use them in a more or less definite way, and all but the lowest animals, of which
the Protozoa, jelly-fishes, and possibly the worms may be taken as representatives, acquire
some power of learning to do things in the course of their lives. Their equipment thus
consists of (1) unlearned or inherited powers, and (2) of learned or acquired abilities, which
are the results of experience—often very bitter. The term “ instinct ” when used in a very
broad sense may be given to all inherited or ingrained tendencies, and ‘‘ habit” reserved
for what is acquired or learned through a process of association of certain things with
certain acts. An animal’s powers thus consist of free gifts at its start in life, and later
acquisitions gained through its own efforts in the struggle for existence.

The catalogue of instinctive acts—even in the narrower sense of involving anumber
of different organs—is surprisingly great in an animal standing so high in the scale as the
bird, but examples drawn from a single species will suffice. When the spring comes the
young bird, who returns to the place of its birth, is prompted to find a mate, and with her
soon begins to build a nest. Though unattended by instructors and unprepared by prac-
tice, it uses the inherited tools of its guild—bill, breast, and feet — with a nice precision,
and be it Oriole, Robin, Flycatcher, or Vireo, follows with wonderful closeness the type of
architecture which its ancestors have used for ages.

Why does the Robin in its first attempt at nest-building begin by laying a foundation
of dry grass or stubble, and add to this mud softened with water and made intoa mortar,
which it then heaps about its breast and molds into a symmetrical cup, often selecting a
rainy day for the work? One might as well ask why the Robin lays blue eggs, or why it
utters its well known call. It acts in these ways because it must, because Robins have
been doing these things for hundreds of generations. It not only inherits tools, but a cer-
tain aptitude for their use. Its organization compels or determines its actions.

No learning of such initial actions is required or even possible since all this has been
attended to, as one might say, centuries before the animal was born. These instinctive
responses are spontaneous, and when the right button is pressed or the right stimulus ap-
plied from without or within, the reaction follows as a matter of course. Of course the
Robin must make a mortar of mud and straw; of course it must lay blue eggs, and after
incubating them, carefully rear and feed its young. To do otherwise would not only be
absurd, but very uncomfortable. Had its ancestors been Cowbirds it would have made
no nest at all, but filched another’s, and foisting its eggs upon some simple minded nurse,
shirked the duties of parents to their offspring. The Cowbird was thus very early to enter
the field of experimental psychology.

Every bird must follow the laws of its nature, and its inherited instincts are no more
wonderful than its inherited organs,—its vocal cords, its keen eyes, and its marvelous

feathers.

Introduction. XVil

The higher animals thus start in life with a definite equipment,—a body tuned to
respond to the world in which they are placed, and this ingrained ability for action may
be called instinct.

In speaking of the “habits” of animals we usually mean the manner of their life in
general, whilea “habit”’ in the technical sense may be regarded as a mode of action which
the animal has learned or acquired. It is associated with pleasure, and in the course of
repetition may become more or less fixed or “stereotyped.” In this sense habits are
formed out of the raw material which heredity provides. The young bird learns to eat
certain things, to avoid certain enemies, to start at certain sounds, to ignore others, to
approach its nest in a certain way. Thus also the vertebrate sometimes acquires the
habit of walking backward, while its instinct leads it to walk forward.

Habits must in time take the place of instincts in a very large measure, and it would
not be strange if a Robin’s second nest were more nearly perfect than its first, or if the
third were better than the second, but this would also depend upon other conditions.

The power of forming habits is a sign of intelligence, but not necessarily of reason.
The intelligence may be a small grain and never destined to grow into a flourishing tree
of knowledge, but it must exist along with the power of profiting by experience.

The mental faculties of birds seem to exhibit a wide range of gradation from exces-
sive stupidity to a fair degree of intelligence, with strong associative powers,—rarely if
ever the association of ideas, but of things with actions,—and often with wonderful
powers of imitation.

The habits acquired by one generation are probably never handed on to the next,
but this is a subject from which the dust of argument has not yet cleared away.

II.

That a bird in the hand is worth two in the bush may be a good motto for the an-
atomist or epicure, but for the observer of living animals a bird within reach of the hand
and still in the bush is of far greater worth. The problem is how to see and not be
seen. If a bird is actually caught and kept in a cage or put under restraint in any way,
its behavior is no longer perfectly natural and free, at least not until all fear has been
subdued and it is no longer wild but tame. What is needed is an invisible chain which
shall hold the animals to some fixed and chosen spot which can then be approached in
disguise.

Fortunately for the student of bird-habit and instinct all these conditions are fulfilled
for a most important and interesting period, —that of life at the nest. The nest is the
given fixed point, and parental instinct is the invisible chain. The wild bird, however,
is bound not merely to the nest, but to its young. Wherever the young go, the old birds
follow. By using the nearly fledged young as a lure, some species could, I believe, be
led across country for a mile or more. I have taken them two hundred feet without
special effort.

Hitherto the bird-photographer has had to rely mainly upon chance in getting a
picture of the nesting scenes. Most land birds depend upon concealment for protection
from their enemies during the season of young. Their nests are apt to be shrouded

XViii Introduction.

in grass or foliage, and, if easily approached, are usually inaccessible to the camera. If
the nest is in a high bush or tree, the difficulties of the position and light are usually an
effectual bar to obtaining good pictures, to say nothing of seeing what takes place.
When the nest is on or near the ground and in a well-lighted spot, conditions which are
only rarely fulfilled, it has been customary to set up the camera, and attaching a long
rubber tube or thread to the shutter, to retire to a distance and wait for the birds to
appear. When one of them is seen to go to the nest, the plate is exposed by pulling the
thread or pressing the pneumatic bulb, and, if in luck, a picture may thus be obtained.
Many plates, however, are sure to be spoiled; little can be seen, and the observer has no
control over the course of events. In the pages which follow, a method is described by
which nesting birds can, in many cases, be successfully approached and studied with ease
whatever the position of the nest.

It is a comparatively easy matter to examine and photograph the nest, the eggs, or
the young of such species whose dwellings are accessible to all, but to portray the free
behavior of the adult bird of the shy land species is quite another question.

The method is limited in its application from the necessities of the case. It is based
on the solid ground of animal instinct, and may confidently be expected to have a wide
application; but how wide or general its use may become can only be determined by
well-directed experiment.

III.

Nearly all the illustrations of this volume are from photographs of adult land birds,
and the reader will observe that they are in many cases arranged in series, and portray
certain actions which are performed in a kind of routine. With very few exceptions all
were made by means of the method, that is to say, the photographs were taken deliber-
ately and not by chance. My plan was to watch the life at the nest very closely, hour by
hour, and day by day, and I often made a large number of photographs to illustrate
typical and unusual scenes at anest. The observer has the advantage of being on the
spot, of being able to see every act performed and to seize every opportunity which
may arise. Many of the photographs here shown could not have been obtained by any
other means.

What is offered now represents but a beginning in the attempt to portray the whole
life of birds at the nest. The first furrow only has been struck in an old and still fallow
field. These pictures will possibly seem crude when compared with those which the
future will yield, but there is this to be said about all really good photographs of wild
animals, that they possess a permanent interest and value, since within their limits they
represent the truth, vigor, and freshness of nature. When this method comes to be ap-
plied to some of the water birds, the Terns, Gulls, and their congeners along the coast,
which are more easily approached than the shyer land species, serial pictures will be
obtained of far greater perfection and beauty than anything which has yet appeared.

For the portrayal of animals in action the camera is of supreme value, and if I have
emphasized its use, it is only asa means to an end. Scientific books dealing with the
anatomy and development of animals will always require good drawings for the illustra-

Introduction. XIX

tion of their subjects, and these are preferable to poor photographs, but for the study of
animal behavior in both the invertebrates and vertebrates the camera is immeasurably
superior to brush or pencil. Popular natural history books have already a large body of
invaluable material to draw upon for illustrative purposes, and the often crude, impossi-
ble, or imperfect drawings, which have so long done service in the past, will gradually
give place to truthful delineations of animals at home, and in the midst of that nature of
which they form a part.

THE HOME LIFE OF WILD BIRDS.

Crier ie Bo

A NEW METHOD OF BIRD STUDY AND PHOTOGRAPHY.

FTN HE method of studying the habits of wild birds which this volume illustrates con-
sists in bringing the birds to you and then camping beside them, in watching
a their behavior at arm’s length and in recording with the camera their varied
activities. By means of sucha method one may live with the birds for days at a time,
and watch the play of their most interesting habits and instincts. The actors are not con-
fined in cages; they suffer indeed no restraint, excepting that only which their nature
imposes. They come and go at will, and their life is as free and untrammeled as ever.
The method enables one to see with his own eyes at a distance of a few inches or
feet, more or less, what birds do in and about their nests, and at the same time affords
the rare opportunity of making photographs, not a single picture or a chance shot now
and then, but an unlimited series of pictures to illustrate the behavior of birds ia the full-
est manner and at the most interesting period of their lives. It is often an easy matter
to focus your camera directly upon the bird itself and to give a time exposure when
desired. Moreover, you can approach as near as you wish, and make photographs of any

required size.

I will now give the reader a less enigmatical account of the method, first considering
its psychological basis or the scientific principles on which it rests, and then recording in
a separate chapter, as practical examples of its working, the exact history of a few of the
cases in which it has been applied.

The method in use depends mainly upon two conditions:

(1) The control of the nesting site, and

(2) The concealment of the observer.

By nesting site is meant the nest and its immediate surroundings, such as a twig,
branch, hollow trunk, stem, or whatever part of a tree the nest may occupy, a bush, stub,
strip of sod, or tussock of sedge, that is—the nest with its immediate
settings. If the nest, like that of an Oriole, is fastened to the leafy
branch of a tree, the nesting bough is cut off, and the whole is then care-
fully lowered. to the ground and set up in a good light, so that the branch with the nest
shall occupy the same relative positions which they did before. The nest, however, is
now but four instead of forty or more feet from the ground.

Control of the
Nesting Site.

Wild Birds.

The nesting bough is carried to a convenient distance from the tree, and firmly
fastened to two stakes, driven into the ground and placed in a good light. If the nest is
in a tussock in a shaded swamp, the whole is cut out and taken to the nearest well-
lighted place; if in the woods, it is carried to a clearing where the light is favorable for
study. Again, when a nest like that of the Brown Thrush occupies the center of a dense
thorn bush which no human eye can penetrate and much less that of the camera, its main
supports are cut off, and the essential parts are removed to the outside of the clump or to
any favorable point close at hand. If the nest is but five or ten feet up, the main stem is
severed, and the nesting branch
lowered to the four-foot mark,
a convenient working height.

I wish to emphasize the
fact that the nest itself is usually
not moved or disturbed, or rath-
er that it is moved only with
its supports. The change is
one of space relations, which
may change with every pass-
ing breeze, but the relation of
nest to support remains undis-
turbed.

This sudden displacement
of the nesting bough is of no
special importance to either old
or young, provided certain pre-
cautions are taken to be dwelt
upon alittlelater. It is asif an
apartment or living room were
removed from the fourth story
of some human abode to the
ground floor, or in the case of
the ground building birds as if
the first story were raised to

Fig.1. Tent in front of Cedar-bird’s nest, shown in its original position a level with the second. The
in Fig.12, One of the birds is feeding its young. & : :
immediate surroundings of the
nest remain the same in any case. The nest might indeed be taken from its bough or
from the sward, but this would be inadvisable, chiefly because it would destroy the na-
tural site or the exact conditions selected and in some measure determined by the birds
themselves.

For an observatory I have adopted a green tent which effectually conceals the student
together with his camera and entire outfit. The reader will find this fully described in
the chapter on the tools of the bird-photographer. The tent is pitched
beside the nest, and when in operation, is open only at one point,
marked by a small square window, in line with the photographic lens.

Concealment of
the Observer.

and the nest.

A New Method of Bird Study and Photography.

It seems at first thought strange and almost incredible that one may take such
liberties with wild birds, without wreaking destruction upon the young or introducing
such unnatural conditions as would be intolerable to every true student Principles which
and lover of birds, but this is by no means the case. No injury is underlie the
wrought upon old or young. The former nesting conditions are soon Method.
forgotten, while the new are quickly adopted and defended with all the boldness and
persistence of which birds are capable.

This method of studying birds depends mainly upon the strength of the parental in-
stincts which bind old to young by an invisible chain, and upon the ease with which a
bird learns to adapt itself to new conditions. Upon more complete analysis we recognize
the following psychological principles:

(a) The strength of an instinct increases through exercise, and may be reénforced by
habit ;

(b) An instinctive impulse may be blocked or suppressed by any contrary impulse;

(c) The instinct of fear is often temporarily suppressed by the fighting instinct, or
permanently overcome by the repetition of any experience leading to the formation of
new habits or associations.

We may also add:

(d) New habits are readily formed and reénforce or supplant those of older growth,

(e) Abstract ideas, if they form any part of the furniture of the average bird-mind, are
extremely hazy and fleeting ;

(f) Finally we must recall the physiological fact that birds are guided in most of their
operations by sight and hearing, not by scent. Their olfactory organ is very rudimentary
at best, and avails them neither in finding food, nor in avoiding enemies.

After a brief analysis of the parental instincts we will endeavor to show how the
principles just given are applied to the problem of approaching wild birds in the way
described.

The parental instincts begin to control the life of the adult with the periodic revival
of the reproductive functions, and vary greatly in their scope and intensity at the different
stages of their reign as well as in different species of birds. They are periodic, recurring
at definite intervals during sexual life and in serial form, one kind of act usually leading
to the next in sequence, and so on until the series is complete.

When more than one litter is produced in a season, the series of events is repeated
with minor changes _ If we include the typical migratory movements, the principal terms
of the reproductive cycle may be expressed more fully as follows:

(1) Spring migration of the summer residents to the place of birth;

(2) Mating;

(3) Selection of nesting site and construction of the nest ;

(4) Egg-laying ;

(5) Incubation ;

(6) Care of the young in the nest, including feeding, and cleaning nest and young;

(7) Care and education of young from time of flight ;

(8) Fall migration to winter quarters.

Birds seem to follow one line of conduct, whether it be sitting over the eggs, brood-
ing, or tending the young, until their instinct in that particular direction has been satisfied,

4 Wild Birds.

thus normally completing one term of the series before passing to the next in sequence.
The machinery, however, rarely works with absolute precision. Perturbations are sure to
" arise whenever a contrary impulse
comes into the field, and either blocks
the path or struggles for supremacy.
The surge of parental feeling is
often marked by an inbred pugnacity,
which begins to show itself in certain
species at the very beginning of the
breeding season. This fighting mood,
which is an adaptation for the protec-
tion of the home and all that it con-
tains, is by no means a measure of
the other parental impulses. It has
a gradual rise, reaches a maximum
when the young are ready to leave the
nest, at a time when protection is
most needed, and then gradually sub-
sides.

When a pair are robbed during
the breeding season, or in any way
disturbed in mind or property, three
courses are open to them, either to
desert and begin operations anew,

; ; ; ; to stay by the nest and save what is
Fig. 2. Tent in bushy pasture beside nest of Chestnut-sided i .
Warbler, shown in detail in Fig. 3. left, or, having done this, to fill up
the gap by laying more eggs. The
course eventually followed depends upon the nature of the bird, or upon the relative
strength of fear, the parental instincts, and habit.

The parental instinct,’ reénforced by habit, gradually increases until the young are
reared. It is therefore safest to change the nesting surroundings when this instinct is
approaching its culmination.

The general feeling of fear is gradually or quickly suppressed according to the value
of the different factors in the equation, by the parental instinct, which impels a bird at all
hazards to go to its young wherever placed. This impulse though it be weak at first,
is strengthened by exercise, or what amounts to the same thing,—by the growth of
habits or associations.

After a bird once visits the nest in its new position, it returns again and again, and

in proportion as its visits to the old nesting place diminish and finally cease, its approaches
to the new position become more frequent, until a new habit has been formed, or if you
will, until the old habit is reinstated.
When the birds approach the nest any strange objects like the stakes which support
the bough, or the tent which is pitched beside it arouse their sense of fear or suspicion,
'' This phrase is sometimes used for the sake of brevity and convenience in nearly the same sense as parental

attachment or parental love.

A New Method of Bird Study and Photography. 5

and they may keep away for a time or advance with caution. If very shy, like most Cat-
birds, they will sometimes skirmish about the tent for two hours or more before touching
the nest. The ice is usually broken
however in from twenty minutes to
an hour, and I have known a Chip-
ping Sparrow and Red-eyed Vireo to
feed their young in three minutes
after the tent was in place.

At every approach to the nest
in its new position, the birds see the
same objects which work them noill.
The tent stands silent and motion-
less, unless it happens to be windy,
but the young are close by, and fear
of the new objects gradually wears
away. Parental instinct, or in this
case maternal love, for the instinct
to cherish the young is usually
stronger in the mother, wins the day.
The mother bird comes to the nest
and feeds her clamoring brood. The
spell is broken; she comes again.
The male also approaches, and their
visits are thereafter repeated.

Possibly the fears of the old
birds are renewed at sight of the win-
dow which is now opened in the tent-
front, and of the glass eye of the
camera gleaming through it, but the
lens is also silent and motionless, and
soon becomes a familiar object to be
finally disregarded. Again there is Fig. 3. Tent beside nest of Chestnut-sided Warbler. The femzle
the fear which the sound of the shut- broods, while the male is foraging.
ter, a sharp metallic c/zck, at first in-
spires, unless you are the fortunate possessor of an absolutely silent and rapid shut-
ter, an instrument which is unknown to the trade, at least in this country. At its first
report when two feet away, many a bird will jump as if shot, give an angry scream,
and even fly at the tent as if to exorcise an evil spirit, while after a few hours, or on the
second day, they will only wince; finally they will not budge a feather at this or any
other often repeated sound, whether from shutter, steam whistle, locomotive, or the human
voice. This illustrates the effect of the alarm clock over again. At our first experience
with this nerve-wracking machine, we start from deep sleep and promptly heed its sum-
mons; then we are apt to mind it less and less until we sleep on serenely in spite of it.
If we were to place an alarm clock on or near the nesting bough, and let it off at regular
but not too frequent intervals, the birds would soon learn to disregard it as we do, and as
some of them disregard the babel of a city street.

6 Wild Birds.

It is the young, the young, always THE YOUNG in whom the interest of the old birds
is centered, and about whom their lives revolve. They are the strong lure, the talisman,
the magnet to which the
parent is irresistibly
drawn. The tree, the
branch, the nest itself,
what are these in compari-
son with the young for
whom alone they exist ?

With some species it
is possible to make the
necessary change without
evil consequences when
there are eggs in the nest ;
with others we must wait
until the young are from
When to four to nine days
Change old. It is all a
the Nest-question of the
ss strength of the
parental instinct, and this
varies between wide limits
in different species, and
very considerably between
different individuals. From
the nature of the case
there can be no infallible
rule. If we know little of
the habits of the birds in
question it is safest to wait
until the seventh to the

Fig. 4, Truncated elm with nest-holes of Woodpecker, the lowermost re- ninth day after the young
cently occupied by Bluebirds. To bring down the nest, the trunk may be cut :
from below-orin line with arrows are hatched, or when in

many passerine birds, as
Robins, Orioles, and Waxwings, the feather-shafts of the wing-quills begin to appear in
the young, or better when they project from one quarter to one half inch beyond the feather
tubes. At this period the parental instinct is reaching its maximum, and, what is equally
important, the sense of fear has not appeared in the young.

When we try to formulate a rule, however, we at once encounter numerous excep-
tions. Thus in Cuckoos the feathers do not shed their envelopes gradually as in most
birds, but remain sheathed up to the last day in the nest. Of greater importance is the
understanding of the principles involved, and with these in mind and judiciously applied
very few mistakes should be made.

At the beginning of observations a nest with eggs should be watched, but not dis-
turbed. When the period of incubation has been determined, and the time of hatching

A New Method of Bird Study and Photography. 7

known, the young may be examined and photographed if it is desired. At all events
they should be watched until the critical time arises for closer study. Mode of
This decided upon in the manner already suggested, circumstances must Procedure.
determine the course to be followed.

If the nest, like that of a Robin or Kingbird, is saddled to the branch of a tree, saw
off the whole limb and nail it to stakes driven into the ground, so placed as always to give
the best light. The nesting bough, in case there is one, should be set with its long axis
parallel with the course of the sun, but the position of the bough or tent may be changed
during the day when exceptional conditions render it necessary.

Either a dark foliage or a sky background may be chosen for the nest, according to
the desire of the operator or the possibilities of the situation. If not satisfied with a
natural background it would be possible to place dark or light screens behind the nesting
bough or to use reflected
light for softening the shad-
ows, but no experiments
have yet been made in this
direction. The tent is then
to be placed in position, or
it may be pitched and left
overnight beside the nest.’
In other words, operations
may begin at once or be
postponed until the follow-
ing day, the better plan for
a beginner until he has
mastered minor difficulties,
which, though small in
themselves, are far from un-
important. When the tent
is closed absolute silence
must be maintained, for
while this is not always
necessary, it is the best rule
to follow during the first
days of observation.

The best time to begin
is from eight to nine o’clock
in the morning, because the

young willthen have been [gay Aye “s
: :
fed, and the sun will be
getting high enough for Fig. 5. Nest-hole of Flicker, used by Bluebird. Trunk removed from tree,
th st «d | eae | and mounted on pivot so that it can be turned to any angle with sun. See
€ most rapid photograph- No. 15 of table, p. 12, Fig. 10, and Chapter VII.

ic work. One may spend
as many hours a day, and as many days at one nest, as time permits or inclination decides.

| Directions for use of the tent are given in Chapter III.

8 Wild Birds.

I will only suggest that the second day is always better than the first, and that the third
or fourth is always sure to bring something new. If one would learn the nesting habits
of any species thoroughly, it will hardly do to rely upon one nest. The more you see of
different nests and different birds the better.

I usually spend five or six hours in the tent, from nine in the morning until three in
the afternoon, when the weather is fine. If the camping ground is near my house, as it
usually is, I leave the tent for
half an hour at noon, but if
it is far, I carry a lunch and
spend the day. When possi-
ble, Iam always on hand dur-
ing the last day of life at the
nest, to see the young leave
it, usually one at a time, and
to witness the manceuvres
of the parents in conducting
them to the nearest trees.

Young birds from one to
five days old cannot, as a

: rule, stand exces-
Precautions.
nates sive heat. Even
Observed. When fed and
brooded they will
sometimes succumb, and here
lies the serious danger to be
guarded against. A nest of
very young birds well shaded
by foliage cannot be safely
carried into the direct sun-
shine of a hot summer’s day,
hence the importance of be-
ginning operations at the
proper time when the weath-

Fig.6. Nesting bough of Kingbird removed from apple tree in background SES. suitable, and further of

at a point where extended arrows meet, and fixed to upright stakes, Tent- not allowing your enthusiasm
cloth thrown over frame which is set in position,

£
Ah,
H
j
H
|
)

to get the better of your
judgment.

The morning of a clear, mild day is preferable, but since we cannot order the weather,
it is better to leave the birds to themselves, if it promises to be excessively hot or windy.

The young may be fed or handled as much as one wishes, provided they have not
acquired the instinct of fear. If you are uncertain as to this and your aim is to study the
nesting habits, it is better to avoid approaching, touching, or in any way disturbing the
young after the flight feathers have appeared. The cutting of leaves or twigs which
obstruct the light or cast undesirable shadows should be done before this time.

On the other hand, investigations of the young which require accurate weighing,

Fig. 7. Female Kingbird astride nest, protecting young from heat. This and the following
from photographs made at nest shown on facing page.

Fig.8. Kingbird family, The male with grasshopper in bill,—his mate, partly hidden,
behind him,

A New Method of Bird Study and Photography. 11

measurements, or photographs of the birds themselves, place the matter in a different
light. With these objects in view the nest must be frequently approached and the young
taken out, and for such studies the change of the nesting site offers such obvious advan-
tages that it is needless to dwell upon them. In taking down the nesting bough it is
often necessary to touch the nest, and this does no harm.

Young birds eight or nine days old stand the heat well, provided they are fed, but on
very hot days they should
not be allowed to go with- f
out food for more than
two hours at the longest.
Should the parents bring
no food during this time, it
is better to feed the young
in the nest, and to*suspend
operations until the next
day.

As has been already
said, the old birds may be
expected to come to the
nest in from twenty min-
utes to an hour, when the
tent is brought into imme-
diate use after removal of
the nesting bough. It is
naturally impossible to
predict exactly what will
happen in any given case
until the experiment is
tried, since the personal
equation or individuality
of the birds themselves is
an unknown and variable
factor. One thing only is
certain, that the parental
instincts, reénforced by
habit, will win in the end,

. Fig.9. Cedar-bird at nest shown in Figs. 1, 12, and 13, prepared to feed young
that they will cast out fear, by regurgitation: a characteristic attitude. The parallel outlines of the neck

and draw the birds to their show thatthe golleie tall:

young.

I have used the tent and altered the nesting site in the case of twenty-six nests
belonging to fifteen different species of birds. The experiments were Extent of Appli-
made in the course of two seasons, and the entire list is tabulated as cation of the
follows, the age of the young in most cases being only approximately Method.
accurate :—

12 Wild Birds.

EXPERIMENTS IN THE USE OF THE OBSERVATION TENT AND IN CHANGE OF NESTING
s

SITE.
| AGE
Birps AND Nests, TIME. OF | OF
YOUNG | YOUNG,
|
|
t Redwing Blackbird (Nest undisturbed)............ July 14, 1899 | 3 | a1 days
2 Redwing Blackbird (Nest swayed down one foot)...| July 19, 1900 | 3 5 days
3 Catbird (Nest undisturbed)... 0.222. c0sssesweeen July 23, 1899 | 2 8 days
4 Catbird (Position of nest unchanged)..........-... July 26, 1899 | 3 3-4 days
5 Catbird (Nesting bough displaced ten feet)........ :} Aug. 4, 1899 | 3 7-8 days
6 Catbird (Nest undisturbed)... 2. 240.c0cs0 case sae- June 21, 1900 | 4 7 days
7 Cedar-bird (Nesting bush moved twenty feet)....... Aug. 3, 1899 | 4 g-10 days
3 Cedar-bird (Nesting bough displaced forty feet)....) Aug.21, 1899 | 4 6 days
g Cedar-bird( Nesting boughcutoffandmoved fifty feet).) Aug. 23, 1899 | 2 10 days
ro Cedar-bird (Nest in pine tree; bough moved fifty feet).| July 14, 1900 | 4 7-8 days
11 Red-eyed Vireo (Nesting twig lowered one foot)....| Aug. 3, 1899 | 2 8 days
12 Red-eyed Vireo (Nesting tree cut down and taken
from woods forty feet to Open).s sie. ae cect es sevens July 5, 1900 | 4 g days
13 Robin (Nesting bough cut off and moved thirty feet).| Aug. 9, 1899 | 3 7 days.
14 Robin (Nest in oak thirty feet up ; branch moved to
open field sixty feeb “away ons cs: ate ek wee wees July 25, 1900 | 3 6 days.
15 Bluebird (Nest-hole in apple tree; moved fifty feet to
OPO Melis eruhven- 6-6 yi ehh galechae we cane our wie, eaxyaiecane oat ees Aug.15, 1899 | 4 5 days.
16 Chestnut-sided Warbler (Bushes cleared in front of
MESU) 5 saha ater Meee wa emn: aia a Ce aee uma aeeee June 15, 1900 | 4 eggs
17 Chestnut-sided Warbler (Bushes cleared in front of
TVESU) rates aa cvpracoee muha etme Ie aCe rRnOnE Noh ee eons June 28, 1900 | 4 4 days.
18 Night Hawk (Nesting site with young enclosed with
WaAttlOdtWARS) sar Rataeness cies sare wanale coi ag anes June 29, 1900 | I 5 days.
19 Baltimore Oriole (Nesting branch in apple tree ;
moved twenty-five feet)... ...0 sccase yaaa esas dees June 25, r900 | 3 8-9 days.
20 Kingbird (Nesting branch moved twenty feet)...... July 2, 1900 | 2 6 days.
Kingbird (Nesting branch moved twenty-five feet)...|| July 2, 1900 | 4 7 days.
22 Wilson’s Thrush (Nest in tussock ; whole moved from
swamp -tovopen fifty feeb) as ceiiere aes alesee tenets July 9, 1900 | 3 io days.
23 Chipping Sparrow (Nesting bough moved twenty feet)| July 11, 1900 | 4 4-5 days.
24 Brown Thrush (Nest in thornbush; moved fifteen feet).) July 11, 1900 | 3 4 days.
25 Song Sparrow (Nest in dead sapling ; moved forty feet
CO) OPEN nae tau s oe Mae GD Awe wae © See aparece ees July 17, 1900 | 3 5 days.
26 Kingfisher (Nest in bank; opened at rear)......... July 23, 1900 | 5 9 days.

In only three cases where the nest with its supports was moved did the young suffer,
and in each of these from unusual conditions. A nest of Cedar Waxwings (8) though fed
by both birds and brooded almost constantly, succumbed to the heat, the day being one
of the hardest of the entire summer. The second, a nest of Bluebirds (15), were constantly
fed during the day while I watched them, but the old birds were frightened off at some
later time, and their young left to perish. The third, a nest of Song Sparrows (25), also
came to grief on account of the heat. The day was the hottest ever recorded by the
Weather Bureau in New England, and the nest, which was moved to the open, hap-
pened to be in the crotch of a dead sapling, so that the birds were exposed on all sides.

A New Method of Bird Study and Photography. 13

In one or two instances I had serious trouble from cutting away too much foliage about
a nest in very hot weather, but such accidents are really needless, if one follows the rule
of leaving the birds to their own devices on days of excessive heat and humidity. In all
the other cases, everything went well, and the young left the nest in due course.

Kingbirds have remained in the
nest eleven days after the change,
Robins a week, Cedar-birds six days.
A glance at the table will show that
in one instance, that of the Chestnut-
sided Warbler (16), observations were
begun while there were eggs, and I
have no doubt that in many species
the whole period of life in the nest
from hatching to the time of flight
may be watched from the tent, but
the subject is yet open to experiment.
It is all a question of the strength of
the parental instincts at the period
in question. Where this attachment
to nest and eggs is strong as in Owls,
Fish Hawks, Flickers, Kingbirds,
and the Chipping Sparrows, to men-
tion a few cases, we may look for
success.

I am confident that the movable
tent has a great future as an obser-
vatory forthe study of bird-habit, and
that it will be possible to watch the

Pee fi : Fig. 10. Female Bluebird with cricket in bill, ready to enter
building of the nest in such species as nest-hole. See Fig. 5.

have a strong attachment to chosen
sites, and whose plans are not easily disturbed by trifles. Here is certainly a fallow field
which has been scratched only here and there by the plow, and where attempts to culti-
vate it fail, no harm is done. In making experiments in this direction care should be
taken not to approach too near with the tent, at least on the first day. Again it is pro-
bable that many kinds of birds may be attracted by food and other lures, but the possible
rewards of sedentary experiments in this direction are too uncertain to arouse much en-
thusiasm in the mind of the active bird student.

I have no desire to anticipate every objection which might be raised against the
method, were it possible to do so, but after testing it to the best of my ability with the

opportunities of two summers, I am confident of its value and am ready :
Objections to

to stand sponsor for it in judicious hands. It is hardly necessary to insist the Method.

that it is not designed for exhibition purposes, and that its successful
practice requires some knowledge, with more patience and time.
To the trained naturalist patience has long ceased to bea virtue. He is accustomed

14 Wild Birds.

to work in the field or laboratory for weeks or months to attain a well-defined end, and
that end he will attain, provided it can be compassed by intelligence, industry, and skill.
Patience is the naturalist’s stock in trade, and while no success may come because of
it alone, none can be assured without it.

In the ten days or two
weeks or more of life at
the nest events move rap-
idly and the question of
time is important. Any
interruptions are therefore
opportunities for the dis-
play of patience rather
than for the increase of
knowledge.

We have already seen
that the displacement of
the nest or nesting branch
does not introduce unnat-
ural conditions of any im-
portance into the life of
the birds. Of course every
change wrought by man is
in a certain sense unnatu-
ral. If we pluck a single
leaf from a tree, that tree
is no longer in its natural
state, but the change
counts for nothing. If we
keep on plucking leaves,
however, a time will come
when the arm of the bal-
ance is disturbed, and the
denuded tree is sure to

Fig.11. Female Chestnut-sided Warbler shielding the young on a warm day.
Photographed from tent shown in Figs. 2 and 3. suffer. The removal of a

leaf or twig about a nest

is of no practical consequence, but this should not be carried too far, both on account of
the young which need the protection of shade, and for the sake of natural appearances
which we wish to preserve.

It might be supposed that when a branch is lopped off, its foliage would at once
wither, and unduly expose the nest or detract from the artistic value of a picture. The
fact is, however, that there is commonly enough sap in a hard wood bough of moderate
size to keep the leaves fresh for several days,’ and towards the close of life at the nest the

! When the nesting branch is vertical and not too large, it can be easily kept fresh by placing it in a jug or can

of water which should be set in the ground,

A New Method of Bird Study and Photography. 15

young need no protection from this source. As to this point, however, the illustrations
in this book will speak for themselves.

Evergreens like the pine and spruce hold their leaves bright for a long time after
cutting, and in this respect the various deciduous trees and shrubs differ greatly, those
with a hard, close grain keeping fresh the longer.

As to any injury to trees which the method may be supposed to entail, it is not worth
considering, since no valuable tree should be mutilated without first obtaining the per-
mission of the owner, for however trifling the damage may appear, his point of view Is
likely to be different from your own. The cutting of an occasional twig or branch, even
if it does not trim the tree, is not regarded as an important event in this country at
present. If every farmer who owns orchards and woodlands did his duty, he would cut out
more useless wood in a year than a student of birds would need to doinadecade. It is
possibly unnecessary to add that no one should set up a nest in a field, and leave the
trouble of removing it to the owner of the land.

A more serious objection is likely to occur to the ornithologist, namely the liability
of exposing the birds to new enemies. I feared lest prowling cats should discover the
young ones whose nest and branch had been brought down from the tree top, and set up
again in plain sight within easy reach from the ground, but I was happily mistaken.
Predacious animals of all kinds seem to avoid such nests as if they were new devices to
entrap or slay them.

As to the weather, barring heat which must be guarded against in the way described,
the nesting bough is more secure when fixed firmly to supports than it could possibly
have been before. The only depredator of whom I stand in fear is the irresponsible or
malicious small boy, and to anticipate his possibilities for evil, I take a look at the nest now
and then when not encamped beside it.

When the nest is completely exposed and the weather is very hot, the young may be
tempted to forsake it a day or two earlier than they would naturally do, but this does not
usually happen and is not necessarily serious. Some Kingbirds, already referred to, spent
eighteen days in the nest, and were a week old when it was moved. This was probably
longer than common, and certainly longer than necessary.

The tent not only conceals the observer but protects his camera, an important con-
sideration, since the prolonged action of the sun is liable to spring a leak in the bellows.
As to the portability and general convenience of the tent I shall speak elsewhere.

With notebook in hand you can sit in your tent, and see and record everything which
transpires at the nest, the mode of approach, the kind of food brought, the varied activi-
ties of the old and young, the visits of intruders, and their combats with
the owners of the nest, the capture of prey which sometimes goes on
under your eye. No better position could be chosen for hearing the
songs, responsive calls, and alarm notes of the birds. You can thus gather materials for
an exact and minute history of life at the nest, and of the behavior of birds during this
important period. More than this, you can photograph the birds at will, under the most
perfect conditions, recording what no naturalist has ever seen, and what no artist could

Advantages of
the Method.

ever hope to portray. The birds come and go close to your eye, but unconscious of
being observed.
I have watched the Night Hawk feed her chick with fireflies barely fifteen inches

16 Wild Birds.

from my hand, the Kingfisher carrying live fish to its brood whose muffled rattles issued
from their subterranean gallery a few feet away. When near enough to count her respi-
rations accurately, I have seen the Redwing Blackbird leave her nest on a hot day, hop
down to the cool water of the swamp, and after taking a sip, bathe in full view, within
reach of the hand; then, shaking the water from her plumage, she would return refreshed
to the nest. I have seen the male Kingbird come to his nesting bough with feathers
drenched from his midday bath in the river, the Orioles flash their brilliant colors all day
long before the eye, and Chestnut-sided Warblers become so tame after several days that
the female would allow you to approach and stroke her back with the hand.

It is difficult to describe the fascination which this method of study affords the
student of animal life. New discoveries, or unexpected sights wait on the minutes, for
while there is a well-ordered routine in the actions of many birds the most charming
pictures occur at odd moments, and there is an endless variety of detail. It is like a suc-
cession of scenes in a drama, only this is real life, not an imitation, and there is no need
of introducing tragedy.

He who runs may sometimes read and observe a few things, and so may he who per-
forms gymnastic feats in the branches of tall trees or does penance in a hundred other
ways, but from the tent one may read the life of the nesting bird as out of an open book.

Cir TE Ron,

ILLUSTRATIONS OF THE METHOD.

illustrations of the method applied I have selected four common birds, the Cedar

Waxwing, the Baltimore Oriole, the Redwing Blackbird, and the Kingbird. The
choice might have fallen, however, upon any others in my list, for the principles are in
every case the same.

Since the breeding habits of these birds will be described more fully at a later time,
the change of their nesting site and their behavior in the face of new surroundings need
only concern us for the present.

On the third day of July a Cedar-bird’s nest (No. 10 of table on page 12) was discovered
in an unusually attractive situation. It was fastened to the horizontal branch of a white pine
about fifteen feet up, in the line of an old stone wall that bounded an
open field. In passing beneath the tree almost daily during the follow-
ing week, I was sure to find one of the old birds, the female as I supposed, always on the
nest and sitting in the same alert attitude, engaged either in incubation or brooding.
With upstretched neck she would sit motionless and silent as a statue, as if listening
intently, her dark eye shining like a jet black bead against the background of pine
needles. I was waiting for the propitious time to move this nest to the open field. This
time arrived on July 14th, when the heads of the young began to appear over the rim
of their nest. The bough was then sawn off, carried fifty feet from the tree, and set up
in the newly mown field, in an east to west line at a height of four feet from the ground,
and in sucha way that the birds could be “skyed,” and the light would be good from nine
o'clock in the morning until three in the afternoon. The tent was then pitched and
closed ; the whole operation lasted longer than usual owing to some difficulty in getting
stakes of the right height. Fifteen minutes is usually long enough for this work.

From peep holes the old birds could be seen in the nesting tree, and you began to
hear their faint s-e-e-e-e-e-7, in response to calls from the young. In twenty-four minutes
the female was on the bough and fed her brood with red bird cherries by regurgitation.
At this point I was obliged to leave the tent and request some curious boys to keep
away, but the mother bird was back ina moment. Ina short time the old birds began
to alight on the peak of the tent, which was an observatory for them as well as for the
person inside. Taking a look about, they would drop down to the nest only a step away.
This was done more than ten times in the course of the day. Observations began at
8.40 in the morning and closed at 4.40, so that with an intermission at noon, they lasted
nearly seven hours and twenty minutes. During this interval the young were fed with

| is always interesting to see how birds actually behave when put to the test, and as

The Cedar-bird.

18 Wild Birds.

wild red cherries, blueberries and insects, mainly grasshoppers, and nearly always by regur-
gitation. The nest and young were regularly cleaned, and the new conditions seemed to
have been completely adopt-
ed. The young, whose wing-
quills now showed half an
inch of the feather-shaft,
were entirely fearless.

On July 16th, the second
day of observation and the
third after the removal of the
nesting bough, the old birds
began the work of feeding in
exactly twelve minutes after
the tent was in place. I will
add here that I have always
removed the tent at the end
of the day’s work, although
in some species it would be
of undoubted advantage to
leave it overnight. In a little
more than three hours the
old birds came to the nest
eighteen times, bringing
abundant stores of fruit and
insects.

On July 17th, the third
day at this nest, feeding be-
gan in three minutes after
closure of the tent. It was
the hottest day of the sum-

Fig.12. Cedar-bird’s nest—No. ro of table—in original position marked by s
arrows. See Figs. 9 and 13. mer, but life at the nest went

on without accident or inter-

ruption. The young now sat or stood with heads upturned in the characteristic attitude
shown in one of the illustrations. They flew on the morning of the nineteenth of
July, when thirteen days old, seeking the cover of a thicket of birches close by, where
they were cared for by their parents until ready to leave the neighborhood. They were
scattered over an area of several square rods, and kept calling in their monotonous
way, 2-¢-¢-¢-e-t! s-¢-e-e-c-t/ One of their number, shown in a photograph (Fig. 47), was
not touched or posed, but occupied a natural perch chosen by himself in his flight from
tree to tree. :
This Oriole’s nest (No. 19 of table) was fortunately placed in an apple tree scarcely
twenty feet up, so that no gymnastic feat was needed to bring the branch to the ground.
The noisy young calling with incessant reiteration, weck-2ck-wch-tck-1ck |
The Baltimore 1 dvertised their nest to every passer by, and it was surprising that it had

Oriole. ‘
remained unmolested.

Illustrations of the Method. 19

This beautiful nest with the entire bough to which it was strung was moved eight
yards from the tree, set up in the way described, and the tent was closed at a quarter past
eight o’clock. After repeated visits to the apple tree both birds disappeared, but did not
go out of hearing of their young, who in a half-hour’s time began giving their weck-zck-
wk-ick / with an emphasis sure to evoke response.

The old birds began to approach, sounding now and then their peculiar rattle, and
the female could be seen exploring the foliage of a neighboring tree. At fifteen minutes
past nine one of them was skirmishing about the tent, and in five minutes alighted
above the nest with a green larva in bill. This larva however had another destiny that
was apparent at the moment, for a puff of wind frightened the bird away. At her next
visit a strawberry was brought and safely delivered, in exactly one hour and seventeen
minutes from the beginning of operations.

Observations were continued until 4.25 P.M. or, allowing for the noon intermission,
during seven and a quarter hours. In this period the parents were at the nest fifty times
bringing insects and fruit. Sometimes the feedings would follow at two or three minute
intervals; then longer lapses would occur.

On the second day, June 26th, the female brought food in five minutes after the tent
was up, and during the space of six hours and twenty-three minutes while operations
lasted, the young
were fed one hund-
red and sixteen times
by both birds. I left
the tent and entered
it again several times
during the day, and
once moved both
bough and tent to
improve the light.
By this time the Ori-
oles showed no fear,
but came to the nest-
ing branch in from
one to two minutes
after I had entered
the tent. During an
interval of ten min-

m rare == 4

utes, the young were
fed eleven times.
The tent was
closed at 8.30 on the
morning of the third

Fig. 13. Cedar-bird’s nest in its new site. Nesting bough moved fifty feet to open field.
day, June 27th, and Compare Figs. 1, 9, and 12.

the first feeding came
off in five minutes. In two hours and twenty-five minutes the old birds made forty-four
visits to the nest bringing strawberries and insects, and towards eleven o'clock one of the

20 Wild Birds.

young who for a long time had been exercising his wing- and leg-muscles by climbing to

the rim of the pouch, took his first flight, making a neighboring tree. Not long after, a

second bird climbed out of the sack

iy” ” and was off, lured away by its parents.

4 The third and last bird left a little

later, and towards evening the young

_ were calling from trees down the
hillside.

On the fifth day of July a nest of

three young Blackbirds (No. 2 of the

table), aged five days,

The Redwi
mieseegis was found on the edge

Blackbird.
of what was once an

alder swamp, close to the town and
the “ Cove”’ made by the Winnipi-
seogee River in Northfield. It was
fixed to several slender stems of
Spireea, amid a dense tangle of
Cephalthus, wild roses, and purple
milkweeds. The situation was so
attractive and offered such fine op-
portunities for studying these birds
that, notwithstanding the water and
mud, I determined to make careful
preparations. A space four feet
square was at once cleared of bushes
at one side of the nest. In order
to sky the birds, the nesting twigs
were slightly raised, but none of
these were severed or otherwise dis-
Fig. 14. Baltimore Oriole inspecting young after having fed pee : :
them. On the ninth of July I built a raft
or platform on the cleared area, and
painted it green, possibly an unnecessary precaution. When weighted with the observer and
his apparatus, the flooring was barely clear of the water. On the following day, the tent was
pitched over this stranded raft and guyed to the bushes, the tent poles having been
previously lengthened to suit the depth of mud and water. Everything was ready for
observations at half-past nine o'clock. At first the birds fluttered around the nest chuck-
zg and whistling incessantly, but in less than an hour the warble of the male was
heard, which is a sure sign of growing confidence. Then both birds went off for food,
returned, reconnoitred the tent and nest, and after precisely one hour and twenty-three
minutes from the beginning of observations the female came and fed her clamoring young.
Again she was off and back three times in rapid succession. Three minutes later she was
brooding, and remained on the nest thirteen minutes. Leaving it again, she examined
the tent anew, then brooded ten minutes more. A little later the young were fed and the
nest cleaned with great care.

Illustrations of the Method. 21

The male was more cautious and did not actually feed his young until twenty-seven
minutes after eleven. His fears were then dispelled and life at the nest went on without
interruption. At about noon the old birds were using the tent as a half-way house,
alighting on its peak and guys, and foraging about it forfood. Inthe space of four hours
on the first day, during which the birds were watched at a distance of about twenty-seven
inches, fifty-four visits were made and the young were fed forty times. The female
brooded her young over an hour, fed them twenty-nine times, and cleaned the nest
thirteen times. The male made eleven visits, attending to sanitary matters but twice.
This example illustrates as well as any which could be given the advantage which attends
the use of the observation tent.

On the following day, July rith, the female was at the nest and brooding her young
in five minutes after the tent was in position. Presently she Ieft to hunt for insects,
alighted on the tent, and five minutes later was feeding her young and cleaning the nest.
In the course of nearly three and one half hours, fifty-five visits were made and the young
were fed collectively or singly forty-three times. At about half-past eleven o'clock one
of the fledglings left the nest and was fed by the old birds in the surrounding bushes of
the swamp. The female brought food thirty-two times, cleaned the nest eight times, and
brooded eighteen times for intervals varying from thirty seconds to eighteen minutes.
This bird cut a queer figure while stand-
ing or sitting in the sun, with wings
spread and bristling like a turkey-cock
with every feather erect, and with
mouth agape, trying to keep cool while
shielding her family from the heat. Her
breathings were at the rate of 150 to
160 times a minute. The male bird
served food eleven times and attended
tosanitary mattersonce. In the course
of forty-two minutes the first young
bird to leave the nest was fed eight
times, seven times by the mother and
once by the father. Three days later
the swamp was visited at just after sun-
down, when the young birds suddenly
arose from the nest and flew off with
ease and precision.

Kingbirds pose so well, especially
about their nests, that I was anxious to
see how they would stand

The Kingbird.
the test of a sudden change sd

in their surroundings. Accordingly, I Fig. 15. Baltimore Oriole inspecting nest when behavior has
watched with unusual care two nests become more free.

which were found near my house. On

the thirteenth day of June one had two and the other four eggs all freshly laid, and these
appeared to be the full complement. Young were hatched in each nest on or near the
twenty-fifth of the month.

22 Wild Birds.

The first nest was built at the top of a hill, about a rod from the Oriole’s nest already
described, on the horizontal limb of a small apple tree twelve feet up, and was a conspicu-
ous object to all who passed that way. The nesting bough was removed and mounted in
a good position on the morning of July 2d, and the tent was closed at half-past eight
o'clock. At this time the two young were six days old and covered with light gray down.
While the operation was in progress the old birds hovered over the nest, and with their
usual boldness, swooped down
close to my head, snapping their
bills and uttering their piercing
alarms.

After the tent was closed,
much to my surprise all became
quiet, and I could see both birds
—the female with insect in bill
--exploring the nesting tree
twenty feet away. She would
fly to that point in space which
the nest formerly occupied, and
hover over it repeatedly, a char-
acteristic action of many birds
under such circumstances. Ten
minutes later the female was
again at the nesting tree with
insects. Foran hour afterwards
all was quiet. The old birds
were sitting by in silence, prob-
ably not far away. At ten min-
utes before eleven o'clock one
of the pair, probably the female,
came with a swoop to the nest-
ing branch, and I believe fed her
young. Inthiscase the observer

had to wait two hours and twen-

Fig.16. Tent over raft in water of swamp beside Redwing Blackbird’s < :
nest. See Figs. 21 and 22. ty minutes before having the

birds close to his eye, but he was
well repaid for the delay as the sequel willshow. In one minute the mother had returned,

and now both began to make up for lost time. In five hours and six minutes (from 10.50
A.M. to 4.36 P.M., allowing for an intermission of forty minutes when the observer was
away), the old birds made seventy-five visits to the nest. Not only had they become
accustomed to the tent, but soon paid little heed to anything about it, and one could
photograph them at will, focusing directly upon the brooding or standing bird. After I
had entered the tent, they would be at the nest in five minutes or even less time, and
the young were often fed at half-minute intervals. Occasionally both birds were at the
nest together, but this seldom happened unless the female was brooding.

On the second day the male came to the nesting branch in twelve minutes after the

Fig.17. Female Kingbird balancing herself with raised wings while feeding young.

Fig. 18, Male Kingbird seeing a cicada safely down a hungry throat.

Fig.19. Kingbirds rending an unruly dragon-fly. The female, who stands in front, was brooding when
the prey was brought by the male.

Fig.20. Kingbird family, The male—to the right—has captured a dragon-fly, whose stick of a body
is seen projecting from the mouth of a young bird,

Illustrations of the Method. 27

tent was in position, and the panora-
mic scenes of life at this nest went on
without disturbance for the rest of
that day. The birds were before
your eye, literally at hand, and the
observer had only to watch and re-
cord the rapidly shifting scenes with
pencil and camera.

On the third day, July 4th, the
female was on the bough in six min-
utes, and in six and a half minutes
from the beginning of operations fed
her brood.

The fourth day of study at this
nest, or the sixth from the time of
displacement, was the most interest-
ing ofall. There were now two foster
children in addition to the two born
in the house, for I had transferred
two birds from a former nest (No. 21
of table). No protest was made at

Fig. 22. Female Redwing Blackbird with feathers erect, keep-
ing cool while shielding young from heat,

Fig. 21. Male Redwing Blackbird feeding young.

this intrusion, but the strangers were
adopted almost immediately and fed
and guarded with all the care given
to their own offspring.

In the space of four hours (8.54
A.M. to 12.50 P.M.) the parents made
one hundred and eight visits to the
nest and fed their brood ninety-one
times. In this task the female bore
the larger share, bringing food more
than fifty times, although the male
made a good showing, having a rec-
ord of thirty-seven visits to his credit.
During this long interval the young
were thus fed on the average of once
in two and one half minutes. At each
feeding usually one and but rarely
two birds were served. During the
first hour the young were fed on an
average of once in one and a half
minutes. The observer was kept on

28 Wild Birds.

the alert in recording what took place, and the scenes would often shift so quickly that it
was difficult to decide which bird came to the nest. The mother brooded eighteen times,
and altogether for the space of one hour and twenty minutes. The nest was cleaned
seven times, and the nest and young were constantly inspected and picked all over
by both birds, although the female was the more scrupulous in her attentions.

Whenever the male brought a large dragon-fly to the young an exciting scene was
sure to follow. If the female happened to be brooding at the time, she would seize the
struggling insect and try to start it down one of the hungry throats. If she failed in this
the male would snatch it from her to try his skill, and usually with as little success. In
this way the prey would be passed back and
forth, until it was crushed between the bills
of the two birds, or torn limb from limb.
Some of these unequal contests between birds
and insects are illustrated by the photo-
graphs.

When the male brought a moth miller
and accidentally dropped it close to the tent,
he went after it like a flash, and to place its
security beyond doubt swallowed it himself.
Again, one of the birds while perched near by
was seen to disgorge the indigestible parts of
its insect food, a common practice with fly-
catchers both old and young.

I have added the foregoing details in
order to show with what harmony life at the
new nesting site proceeds when once the

Fig. 23. Young Kingbird eighteendaysold. ‘‘Thelast ;
to leave flew easily two hundred feet down the hillside.” severed th reads have been united. A knowl-

edge of former conditions seemed to have
been completely effaced. The nesting bough was defended with the same bold spirit for
which this bird is celebrated. The young were brooded night and day, while birds of
other species were constantly assailed and driven from the premises.

At noon on the ninth day of July one Kingbird, then full-fledged, was standing on
the branch beside the nest. When touched he was off like a shot, and at this signal
the others tried their wings for the first time and landed in the grass. After being
replaced many times, two consented to remain, and spent that night in the old home, but
forsook it the next morning, when two weeks old. The first nest, which had been dis-
placed in a similar way and which as we have seen eventually contained two birds, was
occupied eighteen days. The last to leave flew easily two hundred feet down the hill-
side on the thirteenth of July. After taking this one home to secure a photograph,
I carried him to the hilltop and tossed him in the air. In his second flight which was
long and good, he made a distant apple tree. Both old and young birds remained in the
neighborhood for several weeks, and were still there when I went away in early August.

Cie TER
TENT AND CAMERA: THE TOOLS OF BIRD-PHOTOGRAPHY.

HOTOGRAPHY has become so essential to the practice of the other arts and
sciences, that the student need not suffer from lack of advice, or of detailed man-
uals which treat every branch of the subject.

In the notes which follow I shall confine myself mainly to the results of personal ex-

perience in working with the tent.

The Observation Tent.—To satisfy the student and photographer of birds, the tent
must not only afford a perfect means of concealment, but must be light, portable, easily
adjusted, and to the fastidious, a most important consideration,—comfortable to work in.

The tent which I have used for two seasons and will now describe, meets these
requirements fairly well. It is made of stout grass-green' denim, and with the frame
weighs only six and one half pounds. It can be pitched in ten minutes almost anywhere,
and may be compactly rolled, and carried for miles without serious inconvenience. It is
64 ft. tall, 4} ft. long, and 34 ft wide, dimensions which will be found suitable for a person
not much above the average height. One may spend any number of hours in it by day or
night, and with a fair degree of comfort, excepting in very hot or sultry weather, when
exposed to the sun on all sides. I have suspended operations but once on account
of the heat, but there have been occasions when to have done so might have been better.

The tent frame is in three pieces, two upright poles or stakes with folding cross-bars,
and an adjustable ridge-pole. The stakes should be from six to six and a half feet long,
and may be easily lengthened at any time, as when the tent is to be pitched in a swamp
or over mud and water. They are pointed at the lower ends which are set in the
ground, and capped above with an arch of sheet zinc or iron to receive the ridge-pole.
The latter is held in place with two pins or wire nails which are pressed through a hole
in the zinc cap, and through the end of the ridge-pole into the upright stake. The eaves
of the tent consist of a double fold of cloth projecting half an inch, to each corner
of which is sewn a covered wire ring. When in position the tent is firmly guyed by
small cords fastened to each ring. The flaps are placed at one of the corners, and may be
pinned together when in use. The free lower border of the tent is fixed to the ground
by wire pins, which may be pushed through the cloth at convenient places. From four
to eight of these pins are needed, and each should be seven or eight inches long, and
have a large soldered loop at one end.

The tent may be ventilated from above and made more comfortable on hot days by

1 Brown or gray might answer as well. The green color serves to render the tent inconspicuous to both ani-
mals and men.

30 Wild Birds.

cutting out a large flap on each side of the roof, extending this a foot or less, and then
guying each corner separately, at such an angle as to admit a free passage of air under
the peak. For convenience I prefer the simpler form.

After working one summer with the tent I saw for the first time the interesting work
of the brothers Kearton,' in which a different kind of blind is used. They devised an
imitation tree-trunk, having a
skeleton of bamboo rods and
a covering of galvanized wire
and green cloth, large enough
to hold the photographer
standing erect with his camera.
The outside was painted in
imitation of bark and decorat-
ed with moss and leaves. This
was used in cases of nests
placed on or near the ground
in favorable situations. Mr.
Kearton says it would hardly
do to set this up beside an ex-
posed nest like a lark’s “in
the middle of a bare ten-acre
field,” and to suit such a case
they constructed an artificial
rubbish heap, from which pho-
tographs were — successfully
made.

Such devices are of course
unnecessary when the nesting
site is brought under control,
since in this case the birds
must become accustomed toa
changed environment, and the
addition of the tent is a fac-

Fig. 24. The tools of bird-photography: the tent rolled up in portable tor of no great importance.
form at right, 3
Then again the great heat of
summer would prohibit their use in most parts of this country. Aside from the question
of comfort however, the advantages of the tent lie in its convenience and portability. It
is a simple means of attaining what is chiefly sought, perfect concealment. The reason it
has not been adopted before possibly arises from the fact that the readiness with which
many birds become accustomed to strange objects, or form new habits, has not hitherto
been appreciated. Since individual and specific differences are so great in the class of
birds, whose distribution is world-wide, one should not be surprised if there are many
cases in which the tent or any similar blind would not work with success.

1 Wild Life at Home: How to Study and Photograph It, By W. Kearton, illustrated by C. Kearton. Cassell
& Company, 1899.

Tent and Camera: The Tools of Bird-Photography. 31

The Tent in Use-—Some difficulty may be experienced in pitching the tent in exactly
che right position with reference to the nest, without the necessity of further change.
The factors to be borne in mind are the height of the sun, the focal length of the lens,
and the position of the window to be made in the tent-front directly opposite the nest.
The front of the tent should be parallel with the nesting bough (when there is one), and
the long axis of the latter should be parallel with the sun's course. The tent is so placed
that the nest is in direct line, not with the middle of the tent, but with the window to
one side. When the observer stands within, facing the nest, the window lies to his left, at
one side of the vertical stake, and either just over the cross-piece or somewhere below it,
depending on the height of the nest from the ground. The tent will not overshadow the
nesting bough when once it is in proper position.

If the focal length of the lens be 64 inches, and the nest that of a Cedar Waxwing, which
is mounted at the height of four feet, and the tent be so placed that the front of the lens is
twenty-eight inches from the rim of the nest, we shall get a picture with adequate setting on
a 4x5 plate, like many shown in the engravings. With lenses of longer focus, which it
is advisable to use if possible, it is not necessary to approach so near. The large Robin
pictures were made with a 93%, inch lens on a 5 x7 plate, at a distance of about four feet.

When the position has been determined the tent-poles are set firmly into the ground,
the ridge-pole adjusted and the tent-cloth thrown over it. It saves time to lay one end
of the peak in position and draw the other over to its proper place. The cross-pieces are
then lowered from the inside and the guys loosely set. A flap about six inches square is
then cut with scissors in the front of the tent, to the left of the pole opposite the nest,
which can be viewed through the opening. Should the position subsequently prove to be
wrong, the poles may be raised both together and reset. When everything is right the
guys are tightened, and the free edges fixed to the ground with wire pins, which will hold
the walls taut and prevent excessive flapping when there is wind. It is often convenient
to have the flap at the front on the operator's left so that one leg of the tripod may pro-
ject through it.

The proper adjustment of the camera follows, the nest being the object focused until
the old birds appear. I have found it advantageous to pin the focusing cloth firmly
around the camera so that it is always in position for use, and to stretch a piece of green
denim on the side of the camera next the observer, fixing it between the front fold of the
focusing cloth and the tent so that it hangs vertical, and effectually conceals the operator
when standing upright and setting the shutter. Peep-holes are made to command all
directions, and of course the nesting bough to which attention is mainly given. It is con-
venient to make small V-shaped openings which can be pinned up or down. A bird will
sometimes detect some movement of the eye when close to such openings, so that they
should not be made larger or more numerous than necessary.

When a photograph has been made and the shutter is to be reset, the vertical flap is
released from the focusing cloth and carefully drawn over the window, if the birds happen
to be at the nest as when the female is brooding. Otherwise if timid or unaccustomed to the
new conditions, the movement of the hand may bea source of alarm. I have successively
photographed family groups without disturbing them, when at a distance of twenty-eight
to thirty-six inches, after they had learned to disregard the click of the shutter. Whena
window in a different position is wanted, the old one is patched up and a new one made.

Wild Birds.

Camera.—Any good long focus camera with reversible back will answer, the size
and weight being the considerations of greatest moment. Most naturalists and sports-
men, who travel long distances and carry their own traps, find a camera which takes a
4x5 plate the most convenient and economical. I have used this, but for work with
the tent prefer the 5x7 size because it gives a larger and better picture of the object
sought. The large camera with a heavy lens may be a drag on the mind and body of the
most enthusiastic pedestrian, but one is usually amply repaid for the greater trouble
involved. For long journeys however the lightest possible outfit is decidedly preferable.

In working at short range with lenses of moderate focus the long bellows is a necessity,
and at the same time enables one to take full sized pictures of small objects, as well as to
use the telephoto lens should this be desired. The reversible back, making it possible
to reverse the position of the plate without moving the camera and often without disturb-
ing the bird, is an adjunct of the greatest convenience.

While the best tools are always to be desired, excellent pictures can be made with a
cheap outfit, provided the lens is rapid enough. Nearly all of my own work has been
done in the tent with the birds at hand, but in taking quick shots of birds or quadrupeds
when there is no lure to chain them to a given spot a hand-box camera is needed. The
lens should be of long focus, and the adjustments such as to enable the operator to focus
and expose as nearly simultaneously as possible. To meet these requirements the twin-
lens and reflecting cameras, both of which are old inventions,’ have in recent years been
placed on the market in improved and serviceable forms.

The ‘‘twin-lens”’ consists of two cameras, set one above the other, the bellows of
which move as one. The lower takes the picture, while the upper gives the image which
is reflected on a glass plate set in the top of the box. Besides being expensive and
heavy, the trade sizes of these cameras are apt to be of too short focus to be of much
service to the animal photographer.

The reflecting camera’ does the work of the two lenses with a single lens and
bellows, and in the recent designs is provided with a focal plane shutter, which is one of
the best for exposures quicker than the zt, second mark of ordinary shutters. Like the
upper half of the ‘‘twin-lens”’ it has a movable mirror, set at an angle of 45 °, which casts
the image made by the lens on a plate of ground glass set in the top of the box and shielded
by an adjustable hood. The mirror is so placed between the plate and lens that the dis-
tance from lens to sensitive plate equals the distance traversed by light in passing from lens
to mirror and ground glass. When the object is focused, a lever is pressed which raises the
mirror and automatically releases the shutter. One must expect to find the image on the
ground glass somewhat dimmer than when no interposing mirror is used. To be most
serviceable this camera should have a long bellows.

The Lens.—In animal photography short and long focus, and telephoto lenses are
available. My own experience has been mainly limited to the following: Zeiss Anastigmat

1 The principle of the reflecting camera was applied as early as 1860, and various forms of the reflex type were
devised during the next thirty years. In 1891 Dr. Kriigener of Frankfort brought out his ‘‘ Normal Reflex-Camera,”
in which the construction, though somewhat complicated, was much improved. The principles are essentially the
same in the later designs: see Ausfivihrliches Handbuch der Photographic, by Josef Maria Eder, Halle, 1891. For an
account of the reflecting camera with focal plane shutter, by Mr John Rowley, see Bird Lore, April, 1900.

* Manufactured by the Reflex Camera Co., Yonkers, N. Y.

Tent and Camera: The Tools of Bird-Photography. 33

Series ii a, 64 inch, speed 4; Convertible Anastigmat, Series vii a, combined equivalent
focus 8 inches, speed 3 ; Extra Rapid Universal Lens, Series D,9 % inch, speed {.'

The convertible anastigmats are convertible in two or three lenses of different
foci, according as the single anastigmats are of equal or different focus. They thus com-
bine in a single lens the possibilities of working with short and long focus, the greatest
speed being obtained when each system of the doublet has the same focus.

Fig. 25. Female Brown Thrush stepping into her nest to brood.

In photographing animals close at hand the anastigmatic qualities of a lens count for
little. It is depth of focus combined with high speed which are most needed, conse-
quently any lens possessing these qualities will answer.

One of the most difficult problems in bird-photography has hitherto been that of ap-
proach within “ shooting” distance. The control of the nesting site, and the use of the tent
offer a solution so far as life at the nest is concerned, in at least many species, and the
tent in its general use does away with the need of the very long focus or telephoto

lenses.

1 These lenses are made by the Bausch & Lomb Optical Co., Rochester, N.Y.

34 Wild Birds.

In photographing birds sitting, brooding, or standing at the nest there is no difficulty
with a lens of speed ¥, which requires s'; second to fully expose the plate, at a distance
of twenty-eight inches with full lens and strong light. With scenes in which the actors
are in constant motion, however, we require a much faster lens, which will reduce the
exposure to at least s45 of a second.

For photographing inaccessible nests, and birds which pose well but are unapproach-
able under ordinary conditions, we must resort to the long focus and telephoto lenses.
The long exposure required for the telephoto lenses now on the market, from one half a
second to a second or more, restricts their use to comparatively rare and lucky chances

The Tripod.cWhen two cameras are carried of the 4 x 5 and 5 x 7 size, a single
tripod will answer for both, provided it is moderately stiff about the head. A two-length
tripod of medium weight will serve most purposes, but a shorter one is also required for
nests on or near the ground. This is best made by cutting down one of the ordinary
kind, rather than resorting to those of the multifolding type, which are constantly spread-
ing and slipping at critical moments.

The ‘ Graphic” ball and socket clamp, used as a camera holder for the bicycle, has
been strongly recommended as a substitute for the tripod or as an adjunct to it, as in
photographing nests in trees, when the clamp which is screwed to the camera is fastened
to a convenient limb, but since my own work has been of another kind, I have had little
occasion for its use.

The Shutter.—In photographing birds whose sense of hearing is well known to be
acute, next to a good lens, a silent shutter is most needed, especially when the camera is
less than three feet away. The shutter which is silent not only in name but in actual use,
and at all speeds, is at present one of the greatest needs in the photography of animals,
and especially of birds.

Birds will often jump into the air as if shot, at the first click of the metallic shutter.
Fortunately, however, the force of habit now comes to our aid, since they gradually learn
that it is harmless, and may be safely disregarded.

The ‘iris diaphragm shutter,” which I have mainly used, is often troublesome in that
some part of the sound arises at the very beginning of the exposure, so that a startled
bird in the course of s!, of a second may be all over your plate. The marks on all such
shutters, which are conventional rather than exact time measurements, differ in different
shutters of the same or different make, and their limit of rapidity does not exceed
“717 second.” For greater speeds the focal plane or some other very rapid shutter
must be used.

Flates.—For animal photography the most rapid plates are none too fast, and any of
the best brands can be recommended. It is always a good plan to adhere to one kind
which has proved satisfactory. One piece of advice should not come amiss, which is to
always use fresh plates, and all of the same emulsion if possible, and if any doubt as to
their age exists, to test them before starting on an expedition. Old plates blacken along
their edges in a characteristic manner, when placed in the developer, and if deterioration
passes this stage the whole plate will fog. The dusting of plates, slides, and holders be-
fore reloading, and the carriage of all unused plates in a dust-proof bag, are as much a
necessity now as ever.

Much of my own work has been done in the country with dark room and _ base of

Tent and Camera: The Tools of Bird-Photography.

Go
wm

supplies close at hand. Under these conditions it is not necessary to carry more than two
or three dozen plates at a time. By developing on the day of exposure it is possible to
correct errors or fill up the gaps on the day following.

Orthochromatic plates require careful treatment, but in skillful hands offer advan-
tages which should not be neglected. This is well illustrated in the case of birds of bril-
liant colors like the Orioles, which on ordinary plates appear as ‘“‘ Blackbirds’ (compare
figures 14, 15).

Accessorics.—The minor articles which are needed to complete the photographer's
outfit, all of which can be rolled up with the tent or better carried in a hand bag, will be
suggested by a little experience in the field. A saw, hatchet and nails are often required,
as well as scissors, pins, the supply of which is always liable to run out, and a small hand
mirror for use in setting the shutter from the rear. A toilet hand mirror which can be
turned at any angle is a convenient means of inspecting the interior of nests inaccessible
to the hand, but within reach of the mirror attached to a pole.

CHAPTER TY,

THE ROBIN AT ARM’S LENGTH.

It would be hard to find a better symbol of cheerfulness than the Robin singing through the rain. The green
grass pricking through the April snow is a pleasant sight because it is the sign of spring. For the same reason the
snow-laden twigs of the apple tree on the lawn take on a new interest when a Robin alights in them and turns its
bright breast to your window.

O bird is better known in America than the Robin who annually visits nearly every
part of the continent. Upon the whole it shuns the forest and comes to the
haunts of man, to the farm, the village and the city street, with their attractive

orchards and parks, their long lines of shade trees and green lawns.

Is it possible to say anything new
about such a familiar personality? Not
much, you may think, yet it will be inter-
esting to study our friend at a closer range
than is usually possible. In this case we
shall ‘‘ make the mountain come to Maho-
met,” or bring the nest from the treetop to
a point nearer the ground, where there is
no foliage to obscure our vision, and where
we can see every thing that transpires,
within reach of the hand.

Birds differ slightly in every bodily
character, as well as in every mental trait,
and while we commonly meet with average
types, extremes of temperament are by no
means rare. This fact is illustrated by the
Robins whose history follows.

One pair dwelt in the woods and were
exceedingly wary, while the other was com-
fortably settled in town, and lived on a
familiar footing with man. The town
Robins had, I suspected, already led forth
a brood from a pine tree on the bank close
to my house, but at all events there was a
new nest in the apple tree on the top of the hill, and on the twenty-fifth of July the
mother bird was sitting on three blue eggs. Incubation lasted about two weeks, and life
at the nest about twelve days.

Fig. 26, ‘‘Robin snow” in April < 3.

Fig.27. Head of Cock Robin, life-size X 4}.

Fig. 28. Head of female Robin, life-size x 4}. Photographed at nest immediately after the ‘
young were fed. The slime from their throats sticks to her bill.

The Robin at Arm's Length. 39

When the young were three days old the mother passed some moments of great
suspense. A small flock of Crow Blackbirds alighted on her tree, but either did not dis-
cover the nest, or thought better of disturbing it after seeing its guardian. The wily old
Robin stood alert on the rim of the nest, but said never a word, a plan which good sense
and intelligence could not have improved upon. When the young were eight days old,
the entire bough was sawn off, carefully lowered to the ground and set up on the hillside.

In exactly fifty-five minutes from the beginning of operations the mother appeared
with a large grasshopper, which she gave to the young, and afterwards cleaned the nest.
The male came also, when the comparative safety of the new conditions had become
apparent, but approached with more caution. At first both birds flew to the tree by
their accustomed paths, and examined the place where their bough had been lopped off,
and in their admirable and fearless manner blustered about for a while, taking no pains to
conceal their anger. Of course they knew where their young were all the time, for in
certain directions their vision is keener than any man’s.

We know well with what confidence the Robin flies direct to its nest, when no
danger threatens, but under the present circumstances their suspicions might well have
been aroused. The absence of sound and motion in strange objects is always reassuring,
and soon Mother Robin could be seen perched on the top of an apple tree, surveying
the field. She called seet / seet/ while the grasshopper in her bill squirmed to get free,
and the young chirped loudly in reply.

When their behavior is free and spontaneous it is pleasant to see these birds act
promptly without apparent hesitation. They haggle over nothing but follow the bent
of their strongest instincts. In the present case the fear which controls them for a
time, and overpowers their strong parental love, is gradually worn away. Suddenly
down comes one of the old birds with all its weight on the limb. The young have
felt similar vibrations before and know what to expect. Up go the three heads at
once, each mounted on a slender stalk, and each bearing at its apex what might suggest
a full-blown, brilliant flower, for as is well known, the extent of their gape is extraordin-
ary and the inside of the mouth has a bright orange hue. The young tremble with violent
emotions as they jostle, struggle, and call with undiminished zeal even after being fed.

After the first visit had proved successful, confidence was established at once, the
female and later the male coming to the young at intervals of about five minutes, bring-
ing grasshoppers, and occasionally removing the excreta or devouring it on the spot.
They frequently carried five or six insects at one load, when their bills would suggest a
solid stalk of grasshoppers, all struggling to get free.

The mother did not touch the nest with her feet at the time of her first visit, but
clasped a small vertical branch, and bent down over her young, but ever after both birds
would alight on the broad rim of the nest, and from this vantage point feed, inspect, and
clean the young, one at atime. They suffer nothing to waste, and rarely allow a cricket
or grasshopper to escape, but releasing one at a time see it safely down an open mouth.
Then after inspection is over they fly to the nearest perch, and make haste to clean their
bills and set their dress in order. This done, there is often a pause of a few moments as if
in doubt whether to hunt more grasshoppers, to dig angleworms in yonder cornfield, or to
try the cherry trees along the fence-row. They will take everything which their sharp
eye discerns, and often pick up an insect close to the nest.

40 Wild Birds.

One Robin at the age of eleven days left the family circle early on August 13th, and
at nine o'clock the two which remained were standing up and flapping their wings. The
old birds would come near, displaying tempting morsels in their bills, but with no intention
of feeding their young so long as they remained on the nest. By such tantalizing meth-
ods they soon drew them away. Both old and young hung about the apple trees for sev-
eral days, when they disappeared and were not seen again.

Fig. 29. Female Robin brooding on a hot day —her left wing pushed up by a young bird.

At the stage of flight the young Robins have several distinct call and alarm notes
like those of the adult birds. They can take short, low flights, can hop briskly, and go
to cover instinctively whether with or without warnings. They will also lie quiet in the
grass, as in hiding, a common instinctive act.

The second family of Robins nested high in an oak, and whenever they were ap-
proached the old birds made an admirable show of pugnacity, scolding, screaming, erect-
ing their feathers, snapping their bills and darting straight at your head. Their nesting
branch was taken from the woods to a bare, open field, and set up sixty feet from
the tree in the way already described. The first morning’s experience was rather dis-
couraging, for neither bird would come to its nest while the tent was in front of it. They

Fig. 30. Female Robin inspecting her household immediately after the young have been fed :
a characteristic attitude.

Fig.31. Male Robin serving a cluster of angleworms and a grasshopper. Notice his position
here on the right as in all other pictures of thisnest. See Chapter XII.

The Robin at Arm's Length. 45

called plaintively from the trees, and circled about the nesting bough again and again,
but always kept at a distance. Accordingly, after feeding the young, I decided to strike
tent and wait until next day. There was a heavy thunder storm in the afternoon,
but when I visited the nest towards evening I was pleased to find the young as lively as
ever, and the old birds on guard with their usual spirit and tenacity unimpaired.

The next morning they stormed vigorously about the tent and the male even came
to the nest while I was standing near. After closing the tent I was under the cross-fire
of their wrath for seven or eight minutes, when the alarm calls suddenly ceased, and in
two minutes more the mother was on the nesting bough. The female actually came to
the nest or to the branch which held it eight times in succession, in the space of twelve
minutes, with insect ready but without delivering it. Matters did not altogether please
her yet, and with a shrill see¢ / see¢t / away she would go, but only to return a half min-
ute later. Finally she came boldly to the nest’s brim, uttered a sound like cuck / cuck /
which means “ Open wide!” and produced a number of sturdy looking grasshoppers.
Two minutes later the mother came again, and after feeding the young, picked them all
over, spending a minute and a half in the duties of inspecting and cleaning. It was a hard
task to conquer these birds, but they had to submit to the inevitable, and I have no
doubt but a few days more would have brought them to the hand.

The relative strength of the parental instinct was well illustrated by the behavior of
these Robins. The female was always the first at the nest, and came at forty minutes
after nine o’clock on the second day. The male though constantly skirmishing about with
bill loaded, was not on the branch with food until two hours and ten minutes later. Mean-
time the mother had been giving the young her constant attention. The cock, though at
the nest or on the bough several times, did not actually have the courage to feed his little
ones until long past noon. In the performance of this duty he was three hours and
four minutes behind his mate.

When the male did come at last and deliver food, he gave the nest a good cleaning,
and flew off to acorn patch a hundred yards away. In thirteen minutes, during which
interval the female had brought grasshoppers twice, the male returned triumphantly with
a great cluster of writhing angleworms. After safely dispensing them, he went the rounds of
inspection, devoured the excreta, then stood for a full minute on the rim of his nest and
with crest erect called, wz / «wzt/ wzt/ as if to celebrate a victory and announce
his bravery to the world. Now and again the cock came to the nesting bough but without
food. He wished only to take a look and see that all was well. At one of these visits
he stood on silent guard for full ten minutes, then sped away calling loudly, czt/ wr /
wet /

In the course of the same day a Robin, possibly a young bird, alighted on the
peak of the tent, surveyed the situation, and passed on. When eight days old, on
July 26th, the young began to present their spotted breasts over the walls of the nest
and to spread, stretch, and flap their wings, the quills of which now showed half an
inch of feather at the tips. At every visit of their elders the whole brood went wild
with excitement, but soon quieted down, and the intervals were spent in preening
their sprouting feathers, calling for more food, or dozing with heads hanging down
over the edge of the nest.

The third day opened warm and clear, and towards noon became very hot. Mother

46 Wild Birds.

Robin began to brood at twelve o'clock and for the space of three hours was on and off
the nest constantly, rarely remaining longer than ten minutes at a time either at her
post or away from it. On the fourth day, July 28th, which was destined to be hotter
still, brooding began at exactly eighteen minutes before ten o’clock and the mother
was quietly sitting over the little ones when the tent was struck long past noon.

Fig. 32. Cock Robin standing at inspection, after having fed his young.

Many charming scenes were enacted at this nest during the day, but colored phrases
or colorless pictures do them scant justice. You must fill in the backgrounds of soft
blues and greens, and add the touch of life and color to the actors on the stage.

The following extracts from my notes of this day may give some idea of the panoramic
character of the scenes, in which the element of repetition is not wanting.

July 28, 4th day in tent. 10 A.M. The female comes to the back of. the nest, delivers
food and gocs the rounds of inspection and cleaning, devouring the excreta on the
spot, then settles down on the margin of the nest, steps in and gradually tucks the
young under her breast and wings.

10.12. A whirring sound announces the coming of the male. He approaches always on
the observer’s right, and deliberately hops down to thenest. He is bringing a big
cluster of earthworms. The young get the message the moment the branch is
touched, and poke their heads out from under their mother’s tail, wings, and head,
sometimes raising her bodily, and almost tipping her over. However, she holds

The Robin at Arm’s Length. 47

her place until her mate is close by, then hops up and stands to one side, finally
leaving him to deliver what he has brought.

10.15. The mother is back with food, but it was down the throat of a young one before
I could tell what it was. Cleaning and brooding them followed in due course as
before.

10.18. Cock Robin comes again, but my eye was again off the nest, and in a moment
the business was done. Mother Robin stays and broods. I change the shutter,
open and close the tent window without giving her any apparent anxiety.

10.30. Another visit from the male, who comes quickly, delivers a grasshopper or two
and departs, while his faithful mate resumes her post of duty.

10.45. The cock brings another coil of angleworms, and the hen, leaving her charge just
long enough for the business of feeding, drops back on the nest.

10.55. The male is taking it easy. This time he has an unusually large grasshopper,
which is not cut in twain but delivered whole. At the signal of his approach the
mother leaves, having brooded forty minutes by the watch.

10.57. Two minutes elapse. Back comes the alma mater, loaded to the muzzle with
blueberries, which are shot out one by one, and strike the yellow targets in the
bull’s eye every time. She comes to the farther side and broods at the moment
the preliminary work of feeding and inspection is over.

11.16. The male has now brought a load of bright red choke cherries. He hops down
the branch by the usual path and up to the nest, but the female, who is brooding,
strangely keeps her position and, whether from absent-mindedness or caprice,
refuses to budge. When the male gives an impatient cack / cuck / the mother can
keep her position no longer, for the young upset her equilibrium in their struggle,
and she hops to one side. Resuming her place she sits there in the bright sun-
shine, with back to the tent, mouth agape, and crest erect. Twenty inches away
are the tent, the camera, and the eye of the observer, but for none of these things
does she now care a straw. They have been thoroughly tested and found harmless,

11.43. Cock Robin is on hand with a beak full of grasshoppers coming, as is now his invar-
iable custom, to the right side. On this occasion the mother hopped up promptly
and received a part of the food into her own bill. Did she eat it? Nota particle.
The young got it all. The male then retired, followed closely by his mate. In one
minute she has captured prey and is back to her brood. The young erect their
crests like their elders, and flapping their half-fledged wings, try to climb to the
edge of the nest, but without success.

The last day of July opened hot and sultry, and when I approached the nest one
young Robin was already out, and making for the highest point of the nesting bough.
He cheeped aloud for food, and looked uncomfortable, for the heat was already strong.
The male only was in attendance as on the previous day, the female being occupied, as I
suspected, in starting a new nest.

It was difficult to get any food past this enterprising fledgling, who stood in the path
and took everything that was brought. Several times the bird would make a move
as if intending to fly to the peak of the tent, and might have done so, had I not decided
to replace him in his nest. The expected certainly happened, for all tumbled out shriek-
ing and squealing. Put them back and out they would go again, and flop down on the

48 Wild Birds.

grass. At last two birds consented to remain for a few minutes, when the male came
with an angleworm and a large green katydid. He paused a moment while I photo-
graphed him, and this proved to be the closing scene. The curtain dropped suddenly
when first one bird and then the other left their home forever, not even waiting to get the
katydid. The old bird at once led his brood to the woods, and being able to take short
flights, they had no difficulty in finding safe quarters.

The number of times the young are fed in the course of the day depends upon their
age and the weather. The older they are the more food they require. At this nest the
labor of feeding and cleaning was shared about equally by both birds, but on hot days
the female was necessarily less active since there was much brooding to be done.

The following table illustrates the relative activities of this pair in caring for their
young, the time of observation being approximately from nine o’clock until three in
the afternoon.

PERIOD OF OBSERVATION. SECOND Day. | Tuirp Day. | FourtuH Day.
Age Of YOUNG: von secee.. 8 days g days | to days
Bed by°malessiac gags 15 times 24 times | 15 times
Fed by fémiales cc se ses 18 times 28 times 14 times
Brooded by female.... 6 times (44 min.) | § times (2 hours 41 min.)
Rate of feeding......../ Once in ri-r2 min. Once in 7-8 min. | Once in 8-g min.
Period of observation... 9.30 A.M. to 3.53 P.M. | 9.05 A.M. to 3.44 P.M.| 9,11 A.M. to 1.58 P.M.

The nature of the food, which depends much on the local supply or the condition of
the market, consisted mainly of grasshoppers and angle worms, to which we must add a few
insect larvee, beetles, locusts, and katydids, while the list of fruits included blueberries—
most in favor—choke cherries, and raspberries.

As to the sanitation of the nest, inspection, as we have seen, follows each feeding,
The nest was cleaned during the period given in the table every fifteen minutes, and
mostly by the female, who devoured a part of the excreta at the nest and carried the rest
away.

The Robin has been known to pass the winter in Nova Scotia, where it feeds on wild
dry fruits, like dogwood berries, and at all intermediate points between its northern and
southern ranges, wherever the food supply is good. Thus in the cold valleys of the
White Mountains, where there is snow during the greater part of the year, and where the
mercury sometimes freezes, flocks of Robins are said to spend the winter, feeding on
the wild berries which are cached above the snow. The winter birds are probably in most
cases migrants from farther north.

The food of the Robin consists, as we have seen, of small animals, mainly insects and
worms, and of wild fruits in about equal quantity. It has been shown' that cultivated
fruits are eaten only as a makeshift and mainly in the months of June and July.

Spring Robins reach Cleveland, Ohio, on the last days of February or the first
of March, central New Hampshire the third week in March, and I have seen them in Bur-

1 By Beal who found forty-two per cent of animal matter in three hundred and thirty stomachs of these birds.

The Robin at Arm’s Length. 49

lington, Vermont, on March 30th. A few Bluebirds are usually reported on the same day.
In 1900, Robins were heard or seen in different parts of Cleveland on the ninth of March,
a mild, bright day, while but a week before the country was in the grip of one of the
worst ice-storms ever known in this region. Every exposed object was incased in solid
ice for days and the birds fasted or starved.

In the choice of a nesting site, the Robin, as we have seen, obeys no law. The
apple tree, which from its mode of branching yields wide, open crotches and safe

Fig. 33. Female Robin in act of cleaning the nest.

horizontal supports, is generally chosen, but they also resort to the leafy elm, the ever-
green, the dense and remote woods, or like the Phcebe, accept the hospitality of barn,
porch, or shed. In the course of one afternoon in Sanbornton, New Hampshire, I once
found six nests all under cover. One was fixed to a beam inside an old barn, already
occupied by Swallows, the only means of entrance and egress being cracks between the
boards of the gable above the haymow. The Swallows shot with unerring aim through
these cracks, but one of their full-fledged young, which lay dead on the hay, had appar-
ently dashed its brains out in attempting this feat. In a dilapidated shed of another
barn, then abandoned, were three nests, two of which set in line and close together, were
doubtless the work of the same builders.

Where the nest has already begun to crumble into ruins by the time the young fly,

50 Wild Birds.

it is often abandoned and a new one built for the second brood, but whether a new nest
shall be built or not depends rather upon habit or caprice than actual need. The old
nest is sometimes repaired, or even occupied without change during the same season.
On the other hand, three nests are sometimes built in line and under cover, where a sin-
gle one if put in good repair would have answered the purpose. I once saw a Robin’s
nest fixed to the end of a stick of wood that leaned against the side of a barn, and the
stone-gray color of the background formed an excellent screen for its concealment.
Many wild birds,
such as Robins, Orioles,
Wrens, Woodpeckers, to
mention only a_ few
species, breed within the
confines of cities, and
the question naturally
arises,— do the birds
come to town, or does
the town go to them?
We know how strong is
the instinct for young
birds to return to the
place of their birth, if
not to the selfsame spot,
at least to the same
neighborhood, and they
continue to do this until
driven off by enemies or
by hard times. My
house in Cleveland hap-
pens to be placed in the
midst of what was an
apple orchard of a large

farm a generation ago,

Fig. 34. Head of female Robin—life size. x 21.

and a few of its ancient
trees still remain in the
back yard. Are the Robins which nest in them to-day the descendants of the birds
which used to come to the old farm? Possibly, for the birds will return, so long as the
human inhabitants and the food which their presence insures remain. In this way many
birds have undoubtedly grown into city life. As the farm became a part of the village
and the village was swallowed by the town, the migratory species, true to their old asso.
ciations, returned to their former haunts each spring. I have known two illustrations of
this in Cleveland, where Red-headed Woodpeckers clung to the ancestral tree until
enveloped by miles of city streets, and indeed until their old home was actually
destroyed.

On the other hand it is true that many shy and timid birds often leave their seclusion
and come to the haunts of man, and this is not remarkable when we remember how much

The Robin at Arm’s Length 51

individuals differ in relative tameness and wildness, and how rapidly new habits are
formed.

As to the abundance of food on which bird-life depends, some species, like the Robin,
would seem to fare equally well in the country, and as to protection, much better.
Young Robins have no more persistent and fatal enemy than cats, and every one who
has possessed a city yard knows to what extent it is overrun by tommies and tabbics.
In the city also one has to reckon with the large floating population of famished
vagrants, which the biological laboratory is never able to fully claim. They are also on
hand to rake the young broods out of the nests, and pick up the fledglings which are
frightened off prematurely and drop to the ground. Though forced to build high, city
Robins find it impossible to get beyond the reach of some rough-and-ready climbers of
whom Jan Steen was a shining example, and were every thomas as fearless and expert in
tree-climbing as he, this race of birds would soon be driven out or exterminated.
Some Robins used to nest in the very top of a neighboring apple tree, but Jan found
them out and watched their actions attentively from day to day. One fine afternoon he
decided to bring down the whole brood. He had climbed to the tree top and was claw-
ing at the nest, when fortunately his plans and equilibrium were upset in the nick of
time by a well-directed missile.

Although the Robin is one of our most common birds its gregarious habits seem to
have attracted little attention until Mr. Brewster's account appeared in 1890. His
record for Cambridge, Massachusetts, extends back to 1867. At one roost he esti-
mated the number of birds at 25,000 (August 4, 1875) The old males and first
broods in spotted plumage compose these assemblages during the second and third weeks
of June. By the middle of July the movement becomes more general and by August
Ist, the roost is made up of young and old of both sexes and of all conditions. Mr.
Faxon saw a male after feeding its young fly off to its roost one and one fourth miles away
at 7.30 P.M., while the female apparently remained for the night and brooded her young.

These local associations seem to be based upon the instinct of protection and
sociability, and it is important to observe that the old lead the way while the young
follow, suggesting, as Mr. Brewster remarks, what usually takes place in the annual
migration.’

A winter Robin roost, in a swamp of matted reeds, resorted to at night by thousands
of birds, has also been described in Missouri. At daybreak the host dispersed in all
directions, some going fifty miles to their feeding grounds.*

1 The Auk, vol, vil., October, 1890. *O, Widmann ; 7he Auk, vol. xii., 1895.

CHa LER vy,
THE CEDAR-BIRD.

N the twenty-seventh of May, I saw a small company of birds settling in the top-
most branches of an elm. You might infer from their behavior that they were
new arrivals. They keep together, sit prim and erect, and move about as if

under discipline. With a glass you can see their erected crests, their sleek drab plumage,
and recognize at once the familiar Cedar or Cherry Bird.

At Northfield, New Hampshire, the earliest nests have eggs by the first or second
week in June, but the breeding season is not at its height until the last of July or August.
A few still have young in the nest in early September, when many are flocking or have
already started southward. Professor Baird speaks of finding these birds sitting on their
unhatched eggs as late as the twelfth day of October.

The winter flocks of Cedar Waxwings, which are occasionally seen in Northern New
England, are probably migrants whose summer home is farther north.

The Cedar-birds borrow no trouble from their neighbors, and seem to lead a life of
ease and pleasure, lessening their denominator when the times are hard, but living high
when cherries are ripe. The nesting season, which brings much that is sweet and bitter
to the lives of most birds, appears to give them the least anxiety. The immaturity of
their eggs at a time when most of our birds have already reared their first broods is a
striking fact, and is due to some unknown cause which retards the growth of the ovaries.
It is evidently not caused by a lack of suitable food as some have supposed, since the
case of the Goldfinch is similar. The young Cedar-bird gets about the same kind of food
as the young Robin or Oriole, and it is not likely that a greater or less amount of fruit in
the diet of old or young would sensibly alter their condition. So quiet and retired is the
Cedar-bird, it may live in comparative seclusion although not three rods from your house,
and may remain on your grounds for the whole summer unnoticed, unless some one is on
the watch, so that the name ‘“‘chatterer’’ formerly applied to the family,’ can have only
an ironical significance in this least garrulous of birds. The fondness of this bird for the
berries of the red cedar and for cherries is responsible for two of its commonest names,
while the term “‘waxwing”’ has reference to the peculiar horny scales of the secondary
wing-quills, which look as if tipped with red sealing-wax. Less commonly, the tail also
bears similar appendages, but there is much variation in their appearance in both old and

1 This epithet is said to have been first applied to the Bohemian Waxwing, because of its Latin name, 4 felis
garrulus, the specific term garrudus having been suggested by the crest and slight resemblance in the color of this
bird to the European Jay, Carrulus glandarius. See Schufeldt, Chapters on the Natural /Tistory of the United
States.

mn
to

The Cedar Bird. 53

young. Most of the birds which I have studied at the nest have been entirely lacking in
appendages of this kind.

Late in spring the Cedar-birds are seen coursing about in small squads, selecting some
treetop for an observatory, and always showing the most marked uniformity, there being
little to distinguish the sexes either in size or color. Their plump oval forms and easy,
undulating flight are characteristic, and their manner of flying and perching in compact
bodies as one bird should not escape the observer. Apple trees of moderate size are in
high favor, since they afford
such fine opportunities for
nest-building, and are usually
surrounded by good feeding
grounds.

Two summers ago some
Waxwings built on the hori-
zontal bough of a pine tree,
just above a Robin’s nest.
Song Sparrows and Chipping
Sparrows also occupied the
same tree. They usually fre-
quent scrubby pastures, select-
ing the witch-hazel, or thorn-
apple bushes by preference,
and occasionally a small sap-
ling oak or maple. The nest
is either set in a fork or sad-
dled to a spreading branch, at
a height of from five to twenty
feet. It is nicely wrought from
vegetable and animal material
such as dead grass, roots, fine
twigs, weed-stems, pine need-
les, wool, yarn, and twine. A
nest built in an orchard was
composed of dead clover stems,

witch grass, with thistle-down
and the fluffy heads of the In-

dian tobacco, a plant growing Fig. 35. Cedar-bird chorus at the most exciting moment just before food
’ > c=)

is served, August 6, 1899, two days before flight and the development of the
close by, worked over its rim sense of fear. Life-size > 3.
and interior.

Four or five eggs are ordinarily laid, but the total product of ten nests which I
examined in 1899 was only thirty-six eggs, out of which about twenty-five young were
hatched and fromm sixteen to twenty reared.

The parental instincts during the early days of nest-building and incubation are often
weak, and this is shown to a marked degree in the Cedar-bird, who is easily robbed and

ever ready to take fright and abandon its eggs.

54 Wild Birds.

During the month of July a pair began to collect nesting material in an apple tree in
full view from our porch, and I frequently watched them at work through an opera-glass,
and once or twice passed under their tree. This inspection of their private affairs pleased
them so little that they left their completed nest, and moved to the adjoining field a few
rods away, where there was less publicity, and where five eggs hatched out on the twenty-
sixth of August. A nest built in a young oak tree in a remote clearing was discovered
on August 7th, when it
contained a single egg. I
did not see the old birds
on this occasion and heard
but a faint sound, which
was evidently a murmur of
remonstrance since their
nest was promptly for-
saken.

I have camped beside
four different nests of the
Cedar Waxwings, and after
having spent nearly a week
in watching the behavior
of both old and young
birds at short range, feel
that I know by heart most
of their nesting habits.

There is a certain rou-
tine or etiquette which is
observed by all birds at the
nests. Certain duties must
be performed over and
over, such as the capture
of prey, bringing it and dis-
tributing it to the young,
inspecting and cleaning
the household, besides
brooding the young, es-

Fig. 36. The female Cedar-bird broods, while the male passes the cherries
around. He stands at the back with his gullet loaded and a berry in bill. pecially during the early
co) ?

days of lifein the nest. To
record cach visit made and every recurring act performed by the birds would make tedi-
ous reading, but strange to say it never seems monotonous to the observer. As the
young birds grow older, and begin to stand on the rim of the nest, they furnish ample
excitement, and while their theme is always the same, it is delivered with innumerable
variations.
The method of controlling the nesting site was first suggested by some Cedar-birds,
whose nest of four eggs was in a thorn-apple bush, and about seven feet from the ground
The main stem supporting the nest was cut off,and fixed firmly inthe soil at a height of

The Cedar Bird.

Or
Nn

three to four feet. On returning to the spot two days later, I was pleased to find that all had
gone well. After getting the tent up it was not many minutes before a low-murmured
tr-c-c-c-e-k | or se-e-c-c-t ! was heard, to which the young always responded in a similar
strain. Approaching cautiously with throat loaded to the brim with choke cherries, the
mother bird delivered them one by one, and then inspected and cleaned her household.
After a longer interval the pair came and stood on the edge of the nest. There was
nothing in their bills, but
their gullets were crammed
full of blueberries, and
after tantalizing the suppli-
cating young for a mo-
ment, up went a head, and
presto! out came a berry,
which was quickly placed
in an open throat, and
passed around until it was
promptly swallowed. Up
went the head again, and
the performance was re-
peated. It was like a ma-
gician shaking eggs from a
bag, and there seemed to
be no limit to its capacity.
Many who have witnessed
such actions have supposed
that the old birds were
attempting to distribute
the food without partiality
to their hungry children,
but thisis not the case. It
is ell a question of nervous
reaction. The food is not
simply placed in the mouth
but pressed well down into
the sensitive throat, which

4 = Fig. 37. Tantalizing the young. The mother Cedar-bird has come with food,
promptly responds unless but hesitates to advance and deliver it. Compare with Fig. 38.

the gullet is already full.

The old bird watches the result intently, and if the food is not taken at once it is passed
from one to another until a throat with the proper reaction time is found. The move-
ments of the bird are so rapid, and the berry is so often quickly withdrawn, that it is
difficult to make an accurate count. Usually from six to eleven blueberries and almost
as many choke cherries are thus carried in the gullet. Wilson, who noticed the disten-
sibility of the gullet of this bird, which will take from twelve to fifteen cedar berries at
atime, thought that it served as a crop to prepare the food for digestion. The berries
and insects, it is true, often come up crushed to a pulp and reeking with slime, but it is

56 Wild Birds.

not likely that the cesophagus serves any other purpose than a temporary receptacle far
the food.

When the berries had gone the rounds, both birds would suddenly leave the nest
with a whisk. Again one would hear their murmuring call, ¢7-e-e-e-e-k / growing more dis-
tinct as they came nearer. Then both would alight on the nest rim, and stand there a
moment like statuettes with heads erect. After regurgitating the food and distributing
it, they keenly eye everything in the nest, snap up the excreta from each bird in turn,
swallow it, and are off.
The young sat or stood on
the nest with heads up and
all pointed oneway. Pres-
ently, every black bead-
like eye was alert; four
scarlet-orange mouths
opened at the same mo-
ment, and four necks were
stretched now to this side,
now to that, whence came
the least sound. When
their parents actually ap-
proached with their low-
whispered call, they would
huddle together and
stretch their legs, wings,
and whole bodies to the
utmost. Then would arise
such a chorus of supplicat-
ing cries as no parent could
resist. Touch but a twig
and the nest presents an
even livelier spectacle.
The young fairly tumble
over each other, while
their wings, heads, and
bodies vibrate with an
intensity of desire which
their eager voices can only

Fig. 38. Female Cedar-bird prepared to regurgitate food from the gullet.
Notice the outlines of the neck, which mark the full throat. ‘‘Twenty min-
utes later, the last fledgling had left the nest.” August 25, 1899. feebly express. Two days

ago these young lay quietly

in their nest, and when touched showed absolutely no fear, but to-day the instinct of fear
had possessed them, and when approached, all hopped off the nest and hid in the grass.
Another Waxwing family was discovered on August 15th, in the crotch of a witch-
hazel bush seven feet up, in the same pasture with the Red-eyed Vireos whose history is
yet to be told, and not many rods from their nest. A touch to the branch brought off
the mother, who was brooding three tender young barely two days out of the shell.

The Cedar Bird.

After a short interval, during which
I went to get a notebook and pencil,
this bird was back again, and once
more her jet-black eye and clean-cut
profile appeared above the nest. I
had sat down but a moment when
the male flew past, and gave an alarm
which brought off his mate in a flash.
Both then alighted in the tops of
neighboring trees, and standing erect,
uttered their low responsive call-
notes.

Six days later—August 2Ist—
the bush was removed a rod away
and the tent placed beside it at nine
o'clock. The familiar calls of both
birds were now heard and_in just
thirty-five minutes from the time of
closing the tent a soft whirring of
wings announced the mother bird,
who alighted near the nest. She

Fig. qo.

After feeding the young—the gullet empty.

Notice

the ‘‘sitting’’ posture, and compare curves of throat in Fig. 3,.

nN
Sy

Fig. 39. Female Cedar-bird ready to feed young
by regurgitation—gullet stuffed with cherries.

approached cautiously, as an intelligent
bird should do, surveying the situation
at every step, and finally landed on the
After amomentary pause she be-
gan tossing up her head and producing
black cherries which were judiciously
placed, one at a time, in the throats of
her nestlings.

nest.

Then a thorough inspec-
tion followed, and the sanitary condition
of the establishment was insured by the
method already described, after which
the mother remained a full minute ; then
with a low whistle she sped away. At
her next visit she began to shield her
young from the growing heat. With
half-spread wings and with back to the
sun the mother protected her little ones
for a full hour from the broiling sun,
while her mate came repeatedly and
handed out the cherries.
The Cedar-bird will

pant with

On
(oe)

Fig. 41. Regurgitating food. Up goes the head,
and presto ! out comes a berry.

trees, close by our house. Taking
the hint I placed a quantity of red
and blue yarn on the branches, and
on some bean poles near the nesting
site. Every thread was taken from
the fir and worked into what became
avery gay mansion. It was placed
on a spreading apple bough, at a
fork in the limb and between upright
shoots, fifteen feet from the ground.
The blue varn was in excess of the
red, but I am sure this meant nothing
to the birds. They simply took what
was provided, and had all been red,
it would have been accepted.

These birds were most expedi-
tious, for in two days the last straw
was in place, and in six days from
the start four eggs had been laid and
incubation begun. Ten days later
three of these eggs had hatched into

Wild Birds.

mouth agape when uncomfortably
warm, but is never seen to erect the
feathers generally, as many birds do
in order to keep cool. Nothing es-
caped that came within range of their
sharp eyes and bills. One of the
photographs shows the male on the
farther side of the nest with cherry in
beak and full neck, while the mother,
with back to the camera, gives her
neck a peculiar twist and looks be-
hind her. While I was watching the
performance, a bird of another spe-
cies, which I was unable to recognize,
dashed up, alighted for a moment on
the top of my tent, and giving outa
harsh chatter, disappeared.

One day in July I happened to
see a Cedar-bird tugging at the frayed
ends of a cord which had been fast.
ened to a branch of one of the fir

Fig. 42. She hears a suspicious sound,

The Cedar Bird.

young birds, while one was addled. Born
blind, naked, and helpless, the Cedar-bird
begins to see when three days old, through
narrow slits which gradually open, and
When this
nest was touched the young would raise

expose the eyes to full light.

their tremulous heads aloft, and with red
mouths opened wide, express in silence
the simple sign language of newly hatched
birds. One of the brood mysteriously dis-
appeared, so that eventually only two
were raised, and this recalls the loss of a
young bird from the first nest which was
built by the same pair. When evil befalls
a nestling, the parents either remove its
body or abandon the whole family. The
latter course is seldom, if ever, followed
after the eggs have all been hatched.
Bough and nest in this case were re-
moved on August 23d, when the young
were between eight and nine days old.

Standing at inspection

Fig. 44.

Fig. 43.

: a characteristic pose.

Cedar-bird listening intently while inspecting nest.

They were set up on a hillside, in an
exposed position, with a house on
one hand and a public drive and
monument on the other, but the birds
stood it well, as the photographic
(Figs. 37,38.)
Owing to unfavorable weather
the tent was not used until the after-
noon of August 25th.
utes, the female was on the nesting

record shows.

In a few min-

bough, coming and going, but finally
kept her perch and examined the
situation critically. Something un-
usual had happened full of signifi-
cance to herself and family, but it
was an enigma hard to solve. Silence
at last brought assurance, as it usually
does in such cases. She approached
nearer, pausing at every step, until
she could no longer resist the mag-
netic influence of the calling young-
sters, who fairly palpitated in their

eager desire for food. At this nest

60 Wild Birds.

the young gave the call-notes repeatedly, but the old birds usually approached without a
sound, and were never both at the nest at the same time. On the next day the mother
bird was feeding the young before I
could set up the tent. Both birds
came frequently bringing black cher-
ries and grasshoppers. At each feed-
ing the following order of events was
usually observed: the parent sounds
the call-note at a distance, to which
the young reply, but observes strict
silence in drawing near; the young
are fed, inspected, and cleaned; the
old bird flies to a convenient perch,
rubs the bill clean, plumes, and speeds
off to the nearest cherry trees.

In the course of the forenoon
these fledglings became very restless,
and asthe heat from the sun increased,
one crawled out, sat in the shadow
of the leaves, and finally dropped to
the grass. Here it was immediately
fed,and then hopped away surprisingly
fast. The male enticed it along, and
thereafter took care of it, while the
mother returned to her remaining nest-
ling. Twenty minutes later, the last
fledgling had left the nest, never to return, and the curtain was immediately rung
down. The young had spent exactly two weeks in their temporary home, and had the
weather been cooler they might have tarried at least two days longer.

At this age the crest is not very prominent, and instead of the jet-black, triangular
band which surrounds the eye in an old bird, the crown of the head is encircled by a
light band, passing above the eye. At the age of ten days, or a little earlier, the tubes
of the wing-quills burst, and the red wax-like tips of the secondaries, when present at all,
also appear, or at least did appear in the young from this nest.

When about ready to fly and waiting to be fed the young have the peculiar habit
already noticed of standing erect with upturned heads. A nest of these birds, in
this attitude makes a curious picture. Any danger signal is now likely to bring
them off in an instant. This particular brood had their abode in a pine tree close to our
house. On July 17th, shortly before the picture was made, the family of five was stand-
ing bolt upright, all facing one way, as if under military discipline. When their branch
was touched all but the two shown in Fig. 117 gained the nearest trees in their first flight
and escaped. This pair came to the ground, and were replaced in the nest. In their second

Fig. 45. Devouring the excreta: an unusual attitude.

attempt made ten minutes later, the larger of the two birds was more successful. It flew
to the roof of the barn, not far above it, and after hopping to the ridge-pole, made the
upper branches of a tall elm. In the larger of the two birds the black band of velvety

The Cedar Bird. 61

feathers has appeared in front of the eye and replaces the fawn-colored fillet already
mentioned. This change takes place in about four days.

The fourth and in many ways the
most interesting nest was built ina
pine, some account of which has al-
ready been given, in illustrating the
change of the nesting site. I watched
these birds over ten hours from the
tent, saw a great many interesting
sights, and made a long series of pic-
tures.

The young at this nest were vis-
ited and fed forty-seven times during
an interval of exactly ten hours and
forty-seven minutes, on three differ-
ent days. On the last day they were
fed on the average once in ten min-
utes. The food consisted of choke
cherries and red bird cherries, varied
with raspberries, blackberries, and
blueberries, together with insects
which, during the last days of life at
the nest, constituted about one quar-
ter of the fare. At one half the
number of visits recorded, fruit alone

. Fig. 46. Cleaning the nest. When the young are fed, the duty of
was served. From six to ten cher- the old bird is but half done.
ries were brought in the gullet ata
time, and once by count eleven blueberries. Feeding was effected almost always
by regurgitation in whole or part, and rarely was any food visible when the birds

came to the nest. Now and then, however, a bird would approach loaded to the muzzle,
with a berry or insect in the bill to round out the measure. Soft fruits like raspberries
were crushed to a pulp, and insects which are commonly served with the berries,
came up covered with saliva, and often in an unrecognizable state. The staple animal
food was grasshoppers and I have seen the large cicada or harvest-fly brought to the
nest, but never dragon-flies, butterflies, or moths. The cicada made a lively struggle
for a few minutes; it was placed in one open throat after another and withdrawn eight
different times, before a gullet was found capable of the proper reaction time. If a bird
was slow he lost his chance, and another was tried. The key was at last fitted to the
lock, and the bruised and battered cicada was taken in, but the old bird had not finished
her task. She began tossing up her head and producing bird cherries. Then she gave
the nest a thorough renovation. In doing this the mother often walks around the rim,
and attends to each nestling in succession, sometimes even inspecting one bird more than
once.

At first I found it difficult to tell the old birds apart until I noticed a dis-
tinguishing mark on the female, who had a little bare spot where the feathers had

Wild Birds.

come out, on the right side in front of the wing. This shows plainly in many of the

photographs.

As I have said in another place, the female
would often fly direct to the tent and alight on
the end of the ridge-pole just above the nest.
Here she would pause a moment, then go to her
young. Should they fail to respond promptly,
she gives a peculiar clucking sound, a habit com-
mon to many species, which is the stimulus ap-
plied as a last resort. At this signal every mouth
is opened wide, even if the gullet is already full.
Indigestible substances pass through the alimen-
tary canal, and are never regurgitated in either
young or adults.

Cedar Waxwings have been seen in the act
of sipping maple sap in March, either standing
near a broken twig and reaching round to pick
off the drops from the underside or hovering
over the spot and taking sips while on the
wing.’

Towards the last of August, small flocks
of Cedar-birds are
moving about in
search of food,
the low murmur of
their call-notes be-
ing audible for a
moment only as
they pass over-
head. They know

Fig. 47. Young Cedar-bird from nest shown in k
Figs. 39-46: photographed on the morning of flight, when the wild cher-

July 19,1900. The bird was not touched, but occu-

rie i
pies a natural perch, chosen by himself. Hee: abe TIPE; and

never fail to visit
the trees skirting the fields. The black cherry tree isa pleas-
ant sight, when laden with the pendant racemes of black cher-
ries, its tremulous foliage shining in the sun, with Robins and
Cedar-birds fluttering about it. Every good tree is an aviary
when its fruit is ripe in late summer and early autumn. Both
oldand young areon hand. Then you may see one sidle along
a bough, stretch its neck, wag its tail, and fondle another
with its bill. Their fine breezy call-notes suggest the
bleating of the insects in the grass below. Tent caterpil-

Fig. 48. Cedar-bird about thirty-six
hours old, blind, naked, and helpless:
characteristic instinctive response to
any sound or vibration, as when the
parent brings food, or the nest or
branch is tapped. Notice that the
bird rests on its pot-belly, and uses
both wings and legs for support. En-
larged to life.

lars spin large nests in these trees, but the birds prefer the acid-bitter fruit to the
insects. Occasionally a bird will leave its perch, and dive for an insect in the air with the

1 For this note I am indebted to Mr. Robert J. Sim, of Jefferson, Ohio.

The Cedar Bird. 63

ease and precision of a professional fly catcher. I have seen the Cedar-bird either taking
the spider from his web or possibly robbing him of his prey. The birds peck at the cher-
ries, pull them off, suck up the juicy pulp, but drop the hard stone. The ground under
the trees, as well as beneath their favorite perches, is covered with cherry stones. Sud-

denly there is a swirl of wings, and the band moves off rapidly to try the fruit in some
other quarter.

CHAPTER VI.
RED-EYED VIREOS.

HE moment I touched the spreading branch of a witch-hazel bush out flew a bird,
and the next instant my eye rested on the nest of a Red-eyed Vireo. It was
suspended between the forks of a twig about six feet from the ground, and was

well protected and concealed by the leaves. It then contained two young birds, four or
five days old. After examining it carefully I retired, but before doing so fixed a cord to
the branch and drew down the nest so that its brim was horizontal, and the whole about
four feet from the ground, a convenient height for future study.

The young were quite naked, save for a sprinkling of light down on their heads and
backs. They had yellow-rimmed bills, bright yellow throats, and were just beginning
to see through the narrow vertical slits, which admit light gradually to the eyes. The old
birds betrayed no unusual anxiety, but uttered their unobtrusive pzort / prort / and the
female soon approached with an insect. This nest was surrounded by tall bushes with
barely space to pitch the tent in front of it, and as I decided to make no further changes,
a somewhat spotted leafy background was unavoidable in the pictures. Coming again on
July 31st, the tent was soon in place. The female, who was brooding at the time, flew
off quickly, but returned in a few moments.

These Vireos soon became quite unconscious of being observed, although literally as
near the eye as one would hold a book to read. I spent parts of three days on this spot
watching a most fascinating panorama of bird-life. On the third day the tent was moved
up to within eighteen inches of the nest, but my lack of experience at this time in photo-
graphing moving objects at such close range was the cause of many failures.

On the first day it required forty minutes to restore perfect confidence, or before the
affairs of the nest were conducted with their usual regularity. The young raised their
heads aloft and called loudly for attention, or hung drowsily over the brim of the nest.
At this time their skin was dotted with the fine rapidly growing feathers, and the wing-
quills looked like slender paint brushes, having just burst the tips of the cylindrical horny
tubes in which they grow.

The old birds examined the situation carefully. Their mournful peort / prort / was
heard again and again, the male answering his mate as she deliberately approached
the nest. After advancing many times, and turning back as often through fear
or distrust, the mother hopped up briskly with a bee in her beak. Her instinct to
care for her young was stronger than the male’s, and she almost invariably approached
in the same way, by the path of the twig in the fork of which hung the nest. A smaller
division in the fork gave off a still smaller branch close to the nest, and upon this the

Red-Eyed Vircos. 65

birds always perched, and thus stood directly over their brood. Any vibration of the
nest, as when the feet of the old bird touched the main stem to which it was fixed, or
any sound above or below electrified the young, and up popped their heads like two jacks
ina box. With mouths wide agape, they would clamor and quaver, expressing their emo-
tions not only by the vibration of the wings but by the shaking of the whole body.
But the young at this tender age are unable to discriminate with any exactness. The
quivering of a leaf, or the stirring
of a twig close at hand, a puff of
wind, the flutter of a wing or the
voice of any passing bird would
throw them into the same state of
excitement. But this was only
fora moment. Their heads would
again drop listlessly over the wall
of the nest, and with open mouths,
they would doze in the sunshine.
Something would then suddenly
arouse them, when they would in-
stinctively go to preening them-
selves just like old birds, although
they had at this time no feathers
which seemed to need this atten-
tion.

Quite often you would hear
a hute ! hute which always
aroused the young, who would
tsip / back in earnest. While the
mother was again coming slowly
towards the nest with a bee in her
mouth, another bee happened to
cross her path. She darted after

it but missed her aim. Then, dis-
posing of the first insect, she Fig. 49. Male Red-eyed Vireo standing at nest after feeding the
watched her young intently fora = 7°""* ree

moment, stooped, picked up a small white package, and hurried away.

At one o'clock the old birds took a midday rest, and it was full twenty minutes
before that reassuring port / piort / was heard. Then as, step by step, the mother came
nearer the magnet, the drawing power of which was irresistible, her livelier haze / huie /
awoke the young, who started and replied szz¢/ swt / Thereupon the old bird quickly
hopped along the branch, straddled the fork, and tucked a large grasshopper into one of
the open mouths. In three minutes she was back with another, this time stopping to
clean the nest again. Five minutes by the watch had passed when she returned with a
brown gray-winged insect over an inch long, which an entomologist might be able to name
from the photograph. She paused for a moment while the young called eagerly and
stretched their necks to the utmost; then she helped the insect down the throat of the

Fig. 50.

Fig. 52.

Wild. Birds.

Female Red-eyed Vireo ready to deliver a large insect.

Standing in characteristic prone attitude of inspection.

lucky bird. However, it stuck
at the gullet, and the little one
gulped hard before its protrud-
ing wings had disappeared.

Asis well known the young
bird has wonderful powers of
digestion and assimilation, and
after the first week the rapidity
of its development becomes
even more striking. A lapse of
twenty-four hours now means a
great stride in growth. It takes
food almost constantly through-
out the day, and digests it quick-
ly, though imperfectly. The
adult Vireo like the Flycatcher
is said to regurgitate the indi-
gestible parts of its food in
pellets.

The male Vireo seldom
came with food, and then al-
ways with anextra degreeof cau-
tion. Twice he followed swiftly
after his mate, acting as herguar-
dian while she quickly went the
rounds. The role of the old

Pew . . .
‘birds in feeding was almost in-

variably the same, as I have in
part described. They trace a
zigzag line to the nest, a straight
one from it. You hear first
their responsive call-notes. The
mother bird with insect ready
is ina bush a rod away; then
she comes a step nearer,and pau-
ses; her fzort / is now more dis-
tinct. She slowly advances, until
the twig which holds the nest
is touched. Up go the heads
of the young: they call aloud,
stretch their necks to every
side, gaze up to the clouds and
around upon the leaves. Then
as the mother hops nimbly
along the twig, and stands over

them, what a picture of eager
desire, tremulous impatience,
and keen rivalry they present !
The food is sometimes quickly
placed in the throat of one, and
as quickly withdrawn to be giv-
en to another, and when there
are more than two it may go
the rounds before it is allowed
to remain, a common practice
the true meaning of which we
have already seen.

After inspection is com
pleted and the nest cleaned, the
parent bird flies to any conven-
ient spot, carefully wipes the
slime from her bill, stretches
her wings, and smoothes out all
the ruffles in her dress. These
birds always look as sleek as a
new silk hat, every feather lying
smooth in its place.

One day while in my tent,
a small bird of another species
suddenly darted down upon
thisnest. There was a momen-
tary flutter, a clash of beaks
and claws, and the intruder was
promptly driven away.

It was always interesting
to watch the behavior of the
young between the intervals of
feeding. The moisture would
fairly glisten in their wide-open
mouths. They snapped at every
ant and flying insect which came
within their reach, but I never
saw a single capture. The prey-
ing instinct is undoubtedly one
of the most ancient among an-
imals, and young birds peck
instinctively at all kinds of small
objects, but precision of aim
which leads to success in cap-
turing their prey must be ac-

Red-Eyed Vireos.

Fig. 53. Male Red-eyed Vireo who is less preoccupied in performing
the same duty.

Fig. 54.

Female Red-eyed Vireo approaching the young.

Fig. 55.

Drawing back through timidity.

OV
ioe)

Wild Birds.

quired by practice. These young Vireos would often hang their heads down over the
nest, and doze until aroused by the piping of the Robin, or by the call of some other bird.
Then the mother would appear, with a huge green katydid, its wings crumpled and held
tightly in her sharp bill. It was surprising how quickly and gently it was assisted down
one of the hungry throats.

At one of his visits the male, after cleaning the nest and young with great care,
stepped in and settled down to brood. In a moment two downy heads shot up from
under his breast, and I regretted that my camera was not loaded at the moment.
He showed unmistakable signs of displeasure or uneasiness, repeatedly erecting and
lowering his crest, and puffing out his throat. With mouth wide open he gazed keenly
about him, and after a few moments dashed off as if in pursuit of an enemy.

When a large grasshop-
per which had been given to
a young bird had made good
its escape, the mother darted
after it, seized it before it had
touched the ground, and you
may be sure that there was
no possibility of escape this
time A grasshopper was
sometimes divided between
the two young, but usually a
single bird only was fed ata
time. The male warbled his
pleasant strains from a branch
hard by, while the mother

Fig. 56. Bending over to feed young. hunted for insects in the

grass below. A large brown

locust with yellow and black wings was soon brought in. The adult Vireos glean most

of their animal food from the foliage and, as might be expected, are great caterpillar de-

stroyers, but while feeding their young, I frequently saw them exploring the grass as any
Robin or Song Sparrow might do, snapping up every insect which came in their path.

On the third day, when my tent was but eighteen inches from the nest, the old birds
came to it even more readily than before. They would still occasionally start at the
click of the shutter, but they did not mind the shrill scream of a locomotive across the
river, or the rumble and splash of logs which were momentarily being set free and sent
tumbling headlong down a steep slide into the river below. They had become used to
these sounds and had learned from experience that they were harmless. On this day, a
great change seemed to have come over the young. They had become almost trans-
formed in appearance, and were very restless. Their bodies were now well covered with
feathers, and they were beginning to show the first traces of fear. Their snow-white
breasts gleamed through the thin walls of their cup-shaped nest, or from over its rim.

Grasshoppers, katydids, green larva, beetles, and bugs of many kinds were served again
and again, but it would be a mistake to suppose that there was no fruit to vary this diet.
Upon the third day the mother brought a ripe red raspberry, its juice fairly streaming

Red-Eyed Vireos. 69

down her bill, and after a few beetles had been taken, she appeared with a large black-
berry. Fruit was served to the young about half a dozen times in the course of four
hours during which watch was kept on this particular day, but I had not seen a single
berry brought to the young before this time.

On the first two days of observation the young were fed on the average of once in
fifteen minutes, but upon the third day food was brought every nine minutes.

Hitherto I had taken pains not to touch the nest, but as I approached for a final
look at the young at about two o'clock they immediately took alarm, and popped out one
atatime. The larger of the two disappeared, and was never scen again by me, and
although I replaced the smaller bird in its nest time after time, it positively refused to
stay. Like the young of so many wild birds, when once they have tasted the freedom of
the world, they seem to look with disdain upon their old home. Although these birds
could only flutter in their first
attempts at flight, they could
hop nimbly from branch to
branch, and thus ascend readily
to the tops of high bushes.

Upon visiting the site of
this nest on the following day
one of the young birds was dis-
covered in the grass less than
two rods from its empty nest.
It was calling loudly for food,
and the old birds were tending
it. A few hours later I returned
in the nick of time to save its

life by the capture of a large
garter snake which neers wee Fig 57. Inspecting cautiously. Compare suchattitudes with Figs. 50-53,
had discovered its opportunity. — which express no fear.

During the past summer,

a Vireo’s nest was found on the twenty-eighth of June, when the female was incubat-
ing two eggs. Her plans were, however, suddenly interrupted, apparently through her
own carelessness. A storm soon ripped up the nest, the walls of which were unusually
weak and fragile, and the eggs were spilled. This nest was apparently the first of the
season, and might have represented the first attempt of a young bird. There is the
possibility, however, that this was really a second and hurried attempt at nest-building,
due to a former accident.

The snow and storms of winter usually knock the bottom out of the Vireos’ pendant
nests, but some remain whole for over a year. Wilson speaks of finding the nest of the
Yellow Warbler built inside of an old Vireo’s nest. The deer mouse sometimes takes
possession of an abandoned nest in fall, and converts it into a snug globular house for
itself and young. I remember the feeling of astonishment which the discovery of one of
these converted nests gave me when a boy at school, and of wondering to what animal
those black lustrous eyes, which appeared at the entrance, could belong. In this case the
original framework was concealed by a symmetrical dome of thistle-down, a substance

70 Wild Birds.

used also in lining and covering the original walls. There was a small round hole or side
entrance, just above the old rim. When disturbed this sleek little mouse left its warm
house, ran down the branch and disappeared.

Fig. 58. Young Red-eyed Vireos from the nest shown on page 68. No,
12 of table, p. 11.

CHAPIER WIL,
THE NEST-HOLE OF THE BLUEBIRD.

HE mellow note of the Bluebird is a welcome sound on March mornings when the
air is yet wintry, and the snow stands deep in the woods. Its meaning is unmis-
takable, but to appreciate it, one must live in the North where spring means

literally “ turning over a new leaf,” a new order of existence. Should cold weather or
heavy snows return, the birds retire
for a time, but promptly re-appear
with better days.

Robins, Song Sparrows, Blue-
birds, and Pheebes all arrive from the
South during the latter part of March,
and the personalities of these birds
are too well marked to be mistaken.
On March 24th, I heard a bird call-
ing from a distant apple orchard,
when it presently flew in my direc-
tion, alighted on an elm beside the
road, and repeated its low sweet call-
notes again and again. Through the
mist not a feather could be seen, but
there was no mistaking this plaintive
voice. Five days earlier in the month
the Bluebird was seen at Northfield,
thirty miles to the south. The males
are first to arrive, coming singly or in
small straggling companies. As we

walk along the desolate country
roads, they rise from wall and fence-

ai ke a 1 : b li Fig. 59. Female Bluebird taking a look outside, as if hesitating,
row, displaying their brilliant azure before going in search of food.

wings, or when flying overhead the
cinnamon brown and white of their under plumage. Their almost ventriloquial “ phee-wr”
note which is heard as they fly is not peculiar to any season.
When the females come a little later, the males are in full song, and the period of
courtship, which is very ardent in the Bluebird, begins. The affection and gallantry of’
71

72 Wild Birds.

the Bluebird have aroused the enthusiasm of many observers. Unfortunately, we are
obliged to add that a case of polygamy in this species has been reported.’

The choice of a nesting site is made with great care and deliberation. -If they accept
the house or box prepared for them, they often have to defend it against the Wren,
the Martin, and the House Sparrow. Wrens and Martins are easily driven off, but the
pugnacity of the Sparrow, and the greater numbers which he can usually muster
render all resistance hopeless. An
abandoned Woodpecker’s hole is not
disdained since it forms a safe, cozy
house which needs little furnishing.
This snug cavern is sheltered from
sun and rain, and secure from most
birds and beasts of prey. The rotten
fence-post, and the many holes in the
decayed apple trees may also contain
the secret of the Bluebird’s nest.

On August 11, 1899, I saw a pair
of Bluebirds paying marked atten-
tions to an old “auger-hole”’ in an
apple tree, made by Golden-winged
Woodpeckers. It was plainly a case
of nest within nest. The female was
carrying insects to her invisible
young, which I supposed at this late
date were ready to fly, but, as it af-
terwards appeared, they were only
five days old. This hole had been
nicely drilled beneath the springing
branch of a truncated and now dead
prong of the tree, fifteen feet from
the ground.

When the opportunity first offered
on August 15th, I sawed off the limb,
two feet from the opening, and set it
up in a convenient spot fifty feet
away. It was so arranged that the whole trunk could be rotated, and the circular
cntrance of this nest turned directly to the sun at any time of day. I had barely
left the place to fetch the tent when the mother bird flew from the apple tree to
the stump, entered the hole, and having fed the young, came out with a small, white
parcel in her bill. This bird had her eye on the nest, and was ready to visit it in its
new situation, when free to do so. The tent was placed two feet away, but later
drawn up to a distance of about cighteen inches. After concluding these operations,
I had to wait longer for the parent bird to come again. When one considers that
the nesting branch was suddenly moved fifty feet from its original position and

' Bulletin Nuttall Ornithological Club, vol, viii., p. 03.

Fig. 60. Female Bluebird carrying grasshopper to young.

The Nest-Hole of the Bluebird. 73

fixed on the ground, and that a tent was then pitched so close to it that the birds
could not fly straight to the entrance but had to flit first to the trunk, and then go
around to the hole, it is not surprising that they held aloof. I waited exactly one hour
and twenty-five minutes before the mother again brought food to her young. Meanwhile
it was interesting to see what was happening, from a peep-hole of the tent. Both birds
would fly to the tree which they had known as their home, and mechanically go through
their usual motions in approaching
the nest, hopping first to this branch,
then to that, following a well-defined
path, which they had traveled hun-
dreds of times, and finally hover over
the spot which was once occupied by
the nest, as if to become assured
that their eyes had not deceived
them.

These actions were repeated by
both Bluebirds many times, while
they uttered their responsive p/ee-
wr note. Again, calling eagerly,
both would fly towards the new po-
sition of the nest. Finally, the fe-
male, who in this case assumed the
whole task of feeding the brood,
came to the stump, paused a mo-
ment, quickly entered the hole and
came out in hot haste. The absolute
stillness, however, had restored confi-
dence, for in five minutes she re-
turned with a huge green grasshopper
and in ten minutes was back again
with another. In the course of
each visit the plaintive call would
announce her presence as she ap-
proached with insect in bill, and
alighted on a half-dead peach tree ; :

Fig. 61. Female Bluebird about to enter nest-hole with green

close by. Afteramomentary survey insect-larva.

of the situation she would flit to the

stump, sit for a few seconds on a dead branch at one side, then hop down, fly to the hole and
catch on the bark or cling to the rough edge of the circular opening with her sharp claws,
pausing there a tenth of a second, or long enough to cast a swift glance backwards. In
this position she was photographed many times, with grasshoppers, crickets, green larva,
katydids, and once with a large robber fly in her beak, the profile of her head being sharply
vignetted by the dark circular entrance. The young must have been all a-quaver at the
sound of their mother's wings, for the old stump seemed to become suddenly alive with
brisk chirping sounds the moment she touched any part of it. The bird used her tail to

Figs. 62, 63, 64.

was served,

Wild Birds.

This series represents the Bluebird engaged in
cleaning her nest on three distinct visits, at each of which food
Nearly one half life size,

help support her weight against the
side of the tree, like a Woodpecker,
and I noticed that the tail feathers
were frayed and worn at the points.

The male during the numerous
visits which followed came two or
three times and sat above the door,
but never actually entered it, and
never brought to the young a single
morsel of food in the course of the
He would warble very
sweetly, however, and probably en-

entire day.

couraged the exertions of his mate.
The next time this bird appeared
with a grasshopper she did not trust
herself inside, but stood at the en-
trance, put her head in and as quickly
drew back to take another glance
around, then leaned far down and fed
her clamoring brood. When she came
again, I made a picture of her as she
stood at the hole, and in so doing
frightened her off, but she was back
in an instant, and another picture was
secured as she left the nest. At this
moment a flock of Goldfinches flew
overhead, and were heard calling dc-
be! be-be /, at which the young Blue-
birds were instantly aroused, and
made the old stump resound again
with theircries. After many grasshop-
pers andcrickets had been dispatched,
a hairy robber fly, or Aszus already
mentioned, was brought in. Then
another bright green katydid, with its
wings half spread in its vain effort to
get free, was served to the young. If
frightened in an attempt to enter the
nest this bird invariably returned
shortly, and after the feeding was
over, would take the excreta, and fly
some distance before dropping it. In
no case was it known to be eaten at
thenest. During the afternoon, when
these birds had become more at ease

The Nest-Hole of the Bluebird.

NI
nN

in their new surroundings, the nest was cleaned six times in two hours. I saw this bird
bring to her young no less than twenty grasshoppers, four cone-headed katydids, two
black crickets, besides larva and many small insects. During the forenoon, in the space
of nearly three hours, the young were fed on the average of once in six minutes, and for
two hours in the afternoon once in nine and a half minutes.

The history of this interesting nest came to an unfortunate close, though through no
fault of mine. The old birds were subsequently frightened away, and their five young
ones left to perish. The young were not quite three inches long, and less than a week
old. They had yellow skins, and bright yellow mouths, and there was a sprinkling of
plumbeous down on the head, back, and shoulders.

Toward evening on March 22d of the present year I saw a male Bluebird sitting
comfortably in an old Robin’s nest, having apparently settled down to spend the night
there.

The Bluebird is one of the most unobtrusive of wild birds. [t goes about its busi-
ness quietly, and seems never to fight, except in defense of its home. According to one
authority, there are usually three broods, and before the first set of young can shift for
themselves the female repairs the nest and gets ready for the second. The male continues
to care for the first brood after the second has appeared, will feed his mate, and even
take her place at the nest.

Fig. 63. Standing at entrance with large grasshopper in bill.

CHAPTER VIII.

MINUTE OBSERVATIONS ON CATBIRDS.

days of life at the nest, when any intrusion will arouse its fighting instinct to
the highest pitch, it is under ordinary conditions exceedingly wary, suspicious,
and hard to approach. In the account which follows I shall describe only what was seen

é ve P i: Hy, bu? Be ce Om

\ \ J HILE the Catbird has a strong attachment for its young, especially during later

while camping beside two nests of these
birds.

The first of these attractive nests
rested on a spray of the sweet viburnum,
in a little clearing in dense bushes, and
about four feet from the ground, so that
no change in its position was necessary.
It contained a single addle egg and two
young with the feather-shafts of the wings
barely exposed.

For an hour or more after the tent
was in position, the old birds kept up a
perpetual din, in which their exasperat-
ing ¢shaying note was most pronounced.
They would circle round and round the
tent, often coming close as if to discover
the way in, or fluttering and screaming
at it, as if it were a demon to be exor-
cised. After this they gradually became
more quiet, and began to alight on the
tent’s guys and roof. At last the female
was seen stealthily to approach and
quickly feed her young. After a fresh re-
connaissance both birds went to the nest
together and with rapid, jerky move-
ments stuffed red cherries into the hun-
ery throats, inspected and cleaned each
young bird, and then darted away.

While in a state of mind wavering
Fig. 66. Female Catbird bringing in a large limp dragon-fly Lae: rh = ir
—the Aeschna heros between fear and assurance, the Catbird

“I
“SI

Minute Observations on Catbirds.

passes rapidly to a branch, and spreading and pumping the tail pauses in an attitude
of attention before making another movement.

Both birds now began to bring an abundance of insects and fruit, as if making up for
lost time. The female came with two
cherries in her bill and promptly gave
one to each of the two birds. Then
a grasshopper was served, and still
again a dragon-fly, with blue body
and spotted wings (the Lzbcllula
pulchella). Vhe insect was swallowed
wings and all, but only after pro-
longed efforts. As confidence was
gradually regained, the birds would
remain longer and longer at the nest,
pick the young all over, and clean
everything with care and delibera-
tion.

At this time (July 23d) the young
were about eight days old, and could
be easily approached. Two days later
when their nest was touched, they
tumbled out in an instant, disappear-
ing as if by magic amid the leaves.
I succeeded in finding one of them,
but it refused to remain in the old
nest. Its wing-quills now showed a
half inch of the feather-shaft, which
represented two days’ growth, while
the tail feathers were still in the stub-
brush stage.

There were four young in the

second nest, which was discovered in

Fig.67. Female Catbird inspecting after having fed the young.

some bushes close to the river bank
onthe nineteenth of June. It rested in the crotch formed by the crossing of shoots of
the dogwood and alder. The young were in pin-feathers, but not a tube had burst. Both
old birds happened to be off foraging, but quickly returned with food in their mouths,
and began to alarm the neighborhood.

The tent was pitched in front of this nest at eight o’clock on the morning of June 23d.
After it was closed both birds began their cautious explorations in the vicinity, ‘schaying
incessantly and with nerve-rasping vehemence. A male Redwing Blackbird was soon
attracted to the spot, and added his note of alarm to the general outcry, but after finding
that the matter did not concern him, returned to his nest in the flags farther away.

In twenty minutes the Catbirds had become more quiet, and began to pay close
attention to the tent. The Redwing was heard con-guer-ceing in the distance. Song

c=)
Sparrows were singing merrily. Veeries called from the woods close at hand, and the

78 Wild Birds.

be-be of the Goldfinches could be heard as these birds passed leisurely overhead. The
conditions were all reassuring, and presently the Catbirds became silent, and went off for
food. Ina few moments a rustling of leaves was heard close to the tent and the male
could be seen coming boldly in its direction.

Up to this time the young lay quietly in the nest, but were alert to every sound,
whether from the wind or any passing bird. Their wing-quills had become exposed in
the course of two days to a length of three quarters of an inch.

Suddenly a jubilant song burst forth from the throat of the male, and his mate thus
encouraged approached the nest with insect in bill, but her fears were not allayed, for
after beating about she swallowed the insect herself and went in search of another.

The young now began to yip in earnest and to stretch their scantily feathered trans-
parent necks. One of the lustiest of the four even climbed to the edge and sat in the
shade. They would erect their scanty crest-feathers and pant in the sun, which though
not excessively hot, was with the added feeling of hunger, beginning to make them
restless.

The sense of fear was at last overcome in the mother, who came, fed and cleaned the
young, and flew off again. After another pause a huge dragon-fly was brought to the
nest. The observer had to wait long at the beginning, but his reward was now quick in
coming. The young were then fed every five or six minutes, but the male only rarely
went to the nest himself. Still cautious to a degree, he would follow after the female,
but stop a few feet short of the nest. Then after delivering her insect she would go at
once to her mate, take the food from his bill, and bear it to the young.

The following table gives the number of visits at which food was brought during
eight consecutive hours from 8 A.M. to 4 P.M., and illustrates how the parental instincts,
aided by habit, gradually overcome the feeling of fear in a very shy and suspicious animal.

HOUR, | DOE TIMES NEST CLEANED. REMARKS,
[YOUNG ARE FED.
| ae Se I ——
I
3 t I I Young fed by female.
I “cc “ “ee ee
3 “e “ “ oc
4 5 x ;
5 8 2 Young fed once by male.
6 10 I Young fed twice by male, who also brings food which
a 5 female delivers.
7 2 Old birds begin coming to nest together.
& 17 4 Young fed twice by male, who also brings food for female
| ___ to serve. aimee

Five times in rapid succession the mother brought in dragon-flies of extraordinary
size (the large Zischna heros), of a light greenish yellow color, and limp as wet paper,
having just issued from their pupa cases. This bird presented an interesting sight as
she approached with one of these long insects hanging from her bill, for she always
held them by the head. The dragon-fly was as long as the young bird, but it was
invariably swallowed wings and all, though only after a hard struggle.

The young, always on the alert huddle to this and that side of the nest, and stretch-

Minute Observations on Catbirds. 79

ing to the utmost limit their transparent red necks display the yellow target of the open
mouth as they ¢s7/ ¢s7t/ to the approaching mother, who sounds her well-known call.
On one occasion I saw the female deliver a black dragon-fly, and afterwards take
from the bill of the male, who was standing near, a carrion beetle, and pass it to the young.
Then keenly eying her brood, she
deliberately bent over, and as the
body of one was raised took from it
asmall white package and flew away.
Many of the photographs show the
birds performing this sanitary act, a
practice common to many other spe-
cies. During her first visits the female
ate the excreta, but thereafter it was
invariably removed from the nest.
The food served to these young
Catbirds consisted of dragon-flies,
which were brought to the nest thir-
teen times, insect larve, beetles,
moth millers, and a great variety of
smaller insects, varied with liberal
courses of strawberries. At first the
old birds approached quietly, fed
their young hurriedly from the farth-
er side, and were off in a few seconds,
but as confidence in their surround-
ings was gradually restored, they
would come to the nest-front, with
the camera but three feet away, re-
main there fora full minute, and after
assisting the young to dispose of their
harder subjects, inspect everything

with the greatest care.
When this nest was visited two Fig. 68. Female Catbird cleaning the nest.

days later the young looked bright

and hearty. They were now in full feather, and about ready for flight. When the tent had
been cautiously set up, I noticed that a number of leaves cast undesirable shadows on
thenest. Though knowing well what to expect, I decided to take the risk, and reached
out to cut them off. This was the fatal spark which fires the train of gunpowder, for all
went off in an instant in a panic of fear, and the game was up, for Catbirds when well
out of their nest at this stage are out for good.

CHAPIEER 1X.
THE REARING OF THE NIGHT HAWK.

N crossing a clearing one day in June I flushed a Night Hawk, who showed by her
behavior that the little depression from which she rose contained something of great
interest to both the bird and myself. She was indeed incubating a single marbled

gray egg, which lay on a marbled-gray patch of earth still covered with ashes and cinder.
The bird retired quietly, dropping with a thud to the ground a few feet away.

Two days later, if my estimate is correct, a young Night Hawk cracked his shell
neatly in two and emerged to the light of day. When first seen on the twenty-sixth of
June, he was well clothed in down, and looked like a little flattened ball of fluffy worsted,
of a dark cream color mot-
tled with brown, colors
which harmonize well with
the usual tints of the soil.
You had to look a second
time to detect the stub of
a beak at the base of which
the large round nostrils
were sufficiently prominent.
Whenever this bird was
aroused from its all-day
slumbers the eyelids would
gradually open and disclose
a pair of large, soft, deep
blue eyes, the lower lids
showing decided angular
contours which became

Fig. 69. Night Hawk and eggshells from which it emerged. Three days
old, June 27, 1900. more striking as the bird

grew.

The mother brooded during the heat of the day or sat as if dozing beside her charge.
When surprised at such times she rose and with feathers erect and tail spread fluttered
off in a slow shambling manner as if to encourage pursuit. With her feathers raised and
her huge mouth wide open or the mandible vibrating up and down, with an audible snap-
ping sound, as if set on springs, this bird presented a curious appearance, recalling the
not wholly dissimilar behavior which eagles display when stirred by similar emotions.

The Rearing of the Night Hawk. 81

When the young Night Hawk is exposed to a hot sun, its lower jaw also begins to vibrate
but at a much higher rate of speed, when it will toddle off and crouch in the shade of
aleaf. It begins to walk when three or four days old, but rarely emits a sound, except
under circumstances which will be presently described. Fearing lest the old bird should
entice it away, I coralled it in a small enclosure of wattled twigs on July 3d. In this
pen it remained a week longer or
until able to fly at the age of about
eighteen days.

Wishing to witness the feeding
habits of these birds, which I believe
have never been described, I spent
parts of three days and nights camped
beside the enclosure and was the wit-
ness of some interesting and curious
sights. On the first day I set up the
tent at three o'clock in the afternoon,
but heard no sound for an hour, when
the young began to fe-wp/ At five
o'clock the prsk / of the male sound-
ed for the first time. During the
interval a single incident occurred to Fig. 70. Night Hawk three days old. Nearly life size.

vary the monotony. A green snake
in the course of his rambles had dis-
covered the young Night Hawk, and
when first seen was watching the bird
intently from a stump close to the
tent. The snake after remaining with
elevated head keenly eying the bird
for along time, slowly advanced, put-
ting out his tongue, but when a few
inches away hesitated again, and as if
deciding not to experiment further,
turned to one side and disappeared.
The bird paid no attention whatever
to the advances of the snake. At this
juncture I left the tent for an hour,
returning as the sun was setting at
half-past seven o’clock.

At dark a change begins to come
over the Night Hawk family. The
young bird shows signs of life, moves

Fig. 71. Night Hawk nine days old, July 3d. Length in sit-
about calling for food, and grows | ting posture, 3} inches.

livelier as the darkness increases,
making a sound like pe-ur / pe-up/ Both old birds are now alert and gyrating overhead,
You hear their pzsk/ pisk/ and the startling sound caused by the vibration of the wings

8 Wild Birds.

as an old bird descends like a bolt toward the earth. As these sounds increase with their
nearer approach, the nervous excitement of the young is curious to behold. He is all
a-tremor, Moves now in one direction, now in another and his pe-wr / note reaches a
pitch unknown before.
Presently you hear a
thud as if a clod of
earth had dropped.
Then the mother bird,
crawling over the
leaves, begins calling
ke-ark! ke-ark! This
sound however un-
couth to the human
ear, corresponds to the
cluck ! of the hen to
her chicks, and awak-
ens an immediate re-
sponse in the young
Night Hawk. He does
his best to go to his
mother, but the ob-
Fig. 72. Night Hawk twelve days old, July 6th. stacles being insur-

mountable, she comes
to him. She is load-
ed with fireflies, and
as her great mouth
opens, you behold the
wide jaws and throat
brilliantly illuminated
like a spacious apart-
ment all aglow with
electricity. With wings
erect and full-spread,
the old bird ap-
proached to within
fifteen inches of my
wm ——- hand, making an elec-

hag agar

* tric display at every
Fig. 73. Night Hawk sixteen days old, July roth. Length in sitting posture, 4} inches. utterance of her harsh

ke-ark / Then stand-
ing over her young, with raised and quivering wings, she put her bill well down into his
throat and pumped him full. His down-covered wings were also spread and a-quiver. In this
position they remained interlocked and silent for one or two minutes. When the feeding
was over she tucked the little one under her breast and began to brood. It was not long

before she was off again in the darkness, and upon returning the performance was repeated,

Fig. 74. Front view of bird shown in Fig. 72.

Fig. 75. Young Night Hawk in enclosure on spot where it was born, and where it remained
until able to fly when eighteen days old.

The Rearing of the Night Hawk. 85

after which she settled down to brood asif for the night. This young bird was fed but twice
each evening between the hours of eight and nine o'clock, and always, as I believe, by the
female. It is probable that another feeding time also occurs at dawn. During the earlier
hours the male would sometimes swoop down with terrific wing-blast as if to drive away
intruders, and he once came and sat by his chick for ten minutes after dusk without
causing any excitement. The task of feeding was borne by the mother, and her presence
never failed to excite the young.

I tried to make a flash-light picture of the old and young bird interlocked in the feed-
ing process, and could easily have succeeded had my lamp been of a kind which showed
no light before the flash.

In two weeks the mottled down of the Night Hawk chick has given place to mottled
feathers, in which the tints range from dark to light brown or buff. The wing-quills are
almost black with buff edges. The fifth quill or primary has a pure white transverse spot
near the point of emergence from the feather tube, the first trace of what becomes a con-
spicuous mark on the wings of an adult bird. The fledgling is more lively in the day-
time, runs about easily, will utter his pe-wv / note, and can fly short distances.

OG os 2. i al 8 See.
THE KINGFISHERS AND THEIR KING ROW.

HE Kingfisher has a strong attachment for particular nesting places, and will

occupy the same bank for years, if unmolested, and sometimes even when robbed.

The Belted Kingfisher, though widely distributed, seems to be nowhere very

abundant. In New Hampshire one rarely finds more than a single pair nesting in the

neighborhood of any village
or town.

The nest now to be de-
scribed was drilled into a
sand bank beside a country
road. It had astraight four-
inch bore, which four feet
from the opening expanded
into a low-vaulted chamber
six inches high and ten
inches across. When this
dark subterranean abode
was opened at the rear, on
the nineteenth day of July,
1900, I put in my hand and
drew forth in succession five
very strange looking creat-
ures. They had huge coni-
cal bills, short legs, and fat
squatty bodies, which bris-
tled all over with steel. gray
“quills,” the feather tubes,
which had not yet burst,

’

suggesting an antediluvian
monster or reptilian bird on
a reduced plan.

These five young King-
fishers which were then

Fig. 76, Tunnel of Kingfisher—the opening seen at the right—in sand bank :
Overgrown with pines, beside country road. August, 1899. about nine days old had

Fig. 77. Nest in same bank as shown in Fig. 76, and probably belonging to same pair. Tak-
ing fish to young. July, 1go0,

Tee
ae
La, heey

Fig. 78. Kingfisher backing out of tunnel. The sand streams from the opening at every en-
trance and exit.

The Kingfishers and their King Row. 59

already acquired some curious habits. They, like the adult birds, stand not on the toes
simply, but on the whole tarsus, which corresponds to the scaly part of the leg of a fowl,
so that the ‘drum-stick” rises from the heel. They can be posed in any position like toy
soldiers, but if placed in line they will soon break ranks and walk backwards, even mov-
ing up inclined planes or against
obstacles set in their paths. They
are rarely seen to take a single for-
ward step for many days after reach-
ing this stage.

The human infant and verte.
brated animals generally instinctive-
ly walk forward; how then does it
happen that the young Kingfisher
early acquires the grotesque habit
of walking backwards? The anom-
aly is readily understood. From
the time of birth the young lie hud-
dled in a cluster in their dark un-
derground chamber, which opens : mee :

, 0 Fig. 79. Five Kingfishers from chamber at end of tunnel; nine days
to the outside by means of a single oa. July 19, 1900.
narrow tunnel. As they grow in
size and strength the monotony of
sitting still, often with legs and

wings interlocked, must become
very great, and whether for diver-
sion or not, at all events they soon
begin to bite and tease one another
like young puppies. Should one be
hard-pressed, the only way of es-
cape lies along the narrow passage,
which they naturally traverse head
first; but the instinct to return to
the warm family cluster is strong,
and to do this they are obliged to
walk backwards. Again when the
rattle of the alma mater announcing
the capture of another fish is heard, Fig. 80. Posed in line,—biting, pulling, and crowding one another.
each struggles to get down the nar-

row passage-way first, but when the parent enters the hole she hustles them all back. With
each backward movement the young Kingfishers thus come to associate pleasant things,—
food and warmth. Thus the habit is temporarily fixed.

Wishing to see these birds take fish to their young, I decided to try the tent, al-
though it was impossible to get nearer than eight feet, and the hole was in full light for
only a part of the forenoon; besides, being situated on the roadside, one was in constant
danger of interruption. The experiment succeeded, however, even better than I had

gO Wild Birds.

anticipated; ten visits were recorded, and the old birds were photographed in the act of
both entering and leaving their tunnel. They brought a single fish each time, usually
what appeared to be a small chub or dace, and I once recognized a good-sized sunfish.
When the tent and camera were ready at nine o'clock on the morning of July 23d,
the parent birds were away on a fishing excursion, and did not return for half an hour.
At last a series of warning rattles, at first faint, but momentarily becoming more shrill,
announced the approaching
bird, who came at full tilt
with fish in bill. Hesitat-
ing at sight of the tent she
perched on the dead limb
of a pine, flew to and fro
from one side of the road to
the other, and made the
woods resound as never be-
fore. Even the depthsofthe
earth seemed to respond,
as the muffled rattles of
the five young Kingfishers
issued from their subter-
ranean abode. From what-

Fig. 81. The ‘‘ King Row.” Five Kingfishers in line, illustrating habit of sit- CVE point of view we regard
ting still. July 19, 1900. this singular note, it cer-
tainly carries well and is ad-
mirably adapted to arouse
the fish under water and the
young bird under ground.
When the wriggling fish
nearly slipped from her
grasp, the bird would shift
it about until her forceps
had a firmer grip at a point
just back of its head. At
every reel of the rattle, each
of which seemed more shrill
and more impatient than
the last, she would start as

if to go to her nest a few
Fig. 82. The ‘‘ King Row” at a later period ; thirteen days old, July 23, 1900. yards away. Occasionally
a peculiar creaking sound es-

caped her, suggesting the grating of dead limbs when swayed by the wind. Suddenly with
rattle in shrillest crescendo she bolted straight into the hole, delivered the fish, remained for
halfa minute, then came out backwards, turning in the air as she dropped from the entrance,
and with a parting rattle was off to the river. During these visits the Kingfishers usually
remained but a quarter or half a minute in the tunnel, and always came out backwards,

The Kingfishers and their King Row. gI

except on one occasion when I saw the bird turn near the entrance, and shoot out head
first. The longest visit recorded lasted three and a half minutes. When a youngster
was encountered near the mouth of the tunnel he was driven back to the chamber, where
the food was distributed. Once
only did I see an old bird pause
at the entrance for a hasty
glance backward, and thus
give a good profile view of
head with fish in bill. Unfor-
tunately the plate had already
been exposed, and before it
could be changed, the oppor-
tunity was lost. The old birds,
however, must have often
turned about at the entrance
on both entering and leaving
the hole, as shown by the deep
furrows plowed by the bill at
either side of the opening.
When the young are ten

days old, the feather tubes
have begun to burst at the tips, Fig. 83. Kingfisher nine days old, showing feather tubes and tracts.

and their horny substance is
gradually shed in the form of
powdery scales. The feathers
grow slowly, but at the age of
two weeks the characteristic
colors of the adult are becom-
ing apparent,—the slaty-blue
of the upper parts, and the
white of the breast which is
traversed by a bluish-brown
belt, with rusty brown along
the sides. As they rattle when
taken from the nest their
whole body quavers. They
will hiss, bite one another, hud-
dle together, and erect their

crests of long stiff feathers. Fig. 84. At thirteen days ; many of the feather tubes burst. The blue-
: 2 black, white-tipped wing-quills project half an inch. Notice that these
They attain to full plumage or birds always stand, not on the toes only, but on the short shank or tarsus.

nearly so when three weeks
old, at which time their bright fresh colors and docile natures make them most attractiy
They can fly but little, and show no fear. At this stage their habitual expression sugges
a peculiar sardonic grin.

On the fourth of August I took these birds home in a basket, when twenty-five days

es
ts

92 Wild Birds.

old, if their age was correctly estimated. They were about ready to fly and would have
voluntarily left their nest in a short time. The nesting chamber had been gradually
opened up in front and filled at the rear, until it had advanced a foot and a half toward
the mouth of the tunnel. At this time fear was possessing them, and a day later it was
impossible to handle them with-
out throwing them into a panic.
When quiet they would still
pose well, would strike with
open bill, and walk backwards.
During captivity I fed them

on fish which, however, they
would never seize of their own
accord. It was necessary to
open their bills and press the
food well down into their dis-
tensible throats. They would
perch ona branch placed in their
cage, drink water and sit in it
by the half-hour, but never
touch the most tempting mor-
Fig. 85. Kingfisher fifteen days old, with nearly all feathers partly un- sels of food. Raw meat was
i a a rejected, but they throve on
fish if fed by the hand. When
perched they stood as before on
the whole tarsus or shank, and

would sit together and in si-
lence, with breasts thrown out,
for hours. You heard only an
occasional rattle, and that usu-
ally inthe morning. The King-
fisher’s cesophagus is very dis-
tensible and the throat is lined
with inwardly projecting papil-
lee, so that when a fish is once
taken in the throat, it is impos-
sible for it to escape.

The bill of the Kingfisher
Fig. 86. Ateighteen days. The bright blue tints of the upper parts, and is grooved on the inside, thus

the white and chestnut bands around the neck and breast are now very = 8 .
prominent, July 28, 1900. giving the mandibles sharp cut-

ting edges and a firm gripe on
the prey. A fish once seized rarely makes its escape, to prevent which the bird has other
resources. I once saw a curious trick performed by a Kingfisher, who having made a good
capture, was perched on a dead tree over the water. In the course of its struggles the
fish nearly got free, and for a moment was held only by its tail. The bird with a quick
movement of the head tossed the fish in the air, and as it descended caught it by the head
and proceeded to swallow it.

The Kingfishers and their King Row. 93

When liberated on August 12th, at the age of thirty-three days, the young King-
fishers were suddenly thrown upon their own resources, and it was questionable whether
they would be able to recover the instinct to seek and capture prey. However, they
were strong and healthy, and I hope that nature came to their aid not only in prompting
them to find food, but in starting them south later in the autumn.

Fig. 87. Kingfishers twenty-two days old. Placed in line to illustrate habit of walking back-
wards. The second bird at the left has already broken ranks and taken a few backward steps.
August I, Igoo,

Chive PER 2h

CARE OF YOUNG AND NEST.

BROODING AND FEEDING THE YOUNG.

of the night, and in some species the young seem to require this kind of pro-

tection as much as food. During the first days of life in the nest it is not

easy to distinguish a brooding from a sitting bird, but this is not the case when a little

later the mother begins to rest her wings over the rim, or spreading wings and tail stands

astride the nest with back to the sun. The young must be protected from heat, cold,

and rain, and the instinct to perform this duty is as strong with old birds as that of
bringing food.

Cedar Waxwings and Kingbirds which I have watched, brooded regularly at night,

but I have known young Robins to be left alone in the nest. Should the day be cloudy

but with no rain, or sunny but not too warm little or no brooding has been observed

W HEN the callow young are hatched, brooding is the order of the day as well as

among the various species which I have studied, but let the sun beat relentlessly upon
the young, or the air become laden with moisture, and the faithful mother is promptly at
her post. I have seen the Robin brood the young when eleven days old for forty minutes
at a time, while her mate brought an abundance of food. As he approached with an
insect or cluster of worms, she would step aside, but immediately settle back on the nest
when the food had been safely disposed. Asa rule, however, she would brood for five or
ten minutes, leave at the approach of the male, return promptly with food, and brood
until her mate again appeared. I have on several occasions seen a brooding bird leave
the nest when the sun became temporarily obscured and return when the clouds lifted.
It was not quite certain, however, that the element of chance did not vitiate the
observation.

While camped beside a nest of Brown Thrushes whose photographs are shown, and
whose young were approximately four days old, the female came to the nest for inspec-
tion frequently on the first day of observation, and brooded intermittently, but fed her
young only once in the space of three and a half hours. When I frightened this bird
off with the hand stretched through the tent-window, she would dart at it, scold em-
phatically, but in a few moments return to her brooding again, as if her young required
this attention more than food.

The Chestnut-sided Warbler who is represented in many characteristic attitudes

Fig. 88. Female Brown Thrush brooding her young. Lens, Extra Rapid 9; inch; speed, {;

stop, 32; time, } second; plate, Seeds’ No. 27 ‘‘ gilt edge’’; distance, four feet; in full sun,
July 13, 1900.

Care of Young and Nest. 97

about the nest by a long series of photographs, only a few of which can be shown, was a
most devoted brooder for days. She would stick to her charge until driven off by sheer
force or by hunger. I have often seen her drop down in the grass, pick up a morsel on
her own account, and be back to the nest in a fraction of a second before the insect was
fairly swallowed. Again she might leave the nest twenty times in the course of an hour
to procure food either for herself or her children. Her mate would often alight above

Fig. 89. Female Robin brooding: a characteristic attitude when alert, or listening to any unusual sound.

the nest, bend far down and deliver the insects into the mouth of the brooding hen, who
would promptly hop up and give every morsel to the young.

This little warbler would sometimes sit well down in the nest, and erect some of her
feathers and apparently inflate the throat so that the bird’s head appeared as if swollen
to twice its natural size. She made the most comical picture, however, when on a hot
day she stood or sat over the young, with every feather erect, striving to keep them cool
and to be comfortable herself meanwhile.

The female Kingbird broods constantly when the heat is severe, and at the approach
7

98 Wild Birds.

Fig. go. Female Redwing Blackbird placing food in the throat of
a nestling.

Fig.91. The same bird watching the foodin the throat. If not
immediately swallowed, the insect is withdrawn and passed
around until a bird with the proper reaction time is found.

of the male will often assist in dis-
patching unruly insects and in seeing
them safely downa responsive throat.
The persistence of the Redwing Star-
ling in this line of conduct is admir-
able. I have seen one of these birds
stand with drooping wings, erect
feathers, and mouth agape, in the
strong heat of a July day for hours
though not continuously, for she in-
variably left at the approach of her
mate for a few moments’ respite, and
then usually returned with food.

The Cedar-bird gapes persist-
ently when uncomfortably warm,
but only the crest feathers are ever
erected, and then not to the extent
usually shown in drawings of this
species. Both Robins and Catbirds
bristle up when their nests and well-
fledged young are assailed, but I have
never seen this habit in the brooding
bird, although their emotion is often
expressed by raising the feathers of
the crown.

The duty of brooding rests
mainly with the female in our com-
mon land birds, but the male in some
species either regularly or intermit-
tently takes his turn at the nest.

Passerine birds feed their young
at brief intervals from early morning
until nightfall, but apparently sel-
dom if ever after dark. The Night
Hawk, as has been seen, broods by
day, and feeds its young at dusk, or
just after dark, and probably again
at dawn. Both sexes usually share
in bringing food to the nest, but
this rule is by no means universal.

The young require animal food
during the early days of life, and
in the interior of the country this
consists mainly of insects in the
larval or mature stages, spiders,

Fig. 92. Female Kingbird astride nest with drooping half-spread wings, shielding her
brood from the hot sun. Notice the characteristic attitude of the young.

Yu S
ie

Fig. 93. Kingbirds bruising a too active grasshopper between their bills preparatory to
serving it to the young: the female in front with tail full-spread,

Care of Young and Nest. 101

earthworms (at least in the Robin) and possibly slugs. Aside from the habits of the adult
the nature of the food brought depends much upon the character of the supply. When the
Kingfisher finds crayfish abundant they are carried to the nest, and this species has also
been known to go to the fields for insects. Along the coast various other invertebrates un-
doubtedly contribute to the food supply of both young and adult birds of many species.
Birds which never taste of fruit themselves naturally do not give it to their young, while
Robins, Orioles, Vireos, and Waxwings, to mention but a few of the berry-pickers, vary
the diet of their fledglings with a liberal supply of fruits of various kinds.

Fig. 94. Female Kingbird assisting a grampus down the Fig.95. Male grampus, Corydalus cornutus: full size,
throat of anestling. The long gray wings of this insect are from life.
still protruding from the mouth.

The food is placed not simply in the mouth of the young but well down into the
sensitive throat, and if the bird does not immediately respond, it is withdrawn and passed
-to another, and often toa third, until a throat is found which has the proper reaction
time. If the gullet is already full, the swallowing power is inhibited, and the bird must
wait. If the experiment of feeding a young bird like a Robin at the nest is tried, it will
be found that the food passes slowly down the cesophagus, and when this is filled no
more can be taken until the channel is clear. The gullet thus acts as a brake to the
tendency of the greedy young bird to gorge itself to suffocation. According to Audu-

102 Wild Birds.

Fig. 96. Female Chestnut-sided Warbler bristling to keep
cool while brooaing ona hot June day.

Fig. 97. The same bird in the more common brooding attitude.

bon, Cedar-birds will sometimes gorge
themselves to such excess with berries as
to be unable to fly, and a number of
wounded birds of this species which he
kept inacage ate of apples until suffocated.
When opened they were found to be filled
to the mouth.

The automatic response given by the
young is the signal awaited by the old bird,
though often with impatience. The insect
is watched after being placed in a respon-
sive throat, until it disappears. Should it
stick at the gullet it is withdrawn and re-
placed time and again, or given a gentle
pull, until it is safely down. Sometimes
the insect is bruised against a twig, beaten
into a pulp or crushed and torn asunder
between the bills of the parent birds before
it can be safely delivered. As has already
been seen, many birds uttera peculiar note
as a special stimulus to the young. At
such times even the silent Cedar-bird finds
avoice and gives an impatient cheet/ If
this call passes unheeded it often becomes
extremely shrill, especially in Kingbirds,
with whom failure on part of their young
to quick response seems to be peculiarly
exasperating.

While watching a Kingbird’s nest
from the tent, a moth miller was once
brought in by the male. It was passed to
each one of the young in turn, but even
under the spur of his shrill chitter, they
were unresponsive, and he devoured the
prey himself. This sharp economy is often
practiced at the nest, and I have even seen
the leg of a grasshopper picked up and
eaten by an old bird. Not a crumb is
allowed to go to waste. If an insect gets
away it is usually pursued and immedi-
ately snapped up. Once, however, Isawa
female Kingbird fooled by a fly who owed
its life to its small size. As she opened
her bill in her attempt to land it safely
in an open throat, the fly darted off. The

Care of Young and Nest. 103

bird seemed dazed for a moment, and
stood gazing at the departing fly as if in
mute astonishment.

Exciting scenes usually follow at the
nest of the Kingbird when a large dragon-
fly, cicada, or grampus is brought to the
family circle. The insect often struggles
hard, but escape is out of the question,
especially with both birds at the nest, who
at once begin to rend and crush it with
their bills.

The male grampus (Corydalus corn-
utus) better known as the larval hellgamite
of which black bass are sometimes ex-
tremely fond, has long gray wings folded
back over the body when at rest, and the
head is armed with horns an inch long but
formidable only in their appearance. I
have seen these huge insects measuring four
inches from tip of the jaws to the extrem-
ities of the folded wings fed to a single
bird, and they were swallowed—wings and
all. The operation is shown at an incom-
plete stage in one of the _ illustrations,
where the wings of the grampus can be
seen projecting an inch or more from the
mouth of the struggling bird.

The cicada is even tougher and harder
to manage but is beaten into subjection,
and served up ina limp condition. Last
August, I witnessed a street combat be-
tween one of these cicade and an House
Sparrow. The insect was bounding up
and down on the ground and sounding its
crescendo at an alarming rate, but unable
to avoid the blows which rained from the
Sparrow's bill. As the music of the dying
cicada finally ceased, the Sparrow picked
up his victim and bore it off to his brood

Il.
CLEANING THE NEST.

The sanitary condition of the young
isa matter of great concern to most birds,

Fig. 98. A common scene atthisnest. The male brings
food, while his mate, who is brooding, receives it into her
own bill and passes it on to the children.

Fig 99. The same brooding bird, with feathers erect and
throat inflated.

104 Wild Birds.

who as a class are extremely neat and clean. This is especially true of many
species who breed in holes or cavities of any kind like the Woodpeckers and Chick-
adees, the young of which are crowded in close quarters or even piled up in more than
one layer. The Woodpecker’'s hole and the Bluebird’s nest are always sweet and clean,
and the nestlings immaculate.

The duty of inspection and, if necessary, nest-cleaning follows each feeding with
clock-like regularity, and is one of
the most characteristic and import-
ant activities to be observed in the
nesting habits of a large number of
the smaller land birds, yet apparently
it is not mentioned in the standard
treatises of ornithology, and I have
found but few references to it in
works of any kind. Audubon, who
has probably recorded more facts on
the behavior of American birds than
any other writer, does not, I believe,
mention this important function.
The reason is not far to seek, for
without the possibility of close ap-
proach to the nest, and the use of a
convenient blind, such acts are
difficult or impossible to observe.

The instinct of inspecting and
cleaning the nest is mainly confined
to the great passerine and picarian
orders represented in this country
by hundreds of species. It is a
well-marked trait in Thrushes, Wax-
wings, Vireos, Warblers, Orioles,
Blackbirds, and Woodpeckers, to
mention those families in which it

has been observed.
Fig. 100. Brown Thrush feeding a nestling. ‘‘ The food is placed The excreta of the young leave
not simply in the mouth of the young, but well down into the sensi- the cloaca in the form of white,
opaque or transparent, mucous sacs.
The sac is probably secreted at the lower end of the alimentary canal, and is sufficiently
consistent to admit of being picked up without soiling bill or fingers. The parent birds
often leave the nest hurriedly bearing one of these small white packages in bill, an action
full of significance to every member of the family. I have seen the Oriole carry these
packages a few rods from the nest and drop them before alighting. The Bluebird and
Redwing Blackbird take them a long distance before letting them fall.
Some Crow Blackbirds which I watched last spring had their young inthe top of a
fir tree beside a small pond, which lay between me and their nest. In approaching with

tive throat.”

Care of Young and Nest. 105

food they would stealthily enter the tree on the farther side and after a few moments fly
over the pond and drop what looked like a small white marble in the water below. This
effected, they would veer and fly off to the feeding ground. The same action was
repeated by birds from other nests.

Removing the excreta piecemeal and dropping it at a safe distance, is the common
instinctive method not only of insuring the sanitary condition of the nest itself, but
what is even more important, of
keeping the grass and leaves below
free from any sign which might be-
tray them to an enemy.

Many other birds, of which |
can now certify the Robin, Catbird,
Cedar Waxwing, Red-eyed Vireo,
Kingbird, Redwing Blackbird, Brown
Thrush, and Chestnut-sided Warbler,
devour a part and often the major
part of the excreta at the nest.
This is a very common practice
with the Warbler, Robin, Waxwing,
and Vireo, but was only casually
observed in Catbirds and Brown
Thrushes.

The Robin has undoubtedly
been seen by many in the character.
istic pose shown in a number of the
photographs standing on the rim of
the nest with the head erect, or in-
clined as if doting on her young
ones and thinking what fine children
they were, whereas this attitude is
really one of sanitary inspection.
When an old bird of any of the
species mentioned above has fed one
of the brood, its duty is but half
done; it pauses, bends over, and

Fig tor. Brown Thrush cleaning the nest.

keenly scrutinizes each young bird in turn and every part of the nest. Shortly after
being fed, the nestling becomes very uneasy, and raises its body as if to drop the sac
over the edge of the nest. The old bird follows every movement, snaps up the
package as it leaves the body, and either swallows it immediately or carries it off.
When seen flying from the nest with head depressed, the Robin is usually engaged
in errands of this kind. The Robins and Cedar-birds have frequently been seen to take
the sacs from two or three birds in rapid succession, in which case they are always de-
voured on the spot. The Robin will often convey the package to any convenient
perch, and after examining it, devour a part, or reject the whole. While watching Rob-
ins from the tent I have seen them carry the excreta thirty rods away before letting it

106 Wild Birds.

fall or alighting to examine it, and have tried to find the sac but usually without success.
One day I saw a male Robin drop the “ white marble” in the grass about fifty feet from
the nest, and proceed to peck at it. Upon going to the spot a little later I found the sac
covered with dirt but not opened. It had a tenacious opaque white wall, was perfectly
odorless, and contained besides a few small pellets, a whole blueberry which had survived
the digestive process. The actions of the old bird were thus explained. He was look-
ing for food on his own account, but in this case missed it.

On another occasion the mother Robin devoured all the excreta which soiled the
nest, and a moment later took it directly from the young and carried it away. Againon
a later day, the same bird after swal-
lowing all the excreta available,
dropped on the nest and brooded
her young twenty minutes by the
watch, without showing the least
desire to reject anything which had
been eaten.

The female Cedar-bird in her
usual round of domestic duties
comes to her nest of half-fledged
young, regurgitates cherries, and
after distributing them in the usual
fashion, inspects her household with
the closest attention, picking up and
swallowing every particle which it is
necessary to remove. This accom-
plished the mother bird has been
seen to spread her wings over her
brood, and shield them from a hot
August sun foroveran hour. Mean-
time her mate came repeatedly, and
passed the cherries around. The fe-
male who stood erect astride the

Fig. 102. Cedar-bird cleaning the nest. Compare this common nest, would frequently inspect and
attitude with that shown in Figs. 45 and 46.

clean the household. She would

also snap at every passing insect, and I saw her catch a large red ant, and quickly transfer

it to the mouth of a young bird. She would erect and lower her crest and stand with

mouth agape for long intervals, but there was never a sign of ejecting anything which

had been eaten.

At still another nest of the Waxwing I saw the female after feeding cherries, inspect,
and walking around the rim of the nest, take the sacs from four young birds in succession,
direct from the body, and after swallowing them all, look for more. She then flew to a
neighboring tree and cleaned her bill. In performing the sanitary act this bird bends
over, and reaching forward with head turned slightly to one side, takes the sac rather
gingerly as it leaves the cloaca, and quickly disposes of it. In the course of forty-four
visits to their young of which exact record was made, this nest was cleaned eighteen

Care of Young and Nest. 107

times ; once a part of the excreta was taken away and a part eaten; five times it was re-
moved from the nest, and on eleven visits all was devoured.

After watching such behavior, which I have seen repeated with slight variations hun-
dreds of times, I am convinced that the excreta in such cases is actually eaten, and not
merely taken into the gullet to be later regurgitated. It is true that the Cedar-bird uses
its distensible gullet as a temporary receptacle for the food destined for the young, and
it might seem probable that the cxcreta went no farther than the cesophagus, from which
it was later ejected. The actions of the birds just described and in many similar cases
observed do not support this idea. s

Not only are the young care-
fully tended in the way explained,
but the old birds often put the head
down in the nest and rummage
about for any stray particle of food
or fragments of any kind which it is
desirable to remove. While stand-
ing at the nest they will sometimes
pick energetically their own legs and
toes, and the heads and bodies of the
young, a very important function
where the nest is infested with those
minute swarming particles known as
lice and mites. Every straw and
fiber in the Cedar-bird’s nest shown
in one of the photographs(Fig. 38) was
literally covered with parasites, in this
case a species of mite which is a poor
and degenerate relation of the spider.
When the nest or anything in it was
touched they would swarm up the

hand by hundreds, but they are

Fig. 103. Female Kingbird attending sanitation of nest.

barely visible to the eye, and apart
from a slight tickling sensation between the fingers are scarcely felt. They do not seem
to trouble the old birds much, but must give discomfort to the young, especially if from
any other cause they happen to be weakly.

One would suppose that cleanliness must be an imperative instinct with such a bird
as the Kingfisher, whose nest is underground, but the semi-fluid excreta is not re-
moved from the tunnel, which according to some observers, becomes fouled in con-
sequence. This was not true of the nest which I had under observation last summer.
In the course of seventeen days the nesting chamber was moved forward more than a
foot, so that it always presented a clean surface.

The Barn Swallow, the House Sparrow, and the wild Passenger Pigeon represent a
considerable number of birds which secure protection in their breeding haunts by other
means than by concealing the nest. While their nests may be clean, this is not true of
the ground beneath. It is plainly advantageous for the smaller birds which breed in

108 Wild Birds.

solitude on or near the ground to remove every particle of litter which would whiten
the grass or foliage and thus advertise the nest to their enemies, even to those who
prowl at night.

When a Red-eyed Vireo whose actions I was watching at close range dropped one
of the sacs by accident, she would dart after it and snap it up before it reached the
ground not four feet from the nest. I have also witnessed the same performance in the
Kingbirds. Not atrace of deflement
is ever seen about the dwellings of
any bird possessed of the cleaning
instinct.

On the other hand predaceous
birds like Eagles and Hawks pay no
attention to such matters. The ex-
creta of the young as of the adult is
voided in a semi-fluid state and in
a peculiar manner. With tail up-
turned over the edge of the nest it
is shot to a distance of several feet,
and may strike the ground two or
more yards from the nesting tree.
In this way the eyry at least is kept
clean. These bold and persistent
robbers have few enemies to reckon
with, and their nests may be as open
to view as a castle on a hill.

Owls, which breed in holes in
trees, are reported to have filthy
nests, especially when the cavity has
been occupied for several successive
years, but this seems to be due mainly
to the remains of their quarry or to
the accumulation of the rejected
food-pellets. The haunts of certain
sea fowl are often reeking with filth

Fig.104. Baltimore Oriole hurriedly feeding her young before : " : a ‘i
uring the br ing season, and the
all fear has been subdued and behavior is free. du © eed > is

guano-beds of the South American
coast mark the breeding grounds of myriads of sea fowl. However, the birds themselves
both old and young seem to manage to keep clean, and any other condition would soon
become intolerable.

The Turkey Buzzard seems to have touched the lowest depths of squalor to which
any bird can descend and live. In speaking of their abodes, Audubon says that before
the final departure of the young, a person, if forced to remain in their vicinity for half an
hour, would be in danger of suffocation.’

The cleaning of the young and nest is instinctive in a very large number of birds,

1 Ornithological Biography, vol. ii., p. 43.

Care of Young and Nest. 109

and so is also the care with which they avoid any defilement of the nesting site. The use
of the excreta as food, however, is to be regarded in a different light. If it should be
proved that in the Robin, for instance, some individuals never eat the excreta, while others
as we know do, we should regard the action as an acquired habit. When the pellicle
breaks in the mouth, an accident which I have seen happen in the case of the Robin, the
bird is obliged to swallow a part in order to get rid of it.

Much light is thrown on this
question by the behavior of the
Chestnut-sided Warblers, whose
habits will be referred to again in
the concluding chapter. Both sexes
in this case fed, brooded, and
cleaned the young and nest. The
male regularly removed the excreta
but was never seen to eat it. The
female on the contrary often ate of
it, and brooded so constantly that
she was obliged to leave the nest
to satisfy her own hunger. She
would often be back in half a minute,
having taken only a bite as it were.
When the female had_ received
the food which her mate sup-
plied and had seen it safely deliv-
ered, she would inspect, devour
everything which needed removal,
and then continue to brood. Ifa
sac should accidentally fall, she
would snap it off the ground, return
to the nest, and brood as before.
At other times when the male ap-
proached she would stand aside
and allow him to deliver the food
and make the inspection. Twice

Fig. 105. Serving a black cricket to a fleagling who has climbed to
I saw the male take a sac to Carry the rim of the nest and is struggling to maintain his position.

it away, and the female snatch it

from him, swallow it, and settle down on the nest. Again another sac was torn asunder,
and each bird went off with a half in its bill. In a moment the female returned but
without bringing food, showing that she had been satisfying her own hunger. This not
only proves that the excreta is used as food but illustrates how the habit of eating it
may be forced upon a hungry brooding bird.

Since digestion in the young is an imperfect process at best, it is easy to understand
how any kind of pre-digested or partly digested food might be acceptable in times of
stress when the staple article was not easy to procure. The fact that a bird only casually
devours a pellet or swallows one and removes another is easy to understand. It is a ques-

110 Wild Birds.

tion of the hunger of the moment, and another illustration of the economy which birds dis-
play in all such matters.

While the removal of the excreta is an instinctive act, the use of it as food is pro-
bably an acquired habit, the strength of which depends on the force of circumstances,
and may be limited in some cases to one sex alone.

Cia TER 211
THE FORCE OF HABIT.

NDER some conditions habits are formed with surprising quickness. The habit
may be of trifling significance and have only a brief reign, but no habits are
absolutely rigid, and the genesis of all is probably the same,—pleasurable conse-

quences following repeated actions which may be forced or accidental. The result is in
all cases similar,—a mental association of certain things with certain actions.

While watching hour by hour the Robins described in Chapter IV, and recording
their visits to their young, | began to notice on the third day that the male usually
approached on the right side of the nest, that is on the observer’s right as he stood facing
it, while the female frequently came to the back or on the left. From that time I recorded
the manner of each approach, and found that the male invariably came to the right side,
and hopped down the limb to his nest.

In the table given below in which the visits of both birds are recorded for two con-
secutive days, R is for the right, L for the left, and B for the far side of the nest with
reference to the tent, while the dashes represent visits the character of which was unde-

termined. Each sign represents a visit to the nest, at which food was usually served.

(FemaleRR—RRLBRRRRRBREL SS ihe =
July 27th. Third day of Ob- } ———L——R
servation—64 hours. | Male RBRRRRRRRR—RRB—RRR——R
7 kR—
July 28th. Fourth day of Ob- ) “emale L BB L B— B———BB— —
servation—4 hours. Male RRRRRRRRRRRRR—RRR

For the fourth day I have no record of the female approaching by the right side, and
no record of the male coming in any other way. On the two following days the female
did not appear, and as I had reason to believe, was engaged in building a new nest.
The male at this period always approached his nest in the habitual manner. Now
whether the male bird had formed this habit shortly after the nest was built or shortly
after the nesting bough was removed is of little consequence. At all events a definite
mode of behavior had developed in a short space of time, in one case in two weeks or in
the other in two days. On the fourth day the young had to be brooded often, owing to
the heat, which accounts for the apparent inactivity of the female in providing food.

Probably most birds form definite habits in the manner of approach to the nest,
entering on a certain side, or flying to a certain twig, following the path suggested in the
first instance by convenience or dictated by caution. A pair of Red-eyed Vireos with
whom I spent parts of three days followed a definite course in approach with surprising

III

112 Wild Birds.

regularity. They would fly to the
main branch, hop along toward the
fork in which the nest was suspended,
and finally perch on a small con-
venient twig just over their young.
Out of sixty recorded visits they de-
viated from this habitual method but
three times, and then only before
they had recovered from their first
feelings of fear. In this case the nest-
ing branch had been drawn down
about a foot by means of a cord, but
was not otherwise disturbed.

In cleaning the nest the attitude
is frequently the same in successive
visits, the birds often clasping the
same twigs, so that a number of pho-
tographs of the act taken without
moving the camera may be so nearly
identical that only the most careful
inspection will reveal the least differ-
ence in pose or position.

While engaged in studying some
Redwing Blackbirds last July the
weather was hot, and the young had
to be brooded almost constantly.
The female would sit on the nest,
often with back to the tent, with
feathers erect and mouth open in her
efforts to keep cool. Suddenly the
shriek of asteam whistle sounded the
hour of noon at a mill scarcely three
rods away. It startled me, but the
bird did not budge a feather. It is
not difficult to imagine that her first
experience with this instrument of
torture was quite different in its re-
sult, but the case illustrates the ease
with which birds become quickly ac-
customed to strange and uncouth
sounds, when, as sometimes happens,
they place their nests in a saw-mill

afew feet from the buzzing saw or

Figs. 106, 107, Male Redwing Blackbird cleaning nest on two above the erinding trolley cars of a
distinct visits; photographed under similar conditions, and illus- . = > -
trating the formation of habit in the daily routine. city street.

The Force of Habit.

Every animal must adapt itself
in some measure to changes in its
surroundings, and with birds this
power is well expressed in the nest,
the position, materials, and construc-
tion of which are subject to incessant
change. The change may be slight
or of a very marked character, as
when the common type of archi-
tecture is abandoned, or a distinct
nest-structure wanting. Only a few
examples of change in nesting habits
need be considered since the facts
are matters of common observation.

The Swift of this country is often
quoted as one of the most remarkable
examples of birds whose nesting
habits have changed in recent times.
Formerly breeding in hollow trees
and still doing so in places remote
from mankind, it now attaches its
little wicker crates to the inside of
From the standpoint of
the Swift the change has really been

chimneys.

very slight, and had it not become so
widespread it would have attracted
little attention. This bird was proba-
bly drawn to the town and open coun-
try by the greater abundance of its
insect prey, and to the mind of the
Swift a chimney cannot be very differ-
ent from a hollow tree. Its instinct
probably does not lead it to select a
dead tree for its roosts or nests be-
cause it is a tree, any more than it
leads it to prefer a sycamore to an
oak. What is probably inherited is
the tendency to seek a dark or cav-
ernous place with easy entrance and
exit. The chimney which emits no
smoke in summer and usually stands
in the open, fulfils every requirement
in places where hollow trees are
scarce.

The Swift is yet capable of

Fig. 108. Cock Robin with large grasshopper ready,
Fig. 109. The same bird taking aim.

114

Fig. 110.

Wild Birds.

Ready to inspect. Notice that he invariably comes to
the right side by force of habit.

Fig. 111.
the left.

Inspecting the household.

The female approaches on

adapting its needs to conditions far
more unlike those of the ancestral
tree, and has been known to enter
a barn and nest with the Barn
Swallows. This happened in Dorset,
Ohio,’ where some Swifts fastened
their nest to the vertical boards
near a hole made for the conven-
ience of the Swallows, and just below
the peak of the roof. Five young
were hatched and were seen clinging
to the boards just beneath the nest.
The old birds would sometimes enter
by the open door, fly straight to the
nest and cling to the wall beside it.
The quavering voices of the little
Swifts would then drown every other
sound about the place.

In still another case,’ a pair of
Swifts nested in the dim interior ofa
shed beside an old saw-mill at Dor-
chester, New Hampshire, in June,
1899. This nest was fastened to the
boards, well up towards the roof, and
an open door formed easy entrance
and egress.

In at least one respect birds
resemble men in their ordinary build-
ing operations. They make use of
the materials at hand, but in the se-
lection of the site for the nest many
seem to obey no rule, being ever on
the alert to adapt themselves to their
lot, and a habit once formed often
leads to a steady line of conduct.

The English Sparrow has even
found a convenient shelf in the
hood of the electric arc lamps, and
although these are lowered daily to
the street, it sticks to its nest over
the light. I have seen this impudent
little wretch dispossess the Eaves

'This account was given to me by Mr.
Robert J. Sim.
2 Observed by Professor William Patten.

The Force of Habit. 115

Swallow and convert its mud retort into a grass-lined nest of its own. This occurred at
Basin Harbor, Vermont, in 1883, before the Sparrows were so generally condemned. The
nests were in line under the eaves of a farmer's barn, and the Swallows were still fighting
for possession. About every other nest was then occupied by the Sparrows.

The Osprey is not only one of the most remarkable nest-builders in the world, but a
wonderful adept in making the most of its opportunities. In selecting a site for its
mountain of a nest, it seems at times to exercise little choice, taking whatever offers.
Apparently its controlling ambition is to raise a huge edifice in the construction of which
nothing comes amiss which can be seized and carried in its powerful talons. In its build-
ing operations this bird seems to have an eye for the centuries rather than the years, and
some of its eyries formed on
rocky crags have possibly ex-
isted for more than a hundred
years, or might last so long if
undisturbed by man. This
Hawk will nest on the ground,
on rocks, in low or high trees,
in woods or in the open, ona
chimney, a pile of rails, a rock-
ing buoy, or a dilapidated
windmill. It will even suffer
its nest to be displaced, and at
Bristol, Rhode Island, it eager-
ly appropriates the cart wheel
which the hospitable farmers
raise aloft on the tops of poles
for the benefit of these birds.

At Plum Island, New
York, which was formerly col-
onized by hundreds of Os-
preys, Mr. Allen found their
nests in almost every conceivable situation, about thirty or forty per cent. of them being
on the ground. ‘High rocks on the shore, and low rocks far out in the water, scarcely

Fig. 112. Female Kingbird inserting an insect into the throat of a fledgling.

above high tide and swept by the autumn storms, were chosen as situations for the nests.
A large buoy, with a lattice work top, near the west end of Fisher’s Island, was also
‘occupied for many years by a nest of these birds, greatly to the advantage of sailors and
fishermen, who were warned in thick weather of the position of the buoy by the screaming
of the Fish Hawks.” ’

An observer who described a nest on an old windmill said that while the fan of the
mill was gone “the rudder remained, and the wind catching this would swing the nest
part way round, and then the wind changing slightly would swing it back again ; the sit-
ting female not seeming to mind the movement in the least.” ”

On the shore of Narragansett Bay, Rhode Island, which has been colonized by Fish

1“ Breeding Habits of the Fish Hawk on Plum Island. New York.” C. 5S. Allen, 7he Awh, vol. ix., p. 315. 1892.
2? The Osprey, vol. ii., p. 55. Many interesting pictures of nests of the Osprey have been published in this
amagazine.

116 Wild Birds.

Hawks from an early period, the birds are not only protected by law, but are offered
every inducement to make them feel at home.’ When a dead tree containing a nest is
blown down the owner of the land will sometimes erect a tall pole, with a carriage wheel
laid flat on top. The birds readily accept the new wheel of fortune, which becomes
their home.

In selecting a bare tree or a wheel on top of a pole the hawk makes a nice choice, for
owing to its great extent of wing, as with the eagle, it is convenient to have the path to
the nest free from obstructions.

When an Osprey loses its mate its actions seem to depend onits character. A case is
reported where two birds were seen to pair on the second day after each had lost a mate,
while another who was bereft by a stroke of lightning, which destroyed both the nest
and the sitting bird, is said to have lingered about the spot for the remainder of the
summer, and to have even returned the next year still unmated to his solitary vigil.

The diet of an insectivorous bird is extremely varied at all times, depending much
upon the locality and the season of the year. While a fewkinds of insects may be avoided
because of a repugnant odor or taste, they capture as a rule whatever comes in their
way. The Robin commonly brings to its nest grasshoppers, crickets, katydids, and
angleworms, because in its customary manner of search it finds and is able to secure these
formsin abundance. The Kingbird, which takes most of its prey on the wing, discovers a
far greater variety. When certain species of insects are abundant they are often eaten
by many birds who under ordinary conditions would never touch them. Thus during a
plague of Rocky Mountain locusts which visited the Western States, these insects are
reported to have been eaten by nearly every bird in the region, and to have served
as a staple for most of the species. Birds of prey such as the smaller hawks and
owls devoured them eagerly. The food habits of most birds are exceedingly plastic
and liable to sudden change under the spur of necessity.

A good illustration of a change in feeding habits has been recently given.” It appears.
that the Rhinoceros-bird (Buphaga erythrepyncha) was until lately regarded as so valuable a
scavenger that it was accorded special protection by law in British East Africa. Its habit
was to feed on the ticks and other parasites which infest wild and domesticanimals. “ Since
the cattle plague,” says Captain Hinde, ‘“ destroyed the immense herds in Ukambani, and
nearly all the sheep and goats were eaten during the late famine, the birds, deprived of
their food, have become carnivorous, and now any domestic animal not constantly watched
is killed by them. Perfectly healthy animals have their ears eaten down to the bone,
holes torn in their backs and in the femoral regions.” The new conditions introduced by
man have thus converted a useful animal into a dangerous pest.

1 For an interesting -.ccount of the nesting habits of the Osprey see Forest and Stream, July 7, 1900.
’ The Osprey, vol. ii,, p. 59.
3 Nature, vol. \xii., p. 366, 1900.

CHAPTER. AITI
FEAR IN BIRDS.

IRDS as arule are possessed of fear which is primarily an instinct, but as we shall
see later on many species in their natural adult state are entirely devoid of this
sense. With others it may wax or wane according to their environment or indi-

vidual experiences. Again the nature of the fear manifested varies with age or the
period of life. It is a generalized sense of fear, or fear of the strange and unusual, which
comes over the young bird, while later it learns to dread particular objects or sounds with
which some bitter experience is associated. Furthermore, the time of the appearance of
the instinct varies in different species, coming late in some and early in others. Generally
speaking the manifestation of fear is well timed, and is an adaptation for the good of its
possessor.

Let us first see how fear enters into the life of the young. Birds are sometimes
roughly classified into altricial species, which feed their young for days or weeks at the
nest, and przecocial birds, whose young are born clad in soft down, and are able to walk,
run, or swim at once or very soon after hatching. The Altrices like the Robin, Wood-
pecker, and Humming-bird are hatched from eggs which are small in relation to the size
of the parent, and the young are at first blind, helpless, and more or less completely
naked. In ail such the nest is only a temporary home, but is often very elaborate, while
the instinct of fear is delayed or deferred until the time of flight, a period varying from a
few days to three weeks or more. The Pracoces lay eggs with big yolks, upon the
stored energy of which the unhatched young subsist until they step forth into the world,
seeing, able to walk or swim, and in some degree their own masters. The common do-
mestic fowls, Partridges, Ostriches, Geese, Loons, Plover, and Snipe, are some of the better
known representatives of this group, but the dividing line is never sharply drawn, and
there are innumerable gradations between the extremes in either class. In the praecocial
birds the feeling of fear is either present at birth, or appears in a very few hours or days,

As an illustration of the development of fear in the altricial kinds one might select
any of the common passerine birds, Thrushes, Warblers, Finches, or Flycatchers, but we
should bear in mind that the development of this instinct is not always uniformly timed,
even in the same species. We will choose the Catbird, the Chestnut-sided Warbler, and
the Kingfisher.

When I first camped beside a Catbird’s nest (No. 6 of table, Chap. I.) last summer,
the young, who were then about a week old, were incapable of fear. They would shift
about the nest to get into the shade, pant, and erect their growing head-feathers. When
a breeze rocked the cradle, or a Redwing Blackbird sang his conguer-ce, or the parent

I17

118 Wild Birds.

came with meat or fruit they
stretched necks, opened mouths,
each struggling to get some advant-
age over the other, and uttered their
sharp ¢s7¢/ ¢si¢t/ notes. You could
handle them at will; they were ab-
solutely fearless. If such a nest is
overturned they will cling to it but
will never cower or crouch.

As we have seen, the clipping of
a leaf at this nest two days later sent
them off in a panic, and all hurried
to the nearest cover. Should you
succeed in catching them under such
circumstances, which is doubtful, and
try to replace them in the nest, they
will pop out repeatedly as if mounted
on springs, and if you try to hold
them in the hand they will struggle,
squeal and fairly shriek in their en-
deavors to escape. They are now
covered with a coat of slate-colored
feathers, but fly with difficulty.
When placed on open ground they
hop off at once toward the nearest
bush. No greater change in the
behavior of a wild bird is ever wit-

Fig.114. Bird on left shows instinctive response to sound or nessed than that which the sense of
vibratory movement, and the use of wings for support. fear brings to pass.

Fig. 113. Eggs and young of altricial Cedar-bird. Young about
thirty-six hours old—blind and naked.

I have seen a young Chestnut-
sided Warbler jump out of its nest,
when unable to stand erect and
much less to use its wings. In this
case the pin-feathers of the wings
had barely burst, and the body was
nearly naked. When the bird was
returned to its nest, it refused to re-
main until the operation was many
times repeated and it was finally
overcome by fatigue. I have known
the young of the Redstart to leave
the nest remarkably early, but the

case just recorded appears to be

Fig.115. Bird to the left in reptilian crouching attitude; at the somewhat exceptional.
right, as in Fig, 113, the characteristic response of the new-born . ze a
bird is seen, and the use of the pot-belly as afoot. About 3 life-size. The instinct of fear comes with

Fear in Birds. 119

a certain maturity of the nervous system, with comparative suddenness, as we have just
seen, but is usually timed to correspond with the development of the wing-quills and
the power of flight.

At the age of twenty-four days the Kingfisher is in full feather, but shows no fear.
He will perch comfortably on your hand or shoulder, and pose in any desired position,
as the photographs made at this period will show, but the instinct soon appears after this
stage is passed. In from twenty-four to forty-eight hours later when these birds not only
possess the power of flight, but use it at the first intimation of danger, their docile nature
has completely changed. With them the late development of this instinct is most oppor-

Fig. 116. Young Kingfishers twenty-four days old, They are capable of flight, but show
no fear,

tune, since they are not tempted to leave the security of their tunnel in the ground until
they can make long excursions and follow their parents to the favorite fishing grounds.

Turning now to the precocial birds, according to the best testimony, fear in the
domestic chick hatched in an incubator is at first very slight and is soon checked by con-
trary impulses such as to nestle in a warm place, unless the instinct be brought into
immediate exercise.

Mr. Charles A. Allen says that the newly hatched young of the Black Duck (Azas
obscura) show no fear, but will ‘cuddle under one’s hand very'confidingly.” 1 once saw
a nest of this species on the shore of Lake Champlain, near Burlington, Vermont, on the
very verge of a high, overhanging cliff. It was set against the stems of a slender shrub,
the pulling of which would doubtless have precipitated the entire clutch fifty feet into

120 Wild Birds.

the water below. A little delay in the instinctive reaction of fear could hardly come
amiss to young in such anest. On the other hand when the ducklings have been led to
the water no birds show a keener sense of fear than they or respond more promptly to
the alarm signals of their parents. I was greatly impressed when a boy at the sight of a
Black Duck leading her trim little fleet of yellow sail up the mouth of a small sedge-
bordered stream. The old
bird quickly gave the alarm,
rose, veered, and flew to-
wards the river, while the
young scrambled to the bank
and hid in the rushes. I
hunted long but succeeded
in finding only one who lay
flat in the marsh and kept
perfectly still, true to its in-
herited instinct. These
ducklings had not been
afloat many hours, and had
this action been repeated be-
fore, the lesson could not
have been taught, since, as
we have seen, the young
under such circumstances
are left to their own devices.
I have seen a young
‘chick while feeding quietly
close to the house suddenly
turn its head, look straight
at the zenith, and then run
off in a panic of fear. Look-
ing up also I saw a Hen
Hawk sailing aloft like a toy

kite, a mere speck against
the blue heavens. I think

Fig.117.. Young Cedar-birds in displaced nest standing in characteristic at-
titude with upturned heads. Photographed on day of flight, July 17, 1899,
when possessed of fear. For account, see page 60. it probable that the bird got

an alarm signal from some
other fowls in the yard; at all events it knew where to look, and its response was not
slow. This chicken may have been three weeks old, and so had ample time to learn
its lesson, if such it was. Had the dark object been a paper kite it is not likely that
the fear evoked would have been appreciably less.

In altricial birds the sense of fear usually comes, as we have seen, with the de-
velopment of the flight feathers, but it is often premature, thus indirectly causing the
death of thousands of birds every year. In July and August how many helpless spar-
rows and thrushes are found on the ground, having left their nests too early! Some-
times they tumble out by accident, are drawn off by hunger, or are blown out in a gale,

Fear in birds. 121

but I believe that by far the greater number of such strays are driven forth by fright, and
when this perilous step has once been taken it can seldom be retraced. The young of
such birds as the Wilson thrushes, whose nests are on or near the ground out of the
reach of storms, are often found in this predicament.’

Many immature birds which I have watched at the nest show no precise powers of
discrimination in any direc-
tion. You will see them
respond as promptly to the
flutter of a leaf or the call-
note of any passing bird as
to their own mother’s voice
but a more curious specta-
cle may be witnessed when
a fledgling of one of our
common species like, the
Baltimore Oriole climbs to
the top of its nest. All the
others immediately salute it
as if it were an old bird,
and with open mouths beg
vainly to be fed. Ifa young
bird within a day of taking
flight cannot distinguish
one of its brothers from its
mother, it can hardly be

“a

expected to ‘‘know a hawk
from a handsaw,” or an
enemy from a friend.

After taking flight the
young of altricial birds are
fed by one or both parents
for a period of days or

weeks, and much is quickly
learned by imitation and in-
dividual experience. Their
ingrained sense of fear becomes in the course of time gradually specialized in certain

Fig. 118. Brown Thrush startled while at nest: attitude of keen attention.

directions. Fear of man, guns, hawks, snakes, cats and the various agents of destruction
with which each species must contend in the course of its life, seems in every case to
be acquired or learned rather than inherited.

On the Jast day of June I found a Cowbird nearly full-fledged but either unable or
disinclined to fly. He occupied the nest of a warbler, apparently the species known as

' The huge pot-belly of the young altricial bird has a use quite apart from the function of digestion. It anchors
it to the nest, and as in the modern ‘‘ Brownie” keeps it right side up. The pliant viscera conform to every move-
ment, and form a central supporting pillar long before the legs can sustain the weight of the body. (See young
Cedar-birds in Figs. 113-115.)

122 Wild Birds.

the Black and Yellow or Magnolia Warbler, and as his photograph shows, filled it com-
pletely. He would stand on the rim of the nest and, with raised feathers, squeak and call
vehemently for his foster parents. I took from beneath him the dried mummy of alittle
warbler and one addled egg, which illustrates the advantage nature gives this bird over
his competitors in early life. He showed no fear, but clung like a monkey to the nest,
while I carried the branch several hundred feet to find a quiet place out of the wind. I
regret that I cannot show the nurse feeding this monster, but unfortunately the day was
stormy and the bird was soon gone.

Many birds have alarm calls or signals of distress, which attract or arouse other
species, as every one knows who has studied birds in the country. I remember seeing an
unusually striking exhibi-
tion of this fact while
watching unobserved
some Red Crossbills en-
gaged in picking the seeds
out of pine cones. They
were on the ground in a
run where it was impossi-
ble for the birds to see
out on either side. A
Crow espied me at a dis-
tance, gave his short quick
alarm car / car / when the
Crossbills went off as if
carried in a whirlwind.
They had apparently seen
nothing to awaken suspic-
ion, and the crow is not
their enemy so far as I am
aware.

When a robin hears
the alarm call of his mate,

Fig.119. Cock Robin startled while at nest by a quick, decisive alarm call . ,
from his mate, His head shot up like a flash, and ina moment he was off. his head goes up instantly,

and he stands for a mo-

ment with outstretched neck, listening intently to see if he is needed. I was fortunate
in catching the male bird at the nest in just this attitude, expressive of attention and
wariness, bordering on fear.

A hawk, owl, crow, cat, snake, or any well-known or dreaded enemy of birds will set the
community ina hubbubinavery short time. Birds of other species hurry to the scene out
of sympathy or curiosity, as some would say, but probably more from instinct of a different
character. The smallest spark often kindles the largest blaze. Thus while passing through
a pasture last June I happened to encounter a Robin with mouth stuffed with food, as if on
the way to her nest. She at once set up aloud cry, and mounting the bare branch of a dead
apple tree, in five minutes drummed up eleven different birds, among which I recognized
the Baltimore Oriole, Brown Thrush, two Catbirds, Chestnut-sided Warbler, Red-eyed

Fear in Birds. 123

Vireo, Maryland Yellow Throat, Song Sparrow, Chickadee, the Redstart and a Goldfinch,
many of which became excited and joined in the general outcry.

On a warm July day while crossing a barren strip of land, which bore a crop of
golden-rod and sweet-fern, my attention was called to a small brown bird with a large
grasshopper in its beak. It was the Bay-winged Bunting or Grass Finch, and the prey
was clearly intended for her young, but instead of delivering it she hopped nervously
about, uttering her sharpest monosyllables, in the course of which she finally dropped the
prey. Thinking that her young were at hand, I sat down to await developments. Pres-
ently several Buntings dashed up to the spot a few yards away. They glanced down at
the ground, and then at me,
emitting such a flow of incisive
protests as to suggest the at-
tempt to draw attention from
their nest. This was plainly not
the case when some Kingbirds
left their young in a neighboring
tree, and raising their war-cry,
hovered over the spot and darted
at some object on the ground.
Thereupon going to the place, I
almost stepped on what looked
at first like a coil of rubber hose
in the grass. It proved to bea
large black snake, whose head
was distorted in the act of swal-
lowing a young bird. The crisis
for the unfortunate bird being
past, I stood by and watched the
proceedings. The snake had
taken his victim head first, and
its body was slowly disappearing
between his distended jaws. As
I disturbed his meal, he folded Fig. 120. Red-tailed Hawk, four months old, in attitude expressive of
Bia dill) subbeclibe body tno, etal eed etal sleihect mite ihe tho seine
coil and his gleaming eyes be- _ frill, and hiss at intruders.
trayed an unpleasant frame of
mind. When I approached nearer, he lifted his swollen head high in the air, and slowly
glided off to enjoy his spoils in peace; but his enemy followed. On this occasion we had the
serpent at a disadvantage, but he did not remain muzzled long. Having proceeded thus far,
that bird had to go down, notwithstanding the throes of deglutition. It was a tax upon
the salivary glands, but they were equal to the task, and the pliant jaws soon closed over
their victim. What a picture of stealth this animal made as with head erect, and eyes
darting angry glances, he stole through the grass! The first act of the tragedy being closed,
it was time to add the final touches of the second. As I struck at him with my cane how
he shot through the grass, and it required no little speed to reach him for the fatal blow!

124 Wild Birds.

We have seen that the instinct of fear is inherited, and often delayed, where it is a
special adaptation, not only leading the young, as Lloyd Morgan remarks, to accept a
foster parent and not to shrink from her, but what is more important, keeping the young
in the nest, barring accidents, until they can in some degree help themselves. Fear of
particular objects is learned, or becomes grafted on to the original stock. The instinct
may gather force or disappear, at least in adult life, according to the nature of the
environment and the new habits formed in consequence. The instinctive basis of fear is

apparently handed down from generation to generation, but in the life of the full-grown
bird, it is probably largely replaced by habit, or the formation of associations. The
innate or latent capacity remains, but the definite association of certain actions with
particular objects or experiences is probably handed down by tradition rather than by
heredity.

Fig.121. Young Cowbird and nest of Magnolia Warbler Fig. 122. Young Cowbird comfortably filling the nest
in which it was reared. ofits foster parent, whose children it smothered: fearless,
though nearly ready to fly.

Chie Pe ALY,

TAMING WILD BIRDS WITHOUT A CAGE.

wild or shy while in others they are very tame, and the same principle underlies

them all. Wildness is due to fear which is partly inherited and partly learned
by experience with this wicked world. Tameness, on the other hand, comes with the
casting out of fear, and may be brought about by the formation of new habits which are
either spontaneous or forced.

The House Sparrows of the Tuileries, and the pious Stork of Holland, Germany
and France, are familiar examples of birds whose near or remote ancestors are shy and
wary. The Stork is said to be excessively wild in the woods and marshes, yet it comes
with confidence to the village and town, builds its nests upon house tops and steeples,
and struts about the streets and door-yards in search of food.

It would be interesting to know how long the Doves of Venice have enjoyed the
freedom of the Piazza del Marco. They are probably the best fed pigeons in the world,
and few hours pass in the course of the day when their guardian, the vendor of sacks of
corn, is not surrounded by his flock. They will alight all over you, and take the grain
from hand or mouth. The Pigeon, it is true, has been long domesticated and responds
more readily to friendly influences than the wild stock from which it has sprung.

Strange and possibly true stories are told of persons who have won the confidence
of beast or bird. The wild bird responds to their call and the quadruped comes forth
from his den and takes food from their hand. Such persons are popularly supposed to
possess a mysterious power of fascination or a superior knowledge of woodcraft, but all

Mo illustrations could be given of birds which in most parts of their range are

this belongs in the catalogue of vulgar errors. It depends less upon the individuality of
the person than that of the animal. Individual variation knows hardly a limit, whether
in man or beast. Some birds are naturally tame and confiding, while their next door
neighbors of the same kin and living in the same field may possess a temperament of
such an opposite character as to baffle every attempt to dispel their fears.

The power of remaining motionless like a stone or stump in the woods is often
enough to win the temporary confidence of both mammal and bird, and many will doubt-
less recall illustrations of this fact from their own experience. This suggests an early
episode which impressed itself rather strongly at the time. With raised fishing-pole in
hand I was sitting quietly by the river, possibly watching the common sunfish or bream
standing guard over their nests, which they defend with such fiery pugnacity, when I
suddenly had a “ bite.”” Looking up, I saw a Kingbird comfortably perched on the end
of my rod. He doubtless had a nest in the alders close by.

125

126 Wild Birds.

It is easy to conceive a state in which all animals would be tame, but it would not
be the state of nature known to us which has developed under the laws of battle, the
survival of the strongest, the wariest, the best protected or concealed, or the most intelli-
gent. The higher animals either prey on one another or on the helpless invertebrates, or
are preyed upon, and with most, tameness would soon lead to extinction. Wildness or
wariness is not only the law of their nature, but the very condition of their existence.
The animal which fails to
profit by experience, or
at least to the extent of
learning caution, and thus
displaying the rudiments
of intelligence, must go
to the wall, unless the
conditions of its life are
exceptional or nature
grants it some extraordi-
nary favor suchas protec-
tive or deceptivecoloring.

While most animals
are wild in the state of
nature and many are al-
most untamable, a com-
paratively large number
submit to the taming pro-
cess, and a few become
tame inthe natural state.
The principle of the sur-
vival of the strongest or
the fittest as a result of
the struggle for existence
is so general and so primi-
tive that when we find
animals already tame in
nature, we must regard
them as the descendants
of wild ancestors.

As a rule no wild
beast or bird approaches man without some inducement. Unless some other instinct be
aroused, it comes, if at all, to defend or feed its offspring, to appease its hunger, or
in very rare cases to find protection from danger. The taming process depends, as
we have just seen, upon the ability to form new associations and may be brought
about artificially by restraint as when a wild animal is caged and new habits are, as
it were, forced upon it, or by means of strong lures. Of the latter, one of the best
is food in the presence of hunger, but the strongest of all are the young at a cer-
tain stage of growth. In order to tame a wild animal without recourse to restraint

Fig.123. Male standing at nest after having fed his young. Notice the character-
istic instinctive pose of one of the fledglings.

Taming Wild Birds without a Cage. 127

there must be some means of breaking the ice, or beginning a course of instruction,
by chaining it to a fixed point. In case of birds with young the invisible chain is
parental instinct, which inhibits fear and holds the animal to a given spot. We will at-
tempt to analyze the taming process by the use of food and young birds as lures, and
finally consider the similar experiments which nature occasionally conducts independ-
ently and ona larger scale.

I throw some cracked corn out of my window, and it is soon discovered by the
ubiquitous Sparrows. When

they see me standing behind
the pane they are afraid to
approach, but they are also
hungry. At last the impulse
to get the food overcomes
their fears, and they are re-
warded by the feeling of pleas-
ure and _ satisfaction. When
they come repeatedly, each
time reaping a reward without
evil consequences, a new habit
is gradually formed by the
repetition of the act. The
pleasure of getting food is
gradually associated with fly-
ing to a certain spot in the
presence of objects which in
the course of time become
familiar. If the contrary im-
pulse, due in this case to hun-
ger, is sufficiently strong, the
process may be carried forward
step by step until the birds
come to the hand for food.
With the gregarious Sparrow,

however, life ina populous Fig.124. Female Robin in act of nest-cleaning. She approaches at the
town is usually too compli- back. See Chapter XII.

cated to admit of carrying out

the experiment with success in any reasonable time.

There are many species which respond more rapidly than the wily Sparrow. Of
these, I will mention the Chickadee, Nuthatch, Canada Jay, and Goose. The Chickadee
has to work harder for a living in winter than the Sparrow, is far less gregarious and
wary by nature, and is seemingly endowed with a keen sense of curiosity. Mr. Chapman
thus speaks of the behavior of some of these birds in Central Park, New York City,
in February: “they would often flutter before one’s face and plainly give expression to
their desire for food, which they took from one’s hand without the slightest evidence
of fear. Sometimes they even remained to pick the nut froma shell while perched on

128 Wild Birds.

one’s finger.” * They become equally tame when hard pressed by hunger in the remote
woods, and I have no doubt that the following account which was given to me by a
man who worked at a woodchopper’s camp in New Hampshire during the winter
is strictly true. He said that at meal times the Chickadees would come about and pick
up any crumbs that were left over or were thrown to them, and that they soon became
so bold as to alight on the hand, or hat, and even to take pieces of bread from the
mouth; that he would often amuse himself by trying to “close over them” with his
hand, and that while they were usually too quick for him, he had caught them in this
manner.

Early in the winter of 1899, a Red-breasted Nuthatch formed the habit of going to
a certain yard in Jefferson, Ohio, for food.’ At first it stayed among the trees like the
Brown Creepers, but at length came to the window-sill for scraps of suet which were
placed there. This window
happened to be opposite a
pump and sink, but the Nut-
hatch soon showed no fear
even when one stood close by
and worked the pump. Blue
Jays, Downyand Hairy Wood-
peckers, Chickadees, and Eng-
lish Sparrows also came to the
garden for food. After several
weeks of this kind of treat-
ment Mr. Sim went outside,
placed some suet on his palm
and rested his hand on the
window-sill. The Nuthatch
came to the lure, picked up a
piece of the food, and appar-

Fig. 125. Female Red-eyed Vireo feeding young. In these birds the be- ently tried to hide it between
havior was perfectly free after the first day of study. his thumb and finger. After
the Red-breasted Nuthatch de-
parted a Whitebreast came down, helped himself to the suet and was off. After this the
Nuthatches often came and alighted on somebody’s hand, head, or shoulder, but the Red-
breast was much the tamest. When she was up inthe big elm tree, she would swoop down
at call, not touching a twig between her lofty perch and the hand. Hickory nuts were
offered and preferred to the suet, but the seeds of the Norway spruce were still more to
her taste. She would fly to a branch with a seed, rub off its wing, and after placing it
in a suitable notch or crack, eat it leisurely. The Red-breasted Nuthatch would drink
from a dish held in the hand, would take the proffered food while perched near the
ground, and once even settled down inthe hand as if going to sleep.
These birds were seen to eat snow, and Chickadees would frequently cling to an
icicle on the roof and catch the drops of water as they fell from a shorter icicle near by.
1 Bird Studies with a Camera, p. 49.
2 For this account I am indebted to Mr. Robert J. Sim of Jefferson, Ohio,

Taming Wild Birds without a Cage. 129

Three or four Downy and Hairy Woodpeckers came to the window-sill, and would some-
times peck the fingers of persons feeding them. The Brown Creeper was far more cau-
tious, and never came to the hand.

The familiarity of the Canada Jay or Meat Bird is known to everybody who has
hunted or camped in the northern woods; its fear is allayed by hunger even more promptly
than in Chickadees and Nuthatches. Audubon says of these birds that “when their
appetite is satisfied, they become shy, and are in the habit of hiding themselves among
close woods or thickets; but when hungry they show no alarm at the approach of man.”
While his friend was fishing in a canoe on one of the Maine lakes in the summer of 1833,
“the Jays were so fearless as to
alight in one end of his bark,
while he sat in the other, and
help themselves to his bait. . . .
The lumberers or woodcutters
of this state, . . . frequently
amuse themselves in their camp
during the eating hour with what
they call ‘transporting the car-
rion bird.’ This is done by cut-
ting a pole eight or ten feet in
length, and balancing it on the
sill of their hut, the end outside
of the entrance being baited with
a piece of flesh of any kind. Im-
mediately on seeing the tempting
morsel, the Jays alight on it, and
while they are busily engaged
in devouring it, the woodcutter
gives a smart blow to the end of

the pole within the hut, which
“1 n . Fig.126. Male Red-eyed Vireo prepared to inspect and clean nest.
seldom fails to drive the birds Notice that in this series—Figs. 50-57, 125—the birds uniformly occupy

high in the air, and not infre- thesame perch. Detail of bird shown in Fig. 49.
quently kills them. They even
enter the camps and would fain eat from the hands of the men while at their meals.”
Possibly no bird has keener vision or sharper ears than the Canada Goose, which in
its wild state is said to be vigilant, suspicious, and hard to be surprised, yet it is often easily
and quickly tamed. There are in Cleveland nearly forty of these geese, which are descended
from a smaller number introduced about twenty-five years ago. Their migratory impulse
has been completely lost, and their sense of fear subdued, but their other wild instincts
remain. They live mostly in the parks, going from one to another as the spirit moves
them, and breed on the small artificial islands in artificial ponds. I sometimes hear
their honk / as they fly over the city at night or in early morning, and see their “ harrow”
or “triangle” which plows the air by day often within bow-shot from Euclid Avenue.
When the birds are feeding on a lawn you can walk among them and drive them
like a flock of tame geese, but they hate dogs and take to wing or water the moment one
9

130 Wild Birds.

is seen to approach. They once had the habit of alighting on the roof of a tall building
near Wade Park, but after one of their number met with the mishap of falling down a
ventilating shaft this practice seems to have been abandoned.

Audubon speaks of a pair of geese which bred for three years near the mouth of the
Green River in Kentucky,’ and of his experience in feeding them at the nest. The male
was at first very pugnacious, and once dealt him such a blow on the arm that he thought it
was broken. In the course of a week both birds would take the proffered corn, but never
allowed himtotouchthem. ‘ Whenever I attempted this,” says Audubon, “the male met
my fingers with his bill, and bit me so severely that I gave it up.” Later he trapped the
entire family of eleven, pinioned them and turned them loose in his garden. He kept
the whole flock three years. The old birds did not breed again, but two pairs of the
young reared new broods.

On one of his shooting excursions Audubon shot a wild goose, and on his return
sent it to the kitchen to be prepared for the table. The cook brought him an egg ready
to be laid. This was placed under a hen, and in due time produced a bird, which became
very gentle and would feed from the hand. When two years old it mated with a male
and reared a family.

We have seen how fear may vanish before the surge of the parental impulse which
impels a bird to seek, nourish, and defend its offspring, even at the risk of life itself, and will
now consider how this instinct may be used in taming wild birds at the nest and in
bringing them to the hand.

If young birds of those species in which the parental instincts are very strong, are
taken from the nest when nearly ready to fly, the old birds, especially if they be among
the class of tamer individuals, may be brought direct to the hand in a short space of
time. To their excited vision men are as walking trees. Their attention is riveted on
the young, and the man is nothing to them, providing he remains quiet, or moves
about with caution. Whatever fear remains is blocked by the stronger instinct to go
to their young.

Every occasion on which the tent described in these pages is brought up toa nest
of young birds is a direct experiment in the taming process. No matter how far the
discipline is carried or how little permanency it may possess, the principle is always the
same. By this method wild birds, while the parental instincts are at their height, can be
tamed to a degree without use of acage. In illustration of the process, we will select the
Robin and Chestnut-sided Warbler, although the experiments to be described were not
carried out with this end especially in view. In any case parental instinct is the chief
agent employed.

The Robins now referred to have served so often in these pages as a text for the
illustration of habit and instinct that I need only say that they nested high in an oak tree
in some woods, and that the entire branch with the nest was carried to a perfectly bare
field on July 25th, when the young were a week old. At this new site the young passed
another week, taking their first flight at noon on the last day of the month. I was en-
camped beside them for parts of six days, and spent altogether twenty-four hours at their
nest. Although the familiar Robin is usually an easy mark for the bird-photographer, this
particular pair were extremely wary. They showed a bold front when openly assailed,

1 Ornithological Biography, vol. iii., pp. 8, 9.

Taming Wild Birds without a Cage. 131

but succumbed to fear completely, the moment the tent was closed, and refused to
approach the nest. On the second day the female was on the nesting bough in ten
minutes, but hesitated and made seven consecutive visits before actually feeding the
young. After several hours their fear had become so well subdued that the wary male
brought and delivered food while I was engaged in taking down the tent and stood close
by. On the third day the young were fed while the tent was going up, but a full half
hour had elapsed before their behavior was perfectly free and spontaneous. On the
fourth day the birds came as before, and life at the nest was resumed with perfect con-
fidence after the space of twenty minutes. The female would now sit placidly on the
nest in face of the tent and the window in its front, across which the hand was frequently
drawn to adjust the shutter that was clicking at random intervals but twenty-eight inches
from her ears.

At the close of the day’s observations, I took the camera outside the tent, and photo-
graphed the male as he came to the nest. The moment I entered the tent to take it
down he was back again with a mouth full of cherries. When after striking the tent and
rolling it up I stood quietly by the nest for a few moments, the cock came for the third
time and delivered a large grasshopper to his never-to-be-satisfied brood.

On the first day four hours failed to bring these birds to their needy children, while
inthe ninth and last the male, the more suspicious of the two, was on hand with food
in seven minutes. With the new objects in constant view, new associations had been
formed. The strong parental instinct supported by habit had banished most of their
former fear. The first steps in the taming process had been taken, and were carried fur-
ther in the case now to be described.

Two nests of the Chestnut-sided Warbler, each containing fresh eggs, were found in
a pasture on the twelfth day of June. The behavior of the birds at both nests was at
first essentially the same, so far as it was tested. While the eggs were still fresh, the
nests were often visited without seeing or hearing a bird, but during incubation the female,
who is a close sitter, would allow me to approach within a yard or two feet. Then as I
extended my hand slowly toward her she would hop out and cling with head down on the
farther side of the nest, so that only her little tail was visible over its rim. Any one
prone to discover protective mimicry in such cases would find a striking example of it in
this attitude,—the little gray tail of the bird simulating so well one of the twigs which
helped to support the gray wall of the nest. It was rather the case of an alert animal
lying still or in hiding until a present danger might be past. If you kept your position
long enough the bird would drop to the ground, where joined by her mate, both would
hop about in the grass chipping nervously, but keeping well out of sight. On approach-
ing one of the nests still later when there were young, the female was usually overtaken
in the act of brooding. At such times it was easy to walk slowly up and place your
hand close to the brooding bird. But before allowing you actually to touch her, she
would flit to the grass, and with spread wings and tail practice that ‘‘art of feigning”’ as
it is usually called, although it is not an art or anything learned or practiced for the occa-
sion, but an inherited instinct, the end and advantage of which is to distract your atten-
tion from the nest to the moving bird. One day I stood by and watched the little mother
to see how long her antics would last. She would come within a yard of my feet when
I remained perfectly quiet, and trail her wings along the ground, making repeated sallies

132 Wild Birds.

back and forth, flying only when close pressed, and then always away from her nest. On
one occasion this was kept up from ten to fifteen minutes, and did not cease until I
withdrew.

My experiments at the first nest were begun on June 12th, by clearing away the
bushes in front. The tent was set up two feet away on the morning of the 15th,
while the little hen was still sitting over the eggs. She would dart out of the nest,
return and take a peep inside, sit for a few minutes and be off. When all was quiet she
could be seen jumping in and out repeatedly, as if equally uncomfortable whether
away from her treasures or hugging them close. In the course of half an hour it was
easy to photograph the
sitting bird, who now
paid little heed to the
shutter, and remained un-
disturbed on the nest
during my preparations
for leaving.

On the following day
the old bird was still per-
sistently sitting, and even
allowed me to erect the
tent close beside her
without budging. When
finally driven off by the
hand, she uttered a few
tseeps and returned ina
moment. Once the male
came, and as I supposed,
placed an insect in the
nest, when his mate, who
stood close by, hopped

Fig.127. Offering grasshopper to a Chestnut-sided Warbler who has been tamed to the brim, put down her
without use of a cage. It was possible to approach this bird and stroke her back
head, and as I thought

with the hand, without giving alarm.

ate the food, but no, she
was feeding the little ones, for she was now a mother. Four young birds, scarcely
bigger than bumblebees, had just emerged from their shells. They must have been
hatched since noon of the previous day.

On the third day these Warblers paid no attention to either the tent or the operator,
and before going away I was able to touch the bird on the nest, though not without
sending her off. The fourth day found their confidence undiminished, for the sitting
bird eagerly seized a grasshopper which I offered from the hand stretched through the
tent window. Four days later still I spent nearly seven hours with these Warblers, and
in the afternoon began to test more systematically the strength of the intimacy which we
had cultivated. Taking a long twig in the hand and reaching through the window in the
front of the tent, I touched the old bird. She resented this but little and when her back
was scratched seemed to like the sensation. Then I left the tent to look for insects, and.

Taming Wild Birds without a Cage. 13

(SS)

after a long search returned with a few small grasshoppers. When one of these was
offered the bird would eye the squirming insect and try to seize it when held within
reach. Wishing to economize, I held on to the insect and nearly pulled the bird off the
nest.

After discarding the tent I was able to walk up to this bird and stroke her back with
my hand without disturbing her in the least. Setting up the camera outside and attach-
ing a tube with pneumatic bulb at the end, I made a number of photographs which show
the Warbler sharply eying an insect and prepared to seize it when held a few inches
away. It would have been an easy matter to take her in the hand, though possibly
not without injury to the young. Their
early flight from the nest cut short any
further experiments, but what could
not have been done with a bird who
had become so tame and confiding in
the course of a few days ?

The foregoing account does not
necessarily imply that a wild bird can
be induced to remain docile in the
presence of man for any great length
of time while still enjoying the free-
dom of its wild life. If the lesson
learned is to be a permanent acquisi-
tion, it must be often repeated, and no
other teachers allowed to interfere. To
effect this the animal must as a rule
be placed under restraint or in a cage,
where its experiences are more uniform,
more limited and under perfect control.

In free life a new habit must strug-
gle with other competitors and is liable
to be suppressed quickly. However, I
think it has been clearly shown that in
the beginnings of the taming process Fig 128. Chestnut-sided Warbler family. The male, perched

. E above, has just delivered an insect to his mate, who quickly
which have been illustrated, where no __passedit to the young and continued to brood. The same nest
physical restraint is used, the sense of
fear must be combated by a stronger and contrary impulse, such as hunger or the
parental instincts, which will lead the bird to undergo new experiences, and finally to
adopt new habits.

Audubon has given an interesting account of some Phcebes or Pewees which nested
in a cave on his plantation in Pennsylvania, and became the subject of some of his earliest
studies and experiments in ornithology. It admirably illustrates the taming process
under the spur of natural instinct. *

“On my first going into the cave,” he says, “ the male flew violently towards the en-
trance, snapped his bill sharply and repeatedly, accompanying this action with a tremulous

is shown in Figs. 3, 11, 127, 129, and 130.

1 Ornithological Biography, vol. ii., p. 122.

134 Wild Birds.

rolling note, the import of which I soon guessed. . . . Several days in succession I
went to the spot, and saw with pleasure that as my visits increased in frequency, the
birds became more familiarized to me, and, before a week had elapsed, the Pewees and
myself were quite on terms of intimacy. It was now the tenth of April. . . . The
Pewees, I observed, began working at their old nest. My presence no longer alarmed
either of them.” He was soon able to put his hand close to the sitting bird without dis-
turbing it.

While possessed by the incubation spirit many birds, as is well known, are indifferent
to danger and will hug their eggs at any cost.
In this respect few can excel the ‘‘ tame
villagic fowl,” who displays greater stupidity
than most wild birds, who rarely sit on an
empty nest,’ and have been known to reject
strange eggs. In this state birds cannot be
considered tame although the sense of fear
may be temporarily dulled, and one of the
conditions of the taming process fulfilled.
The hen will peck vigorously at the in-
truder, and if hustled off the nest will soon
return. Some birds like Song Sparrows
and Brown Thrushes will remain immov-
able as if hiding until you come dangerously
near, when they glide off silently, but usually
remain quiet for a moment only. The
Robin flies off in a passion. The Tropic
Bird fights but sticks to her egg. The
Woodpeckers are close sitters and may
sometimes be taken in the hand. A Chick-
adee which I worried with a straw would
peck angrily at it, but remained on the nest.
The Cedar-birds retire in silence. In this

Fig.129. Female Chestnut-sided Warbler approaching state birds become passive merely through
nest and looking in. At this time there were eggs, or the

young had barely pipped the shell.

the temporary suppression of the sense of
fear.

Fish Hawks used to nest on Plum Island, New York, where according to Mr. C. S,
Allen,’ they had been zealously protected by the owner of the island for upwards of
thirty years previous to 1885. The first nest shown to him by Mr. Jerome, the faithful
guardian of the birds, was “fairly in his door-yard, close by his front gate, and only
about fifty yards fromhishome. It was placed upon an old pile of fence rails, rotted to
black mould in the center, but kept up by the yearly addition of fresh rails. Mr. Jerome
said that to his knowledge this nest had been occupied every year for forty years.” It
had been added to yearly until its huge bulk of sticks and miscellaneous materials would

1 For an account of a pair of Bald Eagles nesting on the ground in the New York Zoélogical Park and incubat-

ing a good-sized stone which was placed in the improvised nest, see Aird Lore, vol. iii., p. 34. IgOT.
* The Auk, vol. ix., p. 313, 1892

Taming Wild Birds without a Cage. 135

make three cart loads. It was but seven or eight feet from the ground, so that by
stepping on a projecting rail the beautifully spotted eggs within could be seen. “ Mr.
Jerome could pass close to the pile of rails without the birds leaving the nest, while
I could not get nearer than thirty or forty feet.” At other places on the island, the
birds would alight on one nest while he was examining another near by. This illustrates
how a shy bird may become relatively tame during the breeding season, and shows clearly
how some learn to discriminate.

That many birds become tame in a state of nature is well known and the subject is
full of interest. The Pine Grosbeak is as good an illustration of the fact as may be
found in this part of the world. Pine
Grosbeaks make their summer home in the
vast forests of evergreens which cover the
continent from Labrador to Alaska. A
few, it is said, have been found breeding in
latitude 47° in New Brunswick, and they
have even been recorded in summer on Mt.
LaFayette, New Hampshire. They are
irregular winter visitors to the Northern
States, sometimes going so far south as
Maryland and Kansas. In the winter of
1884, they were very common at Holder-
ness, New Hampshire, beginning to appear
in small flocks about the middle of Feb- #
ruary and finally disappearing after the
eighteenth of March. At first they were
tame and could be approached without
difficulty, while later they became shy and
timid. They frequented the white pines.
on the buds of which they fed, but occa-
sionally came into the open, and sang loud
and merrily.

I remember meeting a flock of these Fig. 130. Female Chestnut-sided Warbler inspecting her
plump, stalwart looking birds ina grove of %0"™= Met Mavine setved food.
sapling pines on the last day of February. The woods on every side were hoary with snow
which had been falling for hours. When a young pine drooping under its weight of
snow suddenly blossomed with a bright company of these birds, you might travel far
to find a more attractive winter picture. A bird would sometimes drop on a branch,
and settle down as if going to sleep. Then suddenly aroused by the desire for
food he would sidle to the end of the bough, pick out the terminal or largest bud,
twirl it between his stout cone-shaped mandibles to get rid of the scales and then
swallow the resinous morsel. After seeing this experiment performed a good many
times, I selected a handsome male, walked up to him, and caught him with my hat, as if
he were a butterfly. When I stooped to pick him off the snow, he squeaked and struck
violently with his beak, uttering a peculiar car-r-r-r-r / When placed on the snow again
he flapped about for a few moments resisting every attempt to take him, and finally rose

136 Wild Birds.

and disappeared among the snow-laden trees. There were about fifty birds in this flock
and the grove resounded with their clear whistled notes. They were easily approached
at all times and in all weathers, during the early weeks of their visit, agreeing in this re-
spect with the Bohemian Waxwing, the Arctic representative of the Cedar-bird. Two
small flocks of these birds visited Burlington, Vermont, November 24 and January 21,
1882. A low plaintive call-note first attracted my attention, when a party of eight of
these fine birds came into view. They were leisurely preening their feathers on the
lower branches of a red cedar tree. When close upon them, they paid no attention, and
finally wishing to see them fly, I had almost to shake them from the branches. They
went off in a compact body like their smaller relative, giving a “ zee, sec, zee-ze /”
call-note.

Audubon speaks of the familiarity of Crossbills which he observed while on a

moose hunt in the summer of 1833. They alighted on his head, showing no fear, and
"five or six were caught at one time under a snowshoe.

This tameness found among many Arctic species has been met with on a much wider
scale in remote oceanic islands, where man is almost unknown and where the conditions
of life are very different from those of the mainland. The inhabitants of the Galapagos
Islands, which lie under the equator between five and six hundred miles from the west
coast of South America, offer a most striking example of this anomaly. Their natural
history which has been told in one of Darwin’s interesting chapters, first led him to reflect
on the origin of species.” He says that many of the animals and plants are aboriginal, and
found nowhere else, that ‘‘ there is even a difference between the inhabitants of the differ-
ent islands; yet all show a marked relationship with those of America. . . . The
archipelago is a little world within itself, or rather a satellite attached to America, whence
it has derived a few stray colonists, and has received the general character of its indi-
genous productions.” He found twenty-six species of land birds, all peculiar to the
islands excepting only one, the Bobolink, whose summer range extends as far north as
Labrador.

All the common terrestrial birds of these volcanic islands were very tame, and all
says Darwin, “ often approached sufficiently near to be killed with a switch, and some-
times, as I myself tried, with a cap or hat. A gun is here almost superfluous;
for with the muzzle I pushed a hawk off the branch of a tree. One day whilst lying
down, a mocking-thrush alighted on the edge of a pitcher, made of the shell of a tortoise,
which I held in my hand, and began very quickly to sip the water; it allowed me to lift
it from the ground whilst seated on the vessel: I often tried, and very nearly suc-
ceeded in catching these birds by their legs.

“ These birds, although now still more persecuted, do not readily become wild: in
Charles Island, which had then been colonized about six years, I saw a boy sitting by a
well with a switch in his hand, with which he killed the doves and finches as they came to
drink. He had already procured a little heap of them for his dinner; and he said that
he had constantly been in the habit of waiting by this well for the same purpose.”

Darwin remarks that the most anomalous fact on this subject which he had met was
the wildness of certain small birds in the Arctic portions of North America, while some
of the same species were said to be tame in their winter quarters in the United States.

‘ Ornithological Biography, vol, il., p. 436. 2 Fournal of Researches, Chapter XVII.

Taming Wild Birds without a Cage. {37

‘‘ How strange it is,” says he, “that the English wood-pigeon, generally so wild a bird,
should very frequently rear its young in shrubberies close to houses!”

Respecting the wildness which birds exhibit towards man, Darwin could find no way
of accounting for it except as inherited habit, but in another work, he thus refers to the
same subject’: “If we look to successive generations, or to the race, there is no doubt
that birds and other animals gradually both acquire and lose caution in relation to man
and other enemies; and this caution is certainly in chief part an inherited habit or instinct,
but in part the result of individual experience.”

The observations which have been made on the behavior of old and young birds do
not support any theory of the inheritance of habits to account for tameness in animals,
but as already shown afford a better clue of how this has been brought about. Let us
go back to the Pine Grosbeak which, when fresh from his sub-Arctic home, can be
approached and caught with your hat as could many of the birds in the Galapagos Islands
when Darwin visited them in 1835. So far as I know, no one has studied the young of
this species in the nest and ascertained whether they show the same instincts of fear in
general toward strange sights and sounds, as we find in passerine birds nesting farther
south. Assuming that they do, and there can be little doubt of it, the instinct has
lapsed through disuse in adult life, although the capacity of expressing fear remains
and may be quickly aroused and directed towards particular objects. The timidity of
this bird in March after a brief experience with the ways of men is therefore virtually
an acquired character, and there is no evidence that it is handed down by inheritance.

The breeding range of many northern birds covers a vast area, and in different
sections there is reason to expect much variation in the habits of the same species. The
timidity of the Arctic birds referred to may have been due to local conditions affecting
a relatively small number, or the birds may have been young individuals whose intuitive
fear had not been worn away, or old ones possessed of a wisdom derived from extensive
travel southward. Among birds which are reputed to be shy, tamer individuals are
to be found, and many acquire the habit of nesting in gardens and often close to houses.
In the Galapagos Islands, where birds had lived in comparative security for ages with
no fierce and relentless enemies to mar their tranquillity, the instinct of fear had not
only lapsed, but the power of forming new habits had weakened. It is therefore not
surprising that they should be slow in acquiring a fear of man, but any animal which
finally fails in the face of constant persecution to profit by experience has touched
the lowest depths of stupidity, and its days are numbered.

1 The Descent of Man, p. 80.

INDEX.

Abdomen, size and secondary use of, in young, 121.

Abstract ideas, the nature of, if present in birds, 3.

Accessories, or bird-photographer’s outfit enumerated, 35.

Alarm calls, in Catbird, 76, 77; effect of, upon birds of other species, 77, 122-123; in Robin, 123.

Alarm clock, illustration of, 5.

Allen, Charles A., 119.

Allen, C, S., 115, 134.

Altrices, definition of, 117; development of fear in young of, 120; fate of young due to premature
development of fear in, 120-121; care and education of young in, 121; specialization of fear in
young of, 121.

Ampelis garrulus (Bohemian Waxwing), origin of specific name in, §2.

Animal behavior, a working theory of, xvi.

Animal photography, a desideratum of, 34.

Animals, the evil of anthropomorphism in study of, xv; duty and privilege of student of, xv; the native
equipment of, xvi; vulgar error concerning, 125; variable personalties of, 125; winning confi-
dence of, 125-127; origin of natural wildness and tameness of, 125, 126, 137; conditions of
taming, 126, 127.

Anthropomorphism, evil of, in study of animal behavior, xv.

Approach to the wild bird, the problem of, and its solution, 33.

Audubon, John James, 104, 108, 129, 130, 133, 136.

Bag, for accessories of bird-photography, 35; for plates, 34.

Baltimore Oriole (see Oriole).

Basin Harbor (Vt.), Eaves Swallow dispossessed by House Sparrows at, 114, 115.

Bird-photography (see Photography).

Birds, mental faculties of, xvii; instincts of, xvi; problem of approaching, xvii, 33; strongest lure for, xvii;
guiding senses of, 3; rudimentary condition of olfactory organ in, 3; actions of, when nest is
robbed, 4; effect of noise of photographic shutter upon, 5, 34; effect of sounds upon, 5, 68, 112;
appearance of feather-shafts in young of, 6; behavior of, after change of nesting site, 11, 22, 39,
73; attachment to nest, eggs, and young in, 6, 13; individualities of, 36; attractions in haunts
of man for, 51; routine in home life of, 54; interest in watching nesting habits of, at short range,
15, 16, 54; brooding in Cedar-birds, 17, 56; maternal instincts of, 5; digestion, assimilation,
and growth of young of, 66; care of young in nest of, 94; brooding attitudes of, 94, 97-98;
automatic response in gullet of young of, ror, 102; inspection and cleaning of nest in, 103-110;
economy of food in, 102; struggles with insects at nests of, 103; cleaning or sanitary instinct
in, 103, 104; disposal of excreta of young of, 104-110; use of excreta of young as food by,
to5—110; force of habit displayed in, 111; cleanliness of nesting site in, 107, 108; adapta-
bility of, 113; change of diet in, 116; classification of, based on early condition of young in,
117; fear in old and young of, 117; fate of young of, due to premature development of fear,
r20, 121; lack of discrimination in young of, 121; specialization of fear in young of, 121; use
of pot-belly in young of, 121; effect of alarm calls of, on birds of other species, 77, 122, 123;
in winter at Jefferson (O.), 128; behavior of, during incubation, 134; taming of, 125-137;
tameness of, in nature, 135-137; of Galapagos Islands, 136, 137; of Charles Island, 136; wild-
ness of, in Arctic America, 136-137. (See under names of species.)

139

140 Index.

Blackbird, Crow or Purple Grackle (Quiscalus quiscala,. Linn.), nest-cleaning instincts of, 104, 105;
and brooding Robin, 39.

Blackbird, Redwing (Agelatus phaniceus, Linn.), the bathing of, 16; an attractive nest of, 20;
preparation of nesting site of, for use of tent, 20; behavior of, 20; care of young of, 20, 21;
brooding of, 20, 21, 112; respiration of, 21; flight of young from nest of, 21; nest-cleaning
instinct of, 104, 105, 112; eating excreta of young by, 105; erection of feathers in female of,
21; force of habit displayed in, r12.

Blackbirds, nest-cleaning instincts of, 104.

Black cherry tree as an aviary in late summer, 62.

Bluebird (Sialia sialis, Linn.), arrival of, at Cleveland (O.), 49; nest-hole of, 71; general habits of,
71-75; arrival at Holderness (N. H), 71; at Northfield (N. H.), 71; call-notes of, 71, 73; court-
ship of, 71; polygamy in, 72; choice and care of nesting site, 72; defense of nest of, 72; in
converted nest of Flicker, 72; removal of nest of, 72; adjustment of vertical tree-trunk with
nest of, 72; behavior of, after removal of nest, 73; feeding young in, 73; use of tail for sup-
port in, 73; strength of parental instincts in, 73-75; response of young in, 73, 74; nest-clean-
ing of, 74, 75, 104; young of, and their food, 75; rate of feeding young in, 75; in old Robin’s
nest, 75; pugnacity of, 75; number of broods of, 75; repair of nest in, 75.

Breeding season, lateness of, in Cedar-bird, 52; in Goldfinch, 52.

Brewster, William, 51.

Bristol (R. I), nesting of Osprey at, 115, 116.

Brooding, in Redwing Blackbird, 20, 21, 112; in Kingbird, 28, 94, 97; in Robin, 46, 47, 94, 98; in Cedar-
bird, 17, 57; in Red-eyed Vireo, 68; in Night Hawk, 80, 82, 85; necessity of, 94; in Brown
Thrush, 94.

Brown Thrush (see Thrush).

Bunting, Bay-winged (Poocetes gramineus, Gmel.), and black snake, 123.

Burlington (Vt.), arrival of Robins at, 48-49; nest of Black Duck at, 119, 120; records of visits of
Bohemian Waxwings at, 136.

Buzzard, Turkey, filthiness of nests of, 108.

Call-notes, of Cedar-bird, 17, 56; of young of Baltimore Oriole, 18; of Robin, 45; of Red-eyed Vireo,
64,65; of Bluebird, 73; of Redwing Blackbird, 77; of Night Hawk, 81, 82; of Kingtisher, go;
of Canada Goose, 129; of Bohemian Waxwing, 136.

Camera, value of, in portrayal of animals in action, xviii; size and construction of, 32; the twin lens,
32; the reflecting, invention and history of, 32.

Catbird (Galeoscoptes carolinensis, Linn.), shyness of, 5; minute observations on, 76-79; parental and
fighting instincts of, 76, 77; description of nests of, 76, 77; feeding and care of young in, 77-
79; development of wing-quills in young of, 77, 78; capture of dragon-flies by, 77, 78; alarm
notes of, 76, 77; suppression of fear in, 76-78; rate of feeding young in, 78; behavior of
young of, 77, 79, 117, 118; eating of excreta of young by, 105; attracted by alarm of Robin
122.

Cats, and young after removal of nesting bough, 15; as enemies of young birds, 51; exemplified in Jan
Steen, 51.

Cedar-bird, Cedar Waxwing (Ampelts cedrorum, Viell), life at nest of, after change of site, 13, 61; the
nesting of, 17, 52, 53; removal of nesting bough of, 17, 54, 57, 59; call-notes of, 17, 56; care
of young by, 18, 54-62, 94; flight of young of, 18, 60; spring and fall behavior of, 52, 53;
winter flocks of, 52; late breeding of, 52; breeding season at Northfield (N. H.), 52; quiet
nature of, 52; origin of names of, 52; appendages to feathers of wings and tails in young and
adult of, 52-53; food of, 62, 63; position, materials, and construction of nests of, 53, 58; pro-
portion of young of, reared, 53; carly weakness of parental instincts of, 53, 54; desertion of

nests in, 54; the hatching of, 54; routine in nesting habits of, 54; favorite nesting trees and

bushes of, 53; regurgitation of food for young in, 55,61; number of berries carried in gullet of ,

55; function of gullet in, 55, 56, 101; habits of nestlings of, 56; sudden appearance of sense

of fear in nestlings of, 56, 60; timidity of, 54; response to alarm signal in, 57; brooding in,

17, 57,94; supplying colored yarn for nest of, 58, time occupied in building nest in, 58; laying

Index. 141

Cedar-bird, Cedar Waxwing—Continucd
and incubating, and hatching of eggs in, 58, 59; young of, at birth, 59; age of young of, when
eyes open, 59; disappearance of young in nest of, 59; behavior of, in approaching nest with
food, 60; development of color marks in fledglings of, 60, 61; appearance of feather-shafts
and wax-like tips in wings of, 60; habits of young of, when ready to fly, 60; rate of feeding of
young in, 61; the feeding, food, and care of young of, 55, 61, 1901; similarity in sexes of, 61,
62; peculiar signals of, at nest, 62, 102; habit of sipping maple sap in, 62; flocking of, in Au-
gust, 62; and the black cherry tree, 62; eating spiders or robbing them of their prey, 63; taking
insects on the wing, 62, 63; gaping habit in, 98; gluttony of, ro2; inspection and cleaning
the nest by, 104, 105-107; eating excreta of young by, 105, 106; parasites in nest of, 107;
habits of, during incubation, 134.

Central Park, Chickadees in, 127.

Chapman, F. M., 127.

Charles Island, tameness of birds of, 136.

Chatterer, the origin of name as applied to the Waxwings, 52.

Cherry Bird (see Cedar-bird).

Chick, domestic, instinct of fear in, 119; behavior of, when Hawk passes overhead, 120.

Chickadee (Parus atricapillus, Linn.), cleanliness of, 104; attracted by Robin’s alarm, 122, 123; habits
and tameness of, 127, 128; during incubation, 134.

Cicada, eaten by young of Cedar-bird, 61; struggles of Kingbirds with, 103; combat of, with House
Sparrow, 103.

City life, possible origin of, in many birds, 50.

Clamp, the ‘‘Graphic”’ ball and

Cleaning instinct, 103-110 (see Instincts).

Cleveland (O.), spring arrival of Robins and Bluebirds at, 49; Robins in, 50; Red-headed Woodpeckers

‘ket, 34.

in, 50.

Color, discrimination of, in Cedar-bird, 58; development of, in Kingfisher, 86, 91.

Courtship in Bluebird, 71, 72.

Cowbird, early experiments of, in animal psychology, xvi; young of, in Warbler’s nest, 121, 122; ab-
sence of fear in, 122.

Creeper, Brown (Certhta jamiliaris americana, Bonap.), shyness of, 128, 120.

Crossbills, American (Loxta curvirostra minor, Brehm.), effect of alarm of Crow upon, 122.

Crow, effect of alarms of, upon other birds, 122.

Cuckoo, appearance of feather-shafts in, 6.

Cycle, the reproductive, in birds, 3.

Darwin, Charles, 136, 137.

Dorchester (N. H.), nesting of Swift in shed at, 114.

Dorset (O.), nesting of Swift in barn at, 114.

Dragon-fly, capture and killing of, by Kingbirds, 28, 103; as food of young Catbirds, 77-79.

Duck, Black (Anas obscura, Gmel.), absence of fear in newly hatched young of, rrg; nesting of, 119, 120;

behavior of old and young of, when latter are possessed of fear, 120.

Eagle, behavior of, when nesting, compared with that of Night Hawk, So: improvised nest of, 134.

Earthworms, fed to young Robin, 46, 47.

Economy of food, in Robin, 39; in the Kingbird, 28, ro2; in the Red-eyed Vireo, 68.

Eggs, of Kingbird, 21; birds strongly attached to, 13; incubation of, in Robin, 36; lateness of laying
of, in Cedar-bird and American Goldfinch, 52; proportion of young reared to number of, in
Cedar-bird, 53; laying and incubation of, in Cedar-bird, 58; destruction of, in Red-eyed Vireos,
69: hatching of, in Night Hawk, So; relation of size of, to condition of young at birth, ELG:
of Canada Goose hatched under hen, 130; behavior of Chestnut-sided Warblers, with, 131;
behavior of birds when incubating, 134.

142 Index.

Excreta, character of, in young of passerine birds, 104; disposal of, by parents, 104-107; character of,
in young Kingfisher, 107; use of, as food by adult birds, 105-107, 109; character of, in Eagles
and Hawks, 108; actions of Cedar-birds in taking, devouring, or removing, from nest, 106, 107;
use of, as food in Chestnut-sided Warblers, 109.

Eyelids, angular contour of, in young Night Hawk, 80.

Eyes, opening of, in young of Cedar-bird, 59; in young of Red-eyed Vireo, 64.

F.,

Fauna of Galapagos Islands, peculiar character of, 136, 137.

Faxon, W., 51.

Fear, the instinct of, 3; the suppression of, 4; development of, in relation to appearance of feather-
shafts of wings, 6; suppression of, in Cedar-bird, 17, 57, 59; in Oriole, 19; in Redwing Black-
birds, 20, 21; in Kingbird, 22, 27; in Robin, 39, 40, 45; appearance of, in young Cedar-birds,
56, 60; in young of Red-eyed Vireo, 69; suppression of, in adult Bluebird, 72, 73; in Catbird,
76-78; development of, in young Catbirds, 77, 79; nature, time of appearance, sudden mani-
festation, and adaptive value of, 117-124; instinct of, in domestic chick, 119; in ducklings
of Black Duck, 120; of Hawk in sky, expressed by chick, 120; distinction between inherited
and acquired, 121, 137; expression of, in Robin, 122; checked by hunger, 126-128.

Feathers, development of, as guide in controlling nesting site, 6; development of, in Cuckoos, 6; down,
in Bluebird, 75; development of, in Red-eyed Vireos, 64, 68; in Catbirds, 77, 78; in King-
fisher, 86, 91; in Night Hawk, 80, 85; condition of, at birth as basis for classification, 117;
development of, relation to fear, 6, 117-124.

Feather-shafts, appendages of, in Cedar-bird, 52, 60 (see Feathers).

Fireflies as food of young Night Hawk, 82.

Fish, captured by Kingfisher, 90; resources of Kingfisher to prevent escape of, 92.

Fly, robber (Asz/us), fed to young of Bluebird, 73, 74; escape of, from grasp of Kingbird, 102, 103.

Focusing-cloth, adjustment of, in tent, 31.

Food, of young Cedar-birds, 17, 18, 55, 61; of young Baltimore Orioles, 19; of Kingbird, 28, 102, 103,
116; of young Robins, 39, 48, 116; of Robin in summer and winter, 48; of Cedar-bird, 52, 62,
63; economy of, in Kingbird, 28, 102; in Red-eyed Vireos, 68; in Chestnut-sided Warbler,
109; distribution of, to young Cedar-birds explained, 55; and its distribution in Red-eyed
Vireos, 67-69; of young Bluebirds, 75; of young Catbirds, 78, 79; of young Kingfishers,
go-92; of young Night Hawk, 82; of Hawks, Owls, and other birds under exceptional con-
ditions, 116.

Foster-children, treatment by Kingbird, 2

Fowl, domestic, stupidity and pugnacity of, 134.

Fruits, fed to young by Cedar-birds, 17, 61; by Orioles, 19; by Robins, 48; eaten by Robin in winter,
48; cultivated, eaten as makeshift, 48; served to young of Red-eyed Vireos, 68, 69; of Cat-
bird, 76, 77, 79.

Galapagos Islands, observations of Darwin on fauna of, 136, 137.

Gluttony in Cedar-birds, ror, ro2.

Goldfinch, American (Spinus tristis, Linn.) , lateness of breeding of, 52; attracted by Robin’s alarm, 123.

Goose, Canada (Branta canadensis, Linn.), young of, 117; tamability of, 127, 129, 130; habits and
breeding of, in captivity, 129, 130.

Grampus (Corydalis cornutus), feeding of, to young Kingbirds, 103; formidable appearance and size
of, Tor, 103.

Grasshoppers brought to nest by Robin, 39.

Grosbeak, Pine (Pinicola enucleator, Linn.), range, habits, and relative tameness of, in winter and
spring, 135, 136; capture of male of, with hat, 135.

Gullet, distensibility of, in the Cedar-bird, 55, 61; effect of full, in young, ror; automatic response of,
in young birds, 55, 101, 102.

Index. 143
H.

Habit, definition of, as distinguished from abils in the popular sense, xvii; the formation of, 3, 4, 5,
rrr, 116; of Cedar-bird in alighting on tent, 62; of sipping maple sap, in Cedar-bird, 62; in
manner of approach to nest in Red-eyed Vireo, rri-112; of walking backward and sitting
still in young Kingfishers explained, 89; of entering and leaving tunnel, in Kingfisher, 90, 91;
of Kingfisher to prevent escape of prey, 92; of eating excreta, how acquired in a hungry bird,
iog, rro; illustration of, in nest-cleaning, 112; change of food, in Rhinoceros-bird, 116; force
and variation of, in nesting of Osprey, 115, 116; plasticity of, in reference to food, 116; of fear,
of special objects, 121.

Hawk, the Fish (see Osprey); Hen, the effect of, in sky upon chick in dooryard, 120.

Hawks feeding on locusts, 116.

Hellgamite, larvee of grampus, 103.

Hinde, Captain, 116.

Holderness (N. H.), spring arrival of Bluebirds at, 71; habits of Pine Grosbeaks in winter and spring
at, 135.

Humming-bird, eggs and young of, 117.

Hunger in relation to fear, 126-128.

Incubation, in Kingbird, 21; in Robin, 36; in Cedar-bird, 58; of Eagle in captivity, 134; behavior of
birds during, 134.

Insects, struggles of, when brought to nest, 102, 103.

Inspection of young and nest, the importance, regularity, and significance of, roy—1o06. (See also under
names of species.)

Instincts, defined in broad and narrow sense, xvi: illustration of, in the Robin, xvi; substitution of, by
habits, xvi, 4; the great number of, xvi; determining cause of, xvi; the parental, analysis of,
3; culmination of, 4; strength of, how increased, 3, 4; suppression of, 3; periodic and serial
nature of, 3; the fighting, 3, 4 (see Pugnacity); parental, relative strength of, in birds, 5, 13;
in Orioles, 19; in Kingbirds, 22; in Redwing Blackbirds, 20, 21; in Robins, 39, 45; in Cedar-
birds, 17, 18, 55, 57, 59; in Red-eyed Virco, 64, 65; in Bluebirds, 72-75; in Night Hawks, 80,
82,85; in Kingfishers, 86, 90,91; use of parental, in taming birds, 130-133; instinctive reactions
of young of Cedar-birds, 55; of fear, suppression of, in Red-eyed Vireos, 68; appear-
ance of, in young Red-eyed Vireos, 68; of fear, suppression of, in Bluebirds, 72, 73; walk-
ing, in vertebrates, 89; of inspection of young and nest, 103-106; cleaning or sanitary, in birds,
to3-110; dearth of observations upon cleaning, 104; of cleaning nesting site, 107-110; prey-
ing, in young Red-eyed Vireos, 67; of preening in young, 65; of Chimney Swift in nest-build-
ing, 113; of fear in old and young, 117-124; of fear in domestic chick, r19; of Canada Goose
modified in captivity, 129, 130; of ‘feigning’ in Chestnut-sided Warbler, 1 :

Intelligence, human, the roots of, xv, xvi; the sign of, xvii.

1, 132,

Jay, Canada, Moosebird (Pertsoreus canadensis, Linn.), tameness and habits of, 129.
Jefferson (O.), winter birds at, 128.

Kk.

Kearton, the brothers, blinds designed by, 30.

Kingbird (Tyrannus tyrannus, Linn.), the time spent by young of, in nest after change of site, 13: the
breeding of, 21; displacement of the nesting bough of, 22; fighting instinct of, 22; suppression
of fear in, 22, 23; rate of feeding young of, 22, 27; foster children of, 2 crushing prey by,

28; the rejection of indigestible parts of food by, 28; flight from nest of, 28; brooding in, 94,

97; economy of food in, to2; escape of-prey from bill of, 102, 103; exciting scenes at nest of,

103; feeding of large insects to young of, 103; eating excreta of young of, 105; attracted by

alarms of other birds, 123; perching on fishing-rod, 125.

144 Index.

Kingfisher, the Belted (Ceryle alcyon, Linn.), general habits of, 86-93; attachment of, to nesting site,
86; subterranean nest of, 86; dimensions of nest of, 86; young of, 86, 89, 91-93; use of tarsus
in foot of, 89; habits of young of, 89, 91, 92; habit of walking backward, how acquired in
young of, 89, 90; pugnacity in young of, 89; use of tent before tunnel of, 89, 90; photographing
adult, 90; the feeding of young, by parents, go, 91; feeding of captive young, by hand, 92;
moving nesting chamber by, 92; habits of young of, in captivity, 92; structure of cesophagus
and bill of, 92; trick-like performance of, 92; notes of adult and young of, go, gt, 92; visits
of, to nest, and manner of entering and leaving tunnel by, 90, 91; colors in young of, 86, 91, 92;
peculiar expression in young of, 91; liberation of captive young of, 93; parental instincts in,
86, 90, 91; character of excreta in young of, 107; sanitary condition of nest in, 107; develop-
ment of fear in young of, 119.

Leaves, plucking or cutting of, about a nest, 8,14; keeping, fresh on branches cut from trees of various
kinds, 14, 15; result of cutting of, at Catbird’s nest, 79.

Lenses, kinds of, available for photographing wild animals, 32-34; the Anastigmat, 32, 33; qualities
of, most needed in animal photography, 33; long focus, 32, 34; telephoto, 32, 34.

Locust, Rocky Mountain, eaten by birds during plague, 116.

Loon, eggs and young of, 117.

Lures, the young as, xvii, 6; as a means of taming without restraint, 126, 127, 130-133.

Maple sap, sipping of, by Cedar-birds, 62.

Methods of bird-photography, the old, xvii, xviii; the new, xviii, 1-16; analysis of new, 3-6; applica-
tion of, 7, 8; precautions to be observed in use of, 8-11; extent of application of, 11-13; table
of experiments in, 12; objections to, 13-15; advantages of, 15-16; fascination of, 16; illustra-
tion of, 17-18; original suggestion of, 54,55. (See also table, page 12, and under names of
species.)

Mirrors, use of, 35.

Mites, parasitic, on young of Cedar-bird, 107.

Mount La Favette (N. H.), Pine Grosbeak in summer at, 135.

Mouse, Deer- or White-footed (Hesperomys leucopus, Raj, LeC.), nest of Red-eyed Vireo occupied by,
6 °.

ae N.

Narragansett Bay (R. I.), Fish Hawks on shores of, 115, 116.

Naturalist, duty and privilege of, xv; patience of, 13, 14.

Nest, inspection and sanitation of, 103-110; displacement of, 2 (see Nesting site); photographing,
when inaccessible to tent, 34; of Cedar-bird, 17, 53, 54, 56, 58, 61; of Baltimore Oriole, 18;
of Robin, 36, 40, 49, 50; of Red-eyed Vireo, 64, 69; of Bluebird, 72; of Catbird, 76, 77; of
Night Hawk, 80; of Kingfisher, 86; of Chimney Swift, 113, 114; of House Sparrow, 114; of
Osprey, 115, 116, 134, 135; Of Black Duck, 119; of Magnolia Warbler, 121; of Chestnut-sided
Warbler, 131; of Phoebe, 133; of Red-eyed Vireo, occupied by Yellow Warbler, 69; of same,
used by Deer-mouse, 69, 70; destruction of, in Red-eyed Vireo, 69; Bluebird in old Robin's,
75; movement of nesting chamber in Kingfisher, 92; filthiness of, in Turkey Buzzard, 108;
parasites of, in Cedar-bird, 107; sanitary condition of, in Kingfisher, 107; filthiness of, in
Owls, 108; habit in approaching, in Robins, rrr; in Red-eyed Vireos, rri, 112; in Redwing
Blackbird, 112; adaptation in character and position of, 113, 114; unusual position of, in
Chimney Swift, 113, 114; in House Sparrow, 114; of Bay-winged Bunting despoiled by black
snake, 123.

Nesting bough, removal and mounting of, 7 (see Nesting site).

Nesting site, control of, 1; *yhen to change, 6; experiments in change of, tabulated, 12; accidents due
to change of, guarded against, 12, 13; change of, in Cedar-bird, 17, 54, 55, 57, 59; in Oriole,
19; in Robin, 39, 40; in Red-eyed Vireo, 64; in Bluebird, 72; in Catbird, 76, 77; in Night
Hawk, 80; in Kingfisher, 86, 89, 90; the choice of new, by operator, 7; attachment of birds
to, 13; of Kingfisher to, 86; of Osprey to, 115; importance of cleanliness of, in passerine birds,
105; unusual, in Chimney Swift, rr3, 114; in Osprey, 115; lack of cleanliness of,in birds, 107, 108,

Index. 145

OOS
eggs

Night Hawk, Bull-bat (Chordeiles virginianus, Gmel.), the feeding of, 15, 16; the rearing of, 80-85;
and incubation of, 80; behavior of, during incubation, 80; hatching of, 80; the young of,
80-85; expression of fear in old and young of, 80, 81; coralling the young of, 81; eyes and
eyelids in young of, 80; brooding habits of, 80, 82, 85; call and alarm notes of, 81, 82; feeding
habits in young of, 81, 82; illumination of throat of, by phosphorescent insects, 52; encounter
of young of, with snake, 81; fledgling of, 85.

Northfield (N. H.), breeding of Cedar-birds at, 52; spring Bluebirds at, 71; nesting of Kingfisher at, 86.
(See Preface.)

Nuthatches, tameness and habits of, 127, 128.

Objections to method considered, 13-15.

Observations from tent, the best time for, 7, 8.

Oriole, Baltimore (/cterus galbula, Linn.), nest of, 18; call-notes of young of, 18; removal of nesting
bough of, 19; behavior of, 19; food brought to young by, 19; rate of feeding at nest of, 19;
exercise of the fledglings of, 20; flight of young of, from the nest, 20; use of tent at nest of, 19;
cleaning instinct in, to4; lack of discrimination in young of, 121; summoned by alarm of Robin,
22:

Osprey, the American, or Fish Hawk (Pandion haliaétus carolinensts, Gmel.), nests and nesting habits
of, at Plum Island (N. Y.), 115, 134, 135; at Bristol (R. [.), 115, 116; nest of, on cart-wheel
on top of pole, 116; actions of, upon loss of mate, 116; tameness of, 134, 135.

Owls, filthiness of nests of, 108; change of feeding habits in, 116.

Parasites on nest and young of Cedar-bird, 107.

Partridges, eggs and young of, 117.

Patience required in the naturalist’s work, 13, T4.

Patten, William, 114.

Peep-holes in observation tent, the form and size of, 3r.

Phoebe, taming of, 133, 134.

Phosphorescence, display of, in Night Hawk, 82.

Photography of birds, method of, xvii; the future of, xviii; a new method of, based on animal instinct,
Xvill; new method described, 1-16; its conditions, 1; its principles analyzed, 3; mode of
procedure in, 7; precautions in use of, 8; extent of application of, 11-13; objections to, con-
sidered, 13-15; advantages of, 15-16; illustrations of, 17-28; the tools of, 29-35; of birds
after they have been tamed, in Robin, 131, in Chestnut-sided Warbler, 133.

Pigeon, English Wood, habit of, 137 ; domestic, tameability of, 125; wild passenger, condition of nest-
ing site in, 107.

Plates, photographic, exposure of, 34; deterioration of, 34; carriage and care of, 34.

Plover, eggs and young of, 117.

Plum Island (N. Y.), breeding and habits of Osprey at, 115, 134, 135.

Polygamy in Bluebirds, 72.

Popular natural history, defects of, xv, xvi; illustrations of, xviii, xix.

Precoces, 117.

Precautions to be observed in change of nesting site, 8.

Precision in instinctive acts of young birds, 67.

Preening instinct in young Vireos, 65.

Principles of new method of bird-study, 3.

Pugnacity, the instinct of, 4; in Kingbirds, 22; in Robins, 40, 134; in Red-eyed Vireos, 67; in young
of Kingfisher, 89; in domestic fowl, 134; in Tropic Bird, 134.

Reaction of young bird to stimulus of food, 55.
Redstart, flight of young of, from nest, 118; attracted by Robin's alarm, 123.

146 Index.

Redwing (see Blackbird).

Regurgitation, of indigested food in Kingbirds, 28; of food for young in Cedar-birds, 55, 61; in Vireo, 66.

Reproduction, cycle of, 3, 4.

Respiration in Redwing Blackbird, 21.

Response, of throat and gullet of young, 55, 101, 102; in young of Baltimore Oriole to one of their num-
ber, 121; of young Red-eyed Vireos to notes of other birds, 68; of young of Bluebirds, 74; of
young of Catbirds, 77, 78.

Rhinoceros-bird (Buphaga erythra pyncha), change in food habits of, 116.

Robin (Merula migratoria, Linn.), the instincts of, displayed in migration and nest building, xvi; no
learning of instinctive responses required or possible, xvi; time spent by young of, in new
nesting site, 13; as symbol of cheerfulness, 36; history of, 36-51; spring arrival of, 48, 49;
incubation in, 36; choice of nesting site in, 49; behavior of, when nesting bough is moved, 39,
40, 45; call-notes of, 39, 45; feeding young in, 39, 46-48; economy in food in, 39; neatness
of, 39; spontaneous behavior in, 39; parental instincts of, 39, 40, 45; panoramic scenes at
nest of, 46, 47; flight from nest of, 40, 47, 48; keenness of vision of, 39; habits and instincts
of fledglings of, 40, 47, 48; peculiar notes of, for arousing the young at nest, 45; in winter, 48;
fruits eaten by, in summer and winter, 48; nests of, under cover, 49, 50; nest of second brood of,
50; in city life, 50, 51; gregarious habits of, in summer and winter, 51; Bluebird in nest of,
75; eating excreta of young by, 39, 105, 106, 109; characteristic attitudes of, 105; actions of, in
cleaning the nest, 105, 106; formation of habits in, 111; food brought to nest of, 116; eggs
and young of, 117; effect of alarm of female of, upon cock at nest, 122; as an exponent of
taming process, 130-131; display of pugnacity in, 4o, 134.

Roosts of Robin in summer and winter, 51.

Sac of excreta in young, 104; disposition of, by parents, to4-110; character of, in Robin and inspec-
tion of, after removal from nest, 105, 106; bursting of, in mouth of Robin, 109; seizing and
devouring of, by Chestnut-sided Warbler, 109.

Sanbornton (N. H.), Robin’s nest under cover at, 49.

Sanitation of nest, 103-110; in Woodpeckers, Chickadees, Thrushes, Waxwings, Vireos, Warblers,
Orioles, Blackbirds, Bluebirds, 104; in Crow Blackbird, 104, 105. (See also under names of
species.)

Shutter, concealment of observer while setting, 31; iris diaphragm, 34; focal plane, 34; time marks of,
34; rapidity of, 34; a desideratum in, 5, 34.

Sim, Robert J., 62, 114, 128.

Snake, rescue of Vireo from, 69; encounter of Night Hawk with, 81; black, in act of swallowing young
bird, 123.

Snipe, eggs and young of, 117.

Snow eaten by Chickadees, 128.

Sounds, effect of, upon birds, 5, 68, 112.

Sparrow, Chipping, suppression of fear in, 5; House (Passer domesticus, Linn.), pugnacity of, 72; com-
bat of, with cicada, 103; condition of nesting site in, 107; nesting of, in hood of electric
street-lamps, 114; nest of Eaves Swallow appropriated by, 114, 115; tameability of, 125, 127;
Song (Melospiza fasciata, Gmel.), nest of, 12; attracted by alarm of Robin, 123; habits of,
during incubation, 134.

Spiders or their prey eaten by Cedar-birds, 63.

Stork, habits of, 125.
Swallow, Barn (Chelidon erythrogaster, Bodd.), accident to young of, 49; condition of nesting site in, 107;
Eaves (Petrochelidon lunifrons, Say), dispossessed of nest by House Sparrow, 114, 115.

Swift, Chimney (Chetura pelagica, Linn.), significance in change of nesting habits of, 113, 114; nesting
instinct of, 113; nesting of, in barn and shed, 114.

Tail of Bluebird used for support, 73-74.
Tameness, of birds in nature, 125, 127, 128, 135-137: of the Pine Grosbeak, 135; of Bohemian Wax-
wing, 136; of Crossbills, 136; of birds of Galapagos Islands, 136.

roe)

Index. 147

Taming birds without a cage, 125-137.

Taming process, conditions and analysis of, 126, 127; use of tent in, 130; Robins and Chestnut-sided
Warblers as exponents of, 130-133; Phecbe as illustration of, 133, 134.

Tarsus, use of, in Kingfisher, 80.

Tent, as an observatory, 2, 15, 16; time required for birds to become accustomed to, 5, 11; window of,
5, 31; the time to use, 7; precautions in use of, 8; experiments in use of, tabulated, 12; the
future of, as an observatory for the study of birds, 13; protection afforded by, 15; advantages
of position of, rs; before Cedar-bird’s nest, 17, 55, 57, 59; as an observatory for the birds, 12,
21, 45, 58; before nest of Redwing Blackbird, 20; before nest of Oriole, 19; construction of,
29: convenience of, 30; instructions for use of, 31; before nest of Red-eyed Vireo, 64; before
nest-hole of Blucbird, 72; beside nest of Catbird, 76, 77; before young of Night Hawk, 81,
before tunnel of Kingfisher, 89, 90; use of, in taming birds, 130; before nest of Chestnut-sided
Warbler, 132, 133.

Tent-cloth, material and color of, 29.

Tent-frame, dimensions and construction of, 2

Tent-pins, form and use of, 29, 31.

Tent-window, position of, 31.

Throat, response of, in young birds, 55; color of, in young Robin, 39; as target for the parent, 49: in
young Cedar-bird, 56; inflation of, in Red-eyed Vireo, 66; in Chestnut-sided Warbler, 97.

Thrush, Brown (Harporhynchus rufus, Linn.), camping beside nest of, 94; brooding of young in, 94;
eating excreta of young by, ros; attracted by alarm of Robin, 122; Wilson's or Veery (7 urdus
fuscescens, Steph.), young of, 12; premature development of fear in young of, r2t.

Thrushes, cleaning instinct of, to4.

Trees, keeping fresh leaves of cut branches of, 15; mutilation of, 15.

Tripod, best form of, 34.

Tropic Bird, pugnacity of, during incubation, 134.

“

Venice, ‘‘doves”’ or pigeons of, 125.

Vireo, Red-eyed (Vireo olivaceus, Linn.), coming to tent, 5; nest and young of, 64; call-notes of, 65: be-
havior of nestlings of, 64, 65, 67, 68; digestion and assimilation in young of, 66; feeding the
young in, 65-68; inspection and cleaning the young in, 65, 67, 68; sleekness and neatness of,
67; preying instinct in young of, 67; young of, aroused by notes of other birds, 68; capture
of prey by, 68; indifference of, to customary sounds, 68; signs of emotion in, 68; suppression
of fear in, 68; appearance of sense of fear in voung of, 69; rate of feeding at nest of, 69; old
nest of, utilized by Yellow Warblers, 69; old nest of, used by deer-mouse, 69, 70; flight from
nest of, 69; rescue of young of, from snake, 69; destruction of nest of, 69; fragility of old
nests of, 69; carelessness in construction of nest in, 69; eating of excreta of young by, 105;
cleanliness of nesting site in, 198; habit of approaching the nest in, 111, 112; attracted by
alarm of Robin, 122, 123.

Walking, instinct of, in vertebrates, 89; habit of, in young of Kingfisher, 89.

Warbler, Yellow (Dendroica estiva, Ginel.), using nest of Red-eyed Vireo, 69; Chestnut-sided (Den-
drotca pennsylvanica, Linn.), excreta of young of, eaten by, 105, 109; nesting habits of, 131-133;
taming of, 132-133; photographing, without tent, 133; attracted by alarm of Robin, 122;
development of fear in young of, 118; Magnolia (Dendroica niaculosa, Ginel.), as foster parent
to Cowbird, 121, 122; fate of rightful young of, 122; Maryland Yellow Throat, attracted by
alarm of Robin, 123.

Waxwing, origin of name of, 52; Bohemian, habits and record of, 136 (see Cedar-bird).

Wildness, of birds, origin of, 125, 126, 137.

Woodpecker, use of old nest-hole of, by Bluebird, 72; cleanliness of nest in, 104; Downy and Hairy,
tameness of, in winter, 128, 129; eggs and young of, 117; habits of, during incubation, 134.

148 Index.

Young, as strong lure, xvii, 6, 126, 127, 130; exposure of, to intense heat, 8; study of, at nest, 8; danger
to, from insufficient food, 10; proper age of, when nesting site is changed, 6; necessity of shade
to, 8, 13; of Cedar-bird, 18, 60; of Baltimore Oriole, 18,19; frequency of feeding, in Orioles,
19; call-notes of, in Oriole, 18; exercise of, in Oriole, 20; flight from nest of, in Oriole, 20;
feeding of, in Redwing Blackbird, 21; hatching of, in Kingbird, 21; change of, in nest of King-
bird, 27; feeding, in Kingbird, 27, 28, 103; brooding in Kingbird, 28, 94, 97; flight of, from
nest in Kingbird, 28; gape, color of mouth, and behavior of, in Robin, 39, 40, 47; flight of,
from nest, in Robin, 40, 47, 48; cats as enemies of, 51; instinctive reaction of, to food in Cedar-
bird, 55; hatching of, in Cedar-bird, 58, 59; opening of eyes of, in Cedar-bird, 59; of Cedar-
bird leaving the nest, 18, 60; time spent in nest by, in Cedar-bird, 60; appearance of feather-
shafts and wax-like appendages to wings of, in Cedar-bird, 60; development of color-marks of,
in Cedar-bird, 60, 61; habits of, in Cedar-bird, 60; food and care of, in Cedar-bird, 55-62; cleaning
of, in Cedar-bird, 56, ro5—107; digestion, assimilation, and growth of, in Red-eyed Virco, 66;
behavior of, in Red-eyed Vireo, 64-68; preying instinct of, in Red-eyed Vireos, 67; aroused
by notes of other birds, 68; appearance of fear in Red-eyed Vireos, 69; rate of feeding of,
in Red-eyed Vireos, 69; response and feeding of, in Bluebird, 73; food and rate of feeding, in
Bluebird, 75; feeding and care of, in Catbird, 77, 78, 79; rate of feeding of, in Catbirds, 78;
behavior of, in Catbirds, 78, 79; of Night Hawk, 80; hatching of, in Night Hawk, 80; color of,
in Night Hawk, 80, 85; eyes of, in Night Hawk, 80; behavior of,in Night Hawk, 80-82; walking
of, in Night Hawk, 81; coralling of, in Night Hawk, 81; call-notes of, in Night Hawk, 81, 82;
feeding habits in Night Hawk, 81, 82, 85; fledgling stage in Night Hawk, 85; call-notes of, in
Kingfisher, 90, 91, 92; colors of, in Kingfisher, 86, 91, 92; peculiar expression of, in Kingfisher,
91; development of feathers of, in Kingfisher, 86, 91; function of tarsus of, in foot of King-
fisher, 89; general habits of, in Kingfisher, 89,91, 92; habit of walking backward in, of King-
fisher, how acquired, 89; habit of sitting still, in Kingfisher, 89, 90; pugnacity of, in Kingfisher,
89; feeding of, in Kingfisher, 90, 91; habits of, in captive Kingfishers, 92; care of, 94; brooding
and feeding of, 94-103; diet of, in Cedar-bird, 101; automatic response of gullet of, ror, 102;
inspection and cleaning of, 103-110; character of excreta in, 104; disposal of excreta of, by
parents, 104-107; character of excreta in Kingfisher, 107; use of excreta of, as food by adults,
105, 107, 109; development of fear of, in Catbird, 117, 118, in Chestnut-sided Warbler, 118,
in Kingfisher, 119; imperfect digestion of food in, 109; fear in, 117-122; condition of, at time
of hatching, as basis for classification, 117; fear in Black Ducklings, 120; death of, due to
premature development of fear, 120, 121; lack of discrimination in, 121; behavior of, in Bal-
timore Orioles, 121; care and education of, 121; acquisition of fear of special objects in, 121;
use of pot-belly of, 121; of Bay-winged Bunting attacked by black snake, 123.

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