An Introductory Acquaintanc raith One Hundr eaid Fift^^ of Our Common Birds Krpj 'T T"p TIT nmmiaafmsmmmmmmmmaii LIBRARY THE UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA SANTA BARBARA PRESENTED BY MR. GEORGE COBB 1C.SB LIBRAR BIRD NEIGHBORS CARDINAL GROSBEAK BIRD NEIGHBORS, an INTRODUCTORY ACQUAINTANCE WITH ONE HUNDRED AND FIFTY BIRDS COMMONLY FOUND IN THE GARDENS, MEADOWS, AND WOODS ABOUT OUR HOMES BY NELTJE BLANCHAN WITH INTRODUCTION BY JOHN BURROUGHS WITH MANY PHOTOGRAPHIC ILLUSTRATIONS IN COLOR ^ GROSSET & DUNLAP PUBLISHERS /. NEW YORK Copyright, 1904, by Doubleday, Page & Company Copyright, 1897, ^7 Doubleday & McClure Company Colored plates copyright, 1900, by A. W. Mumford, Chicago TABLE OF CONTENTS Introduction by John Burroughs Preface List of Colored Plates I. Bird Families: Their Characteristics and the Representatives of Each Family included in " Bird Neighbors " II. Habitats of Birds III. Seasons of Birds IV. Birds Grouped According to Size . V. Descriptions of Birds Grouped According to Color Birds Conspicuously Black . . „ . Birds Conspicuously Black and White . Dusky, Gray, and Slate-colored Birds . Blue and Bluish Birds Brown, Olive or Grayish Brown, and Brown and Gray Sparrowy Birds .... Green, Greenish Gray, Olive, and Yellowish Olive Birds Birds Conspicuously Yellow and Orange Birds Conspicuously Red of any Shade . Index PAGE vii IX xi I 17 25 3} 39 51 65 97 113 167 187 213 229 PREFACE Not to have so much as a bowing acquaintance with the birds that nest in our gardens or under the very eaves of our houses ; that haunt our wood-piles ; keep our fruit-trees free from slugs; waken us with their songs, and enliven our walks along the roadside and through the woods, seems to be, at least, a breach of etiquette toward some of our most kindly disposed neighbors. Birds of prey, game and water birds are not included in the book. The following pages are intended to be nothing more than a familiar introduction to the birds that live near us. Even in the principal park of a great city like New York, a bird-lover has found more than one hundred and thirty species; as many, probably, as could be discovered in the same sized territory anywhere. The plan of the book is not a scientific one, if the term scientific is understood to mean technical and anatomical. The purpose of the writer is to give, in a popular and accessible form, knowledge which is accurate and reliable about the life of our common birds. This knowledge has not been collected from the stuffed carcasses of birds in museums, but gleaned afield. In a word, these short narrative descriptions treat of the bird's char- acteristics of size, color, and flight; its peculiarities of instinct and temperament; its nest and home life; its choice of food; its songs; and of the season in which we may expect it to play its part in the great panorama Nature unfolds with faithful precision year after year. They are an attempt to make the bird so live before the reader that, when seen out of doors, its recognition shall be instant and cordial, like that given to a friend. The coloring described in this book is sometimes more vivid than that found in the works of some learned authorities, whose conflicting testimony is often sadly bewildering to the novice. In different parts of the country, and at different seasons of the year, the plumage of some birds undergoes many changes. The reader must remember, therefore, that the specimens examined and described were not, as before stated, the faded ones in our museums, but live birds in their fresh, spring plumage, studied afield. The birds have been classed into color groups in the belief that this method, more than any other, will make identification most easy. The color of the bird is the first, and often the only, characteristic noticed. But they have also been classified accord- ing to the localities for which they show decided preferences and in which they are most likely to be found. Again, they have been grouped according to the season when they may be expected. In the brief paragraphs that deal with groups of birds separated into the various families represented in the book, the characteristics and traits of each clan are clearly emphasized. By these several aids it is believed the merest novice will be able to quickly identify any bird neighbor that is neither local nor rare. To the uninitiated or uninterested observer, all small, dull- colored birds are "common sparrows." The closer scrutiny of the trained eye quickly differentiates, and picks out not only the Song, the Canada, and the Fox Sparrows, but finds a dozen other familiar friends where one who "has eyes and sees not" does not even suspect their presence. Ruskin says: "The more I think of it, I find this conclusion more impressed upon me, that the greatest thing a human soul ever does in this world is to see something. . . . Hundreds of people can talk for one who can think, but thousands can think for one who can see. To see clearly is poetry, prophecy, and religion — all in one." While the author is indebted to all the time-honored standard authorities, and to many ornithologists of the present day, — too many for individual mention, — it is to Mr. John Burroughs her deepest debt is due. To this clear-visioned prophet, who has opened the blind eyes of thousands to the delights that Nature holds within our easy reach, she would gratefully acknowledge many obligations: first of all, for the plan on which "Bird Neigh- bors " is arranged ; next, for his patient kindness in reading and annotating the manuscript of the book; and, not least, for the inspiration of his perennially charming writings that are so largely responsible for the ready-made audience now awaiting writers on out-of-door topics. Neltje Blanchan. INTRODUCTION I WRITE these few introductory sentences to this volume only to second so worthy an attempt to quicken and enlarge the gen- eral interest in our birds. The book itself is merely an introduc- tion, and is only designed to place a few clews in the reader's hands which he himself or herself is to follow up. I can say that it is reliable and is written in a vivacious strain and by a real bird lover, and should prove a help and a stimulus to any one who seeks by the aid of its pages to become better acquainted with our songsters. The pictures, with a few exceptions, are remarkably good and accurate, and these, with the various group- ing of the birds according to color, season, habitat, etc., ought to render the identification of the birds, with no other weapon than an opera glass, an easy matter. When I began the study of the birds I had access to a copy of Audubon, which greatly stimulated my interest in the pursuit, but I did not have the opera glass, and I could not take Audubon with me on my walks, as the reader may this volume, and he will find these colored plates quite as helpful as those of Audubon or Wilson. But you do not want to make out your bird the first time; the book or your friend must not make the problem too easy for you. You must go again and again, and see and hear your bird under varying conditions and get a good hold of several of its characteristic traits. Things easily learned are apt to be easily for- gotten. Some ladies, beginning the study of birds, once wrote to me, asking if I would not please come and help them, and set them right about certain birds in dispute. I replied that that would be getting their knowledge too easily; that what I and any one else told them they would be very apt to forget, but that the things they found out themselves they would always remem- ber. We must in a way earn what we have or keep. Only thus docs it become ours, a real part of us. Not very long afterward I had the pleasure of walking with one of the ladies, and I found her eye and ear quite as sharp as my own, and that she was in a fair way to conquer the bird king- dom without any outside help. She said that the groves and fields, through which she used to walk with only a languid inter- est, were now completely transformed to her and afforded her the keenest pleasure; a whole new world of interest had been disclosed to her; she felt as if she was constantly on the eve of some new discovery; the next turn in the path might reveal to her a new warbler or a new vireo. I remember the thrill she seemed to experience when I called her attention to a purple finch singing in the tree-tops in front of her house, a rare visitant she had not before heard. The thrill would of course have been greater had she identified the bird without my aid. One would rather bag one's own game, whether it be with a bullet or an eyebeam. The experience of this lady is the experience of all in whom is kindled this bird enthusiasm. A new interest is added to life; one more resource against ennui and stagnation. If you have only a city yard with a few sickly trees in it, you will find great delight in noting the numerous stragglers from the great army of spring and autumn migrants that find their way there. If you live in the country, it is as if new eyes and new ears were given you, with a correspondingly increased capacity for rural enjoyment. The birds link themselves to your memory of seasons and places, so that a song, a call, a gleam of color, set going a sequence of delightful reminiscences in your mind. When a soli- tary great Carolina wren came one August day and took up its abode near me and sang and called and warbled as I had heard it long before on the Potomac, how it brought the old days, the old scenes back again, and made me for the moment younger by all those years! A few seasons ago I feared the tribe of bluebirds were on the verge of extinction from the enormous number of them that perished from cold and hunger in the South in the winter of '94. For two summers not a blue wing, not a blue warble. I seemed to miss something kindred and precious from my environment — the visible embodiment of the tender sky and the wistful soil. What a loss, I said, to the coming generations of dwellers in the country — no bluebird in the spring 1 What will the farm-boy date from ? But the fear was groundless: the birds are regaining their lost ground; broods of young blue-coats are again seen drifting from stake to stake or from mullen-stalk to mullen-stalk about the fields in summer, and our April air will doubtless again be warmed and thrilled by this lovely harbinger of spring. John Burroughs. August 17, '97. ILLUSTRATIONS FACING PAGE Cardinal Grosbeak — Frontispiece Red-winged Blackbird ..,.,. 46 Red-headed Woodpecker 54 Chimney Swift 68 Mockingbird 81 White-breasted Nuthatch . 84 Shrike .... 86 Indigo Bird. Male and Female 100 Belted Kingfisher 102 Blue Jay ..... 104 Barn Swallow 106 House Wren .... 115 Long-billed Marsh-wren 118 Flicker ..... 130 Meadowlark .... 132 Whippoorwill .... 136 Yellow-billed Cuckoo . 141 Cedarbird ..... 144 Song Sparrow .... 158 Red-eyed Vireo .... 176 Warbling Vireo .... 178 American Goldfinch 190 Yellow Warbler . 204 Blackburnian Warbler 209 BIRD FAMILIES THEIR CHARACTERISTICS AND THE REPRESENTATIVES OF EACH FAMILY INCLUDED IN "BIRD NEIGHBORS" BIRD FAMILIES THEIR CHARACTERISTICS AND THE REPRESENTATIVES OF EACH FAMILY INCLUDED IN "BIRD NEIGHBORS" Order Coccyges: CUCKOOS AND KINGFISHERS Family Cuculidce: CUCKOOS Long, pigeon-shaped birds, whose backs are grayish brown with a bronze lustre and whose under parts are whitish. Bill long and curved. Tail long ; raised and drooped slowly while the bird is perching. Two toes point forward and two backward. Call-note loud and like a tree-toad's rattle. Song lacking. Birds of low trees and undergrowth, where they also nest ; partial to neighborhood of streams, or wherever the tent caterpillar is abundant. Habits rather solitary, silent, and eccentric. Migratory. Yellow-billed Cuckoo. Black-billed Cuckoo. Family Alcedinidce: KINGFISHERS Large, top-heavy birds of streams and ponds. Usually seen perching over the water looking for fish. Head crested ; upper parts slate-blue ; underneath white, and belted with blue or rusty. Bill large and heavy. Middle and outer toes joined for half their length. Call-note loud and prolonged, like a policeman's rattle. Solitary birds ; little inclined to rove from a chosen local- ity. Migratory. Belted Kingfisher. Order Pici: WOODPECKERS Family Picidce: WOODPECKERS Medium-sized and small birds, usually with plumage black and white, and always with some red feathers about the head. 3 Bird Families (The flicker is brownish and yellow instead of black and white.) Stocky, high-shouldered build ; bill strong and long for drilling holes in bark of trees. Tail feathers pointed and stiffened to serve as a prop. Two toes before and two behind for clinging. Usually seen clinging erect on tree-trunks ; rarely, if ever, head downward, like the nuthatches, titmice, etc. Woodpeckers feed as they creep around the trunks and branches. Habits rather phlegmatic. The flicker has better developed vocal powers than other birds of this class, whose rolling tattoo, beaten with their bills against the tree-trunks, must answer for their love-song. Nest in hollowed-out trees. Red-headed Woodpecker. Hairy Woodpecker. Downy Woodpecker. Yellow-bellied Woodpecker, Flicker. Order Macrochires: GOATSUCKERS, SWIFTS, AND HUM- MING-BIRDS Family Caprimulgtd^ : NIGHTHAWKS, WHIPPOORWILLS, ETC. Medium-sized, mottled brownish, gray, black, and white birds of heavy build. Short, thick head ; gaping, large mouth ; very small bill, with bristles at base. Take insect food on the wing. Feet small and weak ; wings long and powerful. These birds rest lengthwise on their perch while sleeping through the brightest daylight hours, or on the ground, where they nest. Nighthawk. Whippoorwill. Family Micropolidce : SWIFTS Sooty, dusky birds seen on the wing, never resting except in chimneys of houses, or hollow trees, where they nest. Tips of tail feathers with sharp spines, used as props. They show their kinship with the goatsuckers in their nocturnal as well as diurnal habits, their small bills and large mouths for catching insects on 4 Bird Families the wing, and their weak feet. Gregarious, especially at the nesting season. Chimney Swift. Family Trochilidce : HUMMING-BIRDS Very small birds with green plumage (iridescent red or orange breast in males); long, needle-shaped bill for extracting insects and nectar from deep-cupped flowers, and exceedingly rapid, darting flight. Small feet. Ruby-throated Humming-bird. Order Passeres : PERCHING BIRDS Family Tyrannidce : FLYCATCHERS Small and medium-sized dull, dark-olive, or gray birds, with big heads that are sometimes crested. Bills hooked at end, and with bristles at base. Harsh or plaintive voices. Wings longer than tail ; both wings and tails usually drooped and vibrating when the birds are perching. Habits moody and silent when perching on a conspicuous limb, telegraph wire, dead tree, or fence rail and waiting for insects to fly within range. Sudden, nervous, spasmodic sallies in midair to seize insects on the wing. Usually they return to their identical perch or lookout. Pug- nacious and fearless. Excellent nest builders and devoted mates. Kingbird. Phoebe. Wood Pewee. Acadian Flycatcher. Great Crested Flycatcher. Least Flycatcher. Olive-sided Flycatcher. Yellow-bellied Flycatcher. Say's Flycatcher. Family Alaudidce : LARKS The only true larks to be found in this country are the two species given below. They are the kin of the European skylark, of which several unsuccessful attempts to introduce the bird have 5 Bird Families been made in this country. These two larks must not be con- fused with the meadow larks and titlarks, which belong to the blackbird and pipit families respectively. The horned larks are birds of the ground, and are seen in the United States only in the autumn and winter. In the nesting season at the North their voices are most musical. Plumage grayish and brown, in color harmony with their habitats. Usually found in flocks ; the first species on or near the shore. Horned Lark. Prairie Horned Lark. Family CorvidcB : CROWS AND JAYS The crows are large black birds, walkers, with stout feet adapted for the purpose. Fond of shifting their residence at dif- ferent seasons rather than strictly migratory, for, except at the northern limit of range, they remain resident all the year. Gre- garious. Sexes alike. Omnivorous feeders, being partly car- nivorous, as are also the jays. Both crows and jays inhabit wooded country. Their voices are harsh and clamorous ; and their habits are boisterous and bold, particularly the jays. De- voted mates ; unpleasant neighbors. Common Crow. Fish Crow. Northern Raven. Blue jay. Canada Jay. Family Ideridce : BLACKBIRDS, ORIOLES, ETC. Plumage black or a brilliant color combined with black. (The meadow lark a sole exception.) Sexes unlike. These birds form a connecting link between the crows and the finches. The blackbirds have strong feet for use upon the ground, where they generally feed, while the orioles are birds of the trees. They are both seed and insect eaters. The bills of the bobolink and cow- bird are short and conical, for they are conspicuous seed eaters. Bills of the others long and conical, adapted for insectivorous diet. About half the family are gifted songsters. Red-winged Blackbird. Rusty Blackbird. 6 Bird Families Purple Grackle. Bronzed Grackle. Cowbird. Meadow Lark. Western Meadow Lark. Bobolink. Orchard Oriole. Baltimore Oriole. Family Fringillidce : FINCHES, SPARROWS, GROSBEAKS, BUNTINGS, LINNETS, AND CROSSBILLS Generally fine songsters. Bills conical, short, and stout for cracking seeds. Length from five to nine inches, usually under eight inches. This, the largest family of birds that we have (about one-seventh of all our birds belong to it), comprises birds of such varied plumage and habit that, while certain family re- semblances may be traced throughout, it is almost impossible to characterize the family as such. The sparrows are comparatively small gray and brown birds with striped upper parts, lighter underneath. Birds of the ground, or not f;ir from it, elevated perches being chosen for rest and song. Nest in low bushes or on the ground. (Chipping sparrow often selects tall trees.) Coloring adapted to grassy, dusty habitats. Males and females similar. Flight labored. About forty species of sparrows are found in the United States ; of these, fourteen may be met with by a novice, and six, at least, surely will be. The Jinches and their larger kin are chiefly bright-plumaged birds, the females either duller or distinct from males ; bills heavy, dull, and conical, befitting seed eaters. Not so migratory as insectivorous birds nor so restless. Mostly phlegmatic in temperament. Fine songsters. Chipping Sparrow. English Sparrow. Field Sparrow. Fox Sparrow. Grasshopper Sparrow. Savanna Sparrow. Seaside Sparrow. Sharp-tailed Sparrow. 7 Bird Families Song Sparrow. Swamp Song Sparrow. Tree Sparrow. Vesper Sparrow. White-crowned Sparrow. White-throated Sparrow. Lapland Longspur. Smith's Painted Longspur. Pine Siskin (or Finch). Purple Finch. Goldfinch. Redpoll. Greater Redpoll. Red Crossbill. White-winged Red CrossbilL Cardinal Grosbeak. Rose-breasted Grosbeak. Pine Grosbeak. Evening Grosbeak. Blue Grosbeak. Indigo Bunting. Junco. Snowflake. Chewink. Family Tanagridce : TANAGERS Distinctly an American family, remarkable for their brilliant plumage, which, however, undergoes great changes twice a year. Females different from males, being dull and inconspicuous. Birds of the tropics, two species only finding their way north, and the summer tanager rarely found north of Pennsylvania. Shy inhabitants of woods. Though they may nest low in trees, they choose high perches when singing or feeding upon flowers, fruits, and insects. As a family, the tanagers have weak, squeaky voices, but both our species are good songsters. Suffering the fate of most bright-plumaged birds, immense numbers have been shot annually. Scarlet Tanager. Summer Tanager. Bird Families Family Hirundinidce : SWALLOWS Birds of the air, that take their insect food on the wing. Migratory. Flight strong, skimming, darting ; exceedingly graceful. When not flying they choose slender, conspicuous perches like telegraph wires, gutters, and eaves of barns. Plu- mage of some species dull, of others iridescent blues and greens above, whitish or ruddy below. Sexes similar. Bills small ; mouths large. Long and pointed wings, generally reaching the tip of the tail or beyond. Tail more or less forked. Feet small and weak from disuse. Song a twittering warble without power. Gregarious birds. Barn Swallow. Bank Swallow. Cliff (or Eaves) Swallow. Tree Swallow. Bough-winged Swallow. Purple Martin. Family Ampelidx : WAX WINGS Medium-sized Quaker-like birds, with plumage of soft browns and grays. Head crested ; black band across forehead and through the eye. Bodies plump from indolence. Tail tipped with yellow ; wings with red tips to coverts, resembling sealing- wax. Sexes similar. Silent, gentle, courteous, elegant birds. Usually seen in large flocks feeding upon berries in the trees or perching on the branches, except at the nesting season. Voices resemble a soft, lisping twitter. Cedar Bird. Bohemian Waxwing. Family Laniidce : SHRIKES Medium-sized grayish, black-and-white birds, with hooked and hawk-like bill for tearing the flesh of smaller birds, field- mice, and large insects that they impale on thorns. Handsome, bold birds, the terror of all small, feathered neighbors, not ex- cluding the English sparrow. They choose conspicuous perches when on the lookout for prey : a projecting or dead limb of a 9 Bird Families tree, the cupola of a house, the ridge-pole or weather-vane of a barn, or a telegraph wire, from which to suddenly drop upon a victim. Eyesight remarkable. Call-notes harsh and unmusical. Habits solitary and wandering. The first-named species is resi- dent during the colder months of the year; the latter is a summer resident only north of Maryland. Northern Shrike. Loggerhead Shrike. Family VireonidcB : VIREOS OR GREENLETS Small greenish-gray or olive birds, whitish or yellowish underneath, their plumage resembling the foliage of the trees they hunt, nest, and live among. Sexes alike. More deliberate in habit than the restless, flitting warblers that are chiefly seen darting about the ends of twigs. Vireos are more painstaking gleaners ; they carefully explore the bark, turn their heads up- ward to investigate the under side of leaves, and usually keep well hidden among the foliage. Bill hooked at tip for holding worms and insects. Gifted songsters, superior to the warblers. This family is peculiar to America. Red-eyed Vireo. Solitary Vireo. Warbling Vireo. White-eyed Vireo. Yellow-throated Vireo. Family OAniotiltidce : WOOD WARBLERS A large group of birds, for the most part smaller than the English sparrow ; all, except the ground warblers, of beautiful plumage, in which yellow, olive, slate-blue, black, and white are predominant colors. Females generally duller than males. Ex- ceedingly active, graceful, restless feeders among the terminal twigs of trees and shrubbery ; haunters of tree-tops in the woods at nesting time. Abundant birds, especially during May and September, when the majority are migrating to and from regions north of the United States; but they are strangely unknown to all but devoted bird lovers, who seek them out during these months that particularly favor acquaintance. Several species are erratic in 10 Bird Families their migrations and choose a different course to return southward from the one they travelled over in spring. A few species are sum- mer residents, and one, at least, of this tropical fomily, the myrtle warbler, winters at the north. The habits of the family are not identical in every representative ; some are more deliberate and less nervous than others ; a few, like the Canadian and Wilson's warblers, are expert flycatchers, taking their food on the wing, but not usually returning to the same perch, like true flycatchers; and a few of the warblers, as, for example, the black-and-white, the pine, and the worm-eating species, have the nuthatches' habit of creeping around the bark of trees. Qyite a number feed upon the ground. All are insectivorous, though many vary their diet with blossom, fruit, or berries, and naturally their bills are slen- der and sharply pointed, rarely fmch-like. The yellow-breasted chat has the greatest variety of vocal expressions. The ground warblers are compensated for their sober, thrush-like plumage by their exquisite voices, while the great majority of the family that are gaily dressed have notes that either resemble the trill of mid- summer insects or, by their limited range and feeble utterance, sadly belie the family name. Bay-breasted Warbler. Blackburnian Warbler. Blackpoll Warbler. Black-throated Blue Warbler. Black-throated Green Warbler. Black-and-white Creeping Warbler. Blue-winged Warbler. Canadian Warbler. Chestnut-sided Warbler. Golden-winged Warbler. Hooded Warbler. Kentucky Warbler. Magnolia Warbler. Mourning Warbler. Myrtle Warbler. Nashville Warbler. Palm Warbler. Parula Warbler. Pine Warbler. Prairie Warbler. SI Bird Families Redstart. Wilson's Warbler. Worm-eating Warbler. Yellow Warbler. Yellow Palm Warbler. Ovenbird. Northern Water Thrush. Louisiana Water Thrush. Maryland Yellowthroat. Yellow-breasted Chat. Family Motacillidce: WAGTAILS AND PIPITS Only three birds of this family inhabit North America, and of these only one is common enough, east of the Mississippi, to be included in this book. Terrestrial birds of open tracts near the coast, stubble-fields, and country roadsides, with brownish plumage to harmonize with their surroundings. The American pipit, or titlark, has a peculiar wavering flight when, after being flushed, it reluctantly leaves the ground. Then its white tail feathers are conspicuous. Its habit of wagging its tail when perching is not an exclusive family trait, as the family name might imply. American Pipit, or Titlark. Family Troglodytidce : THRASHERS, WRENS, ETC. Subfamily Mimince: THRASHERS, MOCKING-BIRDS, AND CATBIRDS Apparently the birds that comprise this large general family are too unlike to be related, but the missing links or inter- mediate species may all be found far South. The first subfamily is comprised of distinctively American birds. Most numerous in the tropics. Their long tails serve a double purpose — in assist- ing their flight and acting as an outlet for their vivacity. Usually they inhabit scrubby undergrowth bordering woods. They rank among our finest songsters, with ventriloquial and imitative powers added to sweetness of tone. Brown Thrasher. Catbird. Mocking-bird. Bird Families Subfamily Troglodytince : WRENS Small brown birds, more or less barred with darkest brown above, much lighter below. Usually carry their short tails erect. Wings are small, for short flight. Vivacious, busy, excitable, easily displeased, quick to take alarm. Most of the species have scolding notes in addition to their lyrical, gushing song, that seems much too powerful a performance for a diminutive bird. As a rule, wrens haunt thickets or marshes, but at least one species is thoroughly domesticated. All are insectivorous. Carolina Wren. House Wren. Winter Wren, Long-billed Marsh Wren. Short-billed Marsh Wren. Family Certhiidce: CREEPERS Only one species of this Old World family is found in Amer- ica, it is a brown, much mottled bird, that creeps spirally around and around the trunks of trees in fall and winter, pecking at the larvae in the bark with its long, sharp bill, and doing its work with faithful exactness but little spirit. It uses its tail as a prop in climbing, like the woodpeckers. Brown Creeper. Family Paridce : NUTHATCHES AND TITMICE Two distinct subfamilies are included under this general head. The nuthatches (Sittinc^) are small, slate-colored birds, seen chiefly in winter walking up and down the barks of trees, and sometimes running along the under side of branches upside down, like flies. Plumage compact and smooth. Their name is derived from their habit of wedging nuts (usually beechnuts) in the bark of trees, and then hatching them open with their strong straight bills. White-breasted Nuthatch. Red-breasted Nuthatch. The titmice or chickadees (Parince) are fluffy little gray birds, the one crested, the other with a black cap. They are also 13 Bird Families expert climbers, though not such wonderful gymnasts as the nut- hatches. These cousins are frequently seen together in winter woods or in the evergreens about houses. Chickadees are partial to tree-tops, especially to the highest pine cones, on which they hang fearlessly. Cheerful, constant residents, retreating to the deep woods only to nest. Tufted Titmouse. Chickadee. Family Sylviidct : KINGLETS AND GNATCATCHERS The kinglets (Regulince) are very small greenish-gray birds, with highly colored crown patch, that are seen chiefly in autumn, winter, and spring south of Labrador. Habits active ; diligent flitters among trees and shrubbery from limb to limb after minute insects. Beautiful nest builders. Song remarkable for so small a bird. Golden-crowned Kinglet. Ruby-crowned Kinglet. The one representative of the distinctly American subfamily of gnatcatchers (Polioptilince) that we have, is a small blue-gray bird, whitish below. It is rarely found outside moist, low tracts of woodland, where insects abound. These it takes on the wing with wonderful dexterity. It is exceedingly graceful and assumes many charming postures. A bird of trees, nesting in the high branches. A bird of strong character and an exquisitely finished though feeble songster. Blue-gray Gnatcatcher. Family Turdidce : THRUSHES, BLUEBIRDS, ETC. This group includes our finest songsters. Birds of moderate size, stout build ; as a rule, inhabitants of woodlands, but the robin and the bluebird are notable exceptions. Bills long and slender, suitable for worm diet. Only casual fruit-eaters. Slen- der, strong legs for running and hopping. True thrushes are grayish or olive-brown above; buff or whitish below, heavily streaked or spotted. Bluebird. Robin. 14 Bird Families Alice's Thrush. Hermit Thrush, Olive-backed Thrusn. Wilson's Thrush (Veery). Wood Thrush. Order Columhce : PIGEONS AND DOVES Family Columhidce : PIGEONS AND DOVES The wild pigeon is now too rare to be included among our bird neighbors ; but its beautiful relative, without the fatally gre- garious habit, still nests and sings a-coo-oo-oo to its devoted mate in unfrequented corners of the farm or the borders of woodland. Delicately shaded fawn-colored and bluish plumage. Small heads, protruding breasts. Often seen on ground. Flight strong and rapid, owing to long wings. Mourning or Carolina Dove. «S (I HABITATS OF BIRDS HABITATS OF BIRDS BIRDS OF THE AIR CATCHING THEIR FOOD AS THEY FLY Acadian Flycatcher, Great Crested Flycatcher, Least Fly- catcher, Olive-sided Flycatcher, Say's Flycatcher, Yellow-bellied Flycatcher, Kingbird, Phoebe, Wood Pewee, Purple Martin, Chimney Swift, Barn Swallow, Bank Swallow, Cliff Swallow, Tree Swallow, Rough-winged Swallow, Canadian Warbler, Blackpoll, Wilson's Warbler, Nighthawk, Whippoorwill, Ruby- throated Humming-bird, Blue-gray Gnatcatcher. BIRDS MOST FREQUENTLY SEEN IN THE UPPER HALF OF TREES Scarlet Tanager, Summer Tanager, Baltimore Oriole, Orchard Oriole, Chickadee, Tufted Titmouse, Blue-gray Gnatcatcher, nearly all the Warblers except the Ground Warblers; Cedar Bird, Bohe- mian Waxwing, the Vireos, Robin, Red Crossbill, White-winged Crossbill, Purple Crackle, Bronzed Crackle, Redstart, Northern Shrike, Loggerhead Shrike, Crow, Fish Crow, Raven, Purple Finch, Tree and Chipping Sparrows, Cardinal, Blue Jay, Kingbird, the Crested and other Flycatchers. BIRDS OF LOW TREES OR LOWER PARTS OF TREES Black-billed Cuckoo, Yellow-billed Cuckoo, the Sparrows, the Thrushes, the Grosbeaks, Goldfinch, Summer Yellowbird and other Warblers; the Wrens, Bluebird, Mocking-bird, Catbird, Brown Thrasher, Maryland Yellowthroat, Yellow-breasted Chat. BIRDS OF TREE-TRUNKS AND LARGE LIMBS Hairy Woodpecker, Downy Woodpecker, Red-headed Woodpecker, Yellow-bellied Woodpecker, Flicker, White- 19 Habitats of Birds breasted Nuthatch, Red-breasted Nuthatch, Brown Creeper, Chickadee, Tufted Titmouse, Golden-crowned Kinglet, Ruby- crowned Kinglet, Black-and-white Creeping Warbler, Blue- winged Warbler, Worm-eating Warbler, Pine Warbler, BlackpoU Warbler, Whippoorwill, Nighthawk. BIRDS THAT SHOW A PREFERENCE FOR PINES AND OTHER EVERGREENS Chickadee, Tufted Titmouse, the Nuthatches, Brown Creeper, the Kinglets, Pine Warbler, Black-and-white Creeping Warbler and all the Warblers except the Ground Warblers; Pine Siskin, Cedar Bird and Bohemian Waxwing (in juniper and cedar trees). Pine Grosbeak, Red Crossbill, White-winged Cross- bill, the Crackles, Crow, Raven, Pine Finch. BIRDS SEEN FEEDING AMONG THE FOLIAGE AND TER- MINAL TWIGS OF TREES The Red-eyed Vireo, White-eyed Vireo, Warbling Vireo, Solitary Vireo, Yellow-throated Vireo, Golden-crowned King- let, Ruby-crowned Kinglet, Black-billed Cuckoo, Yellow-billed Cuckoo, Yellow Warbler or Summer Yellowbird, nearly all the Warblers except the Pine and the Ground Warblers; the Fly- catchers, Blue-gray Gnatcatcher. BIRDS THAT CHOOSE CONSPICUOUS PERCHES Northern Shrike, Loggerhead Shrike, Kingbird, the Wood Pewee, the Phoebe and other Flycatchers, the Swallows, King- fisher, Crows, Crackles, Blue Jay and Canada Jay; the Song, the White-throated, and the Fox Sparrows ; the Grosbeaks, Cedar Bird, Goldfinch, Robin, Purple Finch, Cowbird, Brown Thrasher while in song. BIRDS OF THE GARDENS AND ORCHARDS Bluebird, Robin ; the English, Song, White-throated, Vesper, White-crowned, Fox, Chipping, and Tree Sparrows; Phoebe, Wood Pewee, the Least Flycatcher, Crested Flycatcher, Kingbird, Brown Thrasher, Wood Thrush, Mocking-bird, Catbird, House 20 Habitats of Birds Wren ; nearly all the Warblers, especially at blossom time among the shrubbery and fruit trees; Cedar Bird, Purple Martin, Eaves Swallow, Barn Swallow, Purple Finch, Cowbird, Baltimore and Orchard Orioles, Purple Crackle, Bronzed Crackle, Blue Jay, Crow, Fish Crow, Chimney Swift, Ruby-throated Humming- bird, the Woodpeckers, Flicker, the Nuthatches, Chickadee, Tufted Titmouse, the Cuckoos, Mourning Dove, Junco. BIRDS OF THE WOODS The Warblers almost without exception; the Thrushes, the Woodpeckers, the Flycatchers, the Winter and the Carolina Wrens, the Tanagers, the Nuthatches and Titmice, the Kinglets, the Water Thrushes, the Vireos, Whippoorwill, Nighthawk, Kingfisher, Cardinal, Ovenbird, Brown Creeper, Tree Sparrow, Fox Sparrow, White-throated Sparrow, White-crowned Sparrow, Junco. BIRDS SEEN NEAR THE EDGES OF WOODS The Wrens, the Woodpeckers, the Flycatchers, the Warblers, Purple Finch, the Cuckoos, Brown Thrasher, Wood Thrush, Cow- bird, Brown Creepers, the Nuthatches and Titmice, the Kinglets, Chewink; the White-crowned, White-throated, Tree, Fox, and Song Sparrows ; Humming-bird, Bluebird, Junco, the Crossbills, the Grosbeaks, Nighthawk, Whippoorwill, Mourning Dove, Indigo Bird, Brown Thrasher. BIRDS OF SHRUBBERY, BUSHES, AND THICKETS Maryland Yellowthroat, Ovenbird (in woods) ; Myrtle Warbler, Mourning Warbler, Yellow-breasted Chat, and other Warblers during the migrations; the Shrikes; the White-throated, the Fox, the Song, and other Sparrows; Chickadee, Junco, Che- wink, Rose-breasted Grosbeak, Cowbird, Red-winged Black- bird, Catbird, Mocking-bird, Wilson's Thrush, Goldfinch, Red- polls, Maryland Yellowthroat, White-eyed Vireo, Hooded Warbler. BIRDS SEEN FEEDING ON THE GROUND The Sparrows, Junco, Meadowlark, Horned Lark, Chewink, Robin, Ovenbird, Pipit or Titlark, Redpoll, Greater Redpoll, Habitats of Birds Snowflake, Lapland Longspur, Smith's Painted Longspur, Rusty Blackbird, Red-winged Blackbird, the Crows, Cowbird, the Water Thrushes, Bobolink, Canada Jay, the Crackles, Mourning Dove; the Worm-eating, the Prairie, the Kentucky, and the Mourning Ground Warblers; Flicker. BIRDS OF MEADOW, FIELD, AND UPLAND The Field and Vesper Sparrows, Bobolink, Meadowlark, Horned Lark, Goldfinch, the Swallows, Pipit or Titlark, Cow- bird, Redpoll, Greater Redpoll, Snowflake, Junco, Lapland Long- spur, Smith's Painted Longspur, Rusty Blackbird, Crow, Fish Crow, Nighthawk, Whippoorwill; the Yellow, the Palm, and the Prairie Warblers; the Crackles, Flicker, Bluebird, Indigo Bird. BIRDS OF ROADSIDE AND FENCES The Sparrows, Kingbird, Crested Flycatcher, Yellow-breasted Chat, Indigo Bird, Bluebird, Flicker, Goldfinch, Brown Thrasher, Catbird, Robin, the Woodpeckers, Yellow Palm Warbler, the Vireos. BIRDS OF MARSHES AND BOGGY MEADOWS Long-billed Marsh Wren, Short-billed Marsh Wren; the Swamp, the Savanna, the Sharp-tailed, and the Seaside Sparrows; Red-winged Blackbird. BIRDS OF WET WOODLANDS AND MARSHY THICKETS Northern Water Thrush, Louisiana Water Thrush, Oven- bird, Winter Wren, Carolina Wren, Phoebe; Wood Pewee and the other Flycatchers ; Wilson's Thrush or Veery, Blue-gray Gnatcatcher, Yellow-breasted Chat ; the Canadian, Wilson's Black-capped, the Maryland Yellowthroat, the Hooded, and the Yellow-throated Warblers. BIRDS FOUND NEAR SALT WATER Fish Crow, Common Crow, Bank Swallow, Tree Swallow, Savanna Sparrow, Sharp-tailed Sparrow, Seaside Sparrow, Horned Lark, Pipit or Titlark. 22 Habitats of Birds BIRDS FOUND NEAR STREAMS AND PONDS Kingfisher, the Swallows, Northern Water Thrush, Louisiana Water Thrush, Phoebe, Wood Pewee, the Flycatchers, Winter Wren, Wilson's Black-capped Warbler, the Canadian and the Yellow Warblers. BIRDS THAT SING ON THE WING Bobolink, Meadowlark, Indigo Bird, Purple Finch, Gold- finch, Ovenbird, Kingbird, Vesper Sparrow (rarely), Maryland Yellowthroat, Horned Lark, Kingfisher, the Swallows, Chimney Swift, Nighthawk, Song Sparrow, Red-winged Blackbird, Pipit or Titlark, Mocking-bird. as Ill SEASONS OF BIRDS THE LATITUDE OF NEW YORK IS TAKEN AS AN ARBITRARY DIVISION FOR WHICH ALLOW- ANCES MUST BE MADE FOR OTHER LOCALITIES THE SEASONS OF BIRDS IN THE VICINITY OF NEW YORK OR, APPROXIMATELY, OF THE FORTY-SECOND DEGREE OF LATITUDE PERMANENT RESIDENTS Hairy Woodpecker. Downy Woodpecker. Yellow-bellied Woodpecker. Red-headed Woodpecker. Flicker. Meadowlark. Prairie Horned Lark. Blue Jay. Crow. Fish Crow. English Sparrow. Social Sparrow. Swamp Sparrow. Song Sparrow. Cedar Bird. Cardinal. Carolina Wren. White-breasted Nuthatch. Tufted Titmouse. Chickadee. Robin. Bluebird. Goldfinch. WINTER RESIDENTS AND VISITORS BIRDS SEEN BETWEEN NOVEMBER AND APRIL English Sparrow. Tree Sparrow. White-throated Sparrow. Swamp Sparrow. Vesper Sparrow. White-crowned Sparrow. Fox Sparrow. Song Sparrow. Snowflake. Junco. Horned Lark. Meadowlark. Pine Grosbeak. Redpoll. Greater Redpoll. Cedar Bird. Bohemian Waxwing. Hairy Woodpecker. Downy Woodpecker. Yellow-bellied Woodpecker. Flicker. Myrtle Warbler. Northern Shrike. White-breasted Nuthatch. 27 Seasons of Birds Red-breasted Nuthatch. Tufted Titmouse. Chickadee. Robin. Bluebird. Ruby-crowned Kinglet. Golden-crowned Kinglet Brown Creeper. Carolina Wren. Winter Wren. Pipit. Purple Finch. Goldfinch. Pine Siskin. Lapland Longspun Smith's Painted Longspur. Evening Grosbeak. Cardinal. Blue Jay. Red Crossbill. White-winged Crossbill. Crow. Fish Crow. Kingfisher. SUMMER RESIDENTS BIRDS SEEN BETWEEN APRIL AND NOVEMBER Mourning Dove. Black-billed Cuckoo. Yellow-billed Cuckoo. Kingfisher. Red-headed Woodpecker. Hairy Woodpecker. Downy Woodpecker. Yellow-bellied Woodpecker. Flicker. Whippoorwill. Nighthawk. Chimney Swift. Ruby-throated Humming-bird. Kingbird. Wood Pewee. Phoebe. Acadian Flycatcher. Crested Flycatcher. Least Flycatcher. Olive-sided Flycatcher. Yellow-bellied Flycatcher. Say's Flycatcher. Bobolink. Cowbird. Red-winged Blackbird. Rusty Blackbird. Orchard Oriole. Baltimore Oriole. Purple Grackle. Bronzed Grackle. Crow. Fish Crow. Raven. Blue Jay. Canada Jay. Chipping Sparrow. English Sparrow. Field Sparrow. Fox Sparrow. Grasshopper Sparrow. Savanna Sparrow. Seaside Sparrow. Sharp-tailed Sparrow. Swamp Song Sparrow. Song Sparrow. Vesper Sparrow. Rose-breasted Grosbeak. Blue Grosbeak. 28 Seasons of Birds Indigo Bird. Scarlet Tanager. Purple Martin. Barn Swallow. Bank Swallow. Cliff Swallow. Tree Swallow. Rough-winged Swallow. Red-eyed Vireo. White-eyed Vireo. Solitary Vireo. Warbling Vireo. Yellow-throated Vireo. Black-and-white Warbler. Black-throated Green Warbler. Blue-winged Warbler. Chestnut-sided Warbler. Golden-winged Warbler. Hooded Warbler. Pine Warbler. Prairie Warbler. Parula Warbler. Worm-eating Warbler. Yellow Warbler. Redstart. Ovenbird. Northern Water Thrush. Louisiana Water Thrush. Yellow-breasted Chat. Maryland Yellowthroat Mocking-bird. Catbird. Brown Thrasher. House Wren. Carolina Wren. Long-billed Marsh Wren. Short-billed Marsh Wren. Alice's Thrush. Hermit Thrush. Olive-backed Thrush. Wilson's Thrush or Veery. Wood Thrush. Meadowlark. Western Meadowlark. Prairie Horned Lark. White-breasted Nuthatch. Chickadee. Tufted Titmouse. Chewink. Purple Finch. Goldfinch. CardinaL Robin. Bluebird. Cedar Bird. Loggerhead Shrike. SPRING AND AUTUMN MIGRANTS ONLY, OR RARE SUMMER VISITORS The following Warblers Bay-breasted. Blackburnian. Black-polled. Black-throated Blue. Canadian. Magnolia. Mourning. Myrtle. Nashville. Wilson's Black-capped. Palm. Yellow Palm. Blue-gray Gnatcatcher. Summer Tanager. 29 Seasons of Birds MIGRATIONS OF BIRDS IN VICINITY OF NEW YORK FEBRUARY 1 5 TO MARCH 1 5 Bluebird, Robin, the Crackles, Song Sparrow, Fox Sparrow, Red-winged Blackbird, Kingfisher, Flicker, Purple Finch. MARCH 15 TO APRIL I Increased numbers of foregoing group; Cowbird, Meadow- lark, Phoebe ; the Field, the Vesper, and the Swamp Sparrows. APRIL I TO 15 The White-throated and the Chipping Sparrows, the Tree and the Barn Swallows, Rusty Blackbird, the Red-headed and the Yellow-bellied Woodpeckers, Hermit Thrush, Ruby-crowned Kinglet, Pipit ; the Pine, the Myrtle, and the Yellow Palm War- blers; Goldfinch. APRIL 15 TO MAY I Increased numbers of foregoing group; Brown Thrasher; Alice's, the Olive-backed, and the Wood Thrushes ; Chimney Swift, Whippoorwill, Chewink, the Purple Martin, and the Cliff and the Bank Swallows; Least Flycatcher ; the Black-and-white Creeping, the Parula, and the Black-throated Green Warblers ; Ovenbird, House Wren, Catbird. MAY 1 TO 15 Increased numbers of foregoing group; Wilson's Thrush or Veery; Nighthawk, Ruby-throated Humming-bird, the Cuckoos, Crested Flycatcher, Kingbird, Wood Pewee, the Marsh Wrens, Bank Swallow, the five Vireos, the Baltimore and Orchard Ori- oles, Bobolink, Indigo Bird, Rose-breasted Grosbeak, Scarlet Tana- ger, Maryland Yellowthroat, Yellow-breasted Chat, the Water Thrushes; and the Magnolia, the Yellow, the Black-throated Blue, the Bay-breasted, the Chestnut-sided, and the Golden- winged Warblers. 30 Seasons of Birds MAY 1 5 TO JUNE 1 Increased numbers of foregoing group ; Yellow-bellied Fly- catcher, Mocking-bird, Summer Tanager ; and the Blackburnian, the Blackpoll, the Worm-eating, the Hooded, Wilson's Black- capped, and the Canadian Warblers. JUNE, JULY, AUGUST In June few species of birds are not nesting; in July they may rove about more or less with their increased families, search- ing for their favorite foods ; August finds them moulting and mop- ing in silence, but toward the end of the month, thoughts of returning southward set them astir again. AUGUST 15 TO SEPTEMBER 1 5 Bobolink, Cliff Swallow, Scarlet Tanager, Yellow-bellied Flycatcher, Purple Martin; the Blackburnian, the Worm-eating, the Bay-breasted, the Chestnut-sided, the Hooded, the Mourning, Wilson's Black-capped, and the Canadian Warblers; Baltimore Oriole, Humming-bird, SEPTEMBER 1 5 TO OCTOBER I Increased numbers of foregoing group ; Wilson's Thrush, Wood Thrush, Kingbird, Wood Pewee, Crested Flycatcher; the Least, the Olive-sided, and the Acadian Flycatchers; the Marsh Wrens, the Cuckoos, Whippoorwill, Rose-breasted Grosbeak, Orchard Oriole, Indigo Bird; the Warbling, the Solitary, and the Yellow-throated Vireos; the Black-and-white Creeping, the Golden-winged, the Yellow, and the Black-throated Blue War- blers; Maryland Yellowthroat, Yellow-breasted Chat, Redstart. OCTOBER I TO 15 Increased numbers of foregoing group; Hermit Thrush, Cat- bird, House Wren, Ovenbird, the Water Thrushes, the Red-eyed and the White-eyed Vireos, Wood Pewee, Nighthawk, Chimney Swift, Cowbird, Horned Lark, Winter Wren, Junco; the Tree, the Vesper, the White-throated, and the Grasshopper Sparrows; the Blackpoll, the Parula, the Pine, the Yellow Palm, and the Prairie Warblers; Chickadee, Tufted Titmouse. 31 Seasons of Birds OCTOBER 15 TO NOVEMBER 1 5 Increased numbers of foregoing group ; Wood Thrush, Wil- son's Thrush or Veery, Alice's Thrush, Olive-backed Thrush, Robin, Chewink, Brown Thrasher, Phoebe, Shrike; the Fox, the Field, the Swamp, the Savanna, the White-crowned, the Chipping, and the Song Sparrows; the Red-winged and the Rusty Blackbirds; Meadowlark, the Crackles, Flicker, the Red-headed and the Yellow-bellied Woodpeckers; Purple Finch, the Kinglets, the Nuthatches, Pine Siskin. 32 IV BIRDS GROUPED ACCORDING TO SIZE BIRDS GROUPED ACCORDING TO SIZE SMALLER THAN THE ENGLISH SPARROW Humming-bird. The Kinglets. The Wrens. All the Warblers not mentioned elsewhere. Redstart. Ovenbird. Chickadee. Tufted Titmouse. Red-breasted Nuthatch. White-breasted Nuthatch, Blue-gray Gnatcatcher. Yellow-bellied Flycatcher. Acadian Flycatcher. Least Flycatcher. The Redpolls. Goldfinch. Pine Siskin. Savanna Sparrow. Grasshopper Sparrow. Sharp-tailed Sparrow. Chipping Sparrow, Field Sparrow. Swamp Song Sparrow. Indigo Bunting. Warbling Vireo. Yellow-throated Vireo. Red-eyed Vireo. White-eyed Vireo. Brown Creeper. ABOUT THE SIZE OF THE ENGLISH SPARROW Purple Finch. The Crossbills. The Longspurs. Vesper Sparrow. Seaside Sparrow. Tree Sparrow. Junco. Song Sparrow. Solitary Vireo. The Water-thrushes. Pipit or Titlark. Downy Woodpecker. LARGER THAN THE ENGLISH SPARROW AND SMALLER THAN THE ROBIN Yellow-bellied Woodpecker. Chimney Swift (apparently). The Swallows (apparently). Kingbird. Crested Flycatcher. Phoebe. 35 Birds Grouped According to Size Olive-sided Flycatcher. Wood Pewee. Horned Lark. Bobolink. Cowbird. Orchard Oriole. Baltimore Oriole. The Grosbeaks : Evening, Blue, Pine, Rose-breasted, and Car- dinal. Snowflake. White-crowned Sparrow, White-throated Sparrow. Fox Sparrow. The Tanagers. Cedar Bird. Bohemian Waxwing. Yellow-breasted Chat. The Thrushes. Bluebird. ABOUT THE LENGTH OF THE ROBIN Red-headed Woodpecker, Hairy Woodpecker. Red-winged Blackbird. Rusty Blackbird. Loggerhead Shrike, Northern Shrike. Mocking-bird. Catbird. Chewink. Purple Martin (apparently). LONGER THAN THE ROBIN Mourning Dove, The Cuckoos. Kingfisher. Flicker. Raven. Crow. Fish Crow, Blue Jay. Canada Jay. Meadowlark. Whippoorwill (apparently) Nighthawk (apparently) The Crackles. Brown Thrasher. 36 DESCRIPTIONS OF BIRDS GROUPED ACCORDING TO COLOR BIRDS CONSPICUOUSLY BLACK Common Crow Fish Crow American Raven Purple Grackle Bronzed Grackle Rusty Blackbird Red-winged Blackbird Purple Martin Cowbird See also several of the Swallows; the Kingbird, the Phoebe, the \Vood Pewee, and other Flycatchers; the Chimney Swift; and the Chewink. BIRDS CONSPICUOUSLY BLACK The Common Crow (Corvus Americanus) Crow family Called also : CORN THIEF Length — 16 to 17.50 inches. Male— G\ossy black with violet reflections. Wings appear saw- toothed when spread, and almost equal the tail in length. Female — Like male, except that the black is less brilliant. i?^«^^— Throughout North America, from Hudson Bay to the Gulf of Mexico. Migrations — March. October. Summer and winter resident. If we have an eye for the picturesque, we place a certain value upon the broad, strong dash of color in the landscape, given by a flock of crows flapping their course above a corn-field, against an October sky ; but the practical eye of the farmer looks only for his gun in such a case. To him the crow is an unmitigated nuisance, all the more maddening because it is clever enough to circumvent every means devised for its ruin. Nothing escapes its rapacity ; fear is unknown to it. It migrates in broad day- light, chooses the most conspicuous perches, and yet its assur- ance is amply justified in its steadily increasing numbers. In the very early spring, note well the friendly way in which the crow follows the plow, ingratiating itself by eating the larvse, field mice, and worms upturned in the furrows, for this is its one serviceable act throughout the year. When the first brood of chickens is hatched, its serious depredations begin. Not only the farmer's young fledglings, ducks, turkeys, and chicks, are snatched up and devoured, but the nests of song birds are made desolate, eggs being crushed and eaten on the spot, when there are no birds to carry off to the rickety, coarse nest in the high tree top in the woods. The fish crow, however, is the much 41 Conspicuously Black greater enemy of the birds. Like the common crows, this, their smaller cousin, likes to congregate in winter along the seacoast to feed upon shell-fish and other sea-food that the tide brings to its feet. Samuels claims to have seen a pair of crows visit an orchard and destroy the young in two robins' nests in half an hour. He calculates that two crows kill, in one day alone, young birds that in the course of the season would have eaten a hundred thousand insects. When, in addition to these atrocities, we remember the crow's depredations in the corn-field, it is small wonder that among the first laws enacted in New York State was one offering a reward for its head. But the more scientific agriculturists now concede that the crow is the farmer's true friend. Fish Crow (Corvus ossifragus) Crow family Length — 14 to 16 inches. About half as large again as the robin. Male and Female — Glossy black, with purplish-blue reflections, generally greener underneath. Chin naked. J^a?ige — Along Atlantic coast and that of the Gulf of Mexico, northward to southern New England. Rare stragglers on the Pacific coast. Migrations — March or April. September. Summer resident only at northern limit of range. Is found in Hudson River valley about half-way to Albany. Compared with the common crow, with which it is often confounded, the fish crow is of much smaller, more slender build. Thus its flight is less labored and more like a gull's, whose habit of catching fish that may be swimming near the surface of the water it sometimes adopts. Both Audubon and Wilson, who first made this species known, record its habit of snatching food as it flies over the southern waters — a rare practice at the north. Its plumage, too, differs slightly from the common crow's in being a richer black everywhere, and particularly underneath, where the "corn thief" is dull. But it is the dif- ference between the two crows' call-note that we chiefly depend upon to distinguish these confusing cousins. To say that the fish crow says car-r-r instead of a loud, clear caw, means little 42 Conspicuously Black until we have had an opportunity to compare its hoarse, cracked voice with the other bird's fluniliar call. From the farmer's point of view, there is still another dis- tinction: the fish crow lets his crops alone. It contents itself with picking up refuse on the shores of the sea or rivers not far inland; haunting the neighborhood of fishermen's huts for the small fish discarded when the seines are drawn, and treading out with its toes the shell-fish hidden in the sand at low tide. When we see it in the fields it is usually intent upon catching field- mice, grubs, and worms, with which it often varies its fish diet. It is, however, the worst nest robber we have ; it probably destroys ten times as many eggs and young birds as its larger cousin. The fishermen have a tradition that this southern crow comes and goes with the shad and herring— a saw which science unkindly disapproves. American Raven (Corvus corax principalis) Crow family Called also: NORTHERN RAVEN Length — 26 to 27 inches. Nearly three times as large as a robin. Male and Female — Glossy black above, with purplish and greenish reflections. Duller underneath. Feathers of the throat and breast long and loose, like fringe. Range — North America, from polar regions to Mexico. Rare along Atlantic coast and in the south. Common in the west, and very abundant in the northwest. Migrations — An erratic wanderer, usually resident where it finds its way. The weird, uncanny voice of this great bird that soars in wide circles above the evergreen trees of dark northern forests seems to come out of the skies like the malediction of an evil spirit. Without uttering the words of any language — Poe's "Nevermore" was, of course, a poetic license — people of all nationalities appear to understand that some dire calamity, some wicked portent, is being announced every time the unbirdlike creature utters its rasping call. The superstitious folk crow with an " I told you so," as they solemnly wag their heads when they hear of some death in the village after "the bird of ill-omen" has 43 Conspicuously Black made an unwelcome visit to the neighborhood. It receives the blame for every possible misfortune. When seen in the air, the crow is the only other bird for which the raven could be mistaken; but the raven does more sailing and less flapping, and he delights in describing circles as he easily soars high above the trees. On the ground, he is seen to be a far larger bird than the largest crow. The curious beard or fringe of feathers on his breast at once distinguishes him. These birds show the family instinct for living in flocks large and small, not of ravens only, but of any birds of their own gen- era. In the art of nest building they could instruct most of their relatives. High up in evergreen trees or on the top of cliffs, never very near the seashore, they make a compact, symmetrical nest of sticks, neatly lined with grasses and wool from the sheep pastures, adding soft, comfortable linings to the old nest from year to year for each new brood. When the young emerge from the eggs, which take many curious freaks of color and mark- ings, they are pied black and white, suggesting the young of the western white-necked raven, a similarity which, so far as plu- mage is concerned, they quickly outgrow. They early acquire the fortunate habit of eating whatever their parents set before them — grubs, worms, grain, field-mice; anything, in fact, for the raven is a conspicuously omnivorous bird. Purple Crackle (Quiscalus qiiiscula) Blackbird family Called also : CROW BLACKBIRD ; MAIZE THIEF ; KEEL- TAILED CRACKLE Length — 12 to 13 inches. About one-fourth as large again as the robin. Male — Iridescent black, in which metallic violet, blue, copper, and green tints predominate. The plumage of this grackle has iridescent bars. Iris cf eye bright yellow and conspic- uous. Tail longer than wings. Female — Less brilliant black than male, and smaller. Range — Gulf of Mexico to 57th parallel north latitude. Migrations — Permanent resident in Southern States. Few are permanent throughout range. Migrates in immense flocks in March and September. 44 Conspicuously Black This "refined crow" (which is really no crow at all except in appearance) has scarcely more friends than a thief is entitled to ; for, although in many sections of the country it has given up its old habit of stealing Indian corn and substituted ravages upon the grasshoppers instead, it still indulges a crow-like instinct for pillaging nests and eating young birds. Travelling in immense flocks of its own kind, a gregarious bird of the first order, it nevertheless is not the social fellow that its cousin, the red-winged blackbird, is. It especially holds aloof from mankind, and mankind reciprocates its suspicion. The tallest, densest evergreens are not too remote for it, to build its home, according to Dr. Abbott, though in other States than New Jersey, where he observed them, an old orchard often contains dozens of nests. One peculiarity of the grackles is that their eggs vary so much in coloring and mark- ings that different sets examined in the same groups of trees are often wholly unlike. The average groundwork, however, is soiled blue or greenish, waved, streaked, or clouded with brown. These are laid in a nest made of miscellaneous sticks and grasses, rather carefully constructed, and lined with mud. Another pecu- liarity is the bird's method of steering itself by its tail when it wishes to turn its direction or alight. Peering at you from the top of a dark pine tree with its staring yellow eye, the grackle is certainly uncanny. There, very early in the spring, you may hear its cracked and wheezy whistle, for, being aware that however much it may look like a crow it belongs to another family, it makes a ridiculous attempt to sing. When a number of grackles lift up their voices at once, some one has aptly likened the result to a "good wheel-barrow chorus ! " The grackle's mate alone appreciates his efforts as, standing on tiptoe, with half-spread wings and tail, he pours forth his craven soul to her through a disjointed larynx. With all their faults, and they are numerous, let it be re- corded of both crows and grackles that they are as devoted lovers as turtle-doves. Lowell characterizes them in these four lines : " Fust come the black birds, clatt'rin' in tall trees, And settlin' things in windy Congresses ; Queer politicians, though, for I'll be skinned If all on 'em don't head against the wind." • . . • • 45 Conspicuously Black The Bronzed Crackle {Qttiscahis qiiisaila cenens) differs from the preceding chiefly in the more brownish bronze tint of its plumage and its lack of iridescent bars. Its range is more west- erly, and in the southwest it is particularly common ; but as a summer resident it finds its way to New England in large num- bers. The call-note is louder and more metallic than the purple grackle's. In nearly all respects the habits of these two birds are identical. Rusty Blackbird ( Scolecophagus carolinus) Blackbird family Called also : THRUSH BLACKBIRD ; RUSTY CRACKLE ; RUSTY ORIOLE ; RUSTY CROW ; BLACKBIRD Length — 9 to 9.55 inches. A trifle smaller than the robin. Male — In full plumage, glossy black with metallic reflections, intermixed with rusty brown that becomes more pronounced as the season advances. Pale straw-colored eyes. Female — Duller plumage and more rusty, inclining to gray. Light line over eye. Smaller than male, Range — North America, from Newfoundland to Gulf of Mexico and westward to the Plains. Migrations — April. November. A few winter north. A more sociable bird than the grackle, though it travel in smaller flocks, the rusty blackbird condescends to mingle freely with other feathered friends in marshes and by brooksides. You can identify it by its rusty feathers and pale yellow eye, and easily distinguish the rusty-gray female from the female redwing that is conspicuously streaked. In April flocks of these birds may frequently be seen along sluggish, secluded streams in the woods, feeding upon the seeds of various water or brookside plants, and probably upon insects also. At such times they often indulge in a curious spluttering, squeaking, musical concert that one listens to with pleasure. The breeding range is mostly north of the United States. But little seems to be known of the birds' habits in their northern home. Why it should ever have been called a thrush blackbird is one of those inscrutable mysteries peculiar to the naming of birds 46 REDWINGED BLACKBIRD Conspicuously Black which are so frequently called precisely what they are not. In spite of the compliment implied in associating the name of one of our finest songsters with it, the rusty blackbird has a clucking call as unmusical as it is infrequent, and only very rarely in the spring does it pipe a note that even suggests the sweetness of the redwing's. Red-winged Blackbird ( Agelaiiis phoeniceits) Blackbird family Called also: SWAMP BLACKBIRD ; RED-WINGED ORIOLE ; RED-WINGED STARLING Length — Exceptionally variable — 7.50 to 9.80 inches. Usually about an inch smaller than the robin. Male — Coal-black. Shoulders scarlet, edged with yellow. Female — Feathers finely and inconspicuously speckled with brown, rusty black, whitish, and orange. Upper wing- coverts rusty black, tipped with white, or rufous and some- times spotted with black and red. Range — North America. Breeds from Texas to Columbia River, and throughout the United States. Commonly found from Mexico to 57th degree north latitude. Migrations — March. October. Common summer resident. In oozy pastures where a brook lazily finds its way through the farm is the ideal pleasure ground of this "bird of society." His noXts, ,'' h'-wa-ker-ee" or "■ con-quer-ee" (on an ascending scale), are liquid in quality, suggesting the sweet, moist, cool retreats where he nests. Liking either heat or cold (he is fond of wintering in Florida, but often retreats to the north while the marshes are still frozen) ; enjoying not only the company of large flocks of his own kind with whom he travels, but any bird associates with whom he can scrape acquaintance ; or to sit quietly on a tree-top in the secluded, inaccessible bog while his mate is nesting; satisfied with cut-worms, grubs, and insects, or with fruit and grain for his food — the blackbird is an impressive and helpful example of how to get the best out of life. Yet, of all the birds, some farmers complain that the black- bird is the greatest nuisance. They dislike the noisy chatterings when a flock is simply indulging its social instincts. They 47 Conspicuously Black complain, too, that the blackbirds eat their corn, forgetting that having devoured innumerable grubs from it during the summer, the birds feel justly entitled to a share of the profits. Though occasionally guilty of eating the farmer's corn and oats and rice, yet it has been found that nearly seven-eighths of the red- wing's food is made up of weed-seeds or of insects injurious to agriculture. This bird builds its nest in low bushes on the margin of ponds or low in the bog grass of marshes. From three to five pale-blue eggs, curiously streaked, spotted, and scrawled with black or purple, constitute a brood. Nursery duties are soon finished, for in July the young birds are ready to gather in flocks with their elders. " The blackbirds make the maples ring With social cheer and jubilee ; The red-wing flutes his ' 0-ka-lee ! ' " — Emerson. Purple Martin (Progne suhis) Swallow family Length-^'] to 8 inches. Two or three inches smaller than the robin. Male—'RAch glossy black with bluish and purple reflections ; duller black on wings and tail. Wings rather longer than the tail, which is forked. Female — More brownish and mottled ; grayish below. ^ange — Peculiar to America. Penetrates from Arctic Circle to South America. Migrations — Late April. Early September. Summer resident. In old-fashioned gardens, set on a pole over which honey- suckle and roses climbed from a bed where China pinks, phlox, sweet Williams, and hollyhocks crowded each other below, martin boxes used always to be seen with a pair of these large, beautiful swallows circling overhead. But now, alas! the boxes, where set up at all, are quickly monopolized by the English spar- row, a bird that the martin, courageous as a kingbird in attacking crows and hawks, tolerates as a neighbor only when it must. Bradford Torrey tells of seeing quantities of long-necked squashes dangling from poles about the negro cabins all through 48 Conspicuously Black the South. One day he asked an old colored man what these squashes were for. "Why, deh is martins' boxes," said Uncle Remus. "No danger of hawks carryin' off de chickens so long as de martins am around." The Indians, too, have always had a special liking for this bird. They often lined a hollowed-out gourd with bits of bark and fastened it in the crotch of their tent poles to invite its friend- ship. The Mohegan Indians have called it "the bird that never rests" — a name better suited to the tireless barn swallow. Dr. Abbott thinks. Wasps, beetles, and all manner of injurious garden insects constitute its diet — another reason for its universal popularity. It is simple enough to distinguish the martins from the other swallows by their larger size and iridescent dark coat, not to mention their song, which is very soft and sweet, like musical laughter, rippling up through the throat. Cowbird (Molothrus ater) Blackbird family Called also: BROWN-HEADED ORIOLE; COW-PEN BIRD; COW BLACKBIRD ; COW BUNTING Length — 7 to 8 inches. About one-fifth smaller than the robin. Male — Iridescent black, with head, neck, and breast glistening brown. Bill dark brown, feet brownish. Female — Dull grayish-brown above, a shade lighter below, and streaked with paler shades of brown. Range — United States, from coast to coast. North into British America, south into Mexico. Migrations — March. November. Common summer resident. The cowbird takes its name from its habit of walking about among the cattle in the pasture, picking up the small insects which the cattle disturb in their grazing. The bird may often be seen within a foot or two of the nose of a cow or heifer, walk- ing briskly about like a miniature hen, intently watching for its insect prey. Its marital and domestic character is thoroughly bad. 49 Conspicuously Black Polygamous and utterly irresponsible for its offspring, this bird forms a striking contrast to other feathered neighbors, and indeed is almost an anomaly in the animal kingdom. In the breeding season an unnatural mother may be seen skulking about in the trees and shrubbery, seeking for nests in which to place a sur- reptitious egg, never imposing it upon a bird of its size, but se- lecting in a cowardly way a small nest, as that of the vireos or warblers or chipping sparrows, and there leaving the hatching and care of its young to the tender mercies of some already burdened little mother. It has been seen to remove an egg from the nest of the red-eyed vireo m order to place one of its own in its place. Not finding a convenient nest, it will even drop its eggs on the ground, trusting them to merciless fate, or, still worse, devouring them. The eggs are nearly an inch long, white speckled with brown or gray. Cowbirds are gregarious. The ungrateful young birds, as soon as they are able to go roaming, leave their foster-parents and join the flock of their own kind. In keeping with its unclean habits and unholy life and character, the cowbird's ordinary note is a gurgling, rasping whistle, followed by a few sharp notes. 50 BIRDS CONSPICUOUSLY BLACK AND WHITE Red-headed Woodpecker Hairy Woodpecker Downy Woodpecker Yellow-bellied Woodpecker Chewink Snowflake Rose-breasted Grosbeak Bobolink Black-poll Warbler Black-and-white Creeping Warbler See also the Swallows; the Shrikes; Nuthatches and Titmice: the Kingbird and other Flycatchers; the Nighthawk; the Redstart; and the following Warblers: the Myrtle; the Bay-breasted; the Blackburnian; and the Black-throated Blue Warbler. BIRDS CONSPICUOUSLY BLACK AMD WHITE Red-headed Woodpecker (Melanerpes erythrocephalus) Woodpecker family Called also: TRI-COLOR ; RED-HEAD Length — 8.50 to 9.75 inches. An inch or less smaller than the robin. Male and Female — Head, neck, and throat crimson ; breast and underneath white; back black and white; wings and tail blue black, with broad white band on wings conspicuous in flight. Mange— \}n\Xed. States, east of Rocky Mountains and north to Manitoba. Migrations— hhundimt but irregular migrant. Most commonly seen in Autumn, and rarely resident. In thinly populated sections, where there are few guns about, this is still one of the commonest as it is perhaps the most conspicuous member of the woodpecker family, but its striking glossy black-and-white body and its still more striking crimson head, flattened out against the side of a tree like a target, where it is feeding, have made it all too tempting a mark for the rifles of the sportsmen and the sling-shots of small boys. As if suffi- cient attention were not attracted to it by its plumage, it must needs keep up a noisy, guttural rattle, ker-r-ruck, ker-r-ruck, very like a tree-toad's call, and flit about among the trees with the restlessness of a fly-catcher. Yet, in spite of these invita- tions for a shot to the passing gunner, it still multiplies in dis- tricts where nuts abound, being "more common than the robin" about Washington, says John Burroughs. All the familiar woodpeckers have two characteristics most prominently exemplified in this red-headed member of their tribe. The hairy, the downy, the crested, the red-bellied, the sapsucker, and the flicker have each a red mark somewhere about 53 Conspicuously Black and White their heads as if they had been wounded there and bled a little- some more, some less ; and the figures of all of them, from much flattening against tree-trunks, have become high-shouldered and long-waisted. The red-headed woodpecker selects, by preference, a partly decayed tree in which to excavate a hole for its nest, because the digging is easier, and the sawdust and chips make a softer lining than green wood. Both male and female take turns in this hollowing-out process. The one that is off duty is allowed "twenty minutes for refreshments," consisting of grubs, beetles, ripe apples or cherries, corn, or preferably beech-nuts. At a loving call from its mate in the hollow tree, it returns promptly to perform its share of the work, when the carefully observed " time is up." The heap of sawdust at the bottom of the hollow will eventually cradle from four to six glossy-white eggs. This woodpecker has the thrifty habit of storing away nuts in the knot-holes of trees, between cracks in the bark, or in decayed fence rails — too often a convenient storehouse at which the squirrels may help themselves. But it is the black snake that enters the nest and eats the young family, and that is a more deadly foe than even the sportsman or the milliner. The Hairy Woodpecker (Dryohates villosiis) Woodpecker family Length — 9 to lo inches. About the size of the robin. Ma/e— Black and white above, white beneath. White stripe down the back, composed of long hair-like feathers. Bright- red band on the nape of neck. Wings striped and dashed with black and white. Outer tail feathers white, without bars. White stripe about eyes and on sides of the head. Female — Without the red band on head, and body more brown- ish than that of the male. Range — Eastern parts of United States, from the Canadian bor- der to the Carolinas. Migrations — Resident throughout its range. The bill of the woodpecker is a hammering tool, well fitted for its work. Its mission in life is to rid the trees of insects, 54 REDHEADED WOODPECKER Conspicuously Black and White which hide beneath the bark, and with this end in view, the bird is seen clinging to the trunks and branches of trees through fair and wintry weather, industriously scanning every inch for the well-known signs of the boring worm or destructive fly. In the autumn the male begins t6 excavate his winter quar- ters, carrying or throwing out the chips, by which this good workman is known, with his beak, while the female may make herself cosey or not, as she chooses, in an abandoned hole. About her comfort he seems shamefully unconcerned. Intent only on his own, he drills a perfectly round hole, usually on the under side of a limb where neither snow nor wind can harm him, and digs out a horizontal tunnel in the dry, brittle wood in the very heart of the tree, before turning downward into the deep, pear- shaped chamber, where he lives in selfish solitude. But when the nesting season comes, how devoted he is temporarily to the mate he has neglected and even abused through the winter ! Will she never learn that after her clear-white eggs are laid and her brood raised he will relapse into the savage and forget all his tender wiles ? The hairy woodpecker, like many another bird and beast, fur- nishes much doubtful weather lore for credulous and inexact ob- servers. "When the woodpecker pecks low on the trees, expect warm weather" is a common saying, but when different individ- uals are seen pecking at the same time, one but a few feet from the ground, and another among the high branches, one may make the prophecy that pleases him best. The hairy woodpeckers love the deep woods. They are drummers, not singers; but when walking in the desolate winter woods even the drumming and tapping of the busy feathered workmen on a resonant limb is a solace, giving a sense of life and cheerful activity which is invigorating. The Downy Woodpecker (Dryobates pubescens) Woodpecker family Length— 6 to 7 inches. About the size of the English sparrow. Male — Black above, striped with white. Tail shaped like a wedge. Outer tail feathers white, and barred with black. Middle tail feathers black. A black stripe on top of head, and distinct white band over and under the eyes. Red patch on upper 55 Conspicuously Black and White side of neck. Wings, with six white bands crossing them transversely; white underneath. Female — Similar, but without scarlet on the nape, which is white. Range — Eastern North America, from Labrador to Florida. Migrations — Resident all the year throughout its range. The downy woodpecker is similar to his big relative, the hairy woodpecker, in color and shape, though much smaller. His outer tail feathers are white, barred with black, but the hairy 's white outer tail feathers lack these distinguishing marks. He is often called a sapsucker — though quite another bird alone merits that name — from the supposition that he bores into the trees for the purpose of sucking the sap ; but his tongue is ill adapted for such use, being barbed at the end, and most orni- thologists consider the charge libellous. It has been surmised that he bores the numerous little round holes close together, so often seen, with the idea of attracting insects to the luscious sap. The woodpeckers never drill for insects in live wood. The downy actually drills these little holes in apple and other trees to feed upon the inner milky bark of the tree — the cambium layer. The only harm to be laid to his account is that, in his zeal, he sometimes makes a ring of small holes so continuous as to inad- vertently damage the tree by girdling it. The bird, like most others, does not debar himself entirely from fruit diet, but enjoys berries, especially poke-berries. He is very social with birds and men alike. In winter he attaches himself to strolling bands of nuthatches and chickadees, and in summer is fond of making friendly visits among village folk, frequenting the shade trees of the streets and grapevines of back gardens. He has even been known to fearlessly peck at flies on window panes. In contrast to his large brother woodpecker, who is seldom drawn from timber lands, the little downy member of the family brings the comfort of his cheery presence to country homes, beating his rolling tattoo in spring on some resonant limb under our windows in the garden with a strength worthy of a larger drummer. This rolling tattoo, or drumming, answers several purposes; by it he determines whether the tree is green or hollow; it startles insects from their lurking places underneath the bark, and it also serves as a love song. 56 Conspicuously Black and White Yellow-bellied Woodpecker (Sphyrapicus varius) Woodpecker family Called also: THE SAPSUCKER Length—^ to 8.6 inches. About one-fifth smaller than the robin. Male — Black, white, and yellowish white above, with bright-red crown, chin, and throat. Breast black, in form of crescent. A yellowish-white line, beginning at bill and passing below eye, merges into the pale yellow of the bird underneath. Wings spotted with white, and coverts chiefly white. Tail black; white on middle of feathers. Female — Paler, and with head and throat white. Range — Eastern North America, from Labrador to Central America. Migrations — April. October. Resident north of Massachusetts. Most common in autumn. It is sad to record that this exquisitely marked woodpecker, the most jovial and boisterous of its family, is one of the very few bird visitors whose intimacy should be discouraged. For its useful appetite for slugs and insects which it can take on the wing with wonderful dexterity, it need not be wholly con- demned. But as we look upon a favorite maple or fruit tree devitalized or perhaps wholly dead from its ravages, we cannot forget that this bird, while a most abstemious fruit-eater, has a pernicious and most intemperate thirst for sap. Indeed, it spends much of its time in the orchard, drilling holes into the freshest, most vigorous trees ; then, when their sap begins to flow, it siphons it into an insatiable throat, stopping in its orgie only long enough to snap at the insects that have been attracted to the wounded tree by the streams of its heart-blood now trickling down its sides. Another favorite pastime is to strip the bark off a tree, then peck at the soft wood underneath — almost as fatal a habit. It drills holes in maples in early spring for sap only. If it drills holes in fruit trees it is for the cambium layer, a soft, pulpy, nutritious under-bark. These woodpeckers have a variety of call-notes, but their rapid drumming against the limbs and trunks of trees is the sound we always associate with them and the sound that Mr. Bicknell says is the love-note of the family. Unhappily, these birds, that many would be glad to have 57 Conspicuously Black and White decrease in numbers, take extra precautions for the safety of their young by making very deep excavations for their nests, often as deep as eighteen or twenty inches. The Chewink {Pipilo erythrophthalmus) Finch family Called also: GROUND ROBIN ; TOWHEE ; TOWHEE BUNT- ING ; TOWHEE GROUND FINCH ; GRASEL Length — 8 to 8. 5 inches. About one-fifth smaller than the robin. Male — Upper parts black, sometimes margined with rufous. Breast white; chestnut color on sides and rump. Wings marked with white. Three outer feathers of tail striped with white, conspicuous in flight. Bill black and stout. Red eyes; feet brown. Female — Brownish where the male is black. Abdomen shading from chestnut to white in the centre. Range — From Labrador, on the north, to the Southern States ; west to the Rocky Mountains. Migrations — April. September and October, Summer resident. Very rarely a winter resident at the north. The unobtrusive little chewink is not infrequently mistaken for a robin, because of the reddish chestnut on its under parts. Careful observation, however, shows important distinctions. It is rather smaller and darker in color; its carriage and form are not those of the robin, but of the finch. The female is smaller still, and has an olive tint in her brown back. Her eggs are in- conspicuous in color, dirty white speckled with brown, and laid in a sunken nest on the ground. Dead leaves and twigs abound, and form, as the anxious mother fondly hopes, a safe hiding place for her brood. So careful concealment, however, brings peril to the fledglings, for the most cautious bird-lover may, and often does, inadvertently set his foot on the hidden nest. The chewink derives its name from the fancied resemblance of its note to these syllables, while those naming it "towhee" hear the sound to-whick, to-which, to-whee. Its song is rich, full, and pleasing, and given only when the bird has risen to the branches above its low foraging ground. It frequents the border of swampy places and bushy fields. 58 Conspicuously Black and White It is generally seen in the underbrush, picking about among the dead leaves for its steady diet of earthworms and larvae of in- sects, occasionally regaling itself with a few dropping berries and fruit. When startled, the bird rises not more than ten or twelve feet from the earth, and utters its characteristic calls. On ac- count of this habit of flying low and grubbing among the leaves, it is sometimes called the ground robin. In the South our modest and useful little food-gatherer is often called grasel, especially in Louisiana, where it is white-eyed, and is much esteemed, alas! by epicures. Snowflake (Plectrophenax nivalis) Finch family Called also : S'HO\M BUNTING; WHITEBIRD ; SNOWBIRD; SNOW LARK Length — 7 to 7. 5 inches. About one-fourth smaller than the robin. Male and Female — Head, neck, and beneath soiled white, with a few reddish-brown feathers on top of head, and suggesting an imperfect collar. Above, grayish brown obsoletely streaked with black, the markings being most conspicuous in a band between shoulders. Lower tail feathers black; others, white and all edged with white. Wings brown, white, and gray. Plumage unusually variable. In summer dress (in arctic regions) the bird is almost white. Range — Circumpolar regions to Kentucky (in winter only). Migrations — Midwinter visitor; rarely, if ever, resident south of arctic regions. These snowflakes (mentioned collectively, for it is impossible to think of the bird except in great flocks) are the "true spirits of the snowstorm," says Thoreau. They are animated beings that ride upon it, and have their life in it. By comparison with the climate of the arctic regions, no doubt our hardiest winter weather seems luxuriously mild to them. We associate them only with those wonderful midwinter days when sky, fields, and woods alike are white, and a "hard, dull bitterness of cold" drives every other bird and beast to shelter. It is said they often pass the night buried beneath the snow. They have been seen to dive beneath it to escape a hawk. Whirling about in the drifting snow to catch the seeds on 59 Conspicuously Black and White the tallest stalks that the wind in the open meadows uncovers, the snowflakes suggest a lot of dead leaves being blown through the all-pervading whiteness. Beautiful soft brown, gray, and predominating black-and-white coloring distinguish these capri- cious visitors from the slaty junco, the "snowbird" more com- monly known. They are, indeed, the only birds we have that are nearly white; and rarely, if ever, do they rise far above the ground their plumage so admirably imitates. At the far north, travellers have mentioned their inspiriting song, but in the United States we hear only their cheerful twitter. Nansen tells of seeing an occasional snow bunting in that desola- tion of arctic ice where the Fram drifted so long. The Rose-breasted Grosbeak (Habia ludoviciana) Finch family Length — 7. 75 to 8. 5 inches. About one-fifth smaller than the robin. Male — Head and upper parts black. Breast has rose-carmine shield-shaped patch, often extending downward to the centre of the abdomen. Underneath, tail quills, and two spots on wings white. Conspicuous yellow, blunt beak. Female — Brownish, with dark streakings, like a sparrow. No rose-color. Light sulphur yellow under wings. Dark brown, heavy beak. Range — Eastern North America, from southern Canada to Panama. Migratio7is — Early May. September. Summer resident. A certain ornithologist tells with complacent pride of having shot over fifty-eight rose-breasted grosbeaks in less than three weeks (during the breeding season) to learn what kind of food they had in their crops. This kind of devotion to science may have quite as much to do with the growing scarcity of this bird in some localities as the demands of the milliners, who, however, receive all of the blame for the slaughter of our beautiful songsters. The farmers in Pennsylvania, who, with more truth than poetry, call this the potato-bug bird, are taking active measures, how- ever, to protect the neighbor that is more useful to their crop than all the insecticides known. It also eats flies, wasps, and grubs. Seen upon the ground, the dark bird is scarcely attractive with his clumsy beak overbalancing a head that protrudes with stupid- 60 Conspicuously Black and White looking awkwardness; but as he rises into the trees his lovely rose-colored breast and under-wing feathers are seen, and before he has had time to repeat his delicious, rich-voiced warble you are already in love with him. Vib'-ating his wings after the manner of the mocking-bird, he pours forth a marvellously sweet, clear, mellow song (with something of the quality of the oriole's, robin's, and thrush's notes), making the day on which you first hear it memorable. This is one of the few birds that sing at night. A soft, sweet, rolling warble, heard when the moon is at its full on a midsummer night, is more than likely to come from the rose-breasted grosbeak. It is not that his quiet little sparrow-like wife has advanced notions of feminine independence that he takes his turn at sitting upon the nest, but that he is one of the most unselfish and devoted of mates. With their combined efforts they construct only a coarse, unlovely cradle in a thorn-bush or low tree near an old, overgrown pasture lot. The father may be the poorest of archi- tects, but as he patiently sits brooding over the green, speckled eggs, his beautiful rosy breast just showing above the grassy rim, he is a sufficient adornment for any bird's home. The Bobolink (DoUchonyx ory^ivorus) Blackbird family Called also: REEDBIRD; MAYBIRD; MEADOW-BIRD; AMERI- CAN ORTOLAN ; BUTTER-BIRD ; SKUNK BLACKBIRD Length — 7 inches. A trifle larger than the English sparrow. Male — In sprmg plumage: black, with light-yellow patch on upper neck, also on edges of wings and tail feathers. Rump and upper wings splashed with white. Middle of back streaked with pale buff. Tail feathers have pointed tips. In autumn plumage, resembles female. Female — Dull yellow-brown, with light and dark dashes on back, wings, and tail. Two decided dark stripes on top of head. Range — North America, from eastern coast to western prairies. Migrates in early autumn to Southern States, and in winter to South America and West Indies. Migrations — Early May. From August to October. Common summer resident. 61 Conspicuously Black and White Perhaps none of our birds have so fitted into song and story as the bobolink. Unlike a good child, who should "be seen and not heard," he is heard more frequently than seen. Very shy, of peering eyes, he keeps well out of sight in the meadow grass before entrancing our listening ears. The bobolink never soars like the lark, as the poets would have us believe, but gen- erally sings on the wing, flying with a peculiar self-conscious flight horizontally thirty or forty feet above the meadow grass. He also sings perched upon the fence or tuft of grass. He is one of the greatest poseurs among the birds. In spring and early summer the bobolinks respond to every poet's effort to imitate their notes. "Dignified 'Robert of Lin- coln' is telling his name," says one; "Spink, spank, spink," an- other hears him say. But best of all are Wilson Flagg's lines: . . . " Now they rise and now they fly ; They cross and turn, and in and out, and down the middle and wheel about, With a ' Phew, shew, Wadolincon ; listen to me Bobolincon ! ' " After midsummer the cares of the family have so worn upon the jollity of our dashing, rollicking friend that his song is seldom heard. The colors of his coat fiide into a dull yellowish brown like that of his faithful mate, who has borne the greater burden of the season, for he has two complete moults each year. The bobolinks build their nest on the ground in high grass. The eggs are of a bluish white. Their food is largely insectivo- rous: grasshoppers, crickets, beetles, spiders, with seeds of grass especially for variety. In August they begin their journey southward, flying mainly by night. Arriving in the Southern States, they become the sad- colored, low-voiced rice or reed bird, feeding on the rice fields, where they descend to the ignominious fate of being dressed for the plate of the epicure. Could there be a more tragic ending to the glorious note of the gay songster of the north ? 62 Conspicuously Black and White Blackpoll Warbler (Dendroica striata) Wood Warbler family Length — 5.5 to 6 inches. About an inch smaller than the English sparrow. Male—^\Ack cap; cheeks and beneath grayish white, forming a sort of collar, more or less distinct. Upper parts striped gray, black, and olive. Breast and under parts white, with black streaks. Tail olive-brown, with yellow-white spots. Female — Without cap. Greenish-olive above, faintly streaked with black. Paler than male. Bands on wings, yellowish. Range — North America, to Greenland and Alaska. In winter, to northern part of South America. Migrations — Last of May. Late October. A faint " screep, screep," like "the noise made by striking two pebbles together," Audubon says, is often the only indication of the blackpoll's presence; but surely that tireless bird-student had heard its more characteristic notes, which, rapidly uttered, increasing in the middle of the strain and diminishing toward the end, suggest the shrill, wiry hum of some midsummer insect. After the opera-glass has searched him out we find him by no means an inconspicuous bird. A dainty little fellow, with a glossy black cap pulled over his eyes, he is almost hidden by the dense foliage on the trees by the time he returns to us at the very end of spring. Giraud says that he is the very last of his tribe to come north, though the bay-breasted warbler has usually been thought the bird to wind up the spring procession. The blackpoll has a certain characteristic motion that distin- guishes him from the black-and-white creeper, for which a hasty glance might mistake him, and from the jolly little chickadee with his black cap. Apparently he runs about the tree-trunk, but in reality he so flits his wings that his feet do not touch the bark at all; yet so rapidly does he go that the flipping wing-motion is not observed. He is most often seen in May in the apple trees, peeping into the opening blossoms for insects, uttering now and then his slender, lisping, brief song. Vivacious, a busy hunter, often catching insects on the wing like the flycatchers, he is a cheerful, useful neighbor the short time he spends with us before travelling to the far north, where he mates and nests. A nest has been found on Slide Mountain, in the Catskills, but the hardy evergreens of Canada, and some- 63 Conspicuously Black and White times those of northern New England, are the chosen home of this little bird that builds a nest of bits of root, lichens, and sedges, amply large for a family twice the size of his. Black-and-white Creeping Warbler (Mniotilta varia) Wood Warbler family Called also : VARIED CREEPING WARBLER ; BLACK-AND- WHITE CREEPER ; WHITEPOLL WARBLER Length — 5 to 5.5 inches. About an inch smaller than the English sparrow. Male — Upper parts white, varied with black. A white stripe along the summit of the head and back of the neck, edged with black. White line above and below the eye.- Black cheeks and throat, grayish in females and young. Breast white in middle, with black stripes on sides. Wings and tail rusty black, with two white cross-bars on former, and soiled white markings on tail quills. Female — Paler and less distinct markings throughout. Range — Peculiar to America. Eastern United States and west- ward to the plains. North as far as the fur countries. Win- ters in tropics south of Florida. Migrations — April. Late September. Summer resident. Nine times out often this active little warbler is mistaken for the downy woodpecker, not because of his coloring alone, but also on account of their common habit of running up and down the trunks of trees and on the under side of branches, looking for insects, on which all the warblers subsist. But presently the true warbler characteristic of restless flitting about shows itself. A woodpecker would go over a tree with painstaking, systematic care, while the black-and-white warbler, no less intent upon securing its food, hurries off from tree to tree, wherever the most promising menu is offered. Clinging to the mottled bark of the tree-trunk, which he so closely resembles, it would be difficult to find him were it not for these sudden flittings and the feeble song, " Weachy, weachy, weachy, 'twee, 'twee, 'tweet," he half lisps, half sings between his dashes after slugs. Very rarely indeed can his nest be found in an old stump or mossy bank, where bark, leaves, and hair make the downy cradle for his four or five tiny babies. 64 DUSKY AND GRAY AND SLATE-COLORED BIRDS Chimney Swift Kingbird Wood Pewee Phoebe and Say's Phoebe Crested Flycatcher Olive-sided Flycatcher Least Flycatcher Chickadee Tufted Titmouse Canada Jay Catbird Mocking-bird Junco White-breasted Nuthatch Red-breasted Nuthatch Loggerhead Shrike Northern Shrike Bohemian Waxwing Bay-breasted Warbler Chestnut-sided Warbler Golden-winged Warbler Myrtle Warbler Parula Warbler Black-throated Blue Warbler See also the Grayish Green and the Grayish Brown Birds, particularly the Cedar Bird several Swallows, the Acadian and the Yellow-bellied Flycatchers; Alice's and the Olive-backed Thrushes; the Louisiana Water Thrush; the Blue-gray Gnat- catcher; and the Seaside Sparrow. See also the females of the following birds: Pine Grosbeak; White-winged Red Crossbill; Purple Martin; and the Nashville, the Pine, and the Magnolia Warblers. DUSKY, GRAY, AND SLATE-COLORED BIRDS Chimney Swift (Chcetura pelagica) Swift family Called also: CHIMNEY SWALLOW; AMERICAN SWIFT Length — 3 to 5.45 inches. About an inch shorter than the Eng- lish sparrow. Long wings make its length appear greater. 3fale a?td Female — Deep sooty gray ; throat of a trifle lighter gray. Wings extend an inch and a half beyond the even tail.ffc^hich has sliarply pointed and very elastic quills, that serve £4^|r>ps. Feet are muscular, and have exceedingly sharp claw^!^ Range — Peculiar to North America east of the Rockies, and from Labrador to Panama. Migrations — April. September or October. Common summer resident. The chimney swift is, properly speaking, not a swallow at all, though chimney swallow is its more popular name. Rowing towards the roof of your house, as if it used first one wing, then the other, its flight, while swift and powerful, is stiff and mechan- ical, unlike the swallow's, and its entire aspect suggests a bat. The nighthawk and whippoorwill are its relatives, and it resem- bles them not a little, especially in its nocturnal habits. So much fault has been found with the misleading names of many birds, it is pleasant to record the fact that the name of the chimney swift is everything it ought to be. No other birds can surpass and few can equal it in its powerful flight, sometimes covering a thousand miles in twenty-four hours, it is said, and never resting except in its roosting places (hollow trees or chim- neys of dwellings), where it does not perch, but rather clings to the sides with its sharp claws, partly supported by its sharper tail. Audubon tells of a certain plane tree in Kentucky where he counted over nine thousand of these swifts clinging to the hollow trunk. 67 Dusky, Gray, and Slate-colored Their nest, which is a loosely woven twig lattice, made of twigs of trees, which the birds snap off with their beaks and carry in their beaks, is glued with the bird's saliva or tree-gum into a solid structure, and firmly attached to the inside of chimneys, or hollow trees where there are no houses about. Two broods in a season usually emerge from the pure white, elongated eggs. What a twittering there is in the chimney that the swifts appropriate after the winter fires have died out ! Instead of the hospitable column of smoke curling from the top, a cloud of sooty birds wheels and floats above it. A sound as of distant thunder fills the chimney as a host of these birds, startled, perhaps, by some indoor noise, whirl their way upward. Woe betide the happy colony if a sudden cold snap in early summer necessitates the starting of a fire on the hearth by the unsuspecting householder I The glue being melted by the fire, "down comes the cradle, babies and all " into the glowing embers. A prolonged, heavy rain also causes their nests to loosen their hold and fall with the soot to the bottom. Thrifty New England housekeepers claim that bedbugs, commonly found on bats, infest the bodies of swifts also, which is one reason why wire netting is stretched across the chimney tops before the birds arrive from the South. Kingrbird (Tyrannus tyranntis) Flycatcher family Called also: TYRANT FLYCATCHER; BEE MARTIN Length — 8 inches. About two inches shorter than the robin. Male — Ashy black above ; white, shaded with ash-color, beneath. A concealed crest of orange-red on crown. Tail black, ter- minating with a white band conspicuous in flight. Wing feathers edged with white. Feet and bill black. Female — Similar to the male, but lacking the crown. Range — United States to the Rocky Mountains. British provinces to Central and South America. Migrations — May. September. Common summer resident. If the pugnacious propensity of the kingbird is the occasion of its royal name, he cannot be said to deserve it from any fine or noble qualities he possesses. He is a born fighter from the very 68 CHIMNEY SWIFT Dusky, Gray, and Slate-colored love of it, without provocation, rhyme, or reason. One can but watch with a degree of admiration his bold sallies on the big, black crow or the marauding hawk, but when he bullies the small inoffensive birds in wanton attacks for sheer amusement, the charge is less entertaining. Occasionally, when the little vic- tim shows pluck and faces his assailant, the kingbird will literally turn tail and show the white feather. His method of attack is always when a bird is in flight; then he swoops down from the telegraph pole or high point of vantage, and strikes on the head or back of the neck, darting back like a flash to the exact spot from which he started. By these tactics he avoids a return blow and retreats from danger. He never makes a fair hand-to-hand fight, or whatever is equivalent in bird warfare. It is a satisfaction to record that he does not attempt to give battle to the catbird, but whenever in view makes a grand detour to give him a wide berth. The kingbird feeds on beetles, canker-worms, and winged insects, with an occasional dessert of berries. He is popularly supposed to prefer the honeybee as his favorite tidbit, but the weight of opinion is adverse to the charge of his depopulating the beehive, even though he owes his appellation bee martin to this tradition. One or two ornithologists declare that he selects only the drones for his diet, which would give him credit for marvel- lous sight in his rapid motion through the air. The kingbird is preeminently a bird of the garden and orchard. The nest is open, though deep, and not carefully concealed. Eggs are nearly round, bluish white spotted with brown and lilac. With truly royal exclusiveness, the tyrant favors no community of interest, but sits in regal state on a conspicuous throne, and takes his grand flights alone or with his queen, but never with a flock of his kind. Wood Pewee (Contopus virens) Flycatcher family ■ Length — 6.50 inches. A trifle larger than the English sparrow. Male — Dusky brownish olive above, darkest on head ; paler on throat, lighter still underneath, and with a yellowish tinge on the dusky gray under parts. Dusky wings and tail, the wing coverts tipped with soiled white, forming two indistinct bars. Whitish eye-ring. Wings longer than tail. Female — Similar, but slightly more buff underneath. 69 Dusky, Gray, and Slate-colored jRange—E2istern North America, from Florida to northern British provinces. Winters in Central America. Migrations — May. October. Common summer resident. The wood pewee, like the olive-sided flycatcher, has wings decidedly longer than its tail, and it is by no means a simple matter for the novice to tell these birds apart or separate them distinctly in the mind from the other members of a family whose coloring and habits are most confusingly similar. This dusky haunter of tall shady trees has not yet learned to be sociable like the phoebe; but while it may not be so much in evidence close to our homes, it is doubtless just as common. The orchard is as near the house as it often cares to come. An old orchard, where modern insecticides are unknown and neglect allows insects to riot among the decayed bark and fallen fruit, is a happy hunting ground enough; but the bird's real preferences are decidedly for high tree-tops in the woods, where no sunshine touches the feathers on his dusky coat. It is one of the few shade-loving birds. In deep solitudes, where it surely retreats by nesting time, however neighborly it may be during the migrations, its pensive, pathetic notes, long drawn out, seem like the expression of some hidden sorrow. Pe-a-wee, pe-a-wee, peivee-ah-peer is the burden of its plaintive song, a sound as depressing as it is familiar in every walk through the woods, and the bird's most prominent characteristic. To see the bird dashing about in his aerial chase for insects, no one would accuse him of melancholia. He keeps an eye on the "main chance," whatever his preying grief may be, and never allows it to affect his appetite. Returning to his perch after a successful sally in pursuit of the passing fly, he repeats his "sweetly solemn thought" over and over again all day long and every day throughout the summer. The wood pewees show that devotion to each other and to their home, characteristic of their family. Both lovers work on the construction of the flat nest that is saddled on some mossy or lichen-covered limb, and so cleverly do they cover the rounded edge with bits of bark and lichen that sharp eyes only can detect where the cradle lies. Creamy-white eggs, whose larger end is wreathed with brown and lilac spots, are guarded with fiercei solicitude. Trowbridge has celebrated this bird in a beautiful poem. 70 Dusky, Gray, and Slate-colored Phoebe (Sayornis phoehe) Flycatcher family Called also .• DUSKY FLYCATCHER ; BRIDGE PE WEE ; WATER PEWEE Length — 7 inches. About an inch longer than the English sparrow. Male and Female — Dusky olive-brown above ; darkest on head, which is slightly crested. Wings and tail dusky, the outer edges of some tail feathers whitish. Dingy yellowish white underneath. Bill and feet black. Range — North America, from Newfoundland to the South At- lantic States, and westward to the Rockies. Winters south of the Carolinas, into Mexico, Central America, and the West Indies. Migrations — March. October. Common summer resident. The earliest representative of the flycatcher family to come out of the tropics where insect life fairly swarms and teems, what does the friendly little phoebe find to attract him to the north in March while his prospective dinners must all be still in embryo ? He looks dejected, it is true, as he sits solitary and silent on some projecting bare limb in the garden, awaiting the coming of his tardy mate; nevertheless, the date of his return will not vary by more than a few days in a given locality year after year. Why birds that are mated for life, as these are said to be, and such de- voted lovers, should not travel together on their journey north, is another of the many mysteries of bird-life awaiting solution. The reunited, happy couple go about the garden and out- buildings like domesticated wrens, investigating the crannies on piazzas, where people may be coming and going, and boldly entering barn-lofts to find a suitable site for the nest that it must take much of both time and skill to build. Pewit, phcele, phoehe; pewit, phoehe, they contentedly but rather monotonously sing as they investigate all the sites in the neighborhood. Presently a location is chosen under a beam or rafter, and the work of collecting moss and mud for the founda- tion and hair and feathers or wool to line the exquisite little home begins. But the labor is done cheerfully, with many a sally in midair either to let off superfluous high spirits or to catch a morsel on the wing, and with many a vivacious outburst of what by courtesy only we may name a song. 71 Dusky, Gray, and Slate-colored When not domesticated, as these birds are rapidly becoming, the phoebes dearly love a cool, wet woodland retreat. Here they hunt and bathe ; here they also build in a rocky bank or ledge of rocks or underneath a bridge, but always with clever adaptation of their nest to its surroundings, out of which it seems a natural growth. It is one of the most finished, beautiful nests ever found. A pair of phcEbes become attached to a spot where they have once nested ; they never stray far from it, and return to it regularly, though they may not again occupy the old nest. This is because it soon becomes infested with lice from the hen's feathers used in lining it, for which reason too close relationship with this friendly bird-neighbor is discouraged by thrifty house- keepers. When the baby birds have come out from the four or six little white eggs, their helpless bodies are mercilessly attacked by parasites, and are often so enfeebled that half the brood die. The next reason another nest will be built near the first, the fol- lowing summer still another, until it would appear that a colony of birds had made their homes in the place. Throughout the long summer — for as the phoebe is the first flycatcher to come, so it is the last to go — the bird is a tireless hunter of insects, which it catches on the wing with a sharp click of its beak, like the other members of its dexterous fomily. Say's Phoebe (Sayornis soya) is the Western representative of the Eastern species, which it resembles in coloring and many of its habits. It is the bird of the open plains, a tireless hunter in midair sallies from an isolated perch, and has the same vibrat- ing motion of the tail that the Eastern phoebe indulges in when excited. This bird differs chiefly in its lighter coloring, but not in habits, from the black pewee of the Pacific slope. Great-crested Flycatcher (Myiarchus crinitiis) Flycatcher family Called also: CRESTED FLYCATCHER Length — 8.50 to 9 inches. A little smaller than the robin. Male and Female — Feathers of the head pointed and erect. Upper parts dark grayish-olive, inclining to rusty brown on wings and tail. Wing coverts crossed with two irregular bars of yellowish white. Throat gray, shading into sulphur-yellow 72 Dusky, Gray, and Slate-colored underneath, that also extends under the wings. Inner vane of several tail quills rusty red. Bristles at base of bill. Jiange— From Mexico, Central America, and West Indies north- ward to southern Canada and westward to the plains. Most common in Mississippi basin ; common also in eastern United States, south of New England. Migrations — May. September. Common summer resident. The most dignified and handsomely dressed member of his family, the crested flycatcher has, nevertheless, an air of pensive melancholy about him when in repose that can be accounted for only by the pain he must feel every time he hears himself screech. His harsh, shrill call, louder and more disagreeable than the king- bird's, cannot but rasp his ears as it does ours. And yet it is chiefly by this piercing note, given with a rising inflection, that we know the bird is in our neighborhood ; for he is somewhat of a recluse, and we must often follow the disagreeable noise to its source in the tree-tops before we can catch a glimpse of the screecher. Perched on a high lookout, he appears morose and sluggish, in spite of his aristocratic-looking crest, trim figure, and feathers that must seem rather gay to one of his dusky tribe. A low soliloquy, apparently born of discontent, can be overheard from the foot of his tree. But another second, and he has dashed off in hot pursuit of an insect flying beyond our sight, and with extremely quick, dexterous evolutions in midair, he finishes the hunt with a sharp click of his bill as it closes over the unhappy victim, and then he returns to his perch. On the wing he is exceedingly active and joyous ; in the tree he appears just the reverse. That he is a domineering fellow, quite as much of a tyrant as the notorious kingbird, that bears the greater burden of opprobrium, is shown in the fierce way he promptly dashes at a feathered stranger that may have alighted too near his perch, and pursues it beyond the bounds of justice, all the while screaming his rasping cry into the intruder's ears, that must pierce as deep as the thrusts from his relentless beak. He has even been known to drive off woodpeckers and bluebirds from the hollows in the trees that he, like them, chooses for a nest, and appropriate the results of their labor for his scarcely less belligerent mate. With a slight but important and indispensable addition, the stolen nest is ready to receive her four cream-colored eggs, that look as if a pen dipped in purple ink had been scratched over them. 73 Dusky, Gray, and Slate-colored The fact that gives the great-crested flycatcher a unique in- terest among all North American birds is that it invariably lines its nest with snake-skins if one can be had. Science would scarcely be worth the studying if it did not set our imaginations to work delving for plausible reasons for Nature's strange doings. Most of us will doubtless agree with Wilson (who made a special study of these interesting nests and never found a single one without cast snake-skins in it, even in districts where snakes were so rare they were supposed not to exist at all), that the lining was chosen to terrorize all intruders. The scientific mind that is unwilling to dismiss any detail of Nature's work as merely arbitrary and haphazard, is greatly exercised over the reason for the existence of crests on birds. But, surely, may not the sight of snake-skins that first greet the eyes of the fledgling flycatchers as they emerge from the shell be a good and sufficient reason why the feathers on their little heads should stand on end.? "In the absence of a snake-skin, I have found an onion skin and shad scales in the nest," says John Burroughs, who calls this bird "the wild Irishman of the flycatchers." Olive-sided Flycatcher (Contopus horealis) Flycatcher family Length — 7 to 7.5 inches. About an inch longer than the English sparrow. Male and Female — Dusky olive or grayish brown above; head darkest. Wings and tail blackish brown, the former some- times, but not always, margined and tipped with dusky white. Throat yellowish white ; other under parts slightly lighter shade than above. Olive-gray on sides. A tuft of yellowish-white, downy feathers on flanks. Bristles at base of bill. Range — From Labrador to Panama. Winters in the tropics. Nests usually north of United States, but it also breeds in the I Catskills. Migrations — May. September, Resident only in northern part of its range. Only in the migrations may people south of Massachusetts hope to see this flycatcher, which can be distinguished from the rest of its kin by the darker under parts, and by the fluffy, yel- 74 Dusky, Gray, and Slate-colored lowish-white tufts of feathers on its flanks. Its habits have the family characteristics: It takes its food on the wing, suddenly sallying forth from its perch, darting about midair to seize its prey, then as suddenly returning to its identical point of vantage, usually in some distended, dead limb in the tree-top; it is pug- nacious, bold, and tyrannical; mopish and inert when not on the hunt, but wonderfully alert and swift when in pursuit of insect or feathered foe. The short necks of the flycatchers make their heads appear large for their bodies, a peculiarity slightly em- phasized in this member of the family. High up in some evergreen tree, well out on a branch, over which the shapeless mass of twigs and moss that serves as a nest is saddled, four or five buff-speckled eggs are laid, and by some special dispensation rarely fall out of their insecure cradle. A sharp, loud whistle, wheu — o-wheu-o-wheu-o, rings out from the throat of this olive-sided tyrant, warning all intruders off the premises ; but however harshly he may treat the rest of the feathered world, he has only gentle devotion to offer his brooding mate. Least Flycatcher (Empidonax minimus) Flycatcher family Called also: CHE BEG Length — 5 to 5.5 inches. About an inch smaller than the English sparrow. Male — Gray or olive-gray above, paler on wings and lower part of back, and a more distinct olive-green on head. Under- neath grayish white, sometimes faintly suffused with pale yellow. Wings have whitish bars. White eye-ring. Lower half of bill horn-color. Female — Is slightly more yellowish underneath. Range — Eastern North America, from tropics northward to Quebec. Migrations — May. September. Common summer resident. This, the smallest member of its family, takes the place of the more southerly Acadian flycatcher, throughout New England and the region of the Great Lakes. But, unlike his Southern rela- tive, he prefers orchards and gardens close to our homes for his hunting grounds rather than the wet recesses of the forests. Che-bec, che-hec, the diminutive olive-pated gray sprite calls out 75 Dusky. Gray, and Slate-colored from the orchard between his aerial sallies after the passing insects that have been attracted by the decaying fruit, and chebec is the name by which many New Englanders know him. While giving this characteristic call-note, with drooping, jerking tail, trembling wings, and uplifted parti-colored bill, he looks unnerved and limp by the effort it has cost him. But in the next instant a gnat flies past. How quickly the bird recovers itself, and charges full-tilt at his passing dinner! The sharp click of his little bill proves that he has not missed his aim ; and after careering about in the air another minute or two, looking for more game to snap up on the wing, he will return to the same perch and take up his familiar refrain. Without hearing this call- note one might often mistake the bird for either the wood pewee or the phcebe, for all the three are similarly clothed and have many traits in common. The slightly larger size of the phoebe and pewee is not always apparent when they are seen perching on the trees. Unlike the "tuft of hay" to which the Acadian flycatcher's nest has been likened, the least flycatcher's home is a neat, substantial cup-shaped cradle softly lined with down or horsehair, and placed generally in an upright crotch of a tree, well above the ground. The Chickadee (Parus atricapilhis) Titmouse family Called also : BLACK-CAPPED TITMOUSE ; BLACK-CAP TIT Length — 5 to 5.5 inches. About an inch smaller than the English sparrow. Male and Female — Not crested. Crown and nape and throat black. Above gray, slightly tinged with brown. A white space, beginning at base of bill, extends backwards, widen- ing over cheeks and upper part of breast, forming a sort of collar that almost surrounds neck. Underneath dirty white, with pale rusty-brown wash on sides. Wings and tail gray, with white edgings. Plumage downy. Range — Eastern North America. North of the Carolinas to Lab- rador. Does not migrate in the North. Migrations — Late September. May. Winter resident ; perma- nent resident in northern parts of the United States. No "fair weather friend " is the jolly little chickadee. In the depth of the autumn equinoctial storm it returns to the tops of 76 Dusky, Gray, and Slate-colored the trees close by the house, where, through the sunshine, snow, and tempest of the entire winter, you may hear its cheery, irrepressible chickadee-dee- dee-dee or day-day-day as it swings around the dangling cones of the evergreens. It fairly over- flows with good spirits, and is never more contagiously gay than in a snowstorm. So active, so friendly and cheering, what would the long northern winters be like without this lovable little neighbor } It serves a more utilitarian purpose, however, than bracing faint-hearted spirits. "There is no bird that compares with it in destroying the female canker-worm moths and their eggs," writes a well-known entomologist. He calculates that as a chickadee destroys about 5,500 eggs in one day, it will eat 138,750 eggs in the twenty-five days it takes the canker-worm moth to crawl up the trees. The moral that it pays to attract chickadees about your home by feeding them in winter is obvious. Mrs. Mabel Osgood Wright, in her delightful and helpful book "Birdcraft," tells us how she makes a sort of a bird-hash of finely minced raw meat, waste canary-seed, buckwheat, and cracked oats, which she scatters in a sheltered spot for all the winter birds. The way this is consumed leaves no doubt of its popularity. A raw bone, hung from an evergreen limb, is equally appreciated. Friendly as the chickadee is — and Dr. Abbott, declares it the tamest bird we have — it prefers well-timbered districts, especially where there are red-bud trees, when it is time to nest. It is very often clever enough to leave the labor of hollowing out a nest in the tree-trunk to the woodpecker or nuthatch, whose old homes it readily appropriates ; or, when these birds object, a knot-hole or a hollow fence-rail answers every purpose. Here, in the sum- mer woods, when fimiily cares beset it, a plaintive, minor whistle replaces the chickadee-dee-dee that Thoreau likens to "silver tink- ling " as he heard it on a frosty morning. " Piped a tiny voice near by, Gay and polite, a ciieerful cry — Chick-chickadeedee ! saucy note Out of sound heart and merry throat, As if it said, * Good-day, good Sir ! Fine afternoon, old passenger ! Happy to meet you in these places Where January brings few faces.' " — Emerson. 77 Dusky, Gray, and Slate-colored Tufted Titmouse {Parus hicolor) Titmouse family C^//^^a/5^.- CRESTED TITMOUSE; CRESTED TOMTIT Length — 6 to 6.5 inches. About the size of the English sparrow. Male and Female — Crest high and pointed. Leaden or ash-gray above; darkest on wings and tail. Frontlet, bill, and shoul- ders black; space between eyes gray. Sides of head dull white. Under parts light gray; sides yellowish, tinged with red. Range — United States east of plains, and only rarely seen so far north as New England. Migrations — October. April. Winter resident, but also found throughout the year in many States. "A noisy titmouse is Jack Frost's trumpeter" may be one of those few weather-wise proverbs with a grain of truth in them. As the chickadee comes from the woods with the frost, so it may be noticed his cousin, the crested titmouse, is in more noisy evi- dence throughout the winter. One might sometimes think his whistle, like a tugboat's, worked by steam. But how effectually nesting cares alone can silence it in April ! Titmice always see to it you are not lonely as you walk through the woods. This lordly tomtit, with his jaunty crest, keeps up a persistent whistle at you as he flits from tree to tree, leading you deeper into the forest, calling out " Here-here-here!" and looking like a pert and jaunty little blue jay, minus his gay clothes. Mr. Nehrling translates one of the calls " Heedle-dee- dle-dee-dle-dee ! " and another ' ' Peto-peto-peto-daytee-daytee ! " But it is at the former, sharply whistled as the crested titmouse gives it, that every dog pricks up his ears. Comparatively little has been written about this bird, because it is not often found in New England, where most of the bird litterateurs have lived. South of New York State, however, it is a common resident, and much respected for the good work it does in destroying injurious insects, though it is more fond of varying its diet with nuts, berries, and seeds than that all-round benefactor, the chickadee. 78 Dusky, Gray, and Slate-colored ' Canada Jay (Perisoreus canadensis) Crow and Jay family Called also: WHISKY JACK OR JOHN; MOOSE-BLRD; MEAT- BIRD; VENISON HERON; GREASE-BIRD; CANADIAN CARRION-BIRD; CAMP ROBBER Length— \ i to 12 inches. About two inches larger than the robin. Male and Female — Upper parts gray; darkest on wings and tail; back of the head and nape of the neck sooty, almost black. Forehead, throat, and neck white, and a few white tips on wings and tail. Underneath lighter gray. Tail long. Plu- mage fluffy. ^ange — Northern parts of the United States and British provinces of North America. Migrations — Resident where found. The Canada jay looks like an exaggerated chickadee, and both birds are equally fond of bitter cold weather, but here the similarity stops short. Where the chickadee is friendly the jay is impudent and bold; hardly less of a villain than his blue relative when it comes to marauding other birds' nests and destroying their young. With all his vices, however, intemperance cannot be attributed to him, in spite of the name given him by the Adi- rondack lumbermen and guides. "Whisky John" is a purely innocent corruption of " Wis-ka-tjon," as the Indians call this bird that haunts their camps and familiarly enters their wigwams. The numerous popular names by which the Canada jays are known are admirably accounted for by Mr. Hardy in a bulletin issued by the Smithsonian Institution. "They will enter the tents, and often alight on the bow of a canoe, where the paddle at every stroke comes within eighteen inches of them. I know nothing which can be eaten that they will not take, and I had one steal all my candles, pulling them out endwise, one by one, from a piece of birch bark in which they were rolled, and another peck a large hole in a keg of cas- tile soap. A duck which I had picked and laid down for a few minutes, had the entire breast eaten out by one or more of these birds. I have seen one alight in the middle of my canoe and peck away at the carcass of a beaver I had skinned. They often spoil deer saddles by pecking into them near the kidneys. They 79 Dusky, Gray, and Slate-colored do great damage to the trappers by stealing the bait from traps set for martens and minks and by eating trapped game. They will sit quietly and see you build a log trap and bait it, and then, almost before your back is turned, you hear their hateful ca-ca-ca! as they glide down and peer into it. They will work steadily, carrying off meat and hiding it. I have thYown out pieces, and watched one to see how much he would carry off He flew across a wide stream, and in a short time looked as bloody as a butcher from carrying large pieces; but his patience held out longer than mine. 1 think one would work as long as Mark Twain's California jay did trying to fill a miner's cabin with acorns through a knot-hole in the roof They are fond of the berries of the mountain ash, and, in fact, few things come amiss; I believe they do not possess a single good quality except industry." One virtue not mentioned by Mr. Hardy is their prudent saving from the summer surplus to keep the winter storeroom well sup- plied like a squirrel's. Such thrift is the more necessary when a clamorous, hungry family of young jays must be reared while the thermometer is often as low as thirty degrees below zero at the end of March. How eggs are ever hatched at all in a tempera- ture calculated to freeze any sitting bird stiff, is one of the mys- teries of the woods. And yet four or five fluffy little jays, that look as if they were dressed in gray fur, emerge from the eggs before the spring sunshine has unbound the icy rivers or melted the snowdrifts piled high around the evergreens. Catbird (Galeoscoptes carolinensis) Mocking-bird family Called also : ^LACK-CK??EX^ THRUSH Length — 9 inches. An inch shorter than the robin. Male and Female — Dark slate above; below somewhat paler; top of head black. Distinct chestnut patch under the tail, which is black; feet and bill black also. Wings short, more than two inches shorter than the tail. Range — British provinces to Mexico; west to Rocky Mountains, rarely to Pacific coast. Winters in Southern States, Central America, and Cuba. Migrations — May. November. Common summer resident. 80 MOCKINGBIRD Dusky, Gray, and Slate-colored Our familiar catbird, of all the feathered tribe, presents the most contrary characteristics, and is therefore held in varied esti- mation— loved, admired, ridiculed, abused. He is the veriest "Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde" of birds. Exquisitely proportioned, with finely poised black head and satin-gray coat, which he bathes most carefully and prunes and prinks by the hour, he ap- pears from his toilet a Beau Brummell, an aristocratic-looking, even dandified neighbor. Suddenly, as if shot, he drops head and tailand assumes the most hang-dog air, without the least sign of self-respect ; then crouches and lengthens into a roll, head forward and tail straightened, till he looks like a little, short gray snake, lank and limp. Anon, with a jerk and a sprint, every muscle tense, tail erect, eyes snapping, he darts into the air intent upon some well-planned mischief. It is impossible to describe his various attitudes or moods. In song and call he presents the same opposite characteristics. How such a bird, exquisite in style, can demean himself to utter such harsh, altogether hateful catcalls and squawks as have given the bird his common name, is a wonder when in the next moment his throat swells and be- ginning phut-phit-coquillkot, he gives forth a long glorious song, only second to that of the wood thrush in melody. He is a jes- ter, a caricaturist, a mocking-bird. The catbird's nest is like a veritable scrap-basket, loosely woven of coarse twigs, bits of newspaper, scraps, and rags, till this rough exterior is softly lined and made fit to receive the four to six pretty dark green-blue eggs to be laid therein. As a fruit thief hcirsh epithets are showered upon the friendly, confiding little creature at our doors; but surely his depredations may be pardoned, for he is industrious at all times and unusually adroit in catching insects, especially in the moth stage. The Mocking-bird ((Mimus polyglottus) Mocking-bird family Length — 9 to 10 inches. About the size of the robin. Male and Female — Gray above; wings and wedge-shaped tail brownish; upper wing feathers tipped with white; outer tail quills white, conspicuous in flight; chin white; under- neath light gray, shading to whitish. Jiange — Peculiar to torrid and temperate zones of two Americas. Migrations — No fixed migrations ; usually resident where seen. 81 Dusky, Gray, and Slate-colored North of Delaware this commonest of Southern birds is all too rarely seen outside of cages, yet even in midwinter it is not unknown in Central Park, New York. This is the angel that it is said the catbird was before he fell from grace. Slim, neat, graceful, imitative, amusing, with a rich, tender song that only the thrush can hope to rival, and with an instinctive preference for the society of man, it is little wonder he is a favorite, caged or free. He is a most devoted parent, too, when the four or six speckled green eggs have produced as many mouths to be sup- plied with insects and berries. In the Connecticut Valley, where many mocking-birds' nests have been found, year after year, they are all seen near the ground, and without exception are loosely, poorly constructed affairs of leaves, feathers, grass, and even rags. With all his virtues, it must be added, however, that this charming bird is a sad tease. There is no sound, whether made by bird or beast about him, that he cannot imitate so clearly as to deceive every one but himself Very rarely can you find a mocking-bird without intelligence and mischief enough to appre- ciate his ventriloquism. In Sidney Lanier's college note-book was found written this reflection: "A poet is the mocking-bird of the spiritual universe. In him are collected all the individual songs of all individual natures." Later in life, with the same thought in mind, he referred to the bird as "yon slim Shakespeare on the tree." His exquisite stanzas, "To Our Mocking-bird," exalt the singer with the immortals : " Trillets of humor, — shrewdest whistle-wit — Contralto cadences of grave desire, Such as from off the passionate Indian pyre Drift down through sandal-odored flames that split About the slim young widow, who doth sit And sing above, — midnights of tone entire, — Tissues of moonlight, shot with songs of fire ; — Bright drops of tune, from oceans infinite Of melody, sipped off the thin-edged wave And trickling down the beak, — discourses brave Of serious matter that no man may guess, — Good-fellow greetings, cries of light distress — All these but now within the house we heard : O Death, wast thou too deaf to hear the bird? 82 Dusky, Gray, and Slate-colored Nay, Bird ; my griel gainsays the Lord's best right. The Lord was fain, at some late festal time, That Keats should set all heaven's woods in rhyme, And Thou in bird-notes. Lo, this tearful night Methinks I see thee, fresh from Death's despite, Perched in a palm-grove, wild with pantomime O'er blissful companies couched in shady thyme. Methinks I hear thy silver whistlings bright Meet with the mighty discourse of the wise, — 'Till broad Beethoven, deaf no more, and Keats, 'Midst of much talk, uplift their smiling eyes And mark the music of thy wood-conceits, And half-way pause on some large courteous word, And call thee ' Brother,' O thou heavenly Bird ! " Junco (Jimco hyemalis) Finch family Called also: SNOWBIRD; SLATE-COLORED SNOWBIRD Length — 5.5 to 6.5 inches. About the size of the English sparrow. Male — Upper parts slate-colored ; darkest on head and neck, which are sometimes almost black and marked like a cowl. Gray on breast, like a vest. Underneath white. Several outer tail feathers white, conspicuous in flight. Female — Lighter gray, inclining to brown. Range — North America. Not common in warm latitudes. Breeds in the Catskills and northern New England. Migrations — September. April. Winter resident. "Leaden skies above; snow below," is Mr. Parkhurst's sug- gestive description of this rather timid little neighbor, that is only starved into familiarity. When the snow has buried seed and berries, a flock of juncos, mingling sociably with the sparrows and chickadees about the kitchen door, will pick up scraps of food with an intimacy quite touching in a bird naturally rather shy. Here we can readily distinguish these "little gray-robed monks and nuns," as Miss Florence Merriam calls them. They are trim, sprightly, sleek, and even natty; their disposi- tions are genial and vivacious, not quarrelsome, like their sparrow cousins, and what is perhaps best about them, they are birds we may surely depend upon seeing in the winter months. A few come forth in September, migrating at night from the deep Dusky, Gray, and Slate-colored woods of the north, where they have nested and moulted during the summer ; but not until frost has sharpened the air are large numbers of them seen. Rejoicing in winter, they nevertheless do not revel in the deep and fierce arctic blasts, as the snowflakes do, but take good care to avoid the open pastures before the hard storms overtake them. Early in the spring their song is sometimes heard before they leave us to woo and to nest in the north. Mr. Bicknell describes it as "a crisp call-note, a simple trill, and a faint, whispered warble, usually much broken, but not without sweetness." White-breasted Nuthatch (Sitta carolinensis) Nuthatch fomily Called also: TREE-MOUSE; DEVIL DOWNHEAD Length — 5.5 to 6 inches. A trifle smaller than the English sparrow. Male and Female — Upper parts slate-color. Top of head and nape black. Wings dark slate, edged with black, that fades to brown. Tail feathers brownish black, with white bars. Sides of head and underneath white, shading to pale reddish under the tail. (Female's head leaden.) Body flat and com- pact. Bill longer than head. Range — British provinces to Mexico. Eastern United States. Migrations — October. April. Common resident. Most promi- nent in winter. " Shrewd little haunter of woods all gray, Whom I meet on my walk of a winter day — You're busy inspecting each cranny and hole In the ragged bark of yon hickory bole ; You intent on your task, and I on the law Of your wonderful head and gymnastic claw ! The woodpecker well may despair of this feat — Only the fly with you can compete ! So much is clear ; but I fain would know How you can so reckless and fearless go, Head upward, head downward, all one to you, Zenith and nadir the same in your view ? " —Edith M. Thomas. Could a dozen lines well contain a fuller description or more apt characterization of a bird than these " To a Nuthatch " ? 84 WHITE-BREASTED NUTHATCH Dusky, Gray, and Slate-colored With more artless inquisitiveness than fear, this lively little acrobat stops his hammering or hatcheting at your approach, and stretching himself out from the tree until it would seem he must fall off, he peers down at you, head downward, straight into your upturned opera-glasses. If there is too much snow on the upper side of a branch, watch how he runs along underneath it like a fly, busily tapping the bark, or adroitly breaking the de- cayed bits with his bill, as he searches for the spider's eggs, larvae, etc., hidden there; yet somehow, between mouthfuls, managing to call out his cheery qiiank ! qitank ! hank ! hank ! Titmice and nuthatches, which have many similar charac- teristics, are often seen in the most friendly hunting parties on the same tree. A pine woods is their dearest delight. There, as the mercury goes down, their spirits only seem to go up higher. In the spring they have been thought by many to migrate in fiocks, whereas they are only retreating with their relations away from the haunts of men to the deep, cool woods, where they nest. With infinite patience the nuthatch excavates a hole in a tree, lining it with feathers and moss, and often depositing as many as ten white eggs (speckled with red and lilac) for a single brood. Red-breasted Nuthatch (Sitta canadensis) Nuthatch family Called also: CANADA NUTHATCH Length — 4 to 4.7s inches. One-third smaller than the English sparrow. Male — Lead-colored above; brownish on wings and tail. Head, neck, and stripe passing through eye to shoulder, black. Frontlet, chin, and shoulders white; also a white stripe over eye, meeting on brow. Under parts light, rusty red. Tail feathers barred with white near end, and tipped with pale brown. Female — Has crown of brownish black, and is lighter beneath than male. Range — Northern parts of North America. Not often seen south of the most northerly States. Migrations-^'^Q,vtva\)tx. April. Winter resident. The brighter coloring of this tiny, hardy bird distinguishes it from the other and larger nuthatch, with whom it is usually 85 Dusky, Gray, and Slate-colored seen, for the winter birds have a delightfully social manner, so that a colony of these Free masons is apt to contain not only both kinds of nuthatches and chickadees, but kinglets and brown creepers as well. It shares the family habit of walking about the trees, head downward, and running along the under side of limbs like a fly. By Thanksgiving Day the quank! quank! of the white-breasted species is answered by the tai-tai-tait ! of the red- breasted cousin in the orchard, where the family party is cele- brating with an elaborate menu of slugs, insects' eggs, and oily seeds from the evergreen trees. For many years this nuthatch, a more northern species than the white-breasted bird, was thought to be only a spring and autumn visitor, but latterly it is credited with habits like its congener's in nearly every particular. Loggerhead Shrike (Lanius liidovicianus) Shrike family Length — 8. 5 to 9 inches. A little smaller than the robin. Male and Female — Upper parts gray ; narrow black line across forehead, connecting small black patches on sides of head at base of bill. Wings and tail black, plentifully marked with white, the outer tail feathers often being entirely white and conspicuous in flight. Underneath white or very light gray. Bill hooked and hawk-like. Range — Eastern United States to the plains. Migrations — May. October. Summer resident. It is not easy, even at a slight distance, to distinguish the loggerhead from the Northern shrike. Both have the pernicious habit of killing insects and smaller birds and impaling them on thorns; both have the peculiarity of flying, with strong, vigorous flight and much wing-flapping, close along the ground, then suddenly rising to a tree, on the lookout for prey. Their harsh, unmusical call-notes are similar too, and their hawk-like method of dropping suddenly upon a victim on the ground below is iden- tical. Indeed, the same description very nearly answers for both birds. But there is one very important difference. While the Northern shrike is a winter visitor, the loggerhead, being his South- ern counterpart, does not arrive until after the frost is out of the ground, and he can be sure of a truly warm welcome. A lesser 86 I/J SHRIKE Dusky, Gray, and Slate-colored distinction between the only two representatives of the shrii<:e family that frequent our neighborhood— and they are two too many— is in the smaller size of the loggerhead and its Ughter-gray plumage. But as both these birds select some high, commanding position, like a distended branch near the tree-top, a cupola, house-peak, lightning-rod, telegraph wire, or weather-vane, the better to detect a passing dinner, it would be quite impossible at such a distance to know which shrike was sitting up there silently plotting villainies, without remembering the season when each may be expected. Northern Shrike (Lanius horealis) Shrike family Called also: BUTCHER-BIRD; NINE-KILLER Length— ().^ to 10.5 inches. About the size of the robin. Male — Upper parts slate-gray; wing quills and tail black, edged and tipped with white, conspicuous in flight; a white spot on centre of outer wing feathers. A black band runs from bill, through eye to side of throat. Light gray below, tinged with brownish, and faintly marked with waving lines of darker gray. Bill hooked and hawk-like. Female — With eye-band more obscure than male's, and with more distinct brownish cast on her plumage. Eange — Northern North America. South in winter to middle portion of United States. Migrations — November. April. A roving winter resident. " Matching the bravest of the brave among birds of prey in deeds of daring, and no less relentless than reckless, the shrike compels that sort of deference, not unmixed with indignation, we are accustomed to accord to creatures of seeming insignificance whose exploits demand much strength, great spirit, and insatiate love for carnage. We cannot be indifferent to the marauder who takes his own wherever he finds it — a feudal baron who holds his own with undisputed sway — and an ogre whose victims are so many more than he can eat, that he actually keeps a private graveyard for the balance." Who is honestly able to give the shrikes a better character than Dr. Coues, just quoted? A few offer them questionable defence by recording the large numbers 87 Dusky, Gray, and Slate-colored of English sparrows they kill in a season, as if wanton carnage were ever justifiable. Not even a hawk itself can produce the consternation among a flock of sparrows that the harsh, rasping voice of the butcher- bird creates, for escape they well know to be difficult before the small ogre swoops down upon his victim, and carries it off to impale it on a thorn or frozen twig, there to devour it later piecemeal. Every shrike thus either impales or else hangs up, as a butcher does his meat, more little birds of many kinds, field- mice, grasshoppers, and other large insects than it can hope to devour in a week of bloody orgies. Field-mice are perhaps its fiivorite diet, but even snakes are not disdained. More contemptible than the actual slaughter of its victims, if possible, is the method by which the shrike often lures and sneaks upon his prey. Hiding in a clump of bushes in the meadow or garden, he imitates with fiendish cleverness the call-notes of little birds that come in cheerful response, hopping and flitting within easy range of him. His bloody work is finished in a trice. Usually, however, it must be owned, the shrike's hunt- ing habits are the reverse of sneaking. Perched on a point of vantage on some tree-top or weather-vane, his hawk-like eye can detect a grasshopper going through the grass fifty yards away. What is our surprise when some fine warm day in March, just before our butcher, ogre, sneak, and fiend leaves us for colder regions, to hear him break out into song ! Love has warmed even his cold heart, and with sweet, warbled notes on the tip of a beak that but yesterday was reeking with his victim's blood, he starts for Canada, leaving behind him the only good impres- sion he has made during a long winter's visit. Bohemian Waxwing- (Ampelis garruliis) Waxwing family Called also : BLACK-THROATED WAXWING ; LAPLAND WAXWING ; SILKTAIL Length — 8 to 9.5 inches. A little smaller than the robin. Male and Female — General color drab, with faint brownish wash above, shading into lighter gray below. Crest conspicuous, Dusky, Gray, and Slate-colored being nearly an inch and a half in length ; rufous at the base, shading into light gray above. Velvety-black forehead, chin, and line through the eye. Wings grayish brown, with very dark quills, which have two white bars; the bar at the edge of the upper wing coverts being tipped with red sealing-wax- like points, that give the bird its name. A few wing feathers tipped with yellow on outer edge. Tail quills dark brown, with yellow band across the end, and faint red streaks on upper and inner sides. Range — Northern United States and British America. Most com- mon in Canada and northern Mississippi region. Migrations — Very irregular winter visitor. W^hen Charles Bonaparte, Prince of Canino, who was the first to count this common waxwing of Europe and Asia among the birds of North America, published an account of it in his "Synopsis," it was considered a very rare bird indeed. It may be these wax- wings have greatly increased, but however uncommon they may still be considered, certainly no one who had ever seen a flock containing more than a thousand of them, resting on the trees of a lawn within sight of New York City, as the writer has done, could be expected to consider the birds " very rare." The Bohemian waxwing, like the only other member of the family that ever visits us, the cedar-bird, is a roving gipsy. In Germany they say seven years must elapse between its visitations, which the superstitious old cronies are wont to associate with woful stories of pestilence — just such tales as are resurrected from the depths of morbid memories here when a comet reappears or the seven-year locust ascends from the ground. The goings and comings of these birds are certainly most erratic and infrequent; nevertheless, when hunger drives them from the far north to feast upon the juniper and other winter berries of our Northern States, they come in enormous flocks, making up in quantity what they lack in regularity of visits and evenness of distribution. Surely no bird has less right to be associated with evil than this mild waxwing. It seems the very incarnation of peace and harmony. Part of a flock that has lodged in a tree will sit almost motionless for hours and whisper in softly hissed twitterings, very much as a company of Quaker ladies, similarly dressed, might sit at yearly meeting. Exquisitely clothed in silky-gray feathers that no berry juice is ever permitted to stain, they are 89 Dusky, Gray, and Slate-colored dainty, gentle, aristocratic-looking birds, a trifle heavy and indo- lent, perhaps, when walking on the ground or perching; but as they fly in compact squads just above the tree-tops their flight is exceedingly swift and graceful. Bay-breasted Warbler (Dendroica castajiea) Wood Warbler family Length— 'j,. 2^ to 5.75 inches. A little smaller than the English sparrow. Male— Crov^w, chin, throat, upper breast, and sides dull chest- nut. Forehead, sides of head, and cheeks black. Above olive-gray, streaked with black. Underneath buffy. Two white wing-bars. Outer tail quills with white patches on tips. Cream-white patch on either side of neck. Female — Has more greenish-olive above. j'?^/?^^— Eastern North America, from Hudson's Bay to Central America. Nests north of the United States. Winters in tropical limit of range. Migrations— }Aixy . September. Rare migrant. The chestnut breast of this capricious little visitor makes him look like a diminutive robin. In spring, when these warblers are said to take a more easterly route than the one they choose in autumn to return by to Central America, they may be so sud- denly abundant that the fresh green trees and shrubbery of the garden will contain a dozen of the busy little hunters. Another season they may pass northward either by another route or leave your garden unvisited; and perhaps the people in the very next town may be counting your rare bird common, while it is simply perverse. Whether common or rare, before your acquaintance has had time to ripen into friendship, away go the freaky little creatures to nest in the tree-tops of the Canadian coniferous forests. Chestnut-sided Warbler ( Dendroica pennsylvanica) Wood Warbler family Called also: BLOODY-SIDED WARBLER Length — About 5 inches. Over an inch shorter than the English sparrow. Male — Top of head and streaks in wings yellow. A black line 90 Dusky, Gray, and Slate-colored running through the eye and round back of crown, and a black spot in front of eye, extending to cheeks. Ear coverts, chin, and underneath white. Back greenish gray and slate, streaked with black. Sides of bird chestnut. Wings, which are streaked with black and yellow, have yellowish-white bars. Very dark tail with white patches on inner vanes of the outer quills. Female — Similar, but duller. Chestnut sides are often scarcely apparent. Range — Eastern North America, from Manitoba and Labrador to the tropics, where it winters. Migrations — May. September. Summer resident, most common in migrations. In the Alleghanies, and from New Jersey and Illinois north- ward, this restless little warbler nests in the bushy borders of woodlands and the undergrowth of the woods, for which he for- sakes our gardens and orchards after a very short visit in May. While hopping over the ground catching ants, of which he seems to be inordinately fond, or flitting actively about the shrubbery after grubs and insects, we may note his coat of many colors — patchwork in which nearly all the warbler colors are curiously combined. With drooped wings that often conceal the bird's chestnut sides, which are his chief distinguishing mark, and with tail erected like a redstart's, he hunts incessantly. Here in the garden he is as refreshingly indifferent to your interest in him as later in his breeding haunts he is shy and distrustful. His song is bright and animated, like that of the yellow warbler. Golden-winged Warbler ( HelminthopUla chrysoptera) Wood Warbler family Length — About 5 inches. More than an inch shorter than the English sparrow. Male — Yellow crown and yellow patches on the wings. Upper parts bluish gray, sometimes tinged with greenish. Stripe through the eye and throat black. Sides of head, chin, and line over the eye white. Underneath white, grayish on sides. A few white markings on outer tail feathers. Female — Crown duller ; gray where male is black, with olive upper parts and grayer underneath. 91 Dusky, Gray, and Slate-colored Range — From Canadian border to Central America, where it winters. Migrations — May. September. Summer resident. After, one lias seen a golden-winged warbler fluttering hither and thither about the shrubbery of a park within sight and sound of a great city's distractions and with blissful unconcern of them all, partaking of a hearty lunch of insects that infest the leaves before one's eyes, one counts the bird less rare and shy than one has been taught to consider it. Whoever looks for a warbler with gaudy yellow wings will not fmd the golden-winged vari- ety. His wings have golden patches only, and while these are distinguishing marks, they are scarcely prominent enough feat- ures to have given the bird the rather misleading name he bears. But, then, most warblers' names are misleading. They serve their best purpose in cultivating patience and other gentle virtues in the novice. Such habits and choice of haunts as characterize the blue- winged warbler are also the golden-winged's. But their voices are quite different, the former's being sharp and metallic, while the latter's ^ee, :{ee, :{ee comes more lazily and without accent. Myrtle Warbler (Defidroica coronataj Wood Warbler family Called also: YELLOW-RUMPED WARBLER; MYRTLE- BIRD; YELLOW-CROWNED WARBLER Le?igth — 5 to 5.5 inches. About an inch smaller than the English sparrow. Male — In summer plumage : A yellow patch on top of head, lower back, and either side of the breast. Upper parts blu- ish slate, streaked with black. Upper breast black ; throat white; all other under parts whitish, streaked with black. Two white wing-bars, and tail quills have white spots near the tip. In winter : Upper parts olive-brown, streaked with black; the yellow spot on lower back the only yellow mark remaining. Wing-bars grayish. Female — Resembles male in winter plumage. Range — Eastern North America. Occasional on Pacific slope. Summers from Minnesota and northern New England north- ward to Fur Countries. Winters from Middle States south- 93 Dusky, Gray, and Slate-colored ward into Central America; a few often remaining at the northern United States all the winter. Migrations — April. October. November. Also, but more rarely, a winter resident. The first of the warblers to arrive in the spring and the last to leave us in the autumn, some even remaining throughout the northern winter, the myrtle warbler, next to the summer yellow- bird, is the most familiar of its multitudinous kin. Though we become acquainted with it chiefly in the migrations, it impresses us by its numbers rather than by any gorgeousness of attire. The four yellow spots on crown, lower back, and sides are its distin- guishing marks; and in the autumn these marks have dwindled to only one, that on the lower back or rump. The great diffi- culty experienced in identifying any warbler is in its restless habit of flitting about. For a few days in early May we are forcibly reminded of the Florida peninsula, which fairly teems with these birds ; they become almost superabundant, a distraction during the precious days when the rarer species are quietly slipping by, not to return again for a year, perhaps longer, for some warblers are notoriously irregular in their routes north and south, and never return by the way they travelled in the spring. But if we look sharply into every group of myrtle warblers, we are quite likely to discover some of their dainty, fragile cous- ins that gladly seek the escort of birds so fearless as they. By the last of May all the warblers are gone from the neighborhood except the constant little summer yellowbird and redstart. In autumn, when the myrtle warblers return after a busy enough summer passed in Canadian nurseries, they chiefly haunt those regions where juniper and bay-berries abound. These latter (Myrica cerifera), or the myrtle wax-berries, as they are some- times called, and which are the bird's favorite food, have given it their name. Wherever the supply of these berries is sufficient to last through the winter, there it may be found foraging in the scrubby bushes. Sometimes driven by cold and hunger from the fields, this hardiest member of a family that properly belongs to the tropics, seeks shelter and food close to the outbuildings on the farm. 93 Dusky, Gray, and Slate-colored Parula Warbler (Compsothlypis americana) Wood Warbler family Called also: BLUE YELLOW-BACKED WARBLER Length — 4.5 to 4.75 inches. About an inch and a half shorter than the English sparrow. Male and Female — Slate-colored above, with a greenish-yellow or bronze patch in the middle of the back. Chin, throat, and breast yellow. A black, bluish, or rufous band across the breast, usually lacking in female. Underneath white, some- times marked with rufous on sides, but these markings are variable. Wings have two white patches ; outer tail feathers have white patch near the end. Range — Eastern North America. Winters from Florida southward. Migrations — April. October. Summer resident. Through an open window of an apartment in the very heart of New York City, a parula warbler flew this spring of 1897, surely the daintiest, most exquisitely beautiful bird visitor that ever voluntarily lodged between two brick walls. A number of such airy, tiny beauties flitting about among the blossoms of the shrubbery on a bright May morning and swaying on the slenderest branches with their inimitable grace, is a sight that the memory should retain into old age. They seem the very embodiment of life, joy, beauty, grace; of everything lovely that birds by any possibility could be. Apparently they are wafted about the garden; they fly with no more effort than a dainty lifting of the wings, as if to catch the breeze, that seems to lift them as it might a bunch of thistledown. They go through a great variety of charming posturings as they hunt for their food upon the blossoms and tender fresh twigs, now creeping like a nuthatch along the bark and peering into the crevices, now grace- fully swaying and balancing like a goldfinch upon a slender, pendent stem. One little sprite pauses in its hunt for the insects to raise its pretty head and trill a short and wiry song. But the parula warbler does not remain long about the gar- dens and orchards, though it will not forsake us altogether for the Canadian forests, where most of its relatives pass the summer. It retreats only to the woods near the water, if may be, or to just as close a counterpart of a swampy southern woods, where the 94 Dusky, Gray, and Slate-colored Spanish or Usnea " moss" drapes itself over the cypresses, as it can find here at the north. Its rarely beautiful nest, that hangs suspended from a slender branch very much like the Baltimore oriole's, is so woven and festooned with this moss that its con- cealment is perfect. Black-throated Blue Warbler (Dendroica ccerulescens) Wood Warbler family Length — 5.30 inches. About an inch shorter than the English sparrow. Male — Slate-color, not blue above ; lightest on forehead and darkest on lower back. Wings and tail edged with bluish. Cheeks, chin, throat, upper breast, and sides black. Breast and underneath white. White spots on wings, and a little white on tail. Female — Olive-green above ; underneath soiled yellow. Wing- spots inconspicuous. Tail generally has a faint bluish tinge. Range — Eastern North America, from Labrador to tropics, where it winters. Migrations — May. September. Usually a migrant only in the United States. Whoever looks for this beautifully marked warbler among the bluebirds, will wish that the man who named him had pos- sessed a truer eye for color. But if the name so illy fits the bright slate-colored male, how grieved must be his little olive- and-yellow mate to answer to the name of black-throated blue warbler when she has neither a black throat nor a blue feather! It is not easy to distinguish her as she flits about the twigs and leaves of the garden in May or early autumn, except as she is seen in company with her husband, whose name she has taken with him for better or for worse. The white spot on the wings should always be looked for to positively identify this bird. Before flying up to a twig to peck off the insects, the birds have a pretty vireo trick of cocking their heads on one side to in- vestigate the quantity hidden underneath the leaves. They seem less nervous and more deliberate than many of their restless family. Most warblers go over the Canada border to nest, but there are many records of the nests of this species in the Alleghanies as far south as Georgia, in the Catskills, in Connecticut, northern 9S Dusky, Gray, and Slate-colored Minnesota and Michigan. Laurel thickets and moist undergrowth of woods in the United States, and more commonly pine woods in Canada, are the flivorite nesting haunts. A sharp lip, {ip, like some midsummer insect's noise, is the bird's call-note, but its love-song, ^ee, ^ee, ^ee, or twee, twea, twea-e-e. as one authority writes it, is only rarely heard in the migrations. It is a languid, drawling little strain, with an upward slide that is easily drowned in the full bird chorus of May. 96 BLUE AND BLUISH BIRDS Bluebird Indigo Bunting Belted Kingfisher Blue Jay Blue Grosbeak Barn Swallow Cliff Swallow Mourning Dove Blue-gray Gnatcatcher Look also an,o.g Slate-colo-ed Birds in preceding group, p.,rt^ular^ annong the Warblers there, or in the group of Birds conspicuously Yellow and Orange. BLUE AND BLUISH BIRDS The Bluebird (Sialia sialis) Thrush family Called also: BLUE ROBIN Length--] inches. About an inch longer than the English sparrow. j/^/.-Upper parts, wings, and tail bright blue, with rusty wash in autumn. Throat, breast, and sides cmnamon-red. Under- neath white. Female-W2^s duller blue feathers, washed with gray, and a paler breast than male. ^^,,^,_North America, from Nova Scotia \"d M^^V^^,^^ *,^ ^^"^ of Mexico. Southward in wmter from Middle States to Ber- muda and West Indies. Migrations— }A2irc\x. November. Summer resident. A few some- times remain throughout the winter. With the first soft, plaintive warble of the bluebirds early in March, the sugar camps, waiting for their signal, take on a bust- ling activity; the farmer looks to his plough; orders are hurried off to the seedsmen ; a fever to be out of doors seizes one : spring is here. Snowstorms may yet whiten fields and gardens, high winds may howl about the trees and chimneys, but the little blue heralds persistently proclaim from the orchard and garden that the spring procession has begun to move. Tru-al-ly. tru-al-ly, they sweetly assert to our incredulous ears. The bluebird is not always a migrant, except in the more northern portions of the country. Some representatives there are always with us, but the great majority winter south and drop out of the spring procession on its way northward, the males a little ahead of their mates, which show housewifely instincts imme- diately after their arrival. A pair of these rather undemonstrative, matter-of-fact lovers go about looking for some deserted wood- pecker's hole in the orchard, peering into cavities in the fencp- 99 Blue and Bluish rails, or into the bird-houses that, once set up in the old-fashioned gardens for their special benefit, are now appropriated too often by the ubiquitous sparrow. Wrens they can readily dispossess of an attractive tenement, and do. With a temper as heavenly as the color of their feathers, the bluebird's sense of justice is not always so adorable. But sparrows unnerve them into cowardice. The comparatively infrequent nesting of the bluebirds about our homes at the present time is one of the most deplorable results of unrestricted sparrow immigration. Formerly they were the commonest of bird neighbors. Nest-building is not a favorite occupation with the bluebirds, that are conspicuously domestic none the less. Two, and even three, broods in a season fully occupy their time. As in most cases, the mother-bird does more than her share of the work. The male looks with wondering admiration at the housewifely activity, applauds her with song, feeds her as she sits brooding over the nestful of pale greenish-blue eggs, but his adoration of her virtues does not lead him into emulation. " Shifting his light load of song, From post to post along the cheerless fence," Lowell observed that he carried his duties quite as lightly. When the young birds first emerge from the shell they are almost black; they come into their splendid heritage of color by degrees, lest their young heads might be turned. It is only as they spread their tiny wings for their first flight from the nest that we can see a few blue feathers. With the first cool days of autumn the bluebirds collect in flocks, often associating with orioles and kingbirds in sheltered, sunny places where insects are still plentiful. Their steady, undu- lating flight now becomes erratic as they take food on the wing— v a habit that they may have learned by association with the king- birds, for they have also adopted the habit of perching upon some conspicuous lookout and then suddenly launching out into the air for a passing fly and returning to their perch. Long after their associates have gone southward, they linger like the last leaves on the tree. It is indeed "good-bye to summer " when the blue- birds withdraw their touch of brightness from the dreary Novem- ber landscape. The bluebirds from Canada and the northern portions of New INDIGO BIRD. Male and Female Blue and Bluish England and New York migrate into Virginia and the Carolinas; the birds from the Middle States move down into the Gulf States to pass the winter. It was there that countless numbers were cut off by the severe winter of 1894-95, which was so severe in that section. Indigo Bunting- (Passerina cyanea) Finch family Called also: INDIGO BIRD Length — 5.5 to 6 inches. Smaller than the English sparrow, or the size of a canary. Male — In certain lights rich blue, deepest on head. In another light the blue feathers show verdigris tints. Wings, tail, and lower back with brownish wash, most prominent in autumn plumage. Quills of wings and tail deep blue, margined with light. Female — Plain sienna-brown above. Yellowish on breast and shading to white underneath, and indistinctly streaked. Wings and tail darkest, sometimes with slight tinge of blue in outer webs and on shoulders. Range — North America, from Hudson Bay to Panama. Most common in eastern part of United States. Winters in Central America and Mexico. Migrations — May. September. Summer resident. The "glowing indigo" of this tropical-looking visitor that so delighted Thoreau in the Walden woods, often seems only the more intense by comparison with the blue sky, against which it stands out in relief as the bird perches singing in a tree-top. What has this gaily dressed, dapper little cavalier in common with his dingy sparrow cousins that haunt the ground and de- light in dust-baths, leaving their feathers no whit more dingy than they were before, and in temper, as in plumage, suggesting more of earth than of heaven .? Apparently he has nothing, and yet the small brown bird in the roadside thicket, which you have misnamed a sparrow, not noticing the glint of blue in her shoul- ders and tail, is his mate. Besides the structural resemblances, which are, of course, the only ones considered by ornithologists in classifying birds, the indigo buntings have several sparrow- like traits. They feed upon the ground, mainly upon seeds of grasses and herbs, with a few insects interspersed to give relish Blue and Bluish to the grain ; they build grassy nests in low bushes or tall, rank grass ; and their flight is short and labored. Borders of woods, roadside thickets, and even garden shrubbery, with open pasture lots for foraging grounds near by, are favorite haunts of these birds, that return again and again to some preferred spot. But however close to our homes they build theirs, our presence never ceases to be regarded by them with anything but suspicion, not to say alarm. Their metallic cheep, cheep, warns you to keep away from the little blue-white eggs, hidden away securely in the bushes ; and the nervous tail twitchings and jerkings are pathetic to see. Happily for the safety of their nest, the brood- ing mother has no tell-tale feathers to attract the eye. Dense foliage no more conceals the male bird's brilliant coat than it can the tanager's or oriole's. With no attempt at concealment, which he doubtless under- stands would be quite impossible, he chooses some high, con- spicuous perch to which he mounts by easy stages, singing as he goes ; and there begins a loud and rapid strain that promises much, but growing weaker and weaker, ends as if the bird were either out of breath or too weak to finish. Then suddenly he begins the same song over again, and keeps up this continuous performance for nearly half an hour. The noonday heat of an August day that silences nearly every other voice, seems to give to the indigo bird's only fresh animation and timbre. The Belted Kingfisher (Ceryle alcyon) Kingfisher family Called also: THE HALCYON Length — 12 to I J inches. About one-fourth as large again as the robin. Male — Upper part grayish blue, with prominent crest on head reaching to the nape. A white spot in front of the eye. Bill longer than the head, which is large and heavy. Wings and the short tail minutely speckled and marked with broken bands of white. Chin, band around throat, and underneath white. Two bluish bands across the breast and a bluish wash on sides. Female — Female and immature specimens have rufous bands where the adult male's are blue. Plumage of both birds oily. BELTED KINGFISHER Blue and Bluish ^^;i!^ 152 Brown, Olive or Grayish Brown, and Brown and Gray Sparrowy Birds why no two ornithologists record it alike. Doubtless the chief reason for the amusing differences in the syllables into which the songs of birds are often translated in the books, is that the same notes actually sound differently to different individuals. Thus, to people in Massachusetts the white-throated sparrow seems to say, " Pea-bod-y, Pea-bod-y, Pea-bo d-y ! " while good British subjects beyond the New England border hear him sing quite dis- tinctly, " Sweet Can-a-da, Can-a-da, Can-a-da!" But however the opinions as to the syllables of the field sparrow's song may differ, all are agreed as to its exquisite quality, that resembles the vesper sparrow's tender, sweet melody. The song begins with three soft, wild whistles, and ends with a series of trills and quavers that gradually melt away into silence: a serene and restful strain as soothing as a hymn. Like the vesper sparrows, these birds sometimes build a plain, grassy nest, unprotected by over- hanging bush, flat upon the ground. Possibly from a prudent fear of field-mice and snakes, the little mother most frequently lays her bluish-white, rufous-marked eggs in a nest placed in a bush of a bushy field. Hence John Burroughs has called the bird the "bush sparrow." Fox Sparrow (Passerella ilica) Finch family Called also: FOX-COLORED SPARROW; FERRUGINOUS FINCH ; FOXY FINCH Length — 6.5 to 7.25 inches. Nearly an inch longer than the Eng- lish sparrow. Male and Female — Upper parts reddish brown, varied with ash- gray, brightest on lower back, wings, and tail. Bluish slate about the head. Underneath whitish; the throat, breast, and sides heavily marked with arrow-heads and oblong dashes of reddish brown and blackish. Range — Alaska and Manitoba to southern United States. Winters chiefly south of Illinois and Virginia. Occasional stragglers remain north most of the winter. Migrations — March. November. Most common in the migra- tions. « There will be little difficulty in naming this largest, most plump and reddish of all the sparrows, whose fox-colored IS3 Brown, Olive or Grayish Brown, and Brown and Gray Sparrowy Birds feathers, rather than any malicious cunning of its disposition, are responsible for the name it bears. The male bird is incomparably the finest singer of its gifted family. His faint tseep call-note gives no indication of his vocal powers that some bleak morning in early March suddenly send a thrill of pleasure through you. It is the most welcome "glad surprise" of all the spring. Without a preliminary twitter or throat-clearing of any sort, the full, rich, luscious tones, with just a tinge of plaintiveness in them, are poured forth with spontaneous abandon. Such a song at such a time is enough to summon anybody with a musical ear out of doors under the leaden skies to where the delicious notes issue from the leafless shrubbery by the roadside. Watch the singer until the song ends, when he will quite likely descend among the dead leaves on the ground and scratch among them like any barn-yard fowl, but somehow contriving to use both feet at once in the operation, as no chicken ever could. He seems to take spe- cial delight in damp thickets, where the insects with which he varies his seed diet are plentiful. Usually the fox sparrows keep in small, loose flocks, apart by themselves, for they are not truly gregarious ; but they may sometimes be seen travelling in company with their white- throated cousins. They are among the last birds to leave us in the late autumn or winter. Mr. Bicknell says that they seem in- disposed to sing unless present in numbers. Indeed, they are little inclined to absolute solitude at any time, for even in the nesting season quite a colony of grassy nurseries may be found in the same meadow, and small companies haunt the roadside shrubbery during the migrations. Grasshopper Sparrow (Ammodramiis savannariim passerinus) Finch family C«//^^«/^^.- YELLOW-WINGED SPARROW Length — 5 to 5.4 inches. About an inch smaller than the Eng- lish sparrow. Male and Female — A cream-yellow line over the eye ; centre of crown, shoulders, and lesser wing coverts yellowish. Head blackish; rust-colored feathers, with small black spots on back of the neck; an orange mark before the eye. All other upper parts varied red, brown, cream, and black, with a drab 154 Brown, Olive or Grayish Brown, and Brown and Gray Sparrowy Birds wash. Underneath brownish drab on breast, shading to soiled white, and without streaks. Dusky, even, pointed tail feathers have grayish-white outer margins. J?an^e— Eastern North America, from British provinces to Cuba. Winters south of the Carolinas. Migrations — April. October. Common summer resident. It is safe to say that no other common bird is so frequently overlooked as this little sparrow, that keeps persistently to the grass and low bushes, and only faintly lifts up a weak, wiry voice that is usually attributed to some insect. At the bend of the wings only are the feathers really yellow, and even this bright shade often goes unnoticed as the bird runs shyly through an old dairy field or grassy pasture. You may all but step upon it before it takes wing and exhibits itself on the fence-rail, which is usually as far from the ground as it cares to go. If you are near enough to this perch you may overhear the :{ee-e-e-e-e-e-e-e that has earned it the name of grasshopper sparrow. If you persist- ently follow it too closely, away it flies, then suddenly drops to the ground where a scrubby bush affords protection. A curious fact about this bird is that after you have once become acquainted with it, you fmd that instead of being a rare discovery, as you had supposed, it is apt to be a common resident of almost every field you walk through. Savanna Sparrow ( Ammodramus sandwichensis savanna) Finch family Called also : SAVANNA BUNTING Length — 5. 5 to 6 inches. A trifle smaller than the English sparrow. Male and Female — Cheeks, space over the eye, and on the bend of the wings pale yellow. General effect of the upper parts brownish drab, streaked with black. Wings and tail dusky, the outer webs of the feathers margined with buff. Under parts white, heavily streaked with blackish and rufous, the marks on breast feathers being wedge-shaped. In the au- tumn the plumage is often suffused with a yellow tinge. Range — Eastern North America, from Hudson Bay to Mexico. Winters south of Illinois and Virginia. Migrations — April. October. A few remain in sheltered marshes at the north all winter. I5S Brown, Olive or Grayish Brown, and Brown and Gray Sparrowy Birds Look for the savanna sparrow in salt marshes, marshy or upland pastures, never far inland, and if you see a sparrowy bird, unusually white and heavily streaked beneath, and with pale yellow markings about the eye and on the bend of the wing, you may still make several guesses at its identity before the weak, little insect-like trill finally establishes it. Whoever can correctly name every sparrow and warbler on sight is a person to be envied, if, indeed, he exists at all. In the lowlands of Nova Scotia and, in fact, of all the mari- time provinces, this sparrow is the one that is perhaps most com- monly seen. Every fence-rail has one perched upon it, singing " Ptsip, ptsip, ptsip, ^ee-e-e-e-e " close to the ear of the passer-by, who otherwise might not hear the low grasshopper-like song. At the north the bird somehow loses the shyness that makes it com- paratively little known farther south. Depending upon the scrub and grass to conceal it, you may almost tread upon it before it startles you by its sudden rising with a whirring noise, only to drop to the ground again just as suddenly a few yards farther away, where it scuds among the underbrush and is lost to sight. Tall weeds and fence-rails are as high and exposed situations as it is likely to select while singing. It is most distinctively a ground bird, and flat upon the pasture or in a slightly hollowed cup it has the merest apology for a nest. Only a few wisps of grass are laid in the cavity to receive the pale-green eggs, that are covered most curiously with blotches of brown of many shapes and tints. Seaside Sparrow ( Ammodramus maritimus) Finch family Called also: MEADOW CHIPPY; SEASIDE FINCH Length — 6 inches. A shade smaller than the English sparrow. Male afid Female — Upper parts dusky grayish or olivaceous brown, inclining to gray on shoulders and on edges of some feathers. Wings and tail darkest. Throat yellowish white, shading to gray on brea'st, which is indistinctly mottled and streaked. A yellow spot before the eye and on bend of the wing, the bird's characteristic marks. Blunt tail. Range — Atlantic seaboard, from Georgia northward. Usually winters south of Virginia. Migrations — April. November. A few remain in sheltered marshes all winter. 156 Brown, Olive or Grayish Brown, and Brown and Gray Sparrowy Birds The savanna, the swamp, the sharp-tailed, and the song spar- rows may all sometimes be found in the haunts of the seaside sparrow, but you may be certain of finding the latter nowhere else than in the salt marshes within sight or sound of the sea. It is a dingy little bird, with the least definite coloring of all the spar- rows that have maritime inclinations, with no rufous tint in its feathers, and less distinct streakings on the breast than any of them. It has no black markings on the back. Good-sized flocks of seaside sparrows live together in the marshes; but they spend so much of their time on the ground, running about among the reeds and grasses, whose seeds and insect parasites they feed upon, that not until some unusual dis- turbance in the quiet place flushes them does the intruder sus- pect their presence. Hunters after beach-birds, longshoremen, seaside cottagers, and whoever follows the windings of a creek through the salt meadows to catch crabs and eels in midsummer, are well acquainted with the "meadow chippies," as the fisher- men call them. They keep up a good deal of chirping, sparrow- fashion, and have four or five notes resembling a song that is usually delivered from a tall reed stalk, where the bird sways and balances until his husky performance has ended, when down he drops upon the ground out of sight. Sometimes, too, these notes are uttered while the bird flutters in the air above the tops of the sedges. Sharp-tailed Sparrow (Ammodramus caudacutus) Finch family Length— ^.2^ to 5.85 inches. A trifle smaller than the English sparrow. Male and Female — Upper parts brownish or grayish olive, the back with black streaks, and gray edges to some feathers. A gray line through centre of crown, which has maroon stripes; gray ears enclosed by buff lines, one of which passes through the eye and one on side of throat; brownish orange, or buff, on sides of head. Bend of the wing yellow. Breast and sides pale buff, distinctly streaked with black. Under- neath whitish. Each narrow quill of tail is sharply pointed, the outer ones shortest. Range — Atlantic coast. Winters south of Virginia, Migrations'— k'^xW. November. Summer resident. 157 Brown, Olive or Grayish Brown, and Brown and Gray Sparrowy Birds This bird delights in the company of the dull-colored seaside sparrow, whose haunts in the salt marshes it frequents, especially the drier parts; but its pointed tail-quills and more distinct mark- ings are sufficient to prevent confusion. Mr. J. Dwight, Jr., who has made a special study of maritime birds, says of it: "It runs about among the reeds and grasses with the celerity of a mouse, and it is not apt to take wing unless closely pressed." (Wilson credited it with the nimbleness of a sandpiper.) "It builds its nest in the tussocks on the bank of a ditch, or in the drift left by the tide, rather than in the grassier sites chosen by its neighbors, the seaside sparrows." Only rarely does one get a glimpse of this shy little bird, that darts out of sight like a flash at the first approach. Balancing on a cat-tail stalk or perched upon a bit of driftwood, it makes a feeble, husky atte'mpt to sing a few notes; and during the brief performance the opera-glasses may search it out successfully. While it feeds upon the bits of sea-food washed ashore to the edge of the marshes, it gives us perhaps the best chance we ever get, outside of a museum, to study the bird's characteristics of plumage. "Both the sharp-tailed and the seaside finches are crepus- cular," says Dr. Abbott, in "The Birds About Us." They run up and down the reeds and on the water's edge long after most birds have gone to sleep. Song Sparrow (Melospi:{^afasciata) Finch family Length— 6 to 6.5 inches. About the same size as the English sparrow. Male and Female — Brown head, with three longitudinal gray bands. Brown stripe on sides of throat. Brownish-gray back, streaked with rufous. Underneath gray, shading to white, heavily streaked with darkest brown. A black spot on breast. Wings without bars. Tail plain grayish brown. Range— HorWx America, from Fur Countries to the Gulf States. Winters from southern Illinois and Massachusetts to the Gulf. Mtgratiofis—}A2irc\\. November. A few birds remain at the north all the year. Here is a veritable bird neighbor, if ever there was one ; at home in our gardens and hedges, not often farther away than the 158 SONG SPARROW Brown, Olive or Grayish Brown, and Brown and Gray Sparrowy Birds roadside, abundant everywhere during nearly every month in the year, and yet was there ever one too many ? There is scarcely an hour in the day, too, when its delicious, ecstatic song may not be heard ; in the darkness of midnight, just before dawn, when its voice is almost the first to respond to the chipping sparrow's wiry trill and the robin's warble ; in the cool of the morning, the heat of noon, the hush of evening — ever the simple, homely, sweet melody that every good American has learned to love in childhood. What the bird lacks in beauty it abundantly makes up in good cheer. Not at all retiring, though never bold, it chooses some conspicuous perch on a bush or tree to deliver its outburst of song, and sings away with serene unconsciousness. Its artlessness is charming. Thoreau writes in his "Summer" that the country girls in Massachusetts hear the bird say : "Maids, maids, maids, hang on your teakettle, teakettle-ettle-ettle." The call-note, a metallic chip, is equally characteristic of the bird's irrepressible vivacity. It has still another musical expression, however, a song more prolonged and varied than its usual per- formance, that it seems to sing only on the wing. Of course, the song sparrow must sometimes fly upward, but whoever sees it fly anywhere but downward into the thicket that it depends upon to conceal it from too close inspection .? By pumping its tail as it flies, it seems to acquire more than the ordinary sparrow's velocity. Its nest, which is likely to be laid flat on the ground, except where field-mice are plentiful (in which case it is elevated into the crotch of a bush), is made of grass, strips of bark, and leaves, and lined with finer grasses and hair. Sometimes three broods may be reared in a season, but even the cares of providing insects and seeds enough for so many hungry babies cannot altogether suppress the cheerful singer. The eggs are grayish white, speckled and clouded with lavender and various shades of brown. In sparsely settled regions the song sparrows seem to show a fondness for moist woodland thickets, possibly because their tastes are insectivorous. But it is difficult to imagine the friendly little musician anything but a neighbor. 159 Brown, Olive or Grayish Brown, and Brown and Gray Sparrowy Birds Swamp Song Sparrow (Melospi^a georgiana) Finch family Called also: SWAMP SPARROW; MARSH SPARROW; RED GRASS-BIRD; SWAMP FINCH Length — 5 to 5.8 inches. A little smaller than the English spar- row. Male — Forehead black ; crown, which in winter has black stripes, is always bright bay; line over the eye, sides of the neck gray. Back brown, striped with various shades. Wing- edges and tail reddish brown. Mottled gray underneath, inclining to white on the chin. Fejnale — Without black forehead and stripes on head. Rangi — North America, from Texas to Labrador. Migratiotis — April. October. A few winter at the north. In just such impenetrable retreats as the marsh wrens choose, another wee brown bird may sometimes be seen springing up from among the sedges, singing a few sweet notes as it flies and floats above them, and then suddenly disappearing into the grassy tangle. It is too small, and its breast is not streaked enough to be a song sparrow, neither are their songs alike; it has not the wren's peculiarities of bill and tail. Its bright-bay crown and sparrowy markings finally identify it. A suggestion of the bird's watery home shows itself in the liquid quality of its simple, sweet note, stronger and sweeter than the chippy's, and repeated many times almost like a trill that seems to trickle from the marsh in a little rivulet of song. The sweetness is apt to become monotonous to all but the bird itself, that takes evident delight in its performance. In the spring, when flocks of swamp sparrows come north, how they enliven the marshes and waste places ! And yet the song, simple as it is, is evidently not uttered alto- gether without effort, if the tail-spreading and teetering of the body after the manner of the ovenbird, are any indications of exertion. Nuttall says of these birds: " They thread their devious way with the same alacrity as the rail, with whom, indeed, they are often associated in neighborhood. In consequence of this perpet- ual brushing through sedge and bushes, their feathers are fre- quently so worn that their tails appear almost like those of rats." 160 Brown, Olive or Grayish Brown, and Brown and Gray Sparrowy Birds But the swamp sparrows frequently belie their name, and, especially in the South, live in dry fields, worn-out pasture lands with scrubby, weedy patches in them. They live upon seeds of grasses and berries, but Dr. Abbott has detected their special fondness for fish — not fresh fish particularly, but rather such as have lain in the sun for a few days and become dry as a chip. Their nest is placed on the ground, sometimes in a tussock of grass or roots of an upturned tree quite surrounded by water. Four or five soiled white eggs with reddish-brown spots are laid usually twice in a season. Tree Sparrow (Spi:iella monticola) Finch family Called also: CANADA SPARROW ; WINTER CHIPPY; TREE BUNTING ; WINTER CHIP-BIRD ; ARCTIC CHIPPER Length — 6 to 6.35 inches. About the same size as the English sparrow. Male — Crown of head bright chestnut. Line over the eye, cheeks, throat, and breast gray, the breast with an indistinct black spot on centre. Brown back, the feathers edged with black and buff. Lower back pale grayish brown. Two whitish bars across dusky wings ; tail feathers bordered with grayish white. Underneath whitish. Female — Smaller and less distinctly marked. Range — North America, from Hudson Bay to the Carolinas, and westward to the plains. Migrations — October. April. Winter resident. A revised and enlarged edition of the friendly little chipping sparrow, that hops to our very doors for crumbs throughout the mild weather, comes out of British America at the beginning of winter to dissipate much of the winter's dreariness by his cheer- ful twitterings. Why he should have been called a tree spar- row is a mystery, unless because he does not frequent trees — a reason with sufficient plausibility to commend the name to sev- eral of the early ornithologists, who not infrequently called a bird precisely what it was not. The tree sparrow actually does not show half the preference for trees that its familiar little counter- part does, but rather keeps to low bushes when not on the 161 Brown, Olive or Grayish Brown, and Brown and Gray Sparrowy Birds ground, where we usually find it. It does not crouch upon the ground like the chippy, but with a lordly carriage holds itself erect as it nimbly runs over the frozen crust. Sheltered from the high, wintry winds in the furrows and dry ditches of ploughed fields, a loose flock of these active birds keep up a merry hunt for fallen seeds and berries, with a belated beetle to give the grain a relish. As you approach the feeding ground, one bird gives a shrill alarm-cry, and instantly five times as many birds as you suspected were in the field take wing and settle down in the scrubby undergrowth at the edge of the woods or by the way- side. No still cold seems too keen for them to go a-foraging; but when cutting winds blow through the leafless thickets the scattered remnants of a flock seek the shelter of stone walls, hedges, barns, and cozy nooks about the house and garden. It is in midwinter that these birds grow most neighborly, although even then they are distinctly less sociable than their small chippy cousins. By the first of March, when the fox sparrow and the blue- bird attract the lion's share of attention by their superior voices, we not infrequently are deaf to the modest, sweet little strain that answers for the tree sparrow's love-song. Soon after the bird is in full voice, away it goes with its flock to their nesting ground in Labrador or the Hudson Bay region. It builds, either on the ground or not far from it, a nest of grasses, rootlets, and hair, without which no true chippy counts its home complete. Vesper Sparrow (Pooccetes gramineiis) Finch family Called also: BAY-WINGED BUNTING; GRASSFINCH; GRASS- BIRD Length — 5.75 to 6.25 inches. A little smaller than the English sparrow. Male and Female — Brown above, streaked and varied with gray. Lesser wing coverts bright rufous. Throat and breast whit- ish, striped with dark brown. Underneath plain soiled white. Outer tail-quills, which are its special mark of iden- tification, are partly white, but apparently wholly white as the bird flies. 162 Brown, Olive or Grayish Brown, and Brown and Gray Sparrowy Birds Range — North America, especially common in eastern parts from Hudson Bay to Gulf of Mexico. Winters south of Virginia. Migrations — April. October. Common summer resident. Among the least conspicuous birds, sparrows arc the easiest to classify for that very reason, and certain prominent features of the half dozen commonest of the tribe make their identification simple even to the merest novice. The distinguishing marks of this sparrow that haunts open, breezy pasture lands and country waysides are its bright, reddish-brown wing coverts, prominent among its dingy, pale brownish-gray feathers, and its white tail- quills, shown as the bird flies along the road ahead of you to light upon the fence-rail. It rarely flies higher, even to sing its serene, pastoral strain, restful as the twilight, of which, indeed, it seems to be the vocal expression. How different from the ecstatic outburst of the song sparrow ! Pensive, but not sad, its long- drawn silvery notes continue in quavers that float off unended like a trail of mist. The song is suggestive of the thoughts that must come at evening to some New England saint of humble station after a well-spent, soul-uplifting day. But while the vesper sparrow sings oftenest and most sweetly in the late afternoon and continues singing until only he and the rose-breasted grosbeak break the silence of the early night, his is one of the first voices to join the morning chorus. No "early worm," however, tempts him from his grassy nest, for the seeds in the pasture lands and certain tiny insects that live among the grass furnish meals at all hours. He simply delights in the cool, still morning and evening hours and in giving voice to his enjoy- ment of them. The vesper sparrow is preeminently a grass-bird. It first opens its eyes on the world in a nest neatly woven of grasses, laid on the ground among the grass that shelters it and furnishes it with food and its protective coloring. Only the grazing cattle know how many nests and birds are hidden in their pastures. Like the meadowlarks, their presence is not even suspected until a flock is flushed from its feeding ground, only to return to the spot when you have passed on your way. Like the meadowlark again, the vesper sparrow occasionally sings as it soars upward from its grassy home. 163 Brown, Olive or Grayish Brown, and Brown and Gray Sparrowy Birds White-crowned Sparrow (Zonotrichia leucophrys) Finch family Length — 7 inches. A little larger than the English sparrow. j/^/^_White head, with four longitudinal black lines marking off a crown, the black-and-white stripes being of about equal width. Cheeks, nape, and throat gray. Light gray under- neath, with some buff tints. Back dark grayish brown, some feathers margined with gray. Two interrupted white bars across wings. Plain, dusky tail ; total effect, a clear ashen gray. Female — With rusty head inclining to gray on crown. Paler throughout than the male. Range — From high mountain ranges of western United States (more rarely on Pacific slope) to Atlantic Ocean, and from Labrador to Mexico. Chiefly south of Pennsylvania. Migrations — October. April. Irregular migrant in Northern States. A winter resident elsewhere. The large size and handsome markings of this aristocratic- looking Northern sparrow would serve to distinguish him at once, did he noli often consort with his equally fine-looking white- throated cousins while migrating, and so too often get over- looked. Sparrows are such gregarious birds that it is well to scrutinize every flock with especial care in the spring and autumn, when the rarer migrants are passing. This bird is more common in the high altitudes of the Sierra Nevada and Rocky Mountains than elsewhere in the United States. There in the lonely forest it nests in low bushes or on the ground, and sings its full love- song, as it does in the northern British provinces, along the Atlan- tic coast ; but during the migrations it favors us only with selections from its repertoire. Mr. Ernest Thompson says, "Its usual song is like the latter half of the white-throat's familiar re- frain, repeated a number of times with a peculiar, sad cadence and in a clear, soft whistle that is characteristic of the group." "The song is the loudest and most plaintive of all the sparrow songs," says John Burroughs. " It begins with the words //«/^— Rather dark, but true olive-green above. Throat and breast yellowish olive, shading into pale yellow underneath, including wing linings and under tail coverts. Wings have yellowish bars. Whitish ring around eye. Upper part of bill black, under part whitish or flesh-colored. Female— Sm2i\\tr, with brighter yellow under parts and more decidedly yellow wing-bars. ^ange—Hox\h America, from Labrador to Panama, and westward from the Atlantic to the plains. Winters in Central America. 183 Green, Greenish Gray, Olive, and Yellowish Olive Birds Migrations — May. September. Summer resident. More com- monly a migrant only. This is the most yellow of the small flycatchers and the only Eastern species with a yellow instead of a white throat. Without hearing its call-note, " pse-ek-pse-ek," which it abruptly sneezes rather than utters, it is quite impossible, as it darts among the trees, to tell it from the Acadian flycatcher, with which even Audubon confounded it. Both these little birds choose the same sort of retreats — well-timbered woods near a stream that attracts myriads of insects to its spongy shores — and both are rather shy and solitary. The yellow-bellied species has a iar more northerly range, however, than its Southern relative or even the small green-crested flycatcher. It is rare in the Middle States, not common even in New England, except in the migrations, but from the Canada border northward its soft, plaintive whistle, which is its love-song, may be heard in every forest where it nests. All the flycatchers seem to make a noise with so much struggle, such convulsive jerkings of head and tail, and flutterings of the wings that, considering the scanty success of their musical attempts, it is surprising they try to lift their voices at all when the effort almost literally lifts them off their feet. While this little flycatcher is no less erratic than its Acadian cousin, its nest is never slovenly. One couple had their home in a wild-grape bower in Pennsylvania ; a Virginia creeper in New Jersey supported another cradle that was fully twenty feet above the ground ; but in Labrador, where the bird has its chosen breeding grounds, the bulky nest is said to be invariably placed either in the moss by the brookside or in some old stump, should the locality be too swampy. Black-throated Green Warbler (Dendroica virens) Wood Warbler family Length — 5 inches. Over an inch smaller than the English sparrow. Male — Back and crown of head bright yellowish olive-green. Forehead, band over eye, cheeks, and sides of neck rich yellow. Throat, upper breast, and stripe along sides black. Underneath yellowish white. Wings and tail brownish olive, the former with two white bars, the latter with much Green, Greenish Gray, Olive, and Yellowish Olive Birds white in outer quills. In autumn, plumage resembling the . female's. Female — Similar ; chin yellowish ; throat and breast dusky, the black being mixed with yellowish. Range — Eastern North America, from Hudson Bay to Central America and Mexico. Nests north of Illinois and New York. Winters in tropics. Migrations — May. October. Common summer resident north of New Jersey. There can be little difficulty in naming a bird so brilliantly and distinctly marked as this green, gold, and black warbler, that lifts up a few pure, sweet, tender notes, loud enough to attract attention when he visits the garden. "See-see, see-saw," he sings, but there is a tone of anxiety betrayed in the simple, syl- van strain that always seems as if the bird needed reassuring, possibly due to the rising inflection, like an interrogative, of the last notes. However abundant about our homes during the migrations, this warbler, true to the family instinct, retreats to the woods to nest — not always so far away as Canada, the nesting ground of most warblers, for in many Northern States the bird is commonly found throughout the summer. Doubtless it prefers tall ever- green trees for its mossy, grassy nest; but it is not always par- ticular, so that the tree be a tall one with a convenient fork in an upper branch. Early in September increased numbers emerge from the woods, the plumage of the male being less brilliant than when we saw it last, as if the family cares of the summer had proved too taxing. For nearly a month longer they hunt incessantly, with much flitting about the leaves and twigs at the ends of branches in the shrubbery and evergreens, for the tiny insects that the warblers must devour by the million during their all too brief visit. 185 BIRDS CONSPICUOUSLY YELLOW AND ORANGE Yellow-throated Vireo American Goldfinch Evening Grosbeak Blue-winged Warbler Canadian Warbler Hooded Warbler Kentucky Warbler Magnolia Warbler Mourning Warbler Nashville Warbler Pine Warbler Prairie Warbler Wilson's Warbler or Blackcap Yellow Warbler or Summer Yellowbird Yellow Redpoll Warbler Yellow-breasted Chat Maryland Yellowthroat Blackburnian Warbler Redstart Baltimore Oriole Look also among the Yellowish Olive Birds in the preceding group; and among the Brown Birds for the Meadowlark and Ricker. See also Parula Warbler (Slate) and Yellow-bellied Woodpecker (Black and White). BIRDS CONSPICUOUSLY YELLOW AND ORANGE Yellow-throated Vireo (Vireoflavifrons) Vireo or Greenlet family Length — 5.5 to 6 inches. A little smaller than the English spar- row. Male and Female — Lemon-yellow on throat, upper breast ; line around the eye and forehead. Yellow, shading into olive- green, on head, back, and shoulders. Underneath white. Tail dark brownish, edged with white. Wings a lighter shade, with two white bands across, and some quills edged with white. Ra7ige—Wox\\\ America, from Newfoundland to Gulf of Mexico, and westward to the Rockies. Winters in the tropics. Migrations — May. September. Spring and autumn migrant ; more rarely resident. This is undoubtedly the beauty of the vireo family — a group of neat, active, stoutly built, and vigorous little birds of yellow, greenish, and white plumage; birds that love the trees, and whose feathers reflect th^e coloring of the leaves they hide, hunt, and nest among. "We have no birds," says Bradford Torrey, "so unsparing of their music: they sing from morning till night." The yellow-throated vireo partakes of all the family charac- teristics, but, in addition to these, it eclipses all its relatives in the brilliancy of its coloring and in the art of nest-building, which it has brought to a state of hopeless perfection. No envious bird need try to excel the exquisite finish of its workmanship. Hap- pily, it has wit enough to build its pensile nest high above the reach of small boys, usually suspending it from a branch over- hanging running water that threatens too precipitous a bath to tempt the young climbers. However common in the city parks and suburban gardens this bird may be during the migrations, it delights in a secluded 189 Conspicuously Yellow and Orange retreat overgrown with tall trees and near a stream, such as is dear to the solitary vireo as well when the nesting time ap- proaches. High up in the trees we hear its rather sad, persistent strain, that is more in harmony with the dim forest than with the gay flower garden, where, if the truth must be told, its song is both monotonous and depressing. Mr. Bicknell says it is the only vireo that sings as it flies. American Goldfinch (Spinus tristis) Finch family Called also: WILD CANARY ; YELLOWBIRD ; THISTLE BIRD Length — 5 to 5.2 inches. About an inch smaller than the English sparrow. Male — In summer plumage : Bright yellow, except on crown of head, frontlet, wings, and tail, which are black. Whitish markings on wings give effect of bands. Tail with white on inner webs. In winter plumage : Head yellow-olive ; no frontlet ; back drab, with reddish tinge ; shoulders and throat yellow ; soiled brownish white underneath. Female — Brownish olive above, yellowish white beneath, Jiange — North America, from the tropics to the Fur Countries and westward to the Columbia River and California. Common throughout its range. Migrations — May. October. Common summer resident, fre- quently seen throughout the winter as well. An old field, overgrown with thistles and tall, stalky wild flowers, is the paradise of the goldfinches, summer or winter. Here they congregate in happy companies while the sunshine and goldenrod are as bright as their feathers, and cling to the swaying, slender stems that furnish an abundant harvest, daintily lunching upon the fluffy seeds of thistle blossoms, pecking at the mullein-stalks, and swinging airily among the asters and Michael- mas daisies ; or, when snow covers the same field with a glis- tening crust, above which the brown stalks offer only a meagre dinner, the same birds, now sombrely clad in winter feathers, cling to the swaying stems with cheerful fortitude. At your approach, the busy company rises on the wing, and with peculiar, wavy flight rise and fall through the air, marking 190 AMERICAN GOLDFINCH Conspicuously Yellow and Orange each undulation with a cluster of notes, sweet and clear, that come floating downward from the blue ether, where the birds seem to bound along exultant in their motion and song alike. In the spring the plumage of the goldfinch, which has been drab and brown through the winter months, is moulted or shed— a change that transforms the bird from a sombre Puritan into the gayest of cavaliers, and seems to wonderfully exalt his spirits. He bursts into a wild, sweet, incoherent melody that might be the outpouring from two or three throats at once instead of one, expressing his rapture somewhat after the manner of the canary, although his song lacks the variety and the finish of his caged namesake. What tone of sadness in his music the man found who applied the adjective tristis to his scientific name it is diffi- cult to imagine when listening to the notes that come bubbling up from the bird's happy heart. With plumage so lovely and song so delicious and dreamy, it is small wonder that numbers of our goldfinches are caught and caged, however inferior their song may be to the European species recently introduced into this country. Heard in Central Park, New York, where they were set at liberty, the European gold- finches seemed to sing with more abandon, perhaps, but with no more sweetness than their American cousins. The song remains at its best all through the summer months, for the bird is a long wooer. It is nearly July before he mates, and not until the tardy cedar birds are house-building in the orchard do the happy pair begin to carry grass, moss, and plant-down to a crotch of some tall tree convenient to a field of such wild flowers as will furnish food to a growing family. Doubtless the birds wait for this food to be in proper condition before they undertake parental duties at all— the most plausible excuse for their late nesting. The cares evolving from four to six pale-blue eggs will suffice to quiet the father's song for the winter by the first of September, and fade all the glory out of his shining coat. As pretty a sight as any garden offers is when a family of goldfinches alights on the top of a sun- flower to feast upon the oily seeds— a perfect harmony of brown and gold. 191 Conspicuously Yellow and Orange Evening Grosbeak (Coccothraustes vespertinus) Finch family Lefigth — 8 inches. Two inches shorter than the robin. Male — Forehead, shoulders, and underneath clear yellow; dull yellow on lower back; sides of the head, throat, and breast olive-brown. Crown, tail, and wings black, the latter with white secondary feathers. Bill heavy and blunt, and yellow. Female — Brownish gray, more or less suffused with yellow. Wings and tail blackish, with some white feathers. Range — Interior of North America. Resident from Manitoba northward. Common winter visitor in northwestern United States and Mississippi Valley; casual winter visitor in north- ern Atlantic States. In the winter of 1889-90 Eastern people had the rare treat of becoming acquainted with this common bird of the Northwest, that, in one of its erratic travels, chose to visit New England and the Atlantic States, as far south as Delaware, in great numbers. Those who saw the evening grosbeaks then remember how beautiful their y.ellow plumage — a rare winter tint — looked in the snow-covered trees, where small companies of the gentle and even tame visitors enjoyed the buds and seeds of the maples, elders, and evergreens. Possibly evening grosbeaks were in vogue for the next season's millinery, or perhaps Eastern ornithologists had a sudden zeal to investigate their structural anatomy. At any rate, these birds, whose very tameness, that showed slight acquaintance with mankind, should have touched the coldest heart, received the warmest kind of a reception from hot shot. The few birds that escaped to the solitudes of Manitoba could not be expected to tempt other travellers eastward by an account of their visit. The bird is quite likely to remain rare in the East. But in the Mississippi Valley and throughout the northwest, companies of from six to sixty may be regularly counted upon as winter neighbors on almost every farm. Here the females keep up a busy chatting, hke a company of cedar birds, and the males punctuate their pauses with a single shrill note that gives little indication of their vocal powers. But in the solitude of the north- ern forests the love-song is said to resemble the robin's at the start. Unhappily, after a most promising beginning, the bird suddenly stops, as if he were out of breath. 192 Conspicuously Yellow and Orange Blue-winged Warbler ( Helminthophila pinus) Wood Warbler family Called also : 'Q\JJE-\N\HGhD YELLOW WARBLER Length — 4.75 inches. An inch and a half shorter than the Eng- lish sparrow. Male — Crown of head and all under parts bright yellow. Back olive-green. Wings and tail bluish slate, the former with white bars, and three outer tail quills with large white patches on their inner webs. Female — Paler and more olive. Range — Eastern United States, from southern New England and Minnesota, the northern limit of its nesting range, to Mexico and Central America, where it winters. Migrations — May. September. Summer resident. In the naming of warblers, bluish slate is the shade intended when blue is mentioned ; so that if you see a dainty little olive and yellow bird with slate-colored wings and tail hunting for spiders in the blossoming orchard or during the early autumn, you will have seen the beautiful blue-winged warbler. It has a rather leisurely way of hunting, unlike the nervous, restless flit- ting about from twig to twig that is characteristic of many of its many cousins. The search is thorough— bark, stems, blossoms, leaves are inspected for larvse and spiders, with many pretty motions of head and body. Sometimes, hanging with head downward, the bird suggests a yellow titmouse. After blossom time a pair of these warblers, that have done serviceable work in the orchard in their all too brief stay, hurry off to dense woods to nest. They are usually to be seen in pairs at all seasons. Not to "high coniferous trees in northern forests" — the Mecca of innumerable warblers — but to scrubby, second growth of wood- land borders, or lower trees in the heart of the woods, do these dainty birds retreat. There they build the usual warbler nest of twigs, bits of bark, leaves, and grasses, but with this peculiarity : the numerous leaves with which the nest is wrapped all have their stems pointing upward. Mr. Frank Chapman has admirably defined their song as consisting of " two drawled, wheezy notes — swee-chee, the first inhaled, the second exhaled." 193 Conspicuously Yellow and Orange Canadian Warbler (Sylvania canadensis) Wood Warbler family Called also : CM^AmA'H FLYCATCHER; SPOTTED CANA- DIAN WARBLER Length — 5 to 5.6 inches. About an inch shorter than the English sparrow. Male — Immaculate bluish ash above, without marks on wings or tail; crown spotted with arrow-shaped black marks. Cheeks, hne from bill to eye, and underneath clear yellow. Black streaks forming a necklace across the breast. Female — Paler, with necklace indistinct. Jiange — North America, from Manitoba and Labrador to tropics. Migrations — May. September. Summer resident ; most abun- dant in migrations. Since about one-third of all the song-birds met with in a year's rambles are apt to be warblers, the novice cannot devote his first attention to a better group, confusing though it is by reason of its size and the repetition of the same colors in so many bewildering combinations. Monotony, however, is unknown in the warbler family. Whoever can rightly name every warbler, male and female, on sight is uniquely accomplished. The jet necklace worn on this bird's breast is its best mark of identification. Its form is particularly slender and graceful, as might be expected in a bird so active, one to whom a hundred tiny insects barely afford a dinner that must often be caught piece- meal as it flies past. To satisfy its appetite, which cannot but be dainty in so thoroughly charming a bird, it lives in low, boggy woods, in such retreats as Wilson's black-capped warbler selects for a like reason. Neither of these two "flycatcher" warblers depends altogether on catching insects on the wing; countless thousands are picked off the under sides of leaves and about the stems of twigs in true warbler fashion. The Canadian's song is particularly loud, sweet,'and viva- cious. It is hazardous for any one without long field practice to try to name any warbler by its song alone, but possibly this one's animated music is as characteristic as any. The nest is built on the ground on a mossy bank or elevated 194 Conspicuously Yellow and Orange into the root crannies of some large tree, wiiere there is much water in the woods. Bits of bark, dead wood, moss, and fine rootlets, all carefully wrapped with leaves, go to make the pretty cradle. Unhappily, the little Canada warblers are often cheated out of their natural rights, like so many other delightful song- birds, by the greedy interloper that the cowbird deposits in their nest. Hooded Warbler (Sylvania mitrata) Wood Warbler family Length—^ to 5.75 inches. About an inch shorter than the Eng- lish sparrow. Male — Head, neck, chin, and throat black like a hood in mature male specimens only. Hood restricted, or altogether want- ing in female and young. Upper parts rich olive. Forehead, cheeks, and underneath yellow. Some conspicuous white on tail feathers. Female — Duller, and with restricted cowl. Range — United States east of Rockies, and from southern Michi- gan and southern New England to West Indies and tropical America, where it winters. Very local. Migrations — May. September. Summer resident. This beautifully marked, sprightly little warbler might be mistaken in his immaturity for the yellowthroat ; and as it is said to take him nearly three years to grow his hood, with the completed cowl and cape, there is surely sufficient reason here for the despair that often seizes the novice in attempting to distin- guish the perplexing warblers. Like its Southern counterpart, the hooded warbler prefers wet woods and low trees rather than high ones, for much of its food consists of insects attracted by the dampness, and many of them must be taken on the wing. Be- cause of its tireless activity the bird's figure is particularly slender and graceful — a trait, too, to which we owe all the glimpses of it we are likely to get throughout the summer. It has a curious habit of spreading its tail, as if it wished you to take special notice of the white spots that adorn it; not flirting it, as the red- start does his more gorgeous one, but simply opening it like a fan as it flies and darts about. Its song, which is particularly sweet and graceful, and with 19s Conspicuously Yellow and Orange more variation than most warblers' music, has been translated " Che-ijce-eo-tsip , tsip , cbe-ive-eo," again interpreted by Mr. Chap- man as "You must come to the woods, or you won't see me." Kentucky Warbler (Geothlypis formosa) Wood Warbler family Length — 5.5 inches. Nearly an inch shorter than the English sparrow. Afale — Upper parts olive-green; under parts yellow; a yellow line from the bill passes over and around the eye. Crown of head, patch below the eye, and line defining throat, black. Female — Similar, but paler, and with grayish instead of black markings. jRange — United States eastward from the Rockies, and from Iowa and Connecticut to Central America, where it winters. Migrations — May. September. Summer resident. No bird is common at the extreme limits of its range, and so this warbler has a reputation for rarity among the New England ornithologists that would surprise people in the middle South and Southwest. After all that may be said in the books, a bird is either common or rare to the individual who may or may not have happened to become acquainted with it in any part of its chosen territory. Plenty of people in Kentucky, where we might judge from its name this bird is supposed to be most numerous, have never seen or heard of it, while a student on the Hudson River, within sight of New York, knows it intimately. It also nests regularly in certain parts of the Connecticut Valley. " Who is my neighbor.?" is often a question difficult indeed to answer where birds are concerned. In the chapter, "Spring at the Cap- ital," which, with every reading of "Wake Robin," inspires the bird-lover with fresh zeal, Mr. Burroughs writes of the Kentucky warbler: " 1 meet with him in low, damp places, in the woods, usually on the steep sides of some little run. I hear at intervals a clear, strong, bell-like whistle or warble, and presently catch a glimpse of the bird as he jumps up from the ground to take an insect or worm from the under side of a leaf This is his charac- teristic movement. He belongs to the class of ground warblers, and his range is very low, indeed lower than that of any other species with which I am acquainted." 196 Conspicuously Yellow and Orange Like the ovenbird and comparatively few others, for most birds hop over the ground, the Kentucky warbler walks rapidly about, looking for insects under the follen leaves, and poking his inquisitive beak into every cranny where a spider may be lurk- ing. The bird has a pretty, conscious way of flying up to a perch, a few feet above the ground, as a tenor might advance towards the footlights of a stage, to pour forth his clear, pene- trating whistle, that in the nesting season especially is repeated over and over again with tireless persistency. Magnolia Warbler (Dendroica maculosa) Wood Warbler family Called also: BLACK-AND-YELLOW WARBLER; SPOTTED WAR BLER WARBLER ; BLUE-HEADED YELLOW-RUMPED WAR- Length — 4.7 s to 5 inches. About an inch and a half smaller than the English sparrow. Male—Cxov^n of head slate-color, bordered on either side by a white line ; a black line, apparently running through the eye, and a yellow line below it, merging into the yellow throat. Lower back and under parts yellow. Back, wings, and tail blackish olive. Large white patch on the wings, and the middle of the tail-quills white. Throat and sides heavily streaked with black. Female— Vi^iS greener back, is paler, and has less distinct markings. Range— Wox\\\ America, from Hudson Bay to Panama. Summers from northern Michigan and northern New England north- ward ; winters in Central America and Cuba. Migrations — May. October. Spring and summer migrant. In spite of the bird's name, one need not look for it in the glossy magnolia trees of the southern gardens more than in the shrubbery on New England lawns, and during the migra- tions it is quite as likely to be found in one place as in the other. Its true preference, however, is for the spruces and hemlocks of its nesting ground in the northern forests. For these it deserts us after a brief hunt about the tender, young spring foliage and blos- soms, where the early worm lies concealed, and before we have become so well acquainted with its handsome clothes that we will instantly recognize it in the duller ones it wears on its return 197 Conspicuously Yellow and Orange trip in the autumn. The position of the white marks on the tail feathers of this warbler, however, is the clue by which it may be identified at any season or any stage of its growth. If the white bar runs across the middle of the warbler's tail, you can be sure of the identity of the bird. A nervous and restless hunter, it nevertheless seems less shy than many of its kin. Another pleas- ing characteristic is that it brings back with it in October the loud, clear, rapid whistle with which it has entertained its nesting mate in the Canada woods through the summer. Mourning Warbler (Geothlypis Philadelphia) Wood Warbler family Called also : MOURNING GROUND WARBLER Length — 5 to 5.6 inches. About an inch smaller than the English sparrow. Male — Gray head and throat; the breast gray; the feathers with black edges that make them look crinkled, like crape. The black markings converge into a spot on upper breast. Upper parts, except head, olive. Underneath rich yellow. Female — Similar, but duller; throat and breast buff and dusky where the male is black. Back olive-green. Eattge — "Eastern North America; breeds from eastern Nebraska, northern New York, and Nova Scotia northward, and south- ward along the Alleghanies to Pennsylvania. Winters in the tropics." — Chapman. Migratiojis — May. September. Spring and autumn migrant. Since Audubon met with but one of these birds in his inces- sant trampings, and Wilson secured only an immature, imper- fectly marked specimen for his collection, the novice may feel no disappointment if he fails to make the acquaintance of this "gay and agreeable widow." And yet the shy and wary bird is not unknown in Central Park, New York City. Even where its clear, whistled song strikes the ear with a startling novelty that invites to instant pursuit of the singer, you may look long and diligently through the undergrowth without finding it. Dr. Merriam says the whistle resembles the syllables " true, true, true, tru, too, the voice rising on the first three syllables and falling on the last two." In the nesting season this song is 198 Conspicuously Yellow and Orange repeated over and over again with a persistency worthy of a Kentucky warbler. It is dehvered from a perch within a few feet of the ground, as high as the bird seems ever inclined to ascend. Nashville Warbler ( Helminthophila ruficapilla) Wood Warbler family Length— 4.']^ to 5 inches. About an inch and a half smaller than the English sparrow. Male — Olive-green above; yellow underneath. Slate-gray head and neck. Partially concealed chestnut patch on crown. Wings and tail olive-brown and without markings. Female — Dull olive and paler, with brownish wash underneath. Range — North America, westward to the plains; north to the Fur Countries, and south to Central America and Mexico. Nests north of Illinois and northern New England ; winters in tropics. Migrations — April. September or October. It must not be thought that this beautiful warbler confines itself to backyards in the city of Nashville simply because Wil- son discovered it near there and gave it a local name, for the bird's actual range reaches from the fur trader's camp near Hud- son Bay to the adobe villages of Mexico and Central America, and over two thousand miles east and west in the United States. It chooses open rather than dense woods and tree-bordered fields. It seems to have a liking for hemlocks and pine trees, especially if near a stream that attracts insects to its shores ; and Dr. War- ren notes that in Pennsylvania he finds small flocks of these war- blers in the autumn migration, feeding in the willow trees near little rivers and ponds. Only in the northern parts of the United States is their nest ever found, for the northern British provinces are their preferred nesting ground. One seen in the White Mountains was built on a mossy, rocky ledge, directly on the ground at the foot of a pine tree, and made of rootlets, moss, needles from the trees overhead, and several layers of leaves out- side, with a lining of fine grasses that cradled four white, speckled eggs. Audubon likened the bird's feeble note to the breaking of twigs. 199 Conspicuously Yellow and Orange Pine Warbler (Dendroica vigorsii) Wood Warbler family Called also: PINE-CREEPING WARBLER Length — 5.5 to 6 inches. A trifle smaller than the English spar- row. Male — Yellowish olive above; clear yellow below, shading to grayish white, with obscure dark streaks on side of breast. Two whitish wing-bars ; two outer tail feathers partly white. Female — Duller ; grayish white only faintly tinged with yellow underneath. Range — North America, east of the Rockies; north to Manitoba, and south to Florida and the Bahamas. Winters from south- ern Illinois southward. Migrations — March or April. October or later. Common sum- mer resident. The pine warbler closely presses the myrtle warbler for the first place in the ranks of the family migrants, but as the latter bird often stays north all winter, it is usually given the palm. Here is a warbler, let it be recorded, that is fittingly named, for it is a denizen of pine woods only; most common in the long stretches of pine forests at the south and in New York and New England, and correspondingly uncommon wherever the woods- man's axe has laid the pine trees low throughout its range. Its "simple, sweet, and drowsy song," writes Mr. Parkhurst, is always associated "with the smell of pines on a sultry day." It recalls that of the junco and the social sparrow or chippy. Creeping over the bark of trees and peering into every crevice like a nuthatch; running along the limbs, not often hopping ner- vously or flitting like the warblers; darting into the air for a pass- ing insect, or descending to the ground to feed on seeds and berries, the pine warbler has, by a curious combination, the movements that seem to characterize several different birds. It is one of the largest and hardiest members of its fiimily, but not remarkable for its beauty. It is a sociable traveller, cheer- fully escorting other warblers northward, and welcoming to its band both the yellow redpolls and the myrtle warblers. These birds are very often seen together in the pine and other evergreen trees in our lawns and in the large city parks. Conspicuously Yellow and Orange Prairie Warbler (Dendroica discolor) Wood Warbler family Length— ^.q^ to 5 inches. About an inch and a half shorter than the English sparrow. j/a/^_01ive-green above, shading to yellowish on the head, and with brick-red spots on back between the shoulders. A yellow line over the eye; wing-bars and all under parts bright yellow, heavily streaked with black on the sides. Line through the eye and crescent below it, black. Much white in outer tail feathers. Female— ?^\tr\ upper parts more grayish olive, and markings less distinct than male's. ^^;2^^_E astern half of the United States. Nests as far north as New England and Michigan. Winters from Florida south- ward. Migrations— }A2Ly. September. Summer resident. Doubtless this diminutive bird was given its name because it prefers open country rather than the woods— the scrubby under- growth of oaks, young evergreens, and bushes that border clear- ings being as good a place as any to look for it, and not the wtnd-swept, treeless tracts of the wild West. Its range is south- erly. The Southern and Middle States are where it is most abundant. Here is a wood warbler that is not a bird of the woods— less so, in fact, than either the summer yellowbird (yellow warbler) or the palm warbler, that are eminently neigh- borly and fond of pasture lands and roadside thickets. But the prairie warblers are rather more retiring little sprites than their cousins, and it is not often we get a close enough view of them to note the brick-red spots on their backs, which are their distin- guishing marks. They have a most unkind preference for briery bushes, that discourage human intimacy. In such forbidding retreats they build their nest of plant-fibre, rootlets, and twigs, lined with plant-down and hair. The song of an individual prairie warbler makes only a slight impression. It consists " of a series of six or seven quickly repeated ^ees, the next to the last one being the highest " (Chap- man). But the united voices of a dozen or more of these pretty little birds, that often sing together, afford something approach- ing a musical treat. 201 Conspicuously Yellow and Orange Wilson's Warbler (Sylvania pusilla) Wood Warbler family Called also: BLACKCAP; GREEN BLACK-CAPPED WAR- BLER ; WILSON'S FLYCATCHER Length — 4.75 to 5 inches. About an inch and a half shorter than the English sparrow. Male — Black cap ; yellow forehead ; all other upper parts olive- green ; rich yellow underneath. Female — Lacks the black cap. Range — North America, from Alaska and Nova Scotia to Panama. Winters south of Gulf States. Nests chiefly north of the United States. Migrations — May. September. Spring and autumn migrant. To see this strikingly marked little bird one must be on the sharp lookout for it during the latter half of May, or at the season of apple bloom, and the early part of September. It passes north- ward with an almost scornful rapidity. Audubon mentions hav- ing seen it in Maine at the end of October, but this specimen surely must have been an exceptional laggard. In common with several others of its family, it is exceedingly expert in catching insects on the wing ; but it may be known as no true flycatcher from the conspicuous rich yellow of its under parts, and also from its habit of returning from a midair sally to a different perch from the one it left to pursue its dinner. A true flycatcher usually returns to its old perch after each hunt. To indulge in this aerial chase with success, these warblers select for their home and hunting ground some low woodland growth where a sluggish stream attracts myriads of insects to the boggy neighborhood. Here they build their nest in low bushes or upon the ground. Four or five grayish eggs, sprinkled with cinnamon-colored spots in a circle around the larger end, are laid in the grassy cradle in June. Mr. H. D. Minot found one of these nests on Pike's Peak at an altitude of 11,000 feet, almost at the limit of vegetation. The same authority compares the bird's song to that of the redstart and the yellow warbler. 202 Conspicuously Yellow and Orange Yellow Redpoll Warbler (Dendroica palmarum hypochrysea) Wood Warbler family Called also : ^ELLOV^ PALM WARBLER Length — 5.5 to 5.75 inches. A little smaller than the English sparrow. Male and Female — Chestnut crown. Upper parts brownish olive; greenest on lower back. Underneath uniform bright yellow, streaked with chestnut on throat, breast, and sides. Yellow line over and around the eye. Wings unmarked. Tail edged with olive-green ; a few white spots near tips of outer quills. More brownish above in autumn, and with a grayish wash over the yellow under parts. Range — Eastern parts of North America. Nests from Nova Scotia northward. Winters in the Gulf States. Migrations — April. October. Spring and autumn migrant. While the uniform yellow of this warbler's under parts in any plumage is its distinguishing mark, it also has a flycatcher's trait of constantly flirting its tail, that is at once an outlet for its superabundant vivacity and a foirly reliable aid to identification. The tail is jerked, wagged, and flirted like a baton in the handa of an inexperienced leader of an orchestra. One need not go to the woods to look for the restless little sprite that comes north- ward when the early April foliage is as yellow and green as its feathers. It prefers the fields and roadsides, and before there are leaves enough on the undergrowth to conceal it we may come to know it as well as it is possible to know any bird whose home life is passed so far away. Usually it is the first warbler one sees in the spring in New York and New England. With all the alertness of a flycatcher, it will dart into the air after insects that fly near the ground, keeping up a constant chip, chip, fine and shrill, at one end of the small body, and the liveliest sort of tail motions at the other. The pine warbler often bears it company. With the first suspicion of warm weather, off goes this hardy little fellow that apparently loves the cold almost well enough to stay north all the year like its cousin, the myrtle warbler. It builds a particularly deep nest, of the usual warbler construction, on the ground, but its eggs are rosy rather than the bluish white of others. In the Southern States the bird becomes particularly neigh- 203 Conspicuously Yellow and Orange body, and is said to enter the streets and gardens of towns with a chippy's familiarity. Palm Warbler or Redpoll Warbler (Dendroica palmarum) differs from the preceding chiefly in its slightly smaller size, the more grayish-brown tint in its olive upper parts, and the uneven shade of yellow underneath that varies from clear yellow to soiled whitish. It is the Western counterpart of the yellow redpoll, and is most common in the Mississippi Valley. Strangely enough, however, it is this warbler, and not hypochrysea, that goes out of its way to winter in Florida, where it is abundant all winter. Yellow Warbler (Dendroica (Estiva) Wood Warbler family Called also: SUMMER YELLOWBIRD ; GOLDEN WARBLER; YELLOW POLL Length — 4.75 to 5.2 inches. Over an inch shorter than the Eng- lish sparrow. Male — Upper parts olive-yellow, brightest on the crown ; under parts bright yellow, streaked with reddish brown. Wings and tail dusky olive-brown, edged with yellow. Female — Similar; but reddish-brown streakings less distinct. Range — North America, except Southwestern States, where the prothonotary warbler reigns in its stead. Nests from Gulf States to Fur Countries. Winters south of the Gulf States, as far as northern parts of South America. Migrations — May. September. Common summer resident. This exquisite little creature of perpetual summer (though to find it it must travel back and forth between two continents) comes out of the south with the golden days of spring. From much living in the sunshine through countless generations, its feathers have finally become the color of sunshine itself, and in disposition, as well, it is nothing if not sunny and bright. Not the least of its attractions is that it is exceedingly common every- where: in the shrubbery of our lawns, in gardens and orchards, by the road and brookside, in the edges of woods — everywhere we catch its glint of brightness through the long summer days, and hear its simple, sweet, and happy song until the end of July. 204 YELLOW WARBLER Conspicuously Yellow and Orange Because both birds are so conspicuously yellow, no doubt this warbler is quite generally confused with the goldfinch; but their distinctions are clear enough to any but the most superficial glance. In the first place, the yellow warbler is a smaller bird than the goldfinch; it has neither black crown, wings, nor tail, and it does have reddish-brown streaks on its breast that are sufficiently obsolete to make the coloring of that part look simply dull at a little distance. The goldfinch's bill is heavy, in order that it may crack seeds, whereas the yellow warbler's is slender, to enable it to pick minute insects from the foliage. The goldfinch's wavy, curved flight is unique, and that of his "double" differs not a whit from that of all nervous, flitting warblers. Surely no one familiar with the rich, full, canary-like song of the "wild canary," as the goldfinch is called, could confuse it with the mild ''Wee- chee, chee, cher-wee " of the summer yellowbird. Another distinc- tion, not always infallible, but nearly so, is that when seen feed- ing, the goldfinch is generally below the line of vision, while the yellow warbler is either on it or not far above it, as it rarely goes over twelve feet from the ground. No doubt, the particularly mild, sweet amiability of the yellow warbler is responsible for the persistent visitations of the cowbird, from which it is a conspicuous sufferer. In the exqui- site, neat little matted cradle of glistening milk-weed flax, lined with down from the fronds of fern, the skulking housebreaker deposits her surreptitious egg for the little yellow mother-bird to hatch and tend. But amiability is not the only prominent trait in the female yellow warbler's character. She is clever as well, and quickly builds a new bottom on her nest, thus sealing up the cowbird's tgg, and depositing her own on the soft, spongy floor above it. This operation has been known to be twice repeated, until the nest became three stories high, when a persistent cow- bird made such unusual architecture necessary. The most common nesting place of the yellow warbler is in low willows along the shores of streams. 20S Conspicuously Yellow and Orange Yellow-breasted Chat (Icieria virens) Wood Warbler family Called also: POLYGLOT CHAT; YELLOW MOCKING-BIRD Length — 7.5 inches. A trifle over an inch longer than the Eng- lish sparrow. Male and Fetnale—Umiorm olive-green above. Throat, breast, and under side of wings bright, clear yellow. Underneath white. Sides grayish. White line over the eye, reaching to base of bill and forming partial eye-ring. Also white line on sides of throat. Bill and feet black. jRange—Hori\\ America, from Ontario to Central America and westward to the plains. Most common in Middle Atlantic States. Mtgratiofis—'E^dy May. Late August or September. Summer resident. This largest of the warblers might be mistaken for a dozen birds collectively in as many minutes; but when it is known that the jumble of whistles, parts of songs, chuckles, clucks, barks, quacks, whines, and wails proceed from a single throat, the yellow-breasted chat becomes a marked specimen forthwith — a conspicuous individual never to be confused with any other member of the feathered tribe. It is indeed absolutely unique. The catbird and the mocking-bird are rare mimics; but while the chat is not their equal in this respect, it has a large repertoire of weird, uncanny cries all its own — a power of throwing its voice, like a human ventriloquist, into unexpected corners of the thicket or meadow. In addition to its extraordinary vocal feats, it can turn somersaults and do other clown-like stunts as well as any variety actor on the Bowery stage. Only by creeping cautiously towards the roadside tangle, where this "rollicking polyglot" is entertaining himself and his mate, brooding over her speckled eggs in a bulky nest set in a most inaccessible briery part of the thicket, can you hope to hear him rattle through his variety performance. Walk boldly or noisily past his retreat, and there is " silence there and nothing more." But two very bright eyes peer out at you through the undergrowth, where the trim, elegant-looking bird watches you with quizzical suspicion until you quietly seat yourself and 206 Conspicuously Yellow and Orange assume silent indifference. " Whew, whew / " he begins, and then immediately, with evident intent to amuse, he rattles off an inde- scribable, eccentric medley until your ears are tired listening. With bill uplifted, tail drooping, wings fluttering at his side, he cuts an absurd figure enough, but not so comical as when he rises into the air, trailing his legs behind him stork-fashion. This surely is the clown among birds. But zany though he is, he is as capable of devotion to his Columbine as Punchinello, and re- mains faithfully mated year after year. However much of a tease and a deceiver he may be to the passer-by along the roadside, in the privacy of the domestic circle he shows truly lovable traits. He has the habit of singing in his unmusical way on moon- light nights. Probably his ventriloquial powers are cultivated not for popular entertainment, but to lure intruders away from his nest. Maryland Yellowthroat (Geothlypis trichas) Wood Warbler family Called also: BLACK-MASKED GROUND WARBLER Length — 5.33 inches. Just an inch shorter than the typical Eng- lish sparrow. Male — Olive-gray on head, shading to olive-green on all the other upper parts. Forehead, cheeks, and sides of head black, like a mask, and bordered behind by a grayish line. Throat and breast bright yellow, growing steadily paler underneath. Female — Either totally lacks black mask or its place is indicated by only a dusky tint. She is smaller and duller. Range — Eastern North America, west to the plains; most common east of the Alleghanies. Nests from the Gulf States to Lab- rador and Manitoba; winters south of Gulf States to Panama. Migrations — May. September. Common summer resident. "Given a piece of marshy ground with an abundance of skunk cabbage and a fairly dense growth of saplings, and near by a tangle of green brier and blackberry, and you will be pretty sure to have it tenanted by a pair of yellowthroats," says Dr. Ab- bott, who found several of their nests in skunk-cabbage plants, which he says are favorite cradles. No animal cares to touch this plant if it can be avoided; but have the birds themselves no sense of smell .^ 207 Conspicuously Yellow and Orange Before and after the nesting season these active birds, plump of form, elegant of attire, forceful, but not bold, enter the scrubby pastures near our houses and the shrubbery of old-fashioned, overgrown gardens, and peer out at the human wanderer therein with a charming curiosity. The bright eyes of the male masquer- ader shine through his black mask, where he intently watches you from the tangle of syringa and snowball bushes ; and as he flies into the laburnum with its golden chain of blossoms that pale before the yellow of his throat and breast, you are so impressed with his grace and elegance that you follow too audaciously, he thinks, and off he goes. And yet this is a bird that seems to de- light in being pursued. It never goes so far away that you are not tempted to follow it, though it be through dense undergrowth and swampy thickets, and it always gives you just glimpse enough of its beauties and graces before it flies ahead, to invite the hope of a closer inspection next time. When it dives into the deepest part of the tangle, where you can imagine it hunting about among the roots and fallen leaves for the larvae, caterpillars, spi- ders, and other insects on which it feeds, it sometimes amuses itself with a simple little song between the hunts. But the bird's indifference, you feel sure, arises from preoccupation rather than rudeness. If, however, your visit to the undergrowth is unfortunately timed and there happens to be a bulky nest in process of con- struction on the ground, a quickly repeated, vigorous chit, pit, quit, impatiently inquires the reason for your bold intrusion. Withdraw discreetly and listen to the love-song that is presently poured out to reassure his plain little maskless mate. The music is delivered with all the force and energy of his vigorous nature and penetrates to a surprising distance. " Follow me, follow me, follow me," many people hear him say; others write the syllables, " Wichity, wichity, wichity, wicbity"; and still others write them, " I beseech you, I beseech you, I beseech you," though the tones of this self-assertive bird rather command than entreat. Mr. Frank Chapman says of the yellowthroats : "They sing throughout the summer, and in August add a flight-song to their repertoire. This is usually uttered toward evening, when the bird springs several feet into the air, hovers for a second, and then drops back to the bushes." 208 BLACKBURNIAN WARBLER Conspicuously Yellow and Oratige Blackburnian Warbler (Dendroica Uackbiirnice) Wood Warbler family Called also: HEMLOCK WARBLER ; ORANGE-THROATED WARBLER ; TORCH-BIRD Length— 4.^ to 5.5 inches. An inch and a half smaller than the English sparrow. Male — Head black, striped with orange-flame ; throat and breast orange, shading through yellow to white underneath ; wings, tail, and part of back black, with white markings. Female — Olive-brown above, shading into yellow on breast, and paler under parts. Range — Eastern North America to plains. Winters in tropics. Migrations — May. September. Spring and autumn migrant. "The orange-throated warbler would seem to be his right name, his characteristic cognomen," says John Burroughs, in ever- delightful "Wake Robin" ; "but no, he is doomed to wear the name of some discoverer, perhaps the first who robbed his nest or rifled him of his mate — Blackburn; hence, Blackburnian warbler. The hum seems appropriate enough, for in these dark evergreens his throat and breast show like flame. He has a very fine warble, suggesting that of the redstart, but not especially musical." No foliage is dense enough to hide, and no autumnal tint too brilliant to outshine this luminous little bird that in May, as it migrates northward to its nesting ground, darts in and out of the leafy shadows like a tongue of fire. It is by far the most glorious of all the warblers — a sort of diminutive oriole. The quiet-colored little mate flits about after him, apparently lost in admiration of his fine feathers and the ease with which his thin tenor voice can end his lover's warble in a high Z. Take a good look at this attractive couple, for in May they leave us to build a nest of bark and moss in the evergreens of Canada — that paradise for warblers — or of the Catskills and Adiron- dacks, and in autumn they hurry south to escape the first frosts. 209 Conspicuously Yellow and Orange Redstart (Setophaga riiticilla) Wood Warbler family Called also: YELLOW -TAILED WARBLER Length — 5 to 5.5 inches. Male — In spring plumage: Head, neck, back, and middle breast glossy black, with blue reflections. Breast and underneath white, slightly flushed with salmon, increasing to bright salmon-orange on the sides of the body and on the wing linings. Occasional specimens show orange-red. Tail feath- ers partly black, partly orange, with broad black band across the end. Orange markings on wings. Bill and feet black. In autumn : Fading into rusty black, olive, and yellow. Female — Olive-brown, and yellow where the male is orange. Young browner than the females. Range — North America to upper Canada. West occasionally, as far as the Pacific coast, but commonly found in summer in the Atlantic and Middle States. Migrations — Early May. End of September. Summer resident. Late some evening, early in May, when one by one the birds have withdrawn their voices from the vesper chorus, listen for the lingering " 'tsee, 'tsee/tseet " (usually twelve times repeated in a minute), that the redstart sweetly but rather monotonously sings from the evergreens, where, as his tiny body burns in the twilight, Mrs. Wright likens him to a " wind-blown firebrand, half glowing, half charred." But by daylight this brilliant little warbler is constantly on the alert. It is true he has the habit, like the flycatchers (among which some learned ornithologists still class him), of sitting pen- sively on a branch, with fluffy feathers and drooping wings; but the very next instant he shows true warbler blood by making a sudden dash upward, then downward through the air, tumbling somersaults, as if blown by the wind, flitting from branch to branch, busily snapping at the tiny insects hidden beneath the leaves, clinging to the tree-trunk like a creeper, and singing between bites. Possibly he will stop long enough in his mad chase to open and shut his tail, fan-fashion, with a dainty egotism that, in the peacock, becomes rank vanity. Conspicuously Yellow and Orange The Germans call this little bird roth Stert (red tail), but, like so many popular names, this is a misnomer, as, strictly speaking, the redstart is never red, though its salmon-orange markings often border on to orange-flame. In a fork of some tall bush or tree, placed ten or fifteen feet from the ground, a carefully constructed little nest is made of moss, horsehair, and strippings from the bark, against which the nest is built, the better to conceal its location. Four or five whitish eggs, thickly sprinkled with pale brown and lilac, like the other warblers', are too jealously guarded by the little mother-bird to be very often seen. Baltimore Oriole (Icterus galbula) Oriole and Blackbird family Called also: GOLDEN ORIOLE; FIREBIRD; GOLDEN ROBIN; HANG-NEST; ENGLISH ROBIN Length—'] to 8 inches. About one-fifth smaller than the robin. Male — Head, throat, upper part of back glossy black. Wings black, with white spots and edgings. Tail-quills black, with yellow markings on the tips. Everywhere else orange, shading into flame. Female— Y tWo^xsh. olive. Wings dark brown, and quills mar- gined with white. Tail yellowish brown, with obscure, dusky bars. Range— ^ht whole United States. Most numerous in Eastern States below 55° north latitude. Migrations — Early May. Middle of September. Common sum- mer resident. A flash of fire through the air; a rich, high, whistled song floating in the wake of the feathered meteor: the Baltimore oriole cannot be mistaken. When the orchards are in blossom he arrives in full plumage and song, and awaits the coming of the female birds, that travel northward more leisurely in flocks. He is decidedly in evidence. No foliage is dense enough to hide his brilliancy; his temper, quite as fiery as his feathers, leads him into noisy quarrels, and his insistent song with its martial, inter- rogative notes becomes almost tiresome until he is happily mated and family cares check his enthusiasm. 211 Conspicuously Yellow and Orange. Among the best architects in the world is his plain but ener- getic mate. Gracefully swung from a high branch of some tali tree, the nest is woven with exquisite skill into a long, flexible pouch that rain cannot penetrate, nor wind shake from its horse- hair moorings. Bits of string, threads of silk, and sometime? yarn of the gayest colors, if laid about the shrubbery in the garden, will be quickly interwoven with the shreds of bark and milk- weed stalks that the bird has found afield. The shape of the nest often differs, because in unsettled regions, where hawks abound, it is necessary to make it deeper than seven inches (the customary depth when it is built near the homes of men), and to partly close it at the top to conceal the sitting bird. From four to six whitish eggs, scrawled over with black-brown, are hatched by the mother oriole, and most jealously guarded by her now truly domesticated mate. The number of grubs, worms, flies, caterpillars, and even cocoons, that go to satisfy the hunger of a family of orioles in a day, might indicate, if it could be computed, the great value these birds are about our homes, aside from the good cheer they bring. There is a popular tradition about the naming of this gorgeous bird : When George Calvert, the first Lord Baltimore, worn out anddiscouraged by various hardships in his Newfoundland colony, decided to visit Virginia in 1628, he wrote that nothing in the Chesapeake country so impressed him as the myriads of birds in its woods. But the song and color of the oriole particularly cheered and delighted him, and orange and black became the heraldic colors of the first lords proprietors of Maryland. Hush ! 'tis he ! My Oriole, my glance of summer fire, Is come at last; and ever on the watch, Twitches the pack-thread I had lightly wound About the bough to help his housekeeping. Twitches and scouts by turns, blessing his luck, Yet fearing me who laid it in his way. Nor, more than wiser we in our affairs. Divines the Providence that hides and helps. Heave, ho ! Heave, ho ! he whistles as the twine Slackens its hold; once more, no-v ! and a flash Lightens across the sunlight to the elm Where his mate dangles at her cup of felt. —James Russell Lowell. BIRDS COMSPICUOUSLY RED OF ANY SHADE Cardinal Grosbeak Summer Tanager Scarlet Tanager Pine Grosbeak American Crossbill and the White-winged Crossbill Redpoll and Greater Redpoll Purple Finch Robin Orchard Oriole See the Red-winged Blackbird (Black). See also the males of the Rose-breasted Grosbeak, the Woodpeckers, the Chewink (Black and White); the Red-breasted Nuthatch, the Bay-breasted and the Chestnut-sided Warblers (Slate and Gray); the Bluebird and Barn Swallow (Blue); the Flicker (Brown); the Humming-bird and the Kinglets (Greenish Gray); and the Blackburnian and Redstart Warblers, and the Baltimore Oriole (Orange). BIRDS CONSPICUOUSLY RED OF ANY SHADE Cardinal Grosbeak (Cardinal cardinalis) Finch family Called also: CRESTED REDBIRD ; VIRGINIA REDBIRD ; VIRGINIA NIGHTINGALE ; CARDINAL BIRD Length—^ to 9 inches. A little smaller than the robin. jj/a;/,?— Brilliant cardinal ; chin and band around bill black. Beak stout and red. Crest conspicuous. In winter dress, wings washed with gray. i^