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INSTITUTION NOILONLILSNIt NYVINOSHLIWS w” as ” a U = < = < z 4 z ad z ss We os Oo x ; oS _ ~~ 3 a 8, = : eh ° a 0 eC RN Zz i= ei = 2 ; . > cae > SOs a 2 a Z TNOILNLILSNI NYVINOSHLINS SSIYVYUEIT LIBRARIES SMITHSONIAN a : ” z 79) 5 a a wn _ ¢v + Th = ye oe = = a Ye SS . = C Be N NS # = a a *9 oO SW om fe) sal C ‘ t _ a Ys onal z TLIBRARIES SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION NOILNLILSNI NVINOSHLIWS a Zz Bi a & s re) i O =f Se c — — w = et fase uf ~ es ie] s2 F peo eg = Ws N 2 EY 3 E aa E “i 2 * : ; i ee o z o ist h OILALILSNI NWINOSHLINS S3 1YuYVvy q Att BRARI ES SMITHSONIAN _ 5 tt it | 1s Al bie aa nee te ie iN sie nt i j id re ; ne 1 bas iy : a Cee i Ai ee ‘7 ey, A wa iy ‘ an y AG Lf Ay ; Proves 4 eve ie ~, Sd : ¢ ' 7 4 $s ° 4 P a ' ty 7 hf . . she vel wo 4 Yt y 4] J ‘ y Pd ated Ka Awenticth Century = Zlassics = Vol. 1. No. 4. December, 1894. " : j ‘ ; ia) F > de AL 7 i. a it a, sf ‘J val 14 7 Ae o/s 4 & Wi i Ni - ; iat tf , 2 ? - is . cS ’ 7 : q . ‘7 f a Wi had ' | Z 4 : i } i ; by ‘ ’ A: | ) . hi \ vy ee | 2/7 | a i 4 yoreSe . . ’ ‘io ‘ vi eke Tg ei ! f . . ¥ ; mt / j ' 1 . ’ : 4 f 1 gl “4 ! # , ¥ J a . 5 1 : 4 i» t’ bs y 4 ‘ ‘| Price, $1 per year. ‘Issued Monthly. : ¥ i \ 4 be Vie 4 it (iy ytd ae! WN Be) | yee THE TWENTIETH CENTURY CLASSICS: Issued monthly, under the editorial supervision of W. M. Davidson, Superintendent of Schools of the city of Topeka. The object is to furnish special reading of a high order for the use of , high schools, teachers, and for select reading. The first year’s work will be divided into three groups, and be given entirely to the following local series : History ..1. John Brown of Kansas. 2. Jim Lane of Kansas. 3. Eli Thayer and the Emigrant.Aid Society. 4. Territorial Governors of Kansas. Literature. 1. Kansas in Poetry and Song. 2. Selections from Ironquill. | 3. Kansas in Literature. 4. Kansas in History. Nature .. 1. Plants and Flowers of Kansas. Study 2. Birds of Kansas. Group. 3. Geography of Kansas. 4. Minerals of Kansas. Subscription price will be $1.00 per year in advance, posts paid. Sin- gle numbers, ro cents. Clubs of six will be entitled to one subscription free. We invite subscriptions. No expense will be spared by the editorial management or by the publishers to make this series of the highest standard. CRANE & COMPANY, PUBLISHERS, TOPEKA. Bie - ny Pn Gf) ~ THE TWENTIETH CENTURY CLASSICS) ™ AND SCHOOL KEATING S UNDER THE EDITORIAL SUPERVISION OF WM ADA VIDSON SUPERINTENDENT OF THE PUBLIC SCHOOLS OF TOPEKA, KANSAS BIRDS OF KANSAS L/ & CFT KEY X TWENTIETH CENTURY CLASSICS AND SCHOOL READINGS Brel 2 BIRDS OF KANSAS BY BENJAMIN F. EYER Teacher in Science, Topeka High School. Think, every morning when the sun peeps through The dim, leaf-latticed windows of the grove, How jubilant the happy birds renew Their old, melodious madrigals of love. And when you think of this, remember too ’Tis always morning somewhere, and above The awakening continents, from shore to shore, Somewhere the birds are singing evermore. —Longfellow. Crane & Company, PUBLISHERS ToPEKA, KANSAS 1900 Copyrighted by CRANE & Company, Topeka, Kansas 1900 PN ERODUC TION: ‘*You must have the bird in your heart before you can find it in the bush; and when once you have it in your heart the finding of it in the bush is a secondary matter.”’—John Burroughs. We may with profit take a look at the life and ways of some of our common birds, and study with a growing interest a few of the parts that characterize them and that fit them so perfectly for their life in the air. There is a perpetual interest centering in the study of the adaptation and fitness of the varied forms of hfe as it may be seen about every home, ‘‘ be it ever so humble,”’ and that, too, with no other equipment than one’s eyes and patience. Fortunate is that person whose home or school life has been of such a character as to develop a love for the beautiful in nature. He may drink from the same foun- tain with poets and artists, and picture to himself the greatest works of art, and read first hand the most beau- tiful poems in all the realms of literature. ‘So it is with everything; so it is with the birds. The interest they excite is of all grades, from that which looks upon them as items of millinery, up to that of the makers of ornithological systems, and who ransack the world for specimens, and who have no doubt that the chief end of a bird is to be named and catalogued —the more synonyms the better. Somewhere between these two extremes comes the person whose interest in birds is friendly rather than scientific; who has little taste for shooting, and loss for dissecting; who delights in the living creatures (5) 6 INTRODUCTION themselves, and counts a bird in the bush worth two in the hand. Such a person, if he is intelligent, makes good use of the best works on ornithology; he would not know how to get along without them; but he studies most the birds themselves, and after awhile he begins to associate them on a plan of hisown. Not that he mistrusts the approximate correctness of the received classification, or ceases to find it of daily service; but though it were as accurate as the multiplication table, it is based (and rightly, no doubt) on anatomical structure alone; it rates birds as bodies, and nothing else; while to the person of whom we are speaking, birds are, first of all, souls; his interest in them is, as we say, personal; and we are none of us in the habit of grouping our friends according to height, or complexion, or any other physical pecu- liarity.”’ The bright plumage and sweet, cheery song of the bird fills every heart with pleasure, unuttered, perhaps, or expressed in such words as Bryant’s ‘‘To a Waterfowl :”’ Whither, ’midst falling dew, While glow the heavens with the last steps of day, Far, through their rosy depths, dost thou pursue Thy solitary way? Vainly the fowler’s eye Might mark thy distant flight to do thee wrong, As, darkly seen against the crimson sky, Thy figure floats along. Seek ’st thou the plashy brink Of weedy lake, or marge of river wide, Or where the rocking billows rise and sink On the chafed ocean side? There is a Power whose care Teaches thy way along that pathless coast, The desert and illimitable air, Lone wandering, but not Jost. INTRODUCTION All day thy wings have fann’d, At that far height, the cold, thin atmosphere, Yet stoop not, weary, to the welcome land, Though the dark night is near. And soon that toil shall end ; Soon shalt thou find a summer home and rest, And scream among thy fellows; reeds shall bend Soon o’er thy sheltered nest. Thou ’rt gone, the abyss of heaven Hath swallowed up thy form; yet, on my heart, Deeply hath sunk the lesson thou hast given, And shall not soon depart. He, who, from zone to zone, Guides through the boundless sky thy certain flight In the long way that I must tread alone, Will lead my steps aright. ? BES OF KANSAS. THE PLUMAGE. In the spring a fuller crimson comes upon the robin’s breast ; In the spring the wanton lapwing gets himself another crest ; In the spring a livelier iris changes on the burnished dove. — Tennyson. The eye never tires of watching the easy, graceful flight of the bird as it makes a trackless path in the air, some- times far above the hills and valleys, as the hawk or eagle, having always before it a view, magnificent. No other animal that flies does so by any such apparatus as the bird employs. Flight- in the bird is made pos- sible by means of outgrowths of the skin—the feathers. When they are removed from a wing it looks more like an arm than an organ of flight, and, indeed, it is but the fore-limb of the bird, and is almost lke the arm of man. The wing of a chicken, as it appears on the table, affords an excellent opportunity for comparison. The feathers that grow on the wing convert it into a more useful instrument than an arm would be in the life of a bird. The large feathers of the wing have a wider web on the inner side of the shaft than on the outer. This is because the inner web underlies the next inner feather and gives a firm resisting surface against which the air reacts to support the bird in the air. The webs of the large, strong feathers of the wing and tail can be separated into many small, thread-like parts (barbs ) (9) 10 TWENTIETH CENTURY CLASSICS attached to the large central shaft that extends the entire length of the feather, The barbs interlock with each other by means of still smaller parts growing out from them, giving the web a remarkable firmness. The inner end of the feather terminates in the quill, which is con- nected with the blood-vessels of the skin that supply it with nourishment. They are moved by muscles just un- der the skin and have a limited period of growth, when they fall out and new ones appear. This gives rise to the annual (sometimes oftener) moult. The duck family lose their wing-feathers nearly all at the same time and are hence unable to fly for a time. Feathers do not all answer to the above description. Some, under the outer layer, are soft and fluffy because the barbs of the web are not bound together by the little hooks which we found on the wing-feathers. These are called down-feathers. Then there are the long hair-like forms plainly seen after ‘‘ picking ’’ a chicken, and which are removed by singeing. -These are called hairy feath- ers, because they look so much like hairs. A singular fact about the arrangement of feathers is that they do not grow from every part of the skin that is apparently covered by them, but grow in tracts, so that there are feather tracts and bare tracts. ‘‘If we com- pare a bird’s skin to a well-kept park, part woodland, part lawn, where they do not grow is the lawn.’’ The ostrich and penguin are exceptions to this, for they have a continuous feathering on every part of the skin. We are quite sure, too, that the bird’s coat is warm, making an excellent wrap. It serves him in this quite as well as in flying, for his heart beats much faster than ours and he requires more oxygen in proportion to his size than we do; and were it not for this warm coat, much of his heat would be lost. BIRDS OF KANSAS ial The irregularities of the body are filled up and made smooth, so that it offers the least amount of resistance when passing through the air. No matter how great the exertion, there is no perspiration. Perhaps it is because perspiration would cool the body too much by evapora- tion or cause the feathers to mat, and thus seriously in- terfere with flight. BEAKS AND CLAWS. You slay them all! and wherefore? for the gain Of a scant handful more or less of wheat, Or rye, or barley, or some other grain, Seratched up at random by industrious feet, Searching for worm or weevil after rain! —Longfellow. Beaks and claws are more strikingly diversified than any other parts of the body, because they are so closely identified with the daily necessities of hfe. They are the bird’s best helpers— his hands and feet; and it is not at all unlikely that these parts alone can tell us a good deal about bird-ways. Downy’s beak is so sharp and chisel-like that, guided by a sharp eye and active head, it soon digs a comfortable home in the old dead limb. The hammering of the Flicker in early spring is a most familiar sound. A number of these birds frequented a group of large cot- tonwood trees every year, where they regularly nested. Early in the season they would be on hand, drumming merrily on the dry limbs of the old trees and calling loudly to their mates. These were familiar sounds in the warm, bright days of April. No spring day in the woods would be complete without the musical drumming of the Woodpecker. What sort of a foot would be needed for such a climbing, pecking bird? When linemen who are sent out to repair tele- graph lines need to climb to the top of a tall pole, they buckle (12) “het BIRDS OF KANSAS 138 on their feet a pair of iron claws that can be thrust into the wood, yet not without fear of slipping. The Wood- pecker has no such fear. His toes are arranged in pairs, ‘with sharp claws, two in front and two behind, which bite 66 into the bark or wood and insure ‘‘ good footing.’’ But we must not conclude that all birds that climb will have yoke-toes like the Woodpecker, for the Nut- hatches and Creepers have a foot more like a robin. The fish-hooks that fill so large a place in the life of a boy when the ice has cleared from the creeks and the days are warm and inviting, are not unlike the instruments used by one of our American birds, the Osprey or Fish- hawk, for the same purpose. (See cut No. 2.) The fol- lowing account of the Osprey is given by Wilson: ‘‘The flight of the Fish-hawk, his maneuvers while in search of fish, and his manner of seizing his prey, are de- serving of particular notice. In leaving the nest he usu- ally flies direct till he comes to the sea, then sails around in many curving lines, turning sometimes in the air as on a pivot, apparently without the least exertion, rarely mov- ing his wings, his legs extended in a straight line behind, and his remarkable length and curvature, or bend of wing, distinguishes him from all other hawks. The height at which he thus elegantly glides is various, from one hun- dred to one hundred fifty and two hundred feet, sometimes much higher, all the while calmly reconnoitering the face of the deep below. Suddenly he is seen to check his course, as if struck by a particular object, which he seems to survey for a few moments with such steadiness that he appears fixed in the air, flapping his wings. This object, however, he abandons, or rather, the fish he had in his eye disappeared, and he is again seen sailing around as before. Now his attention is again arrested, and he de- scends with great rapidity, but ere he reaches the surface, 14 TWENTIETH CENTURY CLASSICS shoots off on another course, as if ashamed that a second victim has escaped him. He now sails at a short height above the surface, and by a zig-zag descent, and with- out seeming to dip his feet in the water, seizes a fish,» which, after carrying a short distance, he probably drops, or yields up to the Bald Eagle, and again ascends by easy spiral circles to the higher regions of the air, where he glides about in all the ease and majesty of his species. At once, from this sublime aerial height, he descends like a perpendicular torrent, plunging into the sea with a loud, rushing sound, and with the certainty of arifle. Ina few moments he emerges, bearing in his claws his struggling prey, which he always carries head foremost, and, having risen a few feet above the surface, shakes himself as a water-spaniel would do, and directs his heavy, laborious course directly for the land.’’ It will eat nothing but live fish, and will not, it is said, pick up one that is accidentally dropped from its talons. All of our hawks and owls have a well- developed seizing, or raptorial foot (see cut No. 8), which is also adapted for perching, and to work with it there isa strong hooked beak (see cut No. 1), fitted for tearing tough skins and flesh. The eye, too, as a helper to beak and claws, is large and sharp, and ean detect a moving animal suitable for food at long distances. A number of young hawks were once taken by the writer, and an attempt made to tame them. They were carried from the place of 4 BIRDS OF KANSAS 15 capture, a mile distant, on a stick to which they held by their claws. They would eat bits of meat and live mice with the greatest relish. When a dog or cat came too near, an encounter of claws and fur was sure to result. A curious habit with them was that of placing themselves upon their backs when they were suddenly attacked, and fighting with feet uppermost. It was a sad day for the dog who got his nose too near their unerring talons. At another time a nest containing young, high up onan overhanging limb of a cottonwood tree, was approached. The parent bird promptly came upon the scene and re- fused to leave, although not actually attacking the intruder. They were, to say the least, exceedingly tame. There is another fisherman better known to us than the Osprey. He justly deserves the name he bears—King- fisher. He flies up and down our larger creeks and rivers, ~sure to know where fish may be taken in season and out. His legs are very short and hardly used for walking. The outer and inner toes are grown together, making a flat sole upon which he can comfortably sit on the limb of a tree overhang- ing astream, watching, waiting. (See cut No.5.) He spies a fish below him. Down he goes with a harsh sound, a hungry chuckle, and with his long sharp bill catches his vietim, even plunging into the water after it. If the fish is small, he swallows it at once. If, too large for this, he carries it away to his favorite perch and beats it soft against a limb. In this type it is the beak that is especially adapted for fishing, and not the claws. He cannot tear the fish to pieces, as does the Hawk, for his bill is straight and See wis Oa HNO CREATING Se ESS == Ss) tinea ier a 16 TWENTIETH CENTURY CLASSICS sharp-pointed, but must swallow it whole. Imagine what. a time he must have if his capture is over-large! This may remind you of another fisherman frequenting our ponds and marshes—the Heron—that has a longer bill (see cut No. 8, bill) than 3 the Kingfisher, and long stilt- -~ © likelegs. This spear-man—for such he really is—can fly as well as the Kingfisher, but he does not need to fly down after the fish, frogs and other water animals he considers palatable. He wades out into the water among the grasses and rushes and waits with much patience for his food to come near him. (Seecut No. 1.) If you were to steal near enough to one you would surely think him asleep. But wait!—here comes a lunch dangerously near. All has changed; with great rapidity he darts his bill into the water, and if it is a fish, swal- lows it head foremost, so that the spines will not interfere. If not caught so that it can be swallowed that way, it 1s tossed into the air and again caught. This type is called the walking or wading foot. It has not the grasping power of the Hawk’s foot, and has a small web between the outer and middle toes. It is not difficult to read the story of a foot where the toes are connected by a web. It looks so much like a paddle that it would at once be associated with the water. They are not at all like the feet we have already examined. The hand function of grasping has been lost, and they are not so well fitted for walking, as one can see by the clumsy, awkward steps of the Ducks and Geese. There are several kinds of the swimming foot. The Pelican has the three toes in front and the hind toe, all joined together by a web (toti-palmate) (see cut No. 4); the Ducks and Geese have the three front toes only united (palmate) (see cut No. 2); while in the ‘‘Mud Hen,”’ ‘‘ Coot,’’ each toe has a separate adapted for special uses. The BIRDS OF KANSAS V7 lobed membrane on it (lobed). (See cut No. 8). A type that must not be overlooked is the _ perching foot (see cut No. 1) of the song birds, of which those of ‘Downy,’ the Kingfisher and the Hawk are varieties toes of the robin are entirely separate. They are all on the same level, and the hind toe is long, in order to more effectually grasp atwig. The toes do not spread out so much as in the Hawk, nor are they so rough on the under surface. This is the perch- ing foot. (See cut No. 1). To sum up, then, we have noticed three principal kinds of feet,—the perching, the walking or wading, and the swimming. A bird that finds its particular kind of food from the water’s edge, or on the bottom where the water is shallow, needs a wide bill with an 18 TWENTIETH CENTURY CLASSICS arrangement to let the water escape (see cut No. 1) that was taken up with the food. This is the plan in the ~ ducks and geese, where the edges of the bill are finely ridged. ; The Nighthawk,— which is not one of the Hawk family at all,—like the Whippoorwill, its nearest relative, comes out bright and active about twilight in search of its favorite insect food. fs > inane a —~ 20 — _ an “v be : Zz i: a SJI¥YVYUEIT LIBRARIES SMITHSONIAN Z Bt eee ae z i oe eae 8 = a E WY 2 = > = a: = > W * we ” MITHSONIAN INSTITUTION NOILALILSNI NVINOSHLIWS — J Ww = z = : ’ = > a 7) z LIBRARIES SMITHSONIAN RARIES SMITHSONIAN LNLILSNI RARIES INSTITUTION a saiuvualt. Saluvugit. 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