LATER SPRING BIRDS
Spring comes with a rush in some parts of our country and remains but a short time, so closely does Summer follow in her footsteps. But in New England, New York, northern Pennsylvania, Ohio, and neighboring states, her approach is more gradual and restrained.
When maple and red-bud have laid aside their corals and fruit-trees have donned their robes of white and shell-pink; when the woods show again a flush of tender green, Spring arrives. She has long been heralded by early choristers; she is now accompanied by a host more wonderful than retinue of kings, so varied is their dress and so sweet their triumphal music. Grove and orchard are alive with happy-hearted birds, who help to make May the loveliest month of the year.
First come the swallows, skimming over pools and circling above meadows—embodiment of grace, gladdening the world with their joyous twitterings. Swifts, nighthawks, and whip-poor-wills make nightfall vocal. Little house wrens, each a fountain of bubbling music, take up their abode near our homes.
Cuckoos slip quietly from tree to tree; thrashers and catbirds seek thickets or perch on treetops, to sing like their celebrated cousins, the mockingbirds. Shy ovenbirds and lustrous-eyed thrushes return to live in the woods, or pass through them as they journey to their northern homes. The advent of the tanager in his flashing scarlet, and the grosbeak with his glowing rose bring to every bird-lover “a most pointed pleasure.” With Stevenson he may say, [They] “stab my spirit broad awake.”
Vireos and wood pewees appear in the groves; warblers flit from treetop to treetop, many of them on their way to northern woods. Orioles in the elms and orchards shout with joy; bobolinks bubble and tinkle in the meadows; indigo buntings and kingbirds greet us from roadsides, and Maryland yellow-throats from thickets. Goldfinches hold their May festival, and choose their mates as they sing with joyous abandon. The earth is fresh and beautiful, with promise of a glad fulfillment near at hand.
TREE SWALLOW
DESCRIPTIONS AND BIOGRAPHIES
THE TREE SWALLOW
Swallow Family—Hirundinidæ
Length: About 6 inches.
General Appearance: Bluish-green above; pure white underneath, from beak to tail; tail not deeply forked; wings very long.
Male and Female: Back, a dark, glistening green, giving this swallow the name of “The Green-backed Swallow”; the snowy white under parts give it the names of “White-breasted Swallow” and “White-bellied Swallow.” The green and white are about equally distributed; the green on the head resembles a close-fitting skull-cap, pulled down below the eyes. Wings, very long and powerful (nearly 4¾ inches), extending beyond the ends of the forked tail. Bill short, very wide at base. Feet small and weak—used only when resting, as swallows are generally on the wing.
Young: Brownish-gray, white beneath.
Note: A pleasant twitter.
Flight: Swift, in great circles.
Habitat: Tree swallows are seen along roadsides, and near swamps and thickets. They formerly nested in dead trees, in woodpeckers’ holes, or any available hollow. They now take kindly to nesting-boxes. They have “roosts” at night where they resort in great numbers, especially on their way south in the late summer. They have a great fondness for telegraph-wires. During the fall migration, long chains of these swallows are festooned on the wires during the daytime. At night they disappear to their roosts, preferably near marshes. They are a sight to be remembered in the Jersey marshes, which Mr. Horsfall’s accompanying drawing depicts.
Range: North America from Alaska and northern Canada to southern California, Colorado, Kansas, Missouri, and Virginia. They winter from central California, southern Texas, southern parts of the Gulf States and southeastern North Carolina, south over Mexico, Guatemala, and Cuba; sometimes in New Jersey. They eat bayberries that grow along the coast, and thus are able to remain farther north in winter than their relatives.
First of the swallow host to speed northward is the Tree Swallow, that migrates in April, as soon as a sufficient number of insects have hatched to furnish a living for these almost wholly insectivorous birds. Their cheerful twitter and beautiful circling flight make them very welcome.
Swallows have always been regarded with favor. They were formerly considered a good omen, and were thought to bring fair weather and prosperity. I shall always remember the welcoming swallow that met our ship near the Scilly Islands one June day, and preceded us without resting for long hours as we voyaged close to the shore of England. It seemed to presage the good fortune that followed us.
Swallows fly with their broad beaks ready to open, and catch unwary insects with great ease. They rise early and continue their ceaseless quest for small beetles, flies, mosquitoes, and other insects. Professor Beal says: “Most of these are either injurious or annoying, and the numbers destroyed by swallows are not only beyond calculation but almost beyond imagination.”[92] He pleads for the protection of all swallows and suggests that the “white-bellied swallows” be supplied with boxes similar to those constructed for bluebirds, only placed at a greater elevation and protected from cats.
Tree swallows are the first to come and first to go. Before the summer has really arrived, as early as July first, they begin to flock and form great colonies that may be seen migrating during the daytime.
THE BARN SWALLOW
Swallow Family—Hirundinidæ
Length: About 7 inches; an inch longer than the tree swallow because of longer tail; body nearly the same size.
General Appearance: Upper parts a glossy bluish-black; under parts reddish-brown and buff; tail deeply forked.
Male: Forehead and throat bright reddish-brown; breast, belly, and feathers under wings a light brown, becoming buffy; breast and throat separated by an indistinct dark band; upper parts a shimmering bluish-black; tail very deeply forked—the proverbial “swallow-tail”; rounded white spots on the inner web of all except the middle tail-feathers.
Female: Resembles male, though paler in color; outer tail-feathers a little shorter.
Young: Backs duller, breasts paler, tail-feathers shorter than those of adult male.
Notes: A clear, sweet call, and a joyous, musical twitter—weet-weet, or twit-twit.
Flight: Long, sweeping curves that are beautiful to see. The bird shows first his blue back, then his soft brown breast. He flies nearer the ground than other swallows, and surpasses them all in his power of flight. Imagine the number of miles he travels in a day!
Habitat: Fields and farm-lands; also the vicinity of ponds or other breeding-places of insects. The nest of mud is usually fastened to a rafter of a barn. These swallows often nest in colonies.
Range: North America, from northwestern Alaska and Canada, to southern California and southwestern Texas, northern Arkansas and North Carolina. They do not breed in the southeastern part of the United States. They winter in South America.
BARN SWALLOW
Most beautiful of all the swallows is this bluebird fleet of the summer time. It is associated in my mind with shining pools rimmed with iris; with fragrant lilac-bushes, blossoming apple-trees, and waving fields of grain near farm-buildings. Its sweet voice and marvelous flight bring poetry into the prosaic life of the farm.
Burroughs characterizes the swallow delightfully in “Under the Maples.” He says: “Is not the swallow one of the oldest and dearest of birds? Known to the poets and sages and prophets of all peoples! So infantile, so helpless and awkward upon the earth, so graceful and masterful on the wing, the child and darling of the summer air, reaping its invisible harvest in the fields of space as if it dined on sunbeams, touching no earthly food, drinking and bathing and mating on the wing, swiftly, tirelessly coursing the long day through, a thought on wings, a lyric in the shape of a bird! Only in the free fields of the summer air could it have got that steel-blue of the wings and that warm tan of the breast. Of course I refer to the barn swallow. The cliff swallow seems less a child of the sky and sun, probably because its sheen and glow are less, and its shape and motions less arrowy. More varied in color, its hues yet lack the intensity, and its flight the swiftness, of those of its brother of the hay-lofts. The tree swallows and the bank swallows are pleasing, but they are much more local and restricted in their ranges than the barn-frequenters. As a farm boy I did not know them at all, but the barn swallows the summer always brought. After all, there is but one swallow; the others are particular kinds that we specify.”[93]
PURPLE MARTIN
THE PURPLE MARTIN
Swallow Family—Hirundinidæ
Length: About 8 inches, the largest of the six common species of swallow. Wings nearly 6 inches long—very large when spread.
Male: Glossy purplish-black head, body, and shoulders; wings and tail duller. No reddish-brown or white. Tail forked.
Female: Bluish-black head and back; black wings and tail; brownish-gray throat, neck, and sides, mottled with white-tipped feathers; belly, grayish-white.
Young: Similar to female.
Note: A sweet, rich, joyous warble. Mr. Forbush describes it as “a full-toned chirruping carol, musical and clear, beginning peuo-peuo-peuo.”[94]
Habitat: Farm-lands and the vicinity of dwellings shaded by trees. These birds were formerly more numerous in the North than at present. They are more abundant in the South than in the North.
Nests: Made of twigs, grass, straw, or leaves, placed in gourds or martin-houses. Martins are very social and seem to revel in large “bird-apartment-houses.” They formerly nested in hollow trees or caves.
Range: North and South America, except Pacific Coast region. They breed in southern Canada, east of the Rockies; in the United States from Montana and Idaho, south to the Gulf Coast, Florida, and Mexico. They winter in Brazil. A WESTERN MARTIN is found on the Pacific Coast.
Purple Martins have long been favorites. Mr. Dutcher tells us that Indians, keen observers of nature, realized that it was beneficial to have them near their long-houses. They therefore hung hollowed gourds to entice them. Southern negroes have done likewise. They sometimes suspend a number of gourds from crossbars surmounting a pole, to form nesting-sites for a small colony.
Martins form an ideal community—busy, happy, harmonious—unless English sparrows attempt to evict them and appropriate their homes. Martin-houses and bluebird nesting-boxes seem to be the envy of these pugnacious sparrows. Martins attack crows and hawks but cannot endure the persecutions of the English sparrow.
Martins are so useful that they should be protected and encouraged whenever possible. A friend of mine told me that she was never obliged to have her trees sprayed while the martins remained. They feed on wasps, bugs, and beetles, several varieties of which are harmful, and they devour many flies and moths.
Dr. Dutcher quotes from Audubon regarding the flight of martins as follows:
“The usual flight of this bird ... although graceful and easy, cannot be compared in swiftness with that of the Barn Swallow. Yet the martin is fully able to distance any bird not of its own genus. They are very expert at bathing and drinking while on the wing, when over a large lake or river, giving a sudden motion to the hind part of the body, as it comes in contact with the water, thus dipping themselves in it, and then rising and shaking their body, like a water spaniel, to throw off the water.”[95]
THE CLIFF OR EAVE SWALLOW
Swallow Family—Hirundinidæ
Length: About 6 inches; one inch smaller than the barn swallow, and two inches smaller than the martin.
General Appearance: A multi-colored swallow—a sort of combination of barn swallow and martin, with areas and patches of dark blue, chestnut, gray, and white, and bright reddish-brown upper tail-coverts, that differentiate it from the other swallows.
Male and Female: Forehead creamy white, head bluish-black; throat and cheeks reddish-brown; a brownish ring about the neck shading to gray; back bluish-black streaked with white; breast gray with a wash of brown, and a blue-black patch where the throat joins the breast; wings and tail brownish; tail only slightly forked.
Note: A harsher, less musical note than that of the barn swallow and martin.
Habitat: Meadows and marshes. These swallows formerly nested in cliffs; now they build under eaves of buildings.
Nests: Curiously shaped pouches of mud that make one think of protuberant knot-holes, or of flasks made of skin. The nests vary with the shape of the places to which they are fastened. Eave swallows also nest in colonies.
Range: North America. Breed from central Alaska and north-central Canada over nearly all the United States except Florida and the Rio Grande Valley. They probably winter in Brazil and Argentina.
Mr. Forbush writes about the Cliff or Eave Swallow as follows:
“When the first explorers reached the Yellowstone and other western rivers, swallows were found breeding on the precipitous banks. As settlers gradually worked their way westward, the swallows found nesting-places under the eaves of their rough buildings. In these new breeding-places they were better protected from the elements and their enemies than on their native cliffs and so the Cliff Swallow became the Eave Swallow, and, following the settlements, rapidly increased in numbers and worked eastward.”[96] These swallows were very numerous fifty years ago. It is now generally conceded that English sparrows are largely responsible for their decrease. It is greatly to be deplored, for swallows add much to the charm of out-door life, and subtract many annoyances in the form of insect pests, especially flies and mosquitoes.
THE BANK SWALLOW
Swallow Family—Hirundinidæ
Length: A little over 5 inches; the smallest of the six common swallows.
General Appearance: Brownish-gray above; band of same color across breast; throat and under parts white. The gray head and white throat form a cap similar in effect to that of the tree swallow.
Note: A twitter, less pleasing than that of the martin and the barn swallow.
Habitat: Sandy banks of rivers, and shores of lakes.
Nests: In holes made in sand-banks.
Range: North and South America. Breeds from the tree-regions of Alaska and Canada to southern California, Arizona, Texas, Louisiana, and Virginia. It migrates through Mexico and Central America and probably winters in northern South America to Brazil and Peru.
The ROUGH-WINGED SWALLOW resembles the bank swallow so closely that it is difficult to distinguish them, unless one can see the darker breast and throat of the rough-wing and the absence of a dark band across the breast. Upon careful examination of the latter species, each long outer wing-feather is discovered to have a rough saw-tooth edge.
The habits of the birds are similar, though the rough-wings, like phœbes, nest not only in banks, but against stone walls and stone bridges. They have a more restricted range than barn swallows. They breed from southern Canada to northern Florida and southern California, and winter in Mexico and Central America.
THE CHIMNEY SWIFT
Swift Family—Micropodidæ
Length: About 5½ inches; wings nearly 5 inches long.
General Appearance: In the sky, the swift looks unlike any other bird. The wings are long and flap like those of a mechanical toy-bird. The tail appears rounded, not forked, like those of swallows.
Male and Female: Brownish-gray, lighter gray on throat; a black spot before each eye; wings longer than tail; tail short, with ribs of the feathers extending beyond the vanes, giving the effect of sharp needle- or pin-points. The bird has a sooty appearance.
Note: A noisy, incessant twitter.
Flight: Rapid, and seemingly erratic and aimless. Swifts’ wings appear to beat the air alternately. The birds move in great curves, seldom alight, and drop suddenly into chimneys at night or when they wish to enter their nests.
Nest: A wall-pocket, built of sticks glued together and to the wall by a sticky saliva secreted by the swifts. During rainy weather the nest is sometimes loosened, and falls.
Eggs: White, like those of woodpeckers and some others laid in dark places.
Habitat: As swifts secure all of their food while on the wing and seldom alight, they have no habitat except the atmosphere and the hollow trees or chimneys in which they congregate at night, and where they nest. They do not perch on telegraph wires as swallows like to do.
Range: Breed in eastern North America, from southcentral Canada to the Gulf, and westward to the Plains; winter south of the United States.
CHIMNEY SWIFT
Swifts have often been called “Chimney Swallows,” but the name is a misnomer; they belong to an entirely different family. The breadth of wing and rapid flight, the weak feet and broad bills are, however, points of resemblance; the sooty appearance and lack of beautiful luster of plumage are points of difference. Then, too, swifts’ tails are less like swallows’ tails than they are like those of woodpeckers and creepers; the spiny tips are used as props against a perpendicular surface.
The following facts concerning swifts are taken from Eaton’s “Birds of New York”:
“Nearly every village or city [in New York State] can boast at least one large chimney or church or schoolhouse that harbors multitudes of swifts every night late in summer. It is an interesting sight to watch these swifts as they wheel about such a chimney in the August and September evenings and, when the magic moment arrives, pour down its capacious mouth in a living cascade. It seems impossible for this species to perch, but it always alights on some perpendicular surface like the inside of a large hollow tree or the inner surface of a chimney or the perpendicular boards at the gable end of a barn or shed. In this position it sleeps, clinging with its sharp claws to the irregular surface and using its spiny tail as a support. The swift is seen abroad early in the morning and late in the afternoon, but in cloudy weather comes out at any time of day and evidently can see well in the bright sunlight, for it frequently hunts material for its nest during the brightest weather. They begin to construct the nest in May or early June, the small twigs of which it is formed being broken from dead branches of some shade tree by the bird flying directly against the tip of the twig and snapping it off. The twigs are carried into the chimney and are cemented to the wall and to each other by a gelatinous substance secreted by the salivary glands of the bird itself. When completed, the nest is like a little semi-circular bracket slightly hollowed downward. The eggs are placed on this framework of twigs without lining.
“In food the swift is wholly insectivorous, and does an immense amount of good destroying beetles, flies, and gnats, which he devours in countless multitudes. The chimney swift, as he darts by, frequently utters a rapid chipper something like the syllable chip, chip, chip, rapidly repeated, and I have heard a loud cheeping in the chimney, evidently uttered by the young birds. One of the earliest impressions of my boyhood was the curious roaring caused by the wings of parent swifts as they came and went from their nests at daybreak. This unfortunate habit of early rising has brought the chimney swift into bad repute in many civilized communities, ... closing chimneys against this beneficial bird.”
In Major Charles Bendire’s “Life Histories of American Birds” occur the following statements from Mr. Otto Widman regarding the nests and young of chimney swifts: “The setting parent shields the structure by habitually covering its base with the breast and pressing its head against the wall above. When disturbed, it hides below the nest, as do the young birds. They make a hissing noise, and always remain 2 or 3 feet below the mouth of the chimney [shaft], where they are fed by the parents until they are four weeks old.
“Few birds are more devoted to their young than the Chimney Swift, and instances are recorded where the parent was seen to enter chimneys in burning houses, even after the entire roof was a mass of flames, preferring to perish with its offspring rather than to forsake them.”
THE WHIP-POOR-WILL
Goatsucker Family—Caprimulgidæ
Length: Nearly 10 inches; wings 7 inches long.
General Appearance: A mottled brown bird with a narrow white band around throat, and white outer tail-feathers.
“He seems a lichen on a log,
A dead leaf on the ground.”
Male and Female: Soft brown, irregularly mottled and barred with black, buff, and white. Throat dark with a narrow curve of white in the male, and one of buff in the female. Beak short, slightly hooked, and very wide (1½ inches), with long bristles at the sides. Breast dark, belly white. Middle tail-feathers mottled brown; half of six other tail-feathers white, which are visible in flight. Female has narrower white tips to outer tail-feathers.
Note: Whip′-poor-will, whip′-poor-will, whip′-poor-will, uttered rapidly, monotonously, lugubriously, continuously. My sister counted 275 repetitions of his note given without a pause. To some people the sound is unendurable. When near the bird, I have heard him give a soft chuck between the repetition of the word whip-poor-will. He is associated in my mind with bright moonlight evenings, for it is then he is most vociferous. He sings, also, early in the morning.
Flight: Swift, yet noiseless; almost as uncanny as his note.
Habitat: In woods and open groves, where one may come upon him both at night and during the daytime sitting lengthwise on a log or branch instead of crosswise.
WHIP-POOR-WILL
Nest: No nest is made, but two dull-colored, mottled eggs are laid on the ground or on dead leaves.
Range: Eastern North America. Breeds from southern Canada to the northern parts of Louisiana, Mississippi, and Georgia, and from the Plains eastward; winters from eastern South Carolina and the southern Gulf States to Central America. The CHUCK-WILL’S-WIDOW is a resident of our southeastern states; the POOR-WILL of our western states.
The whip-poor-will is too interesting and useful a bird to be disregarded. He has been widely disliked and even superstitiously dreaded because of his weird notes. He is, however, of especial interest to scientists because of his nocturnal habits and his value as a destroyer of insects. Mr. Forbush calls him “an animated insect trap,” with an “enormous mouth surrounded by long bristles which form a wide fringe about the yawning cavity.”[97] The whip-poor-will is believed to be the greatest enemy of night-moths; he eats other insects, also, in great quantities.
The chuck-will’s-widow is even more interesting than the whip-poor-will. Mr. W. L. McAtee writes of the bird as follows:
“Like other species of its family, it lays only two eggs, which may be deposited almost anywhere on the forest floor, there being no nest. Intrusion on this spot usually results in the bird moving the eggs, which it carries in its mouth. Although the bird is only 12 inches long, the mouth fully extended forms an opening at least 2 by 3½ inches in size. It is but natural, therefore, that the bird should prey upon some of the largest insects. Not only are large insects captured and swallowed, but even small birds, in two cases warblers.
“Despite the fact that the chuck-will’s-widow occasionally devours small insectivorous birds, it must be reckoned a useful species. It is probable that birds are not deliberately sought, but that they are taken instinctively, as would be a moth or other large insect coming within reach of that capacious mouth.”[98]
NIGHTHAWK
THE NIGHTHAWK
Goatsucker Family—Caprimulgidæ
Length: 10 inches; wings 7¾ inches.
General Appearance: A large dark bird, with a white throat, a white band across the tail, and very long wings, on each of which is a large white spot or bull’s-eye, unfortunately a target, like the white rump of the flicker.
Male: Black above, mottled with buff and white; under parts lighter (becoming whitish), barred with black; throat with a tent-shaped white patch below the very wide bill; upper breast black; tail notched, a white band extending across it near the end except on the middle tail-feathers; wing with a conspicuous area of white about half-way between the curve and tip, when outspread.
Female: Throat buff; under parts buffy; no white on the tail.
Note: A loud peeng-peeng; uttered at frequent intervals while on the wing.
Flight: Very swift, with numerous and rapid changes of direction. The bird is very active at nightfall. It makes rapid descents not unlike those made by an airplane; it has a habit of dropping “like a bolt from the blue.”
Habitat: The nighthawk is a “bird of the air” rather than of treetops or ground. It may be seen in cities flying above houses in search of its insect prey at sunset and during the night.
Nest: No nest, but two speckled eggs are laid on the ground or on a roof where they are not easily discovered. Mr. Forbush says, “The nighthawk has deposited its eggs on gravel roofs in cities for at least forty years and probably longer.”
Young: Dr. F. H. Herrick tells us that the nestlings are “clothed in down” and “look like two little flattened balls of fluffy worsted of a dark cream-color mottled with brown.”
Range: Eastern and central North America. Breeds from Manitoba, southern Quebec, New Brunswick, and Nova Scotia south to northern Louisiana, Mississippi, and Georgia, and from eastern North Dakota, Nebraska, and Kansas eastward; winters from the lowlands of South Carolina and southern parts of the Gulf States to British Honduras and Salvador.
The nighthawk is a remarkable bird. Because of its nocturnal habits, it has been regarded with superstitious awe. Erroneous ideas of it have been entertained, and it has received a name that belies it. It is not a hawk at all; it preys only on insects, not on chickens or small rodents.
Mr. W. L. McAtee writes: “Nighthawks are so expert in flight that no insects can escape them. They sweep up in their capacious mouths everything from the largest moths and dragon flies to the tiniest ants and gnats, and in this way sometimes gather most remarkable collections of insects. Several stomachs have contained fifty or more different kinds, and the numbers of individuals may run into the thousands. Nearly a fourth of the bird’s total food consists of ants.”[99] Professor Beal estimated that the stomachs of eighty-seven nighthawks which he examined “contained not less than twenty thousand ants, and these were not half of the insect contents.”[100] Mr. Forbush claims that the nighthawk “ranks next to the flicker in the destruction of ants, and it takes them when they are flying and about to propagate.”[101]
It has a fondness for fireflies, also. Dr. Herrick made careful observation of the habits of nighthawks, and the manner of feeding their young. He writes of seeing a mother-bird “loaded with fireflies.” He says: “As her great mouth opened you beheld wide jaws and throat brilliantly illuminated like a spacious apartment all aglow with electricity. She made an electrical display at every utterance of her harsh ke-ark. Then standing over her young, with raised and quivering wings, she put her bill down into his throat and pumped him full. She then tucked the little one under her breast and began to brood. She repeated the performance, after which she settled down to brood as if for the night. This young bird was fed but twice each evening between the hours of eight and nine o’clock, and always, as I believe, by the female. It is quite probable that another feeding occurs also at dawn. The male would sometimes swoop down and once he sat by the chick for ten minutes after dusk. The task of feeding was borne by the mother.”[102]
THE HOUSE WREN
Wren Family—Troglodytidæ
Length: About 4¾ inches.
Male and Female: Cinnamon-brown above, reddish-brown on the rump and tail. Back with fine indistinct bars; wings and tail with heavier bars; under parts grayish-white washed with brown, lighter on throat and breast; sides, and feathers under tail, barred with black; tail frequently held upright.
Notes: Sharp scolding notes.
Song: A sweet bubbling song. The notes are poured forth with joyous abandon and tireless energy.
Habitat: Near the homes of man preferably, though in the winter many house wrens are found in southern woods. They dart in and out of wood-piles and brush-heaps, run along walls and fences, and seek shrubbery, vines, and orchards.
Nest: Of small sticks, lined with root-fibers or grasses, placed in a hollow of a tree, in a nesting-box, or some out-of-the-way place, such as a flower-pot, tin-can, discarded shoe, old hat, etc.
Range: Eastern North America. Breeds from southeastern Canada, eastern Wisconsin and Michigan, southward to Kentucky and Virginia; winters in eastern Texas, and in the South Atlantic and Gulf States.
Little “Jenny Wren” figured in our nursery tales and was one of the delights of our childhood, because of its diminutive size, its pert, cocked tail, its incessant activity, and its continuous chatter. No dull moments when a wren was near by!
Its nesting-habits make it interesting to young and old. Though loyal to a nesting-locality, it will make its neat nest in a great variety of places, such as boxes, empty jars, small pails, or gourds, if placed conveniently, or in wren-houses.
HOUSE WREN
Wrens are valiant defenders of their nests, but have been driven away from favorite nesting-places by quarrelsome English sparrows; consequently wrens are decreasing in number. Wren-houses with openings about an inch in diameter, too small for sparrows to enter, may help somewhat to check the decrease of these valuable insect-eating birds.
They are noisy little neighbors, a curious combination of joyousness and irritability. A pair of wrens that built a nest on the piazza of my brother’s home spent so much time in scolding and quarreling that they were almost unendurable. One morning they disappeared; a few hours later my brother found the drowned body of the female in a rain-barrel. Whether it was accident, murder, or suicide, no one knew, but within twenty-four hours a pleasanter-tempered Lady Wren appeared, swept and garnished the home of her predecessor, and set up house-keeping. A larger measure of peace reigned thereafter.
As songsters, wrens are very remarkable for volume of sound, for sweetness of tone, and for extreme ecstasy. I remember wakening about sunrise one morning in early June, when the spring chorus was at its climax. For about an hour, I had the joy of listening to a bird-concert more wonderful than any I had ever heard. After a time I distinguished the voices of the various familiar birds. Loudest, clearest, and sweetest of all rang the voice of the smallest member of the choir—that of the tiny house wren.
THE RUBY-THROATED HUMMINGBIRD
Hummingbird Family—Trochilidæ
Length: About 3¾ inches; bill over ½ inch.
Male: Iridescent green above; gray below, with a glint of green, especially on the sides; wings and tail brown, with slight iridescence; throat brilliant ruby,—brownish in some lights; tail forked.
Female: Similar to male, but without ruby on throat, which is flecked with minute brownish spots; tail-feathers of nearly even length, outer feathers with white tips.
Note: No song—only a faint squeak.
Habitat: Open country; cultivated tracts of land, especially those overrun with vines; gardens, particularly those that contain trumpet-creepers and honey-suckles.
Nest: One of the most exquisite nests made. It is in the shape of a tiny cup, covered with lichens and lined with soft materials. It is frequently placed so high on a branch as to be difficult to distinguish from an excrescence on the bough. The eggs look like white beans.
Range: Eastern North America. Breeds from central Canada to the Gulf Coast and Florida; winters from central Florida and Louisiana through Southern Mexico and Central America to Panama.
Hummingbirds are rightly in a family by themselves—they are unique. They are the smallest of our birds, and yet they possess a power of flight unsurpassed. Mr. Forbush says: “The little body, divested of its feathers, is no larger than the end of one’s finger, but the breast muscles which move the wings are enormous in proportion to the size of the bird. They form a large part of the entire trunk, and their power is such that they can vibrate the inch-long feathers of those little wings with such rapidity that the human eye can scarcely follow the bird when it is moved to rapid flight by fear or passion.”[103]
RUBY-THROATED HUMMING-BIRD
The wings do not seem to be made of feathers, but of gauze, like those of insects. I never really saw the feathers until I held a dead hummingbird in my hand. Its iridescent body seems made of burnished metal.
It is wonderful that so tiny a creature can wing its way from Central America to the heart of Canada. It seems to know no fear; it is quite able to defend itself with its long sharp bill. Mr. Forbush says: “The males fight with one another, and, secure in their unequalled powers of flight, they attack other and larger birds. When the Hummingbird says ‘Go!’ other birds stand not upon the order of their going, but go at once; while the little warrior sometimes accelerates their flight, for his sharp beak is a weapon not to be despised. Even the Kingbird goes when the war-like Hummer comes; the English Sparrow flees in terror; only the Woodpeckers stand their ground.”[103]
Hummingbirds are not only fearless and pugnacious, but they are very inquisitive. Major Bendire says: “I once occupied quarters that were completely covered with trumpet-vines, and when these were in bloom the place fairly swarmed with Ruby-throats. They were exceedingly inquisitive, and often poised themselves before an open window and looked in my rooms, full of curiosity, their bright little eyes sparkling like black beads. I caught several—by simply putting my hand over them, and while so imprisoned they never moved, and feigned death, but as soon as I opened my hand they were off like a flash. They seem to be especially partial to anything red.”[104]
Their fondness for honey-producing flowers has caused many people to believe that they live upon nectar and ambrosia, like the gods of the Greeks, but the Biological Survey, has, by close observation, discovered that they do not visit flowers wholly for the purpose of gathering honey, but for obtaining also small insects that have been drowned in a welter of sweetness. Professor Beal has observed them “hovering in front of a cobweb, picking off insects and perhaps spiders entangled in the net. They have also been observed to capture their food on the wing, like flycatchers. Stomach examination shows that a considerable portion of their food consists of insects and spiders.” Professor Beal continues: “Although hummingbirds are the smallest of the avian race, their stomachs are much smaller in proportion to their bodies than those of other birds, while their livers are much larger. This would indicate that these birds live to a considerable extent upon concentrated sweets, as stated above, and that the insects, spiders, etc., found in the stomachs do not represent by any means all their food.”[105]
A physician of my acquaintance owns a camp in the New Hampshire woods. A birch near his house was attacked by sapsuckers. Sap exuded plentifully and was eagerly sought by two red squirrels, a small swarm of bees, two sapsuckers, and seven hummingbirds. With his glasses, the doctor observed the birds eating insects served in birch syrup.
Professor Beal reports having seen as many as one hundred hummingbirds “hovering about the flowers of a buckeye tree, and this number was maintained all day and for many days, though the individuals were going and coming all the time.” Burroughs once saw a hummingbird take his morning bath in dewdrops.
There are about five hundred known species of hummingbird. They may be found in North and South America from Alaska to Patagonia. They are most numerous in northern South America, in Colombia and Ecuador. Seventeen species are found in our western and southwestern states, but only one, the Ruby-throat, lives in the East.
THE INDIGO-BIRD OR INDIGO BUNTING
Finch Family—Fringillidæ
Length: About 5½ inches.
Male: Head and throat deep, purplish blue, becoming lighter on back and above tail; wings and tail a brownish black, edged with blue. Winter plumage, brownish like the female, mottled with blue.
Female: Brown above, darker on wings and tail; no streaks on back; breast grayish, washed and faintly streaked with brown; belly lighter. The female resembles her sparrow relatives, but may be distinguished by a glint of blue in her tail and wings.
Call-note: A sharp chip.
Song: A burst of melody, somewhat like that of a canary, loud, clear, and sweet. It is not remarkable except that it may be heard during the middle of the day and during the heat of midsummer. The bird sings frequently from treetops.
Habitat: In “scrubby” pastures, along roadsides—in trees and bushes.
Range: Eastern North America. Breeds east of the Great Plains from North Dakota to New Brunswick, south from central Texas to Georgia; winters from southern Mexico to Panama.
The Indigo Bunting possesses a brilliant beauty and a sweet voice. A sight of him and his pretty brown mate brings a thrill of pleasure, but he holds no such place in our affections as does the true bluebird. He does not choose to nest close to human dwellings, but prefers overgrown pastures, not too much frequented, where he performs his good office of caterpillar-, canker worm-, and grasshopper-hunting, varying his diet with an abundance of weed seeds.
INDIGO-BIRD
The indigo-bird, the scarlet tanager, the goldfinch, and the Baltimore oriole are our most brilliant summer birds. Thoreau, in his “Notes on New England Birds” makes the following comment:
“This is a splendid and marked bird, high-colored as is the tanager, looking strange in this latitude. Glowing indigo. It flits from the top of one bush to another, chirping as if anxious. Wilson says it sings, not like most other birds in the morning and evening chiefly, but also in the middle of the day. In this I notice it is like the tanager, the other fiery-plumaged bird. They seem to love the heat.”
During August, the songs of the indigo-bird and red-eyed vireo may be heard along wooded roadsides, and are especially welcome because most birds are silent at that time.
THE BALTIMORE ORIOLE
American-Blackbird Family—Icteridæ
Length: About 7½ inches.
Male: Head, throat, neck, and upper half of back black; breast, belly, shoulders, lower half of back and outer tail-feathers brilliant orange; wings black, many feathers edged with white; half of middle tail-feathers black; others largely orange; bill long, slender, sharp.
Female: Upper parts grayish-olive, washed with yellow and mottled with black on head and back; under parts, tail, and rump dull orange, paler at throat, which is sometimes marked with black; wings brown, barred with white.
Notes: A loud whew-y, or whew, uttered frequently and insistently, with a falling inflection. Orioles chatter noisily, also.
Song: A rich, melodious strain, very different in individuals, but alike in a liquid quality, and in frequency of utterance. For several successive years, two orioles returned to our elms and apple-trees in Cleveland. Their songs differed as decidedly from each other and from those of other orioles as the voices and enunciation of people vary.
Habitat: Elm and maple-shaded streets and orchards preferred in the springtime. After the nestlings are grown, orioles may be found in thickets or in the woods.
Nest: A hanging nest in the shape of a bag, usually suspended near the end of a bough. The female weaves the nest.
Range: Breeds from southern Canada and northern United States to the northern part of Texas, Louisiana, and Georgia, west to the Rocky Mts.; winters from southern Mexico to Colombia.
BALTIMORE ORIOLE
Orioles, with their brilliant plumage and beautiful song, belong to the somber-hued, unmusical blackbird family. They are truly “the flower of the flock,”—gorgeous tropical flowers, too. They invariably arouse interest and almost always great admiration. So dashing are they that they do not remain long enough near us to let us know them well or love them. They remind me of brilliant opera-singers, elegantly attired, who are followed by the eager eyes of a host of people.
So many poets and writers of prose have sung the praise of orioles that it surprised me to learn that neither Thoreau nor Burroughs admired them. Thoreau wrote: “Two gold robins; they chatter like blackbirds; the fire bursts forth on their backs when they lift their wings.... But the note is not melodious and rich. It is at most a clear tone.”[106] Burroughs said: “I have no use for the oriole. He has not one musical note, and in grape time his bill is red, or purple, with the blood of our grapes.”[107]
A grape-eating propensity is not a trait common to orioles, according to Professor Beal’s report of their food habits. He says: “Brilliancy of plumage, sweetness of song, and food habits to which no exception can be taken are characteristics of the Baltimore oriole. During the stay of the oriole in the United States, vegetable matter amounts to only a little more than 16 per cent. of its food, so that the possibility of its doing much damage to crops is very limited. The bird is accused of eating peas to a considerable extent, but remains of such were found in only two cases. One writer says that it damages grapes, but none were found in the stomachs.”[108] Professor Beal lists caterpillars, beetles, bugs, ants, wasps, grasshoppers, and some spiders as the “fare of the oriole.”
The nest and nesting habits of these birds are unusually interesting. In Eaton’s “Birds of New York” occurs the following description:
“The female is an ideal mother, defending her young with great courage and caring for them in all kinds of weather. The young, however, are not such ideal offspring as she ought to expect. From the time they begin to feather out until several days after they have left the nest, they keep up a continual cry for food. In this way they are unquestionably located by many predaceous animals and thereby destroyed. The young orioles are usually out of the nest from the 20th of June to the 5th of July [in New York State], and are very soon led away by the old birds into the woods, groves, and dense hedgerows. Then we hear no more of the oriole’s song until the latter days of August or the first week in September, when, after the autumn molt has been completed, the males frequently burst into melody for a few days before departing for their winter home.
“As every one knows, the oriole builds a pensile nest, usually suspending it from the drooping branches of an elm tree, soft maple, apple tree, or in fact, any tree, though his preference seems to be for the elm. The main construction materials used by the oriole are gray plant-fibers, especially those from the outside of milkweed stalks, waste packing-cord and horsehair; sometimes pieces of rags and paper are discovered in the nest, but it is almost without exception a grayish bag as it appears from the outside, and is lined principally with horsehairs and softer materials, making a thick felted gourd-shaped structure.”
One morning this past May when the heat was unseasonable and overpowering, an oriole was observed fluttering anxiously near the nest where his mate sat on her eggs. The foliage had not developed sufficiently to shade her, so he alighted on the nest, a claw on either side of the cup-like opening. There he stood astride for the greater part of the day and protected her devotedly, like a chivalrous knight of old.
THE ORCHARD ORIOLE
American Blackbird Family—Icteridæ
Length: About 7 inches.
Adult Male: Breeding Plumage: Head, throat, neck, and upper half of back black; breast, belly, shoulders, lower half of back a bright chestnut brown; wings and tail dark brown; wing-feathers tipped or edged with white, forming a bar across wing. The winter plumage is different from the breeding plumage; the male passes through several changes as he matures.
Female: Olive-green above, darkest on head and back, dull yellow below; wing-feathers tipped with white, forming two bars across wing; tail olive-green.
Immature Male: Like female, the first autumn; the next spring, he has a black throat; the chestnut plumage develops later.
Notes and Song: Similar to those of the Baltimore oriole. Song clear and melodious; tones possibly not quite so mellow as those of its relatives, but sweeter.
Habitat: Orchards and shade trees.
Nest: A pensile nest, but shorter and more firmly attached than that of the Baltimore oriole.
Range: Eastern North America. Breeds from northern United States, southern Canada, and central New York, south to northern Florida and the Gulf Coast, west to Texas, central Nebraska, and western Kansas; winters from southern Mexico to northern Colombia. Not common in Massachusetts.
The markings of the Orchard Oriole are similar to those of the more brilliant and striking Baltimore Oriole, but its coloring more nearly resembles that of the towhee. Like its cousin, it is arboreal, while the towhee is a ground bird.
ORCHARD ORIOLE
The orchard oriole is more shy than the Baltimore oriole and is less well known. It is, however, very active and restless,—indefatigable in its quest for insects. It has a better reputation than most members of the blackbird family. Major Bendire says that it would be difficult to find a bird that does more good and less harm than the orchard oriole, and that it should be fully protected.
THE SCARLET TANAGER
Tanager Family—Tangaridæ
Length: About 7 inches.
General Appearance: A bright scarlet body, with black wings and tail; no crest.
Male: Scarlet and black in breeding plumage; after the molt, olive and yellow, with black wings and tail; wings white underneath. The male does not acquire red plumage until the second year. While molting, the adult male has irregular patches of olive and yellow mixed with his red feathers, giving a curious effect.
Female: Olive-green above; yellowish-olive below, brightest on throat; wings and tail dark gray, washed with olive. She is very effectively protected by her coloring.
Note: Call-note chip-chur, very distinct and reasonably loud.
Song: A warble, full, rich, and pleasing, but not varied; sufficiently like the songs of the robin and the rose-breasted grosbeak to make identification difficult for a beginner. The frequent chip-chur betrays the tanager’s presence.
Habitat: Dense groves of hard-wood trees, especially those containing oaks. Mr. Forbush calls the tanager “the appointed guardian of the oaks.” The bird is found in parks and on well-wooded estates, as well as in the deep woods.
Range: Eastern North America and northern South America. Breeds in southern Canada as far west as the Plains, and in the United States to southern Kansas, northern Arkansas, Tennessee, northern Georgia, and the mountains of Virginia and South Carolina; winters from Colombia to Bolivia and Peru.
SCARLET TANAGER
These “black-winged redbirds” are occasionally mistaken by novices for cardinals, but the dusky wings and tail, and the absence of a crest differentiate them. Then, too, the scarlet of their coats is of a different shade of red.
Their cousins, the SUMMER TANAGERS, denizens of southeastern United States and occasional residents of the North, resemble cardinals more closely. Both have a nearly uniform rose-red plumage, but the summer tanager has brownish wings edged with red, and no crest.
The beauty of male tanagers has caused them to be eagerly sought in the past. I have childish memories of their scarlet bodies decorating the hats of thoughtless women, and I blush to confess a feeling of envy rather than regret at the wicked slaughter. Audubon Societies have done much to change public sentiment and put a stop to barbarous practices.
Never shall I forget the breathless joy I felt when, grown to young womanhood, I first saw a tanager’s vivid beauty gleaming against the almost black-green foliage of a dense grove. I think that I remember every tanager which I have since seen, as well as each lovely setting that enhanced his gorgeous coloring. A glimpse of one marks a red-letter day. Twice I have seen two males at once, in company with a rose-breasted grosbeak—all singing; memorable experiences.
The WESTERN TANAGER, with his yellow body and crown, his red “face,” black back and tail, and yellow and black wings, appeared before me one day in the noble woods that crown Glacier Point in the Yosemite Valley. I felt that his beauty, like that of his eastern relatives, was his “excuse for being.” He does not enjoy quite so good a reputation as do other tanagers, because he has a taste for fruit—almost as reprehensible as horse- or cattle-stealing in the west.
Tanagers, however, are valuable insect-destroyers. Our brilliant species deserves our whole-hearted protection, not only for aesthetic, but also for economic reasons.
ROSE-BREASTED GROSBEAK
THE ROSE-BREASTED GROSBEAK
Finch Family—Fringillidæ
Length: A little over 8 inches.
General Appearance: A black and white bird, with a rose-colored breast and heavy, flesh-colored beak.
Male: Head, throat, and back black; rump and under parts white, except on breast and under wings, which are a beautiful rose-red; wings black, with bars and patches of white; tail black; outer feathers with white tips to their inner webs. The winter plumage is slightly different from the summer plumage.
Female: A soft grayish-brown, streaked with white, buff, and gray; under parts light buff, faintly streaked with brown; head brown; a buff streak through center of the crown, a white streak over the eye; wings and tail grayish-brown, some of the wing-feathers tipped with white; yellow under wings instead of rose.
Note: A sharp tsick, tsick.
Song: A rich, beautiful warble, somewhat like that of the robin and tanager, but more joyous than either. It possesses a purer, more liquid quality. The song is remarkable, also, in that it may be heard at night, and at midday.
Habitat: Woodlands and thickets, fields and gardens. This grosbeak frequents also the shade trees of large estates and suburban streets.
Nest: Large and loosely constructed, made of twigs, grasses, and root-fibers, and placed from five to twenty feet from the ground.
Eggs: Pale blue, spotted with brown or purple. The male takes his turn at sitting on the eggs.
Range: Eastern North America and northern South America. Breeds from southern Canada south to Kansas, Missouri, Ohio, New Jersey, and in the mountains of northern Georgia; winters from southern Mexico to Colombia and Ecuador.
So beautiful is the rose-breasted grosbeak and so melodious his song that he invariably attracts attention. Upon close acquaintance, he reveals many interesting habits and delightful traits. He is so useful that he reminds one of the occasional rare person who combines practical qualities with beauty of form and face and unusual gifts.
He is one of our most beneficial birds. Occasionally he partakes of cultivated fruit and devours green peas, but the slight mischief he is guilty of is greatly overbalanced by the good he does. So fond is he of the Colorado potato beetle that in some localities he is called the “potato-bug bird.”[109] Professor Beal tells of watching grosbeaks near a potato-patch that was nearly riddled by these destructive insects. He saw the parent-birds visit the field repeatedly, and then bring their young when able to fly. The brood perched in a row on the top rail of the fence, and were fed so frequently that in a few days the potato-bugs had entirely disappeared. The crop was saved.
Grosbeaks appear to lead unusually happy domestic lives. Though the males fight for their mates, they guard them and their young with great devotion. They not only utter low sweet notes to the mother-bird as she broods, but quite frequently take her place on the nest.
My sister tells of hearing a rose-breast’s song in a maple grove, and of searching diligently for the singer. She located the tree from which the sound proceeded, and waited patiently to see him “gaily flit from bough to bough”; but no bird came into view. She went around the tree until, to her delight, she discovered him sitting on the nest, only a few feet from where she stood. He stopped singing when he saw her, but showed neither surprise nor fear, and resumed his song after she went away. She realized that she had had an unusually rare privilege.
To hear a grosbeak’s song at night is an experience similar to that of listening to a nightingale in Europe, or to a mockingbird in our South or West, singing by moonlight.
THE BLUE GROSBEAK
Finch Family—Fringillidæ
Length: 7 inches; indigo bunting, 5½ inches.
Male: Body a deep blue, almost black on the back; chin and cheeks black; bill heavy; tail black, edged with blue; wings black, tipped with bright brown, giving the effect of one broad and one narrow wing-bar. Winter plumage, rusty brown mottled with blue.
Female: Grayish-brown above, more or less washed with blue; wings brown, barred with buff; under parts washed with buff.
Song: A sweet grosbeak warble.
Range: Eastern North America. Breeds from Missouri, southern Illinois and Maryland, south to eastern Texas, and northern Florida; accidental in Wisconsin, New England, the Maritime Provinces, and Cuba; winters in Yucatan and Honduras.
The Blue Grosbeak resembles its smaller relative, the indigo bunting, but it has a larger, darker body, a heavier bill, and brown-tipped wing feathers. It is more nearly the size of a cowbird than of the indigo-bird. It may be found in thickets similar to those frequented by its small blue relative.
It is a bird of the southeastern part of the United States, but occasionally strays northward.
THE EVENING GROSBEAK
Finch Family—Fringillidæ
Length: 8 inches; 3 inches larger than the goldfinch.
Male: Forehead bright yellow; crown of head black; body olive-brown, with yellow on shoulders, rump, and belly; wings black and white; tail forked, black; bill heavy and yellowish.
Female: Brownish-gray, tinged with yellow underneath; wings black and white; forked tail black, tipped with white.
Range: Central North America. Breeds in western Alberta; winters in the interior of North America east of the Rocky Mts., more or less irregularly in southern Missouri, Kentucky, Ohio, eastern Pennsylvania, New York, New Jersey, New England, and Quebec.
A sight of this handsome bird is an event in the East, and arouses great interest in people who know how rare it is. Five were seen near Washington in early April of this year, and were hailed with enthusiasm. It is a common resident of our Northwest, though it wanders in flocks to the East occasionally.
It looks like a large goldfinch, though it is a less brilliant yellow, has larger patches of white on its wings and wears its dark cap back on its head, above its yellow forehead, instead of pulled down to its eyes and bill. It blends perfectly with the yellows and olive-browns of some of our western landscapes.
It feeds on berries, seeds, and insects. It becomes very tame.
THE BLACK-HEADED GROSBEAK
Finch Family—Fringillidæ
The Black-headed Grosbeak has cinnamon-brown upper parts, breast, band about the neck, and rump; yellow belly, black head, wings, and tail; wings with two white bars and a white patch; tail with white tips. Female brownish-black and buff above; under parts tawny and yellow, streaked with dark; chin, sides of throat, and line over eye whitish.
“The Black-headed Grosbeak takes the place in the West of the rosebreast of the East, and, like it, is a fine songster. Like it, also, the blackhead readily resorts to orchards and gardens and is common in agricultural districts. The bird has a very powerful bill and easily crushes or cuts into the firmest fruit. It feeds upon cherries, apricots, and other fruits, and also does some damage to peas and beans, but it is so active a foe of certain horticultural pests that we can afford to overlook its faults.... It eats scale insects, cankerworms, codling moths, and many flower beetles, which do incalculable damage to cultivated flowers and to ripe fruit.”[110]
THE BOBOLINK
American Blackbird Family—Icteridæ
Length: A little over 7 inches.
Male: Spring or Breeding plumage: Crown, sides of head, throat, and other under parts black; back of head and neck light yellow; upper half of back black, streaked with creamy white; lower half of back, rump, and shoulders white; wings black, some of the feathers tipped with buff; tail black, the feathers pointed. Many birds have dark upper parts and light breasts; the bobolink wears his bright breast upon his back during the summer. In the fall, he resembles the female.
Female: Olive-brown and light yellow above, with black streaks; head with olive-brown and light yellow stripes; under parts pale yellow; wings and tail brown.
Notes: A tinkling ding-ding, not unlike the sound of a bell; likewise a chirp.
Song: A bubbling song, full of ecstasy and abandon. It is one of the most delightful songs of the later migrants.
Habitat: While in the North, the bobolink inhabits our fields and meadows, where he “swings on brier and weed.” In the fall, he frequents the rice-fields of our southern states on his way to South America, and does so much harm that he is dreaded and hated.
Range: North and South America. Breeds mainly from the plains of south-central Canada to Nevada, Utah, northern Missouri, Illinois, Indiana, Ohio, West Virginia, Pennsylvania, and New Jersey; winters in South America, to southern Brazil, Paraguay, and Bolivia.
BOBOLINK
Had Robert Louis Stevenson written the biography of a bobolink, he might have given him the names of his immortal Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, for the bird seems to possess a dual nature, and to bear totally different reputations in the North and the South. When he visits Canada and northern United States in May, dressed in his gay wedding finery, he is greeted with joy. Few more delightful birds are to be found than this attractive, happy-hearted singer against whom no reproaches are registered in the North.
His song has been a favorite theme for poets and nature-writers. Thoreau wrote: “One or two notes globe themselves and fall in bubbles from his teeming throat. It is as if he touched his harp within a vase of liquid melody, and when he lifted it out, the notes fell like bubbles from the strings. Methinks they are the most liquidly sweet and melodious sounds I ever heard.”[111]
The bobolink’s habits in the North are almost beyond reproach. Professor Beal writes: “In New England there are few birds about which so much romance clusters as this rollicking songster, naturally associated with the June meadows; but in the South there are none on whose head so many maledictions have been heaped on account of its fondness for rice. During its sojourn in the Northern States it feeds mainly upon insects and seeds of useless plants; but while rearing its young, insects constitute its chief food, and almost the exclusive diet of its brood. After the young are able to fly, the whole family gathers into a small flock and begins to live almost entirely upon vegetable food. This consists for the most part of weed seeds, since in the North these birds do not appear to attack grain to any extent. They eat a few oats.”[112]
Dr. Henshaw adds: “When the young are well on the wing, they gather in flocks with the parent birds and gradually move southward, being then generally known as reed-birds. They reach the ricefields of the Carolinas about August 20, when the rice is in the milk. Then until the birds depart for South America, planters and birds fight for the crop, and in spite of constant watchfulness and innumerable devices for scaring the birds a loss of 10 per cent. of the rice is the usual result.”[113]
Major Bendire, in his “Life Histories of North American Birds,” quotes a letter from Capt. W. M. Hazzard, a large rice-grower of South Carolina, written concerning the warfare waged against these ricebirds:
“The Bobolinks make their appearance here during the latter part of April. At that season, their plumage is white and black, and they sing merrily when at rest. Their flight is always at night. In the evening there are none. In the morning their appearance is heralded by the popping of whips and firing of musketry by the bird-minders in their efforts to keep the birds from pulling up the young rice. This warfare is kept up incessantly until about the 25th of May, when they suddenly disappear at night. Their next appearance is in a dark yellow plumage, as the Ricebird. There is no song at this time, but instead a chirp which means ruin to any rice found in the milk. My plantation record will show that for the past ten years, except when prevented by stormy south or southwest winds, the Ricebirds have come punctually on the night of the 21st of August, apparently coming from seaward. All night their chirp can be heard passing over our summer homes on South Island, which is situated 6 miles to the east of our rice plantations, in full view of the ocean. Curious to say, we have never seen this flight during the day. During the nights of August 21, 22, 23, and 24, millions of these birds make their appearance and settle in the ricefields. From the 21st of August to the 25th of September our every effort is made to save the crop. Men, boys, and women with guns and ammunition, are posted.... The firing commences at dawn and is kept up till sunset.... If from any cause there is a check to the crop during its growth which prevents the grain from being hard, but in milky condition, the destruction of such fields is complete, it not paying to cut and bring the rice out of the field.... I consider these birds as destructive to rice as the caterpillar is to cotton, with this difference, that these Ricebirds never fail to come.”
THE GOLDFINCH
Finch Family—Fringillidæ
Length: About 5 inches.
Male: Spring and summer plumage—body and shoulders bright yellow; crown black; wings and tail, black and white; tail forked; feathers above tail, gray. Winter plumage—olive-brown back; throat, breast, and shoulders yellow; wings black and white.
Female: Olive-brown above; dull yellow below; wings and tail a dull black; white bars on wings, tail white-tipped; shoulders olive-green; grayish above tail. No black on crown.
Notes: An unusually sweet chirp or call-note like that of a canary, who-ee′, with a rising inflection; a flight-note, per-chick′ory, given as the goldfinch bounds through the air; a number of gentle little twittering sounds, for these birds are very social and communicative.
Song: A rapid outpouring of notes in a wild, sweet, canary-like strain.
Flight: In great waves or undulations.
Habitat: Fields and gardens, or wherever its favorite food may be obtained.
Nest: In bushes or trees; made of soft grasses or fibers, and lined with thistledown.
Range: Eastern North America. Breeds from south-central Canada to Oklahoma, Arkansas, and northern Georgia; winters over most of its breeding range and south to the Gulf Coast.
In winter, the goldfinch may be distinguished from others of the finch or sparrow family by its undulating flight, its flight-note, per-chick′ory, and its call-note. Its black and white wings and tail are also distinctive. It is found in flocks during the winter season.
GOLDFINCH
The Goldfinch or “Wild Canary” is one of our best-loved birds. The beauty of the male’s coloring, the sweetness of his voice, the joyousness of his nature have won him many friends.
John Burroughs wrote: “The goldfinch has many pretty ways. So far as my knowledge goes, he is not capable of one harsh note. His tones are either joyous or plaintive. In his spring reunions they are joyous. In the peculiar flight song in which he indulges in the mating season, beating the air vertically with his round open wings, his tones are fairly ecstatic. His call to his mate when she is brooding, and when he circles about her in that long, billowy flight, the crests of his airy waves being thirty or forty feet apart, calling, ‘Perchic-o-pee, perchic-o-pee,’ as if he were saying, ‘For love of thee, for love of thee,’ and she calling back, ‘Yes, dearie; yes, dearie’—his tones at such times express contentment and reassurance.
“When any of his natural enemies appear—a hawk, a cat, a jay,—his tones are plaintive in sorrow and not in anger.
“When with his mate he leads their brood about the August thistles, the young call in a similar tone. When in July the nesting has begun, the female talks the prettiest ‘baby talk’ to her mate as he feeds her. The nest-building rarely begins till thistledown can be had, so literally are all the ways of this darling bird ways of softness and gentleness. The nest is a thick, soft, warm structure, securely fastened in the fork of a maple or an apple-tree.”[114]
The fondness of goldfinches for the seeds of thistles has given them the name of thistle-birds. While they eat insects during the summer, they are especially useful as seed-destroyers. At Marshall Hall, Md., Dr. Judd observed them eating their first fresh supply in the spring from dandelions; in June, they ate the seeds of the field daisy; in July, of the purple aster and wild carrot. Thistles and wild lettuce were feasted upon during August; while in September the troublesome beggar-tick and ragweed were eagerly sought. At one time Dr. Judd counted a flock of three hundred goldfinches busily stripping seeds from a rank growth of the latter weed; he discovered them, also, devouring seeds of the trumpet-creeper. They are invaluable aids to a farmer; the only fault of which they can be accused is that of “pilfering” sunflower seeds. The presence of sunflowers in a garden is likely to attract goldfinches, just as trumpet-creeper blossoms lure hummingbirds.
I recall a lovely garden in which I spent many pleasant hours one summer, happy in its beauty and fragrance, and in the companionship of bird visitors. Near my accustomed seat grew a clump of sunflowers, often sought by goldfinches. The black and gold of their plumage made a pretty sight against the yellow petals and dark centers of the great flowers. I remember one little bird that fluttered among the golden petals, too busy singing to eat for a time.
Two bird-hunting cats haunted the garden. I took a malicious pleasure in driving them away, because their ignorant, parsimonious owner had informed me that she kept them locked up while her chickens were young, so the cats wouldn’t catch them. She didn’t care how many birds were killed, for then she wouldn’t be obliged to feed the prowlers. The goldfinches soon learned that when I was there they could feast in safety. More than once when I was in the house or on the porch I would hear their alarm cry of Dé-de? dé-de? sound from a maple near the piazza, plainly calling for my aid. When I went out to the garden and drove away their feline foes, the cries would cease. The angry owner of the cats, who dared not remonstrate further with me, cut down the sunflowers!
My most beautiful memory of goldfinches is associated with one of their spring mating-festivals. My sister and I had read Burroughs’s description of these love-feasts, so we were prepared to understand what the unusual chorus meant. The sweet call-notes of the males, interspersed with rapturous bursts of melody and frequent flutterings met with quick response from the olive-and-gold females, who chirped and said “Yes” with a joy pleasant to see! It is impossible to convey adequately any idea of the exquisite tenderness of their voices, of the absence of quarreling and jealousies,—of the perfect harmony of the proceeding. I can only wish that every person who loves birds might some time have the pleasure of a similar experience.
THE CATBIRD
Mockingbird Family—Mimidæ
Length: Nearly 9 inches.
Male and Female: A slender, long-tailed, gray bird, with a black crown and tail, and chestnut-brown feathers under the tail; breast somewhat paler than back; bill slightly curved.
Note: A soft wă, not unlike the mew of a kitten.
Song: A delightful warble—soft, sweet, and musical, though it is occasionally interspersed with the catlike noise wă, and with sounds of mimicry. Catbirds are sometimes called northern mockingbirds.
Habitat: Tangled thickets preferred. Fruit trees, berry-patches, and garden-shrubbery are also sought.
Nest: A veritable scrap-basket made of twigs, leaves, grasses, plant-fibers and rootlets, with paper sometimes interwoven. One nest that I examined contained a scrap from a torn letter and a fragment of a sermon from a newspaper. Several tell-tale cherry-stones lay on the bottom, circumstantial evidence of theft.
Eggs: A lovely greenish-blue, not unlike those of the robin.
Range: A common bird of eastern North America, from central Canada to the Gulf and northern Florida. It is found in the northwestern part of the U. S. and winters in our southern states and in Central America.
The catbird is well-named. It is the color of a Maltese cat, is sleek and agile, and in movement quiet and stealthy. Its mew is so like that of a kitten as to be confusing to the uninitiated. I recall the frantic barking of our small dog at a catbird that she heard in the shrubbery one day. It was difficult to convince her that one of her hated foes, a cat, was not the author of the sound that always infuriated her.
CATBIRD
Though catbirds possess little claim to beauty, they seem to be vain and appear always to be doing something to attract attention. They are in constant motion—twitching their tails, jerking their bodies, and making their gentle, inane “cat-calls.”
I once had an amusing experience with a catbird. I had seated myself near a thicket in which a Maryland Yellow-throat was flitting. Hoping to beguile him from the shrubbery and thus afford myself a better view of him, I gave his song repeatedly—“Witch-a-tee-o, witch-a-tee-o.” A catbird on the fence-rail behind the thicket was flirting his tail, looking knowingly at me, and giving his call repeatedly. I paid no attention to him, and continued to say “Witch-a-tee-o.” It was not long before he, too, warbled “Witch-a-tee-o.” Whether he did it from his love of mimicry or from a desire to be noticed, I shall never know, but his bearing was, “Now will you pay some attention to me!”
Catbirds are in disfavor among the growers of cherries and berries, both wild and cultivated; they make havoc in strawberry-beds. Mr. Forbush reports that their depredations vary in different localities. He claims that in spite of their fruit-stealing propensities they deserve protection in Massachusetts, because they devour locusts, cankerworms, and the caterpillars of various moths, most important being those of the gypsy and brown-tail moths.
In the Biological Survey Bulletin “Fifty Common Birds of Farm and Orchard” (No. 513) the following statements about the catbird are made: “Half of its food consists of fruit, and the cultivated crops most often injured are cherries, strawberries, raspberries, and blackberries. Beetles, ants, crickets, and grasshoppers are the most important element of its animal food. The bird is known to attack a few pests such as cutworms, leaf beetles, clover-root curculio, and the periodical cicada, but the good it does in this way probably does not pay for the fruit it steals. The extent to which it should be protected may perhaps be left to the individual cultivator; that is, it should be made lawful to destroy catbirds that are doing manifest damage to crops.”
Dr. Judd found that catbirds fed their young almost entirely on insects; he therefore scored a point in their favor. Their bravery in defense of their nest and their young is well known.
Burroughs tells an unusual anecdote about a catbird as follows:
“A friend of mine who had a summer home on one of the trout-streams of the Catskills discovered that the catbird was fond of butter, and she soon had one of the birds coming every day to the dining-room, perching on the back of the chair, and receiving its morsel of butter from a fork held in the mistress’s hand. I think the butter was unsalted. My friend was convinced after three years that the same pair of birds returned to her each year because each season the male came promptly for his butter.”[115]
Many other incidents might be related concerning this interesting bird,—of its unusual intelligence and its remarkable power of mimicry. One catbird in Tennessee learned to imitate the songs of all the birds that nested near him. His rendering of the red-eyed vireo’s song was as good as that of the vireo himself. His listeners felt that it was wearisome enough to have the red-eye preaching constantly, but to have the catbird reiterating it was more than they could endure.
THE BROWN THRASHER
Mockingbird Family—Mimidæ
Length: About 11 inches, larger than the robin; tail 5 inches long.
General Appearance: A large bird with a bright brown back, white breast streaked with brownish-black, and a very long tail which is moved or “thrashed” about incessantly.
Male and Female: Reddish-brown above; white underneath, becoming buff after the August molt; throat indistinctly marked with dark streaks; breast and sides heavily streaked; wings with two indistinct white bars; tail almost half the length of the bird; bill long (about 1 inch), sharp and curving.
Notes: A “smacking” sound and a sharp whew.
Song: A loud, clear, beautiful song. It consists of several phrases, each composed of two or more similar notes. Thoreau interpreted it as follows: “cherruit, cherruit, cherruit; go ahead, go ahead; give it to him, give it to him.”[116] The song is generally sung from the tops of trees or bushes.
Habitat: Like the catbird, the thrasher is found frequently in shrubbery, where it scratches among dead leaves for its food. Its brown color protects it admirably.
Nest: Made of twigs, leaves, and root-fibers, placed in thickets or on the ground.
Eggs: White, evenly speckled with fine brown spots.
Food: Wild fruit and berries (30 kinds), and insects, especially beetles and caterpillars. Professor Beal says: “The farmer has nothing to fear from depredations on fruit or grain by the brown thrasher. The bird is a resident of groves and swamps rather than of orchards and gardens.”[117]
BROWN THRASHER
Range: Eastern United States and southern Canada, westward to the Rocky Mts.; winters in south-eastern United States.
Because of his brown color and his speckled breast, the Brown Thrasher has often been erroneously called the Brown Thrush. Careful observation reveals many points of difference. He is three or four inches longer than our common thrushes—in fact, his tail alone is only about 2½ inches shorter than the entire body of the veery or the hermit thrush; his bill is almost four times as long as theirs and is decidedly curved. Instead of dark, thrush-like eyes, he has pale yellow ones that give him an uncanny appearance.
He is not a dweller in woods, but, like the catbird, prefers thickets. Burroughs says: “The furtive and stealthy manners of the catbird contrast strongly with the frank open manners of the thrushes. Its cousin the brown thrasher goes skulking about in much the same way, flirting from bush to bush like a culprit escaping from justice. But he does love to sing from the April treetops where all the world may see and hear, if said world does not come too near.”[118]
His song is a brilliant, delightful performance, admirable in technique, but lacking in a quality of tone that moves the heart. It is often of long duration. One May afternoon, I heard a thrasher singing so long that I was moved to time him. He sang without stopping for fifteen minutes by my watch, and his entire song must have lasted nearly half an hour.
The brown thrasher, like the other members of his family, has power of mimicry. In the north, he is sometimes called the “Northern Mocker”; in some regions where he and the mockingbird both live, he is known as the “Sandy Mocker.” There is sufficient similarity in the songs of the catbird, the thrasher, and the mockingbird to make a listener pause a moment to distinguish them when in a locality where the three birds are to be found. The catbird’s mew betrays him; the thrasher’s song is more brilliant and sustained; the mocker’s more varied. Thoreau says, “The thrasher has a sort of laugh in his strain that the catbird has not.”[119] His song resembles decidedly that of the English thrush, famed in poetry. Browning’s description of the latter is equally applicable to our thrasher:
“He sings each song twice over,
Lest you should think he never could recapture
That first fine careless rapture.”
MOCKINGBIRD
THE MOCKINGBIRD
Mockingbird Family—Mimidæ
Length: About 10 inches; an inch longer than the catbird and an inch shorter than the thrasher; tail about 5 inches long.
Male and Female: A long, slender, brownish-gray bird, with grayish-white under parts; wings and tail dark brown; wings with two white bars and white patches that are conspicuous in flight; middle tail-feathers brown, outer feathers white, others partly white. The female frequently has less white than the male.
Notes: A great variety. Some mockingbirds seem to possess unlimited powers of mimicry; others have far less ability to reproduce sounds.
Song: A sweet, delightful melody, sung in pure liquid tones and with ease and assurance, as though the birds were conscious of their power. They are probably the most famous songsters of America. Sidney Lanier, Walt Whitman, and other poets have written well-known poems in their praise, while Roosevelt and many other prose-writers have added their encomiums.
Habitat: Near the haunts of man, in gardens, parks, tree-shaded streets, and groves.
Range: Southeastern United States chiefly from eastern Nebraska, southern Iowa, Illinois, Indiana, Ohio, and Maryland, south to eastern Texas, southern Florida and the Bahamas; occasional in New York and Massachusetts, though a number of records have been made near Boston; accidental in Wisconsin, Ontario, Maine, and Nova Scotia; introduced into Bermuda.
The WESTERN MOCKINGBIRD is found in California, southern Wyoming, northwestern Nebraska, and western Kansas, south to Mexico and Lower California. It has a longer tail and wings than the eastern species, and is a paler gray.
Nuttall called the Mockingbird “the unrivalled Orpheus of the forest, and the natural wonder of America.” His voice certainly has power to “soothe the savage breast,” to interest the mind because of the varied range and remarkable technique, and to uplift the soul, especially when heard in the stillness and beauty of a moonlight night.
There is great difference of opinion regarding the “mocker.” He is more loved and admired in the South than in the West, and is regarded with pride as worthy to be called the nightingale of America. Most writers have sung his praises, but occasionally some one regards him with disfavor because of his habit of interlarding his beautiful song with curious and disagreeable sounds. Wilson Flagg says, “He often brings his tiresome extravaganzas to a magnificent climax of melody and as frequently concludes an inimitable chant with a most contemptible bathos.”[120]
The power of mimicry varies with different individuals. In a brief interval of time, one bird may imitate a woodpecker, a phœbe, a wren, a jay, or a cardinal, so as to deceive most listeners. He may produce the sound made by the popping of a cork or the buzzing of a saw; the next moment he may scream like a hawk to frighten chickens and send them to cover, or cluck like an old hen and bring young chicks from their hiding-places. Some mockers seem to be able to reproduce the bird-songs they hear more melodiously than the singers themselves render them.
Mockingbirds’ bravery in defense of their nests and their young is well known. They have an especial antipathy to dogs and cats, and are merciless in their attacks on those animals if seen near the vicinity of their nests. A friend in California told me that her cat was in abject terror of a mockingbird. Instead of considering him tempting prey, she invariably fled to cover when he appeared, and remained in hiding for a time. The fur on her sides was noticeably thinned where the angry bird had pulled out numerous locks. One day, while my family were visiting San Francisco, they heard a dog yelping piteously and discovered him running at lightning speed down the middle of the street. A mockingbird was perched on his back and was pulling hairs out of his tail with spiteful tweaks. Mockers have been known to kill snakes that approached their nests, and to attack human beings with great fury.
They like to live near people and seem to respond to the affection shown them in the South, where they are such favorites that they are seldom molested. Formerly mockingbirds were trapped for cage-birds, as were cardinals, but this practice is largely discontinued now, because of protective laws and aroused public sentiment.
Dr. Henry W. Henshaw says: “It is not surprising that the mockingbird should receive protection principally because of its ability as a songster and its preference for the vicinity of dwellings. Its place in the affections of the South is similar to that occupied by the robin in the North. It is well that this is true, for the bird appears not to earn protection from a strictly economic standpoint. About half of its diet consists of fruit, and many cultivated varieties are attacked, such as oranges, grapes, figs, strawberries, blackberries, and raspberries. Somewhat less than a fourth of the food is animal matter, of which grasshoppers are the largest single element. The bird is fond of cottonworms, and is known to feed on the chinch bug, rice weevil, and bollworm. It is unfortunate that it does not feed on injurious insects to an extent to offset its depredations on fruit.”[121]
Professor Beal says, however, “The mockingbird will probably do little harm to cultivated fruits so long as wild varieties are accessible and abundant.”[122] Wise cultivators of fruit take this into consideration and plant accordingly, to keep both their fruit and the delightful, amusing mockingbirds.
YELLOW-BILLED CUCKOO
THE YELLOW-BILLED CUCKOO
Cuckoo Family—Cuculidæ
Length: About 12 inches; tail over 6 inches.
Male and Female: Brownish-gray above with a greenish tinge; white underneath; reddish-brown wings; feathers brightest on inner web; middle tail feathers brownish-gray; outer ones black, broadly tipped with white, tips decreasing in size toward center; lower mandible of bill yellow except at the end.
Notes: A rapid, guttural utterance of the words cook-cook-cook-cook and cow-cow-cow-cow. Our cuckoos sometimes give a cooing note, but do not say cuck′-oo like their European relatives.
Flight: Swift and difficult to observe, as the cuckoo glides rapidly from bough to bough, under cover if possible.
Nest: A loosely-constructed platform of sticks.
Habitat: Orchards, woodlands, park-like estates, and quiet shady streets. Cuckoos are occasionally seen in exposed, sunny places.
Range: Eastern North America. Breeds from southern Canada and northern United States as far west as North Dakota and as far south as northern Louisiana and Florida; winters south to Argentina.
The BLACK-BILLED CUCKOO is similar to the Yellow-bill in general appearance, but has several marked differences. Its upper parts are more greenish; its tail-feathers have smaller white tips; its wings are gray, not reddish-brown; its bill is black, not yellow; its eye-ring is red.
Cuckoos seem to have less individuality than many of our birds; they resemble several of them. They are not unlike catbirds in their quiet, stealthy movements; they are slender, gray-and-white, and long-tailed like mockingbirds; they build nests somewhat like those of mourning doves.
They are shy, solitary birds, that are known by their note rather than by sight. I never heard of any one but Wordsworth and Wilson Flagg who loved cuckoos or called them “darlings of the spring.” The European cuckoo has, however, a very different nature and a more joyous note.
Burroughs is most amusing in his comments. He says: “We cannot hail our black-billed as ‘blithe newcomer,’ as Wordsworth does his cuckoo. ‘Doleful newcomer,’ would be a fitter title. There is nothing cheery or animated in his note, and he is about as much a ‘wandering voice’ as is the European bird. He does not babble of sunshine and of flowers. He is a prophet of the rain, and the country people call him the rain crow. All his notes are harsh and verge on the weird.”[123]
He is, however, worthy of consideration. He is of great value to farmers and apple-growers because of his appetite for caterpillars and grasshoppers. Professor Beal wrote as follows: “The common observation that cuckoos feed largely on caterpillars has been confirmed by stomach examination. Furthermore, they appear to prefer the hairy and spiny species, which are supposed to be protected from the attacks of birds. The extent to which cuckoos eat hairy caterpillars is shown by the inner coatings of the stomachs, which frequently are so pierced by these hairs and spines that they are completely furred. The apple-tree tent-caterpillar and the red-humped apple-caterpillar are also eaten. In all, caterpillars constitute two-thirds of the total food of the yellow-billed cuckoo in the South. Few birds feed so exclusively upon any one order of insects.
“The natural food for cuckoos would seem to be bugs and caterpillars which feed upon leaves, as these birds live in the shade among the leaves of trees and bushes. Not so with grasshoppers, whose favorite haunts are on the ground in the blazing sunshine, yet these creatures are the second largest item in the cuckoo’s diet. Grasshoppers are so agreeable an article of food that many a bird apparently forsakes its usual feeding grounds and takes to the earth for them. Thus it is with the cuckoos; they quit their cool, shady retreats in order to gratify their taste for these insects of the hot sunshine. But there are some members of the grasshopper order that live in the shade, as katydids, tree crickets, and ground crickets, and these are all used to vary the cuckoo’s bill of fare.”[124] It eats, also, bugs that injure oranges and melons, and the cotton-boll weevil in large numbers.
THE LEAST FLYCATCHER OR CHEBEC
Flycatcher Family—Tyrannidæ
In March, there comes to us from the South the phœbe, inconspicuous in plumage, yet easy to identify because of its distinctive call. About a month later there arrives the smallest member of our Flycatchers,—the Chebec or Least-Flycatcher. Less than five and a half inches in length, slender, olive-brown above, grayish-white beneath with an indistinct grayish band across the breast, this little bird might escape our notice were it not for its oft repeated and unmistakable call-note. It announces its presence by uttering its name Chebec, as clearly and persistently as its cousins, the phœbe and pewee, say theirs.
The chebec is a bird to be found in orchards, by roadsides, and in trees of village streets. Like other members of its family it seeks conspicuous perches, from which it dives after flies, moths, and other insects, returning to its perch to wheeze out its name, with jerks and twitches of its tail.
It breeds from central Canada to central United States as far south as Nebraska, Iowa, Indiana, Pennsylvania, and New Jersey, and in the Alleghany Mts. to North Carolina; winters from Mexico to Panama and Peru.
KINGBIRD
THE KINGBIRD
Flycatcher Family—Tyrannidæ
Length: About 8½ inches.
Male and Female: Upper parts dark gray; under parts pure white, with an indistinct grayish wash at the sides of the breast; head grayish-black, slightly crested, with a concealed orange patch; bill with bristles at the base; wing-feathers and upper tail-coverts tipped or edged with white; tail fan-shaped in flight, showing a broad white band at the end.
Note: An unmusical, rattling Squeak-squeak? squeak-squeak-squeak? uttered frequently, and apparently in an irritated mood. The sharply hooked beak and fierce-looking eye also give the appearance of pugnacity.
Habitat: Orchards, trees by roadsides, and near farm-buildings. One looks for the kingbird in open country, not in woodlands; he seeks conspicuous perches. The nests are placed in trees—in those of orchards preferably.
Range: North and South America. Breeds from South-central Canada and throughout the United States except in the south-west; winters from Mexico to South America.
No more interesting description of the Kingbird has come to my attention than that by Major Bendire. He writes as follows:
“Few of our birds are better known throughout the United States than the Kingbird. Bold and fearless in character, yet tame and confiding in man, often preferring to live in close proximity to dwellings, in gardens and orchards, they are prime favorites with the majority of our farming population, and they well deserve their fullest protection. Few birds are more useful to the farmer; their reputation for pugnacity and reckless courage is so well established that it is almost needless to dwell on it, as it is well known that they will boldly attack and drive off the largest of our Raptores, should one venture too near to their chosen nesting-sites.
“Where a pair or more of these birds make their home in the vicinity of a farmhouse, the poultry yard is not likely to suffer much through feathered marauders at least; they are a perfect terror to all hawks, instantly darting at them and rising above them, alighting on their shoulders or necks, and picking away at them most unmercifully until they are only too willing to beat a hasty retreat. The male is seemingly always on the lookout from his perch on the top branches of a tree or post for such enemies and no matter how large they may be, a pair of Kingbirds is more than a match for any of them, our larger Falcons and Eagles not excepted. Crows and Blue Jays seem to be especially obnoxious to them, and instances are on record where they have done them material injury.”
Major Bendire says also that kingbirds do not “bully” all birds, but “as a rule live in harmony with them, protecting not only their own nests but those of their small neighbors as well, who frequently place their nests within a few feet of the Kingbirds—the Orchard Oriole, for instance.” He tells however, of the kingbird’s dislike of the hummingbird—that he has twice seen the tiny “aggressor” put the larger bird to flight.[125]
Kingbirds were for a long time believed to eat bees and therefore were in disfavor. They were called Bee-birds or Bee-Martins and were shot by bee-keepers who did not understand their great value. Professor Beal and other investigators in the Biological Department at Washington have discovered that ninety per cent. of kingbirds’ food consists of insects, mostly injurious beetles that prey upon grain and fruit. They occasionally eat bees, but examination of many stomachs reveals a marked preference for drones over workers, and for wasps, wild bees, and ants over hive bees.[126] So kingbirds have been exonerated.
THE GRAY KINGBIRD
Flycatcher Family—Tyrannidæ
Length: About 9 inches.
Male and Female: Upper parts light gray, darker about the cheeks; concealed orange patch on the crown; under parts whitish, washed with gray on the breast; wings and tail brownish; no white band on the tail, like the northern kingbird; bill very heavy—almost an inch long, with bristles at the base.
Note: A loud call, Pit-tear′-re, “which is constant and is at times lengthened and softened until it might almost be called a song.”[127] The natives of Porto Rico call the bird “pitir′re” because of its note.
Range: Breeds from Georgia, southeastern South Carolina, Florida, and Yucatan, through the Bahamas and West Indies to northern South America; winters from the Greater Antilles southward. It is common in our southeastern states.
The following is an extract from Dr. Wetmore’s interesting description of the Gray Kingbird in the bulletin, “Birds of Porto Rico,” used with the permission of the author:
“The gray kingbird has the reputation among the country people of being the earliest riser among birds. In the daytime it scatters along the slopes and through the fields to feed, but at nightfall gathers in small parties along streams to roost in the bamboos or in the mangroves surrounding the lagoons. The nesting season extends from April to July and during the latter month young are abundant. At all times very pugnacious, pursuing blackbirds, hawks, and other birds, they now become doubly so, resenting all intrusions in their neighborhood. Occasionally they were seen standing on open perches during showers with outspread trembling wings, evidently enjoying the downpour.
“A few facts regarding the insect food of this kingbird were learned from field observation. Birds were twice observed eating the caterpillars of a large sphinx moth. These were beaten on a limb, and then the juices were extracted by working the body through the bill, while only the skin was discarded. Their services in eating these and other caterpillars were recognized.”
THE CRESTED FLYCATCHER
Flycatcher Family—Tyrannidæ
Length: About 9 inches.
Male and Female: Olive-gray above; throat and breast light gray; belly, bright yellow; head conspicuously crested; bill, long, dark, slightly hooked, with bristles at its base; wings brown, margined with white, pale yellow, and reddish-brown; middle tail-feathers, dull brown; inner web of other tail-feathers reddish-brown.
Notes: A whistle that attracts attention. Major Bendire describes the “Great Crest’s” notes as follows:
“It utters a variety of sounds; the most common is a clear whistle like e-whuit-huit, or wit-whit, wit-whit, repeated five or six times in a somewhat lower key, and varied to whuir, whuree, or puree, accompanied by various turnings and twistings of the head. Its alarm-note is a penetrating and far-reaching whēēk, whēēk.”
Nest: The nest of the crested flycatcher is unique. Major Bendire says that it “is usually placed in a natural cavity of some tree or dead stump; possibly in an abandoned woodpecker excavation, though a natural one is preferred.” He says also that “nests vary in bulk; are begun with a base of coarse trash and finished with fine twigs, bunches of cattle hair, pine needles, dry leaves and grasses, the tail of a rabbit, pieces of catbirds’ eggshells, exuviæ of snakes, owl and hawk feathers, tufts of woodchucks’ hair and fine grass roots.”
Snake-skins “seem to be present in the majority of the nests of this species; sometimes in the nest proper, and again placed around the sides of it, in all probability for protective purposes, and changed and rearranged from time to time” ... probably hung outside to “alarm intruders.”[128]
The Crested Flycatcher lives in eastern North America; breeds from southern Canada to Florida, and winters in Mexico and northern South America. He is a common summer resident of the Middle and Southern States especially. Though louder-voiced than his relatives, the kingbird, phœbe, and wood pewee, he is not so well known because he is shyer. He is not so pugnacious as the kingbird, but he is known to fight fiercely for a mate.
THE OLIVE-SIDED FLYCATCHER
Flycatcher Family—Tyrannidæ
Length: About 7½ inches.
Male and Female: Upper parts and sides olive-gray, the gray extending across the breast; throat and belly yellowish, the yellow extending in a point almost to the center of the breast; a patch of whitish feathers on both sides of the back near the rump; head slightly crested; bill long, black above, yellow below, bristles at the base, wings and tail olive-brown.
Notes: A monotonous call-note, Pit-pit-pit, and a loud, clear Peep-here or Peep-peep-here, frequently uttered from the top of a tall spruce.
Habitat: Groves of conifers.
Range: North and South America. Breeds from central Alaska and Canada, in coniferous forests of western United States to northern Michigan, New York, and Maine, south to the mountains of North Carolina; winters in South America from Colombia to Peru.
THE WOOD PEWEE
Flycatcher Family—Tyrannidæ
Length: From 6 to 6½ inches.
Male and Female: Dark olive-gray above, darkest on the head, which is somewhat crested; the slightly hooked bill has bristles at its base; under parts, grayish-white, slightly tinged with yellow; breast and sides a darker gray; brownish wings and tail; two whitish wing-bars that are more conspicuous than those of the phœbe.
Notes: Pee-a-wee, uttered slowly and mournfully, yet with sweetness and tenderness. Sometimes the phrase is followed by an abrupt Peer, given with a falling inflection. At times pewees sing continuously. My sister timed one that sang for an hour and twenty minutes at daybreak.
Nest: One of the most beautiful made. It is rather broad and flat, decorated on the outside with lichens similarly to that of the hummingbird. The nest seems to grow out of the branch on which it is placed.
Range: North and South America. Breeds from southern Canada to southern Texas and central Florida, westward to eastern Nebraska; winters from Nicaraugua to Colombia and Peru.
Of all the flycatchers of my acquaintance the Wood Pewee is the most lovable. He is the only one that possesses a sweet voice; but his note, long-drawn and sad, seems to proceed from an over-burdened heart. The appearance of the little bird is dejected, as with drooping tail, he utters the plaintive sound.
WOOD PEWEE
The nature of the pewee is sweet and trustful. I have always found him responsive, replying almost invariably as I have imitated his note. I once had a particularly pleasant experience and succeeded in convincing a little pewee of my friendly attitude toward him. One summer I was obliged to spend many weary days in a hammock hung in a grove; I beguiled the tedious hours by endeavoring to attract birds to close proximity. A pewee came oftenest; he frequently perched on a bough within a few feet of my hammock, and “talked back” to me between dives after insects. That he knew me and was unafraid was proved, for when relatives and friends arrived later in the summer, he would fly away at their approach.
I saw much of him, even when parental responsibilities claimed him. One day, after the young had flown, I came upon him calling earnestly, evidently to a fledgling that was on the ground at my feet. I picked up the little thing; it cuddled down in my warm hand and closed its eyes. Its father continued to call, but without excitement at such a proceeding; he seemed to know that I would not hurt his baby. I put it on a bough near him and left them to work out their bird-problems together.
Not many days later, we saw four young pewees perched in a row on a wire near the house, with their parents in attendance. The father called repeatedly and the little ones made sweet inarticulate gurglings, finding their voices. They were as dear a bird-family as it has ever been my pleasure to see.
Dallas Lore Sharp, in his delightful essay, “A Palace in a Pig-pen,” thus summarizes the flycatchers:
“Not much can be said of this flycatcher family, except that it is useful—a kind of virtue that gets its chief reward in heaven. I am acquainted with only four of the other nine eastern members, [besides the phœbe], the great crested flycatcher, kingbird, wood pewee, and chebec,—and each of these has some redeeming attribute besides the habit of catching flies.
“They are all good nest-builders, good parents, and brave, independent birds; but aside from phœbe and pewee—the latter in his small way the sweetest voice of the oak woods—the whole family is an odd lot, cross-grained, cross-looking, and about as musical as a family of ducks. A duck seems to know that he cannot sing. A flycatcher knows nothing of his shortcomings. He believes that he can sing, and in time he will prove it. If desire and effort count for anything, he certainly must prove it in time. How long the family has already been training no one knows. Everybody knows, however, the success each flycatcher of them has thus far attained. It would make a good minstrel show, doubtless, if the family would appear together. In chorus, surely, they would be far from a tuneful choir. Yet individually, in the wide universal chorus of the out-of-doors, how much we should miss the kingbird’s metallic twitter and the chebec’s insistent call!”[129]
THE RUBY-CROWNED KINGLET
Old World Warbler Family—Sylviidæ
Length: A little over 4¼ inches.
Male: Olive-green above, buff underneath, a ruby-red crown; wings brown, edged with olive-green; two light wing-bars; tail brown, forked.
Female: Similar to male, but lacking the red crown. The females resemble tiny warblers in appearance.
Note: A sharp scolding-note.
Song: A wonderful song,—full, loud, and indescribably beautiful. It is hard to believe that so finished and remarkable a song could come from so small a bird.
Habitat: Woods, thickets, and orchards. Kinglets are usually seen near the ends of branches.
Range: Northern North America. Breeds in the tree-regions of southern Canada, southern Alaska, and the higher mountains of the western United States.
Like many of the warblers, the Ruby-crowned Kinglet is a spring and fall migrant, and its arrival is therefore of especial interest. It excels most of the warblers in its power of song, and is even more agile than they.
In Bulletin 513 of the Biological Survey is the following description of the Ruby-crown: “In habits and haunts this tiny sprite resembles a chickadee. It is an active, nervous little creature, flitting hither and yon in search of food, and in spring stopping only long enough to utter its beautiful song, surprisingly loud for the size of the musician. Three-fourths of its food consists of wasps, bugs, and flies. Beetles are the only other item of importance. The bugs eaten by the kinglet are mostly small, but, happily, they are the most harmful kinds. Treehoppers, leafhoppers, and jumping plant-lice are pests and often do great harm to trees and smaller plants, while plant-lice and scale insects are the worst scourges of the fruit-grower—in fact, the prevalence of the latter has almost risen to the magnitude of a national peril. It is these small and seemingly insignificant birds that most successfully attack and hold in check these insidious foes of horticulture. The vegetable food consists of seeds of poison ivy, or poison oak, a few weed seeds, and a few small fruits, mostly elderberries.”
THE BLUE-GRAY GNATCATCHER
Old World Warbler Family—Sylviidæ
Length: About 4½ inches.
Male: Bluish-gray above; grayish white below; forehead black, black line over the eye; slender, curving bill; wings dark gray, edged with grayish-white; tail long, outer tail-feathers nearly all white; middle tail-feathers black; tail elevated and lowered frequently.
Female: Similar to male, but without the black forehead; line over eye indistinct.
Call-note: A nasal tang.
Song: A delightful song,—sweet, but not strong.
Habitat: Woodlands, where it usually frequents treetops.
Range: Southeastern United States. Breeds from eastern Nebraska, southern Wisconsin, Michigan, and Ontario, southwestern Pennsylvania, Maryland, and southern New Jersey to southern Texas and central Florida; winters from northern Florida to the West Indies and central America; casual in Minnesota, New England, and New York.
This dainty little sprite partakes of the qualities of a number of birds. Like the warblers, it is insectivorous and inhabits treetops; like its relative, the ruby-crowned kinglet, it has a finished and wonderful song; like the wrens it has a habit of cocking its tail nervously; while its long black and white tail reminds one of the mockingbird. It is an especially pretty sight, fluttering about the moss-hung trees of Florida.
THE RED-EYED VIREO
Vireo Family—Vireonidæ
Length: About 6¼ inches.
Male and Female: Olive-green above, silvery white below; crown gray, bordered with a narrow black line; a broader white line over the eye, a dark streak through the eye; iris red or reddish-brown; wings and tail grayish-green, edged with olive.
Habitat: In open woodlands and along well-shaded roads.
Range: North and South America. Breeds from central Canada, northwestern, central, and eastern United States, to central Florida; winters in South America.
Note: A nasal whăh, that sounds ill-natured and unpleasant.
Song: A series of phrases—incessant, monotonous,—that continue from morning until night, and during August, when most birds are quiet. Wilson Flagg called the Red-eye the “Preacher-bird” and wrote of him as follows:
“The Preacher is more generally known by his note, because he is incessant in his song, and particularly vocal during the heat of our long summer days, when only a few birds are singing. His style of preaching is not declamation. Though constantly talking, he takes the part of a deliberative orator, who explains his subject in a few words and then makes a pause for his hearers to reflect upon it. We might suppose him to be repeating moderately, with a pause between each sentence, ‘You see it—you know it—do you hear me?—do you believe it?’ All these strains are delivered with a rising inflection at the close, and with a pause, as if waiting for an answer.
RED-EYED VIREO
“He is never fervent, rapid, or fluent, but like a true zealot, he is apt to be tiresome from the long continuance of his discourse. When nearly all other birds have become silent, the little preacher still continues his earnest harangue, and is sure of an audience at this late period, when he has few rivals.”[130]
Mr. Forbush discovered that this preacher “practiced as he preached,” and tells us of his own observations in the following words:
“One sunny day in early boyhood I watched a vireo singing in a swampy thicket. He sang a few notes, his head turning meanwhile from side to side, his eyes scanning closely the nearby foliage. Suddenly his song ceased; he leaned forward,—sprang to another twig, snatched a green caterpillar from the under side of a leaf, swallowed it, and resumed his song. Every important pause in his dissertation signalized the capture of a larva. As the discourse was punctuated, a worm was punctured. It seems as if the preaching were a serious business with the bird; but this seeming is deceptive, for the song merely masks the constant vigilance and the sleepless eye of this premium caterpillar-hunter. In the discovery of this kind of game the bird has few superiors.”[131]
This vireo builds a very attractive nest of strips of bark and fiber, a soft basket hung at the fork of a branch. I recall one nest suspended only a few feet from the ground in a low tree on Cape Cod. We came upon the nest so suddenly that the little brooding mother looked at us with frightened eyes, but she remained at her post, and soon learned that we meant no harm. Many times a day we went by her precious cradle. At night we passed quietly, so as not to waken the faithful little mother-bird with her head tucked under her wing. Our flashlight never once disturbed her. Mr. Forbush says, “This vireo sleeps very soundly, and is sometimes so oblivious to the world that she may be approached and taken in the hand.”[132]
Burroughs wrote: “Who does not feel a thrill of pleasure when, in sauntering through the woods, his hat just brushes a vireo’s nest?... The nest was like a natural growth, hanging there like a fairy basket in the fork of a beech twig, woven of dry, delicate, papery, brown and gray wood products,—a part of the shadows and the green and brown solitude. The weaver had bent down one of the green leaves and made it a part of the nest; it was like the stroke of a great artist. Then the dabs of white here and there, given by the fragments of spider’s cocoons—all helped to blend it with the flickering light and shade.”[133]
THE WARBLING VIREO
Vireo Family—Vireonidæ
Length: About 5¾ inches.
Male and Female: Grayish-olive above; indistinct whitish line over eye; under parts grayish-white with a faint yellowish tinge; no bars on wings; iris dark brown, not reddish.
Note: A nasal yăh, not unlike the call-note of the red-eyed vireo.
Song: A sweet continuous warble, with a rising inflection at the end. It sounds like a whistled Whew-whew-whew whew-whew-whew-whee?
Habitat: Parks and shaded village streets. Its neutral coloring and its preference for treetops make it difficult to distinguish. Its cheerful, pleasant song is the surest means of identification.
Range: Eastern North America. Breeds from south-central Canada to northwestern Texas, southern Louisiana, North Carolina, and Virginia; winters south of the United States, though exact locality is unknown. Not nearly so widely distributed as the red-eyed vireo.
This vireo, like other members of its family, is an indefatigable devourer of insects. Mr. Forbush reports that it feeds on flies, mosquitoes, and grasshoppers, but that its chief food consists of caterpillars and other leaf-eating insects, especially the elm-leaf beetle; consequently it is found frequently in elm-shaded streets and yards.
THE WHITE-EYED VIREO
Vireo Family—Vireonidæ
The White-Eyed Vireo differs from his red-eyed cousin in being slightly smaller, in having a small patch of yellow around the eye, a white iris, and two wing-bars. His head is greener and his breast and sides are tinged with yellow.
He lives in thickets. He possesses in a marked degree the vireo habit of scolding. He has more power as a songster than his better-known relatives. Mr. Chapman describes him most delightfully as follows: “If birds are ever impertinent, I believe this term might with truth be applied to that most original, independent dweller in thickety under-growths, the white-eyed vireo. Both his voice and manner say that he doesn’t in the least care what you think of him; and, if attracted by his peculiar notes or actions, you pause near his haunts, he jerks out an abrupt ‘Who are you, eh?’ in a way which plainly indicates that your presence can be dispensed with. If this hint is insufficient, he follows it by a harsh scolding, and one can fancy that in his singular white eye there is an unmistakable gleam of disapproval.
“I have always regretted that the manners of this Vireo have been a bar to our better acquaintance, for he is a bird of marked character and with unusual vocal talents. He is a capital mimic, and in the retirement of his home sometimes amuses himself by combining the songs of other birds in an intricate pot-pourri.”[134]
THE YELLOW-THROATED VIREO
Vireo Family—Vireonidæ
The Yellow-throated Vireo resembles the White-eye in being olive-green above, yellowish underneath, and in having two distinct white wing-bars. He differs in possessing a bright yellow throat, breast, and ring about a dark eye.
Mr. Forbush says of this bird; “The song is a little louder than that of most vireos, and may be easily distinguished from all others. It usually consists of two or three rich and virile notes, uttered interrogatively or tentatively, followed immediately by a few similar tones uttered decisively. The bird appears to ask a question, and then answer it. Its alarm notes are as harsh as those of an oriole, and somewhat similar in quality.”[135]
THE WARBLERS
Warbler Family—Mniotiltidæ
No family of birds is more difficult for a beginner to identify than the warblers. Reasons for this fact are various. In the first place, warblers are small and agile, and usually inhabit treetops, where it is hard to see their plumage. The number of the species is large,—155 species are known, 74 of which are found in North America, and 55 in the United States alone. Some of the males wear a “Joseph’s coat of many colors”; some of the females are so different from their mates as to puzzle an observer, and the young birds frequently differ from both parents. Then, too, most warblers are not gifted songsters, but utter only a weak trill. A number of them are seen only during their migration to northern woods; they linger too short a time to become more than passing bird-acquaintances.
Warblers are insectivorous and do not arrive until the earth teems with insect life. Most of them depart for the South as soon as insects begin to decrease in number or disappear. They are very shy and migrate at night.
Many are the disasters that befall them when they journey near the sea-coast. In Dr. Wells W. Cooke’s article entitled “Our Greatest Travelers” are the following statements: “It is not to be supposed that these long flights over the waters can occur without many casualties, and not the smallest of the perils arises from the beacons which man has erected along the coast to insure his own safety. ‘Last night I could have filled a mail-sack with the bodies of little warblers which killed themselves striking against my light,’ wrote the keeper of Fowey Rocks lighthouse, in southern Florida.
“Nor was this an unusual tragedy. Every spring the lights along the coast lure to destruction myriads of birds who are en route from their winter homes in the South to their summer nesting-places in the North. Every fall a still greater death-toll is exacted when the return journey is made. A red light or a rapidly flashing one repels the birds, but a steady white light piercing the fog proves irresistible.”[136]
Few people realize the great good done by warblers. Mr. Forbush says that in migration they seem to possess enormous appetites. A Hooded Warbler was found to catch on the average two insects a minute or one hundred and twenty an hour. At this rate the bird would kill at least nine hundred and sixty insects a day, in an eight hour working day!
Dr. Judd reported a Palm Warbler that ate from forty to sixty insects a minute. In the four hours he was under observation he must have eaten nine thousand, five hundred insects. Mr. Forbush says that he has seen warblers eating from masses of small insects at such a rate that it was impossible for him to count them.[137]