PASSERINE BIRDS
We have now run through the list of all the orders of birds except
the last and largest--the "passerine" birds, the ordinary songsters
of the fields and woodlands of the northern hemisphere. There are
fifty families contained in the order. Here, among our North American
migratory birds are to be found the kingbirds, pewees and other
"tyrant" flycatchers; the larks of our western plains and eastern
seashore; that sprite of the Rocky Mountain brooks, the ouzel; the
waxwings, the butcher birds; the pretty greenish vireos that build
those exquisite, cup-shaped hanging nests made of grapevine bark and
spider's silk; and the swallows that become so friendly every summer
about barns, paying rent by diligent service in insect killing. Then
there is that interesting little group of small and cheerful climbers,
the nuthatches, chickadees, and creepers, that rid trees of hosts of
injurious insects which they dig out of crevices of the bark as they
scramble up and down the trunks, some of them continuing the good work
all through the winter. These have their counterparts in Europe, for
in respect of our common song birds, as of the birds of prey and game
birds, the avifauna of Europe and North America is virtually one. The
differences are mainly in the few representatives of tropical groups
that visit northern countries in summer, those of Europe partaking of
the African or Indian families, while we have wandering species from
groups that are properly inhabitants of Mexico and southward. Such, in
fact, are our few humming birds, hundreds of species of which belong
to the American tropics (and none to the Old World), our two tanagers,
members of a very large tropical family, and our blackbirds and
orioles, far more numerous in species south of the United States.
While we have many delightful vocalists, the best singers of all
our birds are no doubt the thrushes, and that is true of thrushes
elsewhere, for the European blackbird and mavis, the celebrated
nightingale, the solitaire--both that of the West Indies and that of
our northern Pacific Coast--and several noted musicians in the Orient,
are of this melodious family. Which is the best singer of them all
will never be settled, for the citizen of each country likes best that
to which he is most used; but to Americans nothing can be better than
the evening carol of the wood thrush, the serene hymnlike music of the
hermit, or the sweet and wavering call of the veery. Yet in the South,
where these northern thrushes are rarely heard at their best, the palm
is given to the mocking bird, which, like the northern brown thrasher,
rivals all in turn by simulating their notes in a liquid melody that,
especially when heard in the calm of a moonlit summer evening, seems of
surpassing beauty.