“weeding out the lonesomeness” and that is exactly what the drumming
of the woodpecker means. The male selects some dried limb of hard
wood and there beats out his well-known signal which advertises far
and near, “Wanted, a wife.” And after he wins her, he still drums
on for a time to cheer her while she is busy with her family cares.
The woodpecker has no voice for singing, like the robin or thrush;
and luckily, he does not insist on singing, like the peacock whether
he can or not. He chooses rather to devote his voice to terse and
business-like conversation; and when he is musically inclined, he
turns drummer. He is rather particular about his instrument and
having found one that is sufficiently resonant he returns to it
day after day. While it is ordinarily the male that drums I once
observed a female drumming. I told her that she was a bold minx and
ought to be ashamed of herself; but within twenty minutes she had
drummed up two red-capped suitors who chased each other about with
great animosity, so her performance was evidently not considered
improper in woodpecker society. I have watched a rival pair of male
downies fight for hours at a time, but their duel was of the French
brand,--much fuss and no bloodshed. They advanced upon each other
with much haughty glaring and scornful bobs of the head, but when
they were sufficiently near to stab each other they beat a mutual and
circumspect retreat. Although we hear the male downies drumming every
spring, I doubt if they are calling for new wives; I believe they
are, instead, calling the attention of their lawful spouses to the
fact that it is time for nest building to begin. I have come to this
conclusion because the downies and hairies which I have watched for
years have always come in pairs to partake of suet during the entire
winter; and while only one at a time sits at meat and the lord and
master is somewhat bossy, yet they seem to get along as well as most
married pairs.
The downy’s nest is a hole, usually in a partly decayed tree; an old
apple tree is a favorite site and a fresh excavation is made each
year. There are from four to six white eggs, which are laid on a nice
bed of chips as fine almost as sawdust. The door to the nest is a
perfect circle and about an inch and a quarter across.
The hairy woodpecker is fully one-third larger than the downy,
measuring nine inches from tip of beak to tip of tail, while the
downy measures only about six inches. The tail feathers at the side
are white for the entire length, while they are barred at the tips in
the downy. There is a black “parting” through the middle of the red
patch on the back of the hairy’s head. The two species are so much
alike that it is difficult for the beginner to tell them apart. Their
habits are very similar, except that the hairy lives in the woods
and is not so commonly seen in orchards or on shade trees. The food
of the hairy is much like that of the downy and it is, therefore, a
beneficial bird and should be protected.
LESSON XIV
THE DOWNY WOODPECKER
_Leading thought_--The downy woodpecker remains with us all winter,
feeding upon insects that are wintering in crevices and beneath the
bark of our trees. It is fitted especially by shape of beak, tongue,
feet and tail to get such food and it is a “friend in need” to our
forest, shade and orchard trees.
_Methods_--If a piece of beef fat be fastened upon the trunk or
branch of a tree, which can be seen from the schoolroom windows,
there will be no lack of interest in this friendly little bird; for
the downy will sooner or later find this feast spread for it and will
come every day to partake. Give out the questions, a few at a time,
and discuss the answers with the pupils.
_Observations_--1. What is the general color of the downy above and
below? The color of the top of the head? Sides of the head? The
throat and breast? The color and markings of the wings? Color and
markings of the middle and side tail-feathers?
2. Do all downy woodpeckers have the red patch at the back of the
head? If not, why?
3. What is the note of the downy? Does it make any other sound? Have
you ever seen one drumming? At what time of the year? On what did it
drum? What did it use for a drumstick? What do you suppose was the
purpose of this music?
4. How does the downy climb a tree trunk? How does it descend? How do
its actions differ from those of the nuthatch?
5. How are the woodpecker’s toes arranged to help it climb a tree
trunk? How does this arrangement of toes differ from that of other
birds?
6. How does the downy use its tail to assist it in climbing? What is
the shape of the tail and how is it adapted to assist?
7. What does the downy eat and where does it find its food? Describe
how it gets at its food. What is the shape of its bill and how is it
fitted for getting the food? Tell how the downy’s tongue is used to
spear the grub.
8. Why does the downy not go South in winter?
9. Of what use is this bird to us? How should we protect it and
entice it into our orchards?
10. Write an English theme on the subject “How the downy builds its
nest and rears its young”.
_Supplementary reading_--The Woodpeckers, Eckstorm; Bird Neighbors,
Blanchan; Winter Neighbors, Burroughs.
* * * * *
_A few seasons ago a downy woodpecker, probably the individual
one who is now my winter neighbor, began to drum early in
March in a partly decayed apple-tree that stands in the edge
of a narrow strip of woodland near me. When the morning was
still and mild I would often hear him through my window before
I was up, or by half-past six o’clock, and he would keep it
up pretty briskly till nine or ten o’clock, in this respect
resembling the grouse, which do most of their drumming in
the forenoon. His drum was the stub of a dry limb about the
size of one’s wrist. The heart was decayed and gone, but the
outer shell was loud and resonant. The bird would keep his
position there for an hour at a time. Between his drummings
he would preen his plumage and listen as if for the response
of the female, or for the drum of some rival. How swift his
head would go when he was delivering his blows upon the limb!
His beak wore the surface perceptibly. When he wished to
change the key, which was quite often, he would shift his
position an inch or two to a knot which gave out a higher,
shriller note. When I climbed up to examine his drum he was
much disturbed. I did not know he was in the vicinity, but it
seems he saw me from a near tree, and came in haste to the
neighboring branches, and with spread plumage and a sharp
note demanded plainly enough what my business was with his
drum. I was invading his privacy, desecrating his shrine,
and the bird was much put out. After some weeks the female
appeared; he had literally drummed up a mate; his urgent and
oft-repeated advertisement was answered. Still the drumming
did not cease, but was quite as fervent as before. If a mate
could be won by drumming she could be kept and entertained by
more drumming; courtship should not end with marriage. If the
bird felt musical before, of course he felt much more so now.
Besides that, the gentle deities needed propitiating in behalf
of the nest and young as well as in behalf of the mate. After
a time a second female came, when there was war between the
two. I did not see them come to blows, but I saw one female
pursuing the other about the place, and giving her no rest for
several days. She was evidently trying to run her out of the
neighborhood. Now and then she, too, would drum briefly as if
sending a triumphant message to her mate._
--Winter Neighbors, JOHN BURROUGHS.
THE SAPSUCKER
_Teacher’s Story_
[Illustration: _The yellow bellied sapsucker._
Drawing by L. A. Fuertes.]
The sapsucker is a woodpecker that has strayed from the paths of
virtue; he has fallen into temptation by the wayside, and instead of
drilling a hole for the sake of the grub at the end of it, he drills
for drink. He is a tippler, and sap is his beverage; and he is also
fond of the soft, inner bark. He often drills his holes in regular
rows and thus girdles a limb or a tree, and for this is pronounced
a rascal by men who have themselves ruthlessly cut from our land
millions of trees that should now be standing. It is amusing to see a
sapsucker take his tipple, unless his saloon happens to be one of our
prized young trees. He uses his bill as a pick and makes the chips
fly as he taps the tree; then he goes away and taps another tree.
After a time he comes back and holding his beak close to the hole
for a long time seems to be sucking up the sap; he then throws back
his head and “swigs” it down with every sign of delirious enjoyment.
The avidity with which these birds come to the bleeding wells which
they have made, has in it all the fierceness of a toper crazy for
drink; they are particularly fond of the sap of the mountain ash,
apple, thorn apple, canoe birch, cut-leaf birch, red maple, red
oak, white ash and young pines. However, the sapsucker does not
live solely on sap, he also feeds upon insects whenever he can find
them. When feeding their young, the sapsuckers are true flycatchers
snatching insects while on the wing. The male has the crown and
throat crimson, edged with black with a black line extending back of
the eye, bordered with white above and below. There is a large, black
circular patch on the breast which is bordered at the sides and below
with lemon yellow. The female is similar to the male and has a red
forehead, but she has a white bib instead of a red one beneath the
chin. The distinguishing marks of the sapsucker should be learned by
the pupils. The red is on the front of the head instead of on the
crown, as is the case with the downy and hairy; when it is flying the
broad, white stripes extending from the shoulders backward, form a
long, oval figure, which is very characteristic.
The sapsuckers spend the winter in the Southern States where they
drill wells in the white oak and other trees. From Virginia to
Northern New York and New England, where they breed, they are seen
only during migration, which occurs in April; then the birds appear
two and three together and are very bold in attacking shade trees,
especially the white birch. They nest only in the Northern United
States and northward. The nest is usually a hole in a tree about
forty feet from the ground, and is likely to be in a dead birch.
LESSON XV
THE SAPSUCKER
_Leading thought_--The sapsucker has a red cap, a red bib and a
yellow breast; it is our only woodpecker that does injury to trees.
We should learn to distinguish it from the downy and hairy, as the
latter are among the best bird friends of the trees.
_Methods_--Let the observations begin with the study of the trees
which have been attacked by the sapsucker, which are almost
everywhere common, and thus lead to an interest in the culprit.
_Observations_--1. Have you seen the work of the sapsucker? Are the
holes drilled in rows completely around the tree? If there are two
rows or more, are the holes set evenly one below another?
2. Do the holes sink into the wood, or are they simply through the
bark? Why does it injure or kill a tree to be girdled with these
holes? Have you ever seen the sapsuckers making these holes? If so,
how did they act?
3. How many kinds of trees can you find punctured by these holes? Are
they likely to be young trees?
4. How can you distinguish the sapsucker from the other woodpeckers?
How have the hairy and downy which are such good friends of the trees
been made to suffer for the sapsucker’s sins?
5. What is the color of the sapsucker as follows: Forehead, sides
of head, back, wings, throat, upper and lower breast? What is the
difference in color between the male and female?
6. In what part of the country do the sapsuckers build their nests?
Where do they make their nests and how?
_Supplementary reading_--Bird Neighbors, Blanchan; Birds, Bees and
Sharp Eyes, John Burroughs.
* * * * *
_In the following winter the same bird_ (_a sapsucker_)
_tapped a maple-tree in front of my window in fifty-six
places; and, when the day was sunny and the sap oozed out he
spent most of his time there. He knew the good sap-days, and
was on hand promptly for his tipple; cold and cloudy days he
did not appear. He knew which side of the tree to tap, too,
and avoided the sunless northern exposure. When one series
of well-holes failed to supply him, he would sink another,
drilling through the bark with great ease and quickness. Then,
when the day was warm, and the sap ran freely, he would have
a regular sugar-maple debauch, sitting there by his wells
hour after hour, and as fast as they became filled sipping
out the sap. This he did in a gentle, caressing manner that
was very suggestive. He made a row of wells near the foot of
the tree, and other rows higher up, and he would hop up and
down the trunk as they became filled._
--Winter Neighbors, JOHN BURROUGHS.
THE RED-HEADED WOODPECKER
_Teacher’s Story_
[Illustration: _The red-headed woodpecker._
Drawing by L. A. Fuertes.]
The red-head is well named, for his helmet and visor show a vivid
glowing crimson that stirs the sensibilities of the color lover.
It is readily distinguished from the other woodpeckers because its
entire head and bib are red. For the rest, it is a beautiful dark
metallic blue with the lower back, a band across the wing, and the
under parts white; its outer tail feathers are tipped with white.
The female is colored like the male, but the young have the head and
breast gray, streaked with black and white, and the wings barred
with black. It may make its nest by excavating a hole in a tree or a
stump or even in a telegraph pole; the eggs are glossy white. This
woodpecker is quite different in habits from the hairy and downy, as
it likes to flit along from stump to fence-post and catch insects on
the wing, like a fly-catcher. The only time that it pecks wood is
when it is making a hole for its nest.
As a drummer, the red-head is most adept and his roll is a long one.
He is an adaptable fellow, and if there is no resonant dead limb at
hand, he has been known to drum on tin roofs and lightning rods;
and once we also observed him executing a most brilliant solo on
the wire of a barbed fence. He is especially fond of beechnuts and
acorns, and being a thrifty fellow as well as musical, in time of
plenty he stores up food against time of need. He places his nuts in
crevices and forks of the branches or in holes in trees or any other
hiding place. He can shell a beechnut quite as cleverly as can the
deer mouse; and he is own cousin to the Carpenter Woodpecker of the
Pacific Coast, which is also red-headed and which drills holes in the
oak trees wherein he drives acorns like pegs for later use.
LESSON XVI
THE RED-HEADED WOODPECKER
_Leading thought_--The red-headed woodpecker has very different
habits from the downy and is not so useful to us. It lives upon nuts
and fruit and such insects as it can catch upon the wing.
_Methods_--If there is a red-head in the vicinity of your school the
children will be sure to see it. Write the following questions upon
the blackboard and offer a prize to the first one who will make a
note on where the red-head stores his winter food.
_Observations_--1. Can you tell the red-head from the other
woodpeckers? What colors especially mark his plumage?
2. Where does the red-head nest? Describe eggs and nest?
3. What have you observed the red-head eating? Have you noticed it
storing nuts and acorns for the winter? Have you noticed it flying
off with cherries or other fruit?
4. What is the note of the red-head? Have you ever seen one drumming?
What did he use for a drum? Did he come back often to this place to
make his music?
_Supplementary reading_--“The House That Fell” in Nestlings of Forest
and Marsh; Our Birds and their Nestlings, p. 90; Birds, Bees and
Sharp Eyes, John Burroughs.
* * * * *
_Another trait our woodpeckers have that endears them
to me, and that has never been pointedly noticed by our
ornithologists, is their habit of drumming in the spring. They
are songless birds, and yet all are musicians; they make the
dry limbs eloquent of the coming change. Did you think that
loud, sonorous hammering which proceeded from the orchard or
from the near woods on that still March or April morning was
only some bird getting its breakfast? It is downy, but he is
not rapping at the door of a grub; he is rapping at the door
of spring, and the dry limb thrills beneath the ardor of his
blows. Or, later in the season, in the dense forest or by
some remote mountain lake, does that measured rhythmic beat
that breaks upon the silence, first three strokes following
each other rapidly, succeeded by two louder ones with longer
intervals between them, and that has an effect upon the
alert ear as if the solitude itself had at least found a
voice--does that suggest anything less than a deliberate
musical performance? In fact, our woodpeckers are just as
characteristically drummers as is the ruffed grouse, and they
have their particular limbs and stubs to which they resort
for that purpose. Their need of expression is apparently just
as great as that of the song-birds, and it is not surprising
that they should have found out that there is music in a dry,
seasoned limb which can be evoked beneath their beaks._
_The woodpeckers do not each have a particular dry limb to
which they resort at all times to drum, like the one I have
described. The woods are full of suitable branches, and they
drum more or less here and there as they are in quest of food;
yet I am convinced each one has its favorite spot, like the
grouse, to which it resorts, especially in the morning. The
sugar-maker in the maple woods may notice that this sound
proceeds from the same tree or trees about his camp with great
regularity. A woodpecker in my vicinity has drummed for two
seasons on a telegraph-pole, and he makes the wires and glass
insulators ring. Another drums on a thin board on the end of
a long grape-arbor, and on still mornings can be heard a long
distance._
_A friend of mine in a Southern city tells me of a red-headed
woodpecker that drums upon a lightning-rod on his neighbor’s
house. Nearly every clear, still morning at certain seasons,
he says, this musical rapping may be heard. “He alternates his
tapping with his stridulous call, and the effect on a cool,
autumn-like morning is very pleasing.”_
--JOHN BURROUGHS, in Birds, Bees and Sharp Eyes.
THE FLICKER OR YELLOW-HAMMER
_Teacher’s Story_
[Illustration: _Young flickers “Two is company, three is a crowd.”_
Photo by J. M. Schreck.]
The first time I ever saw a flicker I said, “What a wonderful
meadow-lark and what is it doing on that ant hill?” But, another
glance revealed to me a red spot on the back of the bird’s neck,
and as soon as I was sure that it was not a bloody gash, I knew
that it marked no meadow-lark. The top of the flicker’s head and
its back are slaty-gray, which is much enlivened by a bright red
band across the nape of the neck. The tail is black above and
yellow tipped with black below; the wings are black, but have a
beautiful luminous yellow beneath, which is very noticeable during
flight. There is a locket adorning the breast which is a thin, black
crescent, much narrower than that of the meadow-lark. Below the
locket, the breast is yellowish white thickly marked with circular,
black spots. The throat and sides of the head are pinkish brown, and
the male has a black mustache extending backward from the beak with
a very fashionable droop. Naturally enough the female, although she
resembles her spouse, lacks his mustache. The beak is long, strong,
somewhat curved and dark colored. This bird is distinctly larger
than the robin. The white patch on the rump shows little or none
when the bird is at rest, for this white mark is a “color call,” it
being a rear signal by means of which the flock of migrating birds
are able to keep together in the night. The yellow-hammer’s flight is
wave-like and jerky and quite different from that of the meadow-lark;
nor does it stay so constantly in the meadows but often frequents
woods and orchards.
The flicker has many names, such as golden-winged woodpecker,
yellow-hammer, high-hole, yarup, wake-up, clape and many others.
It earned the name of high-hole because of its habit of excavating
its nest high up in trees, usually between ten and twenty-five feet
from the ground. It especially loves an old apple tree as a site for
a nest, and most of our large old orchards can boast of a pair of
these handsome birds during the nesting season of May and June. The
flicker is not above renting any house he finds vacant, excavated by
some other birds last year. He earned his name of yarup or wake-up
from his spring song, which is a rollicking, jolly “wick-a, wick-a,
wick-a-wick” a song commonly heard the last of March or early April.
The chief food of the flicker is ants, although it also eats beetles,
flies and wild fruit, but does little or no damage to planted crops.
So long has it fed upon ants, that its tongue has become modified,
like that of the ant-eater; it is covered with a sticky substance;
and when it is thrust into an ant hill, all of the little citizens,
disturbed in their communal labors, at once bravely attack the
intruder and become glued fast to it, and are thus withdrawn and
transferred to the capacious stomach of the bird. It has been known
to eat three thousand ants at a single meal.
Those who have observed the flicker during the courting season
declare him to be the most silly and vain of all bird wooers. Mr.
Baskett says: “When he wishes to charm his sweetheart he mounts a
small twig near her, and lifts his wings, spreads his tail, and
begins to nod right and left as he exhibits his mustache to his
charmer. He sets his jet locket first on one side of the twig and
then on the other. He may even go so far as to turn his head half
around to show her the pretty spot on his back hair. In doing all
this he performs the most ludicrous antics and has the silliest
expression of face and voice as if in losing his heart, as some one
phrases it, he had lost his head also.”
The nest hole is quite deep and the white eggs are from four to ten
in number. The feeding of the young flickers is a painful process to
watch. The parent takes the food into its own stomach and partially
digests it, then thrusting its own bill down the throat of the young
one it pumps the soft food into it “kerchug, kerchug,” until it seems
as if the young one must be shaken to its foundations. The young
flickers as soon as they leave the nest climb around freely on the
home tree in a delightful, playful manner.
[Illustration: _Flicker coming from the nest._
Photo by George Fiske, Jr.]
LESSON XVII
THE FLICKER
_Leading thought_--The flicker is a true woodpecker but has changed
its habits and spends much of its time in meadows hunting for ants
and other insects; it makes its nest in trees, like its relatives. It
can be distinguished from the meadow-lark by the white patch above
the tail which shows during flight.
_Methods_--This is one of the most important of birds of the meadow
and the work may be done in September when there are plenty of young
flickers, which have not learned to be wary. The observations may be
made in the field, a few questions given at a time.
_Observations_--1. Where do you find the flicker in the summer and
early autumn? How can you tell it from the meadow-lark in color and
in flight?
2. What is it doing in the meadows? How does it manage to trap ants?
3. What is the size of the flicker as compared to the robin? What is
its general color as compared to the meadow-lark?
4. Describe the colors of the flicker as follows: Top and sides of
the head, back of the neck, lower back, tail, wings, throat and
breast. The color and shape of the beak. Is there a difference in
markings between the males and females?
5. Does the patch of white above the tail show, except when the bird
is flying? Of what use is this to the bird?
6. What is the flicker’s note? At what time of spring do you hear it
first?
7. Where does the flicker build its nest and how? What is the color
of the eggs? How many are there?
8. How does it feed its young? How do the young flickers act?
9. How many names do you know for the flicker?
_Supplementary reading_--“The Bird of Many Names,” Nestlings of
Forest and Marsh; A Fellow of Expedients, Long; Our Birds and Their
Nestlings, p. 187; Audubon Leaflet No. 5.
* * * * *
_The high-hole appears to drum more promiscuously than
does the downy. He utters his long, loud spring call,
whick-whick-whick, and then begins to rap with his beak
upon his perch before the last note has reached your ear. I
have seen him drum sitting upon the ridge of the barn. The
log-cock, or pileated woodpecker, the largest and wildest
of our Northern species, I have never heard drum. His blows
should wake the echoes._
_When the woodpecker is searching for food, or laying siege
to some hidden grub, the sound of his hammering is dead or
muffled, and is heard but a few yards. It is only upon dry,
seasoned timber, freed of its bark, that he beats his reveille
to spring and woos his mate._
--JOHN BURROUGHS, in Birds, Bees and Sharp Eyes.
THE MEADOW-LARK
_Teacher’s Story_
[Illustration]
The first intimation we have in early spring, that the meadow-lark is
again with us, comes to us through his soft, sweet, sad note which
Van Dyke describes so graphically when he says it, “leaks slowly
upward from the ground.” One wonders how a bird can express happiness
in these melancholy, sweet, slurred notes and yet undoubtedly it is a
song expressing joy, the joy of returning home, the happiness of love
and of nest building. But after one has spent a winter in the Gulf
States, and has witnessed the slaughter there of this most valuable
bird; and after the northern stomach and heart have turned sick at
the sight of breasts once so full of song done brown on the luncheon
table, one no longer wonders that the meadow-lark’s song of joy is
fraught with sadness. There should be national laws to protect the
birds that are of value to one part of the United States from being
slaughtered in their winter haunts, unless they are there a nuisance
and injurious to crops, which is not the case with the meadow-lark.
The meadow-lark, as is indicated by its name, is a bird of the
meadow. It is often confused with another bird of the meadow which
has very different habits, the flicker. The two are approximately
of the same size and color and each has a black crescent or locket
on the breast and each shows the “white feather” during flight.
The latter is the chief distinguishing character; the outer tail
feathers of the meadow-lark are white, while the tail feathers of the
flicker are not white at all, but it has a single patch of white on
the rump. The flight of the two is quite different. The lark lifts
itself by several sharp movements and then soars smoothly over the
course, while the flicker makes a continuous up and down, wave-like
flight. The songs of the two would surely never be confused, for the
meadow-lark is among our sweetest singers, to which class the flicker
with his “flick a flick” hardly belongs.
The colors of the meadow-lark are most harmonious shades of brown and
yellow, well set off by the black locket on its breast. Its wings are
light brown, each feather being streaked with black and brown; the
line above the eye is yellow, bordered with black above and below; a
buff line extends from the beak backward over the crown. The wings
are light brown and have a mere suggestion of white bars; portions
of the outer feathers on each side of the tail are white, but this
white does not show except during flight. The sides of the throat
are greenish, the middle part and breast are lemon-yellow, with the
large, black crescent just below the throat. The beak is long, strong
and black, and the meadow-lark is decidedly a low-browed bird, the
forehead being only slightly higher than the upper part of the beak.
It is a little larger than the robin which it rivals in plumpness.
The meadow-lark has a particular liking for meadows which border
streams. It sings when on the ground, on the bush or fence and while
on the wing; and it sings during the entire period of its northern
stay, from April to November, except while it is moulting in late
summer. Mr. Mathews, who is an eminent authority on bird songs, says
that the meadow-larks of New York have a different song from those
of Vermont or Nantucket, although the music has always the same
general characteristics. The western species has a longer and more
complex song than ours of the East. It is one of the few California
birds that is a genuine joy to the eastern visitor; during February
and March its heavenly music is as pervasive as the California
sunshine.
[Illustration: _The meadow-lark._
Drawing by L. A. Fuertes.]
The nest is built in a depression in the ground near a tuft of grass;
it is constructed of coarse grass and sticks and is lined with finer
grass; there is usually a dome of grass blades woven above the nest;
and often a long, covered vestibule leading to the nest is made in a
similar fashion. This is evidently for protection from the keen eyes
of hawks and crows. The eggs are laid about the last of May and are
usually from five to seven in number; they are white, speckled with
brown and purple. The young larks are usually large enough to be out
of the way before haying time in July.
The food of the meadow-lark during the entire year, consists almost
exclusively of insects which destroy the grass of our meadows. It
eats great quantities of grasshoppers, cut worms, chinch bugs, army
worms, wire worms, weevils, and also destroys some weed seeds. Each
pupil should make a diagram in his note-book showing the proportions
of the meadow-lark’s different kinds of food. This may be copied
from Audubon Leaflet No. 3. The killing of the meadow-lark in New
York State is a punishable offence, as it should be in every state
of the Union. Everyone who owns a meadow should use his influence to
the uttermost to protect this valuable bird. It has been estimated
that the meadow-larks save to every township where hay is produced,
twenty-five dollars each year on this crop alone.
[Illustration: _The meadow-lark’s covered nest._
Photo by Robert Matheson.]
LESSON XVIII
THE MEADOW-LARK
_Leading thought_--The meadow-lark is of great value in delivering
the grass of our meadows from insect destroyers. It has a song which
we all know; it can be identified by color as a large, light brown
bird with white feathers on each side of the tail, and in flight,
by its quick up and down movements finishing with long, low, smooth
sailing.
_Method_--September and October are good months for observations on
the flight, song and appearance of the meadow-lark, and also for
learning how to distinguish it from the flicker. The notes must be
made by the pupils in the field, and after they know the bird and its
song let them, if they have opportunity, study the bird books and
bulletins, and prepare written accounts of the way the meadow-lark
builds its nest and of its economic value.
_Observations_--1. Where have you seen the meadow-lark? Did you ever
see it in the woods? Describe its flight. How can you identify it
by color when it is flying? How do its white patches and its flight
differ from those of the flicker?
2. Try and imitate the meadow-lark’s notes by song or whistle. Does
it sing while on the ground, or on a bush or fence, or during flight?
3. Note the day when you hear its last song in the fall and also its
first song in the spring. Does it sing during August and September?
Why? Where does it spend the winter? On what does it feed while in
the South? How are our meadow-larks treated when on their southern
sojourn?
4. Is the meadow-lark larger or smaller than the robin? Describe
from your own observation, as far as possible, the colors of the
meadow-lark as follows: Top of head; line above the eye; back; wings;
tail; throat; breast; locket; color and shape of beak. Make a sketch
of your own or a copy from Louis Fuertes’ excellent picture of the
meadow-lark in the Audubon Leaflet, and color it accurately.
5. When is the nest built; where is it placed; of what material
is it built? How is it protected from sight from above? Why this
protection? How many eggs? What are their colors and markings?
6. What is the food of the meadow-lark? Copy the diagram from the
Audubon leaflet, showing the proportions of the different kinds of
insects which it destroys. Why should the farmers of the South also
protect the meadow-lark by law?
_Supplementary reading_--Audubon Education Leaflet No. 3; Farmers’
Bulletin No. 54, U. S. Dept. of Agr.; “A Pioneer,” in Nestlings of
Forest and Marsh, Wheelock.
* * * * *
_Sweet, sweet, sweet! O happy that I am!_
(_Listen to the meadow-larks, across the fields that sing!_)
_Sweet, sweet, sweet! O subtle breath of balm,
O winds that blow, O buds that grow, O rapture of the spring!_
_Sweet, sweet, sweet! O happy world that is!
Dear heart, I hear across the fields my mateling pipe and
call.
Sweet, sweet, sweet! O world so full of bliss,
For life is love, the world is love, and love is over all!_
--INA COOLBRITH.
[Illustration]
THE ENGLISH SPARROW
_Teacher’s Story_
_So dainty in plumage and hue,
A study in grey and in brown,
How little, how little we knew
The pest he would prove to the town!
From dawn until daylight grows dim,
Perpetual chatter and scold.
No winter migration for him,
Not even afraid of the cold!
Scarce a song-bird he fails to molest,
Belligerent, meddlesome thing!
Wherever he goes as a guest
He is sure to remain as a King._
--MARY ISABELLA FORSYTH.
The English sparrow, like the poor and the house-fly, is always with
us; and since he is here to stay, let us make him useful if we can
devise any means of doing so. There is no bird that gives the pupils
a more difficult exercise in describing colors and markings than does
he; and his wife is almost equally difficult. I have known fairly
skilled ornithologists to be misled by some variation in color of the
hen sparrow, and it is safe to assert that the majority of people “do
not know her from Adam.” The male has the top of the head gray with
a patch of reddish brown on either side; the middle of the throat
and upper breast is black; the sides of the throat white; the lower
breast and under parts grayish white; the back is brown streaked
with black; the tail is brown, rather short, and not notched at the
tip; the wings are brown with two white bars and a jaunty dash of
reddish brown. The female has the head grayish brown, the breast,
throat and under parts grayish white; the back is brown streaked with
black and dirty yellow, and she is, on the whole, a “washed out”
looking lady bird. The differences in color and size between the
English sparrow and the chippy are quite noticeable, as the chippy is
an inch shorter and far more slender in appearance, and is especially
marked by the reddish brown crown.
When feeding, the English sparrows are aggressive, and their lack of
table manners make them the “goops” among all birds; in the winter
they settle in noisy flocks on the street to pick up the grain
undigested by the horses, or in barnyards where the grain has been
scattered by the cattle. They only eat weed seeds when other food
fails them in the winter, for they are a civilized bird even if they
do not act so, and they much prefer the cultivated grains. It is only
during the nesting season that they destroy insects to any extent;
over one-half the food of nestlings is insects, such as, weevils,
grasshoppers, cutworms, etc.; but this good work is largely offset
by the fact that these same nestlings will soon give their grown-up
energies to attacking grain fields, taking the seed after sowing,
later the new grain in the milk, and later still the ripened grain
in the sheaf. Wheat, oats, rye, barley, corn, sorghum and rice are
thus attacked. Once I saw on the upper Nile a native boat loaded
with millet which was attacked by thousands of sparrows; when driven
off by the sailors they would perch on the rigging, like flies, and
as soon as the men turned their backs they would drop like bullets
to the deck and gobble the grain before they were again driven off.
English sparrows also destroy for us the buds and blossoms of fruit
trees and often attack the ripening fruit.
The introduction of the English sparrow into America is one of the
greatest arguments possible in favor of nature-study; for, ignorance
of nature-study methods in this single instance, costs the United
States millions of dollars every year. The English sparrow is the
European house sparrow and people had a theory that it was an insect
eater, but never took the pains to ascertain if this theory were a
fact. About 1850, some people with more zeal than wisdom introduced
these birds into New York, and for twenty years afterwards there
were other importations of the sparrows. In twenty years more,
people discovered that they had taken great pains to establish in
our country one of the worst nuisances in all Europe. In addition
to all the direct damage which the English sparrows do, they are so
quarrelsome that they have driven away many of our native beneficial
birds from our premises, and now vociferously acclaim their presence
in places which were once the haunts of birds with sweet songs.
After they drive off the other birds they quarrel among themselves,
and there is no rest for tired ears in their vicinity. There are
various noises made by these birds which we can understand if we are
willing to take the pains: The harassing chirping is their song; they
squall when frightened and peep plaintively when lonesome, and make a
disagreeable racket when fighting.
But to “give the devil his due” we must admit that the house sparrow
is as clever as it is obnoxious, and its success is doubtless partly
due to its superior cleverness and keenness. It is quick to take a
hint, if sufficiently pointed; firing a shotgun twice into a flock
of these birds has driven them from our premises; and tearing down
their nests assiduously for a month seems to convey to them the idea
that they are not welcome. Another instance of their cleverness I
witnessed one day; I was watching a robin, worn and nervous with her
second brood, fervently hunting earthworms in the lawn to fill the
gaping mouths in the nest in the Virginia creeper shading the piazza.
She finally pulled up a large, pink worm and a hen sparrow flew at
her viciously; the robin dropped the worm to protect herself, and
the sparrow snatched it and carried it off triumphantly to the grape
arbor where she had a nest of her own full of gaping mouths. She soon
came back, and at a safe distance watched the robin pull out another
worm, and by the same tactics again gained the squirming prize. Three
times was this repeated in an hour, and then the robin, discouraged,
flew up into a Norway spruce and in a monologue of sullen cluckings
tried to reason out what had happened.
The English sparrow’s nest is quite in keeping with the bird’s
other qualities; it is usually built in a hole or box or in some
protected corner beneath the eaves; it is also often built in vines
on buildings and occasionally in trees. It is a good example of “fuss
and feathers”; coarse straw, or any other kind of material, and
feathers of hens or of other birds, mixed together without fashion
or form, constitute the nest. In these sprawling nests the whitish,
brown or gray-flecked eggs are laid and the young reared; and so far
as I can ascertain, no one has ever counted the number of broods
reared in one season. The nesting begins almost as soon as the snow
is off the ground and lasts until late fall.
During the winter, the sparrows gather in flocks in villages and
cities, but in the spring they scatter out through the country where
they can find more grain. The only place where this bird is welcome
is possibly in the heart of a great city, where no other bird could
pick up a livelihood. It is a true cosmopolite and is the first bird
to greet the traveler in Europe or northern Africa. These sparrows
will not build in boxes suspended by a wire; and they do not like a
box where there is no resting place in front of the door leading to
the nest.
After the pupils have made observations upon the habits of the house
sparrow, they may find, in the following books and bulletins, facts
which will teach further the economic importance of this bird: Birds
in Their Relation to Man, by Weed and Dearborn, p. 144. The following
bulletins of the U. S. Department of Agriculture: “English Sparrow in
North America;” “Relation of Sparrows to Agriculture,” S. D. Judd,
Bulletin 15; “The Food of Nestlings,” Yearbook 1900.
LESSON XIX
THE ENGLISH SPARROW
_Leading thought_--The English sparrow was introduced into America by
people who knew nothing of its habits. It has finally over-run our
whole country and, to a great extent, has driven out from towns and
villages our useful American song birds and it should be discouraged
and not allowed to nest around our houses and grounds. As a sparrow
it has interesting habits which we should observe.
_Methods_--Let the pupils make their observations in the street or
wherever they find the birds. The greatest value of this lesson is
to teach the pupils to observe the coloring and markings of a bird
accurately and describe them clearly. This is the best of training
for later work with the wild birds.
_Observations_--1. How many kinds of birds do you find in a flock of
English sparrows?
2. The ones with the black cravat are naturally the men of the
family, while their sisters, wives and mothers are less ornamented.
Describe in your note-book or from memory the colors of the cock
sparrow as follows: Top of head; sides of the head; the back; the
tail; the wings; wing bars; throat and upper breast; lower breast and
under parts.
3. Describe the hen sparrow in the same manner and note the
difference in markings between the two. Are the young birds, when
they first fly, like the father or the mother?
4. Compare the English sparrow with the chippy and describe the
differences in size and color.
5. Is the tail when the bird is not flying, square across the end or
notched?
6. What is the shape of the beak? For what sort of food is this
shaped beak meant?
7. What is the food of the English sparrows and where do they find
it? Describe the actions of a flock feeding in the yard or street.
Are the English sparrows kindly or quarrelsome in disposition?
8. Why do the English sparrows stay in the North during the coldest
of winters? Do they winter out in the country or in villages?
9. Describe by observation how they try to drive away the robins or
other native birds.
10. Describe the nest of this sparrow. Of what material is it made?
How is it supported? How sheltered? Is it a well-built nest?
11. Describe the eggs? How many broods are raised a year? What kind
of food do the parents give the nestlings?
12. If you have ever seen these sparrows do anything interesting
describe the circumstance?
13. In what ways are these birds a nuisance to us?
14. How much of English sparrow talk do you understand?
15. How can we build bird-boxes so that the English sparrows will not
try to take possession of them?
_Supplementary reading_--“A Street Troubadour,” in Lives of the
Hunted, Thompson Seton. First Book of Birds, Miller, p. 81.
“Blizzard” and “Three Sparrows that live in the House,” from True
Bird Stories, Miller.
* * * * *
_Do not tire the child with questions; lead him to question
you, instead. Be sure, in any case, that he is more interested
in the subject than in the questions about the subject._
THE CHIPPING SPARROW
_Teacher’s Story_
[Illustration: T]
This midget lives in our midst, and yet, not among all bird kind, is
there one which so ignores us as does the chippy. It builds its nest
about our houses, it hunts for food all over our premises, it sings
like a tuneful grasshopper in our ears, it brings up its young to
disregard us, and every hour of the day it “tsip-tsips” us to scorn.
And, although it has well earned the name of “doorstep sparrow,”
since it frugally gathers the crumbs about our kitchen doors, yet it
rarely becomes tame or can be induced to eat from the hand, unless it
is trained so to do as a nestling.
Its cinnamon-brown cap and tiny black forehead, the gray streak over
the eye and the black through it, the gray cheeks and the pale gray,
unspotted breast distinguish it from the other sparrows, although
its brown back streaked with darker, and brown wings and blackish
tail have a very sparrowish look; the two whitish wing bars are not
striking; it has a bill fitted for shelling seeds, a characteristic
of all the sparrows. Despite its seed-eating bill, the chippy’s food
is thirty-eight per-cent insects, and everyone should read what Mr.
Forbush says about the good work this little bird does in our gardens
and to our trees. It takes in large numbers cabbage caterpillars,
the pea louse, the beet leaf-miners, leaf hoppers, grasshoppers,
cut worms, and does its best to annihilate the caterpillars of the
terrible gypsy and browntail moths. In fact, it works for our benefit
even in its vegetable food, as this consists largely of the seeds
of weeds and undesirable grasses. It will often fly up from its
perch after flies or moths, like a flycatcher; and the next time we
note it, it will be hopping around hunting for the crumbs we have
scattered for it on the piazza floor. The song of the chippy is more
interesting to it than to us; it is a continuous performance of high,
shrill, rapid notes, all alike so far as I can detect; when it utters
many of these in rapid succession it is singing, but when it gives
them singly they are call notes or mere conversation.
One peculiarity of the nest has given this sparrow the common name
of hair-bird, for the lining is almost always of long, coarse hair,
usually treasure trove from the tails of horses or cattle switched
off against boards, burs or other obstacles. Of the many nests I have
examined, black horsehair was the usual lining; but two nests in our
yard show the chippy to be a resourceful bird; evidently the hair
market was exhausted and the soft, dead needles of the white pine
were used instead and made a most satisfactory lining. The nest is
tiny and shallow; the outside is of fine grass or rootlets carefully
but not closely woven together; it is placed in vine or tree, usually
not more than ten or fifteen feet from the ground; a vine of a piazza
is a favorite nesting site. Once a bold pair built directly above
the entrance to our front door and mingled cheerfully with other
visitors. Usually, however, the nest is so hidden that it is not
discovered until after the leaves have fallen. The eggs are light
blue tinged with green, with fine, purplish brown specks or markings
scrawled about the larger end.
[Illustration: _The chipping sparrow._]
The chippy comes to us in April and usually raises two broods of
from three to five “piggish” youngsters, which even after they are
fully grown follow pertinaciously their tired and “frazzled out”
parents and beg to be fed; the chippy parents evidently have no idea
of discipline but indulge their teasing progeny until our patience,
at least, is exhausted. The young differ from the parents in having
streaked breasts and lacking the reddish crown. In the fall the
chippy parents lose their red-brown caps and have streaked ones
instead; and then they fare forth in flocks for a seed-harvest in the
fields. Thereafter our chippy is a stranger to us; we do not know it
in its new garb, and it dodges into the bushes as we pass, as if it
had not tested our harmlessness on our own door-stone.
_Reference_--Wild Life, Ingersol, p. 132.
LESSON XX
_Leading thought_--The chipping sparrow is a cheerful and useful
little neighbor. It builds a nest, lined with horsehair, in the
shrubbery and vines about our homes and works hard in ridding our
gardens of insect pests and seeds of weeds.
_Methods_--Begin this lesson with a nest of the chippy, which is so
unmistakable that it may be identified when found in the winter.
Make the study of this nest so interesting that the pupils will
wait anxiously to watch for the birds which made it. As soon as the
chippies appear, the questions should be asked, a few at a time,
giving the children several weeks for the study.
_The Nest_
_Observations_--1. Where was this nest found? How high from the
ground?
2. Was it under shelter? How was it supported?
3. Of what material is the outside of the nest? How is it fastened
together? How do you suppose the bird wove this material together?
4. Of what material is the lining? Why is the bird that built this
nest called the “hair bird?” From what animal do you think the lining
of the nest came? How do you suppose the bird got it?
5. Do you think the nest was well hidden when the leaves were about
it? Measure the nest across and also its depth; do you think the bird
that made it is as large as the English sparrow?
_The Bird_
6. How can you tell the chippy from the English sparrow?
7. Describe in your note-book or orally the colors of the chippy as
follows: beak, forehead, crown, marks above and through the eyes,
cheeks, throat, breast, wings and tail. Note if the wings have
whitish bars and how many.
8. Describe the shape of the beak as compared with that of the robin.
What is this shaped bill meant for?
9. What is the food of the chippy? Why has it been called the
doorstep-sparrow?
10. Note if the chippy catches flies or moths on the wing like the
phœbe-bird.
11. Why should we protect the chippy and try to induce it to live
near our gardens?
12. Does it run or hop when seeking food on the ground?
13. How early in the season does the chippy appear and where does it
spend the winter?
14. Can you describe the chippy’s song? How do you think it won the
name of chipping sparrow?
15. If you have the luck to find a pair of chippies nesting, keep a
diary of your observations in your note-book covering the following
points: Do both parents build the nest? How is the frame-work laid?
How is the finishing done? The number and color of the eggs? Do both
parents feed the young? How do young chippies act when they first
leave the nest? How large are the young birds before the parents stop
feeding them? What are the differences in color and markings between
parents and young?
* * * * *
THE FIELD-SPARROW
_A bubble of music floats, the slope of the hillside over;
A little wandering sparrow’s notes; and the bloom of yarrow and
clover,
And the smell of sweet-fern and the bayberry leaf, on his ripple
of song are stealing,
For he is a cheerful thief, the wealth of the fields revealing._
_One syllable, clear and soft as a raindrop’s silvery patter,
Or a tinkling fairy-bell; heard aloft, in the midst of the merry
chatter
Of robin and linnet and wren and jay, one syllable, oft repeated;
He has but a word to say, and of that he will not be cheated._
_The singer I have not seen; but the song I arise and follow
The brown hills over, the pastures green, and into the sunlit
hollow.
With a joy that his life unto mine has lent, I can feel my glad
eyes glisten,
Though he hides in his happy tent, while I stand outside, and
listen._
_This way would I also sing, my dear little hillside neighbor!
A tender carol of peace to bring to the sunburnt fields of labor
Is better than making a loud ado; trill on, amid clover and yarrow!
There’s a heart-beat echoing you, and blessing you, blithe little
sparrow!_
--LUCY LARCOM.
[Illustration]
THE SONG SPARROW
_Teachers’ Story_
“_He does not wear a Joseph’s coat of many colors, smart and gay
His suit is Quaker brown and gray, with darker patches at his
throat.
And yet of all the well-dressed throng, not one can sing so
brave a song.
It makes the pride of looks appear a vain and foolish thing to
hear
His ‘Sweet, sweet, sweet, very merry cheer.’_”
“_A lofty place he does not love, he sits by choice and well at
ease
In hedges and in little trees, that stretch their slender arms
above
The meadow brook; and then he sings till all the field with
pleasure rings;
And so he tells in every ear, that lowly homes to heaven are
near
In ‘Sweet, sweet, sweet, very merry cheer.’_”
--HENRY VAN DYKE.
Children should commit to memory the poem from which the above
stanzas were taken; seldom in literature, have detailed accurate
observation and poetry been so happily combined as in these verses.
The lesson might begin in March when we are all listening eagerly
for bird voices, and the children should be asked to look out for
a little, brown bird which sings, “Sweet, sweet, sweet, very merry
cheer,” or, as Thoreau interprets it, “Maids! Maids! Maids! Hang on
the teakettle, teakettle-ettle-ettle.” In early childhood I learned
to distinguish this sparrow by its “Teakettle” song. Besides this
song, it has others quite as sweet; and when alarmed it utters a
sharp “T’chink, t’chink.”
The song sparrow prefers the neighborhood of brooks and ponds which
are bordered with bushes, and also the hedges planted by nature
along rail or other field fences, and it has a special liking for
the shrubbery about gardens. Its movements and flight are very
characteristic; it usually sits on the tip-top of a shrub or low tree
when it sings, but when disturbed never rises in the air but drops
into a low flight and plunges into a thicket with a defiant twitch of
the tail which says plainly, “find me if you can.”
The color and markings of this bird are typical of the sparrows. The
head is a warm brown with a gray streak along the center of the crown
and one above each eye, with a dark line through the eye. The back
is brown with darker streaks. The throat is white with a dark spot
on either side; the breast is white spotted with brown with a large,
dark blotch at its very center; this breast blotch distinguishes
this bird from all other sparrows. The tail and wings are brown and
without buff or white bars or other markings. The tail is long,
rounded and very expressive of emotions, and makes the bird look more
slender than the English sparrow.
The nest is usually placed on the ground or in low bushes not more
than five feet from the ground; it varies much in both size and
material; it is sometimes constructed of coarse weeds and grasses;
and sometimes only fine grass is used. Sometimes it is lined
with hair, and again, with fine grass; sometimes it is deep, but
occasionally is shallow. The eggs have a whitish ground-color tinged
with blue or green, but are so blotched and marked with brown that
they are safe from observation of enemies. The nesting season begins
in May, and there are usually three and sometimes four broods; but
so far as I have observed, a nest is never used for two consecutive
broods. The song sparrow stays with us in New York State very late in
the fall, and a few stay in sheltered places all winter. The quality
in this bird which endears him to us all is the spirit of song which
stays with him; his sweet trill may be heard almost any month of the
year, and he has a charming habit of singing in his dreams, if sudden
noise disturbs his slumber.
The song sparrow is not only the dearest of little neighbors,
but it also works lustily for our good and for its own food at
the same time. It destroys cutworms, plant-lice, caterpillars,
canker-worms, ground beetles, grasshoppers and flies; in winter it
destroys thousands of weed seeds, which otherwise would surely plant
themselves to our undoing. Every boy and girl should take great pains
to drive away stray cats and to teach the family puss not to meddle
with birds; for cats are the worst of all the song sparrow’s enemies,
destroying thousands of its nestlings every year.
LESSON XXI
THE SONG SPARROW
_Leading thought_--The beautiful song of this sparrow is heard
earlier in the spring than the notes of bluebird or robin. The
dark blotch in the center of its speckled breast distinguishes
this sparrow from all others; it is very beneficial and should be
protected from cats.
_Methods_--All the observations of the song sparrow must be made in
the field, and they are easily made because the bird builds near
houses, in gardens, and in the shrubbery. Poetry and other literature
about the song sparrow should be given to the pupils to read or to
memorize.
_Observations_--1. Have you noticed a little brown bird singing a
very sweet song in the early spring? Did the song sound as if set
to the words “Little Maid! Little Maid! Little Maid! Put on the
teakettle, teakettle-ettle ettle?”
2. Where was this bird when you heard him singing? How high was he
perched above the ground? What other notes did you hear him utter?
3. Describe the colors and markings of the song sparrow on head,
back, throat, breast, wings and tail. Is this bird as large as the
English sparrow? What makes it look more slim?
4. How can you distinguish the song sparrow from the other sparrows?
When disturbed does it fly up or down? How does it gesture with its
tail as it disappears in the bushes?
5. Where and of what material does the song sparrow build its nest?
6. What colors and markings are on the eggs? Do you think these
colors and markings are useful in concealing the eggs when the mother
bird leaves the nest?
7. How late in the season do you see the song sparrows and hear their
songs? Does this bird, when disturbed, fly up or down?
8. How can we protect these charming little birds and induce them to
build near our houses?
9. What is the food of the song sparrows and how do they benefit our
fields and gardens?
_Supplementary reading_--Our Birds and Their Nestlings, Walker, pp.
43, 49, 50, 52; Second Book of Birds, Miller, p. 80; Birds of Song
and Story, Grinnell, p. 73; The Song Sparrow, Van Dyke; Birds Through
an Opera Glass, Merriam, p. 66; Field Book of Wild Birds, Mathews, p.
109; Wild Life, Ingersoll, p. 144; Audubon Leaflet No. 31.
* * * * *
THE SING-AWAY BIRD
_Have you ever heard of the Sing-away bird,
That sings where the Runaway River
Runs down with its rills from the bald-headed hills
That stand in the sunshine and shiver?
“Oh, sing! sing-away! sing-away!”
How the pines and the birches are stirred
By the trill of the Sing-away bird!_
_And the bald-headed hills, with their rocks and their rills,
To the tune of his rapture are ringing;
And their faces grow young, all the gray mists among,
While the forests break forth into singing.
“Oh sing! sing-away! sing-away!”
And the river runs singing along;
And the flying winds catch up the song._
_’Twas a white-throated sparrow, that sped a light arrow
Of song from his musical quiver,
And it pierced with its spell every valley and dell
On the banks of the Runaway River.
“Oh, sing! sing-away! sing-away!”
The song of the wild singer had
The sound of a soul that is glad._
--LUCY LARCOM.
[Illustration: _The mockingbird._
Drawing by L. A. Fuertes.]
THE MOCKINGBIRD
_Teacher’s Story_
Among all the vocalists in the bird world, the mockingbird is
unrivaled in the variety and richness of his repertoire; and he has
thus won his place among men, convincing many ignorant people by
the means of his voice that a bird is good for something besides
“victuals.” The mockingbirds go as far north as southern New England,
but they are found at their best in the Southern States and in
California. On the Gulf Coast the mockers begin singing in February;
in warmer climates they sing almost the year through. During the
nesting season, the father mocker is so busy with his cares and
duties during the day, that he does not have time to sing and so
devotes the nights to serenading; he may sing almost all night long
if there is moonlight, but even on dark nights he gives now and then
a happy, sleepy song. Not all mockingbirds are mockers; some sing
their own song which is rich and beautiful; while others learn in
addition, not only the songs of other birds, but their call notes as
well. One authority noted a mocker which imitated the songs of twenty
species of birds during a ten-minute performance. When singing, the
mocker shows his relationship to the brown thrasher by lifting the
head and depressing and jerking the tail. A good mocker will learn a
tune, or parts of it, if it is whistled often enough in his hearing;
he will also imitate other sounds and will often improve on a song he
has learned from another bird by introducing frills of his own; when
learning a song, he sits silent and listens intently, but will not
try to sing it until it is learned.
Although the mockingbirds live in wild places, they prefer the haunts
of men, taking up their home sites in gardens and cultivated grounds.
Their flight is rarely higher than the tree tops and is decidedly
jerky in character with much twitching of the long tail. For nesting
sites, they choose thickets or the lower branches of trees, being
especially fond of orange trees; the nest is usually from four to
twenty feet from the ground. The foundation of the nest is made of
sticks, grasses and weed stalks interlaced and crisscrossed; on these
is built the nest of softer materials, such as, rootlets, horsehair,
cotton, or in fact, anything suitable which is at hand. The nest is
often in plain sight, since the mocker trusts to his strength as a
fighter to protect it. He will attack cats with great ferocity and
vanquish them; he will kill snakes; often good-sized black snakes
have been known to end thus. The mocker, in making his attack, hovers
above his enemy and strikes it at the back of the head or neck; he
will also drive away birds much larger than himself.
The female lays from four to six pale greenish or bluish eggs
blotched with brown and which hatch in about two weeks; then comes
a period of hard work for the parents, as both are indefatigable
in catching insects to feed the young. The mocker, by the way, is
a funny sight when he is chasing a beetle on the ground, lifting
his wings in a pugnacious fashion. The mockers often raise three
broods a season; the young birds have spotted breasts, showing their
relationship to the thrasher.
As a wooer, the mocker is a bird of much ceremony and dances into his
lady’s graces. Mrs. F. W. Rowe, in describing this, says that the
birds stand facing each other with heads and tails erect and wings
drooping; “then the dance would begin, and this consisted of the two
hopping sideways in the same direction and in rather a straight line
a few inches at a time, always keeping directly opposite each other
and about the same distance apart. They would _chassez_ this way four
or five feet, then go back over the same line in the same manner.”
Mrs. Rowe also observed that the male mockers have hunting preserves
of their own, not allowing any other males of their species in these
precincts. The boundary was sustained by tactics of both offense and
defense; but certain other species of birds were allowed to trespass
without reproof.
Maurice Thompson describes in a delightful manner the “mounting” and
“dropping” songs of the mocker which occur during the wooing season.
The singer flits up from branch to branch of a tree, singing as he
goes, and finally on the topmost bough gives his song of triumph to
the world; then, reversing the process, he falls backward from spray
to spray, as if drunk with the ecstasy of his own song, which is an
exquisitely soft “gurgling series of notes, liquid and sweet, that
seem to express utter rapture.”
The mockingbirds have the same colors in both sexes; the head is
black, the back is ashy-gray; the tail and wings are so dark brown
that they look black; the tail is very long and has the outer tail
feathers entirely white and the two next inner ones are white for
more than half their length; the wings have a strikingly broad, white
bar, which is very noticeable when the bird is flying. The under
parts and breast are grayish white; the beak and legs are blackish.
The food of the mockingbirds is about half insects and half fruit.
They live largely on the berries of the red cedar, myrtle and holly,
and we must, confess are often too devoted to the fruits in our
orchards and gardens; but let us put down to their credit that they
do their best to exterminate the cotton boll caterpillars and moths,
and also many other insects injurious to crops.
The mocker is full of tricks and is distinctly a bird of humor. He
will frighten other birds by screaming like a hawk and then seem to
chuckle over the joke.
Sidney Lanier describes him well.
_Whate’er birds did or dreamed, this bird could say.
Then down he shot, bounced airily along
The sward, twitched in a grasshopper, made song
Midflight, perched, prinked, and to his art again._
LESSON XXII
THE MOCKING BIRD
_Leading thought_--The mockingbird is the only one of our common
birds that sings regularly at night. It imitates the songs of other
birds and has also a beautiful song of its own. When feeding their
nestlings, the mockers do us great service by destroying insect pests.
_Method_--Studies of this bird are best made individually by the
pupils through watching the mockers which haunt the houses and
shrubbery. If there are mockingbirds near the schoolhouse the work
can be done in the most ideal way by keeping records in the school
of all the observations made by the pupils, thus bringing out an
interesting mockingbird story. The experiment in teaching songs to
the birds may best be made with pet mockers.
_Observations_--1. At what months of the year and for how many months
does the mockingbird sing in this locality?
2. Does he sing only on moonlight nights? Does he sing all night?
3. Can you distinguish the true mockingbird song from the songs which
he has learned from other birds? Describe the actions of a mocker
when he is singing.
4. How many songs of other birds have you heard a mocker give and
what are the names of these birds?
5. Have you ever taught a mocker a tune by whistling it in his
presence? If so, tell how long before he learned it and how he acted
while learning.
6. Describe the flight of the mockingbirds. Do they fly high in the
air like crows?
7. Do these birds like best to live in wild places or about houses
and gardens?
8. Where do they choose sites for their nests? Do they make an effort
to hide the nest? If not, why?
9. Of what material is the nest made? How is it lined? How far from
the ground is it placed?
10. What are the colors of the eggs? How many are usually laid? How
long before they hatch?
11. Give instances of the parents’ devotion to the young birds.
12. Have you seen two mockingbirds dancing before each other just
before the nesting season?
13. In the spring have you heard a mocker sing while mounting from
the lower to the upper branches of a tree and then after pouring
forth his best song fall backward with a sweet, gurgling song as if
intoxicated with his music?
14. How many broods does a pair of mockers raise during one season?
How does the color of the breast of the young differ from that of the
parent?
15. How does the father bird protect the nestlings from other birds,
cats and snakes?
16. Does the mocker select certain places for his own hunting grounds
and drive off other mockers which trespass?
17. Describe the colors of the mockingbird as follows: Beak, head,
back, tail, wings, throat, breast, under parts and feet.
18. What is the natural food of the mockingbirds and how do they
benefit the farmer? How does the mocker act when attacking a ground
beetle?
19. Have you seen mockingbirds frighten other birds by imitating the
cry of a hawk? Have you seen them play other kinds of tricks?
20. Write a little story which shall include your own observations on
the ways of pet mockingbirds which you have known.
_Supplementary reading_--True Bird Stories, Miller, p. 142; Bob, by
Sidney Lanier; Second Book of Birds, Miller, p. 34; Birds of Song and
Story, Grinnell, p. 29; Stories About Birds, Kirby, p. 94.
* * * * *
“_Soft and low the song began: I scarcely caught it as it ran
Through the melancholy trill of the plaintive whip-poor-will,
Through the ringdove’s gentle wail, chattering jay and
whistling quail,
Sparrow’s twitter, catbird’s cry, redbird’s whistle, robin’s
sigh;
Blackbird, bluebird, swallow, lark, each his native note might
mark._
_Oft he tried the lesson o’er, each time louder than before;
Burst at length the finished song, loud and clear it poured
along;
All the choir in silence heard, hushed before this wondrous
bird.
All transported and amazed, scarcely breathing, long I gazed.
Now it reached the loudest swell; lower, lower, now it fell,--
Lower, lower, lower still, scarce it sounded o’er the rill._”
--JOSEPH RODMAN DRAKE.
[Illustration: _Catbird on nest._
Photo by Robert Matheson.]
THE CATBIRD
_Teacher’s Story_
“_The Catbird sings a crooked song, in minors that are flat,
And, when he can’t control his voice he mews just like a cat,
Then nods his head and whisks his tail and lets it go at that._”
--OLIVER DAVIE.
As a performer, the catbird distinctly belongs to the vaudeville,
even going so far as to appear in slate-colored tights. His
specialties range from the most exquisite song to the most strident
of scolding notes; his nasal “n-y-a-a-h, n-y-a-a-h” is not so very
much like the cat’s mew after all, but when addressed to the intruder
it means “get out;” and not in the whole gamut of bird notes is there
another which so quickly inspires the listener with this desire. I
once trespassed upon the territory of a well-grown catbird family
and the squalling that ensued was ear-splitting; as I retreated, the
triumphant youngsters followed me for a few rods with every sign
of triumph in their actions and voices; they obviously enjoyed my
apparent fright. The catbirds have rather a pleasant “cluck, cluck”
when talking to each other, hidden in the bushes, and they also have
a variety of other notes. The true song of the catbird, usually
given in the early morning, is very beautiful. Mr. Mathews thinks
it is a medley gathered from other birds, but it seems to me very
individual. However, true to his vaudeville training, this bird is
likely to introduce into the middle or at the end of his exquisite
song some phrase that suggests his cat call. He is, without doubt,
a true mocker and will often imitate the robin’s song, and also if
opportunity offers learns to converse fluently in chicken language.
One spring morning, I heard outside my window the mellow song of
the cardinal, which is a rare visitor in New York, but there was no
mistaking the “tor-re-do, tor-re-do.” I sprang from my bed and rushed
to the window only to see a catbird singing the cardinal song, and
thus telling me that he had come from the sunny South and the happy
companionship of these brilliant birds. Often when the catbird is
singing, he sits on the topmost spray of some shrub lifting his head
and depressing his tail, like a brown thrasher; and again, he sings
completely hidden in the thicket.
In appearance the catbird is tailor-made, belonging to the same
social class as the cedar-bird and the barn swallow. However, it
affects quiet colors, and its well-fitting costume is all slate-gray
except the top of the head and the tail which are black; the feathers
beneath the base of the tail are brownish. The catbird is not so
large as the robin, and is of very different shape; it is far more
slender and has a long, emotional tail. The way the catbird twitches
and tilts its tail, as it hops along the ground or alights in a bush,
is very characteristic. It is a particularly alert and nervous bird,
always on the watch for intruders, and the first to give warning to
all other birds of their approach. It is a good fighter in defending
its nest, and there are several observed instances where it has
fought to defend the nest of other species of birds; and it has gone
even further in its philanthropy, by feeding their orphaned nestlings.
The catbird chooses a nesting site in a low tree or shrub or brier,
where the nest is built usually about four feet from the ground. The
nest looks untidy, but is strongly made of sticks, coarse grass,
weeds, bark strips and occasionally paper; it is lined with soft
roots and is almost always well hidden in dense foliage. The eggs are
from three to five in number and are dark greenish blue. Both parents
work hard feeding the young and for this purpose destroy many insects
which we can well spare. Sixty-two per cent. of the food of the
young has been found in one instance to be cutworms, showing what a
splendid work the parents do in our gardens. In fact, during a large
part of the summer, while these birds are rearing their two broods,
they benefit us greatly by destroying the insect pests; and although
later they may attack our fruits and berries, it almost seems as if
they had earned the right to their share. If we only had the wisdom
to plant along the fences some elderberries or Russian mulberries,
the catbirds as well as the robins would feed upon them instead of
the cultivated fruits.
The catbirds afford a striking example for impressing upon children
that each species of birds haunts certain kinds of places. The
catbirds are never found in deep woods nor in open fields, but always
near low thickets along streams, and in shrubbery along fences, in
tangles of vines, and especially do they like to build about our
gardens, if we protect them. They are very fond of bathing, and if
fresh water is given them for this purpose, we may have opportunity
to witness the most thorough bath a bird can take. A catbird
takes a long time to bathe and preen its feathers and indulges in
most luxurious sun baths and thus deservedly earns the epithet of
“well-groomed;” it is one of the most intelligent of all our birds
and soon learns “what is what,” and repays in the most surprising way
the trouble of careful observation.
LESSON XXIII
THE CATBIRD
_Leading thought_--The catbird has a beautiful song as well as the
harsh “miou,” and can imitate other birds, although not so well as
the mockingbird. It builds in low thickets and shrubbery and during
the nesting season is of great benefit to our gardens.
_Methods_--First, let the pupils study and report upon the songs,
scoldings and other notes of this our northern mockingbird; then let
them describe its appearance and habits. Of course, the study must be
made outside of school hours in the field.
_Observations_--1. Do you think the squall of the catbird sounds like
the mew of a cat? When does the bird use this note and what for? What
other notes have you heard it utter?
2. Describe as well as you can the catbird’s true song. Are there
any harsh notes in it? Where does he sit while singing? Describe his
actions while singing.
3. Have you ever heard the catbird imitate the songs of other birds
or other noises?
4. Describe the catbird as follows: its size and shape compared to
the robin; the color and shape of head, beak, wings, tail, breast and
under parts.
5. Describe its peculiar actions and its characteristic movements.
6. Where do catbirds build their nests? How high from the ground?
What material is used? Is the nest compact and carefully finished? Is
it hidden?
7. What is the color of the eggs? Do both parents care for the young?
8. What is the food of the catbird? Why is it an advantage to us to
have catbirds build in our gardens?
9. Do you ever find catbirds in the deep woods or out in the open
meadows? Where do you find them?
10. Put out a pan of water where the catbirds can use it and then
watch them make their toilets and describe the process. Describe how
they take sun baths.
_Supplementary reading_--“Monsieur Mischief,” Nestlings of Forest and
Marsh, Wheelock; Our Birds and Their Nestlings, Walker, pp. 167, 174;
Second Book of Birds, Miller, p. 37; Songs of Nature, Burroughs, p.
172; Birds of Song and Story, Grinnell, p. 36.
* * * * *
“_He sits on a branch of yon blossoming bush,
This madcap cousin of robin and thrush,
And sings without ceasing the whole morning long;
Now wild, now tender, the wayward song
That flows from his soft, gray, fluttering throat;
But often he stops in his sweetest note,
And, shaking a flower from the blossoming bough,
Drawls out, “Mi-eu, mi-ow!”_”
--“THE CATBIRD”, EDITH M. THOMAS.
THE BELTED KINGFISHER
_Teacher’s Story_
[Illustration: T]
This patrol of our streams and lake shores, in his cadet uniform, is
indeed a military figure as well as a militant personality. As he
sits upon his chosen branch overhanging some stream or lake shore,
his crest abristle, his keen eye fixed on the water below, his whole
bearing alert, one must acknowledge that this fellow puts “ginger”
into his environment, and that the spirit which animates him is
very far from the “_dolce far niente_” which permeates the ordinary
fisherman. However, he does not fish for fun but for business; his
keen eye catches the gleam of a moving fin and he darts from his
perch, holds himself for a moment on steady wings above the surface
of the water, to be sure of his quarry, and then there is a dash
and a splash and he returns to his perch with the wriggling fish in
his strong beak; he at once proceeds to beat its life out against a
branch and then to swallow it sensibly, head first, so that the fins
will not prick his throat nor the scales rasp it. He swallows the
entire fish, trusting to his internal organs to select the nourishing
part; and later he gulps up a ball of the indigestible scales and
bones.
[Illustration: _Kingfisher’s foot._
This shows the weak toes; the third and fourth are joined
together, which undoubtedly assists the bird in pushing out
soil when excavating.
]
The kingfisher is very different in form from an ordinary bird; he is
larger than a robin, and his head and fore parts are much larger in
proportion; this is the more noticeable because of the long feathers
of the head which he lifts into a crest, and because of the shortness
of the tail. The beak is very long and strong in order to seize the
fish and hold it fast; but the legs are short and weak; the third and
fourth toes are grown together for a part of their length; perhaps
this is of use to the bird in pushing earth from the burrow, when
excavating. The kingfisher has no need for running and hopping, like
the robin and, therefore, does not need the robin’s strong legs and
feet. His colors are beautiful and harmonious; the upper parts are
grayish blue, the throat and collar white, as is also the breast,
which has a bluish gray band across the upper part, this giving the
name of the Belted Kingfisher to the bird. The feathers of the wings
are tipped with white and the tail feathers narrowly barred with
white. The under side of the body is white in the males, while in the
females it is somewhat chestnut in color. There is a striking white
spot just in front of the eye.
The kingfisher parents build their nest in a burrow which they tunnel
horizontally in a bank; sometimes there is a vestibule of several
feet before the nest is reached, and at other times it is built very
close to the opening. Both parents are industrious in catching fish
for their nestlings, but the burden of this duty falls heaviest
upon the male. Many fish bones are found in the nest, and they seem
so clean and white that they have been regarded as nest lining.
Wonderful tales are told of the way the English kingfishers use fish
bones to support the earth above their nests, and tributes have been
paid to their architectural skill. But it is generally conceded that
the lining of fish bones in nests of our kingfisher is incidental,
since the food of the young is largely fish, although frogs, insects
and other creatures are often eaten with relish. It is interesting
to note the process by which the young kingfisher gets its skill in
fishing. I have often seen one dive horizontally for a yard or two
beneath the water and come up indignant and sputtering because the
fish had escaped. It was fully two weeks after this before this one
learned to drop like a bullet on its quarry.
The note of the kingfisher is a loud rattle, not especially pleasant
close at hand, but not unmusical at a little distance. It is a
curious coincidence that it sounds very much like the clicking
of the fisherman’s reel; it is a sound that conjures visions of
shade-dappled streams and the dancing, blue waters of tree-fringed
lakes and ponds.
There seems to be a division of fishing ground among the kingfishers,
one bird never trespassing upon its neighbor’s preserves. Unless it
be the parent pair working near each other for the nestlings, or the
nestlings still under their care, we never see two kingfishers in the
same immediate locality.
_References_--The Bird, p. 97; The Bird Book, pp. 154, 444.
LESSON XXIV
THE KINGFISHER
[Illustration: _The belted kingfisher_
Drawn by L. A. Fuertes.]
_Leading thought_--The kingfisher is fitted by form of body and beak
to be a fisherman.
_Methods_--If the school be near a stream or pond the following
observations may be made by the pupils; otherwise let the boys who go
fishing make a study of the bird and report to the school.
_Observations_--1. Where have you seen the kingfisher? Have you often
seen it on a certain branch which is its favorite perch? Is this
perch near the water? What is the advantage of this position to the
bird?
2. What does the kingfisher feed upon? How does it obtain its food?
Describe the actions of one of these birds while fishing.
3. With what weapons does the kingfisher secure the fish? How long
is its beak compared with the rest of its body? How does it kill the
fish? Does it swallow the fish head or tail first? Why? Does it tear
off the scales or fins before swallowing it? How does it get rid of
these and the bones of the fish?
4. Which is the larger, the kingfisher or the robin? Describe the
difference in shape of the bodies of these two birds; also in
the size and shape of feet and beaks and explain why they are so
different in form. What is there peculiar about the kingfisher’s
feet? Do you know which two toes are grown together?
5. What are the colors of the kingfisher in general? The colors of
head, sides of head, collar, back, tail, wings, throat, breast and
under parts? Is there a white spot near the eye? If so, where? Do you
know the difference in colors between the parent birds?
6. Where is the nest built? How is it lined?
7. What is the note of the kingfisher? Does it give it while perching
or while on the wing? Do you ever find more than one kingfisher on
the same fishing grounds?
_Supplementary reading_--The Second Book of Birds, Chapter XXX; “The
Halcyon Birds,” Child’s Study of the Classics; Audubon Leaflet No.
19; “Kooskosemus,” Long; American Birds, Finley.
* * * * *
_THE KINGFISHER_ (_OF ENGLAND_)
_For the handsome Kingfisher, go not to the tree,
No bird of the field or the forest is he;
In the dry river rock he did never abide,
And not on the brown heath all barren and wide._
_He lives where the fresh, sparkling waters are flowing,
Where the tall heavy Typha and Loosestrife are growing;
By the bright little streams that all joyfully run
Awhile in the shadow, and then in the sun._
_He lives in a hole that is quite to his mind,
With the green mossy Hazel roots firmly entwined;
Where the dark Alder-bough waves gracefully o’er,
And the Sword-flag and Arrow-head grow at his door._
_There busily, busily, all the day long,
He seeks for small fishes the shallows among;
For he builds his nest of the pearly fish-bone,
Deep, deep, in the bank, far retired, and alone._
_Then the brown Water-Rat from his burrow looks out,
To see what his neighbor Kingfisher’s about;
And the green Dragon-fly, flitting slowly away,
Just pauses one moment to bid him good-day._
_O happy Kingfisher! What care should he know,
By the clear, pleasant streams, as he skims to and fro,
Now lost in the shadow, now bright in the sheen
Of the hot summer sun, glancing scarlet and green!_
--MARY HOWITT.
THE SCREECH OWL
_Teacher’s Story_
“_Disquiet yourselves not: ’Tis nothing but a little, downy
owl._”--SHELLEY.
[Illustration: _Screech owls._
From _Country Life in America_.]
Of all the fascinating sounds to be heard at night in the woods,
the screech owl’s song is surely the most so; its fascination does
not depend on music but upon the chills which it sends up and down
the spine of the listener, thus attacking a quite different set of
nerves than do other bird songs. The weird wail, tremulous and long
drawn out, although so bloodcurdling, is from the standpoint of the
owlet the most beautiful music in the world; by means of it he calls
to his mate, cheering her with the assurance of his presence in the
world; evidently she is not a nervous creature. The screech owls are
likely to sing at night during any part of the year; nor should we
infer that when they are singing they are not hunting, for perchance
their music frightens their victims into fatal activity. Although the
note is so unmistakable, yet there is great variation in the songs of
individuals; the great variety of quavers in the song offering ample
opportunity for the expression of individuality. Moreover, these owls
often give themselves over to tremulous whispering and they emphasize
excitement by snapping their beaks in an alarming manner.
Any bird that is flying about and singing in the night time must be
able to see where it is going, and the owls have special adaptations
for this. The eyes are very large and the yellow iris opens and
closes about the pupil quite similar to the arrangement in the cat’s
eye, except that the pupil in the owl’s eye is round when contracted
instead of elongated; in the night this pupil is expanded until it
covers most of the eye. The owl does not need to see behind and
at the sides, since it does not belong to the birds which are the
victims of other birds and animals of prey. The owl is a bird that
hunts instead of being hunted, and it needs only to focus its eyes
on the creature it is chasing. Thus, its eyes are in the front of
the head like our own; but it can see behind, in case of need, for
the head turns upon the neck as if it were fitted on a ball-bearing
joint. I have often amused myself by walking around a captive
screech owl, which would follow me with its eyes by turning the head
until it almost made the circle, then the head would twist back with
such lightning rapidity that I could hardly detect the movement; it
seemed almost as if the head was on a pivot and could be moved around
and around indefinitely. Although the owl, like the cat, has eyes
fitted for night hunting, it can also see fairly well during the
daytime.
A beak with the upper mandible ending in a sharp hook signifies
that its owner lives upon other animals and needs to rend and tear
flesh. The owl’s beak thus formed is somewhat buried in the feathers
of the face, which gives it a striking resemblance to a Roman nose.
This, with the great, staring, round eyes, bestows upon the owl an
appearance of great wisdom. But it is not the beak which the owl uses
for a weapon of attack; its strong feet and sharp, curved claws are
its weapons for striking the enemy and also for grappling with its
prey. The outer toe can be moved back at will, so that in grasping
its prey or its perch, two toes may be directed forward and two
backward, thus giving a stronger hold.
The ear is very different in form from the ear of other birds;
instead of being a mere hole opening into the internal ear, it
consists of a fold of skin forming a channel which extends from above
the eye around to the side of the throat. (See The Bird, Beebe, p.
217). Thus equipped, while hunting in the dark the owl is able to
hear any least rustle of mouse or bird and to know in which direction
to descend upon it. There has been no relation established between
the ear tufts of the screech owl and its ears, so far as I know, but
the way the bird lifts the tufts when it is alert, always suggests
that this movement in some way opens up the ear.
In color there are two types among the screech owls, one reddish
brown, the other gray. The back is streaked with black, the breast is
marked with many shaft-lines of black. The whole effect of the owl’s
plumage makes it resemble a branch of a tree or a part of the bark,
and thus it is protected from prying eyes, during the daytime when
it is sleeping. Its plumage is very fluffy and its wing feathers,
instead of being stiff to the very edge, have soft fringes which
cushion the stroke upon the air. The owl’s flight is, therefore,
absolutely noiseless and the bird is thus able to swoop down upon its
prey without giving warning of its approach.
The screech owls are partial to old apple orchards for nesting
sites. They will often use an abandoned nest of a woodpecker; the
eggs are almost as round as marbles and as white as chalk, showing
very clearly that they are laid within a dark hole, otherwise their
color would attract the eyes of enemies. There are usually four eggs;
the fubsy little owlets climb out of their home cave by the end of
May and are the funniest little creatures imaginable. They make
interesting but decidedly snappy pets; they can be fed on insects
and raw beef. It is most interesting to see one wake up late in the
afternoon after its daytime sleep. All day it has sat motionless
upon its perch with its toes completely covered with its fluffy
feather skirt. Suddenly its eyes open, the round pupils enlarging or
contracting with great rapidity as if adjusting themselves to the
amount of light. When the owl winks it is like a moon in eclipse, so
large are the eyes, and so entirely are they obscured by the lids
which seem like circular curtains. When it yawns, its wide bill
absurdly resembles a human mouth, and the yawn is very human in
its expression. It then stretches its wings and it is astonishing
how long this wing can be extended below the feet. It then begins
its toilet. It dresses its feathers with its short beak, nibbling
industriously in the fluff; it scratches its under parts and breast
with its bill, then cleans the bill with its foot, meanwhile
moving the head up and down as if in an attempt to see better its
surroundings.
The owls are loyal lovers and are said to remain mated through life,
the twain being very devoted to their nests and nestlings. Sometimes
the two wise-looking little parents sit together on the eggs, a most
happy way to pass the wearisome incubation period.
The screech owls winter in the north and they are distinctly
foresighted in preparing for winter. They have often been observed
catching mice, during the late fall, and placing them in some
hollow tree for cold storage, whence they may be taken in time of
need. Their food consists to some extent of insects, especially
night-flying moths and beetles, also caterpillars and grasshoppers.
However, the larger part of their food is mice; sometimes small birds
are caught and the English sparrow is a frequent victim. Chickens
are rarely taken, except when small, since this owlet is not as long
as a robin. It swallows its quarry as whole as possible, trusting to
its inner organs to do the sifting and selecting. Later it throws
up pellets of the indigestible bones, hair, etc. By the study of
these pellets, found under owl roosts, the scientists have been able
to determine the natural food of the bird, and they all unite in
assuring us that the screech owl does the farmer much more good than
harm, since it feeds so largely upon creatures which destroy his
crops.
LESSON XXV
THE SCREECH OWL
_Leading thought_--This owl is especially adapted to get its prey at
night. It feeds largely on field mice, grasshoppers, caterpillars and
other injurious insects and is therefore the friend of the farmer.
_Method_--This lesson should begin when the children first hear the
cry of this owl; and an owlet in captivity is a fascinating object
for the children to observe. However, it is so important that the
children learn the habits of this owl that the teacher is advised to
hinge the lesson on any observation whatever made by the pupils, and
illustrate it with pictures and stories.
_Observations_--1. Have you ever heard the screech owl? At what time
of the day or night? Why was this? Why does the owl screech? How did
you feel when listening to the owl’s song?
2. Describe the owl’s eyes. Are they adapted to see by night? What
changes take place in them to enable the owl to see by daytime also?
In what way are the owl’s eyes similar to the cat’s? Why is it
necessary for an owl to see at night? Are the owl’s eyes placed so
that they can see at the sides like other birds? How does it see an
object at the sides or behind it?
3. Note the owl’s beak. For what purpose is a hooked beak? How does
the owl use its beak? Why do we think that the owl looks wise?
4. Describe the feet and claws of the screech owl. What are such
sharp hooked claws meant for? Does an owl on a perch always have
three toes directed forward and one backward?
5. Describe the colors of the screech owl. Are all these owls of the
same color? How do these colors protect the bird from its enemies?
6. How is the owl’s plumage adapted to silent flight? Why is silent
flight advantageous to this bird?
7. How does the owl’s ear differ from the ears of other birds? Of
what special advantage is this? As the owl hunts during the night,
what does it do in the daytime? How and by what means does it hide
itself?
8. Where does the screech owl make its nest? Do you know anything
about the devotion of the parent owls to each other and to their
young? How many eggs are laid? What is their color? At what time of
year do the little owls appear?
9. Where does the screech owl spend the winter? What do the screech
owls feed upon? Do they chew their food? How do they get rid of the
indigestible portion of their food? How does this habit help the
scientists to know the food of the owls?
10. How does the screech owl work injury to the farmers? How does it
benefit them? Does not the benefit outweigh the injury?
11. How many other kinds of owls do you know? What do you know of
their habits?
_Supplementary reading_--Audubon Educational Leaflets, Nos. 22, 12,
14; Second Book of Birds, Miller, Chap. 32–3; Familiar Wild Animals,
Lottridge; “The Boy and Hushwing,” Kindred of the Wild; “Koos, Koos,
Koos” in Wilderness Ways; Wings and Fins, chap. 19; Heart of Oak
Books, Vol. 4, p. 51; The Aziola, Shelley; American Birds, Finley.
* * * * *
_TWO WISE OWLS_
_We are two dusky owls, and we live in a tree;
Look at her,--look at me!
Look at her,--she’s my mate, and the mother of three
Pretty owlets, and we
Have a warm cosy nest, just as snug as can be._
_We are both very wise; for our heads, as you see,
(Look at her--look at me!)
Are as large as the heads of four birds ought to be;
And our horns, you’ll agree,
Make us look wiser still, sitting here on the tree._
_And we care not how gloomy the night-time may be;
We can see,--we can see
Through the forest to roam, it suits her, it suits me;
And we’re free,--we are free
To bring back what we find, to our nest in the tree._
--ANONYMOUS.
[Illustration: _Red-tailed hawk on nest._
Photo by R. W. Hegner.]
THE HEN HAWKS
_Teacher’s Story_
“_Above the tumult of the cañon lifted, the gray hawk breathless
hung,
Or on the hill a winged shadow drifted where furze and thornbush
clung._”
--BRET HARTE.
It is the teacher’s duty and privilege to try to revolutionize some
popular misconceptions about birds, and two birds, in great need in
this respect, are the so-called hen hawks. They are most unjustly
treated, largely because most farmers consider that a “hawk is a
hawk,” and should always be shot to save the poultry, although
there is as much difference in the habits of hawks as there is in
those of men. The so-called hen hawks are the red-shouldered and
the red-tailed species, the latter being somewhat the larger and
rarer of the two; both are very large birds; the red-shouldered
has cinnamon brown epaulets, the tail blackish, crossed by five or
six narrow white bars, and the wing feathers are also barred. The
red-tailed species has dark brown wings, the feathers not barred, and
is distinguished by its tail which is brilliant cinnamon color with a
black bar across it near the end; it is silvery white beneath. When
the hawk is soaring, its tail shows reddish as it wheels in the air.
Both birds are brown above and whitish below, streaked with brown.
The flight of these hawks is alike and is very beautiful; it consists
of soaring on outstretched wings in wide circles high in the air, and
is the ideal of graceful aerial motion. In rising, the bird faces
the wind and drops a little in the circle as its back turns to the
leeward, and thus it climbs an invisible winding stair until it is a
mere speck in the sky. This wonderful flight, on motionless wings,
is what has driven to despair our inventors of airships who have not
been able to fathom the mystery of it from a practical standpoint.
When the bird wishes to drop, it lifts and holds its wings above
its back, and comes down like a lump of lead, only to catch itself
whenever it chooses to begin again to climb the invisible spiral. And
all this is done without fatigue, for these birds have been observed
to soar thus for hours together without coming to earth. When thus
soaring the two species may be distinguished from each other by their
cries; the red-tailed gives a high sputtering scream, which Chapman
likens to the sound of escaping steam; while the red-shouldered calls
in a high not unmusical note “kee-you, kee-you” or “tee-ur, tee-ur.”
The popular fallacy for the teacher to correct about these birds,
is that they are enemies of the farmers. Not until one has actually
been seen to catch the chickens should it be shot, for very few of
them are guilty of this sin. Sixty-six per cent. of the food of
the red-tailed species consists of injurious animals, i. e., mice
and gophers, etc., and only 7 per cent. consists of poultry; the
victims are probably old or disabled fowls, and fall an easy prey;
this bird much prefers mice and reptiles to poultry. The more common
red-shouldered hawk feeds generally on mice, snakes, frogs, fish and
is very fond of grasshoppers. Ninety per cent. of its food consists
of creatures which injure our crops or pastures and scarcely 1½
per cent. is made up of poultry and game. These facts have been
ascertained by the experts in the department of Agriculture at
Washington who have examined the stomachs of hundreds of these hawks
taken from different localities. Furthermore, Dr. Fisher states that
a pair of the red-shouldered hawks bred for successive years within
a few hundred yards of a poultry farm, containing 800 young chickens
and 400 ducks, and the owner never saw them attempt to catch a fowl.
[Illustration: _The red-tailed hawk._]
However, there _are_ certain species of hawks which are to be feared;
these are the Cooper’s hawk and the sharp-shinned hawk, the first
being very destructive to poultry and the latter killing many wild
birds. These are both somewhat smaller than the species we are
studying. They are dark gray above and have very long tails, and when
flying, they flap their wings for a time and then glide a distance.
They do not soar on motionless outspread pinions by the hour.
When hawks are seen soaring, they are likely to be hunting for mice
in the meadows below them; their eyes are remarkably keen; they can
see a moving creature from a great height, and can suddenly drop upon
it like a thunder bolt out of a clear sky. Their wonderful eyes are
far-sighted when they are circling in the sky, but as they drop, the
focus of the eyes changes automatically with great rapidity, so that
by the time they reach the earth they are near-sighted, a feat quite
impossible for our eyes unless aided by glasses or telescope.
These so-called hen hawks will often sit motionless, for hours at a
time, on some dead branch or dead tree; they are probably watching
for something eatable to stir within the range of their keen vision.
When seizing its prey, a hawk uses its strong feet and sharp, curved
talons. All hawks keep their claws sharp and polished, even as the
warrior keeps his sword bright, so as to be ready for use; the legs
are covered by a growth of feathers extending down from above,
looking like feather trousers. The beak is hooked and very sharp and
is used for tearing apart the flesh of the quarry. When a hawk fights
some larger animal or man, it throws itself over upon its back and
strikes its assailant with its strong claws as well as with its beak;
but the talons are its chief weapons.
Both species build a large, shallow nest of coarse sticks and grass,
lined with moss, feathers, etc.; it is a rude, rough structure, and
is placed in tall trees from fifty to seventy-five feet from the
ground. Only two to four eggs are laid; these are whitish spotted
with brown. These hawks are said to remain mated for life and are
devoted to each other and their young. Hawks and eagles are very
similar in form and habits, and if the eagle is a noble bird so is
the hawk.
LESSON XXVI
THE RED-SHOULDERED AND RED-TAILED HAWKS
_Leading thought_--Ignorant people consider all hawks dangerous
neighbors because they are supposed to feed exclusively on poultry.
This idea is false and we should study carefully the habits of hawks
before we shoot them. The ordinary large reddish “hen-hawks,” which
circle high above meadows, are doing great good to the farmer by
feeding upon the mice and other creatures which steal his grain and
girdle his trees.
_Methods_--Begin by observations on the flight of one of these hawks
and supplement this with such observations as the pupils are able to
make, or facts which they can discover by talking with hunters or
others and by reading.
_Observations_--1. How can you tell a hawk, when flying, from a crow
or other large bird? Describe how it soars. Does it move off in any
direction; if so, does it move off in circles? How often does it make
strokes with its wings? Does it rise when it is facing the wind and
fall as it turns its back to the wind?
2. Have you seen a hawk flap its wings many times and then soar for
a time? If so, what hawk do you think it was? How does it differ in
habits from the “hen-hawks?”
3. Have you noticed a hawk when soaring drop suddenly to earth? If
so, why did it do this?
4. How does a hawk hunt? How can it see a mouse in a meadow when it
is so high in the air that it looks like a circling speck in the sky?
If it is so far-sighted as this, how can it be near-sighted enough
to catch the mouse when it is close to it? Would you not have to use
field glasses or telescope to do this?
5. When a hawk alights what sort of a place does it choose? How does
it act?
6. Do hawks seize their prey with their claws or their beaks? What
sort of feet and claws has the hawk? Describe the beak. What do you
think this shaped beak is meant for?
7. Why do people shoot hawks? Why is it a sign of ignorance in people
to wish to shoot all hawks?
8. What is the food of the red-shouldered hawk as shown by the
bulletin of the U. S. Department of Agriculture or by the Audubon
leaflets?
9. Where does the hawk place its nest? Of what does it build its nest?
10. Compare the food and the nesting habits of the red-shouldered and
red-tailed hawks.
11. How devoted are the hawks to their mates and their young? Does a
hawk, losing its mate, live alone ever after?
12. Describe the colors of the hen hawks and describe how you can
tell the two species apart by the colors and markings of the tail.
13. What is the cry of the hawk? How can you tell the two species
apart by this cry? Does the hawk give its cry only when on the wing?
14. Why should an eagle be considered so noble a bird and the hawk be
so scorned? What difference is there between them in habits?
_Supplementary reading_--Audubon Educational Leaflets Nos. 8, 9 and
10; “The Sparrow Hawk,” Familiar Wild Animals, Lottridge; “Eyes as
Cameras,” also pp. 101–102 The Bird Book, Eckstorm; pp. 317–319,
326, Birds that Hunt and are Hunted; “Cloud Wings, The Eagle,” in
Wilderness Ways; “The Sky King and His Family,” “Hannah Lomond’s
Bairn,” in Neighbors with Wings and Fins, American Birds, Finley.
_Reference books_--The Bird, Beebe, pp. 389, 376, 208–211; Hawks and
Owls from the Standpoint of the Farmer, Fisher, U. S. Department of
Agriculture.
* * * * *
_Yet, ere the noon, as brass the heaven turns,
The cruel sun smites with unerring aim,
The sight and touch of all things blinds and burns,
And bare, hot hills seem shimmering into flame!_
_On outspread wings a hawk, far poised on high,
Quick swooping screams, and then is heard no more:
The strident shrilling of a locust nigh
Breaks forth, and dies in silence as before._
--“SUMMER DROUGHT,” BY J. P. IRVINE.
[Illustration: _Swallows and swifts._
Drawn by L. A. Fuertes for _General Biology_ by J. G. Needham.]
THE SWALLOWS AND THE CHIMNEY SWIFT
_Teacher’s Story_
[Illustration: T]
These friendly little birds spend their time darting through the air
on swift wings, seeking and destroying insects which are foes to us
and our various crops. However, it is safe to assume that they are
not thinking of us as they skim above our meadows and ponds, hawking
our tiny foes; for like most of us, they are simply intent upon
getting a living. Would that we might perform this necessary duty as
gracefully as they.
In general, the swallows have a long, slender, graceful body, with
a long tail which is forked or notched, except in the case of the
eave swallow. The beak is short but wide where it joins the head;
this enables the bird to open its mouth wide and gives it more scope
in the matter of catching insects; the swift flight of the swallows
enables them to catch insects on the wing; their legs are short, the
feet are weak and fitted for perching; it would be quite impossible
for a swallow to walk or hop like a robin or blackbird.
_The eave, or cliff, swallows_--These swallows build under the eaves
of barns or in similar locations. In early times they built against
the sides of cliffs; but when man came and built barns, they chose
them for their dwelling sites. The nest is made of mud pellets and
is somewhat globular in shape, with an entrance at one side. When
building on the sides of cliffs or in unprotected portions of a
barn, a covered passage is built around the door, which gives the
nest the shape of a gourd or retort; but when protected beneath the
eaves the birds seem to think this vestibule is unnecessary. The mud
nest is warmly lined with feathers and soft materials, and there are
often many nests built so closely together that they touch. The eave
swallow comes north about May 1st, and soon after that, may be seen
along streams or other damp places gathering mud for the nests. It
seems necessary for the bird to find clay mud in order to render the
nest strong enough to support the eggs and nestlings. The eggs are
white, blotched with reddish brown. The parents cling to the edge of
the nest when feeding the young. Both the barn and eave swallows are
blue above but the eave swallow has the forehead cream white and the
rump of pale brick-red, and its tail is square across the end as seen
in flight. The barn swallow has a chestnut forehead and its outer
tail feathers are long, making a distinct fork during flight, and it
is not red upon the rump.
[Illustration: _The barn swallow’s feather bed._]
_The barn swallows_--These birds choose a barn where there is a hole
in the gable or where the doors are kept open all the time. They
build upon beams or rafters, making a cup-shaped nest of layers of
pellets of mud, with grass between; it is well lined with feathers.
The nest is usually the shape of half of a shallow cup which has
been cut in two lengthwise, the cut side being plastered against the
side of the rafter. Sometimes the nests are more or less supported
upon a beam or rafter; the eggs are white and dotted with reddish
brown. The barn swallows, aside from their constant twittering,
have also a pretty song. Both parents work at building the nest and
feeding the young; there are likely to be several pairs nesting in
the same building. The parents continue to feed the young long after
they have left the nest; often a whole family may be seen sitting
on a telegraph wire or wire fence, the parents still feeding the
well-grown youngsters. This species comes north in the latter part
of April and leaves early in September. It winters as far south as
Brazil.
The barn swallow has a distinctly tailor-made appearance; its
red-brown vest and iridescent blue coat, with deeply forked “coat
tails” give it an elegance of style which no other bird, not even the
chic cedar waxwing can emulate.
[Illustration: _A bank swallow tenement._
Photo by J. T. Lloyd.]
_The Bank Swallow_--When we see a sandy bank apparently shot
full of holes as by small cannon balls, we may know that we have
found a tenement of bank swallows. These birds always choose the
perpendicular banks of creeks or of railroad cuts or of sand pits
for their nesting sites; they require a soil sufficiently soft to be
tunneled by their weak feet, and yet not so loose as to cave in upon
the nest. The tunnel may extend from one to four feet horizontally in
the bank with just enough diameter to admit the body of the rather
small bird. The nest is situated at the extreme end of the tunnel and
is lined with soft feathers and grasses.
[Illustration: _Bank swallow’s nest with earth removed showing the
upward direction of the tunnel._
Photo by J. T. Lloyd.]
The bank swallows arrive late in April and leave early in September.
They may be distinguished from the other species by their grayish
color above; the throat and breast are white with a broad, brownish
band across the breast; the tail is slightly forked. The rough-winged
swallow, which is similar in habits to the bank swallow, may be
distinguished from it by its gray breast which has no dark band.
[Illustration: _Tree swallows._
Photo by A. A. Allen.]
_The Tree Swallow_--This graceful little bird builds naturally in
holes in trees, but readily accepts a box if it is provided. It
begins to build soon after it comes north in late April and it is
well for us to encourage the tree swallows to live near our houses
by building houses for them and driving away the English sparrows.
The tree swallows live upon many insects which annoy us and injure
our gardens and damage our orchards; they are, therefore, much more
desirable neighbors than the English sparrows. The tree swallows
congregate in great numbers for the southern migration very early in
the season, often in early August. They are likely to congregate in
marshes, as are also the other swallows. In color the tree swallow
has a green metallic back and head, a pure white breast with no band
across it, and these peculiarities distinguish it from all other
species.
[Illustration: _A martin house._]