DOMESTIC LIFE OF THE BIRDS
It is a privilege to be so situated that one may watch from day to day
the occurrences about a wild bird's nest. Here feathered life reaches
its greatest heights of emotion, and comedies and threatened tragedies
are of daily occurrence. The people we know best are those whom we
have seen at their play and at their work, in moments of elation and
doubt, and in times of great happiness and dire distress. And so it is
that he who has followed the activities of a pair of birds through all
the joys and anxieties of nest building, brooding, and of caring for
the young, may well lay claim to a close acquaintanceship with them.
In watching a nest one will learn, for example, that with most of our
small birds both parents engage in {43} the pleasant duty of feeding
the young, at times shielding the little ones from the hot rays of the
sun with their half-extended wings, and now and then driving away
intruders. The common passerine birds also attend carefully to the
sanitation of the nest and remove the feces, which is inclosed in a
membrane and is thus easily carried in the bill. This is usually
dropped several yards away. If allowed to accumulate on the ground
beneath the nest it might attract the attention of some prowling enemy
and lead to a disastrous discovery.
_Parental Care of Young._--There is a wide difference in the relative
helplessness of nesting birds, and a corresponding difference in the
methods of parental care. The young of praecocial birds are able to
run or swim with their parents almost as soon as hatched, for they not
only have the strength to do this, but their bodies being covered with
down they are protected from the sun or cold. Examples of such birds
are the Quail, Grouse, Sandpipers, Plovers, and Ducks. The young of
these and allied species are {44} able from the beginning to pick up
their food, and they quickly learn from the example of their parents
what is desirable. Soon they are able to shift for themselves,
although one or both of the parents continue to attend them until grown.
With the altricial birds the young are hatched in an absolutely
helpless condition, being both blind and naked, and it is necessary
that they be fed by the parents, not only while occupying the nest, but
also for several weeks afterward. To this group belong most of the
small birds we are accustomed to see about the house. When newly born
the food they receive is first digested in the crop or the stomach of
the parent from which it is regurgitated into the mouth of the young.
Flickers, Hummingbirds, Doves, and some others continue to feed their
young in this manner, but usually the method soon gives way to that,
more commonly observed, of simply supplying soft-bodied insects which
have been captured and killed but not eaten.
In the case of Pelicans, Cormorants, and Ibises, {45} the young thrust
their bills far down the throats of the parents to procure the
regurgitated food. From this custom the ancients may have got the idea
that Pelicans feed their young with their own life blood. The
suggestion still persists, and on the seal of one of our large life
insurance companies of America a Pelican and her young are represented
accompanied with the motto: "I live and die for those I love." The
great seal of the State of Louisiana uses a similar picture without the
motto.
Hawks and Owls tear their prey to pieces and on this the young feed at
infrequent intervals. Sometimes several hours pass between the visits
of the food-laden parents, but the supply is usually adequate when at
length it arrives.
_Sharing the Labours._--Most young birds, however, are fed with great
frequency. For more than an hour one day the writer watched a pair of
Georgia Mockingbirds feeding their young. The one that appeared to be
the female visited the nest with food on an average once every two
minutes, and the male {46} made a similar trip about once in twelve
minutes. He could have done better had he not spent so much time
flying aimlessly about and scolding imaginary enemies.
Some birds have what seem to be very curious habits at the nesting
time. The jealous-hearted Hornbill of the Old World never trusts his
spouse to wander away from the nest after her duties there once begin.
In order that he may always know just where she is he quite willingly
undertakes to supply her with all her food during the days while the
incubation of the eggs is going forward. With mud he daubs up the
entrance to the hollow in the tree where she is sitting, leaving only a
small opening through which food may be passed. When the mud has dried
it becomes very hard and the patient mate is an absolute prisoner until
the day comes when she passes the word to her lord that the eggs have
hatched, and he sets her free.
In our own western country there dwells a bird known as the Phalarope,
the females of which enjoy {47} an immunity from domestic duties that
might cause the lady Hornbill many an envious sigh did she know of the
freedom of her American sister.
Mrs. Phalarope has no intention of being shut in with her eggs for a
month while her mate goes roaming at large about the country, nor has
she any idea of playing the part of the Georgia Mockingbird and
bringing five-sixths of the food which the young require. Her method
of procedure is first to permit her mate to search for a suitable
nesting site. When some sheltered spot in the ground, quite to her
liking, has been found she deposits the eggs and goes her way. Little
companies of female Phalaropes may be seen at this time of the year
frequenting the ponds and sloughs they inhabit. The dutiful and
well-trained males are all at home, where they are responsible for the
entire task of caring for, and incubating, the eggs.
_Length of Mated Life._--The length of time which birds remain mated is
a question often asked but seldom answered satisfactorily. The truth
of the {48} matter is that not much is known about the subject.
Apparently a great many birds return to the same yard and even to the
same tree to build their nest year after year. I say apparently
because such birds are seldom marked in such a way as to enable one to
be positive that they are the identical individuals which came the year
before. It is probably somewhere near the truth to say that most small
birds usually choose the same mates year after year if both survive the
dangers of winter and in spring meet again on their old trysting
grounds. It is safe to assert that as a rule birds retain the same
mates throughout the breeding season if misfortune does not befall one
of them. During the fall and winter months, when the impulses
governing domestic duties are dormant, birds pay little or no attention
to their mates.
[Illustration: A mountain Bluebird family. Its home having been
destroyed it is now enjoying temporary quarters furnished by a kindly
hand.]
_A Much-married Bluebird._--One spring a pair of Bluebirds came into
our yard, and to the accompaniment of much cheerful bird conversation,
in the form of whistles, twitters, chirps, and snatches of {49} song,
began hunting eagerly for some place to locate a nest. Out in the
woodshed I found a box, perhaps six inches square and twice as long.
Cutting a small entrance hole on one side, I fastened the box seven or
eight feet from the ground on the side of a young tree. The newcomers
immediately took possession and began carrying dry grasses into their
adopted sanctuary. Several days elapsed and then one morning, while
standing on the back of a garden settee and peeping into the hole, I
discovered that a pale-blue egg had been laid. When the nest contained
four of these little beauties incubation began.
One rainy night while the mother bird was on duty she must have heard
the scratching of claws on the box outside. A moment later two yellow
eyes blazed at the entrance and a long arm reached into the nest. The
next morning on the grass beneath the window we found her wing tips and
many other fragments of her plumage. All that day the distressed mate
flew about the lawn and called continually. He seemed to gather but
little food and {50} the evidence of his suffering was pitiful. In
fact, he stirred our feelings to such a pitch we at length closed the
windows to shut out the sounds of his mournful calls.
Upon looking out next morning, the first note we heard was that of a
Bluebird, but his voice seemed to have lost some of its sorrow.
Walking around the corner of the house, I found him sitting on a limb
near the box. Two feet from him sat another Bluebird--a female. At
eleven o'clock we saw her clinging to the side of the box and looking
inquiringly into the entrance hole. We knew what this meant;
incidentally we knew, too, that being a ladybird she would have no use
for the nest and eggs that had been placed there by another, so I
cleaned out the box.
We were anxious that the cat should have no chance to destroy our
little friend's second wife, so the box was suspended from a limb by a
wire over two feet in length. Five eggs were laid and the mother bird
began sitting. Then one night the cat {51} found out what was
happening. How she ever succeeded in her undertaking, I know not. She
must have started by climbing the tree and creeping out on the limb. I
have never seen a cat slide down a wire; nevertheless the next morning
the box was tenantless and the feathers of the second female were
scattered over the lawn. This time the Bluebird's heart seemed really
broken and his cries of lamentation filled the grove. Eleven days now
passed before a third soul-mate came to share his fortunes. We could
afford to take no more risks. On a sunny hillside in the garden the
cat was buried, and a few weeks later four little Bluebirds left the
lawn on their own wings.
_The Faithful Canada Geese._--Along the Atlantic Coast, where the
shooting of wildfowl is an important industry with many people, the
raising of Canada Geese is a common custom. Not only do these great
birds serve as food, but they play the part of decoys when their owners
go ahunting. They are genuine Wild Geese, some of them having been
{52} wounded and captured from the great flocks which frequent these
waters during the colder months of the year. They retain their wild
characteristics with great tenacity and it is necessary to keep them
pinioned to prevent their flying away to the North when in spring the
spirit of migration calls aloud to all the bird world.
[Illustration: Canada Geese Decoys]
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The conduct of these decoys indicates that the losing of a mate is a
much more serious matter among them than with the Bluebird and others
of our small feathered friends. When a gander has chosen his goose and
she has accepted his advances, the pair remain constantly together,
summer and winter, as long as they live. If one is killed, many years
may elapse before the survivor selects another companion.
In Currituck County, North Carolina, there was not long ago a gander
that local tradition said was sixty-two years of age. The first thirty
years of his life he remained unmated and for the last thirty-two he
has been the proud possessor of a mate from whose side he has never
strayed.
These Geese do not mate readily, and a man who has a company of thirty
or forty may well be satisfied if six or eight pairs of them are mated.
The truth of this statement is proved by the fact that on the local
market a single Goose is worth about one dollar, while a pair of mated
Geese will readily bring five dollars.
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_Unmated Birds._--A little reflection will make the student realize the
fact that out in the fields and woods, in the swamps and on the
mountains, on the beaches, as well as far away on the ocean, there are
many birds that are not mated. Among them are widows and widowers,
heartfree spinsters and pining bachelors. Just what per cent. of the
bird life is unmated in any one season it would, of course, be
impossible to tell. The information which the writer has gathered by a
careful census of a certain species in a given limited territory
enabled him to determine that in this particular case only about
three-fifths of the individuals are mated any one season.
_Polygamy Among Birds._--As with mankind, some races have
well-developed tendencies toward polygamy. In the warmer regions of
the United States there dwells a great, splendid, glossy Blackbird, the
Boat-tailed Crackle. The nest of this bird is a wonderfully woven
structure of water plants and grasses and is usually built in a bush
growing in the {55} water. When you find one nest of the Crackle you
are pretty certain to find several other occupied nests in the
immediate vicinity. From three to six of these marvellous cradles,
with their quiet brown female owners, often appear to be watched over
by one shining, iridescent lord Crackle, who may be husband to them
all. He guards his own with jealous care. Evidently, too, he desires
the whole country to know that he is the most handsome, ferocious bird
on the earth; for all day long his hoarse shoutings may be heard, and
when he launches into the air, the sound of the ponderous beating of
his wings can, on a still day, be heard half a mile away, across the
lake.
One of the best-known polygamous birds of North America is the Wild
Turkey. Go into any part of the country where this fast-disappearing
game bird still survives, and the experienced local gunners will tell
you that in the mating season you will usually find a gobbler
accompanied by two or more Turkey hens. When a female gets ready to
make her nest she slips away from her sultan and the other members {56}
of the seraglio and, going to some broom-sedge field or open place in
the woods, constructs her nest on the ground beneath some slight,
convenient shelter. Day after day she absents herself for a short
time, and the speckled treasures grow in number until from twelve to
fifteen have been deposited. All this time her movements are
characterized by absolute secrecy, for if the gobbler by any chance
comes upon the nest he immediately breaks every egg. He is perhaps
wise enough to know that when his hens begin to set lonely times are in
store for him.
_The Outcast._--One of our wild birds whose domestic relations are not
fully understood is strongly suspected of being promiscuously
polygamous. Suspicion on this point is heightened by the fact that it
never has a nest even of the most humble character, and shuns
absolutely all the ordinary dangers and responsibilities of parentage.
We call this seemingly unnatural creature the Cowbird, probably because
it is often seen feeding in pastures {57} among cattle, where it
captures many insects disturbed into activity by the movements of the
browsing animals.
The Cowbird lays its eggs in the nests of various other birds,
distributing them about the neighbourhood. Here they are left to be
hatched and the young to be reared by the foster parents. Cowbird's
eggs have been found in the nests of nearly one hundred species of
birds, and nearly always the nest of some smaller bird is chosen.
Despite this fact the Cowbird's eggs are often first to hatch. The
young grow rapidly and, being strong and aggressive, not only secure
the lion's share of the food, but frequently crowd the young of the
rightful owner out of the nest to perish on the ground beneath.
As soon as the young leave the nest the greedy Cowbird follows the
little mother about the thickets, shouting loudly for food. Its fierce
clamour drowns the weaker cries of the legitimate young, which I have
reason to believe even then often die for lack {58} of nourishment. So
insistent is the young Cowbird and so persistently does it pursue the
foster parent that it is well cared for and invariably thrives. It is
no uncommon sight, during the days of June and July, to see a worn,
bedraggled Song Sparrow {59} working desperately in a frantic effort to
feed one or more great hulking Cowbirds twice its size. It is little
wonder that discerning people are not fond of the Cowbird. Even the
birds seem to regard it as an outcast from avian society, and rarely
associate with it on friendly terms. This is the only species of North
American birds that exhibits such depravity.
[Illustration: The Greedy Young Cowbird]
All other birds display great willingness to attend to their home
duties, and often give evidence of keen delight while so engaged. One
of the most exquisite and dainty forms of bird life found in the United
States is the little Blue-gray Gnatcatcher. When occupied in building
the nest, which is usually saddled on the limb of some forest tree, the
birds call to each other constantly; and even after the eggs are laid
there is no attempt to restrain their expressions of happiness. Unlike
the Crow and Jay, that sometimes appropriate the nests of other birds,
these little creatures have no sins to answer for to their neighbours.
One of the most pleasing sights I {60} have witnessed was a male
Gnatcatcher that had relieved his mate at the nest. He was sitting on
the eggs and, with head thrown back, sang with all his might,
apparently unconscious of the evil which such gaiety might bring upon
his household.
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