children of birds--they find what Nature has given them to seek. And is
it so with the children of men? Never think that Nature has been less
kind to boys and girls than to birds. Unto Bob was given the fields to
seek, and he had no other choice. Unto Peter the shores, and that was
all. But unto us is given a chance to choose what we will seek. If it is
as far away as the prairies of Paraguay, shall we let a dauntless little
vagabond put our faith to shame? If it is as near as our next-door
meadow, shall we not find a full measure of happiness there--mixed with
the bobolink's music of June?
[Illustration: _Nature has kept faith with him and brought him safely
back to his meadow._]
For Bob comes back to the North again, bringing with him springtime
melodies, which poets sing about but no human voice can mimic. Bob, who
has dusted the dull tips from his feathers as he flew, and who, garbed
for the brightness of our June, makes a joyful sound; for Nature has
kept faith with him and brought him safely back to his meadow, though
the journey from and to it numbered eight thousand miles!
His trail is the open lane of the air,
And the winds, they call him everywhere;
So he wings him North, dear burbling Bob,
With throat aquiver and heart athrob;
And he sings o' joy in the month of June
Enough to keep the year in tune.
Then, when the rollicking young of his kind
Yearn for the paths that the vagabonds find,
He leads them out over loitering ways
Where the Southland beckons with luring days;
To wait till the laughter-like lilt of his song
Is ripe for the North again--missing him long!
NOTES
CONSERVATION
We cannot read much nature literature of the present day without coming
upon a plea, either implied or expressed, for "conservation." Even the
child will wish to know--and there is grave need that he should
know--why many people, and societies of people, are trying to save what
it has so long been the common custom to waste. Boys and girls living in
the Eastern States will be interested to know who is Ornithologist to
the Massachusetts State Board of Agriculture, and what his duties are;
those in the West will like to know why a publication called "California
Fish and Game" should have for its motto, "Conservation of Wild Life
through Education"; those between the East and the West will like to
learn what is being done in their own states for bird or beast or
blossom.
Fortunately the idea is not hard to grasp. Conservation is really but
doing unto others as we would that others should do unto us--so living
that other life also may have a fair chance. It was a child who wrote,
from her understanding heart:--
"When I do have hungry feels I feel the hungry feels the birds must be
having. So I do have comes to tie things on the trees for them. Some
have likes for different things. Little gray one of the black cap has
likes for suet. And other folks has likes for other things."--From _The
Story of Opal._
CHICK, D.D.
_Penthestes atricapillus_ is the name men have given the bird who calls
himself the "Chickadee."
_The Bird_ (Beebe), page 186. "The next time you see a wee chickadee,
calling contentedly and happily while the air makes you shiver from head
to foot, think of the hard-shelled frozen insects passing down his
throat, the icy air entering lungs and air-sacs, and ponder a moment on
the wondrous little laboratory concealed in his mite of a body, which
his wings bear up with so little effort, which his tiny legs support,
now hopping along a branch, now suspended from some wormy twig.
"Can we do aught but silently marvel at this alchemy? A little bundle of
muscle and blood, which in this freezing weather can transmute frozen
beetles and zero air into a happy, cheery little Black-capped Chickadee,
as he names himself, whose trustfulness warms our hearts!
"And the next time you raise your gun to needlessly take a feathered
life, think of the marvellous little engine which your lead will stifle
forever; lower your weapon and look into the clear bright eyes of the
bird whose body equals yours in physical perfection, and whose tiny
brain can generate a sympathy, a love for its mate, which in sincerity
and unselfishness suffers little when compared with human affection."
_Bird Studies with a Camera_ (Chapman), pages 47-61.
_Handbook of Nature-Study_ (Comstock), pages 66-68.
_Nature Songs and Stories_ (Creighton), pages 3-5.
_American Birds_ (Finley), pages 15-22.
_Winter_ (Sharp), chapter VI.
_Educational Leaflet No. 61._ (National Association of Audubon
Societies.)
This story was first published in the _Progressive Teacher_, December,
1920.
THE FIVE WORLDS OF LARIE
_Larus argentatus_, the Herring Gull.
Larie's "policeman," like Ardea's "soldier," is usually called a
"warden." No thoughtful or informed person can look upon "bird study"
as merely a pleasant pastime for children and a harmless fad for the
outdoor man and woman. It is a matter that touches, not only the
aesthetic, but the economic welfare of the country: a matter that has
concern for legislators and presidents as well as for naturalists. In
this connection it is helpful to read some such discussion as is given
in the first four references.
_Bird Study Book_ (Pearson), pages 101-213; 200.
_Birds in their Relation to Man_ (Weed and Dearborn), pages 255-330.
_Bird-Lore_, vol. 22, pages 376-380.
_Useful Birds and their Protection_ (Forbush), pages 354-421.
_Birds of Ohio_ (Dawson), pages 548-551; "Herring Gull."
_Bird Book_ (Eckstorm), pages 23-29; "The Herring Gull."
_American Birds_ (Finley), pages 211-217; "Gull Habits."
_Game-Laws for 1920_ (Lawyer and Earnshaw), pages 68-75; "Migratory-Bird
Treaty Act."
_Tales from Birdland_ (Pearson), pages 3-27; "Hardheart, the Gull."
_Educational Leaflet No. 29_; "The Herring Gull." (National Association
of Audubon Societies.)
PETER PIPER
_Actitis macularia_, the Spotted Sandpiper.
Educational Leaflet No. 51. (National Association of Audubon Societies.)
"A leisurely little flight to Brazil."
Peter, the gypsy, and Bob, the vagabond, are both famous travelers, and
might have passed each other on the way, coming and going, in Venezuela
and in Brazil. Peter, like Bob, is a night migrant, stopping in the
daytime for rest and food.
For references to literature on bird-migration, the list under the notes
to "Bob, the Vagabond," may be used.
GAVIA OF IMMER LAKE
_Gavia immer_, the Loon.
_The Bird_ (Beebe). "Hesperornis--a wingless, toothed, diving bird,
about 5 feet in length, which inhabited the great seas during the
Cretaceous period, some four millions of years ago." (Legend under
colored frontispiece.)
_Life Histories of North American Diving Birds_ (Bent), pages 47-60.
_Bird Book_ (Eckstorm), pages 9-13.
_By-Ways and Bird-Notes_ (Thompson), pages 170-71. "The cretaceous birds
of America all appear to be aquatic, and comprise some eight or a dozen
genera, and many species. Professor Marsh and others have found in
Kansas a large number of most interesting fossil birds, one of them, a
gigantic loon-like creature, six feet in length from beak to toe, taken
from the yellow chalk of the Smoky Hill River region and from calcareous
shale near Fort Wallace, is named _Hesperornis regalis_."
_Educational Leaflet No. 78._ (National Association of Audubon
Societies.)
If twenty years of undisputed possession seems long enough to give a man
a legal title to "his" land, surely birds have a claim too ancient to be
ignored by modern beings. Are we not in honor bound to share what we
have so recently considered "ours," with the creatures that inherited
the earth before the coming of their worst enemy, Civilization? And in
so far as lies within our power, shall we not protect the free, wild
feathered folk from ourselves?
EVE AND PETRO
_Petrochelidon lunifrons_, Cliff-Swallow, Eave-Swallow.
_Bird Studies with a Camera_ (Chapman), pages 89-105; "Where Swallows
Roost."
_Handbook of Nature-Study_ (Comstock), pages 112-113.
_Bird Migration_ (Cooke), pages 5, 9, 19-20, 26, 27; Fig. 6.
_Our Greatest Travelers_ (Cooke), page 349; "Migration Route of the
Cliff Swallows."
_Bird Book_ (Eckstorm), pages 201-12.
_Bird-Lore_, vol. 21, page 175; "Helping Barn and Cliff Swallows to
Nest."
UNCLE SAM
_Haliaeetus leucocephalus_, the Bald Eagle.
_Stories of Bird Life_ (Pearson), pages 71-80; "A Pair of Eagles."
_The Fall of the Year_ (Sharp), chapter V.
_Educational Leaflet No. 82._ (National Association of Audubon
Societies.)
At the time this story goes to press, our national emblem is threatened
with extermination. The following references indicate the situation in
1920:--
_Conservationist, The,_ vol. 3, pages 60-61; "Our National Emblem."
_National Geographic Magazine,_ vol. 38, page 466.
_Natural History,_ vol. 20, pages 259 and 334; "The Dead Eagles of
Alaska now number 8356."
_Science_, vol. 50, pages 81-84; "Zoological Aims and Opportunities," by
Willard G. Van Name.
CORBIE
_Corvus brachyrhynchos_, the Crow.
_The Bird_ (Beebe), pages 153, 158, 172, 200-01, 209. "When the brain of
a bird is compared with that of a mammal, there is seen to be a
conspicuous difference, since the outer surface is perfectly smooth in
birds, but is wound about in convolutions in the higher four-footed
animals. This latter condition is said to indicate a greater degree of
intelligence; but when we look at the brain of a young musk-ox or
walrus, and find convolutions as deep as those of a five-year-old child,
and when we compare the wonderfully varied life of birds, and realize
what resource and intelligence they frequently display in adapting
themselves to new or untried conditions, a smooth brain does not seem
such an inferior organ as is often inferred by writers on the subject. I
would willingly match a crow against a walrus any day in a test of
intelligent behavior.... A crow ... though with horny, shapeless lips,
nose, and mouth, looks at us through eyes so expressive, so human, that
no wonder man's love has gone out to feathered creatures throughout all
his life on the earth."
_Handbook of Nature-Study_ (Comstock), pages 129-32.
_American Birds_ (Finley), pages 69-77; "Jack Crow."
_The Crow and its Relation to Man_ (Kalmbach).
_Outdoor Studies_ (Needham), pages 47-53; "Not so Black as he is
Painted."
_Tales from Birdland_ (Pearson), pages 128-52; "Jim Crow of Cow
Heaven."
_Our Backdoor Neighbors_ (Pellett), pages 181-98; "A Jolly Old Crow."
_Our Birds and their Nestlings_ (Walker), pages 76-85; "The Children of
a Crow."
_The Story of Opal_ (Whiteley); "Lars Porsena."
_Gray Lady and the Birds_ (Wright), pages 114-28.
_Bird Lore_, vol. 22 (1919), pages 203-04; "A Nation-Wide Effort to
Destroy Crows."
_Educational Leaflet No. 77._ (National Association of Audubon
Societies.)
ARDEA'S SOLDIER
Ardea's scientific name used to be _Ardea candidissima_, and the older
references to this bird will be found under that name, though at present
it is known as _Egretta candidissima_. It is commonly called the Snowy
Egret, or the Snowy Heron. The other white heron wearing "aigrettes" is
_Herodias egretta_. Ardea's "soldier," like Larie's "policeman," is
usually spoken of as a "warden." With reference to this story there is
much of interest in the following:--
_Bird Study Book_ (Pearson), pages 140-66, "The Traffic in Feathers";
pages 167-89, "Bird Protection Laws"; pages 190-213, "Bird
Reservations": pages 244-58, "Junior Audubon Classes."
_Stories of Bird Life_ (Pearson), pages 153-60; "Levy, the Story of an
Egret."
_Birds in their Relation to Man_ (Weed and Dearborn), pages 237-38.
_Gray Lady and the Birds_ (Wright), pages 67-80; "Feathers and Hats."
_Educational Leaflets Nos. 54 and 54A;_ "The Egret" and "The Snowy
Egret." (National Association of Audubon Societies.)
To Mr. T. Gilbert Pearson, who has visited more egret colonies than any
other person in the country, and who, in leading fights for their
protection, has kept in very close touch with the egret situation, an
expression of indebtedness and appreciation is due for his kindness in
reading "Ardea's Soldier" while yet in manuscript, and for certain
suggestions with reference to the story.
THE FLYING CLOWN
_Chordeiles virginianus_, the Nighthawk or Bull-bat.
_Bird Migration_ (Cooke), pages 5, 7, 9.
_Nature Sketches in Temperate America_ (Hancock), pages 246-48.
_Birds in their Relation to Man_ (Weed and Dearborn), pages 178-80.
_Bird-Lore_, vol. 20 (1918), page 285.
_Educational Leaflet No. 1._ (National Association of Audubon
Societies.)
THE LOST DOVE
_Ectopistes migratorius_, the Passenger Pigeon.
"How can a billion doves be lost?"
_History of North American Birds_ (Baird, Brewer and Ridgway), vol. 3,
pages 368-74.
_Michigan Bird Life_ (Barrows), pages 238-51.
_Birds that Hunt and are Hunted_ (Blanchan), pages 294-96.
_Travels of Birds_ (Chapman), pages 73-74.
_Birds of Ohio_ (Dawson and Jones), pages 425-27.
_Passenger Pigeon_ (Mershon).
_Natural History of the Farm_ (Needham), pages 114-15. "The wild pigeon
was the first of our fine game birds to disappear. Its social habits
were its undoing, when once guns were brought to its pursuit. It flew in
great flocks, which were conspicuous and noisy, and which the hunter
could follow by eye and ear, and mow down with shot at every
resting-place. One generation of Americans found pigeons in
'inexhaustible supply'; the next saw them vanish--vanish so quickly,
that few museums even sought to keep specimens of their skins or their
nests or their eggs; the third generation (which we represent) marvels
at the true tales of their aforetime abundance, and at the swiftness of
their passing; and it allows the process of extermination to go on only
a little more slowly with other fine native species."
_Bird Study Book_ (Pearson), pages 128-29. "Passenger Pigeons as late as
1870 were frequently seen in enormous flocks. Their numbers during the
periods of migration were one of the greatest ornithological wonders of
the world. Now the birds are gone. What is supposed to have been the
last one died in captivity in the Zoological Park of Cincinnati, at 2
P.M. on the afternoon of September 1, 1914. Despite the generally
accepted statement that these birds succumbed to the guns, snares, and
nets of hunters, there is a second cause, which doubtless had its effect
in hastening the disappearance of the species. The cutting away of vast
forests, where the birds were accustomed to gather and feed on mast,
greatly restricted their feeding range. They collected in enormous
colonies for the purpose of rearing their young; and after the forests
of the Northern states were so largely destroyed, the birds seem to have
been driven far up into Canada, quite beyond their usual breeding range.
Here, as Forbush suggests, the summer probably was not sufficiently long
to enable them to rear their young successfully."
_Birds in their Relation to Man_ (Weed and Dearborn), pages 219-22.
_Educational Leaflet No. 6._ (National Association of Audubon
Societies.) "Those who study with care the history of the extermination
of the Pigeons will see, however, that all the theories brought forward
to account for the destruction of the birds by other causes than man's
agency are wholly inadequate. There was but one cause for the diminution
of the birds, which was widespread, annual, perennial, continuous, and
enormously destructive--their persecution by mankind. Every great
nesting-ground was besieged by a host of people as soon as it was
discovered, many of them professional pigeoners, armed with all the most
effective engines of slaughter known. Many times the birds were so
persecuted that they finally left their young to the mercies of the
pigeoners; and even when they remained, most of the young were killed
and sent to the market, and the hosts of the adults were decimated."
LITTLE SOLOMON OTUS
_Otus asio_, the Screech Owl, are the scientific and common names of our
little friend Solomon. Perhaps the fact that owls stand upright and gaze
at one with both eyes to the front, accounts in part for their looking
so wise that they have been used as a symbol of wisdom for many
centuries.
In the Library of Congress in Washington, there is a picture called
"The Boy of Winander." When looking at this, or some copy of it, it is
pleasant to remember the lines of Wordsworth's poem:--
There was a Boy; ye knew him well, ye cliffs
And islands of Winander!--many a time,
At evening, when the earliest stars began
To move along the edges of the hills,
Rising or setting, would he stand alone,
Beneath the trees, or by the glimmering lake;
And there, with fingers interwoven, both hands
Pressed closely palm to palm and to his mouth
Uplifted, he, as through an instrument,
Blew music hootings to the silent owls,
That they might answer him.
Following are a few references to Screech Owls:--
_Handbook of Nature-Study_ (Comstock), pages 104-07.
_Some Common Game, Aquatic and Rapacious Birds_ (McAtee and Beal), pages
27-28.
_Our Backdoor Neighbors_ (Pellet), pages 63-74; "The Neighborly Screech
Owls."
_My Pets_ (Saunders), pages 11-33.
_Birds in their Relation to Man_ (Weed and Dearborn), page 199.
_Educational Leaflet No. 11._ (National Association of Audubon
Societies.)
BOB, THE VAGABOND
_Dolichonyx oryzivorus_, the Bobolink.
_Educational Leaflet No. 38._ (National Association of Audubon
Societies.)
_The Bobolink Route_
Maps, showing the route of migrant bobolinks may be found in _Bird,
Migration_ (Cooke), page 6;
_Our Greatest Travelers_ (Cooke), page 365.
Other interesting accounts of bird-migrations may be found in _Travels
of Birds_ (Chapman).
_Bird Study Book_ (Pearson), chapter IV.
History tells us when Columbus discovered Cuba and when Sebastian Cabot
sailed up the Paraguay River; but when bobolinks discovered that island,
or first crossed that river, no man can ever know. The physical
perfection that permits such journeys as birds take is cause for
admiration. In this connection much of interest will be found in
_The Bird_ (Beebe), chapter VII, "The Breath of a Bird," from which we
make a brief quotation. "Birds require, comparatively, a vastly greater
strength and 'wind' in traversing such a thin, unsupporting medium as
air than animals need for terrestrial locomotion. Even more wonderful
than mere flight is the performance of a bird when it springs from the
ground, and goes circling upward higher and higher on rapidly beating
wings, all the while pouring forth a continuous series of musical
notes.... A human singer is compelled to put forth all his energy in his
vocal efforts; and if, while singing, he should start on a run even on
level ground, he Would become exhausted at once.... The average person
uses only about one seventh of his lung capacity in ordinary breathing,
the rest of the air remaining at the bottom of the lung, being termed
'residual.' As this is vitiated by its stay in the lung, it does harm
rather than good by its presence.... As we have seen, the lungs of a
bird are small and non-elastic, but this is more than compensated by the
continuous passage of fresh air, passing not only into but entirely
_through_ the lungs into the air-sacs, giving, therefore, the very best
chance for oxygenation to take place in every portion of the lungs. When
we compare the estimated number of breaths which birds and men take in a
minute,--thirteen to sixteen in the latter, twenty to sixty in
birds,--we realize better how birds can perform such wonderful feats of
song and flight."
A BOOK LIST
For getting acquainted with birds, we no more need books than we need
books for getting acquainted with people. One bird, if rightly
known,--as with one person understood,--will teach us more than we can
learn by reading. But since no one has time to learn for himself more
than a few things about many birds, or many things about a few birds, it
is pleasant and companionable and helpful to have even a second-hand
share in what other people have learned. For myself, I like to watch
both the bird in the bush through my own eyes and the bird in the book
through the eyes of some other observer. So it seems but fair to share
the names of books that have interested me in one way or another during
the preparation of my own. If it seems to anyone a short list, I can but
say that I do not know all the good books about birds, and therefore
many (and perhaps some of the best) have been omitted. If it seems to
anyone a long list, I would suggest that, if it contains more than you
may find in your public library, or more than you care to put on your
own shelves, or more than can be secured for the school library, the
list may be helpful for selection--perhaps some of them will be where
you can find and use them. Certain of them, as their titles indicate,
are devoted exclusively to birds; and others include other outdoor
things as well--as happens many a time when we start out on a bird-quest
of our own, and find other treasures, too, in plenty.
If I could have but two of the books on the list, they would be "The
Story of Opal," the nature-word of a child who well may lead us, and
"Handbook of Nature-Study," the nature-word of a wise teacher of
teachers.
BOOKS, BULLETINS, AND LEAFLETS
_American Birds_, Studied and Photographed from Life. LOVELL FINLEY.
Charles Scribner's Sons.
_Attracting Birds about the Home._ Bulletin No. 1: The National
Association of Audubon Societies.
_Bird, The._ C. WILLIAM BEEBE. Henry Holt and Company
_Bird Book._ FANNIE HARDY ECKSTORM. D. C. Heath & Co.
_Bird Houses and How to Build Them._ NED DEARBORN. U.S. Dept. of
Agriculture; Farmer's Bulletin 609.
_Bird Migration._ WELLS W. COOKE. U.S. Dept. of Agriculture; Bulletin
185.
_Bird Neighbors._ NELTJE BLANCHAN. Doubleday, Page & Co.
_Bird Studies with a Camera._ FRANK M. CHAPMAN. D. Appleton & Co.
_Bird Study Book._ T. GILBERT PEARSON. Doubleday, Page & Co.
_Birds in their Relation to Man._ CLARENCE M. WEED and NED DEARBORN. J.
B. Lippincott Co.
_Birds of Maine._ ORA WILLIS KNIGHT.
_Birds of New York._ ELON HOWARD EATON. Memoir 12; N.Y. State Museum.
(The 106 colored plates by Louis Agassiz Fuertes can be secured
separately.)
_Birds of Ohio._ WILLIAM LEON DAWSON. The Wheaton Publishing Co.
_Birds of Village and Field._ FLORENCE A. MERRIAM. Houghton Mifflin Co.
_Birds of the United States,_ East of the Rocky Mountains. AUSTIN C.
APGAR. American Book Company.
_Burgess Bird Book for Children._ THORNTON W. BURGESS. Little, Brown &
Co.
_By-Ways and Bird Notes._ MAURICE THOMPSON. United States Book Co.
_Chronology and Index of the More Important Events in American Game
Protection,_ 1776-1911. T. S. PALMER. U.S. Dept. of Agriculture;
Biological Survey Bulletin 41.
_Common Birds of Town and Country._ National Geographic Society.
_Conservation Reader._ HAROLD W. FAIRBANKS. World Book Co.
_Crow, The, and its Relation to Man._ E. R. KALMBACH. U.S. Dept. of
Agriculture; Bulletin 621.
_Educational Leaflets_ of The National Association of Audubon Societies.
More than one hundred of these have been issued, each giving an
illustrated account of a bird. (These are for sale at a few cents each,
and a list may be obtained upon application to the National
Association.)
_Everyday Adventures._ SAMUEL SCOVILLE, JR. The Atlantic Monthly Press.
_Fall of the Year, The._ DALLAS LORE SHARP. Houghton Mifflin Co.
_Federal Protection of Migratory Birds._ GEORGE A. LAWYER. Separate from
Yearbook of the Dept. of Agriculture, 1918, No. 785.
_Food of Some Well-Known Birds of Forest, Farm, and Garden._ F. E. L.
BEAL and W. L. MCATEE. U.S. Dept. of Agriculture; Farmers' Bulletin 506.
_Game Laws for 1920._ U.S. Dept. of Agriculture; Farmers' Bulletin 1138.
_Gray Lady and the Birds._ MABEL OSGOOD WRIGHT. The Macmillan Co.
_Handbook of Birds of Eastern North America._ FRANK M. CHAPMAN. D.
Appleton & Co.
_Handbook of Birds of Western United States._ FLORENCE M. BAILEY.
Houghton Mifflin Co.
_Handbook of Nature-Study._ ANNA BOTSFORD COMSTOCK. Comstock Publishing
Co.