WAGTAILS, SHRIKES, THRUSHES, ETC.
One can scarcely walk along the banks of a British stream in spring or
summer without noticing a pretty and graceful bird, sometimes running
along near the edge of the water, and stopping every now and then to
pick off an insect from the herbage, and sometimes rising into the air
to catch a fly or gnat. And one can easily understand why the name
wagtail has been given to it, for no matter whether it is flying or
running, its tail is never still. Sometimes, too, it may be seen in a
damp meadow, or even on a lawn in a garden; and where one wagtail is,
others are sure to be not very far off.
The nest of this bird is usually placed in a hole in a river-bank, or
else among the spreading roots of a tree. It is made of dry grass,
withered leaves, and moss, and is lined with hair, wool, or feathers.
This description applies excellently to a little American bird, known as
the water-thrush, although it is not a true thrush, but one of the
warblers, of which a great many sorts, some very beautiful, are seen in
our woods in the spring, on their way north; but just a few appear to
remain with us all the year round.
THE CREEPER
Running about on the trunks and branches of trees, and looking very much
like a feathered mouse, you may often see the creeper. It is about as
big as a wren, and has a long, slender, and slightly curved beak, which
it is constantly poking into the cracks and crevices of the bark in
search of insects. It always begins its quest low down on the trunk, and
works its way gradually upward, peering into every little cranny, and
seldom remaining still for a single moment. The larger boughs are
examined in just the same way, and when the bird has reached the top of
the tree it flies down to another and begins again, and so on all
through the day. And in order to prevent it from getting tired, it has a
short, stiff tail like that of the woodpecker, which serves as a kind of
camp-stool, and supports the weight of the body.
The nest of this quaint little bird is nearly always placed in a hole in
a tree-trunk. It is made of roots, twigs, fragments of bark, and grass,
and is lined with wool and feathers. From six to nine eggs are laid,
which are white in color, prettily spotted with yellowish red.
[Illustration: AMERICAN INSECT-EATING SONG-BIRDS
1. Chimney Swift. 2. Barn Swallow. 3. Wood Thrush.
4. Red-eyed Vireo. 5. Chestnut-sided Warbler.
6. Maryland Yellow-throat. 7. Redstart. 8. Phoebe Pewee.
9. Black-throated Green Warbler. 10. King-bird.
11. Cedar Waxwing. 12. Oven-bird. 13. Bluebird.
All adult males.]
THE NUTHATCH
This is another bird that one may often see running about on the trunk
of a tree. It is shaped rather like a wren, but is a little bigger than
a sparrow, and has a bluish-gray head and back, a white throat and
breast. It has the curious habit of keeping head downward almost
continuously as it works.
The European nuthatch is very fond of nuts, which it cracks in a most
curious way. First of all, it wedges a nut firmly in some crevice in the
bark of a tree. Then, taking up its stand on the trunk just above, it
deals blow after blow on the nut with its stout little beak, swinging
itself up into the air every time that it does so and giving a flap with
its wings, so as to add force to its stroke. It turns itself into a kind
of live pickax, and after a very few blows the nutshell is split open,
and the clever little bird is able to get at the kernel; but our
American nuthatch seems to have forgotten this habit, if it ever had it,
and lives almost wholly on insects.
The nuthatch makes its nest in a hole in a tree, and it is generally
composed of small pieces of soft bark, lined with dry leaves. When the
mother bird is sitting on her eggs, which are white in color, spotted
with pink, she will peck most savagely at any enemy which may try to
enter, hissing as she does so, just like a snake.
TITMICE
These birds can be seen almost everywhere, and very pretty and
attractive little birds they are as they run about on the trunks and
branches of trees, not seeming to mind in the least whether they are
perching on a bough, or hanging upside down underneath it. And all the
while they are searching every little chink and cranny in order to see
whether any small insects are hiding within it.
It is a very good plan in winter to take a marrow-bone, or a little
network bag with a lump of suet in it, and hang it from the branch of a
tree for the titmice. Day after day the little birds will visit it,
clinging to it in all sorts of positions, and pecking vigorously away at
the suspended dainty. And they will like a cocoanut which has been cut
in half almost as well.
Several other kinds of titmice are also found in the British Isles, of
which the great tit, the cole-tit, and the blue tit are plentiful almost
everywhere. They are all very much alike in habits, and they all build
in holes in trees, making their nests of moss, hair, wool, and feathers,
and laying six or eight white eggs, prettily speckled with light red.
Titmice abound in all northern countries and, we have several American
species, one of which, the merry, courageous little black-capped
chickadee, is known by both eye and ear to every one who takes any
notice of birds. In the Southern States another familiar one is the
peto, or crested chickadee, who, when he lifts his pointed gray cap,
reminds one of a tiny jay. The Rocky Mountain region and Pacific coast
have several other kinds--all delightful. Our titmice all make their
nests in holes in trees and stumps, usually taking possession of the
last year's home of a woodpecker.
In Europe there is a famous titmouse having a very different method.
This is the long-tailed tit, or bottle-tit, as it is sometimes called,
because its nest is shaped just like a bottle without a neck. It is
sometimes placed in the fork of a branch, but more generally in the
middle of a thick bush, and is made of wool, moss, and spider-silk, and
is lined with quantities of soft downy feathers. And although it is by
no means small it is very easily overlooked, for the clever little birds
cover all the outside with bits of gray lichen, so as to make it look as
much like the surrounding branches as possible.
In this beautiful and cosy nest from ten to twelve eggs are laid, which
are white in color, with just a few very small reddish spots. When the
young birds are nearly fledged they quite fill up their nursery, and you
can actually see the walls swelling out and contracting again as the
little creatures breathe. And how they all manage to keep their long
tails unruffled in those narrow quarters nobody knows at all.
In winter you may often see a whole family of these pretty
birds--father, mother, and ten or a dozen little ones--all flying about
together, for they never separate until the spring.
THE SHRIKE
A notable bird is the shrike, which is also known as the butcher-bird,
owing to a most curious habit. It is a bird of prey, feeding upon all
sorts of small creatures, and it seems to know that though it can catch
plenty of these on warm, sunny days, they will all be hiding away in
their retreats when the weather is cold and rainy. So on a fine, bright
morning it will catch many more victims than it wants at the time, and
put them away in its larder! Sometimes you may find a thorn-bush with
four or five mice, half a dozen unfledged birds, two or three fat
caterpillars, a big beetle or two, and perhaps a bumblebee, all stuck
upon the thorns, like the joints of meat hung up in a butcher's shop.
Then you may be quite sure that you have discovered a butcher-bird's
larder. And by and by, when a cold and wet day comes, and the bird can
catch no prey, it just comes and takes some of these creatures from the
thorns, and so obtains plenty of provisions!
There are two species of shrike in the United States--one which visits
us from the south in summer and the other from the north in winter.
THRUSHES
The thrush family is spread all over the world, and contains some of the
most noted of singing birds. No one can read English poetry, or much of
the classic prose of our language, without meeting with the names of
such birds as the mavis, the blackbird, the blackcap, and especially the
nightingale, all European thrushes; even the English robin, after which
our larger American redbreast is named, is a sort of thrush, closely
related to our dear little bluebird.
THE ROBIN
The robin is a great favorite with the people of Europe, because it is
so very trustful. We have actually seen one of these birds perching on a
man's knee for quite a minute, while it looked about for worms in a plot
of ground which he had just been digging. But it is by no means so
gentle a bird as many people think. In fact, it is a very quarrelsome
bird, for if two cock robins meet they are almost sure to fight, and
very often the battle goes on until one of the two is killed!
A robin once took up his abode in Hereford Cathedral, and seemed to
think that it was his own private property. For one day, when another
robin came in, he was seen chasing it all over the building, and was at
last found sitting triumphantly on its dead body!
You may find the nest of the robin in a hole in a bank or a wall, or
perhaps in the stump of a tree. It is made of dry leaves, roots, grass,
and moss, lined with hair, or wool, and contains either five or six
yellowish-white eggs, spotted with light brown.
THE NIGHTINGALE
Perhaps no bird in the world is so famous as a songster as the
nightingale, largely because of its habit of singing in the night, for
its music is not preëminent above that of several other thrushes. The
nightingale spends the winter in Africa, returning to Central
Europe in April, and after that in the warmer parts of Great Britain and
the continent it may be heard every night for weeks, especially when the
moon shines; and sometimes nearly all day as well.
If one passes near a bush in which a nightingale is singing, it is worth
while to stop and to whistle a few low notes. The bird imagines that it
is being challenged by another nightingale, and begins to sing louder
than before. Then it stops and listens; and if one whistles a few notes
more it becomes very much excited, and comes closer and closer, singing
all the time, till at last it finds out how it has been taken in. And
then it begins to scold, chattering away in the greatest indignation at
having been deceived!
Only the cock nightingale sings, and even he is only able to do so for a
few weeks. For very soon after the eggs are hatched his voice breaks,
just as that of the cuckoo does, and the only note which he is able to
utter until spring comes round again is a harsh whistle, followed by a
hoarse croak.
The nest of the nightingale is placed on the ground under a low bush,
and is made almost entirely of dead leaves. It contains either four or
five eggs, which are dark olive brown all over.
NORTH AMERICAN THRUSHES
There is a long list of thrushes among our North American birds, and
some of them will compare well as songsters with any of the woodland
choristers of the world. The voice of our red-breasted robin carols
sweetly enough in the spring; but he is far excelled a little later in
the season by the wood-thrush, the hermit-thrush, the veery and certain
others which come from the south when the weather becomes warm. Some of
these species, as the hermit and its relatives, pass on into Northern
Canada to make their nests and rear their young; but fortunately
others--and among them queens of song--remain with us in the United
States all summer.
Of these the most commonly seen and heard is that richest of woodland
musicians, the wood-thrush, whose serenely beautiful song, in four
parts, separated by brief pauses, floats to our ears from
orchard and grove and shady roadside as the quiet of the summer evening
draws on, and we begin to enjoy the coolness and peace of the twilight.
This eloquent thrush is reddish brown or bright cinnamon above,
brightest on the head; and white below, thickly ornamented with rounded
black spots in lines from throat to thighs. It is the least shy of all
the thrushes except the robin, yet gracefully modest in its demeanor. It
constructs its nest on the low horizontal limb of some tree, always with
the peculiarity that its foundation is a layer of old sear leaves and
that black, thread-like rootlets are a favorite material for the walls.
The eggs are unspotted blue, smaller and lighter than the greenish
treasures in the mud-built cabin of the robin.
Next in point of numbers, though not so often recognized, as the
wood-thrush is the oliveback, which is distinctly olive in color on the
back and flanks, and whose buffy underparts are unspotted save across
the breast. This species is highly variable, so that those of the
Pacific coast differ considerably from those of the Atlantic side of the
continent.
The same is true of the hermit-thrush, which is heard only in the more
northern half of the continent in spring, when its rich, indescribable
fluting perhaps deserves the prize of superiority over all other
American bird-musicians.
The veery, or Wilson's tawny thrush, is also noted for its song, which
has an extraordinary bell-like quality which excites first curiosity and
then admiration.
The group of birds to which the thrushes belong is a very large one, and
includes many smaller and variously colored birds, among which are such
familiar American friends as the brown thrasher and its many cousins of
the Southwest; the saucy, mewing, catbird--a frequenter of every garden
and blackberry thicket in the land; those busybodies the wrens, and many
others.
WRENS
One would not at first glance connect the great long-tailed brown
thrasher with the tiny garden-wren which stuffs a hole in one of
the barn timbers or a crevice in a broken tree with a mass of twigs
surrounding a soft little bed for the red-sprinkled eggs; but when you
closely compare the shape of bill and feet, and their general form and
manners, the resemblance becomes more plain. Then you are not surprised
to find the rough nest and speckled eggs of the big thrasher and the
tiny wren much alike, and to find a resemblance in their songs, much as
they differ in loudness.
Wrens have a curious way of beginning to build nests, and leaving them
half finished. These are sometimes supposed to be the work of the male
bird alone, and are called cocks' nests; and certainly the cock does not
seem to take any part in building the true nest, for he simply sits on a
branch close by and sings, while the hen does all the work. Perhaps he
is lazy; or perhaps she thinks that she can build much better than he
can, and so will not let him help her. And therefore it may be that he
makes these cocks' nests just to show her what he can do. But as wrens
are very timid birds, and will often desert their nest if one even puts
one's finger inside, it seems rather more likely that they are nests
which the birds have left unfinished because they thought that some
enemy had discovered them.
THE DIPPER
Not unlike a very big wren with a white throat and breast is the curious
and interesting dipper, well known to dwellers in the Rocky Mountains
and the ranges west of them. It is never found far from water, and you
may often see it perched upon a stone in the shallows of a river,
bobbing up and down every now and then just as though it were making a
courtesy. And every time that it does so it gives a quick little jerk to
its tail, just as the wren does. It also makes a nest of moss, somewhat
like that of the wren, which is placed in a hole in the bank of a
stream, or often in a crevice of the rocks behind a cascade. It feeds on
insects and water-shrimps, etc., and you may often see it busily hunting
for the little beetles which are hiding among the moss on the large
stones in the bed of a stream, where it actually walks on the bottom. It
can swim and dive perfectly well, and keeps itself beneath the
surface by flapping with its wings, while it searches for grubs in the
mud at the bottom of the water. The dipper has a very bright and gay
little song, and always seems happy, and busy, and active.
SWALLOWS AND MARTINS
Swallows and martins form a very distinct group of small birds well
known to everybody, for no one can help noticing them as they sail
through the air in swift graceful circles or skim low over the water in
constant pursuit of the tiny flies which form their fare, and are so
small that vast numbers must be caught. Familiar, too, is their coming
in the spring, when they are welcomed as the special sign of returning
pleasant weather after the season of cold storms; and in autumn we
cannot but notice them gathering in large flocks along the telegraph
lines or over the marshes, preparatory to departing to their winter
retreat in the tropics.
These characteristics, as well as their appearance--slender,
long-winged, dark-colored--belong to the swallows and martins all over
the world; and they are alike in all countries in their fearless
fondness for making close acquaintance with mankind when he dwells in
settled homes.
COMMON SWALLOWS
Naturally, these birds are inhabitants of caves and rocky cliffs, or of
hollow trees; but, like the swifts, the moment a man builds a house or
barn in Europe, or Asia, or South America, there certain swallows are
sure to come to live with him, just as they do around our village and
farm houses in North America. Hence the English people call their common
species house-swallow, and we give the name barn-swallow to our similar
one. This is the very common species with the long, deeply forked tail,
which sets its nest of mud and straw on the beams of our barns or
plasters it against the walls or roof, always _inside_ the
building. Almost equally widespread and numerous is another barn-loving
kind, distinguished by its short square tail and its habit of
forming bulb-shaped nests wholly of mud, and of placing them in rows
_outside_ the building, close up under the eaves. These last are
better known as eaves-swallows.
[Illustration: GAUDY TROPICAL BIRDS
1. Ara; Macaw. 2. Rose-Crested Cockatoo. 3. Senegal Parrot.
4. Mexican Toucan. 5. African Hornbill.]
WELL-KNOWN MARTINS
Martin is a name applied to various swallows, but with us it denotes the
big purple one which in the warmer parts of the country gladly takes
possession of the pretty bird-houses which many persons set on poles in
their gardens.
Another smaller, sooty-brown martin, is the sand-martin, or
bank-swallow, which differs from all the rest in placing its eggs on a
little bed of straw and feathers at the end of a long burrow which it
bores into the face of a cliff of earth beside some river, where usually
a large company live as happy neighbors. This species is one of the few
birds known almost all over the world.