Grackle, Cowbird, Song Sparrow, Swamp Sparrow, Robin.
II. DATES OF ARRIVAL OF MIGRANTS FROM THE NORTH
August 15 to 31
Great Blue Heron, Small-billed Water Thrush.
September 1 to 10
Yellow Rail, Least Sandpiper, Solitary Sandpiper, Osprey, Blackburnian
Warbler, Yellow Palm Warbler, Canadian Warbler[A].
September 10 to 20
Pied-billed Grebe, Blue-winged Teal, Wilson's Snipe, Pigeon Hawk,
Yellow-bellied Sapsucker, Rusty Blackbird, White-throated Sparrow,
Philadelphia Vireo, Bay-breasted Warbler, Black-poll Warbler,
Connecticut Warbler, Red-breasted Nuthatch, Grey-cheeked Thrush.
September 20 to 30
Loon, Black Duck, American Coot, Pectoral Sandpiper, Semi-palmated
Sandpiper, Greater Yellow-legs, Nelson's Sparrow, Junco, Lincoln's
Sparrow, Black-throated Blue Warbler[G], Myrtle Warbler, Magnolia
Warbler[G], Pine Warbler, Wilson's Warbler[G], American Pipit,
Winter Wren, Ruby-crowned Kinglet, Olive-backed Thrush.
October 1 to 10
Green-winged Teal, Pintail, American Scoter, White-winged Scoter,
Short-eared Owl, White-crowned Sparrow, Blue-headed Vireo, Brown
Creeper, Golden-crowned Kinglet, Hermit Thrush.
October 10 to 20
Red-throated Loon, American Scaup Duck, Old-squaw, Surf Scoter, Ruddy
Duck, Canada Goose, American Golden Plover, American Goshawk, Fox
Sparrow.
October 20 to 31
Hooded Merganser, Baldpate, Lesser Scaup Duck, Ring-necked Duck,
Buffle-head, Snowflake, Tree Sparrow, Northern Shrike.
November 1 to 20
Red-breasted Merganser, Mallard, Snowy Owl, Pine Siskin.
[Footnote G: Generally noted at Englewood, N. J., between August 20
and 31.--F. M. C.]
=For Young Observers=
Mr. Flicker Writes a Letter
BY GARRETT NEWKIRK
[Illustration]
People:
Tell me where you scare up
Names for me like 'Flicker,' 'Yarup,'
'High-hole,' 'Yucker,' 'Yellow-hammer'--
None of these are in my grammar--
'Piquebois jaune,' (Woodpick yellow),
So the Creoles name a fellow.
Others call me 'Golden-wings,'
'Clape,' and twenty other things
That I never half remember,
Any summer till September.
[Illustration]
Many names and frequent mention
Show that I receive attention,
And the honor that is due me;
But if you would interview me
Call me any name you please,
I'm 'at home' among the trees.
Yet I never cease my labors
To receive my nearest neighbors,
And 'twill be your best enjoyment
Just to view me at employment.
[Illustration]
I'm the friend of every sower,
Useful to the orchard grower,
Helping many a plant and tree
From its enemies to free,--
They are always food for me.
And I like dessert in reason,
Just a bit of fruit in season,
But my _delicacy_ is _ants_,
Stump or hill inhabitants;
Thrusting in my sticky tongue,
So I take them, old and young.
[Illustration]
Surely we have found the best
Place wherein to make our nest--
Tunnel bored within a tree,
Smooth and clean as it can be,
Smallest at the open door,
Curving wider toward the floor.
Every year we make a new one,
Freshly bore another true one;
Other birds, you understand,
Use our old ones, second-hand,--
Occupying free of rent,
They are very well content.
To my wife I quite defer,
I am most polite to her,
Bowing while I say, 'kee-cher.'
Eggs we number five to nine,
Pearly white with finish fine.
On our nest we sit by turns,
So each one a living earns;
Though I think I sit the better,
When she wishes to, I let 'er!
--_Flicker._
Zip and Phoebe (A Cat-Bird Story)
BY FLORENCE A. VAN SANT
[Illustration]
Early each spring I watch for the return of a Phoebe bird, which
usually gladdens my heart by his appearance about sundown of some
bright day. He is alone, because, according to most authorities, he
travels in advance of his mate; and when I ask with wonder, "Well
Peter, where is Phoebe?" with a quick dip of his tail and an expressive
twitter, he seems to say, "She will arrive on the next train."
For several years they have returned to the same nest beneath the roof
of my veranda, each spring re-lining the inside and brightening the
outside with green moss. They always raise two broods. They are very
tame, and from year to year do not seem to forget their confidence of
the previous summer, and will perch on the cedar tree close to the
porch, or light on the rope of the hammock only a few feet away from me.
[Illustration: 'ZIP']
I have so trained my cat, Zip, that she thinks it is as wicked to look
at a bird as she does to climb on the table, and never does either.
Peter and Phoebe seemed to know that they had nothing to fear from her;
and, when sitting on the little white eggs, their bright eyes would
peep over the nest at Zip, sitting or napping in the easy chair below.
When the young birds arrived, the parents would fly back and forth
feeding them, without showing any more fear of the cat than they did of
me.
While busy in the house one day, my attention was attracted by a loud
tapping at the window, and on looking up I saw Phoebe apparently in
great distress. She would fly at the window, striking the glass with
her bill, circle round, fly back again, and tap, as though trying to
attract my attention. Upon my appearance at the door, she flew toward
the nest and, pausing on the wing, as a Kingfisher will poise over the
water when seeing a fish, uttered sharp cries, fluttering her wings all
the while, and telling me in bird language of her trouble. There sat a
cat on the chair just below the nest, but it was not Zip. She had taken
no other cat into her confidence, hence her alarm. When I drove the
strange cat away, she quieted down and administered to the wants of her
family as usual.
This little incident seems to show that birds become so accustomed to
their environments that they know each member of the family, even to
the dog and cat, and that they possess a certain degree of reasoning
power.
One day later in the season, when they were raising the second family,
my attention was again attracted by the same cries. A pair of my tame
Pigeons, looking for a place to build, had lighted on the cornice over
the door not far from the nest, and both Peter and Phoebe were trying
to drive them away. They would dart almost up to them, all the while
snapping their bills vigorously, as though catching a succession of
insects, but before the Pigeons could strike with their wings, would
dart away, and like a flash be back again. They did not seem to be
calling on me for assistance, but were themselves fighting for what
they considered their rights, and evidently did not think Pigeons "as
harmless as Doves." The warfare continued at intervals for several
days, until the Pigeons decided it was an unpleasant locality for a
future home, and retired to the barn.
[Illustration]
=Notes from Field and Study=
Birds Through a Telescope
The season is approaching when the migration of birds may be studied to
advantage through a telescope. A 2-inch hand glass may be used, though
a higher power is preferable. It should be focused on the moon, across
the surface of which the bird is seen passing.
September 3, 1887, at Tenafly, N. J., Mr. John Tatlock, Jr., and
myself, using a 6-1/2-inch equatorial, saw 262 birds cross the moon's
disc between the hours of eight and eleven (The Auk, V, p. 37), and we
have since repeated the observation.
Studies of this nature should throw much light on the question of
'highways of migration,' and at the same time furnish an idea of the
number of birds passing through a given space during a given time;
and, more particularly, they should tell us the height at which birds
perform their nocturnal journeys.
Mr. Tatlock and myself solved this latter problem by a hypothetical
assumption of the inferior and superior distances at which a bird would
be visible. In this way we arrived at the conclusion that the birds
seen were between one and three miles above the earth.
Until recently this theory has lacked confirmation, but I now learn
from Dr. William R. Brooks, Director of Smith Observatory, at Geneva,
N. Y., that during the evening of May 23, 1899, while observing the
moon through his 10-1/8-inch refracting telescope, using a power of
100 diameters, he saw some forty birds cross the field of vision. Dr.
Brooks states that from the distinctness of the image and the fact that
from three to five seconds were required by each bird to cross the
segment of the moon in the field of the telescope, he estimates the
birds to have been distant about seven and a half miles, and further
calculation, based on this estimate, places them about two miles above
the earth.--Frank M. Chapman.
The Cardinal in Maine
This incident is vouched for by Mrs. L. M. N. Stevens, National
President of the W. C. T. U.
Several years ago, after the first snowfall at Stroudwater, Maine,
Mr. Stevens hurried into the house one morning to ask his wife to
come and see a handsome, but cold and hungry-looking, red bird, in a
shrub near the door. Mrs. Stevens saw that it was a Cardinal Grosbeak,
and, placing some food in a large cage, she set it near the bush. The
Cardinal soon hopped inside, and was safely convoyed indoors under
cover of a blanket. A happy season began. He was given the freedom of
the room, and became very tame and companionable.
In the spring, as soon as the red bird grew restless and the weather
mild, he was let loose, and flew away.
In the fall, with the first cold snap, came the Cardinal, to spend his
second winter in the old home.
Again in the spring, when the restlessness re-appeared, Mrs. Stevens
wanted to let the bird fly, but yielded to the judgment of her husband,
who advised delay, lest cold and hunger overtake the little wayfarer.
Nature, however, avenged the violation of instinct; in a few days the
Cardinal drooped, refused to avail himself of liberty, and died.--Ella
Gilbert Ives, _Dorchester, Mass._
A Useful Bird
In speaking of the economic value of certain of our birds, a lecturer,
quoting Professor Beal, said that in Iowa the Tree Sparrow was
estimated to destroy 875 tons of the seeds of noxious weeds annually.
As reported in a local paper, this statement read: "The Tree or
Chipping Sparrow destroyed, as discovered by scientific observation,
640,000 tons of the eggs and young of harmful insects."
=Book News and Reviews=
Wild Life at Home: How To Study and Photograph It. By Richard
Kearton, F. Z. S. Fully Illustrated by Photographs taken Direct
from Nature by C. Kearton. Cassell & Company, Ltd., London, Paris,
New York, and Melbourne, 1898. 12mo, pp. xiv + 188. Numerous
half-tones. Price, $1.50.
In this book, Mr. Kearton and his brother show that their patience
and ingenuity, as well as their field of work, are inexhaustible. It
differs from 'With Nature and a Camera' chiefly in being addressed
more especially to photographers, the opening chapters being devoted
to a description of the outfit required, with practical suggestions
as to its use. These are followed by chapters on 'Birds,' 'Mammals',
'Insects,' and the life of 'Pond, River and Seashores.' The
illustrations are fully up to the standard of previous work by the
same authors, which we have before had occasion to praise so highly,
and continued experience with a camera leads us to appreciate more
fully than ever the truly marvellous pictures they have secured. Mr.
Kearton's paper in this number of Bird-Lore admirably illustrates the
practicability of his advice to naturalist-photographers, who, in
'Wild Life at Home' will find both instruction and encouragement. The
book should be in every naturalist's library, whether or not he uses a
camera.
F. M. C.
Birds. By Annie M. Grant. Report of the R. I. Board of Agriculture,
1899.
The Birds of Ontario, in Relation to Agriculture. By Chas. W. Nash,
Ontario Department of Agriculture, Toronto.
In Mrs. Grant's paper we have an epitome of a great amount of useful
information. The horticultural and agricultural societies are doing a
good work in publishing such papers in their reports, thus ensuring
to them a wide circulation among the class who most need this kind of
literature.
In that portion of her paper devoted to the 'Decrease in Bird-life,'
Mrs. Grant puts her finger on some very sore spots. There can be
no doubt that much harm has been done through egg-collecting by
pseudo-naturalists, who make no use of their collections except to
boast of their size and rarity, and who gather thousands of extra sets
for purposes of exchange. Another element of bird destruction is seen
in the South, where our common singing birds are so generally offered
for sale in the market as food. A campaign of education is needed here.
The time wasted in shooting these useful creatures would, if properly
applied, produce more and better meat in the shape of domestic poultry,
or other equally palatable food. We hope Mrs. Grant will continue her
good work.
In Mr. Nash's paper we have another concise statement of the facts with
regard to the usefulness of birds from an agricultural point of view.
The case of the birds of prey is very clearly and forcibly presented.
When these birds do harm--as when they pick up a stray chicken--the
evil is open and apparent to everybody; but the good work they are
constantly doing is only appreciated after the most careful and
systematic observation. The depredations of the vast hordes of small
mammals is a constant menace to the interests of husbandry, and more
especially to horticulture. Without question, the Hawks and Owls are
the most efficient checks upon the increase of these creatures, and it
cannot be too often or too forcibly impressed upon the farmers that
these birds should be rigorously protected.
With regard to the other birds, the case is equally well put, and
illustrated by many interesting and valuable observations and
experiments. There can be no question that this is a valuable paper,
and that it deserves a wide circulation among agricultural people.
As to the merits of the illustrations with which it is embellished,
there may be differences of opinion.--F. E. L. Beal.
On the Birds' Highway. By Reginald Heber Howe, Jr. With Photographic
Illustrations by the Author, and a Frontispiece in color from a
Painting by Louis Agassiz Fuertes.
This is a contribution to the class of literature which John Burroughs
and Bradford Torrey have made so deservedly popular. It cannot,
however, be said that the author has reached the standard of his
prototypes. His observations were made in the Atlantic states from
Virginia to Maine, and his descriptions bear evidence of sympathy
with his subject. The illustrations include an admirable frontispiece
of Chickadees by Louis Fuertes, thirteen full-page half-tones, for
the most part illustrating the localities described, and numerous
half-tone 'thumb-nail pictures' in the text, largely taken from mounted
birds. Some of the latter are effective; others are too small or too
indistinct to be of value to those who would need them.
An appendix gives nominal lists of the birds observed at Bristol,
R. I.; Washington, D. C.; Chevy Chase, Md.; Hubbardstown, Mass., and
Chateaugay Lake, N. Y.--F. M. C.
The Danger of Introducing Noxious Animals and Birds. By T. S. Palmer.
Yearbook of the Department of Agriculture for 1898, pp., 87-110; 1
half-tone plate and 6 cuts in the text.
Birds as Weed Destroyers. By Sylvester D. Judd. Yearbook of the
Department of Agriculture for 1898, pp., 221-232; 1 half-tone
plate and 7 cuts in the text.
Economic Relations of Birds and Their Food. By F. E. L. Beal.
Reprinted from the Proceedings of the Twenty-fourth Annual Meeting
of the New Jersey State Horticultural Society, January 4 and 5,
1899.
As long as man's attitude toward nature is the standpoint of dollars
and cents, bird-lovers will welcome every fact which places them in
possession of a fresh argument to be used where appeals to sentiment
are of no avail. It is, therefore, with great satisfaction that we
receive these sound, convincing papers on economic zoölogy.
Dr. Palmer's paper has long been needed and, fortunately or
unfortunately, so unanswerable are the facts which he presents, that
one would imagine universal knowledge of them would be all that was
necessary to avert further danger from the introduction of exotic
species. The subject, however, should receive the prompt attention of
legislators, in order that it may be duly placed under the control of
the proper authorities--obviously the officials of the Biologic Survey
of the United States Department of Agriculture.
In giving us the results of his studies of the food of certain
seed-eating birds, Dr. Judd at the same time places their economic
importance so far beyond dispute that we trust every agriculturist in
the land may become familiar with his facts and figures. None of the
many valuable papers issued by the Biological Survey has had a more
obvious value than this one.
In his lecture before the New Jersey Horticultural Society, Professor
Beal discusses unprejudicedly birds' power for good or evil. He shows
that while insects, especially certain noxious species, have greatly
increased since the settlement of this country, birds have decreased,
and that in order to restore the balance disturbed by man, an increase
in the number of our birds is greatly to be desired.--F. M. C.
Book News
Every lover of animals must rejoice in the phenomenal success achieved
by Ernest Seton Thompson's 'Wild Animals I have Known.' Although
published only last October, over 14,000 copies have been sold, and the
book's popularity increases as its charm becomes more widely known. Mr.
Thompson has done more to bridge the gap between human life and animal
life than any writer we have known. One has only to read his work to
become convinced of one's kinship with the lower forms of life.
=Bird-Lore=
A Bi-monthly Magazine
Devoted to the Study and Protection of Birds
OFFICIAL ORGAN OF THE AUDUBON SOCIETIES
=Edited by FRANK M. CHAPMAN=
=Published by THE MACMILLAN COMPANY=
=====================================================
Vol. 1 August, 1899 No. 4
=====================================================
=SUBSCRIPTION RATES.=
Price in the United States, Canada, and Mexico,
twenty cents a number, one dollar a year, postage
paid.
Subscriptions may be sent to the Publishers, at
Englewood, New Jersey, or 66 Fifth avenue, New
York City.
Price in all countries in the International Postal
Union, twenty-five cents a number, one dollar and
a quarter a year, postage paid. Foreign agents,
Macmillan and Company, Ltd., London.
-----------------------------------------------------
Manuscripts for publication, books, etc., for review,
should be sent to the Editor at Englewood,
New Jersey.
-----------------------------------------------------
Advertisements should be sent to the Publishers
at Englewood, New Jersey, or 66 Fifth
avenue, New York City.
-----------------------------------------------------
COPYRIGHTED, 1899, BY FRANK M. CHAPMAN.
-----------------------------------------------------
Bird-Lore's Motto:
_A Bird in the Bush is Worth Two in the Hand._
-----------------------------------------------------
The advice of a prominent ornithologist to beginners to collect all
the birds of a species they can get, has so long misrepresented the
necessities of the case and, at the same time, brought legitimate
collecting into disrepute, that every one having the interests of the
science of ornithology at heart will read with great satisfaction the
circular entitled 'Hints to Young Bird Students' which we reprint on
another page. Signed by a majority of the professional ornithologists
of this country, representing the institutions where ornithology is
most actively studied, it may be accepted beyond thought of dispute
as representing the true attitude of scientific ornithologists toward
the question of collecting. And in place of the advice to kill all the
birds "you can get," what do we find? Virtually a plea to abstain from
all egg-collecting, to take birds only for purposes of identification,
and a statement that the student "will learn more of value by a study
of the living bird than by collecting skins."
To our mind, the importance of this circular cannot be over-rated.
It marks an epoch in the history of North American ornithology. The
future ornithologist is not to be a mere hoarder of birds' skins,
but a student of bird-life whose researches, we predict, will prove
an invaluable aid in the solution of that most difficult and most
important of all biologic problems, the relation of animals to their
environment.
* * * * *
The paper by Mrs. Olive Thorne Miller on 'The Ethics of Caging Birds,'
published in the last number of Bird-Lore, has been both commended and
condemned. Some correspondents have considered it a most rational and
unprejudiced treatment of the subject, others have written that as
its general tenor might encourage the caging of birds, it was not to
be endorsed. Particularly do they deplore what Mrs. Miller feels to
be "a work of charity,"--the rescuing of birds "from the discomforts
of a bird-store" for, they say, that the dealer replaces the sold
bird with another, and the final result is to encourage the trade in
birds. Of this there can be no doubt, and the question, therefore,
becomes one for debate, as to whether the pleasure to be derived from
the companionship of a caged bird, the humanizing influence which may
be exerted by association with a creature dependent on us, and the
knowledge we may acquire of its habits, justify us in depriving it of
its liberty--assuming, of course, that it receives proper care. We
shall be glad to receive the opinions of our readers on this subject.
* * * * *
'The Century' for July has an illustrated article on Bird Rock, in the
Gulf of St. Lawrence, by the Editor of this journal, which, it should
be said, would have appeared in Bird-Lore had it not been disposed of
before this magazine was established. This statement will also apply
to an article on Pelican Island, Florida, which will appear in 'St.
Nicholas' for September.
* * * * *
Dr. Coues having retired from the Editorship of 'The Osprey,' Dr. Gill,
who had withdrawn his name from recent numbers, assumes control.
=The Audubon Societies=
"_You cannot with a scalpel find the poet's soul,
Nor yet the wild bird's song._"
Edited by Mrs. Mabel Osgood Wright (President of the Audubon Society of
the State of Connecticut), Fairfield, Conn., to whom all communications
relating to the work of the Audubon and other Bird Protective Societies
should be addressed.
DIRECTORY OF STATE AUDUBON SOCIETIES
With names and addresses of their Secretaries.
=New Hampshire= Mrs. F. W. Batchelder, Manchester.
=Massachusetts= Miss Harriet E. Richards, care Boston Society
of Natural History, Boston.
=Rhode Island= Mrs. H. T. Grant, Jr., 187 Bowen street,
Providence.
=Connecticut= Mrs. Henry S. Glover, Fairfield.
=New York= Miss Emma H. Lockwood, 243 West Seventy-fifth
street, New York City.
=New Jersey= Miss Anna Haviland, 53 Sandford Ave.,
Plainfield, N. J.
=Pennsylvania= Mrs. Edward Robins, 114 South Twenty-first
street, Philadelphia.
=District of Columbia= Mrs. John Dewhurst Patten, 3033 P street,
Washington.
=Wheeling, W. Va.= Elizabeth I. Cummins, 1314 Chapline street,
(branch of Penn Society) Wheeling.
=Ohio= Miss Clara Russell, 903 Paradrome street,
Cincinnati.
=Indiana= Amos W. Butler, State House, Indianapolis.
=Illinois= Miss Mary Drummond, Wheaton.
=Iowa= Miss Nellie S. Board, Keokuk.
=Wisconsin= Mrs. George W. Peckham, 646 Marshall street,
Milwaukee.
=Minnesota= Mrs. J. P. Elmer, 314 West Third street,
St. Paul.
=Tennessee= Mrs. C. C. Conner, Ripley.
=Texas= Miss Cecile Seixas, 2008 Thirty-ninth
street, Galveston.
=California= Mrs. George S. Gay, Redlands.
The Responsibility of the Audubon Society
Now that the Audubon Society is recognized as a factor in the higher
civilization of the day, it may be well to ask how far it realizes its
responsibility as a public educator.
"For the Protection of Birds," is a most reasonable and tangible
declaration of motive, but what next?