crowds, and when it is time to make nests, they find some grove or clump
of trees that suits them, and all of them build their nests close
together. Often there are two or three on one tree, like a bird city.
There they live and rear their little ones, and it is said they never
quarrel.
Then there are the birds who get their food from the sea, such as
penguins. These birds live in big cities, of many thousand nests. They
go to an island where no people live, and build on the ground, or on
rocks, or anywhere.
Sometimes they are so near together one can hardly walk without stepping
on them. How each mother can tell her own, it is hard to see. They live
very happily together, and if a mother is killed, so that her little
ones are left orphans, one of the neighbors will adopt them all, and
feed and bring them up with her own.
Some of these birds do not even take the trouble to make a nest. They
put the eggs anywhere on the sand or earth.
Some one, Mr. Brehm, I think, tells a pretty story about a certain kind
of duck who rears two broods every season. After the ducklings of the
first brood have learned to take care of themselves, they go about
together, getting their food and sailing on the water in a little party,
while their parents are hatching the second brood. But when the younger
ones are big enough, they are led to the water, and at once their elder
brothers and sisters join them. They all swim around together, the
youngest in the middle of the group, where they are protected and fed by
the elder brood as well as by the parents, a lovely and united little
family.
XVIII
HIS KINDNESS TO OTHERS
BIRDS are helpful to each other when in trouble. If a robin is in
distress, other robins will come to see what is the matter, and to help
if they can. And not only robins, but catbirds, and orioles, and
chickadees, and others, will come, too.
Sometimes when a person tries to rob a nest, all the birds near will
come in a crowd, to drive away the thief. They will cry and scream at
him, and sometimes fly at his face, and try to peck his eyes.
Birds are so little they cannot fight a man, but if they can peck at his
face, they can hurt him, and if they really get at his eyes, they can
put them out. We cannot blame the birds for trying to protect themselves
and their young, and it is well for boys to be careful how they disturb
a nest.
One proof that birds really do help each other is the fact that when a
man wants to know what birds live in a place, he can bring them all
around him by making a sound like a young bird in distress. All who hear
it will come to see what is the matter.
Let me tell you a story of some young swallows. They were able to fly a
little, and were sitting together on a roof, when a lady who was
watching them noticed that one of them seemed to be weak, and not able
to stand up.
When the parents came with food, the others stood up and opened their
mouths, and so were fed, but this little one hardly ever got a morsel.
If birds had no love for each other, as many people think, these strong
little ones would not have cared if their brother did starve; but what
did the lady see? She says that two of the strong young swallows came
close up to their weak brother, one on each side. They put their beaks
under his breast and lifted him up on to his legs, and then crowded so
close against him that their little bodies propped him up, and held him
there; so that he had his chance of being fed as well as they.
Many times birds have been seen who were blind or old, or who had a wing
or a leg broken, or were in some way hurt so that they could not take
care of themselves, and who were being waited upon by other birds, fed,
and led to the water to drink and bathe.
[Illustration: CHEWINK, OR TOWHEE]
Birds have been found caught in the lining of a nest, so that they were
held there and could not go for food. They had been there for weeks, and
would have starved to death if they had not been fed. Yet they were so
well taken care of by other birds that they were strong and able to fly.
In one case, where the nest was in a tree trunk, the hole in the trunk
had grown up, so that when big enough to fly, they could not get out,
and they had been there for months. Yet when a man cut open the trunk
and let them out, they were well and lively, proving that they had been
fed by friends outside all that time.
I could tell you many true stories of the kind care of birds for each
other, and for baby birds who had lost their parents, or been stolen
away from them.
A gentleman in Massachusetts told me that when he was a boy he saw a
small flock of chewinks who came about a house where food was put out
for birds. They came every day, and he soon saw that one was bigger than
the rest, and that he never tried to pick up anything for himself, but
all the others fed him.
One day he was cruel enough to throw a stone at the bird who was so well
taken care of, and when he took up his victim, he found that the
upper and lower parts of his bill were crossed, so that he could not
pick up anything from the ground, where chewinks find their food. He had
been born thus deformed, and if he had not been fed every day by his
friends he must have starved to death. Yet so well had he been cared for
that he was better grown than any of the others.
XIX
HIS AFFECTIONS
I AM sure I need not say that father and mother birds love their little
ones.
So much does the mother love her nestlings that she is often willing to
die for them. Orioles and chickadees will let themselves be caught in
the hand of one who has taken their young, rather than desert them.
Some birds live in our chimneys, generally in a flue that is not in use,
and are called chimney swifts. If a chimney takes fire the mother swift
tries hard to get her little ones out, but if they cannot fly, she has
been seen to fly into the fire herself, and die with them.
Robins have been found frozen to death on their nest. They could easily
have saved themselves, but they would not leave their young ones to
perish. A ground bird has been known to sit on her nest during a
freezing storm, till she died, rather than go and leave her little ones
to suffer.
Once when a young cedar-bird was caught and carried off, the father
followed it for miles, crying and showing so much distress that the man
who had stolen it was sorry for him, and let the little one go.
Every one who has watched them knows that birds love their mates. A man
once shot a sea bird, when her mate came about him, crying and showing
his grief as well as if he could speak.
I could easily fill a book with stories to prove that birds are loving
to their mates and young, and all of them true.
It does not seem strange that birds are fond of their own, but they love
others also. And not only other birds, but even animals like cats, dogs,
and horses sometimes.
I once had an English goldfinch in the house. He was a little fellow,
not so big as a canary, and he was very fond of another bird in the
room. This was a scarlet tanager, who was much larger than himself.
The small bird showed his love for his red friend, just as people show
love, by staying close to him, singing to him, and driving away any bird
who came too near.
A lady once told me this story showing the love of a pigeon for a cat.
The cat was fond of lying on the broad window sill. When the pigeon saw
her there, he would fly down, and alight beside her. Then he would press
up close to her, and rub against her fur, as if glad to see her, and the
cat seemed to enjoy it as much as the bird.
[Illustration: HOUSE WREN]
Often a bird who is tamed loves his human friends. A man had a crow who
was very fond of him. He had reared the bird from the nest and never
shut him up, but let him fly about wherever he chose.
One day he was out in a sudden rain, and his feathers got wet, so that
he could not fly well. Then a boy caught him, and carried him seven
miles away. He clipped one wing, so that the crow could not fly, and
kept him shut in the house all winter. In the spring, the first time he
could get out, the bird started for his old home.
He could not fly, but he walked the seven miles, through mud and wet,
and came home so tired that he was almost dead. When his master saw him
coming he went to meet him, took him up and petted him, and talked to
him.
The poor fellow was so happy it seemed as if he could not live. But he
was taken care of, and got well, and lived many years. But never after
that would he leave the place, though when his new feathers came in he
could fly as well as ever.
Canary birds often love their mistresses. I have heard of one who was so
grieved by a harsh word, that in a few minutes he fell off his perch
dead.
These true stories show us how tender and loving these little creatures
are, and how careful we should be to treat them gently and kindly.
An interesting and true story is told by a clergyman in Ohio. It is a
habit of wrens to find a good nesting-place, and then look for a mate to
occupy it. One spring a wren chose a nice bird-box on his place, and
held it ready for the expected bride. But she did not come, and a pair
of English sparrows took a fancy to the same house.
Sparrows expect to get what they want, and are always ready to fight for
it, so they gave battle to the wren. But wrens also will fight for their
own, and this wren held his house against the enemy for two weeks. Still
the mate did not appear, and finally the lonely bird lost heart, and let
the sparrows set up house-keeping in his box, though he did not go away.
When the young sparrows were hatched, and feeding began, the wren
suddenly became friendly. He hunted up small green worms, probably such
as are good for wrenlings, and offered them to the young sparrows.
Nestlings are never known to refuse anything to eat, and wren food
seemed to suit the sparrows, for they soon outgrew the nursery.
All summer this queer thing went on. The sparrows reared three or four
broods, and the wren did his full share of the work,--and not only of
feeding the young, but of repairing and rebuilding the nest for each
fresh brood.
XX
HIS INTELLIGENCE
BEFORE people knew very much about the ways of birds, it was thought
that they did not have to be taught anything, but that they knew
everything they needed to know, as soon as they were born. That is, they
were said to act from instinct alone, and not at all from reason, as we
do.
Another notion that people had was that birds of a kind were just alike;
that they looked exactly like each other, all acted in the same way, and
all sang the same song.
But since we have begun to study birds more closely, we find these
things are not true. We find that birds learn things by being taught, as
we do. Also, they find out how to do things themselves, and they are not
all alike, as so many machines.
More than this, we see that they do not look nor act exactly like each
other. For when we know one robin or one oriole well, we can tell him
from any other robin or oriole. And, as I said before, no two of a kind
sing precisely the same song.
A bird shows his intelligence in many ways. One is by the way he acts
when he cannot do as he is used to doing. A robin I know of wished to
build a nest, but could not find mud to put into it, for it was a very
dry time, and there were no streams near. Now a robin's nest must have
mud, and the bird seemed puzzled for a while. But at last she thought of
a way to get it.
She went to a bathing-dish that the people of the house kept filled with
water for the birds, jumped into it, and got her legs very wet. Then she
flew to the road, and tramped around in the dust and dirt.
In a short time her legs had a good coating of mud, which she carefully
picked off with her bill, and took to the nest she was building.
This she did a great many times, and the lady who told me of it watched
her till she had as much mud as she needed.
A bird often shows sense by the way she repairs a nest that has been
thrown out of place. Sometimes she will add a new stay, tying the nest
to a stronger limb. One sparrow, whose nest broke loose, put so many
stays to the branch above that they made a little roof like a tent over
it.
Another way a bird shows reason is in seeing the advantage of a new
place. A pair of swallows lived far out in the West, hundreds of miles
from any house. They had no doubt always nested in a cave, or a hole in
a tree. But one day they found a house put up. It was a mere shed, to be
used as a blacksmith shop, by a party of men who were looking over the
country.
At once the birds saw how nice it would be to have a roof over their
heads. And although there was a big fire, and the noise of men at work,
they built the nest over the anvil, and reared the family in safety.
Woodpeckers have shown that they can learn. Some of them have found an
easier way to get food than to dig through the bark of trees for it.
The flicker, or golden-winged woodpecker, has learned that ants and
other insects are good to eat, and now he does not think of digging into
bark any more.
The red-headed woodpecker has learned to catch flies like a common
flycatcher. The yellow-bellied, or sapsucker, cuts holes in the trees,
and eats the insects that come to feed on the sweet sap that drips from
them.
[Illustration: FLICKER]
Woodpeckers have also learned to cut a hole through a board and nest
inside a building, instead of drilling a deep hole in the trunk of a
tree for a nest.
Birds show intelligence when they draw us away from their young ones, by
acting as if they were hurt and not able to fly. I have already spoken
about that.
Sometimes when a bird is caught he will lie quiet and pretend to be
dead. But all the time he is looking out for a chance to fly away.
A man who watched birds very closely once saw an interesting instance of
their intelligence. They were two of the birds who get their food on the
seashore by turning over stones and eating the creatures hidden under
them. They had found a big dead fish thrown up on the beach and half
buried in sand. Under such a fish they were sure they should find food,
so they went to work to turn it over. The fish was three and a half feet
long, and the birds were about as big as our sandpipers. So it was a
hard thing to do.
First they pushed against it with their beaks and breast, but it did not
move. Then they went around the other side and scratched away a good
deal of sand from under the fish, and went back and tried again to turn
it over. Still it was too heavy to stir.
Again they ran around the other side, scraped away more sand, and tried
it once more. They kept up this work for half an hour, but did not
succeed in stirring the great fish.
At this time the man, who had hidden himself to watch them, saw another
bird coming. The two little workers greeted him with joyful cries, to
which he replied in the same tones. Then all three set to work on the
heavy fish. They dug more sand out from the lower side, and then pushed
against the upper side with all their strength. They lifted it a few
inches, but it fell back.
At last, after resting a few minutes, without moving from their places,
they worked it in this way. They rested their breasts on the sand, put
their beaks under, and lifted. When the fish was raised several inches,
they held it with their beaks and pushed their breasts against it, when
over it went, down the little pitch they had made.
They could not stop, and they went with it, but at once came back and
found enough to pay them for their hard work.
One who really watches birds to see what they are doing will see many
actions that show intelligence and reason.
HOW HE IS MADE
XXI
HIS BODY
DID you ever think how well the bird is made to suit his life? Look at
him.
To fit him to move through the air in flying, his shape is the same that
men make their boats to move through water. It is sharp in front to cut
his way as he goes through, for even the air needs to be cut.
It is narrower toward the back, and as he flies, the feet are drawn up
or trail behind, and even the feathers lie backward. All this is so he
can go swiftly through the air, and nothing, not even a feather, will
hold him back.
To keep his body upright, so that he will not be top-heavy and tip over
as he flies, his weight is mostly below the wings.
If we should try to go through the air as fast as a bird goes, we should
find it very hard to breathe. But the bird is made for it. When you come
to study his anatomy, you will see what a wonderful little creature he
is.
He can sing while he is working very hard to fly upward. If you will try
to sing while running up a hill, you will see how hard it is to do that.
A bird's head is joined to his neck at one place, something like a
hinge. Other animals, like dogs and cats, have two hinges, or places of
joining. That is why a bird is able to turn his head around so far that
he can look down his own back. No other creature can do so.
Because of this, he is able to dress every feather on his body, and to
sleep with his head laid back on his shoulder.
Nearly all birds have some of their bones hollow, and air-sacs, or
pockets, under the skin. These sacs they can fill with air and make
themselves light, so that those who live in the water cannot sink, but
float like a cork.
Men who study the way birds are made do not yet know all the uses of the
hollow bones and air-sacs. That is one of the things left for you young
folk to find out.
Birds who get their food in marshes, or the edge of the water, have long
legs for wading. They have also long necks, so they can pick up food
from the ground.
Birds who swim have webs between the toes, that turn their feet into
paddles.
Birds have very large gullets. In many cases the gullet leads into a
place called the crop, where food is kept before it goes into the
stomach. Sometimes the food is made soft in the crop, and then fed to
the young ones, as I told you.
Birds have no teeth, yet they eat hard seeds, like acorns and grains of
corn. To break these up, and get them ready for the stomach, they have a
gizzard, which is a sort of grinding-mill. And to help in the work of
grinding they swallow small stones.
One of the wonderful things about birds is the height at which they can
live, and not only live, but fly. A man cannot go higher than twenty-two
or twenty-three thousand feet, while moving about or exercising, because
the air is so rare he cannot breathe. The highest a man was ever known
to go and live, it is said, was less than thirty thousand feet, and that
was in a balloon, where he did not move.
But birds go a good deal higher than this, and can fly--which is violent
exercise--at that height. It is thought by some that the thinness of the
air may be the cause of the great speed with which birds fly in that
region. But there is still much to be found out about this.
Besides the marvels of flight, birds have other powers almost as
strange. Many of them can fly under water with perfect ease, and, more
than that, they can, when they wish, sink slowly till nothing is left
above water but their beaks, to breathe. And they can stay so as long as
they choose, keeping still in one spot, without moving.
A cormorant in a zoölogical garden, who wanted to catch some of the
swallows skimming over the pond, sank his body till only his head was
out, and held himself there perfectly still.
Birds who are hunted, as geese, have been known to save their lives in
that way, by sinking their body under water, leaving in sight only the
tip of the bill, which is so small it is not readily seen.
To do such things, birds must be able to make their bodies heavy when
they choose, as well as light, which we know they are able to do by
filling their air-sacs with air.
There are many things still to be found out about the powers of birds.
XXII
HIS BEAK AND TONGUE
HOW does a bird get along without a hand? He has to prepare food; to
keep his feathers in order; to build the nest; to feed and take care of
the young; and sometimes to fight other birds. How can all this be done
without a hand?
[Illustration: FIG. 1.
Bill of Oriole.]
The beak is the only thing most birds have in place of a hand, and it is
wonderful to see how many things they can do with it.
Orioles use it as a needle, in making the nest. With it they weave
strips of soft bark or strings, back and forth, in and out, to make the
firm pocket they hang on the elm-tree (see Fig. 1).
[Illustration: FIG. 2.
Bill of Woodpecker.]
A woodpecker's beak is a chisel or pick, to cut a deep hole in a tree
trunk for a nest (Fig. 2). With a nuthatch it is a hammer, to crack the
nut he has wedged into a crevice in the bark so tightly it cannot slip.
[Illustration: WHITE-BREASTED NUTHATCH]
Some birds use the beak to dig in the ground, as the bank swallows,
while the barn swallows make it a trowel, to carry and plaster mud (Fig.
3). All of them use it as a hand to feed themselves, and a brush and
comb to dress their feathers.
[Illustration: FIG. 3. Bill of Swallow.]
Birds need to use the beak a good deal, because in most cases it grows
like our finger-nails. If they did not keep it worn off, it would grow
so long as to trouble them. Sometimes when a bird lives in a cage and
does not use his bill, it grows so long that he can hardly pick up his
food.
The woodcock's long beak is sensitive, so that he can feel the worms,
deep in the mud where they live. Many waders and swimmers have beaks
soft like leather.
[Illustration: FIG. 4. Bill of Hawk.]
You can tell by the shape of the beak how a bird lives, and what he
eats. The strong, hooked beak of a hawk shows that he catches live
animals to eat (Fig. 4). The long, narrow, sharp bill of a heron shows
that he spears his prey, often under water.
The sharp-pointed bill of a warbler is to pick tiny insects and eggs out
of blossoms, and from under leaves. The sharp-edged bill of a sparrow
(Fig. 5) is to break open the hard shells of seeds.
[Illustration: FIG. 5. Bill of Sparrow.]
The curious beak of a crossbill (Fig. 6) is to pick seeds out of pine
cones.
[Illustration: FIG. 6. Bill of Crossbill.]
A duck's wide beak, with a strainer at the edge, is to let water out
while keeping food in. A spoon-shaped bill is to scoop up food, and a
thin, flat one is to poke into narrow cracks.
Both parts of the beak, which take the place of our jaws, are called
mandibles, upper and lower. Both of them can be moved, while we can move
only our lower jaw.
Birds' tongues are as curious as their beaks. To all birds they take the
place of a finger, as the beak takes the place of a hand, and they
differ as much as the beaks from each other.
Insect eggs are very small, and often packed snugly into cracks and
corners, and the birds who eat them have a brush on the tip of the
tongue, which brushes an egg out of its hiding-place very easily.
The nuthatch picks his small grubs out of crevices in bark with the
four-tined fork at the end of his tongue.
A hummingbird's tongue can be used as a tube, to draw up the honey of
flowers, or perhaps as a pair of tweezers, to pick out the tiny spiders
that live there.
A woodpecker has barbs on his tongue, to spear insects hidden under the
bark, as shown by Mr. Lucas (Fig. 7). It is said to be sticky also, to
hold small ones, like ants.
The tongues of birds are of many shapes, but each one is fitted to its
owner's way of getting a living.
[Illustration: FIG. 7. Tip of Tongue of Downy Woodpecker.]
Because the tongue is often horny, and they eat strange things, it is
sometimes thought that birds have little sense of taste. But we cannot
be sure of this, and we know they all have notions about their food.
Dr. Ward tells a story of some geese, which shows that they do not lack
that sense. While sailing upon a river he noticed on the bank some
geese, feeding on the rinds of watermelon, which they picked out of the
garbage dumped there.
The rind, when taken out of the mass, was none too clean, being covered
with mud and other dirt. When a goose found a piece to suit him, he took
it up, carried it to the edge, and dropped it into the shallow water.
Then he stood and watched it till the running stream washed it clean,
when he stepped into the water and quickly ate off the part he wanted.
XXIII
HIS EYES AND EARS
BIRDS' eyes are very different from ours. To begin with, they are round.
Then they are placed one on each side of the head, so that they can look
two ways at once. Owls are the only birds who have eyes turned forward
like ours.
Birds' eyes also are of many colors. Besides our common black, brown,
blue, and gray, birds have light and dark green, bright red, pale and
deep yellow and orange, even white.
They have, like us, two eyelids. But while we use the upper one to close
our eyes, most birds use the lower one. They have also a third eyelid,
inside the others, a thin, white sort of skin, that moves across the eye
from side to side, and is called the "nictitating membrane."