Chapter 11

_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 Zoölogical 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.

_Hardenbergh's Bird Playmates._ Charles Scribner's Sons. Two sets: Land Birds and Water Birds. (Two large scenic backgrounds in color, with colored birds that can be slipped into place to complete the picture; for use during bird lessons, as a record of birds seen by the children, etc.)

_History of North American Birds._ S. F. BAIRD, T. M. BREWER, and R. RIDGWAY. Three volumes. Little, Brown & Co.

_Life Histories of North American Diving Birds._ ARTHUR CLEVELAND BENT. U.S. National Museum Bulletin 107.

_Michigan Bird Life._ WALTER BRADFORD BARROWS. Michigan Agricultural College.

_Mother Nature's Children._ ALLEN WALTON GOULD. Ginn & Co.

_My Pets._ MARSHALL SAUNDERS. The Griffith and Rowland Press.

_Natural History of the Farm._ JAMES G. NEEDHAM. The Comstock Publishing Co.

_Nature Sketches in Temperate America._ JOSEPH LANE HANCOCK. A. C. McClurg Co.

_Nature Songs and Stories._ KATHERINE CREIGHTON. The Comstock Publishing Co.

_Nestlings of Forest and Marsh._ IRENE GROSVENOR WHEELOCK. Atkinson, Mentzer, and Grover.

_Our Backdoor Neighbors._ FRANK C. PELLETT. The Abingdon Press.

_Our Birds and their Nestlings._ MARGARET COULSON WALKER. American Book Co.

_Our Greatest Travelers._ WELLS W. COOKE. (Reprinted in _Common Birds of Town and Country._)

_Outdoor Studies._ JAMES G. NEEDHAM. American Book Co.

_Passenger Pigeon, The._ W. B. MERSHON. The Outing Publishing Co.

_Primer of Bird-Study._ ERNEST INGERSOLL. The National Association of Audubon Societies.

_Propagation of Wild-Duck Foods._ W. L. MCATEE. U.S. Dept. of Agriculture Bulletin 465.

_Sharp Eyes._ WILLIAM HAMILTON GIBSON. Harper and Brothers.

_Short Cuts and By-Paths._ HORACE LUNT. D. Lothrop Co.

_Some Common Game, Aquatic, and Rapacious Birds in Relation to Man._ W. L. MCATEE and F. E. L. BEAL. U. S. Dept. of Agriculture; Farmers' Bulletin 497.

_Spring of the Year, The._ DALLAS LORE SHARP. Houghton Mifflin Co.

_Stories of Bird Life._ T. GILBERT PEARSON. B. F. Johnson Publishing Co.

_Story of Opal, The._ OPAL WHITELEY. G. P. Putnam's Sons. (The Journal of a child, who watched the comings and the goings of the little wood-folk and waved greetings to the plant-bush-folk, and who danced when the wind did play the harps in the forest--this being "a very wonderful world to live in.")

_Summer._ DALLAS LORE SHARP. Houghton Mifflin Co.

_Tales from Birdland._ T. GILBERT PEARSON. Doubleday, Page & Co.

_Travels of Birds._ FRANK M. CHAPMAN. D. Appleton and Co.

_Useful Birds and their Protection._ EDWARD H. FORBUSH. Massachusetts Board of Agriculture.

_Wild Life Conservation._ WILLIAM T. HORNADAY. Yale University Press.

_Winter._ DALLAS LORE SHARP. Houghton Mifflin Co.

_Wit of the Wild._ ERNEST INGERSOLL. Dodd, Mead & Co.

PERIODICALS

_Bird-Lore._ Official Organ of the Audubon Societies. D. Appleton & Co.

_Conservationist, The._ New York State Conservation Commission, Albany.

_Guide to Nature, The._ The Agassiz Association, Arcadia, Sound Beach, Conn.

_Natural History._ Journal of the American Museum of Natural History.

_Nature-Study Review._ Official Organ of the American Nature-Study Society, Ithaca, New York.