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COLOR KEY TO

NORTH AMERICAN BIRDS

+------------------------------------------------------------------+ | By FRANK M. CHAPMAN | | Curator of Ornithology in the American Museum | | of Natural History | +------------------------------------------------------------------+ | HANDBOOK OF BIRDS OF EASTERN NORTH AMERICA | | Third edition. With introductory chapters on the study of | | Ornithology; how to identify birds and how to collect and | | preserve birds, their nests and eggs. 20 full-page plates | | and 150 cuts in the text. 12mo. Library edition. | | Pocket edition. | | BIRD-LIFE | | A guide to the study of our common birds. With 75 full-page | | colored plates and numerous text drawings by Ernest Thompson | | Seton. Containing an Appendix, especially designed for | | teachers. 12mo. Cloth. | | BIRD STUDIES WITH A CAMERA | | A fascinating account of the habits of common birds, with | | descriptions of the largest bird colonies existing in eastern | | North America. The author's phenomenal success in | | photographing birds in Nature not only lends to the | | illustrations the charm of realism, but makes the book a | | record of surprising achievements with the camera. 12mo. | | Cloth. | | WARBLERS OF NORTH AMERICA | | A full description of our "most beautiful, most abundant, | | and least known birds." Illustrated with colored plates | | of every species and photographs of nests and eggs. Imp. 8vo. | | Illustrated. | | CAMPS AND CRUISES OF AN ORNITHOLOGIST | | The story of eight years' experience in travel, in which | | the author covered over 60,000 miles in his search for | | material with which to prepare a series of groups of | | American birds, to exceed in beauty and scientific value | | anything which had heretofore been attempted in this line. | | The illustrations, over 250 in number, are from Dr. Chapman's | | photographs, and beyond question form a remarkable series of | | pictures of bird-life. 8vo. | | COLOR KEY TO NORTH AMERICAN BIRDS | | This work may be described as an illustrated dictionary of | | North American birds. It is the most complete publication of | | its kind, and makes an admirable introduction to the study of | | birds and the literature of Ornithology and at the same time | | is an authoritative work of reference. Over 800 pictures. | | OUR WINTER BIRDS | | An introduction to the study of birds. The author believes | | that the study of Ornithology should begin with the winter | | birds as they are fewer in number and easier to approach. | | Divided into convenient groups such as field birds, forest | | birds, home birds, etc. Illustrated. 12mo. | | THE TRAVELS OF BIRDS | | A series of chapters on bird migration, describing birds as | | travelers, why they travel, dangers by the way, night flyers | | and day flyers, etc. Many illustrations from drawings. | | Illustrated. | | WHAT BIRD IS THAT? | | A bird book for beginners with 301 birds in color. | | ----------------- | | D. APPLETON AND COMPANY, NEW YORK | +------------------------------------------------------------------+

COLOR KEY TO NORTH AMERICAN BIRDS

With Bibliographical Appendix

BY

FRANK M. CHAPMAN

CURATOR OF ORNITHOLOGY IN THE AMERICAN MUSEUM OF NATURAL HISTORY

Author of "Handbook of Birds of Eastern North America," "Bird-Life," Etc.

_With Upward of 800 Drawings_

BY

CHESTER A REED, B. S.

_Revised Edition_

NEW YORK D. APPLETON & COMPANY 1912

COPYRIGHT, DOUBLEDAY, PAGE & CO. 1903

COPYRIGHT, D. APPLETON & CO. 1912

_Published November 1912_

Printed in the United States

PREFACE.

To learn to call a bird by its right name is the first step in the study of ornithology. We may propose to investigate the structure, food, and habits of the birds of the world, or desire merely a superficial knowledge of the species found in our garden, but in either case we are at once confronted by this question of identification.

From the scientific point of view there is but one satisfactory way to identify a bird. A specimen of it should be in hand in order that its form, color, and size may be accurately determined, when, with the aid of analytical keys, with which most text-books are provided, it is a simple matter to ascertain the bird's name.

Wide experience has shown the writer, however, that where one dead bird is identified, hundreds of attempts are made to name the living bird in nature. This is to be expected. It is the natural outcome of the recent remarkable interest in the study of birds which, fostered by Audubon Societies and nature study teachers, has assumed an ethical and educational importance of the first magnitude.

We cannot place a gun in the hands of these thousands of bird-lovers whom we are yearly developing; indeed most of them would refuse to use it. Specimens, therefore, are rarely available to them and we should make some special effort to meet their peculiar wants. The present volume has been prepared with this end in view. Identification of the bird in the bush is its sole end; an end, however, which we trust will prove but the beginning of a new and potent interest in nature.

FRANK M. CHAPMAN

_American Museum of Natural History, New York City, 1903._

PREFACE TO REVISED EDITION.

In the present edition of the Color Key the body of the book, aside from the correction of typographical errors, remains as it was in the preceding edition. The Systematic Table has been reset and brought up to July, 1912, the date of the publication of the latest supplement to the third edition of the American Ornithologists' Union's 'Check-List of North American Birds.' Two Appendixes are added. The first includes all the changes in nomenclature and descriptions of new birds which have been accepted by the A.O.U. Committee on Classification and Nomenclature since the publication of the Color Key in 1903; the second contains a list of faunal ornithological papers which it is hoped will add greatly to the reference value of the book.

F. M. C.

_American Museum of Natural History, New York City, October, 1912._

CONTENTS.

INTRODUCTION 1 How to Learn a Bird's Name 1 How Birds Are Named 4

SYNOPSIS OF ORDERS AND FAMILIES OF NORTH AMERICAN BIRDS 9

COLOR KEY TO NORTH AMERICAN BIRDS 41

SYSTEMATIC TABLE OF NORTH AMERICAN BIRDS 257

APPENDIX I. ADDITIONS, SUBTRACTIONS, EMENDATIONS 298

APPENDIX II. BIBLIOGRAPHY 305

INDEX 333

ILLUSTRATIONS

The illustrations in this volume are designed to aid the student in identifying birds in their haunts by giving, in color, those markings which most quickly catch the eye. They do not pretend to be perfect reproductions of every shade and tint of the plumage of the species they figure, but aim to present a bird's characteristic colors as they appear when seen at a distance. It was impracticable to draw all the birds to the same scale but all those on the same page are so figured. Reference should always be made, however, to the measurements given at the beginning at each description. The figures are based on the male bird.

LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS.

[Male]. The sign of Mars, signifying male.

[Female]. The sign of Venus, signifying female.

Ad. Adult, a bird in fully mature plumage.

Yng. Young, a fully grown bird which has not yet acquired the plumage of the adult.

L. Length, the distance from the tip of the bill to the end of the tail. This measurement is made from dead birds, birds in life appear somewhat shorter.

W. Wing, the distance from the 'bend' of the wing to the end of the longest feather.

T. Tail, the distance from the insertion of the tail-feathers to the end of the longest one.

Tar. Tarsus, the distance from the heel to the insertion of the toes, or of the so-called 'leg.'

B. Bill, the distance from the feathers at the base of the bill above to its tip.

NOTE. All measurements are in inches and tenths, and a variation of about ten per cent. from the figures given may be expected. The number before the name of each species is that of the American Ornithologists' Union's 'Check-List of North American Birds.'

INTRODUCTION

HOW TO LEARN A BIRD'S NAME

"How can I learn to know the birds?" is the first question of the seeker after bird-lore. The scientist's reply, "By shooting them and studying their structure and markings in detail," may do for the few who, like himself, desire to know the birds scientifically; but it is emphatically not the answer to give the ninety and nine who, while they desire to secure an intimate, accurate knowledge of birds, will not gain it at the sacrifice of bird-life.

In the present volume, therefore, an attempt has been made so to group, figure, and describe our birds that any species may be named which has been _definitely seen_. The birds are kept in their systematic Orders, a natural arrangement, readily comprehended, but, further than this, accepted classifications have been abandoned and the birds have been grouped according to color and markings.

A key to the Orders gives the more prominent characters on which they are based; telling for example, the external differences between a Duck and a Grebe. In comparatively few instances, however, will the beginner have much difficulty in deciding to what Order a bird belongs. Probably eight times, out of ten the unknown bird will belong to the Order Passeres, or Perching Birds, when one has only to select the color section in which it should be placed, choose from among the colored figures the bird whose identity is sought, and verify one's selection by reading the description of the bird's characteristics and the outline of its range.

In the case of closely related species, and particularly subspecies, the subjects of range and season are of the utmost importance. Most subspecies resemble their nearest allies too closely to be identified in life by color alone, and in such cases a bird's name is to be learned by its color in connection with its distribution and the season in which it is seen.

During the breeding period, unless one chance to be in a region where two races intergrade, subspecific names may be applied to the bird in nature with some certainty, for it is a law that only one subspecies of a species can nest in the same area; but during migrations and in the winter, when several subspecies of one species may be found associated, it is frequently impossible to name them with accuracy.

For example, during the summer one need have no hesitancy in calling the Robins of the lowlands of South Carolina the Southern Robin (_Planesticus migratorius achrusterus_) but later, when the Northern Robins (_Planesticus migratorius migratorius_) begin to appear, it would be difficult, if not impossible, to distinguish them in life from the resident birds.

If it were possible to impress the student, who proposes to name the bird in the bush, with the _absolute necessity_ for careful, definite observation he would be saved many disappointing and discouraging experiences.

It is not possible to examine your bird too thoroughly. Never be satisfied with a superficial view and a general impression. Look at your bird, if you can, from several points of view; study its appearance in detail, its size, bill, crown, back, tail, wings, throat, breast, etc., and AT ONCE enter what you see in a note-book kept for that purpose. In this way, and this way alone, can you expect to compete with those who use the gun.

It does not follow, however, that because one does not collect specimens of birds one cannot study them scientifically. While the student may not be interested in the classification of birds purely from the standpoint of the systematist, he is strongly urged to acquaint himself with at least the arrangement of the Orders and Families of our birds and their leading structural characters.

To the student who desires to prepare himself for his work afield such a study may well come before he attempts to name the birds. But where the chief end in view is to learn a bird's name, the more technical side of the subject may be deferred. In any event, it should not be neglected. This orderly arrangement of knowledge will not only be practical benefit in one's future labors but it will bring with it that sense of satisfaction which accompanies the assurance that we know what we know.

As one learns to recognize bird after bird it is an admirable plan to classify systematically one's list of bird acquaintances under their proper Orders and Families. These may be learned at once from the systematic table at the end of the book, where the numbers which precede each species are arranged serially, and hence systematically.

In some instances, as an aid to identification in the field, descriptions of birds' notes have been included. It is not supposed that these descriptions will convey an adequate idea of a bird's song to a person who has never heard it, but it is hoped that they may occasionally lead to the recognition of calls or songs when they are heard.

An adequate method of transcribing bird's notes has as yet to be devised and the author realizes only too well how unsatisfactory the data here presented will appear to the student. It is hoped, however, that they may sometimes prove of assistance in naming birds in life.

As has been said before, the aim of this volume is to help students to learn the names of our birds in their haunts. But we should be doing scant justice to the possibilities of bird study if, even by silence, we should imply that they ended with the learning to know the bird. This is only the beginning of the quest which may bring us into close intimacy with the secrets of nature. The birds' haunts and food, their seasons and times of coming and going; their songs and habits during courtship, their nest-building, egg-laying, incubating and care of their young, these and a hundred other subjects connected with their lives may claim our attention and by increasing our knowledge of bird-life, add to our love of birds.

HOW BIRDS ARE NAMED

Birds have two kinds of names. One is a common, vernacular, or popular name; the other is a technical or scientific name. The first is usually given to the living bird by the people of the country it inhabits. The second is applied to specimens of birds by ornithologists who classify them.

Common names in their origin and use know no law. Technical names are bestowed under the system of nomenclature established by Linnæus and their formation and application are governed by certain definite, generally accepted rules. The Linnæan system, as it is now employed by most American ornithologists, provides that a bird, in addition to being grouped in a certain Class, Order, Family, etc., shall have a generic and specific name which, together, shall not be applied to any other animal.

Our Robin, therefore, is classified and named as follows:

CLASS AVES,

ORDER PASSERES, Perching Birds.

Suborder _Oscines_, Singing Perching Birds.

Family _Turdidæ_ Thrushes.

Subfamily _Turdinæ_ Thrushes.

Genus, _Planesticus_, Thrushes.

Species, _migratorius_ American Robin.

The Robin's distinctive scientific name, therefore, which it alone possesses, is _Planesticus migratorius_. There are numerous other members of the genus _Planesticus_, but not one of them is called _migratorius_ and this combination of names, therefore, applied to only one bird.

The questions Why use all these Latin terms? Why not call the bird "Robin" and be done with it? are easily answered. Widely distributed birds frequently have different names in different parts of their range. The Flicker (_Colaptes auratus_), for instance, has over one hundred common or vernacular names. Again, the same name is often applied to wholly different birds. Our Robin (_Planesticus migratorius_) is not even a member of the same family as the European Robin (_Erithacus rubecola_.) If, therefore, we should write of birds or attempt to classify them only by their common names, we should be dealing with such unfixed quantities that the result would be inaccurate and misleading. But by using one name in a language known to educated people of all countries, a writer may indicate, without danger of being misunderstood, the particular animal to which he refers. Among people speaking the same tongue, where a definite list of vernacular names of animals has been established, they can of course be used instead of the scientific names.

Such a list of North American birds has been prepared by the American Ornithologists' Union. It furnishes a common as well as scientific name for each of our birds, and is the recognized standard of nomenclature among American ornithologists. The names and numbers of birds employed in this Color Key are those of the American Ornithologists' Union's 'Check-List of North American Birds.'

It will be observed that in this 'Check-List,' and consequently in the following pages, many birds have three scientific names, a generic, specific, and subspecific. The Western Robin, for example, appears as _Planesticus migratorius propinquus_. What is the significance of this third name?

In the days of Linnæus, and for many years after, it was supposed that a species was a distinct creation whose characters never varied. But in comparatively recent years, as specimens have been gathered from throughout the country inhabited by a species, comparison frequently shows that specimens from one part of its range differ from those taken in another part of its range. At intervening localities, however, intermediate specimens will be found connecting the extremes.

Generally, these geographical variations, as they are called, are the result of climatic conditions. For instance, in regions of heavy rainfall a bird's colors are usually much darker than they are where the rainfall is light. Song Sparrows, for example, are palest in the desert region of Arizona, where the annual rainfall may not reach eight inches, and darkest on the coast of British Columbia and Alaska, where the annual rainfall may be over one hundred inches. In going from one region, however, to the other the gradual changes in climate are accompanied by gradual changes in the colors of the Song Sparrows, and the wide differences between Arizona and Alaska Song Sparrows are therefore bridged by a series of intermediates.

Variations of this kind are spoken of as geographic, racial, or subspecific and the birds exhibiting them are termed subspecies. In naming them a third name, or trinomial is employed, and the possession of such a name indicates at once that a bird is a geographic or racial representative of a species, with one or more representatives of which it intergrades.

Returning now to the Robin. Our eastern Robins always have the outer pair of tail-feathers tipped with white and, in adults, the back is blotched with black; while Robins from the Rocky Mountains and westward have little or no white on the outer tail-feathers, and the back is dark gray, without black blotches. These extremes are connected by intermediate specimens sharing the characters; of both eastern and western birds. We do not, therefore, treat the latter as a species, but as a subspecies, and consequently, apply to it a subspecific name or trinomial, _Planesticus migratorius propinquus_, (_propinquus_, meaning nearly related.)

A further study of our eastern Robin shows that in the southern parts of its breeding range (the Carolinas and Georgia), it varies from the northern type in being smaller in size and much paler and duller in color; and to this second geographical variety is applied the name _Planesticus migratorius achrusterus_, (_achrusterus_, meaning less highly colored).

After the recognition of western and southern races of the Robin under three names (trinomial) it would obviously be inconsistent to apply only two names (binomial) to our eastern bird, the former being no more subspecies of the latter than the latter is of the former. In other words, to continue to apply only generic and specific names to the Eastern Robin would imply that it was a full species, while the use of a trinomial for the Western or the Southern Robin shows them to be subspecies. As a matter of fact we know that there is but one species of true Robin in the United States, consequently in accordance with the logical and now generally accepted method, we apply to that species the name _Planesticus migratorius_, and this is equally applicable to Robins from east, south or west. When, however, we learn that the Eastern Robin is not a species but a subspecies, we repeat the specific name by which it was made known and call it _Planesticus migratorius migratorius_.

It may be asked, Why give names to these geographical races? Why not call Eastern, Western and Southern Robins by one name, _Planesticus migratorius_, without regard to their climatic variations?

In reply, two excellent reasons may be given for the recognition of subspecies by name; first, because in some cases they differ from one another far more than do many species, when it would clearly be inadvisable to apply the same name to what are obviously different creatures. For example, it has lately been discovered by Mr. E. W. Nelson that the small, black-throated, brown-breasted, Quails or Bob-whites of southern Mexico, through a long series of intermediates inhabiting the intervening region, intergrade with the large, white-throated, black-and-white breasted, Bob-white of our northern states. It would be absurd to call such wholly unlike birds by the same name, nor could we give a full specific name to the Mexican Bob-white since at no place can we draw a line definitely separating it from the northern Bob-white. Furthermore, the use of only two names would conceal the remarkable fact of the intergradation of two such strikingly different birds; a fact of the first importance to students of the evolution of species.