Part 1

GRAY LADY AND THE BIRDS [Illustration]

THE MACMILLAN COMPANY NEW YORK • BOSTON • CHICAGO ATLANTA • SAN FRANCISCO

MACMILLAN & CO., Limited LONDON • BOMBAY • CALCUTTA MELBOURNE

THE MACMILLAN CO. OF CANADA, Ltd. TORONTO

Order—Passeres Family—Icteridæ Genus—Icterus Species—Galbula

GRAY LADY AND THE BIRDS

STORIES OF THE BIRD YEAR FOR HOME AND SCHOOL

BY MABEL OSGOOD WRIGHT

PRESIDENT AUDUBON SOCIETY, STATE OF CONNECTICUT AUTHOR OF “CITIZEN BIRD,” “TOMMY ANNE,” ETC.

_TWELVE COLOURED PLATES AND THIRTY-SIX FULL-PAGE_ _ILLUSTRATIONS IN HALF-TONE_

New York THE MACMILLAN COMPANY 1914

_All rights reserved_

Copyright, 1907, By THE MACMILLAN COMPANY.

Set up and electrotyped. Published November, 1907. Reprinted March, 1909; April, 1910; April, 1914.

Norwood Press J. S. Cushing Co.—Berwick & Smith Co. Norwood, Mass., U.S.A.

To

WILLIAM DUTCHER

PRESIDENT OF THE NATIONAL ASSOCIATION

OF AUDUBON SOCIETIES

IN RECOGNITION OF HIS UNSELFISH DEVOTION

TO THE CAUSE OF

AMERICAN BIRD PROTECTION

TO THE CHILDREN

Greeting!

Oh, sweet is the whitethroat’s lay, As the banners of dawn unfold! The lovable, quarrelsome wrens all day Peep and prattle and scold: Skulks a blue jay hiding his grain; Blinks an owl with the crows in train— Courtship merry and combat vain The eyes of the wise behold.

* * * * * *

And Nature spreads wide her book, In a temple fair and free,— To all who may listen she cries, “Come, look! Come and learn at my knee. Watch the change of the finch’s vest, Note how the highhole carves his nest,— Come with light foot and loving breast, And bury your ills with me!”

—Dora Read Goodale.

BE SURE THAT YOU SEE ARIGHT!

The preservation of the useful and beautiful animal and bird-life of the country depends largely upon creating in the young an interest in the life of the woods and fields.

If the child mind is fed with stories that are false to nature, the children will go to the haunts of the animal only to meet disappointment. The result will be disbelief, and the death of interest. The men who misinterpret nature and replace fact with fiction, undo the work of those who in the love of nature interpret it aright.

—Theodore Roosevelt.

RECOGNITION

The author desires to thank Mr. William Dutcher for permission to reproduce the Drawings of Birds prepared under his supervision for the Educational Leaflets of the National Association of Audubon Societies; Mr. Frank M. Chapman for the quotation of material that has appeared in _Bird-Lore_, also for photographs from his negatives; the American Museum of Natural History of New York City for photographs of its groups representing Bird-Life at Cobbs Island, Virginia, and Birds of the St. Joaquin Valley; to Dr. T. S. Roberts, Dr. C. F. Hodge, R. H. Beebe, and E. van Alterna, for use of valuable photographs; Houghton, Mifflin & Co. for their courtesy in allowing quotations from the poems of Celia Thaxter, Maurice Thompson, Frank Bolles, Lowell, and others; Charles Scribner’s Sons for like permission to use the poems of G. P. Lathrop and Henry van Dyke.

Also to Dr. Henry van Dyke, Edmund C. Stedman, Edith M. Thomas, Oliver Herford, Dora Reed Goodale, George Parsons Lathrop, Dr. Garrett Newkirk, Faith C. Lee, Ella Gilbert Ives, Florence A. Van Zant, Lynn Tew Sprague, Richard Burton, W. B. Blake, and others for the use of their poems, etc.

TO THE GROWN-UP—LEND A HAND!

The training of the eye to correct seeing is one of the great advantages of bird study to the average child, quite aside from the value of the information gained, for this accurate gauge of the eye will always be a benefit in whatever calling may be followed, adding alike to the pleasure and profit of life.

In every town or country village there is some one who takes more than passing interest in the life outdoors, who has a keener eye and more responsive ear than his neighbour, coupled with a heart that has a bit of Eden still lodged in it, so that it keeps tender and yearning toward the simple, direct affections of life, as expressed in childhood and the lives of the timid wild brotherhood, whether of foot or wing. Are you one of these? If so, do you not realize that from your very make-up you draw more freely from nature’s bounty than do your neighbours, and are you not bound to share your pleasure with them? Not alone because it is pleasure, but that through the knowledge that comes with all real joy, the wild bird or beast may be more fully understood, and therefore protected. All the more is this just and right, because we ourselves in our advancement are the main cause of their need of this protection, for as man increases, possesses, builds, and overflows the earth, so do these “kindred of the wild” dwindle and silently disappear.

The lesser beasts keep more aloof than do the birds. These still gather freely in our gardens, fields, and woods if we permit, and if we offer food and shelter, many quickly become responsive.

Will not you who enjoy this friendship share it with others to whom it is perhaps entirely unknown and unguessed, and to whom even the names of birds, beyond a familiar few such as Hawk, Owl, Robin, and Sparrow, are an unknown language?

The bird lectures are many, but there are those who cannot reach them. The bird protective societies are tireless, but the ground must be prepared for the message they send forth, and there is no better way for doing this than by the influence of a personality working quietly and unconsciously that infects all with whom it comes in contact with its wholesome enthusiasm.

If you are a parent or teacher, well and good; your field is ready at hand. If not, you may still become the equivalent of both in your community even though you lack some of Gray Lady’s attributes and resources.

If you have the right faculty and books at hand, you do not need my aid; but if the work of holding youth is as yet an untried experiment, tuck this little volume into the corner of your school desk, the magazine rack, or your work-basket at home, for rainy days or the between times when lack of occupation breeds mischief.

Much that is told in the following pages was thought out, in another form, especially for the use of teachers of the rural schools of Connecticut, but it is applicable to the needs of children in any of the eastern states, and whether the knowledge passes from the school to the home or the home to the school, the process is the same. The walk between the rural school and home along bushy lanes and tree-bordered highways, however, is an important link in the chain.

For children so placed the birds and every possible motive for wanting to know them lie at hand, but for this very reason the public library wherein the books to answer questions may be found is perhaps many miles away and it is not possible for every school or home to own the necessary bird books or charts.

It must not for a moment be thought that any attempt is made to say anything new or add to the information given in the many excellent and complete books now in circulation, but merely to condense in a simple form things that have been said. Not detailed descriptions and tabulated facts—for these repel the beginner and seem but the spelling-book or multiplication table in a new form—but to record the doings of some children who were eager to know; together with a few hints upon the migrations, winter feeding, and protection of some of our common birds, and the stories of their lives, that may lead both teacher and pupil to more detailed study when opportunity offers.

When a strange child comes to school, the first desire of his mates is to know his name and nationality, from whence he came, where he lives, whether he is merely a visitor or to be a permanent resident in the community. All this must be weighed and well considered before the newcomer is admitted to the friendship of his mates, and it may be that there will be some prejudices against him that the teacher must either remove by explanation or overcome by reason and example.

It is very much the same with a bird. After being attracted to him and fixing upon his name as an individual his identity should be still further established by finding to what family he belongs and then later on placing this family in one of the great orders of the bird world. These two last should not be dwelt upon, however, until the identity as an individual is established, but in the end it will help to keep the name in the memory to know the kinship of families as well.

There are many little points of comparison, of scientific but not general value that cannot be seen unless the dead bird is held in the hand, and then only a wise man, perhaps, would be able to point them out. It is with the living bird, on the wing or in its nest in the bushes, that we are concerned; not with the poor little dead thing with its limp neck and bloody, rumpled feathers.

We should not learn enough from such a bird to in any way make up for taking its life; it would be both wasteful and against the law. So we must be content to believe what the Wise Men say, who must study the dead birds in order to preserve the scientific knowledge of their structure and keep them in public museums, that they may teach the world how wonderful a thing bird-life is, and show us that we must do all we can to protect it. For the Wise Men know very well that—

You cannot with a scalpel find the poet’s soul, Nor yet the wild bird’s song!

M. O. W.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

I Gray Lady Appears 1

II A Rainy Day—The school at Foxes Corners at 9 the beginning of the fall term.

III Gray Lady at School—The bird. What is it? To 18 whom does it belong? The bird year—The migrations, the moulting, etc.

IV The Orchard Party—The children’s luncheon and 38 the bird’s lunch-counter. Gray Lady makes a plan.

V Reasons Why—Why birds need protection. The 51 uses of birds. What they do for us and what we should do for them—housing, feeding, etc.

VI Feathers and Hats—Egrets and Ostrich 67 plumes—The wrong and the right of it.

VII The Kind Hearts’ Club—The work that kept the 81 Fingers busy so that the Ears might listen.

VIII The Procession Passes—The fall journey—Five 89 Swallows and a changeling.

IX Two Birds that came Back—The Tame Crow and 102 the English Starling.

X Some Mischief-Makers—The American Crow, Blue 114 Jay, and Purple Grackle.

XI The Flight of the Bird—The wonders of flight. 136 Some new facts about the migrations of birds.

XII Some Suspicious Characters—Hawks and Owls—Two 154 sides of the question.

XIII Tree-trunk Birds—The Woodpeckers—Sapsucker, 175 Nuthatch, Brown Creeper, etc.

XIV Four Notables—Game-birds at home—The Ruffed 197 Grouse, Bob-white, Woodcock, and the Wood Duck.

XV Game-Birds?—The plea of the Meadowlark, 217 Mourning Dove, Sandpiper, Plovers, and Bobolink, the Masquerader. “Spare us, please! We are too small for food.”

XVI Treasure-trove at the Shore—The Herring or 229 Harbour Gull.

XVII The Birds’ Christmas Tree—The preparation and 242 a surprise. The Winter Wren, Tree-sparrow, Golden-crowned Kinglet, and Crossbills.

XVIII How they spent their Money—The result of the 254 Xmas sale and the Letter Carrier’s horse.

XIX Behind the Bars—American birds that have been 270 prisoners.—The Mockingbird, Cardinal, Nonpareil, and Indigo-bird.

XX Midwinter Birds—Cedar-Bird, Redpoll, Junco, 293 Shrike, Whitethroat, Chickadee, etc.

XXI Jacob Hughes’ Opinion of Cats—The trail in 303 the snow and the bandits that lived in the barn.

XXII February, “The Long-Short Month”—Stories and 310 poems of the Bluebird, Song Sparrow, and Robin.

XXIII March—Red-wing, Kingfisher, and Phœbe. 333

XXIV The Tide has Turned—Wild Geese, 355 Nest-Building, Vesper-Sparrow, Purple Finch, Chippy, Whip-poor-will, Towhee, Ovenbird, House Wren, Thrasher, Catbird, Wood Thrush, Veery, Nighthawk, Chimney Swift, etc.

XXV Bird and Arbour Day at Foxes Corners—In doors 385 and out—Working and talking.

XXVI Some Birds that come in May—In apple-blossom 403 time look for the brightly coloured birds—Oriole, Tanager, Rose-breasted Grosbeak, Indigo-bird, Yellowthroat, Chat, Humming-bird, Redstart, etc.

XXVII Flag Day—Gray Lady receives and gives a 431 surprise.

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS

COLOURED PLATES

Baltimore Oriole _Frontispiece_ FACING PAGE Scarlet Tanager 34 Blue Jay 129 Wood Duck 214 Killdeer 224 Indigo Bunting 280 Cardinal 286 Bluebird 314 Red-winged Blackbird 334 Belted Kingfisher 340 American Goldfinch 422 Rose-breasted Grosbeak 426

FULL-PAGE HALF-TONES

Feeding the Orphans vi Chickadee 26 Snowy Heron 66 Clipping Ostrich Plumes 74 Purple Martin 96 Bird-houses and Nesting-boxes 106 Terns and Skimmers on the Wing 142 Golden Plover 148 The Wings in Flight 152 Red-shouldered Hawk 154 Screech Owl 158 Barn Owl 166 Short-eared Owl 168 Marsh Hawk 170 Sparrow Hawk 174 White-breasted Nuthatch 178 Flicker 190 Downy Woodpecker 194 Ruffed Grouse 198 Just Out 200 Domesticated Bob-white Calling 202 Grouse showing Ruff and Tail 206 Woodcock on Nest 212 Meadowlark 218 Mourning Doves 220 Spotted Sandpiper 222 Least Sandpiper 224 Herring Gulls 232 Tree-Sparrow 248 Shelter for Bird Food 250 Robin 326 Nighthawks 370 Chimney Swift Resting 374 Wood Thrush and Nest 378 Catbird on Nest 384 Yellow-billed Cuckoo 404 Red-eyed Vireo on Nest 406

GRAY LADY AND THE BIRDS

I GRAY LADY APPEARS

Sarah Barnes hurried up the hill road so fast that by the time she reached the short bit of lane that turned in at her own gate she was quite out of breath, and oh, so warm! Fanning vigorously with her sun-hat did not help her much, for its wide rim had a rent in it, made by Jack, the family puppy, so that when she reached the steps of the porch, she sank down in a heap, only having breath enough to exclaim, “Oh, grandma, what _do_ you think?”

Old lady Barnes with a sigh dropped the checked shirt that she was patching into the big work-basket that rested on the bench beside her. This basket was already overflowing with other garments for both boys and girls, that needed everything in the way of repair from a button to a knee patch, or even to a whole sleeve, for with a slim purse and six children to keep covered neither Grandma Barnes’ work-basket nor her fingers knew many empty moments.

Taking off her spectacles and rubbing her eyes, as if to see the news as well as to hear it, she said: “Don’t tell me Tommy has got hurt in that reaping-machine, down at Weatherby’s. I told your pa he was too young to handle such a job!”

“No, Tommy’s all right—they were gathering in the last stack as I came by.”

“Lammy _hasn’t_ gone in swimming again down to the crick with the Connor boys?”

“Nope, he’s stopped behind at the Centre to tend store for Mr. Sims, ’cause his horse got loose in Deacon Mason’s orchard and ate himself into the colic!”

“Billy hasn’t fell off the fish-market roof, has he? Your pa took him there this mornin’ to help hand up shingles, though ’twas against my wishes.”

“No, grandma, Billy’s all right, too,” said Sarah, who had recovered her breath by this time and was beginning to laugh. “What makes you always think worry? Pa is all right, and Mary and Ruth are helping the minister’s wife get the hall ready for the cake sale, and I’m here, so you see there’s nothing the matter with _us_.”

“Think worry!” exclaimed grandma, now settling her glasses again and preparing to hear the news comfortably so long as neither her son nor his children, to whom she was both grandmother and mother, were in danger, “wait until your only son’s wife dies and leaves you to keep track of six children, with as mixed tempers and complexions as ducks, chickens, and turkeys all in one brood, and I guess you’ll think worry too. But why don’t you fetch out your news?—Not but what you are all good and promising enough in your way,” she added hastily, lest she should be found belittling her own flesh and blood, which she considered next to breaking the whole ten commandments.

“Well, granny,” began Sarah, bringing out her words slowly, and satisfied that the old lady’s expectations were sufficiently raised and that she would have an attentive listener, “the General Wentworth place is open and they’re putting new fences all around the back of it, and a lovely Gray Lady and a little girl with golden hair have come to live there. They have been there since spring too, and I didn’t know it. The girl is as old as me, but she’s smaller, for she isn’t strong and sits in a wheel-chair, and they’ve asked me to come in again.”

Off came the glasses, and the old hands that folded them away in their case trembled with excitement. “The General Wentworth place open after all these years, since his only daughter Elizabeth married her cousin John, whom we all expected to die a bachelor, and then he fell into poor health! You don’t remember him, Sarah Barnes, ’cause you wasn’t born, but he was a mighty strange fellow, handsome and likely; he wouldn’t be a soldier as his uncle wished, but he was great for readin’ books, and he used to wander all over the country here watching birds and things and drawin’ pictures of them. I heard John died a couple of years ago away in foreign parts,—it can’t be Elizabeth that’s come back,—she wouldn’t be a gray-haired old woman, as you say. I knew her when she was a girl. She was full of life and rode a pony everywhere; her father used to bring her over to our mill, and many a ginger cooky of my baking has she ate. No, it can’t be little Miss Elizabeth,—it’s more likely some one that has hired or bought the place and goin’ to upset and change it all.”

“I didn’t say the lady was old, grandma; she has lots of soft, silvery, wavy hair with big gray eyes to match, and such a pretty colour in her cheeks, and her dress was soft and fluffy too and the colour as if purple and white violets and silver popple leaves were all mixed together,” said Sarah, moving her hands before her, a little way she had when talking, as if in describing what she had seen she was touching the real object, for Sarah, though only a little girl from a bare hillside farm and taught at the school below at Foxes Corners, had a keen eye for colour and loved beautiful things, so that ugliness or unkindness of any sort really hurt her if she could have explained her feelings.

“My Gray Lady’s first name is Elizabeth, though, and she knows you and your molasses cakes,” continued Sarah, after a moment’s pause, “for she said, ‘When you go home say to your grandmother that Elizabeth who rode the black pony sends her love, and that she will go to see her soon, and that she hopes that she will give the little Elizabeth some of the cookies of which she has often heard.’ Elizabeth is the little girl, but I’m going to call her Goldilocks, because the name matches her hair and she looks as if she was meant to—

“‘Sit on a cushion and sew a fine seam And feast upon strawberries, sugar, and cream.’”

“Elizabeth Wentworth and her daughter back here and I never knew it!” cried Grandma Barnes, rising as if to take immediate action. “Your Aunt Jane might well say, as she did on her last visit, that this hill farm is as far out o’ the world as livin’ in a lighthouse that had no stairs or boat to it, and the only way to get anywhere was to take a dive and swim. But see here, Sarah Barnes, how did you come to meet the General’s folks? It’s near a mile from the road up from the Centre to their front gate; mebbe you ran across them in the village, and if so, how came you to speak?”