Part 7

Then try to discover what it is--insect or seed, beetle, grub, or worm--and what he does with it,--swallow it at once, beat it to death, or hold it in his mouth uneaten.

Then notice his manners,--if he stands still, or jerks his tail or body; if he flits about the branches, hovers before a flower, or hammers at the door of an unlucky grub behind the bark. Next, does he walk or hop? does he chatter or keep silent? fly straight, or go bounding in great waves through the air? All these things you must learn to see, and to note down the moment you do so, so that you will not be uncertain or confused when you take your books to see who he is.

Then you must take note of his size, and to do this--as it is hard to judge of inches--it is well to have in mind a sort of index of size to which you can compare him. Take the most common and best-known birds for standards, the robin, the English sparrow, and one smaller,--the wren, or the "chebec" (least flycatcher). When you see a bird, if he is as big as a robin, enter in your note: "Size, robin." Should he be a little smaller, yet still larger than your measure,--the English sparrow,--you can note it, "Size, robin -," the minus sign meaning that it is less. If he were larger, you would put the plus sign: "Size, robin +."

Observe the shape, whether it is slim like an oriole, or chunky like a chickadee; also any peculiarity of plumage, as a crest, specially long or strangely formed tail feathers; the end of the tail, whether square, rounded, pointed, or notched.

Then notice the beak; its length compared to the head, its shape and color. If it is high and thick, like a canary's or sparrow's, the bird is a seed-eater; if long and straight, like a robin's, he is an insect-eater; if sharp and flat, opening very wide like a swallow's, he is a flycatcher.

Lastly, note the plumage, the general color, then special markings, such as bars on wings or tail, a ring around the eye (Fig. 18), or a line over or through the eye (Fig. 19), white or black throat (Fig. 20 or 19), speckled or striped breast (Fig. 18), or any conspicuous blotch. Every point must be set down the moment you notice it. You cannot trust your memory.

With these full notes, return to your study and take your manual to find out his name, or to identify.

Many persons think that in order to know a bird, and especially to find out his name, one must have him in the hand, count his wing and tail feathers, and measure his length. Excepting for exact scientific purposes, this is not at all necessary. Almost any bird in America may be perfectly identified without touching him, indeed, while he is in the enjoyment of his liberty in a tree. For birds have marked external differences, which are carefully set down in the books.

The modern manuals, too, are usually furnished with a color key, the use of which is fully explained in them. With the help of this you will have little trouble in naming your bird.

Above all, be exact in your knowledge and do not jump at conclusions. If you see a bird on a fruit-tree picking about the blossoms, do not decide offhand that he is spoiling the fruit; look closely to see if he is not, instead, clearing it of worms that would destroy it all. When you notice a bird in a strawberry bed, do not instantly conclude that he is after strawberries; he doesn't care half so much for berries as he does for insects, and very often he is engaged in ridding the plants of pests, at the moment that he is scared off or shot by a careless person, who does not wait to see whether he is friend or foe.

Although patience and clear eyes alone will open many delightful secrets of bird life, a good opera glass will do still more. It will bring you nearer to the bird without frightening him. You can see thus much better, not only his markings, but what he is doing. In a word, you can be more sure of your facts.

In deciding upon the actions of a bird, never _guess_ at anything. If you see a pair very busy about a shrub, you may be sure they have a nest there, but do not so record it till you have actually seen the nest. Even then you should not conclude at once that it belongs to them; I have seen birds sit a few moments in nests which did not belong to them--as if to try them. You may feel very sure what a bird means by an action, but you should set down only what he _does_. Without this care, your records will be worthless.

Do not discourage yourself by trying to find the name of every tiny atom in feathers that you see; indeed, little birds flitting about the tree-tops--mostly warblers--will be hard for you to identify, and almost impossible to watch. I advise you to confine your study at first to the larger and less lively birds,--kingbirds, robins, thrushes, phœbes, bluebirds, orioles, goldfinches, and others, all of which you will find near to houses and easy to study. Do not expect too much at once, nor give up in despair if you cannot identify the first bird you see.

You may be sure that every hour you honestly give to the study will make it more interesting; every bird you learn to know will be like a new and delightful companion.

You will lose your desire to take life or even to steal eggs from them; the country will have new charms for you; in fact, a person blessed with a love of the study of birds or beasts or insects possesses a lifelong and inexhaustible source of interest and happiness.

In regard to a manual, there are now so many to be had, one hardly knows how to select. I will mention only two or three, which have particular points of value.

A good book to begin with, for residents of New England, New York, and the Eastern Middle States, is Professor Willcox's "Land Birds of New England" (Lothrop Lee & Shepard, Boston. Price 60 cts., by mail).

Although this little book treats of only ninety birds, they are the most common, and its value is its simplicity, and the ease with which its color key enables one to identify the birds it treats. It introduces a beginner to the larger works in a most pleasing way.

A good general work for Eastern North America, thoroughly trustworthy and not too technical in its use of terms, treating all the birds of the locality, is Chapman's "Handbook of the Birds of Eastern North America" (Appleton, New York. Price $3.00). It has a color key and a color chart, by which one may see what is meant by colors named.

Especially attractive to ladies and amateurs, for its charming accounts of bird life, is Mrs. Wright's "Birdcraft" (Macmillan, New York. Price, $2.00). It treats but two hundred species, but that includes the birds usually seen in the New England and Northern Middle States. It has a color key.

The whole United States is covered by Dr. Coues's "Key to North American Birds," 2 volumes (The Page Company, Boston. Price $12.50). It is not quite so easy for the beginner, but it is untechnical in style, and fully illustrated.

One book deserving mention because of its value as an aid to teachers is Miss Merriam's "Birds of Village and Field" (Houghton Mifflin Co., Boston. Price $2.00). It is exceptionally rich in facts and statistics relating to the economic value of birds. It treats nearly two hundred of the most common birds.

A book intended for identification only is Professor Apgar's "Birds of the United States" (American Book Company, New York. Price $2.00). It is the result of his experience as teacher, and has several new features very helpful to beginners, such as small cuts at the bottom of pages to explain terms, thus showing exactly what is meant, for example, by "wing bars" or "rounded tail." It also gives hints about the usual locality of a bird, whether creeping over a tree trunk, on the wing, or elsewhere. It takes particular note of size, having one section for birds about the size of an English sparrow, and so on. The pronunciation of the Latin names is carefully indicated. There are several chapters giving descriptions of the external parts of a bird, and there is a glossary of scientific terms.

The following list of points to observe in watching birds has been used to advantage by classes in bird study. A little familiarity with this will help one to remember what to look for.

A similar, but fuller and more elaborate, list has been prepared, and bound up in tablets, to use in the field. It is for sale by Miss J. A. Clark, 1322 Twelfth Street, N. W., Washington, D. C.

POINTS TO OBSERVE

1. Locality--tree: bush: ground. 2. Size--compared to robin: English sparrow. 3. Form--long: short: slender: plump. 4. Beak--high: stout: wide: hooked: long: lobes: drawn down. 5. Tail--length: shape at end. 6. Legs--long: short: scales. 7. Toes--webbed: how turned: hind claw long. 8. Color--bright: striking: dull: plain. 9. Markings--on head: breast: wing: tail: back. 10. Manners--walk: hop: quiet: active: noisy: silent. 11. Habits--eating seeds: berries: insects: from ground: tree trunk: leaves. 12. Song--long: short: continuous: broken. 13. Flight--direct: undulating: fluttering: labored. 14. Nest--where placed: shape: materials: eggs. 15. Young--plumage: behavior.

SECOND BOOK

THE SECOND BOOK OF BIRDS

I

WHAT IS A BIRD FAMILY?

IN the "First Book of Birds" I told you about the common life of a bird; what sort of a home he has, and how he is taken care of when little; then how he lives when grown up; what he eats; where he sleeps; and something about how he is made.

In this book, I want to help you a step further on in your study of birds. I shall tell you something about particular birds, about the families they belong to, and the different ways in which they live.

To begin with: What is a bird family? In life, a bird family is exactly like a human family. It consists of father, mother, and children. But in the books, a family means quite another thing.

Men who study the Science of Birds, or Ornithology, have placed the birds in groups which they call families, to make it easier to find out about them, and write about them. This way of arranging them in books is called classification--or forming them into classes.

Birds are classified, not by the way they look, but by the way they are made, or their structure, and this is found out by the study of Scientific Ornithology. Birds may look a good deal alike, and act alike, and yet be differently made.

There is first the grand class AVES, which includes all creatures who wear feathers. This class is divided into orders.

Orders are made by putting together a large number of birds who are alike in one thing. For instance, all birds who have feet made to clasp a perch, and so are perchers, are put in an order together.

But many birds have feet for perching who are very different in other ways. So orders are divided into families, which I shall tell you about in this book.

In each family I shall tell you about one or more of the best known, or the ones you are most likely to see, and that will help you to know the rest of the family when you begin to study birds out of doors, and use the manual to learn the names.

I shall often speak of what has been found out about the food of birds, and I want to tell you here, once for all, how it was done, so that you may understand just what I mean when I speak of the work of the Department of Agriculture. The Government of the United States has in Washington a department with a head and many men under him, whose business it is to take charge of everything concerning agriculture, that is, farming, fruit-growing, etc. This is called the Department of Agriculture.

Farmers and fruit-growers made so much complaint of the damage done to crops by birds, that this department determined to find out just what birds do eat. The only way it could be done was by having the birds killed and seeing what food was in their stomachs, for it is almost impossible to tell by watching them. To know positively which birds do harm by eating more grain or fruit than insects, and which do good by eating more insects, would save the lives of many thousands. So the killing of those they studied was useful to the whole race.

When they wanted to find out what crows eat, they had crows killed all over the country--hundreds of them--and the stomachs, with the food in, sent to them in Washington. Then they went to work and examined every one. They could tell by the shells of seeds and the hard parts of insects, and bones and hair of mice, etc., just what had been eaten. And the contents of every stomach was written down and preserved in a book. Thus, you see, they could tell what crows were in the habit of feeding upon.

They did this with many other birds who are said to do harm,--hawks, owls, blackbirds, kingbirds, and others. That is how we come to know what birds eat, and can tell whether they do harm or good. There can be no mistake in this way of knowing, and so what comes from this department may be relied upon as true.

I want this little book to help the bird-lovers in the South and West of our big country, as well as in the East; and so, in each Family, I shall try to tell about a bird who may be seen in each part. A good many of our birds are found both East and West, with slight differences, but some that are in one part are not in the other.

II

THE THRUSH FAMILY

(_Turdidæ_)[2]

THIS family is named after the thrushes, but our familiar robin belongs to it, and also the sweet-voiced bluebird. The birds of this family are all rather good sized, and excepting the bluebird show no bright colors. Nearly all of them have spotted breasts when young, and many of them keep the spots all their lives. Young robins and bluebirds have spots on breasts and shoulders, but when they get their grown-up plumage there are none to be seen.

The thrush family get around by hopping, and do not walk, though some of them run, as you have seen the robin do on the lawn. Most of them live in the woods, and feed on the ground, and all of them eat insects. Because their feeding grounds freeze up in winter, most of these birds go to a warmer climate, or migrate. They are all good singers, and some of them among the best in America.

The best known of this family is the robin, AMERICAN ROBIN, to give him his whole name. He is found all over the United States. In the summer he lives in the Eastern and Middle States, in the winter he lives in the Southern States, and he lives all the year round in California.

The California robin is called the Western Robin, and is a little lighter in color than his Eastern brother; but he is the same jolly fellow under his feathers, and robin song is about the same from the Atlantic to the Pacific.

I'm sure you all know how he looks, with black head, slate-colored back and wings, streaked throat, and dull red or chestnut breast. His mate is not quite so dark in color.

Robins start for their nesting-place, which is their real home, very early, almost the first of the birds. They make a nest, not very high, in a tree or about our houses, with a good deal of mud in it. Not all nests are alike. Sometimes a bird will show a fancy for a pretty-looking nest. I have seen one made of the white flowers of life-everlasting. The stems were woven together for the framework, and the little clusters of blossoms left outside for ornament.

The young robin just out of the nest is a pretty fellow, with spots all over his breast and shoulders. He spends most of his time calling for food, for he is always hungry. He is rather clumsy in getting about, and often falls to the ground. But if you pick him up and put him on a low branch out of the reach of cats, he will fly as soon as your hand leaves him, and generally come to the ground again. So it is of no use to try to help him that way. The only thing you can do is to keep cats and bad boys away from him, until he flies up into a tree.

The robin gets his food on the ground, or just under the surface. He eats many caterpillars and grubs that are harmful to us. One that he specially likes is the cutworm, which has a bad way of biting off young plants. In the East he eats many earthworms, which we see him pull out of the ground on the lawn, but in the West, where there are not so many earthworms, he picks up insects of various kinds.

All through spring, when insects are hard at work destroying our fruit and vegetables and young grains, the robin spends almost his whole time catching them; first for his own eating, but many more when his little ones get out of the shell, for young birds eat a great amount of food. Then, when he has spent months in our service killing insects, so that our fruit and vegetables can grow, do you not think he has earned part of the cherries he has saved?

Robins are very easily made tame, and, when well treated and not shut up in a cage, they become fond of people and like to live in our houses. I know of a robin who was picked up from the ground by a lady. He could not fly, and she took him into a house and brought him up. He was never wild or afraid of people, and he never wanted to be free. His mistress would sometimes put him on her hat, without fastening him in any way, and go out to walk with him there. He liked his ride, and never thought of leaving her. She often took him with her into a piece of woods where she went. He would play around on the ground and in the trees, but the moment she started for home he flew down, ready to go.

She thought perhaps he would like to be free, and she tried once or twice to leave him in this pleasant grove, but he always flew to her and refused to be left. He was so fond of his mistress that when she went away for a day or two he was very unhappy, hid himself in a closet, and would not eat till she came back.

This robin, too, liked the food of the family, and did not care for earthworms. In fact, he could hardly be coaxed to eat one of them, though he liked some kinds of grubs which he found on the ground. But he ate them in a different way from his wild brothers. He did not swallow them whole, but beat them to a jelly before trying to eat.

This pet had a sweet, low song of his own. He never sang like his wild brothers until his second year, when he had been out and heard them sing.

A pair of robins that were blown from a nest in a high wind were reared and kept in a large cage by Mrs. Grinnell in California. The first year the singer did not sing, but in the second year a wild mockingbird came to teach him. He would alight on the cage, which hung out of doors, and sing softly a long time, till the robin began to do the same. When he could sing, it was more like a mockingbird than like a robin. The mocker was very fond of his pupil, and used to bring him berries and other wild dainties.

These robins made a nest of things the mistress gave them, and eggs began to appear in it. But as soon as one was laid, one of the birds would jump into the nest and kick and scratch till it was thrown out and broken. They seemed to think the pretty blue eggs were playthings. When the weather grew hot, Bobby, the singer, showed his sense by spending most of his time lying in his bathing-dish, covered with water up to his ears. He would lie there an hour at a time, too comfortable to get out even to eat.

Birds who are not brought into the house often become tame when well treated. One family in Michigan had a pair of robins who nested close to the house for fourteen years. It was plain that the birds were the same pair, for they became so friendly that they let any of the family pick up a nestling, and showed no fear. But with other people they were as wild as any robins.

One day a man passing by picked up one of the young birds, who was scrambling about on the ground. At once the parents began loud cries of distress, and all the robins in the neighborhood came to help. They scolded and cried, and flew at the thief who wanted to carry off the baby. One of the family heard the row, and went out and claimed the robin, and the man gave it up. The moment the little one was in the hands of a person they knew, the cries ceased. Not only the parents but the neighbors seemed to understand that the nestling was safe.

The way birds act when brought up by us and not by their parents shows that young birds are taught many things before they are grown up. When living in a house, they are not afraid of cats or people, as wild ones are. They do not usually sing the robin song, nor care for the robin food, and they do not seem to know how to manage a nest. I could tell you many things to prove this.

Another charming member of the Thrush Family is the HERMIT THRUSH. He is a beautiful bird, smaller than the robin. He is reddish brown on the back, with a white breast spotted with dark brown or black. He has large, full, dark eyes, which look straight at you.

The hermit thrush spends his winters in the Southern States, and his summers in the Northern. But in the far West, where are no cold winters, the hermit does not have to move back and forth. In that part of the country the bird is the Western Hermit Thrush.

This bird is one of our finest singers, and a very shy bird. His home is in the woods, and from there we hear his loud, clear song, morning and evening. Many people think his song is the finest bird-song we have. His ordinary call as he goes about is a kind of "chuck." The Western hermit differs hardly at all. He may be a little smaller, but he is the same delightful singer and lovely character.

The mother hermit makes her nest on the ground, and hides it so well that it is hard to find,--though I'm afraid snakes, and squirrels, and other woods creatures who like eggs to eat find it more often than we do.

Shy as the hermit is, he is an intelligent bird. A mother hermit a few years ago strayed into the grounds of a gentleman in Massachusetts and built a nest under a pine-tree. When she was found, she was at first very much frightened. But the owner of the place was a bird-lover, and gentle and quiet in his ways, and she got so used to him that she let him photograph her many times.

A gentleman, Mr. Owen, once captured a young hermit thrush so lately out of the nest that he could not fly much. He kept him in the house several weeks, and found out many interesting things about young thrushes. One thing he discovered was that the bird has his own notions about food. He ate raw meat and earthworms. But when worms were fed to him that came from a dirty place, he threw them out of his mouth, wiped his beak, and showed great disgust. The worms brought from clean garden earth he ate greedily.

The little captive had his own way of eating a worm. He began by worrying it awhile, and then swallowed it tail first.

He showed his instinct for sleeping high by being very restless at night, till let out of his cage. Then he flew to the highest perch he could find in the room, and roosted for the night.

The bird showed himself friendly and not at all afraid of people. Mr. Owen got so attached to him that when he let him go in the woods he felt as if he had parted with a dear friend.

In the picture you see two hermit thrushes. The upper one is singing, and the lower one looking calmly at you, in the way of these beautiful birds.

FOOTNOTE:

[2] See Appendix, 1.

III

THE KINGLET AND GNATCATCHER FAMILY

(_Sylviidæ_)[3]