Phœbe(Sayornis phœbe) Flycatcher familyCalled also:DUSKY FLYCATCHER; BRIDGE PEWEE; WATER PEWEE(Illustration facing p.75)Length—7 inches. About an inch longer than the English sparrow.Male and Female—Dusky olive-brown above; darkest on head, which is slightly crested. Wings and tail dusky, the outer edges of some tail feathers whitish. Dingy yellowish white underneath. Bill and feet black.Range—North America, from Newfoundland to the South Atlantic States, and westward to the Rockies. Winters south of the Carolinas, into Mexico, Central America, and the West Indies.Migrations—March. October. Common summer resident.The earliest representative of the flycatcher family to come out of the tropics where insect life fairly swarms and teems, what does the friendly little phœbe find to attract him to the north in March while his prospective dinners must all be still in embryo? He looks dejected, it is true, as he sits solitary and silent on some projecting bare limb in the garden, awaiting the coming of his tardy mate; nevertheless, the date of his return will not vary by more than a few days in a given locality year after year. Why birds that are mated for life, as these are said to be, and such devoted lovers, should not travel together on their journey north, is another of the many mysteries of bird-life awaiting solution.The reunited, happy couple go about the garden and outbuildings like domesticated wrens, investigating the crannies on piazzas, where people may be coming and going, and boldly entering barn-lofts to find a suitable site for the nest that it must take much of both time and skill to build.Pewit,phœbe,phœbe;pewit,phœbe, they contentedly but rather monotonously sing as they investigate all the sites in the neighborhood. Presently a location is chosen under a beam or rafter, and the work of collecting moss and mud for the foundation and hair and feathers or wool to line the exquisite little home begins. But the labor is done cheerfully, with many a sally in midair either to let off superfluous high spirits or to catch a morsel on the wing, and with many a vivacious outburst of what by courtesy only we may name a song.When not domesticated, as these birds are rapidly becoming the phœbes dearly love a cool, wet woodland retreat. Here they hunt and bathe; here they also build in a rocky bank or ledge of rocks or underneath a bridge, but always with clever adaptation of their nest to its surroundings, out of which it seems a natural growth. It is one of the most finished, beautiful nests ever found.A pair of phœbes become attached to a spot where they have once nested; they never stray far from it, and return to it regularly, though they may not again occupy the old nest. This is because it soon becomes infested with lice from the hen's feathers used in lining it, for which reason too close relationship with this friendly bird-neighbor is discouraged by thrifty housekeepers. When the baby birds have come out from the four or six little white eggs, their helpless bodies are mercilessly attacked by parasites, and are often so enfeebled that half the brood die. The next season another nest will be built near the first, the following summer still another, until it would appear that a colony of birds had made their homes in the place.Throughout the long summer—for as the phœbe is the first flycatcher to come, so it is the last to go—the bird is a tireless hunter of insects, which it catches on the wing with a sharp click of its beak, like the other members of its dexterous family.• • • • •Say's Phœbe (Sayornis saya) is the Western representative of the Eastern species, which it resembles in coloring and many of its habits. It is the bird of the open plains, a tireless hunter in midair sallies from an isolated perch, and has the same vibrating motion of the tail that the Eastern phœbe indulges in when excited. This bird differs chiefly in its lighter coloring, but not in habits, from the black pewee of the Pacific slope.Great-crested Flycatcher(Myiarchus crinitus) Flycatcher familyCalled also: CRESTED FLYCATCHER(Illustration facing p.106)Length—8.50 to 9 inches. A little smaller than the robin.Male and Female—Feathers of the head pointed and erect. Upper parts dark grayish-olive, inclining to rusty brown on wings and tail. Wing coverts crossed with two irregular bars of yellowish white. Throat gray, shading into sulphur-yellowunderneath, that also extends under the wings. Inner vane of several tail quills rusty red. Bristles at base of bill.Range—From Mexico, Central America, and West Indies northward to southern Canada and westward to the plains. Most common in Mississippi basin; common also in eastern United States, south of New England.Migrations—May. September. Common summer resident.The most dignified and handsomely dressed member of his family, the crested flycatcher has, nevertheless, an air of pensive melancholy about him when in repose that can be accounted for only by the pain he must feel every time he hears himself screech. His harsh, shrill call, louder and more disagreeable than the kingbird's, cannot but rasp his ears as it does ours. And yet it is chiefly by this piercing note, given with a rising inflection, that we know the bird is in our neighborhood; for he is somewhat of a recluse, and we must often follow the disagreeable noise to its source in the tree-tops before we can catch a glimpse of the screecher. Perched on a high lookout, he appears morose and sluggish, in spite of his aristocratic-looking crest, trim figure, and feathers that must seem rather gay to one of his dusky tribe. A low soliloquy, apparently born of discontent, can be overheard from the foot of his tree. But another second, and he has dashed off in hot pursuit of an insect flying beyond our sight, and with extremely quick, dexterous evolutions in midair, he finishes the hunt with a sharp click of his bill as it closes over the unhappy victim, and then he returns to his perch. On the wing he is exceedingly active and joyous; in the tree he appears just the reverse. That he is a domineering fellow, quite as much of a tyrant as the notorious kingbird, that bears the greater burden of opprobrium, is shown in the fierce way he promptly dashes at a feathered stranger that may have alighted too near his perch, and pursues it beyond the bounds of justice, all the while screaming his rasping cry into the intruder's ears, that must pierce as deep as the thrusts from his relentless beak. He has even been known to drive off woodpeckers and bluebirds from the hollows in the trees that he, like them, chooses for a nest, and appropriate the results of their labor for his scarcely less belligerent mate. With a slight but important and indispensable addition, the stolen nest is ready to receive her four cream-colored eggs, that look as if a pen dipped in purple ink had been scratched over them.The fact that gives the great-crested flycatcher a unique interest among all North American birds is that it invariably lines its nest with snake-skins if one can be had. Science would scarcely be worth the studying if it did not set our imaginations to work delving for plausible reasons for Nature's strange doings. Most of us will doubtless agree with Wilson (who made a special study of these interesting nests and never found a single one without cast snake-skins in it, even in districts where snakes were so rare they were supposed not to exist at all), that the lining was chosen to terrorize all intruders. The scientific mind that is unwilling to dismiss any detail of Nature's work as merely arbitrary and haphazard, is greatly exercised over the reason for the existence of crests on birds. But, surely, may not the sight of snake-skins that first greet the eyes of the fledgling flycatchers as they emerge from the shell be a good and sufficient reason why the feathers on their little heads should stand on end? "In the absence of a snake-skin, I have found an onion skin and shad scales in the nest," says John Burroughs, who calls this bird "the wild Irishman of the flycatchers."BOBOLINKBOBOLINK (Upper Figure, Male; Lower Figure, Female)PHOEBETHE PHŒBEOlive-sided Flycatcher(Contopus borealis) Flycatcher familyLength—7 to 7.5 inches. About an inch longer than the English sparrow.Male and Female—Dusky olive or grayish brown above; head darkest. Wings and tail blackish brown, the former sometimes, but not always, margined and tipped with dusky white. Throat yellowish white; other under parts slightly lighter shade than above. Olive-gray on sides. A tuft of yellowish-white, downy feathers on flanks. Bristles at base of bill.Range—From Labrador to Panama. Winters in the tropics. Nests usually north of United States, but it also breeds in the Catskills.Migrations—May. September. Resident only in northern part of its range.Only in the migrations may people south of Massachusetts hope to see this flycatcher, which can be distinguished from the rest of its kin by the darker under parts, and by the fluffy, yellowish-whitetufts of feathers on its flanks. Its habits have the family characteristics: it takes its food on the wing, suddenly sallying forth from its perch, darting about midair to seize its prey, then as suddenly returning to its identical point of vantage, usually in some distended, dead limb in the tree-top; it is pugnacious, bold, and tyrannical; mopish and inert when not on the hunt, but wonderfully alert and swift when in pursuit of insect or feathered foe. The short necks of the flycatchers make their heads appear large for their bodies, a peculiarity slightly emphasized in this member of the family.High up in some evergreen tree, well out on a branch, over which the shapeless mass of twigs and moss that serves as a nest is saddled, four or five buff-speckled eggs are laid, and by some special dispensation rarely fall out of their insecure cradle. A sharp, loud whistle,wheu—o-wheu-o-wheu-o, rings out from the throat of this olive-sided tyrant, warning all intruders off the premises; but however harshly he may treat the rest of the feathered world, he has only gentle devotion to offer his brooding mate.Least Flycatcher(Empidonax minimus) Flycatcher familyCalled also: CHEBECLength—5 to 5.5 inches. About an inch smaller than the English sparrow.Male—Gray or olive-gray above, paler on wings and lower part of back, and a more distinct olive-green on head. Underneath grayish white, sometimes faintly suffused with pale yellow. Wings have whitish bars. White eye-ring. Lower half of bill horn-color.Female—Is slightly more yellowish underneath.Range—Eastern North America, from tropics northward to Quebec.Migrations—May. September. Common summer resident.This, the smallest member of its family, takes the place of the more southerly Acadian flycatcher, throughout New England and the region of the Great Lakes. But, unlike his Southern relative, he prefers orchards and gardens close to our homes for his hunting grounds rather than the wet recesses of the forests.Che-bec,che-bec, the diminutive olive-pated gray sprite calls outfrom the orchard between his aërial sallies after the passing insects that have been attracted by the decaying fruit, and chebec is the name by which many New Englanders know him.While giving this characteristic call-note, with drooping jerking tail, trembling wings, and uplifted parti-colored bill, he, looks unnerved and limp by the effort it has cost him. But in the next instant a gnat flies past. How quickly the bird recovers itself, and charges full-tilt at his passing dinner! The sharp click of his little bill proves that he has not missed his aim; and after careering about in the air another minute or two, looking for more game to snap up on the wing, he will return to the same perch and take up his familiar refrain. Without hearing this call-note one might often mistake the bird for either the wood pewee or the phœbe, for all the three are similarly clothed and have many traits in common. The slightly larger size of the phœbe and pewee is not always apparent when they are seen perching on the trees. Unlike the "tuft of hay" to which the Acadian flycatcher's nest has been likened, the least flycatcher's home is a neat, substantial cup-shaped cradle softly lined with down or horsehair, and placed generally in an upright crotch of a tree, well above the ground.The Chickadee(Parus atricapillus) Titmouse familyCalled also: BLACK-CAPPED TITMOUSE; BLACK-CAP TIT{Illustration facing p.78)Length—5 to 5.5 inches. About an inch smaller than the English sparrow.Male and Female—Not crested. Crown and nape and throat black. Above gray, slightly tinged with brown. A white space, beginning at base of bill, extends backward, widening over cheeks and upper part of breast, forming a sort of collar that almost surrounds neck. Underneath dirty white, with pale rusty-brown wash on sides. Wings and tail gray, with white edgings. Plumage downy.Range—Eastern North America. North of the Carolinas to Labrador. Does not migrate in the North.Migrations—Late September. May. Winter resident; permanent resident in northern parts of the United States.No "fair weather friend" is the jolly little chickadee. In the depth of the autumn equinoctial storm it returns to the tops ofthe trees close by the house, where, through the sunshine, snow, and tempest of the entire winter, you may hear its cheery, irrepressiblechickadee-dee-dee-deeorday-day-dayas it swings around the dangling cones of the evergreens. It fairly overflows with good spirits, and is never more contagiously gay than in a snowstorm. So active, so friendly and cheering, what would the long northern winters be like without this lovable little neighbor?It serves a more utilitarian purpose, however, than bracing faint-hearted spirits. "There is no bird that compares with it in destroying the female canker-worm moths and their eggs," writes a well-known entomologist. He calculates that as a chickadee destroys about 5,500 eggs in one day, it will eat 138,750 eggs in the twenty-five days it takes the canker-worm moth to crawl up the trees. The moral that it pays to attract chickadees about your home by feeding them in winter is obvious. Mrs. Mabel Osgood Wright, in her delightful and helpful book "Birdcraft," tells us how she makes a sort of a bird-hash of finely minced raw meat, waste canary-seed, buckwheat, and cracked oats, which she scatters in a sheltered spot for all the winter birds. The way this is consumed leaves no doubt of its popularity. A raw bone, hung from an evergreen limb, is equally appreciated.Friendly as the chickadee is—and Dr. Abbott declares it the tamest bird we have—it prefers well-timbered districts, especially where there are red-bud trees, when it is time to nest. It is very often clever enough to leave the labor of hollowing out a nest in the tree-trunk to the woodpecker or nuthatch, whose old homes it readily appropriates; or, when these birds object, a knot-hole or a hollow fence-rail answers every purpose. Here, in the summer woods, when family cares beset it, a plaintive, minor whistle replaces thechickadee-dee-deethat Thoreau likens to "silver tinkling" as he heard it on a frosty morning."Piped a tiny voice near by,Gay and polite, a cheerful cry—Chick-chickadeedee! saucy noteOut of sound heart and merry throat,As if it said, 'Good-day, good Sir!Fine afternoon, old passenger!Happy to meet you in these placesWhere January brings few faces.'"—Emerson.Tufted Titmouse(Parus bicolor) Titmouse familyCalled also: CRESTED TITMOUSE; CRESTED TOMTIT{Illustration facing p.79)Length—6 to 6.5 inches. About the size of the English sparrow.Male and Female—Crest high and pointed. Leaden or ash-gray above; darkest on wings and tail. Frontlet, bill, and shoulders black; space between eyes gray. Sides of head dull white. Under parts light gray; sides yellowish, tinged with red.Range—United States east of plains, and only rarely seen so far north as New England.Migrations—October. April. Winter resident, but also found throughout the year in many States."A noisy titmouse is Jack Frost's trumpeter" may be one of those few weather-wise proverbs with a grain of truth in them. As the chickadee comes from the woods with the frost, so it may be noticed his cousin, the crested titmouse, is in more noisy evidence throughout the winter.One might sometimes think his whistle, like a tugboat's, worked by steam. But how effectually nesting cares alone can silence it in April!Titmice always see to it you are not lonely as you walk through the woods. This lordly tomtit, with his jaunty crest, keeps up a persistent whistle at you as he flits from tree to tree, leading you deeper into the forest, calling out "Here-here-here!" and looking like a pert and jaunty little blue jay, minus his gay clothes. Mr. Nehrling translates one of the calls "Heedle-dee-dle-dee-dle-dee!" and another "Peto-peto-peto-daytee-daytee!" But it is at the former, sharply whistled as the crested titmouse gives it, that every dog pricks up his ears.Comparatively little has been written about this bird, because it is not often found in New England, where most of the birdlitterateurshave lived. South of New York State, however, it is a common resident, and much respected for the good work it does in destroying injurious insects, though it is more fond of varying its diet with nuts, berries, and seeds than that all-round benefactor, the chickadee.CHICKADEECHICKADEETUFTED TITMOUSENational Association of Audubon SocietiesSeepage 37TUFTED TITMOUSECanada Jay(Perisoreus canadensis) Crow and Jay familyCalled also: WHISKY JACK OR JOHN; MOOSE-BIRD; MEAT-BIRD; VENISON HERON; GREASE-BIRD; CANADIAN CARRION-BIRD; CAMP ROBBERLength—11 to 12 inches. About two inches larger than the robin.Male and Female—Upper parts gray; darkest on wings and tail; back of the head and nape of the neck sooty, almost black. Forehead, throat, and neck white, and a few white tips on wings and tail. Underneath lighter gray. Tail long. Plumage fluffy.Range—Northern parts of the United States and British provinces of North America.Migrations—Resident where found.The Canada jay looks like an exaggerated chickadee, and both birds are equally fond of bitter cold weather, but here the similarity stops short. Where the chickadee is friendly the jay is impudent and bold; hardly less of a villain than his blue relative when it comes to marauding other birds' nests and destroying their young. With all his vices, however, intemperance cannot be attributed to him, in spite of the name given him by the Adirondack lumbermen and guides. "Whisky John" is a purely innocent corruption of "Wis-ka-tjon," as the Indians call this bird that haunts their camps and familiarly enters their wigwams. The numerous popular names by which the Canada jays are known are admirably accounted for by Mr. Hardy in a bulletin issued by the Smithsonian Institution."They will enter the tents, and often alight on the bow of a canoe, where the paddle at every stroke comes within eighteen inches of them. I know nothing which can be eaten that they will not take, and I had one steal all my candles, pulling them out endwise, one by one, from a piece of birch bark in which they were rolled, and another peck a large hole in a keg of castile soap. A duck which I had picked and laid down for a few minutes, had the entire breast eaten out by one or more of these birds. I have seen one alight in the middle of my canoe and peck away at the carcass of a beaver I had skinned. They often spoil deer saddles by pecking into them near the kidneys. Theydo great damage to the trappers by stealing the bait from traps set for martens and minks and by eating trapped game. They will sit quietly and see you build a log trap and bait it, and then, almost before your back is turned, you hear their hatefulca-ca-ca!as they glide down and peer into it. They will work steadily, carrying off meat and hiding it. I have thrown out pieces, and watched one to see how much he would carry off. He flew across a wide stream, and in a short time looked as bloody as a butcher from carrying large pieces; but his patience held out longer than mine. I think one would work as long as Mark Twain's California jay did trying to fill a miner's cabin with acorns through a knot-hole in the roof. They are fond of the berries of the mountain ash, and, in fact, few things come amiss; I believe they do not possess a single good quality except industry."One virtue not mentioned by Mr. Hardy is their prudent saving from the summer surplus to keep the winter storeroom well supplied like a squirrel's. Such thrift is the more necessary when a clamorous, hungry family of young jays must be reared while the thermometer is often as low as thirty degrees below zero at the end of March. How eggs are ever hatched at all in a temperature calculated to freeze any sitting bird stiff, is one of the mysteries of the woods. And yet four or five fluffy little jays, that look as if they were dressed in gray fur, emerge from the eggs before the spring sunshine has unbound the icy rivers or melted the snowdrifts piled high around the evergreens.Catbird(Galeoscoptes carolinensis) Mocking-bird familyCalled also: BLACK-CAPPED THRUSH{Illustration facing p.86)Length—9 inches. An inch shorter than the robin.Male and Female—Dark slate above; below somewhat paler; top of head black. Distinct chestnut patch under the tail, which is black; feet and bill black also. Wings short, more than two inches shorter than the tail.Range—British provinces to Mexico; west to Rocky Mountains, rarely to Pacific coast. Winters in Southern States, Central America, and Cuba.Migrations—May. November. Common summer resident.Our familiar catbird, of all the feathered tribe, presents the most contrary characteristics, and is therefore held in varied estimation—loved, admired, ridiculed, abused. He is the veriest "Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde" of birds. Exquisitely proportioned, with finely poised black head and satin-gray coat, which he bathes most carefully and prunes and prinks by the hour, he appears from his toilet a Beau Brummell, an aristocratic-looking, even dandified neighbor. Suddenly, as if shot, he drops head and tail and assumes the most hang-dog air, without the least sign of self-respect; then crouches and lengthens into a roll, head forward and tail straightened, till he looks like a little, short gray snake, lank and limp. Anon, with a jerk and a sprint, every muscle tense, tail erect, eyes snapping, he darts into the air intent upon some well-planned mischief. It is impossible to describe his various attitudes or moods. In song and call he presents the same opposite characteristics. How such a bird, exquisite in style, can demean himself to utter such harsh, altogether hateful catcalls and squawks as have given the bird his common name, is a wonder when in the next moment his throat swells and beginningphut-phut-coquillicot, he gives forth a long glorious song, only second to that of the wood thrush in melody. He is a jester, a caricaturist, a mocking-bird.The catbird's nest is like a veritable scrap-basket, loosely woven of coarse twigs, bits of newspaper, scraps, and rags, till this rough exterior is softly lined and made fit to receive the four to six pretty dark green-blue eggs to be laid therein.As a fruit thief harsh epithets are showered upon the friendly, confiding little creature at our doors; but surely his depredations may be pardoned, for he is industrious at all times and unusually adroit in catching insects, especially in the moth stage.The Mocking-bird(Mimus polyglottus) Mocking-bird family(Illustrations facing pp.13and107)Length—9 to 10 inches. About the size of the robin.Male and Female—Gray above; wings and wedge-shaped tail brownish; upper wing feathers tipped with white; outer tail quills white, conspicuous in flight; chin white; underneathlight gray, shading to whitish.Range—Peculiar to torrid and temperate zones of two Americas.Migrations—No fixed migrations; usually resident where seen.North of Delaware this commonest of Southern birds is all too rarely seen outside of cages, yet even in midwinter it is not unknown in Central Park, New York. This is the angel that it is said the catbird was before he fell from grace. Slim, neat, graceful, imitative, amusing, with a rich, tender song that only the thrush can hope to rival, and with an instinctive preference for the society of man, it is little wonder he is a favorite, caged or free. He is a most devoted parent, too, when the four or six speckled green eggs have produced as many mouths to be supplied with insects and berries.In the Connecticut Valley, where many mocking-birds' nests have been found, year after year, they are all seen near the ground, and without exception are loosely, poorly constructed affairs of leaves, feathers, grass, and even rags.With all his virtues, it must be added, however, that this charming bird is a sad tease. There is no sound, whether made by bird or beast about him, that he cannot imitate so clearly as to deceive every one but himself. Very rarely can you find a mocking-bird without intelligence and mischief enough to appreciate his ventriloquism. In Sidney Lanier's college note-book was found written this reflection: "A poet is the mocking-bird of the spiritual universe. In him are collected all the individual songs of all individual natures." Later in life, with the same thought in mind, he referred to the bird as "yon slim Shakespeare on the tree." His exquisite stanzas, "To Our Mocking-bird," exalt the singer with the immortals:"Trillets of humor,—shrewdest whistle-wit—Contralto cadences of grave desire,Such as from off the passionate Indian pyreDrift down through sandal-odored flames that splitAbout the slim young widow, who doth sitAnd sing above,—midnights of tone entire,—Tissues of moonlight, shot with songs of fire;—Bright drops of tune, from oceans infiniteOf melody, sipped off the thin-edged waveAnd trickling down the beak,—discourses braveOf serious matter that no man may guess,—Good-fellow greetings, cries of light distress—All these but now within the house we heard:O Death, wast thou too deaf to hear the bird?• • • • •Nay, Bird; my grief gainsays the Lord's best right.The Lord was fain, at some late festal time,That Keats should set all heaven's woods in rhyme,And Thou in bird-notes. Lo, this tearful nightMethinks I see thee, fresh from Death's despite,Perched in a palm-grove, wild with pantomimeO'er blissful companies couched in shady thyme.Methinks I hear thy silver whistlings brightMeet with the mighty discourse of the wise,—'Till broad Beethoven, deaf no more, and Keats,'Midst of much talk, uplift their smiling eyesAnd mark the music of thy wood-conceits,And half-way pause on some large courteous word,And call thee 'Brother,' O thou heavenly Bird!"Junco(Junco hyemalis) Finch familyCalled also: SNOWBIRD; SLATE-COLORED SNOWBIRDLength—5.5 to 6.5 inches. About the size of the English sparrow.Male—Upper parts slate-colored; darkest on head and neck, which are sometimes almost black and marked like a cowl. Gray on breast, like a vest. Underneath white. Several outer tail feathers white, conspicuous in flight.Female—Lighter gray, inclining to brown.Range—North America. Not common in warm latitudes. Breeds in the Catskills and northern New England.Migrations—September. April. Winter resident."Leaden skies above; snow below," is Mr. Parkhurst's suggestive description of this rather timid little neighbor, that is only starved into familiarity. When the snow has buried seed and berries, a flock of juncos, mingling sociably with the sparrows and chickadees about the kitchen door, will pick up scraps of food with an intimacy quite touching in a bird naturally rather shy. Here we can readily distinguish these "little gray-robed monks and nuns," as Miss Florence Merriam calls them.They are trim, sprightly, sleek, and even natty; their dispositions are genial and vivacious, not quarrelsome, like their sparrow cousins, and what is perhaps best about them, they are birds we may surely depend upon seeing in the winter months. A few come forth in September, migrating at night from the deepwoods of the north, where they have nested and moulted during the summer; but not until frost has sharpened the air are large numbers of them seen. Rejoicing in winter, they nevertheless do not revel in the deep and fierce arctic blasts, as the snowflakes do, but take good care to avoid the open pastures before the hard storms overtake them.Early in the spring their song is sometimes heard before they leave us to woo and to nest in the north. Mr. Bicknell describes it as "a crisp call-note, a simple trill, and a faint, whispered warble, usually much broken, but not without sweetness."White-breasted Nuthatch(Sitta carolinensis) Nuthatch familyCalled also: TREE-MOUSE; DEVIL DOWNHEAD{Illustration facing p.87)Length—5.5 to 6 inches. A trifle smaller than the English sparrow.Male and Female—Upper parts slate-color. Top of head and nape black. Wings dark slate, edged with black, that fades to brown. Tail feathers brownish black, with white bars. Sides of head and underneath white, shading to pale reddish under the tail. (Female's head leaden.) Body flat and compact. Bill longer than head.Range—British provinces to Mexico. Eastern United States.Migrations—October. April. Common resident. Most prominent in winter."Shrewd little haunter of woods all gray,Whom I meet on my walk of a winter day—You're busy inspecting each cranny and holeIn the ragged bark of yon hickory bole;You intent on your task, and I on the lawOf your wonderful head and gymnastic claw!The woodpecker well may despair of this feat—Only the fly with you can compete!So much is clear; but I fain would knowHow you can so reckless and fearless go,Head upward, head downward, all one to you,Zenith and nadir the same in your view?"—Edith M. Thomas.Could a dozen lines well contain a fuller description or more apt characterization of a bird than these "To a Nuthatch"?With more artless inquisitiveness than fear, this lively little acrobat stops his hammering or hatcheting at your approach, and stretching himself out from the tree until it would seem he must fall off, he peers down at you, head downward, straight into your upturned opera-glasses. If there is too much snow on the upper side of a branch, watch how he runs along underneath it like a fly, busily tapping the bark, or adroitly breaking the decayed bits with his bill, as he searches for the spider's eggs, larvæ, etc., hidden there; yet somehow, between mouthfuls, managing to call out his cheeryquank!quank!hank!hank!Titmice and nuthatches, which have many similar characteristics, are often seen in the most friendly hunting parties on the same tree. A pine woods is their dearest delight. There, as the mercury goes down, their spirits only seem to go up higher. In the spring they have been thought by many to migrate in flocks, whereas they are only retreating with their relations away from the haunts of men to the deep, cool woods, where they nest. With infinite patience the nuthatch excavates a hole in a tree, lining it with feathers and moss, and often depositing as many as ten white eggs (speckled with red and lilac) for a single brood.Red-breasted Nuthatch(Sitta canadensis) Nuthatch familyCalled also: CANADA NUTHATCH{Illustration facing p.87)Length—4 to 4.75 inches. One-third smaller than the English sparrow.Male—Lead-colored above; brownish on wings and tail. Head, neck, and stripe passing through eye to shoulder, black. Frontlet, chin, and shoulders white; also a white stripe over eye, meeting on brow. Under parts light, rusty red. Tail feathers barred with white near end, and tipped with pale brown.Female—Has crown of brownish black, and is lighter beneath than male.Range—Northern parts of North America. Not often seen south of the most northerly States.Migrations—November. April. Winter resident.The brighter coloring of this tiny, hardy bird distinguishes it from the other and larger nuthatch, with whom it is usuallyseen, for the winter birds have a delightfully social manner, so that a colony of these Free masons is apt to contain not only both kinds of nuthatches and chickadees, but kinglets and brown creepers as well. It shares the family habit of walking about the trees, head downward, and running along the under side of limbs like a fly. By Thanksgiving Day thequank!quank!of the white-breasted species is answered by thetai-tai-tait!of the red-breasted cousin in the orchard, where the family party is celebrating with an elaboratemenuof slugs, insects' eggs, and oily seeds from the evergreen trees.For many years this nuthatch, a more northern species than the white-breasted bird, was thought to be only a spring and autumn visitor, but latterly it is credited with habits like its congener's in nearly every particular.CATBIRDCATBIRDWHITE-BREASTED NUTHATCH and RED-BREASTED NUTHATCHWHITE-BREASTED NUTHATCH, Upper Figures, Male and FemaleRED-BREASTED NUTHATCH, Lower Figures, Male and FemaleLoggerhead Shrike(Lanius ludovicianus) Shrike familyLength—8.5 to 9 inches. A little smaller than the robin.Male and Female—Upper parts gray; narrow black line across forehead, connecting small black patches on sides of head at base of bill. Wings and tail black, plentifully marked with white, the outer tail feathers often being entirely white and conspicuous in flight. Underneath white or very light gray. Bill hooked and hawk-like.Range—Eastern United States to the plains.Migrations—May. October. Summer resident.It is not easy, even at a slight distance, to distinguish the loggerhead from the Northern shrike. Both have the pernicious habit of killing insects and smaller birds and impaling them on thorns; both have the peculiarity of flying, with strong, vigorous flight and much wing-flapping, close along the ground, then suddenly rising to a tree, on the lookout for prey. Their harsh, unmusical call-notes are similar too, and their hawk-like method of dropping suddenly upon a victim on the ground below is identical. Indeed, the same description very nearly answers for both birds. But there is one very important difference. While the Northern shrike is a winter visitor, the loggerhead, being his Southern counterpart, does not arrive until after the frost is out of the ground, and he can be sure of a truly warm welcome. A lesserdistinction between the only two representatives of the shrike family that frequent our neighborhood—and they are two too many—is in the smaller size of the loggerhead and its lighter-gray plumage. But as both these birds select some high, commanding position, like a distended branch near the tree-top, a cupola, house-peak, lightning-rod, telegraph wire, or weather-vane, the better to detect a passing dinner, it would be quite impossible at such a distance to know which shrike was sitting up there silently plotting villainies, without remembering the season when each may be expected.
Phœbe(Sayornis phœbe) Flycatcher family
Called also:DUSKY FLYCATCHER; BRIDGE PEWEE; WATER PEWEE(Illustration facing p.75)
Length—7 inches. About an inch longer than the English sparrow.
Male and Female—Dusky olive-brown above; darkest on head, which is slightly crested. Wings and tail dusky, the outer edges of some tail feathers whitish. Dingy yellowish white underneath. Bill and feet black.
Range—North America, from Newfoundland to the South Atlantic States, and westward to the Rockies. Winters south of the Carolinas, into Mexico, Central America, and the West Indies.
Migrations—March. October. Common summer resident.
The earliest representative of the flycatcher family to come out of the tropics where insect life fairly swarms and teems, what does the friendly little phœbe find to attract him to the north in March while his prospective dinners must all be still in embryo? He looks dejected, it is true, as he sits solitary and silent on some projecting bare limb in the garden, awaiting the coming of his tardy mate; nevertheless, the date of his return will not vary by more than a few days in a given locality year after year. Why birds that are mated for life, as these are said to be, and such devoted lovers, should not travel together on their journey north, is another of the many mysteries of bird-life awaiting solution.
The reunited, happy couple go about the garden and outbuildings like domesticated wrens, investigating the crannies on piazzas, where people may be coming and going, and boldly entering barn-lofts to find a suitable site for the nest that it must take much of both time and skill to build.
Pewit,phœbe,phœbe;pewit,phœbe, they contentedly but rather monotonously sing as they investigate all the sites in the neighborhood. Presently a location is chosen under a beam or rafter, and the work of collecting moss and mud for the foundation and hair and feathers or wool to line the exquisite little home begins. But the labor is done cheerfully, with many a sally in midair either to let off superfluous high spirits or to catch a morsel on the wing, and with many a vivacious outburst of what by courtesy only we may name a song.
When not domesticated, as these birds are rapidly becoming the phœbes dearly love a cool, wet woodland retreat. Here they hunt and bathe; here they also build in a rocky bank or ledge of rocks or underneath a bridge, but always with clever adaptation of their nest to its surroundings, out of which it seems a natural growth. It is one of the most finished, beautiful nests ever found.
A pair of phœbes become attached to a spot where they have once nested; they never stray far from it, and return to it regularly, though they may not again occupy the old nest. This is because it soon becomes infested with lice from the hen's feathers used in lining it, for which reason too close relationship with this friendly bird-neighbor is discouraged by thrifty housekeepers. When the baby birds have come out from the four or six little white eggs, their helpless bodies are mercilessly attacked by parasites, and are often so enfeebled that half the brood die. The next season another nest will be built near the first, the following summer still another, until it would appear that a colony of birds had made their homes in the place.
Throughout the long summer—for as the phœbe is the first flycatcher to come, so it is the last to go—the bird is a tireless hunter of insects, which it catches on the wing with a sharp click of its beak, like the other members of its dexterous family.
• • • • •
Say's Phœbe (Sayornis saya) is the Western representative of the Eastern species, which it resembles in coloring and many of its habits. It is the bird of the open plains, a tireless hunter in midair sallies from an isolated perch, and has the same vibrating motion of the tail that the Eastern phœbe indulges in when excited. This bird differs chiefly in its lighter coloring, but not in habits, from the black pewee of the Pacific slope.
Great-crested Flycatcher(Myiarchus crinitus) Flycatcher family
Called also: CRESTED FLYCATCHER(Illustration facing p.106)
Length—8.50 to 9 inches. A little smaller than the robin.
Male and Female—Feathers of the head pointed and erect. Upper parts dark grayish-olive, inclining to rusty brown on wings and tail. Wing coverts crossed with two irregular bars of yellowish white. Throat gray, shading into sulphur-yellowunderneath, that also extends under the wings. Inner vane of several tail quills rusty red. Bristles at base of bill.
Range—From Mexico, Central America, and West Indies northward to southern Canada and westward to the plains. Most common in Mississippi basin; common also in eastern United States, south of New England.
Migrations—May. September. Common summer resident.
The most dignified and handsomely dressed member of his family, the crested flycatcher has, nevertheless, an air of pensive melancholy about him when in repose that can be accounted for only by the pain he must feel every time he hears himself screech. His harsh, shrill call, louder and more disagreeable than the kingbird's, cannot but rasp his ears as it does ours. And yet it is chiefly by this piercing note, given with a rising inflection, that we know the bird is in our neighborhood; for he is somewhat of a recluse, and we must often follow the disagreeable noise to its source in the tree-tops before we can catch a glimpse of the screecher. Perched on a high lookout, he appears morose and sluggish, in spite of his aristocratic-looking crest, trim figure, and feathers that must seem rather gay to one of his dusky tribe. A low soliloquy, apparently born of discontent, can be overheard from the foot of his tree. But another second, and he has dashed off in hot pursuit of an insect flying beyond our sight, and with extremely quick, dexterous evolutions in midair, he finishes the hunt with a sharp click of his bill as it closes over the unhappy victim, and then he returns to his perch. On the wing he is exceedingly active and joyous; in the tree he appears just the reverse. That he is a domineering fellow, quite as much of a tyrant as the notorious kingbird, that bears the greater burden of opprobrium, is shown in the fierce way he promptly dashes at a feathered stranger that may have alighted too near his perch, and pursues it beyond the bounds of justice, all the while screaming his rasping cry into the intruder's ears, that must pierce as deep as the thrusts from his relentless beak. He has even been known to drive off woodpeckers and bluebirds from the hollows in the trees that he, like them, chooses for a nest, and appropriate the results of their labor for his scarcely less belligerent mate. With a slight but important and indispensable addition, the stolen nest is ready to receive her four cream-colored eggs, that look as if a pen dipped in purple ink had been scratched over them.
The fact that gives the great-crested flycatcher a unique interest among all North American birds is that it invariably lines its nest with snake-skins if one can be had. Science would scarcely be worth the studying if it did not set our imaginations to work delving for plausible reasons for Nature's strange doings. Most of us will doubtless agree with Wilson (who made a special study of these interesting nests and never found a single one without cast snake-skins in it, even in districts where snakes were so rare they were supposed not to exist at all), that the lining was chosen to terrorize all intruders. The scientific mind that is unwilling to dismiss any detail of Nature's work as merely arbitrary and haphazard, is greatly exercised over the reason for the existence of crests on birds. But, surely, may not the sight of snake-skins that first greet the eyes of the fledgling flycatchers as they emerge from the shell be a good and sufficient reason why the feathers on their little heads should stand on end? "In the absence of a snake-skin, I have found an onion skin and shad scales in the nest," says John Burroughs, who calls this bird "the wild Irishman of the flycatchers."
BOBOLINKBOBOLINK (Upper Figure, Male; Lower Figure, Female)
PHOEBETHE PHŒBE
Olive-sided Flycatcher(Contopus borealis) Flycatcher family
Length—7 to 7.5 inches. About an inch longer than the English sparrow.
Male and Female—Dusky olive or grayish brown above; head darkest. Wings and tail blackish brown, the former sometimes, but not always, margined and tipped with dusky white. Throat yellowish white; other under parts slightly lighter shade than above. Olive-gray on sides. A tuft of yellowish-white, downy feathers on flanks. Bristles at base of bill.
Range—From Labrador to Panama. Winters in the tropics. Nests usually north of United States, but it also breeds in the Catskills.
Migrations—May. September. Resident only in northern part of its range.
Only in the migrations may people south of Massachusetts hope to see this flycatcher, which can be distinguished from the rest of its kin by the darker under parts, and by the fluffy, yellowish-whitetufts of feathers on its flanks. Its habits have the family characteristics: it takes its food on the wing, suddenly sallying forth from its perch, darting about midair to seize its prey, then as suddenly returning to its identical point of vantage, usually in some distended, dead limb in the tree-top; it is pugnacious, bold, and tyrannical; mopish and inert when not on the hunt, but wonderfully alert and swift when in pursuit of insect or feathered foe. The short necks of the flycatchers make their heads appear large for their bodies, a peculiarity slightly emphasized in this member of the family.
High up in some evergreen tree, well out on a branch, over which the shapeless mass of twigs and moss that serves as a nest is saddled, four or five buff-speckled eggs are laid, and by some special dispensation rarely fall out of their insecure cradle. A sharp, loud whistle,wheu—o-wheu-o-wheu-o, rings out from the throat of this olive-sided tyrant, warning all intruders off the premises; but however harshly he may treat the rest of the feathered world, he has only gentle devotion to offer his brooding mate.
Least Flycatcher(Empidonax minimus) Flycatcher family
Called also: CHEBEC
Length—5 to 5.5 inches. About an inch smaller than the English sparrow.
Male—Gray or olive-gray above, paler on wings and lower part of back, and a more distinct olive-green on head. Underneath grayish white, sometimes faintly suffused with pale yellow. Wings have whitish bars. White eye-ring. Lower half of bill horn-color.
Female—Is slightly more yellowish underneath.
Range—Eastern North America, from tropics northward to Quebec.
Migrations—May. September. Common summer resident.
This, the smallest member of its family, takes the place of the more southerly Acadian flycatcher, throughout New England and the region of the Great Lakes. But, unlike his Southern relative, he prefers orchards and gardens close to our homes for his hunting grounds rather than the wet recesses of the forests.Che-bec,che-bec, the diminutive olive-pated gray sprite calls outfrom the orchard between his aërial sallies after the passing insects that have been attracted by the decaying fruit, and chebec is the name by which many New Englanders know him.
While giving this characteristic call-note, with drooping jerking tail, trembling wings, and uplifted parti-colored bill, he, looks unnerved and limp by the effort it has cost him. But in the next instant a gnat flies past. How quickly the bird recovers itself, and charges full-tilt at his passing dinner! The sharp click of his little bill proves that he has not missed his aim; and after careering about in the air another minute or two, looking for more game to snap up on the wing, he will return to the same perch and take up his familiar refrain. Without hearing this call-note one might often mistake the bird for either the wood pewee or the phœbe, for all the three are similarly clothed and have many traits in common. The slightly larger size of the phœbe and pewee is not always apparent when they are seen perching on the trees. Unlike the "tuft of hay" to which the Acadian flycatcher's nest has been likened, the least flycatcher's home is a neat, substantial cup-shaped cradle softly lined with down or horsehair, and placed generally in an upright crotch of a tree, well above the ground.
The Chickadee(Parus atricapillus) Titmouse family
Called also: BLACK-CAPPED TITMOUSE; BLACK-CAP TIT{Illustration facing p.78)
Length—5 to 5.5 inches. About an inch smaller than the English sparrow.
Male and Female—Not crested. Crown and nape and throat black. Above gray, slightly tinged with brown. A white space, beginning at base of bill, extends backward, widening over cheeks and upper part of breast, forming a sort of collar that almost surrounds neck. Underneath dirty white, with pale rusty-brown wash on sides. Wings and tail gray, with white edgings. Plumage downy.
Range—Eastern North America. North of the Carolinas to Labrador. Does not migrate in the North.
Migrations—Late September. May. Winter resident; permanent resident in northern parts of the United States.
No "fair weather friend" is the jolly little chickadee. In the depth of the autumn equinoctial storm it returns to the tops ofthe trees close by the house, where, through the sunshine, snow, and tempest of the entire winter, you may hear its cheery, irrepressiblechickadee-dee-dee-deeorday-day-dayas it swings around the dangling cones of the evergreens. It fairly overflows with good spirits, and is never more contagiously gay than in a snowstorm. So active, so friendly and cheering, what would the long northern winters be like without this lovable little neighbor?
It serves a more utilitarian purpose, however, than bracing faint-hearted spirits. "There is no bird that compares with it in destroying the female canker-worm moths and their eggs," writes a well-known entomologist. He calculates that as a chickadee destroys about 5,500 eggs in one day, it will eat 138,750 eggs in the twenty-five days it takes the canker-worm moth to crawl up the trees. The moral that it pays to attract chickadees about your home by feeding them in winter is obvious. Mrs. Mabel Osgood Wright, in her delightful and helpful book "Birdcraft," tells us how she makes a sort of a bird-hash of finely minced raw meat, waste canary-seed, buckwheat, and cracked oats, which she scatters in a sheltered spot for all the winter birds. The way this is consumed leaves no doubt of its popularity. A raw bone, hung from an evergreen limb, is equally appreciated.
Friendly as the chickadee is—and Dr. Abbott declares it the tamest bird we have—it prefers well-timbered districts, especially where there are red-bud trees, when it is time to nest. It is very often clever enough to leave the labor of hollowing out a nest in the tree-trunk to the woodpecker or nuthatch, whose old homes it readily appropriates; or, when these birds object, a knot-hole or a hollow fence-rail answers every purpose. Here, in the summer woods, when family cares beset it, a plaintive, minor whistle replaces thechickadee-dee-deethat Thoreau likens to "silver tinkling" as he heard it on a frosty morning.
"Piped a tiny voice near by,Gay and polite, a cheerful cry—Chick-chickadeedee! saucy noteOut of sound heart and merry throat,As if it said, 'Good-day, good Sir!Fine afternoon, old passenger!Happy to meet you in these placesWhere January brings few faces.'"—Emerson.
"Piped a tiny voice near by,Gay and polite, a cheerful cry—Chick-chickadeedee! saucy noteOut of sound heart and merry throat,As if it said, 'Good-day, good Sir!Fine afternoon, old passenger!Happy to meet you in these placesWhere January brings few faces.'"—Emerson.
Tufted Titmouse(Parus bicolor) Titmouse family
Called also: CRESTED TITMOUSE; CRESTED TOMTIT{Illustration facing p.79)
Length—6 to 6.5 inches. About the size of the English sparrow.
Male and Female—Crest high and pointed. Leaden or ash-gray above; darkest on wings and tail. Frontlet, bill, and shoulders black; space between eyes gray. Sides of head dull white. Under parts light gray; sides yellowish, tinged with red.
Range—United States east of plains, and only rarely seen so far north as New England.
Migrations—October. April. Winter resident, but also found throughout the year in many States.
"A noisy titmouse is Jack Frost's trumpeter" may be one of those few weather-wise proverbs with a grain of truth in them. As the chickadee comes from the woods with the frost, so it may be noticed his cousin, the crested titmouse, is in more noisy evidence throughout the winter.
One might sometimes think his whistle, like a tugboat's, worked by steam. But how effectually nesting cares alone can silence it in April!
Titmice always see to it you are not lonely as you walk through the woods. This lordly tomtit, with his jaunty crest, keeps up a persistent whistle at you as he flits from tree to tree, leading you deeper into the forest, calling out "Here-here-here!" and looking like a pert and jaunty little blue jay, minus his gay clothes. Mr. Nehrling translates one of the calls "Heedle-dee-dle-dee-dle-dee!" and another "Peto-peto-peto-daytee-daytee!" But it is at the former, sharply whistled as the crested titmouse gives it, that every dog pricks up his ears.
Comparatively little has been written about this bird, because it is not often found in New England, where most of the birdlitterateurshave lived. South of New York State, however, it is a common resident, and much respected for the good work it does in destroying injurious insects, though it is more fond of varying its diet with nuts, berries, and seeds than that all-round benefactor, the chickadee.
CHICKADEECHICKADEE
TUFTED TITMOUSENational Association of Audubon SocietiesSeepage 37TUFTED TITMOUSE
National Association of Audubon SocietiesSeepage 37
TUFTED TITMOUSE
Canada Jay(Perisoreus canadensis) Crow and Jay family
Called also: WHISKY JACK OR JOHN; MOOSE-BIRD; MEAT-BIRD; VENISON HERON; GREASE-BIRD; CANADIAN CARRION-BIRD; CAMP ROBBER
Length—11 to 12 inches. About two inches larger than the robin.
Male and Female—Upper parts gray; darkest on wings and tail; back of the head and nape of the neck sooty, almost black. Forehead, throat, and neck white, and a few white tips on wings and tail. Underneath lighter gray. Tail long. Plumage fluffy.
Range—Northern parts of the United States and British provinces of North America.
Migrations—Resident where found.
The Canada jay looks like an exaggerated chickadee, and both birds are equally fond of bitter cold weather, but here the similarity stops short. Where the chickadee is friendly the jay is impudent and bold; hardly less of a villain than his blue relative when it comes to marauding other birds' nests and destroying their young. With all his vices, however, intemperance cannot be attributed to him, in spite of the name given him by the Adirondack lumbermen and guides. "Whisky John" is a purely innocent corruption of "Wis-ka-tjon," as the Indians call this bird that haunts their camps and familiarly enters their wigwams. The numerous popular names by which the Canada jays are known are admirably accounted for by Mr. Hardy in a bulletin issued by the Smithsonian Institution.
"They will enter the tents, and often alight on the bow of a canoe, where the paddle at every stroke comes within eighteen inches of them. I know nothing which can be eaten that they will not take, and I had one steal all my candles, pulling them out endwise, one by one, from a piece of birch bark in which they were rolled, and another peck a large hole in a keg of castile soap. A duck which I had picked and laid down for a few minutes, had the entire breast eaten out by one or more of these birds. I have seen one alight in the middle of my canoe and peck away at the carcass of a beaver I had skinned. They often spoil deer saddles by pecking into them near the kidneys. Theydo great damage to the trappers by stealing the bait from traps set for martens and minks and by eating trapped game. They will sit quietly and see you build a log trap and bait it, and then, almost before your back is turned, you hear their hatefulca-ca-ca!as they glide down and peer into it. They will work steadily, carrying off meat and hiding it. I have thrown out pieces, and watched one to see how much he would carry off. He flew across a wide stream, and in a short time looked as bloody as a butcher from carrying large pieces; but his patience held out longer than mine. I think one would work as long as Mark Twain's California jay did trying to fill a miner's cabin with acorns through a knot-hole in the roof. They are fond of the berries of the mountain ash, and, in fact, few things come amiss; I believe they do not possess a single good quality except industry."
One virtue not mentioned by Mr. Hardy is their prudent saving from the summer surplus to keep the winter storeroom well supplied like a squirrel's. Such thrift is the more necessary when a clamorous, hungry family of young jays must be reared while the thermometer is often as low as thirty degrees below zero at the end of March. How eggs are ever hatched at all in a temperature calculated to freeze any sitting bird stiff, is one of the mysteries of the woods. And yet four or five fluffy little jays, that look as if they were dressed in gray fur, emerge from the eggs before the spring sunshine has unbound the icy rivers or melted the snowdrifts piled high around the evergreens.
Catbird(Galeoscoptes carolinensis) Mocking-bird family
Called also: BLACK-CAPPED THRUSH{Illustration facing p.86)
Length—9 inches. An inch shorter than the robin.
Male and Female—Dark slate above; below somewhat paler; top of head black. Distinct chestnut patch under the tail, which is black; feet and bill black also. Wings short, more than two inches shorter than the tail.
Range—British provinces to Mexico; west to Rocky Mountains, rarely to Pacific coast. Winters in Southern States, Central America, and Cuba.
Migrations—May. November. Common summer resident.
Our familiar catbird, of all the feathered tribe, presents the most contrary characteristics, and is therefore held in varied estimation—loved, admired, ridiculed, abused. He is the veriest "Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde" of birds. Exquisitely proportioned, with finely poised black head and satin-gray coat, which he bathes most carefully and prunes and prinks by the hour, he appears from his toilet a Beau Brummell, an aristocratic-looking, even dandified neighbor. Suddenly, as if shot, he drops head and tail and assumes the most hang-dog air, without the least sign of self-respect; then crouches and lengthens into a roll, head forward and tail straightened, till he looks like a little, short gray snake, lank and limp. Anon, with a jerk and a sprint, every muscle tense, tail erect, eyes snapping, he darts into the air intent upon some well-planned mischief. It is impossible to describe his various attitudes or moods. In song and call he presents the same opposite characteristics. How such a bird, exquisite in style, can demean himself to utter such harsh, altogether hateful catcalls and squawks as have given the bird his common name, is a wonder when in the next moment his throat swells and beginningphut-phut-coquillicot, he gives forth a long glorious song, only second to that of the wood thrush in melody. He is a jester, a caricaturist, a mocking-bird.
The catbird's nest is like a veritable scrap-basket, loosely woven of coarse twigs, bits of newspaper, scraps, and rags, till this rough exterior is softly lined and made fit to receive the four to six pretty dark green-blue eggs to be laid therein.
As a fruit thief harsh epithets are showered upon the friendly, confiding little creature at our doors; but surely his depredations may be pardoned, for he is industrious at all times and unusually adroit in catching insects, especially in the moth stage.
The Mocking-bird(Mimus polyglottus) Mocking-bird family
(Illustrations facing pp.13and107)
Length—9 to 10 inches. About the size of the robin.
Male and Female—Gray above; wings and wedge-shaped tail brownish; upper wing feathers tipped with white; outer tail quills white, conspicuous in flight; chin white; underneathlight gray, shading to whitish.
Range—Peculiar to torrid and temperate zones of two Americas.
Migrations—No fixed migrations; usually resident where seen.
North of Delaware this commonest of Southern birds is all too rarely seen outside of cages, yet even in midwinter it is not unknown in Central Park, New York. This is the angel that it is said the catbird was before he fell from grace. Slim, neat, graceful, imitative, amusing, with a rich, tender song that only the thrush can hope to rival, and with an instinctive preference for the society of man, it is little wonder he is a favorite, caged or free. He is a most devoted parent, too, when the four or six speckled green eggs have produced as many mouths to be supplied with insects and berries.
In the Connecticut Valley, where many mocking-birds' nests have been found, year after year, they are all seen near the ground, and without exception are loosely, poorly constructed affairs of leaves, feathers, grass, and even rags.
With all his virtues, it must be added, however, that this charming bird is a sad tease. There is no sound, whether made by bird or beast about him, that he cannot imitate so clearly as to deceive every one but himself. Very rarely can you find a mocking-bird without intelligence and mischief enough to appreciate his ventriloquism. In Sidney Lanier's college note-book was found written this reflection: "A poet is the mocking-bird of the spiritual universe. In him are collected all the individual songs of all individual natures." Later in life, with the same thought in mind, he referred to the bird as "yon slim Shakespeare on the tree." His exquisite stanzas, "To Our Mocking-bird," exalt the singer with the immortals:
"Trillets of humor,—shrewdest whistle-wit—Contralto cadences of grave desire,Such as from off the passionate Indian pyreDrift down through sandal-odored flames that splitAbout the slim young widow, who doth sitAnd sing above,—midnights of tone entire,—Tissues of moonlight, shot with songs of fire;—Bright drops of tune, from oceans infiniteOf melody, sipped off the thin-edged waveAnd trickling down the beak,—discourses braveOf serious matter that no man may guess,—Good-fellow greetings, cries of light distress—All these but now within the house we heard:O Death, wast thou too deaf to hear the bird?• • • • •Nay, Bird; my grief gainsays the Lord's best right.The Lord was fain, at some late festal time,That Keats should set all heaven's woods in rhyme,And Thou in bird-notes. Lo, this tearful nightMethinks I see thee, fresh from Death's despite,Perched in a palm-grove, wild with pantomimeO'er blissful companies couched in shady thyme.Methinks I hear thy silver whistlings brightMeet with the mighty discourse of the wise,—'Till broad Beethoven, deaf no more, and Keats,'Midst of much talk, uplift their smiling eyesAnd mark the music of thy wood-conceits,And half-way pause on some large courteous word,And call thee 'Brother,' O thou heavenly Bird!"
"Trillets of humor,—shrewdest whistle-wit—Contralto cadences of grave desire,Such as from off the passionate Indian pyreDrift down through sandal-odored flames that splitAbout the slim young widow, who doth sitAnd sing above,—midnights of tone entire,—Tissues of moonlight, shot with songs of fire;—Bright drops of tune, from oceans infiniteOf melody, sipped off the thin-edged waveAnd trickling down the beak,—discourses braveOf serious matter that no man may guess,—Good-fellow greetings, cries of light distress—All these but now within the house we heard:O Death, wast thou too deaf to hear the bird?• • • • •Nay, Bird; my grief gainsays the Lord's best right.The Lord was fain, at some late festal time,That Keats should set all heaven's woods in rhyme,And Thou in bird-notes. Lo, this tearful nightMethinks I see thee, fresh from Death's despite,Perched in a palm-grove, wild with pantomimeO'er blissful companies couched in shady thyme.Methinks I hear thy silver whistlings brightMeet with the mighty discourse of the wise,—'Till broad Beethoven, deaf no more, and Keats,'Midst of much talk, uplift their smiling eyesAnd mark the music of thy wood-conceits,And half-way pause on some large courteous word,And call thee 'Brother,' O thou heavenly Bird!"
Junco(Junco hyemalis) Finch family
Called also: SNOWBIRD; SLATE-COLORED SNOWBIRD
Length—5.5 to 6.5 inches. About the size of the English sparrow.
Male—Upper parts slate-colored; darkest on head and neck, which are sometimes almost black and marked like a cowl. Gray on breast, like a vest. Underneath white. Several outer tail feathers white, conspicuous in flight.
Female—Lighter gray, inclining to brown.
Range—North America. Not common in warm latitudes. Breeds in the Catskills and northern New England.
Migrations—September. April. Winter resident.
"Leaden skies above; snow below," is Mr. Parkhurst's suggestive description of this rather timid little neighbor, that is only starved into familiarity. When the snow has buried seed and berries, a flock of juncos, mingling sociably with the sparrows and chickadees about the kitchen door, will pick up scraps of food with an intimacy quite touching in a bird naturally rather shy. Here we can readily distinguish these "little gray-robed monks and nuns," as Miss Florence Merriam calls them.
They are trim, sprightly, sleek, and even natty; their dispositions are genial and vivacious, not quarrelsome, like their sparrow cousins, and what is perhaps best about them, they are birds we may surely depend upon seeing in the winter months. A few come forth in September, migrating at night from the deepwoods of the north, where they have nested and moulted during the summer; but not until frost has sharpened the air are large numbers of them seen. Rejoicing in winter, they nevertheless do not revel in the deep and fierce arctic blasts, as the snowflakes do, but take good care to avoid the open pastures before the hard storms overtake them.
Early in the spring their song is sometimes heard before they leave us to woo and to nest in the north. Mr. Bicknell describes it as "a crisp call-note, a simple trill, and a faint, whispered warble, usually much broken, but not without sweetness."
White-breasted Nuthatch(Sitta carolinensis) Nuthatch family
Called also: TREE-MOUSE; DEVIL DOWNHEAD{Illustration facing p.87)
Length—5.5 to 6 inches. A trifle smaller than the English sparrow.
Male and Female—Upper parts slate-color. Top of head and nape black. Wings dark slate, edged with black, that fades to brown. Tail feathers brownish black, with white bars. Sides of head and underneath white, shading to pale reddish under the tail. (Female's head leaden.) Body flat and compact. Bill longer than head.
Range—British provinces to Mexico. Eastern United States.
Migrations—October. April. Common resident. Most prominent in winter.
"Shrewd little haunter of woods all gray,Whom I meet on my walk of a winter day—You're busy inspecting each cranny and holeIn the ragged bark of yon hickory bole;You intent on your task, and I on the lawOf your wonderful head and gymnastic claw!The woodpecker well may despair of this feat—Only the fly with you can compete!So much is clear; but I fain would knowHow you can so reckless and fearless go,Head upward, head downward, all one to you,Zenith and nadir the same in your view?"—Edith M. Thomas.
"Shrewd little haunter of woods all gray,Whom I meet on my walk of a winter day—You're busy inspecting each cranny and holeIn the ragged bark of yon hickory bole;You intent on your task, and I on the lawOf your wonderful head and gymnastic claw!
The woodpecker well may despair of this feat—Only the fly with you can compete!So much is clear; but I fain would knowHow you can so reckless and fearless go,Head upward, head downward, all one to you,Zenith and nadir the same in your view?"—Edith M. Thomas.
Could a dozen lines well contain a fuller description or more apt characterization of a bird than these "To a Nuthatch"?
With more artless inquisitiveness than fear, this lively little acrobat stops his hammering or hatcheting at your approach, and stretching himself out from the tree until it would seem he must fall off, he peers down at you, head downward, straight into your upturned opera-glasses. If there is too much snow on the upper side of a branch, watch how he runs along underneath it like a fly, busily tapping the bark, or adroitly breaking the decayed bits with his bill, as he searches for the spider's eggs, larvæ, etc., hidden there; yet somehow, between mouthfuls, managing to call out his cheeryquank!quank!hank!hank!
Titmice and nuthatches, which have many similar characteristics, are often seen in the most friendly hunting parties on the same tree. A pine woods is their dearest delight. There, as the mercury goes down, their spirits only seem to go up higher. In the spring they have been thought by many to migrate in flocks, whereas they are only retreating with their relations away from the haunts of men to the deep, cool woods, where they nest. With infinite patience the nuthatch excavates a hole in a tree, lining it with feathers and moss, and often depositing as many as ten white eggs (speckled with red and lilac) for a single brood.
Red-breasted Nuthatch(Sitta canadensis) Nuthatch family
Called also: CANADA NUTHATCH{Illustration facing p.87)
Length—4 to 4.75 inches. One-third smaller than the English sparrow.
Male—Lead-colored above; brownish on wings and tail. Head, neck, and stripe passing through eye to shoulder, black. Frontlet, chin, and shoulders white; also a white stripe over eye, meeting on brow. Under parts light, rusty red. Tail feathers barred with white near end, and tipped with pale brown.
Female—Has crown of brownish black, and is lighter beneath than male.
Range—Northern parts of North America. Not often seen south of the most northerly States.
Migrations—November. April. Winter resident.
The brighter coloring of this tiny, hardy bird distinguishes it from the other and larger nuthatch, with whom it is usuallyseen, for the winter birds have a delightfully social manner, so that a colony of these Free masons is apt to contain not only both kinds of nuthatches and chickadees, but kinglets and brown creepers as well. It shares the family habit of walking about the trees, head downward, and running along the under side of limbs like a fly. By Thanksgiving Day thequank!quank!of the white-breasted species is answered by thetai-tai-tait!of the red-breasted cousin in the orchard, where the family party is celebrating with an elaboratemenuof slugs, insects' eggs, and oily seeds from the evergreen trees.
For many years this nuthatch, a more northern species than the white-breasted bird, was thought to be only a spring and autumn visitor, but latterly it is credited with habits like its congener's in nearly every particular.
CATBIRDCATBIRD
WHITE-BREASTED NUTHATCH and RED-BREASTED NUTHATCHWHITE-BREASTED NUTHATCH, Upper Figures, Male and FemaleRED-BREASTED NUTHATCH, Lower Figures, Male and Female
Loggerhead Shrike(Lanius ludovicianus) Shrike family
Length—8.5 to 9 inches. A little smaller than the robin.
Male and Female—Upper parts gray; narrow black line across forehead, connecting small black patches on sides of head at base of bill. Wings and tail black, plentifully marked with white, the outer tail feathers often being entirely white and conspicuous in flight. Underneath white or very light gray. Bill hooked and hawk-like.
Range—Eastern United States to the plains.
Migrations—May. October. Summer resident.
It is not easy, even at a slight distance, to distinguish the loggerhead from the Northern shrike. Both have the pernicious habit of killing insects and smaller birds and impaling them on thorns; both have the peculiarity of flying, with strong, vigorous flight and much wing-flapping, close along the ground, then suddenly rising to a tree, on the lookout for prey. Their harsh, unmusical call-notes are similar too, and their hawk-like method of dropping suddenly upon a victim on the ground below is identical. Indeed, the same description very nearly answers for both birds. But there is one very important difference. While the Northern shrike is a winter visitor, the loggerhead, being his Southern counterpart, does not arrive until after the frost is out of the ground, and he can be sure of a truly warm welcome. A lesserdistinction between the only two representatives of the shrike family that frequent our neighborhood—and they are two too many—is in the smaller size of the loggerhead and its lighter-gray plumage. But as both these birds select some high, commanding position, like a distended branch near the tree-top, a cupola, house-peak, lightning-rod, telegraph wire, or weather-vane, the better to detect a passing dinner, it would be quite impossible at such a distance to know which shrike was sitting up there silently plotting villainies, without remembering the season when each may be expected.