Chapter I: Preface

If all his lessons were as joyful as learning to know the birds in the fields and woods, there would be no

"...whining Schoole-boy with his Satchell
And shining morning face creeping like Snaile
Unwillingly to schoole."

Long before his nine o'clock headache appears, lessons have begun. Nature herself is the teacher who rouses him from his bed with an outburst of song under the window and sets his sleepy brain to wondering whether it was a robin's clear, ringing call that startled him from his dreams, or the chipping sparrow's wiry tremulo, or the gushing little wren's tripping cadenza. Interest in the birds trains the ear quite unconsciously. A keen, intelligent listener is rare, even among grown-ups, but a child who is becoming acquainted with the birds about him hears every sound and puzzles out its meaning with a cleverness that amazes those with ears who hear not. He responds to the first alarm note from the nesting blue birds in the orchard and dashes out of the house to chase away a prowling cat. He knows from {vi} afar the distress caws of a company of crows and away he goes to be sure that their persecutor is a hawk. A faint tattoo in the woods sends him climbing up a tall straight tree with the confident expectation of finding a woodpecker's nest within the hole in its side.

While training his ears, Nature is also training every muscle in his body, sending him on long tramps across the fields in pursuit of a new bird to be identified, making him run and jump fences and wade brooks and climb trees with the zest that produces an appetite like a saw-mill's and deep sleep at the close of a happy day.

When President Roosevelt was a boy he was far from strong, and his anxious father and mother naturally encouraged every interest that he showed in out-of-door pleasures. Among these, perhaps the keenest that he had was in birds. He knew the haunts of every species within a wide radius of his home and made a large collection of eggs and skins that he presented to the Smithsonian Museum when he could no longer endure the evidences of his "youthful indiscretion," as he termed the collector's mania. But those bird hunts that had kept him happily employed in the open air all day long, helped to make him the strong, manly man he is, whose wonderful physical endurance is not the least factor of his greatness. No one abhors the killing of birds and the {vii} robbing of nests more than he; few men, not specialists, know so much about bird life.

Nature, the best teacher of us all, trains the child's eyes through study of the birds to quickness and precision, which are the first requisites for all intelligent observation in every field of knowledge. I know boys who can name a flock of ducks when they are mere specks twinkling in their rapid rush across the autumn sky; and girls who instantly recognise a goldfinch by its waving flight above the garden. The white band across the end of the kingbird's tail leads to his identification the minute some sharp young eyes perceive it. At a considerable distance, a little girl I know distinguished a white-eyed from a red-eyed vireo, not by the colour of the iris of either bird's eye, but by the yellowish white bars on the white-eyed vireo's wings which she had noticed at a glance. Another girl named the yellow-billed cuckoo, almost hidden among the shrubbery, by the white thumb-nail spots on the quills of his outspread tail where it protruded for a second from a mass of leaves. A little urchin from the New York City slums was the first to point out to his teacher, who had lived twenty years on a farm, the faint reddish streaks on the breast of a yellow warbler in Central Park. Many there are who have eyes and see not.

What does the study of birds do for the {viii} imagination, that high power possessed by humans alone, that lifts them upward step by step into new realms of discovery and joy? If the thought of a tiny hummingbird, a mere atom in the universe, migrating from New England to Central America will not stimulate a child's imagination, then all the tales of fairies and giants and beautiful princesses and wicked witches will not cause his sluggish fancy to roam. Poetry and music, too, would fail to stir it out of the deadly commonplace.

Interest in bird life exercises the sympathies. The child reflects something of the joy of the oriole whose ecstasy of song from the elm on the lawn tells the whereabouts of a dangling "cup of felt" with its deeply hidden treasures. He takes to heart the tragedy of a robin's mud-plastered nest in the apple tree that was washed apart by a storm, and experiences something akin to remorse when he takes a mother bird from the jaws of his pet cat. He listens for the return of the bluebirds to the starch-box home he made for them on top of the grape arbour and is strangely excited and happy that bleak day in March when they re-appear. It is nature sympathy, the growth of the heart, not nature study, the training of the brain, that does most for us.

Neltje Blanchan.
_Mill Neck_, 1906.

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CONTENTS

CHAPTER PAGE

I. Our Robin Goodfellow and His Relations 3

Robin, Bluebird, Wood Thrush, Wilson's Thrush.

II. Some Neighbourly Acrobats 17

Chickadee, Nuthatches, Titmouse, Kinglets.

III. A Group of Lively Singers 31

Mockingbird, Catbird, Brown Thrasher, Wrens.

IV. The Warblers 51

Yellow Warbler, Black and White Creeping Warbler,
Ovenbird, Maryland Yellow-throat, Yellow-breasted Chat.

V. Another Strictly American Family 62

The Vireos.

VI. Birds Not of a Feather 77

Butcherbirds, Cedar Waxwing, Tanagers.

VII. The Swallows 91

Purple Martin, Barn Swallow, Cliff Swallow,
Tree Swallow, Bank Swallow.

VIII. The Sparrow Tribe 105

Purple Finch, English Sparrow, Goldfinch,
Vesper Sparrow, White-crowned Sparrow,
White-throated Sparrow, Tree Sparrow,
Chippy, Field Sparrow, Junco, Song Sparrow,
Swamp Sparrow, Fox Sparrow,
Towhee, Cardinal, Rose-breasted Grosbeak,
Indigo Bunting, Snowflake.

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IX. The Ill-assorted Blackbird Family 135

Bobolink, Cowbird, Red-wing,
Meadowlark, Orioles, Blackbirds.

X. Rascals We Must Admire 151

Crow, Blue Jay and Canada Jay.

XI. The Flycatchers 159

Kingbird, Crested Flycatcher, Phoebe,
Pewee, Least Flycatcher.

XII. Some Queer Relations 173

Nighthawk, Whip-poor-will, Chimney Swift, Hummingbird.

XIII. Non-union Carpenters 187

Our Five Common Woodpeckers.

XIV. Cuckoo and Kingfisher 203

XV. Day and Night Allies of the Farmer 211

Buzzards, Hawks, and Owls.

XVI. Whistler and Drummer 233

Bob-white and Ruffed Grouse.

XVII. Birds of the Shore and Marshes 245

Snipe, Sandpiper, Plover, Rails and Coots,
Bitterns and Herons.

XVIII. The Fastest Flyers 265

Gulls, Ducks, and Geese.

Index 275

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LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS

Red-eyed Vireo. Frontispiece

FACING PAGE

It is Only When he is a Baby that you Could Guess our Robin is Really a Thrush. (_A. R. Dugmore_) 8

Young Bluebirds Taking their First Walk. (_A. R. Dugmore_) 9

Baby Wood Thrushes--Notice the Family Resemblance Between them and the Baby Robins and Bluebirds. (_A. R. Dugmore_) 12

A Wood Thrush Startled by the Click of the Camera. (_A. R. Dugmore_) 13

The Chickadee at her Front Door. (_A. R. Dugmore_) 22

Young Nuthatches Learning their First Lesson in Balancing on a Horizontal Bar. (_W. E. Carlin_) 23

The Noisy Contents of a Soap Box: a Family of House Wrens. (_A. R. Dugmore_) 30

The Marsh Wren's Round Cradle Swung Among the Rushes. (_A. R. Dugmore_) 31

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Like "Brer Rabbit" the Catbird is Usually "Bred en Bawn in a Brier Patch." (_A. R. Dugmore_) 34

Another Tragedy of the Nests: What Villain Ate the Catbird's Eggs? (_Verne Morton_) 35

"Mamma!" Young Mockingbird Calling for Breakfast. (_A. R. Dugmore_) 50

All is Well with this Yellow Warbler's Nest. (_G. C. Embody_) 51

Dinner for One: A Black-and-white Warbler Feeding her Baby. (_A. R. Dugmore_) 51

The Oven-bird who Calls "Teacher, Teacher, TEACHER, TEACHER, TEACHER!" (_William P. Hopkins_) 58

Oven-bird in her Cleverly Hidden Nest-- Some of the Leaves and Sticks Have Been Pulled Away From the Front to Secure her picture. (_A. R. Dugmore_) 59

Young Oven-birds on Day of Leaving Nest. (_A.R. Dugmore_) 59

A Red-eyed Vireo Baby in his Cradle. (_A. R. Dugmore_) 76

Out of It. (_A. R. Dugmore_) 76

Home of the Loggerhead Shrike with Plenty of Convenient Hooks for this Butcher Bird to Hang Meat On. (_R. H. Beehe_) 77

The Cedar Waxwing. (_W. P. Hopkins_) 84

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The Gorgeous Scarlet Tanager, who Sang in this Tree, Was Killed by a Sling Shot. The Nest Was Deserted by his Terrified Mate. (_A. R. Dugmore_) 85

Young Barn Swallows Cradled Under the Rafters. (_A. R. Dugmore_) 96

Baby Barn Swallows Learning to Walk a Plank. (_A. R. Dugmore_) 97.

The Most Cheerful of Bird Neighbours: Song Sparrows. (_A. R. Dugmore_) 116

A Baby Chippy and its Two Big Rose-breasted Grosbeak Cousins . 116

A Chipping Sparrow Family: One Baby Satisfied, the Next Nearly So, the Third Still Hungry. (_A. R. Dugmore_) 117

Cardinal. (_C. W. Beebe_) 134

That Dusky Rascal the Cowbird. (_C. W. Beebe_) 135

The Gorgeous Baltimore Oriole. (_A. R. Dugmore_) 146

How do you Suppose these Young Baltimore Orioles Ever Packed themselves into this Nest? (_A. R. Dugmore_) 147

Young Orchard Orioles. (_A. R. Dugmore_) 150

"There Were Three Crows Sat on a Tree." (_A. R. Dugmore_) 151

Blue Jay on her Nest. (_R. H. Beebe_) 158

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Five Little Teasers Get No Dinner from Mamma Blue Jay. (_Craig S. Thomas_) 159

Not Afraid of the Camera: Baby Blue Jays Out for their First Airing. (_Craig S. Thomas_) 159

The Dashing Great Crested Flycatcher. (_A. R. Dugmore_) 162

Baby Kingbirds in an Apple Tree. (_A. R. Dugmore_) 163

Four Crested Flycatchers, who Need to Have their Hair Brushed. (_A. R. Dugmore_) 164

Time for these Young Phoebes to Leave the Nest. (_A. R. Dugmore_) 165

Young Phoebes on a Bridge Trestle. (_A. R. Dugmore_) 165

Least Flycatchers in a Rose Bush 176

Nighthawk Resting in the Sunlight. (_John Boyd_) 177

A Chimney Swift at Rest. (_C. W. Beebe_) 180

Hummingbird Pumping Food into her Babies' Crops. (_Julian Burroughs_) 181

Twin Ruby-throats. (_Julian Burroughs_) 181

Our Little Friend Downy. (_A. R. Dugmore_) 192

The Red-headed Woodpecker. (_C. W. Beehe_) 193

The Sapsucker. (_G. C Embody_) 198

Baby Flickers Just Out of their Hole. (_A. R. Dugmore_) 199

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The Flicker. (_C. W. Beebe_) 206

Two Baby Cuckoos on the Rickety Bundle of Sticks that by Courtesy we Call a Nest. (_Verne Morton_) 207

Waiting for Mamma and Fish. (_A. W. Anthony_) 210

Young Belted Kingfisher on his Favourite Snag. (_A. W. Anthony_) 210

Kingfisher on the Look-out for a Dinner. (_A. W. Anthony_) 211

Turkey Buzzard: One of Nature's Best Housecleaners. (_C. W. Beebe_) 226

The Beautiful Little Sparrow Hawk. (_C. W. Beebe_) 227

Father and Mother Barn Owls. (_Silas A. Lottridge_) 232

The Heavenly Twins: Young Barn Owls. (_Silas A. Lottridge_) 233

A Little Screech Owl in the Sunlight Where Only a Photographer Could Find him. (_C. W. Beehe_) 236

Mrs. White on her Nest while Bob Whistles to her from the Wild Strawberry Patch. (_A. R. Dugmore_) 237

A Little Girl's Rare Pet. (_C. F. Hodge_) 242

The Drummer Drumming. (_C. F. Hodge_) 243

A Flock of Friendly Sandpipers and Turnstones in Wading. (_Herbert K. Job_) 258

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One Little Sandpiper. (_R. H. Beebe_) 259

The Coot. (_C. W. Beebe_) 259

The Little Green Heron, the Smallest and Most Abundant Member of his Tribe. (_W. P. Hopkins_) 260

Half-grown Little Green Herons on Dress Parade. (_John M. Schreck_) 261

Black-crowned Night Heron Rising from a Morass. (_Alfred J. Might_) 268

Canada Geese. (_Geo. D. Bartlett_) . . 269

The Feather-lined Nest of a Wild Duck 272

Sea Gulls in the Wake of a Garbage Scow Cleansing New York Harbour of Floating Refuse. 273

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