Chapter I: Part 1

Transcriber Note

Text emphasis is denoted as _Italics_ and =Old English Text=.

Young Folks' Nature Field Book

WHITE-BREASTED NUTHATCH ON A BIRD-HOUSE.]

=Young Folks'=

=Nature Field Book=

_By_

_J. ALDEN LORING_

Formerly Field Naturalist to the United States Biological Survey and the United States National Museum at Washington, D. C., Curator of Mammals at the New York Zoological Park and Field Agent for the New York Zoological Society; Member of the American Ornithologists' Union, etc.

_BOSTON_

=Dana Estes & Company=

_PUBLISHERS_

_Copyright, 1906_

By Dana Estes & Company

All rights reserved

_COLONIAL PRESS_

_Electrotyped and Printed by C. H. Simonds & Co._

_Boston, U.S.A._

Publishers' Preface

The plan of this work contemplates a short, timely nature story, or seasonable hint for every calendar day in the year, telling the reader just what time in the successive seasons to look for the different birds, beasts, flowers, etc., how to recognize and study them when taking observation walks for pleasure or instruction. Recognition of different creatures, etc., is assisted by numerous excellent illustrations, and alternate pages are left blank for reader's notes or record of things seen. A yearly report so kept, either by a single young person or a small group or club, cannot fail to be a source of continuous interest, not only while being made but after its completion. A club competing for the best and complete record so made should produce pleasure and instruction throughout the year.

Dedication

_This book is dedicated to my first wild pet, who was the most interesting and intelligent creature I have tamed. He chased the children into their houses by pinching their legs; he awoke the dog by pulling its tail, and he pecked the horse's feet, then jumped back and crouched low to escape being kicked. Because of his thieving instinct he kept me at war with the neighbors. His last mischievous act was to pull the corks from the red and the black ink bottles, tip them over, fly to the bed, and cover the counterpane with tracks. I found him dead in the work-room the following morning, his black beak red and red mouth black._

Preface

This little book was written for the lover of outdoor life who has neither the time nor the patience to study natural history. There are many persons who are anxious to learn the common animals and flowers, their haunts and their habits, that they may enjoy Nature when they visit her. If they will take a minute each day to read the entry for that date, or if they will carry the book with them on their strolls into the country and while resting turn its pages, it may prove the means of discovering in fur or feather or flowering bud something before unknown to them.

The subjects chosen are of common interest, and nearly all can be found by any person who hunts for them assiduously. As the seasons vary in different localities, it has been impossible to set a date for the appearance or disappearance of an animal or a flower, that will apply alike to all parts of the country for which this volume is intended. Eastern United States.

J. Alden Loring.

_Oswego, N. Y._

List of Illustrations

PAGE
White-breasted Nuthatch on a Bird-house _Frontispiece_

White-breasted Nuthatch 15
English Sparrow 25
Purple Martins 35
Northern Shrike 39
Prairie Horned Lark 47
Loon 53
Hibernating Woodchuck 57
European Hedgehog 75
Nest of a Meadow Mouse Exposed by Melting Snow 85
Screech Owl 89
Meadow Lark 99
Downy Woodpecker 105
Fox at Den 119
Chimney Swift 125
"One of your bird-houses should be tenanted by a wren" 129
Male Bobolink 141
Barn Swallow 153
Belted Kingfisher 165
Catbird 171
Woodchuck 183
Song Sparrow 191
Yellow-billed Cuckoo 199
Kingbird 207
Red-winged Blackbirds 215
Cedar Waxwing 221
Yellow-breasted Chat 245
Skunk Hunting Grasshoppers 255
American Redstart 259
Grebe 277
Spotted Sandpiper 281
Chickadees (Upper, Mountain; Lower, Hudsonian) 287
"The great horned owl and the snowy owl can be tamed" 301
Blue Jays 305
A Four-storied Warbler's Nest. Each Story Represents
an Attempt by the Warbler to Avoid Becoming
Foster-parent of a Young Cowbird 311
Snow Bunting 315
Cotton-tail Rabbit Taking a Sun Bath 331
Bonaparte Gull 337

=January=

January First

The best New Year's resolution a lover of nature can make, is a promise to provide the feathered waifs of winter with free lunches. This may be done by fastening pieces of suet to limbs and trunks of trees, and by placing sunflower seeds, bird seeds, or cracked nuts on the veranda roof or on the window-sill of your room, where sharp eyes will soon spy them.

January Second

Your boarders will be the birds that either remain with you throughout the year, or have come from the frozen North to spend the winter. These are the birds that feed upon seeds of various kinds, or the feathered carpenters that pry into the crevices of the bark, and dig into the rotten wood in search of the insects and the insect larvæ hidden there.

January Third

The chickadee, white-breasted nuthatch, and the downy woodpecker, keep company during the long winter months. They will appreciate your lunches most, and will call on you frequently throughout the day.

Notes

January Fourth

Do not attempt to tame your visitors until they have made several calls for lunches. Then put a crude "dummy," with a false face, near the window, and raise the sash to let the birds enter. Within a few days the chickadees will perch upon Dummy's shoulders and take nut meats from his buttonholes.

January Fifth

Having thus gained the chickadees' confidence, hurry to the window when you hear them call, and quietly take the place of the dummy. Of course they will be suspicious at first, and probably you will meet with many disappointments, but when you have succeeded in taming them to alight upon your hand or shoulder, you will find enjoyment in calling them to you by the gentle whistle to which you should accustom them.

January Sixth

Tempting food, and slow movements when in the presence of birds, are the main secrets to successful bird taming. The chickadee, as you will find, is the easiest of these birds to tame. He has several songs and call notes, so do not expect always to hear him repeat his name, "_chick-a-de-de-de-de_."

Notes

January Seventh

Persons not familiar with birds often mistake the white-breasted nuthatch for a woodpecker, for their actions are much alike. The nuthatch creeps about the trees in all kinds of attitudes, while the woodpecker assumes an upright position most of the time and moves in spasmodic hops. The young and the female downy woodpecker do not have the red crescent on the back of the head. The hairy woodpecker is another "resident" that looks like his cousin, the downy, but he is once again as large.

January Eighth

Winter in the North is a season of hardship and hunger to wild creatures. The otherwise wary and cunning crow often puts discretion aside when in search of food, and fearlessly visits the village refuse heaps, or the farmer's barn-yard. In the orchards you will find where he has uncovered the decayed apples and pecked holes into them.

January Ninth

Even the mink, after days of fasting, is driven by starvation to leave his retreat in a burrow along a creek or river bank, and to forage upon the farmer's poultry. Poor fellow, he does not hibernate, so he must have food; fish is his choice, but when hard pressed, he will take anything, "fish, flesh, or fowl."

Notes

January Tenth

In the fields and lowlands, the scattered coveys of Bob-whites that have escaped the hunter, huddle for shelter from a storm under a stump or in a hollow log. Sometimes several days pass before they are able to dig through the drifts that imprison them. Should a heavy sleet-storm cover the snowy mantle with a crust too thick and hard for them to break through, starvation is their fate. Sportsmen living within convenient reach of quail coverts should watch over them in such weather and provide food and shelter for the birds.

January Eleventh

Even the flocks of horned (or shore) larks that feed on the wind-swept hilltops, pause occasionally and squat close to the ground to keep from being blown away. They have come from the North, and after passing the winter with us, most of them will return to Canada to nest.

January Twelfth

A long period of cold freezes the marshes to the bottom, and compels the muskrats to seek the bushy banks, or to take shelter under the corn-shacks or hay-stacks in the fields. Poor things, they of all animals endure hardship; for one can often track them to where they have scratched away the snow while searching for grass-blades, roots, acorns or apples that have fallen and decayed.

Notes

January Thirteenth

When the wind sweeps over the fields and the cold nips your ears, you are apt to come suddenly upon a flock of snowflakes, or snow buntings. Hastening back and forth among the weeds along the bank, they reach up and pick the seeds and crack them in their strong bills. They, too, like the horned larks, have come from the North, and in March will return again.

January Fourteenth

You cannot show your friendship for our native birds in any better way than by being an enemy of the English sparrow. He is a quarrelsome little pest and seems to be getting more pugnacious every year. He not only fights the other birds, but he has been seen to throw their eggs to the ground and to tear their nests to pieces. Be careful that he does not steal the lunches that you have provided for other birds.

January Fifteenth

How do the insects pass the winter? Much in the same way that our plants and flowers do. As the cold weather kills or withers the plants, leaving their seeds and roots to send forth shoots next summer, so most of the insects die, leaving their eggs, their larvæ, and their pupa to be nourished into life by the warm days of spring.

Notes

January Sixteenth

Insects are more dependent on climatic conditions than are birds or mammals. Nevertheless, even on the coldest days of winter, one may tear away the bark of a forest tree and find spiders which show signs of life, and if kept in a warm room for a few hours, they become quite active.

January Seventeenth

The life of an insect which undergoes what is termed a "complete transformation," is divided into four stages: First, the egg; second, the larva; third, the pupa or chrysalis, and fourth, the adult insect or imago. Each of these changes is so complete and different from any of the others, that the insect never appears twice in an easily recognized form.

January Eighteenth

Let us take the common house-fly for an example, and follow it through the changes that it must undergo before becoming adult. The mother fly deposits more than a hundred eggs at a time, in a dump at the back of the stable. The eggs hatch in half a day.

Notes

January Nineteenth

Now we have the larvæ (maggots), as the second stage is called. These little creatures are white and grow very fast, shedding their skin several times before they take on a different form, which they do at the end of three or four days.

January Twentieth

The third, or pupa, stage is reached when a tiny brown capsule-like formation has taken the place of the maggot. In this stage no movement is apparent, nor is any food taken; there is only a quiet waiting for the final change, which comes in about five days, when, out from one end of a chrysalis, a fully developed fly appears.

January Twenty-first

The wonderful changes just described take place throughout most of the insect world. The larvæ of butterflies and moths are caterpillars; the larvæ of June bugs or May beetles are grubs. Some moth and butterfly caterpillars weave silken cocoons about themselves; some make cocoons from leaves or tiny chips of wood; some utilize the hair from their own bodies, while others attach themselves to the under side of boards, stones, and stumps, where, after shedding their skin, they hang like mummies until spring calls them back to life.

Notes

January Twenty-second

Bird lovers often make the mistake of putting out nesting-boxes too late in the season. They forget that most of the birds begin to look for nesting-sites as soon as they arrive in the spring, therefore the boxes should be in place before the prospective tenants appear. March first is none too early for many localities.

January Twenty-third

A natural cavity in a root, cut from a rustic stump, or a short length of hollow limb, with a two-inch augur hole bored near the top, and a piece of board nailed over each end, makes an artistic nesting-place for birds. Some persons prefer a miniature cottage with compartments and doors; though birds will often nest in them, the simpler and more natural the home, the more suited it is to their wants.

January Twenty-fourth

A few minutes' work with hammer, saw, and knife, will convert any small wooden box that is nailed (not glued) together, into a respectable nesting-box. After it has been covered with two coats of dark green paint it is ready to be put in place. A shelf placed in a cornice, under a porch, or the eaves of a building, makes an excellent resting-place for the nest of a robin or a phoebe.

Notes

January Twenty-fifth

Nesting-boxes may be placed almost anywhere that there is shade and shelter. They ought to be put beyond the reach of prowling cats and meddlesome children, at least fifteen feet from the ground, and to reap the benefit of your labor, they should be near your sitting-room window.

January Twenty-sixth

It is better not to put an old nest or any nesting material in the houses. Birds prefer to do their own nest building, and they have their notions about house furnishing, which do not agree with our ideas. Birds have often refused nesting-boxes simply because over-zealous persons had stuffed them with hay or excelsior.

January Twenty-seventh

The birds that nest in bird-houses are the ones which, if unprovided with them, would naturally choose cavities in stumps, tree trunks, hollow limbs and the like. Almost without exception this class of nest-builders will return to the same nest year after year, so once a pair has taken up its abode with you, you may expect to see the birds for several summers.

Notes

January Twenty-eighth

The following are common tenants of bird-houses: Purple martin, bluebird, house wren, chickadee, tufted titmouse, white-breasted nuthatch, and tree or white-breasted swallow. These birds are great insect destroyers, and most of them are sweet songsters, so they should be encouraged to take up their abode about our grounds.

January Twenty-ninth

After a deep fall of snow, the Northern shrike, or butcher-bird, is forced into the villages and towns for his food. Dashing into a flock of English sparrows, he snatches one and carries it back to the country to be eaten at his leisure. He is the bird that impales small birds, mice, and large insects on barbed-wire fences, or thorn bushes, after his stomach has been filled, and hence his name.

January Thirtieth

Next to the beaver, the porcupine is the largest rodent in the United States; the largest porcupines live in Alaska. When on the ground, his short, thick tail drags in the snow, leaving a zigzag trail. When the snow is deep and the weather stormy, he spends much of his time in pine, spruce, and hemlock trees, feeding on the bark and twigs.

Notes

January Thirty-first

Hawks, before eating, tear away the skin and feathers from their prey; but owls eat everything, unless the prey be large, even bolting small birds and mammals entire. In the course of a few hours they disgorge pellets of indigestible portions, the bones being encased in the feathers or hair. The pellets may be found on the snow beneath the owl's roost, and they often contain skulls of mice as white and perfect as though they had been cleaned in a museum.

Notes

=February=

February First

Mourning-cloak butterflies do not all die when winter comes. Those that hibernate are usually found singly or in clusters, hanging from the rafters in old buildings, or from the under side of stones, rails, limbs of trees, or boards. Those that appear in the spring with tattered wings, have probably been confined in buildings, and in their efforts to escape have battered themselves against the windows.

February Second

Does any one know how old the story is that tells us this is the day on which the bear and the woodchuck rub their sleepy eyes and leave their winter quarters for the first time? If they see their shadow they return and sleep six weeks longer, but should the day be cloudy, they are supposed to remain active the rest of the season. This of course is only a myth.

February Third

Frogs usually pass the winter in the mud at the bottom of a stream, lake, or pond, or below frost-line in a woodchuck, rabbit, or chipmunk burrow. However, it is not uncommon to find them active all winter in a spring, or a roadside drinking-trough supplied from a spring. I wonder if they know that spring-water seldom freezes, and that by choosing such a place, they will not have to hibernate.

Notes

February Fourth

The bloodthirsty weasel, which is reddish brown in summer (save the tip of his tail, which is always black), is now colored to match his surroundings, white. His tracks may be found in the woods and along the stump fences in the fields, where he has been searching for mice. He is one of the very few mammals that will shed blood simply for the pleasure of killing.

February Fifth

Students of nature will find it much easier to identify birds if they take this opportunity before the migrating birds arrive, to study carefully the haunts of the common species. Many birds, you know, are not found beyond the bounds of a certain character of country chosen for them by nature. So should you see in the deep woods a bird that you at first take to be a Baltimore oriole or a bobolink, a second thought will cause you to remember that these birds are not found in the woods, consequently you must be wrong.

February Sixth

The meadow lark, horned lark, bobolink, grasshopper sparrow, vesper sparrow, and savannah sparrow, are all common birds of the fields and meadows, and they are seldom seen in the dense woods or in the villages.

Notes

February Seventh

Among the birds that one may expect to see in the woods and groves are the great-horned owl, hermit thrush, wood thrush, blue-headed vireo, golden-crowned thrush, scarlet tanager, black-throated green warbler, and the black-throated blue warbler.

February Eighth

The swamp birds, and birds found along the banks of lakes, rivers, and streams, and seldom seen far from them, are the belted kingfisher, red-shouldered blackbird, spotted and solitary sandpipers, great blue, night, and little green herons, and the osprey, or fish-hawk.

February Ninth

Cleared woodlands overgrown with thick bushes, shrubs, and vines, as well as the bushy thickets by the waysides, are the favorite nesting-places for another class of birds. In this category the common varieties are the yellow-breasted chat, yellow warbler, chestnut-sided warbler, Maryland yellow-throat, catbird, brown thrasher, mocking-bird, indigo bunting, and the black-billed and yellow-billed cuckoos.

Notes

February Tenth

The swimming birds spend the greater part of their time in the water. Most of them nest in the lake regions of Canada. They are the ducks, geese, and swans, of which there are nearly fifty species; the grebes and loons, eleven species; the gulls and terns, thirty-seven species; and the cormorants and pelicans, beside many other water birds that we seldom or never see in Eastern United States.

February Eleventh

Then, of course, there is a miscellaneous lot that nest in the woods, orchards, village shade trees, or any place where large trees are found. The flicker, downy and hairy woodpeckers, screech owl, white-breasted nuthatch, chickadee, robin, red-eyed vireo, warbling vireo, and the yellow-throated vireo, comprise some of the birds in this group.

February Twelfth

About spring-holes the snow melts quickly and the grass remains green all winter. It is here that you will find the runways of meadow mice, or voles (not moles). They live on the roots and tender blades of grass, but at this time of the year hunger often compels them to eat the bark from fruit trees, vines, and berry bushes, and during severe winters they do great damage to apple trees.

Notes

February Thirteenth

The whistle-wing duck, or American golden eye, attracts your attention by the peculiar whistling sound that it makes with its wings while flying. As it gets its food (small fish, and mussels), by diving, it is able to remain in the Northern States all winter and feed in the swift-running streams, in air-holes, or other open water.

February Fourteenth

The skunk is one of the mammals who can hibernate or not, just as he chooses. During prolonged periods of cold, he takes shelter in a woodchuck's burrow, and "cuddling down," goes to sleep but a few inches from the rightful owner, who, in turn, is also sleeping in a chamber back of the thin partition of earth which he threw out in front of himself when he retired in the fall.

February Fifteenth

The first bird to actually voice the approach of spring, is the jolly little chickadee. His spring song, "_spring's-com-ing_," sounds more like "_phoebe_" than does the note of the phoebe itself, for which it is often mistaken. It is a clear, plaintive whistle, easily imitated, and when answered, the songster can often be called within a few feet of one, where he will perch and repeat his song as long as he receives a reply.

HIBERNATING WOODCHUCK.]

Notes

February Sixteenth

Even the coldest weather does not close the swift-running streams, which gives the muskrats a chance to exercise their legs. It makes you shudder to see one swim along the edge of the ice, then dive, and come to the surface with a mouthful of food. Climbing upon the ice, he eats it, then silently slips into the water again. His hair is so well oiled, that an ordinary wetting does not penetrate to the skin.

February Seventeenth

A crow's track can always be told from the tracks of other birds of similar size, because there is a dash in the snow made by the claw of his middle toe. Again, his toes are long and set rather closely together, and he seldom walks in a straight line, but wanders about as though looking for something, which is usually the case.

February Eighteenth

Many persons believe that a porcupine has the power to throw his quills, but it is not so. When alarmed, he hurries, in a lumbering sort of way, for shelter. If you close in on him, he stops at once, ducks his head, humps his back, raises his quill armor, and awaits your attack. Approach closely, and he turns his back and tail toward you, and the instant you touch him he strikes with his club-like tail, also armed with quills, leaving souvenirs sticking into whatever they come in contact with.

Notes

February Nineteenth

As the migrating birds are beginning to arrive in the Southern States, and will soon be North, let us consider the subject of migration. The reason why birds migrate North in the spring is not definitely-known. Of course they leave the North because cold and snow cut off their food supply; but why in the spring do they abandon a country where food is plentiful and make such long flights, apparently for no other object than to bring forth their young in the North?

February Twentieth

Is it not wonderful how birds find their way, over thousands of miles of land and water, to the same locality and often to the same nest, season after season? How do we know that this is true? The reappearance of a bird with a crippled foot or wing, or one that has been tamed to feed from one's hand, is unmistakable proof.

February Twenty-first

Ducks and geese make longest flights of any of the migrating birds. They have been known to cover three hundred miles without resting. The smaller birds advance as the season advances, the early arrivals being the ones that do not winter very far south. Storm-waves often check their progress and compel them to turn back a few hundred miles and wait for the weather to moderate.

Notes

February Twenty-second

Most birds migrate at night; and a continued warm rain followed by a clear warm night is sure to bring a host of new arrivals. If you listen on moonlight nights, you can often hear their chirps and calls as they pass over. During foggy weather many meet with accidents by getting lost and being blown out to sea, or by flying against monuments, buildings, or lighthouses.

February Twenty-third

Mr. Chapman tells us that, when migrating, birds fly at a height of from one to three miles, and that our Eastern birds leave the United States by the way of the Florida peninsula. They are guided in their flight by the coast-line and the river valleys.

February Twenty-fourth

Some migrants fly in compact flocks of hundreds, like the ducks, for example, while others, like the swallows, spread out. Then, again, there are birds that arrive in pairs or singly. With still others, the male precedes his mate by a week or ten days. Not infrequently a flock of birds containing several different species will be seen. This is particularly true of the blackbirds and grackles.

Notes

February Twenty-fifth

You will notice that the birds are usually in full song when they arrive from the South. Save for a few calls and scolding notes, most of them are silent during the winter, but as spring approaches they begin to find their voices and probably are as glad to sing as we are to hear them.

February Twenty-sixth

The snow-shoe rabbit, or Northern varying hare, changes its color twice a year. In winter it is snow white, but at this season it is turning reddish-brown. In the far Northwest these hares are so abundant that they make deep trails through the snow, and the Indians and white trappers and traders shoot and snare large numbers of them for food.

February Twenty-seventh

It makes no difference to the "chickaree," or red squirrel, how much snow falls or how cold it gets. He has laid by a stock of provisions and he is not dependent on the food the season furnishes. He is as spry and happy during the coldest blizzard as he is on a midsummer day, for he knows well where the hollow limb or tree-trunk is that contains his store of nuts or grain.

Notes

February Twenty-eighth

The Carolina wren is the largest member of the wren family in the Eastern United States. It breeds sparingly in Southern New York and New England, but is common about Washington, D. C., where it is a resident. It is found in the forests, thickets, and undergrowth along streams and lakes. Mr. Hoffman says that its song "is so loud and clear that it can be heard easily a quarter of a mile."

Notes

=March=

March First

A lady once asked me how to destroy the "insect eggs" on the under side of fern leaves. The ferns are flowerless plants, and they produce spores instead of seeds. Usually the spores are arranged in dotted lines, on the underside of the leaves (or fronds as they are called), and these are the "insect eggs" the lady referred to.

March Second

Even at this early date the female great-horned owl or hoot owl, in some sections of the country, is searching for a place to build her nest. She usually selects an abandoned hawk's or a crow's nest, and after laying her four chalky-white eggs, she is often compelled to sit on them most of the night to prevent them from freezing.

March Third

A question that is often asked is, what do the early migrating birds eat, when the ground is frozen and insect life is still slumbering. If you knew where to look, you would find many of the fruit-trees and vines filled with dried, or frozen fruit. Frozen apples and mountain-ash berries constitute a large part of the robin's and the cedar-bird's food early in the spring, and the bluebirds and cedar-birds eat the shriveled barberry fruit.

Notes

March Fourth

In Florida, the black bear can get food throughout the entire year, but in the North he is compelled to hibernate during the winter. He is now beginning to think of leaving his den (in a cave, crevice of the rocks, or under the roots of a partially upturned tree) to begin his summer vacation. We are apt to think that bears are poor when they leave the den, but this is not always true, although their pelage does get very much worn from coming in contact with protuberances in their winter quarters.

March Fifth

The first plant to thrust its head above ground and proclaim the coming of spring is the skunk cabbage, or swamp cabbage. Even before the snow has entirely left, the plant will melt a hole and by its own warmth keep itself from freezing. In many localities at this date the leathery hoods are several inches above the ground.

March Sixth

In America the cowbird, like the European cuckoo, lays its eggs in the nests of other birds. All of our American cuckoos build their nests and raise their young in a manner creditable to parents.

Notes

March Seventh

Clinging to the cliffs and rocks in the forests, the dark green leathery leaves of the polypody fern are nearly as fresh and green as when first snowed under. Hunt among the clusters until you find a fertile frond, then examine the back of it and see how closely together the spores are placed.

March Eighth

We will awaken some morning to find that during the night the song sparrows have arrived from the South; not all of them, to be sure, but just a few that are anxious to push North and begin nesting. All winter their merry song has been hushed, but now it gushes forth, not to stop again until the molting season in August.

March Ninth

A porcupine should never be called a hedgehog. The hedgehog, an insectivorous animal, inhabiting Europe, is not found in the Western Hemisphere. It rolls itself into a ball when attacked, and the spines, which _do not come out_, are shorter, duller, and less formidable than those of the porcupine.

EUROPEAN HEDGEHOG]

Notes

March Tenth

People, knowing that the robin is an early spring arrival, are always alert to see or hear the first one. Consequently the first song that catches their ear is supposed to be that of a robin, whereas often it is the spring song of the white-breasted nuthatch, which really has no resemblance to the robin's song.

March Eleventh

When you see a bird with a crest (not one that simply raises its head feathers) it must be one of the following species: A blue jay, tufted titmouse, pileated woodpecker, cardinal grosbeak, (also called redbird and cardinal), Bohemian waxwing, or a cedar-bird. These are the only birds inhabiting the Eastern States that wear true crests. The belted kingfisher and many of the ducks and herons have ruffs and plumes but these can scarcely be considered crests.

March Twelfth

Some scientists contend that, owing to their intelligence, ants should rank next to man and before the anthropoid apes. They have soldiers that raid other ant colonies and capture eggs, and when the eggs hatch, the young are kept as slaves; they have nurses that watch and care for the eggs and helpless larvæ, and cows (_Aphids_) that are tended with almost human intelligence.

Notes

March Thirteenth

The Audubon Society has stopped the slaughter of grebes. Before the enactment of the laws framed by the society, these duck-like birds were killed for their snow-white breasts, which were used for decorating (?) women's hats. Grebes are now migrating to the lakes of the North, where they build floating nests of reeds.

March Fourteenth

The only sure way to tell a venomous snake is to kill the reptile, open its mouth with a stick, and look for the hollow, curved fangs. When not in use they are compressed against the roof of the mouth, beneath the reptile's eyes. They are hinged, as you can see if you pull them forward with a pencil. The venom is contained in a sack hidden beneath the skin at the base of each fang.

March Fifteenth

As a mimic and a persistent songster, the mocking-bird has no rival, but when quality is considered, I think we have several songsters that are its equal. The bobolink and the winter wren both have rollicking songs that are inspiring and wonderful, but to my ear there are no songs that equal those of the hermit thrush and the wood thrush. Still, the selection of a bird vocalist is a matter of choice which is often influenced by one's association with the singer.

Notes

March Sixteenth

If you will look into one of the large cone-shaped paper nests of the bald-faced hornet, which hang to the limbs of the trees or under the eaves of the house, you will be almost certain to find a few house flies that have passed the winter between the folds of paper. They now show signs of life, and are ready to make their appearance during the first warm spell.

March Seventeenth

Before the snow has left, you are likely to see dirt-stained spots on the hillsides where the woodchuck or ground-hog has thrown out the partition of dirt which kept the winter air from his bed-chamber. Of course he has not come out for good, but on warm, sunny days he will make short excursions from his burrow to see how the season is progressing. In the early spring, before vegetation sprouts, he finds it difficult to find good food in plenty.

March Eighteenth

The herring gulls that have been about our harbors and bays all winter, will not remain much longer. They are about to leave for their nesting grounds, in the marshes and on the islands of New England and Canada. In the fall they will return with their young, which wear a grayish plumage.

Notes

March Nineteenth

In winter meadow mice build neat little nests of dried grass on the ground beneath the snow. They are hollow balls, about the size of a hat crown, with a small opening in one or two sides. The outside is made of coarse, rank grass, while the lining is of the finest material obtainable. The heat from the little animals' bodies soon melts an air chamber around the nest, into which lead many tunnels through the snow. As soon as the snow has melted, you will find these nests scattered about the fields and meadows, but they are empty now.

March Twentieth

The fish crow is a small edition of the common crow. He is a resident of the Atlantic and Gulf coasts from South Carolina to Louisiana. His note resembles the "caw" of the Northern crow, minus the _w_, being more of a croak: "_cak, cak, cak, cak_." You will find him on the coast and along the rivers.

March Twenty-first

The white-tailed deer of the deep forests have dropped their antlers by this time, and a new set has started to grow. (Elk, moose, caribou, and deer have antlers; sheep, goats and cattle have horns, and retain them throughout life.) Antlers are cast off annually, and a new set will grow in about seven months.

NEST OF A MEADOW MOUSE EXPOSED BY MELTING SNOW.]

Notes

March Twenty-second

The purple grackle, or crow blackbird, should make his appearance in Southern New York about this time. He is the large, handsome fellow who lives in colonies and builds his nest in pine, hemlock, and spruce groves near human habitations. As soon as his young are hatched, he frequents the banks of rivers and lakes and walks along in quest of insects. He is one of the few birds that _walks_.

March Twenty-third

Screech owls are now nesting in natural cavities in apple-trees, but they should not be disturbed, for they feed on mice, beetles and other harmful animals. Owls are very interesting birds, but their wisdom is only in their looks. Their eyes are stationary, so in order to look sidewise, they must turn their head. Watch one and notice him dilate and contract the pupil of his eyes, according to the light, and the distance of the object at which he is gazing.

March Twenty-fourth

The American goldfinch, thistlebird, or wild canary, often spends the winter with us, but in his grayish-brown suit he is not recognized by his friends who only know him in his summer garb of black and yellow. The male and the female look alike now, but soon the male will don gorgeous colors and wear them until after the nesting season.

Notes

March Twenty-fifth

The scarlet heads of the velvet, or stag-horn sumach are very conspicuous on the rocky hillsides and gravelly bottoms. The fruit of the poison sumach hangs more like a bunch of grapes, while the stag-horn fruit is in a massive cluster. Persons susceptible to poisonous plants should never approach any poisonous shrub, particularly when the body is overheated.

March Twenty-sixth

From the swamps and river-banks comes the clatter of loud blackbird voices. Flocks containing hundreds of these noisy fellows perch in the tops of the trees, resting after their long migration flight. From the babble, you recognize the "_konk-a-ree_" of the red-shouldered blackbird, the harsh squeaky notes of the rusty grackle, and the purple grackle. As you approach, the flock takes flight, and you discover that all of the red-wing blackbirds are males; the females have not yet arrived.

March Twenty-seventh

In the dead of winter you may sometimes see a belted kingfisher along some swift-running stream, but as a rule, north of Virginia, few stay with us throughout the year. Most of them appear about this time, and you see them perched on some low limb overhanging a pond or a stream.

Notes

March Twenty-eighth

From bogs, shaded woods, and sheltered highways. Nature's question-marks, the "fiddle-heads," appear above the loam. They are baby ferns, preparing to expand and wave their graceful leaves in the face of all beholders. These queer, woolly sprouts the Indians use for food, and birds also eat them.

March Twenty-ninth

The clear, sweet, and plaintive whistle "_pee-a-peabody, peabody, peabody_," (which to the French Canadian is interpreted "_la-belle-Canada, Canada, Canada_") of the white-throated sparrow, or Canada bird, is a common, early spring song, now heard in the swamps and thickets. This sparrow may be found about New York City all winter, but it passes North to nest.

March Thirtieth

Beneath hickory-nut. Walnut, and butternut trees, you are sure to find large numbers of nut-shells that have been rifled of their contents by red squirrels, chipmunks, meadow mice, and white-footed mice. In nearly every instance, the intelligent little rodents have gnawed through the flat sides of the shell, directly into the meat, and taken it out as "clean as a whistle." But who "_taught_ them" to select the _flat_ side?

Notes

March Thirty-first

The noisy kildeer is rare in Pennsylvania and New York, but it is a common plover in Ohio. Its note, "_kildeer, kildeer, kildeer_," is emitted while the bird is on the ground or in the air. This plover is very abundant in the far West, and when a hunter is stalking antelope, it often flies about his head, calling loudly and warning the game of danger. For this trait it is sometimes called "tell-tale plover."

Notes

=April=

April First

A question which puzzles scientists, is how the turtles and frogs (which have lungs) are able, at the close of summer, to bury themselves in the mud at the bottom of a river or pond and remain there until the following spring. The frogs appear a few days before the turtles are seen.

April Second

The meadowlark's song, "_spring-o-the-year_," is heard at its best in this month and in May; but the note is one of the few that may be frequently heard in southern New England, during the entire winter. As its name implies, the meadowlark is a bird of the fields and meadows only, but it will often alight in the top of a tall tree and send forth its joyful song. Watch and listen for it now.

April Third

As soon as spring arrives and the ice has left the streams, hordes of May or shad fly nymphs can be found working their way against the current a few inches from the shore. Catch a few of them and put them in a tumbler of water and watch their external or "trachea" gills working. The adult insects are abundant in summer, but at this time of the year (even earlier), the stone flies which flit over the melting snow are often mistaken for May, or shad flies.

Notes

April Fourth

The name "purple finch" is very misleading, for the head, neck, breast, and throat of the bird are more crimson than purple. The female is often mistaken for a sparrow, as her color is dull, and her breast streaked. This finch often takes up its abode in the coniferous trees in the villages. "Its song bursts forth as if from some uncontrollable stress of gladness, and is repeated uninterruptedly over and over again." (Bicknell.)

April Fifth

If the season is not belated, you may expect to find the blood-root peeping through the rocky soil, on exposed brushy hillsides, or along the margins of the woods. You must look for it early, for its petals drop soon after the flower blossoms. The Indians used the blood-red juice which flows when the root is broken, to decorate their bodies.

April Sixth

The brush lots, roadways, and open forests in the Northern States, are now filled with juncoes on the way to their nesting grounds in Canada and the mountainous portions of this country. They are with us but a few weeks and will not be seen again until next fall. The pinkish bill and the two white outer tail-feathers are of great assistance in identifying this bird, for they are very conspicuous when it flies.

Notes

April Seventh

While walking along the bank of a stream you are quite apt to surprise a pair of pickerel lying side by side in shallow water. Save for the vibration of their fins, and the movement of their gills, they do not stir. As you approach they dart off, and you see a roily spot, where they have taken shelter among the aquatic plants.

April Eighth

The birds having white tail-feathers, or tail-feathers that are tipped with white, which show conspicuously when the owners are on the wing, are the meadowlark, vesper sparrow, chewink, snowflake, junco, blue jay, white-breasted nuthatch, Northern shrike, kingbird, hairy woodpecker, downy woodpecker, nighthawk, and whip-poor-will.

April Ninth

The clustering liverwort, hepatica, or squirrel cup, with its fuzzy stems and pretty flowers of various shades of blue, grow side by side with the white wood anemone, or wind-flower. As soon as the wood anemone blossoms, a slight breeze causes the petals to fall; that is why it is called "wind-flower."

Notes

April Tenth

One of the birds that sportsmen have protected by prohibiting spring shooting, is Wilson's snipe, or jacksnipe. Like many of the early migrants it does not nest in the United States; consequently it is only seen in the spring and fall. It is a bird of the marsh and bog, seldom seen except by those who know where and how to find it.

April Eleventh

The gall-flies, or gall-gnats, cut tiny incisions in the oak leaves and golden-rod stems, and lay their eggs between the tissues. These wounds produce large swellings which furnish the larval insects with food. If broken into at this season, one discovers that the galls on the golden-rod stems are pithy. Embedded in the pith is a white "worm," or a small black capsule, but if the "gall" is empty, a hole will be found where the fly emerged.

April Twelfth

The red-shouldered hawk is one of our common birds of prey. Its loud, somewhat cat-like cry, coming from the dense hardwood forests which border swamps, lakes, and rivers, at once attracts attention. A pair has been known to return to the same nesting locality for fifteen consecutive years. This hawk has proved itself to be of inestimable value to the farmer, and deserves his protection.

Notes

April Thirteenth

For the past six weeks, chipmunks have occasionally come out from their nests of dried grass and leaves, made in one of their several tunnels beneath the line of frost under a stone pile, or a stump. Now they are seen every day. It is only of recent years that we have discovered that chipmunks destroy grubs and insects, thus rendering service for the nuts and grain that they carry away in the fall.

April Fourteenth

Have you noticed how the robins congregate in the evening and battle with each other on the house-tops until dark? It is during the mating season that these fights take place. Long after the other birds have gone to bed. Cock Robin is awake, and shouting loud and defiant challenges to whoever will accept them.

April Fifteenth

Fungi are the lowest forms of plant life. They subsist on living and dead organic matter, and not from the soil, as do most other plants. The bread molds, downy mildew on decaying fruit and vegetables, and the fungus that kills fish and insects, are all forms of fungi. Patches of luxuriant grass are seen where decaying fungi have fertilized the soil.

Notes

April Sixteenth

The continuous "_chip-chip-chip-chip-chip-chip----_" of the chipping sparrow, like a toy insect that must run down before it can stop, is always a welcome sound at this time of the year. He can easily be tamed to take food from one's hand. Although a neat nest-builder, "chippy" selects poor nesting sites, and often the wind upsets his hair-lined cup and destroys the eggs or young.

April Seventeenth

At first the song of the spring peeper, which is really a _frog_, is heard only in the evening, but as the days get warmer, a perfect chorus of piping voices comes from swamps and stagnant pools. He strongly objects to singing before an audience, but it is well worth one's while to wait patiently and catch him in the act of inflating the skin beneath his chin.

April Eighteenth

On account of its tufted head, and clear, ringing song, "_peto, peto, peto, peto_" or "_de, de, de, de_," much like a chickadee (Chapman) the tufted titmouse is a well-known bird throughout its range: eastern United States, from northern New Jersey, and southern Iowa to the plains.

Notes

April Nineteenth

Where is the country boy or girl who does not know the "woolly bear," or "porcupine caterpillar," the chunky, hairy, rufous and black-banded caterpillar, that curls up when touched and does not uncoil until danger is over? They are the larvæ of the Isabella moth, and the reason for their appearance on the railroad tracks and wagon roads, is that they have just finished hibernating and are now looking for a suitable place to retire and change to chrysalides and then into moths.

April Twentieth

In the Northern States, where the red-headed woodpecker is not very common, it is apt to be confused with other species of woodpeckers. The red-headed woodpecker is _scarlet down to its shoulders_. The eastern woodpeckers that have the red crescent on the back of the head are flicker, downy, and hairy woodpeckers.

April Twenty-first

The gardener, while spading about the roots of a tree, will often throw out a number of white, chunky grubs, about the size of the first joint of one's little finger. These are the larvæ of the June, or May beetle. In the fall, they dig below frost line, where they remain until the following spring. After three years of this life, they emerge from the ground in May and June, perfect beetles.

Notes

April Twenty-second

The myrtle, or yellow-rumped warbler, which spends the winter from Massachusetts, south, into the West Indies and Central America, and nests usually north of the United States, is very common now. It is found in scattered flocks. If in doubt of its identity, look for the yellow patch on the crown, and on the rump.

April Twenty-third

The dainty little spring beauty, or claytonia, is another of the early blooming flowers. "We look for the spring beauty in April or May, and often find it in the same moist places--on a brook's edge or skirting of wet woods--as the yellow adder's tongue." (Dana.)

April Twenty-fourth

Toads are now beginning to leave their winter beds, in the leaves, under stones and the like. Did you ever tie a piece of red cloth on a string, dangle it over a toad's head, to see him follow and snap at it? Toads exude a strong acid secretion from the pores of the skin, which is distasteful to most predatory animals, excepting the snakes.

Notes

April Twenty-fifth

The yellow-bellied sapsucker is the only member of the woodpecker family whose presence is objectionable. His habit of puncturing the bark of trees and then visiting the cups to catch the sap, is well known. At any time of the year, row after row of these holes may be seen on fruit-trees (usually apple and pear)--written evidence of his guilt. See if you can catch him in the act.

April Twenty-sixth

Turkey buzzards, or vultures, are repulsive and ungainly when on the ground, but they are by far the most graceful of all our large birds when in flight. They are rarely seen in New England, or in the Northern States of the Middle Atlantic group, but in the South they are common throughout the year. Mounting high in the air, they circle 'round and 'round with scarcely a flutter of the wings, but nervously tilting to right or left, like a tight-rope walker with his balancing pole.

April Twenty-seventh

This is about the time that young red foxes get their first sight of the wide, wide world. In the Southern States they have been prowling about with their parents for weeks; but north of New York City the farmer's boy, as he now goes for the cows in the morning, will frequently see a fox family playing about the entrance to their burrow.

Notes

April Twenty-eighth

So ruthlessly has the trailing arbutus, or "May-flower" as it is called in New England, been destroyed, that in places where it was once common, it is now almost extinct. Of its odor, Neltje Blanchan says: "Can words describe the fragrancy of the very breath of spring--that delicious commingling of the perfumes of arbutus, the odors of pines, and the snow-soaked soil just warming into life?"

April Twenty-ninth

Why are the robins so abundant? Because they are all pushing forward to their Northern nesting grounds. Even in Alaska you would find a few pairs that have made the long, perilous journey in safety, raising their young in the balsam-poplars along some glacial stream, while in Georgia and Florida, where large flocks of them winter, not one would now be seen.

April Thirtieth

If you will sow a few sunflower seeds in a corner of the garden and let the plants go to seed, in the fall you are sure to have feathered visitors in the shape of goldfinches, chickadees, and nuthatches. The nuthatches (no doubt thinking of the hard times to come) will carry the seeds away, and store them in the crevices of the bark of trees.

Notes

=May=

May First

Of uniform grayish color, swift in flight, and shaped like cigars with wings, the chimney swifts might well be called the torpedo boats of the air. They never alight outside of chimneys or old buildings, and are usually seen flying high above the house-tops. For hours they chase each other through the air, keeping up a continuous "_chip, chip, chip, chip, chip, chip_," whenever the participants of the game come near each other.

May Second

No sooner does the frost leave the ground, than the moles begin to work close to the surface, making ridges where the earth is soft, and throwing out small mounds, when it is packed firm. The star-nose mole inhabits damp soil, while the common mole likes the dry highlands. Although moles' eyes are small, he who thinks that they cannot see, should hold his finger before one's nose and see how quickly it will be bitten.

May Third

The marsh marigold, which grows in thick clusters in the swamps and along the streams, is now in full bloom. These flowers are often sold on the streets for "cowslips," a name wholly incorrect. The leaves make fine greens.

Notes

May Fourth