The home life of wild birds : a new method of the study and photography of birds

Preface

IN studying the habits of wild birds two important problems are at once encountered, that of approach and the control of the position of the nest. My first experiments were made with Redwing Blackbirds and Cedar Waxwings, and I soon perceived that an important principle was involved, which every subsequent experiment tended to confirm. Wishing to test its value as fully as possible, every available nest which came to hand was utilized, without the exercise of choice in regard to species.

The observations were made for the most part in central New Hampshire, in the towns of Northfield and Tilton, and pertain to the common birds of the country.

I am indebted to my sister for many practical and valuable suggestions.

Francis Hobart Herrick.

Western Reserve University,

Adelbert College, Cleveland, Ohio, April, 1901.

VI

CHAPTER

Contents

PAGE

Preface .......

List of Illustrations

Introduction

TO describe and illustrate a new means of studying animal behavior, and to record what has been learned by its aid concerning the lives of some of our common birds is the main purpose of this volume. It is a popular study of birds in action and is chiefly concerned with the homes or nests and their occupants.

While the desire has been present to make these pages readable, no effort has been spared to render them accurate. Many of the observations are new ; nearly all are original, and every statement of fact is believed to be true as it stands.

The wish to give a human interest to every phase of animal activity is of very ancient origin and has done too much already in spreading the seeds of popular error and superstition concerning animal life and lore. Animals should be studied as animals which they are, and not as human beings which they have never been and are not likely ever to become.

The constant reading of human attributes into the activities of animals is to begin at the wrong end, and is a drag on the progress of accurate knowledge. We should first study the animal as far as possible from its own standpoint, and learn with exactness the facts of its life, taking care not to press analogies farther than the observed facts will warrant. Ignorance of anatomy as well as of physiology, and the desire to find in the doings of animals a marvelous counterpart of human powers of intelligence and reason have already stocked our libraries with fables, anecdotes, and stories, many of which make delightful reading, but possess little value for the modern student.

The first duty of the narrator of natural as well as civil history is to tell the truth, and to the naturalist belongs also the privilege of showing that the lives of the higher animals, when fully and clearly revealed, possess a more vital interest than the puppet dressed in human clothes, however admirable the latter may be as a work of art.

I trust that the reader will not misunderstand these remarks. Is it denied that animals possess intelligence or any powers of reason? Not at all! Such questions depend largely upon our definitions of words, and without fresh observations are usually fruitless of result. What is criticized is the gross anthropomorphism which characterizes much that is written upon the actions of animals. If I am an offender in this direction, I hope it is only in a minor degree. I am anxious to attribute to the animal every power which it is actually known to possess, and look for the roots of human instinct and intel-

XV

XVI

Introduction.

ligence all along the line of animal evolution. It tends only to confusion, however, to call those acts of association which lead to acquired habits, instincts, or the countless mechanical or chemical reactions of organisms to external stimuli, the expressions of intelligence and thought. “ Go to the ant thou sluggard ! ” is good advice, but one should bring from the ant a trustworthy account of how it performs its wonderful works. It is important to distinguish the root from the bud, as well as from the perfected flower and fruit.

Although this is not a treatise on animal behavior, a general working theory has been adopted and will now be given. Every animal at birth inherits with its bodily organs the power to use them in a more or less definite way, and all but the lowest animals, of which the Protozoa, jelly-fishes, and possibly the worms may be taken as representatives, acquire some power of learning to do things in the course of their lives. Their equipment thus consists of (i) unlearned or inherited powers, and (2) of learned or acquired abilities, which are the results of experience — often very bitter. The term “ instinct ” when used in a very broad sense may be given to all inherited or ingrained tendencies, and ‘‘ habit ” reserved for what is acquired or learned through a process of association of certain things with certain acts. An animal’s powers thus consist of free gifts at its start in life, and later acquisitions gained through its own efforts in the struggle for existence.

The catalogue of instinctive acts — even in the narrower sense of involving a number of different organs — is surprisingly great in an animal standing so high in the scale as the bird, but examples drawn from a single species will suffice. When the spring comes the young bird, who returns to the place of its birth, is prompted to find a mate, and with her soon begins to build a nest. Though unattended by instructors and unprepared by practice, it uses the inherited tools of its guild— bill, breast, and feet — with a nice precision, and be it Oriole, Robin, Flycatcher, or Vireo, follows with wonderful closeness the type of architecture which its ancestors have used for ages.

Why does the Robin in its first attempt at nest-building begin by laying a foundation of dry grass or stubble, and add to this mud softened with water and made into a mortar, which it then heaps about its breast and molds into a symmetrical cup, often selecting a rainy day for the work? One might as well ask why the Robin lays blue eggs, or why it utters its well known call. It acts in these ways because it must, because Robins have been doing these things for hundreds of generations. It not only inherits tools, but a certain aptitude for their use. Its organization compels or determines its actions.

No learning of such initial actions is required or even possible since all this has been attended to, as one might say, centuries before the animal was born. These instinctive responses are spontaneous, and when the right button is pressed or the right stimulus applied from without or within, the reaction follows as a matter of course. Of course the Robin must make a mortar of mud and straw; of course it must lay blue eggs, and after incubating them, carefully rear and feed its young. To do otherwise would not only be absurd, but very uncomfortable. Had its ancestors been Cowbirds it would have made no nest at all, but filched another’s, and foisting its eggs upon some simple minded nurse, shirked the duties of parents to their offspring. The Cowbird was thus very early to enter the field of experimental psychology.

Every bird must follow the laws of its nature, and its inherited instincts are no more wonderful than its inherited organs, — its vocal cords, its keen eyes, and its marvelous feathers.

Introduction.

XVII

The higher animals thus start in life with a definite equipment, — a body tuned to respond to the world in which they are placed, and this ingrained ability for action may be called instinct.

In speaking of the “habits” of animals we usually mean the manner of their life in general, while a “ habit ” in the technical sense may be regarded as a mode of action which the animal has learned or acquired. It is associated with pleasure, and in the course of repetition may become more or less fixed or “stereotyped.” In this sense habits are formed out of the raw material which heredity provides. The young bird learns to eat certain things, to avoid certain enemies, to start at certain sounds, to ignore others, to approach its nest in a certain way. Thus also the vertebrate sometimes acquires the habit of walking backward, while its instinct leads it to walk forward.

Habits must in time take the place of instincts in a very large measure, and it would not be strange if a Robin’s second nest were more nearly perfect than its first, or if the third were better than the second, but this would also depend upon other conditions.

The power of forming habits is a sign of intelligence, but not necessarily of reason. The intelligence may be a small grain and never destined to grow into a flourishing tree of knowledge, but it must exist along with the power of profiting by experience.

The mental faculties of birds seem to exhibit a wide range of gradation from excessive stupidity to a fair degree of intelligence, with strong associative powers, — rarely if ever the association of ideas, but of things with actions, — and often with wonderful powers of imitation.

The habits acquired by one generation are probably never handed on to the next, but this is a subject from which the dust of argument has not yet cleared away.

II

That a bird in the hand is worth two in the bush may be a good motto for the anatomist or epicure, but for the observer of living animals a bird within reach of the hand and still in the bush is of far greater worth. The problem is how to see and not be seen. If a bird is actually caught and kept in a cage or put under restraint in any way, its behavior is no longer perfectly natural and free, at least not until all fear has been subdued and it is no longer wild but tame. What is needed is an invisible chain which shall hold the animals to some fixed and chosen spot which can then be approached in disguise.

Fortunately for the student of bird-habit and instinct all these conditions are fulfilled for a most important and interesting period, — that of life at the nest. The nest is the given fixed point, and parental instinct is the invisible chain. The wild bird, however, is bound not merely to the nest, but to its young. Wherever the young go, the old birds follow. By using the nearly fledged young as a lure, some species could, I believe, be led across country for a mile or more. I have taken them two hundred feet without special effort.

Hitherto the bird-photographer has had to rely mainly upon chance in getting a picture of the nesting scenes. Most land birds depend upon concealment for protection from their enemies during the season of young. Their nests are apt to be shrouded

Introduction.

xviii

in grass or foliage, and, if easily approached, are usually inaccessible to the camera. If the nest is in a high bush or tree, the difficulties of the position and light are usually an effectual bar to obtaining good pictures, to say nothing of seeing what takes place. When the nest is on or near the ground and in a well-lighted spot, conditions which are only rarely fulfilled, it has been customary to set up the camera, and attaching a long rubber tube or thread to the shutter, to retire to a distance and wait for the birds to appear. When one of them is seen to go to the nest, the plate is exposed by pulling the thread or pressing the pneumatic bulb, and, if in luck, a picture may thus be obtained. Many plates, however, are sure to be spoiled ; little can be seen, and the observer has no control over the course of events. In the pages which follow, a method is described by which nesting birds can, in many cases, be successfully approached and studied with ease whatever the position of the nest.

It is a comparatively easy matter to examine and photograph the nest, the eggs, or the young of such species whose dwellings are accessible to all, but to portray the free behavior of the adult bird of the shy land species is quite another question.

The method is limited in its application from the necessities of the case. It is based on the solid ground of animal instinct, and may confidently be expected to have a wide application ; but how wide or general its use may become can only be determined by well-directed experiment.

III

Nearly all the illustrations of this volume are from photographs of adult land birds, and the reader will observe that they are in many cases arranged in series, and portray certain actions which are performed in a kind of routine. With very few exceptions all were made by means of the method, that is to say, the photographs were taken deliberately and not by chance. My plan was to watch the life at the nest very closely, hour by hour, and day by day, and I often made a large number of photographs to illustrate typical and unusual scenes at a nest. The observer has the advantage of being on the spot, of being able to see every act performed and to seize every opportunity which may arise. Many of the photographs here shown could not have been obtained by any other means.

What is offered now represents but a beginning in the attempt to portray the whole life of birds at the nest. The first furrow only has been struck in an old and still fallow field. These pictures will possibly seem crude when compared with those which the future will yield, but there is this to be said about all really good photographs of wild animals, that they possess a permanent interest and value, since within their limits they represent the truth, vigor, and freshness of nature. When this method comes to be applied to some of the water birds, the Terns, Gulls, and their congeners along the coast, which are more easily approached than the shyer land species, serial pictures will be obtained of far greater perfection and beauty than anything which has yet appeared.

For the portrayal of animals in action the camera is of supreme value, and if I have emphasized its use, it is only as a means to an end. Scientific books dealing with the anatomy and development of animals will always require good drawings for the illustra-

Introduction.

XIX tion of their subjects, and these are preferable to poor photographs, but for the study of animal behavior in both the invertebrates and vertebrates the camera is immeasurably superior to brush or pencil. Popular natural history books have already a large body of invaluable material to draw upon for illustrative purposes, and the often crude, impossible, or imperfect drawings, which have so long done service in the past, will gradually give place to truthful delineations of animals at home, and in the midst of that nature of which they form a part.

THE HOME LIFE OF WILD BIRDS

Chapter I. A New Method Of Bird Study And Photography

HE method of studying the habits of wild birds which this volume illustrates consists in bringing the birds to you and then camping beside them, in watching their behavior at arm’s length and in recording with the camera their varied activities. By means of such a method one may live with the birds for days at a time, and watch the play of their most interesting habits and instincts. The actors are not confined in cages ; they suffer indeed no restraint, excepting that only which their nature imposes. They come and go at will, and their life is as free and untrammeled as ever.

The method enables one to see with his own eyes at a distance of a few inches or feet, more or less, what birds do in and about their nests, and at the same time affords the rare opportunity of making photographs, not a single picture or a chance shot now and then, but an unlimited series of pictures to illustrate the behavior of birds in the fullest manner and at the most interesting period of their lives. It is often an easy matter to focus your camera directly upon the bird itself and to give a time exposure when desired. Moreover, you can approach as near as you wish, and make photographs of any required size.

I will now give the reader a less enigmatical account of the method, first considering its psychological basis or the scientific principles on which it rests, and then recording in a separate chapter, as practical examples of its working, the exact history of a few of the cases in which it has been applied.

The method in use depends mainly upon two conditions:

(1) The control of the nesting site, and

(2) The concealment of the observer.

By nesting site is meant the nest and its immediate surroundings, such as a twig, branch, hollow trunk, stem, or whatever part of a tree the nest may occupy, a bush, stub, strip of sod, or tussock of sedge, that is — the nest with its immediate settings. If the nest, like that of an Oriole, is fastened to the leafy Nesting Site branch of a tree, the nesting bough is cut off, and the whole is then carefully lowered to the ground and set up in a good light, so that the branch with the nest shall occupy the same relative positions which they did before. The nest, however, is now but four instead of forty or more feet from the ground.

Wild Birds.

The nesting bough is carried to a convenient distance from the tree, and firmly fastened to two stakes, driven into the ground and placed in a good light. If the nest is in a tussock in a shaded swamp, the whole is cut out and taken to the nearest well-lighted place; if in the woods, it is carried to a clearing where the light is favorable for study. Again, when a nest like that of the Brown Thrush occupies the center of a dense thorn bush which no human eye can penetrate and much less that of the camera, its main supports are cut off, and the essential parts are removed to the outside of the clump or to any favorable point close at hand. If the nest is but five or ten feet up, the main stem is

severed, and the nesting branch lowered to the four-foot mark, a convenient working height.

I wish to emphasize the fact that the nest itself is usually not moved or disturbed, or rather that it is moved only with its supports. The change is one of space relations, which may change with every passing breeze, but the relation of nest to support remains undisturbed.

This sudden displacement of the nesting bough is of no special importance to either old or young, provided certain precautions are taken to be dwelt upon a little later. It is as if an apartment or living room were removed from the fourth story of some human abode to the ground floor, or in the case of the ground building birds as if the first story were raised to a level with the second. The immediate surroundings of the

Fig. i. Tent in front of Cedar-bird’s nest, shown in its original position in Fig. 12. One of the birds is feeding its young.

nest remain the same in any case. The nest might indeed be taken from its bough or from the sward, but this would be inadvisable, chiefly because it would destroy the natural site or the exact conditions selected and in some measure determined by the birds themselves.

For an observatory I have adopted a green tent which effectually conceals tlie student together with his camera and entire outfit. The reader will find this fully described in the chapter on the tools of the bird-photographer. The tent is pitched beside the nest, and when in operation, is open only at one point,, marked by a small square window, in line with the photographic lens.

Concealment of the Observer.

and the nest.

A New Method of Bird Study and Photography.

o

It seems at first thought strange and almost incredible that one may take such liberties with wild birds, without wreaking destruction upon the young or introducing such unnatural conditions as would be intolerable to every true student Principles which and lover of birds, but this is by no means the case. No injury is underlie the

wrought upon old or young. The former nesting conditions are soon Method,

forgotten, while the new are quickly adopted and defended with all the boldness and persistence of which birds are capable.

This method of studying birds depends mainly upon the strength of the parental instincts which bind old to young by an invisible chain, and upon the ease with which a bird learns to adapt itself to new conditions. Upon more complete analysis we recognize the following psychological principles:

(a) The strength of an instinct increases through exercise, and may be reenforced by habit ;

(b) An instinctive impulse may be blocked or suppressed by any contrary impulse ;

(c) The instinct of fear is often temporarily suppressed by the fighting instinct, or permanently overcome by the repetition of any experience leading to the formation of new habits or associations.

We may also add :

(d) New habits are readily formed and reenforce or supplant those of older growth ■

(e) Abstract ideas, if they form any part of the furniture of the average bird-mind, are extremely hazy and fleeting;

(f) Finally we must recall the physiological fact that birds are guided in most of their operations by sight and hearing, not by scent. Their olfactory organ is very rudimentary at best, and avails them neither in finding food, nor in avoiding enemies.

After a brief analysis of the parental instincts we will endeavor to show how the principles just given are applied to the problem of approaching wild birds in the way described.

The parental instincts begin to control the life of the adult with the periodic revival of the reproductive functions, and vary greatly in their scope and intensity at the different stages of their reign as well as in different species of birds. They are periodic, recurring at definite intervals during sexual life and in serial form, one kind of act usually leading to the next in sequence, and so on until the series is complete.

When more than one litter is produced in a season, the series of events is repeated with minor changes If we include the typical migratory movements, the principal terms of the reproductive cycle may be expressed more fully as follows:

(1) Spring migration of the summer residents to the place of birth ;

(2) Mating ;

(3) Selection of nesting site and construction of the nest ;

(4) Egg-laying:

(5) Incubation ;

(6) Care of the young in the nest, including feeding, and cleaning nest and young;

(7) Care and education of young from time of flight ;

(8) Fall migration to winter quarters.

Birds seem to follow one line of conduct, whether it be sitting over the eggs, brooding, or tending the young, until their instinct in that particular direction has been satisfied,

Wild Birds.

thus normally completing one term of the series before passing to the next in sequence. The machinery, however, rarely works with absolute precision. Perturbations are sure to

arise whenever a contrary impulse comes into the field, and either blocks the path or struggles for supremacy.

The surge of parental feeling is often marked by an inbred pugnacity, which begins to show itself in certain species at the very beginning of the breeding season. This fighting mood, which is an adaptation for the protection of the home and all that it contains, is by no means a measure of the other parental impulses. It has a gradual rise, reaches a maximum when the young are ready to leave the nest, at a time when protection is most needed, and then gradually subsides.

When a pair are robbed during the breeding season, or in any way disturbed in mind or property, three courses are open to them, either to desert and begin operations anew, to stav bv the nest and save what is

Fig. 2. Tent in bushy pasture beside nest of Chestnut-sided Warbler, shown in detail in Fig. 3. left, Of, having done tllis, to fill Up

the gap by laying more eggs. The course eventually followed depends upon the nature of the bird, or upon the relative strength of fear, the parental instincts, and habit.

The parental instinct,1 reenforced by habit, gradually increases until the young are reared. It is therefore safest to change the nesting surroundings when this instinct is approaching its culmination.

The general feeling of fear is gradually or quickly suppressed according to the value of the different factors in the equation, by the parental instinct, which impels a bird at all hazards to go to its young wherever placed. This impulse though it be weak at first, is strengthened by exercise, or what amounts to the same thing, — by the growth of habits or associations.

After a bird once visits the nest in its new position, it returns again and again, and in proportion as its visits to the old nesting place diminish and finally cease, its approaches to the new position become more frequent, until a new habit has been formed, or if you will, until the old habit is reinstated.

When the birds approach the nest any strange objects like the stakes which support the bough, or the tent which is pitched beside it arouse their sense of fear or suspicion,

] This phrase is sometimes used for the sake of brevity and convenience in nearly the same sense as parental attachment or parental love.

A New Method of Bird Study and Photography.

and they may keep away for a time or advance with caution. If very shy, like most Catbirds, they will sometimes skirmish about the tent for two hours or more before touching the nest. The ice is usually broken however in from twenty minutes to an hour, and I have known a Chipping Sparrow and Red-eyed Vireo to feed their young in three minutes after the tent was in place.

At every approach to the nest in its new position, the birds see the same objects which work them no ill.

The tent stands silent and motionless, unless it happens to be windy, but the young are close by, and fear of the new objects gradually wears away. Parental instinct, or in this case maternal love, for the instinct to cherish the young is usually stronger in the mother, wins the day.

The mother bird comes to the nest and feeds her clamoring brood. The spell is broken ; she comes again.

The male also approaches, and their visits are thereafter repeated.

Possibly the fears of the old birds are renewed at sight of the window which is now opened in the tent-front, and of the glass eye of the camera gleaming through it, but the lens is also silent and motionless, and soon becomes a familiar object to be finally disregarded. Again there is the fear which the sound of the shutter, a sharp metallic click , at first inspires, unless you are the fortunate ter, an instrument which is unknown to the trade, at least in this country. At its first report when two feet away, many a bird will jump as if shot, give an angry scream, and even fly at the tent as if to exorcise an evil spirit, while after a few hours, or on the second day, they will only wince; finally they will not budge a feather at this or any other often repeated sound, whether from shutter, steam whistle, locomotive, or the human voice. This illustrates the effect of the alarm clock over again. At our first experience with this nerve-wracking machine, we start from deep sleep and promptly heed its summons ; then we are apt to mind it less and less until we sleep on serenely in spite of it. If we were to place an alarm clock on or near the nesting bough, and let it off at regular but not too frequent intervals, the birds would soon learn to disregard it as we do, and as some of them disregard the babel of a city street.

Pig- 3* Tent beside nest of Chestnut-sided Warbler. The female broods, while the male is foraging.

possessor of an absolutely silent and rapid shut-

Wild Birds.

It is the young, the young, always THE YOUNG in whom the interest of the old birds is centered, and about whom their lives revolve. They are the strong lure, the talisman,

the magnet to which the parent is irresistibly drawn. The tree, the branch, the nest itself, what are these in comparison with the young for whom alone they exist ?

With some species it is possible to make the necessary change without evil consequences when there are eggs in the nest ; with others we must wait until the young are from

When to f°ur to n'ne days Change old. It is all a the Nest- question Gf the ing Site. strength of the parental instinct, and this varies between wide limits in different species, and very considerably between different individuals. From the nature of the case there can be no infallible rule. If we know little of the habits of the birds in question it is safest to wait until the seventh to the