My Saturday bird class

Front matter

tSBBrafory of Omitfiolcigy 159 Sapsucker Woods Roat) Cornell University Ithaca, New York 14850

Cornell University Library QL 676.M717

3 1924 022 531 846

Preface

It is with the wish that the experiences related may inspire others to try the plan outlined in these pages of interesting children in the study of nature, that this journal of My Saturday Bird Class is published. What more delightful combination for the teacher can there be than summer, birds, and children ?

With the exception of Chapter VI., " Billy Wren's Housekeeping," which appeared in The Independent (New York) for May 29, 1890, the record is here printed for the first time. The descriptions in the notes at the end of each chapter are drawn from Samuels's Birds of New England and Adjacent States, and Coues's Key to North American Birds, and from the latter source are also taken, by permission, the engravings of the bobolink, golden-winged woodpecker, downy woodpecker, kingfisher, blue

jay, and butcher bird.

M. M.

Contents

Preface iii

CHAPTER PAGE

I. The Robin 1

Chapter I. The Robin

April is here, and in all the school-rooms from Maine to Connecticut — to say nothing of school-rooms in other states — I think I can see eager faces turned often to the window and hear restless feet tapping the floor impatiently in prospect of a run over the greensward. The robin beside the door is calling, " Come out ! come out ! " and every bird that sings is inviting us to come and see. Who says that our feathered friends are shy ? Come gently, gently, now, boys and girls, and say, "How do you do?" to them and see what they will say to it.

Last year a little girl who found that I knew the names of the birds came to me so often during the winter to ask about those that came to her door for crumbs that I began to think a bird class would be a good thing. So I said to Lois, and Lois said to all the boys and girls she knew, that if they would meet for an hour every Saturday afternoon through the spring and summer, I would tell them what I knew about birds. So on the second Saturday in,April I went to Lois' house, and there I found seven girls and three boys waiting for me. They all seemed quite happy at the prospect of the class: but when they spied a small book in my hand, the boys at once looked sober, and Cicely, the oldest girl, explained that they did not suppose that they were going to study out of a book.

" Why, no indeed," said I, " I wouldn't think of asking you to spend your holiday in that way. Now see ; all I brought this for is to show you this drawing of a bird. When you tell me about a bird, I want you to use these names. Here is the bill H ; this is the front, or forehead I ; this, the crown, or top of the head J; here is the back L ; this part of the back just above the tail is the rump ; the wing you see spread out ABODE; just under the bill is the throat and chin, G and P; lower down is the breast; and the rest you may call the under parts. Now, when you've learned all these names, I will shut up the book, and we will not look in it again once.

" The way we are going to do is this : Each time you come, you shall tell me about some bird you

THE ROBIN.

have seen, describing each part carefully. If I know what it is from your account, I will tell you the name of it. Then, after we have had a little talk, we will go for a walk to see what we can see."

H G

A, primaries ; B. secondaries ; C, primary coverts ; D, greater coverts ; E, terlials ; F, throat ; G, chin ; H, bill ; I, front ; J, crown ; K, lesser coverts ; L, interscapular region; M, leg (tarsus); N, abdomen; O, rump; P, upper tail coverts; Q, under tail coverts.

" Oh, Miss May, are we going to walk to-day ? Can't we go now ? "

" Why no ; of course not yet. We are going to talk about our good friend, the robin, first. I wonder if any of you can describe his colors."

- r

4 MY SATUEDAT BIRD CLASS.

The children all looked at each other and laughed a little, and then Cicely said, "I think I can " ; and one and another said, " I can, I can."

" That is good. Now begin, Tom, with the bill."

" It is yellow, isn't it ? "

" Yes ; but are you not sure ? "

'Yes, I'm sure now."

" Now, Cicely, the front and crown."

" I don't know, Miss May, as I'm exactly certain about the color, but I know it is dark. I'm sure it isn't black. It's brownish."

" / thought it was black, sometimes," said brighteyed Lois.

" So it is," said I ; " the father bird has a black head, but the mother bird's is gray or brown. Now what is the color of the back ? "

No one was sure about the back or wings or tail, but they all agreed that the breast was red. " Why, it must be red ; for wasn't it called ' Robin Redbreast ' ? " Neither did any one know what colored stockings Mr. Robin wore, although little Johnny said he watched one only the day before.

" But please, Miss May, he ran so fast I couldn't see his legs at all."

" Now, you see," said I, " you do not know what kind of clothes your nearest neighbor wears, so you

THE ROBIN. b

will have to learn to look more sharply. The next time you come, you must do better than to-day. The next question is, ' What do robins eat ? ' "

Chorus. " Cherries and currants and corn and bread and worms and everything."

" Oh ho, oh ho, my boys and girls ! So you think every kind of bird eats every kind of thing, do you ? Just as if the little white boy and the Indian boy and the Chinese boy all had the same things for breakfast. Try again."

Tom. " I know they just stuff our cherries."

Johnny. " And they get all our strawberries."

Bertram. " And Uncle Henry says he would like to shoot every robin, so that he could have some fruit for himself."

" Is that so ? I suppose poor Robin Redbreast does like cherries and berries, and perhaps no one ever told him that it was stealing. / do not call it stealing, though, and I'll tell you why. I think he earns every bit of fruit that he gets. I read a story not long ago that proves it.

" A man found a poor little robin that had fallen out of the nest before it could fly or had hardly any feathers on it. So he put it in a cage and began to feed it. He had had one before that he fed on bread and fruit, and it died, so he thought he would give this one meat. He cut some beef into little strips, each as large as an angleworm. ' Now,' he said to himself, ' with four babies in the nest the old birds can't get them more than ten worms apiece a day.

" So the first day he gave the young bird ten bits of meat. The next morning the poor thing was so weak he thought it would die. That day he gave it fifteen, and the next twenty-four, and every day after that a few more. Still the bird did not grow any until the fourteenth day, when he gave it sixty-^ight worms — more than its own weight. Just think of that ! Every five minutes, all day long, the old birds come with their bills full of worms to stuff into the open mouths. Don't you think our fathers and mothers are glad their boys and girls do not eat more than their own weight of food in a day ?

" Another man who was trying to raise some silk- ; worms had to cover his mulberry trees with netting, and then the robins would break through it, although there was plenty of fruit in the neighborhood. You see they knew their babies must have worms or they would die.

" Tell your Uncle Henry, Bertram, that if he should kill all the birds, I do not believe there would be a leaf left on his trees or a bush for the berries to ^ grow on.

THE ROBIN.

" There is one thing more that I have to tell you to-day, and that is our robin's family name. You may not know that all the birds belong in families just as you do ; but so it is. Kobin Redbreast belongs to the Thrush family, and a cousin of his is the catbird."

After we had all repeated the name, I said, " We will now go for a short walk in the orchard behind the barn, but the boys must remember that they can't see any birds unless they go quietly."

Whoop ! Boys go quietly on a Saturday, — who ever heard of such a thing ! Outside the door were waiting the great mastiff, King, and his friend the Skye terrier, Trix, and fine helps they were for bird-seeing ! A shout from the boys would startle a bird from a bush, and away both dogs would go after it until it was out of sight.

" boys, boys ! Why will you be boys ! Why can't you tiptoe along as these girls are doing ? See ; there goes a robin. Can we get near enough to see that his throat is white streaked with black, and that

ROBIN.

8 MY SATUEDAT BIRD CLASS.

there are small white patches above and below the eye ? Fie on those dogs ! There he goes ; but now we can see the white on his outer tail-feathers as he flies.

" Flitting through the tops of the trees is a flock of little birds keeping close together. They must be tree sparrows, those dear little birds that have been with us all winter; for the spring birds do not go in flocks like that. Well, let us go back now. There is no use in going farther to-day. Another time we will leave the dogs behind — and the boys, too, if they can't go more softly. Good by, children; do not forget what I have told you, for I shall ask you questions next Saturday."

FOE THE TEACHER.

THE THRUSH FAMILY.

Eobin, already described.

Catbird : Color, blackish ash or dark slate ; crown and tail, black; under tail-coverts, chestnut. It is so called from its cry when alarmed, which is like a cat's mew. It has also a song which resembles that of the brown thrush.

Brown thrush (thrasher) : Color, reddish brown ; below, white with more or less tawny tinge, and thickly spotted ,and streaked with dark brown. It has a long, richly varied song.

THE KOBIN. y

Song-thrush or wood-thrush : Color, above, cinnamon brown, shading into olivaceous on rump and tail ; beneath, white, marked with large, distinct, dusky spots. Its beautiful song is heard at early dawn and twilight.

Wilson's thrush : Color, above, nearly uniform light reddish brown; beneath, white, with small, indistinct spots on breast and sides. The song is a peculiar one, with a metallic ring difficult to describe, beginning quite loud and decreasing to a faint lisp. It is commonly called the veery from its note.

The hermit and olive-backed thrushes are not so often seen. They have the prevailing colors brown and white.

The mocking-bird of the Southern States belongs to this family.

All of these birds, with the exception of the robin, catbird, and mocking-bird, build in the woods and are quite shy.

The brown thrush rests in hedges and brush heaps on the prairies of Illinois ; never in the woods.

Chapter II. Bluebird And Sparrows

The next week my class had increased to twelve, and as lively a brood of chickens I found them as ever an anxious mother hen had to look after.

As soon as we had seated ourselves and were tolerably quiet, I began, —

" Who knows to what family the robin belongs ? "

No one looked as if they had ever heard of it, except Lois, who raised her hand.

" What ! not remember what I told you ? "

"Bird family, I guess," said Tom, pertly.

" Yes, and you belong to the boy famUy, I suppose.

" Come, Cicely," I said, turning to the oldest girl, " you ought to know."

Cicely. " I think you said the Bobolink family, did you not. Miss May ? "

Lois could hold in no longer.

" It's a, thrush, it's a thrush. Miss May ! "

Chorus. " Oh yes ; so it is."

" Can any one tell me what the young robins eat?"

The words were scarcely out of my mouth when there was a deafening chorus of, " Sixty-eight worms a day ! sixty-eight worms a day ! "

" Good ! I am glad you have not forgotten that. Now I suppose you each have some bird to describe?"

Bertram. " I did not see any."

Tom. " I know a lot of them."

"Very well; describe one."

Tom.. " Guess I'll take the chippy. It is a little bird about so big, and it is a kind of brown all over."

" Is that all you can say about it ? "

" Yes'm."

" Then I think you have made a mistake. I should say that was a wren, from your description."

" Oh, but I know 'twas a chippy."

" How do you know ? "

" Oh, by the looks of it."

" Yes ; but you see I do not know. If you were telling me about some strange bird, I could not give you the name of it from any such description."

" Oh, teacher," said Annie Blanchard, leaning over the back of my chair, " what is that bird that always goes in the bushes and seems so lonesome when there are no bushes for it to go in ? It is a biggish kind of bird, but I forget what color it is — "

" Oh dear," I said to myself, " I am getting into trouble by agreeing to tell the names of birds from description " ; then aloud, —

" I do not know, Annie. It must be a .strange sort of bird. Have you seen it often ? "

" Yes'm, lots of times ; but not very lately."

" Well, I hope you will see it again so that you can tell me more about the colors. What is it you wish to say, Lois ? "

" Oh, please. Miss May," said little Lois, rising- " I saw some birds down lot, and they looked like this " (as she talked she patted the parts of her body as she named them). " They were not as big as a robin, and they were bigger than a chippy. The top of the head — crown I mean — " (here she clapped both hands on her curls) — "was gray, and I think the back was a kind of speckled gray and brown, and underneath was all gray, and it had a black patch on the throat, here, so — only some did not have any black at all. Do you know what kind it was ? "

" Very good, very good indeed, Lois. There is no mistaking that bird. Those were English sparrows ; the ones without the black were the females. You know they were brought over here from England several years ago. I am sorry they are getting so plenty in our little village, for they are quarrelsome, and drive away other birds."

" I know all about those English sparrers," said Bertram ; " there's a man down to N. gives five cents apiece for 'em, and me and another feller's been shootin' 'em all the mornin'." Bertram, you see, was as careless about grammar as about everything else.

" Are you sure you get English sparrows every time," I asked, "and kill no other birds by mistake ? You know it is against the law to kill any other little birds, and you may be fined ten dollars if you are not careful."

" Oh yes'm, I know," said Bertram, easily. As we were going for our walk that afternoon we passed Bertram's house, and he ran in and brought out a string of five birds for me to see. Three were small birds, hardly as large as a chippy, with crimson patches on the top of their heads.

" Why, Bertram, do you call these English sparrows ? Do English sparrows have red caps ? "

" I guess that's blood," said Bertram, beginning to look confused.

"No, it is not. These birds are called redpolls, which means red head, and they are the prettiest and dearest little birds that visit us sometimes in late winter or early spring. They are so much smaller than the others I should think you would have known they were not English sparrows. Now let us see the other two, larger ones. This one with the spotted breast is a song-sparrow, poor thing ! He will never sing his sweet song again, and all because a boy was so sure he knew he would not take the trouble to make sure. Here is just one English sparrow out of the lot, and four innocent birds had to suffer. Are you not proud of yourself, Bertram ? "

Bertram looked quite ashamed as he took his birds into the house without saying another word.

But to go back to the lesson : we talked about the birds that are the very first to come back in spring. The dear bluebird was known to all, and some had noticed that he had red on his breast.

" Bright red ? " said I.

" No ; red as that," said they, pointing to a cherrywood table.

" I think there is one building now in the post at the front corner of our house," said Lois. " We are just as careful as we can be, Mary and I, not to frighten it, and we have seen it going there lots of times.

" And there is another bird with a blue back, Miss May, that has been here all winter. It's not so blue as the bluebird, and it has black on the back of its head that comes down so " (she drew her hands down over her ears and neck), " and underneath it is all white. It came to get crumbs at our back door almost every day."

" I gueth there'th one now," exclaimed Sidney, who had been looking out of the window. We all sprang to see, and there, sure enough, coming down the elm tree, only a few feet away, was the bird Lois had described.

"Yes, I thought so. It is a nuthatch."

" It's a little beauty," cried all the girls.

"I shouldn't think it would like to go with its head down all the time," said Tom.

" I have read that it sleeps with its head down," said I.

" My ! I should think it would get a headache," said Kate.

Meanwhile little nuthatch was running about the trunk, undisturbed by the heads in the window, peeping under the bark with bright black eyes, and pulling out now and then a good morsel for his dinner. At last he flew away with a funny little note that sounded like " krek krek."

" Two other birds I must speak of before we go for our walk. One is the song-sparrow. I hope we

MY SATURDAY BIRD CLASS.

shall hear one to-day. It builds mostly on the ground in the fields, sometimes close by the road." "Pooh! I've found their nests lots of times,"

said Tom. "I call them ground-birds. Their eggs are blue, speckled all over."

" Well, after this you will have a better name for them. The best way of knowing the song-sparrow is by a distinct dark spot in the middle of its breast. There are smaller P- streaks or spots upon its sides. Then there is the chipping sparrow. Howmany know the chippy?"

Every hand went up, and I had so many stories told me all at once about chippies that had built in " my rose-bush " and "our hedge," that I concluded this bird needed no description. So we started forth for a walk. We stopped at the post at the corner, and, looking in, could see the bluebird's nest, with one pale blue egg in it. Then we went down to the graveyard to look for birds among the evergreens. The boys disappeared by the way, and as a ball

Upper Fig. SNOWBIRD.

Lower Fig. SONG-SPARROW.

game was in progress up the street, we thought we knew what had become of them.

Kate said that she was going to find a hummingbird's nest. I told her " she would be a lucky girl indeed if she did."

We saw the blackbirds called purple grackles, spreading their boat-shaped tails as they flew about the pine trees in which they were building ; we heard several song-sparrows singing ; we followed a brown bird a long distance, but could not get near enough to see what it was. Then from one of the evergreens came a sweet, long-continued warble. As we were watching closely to see what it might be, the songster flew out and sailed over our heads, singing as he flew. We could see that he was about the size of a song-sparrow. Just as he disappeared into another spruce tree, we caught sight of the glowing crimson on the upper part of his body.

" Oh, it is a purple finch,' ' I cried.

" I should think it ought to be a red finch," said Kate.

" No ; purple finch is the name of it, although it looks more red than purple to us. It looks like a brown sparrow which has been dipped in a deep red dye. The head is the brightest color ; the brown shows through on the other parts.

" Now that we have seen something worth seeing, let us go home."

FOE THE TEACHER.

THE SPARROW FAMILY.

Chipping-sparrow, or hair-bird: Color, rump, back of neck and sides of neck and head, ashy ; crown, a continuous, uniform chestnut ; forehead, black, separated in the middle by white ; a white streak over the eye and a black one from the base of the bill through and behind the eye ; under parts, ashy white ; two narrow white bands across the wing-coverts. Length, 5| inches.

Tree-sparrow : Color, hood and upper part of nape continuous chestnut ; a line of the same from behind the eye ; sides of head and neck, ashy ; a broad, light band over the eye ; beneath, whitish, with a small, circular blotch of brownish in the middle of the upper part of the breast; edges of tail-feathers, primary quills, and two bands across the tips of the secondaries, white. Length, 6^ inches.

I have described the parts in which the chipping-sparrow aiid tree-sparrow resemble each other, from which it may be seen that they might easily be confused.

The tree-sparrow breeds in the north, but comes in small flocks to spend the winter with us, often lingering till the first week in May.

The chipping-sparrow arrives here early in the spring, and is our neighbor and familiar friend through the summer.

The English sparrow has many unlovely traits, and often drives away more attractive birds ; but I should hesitate to encourage the spirit of destructiveness in boys by allowing them to kill even such objectionable birds.

There are many other kinds of sparrows in the United States, all of which bear a general resemblance to each other. A familiar member of this family is the snowbird, which is so frequently seen as a winter visitor that I give the description.

Snowbird: Color, grayish or dark ashy black, stopping abruptly on the breast; beneath, white; first and second external tail-feathers, white ; the third tail-feather, white, margined with black. Length, 6^ inches.

Closely allied to the sparrows are the finches and buntings, individual species of which will be mentioned later.

The lesser redpoll is a finch described as follows : —

Color, above, light yellowish, each feather streaked with dark brown ; crown, dark crimson ; upper part of breast and sides of the body tinged with a lighter tint of the same ; the rump and under tail coverts also similar, but less vivid, and with dusky streaks ; rest of under parts white, streaked on the sides with brown; wing-feathers edged externally and tail-feathers all round with white ; two yellowish white bands across the wing-coverts ; secondaries and tertiaries edged broadly with the same.

The specimen described above is a male in winter dress. The spring plumage has much more of the red.

The female winter specimens lack the rose of the under parts and rump. Length, 5^ inches.

The redpoll is not a regular winter visitor, but is seen some years in great flocks. I have only observed it two seasons in ten years.

20 MY SATUKDAY BIRD CLASS.

The male purple finch is in color crimson, rosy or purplish red, most intense on the crown, fading to white beneath, mixed with dusky streaks on the back ; wings and tail dusky, with reddish edgings, and the wing coverts tipped with the same.

Female and young with no red — olivaceous brown, brighter on the rump, the feathers above all with paler edges, producing a streaked appearance ; below, white, thickly spotted, and streaked with brown. Length, 6 J inches.

This beautiful bird is found everywhere, and builds usually in pine or cedar trees.

The bluebird belongs to the family known as "rockinhabiters," and is the only species found in the Eastern States.

The white-bellied nuthatch : color, above, ashy blue ; top of head and neck, black ; under parts and sides of head to a short distance above the eye, white ; bill stout. Length, about six inches.

This bird is a frequent winter visitor, and it regularly breeds as far south as Massachusetts. It is more often seen than the red-bellied nuthatch, which is only 4J- inches in length, and whose color is above, ashy blue ; top of head, black ; a white line above and a black one through the eye ; chin, white ; rest of under parts, brownish rusty.

The nests of both species are built in holes in trees, or stumps, usually excavated by the birds for the purpose.

Chapter III. The Swallows

My third lesson was given at the house of Ralph Upton. (Did I say that we met at the home of each pupil in turn?) Ralph, being an only son, has a room full of toys which were very distracting. Sidney wound up the music box at once. Johnny began to draw pictures on the transparent slate. Tom seized a piece of chalk, and drew portraits of all the bird class and their teacher on the blackboard, while the rest of the children were soon immersed in picture books. At last I managed to get the toys piled up on the shelf, pocketed the chalk, and called my class to order by separating the boys, who were crowded together on the sofa so that they looked like nothing but a tangle of legs and arms. Then I began to talk very fast, and soon had them so interested that they forgot to look for further distractions. My subject was The Swallows.

" Five kinds of swallows there are, that live near us, and one that is not really a swallow though it is called so. Can any one name them ? "

Chimney-swallows and barn-swallows were the only ones my class had heard of.

"Have you never seen the bank-swallows' holes in the sand along the river ? Where the bank has caved off, leaving a clean-cut front, they like to make their entrances. They are sociable creatures, and often twenty or thirty build in the same bank, but they are good-natured birds, and never quarrel as the other swallows sometimes do. They are like the sand-martins of England, described by Jean Ingelow :

Erom tiny caves peeped many a sooty poll ;

In each a mother martin sat elate,

And of the news delivered her small soul. Fantastic chatter ! hasty, glad, and gay,

Whereof the meaning was not ill to tell. " Gossip, how wags the world with you to-day ? "

" Gossip, the world wags well, the world wags well."

The other swallows love to fly over the river, too, but you will know this one by the color, which is grayish brown above and white beneath. Don't you wish you could see it tunnelling its way into the bank several feet before it scoops out a room for its nest ? How do you suppose it goes to work ? Does it dig with its feet or its bill ? Do the babies like to live in such a dark cave ? It is a curious thing that although the sand is quite soft and yielding sometimes in the places it chooses, it never seems to cave in on the birds. What a snug place it is for the young ones where no hawks can get them !