Nature study; birds

Front matter

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Introduction

This book is prepared for the large number of wideawake boys and girls who are interested in the study and observation of our wild birds. It will be of the greatest assistance to novices_, those just entering the field of ornithology, as the study of birds is called. I am quite sure that those already well versed in bird lore will find the many facts worked into the bird stories to be of interest and value to them.

It may be of interest to note that every occurrence or incident relating to bird life is based on actual facts and not imagination.

The book is divided into two parts^ the first containing many facts concerning bird life in general, — facts which everyone should know as a matter of information and facts that every student of birds must know before he or she can make satisfactory progress. The second part contains bird stories as related to Dorothy and Dick by their ''Uncle George/' The forty birds illustrated and talked about represent practically all the families of birds anyone except the professional naturalist is apt to find.

These bird stories will make entertaining reading for children in their homes and will be used in the school for general reading and as a basis for composition work. For this purpose, all the little colored bird pictures have been printed separately and may be secured at book stores or of the publisher at the rate of a penny each, — in lots of ten or more, assorted or alike, as wished. Many uses for these little pictures will suggest themselves : Composition work, scrap books, postcard albums, grouped and framed as pictures for the home or school room, to enclose in letters to birdloving friends, etc.

The index in the back of the book contains not only the names of the birds included in its pages, but additional data in regard to their ranges, etc.

BIRD LORE Part I.

All birds have feathers and no animals^, other than birds,, do wear feathers. Birds are more closely related to lizards than to any others of the animal family,, in fact their structure is quite lizard-like in many respects. It has been proved quite conclusively that birds and lizards,, in prehistoric times,, had a common ancestor.

Birds have been classified and grouped into "Orders" according to the degree of refinement in their structures. The lower order among our Xorth American birds is made up of the grebes and loons^ while the highest development is attained in the thrushes.

With the exception of a few kinds of birds that show bare skin on parts of the head^ birds are covered with feathers. Feathers do not,, however^ grow uniformly over the body; as a rule they are in tracts or patches with large bare spaces between. We do not see these bare spaces on living birds because the feathers on both sides lap over and cover them.

Feathers are very poor conductors of heat or cold; they make perfect clothes for birds either in winter or summer.

If the weather is very cold, birds simply fluff their feathers out and the cushion of air underneath makes them a much thicker and warmer coat. You can readily see this in the puffy appearance of the household canary when it is cold.

CHANGING THEIR CLOTHES.— All birds get new feathers at least once a year, and some twice a year. This changing of feathers is called moulting. Since they cannot change their clothing at will, birds have to be careful to keep their feathers clean and in good condition. Most of them are very neat and spend a great deal of time in picking over and preening the feathers.

Most all birds have tiny oil glands at the base of the tail; in the case of water birds these glands are quite large. They get small quantities of an oily liquid from these, with which to dress their feathers; this renders the close-fitting plumage of ducks and other swimming birds impervious to water.

As I have said, all healthy birds moult at least once a year, usually just after the nesting season. During this first moult practically all the feathers are changed, sometimes so many of them being lost at once that the bird is unable to fly; this commonly happens in the case of ducks and other swimming birds. Birds that moult twice a year go through the second operation early in spring; this second moult is not as complete a one as the regular summer moult; the feathers are lost and replaced gradually, but often startling changes occur in the resulting plumage^ such as plumes or ornaments on certain male birds.

During the summer rnoult, the males of a great many species, especially if they are bright colored and very differently plumaged from the females, assume the dull-colored dress of their mates. Of course in the spring moult their bright colors are assumed again; tanagers, bobolinks and many of the ducks well illustrate these changes.

There is another method of changing the plumage in springs that takes place without moulting. It is caused by the wearing or falling away of the outer edges of some of the feathers, exposing some other cclor underneath. This is well illustrated in the cases of the Snow Bunting and some of the longspurs. The former loses all of the brown that shows on the tips of the feathers in winter and also all of the white edging to the feathers on the back, so that its back is jet black and the rest of the plumage almost spotless white, ■ — this change being accomplished without the loss of any feathers.

All young birds are born covered with down, but those that remain in the nest for a short period have so little of it that they often appear to be entirely naked. This down is rapidly replaced by feathers, those of the wings and tail growing most rapidly. The following rule will, in most cases, apply to the first plumages of young birds of various species, but of course it has its exceptions: if the plumages of the parent birds are very different, the male being the brighter, the first plumage of their young will probably resemble that of the mother; if the parents are similar in plumage, that of the young will probably be different from either. The first case is shown by tanagers, orioles, goldfinches, etc., and the second by bluebirds, robins, Chipping Sparrows, etc., the young of which have spotted breasts while those of the parents are plain.

Some birds get their full adult plumage the first spring after birth while others do not attain full plumage for two or even three years. A good example of this is shown by the Orchard Oriole. During the first fall, the young male resembles his mother; in the second year he has the coloring of the female but has in addition a large black patch on the throat; in the third year he attains the perfect black and chestnut plumage of the adult male.

With every family of our birds except one, when there is difference in plumage between the sexes, the male is the more beautifully clothed. The exception is in the case of Phalaropes. The females of this family of shore birds are more brilliantly plumaged than the males and furthermore they do all the courtship, — a complete reversal of the manners of other birds. While Mrs. Phalarope lays the eggs in the nest, it is the male bird that has to attend to the duties of incubation.

MIGRATION. — Birds inhabit nearly every portion of the earth: In the tropics, where the temperature is always very warm, we find great numbers of many kinds of birds. In the North, far beyond the limit of trees, we still find birds in large numbers, during the summer, but of fewer kinds. Wherever food can be obtained, birds will be found.

Growth takes place very rapidly in the Arctic regions ; for a brief period all exposed land abounds in insect life and vegetation, then it as rapidly disappears. As the food supply decreases and the weather becomes colder, most of the birds have to move southward.

The moving southward of birds in fall and northward in spring is called migration. It is a kind of migration when a man and his family regularly move to their country home in summer and to the city in winter ; only, with the birds, it is a necessary migration and has become an instinctive habit so that, at a certain time each year, flocks of the same kinds of birds gather together ready to start their journey.

Some birds like cold weather and others do not; some make long migrations and others short ones. The tiny hummingbird flies twice a year, between here and Central America, and some of them from as far north as Labrador, — about three thousand miles, an almost incredible distance for such tiny birds to travel. The Golden Plover travels from the west coast of Hudson Bay to Brazil and even to Patagonia, a distance of fully eight thousand miles, twice a year.

On the other hand, some of the birds such as grouse and some owls may migrate but a few miles or may stay in the same locality all the time. Chickadees may be found in the northern states at all times, but the ones that are here in winter are those that have come from farther north while those that were here in summer have migrated to localities a little farther south.

One of the best methods of studying birds is the keeping of migration records, that is dates of the first arrival of each species in spring and of their departure in fall. This gets anyone out of doors each morning and keeps one "on the jump" trying to find new kinds of birds. But, whatever you do, do not let your imagination run away with you. I often have persons describe birds they have seen, — birds that never lived in this nor any other country, yet they believed they saw such birds. Should you see one you do not recognize, look him over very, very carefully; move about so as to see him from another position; remember that the shadow of a branch may cause the throat of a bird to appear black, even though it is really white.

FLIGHT. — A very interesting field of observation is that of bird flight, — the manner of flying and the speed that different species are capable of. It is a field that has hardly been touched and offers many problems for the boys and girls to solve. We used to read of birds flying at the rate of a hundred miles an hour or more, but as a matter of fact no living bird ever reached anywhere near that speed. Possibly some of the ducks may spurt for a very short distance at the rate of seventy miles per hour. It is quite evident that the average ordinary rate of flight of all birds, large and small will not exceed twenty miles an hour.

When traveling it is very interesting to compare the speed of birds going in the same direction with that of the train.

Nearly every bird has some peculiarity in its fight or in the shape of its wings that will identify it easily at a distance to the trained naturalist. It is a pleasure and should be the aim of every boy and girl to be able to know most of the birds in this way.

The high-speed camera has been of great value in showing many features of the flight of the larger birds, such as the extent to which the wings are raised and how far they are carried down at each stroke. It also shows that when in full flighty the primaries, or long outer wing feathers, are widely separated.

You know how fast the wings of a hummingbird buzz, — so rapidly as to be just a blur to the eye. The modern camera shutter will take a picture in the remarkably short space of time of one thousandth part of a second; yet it has been proved that even when taken as quickly as this, the wings of a flying hummingbird still show as a blur in the picture.

PLUMAGE AND COLOR PROTECTION.— As a rule most birds are colored, or have their markings so arranged as to harmonize with their chosen surroundings. Most birds that live or spend the greater part of their time on the ground are some shade of brown, usually either streaked or barred.

Even though the male bird is gaudily dressed, his mate is often clad in brown or some dull color so she is not at all conspicuous when sitting upon her nest, whether it be in a tree or on the ground. Even bright colored birds that frequent green trees do not show up as plainly as one would think; the sunlight filtering through the leaves makes spots of many colors and shades and you hardly notice the addition of another bright spot in the shape of a bird. This would be particularly true if we were in the position of hawks sailing over the tops of the trees.

One of the very best examples of color protection is shown by the Whip-poor-will. His plumage matches the coloring of dead leaves and sticks rjerfectly. I have made several photographs of these birds on their nests and although the picture may be perfectly sharp, it is quite difficult to make .out the form of the bird.

NEST BUILDING.

Perhaps the most interesting feature of bird life is the nest building. The various families of birds build their homes so differently and some of them display so much skill that we have to admire them. Many different trades are represented in the making of homes of some of our common birds.

MASONS. — Robins, Phoebes, Barn and Cliff Swallows are among the most skilful masons ; the flask-like nest that the Cliff Swallow sometimes makes is a wonderful piece of work for a bird to do. In the West, colonies of them attach their nests to the faces of cliffs, but in the East they are perhaps better known as Eave Swallows, because they attach their nests on the outside of buildings, under the eaves. Bit by bit, pieces of mud are cemented in place until a globeshaped vessel is formed; the entrance to this is through a neck or hole in the side.

CARPENTERS. — All the woodpeckers may be classed as carpenters, because they bore or hammer into trees to make their houses. Nuthatches, chickadees and several other birds make their homes in trees but it is necessary that the wood be decayed so they can pick out a cavity; woodpeckers can bore their way into living wood with their chisel-like bills. The large Pileated Woodpecker sometimes chisels holes twenty or even thirty inches in depth in solid wood.

TAILORS. — A great many of the birds weave pretty and strong nests but for skill as tailors none of our birds can compare with the members of the oriole family. The long, pouch-shaped nest of the Baltimore Oriole is so well made that we often see nests, two or three years old, swinging from the outer branches of elm trees. If you have never seen orioles building their nest, it will be well worth your while to watch them. Both birds engage in the work, the female of course doing the greater share. When the nest is most completed^ you may often see both birds working industriously at the same time; the female on the inside and the male hanging to the outside. Some children have fun placing colored yarn where the orioles will get it and weave it into their homes ; of times very peculiar effects in color are made.

BASKET-MAKERS. — Many birds weave their nests in the form of baskets; but the best examples of this kind of work are shown by the vireos. Their nests are made of grasses and strips of bark firmly woven in the form of little baskets^ and suspended by the rims from forked branches. Often they work bits of newspaper into the outside; too.

CURIOUS XESTS.— The majority of birds build conventional nests and; as a rule; members of the same family build nests similar in character. Grebes gather decaying rushes^ form them into piles on the water and on these wet; floating masses lay their eggs. Auks lay their single eggs on bare ledges of rock; these eggs are usually large and round at one end and quite pointed at the other so that; if they are moved; they will roll around in a circle instead of rolling off the ledge.

The tiny California Bush-tit, scarcely bigger than our hummingbird, makes a purse-shaped nest, sometimes as long as fourteen inches; this is quite slender at the top, where there is an opening in the side, and larger at the bottom, making a little room for the eggs and little birdies.

The Dipper or Water Ouzel, a short-tailed, gray bird about the size of a bluebird, found in the Rocky Mountains, makes a round nest of moss; this is placed under overhanging banks along streams and often is under rocks where the bird has to dive through a waterfall to get to it.

Our Parula Warbler makes a dainty nest and one that is quite difficult to find. Many decaying cedar swamps have quantities of long, drooping moss hanging from the branches. The little warbler turns up and weaves together the ends of these, forming a little pocket that is lined with fine grasses or hair, and makes a soft and safe bed for the eggs and young.

The Scott Oriole found on our Mexican border sews its purse-shaped nest to the under side of palm leaves.

The Chimney Swift glues sticks to the inner walls of chimneys so as to make a frail platform for its white eggs.

Eggs of birds of different families differ as greatly as the homes they are laid in. They range in size from that of the hummingbird, about the size of an ordinary bean, to that of the California Vulture, measuring four and a half inches long. In color they vary from the pure glossy white of woodpecker eggs to the deep greenish-blue of those of the Catbird; to those of Ptarmigan, so heavily blotched with blackish-brown as to appear almost black; and to those of the Duck Hawk, often so plentifully sprinkled with brown as to appear almost uniform in color.

BIRD STUDIES.