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THE BIRD STUDY BOOK

by

T. GILBERT PEARSON

Secretary, National Association of Audubon Societies

Coloured Frontispiece

Pen and ink drawings by Will Simmons

And sixteen photographs







[Frontispiece: Wood Thrush]



Garden City ------ New York
Doubleday, Page & Company
1917
Copyright, 1917, by
Doubleday, Page & Company
All rights reserved, including that of translation into foreign
languages, including the Scandinavian




TO MY WIFE

ELSIE WEATHERLY PEARSON




{v}

PREFACE

This book has been written for the consideration of that ever-increasing
class of Americans who are interested in acquiring a greater familiarity
with the habits and activities of wild birds.  There are many valuable
publications treating more or less exhaustively of the classification of
birds, as well as of form, colour, distribution, migration, songs, and
foods.  Here an attempt is made to place before the reader a brief
consideration of these and many similar topics, and suggest lines of
action and thought that may perhaps stimulate a fuller study of the
subject.  Attention is also given to the relation of birds to mankind and
the effect of civilisation on the bird-life of the country.  The book is
not intended so much for the advanced student in ornithology, as for the
beginner.  Its purpose is to answer many of the questions that students
in this charming field of outdoor study are constantly asking of those
more advanced in bird-lore.  In conformity with the custom employed
during many years of college and summer-school teaching, the author has
discussed numerous details of field observation, the importance of which
is so often overlooked by writers on the subject.

If one can, in the recounting of some experience that he has found
interesting, awaken in the mind of a sympathetic hearer a desire to go
forth and acquire a similar experience, then indeed may he regard himself
as a worthy disciple of the immortal Pestalozzi.  Let the teacher who
would instruct pupils in bird-study first acquire, therefore, that love
for the subject which is sure to come when one begins to learn the birds
and observe their movements.  This book, it is hoped, will aid such
seekers after truth by the simple means of pointing out some of the
interesting things that may be sought and readily found in the field and
by the open road.

In the preparation of this volume much valuable aid has been received
from Messrs. E. W. Nelson, F. E. L. Beal, Wells W. Cooke, T. S. Palmer,
H. C. Oberholser, and others of the United States Biological Survey, for
which the author desires to make grateful acknowledgment.

Parts of some of the chapters have previously appeared in the "Craftsman
Magazine" and "Country Life in America," and are here reproduced by the
courtesy of the editors.

T. GILBERT PEARSON.




{ix}

CONTENTS


                                                               PAGE

PREFACE  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .    v


CHAPTER

    I. FIRST ACQUAINTANCE WITH THE BIRDS . . . . . . . . . . .    3

       _Caution in Nest Hunting--Going Afield--Notebooks--Reporting
       Blanks--Bird Books--Movements of Birds--Artificial
       Cover in Hiding--The Umbrella Blind--Conclusion._


   II. THE LIFE ABOUT THE NEST . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   21

       _Nest Hunting--Behaviour when Nest Is Discovered--Lessons
       to Be Learned--Character of Material Used--Nests in
       Holes--Variety of Locations--Variation in Families--Meagre
       Nests._


  III. DOMESTIC LIFE OF THE BIRDS  . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   42

       _Parental Care of Young--Sharing the Labours--Length
       of Mated Life--A Much-married Bluebird--The Faithful
       Canada Geese--Unmated Birds--Polygamy Among
       Birds--The Outcast._


   IV. THE MIGRATION OF BIRDS  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   61

       _Moulting--Why Birds Migrate--The Gathering
       Flocks--The Usual Movement--The Travelling Shore
       Birds--The World's Migrating Champion--Perils of
       Migration--Keeping Migration Records._


    V. THE BIRDS IN WINTER . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   82

       _A Good Time for Field Walks--The Downy's Winter
       Quarters--Birds and the Night--The Food Question in
       Winter--When the Food Supply Fails--Wild Fowl
       Destroyed in the Oil Fields--Hunting Winter Birds._


   VI. THE ECONOMIC VALUE OF BIRDS . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  101

       _A Government Report--Plagues of Insects--Some
       Useful Birds--The Question of the Weed Seeds--Dealing
       with the Rodent Pests--The Terror That Flies by
       Night--A Seldom Recognised Blessing._


  VII. CIVILIZATION'S EFFECT ON THE BIRD SUPPLY  . . . . . . .  120

       _Number of Birds in the World--Number in the
       Different States--Increase of Farm-land Species--Effect
       of Forest Devastation--Commercializing Birds--Wild
       Pigeon--Ivory-billed Woodpecker--Labrador
       Duck--Great Auk--Eskimo Curlew._


 VIII. THE TRAFFIC IN FEATHERS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  140

       _War on the Sea Swallows--What the Ladies Wore--The
       Story of the Egrets--Amateur Feather
       Hunters--Maribou--Pheasants--Numidie--Goura--Women's
       Love for Feathers--Ostrich Feathers Are Desirable._


   IX. BIRD-PROTECTIVE LAWS AND THEIR ENFORCEMENT . . . HOW
       LAWS ARE MADE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  167

       _Definition of Game--Audubon Laws--Game Law
       Enforcement--Lacy Lava--Federal Migratory Bird
       Law--History of Game Laws--The Theory of Shiras--Work
       of the Bird Committee--Government Explanations--World's
       Only Bird Treaty._


    X. BIRD RESERVATIONS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  190

       _First Federal Bird Reservation--Congressional
       Sanction--Florida Reservations--Distant
       Reservations--President Taft a Bird
       Protectionist--Audubon Society Reservations--The
       Corkscrew Rookery--Wardens Shot by Plume Hunters._


   XI. MAKING BIRD SANCTUARIES . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  214

       _Natural Nesting Places Destroyed--Nesting Boxes for
       Birds--Some Rules for Making and Erecting Bird
       Boxes--Sites of Bird Boxes--Feeding Birds--Community
       Sanctuaries--Birdcraft Sanctuary--Cemeteries as Bird
       Sanctuaries--A Birdless Cemetery--Birds of a New York
       Graveyard--Enemies to Be Eliminated--Berries and Fruit
       for Birds._


  XII. TEACHING BIRD STUDY . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  239

       _Teaching Children--Junior Audubon Societies--Correlated
       Studies--Keeping Scrapbooks--Records of
       Migrants--Essays--Sending Old Nests to City
       Children--Audubon Prizes--Bird Day._




{xiii}



LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS


Wood Thrush  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . _Frontispiece in color_


HALF-TONE CUTS

                                                        Facing Page

A ferocious young Eagle  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   16

Gannets nesting on the cliffs of Bonaventure
  Island, Gulf of St. Lawrence . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   32

A male Plumbeous Gnatcatcher feeding young . . . . . . . . . .   38

A mountain Bluebird family whose home has
  been destroyed . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   48

Young Robins quarreling at their bath  . . . . . . . . . . . .   64

Feeding station for birds  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   80

Snowy Egret shot on its feeding grounds  . . . . . . . . . . .   96

Farallone Cormorants and White Pelicans on
  a Government Bird Reservation  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  112

Window "Cafeteria" at home of Mrs. Granville Pike  . . . . . .  128

A Christmas dinner for the birds . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  144

An Egret, bearing "aigrettes," in attendance
  on her young . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  160

Egret brooding on a Florida island owned and
  guarded by the Audubon Society . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  176

The Downy Woodpecker is fond of suet . . . . . . . . . . . . .  192

Members of a Junior Audubon class at Fergus
  Falls, Minnesota . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  208

A California Hospital for injured birds  . . . . . . . . . . .  224

Preparing for the coming of the birds  . . . . . . . . . . . .  240


LINE CUTS IN TEXT

                                                               Page

The fox that followed the footsteps  . . . . . . . . . . . . .    7

Heads and feet of various birds  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   11

Sample page of reporting-blank . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   13

The umbrella blind . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   18

Nest of the ruby-throated hummingbird  . . . . . . . . . . . .   30

Bald Eagle's eyrie . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   32

Grebe or "water witch" . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   37

Canada Geese decoys  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   52

A greedy young Cowbird . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   58

Migration routes of some North American birds  . . . . . . . .   71

Lighthouses cause the death of many birds  . . . . . . . . . .   76

Tired migrating birds often alight on ships  . . . . . . . . .   79

Grouse "budding" in an apple tree  . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   88

Cuckoo raiding a tent of caterpillars  . . . . . . . . . . . .  111

Screech owl and its prey . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  115

Passenger Pigeons are now extinct  . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  127

The Great Auk, now extinct . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  133

Terns formerly sought by the feather trade . . . . . . . . . .  144

Crowned Pigeon that furnishes the "goura" of
  the feather trade  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  159

Migrative birds are protected by the Government  . . . . . . .  172

The grotesque Wood Ibis  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  208

Hungry young Egrets  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  210

Cemented holes shut out the Chickadee  . . . . . . . . . . . .  216

Gourds and boxes for Martins . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  219

A bird bath  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  235

Coloring of birds upon outline drawings  . . . . . . . . . . .  257




{3}

THE BIRD STUDY BOOK


CHAPTER I

FIRST ACQUAINTANCE WITH THE BIRDS

It is in spring that wild birds make their strongest appeal to the
human mind; in fact, the words "birds" and "spring" seem almost
synonymous, so accustomed are we to associate one with the other.  All
the wild riotous singing, all the brave flashing of wings and tail, all
the mad dashing in and out among the thickets or soaring upward above
the tree-tops, are impelled by the perfectly natural instinct of mating
and rearing young.  And where, pray, dwells the soul so poor that it
does not thrill in response to the appeals of the ardent lover, even if
it be a bird, or feel sympathy upon beholding expressions of parental
love and solicitude.  Most people, therefore, are interested in such
spring bird life as comes to their notice, the extent of this interest
depending {4} in part on their opportunity for observation, but more
especially, perhaps, on their individual taste and liking for things
out of doors.

It would seem safe to assume that there is hardly any one who does not
know by sight at least a few birds.  Nearly every one in the eastern
United States and Canada knows the Robin, Crow, and English Sparrow; in
the South most people are acquainted with the Mockingbird and Turkey
Buzzard; in California the House Finch is abundant about the towns and
cities; and to the dwellers in the Prairie States the Meadowlark is
very familiar.

Taking such knowledge, however slight, as a basis, there is no reason
why any one, if he so desires, should not, with a little effort, get on
neighbourly terms with a large number of birds of the region, and
spring is a most favourable time to begin such an effort.  One may
learn more about a bird's habits by closely observing its movements for
a few hours at this season than by watching it for a month later on.
The life that centres about the nest is most {5} absorbing.  Few sights
are more stimulating to interest in outdoor life than spying on a pair
of wild birds engaged in nest building.  Nest hunting, therefore, soon
becomes a part of the bird student's occupation, and I heartily
recommend such a course to beginners, _provided_ great care is
exercised not to injure the nests and their contents.

_Caution in Nest Hunting._--A thoughtful person will, of course, be
careful in approaching a wild bird's nest, otherwise much mischief may
be done in a very short time.  I have known "dainty eggs" and "darling
baby-birds" to be literally visited to death by well-meaning people,
with the best of intentions.  The parents become discouraged by
constantly recurring alarms and desert the nest, or a cat will follow
the path made through the weeds and leave nothing in the nest worth
observing.  Even the bending of limbs, or the pushing aside of leaves,
will produce a change in the surroundings, which, however slight, may
be sufficient to draw the attention of some feathered enemy.

{6}

When one stumbles on the nest of a Quail, Meadowlark, or Oven-bird, it
is well not to approach it closely, because all over the country many
night-prowling animals have the habit of following by scent the
footsteps of any one who has lately gone along through the woods or
across the fields.  One afternoon by the rarest chance I found three
Quails' nests containing eggs.  The next morning I took out a friend to
share the pleasure of my discoveries.  We found every nest destroyed
and the eggs eaten.  My trail the evening before lay through cultivated
fields, and it was thus easy for us to find in the soft ground the
tracks of the fox or small dog that, during the night, had followed the
trail with calamitous results to the birds.  When finding the nests I
had made the mistake of going to within a few inches of them.  Had I
stopped six feet away the despoiler that followed probably never would
have known there was a nest near, for unless a dog approaches within a
very few feet of a _brooding_ Quail it seems not to possess the power
of smelling it.

[Illustration: The Fox that Followed the Footsteps]

{7}

_Going Afield._--It is rarely necessary to go far afield to begin the
study of birds.  Often one may get good views of birds from one's open
window, as many species build their nests close to the house when the
surroundings are favourable.  Last spring {8} I counted eighteen kinds
of birds one morning while sitting on the veranda of a friend's house,
and later found the nests of no less than seven of them within sight of
the house.  When one starts out to hunt birds it is well to bear in
mind a few simple rules.  The first of these is to go quietly.  One's
good sense would of course tell him not to rush headlong through the
woods, talking loudly to a companion, stepping upon brittle twigs, and
crashing through the underbrush.  Go quietly, stopping to listen every
few steps.  Make no violent motions, as such actions often frighten a
bird more than a noise.  Do not wear brightly coloured clothing, but
garments of neutral tones which blend well with the surroundings of
field and wood.  It is a good idea to sit silently for a time on some
log or stump, and soon the birds will come about you, for they seldom
notice a person who is motionless.  A great aid to field study is a
good _Field Glass_.  A glass enables one to see the colours of small
birds hopping about the shrubbery, or moving through the branches of
trees.  With its {9} aid one may learn much of their movements, and
even observe the kind of food they consume.  A very serviceable glass
may be secured at a price varying from five to ten dollars.  The
National Association of Audubon Societies, New York City, sells a
popular one for five dollars.  If you choose a more expensive,
high-powered binocular, it will be found of greater advantage when
watching birds at a distance, as on a lake or at the seashore.

_Notebooks._--The bird student should early acquire the custom of
making notes on such subjects as are of special interest.  In listening
to the song or call of some unknown bird, the notes can usually be
written down in characters of human speech so that they may be recalled
later with sufficient accuracy to identify the singer.  It is well to
keep a list of the species observed when on a trip.  For many years in
my field excursions I have kept careful lists of the birds seen and
identified, and have found these notes to be of subsequent use and
pleasure.  In college and summer-school work I {10} have always
insisted on pupils cultivating the notebook habit, and results have
well justified this course.

In making notes on a bird that you do not know it is well to state the
size by comparing it with some bird you know, as, for example, "smaller
than an English Sparrow," "about the size of a Robin," and so on.  Try
to determine the true colours of the birds and record these.  Also note
the shape and approximate length of the bill.  This, for example, may
be short and conical like a Canary's, awl-shaped like the bill of a
Warbler, or very long and slender like that of a Snipe.  By failing to
observe these simple rules the learner may be in despair when he tries
to find out the name of his strange bird by examining a bird book, or
may cause some kindly friend an equal amount of annoyance.

[Illustration: Heads and feet of various birds]

As a further aid to subsequent identification it is well to record the
place where the bird was seen, for example: "hopping up the side of a
tree," "wading in a marsh," "circling about in the air," or "feeding
{12} on dandelions."  Such secondary information, while often a
valuable aid to identification, would in itself hardly be sufficient to
enable an ornithologist to render the service desired.

That a young correspondent of mine entertained a contrary view was
evident from a letter I received a few weeks ago from an inexperienced
boy enthusiast, who was a member of a newly formed nature-study class.
Here is the exact wording of the communication: "Dear Sir: 10 A. M.
Wind East.  Cloudy.  Small bird seen on ground in orchard.  Please
name.  _P. S._ All the leaves have fallen."

_Reporting Blanks._--A convenient booklet of reporting blanks and
directions for using them is issued by the National Association of
Audubon Societies, New York City.  This is very useful in recording
descriptions of birds.  (See sample, page 13.)  The blanks may be sent
to the office of the National Association and the species described
will be named.

[Illustration: Sample page of reporting-blank]

Bird Books.--There are a number of inexpensive {14} books which contain
illustrations of birds in natural colours.  One of these will be of the
greatest aid to the beginner in bird study.  Among the most useful are
the Reed's, "Bird Guides," one covering the birds of the eastern and
the other those of the western part of the United States.  The pictures
alone will be of great use in learning the names of feathered
neighbours, while an intelligent study of the text will reveal the
identity of many others.

Local lists of such birds as are found in a neighbourhood, or a county,
are always a great aid in determining, with a fair degree of accuracy,
just what species may or may not be expected to appear in a given
locality.  Such lists are usually first published in _The Auk_, _The
Condor_, or other ornithological publications, and in many cases are
printed and distributed later as separate pamphlets.

There have been published also many State lists of birds, usually
accompanied by detailed information regarding abundance and
distribution of all the species known to occur in the State.   Every
bird {15} student should, if possible, get a copy of his own State bird
book.  Any reader who may wish to learn if such a list of the birds of
his neighbourhood or State has been published is at liberty to address
the question to the author of this book.

_Movements of Birds._--One does not get very far in the work of bird
study without discovering that certain movements are characteristic of
various families; and when the observer is able to recognize this
difference in manner a long step has been taken in acquiring the power
of identifying species.

After watching for a time the actions of a Downy Woodpecker as it
clings to the side of a tree, or hops along its bark, one is quick to
recognize the Woodpecker _manner_ when some other species of that
family is encountered.  Recalling the ceaseless activities of a Yellow
Warbler the observer feels, without quite knowing why, that he has
discovered another Warbler of some kind when a Redstart or
Chestnut-sided Warbler appears.  Once identify a Barn Swallow coursing
through the air, and a long {16} stride is made toward the
identification of the Cliff or Tree Swallow when one swings into view.
The flight of the Flicker, the Goldfinch, the Nighthawk, and the
Sparrow Hawk, is so characteristic in each case that I have often been
able to name the bird for a student upon being told its approximate
size and the character of its flight.  Who can see a Wild Duck
swimming, or a Gull flying, without at once referring it to the group
of birds to which it belongs?  Thus the first step is taken toward
learning the names of the species, and the grouping of them into
families.

_Artificial Cover in Hiding._--When studying the larger or the shyer
species it is sometimes well to hide one's self from view with whatever
articles are at hand that resemble the natural surroundings.  This may
be done by covering with hay if in a field, or by holding some leafy
branches about you if in the woods.

On a lonely island in Pamlico Sound I once got some fishermen to cover
me with sand and sea-shells, and in that way managed to get a close
view of {17} the large flocks of Cormorants that came there to roost
every night.  The island was small and perfectly barren, and any other
method of attempted concealment would have failed utterly.

Another time, while crouched among some boulders watching for a flock
of Gambel's Quails to come to a water-hole in the Santa Catalina
Mountains of Arizona, a Canyon Wren alighted on my back, for I was
covered with an old tent fly so spotted with mildew that it closely
resembled the neighbouring rocks.  A moment later it flew to a point
scarcely more than a foot from my face, when, after one terrified look,
it departed.

[Illustration: A ferocious young eagle]

_The Umbrella Blind._--A device now often used by ornithologists is the
umbrella blind, which is easy to construct.  Take a stout umbrella,
remove the handle, and insert the end in a hollow brass rod five feet
long.  Sharpen the rod at the other end and thrust it into the ground.
Over the raised umbrella throw a dark green cloth cut and sewed so as
to make a curtain that will reach the ground all round.  A {19}
draw-string will make it fit over the top.  Get inside, cut a few
vertical observation slits six inches long, and your work is done.
Erect this within ten feet of a nest, and leave it alone for a few
hours.  The birds will quickly get accustomed to it so that later you
may go inside and watch at close range without disturbing them in the
least.  This blind is often used for close bird photography.  I have
taken pictures of Herring Gulls at a distance of only six feet with the
aid of such a blind.  If you wish to use it on a windy day it may be
stayed by a few guy-lines from the top and sides.

[Illustration: The Umbrella Blind]

The foregoing instructions include all the necessary aids to a beginner
in bird study who desires to start afield properly equipped.  To
summarize them, all that is really necessary is a field glass, a
notebook for memoranda, inconspicuous clothing, and a desire to listen
and learn.

In the next chapter we shall discuss some of the things to be learned
in the study of the life about the nest.

{20}

_NOTE.--The following publications will be found of great aid to the
student in identifying wild birds:_

_"Handbook of Birds of Eastern North America," by Frank M. Chapman,
published by D. Appleton Or Company, price $3.65, postpaid._

_"Handbook of Birds of Western United States," by Florence Merriam
Bailey, published by Houghton, Mifflin Company, price $3.68, postpaid._

_"Water and Game Birds: Birds of Prey" and "Land Birds East of the
Rockies: From Parrots to Blue Birds," by Chester A. Reed, published by
Doubleday, Page & Company, price of each in sock cloth, $1.10,
postpaid; inflexible leather, $1.35, postpaid._

_Educational Leaflets, published by the National Association of Audubon
Societies, New York City, a series of nearly one hundred, price 2 cents
each._




{21}

CHAPTER II

THE LIFE ABOUT THE NEST

In view of the fact that birds display much activity about their nests
there is a great advantage in studying the nesting bird.  Once locate
an occupied nest, and by quietly watching for a time, your field glass
and bird guide will usually enable you to learn the owner's name.  If
you do not know where any nest is to be found go out and hunt for one.
This in itself will be an exciting sport, although it should be pursued
with good judgment.  Children unattended should not be permitted to
hunt nests in spring.  A very excellent way to find one is to keep a
sharp watch upon birds at the time when they are engaged in nest
building.

_Nest Hunting._--By noticing every bird suspected of being interested
in domestic affairs, you are pretty {22} sure to see one before long
with grass, twigs, rootlets, or something of the kind in its bill.  Now
watch closely, for you are in a fair way to discover a nest.  The bird
may not go directly to the spot.  If it suspects it is being watched it
may hop from twig to twig and from bush to bush for many minutes before
revealing its secret, and if it becomes very apprehensive it may even
drop its burden and begin a search for insects with the air of one who
had never even dreamed of building a nest.  Even when unsuspicious it
will not always go directly to the nest.  From an outhouse I once
watched a Blue Jay, with a twig, change its perch more than thirty
times before going to the fork where its nest was being built.

Sometimes a bird may be induced to reveal its secret by placing in its
sight tempting nesting material.  By this means Mrs. Pearson last
summer found a Redstart's nest.  Discovering a female industriously
hopping about near the camp, and suspecting what it was seeking, she
dropped some ravellings of a white cotton string from the veranda
railing, letting {23} them fall where the bird could see them.  These
proved most acceptable, and the Redstart immediately appropriated them,
one at a time, with the result that she soon betrayed her nest.

Early morning is the best time of the day to find birds working at
their nests, for then they are most active.  Perhaps a reason for this
is that the broken twigs, leaves, and dead grasses, wet with the dews
of night, are more pliable, and consequently more easily woven into
place.

For nesting sites birds as a rule prefer the open country.   Rolling
meadowlands, with orchards, thickets, and occasional streams, are ideal
places for birds in spring.

_Number and Colour of Eggs._--The full complement of eggs laid by a
bird is known as a set or clutch.  The number varies greatly with
different species.  The Leach's Petrel, Murre, and some other sea
birds, have but one egg.  The Turkey Vulture, Mourning Dove,
Hummingbird, Whip-poor-will, and Nighthawk lay two.  Various Thrushes,
such as the {24} Robin, Veery, and Wood Thrush, deposit from three to
five, four being the most usual number.  Wild Ducks, Turkeys, and
Grouse range from eight to a dozen or more; while Quails sometimes lay
as many as eighteen.

Eggs are variously coloured, and some are so marked that the blending
of their colours with those of their surroundings renders them
inconspicuous.  Thus those of the Killdeer, Sandpiper, and Nighthawk,
for example, are not easily distinguished from the ground on which they
lie.

Many eggs that are laid in holes or other dark places are white without
markings of any kind, as illustrated by those of the Chimney Swift,
Belted Kingfisher, and all Woodpeckers.  In such instances Nature shows
no disposition to be lavish with her colouring matter where it is not
needed.

_Behaviour When Nest Is Discovered._--After the young are hatched it is
even easier to find nests by watching the parents.  The nestlings are
hungry at all hours, and the old ones are visiting the nest at frequent
intervals throughout the day.  Birds {25} behave very differently when
their nests are discovered.  A Cuckoo will glide away instantly and
will make no effort to dispute your possession of her treasures.  A
Crow will also fly off, and so will a Wild Duck and some others.  On
the other hand, the Mockingbird, Robin, or Shrike, will raise a great
outcry and bring about her half the birds of the neighbourhood to pour
out on you their vials of wrath, unless you have the good judgment to
retire at once to a respectful distance.  Warblers will flit from bush
to bush uttering cries of distress and showing their uneasiness.  The
Mourning Dove, Nighthawk, and many others will feign lameness and seek
to lead you away in a vain pursuit.  A still larger number will employ
the same means of deception after the young have been hatched, as, for
example, the Quail, Killdeer, Sandpiper, and Grouse.

However much a bird may resent your intrusion on the privacy of its
sanctuary, it is very rare for one to attack you.  I remember, however,
a boy who once had the bad manners to put his hand into a {26}
Cardinal's nest and had a finger well bitten for his misdeed.  Beware,
too, of trying to caress a Screech Owl sitting on its eggs in a hollow
tree; its claws are very sharp, and you will need first-aid attention
if you persist.  Occasionally some bird will let you stroke its back
before deserting its eggs, and may even let you take its photograph
while you are thus engaged.  On one occasion I removed a Turkey
Vulture's egg from beneath the sitting bird.  It merely hissed feebly
as I approached, and a moment later humbly laid at my feet a portion of
the carrion which it had eaten a short time before--a well-meant but
not wholly appreciated peace-offering.

_Lessons to Be Learned._--An infinite variety of interesting things may
be learned by watching birds at their nests, or by a study of the nests
themselves.  How many persons have ever tried to answer seriously the
old conundrum: "How many straws go to make a bird's nest?"  Let us
examine critically one nest and see what we find.  One spring after a
red squirrel had destroyed the three eggs in a Veery's {27} nest which
I had had under observation, I determined to study carefully its
composition, knowing the birds would not want to make use of it again.
The nest rested among the top limbs of a little brush-pile and was just
two feet above the ground.  Some young shoots had grown up through the
brush and their leaves partly covered the nest from view.  It had an
extreme breadth of ten inches and was five inches high.  The inner cup
was two and one-half inches deep, and measured the same across the top.
In its construction two small weed stalks and eleven slender twigs were
used.  The latter were from four and one-half to eight inches long.
The main bulk of the nest was made up of sixty-eight large leaves,
besides a mass of decayed leaf fragments.  Inside this bed was the
inner nest, composed of strips of soft bark.  Assembling this latter
material I found that when compressed with the hands its bulk was about
the size of a baseball.  Among the decaying leaves near the base of the
nest three beetles and a small snail had found a home.

{28}

The Veery, in common with a large number of other birds, builds a nest
open at the top.  The eggs, therefore, are often more or less exposed
to the Crow, the pilfering Jay, and the egg-stealing red squirrel.
This necessitates a very close and careful watch on the part of the
owners.  At times it may seem that the birds are not in sight, and that
the eggs are deserted; but let the observer go too near, and invariably
one or both old birds will let him know of their presence by voicing
their resentment and sending abroad their cries of distress.

_Character of Material Used._--A wide variety of material is used by
birds that build open nests.  Cotton and feathers enter largely into
the composition of the lining of a Shrike's nest.  In Florida the
Mockingbird shows a decided preference for the withered leaves and
stems of life-everlasting, better known as the plant that produces
"rabbit tobacco."  The nest of the Summer Tanager is made almost
entirely of grasses, the outer half being green, freshly plucked blades
that contrast strikingly with the {29} brown inner layer with which the
nest is lined.  Many of the Thrushes make use of large flat leaves, and
also of rags and pieces of paper.  Robins stiffen their nests by making
in them a substantial cup of mud, which, when dry, adds greatly to the
solidity of the structure.  On the island of Cape Hatteras there are
many sheep, and many Prairie Warblers of the region make their nests
entirely of wool.

The most dainty structure built, in this country, by the bill and feet
of birds, is the nest made by the Ruby-throated Hummingbird.  When
completed it is scarcely larger than an English walnut, and is saddled
on a small horizontal limb of a tree, often many feet from the ground.
It is composed almost entirely of soft plant fibres, fragments of
spiders' webs sometimes being used to hold them in shape.  The outer
sides are thickly studded with bits of lichen, and practised, indeed,
is the eye of the man or woman that can distinguish it from a knot on a
limb.  Although the Hummingbird's nest is exceedingly frail, there is
nothing on record to show that {30} any great number of them come to
grief during the summer rains.  It is, however, not called upon for a
long term of occupation.  Within a month after the two white eggs are
laid the young depart on their tiny pinions.  Young birds that require
a longer period for growth before leaving the nest are furnished
usually with more enduring abiding places.  {31} In the case of the
Bald Eagle, the young of which do not fly until they are many weeks
old, a most substantial structure is provided.

[Illustration: Nest of the Ruby-throated Hummingbird]

It was on the twentieth of January, a number of years ago, that the
writer was first delighted by the sight of a Bald Eagle's nest.  It was
in an enormous pine tree growing in a swamp in central Florida, and
being ambitious to examine its contents, I determined to climb to the
great eyrie in the topmost crotch of the tree, one hundred and
thirty-one feet above the earth.  By means of climbing-irons and a rope
that passed around the tree and around my body, I slowly ascended,
nailing cleats for support as I advanced.  After two hours of toil the
nest was reached, but another twenty minutes were required to tear
aside enough of the structure to permit climbing up one of the limbs on
which it rested.  In doing this there were brought to view several
layers of decayed twigs, pine straw, and fish bones, showing that the
birds had been using the nest for many years.  Season after season the
huge structure had been enlarged by {33} additions until now it was
nearly five feet in thickness and about four feet across the top.

[Illustration: The Bald Eagle's Eyrie]

[Illustration: Gannets nesting on the cliffs.  Bonaventure Island, Gulf
of St. Lawrence.]

At this date it contained two fledglings perhaps three weeks old.
Having been led to believe that Eagles were ferocious birds when their
nests were approached, it was with feelings of relief that I noticed
the parents flying about at long rifle-range.  The female, which, as is
usual with birds of prey, was the larger of the pair, once or twice
swept within twenty yards of my head, but quickly veered off and
resumed her former action of beating back and forth over the tree-tops
two hundred yards away.

_Nests in Holes._--The members of the Woodpecker family, contrary to
certain popular beliefs, do not lay their eggs in hollow trees but
deposit them in cavities that they excavate for the purpose.  The bird
student will soon learn just where to look for the nest of each
species.  Thus you may find the nesting cavity of the Red-headed
Woodpecker in a tall stump or dead tree; in some States it is a common
bird in towns, and often digs its cavity in a telephone {34} pole.
Some years ago a pair excavated a nest and reared their young in a
wooden ball on the staff of the dome of the State House in Raleigh,
North Carolina.

On the plains, where trees are few, the telegraph poles provide
convenient nesting sites for Woodpeckers of various species.  While
travelling on a slow train through Texas I counted one hundred and
fifty telegraph poles in succession, thirty-nine of which contained
Woodpeckers' holes.  Probably I did not see all of them, for not over
two-thirds of the surface of each pole was visible from the car window.
Not all of these holes, of course, were occupied by Woodpeckers in any
one season.

Flickers, or "Yellowhammers," use dead trees as a rule, but sometimes
make use of a living tree by digging the nest out of the dead wood
where a knot hole offers a convenient opening.  The only place I have
ever known them regularly to nest in living trees is in the deserts of
Arizona, where the _saguaro_ or "tree cactus" is about the only tree
large enough to be employed for such a purpose.  In the {35} Northern
States Flickers sometimes chisel holes through the weatherboarding of
ice-houses and make cavities for their eggs in the tightly packed
sawdust within.  They have been known also to lay their eggs in nesting
boxes put up for their accommodation.

In travelling through the pine barrens of the Southern States one
frequently finds grouped about the negroes' cabins and plantation
houses the popular chinaberry, or Pride of India tree.  Here are the
places to look for the nest of the Hairy Woodpecker.  In that country,
in fact, I have never found a nest of this bird except in the dead,
slanting limb of a chinaberry tree.

The member of this family which displays most originality in its nest
building is the Red-cockaded Woodpecker.  It is a Southern bird, and
the abode for its young is always chiselled from a living pitch-pine
tree.  This, in itself, is very unusual for any of our eastern
Woodpeckers.  The bird, however, has a still stranger habit.  For two
or three feet above the {36} entrance hole, and for five or six feet
below it, all around the tree, innumerable small openings are dug
through to the inner bark.  From these little wells pour streams of
soft resin that completely cover the bark and give the trunk a white,
glistening appearance, which is visible sometimes for a quarter of a
mile.  Just why they do this has never been explained.  It is true,
however, that the sticky resin prevents ants and flying squirrels from
reaching the nest, and both of these are known to be troublesome to
eggs and young birds.

A simple plan, which is usually successful in finding out if a
Woodpecker is at home in its nesting hole, is to strike a few sharp
blows on the tree with some convenient club or rock.  After a little
treatment of this kind the bird will often come to the entrance and
look down, as if to inquire into the meaning of all the disturbance.
If the nest has been newly made many fragments of small chips of wood
will be found on the ground beneath the tree.

_Variety of Situations._--The student who takes up {37} the subject of
nest architecture will soon be impressed not only with the wide
assortment of materials used, but also with the wonderful variety of
situations chosen.

[Illustration: The Grebe or "Water Witch"]

The Grebe, or "Water Witch," builds one of the most remarkable nests of
any American bird.  It is a floating raft, the buoyant part of which is
the green {38} stems of water plants, not bent over, but severed from
their roots and piled across one another.  On this platform is
collected decaying vegetation gathered from beneath the water.  Here
the eggs are deposited, and are carefully covered with more decaying
vegetation when the bird desires to be absent from the nest.

_Variation in Families._--Sometimes there is wide variety in the
character of the nests of different species classified as belonging to
the same family.  The Flycatcher group is a good example of this fact.
Here we have as one member of the family the Kingbird, that makes a
heavy bulky nest often on one of the upper, outermost limbs of an apple
tree.  The Wood Pewee's nest is a frail, shallow excuse for a nest,
resting securely on a horizontal limb of some well-grown tree.  Then
there is the Phoebe, that plasters its cup-shaped mass of nesting
material with mud, thus securing it to a rafter or other projection
beneath a bridge, outbuilding, or porch roof.  Still farther away from
the typical Flycatcher's {39} nest is that made by a perfectly regular
member of the family, the Great-crested Flycatcher.  The straw and
other substances it collects as a bed for its eggs and young is carried
into some hollow tree, old Woodpecker hole, or nesting box.  Often a
cast-off skin of a snake is used, and sometimes the end is permitted to
hang out of the hole--a sort of "scare-crow," perhaps, intended for the
notice of annoying neighbours.

[Illustration: A male plumbous gnatcatcher feeding young]

_Meagre Nests._--Heretofore, mention has been made only of the nests of
birds built with much labour and usually constructed in trees or
bushes.  A very large number of species, however, lay their eggs on the
ground with little or no attempt to gather around or beneath them any
special nesting material.  The Killdeer's eggs are simply deposited in
a slight hole scratched in the earth, usually in an open field or on a
rocky hillside.  The only lining is a few grass blades or smooth
pebbles.  To protect them from enemies the birds depend much upon the
peculiar marking of the eggs, which makes them look like the {40}
ground on which they lie, and this seems to be a sufficient safeguard
for the eggs and offspring of the species.  The Nighthawk lays her two
eggs on the bare ground in a field or open woods; and the
Whip-poor-will's nest is on the fallen leaves of a thicket at any spot
which the bird happens to select.

The Gulls so common along our coast and about the larger lakes make
substantial nests, as a rule--but not always.  I have found them on the
islands along the coast of Maine containing not a dozen blades of
grass, a seemingly scant protection against the danger of rolling away
to destruction.

On the sandy islands of the Atlantic Coast, from Long Island southward,
many species of Terns make nests by simply burrowing a slight
depression in the sand among the sea-shells.  Some of the sea birds of
the far North, as, for example, the Murres and Auks, often lay their
eggs on the shelving cliffs exposed to the sweep of the ocean gales.
These are shaped as if designed by nature to prevent them rolling off
the rocks.  They are very large at one {41} end and toward the other
taper sharply.  When the wind blows they simply swing around in circles.

Although we sometimes speak of the bird's nest as its home, such really
is not the case, for the nest of the wild bird is simply the cradle for
the young.  When the little ones have flown it is seldom that either
they or their parents ever return to its shelter.




{42}

CHAPTER III

DOMESTIC LIFE OF THE BIRDS

It is a privilege to be so situated that one may watch from day to day
the occurrences about a wild bird's nest.  Here feathered life reaches
its greatest heights of emotion, and comedies and threatened tragedies
are of daily occurrence.  The people we know best are those whom we
have seen at their play and at their work, in moments of elation and
doubt, and in times of great happiness and dire distress.  And so it is
that he who has followed the activities of a pair of birds through all
the joys and anxieties of nest building, brooding, and of caring for
the young, may well lay claim to a close acquaintanceship with them.

In watching a nest one will learn, for example, that with most of our
small birds both parents engage in {43} the pleasant duty of feeding
the young, at times shielding the little ones from the hot rays of the
sun with their half-extended wings, and now and then driving away
intruders.  The common passerine birds also attend carefully to the
sanitation of the nest and remove the feces, which is inclosed in a
membrane and is thus easily carried in the bill.  This is usually
dropped several yards away.  If allowed to accumulate on the ground
beneath the nest it might attract the attention of some prowling enemy
and lead to a disastrous discovery.

_Parental Care of Young._--There is a wide difference in the relative
helplessness of nesting birds, and a corresponding difference in the
methods of parental care.  The young of praecocial birds are able to
run or swim with their parents almost as soon as hatched, for they not
only have the strength to do this, but their bodies being covered with
down they are protected from the sun or cold.  Examples of such birds
are the Quail, Grouse, Sandpipers, Plovers, and Ducks.  The young of
these and allied species are {44} able from the beginning to pick up
their food, and they quickly learn from the example of their parents
what is desirable.  Soon they are able to shift for themselves,
although one or both of the parents continue to attend them until grown.

With the altricial birds the young are hatched in an absolutely
helpless condition, being both blind and naked, and it is necessary
that they be fed by the parents, not only while occupying the nest, but
also for several weeks afterward.  To this group belong most of the
small birds we are accustomed to see about the house.  When newly born
the food they receive is first digested in the crop or the stomach of
the parent from which it is regurgitated into the mouth of the young.
Flickers, Hummingbirds, Doves, and some others continue to feed their
young in this manner, but usually the method soon gives way to that,
more commonly observed, of simply supplying soft-bodied insects which
have been captured and killed but not eaten.

In the case of Pelicans, Cormorants, and Ibises, {45} the young thrust
their bills far down the throats of the parents to procure the
regurgitated food.  From this custom the ancients may have got the idea
that Pelicans feed their young with their own life blood.  The
suggestion still persists, and on the seal of one of our large life
insurance companies of America a Pelican and her young are represented
accompanied with the motto: "I live and die for those I love."  The
great seal of the State of Louisiana uses a similar picture without the
motto.

Hawks and Owls tear their prey to pieces and on this the young feed at
infrequent intervals.  Sometimes several hours pass between the visits
of the food-laden parents, but the supply is usually adequate when at
length it arrives.

_Sharing the Labours._--Most young birds, however, are fed with great
frequency.  For more than an hour one day the writer watched a pair of
Georgia Mockingbirds feeding their young.  The one that appeared to be
the female visited the nest with food on an average once every two
minutes, and the male {46} made a similar trip about once in twelve
minutes.  He could have done better had he not spent so much time
flying aimlessly about and scolding imaginary enemies.

Some birds have what seem to be very curious habits at the nesting
time.  The jealous-hearted Hornbill of the Old World never trusts his
spouse to wander away from the nest after her duties there once begin.
In order that he may always know just where she is he quite willingly
undertakes to supply her with all her food during the days while the
incubation of the eggs is going forward.  With mud he daubs up the
entrance to the hollow in the tree where she is sitting, leaving only a
small opening through which food may be passed.  When the mud has dried
it becomes very hard and the patient mate is an absolute prisoner until
the day comes when she passes the word to her lord that the eggs have
hatched, and he sets her free.

In our own western country there dwells a bird known as the Phalarope,
the females of which enjoy {47} an immunity from domestic duties that
might cause the lady Hornbill many an envious sigh did she know of the
freedom of her American sister.

Mrs. Phalarope has no intention of being shut in with her eggs for a
month while her mate goes roaming at large about the country, nor has
she any idea of playing the part of the Georgia Mockingbird and
bringing five-sixths of the food which the young require.  Her method
of procedure is first to permit her mate to search for a suitable
nesting site.  When some sheltered spot in the ground, quite to her
liking, has been found she deposits the eggs and goes her way.  Little
companies of female Phalaropes may be seen at this time of the year
frequenting the ponds and sloughs they inhabit.  The dutiful and
well-trained males are all at home, where they are responsible for the
entire task of caring for, and incubating, the eggs.

_Length of Mated Life._--The length of time which birds remain mated is
a question often asked but seldom answered satisfactorily.  The truth
of the {48} matter is that not much is known about the subject.
Apparently a great many birds return to the same yard and even to the
same tree to build their nest year after year.  I say apparently
because such birds are seldom marked in such a way as to enable one to
be positive that they are the identical individuals which came the year
before.  It is probably somewhere near the truth to say that most small
birds usually choose the same mates year after year if both survive the
dangers of winter and in spring meet again on their old trysting
grounds.  It is safe to assert that as a rule birds retain the same
mates throughout the breeding season if misfortune does not befall one
of them.  During the fall and winter months, when the impulses
governing domestic duties are dormant, birds pay little or no attention
to their mates.

[Illustration: A mountain Bluebird family.  Its home having been
destroyed it is now enjoying temporary quarters furnished by a kindly
hand.]

_A Much-married Bluebird._--One spring a pair of Bluebirds came into
our yard, and to the accompaniment of much cheerful bird conversation,
in the form of whistles, twitters, chirps, and snatches of {49} song,
began hunting eagerly for some place to locate a nest.  Out in the
woodshed I found a box, perhaps six inches square and twice as long.
Cutting a small entrance hole on one side, I fastened the box seven or
eight feet from the ground on the side of a young tree.  The newcomers
immediately took possession and began carrying dry grasses into their
adopted sanctuary.  Several days elapsed and then one morning, while
standing on the back of a garden settee and peeping into the hole, I
discovered that a pale-blue egg had been laid.  When the nest contained
four of these little beauties incubation began.

One rainy night while the mother bird was on duty she must have heard
the scratching of claws on the box outside.  A moment later two yellow
eyes blazed at the entrance and a long arm reached into the nest.  The
next morning on the grass beneath the window we found her wing tips and
many other fragments of her plumage.  All that day the distressed mate
flew about the lawn and called continually.  He seemed to gather but
little food and {50} the evidence of his suffering was pitiful.  In
fact, he stirred our feelings to such a pitch we at length closed the
windows to shut out the sounds of his mournful calls.

Upon looking out next morning, the first note we heard was that of a
Bluebird, but his voice seemed to have lost some of its sorrow.
Walking around the corner of the house, I found him sitting on a limb
near the box.  Two feet from him sat another Bluebird--a female.  At
eleven o'clock we saw her clinging to the side of the box and looking
inquiringly into the entrance hole.  We knew what this meant;
incidentally we knew, too, that being a ladybird she would have no use
for the nest and eggs that had been placed there by another, so I
cleaned out the box.

We were anxious that the cat should have no chance to destroy our
little friend's second wife, so the box was suspended from a limb by a
wire over two feet in length.  Five eggs were laid and the mother bird
began sitting.  Then one night the cat {51} found out what was
happening.  How she ever succeeded in her undertaking, I know not.  She
must have started by climbing the tree and creeping out on the limb.  I
have never seen a cat slide down a wire; nevertheless the next morning
the box was tenantless and the feathers of the second female were
scattered over the lawn.  This time the Bluebird's heart seemed really
broken and his cries of lamentation filled the grove.  Eleven days now
passed before a third soul-mate came to share his fortunes.  We could
afford to take no more risks.  On a sunny hillside in the garden the
cat was buried, and a few weeks later four little Bluebirds left the
lawn on their own wings.

_The Faithful Canada Geese._--Along the Atlantic Coast, where the
shooting of wildfowl is an important industry with many people, the
raising of Canada Geese is a common custom.  Not only do these great
birds serve as food, but they play the part of decoys when their owners
go ahunting.  They are genuine Wild Geese, some of them having been
{52} wounded and captured from the great flocks which frequent these
waters during the colder months of the year.  They retain their wild
characteristics with great tenacity and it is necessary to keep them
pinioned to prevent their flying away to the North when in spring the
spirit of migration calls aloud to all the bird world.

[Illustration: Canada Geese Decoys]

{53}

The conduct of these decoys indicates that the losing of a mate is a
much more serious matter among them than with the Bluebird and others
of our small feathered friends.  When a gander has chosen his goose and
she has accepted his advances, the pair remain constantly together,
summer and winter, as long as they live.  If one is killed, many years
may elapse before the survivor selects another companion.

In Currituck County, North Carolina, there was not long ago a gander
that local tradition said was sixty-two years of age.  The first thirty
years of his life he remained unmated and for the last thirty-two he
has been the proud possessor of a mate from whose side he has never
strayed.

These Geese do not mate readily, and a man who has a company of thirty
or forty may well be satisfied if six or eight pairs of them are mated.
The truth of this statement is proved by the fact that on the local
market a single Goose is worth about one dollar, while a pair of mated
Geese will readily bring five dollars.

{54}

_Unmated Birds._--A little reflection will make the student realize the
fact that out in the fields and woods, in the swamps and on the
mountains, on the beaches, as well as far away on the ocean, there are
many birds that are not mated.  Among them are widows and widowers,
heartfree spinsters and pining bachelors.  Just what per cent. of the
bird life is unmated in any one season it would, of course, be
impossible to tell.  The information which the writer has gathered by a
careful census of a certain species in a given limited territory
enabled him to determine that in this particular case only about
three-fifths of the individuals are mated any one season.

_Polygamy Among Birds._--As with mankind, some races have
well-developed tendencies toward polygamy.  In the warmer regions of
the United States there dwells a great, splendid, glossy Blackbird, the
Boat-tailed Crackle.  The nest of this bird is a wonderfully woven
structure of water plants and grasses and is usually built in a bush
growing in the {55} water.  When you find one nest of the Crackle you
are pretty certain to find several other occupied nests in the
immediate vicinity.  From three to six of these marvellous cradles,
with their quiet brown female owners, often appear to be watched over
by one shining, iridescent lord Crackle, who may be husband to them
all.  He guards his own with jealous care.  Evidently, too, he desires
the whole country to know that he is the most handsome, ferocious bird
on the earth; for all day long his hoarse shoutings may be heard, and
when he launches into the air, the sound of the ponderous beating of
his wings can, on a still day, be heard half a mile away, across the
lake.

One of the best-known polygamous birds of North America is the Wild
Turkey.  Go into any part of the country where this fast-disappearing
game bird still survives, and the experienced local gunners will tell
you that in the mating season you will usually find a gobbler
accompanied by two or more Turkey hens.  When a female gets ready to
make her nest she slips away from her sultan and the other members {56}
of the seraglio and, going to some broom-sedge field or open place in
the woods, constructs her nest on the ground beneath some slight,
convenient shelter.  Day after day she absents herself for a short
time, and the speckled treasures grow in number until from twelve to
fifteen have been deposited.  All this time her movements are
characterized by absolute secrecy, for if the gobbler by any chance
comes upon the nest he immediately breaks every egg.  He is perhaps
wise enough to know that when his hens begin to set lonely times are in
store for him.

_The Outcast._--One of our wild birds whose domestic relations are not
fully understood is strongly suspected of being promiscuously
polygamous.  Suspicion on this point is heightened by the fact that it
never has a nest even of the most humble character, and shuns
absolutely all the ordinary dangers and responsibilities of parentage.
We call this seemingly unnatural creature the Cowbird, probably because
it is often seen feeding in pastures {57} among cattle, where it
captures many insects disturbed into activity by the movements of the
browsing animals.

The Cowbird lays its eggs in the nests of various other birds,
distributing them about the neighbourhood.  Here they are left to be
hatched and the young to be reared by the foster parents.  Cowbird's
eggs have been found in the nests of nearly one hundred species of
birds, and nearly always the nest of some smaller bird is chosen.
Despite this fact the Cowbird's eggs are often first to hatch.  The
young grow rapidly and, being strong and aggressive, not only secure
the lion's share of the food, but frequently crowd the young of the
rightful owner out of the nest to perish on the ground beneath.

As soon as the young leave the nest the greedy Cowbird follows the
little mother about the thickets, shouting loudly for food.  Its fierce
clamour drowns the weaker cries of the legitimate young, which I have
reason to believe even then often die for lack {58} of nourishment.  So
insistent is the young Cowbird and so persistently does it pursue the
foster parent that it is well cared for and invariably thrives.  It is
no uncommon sight, during the days of June and July, to see a worn,
bedraggled Song Sparrow {59} working desperately in a frantic effort to
feed one or more great hulking Cowbirds twice its size.  It is little
wonder that discerning people are not fond of the Cowbird.  Even the
birds seem to regard it as an outcast from avian society, and rarely
associate with it on friendly terms.  This is the only species of North
American birds that exhibits such depravity.

[Illustration: The Greedy Young Cowbird]

All other birds display great willingness to attend to their home
duties, and often give evidence of keen delight while so engaged.  One
of the most exquisite and dainty forms of bird life found in the United
States is the little Blue-gray Gnatcatcher.  When occupied in building
the nest, which is usually saddled on the limb of some forest tree, the
birds call to each other constantly; and even after the eggs are laid
there is no attempt to restrain their expressions of happiness.  Unlike
the Crow and Jay, that sometimes appropriate the nests of other birds,
these little creatures have no sins to answer for to their neighbours.
One of the most pleasing sights I {60} have witnessed was a male
Gnatcatcher that had relieved his mate at the nest.  He was sitting on
the eggs and, with head thrown back, sang with all his might,
apparently unconscious of the evil which such gaiety might bring upon
his household.




{61}

CHAPTER IV

THE MIGRATION OF BIRDS

There is something fascinating about the word migration.  It sends our
minds back to the dim stories of tribal movements carved on the rocks
by men who wrought in the dawn of history.  We wonder at the compelling
force that drove our ancestors through the forests of northern Germany,
or caused the Aztecs to cross the Mexican deserts.  It calls to
something in our blood, for even the most stolid must at times hearken
to the Pied Piper and with Kipling feel that "On the other side the
world we're overdue."

Man is not alone the possessor of the migrating passion.  Menhaden, in
vast schools, sweep along our Atlantic Coast in their season.  From
unknown regions of the ocean herring and salmon return to {62} the
streams of their nativity when the spirit of migration sweeps over the
shoals into the abysmal depths.  There are butterflies that in
companies rise from mud puddles beside the road and go dancing away to
the South in autumn.  The caribou, in long streams, come southward over
the barrens of Labrador when the word is passed, and even squirrels,
over extended regions, have been known to migrate en masse for hundreds
of miles.  There is, however, no phase of the life of birds which is
quite so distinctive.  The extent and duration of their migrations are
among the most wonderful phenomena of the natural world.

Ornithologists have gathered much information regarding their coming
and going, but knowledge on many of the points involved is incomplete.
It is only of recent years that the nest of the Solitary Sandpiper has
been found, and yet this is a very common bird in the eastern United
States in certain seasons.  Where is the scientist who can yet tell us
in what country the common Chimney Swift {63} passes the winter, or
over what stretches of sea and land the Arctic Tern passes when
journeying between its summer home in the Arctic seas and its winter
abode in the Antarctic wastes?  The main fact, however, that the great
majority of birds of the Northern Hemisphere go south in autumn and
return in spring, is well known.

_Moulting._--By the time the young are able to care for themselves the
plumage of the hard-working parents is worn and frayed and a new suit
of feathers becomes necessary.  They do not acquire this all at once.
The feathers drop out gradually from the various feather tracts over
the body, and their places are at once taken by a new growth.  While
this is going on the birds are less in evidence than at other times.
They keep out of sight and few song notes are heard.  Perhaps there is
some irritation and unpleasantness connected with moulting which causes
a dejection of spirit.

With swimming water birds the wing quills disappear nearly all at once
and the birds are unable {64} for a short time to fly; but being at
home in the water, where they secure their food, they are not left in
the helpless, even desperate, condition in which a land bird would find
itself if unable to fly.  In a few cases birds begin to migrate before
this moulting takes place, but with the great majority the moult is
complete before they leave their summer homes.

_Why Birds Migrate._--Why birds migrate we can only conjecture.
Without doubt the growing scarcity of food in autumn is the controlling
factor with many of them; and this would seem to be an excellent reason
for leaving the region of their summer sojourn.  Cold weather alone
would not drive all of them southward, else why do many small birds
pass the winter in northern latitudes where severe climatic conditions
prevail?  Should we assume the failing food supply to be the sole cause
of migration, we would find ourselves at fault when we came to consider
that birds leave the tropic regions in spring, when food is still
exceedingly abundant, and journey northward thousands of miles to their
former summer haunts.

[Illustration: Young robins quarreling at their bath.  Photographed in
the yard of Mrs. Granville Pike, North Yakima, Washington]

{65}

There is a theory held by many naturalists that the migrating instinct
dates back to the glacial period.  According to this theory North
America was inhabited originally by non-migrating birds.  Then the
great Arctic ice-cap began to move southward and the birds were forced
to flee before it or starve.  Now and then during the subsequent period
the ice receded and the birds returned, only to be driven again before
the next onrush of the Ice King.  Thus during these centuries of
alternate advance and retreat of the continental glacier, the birds
acquired a habit, which later became an instinct, of retreating
southward upon the approach of cold weather and coming back again when
the ice and snow showed indications of passing away.

_The Gathering Flocks._--To the bird student there is keen delight in
watching for the first spring arrivals and noting their departure with
the dying year.  It is usually in August that we first observe an
unwonted restlessness on the part of our birds which tells us that they
have begun to hear the call of the {66} South.  The Blackbirds assemble
in flocks and drift aimlessly about the fields.  Every evening for
weeks they will collect a chattering multitude in the trees of some
lawn, or in those skirting a village street, and there at times cause
great annoyance to their human neighbours.

Across the Hudson River from New York, in the Hackensack marshes,
behind the Palisades, clouds of Swallows collect in the late summer
evenings, and for many days one may see them from the car windows as
they glide through the upper air or swarm to roost among the rushes.
These Swallows and the Blackbirds are getting together before starting
on their fall migration.

In Greensboro, North Carolina, there is a small grove of trees
clustered about the courthouse which is a very busy place during the
nights of summer.  Here, before the first of July, Purple Martins begin
to collect of an evening.  In companies of hundreds and thousands, they
whirl about over the tops of the houses, alight in the trees, and then
almost {67} immediately dash upward and away again.  Not till dark do
they finally settle to roost.  Until late at night a great chorus of
voices may be heard among the branches.  The multitude increases daily
for six or eight weeks, additions, in the form of new family groups,
constantly augmenting their numbers.  Some time in September the
migration call reaches the Martins, and, yielding to its spell, they at
once depart toward their winter home in tropical South America.

_The Usual Movement._--Many of our smaller birds, such as Warblers and
Vireos, do not possess a strong flocking instinct, but, nevertheless,
they may be seen associated in numbers during the season of the
northern and southern movements.  Such birds migrate chiefly at night
and have been observed through telescopes at high altitudes.  Such
observations are made by pointing the telescope at the disk of the full
moon on clear nights.  On cloudy or foggy nights the birds fly lower,
as may be known by the clearer sounds of their calls as they pass over;
at times one may even hear the flutter of their wings.  There is a {68}
good reason for their travelling at this time, as they need the
daylight for gathering food.

There appear to be certain popular pathways of migration along which
many, though by no means all, of the aerial voyageurs wing their way.
As to the distribution of these avian highways, we know at least that
the coastlines of the continents are favourite routes.  Longfellow, in
the valley of the Charles, lived beneath one of these arteries of
migration, and on still autumn nights often listened to the voices of
the migrating hosts, "falling dreamily through the sky."

A small number of the species migrate by day; among these are the
Hawks, Swallows, Ducks, and Geese.  The last two groups also travel by
night.  The rate at which they proceed on their journey is not as great
as was formerly supposed.  From twenty to thirty miles an hour is the
speed generally taken, and perhaps fifty miles an hour is the greatest
rapidity attained.  Flights are usually not long sustained, a hundred
and fifty miles a day being above the {69} average.  Individuals will
at times pause and remain for a few days in a favourable locality
before proceeding farther.  When large bodies of water are encountered
longer flights are of course necessary, for land birds cannot rest on
the water as their feathers would soon become water-soaked and drowning
would result.  Multitudes of small birds, including even the little
Ruby-throated Hummingbird, annually cross the Gulf of Mexico at a
single flight.  This necessitates a continuous journey of from five
hundred to seven hundred miles.  Some North American birds migrate
southward only a few hundred miles to pass the winter, while many
others go from Canada and the United States to Mexico, Central and
South America.

The ponds and sloughs of all that vast country lying between the Great
Lakes and Hudson Bay on the east and the mountains of the Far West,
constitute the principal nursery of North American waterfowl, whence,
in autumn, come the flocks of Ducks and Geese that in winter darken the
Southern {70} sounds and lakes.  One stream moves down the Pacific
Coast, another follows the Mississippi Valley to the marshes of
Louisiana and Texas, while a third passes diagonally across the country
in a southeasterly direction until it reaches the Maryland and Virginia
coastline.  Thence the birds disperse along the coastal country from
Maine to Florida.

[Illustration: Migration Routes of Some North American Birds]

_The Travelling Shore Birds._--Turnstones, Sanderlings, Curlews, and
other denizens of the beaches and salt marshes migrate in great numbers
along our Atlantic Coast.  Some of them winter in the United States,
and others pass on to the West Indies and southward.  The extent of the
annual journeys undertaken by some of these birds is indeed marvellous.
Admiral Peary has told me that he found shore birds on the most
northern land, where it slopes down into the Arctic Sea, less than five
hundred miles from the North Pole; and these same birds pass the winter
seven thousand miles south of their summer home.  One of these
wonderful migrants is the Golden Plover.  In autumn the birds leave
{72} eastern North America at Nova Scotia, striking out boldly across
the Atlantic Ocean, and they may not again sight land until they reach
the West Indies or the northern coast of South America.  Travelling, as
they do, in a straight line, they ordinarily pass eastward of the
Bermuda Islands.  Upon reaching South America, after a flight of two
thousand four hundred miles across the sea, they move on down to
Argentina and northern Patagonia.  In spring they return by an entirely
different route.  Passing up through western South America, and
crossing the Gulf of Mexico, these marvellous travellers follow up the
Mississippi Valley to their breeding grounds on the shores of the
Arctic Ocean.  Their main lines of spring and fall migration are
separated by as much as two thousand miles.  During the course of the
year the Golden Plover takes a flight of sixteen thousand miles.

_The World's Migrating Champion._--The bird which makes the longest
flight, according to the late Wells W. Cooke, America's greatest
authority on bird migration, is the Arctic Tern.  Professor Cooke, to
{73} whom we owe so much of our knowledge of the subject, says of this
bird:

"It deserves its title of 'arctic' for it nests as far North as land
has been discovered; that is, as far North as the bird can find
anything stable on which to construct its nest.  Indeed, so arctic are
the conditions under which it breeds that the first nest found by man
in this region, only seven and one-half degrees from the pole,
contained a downy chick surrounded by a wall of newly fallen snow that
had been scooped out of the nest by the parent.  When the young are
full grown the entire family leaves the Arctic, and several months
later they are found skirting the edge of the Antarctic continent.

"What their track is over that eleven thousand miles of intervening
space no one knows.  A few scattered individuals have been noted along
the United States coast south to Long Island, but the great flocks of
thousands and thousands of these Terns which range from pole to pole
have never been noted by ornithologists competent to indicate their
{74} preferred route and their time schedule.  The Arctic Terns arrive
in the Far North about June fifteenth and leave about August
twenty-fifth, thus staying fourteen weeks at the nesting site.  They
probably spend a few weeks longer in the winter than in the summer
home, and this would leave them scarcely twenty weeks for the round
trip of twenty-two thousand miles.  Not less than one hundred and fifty
miles in a straight line must be their daily task, and this is
undoubtedly multiplied several times by their zigzag twistings and
turnings in pursuit of food.

"The Arctic Tern has more hours of daylight and sunlight than any other
animal on the globe.  At the most northern nesting site the midnight
sun has already appeared before the birds' arrival, and it never sets
during their entire stay at the breeding grounds.  During two months of
their sojourn in the Antarctic the birds do not see a sunset, and for
the rest of the time the sun dips only a little way below the horizon
and broad daylight is continuous.  The birds, therefore, have
twenty-four hours of daylight for at least {75} eight months in the
year, and during the other four months have considerably more daylight
than darkness."

_Perils of Migration._--The periods of migration are fraught with
numerous perils for the travelling hosts.  Attracted and blinded by the
torches of lighthouses, multitudes of birds are annually killed by
striking against lighthouse towers in thick, foggy weather.  The keeper
of the Cape Hatteras light once showed me a chipped place in the lens
which he said had been made by the bill of a great white Gannet which
one thick night crashed through the outer protecting glass of the
lighthouse lamp.  As many as seven hundred birds in one month have
killed themselves by flying against the Bartholdi Statue of Liberty in
New York Harbour.  As its torch is no longer lighted the death-rate
here has been greatly reduced, although some birds are still killed by
flying against the statue.  Many were formerly killed by striking the
Washington Monument, the record for one night being one hundred and
fifty dead birds.

{76}

Locomotive engineers have stated that in foggy weather birds often hurl
themselves against the headlight and frequently their bodies are later
picked up from the engine platform beneath.  Birds seem rarely to lose
their sense of direction, and they pursue their way for hundreds of
miles across the trackless ocean.  Terns, Gulls, and Murres are known
to go many miles in quest of food for their young and return through
dense fogs with unerring directness to their nests.

[Illustration: Lighthouses Cause the Death of Many Birds]

During the spring it is not uncommon for strange waterfowl to be found
helpless in the streets or fields of a region in which they are
ordinarily unknown.  These birds have become exhausted during the storm
of the night before, or have been injured by striking telephone or
telegraph wires, an accident which often happens.  Once I picked up a
Loon after a stormy night.  Apparently it had recovered its strength
after a few hours' rest, but, as this bird can rise on the wing only
from a body of water, over the surface of which it can paddle and flap
for many rods, and as {78} there was no pond or lake in all the
neighbouring country, the Loon's fate was evident from the first.

Birds are often swept to sea by storm winds from off shore.  Vainly
they beat against the gale or fly on quivering wings before its blast,
until the hungry waves swallow their weary bodies.  One morning in
northern Lake Michigan I found a Connecticut Warbler lying dead on the
deck beneath my stateroom window after a stormy night of wind and rain.
Overtaken many miles from shore, this little waif had been able to
reach the steamer on the deck of which it had fallen exhausted and
died.  What of its companions of the night before?

On May 3, 1915, I was on a ship two hundred miles off Brunswick,
Georgia.  That day the following birds came aboard, all in an exhausted
condition: Brown Creeper, Spotted Sandpiper, Green Heron, and
Yellow-billed Cuckoo.  We also encountered three flocks of Bobolinks,
which for some distance flew beside the ship.  They appeared to be
lost, for they all left us finally, flying straight ahead of the ship,
{79} which was bound South, yet birds were supposed to be going North
at this season.  I wonder if in their bewilderment they mistook the
ship for some immense bird pointing the way to land and safety!

[Illustration: Tired Migrating Birds Often Alight on Ships]

_Keeping Migration Records._--More than thirty {80} years ago the
United States Government put into operation a plan for collecting and
tabulating information concerning the dates on which migratory birds
reach various points in their journeys.  More than two thousand
different observers located in various parts of the country have
contributed to these records, many of the observers reporting annually
through a long series of years.  As a result of this carefully gathered
material, with the addition of many data collected from other sources,
there is now on file in Washington an immense volume of valuable
information, much of which, in condensed printed form, is obtainable by
the public.  This work was in charge of Professor Wells W. Cooke,
Biologist, in the Biological Survey of the United States Department of
Agriculture until his lamented death in the spring of 1916.  Who will
take charge of it hereafter is not yet determined; but students may
obtain from the director of the Survey migration schedule blanks upon
application, and bulletins describing the emigration habits of various
North American birds.  {81} Watching for the annual appearance of the
first individual of each species is most fascinating occupation.

[Illustration: Feeding station for birds on the grounds of R. G.
Decker, Rhinebeck, New York.  The glass sides prevent the seeds from
being blown off the tray a foot or more below the roof.]

Note.--Government bulletins on the migration of various North American
birds may be obtained free, or at slight cost, by addressing H. W.
Henshaw, Chief Biological Survey, Department of Agriculture,
Washington, D. C.




{82}

CHAPTER V

THE BIRDS IN WINTER

With the approach of winter the country loses its charm for many people.
The blossoms and verdure, so common yet so beloved by all, have departed,
and only the brown expanses of dead grass and weeds relieve the blackness
of the forest trees.  Even ardent nature lovers have been known to
forsake their walks at this season when the songs of the birds have
ceased and the forest boughs give forth only sobs and shrieks as they
sway to the strength of the north winds.

_A Good Time for Field Walks._--Nevertheless winter is a good time for
the bird student to go afield.  If the wild life is less abundant, so is
the human life, and you have the country almost to yourself.  If you but
say in your heart, "I will go and see what may be {83} found," you will
later rejoice, for with the falling of the leaves many of Nature's
secrets, which she has jealously guarded through the summer months, stand
revealed.  Among the naked branches of the briars you may find the
Catbird's nest which defied all search last June.  It will be a comfort
to learn that the bird really did have a nest just about the place you
thought it was located.  Many other pleasing surprises await you in the
winter woods.

_The Downy's Winter Quarters._--One late autumn day I stopped to watch a
Junco feeding among some weed stalks near a hillside trail.  After
remaining motionless for a minute or two I became conscious of a light
muffled tapping somewhere near by.  It did not take long to locate the
sound.  On the underside of a slanting decayed limb, twenty feet above,
was a new, well-rounded hole perhaps an inch in diameter.  Even as I
looked the occupant came to the entrance and threw out a billful of small
chips.  When these fell, I saw that the dead leaves on the earth beneath
had been well sprinkled by previous ejections {84} of the same nature.  I
had discovered a Downy Woodpecker at work on his winter bedroom, and
later I had reason to believe that he made this his nightly retreat
during the cold months that followed.

Chancing to pass this way one dark cloudy morning, it occurred to me to
look and see if he had yet left his bed.  Striking the limb near the hole
I was rewarded by seeing a little black-and-white head poked out
inquiringly.  Fearing he might be resentful if such treatment were
repeated, I never afterward disturbed my little neighbour while he was
taking his morning nap.  But I had learned this much, that one Downy at
least sometimes liked to be abed on cold mornings.  Perhaps he knew that
there was no early worm about at this season.

_Birds and the Night._--It may be that others of our winter birds also
make excavations for sleeping quarters; the Chickadee and Nuthatch very
probably do so, although I have never found them thus engaged.  It is
well known that many small birds creep into holes to pass the night.  Old
nesting {85} places of Woodpeckers are thus again rendered useful, and
many of the natural cavities of trees contain, during the hours of
darkness, the little warm, pulsating bodies of birds.

Quails invariably roost on the ground regardless of the time of year, or
the prevailing weather conditions.  An entire covey numbering sometimes
twelve or fifteen will settle for the night in a compact circular group
with heads pointed outward.  When a heavy snow falls they are completely
buried, and then if a hard crust forms before morning their roosting
place becomes their tomb.  Grouse now and then are trapped in the same
way, but their superior strength enables them to break through and
escape.  In fact, these larger birds often deliberately go to roost
beneath the snow, breaking through the crust by a swift plunging dive
from the air.  Bearing these facts in mind it is easy to understand why
Quails often become scarce in a country where Grouse abound.

Small birds pass the winter nights in evergreens, thick-growing vines,
under the eaves of verandas, or {86} on the rafters of bridges.  Many
creep into cracks of outhouses.  I have found them at night in caves,
barns, and once in a covered wagon.  Almost any available shelter may
have its bird tenant on cold nights, who if undisturbed will often return
again and again to the refuge it has once found safe and comfortable.

Birds that pass the winter in the Northern States are subjected to many
hardships.  In fact, the fatalities in the bird world in winter are so
great, and the population so constantly reduced by one form of tragedy or
another, that it is only the stronger and more fortunate individuals of a
species that survive to enjoy the summer.

_The Food Question in Winter._--Where to secure the food is the big
question which confronts every bird when it opens its eyes on the first
snowy morning of winter.  Not only has the whole aspect of the country
been changed, but the old sources of food have passed away.  Not a
caterpillar is to be found on the dead leaves, and not a winged insect is
left to come flying {87} by; hence other food must be looked for in new
directions.  Emboldened by hunger, the Starlings alight at the kitchen
door, and the Juncos, Sparrows, Downy Woodpeckers, and Nuthatches come to
feed on the window-sill.  Jays and Meadowlarks haunt the manure piles or
haystacks in search of fragments of grain.  Purple Finches flock to the
wahoo elm trees to feed on the buds, and Crossbills attack the pine
cones.  Even the wary Ruffed Grouse will leave the shelter of the barren
woods, and the farmer finds her in the morning sitting among the branches
of his apple tree, relieving the twigs of their buds.  In every field a
multitude of weed stalks and stout grass stems are holding their heads
above the snow tightly clasping their store of seeds until members of the
Sparrow family shall thrash them out against the frozen crust beneath.

Among those which are forced to become largely vegetarian in winter is
the Bluebird.  In summer he is passionately fond of grasshoppers,
cutworms, and _Arctia_ caterpillars, but now he wanders sadly over {88}
the country of his winter range in quest of the few berries to be found
in the swamps and along the hedgerows.  The Crow is another bird often
met in winter walks, for he, too, in many cases spurns the popular
movement southward in the fall, and severe indeed must be the weather
before he forsakes his former haunts.  You will find him feeding along
the banks of streams or in the open spots in the fields, or {89} again in
the woods pecking rotten stumps or fallen limbs in search of dormant
beetles.

[Illustration: Grouse "Budding" in an Apple Tree]

Fifty-five species of Warblers inhabit North America.  These birds are
insectivorous in their feeding habits, which of course also means that
they are migratory.  A partial exception to the rule is found in the
common Myrtle Warbler.  Although in winter these birds range south to
Panama, many remain as far north as New Jersey, Kansas, and the Ohio
Valley.  This does not mean that insects are found in these regions in
sufficient numbers to supply the larder of the Myrtle Warblers, but it
does mean that they find acceptable substitutes for their usual food.
Oddly enough, what they depend on is not animal matter in any form, but
consists of berries which contain some of the essential food properties
of fatty meats.  One of the most popular with them is the common bayberry.

Among the sand dunes of the extensive "Banks" along the North Carolina
coast there grows in great profusion a small bushy tree known as the
yaupon.  {90} The young leaves of this when dried and steeped make a very
acceptable drink, and during the hungry days of the Civil War when the
Federal blockade became effective the people of the region used this as a
substitute for tea and coffee.  The yaupon produces in great abundance a
berry that is so highly esteemed by the Myrtle Warblers that they pass
the winter in these regions in numbers almost incredible.

_When the Food Supply Fails._--It is hard to realize the extent of the
havoc wrought among birds by cold, snowy weather.  Early in the year 1895
a long, severe cold spell, accompanied by snow and sleet, almost
exterminated the Bluebird in the eastern United States.  The bodies of no
less than twenty-four of these birds were found in the cavity of one
tree.  It looked as if they had crowded together with the hope of keeping
warm.  It was not the cold alone which had destroyed the birds: a famine
had preceded the cold snap, and the birds, weakened by hunger, were ill
prepared to withstand its rigours.

One winter some years ago a prolonged freezing {91} wave swept over our
South Atlantic States, and played havoc with the Woodcock in South
Carolina.  This is what happened: the swamps in the upper reaches of the
Pee Dee, the Black, and Waccamaw rivers were frozen solid, and the
Woodcock, that in winter abound in this region, were thus driven to the
softer grounds farther downstream.  The cold continued and the frozen
area followed the birds.  The Woodcock, unable to drive their long bills
into the once-responsive mud, were forced to continue their flight toward
the coast in search of open ground where worms could be found.  When at
length they reached Winyaw Bay, where these rivers converge, they were at
the point of exhaustion.  Thousands of the emaciated birds swarmed in the
streets and gardens of Georgetown.  They were too weak to fly, and
negroes killed them with sticks and offered baskets of these wasted
bodies, now worthless as food, for a few cents a dozen.  Several
shipments were made to Northern cities by local market men, who hoped to
realize something by their industry.

{92}

Of the Wild Ducks which remain North in the winter many die because of
the freezing of the water in which they must dive or dabble for their
food.  On the morning of February 11, 1912, Cayuga Lake in western New
York State was found to be covered with a solid sheet of ice from end to
end.  It is a large body of water, having an area of nearly sixty-seven
square miles.  It rarely freezes over--only once in about twenty years,
as the records show.  The Ducks inhabiting the lake at this time were
caught unawares.  Many of them moved quickly to more Southern waters, but
others tarried, evidently hoping for better times.  Subsequently a few
air-holes opened and the Ducks gathered about them, but there was little
food even here, and numbers starved to death.  One observer who went out
to the air-holes reported examining the bodies of twenty-eight
Canvas-backs and nineteen Scaups in addition to many others such as
Redheads and Golden-eyes.  His survey was not exhaustive and the Gulls
had doubtless removed many bodies from the territory {93} he visited.
When the surface of lakes and bays freezes suddenly in the night Ducks
are sometimes caught and held fast by the ice adhering to their feathers
and legs.  In this condition they are utterly unable to escape the
attacks of man and beast, and in the latitude of New York captures in
this way are now and then reported.

_Wild Fowl Destroyed in the Oil Fields._--In the oil fields of the
Southwest and old Mexico the surface of many ponds is covered with oil
into which unsuspecting flocks of Ducks alight never again to emerge
until their dead bodies drift to the shore.  It was on November 27, 1912,
that the naval tank ship _Arethusa_ steamed into the harbour of
Providence, Rhode Island, with a cargo of crude oil.  For several days
following her bilge pumps sent overboard a continuous stream of water and
oil seepage.  On December 3d the following news-item appeared in the
_Providence Daily Bulletin_, "The east shore of the lower harbour and
upper bay, from Wilkesbarre pier to Riverside and below, is strewn with
the bodies of dead {94} Wild Ducks, which began to drift ashore
yesterday.  The wildfowl came into the bay in enormous flocks about the
middle of November and have since been seen flying about or feeding in
the shallow water, as is usual at this time of year.  As no such amount
of oil, it is believed, was ever let loose into the bay at one time
before, and as Ducks along the shore, dead from poisoning, have never
been seen before, it is reasonable to connect the two occurrences."

_Hunting Winter Birds._--Birds are to be found in winter in nearly every
neighbourhood, and it is astonishing under what adverse natural
conditions one may find them.  As I write these lines on a dark February
afternoon, here in New York City, I can see through the window a Starling
sitting ruffled up on the bare twig of an elm tree.  Every minute or two
he calls, and as he is looking this way perhaps he is growing impatient
for the little girl of the house to give him his daily supply of crumbs.
A few minutes ago there was a Downy on the trunk of the same tree, and
out over the Harlem River I see a flock of {95} Herring Gulls passing, as
their custom is in the late afternoon.

Several years ago Dr. Frank M. Chapman sent out a notice to bird students
that he would be pleased to have them make a record of the birds to be
seen in their different neighbourhoods on Christmas.

Many responded, and he published their reports in his magazine
_Bird-Lore_.  This aroused so much interest that bird observers all over
the country now have a regular custom of following this practice.  In the
January-February, 1916, issue of _Bird-Lore_ appears the results of the
last census which was taken on December 25, 1915.  By examining this one
may get a good idea of the birds to be found in various communities at
this season.  Some of the lists were very large, ninety-three specimens
being noted in the one sent by Ludlow Griscom, from St. Marks, Florida.
The largest number reported by any of the observers was 221, seen in the
neighbourhood of Los Angeles, California.  The following are reports from
typical sections:

{96}

_Wolfville, N. S._--Dec. 25; 10 A. M. to 12.30 P. M.  Cloudless; 5 inches
of light snow; no wind; temperature 30 degrees.  Herring Gull, 2; Black
Duck, 100; Canada Ruffed Grouse, 4; Downy Woodpecker, 1; Northern Raven,
1; Crow, 6; Goldfinch, 11; Vesper Sparrow, 1 (collected for positive
identification); Black-capped Chickadee, 7; Acadian Chickadee, 2;
Golden-crowned Kinglet, 5.  Total, 11 species, 140 individuals.  Dec. 20,
a flock of 8 to 10 American Crossbills.--R. W. TUFTS.

_Tilton, N. H._--Dec. 25; 8.20 A. M. to 12.30 P. M.  Cloudy, changing to
light rain; a little snow on ground; wind light, south-east; temperature
38 degrees.  Blue Jay, 1; White-breasted Nuthatch, 1; Chickadee, 6;
Golden-crowned Kinglet, 2.  Total, 4 species, 10 individuals.  Birds seem
unusually scarce this winter.--GEORGE L. PLIMPTON and EDWARD H. PERKINS.

_Bridgewater, Mass._--Dec. 25; 8 to 10 A. M.  Cloudy; ground bare; wind
southeast, moderate; temperature 27 degrees to 42 degrees.  Red-tailed
Hawk, 2; Northern Flicker, 3; Blue Jay, 3; American Crow, 80; Starling,
6; Meadowlark, 2; Goldfinch, 7; Junco, 5; Song Sparrow, 42; Swamp
Sparrow, 2; Myrtle Warbler, 50; Brown Creeper, 2; Chickadee, 50;
Golden-crowned Kinglet, 3.  Total, 14 species, 256 individuals.--HORACE
A. MCFARLIN.

_Fairfield, Conn. (Birdcraft Sanctuary, 10 acres)._--Dec. 25, Herring
Gull, 4; Red-tailed Hawk, 2; Sparrow Hawk, 1; Hairy Woodpecker, 1; Downy
Woodpecker, 5; Blue Jay, 4; Crow, 8; Starling, flock of 50; Meadowlark,
2; Purple Finch, 10; Goldfinch, 3; White-throated Sparrow, 4; Tree
Sparrow, 15; Junco, 30; Song Sparrow, 7; Fox Sparrow, 1; Myrtle Warbler,
12; Brown Creeper, 3; White-breasted Nuthatch, 2; Chickadee, 10;
Golden-crowned Kinglet, 5; Robin, 2.  Total, 22 species, 181
individuals.--FRANK NOVAK, Warden.

_New York City (Central Park)._--Dec. 25; 9 A. M. to 1 P. M.  Cloudy;
ground mostly bare, with some remaining patches of snow; wind southeast,
light; temperature 45 degrees to 54 degrees.  Herring Gull, 70; Black
Duck, 1; Downy Woodpecker, 2; Starling, 24; Junco, 4; Song Sparrow, 2;
Cardinal, 2; Chickadee, 5.  Total, 8 species, 110 individuals.--MR. and
MRS. G. CLYDE FISHER.

[Illustration: A Snowy Egret that came home to die.  It was shot on its
feeding-grounds, and then flew several miles and died on its nest in the
Audubon Society's Reservation at Orange Lake, Florida.]

{97}

_Rhinebeck, N. Y._--Dec. 25; 8 A. M. to 1 P. M.  Cloudy; deep snow; wind
south, light; temperature 40 degrees.  American Merganser, 2; Ring-necked
Pheasant, 30; Gray Partridge, 5; Marsh Hawk, 1; Barred Owl, 1; Hairy
Woodpecker, 4; Downy Woodpecker, 8 (drums and utters long call);
yellow-bellied Sapsucker, 1 male; Blue Jay, 10; Crow, 15; Purple Finch,
15; Goldfinch, 6; Junco, 12; Song Sparrow, 1; Tree Sparrow, 13; Brown
Creeper, 3; White-breasted Nuthatch, 20; Chickadee, 25 (whistles).  Total
18 species, 171 individuals.--MRS. J. F. GOODWELL, TRACY, DOWS, and
MAUNSELL S. CROSBY.

_Hackettstown, N. J._--Dec. 22; 8.30 to 10.45 A. M. and 2.15 to 4.50 P.
M.  Fair; remains of 16 in. snow, ground partly bare, partly with deep
drifts; temperature 20 degrees.  Pheasant, 2; Sparrow Hawk, 1; Downy
Woodpecker, 4; Blue Jay, 1; Crow, 4; Starling, 11; Meadowlark, 13;
Goldfinch, 1; Tree Sparrow, 6; Junco, 14; Song Sparrow, 3; Brown Creeper,
2; White-breasted Nuthatch, 2; Chickadee, 11; Golden-crowned Kinglet, 1;
Robin, 1; Bluebird, 2.  Total, 17 species, 79 individuals.--MARY PIERSON
ALLEN.

_Doylestown, Pa._--Dec. 25; 10 A. M. to 2.30 P. M.  Fair; ground
snow-covered; wind southwest; temperature 40 degrees.  Red-shouldered
Hawk, 1; Sparrow Hawk, 1; Hairy Woodpecker, 1; Downy Woodpecker, 3; Blue
Jay, 5; Crow, 7; Starling, 10; Meadowlark, 3; Purple Finch, 3; Tree
Sparrow, 8; Junco, 42; Song Sparrow, 4; Cardinal, 2; White-breasted
Nuthatch, 3; Tufted Titmouse, 5; Black-capped Chickadee, 16; Robin, 1;
Bluebird, 2.  Total, 18 species, 117 individuals--DOYLESTOWN NATURE CLUB,
per Miss ELIZABETH COX.

_Lexington, N. C._--Dec. 27; 9.30 A. M. to 4.30 P. M.  Fair to hazy;
ground bare; wind southeast to south, light; temperature 44 degrees to 50
degrees.  Mourning Dove, 1; Turkey Vulture, 21; Sparrow Hawk, 1; Downy
Woodpecker, 1; Yellow-bellied Sapsucker, 2; Northern Flicker, 9; Blue
Jay, 12; Crow, 15; Purple Finch, 10; Goldfinch, 13; White-throated
Sparrow, 50; Chipping Sparrow, 15; Field Sparrow, 30; Slate-coloured
Junco, 100; Song Sparrow, 26; Fox Sparrow, 2; Towhee, 4; Cardinal, 20;
{98} Mockingbird, 5; Carolina Wren, 12; House Wren, 2; Long-billed Marsh
Wren, 1; White-breasted Nuthatch, 4; Tufted Titmouse, 4; Carolina
Chickadee, 20; Golden-crowned Kinglet, 3; Bluebird, 8.  Total, 27
species, 391 individuals.--THEODORE ANDREWS.

_Columbia, S. C. (Outskirts)._--Dec. 27; 11 A. M. to 1 P. M.  Clear;
ground bare; wind southwest, light; temperature 47 degrees.  Black
Vulture, 30; Red-tailed Hawk, 2; Red-headed Woodpecker, 6; Flicker, 1;
Blue Jay, 12; Goldfinch, 7; White-throated Sparrow, 15; Slate-coloured
Junco, 35; Song Sparrow, 6; Red-eyed Towhee, 3; Loggerhead Shrike, 1;
Mockingbird, 3; Carolina Wren, 7; Brown Creeper, 1; Carolina Chickadee,
8; Golden-crowned Kinglet, 2; Ruby-crowned Kinglet, 8.  Total, 17
species, 147 individuals.--BELLE WILLIAMS.

_Tampa, Fla._--Dec. 26; 9 A. M. to 12 M. and 2 to 5 P. M.  Clear; wind
northwest, steady; tide out all day; temperature 40 degrees.  Laughing
Gull, 1; Bonaparte's Gull, 1; Brown Pelican, 9; Lesser Scaup, 75; Ward's
Heron, 2; Little Blue Heron, 5; Killdeer, 15; Mourning Dove, 3; Turkey
Vulture, 10; Black Vulture, 4; Marsh Hawk, 1; Bald Eagle, 1; Kingfisher,
1; Red-headed Woodpecker, 1; Florida Blue Jay, 5; Towhee, 1; Tree
Sparrow, 14; Loggerhead Shrike, 6; Myrtle Warbler, 20; Yellow-throated
Warbler, 1; Palm Warbler, 60; Prairie Warbler, 1; Mockingbird, 12; House
Wren, 2; Ruby-crowned Kinglet, 2; Blue-gray Gnatcatcher, 3.  Total, 26
species, about 360 individuals.--MRS. HERBERT R. MILLS.

_Rantoul, Ill._--Dec. 25; 11 A. M. to 2 P. M.  Cloudy; wind north-west,
strong; temperature 22 degrees.  Prairie Hen, 40; Mourning Dove, 2;
Cooper's Hawk, 2; Red-tailed Hawk, 1; Red-shouldered Hawk, 1; American
Rough-legged Hawk, 5; American Sparrow Hawk, 1; Short-eared Owl, 3;
Screech Owl, 1; Northern Downy Woodpecker, 5; Yellow-bellied Sapsucker,
2; Northern Flicker, 2; Horned Lark, 60; Prairie Horned Lark, 30; Blue
Jay, 15; Bronzed Crackle, 2; Lapland Longspur, 4; Tree Sparrow, 200;
Junco, 100; Song Sparrow, 8; Swamp Sparrow, 2; Cardinal, 16; Brown
Creeper, 1; White-breasted Nuthatch, 10; Red-breasted Nuthatch, 4; Tufted
Titmouse, 30; Chickadee, 24; {99} Golden-crowned Kinglet, 4.  Total, 28
species, 575 individuals.--GEORGE E. EKBLAW and EDDIE L. EKBLAW.

_Youngstown, Ohio._--Dec. 25; 8 A. M. to 4 P. M.  Rain nearly all day;
wind southerly, brisk at times; temperature 46 degrees to 33 degrees;
walked about 10 miles.  Ruffed Grouse, 2; Barred Owl, 1; Great Horned
Owl, 2; Hairy Woodpecker, 6; Downy Woodpecker, 30; Red-bellied
Woodpecker, 1; Blue Jay, 21; Goldfinch, 4; Tree Sparrow, 54;
Slate-coloured Junco, 4; Song Sparrow, 20; Cardinal, 25; Winter Wren, 1;
Brown Creeper, 4; White-breasted Nuthatch, 50; Red-breasted Nuthatch, 2;
Tufted Titmouse, 25; Chickadee, 133; Golden-crowned Kinglet, 29; Wood
Thrush, 1.  Total, 20 species, 424 individuals.  The Wood Thrush was
possibly crippled, but could fly quite well.--GEORGE L. FORDYCE, VOLNEY
ROGERS, C. A. LEEDY, and MRS. WILLIS H. WARNER.

_Westfield, Wis._--Dec. 22; 8.30 to 10.30 A. M.  Cloudy; ground covered
by light snow; wind south, light; temperature 30 degrees.  Ruffed Grouse,
1; Downy Woodpecker, 2; Blue Jay, 3; Goldfinch, 40; Tree Sparrow, 20;
White-breasted Nuthatch, 3; Chickadee, 12.  Total, 7 species, 81
individuals.--PATIENCE NESBITT.

_Omaha, Neb._--Dec. 25; 10 A. M. to 3 P. M.  Clear till noon; 1 inch of
snow with bare spots; wind light, south; temperature 20 to 32 degrees.
Open woods and parks just west of town, walked north 5 miles.  Hairy
Woodpecker, 1; Downy Woodpecker, 7; Blue Jay, 8; Goldfinch, 2; Pine
Siskin, 1; Tree Sparrow, 75; Slate-coloured Junco, 20; Cardinal, 2;
White-breasted Nuthatch, 3; Chickadee, 26.  Total, 10 species, 145
individuals.--SOLON R. TOWNE.

_Denver, Colo._--Dec. 25; 2.20 to 4 P. M.  Partly cloudy; ground with
some snow; wind west, strong; temperature 45 degrees to 55 degrees.
Ring-necked Pheasant, 11; Marsh Hawk, 1; Orange-shafted Flicker, 9;
Magpie, 75; Red-winged Blackbird, 750; Meadowlark, 4; House Finch, 35;
Tree Sparrow, 60; Shufeldt's Junco, 3; Pink-sided Junco, 1; Gray-headed
Junco, 18.  Total, 11 species, 967 individuals.--W. H. BERGTOLD.

_Escondido, Calif._--Dec. 25; 9 A. M. to 2 P. M.  Partly cloudy; {100}
temperature 65 degrees.  Killdeer, 30; Valley Quail, 100; Mourning Dove,
20; Western Red-tailed Hawk, 1; Desert Sparrow Hawk, 2; Barn Owl, 2;
Burrowing Owl, 3; California Screech Owl, 1; Red-shafted Flicker, 3;
Black-chinned Hummingbird, 3; Arkansas Kingbird, 9; Say's Phoebe, 4;
Black Phoebe, 2; California Jay, 4; Western Meadowlark, 75; Brewer's
Blackbird, 150; House Finch, 200; Willow Goldfinch, 50; Anthony's Towhee,
35; Phainopepla, 1; California Shrike, 8; Audubon's Warbler, 30; Western
Mockingbird, 10; Pasadena Thrasher, 3; California Bush Tit, 20; Pallid
Wren Tit, 6; Western Robin, 25; Western Bluebird, 10.  Total, 38 species,
805 individuals.--FRED GALLUP.




{101}

CHAPTER VI

THE ECONOMIC VALUE OF BIRDS

Wild birds are now generally protected by law.  Wander where you will
through every province of Canada, and almost every nook and corner of
the United States, you will find that the lawmaker has been there
before you, and has thrown over the birds the sheltering arm of
prohibitory statutes.  Legislators are not usually supposed to spend
much energy on drafting and enacting measures unless it is thought that
these will result in practical benefit to at least some portion of
their constituents.  Legislative bodies are not much given to
appropriating hundreds of thousands of dollars annually for the
enforcement of a law which is purely sentimental in its nature.  It is
clear, therefore, that our law makers regard the wild bird life as
{102} a great value to the country from the standpoint of dollars and
cents.

_Destructiveness of Insects._--If we go back a few years and examine
certain widely read publications issued by the United States Department
of Agriculture, we can understand more fully why our legislative bodies
have regarded so seriously the subject of bird protection.  In one of
the Year Books of the Department we read that the annual loss to the
cotton crop of the United States by insects amounts to sixty million
dollars.  We learn, too, that grasshoppers and other insects annually
destroy fifty-three million dollars' worth of hay and that two million
dollars' worth of cereals are each year eaten by our insect population.
In fact, we are told that one-tenth of all the cereals, hay, cotton,
tobacco, forests, and general farm products is the yearly tax which
insects levy and collect.  In some parts of the country
market-gardening and fruit-growing are the chief industries of the
people.  Now, when a vegetable raiser or fruit grower starts to count
up the cost of {103} his crops, one of the items which he must take
into consideration is the 25 per cent. of his products which goes to
feed the insects of the surrounding country.

Not all insects are detrimental to man's interests, but as we have just
seen the Government officially states that many of them are
tremendously destructive.  Any one who has attempted to raise apples,
for example, has made the unpleasant acquaintance of the codling moth
and the curculio.  Every season the apple raisers of the United States
expend eight and one-quarter million dollars in spraying, to discourage
the activities of these pests.  In considering the troubles of the
apple growers we may go even farther and count the twelve million
dollars' worth of fruit spoiled by the insects despite all the spraying
which has taken place.  Chinch bugs destroy wheat to the value of
twenty million dollars a year, and the cotton-boll weevil costs the
Southern planters an equal amount.

_Plagues of Insects._--Every now and then we read {104} of great
plagues of insects which literally lay waste a whole section of
country.  History tells of these calamities which have troubled the
civilized world from the days of Pharaoh to the present time.  During
the summer of 1912 there was a great outbreak of army worms in South
Carolina.  In innumerable millions they marched across the country,
destroying vegetation like a consuming fire.  In the year 1900 Hessian
flies appeared in great numbers in Ohio and Indiana, and before they
subsided they had destroyed absolutely two and one-half million acres
of the finest wheat to be found in the Middle West, and wheat land
dropped 40 per cent. in value.

Closing this Year Book, with its long tables of discouraging
statements, we may find more cheerful reading if we turn to another
Agricultural Department publication entitled, "Some Common Birds and
Their Relation to Agriculture; Farmers Bulletin number Fifty-four."  We
need peruse only a few pages to become impressed with the fact that our
Government Biological Survey has made an {105} exhaustive and
exceedingly thorough investigation of the feeding habits of the wild
birds that frequent the fields and forests.  The reports of the
economic ornithologists herein given are almost as surprising as the
sad records given by the entomologists in the Year Book.  We learn that
birds, as a class, constitute a great natural check on the undue
increase of harmful insects, and furthermore that the capacity for food
of the average bird is decidedly greater in proportion than that of any
other vertebrate.

_Some Useful Birds._--Most people who have made the acquaintance of our
common birds know the friendly little Chickadee, which winter and
summer is a constant resident in groves of deciduous trees.  It feeds,
among other things, on borers living in the bark of trees, on plant
lice which suck the sap, on caterpillars which consume the leaves, and
on codling worms which destroy fruit.  One naturalist found that four
Chickadees had eaten one hundred and five female cankerworm moths.
With scalpel, tweezers, and microscope these moths were examined, {106}
and each was found to contain on an average one hundred and eighty-five
eggs.  This gives a total of nearly twenty thousand cankerworm moth
eggs destroyed by four birds in a few minutes.  The Chickadee is very
fond of the eggs of this moth and hunts them assiduously during the
four weeks of the summer when the moths are laying them.

The Nighthawk, which feeds mainly in the evening, and which is equally
at home in the pine barrens of Florida, the prairies of Dakota, or the
upper air of New York City, is a slaughterer of insects of many kinds.
A Government agent collected one, in the stomach of which were the
remains of thirty-four May beetles, the larvae of which are the white
grubs well known to farmers on account of their destruction of potatoes
and other vegetables.  Several stomachs have been found to contain
fifty or more different kinds of insects, and the number of individuals
in some cases run into the thousands.  Nighthawks also eat
grasshoppers, potato-beetles, cucumber-beetles, boll-weevils,
leaf-hoppers, and numerous gnats and {107} mosquitoes.  Surely this
splendid representative of the Goatsucker family deserves the gratitude
of all American citizens.

Among the branches of certain of our fruit trees we sometimes see large
webs which have been made by the tent caterpillars.  An invading host
seems to have pitched its tents among the boughs on all sides.  If
undisturbed these caterpillars strip the foliage from the trees.
Fortunately there is a bird which is very fond of these hairy
intruders.  This is the Cuckoo, and he eats so many that his stomach
actually becomes lined with a thick coating of hairs from their woolly
bodies.  The Baltimore Oriole also is fond of rifling these webs.

Another well-known bird that helps to make this part of the world
habitable is the Flicker.  It is popular in every neighbourhood where
it is found and is known by a wide variety of local names, over one
hundred and twenty-five of which have been recorded.  Golden-winged
Woodpecker some people call it.  Other names are High-holder, Wake-up,
{108} Walk-up, Yellowhammer, and Pigeon Woodpecker.  The people of Cape
Hatteras know it as Wilkrissen, and in some parts of Florida it is the
Yucker-bird.  Naturalists call it _Colaptes auratus_, but name it as
you may, this bird of many aliases is well worthy of the esteem in
which it is held.  It gathers its food almost entirely from the ground,
being different in this respect from other Woodpeckers.  One may flush
it in the grove, the forest, the peanut field, or the untilled prairie,
and everywhere it is found engaged in the most highly satisfactory
occupation of destroying insect life.  More than half of its food
consists of ants.  In this country, taken as a whole, Flickers are very
numerous, and the millions of individual birds which have yet escaped
the guns of degenerate pot hunters constitute a mighty army of
destruction to the _Formicidae_.

Let us not forget that any creature which eats ants is a decided boon
to humanity.  Ants, besides being wood borers, invaders of pantries,
killers of young birds, nuisances to campers and barefoot {109} boys,
care for and perpetuate plant lice which infest vegetation in all parts
of the country to our very serious loss.  Professor Forbes, in his
study of the corn plant louse, found that in spring ants mine along the
principal roots of the corn.  Then they collect the plant lice, or
aphids, and convey them into these burrows and there watch and protect
them.  Without the assistance of ants, it appears that the plant lice
would be unable to reach the roots of the corn.  In return for these
attentions the ants feast upon the honey-like substances secreted by
these aphids.  The ants, which have the reputation of being no
sluggards, take good care of their diminutive milch cattle, and will
tenderly pick them up and transport them to new pastures when the old
ones fail.  Late in the summer they carefully collect all the aphid
eggs that are obtainable, and taking them into their nests keep them
safe during the winter.  When spring comes and the eggs hatch, the ants
gather the young plant lice and place them on plants.  It may be seen,
therefore, that the Flicker {110} by digging up ants' nests and feeding
on the inhabitants has its value in an agricultural community.

_The Question of the Weed Seeds._--The work of the Chickadee, the
Nighthawk, the Cuckoo, and the Flicker is only an example of the good
being done by at least two-thirds of birds in the United States, and
most of the remainder are not without their beneficial qualities.  When
the coming of winter brings a cessation of insect life, many birds turn
to the weed patches for food.  Especially is this the case with the
various varieties of native Sparrows.

No one has yet determined just how many weed seeds one of these birds
will eat in a day.  The number, however, must be very great.  An
ornithologist, upon examining the stomach of a Tree Sparrow, found it
to contain seven hundred undigested pigeon-weed seeds, and in the same
way it was discovered that a Snow Bunting had taken one thousand seeds
of the pigweed at one meal.

[Illustration: Cuckoo, Raiding a Tent of Caterpillars]

Mr. E. H. Forbush, the well-known Massachusetts naturalist, frequently
amuses himself by {111} observing the birds near his house as they feed
on the millet seed that he provides for them.  Speaking of some of the
things he saw here, he says, "A Fox Sparrow ate one hundred and three
seeds in two minutes and forty-seven seconds; another, one {112}
hundred and ten in three minutes, forty-five seconds; while still
another Song Sparrow ate one hundred and fifty-four in the same length
of time.  This Sparrow had been eating for half an hour before the
count began and continued for some time after it was finished."  It is
readily seen that thirty seeds a minute was below the average of these
birds; and if each bird ate at that rate for but a single hour each day
it would destroy eighteen hundred seeds a day, or twelve thousand six
hundred a week.  Some day the economic ornithologists under the
leadership of Professor F. E. L. Beal, America's leading authority on
the subject, may give us a full and exhaustive account of what the
various birds do for us in the way of keeping down the great scourge of
grass and weeds with which the farmers have to deal.  In the meantime,
however, we may bear in mind that enough evidence already has been
accumulated to prove that as destroyers of noxious weed seeds the wild
birds are of vast importance.

[Illustration: Farallon Cormorants and White Pelicans on a Government
Bird Reservation in southern Oregon.]

_Dealing with the Rodent Pests._--In addition to {113} weeds and
insects, there is yet another group of pests, some representatives of
which may be found in every neighbourhood.  It is composed of rabbits,
ground squirrels, prairie dogs, mice, and the like.  They all possess
long front teeth for gnawing, and constitute the Order of Rodents.
Some species destroy fruit trees by gnawing away the bark near the
ground, others attack the grain stacked in the field or stored in the
granary.  As these little sharp-eyed creatures are chiefly nocturnal in
their habits, we seldom see them; we see only the ruin they have
wrought.  In some of the American ports incoming vessels are
systematically fumigated to kill the rats for fear they may bring with
them the bubonic plague.  In April, 1898, while engaged in field
natural history work in Hyde County, North Carolina, I found the farms
along the north shore of Matamuskeet Lake were overrun by swarms of
large brown rats that burrowed in the ground everywhere, and coming out
at night wrought havoc and destruction on the farm lands.  The whole
country was up {114} in arms and the farmers were appealing for State
and Federal aid to help them rid the land of this terrible scourge.  In
short, the rodents, as a class, are regarded as decidedly detrimental
to the interests of mankind.

[Illustration: Screech Owl and Its Prey]

_The Terror That Flies by Night._--Among the chief enemies of rodents
in North America are the nineteen species of Owls, untold numbers of
which are abroad every night searching through fields and forests for
just such creatures as these.  The digestive processes of Owls are such
that the hard, indigestible portions of their food are disgorged in the
form of balls and may often be found beneath their roosting places.
One of our most odd-looking birds is the Barn Owl.  Being nocturnal in
its habits it is rarely seen unless one takes the trouble to climb into
unfrequented church towers, the attics of abandoned buildings, or
similar places which they seek out for roosting purposes.  Some years
ago the naturalist, Dr. A. K. Fisher, discovered that a pair of Barn
Owls had taken up their abode in one of the towers {115} of the
Smithsonion Institution building.  He found the floor thickly strewn
with pellets composed of bones and fur which these birds and their
young had disgorged.  He collected two hundred of these {116} and took
them to his laboratory.  A painstaking examination showed that they
contained four hundred and fifty-three skulls.  Here is his list made
out at the time: two hundred and twenty-five meadow mice, two pine
mice, twenty shrews, one star-nosed mole, and one Vesper Sparrow.  It
is plain to be seen that great good was accomplished in the community
by this pair of Owls and their young, for the evil effects of the
rodents in life must have far overbalanced the good service of the one
useful Vesper Sparrow.

_A Seldom Recognised Blessing._--There are some large predatory birds
which destroy the lives of many game birds and others of the weaker
species.  On game farms, therefore, an unpleasant but necessary task is
the shooting or trapping of Hawks and Owls.  At first thought it might
seem best to wage a war of absolute extermination on these offenders,
and some game-keepers urge that this should be done.  Personally I am
opposed to any such course of action, one reason being that this would
not {117} necessarily forward the best interests of the game birds it
is desired to serve.  So important and yet so unexpected is the
ultimate effect of the activities of predatory creatures that in a
state of nature I am convinced the supply of game birds is increased
rather than decreased by being preyed upon.  Like all other creatures,
birds are subject to sickness and disease, but by the laws of nature it
appears that they are not designed to suffer long.  Their quick removal
is advisable if they are to be prevented from spreading contagion among
their fellows, or breeding and passing on their weakness to their
offspring.  Sometimes the Hawk, dashing at a covey of game birds, may
capture one of its strongest and healthiest members, but the chances
are that the afflicted member, which is not so quick on the rise or is
a little slower on the wing, is the one to be taken.  Just as some
savages are said to put to death the incompetent and unfit, so do the
laws operate which govern wild life.  If, therefore, we should destroy
all the Hawks, Owls, wild cats, foxes, skunks, {118} snakes, and other
predatory creatures, it is an open question whether in the long run our
game birds would be the gainers thereby.

Some time ago I visited a large game farm in one of the Southern
States, where for several years the owner had been engaged in raising
English Ring-necked Pheasants.   The gamekeeper stated that there were
about six thousand of these brilliantly coloured birds on the preserve
at that time.  He also pointed with pride to an exhibit on the walls of
a small house.  An examination showed that the two sides and one end of
this building were thickly decorated with the feet of Hawks, Crows,
Owls, domestic cats, minks, weasels, and other creatures that were
supposed to be the enemies of Pheasants.  Two men were employed on the
place to shoot and trap at all seasons, and the evidences of their
industry were nailed up, to let all men see that the owner of the big
game farm meant to allow no wild bird or animal to fatten on his game
birds.

A year later I again visited the same preserve and {119} found great
lamentation.  More than five thousand Pheasants had been swept away by
disease within a few weeks.  Is it going too far to say that the gunmen
and trappers had overdone their work?  So few Hawks or Owls or foxes
had been left to capture the birds first afflicted, that these had been
permitted to associate with their kind and to pass on weakness and
disease to their offspring until the general health tone of the whole
Pheasant community had become lowered.  In the end five-sixths of the
birds had succumbed to the devastations of disease.

All birds have their part to play in the great economy of the earth,
and it is a dangerous experiment to upset the balance of Nature.




{120}

CHAPTER VII

CIVILIZATION'S EFFECT ON THE BIRD SUPPLY

Twelve hundred kinds of wild birds have been positively identified in
North America.  About one-third of this number are called sub-species,
or climatic varieties.  To illustrate the meaning of "sub-species," it
may be stated that in Texas the plumage of the Bob-White is lighter in
colour than the plumage of the typical eastern Bob-White, which was
first described to science; therefore, the Texas bird is known as a
sub-species of the type.  Distributed through North America are
nineteen sub-species of the eastern Song Sparrow.  These vary from the
typical bird by differences in size and shades of marking.  In a
similar way there are nine climatic variations of Screech Owls, six
Long-billed Marsh Wrens, and fourteen Horned Larks.  It is {121}
difficult to explain why this variation in colour and size is so
pronounced in some species and yet is totally absent in others of
equally wide range.  The Mourning Dove breeds in many localities from
the southern tier of Canadian Provinces southward throughout the United
States and Mexico, and yet everywhere over this vast range the birds
are the same in size and colour.  Nowhere do the individuals exhibit
any markings suggestive of climatic influences.

Some birds are very rare and are admitted to the list of North American
species because of the fact that during the years a few stragglers from
other parts of the world have been found on our continent.  Thus the
Scarlet Ibis from South America, and the Kestrel and Rook from western
Europe, are known to come to our shores only as rare wanderers who had
lost their way, or were blown hither by storms.  Eighty-five species of
the birds now listed for North America are of this extra-limital class.
Among those naturally inhabiting the country, some are, of course, much
more abundant than others, thus every one {122} knows that Bald Eagles
are comparatively rare, and that Robins and Chipping Sparrows exist by
millions.

_The Number of Birds in Different States._--The number of kinds of
birds found in any one State depends on the size of the State, its
geographical situation, and the varieties of its climate as affected by
the topography in reference to mountains, coastlines, etc.  The number
of bird students and the character of their field studies determine the
extent to which the birds of a State have been catalogued and listed.
The following list indicates the number of kinds of birds that have
been recorded in forty-three of the States and the District of
Columbia.  The authority for the statement in each instance and the
year in which the figures were given is also stated:

  _Alabama_, 275 (Oberholser, 1909).
  _Arizona_, 371 (Cooke, 1914).
  _Arkansas_, 255 (Howell, 1911).
  _California_, 541 (Grinnell, 1916).
  _Colorado_, 403 (Cooke, 1912).
  {123}
  _Connecticut_, 334 (Sage and Bishop, 1913).
  _Delaware_, 229 (Rennock, 1908).
  _District of Columbia_, 293 (Cooke, 1913).
  _Florida_, 362 (Thurston, 1916).
  _Idaho_, 210 (Merrill, 1898).
  _Illinois_, 390 (Cory, 1909).
  _Indiana_, 321 (Butler, 1898).
  _Iowa_, 356 (Anderson, 1907).
  _Kansas_, 379 (Bunker, 1913).
  _Kentucky_, 228 (Garman, 1894).
  _Louisiana_, 323 (Byer, Allison, Kopman, 1915).
  _Maine_, 327 (Knight, 1908).
  _Maryland_, 290 (Kirkwood, 1895).
  _Massachusetts_, 369 (Howe and Allen, 1901).
  _Michigan_, 326 (Barrows, 1912).
  _Minnesota_, 304 (Hatch, 1892).
  _Missouri_, 383 (Widmann, 1907).
  _Nebraska_, 418 (Swenk, 1915).
  _Nevada_, 250 (Hoffman, 1881).
  _New Hampshire_, 283 (Allen, 1904).
  _New Jersey_, 358 (Stone, 1916).

{124}

  _New Mexico_, 314 (Ford, 1911).
  _New York_, 412 (Eaton, 1914).
  _North Carolina_, 342 (Pearson and Brimley, '16).
  _North Dakota_, 338 (Schmidt, 1904).
  _Ohio_, 330 (Jones, 1916).
  _Oregon_, 328 (Woodcock, 1902).
  _Pennsylvania_, 300 (Warren, 1890).
  _Rhode Island_, 293 (Howe and Sturtevant, 1899).
  _South Carolina_, 337 (Wayne, 1910).
  _Tennessee_, 223 (Rhoads, 1896).
  _Texas_, 546 (Strecker, 1912).
  _Utah_, 214 (Henshaw, 1874).
  _Vermont_, 255 (Howe, 1902).
  _Virginia_, 302 (Rives, 1890).
  _Wellington_, 372 (Dawson, 1909).
  _West Virginia_, 246 (Brooks, 1913).
  _Wisconsin_, 357 (Kumlien and Hollister, 1903).
  _Wyoming_, 288 (Knight, 1902).


For the five remaining States no list of the birds has as yet been
issued.

{125}

_Increase of Garden and Farm Birds._--The effect of civilization on the
bird life of North America has been both pronounced and varied in
character.  Ask almost any one over fifty years of age if there are as
many birds about the country as there were when he was a boy, and
invariably he will answer "No!"  This reply will be made, not because
all birds have decreased in numbers, but because there has come a
change in the man's ideas and viewpoint; in short, the change is
chiefly a psychological one.  The gentleman doubtless does not see the
birds as much as he did when he was a boy on a farm, or if he does,
they do not make the same impression on his mind.  It is but another
example of the human tendency to regard all things as better in the
"good old times."  Let us turn then from such well-meant but inaccurate
testimony, and face the facts as they exist.  I have no hesitation in
saying that with many species of Finches, Warblers, Thrushes, and
Wrens, their numbers in North America have greatly increased since the
first coming of the white men to our shores.

{126}

It is a fact well known to careful observers that the deep, unbroken
forests do not hold the abundance of bird life that is to be found in a
country of farmlands, interspersed with thickets and groves.
Originally extensive regions of eastern North America were covered with
forests wherein birds that thrive in open countries could not find
suitable habitation.  As soon as the trees were cut the face of the
country began to assume an aspect which greatly favoured such species
as the Bobolink, Meadowlark, Quail, Vesper Sparrow, and others of the
field-loving varieties.  The open country brought them suitable places
to nest, and agriculture increased their food supply.  The settlers
began killing off the wolves, wild cats, skunks, opossums, snakes, and
many of the predatory Hawks, thus reducing the numbers of natural
enemies with which this class of birds has to contend.

When the swamp is drained it means that the otter, the mink, and the
Wild Duck must go, but the meadowland that takes the place of the swamp
{127} provides for an increased number of other species of wild life.

[Illustration: Passenger Pigeons Are Now Extinct]

_Effect of Forest Devastation._--Only in a comparatively few cases has
bird life suffered from the destruction of forests.  In parts of the
Middle West the Woodpeckers have no doubt decreased in {128} numbers.
There are places where one may travel for many miles without seeing a
single grove in which these birds could live.

Passenger Pigeons as late as 1870 were frequently seen in enormous
flocks.  Their numbers during the periods of migration was one of the
greatest ornithological wonders of the world.  Now the birds are gone.
What is supposed to have been the last one died in captivity in the
Zoological Park of Cincinnati at 2 P. M. on the afternoon of September
1, 1914.  Despite the generally accepted statement that these birds
succumbed to the guns, snares, and nets of hunters, there is a second
cause which doubtless had its effect in hastening the disappearance of
the species.  The cutting away of vast forests where the birds were
accustomed to gather and feed on mast greatly restricted their feeding
range.  They collected in enormous colonies for the purpose of rearing
their young, and after the forests of the Northern States were so
largely destroyed the birds seem to have been driven far up into
Canada, quite {129} beyond their usual breeding range.  Here, as
Forbush suggests, the summer probably was not sufficiently long to
enable them to rear their young successfully.

[Illustration: Window "Caféteria," at home of Mrs. Granville Pike,
North Yakima, Washington.  The birds here seen at their lunch are the
Goldfinch, Housefinch, and Oregon Junco.]

The Ivory-billed Woodpecker, the largest member of the Woodpecker
family found in the United States, is now nearly extinct.  There are
some in the wilder regions of Florida, and a few in the swamps of upper
Louisiana, but nowhere does the bird exist in numbers.  It has been
thought by some naturalists that the reduction of the forest areas was
responsible for this bird's disappearance, but it is hard to believe
that this fact alone was sufficient to affect them so seriously, for
the birds live mainly in swamps, and in our Southern States there are
extensive lowland regions that remain practically untouched by the
axeman.  For some reason, however, the birds have been unable to
withstand the advance of civilization, and like the Paroquet, the
disappearance of which is almost equally difficult to explain, it will
soon be numbered with the lengthening list of species that have passed
away.

{130}

The Commercializing of Birds.--With the exceptions noted above the
birds that have noticeably decreased in numbers in North America are
those on whose heads a price has been set by the markets.  Let a demand
once arise for the bodies or the feathers of a species, and immediately
a war is begun upon it that, unless speedily checked, spells disaster
for the unfortunate bird.

_The Labrador Duck and Others._--A hundred years ago the Labrador Duck,
known to Audubon as the "Pied Duck," was abundant in the waters of the
North Atlantic, and it was hunted and shot regularly in fall, winter,
and spring, along the coast of New England and New York.  Their
breeding grounds were chiefly on the islands and along the shores of
Labrador, as well as on the islands and mainland about the Gulf of St.
Lawrence.  Any one over forty years of age will remember how very
popular feather beds used to be.  In fact, there are those of us who
know from experience that in many rural sections the deep feather bed
is still regarded as the _pièce de {131} resistance_ of the careful
householder's equipment.  There was a time when the domestic poultry of
New England did not furnish as great a supply of feathers as was
desired.  Furthermore, "Eider down" was recognized as the most
desirable of all feathers for certain domestic uses.

A hundred and fifty years ago New England sea-faring men frequently
fitted out vessels and sailed to the Labrador coast in summer on
"feather-voyages."  The feathers sought were those of the Labrador Duck
and the Eider.  These adventurous bird pirates secured their booty
either by killing the birds or taking the down from the nests.  The
commercializing of the Labrador Duck meant its undoing.  The last one
known to have been taken was killed by a hunter near Long Island, New
York, in 1875.  Forty-two of these birds only are preserved in the
ornithological collections of the whole world.

Another species which succumbed to the persistent persecution of
mankind was the Great Cormorant that at one time was extremely abundant
in the {132} northern Pacific and Bering Sea.  They were killed for
food by Indians, whalers, and others who visited the regions where the
birds spend the summer.  The Great Cormorant has been extinct in those
waters since the year 1850.

Great Auks were once numbered literally by millions in the North
Atlantic.  They were flightless and exceedingly fat.  They were easily
killed with clubs on the breeding rookeries, and provided an acceptable
meat supply for fishermen and other toilers of the sea; also their
feathers were sought.  They were very common off Labrador and
Newfoundland.  Funk Island, especially, contained an enormous breeding
colony.

For years fishermen going to the Banks in early summer depended on Auks
for their meat supply.  The birds probably bred as far south as
Massachusetts, where it is known a great many were killed by Indians
during certain seasons of the year.  However, it was the white man who
brought ruin to this magnificent sea-fowl, for the savage Indians were
{133} too provident to exterminate any species of bird or animal.  The
Great Auk was last seen in America between 1830 and 1840, and the final
individual, so far as there is any positive record, was killed off
Iceland in 1841.  About eighty specimens of this bird, and seventy
eggs, are preserved in the Natural History collections of the world.

[Illustration: The Great Auk, Another Extinct Bird]

The Trumpeter Swan and the Whooping Crane are nearly extinct to-day.
Constant shooting and {134} the extensive settling of the prairies of
the Northwest have been the causes of their disappearance.

_Diminution of Other Species._--Of the fifty-five kinds of Wild Ducks,
Geese, and Swans commonly found in North America, there is probably not
one as numerous to-day as it was a hundred or even fifty years ago.
Why?  The markets where their bodies commanded a price of so much per
head have swallowed them up.  The shotgun has also played havoc with
the Prairie Chicken and the Sage Grouse.  Of the former possibly as
many as one thousand exist on the Heath Hen Reservation of Martha's
Vineyard, Massachusetts, a pitiful remnant of the eastern form of the
species.  Even in the Prairie States wide ranges of country that
formerly knew them by tens of thousands now know them no more.

We might go farther and note also the rapidly decreasing numbers of the
Sandhill Crane and the Limpkin of Florida.  They are being shot for
food.  The large White Egret, the Snowy Egret, and the Roseate
Spoonbill are found in lessening numbers each {135} year because they
have been commercialized.  There is a demand in the feather trade which
can be met only by the use of their plumage, and as no profitable means
has been devised for raising these birds in captivity the few remaining
wild ones must be sacrificed, for from the standpoint of the killers it
is better that a few men should become enriched by bird slaughter than
that many people should derive pleasure from the birds which add so
much beauty and interest to the landscape.

_Change of Nesting Habits._--The nesting habits of some birds have been
revolutionized by the coming of civilization to the American
wilderness.  The Swallow family provides three notable examples of
this.  The Cliff Swallow and Barn Swallow that formerly built their
nests on exposed cliffs now seek the shelter of barns and other
outbuildings for this purpose.  The open nest of the Barn Swallow is
usually found on the joists of hay barns and large stables and not
infrequently on similar supports of wide verandas.  The Cliff Swallow
builds its gourd-shaped {136} mud nest under the eaves and hence is
widely known as the Eaves Swallow.  No rest of any kind in the form of
a projecting beam is needed, as the bird skilfully fastens the mud to
the vertical side of the barn close up under the overhanging roof.  In
such a situation it is usually safe from all beating rains.  The Cliff
Swallow has exhibited wisdom to no mean extent in exchanging the more
or less exposed rocky ledge for the safety of sheltering eaves.
Swallows show a decided tendency to gather in colonies in the breeding
season.  Under the eaves of a warehouse on the cost of Maine I once
counted exactly one hundred nests of these birds, all of which appeared
to be inhabited.  Examination of another building less than seventy
feet away added thirty-seven occupied nests to the list.

The nesting site of the Purple Martin has likewise been changed in a
most radical fashion.  Originally these birds built their nests of
leaves, feathers, and grass, in hollow trees.  Here no doubt they were
often disturbed by weasels, squirrels, snakes, and {137} other
consumers of birds and their eggs.  Some of the southern Indians hung
gourds up on poles and the Martins learned to build their nests in
them.  This custom is still in vogue in the South, and thousands of
Martin houses throughout the country are erected every year for the
accommodation of these interesting birds.  By their cheerful
twitterings and their vigilance in driving from the neighbourhood every
Hawk and Crow that ventures near, they not only repay the slight effort
made in their behalf, but endear themselves to the thrifty
chicken-raising farm-wives of the country.

If gourds or boxes cannot be found Martins will sometimes build about
the eaves of buildings or similar places.  They have learned that it is
wise to nest near human habitations.  At Plant City, Florida, one may
find their nests in the large electric arc-lights swinging in the
streets, and at Clearwater, Florida, and in Bismarck, North Dakota,
colonies nest under the projecting roofs of store buildings.

I have always been interested in finding nests of {138} birds, but I
think no success in this line ever pleased me quite so much as the
discovery of two pairs of Purple Martins making their nests one day in
May, down on the edge of the Everglade country in south Florida.  There
were no bird boxes or gourds for at least twenty or thirty miles
around, so the birds had appropriated some old Flicker nesting cavities
in dead trees, that is, one pair of the birds had appropriated a
disused hole, and the second pair was busy trying to carry nesting
material into a Flicker's nest from which the young birds had not yet
departed.  Here then were Martins preparing to carry on their domestic
duties just as they did back in the old primeval days.

The discussion of this subject could not well be closed without
mentioning the Chimney Swift that now almost universally glues to the
inner side of a chimney, or more rarely the inner wall of some
building, the few little twigs that constitute its nest.  It is only in
the remotest parts of the country that these birds still resort to
hollow trees for nesting purposes.  {139} There is--or was a few years
ago--a hollow cypress tree standing on the edge of Big Lake in North
Carolina which was used by a pair of Chimney Swifts, and it made one
feel as if he were living in primitive times to see these little dark
birds dart downward into a hollow tree, miles and miles away from any
friendly chimney.  Some day I hope to revisit the region and find this
natural nesting hollow still occupied by a pair of unmodernized Swifts.




{140}

CHAPTER VIII

THE TRAFFIC IN FEATHERS

The traffic in the feathers of American birds for the millinery trade
began to develop strongly about 1880 and assumed its greatest
proportions during the next ten years.  The wholesale milliners whose
business and pleasure it was to supply these ornaments for women's hats
naturally turned for their supply first to those species of birds most
easily procured.  Agents were soon going about the country looking for
men to kill birds for their feathers, and circulars and hand bills
offering attractive prices for feathers of various kinds were mailed
broadcast.  The first great onslaughts were made on the breeding
colonies of sea birds along the Atlantic Coast.  On Long Island there
were some very large communities of Terns and these were {141} quickly
raided.  The old birds were shot down and the unattended young
necessarily were left to starve.  Along the coast of Massachusetts the
sea birds suffered a like fate.  Maine with its innumerable out-lying
rocky islands was, as it is to-day, the chief nursery of the Herring
Gulls and Common Terns of the North Atlantic.  This fact was soon
discovered and thousands were slaughtered every summer, their wings cut
off, and their bodies left to rot among the nests on the rookeries.

_War on the Sea Swallows._--During a period of seven years more than
500,000 Terns', or Sea Swallows', skins were collected in spring and
summer in the sounds of North and South Carolina.  These figures I
compiled from the records and accounts given me by men who did the
killing.  Their method was to fit out small sailing vessels on which
they could live comfortably and cruise for several weeks; in fact, they
were usually out during the entire three months of the nesting period.
That was the time of year that offered best rewards for such work, for
then the birds' {142} feathers bore their brightest lustre, and the
birds being assembled on their nesting grounds they could easily be
shot in great numbers.  After the birds were killed the custom was to
skin them, wash off the blood stains with benzine, and dry the feathers
with plaster of Paris.  Arsenic was used for curing and preserving the
skins.  Men in this business became very skilful and rapid in their
work, some being able to prepare as many as one hundred skins in a day.

Millinery agents from New York would sometimes take skinners with them
and going to a favourable locality would employ local gunners to shoot
the birds which they in turn would skin.  In this way one New York
woman with some assistants collected and brought back from Cobbs'
Island, Virginia, 10,000 skins of the Least Tern in a single season.

In the swamps of Florida word was carried that the great millinery
trade of the North was bidding high for the feathers of those plume
birds which gave life and beauty even to its wildest regions.  It was
not long before the cypress fastnesses were echoing {143} to the roar
of breech-loaders, and cries of agony and piles of torn feathers became
common sounds and sights even in the remotest depths of the Everglades.
What mattered it if the semi-tropical birds of exquisite plumage were
swept from existence, if only the millinery trade might prosper!

The milliners were not content to collect their prey only in obscure
and little-known regions, for a chance was seen to commercialize the
small birds of the forests and fields.  Warblers, Thrushes, Wrens, in
fact all those small forms of dainty bird life which come about the
home to cheer the hearts of men and women and gladden the eyes of
little children, commanded a price if done to death and their pitiful
remains shipped to New York.

[Illustration: Terns, Formerly Sought by the Feather Trade]

Taxidermists, who made a business of securing birds and preparing their
skins, found abundant opportunity to ply their trade.  Never had the
business of taxidermy been so profitable as in those days.  For
example, in the spring of 1882 some of the feather agents established
themselves at points {144} on the New Jersey coast, and sent out word
to residents of the region that they would buy the bodies of freshly
killed birds of all kinds procurable.  The various species of Terns,
which were then abundant on the Jersey coast, offered the best
opportunity {145} for profit, for not only were they found in vast
numbers, but they were comparatively easy to shoot.  Ten cents apiece
was the price paid, and so lucrative a business did the shooting of
these birds become that many baymen gave up their usual occupation of
sailing pleasure parties and became gunners.  These men often earned as
much as one hundred dollars a week for their skill with the shotgun.

[Illustration: A Christmas dinner for the birds.  Note the Song Sparrow
on a Sunflower head and a Chickadee weighing himself.  Photographed by
Mrs. Granville Pike]

It is not surprising that at the end of the season a local observer
reported: "One cannot help noticing now the scarcity of Terns on the
New Jersey coast, and it is all owing to their merciless destruction."
One might go further and give the sickening details of how the birds
were swept from the mud flats about the mouth of the Mississippi and
the innumerable shell lumps of the Chandeleurs and the Breton Island
region; how the Great Lakes were bereft of their feathered life, and
the swamps of the Kankakee were invaded; how the White Pelicans,
Western Grebes, Caspian Terns, and California Gulls of the West were
butchered and their skinned {146} bodies left in pyramids to fester in
the sun.  One might recount stories of Bluebirds and Robins shot on the
very lawns of peaceful, bird-loving citizens of our Eastern States in
order that the feathers might be spirited away to feed the insatiable
appetite of the wholesale milliner dealers.  Never have birds been worn
in this country in such numbers as in those days.  Ten or fifteen small
song birds' skins were often sewed on a single hat!

_What the Ladies Wore._--In 1886 Dr. Frank M. Chapman walked through
the shopping district of New York City on his way home, two afternoons
in succession, and carefully observed the feather decorations on the
hats of the women he chanced to meet.  The result of his observation,
as reported to _Forest and Stream_, shows that he found in common use
as millinery trimming many highly esteemed birds as the following list
which he wrote down at the time will serve to show:

Robins, Thrushes, Bluebirds, Tanagers, Swallows, {147} Warblers,
Waxwings, Bobolinks, Larks, Orioles, Doves, and Woodpeckers.

In all, the feathers of at least forty species were discernible.

In commenting on his trips of inspection, Doctor Chapman wrote: "It is
evident that in proportion to the number of hats seen, the list of
birds given is very small, for in most cases mutilation rendered
identification impossible.  Thus, while one afternoon seven hundred
hats were counted and on them but twenty birds recognized, five hundred
and forty-two were decorated with feathers of some kind.  Of the one
hundred and fifty-eight remaining, seventy-two were worn by young or
middle-aged ladies, and eighty-six by ladies in mourning or elderly
ladies."

This was a period when people seemed to go mad on the subject of
wearing birds and feathers.  They were used for feminine adornment in
almost every conceivable fashion.  Here are two quotations from New
York daily papers of that time, only the names {148} of the ladies are
changed: "Miss Jones looked extremely well in white with a whole nest
of sparkling, scintillating birds in her hair which it would have
puzzled an ornithologist to classify," and again: "Mrs. Robert Smith
had her gown of unrelieved black looped up with black birds; and a
winged creature, so dusky that it could have been intended for nothing
but a Crow, reposed among the curls and braids of her hair."

Ah, those were the halcyon days of the feather trade!  Now and then a
voice cried out at the slaughter, or hands were raised at the sight of
the horrible shambles, but there were no laws to prevent the killing
nor was there any strong public sentiment to demand its cessation,
while on the other hand more riches yet lay in store for the hunter and
the merchant.  There were no laws whatever to protect these birds, nor
was there for a time any man of force to start a crusade against the
evil.

_The Story of the Egrets._--The most shameless blot on the history of
America's treatment of the {149} wild birds is in connection with the
White Egrets.  It is from the backs of these birds that the "aigrettes"
come, so often seen on the hats of the fashionable.  Years ago, as a
boy in Florida, I first had an opportunity to observe the methods
employed by the feather hunters in collecting these aigrettes which are
the nuptial plumes of the bird and are to be found on birds only in the
spring.  As a rare treat I was permitted to accept the invitation
extended by a squirrel hunter to accompany him to the nesting haunts of
a colony of these birds.  Away we went in the gray dawn of a summer
morning through the pine barrens of southern Florida until the heavy
swamps of Horse Hammock were reached.  I remember following with
intense interest the description given by my companion of how these
birds with magnificent snowy plumage would come flying in over the dark
forest high in air and then volplane to the little pond where, in the
heavily massed bushes, their nests were thickly clustered.  With vivid
distinctness he imitated the cackling notes of the {150} old birds as
they settled on their nests, and the shrill cries of the little ones,
as on unsteady legs they reached upward for their food.

Keen indeed was the disappointment that awaited me.  With great care we
approached the spot and with caution worked our way to the very edge of
the pond.  For many minutes we waited, but no life was visible about
the buttonwood bushes which held the nests--no old birds like fragments
of fleecy clouds came floating in over the dark canopy of cypress
trees.  My companion, wise in the ways of hunters, as well as the
habits of birds, suspected something wrong and presently found nearby
the body of an Egret lying on the ground, its back, from which the skin
bearing the fatal aigrettes had been torn, raw and bloody.  A little
farther along we came to the remains of a second and then a third, and
still farther on, a fourth.  As we approached, we were warned of the
proximity of each ghastly spectacle by the hideous buzzing of green
flies swarming over the lifeless forms of the parent birds.

{151}

At one place, beneath a small palmetto bush, we found the body of an
Egret which the hunters had overlooked.  Falling to the ground sorely
wounded, it had escaped its enemies by crawling to this hiding-place.
Its appearance showed the suffering which it had endured.  The ground
was bare where in its death agonies it had beaten the earth with its
wings.  The feathers on the head and neck were raised and the bill was
buried among the blood-clotted feathers of its breast.  On the higher
ground we discovered some straw and the embers of a campfire, giving
evidence of the recent presence of the plume hunters.  Examination of
the nests over the pond revealed numerous young, many of which were now
past suffering; others, however, were still alive and were faintly
calling for food which the dead parents could never bring.  Later
inquiry developed the fact that the plumes taken from the backs of
these parent birds were shipped to one of the large millinery houses in
New York, where in due time they were placed on the market as
"aigrettes," and of course {152} subsequently purchased and worn by
fashionable women, as well as by young and old women of moderate
incomes, who sacrifice much for this millinery luxury.

There were at that time to be found in Florida many hundreds of
colonies of these beautiful birds, but their feathers commanded a large
price and offered a most tempting inducement for local hunters to shoot
them.  Many of the men of the region were poor, and the rich harvest
which awaited them was very inviting.  At that time gunners received
from seventy-five cents to one dollar and a quarter for the "scalp" of
each bird, which ordinarily contained forty or more plume feathers.
These birds were not confined to Florida, but in the breeding season
were to be found in swampy regions of the Atlantic Coast as far north
as New Jersey, some being discovered carrying sticks for their nests on
Long Island.

Civilized nations to-day decry any method of warfare which results in
the killing of women and children, but the story of the aigrette trade
deals with the slaughter of innocents by the slow process of {153}
starvation, a method which history shows has never been followed by
even the most savage race of men dealing with their most hated enemies.
This war of extermination which was carried forward unchecked for years
could mean but one thing, namely, the rapid disappearance of the Egrets
in the United States.  As nesting birds, they have disappeared from New
Jersey, Maryland, and Virginia, and also those States of the central
Mississippi Valley where they were at one time to be found in great
numbers.

_Amateur Feather Hunters._--Quite aside from the professional millinery
feather hunter there should be mentioned the criminal slaughter of
birds which has been indulged in by individuals who have killed them
for the uses of their own lady friends.  I know one Brown Pelican
colony which was visited by a tourist who shot four hundred of the big,
harmless, inoffensive creatures in order to get a small strip of skin
on either side of the body.  He explained to his boatmen, who did the
skinning for him, that he was curious to see if these strips of skin
with their feathers would not {154} make an interesting coat for his
wife.  The birds killed were all caring for their young in the nests at
the time he and his hirelings shot them.

There was a few years ago, in a Georgia city, an attorney who accepted
the aigrette "scalps" of twenty-seven Egrets from a client who was
unable to pay cash for a small service rendered.  He told me he had
much pleasure in distributing these among his lady friends.  Another
man went about the neighbourhood hunting male Baltimore Orioles until
he had shot twelve, as he wanted his sisters to have six each for their
Sunday hats.  The Roseate Spoonbill of the Southern States was never
extensively killed for the millinery trade, and yet to-day it is
rapidly approaching extinction.  The feathers begin to fade in a short
time and for this reason have little commercial value, but the amateur
Northern tourist feather hunter has not known this, or disregarded the
fact, and has been the cause of the depletion of the species in the
United States.  Almost every one could cite instances similar to the
above, for there are many people in the {155} United States who are
guilty of taking part in the destruction of birds for millinery
purposes.  In addition to the feathers of American birds already
mentioned the feathers of certain foreign species have been very much
in demand.

_Paradise Plumes_--One of the most popular foreign feathers brought to
this country is the Paradise.  There are at least nine species of
Paradise Birds found in New Guinea and surrounding regions that furnish
this product.  The males are adorned with long, curved delicate
feathers which are gorgeously coloured.  As in the case of all other
wild birds there is no way of getting the feathers except by killing
the owners.  Much of this is done by natives who shoot them down with
little arrows blown through long hollow reeds.  The high price paid for
these feathers has been the occasion of the almost total extinction of
some of the species, as indicated by the decreased number of feathers
offered at the famous annual London Feather Sales.  Travellers in the
regions inhabited by the birds speak of the {156} distressing effect of
the continuous calls of the bereft females as they fly about in the
forests during the mating season.  As a high-priced adornment the
Paradise is the one rival of the famous aigrette.

_Maribou._--The Maribou which has been fashionable for a number of
years past comes principally from the Maribou Stork of Africa.  These
white, fluffy, downlike feathers grow on the lower underpart of the
body of the Maribou Stork.  These birds are found in the more open
parts of the country.  Their food consists of such small forms of life
as may readily be found in the savannas and marshes.  To some extent
they also feed like vultures on the remains of larger animals.

_Pheasants._--The long tail feathers of Pheasants have been much in
demand by the millinery trade during the past ten years.  Although
several species contribute to the supply, the majority are from the
Chinese Pheasant, or a similar hybrid descendent known as the English
Ring-necked Pheasant.  Many of these feathers have been collected in
Europe, {157} where the birds are extensively reared and shot on great
game preserves; vast numbers, however, have come from China.  Oddly
enough in that country the birds were originally little disturbed by
the natives, who seem not to care for meat.  Then came the demand for
feathers, and the birds have since been killed for this purpose to an
appalling extent.

_Numidie._--This popular hat decoration suddenly appeared on our market
in great numbers a few years ago.  It is taken from the Manchurian
Eared Pheasant of northern China.  Unless the demand for these feathers
is overcome in some way there will undoubtedly come a day in the
not-distant future when the name of this bird must be added to the
lengthening list of species that have been sacrificed to the greed of
the shortsightedness of man.

_Goura._--The fashionable and expensive hat decoration which passes
under the trade name of Goura consists of the slender feathers, usually
four or five inches long with a greatly enlarged tip, that grows out
fanlike along a line down the centre of the head {158} and nape of
certain large Ground Pigeons that inhabit New Guinea and adjacent
islands.  Perhaps the best-known species is the Crowned Pigeon.

There is a special trade name for the feathers of almost every kind of
bird known in the millinery business.  Thus there is Coque for Black
Cock, Cross Aigrettes for the little plumes of the Snowy Egret, and
Eagle Quills from the wings not only of Eagles, but of Bustards,
Pelicans, Albatrosses, Bush Turkeys, and even Turkey Buzzards.  The
feathers of Macaws in great numbers are used in the feather trade, as
well as hundreds of thousands of Hummingbirds, and other
bright-coloured birds of the tropics.

[Illustration: Crowned Pigeon That Furnishes the Goura of the Feather
Trade]

_Women's Love for Feathers._--One of the most coveted and easily
acquired feminine adornments has been feathers.  At first these were
probably taken almost wholly from birds killed for food, but later,
when civilization became more complex and resourceful, millinery
dealers searched the ends of the earth to supply the demands of
discriminating women.  The chief reason why it has been so difficult
{160} to induce educated and cultivated women of this age to give up
the heartless practice of wearing feathers seems to be the fact that
the desire and necessity for adornment developed through the centuries
has become so strong as to be really an inherent part of their natures.
It is doubtful if many people realize how strong and all-powerful this
desire for conforming to fashion in the matter of dress sits enthroned
in the hearts of tens of thousands of good women.

[Illustration: An Egret, bearing "aigrettes," in attendance on her
young]

There was a time when I thought that any woman with human instincts
would give up the wearing of feathers at once upon being told of the
barbaric cruelties involved in their acquisition.  But I have learned
to my amazement that such is not the case.  Not long ago I received one
of the shocks of my life.  Somewhat over two years ago a young woman
came to work in our office.  I supposed she had never heard, except
casually, of the great scourge of the millinery trade in feathers.
Since that time, however, she has been in daily touch with all the
important efforts made in this country and abroad to {161} legislate
the traffic out of existence, to guard from the plume hunters the
colonies of Egrets and other water birds, and to educate public
sentiment to a proper appreciation of the importance of bird
protection.  She has typewritten a four-hundred-page book on birds and
bird protection, has acknowledged the receipt of letters from the
wardens telling of desperate rifle battles that they have had with
poachers, and written letters to the widow of one of our agents shot to
death while guarding a Florida bird rookery.  In the heat of campaigns
she has worked overtime and on holidays.  I have never known a woman
who laboured more conscientiously or was apparently more interested in
the work.  Frequently her eyes would open wide and she would express
resentment when reports reached the office of the atrocities
perpetrated on wild birds by the heartless agents of the feather trade.
Recently she married and left us.  Last week she called at the office,
looking very beautiful and radiant.  After a few moments' conversation
she approached the subject which {162} evidently lay close to her
heart.  Indicating a cluster of paradise aigrettes kept in the office
for exhibition purposes, she looked me straight in the face and in the
most frank and guileless manner asked me to sell them to her for her
new hat!  The rest of the day I was of little service to the world.

What was the good of all the long years of unceasing effort to induce
women to stop wearing bird feathers, if this was a fair example of
results?  Of all the women I knew, there was no one who had been in a
position to learn more of the facts regarding bird slaughter than this
one; yet it seems that it had never entered her mind to make a personal
application of the lesson she had learned.  The education and restraint
of legislative enactments were all meant for other people.

_Ostrich Feathers Are Desirable._--How is this deep-seated desire and
demand for feathers to be met?  Domestic fowls will in part supply it;
but for the finer ornaments we must turn to the Ostrich, the only bird
in the world which has been domesticated {163} exclusively for its
feather product.  These birds were formerly found wild in Arabia,
southwestern Persia, and practically the whole of Africa.  In
diminishing numbers they are still to be met with in these regions,
especially in the unsettled parts of Africa north of the Orange River.
From early times the plumes of these avian giants have been in demand
for head decorations, and for centuries the people of Asia and Africa
killed the birds for this purpose.  They were captured chiefly by means
of pitfalls, for a long-legged bird which in full flight can cover
twenty-five feet at a stride is not easily overtaken, even with the
Arabs' finest steeds.

So far as there is any record, young Ostriches were first captured and
enclosed with a view of rearing them for profit in the year 1857.  This
occurred in South Africa.  During the years which have since elapsed,
the raising of Ostriches and the exportation of their plumes has become
one of the chief business enterprises of South Africa.  Very naturally
people in other parts of the world wished to engage in a {164} similar
enterprise when they saw with what success the undertaking was crowned
in the home country of the Ostrich.  A few hundred fine breeding birds
and a considerable number of eggs were purchased by adventurous spirits
and exported, with the result that Ostrich farms soon sprang up in
widely separated localities over the earth.  The lawmakers of Cape
Colony looked askance at these competitors and soon prohibited Ostrich
exportation.  Before these drastic measures were taken, however, a
sufficient number of birds had been removed to other countries to
assure the future growth of the industry in various regions of the
world.  It was in 1882 that these birds were first brought to the
United States for breeding purposes.  To-day there are Ostrich farms at
Los Angeles, San Diego, and San José, California; Hot Springs,
Arkansas; Jacksonville, Florida; Phoenix, Arizona, and elsewhere.

There is money to be made in the Ostrich business, for the wing and
tail plumes of this bird are as popular to-day for human adornment as
they were in the {165} days of Sheerkohf, the gorgeous lion of the
mountain.  Even low-grade feathers command a good price for use in the
manufacture of boas, feather bands, trimming for doll's hats, and other
secondary purposes.  When the time comes for plucking the feathers, the
Ostriches are driven one at a time into a V-shaped corral just large
enough to admit the bird's body and the workman.  Here a long, slender
hood is slipped over his head and the wildest bird instantly becomes
docile.  Evidently he regards himself as effectively hidden and secure
from all the terrors of earth.  There is no pain whatever attached to
the taking of Ostrich feathers, for they are merely clipped from the
bird by means of scissors.  A month or two later when the stubs of the
quills have become dry they are readily picked from the wings without
injury to the new feathers.

The Ostrich industry is good and it is worthy of encouragement.  No
woman need fear that she is aiding in any way the destruction of birds
by wearing Ostrich plumes.  There are many more of the birds {166} in
the world to-day than there were when their domestication first began,
and probably no wild African or Asiatic Ostriches are now shot or
trapped for their plumes.  The product seen in our stores all comes
from strong, happy birds hatched and reared in captivity.  Use of their
feathers does not entail the sacrifice of life, nor does it cause the
slightest suffering to the Ostrich; taking plumes from an Ostrich being
no more painful to the bird than shearing is to a sheep and does not
cause it half the alarm a sheep often exhibits at shearing time.

The call for feather finery rings so loudly in the hearts of women that
it will probably never cease to be heard, and it is the Ostrich--the
big, ungainly yet graceful Ostrich--which must supply the demand for
high-grade feathers of the future.




{167}

CHAPTER IX

BIRD-PROTECTIVE LAWS AND THEIR ENFORCEMENT--HOW LAWS ARE MADE

Laws for the protection of wild birds and animals have been enacted in
greater numbers in the United States than in any other country in the
world.  In a Government Bulletin on American Game Protection, Dr. T. S.
Palmer states that the earliest game laws were probably the hunting
privileges granted in 1629 by the West India Company to persons
planting colonies in the New Netherlands, and the provisions granting
the right of hunting in the Massachusetts Bay Colonial Ordinance of
1647.  As soon as the United States Government was formed, in 1776, the
various States began to make laws on the subject, and these have
increased in numbers with the passing of years.  For example, between
the years 1901 to 1910, North {168} Carolina alone passed three hundred
and six different game laws.  As various forms of game birds or animals
showed indications of decreasing in numbers new laws were called into
existence in an attempt to conserve the supply for the benefit of the
people.  Not infrequently laws were passed offering bounties or
otherwise encouraging the killing of wolves, pumas, and other predatory
animals, or of birds regarded as injurious to growing crops or to
poultry raising.

State laws intended primarily for the protection of wild life may be
grouped as follows: (1) naming the time of the year when various kinds
of game may be hunted; these hunting periods are called "open seasons."
(2) The prohibition of certain methods formally employed in taking
game, as, for example, netting, trapping, and shooting at night.  (3)
Prohibiting or regulating the sale of game.  By destroying the market
the incentive for much excessive killing is removed.  (4) Bag limit;
that is, indicating the number of birds or animals that may be shot in
a day; for example, in Louisiana one may kill twenty-five {169} Ducks
in a day, and in Arizona one may shoot two male deer in a season.  (5)
Providing protection at all seasons for useful birds not recognized as
game species.

_Definition of Game._--Game animals as defined today include bears,
coons, deer, mountain sheep, caribou, cougars, musk oxen, white goats,
rabbits, squirrels, opossums, wolves, antelopes, and moose.  Game birds
include Swans, Geese, Ducks, Rails, Coots, Woodcocks, Snipes, Plovers,
Curlews, Wild Turkeys, Grouse, Pheasants, Partridges, and Quails.
Sometimes other birds or animals have been regarded as game.  Robins
and Mourning Doves, for example, are still shot in some of the Southern
States as game birds.

_The Audubon Law._--Little was done in the way of securing laws for the
benefit of song and insectivorous birds and birds of plumage until
1886, when the bird-protection committee of the American
Ornithologists' Union drafted a bill for this specific purpose.  This
bill, besides extending protection to all useful {170} non-game birds,
gave the first clear statutory terminology for defining "game birds."
It also provided for the issuing of permits for the collecting of wild
birds and their eggs for scientific purposes.  The States of New York
and Massachusetts that year adopted the law.  Arkansas followed eleven
years later, but it was not until the Audubon Society workers took up
the subject in 1909 that any special headway was made in getting States
to pass this measure.  To-day it is on the statute books of all the
States of the Union but eight, and is generally known as the Audubon
Law.

_Game Law Enforcement._--In all the States but Florida there are
special State officers charged with enforcing the bird and game
protective laws.  Usually there is a Game Commission of three or more
members whose duty it is to select an executive officer who in turn
appoints game wardens throughout the State.  These men in some cases
are paid salaries, in others they receive only a _per diem_ wage or
receive certain fees for convictions.  License {171} fees are usually
required of hunters, and the moneys thus collected form the basis of a
fund used for paying the wardens and meeting the other expenses
incident to the game law enforcement.

_The Lacey Law._--The Federal Government is taking a share of the
responsibility in preserving the wild life of the Union.

On July 2, 1897, Congressman Lacey introduced in the House a bill to
prohibit the export of big game from some of the Western States.  In
1909 amendments were made to the Lacey Law, one of which prohibited the
shipment of birds or parts thereof from a State in which they had been
illegally killed, or from which it was illegal to ship them.  The
enforcement of this by Federal officers has been most efficacious in
breaking up a great system of smuggling Quails, Grouse, Ducks, and
other game birds.

_Federal Migratory Bird Law._--Probably the most important game law as
yet enacted in the United States is the one known as the Federal
Migratory Game Law or the McLean Law.  A somewhat {172} extended
discussion of this important measure seems justifiable at this time.

[Illustration: Migrative Birds Are Protected by the Government]

When, in 1913, the first breath of autumn swept over the tule sloughs
and reedy lakes of the North-west, the wild fowl and shore birds of
that vast region rose in clouds, and by stages began to journey toward
{173} their winter quarters beneath Southern skies.  If the older birds
that had often taken the same trip thought anything about the subject,
they must have been impressed, when they crossed the border into the
United States, with the fact that changes had taken place in reference
to shooting.

It is true that in Minnesota, for instance, the firing of guns began in
September, as in other years; but those Ducks that reached the
Mississippi River below St. Paul found no one waiting to kill them.  As
they proceeded, by occasional flights, farther down the river there was
still a marked absence of gunners.  The same conditions prevailed all
the way down the valley until the sunken grounds of Arkansas and
Mississippi came into view.  What did this mean?  Heretofore, at this
season, hunters had always lined the river.  This had been the case
ever since the oldest Duck could remember.  The Missouri River, too,
was free from shooting throughout the greater part of its length, which
was sufficient cause for many a grateful quack.

{174}

What was the reason for this great change?  Had the killing of wild
fowl suddenly lost its attraction for those who had been accustomed to
seek pleasure afield with gun and decoys?  No, indeed, banish the
thought, for it is written that so long as man shall live, Wild Duck
shall grace his table and gratify his palate.

The remarkable changes which had so affected the fortunes of the wild
fowl were due to the enactment of a United States law known as the
Federal Migratory Game Law.  Let us see something of this law and of
what led to its establishment.

_History of Game Laws._--When the United States of America became a
free and independent nation the lawmakers in various commonwealths soon
addressed themselves to the task of enacting protective measures for
insuring the continuance of the supply of desirable game birds and
animals.  But as the years went by, and the game showed every
indication of continuing to decrease despite the measures that had been
adopted for their benefit, other and more stringent game laws were
enacted.

{175}

In the fullness of time there came into being in every state in the
Union an extensive, complex system of prohibitive measures regarding
seasons for hunting, methods of killing, size of bag limit,
restrictions on sale, and limiting the kinds of game that might be
killed.

Many states also went into the business of rearing, in a condition of
semi-captivity.  Pheasants, grouse, Hungarian Partridges, Quail, Ducks,
and some other species of birds highly esteemed as food, the object of
this being to restock covers that had been depleted of bird-life by
excessive shooting, or to supply new attraction for field-sports in
regions where other game was limited.

Theoretically the methods adopted by the several states were sure to
keep the numbers of game birds up to a point where a reasonable amount
of sport might be engaged in by those of our citizens who enjoy the
excitement and recreation of going afield with gun and dog.  It could
easily be proven on paper that by judiciously regulating the shooting,
{176} and having this conform to the available game supply, every state
could at one and the same time preserve the different species, and
furnish satisfactory shooting for its sportsmen.

But in practice the theory failed to work as expected; the gunners were
on hand every fall in increasing numbers but the birds continued to
grow scarcer.

In the vernacular of the sportsman, birds that may legitimately be shot
are divided for convenience into three groups, viz., upland game birds,
water fowl, and shore birds.  It is in reference to the fortunes of the
water fowl and shore birds that the greatest apprehension has been
felt.  Approximately all of the species concerned are of migratory
habits.  The open seasons when these may be hunted vary greatly in
different states and all attempts to get anything like uniform laws in
the various hunting territories have been attended with failure.

It became clear in time that the most important action that could be
taken to conserve these birds {177} was to prohibit shooting during the
spring migration, when the birds were on their way to their northern
breeding grounds.  Some states adopted this measure and the results
bore out the predictions of those who urged the passage of such laws.
New York State, for example, tried the experiment, and within two years
thousands of Black Ducks were breeding where for a long time they had
not been known to occur in summer.  So the feeling became general among
bird protectors that it would be an excellent thing if spring shooting
of all migratory game birds should be stopped everywhere.  But the
legislatures of many states paid small heed to the little minority of
their constituents who voiced such sentiments, and the problem of how
to bring about the desired results remained unsolved.

[Illustration: Egret brooding on a Florida island owned and guarded by
the Audubon Society.]

_The Theory of Shiras._--In the year 1904 a United States Congressman
announced to the country that he had found the proper solution for
settling once and for all the question of spring shooting, and for
putting to an end the ceaseless wrangling that {178} continually went
on in the various legislatures when the subject was brought up.  This
gentleman, George Shiras, 3rd, planned to cut the Gordian knot by
turning over to the Federal Government the entire subject of making
laws regarding the killing of migratory game birds.

In December that year he introduced a bill in Congress covering his
ideas on the subject.  This radical proposition created merriment in
certain legal circles.  Was it not written in the statutes of nearly
every state that the birds and game belong to the people of the state?
Therefore what had the Government to do with the subject?  Furthermore,
were there not numerous court decisions upholding the authority of the
states in their declarations of ownership of the birds and game?
Others saw in this move only another attempt toward increasing the
power of the central government, and depriving the states further of
their inalienable rights.  This remarkable document was discussed to
some extent but nothing was done.  Four years later {179} Congressman
John W. Weeks reintroduced the bill with slight modifications.  Nothing
came of this any more than of the bill that he started going in 1909.
In 1911 he again brought forward this pet measure toward which Congress
had so often turned a cold shoulder.  Senator George P. McLean set a
similar bill afloat in the troubled waters of the Senate.  Nothing
happened, however, until the spring of 1912, when committee hearings
were given on these bills in both branches of Congress.
Representatives of more than thirty organizations interested in
conservation appeared and eloquently sought to impress the national
lawmakers with the importance and desirability of the measure.  Both
bills were intended for the protection of migratory game birds only,
but the representative of the National Association of Audubon Societies
urged that the bills be extended to include all migratory insect-eating
birds, because of their value to agriculture.  This suggestion was
adopted and after a stiff fight in Congress the McLean Bill became a
law on March 4, 1913.

{180}

This new federal statute did not in itself change any of the existing
game laws, but it gave authority to certain functionaries to make such
regulations as they deemed wise, necessary, and proper to extend better
protection to all migratory game and insect-eating birds in the United
States.  The Secretary of Agriculture, to whose department this unusual
duty was assigned, read the law thoughtfully, concluded that the task
did not come within the bounds of his personal capabilities, and very
wisely turned the whole matter over to a committee of three experts
chosen from one of the department bureaus and known as the Biological
Survey.

_The Work of the Committee._--This committee at once began the
preparation of a series of regulations to give effect to the new
statute.  Drawing extensively from the records stored in the Survey
offices, and seasoning these with their own good judgment and knowledge
of existing conditions, they brought out in a period of three months
and nine days, or to be more precise, on June 23, 1913, a set of ten
{181} regulations which, in many ways, have revolutionized shooting in
the United States.

These were printed in pamphlet form and distributed widely; for before
they could have the effect of laws it was necessary that they should be
advertised for a period of at least three months in order to give all
dissatisfied parties an opportunity to be heard.

The whole idea of the Government taking over the matter of protecting
migratory birds, as well as the startling character of some of the
regulations promulgated by the committee was justly expected to bring
forth either great shouts of approbation or a storm of disapproval, and
possibly both sounds might be heard.  As long experience has shown that
it is necessary to have public opinion approve of a game law if it is
to be effective, one can well understand that, following the mailing of
the circular of rules, these gentlemen of the committee stood with hand
to brow and anxiously scanned the distant horizon.  Nor did they have
long to wait before {182} critical rumblings began to be heard in many
directions, for it is always hard for men to give up privileges which
they have once enjoyed.

In fact, as the committee waited, the sky began rapidly to fill with
interrogation points; for it has ever been the case that the
dissatisfied ones of earth are louder in their objections than are the
satisfied ones in their commendations.

As a matter of fact, the regulations on the whole were remarkable for
their clearness, directness, and fairness.  They came nearer being
formed for the benefit of the birds instead of for the pleasure and
convenience of the hunters, than any general far-reaching
bird-protective measure, which has been enacted in this country.

For the purpose of the regulations, migratory game birds were defined
as Ducks, Geese, Swans, Rails, Coots, Pigeons, Cranes, and shore birds,
which included Plover, Snipe, Woodcock, and Sandpipers.  Migratory
insectivorous birds were enumerated as Thrushes, Orioles, Larks,
Swallows, Wrens, {183} Woodpeckers, and all other perching birds that
feed entirely or chiefly on insects.

Having thus conveniently classified migratory birds into two easily
comprehensible and distinguishable groups, the way was open to deal
with them separately and distinctively.  Therefore, after declaring it
to be illegal to kill any bird of either class between sunset and
sunrise, the regulations went on to state that insect-eating birds
shall not be killed in any place or in any manner, even in the daytime.

Among other things this provision, by one stroke, completed the
campaign which the Audubon Society had been waging for long years on
behalf of the Robin.  In Maryland, North Carolina, Mississippi,
Louisiana and Tennessee, the Robin-potpie-loving inhabitants must in
future content themselves with such game birds as Quail, Grouse, Wild
Turkeys, and Ducks.  The life of Sir Robin Redbreast has now been
declared to be sacred everywhere.  He and his mate are to dwell beneath
the protection of the strong arm of the United States Government.

{184} Another feature of the Audubon work was also completed by this
section of the new regulations.  This is the safeguarding of all song
and insect-eating birds in the States of Montana, Idaho, Nevada, Utah,
Arizona, Nebraska, Kansas, and New Mexico, constituting the group of
states whose legislatures had thus far withstood the importunities of
the Audubon workers to extend protection to such birds.

Regulation Number Four provided for an absolute closed hunting season
on sixty-two species of water birds until September, 1918.

The above includes what we might call some of the minor regulations
proposed by the Biological Survey Committee.  Then comes the big
regulation, the one which was of absorbing interest to every member of
the vast army of five million hunters in the United States.  This is
the regulation which divides the country into zones and prescribes the
shooting seasons in each.  Touching on this point the Government
experts already mentioned gave out this statement by way of explanation:

{185}

_Government Explanations._--"More than fifty separate seasons for
migratory birds were provided under statutes in force in 1912.  This
multiplicity of regulations of zones to suit special localities has
apparently had anything but a beneficial effect on the abundance of
game.  The effort to provide special seasons for each kind of game in
each locality merely makes a chain of open seasons for migratory birds
and allows the continued destruction of such birds from the beginning
of the first season to the close of the last.  It is believed that
better results will follow the adoption of the fewest possible number
of zones and so regulating the seasons in each as to include the time
when such species is in the best condition or at the maximum of
abundance during the autumn.  For this reason the country has been
divided into two zones, as nearly equal as possible, one to include the
states in which migratory game birds breed, or would breed if given
reasonable protection, the other the states in which comparatively few
species breed, but in which many winter.  {186} Within these zones the
seasons are fixed for the principal natural groups, water fowl, Rails,
shore birds, and Woodcock.  In no case does the zone boundary cross a
state line, and except in very rare cases the seasons are uniform
throughout the states."

With few changes the regulations were finally adopted.  Wherever the
federal law conflicted with a state law, the former was regarded as
supreme, and to make things more generally uniform the states have
since been changing their laws to conform to the Government
regulations.  After being tried out for three years these rules
recently were modified by making five shooting zones and altering
certain other provisions.  These last regulations which became
effective on August 21, 1916, to-day stand as the law of the land
affecting migratory birds.

To the United States Biological Survey was intrusted the task of
enforcing the law by means of game wardens and other officials.  That
is, the survey was to collect the evidence in cases of violations, and
the prosecutions were to be conducted {187} by the Department of
Justice.  To enable these officials to execute the law, Congress has
appropriated $50,000 annually--which is just about one tenth the
minimum amount needed for the purpose.  This paltry sum has been
expended as judiciously as possible with marked results for good.
Trouble, however, soon developed in the courts.  One autumn day Harvey
C. Schauver went a-hunting on Big Lake, Arkansas, and finding no Ducks
handy he shot a Coot, which was against the law.  When the case came up
in the Federal Court of Eastern Arkansas, the judge who presided
declared that the federal law under which the defendant was being tried
was unconstitutional, and wrote a lengthy decision, giving his reasons
for holding this view.  Within the next two months two other federal
courts rendered similar decisions.

At this point the Department of Justice decided to bring no further
cases to trial until the United States Supreme Court should pass on the
constitutionality of the law, the Arkansas case having {188} already
been brought before this tribunal.  At this writing the decision has
not been rendered.

_Only Bird Treaty in the World._--Early in the history of the
operations of this law the possibilities of an adverse decision by the
Supreme Court were considered by those interested in the measure, and a
plan was found whereby all might not be lost if such a catastrophe
should occur.  The first movement in this new direction was made by
Elihu Root on January 14, 1913, when he introduced in the Senate a
resolution requesting the President to propose to the other governments
the negotiation of a convention for the protection of birds.  A
proposed bird treaty between this country and Canada was then drawn up,
and after much effort was brought to a successful issue and was finally
ratified by Congress on September 29, 1916.

This treaty broadly covers the provisions of the Migratory Bird Law in
this country, so if the Supreme Court declares the latter to be invalid
the Government still stands committed to the {189} principals of
migratory bird-protection by virtue of the treaty.

So the long fight to stop spring shooting and provide short uniform
closed seasons for shooting shore birds and wild fowl is drawing to a
glorious conclusion.

To-day, in the history of wild-life conservation, we have before us the
unusual spectacle of the United States Government taking a serious hand
in a problem which had been found to be too difficult of solution by
the different states working separately.  Many of us believe this
predicts a brighter day for the perpetuation of the wild life of our
country.




{190}

CHAPTER X

BIRD RESERVATIONS

The creation of reservations where wild birds can be protected at all
times is a modern idea, brought prominently to public attention by the
efforts of the Audubon Society.  The first interest that the United
States Government manifested in the subject was about thirteen years
ago.  On May 29, 1901, the legislature of Florida was induced to enact
a statute making it a misdemeanour to kill any non-game birds of the
State with the exception of the Crow and a few other species regarded
by the lawmakers as being injurious to man's interests.

First Federal Bird Reservation--Shortly afterward the Audubon Society
friends employed a man to protect from the raids of tourists and
feather hunters a {191} large colony of Brown Pelicans that used for
nesting purposes a small, muddy, mangrove-covered island in Indian
River on the Atlantic Coast.  Soon murmurings began to be heard.
"Pelicans eat fish and should not be protected," declared one Floridan.
"We need Pelican quills to sell to the feather dealers," chimed in
another with a keen eye to the main chance.  There was talk of
repealing the law at the next session of the legislature, and the
hearts of the Audubon workers were troubled.  At first they thought of
buying the island, so as to be in a position to protect its feathered
inhabitants by preventing trespass.  However, it proved to be
unsurveyed Government land, and the idea was suggested of getting the
Government to make a reservation for the protection of the birds.  The
matter was submitted to President Roosevelt, who no sooner ascertained
the facts that the land was not suited for agricultural purposes, and
that the Audubon Society would guard it, than with characteristic
directness he issued the following remarkable edict: "It is hereby
ordered that Pelican {192} Island in Indian River is reserved and set
apart for the use of the Department of Agriculture as a preserve and
breeding ground for native birds."

The gist of this order, bearing the authorization of the Secretary of
Agriculture, was quickly painted on a large sign, and placed on the
island, where all who sailed near might read.  Imagine the chagrin of
the Audubon workers upon learning from their warden that when the
Pelicans returned that season to occupy the island as before, they took
one look at this declaration of the President and immediately departed,
one and all, to a neighbouring island entirely outside of the
reservation!  Signs less alarming in size were substituted, and the
Pelicans, their feelings appeased, condescended to return, and have
since dwelt peacefully under the protecting care of the Government.

_Congressional Sanction._--In view of the fact that some persons
contended that the President had over-stepped his authority in making a
bird reservation, a law was drafted, and passed by Congress,
specifically {193} giving protection to birds on lands set apart as
National bird reservations.  The legal difficulties thus removed, the
way lay open for the creation of other bird reservations, and the
Audubon Society seized the opportunity.  Explorations were started to
locate other Government territories containing important colonies of
water birds.  This work was quickly extended over many parts of the
United States.  Hunters of eggs and plumes were busy plying their
trades wherever birds were known to assemble in great numbers, and the
work had to be hurried if the birds were to be saved.

[Illustration: The Downy Woodpecker is fond of suet]

Mr. Frank M. Miller, of New Orleans, reported a case in which five
thousand eggs had been broken on one Louisiana island inhabited by sea
birds in order that fresh eggs might subsequently be gathered into the
boats waiting at anchor off shore.  No wonder that friends of water
birds were profoundly concerned about their future welfare, and hailed
with delight Mr. Roosevelt's quick action.

Mr. William Dutcher, President of the National {194} Association of
Audubon Societies, was so much pleased with the results achieved by the
Federal reservation work of 1905, that he declared in his annual report
that the existence of the Association was justified if it had done
nothing more than secure Federal bird reservations and had helped to
guard them during the breeding season.

That year President Roosevelt established four more bird refuges.  One
of these, Stump Lake, in North Dakota, became an important nursery for
Gulls, Terns, Ducks, and Cormorants in summer, and a safe harbour for
wild fowl during the spring and fall migrations.  Huron Island and
Siskiwit in Lake Superior, the homes of innumerable Herring Gulls, were
made perpetual bird sanctuaries, and Audubon wardens took up their
lonely watch to guard them against all comers.

_Florida Reservations._--At the mouth of Tampa Bay, Florida, is a
ninety-acre island, Passage Key.  Here the wild bird life of the Gulf
Coast has swarmed in the mating season since white man first knew the
{195} country.  Thousands of Herons of various species, as well as
Terns and shore birds, make this their home.  Dainty little Ground
Doves flutter in and out among the cactus on the sheltered sides of the
sand dunes; Plovers and Sandpipers chase each other along the beaches,
and the Burrowing Owls here hide in their holes by night and roam over
the island by day.

When this place was described to President Roosevelt, he immediately
declared that the birds must not be killed there without the consent of
the Secretary of Agriculture.  With one stroke of his pen he brought
this desirable condition into existence, and Mrs. Asa Pillsbury was
duly appointed to protect the island.  She is one of the few women bird
wardens in America.

These things happened in the early days of Government work for the
protection of water birds.  The Audubon Society had found a new field
for endeavour, highly prolific in results.  With the limited means at
its command the work of ornithological exploration was carried forward.
Every island, mud flat, and sand bar along the coast of the Mexican
{196} Gulf, from Texas to Key West, was visited by trained
ornithologists who reported their findings to the New York office.
These were forwarded to Washington for the approval of Dr. T. S. Palmer
of the Biological Survey, and Frank Bond, of the General Land Office,
where executive orders were prepared for the President's signature.

The Breton Island Reservation off the coast of Louisiana, including
scores of islands and bars, was established in 1904.  Six additional
reservations were soon created along the west coast of Florida, thus
extending a perpetual guardianship over the colonies of sea and
coastwise birds in that territory--the pitiful remnants of vast
rookeries despoiled to add to the profits of the millinery trade.

The work was early started in the West resulting in the Malheur Lake
and Klamath Lake reservations of Oregon.  The latter is to-day the
summer home of myriads of Ducks, Geese, Grebes, White Pelicans, and
other wild waterfowl, and never a week passes that the waters of the
lake are not fretted with the {197} prow of the Audubon patrol boat, as
the watchful warden extends his vigil over the feathered wards of our
Government.

Federal bird reservations have been formed not only of lakes with reedy
margins and lonely islands in the sea, they have been made to include
numerous Government reservoirs built in the arid regions of the West.

_Distant Reservations._--Once set in motion, this movement for Federal
bird reservations soon swept beyond the boundaries of the United
States.  One was established in Porto Rico, and several others among
the islands of Alaska, on whose rocky cliffs may be seen to-day clouds
of Puffins, Auks, and Guillemots--queer creatures that stand upright
like a man--crowding and shouldering each other about on the ledges
which overlook the dark waters of Bering Sea.  One reservation in
Alaska covers much of the lower delta of the Yukon, including the great
tundra country south of the river, embracing within its borders a
territory greater than the {198} State of Connecticut.  From the
standpoint of preserving rare species of birds this is doubtless one of
the most important reservations which has come into existence.  It is
here that many of the wild fowl, which frequent the California coast in
winter, find a summer refuge safe alike from the bullet of the white
man and the arrow of the Indian.  Here it is that the lordly Emperor
Goose is probably making his last stand on the American continent
against the aggressions of the destructive white race.

Away out in the western group of the Hawaiian Archipelago are located
some of the world's most famous colonies of birds.  From remote regions
of the Pacific sea birds journey hither when the instinct for mating is
strong upon them.  Here come "Love Birds" or White Terns, and
Albatrosses, great winged wonders whose home is on the rolling deep.
The number seems almost beyond belief to men and women unfamiliar with
bird life in congested colonies.  On February 3, 1909, these islands
and reefs were included in an executive order whereby {199} the
"Hawaiian Island Reservation" was brought into existence.  This is the
largest of all our Government bird reserves.  It extends through more
than five degrees of longitude.

At intervals in the past these islands had been visited by vessels
engaged in the feather trade, and although no funds were available for
establishing a warden patrol among them, it was fondly hoped that the
notice to the world that these birds were now wards of the United
States would be sufficient to insure their safety.

A rude shock was felt, therefore, when late that year a rumour reached
Washington that a Japanese poaching vessel had been sighted heading for
these waters.  The revenue cutter _Thetis_, then lying at Honolulu, was
at once ordered on a cruise to the bird islands.  Early in 1910 the
vessel returned, bringing with her twenty-three Japanese feather
hunters who had been captured at their work of destruction.  In the
hold of the vessel were stored two hundred and fifty-nine thousand
pairs of wings, {200} two and a half tons of baled feathers, and
several large cases and boxes of stuffed birds.  Had the Japanese
escaped with their booty they would have realized over one hundred
thousand dollars for their plunder.  This island was again raided by
feather collectors in the spring of 1915.

_President Taft a Bird Protectionist._--President Taft continued the
policy of creating bird reservations begun by Mr. Roosevelt, and a
number were established during his administration.  President Wilson
likewise is a warm advocate of bird protection.  One of many
reservations he has created is the Panama Canal Zone, which is in
charge of the Panama Canal Commission.  With this exception and that of
the Pribilof Reservation, which is in charge of the Bureau of
Fisheries, all Government bird reservations are under the care of the
Department of Agriculture, and their administration is directed by the
Bureau of the Biological Survey.  The National Association of Audubon
Societies still contributes in a modest way to the financial support of
some of the wardens.  {201} Below is given a full list of the Federal
bird reservations created up to January, 1917, with the dates, and in
the order of, their establishment:

  LIST OF NATIONAL BIRD RESERVATIONS

  NO.     NAME                                          DATE OF
                                                     ESTABLISHMENT

   1.  Pelican Island, Fla.  . . . . . . . . . . . . Mar. 14, 1903
   2.  Breton Island, La.  . . . . . . . . . . . . . Oct.  4, 1904
   3.  Stump Lake, N. Dak. . . . . . . . . . . . . . Mar.  9, 1905
   4.  Huron Islands, Mich.  . . . . . . . . . . . . Oct. 10, 1905
   5.  Siskiwit Islands, Mich. . . . . . . . . . . . Oct. 10, 1905
   6.  Passage Key, Fla. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Oct. 10, 1905
   7.  Indian Key, Fla.  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Feb. 10, 1906
   8.  Tern Islands, La. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Aug.  8, 1907
   9.  Shell Keys, La. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Aug. 17, 1907
  10.  Three Arch Rocks, Oregon  . . . . . . . . . . Oct. 14, 1907
  11.  Flattery Rocks, Wash. . . . . . . . . . . . . Oct. 23, 1907
  12.  Quillayute Needles, Wash. . . . . . . . . . . Oct. 23, 1907
  13.  Copalis Rock, Wash. . . . . . . . . . . . . . Oct. 23, 1907
  14.  East Timbalier, La. . . . . . . . . . . . . . Dec.  7, 1907
  15.  Mosquito Inlet, Fla.  . . . . . . . . . . . . Feb. 24, 1908
  16.  Tortugas Keys, Fla. . . . . . . . . . . . . . Apr.  6, 1908
  17.  Key West, Fla.  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Aug.  8, 1908
  18.  Klamath Lake, Oregon  . . . . . . . . . . . . Aug.  8, 1908
  19.  Lake Malheur, Oregon  . . . . . . . . . . . . Aug. 18, 1908
  20.  Chase Lake, N. Dak. . . . . . . . . . . . . . Aug. 28, 1908
  21.  Pine Island, Fla. . . . . . . . . . . . . .  Sept. 15, 1908
  22.  Palma Sola, Fla.  . . . . . . . . . . . . .  Sept. 26, 1908
  23.  Matlacha Pass, Fla. . . . . . . . . . . . .  Sept. 26, 1908
  24.  Island Bay, Fla.  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Oct. 23, 1908
  25.  Lock-Katrine, Wyo.  . . . . . . . . . . . . . Oct. 26, 1908
  26.  Hawaiian Islands, Hawaii. . . . . . . . . . . Feb.  3, 1909
  27.  Salt River, Ariz. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Feb. 25, 1909
  28.  East Park, Cal. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Feb. 25, 1909
{202}

  29.  Deer Flat, Idaho  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Feb. 25, 1909
  30.  Willow Creek, Mont. . . . . . . . . . . . . . Feb. 25, 1909
  31.  Carlsbad, N. Mex. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Feb. 25, 1909
  32.  Rio Grande, N. Mex. . . . . . . . . . . . . . Feb. 25, 1909
  33.  Cold Springs, Oregon  . . . . . . . . . . . . Feb. 25, 1909
  34.  Belle Fourche, S. Dak.  . . . . . . . . . . . Feb. 25, 1909
  35.  Strawberry Valley, Utah . . . . . . . . . . . Feb. 25, 1909
  36.  Keechelus, Wash.  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Feb. 25, 1909
  37.  Kachess, Wash.  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Feb. 25, 1909
  38.  Clealum, Wash.  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Feb. 25, 1909
  39.  Bumping Lake, Wash. . . . . . . . . . . . . . Feb. 25, 1909
  40.  Conconully, Wash. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Feb. 25, 1909
  41.  Pathfinder, Wyo.  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Feb. 25, 1909
  42.  Shoshone, Wyo.  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Feb. 25, 1909
  43.  Minidoka, Idaho . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Feb. 25, 1909
  44.  Bering Sea, Alaska  . . . . . . . . . . . . . Feb. 27, 1909
  45.  Tuxedni, Alaska . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Feb. 27, 1909
  46.  St. Lazaria, Alaska . . . . . . . . . . . . . Feb. 27, 1909
  47.  Yukon Delta, Alaska . . . . . . . . . . . . . Feb. 27, 1909
  48.  Culebra, P. R.  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Feb. 27, 1909
  49.  Farallon, Calif.  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Feb. 27, 1909
  50.  Pribilof, Alaska  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Feb. 27, 1909
  51.  Bogoslof, Alaska  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Mar.  2, 1909
  52.  Clear Lake, Calif.  . . . . . . . . . . . . . Apr. 11, 1911
  53.  Forrester Island, Alaska  . . . . . . . . . . Jan. 11, 1913
  54.  Hazy Islands, Alaska  . . . . . . . . . . . . Jan. 11, 1913
  55.  Niobrara, Nebr. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Jan. 11, 1913
  56.  Green Bay, Wis. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Feb. 21, 1913
  57.  Chamisso Island, Alaska . . . . . . . . . . . Dec.  7, 1912
  58.  Pishkun, Montana. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Dec. 17, 1912
  59.  Desecheo Island, P. R.  . . . . . . . . . . . Dec. 19, 1912
  60.  Gravel Island, Wis. . . . . . . . . . . . . . Jan.  9, 1913
  61.  Aleutian Islands, Alaska  . . . . . . . . . . Mar.  3, 1913
  62.  Walker Lake, Ark. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Apr. 31, 1913

{203}

  63.  Petit Bois Island, Ala. and Miss. . . . . . .  May  6, 1913
  64.  Anaho Island, Nevada. . . . . . . . . . . .  Sept.  4, 1913
  65.  Smith Island, Wash. . . . . . . . . . . . . . June  6, 1914
  66.  Ediz Hook, Wash.  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Jan. 20, 1915
  67.  Dungeness Spit, Wash. . . . . . . . . . . . . Jan. 20, 1915
  68.  Big Lake, Arkansas  . . . . . . . . . . . . . Aug.  2, 1915
  69.  Goat Island, California . . . . . . . . . . . Aug.  9, 1916
  70.  North Platte, Nebraska  . . . . . . . . . . . Aug. 21, 1916


_Audubon Society Reservations._--It may be noted from this list that
there are no Government bird reservations in the original thirteen
colonies.  The reason is that there are no Government waste lands
containing bird colonies in these states.  To protect the
colony-breeding birds found there other means were necessary.  The
Audubon Society employs annually about sixty agents to guard in summer
the more important groups of water birds along the Atlantic Coast and
about some of the lakes of the interior.  Water-bird colonies are
usually situated on islands where the birds are comparatively free from
the attacks of natural enemies; hence the question of guarding them
resolves itself mainly into the question of keeping people from
disturbing the birds {204} during the late spring and summer months.
Painted signs will not do this.  Men hired for the purpose constitute
the only adequate means.  Some of the protected islands have been
bought or leased by the Audubon Society, but in many cases they are
still under private ownership and the privilege of placing a guard had
to be obtained as a favour from the owner.  Probably half a million
breeding water birds now find protection in the Audubon reservations.
On the islands off the Maine coast the principal birds safeguarded by
this means are the Herring Gull, Arctic Tern, Wilson's Tern, Leach's
Petrel, Black Guillemot, and Puffin.  There are protected colonies of
Terns on Long Island; of Terns and Laughing Gulls on the New Jersey
coast; of Black Skimmers, and of various Terns, in Virginia and North
Carolina.

One of the greatest struggles the Audubon Society has ever had has been
to raise funds every year for the protection of the colonies of Egrets
and Ibis in the South Atlantic States.  The story of this fight is
longer than {205} can be told in one short chapter.  The protected
colonies are located mainly in the low swampy regions of North
Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia, and Florida.  I have been in many of
these "rookeries" and know that the warden who undertakes to guard one
of them takes his life in his hand.  Perhaps a description of one will
answer more or less for the twenty other Heron colonies the Society has
under its care.

_The Corkscrew Rookery._--Some time ago I visited the warden of this
reservation, located in the edge of the "Big Cypress" Swamp thirty-two
miles south of Ft. Myers, Florida.  Arriving at the colony late in the
evening, after having travelled thirty miles without seeing a human
being or a human habitation, we killed a rattlesnake and proceeded to
make camp.  The shouting of a pair of Sandhill Cranes awakened us at
daylight, and, to quote Greene, the warden, the sun was about "two
hands high" when we started into the rookery.  We crossed a glade two
hundred yards wide and then entered the swamp.  Progress {206} was
slow, for the footing was uncertain and the tall sawgrass cut our
wrists and faces.

There are many things unspeakably stimulating about a journey in such a
tropical swamp.  You work your way through thick, tangled growths of
water plants and hanging vines.  You clamber over huge fallen logs damp
with rank vegetation, and wade through a maze of cypress "knees."
Unwittingly, you are sure to gather on your clothing a colony of
ravenous ticks from some swaying branch.  Redbugs bent on mischief
scramble up on you by the score and bury themselves in your skin, while
a cloud of mosquitoes waves behind you like a veil.  In the sombre
shadows through which you move you have a feeling that there are many
unseen things that crawl and glide and fly, and a creepy feeling about
the edges of your scalp becomes a familiar sensation.  Once we came
upon the trail of a bear and found the going easier when we waded on
hands and knees through the opening its body had made.

In the more open places the water was completely {207} covered with
floating plants that Greene called "wild lettuce."  These appeared to
be uniform in size, and presented an absolutely level surface except in
a few places where slight elevations indicated the presence of
inquisitive alligators, whose gray eyes we knew were watching our
movements through the lettuce leaves.

Although the swamp was unpleasant under foot, we had but to raise our
eyes to behold a world of beauty.  The purple blossoms of air plants,
and the delicate petals of other orchids greeted us everywhere.  From
the boughs overhead long streamers of gray Spanish moss waved and
beckoned in the breeze.  Still higher, on gaunt branches of giant
cypresses a hundred feet above our heads, great, grotesque Wood Ibises
were standing on their nests, or taking flight for their feeding
grounds a dozen miles southward.

[Illustration: The Grotesque Wood Ibis]

We were now fairly in the midst of an immense bird city, and some of
the inhabitants were veritable giants in the bird world.  The body of a
Wood Ibis {209} is about the size of a Turkey hen.  Its long, bare neck
terminates in a most remarkable fashion, for the top of the head is not
only innocent of feathers but also destitute of skin--"Flintheads," the
people call the bird.  Its bill is nearly ten inches long, slightly
curved and very massive.  Woe to the unlucky fish or luckless rat upon
whom a blow falls from the Flinthead's heavy beak!  There were probably
one hundred thousand of these birds inhabiting Corkscrew Rookery at the
time of my visit.  There were also large colonies of the smaller White
Ibis and several varieties of Heron.  Eight of the almost extinct
Roseate Spoonbills wheeled into view above the swamp, but quickly
passed from sight.

[Illustration: Members of a junior Audubon class at Fergus Falls,
Minnesota]

The most interesting birds, those concerning which the Audubon Society
is most solicitous, are the White Egrets.  These snow-white models of
grace and beauty have been persecuted for their plumes almost to the
point of extermination, and here is situated the largest assemblage of
them left in Florida.

"Those 'long whites' are never off my mind for a {210} minute," said
the warden, as we paused to watch some fly over.  "Two men came to my
camp last week who thought I didn't know them, but I did.  They were
old-time plume hunters.  They said they were hunting cattle, but I knew
better--they were after Egrets and came to see if I was on guard.  I
told them if they saw any one after plumes to pass {211} the word that
I would shoot on sight any man with a gun who attempted to enter the
Corkscrew.  I would do it, too," he added as he tapped the barrel of
his Winchester.  "It is terrible to hear the young birds calling for
food after the old ones have been killed to get the feathers for rich
women to wear.  I am not going to have my birds sacrificed that way."

[Illustration: Hungry Young Egrets]

The teeming thousands of birds in this rookery feed their young to a
more or less extent on fish, and from the nests many fragments fall
into the mud and water below.  In the wise economy of nature few
objects of real value are suffered to go to waste.  Resting on the
water plants, coiled on logs, or festooned in the low bushes, numerous
cotton-mouthed water-moccasins lie in wait.  Silently and motionless
they watch and listen, now and then raising their heads when a light
splash tells them of the approach of some heedless frog, or of the
falling of some dead fish like manna from the nests above.  May is the
dry season, and the low water of the swamp accounted in a measure for
the unusual number of snakes to {212} be seen.  Exercising a fair
amount of caution, I slew that morning fourteen poisonous reptiles, one
of which measured more than five feet in length and had a girth I was
just able to encompass with both hands.

_Wardens Shot by Plume Hunters._--This is a region where the Audubon
warden must constantly keep his lonely watch, for should he leave even
for a short time there would be danger of the colony being raided and
the protective work of many seasons wiped out.  A successful shooting
trip of plume hunters to the Corkscrew might well net the gunners as
much as five thousand dollars, and in a country where money is scarce
that would mean a magnificent fortune.  The warden is fully alive to
this fact, and is ever on the alert.  Many of the plume hunters are
desperate men, and he never knows what moment he may need to grasp his
rifle to defend his life in the shadows of the Big Cypress, where
alligators and vultures would make short shrift of his remains.

He remembers, as he goes his rounds among the birds day by day, or lies
in his tent at night, that a {213} little way to the south, on a lonely
sand key, lies buried Guy Bradley, who was done to death by plume
hunters while guarding for the Audubon Society the Cuthbert Egret
Rookery.  On Orange Lake, northward, the warden in charge still carries
in his body a bullet from a plume gatherer's gun.  Only three days
before my visit Greene's nearest brother warden on duty at the
Alligator Bay Colony had a desperate rifle battle with four poachers
who, in defiance of law and decency, attempted to shoot the Egrets
which he was paid to protect.

I like to think of Greene as I saw him the last night in camp, his
brown, lean face aglow with interest as he told me many things about
the birds he guarded.  The next day I was to leave him, and night after
night he would sit by his fire, a lonely representative of the Audubon
Society away down there on the edge of the Big Cypress, standing as
best he could between the lives of the birds he loved and the
insatiable greed of Fashion.




{214}

CHAPTER XI

MAKING BIRD SANCTUARIES

The best place to study wild birds is on a reservation, for there birds
have greatly lost their fear of man, and primitive conditions have been
largely restored.  In one of the southern sea-bird colonies I have
photographed Royal Terns standing unafraid on the sands not twelve feet
distant.  They had become so accustomed to the warden in charge that
they had regained their confidence in man.  At Lake Worth I saw a
gentleman feed Scaup Ducks that swam to within two yards of his boat.
In thousands of dooryards throughout the country wild birds, won by
kind treatment, now take their food or drink within a few feet of their
human protectors.  The dooryards have become little bird reservations.
I have several {215} friends who regularly feed Chickadees in winter,
perched on their outstretched hands.  It is astonishing how quickly
wild creatures respond to a reasonable treatment.  This may readily be
learned by any householder who will try the experiment.  With a little
patience any teacher can instruct her pupils in the simple art of
making the birds feel at home in the vicinity of the schoolhouse.

_Natural Nesting Places Destroyed._--Some kinds of birds, as far back
as we know their history, have built their nests in the holes of trees.
Woodpeckers have strong, chisel-shaped bills and are able to excavate
nesting cavities, but there are others that do not possess such tools.
These must depend on finding the abandoned hole of some Woodpecker, or
the natural hollow of some tree.  It not infrequently happens that such
birds are obliged to search far and wide for a hole in which they can
make their abode.  It is customary for those who take care of lawns and
city parks to chop away and remove all dead limbs or dead trees.  As
very few Woodpeckers ever attempt {217} to dig a nesting hole in a
living tree, such work of the axeman means that when the season comes
for the rearing of young, all mated Woodpeckers must move on to where
more natural conditions await them.  This results in an abnormal
reduction of the number of holes for the use of the weaker-billed
hole-nesting species, and they must seek the few available hollows or
knot-holes.  Even these places are often taken away from them, for
along comes the tree doctor, who, in his purpose of aiding to preserve
the trees, fills up the natural openings with cement and the birds are
literally left out in the cold.  It is plainly to be seen, therefore,
that one reason why more birds do not remain in our towns through the
spring months is the absence of places where they can lay their eggs
and rear their young.

[Illustration: Cemented Holes Shut Out the Chickadee]

_Nesting Boxes for Birds._--To overcome this difficulty the Audubon
Society several years ago began to advocate the erection of suitable
nesting boxes, and to-day the practice is gaining wide usage.  More
persons every year are putting such boxes upon poles {218} or nailing
them to trees about their homes, and some city authorities include bird
boxes in the annual expenditure for the care of public parks.  It was
not much more than a decade ago that the first serious commercial
attempt was made to place bird boxes on the market.  To-day there are
not less than twenty firms engaged in their manufacture.  Some of the
boxes are very ornate and make beautiful additions even to the most
carefully kept estate.  One can buy them at prices varying from
thirty-five cents to thirty-five dollars each.  Among the many
responsible manufacturers that may be recommended are:

The Crescent Company, "Birdville," Toms River, New Jersey; Pinedale
Bird Nesting Box Company, Wareham, Massachusetts; The Audubon Bird
House Company, Meriden, New Hampshire; Maplewood Biologica Laboratory,
Stamford, Connecticut; Jacobs Bird House Company, 404 South Washington
St., Waynesburg, Pa.; Decker Brothers, Rhinebeck, New York; Winthrop
Packard, Canton, Massachusetts.

[Illustration: Gourds and Boxes for Martins]

It is not necessary, however, to buy boxes to put {220} up for birds.
Equally useful ones can be made in the Manual Training Department of
any school, or in the basement or woodshed at home.  If you do not know
how to begin, you should buy one bird box and construct others similar
for yourself.  Men sometimes make the mistake of thinking it is
absolutely necessary that such boxes should conform strictly to certain
set dimensions.  Remember that the cavities in trees and stumps, which
birds naturally use, show a wide variety in size, shape, and location.
A many-roomed, well-painted Martin house makes a pleasing appearance in
the landscape, but may not be attractive to the Martins.  As a boy I
built up a colony of more than fifteen pairs of these birds by the
simple device of rudely partitioning a couple of soap boxes.  The
entrances to the different rooms were neither uniform in size nor in
shape, but were such as an untrained boy could cut out with a hatchet.
A dozen gourds, each with a large hole in the side, completed the
tenements for this well-contented Martin community.

_Some Rules for Making and Erecting Bird Boxes._--Here are a few simple
rules on the making and placing of bird boxes:

1. In all nest boxes, except those designed for Martins, the opening
should be several inches above the floor, thus conforming to the
general plan of a Woodpecker's hole, or natural cavity in a tree.

2. As a rule nest boxes should be erected on poles from ten to thirty
feet from the ground, or fastened to the sides of trees where limbs do
not interfere with the outlook.  The main exception is in the case of
Wrens, whose boxes or gourds can be nailed or wired in fruit trees or
to the side of buildings.

3. Martin houses should be erected on poles at least twenty feet high,
placed well out in the open, not less than one hundred feet from
buildings or large trees.

4. All boxes should be taken down after the nesting season and the old
nesting material removed.

_Size of Bird Boxes._--As to the size of nesting boxes for various
species, and the diameter of the entrance hole, I cannot do better than
give the dimensions {222} prepared by Ned Dearborn, of the United
States Department of Agriculture, Washington, D. C.

  DIMENSIONS OF NESTING BOXES

  Species           Floor     Depth      Entrance   Diameter   Height
                    of        of         above      of         above
                    cavity    cavity     floor      entrance   ground

                    _Inches   Inches     Inches     Inches     Feet_

  Bluebird          5 by  5    8          6         1 1/2       5 to 10
  Robin             6 by  8    8          [1]       [1]         6 to 15
  Chickadee         4 by  4    8 to 10    8         1 1/8       6 to 15
  Tufted Titmouse   4 by  4    8 to 10    8         1 1/4       6 to 15
  White-breasted
    Nuthatch        4 by  4    8 to 10    8         1 1/4      12 to 20
  House Wren        4 by  4    6 to 8     1 to 6      7/8       6 to 10
  Bewick Wren       4 by  4    6 to 8     1 to 6    1           6 to 10
  Carolina Wren     4 by  4    6 to 8     1 to 6    1 1/8       6 to 10
  Dipper            6 by  6    6          1         3           1 to  3
  Violet-green
    Swallow         5 by  5    6          1 to 6    1 1/2      10 to 15
  Tree Swallow      5 by  5    6          1 to 6    1 1/2      10 to 15
  Barn Swallow      6 by  6    6          [1]       [1]         8 to 12
  Martin            6 by  6    6          1         2 1/2      15 to 20
  Song Sparrow      6 by  6    6          [2]       [2]         1 to  3
  House Finch       6 by  6    6          4         2           8 to 12
  Phoebe            6 by  6    6          [1]       [1]         8 to 12
  Crested
    Flycatcher      6 by  6     8 to 10   8         2           8 to 20
  Flicker           7 by  7    16 to 18  16         2 1/2       6 to 20
  Red-headed
    Woodpecker      6 by  6    12 to 15  12         2          12 to 20
  Golden-fronted
    Woodpecker      6 by  6    12 to 15  12         2          12 to 20
  Hairy Woodpecker  6 by  6    12 to 15  12         1 1/2      12 to 20
  Downy Woodpecker  4 by  4     8 to 10   8         1 1/4       6 to 20
  Screech Owl       8 by  8    12 to 15  12         3          10 to 30
  Sparrow Hawk      8 by  8    12 to 15  12         3          10 to 30
  Saw-whet Owl      6 by  6    10 to 12  10         2 1/2      12 to 20
  Barn Owl         10 by 18    15 to 18   4         6          12 to 18
  Wood Duck        10 by 18    10 to 15   3         6           4 to 20

[1] One or more sides open.

[2] All sides open.


{223}

The foregoing list does not contain the names of all the kinds of birds
which have thus far been induced to occupy these artificial nesting
sites, but it has most of them.  It should be remembered that
hole-nesting birds are the only kind that will ever use a bird box.
One need not expect a Meadowlark to leave its nest in the grass for a
box on a pole, nor imagine that an Oriole will give up the practice of
weaving its swinging cradle on an elm limb to go into a box nailed to
the side of the tree.

Feeding Birds.--Much can be done to bring birds about the home or the
schoolhouse by placing food where they can readily get it.  The
majority of land birds that pass the winter in Canada or in the colder
parts of the United States feed mainly upon seeds.  Cracked corn,
wheat, rice, sunflower seed, hemp seed, and bird seed, purchased
readily in any town, are, therefore, exceedingly attractive articles of
diet.  Bread crumbs are enjoyed by many species.  Food should not be
thrown out on the snow unless there is a crust on it or the snow has
been well trampled down.  {224} Usually it should be placed on boards.
Various feeding plans have been devised to prevent the food from being
covered or washed away by snow or rain.  Detailed explanations of these
can be found in Bulletin No. 1, "Attracting Birds About the Home,"
issued by the National Association of Audubon Societies.  Suet wired to
the limb of a tree on the lawn will give comfort and nourishment to
many a Chickadee, Nuthatch and Downy Woodpecker.  To make a bird
sanctuary nesting sites and food are the first requirements.  There
appears to be no reason why town and city parks should not be made into
places of great attraction for the wild birds.

[Illustration: A California hospital for injured birds, erected and
maintained by Mrs. Harriet W. Myers of Los Angeles]

_Community Sanctuaries._--At Meriden, New Hampshire, there is a tract
of land containing thirty-two acres of fields and woods, dedicated to
the comfort and happiness of wild birds.  It is owned by the Meriden
Bird Club, and owes its existence largely to the intelligence and
enthusiasm of Ernest H. Baynes, bird-lover and lecturer, who lives
there.  The entire community takes an interest in its maintenance,
{225} and there birds are fed and nesting places provided.  It is in
the widest sense a "community sanctuary."  There are now a number of
these coöperative bird havens established and cared for in practically
the same way.  One is in Cincinnati, another in Ithaca, New York, and
still another at Greenwich, Connecticut.

_Birdcraft Sanctuary._--The best equipped of this class of community
bird refuges, as distinguished from private estates, or Audubon
Society, State, or Federal bird reservations, is Birdcraft Sanctuary in
Fairfield, Connecticut, a tract of ten acres presented to the
Connecticut Audubon Society in June, 1914.  Mrs. Mabel Osgood Wright,
President of the Connecticut Society, has written that in the creation
of this sanctuary it was decided that certain requirements were
necessary:

"A cat-proof fence to surround the entire place.  That it may not look
aggressive, it should be set well inside the picturesque old wall.
Stone gateposts and a rustic gate at the entrance on the {226} highway.
A bungalow for the caretaker, wherein there shall be a room for the
meetings of the Society's Executive Committee and Board.  A tool and
workshop of corresponding style.  Several rustic shelters and many
seats.

"The assembling of the various springs into a pond, so designed as to
make an island of a place where the Redwings nest.

"Trails to be cut through the brush and the turf grass in a charming
bit of old orchard on the hilltop, to be restored for the benefit of
worm-pulling Robins.

"Several stone basins to be constructed for birdbaths, houses to be put
up of all sorts, from Wren boxes, Von Berlepsch model.  Flicker and Owl
boxes, to a Martin hotel; and, lastly, the supplementing of the natural
growth by planting pines, spruces, and hemlocks for windbreaks, and
mountain ashes, mulberries, sweet cherries, flowering shrubs and vines
for berries and Hummingbird honey."

Not only were all these things done, but there has {227} been built and
equipped a small museum of Natural History, unique in its good taste
and usefulness.

_Cemeteries as Bird Sanctuaries._--The interest in the subject of bird
sanctuaries is growing every day; in fact, all America is now planning
new homes for her birds--homes where they may live with unrestricted
freedom, where food and lodging in abundance, and of the best, will be
supplied, where bathing-pools will be at their service, where
blossoming trees will welcome them in the spring and fields of grain in
the fall, quiet places where these privileges will bring to the birds
much joy and contentment.  Throughout this country there should be a
concerted effort to convert the cemeteries, the homes of our friends
who have gone away, into sanctuaries for the bird life of this land.
And what isolated spots could be more welcome to the birds than these
places that hold so many sad memories for human beings?

No place in the world ought to speak more forcibly to us of the
Resurrection than the cemeteries of our land.  In them we should hear
inspiring bird songs, {228} notice the nesting of birds, and the little
ones preparing for their flight into the world.  There we should find
beautiful flowers and waving grain, typical of that spiritual harvest
which should be associated in our minds with comfort and peace.

_A Birdless Cemetery._--I visited, not long ago, one of the old-time
cemeteries, the pride of a neighbouring city.  It was indeed a place of
beauty to the eye; but to my mind there is always something flat and
insipid about a landscape lacking the music of singing birds.
Therefore I looked and listened for my feathered friends.  Some English
Sparrows flew up from the drive, and I heard the rusty hinge-like notes
of a small company of Purple Crackles that were nesting, I suspected,
in the pine trees down the slope, but of really cheerful bird life
there appeared to be none in this artificially beautified, forty-acre
enclosure.  There is no reason to suppose that, under normal
conditions, birds would shun a cemetery any more than does the
traditional graveyard rabbit.

It was not dread of the dead, such as some mortals {229} have, that
kept the song birds from this place; it was the work of the living that
had driven them away.  From one boundary to another there was scarcely
a yard of underbrush where a Thrasher or Chewink might lurk, or in
which a Redstart, or a dainty Chestnut-sided Warbler, might place its
nest.  Not a drop of water was discoverable, where a bird might slake
its thirst.  Neither in limb nor bole was there a single cavity where a
Titmouse, Wren, or Bluebird might construct a bed for its young.  No
fruit-bearing trees were there to invite the birds in summer; nor, so
far as I could see, any berry-bearing shrubs such as birds enjoy, nor
any weed patches to attract the flocks of Whitethroats and Juncos that
come drifting southward with the falling leaves of autumn.

Had my visit to this place been made late in April, or in May, there
might have been a different tale to tell.  September might also have
yielded more birds than June, for September is a season when the
migrants are with us for a time.  Then the little _voyageurs_ of the
upper air are wont to pause after a {230} night of tiresome flight, and
rest for the day in any grove that chances to possess even moderate
home comforts.

_Birds of a New York Graveyard._--Some time ago B. S. Bowdish made a
careful study of the bird life of St. Paul's Churchyard, in New York
City.  This property is three hundred and thirty-three feet long and
one hundred and seventy-seven feet wide.  In it is a large church and
also a church school.  Along one side surge the Broadway throngs.  From
the opposite side come the roar and rumble of an elevated railway.  The
area contains, according to Mr. Bowdish, three large, ten medium, and
forty small trees.  With great frequency for two years, field glass in
hand, he pursued his work of making a bird census of the graveyard.  No
bird's nest rewarded his search, for the place was absolutely destitute
of feathered songsters during the late spring and summer, and, with a
single exception, he never found a bird there in winter.  Yet it is
interesting to note that in this noisy, limited area, during the {331}
periods of migration, he discovered three hundred and twenty-eight
birds, embracing forty species.

Why do not more of the birds that pass in spring tarry in this quiet
place for the summer?  The answer is that the cemetery has been
rendered unattractive to them by the merely human committee in charge
of the property.

During the season when birds are engaged with their domestic duties
they are usually a very wise little people.  They know perfectly well
whether a region is calculated to provide them with sure and safe
nesting sites, and whether sufficient food and water are available for
their daily wants.  A little of this same wisdom on our part, and a
comparatively small expenditure, might make a bird paradise of almost
any cemetery.  Such places are not usually frequented by men and boys
who go afield for the purpose of shooting.  That is an important point
in the establishment of a bird sanctuary.

_Eliminate Enemies._--One great enemy of the birds, however, must be
guarded against--the domestic {232} cat.  This can be done fairly
effectively by means of a cat-proof fence.

Gunners and cats having been eliminated, few other enemies of birds
need be seriously considered.  Bird-catching Hawks are not often
numerous in the neighbourhood of cemeteries.  Red squirrels are accused
of pilfering from birds' nests, and when abundant they may constitute a
menace.

Properly constructed bird boxes, wisely placed, have often proved a
means of increasing bird life to an astonishing degree; and they are
absolutely the only inducement to hole-nesting varieties to remain
during the summer in a cemetery from which all standing dead wood has
been removed.  Even the strong-billed Woodpecker will not abide in a
region where the only trees are living ones, unless, perchance, an
artificial nest entices the resplendent and dashing Flicker to tarry.
Many a Bluebird, with its azure coat gleaming in the sunlight, visits
the cemetery in early spring.  From perch to perch he flies, and in his
plaintive note can be detected the {233} question that every bird asks
of his mate: "Where shall we find a place for our nest?"  In the end he
flies away.  Therefore when the roses and lilies bloom the visitor is
deprived of the Bluebird's cheery song, for the little fellow and his
mate have departed to the neighbouring farm where they may be found,
perhaps, in the old apple orchard.

A few cents expended for lumber and a very little labour in the making
of a small box to be attached to the side of a tree or erected on a
post, are all that is needed to keep the Bluebirds where they can cheer
the hearts of sorrowing visitors.  The tiny Wrens, whose loud bursts of
song are entirely out of proportion to their size, can be attracted in
summer to the proportion of two pairs or more to every acre.

It is a curious fact, of which I believe but little has been written,
that birds that build open nests may often be induced to remain in a
locality if attractive nesting material is placed within easy reach.

In many a cemetery Orioles could be tempted to weave cradles among the
swaying elm limbs if {234} strings and fragments of brightly coloured
yarns were placed where the birds could find them.  Baron von
Berlepsch, whose experiments in attracting birds to his place in
Germany have been widely advertised, found that when the tops of bushes
were drawn in closely by means of a wire or cord, the resulting thick
mass of leaves and twigs offered so fine a place for concealing nests
that few birds could resist the temptation to use them.

Other means of rendering a cemetery alluring to nesting birds will
readily present themselves when an active interest is developed in the
subject.  A little thought, a little care, and a little trouble, would
make it possible for many birds to dwell in a cemetery, and it must be
remembered that unless they can nest there, the chances are that no
great volume of bird music will fill the air.

[Illustration: A Bird Bath]

The young of most song birds are fed to a great extent on the soft
larvae of insects, of which there is usually an abundant supply
everywhere.  Many mother birds, however, like to vary this animal diet
{235} with a little fruit juice, and the ripened pulp of the
blackberry, strawberry, or mulberry, will cheer the spirits of their
nestlings.  Such fruits in most places are easily grown, and they make
a pleasant addition to the birds' menu.  In a well-watered territory
{236} birds are always more numerous than in a dry region.  You may
find a hundred of them along the stream in the valley to one on the
mountain-top.  A cemetery undecorated with fountains, and through or
near which no stream flows, is too dry a place for the average bird to
risk the exigencies of rearing a family.  A few simply constructed
fountains or drinking-pools will work wonders in the way of attracting
birds to a waterless territory.

In many graveyards considerable unoccupied space might well be planted
in buckwheat or some other small grain.  If this is left uncut the
quantity of nourishing food thus produced will bring together many
kinds of grain-eating birds.

_Berries and Fruits for Birds._--Many native shrubs and bushes grow
berries that birds will come far to gather.  Look over the following
list which Frederick H. Kennard, of Massachusetts, has recommended, and
see if you do not think many of them would be decorative additions to
the cemetery.  Surely some of them are equal in beauty to many of {237}
the shrubs usually planted, and they have the added value of furnishing
birds with wholesome food.  Here is a part of Mr. Kennard's list:
shad-bush, gray, silky, and red osier, cornel, dangleberry,
huckleberry, inkberry, black alder, bayberry, shining, smooth, and
staghorn sumachs, large-flowering currant, thimbleberry, blackberry,
elder, snowberry, dwarf bilberry, blueberry, black haw, hobblebush, and
arrow-wood.  In the way of fruit-bearing shade trees he recommends
sugar maple, flowering dogwood, white and cockspur thorn, native red
mulberry, tupelo, black cherry, choke cherry, and mountain ash.  For
the same purpose he especially recommends the planting of the following
vines: Virginia creeper, bull-beaver, frost grape, and fox grape.

Such shrubs and vines are usually well stripped of their berries after
the first heavy snowfall.  That is the time to begin feeding the birds
in earnest.  The more food wisely placed where the birds can get it,
the more birds you will surely have in the winter.  Seeds and grain,
with a judicious mixture of animal {238} fat, form the best possible
ration for the little feathered pilgrims.  Rye, wheat, sunflower seeds,
and cracked corn, mixed together in equal parts and accompanied by a
liberal sprinkling of ground suet and beef scrap, make an excellent
food for birds at this season.  This should be placed on shelves
attached to trees or buildings, or on oilcloth spread on the snow, or
on the ground where the snow has been scraped away.  On one occasion
the writer attracted many birds by the simple method of providing them
with finely pounded fresh beef bones.  Furnishing birds with food in
winter might well be made a pleasant and profitable duty of the
children who attend Sunday-school in rural churches that have
graveyards near.

Why should we not make a bird sanctuary of every city park and cemetery
in America?  Why leave these places to the Sparrows, the Grackles, and
perhaps the Starlings, when Bluebirds and Thrushes are within hail,
eager to come if the hand of invitation be extended?




{239}

CHAPTER XII

TEACHING BIRD STUDY

A little after six o'clock one July morning on the campus of the
University of Tennessee, I stood near the centre of a semi-circle of
twenty-five school teachers whose expressions indicated a high state of
excitement, and whose fifty eyes were riveted on a scene of slaughter
but a few feet from them.  For five minutes we had scarcely moved.
During this time the lives of thirty-two specimens of animal life had
been blotted out.  The perpetrator of this holocaust was a creature
known to scientists as _Spizella socialis_--called by ordinary people
Chipping Sparrow.  Its victims were small insects which but a moment
before were disporting themselves on the grass.

_Preparation of Teachers._--One teacher expressed {240} surprise that a
bird could find so many of these choice morsels in so short a time.
She had never imagined that so many insects inhabited so small an area
as that to which the bird had confined its operations.  "Very well,"
said the instructor, "suppose all of you get down and see how many
insects you can find in five minutes."  So while he held the watch all
proceeded to take part in a bug-hunting contest.  In this novel
undertaking even the women of the class displayed great zeal.  When
time was called it was found that one student had a credit of fourteen,
another sixteen, a third nineteen, and one tall young woman with
glasses exhibited twenty-one insects in the folds of her handkerchief.

A stranger watching the actions of this band of eager, early-rising
teachers might have been puzzled to determine what induced them to
assemble at this hour of the day for the evident purpose of watching
the habits and activities of small birds that the ordinary person
passes without notice.  They were, nevertheless, occupied in one of the
most valuable {241} studies that could have claimed their attention.

[Illustration: Preparing for the coming of the birds.  A Junior Audubon
class on Prince Edward Island]

For many years the United States Department of Agriculture has been
employing trained naturalists to give their time to the investigation
of the damage done to growing crops by the insect hosts that infest
fields and forests.  These and other experts have come forward with
astounding statements regarding the destructiveness of birds to
insects.  We are told, too, that each bird is virtually a living dynamo
of energy; that its heart beats twice as fast as the human heart; and
that the normal temperature of its blood registers over a hundred
degrees.  It is a simple fact of biology, therefore, that a tremendous
amount of nourishing food is necessary for the bird's existence.  Vast
quantities of insects are needed for this purpose.

Some time ago a New England gentleman became so impressed by the
frequency with which a pair of Robins visited their nest with food for
the young that he determined to learn more about the food-consuming
{242} possibilities of the four nestlings.  The day the offspring left
their cradle he temporarily took possession of them.  With the aid of
some friends, who kindly undertook to dig fishworms for him, he
proceeded to give the baby Robins all they cared to eat between
daylight and dark.  He found to his very great surprise that these
small birds consumed in one day food to the amount of their own weight
and 56 per cent. additional.  If an average-sized man were to eat at
this rate he would require seventy pounds of beef and several gallons
of water daily.  Upon reaching maturity the Robins probably do not eat
so greedily, but the incident serves to illustrate their capacity in
the days of youth.

The school teachers at the Knoxville Summer School who watched the
Chipping Sparrow that morning were members of a group of earnest men
and women whose lives were dedicated to the training of children.  For
nine months they had been in the classroom, meeting heroically the
petty trials and annoyances incident to their life work.  Now, {243}
instead of spending their brief vacation in idleness, they were seeking
additional knowledge to prepare them for more valuable future service.
They were learning that morning the important lesson that birds are
placed on earth for a useful purpose.  When they returned to the
schoolroom they would teach the boys that the bird is a friend to the
farmer and should not be killed nor its nest destroyed.  They would
teach girls that there is something far more exquisite about the living
bird than is to be found in the faded lustre of its feathers when sewed
on a hat, and they would cultivate in the heart of the girls a feeling
of sympathy for the home life of the birds about them.

The greatest problem to be solved by those actively engaged in measures
which make for civic righteousness is how to preserve the children of
the country from evil influences, and to direct their curiosity and
restless energy into safe and productive channels.  The teacher
occupies a strategic position in this matter, and one of her problems
is how to {244} engage the interest of the child in subjects that are
both entertaining and beneficial.  Simple lessons in nature study are
an excellent method by which to accomplish this end, and a study of
out-of-door life should begin with birds.

_Bird Study Class._--The systematic instruction of school children in
bird study on a careful scientific basis in a large way really had its
origin in May, 1910, when Mrs. Russell Sage sent to the National
Association of Audubon Societies a cheque for five thousand five
hundred dollars with which to inaugurate a plan of bird study in the
Southern schools that the writer had outlined to her.  She desired that
a special effort should be made to arouse interest in the protection of
the Robin, which in the Southern States was at that time almost
universally regarded as a game bird whose natural destiny was
considered to be a potpie.  Bird study, it is true, was at that time
taught in many city schools, but usually the subject was given slight
space in the curriculum, and for the children and {245} teachers there
was available only a limited literature, and it was of an inadequate
character.  A working plan was at once developed whereby literature,
coloured pictures of birds, and the Audubon button should be supplied
to all the pupils in a school who enrolled themselves as members of an
Audubon Class.  Each member was required to pay a nominal fee, which,
however, was much less than the cost of producing the material received
in return.

During the school year that followed the matter was brought to the
attention of many of the Southern teachers, and over five hundred
Junior Audubon societies resulted, with an enrollment of more than ten
thousand children.  Following the course of instruction outlined in the
literature furnished to the teachers, these children were taught the
correct names of many of the common birds, and on field walks they
learned to know them by sight.  The dates when certain birds were last
seen in autumn and first arrived in spring were noted and carefully
recorded.  Food was given to the birds in winter and {246} bird boxes
of various patterns were constructed and placed in parks, orchards, or
woods where they would most likely be of service to birds looking for
suitable nesting hollows.  Bird study was correlated with reading,
English composition, history, geography, and even arithmetic.

_A Nation-wide Movement._--So successful did this experiment prove that
the Audubon workers agreed upon extending this same system into the
schools of all the other States in the Union, and the various Provinces
of Canada.  The fall of 1911, therefore, saw plans well under way for a
greatly enlarged scope of work.  During the school year, which closed
the last of June, 1912, the Association, at a cost of thirteen thousand
dollars, enrolled 29,369 school children under the standard bearing the
inscription "Protect the Birds."

The movement has continued to grow, and up to June 1, 1916, there had
been formed 27,873 classes with a total membership of 559,840 children.
The Association is annually expending on this work {247} $25,000 more
than the children's fees amount to.  Of this amount Mrs. Sage continues
to contribute one-fifth, the remaining four-fifths being given by an
anonymous friend of children and birds.  In supplying these pupils and
their teachers with the necessary pictures, leaflets, and outline
drawings of birds for colouring, over thirty-one million pages of
printed information have been distributed.  Pupils have taken hold of
this bird study with great zest.  Many a dull or inattentive boy, who
had been a despair to his teacher and parents, responded to this real
nature teaching which took him from his ordinarily uninteresting
studies into the wide out of doors.  Thousands of teachers have written
letters filled with expressions of thankfulness for this opportunity
which has come to them and reciting details of the variety of ways in
which they have been able to make use of this plan and material for
bird study.

_What One Teacher Did._--Here, for example, is one from Miss Beth
Merritt, who teaches in a little school at Fountain City, Tennessee: "I
am very glad to {248} write to you about the Junior Audubon Class we
had at school this year.  We all enjoyed it exceedingly, and I am sure
it did good in the hearts and lives of the little people who were
members and in the bird world, too.  A year ago I invited the children
of some of the other grades to join our Audubon Class and we had over
forty members.  We had our meetings on Friday afternoons after school.
The class was quite successful and we saw some direct results of its
success.  Several nest-robbing boys gave up that 'sport' altogether.
One boy was instrumental in bringing about the arrest of some men who
had been shooting song birds.  This year I had the class only in my own
grade--the second.  Almost every child in the room joined, making
twenty members.  I had daily periods for nature study and language, and
every other Friday we used these two periods for the Audubon Class.
The children were always anxious for the Audubon Fridays to come.  They
used often to ask, 'Is to-morrow Bird Day, Miss Beth?' and if I
answered in the affirmative, I heard 'Oh, goody,' [248] and 'I won't
forget to wear my button,' and 'I wonder what bird it will be,' from
every side.  Rarely ever did we have an absent mark on Bird Day.

"After we had used all ten of the leaflets you sent us, we had lessons
on some of the other birds, or, instead of a regular lesson, we went
for a bird walk.  I divided the class for these walks, taking ten
children at a time.  How excited they would get over the birds they
saw!  Nearly always they could identify the birds themselves, sometimes
I helped them, sometimes my bird book helped me, and sometimes we had
to write in the notebooks, 'unknown.'  I will not try to tell you about
all the good results of our Audubon Class that I have noticed.  The
most important thing I think is that a few more children have a keen
interest and a true love for their little brothers of the air.  Last
year a favourite pastime of a neighbour was shooting birds for his cat,
and I think he was no more particular than his cat as to the kind of
birds he destroyed.  His little daughter was a member of the Audubon
Class and this spring I notice our {250} neighbour's cat has to catch
its own birds.  Perhaps, if the little girl can be an Audubon member
another year, there will be no more cat!

"A mother of another little member of the class used to delight in
birds' plumes, breasts, or feathers of some kind on her hat.  Her
spring hat this year was trimmed in ribbon.  I have heard several bird
lovers say that they have noticed more of our common wild birds about
this place than there were last year, and they believe the Junior
Audubon societies in the schools have brought about this happy state.
When school closed many of the mothers came to me and said that they
wished to thank me for what I had done for their children along the
line of nature study, especially of birds.  They said that they thought
the Junior Audubon Class a splendid thing for their children.  And I
think it is equally good for the teachers."

Another Junior Club leader, Miss Edna Stafford, a teacher in the public
schools of Albany, Indiana, writes: "One day last summer a
twelve-year-old boy {251} was out in our street with an airgun shooting
at every bird he could see.  Recently this same boy came to me with a
bird that was hurt, and in a most sympathetic tone said: 'Who do you
suppose could have been mean enough to hurt this dear little bird?' Our
study of birds in the Junior Audubon Class brought about this change in
the boy."

_Junior Game Protectors._--Another leader reported from Nashville that
the one thousand junior members in the schools there had turned into
voluntary bird wardens, and spied upon every man or boy who went afield
with a gun.  In a number of places the juniors have built and sold bird
boxes by hundreds and used the proceeds for advancing the work.  In one
town the juniors had a most successful tag day, and collected funds
that were used to buy grain with which to feed birds in winter.  In
Connecticut a most helpful and stimulating communication has been
established between many of the classes.  A junior class in the Logan
School, Minneapolis, has even started the publication of a magazine
called {252} _Owaissa_, after the Indian name for Bluebird, as given in
Longfellow's "Hiawatha."

_Sending Birds' Nests to City Children._--Mrs. Anthony W. Dimock, of
Peekamose, New York, makes the following interesting report:

"The Robin Junior Audubon Circle is composed of the boys and girls of
three district schools in a Catskill Mountain valley.  No one school
has enough pupils of required age to form a circle, and the distances
between them are so great that frequent meetings cannot be held, but
good work is being done.

"The most interesting feature of our work the past year was the
collection of abandoned birds' nests in the autumn.  One school of five
pupils collected over 100 nests.  From these collections two selections
of ten nests each were made, to be sent to New York City.  One
collection went to the Jacob Riis Settlement, and one passed through
the hands of three kindergartens, interesting 100 children.  To each
nest was attached a coloured picture of the bird {253} which had made
the nest, and a description of its habits.  Letters from the Settlement
children and the kindergartners brought to the Circle expressions of
delightful appreciation."

The National Association of Audubon Societies, with headquarters at
1974 Broadway, New York City, makes the following offer of assistance
to those teachers and others who are interested in giving instruction
to children on the subject of birds and their usefulness.

To form a Junior Audubon Class for bird study, a teacher should explain
to the pupils of her grade (and others if desired) that their object
will be to learn all they can about the wild birds, and that every one
who becomes a member will be expected to be kind to the birds and
protect them.  Every member will be required to pay a fee of ten cents
each year.  When ten or more have paid their fees, the teacher will
send their money to the National Association, and give the name of the
Audubon Class and her own name and address.  The {254} Association will
then forward to the teacher for each member whose fee has been paid,
the beautiful Audubon button, and a set of ten coloured pictures,
together with the outline drawings and descriptive leaflets assigned to
class study for that year.  The teacher will also receive, free of
cost, for one year, the splendid magazine _Bird-Lore_, which contains
many valuable suggestions for teachers.  It is expected that the
teacher shall give at least one lesson a month on the subject of birds,
for which purpose she will find the leaflets of great value as a basis
for the lessons.

_Rules for a Bird Study Class._--If the teacher wishes, the Audubon
Class may have a regular organization, and a pupil may preside upon the
occasions when the class is discussing a lesson.  For this purpose the
following simple constitution is suggested:

Article 1. The organization shall be known as the (give name) Junior
Audubon Class.

Article 2. The object of its members shall be to learn all they can
about wild birds, and to try to save any from being wantonly killed.

{255}

Article 3. The officers shall consist of a President, Secretary, and
Treasurer.

Article 4. The annual fees of the class shall be 10 cents for each
member; and the money shall be sent to the National Association of
Audubon Societies in exchange for Educational Leaflets and Audubon
Buttons.

Article 5. The Junior Audubon Class shall have at least one meeting
every month.

Although most of these classes have been and will be formed among
pupils in schools, any one may form a class of children anywhere, and
receive the privileges offered.

_Subjects for Study._--Besides the study of the particular birds in the
leaflets, the following subjects may be studied with profit:

_Birds' Nests._--In the fall, after all the birds have left their
nests, the nests may be collected and brought to the schoolroom.  Study
them and learn that the Chipping Sparrow's nest is made of fine
rootlets and grasses, and is lined with horsehair; {256} examine the
mud cup of the Robin's nest, the soft lining of the Loggerhead Shrike's
nest, etc.

_Feeding Birds._--In winter arrange "bird tables" in the trees and by
the windows, and place crumbs and seeds on them; in summer put out
bathing and drinking pans, note what birds come to them and how
frequently, and report what you observe to the class.

_Nesting Boxes._--In early spring put up nesting boxes for Bluebirds,
Wrens, Chickadees, Nuthatches, Martins, and other birds.  The leaflets
sent will be found to contain many suggestions about bird feeding and
nesting boxes, and the proper way to make and place the latter.

_Colouring Outlines._--The children, using crayons or water-colour
paint, may place the natural colours of the birds upon the outline
drawings provided, using the coloured plates for comparison.  This is
one of the best ways to fasten in the memory the appearance of the
birds, and thus quickly learn to recognize them in the field.  Many
teachers have utilized this as an exercise for the regular drawing hour.

[Illustration: Colouring of Birds upon Outline Drawings]

{257}

_Teaching Children Approved by the Government._--Considering the
importance of the subject and the success that the plan has met, it is
little wonder that the Hon. P. P. Claxton, United States Commissioner
of Education, early gave it his unqualified endorsement.  In one letter
he wrote:

"I consider the work of the Junior Audubon {258} Classes very important
for both educational and economic results, and I congratulate you upon
the opportunity of extending it.  The bird clause in the Mosaic Law
ends with the words: 'That it may be well with thee, and that thou
mayest prolong thy days.'  The principle still holds.  I hope that
through your efforts the American people may soon be better informed in
regard to our wild birds and their value."

In America we have neglected the subject of protecting our bird life,
and as a result in many sections we are suffering to-day from scourges
of insects.  Too long the careless and thoughtless have been allowed to
wander aimlessly afield and shoot the birds that caused the winds of
prosperity to blow.  We must teach the children to avoid the errors
that we have made.  It is our duty to the child to give him of our
best, and teach him with all his getting to get understanding.