vis ne ED ee LABORATORY OF ORNITHOLOGY LIBRARY SN —? CORNELL UNIVERSITY LIBRARY THE BLESSED BIRDS OR HIGHWAYS and BYWAYS BY ELDRIDGE EUGENE FISH. PUBLISHED BY OTTO ULBRICH 395 Main St., Burrato, N. Y. GORNI L | UNIVERELDY ELE KARY CopyricuT, 1890. BY E. E. Fisx. Press or Baker, Jones & Co., Burraro, N. Y. CONTENTS. Spring ARRIVAL oF THE BIRDS A Day’s OvutTine In SEARCH OF THE ARBUTUS VENTRILOQUIAL AND ImiTaTIvE PowrER oF Birps WRENS a TREES AND TREES INTELLIGENCE In Brrps A Day In an OLD ORCHARD Autumn VISITORS Nustive Harts or Brrps Marie Sucar Maxine DANGER OF AN EaRLy Extinction or Sone Birps A SEARCH FOR A WHIPPOORWILL’s NEST A Summer Drive in THE LAKE CountTRY ORNITHOLOGICAL NOMENCLATURE - PAGE. 45 61 75 89 109 125 141 151 161 173 189 201 247 PREFACE. Some of the following papers originally appeared in the ‘Buffalo Sunday Courier,’ ‘Buf- falo Commercial,’ Bulletin of the ‘Society of Natural Sciences,’ and Chicago ‘Humane Jour. nal” T hey were apparently so well received that I have been persuaded to revise and republish them, in connection with others of more general interest, in book form. What I have written of the birds in this little volume has been ‘a labor of love’ Human companionship excepted, these blessed creatures have ministered to my happiness in a greater degree than any other class of objects. About home they have ever been a solace and a delight. When I have been among human strangers I have found the birds old acquaintances and inti- mate friends, always giving so much, and exacting so little in return. The continued persecution vi PREFACE. which they have received from the cruel and unthinking has been the great sorrow of imy life. Although in a humble way, ‘in season,’ and perhaps, sometimes, ‘out of season,’ I have worked and pleaded for a better and wiser treat- ment of them, yet I shall ever remain their grateful debtor. If I have written anything that shall make them better known and better loved—anything that shall cause a woman to hesitate before allowing any part of one to disfigure her gar- ment—anything that will prevent the present lavish waste of life by the collector of specimens— anything that will check the wholesale destruc- tion of nests by the thoughtless egg collector— I shall feel repaid for the labor bestowed. ac SPRING ARRIVAL OF THE BIRDS. ‘¢ The interest the birds excite ts of all grades, from that which looks upon them as items of millinery, up to that of makers of ornithological systems, who ransack the world for specimens, and who have no doubt that the chief end of a bird ts to be named and catalogued. Somewhere between the two extremes comes the person whose interest in. the birds is personal and friendly, who has little taste for Shooting and an aversion for dissecting, who delights in the living creatures themselves, and counts a bird in the bush worth two in the hand : not rating birds merely as bodies, but as souls. “Others will discover in the birds of which I write many things that I miss, and perhaps will miss some things which IT have treated as patent or even conspicuous. It remains for each to testify what he has seen, and at the end to confess that a soul, even the soul of a bird, is, after all, a mystery.” BRADFORD TORREY’s ‘BIRDS IN THE BUSH.’ SPRING ARRIVAL OF THE BIRDS. Marcu 27.—Among the fair gifts which the bright days of spring will bestow upon us, none are looked forward to with livelier anticipation of pleasure than the coming of the birds. If there is a tender spot in the heart, it will leap with a thrill of joy as the first musical note of the robin or bluebird falls on the ear, an invocation from awakening nature. It is the return of dear friends from long and perilous journeys. The only flaw in our enjoyment of them is the thought that only a fraction of those which left us last summer and autumn will return. Like the soldiers of an harassed army, many fell on field and highway on their southern journey ; others were destroyed for food in the land to which they had gone to escape the cold of our winters, while still a larger number were killed and are being killed on their homeward journey. Each year these annual migrations are beset with increased perils. The country over which they pass offers fewer secure feeding places. Forests have been cut down; swamps have been drained; the freedmen who often watch for this small game are becoming more generally provided with fire-arms ; additional lighthouses have been erected along the coasts. These latter are sources of peculiar danger to 10 HIGHWAYS AND BYWAYS. the birds, as most of them fly during the nights; and if these are dark, the lighthouses always attract great numbers, which perish by dashing against them. Some mornings hundreds have been picked up under one of these false beacons to the birds. The city lights also allure thousands on dark and stormy nights. Many of these strike against the high buildings or against the net-work of wires, now so generally distributed. But the greatest danger, and the one for which all sensible and humane people must blush, is the bloody gauntlet these beautiful and innocent creatures have to pass, of the thousands of heartless, greedy gunners who are on the watch for their coming, and who kill countless scores of them which stop for rest or food or by stress of weather. The danger is all the greater, as the spring migrations mostly occur before the leaves are thick enough to screen from sight, and the birds are in bright plumage, the more attractive and tempting to the most destructive classes, the collectors of specimens and the gatherers of bird skins for decorative and millinery purposes. Between these two classes of outlaws, assisted by the army of worthless tramps who kill for the fun of killing, the innocent birds are subjected to persecutions unknown to other living creatures. The last few years have been those of great peril and destruction to them, and they are disappearing surely and more rapidly than the shy wild flowers over whose loss the true botanist is so justly troubled. When we realize the large number of men and boys whose sole occupation is killing them, and when we see the hun- SPRING ARRIVAL OF THE BIRDS. 11 dreds and thousands of their lifeless bodies in shops, on hats and fans, in private cases and in museums, knowing too that for every one preserved many more are wasted and thrown away, we only wonder that any remain. We may truly say of these, as was said of old of other things, “Except these days be shortened, none shall be saved.” To those who truly love the birds and who make pleasant companionship with them, a yearly chronicling . of their first arrival in the spring is an agreeable recrea- tion. The observing naturalist knows pretty well when to expect the different species, although the weather may hasten or retard for a few days the arrival of some of the earlier migrants. A few of the hardier species remain in this latitude the year round. Among these are the snow-buntings, snow-birds, woodpeckers, nut- hatches and titmice. The buntings and snow-birds feed mostly from seeds of the tall weeds which stand above the snow, while the others live on larve and insects’ eggs, hidden in the bark of shrubs and trees, so that all weather is alike to them excepting when the trees are covered with a coating of ice. Many a day during the past winter, when the thermometer was near zero, and sometimes even below, the little black-capped titmouse (Parus attricapillus), cheerful and sprightly, lisped out his chick-a-de-dee as he searched the limbs of the maple trees for food. Occasionally on milder mornings, his sweet, plaintive whistle, much resembling that of the white-throated sparrow, was a grateful surprise, as this whistle is his usual love-song, oftener heard at mating 12 HIGHWAYS AND BYWAYS. time. He has still another song, not put down in the books, which it has occasionally been my good fortune to hear, a dainty little warble, clear and liquid as a rip- pling brook. Of the migratory birds proper, the shore larks (Otocoris alpestris) are probably the first ones here from the south. In moderate winters one may see them in the city suburbs or outlying fields in February. They often bring out the first brood in the latter part of March, or early in April. Last year near the park homestead a nest was found with four eggs, which were hatched the first week in April. I have seen the young birds running about as nimble as little partridges sev- eral seasons as early as this. The late snows often cover the bird while she is sitting on the nest, and it is a mys- tery how she keeps herself and eggs from freezing. These larks are so silent and retiring in manner that their presence is less likely to be observed than that of some of the later comers. In habit they are real ground birds, but, unlike most such, they walk or run, but do not hop. When closely pressed they take wing, uttering a soft “cheep,” rise rapidly to some height, and then suddenly drop down again near the place of starting. They seldom alight on a tree or green bush, but often perch on a rail or fence-stake by the roadside, where, if undisturbed, they will sit silent for a long time. While on the wing they often indulge in a low, monotonous warble, but their real song, which is sprightly and musical, is generally given from the ground, or from a perch on a stone in the open field. SPRING ARRIVAL OF THE BIRDS. 18 They may easily be recognized by the strong mark- ings, particularly about the head, a black crescent under the eye and a peculiar tuft of lengthened feathers on each ear resembling horns—from which one of their common names, “horned larks.” The color of the back is a-pale brown, the under parts being white, with a darker shading towards the upper breast, where it is met by a crescent of black. The throat and chin are yellow, and the tail black, with the outer edges tipped with white. Of our three well-known favorites, the robin, bluebird and song sparrow, it is a question which we will see first, as it is sometimes one and sometimes another. In favorable localities, individual robins make their appear- ance in the advance, but the two other species generally arrive in force a little the earlier. On his first arrival the robin, in most cases, has only a call or a scold, and the bluebird only a gentle twitter; but the song spar- row comes with his sweet song in his throat ready to break out in clearest cadence almost as soon as he alights. The first mellow call of the robin, like that. of the high hole, is as sweet as a song, and one of the most pleasing sounds of spring. When he has been here a day or two he will more than make amends for his first silence, and all through the spring and summer, early and late, he will fill the land with more rich melody than any other living being. He is a companionable bird, seeking the haunts of civilization, and may oftener be heard in orchards, lawns and along shady highways than in the forests. 2 14 HIGHWAYS AND BYWAYS. March 9th, this year, blue birds were flying northward over the city at intervals during the morning. They had undoubtedly been on the wing all night, as it was pleasant and moonlight. They were just visible to the eye, and only uttured their plaintive “chee-ry,” but it was the first real voice of spring, and sent a thrill of pleasure through the heart of the listener, quickening the pulses like some tender pathos in a poem. The fol- lowing day, March 10th, robins were seen in different parts of the city, and song sparrows in considerable numbers were in the park and at Forest Lawn; these were in full song, and not troubled, like their weather- wise human friends, about the wintry weather still in store for them. In turning over my note-book I read “March 9 and 10, 1877, robins, song sparrows, blue birds and purple grackle here in great numbers.” Only one year since have they come as early. Last year it was March 18th, and the year beforea week later. They often arrive just before or soon after the spring equinox. The date of the arrival of those that come later when the weather is settled can be predicted with greater accuracy. Aprit 8.—Closely following the robins, sometimes accompanying them, are the purple grackles (Quzscalus guiscula). Their cousins, the redwings (Agelais phant- ceus), come a little later. Both are harbingers of spring, bright spots of life and color in the naked land- scape. On some bright, crisp morning in March we generally first see the grackle, where, from his high perch near the top of a tree, in a song, half gurgle, half SPRING ARRIVAL OF THE BIRDS. 15 warble, he greets a companion sure to be near. The grackles choose an elevated position from which to sing, but,in feeding they are less ambitious, and walk about leisurely on the ground searching for grubs and worms and other earth insects. In the fields they often follow, at a safe distance, the plow, eagerly devouring the fat, wriggling morsels brought to light by the upturned furrow. They are, to quite an extent, city birds, haunt- ing lawns where are evergreens, and often nesting in these if the trees are large and dense. Forest Lawn is one of their favorite resorts, and hundreds of them remain here during the season. Every summer they nest in the evergreens of the old part of the cemetery, and a few pairs in the clumps of pines near the clear lake. When one of these nests is disturbed a dozen birds will frequently become noisy and threatening, making common cause against the intruder. They may well be. watchful and unite forces, as they are not fay- orites of the smaller birds, which they often rob of eggs and young. One is sorry to even speak of any birds in other than commendatory terms, and if feasting on the delicious green corn of the farmers at the beginning of the fall migrations was their only fault, far would it be from me to expose their short-coming; but robbing nests and killing innocent birds are grievous faults, and the perpetrators, be they men, boys or birds, ought not to be shielded from proper punishment. The grackles are very handsome, with trim figures and rich suits of black and purple, emerald ‘and bronze. These colors are changeable, in different lights, often showing an 16 HIGHWAYS AND BYWAYS. iridescence as rich and brilliant as that of the wood duck or the wild pigeon. The redwing, or American starling, is smaller than the grackle or crow blackbird, and although less brill- iant, has stronger markings. The male is black, with the exception of the shoulders, which are bright scar- let, with buff and orange edgings. These epaulets are conspicuous, and give him a jaunty, military appear- ance well in keeping with his character. On his first arrival his habits are much like those of the grackle. He likes a perch on an upper twig or limb, where he will cluck and call, gurgle and whistle, as the mood overtakes him. One seldom hears a pleasanter musicale than was given one morning in Rumsey park by these bright-colored minstrels. It was just after sunrise. A robin began with his sweet old story of “Cherries, cherries, to be ripe in June;” a grackle from an ever- green interrupted with “Forme? Are they for me?” Then some redwings from a neighboring willow chimed in, “Oh! what glee we shall see.” One thought of Emerson’s “May Day:” Why chidest thou the tardy spring? The blackbirds make the maples ring With social cheer and jubilee: The redwing flutes his ok-a-lee. The redwings often stop several days in or about the city in the localities favored with tall trees, but on the arrival of the females, which is frequently two or three weeks later, they are off to low meadows, marshes or swamps, in which to nest, probably influenced by the SPRING ARRIVAL OF THE BIRDS. 1% food supply more readily obtained in these places. With the exception of the cow-bunting, the blackbirds are all companionable, and later gregarious, gathering in large flocks, seemingly organized and under the direction of chosen leaders. Those bright little gems, the golden- crowned wrens (Regulus satrapa), began to arrive about the middle of March. They first made their presence known by a slight chirping as they hopped about the branches of the low trees in quest of food. They have stout little feet with sharp claws, and can cling to the trunk of a tree or on the under side of a limb much in the manner of the chicadees and creepers. They are the smallest of our song birds, genteel in figure, rich in color, with gentle and confiding manners. They are more frequently called “kinglets,” and they answer well to the name “little kings,” among the birds. They are courageous and har