PORTRAITS AND HABITS OF OUR BIRDS
Portraits and Habits of Our Birds
Prepared by Various Authors
Edited by
T. Gilbert Pearson
Illustrated with Fifty Colored Plates by Louis Agassiz Fuertes, R. Bruce Horsfall, Edmund J. Sawyer, Allan Brooks, and R. I. Brasher; also Thirty-one Photo- graphs and Drawings from Nature
Volume II
National Association of Audubon Societies
New York City
1921
COPYRIGHT BY NATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF AUDUBON SOCIETIES
PRINTED BY
DOUBLEDAY, PAGE & COMPANY GARDEN CITY NEW YORK
FOREWORD
IT is a fact well known to field naturalists that in the heavily forested lands of North America comparatively few birds are to be seen. The conditions of life are such that ordinarily far more are found where a portion of the land is under cultivation. The diversified crops, weeds, plants, fruit-bearing shrubs and trees, with their attendant hoards of insects found in and about culti- vated regions all tend to make more favorable living conditions for wild birds. In sections, therefore, where open fields are inter- spersed with thickets, grown-up fence rows, orchards and small areas of woodlands, and the country traversed with streams, one will generally find bird life more abundant. Then, too, in the set- tlements men have destroyed many of the smaller animals and snakes that prey upon birds. Any species of wild life provided with abundant food and insured against an excessive loss from the depredations of its enemies will increase in numbers.
Undoubtedly the farm-land birds of North America have greatly increased since the discovery and settlement of the continent. Only those that could be, and have been, commercialized have suffered particularly from the hands of man. Passenger Pigeons are extinct because they were shot, trapped and netted to extermina- tion for food and for sport. Many game birds have been threat- ened with a like fate. Egrets and some other so-called birds of plumage, are rare to-day because of past demands for their feathers by the millinery trade. Despite the fact that numerous species have largely increased over their former numbers there is yet the greatest need for their still further increase. Our rapidly growing agricultural interests have resulted in vastly enlarging the varieties and numbers of injurious insects that prey upon the growing crop and the harvested products.
The National Association of Audubon Societies is intensely inter- ested in this phase of conservation and wishes to use every legitimate means of bringing the subject of protecting our economically valu- able birds again and again to the attention of the public. This book, being Volume II of the series which it is hoped to continue, is being brought out and offered at cost in the hope that it will further stimulate interest in American bird protection.
In this Volume there may be found discussions of the lives and habits of birds representing eleven of the seventeen Orders inhabit- ing North America.
GILBERT PEARSON.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
SPOTTED SANDPIPER Herbert K. Job 201
LEAST AND SEMTPALMATED SANDPIPERS . . Herbert K. Job 205
HORNED LARK Edward Howe Forbush 209
SNOWY EGRET T. Gilbert Pearson 213
DOWNY WOODPECKER T. Gilbert Pearson 217
RUBY-THROATED HUMMINGBIRD . . Mabel Osgood Wright 221
YELLOW-HEADED BLACKBIRD. . . . Thomas S. Roberts 225
CALIFORNIA QUAIL Joseph Mailliard 229
NUTHATCHES Francis H. Allen 233
WILLOW PTARMIGAN Joseph Grinnell 237
CHICKADEE. . - Edward Howe Forbush 241
HUDSONIAN CURLEW A. C. Bent 245
RUFFED GROUSE George Bird Grinnell 249
EMPEROR GOOSE Edward W. Nelson 253
CRESTED AUKLET Charles Haskins Townsend 257
GREEN HERON T. Gilbert Pearson 261
ALASKA LONGSPUR Edward W. Nelson 265
BROWN THRASHER T. Gilbert Pearson 269
TUFTED PUFFIN William Leon Dawson 273
CATBIRD Witmer Stone 277
TUFTED TITMOUSE . . . . Florence Merriam Bailey 281
WOOD THRUSH T. Gilbert Pearson 285
WHIP-POOR-WILL T. Gilbert Pearson 289
ROSEATE SPOONBILL Frank M. Chapman 293
SORA Edward Howe Forbush 297
PINTAIL Herbert K. Job 301
CROW T. Gilbert Pearson 305
LOON Arthur H, Norton 309
TOWHEE T. Gilbert Pearson 313
CHIPPING SPARROW T. Gilbert Pearson 317
KINGBIRD T. Gilbert Pearson 321
BALD EAGLE T. Gilbert Pearson 325
SURF SCOTTER T. Gilbert Pearson 329
SHOVELLER T. Gilbert Pearson 333
CHESTNUT-SIDED WARBLER . . . . T. Gilbert Pearson 337
REDSTART T. Gilbert Pearson 341
VEERY T. Gilbert Pearson 345
AVOCET T. Gilbert Pearson 349
BLACK-NECKED STILT T. Gilbert Pearson 353
Table of Contents
PAGE
ENGLISH SPARROW . . . . . . . T. Gilbert Pearson 357
SAGE GROUSE . . . ..... . T. Gilbert Pearson 361
WHITE-THROATED SPARROW . „ , . T. Gilbert Pearson 365
PHOEBE T. Gilbert Pearson 369
PILEATED WOODPECKER . . . . . T. Gilbert Pearson 373
RAVEN T. Gilbert Pearson 377
SLATE-COLOBED JUNCO T. Gilbert Pearson 381
LEAST TERN .• . T. Gilbert Pearson 385
LEAST BITTERN T. Gilbert Pearson 389
RED-EYED VIREO T. Gilbert Pearson 393
TURKEY VULTURE T. Gilbert Pearson 397
ILLUSTRATIONS
COLORED PLATES
FACING PAGE
AUKLET, CRESTED 258
AVOCET 350
BITTERN, LEAST 390
BLACKBIRD, YELLOW-HEADED 226
CATBIRD 278
CHICKADEE, BLACK-CAPPED 242
<-€ROW 306
CURLEW, HUDSONIAN 246
EAGLE, BALD 326
EGRET, SNOWY. . . . ' 214
GOOSE, EMPEROR 254
GROUSE, RUFFED 250
GROUSE, SAGE 362
HERON, GREEN 262
HUMMINGBIRD, RUBY-THROATED 222
JUNCO, SLATE-COLORED 382
KINGBIRD 322
LARK, HORNED 210
LONGSPUR, ALASKAN 266
LOON 310
NUTHATCHES, WHITE-BREASTED, AND RED-BREASTED . . . 234
PHQEBE ' . 370
PINTAIL 302
PTARMIGAN, WILLOW 238
PUFFIN, TUFTED 274
QUAIL, CALIFORNIA 230 *
-RAVEN 378
REDSTART 342
SANDPIPERS, LEAST AND SEMTPALMATED 206
SANDPIPER, SPOTTED 202
SCOTER, SURF 330 .
SHOVELLER ;......... 334
SORA 298
SPARROW, CHIPPING 318
SPARROW, ENGLISH . 358 •
SPARROW, WHITE-THROATED 366
SPOONBILL, ROSEATE 294
Illustrations
FACING PAGE
STILT, BLACK-NECKED 354
TERN, LEAST 386
THRASHER, BROWN 270
THRUSH, WOOD 286
TITMOUSE, TUTTED 282
TOWHEE 314
VEERY 346
VIREO, RED-EYED 394
VULTURE, TURKEY 398
-WARBLER, CHESTNUT-SIDED 338
WHIP-POOR-WILL 290
WOODPECKER, DOWNY 218
WOODPECKER, PILEATED . 374
PHOTOGRAPHS AND DRAWINGS
PAGE
AUKLETS, at nesting place. Photographed by C. H. Townsend 258
AVOCET, nest and eggs. Photographed by H. T. Bohlman. 351
AVOCET on nest. Photographed by H. T. Bohlman. . . 349
BITTERN, LEAST, "freezing" . 389
• BLACKBIRDS, Yellow-headed and nest. Photographed by T. S.
Roberts 225
CATBIRD and Nest 277
CHICKADEE, YOUNG. Photographed by H. K. Job . . . 241
CROW on Nest 307
EAGLE, BALD, Nest 325
EGRET, SNOWY, at Nest. Photographed by O. E. Baynard . 213
HUMMINGBIRD, RUBY-THROATED on nest 221
JUNCO 381
KINGBIRD'S Nest and Eggs. Photographed by A. D . Whedon 321
LOON and nest. Photographed from Museum Group . . 311
PHOEBE on nest 369
PINTAILS in flight. Photographed by H. K. Job .... 302
REDSTART and Nest ... 341
SANDPIPER, LEAST, just Hatched. Photographed by H. K.
Job 205
SANDPIPER, SPOTTED, on Nest. Photographed by H. K. Job 204
SPARROW, CHIPPING. Photographed by J. W. Lippincott. 317
STILT, BLACK-NECKED, Nesting Haunts 355
TERN, LEAST Feeding Mate. Photographed by E. H. For-
bush 385
THRUSH, WOOD, Nest and Eggs. Photographed by B. S.
Bowdish 285
THRUSH, WOOD, YOUNG. Photographed by B. S. Bowdish 287
TOWHEE Feeding Young Cowbirds 315
VEERY on Nest 345
Illustrations
PAGE
VIREO, RED-EYED, on nest. Photographed by F. M. Chap- man 393
VULTURE, TURKEY, YOUNG. Photographed by T. H. Jackson 397 WARBLER, CHESTNUT-SIDED on Nest. Photographed by
H.K.Job 337
WOODPECKER, DOWNY. Photographed by C. E. Purple. . 217
WOODPECKER, DOWNY. . Drawing of Bill and Tongue. . 220
THE SPOTTED SANDPIPER
By HERBERT K. JOB
THE NATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF AUDUBON SOCIETIES Educational Leaflet No. 51
The sight of a shore-bird has always given me a peculiar thrill. In my boyhood I associated their bands with outings in summer or autumn on the seacoast, when I tramped for miles over stretches of firmly-packed sand by the booming surf on "the backside of the Cape" (Cape Cod), or explored great salt marshes, luxuriating in briny odors and listening ea-erly for the pipings of an approaching flock. An added charm of im>tery and travel lingered about these waifs, which were more at-home on the shores of the Arctic Sea than on beaches made commonplace by hotels and merrymakers. They seemed to carry, like the lass of the proverb, a "delicate air," so clean, so trim, so grace- . _ ful were they. Thus the Spotted Sandpiper, as one gh re bird of thtrse shore-birds, always brings to my imagination a sweet little whiff of the sea-breeze; even in a potato-field it is a blessed shore-bird still, and calls up impressions of the whole fascinating tribe.
In many parts of the country the race of shore-birds would now be unknown — have vanished like lost arts and extinct races — were it not for our dear little "Teeter," the Spotted Sandpiper, which is by far the commonest and most widely distributed shore-bird in North America to-day. In answer to the inquiry as to where it is found, I would ask the opposite question : Where is it not found ? This is not to assert that it is swarming in every locality. Far from it, alas ! But there is hardly a place on the continent, except in deep forest, where one need be sur- prised to run across it.
Like most other shore-birds, the Spotted Sandpiper is a great traveler. One would hardly suspect the little pair, settled down for the summer so tamely in a quiet farm-pasture, of being restless, and of craving the excitement of foreign travel; yet, for aught we can tell, these may be the selfsame birds that a certain explorer met last winter away down in Peru, or Bolivia, or southern Brazil. F
They are erratic in their movements and desires. ^j. Though many of them remain in the Northern States well into October, other individuals show themselves by the end of July in the West Indies, Venezuela, or in Mexico. The returning tourists appear in northern Florida near the end of March ; but it takes them more than a month to travel to the vicinity of Xew York, for there are no dining-cars on the routes they patronize, and they work their passage in thorough and lei-urely fashion.
901
202 The Spotted Sandpiper
Our little friend is readily recognized. As it runs along the ground, or by the margin of a pool or stream, you know it is a sandpiper from its characteristic gait. All sandpipers are clad in grays and browns above, and in white below ; but the Spotted Sandpiper, in adult plumage, has conspicuous streaks and spots sprinkled over the white plumage of the underparts. The young bird of the first summer and fall, however, is only indefinitely gray on the breast and sides. It is almost never at rest, for it has contracted a nervous habit of tilting its body incessantly. Standing on the shore, it bows, bobs, jerks, tilts its body, yes, "teeters,"
\ve may call it. When it flies, too, it proclaims its Attitudes and . . „, . . . , , t , ' f .
Flight identity. The wings are held below the level of the
back with the tips well down, and are given a tremu- lous, hovering motion, accompanied by loud cries of peet-weet, peet-zueet. These traits have given this bird the names by which it is better known than by its book-name, such as Teeter, Tip-up, Peet-weet, and so on. I dislike, however, to record local names of birds, and thus help to perpetuate them and the confusion they cause, for it would be much better if every one of our birds was known by one generally accepted name. The Spotted Sandpiper does not ask for the spacious lakes or broad streams that many of its tribe require. The merest puddle or rill will satisfy this species, and often we may run across it even in a dry pasture or on a piece of ploughed land. Just a little wetness of low ground may recommend a place as suitable for a summer home. Yet the bird is far from averse to more water. One is almost sure to find it running along the margin of a pond, lake, or river ; and the ocean-beach, particu- larly when rocky, is attractive to it. In such places, when the nesting- season is over, and the young are able to take care of themselves, we may meet these Sandpipers in family parties, or in small flocks, not in compact bodies, like various other sandpipers, but scattered ; and single ones are sometimes found associated with flocks of other species. When alarmed, the scattered company springs suddenly Parties from the shore, circles out over the water, with rever-
berating peet-iveet cries, and returns to a spot not very far from the starting point.
On the small inland waters there is but one species with which this could readily be confused. This is the Solitary Sandpiper, a bird not at all plentiful, which appears, usually singly or in pairs, as a migrant in May, and again in August and September. A careful observer readily may learn to distinguish them. Once I had a fine opportunity to see both species together and note the differences. It was late in July, on Lake Chautauqua, New York, on the grounds of the Chautauqua Institution. The bird-study class was out before breakfast, and was delighted to see a flock of shore-birds resting on a sand-flat, among them Spotted Sand- pipers and several Solitary Sandpipers. Behind some large trees we made a close approach, and could see distinctly that the Solitary Sandpipers were a trifle larger than the Spotted Sandpipers, were darker on the back,
SPOTTED SANDPIPER
Left-hand figure, young: right-hand figure, adult
(One-half natural site)
Order— Li MICOL* Famlly-ScoLOPACio*
Genus— ACTITIS Species— MACULARIA
National Association of Audubon Societies
The Spotted Sandpiper 203
and had green legs instead of yellowish ones; they were also quieter in voice and manner than the latter.
During the last half of May at Chautauqua we are likely to happen on early nests of the Spotted Sandpiper. The site most likely to be se- lected by this bird is under a bunch of weeds, or in the shelter of coarse grass, a few yards or rods back from the shore of a pond or stream ; but often the chosen spot will be in a moist pasture, or even in a field of potatoes or corn. Time and again I have found nests on islands, both in lakes and in the ocean, sometimes a dozen or twenty on one islet.
Some nests are concealed very carefully, amid thick foliage, while others are merely in the shade of some straggling weed. The best con- cealment for the eggs is afforded by the demure little brownish mother- bird whose plumage blends perfectly with the color of the ground as she sits motionless upon her treasure; but let one walk too close, and away she goes, uttering her shrill pect-u'eet alarm. Then the secret is out, and the trespasser may examine the four eggs, large for the size of the bird, whose creamy-white background is plentifully sprinkled with dark brown spots, especially at the larger end.
One day, early in June, my wife and son were following an over- grown cart-path, just in from the bank of the river, when they flushed one of these Sandpipers from a nest with four eggs situated under a small clump of weeds. Close to it was a pile of slag _.
, , Photographing
and rock, dumped from an old foundry many years a Sandpiper before. It seemed to me, when I examined it, an ideal place to secure photographs of the bird on her nest.
So I piled slag and weed over the camera, and, connecting a'thread with the shutter, I hid myself behind a thicket of bushes some fifteen yards off. In a few moments the little Sandpiper appeared, trotting about and jerking her body, I thought, even more nervously than usual. She hesitated for some minutes till she felt assured that I had gone. Then she walked straight to her nest, going within a foot or two of the camera, which she failed to notice at all, so well was it concealed. When she reached the eggs she settled over them at once, bristling her feathers and pushing her treasures with bill and wings this way and that till everything was arranged to her satisfaction. Then came my chance, and I pulled the thread gently, taking her picture. Even the „
slight click of the shutter sent her off in a hurry, but Sandpipers she came back several times for me, and then I left her in peace. She safely brought off her young, and afterwards I met them scurrying along the margin of the river.
As with all baby shore-birds, the young Spotted Sandpipers are quaint and amusing. They look like tufts of cotton stuck up on tooth- picks as they race over the sand, attempting to escape when discovered. First, though, when a stranger approaches, they squat flat on the shore, or hide in the grass. The parents throw themselves on the ground before
204
The Spotted Sandpiper
their supposed enemy, and "make believe" to be wounded, so as to decoy him away from the young; and they are apt, in their solicitude, to alight in all sorts of places, even upon trees or bushes.
P Service
A SPOTTED SANDPIPER SETTLING UPON HER EGGS Photographed by Herbert K. Job
The usual food of most shore-birds is aquatic insects ; but the Spotted Sandpiper is also a bird of fields and pastures, and therefore its range of insect-food is wider than most of its tribe, and includes grasshoppers and locusts. Probably almost anything in the insect line is acceptable, and thus it is a most useful bird to farmers: indeed, our shore-birds are not given credit enough for the good that ^ey cl° to agriculture. The Killdeer, Upland Plover, and Spotted Sandpiper should be classed with the Meadowlark and Bobolink, and not be put in the game-bird class at all. The ruthless way that the shore-birds have been exterminated is truly shameful. It is high time to give all the shore-birds protection, lest species after species, now seldom seen, go to a sad extinction.
Classification and Distribution
The spotted Sandpiper belongs to the Order Limicola and the Family Scolofiacidce — Snipes and Sandpipers. Its scientific name is Actitis macularia. It ranges over the whole continent, and breeds from Alaska and the wilderness about Hudson Bay south to the borders of Mexico ; and it winters from the Gulf States to southern Brazil.
This and other Educational Leaflets are for sale, at 5 cents each, by the National Association of Audubon Societies, 1974 Broadway, New York City. Lists given on request.
LEAST SANDPIPER
AND
SEMIPALMATED SANDPIPER
By HERBERT K. JOB
THE NATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF AUDUBON SOCIETIES Educational Leaflet No. 52
These two dainty little Sandpipers, smallest of their tribe, may well be considered our representative shore-birds. The nocking of restless bands of nimble sprites along the sea-coast and the larger inland bodies of water is one of the most attractive sights in nature. Such a species as the Spotted Sandpiper, though commonly seen running along streams during its summer stay, does not gather in large and compact flocks ; so that it is rather through the Least and -the Semipalmated Sandpipers that the majority of persons who see shore-birds at all become familiar with the pretty company that races along and across the beach, chased
A LEAST SANDPIPKK JUST HATCHED Photographed in the Magdalen Islands by Herbert K. Job
by the waves, and with their masterly flight. The larger shore-birds, alas! have been pretty well shot off, and in most parts of the country are found, if at all, in small numbers, only in favorable spots, and by the initiated. These tiny species that we are now considering remain the commonest of their family, because the least attractive to gunners.
They are too small for food purposes, and no one deserving of the name of sportsman will, in these days, fire at their diminished ranks. Nevertheless, they are in nothing like their former abundance. Instead of the flocks of hundreds with which I was formerly familiar, two dozen now is a large flock in many places, and rarely enough at that.
206 Two Sandpipers
There is a peculiar charm connected with the migrations of these
birds. They are so tiny and delicate, yet withal so strong and sure in
their flight, so able to dash with amazing swiftness past coasts and over
the trackless ocean, and to reach the extremes of continents. They come
in April or May, according to latitude, with the aroma of the tropics, and
return in late July to September with the tang of the arctic wild. In the
southward flight, the Semipalmated goes as far as Patagonia, while the
other is known to reach Chile. Some winter as far
north aa the Carolinas, and I have found them com-
Aligrations ' _. . .
mon on the coast of Louisiana in. January, tor breeding, they wing their way mostly far northward, even to the shores of the Arctic' Ocean, but some remain further south. The Semipalmated probably breeds in the Saskatchewan, Valley, and is said to do so com- monly along the southern and western shores of Hudson Bay. The Least breeds sparingly on Sable Island and elsewhere in Xova Scotia, on the Magdalen Islands in the Gulf of St. Lawrence, and northward. In migration, it is found over the entire continent, while the Semipalmated species remains mostly east of the Rocky Mountains.
While I have not been privileged to study the Semipalmated Sand- piper on its breeding-grounds, I have had good opportunities with the other species. As both are said to be much alike in their nesting habits, an account of those of the Least Sandpiper may suffice for both.
It was on the Magdalen Islands that I first became intimate with this wee sandpiper. To appreciate the conditions, one must imagine a barren, open expanse, with a temperature cool, even in midsummer, and plenty of chilling fog. For miles it is moist ground, carpeted with sparse grass and spongy moss, and diversified with occasional patches of stunted spruce or low, sprawling juniper. Billowy elevations of sand- dune in the distance are overgrown with beach grass. In these lower parts are numerous shallow lakes, from a few yards across to a mile long, the larger ones with borders and areas of reeds or rushes. Small
parties of Least Sandpipers, or single ones, probably Home" males, feed beside these lakes or pools. The females
are closely brooding their eggs, which here on the Magdalens are laid during the first half of June, when the temperature of the air is about 50° F.
The experience of finding the first nest of this little arctic bird will always be memorable. As we tramp over the dark arctic moss, we notice a pretty little twittering, and discover a tiny Sandpiper flying around in wide circles on tremulous wings, pouring forth the music that presents the emotions of his little heart. It is the love-song to his mate, who is covering the eggs not far away. We long to find the bird- treasure, and tramp all about, hoping to flush the brooding bird. Our wish is gratified. Inadvertently we have almost trodden on the nest. Away flutters the tiny bird, almost from under our feet, not in rapid flight, but dragging herself over the grass as if she were almost expiring. The nest is a rather deep little hollow in the moss, lined with grass and
LEAST SANDPIPER (Upper figure) SEMIPALMATED SANDPIPER (Lower figure)
(One-half natural size) Order— Li Micelle Family— SCOLOPACID^
PlSOBIA MINUT1LLA (upper fig.) ERBUNBTBS PUSIU.US llOWCr fig.)
National Association of Audubon Societies
Two Sandpipers 207
bayberry leaves. The four pear-shaped eggs look very dark — a drab background, heavily mottled with brown or black. Madam soon returns with her husband, and Iwtli trot around near by, piping their complaints at our intrusion. On one memorable occasion, by setting my camera focused on the nest, I obtained a picture of the brooding mother.
The chicks are the daintiest little mites that one can imagine — little brown balls mottled with white, and comical enough they are, perched up on the rather long, slender stems that pass for legs. Frequently they are hatched in the wet pasture-land close to the cottages of the fish- ing settlements. While walking along the road and approaching the house where we were stopping. I saw a pair of these Sandpipers acting as if very anxious, alighting on the posts and top wire of the fence, piping their complaints. Well did I know what was
if 1.11 T r j , r A Sandpiper
up, and after a considerable hunt I found the four Nursery
chicks lying close together, flat on the ground. The little Sandpiper might not be averse to civilization, if unmolested; but what chance does such a brood have near houses against prowling cats !
The nesting season of these Sandpipers — and, for that matter, of all the shore-birds — is very brief. Such small species do not take long to mature. Thus surprisingly early in the summer, often soon after the middle of July, they begin to straggle back to us, as if the arctic wilder- ness were too cold and lonely to interest them longer.
As far as I am familiar with the shore-birds the adults precede the young on the southward migration, leaving their guileless broods to follow as best they may. In species where differences of plumage be- tween old and young are conspicuous, this is very noticeable. The adults of the Ringneck or Semipalmated Plover, for instance, pass us in Xew Hn^land mostly in August, and seldom do we see the pale-banded young- sters before September. The Golden and Black-bellied Plovers have a similar practice. But how do these unsophisticated young of the Sand- pipers find their way to their unknown habitat in the far South? ' Who. indeed, can really tell !
These two tiny species flock more or less together — as well as in company with other shore-birds — and it is not easy to tell them apart. The Least lacks the partial webbing between the toes, but this can hardly be observed at any distance. It is a trifle smaller than the Semipalmated. and has a reddish-brown tint in its plumage, while the other tends rather to gray ; also it is perhaps more Characteristics fond of marsh and meadow than the Semipalmated, which favors beaches and flats. Both, however, are often found on the marsh, so this sign is by no means of general appjication.
Tt is a wonderfully pretty sight to watch them scwrying away from the advancing waves on the grand, gray sea-beach, or paddling nimbly about on the flats or in shallow pools of the marsh. How they can make their little legs go! As we walk along, we may not notice the binl->. they aiv so small. Suddenly ari^i-< a -.brill twittering or lisping, and up darts the scattered parly of Sandpipers. Quickly they get to-
208 Two Sandpipers
gather, and in a rather compact flock are off at a rapid rate, their little wings moving so rapidly that it takes a high speed of the focal-plane shutter to get them sharp on the plate. Circling about, they often return to alight near their starting-point.
Speaking of photography, the shore-birds are a hard class to catch successfully with the camera, because so small, restless, and dwellers in wide expanses. Not many hunters with the camera can produce good photographs, self-taken, of 'this tribe. It can be done, however, and these little Sandpipers make very pretty subjects. One can attract them to a blind with decoys. I have even had them fly close to Duck decoys, and secured good pictures of them thus, though it probably was mere idle curiosity that drew them. The best chances I ever found to photo- graph these and other shore-birds, except at nesting time, was on the spring migration among the Florida Keys, where the red mangrove grows
right down to the water's edge, close to the sand-bars, o ograp ing jn winter and spring they are numerous in such Shore-birds , , « T i j j • 1
places, and all I had to do was to squat quietly and
blaze away with my harmless weapon as the unsuspecting birds ran by me, fed, or rested.
These little nymphs are gleaners, rather than scavengers. Their food, of course, is of very small prey — larvae, worms, minute shell-fish, insects, and the like — which they pick up on shore or flat, or probe for deeper down. Though we may not be able to assign any definite economic value to these species in dollars and cents, they have a value none the less real and great. Celia Thaxter found genuine happiness with "One little Sandpiper and I !" — and so has many another. They have afforded me, hundreds of times, most exquisite delight, and I know that they are worth while. May their numbers greatly increase !
Classification and Distribution
These Sandpipers belong to the Order Limicola and Family Scolopacidce.
The scientific name of the Least Sandpiper is Pisobia minutilla. It breeds in northern and eastern Canada, and in Alaska, and winters from the southwestern border of the United States to Brazil and Chile.
The scientific name of the Semipalmated Sandpiper is Ercunetes pusiUus. It breeds in the Arctic regions, and winters from Texas and South Carolina throughout Central and South America.
This and other Educational Leaflets are for sale, at 5 cents each, by the National Association of Audubon Societies, 1974 Broadway, New York City. Lists given on request.
THE HORNED LARK
By EDWARD HOWE FORBUSH
THE NATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF AUDUBON SOCIETIES Educational Leaflet No. 53
It is November. On Martha's Vineyard, a little island south of Cape Cod, the boiling surf pounds and roars along the lonely shore, shifting the sands upon the bars and rattling the cobbles on the cold, stony beaches. Surf-ducks dive and play amid the white-capped seas, while the Atlantic stretches away in the dim distance to the home of the east wind and the storm.
Inland, among shrubby plains and rolling hills, nestles an isolated farm. Here in a weedy field, sheltered somewhat from the searching winds of the Atlantic, a flock of little brown birds creep in and out among the stubble. They have come from their summer home, in bleak ami barren Labrador, to their harvest home in this sea-girt isle. They are Eastern Horned Larks, the type of the species.
Anyone acquainted with bird-life in Europe would at once recognize this little pedestrian to be a close ally of the far-famed Skylark. It is a small bird measuring only seven and three-quarter inches in length, and its weight does not exceed one and one-fifth ounces. Yet though so small a bird it attracts attention wherever seen.
It is April. The setting sun lies warm over the wide prairie-fields of Minnesota, and the light, free, south wind gently breathes the breath of life over an eager land. A little bird sits on her sunken nest in the prairie sod, watching her mate as he springs aloft and gives himself to the buoyant currents of the air. He swings in loose circuits and zigzags back and forth, singing gently at Song-
first, then, fluttering upward, rises by stages, taking Hight
each upward step at a steep slant, sailing, ' gyrating, mounting higher and still higher, pouring forth his whole soul in an ecstasy of son-.
lrp and up he goes, swinging in dizzy spirals, pausing at one height after another to send back to earth his music ; and so soars and sings until he fades from view in the clear blue canopy of heaven, and the song is wafted down sweeter and fainter until, like the skylark, he sings at "heaven's i^'ilr."
Then, as the full flood of his ecstasy begins to ebb, and his strength wanes, he sinks slowly down: the far-away song swells on the listening ear, and, still fluttering and singing, he comes again into view. Swing-
210 The Horned Lark
ing in wide aerial circuits he drops by slow stages until at last his hymn is ended, and, closing his wings, he drops like a meteor until near the earth, when he spreads his wings, checking his headlong rush, turns, and swings along the sod until his toes touch the grass-tops as lightly as the summer wind, and he comes to earth again near the little nest, the center of all his hopes.
Such is the song-flight of the Prairie Horned Lark — a wonderful performance. The last stanza of Shelly 's "Ode to the Skylark'' might well be applied to its American cousin :
"Leave to the Nightingale her shady wood;
A privacy of glorious light is thine. Whence thou dost pour upon the world a flood
Of harmony, with instinct more divine; Type of the wise, who soar, but never roam — True to the kindred points of Heaven and Home."
The true larks, of which the Horned Lark is an example, have a long, straight claw (the "lark-spur") on the hind toe, and a slightly crested head ; but Horned Larks have in addition over the eye, and extending
to the back of the head, a pair of narrow, black, Characteristics pointed crests that ordinarily lie close to the head ;
but when the male is excited by passion or surprise these crests are erected, so that his head resembles slightly that of an owl, with two little black ears sticking up.
Almost everywhere in the treeless lands of North America Horned Larks are found. In the East they breed southward to West Virginia, and in the West to Kansas, New Mexico and California.
In the time of Wilson and Audubon only the typical Horned Lark, or "Shore Lark," a bird of the Atlantic coastal region, was known in the East ; but since then a somewhat different western subspecies, the Prairie Horned Lark, has expanded its range to the eastward. As the eastern country was cleared and settled, more open ground to which it had been accustomed became available there for this subspecies; and, as the western country was settled, trees were grown, much land was put under constant cultivation, thousands of larks' nests were destroyed as the farmers turned the prairie sod, and less room remained for this lover
of the open grass-lands. Possibly for these reasons it Change of jias gra(juaiiy extended its range eastward to Quebec
and New England. It is a rather pale variety, with some white about the head in place of the yellow of the typical eastern bird. The "Desert" subspecies is also extending eastward.
The beginner in bird-study may not recognize the Horned Larks by their flight or by their whistled notes, for both resemble those of the American Pipit, or Titlark : but he may know them when they are on the ground by their pinkish-brown color, their thick-set, square-shouldered look, their mouse-like movements, and the distinct black and yellow, or yellowish-white, markings shown by the male bird on the side of the head.
L'
if
HORNED LARK
Order — PASSER ES Family — ALAUDID/B
Genus— OTOCORIS Species— ALPBSTRIS
National Association of Audubon Societies
The Horned Lark 211
They may be confused with the Pipit or the Vesper Sparrow be- cause of the white outer feathers of the tail ; but the white in the tail of the Titlark and Vesper Sparrow is more noticeable, and the Horned Lark is much larger than either of those birds. As the bird flies over- head, the black tail with its white corners contrasts with the white belly. All this refers to the typical Horned Lark (Otocoris alpcstris alpestris), a bird of the Northeast and Labrador; but all Horned Larks resemble the type in their markings. There is a great variation, however, in the shades of the plumage.
The ordinary call-note of the Horned Lark is very similar to that of the Pipit, but not so soft. Dr. C. W. Townsend writes it tssivee it, tssivt — a sibilant note. The flight-song of the Labrador Horned Lark is described by Townsend 2nd Allen as a series of squeaks and high notes, with a bit of a fine trill, the bird beginning his song when high in air and ending it there. The Prairie Horned Lark seems to be the best singer of them all. Its common song is a sprightly little ditty, with no consider- able resonance or modulation. Dawson expresses its proportions and tempo by the syllables, twidge-ividgc, wigity wigy-widge^ while the words t-^'idf/c, ivigity, eelooy, cclooy, idgity, eelogy e e w, serve the same pur- pose for the rarer ecstasy-song, which is sometimes given on the ground, but usually in air.
The nest is built in a hollow dug in the ground or sunk in the moss, and is so deeply hollowed that the back of the sitting bird comes level with the surface. It is built chiefly of dried grasses, and that of the Desert variety has a curious "paving" of chips, etc., about it, described by Henry Mausley, in The Auk, July, 1916. The Prairie Horned Lark begins her nest early in March or April, by digging a hole about three inches wide and nearly as deep. This is lined to a depth of nearly an inch with dry grass, and the top is usually left level with the surface.
The eggs, from three to five, are about one inch in length and from .60 to .75 inch in diameter. They are variable in color, but are usually profusely and heavily marked with brownish gray or dark stone- gray upon greenish bronze. When the eggs are nearing the end of the incubating period, the bird sits so closely as almost to allow the intruder to step upon her back.
Audubon found the Horned Lark breeding in high and desolate tracts of Labrador near the sea, on dark rocks covered with mosses and lichens, where its protective coloring, tin*
as it sat on the nest,, was quite as effective as it is among the pastures of New England, or on the broad and breezy western prairies.
As the young approach maturity they outgrow the nest, and when it will contain them no longer they leave it, usually several days or a week before they are able to fly; after which they wander about over the ground, and the parents continue to feed them for two or three weeks.
212 The Horned Lark
While the young are still in the nest the mother is very secretive about feeding them. She never flies to the nest when she apprehends danger, but always alights at a distance, zigzags up to the nest, creeps to it, feeds the young very quickly, and then steals away. The little ones in their first plumage are covered with light spots.
The Horned Larks are ground-birds. Although sometimes one alights upon a stump-root, fence-post, or rail, they rarely have been seen in trees.
In October, or when the chill winds of November blow. Horned Larks from the north begin to appear in the United States. They come down from Labrador and the fur countries and become common along the Atlantic seaboard, usually in small straggling flocks. The members of a flock keep company like a hen and chickens, the old birds leading. Sometimes as many as one hundred or more may consort together.
In the East they frequent freshly .ploughed fields, marshes, mead- ows, stubble-fields, and weedy places along the coast, sometimes going to the higher pastures. When snow comes they search for food along the shore, on bare spaces in roads, or near barns and haystacks. In winter they are sometimes seen in the interior with flocks of Snowflakes. In autumn and winter they are rather silent ; and when feeding they keep close to the ground, where they creep about, picking up seeds. They are adepts at hiding, squatting low behind weeds or clumps of grass. The scattered flocks fly with an undulating motion,, and when startled often rise, fly ofF, and then turn about and alight near the point from which they started.
In the West, they live in desert-valleys, on barren table-lands and level prairies, and also among highlands and upon bare mountain-peaks.
W. L. McAtee of the United States Geological Survey, in his bul- letin on "The Horned Larks and Their Relation to Agriculture." states that two fifths or less of their food consists of insects, and four fifths of vegetable matter. The quantity of grain taken is insignificant except in California, where these birds seem to be largely vegetarian.
The Horned Larks are interesting birds. They readily adapt them- selves to farm-conditions, and are distinctly beneficial to agriculture. They should be protected by law at all times.
Classification and Distribution
The Horned Lark belongs to the order Passeres, Suborder Oscines and Family Alaudidce. Its scientific name is Otocoris alpestris. The range of the species includes all North America, Central and northern South America, northern Asia, Europe and northern Africa. Fourteen geographical races have been named as subspecies in North America alone, indicating unusual variability in this bird.
This and other Educational Leaflets are for sale, at 5 cents each, by the National Association of Audubon Societies. 1974 Broadway, New York City. Lists given on request
THE SNOWY EGRET
By T. GILBERT PEARSON
THE NATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF AUDUBON SOCIETIES Educational Leaflet No. 54
Among the Herons of North America are four species that are white. The largest is the Great White Heron of southern Florida, the West
A SNOWY EGKE1 IN THE NESTING-COLONY ON THE AUDUBON BIRD RESERVATION AT ORANGE LAKE. FLORIDA
Photographed by O. E. Baynard
Indies, and elsewhere. The Little Blue Heron is white until it is two years old, and possibly in some cases longer. Then there are the two Egrets, the large species, standing over three feet high, and the small one, which is about the size of the Little Blue and is known as the Snowy Egret.