Bird-Lore Part 10

5. Are you familiar with these things?

6. What is miniver?

7. How did Th.o.r.eau learn so much about Nature?

8. Are Lanier's allusions to Nature exact?

9. If you wished to tell a person who knew nothing about Nature, what to listen and look for, how many things could you name or describe to him?

10. Make a list of the trees, shrubs, and plants in your neighborhood.

11. Make a list of the spring migrants in your locality.

12. Make a study of what actually takes place during the transition from winter to spring.--A. H. W.

=FOR AND FROM ADULT AND YOUNG OBSERVERS=

=SPRING=

Spring has come at last, And the birds are flying fast To our great Northern skies, Where they think it's paradise.

The rustle of their little wings Tells us of the coming Spring.

And their little notes of love Are like the peaceful songs of Doves.

--VIRGINIA STEARNS (Nine years old), Milwaukee, Wis.

=MY BLUEBIRDS=

Early in December, 1914, my brother and I cut down an old half-dead apple-tree, and on it we found a partly hollow log that the English Sparrows had evidently used for years. As I had my eye out for bird-houses, I confiscated it and finished hollowing it out. It made three log-nests, all of which have been used by bird tenants since then.

On February 17, I put up two of the logs on the bank of the Ohio River, at a distance of 40 feet from our house, where they could easily be observed from nine different windows.

The site was ideal for a bird's nest. Below, 127 feet, the Ohio rolled majestically by, flushed with the melted snow that the spring rains brought from the mountains, and dotted here and there with floating cakes of ice. The other bank of the river rose 329 feet above the level of the water. It was heavily wooded and an ideal place for all kinds of birds. As this is right in the path of the Mississippi Migration Route, one could hear the "honk, honk," of Canada Geese, the talking notes of the Old Squaw, and once the maniacal laughter of a Loon, as it followed the Ohio to the mouth of the Beaver River, there probably resting and continuing its journey up the Beaver to its northern nesting-ground.

Below, I give the dates of the important events in the Bluebirds'

history.

February 17. Nest-logs put up.

February 25. First Bluebird seen.

February 28. Three pairs looked at both logs, fought for them, and _my pair_ rented it.

March 21. Nest completed.

March 26. First egg laid.

March 27. Second egg laid.

March 28. Third egg laid.

March 29. Fourth egg laid.

March 30. Fifth egg laid.

April 13. Young hatched.

April 29. Young left the nest.

Prior to March 29, the river bank had been burned over twice for the purpose of improving the gra.s.s roots, but the Bluebirds never seemed to mind it, although the nest was enveloped in clouds of thick smoke both times. The last two days of March, and the first two of April were cold, below freezing, with a driving snowstorm followed by sleet; but the Bluebirds' activities never ceased. At this time the male pa.s.sed the night in the nest with the female, 'twinkling' into the log at sunset.

The male was very pugnacious, and seemed not to know fear. He would dash with equal courage at a Flicker or a Song Sparrow, when they approached his tree. Once I saw him actually knock a Flicker off a branch. Perhaps he would not have succeeded had the Flicker been aware of his approach, but the Bluebird came up behind and hit him below the belt. When I would go near the nest, the male would utter 'chuckling' notes, as if to scold and frighten me away. On several occasions he came so close that I could almost touch him.

When the young were about four days old, I set up my camera, three feet away from the nest, to obtain some pictures. The first time the shutter snapped, the female hopped down on to the branch on which the camera was placed, put her head to one side, and seemed to say, "What is this that clicks in my face," and then she hopped all over it, pecking it.

[Ill.u.s.tration: GOING HOME Photographed by W. R. Boulton, Jr.]

Both parents were often seen cleaning the nest. They began to feed the young at about eight o'clock every morning, and continued it steadily at an average of every six or seven minutes until about six at night, using as food almost exclusively a certain kind of bug that was very hairy, brownish with black markings, and, except for the hair, might have been mistaken for castor beans, being about the same size. They seemed a huge mouthful for a young Bluebird. Several times a day I would climb up to the nest and whistle softly like a Bluebird before the aperture. The young would crane their necks and stretch their mouths for the supposed food, although none was forthcoming.

[Ill.u.s.tration: LEAVING HOME Photographed by W. R. Boulton, Jr.]

When the young flew from the nest, I felt as though I had lost a family.

My grief was not such that I could not capture them, however, and after counting noses, I found that one was missing. I climbed up and there I found 'runtie' at the bottom of the nest, pitifully squeaking at being left alone. I took out the bottom and extracted him. Finally, after half an hour or more of posing, I got several good pictures of the babies on a dead branch. When I opened the nest-log to clean it, I found a little block of gra.s.ses about three inches in diameter and one inch high. It fairly glistened with shed feather-sheaths. In the bottom were six or seven bugs, of the species mentioned before, that had evidently escaped the birds. Exactly two months after the first egg was laid, the second nest of the same pair was nearing completion in another of my boxes.

Here are the dates.

May 29. First egg laid.

May 30. Second egg laid.

May 31. Third egg laid.

June 1. Fourth egg laid.

June 16. Young hatched.

June 23. Young have not flown yet.

While the female was incubating, the male still fed the young of the first brood, although not so often as when they left the nest.--WOLFRID RUDYERD BOULTON, JR. (Age 14 years), Beaver, Pa.

[Perhaps no better word of appreciation of this carefully worded description of personal observations could be given than to quote from a letter written by Mr. Herbert K. Job with reference to the data given by Master Boulton, Jr.: "His accurate information about the periods of incubation and rearing of the Bluebird came in handy to me just now, as there is a pair in a box up-state which I want to 'film' at just the right period, and now I can estimate when to make the trip." The pictures ill.u.s.trating this article were not only taken, but also developed and finished by the observer.--A. H. W.]

=A MUSICAL WOODLAND=

Riding on my pony in a thick-set wood, I heard the "Feathered Musicians"

playing on their instruments.

First the trill of the Wood Thrush, then the sweet trill of the Meadowlark, the rapidly repeated 'wickci' of the Flicker, the sweet melody of the Robin, the charming song of the Song Sparrow, and the 'chip' of the Chipping Sparrow, were most delightful.

Far off in the distance I could hear the sweet Canary-like whistle of the Goldfinch and the 'eak' of the Purple Grackle.