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CITIZEN BIRD

Scenes from Bird-Life in Plain English for Beginners

BY

MABEL OSGOOD WRIGHT AND ELLIOTT COUES

With One Hundred and Eleven Illustrations by Louis Agassiz Fuertes

1897






[Illustration: Long-eared owl.]




  TO ALL BOYS AND GIRLS
  WHO LOVE BIRDS
  AND WISH TO PROTECT THEM

  THIS BOOK IS DEDICATED
  BY THE AUTHORS




  _SCENE_:
  THE ORCHARD FARM.

  _TIME_:
  FROM SPRING TO AUTUMN.

  _CHARACTERS_:
  DR. ROY HUNTER, a naturalist.
  OLIVE, the Doctor's daughter.
  NAT and DODO, the Doctor's nephew and niece.
  RAP, a country boy.
  MAMMY BUN, an old  nurse.
  OLAF, a fisherman.




  TABLE OF CONTENTS

  CHAPTER I
  OVERTURE BY THE BIRDS

  CHAPTER II
  THE DOCTOR'S WONDER ROOM

  CHAPTER III
  A SPARROW SETTLES THE QUESTION

  CHAPTER IV
  THE BUILDING OF A BIRD

  CHAPTER V
  CITIZEN BIRD

  CHAPTER VI
  THE BIRD AS A TRAVELLER

  CHAPTER VII
  THE BIRD'S NEST

  CHAPTER VIII
  BEGINNING OF THE BIRD STORIES

  CHAPTER IX
  A SILVER-TONGUED FAMILY
    Bluebird--Robin--Wood Thrush--Wilson's Thrush--Hermit
    Thrush--Olive-backed Thrush.

  CHAPTER X
  PEEPERS AND CREEPERS
    Golden-crowned Kinglet--White-breasted
    Nuthatch--Chickadee--Brown Creeper.

  CHAPTER XI
  MOCKERS AND SCOLDERS
    Sage Thrasher--Mockingbird--Catbird--Brown
    Thrasher--Rock Wren--House Wren--Long-billed Marsh Wren.

  CHAPTER XII
  WOODLAND WARBLERS
    Black-and-white Warbler--Yellow Warbler--Yellow-rumped
    Warbler--Ovenbird--Maryland Yellow-throat--Yellow-breasted
    Chat--American Redstart.

  CHAPTER XIII
  AROUND THE OLD BARN
    Red-eyed Vireo--Great Northern Shrike--Cedar Waxwing.

  CHAPTER XIV
  THE SWALLOWS
    Purple Martin--Barn Swallow--Tree Swallow--Bank
    Swallow.

  CHAPTER XV
  A BRILLIANT PAIR
    Scarlet Tanager--Louisiana Tanager.

  CHAPTER XVI
  A TRIBE OF WEED WARRIORS
    Pine Grosbeak--American Crossbill--American
    Goldfinch--Snowflake--Vesper Sparrow--White-throated
    Sparrow--Chipping Sparrow--Slate- Junco--Song
    Sparrow--Towhee--Cardinal--Rose-breasted Grosbeak--Indigo
    Bird.

  CHAPTER XVII
  A MIDSUMMER EXCURSION
    Bobolink--Orchard Oriole--Baltimore
    Oriole--Cowbird--Red-winged Blackbird--Purple
    Grackle--Meadowlark.

  CHAPTER XVIII
  CROWS AND THEIR COUSINS
    American Crow--Blue Jay.

  CHAPTER XIX
  A FEATHERED FISHERMAN
    The Osprey.

  CHAPTER XX
  SOME SKY SWEEPERS
    Kingbird--Phoebe--Wood Pewee.

  CHAPTER XXI
  HUMMERS AND CHIMNEY SWEEPS
    Ruby-throated Hummingbird--Chimney Swift.

  CHAPTER XXII
  TWO WINGED MYSTERIES
    Nighthawk--Whip-poor-will.

  CHAPTER XXIII
  A LAUGHING FAMILY
    Downy Woodpecker--Red-headed
    Woodpecker--Flicker--Yellow-bellied Sapsucker.

  CHAPTER XXIV
  TWO ODD FELLOWS
    Kingfisher--Yellow-billed Cuckoo.

  CHAPTER XXV
  CANNIBALS IN COURT
    Bald Eagle--Golden Eagle--Screech Owl--Long-eared
    Owl--Snowy Owl--Great Horned Owl--Marsh Hawk--Sharp-shinned
    Hawk--Red-shouldered Hawk--Sparrow Hawk.

  CHAPTER XXVI
  A COOING PAIR
    Passenger Pigeon--Mourning Dove.

  CHAPTER XXVII
  THREE FAMOUS GAME BIRDS
    Bob White--Ruffled Grouse--Woodcock.

  CHAPTER XXVIII
  ON THE SHORE
    A Long-necked Family: Black-crowned Night Heron--American
    Bittern--A Bonnet Martyr and a Blue Giant--Snowy
    Egret--Great Blue Heron.

  CHAPTER XXIX
  UP THE RIVER
    Turnstone--Golden Plover--Wilson's Snipe--Spotted
    Sandpiper--Least Sandpiper--Virginia Rail.

  CHAPTER XXX
  DUCKS AND DRAKES
    Wood Duck--Black Duck--Mallard--Pintail--Green-winged
    Teal--Blue-winged Teal--Redhead--Old Squaw--Hooded Merganser.

  CHAPTER XXXI
  GULLS AND TERNS AT HOME
    Canada Goose--American Herring Gull--Common
    Tern--Loon--Pied-billed Grebe.

  CHAPTER XXXII
  CHORUS BY THE BIRDS

  CHAPTER XXXIII
  PROCESSION OF BIRD FAMILIES

  INDEX




CHAPTER I


OVERTURE BY THE BIRDS

  "We would have you to wit, that on eggs though we sit,
    And are spiked on the spit, and are baked in a pan;
  Birds are older by far than your ancestors are,
    And made love and made war, ere the making of man!"

  (_Andrew Lang_.)



A party of Swallows perched on the telegraph wires beside the highway
where it passed Orchard Farm. They were resting after a breakfast of
insects, which they had caught on the wing, after the custom of their
family. As it was only the first of May they had plenty of time before
nest-building, and so were having a little neighborly chat.

If you had glanced at these birds carelessly, you might have thought
they were all of one kind; but they were not. The smallest was the Bank
Swallow, a sober-hued little fellow, with a short, sharp-pointed tail,
his back feathers looking like a dusty brown cloak, fastened in front by
a neck-band between his light throat and breast.

Next to him perched the Barn Swallow, a bit larger, with a tail like an
open pair of glistening scissors and his face and throat a beautiful
ruddy buff. There were so many glints of color on his steel-blue back
and wings, as he spread them in the sun, that it seemed as if in some of
his nights he must have collided with a great soap-bubble, which left
its shifting hues upon him as it burst.

This Barn Swallow was very much worried about something, and talked so
fast to his friend the Tree Swallow, that his words sounded like
twitters and giggles; but you would know they were words, if you could
only understand them.

The Tree Swallow wore a greenish-black cloak and a spotless white vest.
He was trying to be polite and listen to the Barn Swallow as well as to
the Purple Martin (the biggest Swallow of all), who was a little further
along on the wire; but as they both spoke at once, he found it a
difficult matter.

"We shall all be turned out, I know," complained the Barn Swallow, "and
after we have as good as owned Orchard Farm these three years, it is too
bad. Those meddlesome House People have put two new pieces of glass in
the hayloft window, and how shall I ever get in to build my nest?"

"They may leave the window open," said the Bank Swallow soothingly, for
he had a cheerful disposition; "I have noticed that hayloft windows are
usually left open in warm weather."

"Yes, they may leave it open, and then shut it some day after I have
gone in," snapped Barney, darting off the perch to catch a fly, and
grasping the wire so violently on his return, that the other birds
fluttered and almost lost their footing. "What is all this trouble
about?" asked the Martin in his soft rich voice. "I live ten miles
further up country, and only pass here twice a year, so that I do not
know the latest news. Why must you leave the farm? It seems to be a
charming place for Bird People. I see a little box under the barn eaves
that would make me a fine house."

"It _is_ a delightful place for us," replied the Barn Swallow; "but now
the House People who own the farm are coming back to live here
themselves, and everything is turned topsy-turvy. They should have asked
us if we were willing for them to come. Bird People are of a _much_
older race than House People anyway; it says so in their books, for I
heard Rap, the lame boy down by the mill, reading about it one day when
he was sitting by the river."

All the other birds laughed merrily at this, and the Martin said, "Don't
be greedy, Brother Barney; those people are quite welcome to their barns
and houses, if they will only let us build in their trees. Bird People
own the whole sky and some of our race dive in the sea and swim in the
rivers where no House People can follow us."

"You may say what you please," chattered poor unhappy Barney,
"everything is awry. The Wrens always built behind the window-blinds,
and now these blinds are flung wide open. The Song Sparrow nested in the
long grass under the lilac bushes, but now it is all cut short; and they
have trimmed away the nice mossy branches in the orchard where hundreds
of the brothers built. Besides this, the Bluebird made his nest in a
hole in the top of the old gate post, and what have those people done
but put up a new post with _no hole in it_!"

"Dear! dear! Think of it, _think_ of it!" sang the Bluebird softly,
taking his place on the wire with the others.

"What if these people should bring children with them," continued
Barney, who had not finished airing his grievances--"little BOYS and
CATS! Children who might climb up to our nests and steal our eggs, boys
with _guns_ perhaps, and striped cats which no one can see, with feet
that make no sound, and _such_ claws and teeth--it makes me shiver to
think of it." And all the birds shook so that the wire quivered and the
Bank Swallow fell off, or would have fallen, if he had