Chapter 1 of 4 · 3964 words · ~20 min read

Part 1

Transcriber's Note: A couple of unusual spellings in the "ads" have been left as printed.

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FROM THE PRESIDENT OF THE NATIONAL TEACHERS' ASSOCIATION.

_STATE OF NEW YORK_ _Department of Public Instruction_ _SUPERINTENDENT'S OFFICE_

_Albany_ December 26, 1896.

[Illustration: (seal)] _Stenographic Letter_ Dictated by __________

W. E. Watt, President &c., Fisher Building, 277 Dearborn St., Chicago, Ill.

My dear Sir:

Please accept my thanks for a copy of the first publication of "Birds." Please enter my name as a regular subscriber. It is one of the most beautiful and interesting publications yet attempted in this direction. It has other attractions in addition to its beauty, and it must win its way to popular favor.

Wishing the handsome little magazine abundant prosperity, I remain

Yours very respectfully, [signature] State Superintendent.

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GENERAL OFFICES: 198 Custom House Place, CHICAGO.

Please mention "BIRDS" when you write to advertisers.

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Please mention "BIRDS" when you write to advertisers.

NOW READY. #THE STORY OF THE BIRDS.#

By JAMES NEWTON BASKETT. Edited by Dr. W. T. Harris, U. S. Com'r of Education.

TABLE OF CONTENTS.

CHAPTER I.--A Bird's Forefathers. II.--How did the Birds First Fly, Perhaps? III.--A Bird's Fore Leg. IV.--Why did the Birds put on Soft Raiment? V.--The Cut of a Bird's Frock. VI.--About a Bird's Underwear. VII.--A Bird's Outer Wrap. VIII.--A Bird's New Suit. IX.--"Putting on Paint and Frills" among the Birds. X.--Color Calls among the Birds. XI.--War and Weapons among the Birds. XII.--Antics and Odor among the Birds. XIII.--The Meaning of Music among Birds. XIV.--Freaks of Bachelors and Benedicts in Feathers. XV.--Step-Parents among Birds. XVI.--Why did Birds begin to Incubate? XVII.--Why do the Birds Build So. XVIII.--Fastidious Nesting Habits of a few Birds. XIX.--What Mean the Markings and Shapes of Bird's Eggs? XX.--Why Two Kinds of Nestlings? XXI.--How Some Baby Birds are Fed. XXII.--How Some Grown-Up Birds get a Living. XXIII.--Tools and Tasks among the Birds. XXIV.--How a Bird Goes to Bed. XXV.--A Little Talk on Bird's Toes. XXVI.--The Way of a Bird in the Air. XXVII.--How and Why do Birds Travel? XXVIII.--What a Bird knows about Geography and Arithmetic. XXIX.--Profit and Loss in the Birds. XXX.--A Bird's Modern Kinsfolk. XXXI.--An Introduction to the Bird. XXXII.--Acquaintance with the Bird.

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#New Occasions# #A Magazine of Social Progress.# EDITED BY FREDERICK UPHAM ADAMS.

Sixty-four large pages devoted to live topics of popular interest, not one dull paragraph. Editorials, stories, short articles, letters, news items, poetry, humor, puzzles--in short a magazine that will delight every one who believes in human rights and majority rule. Sample copy 10 cents. Address #CHARLES H. KERR & COMPANY,# 56 Fifth Ave., Chicago.

Please mention "BIRDS" when you write to advertisers.

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#BIRDS#

ILLUSTRATED BY COLOR PHOTOGRAPHY

#A MONTHLY SERIAL#

DESIGNED TO PROMOTE

#KNOWLEDGE OF BIRD-LIFE#

"With cheerful hop from perch to spray, They sport along the meads; In social bliss together stray, Where love or fancy leads.

Through spring's gay scenes each happy pair Their fluttering joys pursue; Its various charms and produce share, Forever kind and true."

CHICAGO, U. S. A. NATURE STUDY PUBLISHING COMPANY, PUBLISHERS 1896

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PREFACE.

It has become a universal custom to obtain and preserve the likenesses of one's friends. Photographs are the most popular form of these likenesses, as they give the true exterior outlines and appearance, (except coloring) of the subjects. But how much more popular and useful does photography become, when it can be used as a means of securing plates from which to print photographs in a regular printing press, and, what is more astonishing and delightful, to produce the REAL COLORS of nature as shown in the subject, no matter how brilliant or varied.

We quote from the December number of the Ladies' Home Journal: "_An excellent_ suggestion was recently made by the Department of Agriculture at Washington that the public schools of the country shall have a new holiday, to be known as Bird Day. Three cities have already adopted the suggestion, and it is likely that others will quickly follow. Of course, Bird Day will differ from its successful predecessor, Arbor Day. We can plant trees but not birds. It is suggested that Bird Day take the form of bird exhibitions, of bird exercises, of bird studies--any form of entertainment, in fact, which will bring children closer to their little brethren of the air, and in more intelligent sympathy with their life and ways. There is a wonderful story in bird life, and but few of our children know it. Few of our elders do, for that matter. A whole day of a year can well and profitably be given over to the birds. Than such study, nothing can be more interesting. The cultivation of an intimate acquaintanceship with our feathered friends is a source of genuine pleasure. We are under greater obligations to the birds than we dream of. Without them the world would be more barren than we imagine. Consequently, we have some duties which we owe them. What these duties are only a few of us know or have ever taken the trouble to find out. Our children should not be allowed to grow to maturity without this knowledge. The more they know of the birds the better men and women they will be. We can hardly encourage such studies too much."

Of all animated nature, birds are the most beautiful in coloring, most graceful in form and action, swiftest in motion and most perfect emblems of freedom.

They are withal, very intelligent and have many remarkable traits, so that their habits and characteristics make a delightful study for all lovers of nature. In view of the facts, we feel that we are doing a useful work for the young, and one that will be appreciated by progressive parents, in placing within the easy possession of children in the homes these beautiful photographs of birds.

The text is prepared with the view of giving the children as clear an idea as possible, of haunts, habits, characteristics and such other information as will lead them to love the birds and delight in their study and acquaintance.

NATURE STUDY PUBLISHING

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#BIRDS.#

ILLUSTRATED BY COLOR PHOTOGRAPHY.

====================================================================== VOL. 1. MAY, 1897. No. 5. ======================================================================

NESTING TIME.

"There swims no goose so gray, but soon or late, She takes some honest gander for a mate;" There live no birds, however bright or plain, But rear a brood to take their place again. --C. C. M.

Quite the jolliest season of the year, with the birds, is when they begin to require a home, either as a shelter from the weather, a defence against their enemies, or a place to rear and protect their young. May is not the only month in which they build their nests, some of our favorites, indeed, waiting till June, and even July; but as it is the time of the year when a general awakening to life and activity is felt in all nature, and the early migrants have come back, not to re-visit, but to re-establish their temporarily deserted homes, we naturally fix upon the first real spring month as the one in which their little hearts are filled with titillations of joy and anticipation.

In May, when the trees have put on their fullest dress of green, and the little nests are hidden from all curious eyes, if we could look quite through the waving branches and rustling leaves, we should behold the little mothers sitting upon their tiny eggs in patient happiness, or feeding their young broods, not yet able to flutter away; while in the leafy month of June, when Nature is perfect in mature beauty, the young may everywhere be seen gracefully imitating the parent birds, whose sole purpose in life seems to be the fulfillment of the admonition to care well for one's own.

There can hardly be a higher pleasure than to watch the nest-building of birds. See the Wren looking for a convenient cavity in ivy-covered walls, under eaves, or among the thickly growing branches of fir trees, the tiny creature singing with cheerful voice all day long. Observe the Woodpecker tunneling his nest in the limb of a lofty tree, his pickax-like beak finding no difficulty in making its way through the decayed wood, the sound of his pounding, however, accompanied by his shrill whistle, echoing through the grove.

But the nest of the Jay: Who can find it? Although a constant prowler about the nests of other birds, he is so wary and secretive that his little home is usually found only by accident. And the Swallow: "He is the bird of return," Michelet prettily says of him. If you will only treat him kindly, says Ruskin, year after year, he comes back to the same niche, and to the same hearth, for his nest. To the same niche! Think of this a little, as if you heard of it for the first time.

But nesting-time with the birds is one of sentiment as well as of industry The amount of affectation in lovemaking they are capable of is simply ludicrous. The British Sparrow which, like the poor, we have with us always, is a much more interesting bird in this and other respects than we commonly give him credit for. It is because we see him every day, at the back door, under the eaves, in the street, in the parks, that we are indifferent to him. Were he of brighter plumage, brilliant as the Bobolink or the Oriole, he would be a welcome, though a perpetual, guest, and we would not, perhaps, seek legislative action for his extermination. If he did not drive away Bluebirds, whose nesting-time and nesting-place are quite the same as his own, we might not discourage his nesting proclivity, although we cannot help recognizing his cheerful chirp with generous crumbs when the snow has covered all the earth and left him desolate.

C. C. MARBLE.

NATIONAL COUNCIL OF WOMEN.

EXTRACT FROM THE REPORT OF THE COMMITTEE ON DRESS, BY ITS CHAIRMAN, MRS. FRANK JOHNSON.

BIRDS, WINGS AND FEATHERS EMPLOYED AS GARNITURE.

From the school-room there should certainly emanate a sentiment which would discourage forever the slaughter of birds for ornament.

The use of birds and their plumage is as inartistic as it is cruel and barbarous.

THE HALO.

"One London dealer in birds received, when the fashion was at its height, a single consignment of thirty-two thousand dead humming birds, and another received at one time, thirty thousand aquatic birds and three hundred thousand pairs of wings."

Think what a price to pay, Faces so bright and gay, Just for a hat! Flowers unvisited, mornings unsung, Sea-ranges bare of the wings that o'erswung-- Bared just for that!

Think of the others, too, Others and _mothers_, too, Bright-Eyes in hat! Hear you no mother-groan floating in air, Hear you no little moan--birdling's despair-- Somewhere for that?

Caught 'mid some mother-work, Torn by a hunter Turk, Just for your hat! Plenty of mother-heart yet in the world: All the more wings to tear, carefully twirled! _Women want_ that?

Oh, but the shame of it, Oh, but the blame of it, Price of a hat! Just for a jauntiness brightening the street! This is your halo--O faces so sweet-- _Death_, and for that!--W. C. GANNETT.

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[Illustration: From col. Chi. Acad. Sciences. SCREECH OWL.]

THE MOTTLED OR "SCREECH" OWL.

"Night wanderer," as this species of Owl has been appropriately called, appears to be peculiar to America. They are quite scarce in the south, but above the Falls of the Ohio they increase in number, and are numerous in Virginia, Maryland, and all the eastern districts. Its flight, like that of all the owl family, is smooth and noiseless. He may be sometimes seen above the topmost branches of the highest trees in pursuit of large beetles, and at other times he sails low and swiftly over the fields or through the woods, in search of small birds, field mice, moles, or wood rats, on which he chiefly subsists.

The Screech Owl's nest is built in the bottom of a hollow trunk of a tree, from six to forty feet from the ground. A few grasses and feathers are put together and four or five eggs are laid, of nearly globular form and pure white color. This species is a native of the northern regions, arriving here about the beginning of cold weather and frequenting the uplands and mountain districts in preference to the lower parts of the country.

In the daytime the Screech Owl sits with his eyelids half closed, or slowly and alternately opening and shutting, as if suffering from the glare of day; but no sooner is the sun set than his whole appearance changes; he becomes lively and animated, his full and globular eyes shine like those of a cat, and he often lowers his head like a cock when preparing to fight, moving it from side to side, and also vertically, as if watching you sharply. In flying, it shifts from place to place "with the silence of a spirit," the plumage of its wings being so extremely fine and soft as to occasion little or no vibration of the air.

The Owl swallows its food hastily, in large mouthfuls. When the retreat of a Screech Owl, generally a hollow tree or an evergreen in a retired situation, is discovered by the Blue Jay and some other birds, an alarm is instantly raised, and the feathered neighbors soon collect and by insults and noisy demonstration compel his owlship to seek a lodging elsewhere. It is surmised that this may account for the circumstance of sometimes finding them abroad during the day on fences and other exposed places.

Both red and gray young are often found in the same nest, while the parents may be both red or both gray, the male red and the female gray, or vice versa.

The vast numbers of mice, beetles, and vermin which they destroy render the owl a public benefactor, much as he has been spoken against for gratifying his appetite for small birds. It would be as reasonable to criticise men for indulging in the finer foods provided for us by the Creator. They have been everywhere hunted down without mercy or justice.

During the night the Screech Owl utters a very peculiar wailing cry, not unlike the whining of a puppy, intermingled with gutteral notes. The doleful sounds are in great contrast with the lively and excited air of the bird as he utters them. The hooting sound, so fruitful of "shudders" in childhood, haunts the memory of many an adult whose earlier years, like those of the writer, were passed amidst rural scenery.

THE SCREECH OWL.

I wouldn't let them put my picture last in the book as they did my cousin's picture in March "BIRDS." I told them I would screech if they did.

You don't see me as often as you do the Blue-bird, Robin, Thrush and most other birds, but it is because you don't look for me. Like all other owls I keep quiet during the day, but when night comes on, then my day begins. I would just as soon do as the other birds--be busy during the day and sleep during the night--but really I can't. The sun is too bright for my eyes and at night I can see very well. You must have your folks tell you why this is.

I like to make my nest in a hollow orchard tree, or in a thick evergreen. Sometimes I make it in a hay loft. Boys and girls who live in the country know what a hay loft is.

People who know me like to have me around, for I catch a good many mice, and rats that kill small chickens. All night long I fly about so quietly that you could not hear me. I search woods, fields, meadows, orchards, and even around houses and barns to get food for my baby owls and their mamma. Baby owls are queer children. They never get enough to eat, it seems. They are quiet all day, but just as soon as the sun sets and twilight gathers, you should see what a wide awake family a nest full of hungry little screech owls can be.

Did you ever hear your mamma say when she couldn't get baby to sleep at night, that he is like a little owl? You know now what she means. I think I hear my little folks calling for me so I'll be off. Good night to you, and good morning for me.

[Illustration: From col. F. M. Woodruff. ORCHARD ORIOLE. 4/5 Life-size.]

THE ORCHARD ORIOLE.

The Orchard Oriole is here. Why has he come? To cheer, to cheer--C. C. M.

The Orchard Oriole has a general range throughout the United States, spending the winter in Central America. It breeds only in the eastern and central parts of the United States. In Florida it is a summer resident, and is found in greatest abundance in the states bordering the Mississippi Valley. This Oriole appears on our southern border about the first of April, moving leisurely northward to its breeding grounds for a month or six weeks, according to the season, the males preceding the females several days.

Though a fine bird, and attractive in his manners and attire, he is not so interesting or brilliant as his cousin, the Baltimore Oriole. He is restless and impulsive, but of a pleasant disposition, on good terms with his neighbors, and somewhat shy and difficult to observe closely, as he conceals himself in the densest foliage while at rest, or flies quickly about from twig to twig in search of insects, which, during the summer months, are his exclusive diet.

The favorite haunts of this very agreeable songster, as his name implies, are orchards, and when the apple and pear trees are in bloom, and the trees begin to put out their leaves, his notes have an ecstatic character quite the reverse of the mournful lament of the Baltimore species. Some writers speak of his song as confused, but others say this attribute does not apply to his tones, the musician detecting anything but confusion in the rapidity and distinctness of his gushing notes. These may be too quick for the listener to follow, but there is harmony in them.

In the Central States hardly an orchard or a garden of any size can be found without these birds. They prefer to build their nests in apple trees. The nest is different, but quite as curiously made as that of the Baltimore. It is suspended from a small twig, often at the very extremity of the branches. The outer part of the nest is usually formed of long, tough grass, woven through with as much neatness and in as intricate a manner as if sewed with a needle. The nests are round, open at the top, about four inches broad and three deep.