Wake-Robin

gazing vaguely up into the trees, I caught sight of a bird, that paused a moment on a branch above me, the like of which I had never before seen or heard of. It was pro

ds we knew so well held birds that we knew not at all. Were our eyes and ears so dull, then? There was the robin, the blue jay, the bluebird, the yellow-bird, the cherry-bird, the catbird, the chipping-bird, the woodpe

a less simple spirit I found my youthful vision more than realized. There were, indeed, other birds, plenty

powering. It fits so well with other things,-with fishing, hunting, farming, walking, camping-out,-with all that takes one to the fields and woods. One may go a-blackberrying and make some rare discovery; or, while driving his cow to pasture, hear a new song, or make a new observation. Secrets lurk on all sides. There is news in every bush. Expectati

o birds with one stone and sometimes three. If others wander, he can never go out of his way. His game is everywhere. The cawing of a crow makes him feel at home, while a new note or a ne

ptuously, to Wilson, as the latter solicited a subscription to his great work. Sure enough. Bought knowledge is dear at any price. The most precious things have no commercial value. It is not, your Excellency, mere technical knowledge of the birds that you are asked to purchase, but a new intere

tly it returned, flying up; then it came back again, and, sweeping low around a bend, prepared to alight in a still, dark reach in the creek which was hidden from my view. As I passed that way about half an hour afterward, the duck started up, uttering its wild alarm note. In the stillness I could hear the whistle of its wings

e sand, and these strange thrushes from the far north

with the birds. The books are only the guide, the invitation. Though there remain not another new species to describe, any young person with healt

it very difficult to identify a bird from any verbal description. Reference to a colored plate, or to a stuffed specimen, at once settles the matter. This is the chief value of books; they are the charts to sail by; the route is mapped out, and much time and labor are thereby saved. First

e and discourage the reader. But any interested person can acquaint himself with most of our song-birds by keeping in mind a few general divisions,

species or so may be found in almost every locality, as the redstart, the Maryland yellow-throat, the yellow warbler (not the common goldfinch, with black cap, and black wings and tail), the hooded warbler, the black and white creeping warbler; or others, according to the locality and the character of the woods. In pine or hemlock woods, one species may predominate; in maple or oak woods, or in mountainous districts, ano

brador, and congratulates himself on being the first white man who had ever seen its nest. When these warblers pass north in May, they seem to go singly or in pairs, and their black caps and striped coats show conspicuously. When

e living in the middle districts sees, on their return in the fall, is very

treets and garden, and seem especially drawn to dry, leafless trees. They dart spitefully

ve divided and subdivided the group very much, giving new names to new classificati

ng to my notions, is the black-throated green

rulean warbler, said to be abundant about Niagara; and the mourning ground warble

ng link between the warblers and the true flycat

in our woods and groves, is perhaps the most noticeable and abundant species. The vireos

ngster. I meet the latter bird only in the thick, bush growths of low, swampy localities, where, eluding the observer, it pours forth its song with a sharpness and a rapidity of articulation that are truly astonishing. This strain is very marked, and, though inlaid with the

of autumn reveal to all passers, is, in most cases, the nest of the red-eyed, though th

d, on such an occasion, is an exception to this rule. The parent birds move about softly amid the branches above, eying the intruder with a curi

y stowed away under its wing, and it would have fallen easy prey to the first hawk that came along. I approached noiselessly, and when within a few feet of it paused to note its breathings, so much more rapid and full than our own. A bird has greater lung capacity than any other living thing, hence more animal heat,

are classed by some writers as screechers. Their pugnacious dispositions are well known, and they not only fight among themselv

pleasant emotions, both on account of its

ril, sometimes in March. Its comes familiarly about the house and

he wing, by a sudden darting or swooping movement;

egs, a short neck, large heads, and broad, flat beaks, with bristles at the base. They often fly with a peculia

hout any special search, about five of them, namely, the kingbird, the phoebe-bird, the wood pewee, the great crested flyc

s. See the robin hop along upon the ground, strike an attitude, scratch for a worm, fix his eye upon something before him or upon the beholder, flip his wings suspiciously, fly straight to his perch, or si

ood thrush, the hermit thrush, the veery, or Wilson's thrush, the olive-back

he head as songsters, no two persons, per

nt birds, ranging from the sparrows to the grosbeaks, and including the

ed by the unprofessional observer. The song sparrow, which every child knows, comes first; at least, his voice is first heard. And can there be

on, and also roosts there. Walking through the fields at dusk, I frequently start them up almost beneath my feet. When disturbed by day, they fly with a quick, sharp movement, showing two white quills in the tail. The traveler along the country roads disturbs them earthing their wings in the soft dr

rrow is met with, and may be known by its fine, i

mes to us in the fall, from the North, where it breeds. Likewise the t

aded chipping-bird," is the smallest of the sparrow

ills, with tails more or less forked. The purple

comprising some of our best-known songsters. The bobolink, for instance, has properly no congener. The famous mockingbird of the Southern States

he marsh wren, the great Carolina wren, and the winter wren, the latter perhaps deriving its name from the fact that it breed in the North. It is a

ed with the song of one of these tiny minstrels in the woods of New Brunswick, and thought he had found the author of the strain in the black-poll warbler. He seems loath to believe that a bird so smal

l and accurate. His drawings surpass all others in accuracy and spirit, while his enthusiasm and devotion to the work he had undertaken have but few parallels in the history of science.

think was prepared to judge. Yet he has, no doubt, overrated the one and underrated the other. The song of the water-thrush is very brief, compared with the philomel's, and its quality is brightness and vivacity, while that of the latter bird, if the books are to be credited, is melody and harmony. Again, he says the song of the blue grosbeak resembles the

fe to the subject, and figured and described over four hundred species, one feels a real triumph on finding in our common woods a bird not described in his work. I have seen but two. Walking in the woods one day in early fall, in the vicinity of West Point, I started up a thrush that was sitting on the ground. It alighted on a branch a few yards off, and looked new to me. I thought I had never before seen so long-legged a thrush. I shot it, and saw that it was a new acquaintance. Its

or yellowish tinge. The other specimen was the northern or small water-thrush, cousin-german to the oven-bird and the half-brother to the Louisiana water-thrush or wagtail. I found it at the head of the Delaware, where it evidently had a

o the northern and western parts of the continent. Audubon's observations were confined mainly to the Atlantic and Gulf States and

our robin, a little differently marked; and the red-shafted woodpecker is our golden-wing, or high-hole, colored red instead of yellow. There is

on the plains of Dakota, which mounts to the height of three or four hundred feet, and

ed ground. As they fly up, they show two or three white quills in the tail, like the vesper sparrow. Flying over, they utter a single chirp or cry every few rods. They breed in the bleak, moss-covered rocks of Labrador. It is reported that their eggs have also been found in Vermont, and I feel quite certain that I saw this bird in the Adirondack Mountains in the month of August. The male launches into the air, and gives forth a brief but melodious song, after the manner of all larks. They are walkers. This is a characteristic of but few of our land-birds. By far the greater number are hoppers. Note

or circling in the air, with a hovering, tremulous flight. The meadowlark occasionally does this in the

erence of form and build, etc., is very suggestive of the English skylark,

not to have been observed by any other naturalist. Yet it is a well-established characteristic, and may be verified by any person who will spend a half hour in the woods where this bird abounds on some June afternoon or evening. I hear it very frequently after sundown, when the ecstatic singer can hardly be distinguished against the sky. I know of a high, bald-top mountain where I have sat late in the afternoon and heard them as often as o

of these birds but a few rods from me. I was saying to myself, half audibly, "Come, now, show off, if it is in you; I have come to the woods expressly to settle this point," when it began to ascend, by short hops and flights, through th

rner and by-place of the system, thereby anticipating the scarcity of food, has been exhausted, and the sudden and severe changes in the weather which occur at this season make unusual demands upon their vitality. No doubt

beneath the cornice, flitted from porch to porch, and from house to house, seeking in vain from some safe retreat from the cold. The street pump, which had a small opening just over the handle, was an attraction which they could not resist. And yet they seemed aware of the insecurity of the position; for no sooner would they stow themselves away into the interior of the pum

, carry an equivalent in their own systems, in the form of adipose tissue. I killed a red-shouldered hawk one December, and on removing the skin found the body completely encased in a coating of fat one qua

hawk, when in his fall condition, would live two weeks without a morsel of food passing his beak; a domestic fowl will do as much. One January I unwittingly shut a hen under the door of an outbuilding, where not a particle of food could be obtained, and where she was entirely unp

ird [footnote: Then at the head of the Smithsonian Institution] tells me that a correspondent of theirs visited a small island in the Pacific Ocean, situated about two hundred miles off Cape St. Lucas, to procure specimens. The island was but a few miles in extent, and had probably never been visited half a dozen times by human beings. The naturalist found the birds and water-fowls so tame that it was but a waste of ammunition to shoot them. Fixing

Canada jay will sometimes make its meal with th

ole favorable to their increase and perpetuity, especially to the smaller species. With man comes flies and moths, and insects of all kin

tirely upon the seeds of grasses and plants; and how many of our more common

ur own country the cliff swallow seems to have entirely abandoned ledges and shelving

me as I sat in the doorway. I was about to say that he would waste his time in recommending his cigars to me, as I never smoked, when he said that, hearing I knew something about birds, he had brought me one which had been picked up a few hours before in a hay-field near the village, and which was stranger to all who had seen it. As he began to undo the box I expected to see some of our own rarer birds, perhaps the

sooty tern, which inhabits the Florida Keys, its appearance so far north and so far inland may be considered somewhat remarkable. On removing the skin I found it terribly emaciated. It had no doubt starve

ower of flight. It will fly nearly all day at sea, picking up food from the surface

8

N

ndensed to bird names an

r purple grackle (

(Sialia

olichonyx o

oated or dickcisse

ow (Passeri

or turkey vulture

EE Grosbeak

eoscoptes ca

edar waxwing (Am

breasted (Ict

hee (Pipilo ery

(Parus atr

or cowbird (M

(Certhia famili

n (Corvus bra

lled (Coccyzux e

o, Eu

-billed (Coccy

EE Bunting, b

mourning dove (Ze

od (Aix

Haliaeetus le

en (Aquila

s. SEE Spar

R pine siskin

R linnet (Carpod

Woodpecker, g

at crested (Myi

d, OR green-crested pewe

te-eyed. SEE Vi

gra

ue-gray (Poliop

, OR yellow-bird (A

ple. SEE Bla

lue (Guirac

ginia red-bird, OR cardina

reasted (Zamelod

ffed. SEE

SEE Sparro

an osprey (Pandion ha

k,

, pi

ouldered (Bu

ailed (Bute

shinned (Acc

dom

t blue (Ard

E Woodpecker,

y-throated (Troc

d (Cyanosp

(Cyanocitt

(Perisoreus

(Tyrannus

n-crowned (Reg

crowned (Regul

horned lark (Oto

rple (Prog

k (sturne

breasted (Merga

d (Mimus p

ting

ch, (S

imore (Icter

rd. SEE Starl

SEE Ha

ch (megasc

uffed grouse (B

SEE Pho

ted. SEE Flycatch

d (Contopu

OR pewee (Say

ker

ssenger pigeon (Ect

OR titlark (Anthu

white (Colinus

OR summer tanage

inia. SEE Gros

Setophaga

rula migr

itary (Helodro

ip

te-colored junco

sh. SEE Spa

R tree sparrow (Sp

lish. SEE Sp

w, OR grass finch (Poaecetes gra

x (Passerel

English sparrow (

(Passerculus sand

g sparrow, OR chippie, OR h

(Melospiza cin

mp (Melospiz

ee. SEE Spa

per. SEE Spa

rowned (Zonotric

hroated (Zonotri

sparrow, OR field spa

rel,

rel,

rrel

OR orchard oriole

n (Hirundo e

OR chimney swift (

f (Petrocheli

nged (Stelgidopte

let (Piranga

mer. SEE Red

y (sterna

R wood-wagtail, OR oven-b

cheeked (Hylo

(Hylocichla gut

Swainson's thrush (Hyloci

errugninous thrush, OR brow

ied (Ixoreu

ilson's.

(Hylocichla

SEE Pipit

d, OR tufted titmouse

y, do

eleagris gallop

's thrush (Hyloc

eyed (Vireo

blue-headed vireo

bling (Vir

white-eyed flycatcher

OR yellow-breasted flyca

r-thrush AND Thru

bon's (Dendro

reasted (Dendr

and white (Mn

low, OR magnolia warbl

urnian (Dendroi

k-poll (Dendr

ue, OR blue-backed warbler

green, OR green-backed w

winged (Helmin

OR northern parula warbler (C

ada (Wilsoni

lean (Dendroi

t-sided (Dendroi

oded (Wilso

ucky (Geothly

ing (Geothlypi

son's (Helinai

ating (Helmithe

low (Dendroi

R yellow palm warbler (Dend

d, OR myrtle warbler

R large-billed water thrus

rthern (Seiurus

y (Dryobates pub

hole, OR flicker, OR yarup, OR yell

eaded (Melanerpes

OR red-shafted flicker

d, OR yellow-bellied saps

SEE Thrush,

(Thryothorus

e (Troglod

ned. SEE Kingle

(Olbiorchil

oodpecker, g

SEE Woodpecker,

northern yellow-throat (Geot

hs used some characters which are

cented "e's in debris and denouement. The

s", and "denouement" have all been co

sed often in the word phoebe. Simularly the "e" in

o us in ASCII (plain vanilla text) to illustrate bird calls and notes.

The two uses of the italics were to denote scientific names and to emphasize. I have done nothing to