A Guide for the Study of Animals Part 44

_Directions._

Your object here is to familiarize yourself with the appearance of birds of different types, and with the terms used in describing them.

Study first a diagram of a bird and learn the terms and their applications.

An important item in the description of a bird is its length. This is obtained by measuring from the tip of the beak, over the curve of the head, to the end of the tail. This measures a curved line and gives a greater length for a bird than the straight line you would naturally estimate. Train your eye by watching house sparrows (so-called English sparrows) and fixing their length as a unit. They are called six inches long, and in the field other birds may be measured by them. The robin is ten inches long, and may be used to measure the larger birds.

In describing the colors of birds, great discussions often arise because pupils do not use terms correctly. Consult Chapman's "Birds of Eastern North America" for a color key or chart, and train yourself to observe colors carefully and name them correctly. You will find more colors among birds than are given there, but the chart will help you a great deal.

Study in the laboratory as many birds as you can. Try to get one of each order at least and, among the perching birds, one of each family. The answers to the following questions should be recorded upon the blank outlines of birds, or else in the form of a table.

_Questions._

1. How long is the bird?

2. What is the general color of the upper surface; of the lower?

3. What are the markings or peculiarities of the head, if there are any?

4. Note any peculiarities of the tail, as to shape, length, or color, if there are any.

5. If the wings are not like the back, note their color, and, if there are wing bars, note their number and color.

6. What are the markings on the breast, if there are any?

7. Note any other markings, as rump spot, etc.

8. What sort of beak has the bird?

9. What sort of feet has it?

10. Identify the bird, using any key or guide you have. Do not ask any one to help you until you have exhausted your own resources.

Comparative Study of Birds

1. In what ways do the feet of birds vary? Give examples to ill.u.s.trate your answer. What are the princ.i.p.al results of these variations?

2. In what ways do the beaks of birds vary? Give examples of the variations and of the special uses of the beaks.

3. How do water birds differ from land birds; flesh-eating birds from seed eaters; insect-eating birds from seed eaters; sh.o.r.e and swamp birds from land birds?

Work in the Field

_Materials._

(1) Birds in the field, field or opera gla.s.ses, and bird guides. (2) Some extra time, as field work is rather slow. (3) Considerable energy, as birds rise early and may be up and away before the usual hour for your appearance.

_Directions._

The object of this work is to become acquainted with the living bird, to learn not only its name, but also some of its ways. You will need to spend time to do this, and as a rule the more time you spend the more you will see. Every time you go out after birds, _record at the time_ every kind of bird you see, so that at the end of the season you will know not only when each kind of bird came, but also how long it staid. When you see a new bird, record immediately its colors, markings, actions, notes, and anything else which may help you later to identify it. Do not trust to memory nor to the inspiration of the cla.s.sroom. After weeks of observation, write the following summary.

Summary of the Results of Field Study of Birds

1. Over what length of time have your observations extended? Where have you studied? What have you found to be the best conditions for studying birds? How many birds have you identified?

2. When in the year do birds migrate; when in the twenty-four hours?

3. In spring migration which birds come first; which come last? What reason is there for this order?

4. What may r.e.t.a.r.d migration? What may hasten it?

5. What could prevent certain birds from ever coming here, or, if they did come, from staying?

6. Name some birds which stay here permanently; some which come only for the winter; some which come for the summers; some which merely pa.s.s through, going and coming.

7. Can you see anything which may determine whether a bird will nest here or farther north? If so, what is it?

8. Why is the house sparrow so successful?

9. Why are blue jays so nomadic in winter?

10. What months do the herring gulls stay here? When do they leave?

Where do they go when they leave? What do they do while they are gone? When do they return? What is their economic value?

11. How many birds' nests have you seen this spring? To what kinds of birds did they belong? If you have been able to study one in particular, give its history as far as you know it.

12. Tell what you have learned by your own observation this spring concerning the kinds of food birds eat, and their methods of obtaining food.

13. What bird songs have you learned to know? When do these birds sing most? Does a bird have more than one song?

14. What birds have you seen near your home? What attached them to the vicinity? How might you attract more birds?

Birds; Review and Library Exercise

1. What are the distinguishing characteristics of birds?

2. Give the orders of birds, with the characteristics of each order and an example of each.

3. Define and give ill.u.s.trations of the meaning of the expressions: "land birds;" "water birds;" "sh.o.r.e birds;" "swamp birds;"

"scavengers;" "policemen of the air."