Bird Neighbors Part 12

Range -- Northern parts of the United States and British Provinces of North America.

Migrations -- Resident where found.

The Canada jay looks like an exaggerated chickadee, and both birds are equally fond of bitter cold weather, but here the similarity stops short. Where the chickadee is friendly the jay is impudent and bold; hardly less of a villain than his blue relative when it comes to marauding other birds' nests and destroying their young. With all his vices, however, intemperance cannot be attributed to him, in spite of the name given him by the Adirondack lumbermen and guides. "Whisky John" is a purely innocent corruption of "Wis-ka-tjon," as the Indians call this bird that haunts their camps and familiarly enters their wigwams. The numerous popular names by which the Canada jays are known are admirably accounted for by Mr. Hardy in a bulletin issued by the Smithsonian Inst.i.tution.

"They will enter the tents, and often alight on the bow of a canoe, where the paddle at every stroke comes within eighteen inches of them. I know nothing which can be eaten that they will not take, and I had one steal all my candles, pulling them out endwise, one by one, from a piece of birch bark in which they were rolled, and another peck a large hole in a keg of castile soap. A duck which I had picked and laid down for a few minutes, had the entire breast eaten out by one or more of these birds. I have seen one alight in the middle of my canoe and peck away at the carca.s.s of a beaver I had skinned. They often spoil deer saddles by pecking into them near the kidneys.

They do great damage to the trappers by stealing the bait from traps set for martens and minks and by eating trapped game. They will sit quietly and see you build a log trap and bait it, and then, almost before your back is turned, you hear their hateful ca-ca-ca! as they glide down and peer into it. They will work steadily, carrying off meat and hiding it. I have thrown out pieces, and watched one to see how much he would carry off. He flew across a wide stream, and in a short time looked as b.l.o.o.d.y as a butcher from carrying large pieces; but his patience held out longer than mine. I think one would work as long as Mark Twain's California jay did trying to fill a miner's cabin with acorns through a knot-hole in the root. They are fond of the berries of the mountain ash, and, in fact, few things come amiss; I believe they do not possess a single good quality except industry."

One virtue not mentioned by Mr. Hardy is their prudent saving from the summer surplus to keep the winter storeroom well supplied like a squirrel's. Such thrift is the more necessary when a clamorous, hungry family of young jays must be reared while the thermometer is often as low as thirty degrees below zero at the end of March. How eggs are ever hatched at all in a temperature calculated to freeze any sitting bird stiff, is one of the mysteries of the woods. And yet four or five fluffy little jays, that look as if they were dressed in gray fur, emerge from the eggs before the spring sunshine has unbound the icy rivers or melted the snowdrifts piled high around the evergreens.

CATBIRD (Galcoscoptes carolinensis ) Mocking-bird family

Called also: BLACK-CAPPED THRUSH; [GRAY CATBIRD, AOU 1998]

Length -- 9 inches. An inch shorter than the robin.

Male and Female -- Dark slate above; below somewhat paler; top of head black. Distinct chestnut patch under the tail, which is black; feet and bill black also. Wings short, more than two inches shorter than the tail.

Range -- British provinces to Mexico; west to Rocky Mountains, to Pacific coast. Winters in Southern States, Central America, and Cuba.

Migrations -- May. November. Common summer resident,

Our familiar catbird, of all the feathered tribe, presents the most contrary characteristics, and is therefore held in varied estimation -- loved, admired, ridiculed, abused. He is the veriest "Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde" of birds.

Exquisitely proportioned, with finely poised black head and satin-gray coat, which he bathes most carefully and prunes and prinks by the hour, he appears from his toilet a Beau Brummell, an aristocratic-looking, even dandified neighbor. Suddenly, as if shot, he drops head and tail and a.s.sumes the most hang-dog air, without the least sign of self-respect; then crouches and lengthens into a roll, head forward and tail straightened, till he looks like a little, short gray snake, lank and limp. Anon, with a jerk and a sprint, every muscle tense, tail erect, eyes snapping, he darts into the air intent upon some well-planned mischief. It is impossible to describe his various att.i.tudes or moods. In song and call he presents the same opposite characteristics. How such a bird, exquisite in style, can demean himself to utter such harsh, altogether hateful catcalls and squawks as have given the bird his common name, is a wonder when in the next moment his throat swells and beginning phut-phut-coquillicot, he gives forth a long glorious song, only second to that of the wood thrush in melody. He is a jester, a caricaturist, a mocking-bird.

The catbird's nest is like a veritable sc.r.a.p-basket, loosely woven of coa.r.s.e twigs, bits of newspaper, sc.r.a.ps, and rags, till this rough exterior is softly lined and made fit to receive the four to six pretty dark green-blue eggs to be laid therein.

As a fruit thief harsh epithets are showered upon the friendly, confiding little creature at our doors; but surely his depredations may be pardoned, for he is industrious at all times and unusually adroit in catching insects, especially in the moth stage.

THE MOCKING-BIRD (Mimus polyglottus) Mocking-bird family

[Called also: NORTHERN MOCKINGBIRD, AOU 1998]

Length -- 9 to 10 inches. About the size of the robin.

Male and Female -- Gray above; wings and wedge-shaped; tail brownish; upper wing feathers tipped with white; outer tail quills white, conspicuous in flight; chin white; underneath light gray, shading to whitish.

Range -- Peculiar to torrid and temperate zones of two Americas.

Migrations -- No fixed migrations: usually resident where seen.

North of Delaware this commonest of Southern birds is all too rarely seen outside of cages, yet even in midwinter it is not unknown in Central Park, New York. This is the angel that it is said the catbird was before he fell from grace. Slim, neat, graceful, imitative, amusing, with a rich, tender song that only the thrush can hope to rival, and with an instinctive preference for the society of man, it is little wonder he is a favorite, caged or free. He is a most devoted parent, too, when the four or six speckled green eggs have produced as many mouths to be supplied with insects and berries.

In the Connecticut Valley, where many mocking-birds' nests have been found, year after year, they are all seen near the ground, and without exception are loosely, poorly constructed affairs of leaves, feathers, gra.s.s, and even rags.

With all his virtues, it must be added, however, that this charming bird is a sad tease. 'There is no sound, whether made by bird or beast about him, that he cannot imitate so clearly as to deceive every one but himself. Very rarely can you find a mocking-bird without intelligence and mischief enough to appreciate his ventriloquism. In Sidney Lanier's college note-book was found written this reflection: "A poet is the mocking-bird of the spiritual universe. In him are collected all the individual songs of all individual natures." Later in life, with the same thought in mind, he referred to the bird as "yon slim Shakespeare on the tree." His exquisite stanzas, "To Our Mocking-bird," exalt the singer with the immortals:

"Trillets of humor, -- shrewdest whistle -- wit -- Contralto cadences of grave desire, Such as from off the pa.s.sionate Indian pyre Drift down through sandal-odored flames that split About the slim young widow, who doth sit And sing above, -- midnights of tone entire, -- Tissues of moonlight, shot with songs of fire; -- Bright drops of tune, from oceans infinite Of melody, sipped off the thin-edged wave And trickling down the beak, -- discourses brave Of serious matter that no man may guess, -- Good-fellow greetings, cries of light distress -- All these but now within the house we heard: O Death, wast thou too deaf to hear the bird?

"Nay, Bird; my grief gainsays the Lord's best right.

The Lord was fain, at some late festal time, That Keats should set all heaven's woods in rhyme, And Thou in bird-notes. Lo, this tearful night Methinks I see thee, fresh from Death's despite, Perched in a palm-grove, wild with pantomime O'er blissful companies couched in shady thyme.

Methinks I hear thy silver whistlings bright Meet with the mighty discourse of the wise, -- 'Till broad Beethoven, deaf no more, and Keats, 'Midst of much talk, uplift their smiling eyes And mark the music of thy wood-conceits, And half-way pause on some large courteous word, And call thee 'Brother,' O thou heavenly Bird!"

JUNCO (Junco hyemalis) Finch family

Called also: s...o...b..RD; SLATE-COLORED s...o...b..RD; [DARK-EYED JUNCO, AOU 1998]

Length -- 5.5 to 6.5 inches. About the size of the English sparrow.

Male -- Upper parts slate-colored; darkest on head and neck, which are sometimes almost black and marked like a cowl. Gray on breast, like a vest. Underneath white. Several outer tall feathers white, conspicuous in flight.

Female -- Lighter gray, inclining to brown.

Range -- North America. Not common in warm lat.i.tudes. Breeds in the Catskills and northern New England.

Migrations -- September. April. Winter resident.

"Leaden skies above; snow below," is Mr. Parkhurst's suggestive description of this rather timid little neighbor, that is only starved into familiarity. When the snow has buried seed and berries, a flock of juncos, mingling sociably with the sparrows and chickadees about the kitchen door, will pick up sc.r.a.ps of food with an intimacy quite touching in a bird naturally rather shy. Here we can readily distinguish these "little gray-robed monks and nuns," as Miss Florence Merriam calls them.

They are trim, sprightly, sleek, and even natty; their dispositions are genial and vivacious, not quarrelsome, like their sparrow cousins, and what is perhaps best about them, they are birds we may surely depend upon seeing in the winter months. A few come forth in September, migrating at night from the deep woods of the north, where they have nested and moulted during the summer; but not until frost has sharpened the air are large numbers of them seen.

Rejoicing in winter, they nevertheless do not revel in the deep and fierce arctic blasts, as the snowflakes do, but take good care to avoid the open pastures before the hard storms overtake them.

Early in the spring their song is sometimes heard before they leave us to woo and to nest in the north. Mr. Bicknell describes it as "a crisp call-note, a simple trill, and a faint, whispered warble, usually much broken, but not without sweetness."

WHITE-BREASTED NUTHATCH (Sitta carolinensis) Nuthatch family

Called also: TREE-MOUSE; DEVIL DOWNHEAD

Length -- 5.5 to 6 inches. A trifle smaller than the English sparrow.

Male and Female -- Upper parts slate-color. Top of head and nape black. Wings dark slate, edged with black, that fades to brown.

Tail feathers brownish black, with white bars. Sides of head and underneath white, shading to pale reddish under the tail.

(Female's head leaden.) Body flat and compact. Bill longer than head.

Range -- British provinces to Mexico. Eastern United States.

Migrations -- October. April. Common resident. Most prominent in winter.

"Shrewd little haunter of woods all gray, Whom I meet on my walk of a winter day -- You're busy inspecting each cranny and hole In the ragged bark of yon hickory bole; You intent on your task, and I on the law Of your wonderful head and gymnastic claw!

The woodp.e.c.k.e.r well may despair of this feat -- Only the fly with you can compete!

So much is clear; but I fain would know How you can so reckless and fearless go, Head upward, head downward, all one to you, Zenith and nadir the same in your view?"

-- Edith M. Thomas.

Could a dozen lines well contain a fuller description or more apt characterization of a bird than these "To a Nuthatch"?

With more artless inquisitiveness than fear, this lively little acrobat stops his hammering or hatcheting at your approach, and stretching himself out from the tree until it would seem he must fall off, he peers down at you, head downward, straight into your upturned opera-gla.s.ses. If there is too much snow on the upper side of a branch, watch how he runs along underneath it like a fly, busily tapping the bark, or adroitly breaking the decayed bits with his bill, as he searches for the spider's eggs, larvae, etc., hidden there; yet somehow, between mouthfuls, managing to call out his cheery quank! quank!

hank! hank!

t.i.tmice and nuthatches, which have many similar characteristics, are often seen in the most friendly hunting parties on the same tree. A pine woods is their dearest delight. There, as the mercury goes down, their spirits only seem to go up higher. In the spring they have been thought by many to migrate in flocks, whereas they are only retreating with their relations away from the haunts of men to the deep, cool woods, where they nest. With infinite patience the nuthatch excavates a hole in a tree, lining it with feathers and moss, and often depositing as many as ten white eggs speckled with red and lilac) for a single brood.

RED-BREASTED NUTHATCH (Sitta canadensis) Nuthatch family

Called also: CANADA NUTHATCH

Length -- 4 to 4.75 inches. One-third smaller than the English sparrow.

Male -- Lead-colored above; brownish on wings and tail. Head, neck, and stripe pa.s.sing through eye to shoulder, black.

Frontlet, chin, and shoulders white; also a white stripe over eye, meeting on brow. Under parts light, rusty red. Tail feathers barred with white near end, and tipped with pale brown.