Bird Stories Part 15

BOB, THE VAGABOND

_Dolichonyx oryzivorus_, the Bobolink.

_Educational Leaflet No. 38._ (National a.s.sociation of Audubon Societies.)

_The Bobolink Route_

Maps, showing the route of migrant bobolinks may be found in _Bird, Migration_ (Cooke), page 6;

_Our Greatest Travelers_ (Cooke), page 365.

Other interesting accounts of bird-migrations may be found in _Travels of Birds_ (Chapman).

_Bird Study Book_ (Pearson), chapter IV.

History tells us when Columbus discovered Cuba and when Sebastian Cabot sailed up the Paraguay River; but when bobolinks discovered that island, or first crossed that river, no man can ever know. The physical perfection that permits such journeys as birds take is cause for admiration. In this connection much of interest will be found in

_The Bird_ (Beebe), chapter VII, "The Breath of a Bird," from which we make a brief quotation. "Birds require, comparatively, a vastly greater strength and 'wind' in traversing such a thin, unsupporting medium as air than animals need for terrestrial locomotion. Even more wonderful than mere flight is the performance of a bird when it springs from the ground, and goes circling upward higher and higher on rapidly beating wings, all the while pouring forth a continuous series of musical notes.... A human singer is compelled to put forth all his energy in his vocal efforts; and if, while singing, he should start on a run even on level ground, he Would become exhausted at once.... The average person uses only about one seventh of his lung capacity in ordinary breathing, the rest of the air remaining at the bottom of the lung, being termed 'residual.' As this is vitiated by its stay in the lung, it does harm rather than good by its presence.... As we have seen, the lungs of a bird are small and non-elastic, but this is more than compensated by the continuous pa.s.sage of fresh air, pa.s.sing not only into but entirely _through_ the lungs into the air-sacs, giving, therefore, the very best chance for oxygenation to take place in every portion of the lungs. When we compare the estimated number of breaths which birds and men take in a minute,--thirteen to sixteen in the latter, twenty to sixty in birds,--we realize better how birds can perform such wonderful feats of song and flight."

A BOOK LIST

For getting acquainted with birds, we no more need books than we need books for getting acquainted with people. One bird, if rightly known,--as with one person understood,--will teach us more than we can learn by reading. But since no one has time to learn for himself more than a few things about many birds, or many things about a few birds, it is pleasant and companionable and helpful to have even a second-hand share in what other people have learned. For myself, I like to watch both the bird in the bush through my own eyes and the bird in the book through the eyes of some other observer. So it seems but fair to share the names of books that have interested me in one way or another during the preparation of my own. If it seems to anyone a short list, I can but say that I do not know all the good books about birds, and therefore many (and perhaps some of the best) have been omitted. If it seems to anyone a long list, I would suggest that, if it contains more than you may find in your public library, or more than you care to put on your own shelves, or more than can be secured for the school library, the list may be helpful for selection--perhaps some of them will be where you can find and use them. Certain of them, as their t.i.tles indicate, are devoted exclusively to birds; and others include other outdoor things as well--as happens many a time when we start out on a bird-quest of our own, and find other treasures, too, in plenty.

If I could have but two of the books on the list, they would be "The Story of Opal," the nature-word of a child who well may lead us, and "Handbook of Nature-Study," the nature-word of a wise teacher of teachers.

BOOKS, BULLETINS, AND LEAFLETS

_American Birds_, Studied and Photographed from Life. LOVELL FINLEY.

Charles Scribner's Sons.

_Attracting Birds about the Home._ Bulletin No. 1: The National a.s.sociation of Audubon Societies.

_Bird, The._ C. WILLIAM BEEBE. Henry Holt and Company

_Bird Book._ FANNIE HARDY ECKSTORM. D. C. Heath & Co.

_Bird Houses and How to Build Them._ NED DEARBORN. U.S. Dept. of Agriculture; Farmer's Bulletin 609.

_Bird Migration._ WELLS W. COOKE. U.S. Dept. of Agriculture; Bulletin 185.

_Bird Neighbors._ NELTJE BLANCHAN. Doubleday, Page & Co.

_Bird Studies with a Camera._ FRANK M. CHAPMAN. D. Appleton & Co.

_Bird Study Book._ T. GILBERT PEARSON. Doubleday, Page & Co.

_Birds in their Relation to Man._ CLARENCE M. WEED and NED DEARBORN. J.

B. Lippincott Co.

_Birds of Maine._ ORA WILLIS KNIGHT.

_Birds of New York._ ELON HOWARD EATON. Memoir 12; N.Y. State Museum.

(The 106 colored plates by Louis Aga.s.siz Fuertes can be secured separately.)

_Birds of Ohio._ WILLIAM LEON DAWSON. The Wheaton Publishing Co.

_Birds of Village and Field._ FLORENCE A. MERRIAM. Houghton Mifflin Co.

_Birds of the United States,_ East of the Rocky Mountains. AUSTIN C.

APGAR. American Book Company.

_Burgess Bird Book for Children._ THORNTON W. BURGESS. Little, Brown & Co.

_By-Ways and Bird Notes._ MAURICE THOMPSON. United States Book Co.

_Chronology and Index of the More Important Events in American Game Protection,_ 1776-1911. T. S. PALMER. U.S. Dept. of Agriculture; Biological Survey Bulletin 41.

_Common Birds of Town and Country._ National Geographic Society.

_Conservation Reader._ HAROLD W. FAIRBANKS. World Book Co.

_Crow, The, and its Relation to Man._ E. R. KALMBACH. U.S. Dept. of Agriculture; Bulletin 621.

_Educational Leaflets_ of The National a.s.sociation of Audubon Societies.

More than one hundred of these have been issued, each giving an ill.u.s.trated account of a bird. (These are for sale at a few cents each, and a list may be obtained upon application to the National a.s.sociation.)

_Everyday Adventures._ SAMUEL SCOVILLE, JR. The Atlantic Monthly Press.

_Fall of the Year, The._ DALLAS LORE SHARP. Houghton Mifflin Co.

_Federal Protection of Migratory Birds._ GEORGE A. LAWYER. Separate from Yearbook of the Dept. of Agriculture, 1918, No. 785.

_Food of Some Well-Known Birds of Forest, Farm, and Garden._ F. E. L.

BEAL and W. L. MCATEE. U.S. Dept. of Agriculture; Farmers' Bulletin 506.

_Game Laws for 1920._ U.S. Dept. of Agriculture; Farmers' Bulletin 1138.

_Gray Lady and the Birds._ MABEL OSGOOD WRIGHT. The Macmillan Co.

_Handbook of Birds of Eastern North America._ FRANK M. CHAPMAN. D.