Citizen Bird Part 23

"The Redstart is the dancing Warbler, just as the Chat is the joker. He never flies along in a sober, earnest fashion, as if his business was of real importance. When on the ground he skips and hops, then takes a few short steps and a little dance backward. In the trees, where he also feeds and where in some crotch he lashes his pretty nest of leaf-stalks, moss, and horse-hair, he moves about as suddenly as can be imagined, and he has a way of flying up and backward at the same time that makes him a very confusing bird to watch. In flitting among the branches, or darting into the air for gnats, his colors make him look like a tiny Oriole."

"Oh, uncle! Uncle Roy!" cried Dodo, who had been looking along the path, "there are two of the dearest little birds down there, and one of them is red and black as you say the Redstart is, and the other is shaped like it but has brown and yellow feathers, and they move along as if the wind was blowing them!"

[Ill.u.s.tration: American Redstart. 1. Male. 2. Female.]

Before Dodo stopped speaking the whole party were looking where she pointed, Olive using the field-gla.s.s.

"Those are a pair of Redstarts," she said, "and they are picking up ants. I saw a number of little anthills there yesterday."

"A pair?" queried Nat. "They aren't the same color--one has yellow spots where the other is red."

"I guess the one with the brown and yellow feathers must be the female,"

said Rap; "you know the Doctor told us, way back, that when the male bird wore very bright feathers, the female was oftenest plain, so that House People and cannibal birds shouldn't see her so easily when she sat on the nest."

"You are right, my boy," said the Doctor, who always let the children answer each other's questions, if they could. "Madam Redstart, you see, wears an olive-brown cloak trimmed with yellow, and even her boys wear clothes like their mother's for a couple of seasons; for Heart of Nature does not allow them to come out in their red and black uniforms until they are three years old, and know the ways of the world."

"Learning to name birds is harder than I thought it would be," said Nat.

"Some wear different feathers in spring and fall, a lot more pairs are different to begin with, and the young ones are mixed up at first. It's worse than arithmetic"--and poor Nat looked quite discouraged.

"You certainly have to remember the laws of Birdland, as well as their exceptions," answered the Doctor; "but when you have once recognized and named a bird you will carry its picture always in your mind, for the Redstarts that you will see when you are very old men and women, will be like the one that is dancing along the walk now."

"Why do they call this Warbler a 'Redstart'?" asked Dodo.

"Because it has a lot of red on it, and it's always starting up in a hurry," ventured Rap.

"That is not the real reason," said the Doctor. "The name comes from a German word that means 'red tail,' and rightly belongs to a bird of Europe that is never found in this country. Our bird has some red on the tail, but I really think that Rap's answer is the better one."

The American Redstart

Length about five and a half inches.

Upper parts shining black, marked on the wings and tail with rich salmon-red.

Under parts shining black on the neck and breast, bright salmon-red on the sides, and pinkish-white on the belly.

In the _female_ all the parts which are black in her mate are light greenish-gray, and she is clear yellow where he is red.

A useful Summer Citizen of eastern North America, from Kansas to Labrador. Winters in the tropics.

A Ground Gleaner, Tree Trapper, and Sky Sweeper.

CHAPTER XIII

AROUND THE OLD BARN

This day the bird lovers from Orchard Farm were having a picnic in the hickory and oak woods back of the fields. It was a charming place for such a day's outing, for on the edge of the woods stood an old two-storied hay barn, which was empty in early June and a capital place in which to play "I spy" and "feet above water." On the other side of the wood was an old swampy meadow full of saplings and tangled bushes, such as birds love for nesting places.

The Doctor had set Rap, Nat, and Dodo roaming about to look for birds, and promised to tell them something of their habits when each child had written down the description of two birds.

The children divided their hunting ground, so that they might not interfere with each other. Dodo chose the woods, because she wanted to stay near Olive, who was making a sketch of some ferns; Rap took the old barn and a bit of bushy pasture near it, and Nat went down to the swampy meadow with its border of cedar trees. While they tramped about the Doctor sat with his back against the side of the barn, looking over the beautiful scene and thinking.

The children did not return until after Mammy Bun had spread out a delicious luncheon in the barn, and then they were divided between hunger and the wish to tell about their birds.

"I have two nice birds all written down," said Dodo, between mouthfuls.

"One was rather little and sort of green on top and white underneath, and he kept going up and down all the branches of an oak tree as if he couldn't keep still a moment, and he talked all the while as if he was asking me why I watched him and then scolding me for doing it."

"That is the Red-eyed Vireo," said the Doctor.

"Maybe he did have red eyes," said Dodo, "but he moved so quick I couldn't see them. But my other bird was splendid! Very bright red all over, except his wings and tail--they were black, and I'm sure he has a nest high up on an oak branch."

"That is the Scarlet Tanager. What did you see, Nat?"

"I crept in among the cedar trees, and there was a whole lot of rather big gray birds sitting in a row on a branch; they had black around their beaks and their head feathers stuck up in front. They didn't seem to be building nests, but were only whispering to each other."

"Those were Cedar Waxwings."

"Then," continued Nat, "when I was coming back I saw a flock of the prettiest, jolliest little birds flying round the old gra.s.s, and hanging on to some stalks of weeds. They were mostly yellow with some black, and they sang something like Canaries, and when they flew they sort of jerked along."

"Those were American Goldfinches. And now for yours, Rap." "I was looking at the Barn Swallows most of the time," he answered, "and thinking there must be a good many different cousins in their family; then I went down to the pasture and saw a bird I never noticed before, who flew over from the potato field and went into a thorn bush. He was bigger than a Robin and had a thick head and beak. He was black and white on top, but when he went by I saw he had a beautiful spot on the breast like a shield--sort of pink red, the color of raspberries, you know."

"That was the Rose-breasted Grosbeak," said the Doctor. "Now, we have pockets full of material for bird stories,--enough to last a week. By the time you have heard about these six birds and some of their near relations, such as the Butcher Bird, you will have been introduced to the chief of the Birds that Sing and be on the way to those that only Croak and Call. We will begin with Dodo's 'Talking Bird.'"

THE RED-EYED VIREO

(THE TALKER)

"This bird is the most popular member of his family--and he has twenty brothers, all living in North America."

"Isn't he a Warbler?" asked Rap. "I always thought he was one, for he fusses round the trees the same as they do, though of course he has much more of a song."

"He belongs to a family of his own, but yours was an easy mistake to make, for the difference is not readily seen except in the beak, and you have to look at that very closely to see it. The Warblers mostly have smooth slender beaks, but the Vireos have stouter ones, with a little hooked point that enables them to pick out and secure a great variety of insects. The Chat is our only Warbler with a very stout beak, even stouter than a Vireo's, but it has no hook at the end. The Redstart's has a hooked point, but the rest of the beak is very broad and flat, with a row of stiff bristles at each corner of the mouth, to keep insects from kicking free when they are caught."

[Ill.u.s.tration: Red-Eyed Vireo.]

"You say his eyes are red. But why is his name 'Vireo'--does that mean anything?"

"'Vireo' comes from the Latin word meaning 'green,' and because all of this family have greenish backs one of their common names is 'Greenlet.'

Besides being very pretty to look at, this little red-eyed bird is a great worker and does whatever he undertakes in a most complete manner.

When he starts his tree trapping in the morning he does not flit carelessly from one tree to another, but after selecting his feeding ground, goes all over one branch, never leaving it for another until he has searched every crack and leaf.

"Meanwhile he carries on a rapid sing-song conversation, sometimes for his own benefit and sometimes to cheer his mate on the nest, for this Vireo is one of the few birds who talk too freely about their homes.

These homes of theirs are another proof of industry; they are beautifully woven of a dozen kinds of stuff--gra.s.s, bark-strips, seed-vessels, fine shavings, and sometimes bits of colored paper and worsted, and half hang from the crotch of a small branch with a nice little umbrella of leaves to cover Madam's head. There she sits peeping out, not a bit shy if she feels that your intentions toward her are kindly. I have often found these nests in the orchard, on branches only a few feet from the ground, and I have also found them high up in the maples by the attic window.