Scouting For Girls, Official Handbook of the Girl Scouts Part 65

There are a number of birds which are valuable friends to all the people because they are scavengers. The Herring Gull, which is the commonest gull of the harbors of the United States, and which is also found on inland lakes and rivers, by feeding upon all kinds of refuse animal and plant materials makes the waters about our cities more healthful. This is especially true of the coast cities which dump their garbage into the waters not far distant. The Turkey Vulture, the Black Vulture or Carrion-Crow, and the California Condor make the fields and woods of the country more healthful by devouring the carca.s.ses of animals, and the first two species eat the offal from slaughter houses and even sc.r.a.ps of meat from the markets in some of our Southern cities.

[Ill.u.s.tration: COMMON TERN

A close relative of the gulls. Range: Northern Hemisphere, northern South America and Africa.]

[Ill.u.s.tration: GREAT BLUE HERON

Frequently miscalled Blue "Crane." The long legs indicate that this is a wading bird. Range: Western Hemisphere.]

The most valuable group of birds from the standpoint of the farmers, the orchardists, and the gardeners is the insect-eating birds. Among these are the Wood Pewee, the Phoebe, the Kingbird, and all of the Flycatchers; the Purple Martin and all of the Swallows; the Nighthawk and Whip-poor-will. The Yellow-billed and Black-billed Cuckoos and the Baltimore Oriole feed largely upon tent caterpillars and others caterpillars which defoliate the fruit and shade trees. The Sparrow Hawk has been wrongly named, for it eats a thousand times as many gra.s.shoppers as it does sparrows. The Chickadees, Brown Creepers, and many of the Warblers feed largely upon insects and insect eggs which they glean chiefly from the trees. The Rose-breasted Grosbeak and the Bob-White eat the Colorado potato-beetle. In the West the Franklin's Gull follows the farmer in the fields and picks up great numbers of destructive insects.

In learning the value of our feathered friends it is necessary to learn to know the birds, and in this quest great help can be obtained from books. Beginners will find the following useful:

"Land Birds East of the Rockies," by Chester A. Reed.

"Water and Game Birds," by Chester A. Reed.

"Western Bird Guide," by Chester A. Reed. (All published by Doubleday, Page & Co.)

For more advanced students the following are recommended:

"Handbook of Birds of Eastern North America," by Frank M. Chapman (D.

Appleton & Co.).

"Handbook of Birds of Eastern North America," by Florence Merriam Bailey (Houghton, Mifflin & Co.).

Our study of birds should not stop with the name, because we shall find many things of interest in the home life of birds, many things that seem to reflect our own lives. (See "Home Life of Wild Birds," by F. H.

Herrick. G. P. Putnam's Sons.)

If we like to hear birds sing, if we enjoy the beauty of their coats, and if they are valuable neighbors from the standpoint of dollars and cents, then it is worth while to consider how we may have more of them about our homes. Every girl can do a great deal to attract birds.

First, by putting up nesting boxes. Since the people of our country have destroyed so much of our native forests and undergrowth, have drained so many of our swamps, and have cultivated so much of the gra.s.sy prairie, many birds have difficulty in finding suitable places to nest. This can be remedied in the case of birds that nest in cavities, such as the House Wren, Tree Swallow, Purple Martin, Screech Owl, Chickadee, and Bluebird, by putting up nesting boxes. For those that nest in shrubbery, like the Catbird and the Brown Thrasher, shrubs and vines may be planted so that the desirable tangle may be had.

[Ill.u.s.tration: A MOTHER MALLARD AND HER FAMILY

The Wild Mallard is the original of many of the domesticated ducks.

Range: Northern Hemisphere.]

Second, by putting out bird baths. In this improved country of ours, there are doubtless large areas in which wild birds have difficulty in finding suitable places to bathe. Artificial bird baths are more attractive to birds in the summer time than during cold weather, but they will be used even in winter if kept free from ice. Do not place a bird bath so close to a shrub, tree, or building that a house cat may stalk the birds from behind it. The house cat is probably the worst enemy of our native songbirds.

Third, by establishing feeding stations, especially in winter when snow covers the natural food of so many birds. When birds have enough to eat they rarely suffer severely from the cold.

Fourth, by cooperating with the authorities in seeing that the laws protecting the birds are enforced.

The Audubon Society has done much effective work along these lines, and a Girl Scout should join this society, whose headquarters are 1974 Broadway, New York City.

Amphibians

_All nature is so full that that district produces the greatest variety which is most examined._ --_Gilbert White, Natural History of Selborne._

The group of back-boned animals next above the fishes is the Amphibians, which includes the frogs, toads, salamanders,[7] and their relatives.

The name "amphibian" refers to two modes of life as shown by most of the frogs and toads. A good example is the Common Toad, whose eggs are laid in the water. These eggs hatch out not into toads, but into tadpoles, which have no legs and which breathe by means of gills, as the fishes do. They grow rapidly, develop a pair of hind legs and then a pair of front legs, while the tail and gills are absorbed, all within a little more than a month from the time the eggs are laid. During this change a pair of lungs is developed, so that the toads breathe air as human beings do. The eggs of toads and frogs may be collected in the spring in ponds, and this remarkable change from the egg through the tadpole stage to the adult form may be observed in a simple home aquarium. Toads' eggs may be distinguished from those of frogs by the fact that toads' eggs are laid in strings, while frogs' eggs are laid in ma.s.ses.

[Ill.u.s.tration: TOAD

A valuable animal in the garden because of the insects which it eats.

Range: Eastern United States. Photograph by Herbert Lang.]

Every Girl Scout should know the song of the toad. William Hamilton Gibson says it is "the sweetest sound in nature." (_Sharp Eyes_, p. 54.) If you do not know it, take a lantern or electric flash-lamp after dark some evening in the spring at egg-laying time, and go to the edge of some pond and see the toad sing. Notice how the throat is puffed out while the note is being produced.

[Ill.u.s.tration: BULLFROG

The largest of our frogs, remarkable for its sonorous ba.s.s notes. Range: Eastern United States westward to Kansas. Photograph by Herbert Lang.]

The belief that warts are caused by handling toads has no foundation in fact.

The toad is a valuable friend of the gardener, for it feeds upon a great variety of destructive insects.

The life of our Salamanders is very similar to that of the frogs and toads. The eggs hatch out into tadpoles, then legs are developed, but the tail is not absorbed. Unlike the frogs and toads, the Salamander keeps its tail throughout life, and in some kinds of Salamanders which spend all of their time in the water, the gills are used throughout life. Salamanders have various common names, some being called newts, others water-dogs or mud-puppies. The mud-eel and the Congo "snake" of the Southern States, and the "h.e.l.l-bender" of the Ohio valley and south are all Salamanders. The belief that any of the Salamanders is poisonous is a myth and has no basis in fact.

[Ill.u.s.tration: SPRING PEEPER

The note of this piping hyla is a welcome sound about the ponds and swamps in early spring. Range: Eastern United States. Photograph by Herbert Lang.]

Reptiles

Reptiles include Alligators, Crocodiles, Turtles, Lizards and Snakes. It is commonly said that reptiles are cold-blooded. This means that the temperature of their blood varies and is the same as the surrounding medium. The temperature of an Alligator that has been floating with its nose out of the water is the same as the surrounding water. The temperature of a turtle in the winter time is the same as the mud in which it is buried, while in the summer time it is much higher. What is true of the reptiles in respect to temperature is also true of Amphibians and Fishes. However, this is not true of Birds and Mammals, for these have a uniform temperature so high that they are called warm-blooded.

[Ill.u.s.tration: GILA MONSTER

So called from the Gila River in Arizona. The only member of the lizard family known to be venomous except the very similar crust-lizard found in Mexico. Range: Desert regions of southern Arizona and New Mexico.]

In the United States there is but one species of Alligator and but one species of Crocodile, both limited to the Southeastern States.

There are about fifty kinds of Turtle and Tortoises in North America, some of which live on the land and feed largely upon plants, _e. g._, the Common Box Turtle, found from the New England States to South Carolina and westward to Kansas, and the Gopher Tortoise of the Southern States. Others are aquatic, like the Painted Turtles, which are found in one form or another practically all over the United States.

Many of these reptiles are highly prized as food, _e. g._, Diamond-backed Terrapin, Soft-sh.e.l.led Turtle, Snapping Turtle and Gopher Tortoise.

[Ill.u.s.tration: COMMON BOX TURTLE

Range: Eastern United States]

There are about one hundred species of Lizards in North America, the greatest number being found in the drier parts of the continent. Of this whole number only two species are poisonous, and only one of these, the Gila Monster, is found within the United States, being confined in its range to desert regions of Southern Arizona and New Mexico.

The Blue-tailed Lizard or Skink, which occurs from Ma.s.sachusetts to Florida and westward to Central Texas, is commonly believed to be poisonous in the Southern States, where it is called the Red-headed "Scorpion," but this is one of the popular myths still too common among intelligent people.