File:Bird-lore (1901) (14752495961).jpg

Identifier: birdlore34nati (find matches)
Title: Bird-lore
Year: 1899 (1890s)
Authors: National Association of Audubon Societies for the Protection of Wild Birds and Animals
Subjects: Birds -- Periodicals Birds -- Conservation Periodicals
Publisher: New York, National Association of Audubon Societies
Contributing Library: American Museum of Natural History Library
Digitizing Sponsor: Biodiversity Heritage Library

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ht subspecies, are wellknown. Size.—The members of this family vary in length from about 7 inchesin the small Blackbirds to 24 inches in the Cassiques or giant Orioles ofthe tropics. Our eastern species range from 7/4^ inches in the Bobo-link to 16 inches in the Boat-tailed Crackle. External Structure.—So widely do the members of this family differfrom each other in external appearance that no one general descriptioncan be applied to them. The Orioles have a rather long, sharply pointedbill; with the Grackles it is somewhat longer, less pointed and heavier;in the Blackbirds it is decidedly shorter, and with the Cowbird and Bobo-link the bill becomes almost like that of a Sparrow. The bill of theMeadowlark resembles that of the Starling in being flattened and broaderthan high at the end. In no species are the nostrils concealed by bristles,as with the Crows and Jays, from which birds the members of this familyalso differ in having the first three primaries of equal length. The (62)
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64 Bird - Lore marked characteristics of color, however, are the best aid to the fieldidentification of the Blackbirds and Orioles. Appearance and Habits.—There is as wide variation in the actions ofBlackbirds and Orioles as there is in their form and color. The Oriolesare nervous, arboreal creatures, restlessly moving from limb to limb andtree to tree; the Crackles, Cowbird, and Meadowlark are terrestrial andwalkers, the long tail, sometimes keeled, of the former, short tail andwhite outer tail-feathers of the latter are good field characters. TheRed-winged Blackbird and Bobolink are birds of the open, inhabitingfields or marshes. Orioles (Icterus) are sometimes found associated insmall numbers. All our other members of this family migrate and win-ter in close flocks and some species, notably the Crackles, breed in col-onies. Song.—The Orioles, Blackbirds, and Meadowlarks are whistlers of vary-ing ability with voices ranging from the thin, long-drawn pipe of theCowbird, or harsh,

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