File:Birds and nature (1905) (14775488823).jpg

Identifier: birdsnature21905chic (find matches)
Title: Birds and nature
Year: 1900 (1900s)
Authors:
Subjects: Birds Natural history
Publisher: Chicago, Ill. : A.W. Mumford, Publisher
Contributing Library: Smithsonian Libraries
Digitizing Sponsor: Biodiversity Heritage Library

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y places in neglected fields,where they take care of the seeds.When frightened, the flock arose to-gether into the air, each one rising anddipping in gentle undulations. It isas graceful as the aerial dances ofmidges on a summers day; only thereis a forward motion, and as they weavetheir way through the air, it occursto one that if they had only kept theirsummer raiment, what a splendid clothof gold they would weave. They are among the earliest birds wehear in spring. Two birds alight onthe same or neighboring trees andbegin tee-heeing each other. In theirlanguage it is perhaps only a friendlyconversation, but in human lang^iagethat tee-hee with which they saluteeach other is one of the most guyingand derisive sounds on earth and itwould be difficult to imagine two chil-dren bandying that sound back andforth without serious results. Perhapsif he had been known better whenfables were in vogue some gentle Aesopwould point out to quarrelsome childrenhow this angelic bird keeps his temper
Text Appearing After Image:
92 ,-.v.LDFINCH. (Spinus tristis.) 7-8 Life-Size. Copyrighted 1900, byA. W. Mumford, ChicajOu unruffled under the most exasperatingcircumstances. One of the most inconspicuous thingsabout him, a thing that many of hisacquaintances do not suspect him of,is a most delightful song. It is a quietaffair, surprisingly well sustained andvaried, and full of sweetness andmelody. It can occasionally be heardin spring after the leaves have comeout well, but is most frequently heardlater, in July or August, after mostother birds have ceased singing. Thesinger is almost always hidden in adense leafy covert, but one can recog-nize the singer by familiar calls thatslip now and then into the song. It ishard to decide after one has heard it all, whether his song is a symphony ofhis notes, or his notes are fragmentsof his song. This pretty bird is found throughouttemperate North America, from south-ern Labrador, Manitoba and BritishColumbia south, in winter, to the north-ern boundary of Lower Californi

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