File:Birds and nature (1906) (14772185833).jpg

Identifier: birdsnature31906chic (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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s, where the tall grassaffords concealment. This bird bears several differentnames. To the farmer boy it is knownas Little Field Lark and Little MeadowLark, the latter name given to it, nodoubt, on account of its black throat andthe yellow markings on its breast whichrender it similar in color to the meadowlark. The name Black-throated Bunt-ing is given to it on account of the blackpatch on its throat, but it is not wellknown under this name, except to orni-thologists. The geographic range of the Dick-cissel is very wide, extending fromNorthern South America, northward toMassachusetts, Ontario, Michigan, Min-nesota and North Dakota. East of theAlleghany Mountains it is said to be rare.It breeds throughout its United Statesrange and winters south of the UnitedStates. The Mississippi Valley formsthe chief avenue of its migration, as itdoes for many other species of migra-tory birds, and it may be found in verylarge numbers in this region during themonth of April. Its advance reminds 146
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FROM COU.CHI. ACAD. SCIENCES DICKCISSEL. (Spiza americana). % Life-size. DOPYRIGHT 1900, BY A. W. MUMFORO, CHICAGO one of an army of soldiers marching to-ward a given point, and leaving hereand there a detachment, for as it mi-grates bands of varying numbers leavethe main body and establish nestingplaces along the way. As with others of the sparrow family,the Dickcissel is a very valuable de-stroyer of noxious insects; especially isit the enemy of the dreaded canker worm, and according to Professor S. A.Forbes, eight out of eleven birds werefound to have eaten these caterpillars,and this larva furnished about seventyper cent of the birds diet. They alsoeat grasshoppers and other insects fre-quenting the vicinity of meadows, be-sides some seeds. This is another spe-cies which the farmer and agriculturistwill do well to protect. Collins Thurber. A CHILD OF THE FOREST It was early in the spring, before thegiant cotton-woods on the river bankhad put forth their glittering leaves tothe sun

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