File:News from the birds (1898) (14748218524).jpg

Identifier: newsfrombirds00key (find matches)
Title: News from the birds
Year: 1898 (1890s)
Authors: Keyser, Leander Sylvester, 1856-
Subjects: Birds
Publisher: New York, D. Appleton and company
Contributing Library: The Library of Congress
Digitizing Sponsor: The Library of Congress

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being greeted by a trillfrom the throats of these merry songsters.Yet I have no doubt that these birds passthrough here in the migrating season both inthe spring and the autumn ; for, one day inNovember, I found several of them near Mont-gomery, Alabama. And they were singing, BIKDS AND BATTLEFIELDS. 191 too, to be sure ! Otherwise they would nothave been true to song-sparrow tempera-ment. Tennessee, however, has Bachmans spar-row, trilling his sweet-ly sad refrains on ev-ery hillside, and thatmakes partial compen-sation for its lack ofour Northern lyrist.While I should notbe willing to exchangethe song sparrow forBachmans, no doubtthere are personswho would passverdict in fa-vor of the lat-ter bird as thesuperior triller.The wood thrush-—they could tellyou many a sylvan secret—were quite abundant, theirsweet, pensive melody falling from the steepmountain sides like the tinkle of half-muffledbells. The orchard orioles were oftener seenthan their Baltimore cousins, but wherever the
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Oriole and nest. 192 NEWS FROM THE BIRDS. latter were, they failed not to make their pres-ence known by their cheerful piping. One evening I was greatly puzzled by thestrange calling—it was half whistle, half call—of a bird down the slope from Braggs tower.Never had I heard a bird call like that. Ex-pecting to find some rare species, I approachedthe jolly piper on tiptoe, so to speak, when,lo ! it turned out to be only a Baltimore oriole,one of my best-known birds. I am aware thatMaster Oriole is a vocal trickster, but I neverexpected an old friend to lead me so completelyastray. SOME CTTKIOUS NESTS. Nature lias performed some odd freaks inthe way of architecture, and it has seemed tome that a description of some of the mostcurious bird nurseries in various parts of theworld would be interesting to my readers. In this country we have a little ovenbird,which makes a grassy ball on the groundamong the leaves or weeds, with a small holeat the side for a door. But in South Americather

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