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Japan
Contents
PLAN YOUR TRIP

Welcome to Japan
Japan’s Top Experiences
Need to Know
First Time Japan
What’s New
Month by Month
Itineraries
Japan by the Seasons
Activities
Eat & Drink Like a Local
Travel with Children
Japan on a Budget
Regions at a Glance

ON THE ROAD
TOKYO
Sights
Activities
Courses
Tours
Festivals & Events
Sleeping
Eating
Drinking & Nightlife
Entertainment
Shopping

MT FUJI & AROUND TOKYO

Mt Fuji & Fuji Five Lakes
Mt Fuji
Yokohama
Kamakura
Hakone
Hakone-Yumoto
Miyanoshita & Kowakidani
Chōkoku-no-Mori & Gōra
Sōun-zan & Sengokuhara
Hakone-machi & Moto-Hakone
Izu Peninsula
Atami
Itō
Shimoda
Shirahama
Kisami
Dōgashima
Shuzen-ji Onsen
Izu Islands
Ō-shima
Nii-jima
Shikine-jima
Hachijō-jima
Chichibu & Oku-Tama
Takao-san
Oku-Tama
Nikkō & Around
Nikkō
Chūzen-ji Onsen
Yumoto Onsen
Narita
Ogasawara Archipelago
Chichi-jima
Haha-jima

THE JAPAN ALPS & CENTRAL HONSHŪ

Nagoya & Around
Nagoya
Inuyama
Gifu
Gujō-Hachiman
Kiso Valley Nakasendō
Magome
Tsumago
Kiso
Narai
Hida Region
Takayama
Hida-Furukawa
Okuhida Onsen-gō
Shirakawa-gō & Gokayama
Kanazawa & the Hokuriku Coast
Kanazawa
Noto Peninsula
Kaga Onsen
Fukui
Toyama
Takaoka
The Northern Japan Alps
Matsumoto
Azumino
Shirahone Onsen
Kamikōchi
Hakuba
Nagano Prefecture
Nagano & Around
Togakushi
Obuse
Nozawa Onsen
Myōkō Kōgen
Shiga Kōgen
Bessho Onsen
Karuizawa
Gunma Prefecture
Takasaki
Minakami Onsen-kyo
Kusatsu Onsen

KYOTO
Sights
Activities
Courses & Tours
Festivals & Events
Sleeping
Eating
Drinking & Nightlife
Entertainment
Shopping

KANSAI
Osaka
Kōbe
Himeji
Nara Prefecture
Nara
Asuka
Yoshino
Kii Peninsula
Kōya-san
Kumano Kodō
Ise-Shima
Shiga Prefecture
Ōtsu
Hikone
Northern Kansai
Ōhara
Kurama & Kibune
Miyama
Amanohashidate
Kinosaki Onsen
HIROSHIMA & WESTERN HONSHŪ
Hiroshima
Around Hiroshima
Miyajima
Saijō
Iwakuni
Onomichi & the Shimanami Kaidō
Onomichi
Inno-shima
Ikuchi-jima
Ōmi-shima
Okayama & the Inland Sea
Okayama
Naoshima
Teshima
Shōdo-shima
Kurashiki
Kasaoka Islands
Tomo-no-ura
Tottori, Shimane & the San’in Coast
Tottori
San-in Coast National Park
Daisen
Sakaiminato
Oki Islands
Matsue
Izumo
Iwami Ginzan
Yamaguchi & Around
Yamaguchi
Tsuwano
Hagi
Shimonoseki

NORTHERN HONSHŪ (TŌHOKU)

Miyagi Prefecture
Sendai
Matsushima
Ishinomaki
Naruko Onsen
Iwate Prefecture
Morioka
Hiraizumi
Tōno
Sanriku Kaigan
Minami-Sanriku & Kesennuma
Rikuzen-takata & Ōfunato
Kamaishi & Ōtsuchi
Miyako
Another Random Scribd Document
with Unrelated Content
The Project Gutenberg eBook of Bird Portraits
This ebook is for the use of anyone anywhere in the United
States and most other parts of the world at no cost and with
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eBook.

Title: Bird Portraits

Illustrator: Ernest Thompson Seton

Commentator: Ralph Hoffmann

Release date: July 18, 2016 [eBook #52600]

Most recently updated: October 23, 2024

Language: English

Credits: Produced by Richard Tonsing and the Online Distributed

Proofreading Team at [Link] (This file
was
produced from images generously made available by
The
Internet Archive)

*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK BIRD PORTRAITS

***
BIRD PORTRAITS
THE SONG SPARROW
BIRD PORTRAITS

By Ernest Seton-Thompson

WITH DESCRIPTIVE TEXT

By Ralph Hoffmann

BOSTON
Ginn & Company
The Athenæum Press
1901

Copyright, 1901
By GINN & COMPANY

ALL RIGHTS RESERVED

CONTENTS

PAGE

The Song Sparrow 1

The Flicker 3

The Brown Thrasher 5

The Barn Swallow 7

The Chimney Swift 9

The Kingbird 11

The Baltimore Oriole 13

The Wood Thrush 15

The Scarlet Tanager 17

The Rose-Breasted Grosbeak 19

The Redstart 21
The Ruby-Throated Humming-Bird 23

Bob-White 25

The Goldfinch 27

The Blue Jay 29

The Brown Creeper 31

The Butcher Bird 33

The Golden-Crowned Kinglet 35

The Herring Gull 37

The Chickadee 39
INTRODUCTION

This book is called "Bird Portraits" because Mr. Seton-Thompson's

pictures are always faithful and charming portraits of the birds which
he draws. But since a bird's portrait, no matter how accurate, can
show its subject in only one position, singing, feeding, flying, or
sitting, a short account of some of the main events of the bird's life
has been added to each picture.
Any one who learns from such books as Mr. Seton-Thompson's how
beset with perils is the life of every wild creature will take the
greatest pains at all times, and especially in the nesting season, not
only not to injure or persecute such defenseless little creatures as
our song birds, but also to protect them in every way. Whoever
seeks their acquaintance, in the spirit of friendship, will always be
grateful for the interest and pleasure to be gained from such friends.
Of the twenty birds whose portraits are here presented, a majority
are only summer residents in the Northern States; some visit us only
in winter; a few spend the whole year near the same spot. The birds
which are first described are those that are most closely associated
with the return of spring; then follow those whose gay colors and
bright songs give much of its charm to early summer; last come
those that brave, even in the North, the tempests of winter.
R. H.
BIRD PORTRAITS
THE SONG SPARROW

After a severe winter, while snow and ice still remind us of the past,
the Song Sparrow, mounting to the top of some bush or small tree,
repeats his cheerful tinkling song, "helping," as Thoreau says, "to
crack the ice" in the ponds. Few people are so unobservant as not to
notice this bright strain, after the silence of winter. A peculiarity of
the song is the amount of variation shown by different individuals
and often by the same bird. At almost regular distances along the
bushy roadside, or over the hedge-intersected fields, one will meet
on the early spring mornings one Song Sparrow after another, each
restricted to his part of the road or field. If one notices the songs of
each, it is evident that, though the songs have the same general
character, there are almost as many ways of beginning a strain as
there are singers. Moreover, the same bird has been observed to
alter his song in a short space of time to two or three different
variations. Probably, if one's ear were acute enough, all birds of one
species would be found to sing with slight differences, but few show
in so marked a degree as the Song Sparrow the tendency to
variation which characterizes a species.
In early April, the Song Sparrow builds a nest of grass, either on the
ground beneath a tuft of grass, or under some brambles, or less
frequently a few feet above the ground, in a bush or on the lower
limbs of a tree. In the latter situation, twigs are of course necessary
for the support of the structure. Here again the bird shows a
tendency to vary in its habits. The eggs are from four to five in
number, greenish white, thickly marked with shades of brown,
lavender, or purple. Sometimes an egg is found in the nest much
larger than the others; this has been laid by the lazy Cowbird. As the
large egg receives most warmth and hatches first, the young
Cowbird soon crowds out the rightful occupants of the nest, and the
parent Song Sparrows will be seen later, working busily to feed a
great homely youngster as large as themselves, who will afterwards
go off to join a flock of his own kind. Probably every Cowbird has
been reared at the expense of a brood of some small bird, Sparrow,
Warbler, or Vireo.
In June, the young Song Sparrows are able to take care of
themselves, and the energetic parents build another nest and rear
another brood. The brooding time is the chief period of song, so that
birds that breed twice sing later in the summer than others. The
Song Sparrow's little strain may be heard well into August; but
toward the end of that month we hear from the cornfields and
gardens a curious, husky warble, unlike the bright spring carol of the
Song Sparrow, but nevertheless made by that bird. In the fall, and
even during the winter, a warm bright day will occasionally induce a
Song Sparrow to sing his lively spring song, so that where the Song
Sparrow winters, the strain may be heard every month of the year.
In the late summer and fall, the neglected corners of gardens and
fields, where the seeds of weeds and grasses offer an abundance of
food, are the favorite resort of the sparrows. The Song Sparrow may
be distinguished from most of its relatives by its streaked breast, in
the middle of which the spots generally form a conspicuous blotch,
and by its long tail, which it constantly jerks as it flies. The Song
Sparrow is very retiring, and when alarmed, slips into brush heaps or
bushes, where it hides as skillfully as a mouse.
THE FLICKER
THE FLICKER

The Flicker is most beloved in March, when his hearty shout is one
of the characteristic sounds of the first warm days of early spring.
The same week which brings the Bluebird and the Blackbird hears
the cheerful song of the Song Sparrow and the loud call of the
Flicker.
Though a woodpecker, the Flicker has departed somewhat from the
habits of its relatives, spending considerable time on the ground,
and depending largely for its food on berries and ants. It is often
startled from lawns and hillsides, where it has been thrusting its long
tongue into colonies of black ants, seizing them on the moist, brushy
tip. When so engaged, the bird may sometimes be closely
approached, and a sight of its plumage is then a revelation to one
who has seen from a distance only its dark brown body and white
rump. The ashy gray nape sets off a bright red patch; there is a
handsome black crescent across the breast, and the male wears
black mustaches. The breast is handsomely spotted, and the quills
and undersides of the wing and tail feathers are golden yellow.
Unless one can steal up close to a bird, few of these marks show;
but the Flicker may always be distinguished by his size (he is the
largest of our common birds except the Crow), by the white rump,
and the gleam of yellow which has given him the name Golden-
winged Woodpecker. The flight, too, like that of all the woodpeckers,
is characteristic; the wing strokes are slow, and between them the
bird drops a little, so that its progress is in waves instead of in a
straight line.
All the woodpeckers nest in holes, which they chisel out of decayed
or even live wood. A circular entrance leads to a vertical passage,
and this to a wide chamber some distance below. No lining of moss
or feathers is put in; the pure white, nearly round eggs are laid
directly on the chips at the bottom of the cavity, and the young birds
after a few days hang by their claws to the side of the hole. Young
Flickers, like young Humming-birds, are fed by their parents with a
liquid food, which is pumped into their wide-opened mouths, the
parent's bill being thrust far into the young one's.
The Flicker is one of the few birds that frequently return to the old
nest. Most birds, contrary to the common notion, instead of
refurnishing the weather-beaten and insecure structure into which
their last year's home has been converted by snow, rain, and wind,
prefer to build a new one. The material is everywhere at hand, and
time is not so precious before the young are hatched. The Flicker,
however, having built in a stout limb, can safely return for several
seasons to the same cavity, or, if this becomes insecure, can cut
another in the same trunk. Branches are often seen where three or
four round openings show the tenements of several generations of
these noisy birds. South of Massachusetts, Flickers generally spend
the whole year in one spot, and in winter live largely on berries; a
favorite food at this season is the berry of the poison ivy. In the fall,
the rum cherry becomes a resort for all fruit-loving species.
The Flicker, though not known to raise a second brood, has a second
period of song, so that we hear again in June the shout, or mating
call, of the early spring days. Besides this high-pitched wick, wick,
wick, the Flicker utters, when startled, a curious note like worroo; a
sharp ti'ou is the call to its kind, and the syllables yucker, yucker,
often accompanied by ludicrous bowing with wings and tail
outspread, are used to show affection.
THE BROWN THRASHER
THE BROWN THRASHER

The Thrasher is the first great musician of the year; he arrives in the
last week of April, so that his song forms the prelude of the chorus
which is given in May by the true Thrushes, the Bobolink, and the
Oriole. There is a spirit, a brilliancy of execution, and a power in his
song which is perhaps more appropriate to early spring than the
rich, sweet tone of the birds who take up the strain in warmer days.
He sings when spring, though assured, is not everywhere manifest,
and the vigor of his ringing phrases serves to dispel any lingering
doubt that the faint-hearted may yet entertain.
The trees are yet leafless, and the singer can be seen afar off on the
very topmost twig of some hillside tree; his long tail is held straight
below him, his head is up-lifted, and from his full throat comes
phrase after phrase, a succession of the most varied and apparently
extremely difficult notes, executed with an ease and full-hearted joy
which, to the ears of many, place the Thrasher in the class with the
true Thrushes. Like the song of all male birds, the performance is
not only an offering or an invitation to the female, but also an
answer to some rival whose fainter notes reach the ear from the
neighboring grove.
This last week of April is often one of the most delightful seasons of
the year, and particularly attractive to a beginner in bird study. There
are only a few bushes in leaf, and those of a delicate green; the
dried leaves under them are starred with white bloodroot; on the
hillsides, the purple violet and yellow five-finger are wide open in the
warm sun, and in the woods, the mayflower and the hepatica
surprise the visitor in spots where the late snow still lingers. The
birds are easy to find; there is no dense foliage to hide them, and
the number of species is still so few that their songs and figures are
not difficult to distinguish.
The Thrasher's song ceases as you approach him. He slips down like
a wren to the undergrowth, where, if you listen, you hear him
rustling and scratching in the dry leaves. If you sit down near by,
you will see him as he mounts again from one twig to the next. His
white breast is heavily spotted with black, his head, back, and tail
are of a bright rufous shade, and his yellow eye glitters like a
snake's. When he is alarmed, he puffs like a turtle, or utters a note
curiously like a loud smack. The whole air of the bird is one of vigor
and intelligence. The sexes are alike in size and color. By watching
patiently near the spot where the male sings, it is often possible to
surprise the pair bringing bark and roots to the bush among whose
roots or stems the nest is woven.
It is one of the most delightful experiences in the study of birds thus
to watch a pair of birds building their nest, to note later the laying of
each egg, to see the female brooding till the nestlings are hatched
and finally leave the nest. One always heaves a sigh of relief at the
last moment, for so many tragedies may put an end to the story.
The female Thrasher is very bold when on the nest, and sits close till
the visitor, if he approach quietly, is within a few feet of her. She
gazes fixedly at him with her bright eye, but let him draw a step
nearer and she slips off into the bushes. The eggs are four or five,
whitish, covered with many light brown markings.
The food of the Thrasher consists of insects and fruit. Many linger in
the North till the end of October, and spend the winter in the
Southern States, where the ground is generally free from snow.
THE BARN SWALLOW
THE BARN SWALLOW

There is no pleasanter sight among birds than a family of young

reared in the neighborhood of man and often on some part of his
house itself. Visit an old farmhouse; look about and see how many
welcome guests the farmer shelters without thought of pecuniary
profit. Under the woodshed, on a beam, the Phœbe has built a nest
of moss, from which she flies to the barnyard to pursue the insects
that swarm there. In the vines on the piazza, Robins and Chipping
Sparrows have reared their young. In the old elm over the door, an
Oriole has woven a nest with thread twitched from the clothesline or
perhaps purposely laid out for her, and the orchard shelters numbers
of species—Bluebirds, Woodpeckers, Kingbirds, and Chebecs. Of all
these tenants, however, none seem so completely at home as the
swallows; none show so little concern at man's presence; none take
possession so coolly of the boxes, the eaves, or the rafters where
they build. Their kindred lived with man, ages ago, in Greece and
Rome; they have been welcomed each spring as heralds of a joyful
season; their departure has been watched with regret. Though they
have but few notes which are musical, yet their grace, agility, and
swiftness have passed into proverb and song.
There are several species of swallow, or martin, which take
advantage of man's structures in or on which to place their nests,
but the most numerous, the most familiar to people in general, and
perhaps the most attractive, is the Barn Swallow. This is the only
species whose outer tail feathers are long and pointed, and form
with the rest of the tail the peculiar figure known as "swallow-tail."
The head, back, wings, and tail are all of a beautiful lustrous blue,
and the tail, when spread, shows large white spots in the inner
feathers. The under parts vary from whitish in immature birds to a
rich chestnut in fully mature ones, who have also the throat and
forehead of a darker reddish brown. The bill opens far back, so that
there is a wide cavity to engulf any insect which may be met in the
ceaseless flight backward and forward over grass and water.
The nest of the Barn Swallow is familiar to all who have enjoyed life
on a farm. It is made of straws and grass, plastered together with
mud, and is placed on a beam or rafter in the barn. One hospitable
farmer drove a horseshoe into a beam, and on this ledge a swallow
built each year. Through the open door or window of the barn the
swallows fly in and out, and up into the gloom above, where
twittering sounds tell of young that are being fed. As soon as the
young are old enough, the parents urge them to fly, and in a few
days they become skillful enough to take food on the wing. This is
an extremely pretty spectacle; the parent and the young meet, and
then fly upward for an instant, their breasts apparently touching,
while the food is passed from one bill to the other. One July
afternoon the writer watched a row of six young swallows clinging to
the shingles on a barn roof, every mouth gaping for food whenever
the parents approached. When the father brought the food, the bird
sitting nearest him got the mouthful, and in an instant later another
from the mother. Five times in succession this favored youngster was
fed, while the other five seemed neglected. But when the little fellow
had all that he could hold, he went to sleep, and the next wide-open
mouth received the food. What seemed at first an unfair
arrangement was after all the surest way to feed all alike.
THE CHIMNEY SWIFT
THE CHIMNEY SWIFT

The Swift is universally known as the Chimney Swallow, from a belief

that it belongs to the swallow family. It is, in fact, no relative of the
swallows, but very nearly related to the Whippoorwill and Night-
hawk. Swifts and swallows both have long, powerful wings, which
enable them to remain for long periods on the wing in a restless
search for insects. Scientists themselves were for a long time misled
by the resemblance in the appearance and habits of the two
families, but a close examination of the skeleton of the two birds has
convinced naturalists that the two families descended from different
ancestors, but have arrived at similar solutions of the problem
presented to them in their search for food.
The Swift builds, as is well known, in the flues of chimneys. It is
often seen in May, dashing past the dead twigs of some tree, and
then off to the chimney, where the twigs are glued together and to
the bricks by the help of saliva secreted by the bird. A common and
distressing experience after a storm in summer is the discovery of
the young Chimney Swifts at the wrong end of the chimney,—on the
hearth, in other words. Even in their proper place in the chimney,
the young birds can make their presence very well known by
beginning, as soon as it is light, an incessant clamor for food.
The long narrow wings, the powerful chest muscles, the cut of the
bird's body, and the way the keel is ballasted, so to speak, enable
the bird to remain for hours in constant flight without apparently
experiencing the least fatigue. Swallows are often seen resting on
telegraph wires, but I have never seen a Swift perch on any support
outside a chimney. At night and during such part of the day as is