356 



THE GUIDE TO NATURE 



when she flew swiftly to her noisy 

 brood. 



The sociable little chipping sparrow 

 with its modest brown coat needs no 

 introduction to bird lovers. Its nest 

 is placed in a shrub or tree, and from 

 one to twenty feet above the ground. 

 Though sociable, they object to being 

 molested when nesting. I frequently 

 visited a nest in a bush one and one- 

 half feet from the ground. When ap- 

 proached the female flew off and 

 feigned that she was wounded, and 

 after a week of teasing, she deserted 

 her home and built a new one in a pine 

 tree near by. She so cunningly con- 

 cealed this by placing it on the brown 

 branches that it required patient search 

 to find it. One hot afternoon while 

 engaged in scientific investigations in 

 a shady nook, I heard an incessant 

 chippy, chippy and stopped to investi- 

 gate. The mother bird soon revealed 

 the secret of her anxiety by circling 

 around a small bush, for here was her 

 home with its three almost featherless 

 birdlings. She willingly let me watch 

 her while she supplied their needs, fly- 

 ing immediately to the nest and depos- 

 iting the food in the open mouths. 



The wrens are rather shy and are 

 nearly always perched upon some limb 

 where they can observe your move- 

 ments, while the chippy shows its 

 trustfulness by picking up the crumbs 

 at your very feet. 



A Report of Bird Study by a Port 

 Chester (New York) Member. 



Port Chester, New York. 



To the AA: 



During the past year I have taken 

 every opportunity to study birds. 

 Especially during the spring and fall 

 migrations, I got out before school 

 and went bird hunting earlv in the 

 morning. I have also tried to study 

 the birds on the nest, the shape of 

 nest, number of eggs laid, length of 

 incubation, etc. My list of birds for 

 the year 1912 had a total of one hun- 

 dred and twenty-seven. 



I first made the acquaintance of the 

 horned lark on February 1st, 1912, 

 and I again saw it on the same date 

 of this year. As the bird is rare in 

 this locality I watched a flock with 

 much interest. I was walking along 



the top of a high ridge, a strong wind 

 was blowing, and the day was cold, 

 when I first sighted a flock running 

 over a plowed field in search of food. 

 They were larger than the snow bunt- 

 ing or vesper sparrow and could be 

 identified by the black patch on the 

 breast, and the yellow and black mark- 

 ings on the side of the head. As I 

 approached they took wing with a 

 shrill whistle, and flew around in two 

 circles before alighting near the place 

 that they had left. Every time I came 

 near them, the repeated this perform- 

 ance, uttering at the same time their 

 whistle while on the wing. 



Yours truly, 



James C. Maples. 



This report is accompanied by an 

 extremely interesting list of the hun- 

 dred and twenty-seven varieties of 

 birds that were studied by Mr. Maples. 

 He also attaches a list of -ninety spe- 

 cies of flowers that he studied last sum- 

 mer for the first time. That is a good 

 report. It is something definite ; it 

 really means, "Study nature, not 

 books." We heartily commend to our 

 readers such definite and detailed 

 work. This is the spirit in which 

 Agassiz labored. When the surround- 

 ings are so full of thousands of things 

 that we do not know, I wonder why 

 it is that so many members and other 

 students of nature do such indefinite 

 studying of nature. Please do not 

 send apologies, please do not send in- 

 definite reports. We are not as great- 

 lv interested in knowing that at the 

 meeting of the Chapter there was a 

 grand social time, though it is well to 

 mention that, as we are in knowing 

 that something definite was accom- 

 plished in the study of nature. Never 

 lose sight of the idea that this Associa- 

 tion is established to study nature, 

 not to talk about it, nor to sing songs 

 about it. 



Mr. Maples has set the standard of 

 an ideal that we hope other members 

 will realize. We do not think it nec- 

 essary to publish the extended list that 

 was sent with this report, because the 

 main point is that such a list was 

 made, and that the birds and the 

 flowers were definitely and carefully 

 studied. — Ed. 



