68 



THE GUIDE TO NATURE 



A BALTIMORE ORIOLE AND NEST. 



ber of times I have overheard what 

 seemed much like "baby talk" between 

 bird parents, and have seen actions 

 that appeared to be in mockery of their 

 fledglings' petulance. 



Human Altruism. 



Science is the flower of human al- 

 truism. No worker in science can 

 stand alone. None counts for much 

 who tries to do so. He must enter 

 into the work of others. He must fit 

 his thought to theirs. He must stand 

 on the shoulders of the past, if he is to 

 look far into the future. — David Starr 

 Jordan in "The Stability of Truth." 



The Identification of Birds. 



Otter Lake, Michigan. 

 Dear Mr. Sawyer : 



I admire your sketches in "Birds in the 

 Bush." They are beautiful, and true to life. 

 On our Otter Lake I have seen ducks, some 

 of which were pure white with a black streak 

 down the back with black under parts, and 

 white breasts. These 1 took to be males. 

 Others were brown with white under parts 

 and red heads. They were of medium size. 

 1 took them to be the wood ducks. 



Please tell me which kind of blackbird 

 makes a trilling sound. I have followed 

 them and have tried to ascertain whether it 

 is the red-wing or the crow blackbird, some- 

 times called the grackle. I have heard it in 

 flocks of such birds but as the two kinds were 

 together, I could not decide which kind made 

 the sound. 



How can I tell the difference between the 

 red-shouldered and the red-tailed hawk. Do 

 they breed around Otter Lake and in south- 

 ern Michigan? 



What are the little brown birds that nest 

 on the ground, have white spots on the tail, 

 and little horns on the head? 



What is the color of orioles' eggs? What 

 is the color of the different kinds of wood- 

 pecker eggs? 



Theodore Marsh. 

 The ducks, which you seem to have 

 seen at some distance, appear to be 

 male golden-eyes and redheads. At the 

 usual distance it is difficult to note 

 accurately the parts covered by each 

 color, while it is comparatively easy to 

 get a good general impression of the 

 colors themselves. Besides the species 

 mentioned above, I suggest that you 

 look up in any good bird book, the 

 scaup duck, the canvasback and the 

 American merganser. At any rate, 

 your ducks were probably not wood 

 ducks. 



The "trilling sound" was probably 

 made by the red-wing. Are you sure 

 the birds associated with the latter 

 were not rusty blackbirds? These are 

 more nearly the size and shape of red- 

 wings, and are even more likely to be 

 found with them. 



The field marks of the red-tailed 

 hawk are the reddish tail, as seen from 

 above, the black bar near the end of 

 the tail, as seen from below, and the 

 broken black band across the breast. 

 The red-shouldered is not strongly 

 marked, but the most important dis- 

 tinction in the field is the greater size 

 of the red-tailed hawk. Both birds nest 

 in Michigan. The red-shouldered is 

 the more likely to choose a wet or 

 swampy wood. 



Horned larks are the birds with the 



