196 



THE GUIDE TO NATURE 



greed or of commercial importance 

 that by man's agency alone alarming 

 inroads are quickly made on the mem- 

 bers of a bird species. None of our 

 birds from flocks which at all compare 

 in size with those of the now extinct 

 passenger pigeon; yet there are men 

 who still remember seeing these pig- 

 eons in flocks of millions. 



In watching large flocks of migrat- 

 ing birds one has an especially good 

 chance to see albinos. In a flock of 

 purple grackles I once saw a bird im- 

 maculately white. He alighted on a 

 fence post while the rest of the flock 

 were on the ground about and beneath 

 him. My brother and I followed the 

 birds from field to field, hoping for a 

 closer view of the albino, till at last 

 the flock rose and flew out of sight. 

 As they did so my brother remarked 

 that the white bird looked like a piece 

 of paper being carried along with the 

 flock by the rush of air from their 

 wings. 



For some reason, perhaps because 

 most of them are young, these autumn 



migrants appear more liable to confu- 

 sion in their progress than do -those 

 of the earlier flight. This has been es- 

 pecially noticed with grouse, which 

 are now often found in such unusual 

 places as the roofs of houses and the 

 front porches of city dwellings. They 

 often crash through the windows ot 

 stores and of other buildings. But 

 other species also are likely to stray 

 from their normal haunts at this sea- 

 son. Could any situation be more 

 unique than the brass railing of a 

 ticket window in a terminal like that 

 of the Rock Island Railroad in Chi- 

 cago? Yet it was there that I once 

 found a yellowthroat unconcerned 

 about everything but the flies that he 

 was industriously snapping 



That autumn I picked up an oven- 

 bird from a lawn in the residential 

 section near Washington Park. No 

 "marks of violence" were on the bird 

 and he would eat freely even from my 

 hand. I kept him in a roomy cage un- 

 til, after a week or more, he was ac- 

 cidentally drowned in a dish of water 

 put in for a bath. 



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THE ALBINO BLACKBIRD. 



