THE CAMERA. 



23 



birds may be divided into half a dozen 

 groups according to the nature of wood 

 each group prefers ; it is possible to find 

 woods where one or more species are 

 abundant, that certain other wood birds 

 would entirely shun. 



Grouse like hard wood with plenty of 

 low evergreen and logs; woodcock like 

 such a place with addition of boggy 

 ground and water; hawks ask nothing 

 better than the same wood, provided it 

 have a sufficient number of large hard- 

 wood trees ; while crows would prefer 

 hemlock and pine. In the case of many 

 species, to know only that they are with- 



actual or fancied. The orchard oriole, 

 meadowlark, and wood thrush are all 

 fairly well named. The name "bank 

 swallow" is an infallible guide to that 

 bird's home ; barn swallow, chimney 

 swift, and eave swallow, are equally apt 

 names for their respective owners. On 

 the other hand ''wood pewee" is the 

 name for the familiar little roadside fly- 

 catcher who loves nothing better than, 

 if as well as, a shade-tree in front of our 

 house. "Tree sparrow" is well-nigh a 

 delusion and a myth, for the bird, when 

 not on the snow or bare ground, is us- 

 ually found among the tall weeds or 



WHERE FIELD SPARROWS NEST. 

 On the ground and low in the bushes. 



in a certain wood is of about as much 

 advantage as to know of a person you 

 are seeking that he is in a certain town. 

 As with wood birds so it is with those 

 of the shores and swamps. The marsh 

 wren and the marsh hawk are not always 

 neighbors, nor are the field plover and 

 the field sparrow. What we need are 

 the street numbers, as it were, of the 

 birds we seek. Such a decided prefer- 

 ence do many of the birds show for 

 their chosen haunts that certain acces- 

 sories become associated inevitably with 

 the birds in the field student's mind. 

 Thus cat-tails and red-winged blackbird 

 riaturally go together ; as do the pasture 

 thorn and the loggerhead shrike ; the 

 thistle and the goldfinch ; tall grass, dai- 

 sies, buttercups and the meadowlark, 

 bobolink, field plover, and grasshopper 

 sparrow. The names of many of the 

 birds are taken from their usual haunts, 



HAUNT OF THE BOBOLINK. 

 Builds nest on the ground. 



bushes. "House wren" is a doubtful 

 name for a bird whose usual home is as 

 often far remote from as near a house. 



Though seclusion is often sought by 

 nesting birds, and by some species al- 

 most invariably it does not follow that the 

 place most remote from human society is 

 favored by the greatest number of birds. 

 An ideal field would include woods and 

 open reaches, streams and swamps. In 

 such a place birds of very widely sep- 

 arated families would be brought close 

 together in the breeding season. It is 

 not unusual to find in many parts of our 

 eastern states bitterns, redwinged black- 

 birds, swamp sparrows, meadow larks 

 and wood-loving crows, several species 

 of hawks, ruffed grouse, thrushes, and 

 so on, and even phcebes, orioles, hum- 

 ming birds and brown thrashers, and a 

 score of others, nesting in an area cov- 

 ered in a day's tramp. 



