214 



THE GUIDE TO NATURE 



Inquiries About Birds. 



Pomona, New York. 

 To the Editor : 



As crested flycatchers are plentiful 

 here every spring, I have a box with a 

 suitably sized hole for them but they 

 never use it. Do they need a box of 

 special design? 



What has become of the chickadees 

 in this region? I haven't seen one this 

 summer nor fall. 



October nth. 1916, one female and 

 three male bluebirds came to a nesting 

 box near the house, a box that had been 

 used by bluebirds earlier in the season. 

 They talked in a friendly, soft, autum- 

 nal fashion, went in and out of the box, 

 often two at a time wholly disappear- 

 ing inside, and once three at a time. 

 The box had been cleared out ready 

 for spring. Two often stood on the 

 perch at the same time and others 

 waited near. The next day there were 

 four males instead of three. This per- 

 formance has been repeated every day, 

 until today, October 17th. which is 

 very windy. Sometimes there seemed 

 to be more than five, but only one fe- 

 male. They visited two other nesting 

 boxes near-by, but only for a short 

 time. Several times one bird has had 

 straws in its bill. Can you tell me if 

 this is an unusual experience for Oc- 

 tober? 



Mrs. C. S. Hartwell. 



ing his heavy guttural notes let me 

 venture here to describe the move- 

 ments of one that I recently saw about 

 twenty rods distant when he w^as un- 



The Bittern's "Wooden Pump." 



BY EWING SUMMERS, WASHINGTON, D. C. 



Since few people have the opportu- 

 nity to see a bittern in the act of utter- 



POSITION FOR SECOND SYLLABLE. 



awsrc^ of my proximity and I had a 

 good t:eld glass. 



The utterance comprises two syl- 

 lables, the first, in the case I witnessed, 

 being oog, apparently sounded as deep 

 down in the throat as possible, with 

 the head and neck up in the ordinary 

 position of watching for a fish ; and the 

 second, squat, accented, with a shallow- 

 er, gulping sort of sound, with the 

 head and neck stretched forward and 

 inclined downward for about thirty 

 degrees from the horizontal. 



But these gutteral syllables are not 

 uniform in articulation. Sometimes 

 they seem to say something like pluyn 

 pudd'in , and often they tttter other 

 sounds. In any event, their double ut- 

 terance sounds much like the working 

 of a heavy, old-fashioned, wooden 

 pump. Hence the bird is called by 

 some "slough pumpers." Also their 

 ]~)erformance generally sounds like the 

 stroke of a hammer on a stake in the 

 mud, giving rise to the epithet, "stake 

 driver." It is always a wild, weird 

 note. 



Indoor Occupation. 



"You must take an interest in out- 

 door sports," said the physician. 



"I do," replied the indolent citizen, 

 "They provide my main reading every 

 dav." — Washington Star. 



ITTERN'S POSITION FOR THE FIRST 

 SYLLABLE. 



Learned Astronomy from the Doctor! 



"Now, Willie, what are asteroids?" 

 "I know, teacher. They're the things 

 the doctor cuts out of yoiir nose when 

 vour folks want to make a good boy of 

 you." 



