336 



THE GUIDE TO NATURE 



The enormous number of birds mi- 

 grating on a single night would sur- 

 prise a person who had never listened 

 for them in the country. They can be 

 heard in numbers on all sides through- 

 out the night. Averaging ten birds a 

 minute, which is a small count in our 

 field of view, there would be three hun- 

 dred and sixty times that number 

 stretching across the sky. This M^ould 

 m,ake three thousand, six hundred birds 

 a minute, passing overhead, or two hun- 

 dred thousand every hour, while the 

 flight lasted. 



Elmer Harrold. 



Birds and Human Audiences. 



Shirley Centre, Massachusetts. 

 To the Editor : 



No, I have never observed that ivild 

 birds ever consciously sing for a human 

 audience, but parrots, canaries and 

 other domesticated birds seem by the 

 presence of human beings to be in- 

 fluenced to talk or to sing. I know of 

 an authentic case of a canary which 

 talked whenever its owner swept the 

 floor. It finally became the property of 

 Mr. John E. Thayer of Lancaster, 

 Massachusetts. 



Many birds, both wild and tame, re- 

 spond to human calls and songs. 

 Sincerely yours, 

 Ernest Harold Bayxes. 



Birds' Singing for Human Auditors. 



Caryville, Massachusetts 

 To the Editor : 



I am interested in the letters about 

 birds that sing for a humrin auditor. 

 ]\Iy canary, a fine singer, was trained 

 by the repeated playing of one or two 

 simple airs on the piano. He would 

 sing as soon as I began to play. But 

 any noise will start him olT, and the 

 louder the noise the better he seems to 

 like it. Gene Stratton-Porter mention- 

 ed a similar fact in an article in "The 

 Youth's Companion" a year or two ago. 

 The cofifee grinder, the Q^g, beater, the 

 sewing machine, my typewriter, ani- 

 mated conversation or even the song 

 of the tea kettle will start Sunny Jim. 

 But he keeps his choicest song and a 

 dance, in which he flutters more than 

 halfway up the window, when he per- 

 forms before his own reflection in mv 

 mirror, or when the house is quiet and 

 he has forgotten that T am about. 



Yesterday he desired me to stay in 

 the room where his cage is while weari- 

 ness compelled me to lie on the couch. 

 He screamed like the spoiled baby that 

 he is, but when I sang a lively tune he 

 too sang. The concert was in progress 

 when company arrived. 



Years ago, in Connecticut, for weeks 

 in the spring and the early summer, if 

 I began to play on the organ about four 

 in the afternoon, a catbird would come 

 into a shrub not far from the open win- 

 dow and sing beautifully. He seemed 

 to do his best to drown out my music, 

 and his patience often lasted longer 

 than mine. I never before nor have *I 

 since heard such singing from a cat- 

 bird. He made no attempt to discover 

 the source of the music, but he did seem 

 to be trying to out sing his supposed 

 rival. He could not see me on account 

 of the drapery curtains between us. 

 Yours truly, 



Edna S. Knapp. 



The Mocking Bird in Connecticut. 



The letter (page 308 of our March is- 

 sue) regarding the mocking bird was 

 submitted to Herbert K. Job who re- 

 ports as follows : 



"In regard to the letter about the 

 mocking bird, I will say that I think 

 this is correct. I have not been to hunt 

 it up myself owing to almost constant 

 absence, but Mr. Wilmot has been to 

 my house and described it so accurate- 

 ly that I think there can be no question 

 about identification. Mocking birds are 

 certainly scarce in Connecticut, but I 

 understand they are occasionally met 

 with. It is my impression, for instance, 

 that meml)ers of our New Haven Bird 

 Club have occasionally seen one in win- 

 ter in Edgewood Park, New Haven." 



Strange Death of a Cuckoo. 



North Salem, Indiana. 

 To the Editor : 



I enclose a photogra])h of a yellow- 

 billed cuckoo that was picked up on 

 our front step in Bloomington last July. 

 Its feathers were unruflled, and no- 

 where on its body was there a mark of 

 violence. Its cro]) was empty. Its eyes 

 were still full rounded but glazed ; its 

 feet and wings composed as you see. 

 dliere had been no storm the night be- 

 fore : there was no dangerous network 

 of wires near — only thick overhanging 



