PREFACE. XI 



greater care exhibited by some species to secure a soft warm 

 lining at the north tliat are much less precautious in this re- 

 spect at the south, is already a recorded fact. Aside from this, 

 the abundance of certain available materials occurring at only 

 pai'ticular localities gives a marked character to the nests there 

 . built, which serves to distinguish them from those from other 

 points. Some of the Thrushes, for^ instance, make use of a 

 peculiar kind of .moss at some localities that elsewhere, from 

 its absence, are compelled to substitute for it fine grass or dry 

 leaves. At Ipswich, on Cape Cod, and perhaps generallj- in 

 the immediate vicinity of the sea, the Purple Grackles {Quis- 

 caliis versicolor) and Red-winged Blackbirds (Agelceics phm- 

 nicetis), and in fact numerous other species, in building their 

 nests often use little else than dry eel-grass or ' sea-wrack,' 

 which results in nest-structures widely different in appearance 

 from those of their relatives residing in the interior. Every 

 egg-collector is aware of the wide variations eggs of the same 

 set may present, not only in the markings anrl in the tint of 

 the ground color, but in size and form, and especiall}^ how wide 

 these differences sometimes are in eggs of different birds of 

 the same species. Also how different the behavior of the bird 

 is when its nest is approached, in some cases the parents 

 appearing almost utterly regardless of their own safety in their 

 anxiety for their eggs or helpless young, while other parents 

 of the same species quietly witness the robbing of their nest 

 at a safe distance, and evince no extraordinary emotion. Those 

 "who have witnessed this, and have also watched the behavior 

 of birds when undisturbed in their quiet retreats, will grant, I 

 think, the same divei'sity of disposition and temperament to 

 obtain among birds that is seen in man himself. 



"In respect to the songs of birds, who that has attentively 

 listened to the singing of different Robins, Wood Thrushes 

 or Purple Finches, has not detected great differences in the 

 vocal powers of rival songsters of the same species ? Different 

 individuals of some species, especially among the Yf arblers, 

 sing so differently that the expert field ornithologist is often 

 puzzled to recognize them ; especiall}' is this so in the Black 



