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Bird - Lore 



trust. After he was fully grown and well, he 

 escaped one day through the door. He flew up 

 in a tall locust tree in front of the house. The 

 farm was simply infested by cats, and a 

 hungry cat was everywhere present, so I 

 trembled for Christie. He knew his name as 

 well as I knew mine, but my call of 'Christie, 

 Christie' from the front porch brought no 

 response. Liberty was too sweet. All through 

 a windy, dark night he stayed in the tree 

 supperless. The next morning when I called, 

 his appetite was too strong, and he flew 

 down on the porch. I carried him in rejoicing, 

 and what a meal he ate! But he was soon 

 given his freedom and disappeared. — 

 Almeda A. Collan, Mount Upton, N. Y. 



Starling Nesting in South Carolina 



On April 24, I saw a black bird perched on 

 a wire. As I had a pair of glasses with me, I 

 was able to identify it as a Starling. A 

 moment later it dropped to a lawn and 

 walked along in the most approved Starling 

 style. 



A few days later, while talking with D>\ 

 L. J. Blake of this city, I mentioned the 

 event of that morning and he told me that 

 he had a report of a black bird nesting on a 

 trolley-pole. On May 7 we were able to get 

 out to investigate the report and found a 

 pair of Starlings nesting in an old Wood- 

 pecker hole. 



These are my first personal records of 

 Starlings in South Carolina. Miss Baugham, 

 of the Kennedy Library staff, this city, tells 

 me that during the spring migration of 1918 

 she saw a black spotted bird with large, 

 light-colored bill, walking along a fence near 

 her home. Doubtless this was a Starling. 



If any of your readers have records of 

 Starlings in South Carolina, the writer would 

 be glad to hear from them. — Gabriel 

 Cannon, Spartanburg, S. C. 



Home-Life of the Purple Finch 



The Purple Finches are nesting in a pine 

 tree outside my window where it is possible 

 for me to observe their domestic relations! 



The song of the male is very pleasing. It 

 is full of life. It has strength, clearness, 

 brilliance. It is not very frequently heard, 



not nearly so often as the song of the Towhee 

 or Robin, for example. 



The Finch has a simple, but definite and 

 well-modulated song, or succession of notes, 

 with considerable variation in what he sings, 

 and which is all too short in duration. One 

 listens and feels a regret that too suddenly it 

 has ceased! 



Possibly the absence of frequency tends 

 to make the song more welcome. One may 

 suddenly, when and where least expecting it, 

 hear the Purple Finch begin his combination 

 of Warbler-like notes, trills and song. Then 

 it is silent; possibly in a few minutes we will 

 hear it again in the same spot, but more often 

 the song is detected from another location — 

 to the left or to the right or behind you, 

 faint r or more clearly, showing a change of 

 base, so to speak. 



This pair interests me particularly because 

 of the apparent devotion of the male to his 

 partner! He will suddenly appear in the 

 nesting-tree and sing, possibly, in a tree near 

 that in which his wife is performing her 

 family duties. Seemingly it is a meal-time 

 bell, or a call to a feast, for Mrs. Finch will at 

 once hop off the nest and approach her lord 

 with fluttering wings and uttering at the same 

 time a most coaxing series of notes. It re- 

 minds me, every time I see or hear it, of the 

 attitude that young birds assume in begging 

 of the parents the food they seem never to 

 have had a supply in satisfying quantity! 

 Then Mr. Finch pushes his beak down the 

 yawning mouth. 



This occurs not once but repeatedly. I 

 wonder if he is not regurgitating the food he 

 has fetched with him. I may be wrong in 

 this, but if it were in one clump or mass, he 

 could easily place it in her bill at 'one 

 sitting' — make one 'operation' of this love 

 scene — but no, he deftly inserts his mouth in 

 hers. Then he withdraws it, turns his head 

 one way, and repeats the feeding; then in 

 another direction repeating the feeding, for 

 all intents and purposes treating the female 

 as though she were a fledgling! Is this the 

 common way of doing things in the domestic 

 economy of Purple Finches? I never before 

 have been where they seem to be so numerous 

 This certainly is Finch country and this 

 pair is both fearless and friendly. 



