3i6 



Bird- Lore 



ambient air and the rattle of cracked nuts 

 in the box precipitates them; I can hardly 

 get my hand out of the box before a Chick- 

 adee is in. But by actual count I haven't 

 seen more than eight there together. 



The Blue Jays we have always with us. 

 They hunt for the cracked nuts that 

 haven't fallen apart, and if they can find 

 enough without sharp edges, they will 

 pack their greedy gullets and fly off with 

 as many as five at a time and not more 

 than two of them visible ! I never knew 

 before what storage tanks these Jay-birds 

 carry! One finds out lots of things from a 

 feeding-station. We have White-breasted 

 Nuthatches and Downy Woodpeckers — 

 so tame they will not 'move over' when we 

 go in and out only a few feet from them. 



And this winter, for the first time, we 

 have had Juncos. They are here winters, 

 quite commonly, but usually stay back 

 among the evergreens, and ours is a very 

 wind-swept location. 



With all these little busy-wings just 

 outside the windows, and the gay little 

 bank of bloom inside — red, pink, white 

 and blue of Chinese primroses, cyclamen, 

 narcissus, and cineraria — we have a mov- 

 ing picture with the color-courage of 

 a most seductive chintz — and a 'bird 

 design' into the bargain. And I wonder 

 and wonder why more people don't give 

 themselves this keen and wholesome joy. 



'Speak to the earth and it shall teach 

 thee, and the fowls of the air and they shall 

 tell thee,' so many beautiful things. — 

 Eugenia Gillette, Lake Geneva, Wis. 



Bird Notes from Southern Wisconsin 



Early on the morning of October 19, 

 1915, a neighbor of mine brought to me a 

 tiny bird which had been stunned by 

 flying against her dining-room window. 

 The lady was unable to identify it, but the 

 first glimpse showed me it was a Golden- 

 crowned Kinglet in full adult plumage. 



When I first took him in my hand, his 

 beak was open, and in his eyes was a 

 slightly dazed expression, but as I lightly 

 stroked his little head and body, his eyes 

 cleared and brightened, he closed his 



beak, and began to 'sit up and take notice' 

 of the circle of interested admirers of 

 which he was the center. 



We had an excellent opportunity to 

 study him closely, and, as I gently parted 

 the lemon-yellow feathers of his crown, 

 we could plainly see the beautiful flame- 

 orange crest beneath. 



He seemed almost to enjoy having his 

 head lightly patted, but appeared to 

 resent my uncovering his golden crown for 

 inspection. 



He was evidently unhurt and none the 

 worse for his unusual experience, for he 

 soon flew from my hand with glad cheeps 

 and chirps. 



As he disappeared around the neigh- 

 boring house, he came dangerously near 

 flying again into one of the windows, 

 where I could plainly see the blue sky 

 reflected; but evidently his accident had 

 taught him a lesson, for he veered sharply 

 to one side just in time to avoid violent 

 impact with the glass. 



I have read with interest Mr. J. Wm. 

 Lloyd's account of the 'whisper-songs' of 

 birds in the autumn, and, on October 3, 

 1915, I heard distinctly a Bluebird sing 

 his 'whisper-song' as he perched on the 

 roof of a nearby carpenter shop. His 

 beak was apparently closed, thus making 

 the notes sound very soft and dreamy. 



He did not seem to see me watching 

 him, and so continued singing the entire 

 'spring' song for some time. 



Before I finish these notes, I cannot 

 resist describing my method of feeding the 

 birds during the winter months. Among 

 the various kinds of food, I find that pea- 

 nuts are more than welcome to the Nut- 

 hatches and Chickadees, and, as I have 

 no manufactured shelf or feeding-counter, 

 I use our elm tree, strewing the finer por- 

 tions in the wide space afforded by the 

 low, forked limbs, and wedging the larger 

 pieces of nuts and suet under the rough 

 bark, and in the holes drilled by Wood- 

 peckers. 



This is unusually popular with the 

 birds of this locality, the Nuthatches es- 

 pecially seeming fond of extracting the 

 fresh peanuts from under the bark. 



