The Audubon Magazine. 



Vol. II. 



MARCH, 1888. 



No. 2. 



THE RUSTY CRACKLE 



THE birds with which we are most 

 familiar are those which come to 

 us in spring and spend the summer with us, 

 mating, building their nests and rearing 

 their broods under our very eyes. They 

 are our old acquaintances, and we come to 

 look upon them as friends, whose return 

 we may expect at a certain time each spring, 

 and if their arrival is for any cause delayed, 

 we experience a feeling of real disappoint- 

 ment. The familiar robin, the sweet-voiced 

 bluebird, the active, energetic and scolding 

 Avren and the gorgeously habited oriole, be- 

 long to this class, and the dweller in the 

 country, if he does not know each one of 

 these and hail his arrival in spring with 

 feelings of delight, must indeed be very 

 heedless. When they have come, their every 

 movement is watched, and the children are 

 all anxious to know when and where the 

 birds are going to build their nests. If a 

 site is chosen near the house what delight 

 is expressed, and how eagerly each opera- 

 tion is watched! What exclamations over 

 the first egg that makes its appearance in 

 the neat structure, and what agonies of 

 anxiety lest some accident should destroy 

 it. Yes, the birds are certainly the children's 

 friends, and the little ones could not have 

 better ones, for association with them can 

 not fail to teach important lessons. 



Of those birds which come to us in 

 autumn and spend the winter here, most of 

 us know but little. Many of them do not 



reach their winter haunts until the weather 

 has become so inclement that few people 

 care to venture into such places as the win- 

 ter birds choose for their homes. And yet, 

 even at the bitterest season of the year, the 

 woods and thickets are populous with a life 

 that is all their own, and a multitude of 

 busy, blithe, cheery, winged creatures are 

 hard at work earning an honest living, and 

 seemmg to take great pleasure in their 

 ceaseless work. 



Besides these two great classes, the sum- 

 mer and the winter residents, there is an- 

 other large class of birds which are with 

 us for a short time only during spring and 

 fall. To this class belongs the Rusty 

 Crackle. 



Although abundant birds at certain sea- 

 sons of the year, they are never residents 

 with us of the Middle States. The Rusty 

 Crackle comes to us from the north in the 

 early autumn and remains until winter sets 

 in,, when the greater number of his kind 

 take their departure for more genial climes. 

 Sometimes a few, perhaps more hardy than 

 their fellows, or, it may be, induced to loiter 

 by some unusually favorable feeding ground, 

 remain with us all the winter, one observer 

 having recorded the capture of several in- 

 dividuals of this species in Connecticut 

 during the months of January and Febru- 

 ary, but generally the Rustics have all gone 

 by the end of November. While they are 

 with us in the autumn, they are often seen 



