THE AUDUBON NOTE BOOK 



MEMBERSHIP RETURNS. 



The registered membership of the Society on 

 Aug. I was 47,415, showing an increase of 319 

 for the month, due to the following sources: 



New York 50 Minnesota 19 



Massachusetts 29 Dakota i 



New Jersey 16 Nebraska 2 



New Hampshire 2 Missouri 9 



Connecticut 90 Texas 16 



Vermont 2 Tennessee 2 



Rhode Island 3 California 2 



Pennsylvania 7 North Carolina 4 



Indiana 2 Georgia 10 



Michigan 15 Virginia 17 



Illinois 12 Ontario 4 



Ohio 2 England 3 



Iowa I 



319 

 C. F. Amery, General Secretary. 



BIRD LANGUAGE. 



The indigo bird I mentioned in my last letter 

 was in the woods near our house. He was so high 

 in the tree that at first I could not tell whether he 

 was red, blue or green, so I sat down and waited for 

 him to show himself. For a while he pecked about 

 among the leaves, uttering all the time an important 

 little Chip! Chip! I thought I would follow Miss 

 Merriam's example and imitate him. He stopped 

 his work instantly and came down a little. I "chip- 

 ped " again, and he came down still further. Then 

 he changed his note and cried Chee in the most 

 endearing tone. I took the hint and " chee-ed " 

 also, whereupon he became violently excited. He 

 flew from the tree to a bramble bush, and from there 

 to a tuft of grass, " cheeing " and fluttering his 

 beautiful blue wings. Then he flew around and 

 around me in circles so close that two or three times 

 he almost brushed my shoulder. I never had a wild 

 bird so close to me before, and I could have caught 

 him had I tried. When I came away he followed 

 me all the way to the meadow. Can you explain his 

 strange conduct ? There was no nest in the vicinity. 

 Yours very truly, Etheldred B. Barry. 



Note by Editor. — Olive Thorne Miller, in " Nest- 

 ing Time," writes of " calming anxious parent birds 

 by addressing them in their own language," while 

 admitting that she does not know the import of the 

 sounds she utters, and Miss Barry's little adventure 

 with the indigo bird lends confirmation to the view 

 that it is possible to acquire a greater or less com- 

 mand of bird language. Birds have probably utter- 

 ances capable of giving expression to every emotion 

 which they experience, and it requires a person of 



delicate ear and good vocal organs to reproduce anj- 

 of these sounds with such measure of fidelity as the 

 parrot attains to in the utterance of words. But so 

 much achieved, the presumption is that certain 

 favored people may surpass the parrots, and by care- 

 ful observation be able to determine the sentiments 

 conveyed by the sounds they employ, and actually 

 engage in conversation with birds. Miss Barry is 

 one of the most earnest workers of the Audubon 

 .Society, and now that her attention has been 

 directed to the study of bird language, we may hope 

 that even if she do not acquire "Charley's" facility 

 of discourse, she will, nevertheless, acquire a good, 

 practical knowledge, and afford us an opportunity 

 some day of publishing her translations of avian 

 dialogues. 



CLEVER BIRDS. 



One morning when my little sister was walking 

 with mamma, she found a lettuce bird in the path. 

 It had evidently fallen from the nest, but they could 

 not see where it was, and fearing the bird would be 

 killed if it were left in the road, mamma told Bessie 

 she might bring it home, and, as it was a seed-eating 

 bird, they hoped to be able to raise it in the cage 

 with the canary bird. 



She carried the little thing home and put it in the 

 canary's cage, which hung in the shady front porch. 

 In a little while we heard a commotion among the 

 birds, and hurrying into the porch we saw a pretty 

 sight. Two full grown lettuce birds, evidently the 

 parents of the one in the cage, were fluttering about 

 the bars with some food for their baby. He was 

 standing on the perch, and seemed afraid to try to 

 fly down; so the canary flew down, took the seeds 

 from the old birds, and carried them to the little 

 one. They did this ses'eral times. 



The next day Bessie met a small boy who had 

 another yellow bird, about the size of the one she 

 had found the day before, apparently one of the 

 same brood. She bought it from him for five cents, 

 and carried the frightened birdling tenderly home 

 and put it with the caged birds. After that for two 

 days the parent birds came at daylight and flew in 

 and out until dark, feeding the two young ones. 



On the third day the male bird came alone, and 

 we feared the little mother had been killed. After 

 about a week, however, she came again, bringing 

 with her a third bird about the size of our two pets. 

 It seemed clear that, after trying to care for the 

 divided family together, the intelligent birds had 

 agreed that the father should take care of the caged 



