A FIRST GLANCE AT THE BIRDS 



ash-throated flycatcher; the phcebe birds, two of which are 

 found here — Say's pewee, nesting in the mountains and win- 

 tering in the valleys, and the black pewee, a very common and 

 domestic little fellow, nesting under porches and in outhouses 

 in all our country districts; and quite an array of little fly- 

 catchers in the woodland, many of which are very difficult 

 even for an expert to distinguish. TTie olive-sided flycatcher, 

 the western wood-pewee and western flycatcher are the most 

 abundant species, their plaintive calls being characteristic 

 woodland notes during the summer-time. 



The singing birds are a host in themselves, embracing all 

 the sweet-voiced inhabitants of our hills and groves. They 

 are mostly small in size and represent the highest type of bird 

 development. A mere enumeration of the fcimilies of this 

 order, within which are numerous genera and a still greater 

 number of species, will suffice to indicate its extent and to re- 

 call many of our most familiar birds. It embraces the larks, 

 the crows and jays, the starlings, the great finch and sparrow 

 group, the tanagers, the swallows, the waxwings, shrikes, 

 vireos, wood-warblers, wagtails, dippers, wrens, creepers, nut- 

 hatches, and titmice, the kinglets and gnatcatchers, and finally 

 the thrush family, which includes many songsters endeared to 

 us by association and fable, as the robin, the bluebird and the 

 thrush. 



Although many of our poets have not awakened to the fact, 

 the skylark is not found in America, except in a few localities 

 where it has been introduced. The homed larks replace it 

 with us, being distributed over the entire northern portions of 

 North America. I have known them along the bleak, exposed 

 bluffs on the shores of Lake Michigan, on the sage-brush plains 



[23] 



