40 HOW TO STUDY BIRDS 



rate wing-beats, but sometimes he sails, and for the 

 moment would make one thin!; he was a hawk, till he 

 starts on again. 



Birds likewise reveal themselves through positions 

 in standing, and in their paces or other motions. 

 Flycatchers and bluebirds stand very erect, as do 

 thrushes and the cedar waxwing. But the flycatcher 

 soon reveals himself by darting out after an insect. 

 The thrush stands still for quite a while, in the 

 woods, unless it be a robin, while the bluebird will 

 more likely take an apple tree, fence, or wire, and he 

 is smaller than the robin. The waxwing has a pro- 

 nounced crest and usually goes in flocks. The spry 

 movements in the foliage will distinguish a warbler 

 from the sedate vireo. 



The blackbird walks, as do the larks, starlings, 

 pipits, oven-birds, and water thrushes, while the robin, 

 sparrows, and others, usually hop. The fox sparrow, 

 the thrasher and the chewink scratch away among 

 the dead leaves, but the variegated chewink can never 

 be mistaken for the other brown bird, nor could the 

 fox sparrow for the big thrasher, even if he had not 

 left for the north before the thrasher arrives. The 

 birds that climb thereby distinguish themselves from 

 all others. One will know that the nuthatch is not a 

 woodpecker when he persists in running down-hill on 

 the tree-trunk. The slender brown creeper, climbing 

 in upward spirals, appears different from the robust 

 woodpecker, and the black and white creeper or 

 warbler will not be taken for the brown creeper be- 



