jBtotee: from JTielD and ^tudp 



Incidents Among Birds 



Birds are not an exception in doing 

 things out of the common. They have their 

 freaks and fancies, which are interesting to 

 the student and give additional pleasure to 

 the observer. Habits are often changed by 

 surroundings, but many strange things are 

 done without apparently good reasons. For 

 the past two seasons a Flicker has built her 

 nest in an unused chimney on our country 

 cottage. Surely it is a safe place. Very few 

 enemies could reach the nest and it could 

 be easily defended. 



This past season an English Sparrow oc- 

 cupied one of three spaces in a bird-house 

 of three apartments, while the other two 

 were occupied by Wrens. Last year a 

 Bluebird had the Sparrow's apartment, 

 while the Wrens had the other two. All 

 lived in peace and raised their families. 

 Another Wren built in the spout of a 

 discarded iron pump which had been left 

 in an upright position in a corner of the 

 yard. 



A strange thing happened two years ago. 

 Two Wrens built nests about sixty feet dis- 

 tant from each other, — one in a stump, the 

 other in the bird-house. One day I noticed 

 a male flying first to one nest and then to 

 the other with food. He was feeding the 

 females. A friend and myself watched him, 

 and we knew him to be the same bird, as in 

 many instances he was not out of our sight. 

 This continued for> many days. Our opinion 

 was that one of the males had been killed 

 and this one was doing double duty as a 

 benefactor, for neither of us had ever heard 

 of a polygamous Wren. 



In the fall of 1903, among a flock of 

 English Sparrows on the court-house square 

 at St. Paul, was one having a white back 

 and wings and gray breast. It attracted the 

 attention of many people. A policeman 

 told me it had been among the flock for 

 several weeks. I saw it several times at a 



distance of a few feet, and it was evidently 

 an aibinistic English Sparrow. 



One day I discovered an old cocoon of 

 the Cecropia moth. Opening it, I found a 

 shelled peanut and a kernel of corn, both 

 placed there, I have no doubt, by a Blue 

 Jay. On a winter morning we found a 

 mouse in a wire trap. Not wishing to kill 

 it, I took it to the front lawn and let it out. 

 It started to run, but had not gone ten feet 

 before a Shrike pounced upon it and carried 

 it away. The Shrike was probably in a 

 tree overhead. On another occasion, hear- 

 ing a noise in a tree I found a Robin dang- 

 ling at the end of a string which had 

 become wound around the foot. As I 

 climbed the tree the Robin kept perfectly 

 quiet, evidently knowing that help was 

 intended. When released it flew to another 

 tree and gave a song of thanks. 



Last summer I saw two Yellow War- 

 blers feeding a young Cowbird as large as 

 both the Warblers. They could not fill him 

 up. His mouth was ever open, crying for 

 more. Of course a Cowbird's egg had been 

 laid in the Warbler's nest. Did these 

 birds care for the intruder with a parent's 

 love ? Were they ignorant of the imposi- 

 tion ? They not only do this thing once, 

 but they, and other birds, continually care 

 for these youngsters. Can it be possible 

 that they are deceived ? Who can say ? 



One day we were sitting upon the lawn 

 and saw a red squirrel run up a tree in 

 which there was a Kingbird's nest. The 

 owner of the nest uttered an angry cry, and 

 almost instantly a score of birds of different 

 species flew to the tree and at the squirrel. 

 He had business elsewhere immediately. 

 Birds unite against a common enemy, al- 

 though not always friendly to each other. 

 I observed a Blue Jay one spring eating the 

 eggs in another Blue Jay's nest. This was 

 something new to me and very like canni- 

 balism, I thought. 



(209; 



