Fifty Common Birds. 



Ill 



and reaching in with their heads to drop 

 the food into the open mouths below. 



For a charming description of the habits 

 and character of the bluebird read Mr. Bur- 

 roughs' chapter on "The Bluebird," in "Wake 

 Robin," and pp. 39-42 of "Sharp Eyes," in 

 ^'Locusts and AVild Honey.' 



KEEL-TAILED BLACKBIRD; CROW BLACK- 

 BIRD; PURPLE CRACKLE. 



In the field or about the house, wherever 

 one is, this noisy fellow is sure to insist on 

 recognition. His voice is cracked, and is 

 painfully suggestive of the creaking of a 

 ■door, or a machine that needs oiling. Mr. 

 Burroughs says: "His voice always sounds 

 as if he were laboring under a severe attack 

 of influenza, although a large flock of them 

 heard at a distance on a bright afternoon 

 of early spring produce an effect not un- 

 pleasing. The air is filled with cracking, 

 splintering, spurting, semi-musical sounds, 

 which are like pepper and salt to the ear. " * 



The crow blackbird is a half larger than 

 the robin, toward whom he acts the part of 

 the big boy bully, in the most cold-blooded 

 way. He comes north soon after the robin, 

 torments him while he is building, and then 

 amuses himself by breaking up his nest, 

 throwing out the eggs and young until 

 driven away by some exasperated human 

 lover of justice. He is a great awkward 

 fellow. Like the crow, and a few other 

 birds, he walks instead of hopping, but as 

 he ambles along on the branch of a tree, 

 one feels that he might better hop, he makes 

 such stupid work of it. When he flies, he 

 can be known at a distance by the peculiar 

 way in which he uses his tail. He is called 

 the keel-tailed from the circumstance. From 

 the horizontal he gives it a vertical direc- 

 tion, so that he can steer with it, as you 

 would with a rudder. If he is flying straight 

 ahead you do not notice it, but the moment 

 he turns or wants to guide himself you see 

 his tail change into a keel. 



*"WaVe Robin," Chap., Spring at the Capital, p. 158. 



When you get near him the falsity of his 

 name of blackbird is revealed; and at the 

 same time you discover his chief virtue — 

 his beauty. He has a remarkably hand- 

 some iridescent coat, "bronzy, purplish or 

 violet," but always intense and beautiful. 



Bold, as well as quarrelsome, he would 

 build in the center of a village if he were 

 tolerated, but from his cruelty to the robin 

 he is frequently driven away. 



CHIPBIRD OR CHIPPY ; HAIRBIRD ; CHIPPING 

 SPARROW ; SOCIAL SPARROW. 



Although one of those " little gray birds" 

 that vex the soul of the tyro, chippy is well 

 known as the smallest and most familiar of 

 our sparrows. He has a reddish-brown 

 cap, a delicate white line separating it from 

 his eye and cheek. His back is streaked 

 with grayish-brown and black, and his 

 wings are crossed by narrow whitish bars. 

 Underneath he is a pure light ash color, 

 the absence of markings distinguishing him 

 from the tree sparrow and others of his 

 less domestic cousins. 



His trill, too, is individual. He has no 

 song, like his rustic looking cousin, the 

 bush sparrow, whom he resembles in some 

 respects, but trills away monotonously — by 

 the hour, one is inclined to think — with 

 cheerful perseverance worthy of a better 

 cause. 



He is called the hairbird because his 

 nest, built in shrubbery, is made of dried 

 grass lined with cow or horse hair, and 

 when you think of the industry and obser- 

 vation required to find this hair, you will 

 not only be convinced of the powers of in- 

 herited habit, but will conclude that the 

 little fellow has been appropriately named. 

 His eggs — four to five in number — are a 

 pretty bluish color, delicately speckled 

 with brown and black. 



Chippy is characterized by his intelli- 

 gence. The turn of his head, the quick 

 glance from his eye, show that his familiar 



