Hints to Audubon Workers. 



20' 



discipline, however, and they were only 

 keeping still for fear their mother would 

 scold them. In any case, the danger was 

 very real to the old birds, and their minds 

 were not relieved till the boy had come 

 down from the nest and we had walked far 

 enough away for them to convince them- 

 selves that their children were all alive and 

 safe. 



Then they remembered that it was lunch 

 time, and started out after food. They 

 would fly down to the haycocks that stood 

 in the meadow next to the orchard, sit 

 there reconnoitering for a moment, and 

 then jump down into the grass to snap up 

 the unwary insect they had espied. Flying 

 back to the young, they would flirt their 

 wings and tails as they dropped the morsel 

 down into the big gaping red throats. 

 And then in an instant would be off again 

 for a hunt in the air, or about another tree. 

 And so they kept hard at work, looking 

 everywhere, till the appetites of their vo- 

 racious infants were satisfied. 



As to the exact food of the kingbird, I 

 quote from Baird, Brewer and Ridgway: 

 "The kingbird feeds almost exclusively 

 upon winged insects, and consumes a vast 

 number. It is on this account one of our 

 most useful birds, but, unfortunately for its 

 popularity, it is no respecter of kinds, and 

 destroys large numbers of bees. * * * * 

 Wilson suggests that they destroy only the 

 drones, and rarely, if ever, meddle with the 

 working bees." 



De Kay, in the " Ornithology of New 

 York," extends the range of diet, and says 

 it "Feeds on berries and seeds, beetles, 

 canker-worms, and insects of every descrip- 

 tion; By this, and by his inveterate hos- 

 tility to rapacious birds, he more than com- 

 pensates for the few domestic bees with 

 which he varies his repast." To this De 

 Kay adds the interesting statement that, 

 "I>ike the hawks and owls, he ejects from 

 his mouth, in the shape of large pellets, all 

 the indigestible parts of insects and berries." 



PURPLE FINCH. 



The purple finch is about the size of the 

 song sparrow. He is as fond of singing up 

 in a maple or an evergreen as chippy is of 

 trilling on the lawn, and the result is much 

 more satisfactory, although he does not 

 sing as well as the song sparrow. Now and 

 then you get a sweet liquid note, but for 

 the most part his song is only a bright 

 warble, without beginning or end. The 

 song sparrow, on the contrary, begins, 

 strikes his upper note three times, and 

 then runs down the scale, finishing off 

 usually with a little flourish; but the 

 purple finch seems to sing in circles, with- 

 out much musical sense — nothing but a 

 general feeling that the sun is warm and 

 bright, and there are plenty of buds and 

 seeds to be found near by. Thoreau puts 

 the song in syllables as — a -twitter -witter - 

 witter -wee, a-witter- witter -wee. His song 

 is at its best when he is in love. Then it 

 has more expression and sweetness, resem- 

 bling the whisper song of the robin; and 

 when he bows and dances before the little 

 brown lady he is trying to win for his bride, 

 his pretty magenta head and back, his rosy 

 throat and white breast, with his graceful 

 ways and tender song, make him a very at- 

 tractive suitor. The brown-streaked, spar- 

 rowy-looking little creature who seems to 

 ignore him at first, can scarcely help feel- 

 ing flattered by the devotion of such a hand- 

 some cavalier, and you feel sure that his 

 wooing will come to a happy end. 



With the exception of the nesting season, 

 the purple finches are generally found in 

 flocks, their favorite haunts being woods 

 and orchards. 



WOOD PEWEE. 



In size, coloring and habit you will hardly 

 distinguish the wood pewee from the phcebe, 

 although the pewee is somewhat smaller. 

 It sits in the same loose-jointed, indifferent 

 fashion, on a dead branch or twig in the 

 woods, darting up spasmodically, snapping 



