CANADA JAY— ROBIN— HOUSE SPARROW-FLAMINGO. 



97 



It is claimed that he not only knows how to count as high as five, 

 but also knows when Sunday arrives. But this latter accomplish- 

 ment is confined to the Crow of the old world, as some of our 

 American sportsmen have about as much regard for Sunday as they 

 have for the rights of the animal himself. 



Canada Jay. (Pertsoreus canadensis?) 

 Fig- 3- 



The Canada Jay is common throughout the northern part of 

 North America, breeding from New England, New York, and 

 Minnesota, northward, and is a rare straggler in the Middle At- 

 lantic States during the winter months. Its nest is built on the 

 limbs of trees, and is quite bulky, measuring from four to six inches 

 across, and from three to four in depth. It is woven on a rude 

 platform of sticks, and consists of fine mosses neatly felted together 

 and lined with feathers. The eggs are usually three, the ground 

 color of a grayish-white, marked all over with several shades of 

 olive-brown, and measuring about 1.20 by .70 inches. The Canada 

 Jay is a very bold and familiar bird, and has been known to fly 

 down and steal his dinner from a hungry dog. It hoards whatever 

 food it may not require for immediate consumption, hiding it be- 

 tween layers of bark, and in other convenient places. Its musical 

 accomplishments are confined to a squeaking noise, though it is 

 sometimes known to chatter. Audubon, in speaking of their mu- 

 sical efforts, says that they have an odd way of nodding their 

 heads and jerking their body and tail, while they emit their cu- 

 riously diversified notes, which at times resemble a low sort of mew- 

 ing, at others, the sound given out by an anvil when lightly struck 

 with a hammer. They raise but one brood in a season, and occupy 

 the same nest from year to year. 



Robin or Robin Redbreast. (Turdus migratorius.) 



Fig. 4. 



The Robin is probably the most familiar of all the birds of North 

 America. lis range extends from the plateau of Mexico to Green- 

 land, and is bounded east and west by the Atlantic and Pacific 

 oceans. In winter it is most abundant in the Southern States, but 

 its migration is due to the supply of food rather than the severity 

 of the climate, and where wild berries are abundant it will remain 

 through the winter, though the ground may be covered with snow, 

 and the thermometer reach the freezing point of mercury. 



The Robin arrives in the Eastern States from the middle to 

 the 25th of April. Some of them pair immediately, and commence 

 house-building before the snow has fully disappeared. By the 20th 

 of May the full-fledged young were seen turned out to care for 

 themselves. Others are not in $uch haste to woo, and almost any 

 day from the first to the middle of May, the most careless observer 

 may witness ferocious contests between the males for the possession 

 of some waiting and no doubt willing maid. The nest is extrava- 

 gant in size, and rather bungling in workmanship, constructed first 

 of thick laj'ers of moss, straw, weeds, and roots, in which a cavity 

 is rounded, plastered with mud, and then lined with fine grasses 

 and kindred material. Dr. C. C. Abbott, in the Popular Science 

 Monthly, describes thirty-two of these nests, which he had gathered 

 for the purpose of comparison. Eleven of these corresponded with 

 the foregoing description, while the remaining ones varied in a 

 greater or lesser degree. He says : " Taking a careful survey of 

 the whole thirty-two nests, they suggested at once an ordinary vil- 

 lage ; there were handsome structures, such as opulence builds, 

 and very modest ones, such as those in straightened circumstances 

 are compelled to occupy." This dissimilarity he attributes to the 

 different temperament of birds. 



When the nests are finished, from four to six eggs are laid. These 



are of a bright uniform greenish-blue color, liable to fade in the 

 sunlight, and measuring about 1.25 by .88 inches. The female is 

 usually about eleven days in incubating. Eight days after the 

 young are hatched, their eyes are open, and in eleven days they 

 are fully fledged. The care of the parents does not cease with the 

 young birds leaving the nest, but is continued a few days after. 

 Two broods are raised in a season. 



The food of the Robin consists largely of earthworms, and the 

 large family of insects that burrow in the earth preparatory to their 

 transformations. In their season, it is very fond of strawberries 

 and cherries ; but it is very possible that there would not a cherry 

 grow fit to eat were it not for this and other birds, and its contri- 

 butions in this direction are scant pay for the immense good it does. 



House, Domestic, or European Sparrow. (Pyrgita domcstica.j 



Fig. 5- 



The rapid distribution of the English Sparrow throughout the 

 United States will soon make it the most familiar of our birds. 

 First introduced in 1858 in Portland, Maine, it has been constantly 

 tending toward the West. No climate seems too severe for their 

 abode. Inhabitants of all Europe from Sweden to Italy, of Mo- 

 rocco, Algiers, Egypt, and Persia, they have at last taken the New 

 World as by storm. The spot chosen for a nest is some hole or 

 cavity or crack in a wall or chimney or other convenient place, 

 though always availing themselves of the bird-houses when they 

 are obtainable. The nest is very bulky, and is composed of straw, 

 stalks of small plants, rags of woolen or cotton, and lined with 

 feathers and other soft material. The eggs vary from four to six, 

 are grayish-white in color, more or less covered with longitudinally 

 oblong spots of pale gray and grayish-black, and measure about 

 .88 by .72 inches. This bird is very tame and fearless, and will 

 allow the nearest approach without evincing any uneasiness. Dur- 

 ing the winter months they keep together in flocks of from fifty to 

 a hundred, and have little difficulty in picking a living out of the 

 streets of our cities and villages. Its flight is undulated and rapid, 

 and when on the ground it advances by hops and leaps. In summer 

 it rolls in the dirt, and basks in the sun like our domestic fowl. The 

 musical accomplishments of these birds are few. Their utterances 

 are confined to a single note ; but on a bright winter morning, in 

 the absence of all other singers, the effect is quite cheering, if not 

 charming. Like the Robin, they are very fond of angle-worms, 

 and, not being so expert in digging, they frequently rush in upon 

 their American brother and steal the dainty m<5rsel from his very 

 mouth. 



There has been considerable discussion regarding the real utility 

 of the English Sparrow. Nearly all the writers on ornithology in 

 the Old World condemn him. Among his most strenuous cham- 

 pions in the United States is Dr. Brewer, of Boston, a careful ob- 

 server, and an authority in all matters pertaining to the science. 

 Whatever may be the conclusions arrived at, they will be too late 

 to affect the English Sparrow himself. He has made this country 

 his own ; and a bird that can stand a climate where the thermometer 

 frequently reaches thirty degrees below zero is not one easy to 

 exterminate. 



PLATE LXVIII. 



American or Red Flamingo. (Phoenicoptcri roseus.) 



The American Flamingo is to be found mostly in the tropical re- 

 gions. Dr. Brehm says: "Naturalists are at present acquainted 

 with about half a dozen species, and although the history of some 

 of them is far from complete, enough is known to induce us to be 



