198 
IOWA ACADEMY OF SCIENCE 
not expect to find all of these birds in one week or even in one season. When 
hunting birds, do not wear fiashy, startling colored clothes. Do not approach 
the bird you are seeking to identify in a direct line nor in a stealthy mg^nner. 
After identifying a bird, do not rush off at once to find another but watch 
the one that you have found and become acquainted with him, — his manner of 
feeding, his call notes and songs, his peculiarity of flight, and if possible, his 
nesting place. 
Learn not to be discouraged or surprised if, some days, you arrive in a 
locality that should be full of birds and fail to find any. That is one of the 
most valuable assets in your search for birds, though by no means necessary, 
is a good field glass or a pair of opera-glasses. 
With this much for suggestions and instructions, I shall now proceed with 
the individual consideration of the birds, taking them up in their order of 
families. 
ORDER PASSERES: PERCHING BIRDS. 
American RoHn. By far the best known of our native birds, the robin 
heads our list. From early March until the snow begins. to fly the following 
winter, his cheery song in its simple melody resounds throughout city streets 
and around our farmhouses and orchards. His nest, a course structure of hay 
and twigs plastered outside and in with mud and lined with dried grass, is 
easily found and recognized. In it are laid four to six eggs of a peculiar 
shade of greenish blue. 
The Wood Thrush. In some localities, this second of the silver tongued 
family is known almost as well as the robin, but not so in Polk county. From 
early May till late in August, in the heavier wooded hills, his voice may be 
frequently heard in its ringing melody. Seen at close range, his beauty is a 
match for his rolling, vibrating song. His nest and eggs are much like that 
of his cousin, the robin. The wood thrush stays here until in October, when 
he leaves to return about the first of May. 
Wilson's Thrush, Yeery. The veery is the most slender and graceful of the 
thrushes. Its first arrival in early May will be the best time to see it, for 
when it retreats into the woods to build its nest, all disappears except the 
voice, that ringing “echo-song” that causes one to listen in glad bewilderment, 
then search, ofttimes in vain, to find the singer. His nest is like the wood 
thrush’s, but it lacks the mud. Its eggs, its haunts and winter home are so 
like those of the wood thrush that a separate description is not needed. 
Blue Bird. The baby blue bird first sees the light in the inside of an aban- 
doned woodpecker’s hole, a bird house, or decayed knot hole, and learns to fly 
within a few short weeks. Late in October he leaves the state of his birth 
to take up winter quarters in the Gulf states and Cuba, only to return again 
in early March to vie with the robin for first honors in reporting coming 
spring. His song is mellow and assuring. Heard at a distance it has a purling 
quality and through it all runs a note of sadness that blends in rare harmony 
with the cheery, rolling notes of the robin and the wood thrush. 
Chickadee. This jolly sociable little fellow is a yearly resident with us and 
may be found wherever there are trees or bushes. He builds a tiny nest of 
feathers and down in a hole in a stump or tree a short distance from the ground 
