I 860 .] 
AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST. 
361 
Familiar and Useful Notes about 
Common Birds. 
“ Spare the Birds,” has been a frequent head¬ 
ing to sundry articles appearing in the Agricul¬ 
turist and other journals, for years past; yet 
very few people even among those who are 
daily surrounded with the “songsters of the 
grove,” have any acquaintance with the charac¬ 
ter, habits, or usefulness, of the most common 
small birds. Perhaps not one person in ten can 
give a name to most of the birds that they have 
daily seen for a dozen or twenty years. This 
subject one not only of intense interest, but of 
real utility, especially to the cultivator. We 
therefore think it will add to the interest and 
the practical value of the Agriculturist , to intro¬ 
duce from tune to time descriptive notes and il¬ 
lustrations of a few at least of our common birds, 
and we are happy to receive the aid of a com¬ 
petent observer in this department, L. E. Chit¬ 
tenden, Esq., of Burlington County, Yt. These 
notes will be ofa popular rather, than a scien¬ 
tific character, though while mainly avoiding 
technical terms, we shall endeavor not to do 
any violence to the science of ornithology. 
Yeiy few of our familiar birds dwell in the 
deep solitude of the wilderness—then habitations 
are near the abodes of civilized man. The trav¬ 
eler in the western wilds will meet with few of 
the sparrows, warblers, thrashes, and rapacious 
birds, which are so abundant in the groves 
bordering upon our cultivated fields. A word 
or two of explanation. 
By Sparrows we mean that family of birds 
having a short, robust, or strong, round, conc¬ 
eal beak, like the canary bird or the common 
“ Chipping bird ” ( Fringilla socialis). The spar¬ 
rows subsist mainly upon seeds. 
Warblers include all those smaller birdshav¬ 
ing a slender bill of moderate length, and which 
are more or less musical. These subsist upon 
small worms and eggs of insects. The yellow 
warbler, so common in our gardens in Sum¬ 
mer, is a familiar example of this class. 
Thrushes belong to another family of soft-bill¬ 
ed birds of larger size, generally more or less 
musical, like the robin and cat-bird. 
The freezing of the ground, ponds, and 
swamps, cuts off the supply of food suited to 
the slender bill birds, except those subsisting on 
the eggs of insects, and this compels a migration 
to warmer latitudes, so that we have with us in 
the coldest season only a limited number of spar¬ 
rows, and some of the wrens and wood-peckers. 
These, especially the sparrows, remain with us 
in Winter in much larger numbers than is 
generally supposed. Other birds will be re¬ 
ferred to in our particular descriptions. We 
begin with one or two of the sparrows. 
THE AMERICAN GOLDFINCH, 01 - “YELLOW BIRD.” 
(Carduelis tristis.) 
We recently asked an intelligent farmer, 
whether he supposed this bird remained in 
New-England during all the Winter. He re¬ 
plied unhesitatingly, No, for he must have 
seen them, if such were the case. We exhibit¬ 
ed to him one in its Winter plumage, which was 
so widely different from its Summer garb, that 
he insisted it was not the same bird, and as he 
would not acknowledge the force of evidence 
which would be conclusive to the ornithologist 
on the question of identity, he remains uncon¬ 
vinced to this day. But it is not the less true, 
that this lively little sparrow that glances so 
brilliantly in the light of an August sun, with 
its jet black wings imd light yellow body, and 
which is known to almost every farmer’s boy in 
New-York and New-England as the “Yellow 
bird,” can not be called migratory in its habits, 
but remains with us during the cold and storms 
of our longest Winters. True, he fits himself 
for them. The human denizen of the same ge¬ 
ographical limits does not make a greater change 
between his Summer and Winter clothing, than 
this little bird. He does what human fashion¬ 
ables often do not—he even observes the pro¬ 
prieties of the case. The warm tints of his sum¬ 
mer vesture would be ill suited to the snows, 
storms, and clouds of Winter: accordingly, 
while the light, tufty feathers of his body, wings, 
and tail become thick and compact, and very 
much increased in length, they at the same time 
assume a more sombre hue. The yellow body 
is changed to a Quaker-like brown, and the jet 
wings grow lighter, and are crossed by two 
transverse bars of pure white. The tail nearly 
doubles its length, and becomes more forked. 
HABITS AND INSTINCTS. 
The habits of this bird seem in Whiter ma¬ 
terially changed. While in Summer they are 
commonly seen in pairs, and in early Autumn 
accompanied by their young, when strong 
enough for flight, in Winter they become gre¬ 
garious, individuals coming together in large 
flocks, sometimes numbering hundreds. Its 
flight, too, is changed. In Summer it is per¬ 
formed in deep curved lines, alternately rising 
and falling after each propelling motion of the 
wings. Each of these curves is accomplished 
while uttering one or more of its sharp notes, the 
one accompanying the other with almost the 
regularity of a clock. The curveting move¬ 
ment could hardly be carried out in a large 
flock, and in Winter this peculiarity is loot en¬ 
tirely. The whole flocktlien moves straight on¬ 
ward, or in long graceful swoops, as if animated 
by a common instinct. The following account 
of its instinct is given upon the authority of that 
most accurate observer of the habits of North 
American birds, the veteran Audubon : “ There 
is a trait of sagacity in this bird which is quite 
remarkable. When a goldfinch alights on a 
twig imbued with bird-lime, (a gluey substance, 
expressly for the purpose of securing it,) it no 
sooner discovers the nature of the treacherous 
substance, than it throws itself backwards with 
closed wings, a'fld hangs in this position until 
the bird-lime has run out in the form of a slen¬ 
der thread below the twig, when feeling a cer¬ 
tain degree of security, it beats its wings and 
flies off, doubtless with a resolution never to 
alight in such a place again. I have observed 
those that had escaped from me in this manner, 
when about to alight on any twig, whether 
smeared with bird-lime or not, flutter over it as 
if to assure themselves of its being safe for them 
to perch upon it.” 
Birds, like other animals, require an increased 
nutrition in cold weather. The bodies of all 
warm-blooded animals are caloric factories, 
which are run at a full or lesser speed as the 
season requires; and the rapid motion of their 
complicated machinery requires an increased 
consumption of fuel, which is but another name 
for food. 
“But what of all this?” say9 the farmer. 
“ What is this tome? Yellow birds are well 
enough in their way, no doubt, but of what pos¬ 
sible good are they? Why should an agri¬ 
cultural paper fill its columns with matter which 
would be well enough in a bird book, but which 
is all out of place in a practical newspaper!” 
Softly, good friend! Be not so hasty with your 
condemnations! Watch this little bird more 
closely, and you will find him to be a most ac¬ 
tive and industrious friend. All through the 
long months, from September to April, he is 
hard at work for you. In the fence corners, be¬ 
side the hedges, along the highways, around the 
stone-heaps, in many places, the thistle, nettle, 
white daisy, and noxious weeds of an hundred 
different species, which too often escape the at¬ 
tention of the most careful husbandman, have 
grown up to rank maturity. In the swamp 
edges are many patches of rank wild-grass 
which you have not found time to cut down. 
Left uninjured where they are until Spring, filled 
with their thousands of seeds, they would be 
scattered all over the farm or garden, giving a 
crop next year, neither useful nor ornamental. It 
is upon the seeds of these thistles, daisies, weeds, 
and rank grasses, that he and many other simi¬ 
lar species live. Wherever his food is to be 
found, you may see him, tearing up and down 
the withered petals of the ripened flower, lean¬ 
ing downwards upon them, eating off the seed, 
and scattering the down through the air. The 
eye of many of these small birds is one of the 
most wonderful things in nature: its structure 
enables the bird to detect its appropriate food at 
a long distance, and when once he has perched 
upon a plant, he rarely leaves a single seed. 
The amount of food which one of these birds 
requires, is very large in proportion to the size 
of his body. The ceaseless activity of his mus¬ 
cular system during the day, can only be kept 
up by a corresponding amount of nutriment. 
Every lady who has kept a caged canary 
bird, knows sometliing about his appetite. The 
power of flight of the goldfinch is very strong. 
He is a clean worker. Before snow tails, he 
gathers up all the seeds which have fallen upon 
the ground, as well as those which adhere to 
the parent stem; after the snow falls, he is, of 
course, compelled to live solely upon such food 
as he can find above its surface, but he rarely 
abandons one field until he has exhausted the 
supply of food to be found there. We have 
known single localities, where the highway was 
infested with the Canada thistle, which a flock 
of these birds would not abandon for almost the 
entire Winter. It is obvious that the amount 
of noxious vegetation thus prevented fci the 
coming year, would be very large. 
It may not be out of place here to say a word 
about its nest and eggs. The exterior of the 
nest is composed of various lichens (mosses), fas¬ 
tened by the saliva of the bird, and lined with cot¬ 
ton or other soft materials. It is found at various 
distances from the ground, upon small shrubs as 
well as high trees. It is sometimes attached to 
the side only of a small twig. The eggs are five to 
six in number, of a bluish white, marked at the 
larger end with spots of reddish brown. Only 
one brood is reared during the season, and the 
young are fed from the mouth, in the same 
manner as the Canary. 
