Bird Neighbors [74]
Pea-body, Pea-body," are the syllables of the white-throat's song heard by the good New Englanders, who have a tradition that you must either be a Peabody or a nobody there; while just over the British border the bird is distinctly understood to say, "Swee-e-e-t Can-a-da, Can-a-da, Can-a da." "All day, whit-tle-ing, whit-tle-ing, whit-tle-ing," the Maine people declare he sings; and Hamilton Gibson told of a perplexed farmer, Peverly by name, who, as he stood in the field undecided as to what crop to plant, clearly heard the bird advise, "Sow wheat, Pev-er-ly, Pev-er-ly, Pev-er-ly." Such divergence of opinion, which is really slight compared with the verbal record of many birds' songs, only goes to show how little the sweetness of birds' music, like the perfume of a rose, depends upon a name.
In a family not distinguished for good looks, the white-throated sparrow is conspicuously handsome, especially after the spring moult. In midwinter the feathers grow dingy and the markings indistinct; but as the season advances, his colors are sure to brighten perceptibly, and before he takes the northward journey in April, any little lady sparrow might feel proud of the attentions of so fine-looking and sweet-voiced a lover. The black, white, and yellow markings on his head are now clear and beautiful. His figure is plump and aristocratic.
These sparrows are particularly sociable travellers, and cordially welcome many stragglers to their flocks -- not during the migrations only, but even when winter's snow affords only the barest gleanings above it. Then they boldly peck about the dog's plate by the kitchen door and enter the barn-yard, calling their feathered friends with a sharp tseep to follow them. Seeds and insects are their chosen food, and were they not well wrapped in an adipose coat under their feathers, there must be many a winter night when they would go shivering, supperless, to their perch.
In the dark of midnight one may sometimes hear the white-throat softly singing in its dreams.
GREEN, GREENISH GRAY, OLIVE, AND YELLOWISH OLIVE BIRDS
Tree Swallow Ruby-throated Humming-bird Golden-crowned Kinglet Ruby-crowned Kinglet Solitary Vireo Red-eyed Vireo White-eyed Vireo Warbling Vireo Ovenbird Worm-eating Warbler Acadian Flycatcher Yellow-bellied Flycatcher Black-throated Green Warbler
Look also among the Olive-brown Birds, especially for the Cuckoos, Alice's and the Olive-backed Thrushes; and look in the yellow group, many of whose birds are olive also. See also females of the Red Crossbill, Orchard Oriole, Scarlet Tanager, Summer Tanager.
GREEN, GREENISH GRAY, OLIVE, AND YELLOWISH OLIVE BIRDS
TREE SWALLOW (Tachycineta bicolor) Swallow family
Called also: WHITE-BELLIED SWALLOW
Length -- 5 to 6 inches. A little shorter than the English sparrow, but apparently much larger because of its wide wing spread. Male -- Lustrous dark steel-green above; darker and shading into black on wings and tail, which is forked. Under parts soft white. Female -- Duller than male. Range -- North America, from Hudson Bay to Panama. Migrations -- End of March. September or later. Summer resident.
"The stork in the heaven knoweth her appointed times: and the turtle and the crane and the swallow observe the time of their coming." -- Jeremiah, viii. 7.
The earliest of the family to appear in the spring, the tree swallow comes skimming over the freshly ploughed fields with a wide sweep of the wings, in what appears to be a perfect ecstasy of flight. More shy of the haunts of man, and less gregarious than its cousins, it is usually to be seen during migration flying low over the marshes, ponds, and streams with a few chosen friends, keeping up an incessant warbling twitter while performing their bewildering and tireless evolutions as they catch their food on the wing. Their white breasts flash in the sunlight, and it is only when they dart near you, and skim close along the surface of the water, that you discover their backs to be not black, but rich, dark green, glossy to iridescence.
In a family not distinguished for good looks, the white-throated sparrow is conspicuously handsome, especially after the spring moult. In midwinter the feathers grow dingy and the markings indistinct; but as the season advances, his colors are sure to brighten perceptibly, and before he takes the northward journey in April, any little lady sparrow might feel proud of the attentions of so fine-looking and sweet-voiced a lover. The black, white, and yellow markings on his head are now clear and beautiful. His figure is plump and aristocratic.
These sparrows are particularly sociable travellers, and cordially welcome many stragglers to their flocks -- not during the migrations only, but even when winter's snow affords only the barest gleanings above it. Then they boldly peck about the dog's plate by the kitchen door and enter the barn-yard, calling their feathered friends with a sharp tseep to follow them. Seeds and insects are their chosen food, and were they not well wrapped in an adipose coat under their feathers, there must be many a winter night when they would go shivering, supperless, to their perch.
In the dark of midnight one may sometimes hear the white-throat softly singing in its dreams.
GREEN, GREENISH GRAY, OLIVE, AND YELLOWISH OLIVE BIRDS
Tree Swallow Ruby-throated Humming-bird Golden-crowned Kinglet Ruby-crowned Kinglet Solitary Vireo Red-eyed Vireo White-eyed Vireo Warbling Vireo Ovenbird Worm-eating Warbler Acadian Flycatcher Yellow-bellied Flycatcher Black-throated Green Warbler
Look also among the Olive-brown Birds, especially for the Cuckoos, Alice's and the Olive-backed Thrushes; and look in the yellow group, many of whose birds are olive also. See also females of the Red Crossbill, Orchard Oriole, Scarlet Tanager, Summer Tanager.
GREEN, GREENISH GRAY, OLIVE, AND YELLOWISH OLIVE BIRDS
TREE SWALLOW (Tachycineta bicolor) Swallow family
Called also: WHITE-BELLIED SWALLOW
Length -- 5 to 6 inches. A little shorter than the English sparrow, but apparently much larger because of its wide wing spread. Male -- Lustrous dark steel-green above; darker and shading into black on wings and tail, which is forked. Under parts soft white. Female -- Duller than male. Range -- North America, from Hudson Bay to Panama. Migrations -- End of March. September or later. Summer resident.
"The stork in the heaven knoweth her appointed times: and the turtle and the crane and the swallow observe the time of their coming." -- Jeremiah, viii. 7.
The earliest of the family to appear in the spring, the tree swallow comes skimming over the freshly ploughed fields with a wide sweep of the wings, in what appears to be a perfect ecstasy of flight. More shy of the haunts of man, and less gregarious than its cousins, it is usually to be seen during migration flying low over the marshes, ponds, and streams with a few chosen friends, keeping up an incessant warbling twitter while performing their bewildering and tireless evolutions as they catch their food on the wing. Their white breasts flash in the sunlight, and it is only when they dart near you, and skim close along the surface of the water, that you discover their backs to be not black, but rich, dark green, glossy to iridescence.