OCTOBER 1 TO 15
Increased numbers of foregoing group; Hermit Thrush, Catbird, House Wren, Ovenbird, the Water Thrushes, the Red-eyed and the White-eyed Vireos, Wood Pewee, Nighthawk, Chimney Swift, Cowbird, Horned Lark, Winter Wren, Junco; the Tree, the Vesper, the White-throated, and the Grasshopper Sparrows; the Blackpoll, the Parula, the Pine, the Yellow Palm, and the Prairie Warblers; Chickadee; Tufted Titmouse.
OCTOBER 15 TO NOVEMBER 15
Increased numbers of foregoing group; Wood Thrush, Wilson's Thrush or Veery, Alice's Thrush, Olive-backed Thrush, Robin, Chewink, Brown Thrasher, Phoebe, Shrike; the Fox, the Field, the Swamp, the Savanna, the White-crowned, the Chipping, and the Song Sparrows; the Red-winged and the Rusty Blackbirds; Meadowlark, the Grackles, Flicker, the Red-headed and the Yellow-bellied Woodpeckers; Purple Finch, the Kinglets. the Nuthatches, Pine Siskin.
IV. BIRDS GROUPED ACCORDING TO SIZE
SMALLER THAN THE ENGLISH SPARROW
Humming-bird. The Redpolls. The Kinglets. Goldfinch. The Wrens. Pine Siskin. All the Warblers not Savanna Sparrow. mentioned elsewhere. Grasshopper Sparrow. Redstart. Sharp-tailed Sparrow. Ovenbird. Chipping Sparrow. Chickadee. Field Sparrow. Tufted Titmouse. Swamp Song Sparrow. Red-breasted Nuthatch. Indigo-Bunting. White-breasted Nuthatch. Warbling Vireo. Blue-gray Gnatcatcher. Yellow-throated Vireo. Yellow-bellied Flycatcher. Red-eyed Vireo. Acadian Flycatcher. White-eyed Vireo. Least Flycatcher. Brown Creeper.
ABOUT THE SIZE OF THE ENGLISH SPARROW
Purple Finch. Junco. The Crossbills. Song Sparrow. The Longspurs. Solitary Vireo. Vesper Sparrow. The Water-thrushes. Seaside Sparrow. Pipit or Titlark. Tree Sparrow. Downy Woodpecker.
LARGER THAN THE ENGLISH SPARROW AND SMALLER THAN THE ROBIN
Yellow-bellied Woodpecker. Kingbird. Chimney Swift (apparently). Crested Flycatcher. The Swallows (apparently). Phoebe. Olive-sided Flycatcher, Snowflake. Wood Pewee. White-crowned Sparrow. Horned Lark White-throated Sparrow. Bobolink. Fox Sparrow Cowbird. The Tanagers Orchard Oriole. Cedar Bird. Baltimore Oriole. Bohemian Waxwing. The Grosbeaks: Evening, Blue, Yellow-breasted Chat. Pine, Rose-breasted, The Thrushes. and Cardinal. Bluebird.
ABOUT THE LENGTH OF THE ROBIN.
Red-headed Woodpecker. Northern Shrike. Hairy Woodpecker. Mocking-bird. Red-winged Blackbird. Catbird. Rusty Blackbird. Chewink. Loggerhead Shrike. Purple Martin (apparently). Starling.
LONGER THAN THE ROBIN
Mourning Dove. Blue Jay. The Cuckoos. Canada Jay. Kingfisher. Meadowlark. Flicker. Whippoorwill (apparently). Raven. Nighthawk (apparently). Crow. The Grackles. Fish Crow. Brown Thrasher.
V. DESCRIPTIONS OF BIRDS
GROUPED ACCORDING TO COLOR
BIRDS CONSPICUOUSLY BLACK
Common Crow. Fish Crow. American Raven. Purple Grackle. Bronzed Grackle. Rusty Blackbird. Red-winged Blackbird. Purple Martin. Cowbird. Starling.
See also several of the Swallows; the Kingbird, the Phoebe, the Wood Pewee and other Flycatchers; the Chimney Swift; and the Chewink.
BIRDS CONSPICUOUSLY BLACK
COMMON CROW
(Corvus americanus) Crow family
Called also: CORN THIEF; [AMERICAN CROW, AOU 1998]
Length -- 16 to 17.50 inches. Male -- Glossy black with violet reflections. Wings appear saw-toothed when spread, and almost equal the tail in length. Female -- Like male, except that the black is less brilliant. Range -- Throughout North America, from Hudson Bay to the Gulf of Mexico. Migrations -- March. October. Summer and winter resident.
If we have an eye for the picturesque, we place a certain value upon the broad, strong dash of color in the landscape, given by a flock of crows flapping their course above a corn-field, against an October sky; but the practical eye of the farmer looks only for his gun in such a case. To him the crow is an unmitigated nuisance, all the more maddening because it is clever enough to circumvent every means devised for its ruin. Nothing escapes its rapacity; fear is unknown to it. It migrates in broad daylight, chooses the most conspicuous perches, and yet its assurance is amply justified in its steadily increasing numbers.
In the very early spring, note well the friendly way in which the crow follows the plow, ingratiating itself by eating the larvae, field mice, and worms upturned in the furrows, for this is its one serviceable act throughout the year. When the first brood of chickens is hatched, its serious depredations begin. Not only the farmer's young fledglings, ducks, turkeys, and chicks, are snatched up and devoured, but the nests of song birds are made desolate, eggs being crushed and eaten on the spot, when there are no birds to carry off to the rickety, coarse nest in the high tree top in the woods. The fish crow, however, is the much greater enemy of the birds. Like the common crows, this, their smaller cousin, likes to congregate in winter along the seacoast to feed upon shell-fish and other sea-food that the tide brings to its feet.
Samuels claims to have seen a pair of crows visit an orchard and destroy the young in two robins' nests in half an hour. He calculates that two crows kill, in one day alone, young birds that in the course of the season would have eaten a hundred thousand insects. When, in addition to these atrocities, we remember the crow's depredations in the corn-field, it is small wonder that among the first laws enacted in New York State was one offering a reward for its head. But the more scientific agriculturists now concede that the crow is the farmer's true friend.
FISH CROW (Corvus ossifragus) Crow family
Length -- 14 to 16 inches. About half as large again as the robin. Male and Female -- Glossy black, with purplish-blue reflections, generally greener underneath. Chin naked. Range -- Along Atlantic coast and that of the Gult of Mexico, northward to southern New England. Rare stragglers or) the Pacific coast. Migrations -- March or April. September. Summer resident only at northern limit of range. Is found in Hudson River valley about half-way to Albany.
Compared with the common crow, with which it is often confounded, the fish crow is of much smaller, more slender build. Thus its flight is less labored and more like a gull's, whose habit of catching fish that may be swimming near the surface of the water it sometimes adopts. Both Audubon and Wilson, who first made this species known, record its habit of snatching food as it flies over the southern waters -- a rare practice at the north. Its plumage, too, differs slightly from the common crow's in being a richer black everywhere, and particularly underneath, where the "corn thief" is dull. But it is the difference between the two crows' call-note that we chiefly depend upon to distinguish these confusing cousins. To say that the fish crow says car-r-r instead of a loud, clear caw, means little until we have had an opportunity to compare its hoarse, cracked voice with the other bird's familiar call.
From the farmer's point of view, there is still another distinction: the fish crow lets his crops alone. It contents itself with picking up refuse on the shores of the sea or rivers not far inland; haunting the neighborhood of fishermen's huts for the small fish discarded when the seines are drawn, and treading out with its toes the shell-fish hidden in the sand at low tide. When we see it in the fields it is usually intent upon catching field-mice, grubs, and worms, with which it often varies its fish diet. It is, however, the worst nest robber we have; it probably destroys ten times as many eggs and young birds as its larger cousin.
The fishermen have a tradition that this southern crow comes and goes with the shad and herring -- a saw which science unkindly disapproves.
AMERICAN RAVEN
(Corvus corax principalis) Crow family
Called also: NORTHERN RAVEN; [COMMON RAVEN, AOU 1998]
Length -- 26 to 27 inches. Nearly three times as large as a robin. Male and Female -- Glossy black above, with purplish and greenish reflections. Duller underneath. Feathers of the throat and breast long and loose, like fringe. Range -- North America, from polar regions to Mexico. Rare along Atlantic coast and in the south. Common in the west, and very abundant in the northwest. Migrations -- An erratic wanderer, usually resident where it finds its way.
The weird, uncanny voice of this great bird that soars in wide circles above the evergreen trees of dark northern forests seems to come out of the skies like the malediction of an evil spirit. Without uttering the words of any language -- Poe's "Nevermore" was, of course, a poetic license -- people of all nationalities appear to understand that some dire calamity, some wicked portent, is being announced every time the unbirdlike creature utters its rasping call. The superstitious folk crow with an "I told you so," as they solemnly wag their heads when they hear, of some death in the village after "the bird of ill-omen" has made an unwelcome visit to the neighborhood--it receives the blame for every possible misfortune.
When seen in the air, the crow is the only other bird for which the raven could be mistaken; but the raven does more sailing and less flapping, and he delights in describing circles as he easily soars high above the trees. On the ground, he is seen to be a far larger bird than the largest crow. The curious beard or fringe of feathers on his breast at once distinguishes him.
These birds show the family instinct for living in flocks large and small, not of ravens only, but of any birds of their own genera. In the art of nest building they could instruct most of their relatives. High up in evergreen trees or on the top of cliffs, never very near the seashore, they make a compact, symmetrical nest of sticks, neatly lined with grasses and wool from the sheep pastures, adding soft, comfortable linings to the old nest from year to year for each new brood. When the young emerge from the eggs, which take many curious freaks of color and markings, they are pied black and white, suggesting the young of the western white-necked raven, a similarity which, so far as plumage is concerned, they quickly outgrow. They early acquire the fortunate habit of eating whatever their parents set before them -- grubs, worms, grain, field-mice; anything, in fact, for the raven is a conspicuously omnivorous bird.
PURPLE GRACKLE (Quiscalus quiscula) Blackbird family
Called also: CROW BLACKBIRD; MAIZE THIEF; KEEL-TAILED GRACKLE; [COMMON GRACKLE, AOU 1998]
Length -- 12 to 13 inches. About one-fourth as large again as the robin. Male -- Iridescent black, in which metallic violet, blue, copper, and green tints predominate. The plumage of this grackle has iridescent bars. Iris of eye bright yellow and conspicuous. Tail longer than wings. Female -- Less brilliant black than male, and smaller. Range -- Gulf of Mexico to 57th parallel north latitude. Migrations -- Permanent resident in Southern States. Few are permanent throughout range. Migrates in immense flocks in March and September.
This "refined crow" (which is really no crow at all except in appearance) has scarcely more friends than a thief is entitled to; for, although in many sections of the country it has given up its old habit of stealing Indian corn and substituted ravages upon the grasshoppers instead, it still indulges a crow-like instinct for pillaging nests and eating young birds.
Travelling in immense flocks of its own kind, a gregarious bird of the first order, it nevertheless is not the social fellow that its cousin, the red-winged blackbird, is. It especially holds aloof from mankind, and mankind reciprocates its suspicion.
The tallest, densest evergreens are not too remote for it to build its home, according to Dr. Abbott, though in other States than New Jersey, where he observed them, an old orchard often contains dozens of nests. One peculiarity of the grackles is that their eggs vary so much in coloring and markings that different sets examined in the same groups of trees are often wholly unlike. The average groundwork, however, is soiled blue or greenish, waved, streaked, or clouded with brown. These are laid in a nest made of miscellaneous sticks and grasses, rather carefully constructed, and lined with mud. Another peculiarity is the bird's method of steering itself by its tail when it wishes to turn its direction or alight.
Peering at you from the top of a dark pine tree with its staring yellow eye, the grackle is certainly uncanny. There, very early in the spring, you may hear its cracked and wheezy whistle, for, being aware that however much it may look like a crow it belongs to another family, it makes a ridiculous attempt to sing. When a number of grackles lift up their voices at once, some one has aptly likened the result to a "good wheel-barrow chorus!" The grackle's mate alone appreciates his efforts as, standing on tiptoe, with half-spread wings and tail, he pours forth his craven soul to her through a disjointed larynx. With all their faults, and they are numerous, let it be recorded of both crows and grackles that they are as devoted lovers as turtle-doves. Lowell characterizes them in these four lines:
"Fust come the black birds, clatt'rin' in tall trees, And settlin' things in windy Congresses; Queer politicians, though, for I'll be skinned If all on 'em don't head against the wind."
The Bronzed Grackle (Quiscalus quiscula aeneus) differs from the preceding chiefly in the more brownish bronze tint of its plumage and its lack of iridescent bars. Its range is more westerly, and in the southwest it is particularly common; but as a summer resident it finds its way to New England in large numbers. The call-note is louder and more metallic than the purple grackle's. In nearly all respects the habits of these two birds are identical.
RUSTY BLACKBIRD (Scolecophagus carolinus) Blackbird family
Called also: THRUSH BLACKBIRD; RUSTY GRACKLE; RUSTY ORIOLE; RUSTY CROW; BLACKBIRD
Length -- 9 to 9.55 inches. A trifle smaller than the robin. Male -- In full plumage, glossy black with metallic reflections, intermixed with rusty brown that becomes more pronounced as the season advances. Pale straw-colored eyes. Female -- Duller plumage and more rusty, inclining to gray. Light line over eye. Smaller than male. Range -- North America, from Newfoundland to Gulf of Mexico and westward to the Plains. Migrations -- April. November. A few winter north.
