Part 51

When Dave, on his return from a sleigh-ride to the shore, said that he’d seen a “big round-headed Owl sitting on a stump in the salt meadows, and it looked as if it had sat out all night in a snow-squall,” Gray Lady knew at once that he had seen one of the Arctic or Snowy Owls that occasionally drift down from the North on a short visit, and that it was on the lookout for a meal of meadow-mice or other little gnawers.

But when Bobbie, who went to the same location, reported that he had seen “a flock of birds that were sort of Sparrows with a yellow breast, and a black mark on it, and long ears,” it took a little time and many questions before she found that the birds were visiting Horned Larks, with pinkish brown backs, a black crescent on the breast, and a black bar across the forehead, that, extending around the sides of the head, forms two little tufts, or feather horns. For the rest, the throat and neck were dull yellow, and the underparts white streaked with black. These birds were little known. They only made flying visits, and gave merely a call-note, keeping their beautiful song, during which they soar in the air like the Sky-lark, for their nesting-haunts in the far North.

Gray Lady’s ingenuity was taxed to its utmost, however, when one Saturday morning little Clary came to the playroom, her face aglow, and said that she had seen “a brown Blue Jay with a yellow tail and red wings; not just one, but a whole family.”

For a moment Gray Lady was quite at a loss how to proceed; yellow tail and red wings were surely startling; then she saw that there must be some point about the bird that reminded the child of a Jay other than its colour.

“How did this bird look like a Jay, Clary?” she asked.

“In the head,” came the prompt reply; “it had feathers on top that moved up and down, the way a Jay’s does, and it was dark in the nose.”

On thinking over the winter birds that had a crest of feathers that could be raised or lowered, she realized that the Cedar-bird had such a one, also a black beak, and a black eye-stripe that made it look “dark in the nose,” but yellow tail and red wings it certainly did not have, merely a narrow yellow band on the tail and small, waxen, coral-red tips to some of the wing quills. However, taking half a dozen coloured pictures from one of the portfolios that she kept at hand to settle disputed points, she spread them in front of the little girl, who, without a moment’s hesitation, picked out the Cedar-bird, or Cedar Waxwing, as it is properly called from its coral wings-tips.

These are the resident birds on the list that Gray Lady kept of those the children saw during that winter:—

Bob-white Ruffed Grouse Red-shouldered Hawk Meadowlark Long-eared Owl Screech Owl Downy Woodpecker Robin Bluebird Song Sparrow White-breasted Nuthatch Red-tailed Hawk Sharp-shinned Hawk Barred Owl Cedar Waxwing Hairy Woodpecker Flicker Blue Jay Crow American Goldfinch Chickadee Herring Gull

This is a list of the visiting birds, that nest in the far North and drift southward, either in search of food or driven on the course of the storm clouds; and before February came, with its longer afternoons, the children could name them all, either from sight or from the pictures in Gray Lady’s portfolio.

Horned Lark. (See above.)

Snowflake. A bird of the Sparrow tribe, winter plumage soft brown and white, colour of dead leaves and snow, black feet and bill. Comes in flocks to feed on weed seeds, especially of snowy winters.

Redpoll. Of the Sparrow tribe and the size of the Chippy. Dusky gray and brown, with long, pointed wings and short, forked tail. Head, neck, and rump washed with crimson! A canary-like call-note.

The Two Crossbills. (See page 252.)

Snowy Owl. (See page 295.)

Tree-sparrow. (See page 249.)

White-throated Sparrow. The most beautiful of all our Sparrows; a plump handsome bird. White throat and crown stripes. Back striped with black, bay, and whitish. Rump light olive-brown. Bay edgings to wings, and two white cross-bars; underparts gray. Yellow spot before eye. Female, crown brown, markings less distinct. Song, sweet and plaintive “Pee-a-peabody, peabody, peabody!”

Abundant migrant; also a winter resident from September to May.

Junco. (See page 250.)

Myrtle Warbler. (See page 250.)

Winter Wren. (See page 247.)

Golden-crowned Kinglet. (See page 249.)

Brown Creeper. (See page 184.)

Northern Shrike. A roving winter resident with Hawklike habits, Hawklike in flight: called “Butcher-bird,” from its meat-eating habits.

Length: 9-10.50 inches.

Male and Female: Powerful head, neck, and blackish beak with hooked point. Above bluish ash, lighter on the rump and shoulders. Wide black bar on each side of the head from the eye backward. Below, light gray with a brownish cast, broken on breast and sides by waved lines of darker gray. Wings and tail black, edged and tipped with white. Large white spot on wings, white tips and edges to outer quills of tail. Legs bluish black.

A call-note, and in its breeding-haunts a sweet, warbling song.

In common with all winter birds, its movements are guided by the food supply, and if severe cold and heavy snows drive away the small birds, and bury the mice upon which it feeds, the Shrike must necessarily rove.