Upon the Tree-Tops

Part 1

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UPON THE TREE-TOPS

OLIVE THORNE MILLER

ILLUSTRATED BY J. CARTER BEARD

BOSTON AND NEW YORK HOUGHTON, MIFFLIN AND COMPANY The Riverside Press, Cambridge

Copyright, 1897, BY H. M. MILLER.

All rights reserved.

The Riverside Press, Cambridge, Mass., U. S. A. Electrotyped and Printed by H. O. Houghton and Company.

Do you ne'er think what wondrous beings these, Whose household words are songs in many keys, Whose habitations on the tree-tops even Are half-way houses on the road to heaven?

LONGFELLOW.

INTRODUCTORY.

In the beginning of my study of bird life, when I had a bird-room for close observation, I was interested to see that our little neighbors in feathers possess as much individuality of character as ourselves, and in Chapters XII. and XIII. of this volume I offer two studies of that period, illustrative of the point.

Thanks are due to Mr. Frederic A. Ober for the use of his notes on one of the solitaires, embodied in Chapter XII., and to the Godey Company for permission to reproduce two shrike pictures.

I wish also to give credit to my daughter, Mary Mann Miller, for the minute and conscientious collection of the facts recorded in Chapters V. and VI., which for convenience are related as if they were my own observations.

OLIVE THORNE MILLER.

CONTENTS.

UPON THE TREE-TOPS.

I. TRAMPS WITH AN ENTHUSIAST 3 Hermit Thrush. Turdus aonalaschkæ pallasii. American Crow. Corvus Americanus. Sandpiper. Wilson's Thrush. Turdus fuscescens. Oven-bird. Seiurus aurocapillus. Wood Thrush. Turdus mustelinus. Olive-sided Flycatcher. Contopus borealis. Golden-winged Woodpecker. Colaptes auratus. Rose-breasted Grosbeak. Habia ludoviciana. Cow Bunting. Molothrus ater. White-throated Sparrow. Zonotrichia albicollis. Black-throated Green Warbler. Dendroica virens. American Robin. Merula migratoria. Song Sparrow. Melospiza fasciata. House Wren. Troglodytes ædon. Bobolink. Dolichonyx oryzivorus. Meadow Lark. Sturnella magna. Eave Swallow. Petrochelidon lunifrons. Phbe. Sayornis phbe. Shrike. Lanius ludovicianus.

II. A MYSTERIOUS STRANGER 35 Red-headed Woodpecker. Melanerpes erythrocephalus. Shrike. Lanius ludovicianus.

III. A THORN-TREE NEST 45 Shrike. Lanius ludovicianus. Golden-winged Woodpecker. Colaptes auratus. Least Flycatcher. Empidonax minimus. Yellow-billed Cuckoo. Coccyzus Americanus.

IV. THE WITCHING WREN 72 Winter Wren. Troglodytes hiemalis. Chipping Sparrow. Spizella socialis.

V. WHIMSICAL WAYS IN BIRD-LAND 88 Yellow-breasted Chat. Icteria virens.

VI. THE "BIRD OF THE MUSICAL WING" 103 Ruby-throated Hummingbird. Trochilus colubris.

VII. MY LADY IN GREEN 121 Ruby-throated Hummingbird. Trochilus colubris.

VIII. YOUNG AMERICA IN FEATHERS 141 Maryland Yellow-throat. Geothlypis trichus. Thrasher. Harporhynchus rufus. Baltimore Oriole. Icterus galbula. Catbird. Galeoscoptes Carolinensis. Red-eyed Vireo. Vireo olivaceus. American Crow. Corvus Americanus. Wilson's Thrush. Turdus fuscescens. Towhee Bunting. Pipilo erythrophthalmus.

IX. DOWN THE MEADOW 163 Golden-winged Woodpecker. Colaptes auratus. Red-winged Blackbird. Agelaius phnicens. Bluebird. Sialia sialis. Vesper Sparrow. Poocaëtes gramineus. Eave Swallow. Petrochelidon lunifrons. Tree Swallow. Tachycineta bicolor.

X. IN A COLORADO NOOK 177 Summer Yellow-bird. Dendroica æstiva. Western Chewink. Pipilo maculatus articus. Arkansas Goldfinch. Spinus psaltria. Maryland Yellow-throat. Geothlypis trichus. House Wren. Troglodytes ædon. Red-shafted Flicker. Colaptes cafer. Western Meadow Lark. Sturnella magna neglecta.

XI. THE IDYL OF AN EMPTY LOT 192 Night Hawk. Chordeiles virginianus. English Sparrow. Passer domesticus. Thrasher. Harporhynchus rufus. Junco. Junco hyemalis. White-throat Sparrow. Zonotrichia albicollis. Ruby-crowned Kinglet. Regulus calendula. Hermit Thrush. Turdus aonalaschkæ pallasii.

Part 2

IN THE BIRD-ROOM.

XII. THE SOLITAIRE 205 Clarin. Myadestes obscurus. Blue Jay. Cyanocitta cristata. Brazilian Cardinal. Mountain Whistler. Siffleur montagne. Trembleur. Townsend's Fly-catching Thrush. Myadestes Townsendii.

XIII. INCOMPATIBILITY IN THE ORIOLE FAMILY 227 Orchard Oriole. Icterus spurious. Baltimore Oriole. Icterus galbula.

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS.

PAGE

THE SHRIKE.

The tug of war (page 38) Frontispiece.

THE HERMIT THRUSH.

Singing his way down to us 8

THE SHRIKE.

Babies in gray 36

THE WINTER WREN.

Cuddled up together on a log 86

THE YELLOW-BREASTED CHAT.

Love-making 98

RUBY-THROATED HUMMINGBIRD.

The nest with my lady upon it 110

THE BALTIMORE ORIOLE.

Feeding the baby 150

THE GOLDEN-WINGED WOODPECKER.

Taking breakfast 164

SOLITAIRE AND BLUE JAY.

Studying the blue jay 216

THE ORCHARD ORIOLE.

The enemy in the glass 230

UPON THE TREE-TOPS.

UPON THE TREE-TOPS.

TRAMPS WITH AN ENTHUSIAST.

Part 3

To a brain wearied by the din of the city, the clatter of wheels, the jingle of street cars, the discord of bells, the cries of venders, the ear-splitting whistles of factory and shop, how refreshing is the heavenly stillness of the country! To the soul tortured by the sight of ills it cannot cure, wrongs it cannot right, and sufferings it cannot relieve, how blessed to be alone with nature, with trees living free, unfettered lives, and flowers content each in its native spot, with brooks singing of joy and good cheer, with mountains preaching divine peace and rest!

Thus musing one evening, soon after my arrival at a lone farmhouse in the heart of the Green Mountains, I seated myself at the window to make acquaintance with my neighbors. Not the human; I wished for a time to turn away from the world of people, to find rest and recreation in the world outside the walls of houses.

My room was a wing lately added to the side of the cottage farthest from the life that went on in it, from the kitchen and dairy, from the sight of barns and henhouses. It was, consequently, as solitary as it could be, and yet retain a slight hold upon humanity. It was connected with the family and farm life by two doors, which I could shut at will, and be alone with nature, and especially with the beloved birds.

From my window I looked upon a wide view over the road and the green fields, and across the river to a lovely range of the Green Mountains, with one of the highest peaks in the State as a crown. Close at hand was a bank, the beginning of a mountain spur. It was covered from the road up with clumps of fresh green ferns and a few young trees,--a maple or two, half a dozen graceful young hemlocks, and others.

The top of the bank, about as high as my window, was thick with daisy buds, which I had caught that day beginning to open their eyes, sleepily, one lash at a time; and on looking closely I saw ranks of them still asleep, each yellow eye carefully covered with its snow-white fringes. When the blossoms were fully opened, a few days later, my point of view--on a level--made even

"The daisy's frill a wondrous newness wear;"

for I saw only the edges of the flower faces turned to the sky, while the stems were visible down to the ground, and formed a Lilliputian forest in which it were easy to imagine tiny creatures spending days as secluded and as happy as I enjoyed in my forest of beech and birch and maple, which came down to the very back steps of the house.

On the evening when my story begins, early in June, I was sitting, as I said, at my window, listening to the good-night songs of the earlier birds, enjoying the view of woods and mountains, and waiting till tea should be over before taking my usual evening walk. I had fallen into a reverie, when I was aroused by the sound of wheels, and in a moment a horse appeared, trotting rapidly up the little hill. In his wake was a face. There was of course a body also, and some sort of a vehicle, but neither of them did I see; only a pair of eager, questioning eyes, and an intelligent countenance framed in snow-white curls which streamed back upon the wind,--a picture, a vision, I shall never forget.

I recognized at once my Enthusiast, a dear friend and fellow bird-lover, who I knew was coming to spend some weeks in the village. I rushed to the door to greet her.

"I'm delighted to see you!" she cried, as we clasped hands across the wheels. "I arrived an hour or two ago, and now I want to go where I can hear a hermit thrush. I've come all the way from Chicago to hear that bird."

She dismounted, declined the invitation to tea given by my hostess, who stood speechless with amazement at the erratic taste that would forego tea for the sake of a bird song, and we started at once up the road, where I had seen the bird perched in a partially dead hemlock-tree, and heard

"his ravishing carol ring From the topmost twig he made his throne."

Everything was perfectly still. Not a bird peeped. Even the tireless vireo, who peopled the woods as the English sparrow the city streets, was hushed. I began to be anxious; could it be too cool for song? or too late? We walked steadily on, up the beautiful winding road: on one side dense forest, on the other lovely changing views of the hills across the intervale, blue now with approaching night. Crows called as they hurried over; the little sandpiper's "ah weet! weet! weet!" came up from the river bank, but in the woods all was silent.

Still we went on, climbing the steep hills, loitering through the valleys, till suddenly a bird note broke the stillness, quite near us, a low, yearning "wee-o!"

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