Young Folks' Nature Field Book

Part 1

Transcriber Note

Text emphasis is denoted as Italics and =Old English Text=.

Young Folks' Nature Field Book

WHITE-BREASTED NUTHATCH ON A BIRD-HOUSE.]

=Young Folks'=

=Nature Field Book=

J. ALDEN LORING

Formerly Field Naturalist to the United States Biological Survey and the United States National Museum at Washington, D. C., Curator of Mammals at the New York Zoological Park and Field Agent for the New York Zoological Society; Member of the American Ornithologists' Union, etc.

BOSTON

=Dana Estes & Company=

PUBLISHERS

Copyright, 1906

By Dana Estes & Company

All rights reserved

COLONIAL PRESS

Electrotyped and Printed by C. H. Simonds & Co.

Boston, U.S.A.

Publishers' Preface

The plan of this work contemplates a short, timely nature story, or seasonable hint for every calendar day in the year, telling the reader just what time in the successive seasons to look for the different birds, beasts, flowers, etc., how to recognize and study them when taking observation walks for pleasure or instruction. Recognition of different creatures, etc., is assisted by numerous excellent illustrations, and alternate pages are left blank for reader's notes or record of things seen. A yearly report so kept, either by a single young person or a small group or club, cannot fail to be a source of continuous interest, not only while being made but after its completion. A club competing for the best and complete record so made should produce pleasure and instruction throughout the year.

Dedication

This book is dedicated to my first wild pet, who was the most interesting and intelligent creature I have tamed. He chased the children into their houses by pinching their legs; he awoke the dog by pulling its tail, and he pecked the horse's feet, then jumped back and crouched low to escape being kicked. Because of his thieving instinct he kept me at war with the neighbors. His last mischievous act was to pull the corks from the red and the black ink bottles, tip them over, fly to the bed, and cover the counterpane with tracks. I found him dead in the work-room the following morning, his black beak red and red mouth black.

Preface

This little book was written for the lover of outdoor life who has neither the time nor the patience to study natural history. There are many persons who are anxious to learn the common animals and flowers, their haunts and their habits, that they may enjoy Nature when they visit her. If they will take a minute each day to read the entry for that date, or if they will carry the book with them on their strolls into the country and while resting turn its pages, it may prove the means of discovering in fur or feather or flowering bud something before unknown to them.

The subjects chosen are of common interest, and nearly all can be found by any person who hunts for them assiduously. As the seasons vary in different localities, it has been impossible to set a date for the appearance or disappearance of an animal or a flower, that will apply alike to all parts of the country for which this volume is intended. Eastern United States.

J. Alden Loring.

Oswego, N. Y.

List of Illustrations

PAGE White-breasted Nuthatch on a Bird-house Frontispiece

Part 2

White-breasted Nuthatch 15 English Sparrow 25 Purple Martins 35 Northern Shrike 39 Prairie Horned Lark 47 Loon 53 Hibernating Woodchuck 57 European Hedgehog 75 Nest of a Meadow Mouse Exposed by Melting Snow 85 Screech Owl 89 Meadow Lark 99 Downy Woodpecker 105 Fox at Den 119 Chimney Swift 125 "One of your bird-houses should be tenanted by a wren" 129 Male Bobolink 141 Barn Swallow 153 Belted Kingfisher 165 Catbird 171 Woodchuck 183 Song Sparrow 191 Yellow-billed Cuckoo 199 Kingbird 207 Red-winged Blackbirds 215 Cedar Waxwing 221 Yellow-breasted Chat 245 Skunk Hunting Grasshoppers 255 American Redstart 259 Grebe 277 Spotted Sandpiper 281 Chickadees (Upper, Mountain; Lower, Hudsonian) 287 "The great horned owl and the snowy owl can be tamed" 301 Blue Jays 305 A Four-storied Warbler's Nest. Each Story Represents an Attempt by the Warbler to Avoid Becoming Foster-parent of a Young Cowbird 311 Snow Bunting 315 Cotton-tail Rabbit Taking a Sun Bath 331 Bonaparte Gull 337

=January=

January First

The best New Year's resolution a lover of nature can make, is a promise to provide the feathered waifs of winter with free lunches. This may be done by fastening pieces of suet to limbs and trunks of trees, and by placing sunflower seeds, bird seeds, or cracked nuts on the veranda roof or on the window-sill of your room, where sharp eyes will soon spy them.

January Second

Your boarders will be the birds that either remain with you throughout the year, or have come from the frozen North to spend the winter. These are the birds that feed upon seeds of various kinds, or the feathered carpenters that pry into the crevices of the bark, and dig into the rotten wood in search of the insects and the insect larvæ hidden there.

January Third

The chickadee, white-breasted nuthatch, and the downy woodpecker, keep company during the long winter months. They will appreciate your lunches most, and will call on you frequently throughout the day.

Notes

January Fourth

Do not attempt to tame your visitors until they have made several calls for lunches. Then put a crude "dummy," with a false face, near the window, and raise the sash to let the birds enter. Within a few days the chickadees will perch upon Dummy's shoulders and take nut meats from his buttonholes.

January Fifth

Having thus gained the chickadees' confidence, hurry to the window when you hear them call, and quietly take the place of the dummy. Of course they will be suspicious at first, and probably you will meet with many disappointments, but when you have succeeded in taming them to alight upon your hand or shoulder, you will find enjoyment in calling them to you by the gentle whistle to which you should accustom them.

January Sixth

Tempting food, and slow movements when in the presence of birds, are the main secrets to successful bird taming. The chickadee, as you will find, is the easiest of these birds to tame. He has several songs and call notes, so do not expect always to hear him repeat his name, "chick-a-de-de-de-de."

Notes

January Seventh

Persons not familiar with birds often mistake the white-breasted nuthatch for a woodpecker, for their actions are much alike. The nuthatch creeps about the trees in all kinds of attitudes, while the woodpecker assumes an upright position most of the time and moves in spasmodic hops. The young and the female downy woodpecker do not have the red crescent on the back of the head. The hairy woodpecker is another "resident" that looks like his cousin, the downy, but he is once again as large.

January Eighth

Winter in the North is a season of hardship and hunger to wild creatures. The otherwise wary and cunning crow often puts discretion aside when in search of food, and fearlessly visits the village refuse heaps, or the farmer's barn-yard. In the orchards you will find where he has uncovered the decayed apples and pecked holes into them.

January Ninth

Even the mink, after days of fasting, is driven by starvation to leave his retreat in a burrow along a creek or river bank, and to forage upon the farmer's poultry. Poor fellow, he does not hibernate, so he must have food; fish is his choice, but when hard pressed, he will take anything, "fish, flesh, or fowl."

Notes

January Tenth

In the fields and lowlands, the scattered coveys of Bob-whites that have escaped the hunter, huddle for shelter from a storm under a stump or in a hollow log. Sometimes several days pass before they are able to dig through the drifts that imprison them. Should a heavy sleet-storm cover the snowy mantle with a crust too thick and hard for them to break through, starvation is their fate. Sportsmen living within convenient reach of quail coverts should watch over them in such weather and provide food and shelter for the birds.

January Eleventh

Even the flocks of horned (or shore) larks that feed on the wind-swept hilltops, pause occasionally and squat close to the ground to keep from being blown away. They have come from the North, and after passing the winter with us, most of them will return to Canada to nest.

January Twelfth

Part 3

A long period of cold freezes the marshes to the bottom, and compels the muskrats to seek the bushy banks, or to take shelter under the corn-shacks or hay-stacks in the fields. Poor things, they of all animals endure hardship; for one can often track them to where they have scratched away the snow while searching for grass-blades, roots, acorns or apples that have fallen and decayed.

Notes

January Thirteenth

When the wind sweeps over the fields and the cold nips your ears, you are apt to come suddenly upon a flock of snowflakes, or snow buntings. Hastening back and forth among the weeds along the bank, they reach up and pick the seeds and crack them in their strong bills. They, too, like the horned larks, have come from the North, and in March will return again.

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