Part 15

Birds are often great sufferers from heat. The open bill, drooping wings, and panting body, all testify to this fact. A bird sitting on an unshaded nest during a hot day is an object for our pity. Fill flower-pot saucers with fresh water, and place them in depressions about the grounds. The birds will get great relief from these drinking and bathing dishes, and your opportunity for observation will be increased.

Notes

=June=

June First

One night last summer, a moth laid a circular cluster of eggs at the end of a limb. Not many days ago the eggs hatched and the caterpillars have begun to spin a silk tent in the crotch of several branches. Every time these tent caterpillars (for that is their name) go out to feed upon the leaves, they spin a thread by which they find their way home. After they have eaten their fill, they will drop to the ground to seek a hiding-place and there turn into moths.

June Second

The fertile fronds of the cinnamon fern break ground before the sterile ones come up. They appear to shoot from the centre of the crown-shaped cluster, and are light cinnamon color when mature. By the last of June the fertile fronds have withered, leaving only the sterile ones which the amateur is quite sure to confuse with the interrupted fern.

June Third

While driving in the country your attention is often drawn to the swallows that are flying about the barns. Two species are common, one has two long tail feathers that fork. This is the barn swallow, and his mate builds her nest inside the barn, on a rafter or against the planking. It is always open on top and lined with soft material.

Notes

June Fourth

The eave swallow lacks the forked tail, and the rump is cinnamon-buff. Usually the female builds her globular shaped mud nest under the eaves of an unpainted barn. Hundreds of mud pellets are neatly welded together and an opening is left in the front. As these swallows also build against cliffs, they are known as cliff swallows in some localities.

June Fifth

The nesting season is now at its height, and you will soon see young birds about the grounds. The old birds may be away looking for food. Let us remember that it is better to let Nature work out her own problems. Instead of catching the birdlings and forcing them to eat unnatural food (only to find them dead a few hours later), put them back into the nest when it is possible, or if they are strong enough, toss them into the air and let them flutter to the branches of a tree beyond the reach of cats.

June Sixth

This is about the time that turtles hunt for a sandy bank in which to make a depression where they may deposit their eggs--that look so much like ping-pong balls. The eggs are covered with sand and left for the sun to hatch. The young dig through the shallow covering and take to the water.

Notes

June Seventh

If you wish to see one of the most gorgeous of wood birds, the scarlet tanager, you must find him now, for, after the nesting season, he loses his black wings and tail and bright red dress, and dons the sober green hue of his mate. You will find him living in the maple groves, and the heavy forests of maple, oak, beech, and chestnut. His song, though not so loud as either, resembles both that of the robin and the rose-breasted grosbeak.

June Eighth

In the low-lying meadows, and in the marshes, the towering stems of the blue flag, or blue iris, have already blossomed. Nature has so constructed this handsome flower, that were it not for the visits of bees, and other insects, its seeds would remain unfertilized.

June Ninth

The orchard oriole is far from common north of the States parallel with southern New York. It migrates to Central America in winter, as does its cousin, the Baltimore oriole, who is named for Lord Baltimore. It lives in orchards, and you should look in apple and pear trees for its graceful pendent nest, built of the stems and blades of grass neatly woven together, like the nest of a weaver bird.

Notes

June Tenth

When by pure strategy you have outwitted a pair of bobolinks, and have succeeded in finding their nest, you have indeed achieved a triumph. To be successful, take your field-glasses, and secrete yourself near a meadow where you can watch a pair of bobolinks without being seen. Wait until one or both birds have made repeated trips to a certain spot, then with eyes riveted on the place, hurry forward, and as the bird rises, drop your hat on the spot and search carefully about it until the nest is found.

June Eleventh

The robin, song sparrow, vesper sparrow, chipping sparrow, phoebe, and house wren by this time have their first fledglings out of the nest. They usually raise two, and sometimes three broods in a season. While the father bird is busy caring for the youngsters, the mother is building another nest or laying a second set of eggs.