Nests and Eggs of Birds of The United States

Plate VII. – TROCHILUS COLUBRIS, Linaeus. – Ruby-throated Humming-bird

The Ruby-throated Humming Bird is found throughout Eastern North America as far west as the Missouri Valley, and thence northward to the 57th parallel. It breeds from Florida and Western Texas to the plains of the Saskatchewan and the head-waters of the Elk River.

From its winter-quarters in Guatemala and Mexico, it takes up its line of flight when the season has fairly opened, reaching our southern frontiers late in March. Thence it slowly advances northward in its migration, arriving in Upper Georgia about the 10th of April; in Pennsylvania, from the last of April to the Middle of May, and in its northern habitats, during the last of May, or the beginning of June.

For a brief season subsequent to arrival the sexes remain apart, and seem only intent upon the procurement of food. This is especially the case in the Middle Atlantic States where their habits have been very closely observed. Here they make their appearance with the blossoms of the horse-chestnut and tulip-tree, and may be seen at all hours of the day, in fair weather, delving into flowers for honeyed sweets, or probing their bosoms for the caitiffs within. In feeding, their movements resemble those of the hawk-moths. Gracefully they suspend themselves in mid-air before the opening flowers, ravish their hidden treasures, and, with almost the speed of an arrow let fly from a bended bow by some skilled archer, are off in an instant, possibly to more delectable vineyards, or to some shady nook for rest and contemplation. For agility and fleetness of motion the little Ruby-throat is certainly unsurpassed by any of our smaller feathered species.

But things cannot long remain in this state. Their favorite flowers must soon wither and decay, and with their timely death, must inevitably come the disappearance of an easy and luxurious means of subsistence. The tooth of appetite will then grow dull, and other thoughts and scenes invite their attention. Experience has taught us that the falling of the blossoms of the horse-chestnut and tulip-tree foretell the time of mating.

This important business is performed without the least semblance of show. The sexes tired, as it were, of the riotous and luxurious lives they have been leading, come together by mutual agreement, and enter into matrimonial relations. This being accomplished, they separate for a brief period, and each proceeds to scour the country for miles around in quest of a suitable tree in which to locate. When one is selected by either bird, the other is summoned to the spot to talk over, in true bird-language, the merits thereof. Should the parties differ as to the advantageousness of the site, no quarrelling or bickering is indulged in, but, in the most friendly manner, they separate, and renew the search until one is found which gives satisfaction.

Having decided upon a locality, the birds are now ready to commence building. This takes place between the first and the tenth of June in the Middle States, about the tenth in New England, and as early as the fourth in the Southern Atlantic and Gulf States. The situations chosen vary considerably. Sometimes high, open woods are selected; again, low, dense thickets; but, more frequently, an orchard close-by a human dwelling, or an isolated tree in the midst of a lawn. Occasionally, the birds have been known to build in trees along travel-worn thoroughfares. A case in point came under our notice in the summer of 1872. While returning home one day, we were surprised to see a female fly from her nest in a maple-bough, only a few feet above our head. The nest was immediately examined, and found to contain a pair of young birds. Not wishing to disturb the happiness of the family, we permitted it to remain intact. On visiting the spot a week or ten days afterward, it was found to be empty, the birds either having matured and flown away, or else had been killed by some ruthless invader. For several successive years a nest was to be seen on the same tree and branch, but whether the work of the same pair, we are unable to say.

That this species is not very particular as to the kind of tree in which it builds, has been our experience, and we do not find any recorded instance of disagreement. Dr. Brewer mentions but one kind of tree in which it builds – the apple. In addition to it, we have found nests saddled upon the pear, red-oak, white-oak, willow, red maple, sugar maple, cottonwood, beech, pine, etc. In fine, almost any tree will answer this purpose, as the generality of arboreous growths are more or less favorable to the development of lichens. Several anomalous positions, as on pine-cones and warty excrescences, have frequently been met with in our ornithological rambles.

The nest is the result of the joint labor of both birds, who work with unwearied perseverance and diligence until it is completed; the male furnishing the raw material to be manipulated and adjusted by his zealous partner. Occasionally, the latter assists her "liege lord" in collecting and bringing in his burden.

In the matter of composition, there is but little difference in fabrics from the most distant regions. Nests from Texas are exact counterparts of those from Georgia; and these, again, resemble others from Pennsylvania and Michigan. All we have seen are composed mainly of a woolly substance of vegetable origin, plucked from the leaves of the common mullein, or from the young and unexpanded leaves of the various species of oak, immediately before their full development. This substance, after being wrought into form and symmetry, is strengthened on the outside by small woody fibres, or the webs of spiders. Over all is placed a close and compact thatching of small lichens, a species of Parmelia, glued thereon by the viscid saliva of the builders. On the inside may be frequently observed a thin lining of white feathers; and, on the outside, a few dried catkins. In dimensions, these nests usually measure one and a half inches in external diameter, and nearly one and three-fourths in height. The cavity is generally three-fourths of an inch wide at the rim, and the same in depth. Specimens have been met with which were but half an inch deep, and others which showed a much greater depth, as well as external height.

The nest in the Plate is from Comal County, Texas, and was found upon a beech-tree. It is composed almost entirely of vegetable wool from the poplar and oak, and is lined with a few small white feathers. Externally, there is a dense covering of bluish crustaceous lichens and brownish oak-tassels, which are held in position by saliva and strands of spider's silk. It was placed upon a branch at an elevation of twenty feet above the ground. In height it measures one and three-fourth inches; in external diameter, one and a half. The width of the cavity is three-fourths of an inch, and the depth about a half.

A nest obtained in Lynn, Mass., in June, 1860, was saddled on a horizontal branch of an apple-tree. It is woven of a soft woolly material, fine in texture, silky in appearance, and of the purest white color. Basally, it is strengthened with pieces of bark; and laterally, with fine vegetable fibres. The whole exterior is beautifully covered with a compact coating of lichens. It measures one and a half inches in height, and two and one-fourth in external diameter. The cavity is shallow, and is seven-tenths of an inch in depth, and one in width.

A very beautiful nest, as well as a marked deviation from the normal form, as far as materials of composition are concerned, was discovered in June, 1870, upon a branch of a red-oak which overhung a by-road, and within a few feet of a woollen factory. Scattered in the neighborhood was a lot of reddish shoddy, which had been discarded by the mill hands. The birds, it is evident, were not slow in perceiving the use to which this "waste" could be put. Accordingly they set to work, and, in a few days, had constructed a beautiful nest, at a saving of much labor and time. It might be thought there was a dearth of the usual materials, but this was not so, as a careful survey of the grounds soon satisfied us. Interiorly, this nest was entirely composed of this shoddy, while the exterior was covered with the ordinary lichens fastened to the nest proper by a few cobwebs and a secretion from the builders. In external diameter, it measured one and three-fourths inches; in height, two inches; in internal diameter, three-fourths of an inch, and nearly as much in depth of cavity.

The nest being finished, which is the work of five or six days, but a day or two elapse, and the female is ready to deposit her eggs. The latter, to the number of two, are laid in as many consecutive days. Incubation immediately ensues, and continues for a period of eight days. Its duties devolve upon the female, who sits with commendable patience until her task is accomplished. While thus employed, her mate stands guard, or is abroad in quest of food. If any attempt is made to interfere with the nest while he is on duty, the most menacing gestures and loudest remonstrances are indulged in. Should these not have the desired effect of frightening away the intruder, he darts at his foe with wide, open bill, and endeavors to inflict summary punishment. He is so persistent in these attacks that it is often very hard to beat him off. The female, on the contrary, is of a more passive nature, quietly keeping the nest, although not unmindful of the proceedings being enacted, and only venturing therefrom when danger is imminent. These assaults continue while the nest is endangered, and even for a short time afterwards, when the birds retire to a neighboring tree to brood over their mishaps, and consider what is best to be done.

The young are objects of special interest to the parents, who render them every needed attention. When one is absent for food, the other stays at home to protect them from danger. Their food consists of a prepared mixture of nectar and soft insects, which they procure by thrusting their bills into the mouths of their parents. It was formerly supposed that this diet consisted entirely of the honey of flowers, but this opinion of the ancients was not wholly a fallacy, since a portion of nectar is taken with the insects, and supplies to the Humming-bird that kind of nourishment which the larger insectivorous birds derive from fruit. When eleven days old, these tiny creatures, in their beautiful robes of green, quit the nest, but necessarily remain under parental control a week longer, before they are able to support themselves. By some inexplicable circumstance, the young do not leave for their winter-homes until some time after their parents have departed.

The eggs are beautifully elliptical in outline, and of a pure dull white color. They measure .50 by .34 of an inch. Never more than a single brood is raised annually. Nests with eggs have been taken as late as the 20th of July, but these were doubtless laid by females whose early efforts had been interfered with.

Plate VIII. – PIPILO ERYTHROPHTIIALMUS, Vieillot. – Towhee Bunting

The Towhee Bunting, or Ciieavink, has an extended distribution throughout the eastern portions of the United States, ranging from Florida and Georgia on the south-east to the Selkirk settlements on the northwest, and westward to the border of the Great Plains, where it is replaced by closely allied races. It breeds wherever found, certainly in Georgia, and, doubtless, in Florida, although sparingly.

According to Wilson, it is found in the middle districts of Virginia, and thence south to Florida, during the months of January, February and March; but as the weather grows mild, and Nature begins to don her livery of green, many forsake these haunts, and wing their flight to distant localities; reaching the Middle Atlantic States about the fifteenth of April, Massachusetts and Connecticut towards the last of the month, Maine and New Hampshire early in May, and the North-western States a little later.

In some regions the birds arrive singly, but retire in small flocks. This is the case in the vicinity of Washington; whereas in Eastern Pennsylvania, they are somewhat gregarious for a week or ten days after their arrival, when they separate, and lead solitary lives. Their sole object now is the acquirement of food. For this purpose they repair to waste fields and damp thickets, or to small patches of underbrush along frequented roads. Here their simple song may be heard during the intervals of feeding, with scarce an intermission, from five o'clock in the morning until eight in the evening, by the early or belated pedestrian. In rain or in sunshine, or at noonday in the hottest weather of the season, the woods resound therewith, or with that peculiar note of complaint from which the species has received the name Chewink.

There is an expression of cheerfulness in these notes, though they are not delivered with that enthusiasm which characterizes the songs of many of our species. But music, like poetry, must be of a somewhat plaintive nature, if it would take firm hold of the feelings.

After a period of three or four weeks mostly spent in feeding, the males seem to tire of such a life, and seek to attract the attention of the females. Perched on the lower branch of a tree, near the edge of a wood, or 011 the summit of a small tree or tall bush in the midst of a thicket, or hid from view by clusters of bushes, they may be heard pouring forth, with all the fervor of their being, their strange madrigals. At first, their efforts to captivate are unheeded. But patiently and persistently the singing is kept up in a quiet, simple manner, until their auditors become impressed, and modestly quit their shady retreats to encourage the musicians by their presence. Having gained this advantage, they follow it up, and in less than a week from the time the first note was uttered, have mastered the situation. The females wholly entranced, yield to the persuasions of their would-be lords, and conjugal relations are entered into. This generally occurs not later than the fifteenth of May. But the happy couple are not yet ready to begin nest-building. They must needs celebrate the occasion of their marriage. Accordingly, they set out on a wedding-trip, so to speak, visiting adjoining lots and thickets, and enjoying the delights and scenes around them. This continues for four or five days, when the lovers, thoroughly surfeited, return and quietly settle down to prosy life.

The erection of a home is now the absorbing topic of interest and conversation. Where to build, and how, are matters that are agitating their minds, and which seem, judging from the actions of the parties interested, very difficult questions to adjust. After no inconsiderable portion of time thus spent, and with little possibility of coming to any decision, a separation ensues, and the country scoured for miles around.

Should a situation which seems eligible be discovered by either party, the other, by a peculiar signal, is called to the spot, and the advantages thereof carefully discussed. If satisfactory, it is accepted, and building operations commenced. Otherwise, the search is commenced anew, and continued until one is obtained which is mutually pleasing. But where the birds are unmolested, the same localities are probably selected on each return of the breeding-season. The situation generally chosen is a small thicket with a dense growth of underbrush, or a high piece of ground overrun by brambles, and dotted by patches of fern. Latterly, nests have been frequently found in clumps of tall grass, in fields once swampy in character.

In New England, the locality usually chosen is a low, dense woods, thickets of briers and bushes near streams of water, or the "scrub," which is a low or bushy "growth" of trees, chiefly of oaks and birches, occurring in dry, hilly lands once occupied by pines. In the extreme northern limits of its range, dry uplands, near the edges of woods, or high tracts covered with a. low brushwood, are used, rather than low or moist grounds, as was the case in some sections at the time when Wilson wrote. The love for such situations doubtless gave rise to the appellation of "Swamp Robin," which is generally applied to this species in Pennsylvania.

When placed within a thicket, or in the borders thereof, the nest is either built in a depression of the ground, usually beneath a bunch of grass, in a pile of old brush or fagots, or on a slight prominence surrounded by tall, graceful ferns. Within a concavity, the structure is made to project slightly above the margin thereof, and is artfully concealed from the gaze of intruders by dry leaves. So completely is it hidden, that all efforts to find it frequently prove unavailing.

The work of building is entered into with diligence and alacrity, each bird collecting and adjusting the materials as it thinks best. While thus engaged – which is usually from sunrise to sunset, allowing the necessary time for foraging and rest – the architects seldom, if ever, get at outs, but labor with a purpose, and in the best of spirits. The time thus spent has never been known to exceed three days.

So little variation is manifested in these structures, that specimens from the Southern States resemble those from the Eastern, Middle and Western sections so closely, as to be readily identified by persons of the least experience in such matters.

A typical nest is mainly composed of the leaves of deciduous trees, twigs, grass and roots, 011 the outside, and is lined with the inner fibres of the wild grape-vine, or with fine stems of grasses. The drawing represents it as being constituted of the stems of grasses, with a slight intermixture of leaves and roots, and as having a lining of reddish-brown stems of the same. It measures four and a half inches in extreme diameter, and two and a half in height. The internal diameter is two and three-fourths inches, and the depth of cavity one and a half.

Oviposition commences on the day succeeding the completion of the nest, and proceeds at the rate of one egg daily, until the entire complement is deposited. Incubation closely, follows, usually a day or two after the last egg is laid. This is undoubtedly the exclusive task of the female for a period of thirteen days. Diligent and close watching has failed to show that the male takes any direct part in this important business. Although seemingly averse, or unaccustomed to this kind of work, he does not fail to contribute his share to the success of the undertaking. While his wife is engaged in sitting, he is an ever watchful and cautious husband. Unlike many other species, he does not make himself too conspicuous, but stations himself some distance from the nest, for fear of revealing its whereabouts, and only ventures into the neighborhood at certain regular periods, to receive the commands of his patient little house-wife, or to administer to her bodily wants. Though shy, these birds often seem saucy; and, while one person complains of their chirruping to and starting his horse, another claims that, 011 the discovery of their nest, they express their grief so impudently as to arouse his indignation. But when the nest lias been stumbled upon by some cruel oologist, and the female is compelled to abandon it and seek safety in flight, the male does not even then desert his hiding-place to come to her rescue. Everything is left to her judgment, and well does she play her role in the drama. By various strategic movements, such as imitating the actions and cries of a crippled bird, she decoys the inexperienced intruder to a remote distance, when she flings off' the veil of hypocrisy, and quickly disappears in the bushes. With the trained collector this ruse hardly succeeds, and the disappointed parent often beholds with profound sorrow the discovery of her nest, and its destruction by ruthless hands.

When the young are hatched, they are watched over with jealous care, and receive more than ordinary attention. Grubs, earthworms, plant-lice and larvæ of butterflies, in immense numbers, are daily gleaned, and fed to their hungry appetites. Such are their demands for food, during the first week or ten days of existence, that the parents are kept extremely busy in catering thereto. Occasionally, both are absent from home 011 this important business, but the rule seems to be for one parent to keep a watch over it and its helpless inmates, while the other is thus occupied.

At the age of thirteen or fourteen days, the young quit the nest, and receive their first lessons in the mysteries of bird life; and, in ten days more, are forced to shift for themselves, but are permitted, however, to remain with the parents until the time of the autumnal migration, when they help to form the small flocks which are seen flying southward about the middle of October.

The eggs of this species are four in number, rounded-oval in shape, and are covered over the entire surface with dots and blotches of reddish-brown upon an obscure grayish, or reddish-white background. In some specimens, these dots run into each other; and, in others, they are distinct, being more profusely collected about the larger extremity. The average measurement of a score of specimens from widely-separated localities is .97 by .80 of an inch. Such is the resemblance which obtains between these eggs and those of the Brown Thrush, that when sets of both are placed together in a tray, the difference between them would scarcely be apparent to a novice in such matters. It remains for the keen and critical eye of the more advanced student to point out the distinction, which consists in the paler and more roseate tint of the Chewink's eggs, and the larger size of those of the Thrasher. Wherever observed, these birds seem to be single-brooded, although nests are sometimes found with young, in June and August, which fact would seem to argue that occasionally more than one brood is reared; but, generally, the first brood leaves the nest too late for another to be brought out before the appearance of the early frosts.

Plate IX. – PICUS PUBESCENS, Linaeus. – Downy Woodpecker

The Downy Woodpecker, or Lessee Sapsucker as it is called byway of distinction, is a resident rather than a migratory species, and is known to breed wherever it is found. Its area of distribution extends from Lower Louisiana to Labrador, and from Texas northward through New Mexico and the Indian Territory to the 58° of latitude. It is also quite common in the maritime parts of Alaska, the Aleutian Islands excepted. Although abundant east of the Rocky Mountains, and rather more numerous than its nearest kin, the Larger Sapsucker, yet, owing to the smallness of its size, it is not so well known outside of cultivated districts.

In the autumnal and winter months, these birds lead solitary lives. Go where we will, then, we may here and there behold isolated individuals busily probing the fissured bark of trees for the eggs and pupa of insects. Even the mature forms meet with the same cruel treatment.

Though rarely observed in cultivated districts during these times, yet a visit to the woods will reveal many a little fellow in dappled dress arrayed, with or without a crown of red, wending his slow and labored flight from tree to tree, or waking the clear echoes of rock and shady glen with his shrill music and weird drumming.

But when balmy Spring returns, and releases the earth from the icy fetters of the winter-god, and peoples our shade and fruit trees with countless insect existences, then quits he the wild forest scenery, in a measure, and betakes himself to our lawns and orchards. This is not always the case. For in those lands where civilization has not planted, but where Nature still reigns in her pristine glory, lie is the same changeless creature as when first he greeted the vision of man.

'Tis now the social forces, freed from the frozen bonds of winter, rejoice in new vitality. The sexes no longer shun each other as before, but mingle in the most friendly manner. The male is the first to show symptoms of change. He pursues his predatory exploits with less of his characteristic zeal, and seeks to attract the attention of the gentler sex. With this object in view, he arranges his toilet with scrupulous nicety, and then goes forth to parade his beauties and grace before a bevy of idle, listless females. Ever and anon, he varies his occupation, by the rendition of a song. But his auditors seem either incapable of appreciating his efforts to please, or else are too much concerned with other matters to pay any real attention thereto.

Our little hero, not to be baffled, keeps up his courage, and with a patience truly praiseworthy, continues his suit, till at last he reaches the ear of some simple-minded female, when he pours forth, with all the resistless eloquence of his being, the short but pleasing narrative of his love.

Should his affection be requited as it deserves, the happy lovers, without further ado, hie themselves away to sunny field or shady grove, to enjoy a brief honey-moon, preparatory to entering upon the trying and responsible duties of wedded life.

The getting of a wife is not always so easily accomplished. It is generally attended with many trials and vicissitudes of fortune. Sometimes when success seems ready to crown the efforts of an actor in this part of life's drama, a rival comes upon the scene, and claims the attention of the wooed. The most ridiculous antics now ensue, and continue for hours together. The female becomes the most whimsical of creatures, lavishing her caresses first upon one, and then upon the other of her suitors. The jealousy of the contesting males now knows no bounds, and only vents itself in long and fierce encounters. The female, at last, comes to the rescue, desists from her meaningless flirtation, and bestows the jewel of her affections upon her first lover. The combat ceases, and the participants separate.

Occasionally, several pairs will meet by chance upon the same tree, when similar scenes will be enacted by the jolly females, much to the vexation of their respective suitors. These farces have been known to last for nearly a week, but they seldom continue for a longer period than two days.

Mating having taken place, which is usually the case during the first week of May, never earlier except when the season is remarkably advanced, the birds make ample amends for the time thus seemingly frittered away, by the perseverance and diligence with which they ransack the orchards and groves for a suitable tree in which to excavate a nest.

The selection of a site is a matter of no little importance, the greater part of a week being consumed in making the necessary reconnoissances. These explorations commence early in the morning, and continue with but few interruptions until the close of the day. They are never performed singly, but always in pairs. One feature thereof strikes us as peculiarly interesting, and as deserving of mention. It is the perfect harmony and good-will which then prevail.

If a situation is discovered by one of the parties which is apparently suitable, a conference is called, and the various advantages thereof discussed. If mutually agreeable, further examinations cease, and building operations are begun. In cultivated grounds, a decayed branch of the apple or cherry is chosen for this purpose; but in more retired situations, the maple, ash, elm or tulip-tree is given the preference.

In the Southern States, nest-building commences about the middle of April; in the Middle Atlantic, seldom later than the fifteenth of May; in New England, from the fifteenth of May to the tenth of June; and in the extreme northerly portions of its habitat, about the fifteenth of the latter month.

All things being in readiness, the male is the first to commence operations. Stationing himself upon the spot which is to constitute the doorway to his home, with claws imbedded in the wood to prevent from falling, he digs the bark away in the form of a semi-circle. Then reversing his position, he goes through the same difficult but trying task, his little bill his only implement of execution, until he has wrought a perfect circle. Continuing the labor, he delves away into the soft or hardened interior, like a veritable Trojan, until an inch or more of the wood has yielded to the blows of his small but powerful chisel. Tired, at last, he resigns the work to his companion, and settles himself upon a branch close-by to rest. Having recuperated his exhausted energies, he starts off in quest of food, but to return in the course of a half-hour to the relief of the female. Thus the work goes on, day after day, with an industry and patience truly commendable, until success crowns the undertaking.

The opening to the chamber is perfectly circular, and quite as accurate as a skilful mechanic could make it with compasses. The cavity is first directed downwards at an angle of forty degrees, for the space of five inches, when it takes a perdendicular course for nearly ten inches further, widening perceptibly at the bottom. Such is the capacity of the latter that the sitting-bird is able to turn around therein with considerable ease, but the external orifice is just large enough to admit the bodies of herself and partner.

Few species are more careful to direct attention from the scene of their labors than the subjects of our sketch. The chips produced during the work of excavation are usually carried to some distance, so as to remove all traces that might lead to detection. But howsoever clandestinely they may act, and whatever precaution they may exercise, their home does not always escape the keen eye of the experienced oologist, or the sharpness and sagacity of the mischievous and insinuating little House Wren – one of the most annoying enemies with which it has to contend.