Birds and Nature Vol. 11 No. 2 [February 1902]

The owls that I had taken were safely reared and prove both amusing and interesting pets, but their life while in my keeping we will leave for another time.

    D. Welby.

THE BROAD-TAILED HUMMINGBIRD

(Selasphorus platycercus.)

When morning dawns * * * *
The flower-fed hummingbird his round pursues;
Sips with inserted tube the honied blooms,
And chirps his gratitude as round he roams;
While richest roses, though in crimson drest,
Shrink from the splendor of his gorgeous breast.
What heavenly tints in mingling radiance fly!
Each rapid movement gives a different dye;
Like scales of burnished gold they dazzling show —
Now sink to shade, now like a furnace glow!

    – Alexander Wilson.
If we desire to study the Broad-tailed Hummingbird in the regions that it frequents, we must journey to the mountainous district of Western North America. Here it may be found in large numbers, for it is the most common of all the species that frequent the mountains. It seeks its food of insects and honey from the flowers of a prolific flora extending from Wyoming and Idaho southward through Colorado, New Mexico, Arizona, Texas and over the table lands of Mexico into Guatemala. It is pretty generally distributed throughout the various mountain systems between the eastern slopes of the Rocky Mountains and the Sierra Nevadas.

Dr. Merriam found the Broad-tails very abundant in the balsam and pine belts of the San Francisco Mountains of Arizona, where their principal food plants were the scarlet trumpet flower and the large blue larkspur. Of their habits he says, “They wake up very early in the morning and go to water at daylight, no matter how cold the weather is. During the month of August, and particularly the first half of the month, when the mornings were often frosty, hundreds of them came to the spring to drink and bathe at break of day. They were like a swarm of bees, buzzing about one’s head and darting to and fro in every direction. The air was full of them. They would drop down to the water, dip their feet and bellies, and rise and shoot away as if propelled by an unseen power. They would often dart at the face of an intruder as if bent on piercing the eye with their needlelike bill, and then poise for a moment almost within reach before turning, when they were again lost in the busy throng. Whether this act was prompted by curiosity or resentment I was unable to ascertain.”

It seems strange and unnatural that so delicate a bird and one so highly colored should frequent localities where periods of low temperature are common. Yet the Broad-tailed Hummingbird prefers high elevations and has been known to nest at an altitude of eleven thousand feet, and it seldom breeds at places lower than five thousand feet.

The males leave for their winter homes very early in the season. Usually this migration takes place very soon after the young birds leave their nests. Mr. Henshaw attributes this movement of the males to the fact that their favorite food plant, the Scrophularia, begins to lose its blossoms at this time. He says: “It seems evident that the moment its progeny is on the wing and its home ties severed, warned of the approach of fall alike by the frosty nights and the decreasing supply of food, off go the males to their inviting winter haunts, to be followed not long after by the females and young. The latter, probably because they have less strength, linger last, and may be seen even after every adult bird has departed.”

Though the flight of all hummingbirds is rapid, that of this species is unusually so. During the breeding season, or at least while mating, the flight of the male is accompanied by a loud metallic noise. This is only heard when the bird is rapidly flying and not when it is hovering over flowers. Mr. Henshaw suggests that this sound may be “analogous to the love notes of other birds.” Though he saw “many of these birds in the fall, it was only very rarely that this whistling note was heard, and then only with greatly diminished force.” He believed that the sound was produced at the will of the bird and by means of some peculiar attenuation of the outer primary wing feather. The nesting places of many of the hummingbirds, as well as that of the Broad-tail, may frequently be located by the peculiar perpendicular flight of the male. They will frequently fly as high as one hundred feet immediately above the vicinity of the nest, repeating the performance several times before alighting on some perch. The female is a faithful mother and will often remain on her nest until an intruder is within a few inches. The nest, though sometimes placed on large branches, is usually built but a few feet from the ground in low bushes or boughs that overhang water.

In their migrations southward the Broad-tailed Hummingbird is frequently found in company with the rufous-backed species, for which it shows an especial animosity. Speaking of these two species, Mr. Henshaw says: “The beds of bright flowers about Willow Spring, in the White Mountains, Arizona, were alive with them in August, and as they moved swiftly to and fro, now surfeiting themselves on the sweets they here found so abundant, now fighting with each other for possession of some such tempting prize as a cluster of flowers, their rapid motions and the beauty of their colors intensified by the bright sunlight, conspired to an effect not soon to be forgotten.”

A BIRD THAT HUNG HIMSELF

Near the gate of our garden stands a small apricot tree which is only about six feet in height. Last year a long twine string became entangled in this tree. One day when I went to the garden I noticed a blackbird hanging in this string, about two feet from the ground. On examination I found that the string was closely wrapped about his neck several times, and that he had been choked to death by it. He had evidently tried to secure the string for his nest, and probably had several times started to fly away with it, only to find that the other end of it was fast.

There are usually high winds in Kansas during the Spring months, and these may have helped to entangle the unfortunate bird. It is certain that in some manner he had snared himself, and in attempting to fly had jerked the cord tight about his neck. There he hung, a martyr to his own energy and ambition; and somewhere his mate mourned for the partner who had gone from her never to return.

    Mary McCrae Culter.

WINTER MEMORIES

Two little twittering sparrows
Shivering under the eaves,
Watching the slanting raindrops
Pattering over the leaves.

Chilled to their poor little marrows,
Though feathered in winter array,
For cold blows the wind o’er the housetop
And bitter and bleak is the day.

“You two little balls of brown feathers!
You chattering he and she!
Of what are you thinking, my pretty ones,
As you nestle close under the lea?”

“Shall we tell you,” they twitter in chorus,
“Our thoughts in this sharp winter air,
Through which the chill ice drops are falling
O’er treetops so wind-torn and bare?

“We remember our love in the spring time —
Ah, life to us then was so dear,
As we drifted through days joy-laden,
And nights filled with moonbeams so clear.

“We remember the sunshine of summer,
When the hours floated by like a dream,
And the air was alive with bird-music
And the world was a shimmer of green.

“We remember, too, winter is fleeting,
Though now it is snow-bound and drear;
But sometime the sunshine will loosen
The ice chains and spring will be here.

“We remember” – the little heads quiver
And the voices sound drowsily deep,
As they come from ’way down among feathers;
“We remember” – a pause – “then we sleep.”

    – Alberta A. Field.

SOME OF OUR WINTER BIRDS

IN EASTERN MASSACHUSETTS

One of our most interesting winter birds and (with the exception of the English sparrow) perhaps the commonest, is the little black-cap chicadee. He is frequently seen in one’s orchard and around the door, and a stroll into the woods will reveal him at any time. He may be easily distinguished by his jet black cap, his bluish drab back and wings, and a yellow tinge on his downy breast. Cedar trees are a special delight of his and, in the winter season, he may be found in nearly every grove of these evergreens. As one walks along through the woods, he is attracted by their notes, usually the simple, cheerful “chic-a-dee-ee e e,” varied with squeaks and chirps, or if it be in February or March, he may hear a beautiful whistle (“pee-a-wee-a”), and possibly catch a pretty warbling song. They are always lively and cheerful and on a gloomy winter day they cause one to forget everything but them and their pleasant notes. They feed principally on berries and seeds, such as can be found in cold weather when the ground is covered with snow. But our little friends are seldom alone; as almost constant companions they have the nuthatches, snowbirds, tree sparrows and goldfinches.

Another very common cold weather bird is the slate colored snowbird or junco. Bluish slate above and grayish below, with some white tail feathers which show as he flies, he is a pretty sight to behold when one starts a flock of them from some frozen swamp or meadow, where they feed upon seeds and berries. They utter a loud chirp when you disturb them in the winter time, and as they hop about keep up an incessant twittering, which are the only notes you will hear from them, unless you are lucky enough to hear their song which they seldom sing before starting for their summer homes. When it is stormy or severely cold they come up to one’s door and eat bread crumbs and other things which may be thrown out. They are real friendly and will come quite near to you, and a man once told me that the reason for this was blindness on the part of the birds, and even as he spoke one of the birds flew to a nearby fence and, cocking his head, looked my informer over as if to give him the lie. John B. Tabb has written a short poem, which nicely describes him:

When snow, like silence visible,
Hath hushed the summer bird,
Thy voice, a never frozen rill
Of melody, is heard.
But when from winter’s lethargy
The buds begin to blow,
Thy voice is mute, and suddenly
Thou vanishest like snow.