Nests and Eggs of Birds of The United States

Their favorite food being insects, in all their different stages, where abundance of them exist they seldom stray for any considerable distance from their accustomed woods during the breeding-season. When snow or ice debars them from access to the trunk and branches of trees, they have been known to visit houses and out-buildings for the requisite food, and even to hunt among the leaves upon the ground of sheltered localities for the seeds of plants. Ordinarily dry, high thickets are preferred to the noise and bustle of human life. It is chiefly at such times that the sexes part company, and seem engrossed by the most selfish feelings.

While remarkably fond of the joys of the table, as evidenced by the industry and perseverance with which they pursue their gastronomic exploits, they are not so thoroughly epicurean in their lives as to forget the claims of affection. Their devotion to each other is nearly unbounded, and is scarcely excelled, if at all, by that which characterizes our smaller Titmice. This feeling of love, as is natural to suppose, cannot fail to lead to an early assumption of conjugal relations. Accordingly we find that preparations for this work are entered into early. About the time that the Warblers are beginning to make the woods and fields lively with their exhilarating songs and diversions, these loving, sympathetic beings, already mated, are beginning to look themselves out a home. Like the Woodpeckers and Chickadees, they sometimes excavate a hole in the decayed trunk or branch of a forest-tree, or in the solid wood itself. Usually, however, they search for one already prepared, either in the trunk of a tree, in the creviced wall of an out-building, or in a hollow rail in a fence. In any event, more or less work of construction is necessary. When the labor of excavation has commenced, the birds work by turns. The one not thus occupied waits upon its mate, and carries out the chips that are made, to a safe distance from the nest. The cavities thus made vary in depth, some being not more than ten inches deep, while others are nearly one and a half feet. The entrance thereto is generally wide enough to admit of easy entrance, but towards the bottom the cavity expands into a sort of room. In the North these chambers are lined with warm and soft materials, such as hair, feathers, wool, down and fur, which are loosely thrown together. Audubon affirms that they build no nest, which may have been true in his day, but the statement is not borne out by recent observations. A nest in the writer's collection, from the South, offers no material variation from specimens from the most northern localities.

In the selection of a cavity the birds sometimes make mistakes, as instanced by E. W. Nelson, Esq., in his valuable pamphlet on the Birds of Northeastern Illinois. In this case the Nuthatches had selected for nesting purposes a knot hole in a large oak, at a height of about twenty-five feet from the ground. The hole was large enough to admit the human hand, and several inches in depth. Within were the remnants of a squirrel's nest, which nearly filled the cavity. After working steadily for about a week until the nest was nearly ready for occupancy, a pair of flying-squirrels, the previous owners of the hollow, seized the premises, and the birds, despondent and aggrieved, were compelled to move elsewhere. Had these patient little builders been aware of the method which their European cousin adopts to keep out unfriendly intruders – namely, that of plastering up the entrance to their nest, and thus contracting the opening, they would have been spared the pains of seeing their nearly furnished compartment occupied by creatures of the remotest kinship.

By the first of May, or thereabouts, the female commences to deposit her complement of six eggs, which she does in as many consecutive days. She now immediately enters upon the process of incubation, and after twelve days of close sitting, brings forth her tender brood. All the time that she is thus occupied, the male is very assiduous in his efforts to lighten her cares and solace her ennui. He supplies her with food, and when released from such labor, spends the most of his time in the vicinity of the nest. A score of times during the course of the day, perhaps, she is summoned to the mouth of the hole to receive some choice hit of food, or the endearments and caresses of her idolizing partner. At the approach of danger he does not desert her, but fearlessly intervenes to give the necessary warning. If the nest is disturbed, his quiet, peaceable disposition will not suffer him to make the slightest defence. His only object seems to reach some place of safety, from which, when attained, he can survey the contemplated demolition. With the female the case is different. So strongly attached to her home is she, that she is not prone to leave it, even under the most trying circumstances. A case is cited by Maynard of a nest having been found in a partially decayed apple-tree by Mr. Brewster. In order to effect an entrance for the hand, and thus secure the female, the latter gentleman was compelled to enlarge the opening. The bird struggled vigorously to escape, but when liberated, returned at once to her eggs. Several times was she taken out, and as often re-entered her domicile the moment she was at large.

Both parents are strongly attached to the young, and provide them with an abundance of healthy food, of a somewhat varied character, which they receive, soon after they are hatched, by climbing to the opening of the nest. This food consists chiefly, at first, of different kinds of grubs; but after the first week, beetles and ants are fed, and relished with a gusto. When about two weeks old they venture out upon the trunk to try their legs and claws, while their wings are acquiring development and strength, but retire to the nest when the weather is unpleasant, and at nights. A few days more, and they are prepared to earn their own living, after the peculiar fashion of the race.

Young male birds do not immediately put on the plumage of the paternal sire, and it is probable that this condition is not attained until the following spring. In the fall they resemble the mother, who differs from her lord only in having the black of the head glossed with ashy. The latter is ashy-blue above, with top of head and neck black. The under parts, and sides of the head to a brief space above the eye, are white. The under tail-coverts, as well as tibial feathers, are brown, while the concealed primaries are white. The bill is rather long, stout and awlshaped. The length is six inches, and the wing about three and three-quarters.

The eggs have a white ground in blown specimens, but when fresh they show a beautiful roseate tinge, with a tendency to a reddish hue, which is apparently due to the ferruginous and purplish spots and blotches with which they are so closely covered. Considerable variations of size prevail in these markings, from fine points to well-pronounced blotches, and there is also noticeable a predominance of the reddish-brown colors. The average dimensions of several sets before us, from half a dozen localities, are .80 by .62 inches. Single specimens may occasionally be found which, like Mr. Samuels's Adirondack specimen, may have a length of .70 of an inch, and a width of .57, but such are certainly abnormal productions. While the rule in our Northern States seems to be, according to the concurrent testimony of numerous writers, but a single brood annually, yet there is reason to believe that in the warm, semi-tropical sections of our country, the species may prove double-brooded.

Whether our species could ever be domesticated or not, it is impossible to say. But there is no doubt that, under similar circumstances, the same confiding tameness would be shown, as the interesting descriptions given in English works tell us is exhibited by the European species. The latter, we are told, when treated with kindness, will come regularly to be fed. Individuals have been known to approach within a foot of their benefactor, and even to capture bits of food thrown to them before the latter could have time to reach the ground.

Plate XXXVII. – MELEAGRIS GALLOPAVO VAR. AMERICANA, (Bartr.) Coues. – Wild Turkey

A few years more this handsome bird, which was at one time found in great abundance over nearly the whole of the Eastern Province of the United States, will be numbered with the things that were. Its final extinction is only a question of time, and that not very remote. In the days of Audubon it was found along the entire range of the Alleghanies, where individuals do still exist, but they have been so molested by man, that they can only be approached with the greatest difficulty. At present they are quite abundant in the unsettled parts of our Southern and Western States, and in the regions drained by the Mississippi and Missouri rivers. In New England it has probably become extinct. The same may doubtless be predicated of portions of our Middle Atlantic States. To be sure there are localities where individuals may occasionally be observed, but with the construction of railroads, and the settlement of the country which invariably follows, we may expect the same fate to overtake them. Dr. Woodhouse met with the species in abundance in all the timbered portions of Texas and the Indian Territory, and Mr. Dresser found it common enough in the districts of Mexico and Texas which he visited. This was especially the case on the rivers between San Antonio and the Rio Grande.

Not migratory in the sense in which many of our smaller species are, yet these birds are addicted to roaming from one locality to another. These movements always occur in flocks of varying numbers, and have reference to food-matters. Where the supply of mast becomes exhausted, an advance is ordered towards richer pastures. If there is an abundance of food, the large flocks dissolve into smaller ones, composed of individuals of all ages and sexes. A paucity of the same, brought about by deep snows, induces the birds to approach the haunts of man, where they obtain a subsistence by consorting with the poultry, or by entering the open doors of corn-cribs.

When the young are nearly grown, in October, the adult females – which dwell apart from their lords, each at the head of her numerous family – gather in the rich bottom-lands of our Western rivers. These families unite with others, until parties of seventies and eighties are the final results. The old males associate in parties of from twenty to a hundred, and move simultaneously into the same territories, but are carefully avoided by the mother-birds, on account of the hatred which the former bear towards their nearly grown children. This un parental disposition, which leads the males to destroy their offspring, is more especially vented upon the young males, and is doubtless inspired by jealousy.

The migration are mostly made on foot. But when a stream intervened; a stay of one or two days upon its banks occurs before any attempt is made to cross. The manouvres of the old males are then rather ludicrous. They parade themselves up and down the banks, utter to each other their characteristic gobble, as if to raise their courage to the point necessary to surmount the barrier. The females and the young assume in less degree the same demeanor. After this lengthy preparation, both young and old mount to the summit of a tall tree, and at the leader's signal, wing their flight for the opposite shore. Some, however, overcome by fatigue, drop into the water. These, with wings close-pressed to the body and expanded tail, call their legs into vigorous action, and soon gain the shore, where they are at length able to extricate themselves from the perilous situation. If the stream is wide, the birds are often thrown into a state of bewilderment, and become easy victims to the hunter's rifle. Advantage is not only taken of these movements, but from the fact that the birds are hard to approach in the daytime, many a gunner by watching where they roost, on clear, moonlight evenings is often able to secure two or three plump fellows for his trouble. Like our domestic Turkey, these birds roost on trees as high up as possible. Various contrivances are often adopted to lure them to their destruction. In the spring, a very common practise is to imitate the voice of the female by drawing the air through one of the wing-joints, the second usually, the sound produced being immediately answered by the male, who ventures out of his place of concealment, only to be shot. The cry of the Barred Owl is also imitated in localities which these birds frequent at night, with the most happy results. A trap known as a Turkey-pen is a very common mode of capture in some parts of the country. This is a covered enclosure, made of small trees of various sizes and of moderate heights. At one end a small opening is left, through which is dug a slight trench, sloping gradually from each extremity to the centre, and continued outwardly for a brief space. For a short distance from the enclosure a passage-way is constructed. This, with the interior of the pen, and a narrow tract of land stretching into the forest, is scattered with corn. Attracted by the grain, the birds follow it into the enclosure, and when once there, become bewildered, or lack the intelligence necessary to make their exit. While in this predicament, many are captured.

But as the love-season approaches, man abandons the amusements of the chase, and these severely persecuted creatures are allowed a chance to cultivate social relations. Early in February the males present their suits, but at first meet with little favor. Still they persist, until their patience is rewarded with success. When these amours commence, the sexes are dwelling apart. If a call is emitted by a perching female within hearing of a male, a response is returned in a voice akin to the sounds with which our domestic bird greets any ordinary noise. But let the female utter the same note while on the ground, and she is soon besieged by several of her masculine admirers, each striving to demonstrate the sincerity of his affection. With wide-spread, erected tails, depressed and quivering wings, and head gracefully poised and carried well back upon the shoulders, they parade themselves with great pomp in front of the females, who regard such movements, for the nonce, with listlessness or disfavor. All the while the males are thus engaged, they give expression to their feelings in a succession of peculiar puffs. Considerable excitement often attends these love-affairs. Especially is this the case when some hitherto listless female becomes impressed with the pleadings of a particular male. This is the signal for the fiercest encounters, which usually result in some one or more of the participants being killed. When one rival has thus destroyed another, the surviving party, as if feeling remorse, caresses the fallen one with the ten derest affection.

Having mated, the union thus formed usually lasts during the season, although instances are recorded where the same male has been known to possess more than one partner. The female is endued with finer feelings than her lord and, when concerned with domestic relations, continues to keep her treasures hid, well knowing the propensity which he manifests for destroying the same. Consequently, the selection and building of a nest fall exclusive to her lot. At the close of the love-season, the males cease to gobble, and being considerably emaciated, desert the females, and go off by themselves. When they have recuperated their energies, they return, and reunite in small flocks.

About the middle of April the females prepare their nests in secluded localities. These are placed upon the ground, and consist of a few dry leaves placed in a depression by the side of a prostrate log, under a mass of brushwood in a thicket, within the precincts of a corn-brake, or in such places as afford the necessary shelter. Dry spots are always selected. Suited with locality, the female deposits her eggs daily until the entire complement is raised, when she enters the nest, and for nearly four weeks is a close sitter. When she leaves it for food, she always takes the precaution to cover her eggs with leaves, to guard against detection. Small islands are frequently chosen for nesting purposes. The large masses of driftwood which accumulate about their heads, are said to give them security from their numerous enemies.

So closely attached to home is the female, that she will not leave it unless in peril. The approach of human footsteps is unheeded, where no danger is to be apprehended. Its discovery by man is not considered as sufficient cause for desertion, but she is known to forsake it when the egg's have been broken. In such cases another nest is prepared, but otherwise only one brood is annually raised. The most friendly feelings are known to exist among the females during the breeding-season. Several hens have been known to deposit their eggs in the same nest, and rear their broods together. Audubon once met with forty-two eggs in a single nest, the labors of three females, one of whom being always on guard. When the eggs are nearly hatched, the female remains a very vigilant watcher, and will leave the nest under no circumstances. In short, she has often permitted herself to be captured rather than endanger her treasures. Weak, delicate creatures as the young are, it is doubtful that they could extricate themselves from their calcareous coverings, were it not for the timely efforts of the parent. Not only in this manner does she show her love, but also by fondling and drying them, and assisting them to leave the nest. Her cares are now quite manifold. She must needs lead them into suitable feeding pastures, teach them to distinguish good from bad food, and protect them from enemies. Besides, she is careful to keep them from getting wet, which is detrimental to their early lives. At the age of two weeks, they follow the mother with facility, roost upon the same bough with her at night, and seek their food in the daytime. Their diet at first consists of small berries of different kinds, and insects. To this somewhat restricted bill of fare, grass, corn, seeds, fruit, beetles, tadpoles and lizards are added, as they weekly mature. The dry leaves of the woods are turned over with their feet, for they are somewhat rasorial in their habits. Like their parents, the young are able to go for several days without food, which is occasionally the case after a heavy fall of snow. At such times, in the unsettled parts of our country, both young and old associate with domesticated birds, when quarrels often ensue, which chiefly result in favor of the former. Attempts to tame these birds have been made, but with only partial success. Under confinement birds are apt to lose the brilliancy of their plumage in the third generation, and display in places an intermingling of white feathers throughout the pale brown which they then assume. In the cut accurate representations of the sexes appear, the female differing from the male in being of smaller size, in having less brilliant colors, in the much smaller fleshy protuberance above the base of the bill, and in the absence usually of the pencil of bristles on the breast, and of spur. From the Mexican variety – the supposed parent of the tame species – it differs in having the upper tail-coverts chestnut, but without the light tips, and in having the ends of the tail feathers scarcely paler, instead of brownish-yellow or whitish. The male bird ranges from forty-eight to fifty inches in length, and weighs from sixteen to thirty-five pounds. The wing is twenty-one inches long, and the tail eighteen and a half. The female is smaller proportionally, and weighs about thirteen pounds.

The eggs are usually from eight to fifteen in number, but sometimes amount to eighteen, and even twenty. They are of an elongate oval form, obtuse at one extremity, and pointed at the other. Their ground-color is a dark cream, and there are pretty generally scattered over the surface rounded spots of umber-brown. In dimensions they are apt to differ, even in the same nest-full. Specimens vary from 2.25 to 2.58 inches in length, and from 1.74 to 1.89 in width. In no portion of its habitat is the species other than single-brooded, although nests with eggs are occasionally found in June, but these are due to delays caused by various contingencies.

Plate XXXVIII. – CHÆTURA PELASGICA, (Linn.) Baird. – Chimney Swift

This species chiefly confines its migrations to the eastern portions of North America, from the Atlantic westward to the eastern base of the Rocky Mountains, and northward to the 50th parallel of latitude. In the fur-bearing countries it is probably a stranger, as no mention is made of it by Dr. Richardson in his explorations. Mr. Say met with it at Pembina, on the Red River, in Northern Minnesota; Mr. Allen, in great abundance, in Kansas; but it is doubtful as to its occurrence in New Mexico, notwithstanding the high authority of Dr. Woodhouse, as later observers are silent upon the subject. It has also been claimed by the last-mentioned traveler as being found in parts of Texas, but Mr. Dresser was unable to take it, and it does not appear that it has ever been met with by the naturalists of any of our Western expeditions. The accounts given by early writers of its presence along the Pacific region, it is now decided, pertain not to this species, but to a distinct and closely allied one. Respecting its winter-quarters we are in the dark. It is not likely that it remains in any portion of the United States during the autumnal and brumal months, not to any great extent, if it does at all, as it has been observed by Allen entering Florida during the latter days of March. Lawrence, Salvin and Sclater, as well as other writers of note on the birds of Mexico, Central America and the West Indies, make no mention of it. Its southern journey usually occurs about the middle of September, seldom later, and is performed with so much silence and suddenness, that we are only made aware of the vacancy which their departure has produced, by the missing of their confused yet pleasant chatterings at morn and night.

Their vernal advent is marked with the same quietness, and is as much a source of mystery and surprise.

Upon its arrival in the United States late in March, it diffuses itself in various directions throughout the country, reaching the Central and Northern States about the middle of April usually, but, sometimes, when the season has been very much retarded, not before the beginning of the following month. Its entrance into Canada is not looked for until near the close of April – the birds apparently timing their movements with the sun's northward advancement. From Virginia to Canada, along the Atlantic seaboard, and the same is true of our Western States, where the presence of man is seen and felt, these dusky denizens of the air are wont to take up their abode. The chimneys of our houses, especially those that' are not called into constant requisition, afford them convenient and comfortable quarters. So accustomed to their odd little ways and notions have we become, that on each recurrence of the breeding-season we naturally look for their coming with as much interest and pleasure as to that of a long absent friend. Their jolly, sociable disposition wins our regard and esteem, and has so completely interwoven their fortunes with our own, that their loss would be keenly felt and universally bewailed. In habits they are widely different from their trans-Atlantic brethren, who display considerable shyness, and breed in caves, or ruined or deserted dwellings.

Since the occupancy of this country by civilized beings, a most wonderful change has been effected in their behavior. Their primitive breeding places have been exchanged for the cosy, soot-begrimmed chimney. To be sure there are localities where breeding is still carried on in hollow trees as of yore, but such places are now but occasionally occupied in the older parts of the country, and merely for roosting purposes. In certain portions of New Brunswick, according to Mr. George A. Boardman, birds still nest in decayed tree-hollows. Even where chimneys are to be found individuals have been known to select places remote therefrom. The writer last mentioned once met with a nest that was built against a board in an old log-house. It was not the lack of a chimney that conduced to this peculiar deviation, as we are led to infer of the existence of one somewhat remotely situated from what that observer says. Where there is no danger to be apprehended from enemies, a position like the one described, affords the requisite advantages. In buildings that are freely used by man, persistence in this habit might be attended with results, which would be escaped by nidification in chimneys. In Southeastern Illinois Mr. Ridgway discovered a nest in a hollow sycamore-tree, and also another securely fastened to a plank of an out-building. Mr. Allen met it in Kansas, breeding in hollow trees, for which it seemed to manifest a decided preference. In long-settled sections the species has been forced by circumstances to resort to chimneys, or else abandon the country. In but a single instance have we known from actual experience the nest to be built against the rafter of a deserted out-building.