. The home life of wild birds; a new method of the study and photography of birds . sshopper to escape, but releasing one at a time see it safely down an open after inspection is over they fly to the nearest perch, and make haste to clean theirbills and set their dress in order. This done, there is often a pause of a few moments as ifin doubt whether to hunt more grasshoppers, to dig angleworms in yonder cornfield, or totry the cherry trees along the fence-row. They will take everything which their sharpeye discerns, and often pick up an insect close to the nest. 4o Wild Birds. One
. The home life of wild birds; a new method of the study and photography of birds . sshopper to escape, but releasing one at a time see it safely down an open after inspection is over they fly to the nearest perch, and make haste to clean theirbills and set their dress in order. This done, there is often a pause of a few moments as ifin doubt whether to hunt more grasshoppers, to dig angleworms in yonder cornfield, or totry the cherry trees along the fence-row. They will take everything which their sharpeye discerns, and often pick up an insect close to the nest. 4o Wild Birds. One Robin at the age of eleven days left the family circle early on August I3th, andat nine oclock the two which remained were standing up and flapping their wings. Theold birds would come near, displaying tempting morsels in their bills, but with no intentionof feeding their young so long as they remained on the nest. By such tantalizing meth-ods they soon drew them away. Both old and young hung about the apple trees for sev-eral days, when they disappeared and were not seen Fig. 29. Female Robin brooding on a hot day— her left wing pushed up by a young bird. At the stage of flight the young Robins have several distinct call and alarm noteslike those of the adult birds. They can take short, low flights, can hop briskly, and goto cover instinctively whether with or without warnings. They will also lie quiet in thegrass, as in hiding, a common instinctive act. The second family of Robins nested high in an oak, and whenever they were ap-proached the old birds made an admirable show of pugnacity, scolding, screaming, erect-ing their feathers, snapping their bills and darting straight at your head. Their nestingbranch was taken from the woods to a bare, open field, and set up sixty feet fromthe tree in the way already described. The first mornings experience was rather dis-couraging, for neither bird would come to its nest while the tent was in front of it. They
Size: 1849px × 1352px
Photo credit: © Reading Room 2020 / Alamy / Afripics
License: Licensed
Model Released: No
Keywords: ., bookcentury1900, bookdecade1900, booksubjectbirds, bookyear1901
