. Bird-lore . etroit River, we ha\e maintained a feeding-station for birds for the past three first and second seasons we had only theBlack-capped Chickadee, Downy Wood-pecker, and the White-breasted winter of 1919-20 we had, in addition,Juncos, the Cardinal Grosbeak, Blue Jays,and five American Crossbills, two males andthree females. The Crossbills showed practi-cally no fear, and came intermittently for amonth, gorging themselves on sunflower seeds. age. The Warblers among them were utterlyfearless, alighting on our hats, shoulders, andhands, pecking at the stone of
. Bird-lore . etroit River, we ha\e maintained a feeding-station for birds for the past three first and second seasons we had only theBlack-capped Chickadee, Downy Wood-pecker, and the White-breasted winter of 1919-20 we had, in addition,Juncos, the Cardinal Grosbeak, Blue Jays,and five American Crossbills, two males andthree females. The Crossbills showed practi-cally no fear, and came intermittently for amonth, gorging themselves on sunflower seeds. age. The Warblers among them were utterlyfearless, alighting on our hats, shoulders, andhands, pecking at the stone of my ring andaccepting flies from our hands. Among the birds was a bat (they seem tomigrate), and a Sparrow Hawk flying withthe ship made frantic efTorts to catch thebirds on the deck. As we approached withinseveral miles of land, they all left hurriedly. Last summer from one to three Sparrowswould trail the numerous Robins on our every worm secured by a Robinwould be instantly seized by the Sparrows. RED CROSSBILL They remained feeding on our shelves forlonger periods than any other birds we haveever observed, frequently over an hour at atime. We succeeded in taking a number ofphotographs of them, one of which is pre-sented herewith. In September, several years ago, on boardthe ore steamer /. A. Farrell, in Lake Supe-rior, over 30 miles from any land, we awoketo find the decks of the vessel alive with birds,several hundred of them. We identified thir-teen species, not including any doubtfulyoung birds which were in all stages of plum- (30 and made ofT with while the Robin wouldpatiently hunt another one. This was whilethe Robins were feeding their young, whomust have suffered in consequence. The Sparrows follow the Cardinal to ourfeeding shelves, seeming to know they areimmune while he is there. As he cracks grain,corn or sunflower seed, they seize upon everypiece he drops and sometimes seize piecesfrom his mouth, which he does not resent. We have tried, unsuccessful
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Keywords: ., boo, bookcentury1800, bookdecade1890, booksubjectbirdsperiodicals
