. The Wilson bulletin . ldinga nest in a tree in your front yard, when to the best of yourknowledge the rest of the species were busy with this opera-tion in the pine forests 500 or 1,000 miles to the north of us,is more exciting and more interesting. When my youngneighbor, Ralph Whitmer, called my attention to a nest Mon-day, April 13, 1914, in a pine tree 15 feet from his fathersfront porch, 1 knew something unusual had happened in birdland. In late February and early March a new bird song moremusical than the Blue Birds contralto carol and more inspir-ing than the Robins cheerily, cheerily,
. The Wilson bulletin . ldinga nest in a tree in your front yard, when to the best of yourknowledge the rest of the species were busy with this opera-tion in the pine forests 500 or 1,000 miles to the north of us,is more exciting and more interesting. When my youngneighbor, Ralph Whitmer, called my attention to a nest Mon-day, April 13, 1914, in a pine tree 15 feet from his fathersfront porch, 1 knew something unusual had happened in birdland. In late February and early March a new bird song moremusical than the Blue Birds contralto carol and more inspir-ing than the Robins cheerily, cheerily, had come to me onthe frosty morning air. It was a new song to me, as it notonly had in it the freshness of the first south wind of spring,but the tenderness and sympathy of the summer bird songsas well. A half hour of quiet study with field glass and birdguide convinced me that ray first harbinger of spring wasthe Pine Siskin (Spinus pinus). A flock of twenty-five or * Part I by INIr. Hayward, Part II by Jlr. NEST OF PINE SISKIN, SIOUX CITY, IOWA 142 The Wilson Bulletin —No. 88 thirty of these small migrants greeted me for a week or tendays each morning as I stood waiting for my car. They Averebetween 4i/4 and 5 inches in length. The bird might easilybe mistaken for the Goldfinch dressed in his winter suit, asits flight is very mnch like the Goldfinch. But the differencein the song makes the identification comparatively my young friend visited me the evening of April 13and told me of the nest, I asked him what the birds lookedlike and he said summer canaries. In answer to my ques-tion regarding their feeding habits, he replied that theyseemed to eat pine cones. Having my interest thus aroused,I went with him to the Colorado Blue spruce {Picea pugens)tree in the yard and near the end of a limb about nine feetfrom the ground was the nest. Getting a box upon which tostand, I could look over into the nest and see the bird. 1 hadno difficulty in satisfying my
Size: 1711px × 1460px
Photo credit: © Reading Room 2020 / Alamy / Afripics
License: Licensed
Model Released: No
Keywords: ., bookcentury1800, bookdecade1890, booksubjectbirds, bookyear1894
