. Useful birds and their protection. Containing brief descriptions of the more common and useful species of Massachusetts, with accounts of their food habits, and a chapter on the means of attracting and protecting birds. Birds; Birds. 314 USEFUL which they do usually at some height, in rather a labored manner, keeping about the same level. The ordinary note is a sort of hoarse, loud chuck, and the song sounds much like the rather musical creaking of a rusty hinge. They have also a metallic, jangling note, and when a number perch on a favorite tree and sing in chorus, the clanging and
. Useful birds and their protection. Containing brief descriptions of the more common and useful species of Massachusetts, with accounts of their food habits, and a chapter on the means of attracting and protecting birds. Birds; Birds. 314 USEFUL which they do usually at some height, in rather a labored manner, keeping about the same level. The ordinary note is a sort of hoarse, loud chuck, and the song sounds much like the rather musical creaking of a rusty hinge. They have also a metallic, jangling note, and when a number perch on a favorite tree and sing in chorus, the clanging and creaking they produce are indescribable. When not disturbed, they breed in companies, often in groves of white pine ; but where they are much shot at, they separate, and each pair finds a secluded place for its nest. As Fig. 140.—Crow Blackbird, male, soon as the young are reared, one-half natural size. ,, , . , .. • n i j? the birds gather in nocks oi hundreds or even thousands, and forage together. In mi- gration they sometimes travel in immense armies. A great flight of these birds passed_over Concord on Oct. 28, 1904. From my post of observation, on a hilltop, an army of birds could be seen extending across the sky from one horizon to the other. As one of my companions remarked, it was a great " rainbow of birds; " as they passed overhead, the line appeared to be about three rods wide and about one hundred feet above the hilltop. This column of birds appeared as perfect in form as a platoon. The individual birds were not flying in the direction in which the column extended, but diagonally across it; and when one considers the difficulty of keeping a platoon of men in line when marching shoulder to shoulder, the precision with which this host of birds kept their line across the sky seems marvellous. As the line passed overhead, it extended nearly east and west. The birds seemed to be flying in a course considerably west of south, and thus the whole column was g
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Keywords: ., bookcentury1900, bookdecade1900, bookpublisherb, booksubjectbirds
