THE SUNDAY OKEGOXIAN. PORTLAND. SEPTEMBER 10, 1905.
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THE
QREOON WOODS
metuoies in Color
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n N the study of bird life the brilliant
E color 8 of some songsters appeal as
" strongly to the eye as the music of
others do to the oar- But why are some
of our birds so gaily colored and others
so plalny dressed? Since the time of
Darwin, naturalists have generally ac
cepted the theory of protective colora
tion among birds,' that Is. the species
contiittios to live by natural selection,
which preserves those colors that are
most useful in ooncoallng it from ene
mies. That this theory, has boen greatly
overworked was shown recently by John
Burroughs, in an article entitled, "Gay
Plumes and Dull." In the June number
of the Atlantic Monthly.
If dull colors are necessary to protect
our birds from their enomles, then bright
colors arc dangerous, and It would seem
that our gaily colored birds would. In
time, be exterminated. This Is not likely
to be the case. Our plain-colored Brew
er's blackbird has no apparent advantage
over the redwing with its brilliant epau
lets. The evening grosbeaks, that visit
Portland in groat flocks every Winter,
and arc so strikingly colored; the black
headed grosbeak, the crimson-headed
tanager, the Oregon towhee, the lazuli
bunting, the Bullock's oriole and the
goldfinch are all bright-colored birds", yet
they all hold their own with the dull
colored sparrows, the wrens, the swal
lows and tho flycatchers. Our male
China pheasant is an example of a game
bird that is not protected by dull colors
as our native pheasant and grouse arc,
yet it will live where the latter are al
most exterminated. - The fomale, of
course, wears a dull-colored dress, but
this gives little protection from her
worst enemies. The dog flushes her out
to be shot and other animals destroy
her and her eggs mainly through the
sense of smell and not of sight.
Concert Music.
Whenever I want to spend a few hours
among the birds in the hope of finding
something, new, I seek an old haunt
where I nave gone many times before,
and where for years I have tramped the
same ground and studied the same spe
cies. I find the pages of my notebooks
are filled with the records of two or three
such places. There is an old pond Just
at the edge of the city, where every few
yards of the whole area Is marked by the
memory of a bird home I have visited,
and almost every bush and tree has
found a place Jn my bird history.
The concert music for the world about
the pond. 1 furnished principally a
band of red-winged blackbirds and two
pair of song sparrows, the formor doing
the chorus work and the lattor coming
in for the solos and the refrains. The
redwings return early from the South
caoh year, and they are busy the whole
Summer. One pair will generally rear
two broods. In the early Spring your
singers are all artists, but as the Sum
mer wears on you have a whole crowd
of untrained vocalists, who do nothing
but practice the whole day long. But
In place of the lyrical carnivals, I always
enjoy the Increase of Interest that the
younger generation brings to the pond.
Protects Her Young.
The redwing swings its nest only a foot
about the water, half-twined and wo von
in among the reeds. One day we found
four fuzzy youngsters as still as death
crouching down In a nest. "W'e worked
the camera up into position for a picture
as easily as possible, and were Just focus
ing when the mother dropped from one
of the limbs above with a frightened cry.
"Fly! fly! for your lives!" and In a
flash every fledging had scudded away
in four directions. Wo couldn't tell where.
After a long search we found two of the
youngsters lying close In the grass, and
put them back on the nest edge, where
they squatted while a picture was taken.
For several years we have watched a
pair of grosbeaks that spend their Sum
mer on the side of Marquam Hill, In a
clump of alders. The same pair, no doubt,
has returned to the thicket for at least
three or four years. It seems I can al
most recognize the notes of their song.
II our ears were only tuned to the music
of the birds, could we not recognize them
as individuals as we know our friends?
Last year we found threo spotted eggs
In a nest, loosely built among the leaves
of the dogwood limbs. When I had. seen
the father carrying a stick in his mouth,
he dropp3 ,lt and looked as uneasy as
a boy who had Just been caught with his
pockets full of stolen apples. This year
tho nest was 20 feet down the hill from
the old home. They came nearer the
ground juid placed the thin framework of
their nest between .the two upright Corks
of an arrowwood bosh. We had never
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bothered them very much with the cam
era, but when they put their homo right
down within four and a half feet of the
ground It looked to me as if they wanted
some pictures taken. It was too good a
chance for us to miss.
A Bird Emergency Call.
The male generally stayed near the
nest. Whenever I . went near, he was
scared. He cried, "Quit! Qultl" In a
frightened tone, and when I didn't, he
let out a screech of alarm that brought
his wife In a hurry. Any one would havo
thought I was thirsting for the life-blood
of those nestlings. She was followed by
a pair of robins, a yellow warbler and
a flycatcher; all anxious to take a hand
In the owl-ousting. If. Indeed, ah owl
were near, I have often noticed that all
the feathered neighbors of a locality will
flock, at such a cry of alarm. The robins
are always the loudest and nolsest in
their threats, and are the first to respond
to a bird emergency call.
I loved to sit and watch the brilliant
father. He perched at the very top of
the fir and stretched his win?s till you
could ?c their lemon lining. He preened
his black tall to show the hidden spots
of white. Of course, he knew his clothes
were made to show. It was the aong of
motion. Just to see him drop from the flr
to tho bushes below. What roundelays
he whistled. -"Whlt-te-o! Whlt-te-o!
Recti' Early In tho morning he showed
the quality of his singing. Later in the
day, it often lost finish. The notes sound
ed"bard to get out, or as If he were prac
ticing. Just running over the keys of an
alrMhat hung dim In his memory. But
It was pleasing to hear him practice; the
.atmosphere was too lazy to call for per
fect execution. He knew he could pipe
a tune, to catch the ear, hut he had to
sit on the tree-top, as if he were afraid
some one would catch the secret of his
art if he sang lower down. Perhaps he
was vain, but I have watched him -when
he seemed to whostle as unconsciously as
I breathed. - '
Feeding the Babies.
The parents fed their bantlings as much
on berries as worms and insects. Once I
saw the father distribute a whole mouth
ful of green measuring worms. The next
time he had visited a garden down the
hillside, for he brought ono raspberry in
his bill and coughed up three more. Both
parents soon got over their mad anxiety
every time I looked at their birdllngs. In
fact, they soon seemed willing enough for
me to share the bits from my own lunch,
for the youngsters were very fond of
pieces of cherry taken from a small stick,
twirled in the air. above them.
Niiiirt has girt th.groeaJc a larj
and powerful bill to crack seeds 'and ker
nels, but It seemed to me this would be
rather an Inconvenience, when It came to
feeding children. If It was. the parents
did not show It. The mother always
cocked her head to one side so her baby
could easily grasp the morsel, and It was
all so quickly done that only the camera's
eye could catch the way shetdld It She
slipped her bill clear Into theVoungster"s
mouth, and he took the bite as" hurriedly
as If he were afraid the mother would
change her mind and give it to the next
baby.
Division of Household Duties.
I have watched a good many bird fam
ilies, but I never saw the work divided
up as it seemed to be in the grosbeak
household. The first day I stayed about
the nest I noticed that the father was
feeding the children almost entirely, and
whenever he brought a bouthful. he hard
ly knew which one to feed first. The
mother fed only about once an hour, while
he fed every ten or IS minutes. This
seemed rather contrary- to my understand
ing of bird ethics. Generally, the male is
wilder, and the wife has to take the re
sponsibility of the home.
The next day I watched at the nest,
conditions were the same, but I was sur
prised to see that the parental duties
were Just reversed. Tha motiwr -was go
ing and coming continually with food,
while the father sat about In the trre-tops,
sang and preened his feathers leisure
ly, only taking the trouble to hunt up one
mouthful for his bairns to every sixth or
seventh the mother brought. To my sur
prise, the third day, I found the father
was the busy bird again. Out of 18 plates
exposed that day on the grosbeak family.
I only got five snaps at the mother and
three of these were poor ones. The fourth
day I watched, the mother seemed to
have charge of the feeding again, but she
spent most of her time trying to coax
the bantlings to follow her off Into the
bushes. It . was hardly the father's day
for getting the meals, but on the whole,
he fed almost as much as the mother,
otherwise the youngsters would hardly
have received their dally allowance. I
have watched at some nests where the
young were cared for almost entirely by
the mother, and I have seen others where
those duties were taken up largely by the
father. Many times I have seen the par
ents work side by side in rearing a fam
ily, but the grosbeaks seemed to have a
way of dividing duties equally and alter
nating with days of rest and labor.
Last year a pair of hummers took up a
homestead on a hillside In South Port
land. The bank had been cut down, to
build a'weod road, but the place had
been nbnndoned a generation ago. The
hummer saddled her tiny cup on the low
est branch of a small fir afc the top of
the bank. It looked as If she had picked
out a spot to please the photographer.
Buglike Nestlings.
At first, the cgg3 had a delicate flesh
tint of pink.- Then, one morning, I stood
over tho nest like Thomas of old. Some
one had replaced the eggs with two tiny
black bugs! It might have been a mi
racle. There was a tiny knob on the end
of each little bug that looked as it it
might bo the beginning of a bill. Each
little creature resembled a black bean
more than a bird, for each possessed a
light streak of brown down the middle of
the back. They couldn't be beans, for
they were pulsing with life In a lumpy
sort of way. I went frequently to look
at thern. In a few days the littlo nest-
lings began to fork out all over with tiny
black horns, until they would have looked
like prickly pears had they been the right
color. At the next stage, each tiny horn
began to blossom out Into a spray of
brown down, tho yellow at one end grew
Into a bill, the black skin cracked a
trifle and showed two eyes. It was hard
to see how these black bugs could turn
Into birds, but day after day the miracle
worked till I really saw two young humming-birds.
When they left the nest. ''the midgets
took up their abode in a back yard near
by. The yard was crossed with three
clothes-lines for perches, and the large
apple tree in tho corner gave abundant
shade for the hottest days. In the center
was a round bed of geraniums and along
the fence were gladioli and nasturtiums.
The youngsters simply, sucked all the
honey out of every flower in the yard.
Evtery morning they went the rounds and
collected tribute from the hearts of the
new-blossoms. As the people came and
went about the house, the young bird3
soon became accustomed to the presence
of human beings, and when I filled some
flowers with sweet water. It did not take
them long to recognize that the flowers
In the hand were better than those on the
bush.
Pooling a Young -Hummer.
Then one day, I dipped my flnser In
sweetened water and held It up to one
of the twins as he cat on the line. I was
amused, for such a treat came to him as
a complete surprise. Before that when a
finger was put up to his nose he poked
It but found nothing attractive; now his
little tongue darted out and hauled In the
sweet. The next Instant he was buz
zing all about my face and neck, poking
for honey. He seemed ao enthusiastic as
a man who had suddenly struck a new
mine, for it all looked alike to him. If one
part was sweet, perhaps it all was. and
It was high time he was knowing this
new source of food, for he had seen such
things as people before.
One morning, I found one of the young
hummers sitting muffled up on the
clothes-line, sound asleep In the sun. The
Instant I touched the line, he awoke as
If from a bad dream, and was all excite
ment. I didn't have any sweetened water,
but I picked up a ripe plum, tore the skin
away and held it up. In went the sharp
bill, but it came out vjlth thrice the
rapidity. Such a face,! He almost fell
backward off the" perch and nearly shook
his head off, scolding in little, high
ahrieka all the time.
gm.TJAy I. FIKLET.