Citizen Bird Part 26

Song a sort of giggle--like some little girl's we know.

Nests many together in holes in a clay or loamy bank, lined with feathers and straw. Eggs pure white.

A Citizen of most parts of the world--northerly in summer, southerly in winter.

A Sky Sweeper

[Ill.u.s.tration: Bank Swallow.]

"Bankey is a sociable, useful little bird, living usually in great colonies. I have seen a hundred of their holes in a single bank, all dug by these industrious little Swallows with no other tools than their feeble beaks and claws. When the young from these nests are learning to fly the old birds are darting to and fro all day long to teach them how to use their wings, and the bank seems like a bustling village; every bird has something to do and say, and they always try to do both at once. If any one asks you why House People should love and protect Swallows, even if you have forgotten the names of many of the insects they destroy, remember to answer--'Swallows eat mosquitoes!'"

CHAPTER XV

A BRILLIANT PAIR

THE SCARLET TANAGER

"That is my beautiful red bird!" cried Dodo, clapping her hands. "I never shall forget the looks of his bright red coat with black sleeves and tails. I saw a sort of green bird in the same tree, but it was so different I never thought it could be his wife, till I came to think--for the green one stayed near the nest when I came nearer and looked up, but the red bird flew away and hid behind some leaves."

[Ill.u.s.tration: Scarlet Tanager]

"You are quite lucky to have seen a Scarlet Tanager in his home woods,"

said the Doctor, "for he is a shy bird who does not often venture to show his tropical colors in open places. He knows enough not to make himself a target for cannibal birds or House People either. Except in his journeys to and from his winter home he lives in the shelter of the tallest forest trees, where it is very difficult to see him, showy as he is in his flas.h.i.+ng colors, and even if you know by his song that he is there. He may say, as some people think he does, 'Pshaw!

wait--wait--wait for me, wait!' but he does not wait a moment if he thinks he is seen.

"He is very fond of water, both for bathing and drinking, and seldom nests far from it. Whether he uses the quiet ponds and smooth streams also for a looking-gla.s.s to comb his hair and arrange his gay coat by, we cannot be sure, but he always looks as trig as if he had some such aid.

"The Tanager children are curious things. Sometimes they wear coats of many colors, like Joseph's."

"Why is that?" asked Nat.

"The reason is this. You remember I told you that young birds usually wear plain feathers like their mothers?"

"Oh, yes," said Rap; "so that it is hard to see them until they have sense enough to take care of themselves."

"Precisely! Now, Mother Tanager is greenish and yellow, and Father Tanager is scarlet and black. The young ones come from the nest looking like their mother, but as they shed their baby clothes and gain new feathers, bits of red and black appear here and there on the little boys, until they look as if they had on a crazy-quilt of red, yellow, green, and black. You need not wonder that little Tommy Tanager does not care to be seen in such patched clothes, but prefers to stay in the deep woods or travel away until his fine red spring jacket is complete.

Father Tanager also changes his scarlet coat after the nesting. About the time he counts his children and starts on his southward trip, he puts on a greenish coat like his wife's gown; but he keeps his black tail and wings, so that the children need not mistake him for their mother. It is lucky for her that he and the boys have sense enough to put on their own clothes, or such a very dressy family would keep her busy looking after their toilets."

"These Tanagers aren't very plenty about here--are they, Doctor?" asked Rap.

"Not now, my boy; their scarlet feathers are very handsome, and thoughtless, greedy people have shot so many in the nesting season, to sell for bonnet tr.i.m.m.i.n.gs, that the family is growing small. But I hope that, by making laws to protect birds and teaching children everywhere what good neighbors and Citizens they are, these beautifully plumed families may increase once more.

"The Scarlet Tanager is the brightest red bird that you will find in the eastern half of the United States, but even he is not as showy as his western cousin, the Louisiana Tanager."

The Scarlet Tanager

Length about seven inches.

Male: bright scarlet with black wings and tail.

Female: light olive-green above, dull yellow below, with dusky wings and tail.

A good Summer Citizen of North America east of the plains and north of Virginia.

Belonging to the guilds of Tree Trappers and Seed Sowers.

THE LOUISIANA TANAGER

"Isn't this the one I saw in your gla.s.s case, Doctor?" asked Rap with great eagerness; "I mean that one like a Scarlet Tanager, but not so red, more of a rose-pink all over, wings and tail too."

[Ill.u.s.tration: LOUISIANA TANAGER.]

"No," said the Doctor pleasantly. "That is a Summer Tanager--the only one I ever saw in this neighbourhood It is so rare here that I shot it to make sure there was no mistake, and you probably never saw one alive, for the Summer Tanager is a tender bird, who seldom strays so far north as this. But see--what do you think of this--isn't it a beauty?"

So saying, the Doctor took out of his pocket a bird-skin he had provided for the occasion, and the children could not restrain their glee at the sight.

"Oh! oh!" exclaimed Dodo, clapping her hands as she always did when excited; "it's all gold and ruby and jet. Where did you get it, Uncle Roy?"

"A friend of mine sent it to me from Oregon," answered the Doctor; "he thought I would like to have it for my collection, because it came from the very region where this kind of Tanager was discovered almost a hundred years ago."

"I thought you said it was a Louisiana Tanager," said Rap and Nat, almost in the same breath.

"So it is, boys; but it does not live in the State of Louisiana you are thinking about, down by the mouth of the Mississippi River. I shall have to explain how it got its name by giving you a little lesson in the history and geography of our country. A great many years ago there was a King of France called Louis the Fourteenth, and during his reign all the western parts of America that the French had discovered or acquired any claim to were named Louisiana in his honor by one of the missionaries who came over to convert the Indians to Christianity. After a good many years more, about the beginning of this century, President Jefferson bought all this immense country from Napoleon Bonaparte, and that made it a part of the United States--every part of them that is now ours from the Mississippi River to the Pacific Ocean, except some that we afterward took from Mexico. President Jefferson was a very wise man, and as soon as he had bought all this land he wanted to know about it. So he sent an expedition to explore it, under two brave captains named Lewis and Clark. They were gone almost three years; and one day,--I remember now, it was the sixth of June, 1806,--when they were camping in what is now Idaho, near the border of Oregon, they found this lovely bird, and wrote a description of it in their note-books--just as you did with your Scarlet Tanager, Dodo, only theirs was the first one anybody ever wrote. They also saved the specimen and afterward gave it to Alexander Wilson, who painted the first picture of it, and named it the Louisiana Tanager in his book."

"Did you ever see one alive, Uncle Roy?" asked Nat; "what does it look like flying?"

"I can answer that question," said Olive; "don't you remember, father, when we were in Colorado, the same year we found the Sage Thrasher and Rock Wren, that I thought the first one we saw was a Scarlet Tanager in one of its patch-work plumages, till you told me about it--though it did seem to be too bright yellow, and the middle of the back was black. But it looked the same size, and flew just the same. How beautiful it looked, as it flashed its golden feathers through the dark-green pine trees!" added Olive, her face lighting up at the recollection.

"Yes, I remember," answered the Doctor. "All the Tanagers of our country have pretty much the same habits. Even if we had found the nest we might have mistaken it for a Scarlet Tanager's. Those I have seen in the Museum are quite similar, built of twigs and pliant stems, and lined with fine rootlets. The position of the nest, saddled as it is on the horizontal limb of a tree, is very similar, and you could hardly tell the eggs apart.

"But come, children, you must be tired by this time, and hungry too. Let us go to supper, and see what Mammy Bun has cooked for us this evening.

You stay too, Rap."

The Louisiana Tanager.

Length about seven inches.

Adult male: rich yellow, with black wings, tail, and middle of the back; the wings with two white or yellow bars on each; the whole head crimson.

Female: not very different from the female Scarlet Tanager.

A handsome and useful Summer Citizen of nearly all that great part of the United States which was once called Louisiana.