Color Key to North American Birds Part 1

Color Key to North American Birds.

by Frank M. Chapman.

PREFACE.

To learn to call a bird by its right name is the first step in the study of ornithology. We may propose to investigate the structure, food, and habits of the birds of the world, or desire merely a superficial knowledge of the species found in our garden, but in either case we are at once confronted by this question of identification.

From the scientific point of view there is but one satisfactory way to identify a bird. A specimen of it should be in hand in order that its form, color, and size may be accurately determined, when, with the aid of a.n.a.lytical keys, with which most text-books are provided, it is a simple matter to ascertain the bird's name.

Wide experience has shown the writer, however, that where one dead bird is identified, hundreds of attempts are made to name the living bird in nature. This is to be expected. It is the natural outcome of the recent remarkable interest in the study of birds which, fostered by Audubon Societies and nature study teachers, has a.s.sumed an ethical and educational importance of the first magnitude.

We cannot place a gun in the hands of these thousands of bird-lovers whom we are yearly developing; indeed most of them would refuse to use it. Specimens, therefore, are rarely available to them and we should make some special effort to meet their peculiar wants. The present volume has been prepared with this end in view. Identification of the bird in the bush is its sole end; an end, however, which we trust will prove but the beginning of a new and potent interest in nature.

FRANK M. CHAPMAN

_American Museum of Natural History, New York City, 1903._

PREFACE TO REVISED EDITION.

In the present edition of the Color Key the body of the book, aside from the correction of typographical errors, remains as it was in the preceding edition. The Systematic Table has been reset and brought up to July, 1912, the date of the publication of the latest supplement to the third edition of the American Ornithologists' Union's 'Check-List of North American Birds.' Two Appendixes are added. The first includes all the changes in nomenclature and descriptions of new birds which have been accepted by the A.O.U. Committee on Cla.s.sification and Nomenclature since the publication of the Color Key in 1903; the second contains a list of faunal ornithological papers which it is hoped will add greatly to the reference value of the book.

F. M. C.

_American Museum of Natural History, New York City, October, 1912._

INTRODUCTION

HOW TO LEARN A BIRD'S NAME

"How can I learn to know the birds?" is the first question of the seeker after bird-lore. The scientist's reply, "By shooting them and studying their structure and markings in detail," may do for the few who, like himself, desire to know the birds scientifically; but it is emphatically not the answer to give the ninety and nine who, while they desire to secure an intimate, accurate knowledge of birds, will not gain it at the sacrifice of bird-life.

In the present volume, therefore, an attempt has been made so to group, figure, and describe our birds that any species may be named which has been _definitely seen_. The birds are kept in their systematic Orders, a natural arrangement, readily comprehended, but, further than this, accepted cla.s.sifications have been abandoned and the birds have been grouped according to color and markings.

A key to the Orders gives the more prominent characters on which they are based; telling for example, the external differences between a Duck and a Grebe. In comparatively few instances, however, will the beginner have much difficulty in deciding to what Order a bird belongs. Probably eight times, out of ten the unknown bird will belong to the Order Pa.s.seres, or Perching Birds, when one has only to select the color section in which it should be placed, choose from among the colored figures the bird whose ident.i.ty is sought, and verify one's selection by reading the description of the bird's characteristics and the outline of its range.

In the case of closely related species, and particularly subspecies, the subjects of range and season are of the utmost importance. Most subspecies resemble their nearest allies too closely to be identified in life by color alone, and in such cases a bird's name is to be learned by its color in connection with its distribution and the season in which it is seen.

During the breeding period, unless one chance to be in a region where two races intergrade, subspecific names may be applied to the bird in nature with some certainty, for it is a law that only one subspecies of a species can nest in the same area; but during migrations and in the winter, when several subspecies of one species may be found a.s.sociated, it is frequently impossible to name them with accuracy.

For example, during the summer one need have no hesitancy in calling the Robins of the lowlands of South Carolina the Southern Robin (_Planesticus migratorius achrusterus_) but later, when the Northern Robins (_Planesticus migratorius migratorius_) begin to appear, it would be difficult, if not impossible, to distinguish them in life from the resident birds.

If it were possible to impress the student, who proposes to name the bird in the bush, with the _absolute necessity_ for careful, definite observation he would be saved many disappointing and discouraging experiences.

It is not possible to examine your bird too thoroughly. Never be satisfied with a superficial view and a general impression. Look at your bird, if you can, from several points of view; study its appearance in detail, its size, bill, crown, back, tail, wings, throat, breast, etc., and AT ONCE enter what you see in a note-book kept for that purpose. In this way, and this way alone, can you expect to compete with those who use the gun.

It does not follow, however, that because one does not collect specimens of birds one cannot study them scientifically. While the student may not be interested in the cla.s.sification of birds purely from the standpoint of the systematist, he is strongly urged to acquaint himself with at least the arrangement of the Orders and Families of our birds and their leading structural characters.

To the student who desires to prepare himself for his work afield such a study may well come before he attempts to name the birds. But where the chief end in view is to learn a bird's name, the more technical side of the subject may be deferred. In any event, it should not be neglected. This orderly arrangement of knowledge will not only be practical benefit in one's future labors but it will bring with it that sense of satisfaction which accompanies the a.s.surance that we know what we know.

As one learns to recognize bird after bird it is an admirable plan to cla.s.sify systematically one's list of bird acquaintances under their proper Orders and Families. These may be learned at once from the systematic table at the end of the book, where the numbers which precede each species are arranged serially, and hence systematically.

In some instances, as an aid to identification in the field, descriptions of birds' notes have been included. It is not supposed that these descriptions will convey an adequate idea of a bird's song to a person who has never heard it, but it is hoped that they may occasionally lead to the recognition of calls or songs when they are heard.

An adequate method of transcribing bird's notes has as yet to be devised and the author realizes only too well how unsatisfactory the data here presented will appear to the student. It is hoped, however, that they may sometimes prove of a.s.sistance in naming birds in life.

As has been said before, the aim of this volume is to help students to learn the names of our birds in their haunts. But we should be doing scant justice to the possibilities of bird study if, even by silence, we should imply that they ended with the learning to know the bird.

This is only the beginning of the quest which may bring us into close intimacy with the secrets of nature. The birds' haunts and food, their seasons and times of coming and going; their songs and habits during courts.h.i.+p, their nest-building, egg-laying, incubating and care of their young, these and a hundred other subjects connected with their lives may claim our attention and by increasing our knowledge of bird-life, add to our love of birds.

HOW BIRDS ARE NAMED

Birds have two kinds of names. One is a common, vernacular, or popular name; the other is a technical or scientific name. The first is usually given to the living bird by the people of the country it inhabits. The second is applied to specimens of birds by ornithologists who cla.s.sify them.

Common names in their origin and use know no law. Technical names are bestowed under the system of nomenclature established by Linnaeus and their formation and application are governed by certain definite, generally accepted rules. The Linnaean system, as it is now employed by most American ornithologists, provides that a bird, in addition to being grouped in a certain Cla.s.s, Order, Family, etc., shall have a generic and specific name which, together, shall not be applied to any other animal.

Our Robin, therefore, is cla.s.sified and named as follows:

CLa.s.s AVES,

ORDER Pa.s.sERES, Perching Birds.

Suborder _Oscines_, Singing Perching Birds.

Family _t.u.r.didae_ Thrushes.

Subfamily _t.u.r.dinae_ Thrushes.

Genus, _Planesticus_, Thrushes.

Species, _migratorius_ American Robin.

The Robin's distinctive scientific name, therefore, which it alone possesses, is _Planesticus migratorius_. There are numerous other members of the genus _Planesticus_, but not one of them is called _migratorius_ and this combination of names, therefore, applied to only one bird.

The questions Why use all these Latin terms? Why not call the bird "Robin" and be done with it? are easily answered. Widely distributed birds frequently have different names in different parts of their range. The Flicker (_Colaptes auratus_), for instance, has over one hundred common or vernacular names. Again, the same name is often applied to wholly different birds. Our Robin (_Planesticus migratorius_) is not even a member of the same family as the European Robin (_Erithacus rubecola_.) If, therefore, we should write of birds or attempt to cla.s.sify them only by their common names, we should be dealing with such unfixed quant.i.ties that the result would be inaccurate and misleading. But by using one name in a language known to educated people of all countries, a writer may indicate, without danger of being misunderstood, the particular animal to which he refers. Among people speaking the same tongue, where a definite list of vernacular names of animals has been established, they can of course be used instead of the scientific names.

Such a list of North American birds has been prepared by the American Ornithologists' Union. It furnishes a common as well as scientific name for each of our birds, and is the recognized standard of nomenclature among American ornithologists. The names and numbers of birds employed in this Color Key are those of the American Ornithologists' Union's 'Check-List of North American Birds.'

It will be observed that in this 'Check-List,' and consequently in the following pages, many birds have three scientific names, a generic, specific, and subspecific. The Western Robin, for example, appears as _Planesticus migratorius propinquus_. What is the significance of this third name?