Bird-life - a guide to the study of our common birds (1901) (14729415846)

Identifier: birdlifeguidech00chap (find matches)

Title: Bird-life : a guide to the study of our common birds

Year: 1901 (1900s)

Authors: Chapman, Frank M. (Frank Michler), 1864-1945 Seton, Ernest Thompson, 1860-1946

Subjects: Birds -- United States

Publisher: New York : D. Appleton

Contributing Library: American Museum of Natural History Library

Digitizing Sponsor: Biodiversity Heritage Library

Text Appearing Before Image:

s and per-haps beating them into a pulp before giving them to theirnestlings: or we may learn how the Doves, High-holes,and Hummingbirds pump softened food from their cropsdown the throats of their offspring. The activity of the parents at this season is amazing.Think of the days work before a pair of Chickadees witha family of six or eight fledglings clamoring for foodfrom daylight to dark! But the young birds themselves furnish far more in-teresting and valuable subjects for study. None of thehigher animals can be reared so easily without the aid ofa parent. We therefore can not only study their growthof body and mind when in the nest and attended bytheir parents, but we can isolate the young of prsecocialbirds, such as Chickens, from other birds and study theirmental development where they have no opportunity tolearn by imitation. In this way students of instinct andheredity have obtained most valuable results.* * Read Lloyd Morgans Habit and Instinct (Edward Arnold, NewYork city).

Text Appearing After Image:

PliATE XXIV. DOWNY WOODPECKER. Page 115. Length, 675 inches. Male, upper parts black and white, nape scarlet;under parts white. Female, similar, but no scarlet on nape. CHAPTER YII.HOW TO IDENTIFY BIRDS. The preceding outline of the events which raay enterinto a birds life-history has, I trust, given some idea ofthe possibilities attending the study of birds in the field.We come now to the practical question of identification.How are we to find birds, and, having found them, howare we to learn their names ? From April to August there is probably not a min-ute of the day when in a favorable locality one can notsee or hear birds; and there is not a day in the yearwhen at least some birds can not be found. In the be-ginning, therefore, the question of finding them is simplya matter of looking and listening. Later will come thedelightful hunts for certain rarer species whose acquaint-ance we may make only through a knowledge of theirhaunts and habits. Having found your bird, there is one

bird life a guide to the study of our common birds 1901 dryobates pubescens illustrations book illustrations ornithology birds zoological illustration natural history american museum of natural history high resolution images from internet archive

1901

American Museum of Natural History Library

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