The Manitowoc pilot. [volume] (Manitowoc, Wis.) 1859-1932, 1882-03-09
OUR WINTER BIRDS.
BY MARY TREAT.

The permanent residents of this lati-
tude which come about or house and
grounds are the song sparrow, field spar
row, English sparrow, yellow-bird, pine
linnet, blue-bird. robin, meadow lark,
quail, blueiay, crow, and several species
of hawks and owls. The Northern birds
which make this section their winter
home are the white throated sparrow,
fox sparrow, tree sparrow, chickadee, and
the dark slate colored sparrow, or snow
bird, as it is more usually called. There
are also several species restricted to the
woods, with which am unfamiliar.
Most of these birds will become quite
tame with little care on our part, and
will soon come to look to us for their
daily food. Especially if the ground is
covered with snow, they will learn to be-
come clamorous for their food, even
alighting on the window sills and strik.
ing the glass, apparently to attract atten-
tion to their wants. In summer the same
species are much more shy, so winter
gives us a better opportunity to study
the habits and dispositions of the various
birds which remain with us.
With most species family ties are not
broken 10 winter. Bluebirds, perhaps
more so than most of our birds, maintain
a strict family relation during the winter
even while assembling in large focks.
Not only do the partners remain true to
each other during their lives, but they
continue their care over the young
throughout the first fall and winter.
When a pair of bluebirds succeed in
rearing three broods in season, in the
autumn these broods unite and stay with
the parents, making little flock of about
fourteen. All the autumn through they
keep together, feeding from the same
bushes, poke, ampelopsis, and other wild
berries, and upon such stray insects as
they may find.
The first cold days of December send
them to the cedar swamps, where great
numbers congregate. Here, too, large
focks of robins keep them company.
But each mild day brings the bluebirds
from their retreat back to their unforgot-
ten home. And there is nothing more
fascinating in bird life than to see the
frolics of the young birds and the grave
demeanor of the parents. The young
visit the various houses in which they
were reared, sometimes two or three en-
tering at the same time, and all the while
keeping up their low sweet twittering, as
if conversing.
But in the spring all is changed. The
parents tell the young in very peremp-
tory manner that they must now seek
new homes. Sometimes the young are
quite persistent about remaining, when
the parents at last seem to become exas-
perated, and drive them fercely from
the premises.
l.
particularly interested in pair of blue
birds which had the misfortune to rear
but one brood of three during the season.
The young we're Matched in little house
fastened to the railing of an upper piazza.
They became quite tame, and remained
with us until the first week in December.
After this I saw them no more until the
first day of January, 1881, when, to my
surprise, the entire family came to my
study window,-a bay window, fronting
south, and perched upon the SILL The
mercury stood fifteen degrees below zero
on this morning, an unusual temperature
for our latitude,
l have found that an intensely cold
day will drive both robins and bluebirds
from their retreat in the cedars to our
homes, as if they hoped for better pro.
lection against the cold.
Our little family had accompanied a
sorry looking flock of forty or fifty blue
birds, with ruffied feathers, which had
halted in the vineyard near the house on
this bitter morning.
By ten o'clock the sun shone brightly
against the window glass, and the warm
fire within helped to make the window
sill comfortable; and here all five of the
birds perched, thus getting the full force
of the suns rays. After basking awhile
in the sun, their feathers smoothed down,
and they seemed quite bright and happy,
and toward noon disappeared with the
flock. Several times, on the coolest
days, during this severe winter, this lit
tie family came to my window in the
same manner.-A1drch atlantic.