Identifier: natureneighborse03bant (find matches)
Title: www.flickr.com/photos/internetarchivebookimages/tags/book...
Year: 1914 (1910s)
Authors: Banta, Nathaniel Moore, 1867- Schneider, Albert, 1863- Higley, William Kerr, 1860-1908 Abbott, Gerard Alan
Subjects: Natural history
Publisher: Chicago, American Audobon association
Contributing Library: University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign
Digitizing Sponsor: University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign

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Text Appearing Before Image:
second-growth oak, elm, and hickory are found. The white outer tail feathers and small size are unmistakable field marks. These interesting little birds seem to have a spirit of adventure in pursuit of food. They have been seen entering a long, small water pipe used as a hitching-rack for horses,and would traverse the entire distance, emerging from the other end. The nest of the blue-gray gnatcatcher is one of the marvels in bird architecture. Externally covered with lichens held in place by cobwebs, it is securely saddled on a horizontal limb eighteen to forty feet above the ground. On the inside the nest is warmly lined with plant down, and from below one can scarcely distinguish the nest from a knot on the limb. It looks much like the nest of a humming-bird. The four or five greenish eggs are daintily speckled with dark brown. In Ohio and southern Michigan nest building commences about May 15th, and the eggs are deposited late in May or early in June. The period of incubation is about ten days.
Text Appearing After Image:
BLUE-GRAY GNATCATCHER. (Polioptila caerulea) ⅔ Life-size. COPYRIGHT 1900, BY A. W. MUMFORD, CHICAGO
CHAPTER XXI THRUSHES Thrushes are unquestionably the sweetest-voiced birds in America, though inferior to some other songsters in execution. These birds are all migratory, returning regularly toa given locality in April or May to breed. They live upon worms, winged insects, berries, and fruit. They are not sociable while nesting, but migrate in flocks, and are usually gregarious also in winter. Their bodies are cylindrical. The plumage on the upper parts is usually a uniform color ofblue, brown, or gray. On the basis of certain details of structure thrushes are generally assigned highest rank in the class of Aves. With-out pausing to discuss the value of the characters on which this classification is made, there can be no question that from an aesthetic standpoint the thrushes possess in a greater degree than any other birds those qualifications which make the ideal bird.

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