Identifier: birdlore101908nati (find matches)
Title: Bird lore
Year: 1899 (1890s)
Authors: National Committee of the Audubon Societies of America National Association of Audubon Societies for the Protection of Wild Birds and Animals National Audubon Society
Subjects: Birds Birds Ornithology
Publisher: New York City : Macmillan Co.
Contributing Library: Smithsonian Libraries
Digitizing Sponsor: Biodiversity Heritage Library

View Book Page: Book Viewer
About This Book: Catalog Entry
View All Images: All Images From Book
Click here to view book online to see this illustration in context in a browseable online version of this book.

Text Appearing Before Image:
e case. After serious consideration I do notthink that I care to hazard an identifi- cation of your bird We have the song, it istrue, but species of this group are so in-volved that sexual and seasonal plumagesare absolutely necessary for correct deter-mination. It is obviously one of theChristmas volans group, probably of thegenus Fakir iferus, but further than thisI cannot go. The bird you send for identificationproves to be an Umslophagus Angelicas,in very fresh plumage. It is a very rarebird in these parts, and appears only atdistant intervals. Some birds, as you know, portendrainy spells, or hard winters, or even fam-ines, but not so with the Umslophagus.He is a sure sign of extraordinary upheav-als in the American OrnithologistsUnion Check-list, with a special leaningtoward ripping the nomenclature of theOwls and Sparrows wide open. I judgefrom the date of the arrival of the Utnslo-phagus; that the upheaval will occur inthe month of July. In view of the variance of opinion indi-
Text Appearing After Image:
BOWDISHIA AMERICANA Notes from Field and Study n$ cated by the Foregoing letters, I leave itto the learned reader to decide for himself the position which the discovery shouldoccupy in our avi-fauna, also what its ad-vent may portend to American ornitho-logy.—B. S. EowDisii, New York. A Pair of Blue-gray Gnatcatchers ThatMoved Their Nest On April 5, iqoS, 1 found a pair ofBlue-gray Gnat-catchers building theirnest. They had begun it upon a deadbranch of a mulberry tree about twelvefeet from the ground. Both male andfemale worked at the nest, always givinga sharp note while at work. In gatheringlichens from the trees, the little bird wouldcatch a piece with its bill and then flapits wings and pull until the lichen cameoff. The work on the nest continued forten days, at the end of which time thereseemed to be a lull, and the nest wasapparently abandoned. Two days later I heard them at the nestagain, and noticed that they seemed to betearing it to pieces. I found that they weremoving i

Note About Images