BIRD BIOGRAPHIES
A GUIDE-BOOK FOR BEGINNERS
An Introduction to 150 Common Land Birds of the Eastern United States
BY
ALICE E. BALL
Author of “A YEAR WITH THE BIRDS”
ILLUSTRATED BY
ROBERT BRUCE HORSFALL
Painter of Backgrounds in Habitat, Groups American Museum of Natural History New York City
56 COLORED PLATES
NEW YORK
DODD, MEAD AND COMPANY
1923
Copyright, 1923.
By DODD, MEAD & COMPANY, Inc.
PRINTED IN U. S. A.
VAIL-BALLOU COMPANY
BINGHAMTON AND NEW YORK
TO MY FRIEND
ELIZABETH JONES
IN LOVING ACKNOWLEDGMENT OF HER UNTIRING AID, UNWAVERING FAITH, AND INSPIRING CRITICISM
THIS BOOK IS DEDICATED
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
In the “Foreword” of this book I express my grateful appreciationto Dr. A. K. Fisher and Mr. E. H. Forbush for permissionto use extracts from published works. I wish to add my thanksto Dr. Charles Richmond and Mr. Joseph Riley of the NationalMuseum of Washington, for their courtesy in furnishing mewith bird-skins from the National Museum collections and acopy of the A. O. U. Check-list of 1910, used for the descriptionsand ranges of the birds described in the text.
I am indebted to Dr. John M. Clarke, Director of the StateMuseum of the University of New York, for the permission tomake selections from Eaton’s “Birds of New York”; also to Dr.Francis H. Herrick, of Western Reserve University, and Dr.Alexander Wetmore, of the Biological Survey, for the right toquote from their publications.
The selections from John Burroughs, Thoreau, Frank Bolles,Dallas Lore Sharp, Florence Merriam, Olive Thorne Miller,Henry W. Longfellow, E. R. Sill, Celia Thaxter, Lucy Larcom,and Edna Dean Proctor, are used by permission of, and byspecial arrangement with, The Houghton Mifflin Co., the authorizedpublishers. Three selections from Wilson Flagg’s “Birds ofNew England” are used by special arrangement with the PageCo. of Boston.
To the Courtesy of D. Appleton & Co. I am indebted for theright to quote one stanza of Bryant’s “To a Waterfowl,” datesand selections from Frank M. Chapman’s “Birds of EasternNorth America”; to G. P. Putman’s Sons for the use of threeextracts from Dr. Herrick’s “Home Life of Wild Birds,” andto Charles Scribner’s Sons for Henry van Dyke’s rendering ofthe song sparrow’s song. I acknowledge also with thanks my obligationto Mr. T. Gilbert Pearson, for his permission to use sixcolor-plates of the National Association of Audubon Societiesand to quote from the Educational Leaflets of the Society.
To my friends, Dallas Lore Sharp, Mrs. Sylvester D. Judd,and Miss Harriet E. Richards, I desire to express my deep appreciationof their suggestions and criticisms. I am indebted toMr. James P. Chapin, Assistant-Curator at the A