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Chapter 5 Instructor’s Guide

Outcomes

• Evaluate an entity against the first three normal forms

• Remove all repeating lists or arrays (First Normal Form)

• Remove functional dependencies (Second Normal Form)

• Remove all transitive dependencies (Third Normal Form)

• Understand the importance of design review

Outline

I. Design Review

II. Anomalies

A. Insertion Anomalies

B. Update Anomalies

C. Deletion Anomalies

III. Normal Forms

IV. First Normal Form

A. Removing Repeating Groups and Arrays

B. Ensuring each Attribute Describes a Single Type of Value

Copyright © 2014 Pearson Education, Inc.

 C. Making each Row Unique

V. Second Normal Form

A. Locating Multiple Themes in an Entity

B. Removing Functional Dependencies

C. Creating New Entities

VI. Third Normal Form

A. Recognizing Transient Dependencies

B. Resolving Transient Dependencies

C. Creating New Entities

VII. Final Content Review

VIII. Documentation

A. Storing all Versions of ERD

B. Denormalization

Vocabulary

1. Normal Forms e. Rules for removing anomalies and redundancies

2. Update Anomalies c. Where the same data must be updated in several places

creating the possibility of mismatched or inaccurate data

3.Deletion Anomalies a. Where deleting some data inadvertently also removes other

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Copyright © 2014 Pearson Education, Inc.
 data

4. First Normal Form i. Removing repeated groups and arrays

5. Denormalization j. The process of rejoining tables that were separated during

the normalization process to improve performance

6. Insertion Anomalies h. The inability to insert into data because other unknown data

is required

7. Second Normal Form g. Removes functional dependencies

8. Transient Dependencies f. An attribute that depends on another attribute, not the key,

for its meaning

9. Functional Dependencies d. Attributes that are related to each other rather than the

key. They form subthemes within the entity.

10. Third Normal Form b. Removes transient dependencies

Things to Look Up

1. Look up database anomalies. See if you can find a good example explaining each kind of anomaly.

Blurtit.com has a very precise brief definition: http://www.blurtit.com/q181903.html, as does

DBNormalization.com http://www.dbnormalization.com/database-anomalies.

Wikipedia has examples: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Database_normalization.

Mahipalreddy also has good explanations: http://www.mahipalreddy.com/dbdesign/dbqa.htm

2. Look up the definition of functional dependency. Can you find a good example?

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Copyright © 2014 Pearson Education, Inc.
This Wikipedia article provides a mathematical definition of functional dependencies:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Functional_dependency. Several other sites also provide mathematical

definitions and examples. The normalization article listed under 1 provides an easier verbal explanation.

About.com has a brief definition and example.

http://databases.about.com/cs/specificproducts/g/functdep.htm

Another good discussion can be found at http://articles.sitepoint.com/article/database-design-

management.

3. Look up the definition of transitive dependency. Can you find a good example?

This Wikipedia article has a definition and example:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Transitive_dependency.

This site also has a good definition and example:http://www.databasedev.co.uk/3norm_form.html.

4. Look up one of the normal forms we did not cover. See if you can explain it to someone in the class.

It is actually hard to find a good web site that covers all the normal forms. Many cover one through

three, and some cover through fifth normal form.

Wikipedia has a description of all the normal forms but lacks full discussion and examples. However,

each normal form has its own entry with a fuller discussion:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Database_normalization

This site goes through fifth normal form quite thoroughly:

http://trumpetpower.com/Papers/Normal_Forms

5. Look up “denormalization,” and why anyone would want to do it.

5-4
Copyright © 2014 Pearson Education, Inc.
The same Wikipedia site listed in the above examples also has a brief discussion of denormalization.

Some other sites include:

http://www.databasedesign-resource.com/denormalization.html

http://database-programmer.blogspot.com/2008/04/denormalization-patterns.html

http://www.tdan.com/view-articles/4142

Practices

Charlie has a large book collection. He was keeping track of it in a spreadsheet, but it has grown big
enough that he wants to convert it into a real database. Here is a sample from the spreadsheet:

Author Author Country Titles

James Taylor England JavaScript Essentials, South Tech Books,
London, 2010, $14; HTML5 Exposed, Webby
Books, London, 2012, $15.50
May Norton United States Big Data Big Promise, Data Press, San
Francisco 2012, $25
Jessica Lewis United States Database Development for the Cloud, Data
Press San Francisco, $20.35; Data Services,
Future Tech Press, New York $12.95

1. What are some of the potential problems with this layout if carried directly to the database?

The biggest problem is the Titles column. It contains several different types of information, title,
publisher, year of publication, city, and price. It is also multivalued in that an author can have
more than one book. In terms of using the database, it would be difficult to find the data on any
particular title. You would have to do a substring or search manually. It would be equally difficult
to insert a new title by an existing author or to update the information on an existing title.
Deleting an author would remove all their books and deleting a book presents the danger of
deleting the author as well.

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Copyright © 2014 Pearson Education, Inc.
Poor Ok Good

Shows no clear understanding of Describes the anomalies but Clear understanding of the

the anomalies. provides few specific examples anomalies with good examples

from the DVD fields. from the DVD attribute list.

2. Which of the columns in the example are multivalued?

The title column is multivalued.

3. Create a table that would show how you would convert the sample data into First Normal Form.
(Hint: Break the information in the Titles column into separate fields. Books are separated by
semicolons.)

Author AuthorCountry Title Publisher City Year Price

James Taylor England JavaScript Essentials South Tech London 2010 14
Books
James Taylor England HTML 5 Exposed Webby Books London 2012 15.50
May Norton United States Big Data Promise Data Press San 2012 25
Francisco
Jessica Lewis United States Database Data Press San 20.35
Development for Francisco
the Cloud
Jessica Lewis United States Data Services Future Tech New York 12.95
Press

Discussion: Students may also want to separate first and last name into their own attributes. This is fine.

Poor Ok Good

Shows no clear idea of how to Sees the multivalued column, Clearly separates the columns

separate the data into columns. but doesn’t distinctly separate and values.

Doesn’t see the multivalued the columns; for instance,

column. putting publisher and city

together, or separating the

5-6
Copyright © 2014 Pearson Education, Inc.
 different titles but leaving title,

publisher, city, year, and price as

one column.

4. Create an entity diagram for the table you made in Practice 3.

Books

AuthorName

AuthorCountry

Title

Publisher

City

Year

Price

Poor Ok Good

Not clear on what the attributes Partial understanding of the Clear understanding of the

would be—see above. separate attributes. attributes and entity.

5. List all the functional dependencies you find in the sample data.

There are at least two large themes—or functional dependencies. One is the book information and the
other is the publisher information. Author and author country are also functional dependency.

5-7
Copyright © 2014 Pearson Education, Inc.
Poor Ok Good

Doesn’t find any functional Defines at least Book and Defines Book, Publisher, and

dependencies or separates Publisher as functional Author as dependencies.

attributes arbitrarily. dependencies.

6. Identify and list some potential candidate keys for the new entities.

Title might be a candidate key for the book information, but many students may also be inclined to add
ISBN. That is not in the table, but is a legitimate potential key. For publisher, the PublisherName
attribute is a valid candidate. Author name would be a candidate key for Author.

Poor Ok Good

No candidate keys or attributes Chooses attributes that could be Shows good understanding of

that would make poor unique. the requirements of a primary

candidates for keys. key. May suggest additional

attributes such as ISBN as

potential keys.

7. Create an entity diagram that shows the structure of the data in Second Normal Form.

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Copyright © 2014 Pearson Education, Inc.
 Publisher
Book
PK PublisherKey
PK BookISBN
PublisherName
Title
PublisherCity
AuthorKey

BookYear

Author
BookPrice

PK AuthorKey
PublisherKey

AuthorName

AuthorCountry

Discussion. Students may leave Author and AuthorName in the book entity. I broke it out here because
it is more than a transitive dependency since the values repeat in multiple rows. But if students leave it
in here, they can remove it in the next step as a transitive dependency. I would accept this as valid. It is
also possible that some students will realize that some books have multiple authors, and that it is
therefore necessary to create a linking entity between Book and Author. This should be encouraged as it
shows they are understanding relationships and normalization.

Poor Ok Good

Doesn’t break up the diagram Has at least the two entities Has three entities Book, Author,

into entities or entities are Book and Publisher and the and Publisher with appropriate

illogical. Doesn’t have appropriate one-to-many relationships between entities.

appropriate relationships relationship between them. May have a linking entity

between entities. between Book and Author.

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Copyright © 2014 Pearson Education, Inc.
 8. List any transitive dependencies you find.

Poor Ok Good

Shows no understanding of what Sees authorcountry as a Shows understanding of a

a transitive dependency is. transitive dependency on transitive dependency but finds

authorName and creates an none in the current diagram

author entity. (having already created a

separate author entity).

If the authorname and authorcountry were left in Book, they should be separated into a new entity at
this point.

9. Create an entity diagram that shows the database in Third Normal Form.

The entity would be the same as in step 7, possibly including the linking entity between Book and
Author.

Poor Ok Good

Incorrect entities or attributes. Diagram like the one in 7. Diagram like the one in 7 with

Incorrect relationships. the possible addition of a linking

entity between book and author.

10. Describe the process you went through to achieve the normal forms.

They should describe the process of looking for multivalued columns, functional dependencies and
themes, and then checking for any additional transitive dependencies.

Poor Ok Good

Shows no clear understanding of Describes the steps of finding Same as OK, though perhaps

5-10
Copyright © 2014 Pearson Education, Inc.
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the process. multivalued fields, functional more in depth and showing a

dependencies, and transitive deeper understanding.

dependencies.

Scenarios

Wild Wood Apartments

1. Review the diagram you made from the previous chapter for all three levels of normalization.

Here is the previous diagram:

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Copyright © 2014 Pearson Education, Inc.
 Apartment Lease Tenant

PK ApartmentKey PK LeaseKey PK TenantKey

ApartmentRooms LeaseMonthlyRent TenantLastName

FK BuildingKey LeaseDeposit TenantFirstName

LeaseStartDate TenantPhone

Building LeaseEndDate

PK BuildingKey FK ApartmentKey
RentPayment
FK TenantKey
BuildingName
PK RentPaymentKey

BuildingAddress
RentPaymentDate

Building City
MaintenanceRequest RentPaymentAmount

BuildingState
PK MaintenanceRequestKey FK LeaseKey

BuildingPostalCode
MaintenanceRequestDate
BuildingManagerPhone
MaintenanceeRequestType

MaintenanceRequestDescription

FK LeaseKey

MaintenanceRequestDetail

PK MaintenanceRequestDetailKey

FK MaintenanceRequestKey

MaintenanceRequestDetailAction

MaintenanceRequestDetailCost

MaintenanceRequestDetailBuildingCost

2. Change the diagram to reflect the fully normalized design.

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Copyright © 2014 Pearson Education, Inc.
For this diagram I don’t think any changes need to be made.

3. Document in writing why you made the changes you did, or why you did not need to make changes.

Students should note their thoughts on each level of normalization. For level one, if they found no

repeating groups or multivalued attributes, the diagram meets first normal form. If they do find

repeating groups or multivalued attributes, they should have broken them into separate entities and

created new relationships.

For Second Normal Form, students should note any occurrences of functional dependencies; that is any

separate themes in any of the entities. If discovered, these too should be broken out into separate

entities and new relationships. If they find none, they can certify that the diagram conforms to Second

Normal Form.

For Third Normal Form they should note the search for transient dependencies. If any are found, they

should be broken into new entities.

4. Review the normalized diagram for completeness. Do the entities capture all the data needed to meet

the business rules and needs of Wild Wood Apartments?

This involves a comparison with previous documents and notes. If anything is discovered as left out, it

should be added and the diagram adjusted to reflect the additions.

5. Documentation: Save the normalized diagram with notes about changes made during the

normalization process to your database notebook.

Vince’s Vinyl

1. Review the diagram you made from the previous chapter for all three levels of normalization.

Here is the diagram from the previous example.

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Copyright © 2014 Pearson Education, Inc.
2. Change the diagram to reflect the fully normalized design.

5-14
Copyright © 2014 Pearson Education, Inc.
The above diagram could pass the first three levels of normalization. There are a couple of issues,

though, that could lead to further normalization, though only advanced students would notice.

Customers and Sellers can be the same people. This could lead to update anomalies as the same person

could have their information in two places. The solution is to create a Person entity that contains all

names and addresses. The person key could represent them in either role in Sale, Request, or Purchase.

Another subtle issue relates to the entity Album. If Vince were to remove an album, and it was the only

copy of that album, he would lose the album information. Also, there is potential redundancy in Album,

since each physical vinyl is treated as an individual item in the table. Multiple copies of the same album

would result in multiple entries identical except for purchase date and perhaps condition. To solve this

would require separating Album from Inventory. Below is a diagram that reflects these changes.

5-15
Copyright © 2014 Pearson Education, Inc.
Other documents randomly have
different content
sparrow completely wedged in among the fierce thorns, where it had
evidently been caught in such a way as to prevent its escape.

Something over a year after the preceding facts were published, I

was seized with a whim to resume my investigations on bird roosts.
One of my nocturnal rambles seems to be deserving of somewhat
minute description. It was a delightful evening of early spring, with a
warm westerly breeze stirring the bursting leaves. The sun had set,
and the dusk was falling over fields and woods. The bright moon, a
little more than half full, lengthened out the gloaming and 122
added many precious minutes to the singing hours of the
birds. Such a woodland chorus as I was permitted to listen to that
evening! It was a rare privilege. How the wood-thrushes vied with
the towhee buntings! Which would sing the latest? That seemed to
be the question. At length there were several moments of silence,
and I supposed all the birds had gone to sleep, when a white-
throated sparrow and a wood-pewee struck in with their sweet
strains; and so the chorus continued until it was really night. The
wood-thrushes, I think, got in the last note of the twilight serenade.

Before it had become quite dark, I espied a wood-thrush sitting in

the fork of a dogwood-tree, looking at me in a startled way; but she
did not fly. I walked off some distance, remained awhile, and then
returned, to find her still in her place. Then I strolled about until
night had fully come; the moon shone brightly, so that it was not
dark. When I went back to the dogwood-tree, the speckled breast of
the thrush was still visible in the fork which she had chosen for her
bed-chamber, and I wished her pleasant dreams.

While stalking about, I startled another wood-thrush, which had

selected a loose brush-heap on the ground instead of a sapling or
tree for a roost. The indigo-birds and bush-sparrows flew up from
the blackberry bushes as I pushed my way through them. Several
times the towhee buntings leaped scolding out of bed, having
selected brush-heaps, or dead branches lying on the ground, 123
for roosting-places.
A discovery was also made in regard to the sleeping-apartments of
the red-headed woodpecker. As the dusk was gathering, a red-head
dashed in front of me into the border of the woods, alighting on a
sapling stem, and then began to shuffle upward toward a hole
plainly visible from where I sat; but just as he reached the hole,
another red-head appeared with a challenging air on the inside of
the cavity, and red-head number one darted away with a cry of
alarm. Now was my time to discover, if possible, where red-head
number two would roost. So I kept a close watch on the cavity,
waiting about, as previously said, until nightfall, and then, keeping
my eye on the hole, so that the bird could not fly out without being
seen, I made my way to the sapling. Intently watching the hole with
my glass, I tapped the stem of the tree with my heel, when, in the
moonlight, a red head and long, black beak were protruded from the
opening above. The woodpecker was within, that much was proved;
and when I had beaten against the tree, he had sprung up to the
orifice to see who was thus impolitely disturbing his evening
slumbers. He turned his head sidewise, and looked down at me with
his keen beady eyes; but although I tapped against the tree again
and again, he would not leave the cavity. There can be no doubt
that it was his bedroom,—that cosey apartment in the sapling,—for
it was still too early in the season for the bird to begin nesting, as he
had arrived only two or three days before from his winter 124
residence in the south. Very likely most woodpeckers roost in
the cavities which they hew in trees, for I do not see why the one
into whose private affairs I pried that evening should have been an
exception. He most probably was only following the customs of his
[5]
tribe from time immemorial.

A number of experiments made with young birds purloined from the

nest—I must beg the feathered parents’ forgiveness—have added
several interesting facts to the subject in hand. One spring I became
guardian, purveyor, and man-of-all-work to a pair of young flickers,
taken from a cavity in an old apple-tree. They were kept in a large
cage, in which I placed sapling boughs of considerable size. They
had not become my protégés many days before they insisted on
converting these upright branches into sleeping-couches, clinging to
the vertical boles with their stout claws, and pillowing their heads in
the feathers of their backs. In this position they slept as comfortably
as the thrushes and orioles confined in other cages slept on their
horizontal perches, or, for that matter, as I slept in my own bed.
They even slept on the under side of an oblique branch. One 125
of them passed one night on a horizontal perch, although
apparently his slumbers were not quite so sound and refreshing as
they would have been had he roosted in the wonted upright
position. Queerest of all, these woodpeckers sometimes selected the
side of the cage itself for a roosting-place, thrusting their claws into
the crevice between the door and its frame. Wherever they roosted,
their tails were made to do duty as braces, by being pressed tightly
against the wall to which they clung. A pair of young red-headed
woodpeckers behaved in much the same way, always preferring to
sleep on an upright perch.

During the spring of 1893 I placed in a cage the following birds, all
taken while in a half-callow state, from the nest: Two cat-birds, one
red-winged blackbird, one cow-bunting, and two meadow-larks. In a
few days all of them proclaimed their species, as well as the
inexorable law of heredity, by selecting such roosts as were best
adapted to them, and that without any instruction whatever from
adult birds. The meadow-larks almost invariably squatted on the
grass with which the floor of the cage was lined, usually scratching
and waddling from side to side until they had made cosey hollows to
fit their bodies; while the remaining inmates flew up to the perches
when bed-time came.

It was quite interesting to look in upon my group of sleeping pets of

an evening, part of them roosting in the lower story of the cage and
the rest in the upper story. Several times, however, one of 126
the larks slept on a perch, and the red-wing, after the cat-
birds and bunting had been removed from the cage, occasionally
seemed to think the upstairs a little lonely, and so he cuddled down
on the grass below, edging up close to the larks. The strangely
assorted bedfellows slept together in this way like happy children.

127
 XI.
THE WOOD-PEWEE.
A MONOGRAPH.

Almost every person living in the country or the suburbs of a town is

familiar with the house-pewee, or phœbe-bird. It is usually looked
upon as the sure harbinger of spring. In my boyhood days my
parents and grandparents were wont to say, “Spring is here; the
phœbe is singing.” And if blithesomeness of tone and good cheer
have anything to do with the advent of the season of song and
bursting blossoms, the pewit, as he is often called, must be a true
herald and prophet. He seems to carry the “subtle essence of spring”
in his tuneful larynx, and in the graceful sweep of his flight as he
pounces upon an insect. It is quite easy to make the transition from
his familiar song of Phe-e-by to the exclamation, Spring’s here! by a
little stretch of the fancy.

But the phœbe has a woodland relative, a first cousin, with which
most persons are not so well acquainted, because he is more retiring
in his habits, and seeks out-of-the-way places for his habitat. I refer
to the wood-pewee. If your eyes and ears are not so sharp as they
should be, you may get these two birds confounded; yet 128
there is no need of making such a blunder. The woodland
bird is smaller, slenderer, and of a darker cast than his relative; and,
besides, there is a marked difference in the musical performances of
these birds. The song of the phœbe is sprightly and cheerful, and
the syllables are uttered rather quickly, while the whistle of the
wood-pewee is softer and more plaintive, and is repeated with less
emphasis and more deliberation. There is, indeed, something
inexpressibly sad and dreamy about the strain of the wood-pewee,
especially if heard at a distance in the “emerald twilight” of the
“woodland privacies.” Mr. Lowell seldom erred in his attempts to
characterize the songs and habits of the birds, but in his exquisite
poem entitled “Phœbe” he certainly must have referred to the wood-
pewee and not to the phœbe-bird, as his description applies to the
former but not to the latter. He calls this bird “the loneliest of its
kind,” while the pewit is a familiar species about many a country
home. Taking it for granted that he meant the wood-pewee, how
happy is his description!

“It is a wee sad-colored thing,

As shy and secret as a maid;
That ere in choir the robins ring,
Pipes its own name like one afraid.

“It seems pain-prompted to repeat

The story of some ancient ill,
But Phœbe! Phœbe! sadly sweet,
Is all it says, and then is still.

· · · · · · ·

“Phœbe! it calls and calls again; 129

And Ovid, could he but have heard,
Had hung a legendary pain
About the memory of the bird.

· · · · · · ·

“Phœbe! is all it has to say

In plaintive cadence o’er and o’er,
Like children who have lost their way,
And know their names, but nothing more.”

This poetical tribute is certainly very graceful, and would be true to

life if the phonetic representation were a little more accurate.
Instead of Phœbe, imagine the song to be Pe-e-w-e-e-e or Phe-e-w-
e-e-e, and you will gain a clear idea of the minstrelsy of this
songster of the wildwood. However, he frequently varies his tune,—
to prevent its becoming monotonous, I opine. He sometimes closes
his refrain with the falling inflection or circumflex, and sometimes
with the rising, as the mood prompts him. In the former case the
first syllable receives the greater emphasis and is the more
prolonged, and in the latter this order is precisely reversed. When
the last syllable is uttered with the rising circumflex, it is usually, if
not always, cut off somewhat abruptly. Moreover, this minstrel often
runs the two syllables of his song together,—a peculiarity that I have
represented in my notes, taken while listening to the song, in this
way: Phe-e-e-o-o-w-e-e-e! There is a characteristic swing about the
melody that refuses to be caught in the mesh of letters and
syllables.

In some of the pewee’s vocal efforts he does not get farther 130
than the end of the first syllable. The song seems to be cut
off short, as if the notes had stuck fast in the singer’s throat, or as if
something had occurred to divert his mind from the song. Perhaps
this hiatus is caused by the sudden appearance of an insect glancing
by, which attracts the musician’s attention. This bird usually chooses
a dead twig or limb in the woods as a perch, on which he sits and
sings, turning his head from side to side, so that no flitting moth
may escape him.

And what a persistent singer he is! He sings not only in the spring
when other vocalists are in full tune, but also all summer long, never
growing disheartened, even when the mercury rises far up into the
nineties. What a pleasant companion he has been in my midsummer
strolls as I have wearily patrolled the woods! On the sultriest August
days, when all other birds were glad to keep mute, sitting on their
shady perches with open mandibles and drooping wings, the
dreamful, far-away strain of the wood-pewee has drifted, a welcome
sound, to my ears through the dim aisles. He seems to be a friend in
need. How often, when the heat has almost overcome me, as I
pursued my daily beat, that song has put new vigor into my veins!
When Mr. Lowell wrote that

“The phœbe scarce whistles

Once an hour to his fellow,”

he must have been listening to a far lazier specimen than those with
which I am acquainted.

Most birds fall occasionally into a kind of ecstasy of song, and 131
the wood-pewee is no exception. One evening, after it had
grown almost dark, a pewee flew out into the air directly above my
head from a tree by the wayside, and began to sing in a perfect
transport as he wheeled about; then he swung back into the tree,
keeping up his song in a continuous strain, and in sweet, half-
caressing tones, until finally it died away, as if the bird had fallen
into a doze during his vocal recital. I lingered about for some time,
but he did not sing again. Why should he repeat his good-night
song?

I have frequently heard young pewees in midsummer singing in a

continuous way, instead of whistling the intermittent song of their
elders. It sounds very droll, giving you the impression that the little
neophyte has begun to turn the crank of his music-box and can’t
stop. His voice is quite sweet, but his execution is very crude. Wait,
however, until he is eight or nine months older, and he will show you
what a winged Orpheus can do. My notes say that on the thirtieth of
July, 1891, I heard a “pewee’s quaint, prolonged whistle, interlarded
with his ordinary notes.” Thus it will be seen that he is a somewhat
versatile songster, proving the poet’s lines half true and half untrue:
—

“The birds but repeat without ending

The same old traditional notes,
Which some, by more happily blending,
Seem to make over new in their throats.”
Younger readers may, perhaps, need to be informed that the 132
wood-pewee belongs to the family of flycatchers, as do also
the king-bird or bee-martin, the phœbe-bird, the great-crested
flycatcher, and a number of other interesting species, all of which
have a peculiar way of taking their prey. The pewee will sit almost
motionless on a twig, lisping his plaintive tune at intervals, until a
luckless insect comes buzzing near, all unconscious of its peril, when
the bird will make a quick dash at it, seize it dexterously between his
mandibles, and then circle around gracefully to the same or another
perch, having made a splendid “catch on the fly.” If the quarry he
has taken is small, it slips at once down his throat; but should it be
too large to be disposed of in that summary way, he will beat it into
an edible form upon a limb before gulping it down. Agile as he is, he
sometimes misses his aim, being compelled to make a second, and
occasionally even a third attempt to secure his prize. I have
witnessed more than one comedy which turned out to be a tragedy
for the ill-starred insect. Sometimes the insect will resort to the ruse
of dropping toward the ground when it sees the bird darting toward
it, and then a scuffle ensues that is really laughable, the pursuer
whirling, tumbling, almost turning somersault in his desperate efforts
to capture his prize. Once an insect flew between me and a pewee
perched on a twig, when the bird darted down toward me with a
directness of aim that made me think for a moment he would 133
fly right into my face; but he made a dexterous turn in time,
caught his quarry, and swung to a bough near by. If one were
disposed to be speculative, one might well raise Sidney Lanier’s
pregnant inquiry at this point, the reference being to the southern
mocking-bird, and not to our pewee,—

“How may the death of that dull insect be

The life of yon trim Shakspeare, on the tree?”

It has been my good fortune to find one, but only one, nest of this
bird. It was placed on a horizontal branch about fifteen feet above
the ground, and was a neat, compact structure, decorated on the
outside with grayish lichens and moss, giving it the appearance of an
 [6]
excrescence on the limb. It is said by those who have closely
examined the nests, that they are handsomely built and
ornamented, and are equalled only by the dainty houses of the
humming-bird and the blue-gray gnat-catcher. The eggs, usually four
in number, are of a creamy white hue, beautifully embellished with a
wreath of lavender and purplish-brown around the larger end or
near the centre.

Though our bird prefers solitary places for his home, he is far from
shy, if you call on him in his haunt in the wildwood. He will sit
fearless on his perch, even if you come quite near, looking at 134
you in his staid, philosophical way, as if you were scarcely
worth noticing. Nor will he hush his song at your approach, although
he does not seem to care whether you listen to him or not. It is
seldom that he can be betrayed into doing an undignified act; and
even if he does almost turn a somersault in pursuing a refractory
miller, he recovers his poise the next moment, and settles upon his
perch with as much sang froid as if nothing unusual had occurred.
Altogether, the wood-pewee is what Bradford Torrey would call a
“character in feathers.”

135
 XII.
A PAIR OF NIGHT-HAWKS.

The night-hawk and the whippoorwill are often confounded by

persons of inaccurate habits of observation. It is true, both birds are
members of the goatsucker family; but they belong to entirely
different genera, and are therefore of much more distant kin than
many people suppose. The whippoorwill is a forest bird, while the
night-hawk prefers the open country. Besides, the whippoorwill is
decidedly nocturnal in his habits, making the woods ring at night, as
every one knows, with his weird, flutelike melody; whereas the
night-hawk is a bird of the day and evening. Then, a peculiar mark
of the night-hawk is the round white spot on his wings, visible on
the under surface as he performs his wonderful feats overhead,—a
mark that does not distinguish his woodland relative.

As a rule, the gloaming is the favorite time for the night-hawk’s

wing-exercises; then he may be seen whirling, curveting, mounting,
and plunging, often at a dizzy height, gathering his supper of insects
as he flies; but his petulant call is often heard at other hours of the
day, perhaps at noon when the sun is shining with fierce warmth.
Even during a shower he seems to be fond of haunting the 136
cloudy canopy, toying with the wind.

His call, as he tilts overhead, is difficult to represent phonetically,

both the vowels and consonants being provokingly elusive and hard
to catch. To me he seems usually to say Spe-ah. Sometimes the S
appears to be omitted, or is enunciated very slightly, while at other
times his call seems to have a decidedly sibilant beginning. On
several occasions he seemed to pronounce the syllable Scape.
I had often watched the marvellous flight of these birds, as they
passed like living silhouettes across the sky; but they had always
seemed so shy and unapproachable that, prior to the summer of
1891, I had despaired of ever finding a night-hawk’s nest. However,
one evening in June, while stalking about in the marsh, I suddenly
became aware of a large bird fluttering uneasily about me in the
gathering darkness. Presently it was joined by its mate, and then the
two birds circled and hovered about, often coming into
uncomfortable proximity with my head, and muttering under their
breath, Chuckle! chuckle! Several times one of them alighted for a
few moments on the rail-fence near by, and then resumed its circular
flight. Even in the darkness I recognized that my uncanny
companions were night-hawks, and felt convinced that there must
be a nest in the neighborhood, or they would not display so much
anxiety. It was too late to discover their secret that evening, and,
besides, I really felt a slight chill creeping up my back, with those
dark, ghostly forms wheeling about my head, and so I went 137
reluctantly home.

Two days later I found time to visit the marsh. On reaching the spot
where the two birds had been seen, presto! a dark feathered form
started up before me from the ground. It was the female night-
hawk; and there on the damp earth, without the least trace of a nest
or a covering of any kind, lay two eggs. At last I had found a night-
hawk’s nest! The ground-color of the eggs, which were quite large,
was of a dirty bluish-gray cast, mottled and clouded with darker gray
and brown.

The behavior of the mother bird was curious. She had fluttered away
a few rods, pretending to be hurt, and then dropped into the grass.
On my driving her from her hiding-place, she rose in the air and
began to hover about above my head, and then, to my utter
surprise, she swooped down toward me savagely, as if she really had
a mind to attack me. As I walked away, she seemed to grow angrier
and bolder, making a swift dash at me every few minutes, and
actually coming so near my head as to cause me involuntarily to
raise my cane in self-defence. A quaver of uneasiness went through
me. I really believe she would have struck me had I given her
sufficient provocation. There was a brisk shower falling at the time,
and so, fearing the eggs might become addled, I hurried to the
remote end of the marsh. Suddenly my feathered pursuer
disappeared. Wondering if she had resumed her place on the nest, I
sauntered back to settle the doubt, but presently espied her 138
sitting lengthwise on a top rail of the fence, while her eggs
lay unprotected in the rain. Her dark, mottled form and sleepy, half-
closed eyes made a quaint picture. I slowly withdrew, and as long as
I could see her with my glass, she kept her perch on the rail without
moving a pinion.

On the twenty-third of June another call was made on the night-

hawk family, when I found two odd-looking bairns in the nest, if nest
it could be called. They were covered with soft down, the black and
white of which presented a wavy appearance. Their short, thick bills
were covered with a speckled fuzz, except the tips. I stooped down
and smoothed their downy backs with my hand, but there was no
expression of fear in their sluggish eyes.

Both parents were present on the twenty-sixth of June. For a while

the male bird pursued his mate savagely through the air, as if
venting on her his anger at my intrusion, and then, mounting far up
toward the sky and poising a moment, he plunged toward the earth
with a velocity that made my head dizzy, checking himself, as is his
wont, with a loud resounding Bo-o-m-m. The female again pursued
her unwelcome visitor, swooping so near my head two or three times
that I could have reached her with my cane. The cock bird, curiously
enough, never displayed so much courage, but kept at a safe
distance.

On the twenty-ninth the young birds had been moved about a half
rod from the original site of the nest, and hopped off awkwardly into
the grass when I tried to clasp them with my hand. The 139
benedict was absent this time, and was never seen on any of
my subsequent visits while the young birds were fledging. By the
first of July the bantlings hopped about in a lively manner at my
approach to their domicile, and wheezed in a frightened way,
spreading out their mottled pinions. On the seventh of July neither
of the parents was to be seen, and the youngsters sat so cosily side
by side on the ground that I had not the heart to disturb their
slumbers. Approaching cautiously on the tenth, I almost stepped on
the mother bird before she flew up. At the same moment both
young birds started from the ground, and fluttered away in different
directions on their untried wings, their flight being awkward and
labored. A few weeks later four night-hawks were circling about
above the marsh,—no doubt the family that had been affording me
such an interesting study. What was my surprise when one of them
resented my presence by swooping down toward me, as the female
had done a few weeks before!

Reference has already been made incidentally to the night-hawk’s

curious habit of “booming,” as it is called. This sound is always
produced as he plunges in an almost perpendicular course from a
dizzy height,—or, more correctly, at the end of that headlong plunge,
just as he sweeps around in a graceful curve. There is something
almost sepulchral about the reverberating sound. How it is produced
is a problem over which there has been no small amount of
discussion in ornithological circles. But after considerable 140
study of this queer performance, I am persuaded that it is a
vocal outburst, produced either for its musical effect (though it is far
from musical), or else to give vent to the bird’s exuberance of feeling
as he makes his swift descent.

His thick, curved bill seems admirably adapted to produce this

sound, as do also his arched throat and neck. It has seemed to me,
too, that his mandibles fly open at the moment the boom is heard,
although I cannot be sure such is the case. Besides, the peculiar
chuckle, previously referred to, had about it a quality of sound
suggestive of kinship with the bird’s resounding boom. The hollow,
wheezy alarm-call of the young birds, heard on several of my visits
to the nest in the marsh, corroborates this theory. But there is still
further proof that this hypothesis is correct. The night-hawk often
makes his headlong plunge without booming at all, but merely utters
his ordinary rasping, aerial call, which has been translated by the
syllable Spe-ah. Then he sometimes combines the two calls, and on
such occasions both of the sounds are uttered with a diminished
loudness, as one would expect if both are vocal performances, but
as one would not expect if the booming were made by the
concussion of the bird’s wings with the resisting air, as some
ornithologists suppose. The female sometimes booms, but her voice
obviously lacks the strong, resounding quality that characterizes the
voice of her liege lord.

141
 XIII.
A BIRDS’ GALA-DAY.

In Mr. Emerson’s poem entitled “May Morning” this stanza occurs:—

“When the purple flame shoots up,

And Love ascends the throne,
I cannot hear your songs, O birds,
For the witchery of my own.”

It would seem, therefore, that to be a poet does not always give one
the coign of vantage in observing Nature, but may, on the contrary,
prove a positive disadvantage. Should the rambler go about
“crooning rhymes” and making an over-sweet melody to himself,
instead of keeping his ear alert to the music around him, he would
be likely to miss many a wild, sweet song fully as enchanting as his
own measured lines. No music of my own, however, diverted my
mind from Nature’s blithe minstrels as, on the twenty-ninth of April,
1892, I pursued my avian studies in some of my favorite resorts.

It was nine o’clock when I reached the quiet woodland lying beyond
a couple of fields. The first fact noted was the return of a number of
interesting migrants which had not been present on the 142
preceding day. They had, as is their wont, come by night
from some more southern rendezvous. Among them was the oven-
bird or accentor, announcing his presence with his startling song,
which at first seemed to come from a distance, but gradually drew
nearer, like a voice walking toward me as it grew louder and more
accelerated. On account of this quaint ventriloquial quality of voice,
the little vocalist is often very difficult to find, and you are sure to
look in a dozen places before you at last descry him. What a sedate
genius he is, as he sits atilt on a twig, or walks in his leisurely
fashion on the leaf-carpeted ground, looking up at you at intervals
out of his sage, beady eyes.

I have hinted that the oven-bird was first seen and then heard. In
this respect the habits of different species of birds differ widely. The
accentors, meadow-larks, orioles, bobolinks, Bewick’s wrens,
summer warblers, white-crowned sparrows, and some other species
usually begin at once to celebrate with pæans their return to their
old haunts; whereas the wood-thrushes, brown thrashers, and
white-throated sparrows seem to wait several days after their arrival
before they tune their harps,—a diversity of behavior difficult to
explain. Scarcely less inexplicable is the fact that some species arrive
in scattered flocks, others in battalions and armies, and others still,
one by one. My notes made on this day contain this statement:
“Yesterday I heard a single call of the red-headed woodpecker; to-
day the woods are full of these birds.”

On the first day of April the first Bewick’s wren of the spring 143
appeared, but, strange to say, not another wren was seen
until near the end of the month. A single bird often goes ahead of
the main body of migrants like a scout or outrider; while not
infrequently a small company precedes the approaching army in the
capacity, perhaps, of an advance guard.

Threading my way through the “dim vistas, sprinkled o’er with sun-
flecked green,” to an open space near the border of the woods, I
had the opportunity of listening to an improvised cat-bird concert,
without a cent of charge for admission. Here some mental notes
were made on the vocal qualities of this bird in comparison with
those of the celebrated brown thrasher, and with some hesitancy I
give my conclusions. Each songster has his special points of
excellence. The thrasher has more voice volume than his rival, his
technique is better, he glides more smoothly from one part of his
song to another, and executes several runs that for pure melody and
skill in rendering go beyond the cat-bird’s ability; but, on the other
hand, it must be said that the latter minstrel’s song contains fewer
harsh, coarse, unmusical notes; his voice, on the whole, is of a finer
quality, is pitched to a higher key, and his vocal performances are
characterized by greater artlessness or naïveté. Though professing
to be no connoisseur, I have never felt so deeply stirred by the
thrasher’s as by the cat-bird’s minstrelsy. There does not seem to be
so much fervor and real passion in the vocal efforts of the 144
tawny musician.

A little farther on, I again turned my steps into a dense section of

the woods. Suddenly there was a twinkle of wings, a flash of olive-
green, a sharp Chip, and then there before me, a few rods away, a
little bird went hopping about on the ground, picking up dainties
from the brown leaves. What could it be? Was I about to find a
species that was new to me? It really seemed so. My opera-glass,
when levelled upon the bird, revealed olive-green upper parts,
yellow or buff under parts, and four black stripes on the head, two
on the pileum and one through each eye. It was the rare worm-
eating warbler (Helmitherus vermivorus) at last,—a bird that had for
many years eluded me. The little charmer was quite wary, chirping
nervously while I ogled him,—for it was a male,—and then hopped
up into a sapling, and finally scurried away out of sight.

A few steps farther on in the woods an extremely fine cat-like call

swung down, like thread of sound, from the tree-tops. Of course, it
was my tiny acquaintance the blue-gray gnat-catcher, and his pretty
spouse, who had arrived, perhaps from Cuba or Guatemala, a few
days before. What an immense distance for their frail little wings to
traverse, “through tracts and provinces of sky”! You seldom see
anything more dainty and dream-like than the fluttering of these
birds from one tree-top to another, reminding you of an animated
cloudlet hovering and darting about in mid-air. Not a more 145
fay-like bird visits my woodland than the blue-gray gnat-
catcher. Even the ruby-throated hummingbird, though still smaller,
seems rather roly-poly in comparison; and no warbler, not even the
graceful redstart, can flit about so airily. One of the gnat-catchers in
the tree-top presently darted out after a miller, which tried to escape
by letting itself fall toward the ground. A vigorous drama followed.
The bird plunged nimbly after, whirling round and round in a spiral
course until it had secured its wriggling prize.

The gnat-catcher lisps a little song,—a gossamer melody, it might be

called. His slender voice has quite a “resonant tang.” On that day I
did not take notes on his music, but the next day I had a good
opportunity to do so; and I give the result, especially as no minute
description of this bird’s song has been recorded, so far as I know. I
had often heard it before, but had neglected to listen to it intently
enough to analyze its peculiar quality. Bending my ear upon it, I
distinctly and unmistakably detected, besides the bird’s own notes,
the notes of three other birds,—those of the cat-bird’s alarm-call, of
the phœbe’s song, and of the goldfinch’s song and call. The imitation
in each case was perfect, save that the gnat-catcher’s tones were
slenderer than those of the birds whose music he had (if I may so
speak) plagiarized. Is this tiny minstrel a mocker? Perhaps my
description may be a surprise to many students of bird minstrelsy,
but I can only say that, having listened to the song for fully 146
an hour, I could not well have been mistaken. Several times
the reproduction of the goldfinch’s song was so perfect that I looked
the tree all over again and again with my glass for that bird, but
goldfinches there were none about. Moreover, the gnat-catcher was
in plain sight, dropping quite low in the tree part of the time; and
there can be no doubt that every strain proceeded from his lyrical
little throat.

The forenoon and part of the afternoon slipped away all too rapidly,
bringing many valuable additions to my stock of bird lore; but I must
pass others by to describe the most important “find” (to me) of this
red-letter day in my experience. At about half-past four o’clock I
reached an old bush-covered gravel-bank where many birds of
various species have been encountered. As I stepped near a pool at
the foot of the bank, a little bird flashed into view, setting my pulses
all a-flutter. It was the hooded warbler, the first of the species I had
ever seen. He was recognizable at once by the bright yellow hood he
wore, bordered all around with deep black. A bright, flitting blossom
of the bird world!

For fully an hour I lingered in that “embowered solitude,” watching

the bird’s quaint behavior, which deserves more than a mere passing
notice. He was not in the least shy or nervous, but seemed rather to
court my presence. Almost every moment was spent in capturing
insects on the wing or in sitting on a perch watching for them to
flash into view. Like a genuine flycatcher, as soon as a buzzing insect
hove in sight, he would dart out after it, and never once 147
failed to secure his prize. Sometimes he would plunge swiftly
downward after a gnat or a miller, and once, having caught a miller
that was large and inclined to be refractory, he flew to the ground,
beat it awhile on the clods, and then swallowed it with a
consequential air which seemed to say, “That is my way of disposing
of such cases!” Several times he mounted almost straight up from
his perch, and twice he almost turned a somersault in pursuit of an
insect. Once he clung like a titmouse to the bole of a sapling. I could
often hear the snapping of his mandibles as he nabbed his prey.
When an insect came between him and myself, he would fearlessly
dash directly toward me, as if he meant to fly in my face or alight on
my head, often coming within a few feet of me. He seemed to be as
confiding as a child. When I stepped to the other end of the gravel-
bank, going even a little beyond it, curiously enough, the bird
pursued me; then, as an experiment, I walked back to my first post
of observation, and, to my surprise, he followed me again. Was he
really desirous of my company? Or did he know that I intended to
ring his praises in type? At length I stole away a short distance
among the trees, but presently a loud chirping in my rear arrested
my attention. I turned back, and found it to be my new-made friend,
the hooded warbler, who, strange to say, seemed to be calling me
back to his haunt. Then I climbed to the top of the gravel-bank; he
selected perches higher up in the saplings than before, so as 148
to be nearer me,—at least, so it appeared. The affectionate
little darling! The only other sound he uttered during the entire time
of our hobnobbing—his and mine—was the slenderest hint of a
song, which was really more of a twitter than a tune.

But at last I bade the little sorcerer a reluctant adieu. In a hollow of

the woods I lay down on the green grass, and listened for half an
hour to the lyrical medley of a brown thrasher perched on a treetop.
It was indeed a wonderful performance, and the longer I listened
the more its witchery grew upon me. My special purpose in bending
my whole attention upon this performance was to see if the thrasher
mimicked the songs of other birds. Many persons think him a
genuine imitator; indeed, in some places he is called the northern
mocking-bird. I am forced to say, however, that, as far as my
observation goes, he does not mimic, but sings his own
compositions, like the original genius he is. In all that song, and
others since listened to, not a single strain did he utter that I could
positively identify as belonging to the musical repertoire of another
bird. It is true, he sometimes, in the midst of his song, uttered the
alarm call of the robin; but as both birds belong to the same family,
this was not to be wondered at, and affords no evidence of the gift
of imitation. If the thrasher does mimic his fellow-minstrels, as many
persons contend, the borrowed notes are so brief and so
intermingled and blent with his own music as to be unrecognizable.

On the other hand, this tawny vocalist utters musical strains 149
that are entirely unlike anything else in the whole realm of
bird minstrelsy, proving his song to be characteristic. The brown
thrasher is not a musical pirate, but an original composer,—a sort of
Mozart or Beethoven in the bird world. And how wonderful are some
of his slurred runs! Nothing in the domain of music could be finer,
and the harsh notes he frequently interpolates only serve to
accentuate and enhance the melody of those that are truly lyrical.

In his engaging book entitled “Birds in the Bush,” Bradford Torrey,

who is second to none in the school of popular writers on feathered
folk, characterizes this tawny vocalist in a most admirable manner.
However, in regard to the matter of mimicry, his observations differ
slightly from my own; yet I gladly quote what he says rather
incidentally on the subject. One day he was listening to three
thrashers singing simultaneously. “In the midst of the hurly-burly,”
he writes, “one of the trio suddenly sounded the whippoorwill’s call
twice,—an absolutely perfect reproduction.” Then he adds,
somewhat jocosely, in a foot-note: “The ‘authorities’ long since
forbade Harporhynchus rufus to play the mimic. Probably in the
excitement of the moment this fellow forgot himself.” Of course, one
cannot gainsay the testimony of so careful an observer and so
conscientious a reporter as Mr. Torrey; yet it is possible that this
whippoorwill call was only a slip of the thrasher’s voice and not an
intended imitation; at all events, in my opinion, such vocal 150
coincidences, whether accidental or designed, are of rare
occurrence.

Since the foregoing observations were made and first published, I

have often sought to prove them untrue, but have failed. No
thrasher has ever, in my hearing, unmistakably plagiarized a single
strain from his fellow-musicians. Fearing my ear for music might be
defective, rendering me incapable of distinguishing correctly the
various songs of birds, I put myself to the test in this way: On one of
the streets of my native town there is a brilliant mocking-bird, whose
cage is often hung out on a veranda. Again and again I have
stopped to listen to his ringing medley, and have never failed to hear
him distinctly mimic the songs and calls of other birds, such as the
robin, blue jay, cardinal grossbeak, and red-headed woodpecker.
Why should I be able instantly to detect the notes of other birds in
the mocker’s song and never once be able to detect them in the
song of the thrasher?

But it is fully time to return to my ramble. The gifted songster in the

tree-top would sometimes pipe a strain of such exquisite sweetness
that it seemed to surprise himself; he would pause a moment, as if
to reflect upon it and fix it in mind for future use; and erelong he
would repeat it, reminding his admiring auditor of Browning’s lines
on the Wise Thrush,—

“He sings each song twice over,

Lest you should think he never could recapture
The first fine careless rapture.”

New strains were continually introduced. So loud and full 151

were some of his notes that “the blue air trembled with his
song,” and the woods fairly woke into echoes. It is really doubtful if
the disparaging term “hurly-burly” should be applied to such
peerless vocalization. It was bird opera music of the highest style,
improvised for the occasion, and formed a fitting conclusion to this
rare birds’ gala-day.

152
 XIV.
RIFE WITH BIRDS.
A JAUNT TO A NEW FIELD.

A four days’ outing along the Ohio River one spring brought me
some “finds” that may be of interest to bird lovers. Everywhere there
were the twinkle of wings, the twitter of voices, and the charm of
song; indeed, so plentiful were the feathered folk that the title of
this article is far less poetical than realistic and descriptive. It was
the latter part of May, the time in that latitude when the birds were
in full song, at least those which were not too busy with their family
cares. Sixty-four species were seen during a stay of four days in the
neighborhood.

Mine host was a farmer whose premises afforded a habitat for

numerous birds, there being many trees and bushes in the yard and
a large orchard near by. In one of the silver maples a pair of
warbling vireos had built a tiny pendent cradle, as is their wont, set
in a bower of shining twigs and green leaves. There it swayed in the
zephyrs, rocking the birdlings to sleep and filling their dreams with
rhythm; and the lullabies that the happy parents sang were 153
cheerful and engaging, in spite of the fact that some critic
has pronounced the minstrelsy of the warbling vireo tiresome.
Tiresome, forsooth! Truth to tell, the more closely you listen to it the
sweeter it grows. All day long, from peep of dawn to evening
twilight, those quaint, continuous lays could be heard, now subdued
and desultory, now almost as vigorous as a robin’s carol.

It sometimes seemed as if the vireos and orchard orioles were rival

vocalists. If so, a prize should be awarded to both,—to the vireos for
persistency, for never letting up; to the orioles for richness and
melody of tone. Many a rollicking two-part concert they gave.

But there were other voices frequently heard in the chorus, though
not so continuously as those of the birds just mentioned. A song-
sparrow, which had built a dainty cot in a bush not two rods from
the veranda, sometimes trilled an interlude of entrancing sweetness,
taking the bays for real tunefulness from every rival. Then, to my
surprise, a Maryland yellow-throat, shy little fellow in other places,
would frequently sing his heart out in the small trees and silver
maples of the front yard. He did not fly off or discontinue his song
when an auditor stood right beneath his perch, but would throw
back his masked head, distend his golden throat, and deliver his trill
to his own and everybody else’s satisfaction. Very often, too, the
indigo-bird, just returned from a bath in the cerulean depths, would
enrich the harmony with the most rollicksome, if not the 154
most tuneful lay of the chorus. As a sort of accompaniment,
the chipping-sparrow often trilled his silvery monotone; and once a
robin added his Cheerily, here, here!

So much for the birds about the house, though there were many
others that have not been mentioned; in fact, there were some
twenty species in all. There were also birds a-plenty in other places.
A half day was spent in some fields bordering the broad river. On a
green slope was a bush-sparrow’s nest, daintily bowered in the grass
by the side of a blackberry bush, and in a thicket hard by two
yellow-breasted chats had placed their grassy cradles, proclaiming
their secret to all the world by their loud cries of warning to keep
away. It is odd that these birds, shy and nervous as they are, should
go so far out of their way to tell you that they have a nest
somewhere in the copse that you mustn’t touch, mustn’t even look
for. While you are yet a quarter of a mile away, they will utter their
loud cries of warning; and if you go to the thicket where they are,
you will be almost sure to find their nest, so poorly have they
learned the lesson of discretion.
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