Page:Condor7(4).djvu/6

 luly, I9o 5 A STUDY IN BIRD CONFIDENCE 93 Name, Psaltriparus rainlinus, bush-tit. Nest in hemlock tree six feet from ground. Indentity, positive. Eggs, seven, pure white, etc. This is all right for a city direc- tory, and is almost as interesting. You don't know a bush-tit any more when you have found him with a field-glass aud identified him in your bird manual, than you do a man when you are introduced to him and shove his card in your pocket. Each bird has a real individuality. Each is different in character and disposition. Any careful observer would know the bush-tit and chickadee were cousins, even if they had never heard of the Paridac family. I found the little family in the hendock tree even more interesting after they alllearned to fly. Several times I saw them about the patch of woods. I observed many of the same characteristics that Joseph Grinnell tells of in an interesting article in THE Com)o of July-August, t9o 3. One day I sto{d watching the flock of niltigers in an alder copse. Each youngster had learned to keep // A BIRD IN THE HAND IS WORTH SEVERAL ON THE HAT. A STUDY IN BlED CONFIDENCE up a constant "Tscre-e ! Tscre-e-e ! Tsit ! Tscre-e !" as if always saying something, but I do not think this gossip is as much for the sake of the conversation as merely to keep the whole flock constantly together. While I was watching, three or four of the little fellows were within a few feet of me. One of the parents in the next tree began a shrill. quavering whistle, and instantly it was taken up by every one of the band. The two tiny birds near me, as well as every one of the others, froze to their perches as still as death. Had I not known, I couldn't have told just where the whistle was coming from, it sounded so scattering like the elusive grating call of the cicada. Then I saw a hawk sweeping slowly overhead, and the confus- Upper figure, Mr. William leoveil Finley; lower figure, Mr, l[erman 'r. Bohlman.--ED,