Homing with the Birds by Gene Stratton-Porter

Author:Gene Stratton-Porter [Stratton-Porter, Gene]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Klassiker
Publisher: Jazzybee Verlag
Published: 2017-02-05T00:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER XI - LEARNING BIRD LANGUAGE

IN STUDYING the birds in their native haunts it is the greatest help imaginable to know their language and to be able to recognize their voices. The first thing to learn is the tribal call of each species, that note which in its most frequent utterance on the part of the female is the simple question: "Where?" and on the part of the male the reply: "Here." This question is repeatedly asked and answered by all birds, even before and after the brooding season, when they are pleasuring or food hunting through the-fields and forests. It is the out-cropping of the love of company, a feeling ingrained in the hearts of birds and beasts, as of men. It is a direct result of the dread of being alone, a love of friends, a wish to know if kindred are near. So at this quick, inquiring call, usually of one note, wren answers wren, robin calls to robin, jay replies to jay.

After courting is over and a pair is nest building, this call comes with greater frequency, since the strongest tie existing between birds has just been formed, they being paired in some instances for several matings, frequently for life. During incubation it is scarcely heard from the female except in time of alarm, as its utterance would attract attention to the nest location. When the young are hatched and both the elders are busy gathering food a period of greatest anxiety ensues, and the call and answer pass between the parents with almost clock-like regularity. This serves the double purpose of letting the pair know of the safety of each other and the young that they have not been deserted.

In no case in my experience with the birds have I ever heard this call given with such frequency and precision as by a pair of chewinks. For two days before the young left the nest, my camera was focused on their location. The old birds went before it from the first, without the slightest hesitation. There was a long hose attached; I was hidden in a near-by thicket. As a protection from swarms of mosquitoes, I covered myself with a long cravenette, matching the shade of the dead leaves under foot, so that it concealed me entirely and fitted into the surroundings perfectly. Those birds hunted altogether on the ground; their use of the tribal call was regular and frequent. Four and five times to the minute, by my watch, came the question of the female: "Che-wink?" and the immediate answer of the male: "Che-wee."

If for any reason the male was slow in answering, a change could be detected instantly in the tone of the female. Her call was a degree sharper, tinctured with a faint hint of anxiety. If the male still failed to answer, she immediately flew to the region of the nest and called again, this time a call so filled with anxiety and excitement that it constituted an alarm cry. So they talked every minute of the time I worked around them.

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