A - birding on a bronco (1896) (14568711930)

The Big Sycamore
Identifier: birdingonbronco00bail (find matches)
Title: A - birding on a bronco
Year: 1896 (1890s)
Authors: Bailey, Florence Merriam, b. 1863
Subjects: Birds -- California San Diego County
Publisher: Boston New York : Houghton, Mifflin and Co. : Cambridge, MA : The Riverside Press
Contributing Library: American Museum of Natural History Library
Digitizing Sponsor: Biodiversity Heritage Library



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imbs, about half way upthe tree, where the bark was rough. They builtso close together that the nests made a solid massof mud. For several seasons, it was said, theyhad bad luck. They began building before therainy season was over, and all but a few dozennests which were in especially protected placeswere swept away. The number of nests was soenormous that the ground was covered severalinches deep with mud. Billy used to improve his time by nibblingbarley while I watched birds in the sycamorecorridor. We had not been there long before Idiscovered a bees nest in the hollow of one of thetrunks. The owners were busily flying in andout, and a pair of big bee-birds flew down fromtheir nest in the treetop and saved themselvestrouble by lunching at this convenient groundfloor restaurant. As I sat on Billy, facing thenest, one of the pair swept down over themouth of the hole, caught a bee and settled backon the branch to swallow it. This seemed to bethe regular performance, and was kept up so
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THE BIG SYCAMORE. 115 continuously, even when we were standing closeby, that if, as is supposed, the birds eat onlydrones, few but workers would be left in thathive. The flycatchers seemed well suited to the syca-more : they were birds of large ideas and sweej)-ing flights. Their nest was at the top of thetree, probably eighty feet from the ground, butwhen one of them flew down, instead of cominga branch at a time, he would set his wings and,giving a loud cry, — as a child shouts when push-ing off his sled at the top of a steep hill, — hewould sail obliquely down from the treetop tothe foot of the hillside beyond. AVhen lookingfor his material he would hover over the fieldlike a phoebe. Then, on returning, unlike theother birds who lived in the tree and used thebranches as ladders, he would start from theground and with labored flights climb obliquelyup the air to the treetop. Once his materialdanofled a foot behind him. The birds seemed toenjoy these great flights. Their nest was