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Old or Out of Print Bluebird Books & References (Part 2)From: "Keith & Sandy Kridler" kridler"at"1starnet.com Keith Kridler From: "Keith & Sandy Kridler" kridler"at"1starnet.com Keith Kridler Mt. Pleasant, Texas It is a tiny book with about 40 pages devoted to birds but with 40 color illustrations, as usual with these old books "Bluebirds" are mentioned early and in this book starting in the second paragraph. "Although a few BLUEBIRDS pass the winter in the state, chiefly in warm swamps, they are usually regarded as migrants and their return in spring is eagerly awaited. They come the latter part of February and their cheery warbles greet us from orchard and roadside. As Burroughs, in his charming manner, explains in "Wake Robin": --When Nature made the Bluebird she wished to propitiate both the sky and the earth, so she gave him the color of one on his back and the hue of the other on his breast, and ordained that his appearance in spring should denote that the strife and war between these two elements was at an end. He is the peace-harbinger; in him the celestial and terrestrial strike hands and are fast friends." Cavities in trees or posts furnish suitable homes sites within which to lay their very pale blue eggs and rear their young. They are real sociable chaps and, provided that English Sparrows are properly suppressed, will occupy bird houses or boxes in our very dooryards." Later he writes, "With the exception of Robins and Bluebirds, all thrushes are rather timid, shy and retiring, preferring deep woods rather that the open. On of the most interesting descriptions in the book was about the Purple Martin, "Then there is that large and well-known species, the PURPLE MARTIN, the male of which is glossy purplish-black all over. Many of them now commonly nest in bird houses erected for them, but the majority cling to the habits of their ancestors and nest in cavities of trees." Note that in 1912 that the "English Sparrow now called House Sparrow" needed to be "suppressed" if you wanted bluebirds in your "dooryard". 90 years after this was written Fawzi Emad and flock are about to start up a new state group for the bluebirds in Maryland. With the able help of Bruce Burdett's conspiracy group and Haleya's Mass. group the bluebirds should survive another 90 years in New England states. Texas, Louisiana and Mississippi have relatively new groups and all of these are due in major part to the roles that The North American Bluebird Society and Cornell continue to support through their wonderful organizations. Bluebird-L had a lot to do with Kathy Clark ramrodding the Pennsylvania's Bluebird state organization. It is normally the sheer will power of a few individuals that hold these groups together. By seeing how many people are moved by these "blue" birds it makes it easier for many to continue the tremendous amount of work these groups entail to keep them going and growing and ultimately fledging the "Peace-Harbingers" for the generations to come. I believe this was the best year ever for Bluebird-L and NABS and affiliates. We may not fledge record numbers of bluebirds but this is going to be one of the best ever graduating classes of bluebirders and by sheer numbers of super dedicated nestbox monitors we will make a difference for years to come.Thank you to ALL involved from backyard monitors to those responsible for raising the money and paying the bills to allow these organizations to continue to do what they do best! Share the Joy of the Birds this year and they will sing your praises come spring! Keith Kridler From: "Gary Springer" springer"at"alltel.net There is much that can be learned by reading about birds in old literature. But, be cautious of drawing conclusions. Many books are written by authors that learned most, if not everything, from what they read in books of the previous generation. Therefore, misunderstandings are perpetuated in the literature. As late as 1878 some of the most accomplished and respected ornithologists still believed birds hibernated in hollow trees or under the ground. Migration of Birds by Charles Dixon, 1892 Gary Springer From: WatercressFarm"at"aol.com Does anyone know of some early writings by William Duncan? He wrote about bluebirds in the 1940s I believe. I would very much like to obtain some of his early bluebird work. Thanks! Mark Ritke From: "Keith & Sandy Kridler" kridler"at"1starnet.com Keith Kridler Mt. Pleasant, Texas When he received enough "new" ideas he added them all together and copied them and sent them out to people who showed an interest in bluebirds. I believe at the height of his newsletter he was mailing about 1,800 copies from Kentucky about 24 times a year. When I finish taxes I will dig through my old files as I know I have a couple of copies he sent me in the early 70's. He might like to look down and see some of these old newsletters copied and passed out again! About half of the content of these newsletters were devoted to leading edge ecology ideas for that time...Larry Zeleny began writing a monthly column on bluebirds in the Nature Society News in the 60's all through the 70's and he and William exchanged information monthly and this column of Larry Zeleny's slowly took the place of the Duncan newsletters....These guys kept the faith and built the base of modern bluebirding as we know it today. Dang I wish they had been with Sandy and I today when we talked with 70 fifth graders....Nearly 70 of them have LOOKED in a nestbox and seen either bluebird eggs or babies. More than 40 of them already have up nestboxes. More than 30 of them have had bluebirds at THEIR house nesting in their boxes. Most of them have already built a nestbox. 18 had flying squirrels in some of their nestboxes. These students already know more about bluebirds and other cavity nesters than I did when I was 25....KK From: Bruce Burdett [mailto:blueburd"at"tds.net] Keith Kridler, et al, I wonder if you, Keith, or anyone out there, can explain to me and Horace what my old Chapman means when it describes the dimensions of an egg as ".96 x .71" with the dot, or decimal point, up high, where the quotation mark normally is, or the apostrophe. I've never seen this designation.(( The Chapman is a 1928 version, "Birds of Eastern North America, and the egg is the Towhee's.)) Was he talking about millimeters? Bruce Burdett SW NH From: judymellin [mailto:judymellin"at"netzero.net] Bruce- According to A Field Guide to Birds' Nests by Hal Harrison (1975), the Eastern (formerly rufous-sided) towhee egg is 23.1 mm x 17.0 mm so that would seem to put it a different enough size that the Chapman's designation would mean something different. Unless that is the equivalent in inches? When I look at a ruler that gives both, it does seem to be compatible but math has never been a strong point for me! Judy Mellin NE IL. From: Keith & Sandy Kridler [mailto:txbluebirder"at"sbcglobal.net]
OLD books I have the 1904 Chester A. Reed book "NORTH AMERICAN BIRDS EGGS" and they have the decimal point in the correct location. I believe Judy explained the MM conversion differences and we need to remember that when my book and the 1928 Chapman book were printed before the metric system became common in the USA. They were printed with plates of "moveable type". In other words each letter, number or decimal point was a separate piece and the blank space behind the period in a sentence was ALWAYS a double blank. The typesetter was given a written copy and normally a "he" would run through the boxes of letters and symbols with blinding speed assembling a double page at a time. Remember that a double page of "moveable type" would have all the letters and symbols backwards! He would then have to proof read this double page before sending it on to the printing press where they clamped this heavy block into the press, inked the block, printed a page and inked the block and printed another until they had enough for the number of books needed. This double page was then flipped over and two more pages were printed on the back....They had to allow for mistakes in the ink and a careless press man might have the whole block "blow up" and have to send a box of loose letters back to the typesetter to "fix" it again. Normally the press man at this time could not read. To get the right and left columns to "line" up, once the page was all laid out the typesetter had to go back and add shims and spaces between the letters to make it fit the page evenly. I will bet that this is a "first edition" book of Chapman's and IF they ever made a second printing and had extra money they might have corrected this "typesetters" mistake that the proof reader missed. This is NOT as easy proof reading either with the "trial printing". I have a 24 page booklet on ''THE ENGLISH SPARROW AS A PEST" and when you "open" up the booklet, page 8 and page 17 are on one side of the sheet and page 7 and 18 are on the back! Hold up a book or printed page and try to read this backward print in a mirror and you will see why mistakes in old books and newspapers were so common. Now go to "THE BLUEBIRD MONITOR'S GUIDE" hunt up the photograph of Joe Huber with his sparrow trap taken in his workshop and get a magnifying glass out and read the writing on the paint cans behind him....Jack Griggs, Cynthia Berger and I worked for two years on this book and a press man in Hong Kong reversed all of the "positive" prints.....It would be kind of cool to see if the Chapman book had second printings and if these were corrected! Keith Kridler |
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