Birds and Trees of North America is Rex Brasher's seminal work, comprised of 862 watercolor paintings bound in an encyclopedic set. Between 1929 and 1932, he created 100 twelve-volume sets—1,200 individual books—and sent them to patrons across North America. Volume 12 contains 119 hand-colored plates, depicting wrens, creepers, nuthatches, titmice, wren-tits, kinglets, gnatcatchers, thrushes, and bluebirds.
Order, Passeres: suborder, Oscines; family, Troglodytidae
Pert, fearless, talkative and individual, WRENS are easily identified even by the first grade bird student. Three genera are found in the west and six represented thruout the East, the House Wren exemplifying the general traits and family manners.
The majority are fine songsters, and all seem very much interested in their own voice, a tendency the present human generation imitates perfectly, even scolding like the Wrens if the flow of words is interrupted. They are quick, nervous and sometimes irritable to the fighting point tho the battles do not result in serious injuries. Sworn enemies of cats, weasels or other invaders of the sacred home precincts, their presence can be detected in shrubbery by the churring angry battle cries of the stout hearted little “Brownies.”
Sexes alike in plumage. One molt (post nuptial) a year. Two, sometimes three, broods a year. Young leave nest 28 to 35 days after incubation (10 to 14 days) commences.
Insectivorously voracious their economic value to man would be high if they would let their nabors alone.
Order, Passeres: suborber, Oscines; family, Certhiidae
THO their claws are curved and sharp the legs are no stouter than a warbler's and it does not seem possible such thin shanks can carry them up tree after tree all day. We must yield doubt to fact for that is the way Creepers live.
Their song (?) is a thin echo of the Black and White Warbler's with the question mark eliminated during nuptial excitement when the notes attain real musical appeal.
Sexes alike in plumage. One molt (post nuptial) a year.
Economically valuable because a large proportion of their food consists of minute insect eggs only discernible to these painstaking, bark searching, Nimrods.
Order, Passeres: suborber, Oscines; family, Sittidae
NUTHATCHES handle themselves so facilely in any position that the name Treemice is peculiarly appropriate. The extraordinary development of the hind claw enables them to travel head down as easily as in normal positions, without tail assistance — the feathers of this appendage being soft without stiffness and strength of woodpeckers. Coues states their name originated from their habit of sticking nuts into bark crevices but I think it is based on the legend that they hatched the young from hazelnuts a la Barnacle Goose!
Song repertoire limited — a series of too-too-too notes in the spring and the short emphatic call — vank — in the Whitebreasts with analogous variations in species.
Sexes slightly dissimilar. Molt, post nuptial, once a year. Insectivorous food 50%. An important ally in the insect war. Young mature in about 30 days after incubation (11 to 14 days) starts. One brood, sometimes two, in season.
Order, Passeres: suborder, Oscines; family, Paridae
Friendly, hardy, omnivorous, non-migratory and distributed over North America, the TITMICE are universally beloved. Snowshoeing along his trap line the Indian of the far north welcomes Hudsonian's cheery inquiry as cordially as a Southerner listens to Tufted's pee-to.
Plumage lax, remarkably constant in age, season or sex. One molt (post nuptial) a year.
Two or more broods a season. Family large, averaging six.
Economically among our most valuable birds, particularly in winter when they destroy uncounted numbers of insect eggs.
Order, Passeres: suborder, Oscines; family, Chamaeidae
Altho characters partake of Paridae and Troglodytidae, Ridgway holds they are sufficiently distinct to warrant Family isolation. Coues remarks that the genus was formerly placed “inadvertently” as a Titmouse subfamily between Chickadees and Bushtits. When doctors disagree like this, "it is useless to exchange one dubiosity for another and safest to continue the treatment the unfortunate patient has survived for some years."
Sexes alike. One molt (post nuptial) a year.
One brood a season: occasionally, two.
Order, Passeres: suborder, Oscines; family, Turdidae
THRUSHES are distributed generally over woodland sections of North America and are strictly migratory. They are not gregarious as a rule, altho Robins congregate in flocks during the Autumn to feed and roost and Bluebirds collect in small companies during migration. Other members of the family are exclusive, appearing in the northern parts of their range singly or in pairs and departing unobtrusively as they arrived. Gentlefolk all, sweet voiced, beautifully gowned, altogether alluring.
In the typical Thrushes sexes are alike. Young Robins and Bluebirds are speckled and streaked. This dress soon wears off but continues in adult plumage of the Wood Thrush and allied species.
One molt (post nuptial) a year. Young assume full dress in first Autumn.
Mainly insectiverous. Berries, seeds and fruit are added to the menu when Hexapoda are scarce.
Breeding, nests and eggs of subspecies are similar to type species.
Birds and Trees of North America is a vivid record of taxonomy in motion. The scientific and common names within these volumes do not always align with modern standards, nor do they always align with historical standards. While Rex followed the 1910 checklist of the American Ornithologists’ Union (AOU), he occasionally deviated from it according to his own observations and convictions. He disagreed with the “hair-splitting fad” of systematists and the possessive form of bird names, yet maintained the necessity of a standard language for understanding the avian world. Where Rex intentionally diverged from standard classification, we have preserved his work in its original form.