American Birds

by Aussie Meyer
Solving Tips

Story


One so seldom gets the opportunity to score off an aunt, that when my own Aunt Dahlia (bemoaning her lot as proprietress of the eternally insolvent Milady's Boudoir) commented, "You've no idea the trials of a publisher, Bertie!", I leapt to the opportunity to gainsay her, like one of those salmon doing the annual trek upstream.

"Au contraire, my dear Aunt, you forget that I published that children's book on American Birds during my stint in New York. Tiny Tots called it 'riveting'."
"Pish tush," said the aunt, returning me to the present. "You wouldn't know an American Bird if it strolled up and kicked you in the shin!"
"Hoo haw to that, aged relative," said I. "As I recall, we covered the Swamp Swallow, the Marsh Midge, the Prairie Pigeon, the Bayou Budgie and the Western Warbler. Isn't that right, Jeeves?"
"Quite, sir, one each in chapters 1 through 5, I believe. Each species had a particular distinction to its song."
"There you have it, Aunt Dahlia. One of the little blighters stood on one leg when performing its aria, and one made a noise like a train whistle. There was one feathered friend whose whoops could be heard a half-mile away and one that sang exclusively in the evening gloom. What was the other one's specialty, Jeeves?"
"Mr. Wooster would be referring to the songbird that engaged in competitive singing to win its mate, Mrs. Travers. The plumage of the respective fowl were also discussed. Each bird had a different combination of colors to the crest and the breast.
"That's true, I had to foot the bill for full color printing. There was bluecrested redbreast, the bluecrested yellowbreast, the greencrested yellowbreast, the whitecrested blackbreast and the whitecrested redbreast. I say, there's a copy of the book on the coffeetable, by your elbow."

She pounced on the book and gathered it in. "All right, my bonny boy, if you know so much about American Birds, here's a challenge: if you can reconstruct which bird is in these first five chapters, the colors of its plumage, and what its specialty was, I'll have Anatole cook a dinner of your favorite dishes," offered the generous old relation. "I'll give you six clues to be sporting:"


./Labels/h_Specialty.png ./Labels/h_Crest_Breast.png ./Labels/h_Bird.png
./Labels/v_One_leg.png ./Labels/v_Train_whistle.png ./Labels/v_1_2_mile_range.png ./Labels/v_Evening_gloom.png ./Labels/v_Competitive_song.png ./Labels/v_Blue_Red.png ./Labels/v_Blue_Yellow.png ./Labels/v_Green_Yellow.png ./Labels/v_White_Black.png ./Labels/v_White_Red.png ./Labels/v_Marsh_Midge.png ./Labels/v_Prairie_Pidgeon.png ./Labels/v_Bayou_Budgie.png ./Labels/v_Western_Warbler.png ./Labels/v_Swamp_Swallow.png
./Labels/v_Chapter.png ./Labels/h_Chapter_1.png Mark Mark Mark Mark Mark Mark Mark Mark Mark Mark Mark Mark Mark Mark Mark
./Labels/h_Chapter_2.png Mark Mark Mark Mark Mark Mark Mark Mark Mark Mark Mark Mark Mark Mark Mark
./Labels/h_Chapter_3.png Mark Mark Mark Mark Mark Mark Mark Mark Mark Mark Mark Mark Mark Mark Mark
./Labels/h_Chapter_4.png Mark Mark Mark Mark Mark Mark Mark Mark Mark Mark Mark Mark Mark Mark Mark
./Labels/h_Chapter_5.png Mark Mark Mark Mark Mark Mark Mark Mark Mark Mark Mark Mark Mark Mark Mark
./Labels/v_Bird.png ./Labels/h_Marsh_Midge.png Mark Mark Mark Mark Mark Mark Mark Mark Mark Mark
./Labels/h_Prairie_Pidgeon.png Mark Mark Mark Mark Mark Mark Mark Mark Mark Mark
./Labels/h_Bayou_Budgie.png Mark Mark Mark Mark Mark Mark Mark Mark Mark Mark
./Labels/h_Western_Warbler.png Mark Mark Mark Mark Mark Mark Mark Mark Mark Mark
./Labels/h_Swamp_Swallow.png Mark Mark Mark Mark Mark Mark Mark Mark Mark Mark
./Labels/v_Crest_Breast.png ./Labels/h_Blue_Red.png Mark Mark Mark Mark Mark
./Labels/h_Blue_Yellow.png Mark Mark Mark Mark Mark
./Labels/h_Green_Yellow.png Mark Mark Mark Mark Mark
./Labels/h_White_Black.png Mark Mark Mark Mark Mark
./Labels/h_White_Red.png Mark Mark Mark Mark Mark
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JavaScript Grid by Scott Noyes

Clues

  1. The bird with the white & red plumage was at least two chapters earlier in the book than the bird with the green & yellow plumage.
  2. The bird which sings to compete for its mate has the same colored crest as the bird in Chapter Four, and the same breast color as the Bayou Budgie.
  3. The bird which sings in the evening gloom has the same colored crest as the bird in the first chapter, and the same color plumage to its breast as the Marsh Midge.
  4. The Marsh Midge appeared in the book before the bird that sings in the evening gloom, but after the bird which stood on one leg to sing (which was not the Prairie Pigeon).
  5. The chapter on the Swamp Swallow came right before the chapter on the Bayou Budgie (which could not be heard a half-mile away).
  6. The bird covered in Chapter Two has the same colored crest as the Marsh Midge.



Solving Tips


Use an X when you are sure that two fields do not match. Use a dot when you are sure that two fields do match. Click once to place an X. Click a second time to place a dot. Click a third time to clear the box.

Select marker color by clicking the colored radio buttons. You can use colored marks to indicate which clue provided a value, or to indicate a guess that might not be correct, or just because you like solving puzzles in teal.

Use the "Save" button to save a puzzle in progress. Use the "Load" button to reload the puzzle. This feature uses cookies - fear not, we aren't tracking you or stealing credit card numbers (we couldn't, even if we wanted to.) At the moment, only one puzzle may be saved at a time on each computer (unless using different browsers or accounts). There is no warning if you save over another puzzle, and no undo!

Use the "Current Solution Window" button to parse the grid for your solution. This feature simply looks for dots in the top set of rows and creates a list that you can copy and paste into your email for submission.

If you want to clear the grid and start over, just refresh the page. Note that there is a bug in IE6 (and possibly other browsers), so that if a color other than the default is selected, that color may appear to be selected after the reload, but the actual color used will be the default.

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Scott
snoyes@gmail.com