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diff --git a/26516.txt b/26516.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..7a02554 --- /dev/null +++ b/26516.txt @@ -0,0 +1,6902 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Log of the Sun, by William Beebe + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: The Log of the Sun + A Chronicle of Nature's Year + +Author: William Beebe + +Release Date: September 3, 2008 [EBook #26516] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE LOG OF THE SUN *** + + + + +Produced by Roger Frank and the Online Distributed +Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net + + + + + +------------------------------------------------------------------------ + +[Illustration: Frontispiece] + +------------------------------------------------------------------------ + +Frontispiece by +Walter King Stone + +THE LOG OF THE SUN +A Chronicle of Nature's Year + +By WILLIAM BEEBE + +Garden City Publishing Co., Inc. +Garden City, New York + +------------------------------------------------------------------------ + +COPYRIGHT, 1906, + +BY +HENRY HOLT AND COMPANY + +PRINTED IN THE +UNITED STATES OF AMERICA + +------------------------------------------------------------------------ + +TO MY +Mother and Father +WHOSE ENCOURAGEMENT AND SYMPATHY +GAVE IMPETUS AND PURPOSE TO +A BOY'S LOVE OF NATURE + +------------------------------------------------------------------------ + +PREFACE + +In the fifty-two short essays of this volume I have presented familiar +objects from unusual points of view. Bird's-eye glances and insect's-eye +glances, at the nature of our woods and fields, will reveal beauties which +are wholly invisible from the usual human view-point, five feet or more +above the ground. + +Who follows the lines must expect to find moods as varying as the seasons; +to face storm and night and cold, and all other delights of what wildness +still remains to us upon the earth. + +Emphasis has been laid upon the weak points in our knowledge of things +about us, and the principal desire of the author is to inspire enthusiasm +in those whose eyes are just opening to the wild beauties of God's +out-of-doors, to gather up and follow to the end some of these frayed-out +threads of mystery. + +Portions of the text have been published at various times in the pages of +"Outing," "Recreation," "The Golden Age," "The New York Evening Post," and +"The New York Tribune." + + C. W. B. + +------------------------------------------------------------------------ + +TABLE OF CONTENTS + + PAGE +JANUARY +Birds of the Snow 3 +Winter Marvels 10 +Cedar Birds and Berries 16 +The Dark Days of Insect Life 20 +Chameleons in Fur and Feather 25 + +FEBRUARY +February Feathers 31 +Fish Life 37 +Tenants of Winter Birds' Nests 44 +Winter Holes 48 + +MARCH +Feathered Pioneers 55 +The Ways of Meadow Mice 61 +Problems of Bird Life 65 +Dwellers in the Dust 71 + +APRIL +Spring Songsters 75 +The Simple Art of Sapsucking 81 +Wild Wings 85 +The Birds in the Moon 88 + +MAY +The High Tide of Bird Life 91 +Animal Fashions 97 +Polliwog Problems 102 +Insect Pirates And Submarines 105 +The Victory Of The Nighthawk 109 + +JUNE +The Gala Days Of Birds 113 +Turtle Traits 118 +A Half-Hour In A Marsh 124 +Secrets Of The Ocean 129 + +JULY +Birds In A City 153 +Night Music Of The Swamp 160 +The Coming Of Man 167 +The Silent Language Of Animals 170 +Insect Music 176 + +AUGUST +The Gray Days Of Birds 181 +Lives Of The Lantern Bearers 188 +A Starfish And A Daisy 191 +The Dream Of The Yellow-Throat 195 + +SEPTEMBER +The Passing Of The Flocks 199 +Ghosts Of The Earth 204 +Muskrats 207 +Nature's Geometricians 210 + +OCTOBER +Autumn Hunting With A Field Glass 217 +A Woodchuck And A Grebe 223 +The Voice of Animals 227 +The Names Of Animals, Frogs, and Fish 234 +The Dying Year 246 + +NOVEMBER +November's Birds of the Heavens 249 +A Plea for the Skunk 255 +The Lesson Of The Wave 258 +We Go A-Sponging 262 + +DECEMBER +New Thoughts About Nests 269 +Lessons From An English Sparrow 275 +The Personality Of Trees 281 +An Owl Of The North 297 + +------------------------------------------------------------------------ + + A fiery mist and a planet, + A crystal and a cell; + A jelly fish and a saurian, + And the caves where the cave men dwell; + Then a sense of law and beauty + And a face turned from the clod, + Some call it evolution, + And others call it God. + W. H. Carruth. + +------------------------------------------------------------------------ + +JANUARY + +------------------------------------------------------------------------ + + + + +BIRDS OF THE SNOW + + +No fact of natural history is more interesting, or more significant of the +poetry of evolution, than the distribution of birds over the entire +surface of the world. They have overcome countless obstacles, and adapted +themselves to all conditions. The last faltering glance which the Arctic +explorer sends toward his coveted goal, ere he admits defeat, shows flocks +of snow buntings active with warm life; the storm-tossed mariner in the +midst of the sea, is followed, encircled, by the steady, tireless flight +of the albatross; the fever-stricken wanderer in tropical jungles listens +to the sweet notes of birds amid the stagnant pools; while the thirsty +traveller in the desert is ever watched by the distant buzzards. Finally +when the intrepid climber, at the risk of life and limb, has painfully +made his way to the summit of the most lofty peak, far, far above him, in +the blue expanse of thin air, he can distinguish the form of a majestic +eagle or condor. + +At the approach of winter the flowers and insects about us die, but most +of the birds take wing and fly to a more temperate climate, while their +place is filled with others which have spent the summer farther to the +north. Thus without stirring from our doorway we may become acquainted +with many species whose summer homes are hundreds of miles away. + +No time is more propitious or advisable for the amateur bird lover to +begin his studies than the first of the year. Bird life is now reduced to +its simplest terms in numbers and species, and the absence of concealing +foliage, together with the usual tameness of winter birds, makes +identification an easy matter. + +In January and the succeeding month we have with us birds which are called +permanent residents, which do not leave us throughout the entire year; +and, in addition, the winter visitors which have come to us from the far +north. + +In the uplands we may flush ruffed grouse from their snug retreats in the +snow; while in the weedy fields, many a fairy trail shows where bob-white +has passed, and often he will announce his own name from the top of a rail +fence. The grouse at this season have a curious outgrowth of horny scales +along each side of the toes, which, acting as a tiny snowshoe, enables +them to walk on soft snow with little danger of sinking through. + +Few of our winter birds can boast of bright colours; their garbs are +chiefly grays and browns, but all have some mark or habit or note by which +they can be at once named. For example, if you see a mouse hitching +spirally up a tree-trunk, a closer look will show that it is a brown +creeper, seeking tiny insects and their eggs in the crevices of the trunk. +He looks like a small piece of the roughened bark which has suddenly +become animated. His long tail props him up and his tiny feet never fail +to find a foothold. Our winter birds go in flocks, and where we see a +brown creeper we are almost sure to find other birds. + +Nuthatches are those blue-backed, white or rufous breasted little climbers +who spend their lives defying the law of gravity. They need no supporting +tail, and have only the usual number of eight toes, but they traverse the +bark, up or down, head often pointing toward the ground, as if their feet +were small vacuum cups. Their note is an odd nasal _nyeh!_ _nyeh!_ + +In winter some one species of bird usually predominates, most often, +perhaps, it is the black-capped chickadee. They seem to fill every grove, +and, if you take your stand in the woods, flock after flock will pass +in succession. What good luck must have come to the chickadee race +during the preceding summer? Was some one of their enemies stricken with a +plague, or did they show more than usual care in the selecting of their +nesting holes? Whatever it was, during such a year, it seems certain that +scores more of chickadee babies manage to live to grow up than is +usually the case. These little fluffs are, in their way, as remarkable +acrobats as are the nuthatches, and it is a marvel how the very thin legs, +with their tiny sliver of bone and thread of tendon, can hold the body +of the bird in almost any position, while the vainly hidden clusters of +insect eggs are pried into. Without ceasing a moment in their busy +search for food, the fluffy feathered members of the flock call to each +other, "_Chick-a-chick-a-dee-dee!_" but now and then the heart of some +little fellow bubbles over, and he rests an instant, sending out a sweet, +tender, high call, a "_Phoe-be!_" love note, which warms our ears in +the frosty air and makes us feel a real affection for the brave little +mites. + +Our song sparrow is, like the poor, always with us, at least near the +coast, but we think none the less of him for that, and besides, that fact +is true in only one sense. A ripple in a stream may be seen day after day, +and yet the water forming it is never the same, it is continually flowing +onward. This is usually the case with song sparrows and with most other +birds which are present summer and winter. The individual sparrows which +flit from bush to bush, or slip in and out of the brush piles in January, +have doubtless come from some point north of us, while the song sparrows +of our summer walks are now miles to the southward. Few birds remain the +entire year in the locality in which they breed, although the southward +movement may be a very limited one. When birds migrate so short a +distance, they are liable to be affected in colour and size by the +temperature and dampness of their respective areas; and so we find that in +North America there are as many as twenty-two races of song sparrows, to +each of which has been given a scientific name. When you wish to speak of +our northeastern song sparrow in the latest scientific way, you must say +_Melospiza cinerea melodia_, which tells us that it is a melodious song +finch, ashy or brown in colour. + +Our winter sparrows are easy to identify. The song sparrow may, of course, +be known by the streaks of black and brown upon his breast and sides, and +by the blotch which these form in the centre of the breast. The tree +sparrow, which comes to us from Hudson Bay and Labrador, lacks the +stripes, but has the centre spot. This is one of our commonest field birds +in winter, notwithstanding his name. + +The most omnipresent and abundant of all our winter visitors from the +north are the juncos, or snowbirds. Slate coloured above and white below, +perfectly describes these birds, although their distinguishing mark, +visible a long way off, is the white V in their tails, formed by several +white outer feathers on each side. The sharp chirps of juncos are heard +before the ice begins to form, and they stay with us all winter. + +We have called the junco a snowbird, but this name should really be +confined to a black and white bunting which comes south only with a +mid-winter's rush of snowflakes. Their warm little bodies nestle close to +the white crystals, and they seek cheerfully for the seeds which nature +has provided for them. Then a thaw comes, and they disappear as silently +and mysteriously as if they had melted with the flakes; but doubtless they +are far to the northward, hanging on the outskirts of the Arctic storms, +and giving way only when every particle of food is frozen tight, the +ground covered deep with snow, and the panicled seed clusters locked in +crystal frames of ice. + +The feathers of these Arctic wanderers are perfect non-conductors of heat +and of cold, and never a chill reaches their little frames until hunger +presses. Then they must find food and quickly, or they die. When these +snowflakes first come to us they are tinged with gray and brown, but +gradually through the winter their colours become more clear-cut and +brilliant, until, when spring comes, they are garbed in contrasting black +and white. With all this change, however, they leave never a feather with +us, but only the minute brown tips of the feather vanes, which, by wearing +away, leave exposed the clean new colours beneath. + +Thus we find that there are problems innumerable to verify and to solve, +even when the tide of the year's life is at its lowest ebb. + + From out the white and pulsing storm + I hear the snowbirds calling; + The sheeted winds stalk o'er the hills, + And fast the snow is falling. + + On twinkling wings they eddy past, + At home amid the drifting, + Or seek the hills and weedy fields + Where fast the snow is sifting. + + Their coats are dappled white and brown + Like fields in winter weather, + But on the azure sky they float + Like snowflakes knit together. + + I've heard them on the spotless hills + Where fox and hound were playing, + The while I stood with eager ear + Bent on the distant baying. + + The unmown fields are their preserves, + Where weeds and grass are seeding; + They know the lure of distant stacks + Where houseless herds are feeding. + + JOHN BURROUGHS. + + + + +WINTER MARVELS + + +Let us suppose that a heavy snow has fallen and that we have been +a-birding in vain. For once it seems as if all the birds had gone the way +of the butterflies. But we are not true bird-lovers unless we can +substitute nature for bird whenever the occasion demands; specialisation +is only for the ultra-scientist. + +There is more to be learned in a snowy field than volumes could tell. +There is the tangle of footprints to unravel, the history of the pastimes +and foragings and tragedies of the past night writ large and unmistakable. +Though the sun now shines brightly, we can well imagine the cold darkness +of six hours ago; we can reconstruct the whole scene from those tiny +tracks, showing frantic leaps, the indentation of two wing-tips,--a speck +of blood. But let us take a bird's-eye view of things, from a bird's-head +height; that is, lie flat upon a board or upon the clean, dry crystals and +see what wonders we have passed by all our lives. + +Take twenty square feet of snow with a streamlet through the centre, and +we have an epitome of geological processes and conditions. With chin upon +mittens and mittens upon the crust, the eye opens upon a new world. The +half-covered rivulet becomes a monster glacier-fed stream, rushing down +through grand canyons and caves, hung with icy stalactites. Bit by bit the +walls are undermined and massive icebergs become detached and are whirled +away. As for moraines, we have them in plenty; only the windrows of +thousands upon thousands of tiny seeds of which they are composed, are not +permanent, but change their form and position with every strong gust of +wind. And with every gust too their numbers increase, the harvest of the +weeds being garnered here, upon barren ground. No wonder the stream will +be hidden from view next summer, when the myriad seeds sprout and begin to +fight upward for light and air. + +If we cannot hope for polar bears to complete our Arctic scene, we may +thrill at the sight of a sinuous weasel, winding his way among the weeds; +and if we look in vain for swans, we at least may rejoice in a whirling, +white flock of snow buntings. + +A few flakes fall gently upon our sleeve and another world opens before +us. A small hand-lens will be of service, although sharp eyes may dispense +with it. Gather a few recently fallen flakes upon a piece of black cloth, +and the lens will reveal jewels more beautiful than any ever fashioned by +the hand of man. Six-pointed crystals, always hexagonal, of a myriad +patterns, leave us lost in wonderment when we look out over the white +landscape and think of the hidden beauty of it all. The largest glacier of +Greenland or Alaska is composed wholly of just such crystals whose points +have melted and which have become ice. + +We may draw or photograph scores of these beautiful crystals and never +duplicate a figure. Some are almost solid and tabular, others are simple +stars or fern-branched. Then we may detect compound forms, crystals within +crystals, and, rarest of all, doubles, where two different forms appear as +joined together by a tiny pillar. In all of these we have an epitome of +the crystals of the rocks beneath our feet, only in their case the +pressure has moulded them into straight columns, while the snow, forming +unhindered in midair, resolves itself into these exquisite forms and +floral designs. Flowers and rocks are not so very unlike after all. + +Few of us can observe these wonderful forms without feeling the poetry of +it all. Thoreau on the fifth day of January, 1856, writes as follows:... +"The thin snow now driving from the north and lodging on my coat consists +of those beautiful star crystals, not cottony and chubby spokes as on the +13th of December, but thin and partly transparent crystals. They are about +one tenth of an inch in diameter, perfect little wheels with six spokes, +without a tire, or rather with six perfect little leaflets, fern-like, +with a distinct, straight, slender midrib raying from the centre. On each +side of each midrib there is a transparent, thin blade with a crenate +edge. How full of the creative genius is the air in which these are +generated! I should hardly admire more if real stars fell and lodged on my +coat. Nature is full of genius, full of the divinity, so that not a +snowflake escapes its fashioning hand. Nothing is cheap and coarse, +neither dewdrops nor snowflakes. Soon the storm increases (it was already +very severe to face), and the snow becomes finer, more white and powdery. + +"Who knows but this is the original form of all snowflakes, but that, when +I observe these crystal stars falling around me, they are only just +generated in the low mist next the earth. I am nearer to the source of the +snow, its primal auroral, and golden hour of infancy; commonly the flakes +reach us travel-worn and agglomerated, comparatively, without order or +beauty, far down in their fall, like men in their advanced age. As for the +circumstances under which this occurs, it is quite cold, and the driving +storm is bitter to face, though very little snow is falling. It comes +almost horizontally from the north.... A divinity must have stirred within +them, before the crystals did thus shoot and set: wheels of the storm +chariots. The same law that shapes the earth and the stars shapes the +snowflake. Call it rather snow star. As surely as the petals of a flower +are numbered, each of these countless snow stars comes whirling to earth, +pronouncing thus with emphasis the number six, order, [Greek: cosmos]. +This was the beginning of a storm which reached far and wide, and +elsewhere was more severe than here. On the Saskatchewan, where no man of +science is present to behold, still down they come, and not the less +fulfil their destiny, perchance melt at once on the Indian's face. What a +world we live in, where myriads of these little discs, so beautiful to the +most prying eye, are whirled down on every traveller's coat, the observant +and the unobservant, on the restless squirrel's fur, on the far-stretching +fields and forests, the wooded dells and the mountain tops. Far, far away +from the haunts of men, they roll down some little slope, fall over and +come to their bearings, and melt or lose their beauty in the mass, ready +anon to swell some little rill with their contribution, and so, at last, +the universal ocean from which they came. There they lie, like the wreck +of chariot wheels after a battle in the skies. Meanwhile the meadow mouse +shoves them aside in his gallery, the schoolboy casts them in his ball, or +the woodman's sled glides smoothly over them, these glorious spangles, the +sweepings of heaven's floor. And they all sing, melting as they sing, of +the mysteries of the number six; six, six, six. He takes up the waters of +the sea in his hand, leaving the salt; he disperses it in mist through the +skies; he re-collects and sprinkles it like grain in six-rayed snowy stars +over the earth, there to lie till he dissolves its bonds again." + +But here is a bit of snow which seems less pure, with grayish patches here +and there. Down again to sparrow-level and bring the glass to bear. Your +farmer friend will tell you that they are snow-fleas which are snowed down +with the flakes; the entomologist will call them _Achorutes nivicola_ and +he knows that they have prosaically wiggled their way from the crevices of +bark on the nearest tree-trunk. One's thrill of pleasure at this +unexpected discovery will lead one to adopt sparrow-views whenever larger +game is lacking. + + I walked erstwhile upon thy frozen waves, + And heard the streams amid thy ice-locked caves; + I peered down thy crevasses blue and dim, + Standing in awe upon the dizzy rim. + Beyond me lay the inlet still and blue, + Behind, the mountains loomed upon the view + Like storm-wraiths gathered from the low-hung sky. + A gust of wind swept past with heavy sigh, + And lo! I listened to the ice-stream's song + Of winter when the nights grow dark and long, + And bright stars flash above thy fields of snow, + The cold waste sparkling in the pallid glow. + + Charles Keeler. + + + + +CEDAR BIRDS AND BERRIES + + +Keep sharp eyes upon the cedar groves in mid-winter, and sooner or later +you will see the waxwings come, not singly or in pairs, but by dozens, and +sometimes in great flocks. They will well repay all the watching one gives +them. The cedar waxwing is a strange bird, with a very pronounced +species-individuality, totally unlike any other bird of our country. When +feeding on their favourite winter berries, these birds show to great +advantage; the warm rich brown of the upper parts and of the crest +contrasting with the black, scarlet, and yellow, and these, in turn, with +the dark green of the cedar and the white of the snow. + +The name waxwing is due to the scarlet ornaments at the tips of the lesser +flight feathers and some of the tail feathers, which resemble bits of red +sealing wax, but which are really the bare, flattened ends of the feather +shafts. Cherry-bird is another name which is appropriately applied to the +cedar waxwing. + +These birds are never regular in their movements, and they come and go +without heed to weather or date. They should never be lightly passed by, +but their flocks carefully examined, lest among their ranks may be hidden +a Bohemian chatterer--a stately waxwing larger than common and even more +beautiful in hue, whose large size and splashes of white upon its wings +will always mark it out. + +This bird is one of our rarest of rare visitors, breeding in the far +north; and even in its nest and eggs mystery enshrouds it. Up to fifty +years ago, absolutely nothing was known of its nesting habits, although +during migration Bohemian chatterers are common all over Europe. At last +Lapland was found to be their home, and a nest has been found in Alaska +and several others in Labrador. My only sight of these birds was of a pair +perched in an elm tree in East Orange, New Jersey; but I will never forget +it, and will never cease to hope for another such red-letter day. + +The movements of the cedar waxwings are as uncertain in summer as they are +in winter; they may be common in one locality for a year or two, and then, +apparently without reason, desert it. At this season they feed on insects +instead of berries, and may be looked for in small flocks in orchard or +wood. The period of nesting is usually late, and, in company with the +goldfinches, they do not begin their housekeeping until July and August. +Unlike other birds, waxwings will build their nests of almost anything +near at hand, and apparently in any growth which takes their +fancy,--apple, oak, or cedar. The nests are well constructed, however, and +often, with their contents, add another background of a most pleasing +harmony of colours. A nest composed entirely of pale green hanging moss, +with eggs of bluish gray, spotted and splashed with brown and black, +guarded by a pair of these exquisite birds, is a sight to delight the +eye. + +When the young have left the nest, if alarmed by an intruder, they +will frequently, trusting to their protective dress of streaky brown, +freeze into most unbird-like attitudes, drawing the feathers close to +the body and stretching the neck stiffly upward,--almost bittern-like. +Undoubtedly other interesting habits which these strangely picturesque +birds may possess are still awaiting discovery by some enthusiastic +observer with a pair of opera-glasses and a stock of that ever important +characteristic--patience. + +Although, during the summer months, myriads of insects are killed and +eaten by the cedar waxwings, yet these birds are preeminently berry +eaters,--choke-cherries, cedar berries, blueberries, and raspberries being +preferred. Watch a flock of these birds in a cherry tree, and you will see +the pits fairly rain down. We need not place our heads, _a la_ Newton, in +the path of these falling stones to deduce some interesting facts,--indeed +to solve the very destiny of the fruit. Many whole cherries are carried +away by the birds to be devoured elsewhere, or we may see parent waxwing +filling their gullets with ten or a dozen berries and carrying them to the +eager nestlings. + +Thus is made plain the why and the wherefore of the coloured skin, the +edible flesh, and the hidden stone of the fruit. The conspicuous racemes +of the choke-cherries, or the shining scarlet globes of the cultivated +fruit, fairly shout aloud to the birds--"Come and eat us, we're as good as +we look!" But Mother Nature looks on and laughs to herself. Thistle seeds +are blown to the land's end by the wind; the heavier ticks and burrs are +carried far and wide upon the furry coats of passing creatures; but the +cherry could not spread its progeny beyond a branch's length, were it not +for the ministrations of birds. With birds, as with some other bipeds, the +shortest way to the heart is through the stomach, and a choke-cherry tree +in full blaze of fruit is always a natural aviary. Where a cedar bird has +built its nest, there look some day to see a group of cherry trees; where +convenient fence-perches along the roadside lead past cedar groves, there +hope before long to see a bird-planted avenue of cedars. And so the +marvels of Nature go on evolving,--wheels within wheels. + + + + +THE DARK DAYS OF INSECT LIFE + + +Sometimes by too close and confining study of things pertaining to the +genus _Homo_, we perchance find ourselves complacently wondering if we +have not solved almost all the problems of this little whirling sphere of +water and earth. Our minds turn to the ultra questions of atoms and ions +and rays and our eyes strain restlessly upward toward our nearest planet +neighbour, in half admission that we must soon take up the study of Mars +from sheer lack of earthly conquest. + +If so minded, hie you to the nearest grove and, digging down through the +mid-winter's snow, bring home a spadeful of leaf-mould. Examine it +carefully with hand-lens and microscope, and then prophesy what warmth and +light will bring forth. "Watch the unfolding life of plant and animal, and +then come from your planet-yearning back to earth, with a humbleness born +of a realisation of our vast ignorance of the commonest things about us." + +Though the immediate mysteries of the seed and the egg baffle us, yet the +most casual lover of God's out-of-doors may hopefully attempt to solve the +question of some of the winter homes of insects. Think of the thousands +upon thousands of eggs and pupae which are hidden in every grove; what +catacombs of bug mummies yonder log conceals,--mummies whose resurrection +will be brought about by the alchemy of thawing sunbeams. Follow out the +suggestion hinted at above and place a handkerchief full of frozen mould +or decayed wood in a white dish, and the tiny universe which will +gradually unfold before you will provide many hours of interest. But +remember your responsibilities in so doing, and do not let the tiny plant +germs languish and die for want of water, or the feeble, newly-hatched +insects perish from cold or lack a bit of scraped meat. + +Cocoons are another never-ending source of delight. If you think that +there are no unsolved problems of the commonest insect life around us, say +why it is that the moths and millers pass the winter wrapped in swaddling +clothes of densest textures, roll upon roll of silken coverlets; while our +delicate butterflies hang uncovered, suspended only by a single loop of +silk, exposed to the cold blast of every northern gale? Why do the +caterpillars of our giant moths--the mythologically named Cecropia, +Polyphemus, Luna, and Prometheus--show such individuality in the position +which they choose for their temporary shrouds? Protection and concealment +are the watchwords held to in each case, but how differently they are +achieved! + +Cecropia--that beauty whose wings, fully six inches across, will flap +gracefully through the summer twilight--weaves about himself a half oval +mound, along some stem or tree-trunk, and becomes a mere excrescence--the +veriest unedible thing a bird may spy. Polyphemus wraps miles of finest +silk about his green worm-form (how, even though we watch him do it, we +can only guess); weaving in all the surrounding leaves he can reach. This, +of course, before the frosts come, but when the leaves at last shrivel, +loosen, and their petioles break, it is merely a larger brown nut than +usual that falls to the ground, the kernel of which will sprout next June +and blossom into the big moth of delicate fawn tints, feathery horned, +with those strange isinglass windows in his hind wings. + +Luna--the weird, beautiful moon-moth, whose pale green hues and long +graceful streamers make us realise how much beauty we miss if we neglect +the night life of summer--when clad in her temporary shroud of silk, +sometimes falls to the ground, or again the cocoon remains in the tree or +bush where it was spun. + +But Prometheus, the smallest of the quartet, has a way all his own. The +elongated cocoon, looking like a silken finger, is woven about a leaf of +sassafras. Even the long stem of the leaf is silk-girdled, and a strong +band is looped about the twig to which the leaf is attached. Here, when +all the leaves fall, he hangs, the plaything of every breeze, attracting +the attention of all the hungry birds. But little does Prometheus care. +Sparrows may hover about him and peck in vain; chickadees may clutch the +dangling finger and pound with all their tiny might. Prometheus is +"bound," indeed, and merely swings the faster, up and down, from side to +side. + +It is interesting to note that when two Prometheus cocoons, fastened upon +their twigs, were suspended in a large cageful of native birds, it took a +healthy chickadee just three days of hard pounding and unravelling to +force a way through the silken envelopes to the chrysalids within. Such +long continued and persistent labour for so comparatively small a morsel +of food would not be profitable or even possible out-of-doors in winter. +The bird would starve to death while forcing its way through the +protecting silk. + +These are only four of the many hundreds of cocoons, from the silken +shrouds on the topmost branches to the jugnecked chrysalis of a sphinx +moth--offering us the riddle of a winter's shelter buried in the cold, +dark earth. + +Is everything frozen tight? Has Nature's frost mortar cemented every stone +in its bed? Then cut off the solid cups of the pitcher plants, and see +what insects formed the last meal of these strange growths,--ants, flies, +bugs, encased in ice like the fossil insects caught in the amber sap which +flowed so many thousands of years ago. + + When the fierce northwestern blast + Cools sea and land so far and fast, + Thou already slumberest deep; + Woe and want thou canst outsleep. + + Emerson. + + + + +CHAMELEONS IN FUR AND FEATHER + + +The colour of things in nature has been the subject of many volumes and +yet it may be truthfully said that no two naturalists are wholly agreed on +the interpretation of the countless hues of plants and animals. Some +assert that all alleged instances of protective colouring and mimicry are +merely the result of accident; while at the opposite swing of the pendulum +we find theories, protective and mimetic, for the colours of even the tiny +one-celled green plants which cover the bark of trees! Here is abundant +opportunity for any observer of living nature to help toward the solution +of these problems. + +In a battle there are always two sides and at its finish one side always +runs away while the other pursues. Thus it is in the wars of nature, only +here the timid ones are always ready to flee, while the strong are equally +prepared to pursue. It is only by constant vigilance that the little mice +can save themselves from disappearing down the throats of their enemies, +as under cover of darkness they snatch nervous mouthfuls of grain in the +fields,--and hence their gray colour and their large, watchful eyes; but +on the other hand, the baby owls in their hollow tree would starve if the +parents were never able to swoop down in the darkness and surprise a mouse +now and then,--hence the gray plumage and great eyes of the parent owls. + +The most convincing proof of the reality of protective coloration is in +the change of plumage or fur of some of the wild creatures to suit the +season. In the far north, the grouse or ptarmigan, as they are called, do +not keep feathers of the same colour the year round, as does our ruffed +grouse; but change their dress no fewer than three times. When rocks and +moss are buried deep beneath the snow, and a keen-eyed hawk appears, the +white-feathered ptarmigan crouches and becomes an inanimate mound. Later +in the year, with the increasing warmth, patches of gray and brown earth +appear, and simultaneously, as if its feathers were really snowflakes, +splashes of brown replace the pure white of the bird's plumage, and +equally baffle the eye. Seeing one of these birds by itself, we could +readily tell, from the colour of its plumage, the time of year and general +aspect of the country from which it came. Its plumage is like a mirror +which reflects the snow, the moss, or the lichens in turn. It is, indeed, +a feathered chameleon, but with changes of colour taking place more slowly +than is the case in the reptile. + +We may discover changes somewhat similar, but furry instead of feathery, +in the woods about our home. The fiercest of all the animals of our +continent still evades the exterminating inroads of man; indeed it often +puts his traps to shame, and wages destructive warfare in his very midst. +I speak of the weasel,--the least of all his family, and yet, for his +size, the most bloodthirsty and widely dreaded little demon of all the +countryside. His is a name to conjure with among all the lesser wood-folk; +the scent of his passing brings an almost helpless paralysis. And yet in +some way he must be handicapped, for his slightly larger cousin, the mink, +finds good hunting the year round, clad in a suit of rich brown; while the +weasel, at the approach of winter, sheds his summer dress of chocolate hue +and dons a pure white fur, a change which would seem to put the poor mice +and rabbits at a hopeless disadvantage. Nevertheless the ermine, as he is +now called (although wrongly so), seems just able to hold his own, with +all his evil slinking motions and bloodthirsty desires; for foxes, owls, +and hawks take, in their turn, heavy toll. Nature is ever a repetition of +the "House that Jack built";--this is the owl that ate the weasel that +killed the mouse, and so on. + +The little tail-tips of milady's ermine coat are black; and herein lies an +interesting fact in the coloration of the weasel and one that, perhaps, +gives a clue to some other hitherto inexplicable spots and markings on the +fur, feathers, skin, and scales of wild creatures. Whatever the season, +and whatever the colour of the weasel's coat,--brown or white,--the tip of +the tail remains always black. This would seem, at first thought, a very +bad thing for the little animal. Knowing so little of fear, he never tucks +his tail between his legs, and, when shooting across an open expanse of +snow, the black tip ever trailing after him would seem to mark him out for +destruction by every observing hawk or fox. + +But the very opposite is the case as Mr. Witmer Stone so well relates. "If +you place a weasel in its winter white on new-fallen snow, in such a +position that it casts no shadow, you will find that the black tip of the +tail catches your eye and holds it in spite of yourself, so that at a +little distance it is very difficult to follow the outline of the rest of +the animal. Cover the tip of the tail with snow and you can see the rest +of the weasel itself much more clearly; but as long as the black point is +in sight, you see that, and that only. + +"If a hawk or owl, or any other of the larger hunters of the woodland, +were to give chase to a weasel and endeavour to pounce upon it, it would +in all probability be the black tip of the tail it would see and strike +at, while the weasel, darting ahead, would escape. It may, morever, serve +as a guide, enabling the young weasels to follow their parents more +readily through grass and brambles. + +"One would suppose that this beautiful white fur of winter, literally as +white as the snow, might prove a disadvantage at times by making its owner +conspicuous when the ground is bare in winter, as it frequently is even in +the North; yet though weasels are about more or less by day, you will +seldom catch so much as a glimpse of one at such times, though you may +hear their sharp chirrup close at hand. Though bold and fearless, they +have the power of vanishing instantly, and the slightest alarm sends them +to cover. I have seen one standing within reach of my hand in the sunshine +on the exposed root of a tree, and while I was staring at it, it vanished +like the flame of a candle blown out, without leaving me the slightest +clue as to the direction it had taken. All the weasels I have ever seen, +either in the woods or open meadows, disappeared in a similar manner." + +To add to the completeness of proof that the change from brown to white is +for protection,--in the case of the weasel, both to enable it to escape +from the fox and to circumvent the rabbit,--the weasels in Florida, where +snow is unknown, do not change colour, but remain brown throughout the +whole year. + +------------------------------------------------------------------------ + +FEBRUARY + +------------------------------------------------------------------------ + + + + +FEBRUARY FEATHERS + + +February holes are most interesting places and one never knows what will +be found in the next one investigated. It is a good plan, in one's walks +in the early fall, to make a mental map of all the auspicious looking +trees and holes, and then go the rounds of these in winter--as a hunter +follows his line of traps. An old, neglected orchard may seem perfectly +barren of life; insects dead, leaves fallen, and sap frozen; but the warm +hearts of these venerable trees may shelter much beside the larvae of +boring beetles, and we may reap a winter harvest of which the farmer knows +nothing. + +Poke a stick into a knothole and stir up the leaves at the bottom of the +cavity, and then look in. Two great yellow eyes may greet you, glaring +intermittently, and sharp clicks may assail your ears. Reach in with your +gloved hand and bring the screech owl out. He will blink in the sunshine, +ruffling up his feathers until he is twice his real size. The light partly +blinds him, but toss him into the air and he will fly without difficulty +and select with ease a secluded perch. The instant he alights a wonderful +transformation comes over him. He stiffens, draws himself as high as +possible, and compresses his feathers until he seems naught but the +slender, broken stump of some bough,--ragged topped (thanks to his +"horns"), gray and lichened. It is little short of a miracle how this +spluttering, saucer-eyed, feathered cat can melt away into woody fibre +before our very eyes. + +We quickly understand why in the daytime the little owl is so anxious to +hide his form from public view. Although he can see well enough to fly and +to perch, yet the bright sunlight on the snow is too dazzling to permit of +swift and sure action. All the birds of the winter woods seem to know this +and instantly take advantage of it. Sparrows, chickadees, and woodpeckers +go nearly wild with excitement when they discover the little owl, hovering +about him and occasionally making darts almost in his very face. We can +well believe that as the sun sets, after an afternoon of such excitement, +they flee in terror, selecting for that night's perch the densest tangle +of sweetbrier to be found. + +One hollow tree may yield a little gray owl, while from the next we may +draw a red one; and the odd thing about this is that this difference in +colour does not depend upon age, sex, or season, and no ornithologist can +say why it occurs. What can these little fellows find to feed upon these +cold nights, when the birds seek the most hidden and sheltered retreats? +We might murder the next owl we come across; but would any fact we might +discover in his poor stomach repay us for the thought of having needlessly +cut short his life, with its pleasures and spring courtships, and the +delight he will take in the half a dozen pearls over which he will soon +watch? + +A much better way is to examine the ground around his favourite roosting +place, where we will find many pellets of fur and bones, with now and then +a tiny skull. These tell the tale, and if at dusk we watch closely, we may +see the screech owl look out of his door, stretch every limb, purr his +shivering song, and silently launch out over the fields, a feathery, +shadowy death to all small mice who scamper too far from their snow +tunnels. + +When you feel like making a new and charming acquaintance, take your way +to a dense clump of snow-laden cedars, and look carefully over their +trunks. If you are lucky you will spy a tiny gray form huddled close to +the sheltered side of the bark, and if you are careful you may approach +and catch in your hand the smallest of all our owls, for the saw-whet is a +dreadfully sleepy fellow in the daytime. I knew of eleven of these little +gray gnomes dozing in a clump of five small cedars. + +The cedars are treasure-houses in winter, and many birds find shelter +among the thick foliage, and feast upon the plentiful supply of berries, +when elsewhere there seems little that could keep a bird's life in its +body. When the tinkling of breaking icicles is taken up by the wind and +re-echoed from the tops of the cedars, you may know that a flock of purple +finches is near, and so greedy and busy are they that you may approach +within a few feet. These birds are unfortunately named, as there is +nothing purple about their plumage. The males are a delicate rose-red, +while the females look like commonplace sparrows, streaked all over with +black and brown. + +There are other winter birds, whose home is in the North, with a similar +type of coloration. Among the pines you may see a flock of birds, as large +as a sparrow, with strange-looking beaks. The tips of the two mandibles +are long, curved, and pointed, crossing each other at their ends. This +looks like a deformity, but is in reality a splendid cone-opener and +seed-extracter. These birds are the crossbills. + +Even in the cold of a February day, we may, on very rare occasions, be +fortunate enough to hear unexpected sounds, such as the rattle of a belted +kingfisher, or the croak of a night heron; for these birds linger until +every bit of pond or lake is sealed with ice; and when a thaw comes, a +lonely bat may surprise us with a short flight through the frosty air, +before it returns to its winter's trance. + +Of course, in the vicinity of our towns and cities, the most noticeable +birds at this season of the year (as indeed at all seasons) are the +English sparrows and (at least near New York City) the starlings, those +two foreigners which have wrought such havoc among our native birds. Their +mingled flocks fly up, not only from garbage piles and gutters, but from +the thickets and fields which should be filled with our sweet-voiced +American birds. It is no small matter for man heedlessly to interfere with +Nature. What may be a harmless, or even useful, bird in its native land +may prove a terrible scourge when introduced where there are no enemies to +keep it in check. Nature is doing her best to even matters by letting +albinism run riot among the sparrows, and best of all by teaching sparrow +hawks to nest under our eaves and thus be on equal terms with their +sparrow prey. The starlings are turning out to be worse than the sparrows. +Already they are invading the haunts of our grackles and redwings. + +On some cold day, when the sun is shining, visit all the orchards of which +you know, and see if in one or more you cannot find a good-sized, gray, +black, and white bird, which keeps to the topmost branch of a certain +tree. Look at him carefully through your glasses, and if his beak is +hooked, like that of a hawk, you may know that you are watching a northern +shrike, or butcher bird. His manner is that of a hawk, and his appearance +causes instant panic among small birds. If you watch long enough you may +see him pursue and kill a goldfinch, or sparrow, and devour it. These +birds are not even distantly related to the hawks, but have added a hawk's +characteristics and appetite to the insect diet of their nearest +relations. If ever shrikes will learn to confine their attacks to English +sparrows, we should offer them every encouragement. + +All winter long the ebony forms of crows vibrate back and forth across the +cold sky. If we watch them when very high up, we sometimes see them sail a +short distance, and without fail, a second later, the clear "_Caw! caw!_" +comes down to us, the sound-waves unable to keep pace with those of light, +as the thunder of the storm lags behind the flash. These sturdy birds seem +able to stand any severity of the weather, but, like Achilles, they have +one vulnerable point, the eyes,--which, during the long winter nights, +must be kept deep buried among the warm feathers. + + + + +FISH LIFE + + +We have all looked down through the clear water of brook or pond and +watched the gracefully poised trout or pickerel; but have we ever tried to +imagine what the life of one of these aquatic beings is really like? +"Water Babies" perhaps gives us the best idea of existence below the +water, but if we spend one day each month for a year in trying to imagine +ourselves in the place of the fish, we will see that a fish-eye view of +life holds much of interest. + +What a delightful sensation must it be to all but escape the eternal +downpull of gravity, to float and turn and rise and fall at will, and all +by the least twitch of tail or limb,--for fish have limbs, four of them, +as truly as has a dog or horse, only instead of fingers or toes there are +many delicate rays extending through the fin. These four limb-fins are +useful chiefly as balancers, while the tail-fin is what sends the fish +darting through the water, or turns it to right or left, with incredible +swiftness. + +If we were able to examine some inhabitant of the planet Mars our first +interest would be to know with what senses they were endowed, and these +finny creatures living in their denser medium, which after a few seconds +would mean death to us, excite the same interest. They see, of course, +having eyes, but do they feel, hear, and smell! + +Probably the sense of taste is least developed. When a trout leaps at and +catches a fly he does not stop to taste, otherwise the pheasant feather +concealing the cruel hook would be of little use. When an animal catches +its food in the water and swallows it whole, taste plays but a small part. +Thus the tongue of a pelican is a tiny flap all but lost to view in its +great bill. + +Water is an excellent medium for carrying minute particles of matter and +so the sense of smell is well developed. A bit of meat dropped into the +sea will draw the fish from far and wide, and a slice of liver will +sometimes bring a score of sharks and throw them into the greatest +excitement. + +Fishes are probably very near-sighted, but that they can distinguish +details is apparent in the choice which a trout exhibits in taking certain +coloured artificial flies. We may suppose from what we know of physics +that when we lean over and look down into a pool, the fishy eyes which +peer up at us discern only a dark, irregular mass. I have seen a pickerel +dodge as quickly at a sudden cloud-shadow as at the motion of a man +wielding a fish pole. + +We can be less certain about the hearing of fishes. They have, however, +very respectable inner ears, built on much the same plan as in higher +animals. Indeed many fish, such as the grunts, make various sounds which +are plainly audible even to our ears high above the water, and we cannot +suppose that this is a useless accomplishment. But the ears of fishes and +the line of tiny tubes which extends along the side may be more effective +in recording the tremors of the water transmitted by moving objects than +actual sound. + +Watch a lazy catfish winding its way along near the bottom, with its +barbels extended, and you will at once realise that fishes can feel, this +function being very useful to those kinds which search for their food in +the mud at the bottom. + + * * * * * + +Not a breath of air stirs the surface of the woodland pond, and the trees +about the margin are reflected unbroken in its surface. The lilies and +their pads lie motionless, and in and out through the shadowy depths, +around the long stems, float a school of half a dozen little sunfish. They +move slowly, turning from side to side all at once as if impelled by one +idea. Now and then one will dart aside and snap up a beetle or mosquito +larva, then swing back to its place among its fellows. Their beautiful +scales flash scarlet, blue, and gold, and their little hand-and-foot fins +are ever trembling and waving. They drift upward nearer the surface, the +wide round eyes turning and twisting in their sockets, ever watchful for +food and danger. Without warning a terrific splash scatters them, and when +the ripples and bubbles cease, five frightened sunfish cringe in terror +among the water plants of the bottom mud. Off to her nest goes the +kingfisher, bearing to her brood the struggling sixth. + +Later in the day, when danger seemed far off, a double-pointed vise shot +toward the little group of "pumpkin seeds" and a great blue heron +swallowed one of their number. Another, venturing too far beyond the +protection of the lily stems and grass tangle of the shallows, fell victim +to a voracious pickerel. But the most terrible fate befell when one day a +black sinuous body came swiftly through the water. The fish had never seen +its like before and yet some instinct told them that here was death indeed +and they fled as fast as their fins could send them. The young otter had +marked the trio and after it he sped, turning, twisting, following every +movement with never a stop for breath until he had caught his prey. + +But the life of a fish is not all tragedy, and the two remaining sunfish +may live in peace. In spawning time they clear a little space close to the +water of the inlet, pulling up the young weeds and pushing up the sandy +bottom until a hollow, bowl-like nest is prepared. Thoreau tells us that +here the fish "may be seen early in summer assiduously brooding, and +driving away minnows and larger fishes, even its own species, which would +disturb its ova, pursuing them a few feet, and circling round swiftly to +its nest again; the minnows, like young sharks, instantly entering the +empty nests, meanwhile, and swallowing the spawn, which is attached to the +weeds and to the bottom, on the sunny side. The spawn is exposed to so +many dangers that a very small proportion can ever become fishes, for +beside being the constant prey of birds and fishes, a great many nests are +made so near the shore, in shallow water, that they are left dry in a few +days, as the river goes down. These and the lampreys are the only fishes' +nests that I have observed, though the ova of some species may be seen +floating on the surface. The sunfish are so careful of their charge that +you may stand close by in the water and examine them at your leisure. I +have thus stood over them half an hour at a time, and stroked them +familiarly without frightening them, suffering them to nibble my fingers +harmlessly, and seen them erect their dorsal fins in anger when my hand +approached their ova, and have even taken them gently out of the water +with my hand; though this cannot be accomplished by a sudden movement, +however dexterous, for instant warning is conveyed to them through their +denser element, but only by letting the fingers gradually close about them +as they are poised over the palm, and with the utmost gentleness raising +them slowly to the surface. Though stationary, they kept up a constant +sculling or waving motion with their fins, which is exceedingly graceful, +and expressive of their humble happiness; for unlike ours, the element in +which they live is a stream which must be constantly resisted. From time +to time they nibble the weeds at the bottom or overhanging their nests, or +dart after a fly or worm. The dorsal fin, besides answering the purpose of +a keel, with the anal, serves to keep the fish upright, for in shallow +water, where this is not covered, they fall on their sides. As you stand +thus stooping over the sunfish in its nest, the edges of the dorsal and +caudal fins have a singular dusty golden reflection, and its eyes, which +stand out from the head, are transparent and colourless. Seen in its +native element, it is a very beautiful and compact fish, perfect in all +its parts, and looks like a brilliant coin fresh from the mint. It is a +perfect jewel of the river, the green, red, coppery, and golden +reflections of its mottled sides being the concentration of such rays as +struggle through the floating pads and flowers to the sandy bottom, and in +harmony with the sunlit brown and yellow pebbles." + +When the cold days of winter come and the ice begins to close over the +pond, the sunfish become sluggish and keep near the bottom, +half-hibernating but not unwilling to snap at any bit of food which may +drift near them. Lying prone on the ice we may see them poising with +slowly undulating fins, waiting, in their strange wide-eyed sleep, for the +warmth which will bring food and active life again. + + 3rd. Fish. Master, I marvel how the fishes live in the sea. + 1st. Fish. Why, as men do a-land: the great ones eat up the + little ones. + Shakespeare. + + + + +TENANTS OF WINTER BIRDS' NESTS + + +When we realise how our lives are hedged about by butchers, bakers, and +luxury-makers, we often envy the wild creatures their independence. And +yet, although each animal is capable of finding its own food and shelter +and of avoiding all ordinary danger, there is much dependence, one upon +another, among the little creatures of fur and feathers. + +The first instinct of a gray squirrel, at the approach of winter, is to +seek out a deep, warm, hollow limb, or trunk. Nowadays, however, these are +not to be found in every grove. The precepts of modern forestry decree +that all such unsightly places must be filled with cement and creosote and +well sealed against the entrance of rain and snow. When hollows are not +available, these hardy squirrels prepare their winter home in another way. +Before the leaves have begun to loosen on their stalks, the little +creatures set to work. The crows have long since deserted their rough nest +of sticks in the top of some tall tree, and now the squirrels come, +investigate, and adopt the forsaken bird's-nest as the foundation of their +home. The sticks are pressed more tightly together, all interstices filled +up, and then a superstructure of leafy twigs is woven overhead and all +around. The leaves on these twigs, killed before their time, do not fall; +and when the branches of the tree become bare, there remains in one of the +uppermost crotches a big ball of leaves,--rain and snow proof, with a tiny +entrance at one side. + +On a stormy mid-winter afternoon we stand beneath the tree and, through +the snowflakes driven past by the howling gale, we catch glimpses of the +nest swaying high in air. Far over it leans, as the branches are whipped +and bent by the wind, and yet so cunningly is it wrought that never a twig +or leaf loosens. We can imagine the pair of little shadow-tails within, +sleeping fearlessly throughout all the coming night. + +But the sleep of the gray squirrel is a healthy and a natural one, not the +half-dead trance of hibernation; and early next morning their sharp eyes +appear at the entrance of their home and they are out and off through the +tree-top path which only their feet can traverse. Down the snowy trunks +they come with a rush, and with strong, clean bounds they head unerringly +for their little _caches_ of nuts. Their provender is hidden away among +the dried leaves, and when they want a nibble of nut or acorn they make +their way, by some mysterious sense, even through three feet of snow, down +to the bit of food which, months before, they patted out of sight among +the moss and leaves. + +It would seem that some exact sub-conscious sense of locality would be a +more probable solution of this feat than the sense of smell, however +keenly developed, when we consider that dozens of nuts may be hidden or +buried in close proximity to the one sought by the squirrel. + +Even though the birds seem to have vanished from the earth, and every +mammal be deeply buried in its long sleep, no winter's walk need be barren +of interest. A suggestion worth trying would be to choose a certain area +of saplings and underbrush and proceed systematically to fathom every +cause which has prevented the few stray leaves still upon their stalks +from falling with their many brethren now buried beneath the snow. + +The encircling silken bonds of Promethea and Cynthia cocoons will account +for some; others will puzzle us until we have found the traces of some +insect foe, whose girdling has killed the twig and thus prevented the leaf +from falling at the usual time; some may be simply mechanical causes, +where a broken twig crotch has fallen athwart another stem in the course +of its downward fall. Then there is the pitiful remnant of a last summer's +bird's-nest, with a mere skeleton of a floor all but disintegrated. + +But occasionally a substantial ball of dead leaves will be noticed, swung +amid a tangle of brier. No accident lodged these, nor did any insect have +aught to do with their position. Examine carefully the mass of leaves and +you will find a replica of the gray squirrel's nest, only, of course, much +smaller. This handiwork of the white-footed or deer mouse can be found in +almost every field or tangle of undergrowth; the nest of a field sparrow +or catbird being used as a foundation and thickly covered over and tightly +thatched with leaves. Now and then, even in mid-winter, we may find the +owner at home, and as the weasel is the most bloodthirsty, so the deer +mouse is the most beautiful and gentle of all the fur-coated folk of our +woods. With his coat of white and pale golden brown and his great black, +lustrous eyes, and his timid, trusting ways, he is altogether lovable. + +He spends the late summer and early autumn in his tangle-hung home, but in +winter he generally selects a snug hollow log, or some cavity in the +earth. Here he makes a round nest of fine grass and upon a couch of +thistledown he sleeps in peace, now and then waking to partake of the +little hoard of nuts which he has gathered, or he may even dare to frolic +about upon the snow in the cold winter moonlight, leaving behind him no +trace, save the fairy tracery of his tiny footprints. + + Wee, sleekit, cow'rin', tim'rous beastie, + O, what a panic's in thy breastie! + Thou need na start awa sae hasty, + Wi' bickering brattle! + I wad be laith to rin an' chase thee, + Wi' murd'ring prattle! + ROBERT BURNS. + + + + +WINTER HOLES + + +The decayed hollows which we have mentioned as so often productive of +little owls have their possibilities by no means exhausted by one visit. +The disturbed owl may take himself elsewhere, after being so +unceremoniously disturbed; but there are roving, tramp-like characters, +with dispositions taking them here and there through the winter nights, to +whom, at break of day, a hole is ever a sought-for haven. + +So do not put your hand too recklessly into an owl hole, for a hiss and a +sudden nip may show that an opossum has taken up his quarters there. If +you must, pull him out by his squirming, naked tail, but do not carry him +home, as he makes a poor pet, and between hen-house traps and irate +farmers, he has good reason, in this part of the country at least, to be +short tempered. + +Of course the birds'-nests are all deserted now, but do not be too sure of +the woodpeckers' holes. The little downy and his larger cousin, the hairy +woodpecker, often spend the winter nights snug within deep cavities which +they have hollowed out, each bird for itself. I have never known a pair to +share one of these shelters. + +Sometimes, in pulling off the loose bark from a decayed stump, several +dry, flattened scales will fall out upon the snow among the debris of wood +and dead leaves. Hold them close in the warm palm of your hand for a time +and the dried bits will quiver, the sides partly separate, and behold! you +have brought back to life a beautiful _Euvanessa_, or mourning-cloak +butterfly. Lay it upon the snow and soon the awakened life will ebb away +and it will again be stiff, as in death. If you wish, take it home, and +you may warm it into activity, feed it upon a drop of syrup and freeze it +again at will. Sometimes six or eight of these insects may be found +sheltered under the bark of a single stump, or in a hollow beneath a +stone. Several species share this habit of hibernating throughout the +winter. + +Look carefully in old, deserted sheds, in half-sheltered hollows of trees, +or in deep crevice-caverns in rocks, and you may some day spy one of the +strangest of our wood-folk. A poor little shrivelled bundle of fur, +tight-clasped in its own skinny fingers, with no more appearance of life +in its frozen body than if it were a mummy from an Egyptian tomb; such is +the figure that will meet your eye when you chance upon a bat in the deep +trance of its winter's hibernation. Often you will find six or a dozen of +these stiffened forms clinging close together, head downward. + +As in the case of the sleeping butterfly, carry one of the bats to your +warm room and place him in a bird-cage, hanging him up on the top wires by +his toes, with his head downward. The inverted position of these strange +little beings always brings to mind some of the experiences of Gulliver, +and indeed the life of a bat is more wonderful than any fairy tale. + +Probably the knowledge of bats which most of us possess is chiefly derived +from the imaginations of artists and poets, who, unlike the Chinese, do +not look upon these creatures with much favour, generally symbolising them +in connection with passages and pictures which relate to the infernal +regions. All of which is entirely unjust. Their nocturnal habits and our +consequent ignorance of their characteristics are the only causes which +can account for their being associated with the realm of Satan. In some +places bats are called flittermice, but they are more nearly related to +moles, shrews, and other insect-eaters than they are to mice. If we look +at the skeleton of an animal which walks or hops we will notice that its +hind limbs are much the stronger, and that the girdle which connects these +with the backbone is composed of strong and heavy bones. In bats a reverse +condition is found; the breast girdle, or bones corresponding to our +collar bones and shoulder blades, are greatly developed. This, as in +birds, is, of course, an adaptation to give surface for the attachment of +the great propelling muscles of the wings. + +Although the hand of a bat is so strangely altered, yet, as we shall see +if we look at our captive specimen, it has five fingers, as we have, four +of which are very long and thin, and the webs, of which we have a very +noticeable trace in our own hands, stretch from finger-tip to finger-tip, +and to the body and even down each leg, ending squarely near the ankle, +thus giving the creature the absurd appearance of having on a very broad, +baggy pair of trousers. + +When thoroughly warmed up, our bat will soon start on a tour of inspection +of his cage. He steps rapidly from one wire to another, sometimes hooking +on with all five toes, but generally with four or three. There seems to be +little power in these toes, except of remaining bent in a hooked position; +for when our bat stops and draws up one foot to scratch the head, the +claws are merely jerked through the fur by motions of the whole leg, not +by individual movements of the separate toes. In this motion we notice, +for the first time, that the legs and feet grow in a kind of "spread +eagle" position, making the knees point backward, in the same direction as +the elbows. + +We must stop a moment to admire the beautiful soft fur, a golden brown in +colour, with part of the back nearly black. The tiny inverted face is full +of expression, the bead-like eyes gleaming brightly from out of their +furry bed. The small moist nostrils are constantly wrinkling and +sniffling, and the large size of the alert ears shows how much their owner +depends upon them for information. If we suddenly move up closer to the +wires, the bat opens both wings owl-like, in a most threatening manner; +but if we make still more hostile motions the creature retreats as hastily +as it can, changing its method of progress to an all-fours, sloth-like +gait, the long free thumb of each hand grasping wire after wire and doing +most of the leverage, the hind legs following passively. + +When at what he judges a safe distance he again hangs pendent, bending his +head back to look earnestly at us. Soon the half-opened wings are closed +and brought close to the shoulders, and in this, the usual resting +position, the large claws of the thumbs rest on the breast in little +furrows which they have worn in the fur. + +Soon drowsiness comes on and a long elaborate yawn is given, showing the +many small needle-like teeth and the broad red tongue, which curls outward +to a surprising length. Then comes the most curious process of all. +Drawing up one leg, the little creature deliberately wraps one hand with +its clinging web around the leg and under the arms, and then draws the +other wing straight across the body, holds it there a moment, while it +takes a last look in all directions. Then lifting its fingers slightly, it +bends its head and wraps all in the full-spread web. It is most +ludicrously like a tragedian, acting the death scene in "Julius Caesar," +and it loses nothing in repetition; for each time the little animal thus +draws its winding sheet about its body, one is forced to smile as he +thinks of the absurd resemblance. + +But all this and much more you will see for yourself, if you are so +fortunate as to discover the hiding-place of the hibernating bat. + +Our little brown bat is a most excellent mother, and when in summer she +starts out on her nocturnal hunts she takes her tiny baby bat with her. +The weird little creature wraps his long fingers about his mother's neck +and off they go. When two young are born, the father bat is said sometimes +to assume entire control of one. + +After we come to know more of the admirable family traits of the +_fledermaus_--its musical German name--we shall willingly defend it from +the calumny which for thousands of years has been heaped upon it. + +Hibernation is a strange phenomenon, and one which is but little +understood. If we break into the death-like trance for too long a time, or +if we do not supply the right kind of food, our captive butterflies and +bats will perish. So let us soon freeze them up again and place them back +in the care of old Nature. Thus the pleasure is ours of having made them +yield up their secrets, without any harm to them. Let us fancy that in the +spring they may remember us only as a strange dream which has come to them +during their long sleep. + +------------------------------------------------------------------------ + +MARCH + +------------------------------------------------------------------------ + + + + +FEATHERED PIONEERS + + +In the annual war of the seasons, March is the time of the most bitterly +contested battles. But we--and very likely the birds--can look ahead and +realise what the final outcome will invariably be, and, our sympathies +being on the winning side, every advance of spring's outposts gladdens our +hearts. But winter is a stubborn foe, and sometimes his snow and icicle +battalions will not give way a foot. Though by day the sun's fierce attack +may drench the earth with the watery blood of the ice legions, yet at +night, silently and grimly, new reserves of cold repair the damage. + +Our winter visitors are still in force. Amid the stinging cold the wee +brown form of a winter wren will dodge round a brush pile--a tiny bundle +of energy which defies all chill winds and which resolves bug chrysalides +and frozen insects into a marvellous activity. Other little birds, as +small as the wren, call to us from the pines and cedars--golden-crowned +kinglets, olive-green of body, while on their heads burns a crest of +orange and gold. + +When a good-sized brown bird flies up before you, showing a flash of white +on his rump, you may know him for the flicker, the most unwoodpecker-like +of his family. He is more or less deserting the tree-climbing method for +ground feeding, and if you watch him you will see many habits which his +new mode of life is teaching him. + +Even in the most wintry of Marches some warm, thawing days are sure to be +thrown in between storms, and nothing, not even pussy willows and the +skunk cabbage, yield more quickly to the mellowing influence than do the +birds--sympathetic brethren of ours that they are. Hardly has the sunniest +icicle begun to drop tears, when a song sparrow flits to the top of a +bush, clears his throat with sharp chirps and shouts as loud as he can: +"Hip! Hip! Hip! Hurrah--!" Even more boreal visitors feel the new +influence, and tree and fox sparrows warble sweetly. But the bluebird's +note will always be spring's dearest herald. When this soft, mellow sound +floats from the nearest fence post, it seems to thaw something out of our +ears; from this instant winter seems on the defensive; the crisis has come +and gone in an instant, in a single vibration of the air. + +Bright colours are still scarce among our birds, but another blue form may +occasionally pass us, for blue jays are more noticeable now than at any +other time of the year. Although not by any means a rare bird, with us +jays are shy and wary. In Florida their southern cousins are as familiar +as robins, without a trace of fear of mankind. What curious notes our blue +jays have--a creaking, wheedling, rasping medley of sounds coming through +the leafless branches. At this time of year they love acorns and nuts, but +in the spring "their fancy turns to thoughts of" eggs and young nestlings, +and they are accordingly hated by the small birds. Nevertheless no bird is +quicker to shout and scream "Thief! Robber!" at some harmless little owl +than are these blue and white rascals. + +You may seek in vain to discover the first sign of nesting among the +birds. Scarcely has winter set in in earnest, you will think, when the +tiger-eyed one of the woods--the great horned owl--will have drifted up to +some old hawk's nest, and laid her white spheres fairly in the snow. When +you discover her "horns" above the nest lining of dried leaves, you may +find that her fuzzy young owls are already hatched. But these owls are an +exception, and no other bird in our latitude cares to risk the dangers of +late February or early March. + +March is sometimes a woodpecker month, and almost any day one is very +likely to see, besides the flicker, the hairy or downy woodpecker. The +latter two are almost counterparts of each other, although the downy is +the more common. They hammer cheerfully upon the sounding boards which +Nature has provided for them, striking slow or fast, soft or loud, as +their humour dictates. + +Near New York, a day in March--I have found it varying from March 8 to +March 12--is "crow day." Now the winter roosts apparently break up, and +all day flocks of crows, sometimes thousands upon thousands of them, pass +to the northward. If the day is quiet and spring-like, they fly very high, +black motes silhouetted against the blue,--but if the day is a "March +day," with whistling, howling winds, then the black fellows fly close to +earth, rising just enough to clear bushes and trees, and taking leeward +advantage of every protection. For days after, many crows pass, but never +so many as on the first day, when crow law, or crow instinct, passes the +word, we know not how, which is obeyed by all. + +For miles around not a drop of water may be found; it seems as if every +pool and lake were solid to the bottom, and yet, when we see a large bird, +with goose-like body, long neck and long, pointed beak, flying like a +bullet of steel through the sky, we may be sure that there is open water +to the northward, for a loon never makes a mistake. When the first pioneer +of these hardy birds passes, he knows that somewhere beyond us fish can be +caught. If we wonder where he has spent the long winter months, we should +take a steamer to Florida. Out on the ocean, sometimes a hundred miles or +more from land, many of these birds make their winter home. When the bow +of the steamer bears down upon one, the bird half spreads its wings, then +closes them quickly, and sinks out of sight in the green depths, not to +reappear until the steamer has passed, when he looks after us and utters +his mocking laugh. Here he will float until the time comes for him to go +north. We love the brave fellow, remembering him in his home among the +lakes of Canada; but we tremble for him when we think of the terrible +storm waves which he must outride, and the sneering sharks which must +sometimes spy him. What a story he could tell of his life among the +phalaropes and jelly-fishes! + +Meadow larks are in flocks in March, and as their yellow breasts, with the +central crescent of black, rise from the snow-bent grass, their long, +clear, vocal "arrow" comes to us, piercing the air like a veritable icicle +of sound. When on the ground they are walkers like the crow. + +As the kingfisher and loon appear to know long ahead when the first bit of +clear water will appear, so the first insect on the wing seems to be +anticipated by a feathered flycatcher. Early some morning, when the +wondrous Northern Lights are still playing across the heavens, a small +voice may make all the surroundings seem incongruous. Frosty air, rimmed +tree-trunks, naked branches, aurora--all seem as unreal as stage +properties, when _phoe-be!_ comes to our ears. Yes, there is the little +dark-feathered, tail-wagging fellow, hungry no doubt, but sure that when +the sun warms up, Mother Nature will strew his aerial breakfast-table with +tiny gnats,--precocious, but none the less toothsome for all that. + + Hark 'tis the bluebird's venturous strain + High on the old fringed elm at the gate-- + Sweet-voiced, valiant on the swaying bough, + Alert, elate, + Dodging the fitful spits of snow, + New England's poet-laureate + Telling us Spring has come again! + Thomas Bailey Aldrich. + + + + +THE WAYS OF MEADOW MICE + + +Day after day we may walk through the woods and fields, using our eyes as +best we can, searching out every moving thing, following up every +sound,--and yet we touch only the coarsest, perceive only the grossest of +the life about us. Tramp the same way after a fall of snow and we are +astonished at the evidences of life of which we knew nothing. Everywhere, +in and out among the reed stems, around the tree-trunks, and in wavy lines +and spirals all about, runs the delicate tracery of the meadow mice +trails. No leapers these, as are the white-footed and jumping mice, but +short-legged and stout of body. Yet with all their lack of size and +swiftness, they are untiring little folk, and probably make long journeys +from their individual nests. + +As far north as Canada and west to the Plains the meadow or field mice are +found, and everywhere they seem to be happy and content. Most of all, +however, they enjoy the vicinity of water, and a damp, half-marshy meadow +is a paradise for them. No wonder their worst enemies are known as marsh +hawks and marsh owls; these hunters of the daylight and the night well +know where the meadow mice love to play. + +These mice are resourceful little beings and when danger threatens they +will take to the water without hesitation; and when the muskrat has gone +the way of the beaver, our ditches and ponds will not be completely +deserted, for the little meadow mice will swim and dive for many years +thereafter. + +Not only in the meadows about our inland streams, but within sound of the +breakers on the seashore, these vigorous bits of fur find bountiful +living, and it is said that the mice folk inhabiting these low salt +marshes always know in some mysterious way when a disastrous high tide is +due, and flee in time, so that when the remorseless ripples lap higher and +higher over the wide stretches of salt grass, not a mouse will be drowned. +By some delicate means of perception all have been notified in time, and +these, among the least of Nature's children, have run and scurried along +their grassy paths to find safety on the higher ground. + +These paths seem an invention of the meadow mice, and, affording them a +unique escape from danger, they doubtless, in a great measure, account for +the extreme abundance of the little creatures. When a deer mouse or a +chipmunk emerges from its hollow log or underground tunnel, it must take +its chances in open air. It may dart along close to the ground or amid an +impenetrable tangle of briers, but still it is always visible from above. +On the other hand, a mole, pushing blindly along beneath the sod, fears no +danger from the hawk soaring high overhead. + +The method of the meadow mice is between these two: its stratum of active +life is above the mole and beneath the chipmunk. Scores of sharp little +incisor teeth are forever busy gnawing and cutting away the tender grass +and sprouting weeds in long meandering paths or trails through the +meadows. As these paths are only a mouse-breadth in width, the grasses at +each side lean inward, forming a perfect shelter of interlocking stems +overhead. Two purposes are thus fulfilled: a delicious succulent food is +obtained and a way of escape is kept ever open. These lines intersect and +cross at every conceivable angle, and as the meadow mice clan are ever +friendly toward one another, any particular mouse seems at liberty to +traverse these miles of mouse alleys. + +In winter, when the snow lies deep upon the ground, these same mice drive +tunnels beneath it, leading to all their favourite feeding grounds, to all +the heavy-seeded weed heads, with which the bounty of Nature supplies +them. But at night these tunnels are deserted and boldly out upon the snow +come the meadow mice, chasing each other over its gleaming surface, +nibbling the toothsome seeds, dodging, or trying to dodge, the +owl-shadows; living the keen, strenuous, short, but happy, life which is +that of all the wild meadow folk. + + That wee bit heap o' leaves an' stibble + Has cost thee mony a weary nibble! + Thou saw the fields laid bare and waste, + An' weary winter comin' fast, + An' cosey here, beneath the blast, + Thou thought to dwell. + Robert Burns. + + + + +PROBLEMS OF BIRD LIFE + + +The principal problems which birds, and indeed all other creatures, have +to solve, have been well stated to be--Food, Safety, and Reproduction. In +regard to safety, or the art of escaping danger, we are all familiar with +the ravages which hawks, owls, foxes, and even red squirrels commit among +the lesser feathered creatures, but there are other dangers which few of +us suspect. + +Of all creatures birds are perhaps the most exempt from liability to +accident, yet they not infrequently lose their lives in most unexpected +ways. Once above trees and buildings, they have the whole upper air free +of every obstacle, and though their flight sometimes equals the speed of a +railroad train, they have little to fear when well above the ground. +Collision with other birds seems scarcely possible, although it sometimes +does occur. When a covey of quail is flushed, occasionally two birds will +collide, at times meeting with such force that both are stunned. +Flycatchers darting at the same insect will now and then come together, +but not hard enough to injure either bird. + +Even the smallest and most wonderful of all flyers, the hummingbird, may +come to grief in accidental ways. I have seen one entangled in a burdock +burr, its tiny feathers fast locked into the countless hooks, and again I +have found the body of one of these little birds with its bill fastened in +a spiral tendril of a grapevine, trapped in some unknown way. + +Young phoebes sometimes become entangled in the horsehairs which are used +in the lining of their nest. When they are old enough to fly and attempt +to leave, they are held prisoners or left dangling from the nest. When +mink traps are set in the snow in winter, owls frequently fall victims, +mice being scarce and the bait tempting. + +Lighthouses are perhaps the cause of more accidents to birds than are any +of the other obstacles which they encounter on their nocturnal migrations +north and south. Many hundreds of birds are sometimes found dead at the +base of these structures. The sudden bright glare is so confusing and +blinding, as they shoot from the intense darkness into its circle of +radiance, that they are completely bewildered and dash headlong against +the thick panes of glass. Telegraph wires are another menace to low-flying +birds, especially those which, like quail and woodcock, enjoy a whirlwind +flight, and attain great speed within a few yards. Such birds have been +found almost cut in two by the force with which they struck the wire. + +The elements frequently catch birds unaware and overpower them. A sudden +wind or storm will drive coast-flying birds hundreds of miles out to sea, +and oceanic birds may be blown as far inland. Hurricanes in the West +Indies are said to cause the death of innumerable birds, as well as of +other creatures. From such a cause small islands are known to have become +completely depopulated of their feathered inhabitants. Violent hailstorms, +coming in warm weather without warning, are quite common agents in the +destruction of birds, and in a city thousands of English sparrows have +been stricken during such a storm. After a violent storm of wet snow in +the middle West, myriads of Lapland longspurs were once found dead in the +streets and suburbs of several villages. On the surface of two small +lakes, a conservative estimate of the dead birds was a million and a +half! + +The routes which birds follow in migrating north and south sometimes +extend over considerable stretches of water, as across the Caribbean Sea, +but the only birds which voluntarily brave the dangers of the open ocean +are those which, from ability to swim, or great power of flight, can trust +themselves far away from land. Not infrequently a storm will drive birds +away from the land and carry them over immense distances, and this +accounts for the occasional appearance of land birds near vessels far out +at sea. Overcome with fatigue, they perch for hours in the rigging before +taking flight in the direction of the nearest land, or, desperate from +hunger, they fly fearlessly down to the deck, where food and water are +seldom refused them. + +Small events like these are welcome breaks in the monotony of a long ocean +voyage, but are soon forgotten at the end of the trip. + +Two of these ocean waifs were once brought to me. One was a young European +heron which flew on board a vessel when it was about two hundred and five +miles southeast of the southern extremity of India. A storm must have +driven the bird seaward, as there is no migration route near this +locality. + +The second bird was a European turtle dove which was captured not less +than seven hundred and fifty miles from the nearest land--Ireland. When +caught it was in an exhausted condition, but it quickly recovered and soon +lost all signs of the buffeting of the storm. The turtle dove migrates +northward to the British Islands about the first of May, but as this bird +was captured on May 17th, it was not migrating, but, caught by a gust of +wind, was probably blown away from the land. The force of the storm would +then drive it mile after mile, allowing it no chance of controlling the +direction of its flight, but, from the very velocity, making it easy for +the bird to maintain its equilibrium. + +Hundreds of birds must perish when left by storms far out at sea, and the +infinitely small chance of encountering a vessel or other resting-place +makes a bird which has passed through such an experience and survived, +interesting indeed. + +In winter ruffed grouse have a habit of burrowing deep beneath the snow +and letting the storm shut them in. In this warm, cosey retreat they spend +the night, their breath making its way out through the loosely packed +crystals. But when a cold rain sets in during the night, this becomes a +fatal trap, an impenetrable crust cutting off their means of escape. + +Ducks, when collected about a small open place in an ice-covered pond, +diving for the tender roots on which they feed, sometimes become confused +and drown before they find their way out. They have been seen frozen into +the ice by hundreds, sitting there helplessly, and fortunate if the sun, +with its thawing power, releases them before they are discovered by +marauding hawks or foxes. + +In connection with their food supply the greatest enemy of birds is ice, +and when a winter rain ends with a cold snap, and every twig and seed is +encased in a transparent armour of ice, then starvation stalks close to +all the feathered kindred. Then is the time to scatter crumbs and grain +broadcast, to nail bones and suet to the tree-trunks and so awaken hope +and life in the shivering little forms. If a bird has food in abundance, +it little fears the cold. I have kept parrakeets out through the blizzards +and storms of a severe winter, seeing them play and frolic in the snow as +if their natural home were an arctic tundra, instead of a tropical +forest. + +A friend of birds once planted many sprouts of wild honeysuckle about his +porch, and the following summer two pairs of hummingbirds built their +nests in near-by apple trees; he transplanted quantities of living +woodbine to the garden fences, and when the robins returned in the spring, +after having remained late the previous autumn feeding on the succulent +bunches of berries, no fewer than ten pairs nested on and about the porch +and yard. + +So my text of this, as of many other weeks is,--study the food habits of +the birds and stock your waste places with their favourite berry or vine. +Your labour will be repaid a hundredfold in song and in the society of the +little winged comrades. + + Worn is the winter rug of white, + And in the snow-bare spots once more, + Glimpses of faint green grass in sight,-- + Spring's footprints on the floor. + Spring here--by what magician's touch? + 'Twas winter scarce an hour ago. + And yet I should have guessed as much,-- + Those footprints in the snow! + Frank Dempster Sherman. + + + + +DWELLERS IN THE DUST + + +To many of us the differences between a reptile and a batrachian are +unknown. Even if we have learned that these interesting creatures are well +worth studying and that they possess few or none of the unpleasant +characteristics usually attributed to them, still we are apt to speak of +having seen a lizard in the water at the pond's edge, or of having heard a +reptile croaking near the marsh. To avoid such mistakes, one need only +remember that reptiles are covered with scales and that batrachians have +smooth skins. + +Our walks will become more and more interesting as we spread our interest +over a wider field, not confining our observations to birds and mammals +alone, but including members of the two equally distinctive classes of +animals mentioned above. The batrachians, in the northeastern part of our +country, include the salamanders and newts, the frogs and toads, while as +reptiles we number lizards, turtles, and snakes. + +Lizards are creatures of the tropics and only two small species are found +in our vicinity, and these occur but rarely. Snakes, however, are more +abundant, and, besides the rare poisonous copperhead and rattlesnake, +careful search will reveal a dozen harmless species, the commonest, of +course, being the garter snake and its near relative the ribbon snake. + +About this time of the year snakes begin to feel the thawing effect of the +sun's rays and to stir in their long winter hibernation. Sometimes we will +come upon a ball of six or eight intertwined snakes, which, if they are +still frozen up, will lie motionless upon the ground. But when spring +finally unclasps the seal which has been put upon tree and ground, these +reptiles stretch themselves full length upon some exposed stone, where +they lie basking in the sun. + +The process of shedding the skin soon begins; getting clear of the head +part, eye-scales and all, the serpent slowly wriggles its way forward, +escaping from the old skin as a finger is drawn from a glove. At last it +crawls away, bright and shining in its new scaly coat, leaving behind it a +spectral likeness of itself, which slowly sinks and disintegrates amid the +dead leaves and moss, or, later in the year, it may perhaps be discovered +by some crested flycatcher and carried off to be added to its nesting +material. + +When the broods of twenty to thirty young garter snakes start out in life +to hunt for themselves, then woe to the earthworms, for it is upon them +that the little serpents chiefly feed. + +Six or seven of our native species of snakes lay eggs, usually depositing +them under the bark of rotten logs, or in similar places, where they are +left to hatch by the heat of the sun or by that of the decaying +vegetation. It is interesting to gather these leathery shelled eggs and +watch them hatch, and it is surprising how similar to each other some of +the various species are when they emerge from the shell. + +------------------------------------------------------------------------ + +APRIL + +------------------------------------------------------------------------ + + + + +SPRING SONGSTERS + + +Early April sees the last contest which winter wages for supremacy, and +often it is a half-hearted attempt; but after the army of the North has +retreated, with its icicles and snowdrifts, spring seems dazed for a +while. Victory has been dearly bought, and April is the season when, for a +time, the trees and insects hang fire--paralysed--while the chill is +thawing from their marrow. Our northern visitors of the bird world slip +quietly away. There is no great gathering of clans like that of the tree +swallows in the fall, but silently, one by one, they depart, following the +last moan of the north wind, covering winter's disordered retreat with +warbles and songs. + +One evening we notice the juncos and tree sparrows in the tangled, +frost-burned stubble, and the next day, although our eye catches glints of +white from sparrow tails, it is from vesper finches, not from juncos, and +the weed spray which a few hours before bent beneath a white-throat's +weight, now vibrates with the energy which a field sparrow puts into his +song. Field and chipping sparrows, which now come in numbers, are somewhat +alike, but by their beaks and songs you may know them. The mandibles of +the former are flesh-coloured, those of the latter black. The sharp +_chip!_ _chip!_ is characteristic of the "chippy," but the sweet, dripping +song of the field sparrow is charming. No elaborate performance this, but +a succession of sweet, high notes, accelerating toward the end, like a +coin of silver settling to rest on a marble table--a simple, chaste +vespers which rises to the setting sun and endears the little brown singer +to us. + +We may learn much by studying these homely little frequenters of our +orchards and pastures; each has a hundred secrets which await patient and +careful watching by their human lovers. In the chipping sparrow we may +notice a hint of the spring change of dress which warblers and tanagers +carry to such an extreme. When he left us in the fall he wore a +dull-streaked cap, but now he comes from the South attired in a smart +head-covering of bright chestnut. Poor little fellow, this is the very +best he can do in the way of especial ornament to bewitch his lady love, +but it suffices. Can the peacock's train do more? + +This is the time to watch for the lines of ducks crossing the sky, and be +ready to find black ducks in the oddest places--even in insignificant rain +pools deep in the woods. In the early spring the great flocks of grackles +and redwings return, among the first to arrive as they were the last to +leave for the South. + +Before the last fox sparrow goes, the hermit thrush comes, and these +birds, alike in certain superficialities, but so actually unrelated, for a +time seek their food in the same grove. + +The hardier of the warblers pass us in April, stopping a few days before +continuing to the northward. We should make haste to identify them and to +learn all we can of their notes and habits, not only because of the short +stay which most of them make, but on account of the vast assemblage of +warbler species already on the move in the Southern States, which soon, in +panoply of rainbow hues, will crowd our groves and wear thin the warbler +pages of our bird books. + +These April days we are sure to see flocks of myrtle, or yellow-rumped +warblers, and yellow palm warblers in their olive-green coats and chestnut +caps. The black-and-white creeper will always show himself true to his +name--a creeping bundle of black and white streaks. When we hear of the +parula warbler or of the Cape May warbler we get no idea of the appearance +of the bird, but when we know that the black-throated green warblers begin +to appear in April, the first good view of one of this species will +proclaim him as such. + +We have marked the fox sparrow as being a great scratcher among dead +leaves. His habit is continued in the spring by the towhee, or chewink, +who uses the same methods, throwing both feet backward simultaneously. The +ordinary call note of this bird is a good example of how difficult it is +to translate bird songs into human words. Listen to the quick, double note +coming from the underbrush. Now he says "_towhee'!_" the next time +"_chewink'!_" You may change about at will, and the notes will always +correspond. Whatever is in our mind at the instant, that will seem to be +what the bird says. This should warn us of the danger of reading our +thoughts and theories too much into the minds and actions of birds. Their +mental processes, in many ways, correspond to ours. When a bird expresses +fear, hate, bravery, pain or pleasure, we can sympathise thoroughly with +it, but in studying their more complex actions we should endeavour to +exclude the thousand and one human attributes with which we are prone to +colour the bird's mental environment. + +John Burroughs has rendered the song of the black-throated green warbler +in an inimitable way, as follows: "---- ----V----!" When we have once +heard the bird we will instantly recognise the aptness of these symbolic +lines. The least flycatcher, called _minimus_ by the scientists, well +deserves his name, for of all those members of his family which make their +home with us, he is the smallest. These miniature flycatchers have a way +of hunting which is all their own. They sit perched on some exposed twig +or branch, motionless until some small insect flies in sight. Then they +will launch out into the air, and, catching the insect with a snap of +their beaks, fly back to the same perch. They are garbed in subdued grays, +olives, and yellows. The least flycatcher has another name which at once +distinguishes him--chebec'. As he sits on a limb, his whole body trembles +when he jerks out these syllables, and his tail snaps as if it played some +important part in the mechanism of his vocal effort. + +When you are picking cowslips and hepaticas early in the month, keep a +lookout for the first barn swallow. Nothing gives us such an impression of +the independence and individuality of birds as when a solitary member of +some species arrives days before others of his kind. One fork-tailed +beauty of last year's nest above the haymow may hawk about for insects day +after day alone, before he is joined by other swallows. Did he spend the +winter by himself, or did the _heimweh_ smite his heart more sorely and +bring him irresistibly to the loved nest in the rafters? This love of +home, which is so striking an attribute of birds, is a wonderfully +beautiful thing. It brings the oriole back to the branch where still +swings her exquisite purse-shaped home of last summer; it leads each pair +of fishhawks to their particular cartload of sticks, to which a few more +must be added each year; it hastens the wing beats of the sea-swallows +northward to the beach which, ten months ago, was flecked with their +eggs--the shifting grains of sand their only nest. + +This love of home, of birthplace, bridges over a thousand physical +differences between these feathered creatures and ourselves. We forget +their expressionless masks of horn, their feathered fingers, their scaly +toes, and looking deep into their clear, bright eyes, we know and feel a +kinship, a sympathy of spirit, which binds us all together, and we are +glad. + + Yet these sweet sounds of the early season, + And these fair sights of its sunny days, + Are only sweet when we fondly listen, + And only fair when we fondly gaze. + + There is no glory in star or blossom + Till looked upon by a loving eye; + There is no fragrance in April breezes + Till breathed with joy as they wander by. + William Cullen Bryant. + + + + +THE SIMPLE ART OF SAPSUCKING + + +The yellow-bellied sapsucker is, at this time of year, one of our most +abundant woodpeckers, and in its life we have an excellent example of that +individuality which is ever cropping out in Nature--the trial and +acceptance of life under new conditions. + +In the spring we tap the sugar maples, and gather great pailfuls of the +sap as it rises from its winter resting-place in the roots, and the +sapsucker likes to steal from our pails or to tap the trees for himself. +But throughout part of the year he is satisfied with an insect diet and +chooses the time when the sap begins to flow downward in the autumn for +committing his most serious depredations upon the tree. It was formerly +thought that this bird, like its near relatives, the downy and hairy +woodpeckers, was forever boring for insects; but when we examine the +regularity and symmetry of the arrangement of its holes, we realise that +they are for a very different purpose than the exposing of an occasional +grub. + +Besides drinking the sap from the holes, this bird extracts a quantity of +the tender inner bark of the tree, and when a tree has been encircled for +several feet up and down its trunk by these numerous little sap wells, the +effect becomes apparent in the lessened circulation of the liquid blood of +the tree; and before long, death is certain to ensue. So the work of the +sapsucker is injurious, while the grub-seeking woodpeckers confer only +good upon the trees they frequent. + +And how pitiful is the downfall of a doomed tree! Hardly has its vitality +been lessened an appreciable amount, when somehow the word is passed to +the insect hordes who hover about in waiting, as wolves hang upon the +outskirts of a herd of buffalo. In the spring, when the topmost branches +have received a little less than their wonted amount of wholesome sap and +the leaves are less vigorous, the caterpillars and twig-girdlers attack at +once. Ichneumen flies and boring beetles seem to know by signs invisible +to us that here is opportunity. Then in the fall come again the sapsuckers +to the tree, remorselessly driving hole after hole through the still +untouched segments of its circle of life. When the last sap-channel is +pierced and no more can pass to the roots, the tree stands helpless, +waiting for the end. Swiftly come frost and rain, and when the April suns +again quicken all the surrounding vegetation into vigorous life, the +victim of the sapsuckers stands lifeless, its branches reaching hopelessly +upward, a naked mockery amid the warm green foliage around. Insects and +fungi and lightning now set to work unhindered, and the tree falls at +last,--dust to dust--ashes to ashes. + +A sapsucker has been seen in early morning to sink forty or fifty wells +into the bark of a mountain ash tree, and then to spend the rest of the +day in sidling from one to another, taking a sip here and a drink there, +gradually becoming more and more lethargic and drowsy, as if the sap +actually produced some narcotic or intoxicating effect. Strong indeed is +the contrast between such a picture and the same bird in the early +spring,--then full of life and vigour, drawing musical reverberations from +some resonant hollow limb. + +Like other idlers, the sapsucker in its deeds of gluttony and harm brings, +if anything, more injury to others than to itself. The farmers well know +its depredations and detest it accordingly, but unfortunately they are not +ornithologists, and a peckerwood is a peckerwood to them; and so while the +poor downy, the red-head, and the hairy woodpeckers are seen busily at +work cutting the life threads of the injurious borer larvae, the farmer, +thinking of his dying trees, slays them all without mercy or distinction. +The sapsucker is never as confiding as the downy, and from a safe distance +sees others murdered for sins which are his alone. + +But we must give sapsucker his due and admit that he devours many hundreds +of insects throughout the year, and though we mourn the death of an +occasional tree, we cannot but admire his new venture in life,--his +cunning in choosing only the dessert served at the woodpeckers' +feasts,--the sweets which flow at the tap of a beak, leaving to his +fellows the labour of searching and drilling deep for more substantial +courses. + + + + +WILD WINGS + + +The ides of March see the woodcock back in its northern home, and in early +April it prepares for nesting. The question of the nest itself is a very +simple matter, being only a cavity, formed by the pressure of the mother's +body, among the moss and dead leaves. The formalities of courtship are, +however, quite another thing, and the execution of interesting aerial +dances entails much effort and time. + +It is in the dusk of evening that the male woodcock begins his +song,--plaintive notes uttered at regular intervals, and sounding like +_peent!_ _peent!_ Then without warning he launches himself on a sharply +ascending spiral, his wings whistling through the gloom. Higher and higher +he goes, balances a moment, and finally descends abruptly, with zigzag +rushes, wings and voice both aiding each other in producing the sounds, to +which, let us suppose, his prospective mate listens with ecstasy. It is a +weird performance, repeated again and again during the same evening. + +So pronounced and loud is the whistling of the wings that we wonder how it +can be produced by ordinary feathers. The three outer primaries of the +wing, which in most birds are usually like the others, in the woodcock are +very stiff, and the vanes are so narrow that when the wing is spread there +is a wide space between each one. When the wing beats the air rapidly, the +wind rushes through these feather slits,--and we have the accompaniment of +the love-song explained. + +The feather-covered arms and hands of birds are full of interest; and +after studying the wing of a chicken which has been plucked for the table, +we shall realise how wonderful a transformation has taken place through +the millions of years past. Only three stubby fingers are left and these +are stiff and almost immovable, but the rest of the forearm is very like +that of our own arm. + +See how many facts we can accumulate about wings, by giving special +attention to them, when watching birds fly across the sky. How easy it is +to identify the steady beats of a crow, or the more rapid strokes of a +duck; how distinctive is the frequent looping flight of a goldfinch, or +the longer, more direct swings of a woodpecker! + +Hardly any two birds have wings exactly similar in shape, every wing being +exquisitely adapted to its owner's needs. The gull soars or flaps slowly +on his long, narrow, tireless pinions, while the quail rises suddenly +before us on short, rounded wings, which carry it like a rocket for a +short distance, when it settles quickly to earth again. The gull would +fare ill were it compelled to traverse the ocean with such brief spurts of +speed, while, on the other hand, the last bob-white would shortly vanish, +could it escape from fox or weasel only with the slow flight of a gull. +How splendidly the sickle wings of a swift enable it to turn and twist, +bat-like, in its pursuit of insects! + +You may be able to identify any bird near your home, you may know its nest +and eggs, its song and its young; but begin at the beginning again and +watch their wings and their feet and their bills and you will find that +there are new and wonderful truths at your very doorstep. Try bringing +home from your walk a list of bill-uses or feet-functions. Remember that a +familiar object, looked at from a new point of view, will take to itself +unthought-of significance. + + Whither midst falling dew, + While glow the heavens with the last steps of day, + Far, through their rosy depths, dost thou pursue + Thy solitary way? + William Cullen Bryant. + + + + +THE BIRDS IN THE MOON + + +The lover of birds who has spent the day in the field puts away his +glasses at nightfall, looking forward to a walk after dark only as a +chance to hear the call of nocturnal birds or to catch the whirr of a +passing wing. But some bright moonlight night in early May, or again in +mid September, unsheath your glasses and tie them, telescope-fashion, to a +window-ledge or railing. Seat yourself in an easy position and focus on +the moon. Shut out all earthly scenes from your mind and imagine yourself +wandering amid those arid wastes. What a scene of cosmic desolation! What +vast deserts, and gaping craters of barren rock! The cold, steel-white +planet seems of all things most typical of death. + +But those specks passing across its surface? At first you imagine they are +motes clogging the delicate blood-vessels of the retina; then you wonder +if a distant host of falling meteors could have passed. Soon a larger, +nearer mote appears; the moon and its craters are forgotten and with a +thrill of delight you realise that they are birds--living, flying +birds--of all earthly things typical of the most vital life! Migration is +at its height, the chirps and twitters which come from the surrounding +darkness are tantalising hints telling of the passing legions. Thousands +and thousands of birds are every night pouring northward in a swift, +invisible, aerial stream. + +As a projecting pebble in mid-stream blurs the transparent water with a +myriad bubbles, so the narrow path of moon-rays, which our glass reveals, +cute a swath of visibility straight through the host of birds to our eager +eyes. How we hate to lose an instant's opportunity! Even a wink may allow +a familiar form to pass unseen. If we can use a small telescope, the field +of view is much enlarged. Now and then we recognise the flight of some +particular species,--the swinging loop of a woodpecker or goldfinch, or +the flutter of a sandpiper. + +It has been computed that these birds sometimes fly as much as a mile or +more above the surface of the earth, and when we think of the tiny, +fluttering things at this terrible height, it takes our breath away. What +a panorama of dark earth and glistening river and ocean must be spread out +beneath them! How the big moon must glow in that rarefied air! How +diminutive and puerile must seem the houses and cities of human +fashioning! + +The instinct of migration is one of the most wonderful in the world. A +young bob-white and a bobolink are hatched in the same New England field. +The former grows up and during the fall and winter forms one of the covey +which is content to wander a mile or two, here and there, in search of +good feeding grounds. Hardly has the bobolink donned his first full dress +before an irresistible impulse seizes him. One night he rises up and up, +ever higher on fluttering wings, sets his course southward, gives you a +glimpse of him across the moon, and keeps on through Virginia to Florida, +across seas, over tropical islands, far into South America, never content +until he has put the great Amazon between him and his far distant +birthplace. + + He who, from zone to zone, + Guides through the boundless sky thy certain flight, + In the long way that I must tread alone, + Will lead my steps aright. + William Cullen Bryant. + +------------------------------------------------------------------------ + +MAY + +------------------------------------------------------------------------ + + + + +THE HIGH TIDE OF BIRD LIFE + + +For abundance and for perfection of song and plumage, of the whole year, +May is the month of birds. Insects appear slowly in the spring and are +numerous all summer; squirrels and mice are more or less in evidence +during all the twelve months; reptiles unearth themselves at the approach +of the warm weather, and may be found living their slow, sluggish life +until late in the fall. In eggs, cocoons, discarded bird's-nests, in +earthen burrows, or in the mud at the bottom of pond or stream, all these +creatures have spent the winter near where we find them in the spring. But +birds are like creatures of another world; and, although in every summer's +walk we may see turtles, birds, butterflies, and chipmunks, all +interweaving their life paths across one another's haunts, yet the power +of extended flight and the wonderful habit of continental migration set +birds apart from all other living creatures. A bird during its lifetime +has almost twice the conscious existence of, say, a snake or any +hibernating mammal. And now in early May, when the creatures of the woods +and fields have only recently opened their sleepy eyes and stretched their +thin forms, there comes the great worldwide army of the birds, whose +bright eyes peer at us from tree, thicket, and field, whose brilliant +feathers and sweet songs bring summer with a leap--the height of the grand +symphony, of which the vernal peeping of the frogs and the squirrels' +chatter were only the first notes of the prelude. + +Tantalus-like is the condition of the amateur bird-lover, who, book in +hand, vainly endeavours to identify the countless beautiful forms which +appear in such vast numbers, linger a few days and then disappear, passing +on to the northward, but leaving behind a goodly assemblage which spends +the summer and gives abundant opportunity for study during the succeeding +months. In May it is the migrants which we should watch, and listen to, +and "ogle" with our opera glasses. Like many other evanescent things, +those birds which have made their winter home in Central America--land yet +beyond our travels--and which use our groves merely as half-way houses on +their journey to the land of their birth, the balsams of Quebec, or the +unknown wastes of Labrador, seem most precious, most worthy at this time +of our closest observation. + +More confusing--albeit the more delightful--is a season when continued +cold weather and chilly rains hold back all but the hardiest birds, +until--like the dammed-up piles of logs trembling with the spring +freshets--the tropic winds carry all before them, and all at once winter +birds which have sojourned only a few miles south of us, summer residents +which should have appeared weeks ago, together with the great host of +Canadian and other nesters of the north, appear within a few days' time. + +A backward season brings strangers into close company for a while. A +white-throat sings his clear song of the North, and a moment later is +answered by an oriole's melody, or the sweet tones of a rose-breasted +grosbeak--the latter one of those rarely favoured birds, exquisite in both +plumage and song. + +The glories of our May bird life are the wood warblers, and innumerable +they must seem to one who is just beginning his studies; indeed, there are +over seventy species that find their way into the United States. Many are +named from the distribution of colour upon their plumage--the blue-winged +yellow, the black-throated blue, chestnut-sided, bay-breasted, and black +poll. Perhaps the two most beautiful--most reflective of bright tropical +skies and flowers--are the magnolia and the blackburnian. The first fairly +dazzles us with its bluish crown, white and black face, black and +olive-green back, white marked wings and tail, yellow throat and rump, and +strongly streaked breast. The blackburnian is an exquisite little fellow, +marked with white and black, but with the crown, several patches on the +face, the throat and breast of a rich warm orange that glows amid the +green foliage like a living coal of fire. The black poll warbler is an +easy bird to identify; but do not expect to recognise it when it returns +from the North in the fall. Its black crown has disappeared, and in +general it looks like a different bird. + +At the present time when the dogwood blossoms are in their full +perfection, and the branches and twigs of the trees are not yet hidden, +but their outlines only softened by the light, feathery foliage, the +tanagers and orioles have their day. Nesting cares have not yet made them +fearful of showing their bright plumage, and scores of the scarlet and +orange forms play among the branches. + +The flycatchers and vireos now appear in force--little hunters of insects +clad in leafy greens and browns, with now and then a touch of +brightness--as in the yellow-throated vireo or in the crest of the +kingbird. + +The lesser sandpipers, both the spotted and the solitary, teeter along the +brooks and ponds, and probe the shallows for tiny worms. Near the woody +streams the so-called water thrushes spring up before us. Strange birds +these, in appearance like thrushes, in their haunts and in their teetering +motion like sandpipers, but in reality belonging to the same family as the +tree-loving wood warblers. A problem not yet solved by ornithologists is: +what was the mode of life of the ancestor of the many warblers? Did he +cling to and creep along the bark, as the black-and-white warbler, or feed +from the ground or the thicket as does the worm-eating? Did he snatch +flies on the wing as the necklaced Canadian warbler, or glean from the +brook's edge as our water thrush? The struggle for existence has not been +absent from the lives of these light-hearted little fellows, and they have +had to be jack-of-all-trades in their search for food. + +The gnats and other flying insects have indeed to take many chances when +they slip from their cocoons and dance up and down in the warm sunlight! +Lucky for their race that there are millions instead of thousands of them; +for now the swifts and great numbers of tree and barn swallows spend the +livelong day in swooping after the unfortunate gauzy-winged motes, which +have risen above the toad's maw upon land, and beyond the reach of the +trout's leap over the water. + +It would take an article as long as this simply to mention hardly more +than the names of the birds that we may observe during a walk in May; and +with bird book and glasses we must see for ourselves the bobolinks in the +broad meadows, the cowbirds and rusty blackbirds, and, pushing through the +lady-slipper marshes, we may surprise the solitary great blue and the +little green herons at their silent fishing. + +No matter how late the spring may be, the great migration host will reach +its height from the tenth to the fifteenth of the month. From this until +June first, migrants will be passing, but in fewer and fewer numbers, +until the balance comes to rest again, and we may cease from the strenuous +labours of the last few weeks, confident that those birds that remain will +be the builders of the nests near our homes--nests that they know so well +how to hide. Even before the last day of May passes, we see many young +birds on their first weak-winged flights, such as bluebirds and robins; +but June is the great month of bird homes, as to May belong the migrants. + + Robins and mocking birds that all day long + Athwart straight sunshine weave cross-threads of song. + Sidney Lanier. + + + + +ANIMAL FASHIONS + + +Warm spring days bring other changes than thawing snowbanks and the +swelling buds and leaves, which seem to grow almost visibly. It is +surprising how many of the wild folk meet the spring with changed +appearance--beautiful, fantastic or ugly to us; all, perhaps, beautiful to +them and to their mates. + +As a rule we find the conditions which exist among ourselves reversed +among the animals; the male "blossoms forth like the rose," while the +female's sombre winter fur or feathers are reduplicated only by a thinner +coat for summer. The "spring opening" of the great classes of birds and +animals is none the less interesting because its styles are not set by +Parisian modistes. + +The most gorgeous display of all is to be found among the birds, the +peacock leading in conspicuousness and self-consciousness. What a contrast +to the dull earthy-hued little hen, for whose slightest favour he neglects +food to raise his Argus-eyed fan, clattering his quill castanets and +screaming challenges to his rivals! He will even fight bloody battles with +invading suitors; and, after all, failure may be the result. Imagine the +feelings of two superb birds fighting over a winsome browny, to see +her--as I have done--walk off with a spurless, half-plumaged young cock! + +The males of many birds, such as the scarlet tanager and the indigo +bunting, assume during the winter the sombre green or brown hue of the +female, changing in spring to a glorious scarlet and black, or to an +exquisite indigo colour respectively. Not only do most of the females of +the feathered world retain their dull coats throughout the year, but some +deface even this to form feather beds for the precious eggs and nestlings, +to protect which bright colours must be entirely foregone. + +The spring is the time when decorations are seen at their best. The snowy +egret trails his filmy cloud of plumes, putting to shame the stiff +millinery bunches of similar feathers torn from his murdered brethren. +Even the awkward and querulous night heron exhibits a long curling plume +or two. And what a strange criterion of beauty a female white pelican must +have! To be sure, the graceful crest which Sir Pelican erects is +beautiful, but that huge, horny "keel" or "sight" on his bill! What use +can it subserve, aesthetic or otherwise? One would think that such a +structure growing so near his eyes, and day by day becoming taller, must +occupy much of his attention. + +The sheldrake ducks also have a fleshy growth on the bill. A turkey +gobbler, when his vernal wedding dress is complete, is indeed a remarkable +sight. The mass of wattles, usually so gray and shrunken, is now of most +vivid hues--scarlet, blue, vermilion, green,--the fleshy tassels and +swollen knobs making him a most extraordinary creature. + +Birds are noted for taking exquisite care of their plumage, and if the +feathers become at all dingy or unkempt, we know the bird is in bad +health. + +What a time the deer and the bears, the squirrels and the mice, have when +changing their dress! Rags and tatters; tatters and rags! One can grasp a +handful of hair on the flank of a caribou or elk in a zoological park, and +the whole will come out like thistledown; while underneath is seen the +sleek, short summer coat. A bear will sometimes carry a few locks of the +long, brown winter fur for months after the clean black hairs of the +summer's coat are grown. What a boon to human tailors such an opportunity +would be--to ordain that Mr. X. must wear the faded collar or vest of his +old suit until bills are paid! + +It is a poor substance, indeed, which, when cast aside, is not available +for some secondary use in Nature's realm; and the hairs that fall from +animals are not all left to return unused to their original elements. The +sharp eyes of birds spy them out, and thus the lining to many a nest is +furnished. I knew of one feathered seeker of cast-off clothing which met +disaster through trying to get a supply at first hand--a sparrow was found +dead, tangled in the hairs of a pony's tail. The chickadee often lights on +the backs of domestic cattle and plucks out hair with which to line some +snug cavity near by for his nest. Before the cattle came his ancestors +were undoubtedly in the habit of helping themselves from the deer's stock +of "ole clo's," as they have been observed getting their building material +from the deer in zoological parks. + +Of course the hair of deer and similar animals falls out with the motions +of the creatures, or is brushed out by bushes and twigs; but we must hope +that the shedding place of a porcupine is at a distance from his customary +haunts; it would be so uncomfortable to run across a shred of one's old +clothes--if one were a porcupine! + +The skin of birds and animals wears away in small flakes, but when a +reptile changes to a new suit of clothes, the old is shed almost entire. A +frog after shedding its skin will very often turn round and swallow it, +establishing the frog maxim "every frog his own old clothes bag!" + +Birds, which exhibit so many idiosyncrasies, appear again as utilizers of +old clothes; although when a crested flycatcher weaves a long +snake-skin into the fabric of its nest, it seems more from the standpoint +of a curio collector--as some people delight in old worn brass and blue +china! There is another if less artistic theory for this peculiarity of +the crested flycatcher. The skin of a snake--a perfect ghost in its +completeness--would make a splendid "bogie." We can see that it might, +indeed, be useful in such a way, as in frightening marauding crows, +who approach with cannibalistic intentions upon eggs or young. Thus +the skin would correspond in function to the rows of dummy wooden +guns, which make a weak fort appear all but invincible. + + + + +POLLIWOG PROBLEMS + + +The ancient Phoenicians, Egyptians, Hindus, Japanese, and Greeks all +shared the belief that the whole world was hatched from an egg made by the +Creator. This idea of development is at least true in the case of every +living thing upon the earth to-day; every plant springs from its seed, +every animal from its egg. And still another sweeping, all-inclusive +statement may be made,--every seed or egg at first consists of but one +cell, and by the division of this into many cells, the lichen, violet, +tree, worm, crab, butterfly, fish, frog, or other higher creature is +formed. A little embryology will give a new impetus to our studies, +whether we watch the unfolding leaves of a sunflower, a caterpillar +emerging from its egg, or a chick breaking through its shell. + +The very simplest and best way to begin this study is to go to the nearest +pond, where the frogs have been croaking in the evenings. A search among +the dead leaves and water-soaked sticks will reveal a long string of black +beads. These are the eggs of the toad; if, however, the beads are not in +strings, but in irregular masses, then they are frogs' eggs. In any case +take home a tumblerful, place a few, together with the thick, transparent +gelatine, in which they are encased, in a saucer, and examine them +carefully under a good magnifying glass, or, better still, through a +low-power microscope lens. + +You will notice that the tiny spheres are not uniformly coloured but that +half is whitish. If the eggs have been recently laid the surface will be +smooth and unmarked, but have patience and watch them for as long a time +as you can spare. Whenever I can get a batch of such eggs, I never grudge +a whole day spent in observing them, for it is seldom that the mysterious +processes of life are so readily watched and followed. + +Keep your eye fixed on the little black and white ball of jelly and before +long, gradually and yet with never a halt, a tiny furrow makes its way +across the surface, dividing the egg into equal halves. When it completely +encircles the sphere you may know that you have seen one of the greatest +wonders of the world. The egg which consisted of but one cell is now +divided into two exactly equal parts, of the deepest significance. Of the +latter truth we may judge from the fact that if one of those cells should +be injured, only one-half a polliwog would result,--either a head or a +tail half. + +Before long the unseen hand of life ploughs another furrow across the egg, +and we have now four cells. These divide into eight, sixteen, and so on +far beyond human powers of numeration, until the beginnings of all the +organs of the tadpole are formed. While we cannot, of course, follow this +development, we can look at our egg every day and at last see the little +_wiggle heads_ or polliwogs (from _pol_ and _wiggle_) emerge. + +In a few days they develop a fin around the tail, and from now on it is an +easy matter to watch the daily growth. There is no greater miracle in the +world than to see one of these aquatic, water-breathing, limbless +creatures transform before your eyes into a terrestrial, four-legged frog +or toad, breathing air like ourselves. The humble polliwog in its +development is significant of far more marvellous facts than the +caterpillar changing into the butterfly, embodying as it does the deepest +poetry and romance of evolution. + + Blue dusk, that brings the dewy hours, + Brings thee, of graceless form in sooth. + Edgar Fawcett. + + + + +INSECT PIRATES AND SUBMARINES + + +Far out on the ocean, when the vessel is laboriously making her way +through the troughs and over the crests of the great waves, little birds, +black save for a patch of white on the lower back, are a common sight, +flying with quick irregular wing-beats, close to the surface of the +troubled waters. When they spy some edible bit floating beneath them, down +they drop until their tiny webbed feet just rest upon the water. Then, +snatching up the titbit, half-flying, they patter along the surface of the +water, just missing being engulfed by each oncoming wave. Thus they have +come to be named petrels--little Peters--because they seem to walk upon +the water. Without aid from the wings, however, they would soon be +immersed, so the walking is only an illusion. + +But in our smallest ponds and brooks we may see this miracle taking place +almost daily, the feat being accomplished by a very interesting little +assemblage of insects, commonly called water skaters or striders. Let us +place our eyes as near as possible to the surface of the water and watch +the little creatures darting here and there. + +We see that they progress securely on the top of the water, resting upon +it as if it were a sheet of ice. Their feet are so adapted that the water +only dimples beneath their slight weight, the extent of the depression not +being visible to the eye, but clearly outlined in the shadows upon the +bottom. In an eddy of air a tiny fly is caught and whirled upon the water, +where it struggles vigorously, striving to lift its wings clear of the +surface. In an instant the water strider--pirate of the pond that he +is--reaches forward his crooked fore legs, and here endeth the career of +the unfortunate fly. + +In the air, in the earth, and below the surface of the water are hundreds +of living creatures, but the water striders and their near relatives are +unique. No other group shares their power of actually walking, or rather +pushing themselves, upon the surface of the water. They have a little +piece of the world all to themselves. Yet, although three fifths of the +earth's surface consists of water, this group of insects is a small one. A +very few, however, are found out upon the ocean, where the tiny creatures +row themselves cheerfully along. It is thought that they attach their eggs +to the floating saragassum seaweed. If only we knew the whole life of one +of these ocean water striders and all the strange sights it must see, a +fairy story indeed would be unfolded to us. + +However, all the Lilliputian craft of our brooks are not galleys; there +are submarines, which, in excellence of action and control, put to shame +all human efforts along the same line. These are the water boatmen, stout +boat-shaped insects whose hind legs are long, projecting outward like the +oars of a rowboat. They feather their oars, too, or rather the oars are +feathered for them, a fringe of long hairs growing out on each side of the +blade. Some of the boatmen swim upside down, and these have the back +keeled instead of the breast. Like real submarine boats, these insects +have to come up for air occasionally; and, again like similar craft of +human handiwork, their principal mission in life seems to be warfare upon +the weaker creatures about them. + +Upon their bodies are many short hairs that have the power of enclosing +and retaining a good-sized bubble of air. Thus the little boatman is well +supplied for each submarine trip, and he does not have to return to the +surface until all this storage air has been exhausted. In perfectly pure +water, however, these boatmen can remain almost indefinitely below the +surface, although it is not known how they obtain from the water the +oxygen which they usually take from the air. + +All of these skaters and boatmen thrive in small aquariums, and if given +pieces of scraped meat will live in perfect health. Here is an alluring +opportunity for anyone to add to our knowledge of insect life; for the +most recent scientific books admit that we do not yet know the complete +life history of even one of these little brothers of the pond. + + Clear and cool, clear and cool, + By laughing shallow, and dreaming pool; + Cool and clear, cool and clear, + By shining shingle, and foaming weir, + Charles Kingsley. + + + + +THE VICTORY OF THE NIGHTHAWK + + +The time is not far distant when the bottom of the sea will be the only +place where primeval wildness will not have been defiled or destroyed by +man. He may sail his ships above, he may peer downward, even dare to +descend a few feet in a suit of rubber or a submarine boat, or he may +scratch a tiny furrow for a few yards with a dredge: but that is all. + +When that time comes, the animals and birds which survive will be only +those which have found a way to adapt themselves to man's encroaching, +all-pervading civilisation. The time was when our far-distant ancestors +had, year in and year out, to fight for very existence against the wild +creatures about them. They then gained the upper hand, and from that time +to the present the only question has been, how long the wild creatures of +the earth could hold out. + +The wolf, the bison, the beaver fought the battle out at once to all but +the bitter end. The crow, the muskrat, the fox have more than held their +own, by reason of cunning, hiding or quickness of sight; but they cannot +hope for this to last. The English sparrow has won by sheer audacity; but +most to be admired are those creatures which have so changed their habits +that some product of man's invention serves them as well as did their +former wilderness home. The eave swallow and barn swallow and the chimney +swift all belie their names in the few wild haunts still uninvaded by man. +The first two were originally cliff and bank haunters, and the latter's +home was a lightning-hollowed tree. + +But the nighthawks which soar and boom above our city streets, whence come +they? Do they make daily pilgrimages from distant woods? The city +furnishes no forest floor on which they may lay their eggs. Let us seek a +wide expanse of flat roof, high above the noisy, crowded streets. Let it +be one of those tar and pebble affairs, so unpleasant to walk upon, but so +efficient in shedding water. If we are fortunate, as we walk slowly across +the roof, a something, like a brownish bit of wind-blown rubbish, will +roll and tumble ahead of us. It is a bird with a broken wing, we say. How +did it ever get up here? We hasten forward to pick it up, when, with a +last desperate flutter, it topples off the edge of the roof; but instead +of falling helplessly to the street, the bird swings out above the +house-tops, on the white-barred pinions of a nighthawk. Now mark the place +where first we observed the bird, and approach it carefully, crawling on +hands and knees. Otherwise we will very probably crush the two mottled +bits of shell, so exactly like pebbles in external appearance, but +sheltering two little warm, beating hearts. Soon the shells will crack, +and the young nighthawks will emerge,--tiny fluffs,--in colour the very +essence of the scattered pebbles. + +In the autumn they will all pass southward to the far distant tropics, and +when spring again awakens, the instinct of migration will lead them, not +to some mottled carpet of moss and rocks deep in the woods, but to the +tarred roof of a house in the very heart of a great city. + +------------------------------------------------------------------------ + +JUNE + +------------------------------------------------------------------------ + + + + +THE GALA DAYS OF BIRDS + + +Migration is over, and the great influx of birds which last month filled +every tree and bush is now distributed over field and wood, from our +dooryard and lintel vine to the furthermost limits of northern +exploration; birds, perhaps, having discovered the pole long years ago. +Now every feather and plume is at its brightest and full development; for +must not the fastidious females be sought and won? + +And now the great struggle of the year is at hand, the supreme moment for +which thousands of throats have been vibrating with whispered rehearsals +of trills and songs, and for which the dangers that threaten the +acquisition of bright colours and long, inconvenient plumes and ornaments +have been patiently undergone. Now, if all goes well and his song is +clear, if his crest and gorgeous splashes of tints and shades are fresh +and shining with the gloss of health, then the feathered lover may hope, +indeed, that the little brown mate may look with favour upon dance, song, +or antic--and the home is become a reality. In some instances this home is +for only one short season, when the two part, probably forever; but in +other cases the choice is for life. + +But if his rival is stronger, handsomer, and--victorious, what then? Alas, +the song dies in his throat, plumes hang crestfallen, and the disconsolate +creature must creep about through tangles and brush, watching from a +distance the nest-building, the delights of home life which fate has +forbidden. But the poor bachelor need not by any means lose hope; for on +all sides dangers threaten his happy rival--cats, snakes, jays, hawks, +owls, and boys. Hundreds of birds must pay for their victory with their +lives, and then the once discarded suitors are quickly summoned by the +widows; and these step-fathers, no whit chagrined at playing second +fiddle, fill up the ranks, and work for the young birds as if they were +their own offspring. + +There is an unsolved mystery about the tragedies and comedies that go on +every spring. Usually every female bird has several suitors, of which one +is accepted. When the death of this mate occurs, within a day or two +another is found; and this may be repeated a dozen times in succession. +Not only this, but when a female bird is killed, her mate is generally +able at once somewhere, somehow, to find another to take her place. Why +these unmated males and females remain single until they are needed is +something that has never been explained. + +The theme of the courtship of birds is marvellously varied and +comparatively little understood. Who would think that when our bald eagle, +of national fame, seeks to win his mate, his ardour takes the form of an +undignified galloping dance, round and round her from branch to branch! +Hardly less ridiculous--to our eyes--is the elaborate performance of our +most common woodpecker, the flicker, or high-hole. Two or three male birds +scrape and bow and pose and chatter about the demure female, outrageously +undignified as compared with their usual behaviour. They do everything +save twirl their black moustaches! + +In the mating season some birds have beauties which are ordinarily +concealed. Such is the male ruby-crowned kinglet, garbed in gray and +green, the two sexes identical, except for the scarlet touch on the crown +of the male, which, at courting time, he raises and expands. Even the iris +of some birds changes and brightens in colour at the breeding season; +while in others there appear about the base of the bill horny parts, which +in a month or two fall off. The scarlet coat of the tanager is perhaps +solely for attracting and holding the attention of the female, as before +winter every feather is shed, the new plumage being of a dull green, like +that of its mate and its young. + +As mystery confronts us everywhere in nature, so we confess ourselves +baffled when we attempt to explain the most wonderful of all the +attributes of bird courtship--song. Birds have notes to call to one +another, to warn of danger, to express anger and fear; but the highest +development of their vocal efforts seems to be devoted to charming the +females. If birds have a love of music, then there must be a marvellous +diversity of taste among them, ranging all the way from the shrieking, +strident screams of the parrots and macaws to the tender pathos of the +wood pewee and the hermit thrush. + +If birds have not some appreciation of sweet sounds, then we must consider +the many different songs as mere by-products, excess of vitality which +expresses itself in results, in many cases, strangely aesthetic and +harmonious. A view midway is indefinable as regards the boundaries covered +by each theory. How much of the peacock's train or of the thrush's song is +appreciated by the female? How much is by-product merely? + +In these directions a great field lies open to the student and lover of +birds; but however we decide for ourselves in regard to the exact meaning +and evolution of song, and what use it subserves among the birds, we all +admit the effect and pleasure it produces in ourselves. A world without +the song of birds is greatly lacking--such is a desert, where even the +harsh croak of a raven is melody. + +Perhaps the reason why the songs of birds give more lasting pleasure than +many other things is that sound is so wonderfully potent to recall days +and scenes of our past life. Like a sunset, the vision that a certain song +brings is different to each one of us. + +To me, the lament of the wood pewee brings to mind deep, moist places in +the Pennsylvania backwoods; the crescendo of the oven bird awakens +memories of the oaks of the Orange mountains; when a loon or an +olive-sided flycatcher or a white-throat calls, the lakes and forests of +Nova Scotia come vividly to mind; the cry of a sea-swallow makes real +again the white beaches of Virginia; to me a cardinal has in its song the +feathery lagoons of Florida's Indian River, while the shriek of a macaw +and its antithesis, the silvery, interlacing melodies of the solitaire, +spell the farthest _barrancas_ of Mexico, with the vultures ever circling +overhead, and the smoke clouds of the volcano in the distance. + + So sweet, so sweet the calling of the thrushes, + The calling, cooing, wooing, everywhere; + So sweet the water's song through reeds and rushes, + The plover's piping note, now here, now there. + Nora Perry. + + + + +TURTLE TRAITS + + +A turtle, waddling his solitary way along some watercourse, attracts +little attention apart from that aroused by his clumsy, grotesque shape; +yet few who look upon him are able to give offhand even a bare half-dozen +facts about the humble creature. Could they give any information at all, +it would probably be limited to two or three usages to which his body is +put--such as soup, mandolin picks, and combs. + +In the northeastern part of our own country we may look for no fewer than +eight species of turtles which are semi-aquatic, living in or near ponds +and streams, while another, the well-known box tortoise, confines its +travels to the uplands and woods. + +There are altogether about two hundred different kinds of turtles, and +they live in all except the very cold countries of the world. Australia +has the fewest and North and Central America the greatest number of +species. Evolutionists can tell us little or nothing of the origin of +these creatures, for as far back in geological ages as they are found +fossil (a matter of a little over ten million years), all are true +turtles, not half turtles and half something else. Crocodiles and +alligators, with their hard leathery coats, come as near to them as do any +living creatures, and when we see a huge snapping turtle come out of the +water and walk about on land, we cannot fail to be reminded of the fellow +with the armoured back. + +Turtles are found on the sea and on land, the marine forms more properly +deserving the name of turtles; tortoises being those living on land or in +fresh water. We shall use the name turtle as significant of the whole +group. The most natural method of classifying these creatures is by the +way the head and neck are drawn back under the shell; whether the head is +turned to one side, or drawn straight back, bending the neck into the +letter S shape. + +The skull of a turtle is massive, and some have thick, false roofs on top +of the usual brain box. + +The "house" or shell of a turtle is made up of separate pieces of bone, a +central row along the back and others arranged around on both sides. These +are really pieces of the skin of the back changed to bone. Our ribs are +directly under the skin of the back, and if this skin should harden into a +bone-like substance, the ribs would lie flat against it, and this is the +case with the ribs of turtles. So when we marvel that the ribs of a turtle +are on the outside of its body, a second thought will show us that this is +just as true of us as it is of these reptiles. + +This hardening of the skin has brought about some interesting changes in +the body of the turtle. In all the higher animals, from fishes up to man, +a backbone is of the greatest importance not only in carrying the nerves +and blood-vessels, but in supporting the entire body. In turtles alone, +the string of vertebrae is unnecessary, the shell giving all the support +needed. So, as Nature seldom allows unused tissues or organs to remain, +these bones along the back become, in many species, reduced to a mere +thread. + +The pieces of bone or horn which go to make up the shell, although so +different in appearance from the skin, yet have the same life-processes. +Occasionally the shell moults or peels, the outer part coming off in great +flakes. Each piece grows by the addition of rings of horn at the joints, +and (like the rings of a tree) the age of turtles, except of very old +ones, can be estimated by the number of circles of horn on each piece. The +rings are very distinct in species which live in temperate climates. Here +they are compelled to hibernate during the winter, and this cessation of +growth marks the intervals between each ring. In tropical turtles the +rings are either absent or indistinct. It is to this mode of growth that +the spreading of the initials which are cut into the shell is due, just as +letters carved on the trunks of trees in time broaden and bulge outward. + +The shell has the power of regeneration, and when a portion is crushed or +torn away the injured parts are gradually cast off, and from the +surrounding edges a new covering of horn grows out. One third of the +entire shell has been known to be thus replaced. + +Although so slow in their locomotion and actions, turtles have +well-developed senses. They can see very distinctly, and the power of +smell is especially acute, certain turtles being very discriminating in +the matter of food. They are also very sensitive to touch, and will react +to the least tap on their shells. Their hearing, however, is more +imperfect, but as during the mating season they have tiny, piping voices, +this sense must be of some use. + +Water tortoises can remain beneath the surface for hours and even days at +a time. In addition to the lungs there are two small sacs near the tail +which allow the animal to use the oxygen in the water as an aid to +breathing. + +All turtles lay eggs, the shells of which are white and generally of a +parchment-like character. They are deposited in the ground or in the sand, +and hatch either by the warmth of the decaying vegetation or by the heat +of the sun. In temperate countries the eggs remain through the winter, and +the little turtles do not emerge until the spring. The eggs of turtles are +very good to eat, and the oil contained in them is put to many uses. In +all the countries which they inhabit, young turtles have a hard time of +it; for thousands of them are devoured by storks, alligators, and fishes. +Even old turtles have many enemies, not the least strange being jaguars, +which watch for them, turn them on their backs with a flip of the paw, and +eat them at leisure--on the half shell, as it were! + +Leathery turtles--which live in the sea--have been reported weighing over +a thousand pounds! This species is very rare, and a curious circumstance +is that only very large adults and very small baby individuals have been +seen, the turtles of all intermediate growths keeping in the deep ocean +out of view. + +Snapping turtles are among the fiercest creatures in the world. On leaving +the egg their first instinct is to open their mouths and bite at +something. They feed on almost anything, but when, in captivity they +sometimes refuse to eat, and have been known to go a year without food, +showing no apparent ill effects. One method which they employ in capturing +their food is interesting. A snapping turtle will lie quietly at the +bottom of a pond or lake, looking like an old water-soaked log with a +branch--its head and neck--at one end. From the tip of the tongue the +creature extrudes two small filaments of a pinkish colour which wriggle +about, bearing a perfect resemblance to the small round worms of which +fishes are so fond. Attracted by these, fishes swim up to grasp the +squirming objects and are engulfed by the cruel mouth of the angler. +Certain marine turtles have long-fringed appendages on the head and neck, +which, waving about, serve a similar purpose. + +The edible terrapin has, in many places, become very rare; so that +thousands of them are kept and bred in enclosed areas, or "crawls," as +they are called. This species is noted for its curious disposition, and it +is often captured by being attracted by some unusual sound. + +The tortoise-shell of commerce is obtained from the shell of the hawksbill +turtle, the plates of which, being very thin, are heated and welded +together until of the required thickness. The age to which turtles live +has often been exaggerated, but they are certainly the longest lived of +all living creatures. Individuals from the Galapagos Island are estimated +to be over four hundred years old. When, in a zoological garden, we see +one of these creatures and study his aged, aged look, as he slowly and +deliberately munches the cabbage which composes his food, we can well +believe that such a being saw the light of day before Columbus made his +memorable voyage. + + He's his own landlord, his own tenant; stay + Long as he will, he dreads no Quarter Day. + Himself he boards and lodges; both invites + And feasts himself; sleeps with himself o'nights. + He spares the upholsterer trouble to procure + Chattels; himself is his own furniture, + Knock when you will,--he's sure to be at home. + Charles Lamb. + + + + +A HALF-HOUR IN A MARSH + + +There are little realms all around of which many of us know nothing. Take, +for example, some marsh within a half-hour's trolley ride of any of our +cities or towns. Select one where cat-tails and reeds abound. Mosquitoes +and fear of malaria keep these places free from invasion by humankind; but +if we select some windy day we may laugh them both to scorn, and we shall +be well repaid for our trip. The birds frequenting these places are so +seldom disturbed that they make only slight effort to conceal their nests, +and we shall find plenty of the beautiful bird cradles rocking with every +passing breeze. + +A windy day will also reveal an interesting feature of the marsh. The +soft, velvety grass, which abounds in such places, is so pliant and +yielding that it responds to every breath, and each approaching wave of +air is heralded by an advancing curl of the grass. At our feet these +grass-waves intersect and recede, giving a weird sensation, as if the +ground were moving, or as if we were walking on the water itself. Where +the grass is longer, the record of some furious gale is permanently +fixed--swaths and ripples seeming to roll onward, or to break into green +foam. The simile of a "painted ocean" is perfectly carried out. There is +no other substance, not even sand, which simulates more exactly the +motions of water than this grass. + +In the nearest clump of reeds we notice several red-winged blackbirds, +chattering nervously. A magnificent male bird, black as night, and with +scarlet epaulets burning on his shoulders, swoops at us, while his +inconspicuous brownish consorts vibrate above the reeds, some with grubs, +some empty mouthed. They are invariable indexes of what is below them. We +may say with perfect assurance that in that patch of rushes are two nests, +one with young; beyond are three others, all with eggs. + +We find beautiful structures, firm and round, woven of coarse grasses +inside and dried reeds without, hung between two or three supporting +stalks, or, if it is a fresh-water marsh, sheltered by long, green fern +fronds. The eggs are worthy of their cradles--pearly white in colour, with +scrawls and blotches of dark purple at the larger end--hieroglyphics which +only the blackbirds can translate. + +In another nest we find newly hatched young, looking like large +strawberries, their little naked bodies of a vivid orange colour, with +scanty gray tufts of down here and there. Not far away is a nest, +overflowing with five young birds ready to fly, which scramble out at our +approach and start boldly off; but as their weak wings give out, they soon +come to grief. We catch one and find that it has most delicate colours, +resembling its mother in being striped brown and black, although its +breast and under parts are of an unusually beautiful tint--a kind of +salmon pink. I never saw this shade elsewhere in Nature. + +Blackbirds are social creatures, and where we find one nest, four or five +others may be looked for near by. The red-winged blackbird is a mormon in +very fact, and often a solitary male bird may be seen guarding a colony of +three or four nests, each with an attending female. A sentiment of +altruism seems indeed not unknown, as I have seen a female give a grub to +one of a hungry nestful, before passing on to brood her own eggs, yet +unhatched. + +While looking for the blackbirds' nests we shall come across numerous +round, or oval, masses of dried weeds and grass--mice homes we may think +them; and the small, winding entrance concealed on one side tends to +confirm this opinion. Several will be empty, but when in one our fingers +touch six or eight tiny eggs, our mistake will be apparent. Long-billed +marsh wrens are the architects, and so fond are they of building that +frequently three or four unused nests are constructed before the little +chocolate jewels are deposited. + +If we sit quietly for a few moments, one of the owners, overcome by wren +curiosity, will appear, clinging to a reed stalk and twitching his pert, +upturned tail, the badge of his family. Soon he springs up into the air +and, bubbling a jumble of liquid notes, sinks back into the recesses of +the cat-tails. Another and another repeat this until the marsh rings with +their little melodies. + +If we seat ourselves and watch quietly we may possibly behold an episode +that is not unusual. The joyous songs of the little wrens suddenly give +place to cries of fear and anger; and this hubbub increases until at last +we see a sinister ripple flowing through the reeds, marking the advancing +head of a water snake. + +The evil eyes of the serpent are bent upon the nearest nest, and toward it +he makes his way, followed and beset by all the wrens in the vicinity. +Slowly the scaly creature pushes himself up on the reeds; and as they bend +under his weight he makes his way the more easily along them to the nest. +His head is pushed in at the entrance, but an instant later the snake +twines downward to the water. The nest was empty. Again he seeks an +adjoining nest, and again is disappointed; and now, a small fish +attracting his attention, he goes off in swift pursuit, leaving untouched +the third nest in sight, that containing the precious eggs. Thus the +apparently useless industry of the tiny wrens has served an invaluable +end, and the tremulous chorus is again timidly taken up--little hymns of +thanksgiving we may imagine them now. + +These and many others are sights which a half-hour's tramp, without even +wetting our shoes, may show us. Before we leave, hints of more deeply +hidden secrets of the marsh may perhaps come to us. A swamp sparrow may +show by its actions that its nest is not far away; from the depths of a +ditch jungle the clatter of some rail comes faintly to our ears, and the +distant croak of a night heron reaches us from its feeding-grounds, +guarded by the deeper waters. + + And what if behind me to westward the wall of the woods stands high? + The world lies east: how ample, the marsh and the sea and the sky! + A league and a league of marsh-grass, waist-high, broad in the blade. + + Oh, what is abroad in the marsh and terminal sea? + Somehow my soul seems suddenly free + From the weighing of fate and the sad discussion of sin. + Sidney Lanier. + + + + +SECRETS OF THE OCEAN + + +We are often held spellbound by the majesty of mountains, and indeed a +lofty peak forever capped with snow, or pouring forth smoke and ashes, is +impressive beyond all terrestrial things. But the ocean yields to nothing +in its grandeur, in its age, in its ceaseless movement, and the question +remains forever unanswered, "Who shall sound the mysteries of the sea?" +Before the most ancient of mountains rose from the heart of the earth, the +waves of the sea rolled as now, and though the edges of the continents +shrink and expand, bend into bays or stretch out into capes, always +through all the ages the sea follows and laps with ripples or booms with +breakers unceasingly upon the shore. + +Whether considered from the standpoint of the scientist, the mere +curiosity of the tourist, or the keen delight of the enthusiastic lover of +Nature, the shore of the sea--its sands and waters, its ever-changing +skies and moods--is one of the most interesting spots in the world. The +very bottom of the deep bays near shore--dark and eternally silent, +prisoned under the restless waste of waters--is thickly carpeted with +strange and many-coloured forms of animal and vegetable life. But the +beaches and tide-pools over which the moon-urged tides hold sway in their +ceaseless rise and fall, teem with marvels of Nature's handiwork, and +every day are restocked and replanted with new living objects, both arctic +and tropical offerings of each heaving tidal pulse. + +Here on the northeastern shores of our continent one may spend days of +leisure or delightful study among the abundant and ever changing variety +of wonderful living creatures. It is not unlikely that the enjoyment and +absolute novelty of this new world may enable one to look on these as some +of the most pleasant days of life. I write from the edge of the restless +waters of Fundy, but any rock-strewn shore will duplicate the marvels. + +At high tide the surface of the Bay is unbroken by rock or shoal, and +stretches glittering in the sunlight from the beach at one's feet to where +the New Brunswick shore is just visible, appearing like a low bluish cloud +on the horizon. At times the opposite shore is apparently brought nearer +and made more distinct by a mirage, which inverts it, together with any +ships which are in sight. A brig may be seen sailing along keel upward, in +the most matter-of-fact way. The surface may anon be torn by those fearful +squalls for which Fundy is noted, or, calm as a mirror, reflect the blue +sky with an added greenish tinge, troubled only by the gentle alighting of +a gull, the splash of a kingfisher or occasional osprey, as these dive for +their prey, or the ruffling which shows where a school of mackerel is +passing. This latter sign always sends the little sailing dories hurrying +out, where they beat back and forth, like shuttles travelling across a +loom, and at each turn a silvery struggling form is dragged into the +boat. + +A little distance along the shore the sandy beach ends and is replaced by +huge bare boulders, scattered and piled in the utmost confusion. Back of +these are scraggly spruces, with branches which have been so long blown +landwards that they have bent and grown altogether on that +side,--permanent weather-vanes of Fundy's storms. The very soil in which +they began life was blown away, and their gnarled weather-worn roots hug +the rocks, clutching every crevice as a drowning man would grasp an oar. +On the side away from the bay two or three long, thick roots stretch far +from each tree to the nearest earth-filled gully, sucking what scanty +nourishment they can, for strength to withstand the winter's gales yet +another year or decade. Beach-pea and sweet marsh lavender tint the sand, +and stunted fringed orchids gleam in the coarse grass farther inland. High +up among the rocks, where there is scarcely a handful of soil, delicate +harebells sway and defy the blasts, enduring because of their very pliancy +and weakness. + +If we watch awhile we will see a line of blackish seaweed and wet sand +appearing along the edge of the water, showing that the tide has turned +and begun to recede. In an hour it has ebbed a considerable distance, and +if we clamber down over the great weather-worn rocks the hardy advance +guard of that wonderful world of life under the water is seen. Barnacles +whiten the top of every rock which is reached by the tide, although the +water may cover them only a short time each day. But they flourish here in +myriads, and the shorter the chance they have at the salt water the more +frantically their little feathery feet clutch at the tiny food particles +which float around them. These thousands of tiny turreted castles are +built so closely together that many are pressed out of shape, paralleling +in shape as in substance the inorganic crystals of the mineral kingdom. +The valved doors are continually opening and partly closing, and if we +listen quietly we can hear a perpetual shuss! shuss! Is it the creaking of +the tiny hinges? As the last receding wave splashes them, they shut their +folding doors over a drop or two and remain tightly closed, while perhaps +ten hours of sunlight bake them, or they glisten in the moonlight for the +same length of time, ready at the first touch of the returning water to +open wide and welcome it. + +The thought of their life history brings to mind how sadly they retrogress +as they grow, hatching as minute free-swimming creatures like tiny +lobsters, and gradually changing to this plant-like life, _sans_ eyes, +_sans_ head, _sans_ most everything except a stomach and a few pairs of +feathery feet to kick food into it. A few pitiful traces of nerves are +left them. What if there were enough ganglia to enable them to dream of +their past higher life, in the long intervals of patient waiting! + +A little lower down we come to the zone of mussels,--hanging in clusters +like some strange sea-fruit. Each is attached by strands of thin silky +cables, so tough that they often defy our utmost efforts to tear a +specimen away. How secure these creatures seem, how safe from all harm, +and yet they have enemies which make havoc among them. At high tide fishes +come and crunch them, shells and all, and multitudes of carnivorous snails +are waiting to set their file-like tongues at work, which mercilessly +drill through the lime shells, bringing death in a more subtle but no less +certain form. Storms may tear away the support of these poor mollusks, and +the waves dash them far out of the reach of the tides, while at low water, +crows and gulls use all their ingenuity to get at their toothsome flesh. + +There are no ant-hills in the sea, but when we turn over a large stone and +see scores upon scores of small black shrimps scurrying around, the +resemblance to those insects is striking. These little creatures quickly +hitch away on their sides, getting out of sight in a remarkably short +time. + +The tide is going down rapidly, and following it step by step novel sights +meet the eye at every turn, and we begin to realise that in this narrow +strip, claimed alternately by sea and land, which would be represented on +a map by the finest of hair-lines, there exists a complete world of +animated life, comparing in variety and numbers with the life in that +thinner medium, air. We climb over enormous boulders, so different in +appearance that they would never be thought to consist of the same +material as those higher up on the shore. These are masses of wave-worn +rock, twenty or thirty feet across, piled in every imaginable position, +and completely covered with a thick padding of seaweed. Their drapery of +algae hangs in festoons, and if we draw aside these submarine curtains, +scenes from a veritable fairyland are disclosed. Deep pools of water, +clear as crystal and icy cold, contain creatures both hideous and +beautiful, sombre and iridescent, formless and of exquisite shape. + +The sea-anemones first attract attention, showing as splashes of scarlet +and salmon among the olive-green seaweed, or in hundreds covering the +entire bottom of a pool with a delicately hued mist of waving tentacles. +As the water leaves these exposed on the walls of the caves, they lose +their plump appearance and, drawing in their wreath of tentacles, hang +limp and shrivelled, resembling pieces of water-soaked meat as much as +anything. Submerged in the icy water they are veritable animal-flowers. +Their beauty is indeed well guarded, hidden by the overhanging seaweed in +these caves twenty-five feet or more below high-water mark. + +Here in these beautiful caverns we may make aquariums, and transplant as +many animal-flowers as we wish. Wherever we place them their fleshy, +snail-like foot spreads out, takes tight hold, and the creature lives +content, patiently waiting for the Providence of the sea to send food to +its many wide-spread fingers. + +Carpeted with pink algae and dainty sponges, draped with sea-lettuce like +green tissue paper, decorated with strange corallines, these natural +aquariums far surpass any of artificial make. Although the tide drives us +from them sooner or later, we may return with the sure prospect of finding +them refreshed and perhaps replenished with many new forms. For often some +of the deep-water creatures are held prisoners in the lower tide-pools, as +the water settles, somewhat as when the glaciers receded northward after +the Ice Age there were left on isolated mountain peaks traces of the +boreal fauna and flora. + +If we are interested enough to watch our anemones we will find much +entertainment. Let us return to our shrimp colonies and bring a handful to +our pool. Drop one in the centre of an anemone and see how quickly it +contracts. The tentacles bend over it exactly as the sticky hairs of the +sun-dew plant close over a fly. The shrimp struggles for a moment and is +then drawn downward out of sight. The birth of an anemone is well worth +patient watching, and this may take place in several different ways. We +may see a large individual with a number of tiny bunches on the sides of +the body, and if we keep this one in a tumbler, before long these +protuberances will be seen to develop a few tentacles and at last break +off as perfect miniature anemones. Or again, an anemone may draw in its +tentacles without apparent cause, and after a few minutes expand more +widely than ever. Suddenly a movement of the mouth is seen, and it opens, +and one, two, or even a half-dozen tiny anemones shoot forth. They turn +and roll in the little spurt of water and gradually settle to the rock +alongside of the mother. In a short time they turn right side up, expand +their absurd little heads, and begin life for themselves. These animal +"buds" may be of all sizes; some minute ones will be much less developed +and look very unlike the parent. These are able to swim about for a while, +and myriads of them may be born in an hour. Others, as we have seen, have +tentacles and settle down at once. + +Fishes, little and big, are abundant in the pools, darting here and there +among the leathery fronds of "devils' aprons," cavernous-mouthed angler +fish, roly-poly young lump-suckers, lithe butterfish, and many others. + +Moving slowly through the pools are many beautiful creatures, some so +evanescent that they are only discoverable by the faint shadows which they +cast on the bottom, others suggest animated spheres of prismatic sunlight. +These latter are tiny jelly-fish, circular hyaline masses of jelly with +eight longitudinal bands, composed of many comb-like plates, along which +iridescent waves of light continually play. The graceful appearance of +these exquisite creatures is increased by two long, fringed tentacles +streaming behind, drifting at full length or contracting into numerous +coils. The fringe on these streamers is a series of living hairs--an +aquatic cobweb, each active with life, and doing its share in ensnaring +minute atoms of food for its owner. When dozens of these _ctenophores_ (or +comb-bearers) as they are called, glide slowly to and fro through a pool, +the sight is not soon forgotten. To try to photograph them is like +attempting to portray the substance of a sunbeam, but patience works +wonders, and even a slightly magnified image of a living jelly is secured, +which shows very distinctly all the details of its wonderfully simple +structure; the pouch, suspended in the centre of the sphere, which does +duty as a stomach; the sheaths into which the long tentacles may be so +magically packed, and the tiny organ at the top of this living ball of +spun glass, serving, with its minute weights and springs, as compass, +rudder, and pilot to this little creature, which does not fear to pit its +muscles of jelly against the rush and might of breaking waves. + +Even the individual comb-plates or rows of oars are plainly seen, +although, owing to their rapid motion, they appear to the naked eye as a +single band of scintillating light. This and other magnified photographs +were obtained by fastening the lens of a discarded bicycle lantern in a +cone of paper blackened on the inside with shoe-blacking. With this crude +apparatus placed in front of the lens of the camera, the evanescent +beauties of these most delicate creatures were preserved. + +Other equally beautiful forms of jelly-fish are balloon-shaped. These are +_Beroe_, fitly named after the daughter of the old god Oceanus. They, like +others of their family, pulsate through the water, sweeping gracefully +along, borne on currents of their own making. + +Passing to other inhabitants of the pools, we find starfish and +sea-urchins everywhere abundant. Hunched-up groups of the former show +where they are dining in their unique way on unfortunate sea-snails or +anemones, protruding their whole stomach and thus engulfing their victim. +The urchins strain and stretch with their innumerable sucker-feet, feeling +for something to grasp, and in this laborious way pull themselves along. +The mouth, with the five so-called teeth, is a conspicuous feature, +visible at the centre of the urchin and surrounded by the greenish spines. +Some of the starfish are covered with long spines, others are nearly +smooth. The colours are wonderfully varied,--red, purple, orange, yellow, +etc. + +The stages through which these prickly skinned animals pass, before they +reach the adult state, are wonderfully curious, and only when they are +seen under the microscope can they be fully appreciated. A bolting-cloth +net drawn through some of the pools will yield thousands in many stages, +and we can take eggs of the common starfish and watch their growth in +tumblers of water. At first the egg seems nothing but a tiny round globule +of jelly, but soon a dent or depression appears on one side, which becomes +deeper and deeper until it extends to the centre of the egg-mass. It is as +if we should take a round ball of putty and gradually press our finger +into it. This pressed-in sac is a kind of primitive stomach and the +entrance is used as a mouth. After this follows a marvellous succession of +changes, form giving place to form, differing more in appearance and +structure from the five-armed starfish than a caterpillar differs from a +butterfly. + +For example, when about eight days old, another mouth has formed and two +series of delicate cilia or swimming hairs wind around the creature, by +means of which it glides slowly through the water. The photographs of a +starfish of this age show the stomach with its contents, a dark rounded +mass near the lower portion of the organism. The vibrating bands which +outline the tiny animal are also visible. The delicacy of structure and +difficulty of preserving these young starfish alive make these pictures of +particular value, especially as they were taken of the living forms +swimming in their natural element. Each day and almost each hour adds to +the complexity of the little animal, lung tentacles grow out and many +other larval stages are passed through before the starfish shape is +discernible within this curious "nurse" or living, changing egg. Then the +entire mass, so elaborately evolved through so long a time, is absorbed +and the little baby star sinks to the bottom to start on its new life, +crawling around and over whatever happens in its path and feeding to +repletion on succulent oysters. It can laugh at the rage of the oysterman, +who angrily tears it in pieces, for "time heals all wounds" literally in +the case of these creatures, and even if the five arms are torn apart, +five starfish, small of arm but with healthy stomachs, will soon be +foraging on the oyster bed. + +But to return to our tide-pools. In the skimming net with the young +starfish many other creatures are found, some so delicate and fragile that +they disintegrate before microscope and camera can be placed in position. +I lie at full length on a soft couch of seaweed with my face close to a +tiny pool no larger than my hand. A few armadillo shells and limpets crawl +on the bottom, but a frequent troubling of the water baffles me. I make +sure my breath has nothing to do with it, but still it continues. At last +a beam of sunshine lights up the pool, and as if a film had rolled from my +eyes I see the cause of the disturbance. A sea-worm--or a ghost of one--is +swimming about. Its large, brilliant eyes, long tentacles, and innumerable +waving appendages are now as distinct as before they had been invisible. A +trifling change in my position and all vanishes as if by magic. There +seems not an organ, not a single part of the creature, which is not as +transparent as the water itself. The fine streamers into which the paddles +and gills are divided are too delicate to have existence in any but a +water creature, and the least attempt to lift the animal from its element +would only tear and dismember it, so I leave it in the pool to await the +return of the tide. + +Shrimps and prawns of many shapes and colours inhabit every pool. One +small species, abundant on the algae, combines the colour changes of a +chameleon with the form and manner of travel of a measuring-worm, looping +along the fronds of seaweed or swimming with the same motion. Another +variety of shrimp resembles the common wood-louse found under pieces of +bark, but is most beautifully iridescent, glowing like an opal at the +bottom of the pool. The curious little sea-spiders keep me guessing for a +long time where their internal organs can be, as they consist of legs with +merely enough body to connect these firmly together. The fact that the +thread-like stomach and other organs send a branch into each of the eight +legs explains the mystery and shows how far economy of space may go. Their +skeleton-forms, having the appearance of eight straggling filaments of +seaweed, are thus, doubtless, a great protection to these creatures from +their many enemies. Other hobgoblin forms with huge probosces crawl slowly +over the floors of the anemone caves, or crouch as the shadow of my hand +or net falls upon them. + +The larger gorgeously coloured and graceful sea-worms contribute not a +small share to the beauty of Fundy tide-pools, swimming in iridescent +waves through the water or waving their Medusa-head of crimson tentacles +at the bottom among the sea-lettuce. These worms form tubes of mud for +themselves, and the rows of hooks on each side of the body enable them to +climb up and down in their dismal homes. + +Much of the seaweed from deeper bottoms seems to be covered with a dense +fur, which under a hand lens resolves into beautiful hydroids,--near +relatives of the anemones and corals. Scientists have happily given these +most euphonious names--_Campanularia_, _Obelia_, and _Plumularia_. Among +the branches of certain of these, numbers of round discs or spheres are +visible. These are young medusae or jelly-fish, which grow like bunches of +currants, and later will break off and swim around at pleasure in the +water. Occasionally one is fortunate enough to discover these small +jellies in a pool where they can be photographed as they pulsate back and +forth. When these attain their full size they lay eggs which sink to the +bottom and grow up into the plant-like hydroids. So each generation of +these interesting creatures is entirely unlike that which immediately +precedes or follows it. In other words, a hydroid is exactly like its +grandmother and granddaughter, but as different from its parents and +children in appearance as a plant is from an animal. Even in a fairy-story +book this would be wonderful, but here it is taking place under our very +eyes, as are scores of other transformations and "miracles in miniature" +in this marvellous underworld. + +Now let us deliberately pass by all the attractions of the middle zone of +tide-pools and on as far as the lowest level of the water will admit. We +are far out from the shore and many feet below the level of the +barnacle-covered boulders over which we first clambered. Now we may indeed +be prepared for strange sights, for we are on the very borderland of the +vast unknown. The abyss in front of us is like planetary space, unknown to +the feet of man. While we know the latter by scant glimpses through our +telescopes, the former has only been scratched by the hauls of the dredge, +the mark of whose iron shoe is like the tiny track of a snail on the leaf +mould of a vast forest. + +The first plunge beneath the icy waters of Fundy is likely to remain long +in one's memory, and one's first dive of short duration, but the glimpse +which is had and the hastily snatched handfuls of specimens of the +beauties which no tide ever uncovers is potent to make one forget his +shivering and again and again seek to penetrate as far as a good-sized +stone and a lungful of air will carry him. Strange sensations are +experienced in these aquatic scrambles. It takes a long time to get used +to pulling oneself _downward_, or propping your knees against the _under_ +crevices of rocks. To all intents and purposes, the law of gravitation is +partly suspended, and when stone and wooden wedge accidentally slip from +one's hand and disappear in _opposite_ directions, it is confusing, to say +the least. + +When working in one spot for some time the fishes seem to become used to +one, and approach quite closely. Slick-looking pollock, bloated lump-fish, +and occasionally a sombre dog-fish rolls by, giving one a start, as the +memory of pictures of battles between divers and sharks of tropical waters +comes to mind. One's mental impressions made thus are somewhat +disconnected. With the blood buzzing in the ears, it is only possible to +snatch general glimpses and superficial details. Then at the surface, +notes can be made, and specimens which have been overlooked, felt for +during the next trip beneath the surface. Fronds of laminaria yards in +length, like sheets of rubber, offer convenient holds, and at their roots +many curious creatures make their home. Serpent starfish, agile as insects +and very brittle, are abundant, and new forms of worms, like great +slugs,--their backs covered with gills in the form of tufted branches. + +In these outer, eternally submerged regions are starfish of still other +shapes, some with a dozen or more arms. I took one with thirteen rays and +placed it temporarily in a pool aquarium with some large anemones. On +returning in an hour or two I found the starfish trying to make a meal of +the largest anemone. Hundreds of dart-covered strings had been pushed out +by the latter in defence, but they seemed to cause the starfish no +inconvenience whatever. + +In my submarine glimpses I saw spaces free from seaweed on which hundreds +of tall polyps were growing, some singly, others in small tufts. The +solitary individuals rise three or four inches by a nearly straight stalk, +surmounted by a many-tentacled head. This droops gracefully to one side +and the general effect is that of a bed of rose-coloured flowers. From the +heads hang grape-like masses, which on examination in a tumbler are seen +to be immature medusae. Each of these develop to the point where the four +radiating canals are discernible and then their growth comes to a +standstill, and they never attain the freedom for which their structure +fits them. + +When the wind blew inshore, I would often find the water fairly alive with +large sun-jellies or _Aurelia_,--their Latin name. Their great milky-white +bodies would come heaving along and bump against me, giving a very +"crawly" sensation. The circle of short tentacles and the four +horse-shoe-shaped ovaries distinguish this jelly-fish from all others. +When I had gone down as far as I dared, I would sometimes catch glimpses +of these strange beings far below me, passing and repassing in the silence +and icy coldness of the watery depths. These large medusae are often very +abundant after a favourable wind has blown for a few days, and I have +rowed through masses of them so thick that it seemed like rowing through +thick jelly, two or three feet deep. In an area the length of the boat and +about a yard wide, I have counted over one hundred and fifty _Aurelias_ on +the surface alone. + +When one of these "sunfish," as the fishermen call them, is lifted from +the water, the clay-coloured eggs may be seen to stream from it in +myriads. In many jellies, small bodies the size of a pea are visible in +the interior of the mass, and when extracted they prove to be a species of +small shrimp. These are well adapted for their quasi-parasitic life, in +colour being throughout of the same milky semi-opaqueness as their host, +but one very curious thing about them is, that when taken out and placed +in some water in a vial or tumbler they begin to turn darker almost +immediately, and in five minutes all will be of various shades, from red +to a dark brown. + +I had no fear of _Aurelia_, but when another free-swimming species of +jelly-fish, _Cyanea_, or the blue-jelly, appeared, I swam ashore with all +speed. This great jelly is usually more of a reddish liver-colour than a +purple, and is much to be dreaded. Its tentacles are of enormous length. I +have seen specimens which measured two feet across the disc, with +streamers fully forty feet long, and one has been recorded seven feet +across and no less than one hundred and twelve feet to the tip of the +cruel tentacles! These trail behind in eight bunches and form a living, +tangled labyrinth as deadly as the hair of the fabled Medusa--whose name +indeed has been so appropriately applied to this division of animals. The +touch of each tentacle to the skin is like a lash of nettle, and there +would be little hope for a diver whose path crossed such a fiery tangle. +The untold myriads of little darts which are shot out secrete a poison +which is terribly irritating. + +On the crevice bottoms a sight now and then meets my eyes which brings the +"devil-fish" of Victor Hugo's romance vividly to mind,--a misshapen squid +making its way snakily over the shells and seaweed. Its large eyes gaze +fixedly around and the arms reach alternately forward, the sucking cups +lined with their cruel teeth closing over the inequalities of the bottom. +The creature may suddenly change its mode of progression and shoot like an +arrow, backward and upward. If we watch one in its passage over areas of +seaweed and sand, a wonderful adaptation becomes apparent. Its colour +changes continually; when near sand it is of a sombre brown hue, then +blushes of colour pass over it and the tint changes, corresponding to the +seaweed or patches of pink sponge over which it swims. The way in which +this is accomplished is very ingenious and loses nothing by examination. +Beneath the skin are numerous cells filled with liquid pigment. When at +rest these contract until they are almost invisible, appearing as very +small specks or dots on the surface of the body. When the animal wishes to +change its hue, certain muscles which radiate from these colour cells are +shortened, drawing the cells out in all directions until they seem +confluent. It is as if the freckles on a person's face should be all +joined together, when an ordinary tan would result. + +From bottoms ten to twenty fathoms below the surface, deeper than mortal +eye can probably ever hope to reach, the dredge brings up all manner of +curious things; basket starfish, with arms divided and subdivided into +many tendrils, on the tips of which it walks, the remaining part +converging upward like the trellis of a vine-covered summer house. Sponges +of many hues must fairly carpet large areas of the deep water, as the +dredge is often loaded with them. The small shore-loving ones which I +photographed are in perfect health, but the camera cannot show the many +tiny currents of water pouring in food and oxygen at the smaller openings, +and returning in larger streams from the tall funnels on the surface of +the sponge, which a pinch of carmine dust reveals so beautifully. From the +deeper aquatic gardens come up great orange and yellow sponges, two and +three feet in length, and around the bases of these the weird serpent +stars are clinging, while crabs scurry away as the mass reaches the +surface of the water. + +Treasures from depths of forty and even fifty fathoms can be obtained when +a trip is taken with the trawl-men. One can sit fascinated for hours, +watching the hundreds of yards of line reel in, with some interesting +creature on each of the thirty-seven hundred odd hooks. At times a glance +down into the clear water will show a score of fish in sight at once, +hake, haddock, cod, halibut, dog-fish, and perhaps an immense "barndoor" +skate, a yard or more square. This latter hold back with frantic flaps of +its great "wings," and tax all the strength of the sturdy Acadian +fishermen to pull it to the gunwale. + +Now and then a huge "meat-rock," the fishermen's apt name for an anemone, +comes up, impaled on a hook, and still clinging to a stone of five to ten +pounds weight. These gigantic scarlet ones from full fifty fathoms far +surpass any near shore. Occasionally the head alone of a large fish will +appear, with the entire body bitten clean off, a hint of the monsters +which must haunt the lower depths. The pressure of the air must be +excessive, for many of the fishes have their swimming bladders fairly +forced out of their mouths by the lessening of atmospheric pressure as +they are drawn to the surface. When a basket starfish finds one of the +baits in that sunless void far beneath our boat, he hugs it so tenaciously +that the upward jerks of the reel only make him hold the more tightly. + +Once in a great while the fishermen find what they call a "knob-fish" on +one of their hooks, and I never knew what they meant until one day a small +colony of five was brought ashore. _Boltenia_, the scientists call them, +tall, queer-shaped things; a stalk six to eight inches in length, with a +knob or oblong bulb-like body at the summit, looking exactly like the +flower of a lady-slipper orchid and as delicately coloured. This is a +member of that curious family of Ascidians, which forever trembles in the +balance between the higher backboned animals and the lower division, where +are classified the humbler insects, crabs, and snails. The young of +_Boltenia_ promises everything in its tiny backbone or notochord, but it +all ends in promise, for that shadow of a great ambition withers away, and +the creature is doomed to a lowly and vegetative life. If we soften the +hard scientific facts which tell us of these dumb, blind creatures, with +the humane mellowing thought of the oneness of all life, we will find much +that is pathetic and affecting in their humble biographies from our point +of view. And yet these cases of degeneration are far from anything like +actual misfortunes, or mishaps of nature, as Buffon was so fond of +thinking. These creatures have found their adult mode of life more free +from competition than any other, and hence their adoption of it. It is +only another instance of exquisite adaptation to an unfilled niche in the +life of the world. + +Yet another phase of enjoying the life of these northern waters; the one +which comes after all the work and play of collecting is over for the day, +after the last specimen is given a fresh supply of water for the night, +and the final note in our journal is written. Then, as dusk falls, we make +our way to the beach, ship our rudder and oars and push slowly along +shore, or drift quietly with the tide. The stars may come out in clear +splendour and the visual symphony of the northern lights play over the +dark vault above us, or all may be obscured in lowering, leaden clouds. +But the lights of the sea are never obscured--they always shine with a +splendour which keeps one entranced for hours. + +At night the ripples and foam of the Fundy shores seem transformed to +molten silver and gold, and after each receding wave the emerald seaweed +is left dripping with millions of sparkling lights, shining with a living +lustre which would pale the brightest gem. Each of these countless sparks +is a tiny animal, as perfect in its substance and as well adapted to its +cycle of life as the highest created being. The wonderful way in which +this phosphorescence permeates everything--the jelly-fish seeming elfish +fireworks as they throb through the water with rhythmic beats--the fish +brilliantly lighted up and plainly visible as they dart about far beneath +the surface--makes such a night on the Bay of Fundy an experience to be +always remembered. + + Like the tints on a crescent sea beach + When the moon is new and thin, + Into our hearts high yearnings + Come welling and surging in-- + Come, from the mystic ocean, + Whose rim no foot has trod-- + Some of us call it longing, + And others call it God. + W. H. Carruth. + +------------------------------------------------------------------------ + +JULY + +------------------------------------------------------------------------ + + + + +BIRDS IN A CITY + + +We frequently hear people say that if only they lived in the country they +would take up the study of birds with great interest, but that a city life +prevented any nature study. To show how untrue this is, I once made a +census of wild birds which were nesting in the New York Zoological Park, +which is situated within the limits of New York City. Part of the Park is +wooded, while much space is given up to the collections of birds and +animals. Throughout the year thousands of people crowd the walks and +penetrate to every portion of the grounds; yet in spite of this lack of +seclusion no fewer than sixty-one species build their nests here and +successfully rear their young. The list was made without shooting a single +bird and in each instance the identification was absolute. This shows what +a little protection will accomplish, while many places of equal area in +the country which are harried by boys and cats are tenanted by a bare +dozen species. + +Let us see what a walk in late June, or especially in July, will show of +these bold invaders of our very city. Wild wood ducks frequently decoy to +the flocks of pinioned birds and sometimes mate with some of them. One +year a wild bird chose as its mate a little brown female, a pinioned bird, +and refused to desert her even when the brood of summer ducklings was +being caught and pinioned. Such devotion is rare indeed. + +In the top of one of the most inaccessible trees in the Park a great rough +nest of sticks shows where a pair of black-crowned night herons have made +their home for years, and from the pale green eggs hatch the most awkward +of nestling herons, which squawk and grow to their prime, on a diet of +small fish. When they are able to fly they pay frequent visits to their +relations in the great flying cage, perching on the top and gazing with +longing eyes at the abundant feasts of fish which are daily brought by the +keepers to their charges. This duck and heron are the only ones of their +orders thus to honour the Park by nesting, although a number of other +species are not uncommon during the season of migration. + +Of the waders which in the spring and fall teeter along the bank of the +Bronx River, only a pair or two of spotted sandpipers remain throughout +the nesting period, content to lay their eggs in some retired spot in the +corner of a field, where there is the least danger to them and to the +fluffy balls of long-legged down which later appear and scurry about. The +great horned owl and the red-tailed hawk formerly nested in the park, but +the frequent noise of blasting and the building operations have driven +them to more isolated places, and of their relatives there remain only the +little screech owls and the sparrow hawks. The latter feed chiefly upon +English sparrows and hence are worthy of the most careful protection. + +These birds should be encouraged to build near our homes, and if not +killed or driven away sometimes choose the eaves of our houses as their +domiciles and thus, by invading the very haunts of the sparrows, they +would speedily lessen their numbers. A brood of five young hawks was +recently taken from a nest under the eaves of a school-house in this city. +I immediately took this as a text addressed to the pupils, and the +principal was surprised to learn that these birds were so valuable. In the +Park the sparrow hawks nest in a hollow tree, as do the screech owls. + +Other most valuable birds which nest in the Park are the black-billed and +yellow-billed cuckoos, whose depredations among the hairy and spiny +caterpillars should arouse our gratitude. For these insects are refused by +almost all other birds, and were it not for these slim, graceful creatures +they would increase to prodigious numbers. Their two or three light blue +eggs are always laid on the frailest of frail platforms made of a few +sticks. The belted kingfisher bores into the bank of the river and rears +his family of six or eight in the dark, ill-odoured chamber at the end. +Young cuckoos and kingfishers are the quaintest of young birds. Their +plumage does not come out a little at a time, as in other nestlings, but +the sheaths which surround the growing feathers remain until they are an +inch or more in length; then one day, in the space of only an hour or so, +the overlapping armour of bluish tiles bursts and the plumage assumes a +normal appearance. + +The little black-and-white downy and the flicker are the two woodpeckers +which make the Park their home. Both nest in hollows bored out by their +strong beaks, but although full of splinters and sawdust, such a +habitation is far superior to the sooty chimneys in which the young +chimney swifts break from their snow-white eggs and twitter for food. How +impatiently they must look up at the blue sky, and one would think that +they must long for the time when they can spread their sickle-shaped wings +and dash about from dawn to dark! Is it not wonderful that one of them +should live to grow up when we think of the fragile little cup which is +their home?--a mosaic of delicate twigs held together only by the sticky +saliva of the parent birds. + +A relation of theirs--though we should never guess it--is sitting upon her +tiny air castle high up in an apple tree not far away,--a ruby-throated +hummingbird. If we take a peep into the nest when the young hummingbirds +are only partly grown, we shall see that their bills are broad and stubby, +like those of the swifts. Their home, however, is indeed a different +affair,--a pinch of plant-down tied together with cobwebs and stuccoed +with lichens, like those which are growing all about upon the tree. If we +do not watch the female when she settles to her young or eggs we may +search in vain for this tiniest of homes, so closely does it resemble an +ordinary knot on a branch. + +The flycatchers are well represented in the Park, there being no fewer +than five species; the least flycatcher, wood pewee, phoebe, crested +flycatcher, and kingbird. The first two prefer the woods, the phoebe +generally selects a mossy rock or a bridge beam, the fourth nests in a +hollow tree and often decorates its home with a snake-skin. The kingbird +builds an untidy nest in an apple tree. Our American crow is, of course, a +member of this little community of birds, and that in spite of +persecution, for in the spring one or two are apt to contract a taste for +young ducklings and hence have to be put out of the way. The fish crow, a +smaller cousin of the big black fellow, also nests here, easily known by +his shriller, higher caw. A single pair of blue jays nest in the Park, but +the English starling occupies every box which is put up and bids fair to +be as great or a greater nuisance than the sparrow. It is a handsome bird +and a fine whistler, but when we remember how this foreigner is slowly but +surely elbowing our native birds out of their rightful haunts, we find +ourselves losing sight of its beauties. The cowbird, of course, imposes +her eggs upon many of the smaller species of birds, while our beautiful +purple grackle, meadow lark, red-winged blackbird, and the Baltimore and +orchard orioles rear their young in safety. The cardinal, scarlet tanager, +indigo bunting, and rose-breasted grosbeak form a quartet of which even a +tropical land might well be proud, and the two latter species have, in +addition to brilliant plumage, very pleasing songs. Such wealth of +aesthetic characteristics are unusual in any one species, the wide-spread +law of compensation decreeing otherwise. More sombre hued seed-eaters +which live their lives in the Park are towhees, swamp, song, field, and +chipping sparrows. The bank and barn swallows skim over field and pond all +through the summer, gleaning their insect harvest from the air, and +building their nests in the places from which they have taken their names. +The rare rough-winged swallow deigns to linger and nest in the Park as +well as do his more common brethren. + +The dainty pensile nests which become visible when the leaves fall in the +autumn are swung by four species of vireos, the white-eyed, red-eyed, +warbling, and yellow-throated. Of the interesting and typically North +American family of wood warblers I have numbered no fewer than eight which +nest in the Park; these are the redstart, the yellow-breasted chat, +northern yellow-throat, oven-bird, the yellow warbler, blue-winged, +black-and-white creeping warblers, and one other to be mentioned later. + +Injurious insects find their doom when the young house and Carolina wrens +are on the wing. Catbirds and robins are among the most abundant breeders, +while chickadees and white-breasted nuthatches are less often seen. The +bluebird haunts the hollow apple trees, and of the thrushes proper the +veery or Wilson's and the splendid wood thrush sing to their mates on the +nests among the saplings. + +The rarest of all the birds which I have found nesting in the Park is a +little yellow and green warbler, with a black throat and sides of the +face, known as the Lawrence warbler. Only a few of his kind have ever been +seen, and strange to say his mate was none other than a demure blue-winged +warbler. His nest was on the ground and from it six young birds flew to +safety and not to museum drawers. + + + + +NIGHT MUSIC OF THE SWAMP + + +To many, a swamp or marsh brings only the very practical thought of +whether it can be readily drained. Let us rejoice, however, that many +marshes cannot be thus easily wiped out of existence, and hence they +remain as isolated bits of primeval wilderness, hedged about by farms and +furrows. The water is the life-blood of the marsh,--drain it, and reed and +rush, bird and batrachian, perish or disappear. The marsh, to him who +enters it in a receptive mood, holds, besides mosquitoes and +stagnation,--melody, the mystery of unknown waters, and the sweetness of +Nature undisturbed by man. + +The ideal marsh is as far as one can go from civilisation. The depths of a +wood holds its undiscovered secrets; the mysterious call of the veery +lends a wildness that even to-day has not ceased to pervade the old wood. +There are spots overgrown with fern and carpeted with velvety wet moss; +here also the skunk cabbage and cowslip grow rank among the alders. Surely +man cannot live near this place--but the tinkle of a cowbell comes faintly +on the gentle stirring breeze--and our illusion is dispelled, the charm is +broken. + +But even to-day, when we push the punt through the reeds from the clear +river into the narrow, tortuous channel of the marsh, we have left +civilisation behind us. The great ranks of the cat-tails shut out all view +of the outside world; the distant sounds of civilisation serve only to +accentuate the isolation. It is the land of the Indian, as it was before +the strange white man, brought from afar in great white-sailed ships, came +to usurp the land of the wondering natives. At any moment we fancy that we +may see an Indian canoe silently round a bend in the channel. + +The marsh has remained unchanged since the days when the Mohican Indians +speared fish there. We are living in a bygone time. A little green heron +flies across the water. How wild he is; nothing has tamed him. He also is +the same now as always. He does not nest in orchard or meadow, but holds +himself aloof, making no concessions to man and the ever increasing spread +of his civilisation. He does not come to his doors for food. He can find +food for himself and in abundance; he asks only to be let alone. Nor does +he intrude himself. Occasionally we meet him along our little meadow +stream, but he makes no advances. As we come suddenly upon him, how +indignant he seems at being disturbed in his hunting. Like the Indian, he +is jealous of his ancient domain and resents intrusion. He retires, +however, throwing back to us a cry of disdain. Here in the marsh is the +last stand of primitive nature in the settled country; here is the last +stronghold of the untamed. The bulrushes rise in ranks, like the spears of +a great army, surrounding and guarding the colony of the marsh. + +There seems to be a kinship between the voices of the marsh dwellers. Most +of them seem to have a muddy, aquatic note. The boom of the frog sounds +like some great stone dropped into the water; the little marsh wren's song +is the "babble and tinkle of water running out of a silver flask." + +The blackbird seems to be the one connecting link between the highlands +and the lowlands. Seldom does one see other citizens of the marsh in the +upland. How glorious is the flight of a great blue heron from one +feeding-ground to another! He does not tarry over the foreign territory, +nor does he hurry. With neck and head furled close and legs straight out +behind, he pursues his course, swerving neither to the right nor the +left. + + "Vainly the fowler's eye + Might mark thy distant flight to do thee wrong, + As darkly painted on the crimson sky + Thy figure floats along." + +The blackbirds, however, are more neighbourly. They even forage in the +foreign territory, returning at night to sleep. + +In nesting time the red-wing is indeed a citizen of the lowland. His voice +is as distinctive of the marsh as is the croak of the frog, and from a +distance it is one of the first sounds to greet the ear. How beautiful is +his clear whistle with its liquid break! Indeed one may say that he is the +most conspicuous singer of the marshlands. His is not a sustained song, +but the exuberant expression of a happy heart. + +According to many writers the little marsh wren is without song. No song! +As well say that the farmer boy's whistling as he follows the plough, or +the sailor's song as he hoists the sail, is not music! All are the songs +of the lowly, the melody of those glad to be alive and out in the free +air. + +When man goes into the marsh, the marsh retires within itself, as a turtle +retreats within his shell. With the exception of a few blackbirds and +marsh wrens, babbling away the nest secret, and an occasional frog's +croak, all the inhabitants have stealthily retired. The spotted turtle has +slid from the decayed log as the boat pushed through the reeds. At our +approach the heron has flown and the little Virginia rail has scuttled +away among the reeds. + +Remain perfectly quiet, however, and give the marsh time to regain its +composure. One by one the tenants of the swamp will take up the trend of +their business where it was interrupted. + +All about, the frogs rest on the green carpet of the lily pads, basking in +the sun. The little rail again runs among the reeds, searching for food in +the form of small snails. The blackbirds and wrens, most domestic in +character, go busily about their home business; the turtles again come up +to their positions, and a muskrat swims across the channel. One hopes that +the little colony of marsh wren homes on stilts above the water, like the +ancient lake dwellers of Tenochtitlan, may have no enemies. But the habit +of building dummy nests is suggestive that the wee birds are pitting their +wits against the cunning of some enemy,--and suspicion rests upon the +serpent. + +As evening approaches and the shadows from the bordering wood point long +fingers across the marsh, the blackbirds straggle back from their +feeding-grounds and settle, clattering, among the reeds. Their clamour +dies gradually away and night settles down upon the marsh. + + * * * * * + +All sounds have ceased save the booming of the frogs, which but emphasises +the loneliness of it all. A distant whistle of a locomotive dispels the +idea that all the world is wilderness. The firefly lamps glow along the +margin of the rushes. The frogs are now in full chorus, the great bulls +beating their tom-toms and the small fry filling in the chinks with +shriller cries. How remote the scene and how melancholy the chorus! + +To one mind there is a quality in the frogs' serenade that strikes the +chord of sadness, to another the chord of contentment, to still another it +is the chant of the savage, just as the hoot of an owl or the bark of a +fox brings vividly to mind the wilderness. + +Out of the night comes softly the croon of a little screech owl--that cry +almost as ancient as the hills. It belongs with the soil beneath our +towns. It is the spirit of the past crying to us. So the dirge of the frog +is the cry of the spirit of river and marshland. + +Our robins and bluebirds are of the orchard and the home of man, but who +can claim neighbourship to the bittern or the bullfrog? There is nothing +of civilisation in the hoarse croak of the great blue heron. These are all +barbarians and their songs are of the untamed wilderness. + +The moon rises over the hills. The mosquitoes have become savage. The +marsh has tolerated us as long as it cares to, and we beat our retreat. +The night hawks swoop down and boom as they pass overhead. One feels +thankful that the mosquitoes are of some good in furnishing food to so +graceful a bird. + +A water snake glides across the channel, leaving a silver wake in the +moonlight. The frogs plunk into the water as we push past. A night heron +rises from the margin of the river and slowly flops away. The bittern +booms again as we row down the peaceful river, and we leave the marshland +to its ancient and rightful owners. + + And the marsh is meshed with a million veins, + That like as with rosy and silvery essences flow + In the rose and silver evening glow. + Farewell, my lord Sun! + The creeks overflow; a thousand rivulets run + 'Twixt the roots of the sod; the blades of the marsh grass stir; + Passeth a hurrying sound of wings that westward whirr. + Sidney Lanier. + + + + +THE COMING OF MAN + + +If we betake ourselves to the heart of the deepest forests which are still +left upon our northern hills, and compare the bird life which we find +there with that in the woods and fields near our homes, we shall at once +notice a great difference. Although the coming of mankind with his axe and +plough has driven many birds and animals far away or actually exterminated +them, there are many others which have so thrived under the new conditions +that they are far more numerous than when the tepees of the red men alone +broke the monotony of the forest. + +We might walk all day in the primitive woods and never see or hear a +robin, while in an hour's stroll about a village we can count scores. Let +us observe how some of these quick-witted feathered beings have taken +advantage of the way in which man is altering the whole face of the land. + +A pioneer comes to a spot in the virgin forest which pleases him and +proceeds at once to cut down the trees in order to make a clearing. The +hermit thrush soothes his labour with its wonderful song; the pileated +woodpecker pounds its disapproval upon a near-by hollow tree; the deer and +wolf take a last look out through the trees and flee from the spot +forever. A house and barn arise; fields become covered with waving grass +and grain; a neglected patch of burnt forest becomes a tangle of +blackberry and raspberry; an orchard is set out. + +When the migrating birds return, they are attracted to this new scene. The +decaying wood of fallen trees is a paradise for ants, flies, and beetles; +offering to swallows, creepers, and flycatchers feasts of abundance never +dreamed of in the primitive forests. Straightway, what must have been a +cave swallow becomes a barn swallow; the haunter of rock ledges changes to +an eave swallow; the nest in the niche of the cliff is deserted and phoebe +becomes a bridgebird; cedarbirds are renamed cherrybirds, and catbirds and +other low-nesting species find the blackberry patch safer than the +sweetbrier vine in the deep woods. The swift leaves the lightning-struck +hollow tree where owl may harry or snake intrude, for the chimney +flue--sooty but impregnable. + +When the great herds of ruminants disappear from the western prairies, the +buffalo birds without hesitation become cowbirds, and when the plough +turns up the never-ending store of grubs and worms the birds lose all fear +and follow at the very heels of the plough-boy: grackles, vesper sparrows, +and larks in the east, and flocks of gulls farther to the westward. + +The crow surpasses all in the keen wit which it pits against human +invasion and enmity. The farmer declares war (all unjustly) against these +sable natives, but they jeer at his gun and traps and scarecrows, and +thrive on, killing the noxious insects, devouring the diseased +corn-sprouts,--doing great good to the farmer in spite of himself. + +The story of these sudden adaptations to conditions which the birds could +never have foreseen is a story of great interest and it has been but half +told. Climb the nearest hill or mountain or even a tall tree and look out +upon the face of the country. Keep in mind you are a bird and not a +human,--you neither know nor understand anything of the reason for these +strange sights,--these bipeds who cover the earth with great square +structures, who scratch the ground for miles, who later gnaw the +vegetation with great shining teeth, and who are only too often on the +look out to bring sudden death if one but show a feather. What would you +do? + + + + +THE SILENT LANGUAGE OF ANIMALS + + +What a great difference there is in brilliancy of colouring between birds +and the furry creatures. How the plumage of a cardinal, or indigo bunting, +or hummingbird glows in the sunlight, and reflects to our eyes the most +intense vermilion or indigo or an iridescence of the whole gamut of +colour. On the other hand, how sombrely clad are the deer, the rabbits, +and the mice; gray and brown and white being the usual hue of their fur. + +This difference is by no means accidental, but has for its cause a deep +significance,--all-important to the life of the bird or mammal. Scientists +have long known of it, and if we unlock it from its hard sheathing of +technical terms, we shall find it as simple and as easy to understand as +it is interesting. When we once hold the key, it will seem as if scales +had fallen from our eyes, and when we take our walks abroad through the +fields and woods, when we visit a zoological park, or even see the animals +in a circus, we shall feel as though a new world were opened to us. + +No post offices, or even addresses, exist for birds and mammals; when the +children of the desert or the jungle are lost, no detective or policeman +hastens to find them, no telephone or telegraph aids in the search. Yet, +without any of these accessories, the wild creatures have marvellous +systems of communication. The five senses (and perhaps a mysterious sixth, +at which we can only guess) are the telephones and the police, the +automatic sentinels and alarms of our wild kindred. Most inferior are our +own abilities in using eyes, nose, and ears, when compared with the same +functions in birds and animals. + +Eyes and noses are important keys to the bright colours of birds and +comparative sombreness of hairy-coated creatures. Take a dog and an oriole +as good examples of the two extremes. When a dog has lost his master, he +first looks about; then he strains his eyes with the intense look of a +near-sighted person, and after a few moments of this he usually yelps with +disappointment, drops his nose to the ground, and with unfailing accuracy +follows the track of his master. When the freshness of the trail tells him +that he is near its end he again resorts to his eyes, and is soon near +enough to recognise the face he seeks. A fox when running before a hound +may double back, and make a close reconnaissance near his trail, sometimes +passing in full view without the hound's seeing him or stopping in +following out the full curve of the trail, so completely does the +wonderful power of smell absorb the entire attention of the dog. + +Let us now turn to the oriole. As we might infer, the nostrils incased in +horn render the sense of smell of but slight account. It is hard to tell +how much a bird can distinguish in this way--probably only the odour of +food near at hand. However, when we examine the eye of our bird, we see a +sense organ of a very high order. Bright, intelligent, full-circled, of +great size compared to the bulk of the skull, protected by three complete +eyelids; we realise that this must play an important part in the life of +the bird. There are, of course, many exceptions to such a generalisation +as this. For instance, many species of sparrows are dull-coloured. We must +remember that the voice--the calls and songs of birds--is developed to a +high degree, and in many instances renders bright colouring needless in +attracting a mate or in locating a young bird. + +As we have seen, the sense of smell is very highly developed among +four-footed animals, but to make this efficient there must be something +for it to act upon; and in this connection we find some interesting facts +of which, outside of scientific books, little has been written. On the +entire body, birds have only one gland--the oil gland above the base of +the tail, which supplies an unctuous dressing for the feathers. Birds, +therefore, have not the power of perspiring, but compensate for this by +very rapid breathing. On the contrary, four-footed animals have glands on +many portions of the body. Nature is seldom contented with the one primary +function which an organ or tissue performs, but adjusts and adapts it to +others in many ingenious ways. Hence, when an animal perspires, the pores +of the skin allow the contained moisture to escape and moisten the surface +of the body; but in addition to this, in many animals, collections of +these pores in the shape of large glands secrete various odours which +serve important uses. In the skunk such a gland is a practically perfect +protection against attacks from his enemies. He never hurries and seems +not to know what fear is--a single wave of his conspicuous danger signal +is sufficient to clear his path. + +In certain species of the rhinoceros there are large glands in the foot. +These animals live among grass and herbage which they brush against as +they walk, and thus "blaze" a plain trail for the mate or young to follow. +There are few if any animals which care to face a rhinoceros, so the scent +is incidentally useful to other creatures as a warning. + +It is believed that the hard callosities on the legs of horses are the +remains of glands which were once upon a time useful to their owners; and +it is said that if a paring from one of these hard, horny structures be +held to the nose of a horse, he will follow it about, hinting, perhaps, +that in former days the scent from the gland was an instinctive guide +which kept members of the herd together. + +"Civet," which is obtained from the civet cat, and "musk," from the queer +little hornless musk deer, are secretions of glands. It has been suggested +that the defenceless musk deer escapes many of its enemies by the +similarity of its secretion to the musky odour of crocodiles. In many +animals which live together in herds, such as the antelope and deer, and +which have neither bright colours nor far-reaching calls to aid straying +members to regain the flock, there are large and active scent glands. The +next time you see a live antelope in a zoological park, or even a stuffed +specimen, look closely at the head, and between the eye and the nostril a +large opening will be seen on each, side, which, in the living animal, +closes now and then, a flap of skin shutting it tight. + +Among pigs the fierce peccary is a very social animal, going in large +packs; and on the back of each of these creatures is found a large gland +from which a clear watery fluid is secreted. Dogs and wolves also have +their odour-secreting glands on the back, and the "wolf-pack" is +proverbial. + +The gland of the elephant is on the temple, and secretes only when the +animal is in a dangerous mood, a hint, therefore, of opposite significance +to that of the herding animals, as this says, "Let me alone! stay away!" +Certain low species of monkeys, the lemurs, have a remarkable bare patch +on the forearm, which covers a gland serving some use. + +If we marvel at the keenness of scent among animals, how incredible seems +the similar sense in insects--similar in function, however different the +medium of structure may be. Think of the scent from a female moth, so +delicate that we cannot distinguish it, attracting a male of the same +species from a distance of a mile or more. Entomologists sometimes confine +a live female moth or other insect in a small wire cage and hang it +outdoors in the evening, and in a short time reap a harvest of gay-winged +suitors which often come in scores, instinctively following up the trail +of the delicate, diffused odour. It is surely true that the greatest +wonders are not always associated with mere bulk. + + + + +INSECT MUSIC + + +Among insects, sounds are produced in many ways, and for various reasons. +A species of ant which makes its nest on the under side of leaves produces +a noise by striking the leaf with its head in a series of spasmodic taps, +and another ant is also very interesting as regards its sound-producing +habit. "Individuals of this species are sometimes spread over a surface of +two square yards, many out of sight of the others; yet the tapping is set +up at the same moment, continued exactly the same space of time, and +stopped at the same instant. After the lapse of a few seconds, all +recommence simultaneously. The interval is always approximately of the +same duration, and each ant does not beat synchronously with every other +ant, but only like those in the same group, so the independent tappings +play a sort of tune, each group alike in time, but the tapping of the +whole mass beginning and ending at the same instant. This is doubtless a +means of communication." + +The organ of hearing in insects is still to be discovered in many forms, +but in katydids it is situated on the middle of the fore-legs; in +butterflies on the sides of the thorax, while the tip of the horns or +antennae of many insects is considered to be the seat of this function. In +all it is little more than a cavity, over which a skin is stretched like a +drum-head, which thus reacts to the vibration. This seems to be very often +"tuned," as it were, to the sounds made by the particular species in which +it is found. A cricket will at times be unaffected by any sound, however +loud, while at the slightest "screek" or chirp of its own species, no +matter how faint, it will start its own little tune in all excitement. + +The songs of the cicadas are noted all over the world. Darwin heard them +while anchored half a mile off the South American coast, and a giant +species of that country is said to produce a noise as loud as the whistle +of a locomotive. Only the males sing, the females being dumb, thus giving +rise to the well-known Grecian couplet: + + "Happy the cicadas' lives, + For they all have voiceless wives." + +Anyone who has entered a wood where thousands of the seventeen-year +cicadas were hatching has never forgotten it. A threshing machine, or a +gigantic frog chorus, is a fair comparison, and when a branch loaded with +these insects is shaken, the sound rises to a shrill screech or scream. +This noise is supposed--in fact is definitely known--to attract the female +insect, and although there may be in it some tender notes which we fail to +distinguish, yet let us hope that the absence of any highly organised +auditory organ may result in reducing the effect of a steam-engine whistle +to an agreeable whisper! It is thought that the vibrations are felt rather +than heard, in the sense that we use the word "hear"; if one has ever had +a cicada _zizz_ in one's hand, the electrical shocks which seem to go up +the arm help the belief in this idea. To many of us the song of the +cicada--softened by distance--will ever be pleasant on account of its +associations. When one attempts to picture a hot August day in a hay-field +or along a dusty road, the drowsy _zee-ing_ of this insect, growing louder +and more accelerated and then as gradually dying away, is a focus for the +mind's eye, around which the other details instantly group themselves. + +The apparatus for producing this sound is one of the most complex in all +the animal kingdom. In brief, it consists of two external doors, capable +of being partly opened, and three internal membranes, to one of which is +attached a vibrating muscle, which, put in motion, sets all the others +vibrating in unison. + +We attach a great deal of importance to the fact of being educated to the +appreciation of the highest class of music. We applaud our Paderewski, and +year after year are awed and delighted with wonderful operatic music, yet +seldom is the _limitation_ of human perception of musical sounds +considered. + +If we wish to appreciate the limits within which the human ear is capable +of distinguishing sounds, we should sit down in a meadow, some hot +midsummer day, and listen to the subdued running murmur of the myriads of +insects. Many are very distinct to our ears and we have little trouble in +tracing them to their source. Such are crickets and grasshoppers, which +fiddle and rasp their roughened hind legs against their wings. Some +butterflies have the power of making a sharp crackling sound by means of +hooks on the wings. The katydid, so annoying to some in its persistent +ditty, so full of reminiscences to others of us, is a large, green, +fiddling grasshopper. + +Another sound which is typical of summer is the hum of insects' wings, +sometimes, as near a beehive, rising to a subdued roar. The higher, +thinner song of the mosquito's wings is unfortunately familiar to us, and +we must remember that the varying tone of the hum of each species may be +of the greatest importance to it as a means of recognition. Many beetles +have a projecting horn on the under side of the body which they can snap +against another projection, and by this means call their lady-loves, +literally "playing the bones" in their minstrel serenade. + +Although we can readily distinguish the sounds which these insects +produce, yet there are hundreds of small creatures, and even large ones, +which are provided with organs of hearing, but whose language is too fine +for our coarse perceptions. The vibrations--chirps, hums, and clicks--can +be recorded on delicate instruments, but, just as there are shades and +colours at both ends of the spectrum which our eyes cannot perceive, so +there are tones running we know not how far beyond the scale limits which +affect our ears. Some creatures utter noises so shrill, so sharp, that it +pains our ears to listen to them, and these are probably on the borderland +of our sound-world. + + Pipe, little minstrels of the waning year, + In gentle concert pipe! + Pipe the warm noons; the mellow harvest near; + The apples dropping ripe; + + The sweet sad hush on Nature's gladness laid; + The sounds through silence heard! + Pipe tenderly the passing of the year. + Harriet Mcewen Kimball. + + I love to hear thine earnest voice, + Wherever thou art hid, + Thou testy little dogmatist, + Thou pretty Katydid! + Thou mindest me of gentlefolks,-- + Old gentlefolks are they,-- + Thou say'st an undisputed thing + In such a solemn way. + Oliver Wendell Holmes. + +------------------------------------------------------------------------ + +AUGUST + +------------------------------------------------------------------------ + + + + +THE GRAY DAYS OF BIRDS + + +The temptation is great, if we love flowers, to pass over the seed time, +when stalks are dried and leaves are shrivelled, no matter how beautiful +may be the adaptation for scattering or preserving the seed or how +wonderful the protective coats guarding against cold or wet. Or if insects +attract us by their many varied interests, we are more enthusiastic over +the glories of the full-winged image than the less conspicuous, though no +less interesting, eggs and chrysalides hidden away in crevices throughout +the long winter. + +Thus there seems always a time when we hesitate to talk or write of our +favourite theme, especially if this be some class of life on the earth, +because, perchance, it is not at its best. + +Even birds have their gray days, when in the autumn the glory of their +plumage and song has diminished. At this time few of their human admirers +intrude upon them and the birds themselves are only too glad to escape +observation. Collectors of skins disdain to ply their trade, as the +ragged, pin-feathery coats of the birds now make sorry-looking specimens. +But we can find something of interest in birddom, even in this interim. + +Nesting is over, say you, when you start out on your tramps in late summer +or early autumn; but do not be too sure. The gray purse of the oriole has +begun to ravel at the edges and the haircloth cup of the chipping sparrow +is already wind-distorted, but we shall find some housekeeping just +begun. + +The goldfinch is one of these late nesters. Long after his northern +cousins, the pine siskins and snowflakes, have laid their eggs and reared +their young, the goldfinch begins to focus the aerial loops of his flight +about some selected spot and to collect beakfuls of thistledown. And here, +perhaps, we have his fastidious reason for delaying. Thistles seed with +the goldenrod, and not until this fleecy substance is gray and floating +does he consider that a suitable nesting material is available. + +When the young birds are fully fledged one would think the goldfinch a +polygamist, as we see him in shining yellow and black, leading his family +quintet, all sombre hued, his patient wife being to our eyes +indistinguishable from the youngsters. + +But in the case of most of the birds the cares of nesting are past, and +the woods abound with full-sized but awkward young birds, blundering +through their first month of insect-hunting and fly-catching, tumbling +into the pools from which they try to drink, and shrieking with the very +joy of life, when it would be far safer for that very life if they +remained quiet. + +It is a delightful period this, a transition as interesting as evanescent. +This is the time when instinct begins to be aided by intelligence, when +every hour accumulates fact upon fact, all helping to co-ordinate action +and desire on the part of the young birds. + +No hint of migration has yet passed over the land, and the quiet of summer +still reigns; but even as we say this a confused chuckling is heard; this +rises into a clatter of harsh voices, and a small flock of blackbirds--two +or three families--pass overhead. The die is cast! No matter how hot may +be the sunshine during succeeding days, or how contented and thoughtless +of the future the birds may appear, there is a something which has gone, +and which can never return until another cycle of seasons has passed. + +During this transition time some of our friends are hardly recognisable; +we may surprise the scarlet tanager in a plumage which seems more +befitting a nonpareil bunting,--a regular "Joseph's coat." The red of his +head is half replaced with a ring of green, and perhaps a splash of the +latter decorates the middle of his back. When he flies the light shows +through his wings in two long narrow slits, where a pair of primaries are +lacking. It is a wise provision of Nature which regulates the moulting +sequence of his flight feathers, so that only a pair shall fall out at one +time, and the adjoining pair not before the new feathers are large and +strong. A sparrow or oriole hopping along the ground with angular, +half-naked wings would be indeed a pitiful sight, except to marauding +weasels and cats, who would find meals in abundance on every hand. + +Let us take our way to some pond or lake, thick with duckweed and beloved +of wild fowl, and we shall find a different state of affairs. We surprise +a group of mallard ducks, which rush out from the overhanging bank and +dive for safety among the sheltering green arrowheads. But their outspread +wings are a mockery, the flight feathers showing as a mere fringe of quill +sticks, which beat the water helplessly. + +Another thing we notice. Where are the resplendent drakes? Have they flown +elsewhere and left their mates to endure the dangers of moulting alone? +Let us come here a week later and see what a transformation is taking +place. When most birds moult it is for a period of several months, but +these ducks have a partial fall moult which is of the greatest importance +to them. When the wing feathers begin to loosen in their sockets an +unfailing instinct leads these birds to seek out some secluded pond, where +they patiently await the moult. The sprouting, blood-filled quills force +out the old feathers, and the bird becomes a thing of the water, to swim +and to dive, with no more power of flight than its pond companions, the +turtles. + +If, however, the drake should retain his iridescent head and snowy collar, +some sharp-eyed danger would spy out his helplessness and death would +swoop upon him. So for a time his bright feathers fall out and a quick +makeshift disguise closes over him--the reed-hued browns and grays of his +mate--and for a time the pair are hardly distinguishable. With the return +of his power of flight comes renewed brightness, and the wild drake +emerges from his seclusion on strong-feathered, whistling wings. All this +we should miss, did we not seek him out at this season; otherwise the few +weeks would pass and we should notice no change from summer to winter +plumage, and attribute his temporary absence to a whim of wandering on +distant feeding grounds. + +Another glance at our goldfinch shows a curious sight. Mottled with spots +and streaks, yellow alternating with greenish, he is an anomaly indeed, +and in fact all of our birds which undergo a radical colour change will +show remarkable combinations during the actual process. + +It is during the gray days that the secret to a great problem may be +looked for--the why of migration. + +A young duck of the year, whose wings are at last strong and fit, waves +them in ecstasy, vibrating from side to side and end to end of his natal +pond. Then one day we follow his upward glances to where a thin, black +arrow is throbbing southward, so high in the blue sky that the individual +ducks are merged into a single long thread. The young bird, calling again +and again, spurns the water with feet and wings, finally rising in a +slowly ascending arc. Somewhere, miles to the southward, another segment +approaches--touches--merges. + +But what of our smaller birds? When the gray days begin to chill we may +watch them hopping among the branches all day in their search for +insects--a keener search now that so many of the more delicate flies and +bugs have fallen chilled to the earth. Toward night the birds become more +restless, feed less, wander aimlessly about, but, as we can tell by their +chirps, remain near us until night has settled down. Then the irresistible +maelstrom of migration instinct draws them upward,--upward,--climbing on +fluttering wings, a mile or even higher into the thin air, and in company +with thousands and tens of thousands they drift southward, sending vague +notes down, but themselves invisible to us, save when now and then a tiny +black mote floats across the face of the moon--an army of feathered mites, +passing from tundra and spruce to bayou and palm. + +In the morning, instead of the half-hearted warble of an insect eater, +there sounds in our ears, like the ring of skates on ice, the metallic, +whip-like chirp of a snowbird, confident of his winter's seed feast. + + + + +LIVES OF THE LANTERN BEARERS + + +To all wild creatures fire is an unknown and hated thing, although it is +often so fascinating to them that they will stand transfixed gazing at its +mysterious light, while a hunter, unnoticed, creeps up behind and shoots +them. + +In the depth of the sea, where the sun is powerless to send a single ray +of light and warmth, there live many strange beings, fish and worms, +which, by means of phosphorescent spots and patches, may light their own +way. Of these strange sea folk we know nothing except from the fragments +which are brought to the surface by the dredge; but over our fields and +hedges, throughout the summer nights, we may see and study most +interesting examples of creatures which produce their own light. Heedless +of whether the moon shines brightly, or whether an overcast sky cloaks the +blackest of nights, the fireflies blaze their sinuous path through life. +These little yellow and black beetles, which illumine our way like a cloud +of tiny meteors, have indeed a wonderful power, for the light which they +produce within their own bodies is a cold glow, totally different from any +fire of human agency. + +In some species there seems to be a most romantic reason for their +brilliance. Down among the grass blades are lowly, wingless creatures--the +female fireflies, which, as twilight falls, leave their earthen burrows in +the turf and, crawling slowly to the summit of some plant, they display +the tiny lanterns which Nature has kindled within their bodies. + +Far overhead shoot the strong-winged males, searching for their minute +insect food, weaving glowing lines over all the shadowy landscape, and +apparently heedless of all beneath them. Yet when the dim little beacon, +hung out with the hopefulness of instinct upon the grass blade, is seen, +all else is forgotten and the beetle descends to pay court to the poor, +worm-like creature, so unlike him in appearance, but whose little +illumination is her badge of nobility. The gallant suitor is as devoted as +if the object of his affection were clad in all the gay colours of a +butterfly; and he is fortunate if, when he has reached the signal among +the grasses, he does not find a half-dozen firefly rivals before him. + +When insects seek their mates by day, their characteristic colours or +forms may be confused with surrounding objects; or those which by night +are able in that marvellous way to follow the faintest scent up wind may +have difficulties when cross currents of air are encountered; but the +female firefly, waiting patiently upon her lowly leaf, has unequalled +opportunity for winning her mate, for there is nothing to compare with or +eclipse her flame. Except--I wonder if ever a firefly has hastened +downward toward the strange glow which we sometimes see in the heart of +decayed wood,--mistaking a patch of fox-fire for the love-light of which +he was in search! + +In other species, including the common one about our homes, the lady +lightning-bug is more fortunate in possessing wings and is able to fly +abroad like her mate. + +Although this phosphorescence has been microscopically examined, it is but +slightly understood. We know, however, that it is a wonderful process of +combustion,--by which a bright light is produced without heat, smoke, or +indeed fuel, except that provided by the life processes in the tiny body +of the insect. + + So shines a good deed in a naughty world. + Shakespeare. + + + + +A STARFISH AND A DAISY + + +Day after day the forms of horses, dogs, birds, and other creatures pass +before our eyes. We look at them and call them by the names which we have +given them, and yet--we see them not. That is to say, we say that they +have a head, a tail; they run or fly; they are of one colour beneath, +another above, but beyond these bare meaningless facts most of us never +go. + +Let us think of the meaning of form. Take, for example, a flower--a daisy. +Now, if we could imagine such an impossible thing as that a daisy blossom +should leave its place of growth, creep down the stem and go wandering off +through the grass, soon something would probably happen to its shape. It +would perhaps get in the habit of creeping with some one ray always in +front, and the friction of the grass stems on either side would soon wear +and fray the ends of the side rays, while those behind might grow longer +and longer. If we further suppose that this strange daisy flower did not +like the water, the rays in front might be of service in warning it to +turn aside. When their tips touched the surface and were wet by the water +of some pool, the ambulatory blossom would draw back and start out in a +new direction. Thus a theoretical head (with the beginnings of the organs +of sense), and a long-drawn-out tail, would have their origin. + +Such a remarkable simile is not as fanciful as it might at first appear; +for although we know of no blossom which so sets at naught the sedentary +life of the vegetable kingdom, yet among certain of the animals which live +their lives beneath the waves of the sea a very similar thing occurs. + +Many miles inland, even on high mountains, we may sometimes see thousands +of little joints, or bead-like forms, imbedded in great rocky cliffs. They +have been given the name of St. Cuthbert's beads. Occasionally in the +vicinity of these fossils--for such they are--are found impressions of a +graceful, flower-like head, with many delicately divided petals, fixed +forever in the hard relief of stone. The name of stone lilies has been +applied to them. The beads were once strung together in the form of a long +stem, and at the top the strangely beautiful animal-lily nodded its head +in the currents of some deep sea, which in the long ago of the earth's age +covered the land--millions of years before the first man or beast or bird +drew breath. + +It was for a long time supposed that these wonderful creatures were +extinct, but dredges have brought up from the dark depths of the sea +actual living stone lilies, or _crinoids_, this being their real name. Few +of us will probably ever have an opportunity of studying a crinoid alive, +although in our museums we may see them preserved in glass jars. That, +however, detracts nothing from the marvel of their history and +relationship. They send root-like organs deep into the mud, where they +coil about some shell and there cling fast. Then the stem grows tall and +slender, and upon the summit blooms or is developed the animal-flower. Its +nourishment is not drawn from the roots and the air, as is that of the +daisy, but is provided by the tiny creatures which swim to its tentacles, +or are borne thither by the ocean currents. Some of these crinoids, as if +impatient of their plant-like life and asserting their animal kinship, at +last tear themselves free from their stem and float off, turn over, and +thereafter live happily upon the bottom of the sea, roaming where they +will, creeping slowly along and fulfilling the destiny of our imaginary +daisy. + +And here a comparison comes suddenly to mind. How like to a many-rayed +starfish is our creeping crinoid! Few of us, unless we had studies about +these creatures, could distinguish between a crinoid and one of the frisky +little dancing stars, or serpent stars, which are so common in the rocky +caves along our coast. This relationship is no less real than apparent. +The hard-skinned "five finger," or common starfish, which we may pick up +on any beach, while it never grew upon a stem, yet still preserves the +radial symmetry of its stalked ancestors. Pick up your starfish, carry it +to the nearest field, and pluck a daisy close to the head. How interesting +the comparison becomes, now that the knowledge of its meaning is plain. +Anything which grows fast upon a single immovable stem tends to grow +equally in all directions. We need not stop here, for we may include sea +anemones and corals, those most marvellously coloured flowers of the sea, +which grow upon a short, thick stalk and send out their tentacles equally +in all directions. And many of the jelly-fish which throb along close +beneath the surface swells were in their youth each a section of a pile of +saucer-like individuals, which were fastened by a single stalk to some +shell or piece of coral. + +We will remember that it was suggested that the theoretical daisy would +soon alter its shape after it entered upon active life. This is plainly +seen in the starfish, although at first glance the creature seems as +radially symmetrical as a wheel. But at one side of the body, between two +of the arms, is a tiny perforated plate, serving to strain the water which +enters the body, and thus the circular tendency is broken, and a beginning +made toward right and left handedness. In certain sea-urchins, which are +really starfishes with the gaps between the arms filled up, the body is +elongated, and thus the head and tail conditions of all animals higher in +the scale of life are represented. + + + + +THE DREAM OF THE YELLOW-THROAT + + +Many of us look with longing to the days of Columbus; we chafe at the +thought of no more continents to discover; no unknown seas to encompass. +But at our very doors is an "undiscovered bourne," from which, while the +traveller invariably returns, yet he will have penetrated but slightly +into its mysteries. This unexplored region is night. + +When the dusk settles down and the creatures of sunlight seek their rest, +a new realm of life awakens into being. The flaring colours and loud +bustle of the day fade and are lost, and in their place come soft, gray +tones and silence. The scarlet tanager seeks some hidden perch and soon +from the same tree slips a silent, ghostly owl; the ruby of the +hummingbird dies out as the gaudy flowers of day close their petals, and +the gray wraiths of sphinx moths appear and sip nectar from the spectral +moonflowers. + + * * * * * + +With feet shod with silence, let us creep near a dense tangle of +sweetbrier and woodbine late some summer evening and listen to the sounds +of the night-folk. How few there are that our ears can analyse! We huddle +close to the ground and shut our eyes. Then little by little we open them +and set our senses of sight and hearing at keenest pitch. Even so, how +handicapped are we compared to the wild creatures. A tiny voice becomes +audible, then dies away,--entering for a moment the narrow range of our +coarse hearing,--and finishing its message of invitation or challenge in +vibrations too fine for our ears. + + * * * * * + +Were we crouched by a dense yew hedge, bordering an English country lane, +a nightingale might delight us,--a melody of day, softened, adapted, to +the night. If the air about us was heavy with the scent of orange blossoms +of some covert in our own southland, the glorious harmony of a mockingbird +might surge through the gloom,--assuaging the ear as do the blossoms +another sense. + +But sitting still in our own home tangle let us listen,--listen. Our eyes +have slipped the scales of our listless civilised life and pierce the +darkness with the acuteness of our primeval forefathers; our ears tingle +and strain. + +A slender tongue of sound arises from the bush before us. Again and again +it comes, muffled but increasing in volume. A tiny ball of feathers is +perched in the centre of the tangle, with beak hidden in the deep, soft +plumage, but ever and anon the little body throbs and the song falls +gently on the silence of the night: "I beseech you! I beseech you! I +beseech you!" A Maryland yellow-throat is asleep and singing in its +dreams. + +As we look and listen, a shadowless something hovers overhead, and, +looking upward, we see a gray screech owl silently hanging on beating +wings. His sharp ears have caught the muffled sound; his eyes search out +the tangle, but the yellow-throat is out of reach. The little hunter +drifts away into the blackness, the song ends and the sharp squeak of a +mouse startles us. We rise slowly from our cramped position and quietly +leave the mysteries of the night. + +------------------------------------------------------------------------ + +SEPTEMBER + +------------------------------------------------------------------------ + + + + +THE PASSING OF THE FLOCKS + + +It is September. August--the month of gray days for birds--has passed. The +last pin-feather of the new winter plumage has burst its sheath, and is +sleek and glistening from its thorough oiling with waterproof dressing, +which the birds squeeze out with their bills from a special gland, and +which they rub into every part of their plumage. The youngsters, now grown +as large as their parents, have become proficient in fly-catching or +berry-picking, as the case may be. Henceforth they forage for themselves, +although if we watch carefully we may still see a parent's love prompting +it to give a berry to its big offspring (indistinguishable save for this +attention), who greedily devours it without so much as a wing flutter of +thanks. + +Two courses are open to the young birds who have been so fortunate as to +escape the dangers of nestlinghood. They may unite in neighbourly flocks +with others of their kind, as do the blackbirds of the marshes; or they +may wander off by themselves, never going very far from their summer home, +but perching alone each night in the thick foliage of some sheltering +bush. + +How wonderfully the little fellow adapts himself to the radical and sudden +change in his life! Before this, his world has been a warm, soft-lined +nest, with ever anxious parents to shelter him from rain and cold, or to +stand with half-spread wings between him and the burning rays of the sun. +He has only to open his mouth and call for food and a supply of the +choicest morsels appears and is shoved far down his throat. If danger +threatens, both parents are ready to fight to the last, or even willing to +give their lives to protect him. Little wonder is it that the young birds +are loth to leave; we can sympathise heartily with the last weaker +brother, whose feet cling convulsively to the nest, who begs piteously for +"just one more caterpillar!" But the mother bird is inexorable and stands +a little way out of reach with the juiciest morsel she can find. Once out, +the young bird never returns. Even if we catch the little chap before he +finishes his first flight and replace him, the magic spell of home is +broken, and he is out again the instant our hand frees him. + +What a change the first night brings! Yet with unfailing instinct he +squats on some twig, fluffs up his feathers, tucks his wee head behind his +wing, and sleeps the sleep of his first adult birdhood as soundly as if +this position of rest had been familiar to him since he broke through the +shell. + +We admire his aptitude for learning; how quickly his wings gain strength +and skill; how soon he manages to catch his own dinner. But how all this +pales before the accomplishment of a young brush turkey or moundbuilder of +the antipodes. Hatched six or eight feet under ground, merely by the heat +of decaying vegetation, no fond parents minister to his wants. Not only +must he escape from the shell in the pressure and darkness of his +underground prison (how we cannot tell), but he is then compelled to dig +through six feet of leaves and mould before he reaches the sunlight. He +finds himself well feathered, and at once spreads his small but perfect +wings and goes humming off to seek his living alone and unattended. + +It is September--the month of restlessness for the birds. Weeks ago the +first migrants started on their southward journey, the more delicate +insect-eaters going first, before the goldfinches and other late nesters +had half finished housekeeping. The northern warblers drift past us +southward--the magnolia, blackburnian, Canadian fly-catching, and others, +bringing memories of spruce and balsam to those of us who have lived with +them in the forests of the north. + +"It's getting too cold for the little fellows," says the wiseacre, who +sees you watching the smaller birds as they pass southward. Is it, though? +What of the tiny winter wren which spends the zero weather with us? His +coat is no warmer than those birds which have gone to the far tropics. And +what of the flocks of birds which we occasionally come across in +mid-winter, of species which generally migrate to Brazil? It is not the +cold which deprives us of our summer friends, or at least the great +majority of them; it is the decrease in food supply. Insects disappear, +and only those birds which feed on seeds and buds, or are able to glean an +insect diet from the crevices of fence and tree-trunk, can abide. + +This is the month to climb out on the roof of your house, lie on your back +and listen. He is a stolid person indeed who is not moved by the chirps +and twitters which come down through the darkness. There is no better way +to show what a wonderful power sound has upon our memories. There sounds a +robin's note, and spring seems here again; through the night comes a +white-throat's chirp, and we see again the fog-dimmed fields of a Nova +Scotian upland; a sandpiper "peets" and the scene in our mind's eye as +instantly changes, and so on. What a revelation if we could see as in +daylight for a few moments! The sky would be pitted with thousands and +thousands of birds flying from a few hundred yards to as high as one or +two miles above the earth. + +It only adds to the interest of this phenomenon when we turn to our +learned books on birds for an explanation of the origin of migration, the +whence and whither of the long journeys by day and night, and find--no +certain answer! This is one of the greatest of the many mysteries of the +natural world, of which little is known, although much is guessed, and the +bright September nights may reveal to us--we know not what undiscovered +facts. + + I see my way as birds their trackless way. + I shall arrive; what time, what circuit first, + I ask not; but unless God sends his hail + Of blinding fire-balls, sleet or driving snow, + In sometime, his good time, I shall arrive; + He guides me and the bird. In his good time. + Robert Browning. + + + + +GHOSTS OF THE EARTH + + +We may know the name of every tree near our home; we may recognise each +blossom in the field, every weed by the wayside; yet we should be +astonished to be told that there are hundreds of plants--many of them of +exquisite beauty--which we have overlooked in very sight of our doorstep. +What of the green film which is drawn over every moist tree-trunk or +shaded wall, or of the emerald film which coats the water of the pond's +edge? Or the gray lichens painting the rocks and logs, toning down the +shingles; the toadstools which, like pale vegetable ghosts, spring up in a +night from the turf; or the sombre puff balls which seem dead from their +birth? + +The moulds which cover bread and cheese with a delicate tracery of +filaments and raise on high their tiny balls of spores are as worthy to be +called a plant growth as are the great oaks which shade our houses. The +rusts and mildews and blights which destroy our fruit all have their +beauty of growth and fruition when we examine them through a lens, and the +yeast by which flour and water is made to rise into the porous, spongy +dough is just as truly a plant as is the geranium blossoming at the +kitchen window. + +If we wonder at the fierce struggle for existence which allows only a few +out of the many seeds of a maple or thistle to germinate and grow up, how +can we realise the obstacles with which these lowly plants have to +contend? A weed in the garden may produce from one to ten thousand seeds, +and one of our rarest ferns scatters in a single season over fifty +millions spores; while from the larger puff-balls come clouds of +unnumbered millions of spores, blowing to the ends of the earth; yet we +may search for days without finding one full-grown individual. + +All the assemblage of mushrooms and toadstools,--although the most deadly +may flaunt bright hues of scarlet and yellow,--yet lack the healthy green +of ordinary plants. This is due to the fact that they have become brown +parasites or scavengers, and instead of transmuting heat and moisture and +the salts of the earth into tissue by means of the pleasant-hued +chlorophyll, these sylvan ghosts subsist upon the sap of roots or the +tissues of decaying wood. Emancipated from the normal life of the higher +plants, even flowers have been denied them and their fruit is but a cloud +of brown dust,--each mote a simple cell. + +But what of the delicate Indian pipe which gleams out from the darkest +aisles of the forest? If we lift up its hanging head we will find a +perfect flower, and its secret is discovered. Traitor to its kind, it has +dropped from the ranks of the laurels, the heather, and the jolly little +wintergreens to the colourless life of a parasite,--hobnobbing with +clammy toadstools and slimy lichens. Its common names are all +appropriate,--ice-plant, ghost-flower, corpse-plant. + +Nevertheless it is a delicately beautiful creation, and we have no right +to apply our human standards of ethics to these children of the wild, +whose only chance of life is to seize every opportunity,--to make use of +each hint of easier existence. + +We have excellent descriptions and classifications of mushrooms and +toadstools, but of the actual life of these organisms, of the conditions +of their growth, little is known. Some of the most hideous are delicious +to our palate, some of the most beautiful are certain death. The splendid +red and yellow amanita, which lights up a dark spot in the woods like some +flowering orchid, is a veritable trap of death. Though human beings have +learned the fatal lesson and leave it alone, the poor flies in the woods +are ever deceived by its brightness, or odour, and a circle of their +bodies upon the ground shows the result of their ignorance. + + + + +MUSKRATS + + +Long before man began to inherit the earth, giant beavers built their dams +and swam in the streams of long ago. For ages these creatures have been +extinct. Our forefathers, during historical times, found smaller beavers +abundant, and with such zeal did they trap them that this modern race is +now well-nigh vanished. Nothing is left to us but the humble +muskrat,--which in name and in facile adaptation to the encroachments of +civilization has little in common with his more noble predecessor. Yet in +many ways his habits of life bring to mind the beaver. + +Let us make the most of our heritage and watch at the edge of a stream +some evening in late fall. If the muskrats have half finished their mound +of sticks and mud, which is to serve them for a winter home, we will be +sure to see some of them at work. Two lines of ripples furrow the surface +outward from the farther bank, and a small dark form clambers upon the +pile of rubbish. Suddenly a _spat!_ sounds at our very feet, and a muskrat +dives headlong into the water, followed by the one on the ground. Another +_spat!_ and splash comes from farther down the stream, and so the danger +signal of the muskrat clan is passed along,--a single flap upon the water +with the flat of the tail. + + * * * * * + +If we wait silent and patient, the work will be taken up anew, and in the +pale moonlight the little labourers will fashion their house, lining the +upper chamber with soft grasses, and shaping the steep passageway which +will lead to the ever-unfrozen stream-bed. Either here or in the snug +tunnel nest deep in the bank the young muskrats are born, and here they +are weaned upon toothsome mussels and succulent lily roots. + +Safe from all save mink and owl and trap, these sturdy muskrats spend the +summer in and about the streams; and when winter shuts down hard and fast, +they live lives more interesting than any of our other animals. The ground +freezes their tunnels into tubes of iron,--the ice seals the surface, past +all gnawing out; and yet, amid the quietly flowing water, where snow and +wind never penetrate, these warm-blooded, air-breathing muskrats live the +winter through, with only the trout and eels for company. Their food is +the bark and pith of certain plants; their air is what leaks through the +house of sticks, or what may collect at the melting-place of ice and +shore. + +Stretched full length on the smooth ice, let us look through into that +strange nether world, where the stress of storm is unknown. Far beneath us +sinuous black forms undulate through the water,--from tunnel to house and +back again. As we gaze down through the crystalline mass, occasional +fractures play pranks with the objects below. The animate shapes seem to +take unto themselves greater bulk; their tails broaden, their bodies +become many times longer. For a moment the illusion is perfect; thousands +of centuries have slipped back, and we are looking at the giant beavers of +old. + +Let us give thanks that even the humble muskrat still holds his own. A +century or two hence and posterity may look with wonder at his stuffed +skin in a museum! + + + + +NATURE'S GEOMETRICIANS + + +Spiders form good subjects for a rainy-day study, and two hours spent in a +neglected garret watching these clever little beings will often arouse +such interest that we shall be glad to devote many days of sunshine to +observing those species which hunt and build, and live their lives in the +open fields. There is no insect in the world with more than six legs, and +as a spider has eight he is therefore thrown out of the company of +butterflies, beetles, and wasps and finds himself in a strange assemblage. +Even to his nearest relatives he bears little resemblance, for when we +realise that scorpions and horseshoe crabs must call him cousin, we +perceive that his is indeed an aberrant bough on the tree of creation. + +Leaving behind the old-fashioned horseshoe crabs to feel their way slowly +over the bottom of the sea, the spiders have won for themselves on land a +place high above the mites, ticks, and daddy-long-legs, and in their high +development and intricate powers of resource they yield not even to the +ants and bees. + +Nature has provided spiders with an organ filled always with liquid which, +on being exposed to the air, hardens, and can be drawn out into the +slender threads we know as cobweb. The silkworm encases its body with a +mile or more of gleaming silk, but there its usefulness is ended as far as +the silkworm is concerned. But spiders have found a hundred uses for their +cordage, some of which are startlingly similar to human inventions. + +Those spiders which burrow in the earth hang their tunnels with silken +tapestries impervious to wet, which at the same time act as lining to the +tube. Then the entrance may be a trap-door of soil and silk, hinged with +strong silken threads; or in the turret spiders which are found in our +fields there is reared a tiny tower of leaves or twigs bound together with +silk. Who of us has not teased the inmate by pushing a bent straw into his +stronghold and awaiting his furious onslaught upon the innocent stalk! + +A list of all the uses of cobwebs would take more space than we can spare; +but of these the most familiar is the snare set for unwary flies,--the +wonderfully ingenious webs which sparkle with dew among the grasses or +stretch from bush to bush. The framework is of strong webbing and upon +this is closely woven the sticky spiral which is so elastic, so ethereal, +and yet strong enough to entangle a good-sized insect. How knowing seems +the little worker, as when, the web and his den of concealment being +completed, he spins a strong cable from the centre of the web to the +entrance of his watch-tower. Then, when a trembling of his aerial spans +warns him of a capture, how eagerly he seizes his master cable and jerks +away on it, thus vibrating the whole structure and making more certain the +confusion of his victim. + +What is more interesting than to see a great yellow garden-spider hanging +head downward in the centre of his web, when we approach too closely, +instead of deserting his snare, set it vibrating back and forth so rapidly +that he becomes a mere blur; a more certain method of escaping the +onslaught of a bird than if he ran to the shelter of a leaf. + +Those spiders which leap upon their prey instead of setting snares for it +have still a use for their threads of life, throwing out a cable as they +leap, to break their fall if they miss their foothold. What a strange use +of the cobweb is that of the little flying spiders! Up they run to the top +of a post, elevate their abdomens and run out several threads which +lengthen and lengthen until the breeze catches them and away go the +wingless aeronauts for yards or for miles as fortune and wind and weather +may dictate! We wonder if they can cut loose or pull in their balloon +cables at will. + +Many species of spiders spin a case for holding their eggs, and some carry +this about with them until the young are hatched. + +A most fascinating tale would unfold could we discover all the uses of +cobweb when the spiders themselves are through with it. Certain it is that +our ruby-throated hummingbird robs many webs to fasten together the plant +down, wood pulp, and lichens which compose her dainty nest. + +Search the pond and you will find another member of the spider family +swimming about at ease beneath the surface, thoroughly aquatic in habits, +but breathing a bubble of air which he carries about with him. When his +supply is low he swims to a submarine castle of silk, so air-tight that he +can keep it filled with a large bubble of air, upon which he draws from +time to time. + +And so we might go on enumerating almost endless uses for the web which is +Nature's gift to these little waifs, who ages ago left the sea and have +won a place for themselves in the sunshine among the butterflies and +flowers. + + * * * * * + +In the balsam-perfumed shade of our northern forests we may sometimes find +growing in abundance the tiny white dwarf cornel, or bunch-berry, as its +later cluster of scarlet fruit makes the more appropriate name. These +miniature dogwood blossoms (or imitation blossoms, as the white divisions +are not real petals) are very conspicuous against the dark moss, and many +insects seem to seek them out and to find it worth while to visit them. If +we look very carefully we may find that this discovery is not original +with us, for a little creature has long ago found out the fondness of bees +and other insects for these flowers and has put his knowledge to good +use. + +One day I saw what I thought was a swelling on one part of the flower, but +a closer look showed it was a living spider. Here was protective colouring +carried to a wonderful degree. The body of the spider was white and +glistening, like the texture of the white flower on which he rested. On +his abdomen were two pink, oblong spots of the same tint and shape as the +pinkened tips of the false petals. Only by an accident could he be +discovered by a bird, and when I focussed my camera, I feared that the +total lack of contrast would make the little creature all but invisible. + +Confident with the instinct handed down through many generations, the +spider trusted implicitly to his colour for safety and never moved, though +I placed the lens so close that it threw a life-sized image on the +ground-glass. When all was ready, and before I had pressed the bulb, the +thought came to me whether this wonderful resemblance should be attributed +to the need of escaping from insectivorous birds, or to the increased +facility with which the spider would be able to catch its prey. At the +very instant of making the exposure, before I could will the stopping of +the movement of my fingers, if I had so wished, my question was answered. +A small, iridescent, green bee flew down, like a spark of living light, +upon the flower, and, quick as thought, was caught in the jaws of the +spider. Six of his eight legs were not brought into use, but were held far +back out of the way. + +Here, on my lens, I had a little tragedy of the forest preserved for all +time. + + There was no bud, no bloom upon the bowers; + The spiders wove their thin shrouds night by night; + The thistledown, the only ghost of flowers, + Sailed slowly by--passed noiseless out of sight. + Thomas Buchanan Read. + +------------------------------------------------------------------------ + +OCTOBER + +------------------------------------------------------------------------ + + + + +AUTUMN HUNTING WITH A FIELD GLASS + + +One of the most uncertain of months is October, and most difficult for the +beginner in bird study. If we are just learning to enjoy the life of wood +and field, we will find hard tangles to unravel among the birds of this +month. Many of the smaller species which passed us on their northward +journey last spring are now returning and will, perhaps, tarry a week or +more before starting on the next nocturnal stage of their passage +tropicward. Many are almost unrecognisable in their new winter plumage. +Male scarlet tanagers are now green tanagers, goldfinches are olive +finches, while instead of the beautiful black, white, and cream dress +which made so easy the identification of the meadow bobolinks in the +spring, search will now be rewarded only by some plump, overgrown +sparrows--reedbirds--which are really bobolinks in disguise. + +Orchard orioles and rose-breasted grosbeaks come and are welcomed, but the +multitude of female birds of these species which appear may astonish one, +until he discovers that the young birds, both male and female, are very +similar to their mother in colour. We have no difficulty in distinguishing +between adult bay-breasted and black poll warblers, but he is indeed a +keen observer who can point out which is which when the young birds of the +year pass. + +October is apt to be a month of extremes. One day the woods are filled +with scores of birds, and on the next hardly one will be seen. Often a +single species or family will predominate, and one will remember "thrush +days" or "woodpecker days." Yellow-bellied sapsuckers cross the path, +flickers call and hammer in every grove, while in the orchards, and along +the old worm-eaten fences, glimpses of red, white, and black show where +redheaded woodpeckers are looping from trunk to post. When we listen to +the warble of bluebirds, watch the mock courtship of the high-holders, and +discover the fall violets under leaves and burrs, for an instant a feeling +of spring rushes over us; but the yellow leaves blow against our face, the +wind sighs through the cedars, and we realise that the black hand of the +frost will soon end the brave efforts of the wild pansies. + +The thrushes, ranking in some ways at the head of all our birds, drift +through the woods, brown and silent as the leaves around them. Splendid +opportunities they give us to test our powers of woodcraft. A thrush +passes like a streak of brown light and perches on a tree some distance +away. We creep from tree to tree, darting nearer when his head is turned. +At last we think we are within range, and raise our weapon. No, a leaf is +in the way, and the dancing spots of sunlight make our aim uncertain. We +move a little closer and again take aim, and this time he cannot escape +us. Carefully our double-barrelled binoculars cover him, and we get what +powder and lead could never give us--the quick glance of the hazel eye, +the trembling, half-raised feathers on his head, and a long look at the +beautifully rounded form perched on the twig, which a wanton shot would +destroy forever. The rich rufous colouring of the tail proclaims him a +singer of singers--a hermit thrush. We must be on the watch these days for +the beautiful wood thrush, the lesser spotted veery, the well named +olive-back and the rarer gray-cheeked thrush. We may look in vain among +the thrushes in our bird books for the golden-crowned and water thrush, +for these walkers of the woods are thrushes only in appearance, and belong +to the family of warblers. The long-tailed brown thrashers, lovers of the +undergrowth, are still more thrush-like in look, but in our +classifications they hold the position of giant cousins to the wrens. Even +the finches contribute a mock thrush to our list, the big, +spotted-breasted fox sparrow, but he rarely comes in number before mid +October or November. Of course we all know that our robin is a true +thrush, young robins having their breasts thickly spotted with black, +while even the old birds retain a few spots and streaks on the throat. + +If we search behind the screen of leaves and grass around us we may +discover many tragedies. One fall I picked up a dead olive-backed thrush +in the Zoological Park. There were no external signs of violence, but I +found that the food canal was pretty well filled with blood. The next day +still another bird was found in the same condition, and the day after two +more. Within a week I noted in my journal eight of these thrushes, all +young birds of the year, and all with the same symptoms of disorder. I +could only surmise that some poisonous substance, some kind of berry, +perhaps some attractive but deadly exotic from the Botanical Gardens, had +tempted the inexperienced birds and caused their deaths. + +As we walk through the October woods a covey of ruffed grouse springs up +before us, overhead a flock of robins dashes by, and the birds scatter to +feed among the wild grapes. The short round wings of the grouse whirr +noisily, while the quick wing beats of the robins make little sound. Both +are suited to their uses. The robin may travel league upon league to the +south, while the grouse will not go far except to find new bud or berry +pastures. His wings, as we have noticed before, are fitted rather for +sudden emergencies, to bound up before the teeth of the fox close upon +him, to dodge into close cover when the nose of the hound almost touches +his trembling body. When he scrambled out of his shell last May he at once +began to run about and to try his tiny wings, and little by little he +taught himself to fly. But in the efforts he got many a tumble and broke +or lost many a feather. Nature, however, has foreseen this, and to her +grouse children she gives several changes of wing feathers to practise +with, before the last strong winter quills come in. + +How different it is with the robin. Naked and helpless he comes from his +blue shell, and only one set of wing quills falls to his share, so it +behooves him to be careful indeed of these. He remains in the nest until +they are strong enough to bear him up, and his first attempts are +carefully supervised by his anxious parents. And so the glimpse we had in +the October woods of the two pair of wings held more of interest than we +at first thought. + +In many parts of the country, about October fifteenth the crows begin to +flock back and forth to and from their winter roosts. In some years it is +the twelfth, or again the seventeenth, but the constancy of the mean date +is remarkable. Many of our winter visitants have already slipped into our +fields and woods and taken the places of some of the earlier southern +migrants; but the daily passing of the birds which delay their journey +until fairly pinched by the lack of food at the first frosts extends well +into November. It is not until the foliage on the trees and bushes becomes +threadbare and the last migrants have flown, that our northern visitors +begin to take a prominent place in our avifauna. + + Season of mists and mellow fruitfulness! + Close bosom friend of the maturing sun; + + Where are the songs of spring? Ay, where are they? + Think not of them, thou hast thy music too,-- + While barred clouds bloom the soft-dying day, + And touch the stubble-plains with rosy hue; + Then in a wailful choir the small gnats mourn + Among the river-sallows, borne aloft + Or sinking as the light wind lives or dies; + And full-grown lambs loud bleat from hilly bourn; + Hedge-crickets sing, and now with treble soft + The red-breast whistles from a garden-croft, + And gathering swallows twitter in the skies. + + JOHN KEATS. + + + + +A WOODCHUCK AND A GREBE + + +No fact comes to mind which is not more impressed upon us by the valuable +aid of comparisons, and Nature is ever offering antitheses. At this season +we are generally given a brief glimpse--the last for the year--of two +creatures, one a mammal, the other a bird, which are as unlike in their +activities as any two living creatures could well be. + +What a type of lazy contentment is the woodchuck, as throughout the hot +summer days he lies on his warm earthen hillock at the entrance of his +burrow. His fat body seems almost to flow down the slope, and when he +waddles around for a nibble of clover it is with such an effort that we +feel sure he would prefer a comfortable slow starvation, were it not for +the unpleasant feelings involved in such a proceeding. + +As far as I know there are but two things which, can rouse a woodchuck to +strenuous activity; when a dog is in pursuit he can make his stumpy feet +fairly twinkle as he flies for his burrow, and when a fox or a man is +digging him out, he can literally worm his way through the ground, +frequently escaping by means of his wonderful digging power. But when +September or October days bring the first chill, he gives one last yawn +upon the world and stows himself away at the farthest end of his tunnel, +there to sleep away the winter. Little more does he know of the snows and +blizzards than the bird which has flown to the tropics. Even storing up +fruits or roots is too great an effort for the indolent woodchuck, and in +his hibernation stupor he draws only upon the fat which his lethargic +summer life has accumulated within his skin. + +As we might expect from a liver of such a slothful life, the family traits +of the woodchuck are far from admirable and there is said to be little +affection shown by the mother woodchuck toward her young. The poor little +fellows are pushed out of the burrow and driven away to shift for +themselves as soon as possible. Many of them must come to grief from hawks +and foxes. Closely related to the squirrels, these large marmots (for they +are first cousins to the prairie dogs) are as unlike them in activity as +they are in choice of a haunt. + +What a contrast to all this is the trim feathered form which we may see on +the mill pond some clear morning. Alert and wary, the grebe paddles slowly +along, watchful of every movement. If we approach too closely, it may +settle little by little, like a submarine opening its water compartments, +until nothing is visible except the head with its sharp beak. Another step +and the bird has vanished, swallowed up by the lake, and the chances are a +hundred to one against our discovering the motionless neck and the tiny +eye which rises again among the water weeds. + +This little grebe comes of a splendid line of ancestors, some of which +were even more specialised for an aquatic life. These paid the price of +existence along lines too narrow and vanished from the earth. The grebe, +however, has so far stuck to a life which bids fair to allow his race +safety for many generations, but he is perilously near the limit. Every +fall he migrates far southward, leaving his northern lakes, but if the +water upon which he floats should suddenly dry up, he would be almost as +helpless as the gasping fish; for his wings are too weak to lift him from +the ground. He must needs have a long take-off, a flying start, aided by +vigorous paddling along the surface of the water, before he can rise into +the air. + +Millions of years ago there lived birds built on the general grebe plan +and who doubtless were derived from the same original stock, but which +lived in the great seas of that time. Far from being able to migrate, +every external trace of wing was gone and these great creatures, almost as +large as a man and with sharp teeth in their beaks, must have hitched +themselves like seals along the edge of the beach, and perhaps laid their +eggs on the pebbles as do the terns to-day. + +The grebe, denied the power to rise easily and even, to ran about on land +without considerable effort, is, however, splendidly adapted to its water +life, and the rapidity of its motions places it near the head of the +higher active creatures,--with the woodchuck near the opposite extreme. + + + + +THE VOICE OF THE ANIMALS + + +Throughout the depths of the sea, silence, as well as absolute darkness, +prevails. The sun penetrates only a short distance below the surface, at +most a few hundred feet, and all disturbance from storms ceases far above +that depth, Where the pressure is a ton or more to the square inch, it is +very evident that no sound vibration can exist. Near the surface it is +otherwise. The majority of fishes have no lungs and of course no vocal +chords, but certain species, such as the drumfish, are able to distend +special sacs with gas or air, or in other ways to produce sounds. One +variety succeeds in producing a number of sounds by gritting the teeth, +and when the male fish is attempting to charm the female by dashing round +her, spreading his fins to display his brilliant colours, this gritting of +the teeth holds a prominent place in the performance, although whether the +fair finny one makes her choice because she prefers a high-toned grit +instead of a lower one can only be imagined! But vibrations, whether of +sound or of water pressure, are easily carried near the surface, and +fishes are provided with organs to receive and record them. One class of +such organs has little in common with ears, as we speak of them; they are +merely points on the head and body which are susceptible to the watery +vibrations. These points are minute cavities, surrounded with tiny _cilia_ +or hairs, which connect with the ends of the nerves. + +The ears of the frogs and all higher animals are, like the tongue-bone and +the lower jaw, derived originally from portions of gills, which the +aquatic ancestors of living animals used to draw the oxygen from the +water. This is one of the most wonderful and interesting changes which the +study of evolution has unfolded to our knowledge. + +The disproportionate voices are produced by means of an extra amount of +skin on the throat, which is distensible and acts as a drum to increase +the volume of sound. In certain bullfrogs which grow to be as large as the +head of a man, the bellowing power is deafening and is audible for miles. +In Chile a small species of frog, measuring only about an inch in length, +has two internal vocal sacs which are put to a unique use. Where these +frogs live, water is very scarce and the polliwogs have no chance to live +and develop in pools, as is ordinarily the case. So when the eggs are +laid, they are immediately taken by the male frog and placed in these +capacious sacs, which serve as nurseries for them all through their +hatching and growing period of life. Although there is no water in these +chambers, yet their gills grow out and are reabsorbed, just as is the case +in ordinary tadpoles. When their legs are fully developed, they clamber up +to their father's broad mouth and get their first glimpse of the great +world from his lower lip. When fifteen partly developed polliwogs are +found in the pouches of one little frog, he looks as if he had gorged +himself to bursting with tadpoles. To such curious uses may vocal organs +be put. + +Turtles are voiceless, except at the period of laying eggs, when they +acquire a voice, which even in the largest is very tiny and piping, like +some very small insect rather than a two-hundred-pound tortoise. Some of +the lizards utter shrill, insect-like squeaks. + +A species of gecko, a small, brilliantly coloured lizard, has the back of +its tail armed with plates. These it has a habit of rubbing together, and +by this means it produces a shrill, chirruping sound, which actually +attracts crickets and grasshoppers toward the noise, so that they fall +easy prey to this reptilian trapper. So in colour, sound, motion, and many +other ways, animals act and react upon each other, a useful and necessary +habit being perverted by an enemy, so that the death of the creature +results. Yet it would never be claimed that the lizard thought out this +mimicking. It probably found that certain actions resulted in the approach +of good dinners, and in its offspring this action might be partly +instinctive, and each generation would perpetuate it. If it had been an +intentional act, other nearly related species of lizards would imitate it, +as soon as they perceived the success which attended it. + +That many animals have a kind of language is nowadays admitted to be a +truism, but this is more evident among mammals and birds, and, reviewing +the classes of the former, we find a more or less defined ascending +complexity and increased number of varying sounds as we pass from the +lower forms--kangaroos and moles--to the higher herb-and-flesh-eaters, and +particularly monkeys. + +Squeaks and grunts constitute the vocabulary, if we dignify it by that +name, of the mammals. The sloths, those curious animals whose entire life +is spent clinging to the underside of branches, on whose leaves they feed, +may be said almost to be voiceless, so seldom do they give utterance to +the nameless wail which constitutes their only utterance. Even when being +torn to pieces by an enemy, they offer no resistance and emit no sound, +but fold their claws around their body and submit to the inevitable as +silently and as stoically as did ever an ancient Spartan. + +Great fear of death will often cause an animal to utter sounds which are +different from those produced under any other conditions. When an elephant +is angry or excited, his trumpeting is terribly loud and shrill; but when +a mother elephant is "talking" to her child, while the same sonorous, +metallic quality is present, yet it is wonderfully softened and modulated. +A horse is a good example of what the fear of death will do. The ordinary +neigh of a horse is very familiar, but in battle when mortally wounded, or +having lost its master and being terribly frightened, a horse will scream, +and those who have heard it, say it is more awful than the cries of pain +of a human being. + +Deer and elk often astonish one by the peculiar sounds which they produce. +An elk can bellow loudly, especially when fighting; but when members of a +herd call to each other, or when surprised by some unusual appearance, +they whistle--a sudden, sharp whistle, like the tin mouthpieces with +revolving discs, which were at one time so much in evidence. + +The growl of a bear differs greatly under varying circumstances. There is +the playful growl, uttered when two individuals are wrestling, and the +terrible "sound"--no word expresses it--to which a bear, cornered and +driven to the last extremity, gives utterance--fear, hate, dread, and +awful passion mingled and expressed in sound. One can realise the fearful +terror which this inspires only when one has, as I have, stood up to a mad +bear, repelling charge after charge, with only an iron pike between one's +self and those powerful fangs and claws. The long-drawn moan of a polar +bear on a frosty night is another phase; this, too, is expressive, but +only of those wonderful Arctic scenes where night and day are as one to +this great seal-hunter. + +The dog has made man his god,--giving up his life for his master would be +but part of his way of showing his love if he had it in his power to do +more. So, too, the dog has attempted to adapt his speech to his master's, +and the result is a bark. No wild coyotes or wolves bark, but when bands +of dogs descended from domesticated animals run wild, their howls are +modulated and a certain unmistakable barking quality imparted. The +drawn-out howl of a great gray wolf is an impressive sound and one never +to be forgotten. Only the fox seems to possess the ability to bark in its +native tongue. The sounds which the cats, great and small, reproduce are +most varied. Nothing can be much more intimidating than the roar of a +lion, or more demoniacal than the arguments which our house-pets carry on +at night on garden fences. + +What use the sounds peculiar to sea-lions subserve in their life on the +great ocean, or their haunts along the shore, can only be imagined, but +surely such laudable perseverance, day after day, to out-utter each other, +must be for some good reason! + +Volumes have been written concerning the voices of the two remaining +groups of animals--monkeys and birds. In the great family of the +four-handed folk, more varieties of sound are produced than would be +thought possible. Some of the large baboons are awful in their +vocalisations. Terrible agony or remorse is all that their moans suggest +to us, no matter what frame of mind on the part of the baboon induces +them. Of all vertebrates the tiny marmosets reproduce most exactly the +chirps of crickets and similar insects, and to watch one of these little +human faces, see its mouth open, and instead of, as seems natural, words +issuing forth, to hear these shrill squeaks is most surprising. Young +orang-utans, in their "talk," as well as in their actions, are +counterparts of human infants. The scream of frantic rage when a banana is +offered and jerked away, the wheedling tone when the animal wishes to be +comforted by the keeper on account of pain or bruise, and the sound of +perfect contentment and happiness when petted by the keeper whom it learns +to love,--all are almost indistinguishable from like utterances of a human +child. + +But how pitiless is the inevitable change of the next few years! Slowly +the bones of the cranium thicken, partly filling up the brain cavity, and +slowly but surely the ape loses all affection for those who take care of +it. More and more morose and sullen it becomes until it reaches a stage of +unchangeable ferocity and must be doomed to close confinement, never again +to be handled or caressed. + + + + +THE NAMES OF ANIMALS, FROGS, AND FISH + + +When, during the lazy autumn days, the living creatures seem for a time to +have taken themselves completely beyond our ken, it may be interesting to +delve among old records and descriptions of animals and see how the names +by which we know them first came to be given. Many of our English names +have an unsuspected ancestry, which, through past centuries, has been +handed down to us through many changes of spelling and meaning, of +romantic as well as historical interest. + +How many people regard the scientific Latin and Greek names of animals +with horror, as being absolutely beyond their comprehension, and yet how +interesting these names become when we look them squarely in the face, +analyse them and find the appropriateness of their application. + +When you say "wolf" to a person, the image of that wild creature comes +instantly to his mind, but if you ask him _why_ it is called a wolf, a +hundred chances to one he will look blankly at you. It is the old fault, +so common among us human beings, of ignoring the things which lie nearest +us. Or perhaps your friend shares the state of mind of the puzzled old +lady, who, after looking over a collection of fossil bones, said that she +could understand how these bones had been preserved, and millions of years +later had been discovered, but it was a mystery to her how anyone could +know the names of these ancient animals after such a lapse of time! + +Some of the names of the commonest animals are lost in the dimness of +antiquity, such as fox, weasel, sheep, dog, and baboon. Of the origin of +these we have forever lost the clew. With camel we can go no farther back +than the Latin word _camelus_, and elephant balks us with the old Hindoo +word _eleph_, which means an ox. The old root of the word wolf meant one +who tears or rends, and the application to this animal is obvious. In +several English and German names of persons, we have handed down to us a +relic of the old fashion of applying wolf as a compliment to a warrior or +soldier. For example, Adolph means noble-wolf, and Rudolph glory-wolf. + +Lynx is from the same Latin word as the word _lux_ (light) and probably +was given to these wildcats on account of the brightness of their eyes. +Lion is, of course, from the Latin _leo_, which word, in turn, is lost far +back in the Egyptian tongue, where the word for the king of beasts was +_labu_. The compound word leopard is first found in the Persian language, +where _pars_ stands for panther. Seal, very appropriately, was once a word +meaning "of the sea"; close to the Latin _sal_, the sea. + +Many names of animals are adapted from words in the ancient language of +the natives in whose country the creatures were first discovered. Puma, +jaguar, tapir, and peccary (from _paquires_) are all names from South +American Indian languages. The coyote and ocelot were called _coyotl_ and +_ocelotl_ by the Mexicans long before Cortes landed on their shores. +Zebra, gorilla, and chimpanzee are native African words, and orang-utan is +Malay, meaning Man of the Woods. Cheetah is from some East Indian tongue, +as is tahr, the name of the wild goat of the Himalayas. Gnu is from the +Hottentots, and giraffe from the Arabic _zaraf_. Aoudad, the Barbary wild +sheep, is the French form of the Moorish name _audad_. + +The native Indians of our own country are passing rapidly, and before many +years their race may be extinct, but their musical, euphonious names of +the animals they knew so well, often pleased the ear of the early +settlers, and in many instances will be a lasting memorial as long as +these forest creatures of our United States survive. + +Thus, moose is from the Indian word _mouswah_, meaning wood-eater; skunk +from _seganku_, an Algonquin term; _wapiti_, in the Cree language, meant +white deer, and was originally applied to the Rocky Mountain goat, but the +name is now restricted to the American elk. Caribou is also an Indian +word; opossum is from _possowne_, and raccoon is from the Indian +_arrathkune_ (by further apheresis, coon). + +Rhinoceros is pure Greek, meaning nose-horned, but beaver has indeed had a +rough time of it in its travels through various languages. It is hardly +recognisable as _bebrus_, _babbru_, and _bbru_. The latter is the ultimate +root of our word brown. The original application was, doubtless, on +account of the colour of the creature's fur. Otter takes us back to +Sanskrit, where we find it _udra_. The significance of this word is in its +close kinship to _udan_, meaning water. + +The little mouse hands his name down through the years from the old, old +Sanskrit, the root meaning to steal. Many people who never heard of +Sanskrit have called him and his descendants by terms of homologous +significance! The word muscle is from the same root, and was applied from +a fancied resemblance of the movement of the muscle beneath the skin to a +mouse in motion--not a particularly quieting thought to certain members of +the fair sex! The origin of the word rat is less certain, but it may have +been derived from the root of the Latin word _radere_, to scratch, or +_rodere_, to gnaw. Rodent is derived from the latter term. Cat is also in +doubt, but is first recognised in _catalus_, a diminutive of _canis_, a +dog. It was applied to the young of almost any animal, as we use the words +pup, kitten, cub, and so forth. Bear is the result of tongue-twisting from +the Latin _fera_, a wild beast. + +Ape is from the Sanskrit _kapi_; _kap_ in the same language means tremble; +but the connection is not clear. Lemur, the name given to that low family +of monkeys, is from the plural Latin word _lemures_, meaning ghost or +spectre. This has reference to the nocturnal habits, stealthy gait, and +weird expression of these large-eyed creatures. Antelope is probably of +Grecian origin, and was originally applied to a half-mythical animal, +located on the banks of the Euphrates, and described as "very savage and +fleet, and having long, saw-like horns with which it could cut down trees. +It figures largely in the peculiar fauna of heraldry." + +Deer is of obscure origin, but may have been an adjective meaning wild. +Elk is derived from the same root as eland, and the history of the latter +word is an interesting one. It meant a sufferer, and was applied by the +Teutons to the elk of the Old World on account of the awkward gait and +stiff movements of this ungainly animal. But in later years the Dutch +carried the same word, eland, to South Africa, and there gave it to the +largest of the tribe of antelopes, in which sense it is used by zoologists +to-day. + +Porcupine has arisen from two Latin words, _porcus_, a hog, and _spina_, a +spine; hence, appropriately, a spiny-hog. Buffalo may once have been some +native African name. In the vista of time, our earliest glimpse of it is +as _bubalus_, which was applied both to the wild ox and to a species of +African antelope. Fallow deer is from fallow, meaning pale, or yellowish, +while axis, as applied to the deer so common in zoological gardens, was +first mentioned by Pliny and is doubtless of East Indian origin. The word +bison is from the Anglo-Saxon _wesend_, but beyond Pliny its ultimate +origin eludes all research. + +Marmot, through various distortions, looms up from Latin times as _mus +montanus_, literally a mountain mouse. Badger is from badge, in allusion +to the bands of white fur on its forehead. The verb meaning to badger is +derived from the old cruel sport of baiting badgers with dogs. + +Monkey is from the same root as _monna_, a woman; more especially an old +crone, in reference to the fancied resemblance of the weazened face of a +monkey to that of a withered old woman. Madam and madonna are other forms +of words from the same root, so wide and sweeping are the changes in +meaning which usage and time can give to words. + +Squirrel has a poetic origin in the Greek language; its original meaning +being shadow-tail. Tiger is far more intricate. The old Persian word _tir_ +meant arrow, while _tighra_ signified sharp. The application to this great +animal was in allusion to the swiftness with which the tiger leaps upon +his prey. The river Tigris, meaning literally the river Arrow, is named +thus from the swiftness of its current. + +As to the names of reptiles it is, of course, to the Romans that we are +chiefly indebted, as in the case of reptile from _reptilus_, meaning +creeping; and crocodile from _dilus_, a lizard. Serpent is also from the +Latin _serpens_, creeping, and this from the old Sanskrit root, _sarp_, +with the same meaning. This application of the idea of creeping is again +found in the word snake, which originally came from the Sanskrit _naga_. + +Tortoise harks back to the Latin _tortus_, meaning twisted (hence our word +tortuous) and came to be applied to these slow creatures because of their +twisted legs. In its evolution through many tongues it has suffered +numbers of variations; one of these being turtle, which we use to-day to +designate the smaller land tortoises. Terrapin and its old forms +_terrapene_ and _turpin_, on the contrary, originated in the New World, in +the language of the American Redskin. + +_Cobra-de-capello_ is Portuguese for hooded snake, while python is far +older, the same word being used by the Greeks to denote a spirit, demon, +or evil-soothsayer. This name was really given to designate any species of +large serpent. _Boa_ is Latin and was also applied to a large snake, while +the importance of the character of size is seen, perhaps, in our words +_bos_ and _bovine_. + +The word viper is interesting; coming directly from the Romans, who wrote +it _vipera_. This in turn is a contraction of the feminine form of the +adjective _vivipera_, in reference to the habit of these snakes of +bringing forth their young alive. + +Lizard, through such forms as _lesarde_, _lezard_, _lagarto_, _lacerto_, +is from the Latin _lacertus_, a lizard; while closely related is the word +alligator by way of _lagarto_, _aligarto_, to alligator. The prefix may +have arisen as a corruption of an article and a noun, as in the modern +Spanish _el lagarto_,--a lizard. + +Monitor is Latin for one who reminds, these lizards being so called +because they are supposed to give warning of the approach of crocodiles. +Asp can be carried back to the _aspis_ of the Romans, no trace being found +in the dim vistas of preceding tongues. + +Gecko, the name of certain wall-hunting lizards, is derived from their +croaking cry; while iguana is a Spanish name taken from the old native +Haytian appellation _biuana_. + +Of the word frog we know nothing, although through the medium of many +languages it has had as thorough an evolution as in its physical life. We +must also admit our ignorance in regard to toad, backward search revealing +only _tade_, _tode_, _ted_, _toode_, and _tadie_, the root baffling all +study. Polliwog and tadpole are delightfully easy. Old forms of polliwog +are _pollywig_, _polewiggle_, and _pollwiggle_. This last gives us the +clew to our spelling--_pollwiggle_, which, reversed and interpreted in a +modern way, is wigglehead, a most appropriate name for these lively little +black fellows. Tadpole is somewhat similar; toad-pole, or toad's-head, +also very apt when we think of these small-bodied larval forms. + +Salamander, which is a Greek word of Eastern origin, was applied in the +earliest times to a lizard considered to have the power of extinguishing +fire. Newt has a strange history; originating in a wrong division of two +words, "_an ewte_," the latter being derived from _eft_, which is far more +correct than newt, though in use now in only a few places. Few fishermen +have ever thought of the interesting derivation of the names which they +know so well. Of course there are a host of fishes named from a fancied +resemblance to familiar terrestrial animals or other things; such as the +catfish, and those named after the dog, hog, horse, cow, trunk, devil, +angel, sun, and moon. + +The word fish has passed through many varied forms since it was _piscis_ +in the old Latin tongue, and the same is true of shark and skate, which in +the same language were _carcharus_ and _squatus_. Trout was originally +_tructa_, which in turn is lost in a very old Greek word, meaning eat or +gnaw. Perch harks back to the Latin _perca_, and the Romans had it from +the Greeks, among whom it meant spotted. The Romans said _minutus_ when +they meant small, and nowadays when we speak of any very small fish we say +minnow. Alewife in old English was applied to the women, usually very +stout dames, who kept alehouses. The corpulency of the fish to which the +same term is given explains its derivation. + +The pike is so named from the sharp, pointed snout and long, slim body, +bringing to mind the old-time weapon of that name; while pickerel means +doubly a little pike, the _er_ and _el_ (as in cock and cockerel) both +being diminutives. Smelt was formerly applied to any small fish and comes, +perhaps, from the Anglo-Saxon _smeolt_, which meant smooth--the smoothness +and slipperiness of the fish suggesting the name. + +Salmon comes directly from the Latin _salmo_, a salmon, which literally +meant the leaper, from _salire_--to leap. Sturgeon, from the Saxon was +_stiriga_, literally a stirrer, from the habit of the fish of stirring up +the mud at the bottom of the water. Dace, through its mediaeval forms +_darce_ and _dars_, is from the same root as our word dart, given on +account of the swiftness of the fish. + +Anchovy is interesting as perhaps from the Basque word _antzua_, meaning +dry; hence the dried fish; and mullet is from the Latin _mullus_. Herring +is well worth following back to its origin. We know that the most marked +habit of fishes of this type is their herding together in great schools or +masses or armies. In the very high German _heri_ meant an army or host; +hence our word harry and, with a suffix, herring. + +_Hake_ in Norwegian means hook, and the term hake or hook-fish was given +because of the hooked character of the under-jaw. Mackerel comes from +_macarellus_ and originally the Latin _macula_--spotted, from the dark +spots on the body. Roach and ray both come from the Latin _raria_, applied +then as in the latter case now to bottom-living sharks. + +Flounder comes from the verb, which in turn is derived from flounce, a +word which is lost in antiquity. Tarpon (and the form _tarpum_) may be an +Indian word; while there is no doubt as to grouper coming from _garrupa_, +a native Mexican name. Chubb (a form of cub) meant a chunky mass or lump, +referring to the body of the fish. Shad is lost in _sceadda_, Anglo-Saxon +for the same fish. + +Lamprey and halibut both have histories, which, at first glance, we would +never suspect, although the forms have changed but little. The former have +a habit of fastening themselves for hours to stones and rocks, by means of +their strong, sucking mouths. So the Latin form of the word _lampetra_, or +literally lick-rock, is very appropriate. Halibut is equally so. _But_ or +_bot_ in several languages means a certain flounder-like fish, and in +olden times this fish was eaten only on holidays (_i.e._, holy days). +Hence the combination halibut means really holy-flounder. + +The meaning of these words and many others are worth knowing, and it is +well to be able to answer with other than ignorance the question "What's +in a name?" + + + + +THE DYING YEAR + + +When a radical change of habits occurs, as in the sapsucker, deviating so +sharply from the ancient principles of its family, many other forms of +life about it are influenced, indirectly, but in a most interesting way. +In its tippling operations it wastes quantities of sap which exudes from +the numerous holes and trickles down the bark of the wounded tree. This +proves a veritable feast for the forlorn remnant of wasps and +butterflies,--the year's end stragglers whose flower calyces have fallen +and given place to swelling seeds. + +Swiftly up wind they come on the scent, eager as hounds on the trail, and +they drink and drink of the sweets until they become almost incapable of +flying. But, after all, the new lease of life is a vain semblance of +better things. Their eggs have long since been laid and their mission in +life ended, and at the best their existence is but a matter of days. + +It is a sad thing this, and sometimes our heart hardens against Nature for +the seeming cruelty of it all. Forever and always, year after year, +century upon century, the same tale unfolds itself,--the sacrifice of the +individual for the good of the race. A hundred drones are tended and +reared, all but one to die in vain; a thousand seeds are sown to rot or to +sprout and wither; a million little codfish hatch and begin life +hopefully, perhaps all to succumb save one; a million million shrimp and +pteropods paddle themselves here and there in the ocean, and every one is +devoured by fish or swept into the whalebone tangle from which none ever +return. And if a lucky one which survives does so because it has some +little advantage over its fellows,--some added quality which gives just +the opportunity to escape at the critical moment,--then the race will +advance to the extent of that trifle and so carry out the precept of +evolution. But even though we may owe every character of body and mind to +the fulfilment of some such inexorable law in the past, yet the witnessing +of the operation brings ever a feeling of cruelty, of injustice +somewhere. + +How pitiful the weak flight of the last yellow butterfly of the year, as +with tattered and battered wings it vainly seeks for a final sip of +sweets! The fallen petals and the hard seeds are black and odourless, the +drops of sap are hardened. Little by little the wings weaken, the tiny +feet clutch convulsively at a dried weed stalk, and the four golden wings +drift quietly down among the yellow leaves, soon to merge into the dark +mould beneath. As the butterfly dies, a stiffened Katydid scratches a last +requiem on his wing covers--"_katy-didn't--katy-did--kate--y_"--and the +succeeding moment of silence is broken by the sharp rattle of a +woodpecker. We shake off every dream of the summer and brace ourselves to +meet and enjoy the keen, invigorating pleasures of winter. + +------------------------------------------------------------------------ + +NOVEMBER + +------------------------------------------------------------------------ + + + + +NOVEMBER'S BIRDS OF THE HEAVENS + + +As the whirling winds of winter's edge strip the trees bare of their last +leaves, the leaden sky of the eleventh month seems to push its cold face +closer to earth. Who can tell when the northern sparrows first arrive? A +whirl of brown leaves scatters in front of us; some fall back to earth; +others rise and perch in the thick briers,--sombre little white-throated +and tree sparrows! These brown-coated, low-voiced birds easily attract our +attention, the more now that the great host of brilliant warblers has +passed, just as our hearts warm toward the humble poly-pody fronds +(passing them by unnoticed when flowers are abundant) which now hold up +their bright greenness amid all the cold. + +But all the migrants have not left us yet by any means, and we had better +leave our boreal visitors until mid-winter's blasts show us these hardiest +of the hardy at their best. + +We know little of the ways of the gaunt herons on their southward journey, +but day after day, in the marshes and along the streams, we may see the +great blues as they stop in their flight to rest for a time. + +The cold draws all the birds of a species together. Dark hordes of +clacking grackles pass by, scores of red-winged blackbirds and cowbirds +mingle amicably together, both of dark hue but of such unlike matrimonial +habits. A single male red-wing, as we have seen, may assume the cares of a +harem of three, four, or five females, each of which rears her +brown-streaked offspring in her own particular nest, while the valiant +guardian keeps faithful watch over his small colony among the reeds and +cat-tails. But little thought or care does mother cowbird waste upon her +offspring. No home life is hers--merely a stealthy approach to the nest of +some unsuspecting yellow warbler, or other small bird, a hastily deposited +egg, and the unnatural parent goes on her way, having shouldered all her +household cares on another. Her young may be hatched and carefully reared +by the patient little warbler mother, or the egg may spoil in the deserted +nest, or be left in the cold beneath another nest bottom built over it; +little cares the cowbird. + +The ospreys or fish hawks seem to circle southward in pairs or trios, but +some clear, cold day the sky will be alive with hawks of other kinds. It +is a strange fact that these birds which have the power to rise so high +that they fairly disappear from our sight choose the trend of terrestrial +valleys whenever possible, in directing their aerial routes. Even the +series of New Jersey hills, flattered by the name of the Orange Mountains, +seem to balk many hawks which elect to change their direction and fly to +the right or left toward certain gaps or passes. Through these a raptorial +stream pours in such numbers during the period of migration that a person +with a foreknowledge of their path in former years may lie in wait and +watch scores upon scores of these birds pass close overhead within a few +hours, while a short distance to the right or left one may watch all day +without seeing a single raptor. The whims of migrating birds are beyond +our ken. + +Sometimes, out in the broad fields, one's eyes will be drawn accidentally +upward, and a great flight of hawks will be seen--a compact flock of +intercircling forms, perhaps two or three hundred in all, the whole number +gradually passing from view in a southerly direction, now and then sending +down a shrill cry. It is a beautiful sight, not very often to be seen near +a city--unless watched for. + +To a dweller in a city or its suburbs I heartily commend at this season +the forming of this habit,--to look upward as often as possible on your +walks. An instant suffices to sweep the whole heavens with your eye, and +if the distant circling forms, moving in so stately a manner, yet so +swiftly, and in their every movement personifying the essence of wild and +glorious freedom,--if this sight does not send a thrill through the +onlooker, then he may at once pull his hat lower over his eyes and concern +himself only with his immediate business. The joys of Nature are not for +such as he; the love of the wild which exists in every one of us is, in +him, too thickly "sicklied o'er" with the veneer of convention and +civilisation. + +Even as late as November, when the water begins to freeze in the tiny cups +of the pitcher plants, and the frost brings into being a new kind of +foliage on glass and stone, a few insect-eaters of the summer woods still +linger on. A belated red-eyed vireo may be chased by a snowbird, and when +we approach a flock of birds, mistaking them at a distance for purple +finches, we may discover they are myrtle warblers, clad in the faded +yellow of their winter plumage. In favoured localities these brave little +birds may even spend the entire winter with us. + +One of the best of November's surprises may come when all hope of late +migrants has been given up. Walking near the river, our glance falls on +what might be a painter's palate with blended colours of all shades +resting on the smooth surface of the water. We look again and again, +hardly believing our eyes, until at last the gorgeous creature takes to +wing, and goes humming down the stream, a bit of colour tropical in its +extravagance--and we know that we have seen a male wood, or summer, duck +in the full grandeur of his white, purple, chestnut, black, blue, and +brown. Many other ducks have departed, but this one still swims among the +floating leaves on secluded waterways. + +Now is the time when the woodcock rises from his swampy summer home and +zigzags his way to a land where earthworms are still active. Sometimes in +our walks we may find the fresh body of one of these birds, and an upward +glance at the roadside will show the cause--the cruel telegraph wires +against which the flight of the bird has carried it with fatal velocity. + +One of the greatest pleasures which November has to give us is the joy of +watching for the long lines of wild geese from the Canada lakes. Who can +help being thrilled at the sight of these strong-winged birds, as the +V-shaped flock throbs into view high in air, beating over land and water, +forest and city, as surely and steadily as the passing of the day behind +them. One of the finest of November sounds is the "Honk! honk!" which +comes to our ears from such a company of geese,--musical tones "like a +clanking chain drawn through the heavy air." + +At the stroke of midnight I have been halted in my hurried walk by these +notes. They are a bit of the wild north which may even enter within a +city, and three years ago I trapped a fine gander and a half a dozen of +his flock in the New York Zoological Park, where they have lived ever +since and reared their golden-hued goslings, which otherwise would have +broken their shells on some Arctic waste, with only the snowbirds to +admire, and to be watched with greedy eyes by the Arctic owls. + + A haze on the far horizon, + The infinite tender sky, + The ripe, rich tints of the cornfields, + And the wild geese sailing high; + And ever on upland and lowland, + The charm of the goldenrod-- + Some of us call it Autumn, + And others call it God. + W. H. Carruth. + + + + +A PLEA FOR THE SKUNK + + +In spite of constant persecution the skunk is without doubt the tamest of +all of our wild animals, and shares with the weasel and mink the honour of +being one of the most abundant of the carnivores, or flesh-eaters, near +our homes. This is a great achievement for the skunk,--to have thus held +its own in the face of ever advancing and destroying civilisation. But the +same characteristics which enable it to hold its ground are also those +which emancipate it from its wild kindred and give it a unique position +among animals. Its first cousins, the minks and weasels, all secrete +pungent odours, which are unpleasant enough at close range, but in the +skunk the great development of these glands has caused a radical change in +its habits of life and even in its physical make-up. + +Watch a mink creeping on its sinuous way,--every action and glance full of +fierce wildness, each step telling of insatiable seeking after living, +active prey. The boldest rat flees in frantic terror at the hint of this +animal's presence; but let man show himself, and with a demoniacal grin of +hatred the mink slinks into covert. + +Now follow a skunk in its wanderings as it comes out of its hole in early +evening, slowly stretches and yawns, and with hesitating, rolling gait +ambles along, now and then sniffing in the grass and seizing some sluggish +grasshopper or cricket. Fearlessness and confidence are what its gait and +manner spell. The world is its debtor, and all creatures in its path are +left unmolested, only on evidence of good behaviour. Far from need of +concealment, its furry coat is striped with a broad band of white, +signalling in the dusk or the moonlight, "Give me room to pass and go in +peace! Trouble me and beware!" + +Degenerate in muscles and vitality, the skunk must forego all strenuous +hunts and trust to craft and sudden springs, or else content himself with +the humble fare of insects, helpless young birds, and poor, easily +confused mice. The flesh of the skunk is said to be sweet and toothsome, +but few creatures there are who dare attempt to add it to their bill of +fare! A great horned owl or a puma in the extremity of starvation, or a +vulture in dire stress of hunger,--probably no others. + +Far from wilfully provoking an attack, the skunk is usually content to go +on his way peacefully, and when one of these creatures becomes accustomed +to the sight of an observer, no more interesting and, indeed, safer object +of study can be found. + +Depart once from the conventional mode of greeting a skunk,--and instead +of hurling a stone in its direction and fleeing, place, if the opportunity +present itself, bits of meat in its way evening after evening, and you +will soon learn that there is nothing vicious in the heart of the skunk. +The evening that the gentle animal appears leading in her train a file of +tiny infant skunks, you will feel well repaid for the trouble you have +taken. Baby skunks, like their elders, soon learn to know their friends, +and are far from being at hair-trigger poise, as is generally supposed. + + + + +THE LESSON OF THE WAVE + + +The sea and the sky and the shore were at perfect peace on the day when +the young gull first launched into the air, and flew outward over the +green, smooth ocean. Day after day his parents had brought him fish and +squid, until his baby plumage fell from him and his beautiful +wing-feathers shot forth,--clean-webbed and elastic. His strong feet had +carried him for days over the expanse of sand dunes and pebbles, and now +and then he had paddled into deep pools and bathed in the cold salt water. +Most creatures of the earth are limited to one or the other of these two +elements, but now the gull was proving his mastery over a third. The land, +the sea, were left below, and up into the air drifted the beautiful bird, +every motion confident with the instinct of ages. + +The usefulness of his mother's immaculate breast now becomes apparent. A +school of small fish basking near the surface rise and fall with the +gentle undulating swell, seeing dimly overhead the blue sky, flecked with +hosts of fleecy white clouds. A nearer, swifter cloud approaches, +hesitates, splashes into their midst,--and the parent gull has caught her +first fish of the day. Instinctively the young bird dives; in his joy of +very life he cries aloud,--the gull-cry which his ancestors of long ago +have handed down to him. At night he seeks the shore and tucks his bill +into his plumage; and all because of something within him, compelling him +to do these things. + +But far from being an automaton, his bright eye and full-rounded head +presage higher things. Occasionally his mind breaks through the mist of +instinct and reaches upward to higher activity. + +As with the other wild kindred of the ocean, food was the chief object of +the day's search. Fish were delicious, but were not always to be had; +crabs were a treat indeed, when caught unawares, but for mile after mile +along the coast were hosts of mussels and clams,--sweet and lucious, but +incased in an armour of shell, through which there was no penetrating. +However swift a dash was made upon one of these,--always the clam closed a +little quicker, sending a derisive shower of drops over the head of the +gull. + +Once, after a week of rough weather, the storm gods brought their battling +to a climax. Great green walls of foaming water crashed upon the rocks, +rending huge boulders and sucking them down into the black depths. Over +and through the spray dashed the gull, answering the wind's howl--shriek +for shriek, poising over the fearful battlefield of sea and shore. + +A wave mightier than all hung and curved, and a myriad shell-fish were +torn from their sheltered nooks and hurled high, in air, to fall broken +and helpless among the boulders. The quick eye of the gull saw it all, and +at that instant of intensest chaos of the elements, the brain of the bird +found itself. + +Shortly afterward came night and sleep, but the new-found flash of +knowledge was not lost. + +The next day the bird walked at low tide into the stronghold of the +shell-fish, roughly tore one from the silky strands of its moorings, and +carrying it far upward let it fall at random among the rocks. The +toothsome morsel was snatched from its crushed shell and a triumphant +scream told of success,--a scream which, could it have been interpreted, +should have made a myriad, myriad mussels shrink within their shells! + +From gull to gull, and from flock to flock, the new habit spread, +imitation taking instant advantage of this new source of food. When to-day +we walk along the shore and see flocks of gulls playing ducks and drakes +with the unfortunate shell-fish, give them not too much credit, but think +of some bird which in the long ago first learned the lesson, whether by +chance or, as I have suggested, by observing the victims of the waves. + + * * * * * + +No scientific facts are these, but merely a logical reasoning deduced from +the habits and traits of the birds as we know them to-day; a theory to +hold in mind while we watch for its confirmation in the beginning of other +new and analogous habits. + + The world is too much with us; late and soon, + Getting and spending, we lay waste our powers; + Little we see in Nature that is ours; + We have given our hearts away, a sordid boon! + This sea that bares her bosom to the moon, + The winds that will be howling at all hours, + And are up-gather'd now like sleeping flowers; + For this, for everything, we are out of tune; + It moves us not.--Great God! I'd rather be + A Pagan suckled in a creed outworn; + So might I, standing on this pleasant lea, + Have glimpses that would make me less forlorn; + Have sight of Proteus rising from the sea; + Or hear old Triton blow his wreathed horn. + William Wordsworth. + + + + +WE GO A-SPONGING + + +When a good compound microscope becomes as common an object in our homes +as is a clock or a piano, we may be certain that the succeeding generation +will grow up with a much broader view of life and a far greater +realisation of the beauties of the natural world. To most of us a glance +through a microscope is almost as unusual a sight as the panorama from a +balloon. While many of the implements of a scientist arouse enthusiasm +only in himself, in the case of the revelations of this instrument, the +average person, whatever his profession, cannot fail to be interested. + +Many volumes have been written on the microscopic life of ponds and +fields, and in a short essay only a hint of the delights of this +fascinating study can be given. + +Any primer of Natural History will tell us that our bath sponges are the +fibrous skeletons of aquatic animals which inhabit tropical seas, but few +people know that in the nearest pond there are real sponges, growing +sometimes as large as one's head and which are not very dissimilar to +those taken from among the corals of the Bahamas. We may bring home a twig +covered with a thick growth of this sponge; and by dropping a few grains +of carmine into the water, the currents which the little sponge animals +set up are plainly visible. In winter these all die, and leave within +their meshes numbers of tiny winter buds, which survive the cold weather +and in the spring begin to found new colonies. If we examine the sponges +in the late fall we may find innumerable of these statoblasts, as they are +called. + +Scattered among them will sometimes be crowds of little wheels, surrounded +with double-ended hooks. These have no motion and we shall probably pass +them by as minute burrs or seeds of some water plant. But they, too, are +winter buds of a strange group of tiny animals. These are known as +Polyzoans or Bryozoans; and though to the eye a large colony of them +appears only as a mass of thick jelly, yet when placed in water and left +quiet, a wonderful transformation comes over the bit of gelatine.... +"Perhaps while you gaze at the reddish jelly a pink little projection +appears within the field of your lens, and slowly lengthens and broadens, +retreating and reappearing, it may be, many times, but finally, after much +hesitation, it suddenly seems to burst into bloom. A narrow body, so +deeply red that it is often almost crimson, lifts above the jelly a +crescentic disc ornamented with two rows of long tentacles that seem as +fine as hairs, and they glisten and sparkle like lines of crystal as they +wave and float and twist the delicate threads beneath your wondering gaze. +Then, while you scarcely breathe, for fear the lovely vision will fade, +another and another spreads its disc and waves its silvery tentacles, +until the whole surface of that ugly jelly mass blooms like a garden in +Paradise--blooms not with motionless perianths, but with living animals, +the most exquisite that God has allowed to develop in our sweet waters." +At the slightest jar every animal-flower vanishes instantly. + +A wonderful history is behind these little creatures and very different +from that of most members of the animal kingdom. While crabs, butterflies, +and birds have evolved through many and varied ancestral forms, the tiny +Bryozoans, or, being interpreted, moss-animals, seem throughout all past +ages to have found a niche for themselves where strenuous and active +competition is absent. Year after year, century upon century, age upon +age, they have lived and died, almost unchanged down to the present day. +When you look at the tiny animal, troubling the water and drawing its +inconceivably small bits of food toward it upon the current made by its +tentacles, think of the earth changes which it has survived. + +To the best of our knowledge the Age of Man is but a paltry fifty thousand +years. Behind this the Age of Mammals may have numbered three millions; +then back of these came the Age of Reptiles with more than seven millions +of years, during all of which time the tentacles of unnumbered generations +of Bryozoans waved in the sea. Back, back farther still we add another +seven million years, or thereabouts, of the Age of the Amphibians, when +the coal plants grew, and the Age of the Fishes. And finally, beyond all +exact human calculation, but estimated at some five million, we reach the +Age of Invertebrates in the Silurian, and in the lowest of these rocks we +find beautifully preserved fossils of Bryozoans, to all appearances as +perfect in detail of structure as these which we have before us to-day in +this twentieth century of man's brief reckoning. + +These tiny bits of jelly are transfigured as well by the grandeur of their +unchanged lineage as by the appearance of the little animals from within. +What heraldry can commemorate the beginning of their race over twenty +millions of years in the past! + +The student of mythology will feel at home when identifying some of the +commonest objects of the pond. And most are well named, too, as for +instance the Hydra, a small tube-shaped creature with a row of active +tentacles at one end. Death seems far from this organism, which is closely +related to the sea-anemones and corals, for though a very brief drying +will serve to kill it, yet it can be sliced and cut as finely as possible +and each bit, true to its name, will at once proceed to grow a new head +and tentacles complete, becoming a perfect animal. + +Then we shall often come across a queer creature with two oar-like feelers +near the head and a double tail tipped with long hairs, while in the +centre of the head is a large, shining eye,--Cyclops he is rightly called. +Although so small that we can make out little of his structure without the +aid of the lens, yet Cyclops is far from being related to the other still +smaller beings which swim about him, many of which consist of but one cell +and are popularly known as animalculae, more correctly as Protozoans. +Cyclops has a jointed body and in many other ways shows his relationship +to crabs and lobsters, even though they are many times larger and live in +salt water. + +Another member of this group is Daphnia, although the appropriateness of +this name yet remains to be discovered; Daphnia being a chunky-bodied +little being, with a double-branched pair of oar-like appendages, with +which he darts swiftly through the water. Although covered with a hard +crust like a crab, this is so transparent that we can see right through +his body. The dark mass of food in the stomach and the beating heart are +perfectly distinct. Often, near the upper part of the body, several large +eggs are seen in a sort of pouch, where they are kept until hatched. + +So if the sea is far away and time hangs heavy, invite your friends to go +sponging and crabbing in the nearest pond, and you may be certain of +quieting their fears as to your sanity as well as drawing exclamations of +delight from them when they see these beautiful creatures for the first +time. + +------------------------------------------------------------------------ + +DECEMBER + +------------------------------------------------------------------------ + + + + +NEW THOUGHTS ABOUT NESTS + + +Our sense of smell is not so keen as that of a dog, who can detect the +tiny quail while they are still invisible; nor have we the piercing sight +of the eagle who spies the grouse crouching hundreds of feet beneath his +circling flight; but when we walk through the bare December woods there is +unfolded at last to our eyes evidence of the late presence of our summer's +feathered friends--air castles and tree castles of varied patterns and +delicate workmanship. + +Did it ever occur to you to think what the first nest was like--what home +the first reptile-like scale flutterers chose? Far back before Jurassic +times, millions of years ago, before the coming of bony fishes, when the +only mammals were tiny nameless creatures, hardly larger than mice; when +the great Altantosaurus dinosaurs browsed on the quaint herbage, and +Pterodactyls--those ravenous bat-winged dragons of the air--hovered above +the surface of the earth,--in this epoch we can imagine a pair of +long-tailed, half-winged creatures which skimmed from tree to tree, +perhaps giving an occasional flop--the beginning of the marvellous flight +motions. Is it not likely that the Teleosaurs who watched hungrily from +the swamps saw them disappear at last in a hollowed cavity beneath a +rotten knothole? Here, perhaps, the soft-shelled, lizard-like eggs were +laid, and when they gave forth the ugly creaturelings did not Father +Creature flop to the topmost branch and utter a gurgling cough, a most +unpleasant grating sound, but grand in its significance, as the opening +chord in the symphony of the ages to follow?--until now the mockingbird +and the nightingale hold us spellbound by the wonder of their minstrelsy. + +Turning from our imaginary picture of the ancient days, we find that some +of the birds of the present time have found a primitive way of nesting +still the best. If we push over this rotten stump we shall find that the +cavity near the top, where the wood is still sound, has been used the past +summer by the downy woodpecker--a front door like an auger hole, ceiling +of rough-hewn wood, a bed of chips! + +The chickadee goes a step further, and shows his cleverness in sometimes +choosing a cavity already made, and instead of rough, bare chips, the six +or eight chickadee youngsters are happy on a hair mattress of a closely +woven felt-like substance. + +Perhaps we should consider the kingfisher the most barbarous of all the +birds which form a shelter for their home. With bill for pick and shovel, +she bores straight into a sheer clay bank, and at the end of a six-foot +tunnel her young are reared, their nest a mass of fish bones--the residue +of their dinners. Then there are the aerial masons and brickmakers--the +eave swallows, who carry earth up into the air, bit by bit, and attach it +to the eaves, forming it into a globular, long-necked flask. The barn +swallows mix the clay with straw and feathers and so form very firm +structures on the rafters above the haymows. + +But what of the many nests of grasses and twigs which we find in the +woods? How closely they were concealed while the leaves were on the trees, +and how firm and strong they were while in use, the strongest wind and +rain of summer only rocking them to and fro! But now we must waste no time +or they will disappear. In a month or more almost all will have dissolved +into fragments and fallen to earth--their mission accomplished. + +Some look as if disintegration had already begun, but if we had discovered +them earlier in the year, we should have seen that they were never less +fragile or loosely constructed than we find them now. Such is a cuckoo's +nest, such a mourning dove's or a heron's; merely a flat platform of a few +interlaced twigs, through which the eggs are visible from below. Why, we +ask, are some birds so careless or so unskilful? The European cuckoo, like +our cowbird, is a parasite, laying her eggs in the nests of other birds; +so, perhaps, neglect of household duties is in the blood. But this style +of architecture seems to answer all the requirements of doves and herons, +and, although with one sweep of the hand we can demolish one of these +flimsy platforms, yet such a nest seems somehow to resist wind and rain +just as long as the bird needs it. + +Did you ever try to make a nest yourself? If not, sometime take apart a +discarded nest--even the simplest in structure--and try to put it together +again. Use no string or cord, but fasten it to a crotch, put some marbles +in it and visit it after the first storm. After you have picked up all the +marbles from the ground you will appreciate more highly the skill which a +bird shows in the construction of its home. Whether a bird excavates its +nest in earth or wood, or weaves or plasters it, the work is all done by +means of two straight pieces of horn--the bill. + +There is, however, one useful substance which aids the bird--the saliva +which is formed in the mucous glands of the mouth. Of course the first and +natural function of this fluid is to soften the food before it passes into +the crop; but in those birds which make their nests by weaving together +pieces of twig, it must be of great assistance in softening the wood and +thus enabling the bird readily to bend the twigs into any required +position. Thus the catbird and rose-breasted grosbeak weave. + +Given a hundred or more pieces of twigs, each an inch in length, even a +bird would make but little progress in forming a cup-shaped nest, were it +not that the sticky saliva provided cement strong and ready at hand. So +the chimney swift finds no difficulty in forming and attaching her mosaic +of twigs to a chimney, using only very short twigs which she breaks off +with her feet while she is on the wing. + +How wonderfully varied are the ways which birds adopt to conceal their +nests. Some avoid suspicion by their audacity, building near a frequented +path, in a spot which they would never be suspected of choosing. The +hummingbird studs the outside of its nest with lichens, and the vireo +drapes a cobweb curtain around her fairy cup. Few nests are more beautiful +and at the same time more durable than a vireo's. I have seen the nests of +three successive years in the same tree, all built, no doubt, by the same +pair of birds, the nest of the past summer perfect in shape and quality, +that of the preceding year threadbare, while the home which sheltered the +brood of three summers ago is a mere flattened skeleton, reminding one of +the ribs and stern post of a wrecked boat long pounded by the waves. + +The subject of nests has been sadly neglected by naturalists, most of whom +have been chiefly interested in the owners or the contents; but when the +whys and wherefores of the homes of birds are made plain we shall know far +more concerning the little carpenters, weavers, masons, and basket-makers +who hang our groves and decorate our shrubbery with their skill. When on +our winter's walk we see a distorted, wind-torn, grass cup, think of the +quartet of beautiful little creatures, now flying beneath some tropical +sun, which owe their lives to the nest, and which, if they are spared, +will surely return to the vicinity next summer. + + That time of year thou may'st in me behold, + When yellow leaves, or none, or few, do hang + Upon those boughs which shake against the cold,-- + Bare, ruin'd choirs, where late the sweet birds sang. + SHAKESPEARE. + + + + +LESSONS FROM AN ENGLISH SPARROW + + +Many people say they love Nature, but as they have little time to go into +the country they have to depend on books for most of their information +concerning birds, flowers, and other forms of life. There is, however, no +reason why one should not, even in the heart of a great city, begin to +cultivate his powers of observation. Let us take, for example, the +omnipresent English sparrow. Most of us probably know the difference +between the male and female English sparrows, but I venture to say that +not one in ten persons could give a satisfactory description of the +colours of either. How much we look and how little we really see! + +Little can be said in favour of the English sparrows' disposition, but let +us not blame them for their unfortunate increase in numbers. Man brought +them from England, where they are kept in check by Nature's wise laws. +These birds were deliberately introduced where Nature was not prepared for +them. + +When we put aside prejudice we can see that the male bird, especially when +in his bright spring colours, is really very attractive, with his ashy +gray head, his back streaked with black and bay, the white bar on his +wings and the jet black chin and throat contrasting strongly with the +uniformly light-coloured under parts. If this were a rare bird the +"black-throated sparrow" would enjoy his share of admiration. + +It is wonderful how he can adapt himself to new conditions, nesting +anywhere and everywhere, and this very adaptation is a sign of a very high +order of intelligence. He has, however, many characteristics which tell us +of his former life. A few of the habits of this bird may be misleading. +His thick, conical bill is made for crushing seeds, but he now feeds on so +many different substances that its original use, as shown by its shape, is +obscured. If there were such a thing as vaudeville among birds, the common +sparrow would be a star imitator. He clings to the bark of trees and picks +out grubs, supporting himself with his tail like a woodpecker; he launches +out into the air, taking insects on the wing like a flycatcher; he clings +like a chickadee to the under side of twigs, or hovers in front of a heap +of insect eggs, presenting a feeble imitation of a hummingbird. These +modes of feeding represent many different families of birds. + +Although his straw and feather nests are shapeless affairs, and he often +feeds on garbage, all aesthetic feeling is not lost, as we see when he +swells out his black throat and white cravat, spreads tail and wing and +beseeches his lady-love to admire him. Thus he woos her as long as he is +alone, but when several other eager suitors arrive, his patience gives +out, and the courting turns into a football game. Rough and tumble is the +word, but somehow in the midst of it all, her highness manages to make her +mind known and off she flies with the lucky one. Thus we have represented, +in the English sparrows, the two extremes of courtship among birds. + +It is worth noting that the male alone is ornamented, the colours of the +female being much plainer. This dates from a time when it was necessary +for the female to be concealed while sitting on the eggs. The young of +both sexes are coloured like their mother, the young males not acquiring +the black gorget until perfectly able to take care of themselves. About +the plumage there are some interesting facts. The young bird moults twice +before the first winter. The second moult brings out the mark on the +throat, but it is rusty now, not black in colour; his cravat is grayish +and the wing bar ashy. In the spring, however, a noticeable change takes +place, but neither by the moulting nor the coming in of plumage. The +shaded edges of the feathers become brittle and break off, bringing out +the true colours and making them clear and brilliant. The waistcoat is +brushed until it is black and glossy, the cravat becomes immaculate, and +the wristband or wing bar clears up until it is pure white. + +The homes of these sparrows are generally composed of a great mass of +straw and feathers, with the nest in the centre; but the spotted eggs, +perhaps, show that these birds once built open nests, the dots and marks +on the eggs being of use in concealing their conspicuous white ground. +Something seems already to have hinted to Nature that this protection is +no longer necessary, and we often find eggs almost white, like those of +woodpeckers and owls, which nest in dark places. + +We have all heard of birds flocking together for some mutual benefit--the +crows, for instance, which travel every winter day across country to +favourite "roosts." In the heart of a city we can often study this same +phenomenon of birds gathering together in great flocks. In New York City, +on One Hundred and Twenty-fifth Street, there stands a tree--a solitary +reminder of the forest which once covered all this paved land. To this, +all winter long, the sparrows begin to flock about four or five o'clock in +the afternoon. They come singly and in twos and threes until the bare +limbs are black with them and there seems not room for another bird; but +still they come, each new arrival diving into the mass of birds and +causing a local commotion. By seven o'clock there are hundreds of English +sparrows perching in this one tree. At daylight they are off again, +whirring away by scores, and in a few minutes the tree is silent and +empty. The same habit is to be seen in many other cities and towns, for +thus the birds gain mutual warmth. + +Nature will do her best to diminish the number of sparrows and to regain +the balance, but to do this the sparrow must be brought face to face with +as many dangers as our wild birds, and although, owing to the sparrows' +fearlessness of man, this may never happen, yet at least the colour +protections and other former safeguards are slowly being eliminated. On +almost every street we may see albino or partly albino birds, such as +those with white tails or wings. White birds exist in a wild state only +from some adaptation to their surroundings. A bird which is white simply +because its need of protection has temporarily ceased, would become the +prey of the first stray hawk which crossed its path. We cannot hope to +exterminate the English sparrow even by the most wholesale slaughter, but +if some species of small hawk or butcher bird could ever become as +fearless an inhabitant of our cities as these birds, their reduction to +reasonable numbers would be a matter of only a few months. + + So dainty in plumage and hue, + A study in gray and brown, + How little, how little we knew + The pest he would prove to the town! + + From dawn until daylight grows dim, + Perpetual chatter and scold. + No winter migration for him, + Not even afraid of the cold! + + Scarce a song-bird he fails to molest, + Belligerent, meddlesome thing! + Wherever he goes as a guest + He is sure to remain as a King. + Mary Isabella Forsyth. + + + + +THE PERSONALITY OF TREES + + +How many of us think of trees almost as we do of the rocks and stones +about us,--as all but inanimate objects, standing in the same relation to +our earth as does the furry covering of an animal to its owner. The simile +might be carried out more in detail, the forests protecting the continents +from drought and flood, even as the coat of fur protects its owner from +extremes of heat and cold. + +When we come to consider the tree as a living individual, a form of life +contemporaneous with our own, and to realise that it has its birth and +death, its struggles for life and its periods of peace and abundance, we +will soon feel for it a keener sympathy and interest and withal a +veneration greater than it has ever aroused in us before. + +Of all living things on earth, a tree binds us most closely to the past. +Some of the giant tortoises of the Galapagos Islands are thought to be +four hundred years old and are probably the oldest animals on the earth. +There is, however, nothing to compare with the majesty and grandeur of the +Sequoias--the giant redwoods of California--the largest of which, still +living, reach upward more than one hundred yards above the ground, and +show, by the number of their rings, that their life began from three to +five thousand years ago. Our deepest feelings of reverence are aroused +when we look at a tree which was "one thousand years old when Homer wrote +the Iliad; fifteen hundred years of age when Aristotle was foreshadowing +his evolution theory and writing his history of animals; two thousand +years of age when Christ walked upon earth; nearly four thousand years of +age when the 'Origin of Species' was written. Thus the life of one of +these trees spanned the whole period before the birth of Aristotle (384 +B.C.) and after the death of Darwin (A.D. 1882), the two greatest natural +philosophers who have lived." + +Considered not only individually, but taken as a group, the Sequoias are +among the oldest of the old. Geologically speaking, most of the forms of +life now in existence are of recent origin, but a full ten million of +years ago these giant trees were developed almost as highly as they are +to-day. At the end of the coal period, when the birds and mammals of +to-day were as yet unevolved, existing only potentially in the scaly, +reptile-like creatures of those days, the Sequoias waved their needles +high in air. + +In those days these great trees were found over the whole of Canada, +Greenland, and Siberia, but the relentless onslaught of the Ice Age +wrought terrible destruction and, like the giant tortoises among reptiles, +the apteryx among birds, and the bison among mammals, the forlorn hope of +the great redwoods, making a last stand in a few small groves of +California, awaits total extinction at the hands of the most terrible of +Nature's enemies--man. When the last venerable giant trunk has fallen, the +last axe-stroke which severs the circle of vital sap will cut the only +thread of individual life which joins in time the beating of our pulses +to-day with the beginning of human history and philosophy,--thousands of +years in the past. + +Through all the millions of years during which the evolution of modern +forms of life has been going on, then as now, trees must have entered +prominently into the environment and lives of the terrestrial animals. +Ages ago, long before snakes and four-toed horses were even foreshadowed, +and before the first bird-like creatures had appeared, winged +reptile-dragons flew about, doubtless roosting or perching on the Triassic +and Jurassic trees. Perhaps the very pieces of coal which are burned in +our furnaces once bent and swayed under the weight of these bulky animals. +Something like six millions of years ago, long-tailed, fluttering birds +appeared, with lizard-like claws at the bend of their wings and with jaws +filled with teeth. These creatures were certainly arboreal, spending most +of their time among the branches of trees. So large were certain great +sloth-like creatures that they uprooted the trees bodily, in order to feed +on their succulent leaves, sometimes bending their trunks down until their +branches were within reach. + +On a walk through the woods and fields to-day, how seldom do we find a +dead insect! When sick and dying, nine out of ten are snapped up by frog, +lizard, or bird; the few which die a natural death seeming to disintegrate +into mould within a very short space of time. There is, however, one way +in which, through the long, long thousands of centuries, insects have been +preserved. The spicy resin which flowed from the ancient pines attracted +hosts of insects, which, tempted by their hope of food, met their +death--caught and slowly but surely enclosed by the viscid sap, each +antenna and hair as perfect as when the insect was alive. Thus, in this +strangely fortunate way, we may know and study the insects which, millions +of years ago, fed on the flowers or bored into the bark of trees. We have +found no way to improve on Nature in this respect, for to-day when we +desire to mount a specimen permanently for microscopical work, we imbed it +in Canada balsam. + +If suddenly the earth should be bereft of all trees, there would indeed be +consternation and despair among many classes of animals. Although in the +sea there are thousands of creatures, which, by their manner of life, are +prohibited from ever passing the boundary line between land and water, yet +many sea-worms, as for example the teredo, or ship-worm, are especially +fashioned for living in and perhaps feeding on wood, in the shape of stray +floating trees and branches, the bottoms of ships, and piles of wharves. +Of course the two latter are supplied by man, but even before his time, +floating trees at sea must have been plentiful enough to supply homes for +the whole tribe of these creatures, unless they made their burrows in +coral or shells. + +The insects whose very existence, in some cases, depends upon trees, are +innumerable. What, for example, would become of the larvae of the cicada, +or locust, which, in the cold and darkness of their subterranean life, for +seventeen years suck the juicy roots of trees; or the caterpillars of the +moths, spinning high their webs among the leaves; or the countless beetles +whose grubs bore through and through the trunk their sinuous, sawdusty +tunnels; or the ichneumon fly, which with an instrument--surgical needle, +file, augur, and scroll saw all in one--deposits, deep below the bark, its +eggs in safety? If forced to compete with terrestrial species, the tree +spiders and scorpions would quickly become exterminated; while especially +adapted arboreal ants would instantly disappear. + +We cannot entirely exclude even fishes from our list; as the absence of +mangroves would incidentally affect the climbing perch and catfishes! The +newts and common toads would be in no wise dismayed by the passing of the +trees, but not so certain tadpoles. Those of our ditches, it is true, +would live and flourish, but there are, in the world, many curious kinds +which hatch and grow up into frogs in curled-up leaves or in damp places +in the forks of branches, and which would find themselves homeless without +trees. Think, too, of the poor green and brown tree frogs with their +sucker feet, compelled always to hop along the ground! + +Lizards, from tiny swifts to sixty-inch iguanas, would sorely miss the +trees, while the lithe green tree snakes and the tree boas would have to +change all their life habits in order to be able to exist. But as for the +cold, uncanny turtles and alligators,--what are trees to them! + +In the evolution of the birds and other animals, the cry of "excelsior" +has been followed literally as well as theoretically and, with a few +exceptions, the highest in each class have not only risen above their +fellows in intelligence and structure, but have left the earth and climbed +or flown to the tree-tops, making these their chief place of abode. + +Many of the birds which find their food at sea, or in the waters of stream +and lake, repair to the trees for the purpose of building their nests +among the branches. Such birds are the pelicans, herons, ibises, and +ospreys; while the wood ducks lay their eggs high above the ground in the +hollows of trees. Parrots, kingfishers, swifts, and hummingbirds are +almost helpless on the ground, their feet being adapted for climbing about +the branches, perching on twigs, or clinging to the hollows of trees. +Taken as a whole, birds would suffer more than any other class of +creatures in a deforested world. The woodpeckers would be without home, +food, and resting-place; except, possibly, the flicker, or high-hole, who +is either a retrograde or a genius, whichever we may choose to consider +him, and could live well enough upon ground ants. But as to his nest--he +would have to sharpen his wits still more to solve successfully the +question of the woodpecker motto, "What is home without a hollow tree?" + +Great gaps would be made in the ranks of the furry creatures--the mammals. +Opossums and raccoons would find themselves in an embarrassing position, +and as for the sloths, which never descend to earth, depending for +protection on their resemblance to leaves and mossy bark, they would be +wiped out with one fell swoop. The arboreal squirrels might learn to +burrow, as so many of their near relations have done, but their muscles +would become cramped from inactivity and their eyes would often strain +upward for a glimpse of the beloved branches. The bats might take to caves +and the vampires to outhouses and dark crevices in the rocks, but most of +the monkeys and apes would soon become extinct, while a chimpanzee or +orang-utan would become a cripple, swinging ever painfully along between +the knuckles of crutch-like forearms, searching, searching forever for the +trees which gave him his form and structure, and without which his life +and that of his race must abruptly end. + +Leaving the relations which trees hold to the animals about them and the +part which they have played in the evolution of life on the earth in past +epochs, let us consider some of the more humble trees about us. Not, +however, from the standpoint of the technical botanist or the scientific +forester, but from the sympathetic point of view of a living fellow form, +sharing the same planet, both owing their lives to the same great source +of all light and heat, and subject to the same extremes of heat and cold, +storm and drought. How wonderful, when we come to think of it, is a tree, +to be able to withstand its enemies, elemental and animate, year after +year, decade after decade, although fast-rooted to one patch of earth. An +animal flees to shelter at the approach of gale or cyclone, or travels far +in search of abundant food. Like the giant algae, ever waving upward from +the bed of the sea, which depend on the nourishment of the surrounding +waters, so the tree blindly trusts to Nature to minister to its needs, +filling its leaves with the light-given greenness, and feeling for +nutritious salts with the sensitive tips of its innumerable rootlets. + +Darwin has taught us, and truly, that a relentless struggle for existence +is ever going on around us, and although this is most evident to our eyes +in a terrible death battle between two great beasts of prey, yet it is no +less real and intense in the case of the bird pouring forth a beautiful +song, or the delicate violet shedding abroad its perfume. To realise the +host of enemies ever shadowing the feathered songster and its kind, we +have only to remember that though four young birds may be hatched in each +of fifty nests, yet of the two hundred nestlings an average often of but +one lives to grow to maturity,--to migrate and to return to the region of +its birth. + +And the violet, living, apparently, such a quiet life of humble sweetness? +Fortunate indeed is it if its tiny treasure of seeds is fertilized, and +then the chances are a thousand to one that they will grow and ripen only +to fall by the wayside, or on barren ground, or among the tares. + +At first thought, a tree seems far removed from all such struggles. How +solemn and grand its trunk stands, column-like against the sky! How puny +and weak we seem beside it! Its sturdy roots, sound wood, and pliant +branches all spell power. Nevertheless, the old, old struggle is as +fierce, as unending, here as everywhere. A monarch of the forest has +gained its supremacy only by a lifelong battle with its own kind and with +a horde of alien enemies. + +From the heart of the tropics to the limit of tree-growth in the northland +we find the battle of life waged fiercely, root contending with root for +earth-food, branch with branch for the light which means life. + +In a severe wrestling match, the moments of supremest strain are those +when the opponents are fast-locked, motionless, when the advantage comes, +not with quickness, but with staying power; and likewise in the struggle +of tree with tree the fact that one or two years, or even whole decades, +watch the efforts of the branches to lift their leaves one above the +other, detracts nothing from the bitterness of the strife. + +Far to the north we will sometimes find groves of young balsam firs or +spruce,--hundreds of the same species of sapling growing so close together +that a rabbit may not pass between. The slender trunks, almost touching +each other, are bare of branches. Only at the top is there light and air, +and the race is ever upward. One year some slight advantage may come to +one young tree,--some delicate unbalancing of the scales of life, and that +fortunate individual instantly responds, reaching several slender side +branches over the heads of his brethren. They as quickly show the effects +of the lessened light and forthwith the race is at an end. The victor +shoots up tall and straight, stamping and choking out the lives at his +side, as surely as if his weapons were teeth and claws instead of delicate +root-fibres and soughing foliage. + +The contest with its fellows is only the first of many. The same elements +which help to give it being and life are ever ready to catch it unawares, +to rend it limb from limb, or by patient, long-continued attack bring it +crashing to the very dust from which sprang the seed. + +We see a mighty spruce whose black leafage has waved above its fellows for +a century or more, paying for its supremacy by the distortion of every +branch. Such are to be seen clinging to the rocky shores of Fundy, every +branch and twig curved toward the land; showing the years of battling with +constant gales and blizzards. Like giant weather-vanes they stand, and, +though there is no elasticity in their limbs and they are gnarled and +scarred, yet our hearts warm in admiration of their decades of patient +watching beside the troubled waters. For years to come they will defy +every blast the storm god can send against them, until, one wild day, when +the soil has grown scanty around the roots of one of the weakest, it will +shiver and tremble at some terrific onslaught of wind and sleet; it will +fold its branches closer about it and, like the Indian chieftains, who +perhaps in years past occasionally watched the waters by the side of the +young sapling, the conquered tree will bow its head for the last time to +the storm. + +Farther inland, sheltered in a narrow valley, stands a sister tree, seeded +from the same cone as the storm-distorted spruce. The wind shrieks and +howls above the little valley and cannot enter; but the law of +compensation brings to bear another element, silent, gentle, but as deadly +as the howling blast of the gale. All through the long winter the snow +sifts softly down, finding easy lodgment on the dense-foliaged branches. +From the surrounding heights the white crystals pour down until the tree +groans with the massive weight. Her sister above is battling with the +storm, but hardly a feather's weight of snow clings to her waving limbs. + +The compressed, down-bent branches of the valley spruce soon become +permanently bent and the strain on the trunk fibres is great. At last, +with a despairing crash, one great limb gives way and is torn bodily from +its place of growth. The very vitals of the tree are exposed and instantly +every splintered cell is filled with the sifting snow. Helpless the tree +stands, and early in the spring, at the first quickening of summer's +growth, a salve of curative resin is poured upon the wound. But it is too +late. The invading water has done its work and the elements have begun to +rot the very heart of the tree. How much more to be desired is the manner +of life and death of the first spruce, battling to the very last! + +A beech seedling which takes root close to the bank of a stream has a good +chance of surviving, since there will be no competitors on the water side +and moisture and air will never fail. But look at some ancient beech +growing thus, whose smooth, whitened hole encloses a century of growth +rings. Offsetting its advantages, the stream, little by little, has +undermined the maze of roots and the force of annual freshets has trained +them all in a down-stream direction. It is an inverted reminder of the +wind-moulded spruce. Although the stout beech props itself by great roots +thrown landward, yet, sooner or later, the ripples will filter in beyond +the centre of gravity and the mighty tree will topple and mingle with its +shadow-double which for so many years the stream has reflected. + +Thus we find that while without moisture no tree could exist, yet the same +element often brings death. The amphibious mangroves which fringe the +coral islands of the southern seas hardly attain to the dignity of trees, +but in the mysterious depths of our southern swamps we find the strangely +picturesque cypresses, which defy the waters about them. One cannot say +where trunk ends and root begins, but up from the stagnant slime rise +great arched buttresses, so that the tree seems to be supported on giant +six- or eight-legged stools, between the arches of which the water flows +and finds no chance to use its power. Here, in these lonely +solitudes,--heron-haunted, snake-infested,--the hanging moss and orchids +search out every dead limb and cover it with an unnatural greenness. Here, +great lichens grow and a myriad tropical insects bore and tunnel their way +from bark to heart of tree and back again. Here, in the blackness of +night, when the air is heavy with hot, swampy odours, and only the +occasional squawk of a heron or cry of some animal is heard, a rending, +grinding, crashing, breaks suddenly upon the stillness, a distant boom and +splash, awakening every creature. Then the silence again closes down and +we know that a cypress, perhaps linking a trio of centuries, has yielded +up its life. + +Leaving the hundred other mysteries which the trees of the tropics might +unfold, let us consider for a moment the danger which the tall, successful +tree invites,--the penalty which it pays for having surpassed all its +other brethren. It preeminently attracts the bolts of Jove and the lesser +trees see a blinding flash, hear a rending of heart wood, and when the +storm has passed, the tree, before perfect in trunk, limbs, and foliage, +is now but a heap of charred splinters. + +Many a great willow overhanging the banks of a wide river could tell +interesting tales of the scars on its trunk. That lower wound was a deep +gash cut by some Indian, perhaps to direct a war-party making their way +through the untrodden wilderness; this bare, unsightly patch was burnt out +by the signal fire of one of our forefather pioneers. And so on and on the +story would unfold, until the topmost, freshly sawed-off limb had for its +purpose only the desire of the present owner for a clearer view of the +water beyond. + +Finally we come to the tree best beloved of us in the north,--the +carefully grafted descendant of some sour little wild crab-apple. A +faithful servant indeed has the monarch of the old orchard proved. It has +fed us and our fathers before us, and its gnarled trunk and low-hanging +branches tell the story of the rosy fruit which has weighed down its limbs +year after year. Old age has laid a heavy hand upon it, but not until the +outermost twig has ceased to blossom, and its death, unlike that of its +wild kindred, has come silently and peacefully, do we give the order to +have the tree felled. Even in its death it serves us, giving back from the +open hearth the light and heat which it has stored up throughout the +summers of many years. + +Let us give more thought to the trees about us, and when possible succour +them in distress, straighten the bent sapling, remove the parasitic +lichen, and give them the best chance for a long, patient, strong life. + + In the far North stands a Pine-tree, lone, + Upon a wintry height; + It sleeps; around it snows have thrown + A covering of white. + + It dreams forever of a Palm + That, far i' the morning-land, + Stands silent in a most sad calm + Midst of the burning sand. + + (_From the German of Heine._) SIDNEY LANIER. + + + + +AN OWL OF THE NORTH + + +It is mid-winter, and from the northland a blizzard of icy winds and +swirling snow crystals is sweeping with fury southward over woods and +fields. We sit in our warm room before the crackling log fire and listen +to the shriek of the gale and wonder how it fares with the little bundles +of feathers huddled among the cedar branches. + +We picture to ourselves all the wild kindred sheltered from the raging +storm; the gray squirrels rocking in their lofty nests of leaves; the +chipmunks snug underground; the screech owls deep in the hollow apple +trees, all warm and dry. + +But there are those for whom the blizzard has no terrors. Far to the north +on the barren wastes of Labrador, where the gale first comes in from the +sea and gathers strength as it comes, a great owl flaps upward and on +broad pinions, white as the driving snowflakes, sweeps southward with the +storm. Now over ice-bound river or lake, or rushing past a myriad dark +spires of spruce, then hovering wonderingly over a multitude of lights +from the streets of some town, the strong Arctic bird forges southward, +until one night, if we only knew, we might open our window and, looking +upward, see two great yellow eyes apparently hanging in space, the body +and wings of the bird in snow-white plumage lost amidst the flakes. We +thrill in admiration at the grand bird, so fearless of the raging +elements. + +Only the coldest and fiercest storms will tempt him from the north, and +then not because he fears snow or cold, but in order to keep within reach +of the snowbirds which form his food. He seeks for places where a less +severe cold encourages small birds to be abroad, or where the snow's crust +is less icy, through which the field mice may bore their tunnels, and run +hither and thither in the moonlight, pulling down the weeds and cracking +their frames of ice. Heedless of passing clouds, these little rodents +scamper about, until a darker, swifter shadow passes, and the feathered +talons of the snowy owl close over the tiny, shivering bundle of fur. + +Occasionally after such a storm, one may come across this white owl in +some snowy field, hunting in broad daylight; and that must go down as a +red-letter day, to be remembered for years. + +What would one not give to know of his adventures since he left the far +north. What stories he could tell of hunts for the ptarmigan,--those +Arctic fowl, clad in plumage as white as his own; or the little kit foxes, +or the seals and polar bears playing the great game of life and death +among the grinding icebergs! + +His visit to us is a short one. Comes the first hint of a thaw and he has +vanished like a melting snowflake, back to his home and his mate. There in +a hollow in the half-frozen Iceland moss, in February, as many as ten +fuzzy little snowy owlets may grow up in one nest,--all as hardy and +beautiful and brave as their great fierce-eyed parents. + +THE END + + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Log of the Sun, by William Beebe + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE LOG OF THE SUN *** + +***** This file should be named 26516.txt or 26516.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + http://www.gutenberg.org/2/6/5/1/26516/ + +Produced by Roger Frank and the Online Distributed +Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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