Green-Mountain freeman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1844-1884, 1865-10-03

provided MN with bush, be would have Oullt MS |
nest on the sand. Such, over some creatures, is
the power of locality. The higher the nature,
the more extensive become tbs sympsthies, so
that to some it is enough if they can rest any
where on this globe. They love the planet in
general, but they would like, if they could, to
make a country excursion from It 10 Jupiter,
Sirius, or Canopua just by way Of exercising their
wings.
have seen the humming-bird building IN
little garden shrub, the tailor bird in the folds OF
a leaf but there is Ons Of their family which |
selects far more ex raordnary situation, 10 order
10 place It's young beyond the reach OF yermin.
Selecting the taest tree within the range OF its
experience, it weaves for itself sort Of long |
pouch with narrow neck, and suspends it to the |
point Of bare twIg some sky or seventy feet
rom the ground. There ia it's pensle habltG-
.ion, its sys its eggs, warns them into lie, and
wien the c4i0w brood begin to open their bills,
feeds them fifty or sixty times in the day With
such dsiuties as their constitutions require. This
bird ia the .4plonis pletallica, about the s.zs ol
starting, with plumage Of e dark glossy green,
interiased with purple, which gives forth as II
flies bright metallic reflections. The spionls is
gregauous, like man, tnoe It loves to build It's
nest in the close neghbeihood OF other creatures
Of its own species, so that you may often behold
Glty nests on the same tree, waving and balancing
10 The air. On the plain beneath, the aplonis
sees from its nest the loug-necked emu flying like
Ire wind before the hunter, Immense flights OF
white pigeons, or the shy and active boger-blrd
constructing ts palace, four feet long by almost
TWO feet in height, where il eats berries With ts
harem, brings up its offspring, and dartlDg huher
and thither before the savage, seeks to allure
/ him away from ils home. All the shrubs and
vines, and low thcket5 10 the vicinity are haunted
! by perroguets no larger than sparrows whose
/ image, gorgeous as the brightest flowers, may
be said TO light up the woods.
The only European bird that builds pensils
nest is one OF The family that we f4mlsrly de-
nominate tom-lts. This Iiputan architect is as
choice 10 his materials as he is skillul ia the ar
rangemen. ol tbem--bis bases, bis arches, bis
meiopes, and srchitraYes consist Of cobWebs, the
fines. moses, the most silky grasses, which are
woven, and twisted, and matted together, so as to
dely the drenehng Of the most pitiless storms,
While within, bis wife aud little ones recline 90
5sds Of down es soft as The breast Of sWsn.
Scarcely less genius is displayed by the magpie,
which, having constructed It's dwelling With ex-
,.sordnsry care, covers L with q sheath OF thorn5,
which, bri,tiing all round like qus upon the
.re,fu porcupine, etfecuaily defend il from the
approach Of insdious enemies. The portal Of
ibis airy palace Is at little distance scarcely Vsi-
BE; bu, II YOU diligently observe, you will per
ceiye the magpie dart swiftly between the thorns,
and disappear beneath bis formidable chcpdiH de
frise. No tdis stronghold be sometimes carries
his strange thefls-his god and silver coins, his
spoons, bis sugartongs, and any other bright arti-
clio iha. strikes hs fancy. Birds Of the dove
Aind are pro7srbia fer the sloyenly style 10 which
; they provide for their families. Putting together
a few sucks which form sort Of rack TO support
their eggs, they tLiuk they have doue enough for
posterify, and forthwith lay without scruple upon
this irai cradle. /, may be ianiy col Jectured
tina, thsy say to themselves Ii man will eat
my eggs, my young ones and me, upon MIN be
. the charge Of seeing that | hsve decent accom-
modaiion In the same spin, aci oil the barn
door fowls hardly taxing The trouble TO hud a
sol. pace tyr their eggs, but laying anywhere like
tas stone cUrItE. Ihis reckless deprayity OF the
maternal ins,nc. has generally been attributed to
the ostrich as well As 20 'he domestic hen-but
ufIGstly. She lsys, il is true, her eggs iu the
sand. but not without visiting the same spot daily
to .ay pew egg, til, as the French say, she mas
finished her p9nh. l. the case we're otherwise,
together Nature has informed her, that in
those warm attitudes in which she shakes her
feathers, il is quite unnecessary for her 10 squat
upon her eggs, which lhs solar heat amply suf-
ices 10 hacl indeed so scotching is the sand Of
tne desert, that # she did not lay her family hopes
toieraby deep her eggs would be ioaste instead
OF halched, To the superficial observation Of
; man, the suriaos Of the desert looks all alike
smooth, undulating, or blown up into hillocks !
, bJt the ostrioh's practced eye is able to detect
the minutest elevations in the arenaceods plain,
80 that she can 60 straight to the spot where her
iirs, egg has been left, 10 deposit second and
third close to it. Indeed, the Arabs who habit
ualy traverse the waste, sometimes rival her 10
Aeenness OF perez plion, and take forth her treas
nres, while in maternal confidence she is securing
nilheT and tbilher in search Of food.
= To many others among the Inferior animals,
man deals forth his unthinkpg reproaches To
the cuckoo, for tximple, be objects to her hshis
= ol ohttudng her egg OF eggs into other peoples
premises, and eavng them there 10 be halched
: by sparrow, wryneck, or starting, as the case may
be. But while bearing thus hard upon the cuckoo
he forgets the terrible CURSE under which, like
another CAIN she walks aboU. The earth, urged
: iorsad by some resistless impulse, and con
demued 10 the eternal repetition Of two snslo.
{ goas uotes-cnckoo, cuckoo. What do those
> sy.ahies mean? The Able dc Nemours, who
devoted twenty years to the language Of birds, OF
= one of the original doctors Of the Hellenic my
" thology, might perhaps have explained, but ha'
e not so we must be content 70 regard as mys
= terry the secret OF the eu'koo, which 10 some re
y spects resembles those ants ddmnses which fly fo
ever over the Black Sea, according to nconsider
y ate tradition, for it they never paused to builC
9 nests or lay eggs, it must have been oil over with
: them long before this time. The cuckoo ha
y some odd tricks which have seldom been noted
y for instance, che seems to end ou, some smal
II birds nest say, 10 hole in the wall too small b,
y far Tor her to enter 10 this case, she squsts upo
a the ground lays her egg, and then, with bill o
y claws, takes it up, and pokes It into the hol'
" after which she flies away, shrieking her awful
a' monotonous song. In forest 10 France, we use
u day after day to watch this smoky blue traveller
u as, 10 the dawn of a summers morning, she ile'
" across the eaiy glades, or down the glens, rsstin
!. her weary feet for a moment on some giant bougt
y, and then shooting away through toe sots gree
w light, repeating her strange and ominous or.
What is tho original country OF tie cuckoo
q q Has sha apy original country Or is she not or
gu Of those wretohcd oosmopolites who know n
~ attachment 10 any hailowed spot, no love {
70 knowledge Of parents, having been brought u
=, Us strangers, who regarded her from her birth
~ an ugly ohangelng thrust by some evil spirit in
Nv their nest Surely the cuckoo Is 10 be pitt
'" since she knows no home, has never seen heart
y or experienced the soft care OF iahricatlpg a ne
~ =" or Matching an egg.
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