Green-Mountain freeman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1844-1884, 1873-11-12

their fair necks, flies in groups of three;
he leaves Labrador by the first of August
and returns there by the first Of May, two
weeks before the coast is free from ice.
The teal, the screaming loon, and the long
necked crane, are not far behind the ducks
in movement. The crane flies by day and
by night, through storm and sunshine
nothing impedes his course; be arrives ~
the lakes in the middle of October
The American swan, little knoSu
the eastern coasts, is another bird Of m 90
tory character According TO : Joan
Fraukln's account the swan leaves b.
Polar Sea about the middle of September.
and retreats to Hudson's Bay, where he
remains until the middle of October.
! There the BIRDS collect into focks OF TWEEN
ty or thirty and then pr oceed on their
way. They rarely follow water-courses
like the wild geese, but keep inland when
travelng, and generally tar above the
highest peaks of mountain Snges. The
swan is rapid in fight, and when mounted,
with the wind favorable, he will travel one
hundred miles an hour. They prefer the
Pacific coast, and they assemble in winter
about the Columbia river. extending their
fight as far south as California.
THE GULLs.
But, beside the numbers of flying fowl
which now stream over shore and land, the
atmosphere above the great ocean teens
with its freight of winged creatures pass
ing above the mutitudinous seas safely
| e nd To-
| these
Vainly the fowers eye
Might mark thy distant flight to do thee wrong
AS, darkly seen against the crimson sky,
Thy figure floats along"
The great black beaked gull, the larus
mariaus, is king of all these sea birds.
He is a native of both continents, and his
nest is made on the desolate crags of Lab
rador and Greenland, or on the high, rocky
barrens of the Icy Cape, but his home is
miles up in the keen, thin air, above the
lashing waves of the northern waters.
There he sails in the blue ether, floating like
the eagle, eisurely and with elegance, in
proud circles, well knowing that no other
bird can attain his height. This gull is
terror to all lesser waterfowl, as he makes
unremitting warfare upon them in destroy
ing their eggs and unfedged young
''" Even the shoals of the fnny tribes nix
into deeper waters on his approach" He
resorts in winter to the warm waters
around the Bahama Islands and the Flor
ida Keys. Audubon relates having seen
pair of these gulls there alightlng on a
sandbar to which they had flown in from
the sea but they we're extremely shy,
lowering only on the outer edge of the bar
towards the sea.
But these wild creatures, like many land
birds, become attached to particular places,
and make them afterwards their constant
haunts. A story is told of scorris,"
or young black backed gull, which, having
been captured, was presented to gentle
man who lived on the western coast OF
Scotland. He made the young bird sufi-
ciently tame to induce it to return and
stay in tte ponds within his grounds dur
ing the winter; in the spring it would fly
away to the gulls' breeding places in the
Arctic, but each November. or December
at latest, having forsaken its mate, ii
again returned to its adopted home, VIII, re
it was fed during the winter, The gull
continued this practice regularly for thirty
years. These birds are voraeious, and
devour all sorts of food except vegetables.
The burgomaster gull is found in small
numbers. He follows, like many hyper
borean birds, the northwest coast of Amer
lea, inhabiting Baffin's Bay, the Polar
Sea and Greenland, but he is rare in the
Uulted States. The silver gull is more
numerous. The Pomeranian jaeger is
e another fierce and destructive waterfowl
The Arctic jaeger, or warrior, fes far to-
wards the Arctic seas; few birds excel
IN length and power of f ght. The ful-
mar lnhablts the remotest northern fields
OF our sphere-poss bly, beyond wnere lat
ltude has any reckoning. The rocky
island Of st. HIlda is the only locality III
, British America which 1t visits. All
these boreal birds subsist upon the blub.
Der of dead whales and seals and animal
substance only. SIR John Franklin motto
ed, during a winter which he passed al
Melville Island, pair OF ravens which
remained there all winter. The intensity
of the cold upon their breath had encrust-
ed around their necks collars of frostwork
like great ruff1es, which for some time ad.
hered to them. Thus it appears there are
birds which dwell continually where
q" treasures of snow and treasures of hal
are reserved against the time of troubles
, Others hibernate with US, but they are
few. Those of carnIyorous nature like
the owls; the crossbil which exists upon
, the seeds of the pine and spruce, and ;he
snow bunting, which comes to US from the
higher regions as alms-folk, eating the
seed which is scattered from hay around
the hay-ricks, and what may chance te
, hang in the heads of flower-stalks which
, protruded above the SHOWS.
Lucy A. MILLS.
Williamstown, Mass, October.