Dodge City times. [volume] (Dodge City, Kan.) 1876-1892, 1878-02-02
C0mbativeness OF Birds.

By a fiction of the poets birds all sing
praise, if they sing at all, to the great
Creator. OF course, this sounds well,
and may have some moral foundation;
but can come As near proving that a
catbird curses, and swears, and filings
out all sorts of abusive epithetS al its
enemies, when angry, "a any one can
come to establishing the song-praise
theory. How these little fellows can
fret, and scold, and hiss, and imprecate
yes, imprecate! Let sparrow-hawk,
or screech-owl, or butcher-bird, 90 near
ones nest, and, if you observe closely,
your Imagination must be very torpid,
indeed, if you can not hear 'iSdcrebleuf"
and all that, scattered around pretty
freely. have seen one fairly dance in
ecstacy of anger, when nothing but
poor, little brown lizard came near it.
A pair of catbirds had their nest and
young in currant- hedge OF the garden
belonging to farmhouse where was
lodging one spring, and / used to
amuse myself by exciting the anger
had only to hang a bit of red
cloth near the nest in her absence,
and await the result No sooner would
she return than such 4 twittering, and
squeaking, and scolding would begin as
only catbird can generate, and when
she found out that there was .'no fight"
in the rag, she would eve me sitting at
my window, and NEW triumphantly, as
if she well knew who ii was had thus
troubled her equanimity. \ war of
words-or rather war of notes-is 4
thing of frequent occurrence between a
catbird and the common brown thrush.
Early in the morning through the month
of May they may be heard screaming
their respective medleys At the extreme
pitch of their voices from neighboring
trees, each songster maliciously bent on
drowning the others voice The COM
mon barn-yard cock is given to a like
ambition in the matter of borrowing
down" all competitors. Speaking of
the brown thrush reminds me that |
ought to record right here very singu-
lar combat, witnessed BY myself and
brother, between one of these gay sing
ers and a blue jay (what bird is not
to fight the latter?), and in
which the jay was finally discounted
and beaten. We were lying in
the shade of wide-Spreading
wild-plum tree on the edge OF
little glade. Near US was a clump of
bushes, in one of which we
had discovered brown thrush's nest.
The bird was incubating. A blue-jay,
fitting about on mischief intent, as, in
fact, a blue-jay always is, happened to
spy her, and Immediately attacked her,
driving her for refuge into the thick,
thorny foliage above the nest. This
seemed an easy turn for the jay, which
at once prepared to have feast of the
eggs. But no sooner had it perched on
the rim of the nest than the thrush, with
a savage squall, plunged down from its
and struck it q heavy blow
in the back. The jay retreated in dis
order, but warily returned again when
ali seemed still. With infinite caution
in every movement, ii hoped frcm twig
% twig, turning its crested head this
way and that, till it reached the nest.
Again, with a shrill scream, the thrush
from its hiding-place, using its
ong, sharp beak for sword to stab the
ay's exposed and defenseless back.
Again and again the would-be robber
led and returned, each time to get
tougher usage; and, finally, Us if utterly
with rapidly repeated cries of
g Delay! delay! de-jayi'' it fitted
away into the depths of the woods, to
come no more -Appleton's Journal.
Don Carlos-who is travelling in