Wessington Springs herald. (Wessington Springs, Aurora County, Dakota [S.D.]) 1883-1891, 1885-09-18

Wise Joe. the lot of life to share,
And, happy as a king,
10 whistle and to sing.
-GeOr0c Cooper, in Golden Days.
SoClABLE BIRDS.
Odd Associations-The Fish-Hawk and
the Blackbirds-The Owl aud the
Weavers.
There are all sorts of birds, just as
there are all sorts of people. Not only
big birds and little birds, but bad birds
and good birds; birds that.love to fight,
like the saucy little English sparrows,
and birds that love each other, and
cuddle together all the time, like the
Java sparrows; fierce birds and gentle
birds; birds that build beautiful houses,
like the Baltimore orioles, and birds
that build no houses, but lay their eggs
in other birds houses, like the cow
birds.
Then, again, there are lonely birds,
like the hawks and owls, and soclable
birds, like blackbirds and weaver-birds.
And speaking of lonely birds and socia-
BILE birds makes me think of a curious
case of a lonely bird and a lot of socia-
bic birds which all lived together in a
most comfortable and happy way.
If e you have seen a tlsh-hawk you
know he is as wild-eyod and savage
beaked q fellow as you would want to
meet. l ought to say she is, for, as a
fact, Mrs. Fish-hawk is both larger and
fiercer than her husband. She builds
her nest in the topmost branches of q
lonely, lofty tree as nea to the sound
Ing breakers as possible, and there
brings up as hungry and noisy a family
as can be found. The nest is a mighty
structure. to begin with, but, as it is
added to each year, it in time grows to
the sociable. impudent blackbird comes
along, and actually builds in the very
nest of the hawk. Not merely one
blackbird, mind you, but just as many
as can crowd into the huge mass Of
sticks which makes the big birds nest.
And there they all live together, with
their babies almost touching each other,
and yet never quarreling. They never
have anything to say to each other, it
is true, but that may be because the
hawk and blackbird languages are so
different.
Even more odd than this is the case
of the owl and the weaver-birds. The
weayer-birds are probably the most
sociable of all the birds. They do not
merely build their nests near each 9TH
er, but put them side by side in great
numbers, and then make q thatched
roof to cover them all. 1t is hard to
believe that such a beautiful little bird
village can be the work of birds which
have no other tools than their bills, but
it is, and these little architects do not
make any fuss about it either. The
weaver birds which build this sort of
nest are called sociable weaver-birds, to
distinguish them from other weaver
birds which build their nests separate
| from each other.
If there is one bird more than anoth.
er that most little birds positively hate,
it is the owl. The owl sleeps all dav,
and goes abroad at dusk when most
other birds are making ready to sleep.
Then the owls eyes are good, and he
can see little birds which can not see
him, and down he pounces on them and
swallows them. The poor birds can
not even hear him coming, for his
wings are SO covered with soft down
that he moves through tho air without
any noise, and is clutching a poor little
bird in his cruel claws before it is awake
enough to know it is in trouble. This
is all very well for the owl at night, but
in the daytime it is quite another mat
ter. Then his owlship can not see we'll
out of his great blinking eyes, and is
wise enough to try to keep we'll hidden
lest the birds he eats by night should
catch him and have their revenge. For
in some way the little fellows know the
owl can not see any better by daylight
than they a by night, and therefore
when they catch him in the sunlight
they make him suffer for his misdeeds
done by moonlight. They cry out and
call all the small birds of the neighbor-
hood. Then they scold and scold and
fly at him and peck at him, and all he
Ear do Is ruffie up his feathers and look
wicked, or perhaps console himself with
thoughts of how he will worry his tor
| mentors when the horrid sunlight has
faded away.
The fact that the owl is so hated
| makes it so much more creditable to
any birds that will refrain from perse-
cutting it when they have the opportuni-
ty. A traveller tells of having seen a
colony of weaver-birds which not only
did not persecute an owl when the oc-
casion offered, but went so far as to
give it a home. That surely was a re-
turning of good for evil. 1t seems that
after the little weavers had completed
their house they were one morning sur
prised to find a visitor asleep or their
roof. 1t was as it you were to come
upon d tramp lying on your doorstep.
No doubt the first thought Of the weav-
ers was to give the intruder a very
warm reception. There was a noisy
consultation and a great deal of flying
back and forth, but nothing was done
to annoy the owl; and finally the little
birds flew off to attend to the business
of getting breakfast. Occasionally a lit
tie weaver would perch near the
gloomy-looking visitor and chatter for
a few moments, but shat was the worst
that happened. and the owl was seem