Morning journal and courier. [volume] (New Haven [Conn.]) 1848-1894, 1889-11-08

summer pastures. The reason of this 10 OBJ
vious, an their insect.food is always abuns
dant. The nightjar rarely, unless disturbed,
comes abroad during the day, but obtains Its
food at twilight and dusk. Upon the lime
stons-ooversd fells It conforms marvelously
to its environment, 1t being almost impossi-
BILE to detect the ourionsly mottled plumsgs
as the bird banks upon the gray stones, not
more still than itself. Here 1t lays its eggs,
often without the slightest resemblance Of
nest, and frequently upen the bare rock.
Among naturalists quite peculiar interest
nished with Q remarkable claw, the use OF
which is guessed at rather than known.
This claw is serrated on Its inner edge, and
from actual experiments made upon night
jars in captivity, we should surmise that Its
use is to free the long whisksrs from the
soft, silvery dust which usually covers the
bodies Of night.dying moths. Certain II is
that this substance gets upon the whisksrs OF
the bird, and that the long hairs referred to
About the mouth the Roatsucker is very
swallow-like. 1t has bullet-shaped head,
large eyes and a wide cape. Like the swal-
lows, too, it has weak, Ineffective bill and
weak feet. This is explained by the fact
that the bird, except when nesting, Is rarely
seen on the ground, and that 1t captures its
insect-prey on the wing. At evening 1t
makes loud churring noise, from which 1t
has its provincial names Of dor-hawk and
eve-ohur.
If the cuckoo tells her name to all the
hills, SO does the sedge-warbler to the futed
reeds. And, like that wandering voice."
our little bird seems dispossessed Of corpo-
real existence, and on through summer is
''still longed-for, never seen"-and this
der long among the willows, with bird in
every bush, without one showing outside the
corral of boughs. Wherever vegetation
grows tall and luxuriant there the "reed-
wren" may be found. It travels in the
night; you go out some May morning, and
the roIlicking into1icstion of the garrulous
little bird comes from out the sslf-same bush
from which you missed it in autumn. From
the time it first arrives it begins to sing
louder and louder ss the warm weather adj
vaRces, especially in the evenings. Then 1t
Is that it listens to the loud-swelllng bird
choir of the woods, selecting note from
this and another from that, for the sedge
warbler is an imitator, hooking bird, and
reproduees in fragments the songs of many
species. The little mimic runs up and down
the gamut in the most riotous fashion, paro-
dying not only the loud, clear whistle of the
blaekbird, but the wholly differing soft,
sweet notes of the willow-wren. This is
kept up through the night, and the puzzle
is, when the little musician sleeps. Our an
gler friends cali this bird the ''iisherman's
nightingale" If the sedge-warbler ceases its
song through any hour Of the day or night,
cled thrown into the bushes will immedl"
ately set it going again. Yet what can be
said of gong that clod of earth will call
forth, Sometimes for moment it is sweet,
but never long sustained. In the north,
where there are few ditohes, the species fire.
euent river-banks and the sides of neres; in
the south it ahounds everywhere in marshy
places. Here the rank grass swarms with
them; the thicker the reed-pateh or willow,
the more birds seem to be there. With per-
feet silence, distant view of the bird Is
sometimes obtained at the top of the bushes,
as it firts after an insect. AS it runs up
and clings TO the tall green stalks it 10 pleas
ing both in form and color. Among the
grasses and water-plants 1t has its game pre-
serves. Water beetles, ephemerae and the
teeming aquatic insects constitute Its food.
To watch through glass the obtaining OF
these is most interesting. Reed-sparrow
and reed-wren are pretty provincial names
Of this bird, each expressive enough.
Another night-singer is the blackcap.
The lute-like mellowness and wild sweetness
of its song give it high place among Brit
ish warblers-next only to the nightingale.
The blackcap has neither the fullness nor the
force, but 1t he's all and more than the for-
mer's purity. This little hideling, with Its
timid obtrusiveness, never strays far from
| cultivation. One provision 1t requires, and
| this ia seclusien. Its shy and retiring habits
| teach it to search out dense retreats and 1t is
| rarely seen. If observed on the confines of
| it's corral of boughs 1t Immediately begins to
| perform series of evolutions, until it has
| placed dense screen of brushwood between
| itself and the observer.
Many times have we heard the round, full,
| lute-like plaintiveness of the nightingale
rouuda that scam to aeizo and iDoratn than.
| selves in the very soul, that 'make the wild
| blood start in its mystic springs" To us
| the delicious triumph of the birds song is in
its utter abandon; the lute-like sweetness,
| the siIvery liquidness, the bubbling and run
| ming over, and the wild, gurgling 'jug, Jug,
jug" To say this, and more-that the night
ingale is mad, sweet polygot, that 1t is the
sweetest of Eng glish warblers, the essence and
| quintessence of song, that it is the whole
| wild-bird achievement in one--these are fee-
| BILE, feeble! This "light-winged drysd of the
| trees is still Sin some melodious spot of
| beechen-green aud shadows numberless,
| singing of summer in full-throated ease,"
| and there she will remain. Unlike the songs
| of some of our warblers, hers can never be
reproduced. Attempt to translate 1t and it
| alludes you-only its meagre skeleton re-
mains. Isaac Walton, in his quaint elo-
| quenoe, tries to say what he felt: "The
| nightingale, another of my airy creatures,
breathes such sweet, loud music out of her
| little instrumental throat that it might make
| mankind to think miracles are not ceased.
| He that at midnight should hear,
as have very often, the clear airs, the sweet
| deeants, the natural rising and falling, the
doubling and redoubling of her voice, might
well be lifssd above earth, and say, Lord,
| what music hast thou provided for the saints
| in heaven, when thou affordest bad men such
| music on earth!"