The Opelousas courier., 1889-03-30

lay. whistling and singing, till the
VISITOR had TO go home to see to her
40 not understand how 1t is some
people fail so utterly to enter into
sympathy with the animal and bird
me ABOUT them. They see no object
~ suen nature but something to shoot
at. Come. let's go out and kin some.
thing" is the average temperament.
sno 80 mere goes on a wicked killing
ior sport. But l confess the women
are oy Tar the worst and most inhu.
man. for 9TH them it is a trade, Thew
nlre the slaughter of the birds for
thelr selfish adornment. If T could
only see the birds of a summers dav
swimming in the air it would be
enough. What grace of motion! what
oellcacy OF stroke! AVE. and what pre-
clslon OF calculation! l sometimes lie
down in a pile OF clover and watch a
naWk high over head. His circles are
mathematics, although his purpose
are profoundly wicked. Then there
comes a little king bird on the
scene straight, like an arrow.
how he cuts the air like a diver
In the water. But he rises, not sinks.
UP, and at him! He shouts a CRY OF
battle. 1t is heard far away. A
dozen birds turn from their work and
follow the call. The hawk sees them,
n with n magnificent stroke is
away. The chase is worth all the
clumsy sea fights ever Ieen. Each
ship is sailed perfectly, lacking, spin
ming about the enemy, with shot after
shot well delivered. I wish some
Cooper could describe this fight in the
air. q
But pleasanter is it when the hawk
is well whipped, and the little victors
have all sailed home in joyful plumage,
to watch a lark rising out of the mead
oW grass, singing as he rises, and ris-
ing as he sings, as If somehow the
singing were a part of the machinery
OF motion and helped him to rise. AS
you watch hiEp melting away into
the blue, you hear to the south, over
the lower meadows, a silver whistle,
clear, determined and voluble. A
bobolink has burst out of the grass,
like a whole chorus, and sails over
your head with a ripple of song that
makes you wonder a moment after
what sort of a flyer he a You can
only remember that he sung so
richly that you could think of nothing
else. In the late fall, when the birds
are gathering for their departure, is a
splendid time to study motion on the
wing. Crows are very interesting with
their long stroke. And they almost
always come and go in two or threes,
or more, so that you can see an occa-
sional race. They are SO broad-winged
that the wind often gets a good wrestl
with them, and l have seen a CROW
quite upset in a gale. But he tacks
and tacks, and comes to port all right
at last.
No! 1 say it with and pride,
I have never caEsed 8Naless pain to
one of the inhabitants of the air. ]
wish all my readers could say the same.
We have need of universal reforma-
ton, with Uncle Toby's" to govern
us, and Florence Nightingales to make
laws for US. / wonder if n more
grosbeak will be windinG his joyous
way, and one more tanager be pershed
over his nest, or one more oriole flash
ing bach the sunlight, because of this
article of mike. / wish I might know
that a thousand women took the de-
bris of the birds from their hats and
vowed to live hereafter in sympathy
with the life and love and song of nat
ure.-Mary E. Spencer, in St. Louis
Globe-Democrat. u