Morris tribune., 1890-10-08
MINIONS OF THE MOON.
SIGHTS AND SOUNDS BELONGING
TO NATURE BY NIGHT.
Birds Whose Sweet Notes Are Never Heard
by Those Who Retire Eariy-Four Footed
Midnight Prowlers with Bright Eyes and
Keen 9eeut

To all inhabitants of great cities, anG
to many dwellers even in the rural dis
tricts, the night sights and sounds b.
river, wood and field are quite unknown
For, during the hours when the Wild
things SO hidden by day are at large
and the birds whose notes are not dis
tinguished in the full chorus of the da,
are at their sweetest, the majority O
people are asleep, or at any rate in bed
Yet the summer nights, brief as the,
are, are full of life when the darkness ii
most complete, with fullness which ii
vivid in our memory of many of thu
"small hours" passed in the meadow ol
by lonely wood under the starlit sky
And first of all to be mentioned is th,
amount of bird music to be heard a
night by those who are present to heal
it. Nor need one go afield for ALL
though some of the rarest will only bt
found in the solitudes-for some of tht
songsters in the Silly night pour forth
their music in the garden-that ONT
compensation, however dull or common
place the locality, to all who really "livx
in the country"
NIGHTS SWEET SINGERS.
The nightingale, as every one knows
is night singer, whose exquisite gusI
of melody in the '.ivory moonlight,
while the air is fragrant with the dewy
flowers, is subtly soft enough to touch
the dullest hearts with some echoes OF
romance.
Beginning nearest home, in the quaint
garden, the shrill yet soft and vivacious
trilling of the whitethroat meets the ear
"a bird not very generally known, but
a haunter of the same spot year after
year, loving well an evergreen on lawn
as home, at whose base its well feath-
cred nest is built. 1t is bird of lively
song, contrasting in the moonlight with
the most musical, most melancholy fut-
ing of the nightingale.
Step forth from the garden, and ira
verse the more remote ground by seques-
tered coppice or double hedgerow, where
ancient trees entwine, and the rich music
of that shy songster the woodlark, which
is as little popularity known as its rela-
tive the skylark is, generally floats out
on the night. Cross the meadows, over
which echoes in every direction the
harsh cry of the landrail, toward the
winding river, ripping through its rushy
margin on either side, and shining like
silver in the moonlight. Pause, and you
will hear the humble but pretty lay of
of the reed sparrow seldom recognized
by day; and what is far rarer, and can
indeed be said to have been heard but
by few, the merry carol of the water
ousel, that snowy breasted little bird
which has such quaint ways, poising mo-
tionless in the day on some rock or stone,
and then darting under water, where, on
the shallow gravel, for brief moment it
can be seen running.
MIDNIGHT PRowLERS.
He who wanders in summer night
ere dawn has shown ius earliest sign by
meadow, grove, and stream," viii see
strange things, not to be seen, save i15y
rarest chance, in the hours of DIV. This
is the time when the otttar-little known
of fera nature, yet far more plentiful
than supposed, indeed, one high author
ity says hardly stream exists ncs7 with
out its otter, albeit he DO asEely seen
makes his journey for foraging purposes.
Far and away from his ssholt" up stream
comes the swift, shadowy, stsal.ily am.
phibious creature, nearly alma ) going
down stream, yet leaving that strong
scent behind wherever he touches shore,
which the hounds hours afterwards dis
cover. He makes his journey, feeds,
and retires again always before dawn.
At certain points he leaves the stream,
and traversing the bank re-enters it fur
ther on, and usually shows curious
preference just as the hare will IN the
"runs" in hedge-for the same precise
spat of exit and re-entrance. Here and
there he may leave a fine fish with his
pet piece bitten out of the shoulder-the
"otter's mark"
Much rarer, but still, especially in the
wilder and more solitary parts, to be
met with is the badger, fine young
specimen of which was found among the
timber loads deposited some time ago on
a timber wharf by the canal at the City
road, London. The badger burrows in
the most lonely and isolated reeesses of
woods and hills, and those who have ex-
plored one Of the burrows can say what
q fine specimen of engineering and sani-
tation this cleanly and calumniated
beast-for "dirty as badger" is simply
another exempliication of popular fall
lacies-presents to his superior, man.
The badger is very little seen, being,
perhaps, the most retiring and conserva-
tive of British beasts. pursuing the even
tenor of his way much as when Caesar
landed IN Kent
put u ID OF his appearance as one of
fns Es.s night wanderers we would speak.
If you are lucky enough to be in his To-
cality in the small hours, you may see a
grayish creature curiously like little
bear waddling and grunting in the
moonlight, very uneasy If to your lee
ward, as its scent is keen. 1t goes long
distances at night, when humanity and
most Of the animal population with
which man is familiar are, as Carlyle
puts it, Lying in horizontal swathes."
OF the fox as a night traveller it were
trite to speak, everybody, and especially
in the case of fowl keepers or farm
yards, knows about him. Weasels are
fond of gliding across roads, and along
bitches too, during the witching time,
and, like its tame town relative, the cat,
that has taken to field life, poaching and
evil ways generally, is always most
prominent feature in nature by night
Chambers Journal.