The times. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1890-1903, 1890-01-03
MINIONS OF THE MOON.
SIGHTS AND SOUNDS BELONGING
TO NATURE BY NIGHT.

Birds who.o Sweet Notes Are Never "eA''
nv Those Who Retire Esriy-four oo'e"
Midnight Providers with Bright Eyes anu
Keen Scent
To all inhabitants OF great cities, ana
m many dwellers even in the rural ais
tricts. the night sights and SOUNDS Dy
river. wood and field are quite unAno"',
For. during the hours when the ""u
thincs so hidden by day are at iaise'
ord she birds whose notes are not as
tinouished in the full chorus OF the uay
ara a, their sweetest, the majority OF
people are asleep, or at any rate IN Deu'
Vet the summer nights, brief as they
are are full Of life when the darkness Is
v,ost complete, with fullness which Is
vivid in our memory Of many OF the
"small hours passed in the meadow OF
nv lonely wood under the starlit sky.
And first Of all - be mentioned Is the
amount of bird music to be heard III
NIGHT by those who are present 10 hear
II Nor need one 20 afield for all
though some OF the rarest will only De
found in the solitudes-for some Of the
sonosters in the Silly night pour forth
their music in the garden-that one
CONDENSATION, however dull or common
place the locality, TO all who really live
in the country
NIGHTS SWEET SINGERS.
The nightingale, as every one knows,
il a night singer, whose exquisite gush
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 vet soft and viyacious
trilling Of the whitethroat meets the ear
"a bird not very generally known, but
n haunter Of the same spot year after
wear. loving well an evergreen ON lawn
as n home, at whose base its well feath-
cred nest is built. 1t is a bird Of lively
song. contrasting in the moonlight with
the most musical, most melancholy Hut
ing OF IA, 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
IN the night. Cross the meadows, over
which echoes in every direction the
harsh cry OF the landrail, toward the
winding river. ripping through its rusty
margin on either side, and shining IKE
silver in the moonlight. Pause, and you
will hear tho humble but pretty lay OF
Of the reed sparrow seldom recognized
bv dav; and what Is far rarer, and can
indeed be said to have been heard but
bv few. the merry carol of the water
ousel. that snowy breasted little bird
which has such quaint ways, posing mo-
tionless in the day on some rock or stone,
and then darting under water, where, on
the shallow gravel, fora brief moment II
can be seen running.
MIDNIGHT PROVIDERS.
He who wanders in summer night
ere dawn has shown its earliest sign by
meadow, grove, and stream will see
strange things, not to be seen, save by
rarest chance, in the hours Of day. This
Is the time when the otter-little known
Of fera natura, yet far more plentiful
than supposed, indeed, one high author
itv saws hardly a stream exists now with
out its otter, Abbott he be rarely seen
makes his Journey for foraging purposes.
Far and away from his 'hOlt' up stream
comes the swift, shadowy, stealthy Am
phibious creature, nearly always going
down stream, vet 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 1t fur
Their on, and usually shows a curious
preference-just as the hare will in the
runs in a hedge-for the same precise
SPOT Of exit and re-entrance. Here and
there he may leave a fine fish with his
pct 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, a 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 recesses of
woods and hills, and those who have ex-
plored one Of the burrows can say what
a fine specimen of engineering and sani-
tation this clearly and illuminated
beast-for dirty as a badger" is simply
another exemplification Of popular fal-
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 az when Cesar
landed in Kent
| But it is Of his appearance as one OF
the night wanderers we would speak.
If you are lucky enough 10 be in his To-
cality in the small hours, yea may see a
grayish creature curiousIy like little
bear waddling and granting 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 mas taken to field life, poaching and
evil ways generally, is always a most
prominent feature in nature by night
Tbau,harz' Journal