The Dickinson press., 1890-02-08
MINIONS OF THE MOON.
SIGHTS AND SOUNDS BELONGING
TO NATURE BY NIGHT.

Birds Whose Sweet Notes Arc Never Heard
by Those Who Retire E~arly-Four Footed
Midnight Providers with Bright Eyes and
Keen Scent.
To all inhabitants Of great cities, and
to many jewellers even in the rural dis
tricts, the night sights and sounds by
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 day
are at their sweetest, the majority of
people are asleep, or at any rate in bed.
Yet the summer nights, brief as they
are, are full of life when the darkness is
most complete, with a f%ullness which is
vivid in u memory of many of the
'small hours passed in the meadow or
by lonely wood under the starlit sky.
And first of all to be mentioned is the
amount of bird music to be heard at
night by those who are present to hear
it. Nor need one go afield for all
though some of the rarest will only be
found in the solitudes-for some of the
songsters in the Silly night pour forth
their music in the garden-that one
compensation, however dull or COMMON
place the locality. to all who really olive
in the country"
NIGHTS SWEET SINGER
The nightingale, as every knows,
is a night singer, whose exquisite gush
of melody in the Ivory moonlight
while the air is fragrant with the dcwy
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
thrilling 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 alawn
as a homo, at whose base its well feath-
cred nest is built. 1t is a bird of lively
song, contrasting in the moonlight with
ing of the nightingale.
Step forth from the garden, and ira.
verse the more remote ground by sequcs-
tered coppice or double hedgerow, where
ancient trees entwine, andthe rich music
of that shy songster the woodlark, which
is as little popularity known as its rela-
tive the skylark is, generally floats out
OH 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 rarcr, and can
indeed be said to have been heard but
by few, the merry carol of tho 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 it
can be seen running.
MIDNIGHT PROVIDERS.
He who wandcrs in n 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
ity says hardly a stream exists nov with
out its otter, albeit 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, 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 trayersing the bank %re-enters it fur
ther 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
pet piece bitten out of the ~shoulder-the
'sotter's mark"
Much rarer, but still, especially in the
wilder and moro solitary parts, to be
met with is the badger, a fine young
specimen of which was found among the
timber loads deposited some time e 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 n 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 exem%pliication 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.
But it is of his appearance as INC of
the night wanderers we would speak.
lfyou are lucky enough to be in his To-
cality in the small hours, you may see a
grayish creature curiously like a 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 has taken to field life, poaching and
evil ways generally, is always most
prominent feature in nature by night
Chambers Journal.
Significant.
BE "a property holder)-How much dc