Roanoke daily times. (Roanoke, Va) 1886-1890, 1890-01-01
MINIoNS OF TIE MOON.
SIGHTS AND SOUNDS BELONGING
70 NATURE BY NIGHT.

Birds Whose Sweet Notes are Never Heard
by Those Who Retire Enrly-Four Footed
Midnight Providers with Fright Eyes and
Keen Scent.
To all inhabitants of great cities, and
to many dweilers even in the rural dis
tricts. tho 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
tingushcd in tie 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 fI%lincss which is
vivid in our memory y many Of the
small hours" passed in The meadow or
by lonely wood under the starlit shy
And first of ali to be mentioned is The
amount of bird music TO be heard III
night by those who are present TO hear
ii. Nor need one go alield for all
though some of the rarest will only he
found in the solitudes-for some Of the
songsters in the Silly night pour forth
th,ir music in the sarden-that one
compensation, however dull or common
place the locality. to all who really live
in the country.
NIGHTS SWEET SINGERS.
The nightingale, as every one knows.
is night singer, whose exquisite gI'sh
of melody in the ivory moonlight,
while the air is fragrant with the de~y
flowers. IS subtly soft enough to touch
tine dullest hearts with some echoes of
romance.
Beginning nearest home, i'll the quaint
garden, the slril yet soft and vivacious
trilling o: the whitethroat meets the ear
a bird nol very generally known, but
a haunter of the same spot year after
year, loving we'll al evergreen on lawn
as Il homo, At whose base its well feath-
cred nest is built Ii is bird Of lively
song. contrasting in the moonlight with
the most musical, most melancholy ilut'
ing OF the nightingale
Step ioFih IRON the slF"'ii, ana l''''
verse the more remote ground 10y seques-
tered coppicc or double hedserow, where
ancient trees cntwine, and the rich music
OF that shy sonSstor the woodlarE, which
is as little popularity known as its rela-
tive the siylarS Is gener''i!y Ao2tS oUt
on the night. Cross the meadows over
which echoes IN every direction the
harsh cry OF the landraii' toward me
winding river ripping through Us rushE
margin on either SIDE ana SHINING IKE
silver in The moonlight. Pause anu you
viii hear the humble cut pretty lay @!
of the reed sparrow seldom recognized
by day; and what Is lar r2rer, ana can
indeed be SAID TO nave oaeh neafd ou'
by few, the merry carol OF tae wafer
ousel, that snowy breasted Htile oiFd
which has such QUAINT ways posing mo-
tionless IN the day On some rock or stone
and then dar;inS under water where on
tie shallow gravel, fora brief moment Ii
can be seen running
MIDNIGHT rRowLE.;s.
He who wanders in summer night
ere dawn has shown lis earliest sign by
meadow. grove. aa,l stream, Will see
strange ,hiHys. not to be seen. save by
r:.-est chance. in the hours Of day This
is the time when the ceta.-liCtle known
# fera uatHrr, Vet i,l more plentiful
cham supposed. indeed. enc high author
ity saws hardly a stream exists now with
out its otter. albeit he be rarely seen
makes his Journey for forasing purposes.
Far and away from his holt up stream
comes the swift, shadowy. stea!thy am
phibious creature. Yearly always going
down steam, 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 lie leaves the stream,
and uaversiag the bank rc-enters it fur
ther on. and usually shows curious
preference-just Us the hare will in the
rum" in hedSc-ior the same precise
spo: Of exit and re-entrance Here aSd
there he may leave tine hsh with MS
pet piece bitten out OF the shouider-the
"ottcr's mark
Much rarer' but stI!i' especially III the
wilder and more solitary parts TO be
met with is the badger a tine young
specimen OF which was found among the
timber loads deposited some 'ime ago on
a timber wharf by the canal ut the CITY
road, London. The badger burrows III