The Cecil Whig. [volume] (Elkton, Md.) 1841-current, 1890-02-01

dt uiin percneu on a renee STAKE Till your
head Was turned almost half way round,
that your eye might take in little more
OF this charming, happy creature. You
have watched the happy pair in the old
orchard as they examined the cavities in
the venerable, moss covered trunks, pros
pectlng for a nesting site already in the
early days of April. Many little house
is placed on a stake in the yard for him,
and does it not seem like the return of au
old friend when he first visits it in the
early spring? He may appropriate the
hole in the gatepost or in the house co..
nice. You are happy to see the ligh,
blue eggs anywhere, even in the to d. box
of your moving machine, which may
have stood idle lor few days. Much of
our happy outdoor life comes and goes
with the bluebird.
Many birds are shamefully slandered.
The little harm they do is maliciously set
over against many months of great use
fulness. or they are charge with peccad
illoes and misohets of which they are
seldom or never guilty. Not 80 with the
bluebird. He is above suspicion. Who
would dare to charge him with pulling
up corn or stealing fruit? His life is
known to be one of prolonged and IN
broken usefulness. That bunch of green
larv@ which the mother is carrying into
her plain and primitive home is admitted
| huo To han fai, - A.
constant diet OF the species. The bad
boy with gun, however, hard up for
game, will scarcely allow himself to
point his muzzle at so winsome a crea-
ture, unless, indeed, he be hired or IN
fatuated to find an ornament for some
vain lady's hat or bonnet. Who can es-
innate the usefulness of a single pair of
these gentle birds throughout the season
while they rear the several large broods
of young.
Have an eye to that English sparrow,
| for he is the enemy of the bluebird. If
he does not always succeed in driving
him away from his nesting place he will
be constant annoyance to him, and not |
many of our own birds are as we'll salts
fed with constant fighting and quarreling
as is this disagr eeable foreigner.
Another bird inclined to sem-domesti- !
cation is the pewee or phepe. In artistic
skill, indeed, it would seem that this bird |
has not improved by association with |
man, for surely its rudely bnilt nests .
placed in the bird box, about the sheds
or in the piazza. bare no resemblance to :
the elegant mo basket still occasionally
erected on some remote shelving rock, |.
| after the original habit of tn, species
| The nest under the bridge or in some
abandoned cellar is better specimen of
bird architecture, too than those imme- {
| diately about the babitatons of man. .
| Nor is there any very musical quality in ]
| phebe's rather monotonous ditty, taking !
| the place of MARBLE and song in many
other birds. Yet who ever failed to take :
pleasure in hearing it from the side of tho !
barn, the bird box or the fence, on son 7
bright morning late in March or early IN
April9 A surer sign of the near approach
of spring than the song of the bluebird is
this homely utterance of two syllables. {
Big headed, slender footed. and of home =
ly shape and sombre colored, this bird 20 !;
still universal favorite. In respect to
| habits of food, phebe. too, is above re-
proach, or even suspicion. Day after day
she cuts her familiar curve, in capture of
| her invariable insect food, destroying
! flies, gnats and mosquitoes numberless,
| but never dsturbs the grain field or the
fruit garden. Indeed, the very form of
her bill is so completely that Of fly trap
as to preclude the possibility OF any mis-
taken notions as to her diet.
Like the wren, phebe is a great propa-
gator, raising several large hroods in
season, thus adding greatly to her gen.
eral usefulness in keeping down the in
sect pests about the house and garden,
for the young phebes are voracious eat
ers.
| Just over in the orchard is phebe's near
relative, the wood pewee, little smaller
and a little darker, but very similar in
general appearance. 1t has, however,
an air of secluded dignity quite peculiar
to itself, and making it anything but
commonplace to the beholder. Its vocal
performances of two syllables, quite sim.
liar indeed to that of the phebe, has a
tender plaintiveness and really musical
quality which quite dfferentiate it, and
attract the attention OF the listener with
a most pleasing effect. Commonly the
second syllable is on the upward slide,
but it is sometimes in the falling intitc
ton, and is then unusually pathetic.
But the most marked characteristic OF
the wood pewee is its highly artistic nest.
Neatly sadded on a rather small limb in
the orchard or in the forest, it is com
pactly built of dried grasses and stalks,
OF small weeds, neatly lined, and most
artistically adorned externally with
bright colored lichens. Thus it resembles
and even rivals the elegant nest of the
humming-brd. Like the phebe. this is
wholly au insectivorous bird.
The species of fly catchers best known,
perhaps, is the kingbird, sometimes i'm
properly called bee martin. A martin it
certainly is not, and it's capture of bees
is rare indeed, il it occurs at all, To at
tribute such habit to this bird is but an
ungrateful and foul return for his great
services as destroyer of insects 1t be-
ing impossible to charge him with pull
ing up the corn or eating fruit some one
concluded to magnify his virtues to ex-
cess, and so fasten on him the prejudice of
the destruction of the most useful OF all
insects-that wonder in creation---the
domestic bee.
A single trait of this species is enough,
however, to elevate him to high re.
spect on the part of the most casual OBJ
server-namely, his bravery in driving
away other birds much larger than him
self. The big black crow or the largest
of hawks is glad to make off out of the
way of his attacks. | would trust him
in charge of the old hen and chickens
and all the poultry on the place if they
will but keep within his beat. 1t is diff
cult to see what there is about little bird