Fort Worth weekly gazette. [volume] (Fort Worth, Tex.) 1882-1891, 1890-04-17

think l seldom miss bird in my walk if
he is within eye or earshot, even though
my mind be not intent upon that subject.
Walking along the road this very dag,
feeling cold, driving snowstorm, / saw
some large birds in the top of a maple as
l passed by. l do not know how came
to see them, for l was not in an ornitho-
logical frame of mind. Bull did. There
were three of them feeding upon the buds
of the maple. They were nearly as large
as robins, of a dark ash color, very
plump, with tails much forked What
were they? My neIghbor did not know
had never seen such birds before; but
instantly knew them to be pine grosbeaks
from the far North. l had not seen them
before for ten years. A few DAYS pre-
viOusly had heard one call from the air
as it passed over; I recognized the note,
and hence knew that the birds were
about. They come down from the
North at irregular intervals, and
are seen in fiocks in various parts
of the states. They seem just as
likely to come mild winters as severe
ones. Later in the day the birds came
about my study. 1 sat reading with my
back to the window when l was advised
of their presence by catching a glimpse
of one reflected in my eye glasses as it
few up from the ground to the branch of
an apple tree only q few feet away. l
only mention the circumstances to show
how quick an observer is to take the hint.
l was absorbed in my reading, but the
moment that little shadow fitted athwart
that luminous reflection of the window in
the corner of my glasses, something said
'that was a bird. - Approaching the
window l saw several of them sitting not
FIVE feet away. 1 could inspect them
perfectly. They were slate color with
a tinge of bronze upon the head and
Tump. In full plumage the old males
are dusky red. Hence these were all
either young males or females. Oc
casionally among these tocks an old
male may be seen. 1t would seem as if
only q very few of the older and wiser
birds accompanied these younger
birds in their excursions into more
Southern chimes.
Presently the birds left the apple bough
that nearly brushed my window and with
a dozen or more of their fellows that l
had not seen settled in a Norway spruce
q few yards away and began to feed upon
the buds. They looked very pretty there
amid the driving snow. I was fattered
that these visitants from the far North
should find entertainment on my prem
ises. How plump, cOntented and en-
tirely at home they looked. But they
made such havoc with the spruce buds
that after awhile l began to fear bud
would not be left upon the trees, the
spruces would be checked in their growth
the next year. So l presently went out
to demonstrate with them and ask them
to move on. l approached them very
slowly, and when beside the tree within
few feet of several of them they needed
me not. One bird kept its position and
went on shipping off the buds till l raised
my hand ready to seize it before it moved
a yard or two higher up; think it was
only my white uncovered hand that dis
turbed it. Indeed, ''They were so un-
acquainted with man their tameness was
shocking to see. - The snow was COW
cred with the yellow chaffy scales of the
bud and still the birds sifted them down
till l was compeIi4d to ''shoo' them
away, when they moved to a tree nearer
the house, beneath which they left more
yellow chaff upon the snow.
The mind of an observer is like q gun
with a hair trigger-it goes at a touch,
while the minds of most persons require
very vigorous nudging. You must take
would get up any profitable intimacy with
nature. Above all, don t jump to con-
illusions; look again and again; verify
your observations. Be sure the crow is
pulling corn, and not probing for grubs,
before you kill him. Be sure it is the
orioie purloining your grapes, and not
the sparrows, before you declare them
your enemies. / one day saw humming
birds apparently probing the ripe, yellow
cheeks of my finest peaches, but l was
not satisfied till | saw q bird lowering
over particular peach, and then mount
ing upon a ladder, / examined if, when,
sure enough, the golden cheek was full
of pin holes. The orioles destroy many
of my earliest pears, but it required
much watching to catch them in the very
act. l ones saw q phoebe bird swoop
upon raspberry bush and carry a berry
to rail on near fence, but [ did not,
therefore, jump to the conclusion that
the phoebe was a berry eater. What it
wanted was the worm in the berry. How
do l know? Because l saw il extract
something from the berry and fly away.
The belief was at one time all but uni
Yersal that swallows passed the winter in
torpid state in the mud at the bottom
of ponds and rivers. Even Gilbert White,
acute du observer rs ne was, more IMAM
half believed it. As no man ever found
a swallow in such state and place, how
could the notion ever get started? Gill
bert White could offer as his reason but
the merest shadow of evidence that such
was the case, such as seeing swallows
lurking about ponds and marshes late in
the season. Find your bird in the mud,
torpid and not dead, before you enter
tain such notion. A French missionary,
said to have been q good naturalist. also
writing il this country in 1854, makes
this curious statement about our hum
ming bird: ''This bird, as one might
say, dies, or to speak more correctly,
puts itself TO sleep in the month of Oeto-
Der, living fastened to some little
branchlet of tree by the feet, aud
wakes up in the month OF April when the
flowers are in abundance, and sometimes
later, and for that cause is called in the
Mexican tongue the Revived. 80 How
could the good missionary ever be led to
make such 8 statement? The actual
finding of the bird wintering in that way
would have been the proof science de-
mands, and nothing short of that
English sparrows have been found