The midland journal. (Rising Sun, Md.) 1885-1947, 1894-07-27
SOME CURIOUS BIRDS.
Peculiarities of Nature Found In t
Feathered Kingdom.

Featnered hlngdOms
DR.. Bowdler Sharpe gave an inter.
esting lecture in London recently on
bird life. He mentioned the hoatzin
or reptilian bird, which builds it's nest
just above the water-line, near lakes
and rivers; the chicks have little claws
or hooks on the end of their unfiedged
wings, with which they can climb up
security of the nest.
This was pointed to as distinct rep
lillian characteristic, probably retained
by heredity from the remote saurian
ancestors of the bird race. Equally
odd were the megapodes or mound
builders of the Malayan archipelago,
which build in place of nests huge
earthen mounds ten feet high and
fifty or sixty in circumference, wherein
they place their eggs to incubate.
The young could fly Immediately
they came from the she'll DR.. Sharpe
surprised his audience with the remark
that the peacock's gorgeous "tail'' is
not his tail at all but an aggregation
of the long feathers from the lower
part of the back. The UNI brella bird
of British Guiana, deprived of his top
knot and bib, was nothing more than
a very ordinary old crow.
Of nesting curiosities the examples
were numerous and varied. There
was the Industrious 'tailor bird" of
India-smaller than a robin-which
sewed leaves together with thread
in order to form sort of hammock for
the support of it's nest An Indian
friend of the lecturer had supplied
these birds with various sorts of col
ored cotton, all of which they most
thankfully made use of in their sar-
torial operations.
The weaver BIRDS nest would, &C
cording to DR.. Sharpe, make an excel
lent and very durable football. 1t was
found all over India and the Malay ISL
ands, woven tightly together of rushes,
ferns palm leaves and so forth, the
workmanship being as neat and sub
stantial as any lady in the room could
turn out. ,sy.t,.s
Other eccentric nest builders were
the opendulous titmouse and the oil
bird of Trinidad, SO called on account
oily condition, thing hardly to be
wondered at in the young birds, which
are reared most appropriately in nest
exactly like a Stilton cheese. The
Trinidad natives go buccaneering after
these oleaginous youngsters into the
rocky and almost inaccessible caves,
where they are born at certain seasons
of aye year. Tales about the Jealous
horu-bill, who imprisons his wife be-
hind muddy rampant in some hole in
tree, are, of course, familiar to every
body.
DIR. Sharpe, however, mentioned one
curious fact; namely, that if the male is
shot, all his relations in the neighbor-
hood gather round and charitably
maintain the widow with a kind of
diving subsistence until the import
ant Matching process is over. The lee
turer called attention to bird of the
family in New Guinea, not larger than
a thrush, which constructs bower six
feet high and fifteen feet in circumfer-
ence. This bird was a very fastidious
gardener, displaying all manner of
light-colored flowers and berries on a
bank of green moss.
DIR. Sharpe showed that the wingless
owl parrot of New Zealand, although
unable to fly from an enemy, yet was
capable of throwing itself on to bed
of moss or fern which it greatly resem-
bled in color. The hoopoe of southern
Europe was of the desert color and
concealed himself when pursued by
initiating scrap of desert debris. The
most extraordinary facts in support of
the initiative theory which the lecturer
reeounted were those having reference
to the cuckoo tribes, which have to de-
pend on the success with which they
can introduce their eggs into the nests
of other birds.
The gray-headed cuckoo was parasitic
on the stone-chats nest, and it secured
access to the nest by the resemblance
of its male to the sparrow-hawk The
male bird frightened the little birds
temporarily away, while the female
dropped the egg into the nest. There
was resemblance between the cuckoo
and the drongo, which was utilized by
the former in curious way. While
the drongo was away from the nest
the cuckoo could safely deposit the
egg, because at distance the drohgo
would think the bird on the nest was
its mate, Bird Life,