The Universalist. [volume] (Chicago [Ill.]) 1884-1897, 1895-08-03
Our Special COntributors-=-ISOs
WAYS AND SONGS OF BIRDS.
Xxx By OLIVE THoRNE MILLER. *

struction-though l am open to con-
vlctlon If any one can offer more
plausible solution. The elder bird
sang out loud and clear one clause of
his song; then paused while the
weak young voice essayed an imita-
tion, a quivering uncertain and quite
faulty attempt to repeat the strain,
doing the same thing over and over.
Another observer assures me that he
has heard an owl giving its young
lessons in hooting.
Experiences like these, which NAV
be enjoyed by any earnest and patient
observer, place it beyond doubt that
the young bird, no less than the
young human, has to be educated.
One of the most exciting things to
watch in the progress of the young
bird to grown-up life is learning the
use OF his wings. Each species, 1
may almost say each individual, has
its own way.
Among the Orioles.
When the young orchard oriole
finds his pretty hammock too con-
fined, and begins to feel his wings,
he mounts the edge of the nest, then
cautiously climbs to the most con:
venient branch, half hopping, half
flying, from twig to twig. and from
leaf stem to leaf stem till he has
reached the topmost perch on the
branch, and not until he has enjoyed
and tired of that dizzy height does
he trust himself to his wings.
Baltimore orioles that l have seen
come up to the edge of the nest one
by one, and survey the new world
from that position for some hours,
without attempting to climb, and
then launch off for a more distant
point than their own tree. Often,
alas! they come to the ground before
reaching their goal, and throw the
whole family into great distress.
Sometimes young one suffering this
misfortune, runs frantically about in
the grass, helpless victim to the
first boy or beast that comes along,
while the parents are flying madly
about overhead; but occasionally one
OF the little ones is clever enough to
run to the nearest tree and by half
climbing, half flying, from one ex-
crescence to another, succeeds in
reaching the lower branch. | have
seen young blue jay who fell to the
ground in his first fight, do the same
thing.
The moment the young Baltimore
reaches the edge of the nest, he be-
gins cry which hardly ceases for a
moment (while he is awake) for many
days. 1t is loud and insistent, and
in oriole neighborhoods the July days
echo with it on every side. The Sec
ond Nesting of this family, as have
seen it, never appears on the edge
till the first has flown. Sometimes
there will be several days between
the departure of the first and the last
of the brood.
Young king birds, on the contrary,
stand on the edge of their castle in
the air, at intervals and in parties.
and exercise their wings for days be-
fore they take their final plunge, and
perhaps owing to this precaution they
usually reach their goal.
In the only wren family ever saw
take fight, the whole brood of five,
being startled, took wing at once,
and without a moments preliminary
practice, or an instant's hesitation,
flew with heavy, labored flight in five
different ways from ten to twenty
feet from the nest.
Most exquisite, according to Brad
ford Torrey, is the first flight of the
daintiest of wingsters, the humming
bird. Without an instant's practice,
it suddenly-while he looked-rose
from the nest gently as if lifted by
breeze, hovered a moment in air then
darted to one side with the address
of an old hummer, and settled a few
feet away.
BROOKLYN, NY.