The Worcester spy. [volume] (Worcester, Mass.) 1898-1904, 1898-10-19
THEY LIKE IT.
Chimney Swallows Great
Vice is This.
THE RLUEBIRp.
THE BLUEBIRD

Lifting, fitting comes bluebird,
Just across the way;
Now he sways a bough of maple,
Now an apple spray.
Fitting, flying goes the bluebird,
Singing sweet afar;
Happy tourist But One knoweth
Where his wanderings are.
Did you ever notice how the birds
change their habits to conform to the
changing conditions of civilized life?
There is the chimney swallow, for in
stance. Up to the coming of the white
man to this countryside years or So
the swallows lived in hollow trees; now
he scorns them. Perhaps no swallow
before 1926 had ever known the smell
Of SCOT for millions of years; but as
soon as the first swift swallow smelled
it nothing but daily respiration of SCOT
would serve him and his descendants
forever. 1t was as suddenly awakened
mysterious and inveterate laundering
as that of the Indian for flre-water
And yet in the forest depths of the
north one may encounter sometimes
fiocks of primitive. unciVilized. and, as
1t were, non sooted swifts, in whose
case the qualifying word chimney is a
complete misnomer.
When lions were still numerous and
easily observed in southern Africa,
they were sometimes seen instructing
one another in voluntary gymnastics
and practicing their leaps, making a
bush play the part Of the absent game.
Moffat tells the story of lion which
had missed a zebra by miscalculating
the distance, repeating the jump sew
eral times for his own instruction.
two of his comrades coming upon him
while he was engaged in the exercise,
he led them around the rock to show
them how matters stood, and then, re-
turning to the starting point, com
pleted the lesson by making final
leap. The animals kept roaring during
the whole time of tho curious scene,
talking together" as the native who
watched them said. BY the aid of in
dividual training of this kind, industri-
Gus animals became apter as they grow
older; old birds, for instance, con-
structing more artistic nests than
young ones, and little mammals like
mice becoming more adroit with age
Yet, however ancient in the life Of the
species these acquisitions may be, they
have not the solidity. of primordial in
stincts, and are lost rapidly if not used
HOP-PICKING SNAKES.
The Chicago Inter Ocean is respon-
sible for this story In 1896, the en-
ployers in the hop fields had trouble
with the pickers over the question of
wages. The matter in dispute is still
Jacob Presley, on Deer Lick Bottoms.
He did not hire any pickers at all this
year, and yet his hops are all picked
and cured. The story begins in 1895,
when Mr.. Presley first noticed two yell
low snakes in his hop field. His first
impulse was to kill them, but their ac-
tons were so odd that he stopped to
watch them. The snakes would climb
the hop poles and pick every blossom,
throwing them upon the ground. Then
they would extract a certain amount
the next one. This set Mr.. Presley to
thinking II the snakes could not be
utilized instead of men and women.
In the spring of 1896 he found a nest
of 13 yellow snakes down by the creek
and, capturing them alive, he took
them home. In the fall he tried them,
and with such success that he deter
mined to use them this year Accord
ingly. he hired no hands, to the great
surprise of his neighbors. Instead, he
turned the snakes loose, putting $50
baskets on the ground to catch the
hops as they fell. The experiment was
great success, but Mr. Presley has
Incurred the deadly ennnity of the Hop
Pickers' Union, the president Of which.
Bob Habernut, promises to put a boy
colt on Presley's snake picked hops
this winter
DRAGON-FLY MYSTERY.
A professor of zoology at Lille. M.
Charles Barrios, was making a tour
through Morbihan, in France. AS he
was walking along the road he noticed
that multitude of dragon flies were
alighting on the telegraph wires. The
singular thing about it was that they
rested at an equal distance frolR each
other, and turned toward the west.
From all sides the dragon flies ar
rived and always placed themselves in
the same position and at the same dis
lance from each other They re-
NAMED as if glued to the wire, mo-
tlonless and paralyzed. Each new ar
rival flew over the fixed bodies of the
others and took its place in line.
This chain stretched itself out toward
the west and turned toward the setting
sun. Prof. Barrlos followed the route
FOR long distance and found the same
strange phenomenon. He estimated the
number at 6O,OO0 at least. At an abrupt
turn of the road to the south the tele-
graph line turned also. There not a
dragon fly was in sight The wire was
absolutely free from them! With the
change of direction it seemed to have
lost attraction for them.
Was this chance? Did the electric
current running from the cas-. to the
west exercise any influence upon these
insects? Was it the solar reflection?
Explain it, who can. In any case it
would be interesting to know whether
this phenomenon be an isolated one or
not
We have been accustomed to hear
the plea that even If the birds were
protected here in the north, the slaugh-
ter of bobolinls, bluebirds and other
birds south would tend to destroy spe-
cles even without our participation.
But Prof. w. K. Brooks, professor of
zoology at the Johns Hopkins Univer-
sity, does not seem to take this view
of the case. Indeed. if his premises are
correct, we of the northiand and we
alone are responsible If we let these
winged friends of ours be hunted from
the earth.
Prof Brooks takes issue with the prev
alent theory hereabouts that the north
is the home of the birds, who only go
south to pass the winter. His idea
seems rather to be that their home Is
in the south, and that these little trav-
elers only come north as summer Wis
itors. The motive in their migrations
he finds in the desire to find safe spot
wherein they may lay their eggs and
rear their young. Old birds can look
out for themselves, but the babies in
the nests are helpless.
VIBRATIONS OF BIRDS.
AS throwing light on the birds mi
grations, Prof. Brooks, in late num-
Der Of the Popular Science Monthly"
cites the case of the salmon and other
fishes. At the time the salmon leaves
the ocean for the breeding ground, per-
haps thousand miles inland, it is in
physical perfection, with few rivals in
beauty strength. courage and of fierce
energy But when it reaches its jour-
ney's end it is worn and thin, torn and
mangled by battle, battered by rocks
and Nhirlnnnls It's sl.ir in ra os IL en-.