Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1900-07-12

| Just at this season March) the WOODS
| Of louisiana are most popular with
| birds Not only the natives are here
! but visitors from every northern state
and not any Of them have set thei.
| wings for the homeward flight. The
naturalists who makes a sojOurn il
| this section through the winter months
| has opportunity to study pretty nearly
every form of feathered lie the eastern
| part Of North America can show, and
to study them at a close range. The
| woods are so thick and the fields so
quite that the air voyagers may be ap-
preached within a few yards. and, as
no one ever disturbs those species OF
them which are not game" they be-
come singularly tame. Representa-
tives of water and wading birds are as
numerous as those which stick to dry
land and trees. Every lagoon is in
habited by northern cranes, herons and
fishers of oIler kinds, and not less than
a dozen differing varieties of bitterns
make the day and night clamorous
Birds Of prey come. too, in almost end
less variety. In summer northern
Louisiana can show perhaps half
dozen kinds of hawks and three kinds
Of owls, but in that time, which is the
snow time further north, about 20
-.fferent species of hawks are here, and
a dozen kinds of owls. The oppor-
tunity afforded to the naturalist, and
the taxidermist as we'll, are understood
by some men who live above the Mason
and Dixon line. and they are regular
journeyers to Louisiana when the cold
comes. These men use, almost without
exception a double-barreled gun Of
only "A caliber, which chambers a car
fridge the size and appearance of the
Winchester cartridge, but is loaded
with dust shot instead Of ball They
are fatel little weapons at distance of
80 feet, and there is rarely any nece3-
sity to shoot at targets further away.
In March the PIRATES, tWitterers and
sOngsters betray signs of preparation
for mating. The green is getting up in
the trees and the mysterious law Of
nature which makes all things bloom
and reproduce their kind in the spring
~ at w VI n upOA InSlu. SOuLId "
popular impression, much of the pre-
partOry work of bird mating is done il
their winter home before the beginning
of the journey back to the North.
This is true not only of the wood and
field varieties, but of wild foul as we'll
There is, of course, no nest building
done, but the observer will see the dis
position on the part of the birds to
pair. Males and females will be found
in company here and there and always
separated from other members of their
tribe by a hundred yards or So They
show rare mOdesty in this matter, or
it may be that they are afraid of being
leased by those other in whose small
bodies the leaven of spring has not yet
begun to work. 1t sometimes happens
that the selection of mates is made
here, but most often the courtship is
completed on the way north, which oc-
Cupies a space of time of all the way
from two weeks to six weeks, accord
ing to the latitude in which the bird is
accustomed to spend its summers. its
speed and its industry of flight. Most
birds go north as the spring goes in
little flights of a hundred miles Of So
For this reason residents near the Ca
madam line find the returned wanderers
with them so soon as the spring is
fairly under way There are some
species which remain in the South until
the weather gets to warm for their
comfort. They then start north in long
and determined journeys. which cover
hundreds of miles at flight, stopping
only for nightfall and twice day to
feed a little while. AS these varieties
begin their nest uildinb as soon as they
reach their destination, it is reasonable
to suppose that their courtship was
completed before they started. Ger
tainly, they have little time for love
making during their far and strenuous
journeying. 1t is noticed by men
curious about such things that birds
begin erecting their homes almost as
soon as they reach the point at which
they purpose to spend the breeding
season. Their rapidity of selection
would not be possible if it had not
ben begun during the warm days which
found them in the south and started
them on their travels hOmeward.
Another evidence that the process OF
mating is begun here is found in the
springtime pugnacity Of the males. 1t
is difficult to walk into the woods i'll
March without having the ear assailed
by a succession of angry cries, or
chirps. betraying two battling males Of
any one Of so of species Courage in
! birds is by no means regulated in size
Some of the largest of them, notably
the crow, are the most cowardly. Con
versely, a little hop-o'-my-thumb,
sometimes not longer nor taller than
an inch, will attack a flyer in pro-
portion to itself is as a house to man.
The mockingbird, too, wonders min
sterels in gray, are as valiant as gifted
and many Of them are slain by Invalid
ing shrikes because they do not know
that discretion is the better part Of
valor. Occasionally the victory rests
with the mocker, though not often.
| Such is the fame of this valor, however,
and so well is it understood by other
birds that interference with one Of
| them means fight to the death, that the
| shrike will attack only where is alb
solute death Of other prey. The con-
testants are nearly equal in size and
the shrike which dimes upon the singer
/ earns his meal. The cardinal gros-
| beak. called universally throughout the
| south "red-bird," has no little sense OF
the fitness of things, that it will attack
man under certain circumstances and