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


Louisiana woods now furnish the
greatest number Of bird varities. be-
cause it is at the fag end of the season,
when all which are coming south have
arrived and there has been no start to
the north. Three weeks hence there
!. will be decrease OF more than so per
cent in the number of feathered things
to be found in an hour stroll, and near
to the end Of April only the natives
will be left. Just now, however, the
inhabitants OF the woods and fields are
at their prettiest and on their prettiest
behavior, from the viewpoint of man.
1t is true that the northerners are
predominant among them, and their
dull outing uniforms will not be ex-
mostly of sober coat. Drabs and grays
changed for flashing russest and green's
until they get back home. The birds
which belong here, however, show
plenty of coloration. half-dozen
cardinal grosbeaks alone are sufficient
to liven up the landscape. Then there
is the bluebird, whose azure back and
wings and ruddy breast do not change
at any time; the robin, the black and
yellow oriole, the red-winged black
bird, the purple grakle in his FURNISHED
armOr, the white and black vireo, the
| French mockingbird, in white and
gray, the yellow and green scissor-tail,
and lot of others. In March the
robin, indeed, has a slightly rumpled
and draggled look. He is quite, not at
all perky, and seems anxious to escape
| observation. The reason of this is that
he is recovering from a prolonged de-
bauch and his conscience hurts.
On every Louisiana plantation and in
most Louisiana yards, are china trees,
which bear a round hard berry, twice
tn size of a buckshot. These berries
are green and acrid in summer. but
when the frost has fallen, turn to a
| bright yellow. Of them Robin is
| foun. They contain a strong exhiIara-
tive principle, which later turns into a
| sopOrific. A half-dozen of them set
| the birds to dancing about in Joyous
| fashion, then it gets dizzy and makes
a few objectles turns, as if it were try
| ing to walez, then it topples over and
goes to sleep. It's stupor will last a
| half-hour. When it wakes it goes back
to the tree and repeates the perfor.
| nance. Little negro boys catch many
robins in stupefied or semi-stupefied
condition. A curious effect of the poi
son is that it deprives the bird of a
sense of danger. Those under the in
fluence suffer themselves to be picked
up and their necks wrung without an
effort to escape. After three months
of this sort of life, it is no wonder that
Robin Redbreast wants to go off some
where by himself and sit down and
think. His sObriety in March is due
wholly to the fact that the china berries
are all gone. No morality lately
awakened, restraints him. If the ber-
ries lasted all of the year, he would be
drunk all of the year, and would never
go north at all
If it were possible to catch and keep
in captivity full grown hooking birds,
those captured now would be the most
valuable because their repertories now
are the fullest. All winter long they
have been associating with hundreds Of
emigrants from New Yory, Pennsyl-
vania and contiguous states and they
have picked up a vast assortment of
melodies. They have so many in fact,
that their songs sound like a whole
aviary turned loose into voculizatiOn
one after another. They will forget all
of this by the middle of summer and
determinations then will be only of ma
tive birds, because the Knockers have
notable poor memory, but they begin
again in the fall as soon as the first ar
rivals from the north have caught their
breaths and begun to whistle. chirp, or
tw(tter, and by the time the cold
months are over they will be once more
at their best. One singular result Of
the memoratiVe faculty or instinct of
the mocker is the duets, or sound-duels,
which often occur between it and the
hermit thrush. the sweetest minstrel Of
the north The hermit thrush when il
reaches the south maintains it's secre-
tive habits. 1t lives in the deepest and
| darkest part of the forests. 1t is only
rarely sen upon the edge of the field
and then fits back into the Businesses
as if it dreaded the light. It's solitude
and the difficulty with which ii is ap-
| preached, however, have no effect upon
the sweetness of its voice or the liquid
variety of it's music It's pipings are
often heard in woods which are quite
and the hooking bird when it hears
them, instantly ceases its own song
and bends all its attention in the effort
to memoriZe. The song Of hermit
thruse is no easy of requirement, both
on account of it's purity of tone and its
range of notes. 1t is a rare thing, how
| ever, that the male hooking bird is I'M
able to master it. When this occurs
the failure is due to the fact that there
is some fault in the individual mocker
The Knockers differ in ability to ac-
quire. OF the strain of the hermit
thrush Burroughs says: Though the
! general chorus of Wrens and warblers.
[ detect this sound rising, pure and
| serene, as if spirit from some remote
hight were slowly chanting a divine
| accompaniment. This song appeals to
| the sentiment Of the beautiful and sug-
gest a serene religious beautitude as no
| other sound in nature does. It is not
proud gorgeous strain like the
! tanager's or the grosbeaks, suggests no
| passion or emotion, but seems to be tho
voice OF that calm, sweet solemnity
one attains in best moments It reali-
yes peace and a deep solemn joy that
only the finest souls may know A few
nights ago | assembled a mountain TO