The daily morning journal and courier. [volume] (New Haven, Conn.) 1894-1907, 1900-03-29
BIRDS IN WINTER HOMES.
THESONGSTERS IN THE LOUISIANA
WOODS,
On the Eve of Their Spring FIigh,
Northyvard.


Just at this season the woods of
Louisiana are most populous with birds
Not only the natives are here, but visi-
tors from every northern state, and not
any of them have set their wings for
the homeward flight. The naturalist
who makes a sojourn in this section
through the winter months has oppor-
tunity to study pretty nearly every
form of feathered life the eastern part
study them at close range. The woods
are so thick and the fields so quiet that
the air voyagers may be approached
within few yards, and, as no one ever
disturbs those species of them which
are not game" they become sinsularly
tame. Representatives of water and
Wading birds are as numerous as those
which stick to dry land and trees. EV-
cry lagoon is inhabited by northern
cranes, herons and fishers of other
kinds, and not less than dozen differ
ing varieties of bitterns make the day
and night clamorous. Birds of prey
come too, in almost endless variety.
In summer northern Louisiana can
show perhaps a half dozen kinds of
hawks and three kinds of owls, but in
that time, which is the snow time fur
Their north about twenty differing spe-
cies of hawks are here, and a dozen
kinds of owls. The opportunity afford
ed to the naturalist, and the taXider-
mist as well, are understood by some
men who live above the Mason and
Dixon line, and they are regular jour
meyers to Louisiana when the cold
comes. These men use, almost without
excveption, a double-barreled gun of
only forty-four caliber, which cham
bers a cartridge, but is loaded with
dust shot instead of ball. They are ia
tai little weapons at a distance of thir-
ty feet, and there is rarely any necessi-
ty 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 ma
ture which makes all things bloom and
reproduce their kind in the spring is at
work upon them. Contrary to popular
impression, much of the preparatory
work of bird mating is done in their
winter home before the beginning of
the journey back to the north. This is
true not only of the wood and field va
rieties, but Of wild fowl as well. There
is, of course, no nest building done, but
the observer will see a disposition on the |
part of the birds to pair. Males and fe- |
males will be found in comptny here
and there and always separated from |
other members of their tribe by hun |
bred yards or so. They show a rare |
modesty in this matter or it may be |
that they are afraid of being leased by |
those others in whose small bodies the
leaven of spring has not yet begun to
SWork 1t sometimes happens that the
selection of mates is made here, but
most often the courtship is completed |
on svhe way north, which occupies a
spsce of time of all the way from two /
7Seks to six weeks, according to the
latitude in which the bird is accustomed |
to spend its summers, its speed and it's
industry of flight. Most birds go north
as the Spring goes in little flights of
hundred miles or so. For this reason
residents near the Canadian 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 too
warm for their comfort. They then
start north in long and determined
journeys, which cover hundreds of miles
at a flight, stopping only for nightfall
and twice a day to feed a little while.
AS these varieties begin their nest
building as soon as they reach their des-
tination, 1t is reasonable to suppose
that their courtship was completed be-
fore they started Certainly, they have
little time for love-making during their
far and strenuous journeying. 1t is no.
ticed 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 Sc
lection would not be possible if it had
not been 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 in
March without having the ear assailed
by succession of angry cries, or
chirps, betraying two battling males of
any one of fifty of species. Courage in
birds is by no means regulated by size.
Some of the largest of them, notably
the crew. are the most coWardly. Con-
little hop-o my thumb, some
times not longer nor taller than an
inch, will attach flyer in proportion to
itself is is as a house to a man
The mockingbirds too, wondrous min .
strels in gray, are as valiant as gifted =
and many of them are slain by invading
shrikes because they do not know that
discretion is the better part of valor.
the victory rests with the
nocker, though not often Such is the
fame of their valor, however, and so ,
we'll is it understood by other birds that ;
interference with one of them means
hem at any time.
Louisiana woods now furnish the :
greatest number of bird varieties, be- :
,ause it is at the flag end of the season,
when all which are soming south have a
arrived and there has been no start to
the north. Three weeks hence there .
will be q decrease of more than fifty ;
Der cent in the number of feathered
Kings to be found in an hours stroll, n
ana near 10 the end of April only the