The daily morning journal and courier. [volume] (New Haven, Conn.) 1894-1907, 1900-03-29

| der certain circumstances and, when
winged by single pellet of shot or
| trapped, will fight to the last. Many a
small farmer boy has dropped his prey
and trotted to the house with bleeding
| forefinger from having caught one of
| these desperadoes and incautiously
handled it. Both the mocker and the
| redbird remain here all the year
through, but they seem to get on excel
! lently with their northern visitors and
there is no discernible friction between
Then there is the bluebird, whose azure
back and wings and rudy breast do
not change at any time; the robin, the
black and yellow oriole, the redwinged
blackbird, the purple grakle in his bur-
nished arnor, 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 quiet, not at all
perky, and seems anxious to escape OBJ
servation. The reason Of this is that he
is recovering from prolonged debauch
and his conscience hurts.
On every Louisiana plantation, and
| in most Louisiana yards, are china
| trees, which bear a round, hard berry,
| twice the size of a buckshot. These ber-
ries are green and acrid in summer but
when the frost has fallen, turn to a
bright yellow. Of them Robin is fond.
| They contain strong eXbilaratiVe prin-
| ciple, which later turns into soporific.
A half-dozen OF them set the bird to
dancing about in joyous fashion, then
ii gets dizzy and makes a few objectless
turns, as if it We're trying 70 waltz, then
It topples over and goes to sleep Its
stupor will last a half-hour. When it
| wakes 1t goes back to the tree and re-
peats the performance Little negro
boys catch many robins in stupefied or
semi-stupefied condition. A curious eff
feel of the poison is that 1t deprives the
bird of a sense of danger Those under
it's influence suffer themselves to be
picked up and their necks wrung with
out an effort at escaDe. After three
months of this sort of life, it is no Won
der that Robin Redbreast wants to go
off somewhere by himself and sit down
ana think. His sobriety in March is
due wholly to the fact that the China
berries are all gone. No morality, late
ly awakened. restraints MIN. If the ber-
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 repertoires now
are the fullest. All winter long they
have been associating with hundreds of
emigrants from New York, Pennsylva-
mia and contiguous states, and they
have picked up a vast assortment of
melodies. They have so many, in fact,
that their songs sound like whole avi-
airy turned loose into vocaization one
after another. They will forget all of
this by the middle of summer and their
limitations then will be only of native
birds, because the Knockers have a no.
tably 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
twitter, 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 1.-THE hermit thrush when it |
reaches the south maintains it's secre-
tive habits. 1t lives in the deepest and |
darkest parts of the forests 1t is only
rarely seen upon the edge of a field and !
then fits back into the Businesses as if |
it dreaded the light Its solitude and |
the difficulty with which it is APP |
preached, however, have no effect upon |
4,,- ~ ~
variety of it's music. It's pipings are
often heard in woods which are quiet,
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 a hermit thrush
is not easy of requirement, both on ac-
count of it's purity of tone and its range !
of notes. Tt is a rare thing, however |
that the male hooking bird is unable 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 acquire. Of
the strain of the hermit thrush Bur-
roughs says: Through the general
3rorus of Wrens and warblers T detect
his sound rising, pure and serene as if
a spirit from some remote height Were
slowly chanting a divine accompan-
ment. This song appeals to the senti-
nent of the beautiful and suggests a Sc
rene religious beautitude as no other
sound in nature does. 1t is not a proud
gorgeous strain like the tanager's or the
suggests no passion or emo
ion, but seems to be the voice of that
aim, sweet solemnity one attains in his
pest moments. 1t realizes a peace and
deep solemn joy that only the finest
ouls may know A few nights ago /
ascended a mountain to see the world by
and when near the summit
he hermit commenced his evening
1ymn. Listening TO this strain on the
one mountain, with the full moon just
ounded from the horizon, the pomp of
our cities and the pride of your eivili-
alton seemed trivial and cheap. / have |
eldom known two of these birdse to be |
inging at the same time in the same
ocality."
The desire of the hermit thrush to be
lone is as strong in Louisiana as in it's {