The mirror. (Stillwater, Minn.) 1894-1925, 1901-08-15

direction, except for their piteous cries
of "go'wa-a-ay, go'wa-a-ay." They seem
unable to conceal their parental con-
Germ. This note, full of anxious fear
and distress, is quite unlike the
characteristic plaintive "pewee." If l
approached the vicinity of the nest,
the birds would begin to plead "go'wa-
a-ay, go'wa-a-ay," often when 1 was
hundred PAGES from the object of their
solicitude.
One morning 1 found several jays,
notorious egg suckers and bird canni-
balls, near one of the nests, and the
cries Of the pewees were heartrending.
They were greatly excited and made
angry jabs at the chuckling bluecoats,
giving hot chase when the latter were
driven off by we'll aimed stone.
On a Towering locust I often saw
downy woodpecker hunting grubs in
the decaying bark. He would come
sliding down the trunk backward on
his tripod, so wonderfully adopted for
vertical locomotion, alert eager, in
dustrious, sinking his horny pick into
every spot that gave promise of juicy
titbit. The strokes were rapid and
delivered with such force that his head
seemed to rebound at each blow, as if
the beak were rubber tipped, and the
white stripe down his back suggested
that the strain had caused rip in the
central seam of his bi-colored coat,
displaying his white shirt underneath.
Sometimes the prospects for break
fast did not seem satisfactory, and then
he would launch himself across the
ravine to another tree in his character
istic open-and-shut mode Of flight,
crying vehemently, "che, che, che, cheat, !"
in midair.
This woodland of which speak is a
favorite haunt of that glorious songsteI,
the wood thrush. Right by the road
side and within fifty feet of the
negro's hut, not fifteen feet above my
head, nest was built in plain view,
|
first made some of the foundation
material, becoming loosened, hung
down six or seven inches, rendering it
quite conspicuous. Every morning
and evening when passing, would
look up at the nest and nearly always
saw above its rim the head and tail OF
the sitting dame. The yellowish base
of the lower mandible and the darker
colored point gave the beak the ap-
pearance of having black lump on its
end; as tho when plastering the
nest some of the mud had not been
wiped off the trowel and had hardened
there. AS stopped and gazed at her
for moment, sometimes her eyes
would close as though she were doing
and l suspect that she did sleep a
good deal as she sat there, motionless
for many hours, on her ovals of promise
What picture of cheerful patience is
sitting bird!
After the advent of the young,
would see the attentive mother sitting
on the rim of the nest with beak dowr
among the nestlings, and at sucf
times she did not show the least fear
taking no notice OF me, although wal
less then twenty feet from her. Ihop'
, she had come to know me as friend
j.. I missed her very much when sh'
, quilted the nest with her children, fo
they are truly divine singers. A raj
| and piece of paper made part of tn
| foundation of every wood thrush's mes
) found in these woods. One down b.
/ the quarry had in and about it a larg
Q piece of white muslin, fragment o
Q some quarryman's shirt L suspect
3 There were also In it some whit
Q chicken feathers, FIVE to eight inche
> long, that showed on the exterior as i
t stuck there for ornamentation.
s hundred yards away on the ground wa
8 a mass of the same kind of feathers
a evidently where one of Mama Green
2 fowls had met tragic death. Thes
1 are only few of the various kinds o
q birds that frequent these southern
: woodlands. Ahl that we might forge
,, the past twenty years and be bo
r again out with the birds. P. B. B.