The Baltimore County union. [volume] (Towsontown, Md.) 1865-1909, 1902-11-15
WHY THE BIRDS LEAVE Us.

XO/K xVEICS.
WHY THE BIRDS LEAVE Us.
A bird of passage is bird-gener-
ally in fock-on the way North or
South. This passage really covers
most of the spring and summer.
There is hardly a week from March
to November when focks of birds are
not moving from station to station.
Robins go South from the northern
parts as early as August that is,
they start from their nesting grounds
but they move very deliberately
across the country. Orioles close up
housekeeping early in August, and
they spend a month in fitting about
the country, in a happy-go-lucky sort
of way. Interesting as birds are
during their brief nesting seasons,
they are more interesting during their
travels. Their sojourn anywhere is
very brief. The nearest to complete
domestication is found in the case of
the catbird. When treated we'll and
Familiarity, he comes North about the
first of May, and does not leave us till
some time in October. He is not all
this while nesting or singing, but he
is in the bushes ready for a pleasant
chat with you, if you have proven
yourself a companionable friend.
Robins are very irregular about COM
ing or going, and some of them are
sure to be left behind all winter.
Most of the birds are gregarious when
travelling probably for the sake of
safety. A flock ofvery peaceful birds
is compelled to add the additional
protection of travelling by night. By
day they generally are resting or feed
ing in some pleasant locality. In the
spring they always are heard first in
the early morning in the autumn
their goodbye is heard at the approach
of evening. All night they are on
the wing.
1t is mistake to suppose that any
Of our birds care for home as a resi-
dence. They only stay in one spot
long enough for single purpose !;
either for rearing young, or to collect
food, or to escape cold weather. These
fellows that drop down on us in the
early morning to dine from our noun
tain ash trees in August or Septem-
Der are cosmopolitans. Some varie-
ties of birds will abound in section
one year and be very scarce the next.
This is markedly true of grosbeaks
and orioles. During 1892 the orioles
have been mostly birds of passage,
nesting probably farther north-but
appearing in large numbers as birds
of passage-eating plums and grapes,
and spelling what they could not eat.
| A saucy firt and handsome marauder,
the oriole, can do more mischief in a
week of travelling than flock of birds
that are residents. The main ques-
tion remains to be answered-why do
birds migrate at all? The most rea-
sonable answer is, because they must
eat, and are forced to go to localities
where food is plentiful. Our north
ern birds do not go South because
they love that land more than the
North, but because the open winter
gives them a living in Dixie. The
poetical bobolink, the songster of the
New England meadows and skies,
leaves his aesthetic life when food is
scarce and tarries like glutton along
our Delaware to be known as the reed
bird. Next, to get something in more
abundance to eat, he goes farther
south, and becomes the fat, piggish
rice bird Of the Carolinas. The wild
pigeon has become extinct in this To-
cality, where there were once clouds
of them and millions roosting in the
trees to the very breaking of their
limbs with bird weight The reason
is found in the fact that the disappear
ance of the beech tree from our noun
tain counties and other bearers of
mast upon which the birds fed have
disappeared from Our forests. 1t is
thought the wild pigeon has found a
habitat in the far Northwest, where
the axe of man has not yet glutted its
love of destruction. The coming and
going of the birds are always inter
esting. We greet them with pleasure
and leave them with egret.-Lancas-
te, (Ra.) Examiner.
"AH," he said as they were ex-
ploring among the rocks back of the
hotel, "here is Lovers lane Let's
go through"
"That deep place there, where it is
so dark, with the steep, rocky sides p
eyes. Come on.
''Tm afraid you would kiss me if
we were down there alone together. "
'No, houest p
"Well, then we may as we'll remain
up here" Here is were he took ad-
vantage of it.
"YoU WERE talking just now about
the initiative and referendum, .
said the man in the tweed suit.
Have you any idea what that
means?"
''You must think T. m darn fool, .
retorted the man with the retreatine
chin. ut means that you can't be
initiated unless you can give good
reference.
A LITTLE learning is like dried ap