St. Tammany farmer. [volume] (Covington, La.) 1874-current, 1903-07-04
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COUNTRY IN THE CITY.
The streets Of london Teen "A
Busy birds and Insecfs, 81
Various Kinds.

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In London the tame pigeons are wild
and the wild ones tame. The descenu-
ants of the rock dove, that have TOE
thousands of years been common op'
jects of the poultry yard. b rec z - II
inches behind gargoyles, in. water
spouts and ON roofs behind paraPets,
and live fine, wild life. They all tend
to revert to the blue type, with two
black bars on eachwing, and they are
probably as beautiful as the wild stock
from which they sprang, writes cor
respondent of the Washington star.
The wood pigeons, on the other hand,
are in London fat, podgy. immensely
greedy birds, not disdaining to feed
from our fingers, and transporting
their unwieldy carcass from one feed
ing place to another with difficulty.
They may be seenain Lincoln's Inn
Fields, literally sprawling about the
trees like Mr. Pickwick on skates.
Civilizat ton has completely spoiled
them. In the country it is a fine sight
to see the wood pigeons caeaving the
blue air at speed of 40 or, even 90
miles an hour, soaring like hawks, or
wheeling in hundreds over wood that
has been invaded by the fox hounds.
In London they are rapidly approx
mating to the proportion and lassitud!e
of the late dodo.
tn was recently announced that 9
pair of robins had been seen in Foun-
tain Court Temple. Though L often
perambulatea that locality, have not
yet seen these birds. Upon inquiring
of the gardener 1. found that he had
been equally unfortunate, He had not
seen a robin in the temple for the last
four or five years. The robin, indeed,
seems to be very scarce in central
London. Akt H.
OF starlings there are a fair number
| They build sometimes on the roofs
| and in water spouts with the pigeons,
| and more generally in the decayed
branch Of some church yard tree. The
| city does not produce flock, only here
| and there band Of from half a dozen
| to half score, which go forag1ng to-
gether wherever fair stretch Of grass
can be found. Thrushes and blackbirds
are rare, if not extinct, but last winter
I saw a solitary redwing shivering in
! the Embankment Gardens. The great
| city bird is the sparrow, and he does
his best to fill all other deficiencies in
our bird life. s7sisi .sttsat{ ss3a e
The variation of plumage among
/ r 9e,o ROT rL
able than their requirement Of new
habits. If you have hundred accepts
| ances to your picnic you will scarcely
| see two birds alike. Some are Of .
smoky blackness, Others a severe gray,
others bright with orange brown
feathers, Others of a delicate green,
others have the wing bars so pro-
nounced as to make you think you see
| q chaffinch, others are streaked like
mailards, and others are spotted like
thrushes. Quite one per cent. OF the
| central London sparrows are blessed
| with white feathers on parts OF the
body where they are not expected to
appear on sparrows. &c
Insects and creatures of the con-
| tiguous order are not unrepresented in
| the city. Blue bottles and black
| beetles occur and in Shoe lane is a
house where a rare species Of the latter
ge1fus is sought by naturalists from all
over the world. The little vaporer
moth, which was to be seen a week ago,
is still fourishing among our plane
| trees. He is a bright chestnut red,
with just one white spot about the size
| of pins head on each forewing.
There is one very good reason why the
/ vaporer should not fall victim to
1 what am convinced is the worst enemy
of moths in London-the street lamp.
Mrs. Vaporer is wingless grub, and
therefore cannot hy to the alluring
light. Four little stuhps, that look
like only two, are no more than evi-
dence that the Observation-Disclosures
er of Mrs. Vaporer had wings, and a
/ glance at Mr.. Vaporer; will tell US what
they probably were like. The vaporer
flies by day, and if later he chooses te
go and get his wings tsinged at a street
lamp what does it matter? The cocoon
case, where Mrs. vaporer dechrysa1-
ICED and lived, is beaded over with
eggs, which will next year yield their
| grubs. The larvae Of few other
moths / have seen munching their
! green stuff In the gardens OF central
London, and in q Zap up three flights
of stairs / came across the chrysalids
of few garden white butterflies. How
they got there is not quite a mystery
The caterpillars probably crawled out
of the cabbage sent upstairs to be
cooked.