The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1904-09-27
PRINCETON BIRDS ARE MOVING
SCOTT COLLECTION TAKEN TO THE
WORTHINGTON GROUNDS.
Six Hundred OF Them Packed Into wicker
Cages and Loaded on . Freight Car
Tho Macaws Made TrOuble-Cat
Watched the Departure With Regret

Cages and Loaded on Freight Car
Tho Macaws Made Tr0uble-Cat
Watched the Departure with Regret.
w. f. d. Scott OF Princeton, known as
Bird" Scott to the undergraduates Of Old
Nassau, moved his aviary yesterday to
the new Worthington grounds above Della
ware Water Gap. Rather, he packed up
Yesterday, got his 600 feathered treasures
into wicker cages and loaded them on q
freight car, along with barrels Of bird seed
and whole chest Of delicious, juicy meal
worms, to jolly them along In case they
got restless. The bird special was sched-
uled TO movelat early dawn this morning.
The story Of the Worthington Society
has already been told-how Mr.. Scott has
labored for years experimenting with live
birds, and how c. c. Worthington saw his
work and gave land and endowment for
the perpetual day-by-day study OF wild
birds kept in a captivity that approaches
freedom, The temporary buildings are
all UP on the Worthington grounds, ready
for the present collection. and as many
more as will be needed in exhaustive ex-
periments.
The collection has been housed in wing
OF colonial house in Princeton. In one
big room have lived such Of the larger,
birds as could be trusted to dwell together
in peace-robins. woodthrushes, cat birds
bobolinks, grosbeaks and the like. The
tiny ones, such as snowbirds, weavers
and lovebirds, have an attic room to them
solves. Separated, too, are the canaries
and goldfinches, and certain thrushes and
starlngs accomplished in song The col
lection, by the way, IL remarkably strong
in singers from all the five continents,
bird song being hobby Of the owner.
In the early morning Mr.. Scott, the artist
member of his staff, Bruce Horsfall, and a
bird expert from New York unpacked
several hundred wicker cages and got busy.
The larger birds were first in line. The
shutters of the flying cages were closed,
and the cracks stuffed with cloth. This
mean trick on the birds worked to perfec-
ton. Robin and thrush and grosbeak
sang their good night song and scurried
for the perches. AS the last shutter was
closed they hoped up and tucked their
heads under their wings.
Still they didn't rest well. The general
opinion seemed to be that 1t was snort
time between nights When the CATCH
ing party entered the cages the birds showed
their uneasiness by flying about with q
terrible squawking. Then Mr.. Scott did
some expert work in bird catching. He
would reach up with one hand and scoop
them in as shortstop takes not one on
the bat. 1t looked like fatal proceed,
ing for the bird, but when Mr.. Scott pulled
down his hand, there it would lie, perfectly
passive, blinking it's black eyes. ust to
show how he had hypnotized 1t, Mr.. Scott
would open his fingers gently and SHOW
the bird lying on it's back in the hollow
it was held.
They had two hour job with the larger
birds, When these were all slowed away
In wicker the cages were done up in brown
paper. This produced the night. effect
again, and the birds stopped hutteTing and
They started for the flying house OF the
smaller birds, when the red macaw and the
blue macaw, hoodlums OF the scott col
lection, got loose and raise rough house
These two giant parrots, as gaudy outside az
they are tough within, have no thought l N
everything within reach with their pipe
wrench bills. They've already eaten away
all the wainscot Of their room.
. whats the matter?" said the red one. -,
AN right, said the blue. These are all
the words they know, and when they say
them i means mschief. At once they few
out and began to eat up the stairs. They'd
picked a hole In one step when a parrot
became alarmed at the voice OF the blue
one, which sounds like a rusty horse-pistol
This parrot knows only two words sI, ne ne
ceiling and chung with one foot to chandelier
and repeated those two words at the top OF
his voice. Two nuns from the convent
down the street who passed the mouse JUST
then olapped their hands over their ears;
Mr.. Scott caught the macaws with loop ano
put them back on their perch, potn scream
Ing like rusty saws.
In the song room Is an Indian thrush.
one Of the sweetest singers on earth, ana
one of the many birds called "bulbul' in
the Orient. His goodnight tune is five
liquid notes exactly like the opening notes
are great mimics, and all the bluejays'
Himalayan bulbuls, thrushes. grosbeaks.
and all the others in that room have adopted
it for an evensong: So when the lights
we're turned of the whole troupe sang
Good Morning, Carrie like minstrel
troupe.
Ali these birds, which have been petted
into tameness, took the moving quietly.
II is no new thing for most Of them. The
buIbul, for instance, came all the way from
the Himalayas down to Calcutta, over seas
to England. and then TO- New, York and
Princeton. They took it like old stagers.
The snowbi,ds were the most obstreper-
ous of the little people, although the green
lovebirds did a lot Of fiuttering, and the
tiny Chinese parrots protested vigorously.
Yet they all went to sleep ike good bros
when the cages were wrapped up.
From the macaws to the tiniest canary
they were aboard by q. o'clock, all but the
white paroquet. He. is a snowy fellow,
with light lemon underwings and white
crest like an Indians war bonnet, which
he Jerks up erect whenever he gets eI-
cited or talks. The pet Of the whole menag-
erie, he will be moved on his owners
shoulder.
The remarkable Scott cat which has been
tau ght never to enter the bird house and
obeys orders, viewed all these proceedn gs
from the doorway. AS the last cage was
moved away she licked her chops and
looked sad. :,
Along with other paraphernalia there
goes to the Worthington estate set OF
specially made Photographs These are
to be used in studying the initiative factor
in bird song, a special line OF investigation
with Mr.. Scott. He has made his collection
strong in sin gers, not for the pleasure Of It,
but for purely scientific purposes. he
has nearly all the worlds most famous
singers, except the nightingale.
To find how far imitation goes In form
ing the vocabulary Of birds, he will take
young broods, Put them, in special sound
proof cages and let them hear no bird note
except a certain simple mbination played
on the photograph. II they, learn and
cling to that song-which viii be inten-
tionally foreign to their native note