Vilas County news. [volume] (Eagle River, Vilas County, Wis.) 1896-1927, 1905-12-04
WHERE THE FOX LAYS HIS HEAD
AND THE BIRD ALIGHTS.
WHAT CATSAND DOGSLOVE
Wood Pigeons Preference the Smooth
Branches of Dead Trees-So, Too,
the Buzzard and the Eagle-Rot-
ting Trunks That Become a Sort
of Bird Club.

mighty Tree dH0CCGd alike both birds
and beasts. The beasts of the field
were to lose for time the benefit of
it's shadow, and the fowls of the air
their habitation in it's branches.
There is no doubt that the feeling
Of an ancient tree, even after it's life
has ended, and only the bare branch
es remain, is to pass sentence Of re-
moval-a kind of eviction-on a great
number of the race Of birds, at all
seasons of the year. Like most other
animals, birds have three forms of
more or less permanent abiding place.
Their nests are their homes in the
spring and early summer, on which all
their energies are concentrated. Their
sleeping homes vary during the year,
except those of the cliff-nunting hawks
and falcons, the seafowl, including
the gulls and cormorants, and the two
species Of wild pigeon, which prefer
to roost as well as to nest in holes
and caverns. Lastly, like very many
mammals, and some even of our most
beautiful butterflies, they have their
resting places, taking the place of out
door parlors or assembly rooms, or
serving them, if they want quiet, as
sort of club library (Which scoffers
have been known to speak of slight
ingly as "the dormitory'O, where they
can sit all alone-and think.
AS a resting place by day nearly all
birds prefer, not a close thicket en-
powered in trees, but as a rule the
most exposed top or a dead branch
such rock is called the Horse"
Best Of all is dead tree, every part
Of which is withered, perhaps as the
result of lightning. On most English
lakes, whether in parks or empowered
in woods, there is some favorite tree
of this kind, on which a heron, or a
large hawk, or even a sea-eagle, in the
visits which these birds occasionally
pay to such places, always sits, if it
be in the neighborhood. This is the
case of one of the fine Essex lakes,
which was haunted by pair of os-
preys for several weeks last year, and
near which the heron, the buzzard and
the eagle have all been seen sitting OIL
the same tall and withered branch,
projecting above the surrounding
wood, and just at the lakehead. 1t
does not matter what the tree is, if
only it is dead or has dead branch
convenient for perching upon. One
reason may be that these branches
are devoid Of bark, and therefore
pleasant to the touch of the birds
! feet. On a Scotch moor the buzzards
always by preference sit on such a
tree, and in English woodlands the
wood-pigoens do the same. A person
skilled in the art of decoying wild pig
cons within shot will always fasten
his dummy birds to the top branches
of a dead tree, not to those with liv-
ing branches.
The present writer has for some
years kept, in spite of remonstrance,
an absolutely dead weeping willow of
some size in front of the house, on a
lawn by the river. 1t consists now
only of a trunk, the mere framework
of graceful tree, a kind of monu-
ment in memory of what it once was.
But the place of leaves and branch
lets is taken by another form of life.
The birds use it as their tavor1te rest
ing place, and have made it kind of
avian club. In the early morning the
thrushes and hedge sparrows sing
there to the sunrise. In the evenings
especially in the late summer and
op1I WIN
migrating birds gather to bid the sun
goodnight. Sometimes as many as
forty wagtails assemble there on their
migrations up or down the Thames,
and twitter till they go to roost in the
ser bed near. Swallows and martins
take their young broods there to feed
them, and perhaps teach them to fly
from the easy vantage ground Of the
bare dead boughs. The swallow tribe
have a very great liking for dead
branches as resting places. Often
they may be heard uttering their lit
tie twittering song, apparently from
the thick foliage of a chestnut or elm.
But if the exact place is sought, it
will be seen that they are occupying
dead branchlet, even if it be only a
few feet from the ground. Since tele-
graph wires were invented they have
realized that man is indeed bene-
factor, for he not only erects houses
expressly for mathis to build nests
against, but also sets up thousands Of
miles of perches exactly of the size
which suit their tiny feet and claws.
This fact has been appreciated also
by the board school children, who
after being sent into the country for
holidays are told to write about what
they saw. The swallows (which live
on telegraph wires, figure largely in
these "reminiscences.
Resting time for most birds comes
in the evening, and is quite different
from roosting time. Gulls nearly al
ways fly little way inland, and rest