Northern Wisconsin advertiser. [volume] (Wabeno, Wis.) 1898-1925, 1906-12-27
FROM THE GOLDEN BOOKS.
Birds Songs and Ways in the Eng
Iish Spring.


faint cav of some setting rock on a
sunny spring afternoon, high up amid
the delicate tracery of the elm's
towering branches against the dag
cling blue. She is some young bird,
who started later than her seniors
upon the seasons cares and joys;
for the other nests are tenanted now
only by callow squads, and as the
flock of rocks return at sunset Won
viii see that on approaching the
rookery it breaks up into pairs, both
parents having been at liberty to
forage for food for their growing
young. But through the long hours
of sunny afternoon the young mother
rock sits alone upon her later eggs,
emphasizing the silence of the
empty rookery with a soft cav at in
tervals, answered by her mate wing
ing from far afield with food for her.
When the nightingale first arrives.
sunny noon is the best time TO hear
him. The nights are scarcely warm
enough either for him to enjoy sing.
ing or for us to loiter out of doors TO
listen. But, If you can find sunny,
sheltered nook at midday, where you
can sit, with the buzz and glitter of
spring all round you, and listen to
the russell nightingales challenging
each other in ripping music from
their several thickets, what more can
you want for half an hour of happi-
nessg The nightingale has the rep
utation of being shy bird; but il
you do not keep moving about YOU
Will find that he deliberately comes
nearer and nearer to you to sing; but
II you happen to have stationed your
self too close to a position which
he desires to occupy, he will drop
down into the underground and fid-
get about all round you, uttering his
peculiar harsh croak of protest. like
a frog with a bad sore throat. Some.
times, too, he will interrupt himself
In the middle of his song to utter
this hoarse note, perhaps because
you moved, and then go on with his
music where he left off. AT other
times you may see one pursuing an
other through the bushes, both of
them uttering snatches of song as
they go. Incidents like these more
than compensate for the loss of that
background OF silence which throws
the nightingale's solo into superb re-
lief at night.
Hot day and bright sunset fol.
lowed by clear and rather frosty
nights, must at this season be sue
ceeded by mornings of heavy dew and
clinging mist. We are lucky indeed
when the mist does not drizzle into
rain; for in April, which is only half.
summer, you cannot have July heat
without a following reminder that it
is balf-winter too. So the bees this
morning are sad lie-abeds, and almost
until noon the honeyed sallow in the
river valley spreads its dew-drenched
blossoms in vain for insect guests.
When the sun lifts the mist the in
sects return in thronging swarms.
and sometimes among the insect eat.
ing birds you may chance to see a
bat, Drawing the sunlight and flicker
ing to and fro under the arching
trees. For the bat suffers more than
others, when each warm days sun
makes him restless and hungry, and
each chilly night keeps him still in
bed. So at last he comes out to sat
sfy his hunger in the sunlight, or
perhaps TO fall an easy prey to the
1arting spaTow-hawk. All round
The untimely bat the crowd OF spring
life thickens; and the whitethroat
commonest of our summer
'ongsters, have added their scrannel
voices to the swelling chorus of the
birds.
Each puff Of the shifting wind
sends fresh clouds of golden pollen
Town the dark avenues of the pine
wood, busting ones coat often as
''bh Bo"NDitu IDT, LIlOHEfi
he funeal pine seems as far O.
moved as may be from the light friy-
,lities Of love, 1t is, to translate the
ERIN of botanists, "windlover.y
ind entrusts its message to the care
ess breeze to carry TO some unknown
emale on aeigb1oorlng pine. or,
more often, TO the ground. So the
Pine has to produce superfiuous
clouds of golden dust, and it's narrow
leedle-leaves. Offering the least pos
'ible obstruction to the floating pol
en-, We see one of those niceties OF
which, In the days before
evolution was taught, afforded com
ortable evidence TO the pious of the
'pecial care Of Providence. Not
hat We need be less pious because
Nc believe in evolution, but the oil
naturalist stood nearer to God in
Tally thought when he saw in eacf |
eaf-blade the unalterable type OF Hi
mmemorial handiwork. And In ?
dnewood with tho dim lfobt fa1ls,,