Willmar tribune., 1908-03-25
flower beds and the blossoms. no,

pln1ons. tried time and again to pho
tograph them while they were on the
wing. But nothing but blur marked
where they had poised, and after ell,
their brilliancA was what made then
80 unique, and beautiful.
At one corner of the fence to the
southwest quail had built her nest,
couched low in to sheltering clump
Of wild-blackberry vines. Here her
clutch of II pure white and conica]
eggs had been laid and here we eager.
ly watched the bringing out of the
brood of young quail. You could pass
by closely to this nest without dis.
turbing the mother bird, If ynu kept on
walking, and we seldom came up close
to the nest for fear of frightening her
from her repose. A quails eyes are
almost the brightest in the bird fami.
ly, and this she bird would follow ev.
cry move of ours with an intensity
that told of her watchful care for her
nest.
At last observation showed that the
eggs were about to open; and the
next time we came up to the nest, ear.
ly In the morning, we saw that the
Matching was over. The tiny "cheep.
ers' were all alive and alert, and the
mother bird, as we came up, trailed
off into the grass, with dropping wing
and apparently feigning to be wound
ed, as have seen quail do often, and
the little brides crouched close to the
ground as the mother left them. We
followed on after the mother, and she
soon flew up and away after Turing
us, as she imagined, from the vicinity
of the nest. We did not see this brood
again until November. They were then
fully grown, strong on the wing, and
the law permitted them to be hunted
with dog and gun. They ran then in
the cornfields and the weed-fields,
darting into the timber when flushed,
and scattering to the shelter of over
hanging banks and dense thickets of
hazel bush and blackberry briars. In
the evening we heard them calling
occasionally, but not as often as in
the summer, when the cocks whistled
from neighboring fence posts.
OF all the birds that gave us days
of interest and adventure, the Balti-
more oriole, the golden robin some
times named, perhaps proved most
an object Of interest They came, a
pair of them, early in the latter weeks
of April, and the males radiant plum.
age flashed among the emerald Or
chard tints like fire. They were ap.
parently accommodating as to a pos
sible building site, and back and forth
they flew, and around about the or.
chard spaces. For time they disap.
peared, and then their flight was no.
ticeable again.
At last the flight seemed to center
in among clump of the orchard trees
where an old swing hung under a
gnarled apple tree. And later, an orr
ole began to scout around the porches
and at the gates looking for string
We cut great quantities of string, and
scattered it about the yard and
porches, and the birds began to come
for it regularly. Later still, VIC dis
covered where the birds were build
ing. 1t was in an apple tree next to.
the one where the swing dangled The
bird would fly off with preliminary
chuckling note, a sort of chirrupy
warning, and return presently with a
piece Of string in its bill. Then it
would enter the nest, which was sus-
pended hammock wise between two
stout twigs, and commence to weave
in the piece of string with bill and
claws, pushing vigorously at the nest
to stretch it out and give it shape
After one piece was adjusted to it's
satisfaction, it few away for another,
always with that complacent chirrup
of satisfaction.
When at last the nest was complet-
ed it was an airy, Ariel-like structure,
that swayed with the winds indeed,
but rode out in safety the toughest
breezes. Inside, the she bird sat, and
as the nest had been built almost en-
tirely of white string, it seemed like a
flake of snow suspended there; but
! as time dimmed the snowy whiteness
of the cord. and it became greyed and
yellowed by sun, rain and wind, it was
more like those parchment creations
of the hornets than birds nest.
There were Other birds that sang
| and nested with us, some of them so
shy and retiring that we never found
their brooding-places. High up in
the elms and the oaks Of the ravines
were the nests of the turtle doves,
and meadow-ward the, meadowlarks
laid their eggs and brought out their
callow fedglings in pastured STILL
ness.
And when the chill blasts and swirl.
ing drifts drove Cecile and me and the
little romping daughter indoors, there
was still the sight of wheeling Wild
fowl over the shattered cornfields in
the flight of mallards and pintail; and
higher up, where cleaving harrows of
black fetched figures drifted south
ward, there came down the barytone
trumpeting of the Canada geese, bound
for the gulf coasts and the winds of
gentler cline, where long before
them had migrated our friends the
birds. ERNEST McGAFFEY.
Looking Out for His kinfoik.
"When I was governor of Tennes-
see," said Senator Bob Taylor of Ten.
nessee, Il received a letter from an
inmate of the state penitentiary of