Shepherdstown register. [volume] (Shepherdstown, Va. [W. Va.]) 1849-1955, 1921-02-03
Our Bird Friends.

noon heard tw.tterinGs in the air
shove me and looked up. IL was n
merry crew of goldanches coming ap-
parently from nowhere and al,shtins in
the field TO feed upon the weeds. They
s'Ways seem 10 drop from the very
clouds, even liz. the snowRakcs them
selves, with lightning-likc glimmer,
and then, before you are aware of il.
they are busy close TO the earth pick
ing up the seeds that make NO their
daily fare. For all the lamentable
gloomineSs laid at the door of winter;
for all the uncomfortable attendarces
that are said 10 rise out of the ice and
snow, how then shall we interpret the
presence of the eoldfnch whom even
winter cannot drive TO cover January
days or February days at their blacklist
are no Tar TO this little fellow. His rise
and dip through the air and his twit-
terings en- route are music to the soul
One is forgiven going into rhspsodieS
over II. No song of hermit thrush in
the summer or lyric outburst of a thou.
sand associated harbingers in the spring
or early summer can equal that one
song of the goldhnch, fragrant men,
DRY as it is of the liquid music that
fiows from that same throat in the sum-
mer. While our wintry doors creak
grimly shut, like the sound of chains
and bolts being fitted into place, who
shall listen and hear across the i'm
mensity OF the bleak fields one happy
voice, rising, and then fading, rising
and fading until these little ones are
lost over a hill or down in a snow-cov-
cred swale? While the SHOWS come out
of the frozen North and while these
heralds of its coming ride downward
out Of the unvanquished wastes, let
us not mourn over our own petty
chills and misfortunes, for here we have
wntry happiness represented in the
very atoms.
The bird that people know in the
summer as the wild canary" so IA
mlliar to our woods and lanes, is none
other than the goldfinch as il is tech
nically termed; yet how many people
are aware of the fact that the sp-called
wild canary" stays with us the year
around and that in the winter il
changes TO another color and so cs-
capes attention. Birds that stay
through the winter change plumage
color with the coming of cold weather.
The goldfinch or wild canary" is vel
low in the summer with black cap on
its head. In the winter il takes 10 it.
self a sparrowy coloration, with whitisn
underpartS, yellow throat, and, as
though it would follow the fashions, il
obtains for itself a yellow winter
cap.
The tree sparrow is also with us in
the North in the winter. This spcci-
men and all the other sparrows, of
which there are thirty varieties in this
| country, belong to the finch family
The tree sparrow, Spizella monticola,
destroys vast quantities of weed seeds,
and government estimates have il that
in one state alone the tree sparrow, Ge-
stroyed in one year close TO nine hun
dred tons of weed seeds. OF course
this is an estimate and like all esti-
mates it must be taken on its face
value. | do not know how such es-
Inmates can be made, but the system
Of examining the stomach contents Of
the birds no doubt has led to the basis
fol, such reckonings. Thus if one bird
is found to have such and sucn an
amount Of seeds in its stomach this
amount is no doubt multiplied oy the
number of possible tree sparrows in a
state, thus a reasonable daily figure
of seed consumption being obtained.
A well-known ornithologist has stated
that scarlet tanager has been seen
to consume thirty-fve gypsy moths
minute for eighteen minutes at
time. To which an exceedingly shrewd
observer remarked:
According to this estimate that is
63O gypsy moths in 10 minutes. have
never measured or weighed gypsy
moths but | believe that 63O would
weigh pound and would fill two
quarts. Nor have | accurate figures
OF size or weight of scarlet tanagers,
but believe them not over two ounces
in weight Here we have, then, two
ounce bird eating two quarts, $50
moths, each a possible three quarter
inch in length, eight times its own.
weight in eighteen minutesm
The seed consuming birds have