Norwich bulletin., 1922-09-09

sass NAcdt4o4t1 aES uthrk " SspA. = %te<% " of humanity has begun the trek back to home and offices and shops, A few days more and nearly all who cannot remain longer. will have joined the forerunners. The more fortunate will remain to view the nature painted fol
 iage of the forests.
 Tired ? Yes, but wholesome kind. refreshed withal for the tasks ahead. They have played hard and furious
 in the short space Of weeks, they have been to nature and the great, wide open landscapes-at the shore of old ocean along the lake sides, in the pine woods, through the north ranges, They have breathed strange odors, heard errant sounds, eaten of the fruit Of na- ture's wonders, and viewed with a cursory glance the beauty and color of their environs. A few adventurous spirits have penetrated deeper in their play and cultivated an intimacy with the folk of the wild.
 September is an important moment in the year-a movement is taking place which affects man and wild life, the vegetable kingdom, the landscape itself writes Edwin c. Hobson in the Boston Transcript. Those who are close to the inner circle of nature know of these vast, silent transfer- nations which are taking place. There is abroad an iron determination, a grim purpose. Man scents It; the an- 1 inal world and vegetable feel 1t. One of natures problems has been the deep mystery of bird migration. Birds of New England, of Labrador, of the far reaches of Keewatin and URgava, obey an instinct older than mountains and kings and wing away 1 southbound, to warm suns and trop- l ical winds. Birds we know of as lone i ly songsters now congregate in flocks 1 and mill restlessly to and fro at the l seeming caprice of soft winds. There 1 issues much gossip intermittent bursts 1 of melody, a few quarrels among the l males, yet the flock holds together 1 leaderiess, by some stronge, uRknow- I able force. They may pass few days ] in one location then disappear. or l they may alight for the fraction oi 1 an hour and then suddenly, siTnul- l taneously rise as one bird with a f1ut- I ter and velvet thunder of wings t drop to earth again mile or less away.
 The redbreast robin is an exampl,
 of early Hooking In late August, wnel wild cherries ripen, they may be found
 
 ulation of wide area Their ear oIs, heard on the thin cool airs o
 morning and evening, are inviting t, the ear. One notes yesper-Nke sweet ness in robin music at dusk. [ hay noticed one trait in their characte
 not frequently seen among other som
 birds. This is the frequent, alrnos
 common occurrence of fights durin
 their migratory flight. Many of thes
 quarrels have noted were savag
 in their duration, unprovoked, an quite close to tragedy-the partici pants were all males. Of a sudde . the flock took wing, as though noth ing were happening and vanished I an austral direction.
 | The tyro- ornithologist, is familia with kingbirds roosting on the teIe
 phone wires during summer, but no,
 long rows uf kingbirds sit on th
 swaying roost. solitary birds ventur . ing abroad into the air as if a part
 cuiar insect coasting by belonged t
 certain bird. You will note ths z hardly ever do two birds start afte 2 the same prey. Warblers migrate I sort Of spectacular manner; the r leave early in great flocks, represer
 tatiyes Of nearly every family anon s the animated hosts. You may con IOl a est. They are never still, ever flittin : and feeding, always uttering SO l. calls to one another and continual s moving. It is at night they travel tt
 1 ward the tropics, 8 few hundred yart
 above the earth and one with zoe ears can hear the call notes droppiT 5 out of the clear night skies like mel, dic Jewels. Surely if ever poetry live 2 in a splendid example. Longfeliow, $ his Birds of Passage writes of tn night flight of birds.
 Many birds start their long airht ' l September, some families distinct ar ' uncomnunity Ike. others sningle t, z gether in vast focks which at ar = time of year would mean conflict ar . utter collision among its members. n ' olackoirdS and grackles, in their goss if and grandering, let the world know tn, v are heading toward the grassy wetian, r of the Gulf. Cuckoos. fycatchers. D = wees, orioles, timid ones among the spa l. rows, swallows. vireos, the thrushes. a, q many of the lesser lights of birdlan h pass from us unseen and gradually, | ie tie heard, and become only memory u s til another year. Their going is not r burst of song, rather 1t is in obeyant ,r this vast movement, to mighty law g the law of self-preservation. The war
 lers return south on account of bel,
 residents of the tropics almost thrs lI quarters of the year; their northern $ U Journ IS only discharge Of duty t rearing of young. The other birds a where food is more plentiful Thus "a one of migration's problems solved g, Game Time-September brings for ,e days long looked for by men with go le red blood in their veins-the coming H. the ducks and geese, the passage ;h waders and shore birds, the "ripenin pr of quail pheasant and ruffed grouse T y ducks stopping now on the water coul es and marshes are but a meagre rel e. nant of what once was Sea ducks a " scarcer with each succeeding year, | Is with the benefits of a federal govef t. nfent protection they may increal Is The wood ducks, most beautiful of ne ducks, has practically entered the VI Y halia of the birds. The find of a wo ne duck today is an ornitholegist ind no importance and should be report oy Widgeon are occasionally dropping re to the still waters, while black dul T more numerous and quite shy are l lu coming noisy in the reedy sloughs he salt water and inland ponds. Mallar
 shovelers, teal are swinging out of 1 " northern skies and dropping into ed haunts with a splash and much goss a. Today the fiocks are bat 8 Nha Dow e what they used to be. Rigid protect e. is needed with courage and co-operati " by the bird-loving public. A birdie as landscape is frightful thing to co IT. prehend {: but remember the plains a ny their buffalo. many of old New Engis .s' streams and their brook trout, ns hard woods with their wild turkeys g no ruffed grouse. Unexpectedly bird ',n ',a fish or animal, even a wild flower ,ls tree disappears. For example, the V ssn pigeon. No trace of this bird once