Latest / For the Birds / Birds and Nature, Vol. XI, No 2, February 1902-Various

Transcript

Birds and Nature, Vol. XI, No 2, February 1902-Various · For the Birds

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: Section one of Birds in Nature, Volume eleven, number two,
• 0:06
  Speaker 1: February nineteen o two, recorded for LibriVox dot org by
• 0:11
  Speaker 1: Nemo February. But winter has yet brighter scenes he both
• 0:19
  Speaker 1: splendors beyond what gorgeous summer knows, or autumn with as
• 0:23
  Speaker 1: many fruits and woods all flush with many hues. Come
• 0:28
  Speaker 1: when the rains have glazed the snow and clothe the
• 0:31
  Speaker 1: trees of ice. While the slant sun of February pours
• 0:35
  Speaker 1: into the bowers, a flood of light approach. The encrusted
• 0:40
  Speaker 1: surface shall upbear thy steps, and the broad arching portals
• 0:44
  Speaker 1: of the grove welcome thy entering look. The massy trunks
• 0:49
  Speaker 1: are cased in the pure crystal. Each light spray nodding
• 0:53
  Speaker 1: and tinkling in the breath of heaven, is studded with
• 0:57
  Speaker 1: its trembling water drops that glimmer with an amethystine light.
• 1:02
  Speaker 1: But round the parent stem, the long low boughs bend
• 1:06
  Speaker 1: in a glittering ring into arbors hide the glassy floor. Oh,
• 1:12
  Speaker 1: you might deem the spot the spacious covern of some
• 1:16
  Speaker 1: virgin mine, deep in the womb of earth, where the
• 1:19
  Speaker 1: gems grow and diamonds put forth radiant rods and bud,
• 1:25
  Speaker 1: while amethyst and topaz, and the place lit up most
• 1:30
  Speaker 1: royally with the pure beam that dwells in them. William
• 1:36
  Speaker 1: Colin Bryant a winter piece, end of section one. This
• 1:42
  Speaker 1: recording is in the public domain.
• 1:51
  Speaker 2: Section two of Birds in Nature, Volume eleven, number two,
• 1:54
  Speaker 2: February nineteen o two, recorded for LibriVox dot org by
• 1:58
  Speaker 2: Rachel Evangelin Barram. The blue headed vireo Vireo solitarius the
• 2:04
  Speaker 2: blue headed vireo or its varieties, of which there are
• 2:07
  Speaker 2: several freqlint nearly the whole of North America. The typical
• 2:12
  Speaker 2: form of the species, that of our illustration has arranged,
• 2:15
  Speaker 2: covering eastern North America and extending westward to the Great Plains.
• 2:19
  Speaker 2: It breeds from southern New England and the Lake States
• 2:22
  Speaker 2: northward to Hudson Bay and southward in the higher altitudes
• 2:25
  Speaker 2: of the Alleghanies. It passes the winter in Cuba, Mexico,
• 2:30
  Speaker 2: and Central America. The blue headed vireo is frequently called
• 2:34
  Speaker 2: the solitary vireo or greenlet because of its retiring habits.
• 2:40
  Speaker 2: It is a bird of the forest and stays very
• 2:42
  Speaker 2: close in these quiet retreats. Yet it is as a
• 2:45
  Speaker 2: rule easy of approach, seeming to possess both curiosity and confidence.
• 2:51
  Speaker 2: Mister Bradford Tory writes with enthusiasm regarding the pretty habits
• 2:55
  Speaker 2: of this bird. He says, its most winning trait is
• 2:58
  Speaker 2: its tameness. Wood bird. As it is, it will sometimes
• 3:02
  Speaker 2: permit the greatest familiarities. Two birds I have seen which
• 3:06
  Speaker 2: allowed themselves to be stroked in the freest manner while
• 3:09
  Speaker 2: sitting on the eggs, and which ate from my hand
• 3:11
  Speaker 2: as readily as any pet canary. But I have seen
• 3:15
  Speaker 2: others that complained loudly whenever I approached their tree. Perhaps
• 3:19
  Speaker 2: they had had sad experiences. Possessing a happy and cheerful disposition,
• 3:25
  Speaker 2: this species, like the other vireos, sings while working. Listening
• 3:29
  Speaker 2: to them, we are reminded of the lines in the
• 3:31
  Speaker 2: vision of Sir Lonful. The little birds sang as if
• 3:36
  Speaker 2: it were the one day of summer in all the year,
• 3:39
  Speaker 2: and the very leaves seemed to sing on the trees.
• 3:43
  Speaker 2: Fortunate indeed is he who has the pleasure of watching
• 3:46
  Speaker 2: this vireo working upon its home and uttering inexpressibly sweet
• 3:50
  Speaker 2: and tender love. Notes Mister Thomas M. Brewer says that
• 3:54
  Speaker 2: the blue headed Vireo usually makes a nest of coarse
• 3:58
  Speaker 2: materials somewhat loosely put together, covering it with lichens, thus
• 4:03
  Speaker 2: assimilating it to the moss covered limb from which it
• 4:05
  Speaker 2: is suspended. The materials used, however, are not always the same.
• 4:11
  Speaker 2: One nest of which mister Brewer speaks was covered over
• 4:14
  Speaker 2: as if cemented with bits of newspaper. The external portion
• 4:19
  Speaker 2: of another was composed of the silky cover of cocoons,
• 4:23
  Speaker 2: woven into a homogeneous and cloth like fabric by some
• 4:26
  Speaker 2: process quite inexplicable. The nests are frequently constructed of fine
• 4:31
  Speaker 2: bark fibers, withered grass and pine needles, woven together with
• 4:35
  Speaker 2: moss and lined with plant down, fine grass and small
• 4:39
  Speaker 2: fibrous roots. Much has been written regarding the song of
• 4:43
  Speaker 2: this handsome bird of the woods. The words of mister
• 4:46
  Speaker 2: Torrey perhaps best describe it. He says, the solitary's song
• 4:51
  Speaker 2: is matchless for the tenderness of its cadence. While in
• 4:55
  Speaker 2: peculiarly happy moments, the bird indulges in a continuous warble
• 4:59
  Speaker 2: that is really chanting. It has too, a musical chatter
• 5:03
  Speaker 2: and a pretty trill twhistle. In mister Kaiser's experience. The
• 5:09
  Speaker 2: song was varied and lively, sometimes running high in the scale,
• 5:13
  Speaker 2: and had not that absent minded air which marks the
• 5:16
  Speaker 2: roundelay of the warbling vireo. It is much more intense
• 5:19
  Speaker 2: and expressive. Mister Brewer describes the song as a prolonged
• 5:24
  Speaker 2: and very peculiar ditty, repeated at frequent intervals, and always identical.
• 5:30
  Speaker 2: It begins with a lively and pleasant warble of a
• 5:33
  Speaker 2: gradually ascending scale, which at a certain pitch suddenly breaks
• 5:37
  Speaker 2: down into a falsetto note. The song then rises again
• 5:40
  Speaker 2: in a single note and ceases. The notes of the
• 5:44
  Speaker 2: female suggest to mister Burrows the bleating of a tiny lambkin.
• 5:50
  Speaker 2: To mister Nuttall, its song seems to be intermediate between
• 5:54
  Speaker 2: that of the red eyed and the yellow breasted species,
• 5:57
  Speaker 2: having the pre ee a pre ee a of the
• 6:00
  Speaker 2: latter and the fine variety of the former in its tones.
• 6:05
  Speaker 2: To all, the music of the solitary viurio is delicious.
• 6:11
  Speaker 2: End of section two. This recording is in the public domain.
• 6:20
  Speaker 3: Section three of Birds in Nature, Volume eleven, two February
• 6:25
  Speaker 3: nineteen o two. This is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox
• 6:28
  Speaker 3: recordings are in the public domain. For more information or
• 6:32
  Speaker 3: to volunteer, please visit LibriVox dot org. Book and missus Oyster.
• 6:40
  Speaker 3: At the death of his dear mother, little Willis went
• 6:43
  Speaker 3: from his western farm home to stay for a few
• 6:45
  Speaker 3: years with his aunt Jenny, in an eastern seaport town.
• 6:49
  Speaker 3: One day, she had oysters in the shell for dinner.
• 6:52
  Speaker 3: As his parents had wisely tried to keep his eyes
• 6:54
  Speaker 3: and ears keen in regard to common things, he was
• 6:58
  Speaker 3: full of questions. His aunt told him that the next
• 7:01
  Speaker 3: time she bought live oysters, she would give him some
• 7:04
  Speaker 3: to watch and study. Only a few weeks later she
• 7:08
  Speaker 3: was expecting company to dinner and had a chance to
• 7:10
  Speaker 3: keep her word.
• 7:11
  Speaker 4: Fill this with water, said she.
• 7:14
  Speaker 3: Giving him a plain glass fruit.
• 7:15
  Speaker 4: Dish, and put your oyster in it.
• 7:18
  Speaker 5: But said Willis, oysters live in sea water. We're just salty.
• 7:23
  Speaker 4: Yes, they do live in sea water. In order to
• 7:26
  Speaker 4: grow and thrive, they must have vegetable and mineral substances
• 7:30
  Speaker 4: found in sea water. But they can live in fresh water.
• 7:33
  Speaker 4: Oystermen make a practice of moving them from their banks
• 7:37
  Speaker 4: to spots near the mouth of a river where the
• 7:39
  Speaker 4: water is not nearly so salty or even quite fresh.
• 7:43
  Speaker 4: Here they get washed out and freshened, they look plumper,
• 7:47
  Speaker 4: and some of the strong salty taste being taken away,
• 7:51
  Speaker 4: they have a more delicate flavor. All the largest oysters
• 7:55
  Speaker 4: in the market are fattened in that way.
• 7:59
  Speaker 3: Willis did as directed.
• 8:01
  Speaker 4: Do you notice how the oyster is covered, asked his aunt.
• 8:06
  Speaker 6: Yes.
• 8:06
  Speaker 5: Yes, two shells which are drained like a hinge at
• 8:09
  Speaker 5: the smaller end.
• 8:11
  Speaker 4: Do you notice that they are different?
• 8:13
  Speaker 5: One shell is larger and deeper near the hinge. The
• 8:17
  Speaker 5: outside of it is white and pretty. The shell matter
• 8:20
  Speaker 5: is laid in rings, some of which seems full, making
• 8:23
  Speaker 5: me think of a tucked and ruffled skirt. The other
• 8:27
  Speaker 5: shell is smaller, darker, and nearly flat.
• 8:30
  Speaker 4: Ask Bridget if she has some small crackers, to give
• 8:33
  Speaker 4: you one, Powder it and throw it on top of
• 8:36
  Speaker 4: the water. If she has none, a spoonful of corn
• 8:40
  Speaker 4: meal will do for food. Animals which are deprived of
• 8:45
  Speaker 4: natural ways of getting a living must be supplied with
• 8:47
  Speaker 4: suitable food.
• 8:49
  Speaker 3: When he had done that, she handed him a pair
• 8:51
  Speaker 3: of shells, in one of which lay an oyster.
• 8:55
  Speaker 4: Here is another one which I had opened for you.
• 8:58
  Speaker 4: I am very busy today. While the company is here.
• 9:03
  Speaker 4: You can amuse yourself by watching what happens. Examine the
• 9:07
  Speaker 4: dead oyster and find out what you can about it.
• 9:11
  Speaker 3: Willis was delighted with his odd pet. He watched the
• 9:15
  Speaker 3: live creature for some time. At first, its two shells
• 9:19
  Speaker 3: were tightly closed. After being quiet for some time, it
• 9:23
  Speaker 3: cautiously opened its shell a little way, as though it
• 9:26
  Speaker 3: was peeping at him. He was so pleased that he
• 9:30
  Speaker 3: grabbed his hat and ran to Fretch's neighbor schoolmate Joseph.
• 9:34
  Speaker 3: Once in a while a bit of cracker would be
• 9:37
  Speaker 3: drawn between the shells and in time disappear. The two
• 9:42
  Speaker 3: boys were very much interested.
• 9:45
  Speaker 5: Let us look at the dead oyster, Willis all right.
• 9:50
  Speaker 3: Taking a toothpick in his hand, he tried to turn
• 9:52
  Speaker 3: over the oyster in the shell. He found that a
• 9:55
  Speaker 3: thickened muscle near the middle part was fastened to the
• 9:57
  Speaker 3: half shell, tearing it loose. We saw it this place
• 10:01
  Speaker 3: a dark purplish spot, just like one on the other
• 10:04
  Speaker 3: half shell.
• 10:05
  Speaker 5: I wonder what makes that hard spot? Oh, see, Joseph.
• 10:09
  Speaker 5: Its body has two sides. The side lying in the
• 10:12
  Speaker 5: deeper piece of shell is larger. Down the middle is
• 10:16
  Speaker 5: a division, and the edges come together something like the
• 10:19
  Speaker 5: cover of a book. Overall is white covering with such
• 10:23
  Speaker 5: pretty frilled edges. See I can roll it back quite
• 10:27
  Speaker 5: a little way. That is so how pretty it is.
• 10:31
  Speaker 5: It has no head. Does it eat? I wonder if
• 10:34
  Speaker 5: it has a mouth?
• 10:35
  Speaker 3: Willis searched carefully for an opening. At last he found
• 10:39
  Speaker 3: one near the hinge. What is this, asked Willis, handing
• 10:43
  Speaker 3: his playmate a little doubled up thing about as large
• 10:46
  Speaker 3: as a pee. After examining it carefully for a moment,
• 10:50
  Speaker 3: Joseph exclaimed, you must.
• 10:52
  Speaker 5: Have found its mouth. This is surely a baby crab
• 10:55
  Speaker 5: which has been swallowed. See its little legs drawn up
• 10:58
  Speaker 5: to its body.
• 11:00
  Speaker 3: Both agreed that they had found a crab. They again
• 11:03
  Speaker 3: turned their attention to the oyster's mouth.
• 11:06
  Speaker 5: What a large mouth for such a little animal. See
• 11:09
  Speaker 5: how far I can put the point of my knife
• 11:11
  Speaker 5: into it. It must have some bowels. I wonder if
• 11:15
  Speaker 5: its bowels are here at the larger end. It looks
• 11:18
  Speaker 5: puffy and dark. Inside. The thing is so slippery that
• 11:22
  Speaker 5: I can scarcely handle it, can it? See, Willis, I
• 11:26
  Speaker 5: can find no eyes.
• 11:28
  Speaker 3: The boys took the oyster out of the water several
• 11:31
  Speaker 3: times that they might see how it looked tuck so
• 11:34
  Speaker 3: snugly between its shells. Every time they touched it, the
• 11:38
  Speaker 3: opening was closed tight. Thus the boys spent the afternoon.
• 11:43
  Speaker 3: When Joseph went home, Willis said.
• 11:45
  Speaker 5: Come over tomorrow and we will get Auntie to tell
• 11:49
  Speaker 5: us more about the oyster.
• 11:51
  Speaker 3: After dinner, Willis went to his room and watched his
• 11:53
  Speaker 3: oyster again until his eyes drooped. Presently, there was a thump, thump,
• 11:58
  Speaker 3: thumping across the floor behind him. What was Willis's surprise
• 12:02
  Speaker 3: to see a big library book come near, and with
• 12:05
  Speaker 3: one leap, place himself on the table. He was again
• 12:10
  Speaker 3: surprised to see the oyster reach a long arm out
• 12:12
  Speaker 3: of the water, and the book another long arm from
• 12:15
  Speaker 3: between its leaves. They too, then shook hands, both raised
• 12:20
  Speaker 3: themselves to a vertical position, and made a bow to Willis.
• 12:25
  Speaker 3: We will try to tell you what you wish to know.
• 12:28
  Speaker 3: Then you can surprise aunt Jennie by telling her some things.
• 12:32
  Speaker 3: As he spoke, missus oyster swelled herself up so large
• 12:35
  Speaker 3: that the soft white manner protruded from the shell, For
• 12:39
  Speaker 3: she had never before had the high honor of talking
• 12:41
  Speaker 3: to a real boy. Willis was so pleased that he
• 12:45
  Speaker 3: clapped his hands, missus oyster crawled up and nicely bounced
• 12:50
  Speaker 3: herself on the edge of the dish. Willis was speechless
• 12:53
  Speaker 3: with surprise. Books spoke, this is missus oyster. She belongs
• 12:59
  Speaker 3: to the kingdom of shellfish called mollusca. All of her
• 13:03
  Speaker 3: folks have soft bodies. As she is protected by a
• 13:06
  Speaker 3: shell of two parts, she is said to be a
• 13:09
  Speaker 3: bi valve. Her relative snail, said he, motioning with his hand.
• 13:14
  Speaker 3: Having a single shell is called a univalve. Looking in
• 13:20
  Speaker 3: the direction of the movement of Book's hand, what was
• 13:23
  Speaker 3: his surprise to see a snail with a shell on
• 13:26
  Speaker 3: its back crawling across the table where he came from,
• 13:30
  Speaker 3: Willis could not tell. When looking at that oyster this afternoon,
• 13:35
  Speaker 3: you noticed a thickened portion fastened to a dark spot
• 13:38
  Speaker 3: on the valve, said Book. I remember, said Willis. There
• 13:43
  Speaker 3: is a muscle continued buck fastened at the dark spot
• 13:47
  Speaker 3: on each valve. It becomes very strong by use. An
• 13:51
  Speaker 3: oyster knows how to let it stretch, thus opening the
• 13:54
  Speaker 3: valves to allow water to enter its chamber. It also
• 13:58
  Speaker 3: knows how to draw it up to close them to
• 14:01
  Speaker 3: keep out intruders. The white covering over the body is
• 14:05
  Speaker 3: called the mantle. If you notice the inside of an
• 14:08
  Speaker 3: oyster valve, you can see a mark showing how near
• 14:12
  Speaker 3: to the edge the mantle came. That is called the
• 14:15
  Speaker 3: palliol line. If you will keep on looking, you will
• 14:19
  Speaker 3: succeed in finding that besides a mouth, an oyster has
• 14:22
  Speaker 3: a stomach, liver, and intestines, a nervous system, and a
• 14:27
  Speaker 3: heart that pumps blood, though it is not red but
• 14:31
  Speaker 3: white blood. When you breathe, you take in your lungs
• 14:35
  Speaker 3: from air what is called oxygen. Without oxygen, there can
• 14:39
  Speaker 3: be no life. Anything that cannot, in some way take
• 14:43
  Speaker 3: in oxygen cannot have life. Water, as well as air,
• 14:47
  Speaker 3: contains it. Oysters have no lungs, but they have leaf
• 14:51
  Speaker 3: like gills on each side of the body. By means
• 14:54
  Speaker 3: of these they get oxygen.
• 14:57
  Speaker 5: Can an oyster, see.
• 14:58
  Speaker 3: Asked willis it has organs of sight? Hearing, smelling, touch?
• 15:04
  Speaker 5: Where are his eyes? We could not find them?
• 15:07
  Speaker 3: Hunt him again, laughed book.
• 15:10
  Speaker 7: I think I will not tell you that, since an
• 15:12
  Speaker 7: oyster has no head, you must not be surprised to
• 15:15
  Speaker 7: find them in an odd place. The dark part which
• 15:18
  Speaker 7: you noticed this afternoon, and which shows so plainly in
• 15:21
  Speaker 7: a cooked oyster is its great liver.
• 15:25
  Speaker 5: Tomorrow, I will again try to find eyes. Perhaps Auntie
• 15:29
  Speaker 5: will let me take her glass.
• 15:32
  Speaker 3: Stepping near and pointing as he talked, Book continued to
• 15:36
  Speaker 3: protect her soft body. Friend. Missus Oyster's mantle produces a
• 15:40
  Speaker 3: shell of lime, which grows by being enlarged around the edge.
• 15:44
  Speaker 3: The high point on the left valve is called the beak.
• 15:48
  Speaker 3: If you will scrub her shell with a brush tomorrow,
• 15:51
  Speaker 3: you will see lines running around the beak in the
• 15:54
  Speaker 3: same direction as the margin. These are called lines of growth.
• 16:00
  Speaker 3: By them, oystermen can tell the age of the shell fish.
• 16:05
  Speaker 3: How strange, said Willis thoughtfully.
• 16:08
  Speaker 5: Tree trunks also show lines of growth. Where did you
• 16:12
  Speaker 5: come from?
• 16:13
  Speaker 3: Asked Willis of Missus Oyster.
• 16:16
  Speaker 8: As I have lived most of my life within this narrow.
• 16:19
  Speaker 3: Shell, she answered, with a cast down air.
• 16:23
  Speaker 8: I have no idea where I came from, nor where
• 16:27
  Speaker 8: I now am. Shall I tell you the story of
• 16:30
  Speaker 8: my life?
• 16:31
  Speaker 5: Yes? Do please? It must be interesting. You are such
• 16:34
  Speaker 5: an odd creature.
• 16:36
  Speaker 8: The first thing I remember.
• 16:39
  Speaker 3: Said Missus Oyster, after she had drawn a full breath, is.
• 16:43
  Speaker 8: That I was a tiny bit of white mucus or
• 16:46
  Speaker 8: egg as people say swimming gaily around with my brothers
• 16:50
  Speaker 8: and sisters in my mother's shell. It was worse than
• 16:53
  Speaker 8: in the case of the old woman who lived in
• 16:55
  Speaker 8: a shoe. There were two or three thousand of us,
• 16:59
  Speaker 8: maybe more. At any rate. There were so many of us,
• 17:04
  Speaker 8: our poor mother never had time to count us. But
• 17:07
  Speaker 8: she was one who never worried to keep us from
• 17:10
  Speaker 8: getting lost. She kept us in by closing her shell
• 17:14
  Speaker 8: tight that let her get no food. With a true
• 17:17
  Speaker 8: mother's spirit, she fed us on the substance of her
• 17:20
  Speaker 8: own body until she became very poor.
• 17:25
  Speaker 3: Beg pardon, said book, Let me explain to our friend
• 17:29
  Speaker 3: at that time, the mucus within the shell in which
• 17:32
  Speaker 3: the young oysters swim looks milky. The old oyster, who
• 17:36
  Speaker 3: is said to be in the milk, is then unfit
• 17:39
  Speaker 3: to eat.
• 17:40
  Speaker 8: By the time two weeks had rolled.
• 17:42
  Speaker 3: Around went on, missus oyster.
• 17:45
  Speaker 8: Things in our house began to turn very dark in color,
• 17:48
  Speaker 8: and our mother received a prompt message from Dame Nature
• 17:52
  Speaker 8: saying that she must turn us out of her house
• 17:54
  Speaker 8: and home. Poor mother, she knew that Dame Nature's orders
• 17:59
  Speaker 8: must be obeyed or death to the whole family would come.
• 18:02
  Speaker 8: So she bade us good bye gave us a bit
• 18:05
  Speaker 8: of advice and opened the door. Knowing nothing of the
• 18:09
  Speaker 8: size of the world and the things which happened outside
• 18:11
  Speaker 8: of a shell, and thinking that we were going out
• 18:14
  Speaker 8: only for a little romp, we in one voice assured
• 18:18
  Speaker 8: her that we would not go very far. Eagerly we
• 18:23
  Speaker 8: rushed out to find that thousands of mothers on that
• 18:26
  Speaker 8: same oyster bank were also just expelling their little ones.
• 18:31
  Speaker 8: I became lost for my brothers and sisters. The water
• 18:34
  Speaker 8: was so full of myriads of babies like myself that
• 18:38
  Speaker 8: it took all of my attention to simply keep out
• 18:41
  Speaker 8: of the way of the crowd. The oyster babies all
• 18:45
  Speaker 8: looked so much alike that I lost hope of ever
• 18:48
  Speaker 8: knowing one of my brothers again. Indeed, I could scarcely
• 18:52
  Speaker 8: tell which was myself. Our mothers were down deep, but
• 18:57
  Speaker 8: we rose near the surface, where we could see the
• 19:00
  Speaker 8: beautiful blue sky.
• 19:02
  Speaker 5: Did you find anything to eat?
• 19:04
  Speaker 3: Asked Willis with great concern.
• 19:07
  Speaker 8: Oh, yes, we found plenty of tiny animals and specks
• 19:10
  Speaker 8: of vegetables that eased our hunger and helped us to grow.
• 19:14
  Speaker 8: After swimming freely for a few days, our shells began
• 19:17
  Speaker 8: to form and we found ourselves unable to swim long distances.
• 19:22
  Speaker 8: They soon weighed us down, and we began to sink.
• 19:25
  Speaker 8: I heard a mother oyster pitifully calling baby, baby, come
• 19:30
  Speaker 8: to mama. I wondered if it were my mamma, but
• 19:34
  Speaker 8: I could not get to her. I came along by
• 19:37
  Speaker 8: a piece of tile, being tired and worn out. As
• 19:41
  Speaker 8: that was the first clean thing I had seen, I
• 19:43
  Speaker 8: clutched to it, thinking that after I had rested a
• 19:46
  Speaker 8: few moments, I could go on. But I found that
• 19:50
  Speaker 8: I could not loosen myself. Looking around, I could see
• 19:54
  Speaker 8: tile after tile looking like they'd just been scrubbed, just
• 19:58
  Speaker 8: like my piece. Every one was soon thickly covered with
• 20:02
  Speaker 8: spat as the oystermen called us. As fretting has no
• 20:07
  Speaker 8: part in an oyster's life. We contented ourselves, thinking that
• 20:11
  Speaker 8: we might in some way again get loose. Perhaps, said one,
• 20:16
  Speaker 8: some of those big things we saw may come along
• 20:18
  Speaker 8: and brush some of us off. Perhaps, said another, the
• 20:22
  Speaker 8: owner may take up his tile and clean it off
• 20:25
  Speaker 8: for other use some day. It is certainly of no
• 20:28
  Speaker 8: use with us crowding on it. So we lived in hope.
• 20:33
  Speaker 5: How large were you.
• 20:34
  Speaker 3: Asked willis?
• 20:36
  Speaker 8: I cannot tell how fast I grew.
• 20:39
  Speaker 3: Book again made himself useful. Men who have watched and
• 20:44
  Speaker 3: measured their growth claim that at two weeks of age,
• 20:47
  Speaker 3: a young oyster is as large as a pinhead, at
• 20:50
  Speaker 3: that of three months as large as a pea. Its
• 20:54
  Speaker 3: shell grows about an inch in diameter each year. For
• 20:57
  Speaker 3: the first three years after that, its size does not
• 21:01
  Speaker 3: increase so fast. Missus Oyster again resumed her story.
• 21:07
  Speaker 8: At last one day they said that we would soon
• 21:10
  Speaker 8: be large enough for seed. A few days later we
• 21:14
  Speaker 8: found ourselves broken off from our clutching places and shut
• 21:18
  Speaker 8: up in some dark place. The next thing we knew
• 21:22
  Speaker 8: we were being lowered on a sandy bottom, not so
• 21:25
  Speaker 8: deep down as our old home. Now, when we catch
• 21:29
  Speaker 8: and grow on something we like a vertical position. At
• 21:33
  Speaker 8: first our two valves are alike, but in time the
• 21:37
  Speaker 8: left one becomes more convex. If the shell of one
• 21:41
  Speaker 8: of us becomes so heavy that it breaks off, the
• 21:44
  Speaker 8: convex side in dropping goes to the bottom. When they
• 21:49
  Speaker 8: planted us, the men were kind enough to lay us
• 21:52
  Speaker 8: in that position. When I was about a year old,
• 21:56
  Speaker 8: I began to spawn. It is needless to say that
• 21:59
  Speaker 8: I lived over again. The sad experiences of my poor mother.
• 22:03
  Speaker 8: Some of the spat attached themselves to my shell, and
• 22:06
  Speaker 8: I gladly adopted them. For a while, we were very happy.
• 22:11
  Speaker 8: Then one day those great iron tongs again disturbed us.
• 22:17
  Speaker 8: The seed were broken off, and I was replaced childless.
• 22:22
  Speaker 8: Next time I spawned, I understood what it all meant.
• 22:26
  Speaker 8: I begged my second set of adopted children, if one
• 22:29
  Speaker 8: of them ever had a chance to do so, to
• 22:31
  Speaker 8: send me a message. I lived with the great hope
• 22:35
  Speaker 8: that I might be allowed to remain there until I
• 22:38
  Speaker 8: had heard from some of them.
• 22:40
  Speaker 5: Did you ever hear from any of them?
• 22:43
  Speaker 8: From only two of my great family? But other oyster
• 22:47
  Speaker 8: mothers have not had even that much good luck. One day,
• 22:51
  Speaker 8: a diving bird came along hunting me. He said that
• 22:54
  Speaker 8: another bird with great strong wings had a message for
• 22:57
  Speaker 8: me from one of my children. How excited I became.
• 23:02
  Speaker 8: One of my stolen children had been seen at the
• 23:05
  Speaker 8: New York Harbor. About two years.
• 23:08
  Speaker 3: Later, continued missus Oyster, A fish brought me a letter.
• 23:13
  Speaker 3: Taking a crumpled paper from out of her pocket and
• 23:16
  Speaker 3: wiping her watery eyes on her mantle frill, she read.
• 23:20
  Speaker 8: Dear Mamma, I have begged one of the students to
• 23:23
  Speaker 8: write this. When he goes fishing again, he will try
• 23:26
  Speaker 8: to find a fish who will promise to take it
• 23:29
  Speaker 8: to you. Since I was torn away from you, I
• 23:32
  Speaker 8: have been in several places. I am now a fine oyster,
• 23:36
  Speaker 8: a beauty. I heard someone say, I am at present
• 23:40
  Speaker 8: in a great building called a college. Another of those
• 23:44
  Speaker 8: wise men who look at you through glasses, and whom
• 23:47
  Speaker 8: they call professor, is making plans to analyze several of
• 23:51
  Speaker 8: us raised in different places. People want to know. It
• 23:55
  Speaker 8: is said, of what value we are as food. It
• 23:59
  Speaker 8: breaks my heart to think of what we must come to. Farewell,
• 24:04
  Speaker 8: your child.
• 24:06
  Speaker 3: While Missus Oyster again wiped her eyes, book said, it
• 24:10
  Speaker 3: is too late for me to tell you much about
• 24:13
  Speaker 3: this professor atwater. I will only tell that he says
• 24:16
  Speaker 3: that one quart of oysters contains about as much nutriment
• 24:20
  Speaker 3: as one quart of milk. As food. Oysters form flesh
• 24:25
  Speaker 3: and make heat and force in the human body. You
• 24:29
  Speaker 3: can at any time consult the books. Farther finally, said
• 24:35
  Speaker 3: Missus Oyster.
• 24:36
  Speaker 8: I was taken away from my sea home and lived
• 24:38
  Speaker 8: in a place where the water was nearly fresh for
• 24:41
  Speaker 8: a little while after floating there for a couple of days.
• 24:45
  Speaker 8: I was sent to the market and sold as an
• 24:48
  Speaker 8: extra fine oyster. They called me a blue point.
• 24:53
  Speaker 3: Just then, Aunt Jenny shook Willis and asked him why
• 24:56
  Speaker 3: he had not gone to bed. He rubbed his eyes
• 25:00
  Speaker 3: and looked around, surprised to see his oyster lying quietly
• 25:03
  Speaker 3: in its dish, with no snail nor book in sight.
• 25:09
  Speaker 3: The next morning he told Joseph and his aunt about
• 25:11
  Speaker 3: his dream.
• 25:13
  Speaker 5: After this said he, when I wish to know things
• 25:16
  Speaker 5: which I cannot notice and understand, I will ask the books.
• 25:20
  Speaker 5: They know so much. Missus oyster did not get to
• 25:24
  Speaker 5: tell me about her cousins who make pearls. I mean
• 25:27
  Speaker 5: to consult some books about them this very.
• 25:29
  Speaker 3: Day, Loveday Almira Nelson. End of section three.
• 25:43
  Speaker 9: Section four of Birds in Nature, Volume eleven, number two,
• 25:47
  Speaker 9: February nineteen o two. This is a LibriVox recording. All
• 25:52
  Speaker 9: LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For more information
• 25:56
  Speaker 9: or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox dot org. Recording by
• 26:01
  Speaker 9: Phil shamph The Californian thrasher Harporyanchus read A Vivas. One
• 26:08
  Speaker 9: of the finest songsters among the birds, is the California thrasher.
• 26:12
  Speaker 9: Though confined to the coast regions of California, it is
• 26:16
  Speaker 9: quite abundant and seems to bear to that locality the
• 26:19
  Speaker 9: same relation that the brown thrush or thrasher does to
• 26:23
  Speaker 9: the thickets further east. The song of this western thrasher
• 26:27
  Speaker 9: is exquisitely sweet, and by some it is considered far
• 26:31
  Speaker 9: superior to that of any of the numerous songsters that
• 26:35
  Speaker 9: frequent the woods and brush of the Pacific coast. These
• 26:39
  Speaker 9: lines written by mister Wasson regarding the song of the
• 26:42
  Speaker 9: brown thrasher apply equally well to the bird of our illustration.
• 26:47
  Speaker 9: O hark to the brown thrush. Hear how he sings?
• 26:51
  Speaker 9: Now he pours the dear pain of his gladness. What
• 26:54
  Speaker 9: a gush, and from out what golden springs, What a rage?
• 26:59
  Speaker 9: Of how sweet madness it is in the morning and
• 27:03
  Speaker 9: in the evening that this thrasher pours forth its song
• 27:07
  Speaker 9: from some prominent and exposed perch, Then, as it were,
• 27:11
  Speaker 9: with all care dismissed from its mind, all the energy
• 27:15
  Speaker 9: of its being is thrown into a hymn of nature.
• 27:18
  Speaker 9: By some, this song is considered richer than that of
• 27:22
  Speaker 9: the mocking birds, though the thrasher has but one air.
• 27:26
  Speaker 9: As a rule, the California thrasher frequents wooded thickets, though
• 27:31
  Speaker 9: it is often found in shrubby fields and hedges, and
• 27:35
  Speaker 9: the dense thickets bordering streams are especially attractive, for here
• 27:39
  Speaker 9: it finds the quiet that its nature seems to crave.
• 27:43
  Speaker 9: Unusually shy and distrustful of man, it generally avoids his habitations, and,
• 27:49
  Speaker 9: like the brown thrasher, resents intrusion with a peculiar and
• 27:53
  Speaker 9: complaining note. Yet the female is inclined to remain on
• 27:57
  Speaker 9: her nest and allow a close inspection. Because of its
• 28:01
  Speaker 9: short wings, the movements of this thrasher are rather heavy.
• 28:05
  Speaker 9: Its flights are short and usually from bush to bush
• 28:09
  Speaker 9: while constantly opening and shutting its tail. Its life is
• 28:13
  Speaker 9: not confined to trees and shrubs, for it moves easily
• 28:17
  Speaker 9: on the ground, hopping rapidly with accompanying jerks of its tail.
• 28:23
  Speaker 9: It is said that it will scratch in the layer
• 28:25
  Speaker 9: of old leaves under trees like a domestic fowl. When
• 28:28
  Speaker 9: hunting for its food, it prefers insect food and seldom
• 28:33
  Speaker 9: eats fruit of any kind, except when food of its
• 28:36
  Speaker 9: choice is scarce. Its favorite haunts seem to be the
• 28:40
  Speaker 9: regions of scrubby oak and greasewood brush of the deep
• 28:44
  Speaker 9: mountain gorges. Here it builds its home, which is a coarse,
• 28:48
  Speaker 9: widely constructed platform of sticks, coarse grass and mosses, with
• 28:53
  Speaker 9: but a very slight depression. Occasionally, however, nests of this
• 28:59
  Speaker 9: bird are more carefully and elaborately made. It is always
• 29:03
  Speaker 9: well hid in the low scrub bushes. Both the sexes
• 29:07
  Speaker 9: assist in the care of the eggs, though the male,
• 29:10
  Speaker 9: as befits the father of a family, usually stands guard
• 29:14
  Speaker 9: over the nest, giving a quiet note of warning on
• 29:17
  Speaker 9: the approach of danger. Both sexes are said to be
• 29:21
  Speaker 9: adepts at misleading an intruder, for they will fly away
• 29:25
  Speaker 9: from the nest to the ground or to some thicket
• 29:28
  Speaker 9: at a distance from their home, and there by plaintive
• 29:31
  Speaker 9: notes soon attract the intruder, especially if he is a
• 29:34
  Speaker 9: nest hunter. In this, as well as in all its habits,
• 29:39
  Speaker 9: it so resembles the brown thrasher that it may be
• 29:42
  Speaker 9: considered its representative on the Pacific coast. End of section four.
• 29:53
  Speaker 1: Section five of Birds in Nature, Volume eleven, number two,
• 29:59
  Speaker 1: February nineteen o two, recorded for LibriVox dot org by Nemo.
• 30:06
  Speaker 1: Winter's Secret. This beautiful day, when the sun so bright
• 30:11
  Speaker 1: is giving my garment most beautiful hues, I'll just look
• 30:15
  Speaker 1: over the birds in sight, the living gems on my
• 30:18
  Speaker 1: cloak of white, and the most precious I will choose.
• 30:22
  Speaker 1: I'll sit to my tent brilliant blue and look through
• 30:25
  Speaker 1: its lacings of willow gold. That shows a flashing of
• 30:28
  Speaker 1: cardinal hue. Yes, that's my red bird. I see him,
• 30:32
  Speaker 1: don't you? He's here. If my breath is cold, there's
• 30:37
  Speaker 1: darker spots close by red Bird's flash. They look like
• 30:40
  Speaker 1: shadows compared to him. Now they dip in the brook
• 30:44
  Speaker 1: where its waters plash, or the willow's roots with a
• 30:47
  Speaker 1: rippling clash, and drink from my ice cups so thin,
• 30:51
  Speaker 1: I think they are snow birds. Hello, little mutes, jest
• 30:55
  Speaker 1: answer me now till I'm sure it is you. You
• 30:57
  Speaker 1: look with your rusty brownish suits as you flirt and dance,
• 31:01
  Speaker 1: or the frozen roots like the tessel cords of my shoe.
• 31:06
  Speaker 1: Aw haw from the tree top, laughs out, crow, don't
• 31:10
  Speaker 1: you know? I am out with the very best. I
• 31:12
  Speaker 1: love the sun, and I flap to and fro the
• 31:15
  Speaker 1: one black wing not afraid of the snow, though you
• 31:18
  Speaker 1: sometimes call me a pest. And mister fieldfinch with chestnut hood.
• 31:23
  Speaker 1: As he swings and sways on his weed perch, Brown
• 31:27
  Speaker 1: calls in tones that you will not use when you're good.
• 31:30
  Speaker 1: Can't you see a body? See I'm here near the
• 31:33
  Speaker 1: wood where the berries and seeds rattle down. I'll now call, Robin,
• 31:39
  Speaker 1: where are you, dear? I know I saw you this
• 31:41
  Speaker 1: early morning, a crimson breast and the pine tree. Here, come, Robin, Come,
• 31:47
  Speaker 1: I'm sure you are near, yes, yonder you sittin that thorn. Oh,
• 31:52
  Speaker 1: my cloak is so gay, and its gems never rest
• 31:55
  Speaker 1: but flutter and shine neath the rays of the sun.
• 31:59
  Speaker 1: So I'll draw a c close to my rugged breast,
• 32:01
  Speaker 1: and never will say which one I love best, for
• 32:05
  Speaker 1: I love them all everyone, Mary Nolan, end of section five.
• 32:12
  Speaker 1: This recording is in the public domain.
• 32:21
  Speaker 9: Section six of Birds and Nature, Volume eleven, number two,
• 32:25
  Speaker 9: February nineteen oh two. This is a LibriVox recording. All
• 32:30
  Speaker 9: LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For more information
• 32:34
  Speaker 9: or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox dot org. Recording by
• 32:39
  Speaker 9: Phil shamp A queer partnership. A fine afternoon of that
• 32:45
  Speaker 9: lovely spring month May found me ready for an afternoon
• 32:49
  Speaker 9: collecting among the birds. Leaving home, I made my way
• 32:53
  Speaker 9: to the river bank and slowly strolled along its banks,
• 32:56
  Speaker 9: finding much to amuse and interest me among the birds flowers,
• 33:01
  Speaker 9: seeing many old friends and a few new ones. After
• 33:05
  Speaker 9: going about half a mile, I came to a well
• 33:08
  Speaker 9: wooded place on one of the banks, where the tall
• 33:10
  Speaker 9: pines found safe homes for the crows, and a few
• 33:14
  Speaker 9: families were raised here every year. A little way back,
• 33:18
  Speaker 9: partly up the hill was a dead bass wood stump
• 33:21
  Speaker 9: or tree which contained the home of a golden winged
• 33:24
  Speaker 9: woodpecker or flicker, which I had found a few days
• 33:27
  Speaker 9: before by seeing the bird leaving the nesting hole. As
• 33:31
  Speaker 9: the hole was between thirty and forty feet from the ground,
• 33:34
  Speaker 9: I put on my climbers and was soon in a
• 33:37
  Speaker 9: position to investigate, so seating myself on a large limb
• 33:41
  Speaker 9: that branched out just below the nest, I inserted my
• 33:44
  Speaker 9: hand and got quite a start on catching hold of
• 33:48
  Speaker 9: some soft, downy creature, which I thought must be a squirrel.
• 33:52
  Speaker 9: But imagine my surprise to find that I had secured
• 33:55
  Speaker 9: an adult screech owl from out of the woodpecker's nest.
• 33:59
  Speaker 9: The owl, which had lain quietly enough in my hands,
• 34:03
  Speaker 9: put an end to my thoughts by suddenly coming to life,
• 34:06
  Speaker 9: and a very active life at that, and putting its
• 34:09
  Speaker 9: claws into my hand, prepared to give itself a good
• 34:12
  Speaker 9: start off. But I had hold of its legs, and
• 34:15
  Speaker 9: as I did not like the way it was holding on,
• 34:18
  Speaker 9: I put it back in the hole from which in
• 34:20
  Speaker 9: the meantime I had taken an egg, which on examining,
• 34:24
  Speaker 9: proved to be the woodpeckers and not an owl egg.
• 34:27
  Speaker 9: Though the eggs are both white. The woodpeckers is larger
• 34:30
  Speaker 9: than it is broad and more of a glossy texture,
• 34:34
  Speaker 9: while the owl's is nearly round and also much larger.
• 34:38
  Speaker 9: Now was the puzzle what was the owl doing in
• 34:41
  Speaker 9: the woodpecker's nest, which was claimed by the latter, as
• 34:45
  Speaker 9: it had deposited an egg in it, and also was
• 34:48
  Speaker 9: seen leaving the nest a day or two before. The
• 34:51
  Speaker 9: only conclusion that I could arrive at was that the
• 34:54
  Speaker 9: owl had taken possession for the day and so turned
• 34:57
  Speaker 9: the woodpecker out. So far I had not been able
• 35:01
  Speaker 9: to find an owl's nest, but as I could see
• 35:04
  Speaker 9: by the loss of feathers that the owl had been setting,
• 35:07
  Speaker 9: I proceeded to try and find the nest and decided
• 35:10
  Speaker 9: to try the tree further up, so leaving the owl
• 35:13
  Speaker 9: in the flickers home, I continued my climb to the
• 35:16
  Speaker 9: top of the stub and found the top rotted away,
• 35:19
  Speaker 9: leaving quite a hollow eighteen inches deep, with a small
• 35:23
  Speaker 9: hole through a rotten place in the bark, through which
• 35:26
  Speaker 9: I could see something white. So carefully putting in my hands,
• 35:31
  Speaker 9: I was delighted to find four young owls, which were
• 35:34
  Speaker 9: about ten days old, ugly little things covered with a
• 35:38
  Speaker 9: dirty white down, with the feathers just commencing to show,
• 35:42
  Speaker 9: and with their yellow beaks and large eyes, they did
• 35:46
  Speaker 9: not look a very interesting pet. But still I secured
• 35:49
  Speaker 9: two and left two for the mother owl. I descended
• 35:53
  Speaker 9: the tree and put my treasure safely away in my
• 35:55
  Speaker 9: collecting bag. I would like to know how the owl
• 35:59
  Speaker 9: and flicker arranged the boarding matter, for I did not
• 36:02
  Speaker 9: get time to go back for a week. When from
• 36:05
  Speaker 9: the woodpecker's nest I took six eggs and found the
• 36:08
  Speaker 9: two owllets nearly ready to fly, but I saw neither
• 36:12
  Speaker 9: of the old birds. So whether the owl continued to
• 36:15
  Speaker 9: stay with a flicker or not, or whether it had
• 36:18
  Speaker 9: just gone for the day, I shall never know. But
• 36:21
  Speaker 9: still it was interesting to find the two nests on
• 36:24
  Speaker 9: the one tree within three feet of each other, one
• 36:28
  Speaker 9: containing eggs and the other young birds. The owls that
• 36:32
  Speaker 9: I had taken were safely reared and proved both amusing
• 36:36
  Speaker 9: and interesting pets. But their life, while in my keeping,
• 36:39
  Speaker 9: we will leave for another time. D Welby, end of
• 36:44
  Speaker 9: section six, Section.
• 36:51
  Speaker 10: Seven of Birds and Nature, Volume eleven, number two, February
• 36:57
  Speaker 10: nineteen oh two. This is a LibriVox records. All LibriVox
• 37:01
  Speaker 10: recordings are in the public domain. For more information or
• 37:05
  Speaker 10: to volunteer, please visit LibriVox dot org. Recording by Betty B.
• 37:11
  Speaker 10: The broad tailed hummingbird Celosphorus platysircus. When morning dawns, the
• 37:18
  Speaker 10: flower fed hummingbird his round pursues SIPs with inserted tube.
• 37:23
  Speaker 10: The honeyed blooms and chirps his gratitude as round he
• 37:27
  Speaker 10: roams while richest roses, though in crimson dressed, shrink from
• 37:33
  Speaker 10: the splendor of his gorgeous breast. What heavenly tints in
• 37:37
  Speaker 10: mingling radiance fly. Each rapid movement gives a different dye,
• 37:42
  Speaker 10: like scales of burnish gold. The dazzling show now sink
• 37:46
  Speaker 10: to shade, now like a furnace glow Alexander Wilson. If
• 37:52
  Speaker 10: we desire to study the broad tailed hummingbird in the
• 37:56
  Speaker 10: regions that it frequents, we must journey to the mountainous
• 37:59
  Speaker 10: district of western North America. Here it may be found
• 38:03
  Speaker 10: in large numbers, for it is the most common of
• 38:06
  Speaker 10: all the species that frequent the mountains. It seeks its
• 38:10
  Speaker 10: food of insects and honey from the flowers of a
• 38:13
  Speaker 10: prolific flora, extending from Wyoming and Idaho southward through Colorado,
• 38:20
  Speaker 10: New Mexico, Arizona, Texas, and over the table lands of
• 38:25
  Speaker 10: Mexico into Guatemala. It is pretty generally distributed throughout the
• 38:30
  Speaker 10: various mountain systems between the eastern slopes of the Rocky
• 38:34
  Speaker 10: Mountains and the Sierra Nevadas. Doctor Miriam found the broad
• 38:39
  Speaker 10: tails very abundant in the balsam and pine belts of
• 38:43
  Speaker 10: the San Francisco Mountains of Arizona, where their principal food
• 38:47
  Speaker 10: plants were the scarlet trumpet flower and the large blue
• 38:50
  Speaker 10: larkspur of their habits, He says, they wake up very
• 38:55
  Speaker 10: early in the morning and go to water at daylight,
• 38:58
  Speaker 10: no matter how cold the weather is. During the month
• 39:01
  Speaker 10: of August, and particularly the first half of the month,
• 39:05
  Speaker 10: when the mornings were often frosty, hundreds of them came
• 39:09
  Speaker 10: to the spring to drink and bathe at break of day.
• 39:12
  Speaker 10: They were like a swarm of bees, buzzing about one's
• 39:16
  Speaker 10: head and darting to and fro in every direction. The
• 39:19
  Speaker 10: air was full of them. They would drop down to
• 39:22
  Speaker 10: the water, dip their feet and bellies, and rise and
• 39:25
  Speaker 10: shoot away, as if propelled by an unseen power. They
• 39:29
  Speaker 10: would often dart at the face of an intruder, as
• 39:32
  Speaker 10: if bent on piercing the eye with their needle like bill,
• 39:36
  Speaker 10: and then poised for a moment almost within reach, before
• 39:40
  Speaker 10: turning when they were again lost in the busy throng.
• 39:44
  Speaker 10: Whether this act was prompted by curiosity or resentment, I
• 39:48
  Speaker 10: was unable to ascertain. It seemed strange and unnatural that
• 39:52
  Speaker 10: so delicate a bird, and one so highly colored, should
• 39:56
  Speaker 10: frequent localities where periods of low temperature are common. Yet
• 40:00
  Speaker 10: the broad tailed humming bird prefers high elevations and has
• 40:04
  Speaker 10: been known to nest at an altitude of eleven thousand feet,
• 40:09
  Speaker 10: and it seldom breeds at places lower than five thousand feet.
• 40:13
  Speaker 10: The males leave for their winter homes very early in
• 40:16
  Speaker 10: the season. Usually this migration takes place very soon after
• 40:20
  Speaker 10: the young birds leave their nests. Mister Henshaw attributes this
• 40:24
  Speaker 10: movement of the males to the fact that their favorite
• 40:27
  Speaker 10: food plant, the Scrufullaria, begins to lose its blossoms at
• 40:32
  Speaker 10: this time. He says, it seems evident that the moment
• 40:36
  Speaker 10: its progeny is on the wing and its home ties severed.
• 40:40
  Speaker 10: Warned of the approach of fall alike by the frosty
• 40:43
  Speaker 10: knights and the decreasing supply of food, off go the
• 40:46
  Speaker 10: males to their inviting winter haunts, to be followed not
• 40:50
  Speaker 10: long after by the females and young. The latter, probably
• 40:54
  Speaker 10: because they have less strength, linger last and may be
• 40:58
  Speaker 10: seen even after every a day dult bird has departed.
• 41:02
  Speaker 10: Though the flight of all humming birds is rapid, that
• 41:05
  Speaker 10: of this species is unusually so during the breeding season,
• 41:10
  Speaker 10: or at least while mating. The flight of the male
• 41:13
  Speaker 10: is accompanied by a loud, metallic noise. This is only
• 41:16
  Speaker 10: heard when the bird is rapidly flying, and not when
• 41:19
  Speaker 10: it is hovering over flowers. Mister Henshaw suggests that this
• 41:24
  Speaker 10: sound may be analogous to the love notes of other birds.
• 41:28
  Speaker 10: Though he saw many of these birds in the fall,
• 41:32
  Speaker 10: it was only very rarely that this whistling note was heard,
• 41:36
  Speaker 10: and then only with greatly diminished force. He believed that
• 41:39
  Speaker 10: the sound was produced at the will of the bird
• 41:42
  Speaker 10: and by means of some peculiar attenuation of the outer
• 41:46
  Speaker 10: primary wing feather. The nesting places of many of the
• 41:50
  Speaker 10: humming birds, as well as that of the broad tail,
• 41:53
  Speaker 10: may frequently be located by the peculiar perpendicular flight of
• 41:58
  Speaker 10: the male. They will frequently fly as high as one
• 42:01
  Speaker 10: hundred feet immediately above the vicinity of the nest, repeating
• 42:05
  Speaker 10: the performance several times before alighting on some perch. The
• 42:10
  Speaker 10: female is a faithful mother and will often remain on
• 42:13
  Speaker 10: her nest until an intruder is within a few inches.
• 42:17
  Speaker 10: The nest, though sometimes placed on large branches, is usually
• 42:21
  Speaker 10: built by a few feet from the ground in low
• 42:24
  Speaker 10: bushes or boughs that overhang water. In their migration southward,
• 42:30
  Speaker 10: the broad tailed humming bird is frequently found in company
• 42:34
  Speaker 10: with the rufous backed species, for which it shows in
• 42:37
  Speaker 10: especial animosity. Speaking of these two species, mister Henshaw says,
• 42:43
  Speaker 10: the beds of bright flowers about willow spring in the
• 42:46
  Speaker 10: White Mountains Arizona were alive with them in August, and
• 42:50
  Speaker 10: as they moved swiftly to and fro, now surfeiting themselves
• 42:54
  Speaker 10: on the sweets they here found so abundant, now fighting
• 42:58
  Speaker 10: with each other for possession of some such tempting prize
• 43:02
  Speaker 10: as a cluster of flowers. Their rapid motions and the
• 43:05
  Speaker 10: beauty of their colors, intensified by the bright sunlight, conspired
• 43:10
  Speaker 10: to an effect not soon to be forgotten. End of
• 43:16
  Speaker 10: Section seven.
• 43:23
  Speaker 11: Section eight of Birds in Nature, Volume eleven, number two,
• 43:27
  Speaker 11: February nineteen o two, recorded for LibriVox by David Lawrence.
• 43:35
  Speaker 11: A bird that hung himself near the gate of our
• 43:38
  Speaker 11: garden stands a small apricot tree, which is only about
• 43:42
  Speaker 11: six inches in height. Last year a long twined string
• 43:46
  Speaker 11: became entangled in this tree. One day, when I went
• 43:50
  Speaker 11: to the garden, I noticed a blackbird hanging in this
• 43:53
  Speaker 11: string about two feet from the ground. On examination, I
• 43:57
  Speaker 11: found that the string was closely wrapped of his neck
• 44:00
  Speaker 11: several times, and that he had been choked to death
• 44:03
  Speaker 11: by it. He had evidently tried to secure the string
• 44:07
  Speaker 11: for his nest, and probably had several times started to
• 44:11
  Speaker 11: fly away with it, only to find that the other
• 44:14
  Speaker 11: end of it was fast. There are usually high winds
• 44:18
  Speaker 11: in Kansas during the spring months, and these may have
• 44:21
  Speaker 11: helped to entangle the unfortunate bird. It is certain that
• 44:25
  Speaker 11: in some manner he had snared himself, and in attempting
• 44:29
  Speaker 11: to fly, had jerked the cord tight about his neck.
• 44:32
  Speaker 11: There he hung a martyr to his own energy and ambition,
• 44:37
  Speaker 11: and somewhere his mate mourned for the partner who had
• 44:40
  Speaker 11: gone from her, never to return. Mary McCrae Calter, end
• 44:46
  Speaker 11: of section.
• 44:47
  Speaker 1: Eight, Section nine of Birds in Nature, Volume eleven, number two,
• 44:58
  Speaker 1: February nineteen two, Recorded for librevox dot Org by NEMO.
• 45:06
  Speaker 1: Winter Memories. Two little twittering sparrows shivering under the eaves,
• 45:12
  Speaker 1: watching the slanting rain drops pattering over the leaves, Chilled
• 45:17
  Speaker 1: to their poor little marrows, though feathered in winter array
• 45:22
  Speaker 1: for cold blows the wind or the housetop, and bitter
• 45:25
  Speaker 1: and bleak as the day you. Two little balls of
• 45:29
  Speaker 1: brown feathers you chattering, he and she of what are
• 45:33
  Speaker 1: you thinking, my pretty ones? As you nestle close under
• 45:36
  Speaker 1: the lee, shall we tell you They twitter and chorus
• 45:40
  Speaker 1: our thoughts. And the sharp winter air, through which the
• 45:44
  Speaker 1: chill ice drops are falling, or tree tops so wind
• 45:47
  Speaker 1: torn and bare. We remember our love in the springtime. Ah.
• 45:52
  Speaker 1: Life to us then was so dear, as we drifted
• 45:56
  Speaker 1: through day's joy laden, and nights filled with moonbeams so clear.
• 46:01
  Speaker 1: We remember the sunshine of summer, when the hours floated
• 46:05
  Speaker 1: by like a dream, and the air was alive with
• 46:08
  Speaker 1: bird music, and the world was a shimmer of green.
• 46:12
  Speaker 1: We remember too, winter is fleeting, though now it is
• 46:16
  Speaker 1: snowbound and drear. But sometime the sunshine will loosen the
• 46:21
  Speaker 1: ice chains in spring will be here. We remember a
• 46:25
  Speaker 1: little headsquiver, and the voices sound drowsily deep as they
• 46:30
  Speaker 1: come from way down among feathers. We remember a pause.
• 46:35
  Speaker 1: Then we sleep. Alberta a Field end of section nine.
• 46:42
  Speaker 1: This recording is in the public domain.
• 46:51
  Speaker 12: Section ten of Birds in Nature, Volume eleven, number two,
• 46:55
  Speaker 12: February nineteen two. This is a LibriVox record. All LibriVox
• 47:01
  Speaker 12: recordings are in the public domain. For more information or
• 47:05
  Speaker 12: to volunteer. Please visit LibriVox dot org. Recording by Larry
• 47:10
  Speaker 12: Wilson Some of our winter birds in Eastern Massachusetts. One
• 47:16
  Speaker 12: of our most interesting winter birds, and with the exception
• 47:20
  Speaker 12: of the English sparrow, perhaps the commonest, is the little
• 47:23
  Speaker 12: black cap chickadee. He is frequently seen in one's orchard
• 47:27
  Speaker 12: or around the door, and us roll into the woods
• 47:30
  Speaker 12: will reveal him at any time. He may be easily
• 47:34
  Speaker 12: distinguished by his jet black cap, his bluish drabbed back wings,
• 47:38
  Speaker 12: and a yellow tinge on his downy breast. Cedar trees
• 47:42
  Speaker 12: are a special delight of his, and in the winter
• 47:45
  Speaker 12: season he may be found in nearly every grove of
• 47:48
  Speaker 12: these evergreens. As one walks along through the woods, he
• 47:52
  Speaker 12: is attracted by their notes, usually the simple, cheerful tickdee
• 47:55
  Speaker 12: d d, varied with squeaks and chirps, or if it
• 47:59
  Speaker 12: be in February or March, ye may hear a beautiful
• 48:02
  Speaker 12: whistle beeweea, and possibly catch a pretty warbling song. They
• 48:07
  Speaker 12: are always lively and cheerful, and on a gloomy winter
• 48:10
  Speaker 12: day they cause one to forget everything but them and
• 48:13
  Speaker 12: their pleasant notes. They feed principally on berries and seeds,
• 48:18
  Speaker 12: such as can be found in cold weather when the
• 48:20
  Speaker 12: ground is covered with snow. But our little friends are
• 48:24
  Speaker 12: seldom alone. As almost constant companions they have the nuthatches,
• 48:29
  Speaker 12: snow birds, tree sparrows, and goldfinches. Another very common cold
• 48:34
  Speaker 12: weather bird is the slate colored snow bird or junco
• 48:37
  Speaker 12: bluish slate above and grayish below, with some white tail
• 48:41
  Speaker 12: feathers which show as he flies. He is a pretty
• 48:44
  Speaker 12: sight to behold when one starts a flock of them
• 48:47
  Speaker 12: from some frozen swamp or meadow where they feed upon
• 48:50
  Speaker 12: seeds and berries. They utter a loud chirp when you
• 48:53
  Speaker 12: disturb them in the winter time, and as they hop
• 48:56
  Speaker 12: about keep up an incessant twittering, which are the only
• 48:59
  Speaker 12: notes you will hear from them, unless you are lucky
• 49:02
  Speaker 12: enough to hear their song, which they seldom sing before
• 49:05
  Speaker 12: starting for their summer homes. When it is stormy or
• 49:08
  Speaker 12: severely cold, they come up to one's door and eat
• 49:11
  Speaker 12: bread crumbs and other things which may be thrown out.
• 49:15
  Speaker 12: They are real friendly and will come quite near to you,
• 49:18
  Speaker 12: and a man once told me that the reason for
• 49:20
  Speaker 12: this was blindness on the part of the birds. And
• 49:24
  Speaker 12: even as he spoke. One of the birds flew to
• 49:26
  Speaker 12: a nearby fence, and, cocking his head, looked at my
• 49:29
  Speaker 12: informer over as if to give him the lie. John B.
• 49:33
  Speaker 12: Tabb has written a short poem which nicely describes him.
• 49:39
  Speaker 12: With snow like silence visible hath hushed the summer bird,
• 49:43
  Speaker 12: Thy voice, a never frozen rill of melody, is heard.
• 49:47
  Speaker 12: But when from winter's lethargy the buds begin to blow,
• 49:51
  Speaker 12: thy voice is mute, and suddenly thou vanishest like snow.
• 49:57
  Speaker 12: The tree sparrow, one of our most interestings. Sparrows is
• 50:01
  Speaker 12: another bird who does not fear the winter winds and storms.
• 50:04
  Speaker 12: Although he carries the name of tree sparrow, he is
• 50:07
  Speaker 12: most emphatically a bird of the ground and may be
• 50:10
  Speaker 12: seen during the winter months in almost any remote patch
• 50:14
  Speaker 12: of plowed ground where there are old weed stalks for
• 50:17
  Speaker 12: him to eat. They are especially addicted to old tomato
• 50:21
  Speaker 12: fields and seem to delight in the seeds of this plant.
• 50:25
  Speaker 12: This spurrow looks like a large chippy our door yard
• 50:28
  Speaker 12: neighbor of the summer months, excepting that he has distinguishing
• 50:32
  Speaker 12: white bars across his wings. They travel in large flocks
• 50:35
  Speaker 12: and where one sees a few of them scratching in
• 50:38
  Speaker 12: the snow. A step too close will scare dozens of
• 50:41
  Speaker 12: them away. They associate considerably with snow birds, and where
• 50:45
  Speaker 12: there are members of one family, you will almost always
• 50:48
  Speaker 12: find the others, either with them or close by. One
• 50:52
  Speaker 12: of our prettiest winter birds is the downy woodpecker, his
• 50:55
  Speaker 12: glossy black and white with the bright red spot on
• 50:59
  Speaker 12: his head showing up strongly from some tree trunk where
• 51:02
  Speaker 12: he wraps for insects as he goes up, propping himself
• 51:05
  Speaker 12: with his tail as he works, one notices him by
• 51:09
  Speaker 12: hearing his wrapping on a branch or his loud note,
• 51:12
  Speaker 12: which he utters frequently. He delights in boring holes in trees,
• 51:16
  Speaker 12: and especially in the spring, he drills out complete nests
• 51:20
  Speaker 12: which he probably has no intention of ever using. The
• 51:23
  Speaker 12: hairy woodpecker has almost precisely the same habits and colors
• 51:27
  Speaker 12: as the downy, and differs only in size. He also
• 51:31
  Speaker 12: is one of our winter residents, but not so commonly
• 51:35
  Speaker 12: as the other. The flicker or yellow hammer is another
• 51:39
  Speaker 12: woodpecker that is with us in winter as well as summer.
• 51:43
  Speaker 12: He varies somewhat from the rest of his family and
• 51:46
  Speaker 12: habits in that he feeds considerably on the ground, consuming
• 51:50
  Speaker 12: a large number of ants. He is quiet during the winter,
• 51:54
  Speaker 12: but his loud and cheerful notes are one of the
• 51:56
  Speaker 12: first bird songs of spring. A bird which resembles the
• 52:00
  Speaker 12: woodpecker in his method of feeding is the brown creeper,
• 52:04
  Speaker 12: a pretty little brown bird with a long curved bill
• 52:07
  Speaker 12: and long sharp claws, who spends most of his time
• 52:10
  Speaker 12: in climbing trees. Unlike a woodpecker, he goes up the
• 52:13
  Speaker 12: trunk by going spirally around it, thus going over the
• 52:17
  Speaker 12: whole tree, before he flies to the next one and
• 52:20
  Speaker 12: repeats the operation. The color of his back closely resembles
• 52:24
  Speaker 12: the bark of a tree, and when disturbed he will
• 52:27
  Speaker 12: sometimes crouch close to the tree where it is almost
• 52:30
  Speaker 12: impossible to see him. In the spring, before departing north
• 52:34
  Speaker 12: to breed, they often sing their pretty tune to us, which, however,
• 52:38
  Speaker 12: we are lucky to hear in the coldest weather. They
• 52:42
  Speaker 12: are frequently seen on trees by the wayside, and I
• 52:45
  Speaker 12: have seen them on Boylston Street, Boston, as busy and
• 52:49
  Speaker 12: contented as ever. The nuthatch is another bird which climbs
• 52:54
  Speaker 12: and unlike either the woodpeckers or creepers. He goes down
• 52:57
  Speaker 12: the tree head first instead of backing down, and for
• 53:00
  Speaker 12: this reason has been nicknamed devil down head. There are
• 53:05
  Speaker 12: two nut hatches which are fairly common during the winter months,
• 53:08
  Speaker 12: the white breasted and the red breasted. The former more
• 53:11
  Speaker 12: commonly frequents orchards and the roadside, while the latter prefers
• 53:15
  Speaker 12: to frolic with the chickadees among the evergreens. They seldom
• 53:20
  Speaker 12: stay with us in the summer, usually nesting farther north.
• 53:24
  Speaker 12: The goldfinch is also a regular winter visitor, but at
• 53:27
  Speaker 12: this season he has none of his bright colors of
• 53:30
  Speaker 12: the summer time, but is a plain, little olive green
• 53:33
  Speaker 12: bird with dark wings and a gray breast. They feed
• 53:36
  Speaker 12: considerably on thistles, but when the snow falls they take
• 53:40
  Speaker 12: whatever berries they can find. I remember seeing four or
• 53:44
  Speaker 12: five of them one day two winters ago, coming up
• 53:47
  Speaker 12: and feeding upon the berries of a honeysuckle vine near
• 53:50
  Speaker 12: my window, and another time I saw them eating with
• 53:53
  Speaker 12: chickadees in some cedars. Cedar birds, although they do not
• 53:57
  Speaker 12: stay with us any length of time, may be seen
• 54:00
  Speaker 12: at different periods during the winter. They are very pretty birds,
• 54:03
  Speaker 12: being brownish drab above and sulfury yellow below, while the
• 54:07
  Speaker 12: wings are marked by spots of bright red. They travel
• 54:11
  Speaker 12: in very large flocks and soon have one locality completely
• 54:14
  Speaker 12: cleared of food when they depart elsewhere. One is first
• 54:19
  Speaker 12: attracted by their peculiar lisping notes, which coming from so
• 54:23
  Speaker 12: many throats, make quite a noise, and upon looking up
• 54:26
  Speaker 12: he will see them, perhaps in flight, or more probably
• 54:29
  Speaker 12: roosting on the branches of some elm or oak, or
• 54:32
  Speaker 12: flitting about a cedar, stripping it of its berries. They
• 54:36
  Speaker 12: are also great lovers of cherries, and when this fruit
• 54:39
  Speaker 12: is ripe, they may be seen in large numbers in
• 54:42
  Speaker 12: some orchard. A journey into the woods on a cold
• 54:44
  Speaker 12: winter day may reveal to one a flock of small
• 54:47
  Speaker 12: birds which have the appearance of a lot of sparrows
• 54:51
  Speaker 12: which had been dyed purple, the colors of the sparrow
• 54:54
  Speaker 12: plainly showing beneath the purple tinge or wash on their
• 54:57
  Speaker 12: backs and heads. These a lesser red pole linnets, very
• 55:03
  Speaker 12: hard working little birds that usually delight in the Arctic regions.
• 55:07
  Speaker 12: We see them only when the severest cold drives them south.
• 55:10
  Speaker 12: They fly in very large flocks and miss blanchen says
• 55:14
  Speaker 12: of them, first we see a quantity of DUTs, like
• 55:17
  Speaker 12: a shake of pepper in the cloud above. Then the
• 55:21
  Speaker 12: spectacle larger and larger, and finally the birds seem to
• 55:24
  Speaker 12: drop from the sky upon some tall tree that they
• 55:26
  Speaker 12: completely cover, a veritable cloud burst of birds. The red
• 55:32
  Speaker 12: cross bill is a similar bird to the red pole,
• 55:35
  Speaker 12: but is larger and has two mandibles of his bill
• 55:38
  Speaker 12: crossed by means of which he extracts the seeds from
• 55:41
  Speaker 12: the pine cones. We only see him in the coldest winters,
• 55:46
  Speaker 12: but then he is very tame and may allow one
• 55:48
  Speaker 12: to pick him up, and he has even been known
• 55:51
  Speaker 12: to stay in a cage without a murmur. These are
• 55:55
  Speaker 12: all our important winter birds, but the robin and blue
• 55:58
  Speaker 12: jay might be mentioned, although they are more birds of
• 56:01
  Speaker 12: the summer than winter. Winthrop Smith, end of section ten.
• 56:13
  Speaker 9: Section eleven of Birds and Nature, Volume eleven, number two,
• 56:18
  Speaker 9: February nineteen oh two. This is a LibriVox recording. All
• 56:23
  Speaker 9: LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For more information
• 56:27
  Speaker 9: or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox dot org. Recording by
• 56:32
  Speaker 9: Phil Shamp The broad winged hawk Beautio latissimus and up
• 56:38
  Speaker 9: through the rifled tree tops that signaled the wayward breeze.
• 56:43
  Speaker 9: I saw the hulk of the hawk be calmed far
• 56:46
  Speaker 9: out on azure seas. James Whitcomb Riley a vision of Summer.
• 56:53
  Speaker 9: The broadwing hawk has a wide range, including the whole
• 56:56
  Speaker 9: of North America east of the Great Plains and ending
• 57:00
  Speaker 9: from New Brunswick and the Saskatchewan region on the north
• 57:03
  Speaker 9: to northern South America on the south. It nests throughout
• 57:07
  Speaker 9: its range within the borders of the United States. Its
• 57:11
  Speaker 9: confidence in man is not surpassed by that of any
• 57:14
  Speaker 9: other hawk. Doctor Fisher says that of all our hawks,
• 57:18
  Speaker 9: this species seems to be the most unsuspicious, often allowing
• 57:22
  Speaker 9: a person to approach within a few yards of it,
• 57:25
  Speaker 9: and when startled, flies but a short distance before it
• 57:28
  Speaker 9: alights again. As a rule, it is a very quiet bird,
• 57:33
  Speaker 9: but during the nesting period it is fully as noisy
• 57:36
  Speaker 9: and demonstrative as are many of the other hawks. If
• 57:40
  Speaker 9: disturbed while on its nest, its shrill call notes will
• 57:43
  Speaker 9: soon attract its mate, when both will continue noisily complaining
• 57:48
  Speaker 9: till the intruder retreats. Though solicitous, for their eggs are young,
• 57:53
  Speaker 9: they will never attack a person. It is said that
• 57:57
  Speaker 9: for days after they have been robbed, these birds will
• 58:00
  Speaker 9: utter their complaints when anyone approaches their homes. They are
• 58:04
  Speaker 9: good parents, both sexes, assisting in the care of the
• 58:07
  Speaker 9: eggs and young. Not infrequently this hawk will sit for
• 58:11
  Speaker 9: hours on the dead top of a tall tree at
• 58:14
  Speaker 9: the edge of a forest, and, with its body erect
• 58:17
  Speaker 9: and motionless, will often seem almost a part of the tree.
• 58:21
  Speaker 9: Its food is usually procured on the ground, and it
• 58:24
  Speaker 9: is near the ground or among the denser growths of
• 58:27
  Speaker 9: the forest, where it may find insect larvae, that it
• 58:30
  Speaker 9: is most often seen. The broad winged hawk may truthfully
• 58:34
  Speaker 9: be called a friend of the agriculturist, for it seldom
• 58:38
  Speaker 9: feeds on bird life of any kind, but rather upon
• 58:41
  Speaker 9: mice and other rodents, toads, frogs, and insects. Doctor Fisher,
• 58:47
  Speaker 9: in his valuable work The Hawks and Owls of the
• 58:49
  Speaker 9: United States, says the only act of the broad winged
• 58:53
  Speaker 9: hawk which seems injurious to agriculture is the killing of
• 58:57
  Speaker 9: toads and small snakes, the former of which are exclusively
• 59:01
  Speaker 9: insect eaters, the latter very largely so. In one respect.
• 59:06
  Speaker 9: Its enormous value ranks above all other birds, and that
• 59:10
  Speaker 9: is in the destruction of immense numbers of injurious larvae
• 59:13
  Speaker 9: of large moths, which most birds are either unable or
• 59:17
  Speaker 9: disinclined to cope with. In the examination of stomachs of
• 59:21
  Speaker 9: sixty five of these hawks, doctor Fisher obtained the following results.
• 59:26
  Speaker 9: Two contain small birds, fifteen contained mice and thirteen other mammals.
• 59:33
  Speaker 9: In eleven the remains of reptiles, and in thirteen batrachians
• 59:37
  Speaker 9: were found. Thirty contained the remains of insects, two earthworms,
• 59:42
  Speaker 9: four crawfish, and seven were empty. The results were surely
• 59:46
  Speaker 9: in favor of the bird. Well, may the farmer listen
• 59:49
  Speaker 9: to the words of Alexander Wilson. Kill not thy friend,
• 59:53
  Speaker 9: who thy whole harvest shields and sweeps ten thousand vermen
• 59:58
  Speaker 9: from thy fields. The poultry yard is safe from the
• 1:00:02
  Speaker 9: depredations of these quiet birds, which those sluggish and heavy
• 1:00:06
  Speaker 9: in flight, can move with great rapidity and soar high
• 1:00:09
  Speaker 9: in the air if they so desire. Even the small
• 1:00:12
  Speaker 9: birds in the woods seem to consider them to be harmless,
• 1:00:16
  Speaker 9: for they give them but little attention. When this bird
• 1:00:19
  Speaker 9: does attack small birds, it is either as a rule,
• 1:00:23
  Speaker 9: when they are very young or injured in some manner.
• 1:00:26
  Speaker 9: Its nest is usually made of sticks and twigs and
• 1:00:29
  Speaker 9: lined with soft fibrous strips of bark, leaves and feathers
• 1:00:34
  Speaker 9: that fall from the breasts of the setting birds. The
• 1:00:37
  Speaker 9: nests are placed in either evergreen or deciduous trees, and
• 1:00:41
  Speaker 9: seldom more than thirty or forty feet from the ground.
• 1:00:45
  Speaker 9: They are frequently much lower, and occasionally in the tops
• 1:00:48
  Speaker 9: of very tall trees. They have been known to use
• 1:00:51
  Speaker 9: the deserted nests of other birds, especially that of the crow,
• 1:00:55
  Speaker 9: which is nearly as large as their own structure. Doctor
• 1:00:59
  Speaker 9: Fisher said that one of its notes quite closely resembles
• 1:01:02
  Speaker 9: that of the wood peewee. Another writer says that their
• 1:01:06
  Speaker 9: call note is a peevish gie, prolonged at pleasure and
• 1:01:10
  Speaker 9: uttered in a high key. However, to fully appreciate their
• 1:01:14
  Speaker 9: shrill note of complaint, it must be heard. End of
• 1:01:19
  Speaker 9: Section eleven.
• 1:01:25
  Speaker 12: Section twelve of Birds in Nature, Volume eleven, number two,
• 1:01:30
  Speaker 12: February nineteen two, recorded for LibriVox dot Org Capy Lari Wilson.
• 1:01:37
  Speaker 12: The bird's complaint, Great nature linden ear while we the
• 1:01:43
  Speaker 12: feathered fowls of air from mead and furrow, bush and tree,
• 1:01:47
  Speaker 12: from pool and mountains, shore and sea, with one accord
• 1:01:50
  Speaker 12: pour forth to THEE are earnest cry and prayer, from
• 1:01:54
  Speaker 12: lime and net, from gen and snare, and from those
• 1:01:58
  Speaker 12: vile decoys that slay their thoughts and aware, we pray
• 1:02:01
  Speaker 12: THEE save us and declare thy wrath against what men
• 1:02:05
  Speaker 12: sowe'er such evil means employs chasten, correct and scourge the
• 1:02:10
  Speaker 12: boys who count it nobly done to turn to grief
• 1:02:14
  Speaker 12: our marriage joys, to take our precious eggs for toys,
• 1:02:18
  Speaker 12: and bear a way with mocking noise that spoil so
• 1:02:21
  Speaker 12: fondly won. But most from men that use the gun,
• 1:02:25
  Speaker 12: that engine of ill scope for refuge. Unto THEE we run.
• 1:02:28
  Speaker 12: They march to slay us in the sun and through
• 1:02:31
  Speaker 12: the dark, which others shun their murderous way they grope. Lastly,
• 1:02:36
  Speaker 12: we pray THEE on the pope prevail to let us be.
• 1:02:41
  Speaker 12: We would not hang him in a rope, and have
• 1:02:43
  Speaker 12: as good a right we hope, unstrangled under Heaven's high cope,
• 1:02:47
  Speaker 12: to live our lives as he Henry Johnstone into section twelve.
• 1:02:54
  Speaker 12: This recording is in the public domain.
• 1:03:03
  Speaker 3: Section thirteen of Birds in Nature, Volume eleven two February
• 1:03:07
  Speaker 3: nineteen o two. This is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox
• 1:03:11
  Speaker 3: recordings are in the public domain. For more information or
• 1:03:14
  Speaker 3: to volunteer, please visit LibriVox dot org. California poppies a
• 1:03:22
  Speaker 3: flower of the South, and the sun sown upon limitless plains,
• 1:03:27
  Speaker 3: fed by the death of the summer grasses watered by
• 1:03:31
  Speaker 3: winter rains. When the wild spring streams are running, she
• 1:03:36
  Speaker 3: raises her head and cries, blow off my emerald cap,
• 1:03:40
  Speaker 3: good wind, and the yellow hair out of my eyes.
• 1:03:45
  Speaker 3: And a fair fine lady. She stands and nods to
• 1:03:49
  Speaker 3: the dancing sea. Oh, the rose you have trained is
• 1:03:53
  Speaker 3: a lovely slave. But the wild gold poppy is free.
• 1:03:59
  Speaker 3: Camilla k. K. Spring in California, soft, warm, full and
• 1:04:07
  Speaker 3: bounteous birds twittering and building nests everywhere. In February, the
• 1:04:13
  Speaker 3: poppies bloom in splendor, and no season of the year
• 1:04:17
  Speaker 3: is so beautiful, so radiant with glory as the poppy time.
• 1:04:22
  Speaker 3: Coming after a spell of rainy weather, when the mists
• 1:04:24
  Speaker 3: have lifted from the face of nature, they usher in
• 1:04:27
  Speaker 3: the long summer in California. The interest centering in the
• 1:04:32
  Speaker 3: poppy is universal, and it is the most beautiful of
• 1:04:36
  Speaker 3: California's flora. It is the favorite flower, being the state flower,
• 1:04:41
  Speaker 3: suggestive in color, divine and inspiration in poetry, besides the
• 1:04:46
  Speaker 3: precious gold and orange to be found in this land.
• 1:04:50
  Speaker 3: The naturalist Adelbert Fonchanisso arrived at San Francisco in eighteen
• 1:04:55
  Speaker 3: sixteen on the ship Ruric. Seeing the poppy for the
• 1:04:59
  Speaker 3: first time, he christened it Escholtzia, after Herr Escholtz, his
• 1:05:04
  Speaker 3: friend and companion of the ocean journey. The Spanish people
• 1:05:08
  Speaker 3: call it el oro de Copo, the cup of gold.
• 1:05:13
  Speaker 3: This poppy grows in portions of Oregon, Arizona, and Mexico,
• 1:05:17
  Speaker 3: but in California it has a beauty such as you
• 1:05:19
  Speaker 3: can find nowhere else. They grow about one foot high.
• 1:05:25
  Speaker 3: The cups of gold rest on slender, graceful stems. The
• 1:05:28
  Speaker 3: foliage delicate and olive green in color. This royal poppy
• 1:05:33
  Speaker 3: is rich in coloring, cool and refreshing in the midst
• 1:05:36
  Speaker 3: of tropical heat. It is one of the most characteristic
• 1:05:40
  Speaker 3: and beautiful features of California's scenery. Associated with it are
• 1:05:45
  Speaker 3: sunny skies, beauty sea breezes, and waving palms under the
• 1:05:50
  Speaker 3: sun of a bright day. The scene is like an
• 1:05:53
  Speaker 3: Italian landscape, a blue sky without a cloud. The eye
• 1:05:58
  Speaker 3: wanders here and there to the gold spread far and wide,
• 1:06:02
  Speaker 3: and the question rises, was there ever such flowers as these?
• 1:06:08
  Speaker 3: Myriads of rich, gorgeous, brilliant poppies nod lean, dance and
• 1:06:13
  Speaker 3: swing their dainty cups of gold in the breeze. A
• 1:06:17
  Speaker 3: mass of tossing gold, sheets of gold fire running up
• 1:06:21
  Speaker 3: the valley, hill slopes and mountains. The pasture, mesa and
• 1:06:26
  Speaker 3: uplands are all aglow poppies everywhere, found along the seashore,
• 1:06:31
  Speaker 3: in great patches by the roadside, hid in the fence corners,
• 1:06:35
  Speaker 3: in the green grass, at the edge of the woods,
• 1:06:38
  Speaker 3: in the deserts and waste places. They appear like unfurled
• 1:06:43
  Speaker 3: banners of a victor army, like waving billows in the breeze,
• 1:06:48
  Speaker 3: like a golden sea, rippling against a blue horizon. They
• 1:06:53
  Speaker 3: are the flowers around which the tourists linger, and they
• 1:06:57
  Speaker 3: go into raptures over them. Gathered by armfuls, they are
• 1:07:01
  Speaker 3: carried to hotels and preston books, then taken east as
• 1:07:05
  Speaker 3: souvenirs of this sunny land. On poppy day, the desks
• 1:07:09
  Speaker 3: in the schools. The tables and mantles in the hotels
• 1:07:12
  Speaker 3: are decorated with bouquets of the golden blossoms. Children worship
• 1:07:17
  Speaker 3: them in their delight and greet one another with the
• 1:07:20
  Speaker 3: poppies are in bloom, then scamper off by the dozen
• 1:07:24
  Speaker 3: to the mesas, where they deck their hair with poppy
• 1:07:27
  Speaker 3: garlands and race to and fro like butterflies, Waiting knee
• 1:07:31
  Speaker 3: deep in poppy dust of gold. Above their happy voices,
• 1:07:36
  Speaker 3: the songs of the metal larks can be heard, clear, mellow,
• 1:07:39
  Speaker 3: and thrillingly sweet. A golden spell lingers around the scene,
• 1:07:45
  Speaker 3: an influence that penetrates the soul. Clara Hill end of
• 1:07:52
  Speaker 3: section thirteen.
• 1:08:00
  Speaker 13: Section fourteen of Birds and Nature, volume eleven, February nineteen
• 1:08:06
  Speaker 13: o two. This is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings
• 1:08:11
  Speaker 13: are in the public domain. For more information or to volunteer,
• 1:08:16
  Speaker 13: please visit LibriVox dot org. Quartz The cryptocrystalline, obscurely crystalline
• 1:08:24
  Speaker 13: varieties of quartz are many. The following may be named
• 1:08:28
  Speaker 13: as the most important. Calcedony, carnelion, sard, chrysopraise, praise, plasma, bloodstone, agate, onyx, sardonyx,
• 1:08:39
  Speaker 13: jasper basonite, flint, and hornstone. The distinctions between the different
• 1:08:45
  Speaker 13: varieties are loose and are differently stated by different authorities.
• 1:08:49
  Speaker 13: Some class agate onyx, sardonyx, plasma, and carnelian together as
• 1:08:54
  Speaker 13: varieties of calcedony, while others consider calcedony a simple variety.
• 1:09:00
  Speaker 13: The calcedonic varieties of quartz agree in having a fibrous
• 1:09:03
  Speaker 13: structure and in being somewhat softer hardness six and a
• 1:09:07
  Speaker 13: half and somewhat lighter specific gravity two point six than
• 1:09:12
  Speaker 13: crystallized quartz. They also break with more difficulty than quartz,
• 1:09:16
  Speaker 13: being very tough. The varieties differ among themselves, chiefly in color.
• 1:09:22
  Speaker 13: Common calcedony has a waxy luster and is usually translucent
• 1:09:26
  Speaker 13: rather than transparent. The transparent forms are known as oriental,
• 1:09:31
  Speaker 13: the translucent as occidental calcidony. Common calcedony has little color,
• 1:09:37
  Speaker 13: shades of gray and blue being the most common, although
• 1:09:40
  Speaker 13: other tints occur. It usually presents rounded surfaces which have
• 1:09:45
  Speaker 13: grape like, kidney like, or stalactitic forms. It occurs coating
• 1:09:50
  Speaker 13: other rocks or minerals, or lines, cavities, or fills, veins
• 1:09:54
  Speaker 13: and clefts. It is never so far as we know,
• 1:09:58
  Speaker 13: deposited in any other way than by percolating waters. At
• 1:10:02
  Speaker 13: Tampa Bay, Florida, the waters containing calcedoni have penetrated corals
• 1:10:07
  Speaker 13: and preserved them, often giving forms showing the shape of
• 1:10:10
  Speaker 13: the coral outside and a cavity within. Throughout the bad
• 1:10:15
  Speaker 13: lands of the West, clefts in the hills are often
• 1:10:17
  Speaker 13: filled with sheets of calcedoni, varying in thickness from that
• 1:10:21
  Speaker 13: of thin paper to nearly an inch. These calcedony veins
• 1:10:25
  Speaker 13: ramify in all directions and often extend for many rods
• 1:10:29
  Speaker 13: without interruption. When the calcedoni is penetrated by branching forms
• 1:10:34
  Speaker 13: of manganese or iron oxide, the forms known as mocha
• 1:10:38
  Speaker 13: stones and moss agates are produced. These are not due
• 1:10:42
  Speaker 13: to vegetation any more than the similar forms of frost
• 1:10:45
  Speaker 13: on our window panes. They are purely mineral in their origin.
• 1:10:49
  Speaker 13: Moss agates are found in numerous localities in the states
• 1:10:52
  Speaker 13: of Utah, Wyoming, Colorado, and Montana. In the opinion of
• 1:10:57
  Speaker 13: mister George F. Kuntz, no stone that is used in
• 1:11:00
  Speaker 13: jewelry in the United States is cheaper, more beautiful, or
• 1:11:03
  Speaker 13: more plentiful than the moss agate. The best occur as
• 1:11:07
  Speaker 13: rolled pebbles in the beds of streams. The name Moca stone,
• 1:11:11
  Speaker 13: sometimes applied to moss agates, is either due to the
• 1:11:14
  Speaker 13: fact that those first used came from Mocha in Arabia,
• 1:11:18
  Speaker 13: or it is a corruption of the word moss agate.
• 1:11:21
  Speaker 13: The finest moss agates now known come from India. A
• 1:11:25
  Speaker 13: white variety of calcedony containing minute blood red spots, is
• 1:11:30
  Speaker 13: known as Saint Stephen's stone. Chalcedoni was formerly used much
• 1:11:34
  Speaker 13: more and more highly prized than at the present time.
• 1:11:38
  Speaker 13: It was especially employed for seals and rings, but also
• 1:11:41
  Speaker 13: for plates, cups and vases. These were often engraved in
• 1:11:45
  Speaker 13: the most elaborate manner, the hardness and toughness of the
• 1:11:48
  Speaker 13: stone making it well adapted for this purpose. The sentiment
• 1:11:52
  Speaker 13: of the stone is a disperser of melancholy. The name
• 1:11:56
  Speaker 13: Calcedoni is from Chalcedon, a city in Asia Minor where
• 1:12:00
  Speaker 13: the original calcedony was found. This mineral was probably not
• 1:12:04
  Speaker 13: like our modern calcedony, however, being more probably a green quartz.
• 1:12:09
  Speaker 13: This calcedony is mentioned as one of the foundation stones
• 1:12:12
  Speaker 13: of the Holy City in the Book of Revelations. Carnelian
• 1:12:17
  Speaker 13: is a red variety of calcedony sarred a brown variety.
• 1:12:21
  Speaker 13: All gradations between these shades, of course occur, those of
• 1:12:25
  Speaker 13: the reddish cast being the most common. The most highly
• 1:12:28
  Speaker 13: prized color for Carnelian is a deep blood red, appearing
• 1:12:32
  Speaker 13: darker red in reflected light. The lighter red and yellowish
• 1:12:36
  Speaker 13: shades are less desirable, stones of these shades being known
• 1:12:40
  Speaker 13: as female Carnelians, while those of the darker shades are
• 1:12:43
  Speaker 13: known as male Carnelians. The colors are due to oxides
• 1:12:47
  Speaker 13: of iron and can sometimes be changed by heating. Thus,
• 1:12:51
  Speaker 13: the yellowish and brownish Carnelians being colored by iron hydroxide
• 1:12:55
  Speaker 13: can be changed by heating to red, the water being
• 1:12:58
  Speaker 13: driven off and iron eye oxide left. The heating may
• 1:13:02
  Speaker 13: be done in the sun or by some other slow means.
• 1:13:05
  Speaker 13: Even olive greenstones are changed in India to red by
• 1:13:09
  Speaker 13: this process. The color may also be introduced artificially by
• 1:13:13
  Speaker 13: allowing the stones to lie in a mixture of metallic
• 1:13:16
  Speaker 13: iron and nitric acid or of iron sulfate for a while.
• 1:13:20
  Speaker 13: In this way, the iron salt needed for the coloring
• 1:13:23
  Speaker 13: matter can be absorbed by the stone, and this is
• 1:13:26
  Speaker 13: changed afterwards to oxide by heating. The best Carnelians come
• 1:13:31
  Speaker 13: from India, but good stones are also obtained in Siberia,
• 1:13:34
  Speaker 13: Brazil and Queensland. Carnelians are cut, usually in oval and
• 1:13:39
  Speaker 13: shield like shapes, and were much employed by the ancients.
• 1:13:43
  Speaker 13: For in Taliose they believe them to have the power
• 1:13:46
  Speaker 13: of preventing misfortune, and they were much worn as charms.
• 1:13:51
  Speaker 13: Sard of typical brown color, is much rarer than Carnelian,
• 1:13:54
  Speaker 13: and possesses a high value in other respects. It is
• 1:13:57
  Speaker 13: like Carnelian. The Sardius in the Bible, as forming one
• 1:14:01
  Speaker 13: of the stones of the high priests breastplate, was undoubtedly
• 1:14:05
  Speaker 13: a Carnelian. The name was derived from Sardius, a city
• 1:14:09
  Speaker 13: of Lydia, whence fine Carnelians are obtained. The name Carnelian is,
• 1:14:14
  Speaker 13: according to some authorities, derived from the Latin word caro
• 1:14:18
  Speaker 13: carnis flesh and refers to the color of the stone,
• 1:14:22
  Speaker 13: or according to others, it is from the Italian word carniola,
• 1:14:26
  Speaker 13: which has the same meaning. Chrysopraise and praise are terms
• 1:14:31
  Speaker 13: applied to an apple green to bright green calcedony or
• 1:14:34
  Speaker 13: compact jasper like form of quartz. Some authorities however, call
• 1:14:39
  Speaker 13: the green calcedony plasma and restrict the term chrysopraise to
• 1:14:44
  Speaker 13: the green compact courts the terms cannot be accurately distinguished.
• 1:14:49
  Speaker 13: Most chrysopraise now in use comes from localities in the
• 1:14:52
  Speaker 13: province of Silesia in Germany, where it occurs in thin
• 1:14:56
  Speaker 13: layers and veins in serpentine. The green color he year
• 1:15:00
  Speaker 13: is due to nickel oxide, which is present in the
• 1:15:02
  Speaker 13: stone to the amount sometimes of one percent. The first
• 1:15:06
  Speaker 13: discovery of the stone is said to have been by
• 1:15:08
  Speaker 13: a Prussian officer in seventeen forty. The stone was especially
• 1:15:13
  Speaker 13: fancied by Frederick the Great, so that he had two
• 1:15:16
  Speaker 13: tables made of it and used it frequently in mosaics.
• 1:15:19
  Speaker 13: The color fades with light and heat, but it is
• 1:15:22
  Speaker 13: said can be restored by burying the stone in moist
• 1:15:26
  Speaker 13: earth for a time. Beautiful chrystal praise comes from India,
• 1:15:30
  Speaker 13: and there are a few localities in our own country
• 1:15:33
  Speaker 13: where it is found, it being usually associated with Nicoliferus deposits.
• 1:15:38
  Speaker 13: The name chrysopraise comes from two Greek words meaning golden leak,
• 1:15:42
  Speaker 13: and refers to the color of the stone. Plasma, as
• 1:15:46
  Speaker 13: already stated, is a name applied to green chalcedony, or
• 1:15:49
  Speaker 13: by some to green jasper. The name comes from the
• 1:15:53
  Speaker 13: Greek for image, and shows that the stone was largely
• 1:15:56
  Speaker 13: used for seals and other engraved work. Most of that
• 1:15:59
  Speaker 13: known at the present time comes from India and China.
• 1:16:03
  Speaker 13: Bloodstone is a variety of plasma containing spots of red
• 1:16:07
  Speaker 13: jasper looking like drops of blood. Another name for bloodstone,
• 1:16:11
  Speaker 13: by which it was chiefly known by the ancients, is heliotrope.
• 1:16:14
  Speaker 13: This name is derived from two Greek words meaning sun turning,
• 1:16:18
  Speaker 13: and refers to the belief that the stone, when immersed
• 1:16:21
  Speaker 13: in water, changes the image of the sun to blood red.
• 1:16:25
  Speaker 13: The stone was often used by the ancients for carvings
• 1:16:28
  Speaker 13: representing the head of Christ, and one fine specimen of
• 1:16:31
  Speaker 13: such work may be seen in the Field Columbian Museum.
• 1:16:35
  Speaker 13: The ancients had a tradition that the stone originated at
• 1:16:38
  Speaker 13: the crucifixion of Christ from drops of blood drawn by
• 1:16:42
  Speaker 13: the spear thrust in his side, falling on a dark
• 1:16:45
  Speaker 13: green jasper. The stone takes a beautiful polish. To be
• 1:16:49
  Speaker 13: of the best quality, it should have a rich, dark
• 1:16:51
  Speaker 13: green color, and the red spots should be small and
• 1:16:55
  Speaker 13: uniformly distributed. The supply is obtained almost wholly from India,
• 1:17:00
  Speaker 13: especially from the Katiowar peninsula west of Cambe, whence Agate,
• 1:17:05
  Speaker 13: Carnelian and calcadony are also obtained. Fine examples have also
• 1:17:09
  Speaker 13: come from Australia and a few from Brazil. In present usage,
• 1:17:14
  Speaker 13: bloodstone is the birth stone of the month of March.
• 1:17:17
  Speaker 13: Who on this world of ours their eyes in March
• 1:17:20
  Speaker 13: first open, shall be wise in days of peril, firm
• 1:17:24
  Speaker 13: and brave, and wear a bloodstone to their grave. Agate
• 1:17:29
  Speaker 13: was described in the June number of this magazine. Onyx
• 1:17:33
  Speaker 13: and sardonyx are varieties of agot in which the layers
• 1:17:36
  Speaker 13: are in even plains of uniform thickness. This structure enables
• 1:17:40
  Speaker 13: the stone to be used for engraving cameos. As is
• 1:17:43
  Speaker 13: well known, these are so made that the base is
• 1:17:46
  Speaker 13: of one color and the figure of another. This art
• 1:17:50
  Speaker 13: of making cameos reached a high degree of perfection among
• 1:17:53
  Speaker 13: the Romans, and many superb examples of it have come
• 1:17:56
  Speaker 13: down to us. The word onyx means a nail, finger nail,
• 1:18:01
  Speaker 13: and refers to some fancied resemblance, perhaps in luster to
• 1:18:05
  Speaker 13: the human nail. Sardonyx is a particular variety of onyx,
• 1:18:09
  Speaker 13: in which one of the layers has the brown color
• 1:18:12
  Speaker 13: of sard. Other kinds of onyx are those known as
• 1:18:15
  Speaker 13: chalcedonyx and carnelionyx, in reference to the color of the
• 1:18:19
  Speaker 13: intervening layers. So called Mexican onyx is composed of quite
• 1:18:24
  Speaker 13: a different mineral from the onyx here considered, it, being
• 1:18:27
  Speaker 13: made up of calcite rather than quartz. Mexican onyx can
• 1:18:32
  Speaker 13: be scratched easily with a knife, while quartz onyx cannot.
• 1:18:36
  Speaker 13: Mexican onyx has, however, the banded structure of quartz onyx,
• 1:18:40
  Speaker 13: and it is in allusion to this, undoubtedly that the
• 1:18:43
  Speaker 13: name has been applied. A sardonyx upon which Queen Elizabeth's
• 1:18:47
  Speaker 13: portrait was cut constituted the stone of the famous ring
• 1:18:50
  Speaker 13: which she gave the Earl of Essex as the pledge
• 1:18:53
  Speaker 13: of her friendship. It will be remembered that when the
• 1:18:56
  Speaker 13: Earl was sentenced to death, he sent this ring to
• 1:18:59
  Speaker 13: his cousin, Lady Scrup, to deliver to Elizabeth. The messenger,
• 1:19:03
  Speaker 13: by mistake, gave it to Lady Scrup's sister, the Countess Nottingham, who,
• 1:19:08
  Speaker 13: being an enemy of the Earls, did not deliver it
• 1:19:11
  Speaker 13: to the Queen, and the earl was executed. On her deathbed,
• 1:19:15
  Speaker 13: the countess confessed her crime to the Queen, who was
• 1:19:18
  Speaker 13: so infuriated that she shook her saying, God may forgive you,
• 1:19:22
  Speaker 13: but I cannot. The onyx is the emblem of conjugal felicity,
• 1:19:28
  Speaker 13: and by some is made the birth stone of the
• 1:19:30
  Speaker 13: month of July. It is one of the stones prescribed
• 1:19:33
  Speaker 13: for the effort of the Jewish high priest. The Stardonyx
• 1:19:37
  Speaker 13: was supposed by the angels to be a different stone
• 1:19:40
  Speaker 13: from the Onyx, to it was ascribed the property of
• 1:19:43
  Speaker 13: conferring eloquence upon its wearer. It is mentioned in Revelations
• 1:19:47
  Speaker 13: as one of the stones forming the foundations of the
• 1:19:50
  Speaker 13: Holy City. Onyx and Sardonyx, which come from the Orient,
• 1:19:54
  Speaker 13: are esteemed of much higher value in trade at the
• 1:19:57
  Speaker 13: present time than those prepared in Germany. There seems to
• 1:20:01
  Speaker 13: be no good reason for this, however, as the latter
• 1:20:04
  Speaker 13: can be so skillfully made that it is impossible to
• 1:20:07
  Speaker 13: distinguish them from the Oriental stones. Jasper is a name
• 1:20:12
  Speaker 13: which includes, in general nearly all varieties of impure, opaque,
• 1:20:15
  Speaker 13: colored cryptocrystalline quartz in colour, it may be red, yellow, green, brown,
• 1:20:21
  Speaker 13: bluish and black. To many of the pebbles found on
• 1:20:25
  Speaker 13: almost any sea or lake shore or in the beds
• 1:20:27
  Speaker 13: of streams. The name jasper may properly be applied. If
• 1:20:31
  Speaker 13: it occurs banded, that is, in stripes of different colors,
• 1:20:35
  Speaker 13: it is known as ribbon jasper. The different colors of
• 1:20:38
  Speaker 13: jasper are due to the different impurities it contains. These
• 1:20:42
  Speaker 13: may be clay, iron oxides, or organic matter, and at
• 1:20:46
  Speaker 13: times reach a quantity as high as twenty percent. The
• 1:20:50
  Speaker 13: colour often varies irregularly in a single stone, giving different
• 1:20:54
  Speaker 13: effects and sometimes imitating paintings. Jasper, which can be used
• 1:20:59
  Speaker 13: in the arts, is very widely distributed. Good red jasper
• 1:21:03
  Speaker 13: is obtained in Bryscow near Marburg in Germany. Much of
• 1:21:07
  Speaker 13: the brown jasper comes from Egypt. What is known as
• 1:21:10
  Speaker 13: Sioux Falls jasper from Sioux Falls, South Dakota, is chiefly
• 1:21:14
  Speaker 13: of a brown color. This stone was highly prized by
• 1:21:17
  Speaker 13: the Indians for its color, and is the jasper referred
• 1:21:21
  Speaker 13: to by Longfellow in Hiawatha at the doorway of his
• 1:21:25
  Speaker 13: wigwam Sat, the ancient arrow maker in the land of
• 1:21:27
  Speaker 13: the Dakotas making arrow heads of jasper arrow heads of Chalcedony.
• 1:21:33
  Speaker 13: The yellow jasper used for mosaias comes chiefly from Sicily,
• 1:21:37
  Speaker 13: but as good could be obtained in many places in
• 1:21:40
  Speaker 13: our own country. The green jasper of the present time
• 1:21:43
  Speaker 13: is obtained chiefly in the Urals, and is to a
• 1:21:46
  Speaker 13: considerable extent work there into ornamental pieces. The Chinese prize
• 1:21:51
  Speaker 13: green jasper highly, the seal of the Emperor being made
• 1:21:54
  Speaker 13: from it. Some jasper of a bluish shade is found
• 1:21:58
  Speaker 13: in nature, but that of a deep blue tinge is
• 1:22:00
  Speaker 13: always artificially colored by Prussian blue. It is then sometimes
• 1:22:05
  Speaker 13: known as false lapis, that is, false lapis Lazoi. Ribbon
• 1:22:10
  Speaker 13: jasper is found in Saxony, but chiefly comes from the Urals.
• 1:22:15
  Speaker 13: The qualities which make jasper of use in the arts
• 1:22:18
  Speaker 13: are its color, opacity, and capacity for taking a polish.
• 1:22:23
  Speaker 13: At the present time it is not much used except
• 1:22:25
  Speaker 13: for mosaic work and for small boxes, vases and dishes.
• 1:22:29
  Speaker 13: The ancients, however, prized it highly and used it extensively.
• 1:22:34
  Speaker 13: It is one of the stones prescribed in the Book
• 1:22:36
  Speaker 13: of Exodus to be worn in the effort of the
• 1:22:39
  Speaker 13: high priest, and also forms one of the gates of
• 1:22:42
  Speaker 13: the Holy City as described by Saint John in Revelations.
• 1:22:46
  Speaker 13: It is probable that the jasper referred to in these
• 1:22:49
  Speaker 13: instances was of a dark green color, as this was
• 1:22:52
  Speaker 13: the tint most prized in early times. Green jasper was
• 1:22:56
  Speaker 13: also called emerald. In some instances. The bandit varieties were
• 1:23:00
  Speaker 13: much used for cameos, specimens of which are still extant.
• 1:23:05
  Speaker 13: By taking advantage of the colors of the different layers,
• 1:23:08
  Speaker 13: colored objects were made, such as one which shows the
• 1:23:11
  Speaker 13: head of a warrior in red, his helmet green and
• 1:23:14
  Speaker 13: breastplate yellow. Basinite is also known as Lydian stone or
• 1:23:20
  Speaker 13: touchstone on account of its use for trying the purity
• 1:23:23
  Speaker 13: of metals. Its value for this purpose depends on its hardness,
• 1:23:27
  Speaker 13: peculiar grain, and black color. Different alloys of gold give
• 1:23:31
  Speaker 13: different colors on the stone, which one soon learns to recognize,
• 1:23:35
  Speaker 13: and jewelers become very skillful in judging of the fineness
• 1:23:38
  Speaker 13: of gold by this test. Also, if an object is plated,
• 1:23:42
  Speaker 13: by giving it a few strokes on the stone, the
• 1:23:45
  Speaker 13: different color of the gold and base will be revealed.
• 1:23:48
  Speaker 13: It is simply a black variety of cryptocrystalline quartz. Differing
• 1:23:53
  Speaker 13: from jasper in being tougher and of finer grain, and
• 1:23:57
  Speaker 13: from hornstone in not being splintery. Flint is likewise an
• 1:24:01
  Speaker 13: opaque courtz of dull color. It differs from jasper in
• 1:24:05
  Speaker 13: breaking with a deeply conchoidal fracture and a sharp cutting edge.
• 1:24:09
  Speaker 13: It is also often slightly transparent and has a somewhat
• 1:24:13
  Speaker 13: glassy luster. These properties have led to its extensive use
• 1:24:17
  Speaker 13: by the Indians and by nearly all primitive peoples for
• 1:24:21
  Speaker 13: the manufacture of weapons and implements. Hornstone is more brittle
• 1:24:26
  Speaker 13: than flint and has a splintery rather than a conchoidal fracture.
• 1:24:31
  Speaker 13: A number of other sub varieties of cryptocrystalline quartz occur,
• 1:24:35
  Speaker 13: but they are not important. Oliver Cummings Farrington, end of
• 1:24:41
  Speaker 13: section fourteen.
• 1:24:48
  Speaker 12: Section fifteen of Birds in Nature, Volume eleven, number two,
• 1:24:52
  Speaker 12: February nineteen two, recorded for LibriVox dot Org by Larry Wilson.
• 1:24:59
  Speaker 12: Mid winter, the air is like a burrel, clean and clear,
• 1:25:04
  Speaker 12: intensified by gleaming points of blue. Sharp outlined distant sounds
• 1:25:10
  Speaker 12: come ringing near and crisply pierced. The brittle silence through
• 1:25:15
  Speaker 12: the sturdy trees that yester eve were gray and dim
• 1:25:18
  Speaker 12: and foggy veils, and half effaced by winter rain that
• 1:25:22
  Speaker 12: compass them to day arise like nights in crystal armor.
• 1:25:26
  Speaker 12: Laced the stiff brown fibered weeds beside the walk have
• 1:25:30
  Speaker 12: pinned with each dull spike a shivered star. An icy
• 1:25:35
  Speaker 12: chime is wrung from every stalk to wandery step that
• 1:25:38
  Speaker 12: clashes them ajar. The wood is bright as when the
• 1:25:41
  Speaker 12: summer lost her sun gems in the deep soft shadow seas,
• 1:25:46
  Speaker 12: only the light is danker, edged with frost and breaks
• 1:25:50
  Speaker 12: and spangles on the ice mailed trees. Hatty Whitney in
• 1:25:55
  Speaker 12: The Ladies World Endo, section fifteen. This recording is in
• 1:26:01
  Speaker 12: the public domain.
• 1:26:09
  Speaker 14: Section sixteen of Birds in Nature, Volume eleven, number two,
• 1:26:13
  Speaker 14: February nineteen o two, recorded for LibriVox dot org by
• 1:26:18
  Speaker 14: Autumn Bright a catastrophe in high life. Tertius, as his
• 1:26:24
  Speaker 14: name signifies, was the third Maltese cat to occupy a
• 1:26:28
  Speaker 14: very warm place in the hearts of a certain pet
• 1:26:31
  Speaker 14: loving family that lived on a quiet, tree shaded street
• 1:26:34
  Speaker 14: in a beautiful eastern city. His predecessors were both noted
• 1:26:38
  Speaker 14: for their wonderful sagacity and great achievements. So he felt
• 1:26:42
  Speaker 14: that he must improve all his opportunities if he was
• 1:26:45
  Speaker 14: to keep up to their high standard. Just how they
• 1:26:49
  Speaker 14: had obtained their reputation, he did not know, and perhaps
• 1:26:52
  Speaker 14: it was this ignorance that caused him to make his
• 1:26:55
  Speaker 14: fatal mistake. The beautiful house in which he lived had
• 1:26:59
  Speaker 14: a large veranda on one side, over which rana grapevine,
• 1:27:03
  Speaker 14: and in this grape vine a pair of robins most
• 1:27:06
  Speaker 14: unwisely decided to build their nest. It is a very
• 1:27:11
  Speaker 14: beautiful spot, said missus Robin. Yes, and that arrangement in
• 1:27:15
  Speaker 14: the center there will be splendid to lay the foundation on.
• 1:27:19
  Speaker 14: Replied mister Robin. It is so picturesque, returned missus r
• 1:27:24
  Speaker 14: in a rapture of delight. And there will be such
• 1:27:28
  Speaker 14: a nice shade for you, my dear, when the leaves
• 1:27:30
  Speaker 14: are out, added the thoughtful husband. It is a much
• 1:27:34
  Speaker 14: finer situation than mister and missus English sparrow have for
• 1:27:38
  Speaker 14: their nest and the eaves up above, don't you think so,
• 1:27:41
  Speaker 14: rob Indeed I do, wifey, But we must to work,
• 1:27:46
  Speaker 14: for the morning is advancing. Now you stay here, will
• 1:27:49
  Speaker 14: I fly off and get the material in a very
• 1:27:53
  Speaker 14: few days? As pretty a little nest was in the
• 1:27:56
  Speaker 14: spot selected as you would want to see. Mister Robin
• 1:27:59
  Speaker 14: had brought all the material, while his helpful little wife
• 1:28:03
  Speaker 14: had constructed the nest. All this time their movements had
• 1:28:08
  Speaker 14: been watched by the large, admiring but greedy eyes of
• 1:28:12
  Speaker 14: the ambitious Tertius. And one morning the chance he had
• 1:28:15
  Speaker 14: so patiently waited for cain. Mister Robin started out, thinking
• 1:28:20
  Speaker 14: in his kind little heart that he would get little
• 1:28:23
  Speaker 14: Wifey a particularly large and tasty worm for her breakfast.
• 1:28:27
  Speaker 14: And he was so intent in scratching in the newly
• 1:28:30
  Speaker 14: turned garden for it that he did not see the sly,
• 1:28:33
  Speaker 14: softly creeping Tertius one bound, and poor little rob was caught.
• 1:28:39
  Speaker 14: He screamed, he scolded, but all to no purpose. Now
• 1:28:44
  Speaker 14: was Tertius proud. He would carry his prize to his mistress,
• 1:28:48
  Speaker 14: and she would surely say that his skill and prowess
• 1:28:51
  Speaker 14: was far beyond that of either of his illustrious ancestors. So,
• 1:28:56
  Speaker 14: thinking with arched back and curling tail, he Hates gained
• 1:29:00
  Speaker 14: the house and at once carried his prize to his
• 1:29:03
  Speaker 14: mistress's room. But alas for his well laid plans, alas
• 1:29:07
  Speaker 14: for the praise he had looked for. Instead, to his
• 1:29:10
  Speaker 14: intense surprise and anger, he was greeted with a cry
• 1:29:14
  Speaker 14: of pain and alarm. The mistress, who should have praised
• 1:29:18
  Speaker 14: rated him well. The hand that should have stroked his
• 1:29:21
  Speaker 14: smooth coat, wrenched his prize from him. In his anger,
• 1:29:25
  Speaker 14: he tried to scratch her in return, but she had
• 1:29:27
  Speaker 14: been too quick for him, and Robin was saved tenderly.
• 1:29:32
  Speaker 14: He was laid in a bed of cotton and placed
• 1:29:34
  Speaker 14: on an upper veranda, and once more in the sweet,
• 1:29:37
  Speaker 14: balmy air. Cautiously he lifted his head, and as no
• 1:29:41
  Speaker 14: shining green eyes or sharp paw were to be seen,
• 1:29:44
  Speaker 14: ventured to hop to the edge of the basket in
• 1:29:46
  Speaker 14: which his kind preserver had placed him. One more look around,
• 1:29:50
  Speaker 14: and he stretched out his wings and soared away. Oh
• 1:29:54
  Speaker 14: my dear rob I heard your cry? Where have you been?
• 1:29:59
  Speaker 14: Do tell me all a about it? Exclaimed Missus Robin
• 1:30:02
  Speaker 14: on mister Robin's return, And he, in a most graphic manner,
• 1:30:06
  Speaker 14: granted her request. But as we already know all about it,
• 1:30:10
  Speaker 14: we won't stay to listen. As to Tertius, he has
• 1:30:14
  Speaker 14: decided that to win his way to fame, he must
• 1:30:17
  Speaker 14: confine himself in the future to a war on mice
• 1:30:21
  Speaker 14: m Leyla Dawson, end of section sixteen. This recording is
• 1:30:27
  Speaker 14: in the public.
• 1:30:27
  Speaker 10: Domain Section seventeen of Birds and Nature, Volume eleven, number two,
• 1:30:39
  Speaker 10: February nineteen o two. This is a LibriVox recording. All
• 1:30:44
  Speaker 10: LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For more information
• 1:30:48
  Speaker 10: or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox dot org. Recording by
• 1:30:53
  Speaker 10: Betty B. The domestic cat. In the Old Old writings
• 1:30:57
  Speaker 10: of the Sacred Sanskrit language, that ancient language of the Hindos,
• 1:31:02
  Speaker 10: nearly two thousand years ago, reference was made to the
• 1:31:05
  Speaker 10: domestic cat. And so we know that cats existed long
• 1:31:09
  Speaker 10: ago and are a very ancient animal. But by means
• 1:31:13
  Speaker 10: of pictures we are able to trace their origin to
• 1:31:17
  Speaker 10: still earlier times. For the Egyptian monuments abound in pictured
• 1:31:21
  Speaker 10: cats and stranger Yet in Egypt are found mummies of
• 1:31:26
  Speaker 10: both the domestic and common jungle cat. How very important
• 1:31:30
  Speaker 10: it must have been considered. Think of bearing the body
• 1:31:33
  Speaker 10: of every forlorn, luckless cat, and then realize the pains
• 1:31:37
  Speaker 10: taken not only to give it a burial, but to
• 1:31:40
  Speaker 10: preserve it for ages to come. And this the Egyptians
• 1:31:44
  Speaker 10: did for doubtless it was to them the most sacred
• 1:31:47
  Speaker 10: of all sacred animals. Herodotus says that when one of
• 1:31:51
  Speaker 10: their houses was on fire, they first thought of saving
• 1:31:54
  Speaker 10: the cat, and afterward considered the matter of putting out
• 1:31:58
  Speaker 10: the fire. Also, when a cat died, they cut off
• 1:32:01
  Speaker 10: their own hair as a sign of mourning. When a
• 1:32:04
  Speaker 10: person unintentionally caused the death of one of these animals,
• 1:32:08
  Speaker 10: he forfeited his life. We can readily imagine that small
• 1:32:12
  Speaker 10: boys did not find amusement in chasing and plaguing stray
• 1:32:16
  Speaker 10: cats at that period of the world's existence. While we
• 1:32:21
  Speaker 10: really do not absolutely know where the ancestors of our
• 1:32:25
  Speaker 10: modern cat were found, it is the general opinion that
• 1:32:29
  Speaker 10: the Egyptian cat was the first to be domesticated, and
• 1:32:32
  Speaker 10: that it gradually spread northward, and eastward and westward, although
• 1:32:37
  Speaker 10: the spotted cats of India may have had a different origin.
• 1:32:41
  Speaker 10: In the tenth century, the cat had reached whales as
• 1:32:45
  Speaker 10: laws were recorded fixing the price of domestic cats, and
• 1:32:49
  Speaker 10: also penalties were fixed for their ill treatment and killing.
• 1:32:53
  Speaker 10: After a kitten caught its first mouse, its value was doubled,
• 1:32:57
  Speaker 10: and a mother cat was expected to have perfect eyes, ears,
• 1:33:01
  Speaker 10: and claws to know how to catch mice and how
• 1:33:04
  Speaker 10: to bring up her kittens properly. The domestic cat is
• 1:33:08
  Speaker 10: so common an animal that we do not realize how
• 1:33:11
  Speaker 10: very interesting the study of it may become. First of all,
• 1:33:15
  Speaker 10: we must remember that our pet kittens belong to that
• 1:33:18
  Speaker 10: important division of animals known as the cat tribe, and
• 1:33:23
  Speaker 10: which include such ferocious and feared beasts as the lion,
• 1:33:27
  Speaker 10: the tiger, the wild cat, the leopard, the panther, and
• 1:33:31
  Speaker 10: many others less common and less generally known. All of
• 1:33:35
  Speaker 10: these animals are most symmetrical and graceful. All have the
• 1:33:39
  Speaker 10: round heads set on a stout neck, the limbs of
• 1:33:42
  Speaker 10: moderate length, the long tail, and the soft fur, which
• 1:33:46
  Speaker 10: correspond in general color to its native surroundings. Because they
• 1:33:50
  Speaker 10: are beasts of prey, the teeth are adapted to life
• 1:33:53
  Speaker 10: destroying action. The tongue is thick and muscular, with fine,
• 1:33:58
  Speaker 10: horny thorns which point toe or the throat. With these,
• 1:34:01
  Speaker 10: the animal can most beautifully smooth and dress its hair,
• 1:34:05
  Speaker 10: as well as strip the meat from off the bone
• 1:34:08
  Speaker 10: when making a meal. The claws, ordinarily drawn up and
• 1:34:12
  Speaker 10: out of sight, make an effective weapon when the angry
• 1:34:15
  Speaker 10: animal stretches its paws. On account of its cushioned feet,
• 1:34:19
  Speaker 10: its step is silent and stealthy. All cats can jump
• 1:34:23
  Speaker 10: many times their own length, and most species are great climbers.
• 1:34:28
  Speaker 10: The sense of hearing is most acute, and they see
• 1:34:31
  Speaker 10: well at short range. The sense of touch is extremely
• 1:34:34
  Speaker 10: well developed, and the most sensitive organ is the whiskers.
• 1:34:39
  Speaker 10: A cat with the whiskers cut off is indeed in
• 1:34:42
  Speaker 10: a most uncomfortable position. It is at a loss to
• 1:34:45
  Speaker 10: know what to do. The sense of smell is not
• 1:34:48
  Speaker 10: very acute. Our domestic cat shares all these qualities with
• 1:34:52
  Speaker 10: the other members of the cat tribe, but it has
• 1:34:55
  Speaker 10: many valuable qualities of its own. It is much more
• 1:34:59
  Speaker 10: intelligent than people are willing to concede. It is often
• 1:35:03
  Speaker 10: compared with the dog, but they are so entirely different
• 1:35:06
  Speaker 10: that it is an unfair comparison. The dog becomes very
• 1:35:10
  Speaker 10: dependent upon man, while the cat has kept a certain
• 1:35:13
  Speaker 10: amount of individuality and independence through all its generations of
• 1:35:18
  Speaker 10: domestic life. When a cat is very much petted, it
• 1:35:22
  Speaker 10: develops an affection for its master, but otherwise it becomes
• 1:35:26
  Speaker 10: more attached to the house and locality in which it lives,
• 1:35:30
  Speaker 10: preferring to return to its old home and live among strangers,
• 1:35:34
  Speaker 10: rather than to follow its owner to a new home.
• 1:35:38
  Speaker 10: How remarkable is the fact that no one can cause
• 1:35:40
  Speaker 10: a cat to alight except upon its feet, no matter
• 1:35:44
  Speaker 10: how short or long may be the distance from which
• 1:35:47
  Speaker 10: it jumps or is thrown. A cat can also swim,
• 1:35:51
  Speaker 10: though in the main it abhors the water. Occasionally, its
• 1:35:54
  Speaker 10: great appetite for fish will overcome its dislike of getting wet,
• 1:35:59
  Speaker 10: and it will jump into a pond and do its
• 1:36:01
  Speaker 10: own fishing. Mister Scheidland understandably describes the cat in the
• 1:36:06
  Speaker 10: following language. The cat is an animal of a high
• 1:36:10
  Speaker 10: order of intelligence. Its bodily structure alone indicates this. It
• 1:36:15
  Speaker 10: is a pretty diminutive lion, a tiger. On a small scale.
• 1:36:19
  Speaker 10: It shows the most complete symmetry of form, no one
• 1:36:23
  Speaker 10: part of it too large or too small. That its
• 1:36:26
  Speaker 10: every detail, as rounded and beautiful, is even shown by
• 1:36:30
  Speaker 10: an examination of the skull, which is more symmetrical than
• 1:36:33
  Speaker 10: that of any other animal. Its movements are undulating and graceful,
• 1:36:38
  Speaker 10: to the extent that it seems to have no bones.
• 1:36:42
  Speaker 10: We value our cats too slightly, because we detest their
• 1:36:45
  Speaker 10: thievish propensities, fear their claws, and love their enemy, the dog,
• 1:36:51
  Speaker 10: and we are not able to show equal friendship and
• 1:36:53
  Speaker 10: admiration for those two opposite natures. Let us examine the
• 1:36:58
  Speaker 10: cat's qualities. We are impressed by its agility, yet its
• 1:37:02
  Speaker 10: mind is as flexible as its body. Its cleanliness of
• 1:37:06
  Speaker 10: habit is as much a matter of mental bias as
• 1:37:09
  Speaker 10: physical choice, for it is constantly licking and cleaning itself.
• 1:37:14
  Speaker 10: Every hair of its fur must be in perfect order.
• 1:37:17
  Speaker 10: It never forgets as much as the tip of its nail.
• 1:37:21
  Speaker 10: It has a discriminating sensibility as to both color and sound,
• 1:37:25
  Speaker 10: for it knows man by his dress and by his voice.
• 1:37:29
  Speaker 10: It possesses an excellent understanding of locality and practices it,
• 1:37:34
  Speaker 10: for it prowls through an entire neighborhood, through basements and
• 1:37:37
  Speaker 10: garrets and over roofs and hay sheds, without bewilderment. It
• 1:37:42
  Speaker 10: is an ideally local animal. And if the family moves,
• 1:37:46
  Speaker 10: it either declines to accompany them, or, if carried to
• 1:37:49
  Speaker 10: a new residence, returns at the first opportunity to the
• 1:37:53
  Speaker 10: old homestead. And it is remarkable how unerringly it will
• 1:37:58
  Speaker 10: find its way back, even when carried away in a sack.
• 1:38:01
  Speaker 10: For a distance of several miles. Large families are the
• 1:38:05
  Speaker 10: custom with cats, for usually five or six kittens are
• 1:38:08
  Speaker 10: born at one time. As these cunning little objects are
• 1:38:12
  Speaker 10: totally blind for nine days after birth, the devoted mother
• 1:38:16
  Speaker 10: cat must work industriously to properly care for them, and
• 1:38:20
  Speaker 10: especially to preserve them from danger. They must be hidden
• 1:38:24
  Speaker 10: away from harm, as the father cat would be perfectly
• 1:38:27
  Speaker 10: willing to devour them and would attack them as readily
• 1:38:30
  Speaker 10: as he would a rat or a mouse. The mother
• 1:38:33
  Speaker 10: cat lifts her helpless little ones very tenderly by compressing
• 1:38:37
  Speaker 10: the skin of their necks between her lips, and gently
• 1:38:41
  Speaker 10: carries them to a place of safety. While attending to
• 1:38:44
  Speaker 10: the duties of motherhood, the cat is in a sympathetic
• 1:38:47
  Speaker 10: frame of mind and will sometimes care for the young
• 1:38:51
  Speaker 10: of other animals as well as for her own. Mister
• 1:38:55
  Speaker 10: Brimm tells us that when a boy, he brought a
• 1:38:58
  Speaker 10: little squirrel, yet blind, to one of his cats, which
• 1:39:01
  Speaker 10: accepted the strange child among her own and tenderly cared
• 1:39:05
  Speaker 10: for it, And after her own kittens had been given away,
• 1:39:09
  Speaker 10: she regarded it with increased affection. They became inseparable companions
• 1:39:14
  Speaker 10: and understood each other perfectly. Though each talked in its
• 1:39:18
  Speaker 10: own language. Cats frequently formed friendships for other animals, and
• 1:39:23
  Speaker 10: even dogs and cats become friendly in spite of the
• 1:39:26
  Speaker 10: impression to the contrary. While living in a large city
• 1:39:30
  Speaker 10: where yards were small and infrequent, I was the happy
• 1:39:34
  Speaker 10: owner of a beautiful tree which stood near the rear
• 1:39:36
  Speaker 10: of the house. There were many pet cats in the neighborhood,
• 1:39:40
  Speaker 10: and all delighted to visit my tree, undoubtedly somewhere attracted
• 1:39:44
  Speaker 10: by the English sparrows which were almost omnipresent among the
• 1:39:48
  Speaker 10: upper branches, but all enjoyed clawing, stretching, and scratching up
• 1:39:53
  Speaker 10: the friendly trunk. One day, a strange kitten appeared, and
• 1:39:57
  Speaker 10: all those smallest and youngest of all the cats, by
• 1:40:00
  Speaker 10: its superior intelligence, it soon became king among them and
• 1:40:04
  Speaker 10: ruled them all, causing many a commotion in the previously
• 1:40:08
  Speaker 10: tranquil group. This young cat gained entrance to my next
• 1:40:12
  Speaker 10: door neighbor's house and made itself at home with anne
• 1:40:15
  Speaker 10: I am come to stay here. In fact, it refused
• 1:40:19
  Speaker 10: to be evicted, and by its determined persistence, became a
• 1:40:23
  Speaker 10: member of the household. The other family pet was an
• 1:40:26
  Speaker 10: old pug dog jack cross and uninteresting, but tolerated because
• 1:40:31
  Speaker 10: he gave some amusement to an invalid daughter of the family. Jack,
• 1:40:36
  Speaker 10: jealous and annoyed, received the newcomer in the most hostile manner,
• 1:40:40
  Speaker 10: and the kitten seemed to take special delight in tormenting
• 1:40:43
  Speaker 10: the dog in every possible way. In fact, the lack
• 1:40:47
  Speaker 10: of harmony between the pets became so annoying that it
• 1:40:51
  Speaker 10: was decided to sacrifice the kitten, and it was taken
• 1:40:54
  Speaker 10: to a remote place. For a number of weeks, quiet
• 1:40:57
  Speaker 10: prevailed in the rear yards of the neighborhood. But in time,
• 1:41:01
  Speaker 10: to every one's surprise, the cat reappeared and refused to
• 1:41:05
  Speaker 10: be turned away. Its courage and daring one recognition, and
• 1:41:09
  Speaker 10: again it was received into the family circle. I wondered
• 1:41:12
  Speaker 10: what Jack would do now that the kitten was restored
• 1:41:15
  Speaker 10: to favor. About this time business called me from the city,
• 1:41:19
  Speaker 10: and some time elapsed before my return. On reaching home again,
• 1:41:23
  Speaker 10: one night I heard the dog crying and whining till
• 1:41:26
  Speaker 10: nearly morning. I could not imagine the cause, but to
• 1:41:30
  Speaker 10: my astonishment learned the next day that the dog and
• 1:41:34
  Speaker 10: cat had become such firm friends that the dog was
• 1:41:37
  Speaker 10: perfectly inconsolable when the cat was absent, and as his
• 1:41:41
  Speaker 10: kingship had chosen to wander outside that particular night, the
• 1:41:45
  Speaker 10: dog had mourned for hours. In fact, after causing the
• 1:41:49
  Speaker 10: family a sleepless night, his master was obliged to rise
• 1:41:53
  Speaker 10: and punish him before he would cease his cries. Such
• 1:41:56
  Speaker 10: devotion put to flight all my previous theories of the
• 1:42:00
  Speaker 10: inborn antagonism between cats and dogs. The different varieties of
• 1:42:05
  Speaker 10: domestic cats are distinguished from one another by the difference
• 1:42:08
  Speaker 10: of color, length of hair, or more rarely, length of tail.
• 1:42:13
  Speaker 10: The cats of India are spotted, those of the Isle
• 1:42:16
  Speaker 10: of Man are practically tailless, but the European cats are
• 1:42:20
  Speaker 10: commonly tabby, black, white, sandy, tortoise shell, dun gray, or
• 1:42:27
  Speaker 10: the so called blue. The most beautiful of all are
• 1:42:30
  Speaker 10: the highly prized Persian or angora cats, with their long,
• 1:42:34
  Speaker 10: silky hair and bushy tails. John Ainslie, end of Section seventeen.
• 1:42:48
  Speaker 15: Section eighteen of Birds and Nature, Volume eleven, number two,
• 1:42:54
  Speaker 15: February nineteen o two, recorded for LibriVox dot Org by
• 1:43:00
  Speaker 15: Tila Tomchek. Cubby just a little fluffy balla fur fawn
• 1:43:08
  Speaker 15: and brown and smooth and soft as silk. Just two
• 1:43:13
  Speaker 15: cunning little paws of tan velvet, gloved to dabble in
• 1:43:18
  Speaker 15: the milk. Little paws to pack my tired face, spring
• 1:43:23
  Speaker 15: and play and help me to forget. Little merry, restless,
• 1:43:29
  Speaker 15: tireless feet. Just a little playful, happy pet, Just a
• 1:43:36
  Speaker 15: little yielding, graceful form, cuddled softly down beside my cheek.
• 1:43:43
  Speaker 15: Just two little tender fawn like eyes looking all the
• 1:43:49
  Speaker 15: love they cannot speak. Just a little song of sweet content,
• 1:43:55
  Speaker 15: murmur'd soft and low beside my ear. Just a little
• 1:44:00
  Speaker 15: kitten I have loved, not forgotten and memory, Dear Mary Morrison,
• 1:44:11
  Speaker 15: and of section eighteen. This recording is in the public domain.
• 1:44:23
  Speaker 11: Section nineteen of Birds in Nature, Volume eleven, number two,
• 1:44:28
  Speaker 11: February nineteen o two, recorded for LibriVox by David Lawrence.
• 1:44:35
  Speaker 11: Soapport or bouncing bet Suporonaria officionalis. The plant commonly called
• 1:44:43
  Speaker 11: soapport or bouncing bet, also bears other popular names, many
• 1:44:48
  Speaker 11: of which are purely local. Some of these are hedge, pink, brusewart, sheepwed,
• 1:44:55
  Speaker 11: old maid's pink, and Fuller's herb. It bears the name
• 1:44:59
  Speaker 11: soapworth because of a substance called saponin, which is a
• 1:45:03
  Speaker 11: constituent of its root and causes a foaming that appears
• 1:45:07
  Speaker 11: like soapsuds when the powdered root is shaken with water.
• 1:45:11
  Speaker 11: Soaport belongs to a large group of plants called Nicaryophyllicia,
• 1:45:16
  Speaker 11: or pink family. In this family, there are about fifteen
• 1:45:20
  Speaker 11: hundred species. These are widely distributed, but are most abundant
• 1:45:25
  Speaker 11: in the northern hemisphere, extending to the Arctic regions and
• 1:45:29
  Speaker 11: to the tops of very high mountains. The popular and
• 1:45:32
  Speaker 11: beautiful carnations and some of the most common plants that
• 1:45:36
  Speaker 11: grow abundantly in waste places also belong to the pink family.
• 1:45:42
  Speaker 11: The soapport comes to us from Europe, where in some
• 1:45:45
  Speaker 11: localities it is a common wildflower in this country. When
• 1:45:50
  Speaker 11: it was first introduced, it was simply a pretty cultivated
• 1:45:54
  Speaker 11: garden plant. However, it lives from year to year and
• 1:45:58
  Speaker 11: spreads by means of underground stems. It was not very
• 1:46:02
  Speaker 11: long before it had escaped from yards to roadsides, where
• 1:46:06
  Speaker 11: frequently large patches may be seen. The flowers are large
• 1:46:10
  Speaker 11: and quite showy. The color of the petals is usually
• 1:46:14
  Speaker 11: pinkish white, blossoming in July, August and September. The soapport
• 1:46:20
  Speaker 11: often beautifies waste places which other plants seem to shun.
• 1:46:25
  Speaker 11: It is perhaps more generally loved than any other of
• 1:46:28
  Speaker 11: our old fashioned garden flowers. It grows luxuriantly without cultivation,
• 1:46:34
  Speaker 11: and seems to hold quite its own even among rank
• 1:46:37
  Speaker 11: growths of weeds and grass. It is hard to tell
• 1:46:40
  Speaker 11: what is the significance of the name bouncing bet perhaps
• 1:46:45
  Speaker 11: the most popular of all the names by which this
• 1:46:47
  Speaker 11: plant is known. Alice Loonsbury says it was always a
• 1:46:53
  Speaker 11: mystery to Dickens that a door nail should have been
• 1:46:56
  Speaker 11: considered so much more dead than any other innet object.
• 1:47:01
  Speaker 11: And it seems also strange that this plant should have
• 1:47:05
  Speaker 11: suggested the idea of bouncing more than other plants. Dear
• 1:47:09
  Speaker 11: Betty does not bounce, nor could she if she would.
• 1:47:13
  Speaker 11: She sits most firmly on her stem, and her characteristics
• 1:47:17
  Speaker 11: seem to be home loving and simple. We are sure
• 1:47:21
  Speaker 11: to find her peeping through the garden fence. End of
• 1:47:26
  Speaker 11: Section nineteen, Section twenty of Birds in Nature, Volume eleven,
• 1:47:37
  Speaker 11: number two, February nineteen o two, recorded for LibriVox dot
• 1:47:43
  Speaker 11: Org by David Lawrence Turtlehead or snakehead shalonne glabra, the
• 1:47:53
  Speaker 11: turtlehead or snakehead is one of three species that are
• 1:47:57
  Speaker 11: natives of eastern North America. This plant is well supplied
• 1:48:01
  Speaker 11: with common names, as it is also called shell flower,
• 1:48:05
  Speaker 11: cod head, bitter herb, and balminy. The generic name of
• 1:48:11
  Speaker 11: this flower of the swamps and moist banks of streams
• 1:48:14
  Speaker 11: is from the Greek word which means tortoise, the name
• 1:48:18
  Speaker 11: having been given to the plant because of the fancied
• 1:48:21
  Speaker 11: resemblance between the flowers and the head of a turtle
• 1:48:24
  Speaker 11: or snake. One may be able, by stretching his imagination
• 1:48:30
  Speaker 11: to see this resemblance in the flowers of our illustration.
• 1:48:34
  Speaker 11: The custom of giving names the plants that are suggestive
• 1:48:37
  Speaker 11: of their real or fancied resemblance to various objects of nature,
• 1:48:42
  Speaker 11: or are indicative of their beneficial or injurious qualities, is
• 1:48:46
  Speaker 11: as old as history itself. In this way, a large
• 1:48:50
  Speaker 11: number of plants have become associated with good or evil spirits,
• 1:48:55
  Speaker 11: Christian or pagan saints or martyrs, animate nature, or some
• 1:49:00
  Speaker 11: of the phenomena of nature. To the Indian, the likeness
• 1:49:04
  Speaker 11: of the flower of the turtle head to the head
• 1:49:07
  Speaker 11: of a reptile not only gave it its name, but
• 1:49:10
  Speaker 11: at the same time invested the plant with certain sacred associations.
• 1:49:15
  Speaker 11: By reason of the fact that, not only among the
• 1:49:18
  Speaker 11: Indians of North America, but among the uncivilized people in
• 1:49:22
  Speaker 11: all parts of the world, the tortoise has been considered
• 1:49:26
  Speaker 11: sacred and highly symbolical. Though commonly found in low altitudes,
• 1:49:32
  Speaker 11: it is found in moist places in the Andirondacks, even
• 1:49:36
  Speaker 11: at a height of three thousand feet. The plant is
• 1:49:39
  Speaker 11: not rare, and with its upright stem and its rather
• 1:49:43
  Speaker 11: large and clustered white or slightly rose colored flowers, it
• 1:49:47
  Speaker 11: is a dignified and beautiful feature of any floral community.
• 1:49:52
  Speaker 11: End of Section twenty Section.
• 1:50:00
  Speaker 10: Twenty one of Birds and Nature, Volume eleven, number two,
• 1:50:05
  Speaker 10: February nineteen o two, recorded for LibriVox dot Org by
• 1:50:09
  Speaker 10: Betty B. The pocket bird about the middle of May,
• 1:50:14
  Speaker 10: a gaily colored bird from his winter home in neotropical regions,
• 1:50:19
  Speaker 10: visits the United States. His body is bright scarlet, his
• 1:50:23
  Speaker 10: slightly forked tail and his wings intense black, and his
• 1:50:27
  Speaker 10: bill c green. The ornithologist names him the scarlet tanager,
• 1:50:33
  Speaker 10: tanager being a Brazilian word applied to this class of birds,
• 1:50:38
  Speaker 10: but he is also sometimes called the pocket bird because
• 1:50:41
  Speaker 10: his jetty wings, when closed upon his red sides, are
• 1:50:45
  Speaker 10: fancifully thought to assemble pockets. He's also known as the
• 1:50:49
  Speaker 10: black winged redbird. It takes three years for his gaudy
• 1:50:53
  Speaker 10: plumage to become perfect. His mate is clad and green
• 1:50:57
  Speaker 10: so that she is easily concealed when on her name
• 1:51:00
  Speaker 10: nest amid the leaves of the swamp oak or some
• 1:51:03
  Speaker 10: other favorite nesting tree. The nest is shallow and loosely woven,
• 1:51:09
  Speaker 10: so that the eggs may be seen from beneath, but
• 1:51:11
  Speaker 10: it is strong enough to hold the young birds securely
• 1:51:15
  Speaker 10: until fledged. The eggs, three to five in number, are
• 1:51:19
  Speaker 10: greenish blue, spotted with brown and purple. The young birds
• 1:51:23
  Speaker 10: are a clownish looking set in parti colored robes of
• 1:51:27
  Speaker 10: scarlet yellow and olive green. The song of the tanager
• 1:51:31
  Speaker 10: somewhat resembles that of the robin in modulation, but the
• 1:51:35
  Speaker 10: quality of the song is so soft and wavering that
• 1:51:39
  Speaker 10: there are observers who call him a lazy bird, too
• 1:51:42
  Speaker 10: lazy to sing, but others declare that it is worth
• 1:51:46
  Speaker 10: while to take a long tramp in order to listen
• 1:51:49
  Speaker 10: to his beautiful notes. Mister Abbott calls him a gaily
• 1:51:53
  Speaker 10: colored blunder without peculiarity of voice or manner. His song
• 1:51:58
  Speaker 10: has been translated oh wait, wait for me. His call
• 1:52:03
  Speaker 10: note is chirpture. There are some three hundred and eighty
• 1:52:06
  Speaker 10: species of tannagers, and they are peculiar to America. There
• 1:52:11
  Speaker 10: are perching birds and have usually conical bills triangular at
• 1:52:15
  Speaker 10: the base, with cutting edges near the tip of the
• 1:52:18
  Speaker 10: upper mandible. This distinguishes them from the finches, to which
• 1:52:22
  Speaker 10: they are closely allied. It is said that this genus
• 1:52:26
  Speaker 10: is remarkable in having no gizzard. The tannagers feed chiefly
• 1:52:30
  Speaker 10: on ripe fruits and insects. The organist tannager of San
• 1:52:35
  Speaker 10: Domingo is purplish black, with forehead, rump and underpants yellow
• 1:52:40
  Speaker 10: and a cap of blue. Its tones are said to
• 1:52:43
  Speaker 10: be extremely rich and full. But if our scarlet tannager
• 1:52:47
  Speaker 10: is not so fine a musician as his cousin, if
• 1:52:50
  Speaker 10: he has no such organ like tones, yet we could
• 1:52:53
  Speaker 10: ill spare the blaze of his scarlet coat and the
• 1:52:56
  Speaker 10: sight of his black pockets as he sits on the
• 1:52:59
  Speaker 10: head very early in the morning, the rising sun, emphasizing
• 1:53:04
  Speaker 10: his brilliancy. Then he is an early riser. I am sure,
• 1:53:08
  Speaker 10: as I have seen him before four o'clock in the morning,
• 1:53:11
  Speaker 10: but he has always been silent at that time, as
• 1:53:14
  Speaker 10: if not wide awake. Yet in manners he is a
• 1:53:17
  Speaker 10: most unobtrusive bird. He is rightly entitled to some of
• 1:53:21
  Speaker 10: the plunder of the fruit trees, for there is no
• 1:53:23
  Speaker 10: doubt that we owe all kinds of fruit to the
• 1:53:26
  Speaker 10: agency of birds as sea distributors. Besides, the tanager is
• 1:53:31
  Speaker 10: very destructive to larvae that injure fruit, Belle packs and drury.
• 1:53:38
  Speaker 10: End of Section twenty one.
• 1:53:47
  Speaker 15: Section twenty two of Birds and Nature, Volume eleven, number two,
• 1:53:54
  Speaker 15: February nineteen o two. This is a LibriVox recording. All
• 1:54:01
  Speaker 15: LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For more information
• 1:54:06
  Speaker 15: or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox dot org. Recording by
• 1:54:12
  Speaker 15: Tila tomcik Altoona, Pennsylvania. The Birds in their winter home.
• 1:54:18
  Speaker 15: Two in the Fields a half day's tramp through the
• 1:54:24
  Speaker 15: pastures and fields of a Mississippi second bottom. Any sunshiny
• 1:54:30
  Speaker 15: day from the first of December to the first of
• 1:54:34
  Speaker 15: March will reveal some of the reasons by This is
• 1:54:38
  Speaker 15: a veritable birds paradise in winter fields wants in cultivation
• 1:54:45
  Speaker 15: but now abandoned to sedge and bermuda grass cultivated fields
• 1:54:50
  Speaker 15: where giant cockle burrs wrestle with morning glory vines for
• 1:54:55
  Speaker 15: the possession of the soil. Tracks of palm like palmetto
• 1:55:00
  Speaker 15: and marshy jungles of willows, pompous grass and briars afford
• 1:55:06
  Speaker 15: attractive feeding grounds by day and safe roosting places by
• 1:55:12
  Speaker 15: night to myriads of winter visitants. In such places are
• 1:55:17
  Speaker 15: found abundant supplies of the insects, berries, and seeds which
• 1:55:22
  Speaker 15: this humid semi tropical climate produces in great profusion, good shelter,
• 1:55:30
  Speaker 15: and plenty to eat. Settle the problem of living for
• 1:55:34
  Speaker 15: the present. For our little feathered friends. Walk out on
• 1:55:40
  Speaker 15: these broad savannahs about the first of February before a
• 1:55:44
  Speaker 15: tint of white, where pale green has appeared on the
• 1:55:48
  Speaker 15: chickasaw plum Prunus chicassa, and take note of the abundance
• 1:55:54
  Speaker 15: and vigor of bird life before spring has begun to
• 1:56:00
  Speaker 15: make serious inroads upon it. In the drier parts of
• 1:56:05
  Speaker 15: these lowlands, especially where stubby plum bushes and haws abound,
• 1:56:11
  Speaker 15: our old friend, the field sparrow meets us with the
• 1:56:15
  Speaker 15: same innocent, confiding air that we remember as characteristic of
• 1:56:21
  Speaker 15: him in the region of Lake Erie and Lake Michigan.
• 1:56:26
  Speaker 15: He is one of the birds that we can talk
• 1:56:29
  Speaker 15: about in the indicative mood without ifs or apologies. The
• 1:56:35
  Speaker 15: good that he does in disposing of surplus insect life
• 1:56:40
  Speaker 15: is not offset by tolls levied on our ripest and
• 1:56:45
  Speaker 15: juiciest fruit. He never goes over to the enemy to
• 1:56:49
  Speaker 15: plunder those who trust him. Even the robin whose praises
• 1:56:54
  Speaker 15: are in everybody's mouth becomes a pirate when our cherries
• 1:56:59
  Speaker 15: and mulberry ripen, and we wish he would stay away
• 1:57:03
  Speaker 15: from our premisses till the berry season is over. The
• 1:57:08
  Speaker 15: pale red or horn colored beak of this bird will
• 1:57:13
  Speaker 15: help us to distinguish him from another often mistaken for him,
• 1:57:18
  Speaker 15: the chippy or chipping sparrow, a bird of the same
• 1:57:23
  Speaker 15: general appearance and size. Even with the naked eye, you
• 1:57:28
  Speaker 15: can detect differences enough to distinguish the two species. Both
• 1:57:34
  Speaker 15: are small birds with chestnut or rufous crown caps. The
• 1:57:39
  Speaker 15: chippy has a patch of black on his forehead and
• 1:57:42
  Speaker 15: bill of the same color. His brother of the fields,
• 1:57:47
  Speaker 15: wears no black, and his bill, as before stated, is
• 1:57:52
  Speaker 15: a pale red or horn color. In central Mississippi, as
• 1:57:57
  Speaker 15: in parts of northern Ohio, field sparrows are very numerous,
• 1:58:03
  Speaker 15: but chippies quite rare. In the grass or crouch down
• 1:58:10
  Speaker 15: close to the brown earth and gray weed stems, we
• 1:58:13
  Speaker 15: see another of our friends with a chip. He jumps
• 1:58:18
  Speaker 15: up out of the grass and is away before you
• 1:58:21
  Speaker 15: can see what particular shade of gray or brown is
• 1:58:25
  Speaker 15: most conspicuous. However, he doesn't fly far, but suddenly drops
• 1:58:31
  Speaker 15: into some inviting tuft, spreading out his tail like a
• 1:58:36
  Speaker 15: fan as he does so, as if on purpose to
• 1:58:39
  Speaker 15: show you its margin of white. This is the only
• 1:58:44
  Speaker 15: one of our common sparrows that shows the white feather.
• 1:58:48
  Speaker 15: The vesper sparrow or bay winged bunting the field sparrow,
• 1:58:54
  Speaker 15: as one authority says, had better be called the tree
• 1:58:59
  Speaker 15: sparrow because of his marked fondness were bushes and shrubs,
• 1:59:05
  Speaker 15: but both of the former's names fit. He is rightly
• 1:59:09
  Speaker 15: called the vesper sparrow from his delightful custom of singing
• 1:59:13
  Speaker 15: his choicest hymns to the dying sun, and bay winged
• 1:59:18
  Speaker 15: bunting from the conspicuous patch of bay or rufous on
• 1:59:23
  Speaker 15: the lesser wing coverts. Sometimes in company with the vespers,
• 1:59:29
  Speaker 15: we see the slate colored junco or snowbird. At other
• 1:59:34
  Speaker 15: times a gorgeous, distinguished looking sparrow, named from his partiality
• 1:59:40
  Speaker 15: to these broad low fields, the savannah sparrow. He is
• 1:59:46
  Speaker 15: the dandy of this winter resort. His plaid coat and
• 1:59:51
  Speaker 15: striped shirt eclipsed the somber colors of all his cousins.
• 1:59:57
  Speaker 15: The epaulets of gold on his shoulders ind date his
• 2:00:00
  Speaker 15: high rank. But for all that, he is no dude.
• 2:00:05
  Speaker 15: For he works as hard as anybody to find his
• 2:00:08
  Speaker 15: own breakfast, and enjoys it all the more that he
• 2:00:12
  Speaker 15: eats his crickets in the sweat of his brow. A
• 2:00:16
  Speaker 15: simple chip is the only remark he makes to us
• 2:00:19
  Speaker 15: or to his companions, as he runs along the cotton
• 2:00:23
  Speaker 15: rows in quest of food or Anithologists, however, tell us
• 2:00:29
  Speaker 15: that up in Canada, in his summer home, he sings
• 2:00:32
  Speaker 15: a weak grasshopper like song, and marked contrast to the
• 2:00:37
  Speaker 15: musical efforts of his neutral tinted cousin the vesper. The
• 2:00:43
  Speaker 15: fields of broom sedge are the favorite haunts of one
• 2:00:47
  Speaker 15: of the birds whose cheerful music and winning ways helped
• 2:00:52
  Speaker 15: to make June in the North the high tide of
• 2:00:55
  Speaker 15: the year, when all of life that has ebbed away
• 2:00:59
  Speaker 15: comes ripping back into each inlet and creek and bay.
• 2:01:04
  Speaker 15: I never see the meadow lark or hear his cheery
• 2:01:08
  Speaker 15: whistle that I do not smell the blossoming clover and
• 2:01:12
  Speaker 15: hear the ringing spink spank spink of the bubblink, or
• 2:01:18
  Speaker 15: catch the subtle suggestion of strawberries that comes floating to
• 2:01:23
  Speaker 15: my nostrils on the warm June breeze. In a thirty
• 2:01:28
  Speaker 15: minutes walk through the sedge, I have flushed as many
• 2:01:32
  Speaker 15: as two or three hundred of these birds. They are
• 2:01:36
  Speaker 15: called field larks by the Negroes, who regard them as
• 2:01:40
  Speaker 15: legitimate game. The lark's whistle, it can hardly be called
• 2:01:45
  Speaker 15: a song, contains a bit of good advice, habitually disregarded
• 2:01:50
  Speaker 15: by the Negroes. They interpret it as laziness will kill you.
• 2:01:56
  Speaker 15: The colored people have an ornithology all their own, wi
• 2:02:00
  Speaker 15: which their own observations are strangely mingled with superstition. They
• 2:02:05
  Speaker 15: tell us of two kinds of mockingbirds, The real and
• 2:02:10
  Speaker 15: the French varieties. The real mockingbird deserves an article all
• 2:02:15
  Speaker 15: to himself. His winning ways, playful disposition, and ability as
• 2:02:21
  Speaker 15: a singer give him a place second to none among
• 2:02:25
  Speaker 15: our American birds. I am pleased to see the spirit
• 2:02:29
  Speaker 15: of Americanism growing in our literature. That conventional allusions to
• 2:02:35
  Speaker 15: the skylark and the nightingale, birds few of us have
• 2:02:39
  Speaker 15: ever seen or heard, are becoming rarer and rarer, while
• 2:02:44
  Speaker 15: those to the robin, the mockingbird, and the wood thrush
• 2:02:48
  Speaker 15: are becoming more frequent. The mockingbird, like other singers, does
• 2:02:54
  Speaker 15: his best during the courting and nesting seasons, but does
• 2:02:59
  Speaker 15: not can find his concerts to that joyous time. On
• 2:03:03
  Speaker 15: warm days in winter, he loves to perch in the
• 2:03:07
  Speaker 15: cedars and give his listeners a sample of what he
• 2:03:10
  Speaker 15: can do an earnest of the floods of melody that
• 2:03:15
  Speaker 15: spring will bring. Balmy air, green of cedar, and water.
• 2:03:21
  Speaker 15: Oak and bird music disarrange our mental almanac. Even the
• 2:03:27
  Speaker 15: nodding narcissus contributes to the illusion that it is not
• 2:03:32
  Speaker 15: February but May. The French mocking bird is no mockingbird
• 2:03:39
  Speaker 15: at all, but the logger headed shrike. Or butcher bird.
• 2:03:44
  Speaker 15: Like some people, he tries to occupy a front seat,
• 2:03:48
  Speaker 15: even if his music wins for him. One of the
• 2:03:51
  Speaker 15: lowest seats of the choir, a bean pole in the garden,
• 2:03:55
  Speaker 15: the topmost wire of the fence, and the top of
• 2:03:59
  Speaker 15: a solitaire berry, shrub or tree are alike acceptable to him,
• 2:04:06
  Speaker 15: for it's all one to him if he gets to
• 2:04:08
  Speaker 15: see all that is going on in his little world.
• 2:04:13
  Speaker 15: No doubt he does do mischief during the nesting season,
• 2:04:17
  Speaker 15: when eggs or tender nestlings are easier to find or
• 2:04:22
  Speaker 15: more acceptable to his fastidious palate than the mice and
• 2:04:26
  Speaker 15: insects which compose his winter diet. Just now, he is
• 2:04:31
  Speaker 15: a most pleasing bit of decided color, black white and
• 2:04:36
  Speaker 15: blue gray, very refreshing to the eye amid the browns
• 2:04:41
  Speaker 15: and grays of last year's vegetation. When a cold wave comes,
• 2:04:48
  Speaker 15: what a scurrying takes place Each winter visitor packs his
• 2:04:53
  Speaker 15: grip and strikes for the nearest shelter, be it cane
• 2:04:57
  Speaker 15: break or swampy jungle, where tall grass and cat tails above,
• 2:05:03
  Speaker 15: brier and water below make a retreat impregnable to assault
• 2:05:08
  Speaker 15: from the enemy flying through the air or creeping along
• 2:05:12
  Speaker 15: the ground. If the cold wave continues until the ground freezes,
• 2:05:17
  Speaker 15: the birds suffer. At such time, half starved robins gorge
• 2:05:23
  Speaker 15: themselves on the berries of the china tree melia asdarak,
• 2:05:29
  Speaker 15: and have a general drunk. They never eat many of
• 2:05:33
  Speaker 15: the berries unless they are the only provisions obtainable, unless
• 2:05:38
  Speaker 15: driven to it by stress of the weather and an
• 2:05:42
  Speaker 15: excuse for drunks that cannot always be truthfully given by
• 2:05:46
  Speaker 15: the lords of creation. While the silly birds are sitting
• 2:05:51
  Speaker 15: around trying to throw off the effects of their debauch,
• 2:05:55
  Speaker 15: an enemy comes upon the scene. The Negroes take advantage
• 2:05:59
  Speaker 15: of the rock Robin's disability to manage his own affairs,
• 2:06:03
  Speaker 15: and feast high on roast robin, fried, robin, stewed robin,
• 2:06:09
  Speaker 15: et cetera, much to the detriment of next springs. Music
• 2:06:14
  Speaker 15: in northern fields and orchards. The warm breadth of the
• 2:06:20
  Speaker 15: gulf steals in upon our little world, and a change comes.
• 2:06:25
  Speaker 15: The birds remember that they are due in a few
• 2:06:28
  Speaker 15: days in an Ohio orchard or on an Illinois prairie,
• 2:06:34
  Speaker 15: so they pack and go. The allurements of a southern spring,
• 2:06:40
  Speaker 15: with all its fragrance and charm, do not hold them
• 2:06:45
  Speaker 15: without a goodbye. They are gone, not to return till
• 2:06:50
  Speaker 15: once more. Frost's and shortening days portend. The aged year
• 2:06:57
  Speaker 15: is near his end.
• 2:07:00
  Speaker 12: Siams.
• 2:07:00
  Speaker 15: Stephen Compton, end of section twenty two. Recording by Tila
• 2:07:08
  Speaker 15: tomchik Altuna, Pennsylvania.
• 2:07:17
  Speaker 6: Section twenty three of Birds and Nature, Volume eleven, number two,
• 2:07:23
  Speaker 6: February nineteen oh two. This is a LibriVox recording. All
• 2:07:28
  Speaker 6: LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For more information
• 2:07:32
  Speaker 6: out to volunteer, please visit liprivox dot org. Recording by
• 2:07:38
  Speaker 6: Avay in May twenty eighteen, Section twenty three Music loving felines.
• 2:07:49
  Speaker 6: According to observation, music has power not only to soothe
• 2:07:53
  Speaker 6: the savage or the troubled breast of civilized man, but
• 2:07:57
  Speaker 6: its potency extends to the brute world as well. Among
• 2:08:01
  Speaker 6: those animals which appeared to be charmed by musical sounds,
• 2:08:05
  Speaker 6: it would seem difficult to find any manifesting a keener
• 2:08:09
  Speaker 6: delight than the ordinary domestic cat. The London Spectators some
• 2:08:15
  Speaker 6: months ago referred to an instance where a cat showed
• 2:08:18
  Speaker 6: marked pleasure in a whistled tune. This recalled to memory
• 2:08:23
  Speaker 6: the circumstance of a certain cat a beautiful creature with
• 2:08:27
  Speaker 6: black and ecru stripes, whose appreciation of the musician's art
• 2:08:31
  Speaker 6: awakened in him inordinate emotion. Where he within hearing distance
• 2:08:36
  Speaker 6: of the piano, the eliciting of a few chords was
• 2:08:40
  Speaker 6: sufficient to beguile him into the parlor. When permitted to
• 2:08:44
  Speaker 6: walk across the keys. He always appeared pleased with his performance,
• 2:08:49
  Speaker 6: but he was discriminating and exhibited decided preferment for vocal
• 2:08:54
  Speaker 6: renditions over instrumental. The miserrere from Il Trovato corre affected
• 2:09:01
  Speaker 6: him more deeply than anything else, and might appear to
• 2:09:04
  Speaker 6: confirm the theory held by some that the position of
• 2:09:08
  Speaker 6: a soul is not limited to the human creation. Settling
• 2:09:13
  Speaker 6: himself in front of the singer, he would listen with
• 2:09:16
  Speaker 6: bated breath and eyes widely dilated. Never would he move
• 2:09:21
  Speaker 6: a muscle, unless after a prolonged interval in the music,
• 2:09:25
  Speaker 6: when he would softly approach the vocalist to caress her
• 2:09:28
  Speaker 6: face and neck with his paw, or to smooth her
• 2:09:31
  Speaker 6: cheek with his own. His coaxings always had the sought
• 2:09:35
  Speaker 6: for effect. When he would once more seat himself with
• 2:09:39
  Speaker 6: becoming decorum, to imbibe the harmony which seemed to ravish
• 2:09:43
  Speaker 6: his being. This is by no means an isolated instance
• 2:09:48
  Speaker 6: of fondness for musical discourse on the part of cats,
• 2:09:52
  Speaker 6: though this particular case affords an extravagant illustration of that
• 2:09:56
  Speaker 6: esthetic sensitiveness which characterizes probably the whole feline tribe. Is
• 2:10:03
  Speaker 6: Virginia Lewis end of section twenty three.
• 2:10:15
  Speaker 15: Section twenty four of Birds and Nature, volume eleven, number two,
• 2:10:22
  Speaker 15: February nineteen o two, Recorded for LibriVox dot org by
• 2:10:29
  Speaker 15: Tela Tomcik Fireflies the day disrobing for her rest delayed
• 2:10:38
  Speaker 15: to lift the twilight bars and o'er them from the
• 2:10:44
  Speaker 15: golden West wandered this troop of truant stars end of
• 2:10:53
  Speaker 15: section twenty four. This recording is in the public domain.
• 2:11:03
  Speaker 12: Section twenty five of Birds in Nature, Volume eleven, two
• 2:11:08
  Speaker 12: February nineteen two. This is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox
• 2:11:13
  Speaker 12: recordings are in the public domain. For more information or
• 2:11:17
  Speaker 12: to volunteer, please visit LibriVox dot org. Recording by Luri Wilson.
• 2:11:24
  Speaker 12: Sugar cane Saccarum officinarium. Then has God then given its
• 2:11:31
  Speaker 12: sweetness to the cane unless his laws be trampled on?
• 2:11:35
  Speaker 12: In vain cowper Charity one ninety. This highly important plant
• 2:11:43
  Speaker 12: belongs to the grass family. It is perennial, with thick, succulent,
• 2:11:47
  Speaker 12: jointed rhizomes having root tufts at the joints. The stems
• 2:11:52
  Speaker 12: are numerous, erect cylindrical, growing to a height of six
• 2:11:56
  Speaker 12: to twelve feet. Like the rhizome, the stem is jointed,
• 2:12:00
  Speaker 12: the internodes being however, much shorter toward the base. The
• 2:12:04
  Speaker 12: leaves are numerous towards the apex, being deciduous toward the base.
• 2:12:09
  Speaker 12: The apical tucked like inflorescence is quite characteristic. The individual
• 2:12:15
  Speaker 12: flowers are small and unattractive in appearance. One of the
• 2:12:19
  Speaker 12: remarkable things about the plant is that the fruit never matures.
• 2:12:23
  Speaker 12: It must be remembered that the plant referred to is
• 2:12:26
  Speaker 12: entirely distinct from the so called sugar cane of the
• 2:12:29
  Speaker 12: Central States, from which sorghum molasses is made. It is
• 2:12:34
  Speaker 12: very doubtful whether sugar cane occurs anywhere in the wild
• 2:12:37
  Speaker 12: state at present. Authorities are quite unanimous in expressing it
• 2:12:42
  Speaker 12: as their opinion that its original home was India. It
• 2:12:46
  Speaker 12: is a plant that has been under cultivation for many centuries.
• 2:12:50
  Speaker 12: Alexander the Great, in his invasions of India found that
• 2:12:54
  Speaker 12: the inhabitants of that country cultivated and used it extensively
• 2:12:58
  Speaker 12: as a food article. The Euphrastus mentions a sweet salt
• 2:13:02
  Speaker 12: sugar which he obtained by evaporating the juice of an
• 2:13:05
  Speaker 12: Indian reed like plant, which was perhaps sugar cane, though
• 2:13:10
  Speaker 12: there is no conclusive evidence that the earlier Greeks and
• 2:13:14
  Speaker 12: Romans were familiar with sugar, they employed honey quite universally.
• 2:13:19
  Speaker 12: The sweet cane of Scripture is probably anthropogan Calamus aromaticus
• 2:13:24
  Speaker 12: or sweet calamus, which was a native of India. It
• 2:13:27
  Speaker 12: is presumed by some that the cane grown in China
• 2:13:31
  Speaker 12: was originally native there. The cultivation of sugar cane seems
• 2:13:35
  Speaker 12: to have spread very rapidly. It early found its way
• 2:13:39
  Speaker 12: to Persia and Arabia, and then from Arabia as a
• 2:13:42
  Speaker 12: center has spread to the Mediterranean districts Sicily, Cyprus, Spain,
• 2:13:47
  Speaker 12: and Italy. It found its way into Santo Domingo as
• 2:13:51
  Speaker 12: early as fourteen ninety four, and to Brazil early in
• 2:13:54
  Speaker 12: the sixteenth century. At the present time, caine has grown
• 2:13:58
  Speaker 12: in nearly all tropical and subtropical countries, the southern United States,
• 2:14:03
  Speaker 12: producing more than any other country. There are many varieties
• 2:14:07
  Speaker 12: recognized by cultivators, differing in color, texture, and other minor characteristics.
• 2:14:13
  Speaker 12: Since cane does not ripen fruit, it is propagated by
• 2:14:16
  Speaker 12: transplanting the rhizomes and top portions of the stem, and
• 2:14:20
  Speaker 12: after a field is once planted, new crops are permitted
• 2:14:23
  Speaker 12: to spring up from the old rhizomes, and this accounts
• 2:14:26
  Speaker 12: for the awful tangle of the famous Southern cane brakes,
• 2:14:30
  Speaker 12: which figured so extensively in the slave days when these
• 2:14:33
  Speaker 12: fields served as hiding places for the fugitive slaves. The
• 2:14:38
  Speaker 12: ripe cane is cut close to the ground, the leaves
• 2:14:41
  Speaker 12: stripped off, and the tassels cut off. It is then
• 2:14:44
  Speaker 12: carted to the cane mill and passed between large rollers
• 2:14:47
  Speaker 12: which express the juice, which is then clarified by means
• 2:14:50
  Speaker 12: of lime, animal charcoal, and blood. Heat further aids the
• 2:14:55
  Speaker 12: purifying process by coagulating the albuminous matter, which may mixed
• 2:15:00
  Speaker 12: with other impurities, rises to the surface as a scum
• 2:15:03
  Speaker 12: and is removed by means of a special ladle. The
• 2:15:06
  Speaker 12: lime combines with the free acid present and settles to
• 2:15:10
  Speaker 12: the bottom. The juice is boiled until it acquires a
• 2:15:13
  Speaker 12: proper tenacity when it is passed into a cooler and
• 2:15:16
  Speaker 12: allowed to crystallize. The sugar is then placed in large
• 2:15:20
  Speaker 12: perforated casks and allowed to drain for two or three weeks.
• 2:15:24
  Speaker 12: When it is packed into hogsheads and exported under the
• 2:15:28
  Speaker 12: name of raw sugar or muscovato sugar, the drainings form molasses.
• 2:15:34
  Speaker 12: Raw sugar is taken to the sugar refinery and purified
• 2:15:37
  Speaker 12: by heating with water and bullock's blood, filter through canvas bags,
• 2:15:41
  Speaker 12: and finally allowed to percolate very slowly through large cylinders
• 2:15:46
  Speaker 12: containing freshly prepared coarse grained animal charcoal. The filtered liquor
• 2:15:51
  Speaker 12: is then boiled by the aid of steam. When sufficiently tenacious,
• 2:15:56
  Speaker 12: it is poured into conical molds, and when solidified, the
• 2:16:00
  Speaker 12: stoppers are removed to allow the treacle to drain off.
• 2:16:03
  Speaker 12: The loaves from the molds are then sugared, as it
• 2:16:06
  Speaker 12: is called, by pouring over them a saturated sugar solution, which,
• 2:16:11
  Speaker 12: by slowly percolating through them, carries with it coloring matter
• 2:16:14
  Speaker 12: and other impurities without dissolving the sugar crystals. When a
• 2:16:19
  Speaker 12: saturated aqueous solution of sugar is allowed to cool slowly,
• 2:16:23
  Speaker 12: it forms large beautiful crystals known as sugar or rock candy.
• 2:16:28
  Speaker 12: Caramel is burnt sugar. It has a peculiar odor and
• 2:16:31
  Speaker 12: loses its sweet taste, becoming bitter. It is used largely
• 2:16:36
  Speaker 12: as a coloring agent for coloring liquids. Sugar has innumerable
• 2:16:41
  Speaker 12: uses as an article of food. It is not surpassed,
• 2:16:44
  Speaker 12: though it cannot support life alone because it contains no nitrogen.
• 2:16:50
  Speaker 12: It is the important ingredient in candies, pastry, sweetened drinks,
• 2:16:53
  Speaker 12: et cetera. Molasses and treacle are much used and must
• 2:16:57
  Speaker 12: not be confounded with the sorghum molasses made from the
• 2:17:01
  Speaker 12: sugar cane of the Central States. Molasses and treacle sometimes
• 2:17:05
  Speaker 12: have a peculiar and to many a very objectionable flavor
• 2:17:09
  Speaker 12: due to impurities present. Molasses, as well as treacle, when fermented,
• 2:17:14
  Speaker 12: gives fries to run. The popular notion that sugar is
• 2:17:18
  Speaker 12: injurious to teeth is without foundation. It has no action
• 2:17:22
  Speaker 12: on teeth whatever. If anything, it has antiseptic properties and
• 2:17:27
  Speaker 12: preserves the teeth. It is, however, undoubtedly true that the
• 2:17:30
  Speaker 12: excessive consumption of sweets pastries in particular is bad for
• 2:17:34
  Speaker 12: the digestion, as externally manifested by a dirty complexion and
• 2:17:39
  Speaker 12: skin eruptions. As a whole. Sugar by itself is not injurious.
• 2:17:43
  Speaker 12: It is an excellent food, a heat producer, and easily assimilated. Americans,
• 2:17:49
  Speaker 12: especially the American youth, are the great sugar consumers of
• 2:17:52
  Speaker 12: the world. In medicine, sugar is employed to disguise the
• 2:17:56
  Speaker 12: tastes of disagreeable remedies and to coat pills. It has
• 2:18:00
  Speaker 12: no direct curative properties in disease. Albert Schneider en those
• 2:18:06
  Speaker 12: section twenty five.
• 2:18:13
  Speaker 1: Section twenty six of Birds in Nature, Volume eleven, number two,
• 2:18:19
  Speaker 1: February nineteen o two, Recorded for Librevox dot Org by Nemo.
• 2:18:26
  Speaker 1: Death of the Forest Monarch Hark heard you that wailing cry,
• 2:18:33
  Speaker 1: sad and low, a nation mourning for their chief, stricken
• 2:18:37
  Speaker 1: and dead. He lies, and blow by blow is being
• 2:18:40
  Speaker 1: stripped of limon leaf. Now from his course has taken
• 2:18:44
  Speaker 1: the wreath, his just reward for battling many a year
• 2:18:48
  Speaker 1: against elements. Mourn him your grief, ye, trees, becomes the
• 2:18:53
  Speaker 1: time the world should hear your requiem, and for him
• 2:18:57
  Speaker 1: drop a tear each year. Here the wild bird built
• 2:19:01
  Speaker 1: its nest high in its crown and wood its young
• 2:19:04
  Speaker 1: Uprear century Supreme. The forest monarch ruled, but the earth's
• 2:19:10
  Speaker 1: broad breast that nourished him the axe brought his return.
• 2:19:15
  Speaker 1: The forest Monarch is at rest. All nature, save the human,
• 2:19:20
  Speaker 1: seems to mourn. George W. H. Phillips, Junior, end of
• 2:19:26
  Speaker 1: section twenty six. This recording is in the public domain.
• 2:19:33
  Speaker 1: End of Birds in Nature, Volume eleven, number two, February
• 2:19:37
  Speaker 1: nineteen o two.