Latest / For the Birds / Birds and All Nature, Vol. VI, No 5, December 1899-Various
Transcript
- 0:00Speaker 1: Such an one of Birds and All Nature, Volume six, No. Five,
- 0:05Speaker 1: December eighteen ninety nine. This is a LibriVox recording. All
- 0:10Speaker 1: LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For more information
- 0:14Speaker 1: or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox dot org. Recording by
- 0:20Speaker 1: Betty B. The Tramps of Birdland Eleonora Kinsley Marble. The
- 0:28Speaker 1: birds had met in council that morning, and from the
- 0:31Speaker 1: great chattering and chirping, I judged some verious, serious question
- 0:36Speaker 1: was up before the board. Something must be done, mister
- 0:40Speaker 1: red eyed Virio was saying, as I sauntered down to
- 0:43Speaker 1: the orchard and seated myself beneath an apple tree. We
- 0:47Speaker 1: have stood the imposition long enough. Every year we meet
- 0:51Speaker 1: and draw up resolutions with many whareasses and wherefores and aforesaids,
- 0:57Speaker 1: resolutions with nothing resolute about them. Today I say something
- 1:01Speaker 1: must be done. Mister woodthrush, mister towey, mister chipping sparrow,
- 1:07Speaker 1: mister yellow breasted chat, mister song sparrow, and several mister flycatchers,
- 1:13Speaker 1: beside a number of other small birds nodded their heads
- 1:17Speaker 1: in unequivocal ascent. We have enemies enough, continued mister Virio.
- 1:22Speaker 1: How many. Only Mother nature knows. Even in the darkness
- 1:26Speaker 1: of night, we are not safe from the owls, skunks, snakes,
- 1:30Speaker 1: and other robbers. And in the daytime, besides our feathered foes,
- 1:35Speaker 1: we have the ruthless collector and the ever present bad
- 1:38Speaker 1: boy enemies without are bad enough but to have in
- 1:42Speaker 1: our midst a A mister Verrio paused, presumably choking with indignation,
- 1:49Speaker 1: but really because he had quite forgotten what he had
- 1:52Speaker 1: prepared to say. Hear hear cried the assembled birds, making
- 1:56Speaker 1: a great clamor and clatter, in order that the speed
- 2:00Speaker 1: might have a chance to slyly consult his notes. A
- 2:04Speaker 1: tribe of social outcasts, tramps, in fact, continued mister Verrio,
- 2:09Speaker 1: whose females, disliking the cares of family life, build no
- 2:13Speaker 1: homes of their own, but instead deposit their eggs in
- 2:17Speaker 1: some other bird's nest, that their young may be hatched
- 2:20Speaker 1: and reared without any trouble to themselves. Our mates have
- 2:25Speaker 1: enough to do to bring up their own families. So
- 2:27Speaker 1: I say the tribe of cowbirds must be driven from
- 2:31Speaker 1: this community, or else, like the rest of us, be
- 2:34Speaker 1: forced to work.
- 2:35Speaker 2: Hm.
- 2:36Speaker 1: Yes, sighed mister Towey. That's what we say every year,
- 2:40Speaker 1: and every year the conditions remain just the same. The
- 2:43Speaker 1: cowbirds are tramps by nature, and you can't change their natures.
- 2:47Speaker 1: You know. I judged from the great chattering and chirping
- 2:51Speaker 1: that grave exceptions were taken to this remark. But quiet
- 2:55Speaker 1: at length being restored, mister Towey continued, my mates said,
- 3:00Speaker 1: as it depends upon ourselves whether the whole tribe shall
- 3:03Speaker 1: be exterminated, She, for one, does not intend to hatch
- 3:07Speaker 1: out any more of missus Cowbird's babies. This spring we
- 3:11Speaker 1: found one of her speckled eggs in our nest, but
- 3:14Speaker 1: it wasn't hatched out, I warrant you. We simply pierced
- 3:17Speaker 1: the shell with our bills, picked it up by the opening,
- 3:20Speaker 1: and carried it out of the nest. A round of
- 3:24Speaker 1: applause greeted these remarks, much to mister Towey's gratification. It
- 3:29Speaker 1: strikes me, said mister Indigo Bunting, that the whole fault
- 3:33Speaker 1: lies with our mates. From the size and different markings
- 3:36Speaker 1: of Missus Cowbird's eggs, they can always be distinguished from
- 3:41Speaker 1: their own. No self respecting bird should ever brood one
- 3:45Speaker 1: in that way. We can exterminate the race. Tis the
- 3:49Speaker 1: mother instinct, I presume, said mister Verrio, or the kindly
- 3:53Speaker 1: nature of some females, not to neglect a forlorn little
- 3:56Speaker 1: egg abandoned by its parents at their very door. Ah,
- 4:01Speaker 1: he broke off, pointing in a certain direction. Is not
- 4:04Speaker 1: that a sad sight for an affectionate husband to see?
- 4:08Speaker 1: On a fence near by stood two birds, A very
- 4:12Speaker 1: small one with a worried, harassed air, endeavoring upon tiptoe
- 4:17Speaker 1: to drop into the mouth of the great fat baby.
- 4:20Speaker 1: Towering above her a green caterpillar, which she held in
- 4:24Speaker 1: her bill. That is Missus Verio, my mate and her
- 4:28Speaker 1: foster child, continued the speaker. The egg of the cowbird,
- 4:32Speaker 1: being larger than her own, received all the warmth of
- 4:36Speaker 1: her breast, so that her own little ones perished in
- 4:39Speaker 1: the shell. It takes all her time and strength to
- 4:42Speaker 1: feed that great hulking baby, who will accept her nursing
- 4:46Speaker 1: long after he can take care of himself, then desert
- 4:49Speaker 1: her to join his own tribe in the grain fields.
- 4:53Speaker 1: Last year, my mate had no better sense than to
- 4:56Speaker 1: brood one of missus Cowbird's eggs, said mister Chippings Spharaoh.
- 5:00Speaker 1: It emerged from the shell first, of course, and in
- 5:03Speaker 1: attending to its everlasting clamor for food, she neglected her
- 5:08Speaker 1: own birdlings, so that all but one of them died.
- 5:11Speaker 1: That one has always been a puny, weak little thing.
- 5:14Speaker 1: We were greatly astonished, I assure you, at the size
- 5:18Speaker 1: of our first offspring, neither of us being acquainted with
- 5:21Speaker 1: the habits of Missus Cowbird, and disappointed that in neither
- 5:25Speaker 1: feather nor feature it resembled her or me. I got
- 5:30Speaker 1: the best of the lazy tribe this year, chuckled, mister
- 5:33Speaker 1: yellow warbler. Our nest was just completed and my mate
- 5:37Speaker 1: had deposited one egg, when in our absence one day,
- 5:41Speaker 1: Missus Cowbird sneaked in, laid one of her own beside it,
- 5:45Speaker 1: and then stealthily crept away. My mate said nothing, and
- 5:49Speaker 1: might have brooded it with her own. But the next
- 5:51Speaker 1: day the same thing in our absence occurred again. Another
- 5:55Speaker 1: female of the lazy tribe, I presume, finding our home
- 5:59Speaker 1: quite were liking. Two to one, said the chat with
- 6:03Speaker 1: a laugh. That was not fair. Well what did you
- 6:06Speaker 1: do then? Why? We concluded to abandon the nest and
- 6:09Speaker 1: build another, But on second thought gave up that plan.
- 6:13Speaker 1: We simply built a floor over the lower portion of
- 6:16Speaker 1: the nest, and on the upper floor, or second story,
- 6:19Speaker 1: so to speak, my mate deposited four eggs, those with
- 6:24Speaker 1: the one shut in with the cowbirds, making her full compliment.
- 6:27Speaker 1: You see, it would have been far easier, it seems
- 6:31Speaker 1: to me, said mister Towey, to have thrown missus Cowbird's
- 6:34Speaker 1: eggs out of the nest as we did. But then
- 6:37Speaker 1: you and your mate must learn by experience, and you
- 6:40Speaker 1: will know better what to do the next time, doubtless,
- 6:44Speaker 1: said mister Yellowthroat, a trifle stiffly. But my mate is
- 6:48Speaker 1: a very dainty bird, and wouldn't for a moment think
- 6:51Speaker 1: of using a cradle for her little ones that had
- 6:54Speaker 1: been occupied, even for a short time, by two female tramps,
- 6:59Speaker 1: hum replied mister Towy, in his turn, not altogether pleased.
- 7:04Speaker 1: That accounts probably for the number of abandoned nests one
- 7:08Speaker 1: meets with every year containing a speckled egg of missus
- 7:11Speaker 1: Cowbert's too dainty. Indeed, did you ever happen to see
- 7:16Speaker 1: one of the homeless creatures seeking somebody else's nest in
- 7:20Speaker 1: which to lay her egg, interrupted mister Chippings Sparrow, scenting
- 7:24Speaker 1: a quarrel in the air. I saw one in the
- 7:27Speaker 1: woods once, sneaking through the undergrowth, And when mister and
- 7:31Speaker 1: missus red eyed Virio had flown away for a little
- 7:34Speaker 1: time out, she crept, inspected their nest, and, finding it
- 7:38Speaker 1: to her taste, entered and deposited her egg. She felt sure,
- 7:43Speaker 1: you see that Missus Verrio had a kind heart and
- 7:46Speaker 1: would hatch out the foundling with her own. And she did, sadly,
- 7:50Speaker 1: said mister Verrio, she did. The company the tribe keeps
- 7:54Speaker 1: is no better than themselves, said mister Woodthrush. During the
- 7:58Speaker 1: breeding season, you will see the grackles and red winged
- 8:02Speaker 1: blackbirds and the cowbirds chattering and gossiping together as they
- 8:06Speaker 1: roost for the night. They are a lawless crew. No
- 8:10Speaker 1: self respecting bird will be found in such company. I
- 8:14Speaker 1: saw a number of the cowbird tribe perching on the
- 8:17Speaker 1: backs of a bunch of cattle in the pasture land
- 8:20Speaker 1: to day, said a very young mister flycatcher. What do
- 8:23Speaker 1: you suppose they were doing searching for parasites? Gruffly, said
- 8:27Speaker 1: an old bird. That's the reason they are called cowbirds.
- 8:31Speaker 1: They were once called buffalo birds for the same reason
- 8:35Speaker 1: no one spoke for the space of several minutes. If
- 8:38Speaker 1: there are no further remarks, said mister red eyed Virio,
- 8:42Speaker 1: the question will be put all in favor. What is
- 8:46Speaker 1: the question, mister chairman meekly asked a very young flycatcher,
- 8:51Speaker 1: Is it or is it not our duty to destroy
- 8:54Speaker 1: every egg of missus cowbirds we find in our nests,
- 8:57Speaker 1: thus forcing the tribe to build homes of their own
- 9:00Speaker 1: in which to bring up their families. All in favor,
- 9:04Speaker 1: I chirped every bird at once, contrary minded. There was
- 9:09Speaker 1: no response, so the meeting was declared adjourned. End of Section.
- 9:15Speaker 2: One, Section two of the Birds and All Nature, Volume six,
- 9:25Speaker 2: number five, December eighteen ninety nine, recorded for Librivaux dot
- 9:30Speaker 2: Org by Tavarish. The Narcissus William Kerr Higley, Secretary of
- 9:36Speaker 2: the Chicago Academy of Sciences. The genus of plants called Narcissus,
- 9:44Speaker 2: many of the species of which are highly esteemed by
- 9:47Speaker 2: the floriculturist and lover of cultivated plants, belongs to the
- 9:52Speaker 2: Amarillis family Amarili dacier. This family includes about seventy january
- 10:00Speaker 2: and over eight hundred species that are mostly native in
- 10:03Speaker 2: tropical or semi tropical countries, though a few are found
- 10:07Speaker 2: in temperate climates. Many of the species are sought for
- 10:12Speaker 2: ornamental purposes, and on account of their beauty and remarkable odour,
- 10:17Speaker 2: they are more prized by many than are the species
- 10:20Speaker 2: of the lilly family. In this group is classed the
- 10:25Speaker 2: American aloe Agave americana, valued not only for cultivation but
- 10:31Speaker 2: also by the Mexicans on account of the sweet fluid
- 10:35Speaker 2: which is yielded by its central bud. This liquid, after fermentation,
- 10:40Speaker 2: forms an intoxicating liquor known as pulke. By distillation, this
- 10:46Speaker 2: yields a liquid very similar to rum, called by Mexicans mescale.
- 10:52Speaker 2: The leaves furnish a strong fiber known as vegetable silk,
- 10:56Speaker 2: from which, since remote times paper has been many. The
- 11:01Speaker 2: popular opinion is that this plant flowers but once in
- 11:05Speaker 2: a century, hence the name century plant is often applied
- 11:09Speaker 2: to it, though under proper culture it will blossom more frequently.
- 11:14Speaker 2: Other plants of equal economic and historic interest, but less known,
- 11:18Speaker 2: belong to this family. It is said that one species
- 11:22Speaker 2: furnish the fluid used by the hottentots for poisoning their arrows.
- 11:28Speaker 2: The genus Narcissus derives its name from a Greek word
- 11:32Speaker 2: meaning stupor, because of the narcotic effect produced by the
- 11:36Speaker 2: odor and by portions of the plants of some species.
- 11:41Speaker 2: There are about twenty five species, chiefly natives of southern Europe,
- 11:46Speaker 2: but some of them, either natural or modified by the
- 11:50Speaker 2: gardener's art, are worldwide in cultivation. Blossoming early in the season,
- 11:56Speaker 2: they are frequently referred to as harbingers of spring. The
- 12:00Speaker 2: flowers are handsome, large, varying in color from yellow to white,
- 12:05Speaker 2: and sometimes marked with crimson. They are usually borne on
- 12:10Speaker 2: a nearly naked stem. Some of the species are very fragrant.
- 12:14Speaker 2: The leaves are elongated, nearly sword shaped, and usually about
- 12:19Speaker 2: a foot in length, rising from the bulbous underground stem.
- 12:24Speaker 2: Among the forms that are familiar are the daffodils, the jonquills,
- 12:29Speaker 2: and the poet's narcissus. An interesting feature in the structure
- 12:34Speaker 2: of the flowers is the cup or crown, which is
- 12:37Speaker 2: found at the base of the flower segments. The length
- 12:41Speaker 2: and character of this is an important feature in the
- 12:44Speaker 2: separation of the species. In Grecian mythology, Narcissus was the
- 12:51Speaker 2: son of the river god Kephysus, he failed to return
- 12:55Speaker 2: the love of the mountain nymph echo, which so grieved
- 12:59Speaker 2: her that she pined away, till nothing remained but her voice,
- 13:04Speaker 2: which gave back with absolute fidelity all sounds uttered in
- 13:09Speaker 2: the hills and dales. Narcissus was punished for this by Aphrodite,
- 13:14Speaker 2: who caused him to love his own image as it
- 13:17Speaker 2: was reflected in the water of a neighboring fountain. Quote.
- 13:22Speaker 2: Consumed with unrequited love, he too wasted away and was
- 13:27Speaker 2: changed into the flower which bears his name. End quote
- 13:33Speaker 2: end of section two. This recording is in the public.
- 13:37Speaker 1: Domain Section three of Birds and All Nature, volume six,
- 13:47Speaker 1: number five, December eighteen ninety nine. This is a LibriVox recording.
- 13:53Speaker 1: All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For more
- 13:56Speaker 1: information or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox dot org. Recording
- 14:02Speaker 1: by Betty B. Fashions clamor E. K M. Judging from
- 14:09Speaker 1: late millinery creations and the appearance of windows and showcases, women,
- 14:15Speaker 1: in spite of the efforts of the Ottoman societies, still
- 14:18Speaker 1: elect to adorn themselves with the stuffed remains of rare
- 14:22Speaker 1: or common birds. A live bird is a beautiful and
- 14:26Speaker 1: graceful object. But a dead duck, pigeon, or gull peering
- 14:30Speaker 1: with glassy eyes over the brim of a woman's hat is,
- 14:34Speaker 1: to the thinking mind both unbecoming and repulsive. In deference
- 14:39Speaker 1: to sentimental bird lovers, And at the same time, the
- 14:43Speaker 1: behest of dame fashion wings and breasts are said to
- 14:46Speaker 1: be manufactured out of bits of feathers and quills, which
- 14:50Speaker 1: have all the appearance of the original wings and breasts. Yes,
- 14:54Speaker 1: but never the entire creature which the bird lover, in
- 14:58Speaker 1: a millinery sense choose above all other adornments for her headgear.
- 15:03Speaker 1: Apart from the humanitarian side of the subject, one cannot
- 15:07Speaker 1: but marvel that such women cannot be brought to regard
- 15:10Speaker 1: the matter from the esthetic point of view. Esthetic, repeats
- 15:15Speaker 1: my lady, glancing admiringly in the mirror at the death's
- 15:18Speaker 1: head above her brow. Esthetic point of view. Indeed, why
- 15:22Speaker 1: the point of view with most women is to wear
- 15:25Speaker 1: whatever they consider becoming striking or outree. Now I flatter
- 15:30Speaker 1: myself in selecting this large gull with spreading wings for
- 15:33Speaker 1: my hat, that I attained all three of these effects,
- 15:37Speaker 1: don't you, especially the outree muttered one of her listeners,
- 15:42Speaker 1: at which my lady laughed evidently well pleased five women
- 15:47Speaker 1: out of every ten who walked the streets of Chicago
- 15:50Speaker 1: and other Illinois cities, says a prominent journal, by wearing
- 15:54Speaker 1: dead birds upon their hats, proclaim themselves as lawbreakers. For
- 15:59Speaker 1: the first time in the history of Illinois laws, it
- 16:02Speaker 1: has been made an offense, punishable by fine and imprisonment
- 16:06Speaker 1: or both, to have in possession any dead, harmless bird,
- 16:10Speaker 1: except game birds, which may be possessed in their proper season.
- 16:14Speaker 1: The wearing of a turn, or a gull, a woodpecker,
- 16:18Speaker 1: or a jay is an offense against the law's majesty,
- 16:21Speaker 1: and any policeman with a mind rigidly bent upon enforcing
- 16:25Speaker 1: the law could round up, without a written warrant, a
- 16:29Speaker 1: wagon load of the offenders any hour in the day
- 16:32Speaker 1: and carry them off to lock up. What moral suasion
- 16:36Speaker 1: cannot do. A crusade of this sort undoubtedly would thanks
- 16:40Speaker 1: to the personal influence of the Princess of Wales. The
- 16:44Speaker 1: osprey plume, so long a feature of the uniforms of
- 16:47Speaker 1: a number of the cavalry regiments of the British Army,
- 16:51Speaker 1: has been abolished after December thirty, first eighteen ninety nine,
- 16:56Speaker 1: the osprey plume, by order of Field Marshal Lord Wolsey,
- 17:00Speaker 1: is to be replaced by one of ostrich feathers. It
- 17:03Speaker 1: was the wearing of these plumes by the officers of
- 17:06Speaker 1: all the Hussar and Rifle Regiments, as well as of
- 17:10Speaker 1: the Royal Horse Artillery, which so sadly interfered with the
- 17:13Speaker 1: crusade inaugurated by the Princess against the use of osprey plumes.
- 17:19Speaker 1: The fact that these plumes, to be of any marketable value,
- 17:23Speaker 1: have to be torn from the living bird during the
- 17:26Speaker 1: nesting season induce the Queen, the Princess of Wales and
- 17:30Speaker 1: other ladies of the Royal family to set their faces
- 17:33Speaker 1: against the use of both the osprey plume and the
- 17:37Speaker 1: agreb as articles of fashionable wear. If this can be
- 17:41Speaker 1: done in the interest of the white heron and osprey
- 17:44Speaker 1: on the other side of the water, why cannot the
- 17:47Speaker 1: autocrats of style in this country pronounce against the barbarous
- 17:51Speaker 1: practice of bird adornment entirely by steadfastly refusing to wear
- 17:56Speaker 1: them themselves. The tireless energy of all societ societies for
- 18:01Speaker 1: the protection of birds will not begin to do the cause.
- 18:04Speaker 1: Among the masses so much good as with the total
- 18:07Speaker 1: abandonment of them for millinery purposes by what is termed
- 18:12Speaker 1: societies four hundred, end of Section three.
- 18:22Speaker 2: Section four of Birds and All Nature, Volumes six, number five,
- 18:27Speaker 2: December eighteen ninety nine. Recorded for Librivaux dot Org by
- 18:31Speaker 2: Tavarish Corca Erythroxylon corca lum Doctor Albert Schneider, Northwestern University,
- 18:42Speaker 2: School of Pharmacy. It is an atomatic, tonic and cerebral stimulant,
- 18:49Speaker 2: developing a remarkable power of enduring hunger and fatigue. Gold
- 18:55Speaker 2: Dictionary of Medicine at the very outset. But I wish
- 19:00Speaker 2: to state that cocca is in no wise related to cocoa,
- 19:05Speaker 2: a mistake which is very often made. The term cocca
- 19:09Speaker 2: or couca, as it is sometimes spelled, applies usually to
- 19:13Speaker 2: the leaves of Erythroxylon coca, which are used as a
- 19:18Speaker 2: stimulant by the natives of South America and which yield cocaine,
- 19:24Speaker 2: a very important local and esthetic. Cocoa or cacao refers
- 19:30Speaker 2: to the seeds of theobroma cacao from which cocoa and
- 19:36Speaker 2: chocolate are prepared, so highly prized in all civilized countries.
- 19:41Speaker 2: With these preliminary statements, I shall begin the description of cocca,
- 19:46Speaker 2: hoping at some future time to describe the even more
- 19:49Speaker 2: interesting and important coco yielding plant. Coca and coca are
- 19:56Speaker 2: South American words of Spanish origin and apply to the
- 20:00Speaker 2: plant itself as well as to the leaves. The plant
- 20:03Speaker 2: is a native of Brazil, Peru, and Bolivia. It is
- 20:07Speaker 2: a shrub, varying in height from three to ten feet.
- 20:11Speaker 2: The leaves resemble the leaves of tea in general outline.
- 20:16Speaker 2: The margin, however, is smooth and entire. The leaf stalk
- 20:20Speaker 2: petiola short, upper and lower surfaces smooth. They are rather thin, leathery,
- 20:27Speaker 2: and somewhat bluish green in color. The characteristic feature of
- 20:32Speaker 2: the leaf is two lines or ridges, which extend from
- 20:37Speaker 2: the base of the blade, curving out on either side
- 20:40Speaker 2: of the mid rib, and again uniting at the apex
- 20:43Speaker 2: of the leaf. The flowers are short, pedicled, small, perfect
- 20:50Speaker 2: white or greenish yellow, and occur singly range clusters in
- 20:55Speaker 2: the axil of the leaves or bracts. The shrub is
- 20:59Speaker 2: rather straggling and not at all showi. Cocca has been
- 21:04Speaker 2: under cultivation in South America for many centuries. According to
- 21:09Speaker 2: Alphonse de Candoya, the plant was very extensively cultivated under
- 21:15Speaker 2: the rule of the Incas. In fact, it is generally
- 21:18Speaker 2: believed that the original wild stock no longer exists, such
- 21:23Speaker 2: eminent authorities as d'urbin Yi and Pepi maintaining that the
- 21:30Speaker 2: wild growing specimens now found in South America are plants
- 21:34Speaker 2: which have escaped from cultivation. Cocca is now extensively cultivated
- 21:40Speaker 2: in Peru, Bolivia, Brazil, and other South American countries, particularly
- 21:45Speaker 2: in the Andes region. It is also extensively cultivated in
- 21:50Speaker 2: British India and in Java. Attempts have been made to
- 21:54Speaker 2: introduce it into Southern Europe, but without success. The plants
- 21:59Speaker 2: are grown from seeds sown in pots of boxes, in
- 22:03Speaker 2: which they are kept until they are from eight to
- 22:07Speaker 2: ten inches high, after which they are transplanted during the
- 22:11Speaker 2: rainy season. Cocker thrives best in a warm, well drained
- 22:16Speaker 2: soil with considerable atmospheric moisture. In the Andes region, an
- 22:21Speaker 2: elevation of two thousand feet to five thousand feet is
- 22:25Speaker 2: most suitable. The young growing plants must be protected against
- 22:30Speaker 2: the heat of the sun. The maximum growth is attained
- 22:33Speaker 2: in about five years. The leaves are the only parts used,
- 22:38Speaker 2: although the active principal cocaine is present in small quantities
- 22:43Speaker 2: in all parts of the plant. As soon as the
- 22:46Speaker 2: shrubs are several years old, the leaves are picked, usually
- 22:50Speaker 2: several times each year. This work is done principally by
- 22:54Speaker 2: women and children, who pick the leaves by hand and
- 22:57Speaker 2: place them in aprons. They are then spread upon large mats, awnings,
- 23:03Speaker 2: or cemented floors and exposed to the sun for from
- 23:07Speaker 2: five or six hours to two or three days. During
- 23:11Speaker 2: very warm, bright weather, drying may be completed in one day.
- 23:16Speaker 2: If the process of drying is slow, or if it
- 23:19Speaker 2: rains upon the leaves, they assume a dark colour and
- 23:23Speaker 2: are of less value. On the first indications of rain,
- 23:26Speaker 2: the leaves are placed in sheds specially made for that purpose.
- 23:31Speaker 2: Cocker leaves have been used for many centuries by the
- 23:35Speaker 2: natives of South America, who employed them principally as a stimulant,
- 23:40Speaker 2: rarely medicinally. The leaves were at one time highly prized.
- 23:45Speaker 2: A Costa states that during the reign of the Inkers,
- 23:49Speaker 2: the common people were not permitted to use the leaves
- 23:52Speaker 2: without permission from the governor. After the passing of the incas,
- 23:56Speaker 2: and after cocer was more extensively cultivated or classes chewed
- 24:00Speaker 2: the leaves. Children were, however, not allowed to use them.
- 24:05Speaker 2: According to Mariani, the young Indian, on arriving at the
- 24:09Speaker 2: proper age, was sent to an old woman, whose duty
- 24:14Speaker 2: it was to instruct him and to invest him with
- 24:17Speaker 2: authority to chew cocker leaves. The native carries the leaves
- 24:22Speaker 2: in a little pouch while ki or chuspa suspended from
- 24:28Speaker 2: the belt. This pouch also contains a small bottle gourd
- 24:33Speaker 2: or calabash ish kupura, in which is carried the ash
- 24:38Speaker 2: of some plant species of Knopodium known as jiptah. A
- 24:45Speaker 2: few leaves are placed in the mouth and rolled into
- 24:48Speaker 2: a ball. As stick, moistened with saliva, is now dipped
- 24:52Speaker 2: into the ash and wiped upon the leaves. The ash
- 24:55Speaker 2: is supposed to develop the flavor and to cause a
- 24:58Speaker 2: flow of saliva, which is either entirely swallowed or partially expectorated.
- 25:04Speaker 2: It is said that the use of the leaves enabled
- 25:07Speaker 2: the Indians to undergo extreme hardships. A French missionary states
- 25:13Speaker 2: that the leaves were absolutely necessary to the slaves employed
- 25:18Speaker 2: in the quicksilver mines of Peru. They were also used
- 25:22Speaker 2: in dressing wounds, ulcers, and taken internally for the cure
- 25:27Speaker 2: of intestinal troubles, jaundice, and various spasmodic troubles. Historians seemed
- 25:34Speaker 2: to agree that the constantuting of the leaves by the
- 25:37Speaker 2: Indians did not produce any very marked deleterious effects. Mariani,
- 25:42Speaker 2: upon the authority of several authors, states that it even
- 25:46Speaker 2: seems to be conducive to longevity. The dead of the
- 25:50Speaker 2: South American Indians were always supplied with the liberal quantity
- 25:54Speaker 2: of cocca to enable them to make the long and
- 25:57Speaker 2: fatiguing journey to the promised land. Chewing coca leaves is
- 26:02Speaker 2: a habit which may be compared to the habit of
- 26:05Speaker 2: chewing tobacco, with the difference that the former is by
- 26:09Speaker 2: far less injurious, though there are good reasons to believe
- 26:13Speaker 2: that it is far from harmless. Doctor Weddall says an
- 26:18Speaker 2: habitual cocachure is known as coqueiro and is recognized by
- 26:24Speaker 2: his haggard look, gloomy and solitary habit listless inability and
- 26:30Speaker 2: disinclination for any active employment. The same authority states further
- 26:36Speaker 2: that the habitual use of cocca acts more prejudicially upon
- 26:40Speaker 2: Europeans than upon the Indians accustomed to it from their
- 26:45Speaker 2: early years. Occasionally it causes a peculiar aberration of intellect
- 26:51Speaker 2: characterized by hallucinations. Chewing coca leaves has never become common
- 26:57Speaker 2: among civilized nations. Large quantity of leaves are, however, imported
- 27:02Speaker 2: for the purposes of extracting the active principle cocaine, whose
- 27:06Speaker 2: effects are very marked. Cocaine causes a feeling of depression
- 27:12Speaker 2: and a marked reduction in the activity of the senses
- 27:16Speaker 2: preceded by stimulation. Cocaine solutions are very extensively employed to
- 27:22Speaker 2: produce local anesthesia in minor surgical operations. Dentists employed very extensively.
- 27:30Speaker 2: Its use has several serious drawbacks. Occasionally it produces no
- 27:35Speaker 2: effects whatever, and again an ordinary medicinal dose has caused
- 27:40Speaker 2: fatal poisoning. For these reasons, dentists, physicians, and surgeons often
- 27:46Speaker 2: hesitate in using it. According to some authorities, the poisonous
- 27:51Speaker 2: effects are due to a second alkaloid which occurs in
- 27:55Speaker 2: the leaves of some varieties of coca. If that is
- 27:59Speaker 2: the case, when poisoning may be prevented by excluding these
- 28:03Speaker 2: varieties from the market, which is not an easy matter
- 28:06Speaker 2: considering that the leaves are collected, dried, and shipped by
- 28:10Speaker 2: ignorant natives. It is also known that the active principle
- 28:16Speaker 2: is rapidly destroyed, hence the necessity of using fresh leaves.
- 28:21Speaker 2: In the course of one year, most of the cocaine
- 28:24Speaker 2: has undergone a chemical change and the leaves are absolutely worthless.
- 28:29Speaker 2: Kereless drying also destroys much or all of the cocaine.
- 28:36Speaker 2: End of section four. This recording is in the public
- 28:40Speaker 2: domain Section five of Birds and All Nature, Volume six,
- 28:50Speaker 2: number five, December eighteen ninety nine. This is the Libertyvox recording.
- 28:55Speaker 2: All Liberty Box recordings are in the public domain. For
- 28:57Speaker 2: more information on the volunteer, please visit libertvox do recording
- 29:01Speaker 2: by Taverish Our Native Woods rest h Metcalf. How many
- 29:10Speaker 2: different varieties of wood are there in your own town?
- 29:15Speaker 2: If you never have considered this question, you will be
- 29:17Speaker 2: surprised at the variety, and I am sure will enjoy
- 29:20Speaker 2: making a collection for yourself. A pretty cabinet size is
- 29:25Speaker 2: two inches in length and the same in diameter. This
- 29:29Speaker 2: size is very convenient unless you have an abundance of room,
- 29:33Speaker 2: and will show fiber, grain and color quite distinctly. If
- 29:38Speaker 2: you will plane two sides of the block, you will
- 29:41Speaker 2: see the grain plainly, and if possible to polish one side,
- 29:45Speaker 2: you will see what a beautiful finish some of our
- 29:48Speaker 2: own woods will take. All that is necessary in obtaining
- 29:53Speaker 2: your collection is a small soaw, but a congenial companion
- 29:57Speaker 2: will greatly add to your pleasure. Saw your specimen considerably
- 30:02Speaker 2: longer than you call for. After it is prepared for
- 30:05Speaker 2: most of the varieties, will check in drying, then let
- 30:09Speaker 2: it thoroughly dry before preparing for your collection. The fruit
- 30:14Speaker 2: trees around your home may first take your attention. You
- 30:20Speaker 2: will be interested in noting the differences in the grain
- 30:23Speaker 2: of the apple, apricot, barbery, cherry, pear, peach, plum, and quince.
- 30:31Speaker 2: And while you are becoming interested in the fruit trees,
- 30:36Speaker 2: notice the variety of birds that visit the different trees.
- 30:39Speaker 2: For you will find each bird has its favorite fruit
- 30:42Speaker 2: and favorite nesting place. The mountain ash will perhaps feed
- 30:47Speaker 2: as many birds in the fall and winter as any tree,
- 30:51Speaker 2: and is a pretty tree for the lawn, holding its
- 30:55Speaker 2: place with the maples and ever graceful elm, admired by
- 31:00Speaker 2: all except the man who is trying to split it
- 31:03Speaker 2: into firewood, and a favorite with the Baltimore oriole. If
- 31:09Speaker 2: you wonder why the horse chestnut was so named, just
- 31:12Speaker 2: examine the scars after the leaves fall, and you will
- 31:16Speaker 2: think it rightly named. Who has not tried carrying a
- 31:20Speaker 2: horse chestnut in his pocket to prevent rheumatism. The weeping birch,
- 31:26Speaker 2: as well as the weeping maple, are much admired for
- 31:29Speaker 2: shade and ornamentation, but are not very common. We were
- 31:34Speaker 2: told recently that the Lombardy poplar was coming back as
- 31:39Speaker 2: a tree for our lawns, but many prefer the balm
- 31:43Speaker 2: of Gilead, so popular for its medicinal qualities. In the
- 31:49Speaker 2: United States, there are thirty six varieties of the oak.
- 31:53Speaker 2: You will find several in your own town, and I
- 31:56Speaker 2: trust will add a collection of acorns to your cabinet,
- 32:01Speaker 2: and friends from the South and West will help make
- 32:04Speaker 2: your collection a complete one. Then you will become interested
- 32:08Speaker 2: in the cone bearing trees, and the variety of cones
- 32:12Speaker 2: will also be added to your ever growing collection. You
- 32:16Speaker 2: will enjoy gathering some green cones and listening to the
- 32:19Speaker 2: report as the seed chambers open, and if you gather
- 32:24Speaker 2: a small vial of the common pine and hemlock seeds,
- 32:28Speaker 2: you will puzzle many a friend. One person remarked when
- 32:33Speaker 2: shown a vial of hemlock seed. Oh, yes, I have
- 32:37Speaker 2: seen something like that that came from Palestine, but I
- 32:40Speaker 2: have forgotten the name. Some of the fir trees are
- 32:44Speaker 2: pitted with holes where the woodpeckers insert grub bearing acorns,
- 32:50Speaker 2: leaving the grub to fatten and in the fullness of time,
- 32:54Speaker 2: devouring it. Then the trees bearing edible nuts will call
- 32:59Speaker 2: for their shid of attention. The chestnut is familiar to all,
- 33:04Speaker 2: as well as the butternut and hazelnut. But I knew
- 33:07Speaker 2: one collector who called an ash tree butternut. There are
- 33:11Speaker 2: twelve varieties of ash in our country. A wood that
- 33:15Speaker 2: is coming more and more into prominence, and deservedly so.
- 33:19Speaker 2: Its toughness is proverbial, and it has long been utilized
- 33:23Speaker 2: by carriage makers for certain parts of wheels. A fine,
- 33:28Speaker 2: handsome wood, combining in itself the qualities of oak and pine.
- 33:34Speaker 2: There are eighteen varieties of willow, several of the alder,
- 33:39Speaker 2: but throughout the United States there is only one kind
- 33:42Speaker 2: of beech. The ironwood is often wrongly called the beach.
- 33:47Speaker 2: The hard and soft pine are interesting trees. The soft
- 33:51Speaker 2: especially is a favorite for the sower, a beetle with
- 33:55Speaker 2: long horns who cuts large holes through the wood. When
- 34:00Speaker 2: obtaining your specimen from the thorn tree, you may be
- 34:03Speaker 2: fortunate enough to see the shrike getting his breakfast from
- 34:08Speaker 2: the thorns where he had placed it some time before.
- 34:13Speaker 2: The locust, with its fragrant recemes of white blossoms in
- 34:17Speaker 2: the spring and long seed pods in the fall, will
- 34:20Speaker 2: call for attention, and you may perhaps receiver, as I
- 34:23Speaker 2: did a locust seed from the tree planted by George
- 34:27Speaker 2: Washington at his Mount Vernon home many years ago. The
- 34:32Speaker 2: shomacs and white birches are very artistic and sought out
- 34:37Speaker 2: by all artists. For who does not want to put
- 34:40Speaker 2: a white birde into a landscape. Everyone knows the black
- 34:45Speaker 2: birde by its taste. The laurel has a pretty fine grain.
- 34:51Speaker 2: The witch hazel is another favorite for its medicinal qualities
- 34:55Speaker 2: as well as its popularity for being the last blossom
- 34:58Speaker 2: of the autumn. And many others will be added from
- 35:02Speaker 2: the shrubs and vines until your collection just from your
- 35:05Speaker 2: own town will number nearly, if not quite, one hundred.
- 35:10Speaker 2: You will thus too have become interested in all nature,
- 35:14Speaker 2: and will be able more fully to appreciate all the
- 35:18Speaker 2: beautiful things God has given us to use and enjoy.
- 35:23Speaker 2: End of Section five.
- 35:31Speaker 1: Section six of Birds and All Nature, Volume six, number five,
- 35:36Speaker 1: December eighteen ninety nine. This is a LibriVox recording. All
- 35:41Speaker 1: LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For more information
- 35:45Speaker 1: or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox dot org. Recording by
- 35:51Speaker 1: Betty B. Bird Worth its weight in gold. Possibly the
- 35:56Speaker 1: rarest of all feathered creatures is the bird of New Zealand.
- 36:02Speaker 1: Science names it Notornus mantelli. The first one ever seen
- 36:06Speaker 1: by white men was caught in eighteen forty nine. A
- 36:10Speaker 1: second came to white hands in eighteen fifty one. Like
- 36:14Speaker 1: the first, it was tracked over snow and caught with dogs,
- 36:18Speaker 1: fighting stoutly and uttering piercing screams of rage until overmastered.
- 36:24Speaker 1: Both became the property of the British Museum. After that,
- 36:28Speaker 1: it was not seen again until eighteen seventy nine. That
- 36:32Speaker 1: year's specimen went to the Dressed In Museum at the
- 36:36Speaker 1: cost of five hundred dollars. The fourth, which was captured
- 36:40Speaker 1: last fall in the fjords of Lake tay Anau in
- 36:44Speaker 1: New Zealand, has been offered to the government there for
- 36:47Speaker 1: the tidy sum of one thousand, two hundred fifty dollars.
- 36:52Speaker 1: Thus it appears that the bird is precious, worth very
- 36:55Speaker 1: much more than its weight in gold. The value, of course,
- 36:58Speaker 1: comes of rarity. The wise men were beginning to set
- 37:02Speaker 1: it down as extinct scarcity aside, it must be worth
- 37:06Speaker 1: looking at a gorgeous creature, about the size of a
- 37:09Speaker 1: big goose, with breast, head and neck of the richest
- 37:13Speaker 1: dark blue, growing dullish as it reaches the under parts, back, wings,
- 37:18Speaker 1: and tail feathers are olive green, and the plumage throughout
- 37:22Speaker 1: has a metallic luster. The tail is very short and
- 37:26Speaker 1: has underneath it a thick patch of soft, pure white
- 37:30Speaker 1: feathers having wings the takahi flies not. The wings are
- 37:35Speaker 1: not rudimentary, but the bird makes no attempt to use them.
- 37:39Speaker 1: The legs are longish and very stout, the feet not webbed,
- 37:43Speaker 1: and furnished with sharp, powerful claws. The oddest feature of
- 37:47Speaker 1: all is the bill, an equilateral triangle of hard pink horn.
- 37:52Speaker 1: Along the edge where it joins the head. There is
- 37:55Speaker 1: a strip of soft tissue, much like the rudimentary comb
- 37:59Speaker 1: of a barnyard fell around the glistening wonder bent the
- 38:05Speaker 1: blue wall of the firmament. No clouds above, no earth below,
- 38:10Speaker 1: a universe of sky and snow. Whittier end of section.
- 38:16Speaker 3: Six, Section seven of Birds and All Nature, Volume six,
- 38:26Speaker 3: number five, December eighteen ninety nine. This is a LibriVox recording.
- 38:34Speaker 3: All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For more
- 38:37Speaker 3: information or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox dot org. Recording
- 38:44Speaker 3: by Brian Laslow Beauregard. The red tailed hawk Buttrio borealis CCM.
- 38:57Speaker 3: Until recently, the red tail hawk was classified with the
- 39:00Speaker 3: obnoxious hawks, which prey upon birds in poultry, but the
- 39:04Speaker 3: Department of Agriculture instituted an investigation of this species and
- 39:08Speaker 3: concluded that it has a far worse reputation with the
- 39:11Speaker 3: average farmer than it deserves. The late Major Ben Dyer
- 39:15Speaker 3: asserts that while it does capture a chicken or one
- 39:18Speaker 3: of the smaller game birds now and then, it can
- 39:21Speaker 3: readily be proved that it is far more beneficial than
- 39:24Speaker 3: otherwise and really deserves protection, instead of having a bounty
- 39:28Speaker 3: placed on its head, as has been the case in
- 39:30Speaker 3: several states. The red tailed buzzard, as it is sometimes
- 39:34Speaker 3: called in its light and dark geographical races, is distributed
- 39:38Speaker 3: through the whole of North America. Its food is chiefly
- 39:41Speaker 3: small quadrupeds, red squirrels, gophers and moles, and the remains
- 39:46Speaker 3: of these rodents may be found in this bird's nest
- 39:49Speaker 3: containing young. Where this hawk is found, these small animals
- 39:53Speaker 3: are most abundant longfellow in the birds of Killingworth among
- 39:58Speaker 3: the tails of a Wayside Inn has written a defense
- 40:01Speaker 3: of the hawks that the Audubon societies might well use
- 40:04Speaker 3: as a tract. The nest of the red tail is
- 40:08Speaker 3: placed in high trees in deep woods. It is large
- 40:11Speaker 3: and bulky, though comparatively shallow, and is made of sticks
- 40:15Speaker 3: and twigs mixed together with corn husks, grass moss, and
- 40:20Speaker 3: on the inside may be found a few feathers. It
- 40:23Speaker 3: is said that sometimes the deserted nest of a crow
- 40:26Speaker 3: or that of another hawk, is fitted up and used.
- 40:29Speaker 3: Mister J. Parker Morris records a nest occupied first by
- 40:33Speaker 3: the great horned owl and afterwards by the redtail hawk.
- 40:36Speaker 3: Each year, the young owls leave the nest before the
- 40:39Speaker 3: hawk is ready to occupy it. Two or three, rarely
- 40:43Speaker 3: four eggs are laid. Eggs are found as late as
- 40:46Speaker 3: the middle or latter part of May. They present many
- 40:50Speaker 3: differences in size and markings. Their ground color is white
- 40:54Speaker 3: or bluish white. Some are entirely unmarked, while others are
- 40:57Speaker 3: very heavily blotched and splashed with many shades of red
- 41:00Speaker 3: and brown, and Davy says. Some are faintly marked here
- 41:04Speaker 3: and there with a light purplish tint, and again. The
- 41:07Speaker 3: colourings may form an almost confluent wreath at either end.
- 41:11Speaker 3: The average size is two point three six by one
- 41:14Speaker 3: point eight zero. In old paintings, the hawk is represented
- 41:19Speaker 3: as the criterion of nobility. No person of rank stirred
- 41:22Speaker 3: without his hawk in his hand. Harold Afterwards, King of England,
- 41:27Speaker 3: going on an important embassy into Normandy, is drawn in
- 41:31Speaker 3: an old bass relief, embarking with a hawk on his fist.
- 41:35Speaker 3: In those days, it was sufficient for noblemen's sons to
- 41:38Speaker 3: wind the horn and carry the hawk. According to mister Horace,
- 41:43Speaker 3: a king. This is one of the commonest birds of
- 41:45Speaker 3: prey to be found in northern Illinois. They may be
- 41:49Speaker 3: met with in all sorts of places, but are most
- 41:52Speaker 3: common in the vicinity of heavy timber. In driving through
- 41:55Speaker 3: the country, one will see them perched upon rail fences,
- 41:59Speaker 3: trees by the wayside, sitting on the ground in stubble
- 42:02Speaker 3: or pasture fields, or soaring over fields in search of
- 42:06Speaker 3: their prey. When on one of his foraging expeditions, the
- 42:09Speaker 3: red tail on siding his quarry will remain at the
- 42:12Speaker 3: same place in the air by a continual flapping of
- 42:15Speaker 3: the wings, when at the proper time he will dart
- 42:18Speaker 3: swiftly and silently upon it. Mister clag Barton, while rowing
- 42:23Speaker 3: up flat river, recently came upon six mallards at the
- 42:27Speaker 3: side of him. The birds took flight, following the river.
- 42:30Speaker 3: About two miles further up the stream, he again came
- 42:33Speaker 3: upon the same flock. There were four ducks and two
- 42:36Speaker 3: fine drakes. He hid his boat in the rice and
- 42:39Speaker 3: watched them all. At once, a large red tail dashed
- 42:43Speaker 3: into the flock. The ducks with the exception of one dove,
- 42:47Speaker 3: and this one took wing. A swift pursuer following The
- 42:51Speaker 3: hawk did not seem to gain on his prize, and
- 42:54Speaker 3: the poor duck was screaming with terror. Had the ducks
- 42:57Speaker 3: sought safety in the water, it would probably have escaped,
- 43:00Speaker 3: but it was too frightened, apparently to think of it.
- 43:03Speaker 3: End of section seven.
- 43:10Speaker 2: Section eight of Birds and All Nature, Volume six, number five,
- 43:14Speaker 2: December eighteen ninety nine, recorded for Librivoux dot Org by
- 43:18Speaker 2: tavaresh At transplanting Alice Winston. It was the kitten who
- 43:26Speaker 2: did it, though no one knew but Martha. Aunt Jenny
- 43:30Speaker 2: thought it was the work of providence, and Aunt Emmy
- 43:33Speaker 2: thought it was the result of her own smiles and caresses.
- 43:37Speaker 2: Aunt Mary never thought about it all, of course, But
- 43:41Speaker 2: really it was the kitten. And what was this thing
- 43:45Speaker 2: that the kitten accomplished? The taming of Martha? And why
- 43:50Speaker 2: did Martha need taming? Because she came at twelve, a
- 43:54Speaker 2: very barbarian with freckles and unmanageable hair, under the dominion
- 43:59Speaker 2: of three smooth locked ladies who never had a freckle
- 44:03Speaker 2: and whose hair had always been smooth. Perhaps it would
- 44:08Speaker 2: be better to begin at the beginning, which was twenty
- 44:11Speaker 2: years before there was any kitten. Most serene and happy
- 44:16Speaker 2: would have been the lives of the three miss Clerks
- 44:20Speaker 2: if it had not been for Arthur. Arthur was their brother,
- 44:25Speaker 2: and the combination of prim blonde girls and Harum Scarum
- 44:30Speaker 2: black eyed boy made a most surprising family. The son
- 44:34Speaker 2: and heir was not looked on as a success by
- 44:38Speaker 2: his sisters and the other staid and respectable citizens of Summerfield.
- 44:44Speaker 2: He did not join the church, and he did not
- 44:47Speaker 2: go to college. He wedded no one of the many
- 44:50Speaker 2: eligible towns daughters, and lastly, on his father's death, he
- 44:55Speaker 2: did not settle down at home to take care of
- 44:58Speaker 2: his property and his sisters. This last of his misdeeds
- 45:03Speaker 2: had made a breach between himself and his sisters, the
- 45:07Speaker 2: more serious because of the very deep affection which lay
- 45:11Speaker 2: at the bottom of their half apologetic demeanor toward their brother.
- 45:15Speaker 2: The difference between them was augmented by his removal to
- 45:19Speaker 2: a far western town and his marriage with one of
- 45:24Speaker 2: the natives. For the next twelve or thirteen years, they
- 45:28Speaker 2: never saw him and heard of him but seldom. Then
- 45:31Speaker 2: he died suddenly after accomplishing his task of wasting all
- 45:36Speaker 2: his money. So it happened that Martha saw her aunt's
- 45:40Speaker 2: for the first time on the day of her father's funeral,
- 45:44Speaker 2: and her dim recollection was of cold faces and mannerisms
- 45:49Speaker 2: which worried her mother. Martha was the eldest of four,
- 45:54Speaker 2: and her mother was one of the ornamental of earth
- 45:58Speaker 2: and her father one of the rescue. So the first
- 46:01Speaker 2: eleven years of her existence was wandering up and down
- 46:05Speaker 2: through many cities, attended with much care for her slender shoulders,
- 46:10Speaker 2: and an amount of worldly experience such as forty years
- 46:14Speaker 2: of life, had not given to the elder generation. Then
- 46:18Speaker 2: her father died and they all went to share the
- 46:21Speaker 2: spendthrift poverty of the home. Whence her mother drew her
- 46:26Speaker 2: ideas of domestic economy through wifehood and widowhood. To her deathbed,
- 46:32Speaker 2: missus Clark clung to an unreasoning hate of her sisters
- 46:37Speaker 2: in law, and the dread of the time when her
- 46:40Speaker 2: children must come into their hands kept her struggling against
- 46:44Speaker 2: death for months. But just one month after her pitiful
- 46:49Speaker 2: fight was over, Martha started for Summerfield. Poor Martha, never
- 46:55Speaker 2: captive carried to slavery, felt such dread as she on
- 47:00Speaker 2: her eastward journey. When the friend who had borne her
- 47:05Speaker 2: company left her at a station near Summerfield. Even the
- 47:09Speaker 2: stoicism of Martha gave way before the horror of the unknown,
- 47:15Speaker 2: and she clung to the last landmark of her old
- 47:18Speaker 2: life with a sobbing eagerness which even a carefully nurtured
- 47:23Speaker 2: child might know. But there was no trace of frail
- 47:28Speaker 2: human grief in the little maiden, who lifted the sullen
- 47:32Speaker 2: blackness of her big eyes to Aunt Jennie's face that evening,
- 47:36Speaker 2: who received Aunt Mary's greeting with a self possessed composure
- 47:41Speaker 2: alarming to that shyant gentle lady, and who gave the
- 47:45Speaker 2: same degree of cold attention to Aunt Emmy's sweet speeches.
- 47:50Speaker 2: They had looked forward to the coming of Arthur's daughter
- 47:54Speaker 2: with a strange mixture of excitement, pleasure, and dread. The
- 47:58Speaker 2: dread was predominant, and now for this stern little woman
- 48:03Speaker 2: was not their flesh and blood, not the child of
- 48:06Speaker 2: their brother, but of the woman who had kept them
- 48:09Speaker 2: apart from their brother in his trouble and sickness and death.
- 48:16Speaker 2: Martha was quiet and docile enough. In fact, she did
- 48:20Speaker 2: what she was told with the resignation most depressing. Aunt
- 48:24Speaker 2: Jennie took her to church, and the sight of her critical,
- 48:27Speaker 2: dark eyes roving over minister and congregation spoiled the sermon
- 48:33Speaker 2: for Aunt Jenny. Aunt Mary told her stories of her father,
- 48:38Speaker 2: intended to be gently humorous. In the midst of them,
- 48:42Speaker 2: Martha jumped up and ran off into the garden. She
- 48:45Speaker 2: cried there for half an hour, but nobody ever knew,
- 48:50Speaker 2: and this business lost her the little hold she had
- 48:54Speaker 2: had on Aunt Mary's heart. Aunt Amy tried to amuse
- 48:59Speaker 2: her and took her to Sunday School and to the
- 49:02Speaker 2: Band of Hope. She gave her a doll and invited
- 49:07Speaker 2: the neighbor's children to come and take tea. The doll
- 49:10Speaker 2: was a source of secret amusement to Martha, but the
- 49:13Speaker 2: visits of these pretty and proper children were trials which
- 49:19Speaker 2: she could scarcely bear with patience. All the while, as
- 49:24Speaker 2: the aunts half suspected, she was criticizing everything that came
- 49:29Speaker 2: within the can of her hungry eyes. She found Aunt
- 49:33Speaker 2: Jennie imperious, Aunt Mary dull, and knew that Aunt Emmy
- 49:38Speaker 2: was thinking of her sweet smile as she smiled. For
- 49:43Speaker 2: Martha was outsider with all, a mere spectator of this
- 49:48Speaker 2: life of peace and quiet and plenty, and she secretly
- 49:53Speaker 2: hungered after something to care, for, something to take the
- 49:57Speaker 2: place of the little brothers and sisters, who had all
- 50:00Speaker 2: always run to her to have their faces washed and
- 50:03Speaker 2: their aprons buttoned. They expected her to play with dolls.
- 50:08Speaker 2: She Martha Clark, who had had real work to do
- 50:11Speaker 2: and had learned to push and crowd her own way.
- 50:16Speaker 2: Months went by and the barrier was unbroken. One evening,
- 50:21Speaker 2: the tea bell rang again and again, without bringing any Martha.
- 50:26Speaker 2: The aunts were in consternation. Had she run away or
- 50:31Speaker 2: was it a case of kidnapping. After nearly an hour,
- 50:34Speaker 2: the suspense was ended by the arrival of Martha. But
- 50:38Speaker 2: such a Martha. Her neat raiment was muddy and torn,
- 50:44Speaker 2: Her hair was in shocking disorder. Her right hand, tied
- 50:49Speaker 2: up in a handkerchief, was emphatically bloody, but in spite
- 50:53Speaker 2: of this, it was used to steady her bonnet, which
- 50:57Speaker 2: she carried by the string basket wise in her left hand.
- 51:02Speaker 2: Exclamations of horror and surprise burst from the astonished women. Martha,
- 51:09Speaker 2: where have you been, What have you been doing? What
- 51:13Speaker 2: is the matter with your dress? Have you hurt your hand?
- 51:17Speaker 2: Why it's bloody? Has the child been fighting? Martha? Are
- 51:22Speaker 2: you going to answer? Martha was actually embarrassed as she
- 51:27Speaker 2: advanced into the lamp light, they saw that her cheeks
- 51:31Speaker 2: were crimson and her eyes sparkling, also that the contents
- 51:36Speaker 2: of her bonnet was a dilapidated kitten. When she did speak,
- 51:41Speaker 2: her voice with shriller than usual. I fell down in
- 51:46Speaker 2: the mud and my hands heard was her meager and
- 51:50Speaker 2: hesitating answer, Where did the cat come from?
- 51:55Speaker 4: It isn't a cat, It's a kitten. And it was
- 51:58Speaker 4: out in the yard, and I tried to catch it,
- 52:01Speaker 4: and it ran away and the dog chased it. When
- 52:05Speaker 4: I came up, the dog was eating the kitten, and
- 52:08Speaker 4: I hid him, and then he bait me and pushed
- 52:12Speaker 4: me down in the mud. But I'm going to keep
- 52:15Speaker 4: the kitten the last defiantly. Then on the second thought,
- 52:20Speaker 4: she added, if you please, it's awfully hurt that kitten.
- 52:26Speaker 4: In the silence that followed the shrill child voice, the
- 52:30Speaker 4: aunts looked at each other, and one thought was in
- 52:34Speaker 4: the mind of each she looks like Arthur. When Martha
- 52:40Speaker 4: went to bird that night, the kitten, with its wounds
- 52:44Speaker 4: all dressed, was slumbering peacefully before the kitchen fire. Time
- 52:50Speaker 4: passed on happily for the kitten, which was not very
- 52:54Speaker 4: much injured after all, and full of new interest for Martha,
- 52:58Speaker 4: who plunged head soul into the education of the kitten
- 53:03Speaker 4: toward her Aunt's her feeling was unchanged. She drew a
- 53:08Speaker 4: line between them and the kitten. One evening, Aunt Jenny
- 53:13Speaker 4: and Aunt Emmy had gone to prayer meeting. Aunt Mary was.
- 53:18Speaker 2: Not well, and she sat bolstered up in a rocking chair,
- 53:22Speaker 2: knitting before the bright fire in the sitting room. Great
- 53:27Speaker 2: Martha sat beside her, also knitting in theory, but in practice,
- 53:32Speaker 2: carrying on a flirtation with the kitten, which was now
- 53:36Speaker 2: a very gay kitten. Indeed, an empty rocking chair stood
- 53:41Speaker 2: very near the fire, and the kitten was leaping back
- 53:44Speaker 2: and forth between its chair and Martha's, making its attacks
- 53:49Speaker 2: with much caution and its retreats with much speed. Aunt
- 53:54Speaker 2: Mary was sleepily watching the fun Suddenly there was a
- 53:59Speaker 2: loud crash. The kitten had fallen into the fire in
- 54:02Speaker 2: such a fashion as to knock over the rocking chair
- 54:04Speaker 2: in front of the grate. It was a prisoner in
- 54:08Speaker 2: the fiery furnace. Many years had passed since Aunt Mary
- 54:13Speaker 2: had moved so quickly she threw herself at the rocking
- 54:17Speaker 2: chair and flung it to one side. She snatched up
- 54:21Speaker 2: the unfortunate kitten and made one rush to the kitchen
- 54:24Speaker 2: and the kerosene can, and by the time Martha overtook
- 54:28Speaker 2: her was soaking the poor little burnt paws. Half an
- 54:33Speaker 2: hour later, when Aunt Jenny and Amy opened the sitting
- 54:36Speaker 2: room door and astonishing sight met their eyes, the firelight
- 54:41Speaker 2: redness flickered over the excited faces of Martha and Aunt Mary,
- 54:46Speaker 2: laughing and talking eagerly together, Martha no longer dignified, and
- 54:52Speaker 2: Aunt Mary no longer shy. That was the beginning of
- 54:56Speaker 2: the end. But Aunt Mary was always Martha's favorite, and
- 55:02Speaker 2: it was the little Kittenho did it? End of section eight.
- 55:08Speaker 2: This recording is in the public domain.
- 55:16Speaker 5: Section nine of Birds in All Nature, Volume six, number five,
- 55:21Speaker 5: December eighteen ninety nine, recorded for LibriVox dot Org by
- 55:26Speaker 5: Larry Wilson, Two bird Lovers, Sunday afternoon. The birds were
- 55:34Speaker 5: sweetly mad, and the lovely rage of song drove them
- 55:37Speaker 5: hither and thither and swelled their breasts a Maine. It
- 55:41Speaker 5: was nothing less than a tornado of fine music. I
- 55:45Speaker 5: kept saying, yes, yes, yes, I know, dear little maniacs,
- 55:50Speaker 5: I know there never was such an air, such a day,
- 55:53Speaker 5: such a sky, such a god. I know it, I
- 55:57Speaker 5: know it. But they would not be pasted. Their throats
- 56:01Speaker 5: must have been made of fine gold, or they would
- 56:04Speaker 5: have been rent by such rapture quakes. Missus Nathaniel Hawthorne
- 56:10Speaker 5: in a letter to her mother, lovely flocks of rose
- 56:14Speaker 5: breasted grosbeaks were here yesterday in the high elms above
- 56:18Speaker 5: the spring house. How very elegant they are. I heard
- 56:23Speaker 5: a lark too in the meadows near the lake. The
- 56:26Speaker 5: note more minor than ever in October air. And oh,
- 56:30Speaker 5: such white crowns and white throats. A jeweled crown is
- 56:33Speaker 5: not to be mentioned beside theirs. Such marvelous contrasts of
- 56:38Speaker 5: velvets black and white. Swamp sparrows too, and fox sparrows
- 56:44Speaker 5: I saw both during my last drive. From letter to
- 56:48Speaker 5: editor from Nellie hart Woodworth, Vermont, October twentieth, eighteen ninety nine,
- 56:56Speaker 5: end of section nine. This recording is in the public domain.
- 57:06Speaker 2: Section ten of Birds and All Nature, volume six, number five,
- 57:10Speaker 2: December eighteen ninety nine, recorded for LibriVox dot Org by Tavarsh.
- 57:17Speaker 2: Winter time Robert Louis Stevenson late lies the wintry sun
- 57:24Speaker 2: a bed a frosty, fiery, sleepy head blinks but an
- 57:28Speaker 2: hour or two, and then a blood red orange sets
- 57:32Speaker 2: again before the stars have left the skies. At morning,
- 57:38Speaker 2: in the dark eye rise and shivering in my nakedness
- 57:43Speaker 2: by the cold candle, bathe and dress close by the
- 57:47Speaker 2: jolly fire, I sit to warm my frozen bones a
- 57:51Speaker 2: bit or with a reindeer sled, explore the colder countries
- 57:57Speaker 2: round the door. When Tuga, my nurse, doth wrap me
- 58:02Speaker 2: in my comforter and cap, the cold wind burns my
- 58:07Speaker 2: face and blows its frosty pepper up my nose. Black
- 58:12Speaker 2: are my steps on silver sod thick blows my frosty
- 58:18Speaker 2: breath abroad, and tree and house, and hill and lake
- 58:23Speaker 2: are frosted like a wedding cake. End of section ten.
- 58:30Speaker 2: This recording is in the public domain.
- 58:39Speaker 6: Section eleven of Birds in All Nature, Volume six, number five,
- 58:44Speaker 6: December eighteen ninety nine, Recorded for LibriVox dot Org by
- 58:49Speaker 6: Kangaroo six ninety two. The Maryland yellow throat Geothleopis chicus CCN.
- 59:03Speaker 6: One of the first birds with which we became acquainted
- 59:07Speaker 6: was the Maryland yellow throat, not especially because of its beauty,
- 59:13Speaker 6: but on account of its song, which at once arrests attention.
- 59:18Speaker 6: Wikity wikity, wikity wikity. It announces from some thicket or
- 59:24Speaker 6: bush where it makes its home. It is one of
- 59:27Speaker 6: the most active of the warblers and is found throughout
- 59:30Speaker 6: the United States, Canada, and Nova Scotia. In winter it
- 59:35Speaker 6: migrates to the South Atlantic and Gulf States and the
- 59:39Speaker 6: West Indies. The nest is not an easy one to find,
- 59:44Speaker 6: being built on the ground under the foot of a
- 59:46Speaker 6: bush or tussock of rink grass, sometimes partly roofed over
- 59:51Speaker 6: like the oven birds. The eggs are four or five,
- 59:56Speaker 6: rarely six in number, creamy white, speckled chiefly at the
- 1:00:01Speaker 6: larger end, with reddish brown, dark umber and black. In
- 1:00:06Speaker 6: some occasional lines or scrawls appear. The average size is
- 1:00:12Speaker 6: point sixty nine times point five two inches. Oliver Davies
- 1:00:17Speaker 6: says that the best description of this bird's song was
- 1:00:21Speaker 6: given by mister Thomas m Earle one evening in May
- 1:00:25Speaker 6: eighteen eighty four. He was returning from a day's hunt,
- 1:00:29Speaker 6: and after a rest on an old log, was about
- 1:00:32Speaker 6: to start his journey homeward. At this instant, a little
- 1:00:36Speaker 6: yellow throat mounted a small bush and in quick succession said,
- 1:00:41Speaker 6: tackle me, tackle me, tackle me. The fact is the
- 1:00:45Speaker 6: yellow throat has several notes and is rather noisy for
- 1:00:49Speaker 6: so small a bird. It is known by other names
- 1:00:53Speaker 6: as black masked ground warbler, black spectacled warbler, briar wren,
- 1:00:59Speaker 6: and yellowbriar ren. The female is much duller in color
- 1:01:04Speaker 6: than the male, without black, gray or white on head.
- 1:01:08Speaker 6: The young are somewhat like the adult female. End of
- 1:01:16Speaker 6: section eleven. This recording isn't the public domain.
- 1:01:25Speaker 5: Section twelve of Birds in All Nature, Volume six, number five,
- 1:01:29Speaker 5: December eighteen ninety nine, recorded for LibriVox dot org by
- 1:01:34Speaker 5: Larry Wilson. Bobblelink by Granville Osborne, soaring high up in
- 1:01:41Speaker 5: the bright blue sky. Can't keep track of him if
- 1:01:43Speaker 5: you try flitting around in the pasture. Lot likes to
- 1:01:47Speaker 5: be friendly rather than not dancing along on the old
- 1:01:51Speaker 5: rail fence, sunshine and flowers where the woods commence God.
- 1:01:55Speaker 5: So he almost talks to me head to nodding, he says,
- 1:01:58Speaker 5: says he olink link, clover and buttercups. Just seemed to
- 1:02:04Speaker 5: try coaxing him up from the meadows to fly bees
- 1:02:08Speaker 5: hunting honey, keep buzzing around, seem to know best where
- 1:02:12Speaker 5: the sweetest is found, Almost forget where a hearing him sing,
- 1:02:17Speaker 5: what kind of honey they all came to bring? Pert
- 1:02:20Speaker 5: and saucy as he can be tell of flitting, he says,
- 1:02:23Speaker 5: says he babble link olink o link wings jet black
- 1:02:28Speaker 5: and glossy as silk, waistcoat a gleaming as white as milk,
- 1:02:33Speaker 5: dainty and slender, quicker than light. First in the morning,
- 1:02:36Speaker 5: last one at night, perched on the post of the
- 1:02:39Speaker 5: barnyard gate, singing his sweetest to waken his mate, dressing
- 1:02:44Speaker 5: his feathers and winking at me. Mincing around, he says,
- 1:02:48Speaker 5: says he babbolnk olink golink into section twelve. This recording
- 1:02:57Speaker 5: is in the public domain.
- 1:03:04Speaker 1: Section thirteen of Birds and All Nature, Volume six, number five,
- 1:03:09Speaker 1: December eighteen ninety nine. This is a LibriVox recording. All
- 1:03:14Speaker 1: LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For more information
- 1:03:18Speaker 1: or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox dot org. Recording by
- 1:03:23Speaker 1: Betty B. A study of the color photograph. The color
- 1:03:27Speaker 1: photograph is found to be most useful in developing the
- 1:03:31Speaker 1: color sense in children. The act of recognizing various colors
- 1:03:36Speaker 1: and shades is educative. When we consider that all the
- 1:03:40Speaker 1: effects of the color photograph are produced by combinations of
- 1:03:44Speaker 1: the three primary colors, we at once step into a
- 1:03:48Speaker 1: realm of thought and observation that is boundless. The danger
- 1:03:52Speaker 1: is that we may attempt too much with the abundance
- 1:03:55Speaker 1: of material at hand, and, by forgetting the limitations of
- 1:04:00Speaker 1: the unformed mind, confuse instead of enlighten. It is well
- 1:04:05Speaker 1: for the teacher to know the process by which the
- 1:04:08Speaker 1: color photograph is produced, but young children who know little
- 1:04:12Speaker 1: of the laws of light are not expected to understand
- 1:04:15Speaker 1: it fully. In advanced classes, the following will be found beneficial.
- 1:04:21Speaker 1: A natural object is placed before a camera and a
- 1:04:24Speaker 1: water screen is adjusted so no rays but the yellow
- 1:04:28Speaker 1: may reach the photographic plate. A negative is thus obtained,
- 1:04:33Speaker 1: recording all the yellow that appears upon the surface of
- 1:04:36Speaker 1: the object, whether it shows as pure yellow or in
- 1:04:40Speaker 1: combination with other colors. With the camera an object in
- 1:04:44Speaker 1: exactly the same position, and another screen which absorbs all
- 1:04:48Speaker 1: the rays but the red ones coming from the object,
- 1:04:52Speaker 1: a negative of the red is obtained. A third negative
- 1:04:56Speaker 1: of the blue in the object is similarly got, and
- 1:05:00Speaker 1: we have an accurate representation of the form and all
- 1:05:04Speaker 1: the colors of the object separated into red, yellow, and blue.
- 1:05:09Speaker 1: From these negatives, three half tone plates are made upon copper.
- 1:05:14Speaker 1: A half tone plate is an acid etching produced by
- 1:05:18Speaker 1: photographic process with fine lines crossing each at right angles,
- 1:05:23Speaker 1: so that the picture appears as a series of microscopic
- 1:05:27Speaker 1: square points, which decrease in size in the lighter portions
- 1:05:32Speaker 1: of the plate. Red, yellow, and blue inks of the
- 1:05:35Speaker 1: rarest quality are used in printing from these plates, with
- 1:05:39Speaker 1: great care exercised as to getting the exact depth of
- 1:05:43Speaker 1: color required for each. By placing a sheet of fine
- 1:05:47Speaker 1: tissue paper beneath a plate printing red, the red is deepened,
- 1:05:52Speaker 1: another sheet makes it more intense, and others are placed
- 1:05:55Speaker 1: under the plate if necessary to get the rich red
- 1:05:59Speaker 1: required to blend with the yellow and blue to make
- 1:06:03Speaker 1: the exact reproductions of nature's colors which appear in the
- 1:06:07Speaker 1: color photograph. The odor of the printing is yellow first,
- 1:06:11Speaker 1: and when this is thoroughly dry, the red is laid on,
- 1:06:15Speaker 1: and the blue a day later. As the color is
- 1:06:18Speaker 1: nowhere a solid mass but a series of points, one
- 1:06:22Speaker 1: color does not hide another, but the three colors shine
- 1:06:26Speaker 1: through and make the blendings which appear in the beautiful
- 1:06:29Speaker 1: and delicate shades and tints of the color. Photographs do
- 1:06:35Speaker 1: not manifest surprise when you find pupils wholly or partly
- 1:06:39Speaker 1: color blind. The boy who cannot find a red marble
- 1:06:42Speaker 1: in the grass will show by his conversation that red
- 1:06:46Speaker 1: and green are the same to him. His is an
- 1:06:48Speaker 1: extreme case, but there are many who are slow to
- 1:06:51Speaker 1: name the primary colors and totally fail to recognize differences
- 1:06:56Speaker 1: in tints. For ordinary purposes, there should be little effort
- 1:07:00Speaker 1: given to the naming of the shades. If the colors
- 1:07:03Speaker 1: are talked about by name, enough is done in the
- 1:07:07Speaker 1: line of language, But classes become readily interested in comparing
- 1:07:11Speaker 1: reds and blues or greens, to say which is the
- 1:07:15Speaker 1: deeper or the purer. The location of a patch of
- 1:07:18Speaker 1: color often changes its apparent intensity contrast with surroundings may
- 1:07:24Speaker 1: deceive the eye. Whistler has used naples yellow, so the
- 1:07:28Speaker 1: observer declares it pure white. A good exercise in color
- 1:07:32Speaker 1: recognition is given in choosing masses of color on the
- 1:07:37Speaker 1: picture and telling what primary colors are in them. Also
- 1:07:41Speaker 1: in comparing two masses and saying which appears to have
- 1:07:45Speaker 1: the more red or yellow in it. Where the class
- 1:07:48Speaker 1: have water colors, excellent practice may be had in selecting
- 1:07:52Speaker 1: and mixing colors to correspond with a given one. The
- 1:07:56Speaker 1: mixing should be first tried without placing the mixed mass
- 1:08:01Speaker 1: beside the copy. Very young children often make surprisingly accurate
- 1:08:06Speaker 1: judgments of color, and no game pleases them more than
- 1:08:10Speaker 1: a mixing contest, having the game decided in each instance
- 1:08:14Speaker 1: by placing the best work beside the original. No pictures
- 1:08:19Speaker 1: have inspired so many young people with a desire to copy,
- 1:08:23Speaker 1: as have the color photographs. Their perfection of detail has
- 1:08:27Speaker 1: not discouraged such attempts. The more easily copied lithograph has
- 1:08:32Speaker 1: no such fascination. This shows that the nearer we approach
- 1:08:36Speaker 1: nature in any presentation, the more strongly we appeal to
- 1:08:40Speaker 1: human nature and draw out its latent powers. End of
- 1:08:46Speaker 1: section thirteen.
- 1:08:54Speaker 6: Section fourteen of Birds and All Nature, Volume six, number five,
- 1:09:00Speaker 6: December eighteen ninety nine. Recorded for liprivox dot Org by
- 1:09:03Speaker 6: Kangaroo six ninety two. The pileaded woodpecker bell p. Drury.
- 1:09:15Speaker 6: This noble bird may be found in wooded districts of Illinois,
- 1:09:19Speaker 6: but I made its acquaintance in the Indian territory, where
- 1:09:23Speaker 6: it is quite common in size and beauty of color.
- 1:09:27Speaker 6: It is second only to the ivory build. The chalk
- 1:09:31Speaker 6: Tawt Indians told me it was the good God bird.
- 1:09:35Speaker 6: I asked what they meant by that designation. The reply
- 1:09:39Speaker 6: was only listen and you will know. For days, I
- 1:09:43Speaker 6: spent much time watching several pairs as they flew about
- 1:09:46Speaker 6: among the trees on the Shawnee Hills. But the only
- 1:09:50Speaker 6: sound I heard was the hammering of their strong, stone
- 1:09:53Speaker 6: colored bills on the sides of the trees, a noise
- 1:09:56Speaker 6: that might easily be heard a quarter of a mile away.
- 1:10:00Speaker 6: They did not descend to fallen logs for their prey,
- 1:10:04Speaker 6: but made the chips and bark fly from their upright trees.
- 1:10:10Speaker 6: Naturalists say the pileadid will occasionally leave the insect laden
- 1:10:16Speaker 6: trees in search of fruit and grain, a thing the
- 1:10:20Speaker 6: ivory build never does. My beautiful, noisy companions eyed me
- 1:10:26Speaker 6: and my opera glass suspiciously, trying always to keep on
- 1:10:30Speaker 6: the other side of the tree from me, and for
- 1:10:32Speaker 6: a time gave me no hint of the reason for
- 1:10:35Speaker 6: their Indian name. But at last a hunter appeared upon
- 1:10:39Speaker 6: the scene. When the frightened birds bounded away through the air,
- 1:10:44Speaker 6: uttering a cry which did indeed resemble the words good
- 1:10:48Speaker 6: God spoken in guttural tones. The marksman brought down a
- 1:10:53Speaker 6: fine specimen, which he gave to me. With magnificent red
- 1:10:58Speaker 6: top knot and white sprague wings. It looks as if
- 1:11:02Speaker 6: it might be longing to fly back to its home
- 1:11:05Speaker 6: among the Shawnee Hills. End of section fourteen. This recording
- 1:11:11Speaker 6: is in the public.
- 1:11:11Speaker 3: Domain Section fifteen of Birds and All Nature, volume six,
- 1:11:22Speaker 3: number five, December eighteen ninety nine. This is a LibriVox recording.
- 1:11:30Speaker 3: All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For more
- 1:11:33Speaker 3: information or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox dot org. Recording
- 1:11:40Speaker 3: by Brian Laslow Beauregard the lear bird Minura superba Lynz Jones.
- 1:11:51Speaker 3: If Australia were noted for no other thing than the
- 1:11:54Speaker 3: ancient and strange animal forms which are to be found
- 1:11:57Speaker 3: nowhere else on Earth, it would still be a wonderful continent.
- 1:12:01Speaker 3: Not the least remarkable of these forms is the lear bird,
- 1:12:04Speaker 3: the subject of the present sketch. Since its discovery on
- 1:12:08Speaker 3: January twenty fourth, seventeen ninety eight by one Wilson, it
- 1:12:12Speaker 3: has been handed about among the different areas of birds
- 1:12:15Speaker 3: by different systematists, until its anatomy seem to give it
- 1:12:18Speaker 3: a more or less permanent place among the birds of
- 1:12:20Speaker 3: passerine form. In spite of its foul like build and
- 1:12:24Speaker 3: strong legs and large feet, the appearance of the bird,
- 1:12:28Speaker 3: except the superb taiale is not remarkable, but paradoxical as
- 1:12:33Speaker 3: it may be, the taiale is the bird's crowning glory,
- 1:12:36Speaker 3: at once giving it a name and fame. Like many
- 1:12:39Speaker 3: other cumbersome things, the lear bird's tail is used for
- 1:12:42Speaker 3: ornament during a part of the year, only being donned
- 1:12:45Speaker 3: at the mating season and doffed at the close of
- 1:12:48Speaker 3: the nesting period. It assumes the lear's shape only when
- 1:12:51Speaker 3: voluntarily spread, appearing simply as a long, greatly developed tail.
- 1:12:56Speaker 3: At other times, the bird throws up a mound of
- 1:12:59Speaker 3: earth dome shaped which serves as a raised platform or
- 1:13:03Speaker 3: stage well suited to tail spreading and other courting antics.
- 1:13:07Speaker 3: Strutting and wing dragging are accompaniments of the tail spreading
- 1:13:11Speaker 3: and strongly suggests gallinaceous affinities, especially since the bird is
- 1:13:15Speaker 3: the size of the ordinary barnyard fowl in habits. The
- 1:13:20Speaker 3: learbird is lowly preferring the ground to bushes or trees,
- 1:13:23Speaker 3: and running from danger rather than flying, the strong legs
- 1:13:27Speaker 3: and feet permitting a swift retreat. Rarely, the bird may
- 1:13:30Speaker 3: mount a tree, ascending branch by branch instead of flying
- 1:13:34Speaker 3: up at once. They are said to use the wings
- 1:13:36Speaker 3: to aid them in running and in hopping upward in
- 1:13:39Speaker 3: the trees. They are so wary and timid that is
- 1:13:42Speaker 3: difficult to secure specimens, except by resorting to deception or
- 1:13:45Speaker 3: the use of dogs. The barking of the dogs drives
- 1:13:49Speaker 3: them into the trees, allowing the hunter a fair mark.
- 1:13:53Speaker 3: They are inhabitants of the dense brush, from which it
- 1:13:55Speaker 3: is next to impossible to dislodge them. Authorities agree that
- 1:14:00Speaker 3: the lear bird's powers of song are remarkable. It seems
- 1:14:03Speaker 3: to have the power of mocking almost every other bird,
- 1:14:06Speaker 3: as well as the barking of the dingo, besides possessing
- 1:14:09Speaker 3: a sweet song of its own. One author states that
- 1:14:13Speaker 3: for the first two hours of the morning, it repeats
- 1:14:15Speaker 3: over again its own song, then gradually changes it to
- 1:14:18Speaker 3: imitate other birds, ending its four hour song period with
- 1:14:22Speaker 3: imitations of all the other birds within hearing, then remaining
- 1:14:25Speaker 3: silent for the rest of the day. The nest is
- 1:14:29Speaker 3: a dome shaped affair, with the opening in one side,
- 1:14:32Speaker 3: made of small sticks interwoven with moss and fibers of roots.
- 1:14:36Speaker 3: The single egg laid is of a very dark color,
- 1:14:39Speaker 3: appearing as if it had been blotched over with ink.
- 1:14:43Speaker 3: The young emerges from the egg a downy white ball,
- 1:14:45Speaker 3: perfectly helpless, and remains in the nest for several weeks.
- 1:14:50Speaker 3: The food seems to consist of insects, myriapods, and snails,
- 1:14:54Speaker 3: of which large quantities must be destroyed to satisfy a
- 1:14:57Speaker 3: bird of this size. This is another of the world
- 1:15:01Speaker 3: forms which are doomed to complete extinction. It is to
- 1:15:04Speaker 3: be earnestly hoped that the time of its disappearance will
- 1:15:07Speaker 3: await a more careful study of its habits than has
- 1:15:10Speaker 3: been accomplished thus far. A study of these curious forms
- 1:15:13Speaker 3: can hardly fail to throw much light on the development
- 1:15:16Speaker 3: of the bird fauna of the world. End of section fifteen.
- 1:15:26Speaker 1: Section sixteen of Birds and All Nature, Volume six, number five,
- 1:15:31Speaker 1: December eighteen ninety nine. This is a LibriVox recording. All
- 1:15:36Speaker 1: LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For more information
- 1:15:40Speaker 1: or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox dot org. Recording by
- 1:15:46Speaker 1: Betty b Robert and Peepsei the twins Nellie hart Woodworth.
- 1:15:53Speaker 1: In the latter part of May, a pair of Baltimore
- 1:15:56Speaker 1: Orioles built a nest in my maples from which a
- 1:15:59Speaker 1: navally a brood of noisy fledglings were launched upon the world.
- 1:16:04Speaker 1: A quantity of Hamburg embroidery was woven into the nest
- 1:16:09Speaker 1: and festooned gracefully from the outside. This was obtained from
- 1:16:13Speaker 1: my neighbor's washing as it lay bleaching upon the grass,
- 1:16:17Speaker 1: a task demanding more time and strength than seemed necessary
- 1:16:22Speaker 1: for useless ornamentation. To all appearance, the esthetic taste of
- 1:16:27Speaker 1: the builders was more pronounced than was their family discipline.
- 1:16:31Speaker 1: The children were a clamoring, rollicking group, pushing each other
- 1:16:35Speaker 1: about and insisting forcibly upon a high point of view
- 1:16:40Speaker 1: that constantly threatened their frail lives. I was in constant
- 1:16:44Speaker 1: fear lest they come tumbling down, and it was not
- 1:16:47Speaker 1: long before my worst fears were realized. They fell with
- 1:16:51Speaker 1: a shower upon the morning of the twenty third of June,
- 1:16:55Speaker 1: tumbling pell mell into the strawberry bed. The biggest baby
- 1:16:59Speaker 1: picking himself up in a hurry and climbing upon one
- 1:17:03Speaker 1: of the fence wires. The other nestlings were marched off
- 1:17:06Speaker 1: by the head of the family to other fields of observation,
- 1:17:10Speaker 1: the first little bird hopping from the fence to a
- 1:17:13Speaker 1: wild rose bush that grew beside the kitchen door. There
- 1:17:18Speaker 1: he was fed by his father during the day. As
- 1:17:21Speaker 1: his mother did not appear. I inferred that she had
- 1:17:24Speaker 1: her hands full with the other children. Neither parent appearing.
- 1:17:28Speaker 1: The next morning, the first baby was put into a
- 1:17:31Speaker 1: great basket upon the window sill. Before noon the old
- 1:17:35Speaker 1: birds came. The wire netting was removed from the window,
- 1:17:39Speaker 1: both parents coming at short intervals into the kitchen with food.
- 1:17:44Speaker 1: To my surprise, they did not return the following morning,
- 1:17:48Speaker 1: when I fully intended to speed the parting guest. Though
- 1:17:52Speaker 1: the little one was placed in a cage outside the door,
- 1:17:56Speaker 1: the helpless infant was left in an orphan condition to
- 1:17:59Speaker 1: my care. He could not feed himself, nor did he
- 1:18:02Speaker 1: understand under my tutelage how to open his beak. When
- 1:18:06Speaker 1: food was brought, it was necessary to pry it open.
- 1:18:10Speaker 1: The lunch is coming so often that nearly all my
- 1:18:13Speaker 1: time was spent in attending to his meals. That very evening,
- 1:18:18Speaker 1: the chore boy brought a lank, long legged bobblink, which
- 1:18:22Speaker 1: was given into my keeping only because it was threatened
- 1:18:25Speaker 1: with starvation. Like the ool, he was too young to
- 1:18:29Speaker 1: feed himself and had been for twelve hours without food.
- 1:18:33Speaker 1: A more uninviting specimen of babyhood could not be imagined,
- 1:18:38Speaker 1: for lorn, ragged with unfeathered spaces upon his homely little body.
- 1:18:43Speaker 1: But though he had none of the Oriole's commanding beauty,
- 1:18:47Speaker 1: he was sure to perish unless regularly adopted and his
- 1:18:50Speaker 1: infant wants supplied. He was placed in the cage while
- 1:18:54Speaker 1: the oriol was taking a nap, The introduction prefaced by
- 1:18:58Speaker 1: being stuffed till his beer little crop was as round
- 1:19:01Speaker 1: and full as an egg. Missus Olive Thorne Miller, who
- 1:19:05Speaker 1: was with me at the time, insisted at the christening
- 1:19:08Speaker 1: of the pear, as the Oriole was always peeping, we
- 1:19:12Speaker 1: called him Peepsy. The Bobblink was named Robert, with due
- 1:19:16Speaker 1: respect to the Robert o' lincoln family. They were often
- 1:19:20Speaker 1: as called the Twins and troublesome twins. They were waking
- 1:19:24Speaker 1: me at three o'clock each morning and crying loudly for
- 1:19:27Speaker 1: their breakfast, which was prepared the previous evening. Peepsy was
- 1:19:32Speaker 1: first taken in my hand and given a few mouthfuls.
- 1:19:35Speaker 1: Then Robert's turn came, after which Peepsy was thoroughly fed,
- 1:19:40Speaker 1: and when Robert's demands were appeased, both birds were returned
- 1:19:44Speaker 1: to the cage for another nap. After sleeping innocently for
- 1:19:48Speaker 1: another hour, they awoke, insisting with emphatic protests upon an
- 1:19:52Speaker 1: immediate supply of rations. There were times when they jerked
- 1:19:57Speaker 1: their heads from side to side and not a morsel
- 1:20:00Speaker 1: was safely lodged or appropriated, persisting in the clamor until
- 1:20:05Speaker 1: after patient effort, both the little creatures were satisfied at last.
- 1:20:10Speaker 1: As may be surmised, this was no enviable task. Though
- 1:20:14Speaker 1: the twins went promptly to bed at dusk, leaving me
- 1:20:17Speaker 1: free for the evening. Peepsy was far the brighter bird.
- 1:20:21Speaker 1: He took the lead at first, helping himself to his meals,
- 1:20:24Speaker 1: at times twinkling the soft brown wings at my approach
- 1:20:28Speaker 1: with most flattering evidences of favor. Robert was a different bird.
- 1:20:33Speaker 1: He scratched and bit, flopped about and hissed out his disapprobation.
- 1:20:39Speaker 1: The last was not without compensations. Whenever his beak was
- 1:20:43Speaker 1: open wide in disapproving hisses, the opportunity was seized to
- 1:20:47Speaker 1: fill it with food. Sometimes his tactics changed. He would
- 1:20:51Speaker 1: throw back his head and refuse to swallow. In a
- 1:20:54Speaker 1: short time, he took on prettier ways, now and then,
- 1:20:57Speaker 1: coaxing a little while receiving his meals with dainty baby eagerness.
- 1:21:03Speaker 1: From first to last, their taste diverged. Peepsy was high born,
- 1:21:07Speaker 1: Robert was of low degree. These low born instincts preferring
- 1:21:11Speaker 1: the cage floor, he was given a sod to stand upon.
- 1:21:15Speaker 1: The orioles decided preference for higher stations, culminating in the
- 1:21:19Speaker 1: swing his both by right of preference and forcible possession.
- 1:21:25Speaker 1: In ten days, Peepsy began to believe himself a full
- 1:21:29Speaker 1: grown bird. Then began an investigation of the cage and
- 1:21:33Speaker 1: its appointments, diving into every corner, thrusting himself into the
- 1:21:38Speaker 1: drinking cup as far as its size would allow, playing
- 1:21:41Speaker 1: with the food, and throwing the earthworms given him to
- 1:21:45Speaker 1: the top of the cage before attempting to swallow them.
- 1:21:48Speaker 1: He would thrust his beak into Robert's feathers or catch
- 1:21:52Speaker 1: hold of his legs, while the bobbling with ruffled plumage
- 1:21:56Speaker 1: drew back with becoming indignation. He certainly was a homely baby,
- 1:22:01Speaker 1: which did not excuse the other twin for putting on airs,
- 1:22:05Speaker 1: regarding him with lofty condescension, or stepping on his big,
- 1:22:09Speaker 1: sprawling feet when they came too near. This unseemly behavior
- 1:22:14Speaker 1: may have accounted for Robert's despondent hours, from which he
- 1:22:18Speaker 1: emerged to sing low and tentatively with the tinkling music
- 1:22:22Speaker 1: of falling raindrops. Then they tried to stand upon one foot,
- 1:22:26Speaker 1: balancing with great difficulty, meanwhile crowding in the swing and
- 1:22:31Speaker 1: tumbling out upon the floor together. In utter indifference to
- 1:22:35Speaker 1: his own toilet, Peepsy insisted upon preening Robert's plumage, calling
- 1:22:40Speaker 1: his attention to the matter by vigorous pulls at his
- 1:22:43Speaker 1: tail or jerking some truant feather that beauty or tidiness
- 1:22:47Speaker 1: required to be smoothed into place. This unappreciated service was
- 1:22:53Speaker 1: resented with many hisses, darting at the persecutor with wide
- 1:22:57Speaker 1: open beak, and dire threatenings of vengeance. After which they
- 1:23:01Speaker 1: cuddled up lovingly together for a nap for several days.
- 1:23:05Speaker 1: This self imposed helpfulness was so officious that the twins
- 1:23:10Speaker 1: were separated lest Robert's temper, not over good at the best,
- 1:23:15Speaker 1: be permanently spoiled. On this account, Peepsy had the liberty
- 1:23:19Speaker 1: of the house and went oftenest abroad. What with a
- 1:23:23Speaker 1: better disposition and more enticing manners. There was no resisting,
- 1:23:28Speaker 1: whether it was coaxing to sit upon my finger, or
- 1:23:30Speaker 1: happy as bird could be. When admired and caressed, he
- 1:23:34Speaker 1: would fly to my shoulder, pick a stray lock of
- 1:23:37Speaker 1: hair lying against my throat, dodged skillfully when the hand
- 1:23:41Speaker 1: was raised in protest, only to reappear and bite my
- 1:23:45Speaker 1: lips as they moved in cautioning words. He followed me
- 1:23:49Speaker 1: to my chamber morning by morning, hopping up the stairs
- 1:23:53Speaker 1: one at a time till we reached the top. When
- 1:23:56Speaker 1: he flew to my shoulder and entered the room master
- 1:23:59Speaker 1: of ceremony. As the clothes were replaced upon the bed,
- 1:24:03Speaker 1: he darted down upon sheets and blankets on purpose, seemingly
- 1:24:07Speaker 1: to be shewed away. Too much notice was spoiling the child.
- 1:24:12Speaker 1: Though his rain, poor baby was short. He was quite
- 1:24:15Speaker 1: independent as to feeding himself when Robert first began to
- 1:24:19Speaker 1: pick up cracker crumbs. What was stranger still, when the
- 1:24:23Speaker 1: Bobolink was well versed in such matters, his memory was
- 1:24:26Speaker 1: so unreliable that he forgot how to eat overnight, and
- 1:24:30Speaker 1: had to be taught all over again for several mornings.
- 1:24:34Speaker 1: Nor would he swallow till the ager cracker was thrust
- 1:24:37Speaker 1: clear down his throat. After the first month in which
- 1:24:41Speaker 1: the oriole took the lead, the order was reversed. Robert
- 1:24:45Speaker 1: was first thereafter, coming to the front and taking entire
- 1:24:49Speaker 1: charge of the establishment, chaperone, servant adviser. Nor was he
- 1:24:54Speaker 1: above making sarcastic remarks at the expense of the faithful companion,
- 1:24:59Speaker 1: who thought followed closely at his heels. He pecked at
- 1:25:03Speaker 1: the little blue kid's shoes on the perch above, pulled
- 1:25:07Speaker 1: the tiny toes, tweaked the feathers, and tried to pull
- 1:25:10Speaker 1: them out and behave generally, I regret to say, most impolitely.
- 1:25:16Speaker 1: With this increased assurance, there was a marked gain in song.
- 1:25:20Speaker 1: He sang while we breakfasted or dined the same ideally
- 1:25:24Speaker 1: happy bobbling Medley a new discovery of the joy of living,
- 1:25:29Speaker 1: lifting his voice in rainy days in rhythm with the shower,
- 1:25:33Speaker 1: Peepsy joining with sundry encouraging notes, but no real song
- 1:25:38Speaker 1: after the first month. Both birds were fond of the
- 1:25:41Speaker 1: bath water in bowl pitcher or tumbler was a challenge
- 1:25:45Speaker 1: seldom ignored. Robert's short memory and inexperience were liable to
- 1:25:50Speaker 1: mistake the dish of cracker and milk for a bathtub,
- 1:25:54Speaker 1: crowding into and flirting the contents over chairs and floor.
- 1:25:59Speaker 1: He was specially fond of my mother, planting his feet
- 1:26:02Speaker 1: in her soft wavy hair and jerking her locks in
- 1:26:05Speaker 1: utter disregard of all threatening. The door to the next
- 1:26:10Speaker 1: room left Ajar was a ceaseless fascination. When the cage
- 1:26:14Speaker 1: door was open. They started promptly, Robert leading, Peepsy following meekly,
- 1:26:20Speaker 1: till they reached the crack in the door, stretching out
- 1:26:22Speaker 1: their necks and peering with curious eyes into the room beyond. Then,
- 1:26:28Speaker 1: as if confronted with some terrible ogre, they turned quickly
- 1:26:31Speaker 1: about and hopped back to the cage. The hidden possibilities
- 1:26:36Speaker 1: were too great. In a moment, back they came, repeating
- 1:26:40Speaker 1: the search over and over till the door was thrown
- 1:26:43Speaker 1: open and they were at liberty to explore the terrors
- 1:26:46Speaker 1: and resources of the room beyond. After one of these excursions,
- 1:26:50Speaker 1: Peepsy was found fast asleep in the narrow space between
- 1:26:54Speaker 1: the door and the wall. Both birds were very curious
- 1:26:59Speaker 1: over the sweet Robert's superintending keeping just in front of
- 1:27:03Speaker 1: the broom, hopping straight into the dust pan, bristling his
- 1:27:07Speaker 1: feathers when reproved, or flying in frigid terror if pursued.
- 1:27:12Speaker 1: They also helped in preparing the meals, following from kitchen
- 1:27:16Speaker 1: to pantry, from pantry to kitchen till a too generous
- 1:27:20Speaker 1: attendance was checked for the time by compulsory return to
- 1:27:24Speaker 1: the cage. Ignorant of all fear, they became my constant companions,
- 1:27:29Speaker 1: from room to room, from house to garden and orchard.
- 1:27:33Speaker 1: When wild birds looked down in wonder, coming from the
- 1:27:36Speaker 1: higher branches to peer and question, Peepsy answering, politely, fluttering
- 1:27:42Speaker 1: the brown velvet wings in unavailing winningness, while Robert silently
- 1:27:47Speaker 1: ignored their inquisitive ways. During the intense heat of Midsummer,
- 1:27:51Speaker 1: I saw less of the twins than usual, the house
- 1:27:54Speaker 1: being darkened as much as possible to exclude the heat.
- 1:27:59Speaker 1: Opening my door, I heard the patter of little feet
- 1:28:01Speaker 1: as they crossed the hall. Peepsy stood upon the threshold,
- 1:28:05Speaker 1: and with a welcoming chirp, flew towards me, coaxing and
- 1:28:10Speaker 1: nestling against my cheek, with many evidences of gladness. The
- 1:28:15Speaker 1: heat of the day was waning. The sun had withdrawn
- 1:28:18Speaker 1: from the valley. The heights were radiant still, the peaks
- 1:28:21Speaker 1: of the mountain range dazzlingly lit with golden light. I
- 1:28:26Speaker 1: carried the bird out of doors and across the way,
- 1:28:29Speaker 1: where children were playing. The tiny guest enjoying the call,
- 1:28:32Speaker 1: thoroughly lunching upon raspberries, exploring the rooms, trying on each
- 1:28:38Speaker 1: nook and corner, and regarding with astonished interest, a huge
- 1:28:42Speaker 1: feather duster that lay upon the carpet, Advancing and retreating
- 1:28:47Speaker 1: before the huge monster, Ruffling his feathers in rage, he
- 1:28:51Speaker 1: hopped around it several times before his courage was equal
- 1:28:55Speaker 1: to an attack. Then, with wide spread wings, he charged
- 1:29:00Speaker 1: upon the savage enemy, striking it with his beak, trampling
- 1:29:04Speaker 1: upon and biting the feathers. When we returned Robert's indignation
- 1:29:09Speaker 1: knew no bounds. He was furious. He might have been
- 1:29:13Speaker 1: jealous that Peepsy went abroad while he stayed at home. Anyway,
- 1:29:17Speaker 1: he pounced upon his brother in angry passion, caught his
- 1:29:21Speaker 1: foot and jerked him off the perch, pulled out his feathers,
- 1:29:24Speaker 1: and tumbled him over upon the floor. When I interfered promptly,
- 1:29:29Speaker 1: as it was past their bedtime, I saw them safely asleep.
- 1:29:33Speaker 1: Both little heads laid snugly against their wings, and thought
- 1:29:37Speaker 1: by morning the quarrel would be forgotten. When I saw
- 1:29:41Speaker 1: them next, poor little Peepsy lay dead upon the cage floor.
- 1:29:46Speaker 1: I strongly suspect that Robert rose early to help him
- 1:29:49Speaker 1: out of the world. At least there was no appearance
- 1:29:52Speaker 1: of suicide. The remaining twins sang freely for a few hours.
- 1:29:57Speaker 1: He had vanquished an imaginary foe, and was singing the
- 1:30:01Speaker 1: song of Him who overcometh. After that, he seemed preyed
- 1:30:05Speaker 1: upon by remorse, Nor was he ever himself again, refusing
- 1:30:10Speaker 1: food and pining away gradually through the few remaining weeks
- 1:30:14Speaker 1: of his short life, when, in spite of all his faults,
- 1:30:18Speaker 1: he died. As the story books say, much loved and lamented.
- 1:30:24Speaker 1: End of Section sixteen, Section seventeen of Birds and All Nature,
- 1:30:35Speaker 1: Volume six n five, December eighteen ninety nine. This is
- 1:30:40Speaker 1: a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain.
- 1:30:45Speaker 1: For more information or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox dot org.
- 1:30:51Speaker 1: Recording by Betty B. The cowbird molethrus ater c C M.
- 1:31:00Speaker 1: Buffalo bird was formerly one of the names applied to
- 1:31:04Speaker 1: this bird of strange habits and Major Bendere, who was
- 1:31:08Speaker 1: long an observer of all that took place on the plains,
- 1:31:11Speaker 1: states that one will rarely see a bunch of cattle
- 1:31:14Speaker 1: without an attending flock of cowbirds, who perch on their
- 1:31:18Speaker 1: backs searching for parasites or sit with lazy ease, their
- 1:31:23Speaker 1: familiarity with the cattle, suggesting their name of cowbird. They
- 1:31:28Speaker 1: also follow the freshly plowed furrows and pick up worms
- 1:31:32Speaker 1: and larvae. Mister P. M. Silloway, who was made a
- 1:31:36Speaker 1: very extended and careful study of the cowbird, says that
- 1:31:40Speaker 1: its strange behavior and stealthy movements at certain seasons have
- 1:31:45Speaker 1: prevented the acquisition of full data concerning many features of
- 1:31:49Speaker 1: its life, and a few unfounded speculations about its habits
- 1:31:54Speaker 1: have become current. It occupies a parallel place with the
- 1:31:57Speaker 1: European cuckoo. It never build a nest, but deposits its
- 1:32:02Speaker 1: eggs and the homes of other birds, usually those of
- 1:32:05Speaker 1: smaller species. It is therefore a homeless creature, and its
- 1:32:09Speaker 1: young are all orphans or adopted children. It is indeed
- 1:32:14Speaker 1: a peculiar bird, having no attractiveness of color, no beauty
- 1:32:18Speaker 1: of voice, and no home. No wonder that when in
- 1:32:22Speaker 1: the haunts of other species, it hides and skulks as
- 1:32:26Speaker 1: it seeks a suitable and convenient habitation to house its
- 1:32:30Speaker 1: unborn orphan. Major Bendeir gives a list of ninety one
- 1:32:35Speaker 1: birds in whose nests she has been known to leave
- 1:32:38Speaker 1: her eggs. This includes woodpeckers, flycatchers, orioles, thrushes, sparrows, vireos, wrens,
- 1:32:46Speaker 1: and warblers, but the most frequently imposed upon are so
- 1:32:50Speaker 1: small that the cowbird's big nestling is almost certain to
- 1:32:55Speaker 1: be the one to survive, the smaller birds being crowded
- 1:32:58Speaker 1: out and left to par It is said that as
- 1:33:02Speaker 1: many as seven cowbird eggs have been found in a
- 1:33:05Speaker 1: single nest, but there is generally only one. It is
- 1:33:09Speaker 1: believed that a brood of insectivorous and useful birds is
- 1:33:13Speaker 1: almost invariably sacrificed for every cowbird raised. Mister Ridgway, in
- 1:33:19Speaker 1: his fascinating book on the Birds of Illinois, gives the
- 1:33:22Speaker 1: following vivid picture of the female searching for a nest
- 1:33:27Speaker 1: in which to deposit her egg. She huns stealthily through
- 1:33:30Speaker 1: the woods, usually among the undergrowth, and when a nest
- 1:33:34Speaker 1: is discovered, patiently awaits from a convenient hiding place the
- 1:33:39Speaker 1: temporary absence of the parent. When the nest is stealthily
- 1:33:43Speaker 1: and hastily inspected, and if found suitable, she takes possession
- 1:33:48Speaker 1: and deposits her egg when she departs as quietly as
- 1:33:51Speaker 1: she came. In the village of Farmington, Connecticut, says Florence A. Miriam,
- 1:33:57Speaker 1: We once saw a strong sparrow on a law feeding
- 1:34:00Speaker 1: a cowbird bigger than she. When she handed it a worm,
- 1:34:04Speaker 1: one of my field class exclaimed, in astonishment, I thought
- 1:34:08Speaker 1: the big bird was the mother. Some of the foster
- 1:34:12Speaker 1: parents abandon their nests or build a second nest over
- 1:34:15Speaker 1: the eggs, but usually the little bird works faithfully to
- 1:34:19Speaker 1: bring up the foundling. Sometimes the egg is recognized by
- 1:34:23Speaker 1: the mother and quickly thrown out. Frequently, also, the cowbird
- 1:34:27Speaker 1: will eject one or more eggs of the owner to
- 1:34:30Speaker 1: make room for her egg, or to deceive the owner
- 1:34:34Speaker 1: and leave the same number of eggs as were in
- 1:34:36Speaker 1: the nest before her visit. Sometimes an egg of the
- 1:34:40Speaker 1: owner is found on the ground near a nest containing
- 1:34:43Speaker 1: an egg of the cowbird, and it is no unusual
- 1:34:46Speaker 1: occurrence to find an egg of the cowbird lying near
- 1:34:49Speaker 1: a nest of a species regularly imposed upon by the parasite.
- 1:34:54Speaker 1: Silowey says that the wood thrush toey field and chipping sparrows,
- 1:35:00Speaker 1: yellow breasted chat, and the marrill and yellow throat are
- 1:35:03Speaker 1: often as selected to bear the burden of rearing the
- 1:35:06Speaker 1: young of the cowbird in their courtship. The males are
- 1:35:10Speaker 1: very gallant. They arrive from the south several days in
- 1:35:14Speaker 1: advance of the females at this season, about the middle
- 1:35:18Speaker 1: of March. They generally associate in groups of six or eight,
- 1:35:22Speaker 1: and the males are easily distinguished by the gloss of
- 1:35:25Speaker 1: their black plumage in contrast to the dull brown of
- 1:35:28Speaker 1: the female. They do not pair the females meeting the
- 1:35:32Speaker 1: advances of the males indiscriminately. Doctor Gibbs, however, thinks that
- 1:35:37Speaker 1: the birds may pair frequently for the summer, and suggest
- 1:35:41Speaker 1: this is reasonable, referring to an incident coming under his
- 1:35:44Speaker 1: notice when he saw a blue jay on the point
- 1:35:48Speaker 1: of despoiling the nest of a vireo driven away by
- 1:35:51Speaker 1: a pair of cowbirds in a most valiant manner. In
- 1:35:55Speaker 1: going to the nest, he found a large, overgrown cowbird
- 1:35:58Speaker 1: occupying the large share of the structure, while a poor
- 1:36:02Speaker 1: little red eyed vireo occupied a small space at the
- 1:36:05Speaker 1: bottom and beneath his big foster brother. The eggs of
- 1:36:10Speaker 1: the cowbird hatch in eleven or twelve days. They average
- 1:36:14Speaker 1: point eight eight by point sixty five of an inch,
- 1:36:17Speaker 1: the length varying from point nine five to point sixty
- 1:36:20Speaker 1: seven of an inch, and the width varying from point
- 1:36:23Speaker 1: seven two to point five eight of an inch. The
- 1:36:27Speaker 1: ground is a dingy white or gray, and the markings
- 1:36:30Speaker 1: vary through all the shades of brown, sometimes evenly distributed
- 1:36:35Speaker 1: over the surface and at other times predominating around the
- 1:36:38Speaker 1: larger end. There is so much diversity in the appearance
- 1:36:42Speaker 1: of different specimens that frequently the investigator is puzzled in
- 1:36:47Speaker 1: distinguishing the true eggs of the toey, cardinal and other
- 1:36:51Speaker 1: species from those of the cowbird. In the breeding season,
- 1:36:55Speaker 1: the male grackles, red winged blackbirds, and the cowbirds of
- 1:36:59Speaker 1: both sexes nightly congregate to roost together. Early after the
- 1:37:04Speaker 1: breeding season, they form into flocks of from fifty to sixty.
- 1:37:09Speaker 1: The birds have then finished molting, and the glossy black
- 1:37:12Speaker 1: of the males has been changed into the duller colors
- 1:37:16Speaker 1: of the females and the young. They assemble with the
- 1:37:19Speaker 1: blackbirds of various species where food is most abundant and
- 1:37:23Speaker 1: easy to be procured. Late investigations of the food habits
- 1:37:27Speaker 1: of the cowbird indicate that the species is largely beneficial.
- 1:37:32Speaker 1: Professor Beale showed the food of the cowbird to consist
- 1:37:36Speaker 1: of animal and vegetable matter in the proportion of about
- 1:37:40Speaker 1: twenty eight percent of the latter. Spiders and harmful insects
- 1:37:44Speaker 1: compose almost exclusively the animal food, while weed, seeds, waste grain,
- 1:37:50Speaker 1: and a few miscellaneous articles make up the vegetable food.
- 1:37:55Speaker 1: Mister Silowey thinks it is not improbable that the so
- 1:37:58Speaker 1: called insect tivorous birds displaced by the cowbird, are thus
- 1:38:03Speaker 1: kept in check by this natural agent, and their mission
- 1:38:07Speaker 1: performed by the usurper in directions as helpful as the
- 1:38:10Speaker 1: special functions of the sufferers. We may later come to
- 1:38:14Speaker 1: understand that one cowbird is worth two bobblings. After all.
- 1:38:20Speaker 1: End of Section seventeen, Section eighteen of Birds and All Nature,
- 1:38:32Speaker 1: Volume six, number five, December eighteen ninety nine. Recorded for
- 1:38:37Speaker 1: LibriVox dot Org by Betty b. The Legend of Saint Silveris.
- 1:38:43Speaker 1: There runs an old old legend, a tale of Christmas time.
- 1:38:48Speaker 1: Low breathe round the fireside in distant northern climb. It
- 1:38:53Speaker 1: tells how once an angel looked down in mercy sweet
- 1:38:57Speaker 1: and bade the people listen to hear the Master's feet. Behold,
- 1:39:02Speaker 1: the Christ Child cometh. The King of Love is near. Oh,
- 1:39:06Speaker 1: bring your gifts of noel unto the Lord most dear,
- 1:39:10Speaker 1: with golden grain of plenty fair shone each raptured home,
- 1:39:15Speaker 1: the corn crowned every dwelling, where too the Christ should come.
- 1:39:20Speaker 1: And one a blue eyed stripling in longing, All unknown,
- 1:39:24Speaker 1: with heart aflame had labored forgive that God might own.
- 1:39:29Speaker 1: Behold the Christ Child cometh. Uprose the music blest and
- 1:39:33Speaker 1: Silverus stood waiting with sheaf the richest blest, A tiny
- 1:39:38Speaker 1: bird nigh fainting, A little trembling thing through chilling airs
- 1:39:43Speaker 1: of Christmas drew near on drooping wing. The people raised
- 1:39:48Speaker 1: a clamor. They chased it from the corn. They drove
- 1:39:51Speaker 1: it from the garlands that gleamed for Christmas morn. Behold
- 1:39:56Speaker 1: the christ Child cometh his praise. They fain would win.
- 1:40:00Speaker 1: How could they bring to Jesus an offering marred and thin,
- 1:40:05Speaker 1: on drooping, dying pinion that vainly sought relief. The shivering
- 1:40:10Speaker 1: bird down lighted where shone the proudest sheaf and silveris
- 1:40:14Speaker 1: moved softly, though dews all wistful, stirred close close within
- 1:40:20Speaker 1: his bosom. He fed the fainting bird. Behold the christ
- 1:40:24Speaker 1: Child ne'eth he spake in faltering tone. The golden ears
- 1:40:28Speaker 1: are broken, yet broken for his own. And while the
- 1:40:33Speaker 1: sheaf of beauty grew marred and spent and bare, the
- 1:40:37Speaker 1: sweet bird flew to heaven. The King of Love stood there,
- 1:40:41Speaker 1: o tender heart and christ Like, whose yearnings soared on high,
- 1:40:46Speaker 1: yet could not see uncaring my weakest creature. Die lo
- 1:40:51Speaker 1: I am with thee always my Christmas light is thine.
- 1:40:55Speaker 1: The dearest gift of Noel is pity poured for mine.
- 1:41:01Speaker 1: End of poem. This recording is in the public domain.
- 1:41:11Speaker 6: Section nineteen of Birds and All Nature, volume six, number five,
- 1:41:15Speaker 6: December eighteen ninety nine, recorded for LibriVox dot Org by
- 1:41:20Speaker 6: Kangaroo six ninety two. Birds gathered his almond crop in
- 1:41:25Speaker 6: All Men, rower of this locality hit upon a neat
- 1:41:29Speaker 6: device for gathering his crop. Last fall, his trees bore largely,
- 1:41:33Speaker 6: and this early became known to the yellowhammers, a species
- 1:41:38Speaker 6: of the woodpecker tribe of birds, and they had regularly
- 1:41:42Speaker 6: stored away large quantities of ripe nuts taken from the
- 1:41:46Speaker 6: orchard in the limb of an oak tree nearby. The
- 1:41:50Speaker 6: astute orchardist watch operations, and at last hit upon a
- 1:41:56Speaker 6: novel nut and labor saving plan, and he lost no
- 1:42:00Speaker 6: time in putting it to execution. The limb was sawed
- 1:42:03Speaker 6: from the tree and replaced by a square shaped funnel
- 1:42:07Speaker 6: long enough nearly to reach the ground. A bucket was
- 1:42:11Speaker 6: then set underneath. A genuine robbing game then went merely on.
- 1:42:16Speaker 6: The birds gathered the nuts, which they dropped into the
- 1:42:19Speaker 6: funnel down into the bucket below, and as regularly as
- 1:42:24Speaker 6: night came, the almond grower would in his turn empty
- 1:42:28Speaker 6: it of its contents and set it back for a
- 1:42:30Speaker 6: new supply. This was kept up until the entire crop
- 1:42:34Speaker 6: had been gathered, and the yellow hammers had departed, broken
- 1:42:38Speaker 6: hearted at the heartless deception practiced upon them. Sutler Cow Enterprise,
- 1:42:47Speaker 6: end of section nineteen. This recording is in the public domain.
- 1:42:57Speaker 6: Section twenty of Birds in All Nature, Volume FI six,
- 1:43:00Speaker 6: number five, December eighteen ninety nine, recorded for Lipovox dot
- 1:43:06Speaker 6: Org by Kangaroo six ninety two. Stories from Birdland. A
- 1:43:13Speaker 6: specimen of that egg of that Rara Avis the Great ok,
- 1:43:19Speaker 6: which was discovered after twenty seven years in a disused
- 1:43:22Speaker 6: attic in the house of Lord Garvais in England, recalls
- 1:43:27Speaker 6: to mind the fact that only about seventy of these
- 1:43:30Speaker 6: zoological treasures are now known to exist. Of these, G.
- 1:43:35Speaker 6: F Rawley of Brighton possesses half a dozen, while Professor
- 1:43:39Speaker 6: Alfred Newton of Cambridge, the well known zoological expert, has
- 1:43:44Speaker 6: half that number. The same gentleman discovered a splendid set
- 1:43:49Speaker 6: of ten labeled penguin eggs in the Royal College of
- 1:43:53Speaker 6: surgeons upward of thirty years ago, while the University Museum
- 1:43:59Speaker 6: at Cambridge zes's four, which were the gift of the
- 1:44:02Speaker 6: late Lord Lilford, whose beautiful grounds at Ondel were a
- 1:44:08Speaker 6: veritable paradise of bird life. One of these was brought
- 1:44:12Speaker 6: to light in a farmhouse in Dorsetshire, and another changed
- 1:44:16Speaker 6: hands in Edinburgh for a mere trifle. It is a
- 1:44:19Speaker 6: remarkable fact that, whereas in eighteen thirty the market price
- 1:44:23Speaker 6: of a great ox eggs was no more than a
- 1:44:26Speaker 6: dollar twenty five Lord Garvass specimen was bought from doctor
- 1:44:31Speaker 6: Troughton in eighteen sixty nine for three hundred and twenty dollars.
- 1:44:36Speaker 6: Sir von ce Crewe in eighteen ninety four paid one thousand,
- 1:44:39Speaker 6: five hundred seventy five for one. In eighteen ninety seven
- 1:44:44Speaker 6: another was knocked down in London for one thousand, four
- 1:44:47Speaker 6: hundred seventy and a slightly cracked specimen went about the
- 1:44:51Speaker 6: same time for eight hundred forty. Not so long ago,
- 1:44:55Speaker 6: a couple of these eggs were purchased at a country
- 1:44:57Speaker 6: sale for nineteen dollars and re sol for two thousand,
- 1:45:01Speaker 6: two hundred and eighty four. Some few years ago, a
- 1:45:08Speaker 6: Robin took up his abode near the communion table in
- 1:45:12Speaker 6: the old Abbey at Bath, England, and remained there for
- 1:45:15Speaker 6: some considerable time, his victualing department being presided over by
- 1:45:21Speaker 6: a friendly verdure, he naturally had every inducement to remain,
- 1:45:26Speaker 6: and remain he did. During sermon time, with the exception
- 1:45:30Speaker 6: of an occasional chirp of approval, he preserved an exemplary silence,
- 1:45:36Speaker 6: neither coughing nor yawning. But when the hymns were sunk
- 1:45:39Speaker 6: and he perched himself on the communion rail, his voice
- 1:45:42Speaker 6: could be heard high above those of the human singers.
- 1:45:46Speaker 6: All red breasts, however, do not behave so well, And
- 1:45:50Speaker 6: one at Ely Cathedral some time ago, carried on in
- 1:45:55Speaker 6: such a manner that he brought disgrace upon his tiny head.
- 1:46:00Speaker 6: During the service he behaved fairly well, but when the
- 1:46:04Speaker 6: clergyman ascended the pulpit and began to speak, the Robin
- 1:46:09Speaker 6: deliberately perched himself on an adjacent pinnacle of the chancel
- 1:46:14Speaker 6: screen and began to sing. And the louder the preacher spoke,
- 1:46:18Speaker 6: the greater volume of sound proceeded from the irreverent bird,
- 1:46:22Speaker 6: till he had to be removed. The first place in
- 1:46:28Speaker 6: the ranks of birds was until lately given by naturalists
- 1:46:33Speaker 6: to eagles and hawks. The low foreheaded tyrants are now dethroned,
- 1:46:39Speaker 6: and the highest development of the race is reached in
- 1:46:43Speaker 6: the family of the sparrows. If the following story be true,
- 1:46:48Speaker 6: a man was feeding with bread crumbs a wood pigeon
- 1:46:51Speaker 6: at his feet. One of the bird's feathers, which was
- 1:46:56Speaker 6: ruffled and out of place, caught the eye of a sparrow.
- 1:47:00Speaker 6: The little bird flew down, seized the feather in its beak,
- 1:47:05Speaker 6: and pulled its best. The feather did not yield at once,
- 1:47:09Speaker 6: and the pigeon walked off with offended dignity. The sparrow followed,
- 1:47:15Speaker 6: still holding on, and in the end flew off triumphant,
- 1:47:19Speaker 6: with the trophy to its nest. End of Section twenty.
- 1:47:28Speaker 6: This recording is in the public domain.
- 1:47:37Speaker 5: Section twenty one of Birds in All Nature, volume six,
- 1:47:41Speaker 5: number five, December eighteen ninety nine, recorded for librevox dot
- 1:47:46Speaker 5: Org by Larry Wilson. December down swept the chill wind
- 1:47:54Speaker 5: from the mountain peak from the snow five thousand summers
- 1:47:57Speaker 5: old on open wold and hill top bleak it had
- 1:48:01Speaker 5: gathered all the cold and whirled it like sleet on
- 1:48:05Speaker 5: the wanderer's cheek. It carried a shiver everywhere, from the
- 1:48:09Speaker 5: unleafed boughs and pastures bare. The little brook heard it
- 1:48:13Speaker 5: and built a roof neath which he could house him
- 1:48:15Speaker 5: winter proof all night by the white star's frosty gleams.
- 1:48:21Speaker 5: He groined his arches and matched his beams. Slender and
- 1:48:25Speaker 5: clear were his crystal spars, as the lashes of light
- 1:48:29Speaker 5: that trimmed the stars. He sculptured every summer delight in
- 1:48:34Speaker 5: his halls and chambers, out of sight, twas as if
- 1:48:37Speaker 5: every image that mirrored lay in his depths, serene throughout
- 1:48:42Speaker 5: the summer day. Each fleeting shadow of earth and sky,
- 1:48:47Speaker 5: lest the happy models should be lost, had been mimicked
- 1:48:50Speaker 5: in fairy masonry by the elven builders of the frost
- 1:48:56Speaker 5: Lowell end of section twenty one. This recording is in
- 1:49:01Speaker 5: the public domain.
- 1:49:08Speaker 7: Section twenty two of Birds and All Nature, volume six,
- 1:49:13Speaker 7: number five, December eighteen ninety nine. This is a liprivox recording.
- 1:49:19Speaker 7: All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For more
- 1:49:22Speaker 7: information or to volunteer, please visit liprivox dot org. Recording
- 1:49:27Speaker 7: by AVAI in October twenty sixteen. The wildcat Lynx rufous
- 1:49:36Speaker 7: by C. C. M. The species of lynx found in
- 1:49:41Speaker 7: forests in the United States is the red or bay lynx.
- 1:49:46Speaker 7: Its popular name is wildcat, but it is a true
- 1:49:49Speaker 7: linx with the eotaft's characteristic of that group, and differs
- 1:49:54Speaker 7: from the other members of it principally in the color
- 1:49:57Speaker 7: of its fur. It is a resident of every part
- 1:50:00Speaker 7: of the United States, from ocean to ocean. The general
- 1:50:04Speaker 7: color is usually red, but darker and sometimes nearly black
- 1:50:08Speaker 7: along the backbone, while under the body it is whitish
- 1:50:12Speaker 7: and on the breast pure white. The entire fur except
- 1:50:16Speaker 7: the breast is covered with spots and streaks of darker fur.
- 1:50:21Speaker 7: The length of the body and head is about fifty
- 1:50:23Speaker 7: three inches and the tail is six inches long. The
- 1:50:28Speaker 7: color of the fur is of a brighter red in
- 1:50:30Speaker 7: summer and a darker brownish red in winter. Different writers
- 1:50:35Speaker 7: have classified several species of the American lynx, including the
- 1:50:39Speaker 7: Texas links which is found in Texas and southern California,
- 1:50:44Speaker 7: the Oregon lynx, which inhabits northern Oregon and Washington. There
- 1:50:49Speaker 7: is also a Florida lynx it is believed there is
- 1:50:53Speaker 7: not much justification for these divisions, which Braeme says are
- 1:50:57Speaker 7: based principally upon the different markings of the fur, and
- 1:51:00Speaker 7: that in a general way, it may be said that
- 1:51:03Speaker 7: the specimens obtained from southern climates have shorter fur, which
- 1:51:07Speaker 7: is more brightly colored and more distinctly spotted than those
- 1:51:10Speaker 7: from the northern regions. But otherwise these animals do not
- 1:51:15Speaker 7: differ in their habits and characteristics, which are those of
- 1:51:18Speaker 7: the Lynx group in general. The natural home of the
- 1:51:23Speaker 7: wild cat is a dense forest, abounding in deep thickets
- 1:51:27Speaker 7: and game. It rarely seeks sparsely wooded sections. Sometimes it
- 1:51:32Speaker 7: will hunt the hare even on the plain, and a
- 1:51:35Speaker 7: prairie fire will drive it to the neighborhood of settlements.
- 1:51:39Speaker 7: It is capable of great endurance in walking, can leap
- 1:51:42Speaker 7: an astonishing distance, climbs well, and is said to be
- 1:51:46Speaker 7: a good swimmer. Its sense of hearing is very acute
- 1:51:50Speaker 7: and its sight keen. It is a night prowler, hiding
- 1:51:53Speaker 7: at the dawn of day and remaining still until evening.
- 1:51:57Speaker 7: The wild cat selects for its lair a deep thicket,
- 1:52:00Speaker 7: a cavern, or hole in a tree trunk, as the
- 1:52:05Speaker 7: shades of evening fall, says Praim, it becomes active. During
- 1:52:10Speaker 7: the day, it seems as rigid as a statue, but
- 1:52:13Speaker 7: at night it sets out and on the first part
- 1:52:15Speaker 7: of its journey, makes frequent pauses like those made by
- 1:52:19Speaker 7: the domestic cat, previous to entering an enclosure that appears
- 1:52:23Speaker 7: to threaten danger. Only a very inexperienced person could mistake
- 1:52:28Speaker 7: the spoor of the lynx for that of any other animal.
- 1:52:32Speaker 7: The imprint is very deep, owing to the strength of
- 1:52:35Speaker 7: the paw, which exceeds that of a large wolf. It
- 1:52:39Speaker 7: is very round, and as the claws are hidden, it
- 1:52:42Speaker 7: is plunt in front. The pace is short compared with
- 1:52:46Speaker 7: the size of the imprints made. The spoor takes a
- 1:52:49Speaker 7: form something like that of a row of pearls. Any
- 1:52:53Speaker 7: One who has once seen it is sure to recognize
- 1:52:56Speaker 7: it again. The wild cat seems clumsy, its body is heavy,
- 1:53:02Speaker 7: but it possesses the agility of its kind and surpasses
- 1:53:05Speaker 7: them in rapidity of movement and endurance. Almost all animals
- 1:53:10Speaker 7: and birds are its prey, although only the strongest lynx
- 1:53:14Speaker 7: will attack deer in temperate climates, it is detested by
- 1:53:18Speaker 7: the farmer and sportsmen, as it kills more than it
- 1:53:21Speaker 7: needs for its sustenance, often merely lapping the blood of
- 1:53:25Speaker 7: its victim and eating only the choiciest portions. In the south,
- 1:53:30Speaker 7: it will not return a second time to this food,
- 1:53:33Speaker 7: but in the north, where game is scarce, it always returns,
- 1:53:36Speaker 7: remaining near the carcass until it is all eaten. The
- 1:53:41Speaker 7: wild cat has been tamed, but it has not been
- 1:53:44Speaker 7: found to be a very attractive animal to handle. When
- 1:53:47Speaker 7: Angry Lewis gives the following report of a female that
- 1:53:52Speaker 7: he kept, he says, a few months sufficed to teach
- 1:53:56Speaker 7: my young lynx her name Lucy. When and during a
- 1:54:00Speaker 7: hunting expedition, I would call out this name, together with
- 1:54:04Speaker 7: those of numerous dogs, she would always respond to her
- 1:54:07Speaker 7: own name, but to no other. Her training had been
- 1:54:11Speaker 7: very easy and had reached such a point that when
- 1:54:14Speaker 7: she was engaged in a passionate but forbidden chase of
- 1:54:17Speaker 7: hare's sheep or paltry and I called her, she would
- 1:54:21Speaker 7: stop instantly and return like a guilty dog, crouching low
- 1:54:25Speaker 7: on the ground and pleading for mercy. When she was
- 1:54:29Speaker 7: too far away to hear our voices. The report of
- 1:54:32Speaker 7: a gun was sufficient to call her back in breathless haste.
- 1:54:37Speaker 7: Lucy took part in all my autumnal hunting trips. When
- 1:54:41Speaker 7: she caught sight of a poor hare, she at once
- 1:54:43Speaker 7: engaged in hot pursuit, and in spite of her great excitement,
- 1:54:47Speaker 7: she always had enough reasoning power to gage the distance
- 1:54:51Speaker 7: and to approximate the difference between the hare's speed and
- 1:54:54Speaker 7: her own. She would obey only my brother's and my
- 1:54:58Speaker 7: own summons, and showed no respect to any other persons.
- 1:55:02Speaker 7: When we were both absent for a whole day, nobody
- 1:55:05Speaker 7: could control her, and then woe be into the careless
- 1:55:08Speaker 7: chicken or the thoughtless goose. During our absence, she would,
- 1:55:13Speaker 7: as soon as it became dusk, climb on the roof,
- 1:55:17Speaker 7: lean against the chimney, and go to sleep. As soon
- 1:55:20Speaker 7: as our carriage came into the yard late at night,
- 1:55:23Speaker 7: she sprang to the stairs in a few bounds. If
- 1:55:27Speaker 7: I then called her name, she would come to me quickly,
- 1:55:30Speaker 7: put her strong fore paws on my shoulders, and purring
- 1:55:33Speaker 7: and rubbing herself against me. She would follow me into
- 1:55:37Speaker 7: the room and prepare to pass the night on the
- 1:55:39Speaker 7: bed or the lounge. The fur of the lynx is
- 1:55:44Speaker 7: very valuable the Scandinavian specimens are counted among the largest
- 1:55:48Speaker 7: and finest. Siberia and Russia furnish many thousands of skins.
- 1:55:54Speaker 7: The flesh is said to be very palatable. It is
- 1:55:57Speaker 7: light colored and tender like the best veal, and is
- 1:56:01Speaker 7: free from the disagreeable taste so common in game. The
- 1:56:05Speaker 7: lynx was known to the ancients, but was exhibited much
- 1:56:08Speaker 7: more rarely in Rome than the lion and leopard, because
- 1:56:11Speaker 7: even then it was so much more difficult to take
- 1:56:14Speaker 7: a life. The one that Pompey exhibited had been captured
- 1:56:18Speaker 7: in Gaul. The life of the wild cat in the
- 1:56:22Speaker 7: natural state was shrouded in mystery, which left room for
- 1:56:25Speaker 7: many fables. End of Section twenty two.
- 1:56:36Speaker 1: Section twenty three of Birds and All Nature, Volume six,
- 1:56:41Speaker 1: number five, December eighteen ninety nine, Recorded for LibriVox dot
- 1:56:46Speaker 1: Org by Benny B. Christmas Once is Christmas Still Phillips Brooks.
- 1:56:54Speaker 1: The silent skies are full of speech, for who hath
- 1:56:57Speaker 1: ears to hear? The winds are whispering each to each.
- 1:57:02Speaker 1: The moon is calling to the beach and stars their
- 1:57:05Speaker 1: sacred wisdom teach of faith and love and fear. But
- 1:57:10Speaker 1: once the sky its silence broke, and song o'erflowed the earth,
- 1:57:15Speaker 1: The midnight air with glory shook, and angel's mortal language
- 1:57:20Speaker 1: spoke when God our human nature took in Christ, the
- 1:57:24Speaker 1: Saviour's birth, and Christmas wants. Is Christmas still the gates
- 1:57:29Speaker 1: through which he came? And forest's wild and murmuring rill,
- 1:57:34Speaker 1: and fruitful field, and breezy hill, and all that else
- 1:57:38Speaker 1: the wide world fill are vocal with his name? Shall
- 1:57:43Speaker 1: we not listen while they sing this latest Christmas morn?
- 1:57:48Speaker 1: And music here in everything, and faithful lives in tribute.
- 1:57:52Speaker 1: Bring to the great song which greets the King who
- 1:57:56Speaker 1: comes when Christ is born. End of poem. This recording
- 1:58:02Speaker 1: is in the public domain.
- 1:58:09Speaker 2: Section twenty four of Birds and Old Nature, Volume six,
- 1:58:14Speaker 2: number five, December eighteen ninety nine. This is a libertyvox recording.
- 1:58:19Speaker 2: All Libertyvox recordings are in the public domain. For more information,
- 1:58:22Speaker 2: out volunteer, please visit libertyvox dot org. Recording by Tavarish.
- 1:58:29Speaker 2: The European squirrel scurious vulgaris c c M. This is
- 1:58:39Speaker 2: regarded as the typical species among the tree squirrels, and
- 1:58:43Speaker 2: its character and that of the common species of American
- 1:58:47Speaker 2: squirrels are very similar. The attitudes of the animals are
- 1:58:52Speaker 2: familiar to all who have watched the antics of squirrels
- 1:58:55Speaker 2: in their arboreal homes. It is widely distributed throughout all
- 1:59:00Speaker 2: of Europe and across the Caucasus and Ural through southern
- 1:59:05Speaker 2: Siberia to the Altai and Eastern Asia. Bram says, it
- 1:59:12Speaker 2: is not equally common everywhere or every year. Its favorite
- 1:59:16Speaker 2: haunts are dry, shady forests with high trees, and it
- 1:59:21Speaker 2: is as much averse to dampness as do sunshine. When
- 1:59:26Speaker 2: fruit and nuts are ripe, it visits the gardens of villages,
- 1:59:30Speaker 2: but only when they are connected with the forest by
- 1:59:34Speaker 2: small tracts of trees or bushes. It will not attempt
- 1:59:38Speaker 2: to forage far from the protection of the trees. Where
- 1:59:43Speaker 2: there are many pine cones. The squirrel makes its permanent
- 1:59:48Speaker 2: home and builds one of several habitations, usually in old
- 1:59:53Speaker 2: crows nests, which it improves very ingeniously. If it intends
- 1:59:59Speaker 2: to make only a short stay, it uses the forsaken
- 2:00:03Speaker 2: nests of magpies, crows, or birds of prey just as
- 2:00:07Speaker 2: it finds them, But the nests which it intends to
- 2:00:10Speaker 2: serve as a permanent sleeping place, a shelter against bad weather,
- 2:00:15Speaker 2: or a nursery are built new, though the materials collected
- 2:00:19Speaker 2: by birds are often utilized. It is said that every
- 2:00:24Speaker 2: squirrel has at least four nests, though nothing has been
- 2:00:27Speaker 2: definitely proven as to this. Hollows in trees, especially hollow trunks,
- 2:00:33Speaker 2: are also frequented by them, and occasionally built in the
- 2:00:37Speaker 2: open air. Nests usually lie in a fork close to
- 2:00:41Speaker 2: the main trunk of the tree. The bottom is built
- 2:00:45Speaker 2: like one of the larger birds nests, while above there
- 2:00:49Speaker 2: is a flat, conical roof after the manner of magpies.
- 2:00:53Speaker 2: Nests close enough to constitute a perfect protection from the rain.
- 2:00:58Speaker 2: The main entrance is placed sideways, usually facing east. A
- 2:01:03Speaker 2: slightly smaller loophole for escape is found close to the trunk.
- 2:01:09Speaker 2: Moss forms a soft lining inside. The outer part consists
- 2:01:14Speaker 2: of twigs of various thicknesses intertwined. Brem says this squirrel
- 2:01:19Speaker 2: especially likes to use the firm bottom of a forsaken
- 2:01:23Speaker 2: crow's nest filled with earth and clay, as a base
- 2:01:27Speaker 2: upon which to construct a nest of its own. A
- 2:01:31Speaker 2: famous naturalist describing this little creature says that it is
- 2:01:36Speaker 2: one of the principal ornaments of a forest in quiet
- 2:01:40Speaker 2: fine whether it is incessantly active, keeping as much as
- 2:01:45Speaker 2: possible to the trees, which at all times afforded food
- 2:01:49Speaker 2: and cover. Occasionally it will deliberately descend a tree, run
- 2:01:55Speaker 2: to another tree, and climb that. Doing this often impure playful,
- 2:02:00Speaker 2: for it need not touch the ground at all unless
- 2:02:03Speaker 2: it wishes to do so. He calls it the monkey
- 2:02:07Speaker 2: of the woods of temperate climes, and it is possessed
- 2:02:11Speaker 2: of many attributes which remind one of that capricious inhabitant
- 2:02:15Speaker 2: of the warmer zone. There are probably few mammals which
- 2:02:20Speaker 2: are possessed of such constant briskness and remain for so
- 2:02:25Speaker 2: short a time in the same place as the squirrel
- 2:02:28Speaker 2: does intolerably fair weather. It is ever, going from tree
- 2:02:33Speaker 2: to tree, from top to top, from branch to branch,
- 2:02:37Speaker 2: and even on the ground. It is anything but clumsy
- 2:02:40Speaker 2: or out of place. It never walks or trots, but
- 2:02:45Speaker 2: always proceeds in longer or shorter bounds, and so quickly
- 2:02:50Speaker 2: that a dog can hardly overtake it, and a human
- 2:02:53Speaker 2: being has to give up the pursuit after a short time.
- 2:02:58Speaker 2: Quote it glide up even the smoothest trees with wonderful
- 2:03:03Speaker 2: ease and speed. The long sharp claws on the toes
- 2:03:07Speaker 2: standing in good stead for it hooks them into the bark,
- 2:03:11Speaker 2: all four feet at once. Then it takes a running
- 2:03:14Speaker 2: start for another leap, and darts further upward. But one
- 2:03:18Speaker 2: bond succeeds another with such rapidity that the ascent proceeds
- 2:03:23Speaker 2: uninterruptedly and looks as if the creature glided up the tree.
- 2:03:28Speaker 2: Usually it ascends to the top of the tree without pausing,
- 2:03:32Speaker 2: not infrequently reaching the highest point. Then it goes out
- 2:03:36Speaker 2: on one of the horizontal branches and generally jumps to
- 2:03:40Speaker 2: the tip of a branch of another tree, covering. In
- 2:03:43Speaker 2: these jumps distances of four or five yards, always in
- 2:03:49Speaker 2: a downward direction. How necessary the bushy tail is for
- 2:03:54Speaker 2: leaping has been demonstrated by cruel experiments which consisted in
- 2:03:58Speaker 2: cutting off the tail of some captive squirrel. It was
- 2:04:03Speaker 2: then seen that the mutilated creature could not leap half
- 2:04:07Speaker 2: so far as one having a tail. The squirrel is
- 2:04:10Speaker 2: an excellent swimmer, though it does not go into the
- 2:04:13Speaker 2: water willingly end. The squirrel eats fruit or seeds, buds, twigs, shells, berries, grain,
- 2:04:25Speaker 2: and mushrooms. The seeds, buds, and young shoots of fir
- 2:04:29Speaker 2: and pine trees form its principal food. It bites pine
- 2:04:34Speaker 2: cones off at the stem comfortably, sits down on its haunches,
- 2:04:38Speaker 2: lifts the cone to its mouth with its forepaws, and
- 2:04:42Speaker 2: turning it constantly around. It bites off one little scale
- 2:04:46Speaker 2: after another with its sharp teeth until the kernel is reached,
- 2:04:52Speaker 2: which it takes out with its tongue. Hazel Nuts are
- 2:04:56Speaker 2: a favorite dainty with it. Bitter kernels, like almonds, for instance,
- 2:05:01Speaker 2: are poisoned to it. Two bitter almonds are sufficient to
- 2:05:04Speaker 2: kill it. When food is abundant, the squirrel lays by
- 2:05:09Speaker 2: stores for less plenteous times. In the forests of southeastern Siberia,
- 2:05:14Speaker 2: it stores away mushrooms. They are so unselfish, says Raddi,
- 2:05:21Speaker 2: that they do not think of hiding their supply of mushrooms,
- 2:05:24Speaker 2: but pin them on the pine needles or in large woods,
- 2:05:28Speaker 2: on the small twigs. There they leave the mushrooms to dry,
- 2:05:33Speaker 2: and in times of scarcity of food, these stores are
- 2:05:36Speaker 2: of good service to some roaming individual of their kind.
- 2:05:43Speaker 2: Four weeks after the breeding season, the female gives birth
- 2:05:47Speaker 2: two from three to seven young in the softest, best
- 2:05:51Speaker 2: located nest. The little ones remain blind for nine days
- 2:05:56Speaker 2: and are tenderly nurtured by the mother. After they have
- 2:06:00Speaker 2: been weaned, the parents leave the young to their fate.
- 2:06:04Speaker 2: They remain together for a while, play with each other,
- 2:06:08Speaker 2: and soon acquire the habits of their parents. By June,
- 2:06:12Speaker 2: it is said the female has another family, and when
- 2:06:16Speaker 2: they also are so far grown up that they can
- 2:06:19Speaker 2: roam around with her, she frequently joins her first letter,
- 2:06:23Speaker 2: and one may see the entire band, sometimes consisting of
- 2:06:28Speaker 2: from twelve to sixteen members, gamboling about in the same
- 2:06:32Speaker 2: part of a wood. The squirrel is a very cleanly animal,
- 2:06:37Speaker 2: licking and dressing its fur unceasingly. The finest squirrel skins
- 2:06:44Speaker 2: come from Siberia and the farther east. They are procured
- 2:06:49Speaker 2: the darker and more valuable they are. The back and
- 2:06:53Speaker 2: underpart of the furs are used separately. Russia and Siberia
- 2:06:58Speaker 2: annually furnish from six to seven million skins, valued at
- 2:07:03Speaker 2: about one million dollars. Most of these skins are manufactured
- 2:07:08Speaker 2: in Russia and exported to China. Besides the skins, the
- 2:07:12Speaker 2: tails are employed as boas and the hair of the
- 2:07:16Speaker 2: tail makes good painter's brushes. The flesh is white, tender
- 2:07:22Speaker 2: and savory, and is much esteemed by epicures. End of
- 2:07:28Speaker 2: section twenty four.
- 2:07:35Speaker 1: Section twenty five Are Birds and All Nature, Volume six,
- 2:07:39Speaker 1: number five, December eighteen ninety nine, recorded for LibriVox dot
- 2:07:45Speaker 1: Org by Betty b In orders Gray e f mosby
- 2:07:52Speaker 1: very demure is the soft gray of the catbird's garb,
- 2:07:55Speaker 1: but under it is hidden as spirit, ever ready for
- 2:07:58Speaker 1: frolic and fun. His liquid, shining eyes are very innocent,
- 2:08:03Speaker 1: yet they are full of mischief. He always looks to
- 2:08:06Speaker 1: me as if he had a secret, one, however, that
- 2:08:09Speaker 1: he is willing to share with any friendly looker. On
- 2:08:12Speaker 1: not even the chat takes a more genuine delight in sport.
- 2:08:16Speaker 1: Hide and seek is a favorite game with the whole tribe,
- 2:08:20Speaker 1: and in their shadowy gray, how they glide through the
- 2:08:23Speaker 1: branches and lurk in the thick leaves, what mischievous peering out,
- 2:08:27Speaker 1: sometimes clinging to a tree trunk like a nuthatch, sometimes
- 2:08:32Speaker 1: sitting absolutely still and almost invisible on a bend of
- 2:08:35Speaker 1: a crooked bough. When discovered, a wild and reckless chase ensues,
- 2:08:40Speaker 1: they skim in rapid flight over the level fields, or
- 2:08:44Speaker 1: dash through the shrubbery in excited pursuit. The cat bird
- 2:08:48Speaker 1: dearly loves to tease. I often saw one high near
- 2:08:52Speaker 1: the approach to an orchard oriole's nest, watching him with
- 2:08:56Speaker 1: shining eyes of mischief. He never actually molested the oriole,
- 2:09:01Speaker 1: and would fly away to some slender swinging twig after
- 2:09:05Speaker 1: he had succeeded in startling the nest owner into a
- 2:09:08Speaker 1: state of nervous alarm, so that he would complain to
- 2:09:12Speaker 1: his mate for a half hour. The little scamp seemed
- 2:09:15Speaker 1: thoroughly to enjoy his fright. He has keen vision and
- 2:09:19Speaker 1: darts down with wonderful swiftness on a worm far below
- 2:09:23Speaker 1: his perch, while he can wheel and turn with surprising
- 2:09:26Speaker 1: ease in pursuit of any victim. One of his most
- 2:09:30Speaker 1: amusing performances is the way in which he nips off
- 2:09:33Speaker 1: a shining, juicy BlackBerry with his sharp beak, glancing at
- 2:09:38Speaker 1: you as if to ask, did you want that you
- 2:09:41Speaker 1: can't have it? And presto, the prize vanishes down his
- 2:09:44Speaker 1: throat and he hops to another cluster with an air
- 2:09:47Speaker 1: of triumph. I love the little fellow in spite of
- 2:09:51Speaker 1: his squawks and whims and naughty tricks. He looks so
- 2:09:54Speaker 1: neat and trim with his soft gray and velvety black,
- 2:09:58Speaker 1: and has such a pretty way of running along a bough,
- 2:10:01Speaker 1: with quick, short pattering steps like a little child's, and
- 2:10:05Speaker 1: such lovely clear musical tones when he chooses to be good,
- 2:10:10Speaker 1: that it is hard to resist him. He has also
- 2:10:13Speaker 1: a very warm heart for his mate and nestlings, and
- 2:10:16Speaker 1: for his comrades as well. A gentleman relates that, on
- 2:10:20Speaker 1: one occasion, going too near a catbird's nest, the little
- 2:10:24Speaker 1: owner aroused the others by his sharp cries, and they
- 2:10:27Speaker 1: made such an attack upon him that he had to
- 2:10:30Speaker 1: defend his face with his hat. They fear nothing when
- 2:10:33Speaker 1: the nest is in danger. The first alarm note is
- 2:10:37Speaker 1: usually a sort of cluck cluck, rather low and anxious.
- 2:10:41Speaker 1: I saw my nephew one day take a young bird
- 2:10:44Speaker 1: just out of the nest in his hand. Instantly the
- 2:10:47Speaker 1: parents flew to him with their disturbed note. He put
- 2:10:51Speaker 1: it down and went away, and a gray cat appeared.
- 2:10:54Speaker 1: The place rang with the anguish cries of snake, snake,
- 2:10:58Speaker 1: and the taunt song forced so it seemed was taken
- 2:11:01Speaker 1: up by others in the depths of the woods. We
- 2:11:04Speaker 1: did not succeed in saving all the brood from the
- 2:11:07Speaker 1: stealthy cat, and it was pitiful to hear the birds
- 2:11:10Speaker 1: lamenting in a frenzy. The mother bird drove off furiously,
- 2:11:14Speaker 1: a Carolina wren that came to see what the trouble was,
- 2:11:18Speaker 1: and even a female cardinal that added her cries of
- 2:11:21Speaker 1: resentment at a rough handling, until the whole bird world
- 2:11:25Speaker 1: seemed inturmoil. The male cardinal appeared to answer his mate
- 2:11:30Speaker 1: in soothing tones, but neither approached again the mourning catbirds.
- 2:11:35Speaker 1: Last summer, there was a most beautiful singer in my
- 2:11:38Speaker 1: neighborhood that added to his own melodies a marvelous mimicry
- 2:11:42Speaker 1: of other birds. In one morning, I have heard him
- 2:11:45Speaker 1: repeat over and over the aeoli of the wood thrush,
- 2:11:50Speaker 1: the cardinal's notes, the songs of the indigo bird, the
- 2:11:53Speaker 1: maril and yellow throat, the yellow throated vireo, and the
- 2:11:57Speaker 1: orchard oriole. Sometimes there would be a contest in song
- 2:12:01Speaker 1: between the oriole and the catbird. The first was always
- 2:12:05Speaker 1: the one to cease first, but each usually looked very dissatisfied.
- 2:12:10Speaker 1: A ruffled ball of feathers at the end. The loveliest
- 2:12:13Speaker 1: experience was hearing on a spring morning a song so liquid,
- 2:12:18Speaker 1: so sweet, so varied, and yet so low, scarce above
- 2:12:22Speaker 1: a whisper, that it seemed a dream. I stole to
- 2:12:25Speaker 1: the window, and there sat my little bright eyed singer
- 2:12:29Speaker 1: in shadowy gray, singing as if all to himself, a
- 2:12:33Speaker 1: shadow song. End of section twenty five. This recording is
- 2:12:40Speaker 1: in the public domain. End of Birds and All Nature,
- 2:12:46Speaker 1: volume six, number five, December eighteen ninety nine.