smokeless powder, the adult birds could easily dive at the flash of a
gun and were beneath the surface of the water when the shot struck. On
land these duck-like birds push themselves over the ground on their
breasts, or waddle along in a very awkward manner. They cannot rise
from the ground, and even when rising from the water they must flutter
over its surface for a long distance before they are able actually to
take wing.
October Twenty-sixth
A strong aversion for snakes prevails with many of us. Most people
think that the majority of snakes are poisonous. In reality the only
dangerously venomous snakes in the United States are the rattlesnakes
(fourteen species), the moccasin, and the copperhead, and they are not
so aggressive as is generally supposed.
October Twenty-seventh
How often the osprey or American fish-hawk is mistaken for an eagle!
The fish-hawk is the only hawk that will poise in the air and then
plunge into the water for its prey. Unlike the kingfisher, of which of
course it is no kin, it carries its food in its talons instead of in
its beak. In captivity it may be confined in an aviary with pigeons,
quail, and other defenceless birds, and will not molest them.
[Illustration: HORNED GREBE.
Winter Plumage.]
Notes
October Twenty-eighth
The bull-frog, whose legs are considered such a delicacy, often attains
a length of fifteen inches. Its food consists of insects, small frogs,
birds, mice, and young water-fowl, and one has been killed which had
eaten a bat. Birds have learned to look upon it as a foe. Bull-frogs
are fast becoming extinct because of the demand for their legs.
October Twenty-ninth
The sharp-shinned hawk is smaller in body, but has
about the same expanse of wing, as a domesticated pigeon. It is one of
the few hawks that is destructive to birds and young poultry. Not only
in the country, but in the city parks and villages, it is seen in late
fall or in winter, skimming over the tops of the bushes ready to pounce
upon a sparrow of any species the instant one appears.
October Thirtieth
Red squirrels and chipmunks differ in size, markings,
and habits. The red squirrel is nearly twice as large as the chipmunk,
it nests in trees, and is usually seen among the branches. It is red
on the back and whitish beneath, sometimes having one black line along
each side. Chipmunks live in the ground, hollow stumps, and roots.
They are poor tree climbers and will not jump from tree to tree unless
forced to do so. They have a black stripe down the back and two on each
side.
[Illustration: SPOTTED SANDPIPER.]
Notes
October Thirty-first
At dusk or early in the evening the weird, tremulous wail of the
screech owl may be heard. Sometimes one will visit a favorite tree
at the same hour evening after evening, and after sounding his cry
several times, will glide away into the country to hunt for a supper of
beetles, meadow mice or white-footed mice.
Notes
=November=
November First
The chipping sparrow, field sparrow, vesper sparrow, mourning dove,
red-shouldered blackbird, and purple grackle stay with us as long as
the weather will permit. Mr. Chapman says: "Should the season be an
exceedingly mild one, many of these birds will remain [about New York]
until late in December."
November Second
The brown creeper, another denizen of the forests, groves, and village
shade trees, is seldom noticed because of its small size and dull
coloring, which blends perfectly with the tree trunks. It is often
found in company with chickadees, nuthatches and kinglets. The creeper
flies to the base of a tree, and winds his way to the top, hunting in
the crevices of the bark for insects and insect larvæ, occasionally
uttering a clear, feeble trill.
November Third
Unlike the bears one meets in certain kinds of animal stories, the
real bear is the most easily frightened of all our large animals. His
eyesight is defective, and his hearing not particularly good, but his
keen nose more than compensates for those deficiencies.
[Illustration: CHICKADEES.
Upper, Mountain. Lower, Hudsonian.]
Notes
November Fourth
Artists often make the mistake of drawing a flying bird with its feet
drawn up beneath its breast. Although some birds do hold their feet in
this position, the herons, gulls, buzzards, and most of the hawks and
eagles hold their feet and legs against the under side of the tail. The
legs of the many species of herons are very conspicuous when the birds
fly, for as the tail is short, they extend far beyond it.
November Fifth
Some ants live in the ground, some make chambers in wood, while others
build mounds of small sticks, dirt, and gravel, and construct roadways
to and from them. They feed upon flesh, fruit, and plant substances.
Their hind legs are provided with a sort of brush for cleaning the dirt
from their bodies, and these legs in turn are cleaned by being drawn
through the mouth.
November Sixth
The "'coon" (raccoon) is strictly a nocturnal animal, and spends the
day in hollow trees, crevices in the rocks, or in thick underbrush,
coming forth at night to hunt its food,--mice, birds, crabs, clams,
eggs, acorns, and green corn. On the Pacific Coast it makes a neat
round hole in the side of a pumpkin and takes out the seeds with its
hands.
Notes
November Seventh
Hawks, owls, and eagles are bold defenders of their nests and young.
Circling overhead, they suddenly bow their wings and dash at the
intruder, turning quickly and swooping up again when only a few inches
from his head. Instances are known in which persons have been wounded
severely while meddling with the property of such birds of prey.
November Eighth
The tail of the brown creeper, and of all of the thirty-five species
and sub-species of woodpeckers, is provided with stiff, pointed
feathers which curve in slightly. With the chimney swift, each feather
is armed with a spine. While woodpeckers cling to a tree trunk, and
the chimney swift to the side of a chimney, their stiff tails help to
support them.
November Ninth
Although the darning-needle, dragon fly, snake feeder, or snake doctor
is perfectly harmless, Howard says, "Some believe that they will sew up
the ears of bad boys; others that they will sting horses; still others
that they act as feeders and physicians to snakes, especially to water
snakes." They are the beautiful lace-winged insects that frequently dip
down and pick up an insect from the surface of a pond or a river.
Notes
November Tenth
Conspicuous in the withered grass of upland meadows are the white
flowers of the several species of everlasting. If picked before they
begin to fade, they will keep through winter nearly as fresh and white
as when the blossoming season was at its height.
November Eleventh
In the mountains of the North, the black bear is beginning to look for
a suitable place in which to pass the winter. Many bears could wear
their skins much longer if they would only hibernate before the snow
begins to fly. Every hunter anxiously awaits the first fall of snow,
which makes the tracking of bears so easy.
November Twelfth
Nine out of every ten persons call salamanders or newts, "lizards."
Lizards do not metamorphose; consequently they are never found in
the water. They are very swift; lovers of the sun, and in the East
are rarely seen north of a line parallel with southern New England.
Salamanders are found either _in the water or in damp places_. They
metamorphose, and when on the ground their efforts to escape are
feeble.
Notes
November Thirteenth
Owls, woodpeckers, ducks, doves, pigeons, the ruffed grouse, Bob-white,
belted kingfisher, ruby-throated hummingbird, chimney swift,
short-billed marsh wren, and bush-tit lay eggs that are glossy white or
various shades of white or buff-color. The eggs of the herons, cuckoos,
robin, bluebird, catbird, Wilson's thrush, and hermit thrush are blue,
green, or various shades of those colors.
November Fourteenth
Just at evening the white-throated sparrows, from the thickets, call
their sweet, clear good-night to one another. As the darkness falls,
the calls gradually cease, until only an occasional flutter is heard
as some restless bird, not satisfied with its perch, chooses a new
position for the night.
November Fifteenth
It is now time to build winter shelters for Bob-white, and to begin
to feed the winter birds. Cut pine or evergreen boughs, and pile them
against the side of a log, leaving a _small_ opening at each end for
the quail to enter. Make the shelters on the south or east side of a
hill or bank, where it will be protected from the cold winter storms.
Now scatter buckwheat about your bird "wickey-up," as an Indian would
call it, and they will soon find it. You should feed grain to your
flock all winter.
Notes
November Sixteenth
The sparrow hawk is a summer resident in New England, Pennsylvania,
New York, and Ohio. It nests in a cavity of a tree or in a deserted
woodpecker's nest, and it will return to the same locality year after
year. The bird is no larger than a robin, and instead of being a
sparrow killer, it lives chiefly upon insects.
November Seventeenth
The opossum is the only North American member of the order Marsupialia
which has so many representatives in Australia and New Zealand. The
marsupials are the animals that have pouches over their abdomens in
which they _carry their young_. Some people wrongly include in this
order the pocket gopher, pocket mouse, and other mammals that have
cheek pouches in which they _carry food_.
November Eighteenth
Accounts of the capture of "extremely rare and valuable monkey-faced
owls," are often published. These owls are nothing more than barn owls,
which are so common in the Southern States. They nest in holes in
banks, in cavities in trees, or in church belfries. A pair has occupied
one of the towers in the Smithsonian Institution at Washington, for
several years.
Notes
November Nineteenth
The common meadow mouse makes a docile and interesting pet, if captured
without frightening or exciting him. Within fifteen minutes from the
time of his capture he will often lose all fear, and while you hold him
he will wash his face with his paws.
November Twentieth
The snowy, and the great-gray, owls, both inhabitants of the
North-land, are the largest American members of the owl family. They
are more frequently seen in the daytime and are much tamer than other
owls, often permitting one to approach very close to them. Except
in very severe weather they rarely come below the Canadian border.
In disposition the great-horned owl and the snow owl are considered
fierce, still they can be tamed, even if captured when adult.
November Twenty-first
It is a general impression that bears hug their victims to death. When
enraged a bear will charge to within a few feet of a man, rise upon its
hind legs, and strike him down with its fore paws, or hold him with
them while it attacks his neck and shoulders with its teeth. After
inflicting several wounds a bear will often leave its victim without
further injuring him.
[Illustration: Photograph by Jackson.
THE GREAT HORNED OWL AND THE SNOWY OWL CAN BE TAMED.]
Notes
November Twenty-second
The blue jay is one of the birds who remain with us throughout the
entire year. His habits are not the same in all parts of his range. In
some localities he is strictly a bird of the forests, while in others,
he is common in our city parks and shade-trees. A relative of the crow,
he is charged with robbing nests of their eggs and young birds. He is
fond of nuts also, and will eat any kind that his strong bill can open.
November Twenty-third
Hawks and owls will respond quickly if you make a squeaking noise like
a mouse, and a fox will stop and prick up his ears, then turn and
proceed in the direction of the sound until he discovers its source.
A weasel will dash toward the hunter, and even after it sees him, its
curiosity keeps it from retreating at once.
November Twenty-fourth
The Thanksgiving turkey that we eat about now "is derived from the wild
turkey of Mexico, which was introduced into Europe shortly after the
Conquest and was thence brought to eastern North America." (Chapman
and Reed.) The tips of the upper tail-coverts of the domestic and the
Mexican turkey are whitish, while those of the wild turkey of eastern
United States are rusty brown.
[Illustration: BLUE JAYS.]
Notes
November Twenty-fifth
A skunk knows every woodchuck and rabbit burrow in his neighborhood. In
the woods he will often visit hole after hole with great precision, but
in the meadows he is more apt to follow the fences, frequently cutting
across a corner in order to shorten the distance to a burrow. Probably
experience has taught him that rabbits are often found in woodchuck
holes and that meadow mice also take shelter in them during the winter.
November Twenty-sixth
The tallest and heaviest of all birds is the African ostrich, but the
condor of South America has the widest expanse of wing. In the United
States, the California vulture, once very rare, but now steadily
increasing, is broadest across the wings. The whooping crane stands the
highest, and the swans are the heaviest of our birds.
November Twenty-seventh
Do not kill the bats that you find passing the winter in your garret,
or those that fly into your house in the summer. They destroy large
numbers of gnats and mosquitoes, and do no harm. The belief that they
get into one's hair is ridiculous, and it is seldom that they are
infested with vermin. A South American species has been known to suck
the blood of horses and cattle.
Notes
November Twenty-eighth
On returning to the nest and discovering that a cowbird has laid
an egg in it, some species of birds will roll the egg out. But the
phoebe, red-eyed vireo, chipping sparrow, and yellow warbler will
sometimes cover the eggs with nesting material and build up the sides
of the nest, thus burying its own and the cowbird's egg. Another set
of eggs is then laid and the bird begins to sit, but the buried eggs
are too deep to be affected by the warmth of the parent's body, so the
"lazy-bird's" purpose is defeated.
November Twenty-ninth
In the abandoned birds' nests that are placed near the ground in shrubs
and small trees close to hazel-nut bushes and bitter-sweet vines, you
will often find a handful of hazel-nuts or bitter-sweet berries. They
were put there by the white-footed mice and the meadow mice who visit
these storehouses regularly. Very often a white-footed mouse will cover
a bird's nest with fine dried grass and inner bark, and make a nest for
itself.
November Thirtieth
Between now and the first of March you may expect to see large flocks
of red-polls feeding on seeds among the weeds and low bushes, and
cross-bills in the pine and spruce trees shelling seeds from the cones.
[Illustration: Reproduced by the courtesy of the Field Columbian Museum.
A FOUR-STORIED WARBLER'S NEST. EACH STORY REPRESENTS AN ATTEMPT BY THE
WARBLER TO AVOID BECOMING FOSTER PARENT OF A YOUNG COWBIRD.]
Notes
=December=
December First
Besides being the means by which they capture their prey, the talons
of an eagle, hawk, or owl are their weapons of defence. Their bill
can really inflict but little injury. When wounded one of these birds
will throw itself upon its back, and strike with its feet, burying its
talons deep in the flesh of its adversary.
December Second
The gray or wood gray fox lives about the rocks and ledges. It is a
noted tree climber, and, being less fleet than the red fox, it often
eludes pursuing dogs by taking shelter in the rocks, or amid the
branches of a tree. Running a short distance, it will spring to the
side of a tree and scramble up the trunk. Sometimes it falls back and
is obliged to repeat the performance several times before it is able to
gain the first branches, from which it can easily climb from limb to
limb as high as it chooses.
December Third
The junco and the horned lark in some localities are called "snowbird,"
but the snow bunting, or snowflake, is the only bird correctly so
called. These birds do not look alike, but the appearance of the three
species in large numbers during the winter is confusing to one not
versed in bird-lore.
[Illustration: SNOW BUNTING.]
Notes
December Fourth
Why is it that most carnivorous animals, as well as most birds of prey,
refuse to eat shrews and moles? It may be due to the strong pungent
odor of their bodies. Cats will catch them and play with them, but owls
are the only creatures that seem to care for them for food.
December Fifth
Mr. Newhall says that a lady told him that an Oneida Indian once cured
her grandfather of a severe illness. He afterward learned that the
medicine used was an extract of witch-hazel, and later prepared and
sold it widely.
December Sixth
The great-horned owl, hoot owl, or cat owl, is the only bird that from
choice will feed upon skunks. Although rabbits are abundant and easy to
capture, his Owlship seems to prefer to battle against the long teeth
and disagreeable odor of the skunk in order to dine upon its flesh.
Nearly all owls of this species that are killed in winter are strongly
scented with the skunk's odor.
Notes
December Seventh
The two glands that hold the skunk's vile-smelling fluid are about the
size and shape of a pecan nut. They are strictly _organs of protection_
and are never used except in _extreme_ cases of defence. They are
situated between the skin and the flesh near the root of the tail. When
brought into use, a number of strong muscles encircling them contract,
and a fine spray of the fluid is thrown off; the tail taking no part in
its distribution.
December Eighth
Snakes are not slimy and clammy; they do not cover their food with
saliva before swallowing it, and the forked flexible member which darts
in and out of their mouth is not a "stinger," but the tongue. They do
not swallow their young in cases of danger, and they have no power to
"charm," or hypnotize.
December Ninth
The bald-faced hornet attaches his large, cone-shaped, paper nests
under the eaves of houses, in garrets, or to the limbs of trees.
Collecting the minute fibres that adhere to the weather-beaten fences
and buildings, the hornets mix it with saliva and make a crude quality
of paper. To enlarge a nest, the inside walls are torn away and the
material is used to add to the outside layer. Like bumblebees, the
workers and drones die in the fall, the queen hibernating.
Notes
December Tenth
Beautiful as the deer are and innocent as they seem, they cannot be
trusted, as attendants in zoological parks can testify. A bear will
seldom attack a keeper without provocation, and when he does he will
usually give warning before he charges. Not so with a buck of the deer
family. Greeting his best friend in the most cordial manner, he may,
without warning, charge when the man's back is turned, and gore or
trample him to death.
December Eleventh
The American eagle is more often spoken of as the "bald eagle," a name
which misleads many people since the bird is not "bald" at all. The
top of its head is as thickly feathered as the heads of most birds.
Probably some one thought that the white head and neck made the eagle
appear bald, hence the name. The birds reach the third year before the
head and tail begin to turn white.
December Twelfth
The little striped skunk, or hydrophobia skunk of the South, West, and
Southwest, is about half the size of our common skunk. It frequently
goes mad and attacks people with great fury. Cowboys and other persons
compelled to sleep on the ground in the open have been bitten by it and
have died of hydrophobia. _It is the only_ North American animal that
will deliberately _attack a sleeping person_.
Notes
December Thirteenth
"Till a comparatively recent date it was not certainly known that eels
have eggs which develop outside of the body. Even now the breeding
habits are scarcely known, but it is supposed that the spawning takes
place late in the fall or during the winter, near the mouth of rivers,
on muddy bottoms." (Bean.)
December Fourteenth
The so-called glass snake is truly speaking not a snake, but a legless
lizard. It forms part of the food of the true snakes. Its body is very
brittle, a light blow with a stick being sufficient to break it in two.
Although it is true that another tail will grow (provided not more than
a fourth of the body is missing), it is not true that the broken pieces
will eventually unite, or that a head and body will grow on the tail
piece.
December Fifteenth
How often you read of, or heard some one speak of, the whale as "the
largest of fish." A whale is a _mammal_, because it suckles its young.
It is not only the largest of _living_ mammals, but, according to Mr.
Lucas, the large ones are larger than any of the enormous reptiles that
inhabited the world before the advent of man, and whose fossil remains
may be seen in any of our large museums.
Notes
December Sixteenth
The quiet little tree sparrows spend the winter with us feeding on the
seeds of weeds and grasses. You will find their tracks in the snow
where flocks have been eating ragweed seeds, and you are likely to see
some of them fluttering about in the bushes along the river banks,
or in the frozen swamps uttering a pleasing call note. They can be
identified by the distinct black spot on the breast and their pinkish
bills.
December Seventeenth
There is no better time to study the tracks and nightly doings of
animals than after the first fall of snow. Start early in the morning
and see how many stories the tracks have written.
December Eighteenth
Following the tracks of a white-footed mouse in the woods, they lead
you to a hollow log, at the entrance of which are a number of beech-nut
shells, remains of a midnight feast taken from a winter store-house.
From here the mouse went into the field, and then the tracks stop
abruptly, leaving you to guess the rest. Possibly one of the several
species of owls that inhabit your locality could explain the sudden
ending of the trail.
Notes
December Nineteenth
Continuing through the woods, you soon discover the trail of two
birds whose feet are not quite the size of those of bantam chickens.
Following them a few hundred yards you come to a bedded spot in the
snow, beneath the drooping branches of a spruce. Not far from here, two
ruffed grouse rise, with a loud whirr of wings, and speed off before
your startled eyes. These are the birds whose tracks you have been
following.
December Twentieth
Don't follow a fox track with the intention of overtaking the maker,
unless you have dogs. He may be ten miles away at that very moment, and
even if you should draw near to him, he is almost certain to elude your
sight by sneaking away.
December Twenty-first
You may find where a muskrat has left the stream and started across
the meadow to a marsh near by. Suddenly a mink's track breaks into the
trail and follows in the same direction, and you soon come to a spot
where the snow is much disturbed, and the tracks mingle in confusion.
Blood-stains on the snow and matted places show where the two have
fought a battle for existence. A broad, deep trail leading to a stump
indicates that some object has been dragged across the snow, and there
you find the half-eaten remains of the muskrat.
Notes
December Twenty-second
What tracks are these, trailing along the fence between a brush-lot
and a buckwheat field? At the corner of the fence human footprints and
those of a dog join them. All now travel in the same direction, first
on one side of the fence, then on the other. Finally the bird tracks
stop abruptly and the marks of wings on each side of them show that the
birds have taken flight. The dog has suddenly bolted, and where his
tracks turn back is a dash in the snow and a few quail feathers which
tell the story; a hunter has bagged his game.
December Twenty-third
An open brush-lot bordering woods is the best place to find cotton-tail
rabbit tracks. Judging from the number of tracks and the spaces between
them, the rabbits have been playing tag, or attempting to break the
record for running and jumping. They did rest, however, for beneath a
bush, and by the side of a stump, we find impressions in the snow where
they sat down. If it is a warm day, you are apt to surprise one taking
a sun-bath.
December Twenty-fourth