Among all the changes mentioned, some of us have been spectators of
nearly an extinction of birds in our valley and its vicinity, many
different kinds of which formerly visited us in the spring of the year
and continued with us during the summer and a part of the fall months.
Their active flights from place to place and from tree to tree, and
their musical voices of different sounds enlivened and cheered our
lonely valley. These all had to be active to gratify their cravings of
what was necessary to sustain life. Some wandered along streams of
water to procure their food; some hovered high in the air of the
atmosphere, from which they surveyed the lands and waters below them
to discover the objects they craved for food, from which elevation the
hawk would sometimes dart swiftly downward among a flock of birds and
catch and make a prey of one of them, as well as of his objects on the
ground. The fish-hawk hovered over the waters, the chicken-hawk over
the landscapes to entrap their prey. The owl made his excursions in the
night to seek his food, and each of the different tribes of birds
possessed its own means of obtaining a living. Many of the worms and
insects on the ground, and of those small insects which impregnated the
air of the atmosphere, became a prey of birds.
Among the different tribes of birds which visited us were the following,
to wit: Blackbirds of different kinds, crows, robins, swallows of
different kinds, nightingales, snipe of different kinds, killdeers,
cranes of different kinds, hawks of different kinds, owls of different
kinds, turtle doves, whippoorwills, wrens of different kinds, bluebirds,
partridges, quails, wood-peckers, eagles, snow birds, and a few other
kinds.
The pleasing enjoyments of all species of birds are evidences of the
goodness of their Creator; and the adaptation of all kinds of living
creatures whatever to their respective modes of life, are evidences of
a preexisting plan for the formation of each, and the manner in which
each shall be furnished and receive whatever is necessary for its
preservation during life.
Snakes have also become nearly extinguished in this valley within the
last half century, previous to which there were yet some rattlesnakes,
pilots, blacksnakes, sissing adders, gartersnakes, greensnakes, and
milk-snakes, and toads and frogs are not as numerous now as in former
times.
Now, although some of these reptiles may appear to us as unnecessary
nuisances, yet they undoubtedly have answered certain good purposes in
their sphere of being. A few persons of this neighborhood have suffered
from the bites of poisonous snakes, but remedies were here known in
former times which saved the lives of those who were bitten. Their
number within my knowledge was six.
There was a singular occurrence in Rochester, in Ulster county, in
former times, to wit: At an early period of the settlement of that
place, a certain man in time of harvest in going with a wagon, with
shelvings on it, to fetch a load of grain, and, passing near a
rattlesnake in the grain field, stopped his team, and, with a fork
which had a very long handle, wherewith as he stood in the wagon he
reached the snake and began to tease it and soon saw that it began to
swell, and being anxious to see to what size it would expand itself, he
continued to tease it until its body became swollen to a very large
size, when it made a spring and passed over wagon and shelvings without
touching any of it and came down on the ground on the other side of the
wagon, and, in passing over it, the man very narrowly escaped being
bitten in his face by the snake as he stood in the wagon. Such an
occurrence was a good warning against trying such experiments.
Another occurrence of anterior times will show the effect of hunger,
in the last stage of life, of a certain hawk.
At a certain time when Gerardus Van Inwegen and Abraham Cuddeback were
catching pigeons with a net, a hawk came and lit on a fence near them,
and continued there watching the pigeons until they had made some
hauls; and all the ado they made to spring the net, run to it, kill and
carry the pigeons, &c., did not scare the hawk so as to drive him from
his place, but from his action appeared to want a pigeon. This caused
Van Inwegen to try the following experiment to catch him. He took a
pigeon in his hand and held it at arm's length before him towards the
hawk, and walked slowly towards him, and when the pigeon got within
his reach he took hold of it to eat it, when Van Inwegen caught the
hawk and found him to be old and starved, and had become unable to
procure his food.
Different opinions have existed in relation to the government of the
actions of animals, birds and other creatures. In respect to which, it
is difficult in many cases to determine whether certain of their
actions are governed by the dictates of mind, to answer certain
purposes, or by an impression on their natures to cause their actions
without design. The cravings of food and other bodily desires emanate
from the nature created in their bodies. The way and manner of each
species to procure its food are dictates of the mind, in which some,
if not all, display as much tact and correctness to obtain their
objects as the mind of man could direct in their respective bodily
capacities. The fear of an enemy, or of danger from any cause, is a
dictate of the mind and affects the body, and both will unite their
efforts to defend or escape the danger the means of which the mind
directs, and the body performs accordingly thereto.
The fox, the ground-hog and some other creatures dig holes in the
ground, sometimes under and between rocks, in which to hide and escape
from being caught by an enemy, and for a safe place to rest and sleep.
The squirrels will seek places in hollow trees for their safety. The
bears, which were here in former times, when cold weather commenced in
November or December retired from the open woods into those which were
thickly timbered with hemlock, and there sought and made places under
rocks and roots of trees in which to lay up all winter, and continued
in their respective places without eating all winter and remained fat.
Hunters from this neighborhood sometimes went there in former times, in
February or March when warm weather commenced, and found them with
their dogs, and killed them in their holes, in which some were confined
by the frost of the ground and were fat.
The beaver performs the greatest work of the animal species, which
comprehends a more extensive source of enjoyments than what any other
creatures have achieved, all of which appears to be a preconcerted plan
of their own to obtain the results of their labors, but still may be,
as some have thought, an instinct of their natures to do it without
design. A company of beavers will unite, select the best place to build
a dam across a stream of water where they can overflow the greatest
extent of ground by damming the stream, and the company will all engage
in the work cutting down brush and saplings with their teeth and
bringing the same to the place selected for a dam, and there place them
in the stream so as to form a dam, for which they make use of mud, clay
and ground, to intermix with the brush, so as to confine in the dam
both brush, ground, &c., and also to make it tight. After this work
is all completed, a male and female will unite and dig a hole in the
side of a bank, which the water will not overflow in times of freshets,
and commence to dig it under water and raise gradually until they get
into dry ground above the surface level of the water in times of
freshets, where they make a place in which to lay, repose and sleep in
safety, where wolves, dogs and enemies of every kind cannot find them.
The pond also becomes a safe place for them, in which they can have
their sportive exercises and furnish them with food. There was in
ancient times a beaver-dam in this town near the bridge across Basha's
Kill, on the land of Abraham Cuddeback, Esq., which dammed the water so
as to overflow a large tract of bog meadow land above the bridge. There
also was a beaver-dam across the Old Dam Brook, on the land of Abraham
J. Cuddeback, Esq., which also overflowed a tract of swamp and bog
meadow land. There undoubtedly have been others in ancient times in
this town. These were the two best places in this part of the town for
Beaver dams, and were on streams not subject to freeze much.
It appears evident that the genius and natural activity of some animals
and birds is greater than that of others, and that all possess thought,
memory, discernment, and many of the passions and affections like those
of human beings; and have a degree of speech in which, by articulate
sounds, they can inform each other of danger from an enemy, of the
finding of food, calling each other to come and partake of it, or
forbidding it; and no doubt a great part of the different species of
animals and birds, especially the latter, have more of an extensive
language, to communicate to and with each of their respective tribes,
than what man can discover. When a man happens to come unawares near to
a partridge with young ones, she will give immediate warning to her
brood to run and hide, and if the man pursues them, or comes near to
them, she will approach to him and flutter as though she was unable to
get out of his way, to entice the man to follow her, but will keep at
such a distance from him that he cannot catch her; and in this manner
she will lead the man away from her young in pursuit of herself, until
he leaves them and her fear ceases, when she will return to the brood,
call them to her, and attend to them in her usual way. Other birds also
have their ways and means of causing their young ones to run and hide
for fear of an enemy, and to entice him away from the place where the
young chickens are hid. All animals will save and defend their young
offspring to the utmost of their power, in which they generally make
use of the best means they possess.
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