To one who cares little for natural objects a bit of bottom land in
autumn has few attractions, but to the botanist of experience or to a
student of nature, from late July till the first frost comes, such a
place is a continuous delight.
Perhaps you have seen this very picture. If so, have you studied its
details?
A half acre of swamp, which in the springtime presented a dainty
background of yellowish green willows and a foreground of green pasture
dotted with dandelions and blue violets, has now transformed itself into
a Persian effect of gorgeous color. Blue, pink, brown, green, red,
purple, white, lavender, yellow, orange brown, and these through
tintings and shadings that a modern Titian would never produce, even
should he wear his brush to a stub, for the very simple reason that he
couldn’t.
Plant life has here run riot and because of their dense growth the
varieties are almost unaccountable.
Among the showier members of this very mixed growing effect, in color,
brightest is purple iron weed and the helianthus.
But joe-pye weed tosses up his woolly pink head and flauntingly asks,
“With that big yellow and black butterfly on my crown am I not more
showy than they?” He has to be gently reminded that all his brothers are
not wearing butterflies, which fact leads to a negative decision—still
he is a beauty.
Then the corners festooned with clematis, hop bindweed and even dodder
give to the raw edges a finish that cannot be excelled. Little dots of
cardinal, here and there, show a belated cardinal flower and bitter
sweet just ready to open hangs over the elder bushes, which form one
edge of this picture.
The paler asters in eight or ten shadings, with the exception of the New
England variety, begin to fill in the neutral patches, and golden rod is
waving yellow plumes here and there. It is a beautiful color, but looks
rather pale compared to the later sunflowers. Bone-set and yarrow and
spurge each have a place, and great bunches of bedstraw fill up the
crannies till not a square inch of earth is visible.
Some of the plants which help complete the perfect whole but which are
less numerous and showy, are the tall dead stalks of angelica, parsnips
in seed, milkweed, ragweed, mallow, nettles, vervain, blackberry, and
wild rose with scarlet bolls; and this flanked on another side by the
densest of willow and thorn.
Some of the finishing touches to this composite picture are the huge
green dragon flies, the brilliantly colored butterflies and moths, and
the catbirds and bird kindred which live in the heart of all this
magnificence, but manage to keep well on the wing, especially when the
sun shines bright and the air is soft and cool, and on days when a deep
blue sky with great white clouds is the canopy.
Mary Noland.
The air is full of hints of grief,
Strange voices touched with pain—
The pathos of the falling leaf
And rustling of the rain.
—Thomas Bailey Aldrich, “Landscape.”
[Illustration: STRIPED HYENA.
(Hyaena striata.)]
THE STRIPED HYENA.
(_Hyaena striata._)
The first Hyena in which I became interested lived in a zoölogical
garden connected with a well known park.
I cannot claim that she was a beautiful creature for, if all must be
told, she had the same ugly appearance of every other Striped Hyena. And
yet her very ugliness made her somewhat interesting. She would look at
me from her slanting eyes with an unsteady, uncanny expression. Her
thick head and neck, her stout body, her shorter hind legs and longer
front ones, causing her back to slope from shoulder to tail like a small
toboggan slide, gave her an extremely awkward look, I admit; and then
she had but four toes on each foot as is the case of all members of the
hyena family. Her body was covered with rather long coarse hair of a
yellowish gray color striped with black, her tail was short and bushy,
and along the spine the hair grew long and stiff, making a sort of mane.
Her ears were large, erect and devoid of hair, and her voice—well! it
was something to startle the uninitiated. There were shrieks, murmurs
and growls, sometimes hoarse and sometimes shrill, and yet I am told
that it is mild and musical compared with the ghostly laughter of her
cousin, the spotted hyena, and yet her voice is not pleasant to hear.
In spite of all these characteristics I was interested in Mrs. Hyena,
perhaps on account of her unhappy lot, for she was not loved as were
other animals around her. There was Duchess, the elephant, Major, the
lion, and other favored ones whose personality was recognized, as they
all had names and they received much attention. But Mrs. Hyena had no
name, for the keeper declared that she was such a miserably cowardly
mean creature that she was not worth one. She was only the “Hyena” to
him, though he had cared for her for many years and sometimes had been
obliged to put her in the hospital because her mate had mauled and
punished her so badly.
And was she not to be pitied because she was so far from those of her
own kind? for hyenas are not native in the new hemisphere and to seek
her own, she would be obliged to cross the ocean to the coast of Africa.
There she would find many of her own kind and should she cross into
southern Asia as far as the Bay of Bengal she would still find many
friends, while in central and southern Africa her cousin, the spotted
hyena, would be plentiful, and at the south, along the western coast,
her other cousin, the brown hyena, would be found.
In spite of the large area in which the various members of the family
may be found a traveler may be in the country some time without seeing
one, for they are nocturnal in their habits, hiding by day in their
haunts among the rock-cut tombs in Syria and Palestine or among holes
and caves in the rocks in other countries, sometime lurking among ruins,
but more often inhabiting a den made by digging a hole in the side of a
cliff or ravine.
But at night it is heard, if not seen, as it goes forth to seek its
food. It prefers food already killed and only attacks a living animal
when driven to it by lack of carrion. Its powerful jaws enable it to
crush the bones which other animals leave. As the cleaning up of the
world must be done in some way for the good of all, can we not believe
that the hyena has an important mission to fulfil in spite of the strong
feeling against it? It takes what other animals leave and is the vulture
among beasts.
There seems to be little known about the brown hyena. It is found in a
comparatively small region and is in some respects like the spotted
hyena though it is smaller, being about the size of the Striped Hyena.
The spotted hyena is the largest of the three, the most ferocious,
stupid and cruel. Owing to the legs being nearly of the same length it
is less awkward than the striped species.
There are no animals about whom there are so many superstitions. Even
Pliny, writing in the first century, tells us that it “imitates the
human voice among the stalls of the shepherds; and while there learns
the name of some one of them, and then calls him away and devours him.”
It is also said that coming in contact with its shadow, dogs will lose
their voice, and that, by certain magical influence “it can render any
animal immovable round which it has walked three times.” The Arabs
“believe that people who partake of the brain of the hyena become
insane, and the head of a hyena is always buried lest it should be used
by wicked sorcerers for their diabolical charms.”
They also believe that the hyena “are sorcerers in disguise, who assume
human shape by day and prowl around as hyenas by night, working
destruction upon good people.”
The stories of the body snatching propensities of the Striped Hyena are
much exaggerated. If this occurs at all it is when the body is very
lightly covered with sand and when other food is lacking.
The dislike for the hyena seems to exist wherever the animal is found.
In many parts of India, when killed, the body is treated with every mark
of indignity and then burned.
And yet the striped species is capable of great attachment. Colonel
Sykes states that “in certain districts in central India it is as
susceptible of domestication as ordinary dogs.” And Dr. Brehm, who found
every created animal interesting, once had two young hyenas for pets;
but I will give the narration in his own words. “A few days after our
first arrival in Khartoum we purchased two young hyenas for a price
equal to twenty-five cents in American money. The animals were about the
size of a half-grown terrier, clothed in a very soft, fine woolly fur of
dark gray hue and they were very spiteful, notwithstanding they had
enjoyed human society for some time. We put them in a stable and I
visited them daily. At first they were addicted to vicious biting, but
repeated sound blows overawed their resistance, and three months after
the day of purchase I could play with them as I would with a dog,
without having to fear any mischief on their part. Their affection for
me increased every day and they were overjoyed when I visited them. When
they were more than half grown they signified their pleasure in a very
strange manner. As soon as I entered the room they rushed at me with a
joyous howl, put their fore paws on my shoulder and sniffed my face.
“Later on I led them by a single string through the streets of Cairo, to
the horror of all good citizens.
“They were so affectionate that they often paid me a call without being
invited and it made a surprising as well as uncanny impression on
strangers to see us at the tea table. Each of us had a hyena at his side
and the animal sat on his haunches as quietly and sensibly as a well
behaved dog who pleads for a few scraps at the table. The hyena did that
also, and their gentle request consisted of a low but very hoarse cry.
They expressed their gratitude either by the same sounds and actions
they used in greeting me as above described, or by sniffing my hands.
“They were passionately fond of sugar, but also had a great liking for
bread, especially if it was soaked in tea. Their usual food was Pariah
dogs, which we shot for the purpose. My pets were on good terms with
each other. If one were absent for any considerable length of time there
was great joy when the two met again; in short, they proved to me quite
conclusively that even hyenas are capable of warm attachment.”
John Ainslie.