Читать книгу Neighbors with Wings and Fins and Some Others, for Young People - James Johonnot - Страница 8
ОглавлениеLONG LEGS FOR WADING.
1. In the fall a great many people pack their trunks and follow the birds in their flight southward. They find a resting-place in Florida, where the air is so mild that they can live in tents all the year round.
2. While their Northern friends are wading through snow, or shivering round the fire, they are breathing the perfumed air of the pine-woods, or rambling through orange-groves, where the trees are ablaze with golden fruit.
3. If we were among those who could go
"Where no winter our footsteps can wrong,
Where flowers are blossoming all the year long,
Where the shade of the palm-tree is over our home,
And the orange and lemon are white in the bloom,"
before returning we would like to see some of the curious things which Florida keeps in store for us.
4. Some fine morning our party sets off for the shore, perhaps two or three days away. Our railway is a winding path through the pine and palmetto woods, our car is a rickety old wagon which Ponce de Leon might have used, and our engine is a pair of mules.
5. We jolt along over roads rough with palmetto-roots, but shaded by the umbrella-tops of the trees. Our hunters find plenty of game, and, while camping at noon or night beside some spring, we have a royal feast of quail or wild-turkey. If we tire of this diet, we can have venison or bear-meat for the asking.
6. Our journey ends on the banks of a body of water, made up of about equal parts of bay, swamp, and river. A sluggish stream oozes through the marshes, and enters the bay a few miles west. A long line of little islands or reefs separates the bay from the Gulf of Mexico, just beyond.
7. Here we pitch our tent at nightfall. Wearied with our journey, we prepare for rest. But the twilight is full of strange music. All around us is heard the "chuck-will's-widow" in the place of the "whip-poor-will" of our Northern homes. From the water near by comes up the cry of the loon, and from the reefs that lie farther off come the screams of multitudes of sea-birds blended by the distance, so that the sound is like the rush of a far-off train of cars.
The Spoonbill.
8. Lulled by the evening concert, we drop to sleep, and the music passes into our dreams. At daybreak we are called back to life by a delightful morning carol. The melody of the Carolina wren floats down from the tree-tops in sweet little warbles and snatches of song; and the mocking-bird fills the air with his cat-like cries and imitations of all the other birds of the forest.
9. With the day our new school opens, and study begins—the study of that grand old book of Nature. But we must move with care. Many birds, who do not decline to show themselves "dressed in their Sunday's best," are shy about exposing the secrets of their homes and house-keeping to strangers.
10. Into a thicket near by and lonely we creep, and sit perfectly still. By-and-by, through the leaves, black specks appear in the sky. Down they come, nearer and nearer, till the shadow of wide-spreading wings is clearly reflected in the water. Then slowly, with fluttering and flapping, great white herons descend in flocks upon the shore.
11. At a little distance their long legs can not be seen, and their white bodies seem to float in the air a few feet above the earth. Soon they move in companies into the shallow water, where they stand half-leg deep. Their long necks are drawn back into their bodies, so as to balance the sharp and heavy bills. So still do they stand that we begin to think they have gone to sleep, when, quick as a flash, a neck is darted down and the bill grasps some unlucky frog, or fish, or young alligator which comes in the way.
12. Should the prey be small enough, it is swallowed at once; but, should it be large and inclined to fight for its life, the huge bill closes upon it like a vise, and the bird flies to some neighboring tree, where it can have its fight and dinner undisturbed. Eels and young alligators it beats to death by repeated blows of its bill.
The Gray Heron.
13. If other food fails, the heron stamps upon the soft mud, and eats such worms and bugs as are pounded out from beneath. When its appetite is satisfied, it goes to some quiet spot on the land, and stands upon one leg and sleeps for many hours.
14. In some seasons of the year, from our hiding-place we can see flocks of flamingoes, with their scarlet coats, floating in the air, like rosy clouds. Or they are fishing in the water, their tinted bodies in fine contrast with the pure white of the heron. These birds are also waders, but their legs are longer and smaller, and their bodies are more graceful, than those of the herons.
15. We may observe the heron and other waders, however, without taking a journey to Florida. The great blue heron is found in the regions of the lakes and swamps all over the United States. Its habits are very much like those of the white heron.
16. In the breeding-season the herons collect in great numbers in some lone swamp, where the ground is covered with old logs and brush, and tall, half-decayed cedar-trees rise out of the mud and water. In the tops of these trees they build rude nests from a few sticks, and here the young birds are hatched and reared.
17. The sacred ibis is a wading-bird, about the size of a common barn-yard fowl. Its bill is curved downward in a curious way. Its home is in Northern Africa. The Egyptians worshiped the ibis as a sacred bird, it is said, because it cleared the country of venomous serpents. An ibis similar to the sacred ibis is found in our Southern States.
The Sacred Ibis.
18. The spoon-bill is a near kin to the heron. Its bill is so wide that it can scoop up its prey. Like the heron, it fishes; and, like the duck, it searches for worms in the mud. The first year its color is a dark chestnut, the second year it changes to a roseate hue, and the third year to a bright scarlet.
