Birds and Nature, Vol. 12 No. 2 [July 1902]

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Various. Birds and Nature, Vol. 12 No. 2 [July 1902]

SEPTEMBER

THE PALM WARBLER (Dendroica palmarum.)

OLD-FASHIONED OUTINGS. PART II

OUR KINSMAN

THE LONG-BILLED CURLEW (Numenius longirostris.)

ON JEWELLED WINGS

THE EVERGLADE KITE (Rostrhamus sociabilis.)

THE ANIMALS’ FAIR. PART I

THE BIRD AND THE MOUSE

THE GRASSHOPPER SPARROW (Ammodramus savannarum passerinus.)

A HAPPY FAMILY

THE DAMSEL FLY

FELDSPAR

THE WOOD HARMONY

THE COTTAGE BY THE WOOD

A NEW ARGYNNIS

BUTTERFLY

A PROLIFIC PEACH TREE STUMP

THE COWRIES AND SHELL MONEY

THE BIRD OF SUPERSTITION

THE WISCONSIN DELLS

MY SUMMER NIGHT

THE CHERRY (Prunus cerasus L.)

NASTURTIUMS

Отрывок из книги

There are two varieties of this species, the Palm or Red-poll Warbler, and the yellow palm or yellow red-poll warbler. The latter is a native of the Atlantic States and breeds from Maine northward to Hudson Bay. The former frequents the interior of the United States and migrates northward as far as the Great Slave Lake. It is seldom seen in the Atlantic States except during its migrations.

In this connection the account of Mr. William Dutcher, regarding the first observation of the Palm Warbler in Long Island, is of interest. It is the more interesting because it partially answers the question so often asked, “Where do the birds die?” Mr. Dutcher says, “During the night of the twenty-third of September, 1887, a great bird wave was rolling southward along the Atlantic coast. Mr. E. J. Udall, of the Fire Island Light, wrote me that the air was full of birds. Very many of the little travellers met with an untimely fate, for Mr. Udall picked up at the foot of the light house tower, and shipped to me, no less than five hundred and ninety-five victims. Twenty-five species were included in the number, all of them being land birds, very nearly half of which were Wood Warblers. Among them I found one Palm Warbler.”

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The Palm Warbler’s nest is a trim structure, usually placed upon the ground and never far above it. The walls consist of interwoven dry grasses, stems of the smaller herbaceous plants, bark fibres and various mosses. It is lined with very fine grasses, vegetable down and feathers. Though this home is placed in quite open places, a retired spot is usually selected. Here are laid the white or buffy white eggs, more or less distinctly marked with a brownish color, and a family of four or five of these peculiar Warblers is raised.

Some years before that, this boy was out with another when the harbor was full of herring, and a whale appeared which had followed the schools in. And he popped up so frequently and blew in such unexpected places that the boys deemed it best to make for the nearest land. Meantime the whale rose in their wake with his jaws wide open in the middle of a school of herring, and they saw a lot of the fish flipping dry in his throat; and the boat came in and all the passengers stood on deck looking at him, and then he got excited and ran aground, the tide being low, on some shoals in behind the Island, and thrashed about so, they thought he must have hurt himself. It was a thrilling afternoon.

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