Birds and All Nature Vol VII, No. 1, January 1900

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Various. Birds and All Nature Vol VII, No. 1, January 1900

JANUARY

OLD YEAR AND YOUNG YEAR

THE VIRGINIA RAIL

COTTON FABRICS

THE WISE LITTLE BIRD

THE GRASSHOPPER SPIDER

THE BLUE-WINGED TEAL

THE GRAY STUMP

REMEMBERED SONGS

THE YELLOW-HEADED BLACKBIRD

THE YELLOW-HEADED BLACKBIRD

WITH OPEN EYES

BIRD NOTES

SOUTHWARD BOUND

THE BLACK SQUIRREL

THE ROBIN'S MISTAKE

THE DOVE. NOAH'S MESSENGER

THE WEASEL

BIRDS AND THE WEATHER

STRANGE ILLUMINATIONS

THE PINK HOUSE IN THE APPLE TREE

THE QUINCE

THE YOUNG NATURALIST

LIQUID AIR

COMMON MINERALS AND VALUABLE ORES

THE DANGER FROM THE IMPORTATION OF ANIMALS

THE AMERICAN BISON

THE TURTLE DOVE

THE SORROWFUL TREE

MARKED WITH BLEEDING HEARTS

THE LILY OF THE VALLEY

MUSHROOMS ON BENCHES

Отрывок из книги

THIS miniature of Rallus elegans or king rail, is found throughout the whole of temperate North America as far as the British Provinces, south to Guatemala and Cuba, and winters almost to the northern limit of its range. A specimen was sent by Major Bendire to the National Museum from Walla Walla, Wash., which was taken Jan. 16, 1879, when the snow was more than a foot deep. Other names of the species are: Lesser clapper rail, little red rail, and fresh-water mud hen. The male and female are like small king rails, are streaked with dark-brown and yellowish olive above, have reddish chestnut wing coverts, are plain brown on top of head and back of neck, have a white eyebrow, white throat, breast and sides bright rufous; the flanks, wing linings and under tail coverts are broadly barred with dark brown and white; eyes red.

The name of this rail is not as appropriate to-day as it was when Virginia included nearly all of the territory east of the Mississippi. It is not a local bird, but nests from New York, Ohio, and Illinois northward. Short of wing, with a feeble, fluttering flight when flushed from the marsh, into which it quickly drops again, as if incapable of going farther, it is said this small bird can nevertheless migrate immense distances. One small straggler from a flock going southward, according to Neltje Blanchan, fell exhausted on the deck of a vessel off the Long Island coast nearly a hundred miles at sea.

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Parliament imposed a fine of $2,500 for sending American cotton cloth to England, and another for exporting machinery to America. Massachusetts at once gave a bonus of $2,500, and afterwards $10,000 to encourage the introduction of cotton machinery. Francis Cabot Lowell was an American inventor. He brought the business of weaving cotton cloth to this country. There had been some small attempts before his time, but he introduced it extensively and profitably. He established a cotton factory in Massachusetts in 1810, and was very successful. In that year he was in England, dealing with makers of cotton goods. The idea occurred to him that it would be more profitable to make the goods on his side of the water where the cotton was raised. He acted promptly. Lowell, Massachusetts, is named after him, and stands as a monument to his good judgment and inventive genius.

Three years after he had established the manufacture of cotton goods in this country, he invented the famous power loom. That was a great step in advance. It has done more for the industry than anything since the days of Hargreaves and Arkwright. By the use of power these looms set the spindles running at a remarkable rate of speed. Twenty years ago the world wondered at the velocity of our spindles, 5,000 revolutions in one minute. But it has kept on wondering ever since, and the speed of spindles has constantly increased as if there could be no limit. 15,000 revolutions are now common.

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