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                           BIRDS AND NATURE.
                   ILLUSTRATED BY COLOR PHOTOGRAPHY.
  Vol. XI.                   FEBRUARY, 1902.                     No. 2.




                               CONTENTS.


    FEBRUARY.                                                         49
    THE BLUE-HEADED VIREO. (_Vireo solitarius._)                      50
    BOOK AND MRS. OYSTER                                              53
    THE CALIFORNIAN THRASHER. (_Harporhynchus redivivus._)            59
    WINTER’S SECRET.                                                  60
    A QUEER PARTNERSHIP.                                              61
    THE BROAD-TAILED HUMMINGBIRD. (_Selasphorus platycercus._)        62
    A BIRD THAT HUNG HIMSELF.                                         65
    WINTER MEMORIES.                                                  66
    SOME OF OUR WINTER BIRDS. IN EASTERN MASSACHUSETTS.               67
    THE BROAD-WINGED HAWK. (_Buteo latissimus._)                      71
    THE BIRD’S COMPLAINT.                                             72
    CALIFORNIA POPPIES.                                               73
    QUARTZ.                                                           74
    MIDWINTER.                                                        79
    A CATASTROPHE IN HIGH LIFE.                                       80
    THE DOMESTIC CAT.                                                 83
    “CUBBY.”                                                          85
    SOAPWORT OR BOUNCING BET. (_Saponaria officinalis._)              86
    TURTLE-HEAD OR SNAKE-HEAD. (_Chelone glabra._)                    86
    THE POCKET BIRD.                                                  89
    THE BIRDS IN THEIR WINTER HOME. II. (In the Fields.)              90
    MUSIC-LOVING FELINES.                                             92
    FIRE-FLIES.                                                       92
    SUGAR-CANE. (_Saccharum officinarum Lin._)                        95
    DEATH OF THE FOREST MONARCH.                                      96




                               FEBRUARY.


    But Winter has yet brighter scenes—he boasts
  Splendors beyond what gorgeous summer knows;
  Or Autumn with his many fruits, and woods
  All flushed with many hues. Come when the rains
  Have glazed the snow and clothed the trees with ice,
  While the slant sun of February pours
  Into the bowers a flood of light. Approach!
  The incrusted surface shall upbear thy steps,
  And the broad arching portals of the grove
  Welcome thy entering. Look! the massy trunks
  Are cased in the pure crystal; each light spray,
  Nodding and tinkling in the breath of heaven,
  Is studded with its trembling water-drops,
  That glimmer with an amethystine light.
  But round the parent-stem the long low boughs
  Bend, in a glittering ring, and arbors hide
  The glassy floor. Oh! you might deem the spot
  The spacious cavern of some virgin mine,
  Deep in the womb of earth—where the gems grow,
  And diamonds put forth radiant rods and bud
  While amethyst and topaz—and the place
  Lit up, most royally, with the pure beam
  That dwells in them.    *  *  *  *
                               —William Cullen Bryant, “A Winter Piece.”




                         THE BLUE-HEADED VIREO.
                         (_Vireo solitarius._)


The Blue-headed Vireo, or its varieties, of which there are several,
frequent nearly the whole of North America. The typical form of the
species, that of our illustration, has a range covering Eastern North
America and extending westward to the great plains. It breeds from
Southern New England and the lake states northward to Hudson Bay and
southward in the higher altitudes of the Alleghenies. It passes the
winter in Cuba, Mexico and Central America. The Blue-headed Vireo is
frequently called the Solitary Vireo, or Greenlet, because of its
retiring habits. It is a bird of the forest and stays very close in
these quiet retreats. Yet it is, as a rule, easy of approach, seeming to
possess both curiosity and confidence. Mr. Bradford Torrey writes with
enthusiasm regarding the pretty habits of this bird. He says: “Its most
winning trait is its tameness. Wood bird as it is, it will sometimes
permit the greatest familiarities. Two birds I have seen which allowed
themselves to be stroked in the freest manner while sitting on the eggs,
and which ate from my hand as readily as any pet canary; but I have seen
others that complained loudly whenever I approached their tree. Perhaps
they had had sad experiences.”

Possessing a happy and cheerful disposition, this species, like the
other vireos, sings while working. Listening to them, we are reminded of
the lines in “The Vision of Sir Launfal”—

  “The little birds sang as if it were
  The one day of summer in all the year,
    And the very leaves seemed to sing on the trees.”

Fortunate, indeed, is he who has the pleasure of watching this Vireo
working upon its home and uttering “inexpressibly sweet and tender love
notes.”

Mr. Thomas M. Brewer says that the Blue-headed Vireo “usually makes a
nest of coarse materials somewhat loosely put together, covering it with
lichens, thus assimilating it to the moss-covered limb from which it is
suspended.” The materials used, however, are not always the same. One
nest, of which Mr. Brewer speaks, was “covered over, as if cemented,
with bits of newspaper.” The external portion of another was “composed
of the silky cover of cocoons, woven into a homogeneous and clothlike
fabric, by some process quite inexplicable.” The nests are frequently
constructed of fine bark fibers, withered grass and pine needles woven
together with moss and lined with plant down, fine grass and small,
fibrous roots.

Much has been written regarding the song of this handsome bird of the
woods. The words of Mr. Torrey perhaps best describe it. He says: “The
Solitary’s song is matchless for the tenderness of its cadence, while in
peculiarly happy moments the bird indulges in a continuous warble that
is really enchanting.” It has, too, a musical chatter and a pretty
trilled whistle.

In Mr. Keyser’s experience “the song was varied and lively, sometimes
running high in the scale, and had not that absent-minded air which
marks the roundelay of the warbling vireo. It is much more intense and
expressive.”

Mr. Brewer describes the song as a “prolonged and very peculiar ditty,
repeated at frequent intervals and always identical. It begins with a
lively and pleasant warble, of a gradually ascending scale, which at a
certain pitch suddenly breaks down into a falsetto note. The song then
rises again in a single note and ceases.”

The notes of the female suggest to Mr. Burroughs “the bleating of a tiny
lambkin.” To Mr. Nuttall “its song seems to be intermediate between that
of the red-eyed and the yellow-breasted species, having the ‘preai,
preai,’ of the latter and the fine variety of the former in its tones.”
To all “the music of the Solitary Vireo is delicious.”

                    [Illustration: BLUE-HEADED VIREO
                          (Vireo solitarius.)
                              ⅗ Life-size.
                    FROM COL. CHI. ACAD. SCIENCES.]




                          BOOK AND MRS. OYSTER


At the death of his dear mother little Willis went from his western farm
home to stay for a few years with his Aunt Jennie in an eastern seaport
town.

One day she had oysters in the shell for dinner. As his parents had
wisely tried to keep his eyes and ears keen in regard to common things,
he was full of questions.

His aunt told him that the next time she bought live oysters she would
give him some to watch and study. Only a few weeks later she was
expecting company to dinner and had a chance to keep her word.

“Fill this with water,” said she, giving him a plain glass fruit dish,
“and put your oyster in it.”

“But,” said Willis, “oysters live in sea water, which is salty.”

“Yes; they do live in sea water. In order to grow and thrive they must
have vegetable and mineral substances found in sea water. But they can
live in fresh water. Oystermen make a practice of moving them from their
banks to spots near the mouth of a river where the water is not nearly
so salty or even quite fresh. Here they get washed out and freshened.
They look plumper and some of the strong, salty taste being taken away,
they have a more delicate flavor. All the largest oysters in the market
are fattened in that way.”

Willis did as directed.

“Do you notice how the oyster is covered?” asked his aunt.

“Yes, it has two shells which are joined like a hinge at the smaller
end.”

“Do you notice that they are different?”

“One shell is larger and deeper near the hinge. The outside of it is
white and pretty. The shelly matter is laid in rings, some of which seem
full, making me think of a tucked and ruffled skirt. The other shell is
smaller, darker and nearly flat.”

“Ask Bridget if she has some small crackers to give you one. Powder it
and throw it on top of the water. If she has none a spoonful of corn
meal will do for food. Animals which are deprived of natural ways of
getting a living must be supplied with suitable food.”

When he had done that she handed him a pair of shells, in one of which
lay an oyster. “Here is another one which I had opened for you. I am
very busy to-day. While the company is here you can amuse yourself by
watching what happens. Examine the dead oyster and find out what you can
about it.”

Willis was delighted with his odd pet. He watched the live creature for
some time. At first its two shells were tightly closed. After being
quiet for some time it cautiously opened its shell a little way as
though it was peeping at him. He was so pleased that he grabbed his hat
and ran to fetch his neighbor schoolmate, Joseph. Once in a while a bit
of cracker would be drawn between the shells and, in time, disappear.
The two boys were very much interested.

“Let us look at the dead oyster, Willis.”

“All right.”

Taking a toothpick in his hand he tried to turn over the oyster in the
shell. He found that a thickened muscle near the middle part was
fastened to the half shell. Tearing it loose he saw at this place a
dark, purplish spot just like one on the other half shell.

“I wonder what makes that hard spot?”

“Oh, see, Joseph! Its body has two sides. The side lying in the deeper
piece of shell is larger. Down the middle is a division and the edges
come together something like the cover of a book. Over all is a white
covering with such pretty frilled edges. See, I can roll it back quite a
little way.”

“That is so. How pretty it is. It has no head. Does it eat? I wonder if
it has a mouth.”

Willis searched carefully for an opening. At last he found one near the
hinge.

“What is this?” asked Willis, handing his playmate a little doubled-up
thing about as large as a pea.

After examining it carefully for a moment Joseph exclaimed: “You must
have found its mouth. This is surely a baby crab which has been
swallowed. See its little legs drawn up to its body.”

Both agreed that they had found a crab. They again turned their
attention to the oyster’s mouth.

“What a large mouth for such a little animal! See how far I can put the
point of my knife into it. It must have some bowels. I wonder if its
bowels are here at the larger end. It looks puffy and dark inside. The
thing is so slippery that I can scarcely handle it.”

“Can it see, Willis?”

“I can find no eyes.”

The boys took the oyster out of the water several times that they might
see how it looked tucked so snugly between its shells. Every time they
touched it the opening was closed tight. Thus the boys spent the
afternoon.

When Joseph went home Willis said: “Come over to-morrow and we will get
auntie to tell us more about the oyster.”

After dinner Willis went to his room and watched his oyster again until
his eyes drooped.

Presently there was a thump-thump-thumping across the floor behind him.
What was Willis’s surprise to see a big library book come near and with
one leap place himself on the table. He was again surprised to see the
oyster reach a long arm out of the water and the book another long arm
from between its leaves. They two then shook hands. Both raised
themselves to a vertical position and made a bow to Willis.

“We will try to tell you what you wish to know. Then you can surprise
Aunt Jennie by telling her some things.” As he spoke Mrs. Oyster swelled
herself up so large that the soft white matter protruded from the shell;
for she had never before had the high honor of talking to a real boy.

Willis was so pleased that he clapped his hands.

Mrs. Oyster crawled up and nicely balanced herself on the edge of the
dish. Willis was speechless with surprise.

Book spoke: “This is Mrs. Oyster. She belongs to the subkingdom of
shellfish called Mollusca. All of her folks have soft bodies. As she is
protected by a shell of two parts, she is said to be a bi-valve. Her
relative, Snail,” said he, motioning with his hand, “having a single
shell is called a uni-valve.”

Looking in the direction of the movement of Book’s hand, what was his
surprise to see a snail with a shell on his back crawling across the
table. Where he came from, Willis could not tell.

“When looking at that oyster this afternoon you noticed a thickened
portion fastened to a dark spot on the valve,” said Book.

“I remember,” said Willis.

“There is a muscle,” continued Book, “fastened at the dark spot on each
valve. It becomes very strong by use. An oyster knows how to let it
stretch, thus opening the valves to allow water to enter his chamber. It
also knows how to draw it up so as to close them to keep out intruders.
The white covering over the body is called the ‘mantle’. If you notice
the inside of an oyster valve, you can see a mark showing how near to
the edge the mantle came. That is called the pallial line.

“If you will keep on looking you will succeed in finding that besides a
mouth an oyster has a stomach, liver and intestines, a nervous system,
and a heart