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                            BIRDS and NATURE
                           IN NATURAL COLORS


                            A MONTHLY SERIAL
                FORTY ILLUSTRATIONS BY COLOR PHOTOGRAPHY
                     A GUIDE IN THE STUDY OF NATURE


                         Two Volumes Each Year
                               VOLUME XII
                     June, 1902, to December, 1902


                     EDITED BY WILLIAM KERR HIGLEY


                                CHICAGO
                        A. W. MUMFORD, Publisher
                           203 Michigan Ave.
                                  1902

                          Copyright, 1902, by
                             A. W. MUMFORD




                           BIRDS AND NATURE.
                   ILLUSTRATED BY COLOR PHOTOGRAPHY.
  Vol. XII.                    JUNE, 1902.                       No. 1.




                               CONTENTS.


    JUNE.                                                              1
    WAY OF JUNE.                                                       1
    THE SWALLOW-TAILED KITE. (_Elanoides forficatus_.)                 2
    TO THE BIRDS.                                                      5
    OLD-FASHIONED OUTINGS. PART I.                                     6
    THE ALICE’S THRUSH. (_Turdus aliciae_.)                           11
    A BIT OF FICTION FROM BIRDLAND.                                   12
    THE CAROLINA CHICKADEE. (_Parus carolinensis_.)                   14
    DICK. (THE STORY OF A DOG.)                                       17
    THE VIOLET-GREEN SWALLOW. (_Tachycineta thalassina_.)             23
        Isn’t it wonderful, when you think                            23
    A PRETTY HOUSE-FINCH.                                             24
    THE THRUSH’S SOLO.                                                25
    SPRINGS, GEYSERS AND ARTESIAN WELLS.                              26
    WHERE WE FOUND THE LADY-BIRDS. (A TRUE INCIDENT.)                 31
    CHERRY AND I.                                                     32
    STARFISHES.                                                       35
    THE FIRE-WEED OR GREAT WILLOW-HERB. (_Chamaenerion angustifolium_.)
                                                                      38
    THE SEA OR MARSH PINK. (_Sabbatia stellaris_.)                    41
    THE WORLD.                                                        41
    THE WATER OUSEL.                                                  42
    TOBACCO. (_Nicotiana tabacum_ L.)                                 43
        Among the beautiful pictures                                  48




                                 JUNE.


  O month whose promise and fulfillment blend,
    And burst in one! it seems the earth can store
    In all her roomy house no treasure more;
  Of all her wealth no farthing have to spend
  On fruit, when once this stintless flowering end.
    And yet no tiniest flower shall fall before
    It hath made ready at its hidden core
  Its tithe of seed, which we may count and tend
  Till harvest. Joy of blossomed love, for thee
    Seems it no fairer thing can yet have birth?
  No room is left for deeper ecstasy?
  Watch well if seeds grow strong, to scatter free
    Germs for thy future summers on the earth.
    A joy which is but joy soon comes to dearth.
                                                    —Helen Hunt Jackson.




                              WAY OF JUNE.


  Dark-red roses in a honeyed wind swinging,
    Silk-soft hollyhock,  like the moon;
  Larks high overhead lost in light, and singing—
    That’s the way of June.
  Dark red roses in the warm wind falling
    Velvet leaf by velvet leaf, all the breathless noon;
  Far off sea waves calling, calling, calling—
    That’s the way of June.
  Sweet as scarlet strawberry under wet leaves hidden,
    Honeyed as the damask rose, lavish as the moon,
  Shedding lovely light on things forgotten, hopes forbidden—
    That’s the way of June.
                                                     —Pall Mall Gazette.




                        THE SWALLOW-TAILED KITE.
                       (_Elanoides forficatus._)


  Hawks in highest heaven hover,
  Soar in sight of all their victims:
  None can charge them with deception,
  All their crimes are deeds of daring.
                                          —Frank Bolles, “The Blue Jay.”

The late Dr. Coues enthusiastically writes of the beauty of the
Swallow-tailed Kite in the following words:

“Marked among its kind by no ordinary beauty of form and brilliancy of
color, the Kite courses through the air with a grace and buoyancy it
would be vain to rival. By a stroke of the thin-bladed wings and a
lashing of the cleft tail, its flight is swayed to this or that side in
a moment, or instantly arrested. Now it swoops with incredible
swiftness, seizes without a pause, and bears its struggling captive
aloft, feeding from its talons as it flies. Now it mounts in airy
circles till it is a speck in the blue ether and disappears. All its
actions, in wantonness or in severity of the chase, display the dash of
the athletic bird, which, if lacking the brute strength and