Kitabı oku: «Birds Illustrated by Color Photography, Vol 3. No 6, June 1898», sayfa 5

THE OLD SQUAW DUCK

HERE is an instance where the female is the head of the family indeed, for by common consent the name includes the male of this species. It has numerous other names, however, as Old Wife, South-Southerly, Long-tailed Duck, Swallow-tailed Duck, Old Injun (Massachusetts and Connecticut;) Old Molly, Old Billy, Scolder, (New Hampshire and Massachusetts.)

The habitat of the Old Squaw is the northern hemisphere; in America, south in winter to nearly the southern border of the United States. It is distributed throughout the northern portions of the globe, but makes its summer home in Arctic regions. George Harlow Clarke, Naturalist, Peary Polar Expedition, in a recent article mentioned that, "in June the Old Squaw's clanging call resounded everywhere along shore, and the birds themselves were often perceived gliding to and fro amid the ice cakes drifting with the tide between the main ice-floe and the land." It is a resident in Greenland and breeds in various places in Iceland. The nests are made on the margins of lakes or ponds, among low bushes or tall grass, are constructed of grasses, and generally, but not always, warmly lined with down and feathers. The eggs are from six to twelve in number. In the United States the Long-tail is found only in winter. Mr. Nelson found it to be an abundant winter resident on Lake Michigan, where the first stragglers arrived about the last of October, the main body arriving about a month later and departing about the the first of April, a few lingering until about the last of the month.

The words south – south – southerly, which some have fancied to resemble its cry, and which have accordingly been used as one of its local names, did not, to the ear of Dr. Brewer, in the least resemble the sounds which the bird makes; but he adds that the names "Old Wives" and "Old Squaws" as applied to the species are not inappropriate, since when many are assembled their notes resemble a confused gabble. Hallock says that most of the common names of this Duck are taken from its noisy habits, for it is almost continually calling.

Mr. E. P. Jaques, asks, in Field and Stream, "What has become of our Waterfowl?" assuming that their numbers have greatly diminished. "The answer is a simple one," he goes on to say; "they have followed conditions. Take away their breeding and feeding grounds and the birds follow. Bring back their breeding and feeding grounds and lo! the birds reappear. For the past five years waterfowl have been about as scarce in the Dakotas as in Illinois or Indiana. The lakes were dry and conditions were unfavorable for them. In the spring of 1897 the lakes filled up once more. For the most part the bottoms of the lakes were wheat stubbles. This furnished food for the spring flight and thousands of birds nested there. When the wheat was gone the aquatic growth took its place and for every thousand Ducks that tarried there in the spring, ten thousand appeared in the fall."

THE WHITE-FACED GLOSSY IBIS

Ibises, of which there are about thirty species, are distributed throughout the warmer parts of the globe. Four species occur in North America. According to Chapman, they are silent birds, and live in flocks during the entire year. They feed along the shores of lakes, bays, and salt-water lagoons, and on mud flats over which the tide rises and falls.

The beautiful, lustrous White-faced Glossy Ibis inhabits the south-western United States and tropical America. It is found as far north as Kansas, and west through New Mexico and Arizona to California. In southern Texas it is very abundant, and in some localities along the banks of the Rio Grande swarms by thousands. Dr. J. C. Merrill in May, visited a large patch of tule reeds, growing in a shallow lagoon about ten miles from Fort Brown, in which large numbers of this Ibis and several kinds of Herons were breeding. The reeds grew about six feet above the surface of the water, and were either beaten down to form a support for the nests, or dead and partly floating stalks of the previous year were used for that purpose. Dr. Merrill states that it was impossible to estimate the number of Ibises and different Herons nesting here. "Both nests and eggs of the Ibises were quite unlike those of any of the Herons, and could be distinguished at a glance. The nests were made of broken bits of dead tules, supported by and attached to broken and upright stalks of living ones. They were rather well and compactly built, quite unlike the clumsy platforms of the Herons. The eggs were nearly always three in number, and at this date were far advanced toward hatching; many of the nests contained young of all sizes."

The walk of the Ibis is quiet and deliberate, though it can move over the ground with considerable speed whenever it chooses. Its flight is lofty and strong, and the bird has a habit of uttering a loud and peculiar cry as it passes through the air.

The Ibis was formerly invested with sacerdotal honors by the ancient Egyptians, and embalmed and honored after death with a consecrated tomb, in common with the bull and the cat. The bird probably owes its sacred character to the fact that its appearance denotes the rising of the Nile, an annual phenomenon on which depends the prosperity of the whole country.

The food of the Ibis consists mostly of mollusks, both terrestrial and aquatic, but it will eat worms, insects, and probably the smaller reptiles.

The sexes have similar plumage, but the female is smaller than her mate.

SOME LOVERS OF NATURE

Our Music's in the Hills. – Emerson

The groves were God's first temples. – Bryant

Nature, the vicar of the Almighty Lord. – Chaucer

 
The liquid notes that close the eye of day, (the Nightingale). – Milton.
 
 
When spring unlocks the flowers to paint the laughing soil. – Bishop Heber.
 
 
O, for a seat in some poetic nook,
Just hid with trees and sparkling with a brook. – Leigh Hunt.
 
 
By shallow rivers, to whose falls
Melodious birds sing madrigals. – Christopher Marlowe.
 
 
To me the meanest flower that blows can give
Thoughts that do often lie too deep for tears. – Wordsworth.
 
 
To him who in the love of nature holds
Communion with her visible forms, she speaks
A various language. – Bryant.
 
 
And this one life, exempt from public haunt,
Finds tongues in trees, books in the running brooks,
Sermons in stones, and good in everything. – Shakespeare.
 
 
And now 'twas like all instruments,
Now like a lonely flute;
And now it is an angel's song,
That makes the heavens be mute. – Coleridge.
 
 
There is a pleasure in the pathless woods,
There is a rapture in the lonely shore,
There is society, where none intrudes,
By the deep sea, and music in its roar;
I love not Man the less, but Nature more. – Byron.
 
 
In June 'tis good to be beneath a tree
While the blithe season comforts every sense;
Steeps all the brain in rest, and heals the heart,
Brimming it o'er with sweetness unawares,
Fragrant and silent as that rosy snow
Wherewith the pitying apple-tree fills up
And tenderly lines some last-year's Robin's nest. – Lowell.