Part 3

This bird is fond of building near the habitations of men, selecting sites in door-yards, orchards, and lawns. He weaves an artistic habitation at airy heights, choosing strong, flexible material for the pendant, bag-like nest. In California, the Arizona hooded oriole weaves nests of the beautiful Spanish moss; but one occasionally uses the love-vine or yellow dodder to construct a gaudy, pocket-like nest. The Fire-bird would not do this, for it always selects for its nest grayish, bleached material in harmony with the limbs of the trees. An experiment was tried of placing a bunch of colored yarns near its nesting-place, in order to see what, if it used them, the choice of colors would be. It selected all the gray threads, and, when nearly done, a few blue and purple, but not a single red, or green or yellow strand. The strongest and best material is used for the part by which the whole is supported.

The Baltimore Oriole is sometimes on intimate terms with his relative, the Orchard Oriole. Last summer the latter had hung its pretty cup-shaped nest on a branch of weeping willow near my window. The tedium of her sitting was relieved several times by a morning call from Sir Baltimore. He would seat himself on a twig near her nest and utter a soft, clear note, which no doubt meant a greeting in bird language. When he went away a few moments later, his two notes sounded strangely like “A—dieu”—a translation for which Olive Thorn Miller is authority.

But his song and his speech were less heeded than the spectacle of his brilliant flight—

“For look! The flash of flaming wings The fire plumed oriole.” Belle Paxson Drury.

BRANDT’S CORMORANT. (_Phalacrocorax penicillatus._)

There are about thirty species of Cormorants which are distributed throughout the world. Ten of these are known to inhabit North America. They are ocean birds, yet they are also occasionally seen on the larger bodies of fresh water. The Pacific coast of North America and the shores of New Zealand are rich in species and their plumage is more beautiful than that of those found in other parts of the world.

The name Cormorant is derived from the Latin words Corvus Marinus, meaning marine crow or raven. This name may have been suggested by the fact that these birds are fond of sitting on an elevated perch, especially after a hearty meal. In this habit of seeking high perches, and because of their dark color, they resemble the raven or crow. The generic name Phalacrocorax is derived from the Greek words, meaning bald crow.

One of the species that frequents the coast of Europe is easily tamed and in early times was trained to fish for its master. There was even an appointment in the royal household known as the “Master of the Cormorants.” When used in fishing “a strap is fastened around the bird’s neck so as, without impeding its breath, to hinder it from swallowing its captures. Arrived at the waterside, it is cast off. It at once dives and darts along the bottom as swiftly as an arrow in quest of its prey, rapidly scanning every hole or pool. A fish is generally seized within a few seconds of its being sighted and as each is taken the bird rises to the surface with its capture in its bill. It does not take much longer to dispose of the prize in the dilatable skin of its throat so far as the strap will allow and the pursuit is recommenced until the bird’s gular pouch, capacious as it is, will hold no more. It then returns to its keeper, who has been anxiously watching and encouraging its movements, and a little manipulation of its neck effects the delivery of the booty.”

The Cormorants are voracious eaters. They catch the fish, which is their usual food, under water by rapid swimming and with the aid of their hooked bills. On account of this habit of the bird the word Cormorant has been used synonymously with the word glutton, rapacious or avaricious when applied to a person who exhibits these traits.

Brandt’s Cormorant, the bird of our illustration, is found on the Pacific coast from the state of Washington southward to Cape St. Lucas at the southern extremity of Lower California. In its habits it is gregarious and collects in great numbers wherever its natural food of fish is plentiful. These flocks present a very odd appearance and their long necks appear as numerous black sticks on the watery background.

Mr. Leverett M. Loomis well illustrates the habits of these birds in a report on the California Water birds. He says of a rookery “which is situated on a rock, or little islet, in the ocean at the extremity of Point Carmel, about fifteen yards from the mainland. This rock rises perpendicularly some forty or more feet above the water. At first sight it does not seem that it can be scaled, but closer inspection reveals that a foothold may be had in the seams and protuberances on its water-worn sides. Only on days when the sea is very calm can the rock be landed upon and then only from the sheltered channel separating it from the mainland. We first took a view of the rookery from the mainland. The Cormorants were very tame, remaining on their nests while we clambered down the sloping rocks and while we stood watching them on the same level, only a few yards away. They were equally tame when our boat drew nearer as we approached from the water. The clefts in the sides of the rock were occupied by Baird’s Cormorant and the top by Brandt’s. There were comparatively few of the former, but of the Brandt’s Cormorant there were upwards of two hundred pairs. Their nests covered the top of the rock, every available situation being occupied. Standing in one place I counted one hundred and eighteen.”

He also states that the Cormorants remained on the nests till he fired his gun and they lingered on the edge of the rock while he walked among the nests a few yards away. On the rock were many piles of sardines, evidently placed near the nests for the use of the sitting bird.

The nests are nearly circular when placed on top of the rocks, and are usually constructed of eel grass. They are generally placed in the most inaccessible places and at various heights above the surface of the water. The Cormorants frequent the same locality from year to year and experience considerable difficulty in constructing their nests because of the gulls which frequently carry away the material as fast as it can be gathered. The young, when first hatched, are entirely devoid of plumage and their skin resembles a “greasy, black kid glove.” It is said that the gulls feed upon these young birds.

Mr. Frank M. Woodruff relates the following observations, made during a recent trip to California. He says:

“The Brandt’s Cormorant is the common species wintering in Southern California. Like the California brown pelican and the surf ducks, only the juvenile birds are found in the bay close to the city of San Diego. As one rows about the harbor close to the shipping docks and by the old deserted fishermen’s huts along the slips, large numbers of Brandt’s Cormorants and pelicans can be seen perched on and almost covering the sunny sides of the roof tops. They sit in rows like sentinels with the head well down upon the shoulders, undisturbed by the noise of traffic and only by continued rapping on the building with an oar can they be induced to take to flight. They will usually circle for a short time in a lazy manner and then return to their old position. The older birds are rather more wary and usually feed a mile or so from the shore, in flocks of from three to ten. The loose kelp floating in the bay attracts the smaller fish. Such places form their feeding grounds. After they become gorged with fish, they fly to the rocks along the jetties and to the cross bars of the buoys, which mark the deep water channels. The birds are perfect gluttons, and as I lifted it into the boat there dropped from the gular sack of one specimen that I shot, over twenty small fish. The beautiful iridescence of the dark copper-green plumage of the adult Cormorant can only be appreciated when the freshly killed bird is seen.”

Seth Mindwell.

MATE, OR PARAGUAY TEA.

It is a trite saying, but a very true one, that one-half the world does not know how the other half lives. This will apply to food and drink, as well as to other things, so widely do customs vary in different regions.

While tea, coffee and chocolate, all products of warm climates, have come into general use as table drinks over the greater portion of the globe, so as to be universally known, there is a beverage of similar use, the favorite of millions, which is practically unknown to the world at large.

Mate (two syllables) is the name of the prepared leaves of a shrub or tree belonging to the Rhamses family, and has the scientific name of Cassine gonhonha, but is more generally known as Ilex paraguayensis, as it was first used by the Indians of Paraguay. It belongs to the natural order of the holly, to which it bears much resemblance. Its leaves are six to eight inches long, short stalked, oblong, wedge-shaped, and finely toothed at the margin. The small white flowers are borne in clusters at the axils of the leaves. It bears a four-seeded berry, but the leaves are used for decoction, except for a very fine quality, which is made from the dried flower buds.

It abounds in the forests of Paraguay and Brazil, where it is a tree of considerable size. It is cultivated to some extent, but in this state remains a shrub, and the quality is finer. It may be gathered at any season of the year, and the leaves must become dry enough to pulverize before they are fit for use.

Where it is cultivated it is dried in metal pans, after the manner of Chinese tea, but far greater quantities are gathered in the forests and dried in the primitive method adopted from the Indians.

A drying floor is prepared by clearing a space of ground and pounding it hard with a mallet. On this a fire is built, and after the ground is well heated, it is swept off clean and branches from the neighboring forests spread upon it. Afterwards they are placed upon a rude arbor made of hurdles and a slow fire beneath completes the drying process.

When quite brittle the leaves are pounded in a mortar and reduced to small particles, but not to a powder. The preparation of it consists in placing a small quantity of it in a vessel, with sugar if desired, and adding a little cold water. After a little while boiling water is poured on and it is then ready for use. As the leaf particles do not settle well, it must be sipped through a tube. The natives for steeping it used a calabash gourd called mate, whence its common name, mate yerba, or calabash plant. These gourds are still often used, and are convenient, as they have a handle. Cocoa-nut shells, with handles of silver or other metal, are also popular. A reed or a metal tube, with a small perforated bowl at the bottom is used to sip it through. This is called a bombilla.

It is customary with the Spaniards and Portuguese to offer mate to visitors.

In the gardens of that sunny region vineclad arbors are furnished with seats, where the family with their visitors will sit in the cool of the evening, each one supplied with a bombilla and a cocoa-nut or calabash bowl of mate. Through a small opening in the top of the vessel the tube is inserted and the grateful infusion is enjoyed while matters of interest are discussed.

Great virtues are ascribed to this drink. Its properties appear to be chiefly due to theine and caffeine.

In Chili and Peru it is in universal use, and is considered more necessary than meat. On the plains of Argentina the gaucho or cowboy washes down his dried beef with copious draughts of mate and is content with his meal. To northerners the taste is not agreeable. It seems weedy and slightly bitter. For shipment the leaves, when dried, are packed in oblong cases or bags made of rawhide carefully sewed. These packages contain 120 pounds each. Since the beginning of the seventeenth century this drink has been used in Paraguay, and its use now extends all over South America. It is estimated that the amount used annually exceeds 60,000,000 pounds.

It is being introduced into other countries and the time may come when the bombilla and the bowl of mate may become a rival of five o’clock tea in English and American parlors.

Anna Rosalie Henderson.

Behind the cloud the starlight lurks, Through showers the sunbeams fall; For God, who loveth all his works, Has left his Hope with all! —John Greenleaf Whittier.

THE AMERICAN BUFFALO. (_Bison americanus._)

The supremacy of man over the lower forms of animal life has no better illustration than that furnished by the rapid extermination of the American Buffalo (Bison or Bos americanus.)

Much less than a century ago, in immense herds, this animal swarmed over the prairies of the United States, unmolested except by the Indians who sought it for food and for the economic value of its hide. It was free to seek those localities which would furnish it the best and most abundant food supply. Even as late as the sixties of the last century the American Buffalo was represented by thousands upon thousands of individuals, whose numerous paths leading from the feeding grounds to a supply of fresh water were known to the frontiersman as “Buffalo trails.” “In 1889 Mr. William T. Hornaday estimated the number of survivors to be eight hundred and thirty-five, inclusive of the two hundred then living in the Yellowstone Park under the protection of the government.”

The passing from the face of the earth of this, the largest of the native animals of North America, has taken place within the last thirty years and this extermination may be laid at the door of the zealous hunter and trapper who systematically shot and destroyed them in order to obtain the small profit that their skins would bring. It is said that one of the railroads crossing the continent from the Mississippi river to the Pacific coast carried about two hundred thousand skins within a year after it was opened to traffic. One writer records the reception of over forty thousand pelts by a single firm in the year 1875. Many instances of the wanton butchery of this noble and useful animal might be mentioned, but it is much better illustrated by the absence of the Buffalo at the present time, from all localities, except where it is protected by the same hand which has brought about its destruction. In 1858, when a party was traversing the country by wagon train from the state of Missouri to Mexico, they were continually surrounded by large herds of Buffaloes. An eye witness said, “In bands, in masses, in hosts, the shaggy, black creatures thundered along in front of us, sometimes from north to south, sometimes from south to north; for forty consecutive hours we had them in sight, thousands upon thousands, tens of thousands upon tens of thousands, an innumerable mass of untamed animals, the flesh of which, as we believed, was sufficient to provide the wigwams of the Indians unto all eternity.”

The American Buffalo belongs to the ox tribe of the family of horned animals (Bovidæ). Among its immediate relatives are the musk ox of the Arctic regions of America, the yak of the mountainous regions of Tibet, the zebu, an East Indian species, the Cape buffalo, a ferocious animal of the central and southern portions of Africa, the Indian buffalo living in southern Asia and the European bison.

The European bison, like its American relative, has suffered from the hunter and the advance of civilization and is practically exterminated. It now exists only in a few forests on the Caucasus and in the famous forest and game preserve of the Czars of Russia called Lithuania. Here, protected by stringent laws through several centuries, the European bison has been saved from absolute extermination. “In former times this was different, for the bison ranged all over Europe and a large portion of Asia.” In the time of Cæsar, according to his own record, they abounded in Germany and Belgium.

So it is with the American Buffalo. Were it not for government and private preserves this, one of the largest of living quadrupeds, would be unknown to future generations except by museum specimens. Correctly speaking, the American species should be called Bison. So universal, however, is the use of the term Buffalo that the word Bison would puzzle many people. Strictly speaking, the name buffalo should be applied only to designate the Cape and Indian species.

The original range of the American Buffalo extended from but little west of the Atlantic coast westward to the Rocky Mountains and from Mexico on the south northward to about the sixty-fifth degree of north latitude. By the trappers the Buffaloes were placed in two classes. Those that frequented the mountain ranges were called Bison. They were seldom seen on the plains, the home of the other class. Their limbs were shorter and stouter and better fitted for a rough country. There existed in former ages two other species entirely distinct from the animal with which we are familiar. They were much larger, possibly as large as an elephant, and were probably associates of the mastodon and the mammoth.

A fully adult male Buffalo will measure about nine or ten feet in length from the muzzle to the tail. Its height at the fore quarters is from five to six and one-half feet. The female is much smaller and weighs from seven to eight hundred pounds less than the male, the weight of which averages eighteen hundred pounds.

The Buffalo’s massive head, with its short, curved horns which are set far apart on the broad forehead, is connected with the body by a short deep and narrow neck. From the neck the body rises, forming a large hump on the back over the forelegs, which gives the animal an odd and unwieldy appearance. This hump consists of fat and strong muscles which control the movements of the massive head. From the hump the body tapers downward so that the hind quarters are low and narrow. The anterior portion of the body, the forelegs and the head are covered with long hair. On the forehead and back the hair is curly and matted. In the early spring most of the long hair is shed, resulting in a modification of the color of the Buffalo. The new coat is a uniform grayish brown, deepening into black-brown in the mane, which covers the top part of the head, forehead, neck and under surface of the throat.

Captain Doyle in an article published in the American Naturalist says, “White Buffaloes have frequently been seen and killed. All the Indian tribes regard them as ‘big medicine,’ but they have different superstitions regarding them. For instance Catlin, the painter, while among the Mandans in 1832, saw a white buffalo robe erected on a pole in their village as a sacrifice to the Great Spirit. It had been purchased from the Blackfeet, who killed the Buffalo, for eight horses and a quantity of goods. On the other hand, the Comanches believe it very dangerous to see a white Buffalo. In 1869 I saw a young Comanche, who had seen a white Buffalo, return to his camp almost dead with fear. He was taken into his tent, the medicine man was sent for and they smoked him and kept up incantations over him day and night for a week. When he came out he believed that he had had a very narrow escape from death. In 1859 a white Buffalo was killed by a white man on the north fork of the Red river. He desired to have it dressed to preserve it, but failed to get any Indian to undertake the task for a long time. At last he prevailed on a Comanche chief, named ‘Horseback’ to have the operation performed. ‘Horseback’ selected one of his squaws, had the medicine man of his band go through various ceremonies over her to preserve her life and then placed her in a tepee some distance from his camp, where the hide was taken to her by a soldier and brought away by him when dressed. No other Indian would look at the hide, much less touch it. Her food was left for her at some distance from the tepee and when the robe was dressed, medicine ceremonies were held over her before she was allowed to join the camp.”

These gregarious animals, during the period of their supremacy, rarely remained for any great length of time in any given locality. Frequently, as if moved by a sudden and general impulse, the whole herd, made up of many smaller companies, each with its leader, would start, all the individuals moving in the same direction. No barriers seemed too great to overcome. Moving in a straight line they would swim or ford rivers, find some means of crossing chasms, but still move on as if led by some irresistible impulse.

These migrations, in many instances, may have been due to the necessity of seeking a more plentiful supply of food, especially when the pastures in the more northern regions became covered with snow. This caused them to move southward. The northern tribes of Indians did not believe that the same individuals returned, as the climatic conditions permitted, but that the Buffaloes were produced in immense numbers under ground and that in the spring they came forth from a great mountain far to the south, a herd of new individuals coming north each season. Since the Buffaloes have disappeared from the plains, some Indians claim that the holes in the southern mountains, in which the Buffaloes were formed, have been closed by some evil spirit.

Dr. Brehm tells us that “among the Buffalo’s perceptive senses those of smell and hearing rank first. In its mental qualities it does not differ from its other relatives. It is little gifted, good-natured and timid, incapable of rapid excitement, but when it is irritated it is apt to forget all considerations which generally influence it and it will then oppose an enemy with courage.”

It would seem that the Buffalo depends upon the sense of smell rather than that of sight, for when running from danger it holds the muzzle near the ground and rushes with incredible swiftness in the opposite direction. Obstinacy is one of the most marked characteristics of the Buffalo. When once moved to a certain action nothing seemed to sway a herd from its decision. Boats on rivers have been known to stop and wait for the passing of a herd that was swimming across the stream. Railroad trains have also been brought to a standstill by the herds crossing the tracks.

The American Buffalo was in reality an inoffensive beast and its ferocious appearance was due to its great bulk. “They are not intractable to domestication, readily entering into friendly relations with individuals who treat them kindly; at least they learn to recognize their keeper and to love him to a certain degree.”