Part 3

We looked to have our feathered friends leave us upon the first appearance of land, but, on the contrary, they remained with us all of the afternoon, as we sailed in and out among the picturesque islands of the “Soo” river, and it was not until toward their bed-time and the setting of the sun that they gradually began to disappear; the last to leave, and that was at dusk, was the black-throated blue warbler. Just before reaching the lock a couple of juncos perched on the rail and engaged in what seemed to us a very heated discussion, until finally one of them, with a chip of command, flew to the shore, the other following in a moment with a note of protest. The latter’s idea doubtless was to remain with a good thing in hand rather than venture into pastures new of unknown possibilities.

On our return trip, the weather being calm, no birds were:

“Buffeted and baffled, with the gusty gale,”

hence our only stowaways were a couple of yellow warblers, who spent most of their time in one of the offices catching flies on the wall, and we were obliged to resort to other resources for our entertainment, and found at least artistic as well as botanical enjoyment in looking at the great bunches of golden rod, yellow cone flowers and pale primroses, a combination of yellows that formed an exquisite blend, and which covered the embankment of the great willow dike on St. Clair Flats, that seems fast running into a state of dilapidation and decay. But it is a delightful sail down the willow-bordered lane of blue water, a stray bit of Venice with Venice left out, as it were, and where no angry waters toss the brave mariner and consequently seasick traveler across mighty billows, a performance which is a by no means charming accessory to one’s erstwhile home on the bounding deep.

Alberta A. Field.

THE HAIRY WOODPECKER. (_Dryobates villosus._)

The woodpeckers on trunk of gnarled trees Tap their quick drum-beats with their horny beaks. —Isaac McLellan, “Nature’s Invitation.”

The geographical and the breeding ranges of the Hairy Woodpecker are practically the same. These include eastern North America from the southern provinces of Canada southward to the States bordering the Gulf of Mexico and those of the southeastern United States bordering the Atlantic Ocean. In these States it is occasionally found during the winter season. Westward its range extends to the Rocky Mountains. It is, however, most abundant in the forest areas of the Northern and Middle States, where, as it is a hardy bird and not greatly affected by extreme cold, it is generally a constant resident. Though occasionally found in old orchards, its choice feeding grounds are the timbered regions of river banks and other bodies of water. Here and in the trees at the outer borders of forests it seeks its food by itself, for it has an unsocial disposition, and it is seldom that more than a pair are seen together. “It does not live in harmony with smaller species of its own kind, and drives them away when they encroach on its feeding grounds, being exceedingly greedy in disposition and always hungry.” It also is not adverse to a home in the deeper forests and may even frequent clumps of trees in the open.

The Hairy Woodpecker is one of the most useful and valuable friends of human interests. Not only does it feed upon the larvæ that burrow in the wood and bark of our forest and orchard trees, but also upon beetles and other insects. It is only in the winter season, when its natural food is not readily obtained, that it gathers seeds and fruits. It never attacks a sound tree for any purpose, and the loss caused by the amount of useful grain destroyed is greatly overbalanced by the good that it does in the destruction of noxious insects.

The value of this shy and retiring bird is well illustrated by Mr. V. A. Alderson, who says in the “Oologist” (July, 1890): “Last summer potato bugs covered every patch of potatoes in Marathon County, Wisconsin. One of my friends here found his patch an exception, and, therefore, took pains to find out the reason, and observed a Hairy Woodpecker making frequent visits to the potato field and going from there to a large pine stub a little distance away. After observing this for about six weeks, he made a visit to the pine stub, and found, on inspection, a large hole in its side, almost fifteen feet up. He took his ax and cut down the stub, split it open, and found inside over two bushels of bugs. All had their heads off and bodies intact. Now, why did the Woodpecker carry the bugs whole to the tree and only bite off and eat the heads, which could have been done in the open field?”

The Hairy Woodpecker has no leisure moments. He is always active and

The little tap of busy bill The signal of his work and skill.

is ever present

To rid the soil of every foe, To guard the leafy trees.

The movements of this Woodpecker are interesting, for, like its sister species, it moves with equal facility either upwards or downwards, sidewise or backwards upon a tree trunk. From time to time it will stop and seem to listen, and, finally bracing itself with the stiff feathers of its spiney tail, it will deliver powerful blows with its chisel-like bill at some point that will be likely to furnish a dainty morsel of food. There is little doubt that its sense of hearing is very acute and that it can detect the slightest movement of an insect in the bark or wood of a tree that to other animals would be imperceptible.

The flight of the Hairy Woodpecker is like that of the other species of its group. It is wavering and undulating, seldom protracted and usually consisting of a number of short vibrations of the wings. When alighting, they grasp the object with both feet simultaneously. This Woodpecker is the earliest of all the family to build its nest. Mating begins in the latter part of March, and at this time the birds are exceedingly noisy. The male when not feeding will resort to some dead limb and vigorously drum and “the louder the noise produced, the more satisfactory it appears to be to the performer.”

Regarding the building of the nest, Major Bendire says: “Both sexes take part in the labor, and it is really wonderful how neat and smooth an excavation these birds can make with their chisel-shaped bills in a comparatively short time. The entrance hole is round, as if made with an auger, about two inches in diameter, and just large enough to admit the body of the bird; the edges are nicely beveled, the inside is equally smooth, and the cavity is gradually enlarged toward the bottom. The entrance hole, which is not unfrequently placed under a limb for protection from the weather, generally runs in straight through the solid wood for about three inches, and then downward from ten to eighteen inches, and some of the finer chips are allowed to remain on the bottom of the cavity, in which the eggs are deposited. Both dead and living trees are selected for nesting sites, generally the former. When living trees are chosen, the inner core, or heart of the tree, is usually more or less decayed. These nesting sites are nearly always selected with such good judgment that such obstacles as hard knots are rarely encountered; should this occur, the site is abandoned and a fresh one selected.” The male, after the work is completed, will often excavate one or more holes in the same tree in order that he may have a resting place at night near to his mate.

A VARICOLORED FROG.

An amateur naturalist, amid the ordinary organic forms that he may encounter in his own country, is often grievously puzzled at curious specimens of animal life that may be brought under his attention. But amid the illimitable animal life of the wild region of the upper Orinoco even the most expert and learned naturalist will often find himself “stumped” by the many unusual and hitherto undiscovered things that occasionally beset his pathway.

Among the many curious and quaint animal specimens encountered by the writer in this region was an arboreal frog of startlingly beautiful colorings. This little creature rested upon a stomach of orange flame hue, while the head and back were marked with velvet purple tints, and a narrow snow-white stripe extended from the point of his nose to the tip of a tiny tail. With such brilliant colorings it is easily and distinctly observed, but the snakes, weasels and other arch enemies of the amphibians have no relish for this handsome specimen. Its weapon of defense against its would-be enemies is a sweat venom of a most nauseous odor, which it emits when any one approaches it. This venom is common among the toads, and the fact is referred to by Juvenal (Dryden’s translation) of the lady “who squeezed a toad into her husband’s wine.” It is probable that the beautiful frog of so many glaring colors would have long since been exterminated by its many enemies and persecutors but for the poisonous and nauseous fluid ejected from its glands.

Andrew James Miller.

WAS IT REASON OR INSTINCT?

Old Boney is a large shaggy dog of a deep tan color, and a general favorite among the people in the quarter of the city in which he lives, while he is honored and respected by every member of the canine race for miles around. Especially are the little children fond of him; and it seems to be as much a pastime for him as for his young playmates to carry the boys and girls on his broad back, their little, chubby hands buried in his long, matted hair in their half-frightened efforts to keep from slipping off and tumbling upon the ground.

His owner’s daughter, a young girl just entering her teens, attends the high school, about three blocks from her home, which is reached by rather a circuitous route. Boney had often accompanied his young mistress to the school and was familiar with the way thither as well as with the main entrance and winding stairway of the building.

It was in the showery month of April, and Etta had repeatedly neglected to wear her rubbers when she started for school in the morning, a fault for which she had often been reprimanded.

Now it happened one warm afternoon that a copious shower came down in due April style. The door leading from the dining room out upon the veranda was wide ajar, and Etta’s mother, looking out, saw her daughter’s rubbers upon the veranda floor near the rug where they were usually deposited when not in use. “There,” exclaimed the mother, “that child has gone again without her rubbers and will come home with wet feet.”

This sharp remark aroused the attention of old Boney, for he got up from his prone condition on the rug, looked at the speaker, sniffed at the rubbers and lay down again. At this juncture Etta’s father quietly picked up the rubbers, carried them over to the school building and handed them to his daughter, whom he met at the upper landing of the stairway. This had been done more than once, Boney generally lying upon the veranda floor where he could easily hear and see what was being done on such occasions, and he had often followed his master and stood by when father and daughter met at the school building.

Now comes the interesting part of our story. A drenching shower came down about three o’clock one afternoon and Etta had, as usual, neglected to take her needed footwear. It happened this time that none of the family was at home. Boney, however, was keeping house in his accustomed place on the rug. Now, what do our readers think the noble animal did. Why, he just picked up both of the rubbers, carried them in his mouth through the driving rain to the school building, up the winding stairway and laid them upon the landing. As if this were not enough, he lay down and faithfully watched his charge till Etta made her appearance, when he politely dropped her property at her feet.

Thereafter Etta’s father was relieved of this service, Boney regularly attending to the business himself, and, what is more wonderful still, he never attempted to discharge his duty on a pleasant day.

Query. Was this reason or instinct? If the latter, what is instinct?

L. P. Venen.

OPAL.

“The Opal, when pure and uncut in its native rock,” says Ruskin in his lecture on Color, “presents the most lovely colors that can be seen in the world except those of clouds.”

While not all of us may share the great art critic’s preference for uncut stones, there are few probably who will not join him heartily in his admiration of the brilliant gem from whose depths come welling up tints of so varied hue that we appropriately speak of them as colors at play. Our interest in these colors may be heightened by reading what Ruskin has further to say of them: “We have thus in nature, chiefly obtained by crystalline conditions, a series of groups of entirely delicious hues; and it is one of the best signs that the bodily system is in a healthy state when we can see these clearly in their most delicate tints and enjoy them fully and simply with the kind of enjoyment that children have in eating sweet things. I shall place a piece of rock opal on the table in your working room; and if on fine days you will sometimes dip it in water, take it into sunshine and examine it with a lens of moderate power, you may always test your progress in sensibility to color by the degree of pleasure it gives you.”

The Opal is indeed one of the most fascinating of gems; yet often elusive and at times disappointing. Of its freaks and foibles strange stories are told. Gems of brilliant quality are known suddenly to have lost their hues never to regain them, while others previously dull and lusterless have become radiant as the rainbow.

Prof. Egleston, of New York city, relates that a bottle of cut Opals once given him by a prominent jewelry firm because they had lost their color, after remaining in his cabinet for a time regained their brilliancy and retained it. But to have opals regain their color is, unfortunately, far less usual than for them to lose it. The gem often exhibits brilliant colors when wet either with water or oil that disappear when it is dry. Taking advantage of this peculiarity dishonest dealers often keep opals immersed until just before offering them for sale. The experience of having stones so treated as well as others which might with more reason be expected to retain their brilliancy, lose it, has very likely led to the superstition commonly attached to the Opal that it is an unlucky gem. Some authorities, however, trace the origin of the superstition to Sir Walter Scott’s novel, “Anne of Geierstein,” in which the baleful influence of the Opal plays a prominent part, and it is stated that within a year of the publication of the book the price of Opals declined fifty per cent in the European market. Even if the superstition did not originate in either of these ways it was probably from a source quite as trivial and it should prevent no one from enjoying the pleasure to be derived from the beauties of this gem.

Chemically, Opal is oxide of silicon with varying amounts of water, the water varying from 3 to 9 per cent. It is, therefore, closely allied to quartz, but differs physically in being softer and not as heavy. Further, it never crystallizes, and it is soluble in caustic potash, which quartz is not. It is infusible, but cracks and becomes opaque before the blowpipe. In sulphuric acid it turns black, on account probably of the organic matter it contains.

Its hardness is sometimes as low as 5.5 in the scale in which quartz is 7 and its specific gravity is from 1.9 to 2.3, while that of quartz is 2.6. On account of its relative softness a cut Opal often does not retain its polish well and requires frequent smoothing. Opals when first taken from the ground are often softer even than the above and for this reason it is usual and desirable to allow them to harden or “season,” as it is called, for some time after quarrying, before they are polished.

Top row: Precious Opal in Matrix (Queensland.) Wood Opal (Idaho.) Precious Opal (New South Wales.) Center: Precious Opal (New South Wales.) Precious Opal (New South Wales.) Fire Opal in Matrix (Mexico.) Bottom: Prase Opal (Germany.)

Opal as a mineral is quite common, so that no one need suppose because he has specimens labeled “opal” in his collection that he has as many precious stones. It occurs in many varieties, and, especially if it contains foreign matter, in many colors. Nearly all silica deposited by hot waters is in the form of Opal, so that the geysers of Yellowstone Park build up cones of Opal and fall into Opal basins. This particular form of Opal is known as geyserite, and it is often differently colored by different ingredients.

Wood is often preserved by silica in the form of Opal, the siliceous waters taking away the wood and replacing it by Opal, grain by grain, with such delicacy and accuracy that the structure of the wood is perfectly maintained. The minute shells which diatoms make consist of Opal, and when these dead shells accumulate to form deposits of some extent we call the powdery substance tripoli and use it for polishing silverware and other metals. Then there are hyalite, a variety of Opal looking like transfixed water, so clear and colorless is it; hydrophane, a translucent variety which sticks to the tongue and becomes more nearly transparent when soaked in water; cacholong, a porcelain-like variety, and menilite, a concretionary variety.

Common Opal varies from transparent to opaque, being most often translucent and sometimes exhibiting the peculiar milkiness of color which we call opalescence. It has sometimes a glassy, but often a waxy luster, the latter when pronounced giving rise to the varieties known as wax Opal and resin Opal. When Opal has the banded structure of agate it is known as Opal-agate; when it has the color of jasper as jasper Opal, and when that of chrysoprase as prase Opal. But none of these varieties are used in any quantity as gems. This distinction is reserved almost wholly for the variety known as noble or precious Opal. This is Opal which exhibits a play of colors. No essential chemical or physical distinction between noble Opal and other varieties is known. In a large vein of Opal portions will exhibit the play of colors and the remainder will not, but why the difference has not yet been determined. Neither can the origin of the varied coloring; i. e., the iridescence, be determined. Some regard it as due to interspersed layers containing different percentages of water, which break up the rays of light somewhat as a prism does, while others think that minute cracks and fissures through the stone furnish surfaces from which the rays are reflected in different colors back to the eye. Some Opals which are dull and lusterless when dry exhibit considerable play of color when immersed in water, and this fact seems to favor the first theory of the cause of the iridescence, but the subject is not understood. The character of the play of colors differs in different Opals, and this gives rise to different varieties. The true noble Opal has the color quite uniformly distributed. When the color appears in flashes of red, yellow, etc., the stone is known as fire Opal; if blue as girasol, and if chiefly yellow as golden Opal. When the patches of color are small, angular and uniformly distributed it is called harlequin Opal, and if these are long and somewhat parallel, flame Opal. These colors are not, of course, inherent in the stone, its color varying from colorless to opaque white. The black Opals sometimes seen and highly prized by some are usually artificial, and are made by soaking ordinary Opals in oil and then burning oil on them. The brilliancy of the stone is thus increased, but it is usually fragile and liable to lose color.

Any Opal will lose its play of colors on being heated too highly, hence possessors should avoid subjecting them to more than ordinary heat. It is the variety and brilliancy of their changing colors which give to Opal nearly all its desirability as a precious stone, for, as has often been remarked, the qualities of hardness, transparency and rich body color which give to most other gems their value are lacking in the Opal. But together with the beauty of its changing colors Opal possesses an advantage over all other gems in that it cannot be successfully imitated. It is said that the Romans were able to make artificial Opals closely resembling the real, but, if so, the art has been lost never to be recovered, and we may hope it never will be. Hence, however much danger there may be in buying an Opal that it has not been properly “seasoned,” or may not retain its color, the purchaser may at least be sure he has an Opal and not an imitation. The stones are usually cut in the oval form known as en cabouchon, this cutting being found to bring out their brilliancy better than any facetted form. The brilliancy of the stone may be increased in setting by giving it a backing of mother of pearl or black silk. When a number of Opals are placed together they seem to borrow brilliancy from one another, a fact which is taken advantage of in settings by placing a number together and also by Opal dealers to dispose of inferior stones by grouping them with good ones. For this reason when Opals are purchased they should be examined separately. The value of Opals depends almost wholly on the brilliancy of their coloring and their size. Stones without the play of colors are practically worthless, while stones of ten to twenty carats’ weight, with brilliant coloring, may bring several hundred dollars. The most highly valued Opals have long come from the mines of Czernowitza in northern Hungary. These Opals are often known as Oriental Opals from the fact that in early days they were first purchased by Greek and Turkish merchants, and by them sent to Holland. There are, however, no localities in the Orient where precious Opals are found. The rock in which the Hungarian Opals occur is eruptive, and of the kind known as andesite. It is considerably decomposed, and the Opal occurs in clefts and veins. There is little doubt that it was from these mines that the Romans obtained the Opals known to them, and the output has been quite constant since.

It is said that the Hungarian Opals are less likely to deteriorate than any others. Still the danger of deterioration is not great in any Opal. The other important countries from which precious Opals are obtained are Mexico, Honduras and Australia. The Mexican Opals are mostly of the fire Opal variety. They are mined in a number of the States of the Republic—Queretaro, Hidalgo, Guerrero, Michoacan, Jalisco and San Luis Potosi. The oldest mines are in the State of Hidalgo, near Zimapan, where the Opal occurs in a red trachyte. Most of the Mexican Opals on the market at the present time, however, come from the State of Queretaro, where mining for them is conducted on a more extensive scale. The Opal here occurs in long veins in a porphyritic trachyte, and is mined at various points. The stones are cut and polished by workmen in the city of Queretaro who use ordinary grind-stones and chamois skins for the work and are said to receive an average wage of 23 cents a day.