Part 20

I met a little mouse in my travels the other day that interested me. He was on his travels also, and we met in the middle of a mountain lake. I was casting my fly there when I saw just sketched or etched upon the glassy surface a delicate V-shaped figure, the point of which reached about the middle of the lake, while the two sides as they diverged faded out toward the shore. I saw the point of this V was being slowly pushed toward the opposite shore. I drew near in my boat, and beheld a little mouse swimming vigorously for the opposite shore. His little legs appeared like swiftly revolving wheels beneath him. As I came near he dived under the water to escape me, but came up again like a cork and just as quickly. It was laughable to see him repeatedly duck beneath the surface and pop back again in a twinkling. He could not keep under water more than a second or two. Presently I reached him my oar, when he ran up it and into the palm of my hand, where he sat for some time and arranged his fur and warmed himself. He did not show the slightest fear. It was probably the first time he had ever shaken hands with a human being. He was what we call a meadow mouse, but he had doubtless lived all his life in the woods, and was strangely unsophisticated. How his little round eyes did shine, and how he sniffed me to find out if I was more dangerous than I appeared to his sight.

After a while I put him down in the bottom of the boat and resumed my fishing. But it was not long before he became very restless and evidently wanted to go about his business. He would climb up to the edge of the boat and peer down into the water. Finally he could brook the delay no longer and plunged boldly overboard, but he had either changed his mind or lost his reckoning, for he started back in the direction he had come, and the last I saw of him he was a mere speck vanishing in the shadows near the other shore.

Later on I saw another mouse while we were at work in the fields that interested me also. This one was our native white-footed mouse. We disturbed the mother with her young in her nest, and she rushed out with her little ones clinging to her teats. A curious spectacle she presented as she rushed along, as if slit and torn into rags. Her pace was so precipitate that two of the young could not keep their hold and were left in the weeds. We remained quiet and presently the mother came back looking for them. When she had found one she seized it as a cat seizes her kitten and made off with it. In a moment or two she came back and found the other one and carried it away. I was curious to see if the young would take hold of her teats again as at first and be dragged away in that manner, but they did not. It would be interesting to know if they seize hold of their mother by instinct when danger threatens, or if they simply retain the hold which they already have. I believe the flight of the family always takes place in this manner, with this species of mouse.

VII

The other day I was walking in the silent, naked April woods when I said to myself, "There is nothing in the woods."

I sat down upon a rock. Then I lifted up my eyes and beheld a newly constructed crow's nest in a hemlock tree near by. The nest was but little above the level of the top of a ledge of rocks only a few yards away that crowned the rim of the valley. But it was placed behind the stem of the tree from the rocks, so as to be secure from observation on that side. The crow evidently knew what she was about. Presently I heard what appeared to be the voice of a young crow in the treetops not far off. This I knew to be the voice of the female, and that she was being fed by the male. She was probably laying, or about beginning to lay, eggs in the nest. Crows, as well as most of our smaller birds, always go through the rehearsal of this act of the parent feeding the young many times while the young are yet a long way in the future. The mother bird seems timid and babyish, and both in voice and manner assumes the character of a young fledgeling. The male brings the food and seems more than usually solicitous about her welfare. Is it to conserve her strength or to make an impression on the developing eggs? The same thing may be observed among the domestic pigeons, and is always a sign that a new brood is not far off.

When the young do come the female is usually more active in feeding them than the male. Among the birds of prey, like hawks and eagles, the female is the larger and more powerful, and therefore better able to defend and to care for her young. Among all animals, the affection of the mother for her offspring seems to be greater than that of her mate, though among the birds the male sometimes shows a superabundance of paternal regard that takes in the young of other species. Thus a correspondent sends me this curious incident of a male bluebird and some young vireos. A pair of bluebirds were rearing their second brood in a box on the porch of my correspondent, and a pair of vireos had a nest with young in some lilac bushes but a few feet away. The writer had observed the male bluebird perch in the lilacs near the young vireos, and, he feared, with murderous intent. On such occasions the mother vireo would move among the upper branches much agitated. If she grew demonstrative the bluebird would drive her away. One afternoon the observer pulled away the leaves so as to have a full view of the vireo's nest from the seat where he sat not ten feet away. Presently he saw the male bluebird come to the nest with a worm in its beak, and, as the young vireos stretched up their gaping mouths, he dropped the worm into one of them. Then he reached over and waited upon one of the young birds as its own mother would have done. A few moments after he came to his own brood, with a worm or insect, and then the next trip he visited the nest of the neighbor again, greatly to the displeasure of the vireo, who scolded him sharply as she watched his movements from a near branch. My correspondent says: "I watched them for several days; sometimes the bluebird would visit his own nest several times before lending a hand to the vireos. Sometimes he resented the vireos' plaintive fault-finding and drove them away. I never saw the female bluebird near the vireos' nest."

That the male bird should be broader in his sympathies and affections will not, to most men at least, seem strange.

Another correspondent relates an equally curious incident about a wren and some young robins. "One day last summer," he says, "while watching a robin feeding her young, I was surprised to see a wren alight on the edge of the nest in the absence of the robin, and deposit a little worm in the throat of one of the young robins. It then flew off about ten feet, and it seemed as if it would almost burst with excessive volubility. It then disappeared, and the robin came and went, just as the wren returned with another worm for the young robins. This was kept up for an hour. Once they arrived simultaneously, when the wren was apparently much agitated, but waited impatiently on its previous perch, some ten feet off, until the robin had left, when it visited the nest as before. I climbed the tree for a closer inspection, and found only a well-regulated robin household, but nowhere a wren's nest. After coming down I walked around the tree and discovered a hole, and upon looking in saw a nest of sleeping featherless wrens. At no time while I was in the vicinity had the wren visited these little ones."

Of all our birds, the wren seems the most overflowing with life and activity. Probably in this instance it had stuffed its own young to repletion, when its own activity bubbled over into the nest of its neighbor. It is well known that the male wren frequently builds what are called "cock-nests." It is simply so full of life and joy and of the propagating instinct, that after the real nest is completed, and while the eggs are being laid, it gives vent to itself in constructing these sham, or cock-nests. I have found the nest of the long-billed marsh wren surrounded by half a dozen or more of these make-believers. The gushing ecstatic nature of the bird expresses itself in this way.

I have myself known but one instance of a bird lending a hand in feeding young not its own. This instance is to be set down to the credit of a female English sparrow. A little "chippie" had on her hands the task of supplying the wants of that horseleech, young cow-bunting. The sparrow looked on from its perch a few yards away, and when the "chippie" was off looking up food, it would now and then bring something and place it in the beak of the clamorous bunting. I think the "chippie" appreciated its good offices. Certainly its dusky foster-child did. This bird, when young, seems the most greedy of all fledgelings. It cries "More," "More," incessantly. When its foster parent is a small bird like "chippie" or one of the warblers, one would think it would swallow its parent when food is brought it. I suppose a similar spectacle is witnessed in England when the cuckoo is brought up by a smaller bird, as is always the case. Sings the fool in "Lear:"—

"The hedge-sparrow fed the cuckoo so long, That it had its head bit off by it young."

Last season I saw a cow-bunting fully grown following a "chippie" sparrow about, clamoring for food, and really looking large enough to bite off and swallow the head of its parent, and apparently hungry enough to do it. The "chippie" was evidently trying to shake it off and let it shift for itself, for it avoided it and flew from point to point to escape it. Its life was probably made wretched by the greedy monster it had unwittingly reared.

INDEX

Accentor, golden-crowned. _See_ Thrush, golden-crowned.

Adder's-tongue, _or_ yellow erythronium, _or_ dog's-tooth violet, 23-26.

Albertus Magnus, 252.

Alexander, Colonel, his stock farm, 225, 226, 228, 229.

Ants, 255.

Apple-trees, 165, 169, 209; old trees bear the most birds, 271; bird life in an old tree, 271-276.

April, a natal month, 162, 163; a perfect day in, 165.

Arbutus, trailing, 14, 15, 167.

Arethusa, 3, 4.

Arnold, Matthew, 214.

Ash, black, 6, 17.

Azalea, white, 6.

Balsam. _See_ Fir.

Bass, 16.

Bear, black (_Ursus americanus_), 41, 58, 163, 173, 174.

Beardslee, Mrs., 109 n.

Beaver (_Castor fiber_), 309.

Beaverkill, the, 34.

Bee. _See_ Bumblebee _and_ Honey-bee.

Bee-balm. _See_ Monarda.

Big Ingin Valley, 37.

Birch, yellow, 42.

Birds, colors of eggs, 64, 65; lining materials for nests, 70; shapes of eggs, 72; courtship, 77, 85; human traits of, 85, 86; fickle-mindedness of, 91; sense of taste, 96; their sympathy with each other, 119; gregarious and solitary, 120; local attachments of, 172, 173; sing at a distance from their nests, 188; concert of action among, 200, 201, 266; earth baths and water baths, 210; variations in songs according to localities and during a series of years, 239; their keenness of sight, 277; removal of egg-shells from the nest, 288, 289; the young leaving the nest, 292; continuation of the family life after the nest is left, 293, 294; the male feeding his mate, 298; the females more active than the male in caring for the young, 312, 313; the male broader in his sympathies and affections than the female, 313-315.

Blackbird, crow, _or_ purple grackle, (_Quiscalus quiscula_), notes of, 167.

Blackbird, red-winged. _See_ Starling, red-shouldered.

Black Pond, gathering pond-lilies in, 16-18.

Blood-root, 5, 13, 14, 168.

Bluebird (_Sialia sialis_), war with a wren, 66-68; courtship of, 79; jealousy and a duel, 80-82, 91; arrival of, 158, 159, 160; imaginary rivals, 189-191; and downy woodpecker, 272; war with a great crested flycatcher, 274, 275; jealousy and courage of, 275; and English sparrow, 275, 292, 293; feeding a family of vireos, 313, 314; notes of, 79-82, 158, 159, 163; nest and eggs of, 15, 64, 66, 68, 79-82, 189, 191, 275.

Blue-grass, 223, 227, 228, 234.

Blue-grass region, the, 223-234.

Bluets. _See_ Houstonia.

Blue-weed. _See_ Bugloss, viper's.

Bobolink (_Dolichonyx oryzivorus_), 188, 239; song of, 239; nest of, 188.

Bob-white. _See_ Quail.

Boneset, climbing, 31.

Boswell, James, 251.

Botany, the study of, 27, 28; a needed aid in, 31, 32.

Bowlders, refusing to stay down, 100, 101.

Brooks. _See_ Trout streams.

Bugloss, viper's, _or_ blue-weed, 29, 30.

Bullfrog, 255.

Bumblebee, 14; visiting the closed gentian, 27 and note; drones, 269.

Bunting, black-throated, _or_ dickcissel (_Spiza americana_), 239; song of, 239.

Bunting, indigo. _See_ Indigo-bird.

Bunting, snow, _or_ snowflake (_Plectrophenax nivalis_), 200.

Calf, fear in the young, 195.

Calypso, the orchid, 1, 2.

Cambium layer, the, 158.

Camp, repairing, 47, 52; rain in, 48; a cold night in, 52-54.

Camping, in the southern Catskills, 33-60.

Campion, bladder, 29.

Canary, 96, 97, 191, 305.

Cardinal (_Cardinalis cardinalis_), 239.

Cardinal-flower, 11, 29.

Carlyle, Thomas, a woman's opinion of, 108, 109; quotation from, 297.

Catbird (_Galeoscoptes carolinensis_), 142; song of, 308.

Cats, chipmunks and, 148-150; red squirrels and, 195.

Catskills, mountaineering in the southern, 33-60; the rocks of, 34, 46, 47; the water of, 40.

Cattle, backwoods, 58, 59.

Cedar-bird, _or_ cedar waxwing (_Ampelis cedrorum_), 72, 200; nest and eggs of, 70, 72.

Charming, the power of, 255-257.

Chat, yellow-breasted (_Icteria virens_), 239.

Chelone, _or_ turtle-head, 29.

Cherry pits, 151, 152.

Chewink, _or_ towhee (_Pipilo erythrophthalmus_), 14.

Chickadee (_Parus atricapillus_), 121; young leaving the nest, 292, 293; family life continued after the nest is left, 293, 294; a fatal malady, 294; a male feeding his mate, 298; notes of, 293, 294; nest of, 70, 257, 258, 292, 293, 298, 299.

Chipmunk (_Tamias striatus_), 140; spring awakening of, 145, 163; breeding habits of, 146; manners and conversation of, 146; enemies of, 146, 147; nervous, impetuous ways of, 147, 148; a hermit, 148, 152; adventures with cats, 148-150; the digging and furnishing of the den, 150, 151; food for the winter, 115, 152, 194; sociability, 152; pursued by a weasel, 152-154.

Chippie, _or_ social sparrow (_Spizella socialis_), 72; a curious mishap, 124, 125; and young cowbird, 315, 316; nest and eggs of, 64, 124.

Claytonia, _or_ spring beauty, 42, 43.

Clintonia, 42.

Clover, red, 42.

Clover, sweet, _or_ melilotus, 29.

Columbine, 13.

Condor, 309.

Cone-flower, _or_ rudbeckia, 98.

Contentment, 87-90.

Coon. _See_ Raccoon.

Corydalis, 13.

Cowbird, _or_ cow-bunting (_Molothrus ater_), desecrating a vireo's nest, 290, 291; the young bird and its foster-parent, 315-316.

Crane, sandhill (_Grus mexicana_), 105-107; nest and eggs of, 105, 106.

Crickets, field, hibernating of, 255.

Crow, American (_Corvus americanus_), their fellow-feeling and courtesy towards each other, 119, 120; suspiciousness of, 121, 122, 164, 171, 265, 298; the male feeding his mate, 312; notes of, 163; nest of, 312.

Cuckoo, European, 316.

Cypripedium. _See_ Lady's-slipper.

Daffodil, 19.

Dandelion, 104, 105.

David, a guide in the Catskills, 39, 40.

Deer, Virginia (_Cariacus virginianus_), 41, 277-279.

Dicentra. _See_ Dutchman's breeches _and_ Squirrel corn.

Dickcissel. _See_ Bunting, black-throated, 239.

Dipper, European, eggs of, 65.

Dog, a, detected in stealing, 58, 59; a red squirrel's race with a, 198, 199, 256.

Dog-toes, 98.

Double-Top, 43.

Dove, turtle or mourning (_Zenaidura macroura_), 236, 299; nest and young of, 299, 300.

Duck, eider, 70.

Ducks, wild, 101, 161.

Dutchman's breeches (_Dicentra cucullaria_), 4.

Eel, 252.

Emerson, Ralph Waldo, 109, 245; quotations from, 14, 63.

Erythronium. _See_ Adder's-tongue.

Evening primrose, 19.

Esopus Creek, 34.

Farmers, Kentucky, 226, 227.

Fear, in wild animals, 193-197; in man, 195; in domestic animals, 195; paralysis from, 255-257.

Fences, 100.

Fern. _See_ Osmunda.

Fertility, the beauty of, 221, 222.

Finch, lark, _or_ lark sparrow (_Chondestes grammacus_), 234, 235; song of, 235.

Finch, purple (_Carpodacus purpureus_), song of, 308; nest of, 300.

Fir, balsam, 42, 43, 47.

Fish, a small, swallowing a large fish, 131.

Fishes, flying, walking, and tree-climbing, 308.

Flicker. _See_ High-hole.

Flowers, wild, the identification of, 31, 32.

Flycatcher, great crested (_Myiarchus crinitus_), 274; war with a bluebird, 274, 275; notes of, 274; nest of, 260, 272-275.

Fox, red (_Vulpes vulpes_, var. _fulvus_), tracks of, 126, 127, 303; 177, 196, 197, 277.

Frog, pickerel, 255.

Frog, wood, 261.

Frogs, spring awakening of, 163; hibernating of, 254, 255. _See_ Bullfrog, Hyla, _and_ Tree-frog.

Fumitory, climbing, 4, 5.

Game, on the prairie, 101, 102.

Gentian, closed, 26, 27, 30.

Georgetown, Ky., 232.

Gerardia, rose, 11.

Ginger, wild, 26.

Girl, a young English, 28, 29.

Goethe, quotation from, 90.

Goldenrod, 98.

Goldenrod, mountain, 54.

Goldfinch, American, _or_ yellowbird (_Spinus tristis_), 72; habits of, 73, 74; love-making festivals of, 83, 84; change of plumage, 83, 84, 166; notes of, 73, 74, 84; nest and eggs of, 72, 73.

Goose, Canada (_Branta canadensis_), 101.

Gopher, pocket (_Spermophilus_ sp.), 104.

Grackle, purple. _See_ Blackbird, crow.

Grass. _See_ Blue-grass.

Grass, chess _or_ cheat, 262, 263.

Green River, 243, 249.

Grosbeak, pine (_Pinicola enucleator_), a visit from, 284-286; notes of, 284.

Grouse, pinnated, _or_ prairie hen (_Tympanuchus americanus_), 101, 102, 106; notes of, 101; nest and eggs of, 61, 101, 102.

Grouse, ruffed, _or_ partridge (_Bonasa umbellus_), courtship of, 85, 177, 201; protective coloring of, 261; her well-trained young, 262; drumming of, 85; nest of, 61.

Hair-snake, 264, 265.

Hardhack. _See_ Steeple-bush.

Hare, northern (_Lepus americanus_, var. _virginianus_), 197, 198.

Hats and bonnets, Thoreau on, 209, 210.

Hawk, banqueting-hall of a, 171, 172; quickness of a, 200; and mouse, 256, 257; the smaller species as enemies of birds and chickens, 265, 266; poised in mid-air, 266. _See_ Hen-hawk.

Hawk, American sparrow (_Falco sparverius_), 265.

Hawk, fish. _See_ Osprey.

Hawk, marsh (_Circus hudsonius_), habits and appearance of, 133; defending her nest, 134, 135; young of, 135, 137, 138; a tame young one, 138-143, 172; notes of, 134, 135, 138, 139; nest and eggs of, 133-138.

Hawk, pigeon (_Falco columbarius_), caught in a shad-net, 259.

Hawk, sharp-shinned (_Accipiter velox_), 266.

Hawkweed (_Hieracium aurantiacum_), 8, 9, 10 and note.

Hen-hawk, 133; one of the farmer's best friends, 265.

Hepatica. _See_ Liver-leaf.

High-hole, _or_ flicker (_Colaptes auratus_), matchmaking of, 82, 83; drumming of, 83; unbridled boring propensities, 276, 292; notes of, 82, 83, 165, 167; nest and eggs of, 72, 83, 259.

Hogs of the prairie, 99.

Honey-bee, 14, 30; in a chimney, 68; working on sawdust, 158, 159, 162, 163.

Horses, gentleness towards children, 97; in Kentucky, 228, 233.

Houstonia, _or_ bluets, 19, 20.

Hummingbird, ruby-throated (_Trochilus colubris_), probing peaches, 286; a curious statement about, 287; nest and eggs of, 65.

Hunters and their victims, 277-281.

Hyla, Pickering's, _or_ peeper, 166, 168, 254.

Illinois, birds observed in, 235, 236.

Indian cucumber root, _or_ medeola, 2, 3.

Indigo-bird, _or_ indigo bunting (_Passerina cyanea_), song of, 188; nest of, 188.

Invalid, observations of an, 87-109.

Ironweed, 228.

Jay, blue (_Cyanocitta cristata_), hoarding food, 90, 91; worried by a wren, 92, 128, 130, 236; a devourer of the eggs and young of other birds, 289; mobbed by robins, 289, 290, 293; a male feeding his mate, 298, 299, 300; notes of, 128, 299; nest and eggs of, 92, 128, 298, 299.

Jefferies, Richard, a reporter of nature, 207; his _Wild Life_, 207; a sympathetic spectator of nature, not an observer, 211; his _Gamekeeper at Home_, 211; his _Amateur Poacher_, 211; his _My Old Village_, 211; quotation from, 211-213.

Jewel-weed, 28, 29.

Johnson, Dr. Samuel, 204, 205; on scorpions and swallows, 251.

Joint-snake. _See_ Snake, glass.

Journal, keeping a, 155-158.

Junco. _See_ Snowbird.

Kentucky, the journey into, 221-223; the blue-grass region of, 223-234; the birds of, 234-239; Mammoth Cave, 241-250.

Kingbird (_Tyrannus tyrannus_), 293; nest of, 70, 259, 260.

Kingfisher, belted (_Ceryle alcyon_), nest and eggs of, 65.

Kingfisher, English, 65; eggs of, 65.

Knott, Governor, 238.

Lady's-slipper, showy (_Cypripedium spectabile_), 6-8.

Lady's-slipper, stemless _or_ pink (_Cypripedium acaule_), 6, 71.

Lark, shore _or_ horned (_Otocoris alpestris_) _and_ prairie horned lark (_O. a. praticola_), 163, 164, 287; in confinement, 288; notes of, 163, 164, 287, 288.

Larkins, his house in the Catskills, 37, 56, 57; directions from, 38, 39; his dog, 59, 60.

Licks, of Kentucky, the, 225.

Lilies, scarlet, 98.

Lily, meadow, 17. _See_ Pond-lily.

Limestone, of Kentucky, 234.

Linnæus, quotation from, 266.

Lion's-foot, 30.

Liver-leaf, _or_ hepatica, 14.

Loon (_Urinator imber_), 309.

Loosestrife, purple, 12, 29.

Lynx, Canada (_Lynx canadensis_), 198.

Mallow. _See_ Marsh-mallow.

Mammoth Cave, general impressions of, 241, 242, 248; relics of 1812, 242; the clock, 243; timidity of visitors, 243, 244; a dark city, 244; as a sanitarium, 244, 245; the Star Chamber, 245, 246; musical rocks, 246, 247; water in, 247, 248; Goring Dome, 248; the entrance, 248, 249; a river of cool air, 249, 250.

Maple, red, 17.

Maple, sugar, keys of, 152; starting of the sap, 159; a good sap day, 160, 161.

March, a typical day of, 161; tokens of, 219, 220.

Marigold, marsh, 19.

Marsh-mallow (_Althæa officinalis_), 12.

Martin, Mrs., her _Home Life on an Ostrich Farm_, 86.

Martin, purple (_Progne subis_), eggs of, 65.

Meadow-beauty, _or_ rhexia, 10.

Meadowlark (_Sturnella magna_), 236; notes of, 165, 167.

Medeola. _See_ Indian cucumber root.

Melilotus. _See_ Clover, sweet.

Milkweed, marsh, 13.

Mimicry, 308, 309.

Mimulus, purple, _or_ monkey-flower, 29.

Mink (_Putorius vison_), 103, 104; tracks of, 126, 127, 309.

Mockingbird (_Mimus polyglottos_), 239, 302; song of, 308.

Monarda, _or_ bee-balm, 11.

Monkey-flower. _See_ Mimulus.

Moose (_Alce alces_), pursuit of a, 280, 281.

Mountain-ash, 42.

Mountain-climbing, in the Catskills, 33-60.

Mountains, their meaning to Oriental minds, 44, 45.

Mt. Graham, 43.

Mount Sterling, 223.

Mt. Wittenberg, 35, 38, 56, 57.

Mouse, meadow, 256; crossing a lake, 309-311.

Mouse, white-footed, a mother with her young, 311.

Mouse-ear, 21-23.

Muskrat (_Fiber zibethicus_), 103, 104; in a doorway, 177, 178, 303.