Birds and Nature, Vol. 08, No. 1, June 1900: In Natural ColorsVarious
History
Birds and Nature, Vol. 08, No. 1, June 1900: In Natural Colors
Various
Birds -- Periodicals; Natural history -- Periodicals
The _San Francisco Examiner_ records that "Sadie Jones, C. 21,392,"
is the champion long-distance homing pigeon of America, and the
world, so far as is known. She flew from Lake Charles, Louisiana, to
Philadelphia, a distance of 1,202 12-100 miles in 16 days and 3 hours.
Sadie Jones is the property of M. S. Sullivan, of West Philadelphia,
and was five years of age at the time of making the record. She was
named after the daughter of the National Race Secretary, Charles H.
Jones, and was personally countermarked and shipped by that young lady,
together with five others. She was the only one to return. So far as
known no other pigeon has ever flown this distance.
When the writer was many years younger, to please the rising
generation he made a dove cote and procured a few tame pigeons. In
the course of time the birds had increased by not only rearing young,
but by inducing strange birds to accept the quarters offered. The
pigeons were regularly fed, the meal hour being announced by a peculiar
whistle. The dinner call was soon known to all the birds in the place,
and the yard would immediately fill with birds from every direction
when the whistle was blown. On one occasion a lame bird in the flock,
which had evidently been caught in a snare and escaped with a slip
noose on one leg that had cut into the flesh, making the poor bird very
lame, came with the rest.
After considerable pains the bird was caught, the string cut, and the
bird placed on the ground. It stood a moment as if amazed, and then
flew up to its liberator's knee and fed out of his hand.
THE TWO-STORIED NEST.
ETHEL MORTON.
Looking from my study window, one day, last June, I noticed a little
yellow and brown bird, who was hopping from bush to bush. She was
busily chattering to another bird, who sat on a neighboring tree,
evidently much enjoying a worm he was eating. I knew the pair,
directly, as my friends of the season before,--the Yellow Warblers.
Mrs. Warbler was looking for a good place to build her nest. After some
consideration, she decided on a bush in front of my window. Off she
flew to a field of dandelions, and soon returned with several pieces of
dandelion fluff. It took quite a while to complete the house, for Mrs.
W. was very neat and precise in her work, but after it was finished,
Mr. Warbler came over to look at it (he had left the building to his
wife!), and as he seemed perfectly satisfied with it, Mrs. Warbler was
happy.
Not many days after this, some pretty little blue eggs lay snugly in
the nest, and Mrs. Warbler was a mother! Alas! On the day the young
Warblers left their shells, their mother came home from a call on
Mrs. Robin, to find her children crying most bitterly. An ugly Cowbird
had dropped its great, brown, spotted egg right in their beautiful
parlor! (It seems to be a custom with these birds, to leave their eggs
in the nests of their unfortunate neighbors, rather than hatch them
themselves.)
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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