Birds and Nature Vol. 11 No. 3 [March 1902]: Illustrated by Color PhotographyVarious
History
Birds and Nature Vol. 11 No. 3 [March 1902]: Illustrated by Color Photography
Various
Birds -- Periodicals; Natural history -- Periodicals
his appearance only after nightfall, when the “best people” were not in
evidence.
Of the two other members of the warbler family, who traveled north with
us singly and alone, one was a Blackburnian warbler, silent and dull of
plumage as befitted the season, and the other a dainty black-throated
blue warbler, one of the most dressy and gentlemanly appearing birds of
the warbler species. In his steely blue coat, black stock and evening
vest and wide expanse of white shirt front, he looks as though fully
attired for a swell reception. His two white wing patches closely
resemble handkerchiefs peeping from side pockets, completing the
illusion. He was rather more reserved in his movements than the gang of
noisy associates, and picked daintily at the flies as befits well-bred
superiority. But he, like the rest, showed no apparent distrust of us,
neither did some newly arrived white-throated sparrows, who joined in
the general scramble for insects. But not now do we hear their cheerful
“I-have-got-plenty-to-eat-but-no-che-eze,” as Dr. Brewer interprets
their song. I am sure that they could have had cheese or anything else
they desired on board the Castalia, for on hospitable thoughts intent I
secured some crumbs from the table, but my feathered fellow travelers
would have none of me, passing my humble offerings by in disdain. There
was but one death on the passage, and that was a white-eyed vireo, who
either succumbed to exhaustion or struck the rigging too violently in
boarding the steamer.
But birds were not the only winged creatures who took passage with us.
For several hours a continuous stream of honey bees and yellow-jackets
flew exhausted upon the deck, only to become food for the bee-eating
passengers. The few who escaped and revived sufficiently to crawl up
onto the cabin were so fatigued that one could stroke them gently
without provoking any antagonism. Wafted across the blue waters by
adverse winds came also myriads of common yellow butterflies, tossing in
the gentle breeze like handfuls of shining buttercups, and great troops
of beautiful milkweed butterflies (Anosia plexippus), their brilliant
colors gleaming in the sunlight in all the richness of ebony and
crimson. They hovered about the steamer like gorgeous blossoms cut from
the parent stalk and left poised in mid air at the mercy of treacherous
gales. Funny little atoms of vanity and brightness, whose homes are
among the gardens of peace and sunshine, what business had they here in
this region of seething waters and tempestuous winds?
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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