Polk County Enterprise (Livingston, Tex.), Vol. 4, No. 44, Ed. 1 Thursday, July 23, 1908 Page: 3 of 8
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SOME CURIOUS WAYS OF BIRDS
:COLDF!NCH GETS BOTH BED AND
BOARD FROM THIStLES—A
’ DEVOTED HUSBAND.
SNEAK TRICK OF COWBIRD
(Immense Numbers of Robins Killed in
Southern States for the Stew Pot
cf the Northern as Well as
Southern Home.
BY EDWARD B. CLARK.
■(Associate Member" American Ornithol-
ogists' Union.)
(Copyright, Joseph B. Bowles.)
Go to the parks of the city or to the
lanes of the c6untryside in July and
thigh overhead you may hear a
tinkling note. Look upward and you
-will see a bird In livery of black and
gold swinging hammocks in the sky.
It is the goldfinch taking its flight
above mother earth in a series of
in order to secure a satisfactory pic-
ture of a goldfinch home and young It
became necessary to cut away tne
leaves which shielded the nest from
the hot July sun. When the mother
bird felt that the heat of noonday was
too great for the little ones she placed
herself upon the edge of the nest and,
spreading her wings, formed a canopy
over her offspring. There she stayed
until the sun had passed beyond the
point of its greatest power, and while
she remained at her post the gallant
husband brought food for both mother
and young.
There is another bird which, like
the goldfinch, believes In late season
housekeeping. It is the cedar bird
(ampelis cedrorum) the very Beau
Brummel of birds. The cedar bird
has a crest which it wears jauntily.
Its head and under parts are of a
beautiful fawn color, while the upper
parts are olive gray. The tall Is tipped
with yellow and upon the wings are
drops of rod substance like sealing
wax. The bird's plumage fits It like
Male Goldfinch Feeding the Young.
Sweeping curves, dropping downward
and forward, mounting again to a
point in the horizontal plane of Its de-
parture and then down again, up
again, following a course which shows
a constant succession of the curved
lines of beauty.
The goldfinch almost Invariably
■sings as it flies, adding the music of
its voice to the rhythm of Its move-
ment. The goldfinch (splnus trlstls)
fs Just now building Its nest. The
robins have their second broods well
on the way to caring for themselves;
the blackbirds are flocking for their
late summer foraging, and the native
sparrows have deserted their second
homes of the season, but the goldfinch,
a laggard In love, Ir Just beginning to
think of domestic joys.
There is a curious feature In the life
•of our friend In yellow and black.
He makes one plant serve for his
board and lodging. The seeds of the
thistle are the choicest morsels in the
goldfinch's bill of fare. It eats, with
Its fellows, millions upon millions of
the seeds of this farmer's pest yearly,
and in the eating kills the life germ
of the seed. From the downy part of
the thistle top the goldfinch makes the
lining of its nest. Literally the bird
makes the thistle furnish forth both
bed and board.
'It has been supposed that the rea-
son for the late mating and nesting of
the goldfinches Is that they wish to
wait Until their favorite food and
thgir favorite building material have
been put upon the market in a ripened
state by the rays of the sun. It 13 true
that occasionally the goldfinch will
take other downy Stuff to form a couch
for its young. They will pull soft bits
from the raveled end of a clothes line
and make it answer the purpose of
thistle down, and a bit of waste cot-
ton fills their little hearts with de-
light. But it Is to the thistle that they
turn with ail the devotion of a true
son of Scotland.
The goldfinch doffs his yellow and
black garb in the early fall and puts
on a somber habit like that which his
Nest and Eggs of Shore Lark.
feeding a youngster of more than
double her size. It is perhaps almost,
needless to say that the youngster is
a cow bunting (Molothrus ater), while
•the food-providing mother is in reality
only a foster mother. The female cow-
bird skulks through the fields and
woods and drops her eggs Into the
nests of other birds, selecting usually
the homes of birds which are much
smaller than herself. Occasionally
the birds which have been im-
posed upon will desert the nest or
build an additional story to It, thus
cutting off the parasite egg from the
benefit of the sitting. Ordinarily, how-
ever, the victim lays her own eggs
and hatches them with the egg of the
cowbird, though as a rule the parasite
egg hatches first. The young cowbird,
being larger than its nest mates,
claims nearly all of the food, and the
lives of Its foster brothers and sisters
are sacrificed. The foster mother will
lead forth the great hulking young one
and care for it with all the tenderness
that she would have shown her legiti-
mate offspring.
The shore lark, often called the
horned lark (Otocorls alpestrls) fre-
quently Is imposed upon by the cow-
bird. Robert W. Hegner, who has
photographed many birds' nests- in
situ, recently secured a picture of a
shore lark's nest, which contained in
addition to Its complement of lark's
eggs two eggs of the cowbird.
Not long ago I personally found the
nest of a yellow warbler containing
four eggs of the cowbird. The war-
bler (Dendroica aestiva) completed Its
ne«t on Sunday afternoon. Tuesday
morning it contained four cowbirds’
eggs and not one egg of the rightful
owner of the home. The yellow war-
bler deserted in disgust.
I have watched the female cowbird
While she was approaching the nest
in Which she Intended to lay an egg.
No sneak thief ever more plainly
showed by his appearance and man-
ner that he Intended wrongdoing than
did that cowbird. She kept a watch-
ful eye out to see that the warbler
whose home she was to visit was ab-
sent, and then slunk through the un-
derbrush, pausing every few yards to
look about, and finally ended In one
swift dash for the nest. I chased the
bird away and then retired to a dis-
tance. She was back Inside of five
minutes. I drove her away again, and
would have killed her with pleasure
had I the means at hand, for be it
known that one warbler is worth ten
cowbirds, and If that cowbird egg had
found lodging in the warbler’s nest
it meant that every little warbler
which might be hatched would soon
meet death by starvation.
Something was said about the eco-
nomic value of the robin. There has
been issued by the national committee
of Audubon societies an educational
leaflet on this bird. The matter was
prepared by William Dutcher of New
York city, chairman of the protection
committee of the American Orni-
thologists’. union. Mr. Dutcher Is one
of the foremost bird authorities in the
United States. Mr. Dutcher says:
“Wherever the robin breeds with-
in the confines of civilization man
Robin, Nest and Young.
a glove. It Is the one bird of the
whole tribe of birds which can sit
with its back to a howling wind and
„ ____________________ — never ruffle a feather. It has the
mate wears throughout the year. Per- [ secret of being well groomed upon all
sons who have seen the bird In sum-
mer and who have been struck by Its
beauty of plumage have thought that
it disappeared with the other birds
when the cold weather came on. Our
goldfinch is no immigrant, however.
He is nearly as cheerful in winter as
he is In summer, and he pick3 up a
precarious living in the snowclad
fields and the snow-filled forests all
through the bowlings of winter. No,
the goldfinch has not deserted us for
thi southland. He has simply changed
his coat
Master Goldfinch Is a devoted hus-
banci and father. He feeds his sitting
mate, and, when the young are In the
nest, he shares with her the duty of
filling their hungry mouths. Recuttly
occasions.
The cedar bird, like the goldfinch. Is
not afraid of winter weather. There
is no sight more charming and more
novel than to see a number of cedar
birds sitting on a tree branch during a
gentle snowstorm, and launching out,
one after another, to seize the*falling
feathery flakes. The birds make a
winter sport of snowflake catching.
Possibly the white flakes remind them
of the petals of springtime apple blos-
soms. of which the birds are rather
fonder than the fruit raiser might
wish.
Wandering through the fields on
bird observing bent. In this summer
season, a not infrequent sight will be
that of some mite of a mother bird
is its friend, and- a mutual attach-
ment has grown up that borders
on sentiment. In the robin's win-
ter home in the southland all is
different for there is no sentiment.”
From a member of the Louisiana
Audubon society there came to Mr.
Dutcher the statement that a con-
servative estimate made the number
of robins killed for food purposes in
Louisiana “from a quarter of a mil
lion In ordinary years to a million
when the birds are unusually plenti-
ful.”
The Audubon societies are endeavor-
ing to check this awful slaughter of
birds, which are absolutely hecessary
to protect the crops. The southern
state legislatures recently have expe-
rienced a change of heart, and they
now are ready to throw the arm of
protection about birds which make a
winter resort of the southland.
EDWARD B. CI&A.RK
r
DISPOSITION OF STATE LANDS.
LAND LAWS Bi-.NG SAtlSFACTOR
ILY ADMINISTERED.
Choicest Selections on Mustang Island
Have Been Taken—Some Compari-
sons With Former Sales.
Austin, Tex.—The recent rush to se-
cure laud on Mustang Island, which
continues to some extent, even though
the choice locations are gone, has at-
tracted attention to the land laws of
the state'and for the first time in many
years there is general satisfaction over
the present system of selling. The
land is first advertised and then sold
to ihe highest bidder, there being no
opportunity for favoritism or secret
manipulation or the infamous scenes
that attended buying through the coun=
ty clerk when chutes were erected and
men, representatives of powerful cat:
tlemen, stayed in the line for days at
a time, having their food brought to
them, etc. Now it is free bidding, with
the proposals opened on a certain day
and the best offer accepted by the land
commissioner in the name of the state.
This also saves the small homeseeker
from the man who was anxiousc to
keep his pastures intact and had mon-
ey and time at his disposal to force
his way at the county clerk’s office
through his hands and others hired to
keep in line and file the applications
to buy first.
The land commissioner has com-
plained that many have violated the
law in not residing on the land, and he
may recommend that, it bo made more
strict as to that feature. Then the
cattle iben have had their hands and
others bid high for the land and essay
an actual residence, declared to be a
farce by the land commissioner.
WILLIAMS DISABLED.
Condemed Man Broke His Ankle In a
Desperate Attempt to Escape.
San Antonio, Tex.—Following his
sensational escape from the county jail
Saturday night, ag a result of which
he was at liberty for thirty minutes,
“Doc” Williams is now in his cell nurs-
ing a badly broken ankle and will have
to hobble to the gallows on cruLclibs
when he is hanged on Friday week.
An investigation as to how he made his
escape has been under way. The death
cell is isolated from the rest of the
cells in the jail. Just previous to
Williams’ escape tha garbage man had
carried out the refuse and left the
back door of the jail open. Williams
saw this, and he then feigned insan-
ity in order to get the guard to open
the door. He struck him down and
then made a run for liberty. He broke
his ankle in dropping over the jail
wall. This probably accounts for his
easy recapture.
--\
Habitual
Constiw
CHANCE FOR EMMA.
“Riot at Yale”—A Recipe.
Take half a hundred Short Fresh-
men dying of ennui, and the same
number of academic feeling the same
way—only more so. Mix well by the
flagpole, and pour into Church street.
Introduce at two-minute intervals half
a dozen trolleys with temptingly- dang-
ling ropes. Now put in on cue run
three or four vigilant representatives
of the law, stir till the whole ntass
comes to red heat, and then pick out
an entirely Innocent grind, and place
In the cooler to cool. Garnish with
huge headlines and serve for break-
fast to fond parents, etc.—Yale Record.
HOPE FOR PUBLISHERS.
Former Relations Gan Continue, at
Least Till Supreme Court Decides.
Chicago, 111.—Closer analysis of the
decision of Judge Kohlsaat in the Mo-
non pass case’ develops a strong ray
of hope for the publishers and rail-
roads who desire to exchange adver-
tising for transportation. It had been
thought that the decision absolutely
forbade anything but actual money be-
ing accepted in payment for transporta-
tion from, one state ts another. At-
torney Kretzinger, one of counsel, Fri-
day admitted that the decision per-
mits the railroads and publishers to
continue their former relations until
the case is finally passed upon by the
United States Supreme Court, to which
an appeal has been taken. The court
does not convene until the last, week
in October. It is believed the law for-
bidding the issuance of transportation
in return for advertising will not stand
the test of the courts.
In Us defense the MonOn Railway
contended that it was unconstitutional
for Congress to provide that any com-
modity can not be paid for except in
money, as it takes away the right of
parties to enter into contract.
Marketing Cotton.
Goliad Tex.—Cottop is being rapid-
ly marketed at this place, several
thousand pounds being brought In Sat-
urday. There are over four hundred
bales of cotton in the Farmers’ Union
warehouse from last year’s crop,
which Is being discriminated against
in favor of new cotton to the extent
of }c per pound. All cotton brought
to town‘has been sold to local dealers
at the prevailing prices, and none so
far haB been placed In the warehouse.
DROPPED COFFEE
Doctor Gains 20 Pounds on Postum.
Austin’s First Bale.
Austin, Tex.—Information frem the
southwestern part of the county Is to
the effect that two bales of cotton are
ready for ginning, which will probably
be done this week. This indicates that
Austin will receive Its first bale about
two weeks earlier this year than last.
The first bale of the season reached
the Austin mayket Aug. 3 last year.
The better crop conditions that have
prevailed in Travis county this year
have ca'ise* the earliest harvest.
anstipation
May be permanently overcome Improper
personal efforts vntklke assistance
of thcoim Truly' beneficial laxative
remedy, Syrup of rigs and E,Vuir of Senna,
jvKicK enables one to form regal o
habits, daily So that assistance to r»«
ar
---y fo na-
ture may be gradually dispensed wilt)
wbeh no longer needed aslke bestof
remedies, when required, are to assist
nature and not to supplant tbe nature
alfunctions, vbicK must depend ulti-
mately upon proper nourishment,
proper efforts,and right living generally,
logel its beneficial effects, always
buy the genuine
Syrupfftgs^EI uirfSenna
' , Manufactured by five
California
Fio Syrup Co. only
SOLD BVALLLEADINC DRUGGISTS
one sue only, regular price 50f Bottle
Tommy (to ills sister)—Emma, if
you give me a hit of your cake. I ll
spoil the piano so that you won’t bq
able to take a lesson for a fortnight!
Knew Him.
“William,” said the head of the
firm, looking at his watch, "I have
business out of town this afternoon
and may be detained several hour3.
If anybody should call—”
“Ther ain't no ball game to-day, Mr.
Spotcash,” interrupted the office boy.
“I said nothing about ball games,
William,” rejoined his employer, eying
him sternly. "However, my business
is such that It can wait until some
other day. That will be all just now,
William.”
A physician of Wash., D. C., says of
his coffee experience;.,
“For years I suffered with periodical
headaches which grew more frequent
until they became almost constant. So
severe were they that sometimes I was
almost frantic. 4 was sallow, consti-
pated, irritable, sleepless; my mem-
ory was poor, I trembled and my
thoughts were often confused.
“My wife, in her wisdom, believed
coffee was responsible for these ills
and urged me to drop It. I tried many
times to do so, but was its slave.
“Finally Wife bought a package of
Postum, and persuaded me to try it, but
she made It same as ordinary coffee
and I was disgusted with the taste.
(I make this emphatic because I fear
many others have had the same expe-
rience.) She yas distressed at : her
failure and we carefully read the di-
rections, made it right, boiled it full
15 minutes after boiling commenced,
and with good cream and sugar, I
liked it—it invigorated and seemed to
nourish me.
“This was about a year ago. Now I
ljave no headaches, am not sallow,
sleeplessness and irritabiUty are gone,
my brain clear and my head steady.
1 have gained 20 lbs. and feel I ain a
new man.
"I do not hesitate to give Postum
due credit. Of course dropping coffee
was the main thing, but I had dropped
it before, using qjiocolate, cocoa and
other things to no purpose.
“Postum not only seemed to act as
an lnvlgorant, but as an article of
nourishment, giving me the needed
phosphates and albumens. This is no
imaginary tale. It can be substanti-
ated by my wife and her sister, who
both changed to Postum and are 1
hearty women of about 70.
“X write this for the information and-
oncouragement of others, and with a
feeling of gratitude to the inventor of
Postum.”
Name given by Postum Co., Battle
Creek, Mich. Read “The Road to Well-
ville,” In pkgs. “There’s a Reason."
Ever read the above letter? A new
one appears from time to time. They
are genuine, true, and full of human
interest.
"C
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Manry, E. J. & West, W. L. Polk County Enterprise (Livingston, Tex.), Vol. 4, No. 44, Ed. 1 Thursday, July 23, 1908, newspaper, July 23, 1908; (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth656873/m1/3/: accessed July 18, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Livingston Municipal Library.