3°° 



THE GUIDE TO NATURE 



The Mocking Bird's Marvelous Ver- 

 satility. 



BY FRANKLIN J. IIAYDLN, NOKOMIS, FLA. 



During- a number of seasons spent in 

 Florida, I have been impressed more and 

 more with the marvelous versatility of 

 the mocking bird, which, as a name, dis- 

 credits him. It is not impossible, I 

 think, that other birds are mocking him, 

 for he seems to have the songs and 

 calls of most of our common birds as 

 well as other songs they can never hope 



to sing. 



I have heard him render the calls and 

 songs of chewinks, meadowlarks, cat- 

 birds, brown thrashers, wood thrushes, 

 wrens and red-winged blackbirds with 

 such absolute accuracy that you would 

 expect to see them all with him in the 

 tree. 



Once I came upon a mocking bird 

 and a brown thrasher singing at the 

 same time. They sang and sang while 

 I stood between them and listened, but 

 I could not detect the slightest differ- 

 ence in their songs. Had they changed 

 places I should have been none the 

 wiser. 



What I love most in a singer is a 

 voice that reaches the soul. In this 

 respect the mocking bird is so far be- 

 yond the other songsters that I have 

 heard as to render comparisons ab- 

 surd. 



Maurice Thompson said, "If I was 

 going to risk the reputation of our coun- 

 try against a European nightingale I 

 would choose for my champion a mock- 

 ins: bird from the neighborhood of 

 Tallahassee." 



Blanchan says, "This is the angel 

 that the catbird was before he fell from 

 grace. Slim, graceful, imitative, amus- 

 ing, with a rich tender song that only 

 the hermit thrush can hope to rival." 



"All moods are his — delicate as the 

 perfume of the first violet, wild as the 

 storm, he knows the music of all sounds 

 from the rustle of leaves and the whis- 

 per of hidden springs to the voices of 

 the sea." 



When I hear the mocking bird I ex- 

 claim, "Is it possible that a bird is do- 

 ing all this with common air'" 



Sidney Lanier well said that the bird 

 is a poet of the spiritual universe and, 

 he might have added, the Shakespeare 

 of all our songsters. 



An Enthusiastic Student of Winter 

 Birds. 



Mrs. W. Emmet Smith of Katonah, 

 New York, sends a very interesting list 

 of winter birds that have been observed 

 by a near-by neighbor, Mrs. F. W. Gor- 

 ham, who is a great lover of birds. Mrs. 

 Smith says : 



"An old apple tree, left standing for 

 the purpose when the house was built, 

 serves as a feeding place for the birds. 

 From a position a little back from the 

 window, Mrs. Gorham often watches 

 them through a glass and derives great 

 pleasure from so doing. 



"The table is the lid of a pail tacked 

 to a branch of the tree. In it she places 

 crumbs, grain and seed, scattering 

 some on the ground. A piece of suet 

 hangs on the tree. Mrs. Gorham says 

 the pleasure of watching the birds 

 abundantly repays for all the trouble 



taken. 



"How thankful we should be for 

 birds. What a blessing they are in 

 destroying harmful insects, and what 

 would a summer be without their sweet 

 songs ! It seems to me there is no bet- 

 ter way of proving our thankfulness 

 than by caring for them." 



A White Hawk. 



BY C. D. ROMIG, AUDENRIFJ), PENNSYL- 

 VANIA. 



At noon, December 15th, after the 

 cold spell and a heavy snowfall, the 

 cawing of a crow overhead attracted 

 my attention and I noticed that the 

 crow was pursuing a snow-white hawk 

 considerably larger than itself. The 

 hawk was snow-white with the excep- 

 tion of the outer tips of the wings 

 which appeared to be brownish. 



The bird was soaring like a hawk 

 but it may have been an owl, as its 

 body and wings were somewhat stub- 

 by in outline. Owls are not supposed 

 to fly in the daytime, but I recall the 

 shooting of brown owls as large as 

 crows that were flying about the corn- 

 fields in the daytime. At the time I be- 

 lieved they were hawks. In any event 

 this was an extraordinary bird. It had 

 possibly been driven from home by 

 the severe storm and cold. Against a 

 clear blue sky it was an unusual and 

 interesting sight. It at least excited 

 the crow and me too. 



