172 



Bird -Lore 



You can guess easily, for you have 

 seen the tempter protruding above and 

 behind the up-to-date outing hat the en- 

 tire season, and unless you are unusu- 

 ally lucky it has poked you reproach- 

 fully in the eye, as if calling your atten- 

 tion to its plight. 



"The Quill of course!" 



Yes, the Quill is the mischief-maker. At 

 its introduction many years ago, the 

 Quill was at first the harmless feather of 

 a Crow, or a Goose quill sedate enough 

 make a pen for a judge. After awhile 

 it took on dabs of color and even 

 spangles, but all this time it was a good 

 safe outing and rainy day ornament. 



Then a change came, the Quill grew 

 suddenly longer with a curl to its tip 

 that made one wonder, if natural, how its 

 original wearer had lived with it. This 

 Quill, however, did not stay well in curl, 

 and less than a year ago it was displaced 

 by the reigning favorite, a Quill as aggres- 

 sively impertinent as any that decks the 

 cap of the operatic Mephisto, but not 

 half as becoming to the wearer. 



Now comes the inconsistency of the 

 moderates. They wear these Quills blindly, 

 because they have not studied birds 

 thoroughly enough to distinguish between 

 plumages except when aided by decided 

 color. The sentence, "It is only a 

 Quill," covers deadly sins of omission. I 

 have cornered several women who are 

 what might be called aggressive Audu- 

 bonites : " Do you know that the notched 

 Quill in your hat] is a pinion of the 

 American Eagle ?" "Oh no, you must 

 be mistaken, it surely is only a Goose, 

 or perhaps a Turkey feather, and be- 

 sides," — drawing herself up with superior 

 wisdom, "Eagles are very rare birds, 

 that fly so high it is very difficult to 

 shoot them, and I know at least fifty 

 people who are wearing these Quills." 



Rare ? yes, pinion of peerless flight ! 

 But what bird can fly so high or find so 

 eery a resting place as to escape the 

 ' desire of the eye ' of fashion ? Pause 

 a moment, well-meaning sisters of ' little 

 knowledge.' Hold a Quill class and lay 

 your outing hats on the dissecting table ! 



Study out the things you have been 

 wearing, and you will be wiser, and I 

 hope sadder also, resolving either to join 

 the total abstainers, or to devote enough 

 time to bird study to be consistent in 

 your actions. 



"But," you may say, "We are con- 

 sistent even now. The Eagle is neither 

 a song bird, an insect eater, nor a game 

 bird, and from an economic standpoint 

 it can only be considered as a bird of 

 prey and an eater of wastage." 



Yes, this is all true, and yet, in the 

 higher view of life, the poetic value of 

 things must take rank with the practical. 

 And what bird expresses wild grandeur 

 and poetry of motion in so great a degree 

 as the Eagle? What has Burroughs re- 

 cently said of it? — "The days on which 

 I see him are not quite tlie same as the 

 other days. I think my thoughts soar a 

 little higher all the rest of the morning ; 

 I have had a visit from a messenger of 

 Jove. The lift or range of those great 

 wings has passed into my thought." 



Pegasus harnessed to a plow or ' Caesar 

 dead and turned to clay, ' stopping a hole 

 'to keep the wind away,' would not be a 

 greater misuse than thus plucking the 

 pinions of our national Bird of Freedom 

 to act as rudders to women's hats. 



M. O. W. 



Audubon's Seal 



(From a granddaughter of Audubon) 

 Audubon's seal was made from a pen- 

 and-ink sketch of the Wild Turkey, being 

 the portrait of a bird 

 weighing forty pounds. 

 The painting from 

 which the seal was re- 

 duced measured about 

 thirty-six by twenty- 

 eight inches. A lady friend in Liverpool 

 having seen the painting, was talking, with 

 others, to Audubon about it, and said to 

 him, " Now you ought to have this Turkey 

 for your coat-of-arms. " Audubon said 

 that he was too much of an American to 

 use a crest, or coat-of-arms, but that the 

 picture could be easily reduced to the 

 size of a fob seal, then all the fashion for 





