34 



RANDOM NOTES ON NATURAL HISTORY. 



Blue Ja\' I should say he wanted the spar- 

 row for food. 



A number of j-ears since my attention 

 was called to a young chicken about ten 

 days old ; it was said to have been killed by 

 one of these birds. I left the chick and a 

 few minutes after a Blue Jay lit on it, 

 pecked and tore at it, and soon flew with a 

 piece of it to its nest of young not far away. 

 The next day at noon I heard a chick mak- 

 ing quite a noise, and on going out to see 

 what was the matter I saw one of these 

 birds pecking awaj- at the head of a chick 

 which would soon have been killed had I 

 not come to the rescue ; as it was, it died 

 three or four da^'s afterwards. Since then 

 I have known of Jays attacking young 

 chickens several times. I have noticed in 

 ever}' instance that the bird had young ones 

 about ready to leave the nest. 



A. A. HiNKLET. 



Du Bois, III. 



Bohemian Waxwings. — Among several 

 flocks of Bohemian Waxwings at an alti- 

 tude of 10,500 feet, 1 secured four good 

 specimens March 23. One specimen had 

 a very fine brown hair, eight and a half 

 inches long, growing from each corner of 

 the mouth. The books to wlii<;h 1 have 

 access make no mention of such append- 

 ages. Are they rare, or have they been 

 unnoted before ? 



Colorado. ^^^^ ^^'- I^^^^^- 



Some Early Wild Flowers. 



At this season, when the buds give prom- 

 ise of warmer days, every one turns with 

 longing to the woods. Even those who, in 

 August, are indifferent to floral beaut}', and 

 whose eyes are at times closed to everything 

 that is not practical, become quite inspired 

 by a spray of alder or a bud of arbutus. In 

 every one there is an instinct, however staled 

 b}' custom or choked by indolence, which 

 leads him to the forest or the meadow. One 

 man takes to fishing, and another to hunting, 

 not so much for the sport often, as for the 

 wild surroundings and the utter freedom. 



Our countr}- is so vast in its extent that 

 the flora of one region often differs essentialh' 

 from that of another. The early flowers of 

 Colorado, most elegant of their kind, are, as 

 a rule, quite unlike those of Rhode Island. 



So, in any sketch like the present, one must 

 restrict himself to his immediate surround- 

 ings. With us the earliest flowers are those 

 tasseled clusters which droop from alders or 

 hazels, or the silky spikes, beloved of chil- 

 dren, which protrude from willows. Puss}' 

 willows ! we can never say too much of them. 

 Is it because the\' are associated with our own 

 or the second childhood, that the}' are so 

 dear? The reader will recall how lovingl}^ 

 Thoreau always mentions them — his "little 

 vegetable redeemers." 



Following these almost immediately, sa}' 

 anywhere from the 21st of March onward, 

 comes New England's favorite, the May- 

 flower, or as science calls it, the Epigwa. 

 An arbutus proper it is not, but what's in a 

 name? In this familiar sermon we shall not 

 be precise in terminology, though striving to 

 be accurate. Just about the city the local- 

 ities of this fragrant and most lovely flower 

 are fast vanishing. To see it in full size it 

 is necessar}' to make a somewhat extended 

 trip. But such a journey paj's, when some- 

 where under oaks or pines, remote from gas, 

 dust, and all city abominations, the tourist 

 reposes on a bed of odorous blossoms. 



To us, a flower that appeals more tenderl}^ 

 to our sympathies, and sooner kindles the 

 spark of delight, is the hepatica or liverwort. 

 In Rhode Island it is local, but usually abund- 

 ant enough when one finds it. Perhaps for 

 her sins, Providence is denied the immediate 

 approach of this blue-e3'ed beaut}'. It es- 

 pecially loves rocky, wooded slopes. In such 

 situations one will often find a whole troop 

 of the laughing blossoms playing bo-peep 

 among the leaves. It is nonsense to say 

 that they do not enjoy the fun. Why, just 

 see their bonny faces, dimpling with sheer 

 merriment. To our mind's eye comes back 

 even in mid-winter that old familiar boulder, 

 cloaked with costly emerald velvet under 

 which, time out of mind, we have every year 

 sat and joyed in the liverworts. And those 

 friends who' share our pleasure, who are like 

 then) among the sons of men ! Herein is 

 one of the delights of natural science, that 

 kindred spirits may meet and revel together. 



A very lovely spring flower, and we can, 

 in our limited space, name but a few, is the 

 columbine. Many a people know it, as they 

 do some dozen other things which are not, 

 under the name of honeysuckle. Its long 

 spurs, as every boy knows, contains honey — • 



