488 



AMERICAN FORESTRY 



again of taking advantage of an abnormal condition. T 

 have said that it is the unusual things which alarm birds. 

 Birds may nest under bridges and l)econie accu.stomed to 

 the passage of teams six inches above their heads or on 

 railroad trestles and not mind the roar of the trains above 

 them, and yet the same birds may not allow a person to 

 approach within ten feet. Birds have been known to nest 

 on trolley cars and traveling cranes and to become accus- 

 tomed to the transportation of their nests from place to 

 place, when the same birds might have deserted their eggs 

 for good if one approached the nest too suddenly or made 

 a quick jump at the bird. Such things are possible only 

 when they occur by degrees and so often that they become 

 a part of the routine of a bird's life. Any bird will ordi- 

 narily allow one to approach within a certain distance of 

 itself or its nest, varying; with the individual, before tak- 

 ing alarm. If one moves slowly and uniformly, he can 

 approach nuich closer, but if he makes sudden or jerky 

 motions, pauses and starts, (ir .ittempts to sneak upon 

 a bird, he usually alarms it at a much greater distance. 

 Similarly the volume of a sound makes little difference to 

 birds. The roar of a passing train does not usually 

 alarm them when a little squeak will cause them to jump, 

 because the sound of the train begins low and far away 

 and gradually increases in violence, but at no time is the 



added increase in sound sufficient to disturb the bird, 

 though the whole volume of sound is hundreds of times 

 more violent than that which would ordinarily alarm it. 

 If the train should suddenly increase its speed or sud- 

 denly stop, the bird would become greatly alarmed, but 

 as the sound dies gradually away it goes unnoticed. 



If then we would make friends with birds or merely 

 observe them without attempting to make friends, we 

 must bear these things in mind. In the first place, fear 

 is the predominant instinct and except in unusual in- 

 stances or with abnormal birds dominates the bird's life. 

 If one wishes to come on intimate terms with birds he 

 must either seek out the unusual birds, take advantage 

 of times of stress, or be content to conceal his identity, 

 and like the branches of the trees become but a part of 

 the liird's environment. If one will enter a woods quietly 

 and then remain quiet and inconspicuous for an hour 

 or more, the birds will resume their normal actions and 

 he will see the woodland as it really is. If, on the other 

 hand, he goes thrashing through the woods, he will cover 

 more groimd and scare uj) more birds, but they will 

 "have no habits" except those of alarm. Select a spot 

 near a bathing pool, a favorite feeding spot, or near 

 the nest of some bird and there will be spread before 

 him a panorama unknown to the rest of mankind. 



A TREE OF LOST IDENTITY 



BY JOHN FOOTE, M. D. 



THE wood of this tree of lost identity was so valu- 

 able that cups made from it were presented as gifts 

 to kings and pontiffs ; its physical properties were 

 so remarkable that famous scientific men studied it and 

 embodied their observations in classical works that arc 

 still authoritative ; its medical properties were believed 

 to be so marvelous that they exceeded in the cure of 

 diseases of the kidneys what cinchona had accomplished 

 in banishing swamp fever it was a veritable king atnong 

 trees in the seventeenth century yet its very name had 

 disappeared from modern works on botany and phar- 

 macognosy and its botanical origin was worse than un- 

 known. Such is the tale of the lignum nephriticum the 

 botanical source of which was discovered very recently 

 by a brilliant economic botanist who foimd that the tree 

 producing the "kidney wood" was really a twin or rather 

 that it had two l)Otanical sources. 



This wood was celebrated throughout Europe in 

 the seventeenth century. It came from the Old World, 

 the land of mystery, out of which had come tol^acco, 

 cinchona and other remarkable products. Marvellous as 

 were the reports circulated concerning cures it had ac- 

 complished, even greater things were expected of it. 

 Kor chronic kidney di.sease had claimed many victims 

 long before 1827. when Dr. Richard Bright published 

 his de.scription of the disease which bears his name, and 

 it seems to have been unusually prevalent in the period 

 of the renaissance. 



The lignum nephriticum, or "kidney wood," when 

 pulverized and steeped in water produced remark- 

 able color effects of an opalescent type, which 

 changed in sunlight and shadow in the most amazing 

 manner. There is nothing to indicate that its medicinal 

 reputation was well founded. In fact, it has absolutely 

 no value as a remedy in kidney disease. It has been 

 well said that "the therapeutics of every generation 

 seems ridiculous to the succeeding one," so we cannot 

 afford to be scornful of the Spanish physician Monardes. 

 who was first to call attention to the wood. In 1565 

 he wrote the following account of it : 



"They also bring from New Spain a wood resembling 

 that of a pear tree, dense and without knots, which they 

 have been using for many years in these parts for dis- 

 eases of the kidneys and of the liver. The first person 

 I saw use it was a pilot, 25 years ago, who was afflicted 

 with urinary and kidney trouble, and who after using 

 it recovered his health and was very well. Since then 

 1 have seen much of it brought from New Sjwin and 

 used for these and kindred maladies. * * * It is used in 

 the following manner: They take the wood and make 

 of it chips as thin as possible and not very large and put 

 them into clear spring water, which must be very good 

 and pure, and they leave them in the water all the time 

 that it lasts for drinking. A half hour after the wood 

 is put in, the water begins to assume a very pale blue 

 color, and the longer it stays the bluer it turns, though 



