The Audubon Note Book. 



15, 



den or meadow with insects. I see them a great 

 deal in the vegetable garden walking between the 

 "green things growing," and their search seems to 

 be rewarded very soon. There are some small dead 

 limbs on their old pear tree. These are always 

 selected by them to perch on. We never see them 

 sit among the leaves. We are enjoying " Fifty 

 Common Birds and How to Know Them; " I think 

 it will be a great help. But more than anything 

 else we have enjoyed the song of the whippoorwill. 

 This is a most charming vesper song. Happy the 

 man who, leaning on his pasture bars, hears in the 

 ■" gloaming " this clear whistle coming up to him 

 from the gathering shadows in the valley below. 

 But it is most pleasing to those who having heard it 

 in childhood, and not having heard it for years, 

 come to hear again the wild, sweet, well-remem- 

 bered notes. How the old memories come throng- 

 ing back! We sit out on the lawn in the cool of the 

 day, or lounge in the hammock and listen. Now, 

 one note, clear and distinct, sounds out alone, then 

 by twos and threes, then all together. We have 

 but to close our eyes and we are back in our child- 

 hood, sitting on the porch. Father has come in 

 from some late chores, and pausing on the porch 

 has said, " Come out and hear the whippoorwill." 

 We sit there in the gathering gloom, and hear the 

 song coming up to us through the fragrant air from 

 the swamp below. Well may we pray with the old 

 man in Dickens's "Christmas Tale," "Lord keep 

 my memory green." Later on in the evening the 

 one who is reading aloud to the family pausing says, 

 " Hark! How plainly you can hear him now." Still 

 later, when the lights are out, and the house still, 

 there floats through the closed blinds on the breeze 

 that fans this "heaven-kissing hill," the same half 

 plaintive note. It comes deliciouslv sweet to our 

 drowsy senses, then faint and fainter till it mingles 

 with our dreams, as we once more (as we only can 

 in dreamland) walk with those who have "sailed be- 

 yond the sunset and touched the happy isles." 

 Uplands, Pa. LuCY Lyman Peck. 



A TRUE INCIDENT. 



A LADY and a little girl were looking through a 

 box filled with artificial flowers, feathers and birds 

 for hat trimmings. The lady was well educated, 

 and had always lived in a happy and refined home. 

 The little girl was less than seven years old, and 

 had spent the first part of her short life in a home 

 of destitution and degradation until it became at 

 length necessary to break up the poor family and 

 send her to the "Children's Home" of a county 

 poorhouse. This kind lady, whom the child was 

 now visiting had taken her from the " Home," and 

 they were now engaged in choosing from the box 



something for the trimming of a summer hat for the 

 little girl. The lady had long heard of the Audu- 

 bon Society's protest against the wholesale slaughter 

 of birds to satisfy the demands of fashion. The 

 child was ignorant of it all, and poor, and to her 

 these bright things were rare and tempting treasures. 



"Let's put this pretty feather on the hat," said 

 the lady. 



"Poor birdie," said the child, "what made you 

 kill it?" 



" I did not kill it," was the reply. 



"Who killed the birdie, then ? " said the little girl. 



" I don't know; a man did, I suppose." 



"But," said the child, "what made you let the 

 man kill the poor birdie?" 



" I could not help it." 



The little child looked up, and then said seriously, 

 "You hadn't ought'er take any feathers from the 

 man that killed poor birdie." The lady was silent, 

 and trimmed the hat with a flower. H. N. D. 



SWALLOWS AT SEA. 



A RATHER curious episode in natural history 

 occurred the other day on board the French steam- 

 boat Abd-el Kader during the passage from Mar- 

 seilles to Algiers. Just as the vessel was about two 

 hours out the skies became quite black with swal- 

 lows. It was then about six o'clock in the evening. 

 The birds alighted in thousands on the sails, ropes 

 and yards of the Abd-el-Kader. After a perky sur- 

 vey of the deck from their eminences aloft, they 

 descended coolly on deck, hopped about among the 

 sailors and passengers, and eventually found their 

 way into the cabins both fore and aft. The birds 

 were evidently fatigued after a long flight, and 

 allowed themselves to be caught by the people, who 

 gave them a welcome reception and provided them 

 with food, which they enjoyed heartily. The little 

 winged strangers remained all night on the vessel, 

 and in the morning at seven o'clock the head look- 

 out bird had, no doubt, sighted the Balearic Isles, 

 for the whole flock made for land, after having 

 spent a comfortable and refreshing night on board 

 ship. 



Mrs. Somervil^.e and Her Bird. — Mrs. Som- 

 erville, the well known English woman, writing in 

 1869 says: "I have still the habit of studying in bed 

 from eight till twelve or one o'clock, but I am left 

 solitary, for I have lost my little bird who was my 

 constant companion for eight years. It had both 

 memory and intelligence, and such confidence in me 

 as to sleep upon my arm while I was writing." Yes, 

 birds have no instinctive fear of man, and will not 

 fly from his approach until after they have learned 

 by experience that he is not to be trusted. 



