58 



THE ORNITHOLOGIST AND BOTANIST. 



still abounds at Fresh Pond, Cambridge, 

 Mass., together with Trapa natans. 

 There, too, I used to find Polygonum 

 Hartwriglitii, but this is diverging. To 

 return to the so-called '-sleep of plants," 

 Some leaves will droop, others fold in an 

 erect position; some will point forward, 

 some backward, and all will look relax- 

 ed and sleepy, if we look at them at 

 dus k. Any one interested in the phe- 

 nomenon will find the most authentic 

 information in Sachs's ' 'Text-book of Bot- 

 any," or in his more readable " Lectures 

 on vegetable Physiology," or in Dar- 

 win's "Movement in Plants." 



The common sumac, ( Rhus glabra ) is 

 now in blossom, its great greenish-yel- 

 low panicles thronged with multitudi- 

 nous insects, as the Lycaena butterflies, 

 minute diptera, bees, wasps, and the like. 

 We see growing everywhere in the bar- 

 rens the tall white bush-clover ( Lespi- 

 deza hirta and capitata). The wild 

 bean, (Phaseolus) is also frequent. We 

 find, too, the plants, not yet in bloom, of 

 Aster linariifoliv.s, whose lavender- 

 blue heads are, by and by, so lovely. 

 The beach-plum {Primus viaritima),does 

 not disdain these dry regions ; its fruit 

 is now green, and one gets little idea of 

 its luscious appearance in autumn. It 

 makes an elegant preserve. 



Thus it will be seen that dry sand will 

 support an extensive lot of plants, many 

 more, indeed, than are here recorded. 

 While it is delightful to explore a region 

 teeming with endless varieties, there is 

 a pleasure, too, in attempting to enum- 

 erate the species that find their home in 

 such ungenerous soil. Our deserts do 

 not exactly "blossom like the rose," but 

 they shine in due time, with myriad 

 golden stars, " stars, which are the po- 

 etry of heaven.". 



The succession of native plants in the 

 pastures and roadsides, which make the 

 silent clock by which time tells the sum- 

 mer hours, will make even the divisions 

 of the day sensible to a keen observer. 



— Emerson. 



WESTERN BIRD NOTES. 



BY R.H.LAWRENCE, HUMPTULIPS, WASH. 



The cries or calls of many creatures 

 so nearly resemble those of certain others 

 as often to make it hard to discriminate 

 which it is that gives them. Old hunt- 

 ers will tell you that a panther's, or as 

 they call it here on the Pacific coast, a 

 cougar's, cry coming out of the night 

 and darkness sounds strangely like the 

 wailing of a lost child; and I heard re- 

 cently a wild cat-scream in perfect imi- 

 tation of a frightened woman. A per- 

 sistent little peeping noise I heard at 

 times near my house in the woods, I 

 thought was a bird, and for some days . 

 hunted persistently for it; to find at last 

 it was a small ground squirrel which 

 had been fooling me all the time. 



A few weeks ago I scared up a flock 

 of young Oregon ruffed grouse ( Bonasa 

 umhellus sabini), right in a trail through 

 the heavy fir timber. Two of the 

 tiny chicks I marked down carefully 

 as they all scudded to right and left. 

 The mother at first trailed her wings, 

 and tried by short, labored flights, and 

 the usual ruses to draw my attention to 

 her; but when she found two of her 

 young were in my clutches her agony 

 knew no bounds. She crept close to me, 

 within thirty feet, and perched upon an 

 exposed hemlock root, and with tail 

 drooped and head down, bent her body 

 over like a bow, giving voice now and 

 then to such cat-like sounds as to aston- 

 ish one. Me-ouiv, me-ouw she drawled 

 in grieving accents, her mouth at each 

 cry opening to great extent. As I had 

 never seen a bird act so before, I pro- 

 longed her agony a little to see the thing 

 repeated. 



In the early Spring there are many 

 gulls at Gray's Harbor. As the nesting 

 season approaches the air is full of sounds 

 very similar to the bleating of lambs ; 

 which sound, I presume, came from the 

 male birds invariably. The birds love 



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