ORNITHOLOGISCHER 

 LESE-CiRKEL 



AMERICAN OSPREY. 



VOL. I. 



ASHLAND, KY., JANUARY, 1890. 



NO. I. 



ORNITHOLOGICAL GESTURE. 



Written/or the American Osprey. 



Oratory loses half its power when 

 unaccompanied by gesture. So in 

 music, the singer who pleases most 

 is the one, who by gesture and ex- 

 pression, sends the meaning and 

 beauty of every note to the hearts 

 and minds of the hearers. The 

 most eloquent passages of our 

 ablest speakers must be accom- 

 panied by their appropriate, em- 

 phasizing gestures, or half the elo- 

 puence is gone. 



Gesture is not alone used by hu- 

 man orators and vocalists. 



Cannot the orators and singers of 

 the bird-world call this power to 

 their assistance in the rendering of 

 their eloquence and beauty, as well 

 as their superiors? It seems the}' 

 do. Let us notice a few instances of 

 this. 



Who ever saw the Song Sparrow 

 sing its pretty anthem without toss- 

 ing its head skyward? This little 

 gesture, simple as it is, expresses, 

 in fullest measure, true submission 

 and praise to its Creator. 



Notice that quaint little fellow, 

 the Wren, as with tail thrust up- 

 ward over his back squirrel fashion 

 and every part of his body in 



motion, he chatters away. His song 

 I would not ba half as buisness-like 

 i and entertaining if he stood still 

 I while rendering it, and I really 

 doubt if he could possibly sing at 

 all if he was obliged to toe a mark 

 with his tail weighted. 



And then that hilarious fellow, 

 J the Bobolink! Before his mixed-up 

 i pot-pourri is half completed, he 

 must rise from the mullein-stalk 

 j where he is swinging and sailing 

 down the wind, light in the clover, 

 jrods away.^ r- ,-s 



What a magnificent gesture the 

 Horned Lark uses to call attention 

 ; to its otherwise commonplace song. 

 Rising, with the first note of its 

 | song, from its homely abode in the 

 meadow or pasture, it shoots di- 

 Irectly upward; and as it gives an- 

 other utterance to its song, it takes 

 j a fresh start, and continuing to as- 

 cend spirally, growing fainter and 

 fainter to our vision, and finally lost 

 entirely in the clear blue of the sky, 

 its song is still heard, and comes 

 down to us through all those depths 

 of ether with a beauty it never had 

 before. 



Without this gesture the song of 

 the Horned Lark is homely and 

 commonplace enough; with it, it is 

 more than sublime. 



May it not be possible that the 



