OFFICIAL ORGAN OF THE WISCONSIN AND ILLINOIS AUDUBON SOCIETIES 
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One Year 25 Cents Single Copy 5 Cents 
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Published by the Wisconsin Audubon Society at Madison, Wisconsin 
Entered as second class matter August 23, 1909, at Madison, Wis., under the act of Congress of March 3, 1879 
VOL,. XII. NOVEMBER, 1910 
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FORBIDDEN FRUIT 
NO. 5 
L. C. Pardef, M. I)., Chicago, 
While watching a mother robin feed¬ 
ing her spotted-breast youngster on the 
lawn in front of my house this summer, 
I noticed the newly fledged one, which 
was quite ia,s large as its mother, pick 
something up from the ground and hold 
it in its bill. The old one was watching 
too and apparently did not approve of 
such forwardness in one of her children, 
for hopping quickly toward her big baby, 
she took whatever it had in its bill away 
from it and at the same time gave it 
a hard peck on the head, as much as 
to say, “you stop eating things which 
you know nothing about, or you will 
be made ill and get a whipping 
beside.” So, I thought, even baby 
birds put impossible things in their 
mouths the same as human babies, and 
their mothers have to teach them better 
in order to save them from doing them- 
selves harm. I did not hear the mother 
robin say “naughty, naughty” and hold 
up her finger, but no doubt she did so 
in bird language and sign manual. At 
any rate the young one did not try to 
help itself again while I was watching. 
This incident made me think that per¬ 
haps birds really did teach their young 
ones the proper food to eat, not only 
by bringing it to them but by taking 
away from them things that might be" 
hurtful if they should chance, as this- 
one did, to pick them up by themselves. 
One seldom hears of wild things eating 
food that does them harm, but that they 
sometimes do the following account 
seems to prove. 
Throughout the Southern states and 
especially in the far south and south¬ 
west, there grows a handsome shade 
tree with which those living north of 
“Mason and Dixon’s Line are for the 
most part unfamiliar. This tree is known 
by a number of names but is usually 
called the “Chinaberry Tree”, as it is 
supposed to have been brought to this 
country originally from China or the 
far East, or the “Umbrella Tree”, as it 
grows in the shape of an open unbrella. 
In the spring it is covered with most 
fragrant flowers of a purplish hue which 
resembles lilac blossoms, and in the 
Autumn there appear in their place large 
white, or yellowish-white berries that 
hang in drupes not unlike those of our 
familiar choke-cherries. These berries 
are let severely alone by all the birds 
that live all the year around where they 
are found. In fact nothing eats them 
and as they are useless to man, they 
hang on their stems all winter and are 
