Aug. 27, 1910.] 
FOREST AND STREAM. 
333 
was a little pile of mosquitoes. Its claws were 
sharp and curved like a half circle. On each 
wing was a sharp curved hook. Some one has 
told me since that in some places the bats use 
these hooks to hang to each other by in winter 
when they swarm together like bees, and in 
huge masses remain in torpid suspension until 
spring". After we found the mosquitoes in his 
mouth I did not care if he were an animated 
comb, flying about for a head to fasten in, for 
—barring good English—I would just as soon be 
hit by a bat as bitten by a mosquito. 
Birds are not the only friends I have found 
in the ten-acre lot. Four squirrels have homes 
in the trees. When we first found them they 
were shy and bounded from limb to limb or 
raced with nimble feet across the yard and 
darted up some tall tree, going higher and higher 
and carefully keeping on the side opposite to us. 
They are cunning things with bushy tails arched 
over their round backs and twinkling pretty eyes 
as watchful as weasels. I was sitting on a trunk 
of a fallen tree one day when one of them ap¬ 
peared a short distance from where I sat. He 
did not see me and went running about, turning 
over the leaves, and every now and then sitting 
up on his haunches to eat the nut he had picked 
up. After a time he jumped up on the log where 
I sat perfectly still. He came within ten feet 
before he discovered me at all. Then he made 
a few desperate leaps to the foot of a big wal¬ 
nut tree, and running up eight or ten feet stop¬ 
ped and turned head downward and commenced 
chattering. I did not move, and after a while 
he came slowly and cautiously down, stopped, 
sat up and looked at me curiously and suspici¬ 
ously. He hopped a few paces nearer, took an¬ 
other look, then leaped upon the log where I sat, 
his active, bright little eyes watching me intently. 
Through it all I remained perfectly motionless, 
and at length he seemed to have made up his 
mind that I was nothing but a thing that had 
grown there, and passed on in his search for 
nuts. 
I repeated this operation for a week, at the 
end of which time I demonstrated to him that 
I was not a stump, for I began to feed him nuts 
and he became so tame he took them from my 
hand. He seemed to have told the other three 
of his new find, for they soon learned to lie in 
wait for Mr. Purdy. When he dons his rubber 
boots and his corduroy suit in the morning they 
come running to him and scamper around him 
like so many kittens. They have learned that 
in winter when food is scarce he will buy them 
shelled nuts at seventy-five cents a pound. One 
of them comes regularly to the dining room win¬ 
dow and waits for the big cracker that he knows 
will be given to him. He takes it in his front 
paws, sits up and eats like a human being. One 
day we bought an immense German cracker and 
had great fun in seeing him eat it. The cracker 
was larger than he, but he handled it as deftly 
as a hungry child. 
The mother squirrel had her young in April. 
For three weeks every day she came for food. 
Then she came every other day and finally in 
June she came every day, and we saw her young 
ones gamboling on the ground and in the trees. 
Finally she drove them away from her chosen 
domain. 
We used to see a number of rabbits, but the 
dogs of the neighborhood became too fond of 
the sport of chasing them and they disappeared. 
One braver than the others remained. But one 
day he became the target for a hunter's gun, 
and the last I saw of him he was being carried 
away while the man smiled as though proud of 
what he had done. 
These birds and animals in this place are of 
the past. Civilization has felled the trees, and 
paved streets and automobiles as well as hunters 
have frightened away the wild things. They are 
no longer with us. 
Somewhere I have read that in the thirteenth 
century a pious but learned German monk first 
presented to the world the gun and its various 
parts. This same monk was familiar with and 
ONE OF THE YOUNG WILDCATS AlENTIONED EY 0. W. 
SMITH. 
had discovered the composition of gunpowder 
as well as its terrible effects. He feared to re¬ 
veal the wonderful secret, knowing full well that 
the introduction of gunpowder to the world 
would be attended with the most calamitous con¬ 
sequences. For humanity’s sake he determined 
to keep the secret from the knowledge of man 
as long as possible. For the dumb animals’ sake 
I regret that he did not succeed in keeping it a 
secret. 
As I sat among my furred and feathered 
friends I often used to think how much wiser 
Is the dumb animal in his instincts than are we 
in our reason and knowledge. Every wild thing 
seems happy and all living things, except human 
beings, seem to enjoy themselves after the fash¬ 
ion of their natures. The birds sing joyously, 
even while seeking their food. The squirrels 
play merrily, chasing each other up and down 
the trees, leaping from branch to branch or rac¬ 
ing playfully along the ground. None of them 
seems to have a care or sorrow. They do not 
distress themselves about the morrow, for they 
know it will take care of itself. They eat what 
they like and instinct makes them avoid that 
which is not good for them. T hey never go 
where they will not be comfortable, and are al¬ 
ways to be found in the place for which nature 
fitted them. They do not study and contrive 
about the future, nor distress themselves about 
the past. They enjoy the good the day or sea¬ 
son brings, contented whether it be much or 
little. 
Not so with us—the human race. We are un¬ 
easy, discontented, restless creatures, always 
reaching out after something beyond us. If we 
have one loaf we want two, even though the first 
can be only half eaten. If a farmer has one farm 
he struggles to get another. The richer we be¬ 
come the more we wish to possess; we go on 
hoarding and working and wearing ourselves 
out, knowing full well that we cannot eat it, or 
wear it or take it with us when we die. It is a 
thing I cannot understand—a folly of which no 
dumb animal is ever guilty. 
• Jessie B. Purdy, 
Edible Birds’ Nests. 
One of the most interesting birds of the far 
East is a swift, which builds its nests in caves. 
These nests are in great demand in China and 
furnish the so-called bird’s nest soup of the 
Chinese. They are the edible birds’ nests of 
which we have heard. Formed of the dried 
secretions of the bird's salivary glands, they are 
almost wholly glutinous. When newly built, they 
are almost colorless and are then termed white 
and are considered first quality. Sometimes to 
the saliva is added moss, straw and twigs, and 
these are called brown nests and are of little 
value, as are the nests discolored by use. 
During the fiscal year 1909, 17,781 pounds of 
these nests, valued at $109,848, were exported 
from Siam, most of them going to Hong Kong 
and other China ports and to Singapore. Ac¬ 
cording to Vice-Consul General Carl C. Hanson, 
of Bangkok, the season for the gathering of the 
nests begins in April and ends in September. 
The nests are found in islands off the coast of 
Siam and are collected by natives who, climbing 
up by ladders within the caverns, reach the nests 
with long forks and obtain hundreds of nests at 
a gathering. 
The female bird, occasionally assisted by the 
male, makes the nest. About three months are 
spent in completing the first nest, which is taken 
by the nest gatherer before eggs are laid in it. 
Then the birds immediately begin to make an¬ 
other nest, which is finished in about thirty days, 
and which is also taken. Finally a third nest is 
made in about three months, in which the bird 
is allowed to rear its offspring, after which this 
nest is also gathered. Each family of birds thus 
furnishes three nests in one season. I he nests, 
taken at the beginning of the season are con¬ 
sidered the best in quality. 
The Chinese regard these nests not only as a 
great table delicacy, but also as a valuable tonic 
medicine in neurasthenia and pulmonary dis¬ 
orders. It is said that in Hong Kong the demand 
for the nests exceeds the supply, and that the 
prices range from $15 to $25 per pound, accord¬ 
ing to quality. 
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