Birds and Nature Vol. 9 No. 2 [February 1901]

Various

Various

Birds and Nature Vol. 9 No. 2 [February 1901]

FEBRUARY

Still lie the sheltering snows, undimmed and white;

And reigns the winter’s pregnant silence still;

No sign of spring, save that the catkins fill,

And willow stems grow daily red and bright.

These are the days when ancients held a rite

Of expiation for the old year’s ill,

And prayer to purify the new year’s will;

Fit days, ere yet the spring rains blur the sight,

Ere yet the bounding blood grows hot with haste,

And dreaming thoughts grow heavy with a greed

The ardent summer’s joy to have and taste;

Fit days, to give to last year’s losses heed,

To reckon clear the new life’s sterner need;

Fit days, for Feast of Expiation placed!

    – Helen Hunt Jackson.

FROST-WORK

These winter nights, against my window-pane

Nature with busy pencil draws designs

Of ferns and blossoms and fine spray of pines,

Oak-leaf and acorn and fantastic vines,

Which she will make when summer comes again —

Quaint arabesques in argent, flat and cold,

Like curious Chinese etchings… By and by,

Walking my leafy garden as of old,

These frosty fantasies shall charm my eye

In azure, damask, emerald, and gold.

    – Thomas Bailey Aldrich.

THE HAWKS

Among the birds that are most useful to man may be classed the Hawks. They, with the vultures, the eagles and the owls, belong to the bird order Raptores, or birds of prey. Unlike the vultures the Hawks feed upon living prey while the former seek the dead or dying animal. The vultures are often called “Nature’s Scavengers,” and in many localities they have been so carefully protected that they will frequent the streets of towns, seeking food in the gutters.

The family Falconidae, which includes the Hawks, the falcons, the vultures, the kites, and the eagles – all diurnal birds of prey – numbers about three hundred and fifty species, of which between forty and fifty are found in North America. The remainder are distributed throughout the world.

The flight of the Hawks is more than beautiful, it is majestic. Even when perched high in the air on the top of a dead monarch of the forest, there is a silent dignity in their pose. It is from these perches that some of the species watch the surrounding country for their prey, swooping down upon it when observed and seizing it in their long, sharp and curved claws. Their food is almost invariably captured while on the wing. The bill, which is short, hooked and with sinuate cutting edges, is used for tearing the flesh of its victim into shreds.

Among our more common hawks there are but five or six that may truthfully be classed among the birds that are injurious to the interests of man. Among these, the Cooper’s hawk and the sharp-shinned hawk deserve the most attention, as they feed almost entirely upon other birds and poultry. To these two the name chicken hawk may be aptly applied. The domestic pigeon is a dainty morsel for these ravagers of the barnyard. On the other hand, by far the larger number of the Hawks are of great value to man. They are gluttonous whenever the food supply is unlimited, and, as their powers of digestion are wonderfully developed, it takes but a short time for the food to be absorbed and they are then ready for more. With their keen eyesight they readily detect the rodents and other small mammals that are so destructive to crops and with a remarkable swiftness of flight they pounce upon them. Dr. Fisher says, “Of the rapacious birds with which our country is so well furnished, there are but few which deserve to be put on the black list and pursued without mercy. The greater number either pass their whole lives in the constant performance of acts of direct benefit to man or else more than make good the harm they do in the destruction of insectivorous birds and poultry by destroying a much greater number of mammals well known to be hostile to the farmer.”