Birds and All Nature, Vol. IV, No. 5, November 1898

THE SHARP-TAILED GROUSE

 
In open woodlands far remote
The Sharp-tails utter their cackling note,
And on the wild prairie ground
Their simple nest and eggs are found.
 
 
Long years agone, in countless pairs
They courted, danced, and "put on airs,"
But hunters, greedy, cruel – strange!
Have driven them beyond their range.
 

C. C. M.

A WELL-KNOWN observer, who has spent many years in the West, says that the Sharp-tailed Grouse, being a bird of the wild prairies and open woodlands, has gradually retreated westward as the settlements have advanced, and will soon be a rare bird, to be looked for only in the sand-hills and unsettled portions of the country.

During the summer months this bird inhabits the open prairies, retiring in winter to the ravines and wooded lands, and when the snow is deep and the weather severe often hides and roosts beneath the snow. This sometimes proves the destruction of the birds, the entrance to the roosting-place being filled by falling snow and frozen over.

The Sharp-tails feed chiefly on Grasshoppers, seeds, buds, blossoms, and berries.

"When walking about on the ground they stand high on their legs, with their sharp-pointed tails slightly elevated, and when flushed, rise with a whirring sound of the wings, uttering as they go a guttural kuk-kuk-kuk, and swiftly wing themselves away in a direct course. The birds have several cackling notes, and the males a peculiar crowing or low call, that in tone sounds somewhat like the call of the Turkey. In the early spring, as the love season approaches, they select a mound or slight elevation on the open prairies for a courtship ground, where they assemble at early dawn, the males dancing and running about in a circle before the females in a most ludicrous manner, facing each other with lowering head, raised feathers and defiant looks, crossing and recrossing each other's paths in a strutting, pompous way, seldom fighting, each acting as if confident of making the greatest display, and thus winning the admiration of and capturing the hen of his choice. These meetings and dances are kept up until the hens cease laying and begin to sit."

These Grouse place the nest in a tuft of grass or under a low, stunted bush. A hollow in the ground is worked out to fit the body and lined with a few blades of grass arranged in a circular form. The hens attend wholly to the hatching and rearing of the young and are attentive and watchful mothers.

The flesh of the Sharp-tail is lighter in color and more highly esteemed than that of the Prairie Hen, and the bird is therefore hunted more industriously.

TAME BATS

THE Bat is a harmless little animal, but I doubt if many of us would care to have a number of them flying around. The hotter the climate the more Bats you will find. As evening draws nigh, even in Italy, Greece, and Spain, out of their nooks and corners thousands of them fly, fluttering over the fields, through the gardens and streets of the town, through houses and rooms.

People get used to them there, and when awakened by the noise of their wings will get up, chase them from the room with a stick, and though aware they will return again when all is quiet, lie down again and go to sleep.

You would scarcely think to look at these lively little animals that they could be tamed and become strongly attached to their masters, would you? But indeed they are very intelligent and many naturalists have made pets of them, training them to take food from their hands or search for it in a glass. They will follow the one they love all over the house, and show themselves very amiable and sensible, too.

One cold spring morning a lady with a sympathetic heart – a true Christian lady I should judge, since she loved all things "both great and small" – saw a boy tossing in the air a little animal which she took to be a Mouse. Even so insignificant a creature should not be needlessly tortured, so she went at once to its rescue. Instead of a Mouse she found it to be a Bat, half-dead from cold and fright. With tender hands she placed it upon some cotton in the bottom of a basket and set it near the fire. Many times she peeped into the basket and was at length delighted to see the little creature hanging bat-fashion on the side of the basket, its keen, bright eyes watching every movement. One of its feet she found was crushed. With trembling hands she severed the bit of skin by which it hung, and applied some healing salve to the wound. The poor little creature suffered too much to taste food, but after a few days accepted a Fly from her hands, then a bit of meat, after which it folded its wings to signify it had enough.

The Bat at length became as tame as a Mouse and would hang itself to any convenient portion of its mistress' dress; would eat whatever of animal food she gave it, and lick milk off her fingers. At night it would settle upon her hair, but never went near other members of the family; would fly about the room, and go out of the window in search of insects, returning in a couple of hours, and if the window was closed hang to the window-sill, or to the sash, until admitted. Thus it lived for two years, a happy, contented Bat, till one night it flew out and never returned – a prey probably to some White Owls who for years had made their home in an old belfry near by.

RED AND BLACK BATS

 
Over the houses, in the windows, fluttering everywhere,
Like Butterflies gigantic, the Bats dive through the air;
Up and down, hither, thither, round your head and away,
Look where they wander, coming ever with vanishing day.
 

C. C. M.

BATS are so much alike, especially those common to this country, of which there are numerous species known to naturalists, that the description of one will serve for all, with the exception of the Vampire.

The sub-order of smooth-nosed Bats is represented in this country by several species peculiar to America. The most common in all the Atlantic coast states is the Red Bat, or New York Bat, which is a busy hunter of flying insects, which it follows so persistently that it frequently flies into rooms in pursuit of its favorite prey. It flies rather slowly, but it changes the direction of its flight very rapidly, and its movements in the air are very graceful. Besides this species is the Black Bat, and several others have been observed and described, but so far the descriptions, according to Brehm, have been principally technical, and little or nothing is known of their habits, except that no North American species seems to be harmful, but the contrary, as they are all insect-eaters.

The principal food of these Bats consists of Butterflies, Beetles, Mosquitoes, and the like.

All Bats sleep by day and fly about by night. Most of them make their appearance at dusk, and retire to their hiding-places long before dawn. Some species appear between three and five o'clock in the afternoon and flicker merrily about in the bright sunshine. Each species has its own hunting-grounds in forests, orchards, avenues, and streets, and over stagnant or slowly flowing water-surfaces. It is said to be rare that they fly over open fields, for the reason that there is no game for them. In the South they haunt the rice fields, where insects are numerous. Their hunting-ground is limited, although some large species will cover a mile in their flight, and the Bats of the tropics fly over much greater distances.

Bats are in general very much averse to the ground, and never voluntarily place themselves on a level surface. Their method of walking is very curious. First the forelegs or wings are thrust forward, hooking the claw at its extremity over any convenient projection, or burying it in the ground. By means of this hold the animals draw themselves forward, then raising their bodies partly off the earth advance the hind-leg, making at the same time a tumble forward. The process is then repeated on the opposite side, and thus they proceed in a strange and unearthly fashion, tumbling and staggering along as if their brains were reeling.

It has long been known that Bats are able to thread their way among boughs of trees and other impediments with an ease that seems almost beyond the power of sight. Even utter darkness does not apparently impede their progress, for when shut up in a darkened room, in which strings had been stretched in various directions, they still pursued their course through the air, avoiding every obstacle with precision. This faculty has been found not to result from any unusual keenness of sight, but from the exquisite nervous system of their wings.