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

THE HOODED WARBLER
(Sylvania mitrata.)

“He was recognizable at once by the bright yellow hood he wore, bordered all around with deep black. A bright, flitting blossom of the bird world!” —Leander S. Keyser, in Bird Land.

This beautiful little warbler is a resident of the eastern United States. It is more common in the southern portion of this district and throughout the Mississippi Valley. Its breeding range extends from the Gulf of Mexico as far to the northward as southern Michigan. It winters in the West Indies, in Mexico, and in Central America. Though a wood warbler it prefers the shrubby growths in low and well-watered places rather than the forest. It is said to be abundant among the canes of the Southern States. Many other names have been given this warbler, all having reference to the arrangement of the black and yellow colors on the head. It is called the Black-headed Warbler, the Hooded Flycatching Warbler, the Mitred Warbler, and the Black-cap Warbler.

Activity seems to be the keynote of its life. It is in constant pursuit of insects, which it catches while they are on the wing. Unlike the flycatchers it seldom returns to the same perch from which it flew to catch its prey.

The words of Mr. Keyser most aptly describe the habits of the Hooded Warbler. He says, speaking of an hour spent in observing the bird’s behavior, “He was not in the least shy or nervous, but seemed rather to court my presence. Almost every moment was spent in capturing insects on the wing or in sitting on a perch watching for them to flash into view. Like a genuine flycatcher, as soon as a buzzing insect hove in sight, he would dart out after it, and never once failed to secure his prize. Sometimes he would plunge swiftly downward after a gnat or miller, and once, having caught a miller that was large and inclined to be refractory, he flew to the ground, beat it awhile on the clods, and then swallowed it with a consequential air which seemed to say, ‘That is my way of disposing of such cases!’ Several times he mounted almost straight up from his perch, and twice he almost turned a somersault in pursuit of an insect. Once he clung like a titmouse to the hole of a sapling.”

To some its notes, which are quite musical, lively, sweet and happy, seem to resemble twee, twee, twitchie. Mr. Chapman says the song “is subject to much variation, but as a rule consists of eight or nine notes. To my ear the bird seems to say, ‘You must come to the woods, or you won’t see me.’”

The nest of the Hooded Warbler is usually built in low shrubs, sometimes but a few inches from the ground and seldom higher than two feet. It is constructed of fine rootlets, and fibers of bark compactly interwoven with leaves, fine grass and hair. It is lined with grass, hair and feathers. The eggs, which are usually five in number, are white, or nearly white, in color, with red or brownish spots near the larger end. They are nearly three-fourths of an inch in length, and a little over one-half of an inch in their greatest diameter.

Three years or more are required for the development of the fully adult plumage. The throat of the female, though black, is not as pure a black as that of the male, and it is not so extensive or as well defined.

MRS. JANE’S EXPERIMENT

One is surprised at the wonderful vitality to be found in an egg. The following incident, almost incredible as it seems, is an absolute fact.

Mrs. Jane, very fond of raising select breeds of chickens, put a setting of fine Brahma eggs under what she considered an absolutely trustworthy Biddy, – but, alas! Biddy proved unstable, like many another biped, and went off in a few days, leaving her nest and rather costly contents to the mercy of the elements.

Mrs. Jane, in three or four days, discovered the abandoned domicile, and, determined not to be outdone by any such maneuver on the part of Biddy, proposed to show her that Brahma chickens could be developed without the assistance of any old hen.

So, not having an incubator of any approved manufacture, she proceeded to make one. She secured a large bread pan to hold the water, a small wooden pail to hold the eggs, which were wrapped in warm flannel, and a good kerosene lamp, which was placed under the pan holding the water and then lighted.

The bucket containing the eggs was then placed in the pan of water and the whole apparatus left in a quiet bedroom.

Oh, how Mr. Jane and the boys and the neighbors twitted Mrs. Jane about wasting coal oil and time in keeping those eggs warm! But, behold! in a little over two weeks, one morning a shell was chipped, at noon another, and by the next morning four pert little downy fellows occupied the bottom of the bucket, with seven unhatched eggs.

Those chickens grew faster than almost any chickens ever known. They were never anything but tame, and the most active of the four, who bears the appropriate name of Theodore Roosevelt, allows any one to pick him up and fondle him, but is ready to fight with anything in the poultry yard – big chicken, little chicken, the skye terrier, the cat or anything else that is or might be in his way. Mrs. Jane says she never was sorry for her experiment but once, and that is all the time.

The cause for Mrs. Jane’s regret is the fact that whether she be in the hen yard, kitchen or parlor, no place except right under her motherly gown is quite good enough for these enterprising birds.

Recently I saw “Teddy” open the screen and walk into the kitchen.

He lifted his foot, pulled the screen open wide enough to admit his head and then pushed his whole body, now quite large and plump, through the crack.

How long this interesting little hero, with his mates, will be permitted to enjoy the rights of chickendom yet remains to be seen, but the fact that “Mrs. Jane’s incubator was a success” has been admitted by all who were so skeptical when she began her novel experiment.

Mary Noland.

A STROLL IN THE FROST KING’S REALM

The rain of the night before had turned into a heavy sleet, followed by blustering weather. All day the sun was hidden by gray clouds, accompanied with fitful snow showers; but at last the clouds were dispelled and the following morning dawned clear and cold.

As the sun slowly rose above the horizon he added dazzling brilliance to the already lovely landscape.

The mercury was very little above zero as I sought the woods to reap the full benefit of this wonderful transformation of Nature. Just two days ago she wore her usual garb of neutral tints; but what a magical change the Frost King had wrought in this time! The earth was now covered with a white mantle of snow and every tree and shrub had on a glittering armor of sleet. A few minutes’ brisk walk over the crisp snow brought me to a corn field, and by wending my way along a path through this field I arrived at a strip of woodland. Here the path merged into a narrow wagon road cut out of a steep bluff. The entrance to this road introduced me to a land of enchantment.

On either side the face of the bluff was covered with a tangled growth of shrubs, briers and weeds, while above were trees whose over-arching branches sparkled in the sun, showing all the colors of the rainbow. Every branch and twig was decked with gems – rubies, sapphires, emeralds and diamonds everywhere – and diamond dust formed a carpet underneath. The low bushes at the base of the bank where sheltered from the wind’s disarranging blast, were wrapped in finest ermine. Just in front of me, to the left, was a wild rose, a fountain of purest crystal, the effect heightened by its scarlet hips. A little further on was a small tree draped with a tangled vine with clusters of pendant fruit, like crystallized grapes. On the other hand were raspberry canes, the livid red gleaming through the dazzling frost, and all around was goldenrod, more resplendent than when its golden blossoms lighted the way in autumn, and the asters shone like jewel-rayed stars.

A barbed-wire fence, as far as the eye could reach, was converted into endless strings of pearls. I gazed upon this vision until, becoming dazzled, I turned from the sun to rest my eyes, and in the background saw trees that formed pearly silhouettes against the dark blue sky. Was any enchanted land more entrancing?

Turning again, I resumed my walk to the foot of the hill, and, by the aid of the bushes and saplings, scrambled up its precipitous face and pushed onward through the underbrush, parting the interlacing branches as I went until I reached a ravine.

I continued onward, recognizing the familiar trees everywhere; though divested of foliage and incased in crystal, each variety has its distinctive form and bark. A musical tinkle accompanied every movement as I brushed the twigs and grasses along the way.

One not accustomed to the study of Nature in her various moods might suppose that such a landscape would be devoid of animation. But this was not the case. A very pleasing feature of the scene was the animal life that abounded. A rabbit snugly concealed beneath a bunch of grass started up, bounded away, and was soon lost to view in the thicket. Small flocks of snowbirds and chickadees were flitting gaily about. A crow sat in the top of a majestic oak and cawed lustily in answer to one that was faintly heard in the distance. A pair of cardinals flew about the border of the woods, and a single woodpecker was high up on the trunk of a tree, while another, whose form could not be detected, was hammering away. All these were suited to the environment, but not so was yonder lone blackbird, doubtless a straggler from a flock which had settled in the tree of the yard in the early morning.

Lured by the pleasant, mild weather of the preceding week, they had arrived only to encounter snow and mid-winter, and would doubtless retreat to more congenial surroundings and absent themselves until the true springtime should herald the approach of summer.

Addie L. Booker.

SNAILS OF THE FOREST AND FIELD

The forest is the home of the snail, where these interesting little animals may be found by any one desiring a closer acquaintance. They are not generally easy to find, being mostly nocturnal in habits and remaining hidden away under leaves, stones and old logs during the daytime. On rainy days, however, they may be seen crawling about, enjoying the delicious moisture.

In our last article we reviewed a few of the most interesting families of bivalve shells, and in the present paper we desire to draw the attention of the reader to the order Pulmonata, which includes those snails breathing air by means of a modified lung. The snails differ from the clams in having the body generally protected by a spiral shell which is capable of containing the entire animal. The former have a more or less expanded creeping disk which we call a foot, a head generally separated from the body by a neck (the reader will remember that the clams are headless), and also a pair of rather long eye peduncles protruding from the top of the head, which bear at their tips the round, black eyes, and a pair of short tactile organs, or tentacles, extending from the lower part of the head. The eye-peduncles are peculiar in being invertible in the same manner that a kid glove finger is pulled inside out.

The mouth is placed in the lower plane of the head and is recognized externally as a simple slit. Inside of the mouth is placed one of the most wonderful dental apparatuses known to science. This is called the radula, odontophore or tooth-bearer, and is a belt of chitinous, transparent, yellowish or colorless material, its upper surface being armed with numerous siliceous teeth arranged in longitudinal and parallel rows. The radula is placed in an organ called the buccal sac and occupies a position in the sac analogous to that of the tongue in a cat or dog, viz., on the floor of the mouth. It is formed from a layer of cells in the posterior part of the buccal sac, called the radula sac, and new teeth are constantly forming here to take the place of those which have become worn by use. The whole radula rests upon a cartilage, is strongly fastened at the anterior end, and is brought down between the two fleshy lips of the mouth where it performs a backward and forward movement, thus rasping off with the sharp teeth particles of food which have been cut into small pieces by the horny jaw. During this process the morsel of food is pressed against the top or roof of the mouth. The jaw is placed in the upper part of the mouth in front of the radula, and is frequently armed with ribs to aid in cutting or biting off pieces of food, as leaves or vegetables.

As before remarked, the radula is made up of parallel rows of teeth, the whole area being usually divided into five longitudinal rows, each row differing from the one next to it. We have first a central row, on each side of this a lateral row and finally a marginal row. Each tooth in each row is made up of different parts, a basal part attached to the radula belt and an upper part which is turned over or reflexed and bent backward so as to tear off food particles by a backward movement of the whole apparatus. This diversity of form in the teeth has led conchologists to adopt a tooth formula similar to that adopted for vertebrate animals, so that the teeth of different species can be compared and the animals classified thereby. Thus each tooth has certain prominences called cusps, which vary in size, number and position, and serve admirably to describe the different groups of snails. All the mollusca, except the bivalves, are provided with this radula.

One of the most wonderful and interesting facts connected with the radula is the large number of teeth on each membrane. Thus in some species of our common snails there are seventy-one teeth in a single row, and the whole radula is made up of a hundred rows of teeth, making a grand total of seventy-one hundred teeth in the mouth of a single snail!

Land snails are found almost everywhere, in valleys, high up on mountains, and even in deserts. They may be found in the cold climate of Alaska or in the tropical zone under the equator. As a rule, they prefer moist localities, where there is an abundance of vegetation and where the ground is strewn with rotting logs, beds of decaying leaves or moss-covered rocks. Open woodlands may be said to be their best habitat in the northern part of the United States.

The shells of the Pulmonata vary to a wonderful degree in size, shape and coloration. Some are so small that they can scarcely be seen with the unaided eye, while others attain a length of six inches; some have the aperture of the shell armed with numerous folds or teeth, while others are smooth and the colors vary from whitish or horn-colored to the gorgeously colored helices of the tropics with their bands and blotches of red, brown, white or green. With all this diversity the land shells or helices may always be distinguished from their salt or fresh-water relatives. The land snails breathe by means of a so-called lung which is a sac lined with a network of blood vessels and occupying the last turn or whorl of the shell. The air taken into this lung purifies the blood.

Much is written at the present time upon our new possessions, the Philippine Islands, but few people are aware that these islands are tenanted by the most interesting and beautiful group of all the land shells, the Cochlostylas, or tree snails. The animals live for the most part in the trees and bushes of the islands, the island of Luzon having, probably, the best known fauna. The animals are large and quite bold and the shells are of surpassing beauty, with their colors of white, green, brown, etc. Now that these islands have come into the possession of the United States it is to be hoped that these handsome creatures will receive the study they deserve.

The land shells of the United States, while numerous in species, are not as conspicuous in color-pattern as those of Europe, South America or the islands of the Indian and Pacific Oceans, although California produces some highly-colored species, as will be seen by consulting the figure of Helix fidelis, on our plate. The majority of our species are uncolored, like the figure of Polygyra albolabris.

One of the largest and most interesting of American shells is the Bulimus, found in South America. The shell of Bulimus ovatus attains a length of six inches and the animal is correspondingly large. In the markets of Rio Janeiro this mollusk is sold as food and is eagerly sought by the poorer people, among whom it is considered a great delicacy. Another interesting fact in connection with this species (as well as others of the genus) is the size of the eggs which it deposits, they being as large as pigeons’ eggs. These are also eaten with avidity by the negroes of Brazil.

One of the most beautiful of the land shells found in the United States is the Liguus fasciatus, found in Florida and Cuba. The shell is about two inches long and is encircled by bands of white, brown and green. This species lives in great numbers at Key West, associated with many small shells of the Bulimus group. Closely related to the last-mentioned shell (Liguus) is the agate shell (Achatina), which attains a length of seven inches and is the largest of the land shells. Like the Bulimus mentioned above it lays eggs of large size with a calcareous shell, some being over an inch in length. Both the animal and the egg are eaten by the natives of Africa. The shells are very attractive, being variegated with different colors, like agate, from which they receive their common name.

Another of our new political possessions, the Hawaiian Islands, has a molluscan fauna peculiar to itself. This is the family Achatinellidae which is confined solely to the Sandwich Islands. There are no shells which can compare in beauty with the Achatinella with their encircled bands of black, yellow, white, red, etc. They live on the bushes, generally rather low and near the ground, and recently they have been threatened with extinction because of the cattle which have been introduced into the islands. In feeding on the bushes, they also consume large quantities of these snails. A bush inhabited by these little creatures must be a beautiful sight, with the green foliage set off by the handsomely colored shells, like jewels on a costly dress.

Among the edible snails none excel in public favor the common edible snail of Europe (Helix pomatia). The cultivation of this animal has become an established business, like our oyster fisheries, and thousands are consumed annually. The early Romans considered this animal a dainty dish, and the inhabitants of France, Spain and Italy have inherited or cultivated a liking for the succulent “Shell-fish.” This species has been introduced into New Orleans where it is eaten by the French inhabitants. Helix nemoralis, an edible snail of England, with a beautifully banded shell, is sold in the streets of London and eaten much as we eat walnuts, by picking out the animal with a pin! The edible snails, as well as many others, make good and interesting pets in captivity, the Helix pomatia being of such a size that it may be easily studied. It is interesting to watch one of these snails feeding upon a piece of lettuce. First the jaw is seen to protrude and to cut off a small piece of the leaf, which is drawn into the mouth and reduced to still smaller pieces by the rasp-like radula. A large piece of lettuce, after this snail has made a meal upon it, looks as if an army of worms had been at work. The pomatia is also of an inquisitive disposition and will wander about the snailery (or even the whole house if he can get out), examining everything in a very curious manner. No more interesting object can be placed in a library or study than a snailery with several species of snails. They are far superior in interest to goldfish or canaries.

The most interesting snails are by no means the largest. Frequently the small snail shells with their animals have habits or shell structures of absorbing interest. Among these are the Pupas, whose tiny shells frequently reach the astounding size of one-sixteenth of an inch in length! It is not until we place these mites under the microscope that their interesting characters are seen and appreciated. By such an examination we find that the little apertures are armed with many teeth and folds, and sometimes we wonder how it is that the animal ever gets in and out through such a labyrinth of apparent obstructions. These teeth serve in a manner to protect the little animal from its enemies. These tiny shells are always to be found plentifully under starting bark and under chips, stones and debris, in more or less moist localities.