& to THE LIBRARY OF THE UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA PRESENTED BY PROF. CHARLES A. KOFOID AND MRS. PRUDENCE W. KOFOID MOUNT WASHINGTON IN SPRING. The home of the Peabody bird. FAMILIAR FEATURES OF ROADSIDE # THE FLOWERS SHRUBS BIRDS AND INSECTS BY F. SCHUYLER MATHEWS AUTHOR OK FAMILIAR FLOWERS OF FIELD AND GARDEN, FAMILIAR TREES AND THEIR LEAVES, THE BEAUTIFUL FLOWER GARDEN, ETC. WITH ONE HUNDRED AND SIXTY DRAWINGS BY THE AUTHOR, AND MANY OF THE SONGS OF OUR COMMON BIRDS AND INSECTS : : : : : NEW YORK D. APPLETON AND COMPANY 1897 COPYRIGHT, 1897, BY D. APPLETON AND COMPANY. PKEFACE. IT might be possible to find a wider field for the study of Nature than the highway, but in many re- spects certainly not a better one ; for, if we keep on traveling, we will have eventually seen and heard about everything that is worth seeing and hearing in the wide world. What kind of a country is that without a road ? Hardly an interesting or beautiful one, and very probably a barren, trackless waste ; certainly not a wilderness, for that, with its wealth of wild life, its solemn forests and majestic mountains, is most fre- quently the objective point for which the road was built. The road will lead us everywhere ; to the top of the loftiest mountain, to the margin of the sea, across peat bogs, through primeval forests, over green meadows, along ferny pastures, down shady glens, over pleasant hills, beside silvery lakes and gliding, shining rivers, over rushing brooks, and, ^,350^56 iv FAMILIAR FEATURES OF THE ROADSIDE. finally we must read the next guideboard, for that tells where the end is " To town," just the place we wish to get out of, so we can see some- thing. Yes, see something else besides brick walls and stone pavements, and hear something different from the ceaseless din of the busy, restless town. How delightful to hear and know the voice of every bird, and to see and know the face of every flower, as we pass over the highway which crosses the open fields ! We know the whistle of the locomotive, but we do not recognize the whistle of the peeping hyla in spring. We may know the chirp of the English sparrow, but the voice of the Peabody bird, his American cousin, is an unfamiliar one. There is yarrow, tansy, thorn apple, and wild carrot in every empty lot within the city limits; all these we can name, although each is a tramp from the old coun- try, but our own dainty pipsissewa and twin flower are strange, new characters. It is well that there is much for some of us to learn. Fortunately, there are extremely few who know every wild flower and who can name every shrub by its leaf, and every bird, frog, cricket, and grass- hopper by his song. If there were such a man, how intolerably wise he would be ! The world is wide, and creation is infinite ; we should not expect to PREFACE. V know everything under the sun. There is not and there never was a student of Nature so perfectly gifted and equipped that he could master all the branches of his profession. Practical and theoretical knowledge are rarely, if ever, fully and equally de- veloped. The patience and ability to pursue a thor- oughly systematical course of investigation is pos- sessed by very few; a penetrative mind may be greatly hampered in the search for truth by an im- perfectly developed sense of tone and color. So far as tone and color are concerned, there are very few people, anyway, who can hear and see with absolute accuracy. How many are there who, without in- strumental aid, can whistle with perfect pitch the key of C ? How many can remember a given color and match it by memory months later ? Yet the ability to do either of these things unquestionably belongs to the perfectly gifted and equipped student of Nature; but even with this ability, there is still nearly everything for the student to master if he would really know Nature. There are a thousand facts never to be learned from books, which only grassy meadows and dimly lit forests can teach ; yet it is quite as true that one may live under the shadow of the forest for a lifetime, and through lack of interest never learn the secret of its hidden life. So it happens that a fullness of wisdom can never vi FAMILIAR FEATURES OF THE ROADSIDE. be possessed by any one individual ; as a consequence, complete knowledge accrues through a number of channels each one of which is supplied by some spe- cialist; but the source of all knowledge is Nature. Ours, then, is the boundless opportunity of learning directly from the borders of the road many simple and interesting facts; I say boundless, because the small beginning opens expansively toward a larger study of Nature, which becomes more and more attractive the further we advance. One of the first things which impresses the ob- server of Nature is her infinitude. There is a new kind of a bug on some stick or stone in every county we enter. There are countless miniature butterflies (Hesperia) flitting among the weeds and grasses, no two of which are alike. A well-known butterfly crosses our path, and scarcely is he gone before two new ones appear, neither of which we can recollect ever having seen before. The tree toad's familiar voice pipes in the swamp, but there are other voices piping with it whose origin we can not trace to their proper source. To every one thing we know, or think we know, there are twenty others which we are quite sure we do not know. A wild rose, we thought, was simply a wild rose ; but we learn that there are a dozen species, each one of which has a very distinct character of its own. Eglantine we PREFACE. Y ii thought we knew, but here is a specimen closely resembling it which proves to be quite a different flower. The little frog called the Savannah cricket chirps his cricketlike chirp in New Jersey, and we imagine we hear him in New Hampshire ; but no it is another larger frog with a similar voice. We thought a cricket was simply a cricket with a chirp the same the world over ; not so ! there are crickets and crickets, and each species has it own song. The whip-poor-will certainly seems to sing the same familiar old tune North and South ; perhaps he does, but in three or four evenings, after having listened attentively, we discover that every song is different, not only in key, but in construction, octaves occur- ring in some, and thirds or fifths occurring in others. No two robins sing precisely the same melody ; no two "Wilson thrushes roll out their double-toned notes in exactly the same way. Always variety, endless variety ; never any sense- less repetition in Nature ; she gives us a serial story which is never fully told. Month succeeds month, chapter succeeds chapter, and ever there is something new. The few records contained in the following pages are only an introduction to a boundless world whose story would fill a library of astounding magni- tude ! But the little that I have given comes straight from the country highways and byways, and many viii FAMILIAR FEATURES OF THE ROADSIDE. things are drawn beside the pictures of their own homes. I hope the scraps of music which I have intro- duced will stimulate a little interest in a somewhat neglected phase of wild life. We certainly have very meager records of bird music, and until the notes of our singing birds are completely and fully recorded, we will never possess a complete knowledge of the birds themselves. However imperfect the average ear is in catching and retaining a musical tone, it is impossible to believe that there are many too dull to distinguish apart the songs of the warbling and the red-eyed vireos. We might as well persuade our- selves that a person with average good eyesight can not tell a square apart from a triangle. I might record a dozen songs of as many red-eyed vireos, and although each would be different from the other, the general principle of construction would remain the same in all. A record of the warbling vireo's music would also reveal its individuality. To the unfortunate per- son who could not read music the difference in the appearance of the written music of these two birds would not only be perfectly apparent, but as marked as the difference between a triangle and a square. I regret that the limits of the book would not en- able me to include many other birds, crickets, and frogs ; their music is interesting and beautiful ; but I PREFACE. ix had to draw the line somewhere, and as a consequence the bright-winged, sweet-songed redstart, and the graceful, clucking American cuckoo, which, by the way, is not a bit like its European relative, for it does not steal a inarch on other birds' nests these fell on the other side of the line ! The record of the music of Swainson's thrush is meager but reliable ; that of the hermit thrush does full justice to his musical thirds but not to his bril- liant fifths. The song sparrow, with the prominent spot in the middle of his breast which is easily dis- tinguished by the aid of the opera glass, is fairly rep- resented by his music ; the other sparrows are legion, and would require a volume for anything like a com- plete record. One of them, however, is separated from all the rest by the simple and striking character of his song. The white-throated sparrow, or Peabody bird, as he is called, is an extremely interesting little fellow who, if we respond to his call, will follow us for a mile or more, singing from treetop to treetop ; and those who are willing to undertake the arduous O climb through Tuckerman's Ravine at the foot of Mount Washington for the sake of a charming bit of bird music and grand mountain scenery will be amply repaid for their toilsome jaunt by some of his sweet- est melodies. I desire to express my grateful acknowledgments X FAMILIAR FEATURES OF THE ROADSIDE. to Dr. B. L. Robinson and his assistants, Mr. Fernald and Mr. Greenman, who gave me convenient access to many specimens of the Harvard herbarium; to Mr. Samuel Henshaw of the Agassiz Museum, who provided me with many of the entomological speci- mens which I have sketched ; and to Mr. W. Faxon, without whose advice my bird sketches would have lacked certain important points. I should also ex- plain that the unusual employment of capitals in the specific names of birds, a proceeding contrary to orni- thological rule, is due to an effort to maintain consist- ency throughout the book ; as there are more flowers than birds mentioned, it seemed to me advisable to adopt the botanist's principle with reference to names. But after all, "What's in a name?" If the flower and the bird are unmistakably identified, all is properly put. The best thing about the hermit thrush is his inimitable, silvery song ; the worst thing about him is his ponderous Latin name ! If I could illuminate his music as it deserved, the notes would be of burnished gold set in bars of silver ! F. SCHUYLEE MATHEWS. EL FUREIDIS, BLAIR, CAMPTON, N. H. CONTENTS. CHAPTER PAGE I. EARLY WILD FLOWERS, CATKINS, AND SPRING PEEPERS 1 IT. EARLY FLOWERING SHRUBS . . . . .25 III. SHRUBS BELONGING TO THE ROSE FAMILY CHERRIES, BRAMBLES, ETC 44 IV. SHRUBS BELONGING TO THE ROSE FAMILY THE WILD ROSE, ETC 56 V. THE WOODLAND ROAD SHRUBS AND FLOWERS BELONG- ING TO THE HEATH FAMILY 71 VI. MEADOW SINGERS .86 VII. THE LITTLE SONGSTERS THE YELLOWBIRD, SPARROWS, AND PHOZBE BIRD 107 VI [I. BIRDS WITH UNMUSICAL VOICES . . . . . 120 IX. BIRDS OF BRILLIANT FEATHERS HUMMING BIRD, JAY, BLUEBIRD. TANAGER, ORIOLE, ETC. . . . 137 X. WOODLAND SINGERS THE THRUSHES, VIREO, AND PEABODY BIRD 155 XI. IN LEAFY JUNE GREEN LEAVES AND A FEW BEETLES AND BUTTERFLIES 174 XII. THE TALL MIDSUMMER WEEDS MEMBERS OF THE COM- POSITE FAMILY . . . ... .191 XIII. THE BEES WHICH WE PASS BY 207 XIV. NATURE'S COLOR ON MOUNTAIN, MEADOW, AND WOOD- LAND 220 XV. GOLDEN-ROD AND ASTERS 229 XVI. AUTUMN FLOWERS, SQUIRRELS, AND AUTUMN COLORS . 245 X! LIST OF FULL-PAGE ILLUSTKATIONS. PAGE Mount Washington in spring The home of the Peabody bird . . .... . Frontispiece The meadows of Plymouth, N. H. "Spring peepers," Hyla pickeringii ... . . . . .19 Sleepy Hollow, Westchester County, N. Y. The Savannah cricket, Acris gryllus ....... 20 Sankaty Head light, Nantucket, Mass. .' . . . 57 Mount Pocomoonshine, Adirondacks, Essex County, N. Y. The bearberry . .75 The battle ground and bridge, Concord, Mass. . . . 79 The Highlands of the Hudson, at West Point, Orange County, N. Y. The tree cricket, QEcanthus niveus . 88 Eagle Cliff, Franconia Notch, White Mountains, N. H. . 91 The Highlands of Navesink, Monmouth County, N. J. Katydids, Cyrtophyllus concavus and Microcentrum retinervis . . . . . . . . . 101 The Lurgan Road, Delaware Valley, Buck's County, Pa. The yellowbird . . . . . . , . .111 Muskingum drive, Marietta, Washington County, Ohio The chipping sparrow .115 Clinton River, Pontiac, Oakland County, Mich. Phoebe bird 118 xiii xiv FAMILIAR FEATURES OF THE ROADSIDE. FACING PAGE Huron River, near Ann Arbor, Washtenaw County, Mich. The chickadee . .125 Dixville Notch, Coos County, N. H. The screech owl . 134 Road near Dodsonville, Highland County, Ohio Indigo bird . . .... ... .148 Mount Lafayette, Franconia Notch, Grafton County, N. H. The hermit thrush . . . . f . . .163 The Indian Pass, Adirondack Mountains, Essex County, N. Y. Swainson's thrush 168 Shelving Rock, Madison, Jefferson County, Ind. The black swallow-tailed butterfly 184 Big Indian, Catskill Mountains, Ulster County, N. Y. Yellow butterfly, Colias philodice 186 The Lowlands Joe-Pye weed . . . . . .196 The Franconia Notch, from Campton, Grafton County, N. H. . ...... > .... 207 Willows beside the road, Thornton, Grafton County, N. H. 221 Gray birches in sunlight, after a shower . . . .222 In strong sunlight. A road in Illinois. Afternoon . . 226 Merrimac River, near Newburyport, Mass. Ground nut, Apios tuberosa . . . ... . . . 246 Lake Harriet, Minneapolis, Hennepin County, Minn. Gentiana puberula 248 FAMILIAR FEATURES OF THE ROADSIDE. The Pioneer of Spring. Skunk Cabbage (Symplocarpus fcetidus). CHAPTER I. EAKLT WILD FLOWERS, CATKINS, AND SPRING PEEPERS. THE borders of the road are like the embroidered margin of a fine garment, full of beautiful and elabo- rate detail. If I wished within a limited space of time to gather a variety of wild flowers, I should follow the highway and leave rolling meadows and rocky slopes to themselves ; for, sooner or later, each condition peculiar to the flower of the hillside, forest, 2 FAMILIAR FEATURES OF THE ROADSIDE. field, and swamp I should be sure to encounter in an extended tour along the public road. Unfortunately, we quite often pass on our way with unobservant eyes. The dandelion spreads its wealth of gold at our feet, and we do not stoop to notice it; probably if this wealthiest of all the golden wild flowers was endowed with a voice, it would reproach us in the words of the prophet, " Is it nothing to you, all ye that pass by ? " And we might have to reply with perfect candor, " Nothing ; our world is not a world of dandelions." But if we should pause to examine the wonderful golden flower under a powerful magnifying glass, we might discover a new world of absorbing in- terest, a very familiar one to our fellow-traveler on the highway, the burly bumblebee ; for her,* at least, the dandelion is a mine of wealth, a golden storehouse filled with riches of pollen and nectar ! The dandelion is the richest but not the earliest flower of spring: there are many others which appear on the roadside much earlier. In the cold, wet hol- low the ill-scented skunk cabbage (Symplocarpus foztidus) is a pioneer, and long before April it has passed its prime and become unsightly in its miry * The bumblebee of spring is nearly always a " queen." EARLY WILD FLOWEKS, CATKINS. retreat; in its place the marsh marigold (Caltha palustris) appears, a flower with scarcely less gold in its cup than the dandelion possesses. But the ear- liest wild flower of spring is undoubtedly the hepatica or liverwort (Hepatica triloba) ; this dainty, purplish white flow - er appears before its new leaves (the large purple -blotched ones are last year's ; the new ones are tiny and fuzzy) sometime in early April, next to a lingering bit of snow, and among the withered leaves be- Hepatica ' neath the trees at the woodland border of the road. I have found the hepatica in some seasons earlier than the trailing arbutus (Epigcea repens), but this is a matter of personal experience. William Ham- ilton Gibson asserts positively that the flower is really the first to appear, and I believe he is quite right. It is the easiest thing in the world to pass the hepatica without noticing it, so closely does it snuggle among the withered leaves ; on this account I am inclined to believe it comes and goes quite un- FAMILIAR FEATURES OF THE ROADSIDE. discovered, while the conspicuous arbutus never fails to attract attention. The bloodroot (Sanguinaria Canadensis) is an- other early April flower, whose white blossom ol poppylike delicacy expands before the leaves ; then there is the rue anemone (Anemonella thalictroides\ whose flowers grow in clusters, and the windflower or wood anemone (Anemone quinquefolia)* whose flowers grow singly ; both of these appear side by side while the bloodroot is still in blossom. If there is a rocky bank near, here we may also look for the rock flower (Saxifraga Virginien- sis) with its spikes of small white blossoms. Farther along we will be sure to find the miniature whitlow grass (Draba verna\ whose four white petals are deeply notched ; this is pre-emi- nently a roadside character ; in- deed, it is a regular tramp which has crossed the ocean and is apparently still on the way to other parts. This flower blooms as late as May also ; we will find it on sandy or waste ground. Whitlow Grass. * Also named Anemone nemorosa. EARLY WILD FLOWERS, CATKINS. 5 It belongs to the Mustard family, which is character- ized by four-petaled, flowers. The spring beauty (Claytonia Virginica) fre- quently appears as early as the first of April in south- ern New England and New York ; its beautiful, pale, pink -white blossoms veined with a deeper pink, are among our prettiest wild flow- ers. I should expect to find the Claytonia, perhaps with a bumble- bee visitor tumbling over its frail petals, in the rich grassy borders of the road near the edge of the tiny streamlet that finds its way to the hollow where the overflowing brook hurries along. I have already alluded to the bumblebee as " she." As a matter of fact, in spring these big, golden - hipped creatures are generally queen bees searching for pollen and nectar. The spring beauty is precisely the kind Spring Beauty. of a flower which needs the visit of the bumblebee ; its pistil develops the graceful, curled tips (which are simply the portals leading to the im- FAMILIAR FEATURES OF THE ROADSIDE. mature seed at the base), too late to receive the pollen from the earlier developed anther ! My drawing will show the immature pistil with its " closed doors " at the time the anthers which bear the pollen are ripe, and also the mature split-topped pistil whose open portals are prettj sure to scrape the pollen from the visiting bumblebee's back. The spring beauty is not a self -fertilized plant ; Nature has so arranged matters that the bee shall bring the rip- ened pollen from one flower to the ripened pistil of an- other. Among the earliest of the violets are the yellow ones. The round-leaved violet ( Vwla rotundifolid) is per- haps the earliest of all, as its tiny blossoms appear in Pennsylvania soon after the snow has gone. This violet grows on the woodland border, and we will find it hugging the damp rich mold, with its round- ish leaves flat upon the ground ; in midsummer these leaves are fully two inches in diameter. The flower is pale yellow marked with madder-brown veins. The downy yellow violet ( Viola pubescens) grows about ten inches high ; the tiny yellow blos- Pistil of Spring Beauty : A, immature ; B, mature. EARLY WILD FLOWERS, CATKINS. 7 som is borne on a short stem which issues from be- tween a pair of leaves fully eight inches above the ground. Both of these flowers bloom sparingly in early May on the roadsides of the Northern States, but neither is as common as the blue violet ( Viola cucullata), which, on or about Decoration Day, holds exclu- sive possession of the cold wet ground near the spring or the horse trough. The daintiest spring flower of all, I think, is the one which bears the rather rude but suggestive name, Dutchman's breeches (Dicentra cucullaria). This beautiful little plant is fre- quently to be seen on the rocky ledges in the valley of the Hudson Kiver and in the Round . leaved Violflt rich woods westward. It is also common in some parts of Central Park, New York, and Prospect Park, Brooklyn. The blossom is white tipped with creamy yellow, and the extremely orna- mental foliage is blue-green. Dr. Abbott says : " To think that such a plant should be called * Dutchman's breeches ' ! If this abomination were dropped from Gray's Manual, perhaps in time a decent substitute 8 FAMILIAR FEATURES OF THE ROADSIDE. would come in use. But why not call it dicentra ? " I should answer, because to the great majority of people any name foreign to our language is either Dutchman's Breeches. enigmatical or meaningless. Dutchman's breeches means something, and it does not seem quite abom- inable if we look at it from the right point of view. EARLY WILD FLOWERS, CATKINS. 9 I like the name because of its Knickerbocker flavor, and although it is suggestive of a bit of rude hu- mor, it is not without a certain poetic significance. The word Dutchman, to be sure, is so loosely used nowadays that it does not suggest much more than the unromantic personality of the prosaic corner grocer, but I have yet to find the American wno is ashamed of his Dutch blood ! So I do not think we need be ashamed because one of our wild flowers bears the name " Dutchman's breeches." * Breeches, it is true, sounds a bit unrefined, but I insist that it is poetic ; substitute the modern " pants " for it, imagine, if possible, Hendrick Hudson clothed in them, and, presto ! all the poetry attached to the romantic vigils in the Catskills is gone. There are two flowers which are inseparably associated in my mind with Rip Van Winkle and Hendrick Hud- son one is Dutchman's breeches and the other is Indian pipe ; both of them are ghostly white, and both are commonly found in the country of the Dutch settlers. Why not let Dutchman's breeches * That these at least possessed magnificent proportions the following historical incident certainly proves beyond a shadow of doubt : Some Indians were induced by a settler to sell for a small consideration as much of their land as could be bounded by a pair of breeches. To their chagrin the Dutchman cut his ample breeches into narrow strips, and sewing these together formed with them so long a strip that it encompassed several acres ! 10 FAMILIAR FEATURES OF THE ROADSIDE. stand in commemoration of our Dutch ancestors ? In early spring the dainty flower lines every wooded bank which slopes toward the Hudson River. A close relative of Dicentra cucullaria is another little spring plant called squirrel corn (Dicentra Canaden- sis) ; this bears little two- spurred, heart - shaped, greenish white flowers tinged with pink, which are sweet-scented. We will find the squirrel corn only on the borders of rich woods in the North ; the foliage is like that of its relative, and its roots bear tiny tubers resembling grains of corn (see my sketch of four tubers). It blooms throughout April. Still another early spring flower is the wild ginger (Asarum Canadense). We will find this plant on the edge of the wood that flanks the hillside. The solitary flower is dull madder brown, and is seen close to the ground where the two leafstems rise to the large furry leaves Squirrel Corn. EARLY WILD FLOWERS, CATKINS. H above which measure four or five inches across ; these are broad, heart-shaped, and more or less pointed. The Canada wild ginger is quite common northward ; its aromat- ic, stinging root- stock has the flavor of ginger. While we are yet passing through the woodland we will most likely find another early flower, the mandrake or May apple (Podophyllum peltatum) ; this blooms in May. The drooping white flower with half a dozen or , Wild Ginger. more petals is borne between two large leaves which have from five to nine lobes ; the plant has also flowerless stems which bear only larger leaves supported in the middle like an um- brella. The fruit, which ripens in July and appears like a tiny lemon an inch and a half long, is edible ; but both leaves and roots are drastic and poisonous so says Dr. Gray. As for the fruit, I prefer to let it alone ; it is simply rank ! 12 FAMILIAR FEATURES OF THE ROADSIDE. The most conspicuous flowers which appear on the roadside in early spring are the alder and willow cat- kins. There are two species of alder which are corn- May Apple. monly found on the borders of swamps and the damp hollows beside the highway ; they flower in early April before the leaves are well out. The flowers are EARLY WILD FLOWERS, CATKINS. 13 of two kinds,* sterile and fertile ; the former elon- gated and drooping (a nicely adjusted arrangement that enables the pollen to drop easily on the fertile flowers below), and the latter ovoid or oblong and somewhat erect. These catkins were formed in the preceding summer, and passed through the winter in a shape resembling a tiny, elongated green cone ; now they appear in plumy clusters on the still leafless branchlets. Should we happen to jostle the alder bush a cloud of pollen arises from the sterile flow- ers, which probably reaches the fertile ones near by, and thus the latter become fertilized ; but with- out doubt a few early bees will find the pretty ocher-yellow, lav- ender-brown, and greenish yellow cat- kins, and these will carry enough pol- len on their backs to accomplish what Speckled Alder Catkins. the pollen cloud left unfinished. The spreckled or hoary alder (Alnus incana) is common northward and westward from Massachu- * The alders are monoecious ; that is, the stamens and pistils are in separate flowers on the same bush. FAMILIAR FEATURES OF THE ROADSIDE. setts. This species has broad, oval, dark-green leaves, sharply and irregularly toothed, which are whitish and downy beneath. The smooth alder (Alnus ser- rulata) is found southward and south westward from Massachu- setts ; it forms dense thickets in Pennsyl- vania and Yirginia on the borders of swamps, and farther south attains a height of thirty-five feet. The leaves are obovate, and green on both sides ; they are usually smooth, but occasionally downy beneath. Alnus incana is as common along the roadsides in northern New Hampshire as Alnus serrulata is in southern Pennsylvania. The willows contribute largely to the beauty of the roadside in spring by their beautiful golden- flecked catkins. The glaucous wil- low (Salix discolor) we will al- ways find hanging over the river's brink and the A Glaucous Willow Cat- kins : A, sterile flowers B, fertile flowers. EARLY WILD FLOWERS, CATKINS. 15 fence that borders the marshy meadow. The "pus- sies," about an inch Jong, appear before the leaves in earliest spring ; the sterile and fertile flowers are on separate plants. The catkins, which eventually at- tain a length of one and a half inches, have brown scales which finally become black ; they are clothed with long shiny or silky hairs. The prevail- ing color of the mature sterile flower is the yellow of the pol- len ; the fertile flower has a softer, silky appearance, with less of the yellow tone. The leaf at maturity is from two to five inches long and at least one inch wide, irregularly and somewhat remotely toothed, smooth, and bright green. The glaucous willow grows from eight to fifteen feet high. The prairie willow (Salix humilis) is common on dry and barren ground ; the small catkins are from one half to one inch long, and they are frequently bent downward or outward from the branchlets ; they appear before the leaves, and are at first silky gray and at last yellowish ; the scales are dark brown. The leaf at maturity is from one and a half to three inches long, lance-shaped, with- out teeth, and the edge is often crinkly or wavy. Gray Willow Catkins. 16 FAMILIAR FEATURES OF THE ROADSIDE. This species grows from three to eight feet high. The dwarf gray willow (Salix tristis) is also com- mon on dry ground ; the catkins are very small, about half an inch long, globular or ovoid, and loosely flowered. The leaf is one or two inches long, without teeth, and slightly wavy-edged; the leaves are crowded on the branchlets. This species grows from one to one and a half feet high ; in gen- eral appearance it is grayish, and for that reason is sometimes called " sage willow." It is frequent- ly found in the thickets which border the mountain road. There are three other willows whose beautiful cat- kins decorate the highway borders in spring. These are the shining willow (Salix lucida\ a shrub from six to fifteen feet high, common on the banks of streams ; the heart-leaved willow (Salix cordata), eight to twenty feet high, usually found in wet situations; and the long-beaked willow (Salix rostrata), eight to fif- teen feet high, very common on slightly moist ground. The first species (S. lucidd), has large showy, yellow, sterile catkins, which appear later than the broad, shiny, sharply toothed leaves ; the second (8. cordata) has beautiful yellow catkins appearing at the sides of the stem with or before the leaves, which are usually heart-shaped at the base ; the third (8. rostrata) has EARLY WILD FLOWERS, CATKINS. 17 old-gold-yellow catkins appearing with the leaves, which, when young, are velvety and of a rich olive hue, and fruit capsules tapering to a very long slender beak ; this last species is common on both dry and wet ground, while the other two are more frequently found on the borders of swamps. Now that we are in the vicinity of the catkin-dec- orated swamp we must not pass it without pausing to listen to the sweet piping voices of the little " peep- ers " (Hyla Pickeringii) ; these tiny ocher-yellow- brown, smooth-skinned frogs are scarcely an inch long, yet about the first of April, when at five in the afternoon the orchestra is in full chorus, their shrill, ear-piercing notes have no equal in all musical nature, both as to quality and quantity. The first song of spring is either that of the bluebird or Pickering's frog;* it is mere chance which we will hear first. We can scarcely see the little " old-gold " creatures, for only their bulgy eyes and the tips of their noses are above the surface of the pond, and if we approach the margin these instantly disappear. They are not always in the water, though, for we might be fortu- nate enough to catch a glimpse of one perched on an * The frog called Acris gryllus also sings quite as early. Ac- cording to an old saying, the peepers must be silenced thrice by the frost before the spring weather comes to stay. As a rule, they sing when the mercury stands between 50 and 60. 3 18 FAMILIAR FEATURES OF THE ROADSIDE. inclining weed stem, or seated on. the margin among the leaves and grasses. I know of no bird except the white-throated spar- row which sings continuously as " high " as Picker- ing's frog. His song is usually pitched in the key of F minor, and his note is E slurred to F three octaves 1.72 , above middle C. Some- JT* f** *^ r J _i times, however, I detect I I ' I J other tones pitched low- jninor er, perhaps in D ; but E is generally the dominant note, in proof of which I will give William Hamilton Gibson's concurrent tes- timony. He says, " The phee, phee, phee, phee is uttered in the note E four octaves above middle C." But Mr. Gibson would have more correctly said E in the fourth octave above, because the treble register ends at the fourth C above the middle one. How phenomenally high both the Peabody bird and the Pickering's frog sing we quickly learn if we go to the piano and strike the highest E and B of the instrument (C is the final note) ; the bird outstrips the frog by about four tones and reaches B with ap- parent ease and undiminished power. After long cul- tivation I have succeeded in clearly whistling B flat, but with greatly reduced force ; yet these little singers in the wooded hollow have golden, liquid whistles THE MEADOWS OF PLYMOUTH, N. H. "SPRING PEEPERS," HYLA PICKERINGII. EARLY WILD FLOWERS, CATKINS. 19 beside which mine is as " sounding brass or a tinkling cymbal " ! Pickering's hyla leaves the swamp in early July and is a " tree toad " in autumn ; then his shrill but less vivacious note is often mistaken for that of a bird. He is a great climber ; each of his toes is fur- nished with a little circular pad by the aid of which he can hold fast to a slippery surface. Dr. Abbott gives a surprising account of the climbing powers of these tree toads ; I quote what he says : " They are seldom content with a humble perch, and, when in summer they quit their aquatic and mud life for an arboreal one, they often wander to the very highest available resting places in the trees. I once found one at the very top of a tulip tree, at least sixty feet from the ground." My drawing of Pickering's frog is accom- panied by a sketch of a pool near the road which crosses the Plymouth meadows (Plymouth, K H.). In April, about five in the afternoon of a warm day, this charming bit of meadow road is " set to music " with the voices of a thousand Pickering's frogs ! There is still another slender, long-legged swamp singer, called the Savannah cricket (Acris gryllus\ who has a modified, rattling whistle. The Savannah cricket is about an inch long and green on the back, with a triangular mark on the head, and on the sides black edged with cream-color. These colors some- 20 FAMILIAR FEATURES OF THE ROADSIDE. times change to extremely pale tints.* The only "crickets" which I have ever seen, however, were grass-green and decidedly dark-spotted, with Jong narrow heads and prominent eyes. This little frog also sings in the early spring in the same orchestra with the other peeper. His tones are not so pure, though, and they are pitched, I have noticed, in a lower key ; they are loud, but not sufficiently so to be heard at a great distance. The Acris gryllus has a rattling, cricketlike note,f which can not possibly be mistaken for the smooth, liquid whistle of Pickering's hyla. He remains in the high grasses surrounding the marsh, and seldom if ever ascends trees. He is not in New England. My sketch of the Sleepy Hollow bridge shows just one of those swampy spots in which the Savannah cricket finds a spring retreat exactly suited to his taste. My earliest rec- ollection of this cricketlike frog is associated with this old roadway and the grasses and rushes which * Like the chameleon, the tree toad changes color to match its surroundings, of course as a protection against its enemies. Thus on a tree trunk the creature will appear brown, but among the leaves it becomes greenish. t A note so exactly like that of the cricket that we might think it was a cricket singing ; but the tone is less shrill, more powerful, and mellow. SLEEPY HOLLOW, WESTCHESTER CO., N. Y. THE SAVANNAH CRICKET, ACRIS GRYLLUS. EARLY WILD FLOWERS, CATKINS. 21 crowd its borders. Here in early spring Acris gryl- lus " crepitates " during the twilight hour to its heart's content ; here also, later in the season, the tree toad sings his pathetic, persuasive, " bleating " song a song which lures one to linger by the old picket fence and recall Irving's story of poor superstitious Ichabod Crane, whose cranium came near being smashed by Brom Bone's terrible pum- pkin. We wonder if there were any frogs sing- ing on that eventful autumn evening! I have no doubt whatever that even if the frogs were silent the crickets were not, and certainly CEcanthus niveus must have sung if the night were not too cold. Irv- ing records the fact that Ichabod did hear a few mid- night notes " occasionally the chirp of a cricket, or perhaps the guttural twang of a bullfrog " (but this was Rana Catesbiana, not our Acris) " from a neigh- boring marsh, . . . and a groan it was but the rub- bing of one huge bough upon another, as they were swayed about by the breeze." Poor Ichabod ! I know just how he must have felt, for the rubbing together of two big tree boughs in the forest at nightfall is about the most ghostly, blood-curdling kind of music I know of ; it is only to be paralleled by the hollow, grinding, groaning sound of a ferryboat as it clumsily enters the slip. Sleepy Hollow is quite as quaint and sleepy to-day 22 FAMILIAR FEATURES OF THE ROADSIDE. as it was years ago when Irving drew its picture with his inimitable pen, and described it as " a little valley or rather lap of land among high hills, which is one of the quietest places in the whole world. A small brook glides through it with just murmur enough to lull one to repose ; and the occasional whistle of a quail or tapping of a woodpecker is almost the only sound that ever breaks in upon the uniform tran- quillity." Later in the spring or in early summer we will also .hear the crepitating in plain English, rat- tling or creaking notes of the little frog called Chorophilus trise / ^^jplg^v-^a riatus ; this little fellow never leaves the swamp for the trees, ChorovJiilus triseriatus. , . . and he continues his song throughout the summer. We can not fail to recog- nize it if by any good chance we can gain the edge of the marsh where we may hear one singer's voice well separated from the general chorus. It has a rising inflection, a moderate cres- QJ-6, minor cendo, and a limited range, thus : The quality of the tones can not be conveyed by note ; I might compare it to the scraping of the teeth EARLY WILD FLOWERS, CATKINS. 23 of a comb, one end of which is wide and the other narrow a comb, in fact, shaped like the steel one in a music box. The notes are not whistled, and they are therefore entirely unlike those of Pickering's hyla; they are also not vivacious and shrill, but, on the con- trary, moderate and soothing. The song of this frog must not be confused with that of the tree toad (Hyla versicolor) which we hear in early summer; but of the tree toad's notes I will have something to say further on. The Chorophilus triseriatus is about an inch long ; he has slender limbs and toes, and a light ash-gray body striped brown ; his skin beneath is yellow-white and somewhat granular ; in fact, he is not a smooth frog in appearance or in voice ! This species is com- mon in the Northwest and in the swampy barrens of southwestern New Jersey. Mr. E. D. Cope has also found it in Gloucester County, N. J., and I am quite sure I have heard it in Monmouth County ; but I do not recollect having heard its unmistakable cres- cendo tones in New England. Like the Acris and Pickering's hyla, it sings in the latter part of March or early April, but it continues through the spring and early summer, and sometimes it can be heard in the warmest part of the day. Yet another musical but somewhat harsh note comes to our ears from the marsh in early April ; it 24: FAMILIAR FEATURES OF THE ROADSIDE. is that of the wood frog (JKana sylvatica\ who is brown-yellow tan color, except under the eye, where there is a black streak. This frog is about two inches long. He lives in the woods throughout the summer, and rare- ly, if ever, visits the water at that time ; but during the breeding sea- son, about the mid- dle of April when the weather is warm, the wooded margin of the pond will resound with the spasmodic, hoarse, clucking notes of this sylvan character for he really prefers the wood to the water. Rana sylvatica is common from Maine to Ohio and Michigan. Wood Frog. CHAPTER II. EARLY-FLOWERING SHRUBS. ON the banks of the stream along which the road follows appear, in April or May, inconspicuous clus- ters of greenish flowers on the yet leafless, brown, prickly branchlets of the toothache tree (XantJiox- ylum Americanum). This is a shrub from four to twelve feet high, bearing compound leaves of from five to nine leaflets (usually seven), which are almost if not entirely without teeth, downy when young, but growing smooth. All parts of the tree are pungent and aromatic ; if the leaves are crushed they yield a strong lemonlike * odor ; this is also very strong in the fleshy fruit, which is about the size and shape of peppercorns. The toothache tree is frequently seen in cultivation ; it is supposed to furnish an excellent remedy for toothache and neuralgia. A near relative of the toothache tree, the three- leaved hop tree (Ptelea trifoliata), will be found on * An odor similar to that of the lemon verbena. 25 26 FAMILIAR FEATURES OF THE ROADSIDE. rocky roadsides in Pennsylvania, on Long Island, and in the West as far as Minnesota. This shrub, from six to eight feet high, bears on the tips of its branch- lets clusters of rather unpleasantly scented, four- to fi ve-petaled greenish white flowers in early June. The composed of three leaflets without teeth. The hop tree is very beauti- ful in spring when in bloom, and in the fall its arge clusters of decora- tive, hoplike fruit make it a charmingly orna- mental shrub ; it is closely related to the ailantus, a fact not difficult to re- alize after one has noticed the disagreeable odor of the blossoms ; but, notwithstanding this slight drawback, the hop tree is decorative and deserving of wide cultivation. In June we will also see the pretty upright green- ish yellow flower clusters of the mountain maple (Acer spicatum) on the tall, branching, slender, greenish stems of this shrub, whose dainty, drooping, sharp-pointed leaves are invariably outlined in high Hop Tree : fruit at A. EARLY-FLOWERING SHRUBS. relief against the shaded roadside borders of late spring. The mountain maple rarely grows over fifteen feet high. Another shrub with three leaflets like the hop tree is the bladder nut (Staptiy- lea trifolia). This is com- monly seen on the roadside, especially among the thickets which border the bog. Its pret- ty white flowers which terminate the slender branchlets in drooping clusters appear in May. The leaflets (sometimes there are five) are toothed, and the main stems of the com- pound leaves grow oppo- site to each other. The blad- der nut is a handsome shrub, from six to ten feet high, with green- striped branches, and (in late summer) extraordinary inflated seed pods like my sketch, which are three-sided and three-celled, each cell containing about three smooth hard seeds. The pod, if crushed, smells like a pea pod. Mountain Maple. Bladder Nut. 28 FAMILIAR FEATURES OF THE ROADSIDE. Carolina Allspice. A most remarkable little ruddy blossom is that which we find on the sweet-scented shrub or Carolina allspice (Calycanthus Icevigatus) from May to August. Under our nose and with our eyes shut we would imagine the flower was a luscious ripe strawberry, so nearly does it simulate the fragrance of this fruit. The flow- ers, which grow singly in the axils of the leaves, must be crushed to yield the odor. C. floridus is a species in common cultivation which we will see in parks and gardens ; the other species is found in the mountains of Franklin County, Pa., and south- ward along the Alleghanies. The leaves are without teeth, oblong, pointed, and bright green. Both bark and foliage are aromatic. The Calycanthus will be seen in Prospect Park, Brooklyn, and in Central Park, New York. A marked feature of the shady roadside in June is the white, flat-topped, and loose flower cluster of the dogwood. There are several species, no one of EARLY-FLOWERING SHRUBS. 29 which should be confused with the so-called poison dogwood (Rhus venenata) * belonging to quite a dif- ferent family (Cashew), which includes the sumachs. The true dogwoods of the family Cornacece are not poisonous. The handsom- est member of the group is the flowering dog- wood (Cornus florida), which bears a large flower with four notched, petallike, showy white leaf- lets set around the tiny greenish florets. The flow- ers appear in May before the leaves are fully out; they are succeeded in the fall by small bunches of bright-red, oval berries. This species differs from the others in not having a flat panicle of small blossoms ; it grows at least twelve feet high. The very opposite in character of growth from the preceding is the little dwarf cornel or bunch- berry (C. Canadensis) ; this tiny plant creeps along Flowering Dogwood. * See page 176. 30 FAMILIAR FEATURES OF THE ROADSIDE. the damp, wooded roadside of the mountains, and spreads its light-green leaves scarcely five inches above the ground. The white flowers appear in June, and the beauti- ful bunches of bright scarlet berries are ripe in the latter part of August. C. alternifolia is a shrub at least six feet high, whose leaves are an exception to the rule respecting their man- ner of growth ; they arrange themselves alternately about the tips of the branchlets. The flowers, which ap- pear in May or June, are in flat, open clusters ; they are succeeded in late August by blue-black, round, berrylike fruit, which terminates the pretty coral-red, branching stems. C. sericea (called kinnikinic) is a shrub three or more feet high, bearing flat, open flower clusters in June. The silky, downy branches are purplish ; the young ones reddish. This species is common in swampy places ; the berry is also dark blue. C. stolonifera is low, from three to four or some- times six feet high. It is remarkable for its smooth Cornus alternifolia. EARLY -FLOWERING SHRUBS. 31 ruddy stems, which by the middle of winter are Hood-red, and furnish a remarkable bit of color on the borders of the snow- covered meadow. The flower clusters, which are small and flat, appear in June ; they are followed in August by whit- ish or leaden-gray fruit. This species is com- mon in wet places throughout the North. C. asperifolia is Cornus sericea. also but three or four feet high, and bears flowers in a similar small, flat cluster, succeeded by a whitish fruit. The branches of this species are brown and rough downy; the leaves are also downy. C. asperifolia is a distinctive- ly Western species extending from the northern shore of Lake Erie to Minnesota ; it also grows in the South. C. paniculata is a much-branched shrub from four to eight feet high, which bears flowers in numerous loose, almost cone-shaped clusters in May or June. The fruit is white, borne on a pale-red stem ; it ap- pears in late August. This species is very common 32 FAMILIAR FEATURES OF THE ROADSIDE. along the road, beside the river, and in meadow bor- ders throughout the North. The dogwoods all have ovate-pointed leaves, variable in size, with long veins which run almost parallel with the edge which is de- void of teeth. In the case of C. sericea and C. asperi- folia the leaves are downy beneath, but in the other species they are smooth through- out ; C. altemifoUa, however, is minutely downy. These shrubs are commonly found beside the high- way, particularly where it crosses some thicket - bor- dered stream. They are ex- tremely beautiful in late spring when their thin foli- age furnishes the most deli- cate, sober green which we can find during that season ; and in late summer their handsome berries, many of them ruddy stemmed, con- tribute some of the prettiest bits of color which enliven the shaded depths of the woodland. At this time we may catch a glimpse of the purple finch and the red-eyed vireo, who venture down from the tree-tops to feed on the berries which Cornus paniculata. EARLY FLOWERING SHRUBS. 33 they so greatly relish ; in fact, if we approach a large clump of the alternate -leaved dogwood with caution, we may see a number of our feathered friends peck- ing at the dark-blue berries, but not at any hour of the day ; it is early morning when the birds are most hungry, and break- fast with them is the all - important meal of the day. From May until July the flowers of the common elder (Sanibucus Ca- nadensis) are in bloom ; but this familiar shrub needs no de- scription ; its compound leaves and hand- some, broad, white flower clus- Ked-berried Elder : portion of fruit cluster at A. ters, sweet with perfume, are known to us all. Two marked charac- teristics of the elder are the rank smell of the leaves when crushed and the thick-jointed branches; the latter, when new, are bright green. The large, heavy 34 FAMILIAR FEATURES OF THE ROADSIDE. bunches of purple-black berries, ripe in August, are used for making a medicinal elder-berry wine. Still another species, the red-berried elder (8am- ~bucus racemosa\ is common beside the road. The flowers, clustered in a pyramidal panicle, appear in May. The leaves usually have five leaflets. The fruit is ripe in June ; in color effect it is one of the most striking and beautiful bits of decoration which the woodland border presents to the eye in early summer. The tiny berries are translucent red, and grouped in effective clusters among the ornamental dark-green leaves. This species grows from two to twelve feet high ; the common elder is rarely over ten feet high. I am surprised to note that in the Field, Forest, and Garden Botany Gray calls the flowers of the elder scentless; if one should apply the nose to a good, spreading cluster of the blossoms, I think the experi- ment would furnish an all-sufficient proof to the con- trary. The common elder is a familiar object along the roads of central New Hampshire, and it is quite as familiar to those who pass over the roads in southern New York. The red-berried elder is rather rare in northern New Hampshire. Succeeding the elders in order come the Vibur- nums, low, straggling shrubs only occasionally found beside the road. One of the commonest of these, dockmackie ( Viburnum acerifolium\ is confined to EARLY-FLOWERING SHRUBS. 35 cool rocky woods ; its flat, white flower clusters ap- pear in May or June. The leaves are like those of the maple in shape, and the blackish fruit, about as large as a huckleberry, is ripe in early autumn ; it is not fit to eat. Another species, arrowwood ( Viburnum dentatum\ general- ly found in damp places throughout the North Dockmackie. and West, has roundish leaves, straight- veined and coarsely toothed, and bears small clusters of white flowers which appear in June. This shrub grows from five to fifteen feet high, and sends out remark- ably straight shoots. It is occasionally found in the thickets of the roadside. On the mountain road which passes through the woods we will probably see the large, almost heart- 36 FAMILIAR FEATURES OF THE ROADSIDE. shaped, coarse, light-green leaves of the hobblebush (Viburnum lantanoides). The flat, white flower cluster appears in May, and the small, hard, red berries are ripe in September. This reclining shrub frequently takes root at the ends of its branches, and thus trips up the unwary traveler. It is extremely common in the White Mountains, along the paths which wind through the woods in the vicinity of the Flume House, Franconia Notch, and the Crawford House, White Mountain Notch, and it can often be found at an altitude of three thousand feet on the mountains. Probably we will see in May or June, on the woodland road farther south, the insignificant green- ish yellow flowers of the fly honeysuckle (Lonicera ciliata). These grow in twos at the junction of the leaves with the main stem of the straggling plant. The leaves are oval or variable in shape, and finely fringed at the edge. A near relative of the fly honeysuckle, a shrub quite common on the wooded roadsides of the North, is the bush honeysuckle (Dier- villa trifida). This has small, honey-yellow, or greenish yellow flowers, usually three on a stalk, which also grow out from the main stem directly at its junction with the leafstem. They bloom from June to August. The opposite-growing, sharp- pointed leaves are toothed. EARLY-FLOWERING SHRUBS. 37 One of the commonest roadside shrubs of the north country is the buttonbush (Cephalanthus occi- dentalis). Its decorative, spherical heads of yel- lowish white flowers with long styles are quite an inch in diam- eter ; the strongly veined, blunt, egg-shaped leaves are without teeth. The flowers, how- ever, are late in blooming ; they do not appear until late in June or early in July. This shrub grows about four feet high, and is most fre- quently found on the borders of swamps and streams. The buttonbush thicket is a favorite haunt of the red- winged blackbird (Agelaius phceniceus) ; here the bird finds a safe retreat, seldom molested by enemies ; the en- vironment is entirely too aquatic for all visitors other than batrachians. I have no doubt whatever that madame, as she settles on her nest at sundown, Buttonbush. 38 FAMILIAR FEATURES OF THE ROADSIDE. is frequently serenaded by the crepitating, bleating, lullaby notes of the familiar tree toad (Hyla versi- The Ked-winged Blackbird. EARLY-FLOWERING SHRUBS. 39 color), or, should she build her nest in late April, by the more musical but pathetic voices of the spring peepers (Hyla Piclceringii). The blackbird is a much slandered but interesting character. Wilson says he has a reputation of being a notorious corn thief, a plunderer of honest farmers ; but he proves by careful computation that the farmers are indebted to the birds for destroying an inestimable number of injurious insects. He has calculated that all the black- birds in the United States during one season of the space of four months eat up sixteen billions two hun- dred millions of grubs and larvae ! Now, what more could a farmer ask of one family of birds ? If we approach a thicket of alders or button bushes in May (the nesting season) most likely we will see the male bird flirting about in and out among the leaves in evident alarm. He is a handsome crea- ture, nearly ten inches long, dressed in a glossy uni- form of black, with deep-red epaulets bordered with buff ; his bill is black and very sharp. He is by no means a singer, but, on the contrary, gives expression to his feelings in a variety of confused, rasping, un- musical tones, resembling those of the blue jay ; his commonest note sounds like quonk-a-ree. If we can recall the shrill squeak of a saw being filed, combined with a turkey -goblerlike sound resembling jeer-a-rup, jeer-a-rup, we will have the exact counterpart of 40 FAMILIAR FEATURES OF THE ROADSIDE. another of the blackbird's notes and the jay bird's as well. In April or early May, on the road which winds through the dark woods, we will possibly see the spice or Benjamin bush (Lindera benzoin) in full bloom. The honey -yellow flowers (four to five in cluster) are inconspicuous and tiny ; they are grouped in yet larger clusters along the slender branchlets which are as yet bare of leaves ; these are alter- nate-growing, nearly smooth, oval, pointed, and without teeth. The red berries are ob- ovate, and spicy in smell and taste ; they have been used in place of allspice. The aromatic odor of the crushed leaves resembles that of gum benzoin. This shrub grows from six to fifteen feet high. Along the roads near the coast, in sandy soil, grows a low shrub from two to three feet, or rarely eight feet, high, called bayberry or wax myrtle (Myrica ceriferd). This is very common on the island of Nantucket, along the south shore and in the vicinity of Siasconset. The flowers appear in May along with EARLY-FLOWERING SHRUBS. 41 the leaves; the sterile ones, erect and oblong, less than an inch long, and the fertile ones in egg-shaped clusters ; the two kinds are mostly on separate plants. The leaves are extremely aromatic when crushed ; they are deep olive-green. The small bony nuts, an eighth of an inch in diameter, at first greenish and finally grayish, are incrusted with wax. It was a common practice some years ago for the country people to gather the berries, boil them, and collect the wax by skimming the water.* With this so-called " bayberry tallow " candles and even soap were manu- factured. The wax myrtle is found from Maine to Florida; it is also on the shores of Lake Erie. On the borders of ponds, and perhaps on the roadside adjoining the cold bogs in the North, we will find the * In Nova Scotia the wax is extensively used instead of tallow, or is mixed with tallow, to make candles. It has also been mixed with beeswax for the same purpose. Candles made of it diffuse a very agreeable perfume, but give a less brilliant light than those made entirely of animal substance. George B. Emerson. Bayberry, and leaf of Sweet Gale at A. 42 FAMILIAR FEATURES OF THE ROADSIDE. sweet gale (Myrica Gale), another similar fragrant shrub, which grows from three to five feet high. The blunt extremities of the leaves are toothed, and the flowers, similar to those of the foregoing species, appear in May ; the sterile ones are closely clustered. The little nuts are round and dotted, and are winged by a pair of egg-shaped scales ; they are crowded together two to six in a cluster. Sweet gale o is distributed from Maine westward along the Great Sweet Fern. Lakes to Minnesota, and southward along the mountains to Virginia. Sweet fern (Myrica asplenifolia\ which is, of course, not a fern at all but another member of the Sweet Gale family, is common on every pasture and rocky hill throughout the North. It is unnecessary to describe it in detail, so well is it known. The brownish yellow flowers which appear in April or May are of two kinds on the same plant ; the sterile ones are about an inch long, catkinlike, drooping or erect, and crowded toward the tips of the branches ; the fertile ones are oblong, one third of an inch long, EARLY-FLOWERING SHRUBS. 43 and are in rounded clusters with the seed cases sur- rounded by eight narrow persistent scales, which grow long and burry as the fruit develops. The A road in Buck's Co., Pennsylvania. Sassafras Trees. fruit, ripe in earlj July, is a small nut in brown- green clusters of a burlike appearance. This aromatic shrub grows from one to two feet high. Sweet fern and sassafras, frequently found grow- ing together on the borders of the road, are two remarkably decorative plants with extremely conven- tional f oliage. CHAPTER III. SHRUBS BELONGING TO THE ROSE FAMILY CHERRIES, BRAMBLES, ETC. SEVERAL important and interesting members of the beautiful Rose family are always present in the mass of shrubbery bordering the country highways and byways, and these are best introduced in a com- prehensive group which will aid us in tracing the general family resemblance. I call the Rose family a beautiful one because it not only includes the queen of flowers, but the fruit trees, spiraeas, brambles, whitethorns, shad bush, mountain ash, and Pyrus Japonica, nearly all of which bear exceedingly handsome blossoms and fruit. The distinguishing points of the family are these : the leaves grow alternately on the branchlets; the flowers are regular that is, they are uniform in structure ; the petals and sepals are equal in number, usually there are five of each, and the innumerable unconnected stamens are a prominent feature in the 44 SHRUBS BELONGING TO THE ROSE FAMILY. 45 general color and effect of the blossom. The Rose family is separated into three distinct divisions : these are the Almond or Plum, the Rose, and the Pear sub-families. Belonging to the first subfamily (Plum) are a few very familiar roadside characters : the first of these is the common wild plum (Primus Americana). Near some old farmhouse one is pretty sure to find this small tree in a neglected condition among the wild shrubbery. It bears its white flowers and dull-green leaves simultaneously in early spring ; the orange-red translucent fruit, about the size of a large cherry, is ripe in early September. The skin is tough but the flavor is pleasant. The tree is scarcely fifteen feet high, and is picturesque to the last degree in either blossom or fruit ; its thorny and scraggy character is quite in keeping with the air of desertion attached to the weather-stained lonely old house near by. On the road which winds about the southern slopes of Mt. Prospect, in the township of Holderness, ~N. H., there is just such a picturesque abandoned, farm- house, with its cluster of wild plum trees near by, which is as beautiful in May as it is in late August. In blossom or in fruit the tree is always a striking subject for the artist's pencil. Beside the road not far from the sea a spreading shrub, usually two or three feet high, which bears 46 FAMILIAR FEATURES OF THE ROADSIDE. fruit resembling the wild plum, is frequently seen; this is the beach plum (Prunus maritima). It is a straggling bush which flourishes in the sand of the seashore and bears dull-red, tough-skinned, sour fruit fit only for preserving. The white flowers appear before the leaves ; these are thick, veiny, and sharply toothed when mature. Another species related to the beach plum is the dwarf or sand cherry (Prunus pumila). But this is generally found on sandy river banks, or in rocky, sandy places along the coast. The flow- ers are small and grow in clusters of from two to four; they appear just after the leaves, which are thick, light-colored beneath, shaped somewhat like willow leaves, and toothed near the apex. The fruit ripens in August, it is very dark red or black, about the size of a wild cherry, and sour or else insipid. This cherry is found as far West and South as Kansas and Yirginia. It is quite common on the banks of the Pemigewasset and Merrimac Rivers, New Hampshire. Beach Plum. SHRUBS BELONGING TO THE ROSE FAMILY. 47 The most familiar shrub of our Northern roadsides is the common choke cherry (Prunus Virginiana). This is usually not over five feet high, although in some localities it attains the proportions of a good- sized tree. Its leaf is abruptly pointed, and it is usually broadest just beyond the middle; in other words, it is reverse egg-shaped ; both leaf and branch when bruised are not very agreeably odorous. In early May its beautiful tassels of white flowers ap- pear, and these in late July are suc- ceeded by clusters of red berries almost as bright as currents ; by the end of August the red has turned to black, and the cher- ries are ripe. If one does not mind having the mouth puckered so it becomes difficult to speak, I presume this fruit may be con- Sand Cherry> sidered edible ; but I prefer to leave it for the birds. I suppose tons of these ber- ries are produced every season on the intervales and roadsides beneath the giant hills of Xew Hamp- shire ; they cling to the bushes, too, until quite late in the fall ; it is scarely strange, therefore, that 48 FAMILIAR FEATURES OF THE ROADSIDE. one may find in midwinter among the mountains numbers of our common birds who evidently take the chances of freezing where food is so plentiful. The choke cherries tempt the birds to make a late stay in the autumn ; then, when choke, black, and bird or red cherries are all gone, the red winter fruits, winter- green and partridge berries, still remain scattered over the woodland floors and about the clearings, so the birds stay. In the Adirondack woods also there is no end of food for the birds ; here we will find the black alder (Ilex verticillata\ smooth winterberry (Ilex Icevigata), mountain holly (Nemopanthes fascicularis\ partridge berry (Mitchella repens\ wintergreen (Gaultheria procumbens), creeping snowberry (Chiogenes serpyl- lifolia), and bearberry (Arctostaphylos Uva- Ursi). These, and many other seeds and berries too numer- ous to mention, are plentifully scattered through the Northern forests and clearings, and as late as the end of winter there is still food enough left to keep bevies of birds from starvation. It should not be forgotten, too, that the birds relish the seeds of the coniferous trees, and when the forest floor is hidden with snow the pine-tree cones furnish small granaries for them. The second subfamily (Hose) consists entirely of shrubs or herbs. It is an interesting division because SHRUBS BELONGING TO THE ROSE FAMILY. 49 it reveals several relatives of the queen of flowers not ordinarily recognized as such. The first of these is the beautiful meadowsweet (Spircea salicifolia\ which grows from two to three feet high, and adorns every roadside throughout June with its soft clusters of pinkish, flesh-colored flowers. It is a light-green, bushy shrub, with smooth stems and double - toothed leaves, which is readily distinguished from hardback (Spircea tomen- tosa\ as the latter has a cot- tony stem and south shore, together with the cat-tail flag (Typha latifolia). I have also sketched it as it grew beside the road leading from the village of Siasconset to Sankaty Head light. This species has from five to nine (usually seven) smooth, dull- green, finely toothed leaflets. The stems are pro- vided with strong hooked thorns; the sepals (the 58 FAMILIAR FEATURES OF THE ROADSIDE. pointed green leaflets which enfold the pink buds) are generally deciduous.* The delicate pink flowers are borne in small clusters ; they greatly vary in strength of tint. Rosa Carolina is distribu- ted from Maine to Florida, and westward to Minnesota and Miss- issippi. Kosa Carolina. The dwarf wild rose (Rosa lucida\ sometimes called shining rose, grows from one to five feet high, has stout stems armed with numerous more or less * Gray describes the sepals of this rose as spreading and de- ciduous in his Manual, but in his Field, Forest, and Garden Botany, edited by Prof. L. H. Bailey, no notice is taken of the fact. I have also been reminded by Mrs. M. L. Owen, one of the leading botanists of New England, of the deciduous character of the sepals. Very probably, however, this is a general rule, not without an occasional exception, as in two or three cases I have found the withered leaflets still attached to the seed receptacle, but while the latter was yet ruddy-colored. SHRUBS BELONGING TO THE ROSE FAMILY. 59 hooked thorns, and about seven small, thick, usually shining leaflets, dark green above and coarsely toothed. The flowers are pale pink and grow singly as well as in clusters ; the sepals are bristly, more or less long and slender, and are frequently notched. The stipules (flaring sides of the leaf- stem where it joins the main stem) of this species are dilated or broad ; those of Rosa Caroli- na are long and nar- row. Rosa lucida is distributed from Newfoundland south- westward to eastern Pennsylvania ; it blooms [earlier than Rosa Carolina] in June or July. Rosa humilis is a species somewhat sim- ilar to the foregoing, but it extends as far West and Southwest Rosa lucida. as Minnesota and Lou- isiana. It is common, however, in drier soil or on rocky slopes. It grows from one to three feet high, and has slender, less leafy stems with nearly straight 60 FAMILIAR FEATURES OF THE ROADSIDE. thorns. The stipules are usually narrow, and, Gray says, in a few instances somewhat dilated. The leaf- lets are also larger, thinner, and dull green. The flowers are very often solitary and the sepals are nearly always lobed. The early wild rose (Rosa blandd) is characterized by its thornless stems ; only occasionally it is found with a few and very rarely with numerous straight, weak thorns. It grows on stony banks and beside rocks, and its stem is from one to three feet high. Its leaf is composed of from five to seven somewhat wedge-shaped and blunt leaflets, pale in color and a trifle hoary beneath ; the stipules are large and plain-edged, or rarely they are slightly toothed. The light-pink flowers are large and bloom in late spring or early summer ; they are either soli- tary or grow two or three in a cluster ; the fruit is nearly globular. Rosa ~blanda is distributed locally through New England, and is common in central Rosa humilis. SHRUBS BELONGING TO THE ROSE FAMILY. Ql New York, Orchard Lake and Munroe, Mich., La Salle County, 111., and the vicinity of the Great Lakes. Besides these five indigenous species which I have described, there are two other Irier roses which have On the South Shore of Orchard Lake, Oakland Co., Michigan. come to us from Europe, both of which are to be found on many roadsides, especially near old farm- houses. The first of these is the Eglantine or sweet- brier (Rosa rv~biginosa\ which came over from Eng- land with the early settlers. This rose may at once be distinguished from all others by the aromatic fragrance of its crushed leaves. The small, roundish, 62 FAMILIAR FEATURES OF THE ROADSIDE. double-toothed leaflets, five to seven on a stem, are lined beneath with russet-colored glands, which are ac- countable for the sweet scent. The small, pink flowers are most- ly solitary, and the long, thorny branches are dis- posed to climb. The fruit is pear- shaped; that of Rosa Wanda is nearly globular. The second brier rose is the dog rose (JRosa canina\ which is extremely common along the roadsides of New England ; it is distributed quite generously through some parts of New Jersey, eastern Pennsylvania, and southern New York, and is even found as far Southwest as Tennessee. This species is very similar to the foregoing, but it lacks the aromatic fragrance. Sometimes the branches are un- armed, but frequently they are quite thorny ; the flowers grow forms of Kosa bianda. Kosa bianda. Seed vessels in two SHRUBS BELONGING TO THE ROSE FAMILY. 63 from two to four in a cluster or they are solitary. The sepals are bordered with tiny leaflets, and they are deciduous ; the fruit is oblong ovate or nearly globular. This rose has also come to us from Europe. Passing, now, the multi- tudinous roses under culti- vation and the interest which is attached to their pedigree, we come to three beautiful spe- cies, commonly seen in parks and private grounds, which I can not leave without at least a word of commenda- tion. These are the Burnet or Scotch rose (Rosa spinosissima\ the Japanese rose (Ro- sa rugosa), and the trailing rose (Rosa Wichuraiana). The Scotch rose grows about two feet high and is exceedingly thorny ; it bears most charming, delicate yellow (sometimes white or pink), early blooming flowers, which are a delight to the eye in early summer. The leaves are composed of Sweetbrier. 64: FAMILIAR FEATURES OF THE ROADSIDE. from seven to nine small, roundish leaflets. The Japanese rose is remarkable for its superb, dark- green, bushy foliage ; the single flowers are white or pink and the large nearly globular fruit orange-red. This rose blooms in early sum- mer, but its great charm, I think, is its luxuri- ant, ornamental foli- age. The trailing rose* (JRosa Wi- churaiana) is ex- tensively planted among the stony borders and rocky ledges of parks ; it creeps rapidly over the ground and sends out in one season stems fully ten feet long ; it bears single white flow- ers ; the tiny thick leaflets are shining dark green. This rose, which is also Japanese, is one of the most charming of the single kind in cul- tivation; it is remarkably hardy. It is quite com- mon on the borders of the roads in the Arnold ar- boretum. Yery closely related to the roses are the whitethorns or hawthorns. Only three or four spe- Dog Kose. * Catalogued and sold under the name of Memorial Rose by Peter Henderson & Co., seedsmen, New York. SHRUBS BELONGING TO THE ROSE FAMILY. 65 cies are common in the North, the rest are South- ern. The scarlet-fruited thorn (OratoBgut coccinea) ap- pears frequently on the borders of the highway near the old farmhouse, and we may recognize it at once by its ornamentally notched and toothed leaf, and its dull-scarlet, tiny, apple -shaped fruit. The branches are beset with thorns about an inch long. Another species (Cratcegus Crus-galli) bears thorns from two to four inches long, and also small apple-shaped fruit. The leaves are wedge-shaped, thick, and dark green. This species is frequently found in the thickets by the roadsides throughout the North. But one of the handsomest of the thorns is called Cratcegus mollis (C. S. Sargent). This has large leaves, flowers, and fruit; it is commonly planted in parks. It blooms fully two weeks earlier than C. coccinea, and may readily be distinguished from that species by its densely woolly or hairy shoots. Its range is from eastern Massachusetts to Missouri and Texas. Chief among the thorns which are planted in our parks is the English hawthorn (Cratcegus oxyacantha) ; but this is too well known to need description here. There are kinds with double pink or white flowers. Two other species are also found in the North and West, named Cratcegus tomentosa and Cratcegus punc- tata ; the former is characterized by small ill- seen ted 66 FAMILIAR FEATURES OF THE ROADSIDE. flowers, large leaves which are densely woolly beneath, and obovate fruit, and the latter by small leaves and more or less white-dotted red or yellow fruit quite an inch in diameter. Cratcegus tomentosa is distributed westward from eastern New York, but the other species is common throughout the North and extends as far South as Georgia. The last member of the Kose subfamily is the shad bush, or Juneberry (Amelanchier Canadensis) ; sometimes it is called service berry. This shrub we are quite sure to see beside the road, particularly in dry wooded places. It has charmingly plain, shiny, evenly toothed leaves with a smooth texture ; the flowers, which appear just before the leaves, hang in large, drooping, white clusters ; the petals are long and narrow. The fruit, ripe in June, resembles the huckleberry,, and in different stages of development is buff, flesh-color, pink, red, purple, and black -pur- ple ; indeed, it is even more beautiful than the grace- ful flowers, and is edible besides ; up in the back country it is called " sugar plums." The shad bush is distributed throughout the North and South ; west- ward its limit is on a line reaching from Minnesota to Louisiana. Throughout the southern region of the White Mountains, and in the vicinity of Mount Mo- nadnoc it is common on the borders of meadow and road. SHRUBS BELONGING TO THE ROSE FAMILY. 07 The third subfamily (Pear) includes the pear, apple, and quince trees, and the chokeberry and mountain ash. The chokeberry (Pyrus arbutifolia), is indeed as unacceptable to the palate as the name seems to im- ply ; but I have noticed that the birds do not con- sider the puckery taste of the berry so objec- tionable, as they of- ten appear to enjoy the fruit in the late fall when there are many other berries still clinging to the bushes. Damp ground is the chosen place of the chokeberry, and it is generally found in the thickets beside the bridge, not far from where the The Chokeberry. Phoebe bird loves to build her nest. It grows from one to three feet high, has somewhat narrow, toothed, sharply pointed leaves, and white or pinkish flowers, which grow in flattish clusters at the ends of the branches. The fruit is dull purple, small, pear-shaped, or nearly round, and 63 FAMILIAR FEATURES OF THE ROADSIDE. very astringent ; it clings to the branch after the leaves have fallen. The chokeberry is common from New England to Florida ; westward its limitation is Minnesota, Illi- nois, Missouri, and Louisiana. Pyrus nigra (Sargent) is a species with broader, reverse, egg-shaped leaves, earlier flowers, and larger black fruit, which soon falls. Nearly related to the chokeberry is the beautiful mountain ash (Pyrus Americana), which, however, is more of a tree than a shrub. Its pretty sumach- like compound leaves, and its bright scarlet berries, about as large as peas, are very often seen beside the highways which lead through the Northern States, and it may easily be identified by its aromatic wild-cherry odor when bruised. Another species with broader and somewhat blunt leaves, called Py- rus sambucifolia, is common among the mountains of northern New Hampshire and Yermont ; it is not likely to be seen beside the road, however, unless planted there. The last member of the Rose Family to which I will draw attention is the Japan quince (Pyrus Ja- ponica, or Cydonia Japonica). This is a familiar roadside character of parks and gardens. In the Ar- nold arboretum, near Boston, there are several va- rieties of the beautiful shrub, which, it seems to me, should be more commonly cultivated. These are P. SHRUBS BELONGING TO THE ROSE FAMILY. (59 Japonica atrosanguinea, deep-scarlet blossoms ; P. Japonica rosea, scarlet-pink blossoms ; P. Japonica Moorlosi, variegated rose-red and nearly white blos- soms ; and P. Japonica Mallardi, scarlet blossoms. Nevertheless, the Pyrus Japonica is an old fa- vorite which will hardly lose its popularity, for in April (in the North in the middle of May) this shrub puts forth its leaves and beautiful scarlet apple-blos- som-shaped flowers long before anything else shows a sign of responding to the spring weather. It will be found among the shrubbery of Prospect Park, Brook- lyn, and Central Park, New York. The thoroughly Japanesque character of Pyrus Japonica is revealed in its spring colors when the leaves are just unfolding. In almost any position on the garden grounds it is suggestive of the artistic kakemono. A more beautiful picture than that which it forms against the soft-gray background of an old weatherbeaten board fence is unimaginable. The rud- dy tinge of the budding foliage, the brilliant scarlet of the blossoms in broad sunshine, the rugged tracery of the slender brown twigs with perhaps the azure blue of some dainty bluebird visitor (the bluebird is very frequently attracted by the red flowers) all these uncommon colors and picturesque lines are pe- culiarly like the vigorous decorations which we may see on some Japanese screen. Yet I have no doubt 70 FAMILIAR FEATURES OF THE ROADSIDE. but what the Pyrus Japonica is scarcely thought to be more than a familiar scarlet-flowered shrub of or- dinary interest ; and it seems as though it was most frequently planted for a hedge with a careless indif- ference about environment. CHAPTER Y. THE WOODLAND ROAD SHRUBS AND FLOWERS BELONG- ING TO THE HEATH FAMILY. SOME of the most beautiful shrubs and herbs which grow beside the woodland road are members of the Heath family (Ericaceae), and many of them the huckleberry, trailing arbutus, mountain laurel, and Indian pipe, for in- stance are common throughout the hilly re- gions of Pennsylvania, New Jersey, New York, and New England. As summer advances we will find on the way- sides of the climbing hills the dwarf blueberry ( Vaccinium Pennsylvanicum), with its beautiful cadet-blue berries, sweet as honey, clustered at the tips of bushes scarcely ten inches high. The miniature leaves are variously colored 71 Dwarf Blueberry. 72 FAMILIAR FEATURES OF THE ROADSIDE. with red and green, finely toothed and laurel-shaped. It is the lowest and earliest of the blueberries. Its immature clusters of fruit are of the most beautiful aesthetic hues: green, magenta, pink, purple, and violet. The dwarf blue-berry is an upland species which is found on some of the high- est summits of the White Mountains. Another species, V. Canadense, has downy leaves without teeth, which are broader than those of V. Pennsylvanicum ; it grows from one to two feet high. Late in August, in the thickets that bor- der the marsh, the fruit of the swamp or high blueberry ( V. corym- bosum) appears. This lowland species attains a height of from five to ten feet, and bears a blue-purple or blackish, slightly acid berry. In May the flowering branchlets are often leafless. The common huckleberry (Gaylussacia resinosa) grows from one to three feet high, and bears a shin- ing black berry without bloom, which ripens in Au- gust. Its leaf (without teeth) and reddish flower in May or early June are sticky with bright, tiny, resi- nous yellowish globules. We will find this species Huckleberry. THE WOODLAND ROAD. 73 growing on the rocky hillside, or on the border of the wooded swamp. It does not occur in the White Mountains, where the dwarf blueberry is very com- mon, but it is plentiful in various parts of New Jer- sey, on the island of Nantucket, Lake George. N. Y., and in Putnam County, N. Y. ; it is widely distributed from Maine to northern Georgia. The squaw huckleberry ( V. stamineum), sometimes called deerberry, is a* rugged shrub two to three feet high, very much branched, bearing large, greenish or yellowish, globular or pear - shaped, hanging berries, which are insipid and not edible ; they ripen in September. The flowers of all these shrubs are vase-shaped and five-cleft at the edge, usually of a whitish, pinkish, or magentaish hue, and they appear in spring or early summer. The common cranberry of our markets ( Vaccinium macrocarpori) is found in the peat bogs of the North- ern States, and flowers in June. The beautiful miniature, creeping snowberry (Chiogenes serpyllifolia) belongs in the peat bogs and mossy woods of the North, but it very frequently Squaw Huckleberry. 74: FAMILIAR FEATURES OF THE ROADSIDE. finds its way to the borders of the mountain road; we can always tell it by the flavor of wintergreen in both leaf and berry. The leaves are tiny and ovate-pointed, the minute flowers grow solitary at the junction of the leaf with the main stem, and bloom in May, and the clear, snow-white berries appear in late summer. It is cer- tainly the daintiest member of the Heath family. I very fre- quently find it in the damp woods of the White Mountains. On the rocky hillsides of New Jersey and Pennsylvania, and dis- tributed in the far North and the West as far as Missouri, is the low-growing little plant called bearberry (Arcto- staphylos Uva- Ursi). Its small leaves are thick and evergreen, and it trails over the barren, stony ground, much as the arbutus does, but in thick mats. The leaves are toothless and smooth. The flowers appear in May ; they are urn-shaped, flesh-color pink-tipped, and are succeeded by astringent red berries, which are mealy and flavorless ; as they remain on the plants through the winter, they furnish acceptable food for the winter birds. The species A. alpina^ with de- Crecping Snowberry. MOUNT POCOMOONSHINE, ADIRONDACKS, ESSEX CO., N. Y. THE BEARBERRY. THE WOODLAND ROAD. 75 ciduous, toothed, strongly veined leaves and black fruit, is common on the high summits of the White Mountains. The bearberry may also be found on many of the stony slopes of the Adirondack Mountains. I have sketched that most interesting eastern rocky outpost of these northern hills called Mount Pocomoonshine, on whose precip- itous cliffs the bearberry finds here and there a scant foothold. The grand old mountain faces the road about eight miles south of Keeseville. The common wintergreen or checkerberry (Gaultheria procum- bens), with its pure red berry and dark, varnished, evergreen leaf,, is too well known to need description here. It is very frequently found on the wooded roadsides. The beautiful staggerbush (An- dromeda Mariana)* has ample clus- Bearberry in ters of nodding flowerets, urn-shaped, flower. white, and waxy, which appear in spring or early summer on nearly leafless branchlets. * It is said to be poisonous to cattle. 76 FAMILIAR FEATURES OF THE ROADSIDE. This is a familiar shrub of the roadside in low grounds, which is becoming common in cultivation ; i^ grows from two to four feet high. Yery closely related to the Andromeda is the sorrel tree or sour- wood (Oxydendrum arboreum), whose leaves arc about the size and shape of those of the peach. The dainty little white, urn-shaped flow- ers appear in June or July ; they are borne in long one-sided clusters, and strongly resemble those of the Andromeda. I have never seen the sorrel tree growing wild in New England ; it is found quite commonly in the rich woods of Pennsylvania, and is distributed westward as far as Indiana and cen- tral Tennessee. There is a good speci- men under cultivation at the Arnold ar- Andromcda. boretum, near Boston. A most charming shrub which is fre- quently seen on the roadsides of the coast States, North and South, particularly in the pine barrens of New Jersey, is Leucothce racemosa ; this has beauti- ful long, upright but slightly curved racemes of flow- ers, white, fragrant, and drooping. Each spike is- from three to four inches long, with from twelve to eight- een (sometimes more) urn-shaped blossoms. The THE WOODLAND ROAD. 77 leaves are from one to two inches long, smooth, pointed, and sharply toothed. This shrub grows from four to ten feet high, and blooms in May or June, but the scaly bracted flower spikes are formed during the preceding summer. It is certainly deserving of wide cultivation. Still another similar shrub which blooms in May, the leather leaf (Cas- sandra calyculata\ formerly con- fused with the species Andromeda, is commonly found beside the road which passes over low, wet grounds near the coast ; it is frequently seen in the pine barrens of New Jersey in company with Leucothce. The tiny, white, urn-shaped flow- ers are evenly distributed over the branchlets, each one growing in the axil of the small leaf. About twenty of these smaller leaves occupy a six- p inch terminal length of the branch- Leather Leaf, lets, forming with the pretty flowers a one-sided decorative cluster. The leather leaf is well named, for its leaves are thick and leathery, shiny above and rust-colored beneath, about an inch long, tough, nearly if not quite free from teeth, and almost evergreen. It grows from two to three feet high 78 FAMILIAR FEATURES OF THE ROADSIDE. and is thickly branched. Its geographical distribu- tion is from Maine to Minnesota, and southward to Georgia. Closely related to the shrubs already mentioned, and more beautiful in the larger development of its decorative, frosty, waxy, white flowers is the familiar mountain laurel (Kalmia latifolid). This shrub reaches its finest growth in Pennsylvania and New Jersey, where it forms, on damp ground, dense thickets from four to ten and sometimes thirty feet high. In May or June it is in full blossom, and its showy clusters of pink-tinged buds and flowers I regard as the most beautiful of all our early wild flowers. The flowers of the kalmia must be seen under a magnifying glass to be thoroughly appreci- ated, and it is scarcely necessary for me to add that this revelation of its perfect form and beauty will create a lasting impression on one's memory. No other wild flower possesses such exact symmetry, and few, if any such splendid frosty sheen. Kalmia is distributed chiefly along the mountains, from Maine to western Florida. Its lance-ovate leaves differ from the preceding species in being much larger, as well as bright green and smooth on both sides. The crowning glory of the Heath family is the rhododendron. The flower which we see in the pub- lic parks in early June is most likely to be a hybrid THE \VOODLAND ROAD. 79 of Rhododendron Catawbiense (a native species) and R. arboreum; the latter is a species which comes from the Himalayas, and is not hardy. It. Ponticum is a species from Asia Minor, hardy in the North, hut only as a low shrub ; this has a dark magenta-purple flower, which appears in late spring. The hybrid rhododendrons are of various colors ; those partaking chiefly of the Catawbiense characteristics are distin- guished by broad, flat, broad-pointed glossy leaves, and purple or light lilac-blue flowers. A prominent char- acteristic of the rhododendron is the large conical bud which passes through the severe cold of our Northern winters unharmed, and the gracefully drooping, evergreen leaves clustered in a circle below the bud which terminates the branchlet. Beside the road where the swampy ground meets its borders we will possibly meet in May the " leafless blooms " of the delicate magenta-pink rhodora {Rho- dodendron Rhodora\ about the charms of which Emerson sang. I never thought the flower a " rival of the rose," nor have I been particularly impressed with its beauty ; its color is too near the unpopular magenta to make it a favorite with anybody but an enthusiastic poet. But the magenta flower is ex- tremely dainty in form, and so long as the tardy New England spring brings a mere handful of rival blos- soms, this one appears as beautiful and showy as one 80 FAMILIAR FEATURES OF THE ROADSIDE. could wish. The flowers appear before the some- what hairy, pale-green leaves. The shrub grows from one to three feet high, with each stem divided into four or five branchlets, which are terminated by the encircling flower clusters. The rhodora is readily found in the vicinity of Concord and Lexington, Mass. It is also seen in cultivation in the Arnold arboretum near Boston, and the Harvard Botanic Garden, Cambridge. The great laurel (Rhododendron maxima) is somewhat rare from Maine to Ohio, but quite com- mon in the mountains of Pennsylvania and south- ward. It has large, thick leaves, and showy pink or white flowers, which bloom in July or August. It is a tall shrub, from six to twenty feet high, frequently found on the wooded banks of mountain streams. We are not likely to meet it on the roadside, but a near relation is far more apt to adorn the wooded borders of the highway, at least in the southern part of New York ; this is the purple azalea or pinxter flower (Rhododendron nudiflorum), which grows from three to six feet high, and bears handsome blossoms an inch and a half across, slightly fragrant, and variously colored with pink, magenta, and pale yellow. This shrub is usually found on the banks of sluggish streams and the borders of swamps; it is not very common on the wooded roadsides in New THE WOODLAND ROAD. 81 England, and is only occasionally found on those of the Middle States. In the South it is quite abundant. The swamp honeysuckle (Rho- dodendron viscosum) is a some- what sticky white - flowered azalea, which grows on the borders of swamps, quite com- monly in the southern parts of New England. It blooms in June, and is usually found not far from the roadside in the marshes near the coast. Rhododendron viscosum. Labrador Tea. r Quite an amount of the swamp honeysuckle may be gathered early in the summer in the swampy borders of the roads near Buzzard's Bay and Wood's Holl, Mass. While we are still on the highway which pass- es through the cold, damp, wooded glens of the Northern hills we may look for the shrub known as Labrador tea (Ledum latifoli- um) ; it grows in cold bogs or 82 FAMILIAR FEATURES OF THE ROADSIDE. woods from New England to Pennsylvania, Michi- gan, Minnesota, and northward. The leaves are about two inches long, very white-woolly or velvety beneath, narrow, like willow leaves, and without teeth, but strongly rolled at the edge. The flowers are small, white, and the little corollas have live dis- tinct petals. They appear in May and June and sometimes continue through July. The shrub grows from one to five feet high. In olden times its astringent leaves were used as a substitute for tea. One of the most attractive and fragrant members of the Heath family is the white alder or sweet pepper bush (Clethra alnifolia). This beautiful shrub is as worthy of cultiva- tion as the shad bush or the mountain laurel. Not infrequent- ly it appears in the water borders of our parks. The leaves are from two to ciethL four inches long, wedge-shaped, and toothed at the upper edge. The small flowers appear in July or August, in long, terminal, upright spikes. They are similar in form to those of Labrador tea, but they have in addition a sweet, heavy THE WOODLAND ROAD. 83 odor. Tliis shrub is common in the dense copses that flank the marshes near the coast, from Maine to Georgia. The perfume of the white alder, like that of the common milkweed, is cloyingly sweet, but both odors, as I remember them, are pleasantly reminis- cent of the heat and drowsy idleness of midsummer, and they are inseparable from the peaceful hum of the bumblebee, the intermittent "zipping" of the green grasshopper (Orchelimum vulgare), and the vigorous, loud s-szip, s-szip, s-szip of the greener, cone-headed grasshopper (Oonocephalus ensiger). Clethra grows from three to ten feet high, and is so beautiful when in full bloom that I greatly wonder why it is not in common cultivation ; but, like Cas- sandra, Andromeda, Leucothm, and "several other splendid members of the Heath family, it is left to bloom in its native wilds, while innumerable foreign species of less attractive appearance are put in the gardener's hands for him to nurse with arduous care, resulting in indifferent success through our rigorous Northern winters. There are four other lesser members of this in- teresting family, all of which are common on the wooded road. The first of these is prince's pine or pipsissewa (Chimaphila umbellata). This beautiful little evergreen-leaved plant puts forth its waxy, flesh -pink blossoms in June and JuJy. Let us look 84 FAMILIAR FEATURES OF THE ROADSIDE. Pipsissewa. at a single flower under the magnifying glass. What a revelation of dainty, frosty beauty it is! There are five petals which are cream-white or pale flesh-colored ; these are well turned back in the mature flower, and just inside of them we see a narrow circle of subdued magen- ta, over which are displayed in high relief ten handsome brown-pur- ple anthers which are conspicuously two-horned. In the center of all rises a tiny, pink-yellow tinged dome. Not only is the little flower beautiful, but it is filled with a rare and delicate perfume. We may look for it beneath the spruce and pine trees on dry needle-covered ground. Not far from the pipsissewa we may also see the shin leaf (Pyrola elliptica\ whose nodding flowers with prominent, curved, taillike styles are also waxy, but green- ish white. The dull - green, somewhat spoon- shaped leaves rise in a circle from the base of the plant. The flower stem is from six to nine inches high. I have found the pipsissewa and the shin leaf growing side by side in the woods about Saddle River Valley, 1ST. J., and on the borders of the woodland roads which skirt the mountains of New THE WOODLAND ROAD. 85 Hampshire ; but both flowers are common throughout the Northern States. The last two members of the Heath family are the daintiest arid oddest of all ; these are the ghostly white Indian pipe (Monotropa uniflo- ra], with its frail, fleshy single flower familiar to us all, and the tawny or red- dish false beech drops (Monotropa Hy- popitys). We find the latter on the bor- ders of oak or pine woods, flowering in summer time. The stem is from four to ten inches high, and bears tiny fragrant flowers with four or five petals of a ruddy, or pale terra-cotta hue. The Monofoopas are common throughout the East. They flourish on the decomposed vegetation of damp rich woods. False Beech Drops. CHAPTER VI. MEADOW SINGERS. THE soft bleating note that comes to our ears from the marsh in summer time is that of the so- called tree toad (Hyla versico- lor\ who was given his Lat- in name because he pos- sesses an extraordinary ability to assume a color analogous with his sur- roundings. (Metachro- sis is the term usually employed, meaning a shifting over from one But it is a slow process with the little animal, who really requires quite a lit- tle time to " get over " from dull brown to bright green. He does this, however, and, according to the brown trunk, green leaf, gray stone, or green- white lichen on which he is perched, proceeds to Tree Toad. color to another.) MEADOW SINGERS. 87 match colors as a lady would in the purchasing of dress material. He is most commonly arrayed in warm gray. The figure of the tree toad is not as charming as its voice or its color. He is covered with large and small warty excrescences from top to toe, and there is a prominent loose fold of skin across his yellow- white breast. He is short and stumpy in head and limb, as well as broad-toed ; hi fact, he is not aristo- cratic looking like his cousins Acris and Pickeringii. But his voice possesses a most winning, pathetic quality which I can only liken to the musical, bubbling bleat of a miniature lamb; there is something at- tractive and soothing about it. This should not be confused with the song of the common toad (Bufo American/us), which can be closely imitated by whistling the note C two octaves A _ tdiib^ above middle C and humming, sotto voce, A in the second octave below middle C, thus : The tone is sustained uni- formly for about four seconds, then an answer comes from across the pond a musical third lower A in the treble and E in the bass. Later in the summer we hear the combined voices of these singers in the hedges, by the roadside fence, Wp-r-r-r-r-r 88 FAMILIAR FEATURES OF THE ROADSIDE. in the orchard, and even on the border of the wood. In the northern parts of Yermont and New Hamp- shire I have rarely heard Hylob versicolor ; but in the Highlands of the Hudson, on Long Island, and in various localities of New Jersey his voice is a very familiar one to me. The tone is not prolonged be- yond two seconds (rarely a trine over this), and it is characterized by a well-marked crepitation. The drowsy, droning voice of the common toad as he sings in the marshes in early summer is dual-toned and far more musical ; indeed, it has all the mysteri- ous charm of a soothing lullaby, and in my own mind it is intimately associated with the romantic, slow, introductory movement of Beethoven's so- called Moonlight Sonata, a fitting musical interpre- tation of the peace and quiet of summer life in the country, just as the last, impetuous, hurried move- ment is interpretative of the restless, wearing life of the city. Among the singers of the meadow not one is quite as attractive in appearance as the beautiful, pale, ivory-colored tree cricket ((Ecanthus niveus). He is sometimes called the " snowy tree cricket," as his ethereal body and glassy wings suggest a color which is the very antithesis of black. The song of this little creature does not issue from the grass, but from some tall weed stem or tree trunk. The tone THE HIGHLANDS OF THE HUDSON, AT WEST POINT ORANGE CO., N. Y. THE TREE CRICKET, (ECANTHUS NIVEUS. MEADOW SINGERS. 89 is usually pitched in E and it recurs with rhythmical precision. Burroughs calls the GEcanthus the " purr- 92 4 6 sings and 46 rests per minute. ing cricket," and speaks of its song as coming "in waves," which is not only true of the soloist but of the general chorus. The sound is regularly tossed back and forth like those sustained chords which occur early in the first movement of Beethoven's Fifth Symphony, but the musical effect of the grand chorus is a distinct alternation of two tones thus : 2nd. cricket. an exact counterpart of the opening notes of the scherzo in the Third Symphony. How under the 7.1/3 J 7 H4 3 I 90 FAMILIAR FEATURES OF THE ROADSIDE. moonlight (not sun!) it was possible for the great Beethoven to so exactly reproduce the music which one hears at night in midsummer among the High- lands of the Hudson in the vicinity of Anthony's Nose and Storm King without ever having set his foot upon American soil it is difficult to imagine! For there are no singing fields in the old country, comparatively speaking; the meadows of England, Tuscany, or Switzerland in May, June, or August are silent that, at least, is my remembrance of them. And I may also add that a field in the White Moun- tain region of New Hampshire is only half musical, again comparatively speaking. The meadow music which one may hear at twilight on Long Island, Staten Island, in the Catskill Mountains, in the Highlands of the Hudson, around Lake Mahopac in Putnam County, and in the vicinity of Niagara Falls, N. Y., in Saddle Eiver, Bergen County, and the counties of Monmouth, Atlantic, and Salem in New Jersey, and in various parts of Delaware, Maryland, and Virginia, is far beyond what one will hear in either Maine or New Hampshire. I refer exclusively to insect music. On or about the first of September, when the wooded slopes of the Navesink Highlands, New Jersey, are thrilling with the songs of crickets and katydids, the woods and fields of northern New .Hampshire are almost silent. But we can not expect EAGLE CLIFF, FRANCONIA NOTCH, WHITE MOUNTAINS, N. H. MEADOW SINGERS. 91 everything all at once or in just one place ; so it is the case that the woods of New Jersey do not know the song of the hermit thrush, but the forest glens be- neath Eagle Cliff and Mount Kinsman, in the Fran- conia Range, N. H., echo his music from June until August. But I. must return to our tree crickets. The little (Ecanthus niveus begins his trilling song at sunset and continues it throughout the night. He tunes his fiddle about the end of July, and does not finish his concert until the autumn days grow cold. I under- stand that .the female of this species deposits her eggs in the pithy stems of the raspberry and blackberry vines and thereby causes much trouble for the small- fruit grower. Another closely allied species is called the broad- winged climbing cricket ((Ecanthus latipennis). This cricket is larger than the preceding, and differs very slightly in color from it ; it is ivory - white. The elytra that is, the two Superior wing COVerS Broad-winged Climbing Cricket. are glassy and perfectly transparent. It differs from the species (E. niveus in having the top of the head and lower half of the 92 FAMILIAR FEATURES OF THE ROADSIDE. antennae suffused with pink or pink-brown ; it also generally, if not always, lacks the small gray-brown spots which are invariably present in (E. niveus on the lower face of the two lowest joints of the an- tennae. The song of this broad-winged cricket need not be confused with that of (E. niveus ; it is like a continuous, shrill, high-pitched rattle-whistle. (Ecanthus latipennis, it is said, prefers the shoots of the grapevine in which to lay its eggs. It is dis- tributed southward and westward, but doubtfully as , far Northwest as Rock Is- land, 111. It does not occur in the Northeastern States. The most remark- able tree cricket is that named (Ecanthus fas- ciatus. This little crea- ture sings all day and all night, in sunshine, cloud shadow, and dusky evening. Its favorite resort is the weedy roadside, or the hedges where tall sunflowers and golden- rods abound. It sings about the middle of August and continues until the time of frost. The predominating color of the wings is white tinted green, but the body varies from an ivory-white marked with gray- brown to black. In typical speci- Tree Cricket ((E./asciatus). MEADOW SINGERS. 93 mens the head and its vicinity are whitish, with three distinct gray -brown or dark-brown stripes. The song of (E. fasciatus is shrill and rapid ; it is varied in length, lasting from two or three seconds to one or two minutes without interruption. During the per- formance the wings of tree crickets are raised to a perpendicular position and vibrate so rapidly that the motion is not discernible. The notes of (E. fasciatus occur at the rate of from twelve to sixteen a second, thus : - J * 92 about- 12 notes persecond.^ These marvelous little musicians with the glassy wings can outdo the swiftest " presto " of the piano virtuoso, by producing nearly one thousand notes per minute ! The geographical range of (E. fasciatus is the same as that of (E. niveus, from southern New England to Indiana, Illinois, Iowa, and southward.* It is larger than (E. niveus and has the longest an- tennae of all the species. (Ecanthus angustipennis is a narrow-winged spe- cies, less common in the West than the species already mentioned, and more at home in the broad * (E. fasciatus is reported as abundant along the roadsides of Champaign Co., Illinois. 94 FAMILIAR FEATURES OF THE ROADSIDE. meadows than (E. fasciatus. The species (E. angus- tipennisj (E. latipennis, and (E. niveus prefer the cultivated field to the weedy wayside. This slender cricket is white, deeply suffused with green, has longer and slenderer hind legs than those of the other species, and a smaller head. The song resembles that of (E. fasciatus, but is less shrill, and lasts but from three to five seconds, with inter- vals of corresponding length. The song is usually heard at night. Both the song and the singer have been confusedly connected with the rhythmical (E. niveus ; an atten- tive ear, however, can not fail to detect a wide differ- ence in the songs. CE. niveus utters its t-re-e-e, t-re-ee, t-re-ee, in metronome time, fifty trills occurring in a minute Jerome McNeil says seventy, but I give the results of my own personal experience. In different kinds of weather crickets sing faster or slower. In the case of (E. angustipennis the song is slower than that of (E. niveus. The tree crickets are remarkable for their rhyth- Narrow-winged Tree Cricket. MEADOW SINGERS. 05 mical music, and however out of time the voices may be for a short season, they inevitably be- come synchronous or antiphonal, and to my ear some large section of the grand chorus is always an- tiphonal. This perfectly charming effect of musical tones being tossed back and fourth, which I have already referred to as exactly reproducing the open- ing notes of the scherzo in Beethoven's Fifth Sym- phony, is what Thoreau heard when he likened the sound to " slumberous breathing," and what William Hamilton Gibson called " a pulsating vesper chorus ... a lullaby between the evening and the morning twilights." Hawthorn describes it as an " audible stillness," and makes his Canterbury poet think "that if moonlight could be heard, it would sound just like that." Of all the music in the moonlit field which holds our ears entranced as we linger on the high- way, this is the sweetest and best ; it is the cricket's love song ! I often wonder why Irving did not allude to it in the Legend of Sleepy Hollow, be- cause just near the bridge where the superstitious schoolmaster " lost his head " the music of (E. nive-us is rife from late August to the time when the days grow cold.* * As the night when the schoolmaster rode abroad was a cloudy one, possibly the tree crickets were not singing as usual ; a warm moonlight night is the best one for cricket music. 96 FAMILIAR FEATURES OF THE ROADSIDE. A far less musical singer than the tree cricket lives in the meadow Brasses, and favors us in broadest o ~ daylight in the w^arm days of July with his gip, gip, gip, gip-zee-e-e-e-e-e-e ! This is the common meadow grass- hopper Orchelimum vulgare. He is green, and he has long antennae, so he must not be confused with the short, stumpy-feelered, red-legged locust, who is wrongly called a grasshopper. The Orchelimum is a delicately modeled creature, about an inch long, with transparent wings through which one may readily see the green body. His legs are slender, and at the shoulder end of each wing is the hard, glassy formation which, when the wing is rapidly vibrated, rubs on the concave expansion of the other wing and causes the sharp, zigging sound. The locust \ ad id,. / Meadow Grasshopper. Gip. gip. gip. gip. zee-e (grasshopper) in flying, in a very different way, pro- duces a clapping or snapping sound with his wings.* * See Trimerotropis verruculata, page 103. MEADOW SINGERS. The green grasshopper is a day singer, who revels in the noontime heat with the mercury standing at 90. The brown cricket (Gryllus dUbreviatus\* com- mon in the Middle States, who lives in the pastures and the grassy borders of the road, is a day- light and twilight singer ; his sharp musical note also thrills interruptedly from sunset to sun- rise along with the softer and more regu- lar note of the white cricket. In June and July the meadows and wooded pastures are filled with the cricket's music. His chirp is fitful and shrill ; it is not really a trill, but the rapid repeti- tion of a single note from three to five times with irregular intervals. I can not rely on the black cricket for three-four time or six-eight time ; he " gangs his ain gait," as the Scotchman would say, and leaves me and my metronome to go mine. * G. neglectus is the most common New England cricket. G. luctuosus is also common ; its fore wings are very long and project beyond the abdomen. It is one of our largest crickets. 8 Brown Cricket, and tiny Spotted Cricket 98 FAMILIAR FEATURES OF THE ROADSIDE. This is not the case with the white cricket ; he is the soul of rhythmical accuracy. Our brown cricket, like the grasshopper, makes his music by a rapid vibration of his wings. The song is produced by a rubbing together of the superior wings, which are hard, glassy, and roughened on their contiguous edges ; thus, the rapid flitting of the wings produces the musical stridulation more musical and less strid- ulous, however, than the grasshopper's zigging note. It is, of course, scarcely necessary for me to remark that it is not the female but the male insect who is always the musician. There are several species of crickets which are common. The one I have already mentioned is most generally found in fields and on roadsides ; it is what is called a social cricket that is, it lives with its fel- lows and does not inhabit a burrow. Another com- mon cricket (Gryllus Pennsylvanicus) burrows under every stone in my garden ; he is not a social char- acter. The tiny spotted cricket (Nemobius vittatus\ of a brownish striped color, is still another singer whose spasmodic, interrupted chirp is constantly heard in the fields during late summer and early autumn, from New Hampshire to Maryland and Nebraska. This musician has a variable song made up of a trill and a sharp preparatory click, thus : MEADOW SINGERS. 99 ,8/a tr d r if ifiyMfiTMffMfiTf During his singing his wings are elevated at a considerable angle from the body. Still another meadow singer is the cone-headed grasshopper (Conocephalus ensiger). This is the com- monest species east of the Rocky Mountains, and the most familiar bright, light- green insect of the culti- vated field, as well as the salt marshes near the seashore. Rarely he is a brownish straw color, but in any case his narrow, point- ed forehead is a sufficient proof of his identity ; he is, besides, a very long, slender grass- hopper, with extremely long fine feelers and a sharp, rasping voice, quite unlike that of any of the other meadow musicians. His note is an emphatic, sud- denly loud s-szip, s-szip, s-szip, s-szip, continuous, rapid, and penetrating beyond description. In fact, Coiie-lieuded Grasshopper. 100 FAMILIAR FEATURES OF THE ROADSIDE. it is one of the least interesting and most ear-ring- ing voices of the meadow or roadside. He is sharp- toothed, too, as well as sharp-tongued, a fact which I have more than once ascertained by a too intimate acquaintance with the really handsome insect ; but William Hamilton Gibson makes game of him, and calls him "the clown of all this heyday" so justly that we certainly should read Singing Wings * for the sake of this amusing and fuller description. But speaking of " biters " reminds me of another sharp-toothed character, whose vicious nip is some- times sufficiently tenacious to cause him the loss of his head. The katydid (Microcentrum retinervis) is a frequent singer on the highway in the evening hours. He looks like a large green grasshopper, but he has larger wings, which are leaflike and delicately veined ; his antennae are much longer than his body, and his slender, long legs give him a peculiarly dis- tinguished appearance, quite superior to that of a plebeian grasshopper. The katydid lives among the trees and hides under the leaves in the daytime, but as soon as the sun sets emerges from seclusion and begins his " petulant and shrill " tirade. Dr. Holmes calls him a " testy little dogmatist," and, as William Hamilton Gibson remarks, falls into an excusable * See Harper's Magazine for 1886, vol. Ixxiii. THE HIGHLANDS OF NAVESINK, MONMOUTH CO., N. J. KATYDIDS, CYRTOPHYLLUS CONCAVUS (ABOVE) MICROCENTRUM RETINERVIS (BELOW). MEADOW SINGEKS. 101 entomological error by accusing the particular insect which he heard of being a female with a quivering, trilling voice ! But in this case, the truth is, the male insects do all the disputing. The katydid's voice is too familiar to need comment or description here. The tones are harsh and uttered in triplets like detached bits of the cicada's zee-e-e-e-e (the locust), but the method by which the noise is produced is curious. In the upper portion of each green wing cover, near the point where it is joined to the body, just where it overlaps the other, is a glassy formation set in a sort of frame ; as the insect opens and shuts its wing covers, these frames strike each other, and the result is the zig-zig-zig which we know so well. On or about the first of September the wooded slopes of the Highlands of Navesink resound with the quar- relsome voices of these curious insects ; in the White Mountains I do not recollect of having heard even a single disputer " having it all his own way." There are two common species of the katydid, the one above described being the most abundant in the Northern States ; it is usually called the angular- winged katydid. The other species, also common in the Central and Eastern States, is named Oyrtophyl- lus concavus; its wing covers are longer than its wings, and they are broadly convex. The so-called grasshopper with very short feel- 102 FAMILIAR FEATURES OF THE ROADSIDE. Red-legged Locust. ers, who is usually decked out in a variety of col- ors, is really a locust. The commonest species in our Eastern fields is called Melanoplus femur-ru- brum* or, in straight English, the red-legged locust.* This destructive insect is widely distributed over the United States east of the Rocky Mountains. It swarms on the grassy intervales of the White Mountain region, and covers the broad meadows of New Jersey; it is everywhere, and always a perfect nuisance, devour- ing every green thing, and even relishing the flavor of a silk umbrella or a dainty muslin dress, f Beware the loCUSt ! for Melanoplus atlanis, similar to M. , . , , . , , , ., femur-rubrum. besides his awkward habit of staining one's clothing with " molasses," he will make a dainty repast off a silk handkerchief or the printed flowers of a lawn dress ! His song is a some- what pianissimo z-ee-e-e-e, which is produced by * Another common species is Melanoplus atlanis, similar to the one described. f In Canada and New England some years ago his ravages were particularly extensive and destructive. MEADOW SINGERS. 103 scraping or rubbing his legs against his hard-shell wing covers ; he is, in fact, a veritable fiddler in the grand orchestra of the meadow. One musician does not count for much in the noontime sym- phony of the singing wings, but when two hundred thousand bowstrings are in full swing there can be no doubt about who supplies the orchestra with its first violins ! Although the lo- cust's music is but an obligato ac- companiment to the high-pitched, ringing voices of the soloists, it soothes the ear with a drowsy x , Left wing of CE. ni- hum, which is the very embodi- ment of midsummer peace and " audible stillness." A rather large locust (Tri- merotropis verruculata) is quite common on the intervales of the White Mountain district. This creature flies like a bird, and snaps his wings at will during his devi- ous flight. He skims along with a sudden Mack, Mack, Hack, Mack, and gives a dip at each " klack," much in the same fashion that the yellowbird utters its joyous chirrup during its undulating flight through the twilight sky. veus, showing the portion from A to B used for singing. Z, Left wing of Orche- limuin, showing the vein in black at C used for singing. Both drawings are copied from cuts found in several publications neither are true to nature ; compare with the succeeding draw- ing of niveus wing, and the wing on draw- ing of Orchelhnum. 104 FAMILIAR FEATURES OF THE ROADSIDE. This insect is most commonly seen in the- latter part of August and throughout September ; it is very common on the meadows of Campton, N. II. The locust called Stenobotkrus curti- pennis, a very common species at once recognized by its very short wings, also sings in the Campton meadows. This musician uses both legs at once, and scrapes his wing covers in somewhat syncopated time. But to distinguish his Wing of (E. music from that of the other members life of the orchestra is a difficult task. His hissing notes, given out at the rate of six to a second, continue for about two seconds, then a short pause and da capo. This music is not nearly as loud as that of the Orchelimum, nor as continuous; but it has the same hissing quality. The notes of Melanoplus femur-mibrum are irregu- lar in length. Every grasshopper has his own song ; * * Scudder says that these insects stridulate in four different ways, viz. : First. By rubbing the base of one wing cover upon another, using for that purpose the veins running through the middle por- tion of the wing. This method includes the common crickets and the tree crickets. Second. By a similar method, but using the veins of the inner part of the wing. This method includes the green or long-horned grasshoppers. Third. By rubbing the inner surface of the hind legs against MEADOW SINGLES. 105 the notes of no two species are exactly alike, so if we will listen attentively to an occasional individual song which comes to our ears from the border of the field, we can at least be sure what kind of a creature it is which sings. I must not omit to class among the meadow singers the grasshopper sparrow, or yellow-winged sparrow (Ammodramus Savannarum pas- serinus\ sometimes wrongly called the Savannah sparrow. This bird has the re- markable gift of imi- tation to such a degree that we can scarcely distinguish his zigging, Short- winged Locust. continuous note from that of the Orchelimum. His crown is black with a stripe of light dull yellow through the center ; his back is streaked with black, brown, red, and ashy gray, and on his shoulders are edgings of yellow. The yellow-winged sparrow nests upon the ground, and lays four or five gray-white eggs the outer surface of the wing covers. This method includes cer- tain locusts or short-horned jumping grasshoppers. Fourth. By rubbing together the upper surface of the front edge of the wings and the under surface of the wing covers. This method includes the locusts which stridulate during flight. 106 FAMILIAR FEATURES OF THE ROADSIDE. speckled with brown. Very frequently this bird appears on the grassy roadside, where it flits about shyly in and out among the weeds and the ferns, every other moment indulging in the peculiar, un- musical " sissing " note. CHAPTEK YIL THE LITTLE SONGSTERS THE YELLOWBIRD, SPARROWS, AND PHCEBE BIRD. THE attempt to convey by note to any one an idea of musical sound different from what is gener- ally accepted as music I realize is a questionably useful task; but in my estimation it is the only practical way of recording those familiar sounds of Nature which all of us should school ourselves to know and trace to their proper source. I would suggest, therefore, to those who unfortunately can not read music, to refer the bird songs to some mu- sical member of the family, who, with the aid of the piano, will solve the enigmatical characters and thus produce a close imitation of bird melody. The best thing to know about a bird is his song ; and this can undoubtedly be recorded with perfect accuracy by musical signs ; but tone it is not possible to record, especially if it is broken into quarter-tones and eighth-tones. This is exactly what the bird does, and consequently it is extremely dif- 107 108 FAMILIAR FEATURES OF THE ROADSIDE. ficult to know whether he means to sing A or A sharp, or whether, on account of a facile change in the quality of his note, he means to sing A at all ! But, on the other hand, there is no denying it, the bird sings distinctly a minor or a major third, and also fifths and octaves, and not infrequently a good bit of the chromatic scale. This simply means that the bird sings conventional music, and we are justified in recording it with conventional musical signs. Wagner's bird jsong in Siegfried is nothing more musical than an American thrush can perform ; the thirds are true to the thrush's idea of music. I place the notes here for comparison with the song of the hermit thrush : Compare this with the notes which I have recorded farther on (in Chapter X), belonging to the hermit, and estimate which would be the more difficult bit for the mocking bird to learn ! But the imitative music of a bird is artificial and only interesting because it is remarkable and curious. The natural song of any bird is sweeter and more lovely by far than the bald whistle notes it can be taught to imitate. A bull- THE LITTLE SONGSTERS. 109 finch, once a great pet in our family, had been trained to sin^ this : But, true to the ft bird instinct of melody, he ren- dered the last note B instead of A and slurred it to G. The little yellowbird in his double chirp " slurs " with even greater distinctness, as follows : ^ But the happy little creature \\V |^ that says " chee-ep " exactly like ' the canary also sings on the wing, and repeats the slur with still greater emphasis. He dips along in graceful undulations, high up in the air up and down, up and down 8va.. and on each recov- . J/tfT^ f f ery sings joyfully It]) T \' l I ,-, j Chi- chic- kd- -ItA-'-ree thus: The yellowbird, it is safe to say, does the same thino- the world over at sundown ; and when we see >"' V-""" Flight of the Yellowbird. him in company with the night hawk (only several hundred feet below him), skimming the blue sky HO FAMILIAR FEATURES OF THE ROADSIDE. which arches the Pemigewasset Valley in New Hampshire, we may be sure he will very soon be performing the same antics four hundred miles away among the hills of Pennsylvania. I never see or hear the little fellow without think- ing of that line in the old familiar hymn which runs : Or if on joyful wing cleaving the skies. It is almost impossible to pass along the highway at about seven o'clock in the evening of a fine mid- summer's day without seeing or hearing the yellow- bird as he flits chirping along overhead. But I must also introduce another rendering of the yellowbird's song, as it is given by Mr. Simeon i ~V V< * _ Pease Cheney. Here it KM/ I \. ~ s: Mr. Cheney also says that a very similar descrip- tion of this bird's song he had seen from the pen of Mr. Burroughs. What I wish particularly to empha- size in this matter of bird singing is the fact that it is perfectly possible by means of musical signs to identify the bird's song beyond a shadow of doubt, f * It is from one of a number of perfectly delightful articles on bird music, by Mr. Simeon Pease Cheney. I advise every one who loves birds to read them. See the Century Magazine for June, 1889. f My own experience eight years ago will prove this. Upon THE LURGAN ROAD, DELAWARE VALLEY, BUCK'S CO., PA. THE YELLOWBIRD. THE LITTLE SONGSTERS. HI It is somewhat disappointing not to find in Wil- son's American Ornithology any adequate or thor- oughly reliable description of the songs of birds. The great ornithologist did not know that both the hermit and the tawny thrush are great vocalists. Even Elliot Coues has very little to say about their songs. Wilson speaks of the yellowbird' s song as weak- ly resembling that of the English goldfinch ; he also says that at sunrise, when great numbers of yellow- birds assemble on the same tree to bask and dress themselves, "the confused mingling of their notes forms a kind of harmony not at all unpleasant." This is exactly the character of bird music which, as I have pointed out, is inadequately expressed by notes. But if I should attempt to write out this morning song it would run somewhat thus : The first four notes are simply two introductory " cheeps" and the rest are very canarylike. Every one ought to know the yellowbird, or glancing over the articles on bird music, by Mr. Cheney, in the Century, 1 instantly recognized among his musical interpretations the songs of the hermit thrush, Wilson's thrush, scarlet tanager, and yellowbird. 112 FAMILIAR FEATURES OF THE ROADSIDE. goldfinch (Spinus tristis), by sight. The top of its head, its wings, and tail are black ; all the rest of the body is canary -yellow except beneath, where it is whitish ; the bill and legs are cinnamon-brown. This is the costume of the male bird during the summer ; in winter the yellow assumes an olive tinge, more nearly like the dull hues of the female. These birds build a nest pretty well up among the twigs of the gray birch, the red cherry, or the wild apple ; in it are laid four or five dull-white eggs, daintily speckled brown. If one wishes to hear the yellow- bird's song at its best he must rise at about half past four on a clear June morning ; at this hour the spar- rows, finches, robins, and meadow larks are all sing- ing at once a regular medley of musical tones with never a pause between ! I will not attempt the im- possible task of writing out this matutinal sym- phony, but a good title of it in plain English has been given to us by Kobert Louis Stevenson in his Child's Garden of Yerses : Ain't you 'shamed, you sleepy-head ! The greatest singers, by far (at least of New England), are the sparrows. But there are so many different species that I can only describe two or three which seem to be the commonest. Chief among these is the song sparrow (Melospiza fas- data). He is mainly responsible for the great dis- THE LITTLE SONGSTERS. 113 tnrbance of public peace at sunrise. Wilson calls him the earliest, sweetest, and most lasting songster of all, and he is quite correct in this estimate if only the silvery voiced thrushes are not included. He is a little longer or slimmer than the English sparrow, but browner in color, and pretty well flecked over the breast and sides with pointed spots of dark brown. The ashen color about eye and chin are not nearly so pronounced in this species as it is on the chipping sparrow and the tree sparrow. He is also a larger and a browner bird than the field sparrow, and as the neck and whole breast of the swamp spar- row are ash-col- or he bears only slight resem- blance to this bird. Song Sparrow. He sings all summer long and well on into the fall, and we may see him at almost any hour of the day or evening perched on the topmost twig of a tree pouring forth his music with all the variety and execu- tion of a canary. He also has .a happy fashion of sing- 114 FAMILIAR FEATURES OF THE ROADSIDE. ing to himself sotto voce as he flits among the shrubbery near the ground searching for seeds. His music is spontaneous and variable, and he is enti- tled to be called the musician par excellence of the meadow. Many of his notes, though, are similar to those of the yellowbird and the indigo bird, but the scope of his voice is greater than either of these two sweet singers ; the following is a characteristic ex- ample : Zwe- -zwe, -zwePhil-il-il tr-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-ee It will be noticed that his song generally ends with a trill, but not always, for 1 have heard him in the morning sing thus : J. Phil-il // t-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-ce. - ge& Another song which I heard while wandering through the Arnold arboretum, on March 22d last, ran in this wise : MUSKINGUM DRIVE, MARIETTA, WASHINGTON CO., OHIO. THE CHIPPING SPARROW. THE LITTLE SONGSTERS. 115 The song sparrows build their nests on the ground or near it in a low dense bush. In the nest there are usually four or five little white eggs, some- times of a blue -gray tone, plentifully freckled with rusty -red spots ; the birds often raise more than one brood in a season. The plumage of the female is scarcely different from that of the male. As for the pert, little chipping sparrow (Spizella socialis\ I believe he commonly lives on the high- way, and not very far, either, from some habitation. He is, in truth, a sociable little creature who will thankfully pick up as many crumbs as are spread for him. I gave a little fellow his choice one morning of some fat young cut worms and bits of dry bread. He chose the latter and spurned the former, much to my surprise, although from my own point of view the worms were repulsive ; but between worms and crumbs one would naturally think the bird's choice would fall on the former. The chipping sparrow, I think, has no musical voice ; the best he can do in the way of singing is to utter a monotonous "chip," and a continuous, cres- cendo ch-ch-ch-ch-ch-ch-ch-ch-ch-ch-ch-chip. But he is a familiar character, often seen flitting along the roadside among the stalks of goldenrod in summer time, and, later on in the season, helping himself to the seeds of the hardback (Spiraea tomentosa). He 116 FAMILIAR FEATURES OF THE ROADSIDE. is strongly marked about the head and wings with chestnut-brown and a blackish brown; above and beneath his eye are long lines of ashen-gray, and his breast is also this color. The female is similarly but less darkly colored ; she lays four or five light-blue eggs. The nest is usually built in the bushes beside some brook that passes beneath the road. The yellow - winged sparrow has been described in the foregoing chapter on Meadow Singers. The field sparrow (Spizella pu- silla) is another small character with a red-brown head, a bit gray over the eye, brown back, streaked black, edged with gray, and an ocher-colored breast ; the bill is reddish light brown. He has a good loud voice of his own, and I am by no means sure that he ever subsides to the cricket- like chirrup such as Wilson describes. His song is restricted to perhaps three tones, but these are dis- tinctly musical : Field Spairow. THE LITTLE SONGSTERS. H7 The first three notes are given with deliberation, then he hurries on and finishes with a loud canary-like, chirruping trill. Mr. Minot speaks of his "exquis- itely modulated whistles," but this is not a strictly accurate description, for the first three notes are alike, and are given with unmistakable accent and without the slightest modulation.* It is amusing to watch the little bird as he stands on the low, projecting bough of a yellow birch and repeats his simple song over and over again at intervals of about twelve seconds (it only occupies five). Each time he sings he tips his head backward and a trifle sideways, and throws his voice out with all his might, ending in an almost imperceptible, high grace note on which he shuts his bill very unceremoniously ; then, perhaps, he shifts his position a trifle, scrapes his bill on the branchlet, which, I presume, is equivalent to clearing his throat, and proceeds as before. In another instant he is two hundred yards away, down in the meadow border, singing the same song again.f * I hardly agree with Mr. Cheney, however, that this sparrow's song is confined to a minor third ; but most likely all field spar- rows do not sing alike. f His song is not -invariably like that which I have given ; sometimes he indulges in' a simple short trill. I chose the par- ticular song recorded, because it coincided to a remarkable de- gree with one written by Mr. Cheney; which fact is conclusive evidence that Spizella pusilla was the bird undoubtedly heard in both instances. 118 FAMILIAR FEATURES OF THE ROADSIDE. The field sparrow's nest is usually on the ground ; it is built of coarse grasses, rootlets, and bits of weed stalks. The eggs (from three to four) are white marked with red-brown specks. A really tame bird, and one which is a trifle troublesome about a cottage in the woods, is the Phoebe, sometimes called pewit or pewee (Sayornis Phoebe). This little creature sometimes prefers to build her nest under the eaves of my piazza or wood- shed, and there is much ado to protect the young from the enemy, a pet Manx cat. But one fine morn- ing Mr. Manx succeeded in passing an extemporized barricade and devoured the whole family not a small matter, as Mrs. Phoebe usually raises five little ones. The Phoebe generally builds her nest under the span of some bridge, using mud, sticks, hairs, bits of rag, or, in fact, anything convenient, no matter what its nature ; in the nest we will probably find five white eggs sparingly dotted on the larger ends with rusty-red. I have drawn with the phcebe that pic- turesque bridge crossing the Clinton River, Pontiac, Mich. I can not say that the bird is a pretty one, but it is at least softly colored. The head, which is some- what crested, is black; the back is rusty -black, and the breast is sooty- white almost gray. The. two colors meet on a line at the eye, giving the bird a CLINTON RIVER, PONTIAC, OAKLAND CO., MICH. PHOEBE BIRD. THE LITTLE SONGSTERS. 119 fine-appearing, characteristic head. As the male bird sits on a branch of the apple tree near the nest he sings his one song of only two xl Q 8VA. notes, thus : i / Sometimes he hiccoughs in the lW- m finale, thus: Phfrhwk-le." Ph<*-be. But the song is quite monotonous and sounds re- markably like some thin, piping voice calling for "Phoebe." In size the bird is a trifle larger than the song sparrow. He holds a nearly upright posi- tion as he sits on a twig, and now and then sud- denly darts after some passing insect, but returns immediately to resume his song. He cocks his head this way and that as he sits and sings, evidently keeping a sharp lookout for stray millers, flies, and bees. CHAPTER VIII. BIEDS WITH UNMUSICAL VOICES. THERE are quite a number of birds whose un- musical voices are frequently heard along the high- way, and whose emphatic and curiously expressive notes are nearly as interesting as the songs of more skillful singers. It is not perfectly just, however, to use the term unmusical in connection with any of the voices of Nature, but I employ the word here in a comparative sense. An acute ear will detect the musical quality in every sound ; the unmusical ear is simply more or less tone-deaf. He who sings so simple a melody as My Country 'tis of thee, and "flats" without knowing it, lacks the ability to measure the intervals between the tones ; he could never make a pianoforte tuner ! How much less, then, can we expect him to discover the distinct musical fifth in the distant bel- low of a cow on the hillside : * * Not all cows bellow thus, but a great many come exceedingly close to this description. 120 BIRDS WITH UNMUSICAL VOICES. 121 In any sound of whatever kind which is not a harsh noise, there is a keynote (tone). Niag- ara Falls is no exception to the rule ; to my ear it distinctly hums a profound organ note. But according to atmospheric conditions and one's relative position to the falls, the organ tone is higher or lower. We can not pass a barn yard without hearing the unmusical cackle of the hen ; yet a little careful attention will perhaps bring with it the knowledge that the racket is not simply a noise after all. This is what I make of it : Cut cut-cut-cut. cut-cut-cut -out -cut- cut-rut-cut ca dar. Cut etc. Not even the twitting chatter of the barn swallow is really unmusical, and the night song of a million crickets is a lullaby of two soothing notes,* im- mensely musical in effect. It is the case, then, that there are unmusical birds, if we consider the matter strictly in the light of com- * See Chapter VI, Meado-y Singers. 122 FAMILIAR FEATURES OF THE ROADSIDE. parison. The hermit thrush is a musician, but the little chipping sparrow has no music in his soul beyond what we may discover in his lisping chip. Some of the birds have most remarkably vigorous voices, which, musical or unmusical, we are pretty sure to hear at no very great distance from the highway. The first of these is the golden-crowned thrush (not a thrush at all but a warbler), or ovenbird (Seiurus aurocapillus). He is about six inches long. His back is brown-olive, ]iis crow r n subdued golden - orange edged by black stripes, his breast and sides are streaked with black, and his under parts are dull white. The golden - crowned thrush has an em- Golden-crowned Thrush. phatic and SOine. what hysterical voice, which slightly resembles the loud swishing sound oj a stout whip as it is lashed back and forth. What he says seems to be : "Queecher, Queecher, QUEECHER, QUEECHER, QUEECHER, QUEECHEK." But although these notes are far from musical, they BIRDS WITH UNMUSICAL VOICES. 123 possess a strong whistlelike quality which is at least startling and amusing.* Burrough's interpretation of this bird's language is " Teacher, teacher" etc., crescendo, fortissimo. This loud-voiced golden-crowned thrush has also a tine melodic warble which he indulges in about the time of sunset during the nesting season ; but his summer note, the only one I know, is the far more common queecher. The nest is usually built on the ground m the woods ; in it one may find from three to four white eggs marked with rust-color and brown on the larger ends. The next bird with an unmusical note is the Maryland yellowthroat (Geothlypis trichas). This modest little creature is scarcely more than five inches long. His back, wings, and tail are dull olive-green ; over the forehead and about the eyes is a broad band of slate-black edged above by another band of white ; the throat and breast are yellow and the legs silver- white. The nest f is built in some secluded retreat among * I can not with satisfaction locate the tone ; I should say it was a presto slur back and forth between the third E above and the fourth B above middle C. f The nest is rarely found : but Burroughs describes his good fortune in discovering it one day about six inches from the ground, in a bunch of ferns. It was a massive nest built of the 124: FAMILIAR FEATURES OF THE ROADSIDE. Maryland Yellowthroat. the briers, dead leaves, and grass, on or very near the ground ; in it the little bird lays from three to five tiny, semitranslucent, buff-white eggs speckled with reddish brown. Among the moun- tain maples beside the road, and often through the alder thickets which border the brook, the yellowthroat may be seen flitting here and there, and occasionally stopping to inquire "Which is it? Which is it? Which is it?" in a shrill, piping voice ; or frequently he seems to say " TF^-chi-chi-chee. TF^-chi-chi-chee. TF. t t r. tr Cock- a-doo-dle do. y* s*j BIRDS WITH UNMUSICAL VOICES. 129 can (many of them) imitate all creation from the voice of man down to a creaking barn door ! Three of the strangest of the bird voices (they are also very familiar ones) are those of the whip-poor- Whip-poor-will. will, night hawk, and screech owl. The iirst every one recognizes, and the uncanny tones of the last probably every one knows without being able to tell what kind of a creature they belong to. Both of these birds are, in a measure, musical, although it will be difficult for me to represent by musical signs the true character of their singing. As every one, I suppose, can recall the exact intonation of' the whip- poor-will's few notes, I imagine it will be interesting to see how they can be musically rendered : 4 & 3: fi kuk I /fa* I U M Whip-poor-will Whip-poor-will Whip-poor-will The " kuk " we can only hear if we are within 10 130 FAMILIAR FEATURES OF THE ROADSIDE. twenty yards or so of the bird ; it sounds as though in sucking in his breath for the next " whip " he snapped his beak together. This somewhat melan- choly vesper song begins at sundown and continues, less and less frequently, well on into the night. The whip-poor-will (Antrostomus vociferus) is a large bird, perhaps ten inches long. About his bill are long, stiff, curved hairs. His colors are a variety of tawny, light, and dark browns ; on the breast is a narrow band of white. In this respect his coloring is exactly like that of a toad, or perhaps the large brown branch of a tree on which he sits in a crouch- ing attitude, with his wings slightly spread and his body jerking violently with every " whip." The bird is not often seen, but he is heard every- where, and one can locate him by the sound of his voice, now on the wood pile,* then on the fence, next in the copse beside the road, and again in the bushes bordering the garden. Before one knows it he is gone ; he flies low and silently, and sails along until he reaches, some thirty yards away, a convenient * I think it is Dr. Abbott who has intimated that the wood pile has of late years gone out of fashion as a perch for the whip- poor-will. That may be the case in civilized New Jersey ; but should any one come up into the wilds of New Hampshire and sit on an obscure corner of my wood pile at dusk, I think he will be convinced that the whip-poor-will has not given up his old habit ! BIRDS WITH UNMUSICAL VOICES. 131 bough, upon which he settles and immediately begins his song again. The whip-poor-will does not build a nest, but selects some very secluded spot in the woods, where, among the brush, dry leaves, and old logs, she usually lays two eggs resembling those of the night hawk, of a dull gray- white color spotted plentifully with olive- brown. It is a common but curious practice among some birds not to build nests, but either to depend upon those of other birds or to take all the chances of harm to their offspring by choosing a merely seques- tered spot on the ground. The next strange-voiced bird is the night hawk (CJiordeiles Virginianus). A strange-looking crea- ture (not a true hawk at all), with a very small bill and a very large mouth, closely resembling the whip- poor-will, but far more beautifully marked. The night hawk is about ten inches long ; around his eyes is a buffish brown patch bounded below with a tri- angular patch of dull white, which extends beneath the bill ; the wings and tail are blackish brown with sharply denned bands of dull white ; the other parts are varied tones of spotted light brown. The female has no band of white about the throat, and is very moderately marked on wings and tail. She lays two eggs of a gray-white tone, speckled all over with olive-brown, in some secluded 132 FAMILIAR FEATURES OF THE ROADSIDE. spot by the edge of the wood ; the eggs so closely resemble the general color-effect of dried leaves, stones, and brown ground that they are hard to dis- cover. Of course the birds build no nests. It is a peculiarity of the night hawk that by reason of the short and slender form of his legs and feet, which are in no wise adapted to grasp a limb crosswise with any firmness, he sits on the branch lengthwise. This is also the case with the whip-poor-will ; I have never seen either bird in any other position on fence rail or tree. About the twilight hour the performances of the night hawk on the wing are most extraordinary ; it is not possible for one to miss seeing them in summer time, while passing along the highway just after sun- set. Far above valley and hill he circles, a small bird in appearance (although in reality he measures twenty-three inches across with his wings spread). Slowly and quietly he continues an erratic flight, with apparently no object in view except that of enjoying a little exercise, and uttering the while his shrill whistled "geep, geep, geep" (not unlike the squeaking of a cart wheel). Suddenly we see him pitch over head foremost and fall precipitately sev- enty or eighty feet as though shot ; but he recovers himself immediately and rises to greater heights. Hardly is the recovery complete, however, before a BIRDS WITH UNMUSICAL VOICES. 133 strange whirr-r-r-r-rrr reaches our ears, sounding perhaps like the very distant bellow of a cow for- saken on some lonely hillside. The sound has a sonorous quality which it is hard to describe. I have heard a fractious rolling door make just such a noise, and in a sudden rise from the ground the pigeon makes a weaker but simi- lar one by the rapid beating of the air with his wings.* Wil- son says the same sound may be produced by blowing strong- ly into the bunghole of an empty hogshead, but he adds that the night hawk doubtlessly makes this noise by the sud- den expansion of his capacious mouth while he passes through the air ! (What an extraordinary theory !) I am sure that the rapid beating of the bird's wings to re- cover himself after his swift fall is the most satisfac- tory explanation of the mysterious " whirr-r-r-r-rrr." f * I must not omit to say, too, that the partridge, at the end of his " drumming," also whirrs. f This is Audubon's theory. But I do not entertain the slight- est doubt about the matter. The sound reaches the ear just after the recovery, and this is of itself an all-sufficient proof that the wings produce it ; nevertheless it is said that the European goat- The Night Hawk's tumble. FAMILIAR FEATURES OF THE ROADSIDE. The last strange-voiced creature is the oddest of all ; it is the screech owl (Megascops asio\ a blood- thirsty little villain, scarcely eight inches tall as he sits on a bough ; nevertheless he sings. His colors are brown and gray, and they are pretty well mixed. In some specimens which I have seen the coloring is decidedly ruddy ; but this is not to be wondered at as the birds are extremely variable in the general tone of their plumage. The screech owl makes her nest in the hollow trunk of a tree ; it is, of course, a very slight affair, of much the same character as a hen's nest, with bits of grass, feathers, shreds of bark, and so forth, in its make up. The eggs are white, clean, and nearly round in form ; there are from three to five in a nest. I said the owl sang ; but I must admit that the song is not altogether musical, for it has yet another far more ascendant quality. There is something eerie about its cadence, something depressing about its unearthly sadness, which on a dark night makes one's flesh creep ! We might take it for the despair- ing, quavering voice of a lost and wandering spirit, or the distant ghostly cheers of Henrick Hudson's sucker utters the hollow whirr when perched and while holding his head downward. I doubt it, though. Frank M. Chapman, I am glad to say, considers that the night hawk's whirr is produced by the passage of air through the bird's primaries, i. e., larger wing feathers. DIXVILLE NOTCH, COOS CO , NEW HAMPSHIRE THE SCREECH OWL. BIRDS WITH UNMUSICAL VOICES. 135 crew up in the mountain, when some one of their number has made a " ten strike." The song of the screech owl may be musical or not, that is a matter of opinion ; but that it is a great stimulant to the imagination there can be no possi- ble shadow of doubt ! We perhaps think of all man- ner of blood-curdling things which may be happen- ing, and the suggestive voice fits the case exactly ; in fact, we might find ourselves wondering why we do not fly to the rescue ! Here is a peculiarly distressing crescendo shake which is quite com- mon : It is just a little bit suggestive of a tree toad, yet it is not the quiet, subdued voice of that soothing little creature at all. Again, the owl sings : and we imagine some one - -., - , . . To-WOO to-WOO WOO badly hurt lying moaning and nearly breathless on the distant road. But again we hear the strange voice, and now it sounds like a far - away hys- terical laugh : This is the owl's spring song ! The screech owl is a bird of prey, and he is not 136 FAMILIAR FEATURES OF THE ROADSIDE. particular about a small matter of theft and murder ; for some night he will appear before the oriole's home when the family is asleep, and if the nest in the pear tree is shallow he will claw out the young ones and devour them at his leisure one by one. Not even the mother bird may escape his murderous attack. The pendulous nest of the oriole is compara- tively safe in either the elm or the maple, because on both these trees the leaves are large and abundant ; but in spring the orchard trees with their thin foliage are bad homes for birds and good hunting grounds for owls. However, the chief food of this owl is mice and insects ; he does not often dine on young orioles. The screech owl is common North and South. He flits at dusk along the roads which wind through the mountains of northern New Hampshire, and he resorts to the unfrequented byways of New Jersey ; in fact, he is a bird quite at home on the dark and lonely road, where he can undisturbed plan his mis- chievous plots robber that he is ! I have met him in the far North on the shaded road which ap- proaches the Dixville Notch, N. H., and on a lonely byway leading through the scrubby pines of Mon- mouth County, N. J. CHAPTER IX. BIRDS OF BRILLIANT FEATHERS HUMMING BIRD, JAY, BLUEBIRD, TANAGER, ORIOLE, ETC. HUMMING BIRDS have been aptly called "the jewels of ornithology." And in truth they are per- fect little jewels on the wing. We can only realize this fact after having been fortunate enough to hold one of the tiny, fairylike creatures in our hand ; then the rubies, emeralds, and sapphires show themselves in all their astonishing, miniature beauty. The re- markable " gorget " (for so the humming bird's ruby collar is named) under a magnifying glass is a blaze of resplendent red fire! The subtile color is far more beautiful than that which we see in the ruby ; in proof of which hold the magnifying glass close to a spinel ruby and note its glassy lifelessness in comparison. John Ruskin was quite right when he said that there was far more preciousness of color in rainbows, dewdrops, and birds' wings than in diamonds 137 138 FAMILIAR FEATURES OF THE ROADSIDE. and rubies.* It is well worth while to examine a peacock's tail feather under the glass ; what burning hues are there! Gold and copper, emerald green and cerulean blue, violet and ultramarine, purple, yellow, and even such remarkable tints as lilac and aquamarine green (these last are on the extreme outer edge of the broad, copper-colored field, in the center of which is the emerald-rimmed violet eye). We can not see the lilac and green without the 'glass, nor without its aid can we appreciate the jewel-beauty of the tiny little " hummer." He is all golden - green above, with wings of The Eubythroat. dusky violet, and breast of dull pearly white ; but his red collar is the most remarkable part of his coloring. The beautiful little ruby throat humming bird (Trochihis colubris) belongs to a very large family; he represents one of no less than five hundred spe- * In the Lectures on Art he says, after praising the plumage of the peacock and kingfisher : " Entirely common and vulgar compared with these ... we have the colors of gems. The green of the emerald is the best of these, but at its best is as vulgar as house-painting beside the green of bird's plumage or of clear water. . . . The ruby is like the pink of an ill-dyed and half- washed-out print compared to the dianthus." BIRDS OF BRILLIANT FEATHERS. 139 cies of hummers, most of which have been positively specified.* Fifteen distinct species are common in the United States. Humming birds, I might add, are peculiarly American ; but they are mostly confined to the tropical portions of the southern continent, particu- larly to the United States of Colombia and Brazil. Our own little rubythroat is comparatively small beside the largest and most magnificent species but recently discovered in Arizona, named Eugenes fulgens. This gorgeous hummer is something like six inches hi length ! I believe he stands number four hundred and eight on the list. We must not be disappointed if among more than half the little hummers that we see the ruby color is quite wanting. The female does not wear a red collar, but she has the same golden -green back and purple wings, although, perhaps, these are not quite as brilliant as those of her mate.f The tongue of the humming bird is, I think, the most remarkable part of its anatomy ; it is like a double-barreled * It seems strange that Wilson knew of only this one species. It is astounding to learn that within the eighty odd years suc- ceeding his time nearly four hundred new species have been dis- covered, and over four hundred specifically labeled ! f There are other differences, too : the tail of the male is forked, that of the female is double-scallop-shaped with black bars, and lateral feathers white-tipped. 140 FAMILIAR FEATURES OF THE ROADSIDE. shotgun, only instead of belching forth murderous shot, it sucks in the sweets of the flowers. This ex- traordinary little double-tubed tongue is guided into the honeysuckle's long throat by well-developed, strong muscles ; and while the bee is vainly bustling about, plunging his head " up to his ears " in the aggravating blossom all to no purpose, our little hummer makes one lightinglike dart at it and secures the honey with apparently no effort what- ever. I find the humming bird is very fond of nastur- tiums, petunias, and delphiniums, and notwithstand- ing the fact that the milkweed blossom is cloyingly sweet, he passes it by, where it stands just beside the road near my garden fence, and makes a bee line for my brilliant, red King of Tom Thumbs and my ruby- spotted yellow Ladybird nasturtiums. Perhaps he does not fancy the aesthetic, lilac-drab colors of the ubiquitous milkweed. The little fellow has mere apologies for legs ; they are quite useless for locomotion, but are admi- rably adapted for a tiny perch. He can support him- self firmly on a wire scarcely thicker than a hairpin. He stands on the wire screening which supports my sweet peas very light wire it is, too and preens his feathers with every appearance of security and con- tentment. While he is at the flowers feeding he BIRDS OF BRILLIANT FEATHERS. utters a short, nervous " chip, chip," as though he were not quite sure that some one would not take advantage of his position and catch him by the tail. There is no bird that can build a nest as soft and beautiful as that of the humming bird. It is a tiny affair, about an inch and a quarter broad inside, lined with bits of cotton, soft hairs, and moss, and covered outside with patches of lichens. The nest usually contains two white, pearly eggs (I believe the hum- ming bird never lays more than two). It is a curious fact that it is most frequently planted solidly on a good-sized horizontal bough, and looks more like a lichen-covered excrescence on the latter than it does like a bird's nest. The little ruby throat is not as wild and timid as might be supposed. If we are patient and quiet he will often perch very near us, and if we have a bunch of flowers in our hand, make bold enough to approach and help himself to their sweets. It is nonsense to suppose that only a few possess the knack of becoming the intimate friends of wild birds and animals ; if there is such a thing as a gift of this nature it is a very commonplace, practical one, composed of tact and patience rather than sentiment. The squirrel will run across our toes if it suits his convenience, and the bird will take crumbs from our hand if he is hungry enough ; all depends upon our 142 FAMILIAR FEATURES OF THE ROADSIDE. own patience and willingness to stand or sit still for an indefinite period. As there are many restless people who can not do this, I am inclined to believe that they are the only ones who never can become the favored friends of squirrels and birds. It is doubt- ful, however, whether even inanimate stones are counted as friends by the wary crow that steely blue-black * beauty of the cornfield. He is a cynic of the bird family, suspicious of everything and everybody, to whom the merest novelty (no matter what its nature) is part of a plot for his destruction. A dozen or so of four-foot sticks, connected by harm- less lines of white twine, placed here and there in the cornfield, are, according to his way of thinking, a substantial menace to public safety that is, the safety of the tribe, Corpus Americanus. But the crow is wily ; he is sagacious beyond calculation, and he fully understands the value of sentinel duty. Before we can get within gunshot of the ten marauders which we see are plainly engaged in " hoeing the farmer's corn," a sharp signal " caw-r-rrr " comes from the edge of the copse near by the game is up, and the birds are flown ! The crow's nest is a rough affair, built high up in * The beautiful iridescent black of the crow's feathers is no ordinary color ; its brilliancy is unattainable so far as the artist's paint box is concerned. BIRDS OF BRILLIANT FEATHERS. the tree ; it contains from four to six generally blue- green (rarely white) eggs speckled brown. There is another bird, not so distant a relative of the crow either, who when he is hungry does not hesitate to help himself from a plate of food, acci- dently exposed in the preparation of a meal in camp, or even from a hand holding an enticing crust. This is the Canada jay (Perisoreus Cana- densis\ a bright, quaker-drab- colored, gray- C an ad a Jay. vested, white -breasted individual, as bold as his crow cousin is wary. He is a large bird, eleven inches in length, with wing feathers mostly white-tipped ; I first became acquainted with him on the summit of Mount Osceola, one of the southern peaks of the White Mountains, situated in Waterville. Here, several years ago, in midsummer, while my com- panion and myself were resting and refreshing our- selves with our luncheon, we fed three Canada jays FAMILIAR FEATURES OF THE ROADSIDE. from our hands. So greedy was one of them that he crammed two fair-sized crusts in his bill and endeavored to seize the third ; one of his feet rested in my palm and the other grasped my thumb. Sev- eral tree sparrows (Spizella monticola) near by also seemed anxious to have a share of the feast, but no quietude nor persuasiveness of manner on our part sufficiently encouraged them to feed from our hands ; they would fly quite near, and one even ven- tured to snatch a crumb from off my knee. Rare- ly the Canada jay has appeared down in the valley near my cottage, probably with a view of filching some tidbits around by the kitchen way. He has a hoarse voice similar to that of the blue jay, but not so boisterous; sometimes he gives a low, nervous whistle. The nest is usually found in a spruce tree ; it contains from four to five white eggs speckled with light olive-brown. The Canada jay has a cousin who is decked in far finer feathers; this is the blue jay (Cyanodtta cris- tata) ; he is also related to the crow. But he is a bold creature, full of pranks and nonsense, who always creates a sensation in the bird world. His costume is a perfect " symphony in blue " ; cadet blue, ultramarine, pale blue, gray, black, and white these are his regimentals. The blue jay's voice is a familiar one ; we all BIRDS OF BRILLIAJSTT FEATHERS. 145 immediately recognize his catlike " ja-ja-ja, ja, jay 1 " Then, too, he has a vehement whistle : and another : fo r* r* r* I It is a characteristic of the blue jay that he is ever on the move and never quiet when he moves ; if he leaves one apple tree for another he does so vocif- erously, no matter if the flight is only a matter of ten feet. The nest of the blue jay is usually snugly fixed in the crotch of a tree branch fifteen feet or so above the ground. It is built mostly of small rootlets, and contains from four to six brown-gray eggs marked with rust-colored spots. The delightful, good-natured bluebird (Sialia sialis\ whose azure wings flit with a charming effect of color through the thin, budding foliage of early April, is (excepting his blueness) more nearly like the English robin redbreast than any of our other birds; in fact, the early settlers of New England called him the " blue robin." He is a sociable little creature, who approves of and patronizes the bird house, and is pleased to pick up a few crumbs from the piazza steps ; he even perches on the railing with 11 146 FAMILIAR FEATURES OF THE ROADSIDE. an evident feeling of confidence in the good -will of mankind. The bluebird is evenly colored with pale ultra- marine from his crown to the middle of his back and wings ; the brightest color is at the shoulders ; under his bill is a little white, but his breast is rusty red. The long feathers of his wings and those of his tail are slate-gray tinged blue ; beneath he is white. I can conceive of nothing more beautifully soft in color than the plumage of the bluebird in early spring, when the in- cipient green grass and the yet leafless but budding twigs of the orchard trees Bluebird. are but a welcome promise of color to come. But if once our eyes are fortunate enough to catch the gleam of the bluebird's wings against the leaden hue of a cloudy New England sky we are satisfied ; and amid the gray surroundings the touch of cerulean blue seems as precious as it is beautiful. It is not strange that the farmer rejoices at the advent of the bluebird, either, for it has been esti- mated that each pair destroys in one season from fifty to one hundred thousand worms and grubs. BIRDS OF BRILLIANT FEATHERS. 14T The female bird is very plainly attired in brown- ish gray with only a suggestion here and there of greenish blue. She selects a bird house for her nest, or the hole in some old apple tree or fence post. Mr. Burroughs says she shows no affection for her gallant mate and no pleasure in his society, and if .he is killed she goes in quest of another husband in a most businesslike manner. The nest is a simple hollow in the center of some dried grass ; in it there are from four to six very pale-blue eggs. The bluebird's song impresses me with its scrappy nature ; he has only three or four notes at his command, and these are in the minor key. Like the robin, he often sings in triplets, thus : but his notes are sweeter and not so strong ; unlike the robin, though, he says very plainly as he sings : ISva Tre-wee,tre-wee-Iy. Tre-wee, tre-wee-ly Tre-wee-ty, fre-wee-ly. These notes are not like those of the canarylike yellowbird ; they have a more bell-like quality. As early as the latter end of March the bluebirds beo-in 148 FAMILIAR FEATURES OF THE ROADSIDE. to appear in the Arnold arboretum, near Boston, and in the township of Campton, E". H., where patches of snow still remain plentiful beside the road. One of the most charming little birds which fre- quents the roadside and sings throughout August is the intensely blue indigo bunting, or indigo bird (Passerina cyanea). He is about five and a half inches long. The blue is an even indigo-ultramarine, darker on the head, wings (somewhat brown-tinged), and tail ; indeed, it is a much "bluer bird than the bluebird, and is perhaps more deserving of the name.* The nest is usually built among the bushes, and in it there are generally four or five white or bluish white eggs. The male bird has a really beautiful but not strong, canarylike voice, with something of a lisp- ing character. He sings in the top of a tree, and very frequently close beside the road. I have timed him on several occasions, and have found his song from five to seven seconds long. It generally begins with a moderate fortissimo and ends in a pianissimo trill, or sometimes with two short faint notes : * The plumage, in parts, is iridescent, like that of the pea- cock ; sometimes it appears quite greenish blue. ROAD NEAR DODSONVILLE HIGHLAND CO., OHIO. INDIGO BIRD. BIRDS OF BRILLIANT FEATHERS. 14.9 But I imagine it may not be so easy to distin- guish the musical indigo bird from several other chirping singers, so far as u style " is concerned, and I would advise those who are unfamiliar with the song sparrow's and the yellowbird's notes to make a careful comparison of the music of all three birds as I have represented it here. There are two or three comparisons which I can make that should aid one considerably in the attempt to distinguish these songs apart. The indigo bird's voice is sprightly, thin, irregular, and lisping, and the song lasts longer than that of the song sparrow. The latter frequently sings a tune three and a half seconds long, composed of three notes, a trill, and three strong final notes. * The indigo bird never does this. We can not divide his song into distinct parts any more than we can that of a canary; it is all one rapid medley. The yellowbird's notes can always be heard toward sun- set, when the happy little fellow is on the wing, dip- ping along in his billowy lines of flight. This song is entirely his own, and the indigo bird never sings a single passage which remotely resembles it. Another remarkably brilliant bird is the scarlet tanager (Piranga erythromelas) ; he is about seven inches long, and is vivid scarlet, all except his wings * See the first music I have given of this sparrow in a forego- ing chapter. 150 FAMILIAR FEATURES OF THE ROADSIDE. and tail, which are jet black. So splendid a bird, if he flies across the road from one patch of woods to another, can not fail to catch the eye on a bright day. But the flash of color is sudden and momentary he is gone in less time than it takes to tell it ! This is the male bird, though ; the female is dressed in a modest costume of yellow-olive green, a splendid foil for her scarlet mate. She builds her very slight nest in an orchard tree, perhaps, and in it lays four light green -blue eggs speckled with madder brown. The scarlet tanager is most fre- quently heard on the edge of the wood that borders the road ; he rarely comes out in the open to sing. Like the thrush he prefers the forest, but he sings a very different kind of a song. Listen : here are the notes : 7* Scarlet Tanager. Mark how much they resemble the robin's. But again we may hear another tanager sing, and we think his soft warblings are nearer like those of the Baltimore BIRDS OF ERILLIANT FEATHERS. oriole, except that the music of the latter is not soft. It is very plain in any event that he delivers his notes in groups of twos and threes, and this is quite charac- teristic of the oriole. Iflva. Pip The scarlet tanager is, on the whole, rather a rare bird, I think, for in my own experience he makes a short season of it, and leaves for the South long before the other birds do. In the Pemi- gewasset Valley he arrives in late May and disap- pears as early, I should think, as the end of Septem- ber. I never heard him sing after the middle of June. Wilson says his food is principally winged insects, such as wasps, hornets, bees, and so forth. His taste is not confined to insects, however, as he relishes the berries which grow beside the road especially huckleberries. I have also noticed that he likes the bird cherry (Prunus Pennsylvania). A rather rare brilliantly feathered bird we may possibly see on the highway in midsummer, called the cardinal grosbeak (Cardinalis cardinalis). He is bright, light red of a pure tone, closely allied to scarlet ; the bird in captivity I have been sur- prised to see is greatly faded in color. We may know the grosbeak by his large bill, his striking crest, 152 FAMILIAR FEATURES OF THE ROADSIDE. which he lowers and raises at will, and his black face and throat. In song the cardinal grosbeak is not to be compared with the thrushes or the thrasher; his notes are whistled, and quite similar to those of the scarlet tanager. Very rarely I have caught sight of this beautiful bird on the wooded roadsides of New Jersey. In Virginia he is quite common. The most brilliant bird which appears on the roadside and he is always to be found in the elm or the maple, near some old homestead is the Balti- more oriole* (Icterus galbula). He is about seven and a half inches long. His lower back and breast are brilliant orange, the head and wings are black, and a white band marks the latter. The female is olive-backed and yellow-olive-breasted. She lays about five buff-tinged white eggs marked on the larger ends with purple-brown spots. The nest is a remarkable, woven pouch, from five to seven inches deep, usually hung from an upper, slender branch, f Bits of hemp, rope, twine, hair, wool, thistle-down, or, in fact, anything shreddy which can be picked up around the house, the bird weaves into the nest with consummate skill. * Named for the first Lord Baltimore because the black and orange of its plumage were the colors forming his livery, f See also the mention of oriole nest-building on page 132. BIRDS OF BRILLIANT FEATHERS. 153 It is often the case that the mother-bird (she most frequently does all the work) gets entangled with a bit of string while she is building the nest, and some- times it is at the cost of her life. I have seen one bird so badly mixed up with a snarl of hair and string that her wings were helpless, and she fluttered to the ground in dangerous proximity to an ever- watchful cat; but she was rescued in time and re- leased from the tangle. For four successive years this oriole built her nest in a sugar maple within ten feet of the hotel, and only a few yards from the highway, at Blair, N. H., where the mountain woods were near enough to satisfy birds of the most fas- tidious social habits ; but the oriole is not content to nest farther than a dozen yards from one's door- step. The oriole's notes are so familiar that I do not need to give more than a few of the commoner ones to re- fresh our memory : l8va The couplets are very clear and distinct, and have a better pitch, perhaps, than those of the robin. However similarly the two birds may sing, we can 15 J: FAMILIAR FEATURES OF THE ROADSIDE. always tell one from the other by the quality of their notes ; those of the oriole are more bell-like or liquid, but the robin's are robust, and most generally confined to a low-pitch warble. Both, however, are loud whistlers. CHAPTER X. WOODLAND SINGERS THE THRUSHES, VIREO, AND PEABODY BIRD. THE plain -coated thrushes are our greatest singers. Whoever has not heard them at the sunset hour, while wheeling along the road in late spring or early summer, has yet to hear the sweetest songs of the sky. Wilson says little or nothing about the music of two or three singularly gifted members of the Thrush family, and it is particularly to these that I wish to draw attention. The Turdidce is a large family ; in one subdivision alone (the Turdince) there are quite one hundred and fifty species. One of the most familiar birds belonging to this division is the robin (Merula migratoria\ who is quite a different bird from his thrush cousins, how greatly different we readily see upon making a general comparison. He is not a woodland bird. The robin's voice is pitched low, those of all the 155 156 FAMILIAR FEATURES OF THE ROADSIDE. thrushes are pitched high. The robin delights in the close-clipped lawn, the thrush prefers the forest tree ; he rarely comes within a hundred yards of a house, but the robin often socially greets us quite near the piazza steps. The true thrush is a woodland bird ; the robin delights in the open country, and he is companionable, but the thrush is timid and retir- ing, and his plumage is colored so nearly like the gray limbs of the tree, or the dead leaves below them where he is always flitting, that we can scarcely see him twenty feet away. But on the green lawn the rusty breast and the slate-black crest of the robin are prominent bits of color which are visible far away. The robin's warble is so very well known to us that it seems unnecessary to take any note of it here ; but for the sake of a little interesting comparison with other bird music, I give two bits of his cheery song which I think will sound familiar : His notes are generally delivered staccato and in couplets or triplets, but frequently he gives us a few with caressing modulations, and still others slurred, thus : WOODLAND SINGERS. 157 Compare this with the music of the hermit thrush further on, and it will be seen what a great difference there is in the construction of the two songs. The hermit thrush gives us no warbling note, but distinct silvery whistles in rapid triplets. It would be impos- sible, too, for the robin to sustain a long high note, and then " go to pieces " in silvery fragments on the next higher one, just as the hermit does. No ; robin rarely ventures beyond his low-pitch, agitated coup- lets and triplets, but these he delivers with consum- mate skill. The robin's nest is a rude, mud-plastered affair saddled on a low bough or set upon a secluded bit of ground ; in it one may see from four to six most beautiful " robin's-egg blue " eggs. I use the popu- lar color term because it is the only one which is unique, and is fittingly given. The color is a sober, delicate, yet pronounced green -blue, the like of which is not easily found elsewhere in Nature. How much the young robin can eat is a subject for an essay ; in fact, it is one which for many years 158 FAMILIAR FEATURES OF THE ROADSIDE. past ornithologists have delighted in. But I will only repeat one marvelous and truthful account of the bird's feeding propensity. Prof. Treadwell says that from fifty to one hundred robins will eat a mil- lion worms and caterpillars in a season, and that a young one will eat in twelve hours a hundred and forty per cent of its own weight, and devour four- teen feet of earthworms ! Now, if this wonderful eater would only concentrate his powers on the dread- ful gypsy moth, what a blessing it would be to our elm trees ! But robin eats other things as well, among which are barberries, berries of the Phyto- lacca decandra, those of the poison ivy, wild black cherries, and black alder berries. He also relishes cutworms, a fact which I recently discovered to my infinite satisfaction. The interesting way the robin carries himself on the lawn must be noticeable to the most casual observer. He stands erect and motion- less for two seconds or so, then darts forward at a rapid run, and pounces upon a bit of turf in which he plunges his bill in an agitated kind of a way ; up he bobs again serenely with, maybe, a fat angleworm hanging out of his mouth, then da capo! If we disturb him he utters a " quirp-yip-yip -yip-yap " and flies to a neighboring tree. A not very distant relative of the robin, but a woodland singer nearer related to the catbird, is the WOODLAND SINGERS. 159 brown thrush or thrasher (Harporhyncus rufus). He is nearly if not quite twelve inches long (some- times longer), is light reddish brown above and dull white beneath, and his breast is streaky spotted with brown ; on the wings beneath the shoulders are two white bars. The bird is a splendid singer, although his wild and irregular notes are by no means as sil- very and sweet as those of his thrush cousins. He appears early in the spring, and there are those who interpret his snatchy bits of song as advice to the farmer to " plow it " or " hoe it." But it must not be supposed that his song is always so fragmentary. I listened not long since to a brown thrush, and he continued his song without intermission for ten sec- onds a good long time for a bird to sing. The quality of his note is not unlike that of the robin, but he does not warble like the robin, nor does he whistle with flutelike clearness like the wood thrush ; his music is his own, and is quite as spasmodic and unconventional as it could well be. The brown thrush frequents the thickets and copses not far from the road, and in these the rude nests are built at no great distance from the ground. There are usually five bluish eggs spotted plentifully with brown. I have found the brown thrush to be a frequent visitor of the highways which pass through the southern valleys of the White Mountains. 160 FAMILIAR FEATURES OF THE ROADSIDE. Where the road enters the wild wood, just under some frowning hill, there we may most likely hear, and possibly we may be fortunate enough to see, one of the greatest songsters of our country, if not the greatest woodland singer in the world. I refer to the hermit thrush, whose song once heard can never be forgotten. It is a song which we will hear from over the treetops, if the air is still at sunset, a whole mile away. But I must first speak of the hermit's better- known relative. The wood thrush (Turdus musteli- nus) is rather a plain, tawny brown bird with a promi- nent white breast, striking- ly spotted with pointed um- ber-brown spots, a broad, flat head, prominent eyes, and a somewhat long bill. The brown is deepest on the head and as- sumes an olive tone toward the wings and tail. The bill is black- brown and the feet yel- low brown. The characteristic, strongly spotted breast of this bird is sufficient for its identifi- cation. The other thrushes are not nearly so well marked, and it is well to bear in mind the differences The Wood Thrush. WOODLAND SINGERS. 161 which I shall point out in their breast coloring. There are four species which we ought to know apart : the wood, the hermit, Wilson's and Swainson's thrush. The wood thrush is the largest as well as the best- marked bird of the four ; as for his music, in my own private opinion it is inferior to that of the hermit thrush. But I dislike to make a descending com- parison, I ought rather to say that the hermit's song is a perfected form of the wood thrush's song. Al- though the wood thrush delivers every note with the utmost precision of pitch (a thing which birds usually do not do), his tones are softer and less crys- tal-clear than those of the hermit. The latter also frequently indulges in a brilliant " cadenza " * (if I may be allowed the use of the term), something which is never present in the wood thrush's song. Further on I have illustrated the nature of the ca- denza, upon which we may wisely depend for the identification of the hermit's song. The wood thrush sings as late as the first of July,f morning and evening. He is not particular about sticking to triplets ; often he indulges in groups * A cadenza is the embellished ending of a tune ; it usually begins with a well-accented high note and subsides to the key- note. f Sometimes much later in the hills of New Hampshire. 12 162 FAMILIAR FEATURES OF THE ROADSIDE. of two and five notes of almost equal value. Here are some of his (to me at least) most familiar strains : One part of a strain which Mr. Cheney has re- corded is very familiar : His range is apparently not so great as that of the hermit, but he has no limitation as to key. I believe I have recorded as many as four, which I was sure came from one bird's little throat. The best of these two thrushs' songs is this : they can be perfectly rep- resented by musical signs, as every note is distinctly whistled. But we must not forget this the whis- tle has no equal in all the earth, for it is born of heaven ! The wood thrush lays her eggs (perhaps four or five, as blue as a robin's but smaller) in a rough nest built of grass, leaves, and mud, in a low tree or in the bushes near the ground. MOUNT LAFAYETTE, FRANCONIA NOTCH, GRAFTON CO., N. H. THE HERMIT THRUSH. WOODLAND SINGERS. 163 A greater, at least a more brilliant, singer of . our Northern woods, but one, however, who does not ob- ject occasionally to singing in a tree beside the high- way near the pasture bars, is the hermit thrush (Tur- dus AonalaschkcB Pallasii}. This plainly attired lit- tle creature is about two thirds as large as the wood thrush. His back is an olive-brown which grows slightly ruddy toward the tail ; his breast is dull white spotted with pointed spots of umber-brown, not as prominent nor as large as those of the wood thrush ; immediately under the bill the throat is not spotted. His head is also broad and the eyes are prominent. The tail of the female bird is most like- ly to be a rufous brown. She lays three or four green-blue eggs, rarely if ever spotted, in a rude nest usually hidden under the bushes and grass on the ground. In the South the hermit thrush lives the year around, and is most frequently seen in the deso- late cane swamps, flitting in the dim light which is characteristic of these regions. In the North the home of the hermit is among the mountain woods ; he is always heard in early summer in the vicinity of Mounts Lafayette and Kinsman, N. II., singing along with Swainson's thrush in the half -lit spruce woods late in the day. Indeed, the hermit thrush seems to prefer a dim if not a " religious " light, which may in a measure account for the hymnlike quality of its 164 FAMILIAR FEATURES OF THE ROADSIDE. sinking, which Mr. Burroughs refers to in Wake, Robin. But I shall endeavor to give a more tangible ac- count of this bird's extraordinary voice. His notes are silvery, flute whistles, generally delivered in trip- lets. His range is quite an octave or more, and frequently he rises from a particular note to the octave higher, with surprising precision and all the eclat of an accomplished musician. I am riot alone in my observation of these facts, as Mr. Cheney de- scribee the hermit's song thus : " After striking his first low, long, and firm note, he bounds upward by thirds, fourths, and fifths, and sometimes a whole octave, gurgling out his triplets with every upward movement " which is exactly true. How remark- ably pronounced these thirds and fifths are may be seen by the following : (This passage is usually suc- ceeded by that marked " ca- denza.") But this is not all the hermit can do ; his gym- nastic exercises in the high treble are astonishing. All at once he starts with a deliberate, prolonged high note, springs suddenly to the next whole note WOODLAND SINGERS. 165 higher, and then falls in scintillant music a full oc- tave, thus : cadeuza, a regular tumble-do wn-dick cadenza, which always reminds me of this passage near the close of Bee- thoven's Moonlight Sonata : and which, by the way, is exactly repeated in Cho- pin's Impromptu Fantasia. A more perfect bit of bird music (except its wide range) it would be diffi- cult to imagine. The third songster, whose music can not possibly be confused with that of either of the two thrushes I have described, is Wilson's thrush, or the tawny thrush, sometimes called veery (Turdus fuscescens). This bird is a trifle larger than the hermit, and has quite a tawny buff-brown color, the tone of which is red, not at all like that of the wood thrush. There are extremely few small spots on the breast, and 166 FAMILIAR FEATURES OF THE ROADSIDE. these begin well below the eye and extend only over the frontlet or chest ; beneath, the color is dull whitish buff-gray. The tawny thrush lays from three to five blue- green eggs in a rude nest which she builds in a low bush or on the ground ; rarely the nest may be found in a low tree. Mr. Minot says of this bird that it is rare in northern New Eng- land, but its song is a familiar one to me throughout the Pemi- gewasset Valley, N". EL, and even as far North as Franconia. The bird is easily identified ft ^i ^Pl both by its color and its song. Wilson's Thrush. ^ mar k e d characteristic of this species is a total absence of the darker color which is noticed in the tail, wings, and crest of the other species. Wilson's thrush, in other words, has a pretty nearly u all over " rufous color. One generally hears this bird singing in the gloaming, down in the lower part of the valley, generally near a brook or river. The notes are complex, somewhat resembling those of a reed or a violin ; they are singularly double-toned and sweet WOODLAND SINGERS. 167 beyond description, not at all like those of any other bird 1 have ever heard. When I say double-toned, I mean that the musical sound is in a certain sense har- monic* rather than melodic. To render this song in so many positive musical signs seems to me an impossibility. To record a number of distinct whistles is an easy matter, but Wilson's thrush does not whistle. The notes are slurred and blended beyond the power of a musician to analyze. My rendering of the general effect would be thus : f mollo ace el. But sometimes there is a pianissimo fifth cluster of notes, dropping perhaps a musical third below the fourth cluster I have given.;]: The first and fourth clusters are exactly alike ; and to show that I am * The musical note of the tree toad is double-toned, and in this respect slightly resembles that of Wilson's thrush. So, also, is that of the night hawk. f So difficult is it to decide upon some likeness of the veery's music which may be produced at the piano, that I am tempted to suggest the discordant alternative of striking the first four notes of each cluster simultaneously ; it is at least possible in this way to more truthfully represent the mixed quality of this thrush's notes. \ Not infrequently the thrush begins with the second cluster and adds one more cluster at the close of my rendering of the song. 168 FAMILIAR FEATURES OF THE ROADSIDE. not mistaken here, I will give also the testimony of Mr. Cheney, who renders the song thus : He also sustains my theory of the quality of the notes, as he says they are " something like the sweep of an accordion through the air." This exactly ex- presses the peculiar harmonic crescendo and diminu- endo of the weird notes. There is another thrush whose song I am not quite so well acquainted with, but one which may frequently be heard singing in the lonely red spruce forests of the White Mountain region in late spring or early summer ; this is called Swainson's thrush, or the olive-backed thrush (Turdus ustulatus Swain- sonii). I believe this bird sings only at nesting time ; the hermit thrush sings all summer. But in June I have often heard both birds singing at the same time. Nothing is more subtile and charming to one's sense of musical harmony than this exquisite, wild, silvery music of the Northern woods. It is hardly possible for one to pass over the highways at the feet of the great wooded mountains of northern New York, Vermont, and New Hampshire without hearing (at least in May or June), every one of these thrushes THE INDIAN PASS, ADIRONDACK MOUNTAINS, ESSEX CO., N. Y. SWAINSON'S THRUSH. WOODLAND SINGERS. 169 sing.* I am quite sure of having heard Swainson's thrush in the vicinity of Lake Placid, and in the In- dian Pass, in the Adirondacks, as well as among the mountains of Sandwich, !N". H. Swainson's thrush is light brown in color, tinged over the throat, breast, sides of neck and head with yellow. The general tone is not reddish like that of Wilson's thrush, but a warm light brown with a strong olive cast on the back and wings. The nest is built on or near the ground, and the ee^s are C) 7 OO green-blue, freely speckled with madder-brown. The song of this bird is not, it seems to me, so easily distinguished from that of the wood thrush, but it is more deliberate and less scintillant than that of the hermit. Perhaps the most familiar theme is this: But frequently his song is made up of one long and two short notes which I can scarcely distinguish, ex- cept by their quality, from those of the wood thrush. 8VcL T * I can at least promise the wood thrush's song in central Ver- mont and New Hampshire. 170 FAMILIAR FEATURES OF THE ROADSIDE. But before we leave the woodland road and the thrushes, I wish to call attention to another bird who incessantly warbles a few short notes among the foliage of the twilight forest in midsummer. Just where the light takes on a shimmering green color, where the forest grows silent and solemn and stately, there is always in summer time a little bird away up in the high- petually sing- song. est branches, per- ing a disjointed This is called the red- vireo ( Vireo olivaceus). He is about six inches long, olive - backed, slaty- crowned with a dark line over the eye, and white-breasted. The hang- ing nest is usually built well up from the ground on a forked branch, and in it one may see from three to four pearly white, madder-brown spotted eggs. I do not see how it is possible for one to mistake this bird's song for any other. No other bird sings so disjointedly and continuously. I must except the yellow-throated vireo ( Vireo flamfrons\ however. This bird is olive-green, with a yellow throat. His song is pitched lower, and the tempo is less agitated. The best time to hear this music is in the afternoon of a warm day in July or August, immediately after Ked-eyed Vireo. WOODLAND SINGERS. 171 a shower ; then if the vireo is anywhere around he will be sure to sing. Listen, this is his refrain, in well-marked common time : The groups of six notes are given in a querulous manner but with rollicking zest. There is still another woodland bird at least one which may certainly be heard singing somewhere near the top of a wooded hill, just beyond the raspberry patch which we are passing ; the voice sounds miles away, but it is an unmistakably familiar and characteristic one. The white-throated sparrow for this is the bird is best known by the name Peabody bird (Zonotrichia albicollis). In Wilson's estimation, this is the largest as well as the handsomest of all the sparrows. His crown is black, his back red -brown ^ Peabody Bird. umber - streaked, and his wing feathers are light-brown edged. The throat and breast are dull white, and over the eye there are two white stripes. This sparrow nests in FAMILIAR FEATURES OF THE ROADSIDE. the trees of the woodlands, and lays four or five white eggs marked with umber-brown. The Peabody bird's song, which has a certain agreeable pathos, is remarkable for its high pitch, clear piccolo quality of tone, and freedom from the faintest trace of shrillness. It ought to be familiar to all of us who pass along the wooded road in early July. It usually comes from the top of some neigh- boring hill thus : Old Jam Pea-bo-dy Pea-bo-dy Pea-bo-dy. Frequently, however, I have heard a shorter and ex- tremely high, soft whistle thus : * and again the bird once in a while subsides to a more persuasive and plaintive call : 'd Sam Peabody Peabody Peabody. * The Peabody bird sings in several keys. I have heard this particular song in two keys, in one of which the four upper notes were almost beyond the range of my whistle. As I place the limit of that at the third B flat above middle C it will at once become apparent how surprisingly high this bird can sing. WOODLAND SINGERS. 173 But the Peabody bird rarely sings later than July ; he will be heard as late as this in the vicinity of Mount "Washington, whose wooded slopes are his favorite haunts (see the frontispiece), and the follow- ing notes frequently disturb the stillness of Tuckerman's . 8vd -* t>J_ Kavine : | fc) The best time to hear the song is early in the morning. On the whole, this is the better time to hear all the bird songs, and who rises with the sun in late May or early June will be favored by a full orchestra, the different members of which are distinctly recognizable. Only detached bits of the chorus can be heard at sunset, and the character of the music is certainly not so joyous. CHAPTEK XL IN LEAFY JUNE GREEN LEAVES AND A FEW BEETLES AND BUTTERFLIES. RICH in emerald -green foliage and cobalt-blue skies, decked with the dainty pink of countless wild roses, and attuned with the songs of many birds, the month of June is the most beautiful one of all the year. To one who can not enjoy the brilliant green which adorns the roadside the aspect of Nature is crude and lacks aesthetic interest. But what a pity not to know that a large part of Nature's beauty is this very force of color after which the impressionist strives ! A picturesque green roadside in New Eng- land or Illinois is quite as available a subject for an impressionist's picture as any roadside in France. "We may learn to tolerate Nature in her verdant robes, but we are ready to quarrel with the artist who in copying her uses such vivid, chalky greens. I think I can show, however, that the roadside is painted with as brilliant colors as those contained in 174 IN LEAFY JUNE. 175 the paint box. Let us examine a few which are near at hand. One of the most beautiful bright light greens which we will see in the swamp beside the road is that of the Indian poke ( Veratrum viride)* with its spreading, broad, corrugated leaves. Their green is a hundred tones lighter than that of any tree, and ten times purer. All the beauty of color which characterizes this plant in late May or early June will be seen now ; in midsummer it sends up an un- interesting spike of green flowers, and shortly after blackens and dies. Another beautiful plant which is sure to decorate the river's brink this month is the unfortunate car- rion flower (Smilax herbacea\ a charmingly decora- tive vine doomed to complete disfavor because of the blossom's putrid odor. The leaves are bright, shiny light green, and the yellow-green flowers, now in bloom, have very long stems ; they are inconspicuous but pretty. If, somewhere on the road, we imagine we are passing a dead rat and at the same time spy a beautiful vine-covered thicket, we are justified in arriving at but one conclusion carrion flower ! The vine I have found very common in northern New Jersey and in the southwestern region of the Cats- * Its roots yield a rank poison. 17G FAMILIAR FEATURES OF THE ROADSIDE. kill Mountains, near Dean's Corners, JS\ Y. But it is common throughout the Northeastern States. As the road climbs the slope from the meadows and enters the border of the woods, we may happen to see a pretty crimson magenta flower snuggled be- side some small deep-green leaves, slightly resembling those of the wintergreen. This is the flowering wintergreen (Polygala paucifolia), a dainty little thing scarcely four inches above the ground, which bears its fertile flower in budlike form on a subter- ranean stem. The leafage is frequently suffused with ruddy purple. Still another woodland flower, and one which is endowed with the daintiest perfume, is the twin flower (Linn&a borealis\ whose creeping stems spread over the stony ground in mossy woods, where the sunlight spots the ground with yellow- green. The little drooping bell, scarcely a third of an inch in diameter, is white lined with crimson-pink. The light-green leaves are small, round -toothed, and broadly oval. The twin flower blooms after the flowering wintergreen ; the latter is in its prime in late May. Two noxious plants which show their bright-green leaves and greenish white flowers in June, are the poison sumach (^Rhus venenata) and the poison ivy (Rhus toxicodendrori). Both of these are harmful to touch, especially when in bloom. I have drawn the IN LEAFY JUNE. 177 The leaves of the plants so that they may be easily iden- tified. R. venenata grows from six to eighteen feet high and bears a compound leaf com- posed of from seven to thirteen leaf- lets, smooth and without teeth, flowers are borne in loose pani- cles which grow out at the junc- tion of the leaf stem with the branch. It. toxieodendron is a vine which covers the stone wall and frequently climbs to the top of a small tree. Its leaves are always borne in threes, never in fives like those of the Virginia creeper. The leaflets are va- riable in shape, sometimes notched or cut-lobed, but with no fine teeth. They are light green with a waxy finish, and droop considerably about the stems. The flowers are similar to those of R. venenata ; the latter species is most frequently encountered in swamps, but the poison ivy is common on every roadside in New England. Both species bear clusters of whitish lead-colored berries about the size of very small peas ; they ripen in September. An excellent remedy for poisoning resulting from the accidental 13 Poison iSuiuacli. 178 FAMILIAR FEATURES OF THE ROADSIDE. Poison Ivy. touching of these plants is the binding of the affect- ed parts in cloths saturated with " Pond's extract " (Hamamelis). A severe case should be referred to a physician at once. It. venenata I have never found in the Pemigewasset Valley, but R. toxicodendron is on all of the meadows and many of the roadsides there. Leaving these wretched, harmful plants, we may now turn our atten- tion to their near neighbor, the handsome, spreading dogbane (Apo- cynum androscemifolium\ which is just beginning to unfold its delicate pink - white flower bells. This thin and delicate plant gives us a refreshing bit of sober blue-green in wide contrast with its surround- ings. Its leaves are not glossy, but characterized by what a painter would call a " dead finish." The beautiful flowers, similar in shape to lily of the val- leys or twin flowers, are daintily tinged with pink ; if we pick a cluster, the stem exudes a sticky, milk- white juice. This plant will not reach its prime until July, and then we may hunt through its leaves for the most beautiful little beetle which ever fa- vored the roadside with its presence. This jewel of a creature is called the dogbane beetle (Chrysochus IN LEAFY JUNE. 179 auratus). He is one of the commonest insects of the roadside, but he is so very small (less than half an inch long) that we must not expect to catch sight of him at " long range." Holding one in the hand and scrutinizing him under the glass, we will find him a variety of brilliant me- tallic hues, according to the way the light strikes his back, ranging from orange through red to purple, and from violet through blue and peacock blue to green. I col- lected as many as a dozen of these beetles last summer from as many dogbane bushes ;- their beauty and jew- el-like brilliancy can only be appreciated by the help of a low-power mi- croscope. A good test of the incom parable finish of Nature's work is to place beside the beetle a ring set with a ruby. I think the comparison will demon- strate the immeasurable superiority of Nature over man in the capacity of an " art worker." The roadside in the month of June is thickly em- broidered with still other lusterless but ornamental Dogbane Beetle. 180 FAMILIAR FEATURES OF THE ROADSIDE. leaves. We can not proceed a dozen feet along the highway without passing at least two species of clover. The red clover (Trifolium pratense) is that commonest of all kinds, which bears on the face of the leaflet the looplike band of whitish green. It is largely dependent upon the pollen-dusty bumblebee for fertilization ; the crimson-red florets have such deep tubes that only the bumblebee with her long tongue succeeds in reaching the nectar in their depths.* The honeybee is only partially success- ful ; her tongue is too short, and she never attacks a blossom with the burly vigor and dauntless purpose of the bumblebee. The other common species is the white clover (Trifolium repens\ none other than the shamrock of Ireland. I have before me as 1 write a cluster of the tiny leaves which but recently came from the Emerald Isle ; they are quite like our own white clover, but smaller. We can hardly claim an American origin for this species, as Gray says it is indigenous only in the Northern part of our range if at all. As for the red clover, that also came to us from Europe. The white clover, which is extremely abundant along the grassy borders of the roads in * The first red clover which was imported into Australia failed to produce seed ; the flowers were entirely dependent upon the bumblebee for fertilization, so the insect had to be imported also for this especial purpose. IN LEAFY JUNE. 181 Yermont and central New Hampshire, rarely grows over four inches high. The sweetest smelling clover I know of is that called alsike clover (Trifolium hy- bridum), which strongly resembles the white kind, and which is rapidly becoming a familiar object on our highways. It has taller and more erect stems, the flower heads are larger, tinged with flesh pink and rose pink, and it does not take root as the other clovers do at that part of. the stem where the leaves branch out. This species also comes from Europe. In the latter part of June the opening blossoms of the little yellow hop clover (Trifolium agrarium) begin to spot the grassy borders with their delicate color. This rather upright plant would scarcely be taken for a clover, as its trifoliate leaf is the only strongly marked family characteristic. The tiny, pale-yellow blossoms are scarcely larger than one's thumb nail, and the leaflets are nearly stemless. Hop clover grows from six to twelve inches high and is generally found on the sandy roadside. One other species is also just beginning to flower ; this is the yellow melilot or sweet clover (Melilotus offi'Cinalis), whose leaves become sweet-scented in drying. It may be distinguished from the foregoing species by the blunt-toothed leaflets growing from pronounced stems. The plant grows from one to two and sometimes four feet high ; it is common in waste 182 FAMILIAR FEATURES OF THE ROADSIDE. places. The two yellow clovers also come to us from Europe. Yeiy probably we will see at no great dis- tance from these plants the purple blossoms of the self-heal (Brunella vulgaris\ an omnipresent little weed which decorates the roadside from June to October. We can not fail to recognize it during the summer, as it is the only low-growing, common pur- ple wild flower which is in bloom for fully four months of the year. Adorning the stone wall and crowning the crowd- ed thicket in some moist spot beside the river brink in late June, we will be sure to see the delicate pink- ish flowers and arrowhead-shaped leaves of the hedge bindweed (Convolvulus sepi- ujti). This remarkable vine twines and trails its wiry stems over everything within reach, and ties up all the Golden Beetle. ^^ fa g ends and fra J ed ed g 68 of the roadside foliage in spiral bunches of green and pink beauty. The flowers are so much like morning-glories that we can not fail to recognize them, and the fresh green leaves are among the most beautiful and shining ones of June. Somewhat later, in July, we may have the good luck to find on this vine a little opalescent, golden beetle, called the Cassida aurichalcea, or IN LEAFY JUNE. 183 Coptocycla ~bicolor\ it is scarcely over a quarter of an inch long, and is usually hidden on the under part of the leaf. But once with the beautiful beetle in our hand and under the magic magnifying glass, we realize that we have captured a tiny gem of Na- ture which has no equal in the jeweler's window on Broadway. His shell is resplendent gold, but in a few moments it has become milky and appears more like a yellowish opal ; then it changes to a greenish yellowish white, and finally, when we look at it again, it is pale rusty gold. But this remarkable gem of a beetle is beau- tiful only in life ; when he dies his color van- ishes. Another splen- did and common , , , . , , f Goldsmith Beetle. golden bug is the ( goldsmith beetle (Cotalpa lanigera), which still later in the season we may succeed in capturing on the under side of a willow leaf ; he is about seven eighths of an inch long. This beetle is abroad at night and sometimes ventures in an open door, lured by the brilliant lamplight within ; but in daytime he hides himself completely among the clusters of fresh green leaves at the tips of young branchlets. 184: FAMILIAR FEATURES OF THE ROADSIDE. His back is bright yellowish gold, sometimes of a milky tone ; beneath he is copper-color, covered with fine whitish hairs. In a partially shaded spot beside the covered bridge which crosses the shallow mountain stream we may be favored by the sight of many golden flower clusters of the wild parsnip (Pastinaca sa- tiva\ or those of its near relative, the early meadow parsnip (Zizia aurea). In some damp spot near the river on the meadow perhaps these tall weeds are sure to appear in June. Their favorite attendant is the black, yellow-spotted butterfly (Papilio asteri- as)* sometimes called the " black swallowtail." This is one of the commonest and prettiest butterflies which visit the roadside flowers. Its wings are marked with a double row of yellow spots ; there are also yellow and bluish marks on the hind wings as well, and these are swallow-tail pointed. This butterfly invariably chooses some member of the Parsley family, on the leaves of which it prefers to lay its eggs. The caterpillar is pea-green, naked, and about two inches long. The monarch, or tawny orange butterfly (Anosia plexippus)^ which is also commonly seen on the * Papilio polyxenes, Scudder. f Also called Danais archippus and Danais erippns. Its powers of flight exceed those of any other butterfly. It migrates SHELVING ROCK, MADISON, JEFFERSON CO., INDIANA'. THE BLACK SWALLOW-TAILED BUTTERFLY. IN LEAFY JUNE. 185 highway, whose beautiful wings, measuring four inches across, are bound and veined with black, white-spotted, has a decided preference for members of the milkweed tribe, but not in- frequently we find it hovering over the dainty pink blossoms of the dogbane (also a milky juiced plant). However, the common milkweed (Asclepias Cornuti] is its favored plant, and on the upright budding leaves it lays its eggs singly. The caterpillar of this butterfly is black and yellow banded, naked, and nearly two inches long. How handsome this very ordinary milkweed is in sunny June, when its pale-green color is dashed with misty lilac-blue shadows, and its gesthetic brown-lavender flower clus- ter is accented by the rich coloring on the wings of the monarch butterfly, no one can fail to remark. It is one of those few striking plants which are emphati- cally decorative under all conditions and in all sea- sons. Fluttering over the little puddles on the road Anosia plexippus. in autumn and flies southward in swarms as the birds do. body of this butterfly has a rank odor. The 186 FAMILIAR FEATURES OF THE ROADSIDE. which are left after the rain, a half dozen small yel- low butterflies appear, dispersing ae we approach, but soon returning to continue their dance in midair as soon as our backs are turned ; these are the Colias Philodice* which in the caterpillar state live on the leaves of the clovers. The caterpillar is an inch long and grass-green ; we will generally see it stretched along the stem of a clover leaf. I have drawn the yellow butterfly beside the pretty vista which it might have seen if it had not devoted itself so ex- clusively to the uninteresting puddle in the middle of the road. The view is of one of the southern Cats- kill Mountains, called Big Indian, not very far from Shandaken. The little white butterfly which we may occasion- ally see is called the cabbage but- terfly (Pisris rapce).\ This is the plague of the farmer, for its green caterpillar bores to the heart of his cabbages. The esrsrs o oo are laid on the under side of the leaves and hatched in about ten days ; the caterpillars then feed upon the young green leaves for about twenty days, at the ex- * Eurymus Philodice, Scudder. f First introduced into this country in New York, 1868. BIG INDIAN, CATSKILL MOUNTAINS, ULSTER CO., N. Y. YELLOW BUTTERFLY, COLIAS PHILODICE. IN LEAFY JUNE. 1ST piration of which time they have gorged sufficient raw cabbage to attain a length of one and a half inches. Then they leave the garden and resort to the rocks or the fence, and spin thereon a tuft of silk in which they place their hind feet ; a loop is then spun in which they hang by the neck. After eleven or twelve days have elapsed the green worm has become a white butterfly, ready to begin on the cabbage patch again ! I never see a white butter- fly without a picture arising in my mind of a certain indig- nant farmer, who never missed an oppor- tunity of flapping at one with his old gray Papilio turnus. felt hat, which the butterfly always managed to evade. One of our largest and most beautiful butterflies is the pale corn-yellow and rusty black one (the up- per parts of the wings are marked with four descend- ing black bars), with swallow-tailed wings, called the tiger swallowtail (Papilio turnus)* This hand- some creature frequently measures four and a half * Jasoniades glaucus, Scudder. 188 FAMILIAR FEATURES OF THE ROADSIDE. inches from one wing tip to the other. It soars even above the trees and takes to the broad expanse of sky as the yellowbird does. The caterpillar lives in the orchard and feeds upon the leaves of the fruit trees, or resorts to the birch, poplar, and ash. It is two inches long, fat and green, with rows of bluish dots and black and yellow markings, and the head and feet are pink-tinged. Early in August this caterpillar tires of life and "hangs " itself in a leaf cradle bound together by silken cords ; the fol- lowing summer it resumes life in the form of a gorgeous velvety winged butterfly. I often see the handsome creature perched on top of the pasture thistle, but according to the rules of entomology I believe it has no right to be there. Yet I under- stand that the thistle is favored by many broad- winged visitors, chief among which is our yellow friend Colias Philodice. Those tiny little butterflies, which flit about with an uncertain motion, but a short distance, from one blossom to another, are called " skippers " (Hesperia). They are generally marked and spotted red -brown and yellow, and proceed from small caterpillars which wind themselves up in leaves drawn together by silken threads. The skipper butterfly will scarcely measure an inch across with wings extended ; it also frequents the pasture thistle. A very common spe- IN LEAFY JUNE. 189 eies is Hesperia Pocahontas (Airy tone zabulon^ Scud- der), sometimes called the Mormon. Its wings are blackish brown, marked in the center with tawny orange-brown. It is very abundant in early June, and feeds and nests among the roadside grasses. The leafy month of June is glorious in the abso- lute purity and diversity of its greens. Look at that shining white-stemmed tree yonder ; it is the gray birch, whose pea-green, varnished leaves flash the sun- light through the intervening branches of the brown and rugged pine, until the sparkling color dazzles the eyes. At the farther side of the road is a thicket of speckled alder ; its color is deep somber olive. Look at the tips of the red maple near by, and note the pinkish green of the yet immature leaves. Here is a baby red oak ; its large leaf is deep olive- green, its budding leaf is bright red. Yonder is a white poplar ; how remarkable is its flickering, pale color ! If we are fortunate enough to see the splendid yellowwood (Cladra.stis tinctorid) in full bloom toward the end of the month, we will think that it is one of the most beautiful trees of June. No apple tree of May in snowiest array can equal it, for there is little of grace in the gnarled apple, and naught but grace in the yellowwood. So rich is it in nectar, too, that all the insects from the sur- 190 FAMILIAR FEATURES OF THE ROADSIDE. rounding country congregate in a busy, buzzing, fluttering swarm to gather the fragrant sweet. Another beautiful tree is the yellow chestnut oak (Quercus JM.uhlenbergii\ whose yellowish green leaves reflect an amber light and cast misty lilac- blue shadows. These are the brilliant colors which the impressionist sees and endeavors to portray on his canvas. It is one thing to paint a well-composed landscape, but it is quite another to paint the vivid sunlight and the emerald foliage of June. What wonder then that the painting which the artist brings directly from sunlit Nature dazzles our eyes ! It is a fact that we are too timid to look Nature square in the face when she is decked in her live- liest colors ; we are afraid of them, and are in no mood to dance to such lively piping. We like bril- liant colors best in tiny bits like those of the green, yellow-spotted beetle (Buprestis fasciata) which I have drawn below ; his gorgeous emerald back often decorates the roadside fence, and it is exempt from criticism. Buprestis fasciata. CHAPTER XII. THE TALL MIDSUMMER WEEDS MEMBERS OF THE COMPOSITE FAMILY. IN the warm days of August most of the singing amid the treetops has ceased, and life has taken on a different aspect for both bird and man. Every winged dweller in wood and meadow finds food in plenty, with never a hungry bill to fill beyond his own. We listen to the grasshoppers' summer symphony and count it a signal for relaxation, an audible proof of the fact that the time has come when it is too hot to do anything but keep quiet. Nature, however, does not idle, nor does she slacken her energy in time of heat ; the borders of the high- way are the best evidence of this fact. At no time of the year are the hedges and thickets so crowded with luxuriant and rank vegetation, nor have we seen until now such an aggregation of tall, striking weeds. The margin of the highway in May was flat and empty compared with its present aspect. Now, on the edge of the meadow and at the side of the 191 192 FAMILIAR FEATURES OF THE ROADSIDE. road, a midsummer family has taken up its quarters, most of whose members are sufficiently tall to look over the fence. Many of them measure three and four feet, and several six and even twelve feet in height. These magnificent weeds are nearly all members of the great Composite family, the records of which occupy a large section of Gray's Man- ual. The first familiar flower which Gray mentions is the ironweed ( Vernonia Nove- J)oracensis) ; this is common near the seashore. It grows from three to five feet high, and its clusters of purplish magenta flowers, from which the bees gather quite a little honey, somewhat resemble tiny sweet sultans or bachelor's but- tons ; but it is a rude, stocky, useless weed, with a stout, hard stem which cumbers the ground. It blooms in August. Next come the Eupatori- ums, a coarse tribe not without some saving, use- ful qualities. Boneset (Eupatorium perfoliatum) THE TALL MIDSUMMER WEEDS. 193 is perhaps the best-known member of this group, and we can always tell it by the way the stem seems to perforate the opposite - growing leaves which taper to a point. The flowers are dull white, small, and uninteresting. The plant grows from two to four feet high and has a coarse hairy stem. It is a bitter herb, whose medicinal properties we are well acquainted with, but one whose flowers we would never suspect the bee finds stored with honey; such is the case, however. Joe-Pye weed (Eupcuto- rium purpureum) is an- other tall relation with dull pinkish flowers. The leaves are very rough and veiny, and the simple, stout stem grows from two to twelve feet high. This is rather an aspiring weed, which furnishes the lowland landscape in sum- mer with the most consummately aesthetic pink tone which it is possible to imagine. A good patch of Joe-Pye weed under a hazy August sky produces one of those delicious bits of cool pink, set in dull sage- green, such as an impressionist likes to paint. The 14 Bonesct. 194 FAMILIAR FEATURES OF THE ROADSIDE. commonest weed by the roadside becomes one of the most beautiful tilings in the world when the strength of its color is portrayed on the impressionist's can- vas. We may look at it skeptically, but the artist reveals a real not an imagined beauty, which all of us have eyes to see quite as well as he. If the general color effect of Joe-Pye weed is attractive, the delicate beauty of white snakeroot (Eupatorium ageratoides) is greater. This beautiful weed grows beside nearly every woodland road in the North. The flowers are dainty copies of the soft, wool- ly blossoms of the ageratum in our gardens ; the leaves are ovate-pointed, long-stemmed, and coarse-toothed. The whole character of the plant is smooth, not hairy, and its slenderer stems White Snakeroot. grow from three to four feet high. It is one of the refined members of the Eupatoriwn family group. Passing the multitudinous golden-rods and asters, to the most important of which I have devoted a chapter further on, we come to two of the common- THE TALL MIDSUMMER WEEDS. 195 est shorter weeds of the roadside : these are robin's plantain (Erigeron bellidifolius) and daisy fleabane (Erigeron strigosus). The former looks like a blue aster out of season ; it blooms in May and June along moist banks and shaded byways. The latter appears like a miniature aster, either perfectly white or slightly tinged purple ; it blooms from early June to late September. Both of these plants grow, at most, not over twenty inches high. The sweet scabi- ous (Erigeron annuus\ however, is a plant with a more imposing presence. It is a tall weed, usually three and sometimes five feet high, with a stout, much-branched stem beset with little hairs, and nar- row upper, but broader lower (coarsely toothed) leaves. The white or purplish flowers have short rays and broad, dull -yellow centers. This is a very common weed in the waste places beside the road, and one which I often find in company with the coarse bur- dock. Next among our tall weeds (but these are not so very tall) are the familiar white everlastings. Pearly everlasting (Anaphalis margaritacea) is quite the handsomest species. It grows from one to two feet high, and the stem is leafy to the top which expands in a large, broad head of white flowers. The best way to distinguish this species from the common ones is to examine the little petals (really scales of 196 FAMILIAR FEATURES OF THE ROADSIDE. the involucre) under the magnifying glass ; if these are white, obtuse, and rounded, radiating with age, the flower is that of the pearly species ; if they are ovate and oblong but still obtuse, the flower is one of the species Gnaphalium polycephalum ; if they are yellowish white, oval, and pointed, the flower is that of G. decurrens. Other differences between the three species, all of which are common on our roadsides which pass the hill- side pastures, are these : G. polycephalum grows from one to three feet high and is fra- grant ; its leaves are lance-shaped with narrowed base and wavy margins, the upper surface free from wooliness. G. decurrens grows about two feet high, and its narrower leaves partly clasp and extend down the stem ; they are cottony on both sides. The leaves of A. margaritacea are long, lance-shaped, quite green above, and they clasp the stem. Another familiar wayside weed, one of those tramps long since arrived from Europe but still " on the road," is elecampane (Inula Elecampane. THE LOWLANDS. JOE-PYE WEED. THE TALL MIDSUMMER WEEDS. 107 Helenium). This is a tall, stout herb, with stems from three to five feet high, whose mucilaginous roots have been used as a horse medicine. The flowers are yellow with extremely narrow rays and coarse yellow disks ; the leaves are large and woolly beneath, the upper ones clasping the stem slightly, and the lower ones distinctly stemmed. Elecampane is usually found on damp ground where the road passes the swamp, in which thousands of grasshoppers and crickets swell the grand chorus of a midsummer day's song. The drowsy music is not easily separated in my mind from a weedy wilderness of burdock, golden -rod, and ele- campane ; for that matter we do not have to peer beyond the topmost leaves of the latter plant to see a musician or two ; undoubtedly, if we look sharp, we will behold a grasshopper (more properly speak- ing, a locust) sitting contentedly on his high perch, a listener if not a performer. His name is Melano- plus bivittatus, and he with his red-legged cousin, Melanoplus femur-rubum, the commonest of our field locusts or grasshoppers, finds the succulent leaf of the Inula furnishes a very delectable luncheon in the middle of a hot day. These two insects are always perched on the big, dusty leaves of the road- side. I have never seen either of them alight and sit still ; they always turn at least a quarter of the way around, and thus make sure of covering the 198 FAMILIAR FEATURES OF THE ROADSIDE. four points of the compass in as many acrobatic leaps. We now come to the tallest member of the Com- posite family, the ragweed (Ambrosia trifida\ which grows from four to twelve and occa- sionally eighteen feet high. This ex- traordinary plant is commonly found in waste places. Its tall, straight stem with large, deeply three-lobed leaves and terminal stalks of green- ish flowers is one of the most striking things of the highway bor- der. In the fall, if a dried dead stalk is broken, we will find it contains an unsubstantial white pith with a sheen like frostwork. The tall and slender but stout-stemmed ragweed when growing in damp, rich soil, often shoots beyond the twelve- foot mark. I have found one speci- men which measured over thirteen feet, and William Hamilton Gibson records one that measured eighteen feet four inches. Black-eyed Susan (Rudbehia hirta) is the next flower which engages our The Eagweed.. attention ; its deep golden, orange-yel- THE TALL MIDSUMMER WEEDS. 199 low rays and its purple-brown " cone " are familiar to us all. But few of the flowers are left by mid- summer they were in their prime in early July. It is not a tall plant rarely a few stems stand two feet high. Our common garden sunflower (Helian- thus annuus) is a near relative of Rudbekia. An allied species often found on the roadsides of the North and East is Helianthus giganteus, a small flower with bright-yellow rays and a fairly good yellow center ; this prefers the shaded nooks and corners of fields and wood- lands. Not far from the sunflower, perhaps in some moist spot near a passing brook, we may find we have come in contact with the troublesome weed named beggar-ticks (Bidens fron- dosa) ; wherever we have touched the plant our clothing is covered with its ex- .ceedingly tenacious, two - pronged seed vessels. The insignificant flowers are Beggar-ticks, rayless, and rusty yellow in tone, and the leaves have from three to five divisions. This uncomfortable roadside weed is from two to six feet high ; it blooms from June to October. Also in the wet ground there is every chance of finding (at least as far North as Pennsylvania and Connecticut) the budding stems of the tall sneeze- 200 FAMILIAR FEATURES OF THE ROADSIDE. Sneezeweed. weed (Hdenium autumnale), which may be from one to six feet high. The flowers, about half an inch broad, are yellow-rayed and have duller yellow disks ; sometimes the brighter rays droop. The leaves are lance-shaped and toothed. This weed blooms in September. Along our roadsides in the East is a common European weed whose white-rayed flowers closely resemble daisies ; this is the May- weed or chamomile (Anthemis Cotu- la). Its finely cut leaves and small flower heads, with yellow centers in high relief, are sufficient means for its recognition ; but, by bruising the leaves the strong familiar odor of chamomile proves the identity of the low-grow- ing plant beyond a doubt. The common daisy (Chry- santhemum LeucantJiemum) we may find still in bloom beside the chamomile. Golden ragwort or squawweed (Senecio aureus) is common in the lowlands, and blooms as early as May or June. It grows from one to three feet high, has a very variable leaf, and bears pret- ty golden-yellow flowers which look like small, deep yellow daisies. It is one of the first mem- bers of the Composite family to bloom, and we THE TALL MIDSUMMER WEEDS. 201 will hardly find a flower left by the first of Au- gust. If we should happen to pass a wooded clearing which has been burned over, here we will see the coarse, heavy, grooved stems of the fire- weed (Erechtites hieracifolia\ with its alternate, lance - shaped, cut - toothed leaves waving in the passing breeze. The stem grows from one to five feet high and terminates in an ample panicle of small white flowers somewhat tubular in shape. It is a rank-smelling (often hairy stemmed) weed of unattractive appearance. But quite its equal in disagreeable odor is the common burdock (Arctium Lap- pa\ which one invariably finds in the waste ground beside some old, abandoned farmhouse. Every one Fireweed. knows how tenacious the little hooked tips of the burs are ; children frame baskets with the clinging things, and those who visit the deserted house on the neglected byway, usually carry away numerous burry souvenirs of the occasion on their clothing. But burdock has an aesthetic if not a homely interest, for the artist finds it an indispen- 202 FAMILIAR FEATURES OF THE ROADSIDE. sable and picturesque accompaniment of the "old farmhouse " which is the theme of his picture. The Canada thistle (Cnicus arvensis) is another dweller in the highway and the pasture which came to us from Europe. Gray calls it "a vile pest in fields and meadows." The flower heads are not more than an inch long and very numerous ; the tips are lilac-magenta. The common thistle (Cnicus lanceolatus\ with the large and handsome flower, is also naturalized from Europe. The base of the deeply cut leaf runs down the stem in prickly wings ; the flowers are also lilac-magenta. Our tallest thistle (C. altissimus) is common in copses and on the borders of the road and field from Massachusetts to Minnesota and Southward. Its stem, from three to ten feet high, is leafy quite to the flower head, which is purple or rarely white, and from one and a half to two inches long. The leaves are very woolly beneath, wavy, and the topmost ones are not very deeply cut. This species is indigenous. On sandy roads near the coast, from Massachusetts to Virginia, is a yellow thistle (C. horridulus), with a stout stem one to three feet high, partly clasping, smooth, green, yellow- prickled leaves and flower heads, about two inches long and an inch and a half broad, yellow, or rare- ly purple-topped, and surrounded at the base by a THE TALL MIDSUMMER WEEDS. 203 circle of prickly leaflets (bracts). This species is also indigenous. In early September we will probably see the little yellowbird picking at the ripened this- tles in the pasture ; he is after the seed, and if we watch him we will see how nicely he aids Nature by setting whole clouds of thistle down afloat. The most perfect of all blue wild flowers now follows in our list : it is par excellence the roadside beauty. This is chicory (Cicorium Intybus\ a dan- delionlike flower whose charming misty blue set in soft green must be seen in broad spreading masses to be appreciated. The flower is too familiar to need description here. Its roots are ground, roast- ed, and used either to flavor coffee or to furnish a straight substitute for it. Still another dandelionlike flower we will see on the rattlesnake weed (Hieracium venosum). This scrawny stemmed plant grows from one to two feet high, and bears on its many branches small yellow flower heads composed of strap-shaped florets. The leaves, clustered at the root, conspicuously purple- veined above and purple-tinged beneath, are oblong, thin, pale, and slightly, if at all, toothed. A hawkweed (Hieracium Canadense) which is quite common on the woodland roads in the North bears yellow flowers slightly resembling the species described above. It has a simple leafy stem grow- 204 FAMILIAR FEATURES OF THE ROADSIDE. ing from one to three feet high, bearing at the top a somewhat flat flower cluster. The leaves are lance- shaped or oblong, acute, and sparingly coarse-toothed ; the uppermost leaves slightly clasp the stem. I have found this flower in bloom in northern New Hampshire in August. Hieracium scabrum is a roughish, hairy stemmed species with a stout, simple stalk two to three feet high, having reversed egg-shaped or oval leaves without teeth, and a nar- row cluster of many small flower heads which are thickly clothed with dark, glandular bristles. This is a very common species of dry, open woods, and it frequently appears on the shady roadside. We now come to the last sec- tion of importance in the Composite family, the tall Prenanthes. The commonest member of this group, lion's foot or gall of the earth (Prenanthes serpentaria\ we are quite sure to meet in some shady stretch of the highway. This weed bears pret- ty, drooping, bell-shaped flowers, variously colored with green, dull purple, and dull yellow- white. The Hieracium Canadense. THE TALL MIDSUMMER WEEDS. 205 leaves are somewhat angularly shaped ; the lower ones are variously three- to seven -lobed, with mar- gined stems ; the upper ones are oblong, lance - shaped, mostly undivided, and they almost clasp the main stem. This plant will also be found in the tangled brush of the clear- ing, where its inconspicuous flowers are scarcely relieved against a confused and green background; it blooms in late August. The tall rattlesnake root (Pre- . nanthes altissima) is an imposing species common in the rich wood- lands of the ^orth, which some- times attains a height of seven feet. It bears a long narrow pani- cle of inconspicuous green and dull- white flowers, which top off the Prenanthes serpentaria. slender weed with a slightly curved, loose, leafy cluster, and also spring from the junction of the leaves with the main stem. The leaves are variously shaped, but all have distinct stems ; they are triangular, ovate, toothed or cleft, and frequently three-to five-parted. Still another species, P. alba, sometimes called common white lettuce, is also quite 206 FAMILIAR FEATURES OF THE ROADSIDE. frequently found on the woodland road in the North ; this grows from two to four feet high and bears in- conspicuous white or greenish flor- ets, enveloped in purplish scales. The leaves are also very variable. These three species of Prenan- thes are characterized by droop- ing flowers. Another species . common throughout the extreme North is P. racemosa ; this bears pur- plish flowers which are nearly erect. The stem rises from two to five feet in height, and bears ob- long, lance-shaped leaves, toothed, smooth, the upper ones slightly clasping the main stem, and the lower ones ta- pering into margined stems next to the main stalk. The tall rattlesnake root has but one rival of imposing stature ; that is the marvelous ragweed. Whenever we see a slender climbing stalk beside the road, it is pretty sure to be one of these two giant weeds, which spend the greater part of spring and summer in an effort to reach the sky. Prenanthes altissima. THE FRANCONIA NOTCH, FROM CAMPTON, GRAFTON CO., N. H. CHAPTER XIII. THE BEES WHICH WE PASS BY. THE common honeybee (Apis mellifica)* is an omnipresent little creature which is always in search of honey and pollen among the roadside flowers. What is most interesting about this insect is its family history, which I will take it for granted every one knows. The marvelous economy of the beehive we have long since become familiar with through the writings of Agassiz and Langstroth ; f and as for Langstroth, we ought to be proud to know that the world is indebted to him, an Amer- ican, for enlarging the science of bee culture and in- venting the one perfect and ingenious hive in univer- sal use to-day. In late June, when the patches of raspberry bram- bles are in full bloom beside the road which leads * The Italian bee (Apis Ligustica) is quite as common, f Lorenzo Lorraine Langstroth was born in Philadelphia, December 25, 1810. 207 208 FAMILIAR FEATURES OF THE ROADSIDE. northward through Campton to the Franconia Notch, we will be sure to find the Italian honeybee busily engaged there. It is always the worker bee, never any other, and we can only call her a female in a limited sense of the term, as the queen or mother bee is the one perfectly developed female in the hive ; she only lays the eggs.* The worker, we can easily see by a glass, is busy dipping her long, triple- shaped tongue in the nectar. This she draws up by the trough-shaped middle division of the tongue, and it is conducted into the honey-sac (the equiva- lent of a stomach) ; on the way it undergoes a chem- ical change from cane sugar to grape sugar. This is accomplished by the admixture of a salivary secre- tion of the bee with the flower nectar. The bee's stomach is furnished with muscles which enable her to compress it and thus ejaculate the honey into the comb cell. We will see, therefore, that honey by the time it reaches the hive is no longer simple flower nectar any more than a raw oxhide is shoe leather. But honey is not the only thing which the bee gathers, and Watts did not record in his familiar verses the other important part of her work ; she * Very rarely, however, when a colony has been queenless for some time, a few workers are sufficiently developed to be capable of laying eggs ; but these eggs only produce drones. (Langstroth.) THE BEES WHICH WE PASS BY. 209 very often collects pollen. This she carries in certain bristle-edged hollows in the sides of her hind legs, called pollen baskets. I rarely find a bee on one of my garden flowers With her baskets empty; she usually has them crammed full to overflowing with the golden dust. Dust it looks like to our dull eyes, but under the micro- scope it takes on the loveliest forms, several of which I have sketched. However, the bee does not gather it for aesthetic reasons ; she wants it for food, not only for herself but particu- larly for storage in the cells of the bee mother's brood. If both honey and pollen can be gathered from the same blossom, the industrious bee will The Worker Bee not leave until she has collected a good and magnified load of each. Wherever she begins there she will stay, no matter if the pollen is not quite as plentiful as it is in some other flower ; con- sequently, the contents of the baskets are nearly al- ways one color, either yellow, orange, or brown. In fact, the bee does not care for " mixed fruit," and it has been explained that the mixed kinds do not pack so well together. When the load of pollen is brought home it is brushed out of the baskets into the cell, packed down very carefully, covered per- 15 210 FAMILIAR FEATURES OF THE ROADSIDE. haps with honey, and the cell is sealed over with wax ready for future use. Very early in the morning, when my ranunculus poppies are in full bloom, they are alive with thou- sands of bees intent upon gathering pollen. The musical hum of their wings can be heard thirty feet away, and so intent are they upon the pleasant task, that occasionally I can stroke a fuzzy, pollen- besmeared back with my finger tip and meet with no sign of remonstrance. The bumblebee, however, objects ; but she, too, is altogether pre- occupied, and she only demurs by kick- ing up her hind legs. Nearly all the bees which visit my garden are Italians. They are distinguished from the com- mon bees by the five golden bands on The Italian Bee. their abdomen, the middle one of which should be distinctly visible ; the other four are less pronounced, especially if the little creature is not stuffed full of honey. This Italian bee (Apis Ligus- tica) was introduced into this country in 1859 by Messrs. Wagner and Colvin, of Baltimore, and its superiority in every way to the common bee is con- ceded by all apiarists. It is less sensitive to cold, more peaceable, less apt to sting, more industrious, fights better against the enemies of the hive, and is more easily handled than the common bee ; the lat- THE BEES WHICH WE PASS BY. 211 ter is slate-gray in color and varies greatly in size, but is generally a trifle plumper than the Italian bee. The common black bee was introduced into Florida by the Spaniards some few years previous to 1763. Longfellow evidently knew that the honeybee was not indigenous to this country, for he makes Hiawatha say of the white men : Wheresoe'er they move, before them Swarms the stinging fly, the Ahmo, Swarms the bee, the honey-maker. One of the most interesting facts about the work of the bee is the method she pursues in the manufac- ture of wax ; this is evolved by a sort of meditative process somewhat akin to German philosophy, except that I must admit the irrelevancy of mind in this particularly case. The workers proceed to gorge themselves with honey ; then they hang together in a series of chains from the roof of the hive, each one clasping hands with her neighbor and remaining in that quiescent position for twenty-four hours or so. This inactivity produces a result similar to that which follows upon the cooping up and overfeeding of a barnyard fowl ; the bees begin to grow fat that is, they exude wax in the shape of delicate scales from eight small pouches on the under side of the abdomen. Honey is therefore converted into wax in 212 FAMILIAR FEATURES OF THE ROADSIDE. much the same way that food is converted into fat. But these wax scales are so tiny that four hundred of them would scarcely outweigh a kernel of corn ; and as for the quantity of honey which the bees must consume to promote this interesting operation, that seems incredible, for it has been estimated that no less than from seven to ten pounds of it are required for the making of one pound of wax. What an expensive process ! The remarkably beauti- ful queen or mother bee is a veritable aristocrat. No- tice how different her figure A, the Drone ; B, the Queen Bee. ... , . , IT* is from that of the plebeian worker or the drone. Her wings are proportionally short and as fine as gauze ; her body is long and tapering, and underneath it is golden yellow. She is rarely, if ever, seen away from the hive, and then, perhaps, only when the bees are swarming. Nearly all of her life is spent indoors, and her time is quite absorbed in heavy maternal cares. In the laying of eggs the barnyard hen is not to be mentioned in the same breath with her, as in breeding time she can lay at the rate of three hundred and sixty eggs per minute, and sometimes she produces not less than thirty-five hundred in one day! If she made as THE BEES WHICH WE PASS BY. 213 much fuss about it as an ordinary hen, what an inter- minable racket would greet our ears from the beehive ! The flowers and trees which line the side of the road offer stores of honey for the bee ; let me men- tion some of them, for they are by no means the strong-scented ones. The raspberry (it bears the finest flavored honey) stands at the head of the list, next comes white clover. Red clover is hardly eligible because the bee's tongue is not long enough to reach down to the bottom of the blossom ; so we must leave this flower to the bumblebee whose tongue is longer. Then comes the dandelion, rich in both pollen and honey, and the wild rose, melilot, Canada thistle, all fruit trees, red and sugar maples, linden, all willows (these furnish both pollen and honey), Judas tree, yellowwood, locust, tulip tree (one of the greatest honey-producing trees in the world), haw- thorn, snapdragon, larkspur, borage, chamomile, mi- gnonette, alyssum, coreopsis, sunflower, boneset, iron- weed, fireweed, rudbekia, thoroughwort, catnip, horsemint, dead nettle, basil, peas, beans, false indigo, chicory, golden-rod, aster, and, last but not least, that characteristic roadside flower, self-heal (jSrunella vulgaris\ a blue-violet flower which is the especial favorite of the bumblebee. I should not omit to include the common milkweed, but this is a great snare for the honeybee. 214 FAMILIAR FEATURES OF THE ROADSIDE. The milkweed flower's pollen is gathered in a compact mass inclosed by a tiny sack. These sacks are connected together by threads which terminate in a single sticky gland ; this adheres to the feet and the outer parts * of the poor bee's tongue, and she soon is so ensnarled with threads and pollen bags JL o that she falls to the ground and perishes. The bee can, however, clean herself off if she is not too much encumbered, and under the magnifying glass it is quite amusing to watch her " tidy up." She uses her saliva for water, cleans off her feet and legs, combs her antennse with her fore legs, which are es- pecially constructed for the purpose, smoothes down her wings by brushes attached to her heels, even brushes her eyes instead of wiping them, and when she has completed her toilet flies away with an evi- dent feeling that she is now " fit to be seen." She does not fly slowly either, for she can champion the fleetest bicyclist and the most famous race horse by a record of more than a mile in two minutes. The bee's life is rather short, not over thirty -five or forty days long in the busy season of summer. In winter, however, a period of comparative idleness, it is estimated to extend over a much greater length of * The labial palpi and maxilla, accessory parts of the tongue proper. THE BEES WHICH WE PASS BY. 215 time ; but with the exception of the queen, no bee lives to be a yeax* old. The bumblebee or humblebee (Jfombw)* is even more commonly a searcher after honey on the road- side than the honeybee. It is scarcely possible to see a patch of red clover, or a little clump of the pretty blue Jtrunella vulyaris at our feet, with- out some one of the blossoms holding a golden- hipped, smoky-winged, clumsy visitor, one of the very best of flower friends because the most useful pollen disseminator in the world. The humblebee is so called because it builds its nest on the ground beside the grasses, or under stones. The colonies of bumblebees are small compared with those of the The Queen Bumblebeo honeybees ; sometimes there are (Bomim PennsyUa- nicum). as many as three hundred in a family, but frequently not more than fifty or sixty. In each nest there are four kinds of bees the queens, small females, males, and workers. In au- tumn all except the queens die ; these remain dor- mant in the deep seclusion of some hole near the nest until the warmth of returning spring awakens them from their winter lethargy, and prompts them * There are about forty different species. 216 FAMILIAR FEATURES OF THE ROADSIDE. to look about for some suitable spot in which to lay their eggs. The situation being duly selected, the bee goes a-foraging for honey and pollen ; these she works together in a mass and on it deposits her eggs. Yery soon the eggs are hatched, and the grubs after eating and growing fat finally envelop themselves in silken cocoons ; then the mother bee covers the cocoons with wax. Eventually the young bees mature and emerge from their cells, full-fledged workers. This modus operandi is repeated until several broods are hatched, the small females and the males being produced about the middle of sum- mer, and still later the queens from the final batch of eggs. The bumblebee is a little glut- ton, either on the roadside clover * The Bumblebee Qr the den gunflower> (Bombus vagans}. watched more than one cram it- self so full of honey from my sunflowers that ap- parently it was helplessly drunk with the potent sweet. The thistle seems to produce the same effect on the greedy insect, and, despite all urgent invitations to move on, it either clings to the flower or drops to the ground with a hopeless, maudlin kind of a buzz ! There are insect characters often seen among the * See also Chap. XI, page 180. THE BEES WHICH WE PASS BY. 217 The Robber Fly. roadside flowers which so closely resembles in appear- ance the golden bumblebee that I must draw atten- tion to the points which distinguish them apart. One is called Eristalis flavipes. It is a near relative of the drone % and a harmless sipper of honey. The other is called the robber fly, and its Latin name is Laphria, or Da- syllis tergissa. This bloodthirsty indi- vidual hangs about the flowers of my garden, or carries itself with in no- o > cent mein on the roadside golden - rod, as though it was bent on honey ; but let a small insect approach too near and the murderous hypocrite will pounce upon it, thrust a horny bill in its side, and draw every drop of blood from its body. We can always identify him by two or three unmistakable characteris- tics : he has only two wings, not four like the bumblebee or any other bee ; then his shoulders are dull-gold color and are not humped like those of the bumblebee ; besides, there is the for- midable horny bill which, under a glass, bears no resemblance whatever to the bumblebee's honey tongue. Still another robber fly (Promachus bastardi\ of a wasplike figure, is frequently seen among the roadside flowers. Eristalis iiavipes. 218 FAMILIAR FEATURES OF THE ROADSIDE. One word, now, about bees' stings. As for the bumblebee, she is good-natured beyond measure, and the honeybee very rarely stings. Of course, all male bees and wasps have no stings, so they can be handled with impunity. A little calmness in the presence of numberless bees will go a great way toward pre- venting a painful misunderstanding; but to thrash the air with one's hat is to invite hostility. It is often said that if the honeybee stings once, she seals her own fate and must inevitably perish. This is not so ; it altogether depends upon circum- stances. The tip of her sting is not like that of a hornet, smooth and needlelike; it is barbed with a number of very tiny points set laterally, so that when she stings deeply we will say about a fourteenth of an inch down these catch on the flesh like the teeth of a