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About The west shore. (Portland, Or.) 1875-1891 | View Entire Issue (March 1, 1889)
118 THE TOST SHORE. u they are apt to pick up notes entirely foreign to the aim they have learned and inject them into the aflat of the song in a very unharmonious and laugh able way. This bird is a great favorite with fanciers. The male ia a little over six inches in length. Its bill (a a deep, ihining black, the top of the head, the chin, wingi and tail are black, with white tips on the wing; the back and base of the neck are elate gray, often having a roseate hoe, and the sides of the head, throat, breaat and abdomen are a light red with a alight chestnut tinge. Not the leaiit musical of these newcomers is the skylark (riWi nrmwix, .), a field bird which will probably bo the least familiar to the denizens of the city of them alL On the contrary, so rapidly does tho lark multiply, it will be as familiar a sight in the country as tho present field or meadow lark, to which it is closely allieL In fact, the Germans so call it, their name for tho bird being fvhllcrchc. From early in tho spring until late in the fall the sweet song of tho lark ia hoard, as the bird darts skyward or flutters high up in the air. Its notes are strong and full and can bo distinctly heard when the singer has become a mero ipeck in the sky. It seldom sings eicept when in flight Larks are a good table bird, and thousand, of them are sent to market, but they mul tiply to rapidly that their numbers remain undimin ished even in such a thickly-settled country as En gland. In color tho skylark is of varying shades of brown, mingled with white and an occasional tinge of yellow. Tho aMoraon is a yellowish white. The starling (ifumuj vuhjnrit, L)0t snr, is a handsome bird with dark mottled feathers and a long, bright yellow leak. They ansemble in great flocks in low marshy district, and seem to bo regularly organized under tho command of one of their number, whose voico they obey with a promptness and concert of ac tion that is marvelous, A vast cloud of these birds losing overhead and darkening tho sky, will sudden ly beoomo almost invisible by tho instantaneous turn mg of each bird on hi. sido, thus presenting to the cyo only ;tho Mge ;of the wings. Flocks will separat msion, will wWl with tho greatest accL will unite again, and execute other maneuvers with mihUry precise Starling, are easily tameTa Income amusing pet, being Imirablo talkers d corning to pfik vord, M The .inging quail (,W1nil ,,, ; MhMimhe, i. cicely allied to the Yir?. It is a great game bird in Kurot and i. ! aetUvl by the thousand. durinV J fTl nations. Quail. -jgftK prcMe the female, by severaU quently falling a prey to the sportsman in greater numbtrs than the gentler sex. They are polygamous, in their domestio life, and the males fight fierce bat. ties for the possession of their harems. In this re. spect they resemble the barn yard fowl, and are ver? pugnacious and courageous. In some countries they are trained for fighting the same as game fowls. It closely resembles the Virginia quail in form and col. or, the chief difference being light streaks of white on the neck and back and a browner tint on the ab domen and breast In size it is somewhat smaller than the " bob white," but the probabilities are that people generally would fail to notice the difference between these American and German cousins. Of the birds contributed by the Alpine club, the most important, and one that will, no doubt, become the best known, is the celebrated mocking bird of the south. It is universally acknowledged as one of the most wonderful of feathered songsters, and it cot only possesses a remarkable voice and song of its own, but is endowed with powers of imitation of the songs of other birds that none of its rivals can equal Nor is this a matter of education, for it can instantly repeat the notes of a strange bird with astonishing exactness of tone. This bird (mimus pohjgbtius) seems to consider Mason & Dixon's line the boundary of his dominions, seldom being seen north of Ken tucky, Missouri and Kansas. Not only will it imitate the notes of other birds, but the voices of animals and men as well, and even mimics the sound of ma chinery and any other curious noise it may hear. In its imitations it not only deceives the sportsman but other birds as well, wooing some of them by piping the love notes of their mates, or frightening othen by uttering the shrill cries of birds of prey. It fiercely fights for the defence of its young, and many a black snake, its worst enemy, while endeavoring to feast upon its eggs, has been savagely attacked and killed by the dauntless bird. Rearing mocking birdi is a diflicult task, and an adult male bird, well do mesticated, is valued highly. In color it is a doll brown, the whole under part of the body being paler and inclining to gray, and the wings and tail miied white and dark brown. One of the prettiest of all is the bob-o-link, or bob-lmkum (dolichonyx aryzivorus), known also ai the rice troopial, rice bird, rice bunting and reed bird. It ranges all the Atlantio states, spending ita winters in the West Indies and tropical portions of the mainland. Its song is very peculiar and varies greatly in character. Its ordinary cry is simple and unharmonioua, but its love song, with which it wood iw mate, is one of the sweetest and most wonderful uttered by a feathered throat, its rapidly-uttered notes harmonizing like the united voices of several I