mine obliges me to concede leadership to you, Iron-leg. Arrogance is your greatness-and great it is as the world goes; for by that you have the most skillful, the strongest, the most gifted hands in the community where you reside to turn your grindstone. Imputed talents show in you fruits like real ones do in others, because you conduct a kind of presidency over the riches of other minds, and even claim that doing so is exercising the highest talent of all. Grant you, Iron-leg, it is the talent of kings and rulers; but you will never get a presidency over the intellectual progeny of the tramping old stargazing bachelor, whose legs I saw a while ago, nor over the poet's song, the painter's pencil, or the philosopher's microscope. You Bless me! Here is my coffee and toast, cold as a dog's nose! Now I must be after my own legs. THE FOOD OF BIRDS. "HOW [OW rich our Lord God must be!" says Martin Luther in his Table-Talk; "I do verily believe that to feed the sparrows in Germany costs Him more than all the revenue of the King of France." What do all the birds eat? Where do they all find food enough to support their own lives and the lives of their young? These are questions which are continually coming up in everyday life, together with that other set of reproachful queries as to why the birds don't eat up the caterpillars and canker-worms, and let alone cherries and strawberries. In view of the very general interest which attaches to the matter, and of the frequency with which the abovementioned questions are asked, it seems strange that so small an amount of organized knowledge bearing upon this subject has as yet been collected. ty-four, on the fifth twenty-five, on the sixth thirty, and on the seventh thirty-one worms. These quantities, however, seemed to be insufficient, and, as the bird appeared to be losing plumpness and weight, the Professor began to weigh both the bird and its food, and to tabulate the results of these weighings. By this table it appears that though the food was increased to forty worms, weighing twenty pennyweights, on the eleventh day the weight of the bird rather fell off, and it was not until the fourteenth day when the bird ate sixty-eight worms, weighing thirty-four pennyweights, that his weight began to increase. On this day the. weight of the bird was twenty-four pennyweights; he therefore ate forty-one per cent. more than his own weight in twelve hours; weighing after it twenty-nine pennyweights, or fifteen per cent. less than the food he had eaten in that time. On the fifteenth day a small quantity of raw meat was offered to the bird, and it being found that this was readily eaten it was afterward employed to the gradual exclusion of worms. As an offset to the objection that the earthworm contains but a small amount of solid nutritious matter, the bird was fed upon the twenty-seventh day exclusively on clear beef, in quantity twenty-three pennyweights; at night the bird weighed fifty-two pennyweights, this being but little more than twice the amount of flesh consumed during the day, no account being taken of the water, earth, and gravel, of which large quantities were daily swallowed. This presents a wonderful contrast with the amount of food required by the cold-blooded vertebrates, fishes, and reptiles, many of which can live for months without food, and also with that required by mammalia. A man at this rate should eat about seventy pounds of flesh per day, and drink five or six gallons of water. With regard to the question, how can this immense amount of food required by the young birds be supplied by the parents? Professor Treadwell enters into the following computation : Suppose a pair of old robins with the usual number of four young ones, these would daily require, according to the consumption of the bird subjected to experiment, two hundred and fifty worms, or their equivalent in insects or other food; suppose the parents to work ten hours, or six hundred minutes, to procure this supply; this would be a worm in every two and four tenth's minutes; or each parent must procure a worm or its equivalent in less than five minutes during ten hours, in addition to the food required for its own support. But after all the Professor is compelled to confess his inability to reconcile the calculation with actual observation of robins, which he has never seen return to their nests oftener than once in ten minutes. As to the large amount of food which some birds are capable of absorbing there is a set of thoroughly scientific experiments by Professor Treadwell, of Cambridge, upon the young of the American robin. A couple of vigorous, half-grown birds having been selected in the early part of June, the Professor began to feed them with earth-worms, giving three of these to each bird the first night; next day he gave them ten worms each, which they ate ravenously; but thinking this quantity of food to be greater than that which could naturally be supplied by their parents he limited the birds to this allowance. On the third day he gave to each bird eight worms in the forenoon; but in the afternoon he found one of them becoming feeble, and soon after it refused food and died; on opening it, he found the crop, gizzard, and intestines entirely empty, and concluded therefore that it had died from want of sufficient food, the effect of hunger being perhaps increased by cold, as the thermometer was only about 60°. The other bird, still vigorous, he put in a warm-second day after having been captured, after er place, and increased its food, giving it the third day fifteen worms, on the fourth day twen The bird experimented upon by Professor Treadwell attained its full size on the thirty which time it ceased to increase in weight; its diet from this time on amounted on the average to eighteen pennyweights of beef or thirty-six pennyweights of earth-worms per day. From the fact that the bird thus continued in its confinement, with certainly much less exercise than in the wild state, to eat one-third of its weight of clear flesh daily, the Professor concludes that the food consumed by it when young was not much more than must always be provided by the parents of wild birds. But it is more particularly with regard to the quality of the food of birds that we know so little. In the pewee and the king-bird the naturalist sees a couple of large “fly-catchers," of exceedingly interesting habits, to which the largest courtesies should be extended; while in the eyes of many farmers these birds are simply malevolent destroyers of bees; and it may well be possible that, by destroying insectivorous insects as well as bees, these birds really do more harm than good, looking of course from the lowest utilitarian point of view. of the vireos and wood-warblers no doubt find an abundance of moths and other insects to supply their wants; while the dietary of the various woodpeckers seems to be tolerably well understood, though it has lately been asked by a distinguished ornithologist whether, after all, the country boy's name, "sap-sucker," as applied to some of the woodpeckers, is altogether a misnomer? But how is it with the swallows? Take the hardy "white-bellied swallow" (Hirundo bicolor) for an example, as he follows the sun northward with a seemingly most indiscreet haste. What does he find stirring in the insect line during the first days of his arrival? What do the bluebirds eat from day to day during their long sojourn? And so on with all the rest. Pro With regard to the robin all these questions have been answered very satisfactorily—at least in so far as a single locality is concerned-by Professor Jenks, of Middleborough, Massachusetts, whose very interesting report to the Massachusetts Horticultural Society will be found in the published Journal of that Association. fessor Jenks, having determined to make the food of the robin a subject of special investigation throughout an entire year, in order that some positive conclusion might be arrived at in reference to the utility of this bird to the horticulturist, adopted the following plan of investigation: (1.) to obtain birds at daybreak, mid-day, and sunset; (2.) to obtain birds from both the village and the country; and (3.) to preserve in alcohol the contents of each gizzard. Beginning with the first week of March, 1858, specimens were actually examined at least weekly, and most of the time daily, to December, and during the winter months at least semimonthly. Everybody is aware that the crow eats a few grains of corn at the time of planting, and that the robin eats cherries and strawberries with avidity when these are to be had, but what do most of us know of the food of the crow, or of the robin, during the other fifty weeks of the year, more than that the latter is occasionally to be seen regaling himself upon earth-worms and the former upon carrion? that the contents of the stomachs of a dozen or two of crows have been examined and recorded by naturalists? and that the species is accused of sucking the eggs and destroying the young of various small birds which nest upon the ground? By the standard works upon Ornithology we are told that the crow devours insects, grubs, worms; that he destroys mice, moles, and other small quadrupeds; and that he will eat snakes, frogs, and the like, as well as fruits, seeds, and vegeta. bles. But the testimony is so meagre that we may well pause to question its worth when called to sit in judgment upon the moot question whether or no, year in year out, the crow does commit more of good than of evil as regards man-erated food. But the birds killed in the latter kind. Then there is the cherry-bird, with his striking traits of beauty, beneficence, and evil, today sweeping away the canker-worms as with fire and sword; and to-morrow cleaning out the cherry-trees as effectually as if a flight of locusts had passed over the land; and again, a few months later, feasting upon the cedar-berries in the same reckless way. And yet how little do we really know of the ordinary food of the cherry-bird; for with the foregoing items we have accounted for only three or four weeks of his yearly life. It is note-worthy, by-the-way, that, with the Baltimore oriole, the cherry-bird is one of the very few members of the feathered tribe which will greedily eat the hairy caterpillars which infest our orchard trees. The American goldfinch, or black-winged yellow-bird, with his notorious liking for the seeds of dandelions, lettuce, and the thistle, can be followed through a month or two, and some As far as the specimens procured at daybreak were concerned no positive information seems to have been obtained, since the gizzards of these are represented to have been either entirely empty or but partially distended with well-mac part of the day were uniformly filled with food which had been only recently taken. Numbers of male robins made their appearance at Middleborough early in March, but it was not until the second week in April that any female birds were noticed. From the early part of March up to the first of May not a particle of vegetable matter was found in the gizzard of a single bird. Nine-tenths of the whole mass of food examined during this period consisted of a single kind of larva, the Bibio albipennis, of Say, though a great variety of other insects in all stages of growth and development were also met with. Of the larva in question from one to two hundred specimens were frequently taken from a single gizzard, and usually when this larva was found it was the only food in the stomach. During the month of May the Bibio larva entirely disappeared from the gizzards, being replaced, up to the 21st of June, by a variety of insects, or worms only, including spiders, caterpillars, and beetles of the family Elaterida, the parents of the well-known wire-worm so destructive to corn and various seeds at the time of planting. The earth-worm, though a favorite food for the young bird, was found to be eaten but sparingly by the adult. After the 21st of June the Professor began to find strawberries, cherries, and other pulpy fruits, though these were still mixed with insects in the majority of instances; birds captured at a distance from gardens and fruit trees having less fruit and a larger number of insects in their gizzards than those taken near the village, the robin not being an extensive forager. This mixed diet continued from the ripening of the strawberries and cherries until October, the vegetable portion consisting, during August and September, in great part of elder-berries and poke - berries. During the month of October the vegetable diet wholly disappeared, its place being supplied by grasshoppers and other orthopterous insects. Early in November the robins which have passed the summer among us migrate southward-the few immigrants from the north, which are seen by us during the winter months, managing at that time to eke out a miserable existence upon bay-berries, privet-berries, and juniper-berries. most truly carnivorous-which do not at times partake of insects as food. The more carefully one studies the subject, so much the more astonishing does the place which is occupied by insects in the alimentation of birds appear. As every one knows, there are stated seasons of the year when certain kinds of insects make their appearance in large numbers, and at these times it would almost seem that the very abundance of this food induced the birds to partake of it. For example, during the interval when the June-bug is abundant portions of this insect can be found in the stomachs of the greater number of the birds which inhabit France at that season of the year; and the beetle in question is then found also in the stomachs of many quadrupeds, from the little shrew-mouse up to the wolf. M. Prevost asserts his ability to demonstrate, so soon as the details of his researches are made public, that birds are in general much more useful than hurtful to the husbandman, and that even the damage committed at certain moments by the grain-eaters proper is largely compensated for at other times by the consumption of insects by these very birds. He insists, moreover, upon the necessity of seeking for new Somewhat similar in conception to the re- methods of protecting those crops which are liasearches of Professor Jenks, though of much ble to be injured by the feathered race, instead wider scope, are those to which M. Florent Pre- of resorting, as now, to the suicidal policy of vost has devoted himself in France. As one of destroying or seeking to destroy the latter. the naturalists in charge of the famous collec- The influence of food in determining the vagtions at the Garden of Plants in Paris this ob-abond life which is led by many kinds of birds server has had a peculiarly good opportunity to is remarkable. While some animals, without study the question now under discussion. During nearly thirty years he has taken pains to collect and preserve, the contents of the stomachs of all the birds which have been brought to the Museumr, to say nothing of large numbers of specimens procured specially by himself and by the foresters of numerous public and private estates who have interested themselves in his behalf. change of habitation, make out to obtain nourishment throughout the year by resorting to different kinds of food according to the season, others confine themselves exclusively to such aliments as can be obtained only under peculiar conditions of climate, their food being found only at stated periods in any one country. Now, in the case of quadrupeds, when a given species can not adapt itself to changing circumstances, It is to be regretted that the complete details can not obtain continuously the food suitable of M. Prevost's researches have not been pub- for its maintenance, hibernation is the usual lished. As yet we have only an abstract of his resource: the animal simply sleeps through the results, and the promise of a circumstantial ac- unfavorable season. But with birds this curious count of his studies at some future day. Among phenomenon of hibernation does not occur-at the more note-worthy of M. Prevost's conclu- least naturalists have not been able to detect sions may be mentioned the fact that the food of any evidence of its existence; not even enough birds varies according to the age of the bird as to account for the widely-spread popular belief well as according to the season of the year- or prejudice that swallows pass the winter in the the observation of Professor Jenks, that earth- mud of ponds; but instead of that, and equally worms are eaten by young but not by old robins, dependent upon the question of nourishment, being evidently nothing more than the particular we have the still more remarkable phenomenon case of a general law. M. Prevost has ascer- of migration, when, following the calls of huntained also that the young of the greater num-ger, the feathered myriads pass to and fro over ber of granivorous birds are really fed upon in- the countries of the earth. sects, and that even the adults themselves are One curious point noticed by M. Prevost furinsectivorous during the breeding-season. familiar instance of which we have in this country the common chipping sparrow; and the same remark applies to those species of birds which in early spring devour the buds and young leaves of trees. It was found also that there are but few of the birds of prey-even those which are Anishes a remarkable contrast to the insatiable hunger and lack of endurance exhibited by the young robins of Professor Treadwell: it is, that some species of birds are capable, at certain epochs, of living for a long time without food, their stomachs being found to contain at these seasons no alimentary matter whatsoever, but only indigestible substances, such as, most commonly, the feathers of the bird itself in the form of large balls, the purpose of which appears to be to keep the stomach distended. This peculiarity was frequently observed in the various species of grebes, in the winter months, during the prevalence of frost. ogy of Massachusetts, there are probably at least sixty per cent. of these, the habits of which, as regards food, could be thoroughly made out in a few years by a combination of the methods of research last mentioned, and by the united observations of several contemporaneous observers at different stations. Of the very general interest which would attach to a fund of knowledge of this description, and of its great importance, not only to the husbandman, but to all lovers of nature, there can be no question. Is it too much to hope that in this land, where all men are familiar with the value of co-operation and accustomed to the conduct of Societies, there may not be one day established an Association for the Advancement of Knowledge which shall be truly in harmony with the spirit of the times in which we live? Such a Society, possessing somewhere a central office or bureau in charge of competent officers, and sending out ramifications into all sections of our common country, so that it could number among its active members every person of observant habits and scientific tastes throughout the length and breadth of the land, would quickly settle a host of questions, like this of the food of birds, which are too large to be grasped by a single man. EDUCATION OF THE COLORED ONLY af Le Veins a in 1699 by the French, NLY a few years elapsed after the settle It is undeniable that the results obtained by the naturalists above-mentioned are exceedingly valuable; but they serve only the more clearly to indicate the need of a more humane, a more manageable method of inquiry. There are few persons so situated that they could study the subject in the style of M. Prevost, and there are many who would shrink from the wholesale slaughter which is unavoidable in the system of Professor Jenks. What is needed is a method of research which shall not involve the destruction of the bird in order that we may examine the things which are put into its stomach. There is, of course, the familiar method of noting every particular instance in which birds are seen feeding upon any thing the character of which can be well ascertained. The method, if it were perseveringly carried out by a number of different observers, working in connection with each other, and all reporting to a common centre, would undoubtedly lead to valuable results. But besides this there presents itself another plan which, though applying, it is true, to only a portion of the breeding-season, could be so easily carried out that it would seem to be worthy of careful trial. This consists merely of a modification of the school-boy's system of rearing young birds through the intervention of the parent birds. The nest and young birds therein contained being placed within a wire cage, this is left hanging upon the tree from which the nest was taken, so that the parent birds can feed their offspring through the bars of the cage. This they will soon proceed to do, and in a short time will labor for the support of the young birds as tranquilly as if nothing had happened. Now to any one who has ever seen this method put in practice, and has noticed the heedless way in which the young birds push and crowd one another about whenever the parent comes to distribute food among them, it will be evident that there would be little or no difficulty in so arranging matters that a portion of the food proffered by the old birds should fall, not into the open mouths of their offspring, but into the bottom of the cage, whence it could be taken for examination at the convenience of the observer. Little if any thing more would be needed than to so adjust the position of the nest within the cage that the young birds could neither have access to the sides of the cage, nor be able to reach completely to its The early history of this State blends the soupper bars; and in case the food consisted of ber realities of truth with the poetry and roliving insects, some adhesive coating, like glyc-mance of the Middle Ages. The chivalry of erin, for example, would of course be needed at France and Spain watched over the birth of the bottom of the cage. Now taking, for the sake of example, the one hundred and seventy species of land-birds which are enumerated in the Report on the Ornithol before slave labor was introduced to aid in developing its resources and sustaining the colonists. For a century and a half since that period has the contest between freedom and slavery been waged there, and always under circumstances favorable to the latter. In many of the English colonies along the Atlantic coast loud and repeated remonstrances, until the era of the Revolution, were made to the mother country against the introduction of this element among the population; but in the early history of Louisiana we find that no systematic opposition was made to the use of slaves, or apprehension of future evils by their presence. The early governors welcomed slavery as the only means of causing prosperity to visit their country, and the whole moral and political influence of the people was in favor of its general adoption as a part of the political economy of the country. The monarchs of France regarded slavery as a proper element of industry in their colonies, and as long as their revenues were increased by the slave-trade they saw nothing but humanity and civilization in its practice. Louisiana. Kings and statesmen fostered its early growth, and the treasures of Louis XIV. were liberally expended to make it a success. Every thing which wealth, power, or influence has the system of slave labor been tried with ev- From Crozat the colony passed into the hands of the Company of the Indies, whose act of incorporation required that the demand for labor should be supplied with three thousand negroes. In all succeeding administrations slave labor seemed to be regarded as essential to the success of the colony, and until the last few years it has been the fixed policy of the people to make such laws as would protect it and render it per could do was employed to make this colony one But prosperity avoided the little colony at Biloxi. The settlers were accustomed to the bracing atmosphere of Canada and the milder breezes of France, and could hardly endure the burning heat of the sun and pestilential vapors of this semi-tropical clime. Sickness and death invaded their ranks, and their ignorance of the diseases peculiar to this climate carried many of them to a premature grave. As early as the year 1708 the colony favored the introduction of slave labor. It had already been introduced into the West Indies from Africa, and it was very naturally supposed that it was essential to the prosperity of the country. Indians were first taken and compelled to work for the colonists, but they were soon found to be unprofitable, for they could not be confined to their masters' plantations. The same practice had already been tried in Massachusetts and Connecticut with a similar want of success. In order to supply the great demand for labor, Bienville, the Governor of the colony, wrote to the French Government proposing to exchange Indians for negroes with the West India Islands, but his request met with an unfavorable reception. When the entire control of the colony passed into the hands of Anthony Crozat, in the year 1712, slavery was already introduced, and he was authorized to perpetuate it by sending a ship once a year to Africa for negroes to be employed by the inhabitants as slaves. From this time, when slavery was first legally established in the colony, until the Proclamation of Emancipation-one hundred and fifty years The "Black Code," first established by Bienville, has ever been the model for all legislation on this subject. When the colony was first taken possession of by the Crown of Spain, in the year 1769, the laws of the Black Code were retained with such modifications as the Siete Partidas made on the subject of slavery. This system of laws, first completed in the year 1263, has ever since been the Blackstone of Spain and her colonies. Although founded on the Roman civil law, it is the most complete and well digested system of laws on the Continent of Europe, and is still the authority in the countries of America settled by the Spaniards. In this system of law the subject of slavery is well defined, and the regulations are evidently based on the code of Justinian. The old Spaniards seemed to have no scruples about the justice of this institution; their long wars with the swarthy Moors, and their proximity to the African coast, conspired to make them look upon this subject with complacency and lend it their sanction. The early settlers of Louisiana were mostly descendants of the "Latin races." With the exception of a few Germans who settled in the parishes of St. John the Baptist and St. James, and who have now lost all trace of their former language and nationality, this State, up to the beginning of the present century, was settled wholly by people from countries bordering on the Mediterranean. In nearly every city the peoples of France, Spain, Italy, and Portugal are represented. They brought with them their customs, language, and their religion which they have carefully preserved. In one half of New Orleans one finds little to remind him that he is in America. He hears a foreign language in the streets, the shops, and the cafés. finds hundreds of people not able to speak the English language, and who have never regarded themselves as Americans although natives of the United States. In most of the schools the textbooks and all the exercises are in the French language, and English is taught as a separate branch. When he enters the courts of justice, he finds the civil law to be the basis of all judicial proceedings, the Code Napoleon and the Partidas are oftener quoted than the comment He |