St Francis Minor Seminary - Via Yearbook (Milwaukee, WI)

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533.333.333.29 g-ggig' T 1 If RC SKjGGG-e-cz-E-cae-G-e.ca-c igheaaanm HAVING SPENT several years on a farm. 1 be- came very much interested in bird life. As an avoeation I built many bird houses, especially for the house wren. I also devoted mueh of the little spare time I had to the study of the aetions and habits of the various speeies of American birds. of all the fowls and birds 1 have ever seen I believe there is none more beautiful and more useful than the Chinese pheasant. I reeall in particular the day on which I first saw one of these birds. It was during the month of Novem- ber when. by ehanee. while I was husking,r eorn. I saw a beautiful bird bathing in the dust be- side me. At the time I thought it was a prairie chicken. and without further thought. I took an ear of eorn and threw it at the bird. Aeeidentally I struek the unfortunate creature. and. after it had fluttered about for some time. it slowly rose into the air and flew away. When I went home that noon for dinner I told my father about the incident. and described the bird to him. He, told me that it eould not have been a prairie ehieken. as I had thought it to be. That same afternoon we again drove into the lield to husk eorn. My brothers drove in a little later than I. and before they approached me I notieed that they stopped near an old swamp in the adjoining lield and walked about as if in search of something. Soon, however. they arrived at my side. Upon questioning them. I was informed as to the fact that they had seen a number of young pheasants. The next mornim.r we left home before day- breJk. The weather was very eold. and the long drive to the field was by no means appreciated. iVe husked aeross the field before sunrise. when I took notiee of a large hawk perched in the, top of a bare thorn tree. Apparently he seemed to be hungry. for he was patiently y'atehing the ground beneath him. Soon he left his plaee with a great swoop and before he reached the ground a pheasant winged its way into the frost; air. The hawk. however. had to spend the morning without his breakfast. The pheasant flew to- ward the swamp. then we came there a half hour later we saw no sign of pheasants. Sud- denly we heard a noise similar to that of a little ehieken. Nine young pheasants then came into view. Our eyes were surprised and greatly de- lighted to see them. The color of the birds feathers was that of the dried grass which sur- rounded them. They seemed to be quite tame. but sad to say. we soon lost sight of them. After this we saw them almost daily. but when the first snow had fallen their traeks in the snow were the only sign of their presence. The following swim.r we often heard the crow of the male bird. but we never had the oppolu tunity of seeing him. One day while my father was cutting: alfalfa he noticed that he had cut over a pheasant's nest containing thirteen eggs. They were, of a light blue eolor. and were about three times the size of a pigeonis egg. We had heard that the mother bird would not return to her nest if anyone had been near it. iVe, therefore, left the eggs untouched and before long; the mother bird, to our surprise. was again shelter- in: them. About two weeks later I became rather in- quisitire and slowly approaehed the nest to see whether the eggs had been hatehed. I eame within about ten feet of it. when the pheasant showed signs of timidity. I stood motionless for some, time, admiring her beauty. She was about as large as a small hen and seemed to be quite alert. Her color was gray, and her dark eyes attraeted my attention very mueh. The most beautiful feature of all was her tail. whieh eon- sisted of four long narrow feathers about eight- een inehes in length. 1 now attempted to draw closer to her. My aetious were very slow and steady. When I was but four feet from her I slowly stretched forth my hand to touch her. Just as my finger tips were about to touch her shining feathers she ran away and then rose into the air. I was now certain that she would never return, for she tlew far ax'ay to the north. After about a half hour I again passed near her nest and did not fail to tind her there. The next day being Sunday. and having noth- ing to do that afternoon, my brother and I took a little walk. We eame to the nest and found it deserted. E: r shells lay scattered about it. and we thought that the little pheasants must have been killed. Our walk was soon resumed. After we had strolled along for about a half mile. the dog suddenly leaped into the tall grass, and eame baek with a bird between his jaws. We eommanded him to drop it. which he did. We pieked it up and saw it was a young pheasant about the size of a sparrow. Its legs, however, were very long. We set it into the grass. and immediately it disappeared. The mother pheas- smim 9 2 9 im-ec-gg-E-g- Page Thirty-m'ne

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