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Show H ' (C)?rilctit, 1011, br the Now Tork Herald Co. All H rights rewired.) B tf f r HEY say a. Brooklyn -woman H t N found a snake iu her npart- H mente a short time ago. Brook H Jyn Is a large burp and 6eoincd H proud of the phenomenon. Here H Is the tale or a small town in H Connecticut that can produce a- bird that H barks like a dog, eats ice cream, bounces M '. a rubber ball nnd holds up traffic Bui H the town of Darien is not bragging over H it, foj the simple reason that it can pro- Ri ducc several thousand other birds as M etrangc and rare. H We honked, but the fowl didn't move. W It was nestled comfortably in the dust i"v of the midhighway, and had such an air of privutc privilege that we told tho chauffeur chauf-feur to go ahead and let the henv take H Us chances. H "'Taint fi hen," he announced, and H, bumped the car iuto a ditch to avoid the ' fowl. We told him to 6top while wc got iout to sec, and the "hen," annoyed nt our intrusion of its privacy, stood up and barked at us. H No, we were not on a joy ride. H The bird's body was larger, though H j slenderer, than a largo hen's, and its H I rising disclosed very long legs, neck and M I beak. And when it lifted Uiat beak Hl heavenward and barked again, which it H! . did .promptly when one of us knocked H - with" hi stick on a tree,' the sound 1 was like a cross between a kicked dog I(yaller) aud a very maty pump handle. The latter effect was accentuated by the h fact that the "hen" lowered its length M , of beak sharply at the end of every bark, H and raised it high again for the next. Hl We nil looked at each other solemnly H to attest the fact that we had really ob- H served the phenomenon and then con- H tinucd on our way. H Wc didn't go far. for a confectioner's j was near, and wc needed something cool- H Sng. When wc hnd each been supplied H with an ice cream soda the clerk went on H ' to mix another. H "Wc ordered four," we said, but he fl only grinned, stepped around the counter H nnd set the glass on the floor. H Thenlhe "hen" that had barked at us H stepped up, inserted the tip of her beak B in the glass nnd consumed its contents H with gunto. H "Docs the town belong to it, or it to H v the town?" wc asked, "and what may it B -"-, "As near ns I can remember," said the H j ' -. clerk, ''it is a cinnamon bun and it lives H I a( the bird farm." H Wc arose as one person. H "Where is tho bird farm?" we asked. If you wanted to procure a Sarcidioruis carrunculata, a Dcndro-cygua nrboreu, a H South American guan, a Siberian crane, a H wydah or a Himalayan phensant you'd fl think it necessary to send to the umpcty-B umpcty-B " umpth parallels of latitude nnd longitude, Bj wouldn't you? And if. when you got H there, you were referred to Darien, Coun.. you'd think the earth had stopped sudden- H ly and Flipped all the countries around H onto the wrong spots. H The fact is that Mr. G. D. Tilley's sev- H enty acre farm is, as far as its live stock H is concerned, a condensed map of the H globe, for fowl arc there from more coun- H tries than you ever heard tell of. Like H most other things, it "just happened." H Mr. Tilloy began, and then went on, and before long museums and "zoos" found ' out that when they wanted some espe- dally rare bird it was better to send to H ' Mr. Tilloy tlinn around the world. H Another reason why Mr. Tilley "went H on" Is that American owners of large H estates are taking up the beautiful Euro- j pean custom of ornamenting their places H 1 with rare land and water fowl, and Mr. H ' Tilley is using tlielr hobby as a means H of gratifying bis own. H Freaks of the Farm. H Mr. Tilley took us around and intro- H duced us to tho many varieties, but I H i ' might as well try to recite the dictionary H , as their names. Pheasants and cranes H are cisy to remember, though, and I am H prepared to take oath: , H . t That when I npproachel the pen of the H .crowned pigeons of India one of their H number lifted high pn its head n crown H that had previously been lying on its back H and, with wings nnd side plumage spread H with all the effect of a grand dnme's ruf- H flcar, look dance steps from side to side Hf as it approached me until if it had not H " been for the wire netting separating us H I would have advanced with hand on H ' "- heart, curtsied and joined in the minuet. H That the Manchurian pheasant has per- H ' ';- feet white mustaches of the Emperor Will- H , iam arietj-. H ' That the Sams cranes of India and the H ' Paradine crau6s amuse each other by pod- H fi turlng, leaping and throwing things about H till it is easy to sec where in the line of Hl evolution Mordkln and Pnvlowa got theirs. H That the golden crowned night herons Ht wear very long pale green stockings, nnd H that the guan, from South America, does Hl 'i- nothing but sit and shake his head from Hl side to side, shocked, may he, by the dia- H piny. H That the "cinnamon bun," in addition H' to its other stunts, takes a hard boiled Hj egg in its beak and hurl it to the ground H again and again till all the shell is chipped T off and the remainder left for it to cat. H v Thus the "cinnamon bun" learned to Hl ' " play ball with itself, explains Mr. Tilley, H( ' who tells how the Seriiniua (I prefer tho ' clerk's "cinnamon bun") came across a hard rubber ball left on the lawn by a H youthful visitor, mistook it for an egg and H, j dashed it to the ground. 1 ... -Bounce! went the ball, and after it fhia j West African bird, developing then and T : l '.Mr-Cg. w nere riumea European Mute and Whistling SwansfP g. Rare Cranes in Park H5a Mm )) Beauties Bark Like ViP55'Wi-L JB y A Y? 4. T f not to spoil the surprise. Well, the sur- h '''J not seen them. I inquired nnd fOcjGjrfr ::jl3 53 L'OQSf -tLat lCe Ltfeatn prise came, and was all mine. She said: found that his lake covered one hundred 'liE5yj lfrKSur aCE rii 0 t ft '"I''or heaven's sake, look at those! and fifty acres. wm lfi5$iVa& ' Of &laty Baseball Now, who do you suppose would have "His sense of proportion was just tho 'jSjfjir' wotExlO. ' lliow thiuga around?" opposite of tliat of another customer. He mrQj s!e bHsI' fl "r, J(l tl&r$i " 'cstcrn m:in enmo to me once and bought two swans for his lake, nnd two jtty,jfe df&&T ,SS$$C3!& Q&immftW . days Inter came hurrying back with them. T&'jV Wpffipir'iLfv tiVv H ' J Tns tlmc thc lnIce wns tU ccmcnt kill1, fMSlS-il ) " -'-'LJ t j bIack nVeckPwhite alfd 'Coroscob swans! Crowned Cranes from Africa K chcans , -9 there whnt would be decided skill cs a ball player were it not for thc fact that tho poor "cinnamon bun" has a game leg, arrived at in the process of capture Iu its West African haunts. This defect deprives de-prives it of commercial value, aud, alluding allud-ing to its habit of lying in the middle of thc road and letting tratllc naigate ditches, Mr. Tilley said that the creature would have been killed long ago had St been of value. He illustrates his philosophy phi-losophy on this point by tho following tale: One wealthy man sent him an order for a pink headed duck, for no better reason than that the bird Is one of the rarest In existence. It took Mr. Tilley's ngents two years to find one, and it cost him $100 to insure it nt Lloyds just for its transportation transporta-tion to this rountrj This aside fmn it, price and tho cost of getting it here. When Chinese Mandarin Ducks and American Wood Ducks it arrived at Darien Mr. Tilley wired to his customer. "Don't ship bird until Wednesday afternoon," after-noon," the customer telegraphed in reply. And on Wednesday morning thc pink duck brr-athed its last. "But, of course, you can sell it 6luffcd as a specimen," was suggested. "Of course," paid Mr. Tilley. "It costs 95 to have a bird like that stuffed and I can sell it for ?S to a museum. Then, as you say, I'd get tho $8 offset, to my two j ears' search and die couplo of hundred in expenses." But that'is only one of the reasons why Mr. Tilley thinks the biid game thc biggest of the gambles. "See those Siberian crnucs?" he asked pointing to thc gaunt, aesthetically tinted crcntures whosf color you can bet on and jii'ver qqlte tell who won "I have a customer cus-tomer who takes some of njy finest importations im-portations for her country place, I in- Flamingoes Just Arrived from Africa li&Lj teftfffrrt.nrttfy-1- Hungarian Par tridges vested iu those very expensive birds sole lj because I wab certalu that she would think tliein thc finest yet. The next time she visited the place wo went out to tho park where 1 had them running I had said nothing to her about them, so ns bought two teal duck one of the smallest varieties "to stock his lake.' I imagined from thc purchase that the lake was thc usual cement thimbleful in a thirty fool front yard, till I received a hot letter saying say-ing hat since he had released thc birds "All depends on Uic point of view," he said. "Take a cook wc had once. She was a negrcss from one of thc inpst hideous hide-ous slums of Brooklyn. We put her in the kitchen over thcro that overlooks the whole lake, thinking that she'd mistake it for Buiilah land and remain at least for-f for-f ver. In a week the housekeeper reported that she was spending every day in tears nnd thaa she wanted to go home. I interviewed in-terviewed hcr'and asked what thc trouble was, and sht sobbed out: 'It's dem swans. Mistah Tilley, sah. Dey des sails pas" an sails pas', an' I kaynt stan' it no mo".' "Thc swnns arc one of my showiest features." resumed Mr. Tilley. although not by any means tho costliest except those white fellows with the black necks nnd red bills with blue knobs at their base." So. of course, we asked to see something renlly expensive, nnd were taken to a woodsy park on the very border of the estate es-tate and shown some very tall and stately cranes with crowns on their heads, which were strutting ns regally as if they, were in Enropcnn palace grounds instead of Darien, Conn "Just whnt is expensive foj a bird?" we Hsked, trying to figure on the. basis of the lb " te market price of turkey at Christmas time. Wm "Twelve hundred apiece for those," said JJJW1 Mr. Tilley, nnd he said it calmly, too. HK Then he took us to thc aviaries and let E"? us all stand in bewilderment a whilo at "g?j the mnd jnhborlng in enough different tonguesj to make n bird Tower of Babel. ,1 There were strange enough styles of plu- U mage to make us think that the birds were fij the creations of French milliners Instead Kfid of nature. V Wc. picked out two to ask questions K' about, just because they happened to be UP In cages apart from the Babel throng. g One was small, black and jellow, all beak ,SR' nnd no tall, and, to put it mildly, unat- :si tractive. The other, smaller still, had feathers as glossy as jewels, of violet, b orange, green, tnrqnoise, black and pea- Kj cock blue, and, to complete all, a white Eft beak with a vivid carmine tip j ijii One Cheap Bird $150. P We wanted to know why the raggy black ly and jellow thing wa3 honored with a j jj place beside thc little animated jewel col- lection, and were informed that the honor ' wns the other way 'round, for scrags was MB an African barbette, probably the only one Wg in this country, and had a voice that put jB him right up in the grand opera class, fi! while the Gouldian lady finch, in spite m. of her fine feathers, wns worth but a pal- JL try hundred and fifty. W Mr, Tilley had become so U6ed to being jl' surrounded by the rare birds of all coun- m tries, gathered together In one small Con- Jlj nectlcut town, that It Is a hard matter for m him to point out their peculiarities, be- ff cause they have ceased to be peculinr to Cj him But there Is one that still "gets" mj him every time he looks at It. He drew jfl! me aside and pointed to a i-oat creature K like- a cross between a pelican and n B crane. M "Sec nnything queer about it?" he asked. I considered a while. Most of them were queer, but this one was merely 1 dumpy ns to body and nondescript as to plumage. And then I caught on. lie wns, like the pelican, mostly beak, hut his beak was on upside down! Just a slight curve the wrong way. It made 1' him look like one of tho "before" pic- 1 jtures in a make-yonr-face-over institute. ! Ho comes from Java, is an adjutant ' stork nnd thc only member of the bird j family with just that peculiarity of beak. j Then wo wandered into a sensation. It was a drizzly day and not a gleam of j' I the sun had been visible foe hours. But S suddenly I wns fairly hit in the ejes dazzled, with rhc sort of splendor that thc sun takes on to impress his worshippers worship-pers with just as he is about to make his final leap and leave us to a night's darkness. dark-ness. After I blinked hard I looked, ' and there sitting quietly in the grass was a pheasant from India, Just a meek-creature meek-creature with no peculiarity of form or character, but it fnirly shed out light like P the sun, In a way that made one think I Nature had preceded thc Curies after all J1, ia thc discovery of radio active sub- stances. k. That living sunset reminded me it was about time to go, so we shut our eyes ' as wc hurried past I he remaining peni. J But I peeped and as a result came away with a fine plot for romantic tragedy of ! birdland. Bcmembor the blood dipped beak of the little living jewel collection? Well, it was into a doves' pen that I i peeped, and there sitting alone and triste j as Ophelia was a dove of that hide- 1 scribably soft tint which precedes the dawning, not a feather a shade different to disturb the nunlike melancholy of it j: alj. Tho bird turned so that I saw Its j breast, and as I Baw it, cried out with 1 sudden pity, for right in the middle was f a great spot of red. I turned to my host j in panic, and as I turned he laughed, so that I looked again and saw that tho j wound wns painted there by that most j w'ondcrful 0- all fakirs, Mature. Now, I ask you, is it hard to believe in a. remote love trngedy between the QouJdlan lady finch and thc bleeding heart dove of India? of which thc car- Jf mine beak of one and breast of tho other are the Indited record in the most romantic ro-mantic of all booksl thc book of e olutlon. j WINDOW SHOPS. ( tr you know tbe window shops?" i , J one woman inquired of another. "What are they?" "Oh, the shops that have all kinds of attractive bric-n-brac and novelties nr- tistically displayed Iu the- windows; the ' jplnces that you loiter lu frout of and j gaze at admiringly, yet never enter, not I' even to price things. It is not because I tho goods are expensive or anything of that sort, but it seems only a window exhibition, and end8 there. I sec other person looking in intently, as I do, but, like me, they pass on without eutenug. "1 suppose those places must havo a i cljentMc proportiouate to their display, i but if they had one in proportion to the non-purchaeiug window gazers that they f V attract they would cease to le little shops ij Jt aud Mould become emporiums. Tjfi '!! should hate to see them disappear, J II for they afford pleasant and inexpensive i J entertainment," v 11 - :- It ,' r" |
