A Raccoon passing a Wolf one day made several insulting remarks, until at last the Wolf became angry and turned and chased him. The Raccoon ran his best and managed to reach a tree by the river side before the Wolf came up. He climbed the tree and stretched out on a limb overhanging the […]
How the Kingfisher got his long bill
Some old men say that the Kingfisher was meant in the beginning to be a water bird, but as he had not been given either web feet or a good bill, so he could not make a living. The animals held a council over it and decided to make him a bill like a long […]
How Eskimo hunters catch a Ptarmigan
The Eskimo have various ingenious methods of taking ptarmigan and water fowl. During the winter small sinew snares are set among the bushes where the ptarmigan resort to feed or to rest. Sometimes little brush fences are built, with openings at intervals in which the snares are set so that the birds may be taken […]
How Guianan Indians change the color of the Macaw’s feathers
The cultivation of artificially colored feathers seems to have been an old practice in the western Guianas and beyond. The Indians of the upper Orinoco utilise a frog, allied to the Rana tinctoria, the blood of which, introduced into the skin of a parrot, in places where the feathers have been plucked out, occasions the […]
The White Passenger Pigeon and the Old Man Wild Cat
It is said that among travelling pigeons the white ones are the chiefs of their communities. According to tradition, a white pigeon once flew into the forest lodge of a noted old man, the Wild Cat. The visitor did not appear ill at ease but stood in the lodge wherever it seemed good to him, […]
Red-necked Grebe defeats the Winter Spirit
Every winter, the birds fly south. One winter, a hell-diver (also called a grebe) told all of the other birds that he would stay for the winter to take care of two of his friends who had been injured and couldn’t fly south. Both of his friends, a whooping crane and mallard duck, had broken […]
Leach’s Storm-petrel in Penobscot Folklore
Mother-Cary’s chicken or Leach’s petrel is well known to the Indians of this region who frequently make protracted voyages in their frail canoes miles from the coast-line among the islands lying off the mouth of the Penobscot and Kennebec rivers. These little birds are correctly named from their habit of obtaining nourishment by scooping animal […]
The Great Auk in Penobscot folklore
The great auk, now almost forgotten in the world by all except the ornithologists, is still remembered among the Penobscot as one of the legendary bird chiefs. While we may hesitate a moment in believing the strict identity of this now-extinct bird with the hero character in one of the creation tales, it nevertheless seems […]
The Loon in the folklore of the Penobscot and Micmac Indians
The family of the divers and swimmers naturally claims a large share of the attention of the northern natives whose homes lie among the rivers and lakes where these large and conspicuous birds resort during the breeding season. Among them the loon stands forth rather sharply. His name “choice, admired bird”, shows the esteem which […]
How to learn to speak to language of birds
Kites have always been considered to be very unlikely vagrants to Iceland. Many men have been anxious to learn the language of birds, for they are wise and can tell many things, both of the past and future. There is but one way to learn the bird language and that is a dangerous one for […]