Nucingen

“ A banker is practised in business matters; he studies and plans them, and pulls the wires of various interests, just as a playwright trains his intelligence in combining situations, studying his actors, giving life to his dramatic figures.
We should no more look for powers of conversation in the Baron de Nucingen than for the imagery of a poet in the brain of a mathematician. How many poets occur in an age, who are either good prose writers, or as witty in the intercourse of daily life as Madame Cornuel? ”

“ What did he desire here in the Otter country? Was he a spy for the British? or was he upon his own business? And, above all, was he, Nuck Harding, in danger? The stranger might be roaming the forest even then, hunting for the messenger of the Green Mountain chieftain. He had likely heard that Nuck was going from farmer to farmer, as Nuck had heard of his presence, and the man might contemplate stopping him. It would be easy for him to creep upon and shoot the defenseless youth as he lay before the fire. ”

“ Upon the Nyken during the breeding season they may be counted by hundreds of thousands, sitting in pairs and little societies upon every available projection of the rock, bending and [Pg 258] twisting their heads in all directions, with most ludicrous pertinacity. In these northern regions they are so fearless of man that they will allow themselves to be approached within a few hundred paces without exhibiting the slightest mistrust. ”

“ The nest of the Nightingale is a very loosely-made structure, composed for the greater part of dead leaves, and placed upon a hedge bank, generally at the root of some stout shrub or thorn. The eggs, usually five in number, are, like the bird itself, of a plain olive-brown colour. The young Nightingales are spotted like young Robins, having the feathers of the upper portions of the plumage tipped with buff colour. In some respects the Nightingale assimilates very much in habits to the Robin ”

“ The reason for their not bearing is lack of pollination. I never did find out what was satisfactory, even at the time that I hand-pollinated them to get a crop of nuts. The nuts are much more satisfactory than Winkler or Rush hazels. The Rush is absolutely worthless here; is subject to blight and is very tender to our winters. The Winkler is a very hardy variety, bears something every year. The trouble with the Winkler is that it matures its nuts so late, much later than the Jones' hybrid. ”

“ Before Nanking could climb the ladder again, it was sailing through the air, magnificent as a ship, toward its winter pastures on the bay of Chisopecke.
"He! Zoo!" exclaimed the soldiers.
"Foei! weg!" cried the fishermen.
Only three persons said "Ach! helas!"—the Widow Cloos, pretty Elsje, and Nanking.
"Thy stork is a savage bird!" cried Peter Alrichs. "The English on the Chisopecke name it a swan!"
Nanking burst into tears. His uncle struck the ground with his schout's staff, swore dreadfully, and shouted to the Widow Cloos:
"Sister, thy boy is nothing but a big idiot. ”

“ Because of the short growing season there, the nuts do not mature, being barely edible, due to their shrinkage while drying. Some seasons this failure to mature nuts also occurs in such varieties as the Thomas, the Ohio and even the Stabler at my River Falls farm, which is nearly 150 miles south of Mason. Such nuts will sprout, however, and seedlings were raised from the immature nuts of this northern tree. Incidentally these seedlings appear to be just as hardy in wood growth as their parent tree. ”

“ After a while they began to sit around in a large circle and sing a doleful sort of tune. Then two Indians produced a long piece of grapevine and tied one end of it to a tree and the other end around Nanking's wrists, which were fastened together behind his back. A fire had already been lighted at the foot of the tree, and the coals were now strewn over the ground.
"Hond mold! Keep courage!" thought Nanking. "It is only some kind of play or game. How can I get a stork from them unless I play with them?"
But the Indians still sung their doleful tune and did not laugh a bit. ”

“ The nest of this Nuthatch is placed in a cavity carefully chiselled out, usually at a considerable height, in a pine stub, dead fir, or cottonwood. Both sexes share the labor of excavation, and when the cavity is somewhat deepened one bird removes the chips while the other delves. Like all the hole-nesting species of this family, but unlike the Woodpeckers, the Nuthatches provide for their home an abundant lining of moss, fur, feathers, and the like. This precaution is justified from the fact that they are early nesters—complete sets of eggs being found no later than the second week in April. ”

“ So Nyken hid himself away, resolving to get rich from what he had learned about turbans. Not having any garden, he could not raise flowers, so he made up his mind he would make tulips out of clay, and get rich, even faster than his neighbor Taff, who was an old bachelor; while Nyken had a wife, and three daughters, all highly accomplished.
So Nyken mixed his clay, got his potter’s wheel ready, loaded his palette with paints, and then set to work, with his “vrouw en kinderen” ”

“ HE shut the door in Nutkin's face. Presently a little thread of blue smoke from a wood fire came up from the top of the tree, and Nutkin peeped through the key-hole and sang—
"A house full, a hole full!
And you cannot gather a bowl-full!"
THE squirrels searched for nuts all over the island and filled their little sacks.
But Nutkin gathered oak-apples—yellow and scarlet—and sat upon a beech-stump playing marbles, and watching the door of old Mr. Brown.
ON the third day the squirrels got up very early and went fishing; they caught seven fat minnows as a present for Old Brown. ”

“ The nut proposition is in its infancy and we all believe, those of us who are wholly nuts, that it will grow into a giant. We have a little giant in the south in the shape of the paper-shell pecan and we are expecting that this Northern Nut Growers' Association will, within the next few years, develop some varieties of nuts, or discover some varieties of nuts, that are adapted to this northern climate and will do for the northern states, the northern, eastern and western, what the pecan is promising to do and really is doing for the South. ”

“ Taking next the specimens from the Rocky Mountains and Middle Province of the United States (S. nuchalis) , we find that all the specimens possess both these additional amounts of the red, there being always a red, instead of dirty-white, nuchal crescent, while in the female the lower part of the throat is always more or less red; in addition, the male has the red of the throat reaching laterally to the white stripe, thus interrupting the black malar one, which is always unbroken in the eastern form; and in addition, the auriculars are frequently mixed with red. ”

“ At this moment an old Indian woman, the mother of the boy whom Nanking had desired to amuse, threw herself between the upraised spears and the laughing widow's son. She shouted something very earnestly, and then stretched herself at Nanking's feet. All the other Indians also flung themselves down in fear or revulsion of feeling, and some crawled in another minute to where the burning coals were strewn over the sward, and with their fingers or with tree-boughs returned these coals to the fire, while others quenched the fire itself with water from the torrent. Nanking had never lost his temper. ”

“ In the spring they have been thought by many to migrate in flocks, whereas they are only retreating with their relations away from the haunts of men to the deep, cool woods, where they nest. With infinite patience the nuthatch excavates a hole in a tree, lining it with feathers and moss, and often depositing as many as ten white eggs speckled with red and lilac) for a single brood.
RED-BREASTED NUTHATCH (Sitta canadensis) Nuthatch family
Called also: CANADA NUTHATCH
Length — 4 to 4.75 inches. One-third smaller than the English
sparrow.
Male — Lead-colored above; brownish on wings and tail. ”

“ It is the little nuthatch hard at work scooping out his home in the bark. He sways his body with every stroke of his beak, and is so busy he takes no notice of you. The nuthatch is very fond of filberts, as his name implies. You may see him in the autumn with a nut firmly fixed in a crevice in the bark of a hazel branch, and he taps away until he pierces the shell and gets at the kernel. Nuthatches, which are very plentiful hereabouts, are sometimes to be found in the forsaken homes of woodpeckers, which they plaster round with mud. ”

“ This Nuthatch, who is our most conspicuous bird-acrobat, persistently walking head downward and performing various tortuous feats while he searches for food, is a resident of the eastern United States, only leaving the most northerly parts of his range for a short time in winter.
He appears to migrate in spring and return in autumn, but in reality only retreats to the woodlands to breed, emerging again when the food supply grows scant in the autumn. ”

“ For the King of the fairies had forbidden Naggeneen to trouble them any more. Naggeneen asked what for at all he had come over all the sea, if he was not to trouble the Sullivans. The King was always ready enough to have Naggeneen's help, when he thought that his cleverness would be of use; but there were times when he would be obeyed, and this was one of them, so Naggeneen had to do as he was told.
The King tried all the things that Naggeneen had told him to do, to make his people learn all the wonderful magic that the human people knew so well. ”

“ BROWN-HEADED NUTHATCH
729. Sitta pusilla. 41⁄4 inches
Crown brownish with a white patch on the nape.
These diminutive Nuthatches are found in the southern states. Their general habits do not appear to differ from those of other members of the family. They nest very early, commencing to excavate their holes in January and having complete sets of eggs as early as the middle of February.
They usually are found in small flocks and at night they will often be seen flying to the top of a pine where they sleep, all huddled together. ”

“ However, with improved propagation methods and planting technique they should become some day as valuable as pecan plantations have become valuable to the south.
Considering the nut tree as a dooryard tree, an ornament rather than a business, makes it possible to include many more species as suitable for growing in the north. For this purpose, I suggest heartnuts, chestnuts, pecans and hiccans. The heartnut tree is always one to draw attention and interest, picturesque in its leaves, blossoms and clusters of nuts. ”

“ The nest is made of fine rootlets, grasses, and moss, interwoven and built upon the ground or just above in small bushes, and lined with hairs.
Remarks: The sociability of the Junco is mainly responsible for his traveling in small flocks during the winter time. Crumbs and similar foods are greatly welcomed by this bird, who will often come quite near to human homes if sufficiently invited. The flash of white and gray is a welcome sight as a small band of these birds comes flying into the garden when the clouds above are heavy and gray with oncoming snow. ”

“ The brighter coloring of this tiny, hardy bird distinguishes from the other and larger nuthatch, with whom it is usually seen, for the winter birds have a delightfully social manner, so that a colony of these Free masons is apt to contain not only both kinds of nuthatches and chickadees, but kinglets and brown creepers as well. It shares the family habit of walking about the trees, head downward, and running along the under side of limbs like a fly. ”

“ People have cultivated these nuts more or less intensively for generations, and many of the problems have been worked out, so far as Europe is concerned. Of course, when introduced in America, new problems confronted the growers here. The other type of nut industry is based upon indigenous nuts of which we know little, either from the orchard standpoint or as to the varieties concerned. Our native nuts, particularly the pecan, have forced themselves upon the attention of investigators of the department to much greater extent, perhaps, than any other nut with which we have to deal. ”

“ His fierce friends left him here with many professions of apology and esteem, and soon after they departed Swedes and Minquas appeared, who had observed the hostile canoes from their lookout stations on the neighboring hills. These also welcomed Nanking, being already well acquainted with him, and taking up his venison proceeded through the woods toward New Amstel. He carried the live stork himself—a rough bird, which would not yield to blandishments or good treatment. After a very fatiguing journey and four days' absence from home, Nanking entered New Amstel in the dead of night. ”

“ For some not inconsiderable time, I gather, sir. According to Mr. Fink-Nottle, he supplied Miss Bassett with very full and complete information not only with respect to the common newt, but also the crested and palmated varieties. He described to her how newts, during the breeding season, live in the water, subsisting upon tadpoles, insect larvae, and crustaceans; how, later, they make their way to the land and eat slugs and worms; and how the newly born newt has three pairs of long, plumlike, external gills. ”

“ Which was ridiculous of Nutkin, because he had not got any ring to give to Old Brown.
The other squirrels hunted up and down the nut bushes; but Nutkin gathered robin's pincushions off a briar bush, and stuck them full of pine-needle pins. ”