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About Omaha daily bee. (Omaha [Neb.]) 187?-1922 | View Entire Issue (Sept. 10, 1911)
The Omaha Sunday Bee PAST THREE HOME MAGAZINE PAGES ONE TO EIGHT PART THREE. Amusements FACES ONE TO EIGHT VOL. XLI NO. 12. OMAHA, SUNDAY MORNING, SEPTEMBER 10, 1911. SINGLE COPY FIVE CENTS. Dr. Whinnery's Collection Proves Him the Real "Bird Man &- - U7 - &J. --4: ikA:A ' OT -X -'--x v;- h ;ii',;-'H:'-M. 77( Nil ; I !,,-.' Sift ,-t M - - - Iv i -wfr? ' ft . r.fcA BA - ' A "T ZZSFAU- -J'4' ; a&ovz:, ovls i) ' w-x.'V . ';?f - -sp A - a b N J) f :K. Vv' TTFTTZRCHTS ,GZ7ZxL& , COST TOP OT CASE. soim avj jTv&ECTTraRocrs &it&& jtvsjz?: cr case: FTER thirty-five years of activity as a I dentist. Dr. J. C. Whlnnery will leave I the tooth-doctoripg business of the fam- 1 II.. . kt. I TXH T i" TI'V I J llj iu um who, LSI . j. u. vxuiuueijr, buq will spend the greater part of bis time in the future completing his collection of Nebraska birds, of which he already has the finest fctiddial private collection in the state. Dr. Whirfaery Is a dauntless bird man. Lured on by in unfamiliar' bird-note, bis enthusiasm leads him over plain and prairie, through marsh and trier and brake. His patience keeps him waiting hour after hour, past dinner hour.' past supper hour and way ijpto the night for some particular member of -the feathery tribe which has pricked bis curiosity. ' In fact the doctor waited two years for a certain kind of owl to add to bis collection the great horned owl which is found only in the wilder and more heavi! wooded parts o the country and visits Ne braska rarely. And as "all things come to him who waits." the great horned owl came at last to the pa tient doctor It happened one day when he was with Mrs. Whinnery in the woods near their ranch on Swan lake, in Holt county. The doctor heard crows cawing and knew that they had a squirrel, opossum or bird of some kind. He located the crows and found them worrying one of the much-desired great horned owls. The birds scattered at bis approach and the owl flew away with the crowa in hot pursuit. The doctor followed, and after maneuvering, waiting and hiding In the brush for several hours, he finally bad the satisfaction of seeing the crows abandon their prey and bad a chance to take his prize "But," adds the doctor in telli the incident, "after waiting two years for that owl, I had opportuni ties to take several In the following three months." 6o the life of the bird man as well as that of the fisherman and huntsman has lta ups and downs. The Poc tor's Enthusiasm -His Collection. The doctor's enthuslssm, however, never wsnes even in spite of the "downs." His Interest In birds began when he was a small boy and has waxed stronger with the years. During his active lite as a dentist, the doctor could not give ss much time as be wished to his bird interests, but now thst he has retired be will ride his hobby to his heart's content. He has now 800 of the 400 known varieties of Ne braska birds, and bis ambition now is to add those kinds. which bis collection lacks and tOj;omplete the pairs of which he hss only the male by adding the female bird. Tb gQAtat baa takA fi o Us blxda ftt bla wise-looking owls, most noticeable among them being the great horned owl with outstretched wings, and the snowy white owl, a fluffy white bird which the doctor took near Lyons, on Its way from Canada to a warmer clime. Brilliant Plumage of Smaller Birds. Most colorful of all are the smaller birds. Among these is the red-headed woodpecker with his deep red bead and neck and black back and tall. Beside him sits his relative, the red-shafted flicker, which is found more often In Dakota and the Black Hills than In Nebraska. Here also la the ruby-throated hum- M ranch on Swan lake where he spends mo6t-of his time. He has also scoured the. woods 9t Cut-Off lake, of Florence, Calhoun, Child's Point and Bellevue. The stories of Dr. Wbinne'ry's birds are not merely "bird stories." He has "the goods." There may be some collectors who have a finer assemblage of game birds, of swimmers, of waders or perchers, or those of some other order or family; but all kinds consdered, the doctor's collection takes the blue ribbon. His home is a veritable bird museum. Two rooms are given over entirely to the collection, arranged In movable cases. A frieze of birds borders the walls, which are hung wth bird pictures, and the book cases and table are filled with books of bird lore. Stories of Crane and Pelican. ' The first bird which one sees on entering Dr. -Wblnnery'a home on North Thirtieth street is a tall, stately crane standing In a corner. The doctor care fully flicks a speck of dust from his beauty's wings and tells you this Is a whooping crane, the greatest bird in North America and growing very scarce. He took this particular crane south of Atkinson, as it was Journeying northward with five other cranes. Another bird which adorns the Whinnery parlor is auge, white pelican, with its big yellow pouch and short yellow legs. The doctor took It from a flock of about 2,600 which stopped on Swan lake on their trip from the south. First came the leaders of the flock four old birdsto look over the lake and keeping high out of gunshot. Having decided that the lake was a good place to alight, the leaders went back, and In about an hour returned with the whole flock, which formed a semi-circle on the lake, with the old birds at the end of the line, their object being to crowd the fish in to shore. Before the pelicans had a chance to get any fish, the doctor took one from the bunch, threw it over his shoulder and was lugging it home when seven good-sized fish fell out of its pouch. The big wster bird hsd carried the fish in Its pouch from the last lake which the flock had visited. Water and Land Birds in Collection. In two long glass esses are the brownish and grayish-colored water birds the bitterns; the marah-lnhabltlng rails and more aquatic coots; the wading shore birds, snipes and sandpipers; the diving birds.-4.he grebes; the swimmers, the gulls and terns, the ducka and geese. 'Then come the land birds, a large array looking ss natural as If living on their perches. In one sec- on arrowheads employed' in the chase for gsme. This tlon are the hawks with their shsrp curved claws, venom was powerful enough to kill a stag in two those birds of prey which the doctor explains are minutes.. The aborigines of the Amazon used It In really the farmers' friends, because they kill the place of ta curara of other tribes. A few scientists small radsnls which destroy, the crofj. Nex$ sit. (ha, uad noutf It, and proceeded) j,o forget it. mingbird with its throat of metallic ruby-red and upper parts of metallic green, which lives in the honeysuckles and trumpet flowers and hums with- its vibrating wings the tiniest bird in the whole as semblage. Among the mo6t beautiful are the perching birds the scarlet tanager with his fire-red body, black wings and tail, who sits beside his modest wife, who wears a dull olive-green dress; the ruby-crowned kinrlet Skow, a Nebraskanized son of Denmark, a taxiderml by trade, who lives in a little cottage out Florence way. These two cronies are like boys in their en- thusiasm over birds, and 6pend many days together studying their feathered friends. And these quletf birdmen have had many an interesting experience onf their Jauntings , On one of their rambles they discovered a barn owl in a crevice of the steepest precipice on the road) with its ruby-colored rown patch; the redstart, with north of Pries lake. The doctor and his friend, Skow deep salmon feathers on tall and breast, and bis rela tive, the yellow-breasted chat. Skow Goes on Bird .Taunts. Dr. Whinnery has some rare birds among the perchers a 'tdufted titmouse with its conspicuous crest and a Bohemian waxwing, a southern member of the sociable though silent family of waxwlngs, which rarely visits the Antelope state. Dr. Whinnery does not always go on his bird pil grimages alone. Sometimes his wfe accompanies him, but oftener his companion is his old friend, Lawrence ; , Venom of Toad Good Heart Stimulant ODERN science Is enlisting the toad in the So It remained to two American Investigators to battle for human life. discover anew the pharmacologic value of the toad. By an accidental discovery two profes- They were Interested in poisons of animal origin, and sors of Johns Hopkins university have In the laboratory of Johns Hopkins university they evolved from the venom of Bufo agua, wr testing the effects of organic dye stuffs on a tropical toad. The crtature became irritated by the action of the drugs and a milky substance was' exuded from its parotid glands. These glands are located Just back of the ears. "Scraping off some of the secreUon with a knife," they say In telling how tbey stumbled upon the new .drug, an account of. which appears In the Journal of the American Medical (Society, "we were struck by the bluish-green discoloration which appeared on the blade. This observation led us to test some of the diluted secretion," and they discovered they were dealing "with a substance which is Identical with, or closely allied to, the suprarenal principle. Further work demonstrated the presence of a second body, which, in respect to its pharmacologic action, is to b classed with the digitalis group of poisons." The suprarenal principle, or epinephrln. Is obtained mostly from the sheep, although it is known to exist in all of the higher animals. These discoveries set the two scientists to work to earnest. Through the assistance of ' Prof. E. A. An drews of Johns Hopkins, they laid in a big supply of Bufoagua, and "milked" of their venom as many as sixty at one time. They did the "milking" wttb a forceps and caught the secretions In a bowl. Then began a series of experiments with the crude poison upon the lower animals. Cats, dogs and a rabbit were the victims. Given Internally with meat, the drug bad no offect; injected Into the blood, It killed the oat. Administered to the dog in a capsule, it made the animal sick. And It was found to be a rapidly acting agglutinlzing agent for the red cor puscles of the rabbit a gigantic toad of the tropical , countries, a heart stimulant far more powerful than digitalis. They have named this new drug "bufagin," indicative of its origin. And thus science, through the agency of Doctors John J. Abel and David I. Macht of Baltimore, has stumbled upon the truth of one of China's ancient traditions and has raised the croaking creature of the witches' chant to a place of pharmacologic value, says the St. Louis Republic. - For many ages Chinese physicians have tried to tell their western brethren of the remedial value of toadsklns. They derived from it a preparation they called "Benso," and declared it to be from 60 to 100 times more powerful than digitalis The west listened to them, made an Ineffective venture or two, and went Its way. Various Europesn nations, for "a few centuries, gsve the powdered toadsklns a place among thera peutic agents. They said it wss a remedy for dropsy, but tbey dropped it. In 1K3 it was the Joke of skeptic. " But the venom of the tosd has been recognized from the earliest times. As the "tzab" of the Talmud" it was differentiated from the frog, and was abhorred as a creature whose touch contsmlnates. Among the primitive Indians of New Granada iia poison wss used were both imbued with the desire to take this noo turnal bird for the former's collection; but how to dd it was a question. Suddenly the doctor had an insplra- tion. He got out his hatchet and chopped at a nearby? tree until it could be bent over the precipice. Thef doctor's part was to bold down the tree, while hi friend Skow's role in the performance was to cling tc the tree, hang over the precipice and take the owl, all of which he did successfully, coming up with th ' flapping, struggling owl for the happy doctor. Sometimes the birds play tricks on these devotect birdmen. Doctor Whinnery tells how his friend Skow was fooled by a chickadee. The two were In the) woods together, when Skow, who knows the notes o the birds around, pricked up his ears at a new bird note which be had never heard before. Tbey waited and listened and finally heard the note again. They located the owner of the call and were chagrined to) find that it was only a common little chickadee whlchV had struck a brand'new note. Bird Study for Nebraska Children. r I One does not talk with Dr. Whinnery very long before discovering that one of his beliefs is that mora attention should be given to bird study in the public) schools in Omaha. He believes that these feathered! creatures which are everywhere around us in our gardens and orchards, in wood and field and sky and some of which are here at all times of the year are not given the Importance which is theirs by right. If he had his way the study of ornithology shouAd bo on the curriculum of all the schools and every boy; and girl In Omaha would be given a chance to study; bird life. His idea of starting this study is to hav as complete a collection of Nebraska birds ss posslbla for their use, and to start a system of adding to th collection the varieties it lacks. "The time to learn about birds is In childhood When a child once learns the plumage, the motloij and the song of a bird and its habits of migration, mating and nesting, be never forgets them, and this) ! knowledge is a pleasure to him all bis life." 1 The doctor holds that Nebraska boys and girl ' should bp more yersed In bird lore thsn those of any! other state on account of their unusual opportunities for studying many varieties of birda "Why," says the enthusisstlc doctor, "there ar more different kinds of birds in Nebraska than la any state In the union." And be explains that Nebraska, which has beerc dubbed by social workers of Omaha the dumping? ground for human birds of passage between the east and the west. Is the nstursl stopplng-off place for tb feathered tribes on their migrations north and soutbl and so is geographically favored as a bird state. -- j j