Pearson
For
The
Birds
lie swapped his egg col¬
lection for a North Caro¬
lina education and went
on to war against mass
killings around the world.
By CONRAD PAYSOCR
Sometimes in the spring and fall, if
you look real hard, you can see a flight
of Canada geese high over the State
Capitol dome in Raleigh. In the winter,
seagulls congregate in the parking lot of
Carolina Circle Mall in Greensboro,
and. every now and then, a few venture
into downtown. Long-legged egrets,
looking like dignified old men. wade
Lake Wylie, just a few miles outside
Charlotte, the state’s largest city.
If he were alive today. T. Gilbert
Pearson would be happy to sec those
sights. He helped keep some of the
birds from being hunted into oblivion
by people who sold feathers to hat com¬
panies and carcasses to fancy northern
restaurants.
Pearson (1873-1943) spent about 25
years of his life in Greensboro and was
probably the most famous conserva¬
tionist of his day.
Guilford's Collection
He supported regulated sports hunt¬
ing but was opposed to the mass killings
of birds — a conviction that dated back
to his boyhood in Florida when he wit¬
nessed the slaughter of thousands of
birds.
He came to Greensboro in 1881 to at¬
tend preparatory school at Guilford
College, the only school to accept his
offer to trade his bird egg collection for
an education. The swap proved to be a
happy one for both parlies. Guilford
College obtained what was then one of
Squiirels stonng nuts have a p«etty good idea ol the coming winter.
if a severe snow storm is coming.
"When hair upon the hare is thick
and katydid sings fast and quick.
we’re heading toward the frost and
snow,
the winter winds will blow and
blow."
LtH»k at the heavy coats on horses, or
cows, or the hair on a call's neck, or a
squirrel's tail. If squirrels start to take
in nuts as soon as they fall, this also
means a hard winter, and if they are
moving south, you better do the same
thing, it is going to be a tough winter."
Most common weather prophet is the
wooly bear caterpillar, also called the
wooly worm, or the "frost worm."
"The wooly bear went across the
road.
then across the road, again.
then turned and went the other
way.
to see where he had been."
Take a closer look at the next wooly
bear you see as he scrabbles along. He
wears a coat of striped black and
brown, the larger the black part, the
worse the weather. If the wooly bear is
all black beware:
In Banner Elk. in October, they
gather together to honor the wooly bear,
with food, dances, and a wooly bear
race. This festival is held at Lees-
McRae College, sometime in October.
The wooly bear that wins the race will
be proclaimed the official weather
prophet, and foretell the coming winter.
And what does the wooly bear say.
"if you don’t like the weather, wait a
lew minutes, and it will change."
13 loggy morning» in a iow art bad news
ll the homet s nest hangs high — a good sign.
THF STATF SFPTfMBER 19flS
