72 



Till-. (HIDE T< ) NATURE 



later in the season. They are permit- 

 ted to drop to the ground but are gath- 

 ered up '.ater. So with the Park squir- 

 rels, much of their apparent wasteful- 

 ness in dropping seeds and nuts to the 

 ground is not a permanent loss to them, 

 hut the fruits of their toil, as well as 

 those of the tree, are considered and 

 well taken care of. 



\Y.\i. T. Davis. 



The Purely Practical. 



Pagosa Junction, Colorado. 

 To the Editor : — 



Your article in regard to people not 

 being able to separate a love of nature 

 from revenue or understand a motive 

 in which cash does not tip the balance 

 called to mind the worst stab I ever 

 got. It is a good joke, however, and 

 may be worth putting in type and I 

 will, therefore, tell it. 



In a sparsely settled country we had 

 the only aquarium in a radius of a hun- 

 dred miles. A good motherly old lady 

 having heard of "the wonder" came to 

 see it. The aquarium contained a col- 

 lection of small sunfish and bass. 

 After being seated and adjusting her 

 spectacles our visitor gazed at the fish 

 a few moments and remarked, "Well, 

 now, that is just fine. I am going to 

 have William (her husband) get one 

 right away. How often can you get a 

 mess out of it?" 



Very truly yours. 



H. A. Rogers. 



Number of Plunges for a Bath. 



Brooklyn, New York. 

 To the Editor: 



I was astonished to see how many 

 plunges a water thrush made during a, 

 single bath. Thinking he must have 

 already ducked his head and fluttered 

 his wings twenty times or more, I be- 

 gan to count, and he added thirty-two 

 plunges to the uncounted ones. 



Whenever I have seen a phoebe 

 bathe it has been by one quick dip from 

 his perch, returning immediately to it, 

 repeating the dip a few times. 



Sapsuckers came frequently to a tree 

 whose trunk they had already riddled. 

 They seem to drink the sap easily from 

 the little holes, but some sap was 



streaming down the trunk. This the 

 sapsuckers did not secure so readily, 

 hut managed it by laving the side of 

 the bill close against the trunk, run- 

 ning the bill slowly downward over 

 the wet surface, probably sucking in 

 the liquid at the same time. The only 

 other bird 1 have seen take any notice 

 of this flowing sap is the ruby crowned 

 kinglet. He seemed to enjoy it ex- 

 ceedingly, many times standing on the 

 trunk to eat or drink the sap, and some- 

 times fluttering in the air close to the 

 holes, without lighting. 



It is interesting to see how careful 

 sapsuckers, downy woodpeckers and 

 brown creepers are not to soil the 

 trunks of the trees with their excre- 

 ment. 



Caroline M. Hart well. 



Honeycomb on the Branch of a Tree. 



The accompanying illustration shows 

 comb made by honey bees on the branch 

 of a tree on Sugarloaf Mountain, about 

 seventeen miles from Boulder, Colorado. 

 The photograph was sent by Mr. C. H. 

 Howard. 



THE HONEYCOMB ON THE BRANCH OF A 

 TREE. 



