EDITORIAL AND GENERAL. 



280 



hillside was "covered'' with a new kind 

 of honeybee and "in all my life I never 

 saw anything- like them." Me had 

 caught in a bottle several of these "new 

 species of bee." The same day one of 

 his daughters who is a teacher brought 

 home "a new honeybee" caught on a 

 window pane in her schoolroom. 



As our naturalist reader at once sur- 

 mises, they had each caught specimens 

 of the well known bee flies. It was 

 difficult, however, to convince the man 

 that they are not undescribed bees, will 

 not sting and are very plentiful in some 

 fourteen hundred varieties! He found it 

 an interest and a pleasure to learn about 

 their habits, structure, etc., and did so 

 with all the delight of original dis- 

 covery ; he was a veritable Columbus in 

 a new world where he had to "prod him- 

 self" to realize that it was not all a 

 dream and that these things had existed 

 all his life but that he had never be- 

 fore seen them. 



Strange, isn't it, how many persons 

 are blind to the interesting things in na- 

 ture? It makes us feel guilty to think 

 that we have so much of this world's 

 goods, in wonder and interest, when so 

 many fellow beings are self-doomed to 

 go through the world with open eyes yet 

 seeing not. 



What a colony of institutions could be 

 established for the mentally blind! 



DO BLACKBIRDS DECEIVE THEMSEL- 

 VES? 



Recently while visiting at the home of 

 Mr. H. E. Deats of Flemington, N. J., 

 one of the AA members, my attention 

 was called to the large number of black- 

 birds that roosted in the evergreen trees 

 around the house. It was an interesting- 

 fact and a very noticeable one that when 

 we went out in the evening with lan- 

 terns, or clapped our hands, the birds 

 made a noise as if the entire flock had 

 taken to flight. One felt that the trees 

 were entirely filled with moving birds. 

 but when we stood perfectly still the 

 were noiseless, and we had the impres- 

 sion that they had flown to some other 

 place. A little later in the vear upon 

 visiting at the home of Mr. F. P. Hills, 

 Delaware, Ohio, the observation was re- 

 peated. Mr. Hill's house is in a nicely 

 settled part and one of the finest residen- 



tial sections of the town. For several 

 years blackbirds in large numbers have 

 persistently made their home in the trees 

 near his residence. There are trees all 

 alone the street, on both sides, vet the 

 blackbirds persist, in spite of all sorts of 

 devices to frighten them away, in mak- 

 ing their homes in these special trees. 

 Mr. Hills told me that he had obtained 

 a special permit to shoot them, had per- 

 mitted boys to shoot them, had electri- 

 cians string electric lights along the tree 

 tops so that the trees could be instantly 

 illumined. 1 le had fired roman candles 

 in large numbers into the branches, and 

 vet in spite of all these hints, the unwel- 

 come guests persist in remaining. 



1 repeated the experiment as made in 

 New Jersey. A sudden noise such as 

 clapping the hands, made such "a sound 



of a going in the tops of the 



trees" that it gave the impression that 

 the entire flock had been frightened and 

 had instantly departed for regions not 

 known. But the facts of the case were 

 that not a bird had left the tree; the sud- 

 den turning 011 of an electric light show- 

 ed that every bird had simply stood up- 

 right on the limb and vigorously flapped 

 its wine's. Xow what we want to know 

 is : do these birds believe this sound to be 

 a shield and a concealment? We are 

 familiar with the story of the ostrich 

 that, when fiercely pursued, thrusts its 

 head into the sand and thus cannot see 

 its pursuers, and so considers itself safe, 

 and one can but wonder whether or not 

 these blackbirds make these sounds in 

 such intensity that they cannot hear the 

 noise of the supposed enemy, and thus 

 think that they have escaped, because 

 they hear nothing but the rustling of 

 their own movements. 



There are many lessons to be drawn 

 from the delusion of the ostrich or of 

 these blackbirds, but these I leave to the 

 reader. 



Speaking of blackbirds reminds me of 

 an incident that I must relate. For sev- 

 eral years, a flock of blackbirds, in a 

 manner similar to that detailed above, 

 had made its home in two or three trees 

 in the yard on one of the residential 

 streets in Hartford, Connecticut. The 

 resident on whose premises these birds 

 were thought to tell me the story for 

 publication. He sent a copy of "The 



