FRAGMENTS OF SCIENCE. 



393 



Prjevalski says, " hastily drink and rise 

 again, and, in cases where the flocks are 

 large, the birds in front get up before 

 those at the back have time to alight. 

 They know their drinking places very 

 well, and very often go to them from 

 distances of tens of miles, especially in 

 the mornings, between nine and ten 

 o'clock, but after twelve at noon they 

 seldom visit these spots." In the Kala- 

 hari country, at the scant desert waters, 

 the Saturday Review writer says, three 

 kinds of sand grouse " are to be seen 

 flocking in from all parts of the country 

 from eight to ten o'clock a. m. for their 

 day's drink. Circling swiftly round the 

 pool with sharp cries, they suddenly 

 stoop together toward the water. The 

 noisy rustle of their wings as they alight 

 and ascend is most remarkable. We no- 

 ticed that the birds nearest the water 

 drank quickly and moved off, allowing 

 those in the rear to take their places 

 and slake their thirst, the whole pro- 

 cess being accomplished with unfailing 

 order and regularity. . . . The specta- 

 cle of these punctual creatures, stream- 

 ing in from all points of the compass 

 with unfailing regularity between eight 

 and ten o'clock was always most fas- 

 cinating. After drinking they circled 

 once or twice round the water pool, and 

 then flew ofl" with amazing swiftness for 

 their day of feeding in the dry, sun- 

 scorched desert. The seeds of grass and 

 other desert plants seem to constitute 

 their principal food. The sand grouse 

 has some characteristics of the pigeon 

 and some of the grouse, which suggest a 

 ' singular blending ' of the two orders." 



Plantations for Rural School 

 Grounds. — A paper on the Laying out 

 and Adornment of Rural School Grounds, 

 by Prof. L. H. Bailey, published as a 

 Bulletin of Cornell University Experi- 

 ment Station, lays down as a general 

 principle in plantation that it should be 

 in the main for foliage effects. " Select 

 those trees and shrubs which are the 

 commonest, because they are the cheap- 

 est, hardiest, and likeliest to grow. There 

 is no district so poor and bare that 

 enough plants can not be secured with- 

 out money for the school yard. You 

 will find them in the woods, in old 

 yards, along the fences. . . . Scatter in 

 a few trees along the fences .and about 

 the buildings. Maples, basswood, elms, 



ashes, buttonwood, pepperidge, oaks, 

 beeches, biiches, hickories, poplars, a 

 lew trees of pine or spruce or hemlock 

 — any of these are excellent. If the 

 country is bleak, a rather heavy plant- 

 ing of evergreens about the border, in 

 the place of so much shrubbery, is very 

 good. For shrubs, use the common things 

 to be found in the woods and swales, 

 together with the roots which can be 

 found in every old yard. Willows, osiers, 

 witch-hazel, dogAvood, wild roses, thorn 

 apples, haws, elders, sumac, wild honey- 

 suckles — these and others can be found 

 in every school district. From the farm- 

 yards can be secured snowballs, spireas, 

 lilacs, forsythias, mock-oranges, rosea, 

 snowberries, barberries, flowering cur- 

 rants, honeysuckles, and the like. Vines 

 can be used to excellent purpose on the 

 outbuildings or on the schoolhouse itself. 

 The common wild Virginia creeper la 

 the most serviceable on brick or stone 

 schoolhouses. The Boston ivy or the 

 Japanese ampelopsis may be used, unless 

 tiie location is very bleak. Honeysuckle, 

 clematis, and bittersweet are also at- 

 tractive." Flowers may be used for dee- 

 orations. 



Destruction of the Birds. — A cir- 

 cular sent us by the New York Zoologi- 

 cal Society opens with the declaration 

 which is only a moderate expression of 

 the truth, that " the annihilation of 

 the finest birds and quadrupeds of the 

 United States is a crime against civili- 

 /.ation which should call forth the dis- 

 approval of every intelligent American." 

 The second annual report of the society 

 (for 1897) contains an article on this 

 subject by Mr. William T. Hornaday, 

 •>vhich sets forth some remarkable facta 

 concerning the rate at which the de- 

 struction of Nature's fair creatures ia 

 proceeding. It is not creditable to 

 American science or American manhood 

 that most of the measures that have 

 been adopted for the protection of ani- 

 mal life in this country have been taken 

 in the interest and at the urgency of 

 sportsmen; or, to prevent killing the 

 poor creatures in an irregular way, in 

 order that they may be more conven- 

 iently killed in the regular way. Mr. 

 riornaday has a fairly satisfactory num- 

 ber of reports in answer to his inqui- 

 ries concerning the rate at which birds 

 are disappearing from thirty-six States. 



