ORXrrHOLOGY 



BROWN THRASHER FEEDING HER YOUNG. 



After fluttering and dusting himself in 

 dry sand and earth, and bathing, wash- 

 ing and dressing himself,'; he would 

 proceed to hunt insects, such as beetles, 

 crickets, and other shelly tribes ; but 

 being very fond of wasps after catching 

 them and knocking them about to 

 break their wings, he would lay them 

 down, then examine if they had a sting, 

 and. with his bill, squeeze the abdomen 

 to clear it of the reservoir of poison 

 before he would swallow his prey. 

 When in his cage, being very fond of 

 dry crusts of bread, if. upon trial, the 

 corners of the crumbs were too hard 

 and sharp for his throat, he would 

 throw them up, carry and put them in 

 his water dish to soften, then take them 

 out and swallow them. We see that 

 the bird could associate these ideas, ar- 

 range and apply them in a rational 

 manner according to circumstances. 

 For instance if he knew that it was the 

 hard, sharp corners of the bread that 

 hurt his gullet and prevented him from 

 swallowing it, and that water would 

 soften it and render it easy to be swal- 

 lowed, this knowledge must be acquir- 

 ed by observation and experience, or 

 some other bird taught him. Here the 

 bird perceived by the effect the cause 

 and then took the qtiickest, the most 

 effectual and agreeable method to re- 

 move the cause. What would the 

 wisest man have done better? Call it 

 reason or instinct, it is the same that 



a sensible man would have done in this 

 case. After this same manner this bird 

 reasoned with respect to the wasps. He 

 found by experience and observation 

 that the first he attempted to swallow 

 hurt his throat and gave him extreme 

 pain, and, upon examination observed 

 that the extremity of the abdomen was 

 armed with a poisonous sting ; and 

 after this discovery, never attempted 

 to swallow a wasp until he first pinched 

 his abdomen to the extremity forcing 

 out the sting with its receptacle of 

 poison." 



This is crediting the bird with a 

 greater amount of reasoning ability 

 than I am entirely prepared to admit 

 that he possesses. The account was 

 given by a gentleman who had a repu- 

 tation as a truthful and careful obser- 

 ver and, therefore, while his observa- 

 tions were imdoubtedly correct, his 

 deductions, I am inclined to believe, 

 were somewhat erroneous. 



A student of insects at the Xew Jersey 

 Agricultural Experiment Station has 

 proved that what attracts the female 

 house fly to manure heaps and other 

 refuse where it lays its eggs is largely the 

 odor of ammonia which they give off. 

 Since in cities probably nine-tenths of the 

 flies are hatched in horse dung, it may 

 well be that a simple treatment of such 

 refuse with acid to neutralize the ammo- 

 nia will sufiice to "swat" completely our 

 summer plague. 



