The Audubon Societies 6i 



On the second day in their new home, one bird swallowed a large bat. It 

 was most puzzling to see how the great wings were swallowed, but they surely 

 disappeared. 



To catch a Sparrow seems to be the summit of the Road-runner's endeavors, 

 and beyond this accomplishment he does not seem to reach. But who can tell? 

 To the actions of a bird so active, free, lawless, and unusual, there can scarcely 

 be a limit. 



[In the September- October issue of Bird-Lore for 1913, there appeared the first 

 contribution of the pet Road-runners' history from Master Sutton, who, a lad of fifteen , 

 had succeeded in the diijficult task of rearing these wild birds in captivity. Our readers 

 will be much interested in the above account of the habits and actions of these birds 

 and also, in the fact that they were successfully transported from their natural habitat 

 in Texas to decidedly changed life-conditions in Virginia. As a method of bird-stud}^ 

 this account of two pet Road-runners is especially suggestive. It relates what an obser- 

 vant boy actually saw, and his attempt to solve some of the problems presented by the 

 actions of his strange pets. With regard to the rate of digestion in birds it is instructive 

 to note that their digestive apparatus is peculiarly adapted to their needs. In order to 

 be a successful flying-machine, a bird must be light in weight, and it has for this 

 reason probably discarded teeth and reduced the length of the digestive tube, especially 

 in the region of the large intestine. x\s an aid to rapid digestion, food passes quickly 

 through this shortened tube. In order to maintain a high degree of energy, a bird must 

 eat large quantities of food and the well-developed crop serves as an additional place of 

 storage for food. It is possible that the peculiar action of the Road-runner which ate 

 mud came from a desire to get gravel for grinding purposes in the gizzard. Seed-eating 

 rather than carnivorous birds, however, have the habit of eating gravel. In connection 

 with the Road-runners' fright when hearing a mouse at night, it may be of interest to 

 know that other birds may be similarly affected. The writer reared a nestling Tanager 

 for a fortnight, and one night it was so frightened by the skittering of a mouse through 

 the room that it was, as Master Sutton says, "nearly crazed." — \. H. W.J 



JUNIOR AUDUBON WORK 



For Teachers and Pupils 



Exercise XIX: Correlated Studies, Reading, Drawing, and Spelling 



The New Year always brings pleasant anticipations of things new and 

 untried to those who are eager to learn, and with this thought in mind, we may 

 turn to our studies expectant and full of zeal. Any study that cannot be made 

 to fulfil this hope on the part of a student who really wants to learn is not 

 worthy a place in the curriculum. Imagination and enthusiasm will brighten 

 even the dullest page in any text-book, and this is a statement worth remem- 

 bering every day in the school year. Nature-study, most happily ought never 

 to be dull, tiresome, or mere drudgery. Since it deals with all forms of animate 

 and inanimate things, it keeps ever before us some phase of the real world and, 

 for the most part, the living, moving world. 



