MISCELLANY. 



Rural Bird Life in India. — 

 " Nothing gives more delight," writes 

 Mr. Caine, " in traveling through 

 rural India than the bird-life that 

 abounds everywhere ; absolutely un- 

 molested, they are as tame as a poultry 

 yard, making the country one vast 

 aviary. Yellow-beaked Minas, Ring- 

 doves, Jays, Hoopoes, and Parrots take 

 dust baths with the merry Palm- 

 squirrel in the roadway, hardly 

 troubling themselves to hop out of the 

 way of the heavy bull-carts ; every 

 wayside pond and lake is alive with 

 Ducks, Wild Geese, Flamingoes, 

 Pelicans, and waders of every size and 

 sort, from dainty red-legged beauties 

 the size of Pigeons up to the great 

 unwieldy Cranes and Adjutants five 

 feet high. We pass a dead Sheep with 

 two loathsome vultures picking over 

 the carcass, and presently a brood of 

 fluffy young Partridges with father 

 and mother in charge look at us fear- 

 lessly within ten feet of our whirling 

 carriage. Every village has its flock 

 of sacred Peacocks pacing gravely 

 through the surrounding gardens and 

 fields, and Woodpeckers and King- 

 fishers flash about like jewels in the 

 blazing sunlight." 



Warning Colors. — Very complete 

 experiments in support of the theory 

 of warning colors, first suggested by 

 Bates and also by Wallace, have been 

 made in India by Mr. Finn, says The 

 Independent. He concludes that there 

 is a general appetite for Butterflies 

 among insectivorous birds, though 

 thev are rarely seen when wild to 

 attack them ; also that many, probably 

 most birds, dislike, if not intensely, 

 at any rate in comparison with other 

 Butterflies, those of the Danais genus 

 and three other kinds, including a 

 species of Papilio, which is the most 

 distasteful. The mimics of these 

 Butterflies are relatively palatable. He 



found that each bird has to separately 

 acquire its experience with bad-tasting 

 Butterflies, but well remembers what 

 it learns. He also experimented with 

 Lizards, and noticed that, unlike the 

 birds, they ate the nauseous as well as 

 other Butterflies. 



Increase in Zoological Pre- 

 serves IN THE United States — 

 The establishment of the National 

 Zoological Park, Washington, has led 

 to the formation of many other 

 zoological preserves in the United 

 States. In the western part of New 

 Hampshire is an area of 26,000 acres, 

 established by the late Austin Corbin, 

 and containing 74 Bison, 200 Moose, 

 1,500 Elk, 1,700 Deer of different 

 species, and 150 Wild Boar, all of 

 which are rapidl}^ multiplying. In the 

 Adirondacks, a preserve of 9,000 acres 

 has been stocked with Elk, Virginia 

 Deer, Muledeer, Rabbits, and 

 Pheasants. The same animals are 

 preserved by W. C. Whitney on an 

 estate of 1,000 acres in the Berkshire 

 Hills, near Lenox, Mass., where also 

 he keeps Bison and Antelope. Other 

 preserves are Neliasane Park, in the 

 Adirondacks, 8,000 acres; Tranquillity 

 Park, near Allamuchy, N. J., 4,000 

 acres ; the Ailing preserve, near 

 Tacoma, Washington, 5,000 acres ; 

 North Lodge, near St. Paul, Minn., 

 400 acres ; and Furlough Lodge, in 

 the Catskills, N. Y., 600 acres. 



Robins Abundant — Not for many 

 years have these birds been so numer- 

 ous as during 1898 Once, under some 

 wide-spreading willow trees, where 

 the ground was bare and soft, we 

 counted about forty Red-breasts feed- 

 ing- together, and on several occasions 

 during the summer we saw so man}- in 

 flocks, that we could only guess at the 

 number. When unmolested, few 

 birds become so tame and none are 

 more interesting. 



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