GENERAL AND MISCELLANEOUS 433 



food, and many kinds are called birds' cherry, and un- 

 less we plant the seeds occasionally, I shall think the 

 birds have the best right to them. Thus a bird's wing 

 is added to the cherry-stone which was wingless, and it 

 does not wait for winds to transport it. 



Oct. 7, 1860. Rice ^ says that when a boy, playing 

 with darts with his brother Israel, one of them sent up 

 his dart when a flock of crows was going over. One of 

 the crows followed it down to the earth, picked it up, 

 and flew off with it a quarter of a mile before it dropped 

 it. He has observed that young wood ducks swim faster 

 than the old, which is a fortunate provision, for they 

 can thus retreat and hide in the weeds while their parents 

 fly off. He says that you must shoot the little dipper as 

 soon as it comes up, — before the water is fairly off its 

 eyes, — else it will dive at the flash. 



^ [Reuben Rice, of Concord.] 



