82 BOMBAY DUCKS 



wings and makes a bee-line for its destination. Its 

 chances of colliding with other birds are infinitesimal, it 

 is not afraid of running up against a lamp-post, tripping 

 up over a stone, or being run over by an omnibus or 

 cab, so it puts down its head and lets itself go in much 

 the same way as an athlete sprints a hundred yards 

 race. 



Thus it happened that when the telegraph was first 

 erected many a feathered creature killed itself by 

 coming into violent contact with the wires, which, for a 

 time, were veritable death-traps. Calamities, such as 

 these, are now happily things of the past. 



Birds profit by experience. They have learned to 

 avoid the treacherous wires during flight. They have 

 further discovered that a telegraph wire forms a very 

 comfortable perch, which that incomprehensible and 

 eccentric being man has erected for their special 

 benefit. Thus it happens that the traveller by railroad 

 sees a succession of birds perched upon the message- 

 bearing wires, as though they were sitting for their 

 photographs, for the passing of the train does not per- 

 turb them in the least. A telegraph wire is, however, 

 too attenuated to form a comfortable perch for some 

 birds. For such there are the poles and insulators 

 ready to hand, and of these the hawks and kites are 

 not slow to avail themselves. 



Birds which feed upon flying insects are particularly 

 addicted to the telegraph wires, for these latter consti- 

 tute an ideal point of vantage from whence the bird 

 can look out for its quarry. Thus king-crows (Dicrurus 

 ater) are to be seen distributed along the whole extent 



