346 AMERICAN ORNITHOLOGY. 



identify a bird he sends it to the Nest. When all the birds are either in 

 the Cage or Nest, that is, when the Hunter has received descriptions 

 and asked questions of every child in the line, he sits down in the 

 Thicket, (in one of the chairs in the row at the center,) and begins to 

 spell very slowly, the words American Ornithology, stopping suddenly 

 wherever he chooses before reaching the last letter and saying "^a;/^!"^ 

 As the Hunter begins to spell, all the Birds leave the Nest and the Cage 

 and march around the chairs, as he says Bang, each one tries to sit on 

 a chair in the Thicket . (If desired, each bird sent to the N'est may be 

 required to pay a forfeit, when the Hunter shall act as judge.) The 

 one who fails to secure a seat is the Hunter in the next game. 



GLEANIiMGS< 

 Have you ever seen two cock Blue Jays fighting in mid-air? There 

 is a joust of brilliancy. They whirl over and over so fast that they 

 look like a blur of amethyst smoke, shot with gleams of white fire; 

 how their wings clash and their bills clack. Not much harm is done, 

 but I venture to predict that no two human prize fighters (but are they 

 ever human ?) can give and take blows so rapidly. 



Maurice Thompson. 



THE HUMAN BIRDS, 



A facetious man who rejoices in the name of BIRD, conceived the 

 idea of calling a convention of all the people in Philadelphia who be- 

 long to his tribe- Of course it was a joke, but a glance through the 

 pages of the directory convinced him that such a gathering would be a 

 big one. He discovered there were an even hundred plain Birds, but 

 the variety of those who specified their kinds was appalling. The list 

 as far as he went, was as follows: Doves, 15; Eagles, 8; Larks, 6; 

 Peacocks, 29; Pigeons, 1; Parrots, 40; Nightingales, 9; Partridges, 30,* 

 Sparrows, 7; Sparrow hawks, 7; Wrens, 10; Robins, 15; Flickers, 5; 

 Thrushes, 4; Canaries, 3; Geese, 2; and Turkey, 1. There were two- 

 Chippies and Philip Ducks upheld the dignity of his branch of the fam- 

 ily. — Philadelphia Record. 



