THE OOLOGIST © 108 
particular strip of copper wire. And 
this ideal, aristocratic location con- 
sists in what—simply a trolley wire. 
No not “a” trolley wire either, but one 
very particular one, viz: “the” one 
passing in front of the two best hotels 
in the city. And there they fight, 
their twitterings now become cries, 
and then reost in the glare of the 
electric lights from the ‘“portales” 
where in summer are situated the 
dining rooms cf the hotels not fifteen 
feet distant in an air line. And there 
as the “Vera Cruzano” lights his 
“cigarro” after his eight o’clock sup- 
per, if he looks up he can see, even at 
the tail of the filmy smoke trail which 
rises from the end of his own cigar- 
rette, the outlines of hundreds of birds 
all strung along on the wire at in- 
variable intervals of about an inch, 
and looking perhaps Hke so many 
clothes pins. Neither the busy life in 
the hotel corridors, “portales’” nor 
cafes immediately at their tails’ ends, 
nor the bustle in the street beneath 
their feet, nor the passing of sharp 
gonged street cars along the adjacent 
streets, which causes their wire to 
bob dizzily up and down, nor even yet 
the strains of all varying music from 
the “kiosko” across the street; none 
of this serves even in the slightest, 
either to deter them from _ seeking 
their roost, from squabbling over a 
bed, or from sleeping serenely when 
darkness has made further conten- 
tions difficult and dangerous. 
But not yet have we noted all. One 
guest at the Plaza Hotel for Birds has 
been overlooked. He has been too 
stately, too lofty and dignified to de- 
scend into the streets and mix with 
the other noisy occupants below. 
Yes, too dignified even to cry out. 
And so, at first, amidst all the other 
cry and clamor we have noted him 
not. However, had we chanced to 
look, even as early as five o'clock, a 
few stray lone black buzzards, the 
early birds of the night, might have 
been seen perched on the highest pin- 
nacles of the tiled Cathedral tower, 
either tired out early after a hard day, 
or just back after some rousing car- 
rion feast. At any rate there they are 
and from all directions come other 
stragglers. Still they come, each seek- 
ing out his accustomed lodging place 
and if found occupied by a “sooner” 
ejecting him from the spot. In this 
fashion with noiseless intermittent 
short scraps, the old Cathedral tower 
is gradually peopled by these huge 
dusky spectres, unti] every inch of 
“standable” standing room has been 
“stood” for, or on. 
And there, back to the old 
they come, every day and every eve, 
to sit and preen their feathers, or 
spread their wings to dry, or sit mo- 
tionless and in silence while they listen 
to or cooly eye their relatives in the 
roost, 
trees below. All just as they have 
done since the Cathedral was first 
built, some three hundred and _ fifty 
years ago. 
And this is the spectacle which the 
plaza of Vera Cruz has to present on 
any old summer’s eve. A lively scene 
indeed, with the band playing, the 
birds crying in competition, and a 
populace come to enjoy the delicious 
cool of the evening. Everything is 
out of doors, birds, buzzards and peo- 
ple. Air, cool sea breeze and land 
breeze is plentiful. The hotel cafes 
are in the midst of it all, in view and 
enjoyment of it all. They are situated 
on the only sidewalk there is in front 
of the hotels, some fifteen feet wide 
and extending around two sides of 
the plaza. The sidewalk is covered by 
“Portales” which support a_ ceiling 
some twelve or fifteen feet high and 
above this a second story. Under 
