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English Sparrows and Electric Lights 



The English Sparrows in a country com- 

 munity near one of the large cities of the 

 Middle Atlantic states have learned to make 

 use at night of the electric lights. 



Many of the houses in this district have 

 recently been provided with lights over the 

 entrance doors or in the porticoes ; and the 

 electric bulbs are, for the most part, sus- 

 pended in decorative lanterns of an old- 

 fashioned style consisting of a high-peaked 

 iron top and a frame which encloses the 

 glass below. This glass is spherical, and 

 is so set in the frame that there is an open 

 space all around between the glass and the 

 top of the lantern. The birds have found 

 this easy entrance, and have also discovered 

 part way up inside the iron top a bar that 

 looks as if made for a perch. There, above 

 the warm light, they have found shelter at 

 night, one bird, as a rule, being in each 

 lantern. 



The lights are controlled at a centra! 

 plant and are turned on automatically at a 

 fixed time, and on clear evenings they often 

 appear before the daylight has gone and are 

 then relatively inconspicuous. The birds, 

 however, seem to be watching for them and 

 quickly fly into the lantern-tops. On dull 

 evenings, or when the lighting has been 

 unusually delayed, the birds have frequently 

 been seen on their perches in the lanterns 

 before the lights have appeared. 



For about an hour the Sparrows remain 

 awake and on the alert, ready to take flight 

 if investigation is inquisitive or is prolonged 

 more than a very few minutes; but when 

 they are once sound asleep they are not 

 easily disturbed. 



The birds were first observed in the lan- 

 tern-tops in the cold weather that came early 

 in January of this year, and from that time 

 until the present (April 15) they have regu- 

 larly occupied most of the available places. 



The difference in temperature between 

 the air inside the lanterns when the lights 

 are on and that immediately outside is con- 



(12 



siderable. With an outside temperature of 

 27° Fahr., the mercury in a thermometer 

 whose bulb was placed on a level with the 

 perch inside the lantern stood at 44° Fahr. 

 three hours after the light had been turned 

 on. 



While it gives pleasure on a wintry night 

 to think that the birds are enjoying the 

 warmth of the electric lights, it is question- 

 able whether the toasting at night followed 

 by exposure to storm and wind by day can 

 be beneficial. And, if this suddenly acquired 

 habit of the English Sparrow is injurious, it 

 is at variance with the commonly received 

 idea that animal instincts are a safe guide. 



If the greater warmth is so agreeable to 

 these birds, why do they not go in winter to 

 a warmer latitude ? Are they unaware of 

 the migration of other species, or are they 

 physically unable to accomplish it ? Or is 

 it something so long absent from their hered- 

 itary make-up as to be non-existent to 

 them ? 



With the coming of spring a new feature 

 has appeared : In two lanterns straws and 

 hay are accumulating. In one case they are 

 collected inside the glass globe close around 

 the electric bulb. This arrangement seems 

 not to be satisfactory, for the work is not 

 progressing. In the other lantern there is a 

 closely-packed mass across the base of the 

 cone-shaped iron top forming a compact 

 layer above the electric light with one small 

 round hole that seems like an entrance. Is 

 this layer the base of a nest ? Is the ar- 

 rangement a sort of incubator ? To investi- 

 gate would be to destroy the structure. — 

 Harriet Randolph, Bryn Mawr College, 

 Bryn Mawr, Pa. 



Red-breasted Nuthatch at Sea 



The notes of the Red-breasted Nuthatch 

 migration in Bird-Lore for December re- 

 mind me of the birds that boarded our 

 steamer last September. 



It was, I believe, the 27th, and a strong* 

 northwest wind was blowing. When 



