The Audubon Note Book. 



213 



A MAN, A SPARROW AND A SURPRISE. 



The Tolland county Zfaf/t-r says: "A Rockville 

 man, who is no lover of sparrows, while passing 

 along Elm street one day last week, discovered upon 

 a lawn one of the little feathered rascals, so wet and 

 bedraggled by the rain which had poured during the 

 afternoon that it was unable to fly. He stooped to 

 pick it up, intending to convey it to a place of safety 

 but the bird hopped away a few feet. Another at- 

 tempt was made to capture it, and again a miss was 

 made. By this time the 'Good Samaritan's' blood 

 was up, and he vowed that he would catch that 

 sparrow or perish in the undertaking. So, gathering 

 himself together, he made a rush and a grab, but 

 before he could seize the bird a big white cat streaked 

 in front of him, her claws closed upon the bird, while 

 puss executed a somersault. An umbrella flourished 

 vigorously in her face failed to frighten her away, 

 and before the would-be rescuer could recover from 

 his surprise the cat's teeth had closed upon the spar- 

 row, and puss made off as swiftly and silently as she 

 had come." 



SKUNKS AND POTATO BUGS. 



Some years ago, while living at home in Vermont, 

 a group of men were discussing as to whether or not 

 turkeys or any of our domestic birds would eat the 

 potato bug; when a trapper in the party remarked 

 that he knew an animal that would, and went on to 

 say, that while looking for a favorable place to trap 

 skunks, he visited a strip of tillable land that for 

 years has been largely planted to potatoes. The soil 

 is a sandy loam, making it an easy burrowing ground, 

 with many decayed pine stumps scattered over it. 

 On one side a great wood, and on the other a 

 large swamp furnished secure retreat for the shyer 

 birds and animals. 



He found many burrows about the stumps scat- 

 tered through the fields, and noticed a great amount 

 of excrements near the entrances, which were full of 

 the harder parts of the potato beetle, showing clearly 

 what was the principal diet of the skunk in that local- 

 ity. I afterward took occasion on one of my walks 

 to verify it, and found great quantities of the horny 

 wing-cases of the beetle among the excrements de- 

 posited just outside the door of the skunk's dwelling. 



M. E. Hall. 



Jefferson, Iowa. 



SPARROWS AND ROBINS AT THE BATH. 



Some friends from Cleveland, O., visiting me, 

 speaking of English sparrows, say they have driven 

 nearly all the native birds — mentioning robins in 

 particular — away. Now I detest the little rascals as 

 much as any one, but I have had great fun watching 

 them this summer. I keep a dish that holds two 

 quarts filled with water, and have it on the lawn 



where I can see it as I go about my work. The 

 robins took immediate possession, and such splash- 

 ing and spattering as they would make. As soon as 

 the robin began his bath, numbers of sparrows would 

 come and look on, but if they came too near, Bob 

 would drive them away. During the hot weather 

 they got bolder, and I have often seen from three to 

 five of them sitting around the edge of the dish, and 

 the robin in the middle splashing away as if they 

 were not there, or as if he enjoyed it so much himself 

 he hadn't the heart to refuse them the few drops 

 they got in that way. When sparrows bathe they 

 act as though they were novices in the art, and I 

 told my daughters, they looked, when all perched 

 around the dish or on the trees and bushes near, as 

 though they were taking lessons. 



I never saw them attempt anything like driving 

 but once. Then a sparrow flew down and lit on the 

 robin, and he immediately flew, but it was all done 

 in such a flash I could not tell whether he meant to 

 drive or get in with him. We had to fill the dish 

 three or four times a day. M. A. Clinton. 



Rochester, N. Y. 



Swallows' Intelligence. — In a neighbor's 

 bungalow in this district, two of our common swal- 

 lows {Hirundo javanicd) built their nest, selecting 

 as a site for the purpose the top of a hanging lamp 

 that hangs in the dining-room. As the lamp is 

 either raised or depressed by chains fixed to a cen- 

 tral counter-weight, these chains pass over pulleys 

 fixed to a metal disk above, on which the nest was 

 placed. The swallows evidently saw that if the 

 pulleys were covered with mud, moving the lamp 

 either up or down would destroy the nest; so to 

 avoid this natural result they built over each pulley 

 a little dome, allowing sufficient space both for 

 wheel and chain to pass in the hollow so constructed 

 without danger to the nest, which was not only fully 

 constructed, but the young birds were reared with- 

 out further danger. — Ceylon Letter. 



Seagulls and Herrings. — To the infinite credit 

 of the Manx Legislature (says the London Globe) a 

 penalty of ;^5 is inflicted upon any one who shoots one 

 of these birds (seagulls), which accordingly enjoy an 

 immunity from slaughter by that hideous travesty of 

 the British sportsman, the seaside shooter. Let him 

 beware how he attempts to practice his favorite 

 amusement at Douglas, Ramsey, Peel, Castletown. 

 The fishermen will be down upon him to a man in 

 defense of the bird which serves as their guide to 

 schools of herrings off the coast. As the armada of 

 closely-packed fishes advances, it is always accom- 

 panied by a number of swooping gulls, and the 

 Manxman then knows that the harvest of the sea is 

 waiting to be reaped. 



