AMERICAN ORNITHOLOGY. 289 



ENIGMA NO. 4. 



My 1st 'is in small, but not in tall, 



My 2nd is in wall, but not in hall, 



My 3d is in bearer, but not in either, 



My 4th is in low, but not in now- 



My 5th is not in fast but it is in slow, 



My 6th is in "Poll " but not in cracker. 



My 7th is not in heathen but it is in weather. 



My whole is a bird which is common to all. 



And builds his nest with a hard mud wall. 



Gilbert Honax, 

 Montclair, New Jersey. 



QUERIES. 



1. What bird "keels " its tail when flying, folding the feathers from 

 the middle ? 



. 2. What birds roost in family groups in the form of a circle on the 

 ground, with heads presenting outward ? 



3. What is blacker than a crow ? 



GLEANINGS. 



The Bush Sparrow. 



A bubble of music floats 



The slope of the hillside over, 



A little wandering sparrow's notes 



And the bloom of yarrow and clover. 

 And the smell of sweet fern, 



And the bayberry leaf, 

 On his ripple of song are stealing, 



For he is a chartered thief. 

 The wealth of the fields revealing. 



Lucy Larcom. 



Pheasants are the wariest of all game birds, running at the crackling 

 of a dead twig, and flying upon the least stir. Negroes believe that 

 they can also smell human beings. The females have sole care of the 

 eggs and young broods. 



Martha McCullough Williams, 

 (In Next to the Ground.) 



