ZOOLOGICAL SOCIETY BULLETIN 



1505 



boiled egg and biscuit, then may be given one 

 of the commercial pheasant meals, mixed with 

 egg and green food. Plent}^ of insects are nec- 

 essary, but if given opportunity, the chicks will 

 seek this item for themselves. 



sniping is suspended by a sort of tacit agree- 

 ment among opposing forces. 



ALTITUDE OF BIRDS IN FLIGHT. 

 From Bird Notes and Nervs. 



"An officer of the French Flying Corps, who 

 may be identified with a valued fellow-worker 

 of the R. S. P. B., has taken exceptional op- 

 portunities to record observations on the flight 

 of birds and the height at which they fly, es- 

 pecially when migrating. Some of his notes 

 are published in the Pall Mall Gazette (Vol. 

 11, 1916). Swallows, he says, seem to prefer 

 an altitude of 2,000 feet, whereas the wild duck 

 usually fly at 5,000 feet. They are remark- 

 able, also, for the marvelous uniformity with 

 which they follow their leader. The turns and 

 twists are taken with such simultaneity that a 

 flock appears to turn and wheel automatically, 

 so extraordinarily together do they move. 

 When climbing they fly at about sixty-five miles 

 an hour, and are good for seventy once they 

 have got their height and have spread out to 

 let themselves go. 



"Last March, he met some plovers at 6,500 

 feet, which is the highest altitude that he has 

 seen a company of birds." 



STOP BATTLE TO FIGHT WOLVES 



New York Herald, February 16, 1917. 



Petrograd, Jan. 15, 1917. 



A wolf hunt, in which both Russian and Ger- 

 man soldiers joined, is described in correspond- 

 ence from the Polish front. Parties of Russian 

 and German scouts met recently and were hot- 

 ly engaged in a skirmish when a large pack of 

 wolves dashed on the scene and attacked the 

 wounded. Hostilities were at once suspended 

 and Germans and Russians instinctively at- 

 tacked the pack, killing about fifty of the 

 wolves. After the hunt the soldiers separated, 

 each party returning unmolested to its own 

 trenches. Along some sections of this front 

 hungry wolves have been particularly bold this 

 winter, constituting a real danger to outposts 

 of both armies, and rejaeatedly the combatants 

 have had to send out hunting parties against the 

 common enemv. While at this sort of work 



YALE HONORS DEFENDER OF WILD 

 LIFE. 



On June 20, Yale University conferred on 

 Dr. W. T. Hornaday the honorary degree of 

 Master of Arts, in recognition of his work as 

 "leader in movements for wild life protection 

 in America." This is the first time that any 

 great university has thus pointedly honored a 

 defender of wild life ; but three years ago Yale 

 formally recognized this line of zoological work 

 by establishing, through the initiative of Prof. 

 James W. Toumey, Director of the Forest 

 School, a course of lectures on "Wild Life Con- 

 servation in Theory and Practice." 



In describing Dr. Hornaday as "a sportsman 

 without slaughter/' it fairly may be inferred 

 that Yale believes in legitimate sport with the 

 gun. 



LATEST NEWS FROM THE ATHA- 

 BASCA BISON HERD. 



Dr. C. Gordon Hewitt, Dominion Consulting 

 Zoologist, Canadian Department of Agricul- 

 ture, reports that an officer of the Canadian 

 Geological Survey in charge of a field party in 

 the Peace River District made last year a spec- 

 ial effort to gain precise information regarding 

 the wood bison of northern Athabasca. This, 

 it will be remembered, is the last considerable 

 remnant of wild American bison. The only other 

 remaining trace of the great wild herds being 

 found in the Yellowstone Park, in the Pelican 

 Creek country, consisting of about seventy head. 



The Geological Survey officer referred to re- 

 ports that the protection afforded the bands of 

 wood bison appears to be "preventing any de- 

 crease," and that a slight increase appears to be 

 taking place. 



During the past ten years or more, it has 

 seemed to the zoologists most interested that the 

 Athabasca bison herds were at a stationary 

 number, neither increasing nor diminishing. 

 This has been ascribed to the destruction of 

 calves by wolves. 



Dr. Hewitt also reports that the total num- 

 ber of captive bison now in the parks of the Do- 

 minion of Canada, is 2,513. of which 2,396 are 

 in the o;reat herd at Wainwrioht, Alberta, 



