82 BOMBAY DUCKS 
wings and makes a bee-line for its destination. Its 
chances of colliding with other birds are infinitesimal, it 
is not afraid of running up against a lamp-post, tripping 
up over a stone, or being run over by an omnibus or 
cab, so it puts down its head and lets itself go in much 
the same way as an athlete sprints a hundred yards 
race. 
Thus it happened that when the telegraph was first 
erected many a feathered creature killed itself by 
coming into violent contact with the wires, which, for a 
time, were veritable death-traps. Calamities, such as 
these, are now happily things of the past. 
Birds profit by experience. They have learned to 
avoid the treacherous wires during flight. They have 
further discovered that a telegraph wire forms a very 
comfortable perch, which that incomprehensible and 
eccentric being—man—has erected for their special 
benefit. Thus it happens that the traveller by railroad 
sees a succession of birds perched upon the message- 
bearing wires, as though they were sitting for their 
photographs, for the passing of the train does not per- 
turb them in the least. A telegraph wire is, however, 
too attenuated to form a comfortable perch for some 
birds. For such there are the poles and insulators 
ready to hand, and of these the hawks and kites are 
not slow to avail themselves. : 
Birds which feed upon flying insects are particularly 
addicted to the telegraph wires, for these latter’ consti- 
tute an ideal point of vantage from whence the bird 
can look out for its quarry. Thus king-crows (Dicrurus 
ater) are to be seen distributed along the whole extent 
