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ZOOLOGICAL SOCIETY BULLETIN 



OUR HERD OF PRJEVALSKY WILD HORSES AND THE LATEST ARRIV, 



is a delight to the eye, his voice is equally as 

 great a nightmare to the musical ear. 



Under ordinary working pressure, the Park 

 does not produce sounds of sufficient intensity to 

 provoke the discordant protest of the pea-fowl, 

 but the heavy blasting of the rock in the work- 

 shop yards is evidently a powerful incentive. As 

 each charge of dynamite is fired, every peacock 

 accepts the challenge and hurls his raucous voice 

 along the line with redoubled intensity. To 

 those who are familiar with the aftermath, it is 

 the rule to hear the blast, and await with bated 

 breath the inevitable pea-fowl chorus. 



Robber Sparrows. — If the English sparrow 

 had the divine faculty of reading the human 

 mind he might be the vainest of birds. No 

 other creature in the world attracts so much 

 attention as this independent little tramp. Every 

 rascally trait has been foisted upon him ; and 

 yet, in winter our streets and parks would be 

 very cheerless without his optimistic chirping. 

 The sparrow is a born optimist and no one can 

 deny that he is not aggressive and self-reliant. 

 When every food supply of our feathered mi- 

 grants is closed tight in the grip of winter, this 

 brave little fellow starves and freezes with 

 Pickwickian cheerfulness, until the advent of 

 another spring. He is no exception to the rule 

 that the virtues of every creature are properly 

 balanced by their defects. But why condemn 

 him for so valiantly upholding with all his 



sturdy courage the motto of the "early bird"? 

 The busy bee is not in the running with the spar- 

 row. There are no limits to the ingenuity he is 

 called upon to employ in earning his daily 

 bread. To him it is distinctly a case of a sur- 

 vival of the fittest, and his hereditary birthright 

 of Spartan-like bringing-up has endowed him 

 with a resolution that is not to be denied. 



But for all the canny devices to which he 

 resorts in the daily struggle for existence, the 

 following clever trick would scarcely seem be- 

 lievable, had I not known the observer's veracity 

 to be unquestioned. 



The favorite hunting ground of the robin, 

 when there are nestlings eager for food, is a 

 smoothly-clipped lawn after a warm rain. Then 

 the earth-worms come to the surface and are 

 easily captured. Under these conditions a robin 

 was observed hopping about, looking for food. 

 A number of sparrows were also apparently 

 similarly engaged. Finally the robin located 

 a worm, seized it and gave a lusty pull. The 

 worm resisted the tugging and stretched like a 

 bow string to a length of about six inches. Sud- 

 denly a sparrow darted over, caught the worm 

 midway between the ground and the robin's beak 

 and flew triumphantly away with it. This op- 

 eration was repeated several times by the spar- 

 rows remaining, and the robin at length gave up 

 in despair, and departed to a locality where 

 there was no competition and highway robbers 

 were less numerous. E. R. S. 



