230 
* 
RECREATION. 
od 
inates organic salts and possibly other “the song of love, joy and praise. They 
morbific agents. Permanganate of potash 
must have time to disorganize and give off 
free oxygen, leaving the potash to neutral- 
ize the acid in the blood, as ammonia does. 
Thus both drugs stimulate the heart and 
destroy acid; ammonia acts most promptly 
and is therefore preferable. 
I read a statement recently that house 
spiders were not poisonous. At that time 
I had 3 cases dangerously sick from spider’s 
venom. 
C. E. Frost, M. D., Ranger, Tex. 
LET THEM STAY WHERE GOD PUT THEM. 
The following editorial, which recently 
appeared in the Cleveland Press, was read 
aloud in every school room in that city, by 
order of the Cleveland Board of Education: 
The song birds of Ohio are to stay where 
God put them—in the woods and fields 
He who notes even a sparrow in its fall 
has not forgotten the little troubadours of 
the sunny skies. He has raised an agency 
for their defense in their virgin sweetness, 
in their primal beauty and in that which 
gives them their beauty and sweetness both, 
their native liberty. There is at least one 
statutory law in which the hand of God is 
surely visible, and it is being righteously 
enforced. No longer, in Northern Ohio, 
at least, will the hedges, trees and sky be 
robbed of their richest treasures to adorn 
human vanity. 
It is a baffling physiological question why 
a woman wants a bird on her hat. It is a 
confession carried aloft like a banner, that 
she needs unnatural aid to make her beau- 
tiful. For the bird adorns the woman; no 
woman adorns a bird. To refined minds 
the woman is prettier without the bird; to 
all minds the bird is prettier without the 
woman. The bird on a woman’s hat is a 
mark of murder, the most cruel and useless 
that the mind can conceive. It is even a 
mark of more than that. It is a constant 
reminder that the vanity of woman can 
ruthlessly throttle the sweetest music that 
ever kissed the soul, enslave the most per- 
fect type of freedom, mar the purest thing 
of beauty in the world, and then place the 
evidence of her heartless crimes above her 
brow and ask us to look and think her more 
peautiful. 
Is it then to be wondered at that hu- 
manity has sickened of it and has said 
through the law and game wardens, that 
the song birds shall stay where God put 
them—in the fields and woods? 
There in their native element the song 
birds are man’s first and holiest inspiration. 
hey taught him his first note in music, 
and gave him his first dream of liberty. 
They are the greatest optimists in the world, 
teaching always cheer and hope. They 
croak no melancholy dirges, but sing only 

bring into the heart of man naught but 
brightness and take from it naught but 
gloom. 
Near to Nature’s heart, where men and 
women have souls, the song birds suggest 
all that is best in life or to be longed for in 
eternity. They whisper to the child its first 
message from the Infinite, and carol to old 
age the glories beyond the vale. From 
dawn to night, from birth to death, they 
flood our days and lives with melody, and 
cheer with inspiration. 
Let them stay where God put them—in 
the fields, in the woods, and in human souls. 

THE GREEN PIGEONS OF INDIA. 
The feathered game of India is as numer- 
ous as it is varied. While many of the spe- 
cies are.those found in much higher lati- 
tudes, there are several peculiar to the 
country. Partridges, quails, pheasants, 
grouse and turkeys, together with various 
water birds, are found well distributed over 
the jungle land. Few of the many game 
birds, however, excel the green pigeon in 
delicacy of flavor and other edible qualities. 
This bird is found chiefly in the Northern 
and Western parts of the country, inhabit- 
ing the large tracts of jungle land or places 
where tall trees such as the mango or ban- 
yan flourish. It is always met in great 
numbers, 200 frequently being counted in a 
single flock. Its plumage is dull green, 
though the feathers on the neck and breast 
are gray. Its habits are identical with 
those of the ordinary blue rock, but its 
extreme wariness renders it exceedingly 
dificult of approach and the sportsman 
who can show a dozen brace as the result 
of a day’s work may well congratulate 
himself. If one is lucky enough to ap- 
proach a feeding flock, a single shot will 
frequently drop 5 to 10 birds, so closely do 
they perch together. 
The best method is to first find one of 
their feeding places, which is usually a 
large banyan, or pipal, tree, go there before 
sunrise and await the arrival of the birds. 
They invariably select the Eastern branch- 
es and settle there sit quietly in the sun 
half an hour before feeding. While thus 
engaged not a bird stirs, and so closely 
does their plumage resemble the color of 
the surrounding foliage that it requires a 
sharp eye to detect them. About daybreak 
the birds begin to arrive in groups of 5 or 
6 and soon the branches are fairly alive 
with them. Then it is that the sportsman 
must exercise the greatest care; not a twig 
must be broken nor a change made in his 
position. Slowly the pigeons arrange 
themselves and by sunrise some of the 
boughs are bent almost to breaking with 
their weight. Then with a quick move the 
gun is brought to the shoulder, one barrel 

