
NATURAL HISTORY. 
branch of a dead cedar he sits and gives 
vent to his hurried “Witch-chew-chack- 
chack-chack-chew,” of which the 4 middie 
notes are emphasized. 
On I go again and from many bf the 
woods passed come the songs of their new 
arrivals mingled with those of the musi- 
cians who have preceded them by some 
time; and as an accompaniment the ruffed 
grouse sounds his drum, a piece of instru- 
mental music without which our spring or- 
chestra would be incomplete. 
When near the lake I leave the road and 
ride down a cow track to the shore. Out 
on the lake are flocks of American golden- 
eyes, and lesser scaup ducks. I cache the 
wheel and start on_a tramp around the 
lake, which, on account of bogs reach- 
ing in from it, is a distance of some 7 
miles. Passing through a piece of rich 
woodland I find the large white trillium 
just coming into bloom, the graceful bells 
of the yellow adder’s tongue hanging from 
their semi transparent stalks, which rise 
here and there from the dense bed of 
blotched leaves. The Canada violet is much 
in evidence here, its large white petals 
tinged, in a varying degree in different 
specimens, with purple. The spring beauty, 
purple trillium, early meadow rue, small 
flowered crowfoot, and downy yellow violet 
are here also. As I cross an open, swampy 
piece of land I pass over many beautiful 
clumps of the common blue violet; and 
entering a thin pine wood on the South 
bank I find one of the hepaticas (H. tri- 
loba) in full flower. The ground for some 
distance is covered with magnificent blos- 
soms, in all shades of mauve, blue and 
pink. In the thicket around the edge of the 
lake the shadbush is most attractive in its 
clothing of white blossoms, and the fly 
honeysuckle hangs out its pale yellow bells, 
2 to a stalk. 
._ When I reach the West end of the lake 
I conclude it is about dinner time. While 
I am supplying fuel to the fire of life a 
swamp sparrow hops, twig by twig, to the 
top of a dogwood bush (C. stolonifera) 
and delivers his liquid, thrilling “twee-twee- 
twee-twee.” 
Resuming my tramp I pass through a 
bog where I find the leatherleaf in bloom, 
and entering the white pine forest at the 
other side I notice the delicate white flow- 
ers of the goldthread showing among its 
3-cleft shining leaves. 
After having circumambulated the lake, 
I regain my wheel and proceed homeward, 
listening to the evening songs of the birds. 
A. B. Klugh, Guelph, Ont. 

WHAT THE BIRDS DO. 
It has been said that a bird would eat 
25 insects a day, which is a low estimate. 
‘owl had killed that season. 
395 
There are 170,000,000 acres in Texas, and 
allowing one bird to every acre, and 25 
insects to every bird we find 4,250,000,000 
insects, or 35,500 bushels are eaten by 
birds every day. Persons who study birds 
have killed different kinds to see how 
much they eat. In the crop of a quail 1o1 
potato bugs were found. In another quail 
were 500 chinch bugs. In a yellow billed 
cuckoo, at 6 o’clock in the morning, 43 
tent caterpillars were found. In another, 
were 217 web worms. 
In a robin were found 175 caterpillars; 
in 4 chickadees 1,028 eggs of the canker 
worm. One chickadee eats 5,000 eggs of 
the canker worm in one day. 
The barn swallow: eats 5,000 to 10,000 
flies and other insects in a week. The 
dove eats 7,500 weed seeds in a _ week. 
Nearly all birds, espécially hawks, eat lo- 
custs. There are 73 species of hawks. of 
which only 6 are injurious to man. The 
Fae herons and bitterns feed cn craw- 
sh. 
Birds carry tood to their young, whose 
mouths are always ready. One family ot 
jays ete one half million caterpillars a 
season, 
Someone caught a young robin, to see 
how much it would eat, and said its hunger 
was not satisfied with less than 60 earth 
worms a day. One man watched a wren 
and he said it fed its young IIo insects in 
1% hours. 
Near the nest of a martin was found a 
quart of wings of the cucumber beetle. 
This shows what a great number of beetles | 
were destroyed. Chipping sparrows each 
eat 200 worms a day. 
Near the nest of a horned owl were found 
the remains of 113 house rats, which the 
The barn owls 
destroy meadow mice, which are extremely 
destructive to young fruit trees. 
If every man and boy who shoots would 
read this and consider the good the birds 
do, I am sure there would be much less 
thoughtless killing of the innocent birds. 
Hattie Hill, La Porte, Texas. 

DEER DO SHED THEIR HORNS. 
In RecrEATION I have read accounts of 
deer shedding their horns and I recently 
noticed pictures of a head with antlers 
measuring 9 feet 3 inches from tip to tip 
across the skull, spread 53%, beam lengths 
55 and 56% inches. I have also seen in 
RECREATION photos of some larger antlers. 
Will you settle an argument on this sub- 
ject? If a deer sheds his horns in, say 
February, and has 9 months to produce a 
pair as large as those shown in RECREATION, 
what causes them to grow so fast? Some 
say they do not shed every year. Is it true 
that a buck is a year old before he gets a 
spike; then in 2 years he gets a prong, sheds 
