3H 



RECREATION. 



No. species Hymenoptera 40,0000 



No. of species of birds 12,000 



No. of species of mammals .... 2,500 



No. of species of reptiles, about 4,250 

 No. of species of batrachians, 



about 1,250 



No. of species of fishes 12,000 



No. of species of mollusks .... 50,000 

 No. of species of worms (v e r- 



mes) 6,150 



No. of species of echinoderms. . 3,000 



No. of species of snakes, about 2,000 

 No. of species of v e n o m u s 



snakes, about 400 



No. of species of amphibia, 



about 1,250 



No. of species, of arachnids 20,000 



In the Museum of Natural History at 



Berlin, the largest collection in the world, 



there are some 200,000 species of animals 



represented by about 1,800,000 specimens. 



F. M. Bream, Gettysburg, Pa. 



CUTE TRICK OF A RED FOX. 

 In 1849 I was trapping red foxes in the 

 Tioga valley, New York. I caught several, 

 but there was one that for a time was too 

 sharp for me. I laid awake hours scheming 

 to get him. He ate the bait off the bed 

 regularly, but never sprang the trap. Fi- 

 nally I went to the barn one cold day and 

 caught a mouse. I set him up on a beam 

 in position as in the act of jumping and left 

 him there until he was frozen solid. Then 

 I placed the mouse directly over the pan 

 of the trap, which I set so lightly that the 

 least pressure would spring it. That trick 

 discounted the fox. He wanted that mouse. 

 He got it, and got caught, too, the trap 

 nipping a corner of his lower jaw and 

 hooking over one tooth. I trailed him 

 across the field to a rail fence, where he 

 had traveled up and down to find a hole to 

 crawl through with the trap head on. He 

 failed to find it. Then, judging from the 

 signs on the snow, he sat down to think 

 out a way to get through. He succeeded 

 by digging a hole under the bottom rail 

 and bucking through it, pulling the trap 

 after him. The trap stuck fast in the hole 

 and the fox in pulling broke his tooth off 

 and escaped. I found the tooth fast in the 

 trap and went home, vowing to get the rest 

 of the fox. I put my foxhound on the 

 trail, ran Reynard to his den, dug him out, 

 and found his right lower canine tooth 

 missing. 



R. H. Patterson, Rockledge, Fla. 



ANSWER. 



Take one part by weight of white arsenic 

 to 15 parts of cornmeal or grain. Paris 

 green and London purple would be just as 

 valuable as white arsenic except for their 

 bright color, which arouses the sparrow's 

 suspicions. If cornmeal is used, the arse- 

 nic should be stirred in dry, and the mix- 

 ture afterward moistened. It should be 

 fed moist. If whole grain is used, it should 

 be moistened before stirring in the arse- 

 nic. It wil be found advantageous to add a 

 little gum arabic to the water used to 

 moisten the grain, as it causes the poison 

 to adhere more firmly to the kernels. The 

 grain should be dried before using. Wheat 

 is preferable to all other grain, because the 

 sparrows feed on it more eagerly. 



These directions are the result of experi- 

 ments made by Dr. A. K. Fisher, arid are 

 taken from the U. S. Department of Agri- 

 culture bulletin on the English sparrow, 

 1889, page 174. — Editor. 



AN ALBINO ROBIN. 

 In looking over June Recreation, I no- 

 tice an article by R. S. Consol, of Lostant, 

 111., saying that a man had seen a white 

 bird resembling a robin. In early May of 

 last year I took down an enormous Eng- 

 lish ivy from my sitting-room, placed it on 

 the grass outside, showered it and left it 

 there a few hours to dry. When I went 

 out to get it I found a white female robin 

 entangled in the twine with which the vine 

 had been looped up in the house. I re- 

 leased the bird, held it in my hands a few 

 moments, showed it to neighbors, and then 

 gave it liberty. I traced it to its nest in a 

 large cottonwood tree near my house, and 

 saw it many times afterward. Its mate 

 was a red robin. The bird had a pure 

 white body, with wings and tail of the 

 same color as any ordinary robin. Later 

 the nest was destroyed, and the white bird 

 was missing; but I saw the mate moping 

 about for several days afterward. I greatly 

 deplored the destruction of the nest, as I 

 was anxious to see what color the young 

 would be. 



C. H. Wilbour, Austin, Minn. 



HOW TO POISON ENGLISH SPARROWS. 



Please give exact and detailed descrip- 

 tion of how to prepare arsenicated wheat to 

 poison English sparrows. 



Dr. J. C. Hierholzcr, Allegheny, Pa. 



NATURAL HISTORY NOTES. 



In looking over your August number, 

 which is up to the standard of excellence, 

 I find an article by one "Sparrow Hawk" 

 in regard to the pestiferous sparrow. 

 When he speaks about "the beautiful mot- 

 tled eggs of the robin" he is sadly in need 

 of something which nature fails to provide. 



Referring to Mr. Clayton's article on the 

 purple grackle, I am afraid that on closer 

 inspection he would have found a white 

 rumped shrike instead of a grackle. 



But of all the ridiculous statements that 



