352 



RECREATION. 



the Byron Sutton estate of Newark Valley, 

 N. Y., is a chipping sparrow mounted in 

 the position in which it met its death. 

 The bird had built a nest in a lilac bush 

 near a building, and had laid 2 eggs. While 

 on the nest one end of a long horse hair 

 became tangled about her head, and the 

 other end was woven into the nest. Flit- 

 ting off she tugged against the hair but only 

 tightened the noose, which hastened 

 strangulation and she died her own execu- 

 tioner. An examination showed that the 



HOUSE WREN HUNG. 



loop was formed by a sort of half knot, 

 and a slight hook at the end of the hair 

 prevented it from unfastening. 



A most peculiar accident of the kind, and 

 one which under the circumstances appears 

 to have been vengeance, happened to a 

 common house wren. A pair of chipping 

 sparrows began building a nest in an apple 

 tree that was preempted by a pair of wrens. 

 The chippies and wrens frequently battled 

 with one another and when the former 

 finally finished their work, the wrens began 

 to demolish the nest. An eye witness says 

 the birds fought all Cne morning and 

 started an afternoon session, when the 

 skirmish was suddenly brought to a tragic 

 end. The pugnacious little wrens van- 

 quished the usually peace loving chippies; 

 then with its bill one of the wrens con- 

 tinued to tear the nest apart. While strug- 

 gling with a piece of twine, the wren 

 tangled it around one of its feet, then about 

 a limb and soon died. I mounted the wren 

 without disentangling it from the fasten- 

 ings. 



I found an eave swallow dead by the side 

 of a barn. It had caught one of its claws 

 under its eyelid while scratching its head 

 and was unable to free itself. 



From the journal of the late Byron Sut- 

 ton I copy the following : "The well 

 known landscape painter, David Johnson, 

 N. A., while at Lake George on a sketch- 

 ing tour, was rowing along the shore of 

 Harbor island one August morning, when 

 his attention was attracted by the flopping 

 motion of some large object seen through 

 an opening in the trees. On landing he 

 was surprised to find a large golden eagle 

 in a natural trap. In alighting on a forked 

 sapling one of its feet had slipped into a 

 crotch, and in struggling to free itself, the 

 bird had lost its balance and when found 

 was hanging head down. Its efforts had 

 only served to fix it the firmer. The eagle 

 was captured and subsequently presented 

 to a zoological park. 



A neighbor recently released a ruby 

 throated humming bird from a large, tough 

 spider's web. It is not generally known 

 than when obtainable humming birds live 

 extensively on young spiders. The bird, 

 in searching for the insects, became tangled 

 in the web and before it was freed, sharp 

 scissors were necessary to release its tiny 

 feet and wings from the bonds which se- 

 curely held it. 



A farmer owning a brood of young chick- 

 ens, tilted the coop and placed a stick under 

 one edge, that the old hen might have 

 shelter at night. A great horned owl, while 

 attempting to capture the hen, flew under 

 the coop, knocked out the support, and the 

 tiller of the soil was dumbfounded the 

 next morning to find that he was the 

 owner of an owl, instead of a coop of 

 chickens. 



Every museum of note contains one or 

 more sets of deer or elk antlers that were 

 found with the skeletons of the animals 

 which had died after fiercely battling for 

 the leadership of a band of does. In such 

 conflicts, their antlers sometimes become 

 locked, and being unable to pull them 

 apart, the noble bucks suffer a death of 

 exhaustion and starvation. Prof. L, L. 

 Dyche, of the Kansas University, once 

 shot a bull elk which had the tine of a 

 combatant's antler broken off in its skull. 

 The same gentleman, after several hours of 

 difficult climbing, successfully stalked an 

 Alaska white sheep and after shooting it 

 discovered that one of its feet was crushed. 

 It had probably caught its foot between a 

 moving and a stationary boulder. 



During my experience as field naturalist 

 to the United States Biological Survey, I 

 frequently captured small mammals with 

 missing tails or legs. 



While hunting in the Wyoming moun- 

 tains, I noticed a pine squirrel acting ex- 



