10 
THE gClEKTlST. 
For The K. C. Scientist : 
Lynched By Sparrows. 
One day last spring as I was going 
down town I saw a flock of about flfty 
Sparrows on the ground in a vacant lot 
on the corner of Thirteenth and Central 
streets. They were making as much 
fuss and noise as a political ward meet- 
ing, where every other man had a can- 
didate for nomination, and all wanted to 
be heard at the same time. So intently 
were they engaged that I walked up to 
within twenty feet of them without their 
taking the alarm. I found that they had 
in their midst a full grown young rat 
who seemed to be completely cowed and 
paralyzed with fear, and trembling all 
over. As long as he remained quiet they 
merely stood around and chattered and 
shrieked at him, but when he made a 
move they would pounce down in front 
of him and drive him back. There was 
an old wooden side-walk at the time, on 
Thirteenth street , and it is probable he 
had a hole under it which he was trying 
to reach. Having an engagement to 
meet I was obliged to leave them. In 
about two hours I came back that way 
and turned aside to see what had become 
of the rat. 1 found the poor fellow lying 
within a few feet of the side-wdlk, his 
head literally torn to pieces; his eyes 
pecked out and blood and brains oozing 
from the sockets. He had been lynched 
in true western style, and his body left 
as a warning to all depredators. What 
crime he had committed against this 
community of sparrows, I could not find 
out or imagine. I have often seen rats 
running around in my back yard and 
sparrows flying about without paying 
any attention to them,and this individual 
must have been guilty of some great 
outrage to bring down such punishment 
upon him. There is a large colony of 
these birds living in the tower of the 
church at Thirteenth and Central, and I 
have seen unfledged birds lying on the 
side-walk which had apparently tumbled 
o;it of their nests, and perhaps this rat 
had made a breakfast on one of these 
unfortunates, which act had aroused the 
air of a vigilance committee. 
It is singular how fast our native 
birds disappear before these foreign in- 
truders. Ten years ago the trees in our 
yards were frequented by Mocking birds. 
Blue birds,B]ack birds. Cat birds, Robins, 
and ma)iy other species, now it is seldom 
that one of them are seen. One day last 
spring a robin lit on the ground in my 
yard and was immediately surrounded 
by a lot of these vicious little pests and 
driven off". The English Sparrow is be- 
coming an unmitigated nuisance in Kan- 
sas City and it will not be long until we 
will have to declare a war of exter- 
mination against them.as they are neither 
useful nor ornamental. 
Kansas City, Mo., Dec. 1 1890. 
Wm. H. R. Lykins. 
Walking-leaf and Walking-stick. 
Stanly Wood's Great Divide says : ''Who 
ever heard of green leaves falling from a 
tree, and, after lying on the ground a 
few minutes, crawl toward the trunk of 
the tree, ascend it, and resume their 
former position?" and then proceeds to 
depict the surprise of some English 
sailors on an island near Australia when 
they first discovered the wonderful 
walking-leaf. There was no occasion to 
go to Australia to find these insects as 
they are met with frequently right here 
in the United States. The walking-stick 
is another peculiar form of insect life 
common to America, which received its 
name from its close resemblance to a 
twig. Different species of this insect 
resembling twigs from different kinds of 
trees. 
