140 
THE GUIDE TO NATURE 
from the track and to throw them back 
when the train had passed. Some of 
the birds, apparently mistaking the box 
cars for farmyard buildings in slow 
motion, boarded the train and were 
thus taken to town. We quote from 
the extended account of this episode. 
“Instantly came a chorus of answer- 
ing gobbles as every turkey along the 
track saw, in the failing light, that real 
buildings — farmyard buildings — were 
here to roost on ! And into the air 
they went, helped all along the train 
by the two boys, who were tossing 
them into the cars, or upon the loads 
of lumber, as fast as they could pass 
from car to car. 
“Luckily, the rails were sleety, and 
the mighty driving-wheels, spinning on 
the ice with their long load, which 
seemed to freeze continually to the 
track, made headway so slowly that the 
whole flock had come to roost upon the 
cars before the train was fairly 
moving.” 
In that story the high-water mark 
of turkey episodes has been reached. 
No one else will ever try to excel it. 
Hens Immune From Strychnine. 
In John Burroughs’s last book, 
“Under the Maples,” he makes on page 
196 this astonishing statement: “You 
cannot poison a hen with strychnine.” 
This was referred to Dr. A. K. Fisher, 
in charge of the Economic Investiga- 
tions, Bureau of Biological Survey, 
Washington, D. C. He replies as 
follows : 
“The statement by Mr. Burroughs in 
his book, ‘Under the Maples,’ regard- 
ing the effect of strychnine on domesti- 
cated fowls is correct. Chickens and 
the wild gallinaceous birds seem to be 
practically immune from the effects of 
strychnine. Just why they have this 
immunity is a point to be learned. Ex- 
tensive field operations and operations 
carried on in the laboratory by the 
Canadian Government, the Biological 
Survey, and the Public Health Service 
show that a quail weighing not oyer 
five or six ounces will eat with im- 
punity enough strychnine poisoned 
grain' to kill squirrels weighing in the 
aggregate twenty pounds. In our ex- 
tensive operations in the western 
States against injurious rodents, we 
have distributed over 5- 000 t° ns (165 
carloads) of poisoned grain. Although 
the assistants carrying on this work 
are skilled in finding dead animals, up 
to the present time we have been un- 
able to find one single game bird de- 
stroyed by our operations. 
“It may be of interest to you to know 
that we have further safeguarded the 
birds by using barley and oats instead 
of wheat as a vehicle. At the present 
time this grain is rescreened so as to 
remove all weed seeds which, when 
poisoned, might be taken by shore 
larks, longspurs, and other small seed- 
eaters.” 
This is indeed an astonishing situa- 
tion and it opens up interesting sug- 
gestions and great possibilities. Why 
not get rid of rats around poultry yards 
by using strychnine? Rodents are 
susceptible to strychnine, and as the 
hens are immune we shall escape the 
danger that most of us have feared if 
the hen by chance should eat the poi- 
soned grain. We wonder if anybody 
has experimented along those lines. If 
so, we should be glad to receive re- 
ports. 
As welcome as the sunshine 
After spell o’ rain. 
So welcome is the springtime 
After winter’s reign. 
— Emma Peirce. 
Red Dead Nettle. 
BY ROBERT SPARKS WALKER, CHATTANOOGA, TENN. 
T hen cold December’s winds begin to blow, 
And when the earth is wrapped in ice and snow, 
Along the road and out in open space, 
There a red dead nettle shows its greenish face. 
Its stem so square, six inches high, you see, 
At once is marked for the mint family, 
“Ah,” it says, “I’m right glad for you to know. 
The many shaped green leaves that I can grow : 
At top, my leaves are flower-circled crowned ; 
In middle, heart-shaped ones are always found, 
With greenish leaves long-stemmed and small 
at base, 
A living Chinese pagoda-looking vase ! 
Some early day when comes the bright Xew 
Year, 
My flower buds like drops of blood appear, 
And if the cold should freeze me tight, 
I grow and blossom on with all my might. 
My bell-shaped flower's tiny upper lip 
Has beard, the lower spotted near the tip : 
My flow’r magenta grows in winter’s breeze, 
A landing place it has for little bees. 
I float my flowers until the month of June, 
And then my lovers say I quit too soon ; 
Now you may think it quite a funny thing, 
That I’m called ‘dead’ because I do not sting.” 
