76 
THE GUIDE TO NATURE 
Tame Pigeons on a Hackberry Tree. 
San Antonio, Texas. 
To the Editor: 
We have a neighbor who keeps a 
number of tame pigeons that can daily 
be seen alighting on one of our large 
hackberry trees. I beg to submit a 
photograph showing two of them on 
the branch of the big tree, of which 
only a small part is depicted. 
In the July issue of The Guide to 
Nature I noticed an interesting article 
anent tame pigeons alighting on trees, 
TAME PIGEONS ON A HACKBERRY TREE, 
the author stating that this trait is but 
rarely witnessed and urging readers to 
report their observations. 
Here, in our southern climate, and 
particularly in my own home town, 
San Antonio, Texas, this is not rare 
but is rather often seen throughout the 
city, especially toward noon, when 
large numbers of pigeons congregate 
on the branches and among the foliage. 
Toward evening nearly all of the birds 
again fly to the tree and roost there 
overnight. In the fall many are seen 
fluttering and clinging to the smaller 
branches and feeding on the ripe hack- 
berries. 
There were a number of pigeons on 
the tree when this photograph was 
taken but dispersed among the dense 
foliage beyond the focus. Sometimes 
as many as fifteen could be counted at 
one time. 
R. Menger, M. D. 
Another Victim of an Air-Gun Pellet. 
BY R. W. SHUFELDT, M. D., WASHINGTON, D. C. 
Early one morning, last July, 1 was 
returning home through the streets of 
Washington when, upon passing along 
a connecting alley, I caught sight of a 
dead nestling robin, lying directly in 
my path. Picking it up, I found it had 
met its death only a very short time 
before, as its body was still warm and 
perfectly limp. I soon discovered that 
it had met its fate at the hands of some 
boy, who had shot at it with his air gun, 
the pellet entering at the little victim’s 
back and causing its instant death. Ap- 
parently, the boy had not the slightest 
use for the specimen, or he would not 
have left it there — in other words, the 
taking of the life of this young robin 
amounted to nothing less than a piece 
of wanton viciousness, as in all such 
cases, and the perpetrator should at 
least be instructed as to the nature of 
the crime committed. 
Our robin is one of the most charm- 
ing of all our songsters ; and had this 
little murdered one not met with the 
untimely death that it did, it is quite 
possible that it might, through mating, 
have become the head of a line of hun- 
dreds of robins, these stocking our 
meadows, woods and fields for ages to 
come. There is nothing more charm- 
ing in all the world than to listen to 
the lovely notes of the robin after a 
shower, on an early spring evening, 
and in hundreds upon hundreds of in- 
stances those notes have had a most 
beneficial influence upon the minds of 
the ones who have attentively given 
ear to them. That infamous little lead- 
en pellet was responsible for the si- 
lencing of a great volume of such song 
in the years to come and, from another 
point of view, responsible for destroy- 
ing a host of future enemies of all those 
insects that help ruin many of our wild 
flowers, garden vegetables, shrubs and 
trees — by which is meant the descend- 
ants of this robin and the mate it 
would have chosen. To be sure, robins 
do not live entirely upon insect pests, 
as they are very fond of cherries, poke- 
