MISCELLANEOUS OBSERVATIONS 
153 
mixed family had to be broken up, and 
the squirrels were given to kind friends 
who bad known and loved them. Poor 
Tigress was disconsolate. She refused 
food, and went about for days looking 
everywhere for her lost babies. She 
seemed to have loved the little squir- 
rels more than she had ever loved her 
own kittens. 
Notes from Naturalist Walker. 
Chattanooga, Tennessee. 
To the Editor : 
I had a rather unusual experience 
last week while walking over the Mc- 
Callie Avenue viaduct leading into 
Chattanooga. A few acres of ground 
beneath were covered with a thin coat 
of ice. The sun was shining brightly 
and a beautiful rainbow appeared in 
the ice, just as large and as distinct as 
the ones we so often see poised in the 
midsummer spray. One end was di- 
rectly beneath our feet and it followed 
us until we walked beyond the ice. 
Thus far I have never heard of any 
one seeing a rainbow in the ice. 
Tennessee has now a state flower. At 
the meeting of the State Horticultural 
Society in Nashville last week, they 
adopted the maypop or passion flower 
( Passiflora incarnata). This is one of the 
beautiful wild flowers and grows 
throughout the state. 
Robert S. Walker. 
An Ice Storm. 
Last night a forest of twigs 
Silhouetted against the sun; 
This morn, in the dazzling light, 
A chaplet of gems, each one. 
— Emma Peirce. 
Nature Specimens Wanted. 
The “New York Nature Chapter,” 
No. 1074 of The Agassiz Association, 
asks its fellow members, in Chapters or 
individually, who live in the country, 
please to contribute to the collection of 
that Chapter any surplus specimens, 
either living or dead. Please address 
specimens to Miss Llelen Smith, Cura- 
tor of Collections, 463 West 144th 
Street, New York City. 
An English naturalist reports the 
case of a cat to which was given a 
newborn rat, shortly after all its own 
kittens except one had been taken away. 
The cat at once adopted the little rat, 
“cleaned, fed, fondled, tended it,” and 
treated it exactly like one of its own 
young. Previous to this experience, 
the cat had been a noted ratter. After- 
wards it hunted rats no more. 
Tame Pine Grosbeaks. 
Mr. Clifford Cronk, Monterey, Mas- 
sachusetts, a Member of The Agassiz 
Association, sends the interesting 
photograph of a large flock of pine 
grosbeaks here shown. Although the 
picture was taken with a small camera, 
a large number is shown though not 
very clearly. It will be seen that the 
trees, shrubbery and the ground are 
pretty well covered with these beauti- 
ful tame birds. Mr. Cronk says that 
he approached to within six feet of 
them, and found them busily eating the 
seeds of the sumac on which they were 
perching. 
REDPOLLS. 
PINE GROSBEAKS. 
