29 
The JYaturaMsts^ Coinpcinion, 
Bird-killing Sparrows. 
So much has been said of late for and 
against the English sparrow that the 
following may be interesting as evidence: 
Quite recently, upon the Capitol 
grounds, a sparrow was observed in the 
a6t of slowly killing a hummingbird. 
When discovered, it had seized the 
struggling victim in its tallons, and was 
picking it vigorously about the head. 
Whenever disturbed, it caught the neck 
of its fluttering prey in its bill, and, af¬ 
ter flying a few feet, alighted and renew¬ 
ed its bloody work. Soon the first spar¬ 
row was joined by another, and then 
the scene of murder was carried into a 
copse beyond the reach of observation. 
To those who attribute the distru<Tion 
of our American birds entirely to the 
demand for wings for ladies’ hats, as 
well as to those who deny the quarrel¬ 
some habits of the sparrow, this piece 
of information may be of value.—H. L, 
Tragg, 'I'urnbridge, Vt. 
Habits of the Scorpion. 
A NATURALIST GIVES SOME CURIOUS ILLUS¬ 
TRATIONS OE 'I’HEIR LIRE. 
A writer in Land and Water relates 
his experience with scorpions as follows: 
A few years ago, while in the island of 
Jamaica, it was my fortunate chance to 
have an opportunity for observing some 
very curious fadls in connection with 
that genus of the Arachnida class com¬ 
monly known as the scorpion, and the 
curious traits of character in these in¬ 
sects. Turning over some old papers 
in my office one day, I suddenly came 
upon a large black scorpion,who prompt¬ 
ly tried to beat a precipitate letreat. 
Having read or heard somewhere that if 
you blow on a scorpion he will not move, 
I tried the experiment, and was greatly 
astonished to find that it had the desired 
effect. The scorpion stopped instantly, 
flattened himself close to the paper on 
which he had been running, and had all 
the appearance of ‘‘holding on for dear 
life.” While I continued to blow even 
quite lightly he refused to move, though 
I pushed him with a pencil and shook 
the paper to which he clung so tenaci¬ 
ously. Directly I ceased blowing, he 
advanced cautiously, only to stop again 
at the slightest breath. I was thus able 
to secure him in a glass tumbler which 
happened to be within reach, and then 
1 determined to try another experiment 
as to the suicidal tendencies which I 
had heard ran in the veins of the Pedi- 
palpi family. 
On the stone floor of the kitchen at¬ 
tached to my office, I arranged a circle 
of burning sticks about three yaids in 
circumference, the sticks being so placed 
that there were no means of exitthiough 
the fire. It was not intense, but small 
and quite bearable as regards heat with¬ 
in a few inches, so that the central part 
of the circle was perfectly cool. Into 
this center 1 accordingly dropped my 
scorpion, who, on touching teira firma, 
darted off in a great hurry, only to be 
quickly brought to a halt on reaching 
within a few inches of the periphery of 
the circle. After a short pause of re¬ 
flection he deviated to the right, and 
ran once completely lound the circle as 
near to the fire-sticks as it was prudent 
to venture. This he did three times, 
often approaching the burning sticks 
quite closely in his anxious endeavors 
to escape. In about a quarter of an 
hour, finding that his efforts were use¬ 
less, he retired almost into the exact 
center of the circle, and there in a trag- 
