The JVatitraUsts’ Companion. 
36 
As Others See Us. 
Wellesley, Mass., Oct. 20 tli, '86. 
Pear Sir :— 
I will try and write 3^011 something 
for your paper, which, by the way, is 
the best one I know of, excepting 
the Ornithologist Oologist and the 
Auk. I take great.pleasure in reading 
it, and if possible will get 3^11 a sub¬ 
scriber or two, You have selected a 
good title; it is reall3' a Companion. 
Respectfully 3"ours, 
S. W. Denton. 
Of course, we could not be expected 
to publish a magazine for lift3" cents 
that would equal either of the above 
excellent publications, priced $ 1.50 
and $3.00 respectivel3".— [Editok. 
English Sparrows as Fruit 
Destroyers. 
BY FALCON. • 
Recently while passing the grounds 
ot a friend who had a number of line 
grape vines of which he was quite 
proud, I noticed a group of Plnglish 
Sparrows, (Passer domesticus), in an ar¬ 
bor, chattering away and making a 
great noise about something. As I 
am alwa3"s on the lookout for items 
against this sparrow, I stopped to ob¬ 
serve their movements, and to m3^ sur¬ 
prise, I saw one of them deliberateh" 
plunge its bill into the best grape in a 
large cluster of ripe ones: and not con¬ 
tent with one, he pierced nearlv every 
one in the cluster. The sparrow's ob¬ 
ject, I suppose, was to obtain the juice 
of the grape. 
About a week later I again had oc¬ 
casion to pass that wa3^, and behold ! 
almost eveiy bunch of grapes on the 
vine was withered and good for noth¬ 
ing. Each grape was pierced with a 
small hole in the side, which told the 
stoiy. 
The Resurrecftion Plant. 
This singular plant is reall3^ one of 
the wonders of creation. Imagine a 
bunch of withered looking, curled up 
shoots, brown, stifl‘, and apparently 
dead, resembling a bird’s nest. Place 
it in water, in half an hour what a 
transformation! The withered looking 
bunch has now opened and is trans¬ 
formed into a lovely patch of moss, en- 
tirel3^ covering an ordinaiy plate. In 
its native habitat, when the dry season 
sets in, the plant curls up into a dry 
ball and is wafted awa3^ b3" winds from 
place to place; sometimes for hundreds 
of miles. When at last it reaches a 
moist place it graduali3^ unfolds itself, 
makes new roots and thrives in its new 
found home. This sensitiveness to 
moisture is so great that even after 
the plant ma3' seem dead, it will open 
and close as if it were alive. 
Those clesinn(?a specimen of the above plant should 
write Anna B. Nickels, Laredo, Texas. 
Don’t use too course shot when hunt¬ 
ing foi' specimens. No. 10 wdll kill 
an3Thing from a humble bee to an eagle. 
