51 
The ,jVat(ircdistT Coinpamoii, 
ous, with its t^'iith only strengthened 
:ind eorrobated by the nttaek ? 
It was so in the story of tlie deluge; 
it was so in the many historical dis¬ 
putes; it has been so in every attein[)t 
to overthrow it; and it will be so in 
this last antagonism with Evolution. 
As long as one party stands on one 
clitf and the other party stands on the 
opposite clitf, with an impassible ra¬ 
vine between them, the settlement can¬ 
not coiiie; but just as soon as they can 
agree to come together on the same 
ground the clouds will again disappear, 
and the unity of Science and the Bible 
be made all the stronger and more ap¬ 
parent. 
Next month we will attempt to show'^ 
that the question may be argued and 
settled on a purely scientific basis, and 
with no fear of even an insinuation 
against the Bible. 
A Letter from Texas. 
On October 27th I caught a Burrow^- 
ing Owl, (Speotyto cunicularia hypogcea)^ 
alive, and kept him two wrecks or more, 
when he died. He had a hole at the 
roots of a mesquite tree, in which he 
dived when he saw me. When I got 
him out he made a horrible noise, like 
nothing else that I know of, and crack¬ 
ed his bill, wdiich with a hiss, were 
the only sounds he made. His dinner 
consisted mostly of raw' beef. The 
place w'here I found him was about 
tw'o miles south of the city, where the 
mesquite bushes grow about fifteen 
feet high and tw'enty feet apart. It is 
a favorite breeding place for Bell’s Vi- 
reo. Orchard Oriole, Scissor-tailed Fly- 
catchei’, Black-throated Bunting, Lark 
Finch and the Mocking-bird, all of 
wdiich are very abundant. I saw my 
hrst Robin on the 1st, and on the 19th 
of the month I saw a Road-runner, 
(^Geococcyz californianus). This is the 
first one that I have seen here, although 
they are plentiful around Austin,w'here 
I resided until tw'o years ago. They 
generally build in oak trees, ten to 
twenty feet froin the ground, and 
make a rather fiat nest composed of 
twigs and roots and lined wdth cow^ 
dung. The eggs, four to seven in 
number, are pure wdiite, though gener¬ 
ally somewhat dirty. A friend of mine 
got a young Road-runner, wdiich he 
tamed, and it w^ould follow^ him every- 
wdiere. It would eat anything, and 
had learned to catch mice, lizards, etc. 
A boy impaled an insect on a pin and 
held it to the Road-runner to see what 
it w'ould do, and before he could pre¬ 
vent it, it swuillow^ed the insect, pin 
and all. Chas. D. Oldkight, 
Nov. 23, 1886. Waco, Texas. 
JMr. W, S. Beekman, West Medford, 
Mass., has favored us with a sample of 
the Persian mineral lapia lazule. L"p- 
on being wet it attains a veiy rich beau¬ 
tiful blue color. 
■ We are sorry to inform our readers 
that our friend and associate editoi-, 
Mr. Harry F. Thompson, of Indian¬ 
apolis, Indiana, has severed his con¬ 
nection wdth the CoMPANiox, he being 
too much pressed witli other work to 
devote the necessary time to the mag¬ 
azine. While on our staff he has prov¬ 
en himself both competent and oblig¬ 
ing, and has filled the position entrust¬ 
ed to him in a very creditable and sat¬ 
isfactory manner. We hope that^his 
duties in life will not be so confining 
as not to enable him to devote at least 
a portion of his time to science. 
