Tlhe Mcdurcdlsts Coinpaidoit. 
85 
mil partial success, to save their crops. 
For illustration, a held ot two hundred 
acres required the employment of more 
than lifty men and a^>oys, their duty 
hcing for some hours, morning and 
levelling to create such a hubbub with 
guns and other noise-producing imple¬ 
ments as would prevent the birds from 
settling upon this particular held, and 
scare them over to those of their neigh- 
ll)ors, where a similar din was in pro¬ 
gress for a like purpose. Dr. iMerriam 
caused a number of stuhed hawks, witli 
wings outspread, to be suspended by 
strings from tall poles, so as to sway 
with the breeze over the fields.’f:;This 
device proved a* safeguard for only two 
or three days, lyy which time the bobo¬ 
links had mastered the trick, and there¬ 
after they treated the dummies with 
contempt- However, one day while 
the efligies were still swinging and af¬ 
ter the robbers had again settled down 
to their work, Dr. Merriam noticed a 
single live hawk, high up, sailing over 
the flats. The bobolinks rose in great 
clouds and remained^in the air until 
the perial was passed, although the 
hawk apparently [)aid no attention to 
them. 
Dr. Merriam thinks that a single 
hawk, trained as were the falcons with 
which the sportsmen of the Middle 
Ages amused themselves, would be an 
effective protection to a rice field of 
200 acres. It is probable that an ex¬ 
periment in this direction will be tried, 
if a person of sufficient experience in 
the training of birds can be found to 
undertake it. 
With regard to our indigenous birds 
of prey—the hawks and the owls—for 
the killing of which Pennsylvania and, 
))erha])s, other States pay a premium. 
Dr. Merriam sa\ s ornithologists are 
c/ O 
quite^])ositively convinced that their 
services are of great value to farmers. 
Not more than three out of upwards of 
thirty species prey upon domestic fowl, 
and even these more than renumerate 
the farmer by killing field mice, grass¬ 
hoppers, beetles and other vermin 
which are great destroyersmf grain. 
The crow has received considerable 
attention from the Doctor and liis cor¬ 
respondents, but the evidence in hand 
is not sufficient to warrant a verdict. 
So far as it goes it creates impressions 
in his favor. He is a corn thief, to be 
sure, but his pilferings may be guard¬ 
ed against; while on the other hand he 
destro}'s some kinds of field vermin in 
great numbers, to say nothing of his 
work as a scavenger. 
Dr. Merriam is the secretary of the 
American Ornithologists’ Union, by 
whose suggestions Commissioner Col- 
man was largely guided in organizing 
the work of the new division. 
—Contributed by Ph. HEiNSBERGiiR, of 
New York. 
Platinum. 
BY DR. B. E. MASON, SAN RKANDRO, CAI.. 
Platinum was first discovered in the 
year 1785, in small grains in the alluv¬ 
ial deposits of the Pinto river, in the 
district of Choco, near Popayan, in 
South America, where it received the 
name of platina, derived from’the Span¬ 
ish word plata, meaning silver. 
Platinum is usuallv found in small 
flattened or angular grains. 
though its 
crystaline form—which is rare—is in 
cubes or octahedrons. It is of a steel- 
gray color, with a metallic lustre and 
without cleavage. It is malleable, 
ductile with a hardness similar to that 
