MISCELLANY. 
Rural Bird Life in India. — 
" Nothing gives more delight," writes 
Mr. Caine, "in traveling through 
rural India than the bird-life that 
abounds everywhere ; absolutely un- 
molested, they are as tame as a poultry 
yard, making the country one vast 
aviary. Yellow-beaked Minas, Ring- 
doves, Jays, Hoopoes, and Parrots take 
dust baths with the merry Palm- 
squirrel in the roadway, hardly 
troubling themselves to hop out of the 
way of the heavy bull-carts ; every 
wayside pond and lake is alive with 
Ducks, Wild Geese, Flamingoes, 
Pelicans, and waders of every size and 
sort, from dainty red-legged beauties 
the size of Pigeons up to the great 
unwieldy Cranes and Adjutants five 
feet high. We pass a dead Sheep with 
two loathsome vultures picking over 
the carcass, and presently a brood of 
fluffy young Partridges with father 
and mother in charge look at us fear- 
lessly within ten feet of our whirling 
carriage. Every village has its flock 
of sacred Peacocks pacing gravely 
through the surrounding gardens and 
fields, and Woodpeckers and King- 
fishers flash about like jewels in the 
blazing sunlight." 
Warning Colors. — Very complete 
experiments in support of the theory 
of warning colors, first suggested by 
Bates and also by Wallace, have been 
made in India by Mr. Finn, says The 
Independent. He concludes that there 
is a general appetite for Butterflies 
among insectivorous birds, though 
they are rarely seen when wild to 
attack them ; also that many, probably 
most birds, dislike, if not intensely, 
at any rate in comparison with other 
Butterflies, those of the Danais genus 
and three other kinds, including a 
species of Papilio, which is the most 
distasteful. The mimics of these 
Butterflies are relatively palatable. He 
found that each bird has to separately 
acquire its experience with bad-tasting 
Butterflies, but well remembers what 
it learns. He also experimented with 
Lizards, and noticed that, unlike the 
birds, they ate the nauseous as well as 
other Butterflies. 
Increase in Zoological Pre- 
serves in the United States — 
The establishment of the National 
Zoological Park, Washington, has led 
to the formation of many other 
zoological preserves in the United 
States. In the western part of New 
Hampshire is an area of 26,000 acres, 
established by the late Austin Corbin, 
and containing 74 Bison, 200 Moose, 
1,500 Elk, 1,700 Deer of different 
species, and 150 Wild Boar, all of 
which are rapidly multiplying. In the 
Adirondacks, a preserve of 9,000 acres 
has been stocked with Elk, Virginia 
Deer, Muledeer, Rabbits, and 
Pheasants. The same animals are 
preserved by W. C. Whitney on an 
estate of 1,000 acres in the Berkshire 
Hills, near Lenox, Mass., where also 
he keeps Bison and Antelope. Other 
preserves are Nehasane Park, in the 
Adirondacks, 8,000 acres; Tranquillity 
Park, near Allamuchy, N. J., 4,000 
acres ; the Ailing preserve, near 
Tacoma, Washington, 5,000 acres ; 
North Lodge, near St. Paul, Minn., 
400 acres ; and Furlough Lodge, in 
the Catskills, N. Y., 600 acres. 
Robins Abundant — Not for many 
years have these birds been so numer- 
ous as during 1898 Once, under some 
wide-spreading willow trees, where 
the ground was bare and soft, we 
counted about forty Red-breasts feed- 
ing together, and on several occasions 
during the summer we saw so many in 
flocks, that we could only guess at the 
number. When unmolested, few 
birds become so tame and none are 
more interesting. 
