The San Francisco Call. Newspaper, May 16, 1897, Page 26

THE SAN. FRANCISCO CALL, SUNDAY, MAY 16, 1897. BY DAN DE QUILLE ~ “No,” saia Tom Moran, “adventures don't seem to come my way. My experi- ences in that line would hardly be worthy of mention, but somebow Brother Bob has a genuine talent for tumbling into all manner of adventures. Brother Bob has had quite a number of pretty close calls in the wild regions in which we have traveled, but he has plenty of grit and has always been able to pul! through.” Tom Moran is a miner wko was gradu- ated in the Comstock school of mining years ago and who has since had much experience in Mexico, Australia, Indis and other gold-producing countries. “It is singular that you should have been able to travel through so many strange countries withont a few hair- breadth escapes or some other experi- ences worthy of being related,”” said one f the old Comstock friends who ware stioning Tom in regard to his travels ’ve run against the ‘ti glcbe.” < am speaking now of the real, roaring ramping Bengal tiger—thestriped beast of | the jungle,’ “Isaw India quite a and weat after the ts. 1killed a few while 1 was there, er to get som¢ good skins.” Never got into close quarters with one?” } “Well, not very; but Brother Bob had rather a bad bout with a big hill tiger up in Nepaul.” get away with the tiger?” ther Boo is true grit; the tiger killed.” As you had no adventures of your own during your travels, Tom,” said & Com- “suppose you give us the story of Bob's tiges fight.” Brother Bob is not here to his 2 I will give you a little sketch of the fair as I saw it. Brother Bob and I were up on the Ne- | paul frontier, headed for the lower slopes i the Himalayas. “In place of the ducks, cranes, coots and pelicans of the lagoons slong the low- land course of the Koosea wo now began 10 see quail, partridges and other upland birds. In places hidden in patches of dense jungle and overgrown with vines creepers were dilapidated temples ng that the whole country hiad at some time been inhabited, though o foreign lands, you never ran | inst a tiger w! ia? 1, said Tom, with a laugh. “Well, | rs’ of nearly | country on the two sides of the | pea-fowl, florican | sim. Wounded by the shot, the tiger ut- | tered a howl of ra, e, dashed aside the | screen and struck Boba blow with a fore | paw that sent his gun flying and left him stretched senselsss on his back. «] rushed forward atonce to Bob's as- sistance. As I ran the infuriated beast | threw Lerselt upon Bob and began tearing l at nim with her teeth. Hearing a souna as of cracking bones I thought every rib | in poor Bob’s body was being crushed. As | I feared to use my rifle I threw it down |and drew my revolver. My yells, as 1 rushed on the tiger, caused her to cease tearing at Bob and fix her eyes upom me. | white infants. bullock. Many tizers are killed by single shots from rifles, but the man who goes after tigers on foot must have a considerable amount of nerve. I could always bet on the nerve of Brother Bob.’ A Chinaman’s Queer Physiognomy. Yip Hing is a Chinese who can safely lay claim to having the queerest physlog- nomy of any man in ail California. It is wildiy outlandish and really seems as if it should belong to the inhabitant of an- other planet. Yip has his home in Alameda, at one of the vegetable gardens on the bay shore not far from Eagle.avenue, but be is an occasional passenger on the ferry-boats, and is always sure to_atiract attention by his strange combinstion of features. Ata | first glance it would be a hara matter to plaze Yip in his proper place among the nationalities, for he does not seem to have any one feature that is not in a class by itself. His nose is strongly aquiline and his | forehead protrudas very like that of some His lips are of an African character and his cbhin—well, to tell the truth, Yip has no chin. . His under jaw simpiy slopes back from his under lip with only a slight swelling where his BY HORSE AND WHEEL. How a Call Correspondent Went to the Los Angeles Fiesta and What Befell Him by the Wayside. “Give me ozone and lots of it,” Isaid to my ‘riend Davie. “There's my hand to seal the compact, We will start on Thursday.” > ‘We were nothing if not original. Other people might travel by rail, by water, on foot, on bicycles, on horseback, or any other old way, but we proposed to effect a weird and unheard-of combination. Davie haa a horse and bicycle and I bad $30 to invest. Davie was about to ride from San Francisco to Los Angeles, in order to participate in the fiesta as one of the floral bouquets and, naturally enough, wished to enjoy my company. It wasbe, therefore, that proposed that I should buy a horse and keep alongside the wheel for 480 miles, which elucidates the open- ing words of this veracious chronicle. It is true I had never ridden a horse be- fore in my life, if we except the happy dsys of childhood, when I occasionally visited the seaside and allowed a priv- | | | | { s “THE TIGER SPRANG UPON BROTHER BOB.” in the present sge only a few scattered | Byt she stili retained her position across | throat ought to be. The eye of this villages are to be found. Outside of the | Bob's breast-while showing her teeth and | villages there are here and there huts in- babited by the ‘gwalla,’ or cowherd caste, 1d these huts of the men of the cattle impenetrable stretches of jungle. “While in this beautiful region our guns kept us well supplied with all kinds of game, and we first and last killed many ckals, leopards and about a ers, great and small. The Brit- ish and wealthy natives almost always use elephants in hunting tigers, Some- times having fifty or more of the huge | beasts ic line; but as we were notin a position to command a supply of ele- phants, we did our work on foot, hiring a score or more of coolies, with tomtoms, irecrackers and horns to beat through small patches of jungle. At first we mounted ourselves on ‘mychans,’ bamboo platforms, at the point where we expected the game to appesr, but aiter we had learned something of the natare and ways of the tiger we did not bother with plat- forms, but took our chances on the ground. “The gwallas of the region were always ready to bring us news of a tiger having killed one of their cattle, and wben we zot news of a ‘kill’ we were soon out after the killer. Often the gwallas would be able to point out the patch of jungle to which the tiger had retired after making the kill and feasting his fill. “It was here in this foothill region that Brother Bob had his adventure with a big hill tiger. A ‘shekarry,’ a native expert hunter, who keeps himself well posted in rogara to the movements of game and manages hunts for both British and rich natives, one day came to our camp and proposed to give us some sport. He said that as neither the English nor the native princes were hunting at that season busi- Thess was very slack with him. He offared for a very reasonable price to bring out his peoplo and beat through a piece of | jungle which he knew to be alive with all kinds of game. Asa partof the bargain Brother Bob and I were to kill as many wild hogs, deer and the like as we could knock over, the shekarry saying his peovle were all very hungry for meat. ““The particular piece of jungle selected by the old game expert to be beaten through lay between the forks of two, large streams with high and stesp banks. A more favorably situated jungle for sport could not have been found, As Bob and I would station ourselves near the junc- tion of the two streams nothing cou!d pass that way without being seen. We took stations about fifty yards apart at a point where the jungie became somewhat thin and open, each thrusting into the ground a leafy branch of parass to serve ss a screen or blind. After a long wait we heard faintly in the distance the sound of the tomtoms and the shouts of the beat- ers as they advanced into the jungle. “Presently we heard a rustling upon the stray leaves in front, and a troop of monkeys, loudly chattering their alarm, came hopping out of the dense jungle. “As vet we had seen mno deer or other desirable game, but the beaters were still far away. Takinga peep from behind my screen, I was somewhat surprised to see a large female tiger come ghding out of the thick jungle, croucking close to the ground as she passed into the open. She was on Brother Bob's side of the jungle and was moving straight toward him, apparently more concerned about the commotion be- hind ber than afraid of danger in front. Bob had also seen the tiger and had dropped to one knee behind his screen and leveled his rifle. Every moment I expected to hear the report of Bob’s gun, as the tiger was within ten yardsoi his blind and was moying slowly. ‘‘Some noise in the jungle frightened the skulking beast and, after a quick back- ward glance, it blindly bounded forward. At the second bound the tiger landed almost on top of Bob, as he crouched be- hind hie fragile screen. Instantly he fired, thrusting his rifle at the beast without ions are often in the heart of almost | snarling at me. “I thought it probable that she was so | badly wounded as not to be able to rise upon her legs and so decided o take her at close quarters and make sure of her. With my pistol in my right hand and in my leita long-bladed knife, sharp as a razor, I crept forward. I advanced crouched almost upon my knees, as the tiger's position across poor Bob was such range. “I had got up within ten feet of the tiger when she suddenly left Bob and | leaped at me. The charge of the beast was | a surprise, but by a backward move I | avoided her leap and as she passed fired | my pistol into her neck, at the same mo- ment plunging the knife into her side up to the hilt. She fell and aid not move | from where she landed, the pistol shot baving broken her neck. “Seeing the tiger was in its death strug- gles I turned my attention to Brother Bob, who was still stretched unconscious upon the ground. The beaters were fast | approaching through the jungle Wwith | great uproar and: thumping of tomtoms, wild hogs in droves, both black and gray, were rushing by, spotted deer were charg- ing past and the whole jungle seemed alive with game of all kinds, some droves of wild pigs almost running over me. ‘I was just stooping over Bob when s huge male tiger bounded ont of the jungle and halted within ten feet of where I stood. I had my pistol upon him in an instant, and as his head was so held that a bullet would not glance from his skull I took good aim and gave him a shot be- tween the eyes that brought him. down as dead as though he had been a sheep or an | ox. ‘Seeing that the shot had killed the tiger I ran down to the river, filled my hat with water and went to work to try to re- store Bob's senses. He had been badly stunned and was breathing heay- ily, but I saw had no bad wounds and soon had the satisfaction to see him open his eyes, when it was not long before his wits returned and he was able to sit up. The paw of the tiger had struck him on the side of the head and knocked him senseless, but had only slightly wounded his scalp. The weight of the tiger on his chest had almost stopped his breath and he felt some inter nal soreness, We found that his life had been saved by a lucky chance. In agame- bag he had slung to his side were some queil and a pea-fowl or two, and it was these the tiger had seized upon and crunched in her blind rage, not Bob’s ribs. “‘Bob was much astonished and bewil: dered when he saw two dead tigers stretched out alongside of him. I told him that he had gone into a sortof de- lirium of rage and killed them both, and for a time he believed my story. He said he had an indistinet recollection of hav- ing done agood deal of fighting. We found that his shot nad plowea through the muscles of the female tiger’s left shoul- der, only glizhtly wounding her, but prob- ably paraly zing her left fore leg. “When the old shekarry came up with s crowd of beaters he was at first much disappointed that we had killed no deer or wild pigs. ‘Alas, sahibs,’ cried he, ‘no meat—no meat!’ He, however, soon cheered up and took great credit to him- self for having said there were tigersin the jungle. After the tigers were skinned we went down the river and killed for the old fellow quite & lot of pigs. We were well satisfied with our prizes, the skins of the two tigers. The male measured, as he lay on the ground, eleven feet.two inches from tip to tip and the female ten feet four inches. | “They were unusually large hill tigers, which are of heavier build than the tigers of the valleys, but average less in length. To kill tigers with a pisiol was a feat be- fore unheard of on the frontier, and -ob- tained for us great credit: for nerve, but give a tiger a square shot in the head and that I feared to fire with a downward | strange looking man is somewhat like that of others of his race, but as it hap- pens to be too close to his brow it loses its character. Yip’s complexion is also “'off- “Yip,” the Strange-Looking Chinaman of Alameda. color,”” it being almost as dark as that of a Malay. The only things that make Yip look like a Chinaman are his dress and the w he wears his hair. Thes are of the usual oriental cat, and really make him less conspicuous than he would otherwise be. A Chinese companion of Yip, who spoke English, volunteered the informa- tion that the strange-looking man was ‘“‘one heap smart boy.” He said that Yip was born in China, of good stock, but somehow he couldn’t learn to speak the anguage of this country. He is good at figures and is well posted on the litera- ture of his own country. In fact it is said that he has had as fine an education as it is possible for him to get without belong- ing to the nobility. *What makes Yip look so funny ?” was asked. “‘Oh,” said the interpreter, ‘‘that be- cause devil in room when Yip born. Devil want to get Yip, but Yip no want to go. His mother hang on to him and then devil hit Yip on head and make he look different from other boys. That all right. It give Yip heap good sense and devil never get him now.”” Of Interest to Scientists. W. Hendrick has been blasting large bowlders this week down by the black- smith-shop. In one of the bowiders he found two live bugs. The bugs were in a round hole in the center of the bowlder, which was about ten feet square, and the hole was apparently airiight. They had worn their hold out about four inches in diameter and had it crystallized around the edges. Now these bugs must have gone in there while the substance w: littoral deposit, during a period of transition, before it be- came hardened into rock, which probably dates back so many thousands years that we are afraid to mention it. Just think of it, all this time, while As- syria, Babylon, Egypt, Greece, Rome and all those nations have been struggling to the front and falling back into forgetful. ness, these two black bugs have been liv- ing in the heartof a rock in Dunsmuir without anything to eat.—Dunsmuir News. —_——— It is roughly estimated that Africa can- not contain more than 200,000 elephants, 50 that at the present rate oi annihilation we are within easy view of the extinction of the entire species, 1ieged domkey to throw me over its head by way of exercise both for myself and the donkey. Of course I realize that a donkey is not a horse, but the principle is the same. “A horse, " said Davie didactically, *‘can easily cover forty miles a day ana we are not going to try to lower any records. There is no object to be gained by humili- ating one’s fellow-creatures. We are sim- ply out for fun and plenty of it.” I will not anticipate the sequel by stat- ing that we got more fun than we bar- gained for. Ignore this parenthetical ob- sérvation. The next day we set out early to buy a horse. South of Market street we were shown half a dozen broncos, which were to be sola ‘‘dirt cheap.” My only publicly expressed motive for declin- ing to purchase was that I hadn't time to break one. I may add incidentally and in confidence that I didn’t entertain any healthily developed desire forthe bronco to break me. There are two sides to every question. Another generously disposed dealer offered us an overtrained and broken—very much broken—animal for $25. As Mark Twain once said in similar circumstances it had many good points, but as our time was short we did not hang our hats on one of them. | | half the contents of the pack in the sa- blind for which the ow: wanted $35—the sale to include saddle and bridle. But, as I aptly said to Davie, I wasn't anxious to emulate Don Quixote on an up-to-date Rozinante and therefore ‘de- clined with thanks.” Ouar patience was at length rewarded when we discovered a pretty-looking mare, priced at $30, with eqnipment] thrown in. My friend took advantage of the situation to -display his extensive technical knowledge, by which the urbane liveryman seemed suitably impressed. I have since had reason to doubt his sin- cerity, but once more I will not anticipate. In the end I paid the purchase price and we decided on an early start the fol- lowing morning. When the following morning at length arrived we were treated to a practical illustration of the hoary adage that man proposes and the devil disposes. Davie's big toe had filed a gen- eral demurrer to the expedition and w: highly inflamed with rage and excite- ment, This in itself was bad enough, but worse is behind. Owing to the fact that We had previously dispaiched all our civ- ilized clothing to Los Angeles, we were forced' to live 1n retirement and study | Piato’s “Pheedo” until Davie's big toe grew convalescent. It was only after a long chapter of acci- dents that I remembered that 1 was born under Saturn and that we started on Fri- day. The urbane liveryman fasiened my pack—a large one—behind the saddle and announced that all was ready. Candor compels me to confess that at this tre- mendous juncture, exposed to the critical and merciless gaze of two stablemen and four small boys, I hardly felt so confident as I had done when studying the *‘Pheedo” and chafing at thedelay. How- ever, I recalled to mind a family tradition concerning my great-great-grandfathe: who once rode all the way from Wales to Manchester, at the early sge of 12, and with a stified prayer to the centaurs I placed my left foot—No. 73{—in the stir- rup and swung myself gracefully into the saddle. *Get & move on there,” roared Davie, preparing to mouut his wheel, “and ‘witch the world with noble horseman- ship.”” Unfortunately the mare, which, by the way, we had christened Melpomene, ob- jected on general principles to co-operate in the witching proposition and promptly fell down before we. had proceeded a hun- dred yards. Fortunately for my insur- ance company and the world generally I escaped death by a wonderful display of agility. The urbane liveryman, who had trailed usfor this distance, now ran upand heiped Melpomene to rise. The puck had been displacea by the fall and more vaiu- able time was consumed in readjusting it. Once again I mounted and urged Melpo- mene to show her paces. It is no violation of confidence to state that we started from a stable on Valencia street, and after an hour’s hard riding I found myself opposite u saloon on How- ard street, with Davie a le ahead. Mel- pomene exhibited unmistakablo signs of that I had joined the Band of Kindness in my youth I promptly dismounted to give the mare a rest. What is more I left loon-keeper’s charge, but not before I had ‘aggravated his choler’” by quaffiag a steam beor. Davie, [ may say, rejoined me in time to pool ou this issue. A few stars, please. DS S T S R Thanks! Forthe third time I mounted my fiery, untamed steed and turned her head in the direction of Twenty-fourth street, which, we were mformed, was the first stage to Los Angeles. The street raiiway company could not have foreseen the possibility of anybody undertaking to follow that route on horseback when they laid their cable-car track, and as I was born under Saturn the noise of the cable visibly disconcerted Melpomene. She neighed ‘‘Home, Sweet Home,’’ and tried to return to her stable. A painful scene ensued, but the power of the human will temporarily prevailed and an hour later I had reactied Twenty-sixth street. Davie, like the Epanish fleet, wasnot in sight. Melpomene insisted upon the propriety of turning down evéry sidestreet to cogitate. “I have an idea that her early youth must have been spent in a circus, because she evinced a ked partiality for cir- cles, which she was able to trace with the curbstone as center and any radius. A sympathetic young man, who had been a machinations. He did but not for long. We reached Redwood City the same evening, Melpomene completely ex- hausted and suffering from tne gout in her leit leg. The heat throughout the ay had been excessive, and for once in my life, as the pedals scorched my feet and the sun taught my face and neck a redder hue than red, I aporeciated the feelings of St. Lawrence basking upon the gridiron. The fact is we were treated with con- tumely by several coarse-minded livery- men, a circumstance which puazled us considerably until a bystander thought- fully informed us that we were taken for horsethieves! ““We shall have to make San Jose,” said Davie, as we resumed our weary pilgrim- age, “and see if the liverymen there can recognize a first-class mare when they see one. This kind of thing s calculated to give a fellow—"" Here Melpomene wanted to kneel down and say her prayers and Davie had a nar- row escape from death. A mile from Redwood City Isurrendered the wheel to Davie and jumped into the saddle. Tired as she was Melpomene resented the extra weight and turned again to Eu- clid for diversion; but this time I forgot all about the band of kindness and re- membered instead the words of Solomon, “Spare the rod and spoil the mare.” We reached San Jose in the evening, battered wrecks with ths exception of the wheel. A friend in need advanced me $10 on the mare and I bought a second-nand wheel, though the effort almost reduced me to a condition of insolvency. ‘We made a highly auspicious start from San Jose, albeit my joy at this happy turn of affairs was somewhat chastened by the discovery that I had lost three pairs of socks and half a dozen hankerchiefs somewhere on the road. “Then we are lost!” ejaculated Davie, striking an attitude. “The bloodhounds will have a snap.” ‘Whatdid he mean? Fifteen miles from San Jose and in the midst of a twenty-miles-an-hour clip my handle-bars came off, and sodid 1. As I fell I heard Saturn smile, and it is an in- disputable fact that I saw more stars than one, but thanked none of them. A friendly rancher fixed up the cripplea wheel with splints and baling rope, and after a few prelimirary tumbles I man- aged to foilow in Davie’s wake. But three distress, and providentially 1ecollecting | miles of this ruined the combination, shough 1 succeeded in covering another mile with the handle-bars pointing due north and south. The situation will be more readily un- derstood when I add that we were riding south. We went into caucus three miles from Gilroy, and with the assistance of a local wheelman again repaired the crip- pled bike. We thundered into Gilroy later In the day, and stayed there long enough to drink a lemonade apiece. “We must make San Juan this even- ing,”’ said Davie, with confidence, and I cheerfully assented, forgetting for the moment my baleiul horoscope. Saturn, however, refused to be propitiated and six miles from Gilroy my handle bars again parted company from the fork and 1 parted company from the saddle. Davie regretted that he bad forgotten his kodak —a regret I did not share. We quite enjoyed the romantic walk to Gilroy. The telegraph wires played selec- tions from Chopin's funeral march and “When Johnny Comes Marching Home,’’ but we were not to be biuffed. The chapter of accidents virtually ends at Gilroy, where we had the wheel strongly repaired. It is true we were compelled 10 take the boat from Port Harford to San Pedro, travel- ing steerage in the elevating com- pany of negroes, Chinamen and cockroaches, but though we wers starved for twenty-four hoursand the captain and pleased and interested spectator of these geometrical eccentricities, advised me to the purser logically sustained the ominous tenor of our trip by shooting seagulls, the \(\,\\\\\\;‘m\\\\ Joysof & summer—. QuesT for According to every desler we visited, a trip from Ban Francisco to Los Angeles would simply amount to a quiet post- prandial constitutional for the proffered Bucephalus. This was particularly so in - pure OZ-OH‘&;\ ) A\ flog Melpomene, and asked me if he should Jend a hand. I told him, how- ever, that I belonged to a band of kindness and could not conscientiously indorse such a proposal. He seemed hurt and the case of an equine veteran with a | retorted that he would leave me to my L Darrative of our adventures during this pari of our jonrney cannot be said to Possess public interest. . I marvel that we are still alive: My wheel and a golden hair from Me pomene’s mane are now on view at the Park Museum. My neighbor, the farmer, went through his orchards the other day popping away with & shotgan at the small birds dis- porting themselves among the trees. I am sure he was under the impression that he was saving his crop, but I glanced at the trees as I droye by and saw more than one gossamer nest from which, in a week or so, more worms will have hatched than he can possibly find birds enough to devour. They will cost him more cherries than all the birds on the mountainside could rob him of, and the burden of de- stroying them will be heavier, 'fnr. thf.m that of carrying about a gan, taking fatile aim at the tuneful little friends who are only too glad to protect his trees, if he wiil but let them. We bave none too many birds to do this for us, and those we have are in danger of being exterminated by the onward march of civilization. Most even of our seed- eating birds seem to be insect-destroyers at certain seasons of the year. The little histle bird, sometimes called the Califor- nia canary, but who is rightfully the American goldfinch, is a capital illustra- tion of this. Early in the springtime these birds may be seen feasting upon the fluffy seeds of the willows. They make their appearance with their blossoming and continue with us until late in the au- tumn. As summer advances we see them in great flocks on the thistles and among the tarweed eating the seeds, but jusi now they are rearing their young broods upon insects. We may watch them circling about in the air, from morn ti!l dewy eve, catching these and carrying them to their nests to poke into the yawning, clamorous bills of baby birds. Even the California linnet, tbe mischievous little crimson- headed bousefinch, does ‘his share toward keeping ravaging insects in check, but it must be confessed his depredations among the fruit, a little later on, will sorely try the soul of the orchardist. The house- finch is a pretty bird and a sweet, continu- ous singer, but as a neighbor he is, to my mind, far more objectionable than the despised English sparrow. He seems to be even more quarrelsome than the sparrow. He is noisy and un- tidy. A pair of linnets nesting, as they are fond of doing, under the eaves' of a house porch, will keep the floor littered the season through with grass roots, sticks, leaves and a general assortment of rubbish that, if allowed to accumulate, would make a great pile before summer passed. The male bird bas a trick of bringing this stuff long after the nest is finishea and the eggs laid by bis practical little mate, who wastes no time in such nonsense. (f I were making a list of birds that should be exempted from pro- tection I think I should head it with the name of this finch. Nearly equal to him in capacity for mischief is the cherry bird, or cedar wax- wing, a bird that has until within the past few years been comparatively rare 1n this State, but which is becoming all too common in some orchard sections. I fancy most orchardists would wish to add to this list the sapsuckers and wood- peckers, aud I am not sure but that some of these are stfficiently predaceous to merit the disfavor with which they are regarded. The sapsucker in our citrus belts has developed a wonderful fondness for the sap of the orane tree, and to get this they bore rings of little holes about the trunks of trees and drink the drops as itey flow. A sapsucker will completely glrdle a tres with these holes and soon cause its death. They are readily disposed of by injecting a little strychnine and honey into the holes they make. As they re- turn to these from time to time they are pretty certain not to miss the fatal dose. Perhaps the larzer owls and hawksdo damage enough to justify warfare against them, but the owner of a squirrel-infested field may well look upon these biras his friends; and the sad-voiced little screech-owl, with his bumorously pa- thetic vissge, is worth his weight in gold about a barn. He is lar more useful than a cat for clearing the place of vermin. Sentiment causes us o look askance at the shriek, whose name, butcher-bird, suppesed to express his cruel, blood- thirsty nature, but the butcher-bird is comparatively rare. With a fairly alert pair of eyes, where birds are concerned, I have only seen one during this season and the last. He is, moreover, useful in kill- ing fieldmice and gophe: d while we cannot call him a lovablebird he certainly does no evil that would justify us in ex- terminating him. I question whether the circumstance of his killing little birds justifies our hatred of him—the smali boy often does that with far less excuse. But the jays and magpies should be given no quarter. Even the bandsome coat cannot blind us to the fact that the California bluejay is an arrant rascal, a cowardly, blustering, ctuel thlef, preying indifferently upon orchard, chicken-yard and songbira’s nest. The road-runners, queerest of all California birds, are often accused " of being a menace to young chickens and eggs, but on the other hand they are remarkably useful in keeping down ground squirrels and gophers. They prey, also, upon the lizards and little snakes which we can ill afford to lose from our fields and gardens. But the fact that the road-runner will sttack and xill both the rat:lerand the corral snake makes him a useful member of society 1n some sections. I suspect that the mischief done by the red-shafted flicker, or high-hole, against which our country boys are encouraged to do battle, is greatiy exaggerated. The California woocdpecker s trick of burying acorns is a mischievous one when it leads bim to ridale housetops for this purpose. We sometimes come upon trees wit) the bark literally honeycombed with these holes, but I have never seen the flicker at work thus, nor am I at all certain that he does anything of the sort. He is an insectivorous bird, who picks up his food for the most part from the ground and makes no especial provision for winter, as does his near relative, the golden-shafted flicker of the Eastern coast. The Cali- fornia woodpecker, on the other hand, does gather and bury acorns for fature use. I have known one to plant a score or more in the shingles of A roof, wedging them in so tightly as to render them almost immovable, but I never saw one return’to devour any of this hoarded store, Most of us act as though we thought there was real virtue in decrying the Eng- lish sparrow; and it must be admitted that he is not altogether an agreeable bird, but he has done untold good in this country in ridding our trees of predaceous worms and insects. ADELINE Kxarm 1