SIR: I write to ask if any of your little birds
ever crossed the Equator; and, when just above it, whereabouts in
the sky did they look for the sun at noon?

If you will answer this you will oblige me very much, as I have
been wondering for about a month past.

Don't think this foolish.

EDWIN S. THOMPSON.

None of my feathered friends ever told me about this; but, perhaps, some
of you smart chicks who have just passed good examinations can answer
Edwin's question. If so, I'd be glad to hear from you; especially if
you'd let me know, also, what kind of a thing the equator _is_, and by
what marks or signs a bird or anybody might make sure he had pitched
upon it?

A BIRD THAT SEWS.

Sandy Spring, Md.

DEAR JACK: Have you ever heard of a bird that sews? Perhaps you
have, and some of your chicks have not. He is not much larger than
the humming-bird, and looks like a ball of yellow worsted flying
through the air. For his nest he chooses two leaves on the outside
of a tree, and these he sews firmly together, except at the
entrance, using a fiber for thread, and his long, sharp bill as a
needle. When this is done, he puts in some down plucked from his
breast, and his snug home is complete. He is sometimes called the
"tailor-bird."--Your friend,

M. B. T.

A BEE "SOLD."

Talk about the instinct of animals! I'm sure my little friends the bees
are as bright as any, yet I heard, the other day, a strange thing about
one. There was a flower-like sea-anemone, near the top of a little pool
of water, when a bee came buzzing along and alighted on the pretty
thing, no doubt mistaking it for a blossom. That anemone was an animal,
and had no honey. Now, where was the instinct of that bee? That's what I
want to know.

THE LETTER-BOX.

West Roxbury, Mass.

Dear St. Nicholas: I saw in your June number, in the "Letter-Box," an
account of a turtle; so I thought I would tell you about "Gopher Jimmy."
My uncle brought him from Florida. He is a gopher, and different from
the common kind of turtle. His back is yellow, with black ridges on it.
His feet are yellow and scaly. Gophers burrow in the ground; and, when
full grown, a man cannot pull one out of its burrow, and a child can
ride easily on its back. I feed mine on clover. He likes to bask in the
sun. My uncle named him "Gopher Jimmy." When full grown, they can move
with a w