h placed
upon the ground always excites the insolent curiosity and meddling of the
turkeys, I have had recourse to another device: a little platform on four
posts about three feet high, perforated to admit a wash-basin to the rim.
Around three sides of this table I set a dozen supple oak saplings,
fastening them by iron staples to the edge of the table, and bringing them
all together, wigwam style, over head about three feet above the basin. At
the foot of the saplings I planted madeira-vine roots, which will produce
an abundance of foliage and blossom after they grow, but not being willing
to wait for this, I covered all the saplings separately from ground to
peak with evergreens from the woods, and then carpeted the whole floor
under the table with various colored mosses. The whole effect of the
structure, standing in the shade of the trees, is very pretty and quaint.
As the water should be changed every night, the waste poured over the
mosses will keep them always in good condition. Of course this basin of
water is far too deep for any sort of bird except a wader or a swimmer,
and to arrange it exactly right, so that the bathing depth can be uniform,
as the heat of the day dries up the water, has not been so easy as one
might imagine it would be. The best thing I have found thus far is a
circle of board held submerged on one side by a weight and a string, the
other side floating. A more perfect thing could doubtless be contrived,
and will be by many who like myself love the birds, and have determined to
foster their presence in every way for their beneficent services, material
and aesthetical.

M. H.

A CHEERING SIGN.

Very pleasant reading is a California item of court-proceedings going to
show that a Mongol still stands within the pale of the law upon the soil
of the Golden State. A wanton murder of some Chinese at Chico was
judicially avenged by the sentencing of two of the Caucasian participants
to twenty-five years' imprisonment, and of a third to the
nicely-calculated, if not nicely-adjusted, term of twenty-seven years and
a half. Had the unhappy victims been whites, or even blacks, the
arithmetic of time would probably not have been drawn on, but summary
recourse would have been made to such punishment as eternity could
furnish. But we must not be too exacting. Let us be grateful that the
criminal law has any shield, be it of the thinnest, for the Chinaman.

Very different is the case when the