But we must not infer from this that birds, as a rule, travel at random and trust to what man calls “luck.” These little perching birds are the ones most liable to mistakes, and a sudden change in the weather or an unusually tempting food supply may lure them to pause too long in these more northern regions, delaying them until it is impossible for them to finish their trip. They have a very short flight, compared to other birds, and it is no slight task for them to accomplish a journey of a thousand miles or more. Yet they go and come with remarkable precision, and there are many instances of a pair nesting in the same tree or crevice or broken limb for several years in succession. When spring returns, some happy experience of the year before brings them back to the loved spot, and there they linger till time for the fall migration. The birds which are most unerring in their time and course of flight are the water birds. The wild geese are first in this particular, flying high in the air and with the leader ever in full view of the flock, remaining on the wing for from twenty-four to forty-eight hours. To be classed next to these are the herons, the wild ducks and the bittern, the long-legged waders, and the little sand-pipers. All these follow the water courses, the Mississippi and its tributaries being their principal highways. The ground birds usually follow the prairie countries, though the clearing away of forests has induced them to frequent eastern Indiana and Ohio in recent years. But the western prairie states are their acknowledged summer homes, from whence they gather in companies when autumn comes and, like their fellows, flee to a warmer clime till their favorite dunes and marshes are again habitable. Claudia May Ferrin. TURQUOIS. This mineral differs from nearly all others held in favor as gems, in not being transparent and never occurring in the form of well defined crystals. The opal is perhaps the only other gem of which the same may be said. In composition Turquois is a hydrous phosphate of aluminum, the percentages being: Of water, 20.6 per centum; of alumina, 46.8 per centum, and of phosphoric oxide, 32.6 per centum. Thus in composition as well as opacity Turquois differs from most other gems, they being usually silicates or some form of silica. Besides the above ingredients Turquois always contains a small percentage of copper oxide and usually iron, calcium and manganese oxides in small amount. It is the copper compound which undoubtedly gives Turquois its inimitable color, that color to which it owes its chief charm as a gem. The color varies from sky-blue through bluish-green and apple-green to greenish-gray.