I write to relate an incident which may be of interest to some of the readers of your valuable paper. There is a bar iron mill, situated in a neighboring town four miles from here, that has been on fire three or four times, in which the English sparrow might be called the incendiary. These sparrows pick up old pieces of cotton waste, which they build in their nests, among the timbers of the roof of the mill, and in every case of the fires above mentioned, these nests were the cause, either from spontaneous combustion or from sparks from the hot iron striking and lodging in the nest. If you could suggest some way of getting rid of the sparrows, I think the manager of the mill would be glad to adopt your plan. R. W. KEAR. Pottsville, Pa., February 14, 1887. Charcoal as Fossil. _To the Editor of the Scientific American:_ Perhaps charcoal has not often been observed as occurring naturally with mineral coal, though, as a result of metamorphism, graphite is not uncommon in coal districts. In a variety of bituminous coal that comes from Tennessee, and that is largely used in this State, there are to be seen along in the cleavage planes films of true charcoal, in varying quantity, but commonly thin. This coal has been coming to us for several years, and all the while I have noticed in it the presence of the charcoal. I have scarcely ever put coal into the fire without making the observation; and there is perhaps not a lump, of size at all considerable, that does not contain these films. On close examination, I have frequently found that the surface of the films on the broken lumps contains a delicate tracery, closely resembling vegetable impressions. The tracery is not so well marked as a fossil imprint, but not so indistinct as to escape notice. J. F. B. Emory College, Ga. Phosphorescent Birds. _To the Editor of the Scientific American:_ In reading of the habits of the wading birds, and particularly of the crane, I do not find that naturalists give any account of their manner of attracting their prey at night. My attention was called to the matter while gigging for fish, by frequently observing dim phosphoric lights appear and disappear along the shore like jack o' lanterns, which I for a long time supposed them to be. Oh one occasion I fired at such a light, and brought down a large blue crane, on which the phosphoric spots were clearly visible after death. There are two such spots; the larger being high up on the breast and the smaller at the bottom of the breast bone, the bird having power to reveal and conceal them at will. I have since stuffed many of the water walkers, and find that all have the same general arrangement of the feathers, and, as I believe, the same power of lighting up the water to attract the fish. Will some naturalist who is posted on this subject please throw some further light upon it, for the benefit of science? ISAAC N. WORRALL. Topeka, Kansas. Canned Fish, Meats, etc.