Democratic Sentinel, Volume 7, Number 32, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 7 September 1883 — A Belligerent Bird. [ARTICLE]

A Belligerent Bird.

The kingfisher is not regarded as a dangerous bird, but an artist friend of mine once had a most remarkable adventure with one. While sketching on the shore of a river he saw one of these birds flying across the water directly toward him. He watched its approach, expecting every moment to see it change its course, but, to his astonishment. the bird, swerving neither to the right nor the left, came straight at his face. His hands were filled with palette and brushes. He raised his foot to shield himself. “Thud!” came the bird against it, falling to the ground stunned by the shock; but, recovering quickly, it again took wing and disappeared around a bend in the shore. Now, the snowy owl (Nyctea scandiaca} is said to alight at times upon the heads of sportsmen while they are crouching quietly among the reeds watching for wild geese and ducks, probably mistaking them for stumps or something of that sort. But to suppose that the kingfisher had mistaken my friend for a fi[tump would not be coinplimentary to either the bird or the artist.—De Cost Smith, iu St. Nicholas. “Right-handedness ” extends very far along the animal series. Parrots hold their food by preference in the right foot, and, though we cannot speak positively, wasps, beetles and spiders seem to use the right anterior foot most commonly.