Show 1 1 HARD TO TELL BIDS AGE j i Ora Y Knight of Bangor former president of the Maine Ornithological i society Hiya It fM f ovtremely dlfllcult t eli the age to which blrd live I IB 1 hard to keep track of Individual birds from year to year In the wild slhlo and those In captivity probably do not live their natural length of years Ono seagull sea-gull known as Gull Dick to the keepers of thn Brenton Reef lIghtshIp pas ob nervcd In that vicinity for twentyfour years Thin bird was very tame nnd had certain peculiarities by which It could he positively Identified There Is no telling how old the bird was when It was first observed so nothing moro than Its minimum age can bo stated with entire accuracy I Is qjilto probable that tho pull van over SO years old when II died Crows and ravens 1 are popularly supposed lo live from fifty to 100 years but there Is no con vlnclng evidence that this is j true and good authorities on ornithology doubt It I IR thought likely that eagles and the larger hawks live to be en yearn old and perhaps more Again there Is no proof thai this Isi true Mr Knight thinks that this sparrows wnrblcra and other small birds live from six to len years but confesses that this IK nothIng noth-Ing more than a rough estimate lie has observed some loggerhead shrikes or butcher birds which to his knowledge knowl-edge have nested In the same trees for periods varying from nix to ten years but ho calls attention lo the fact that he did not know how old they were when he first began to observe them He ban had seine pine grosbeaks In captivity cap-tivity which lived from four to seven years but their ago was not known I when they were captured out of doors in the winter New York Tribune |