Brakeman

In a Brooklyn freight yard a priest gave extreme unction to Brakeman Richard O'Connell. He lay caught between a derailed switch engine and a 70-ton freight car. A wheel of the car held one foot; the other was wedged in the engine pilot board. If the engine backed away, he would be ripped as men rip legs off bullfrogs. If the car rolled towards him, he would be grated over the bars of the cowcatcher. So he sprawled there, content with the priest's ministrations, hopeful that the rescuing railroad men who were jacking the car up and away from him would be dexterous. They did free him. His legs were unbroken, only badly bruised.

Cold

Over Watertown, S. D., an immense flock of dapper Lapland Longspurs* migrated north. The males were colored black, white and ochreous; the females were a little duller and streaked. They all sang--until they headed into a freezing layer of air. Then they began tumbling, like feathers from a ripped pillow. Hundreds were chilled to death when they struck the ground. Other managed to reach trees. Where their long claws clutched at bark, they found footage and rested, necks pulled in, eyes squinting miserably.

Thunder

Over Greenwood, Miss., a long, streaming V of wild geese beat their way north from the Gulf of Mexico into a thunder storm. Flares and crashes tore up the smooth formation. Geese swooped for coverage. Twenty-six dropped, plumb, dead, onto the farm of Robert Townes.

Wind

At Bingham, Utah, a stanch steel cable furnishes trackage for the aerial tramway that connects the Utah Delaware Co.'s reducing plant with the mines. Last week as a high wind shrilled and blew, one Glen Higley, miner, rode the tram bucket. The cable thrummed; the slowly traveling bucket creaked and groaned as it swayed 200 feet above ground. Miner Higley felt frolicsome, peered over the edge. A bellows-gust of wind struck the swaying bucket neatly and pitched him out. Because he lit in a snow drift he will live.

Black Cat

In Washington, August J. Keck, 57, cook, going down his dark cellar steps, suddenly felt his black house cat clawing viciously at his pants leg. He 'was standing, momentarily, on the cat's tail. The cat screeched; Cook Keck jumped, tripped, fractured his skull against the cellar floor.

Cinnamon Bear

At Golden Gate Park Zoo, San Francisco, one Percy Hayes, 17, visitor from Stockton, Calif., ignored the warning signs on the cinnamon bear cage and poked his face up to the bars better to watch the beasts eat the lump sugar that he was tossing them. One bear nabbed the boy and inquisitively pawed his face. Two dirty claws pierced his eyes.

*Relatives of finches and sparrows.