The Kenosha telegraph. [volume] (Kenosha, Wis.) 1860-1888, 1883-08-10
off the cover which protected him from


off the cover which protected him from
cold at night For two or three morn
ings he did the same, became uneasy,
flew while, and then called, when at
once responded. From the third day
he called the instant he wanted to be
uncovered, showing no more restless
ness, and calling again and again if |
did not move at once, at last giving his
most harsh cry, and impatiently scold-
ing with rage.
To beg for worms was an easy les
son. Having two or three times re-
ceived them from pair of tweezers on
my desk, he came regularly; perched on
the books, looked at me, and then at
the cup which had held the worms;
then, if / did not get them, opened and
closed his bill, and jerked his tail i'm
patiently.
His great, delight and mystery is a
rubber band, of which keep two sizes;
one hardly larger than a thread, and
the other an eighth of an inch wide and
two inches long doubled. These he is
wild to get; and since he treats them as
he does the worms, conclude that their
softness and elasticity are deceptive,
and mystery, like the glass, which he
can not solve. At any rate, after beat
ing them on the floor as he does a
worm, he always swallows them. He
will persist in swallowing even the large
ones, and sit pulled out on his perch in
evident suffering for hours, before he
discovers that he can not digest it, and
q 10 Of |,
band is the desire of his heart, and to
keep him from it is the desire of mine.
At first, when he pounced upon one, he
would stand ION my desk and swallow
it; but after [ tried to get it away, he
learned cunning. The instant his eve
would spy one, generally under some
paper in my drawer, he would first
glance at me, then snatch the treasure,
and instantly fly to the corniee, where
can not reach him. / always know by
the manner of his departure that he has
found what he knows, perfectly well, is
a forbidden object.
Another thing interesting to observe
in the cat-bird is his way of hiding him
self, when in plain sight all the time.
He simply remains entirely motionless,
and one may look directly at him, and
not see him, SO well does his plain dark
dress harmonic with his usual surround
ings. Often come into the room and
look about for him, in all his fayorite
places-on the cornice. the desk, and
before the glass; no bird to be seen.
AS | move about to look more closely,
he will suddenly fly up almost from un-
der my hand. Still as he can keep, his
movements are rapid; he is delibera-
ton itself in making up his mind to go
anywhere, but once decided he goes like
flash.
When a new bird was introduced into
the room, an English song thrush, twice
as big as himself, the cat-bird was at
first uncertain how to treat him; but
in one day he learned that he could
brighten him. The small, dark, impish-
looking fellow, rushing madly at the
big, honest, simple thrush. put him into
an uncomfortable panic. AS soon as this
fact was established the cat-bird became
a tyrant. He will not allow him to en-
Joy anything on the floor, drives him
away from the bath, mocks his singing
with harsh notes, and assumes very saucy
airs towards him.
The worst effect of the th1ush's COM
ing, however, was to show me new
trait uf the cat-bird's character-ieal-
ousy. The first day or two he sulked,
would not go out OF his cage, would not
touch meat, and though be has gradual
~ returned to his liberty and his meat,
he still refuses, now after two months,
to alight on my hands for his tit-bits, as
he did before.
Nothing is more interesting than to
note the variety the cat-bird will give to
the cry which at a distance resembles
the ''mew'' of a cat He has many
other notes and calls, beside his ex-
quisite songs, but there is hardly a
shade Of emotion that he cannot ex-
press by the inflexion he will give to
that one cry. Whether he proclaims
melancholy word by softly breathing it
from closed bill, or jerks it out with a
snap at the end, as though he bit it off,
when he is deprived of some cherished
treasure-as, for instance, rubber
band-from one extreme to the other,
with all the shades between, each ex-
presses meaning, and each is intelli-
gible to loving and. observing student
of his ways. = Oh0e Thorne Mailer, IN
atlantic Monthly. ~ 5a