The Brookhaven leader. [volume] (Brookhaven, Miss.) 1883-1891, 1883-08-16

down on the end of perch with a
bounce, making much more noise than
usual; he generally alights like feather.
After each bound he would stand and
listen, and the tluttcr he always heard
delighted him hugely. As long as they
lived in the same room she never got
over her fear, and he never tired of
playing pranks around her.
Ii TO learn by experience is n sign OF
reason in an animal, the cat-bird plainly
demonstrated his possession of that
quality. He learned very fast by ex-
perience. Once or twice alighting on
the cane seat of chair, and catching
his claws, Taught him that that was not
a place for him. and he did it no more.
When his claws grew so long as TO
curve around an ordinary perch, or n
book, after being caught once or twice.
he managed to accommodate himself
To this new condition, and start in y
different way. Instead Of diving off u
perch. as he naturally does, he gave a
little Jump up. The change was very
marked, and he caught his claws no
more.
He learned to ask to be uncovered in
the morning. in about three days. He
would begin his uneasineSs quite early.
flying back and forth violently in the
cage. and at last he would call. Iwant-
ed to see if he would learn, so the mo-
ment he called | would get up and take
of 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 ut
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-
inc 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 mt 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 inn
patiently.
His great delight and mystery is q
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
inc them on the floor as he does
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
at last diSgorges it. To find a rubber
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 on my desk and swallow
it; but after tried to get it away, he
learned cunning. The instant his eye
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 cornice, 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 we'll does his plain dark
dress harmonic with his usual surround
ings Often come into the room and
IL, stS,
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 delibcra-
ton itself in making up his mind to 90
anywhere, but once decided he goes Ike
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 thrush 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 90 out of his cage, would MT
touch meat, and though he has gradual
ly 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 distance resembles
the ''mew' of a cat. He has many
other notes and calls, beside his eX-
quisite songs, but there is hard a
shade of emotion that he cannot eX-
press by the inhexion he will give to
that one cry. Whether he proclams a
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, a rubber
band-from one extreme to the other,
with all the shades between, each .eX-
presses a meaning, and each is intelli-
gible to a loving and observing student
of his ways,-OliUe I'hOr,ae Miller, IN