160 FROM BLOMIDON TO SMOKY. 



did not begin to stir until about 7 o'clock, their 

 cage having been darkened so as to prolong their 

 slumber. On my presenting the quill all three 

 tried to drink at once, and Number One was very 

 rough with the others, striking them sharply with 

 his beak. His violence led me to add a second 

 room to the cage, into which the others could 

 withdraw to escape him. I placed it directly 

 above the other, with a round hole in the floor 

 opposite a similar opening in the top of the first 

 cao'e. None of the birds noticed the hole, either 

 from below or from above, when put in the upper 

 room. I placed cups of birch bark and wooden 

 troughs filled with syrup in various parts of both 

 cages, but the birds did not go to them. They 

 took more syrup than on the 8th, drinking a 

 greater number of times and more at each time. 

 Towards evening, I exchanged the quill for a 

 slender spout of birch bark through which I let 

 the syrup ooze. They drank from the spout, 

 from the netting down which drops coursed, and 

 from the wood upon which the drops fell. Num- 

 ber One made his first attempt to catch a fly on 

 the netting', but failed. 



During more than half the day the birds were 

 in motion, flying from one side of the cage to the 

 other, hitching up and down the netting or the 

 perpendicular perches, and pounding on the net- 

 ting, boards and perches. Twice they gave the 



