82 Bird - Lore 



while hopping to his perch again, meanwhile turning and twisting his alert 

 body with inconceivable agility, flirting and opening and shutting his tail. 

 Even in his semi-crippled condition, he was the spirit of animation. 



Disliking to be thought inhospitable in my own home, I set before the 

 invalid other thirty flies, and was rather aghast to see them all dis- 

 appear down the 'red lane with no turning' in exactly ten minutes by 

 the clock. 



Was it reproach for niggardliness that looked out at me from Redwing's 

 black, expressive eye? I bethought me of a neighbor's wire fly-trap. 



The borrowed trap was baited and set and I went about my housework 

 with lightened responsibility. Pending the filling of the trap, I put into Red- 

 wing's cage sections of earthworms, some scraped veal, and bits of suet, but 

 none of these would he even deign to sample. Later in the day the trap was 

 opened, and 400 flies, by actual count, were set as 'a feast before the king.' 

 These lasted Redwing about two hours. 



During the first day, though constantly active. Redwing seemed weak and 

 showed little fear of me, eating and drinking when I was close beside him. 

 Dainty and graceful as a butterfly, much more brilUant in hue, and scarcely 

 larger than my thumb, he was the most attractive and interesting visitor that 

 ever gladdened our home. 



Being an adult, his habits were formed, and he was untamable. His long- 

 ing for the wildwood life began to awaken as his wing healed, and the restraint 

 of the cage, necessary to insure his safety, grew constantly more irksome. When 

 I drew near with food, or when hungry, his chirping call rang loud and metallic, 

 otherwise he was silent. 



On the second day the patient seemed stronger and became so restless that 

 I transferred him to a larger cage, and on the third day I hung this in an unused 

 chamber where he would be free from molestation. Shortly afterward he began 

 to resent my approach, showing signs of fear when I ministered to his needs; 

 so I placed a dish containing about eight hundred flies in his cage, filled his 

 drinking-cup, and left him as much as possible to the solitude he seemed to 

 desire. 



The chamber door has a small aperture through which I could watch him 

 without being seen, his actions becoming more natural when he considered 

 himself free from observation. High up in one end of his cage was a perch, and 

 at the other end was one near the bottom, in close proximity to his food. One 

 day I watched him unobserved, for fifteen minutes, and he hopped and flirted 

 from the high to the low perch and back 236 times, usually taking a fly or a 

 sip of water every fourth trip. 



After leaving him for an hour, I came back to my concealed post of obser- 

 vation and took 'tabs' on his doings for fifteen minutes more. This time he 

 made the round trip, by actual count, 311 times, taking a fly or a drop of 

 water, as before, about every fourth trip. At this rate. Redwing would consume 



