150 THE WILSON BULLETIN— September, 1921 



Among the birds of apparently limited migration that spent the 

 cold months here are many of our own kinds; they join their south- 

 ern relatives for varying periods of time, mostly in immense flocks, 

 like the five or six representatives of the blackbird family; or the 

 droves of English sparrows that arrive in flocks early in Septem- 

 ber; and seek out the rice fields and wild grass stretches of the 

 open prairies. 



Catbirds, shrikes, mockingbirds, aiid their immediate kin, ap- 

 pear and disappear with the shifts in the weather; usually in twos 

 or threes of their own kind, although the three named seem fond 

 of traveling in each other's company. 



I have in. my miniature aviary a female mockingbird which flew 

 against the screened porch where I had a crippled male until I was 

 afraid a cat would certainly get her; so finally opened the door and 

 let her in with my other birds, where she is perfectly satisfied. 



She is a little smaller and darker than our large boldly marked 

 East Texas-West Louisiana mockingbirds, and instead of their so- 

 phisticated cold grey eyes hers are of a warm amber. Presumably 

 she is from one of the states north of Texas and Louisiana; but 

 in size and the dullness of her markings she reminds me of the 

 mockingbirds found in the exti'eme west and northwest of this 

 state, also in upper Mexico and New Mexico. 



And since a Gi'oove-billed Ani, whose range is so very far west 

 and south of this section, was shot within a few miles of town 

 last year I have wondered if she might not also have been forced 

 beyond the borders of her natural limits by some such untoward 

 circumstance as brought the ani here. 



Also, in other years, several other wanderers from the habitual 

 migratory trails of their kind. 



Mk.s. Bkuce Reid. 



Grulf Refinery, Port Arthur. Texas. 



A CROW SUICIDE 



A friend has told me the following interesting ntory of a cro^^ 

 committing suicide: 



On the afternoon of May 29, 1921, while returning from a swiro 

 in Buffalo Creek with .several other boys, my friend says the\ 

 found a crow that was apparently sick or crippled in some wa>. 

 for it was able to walk but could not fly. Thinking to have some 

 fun, they caught the unfortunate bird and tossed him into a nearby 

 pond (certainly a very disrespectful way to treat a fellow citizen). 

 The pond was very shallow, according to his account, and the 

 crow could have easily waded out had he been so inclined, but 

 instead, thinking perhaps that death awaited him at the shore, 

 he deliberately put his head under water and soon drowned. 

 Whether the pond u'lr/s shallow may be open to question, but if 

 all details are correct it was surely a pure case of suicide. 



