Some Odd Bits of Bird Life 71 



cracker. The sparrows were gaining courage, and apparently 

 were contemplating an attack in force when a boy who knew 

 how to climb trees captured Poll and carried her back to her 

 cage. 



Some birds have become accustomed to many of the 

 appurtenances of civilization. Those that have been shot at 

 once, or have seen their kind shot at, know a gun as far as 

 they can see it. They will all but perch on the shoulder of 

 an unarmed man, but will keep a ten-acre lot between them 

 and a man with a breech-loader. Glass, however, is one of 

 man's belongings which the most astute bird as yet fails 

 thoroughly to understand. A window which has light back 

 of it as well as in front of it is a perfect death trap for birds 

 of many species. The oven-bird, sometimes called the 

 golden-crowned thrush, is constantly dashing against window 

 panes, always to its discomfiture and frequently to its death. 

 One of these birds at noon one day brought up against a pane 

 of glass in the window of a great department store on one of 

 the busiest street corners of the city of Chicago. The bird 

 recovered itself, but in its bewilderment it left the window 

 only to fly into the crowded mart through an open door. 

 The oven-bird was caught and caged. Then it promptly and 

 properly died. All caged birds ought to die in self-defense. 

 The Audubon Society members say that death for the song- 

 sters is preferable to imprisonment. There are few bird-lovers 

 who will try to gainsay the society's dictum. 



Not long ago a kingfisher tried to fly into the Academy of 

 Sciences through a pane of plate glass. The shock killed the 

 bird. It now stands stuffed with cotton and plaster of paris 

 looking out of the very window against which it hurled itself 

 to death. 



