INTELLIGENCE IN BIEDS. 123 



seen circling over the place, as if loth to leave the old 

 homestead. 



A wood thrush returned to the same grove several 

 summers ; I knew him from other thrushes by some 

 long peculiar trills between the high and the low parts 

 of the song". These were sweeter and softer and fuller 

 of pure melody than I have ever heard in any other 

 bird. A thousand incidents may be given to illustrate 

 this local attachment and its results, but one more on the 

 present occasion must suffice. On !N"ortli Street, in an 

 old apple tree in Mr. Gowans' yard, a pair of blue-birds 

 made a nest in the cavity of a decayed limb. A high 

 wind broke off the liuib and the little birds, just hatched, 

 fell to the ground. A young girl of the family picked 

 up the fledglings and j^laced them in an extemporized 

 nest in a basket, which she hung in the piazza near by. 

 Soon the old birds found their young, and fed and 

 hovered them in their nest until they were able to take 

 care of themselves : even after they flew away they 

 came back and remained in the nest several nights. 

 Both the old and young birds were on good terms with 

 the members of the family, and did not take their flight 

 for the south until late in the summer. Early last 

 spring, during the first sunny days of March, the male 

 bird made his appearance on the premises and came into 

 the kitchen for crumbs ; he remained nearly a week and 

 disap]^eared again, but only for a few days, when he 

 returned with his mate to stay. They peered about the 

 old apple tree, and searched for the basket for a nesting 

 place, but finally observing a cavity high up in the 



