92 iN BIRD LAND. 
ting on the sand and twinkling his pinions. But the 
time came when all the birds discovered of their 
own accord that the proper way was to leap right 
into the lavatory. 
How early in life do juvenile birds begin to sing? 
That is a question, I venture to say, that very few 
students of bird life would be able to answer. It 
may be difficult to believe — if my own ears had 
not heard, I should be very skeptical of the accuracy 
of the assertion — but my wood-thrushes had not 
been in my care more than three or four weeks 
before one of them began to twitter a little song. 
He could not have been much more than five weeks 
old. This is all the more remarkable when it is 
remembered that there were no adult thrushes within 
a half-mile of the house. He seemed to discover 
that he had a voice, and thought he might as well 
use it. 
Ah, yes, and sad to relate, my high-school pupils 
soon learned to quarrel, and that without the 
example of their elders. When I threw a billsome 
morsel on the floor of the cage, several of them 
would make a dive for it, and soon get into a 
wrangle... “ It?s) mine! it’s mine!” each would 
proclaim by his greedy behavior. ‘Then perhaps 
two would seize it, and tug at it like boys fighting for 
an apple. Or if one contrived to get it first, the rest 
would try to wrench it from his beak, and thus 
they would pursue one another about in a wild chase. 
The thrasher, being younger than his fellows, was 
for a time cheated out of every choice morsel he 
a 
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