THE AUK: 



A Q^UARTERLY JOURNAL OF 



ORNITHOLOGY. 

 VOL. XIV. January, 1897. no. 



NOTES ON A CAPTIVE HERMIT THRUSH. 



BY DANIEL E. OWEN. 



June 26, 1896, while exploring a small patch of mixed growth 

 in search of birds, I fell in with a young Hermit Thrush, accom- 

 panied by its parents. The young bird was just from the nest 

 and had such ill control of its faculties and muscles that, ulti- 

 mately, after a laborious flight of seven or eight yards, it alighted 

 at my very feet. I captured the youngster, by dropping my 

 hat over it, and having tied the bird, loosely, in my handker- 

 chief, carried it home in my collecting basket. For the next five 

 weeks, the Thrush was my constant study companion, and during 

 this period discovered so many attractive traits that when I came 

 to restore my captive to its native wood, the parting was, to one 

 of us, the occasion of real regret. 



I domiciled my little orphan in a large, old-fashioned canary 

 cage which was allowed to stand, most of the time, on the sill of 

 an open window. At first the Thrush objected to this durance 

 vile, expressing its distaste by ejaculatory ' peeps ' which, June 

 28, attracted to the roof, near the window, a sympathetic Chipping 

 Sparrow, and caused a Robin in a neighboring tree to sound 

 a loquacious and protracted alarm, pjut the imprisoned bird 



