GLIMPSES OF WILD LIFE 191 



a nest in a box near by the house, and after the 

 manner of the bluebirds was very inquisitive and 

 saucy about windows; one morning it chanced to 

 discover its reflected image in the windows of the 

 hired man's room. The shade, of some dark stuff, 

 was down on the inside, which aided in making a 

 kind of looking-glass of the window. Instantly the 

 bird began an assault upon his supposed rival in the 

 window, and made such a clattering that there was 

 no more sleep inside that room. Morning after 

 morning the bird kept this up till the tired plow- 

 man complained bitterly and declared his intention 

 to kill the bird. In an unlucky moment — unlucky 

 for me, who had morning work to be done — I sug- 

 gested that he leave the shade up and try the effect. 

 He did so, and his morning sleep was thenceforth 

 undisturbed. 



A Western correspondent writes me that she once 

 put a looking-glass down on the floor in front of the 

 canary bird's cage. The poor canary had not had 

 any communion with his own kind for years. "He 

 used often to watch the ugly sparrows — the little 

 plebeians — from his aristocratic gilded palace. I 

 opened his cage and he walked up to the looking- 

 glass, and it was not long before he made up his 

 mind. He collected dead leaves, twigs, bits of pa- 

 per, and all sorts of stray bits, and began a nest 

 right off. Several days after in his lonely cage he 

 would take bits of straw and arrange them when 

 they were given him." 



