90 "TRICKS AND MANNERS" OF A CAT-BIRD. 



tery, like the glass, which he cannot solve. At 

 any rate, after beating them on the floor as he 

 does a worm, he always swallows them. He 

 will persist in swallowing even the large ones, 

 and sit puffed out on his perch in evident suf- 

 fering for hours, before he discovers that he 

 cannot digest it, and at last disgorges. To find 

 a rubber band is the desire of his heart, and 

 to keep him from one is the desire of mine. 

 At first, when he pounced upon one, he would 

 stand on my desk and swallow it ; but after I 

 tried to prevent this, he learned cunning. The 

 instant his eye would spy one, generally under 

 some paper in my drawer, he would first glance 

 at me, then snatch the treasure, and instantly 

 fly to the cornice, where I cannot reach him. 

 I always know by the manner of his departure 

 that he has found what he knows, perfectly 

 well, is a forbidden object. 



Another thing interesting to observe in the 

 cat-bird is his way of hiding himself, when in 

 plain sight all the time. He simply remains 

 entirely motionless, and one may look directly 

 at him, and not see him, so well does his plain 

 dark dress harmonize with his usual surround- 

 ings. Often I come into the room and look 

 about for him in all his favorite places, on 

 the cornice, the desk, and before the glass ; no 

 bird to be seen. As I move about to look more 



