ee OweEN, A Captive Hermit Thrush. 7 
ease, and pruned itself carefully on being released. It bathed 
regularly, and though it kept its cage in a litter, was scrupulous 
about its plumage. When taken, its tail feathers had just started. 
They grew rapidly, and by July 31 had attained their full length. 
As soon as the appendage had gained sufficient length to be used 
, 
in gesticulation, the bird accompanied its ‘ peeping’ cry with 
flicks of the tail, after the manner of a Robin. Some of its atti- 
tudes, as it stood with uplifted tail, were very like those of the 
Catbird. 
In concluding this record it remains to speak of the bird’s 
method of eating earthworms, for it was method, indeed. The 
bird began by worrying the worm, much as a cat does a mouse, 
nipping, pecking, and slatting its victim violently. The attack 
seemed to be directed, mainly, at the extremities of the worm. 
Thus, in one case, the head of the worm was pecked ten times, 
the tail seventeen times, and the middle twice. The worm, of 
course, squirmed and wriggled vigorously, at first; but, after a 
time, lost, in a measure, the power of motion. Now and then, the 
bird’s beak would miss the worm, or would slip off. At such times 
the mandibles came together with an audible snap, conveying a 
suggestion of the torturing pinches to which the unfortunate worm 
was being subjected. The pummeling and nipping having gone 
on for from one and a half to three and a half minutes, the Thrush 
would next essay to swallow the worm, beginning, almost invariably, 
at the tail. This mode of attack may have been prompted by a 
chivalrous desire to give the poor worm as much of a chance as 
possible. If so, its object was, in a measure, gained, for, in the 
case of a big worm, the process of swallowing was distressingly 
prolonged by the efforts of the worm to escape, in which it often 
succeeded so far as to crawl out of the bird’s mouth almost as 
fast as it was drawn in. The outcome of the struggle was always 
in the bird’s favor, although in one instance, that I timed, the head 
of the worm visibly protruded from the bird’s throat for seven 
minutes and a half after swallowing began. 
The fact that the Thrush swallowed its worms tail first gains 
something in interest when the structure of the earthworm is taken 
into account. As is well-known, the earthworm’s body consists 
of from 100 to 200 rings, orsegments. Every segment, except the 
