138 



THE OOLOGIST. 



that (Eastern Indiana) and shut them 

 in their cage. They did not relish that 

 a bit, and at first refused to eat, how- 

 ever, they soou got over that,but would 

 strike savagely at my hand whenever 

 placed near them, and soon began 

 fighting between themselves. I saw 

 that would not do so I turned the most 

 quarrelsome one out again, thinking I 

 could drive it away. But it was not 

 going to be treated that way, and would 

 persist in coming into the house at 

 night 



One night I thought I had succeeded 

 in shutting it out, but next morning it 

 crept out from under the treadle of the 

 sewing machine and flew onto the table 

 to help himself to breakfast, The fol- 

 lowing night I felt sure that I had him 

 shut out, as I could not find him any 

 place. Next morning he was nowhere 

 to be found, and I concluded he was 

 gone, but to my surprise, about eleven 

 o'clock he crept out of a fold in a win- 

 dow curtain, where he had been con- 

 cealed all night and morning, and 

 perched on a chair back, with such a 

 sa\icy triumphant air, as though to say 

 "You might as well give up." I con- 

 cluded then to let him stay, and turned 

 the other one out again. They never 

 attempted to go away after that. 



One of them reminded me of a mis- 

 chievous stuborn child more than any 

 thing I ever saw in the bird family. It 

 Avould get into everything it could find 

 in a pan or dish uncovered, and was es- 

 pecially fond of getting into flour. 

 When punished for any of Its mischiev- 

 ous tricks it would get on a window 

 sill or on the roof and pout for hours at 

 a time. It could not be induced to 

 either walk or fly. If we would set it 

 on its feet it would fall over as though 

 perfectly helpless. I went into the kit- 

 chen one day to find that "brownie" 

 had been in a dish of boiled starch, and 

 a more comical picture of abject misery 

 would be hard to imagine, for the 

 starch had partially dried, plastering 



every feather to its body. Its inquisit- 

 iveness proved fatal at last and brought- 

 it to an untimely death in a water tank v 

 The other one was not so inquisitive,, 

 but his propensity for stealing and hid-, 

 ing small articles was equal to any 

 crow. Thimbles, buttons, matches, 

 carpet tacks and all such things were, 

 always missing when needed. Ha 

 would get into the work basket, and 

 everything small enough for him to lift 

 would have to be thrown out on the 

 floor. 



He took great delight in unwinding 

 spools of thread by catching the thread 

 in his bill, and either flyiAg or running 

 as far as he could, then going back to 

 the spool and taking a new start. If no 

 one happened to see him he would un- 

 wind a whole spool without stopping, 

 I had kept him four years, when a 

 neighbor's cat sprang in at the open 

 door one day and caught my little pet, 

 I got the bird but it was dead, and the 

 cat came to an end a few hours later. 

 Mrs. Lillie Conley Pleas. 

 Clinton, Ark. 



The Chewink in Orleans County. 

 By Neil F. Posson, Medina, N. Y. 



There is an old proA'erb to the effect 

 that " an unlucky copper always hap-, 

 pens around when it is not looked for,"' 

 — or something like that. Well' — that's, 

 a very true saying, as I know all the 

 readers of the "Oologist" will agree, 

 when they find who is the author of 

 this article. 



The Oologist has not heard from me 

 lately, — not on account of any lack of 

 interest on my part, but more on ac- 

 count of lack of time and opportunity^ 

 but mora chiefly (and if the truth were 

 told without reserve) the reason of my- 

 silence is purely because of my sym-. 

 pathy for the many readers of the little 

 journal. 



I presume I would'nt have "happened! 



