on the Mind 0/ a Bird.



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catching the Mocking-bird is a benevolent one, always becomes

terribly angry and scolds me in his harsh natural cry until the

patient has been restored to its cage. He becomes equally angry

if my exceedingly wild hybrid Blackbird rattles about when I am

changing its food.


With regard to the magnanimity of this bird I am a little

more doubtful ; but it is a significant fact that although ex¬

tremely fond of dining upon small birds which have died through

egg-binding or have been killed by others ; when, on more than

one occasion, House Sparrows have found their way into my

conservatory and have flown into his cage, he has not made the

least attempt to molest them, but has remained on a top perch

until they have found their way out again : nevertheless I think

it possible that if a living sparrow were held in the hand and

offered to him he would be unable to resist seizing it as he would

a dead one.


All birds with any intelligence are extremely jealous of

attentions paid to their neighbours ; and if one pretends to ignore

them will do their utmost, by song, speech, or cries, to direct

attention to themselves; my Jay will even pick up stones and

throw them from one of his perches through the wire, or he will

drop to the floor of the cage, come to the front and repeatedly

call “Jimmy!” until he is taken notice of.


Fear of cats is instinctive in many birds, and the asso¬

ciation of certain sounds with the presence of a cat is sometimes

so: thus, although my Jay was hand-reared from the nest and

had never seen a cat until he came into my possession ; yet the

first time he caught sight of one on the aviary outside my

conservatory, he uttered his harsh alarm-cry, raised his crest and

flew backwards and forwards between his perches in the greatest

terror. After a short time he learned to imitate the miau of a

cat in pain, to perfection ; and now, if after uttering his alarm-

note, he still sees the beast on the aviary he growls like cats

fighting.


The late Mr. Abrahams once possessed a Spotted Bower-

bird, eventually purchased by the Zoological Society, which

when asked “ Where’s the cat ?” or if one called “ Puss, Puss ! ”

immediately began to mew; this bird therefore also associated

the idea of the beast with its cry.



