134 The Wilson Bulletin — No. 84. 



ing". struggling", bit of bird. At 12 m. he would perch on m)'" 

 arm, or the edge of the basket, as we walked through the 

 woods, snap at a mosquito, take a bit of strawberry with the 

 tip of his beak, but he refused to open his beak to be fed. I 

 placed him on the sill of a screened window ; on a rug" in the 

 middle of the floor were water, grasshoppers, wild fruits^ 

 earthworms, and ants' eggs. I attempted to feed him bits- 

 of these with the scissors. He would have none of them. 

 He did nothing but chirp. I was obliged to leave him until 

 4:30 a. m. As soon as I came in I sat on the ■"^'^t, and took 

 up the scissors to prepare some food. When the ■ .rush heard 

 the scissors click, he flew from the ;:, -idow to tne floor, and 

 opened his beak for food. He ate two e^rth worms, cut up. 

 After this, he perched on my knee and preened his feathers. 

 He continued, in the future, to take his food with delight. 



The third day of his visit with me, the Thrush flew from 

 the window to my note book and nibbled at my pen. I 

 smoothed his feathers with one finger. He perched on my 

 shoulder and snuggled against my throat. 



The fifth day after he came to me, I was again writing. 

 The little Thrush flew from the window to my note book, 

 backed across the page until his tail feathers touched my hand. 

 I smoothed his head and back. He turned his breast to have 

 that caressed likewise. I thought that, perhaps, it was all an 

 accident. Twice, I returned him to the window sill, and the 

 second and third time, he returned in like manner, and pre- 

 sented first his back and head, then his breast to be caressed. 



The same day he picked up ant eggs from the floor, also an 

 ant, and showed an automatic tendency to pick up everything. 

 The little Thrush was very funny when he picked up an ants' 

 egg or an insect. He opened his mandibiles far too wide, 

 twisted them awry while he examined the morsel first with 

 one eye, then with the other. All this time, he kept up an 

 excited twitter. Later, he picked up thirty ants' eggs from 

 the floor at one meal. On another occasion, he flew into my 

 basket when T returned from the pasture, selected a grass- 



