AT LINDEN BEND. 7 



the tide was out, hoping to recover them. As I ap- 

 proached I saw an oven-bird fluttering on the very edge 

 of the water. Its efforts to escape became more violent 

 as I drew near, and it was very evident that the bird was 

 a prisoner. Reaching the spot, a curious spectacle pre- 

 sented itself. A large shiner had evidently swallowed 

 one of the trout-flies as they sunk. How far the fish 

 wandered after this I could not tell, but by strange good 

 luck it had finally returned to the place where the hooks 

 had fallen, and caused several of them to become firmly 

 fixed in a slightly projecting tree-root. One hook was 

 yet free, and this the oven-bird had mistaken for an in- 

 sect, and seizing it, was itself securely held. The advanc- 

 ing tide would have caused a double tragedy, and I was 

 glad to prevent the certain drowning of the poor bird. 

 Releasing it, I hoped to be successful in retaining it as a 

 cage-bird, but it proved impracticable. It chirped com- 

 plainingly all that day and through the night, and died 

 at sunrise on the following morning. 



Perhaps I am venturing on the dangerous ground of 

 generalizations, but I believe it is true that warblers 

 cannot be tamed, as can the majority of finches and 

 thrushes. I have tried, time and again, to rear summer 

 warblers, redstarts, and others of the family, but never 

 have been successful. They need the active life of the 

 woods as much as an enormous supply of living insects. 

 Those that I attempted to rear were sufficiently well 

 fed, but the curtailment of their liberty became at 

 once depressing after they were fully fledged, and death 

 resulted from violently beating against the wires of the 

 cage in their efforts to acquire freedom. 



