INTELLIGENCE IN BIRDS. 123 
seen circling over the place, as if loth to leave the old 
homestead. 
A wood thrush returned to the same grove several 
summers; I knew him from other thrushes by some 
long peculiar trills between the high and the low parts 
of the song. These were sweeter and softer and fuller 
of pure melody than I have ever heard in any other 
bird. A thousand incidents may be given to illustrate 
this local attachment and its results, but one more on the 
present occasion must suffice. On North Street, in an 
old apple tree in Mr. Gowans’ yard, a pair of blue-birds 
made a nest in the cavity of a decayed limb. A high 
wind broke off the limb and the little birds, just hatched, 
fell to the ground. A young girl of the family picked 
up the fledglings and placed them in-an extemporized 
nest in a basket, which she hung in the piazza near by. 
Soon the old birds found their young, and fed and 
hovered them in their nest until they were able to take 
care of themselves: even after they flew away they 
came back and remained in the nest several nights. 
Both the old and young birds were on good terms with 
the members of the family, and did not take their flight 
for the south until late in the summer. Early last 
spring, during the first sunny days of March, the male 
bird made his appearance on the premises and came into 
the kitchen for crumbs; he remained nearly a week and 
disappeared again, but only for a few days, when he 
returned with his mate to stay. They peered about the 
old apple tree, and searched for the basket for a nesting 
place, but finally observing a cavity high up in the 
