1880. ] Some Noteworthy Birds. 719 
it is barely possible that he may have been on a ship; for he has 
a gay cousin down south, the purple Gallinule (Porphyrio mar- 
tinica), who has been known to board a vessel two or three hun- 
dred miles out at sea.” We set to work to search the house for 
flies, the whole family going at it with zest. Here again the bird 
awoke our interest. With no flurry, but in a quiet and most sensi- 
ble manner, he would approach the person bringing a fly, and 
take it gently, in such a knowing way, from between the thumb 
and finger. I was much impressed with the belief that scent had 
much to do with the matter, as the insect was so held that it 
could not be seen. 
Again the conductor suggested his theory to explain the fact: 
“You may depend, Professor, he’s a tame bird, and is used to 
being fed from the hand.” We had a theory, too, but which we 
did not broach, to wit : that it was a specimen of extra good bird 
Sense, actuated by the keen demands of appetite. But it was so 
late in the fall that the flies were quite scarce, and we could not 
find one more. We then tendered him cake and bread crumbs, 
to which he took very gingerly, evidently not hankering after 
such rations. Some fresh water was set before him, of which he 
took a pretty good drink; after this, entirely of his own option 
and in a very quiet way, he went to his cage, entered, and squatted 
on its floor, and in its own dumb way seemed to say to its owner, 
“ Please, sir, now shut the door.” Bidding the boy who was with 
_him to carry the box, the conductor and his singular pet left. 
* 
Thus cooped up, with not a vestige of its natural environment, 
either as to food or water, in two days the poor bird died. I saw 
it not long after, a mounted specimen in the bird-stuffer’s shop. 
But now the red garters had faded into a foxy hue. So too had 
the rosy bill. As for that quaint frontlet of polished red coral, it 
had lost both color and form, for it had shriveled up into an 
unsightly rosiny scar. 
Such are a few memory notes of life features on “the human 
Side, of some of our rare New Jersey birds. 
