Olenrral 0jxM, 



Odd Behavior of a Robin and a Yellow Waebler. — News- 

 paper ornithology is generally worthy of little attention, but an artiole 

 entitled " A Robin's, Persistency," published in the " Daily Times " of 

 Watertown, N. Y., in the issue of May 24 of this year, comes to me with 

 private indorsements of such a thoroughly trustworthy character, and the 

 incident related is so strange, that it seems worth while to give the 



matter a record in the Bulletin as a contribution to bird psychology. " We 

 often hear," says the writer, " of one-idea people, and the sensations they 

 produce. A one-idea bird, however, is something of a novelty. One of 

 the windows of a house in Clinton Street is at present haunted by such 

 a bird in the shape of a Robin. On the morning of May 21st it made 

 its dehui from the window-sill. From the first this has been its mode 

 of procedure. It alights on the window-ledge, taps vigorously on the 

 pane, then flies up and down very rapidly about three or four times. Then 

 it pauses a moment, steps over to the next pane, and repeats the operation. 

 It has never been observed to tap or fly upon the third pane. After tap- 

 ping or flapping industriously for half an hour or so, it descends to the 

 ground or garden near by, makes a short repast of a bug or worm, returns 

 again to the window-ledge and goes through with the sajne process. It 

 begins its operations early in the morning, and continues until the shadows 

 of evening begin to fall. Nothing so far seems to have seriously inter- 

 rupted its movements. It flies away when the white shade is drawn 

 down, but returns again, walks back and forward across the ledge, and 

 peers in at the narrow, uncovered space below the bottom of the shade. 

 It never taps or flutters agninst the window when the shaile is drawn. It 

 simply looks about, flies away, and returns again, until it finds the shade 

 raised. It then repeats its beatings and fluttering as before. If, however, 

 the outside blinds are closed, it appears quite frantic. It flies at them, and 

 if it can gain a foothold anywhere, it thrusts its beak between the shutters 

 and pecks violently at the window until tired out, then it retires and waits 

 until they are opened again. It does not seem to be especially shy 

 or tame. It flies off at the too near approach of a person, cat, or lawn- 

 raower. It returns again as soon as they remove a short distance away. 

 Thus has it performed for three days, and shows no signs of giving up. 



" Its curious persistency has attracted much attention, and called forth 

 various remarks. One laughingly says, it must be an evil spirit in bird 

 form. Others are inclined to regard it as an 'ominous bird.' One man, 

 after watching it for some time, remarked that it saw its shadow in the 

 window and mistook it for a lost mate. This seems probable, for on in- 

 vestigation it was found that the window, being relieved by a dark back- 

 ground, reflected images almost as distinctly as a mirror. It was further 

 observed that the wall of the ojjposite house, with its abundance of vivid 

 green foliage, was remarkably well defined, making a bright reflected 

 picture, especially in the space covered by the two panes of glass to which 

 the bird seemed to limit its attentions. Besides, it seemed entirely alone, 

 and the supposition is, that, in searching for its mate, which may have dis- 

 appeared ia some mysterious way, it happened to see its own solitary 

 image in the glass, and straightway imagined it had found its lost one, and 

 is earnestly endeavoring to woo it back again. The present appear- 

 ances are that it has gone quite daft with sorrow, and will exhaust itself 

 with its wild beatings and flutterings." 



