OUT OF DOORS WITH NATURE. 
381 
ferred Indian corn meal and hempseed. It appeared fonder 
of insects than birds of that genus are supposed to be, and 
ate grasshoppers and crickets with peculiar relish. It would 
at times sit for hours watching the flies as they passed about 
it, and snatched at, and often secured such wasps as now 
and then, approached the pieces of fruit thrown into the cage. 
Yerv often, of fine moonshinv nights, it would tune its pipe, 
and sing sweetly, but not loudly, remaining quietly perched 
and in the same position. Whilst singing during the day, it 
was in the habit of opening its wings and gently raising 
them, somewhat in the manner of the Mocking Bird. I 
found it very difficult to preserve this bird during winter, 
and was obliged for that purpose to place it in a room heated 
by a stove to summer temperature. It was a lively and very 
gentle companion of my study for nearly three years ; it died 
of cold the third winter. It frequently escaped from the 
cage, but never exhibited the least desire to leave me, for it 
invariably returned to some portion of the house at the ap- 
proach of night. Its song continued about six weeks during 
summer, and about two in the autumn ; at all other times it 
simply uttered a faint cluck, and seemed to possess many of 
the ordinary habits of the Blue Grosbeak.' " 
This bird frequents the deep forests of the South, and sel- 
dom gets farther north than Kentucky. It is very fond of 
alder-berries, upon a bunch of which my wife has placed her 
bird. 
What a fine example of sound logic we have, by the way, 
in the incident mentioned above, of the Grosbeak cutting off 
its wounded toe with its own sharp beak. Could any learned 
Professor of Surgery, scalpel in hand, have managed his 
own case better. 
Here is another anecdote to the same point, which was 
related to Mr. Wilson concerning the Brown Thrush. Wil- 
son says: 
"Concerning the sagacity and reasoning facult}^ of this 
bird, my venerable friend, Mr. Bartram, writes me as follows: 
