General Notes. 
181 
rarely leaving the window for more than a few minutes at a time. He 
sings almost constantly. I have seen him strike the window-panes as 
many as ten times in a minute, barely pausing on the trellis between 
each plunge long enough to utter with much energy his shrill little song. 
These proceedings lie will sometimes repeat for several minutes, then fly 
to the trees and return again a minute or two later, usually with a canker- 
worm in his beak obtained from the apple-trees. This he usually bruises 
on the trellis-bar and swallows at once before diving at the window, but 
not unfrequently makes several plunges at the window with the worm in 
his beak. * He strikes the window-pane with such force that the clicking 
of his bill and feet against the glass mav be heard to a considerable dis- 
tance. He usually strikes the large pane a foot or two from the top, 
fluttering upward to the top, when he returns to his perch. The upper 
panes receive the chief part of his attention, but he not unfrequently 
descends to the lower ones, which he follows upward in the same manner 
to the top of the lower sash. He takes little notice of people standing 
quietly before the window, and will often strike the pane within six 
inches of the observer’s face. 
If the upper sash be lowered a few inches he will often, after flying 
against the glass, perch on the top of the open window, peer into the room, 
utter his song, hop to the trellis, and immediately repeat the operation. I 
once drew the upper sash half-way down, so as to give him free access to 
the room. At first he would strike the glass as usual, and then perch on 
the sash. I left the room for an hour, and on returning found him a 
prisoner between the sashes, he having evidently in the mean time entered 
the room, and in trying to make his exit had fluttered down between the 
sashes, where he had obviously been struggling for some minutes. I freed 
him, and presumed that this experience would serve to cure him of his 
strange infatuation for the window. This was on the evening of the first 
day, but he returned early the next morning to the window, flying against 
it with unabated persistency. This has continued for three days, and 
the window seems to have lost none of its charm for him. 
In other respects he seems a perfectly sane bird ; he has a mate and a 
nest in one of the neighboring apple-trees, and when it is approached he 
leaves the window and flies about the intruder with manifestations of ex- 
treme solicitude. He is also quite vigilant in driving away other small 
birds that venture too near his home. Whether he mistakes his own 
reflection in the window for a rival, or what the charm is, is not obvious, 
as his behavior in all other respects is apparently entirely natural. As al- 
ready stated, he almost invariably strikes the window-pane at a point 
either considerably above or below his perch on the trellis, so that evi- 
dently he does not aim at his own reflection in the window. — J. A. 
Allen, Cambridge, Mass. 
P. S. — His visits to the window became less frequent on the fourth day, 
but were continued with considerable frequency for about ten or twelve 
