HOW TO HAVE 
 BIRD NEIGHBOR 
 
 S • LOUISE PATTESON 
 
 D • C • HEATH St COMPANY 
 
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 ^tate (IfaUcgE df Agriculture 
 
 At flfornEll Mninerattjj 
 atljata. 5J. ^. 
 
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Cornell University Library 
 6.5.P3 
 
 How to have bird neighbors, 
 
 3 1924 000 160 170 
 
The original of tiiis book is in 
 tine Cornell University Library. 
 
 There are no known copyright restrictions in 
 the United States on the use of the text. 
 
 http://www.archive.org/details/cu31924000160170 
 
STRINGS AND COTTON AND CHICKEN FEATHERS FOR THE 
 
 birds' nestings {See page 56) 
 
HOW TO HAVE BIRD 
 NEIGHBORS 
 
 BY 
 
 S. LOUISE PATTESON 
 
 AUTHOR OF " PUSSY MEOW, THE AUTOEIOGEAPHY OF A CAT ' 
 AND " KITTY-KAT KIMMIE, A CAt's TALe" 
 
 PHOTOGRAPHS BY THE AUTHOR 
 
 COVER BY HELEN BABBITT AND 
 ETHEL BLOSSOM 
 
 D. C. HEATH AND COMPANY 
 
 BOSTON NEW YORK CHICAGO 
 
COPYRIGHT, I917, BV 
 S. LOUISE PATTESON 
 
DEDICATED TO 
 
 BOYS AND GIRLS 
 
FOREWORD 
 
 This narrative of neighborship with birds is 
 suggestive rather than exhaustive. It aims not so 
 much to inform the reader, as to instill in him the 
 desire to learn from the outdoors itself, to know 
 at first hand about the charms and the benefac- 
 tions of birdlife. The observing reader will supply 
 what has been left unsaid, and so experience the 
 zest of initiative, the joy of discovery, in our 
 mysterious and manifold bird-world. 
 
 Waldheim, 
 
 East Cle^t^land, Ohio, 
 
 October, 1917. 
 
 S. L. P. 
 
 ./" 
 
 SUET AND DOUGHNUTb FOE DOWM', CORN FOR THE 
 CARDINAL, CEREAL FOR THE SONG SPARROW 
 
CONTENTS 
 
 PAGE 
 
 List of Illustrations vii 
 
 I. My First Bird Neighbors 1 
 
 II. New Adventures in Birdland 11 
 
 III. Real Troubles in Birdland 21 
 
 IV. The Bluebirds' Bungalow 28 
 
 V. The Wrens' Apartment House .... 36 
 
 VI. The Boy 44 
 
 VII. The Chimney Swifts 62 
 
 VIII. Birds Not of a Feather 68 
 
 IX. The Martins' Aircastle 78 
 
 X. More about the Boy 92 
 
 XI. The Cardinals 102 
 
 XII. My Bird Family 110 
 
 GL0SS.A.RY 123 
 
 Directions for M.aking Bird Houses. ..... 127 
 
 Index 130 
 
 GOLDFINCH FEEDING BABIES 
 
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS 
 
 Strings and cotton and chicken 
 feathers for the birds' 
 
 nestings Fronlis 
 
 Suet and doughnuts for downy, page 
 corn for the cardinal, 
 cereal for the song sparrow v 
 Goldfinch feeding babies ... vi 
 "Oh, where is Mother? " . . . viii 
 The basin on the porch railing 1 
 They were making that can 
 
 into a bird home .... 4 
 
 The baby robins 9 
 
 One winter day a pigeon came 
 
 in at an open window . . 10 
 Vacant lots attract birds 11 
 
 The winter birds like peanuts 
 
 and suet 13 
 
 When I did not have peanuts 
 I gave the nuthatch dough- 
 nuts 14 
 
 The dear happy chickadee . . 17 
 The selfish nuthatch .... 20 
 Cats belong on their own 
 
 premises 21 
 
 The basin was Bunny's looking 
 
 glass 22 
 
 The genial gray squirrel ... 27 
 
 The return of the bluebird . . 28 
 
 Sometimes she was just gliding 
 
 through the entrance as he 
 
 alighted on the housetop 
 
 with a choice morsel for 
 
 her 31 
 
 Bluebird babies to feed and 
 
 care for 33 
 
 The bluebirds moved into the page 
 pretty double house ... 34 
 
 Rented for the summer ... 36 
 
 The small Avren house in the 
 
 pear tree 39 
 
 A baby WTen on the window sill 43 
 
 Bluebirds are great helpers in a 
 
 garden 44 
 
 Baby flicker peeps at the out- 
 side world 49 
 
 Mrs. Wood Thrush on her nest 51 
 
 A killdeer's nest in a potato 
 
 field 53 
 
 The bluebirds in their primi- 
 tive home 55 
 
 Every little while a goldfinch 
 came to the "store" tree 
 and got some string ... 57 
 
 The chimney swifts' temporary 
 
 home 60 
 
 The flicker is also called golden- 
 winged woodpecker ... 61 
 
 Chimney swifts' nest .... 62 
 
 One of these S"R"ift babies was 
 put to rest in the nest, 
 but he did not stay there 
 long 63 
 
 A robin's nest 68 
 
 Near the nest tree was a big 
 stone which the redheaded 
 w'oodpecker used as a 
 perch 74 
 
 Each little goldfinch called as 
 
 loud as he could .... 76 
 
 A young goldfinch alighted on 
 
 the clothes line 77 
 
Vlll 
 
 LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS 
 
 This martin scout brouglit a 
 
 lady with him 78 
 
 The martins" aircastle .... 81 
 The home-coming of the mar- 
 tins 87 
 
 A great gathering in mid-air . 91 
 A batli for birds and a lunch 
 
 beside it 92 
 
 The crested flycatcher and a 
 
 Bcrlepseh house .... 95 
 Kitty watching for mice ... 98 
 The new food house was visited 
 
 by bluejays 100 
 
 A feedery much liked by downy 101 
 A tree trimmed with peanuts 
 
 for the birds 102 
 
 PAGE 
 
 The cardinal's favorite feedery 105 
 Always Mr. Cardinal came 
 first and ate a while; then 
 she would follow .... 109 
 
 Song sparrow 110 
 
 Mother Oriole in the bath . . 113 
 So made that they can be 
 easily opened after use and 
 
 cleaned 116 
 
 Food house, made out of Avaste 
 
 materials 118 
 
 Maybe they will fly to us, 
 
 instead of awaj- from us . 121 
 The birdies' policeman . . . 122 
 The finished martin house . . 128 
 Raising the martin house . . 128 
 
 on, WHERE IS MOTHERi-" 
 
HOW TO HAVE BIRD NEIGHBORS 
 
HOW TO HAVE BIRD NEIGHBORS 
 
 MY FIRST BIRD ^teigHBORS 
 
 The birds that live in my yard are the lovehest 
 of all my neighbors. During the springtime and 
 summer they awaken me every morning with their 
 sweet songs. Then all the day long their pretty 
 ways make me wish I had nothing to do but to 
 watch them. 
 
 Now I can imagine someone saying, "If I had 
 
 a yard, I, too, would try to have bird neighbors." 
 
 Listen! Before I had a yard I had bird neighbors 
 
 on my porch. 
 
 1 
 
2 HOW TO HAVE BIRD NEIGHBORS 
 
 How did I get them? 
 
 In summer, a basin of water on the porch railing, 
 and in winter, the basin filled with table scraps — this 
 is what did it. On the porch of that apartment 
 house I learned how to neighbor with birds. 
 
 A kind ladj' in the next house tied suet and strings 
 of peanuts to one of her trees. During winter and 
 spring the woodpeckers enjoyed the treat, while 
 we enjoyed the woodpeckers! Pigeons and bluejays 
 came too, and, yes, English sparrows, those birds 
 that are nowhere welcome. But they didn't have it 
 all their own way there, as they do where nothing is 
 done to attract other birds. 
 
 One winter day a beautiful blue and white pigeon 
 with rose-colored neck came in at an open window. 
 The streets were covered with snow. It was hard 
 for birds to find anything to eat. This pigeon ate 
 some rolled oats that I scattered before it, drank 
 some water, and walked into a corner. After a nap 
 it ate some more; then took another nap. When 
 it awoke again I set it in a waste-paper basket by the 
 open window, so it could go away when it pleased. 
 It took several more helpings of oats. Toward eve- 
 ning it flew away. 
 
 Among the pigeons that used to come often to my 
 porch was my little guest of a day. As the pigeons 
 ate they always cooed. Perhaps they were remark- 
 ing how good it tasted. 
 
 In early spring the robins came. They liked little 
 
MY FIRST BIRD NEIGHBORS 3 
 
 scraps of meat. Chopped raw beef was to them the 
 greatest treat. At the basin they not only drank, 
 but spread their wings over it and splashed the water 
 all around, trying to bathe in that shallow dish. It 
 was only a big flower-pot saucer. While the weather 
 was still cold, they began to sing mornings before 
 daylight. It was like listening to Christmas carols 
 to hear them. 
 
 On mild and thawing days they could be seen hop- 
 ping over my neighbor's lawn. Most cunningly they 
 would turn their heads to one side, then to the other. 
 It is said that they do this so they can hear the worms 
 and insects move about in the ground. I believe it; 
 for often I have seen a robin, after listening intently 
 at some spot, stop to scratch and dig, then pull out 
 a worm. 
 
 The robins often pulled and jerked at the morning- 
 glory vines on our porch. ^Vhenever they got one 
 loose they would gather it up in loops with the bill 
 and carry it away. They also tore strings off our mop 
 and flew away with them. 
 
 On a pillar of our porch there hung a can in which 
 we sometimes put flowers. One rainy April day a 
 little wren alighted on the edge of that can and 
 looked in. The can was empty at the time, so the 
 bird went inside, but came out again quickly and 
 flew away. 
 
 Pretty soon two wrens came, and both went inside. 
 Then for several days they made frequent visits to 
 
HOW TO HAVE BIRD NEIGHBORS 
 
 Ihat can, and there was almost constant trilling of 
 the men-iest bubbling songs. Sometimes there was 
 just a chatter back and forth, as if they were talk- 
 ing or arguing. These wrens were so much together 
 that I concluded they were mates. 
 
 They fetched little twigs of all kinds and dropped 
 them into that can. They also fetched bits of cloth 
 and chicken feathers, as if they actually intended to 
 make a feather bed. Mr. Wren could carry things 
 in his bill and sing at the same time. Once in a while, 
 when he brought something, Mrs. Wren chattered 
 
 louder than usual. 
 It sounded as 
 though she wasn't 
 pleased with what 
 he had brought. 
 Sometimes she 
 wouldn't even let 
 him in, and, after 
 carrying his burden 
 around for a while, 
 he would drop it. 
 But he sang on just 
 as happily, and en- 
 tertained her while 
 she did most of the 
 work. This went 
 
 THEY WERK MAKING THAT CAN °'^ ^^^ Several days. 
 INTO A BIRD HOME At last they fetched 
 
MY FIRST BIRD NEIGHBORS 5 
 
 grasses, too. It was a joy to see how happy they were 
 at their work. They were making that can into a 
 bird home. 
 
 When the Httle home was finished, Mrs. Wren 
 loved it so well that for about two weeks she stayed 
 in it nearly all the time. Mr. Wren brought her many 
 kinds of bugs and worms to eat, and sang to her all 
 the day long. 
 
 Soon there were some baby wrens in that little 
 home. Again Father and Mother Wren worked hard 
 from daylight until dark, fetching worms and bugs 
 for their babies to eat. Whenever one came home 
 with a bill full, he glided right in among those thorny 
 twigs. How they could do it without getting pricked 
 was a wonder! 
 
 One day all this was changed. Instead of going 
 into their little home with provisions, both Father and 
 Mother Wren stayed out on the edge, and held a 
 worm or a bug where the little ones could see it. 
 After a while, one of the baby birds came up a little 
 way to receive a helping of the food. But the big 
 outdoors must have frightened him; for he ducked 
 right down again. The next one that came out had 
 more courage, or else he was more hungry. He re- 
 ceived a helping; then gazed about him a little. Evi- 
 dently the world looked pleasant to him. He shook 
 his feathers, flapped his wings, and didn't go back 
 into the little home at all. This was just what Father 
 and Mother wanted him to do, and each gave him a 
 
6 HOW TO HAVE BIRD NEIGHBORS 
 
 whole worm, although the birdies inside were calling 
 for some too. 
 
 The day was fine. It was still early. The babies 
 would have all day in which to get used to the out- 
 doors if they would come out now. To-morrow it 
 might rain, and the next day, and the next. The 
 babies were quite old enough to live outside of that 
 stuffy can. They must come out to-day, — so Father 
 and Mother Wren had decided. 
 
 After the little ventin-er had recei^'cd several help- 
 ings, another birdling came scrambling up. He got 
 all of the next helping. jNIother Wren was among 
 the porch vines, chirping. Every little while she 
 flew to the little ones, fluttered her wings before 
 them, and then flew l)ack to the vines. In this way 
 she was coaxing them to follow her. 
 
 Before Number Three came out, the mother had 
 Numbers One and Two safely among the vines. 
 Number Four came close behind Number Three. 
 It wasn't very pleasant to stay down in the can all 
 alone. The mother kept up her coaxing until she 
 managed to get them all in nice, shady places. 
 
 It was now about nine o'clock. The rest of the 
 day was spent quietly among the ^'ines. After they 
 had rested a little from the excitement of their first 
 flight. Mother tried to keep them moving from vine 
 to vine. One was more clever than the others. He 
 learned everything quickly. 
 
 The Wren family Yivei] in the vines all the next 
 
MY FIRST BIRD NEIGHBORS 7 
 
 day. On the third day Mother Wren began to coax 
 them farther away. Back and forth she flew be- 
 tween the porch and my neighbor's tree, and around 
 in circles, to show the babies how to do it. Father 
 Wren coaxed them on with a white worm in his bill. 
 He was not singing much now, because these growing 
 birds needed more and more food. Also, father- 
 wisdom bade him keep quiet lest his babies be dis- 
 covered and come to harm. 
 
 The cleverest of the four was also the biggest; so 
 it was easy to tell him from the rest. Again, he was 
 always the first to venture. But as he neared the 
 tree, when he had almost reached his goal, he began 
 to drop; and he fell to the ground. Fearing some 
 harm might come to him, I went down quickly with 
 the long-handled dust mop. It was fuzzy, and soft 
 for him to rest on. With it I hoisted him to a low 
 branch. Mother and Father Wren scolded, but 
 went to the young bird as soon as my back was 
 turned. Birds do not like to have people meddle 
 with their affairs; but sometimes when they are in 
 trouble we can help them. 
 
 Maybe this little mishap showed Mother Wren that 
 her babies were not yet strong enough to fly so far. 
 Anyway, she waited until the next day before she 
 urged the others to go. Even then she was not quite 
 decided. At dinner time the three were still on the 
 porch. They had reached the highest rung of the 
 trellis. In the afternoon, when I returned from 
 
8 HOW TO HAVE BIRD NEIGHBORS 
 
 school, they were gone. Father Wren was again 
 singing his cheery songs. He had kept pretty quiet 
 while the little ones were learning to fly. Why? Be- 
 cause he did not want anyone to find out where they 
 were. 
 
 INIy robins, meanwhile, had made themselves a 
 nest on a high window sill at the far end of the porch; 
 but not until the wrens began nesting did I discover 
 it. Already there were three blue eggs in it. The 
 robins seemed so distressed at being found out that 
 we kept away from that end of the porch until they 
 got well used to us. The wrens didn't fear us at all. 
 They came to their nest no matter how many people 
 were on the porch. 
 
 I had now learned what the wrens and the robins 
 like for their nestings; so I fastened strings, shreds 
 of cloth, some cotton, and small chicken feathers to 
 the low branches of my neighbor's trees, and also on 
 my porch. I had read somewhere that some birds will 
 pull feathers out of their own bodies, if they can find 
 none elsewhere, with which to line their nests. After 
 the wrens had cleaned out the can, they helped 
 themselves to cotton and feathers, and made ready for 
 their second nesting. 
 
 Father and INIother Rol)in were such devoted 
 parents, it seemed as if they couldn't do enough. 
 Their babies always craned their necks and opened 
 their bills wide as soon as they heard anyone near. 
 As they grew older they also chattered and flaj^ped 
 
MY FIRST BIRD NEIGHBORS 
 
 THE BABY ROBINS 
 
 their wings. Sometimes they fluttered over the sides 
 of tlie nest so far that I feared they would fall off 
 the high window sill. 
 
 One morning the robins' nest was empty, and the 
 young were over on my neighbor's lawn. For con- 
 venience I will call this neighbor Mrs. Daily. She 
 lived on our right. The neighbor to our left was 
 Mrs. Cotton. : 
 
 A birds' bath at Mrs. Daily's and the tree with 
 nesting materials on it showed the birds that they 
 were welcome there. So the parents coaxed their 
 young in that direction. 
 
 Mrs. Cotton also tried to attract birds. But her 
 basin sometimes went dry for days. Also, she had a 
 big, beautiful cat that was usually somewhere in the 
 
10 
 
 HOW TO HAVE BIRD NEIGHBORS 
 
 yard. It was not so inviting there, according to 
 birds' ways of thinking, nor so safe for their young, 
 as over at Mrs. Daily's, where the cat was kept in. 
 
 I kept our kitty locked up niglit and day, and 
 asked my neighbors to keep their cats in, too, until 
 these young robins could fly up into trees. At first 
 they could only fly sideways. It is more than just a 
 kind act to save young robins from harm: it is sav- 
 ing birds who will be useful and pleasing all their lives, 
 and who will spread happiness wherever they go. 
 
 When I saw how my birds left me as soon as their 
 young could fly, I began to wish that I, too, had a 
 yard and trees, like my neighbors. I longed to have 
 more birds, and birds of different kinds. 
 
 ONE WINTER DAY A PIGEON CAME IN AT AN OPEN' 
 WINDOW 
 
VACANT LOTS 
 ATTRACT BIRDS 
 
 II 
 
 NEW ADVENTURES IN BIRDLAND 
 
 I GOT my wish: Our present home is a whole 
 house, with a yard. We have big trees and little 
 ones, and on one side there is a grape arbor. All 
 around us are vacant lots, where thornapple bushes, 
 dogwood trees, and tall sunflowers grow. These 
 attract birds. Behind the vacant lots there is a 
 ravine with wild cherry trees, elder bushes, wild 
 grape tangles, and other attractions for birds. 
 
 The wrens and the robins had gone to their winter 
 homes when we moved, and the woodpeckers had 
 come. I had bought a bird guide with colored 
 pictures, and a pair of field glasses which brought 
 those black and white birds very near to me. Some 
 had red on the back of the head. They were the 
 
 11 
 
12 HOW TO HAVE BIRD NEIGHBORS 
 
 downy woodpeckers. A bird very much like the 
 downy, but larger, was the hairy woodpecker. And 
 there were birds just like the downy and hairy but 
 without the red patch on the head. They were the 
 mates of the downy and the hairy. 
 
 Whenever I heard a brisk "chsip," I could see 
 downy approach in graceful, curving flight toAvard 
 some tree. Usually he perched near the bottom and 
 climbed up, pecking and scratching as he went. 
 Sometimes he alighted higher up and came down 
 cat-fashion, but always busily pecking at the bark. 
 The hairy did the same. This must be why these 
 birds are called woodpeckers. 
 
 Knowing how well the winter birds like peanuts 
 and suet, I fastened strings of peanuts across a bird 
 table that I had made, and in the tray below I 
 kept suet. I also scattered chickfeed on the ground 
 beside a tree, and added to it buckwheat and sun- 
 flower seeds. But I soon learned better than to put 
 anything for birds near a tree behind which a cat 
 could hide! 
 
 It was great fun to watch the different birds select 
 their favorite food. The woodpeckers liked the suet 
 so well that, while it was on hand, thej^ hardly ever 
 touched the peanuts. Downy also liked the chick- 
 feed; but he did not like to step down to the ground. 
 In trying to get it, he would back down the tree until 
 his tail touched the ground. Then, without leaving 
 the tree and while propped on his tail, he reached 
 
NEW ADVENTUKES IN BIRDLAND 
 
 13 
 
 THE WINTER BIRDS LIKE PEANUTS AND SUET 
 
 over to the right or left and picked up kernels. In 
 
 this way he could eat without stepping on the ground. 
 
 And downy had good eating manners. He never 
 
14 
 
 HOW TO HAVE BIRD NEIGHBORS 
 
 hurried, never fidgeted. Sometimes he stayed twenty 
 minutes at a meal and ate slowly and quietly, like 
 a well-bred person. 
 
 Another bird that came to my place in winter had 
 a light blue back and a white front. His wings and 
 
 WHEN I DID NOT HAVE PEANUTS I GAVE THE 
 NUTHATCH DOUGHNUTS 
 
 tail were dark blue, and so was the top of his head. 
 I always knew he was near when I heard a sound 
 like "gack" or "yack." He liked the peanuts 
 better than anj'thing else. With his sharp bill he 
 would punch a nut, then hold down the shell while 
 
NEW ADVENTURES IN BIRDLAND 15 
 
 he pulled out the kernel. Maybe this is why he is 
 called the nuthatch. Sometimes, when I did not 
 have peanuts, I gave him doughnuts. He liked them 
 just as well. He would nibble at a doughnut until 
 it dropped from the nail, then go to the ground and 
 forage there. He liked cheese also. 
 
 I soon found that somebody else, too, liked suet 
 and peanuts. This was the red squirrel, and when 
 he was on the table the birds would not come near. 
 However, it was birds I wanted and not squirrels, — 
 especially not the red squirrel, who is said to bother 
 birds in many ways. To keep him away I nailed 
 tin sheeting around the post of the bird table. 
 
 I am sorry to say that the nuthatch was not at 
 all polite to other birds. He always wanted all the 
 food himself, no matter how much there was on hand. 
 He would flit from one feeding place to another and 
 chase the other birds away. I stopped putting pea- 
 nuts on the table, so that he would have no excuse 
 to go there and the birds who liked the suet might 
 eat in peace. I put all the peanuts on the tree 
 farthest back in the vacant lot and made the selfish 
 nuthatch eat there by himself. 
 
 Another thing that \Ya.s not nice about the nut- 
 hatch was his way of eating. He was always in a 
 hurry. He would take the kernel out of a nut, 
 walk up the tree with it, and fly away. Then he 
 would come back quickly and do the same thing 
 again, as if afraid another bird might get something. 
 
16 HOW TO HAVE BIRD NEIGHBORS 
 
 Sometimes he kept this up for an hour or more. 
 Even after all the peanuts were moved to his tree, 
 he would bluster around at the other feeding places 
 and try to drive those peaceable birds away. 
 
 The dearest of all my winter birds were some that 
 came singing in all sorts of weather. I called them 
 my little minstrels. 
 
 "Chicaday, chicaday, chicaday-day-day-day," was 
 their song. Somebody has named them chickadees, 
 and the name just fits. If you should see a little 
 graj' bird with a black cap and bib, who comes sing- 
 ing that song, j'ou may know that you have seen a 
 chickadee. 
 
 The chickadees were not at all particular what 
 they ate. They sang just as cheerily when they had 
 only breadcrumbs as they did when they found suet 
 and peanuts and sunflower seeds. They never 
 wasted their food. If any fell to the ground they 
 picked it up. They were the politest of birds and, 
 like the downy and the hairy, they worked at the 
 trees most of the time. 
 
 These winter birds are some of nature's best 
 house-cleaners. They work all through the cold and 
 stormy season when the other birds are away in their 
 sunny winter homes. Should we not remember to 
 give them a treat once in a while, and so brighten 
 the cold days with good cheer? 
 
 From the very first, I heard many bird voices 
 coming from the ravine. So one morning I took 
 
NEW ADVENTURES IN BIRDLAND 
 
 17 
 
 a walk out that way. Scattered all along were tall 
 sunflowers, now gone to seed. Foraging on some 
 were the noisy bluejays, on others the dear happy 
 chickadees. The trees were bare, so that I could 
 see as well as hear the birds. Woodpeckers were 
 tapping, pecking, delving. All along I heard this 
 pleasing, friendly music, as if the birds were following 
 me. So pleasant was my walk that I did not realize 
 how far I was going until I was at the end of the 
 city, where the country begins. 
 
 THE DEAR HAPPY CHICKADEE 
 
 A good way off were some widely scattered houses. 
 On a tall pole near the first house was a very large 
 bird house. As I drew nearer, three small bird 
 houses came in sight. 
 
 I made up my mind to get acquainted with the 
 
18 HOW TO HAVE BIRD NEIGHBORS 
 
 people in that home. A pleasant lady opened the 
 door and invited me in. 
 
 "Who put up those bird houses.^" I asked, the 
 first thing. 
 
 "That's my boy," said the lady. "He just loves 
 to tinker with his tools." She pointed with pride 
 to a clock shelf which she said he had made for her 
 birthday. 
 
 "And he made that big bird house, too?" I asked. 
 
 "He made every one," answered the lady, "and 
 he is making more. He is learning it in the manual 
 training school." 
 
 I told her I wanted to make some bird houses, 
 but didn't know just how to go about it. 
 
 Then she led me into a tiny room off the kitchen. 
 There by Ihe window stood an old dry goods box 
 that had been fitted up as a work bench, with a vise 
 and a rack for small tools. Larger tools were hang- 
 ing on the wall. On some shelves were wooden 
 boxes and boards. On the work bench lay a bird 
 house. I picked it up and looked at it. 
 
 "He says that's to be for wrens," explained the 
 laily. From a chest she produced another bird 
 house which she said was for bluebirds. 
 
 "He m:ikes tliem out of these boxes that he gets 
 from our grocer," she added, "and I save the starch 
 boxes for him." 
 
 The lady had much to do, so I made readj' to go. 
 But she went on talking: 
 
NEW ADVENTURES IN BIRDLAND 19 
 
 "At first, I couldn't bear to give up tliis little 
 storeroom. But since I have seen how happy it 
 makes Laddie to have this little 'shop,' as he calls 
 it, I am glad I gave in to him. Would you believe 
 it: from the time he begins to work with these tools 
 until he lays them down again he whistles and sings 
 like a bird himself! I think anything that makes a 
 boy so contented must be good for him." 
 
 The lady then went about her work, telling me not 
 to hurry. So I stayed to take some measurements 
 of the bird houses. Both were made so that they 
 could be opened in front. 
 
 "He makes them that way so they can be easily 
 cleaned," explained the lady. 
 
 On the way home I stopped at our grocer's and 
 got some small wooden boxes. Two were yeast 
 foam boxes, and one was a cocoa box. I, too, had 
 learned in manual training school how to use simple 
 tools, so I bought also a saw, plane, shaving knife, 
 brace and set of bits, and a small vise. Then out 
 of an old sewing machine stand I made a work 
 bench, and a light corner of the basement became 
 my "shop." I made those yeast foam boxes into 
 wren houses, and out of the cocoa box I made a blue- 
 bird house. The boy's mother had told me that 
 his manual training teacher was a lady, and that 
 she was "just as good as a man," so I felt quite 
 proud of my new fancy work. 
 
 The house for bluebirds and one for wrens were put 
 
20 
 
 HOW TO HAVE BIRD NEIGHBORS 
 
 up in trees. The other wren house was mounted 
 on a post above the grape arbor. But it did not 
 staj' there long, for I soon found that a grape arbor 
 is no phice for a bird house. Can you guess why 
 not? 
 
 It was while waiting for the wrens and the blue- 
 birds to come that I had such delightful times with 
 the woodpeckers, the nuthatches and the chickadees. 
 
 THE SELFISH NUTHATCH 
 
CATS BELONG ON THEIR OWN PREMISES 
 
 III 
 
 REAL TROUBLES IN BIRDLAND 
 
 I SAID that birds were lovely neighbors. So are 
 some other animals. At my new home I soon be- 
 came acquainted with a wild rabbit. Two dogs 
 roamed around in the vacant lots and in the ravine 
 a great deal. Often when I heard them barking, 
 the next thing I saw would be Bunny, running as 
 fast as he could toward our place, with the dogs 
 
 21 
 
22 
 
 HOW TO HAVE BIRD NEIGHBORS 
 
 after him. Bunny could s'litle through under the 
 garden fence, and that was lucky for him. The 
 dogs were too big and couldn't. 
 
 I was glad when Bunny came to our place for safety. 
 He liked slices of apple so well that he would come 
 nearer and nearer to get them, until finally he ate 
 out of my hand. 
 
 One hot day while Bunny was in our yard, he saw 
 the birds' basin, and went there to drink. He had 
 
 THE BASIN WAS BUNNY S LOOKING-GLASS 
 
REAL TROUBLES IN BIRDLAND 23 
 
 been accustomed to drink at the brook in the ra- 
 vine, where the water always runs, if there is any. 
 But the brook was dried up at this time of year. 
 The clear, still water in the basin was a new thing 
 to Bunny. He took a long look at it. Seeing him- 
 self pictured in the water was another new thing to 
 him, and he looked again and again. Evidently he 
 thought himself quite handsome, for even after it 
 rained and the brook filled up again, he still kept 
 coming. The basin was his looking-glass. 
 
 I am sorry for what I have to tell about some other 
 animals. One day our neighbor's cat lay crouching 
 near the tree under which the chickfeed was scattered. 
 A downy woodpecker was just coming down the tree. 
 Kitty's eyes glared. Her teeth chattered. But evi- 
 dently the downy did not see her. I scolded Kitty 
 and drove her away. This disturbed the downy, and 
 he flew away too. But that was better than to let 
 him come down where Kitty could jump on him. 
 She could easily have done so while he was reaching 
 over to the ground for a kernel. 
 
 After this experience I covered up all the chickfeed 
 beside the tree, and scattered some in more ex- 
 posed places, away from any trees and from bushes. 
 I also laid suet on low branches of trees and tied it 
 on firmly, and poked some into small holes of old 
 trees, and under the bark. 
 
 Soon afterward I saw the same cat again. This 
 time she was on a branch, eating suet. That set 
 
24 HOW TO HAVE BIRD NEIGHBORS 
 
 me to thinking: "If the cat can get to the suet in 
 the tree, she will also be able to get to the bird 
 houses. Some day she might find some baby birds 
 in there, not yet able to fly." 
 
 I did not take away the suet which the birds 
 liked so well. I got some tin sheeting and tacked 
 it around the tree. The cat could not climb over 
 the smooth sheeting. 
 
 Imagine my surprise when I saw her up there at 
 the suet again! "How did she get there.''" I 
 wondered to myself. Day after day I watched Kittj^ 
 before I found her out. 
 
 One morning, who should go climbing up that 
 tree but a red scjuirrel.^ When he reached the tin, 
 he looked around and made a loud chatter. Seeing 
 no one, he took one big jump over the sheeting and 
 went to the suet. After tasting it, he wiped his 
 mouth on the bark as if he did not like it. Then he 
 went over to the bluebird house. The entrance to 
 this little house had been nicked by somebody with 
 sharp little teeth. Now I found out who that 
 somebody was. This squirrel was even now nib- 
 bling at the entrance, trying to make it still bigger. 
 At the wren house somebody had broken off the little 
 porch, which was probably the squirrel's doing also. 
 
 I wondered what I should do to keep this squirrel 
 from spoiling my bird houses. Some more tin sheet- 
 ing, I thought, would fix it so he could not jump 
 over. I put another sheet just above the first one. 
 
REAL TEOUBLES IN BIRDLAND 25 
 
 That made the tin protection thirty-six inches deep. 
 When the squirrel came the next time, he chmbed 
 as far as he could, then looked up at the tin. That 
 was too high a jump. He turned, jumped to the 
 ground, and scampered away. 
 
 The pilfering red squirrel is not to be confounded 
 with the genial gray squirrel of our parks, who loves 
 to take peanuts out of our hands. 
 
 I still wondered how Kitty had made her way to 
 the suet, with the tin around that tree. Surely she 
 could not jump over the tin! As a jumper the 
 squirrel can beat Kitty any time. One day I heard 
 a scratching noise. Kitty was sharpening her claws 
 on the bark of the next tree. Every little while she 
 climbed a few steps up that tree; then sharpened her 
 claws again. There was nothing in that tree that 
 she could harm, so I let her go on. She walked along 
 on one of the branches, and jumped across to a 
 branch on the other tree, the one that held the 
 bluebird house, and smelled around there. It was 
 early spring. There were no young birds in the 
 house yet; so I let her go on, just to see what she 
 would do. Some English sparrows had started to 
 nest in the little house. Kitty pulled out grasses 
 and feathers, and spoiled the nest. 
 
 Now just think how wise she was to plan that all 
 out so nicely! And all she gets for it is scolding! 
 Why should we blame Kitty for liking birds? We 
 like our chicken dinners. We praise Kitty when she 
 
26 HOW TO HA^'E BIRD NEIGHBORS 
 
 catches a mouse or a ral. Some people even entice 
 her to catch English sparrows. How can she know 
 it is good to clean out a mouse nest and naughty to 
 clean out a bird nest? 
 
 Two things can be done to lessen the loss of l)irds 
 by cats. First, to safeguard in every possible way 
 every bird house, feeding jjlace, and bath. Second, 
 to compel the owners of cats to keep them on their 
 own premises, and to lock them up nights. It is at 
 night, when there is no one to interfere, that cats do 
 the most damage to birds. 
 
 I knew that if Kitty could jump from that tree to 
 the next one, the scjvn'rrel could do it, too; so I put 
 double tin sheeting on that tree also. 
 
 But such a clever cat and . such a nimble squirrel 
 would also know how to climb the grape arbor, I 
 thought; so I took the wren house off the arbor. 
 This house also had been nil)bled and the entrance 
 made much larger. I concluded that the worst of 
 all places for a bird house is a grape arbor, a pergola, 
 or a garden arch. 
 
 A friend had sent me a beautiful wren house. It 
 was sha])ed like a small barrel, and had four rooms. 
 I called it the apartment house. Fortunately, it was 
 made of such hard wood (hat no squirrel could bite 
 through. I had this house put on a tin-sheathed 
 post on the north side of the house where it would be 
 in shade. 
 
 For the bluebirds I put up two new houses. The 
 
REAL TROUBLES IN BIRDLAND 27 
 
 one that had been up all winter was so smelly of 
 squirrels and English sparrows that I knew the dainty 
 bluebirds would not like it. The time was near 
 for the birds to return from their winter homes. I 
 wanted everything clean and safe for them. 
 
 THE GENIAL GRAY SQUIRREL 
 

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 THE RETURN OF THE BLUEBIRD 
 
 IV 
 THE BLUEBIRDS' BUNGALOW 
 
 I LOVE the springtime because it brings my birds 
 back from their winter homes. 
 
 One cold March day I saw something bkie flash 
 across the sky. 
 
 "Can that be the bluebird I have been waiting 
 for.^" I thought. 
 
 28 
 
THE BLUEBIRDS' BUNGALOW 29 
 
 It flew into a tree; then alighted on a clothesline 
 post. I could plainly see the blue on its back and 
 the red on its front. Yes, it was the bluebird. His 
 song was as beautiful as his plumage, but in a minor 
 tone: 
 
 "D(^ De- 
 
 ary! ary!" 
 
 Next he flew to the top of the wren house, tripped 
 along the roof, leaned over and looked at the little 
 porches. Then he went down on one of them and 
 looked into the room. That was as far as he could 
 go. The entrances to these apartments had been 
 made for the tiny wrens and not for bluebirds. 
 When he saw the bluebird house in the tree, he flew 
 to a branch just in front of it and looked at it a 
 while. Then he flew back to the wren house and tried 
 that again; he liked it so well, he couldn't bear to 
 give it up. 
 
 After a week or so another bird came, of much 
 paler hue, but with the reddish breast. The song of 
 my bluebird now became long and pleading: "Deary! 
 dear, dear, deary!" But it still remained subdued 
 and minor. Together he and his newly arrived com- 
 panion visited the bird houses, so I concluded that 
 they were mates. They could hardly make up their 
 minds which house to take, so pleased were they with 
 all of them. Mrs. Bluebird tried the wren house, 
 too. But when she saw she could not get inside she 
 did not go there any more. 
 
30 HOW TO HAVE BIRD NEIGHBORS 
 
 My prettiest bluebird house was on our hammock 
 post, weU shaded by our l)iggest tree. I had read 
 somewhere that ))luebirds hke to have one house for 
 spring and another for summer. So this house was 
 made with two rooms, one above the other. I 
 thought the bhiebirds would surely like this double 
 house better than the single one, for they went inside 
 it manj' times, and alwaj's stayed there long. 
 
 The other house, which was mounted on a young 
 maple, was not nearly so pretty. It was made out 
 of cigar boxes and I had forgotten to take off the 
 labels. After the bluebirds had visited it I did not 
 dare touch it because, if their houses are interfered 
 with, birds are liable to go away. Both the maple 
 and the hammock post were well protected with tin 
 sheeting. 
 
 One day Mrs. Bluebird fetched some grasses in 
 her bill. To my great joy she alighted on the perch 
 in front of the doul)le house. Twice she poised to 
 fly, but did not. At last she flew — and where do 
 you think she went? Why, to that ugly little house 
 with the labels on it! 
 
 While she was in the house, Mr. Bluebird alighted 
 on the i)orch, looked in, and sang a little song. Mrs. 
 Bluebird flew out past him and almost brushed him 
 off. Then he went inside, and just as Mrs. Bluebird 
 returned with some more grasses he came out with 
 a chip in his bill. Some chips had fallen inside when 
 T made the entrance, and he did not like that. The 
 
THE BLUEBIRDS' BUNGALOW 31 
 
 SOMETIMES SHE WAS JUST GLIDING THROUGH THE 
 ENTRANCE AS HE ALIGHTED ON THE HOUSETOP 
 WITH A CHOICE MORSEL FOR HER 
 
 little house must be clean, since Mrs. Bluebird was 
 going to make her nest in it. Sometimes he brought 
 a grass or two; she brought whole wads of grasses. 
 But he made up in attentions to her. Wherever she 
 might be working, he perched near by, on a fence 
 
32 HOW TO HAVE BIRD NEIGHBORS 
 
 post or a low branch, and kept his eyes on her. As 
 she went from place to place to find the right kind of 
 grasses, or to the little house to throw them in, he 
 always followed her. Sometimes she was just gliding 
 through the entrance with a load as he alighted on 
 the house top with a choice morsel for her to eat. 
 
 One day our neighbor's cat was hiding behind an 
 evergreen near where Mrs. Bluebird was hunting 
 grasses. Mr. Bluebird's bright eyes saw her just in 
 time. 
 
 "Dear-dear-dear!" he cried, quickly and jerkily. 
 
 Mrs. Bluebird knew that that meant, "Danger! 
 Fly quick!!" Up she flew, and awaj'. 
 
 The cat jumped high and almost caught her. 
 
 After that I chased the cat away every time I saw 
 her. There certainly should be a law to make people 
 keep their cats at home. 
 
 "When ]Mrs. Bluebird had her house all furnished 
 she stayed at home about two weeks and took a good 
 rest. Mr. Bluebird continued to bring her meals 
 and to entertain her. When he was not hunting 
 bugs and worms, or chasing English sparrows, he 
 was sure to be somewhere near home, singing his 
 sweetest songs. 
 
 When ]Mrs. Blueljird was able to be out again she 
 and Mr. Blueljird were l)usier than ever. Both were 
 carrying food to the little house. I knew then that 
 they had babies in there, so I called him Father, and 
 her Mother. 
 
THE BLUEBIRDS' BUNGALOW 
 
 BLUEBIRD BABIES TO FEED AND CARE FOR 
 
 The bluebirds caught some of their food in the air, 
 but a good deal of it they picked up in my garden. 
 I had some low stakes there expressly for them. 
 They perched on these and on the bean-poles, and 
 from there pounced on many a luckless worm or bug 
 that their sharp eyes espied. I am sure the bluebirds 
 are great helpers in a garden. 
 
 After two busy weeks of baby-tending. Father and 
 Mother Bluebird did just what the little wrens had 
 done. They made the babies come outside for their 
 food, or go hungry. 
 
 I think the first little bird to leave a nest must be 
 
34 
 
 HOW TO HAVE BIRD NEIGHBORS 
 
 mad 
 
 very courageous. The 
 others usually follow 
 close after him. It was 
 so with these l)lue- 
 birds. And as they 
 came out, one after 
 another, ]\I o t h e r 
 coaxed them over to 
 the thornapple bushes. 
 She did it by calling, 
 "Dear dear," and fly- 
 ing back and forth 
 between the little house 
 and the bushes. 
 
 Some of the baby 
 bluebirds were quite 
 obeilient and flew after 
 the mother. Two liked 
 it so well on a branch 
 in front of their house 
 that they stayed there 
 a while; then flew to 
 other branches in the 
 same tree. Father 
 looked after these, and 
 ^Mother stayed with 
 the other three. What 
 a chatter they always 
 e \\iieu food was broughl to them! It seemetl 
 
 TJTE BLUEBIRDS MOVED INTO 
 
 THE thetty double house 
 
as 
 
 THE BLUEBIRDS' BUNGALOW ' 35 
 
 if each one said: "Come to me! Come to 
 
 me: 
 
 While Father and Mother Bluebird had those babies 
 to feed and to care for, they started another house- 
 keeping. This time they moved into the pretty 
 double house and took the lower story. In the second 
 coming-out party there were four more little bluebirds. 
 
 All through this second housekeeping the English 
 sparrows tried repeatedly to get into the upper story, 
 and Father Bluebird had to spend much time chasing 
 them away. In the one-story house he had that much 
 more time to get food, or to sing. 
 
 I did not clean the bungalow house after their first 
 nesting, because I did not want the bluebirds to nest 
 in it again. After the double house was vacated, I 
 cleaned both houses, and found that the bluebirds 
 had used only grasses and a few feathers for their 
 nesting. In each case they had covered the entire 
 floor with grasses, but the cup-like nest was back 
 against the rear wall, as far from the entrance as it 
 could possibly be. 
 
 What could this mean but that the bluebird likes 
 a house with depth so she can bed her young as far 
 back from meddling paws as possible.^ This much I 
 learned from examining the deserted bluebird nests. 
 
RENTED FOR THE SUMMER 
 
 V 
 
 THE WRENS' APARTINIENT HOUSE 
 
 A FOUR-ROOM house which had been sent to me 
 was very much liked by a pair of wrens. Again their 
 Hvely, ripphng notes filled the air, as these wrens 
 went from room to room of this "apartment house," 
 as I called it. It was three days before thej^ made 
 up their minds which room they liked best. 
 
 Then they brought little twigs and bits of rag, and 
 leaves, and other things, and poked them into one 
 
 30 
 
THE WRENS' APARTMENT HOUSE 37 
 
 of the rooms. It was as good as saying, "We will 
 take this apartment for the summer." 
 
 Some English sparrows wanted that same room. 
 We always shooed them away, of course, if we could 
 without frightening the other birds. The wrens 
 jabbered and hissed at the sparrows, and stayed, 
 pecking them and being pecked by them. There 
 were four sparrows and only the two wrens; so the 
 poor little wrens finally gave up and went away. 
 
 But, try as they would, the sparrows could not 
 get inside of the house. After a while, thej% too, 
 went away. Then the wrens returned. It seemed 
 as if they had been watching for the chance. 
 
 The wrens soon fetched more twigs, some of them 
 several inches long. They poked them in as far as 
 they would go; then went inside and pulled them in 
 as well as they could. But some of the longest ones 
 remained partly outside and so blocked the entrance 
 to any birds except the tiny wrens. 
 
 Again the English sparrows came and, although 
 they couldn't even get their heads in now, still they 
 bothered the wrens. They couldn't have that room 
 themselves, and they didn't want anybody else to 
 have it. 
 
 With such a mean spirit is it any wonder that 
 nobody likes these birds? I cannot bear to call them 
 sparrows any more, because so many good birds go by 
 that name, and are therefore in danger of being dis- 
 liked. Or, I wish that all the good sparrows could 
 
38 HOW TO HAVE BIRD NEIGHBORS 
 
 have a different name, and let the English sparrow 
 alone keep the name he has dishonored. 
 
 The boy has told me that, to keep English sparrows 
 from increasing around his place, he destro.ys their 
 eggs wherever he can find them. He said that one 
 pair of sparrows seemed to blame the bluebirds for 
 it, and in revenge destroyed the bluebirds' nest. 
 
 We kept up the shooing and handclapping when- 
 ever English sparrows visited the wren house. After 
 a while the wrens began to understand that we were 
 trying to help them, and went on with their nesting. 
 They put tiny sticks and twigs into other rooms of 
 their house also, — and now there was a perfect 
 concert of wren music all the time. Before night 
 two more entrances were blocked. Some of the twigs 
 that these wrens brought had such long thorns on 
 them that they would not go inside at all. But this 
 did not discourage the plucky wrens. They just 
 dropped them to the ground and fetched others. 
 
 The next day another pair of wrens came. It 
 seemed as if wrens had a way of letting their friends 
 know where some nice apartments could be had. I 
 was so eager to accommodate as many wrens as 
 would come that I had made some one-room houses 
 for them. One was movmted in a pear tree; another 
 under the overliang of the garage roof. 
 
 This last wren pair seemed cjuite bewildered with 
 so many houses to choose from, and all of them dif- 
 ferent. Whenever Mrs. AVren showed preference for 
 
THE WRENS' APARTMENT HOUSE 
 
 39 
 
 one house, Mr. Wren would go to another one and 
 with his singing try to coax her there. She was seen 
 oftener about the house under the garage roof, than 
 the others. Mr. Wren seemed to Hke the apartment 
 house best. He was such a jolly little fellow, it is no 
 wonder he liked to have company. But Mrs. Wren 
 did not care for that at all. A small cottage was her 
 choice. After making us believe that she liked the 
 
 f 
 
 ^#Mf 
 
 SP^ 
 
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 'i^'-^mSfF^^'A 
 
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 THE SMALL WREN HOUSE IN THE PEAR TREE 
 
40 HOW TO HA^•E BIRD NEIGHBORS 
 
 one under the garage roof, .she eanie with a stick 
 about three inches long and flitted about with it. 
 
 Mr. ^Y^en had already put some nesting material 
 into the apartment house. But hard as he tried, 
 by singing and by soft chatter, which I supi)Ose was 
 coaxing, and by fre((uent visits to the apartment 
 house, he coidd not win her over. Her mind was made 
 up, and it must be — what? Well, it was the small 
 house in the pear tree. When INIr. A^'ren saw that 
 he couldn't have his way, why, of course, that small 
 house became his choice too. 
 
 Each of these pairs of wrens raised some babies. 
 But with all their work and family cares, and the 
 English sparrows to bother them at times, they were 
 always a happy company. They could sing just as 
 beautifully when carrjdng twigs or worms or bugs as 
 at any other time. Their happy music made a 
 continuous open-air concert. And their manners, 
 whether at work or at play, were so entertaining that 
 I could not bear to take my eyes off them. 
 
 This went on through late April and part of May. 
 One morning the wrens were all excited. Two of 
 their little ones were on the ground. Our kitty had 
 been tethered to a hitching weight; ])ut now, fearing 
 one of the little wrens might fly near her, I locked 
 her up. The parents were coaxing their little birds 
 over toward the vacant lot where the thornapple 
 bushes are. These bushes start even with the ground 
 and are so dense, and have such long, sharp needles, 
 
THE WRENS' APARTMENT HOUSE 41 
 
 that a cat woukl get her eyes scratched out if she 
 tried to go in. I shall always jjlant thornapple 
 bushes wherever I may live, especially for the pro- 
 tection of young birds. And I shall plant several 
 close together, so as to make a dense thicket. These 
 bushes will provide food for birds, as well as pro- 
 tection. 
 
 The way these wrens coaxed their little ones to 
 follow was very clever. They would go near them; 
 then walk away trailing their wings. This made a 
 soft, rustling, coaxing sound. But it was over an 
 hour before they succeeded in getting the little ones 
 where they wanted them. They had to come back 
 to them again and again and keep up the coaxing. 
 I was glad when they finally had them safe under 
 those thorny branches, where I could not see them 
 any more for the leaves. 
 
 By this time two more young were ready to leave 
 the house. One was already on the little porch, the 
 other peered out of the entrance. These were wiser 
 than the first two. Instead of going to the ground, 
 one flew to the kitchen roof which was near and 
 almost even with the wren house. It was a flat roof 
 covered with gravel. Pretty soon the second baby 
 also flew to the roof. 
 
 It must indeed be a wonderful event in the life of 
 a bird when first he steps out of the crowded little 
 home and looks around him at the big outdoors. 
 Then what courage it must take to venture on his 
 
42 HOW TO HAVE BIRD NEIGHBORS 
 
 wings! He has fluttered them a few times over the 
 nest, of course, but that is not to be compared with 
 just bouncing out into the air and trusting to his 
 wings to bear him up. 
 
 The two stayed on the kitchen roof ah the rest of 
 the day. I put a potted plant out there for them to 
 perch on. In the morning one of the baby wrens 
 perched for a little while on a window sill, but Father 
 Wren coaxed him back to the roof. I put several 
 more plants out on the roof in order that the fledg- 
 lings might exercise their wings and strengthen them 
 for the long flight they would have to make to the 
 nearest tree. After a while thej' did fly from plant 
 to plant. In this way they spent the rest of the day 
 and they liked it so well that they stayed another 
 day, and perhaps longer. 
 
 I was absent from home a few days. On my re- 
 turn the apartment house was empty of baby birds; 
 so also was the small house in the pear tree. The 
 wrens were pulling out the feathers and grasses of the 
 first nestings, and getting ready to nest again. One 
 pair had already begini nesting in an unoccupied 
 apartment. Can anyone imagine the hustle and 
 bustle of those busy wrens, cleaning house and 
 nesting at the same time, and the joy with which 
 they <lid il ? 
 
 llie one-room house in the j)ear tree was so made 
 that the fi-oni could be raised after turning a small 
 screw-eye on the side. This made cleaning it easy 
 
THE WRENS' APARTMENT HOUSE 
 
 43 
 
 Now, aside from furnishing their rooms all over 
 again, these wrens had their babies to care for. But 
 they seemed the happier the more work they had to 
 do. They were just bubbling over with happiness 
 all the time; and they made everyone about them 
 happy, too. 
 
 I should think everybody would put out wren 
 houses and get these jolly little fellows to live near 
 them. Wrens are not particular whether they live 
 on a porch, in a city yard, or on a farm. They are 
 just as happy in one place as another, as long as they 
 have a safe little home; and they will rid a place 
 of bugs and flies and other unpleasant things. 
 
 So cheerj' was that summer with those wrens around 
 me, that I hope always to have them as my 
 neighbors. 
 
 A BABY WKEN ON THE WINDOW SILL 
 
BLUEBIRDS ARE GREAT HELPERS IN A GARDEN {See page JJ) 
 
 VI 
 
 THE BOY 
 
 One day in early April I wa.s in the ravine getting 
 hepaticas. Before I knew it I was near the boy's 
 house again. His mother called to me from her 
 garden. 
 
 "The boy is at home now," she said; ''maybe you 
 would like to see him at work." 
 
 44 
 
THE BOY 45 
 
 I thanked her, and went with her to the httle shop. 
 There beside his work bench stood a boy about 
 twelve or thirteen years old. He was painting the 
 wren house a dark green. The bluebird house was 
 finished, ready to put up. 
 
 I told him I had put up my bird houses long ago, 
 and that the bluebirds had been house hunting for 
 some weeks. He said that there were so many 
 English sparrows around his place that he feared 
 they would nest in his houses if he put them out 
 early. But he had just learned of a way to keep the 
 sparrows from nesting in bluebird houses. He said 
 his manual training teacher had advised him to 
 mount his houses for wrens and bluebirds only 
 about eight feet from the ground, since the English 
 sparrows seldom nest lower than ten feet from the 
 ground, and will not be likelj^ to take a house that 
 is lower. 
 
 The boy put up the bluebird house while I was 
 there, on a young maple that afforded plenty of 
 shade. His bluebirds were house hunting too, and 
 visited the house right away. 
 
 I told him about the tin sheeting to keep cats and 
 squirrels down. He said he had been using tangle- 
 foot, the sticky stuff that is sometimes put on trees 
 to keep bugs down. But he said that cats and 
 squirrels didn't mind climbing over it, and he was 
 going to try the tin. 
 
 I fear that the boy was not wise in delaying so 
 
46 HOW TO HAVE BIRD NEIGHBORS 
 
 long to put up his bird houses. When I saw him 
 again, in mid-April, he said that one pair of blue- 
 birds had nested in a house that he had intended for 
 chickadees; that another pair were in an old hollow 
 tree; and that a pair of wrens were visiting the new 
 bluebird house. 
 
 Two of his other houses were for woodpeckers, and 
 a beautiful new one for purple martins already had 
 some tenants. 
 
 "It is two years now that the first martin house 
 has been up, and yet I have never had any martins 
 to stay!" said the boy. "They would come, go into 
 the house and twitter, and then fly away." 
 
 He began talking again about his manual training 
 teacher: how she called one day, and told him that 
 the martin house was mounted too low, and too 
 near trees; that martins want to be fifty feet away 
 from a tree or building, and sixteen feet up from the 
 ground; also, that it pleases martins to have open- 
 ings near the ceiling of their rooms so they can have 
 a change of air. 
 
 I remarked that this ventilation would make their 
 rooms more comfortable. 
 
 "Yes," said the boy; "and this new martin house 
 is made according to teacher's directions." 
 
 As we stood there, martins were flying about, 
 twittering, singing, perching on the telephone wires 
 near by and on the roof and the porches of their 
 house. The pole had hinges so that the house could 
 
THE BOY 47 
 
 be brought down and cleaned, when necessary, or 
 closed. 
 
 One lovely June day found me again at the boy's 
 home. I remarked the large number of young robins 
 on the lawn. 
 
 "The young have just left their nests in that 
 tree," answered the boy, pointing into a big cherry 
 tree. "Robins have nested in that tree every year 
 since I can remember." 
 
 I guessed that perhaps the cherries were the at- 
 traction. 
 
 "Well," he said, "we think birds earn all the 
 cherries they eat; we never pick those on the top 
 branches at all, but leave them for the birds." 
 
 During that visit the boy showed me several bird 
 homes. First he apologized for doing it. "Every 
 bird home is a secret between mother and me," he 
 said; then added, "but I know I can trust you." 
 
 One of these little homes belonged to bluebirds. 
 The others belonged to the flicker, the wood thrush, 
 and the killdeer. 
 
 We walked slowly and talked low, as we went 
 from one place to another. Loud talk and running 
 frighten birds. And to go very near to a bird nest 
 is harmful because, every time the mother is fright- 
 ened away, the eggs or young are liable to get chilled 
 if the weather is cool. If hot, and the nest is ex- 
 posed to the sun, the eggs or young are liable to get 
 overheated. 
 
48 HOW TO HAVE BIRD NEIGHBORS 
 
 The boy told me of a marsh hawk's nest which a 
 gentleman came to photograph. He said that this 
 gentleman brought a lad along to hold his hat over 
 the young to shield them from the sun, during the 
 mother's absence. The two were there only about 
 ten minutes. But evidently that boy told other boys; 
 for soon the nest was being visited at all times of 
 day. At every visit, the mother flew away, and in a 
 few days all the young were dead. 
 
 I remarked that photographing nests should be 
 done with the greatest care; that if any screening 
 foliage was pushed aside, it should be replaced, and 
 the nest left just as the mother bird had planned it. 
 It is indeed fortunate that bird photography is so 
 difBcult that only few people attempt it. Exposing 
 a nest to the camera is very apt to result in disaster 
 unless it is done by one who has the highest interests 
 of birds at heart. 
 
 The flickers had their home in a stump of a tree. 
 The entrance was so low I had to stoop in order to 
 look in; but the nest was down deep, out of sight. 
 Whenever Father or Mother Flicker came with food 
 they called softly, "Ye quit! ye quit!" Then the 
 babies could be heard making a hissing sound. 
 Sometimes when the parents were gone longer than 
 usual, a baby flicker could be seen taking a peep at 
 the outside world. 
 
 One day during the previous spring while walking 
 along the ravine I had seen three of these large brown 
 
THE BOY 
 
 49 
 
 ^" "^^-m- :*■ ; p^^^ 
 
 *4 W' ^^w ' i . *^J' %*:^*-^' 
 
 , :<Mim^^^^ 
 
 ■ ^^^*i.^^i-^'~'- 1 
 
 ■»% .■ * .. Ml 
 
 ||-J^'^p/ ,■ :§ 
 
 
 i|p|l :% J^ 
 
 ^H^^^^^^^ffinWH t c ^ 
 
 
 ^H^HB^B^^ ^'li^^^^HB^^M^^^^^^^BfiP^ '^^~v "iH 
 
 
 BABY FLICKER PEEPS AT THE OUTSIDE WORLD 
 
 birds, and had learned their name from hearing them 
 sing, "Flicka flicka flicka." It is easy to get ac- 
 
50 HOW TO HAVE BIKD NEIGHBORS 
 
 quainted with birds who are named after their song. 
 One of these birds on that spring day was constantly 
 spreading his wings and his tail before the others, 
 as if he wanted to show the beautiful yellow 
 feathers underneath. Because of these yellow feathers 
 the flicker is also called goldenwinged woodpecker. 
 Nearly all birds have a scolding word. When the 
 fliicker wants to scold he says, "Queer," as plainly as 
 a person can say it. 
 
 Of course, we never went near enough to any bird's 
 nest to frighten the brooding birds, nor did we stay 
 long enough to keep the parents frona feeding their 
 young. We always found a convenient place fifty 
 feet or more away, and through our field glasses 
 watched the birds without annoying them. 
 
 I had long known the wood thrush by his yodeling 
 song. It usually came out of the thickets and tangles 
 in the ravine back of our place, so the singer could 
 not easily be seen. At sunrise and sunset, the music 
 of the thrushes, singing and answering one another, 
 was like bells calling to prayer. From early May 
 until mid-July I always wanted to be out mornings 
 and evenings to attend the matins and the vespers 
 of the wood thrushes. 
 
 Mrs. Wood Thrush tried hard to hide her nest; it 
 was completely surrounded by thornbushes. "Wit- 
 a-wit-a-wit," said her mate as we went near; then 
 he came out of his hiding place. He had a brown 
 back and a white and brown speckled front just like 
 
THE BOY 
 
 51 
 
 MRS. WOOD THRUSH ON HER NEST 
 
 Mrs. Wood Thrush, who sat serene on her nest all 
 this time. She was trusting in something to pro- 
 tect her fully; whether it was her brave companion, 
 or those bushes bristling with thorns that surrounded 
 her nest, I do not know. Maybe she thought we 
 didn't see her at all. We pretended not to see her. 
 
 Always, when I find a nest, I turn away and try 
 to keep the birds from knowing they have been dis- 
 covered. I look out of the corners of my eyes, and 
 go away humming a tune. After a while I re- 
 turn and walk near by, again singing the same tune. 
 
52 HOW TO HAVE BIRD NEIGHBORS 
 
 I do this as many times as I can during a day or 
 two. Before long the birds seem to know that the 
 person who comes singing that tune has never harmed 
 them. They remain quiet when I am near, and this 
 affords opportunity to observe them more closely. 
 
 Some bluejays were flitting about. Bluejays are 
 everywhere, and at all times of the year. The blue- 
 jay is that big blue and white bird with handsome 
 crest. In early spring he sings some pleasing notes, 
 but in autumn and winter he is just noisy. Now he 
 was very still. I could just see Mrs. Bluejay's head 
 between two branches of a poplar tree. She had a 
 nest there, for there were tell-tale twigs hanging over 
 on both sides. Mr. Bluejay did not want anybody to 
 find her, nor the nest. This was why he kept so still. 
 
 The boy had scattered some peanuts on a bald spot 
 in the yard. I asked why he did this during the 
 summer time. 
 
 "It keeps the chickadees and woodpeckers coming 
 here all summer," said he. 
 
 As we sat there a bluejay came for a peanut and 
 went under a tree with it. There he punched a hole 
 in the ground with his bill and poked in the nut. 
 Then he went to a currant bush and got a leaf. 
 Returning to the spot where he had buried the pea- 
 nut, he patted the leaf neatly over it. 
 
 A brown and white bird about as big as a robin 
 flew overhead singing, "Killdeer killdeer" as loud and 
 as fast as he could. 
 
THE BOY 
 
 53 
 
 A KILLDEER S NEST IN A POTATO FIELD 
 
 "There goes a killdeer," said the boj'. 
 
 So the killdeer is another bird that is named after 
 his song! How easy it would be to know birds if all 
 were named after their song, like the chickadees and 
 the killdeers and the flickers, or after their colors, 
 like the bluebirds, or after their actions, like the 
 woodpeckers ! 
 
 The boy's father had found a killdeer's nest in a 
 potato field when he was plowing. We went to see 
 that, too. It was in a patch of ground overgrown 
 with weeds because the man had kindly plowed 
 around it. Mother Killdeer sat dutifully on the nest 
 while Father Killdeer guarded the premises and told 
 
54 HOW TO HAVE BIRD NEIGHBORS 
 
 us by his various shrieks and somersaults that he 
 wished we would not go near enough to disturb 
 her. 
 
 On the farm that day I saw the golden-throated 
 meadowlark. He is another yodeler. His favorite 
 tune is: 
 
 lee- 
 "Le- o- 
 
 o- loo" 
 
 His songs ring so clear and flute-like that I can hear 
 him away over at our place. He is a brown bob- 
 tailed bird. Over a beautiful yellow front he has a 
 black band, pointing down in the middle, V-shaped. 
 A large company of these birds were in the meadow, 
 happy as larks; so they are well named meadowlarks. 
 But think of a dear little bird and such a sweet 
 singer as the song sparrow, bearing the same name as 
 the odious English sparrow! It seems unjust, and 
 in this the boy agreed with me. We got to talking 
 about the song sparrow because one was on a fence 
 post near by, singing over and over this lively ditty: 
 
 twe-e ie 
 
 / \ • ■ 
 
 / \twe-e> ]e ]e je 
 
 "Twee twee twee \ je je je jay-" 
 
 je je 
 
 The bluebirds' home that the boy had mentioned 
 at the beginning of my visit was in a hole of an apple 
 
THE BOY 
 
 55 
 
 
 j^^B^M^mSh ^^^^^^^BSg^^^^ ^ 
 
 ^ ^?%<V; 1 
 
 |0|f|^ 
 
 ^^ 
 
 .Jte^l 
 
 
 1^^^^ 
 
 % 
 
 ,.|S^:^ 
 
 i^HMl^Tfli^l^H^^H 
 
 I'a'-<w^^^ 
 
 'Vc^' ' ' '' t ''^''' '■ VI 
 
 P" 'fA:m^ ^ flb^ 
 
 f^^^ 
 
 THE BLUEBIRDS IN THEIR PRIMITIVE HOME 
 
 tree. By standing on tiptoe I could look in and see 
 four light-blue eggs lying on a nest of grasses that 
 looked like a cunning little basket. It was a hot day, 
 too hot for Mother Bluebird to stay in that hollow 
 tree all the time. She was out playing tag with 
 Mr. Bluebird. Perhaps she thought the hot air 
 would keep her eggs warm. After she went in again 
 he visited her often with food. Before going after 
 
56 HOW TO HAVE BIRD NEIGHBORS 
 
 more he usually perched on a little knob just above 
 the entrance and sang. Sometimes she came out on 
 the ledge to listen. It was a winsome sight to see 
 the bluebirds in their primitive home. 
 
 This was the bluel)irds' second nesting on the farm. 
 Their first one had been destroyed by the English 
 sparrows. The boy said he had tried in every way 
 to lielp the l)luebirds, and that, whenever he saw any 
 s])arrows near, he gave a sharp whistle — his con- 
 fidential whistle, he called it — and that Mrs. Blue- 
 bird got so she understood what it meant; that as 
 soon as she heard it she would come up on the ledge 
 and call, "Dear, dear-dear." Immediately Mr. Blue- 
 bird would appear and drive the intruders away. 
 
 These bluebirds were also annoyed by a red squirrel 
 who climbed the trees in the orchard and peered 
 into the nest holes. Mr. Bluebird dashed for him 
 whenever he saw him, especially if he found him 
 near the home tree. Sometimes both the bluebirds 
 chased the red scjuirrel, who would run off barking 
 like a little dog. 
 
 The boy had seen how I put out strings and cotton 
 and chicken feathers, for the birds' nestings, and he 
 had fixed up a "store" — as he called it — on a tree, 
 where they could "buy without money." Every 
 little while a goldfinch came and got some string. 
 Always on coming he sang out, "Perchikatee," as if 
 to say, "By your leave." Downy woodpeckers, 
 chickadees, and nuthatches were there at this time of 
 
THE BOY 
 
 57 
 
 the year, although ordinarily they are seen only in 
 winter and early spring. 
 
 The boy said it was the ravine, with its trees and 
 thickets and tangles, that attracted so many birds. 
 
 EVERY LITTLE AVHILE A GOLDFINCH CAME TO 
 THE "store" tree AND GOT SOME STRING 
 
 He was always praising that ravine. He thought 
 so much of it that he had asked the neighbors not to 
 throw rubbish down there, and not to disturb the 
 underbrush, which shelters so many birds. He had 
 also asked them please to keep their cat.^s indoors at 
 
58 HOW TO HAVE BIRD NEIGHBORS 
 
 night, because so many birds had nests and helpless 
 httle ones on the ground, or in low bushes. 
 
 "Mother put me up to that," he said; and added, 
 "we are trying to keep that ravine as a sanctuary 
 for birds, where they and their little ones can be 
 safe." 
 
 Another thing that attracted birds to that place 
 was a mulberrj^ tree. Though only two j'ears old, 
 it was bearing fruit and was visited by robins, orioles, 
 thrashers, and redheaded woodpeckers. 
 
 The boy had so many kinds of birds never seen 
 near our place that I began to wish I, too, could live 
 on a farm and have so many more of these charming 
 neighbors. 
 
 A storm came up. Soon the shallow places in a 
 cornfield near by were turned into puddles. The 
 baby martins that had been lounging on the porch 
 went inside. The old ones came flying home in a 
 hurry. We went to the garden house, which the 
 boy had fitted up as a workshop because he didn't 
 like to deprive his mother any longer of her little 
 storeroom. When it stopped raining the sun came 
 out and the clean earth fairly glistened. A flock of 
 robins came to hunt for worms in the drenched field. 
 Some bathed in the puddles. It was amusing to 
 watch them chase one away if he stayed in long. 
 
 As we were enjoying the robins, the boy's mother 
 called out: "Come here, you bird people, and see 
 what has happened." She took us to the living room 
 
THE BOY 59 
 
 and told us to listen at the chimney. A rasping 
 twitter came from within. 
 
 "It must be those chimney swallows," guessed the 
 boy. 
 
 He stepped upon a chair and took off the chimney 
 cap. There, scrambling around in soot, were some 
 black looking birds. 
 
 "One, two, three, four," he counted, as he reached 
 in and handed them out on a newspaper. 
 
 Three were young birds, and one was an adult 
 bird with long wings. Their nest was also there. 
 The heavy rain had loosened it and made it fall. 
 
 The little ones screeched in chorus, and tried con- 
 stantly to get hold of something with their claws. 
 The older bird gave no sound at all. She seemed to 
 be hurt. We called her the mother. 
 
 The lady looked at their little nest. Then she 
 went and fetched a basket, and, as soon as the birds 
 were removed to it, they began to clamber up the 
 sides. When they got to the top, where they could 
 hang at full length, they stopped their screeching. 
 Only now and then they still gave a rasping sound. 
 Perhaps they were hungry, and scolded because 
 nobody brought them anj^ food. Some crossed over 
 the rim of the basket and tried the other side. 
 
 I stayed there the rest of the afternoon. Every 
 ten or fifteen minutes the little birds gave a call, 
 like, "Gitse gitse." Thinking that they must be 
 almost choked with the soot, I tried to give them 
 
60 
 
 HOW TO HAVE BIRD NEIGHBORS 
 
 water, but they would not open their bills. I forced 
 them open with a manicure stick, and gave them a 
 drop at a time. They swallowed it when it was 
 dropped far down in their throats; otherwise they 
 would jerk their heads and throw it out. 
 
 I also moistened a cracker with some egg yolk, 
 and mixed into it about fifty flies out of the flytrap; 
 then tried to feed the birds with the little stick. By 
 prying up their upper mandible I got some flies down 
 each bird's throat. The lower mandible was very 
 soft and would not bear handling. 
 
 THE CHIMNEY SWIFTS TEMPORARY HOME 
 
THE BOY 
 
 61 
 
 I became so attached to these birds, I hated to 
 leave them, but the time came for me to go home. 
 The boy and his mother seemed distressed at the 
 prospect of having birds as boarders. There was 
 canning to do, besides cooking for extra farm hands; 
 and Laddie had to help his father with the haying, 
 — so his mother said. 
 
 I offered to take the birds and do the best I could 
 with them, if the lad was willing. He was; so I took 
 the birds and the nest with me in the little basket, 
 which was their temporary home. 
 
 THE FLICKER IS ALSO CALLED GOLDEN- 
 WINGED WOODPECKER 
 
CHIMNEY SWIFTS NEST 
 
 VII 
 THE CHIMNEY SWIFTS 
 
 The correct name of these birds whose home life 
 was so rudely broken up is chimney swift. According 
 to the bird books, they have been known to fly a 
 thousand miles in a day, and they live in chimneys. 
 Could any name fit them better? Chimney swifts 
 are sometimes called swallows, probably because they 
 resem})le them somewhat, and twitter like swallows. 
 But they are not swallows at all. 
 
 I thought if the birds could have their nest near 
 them, it would seem more like home to them. It 
 was a tiny nest, a bracket made of twigs which were 
 woven together basket fashion and tightly glued. I 
 have preserved it as an art treasure. On each side 
 is a flat, gluey extension. Wetting this extension 
 made it sticky; l^ut it would not stick to the rough 
 
THE CHIMNEY SWIFTS 
 
 63 
 
 ONE OF THESE SWIFT BABIES WAS PUT TO REST IN THE 
 NEST, BUT HE DID NOT STAY THERE LONG 
 
 surface of the small basket. I laid it on the smooth 
 surface inside a peach basket and put weights on it. 
 When it became dry, the nest was stuck fast. 
 
 Then I transferred the swifts from the small basket, 
 which had been their temporary home, to the peach 
 basket. Thej^ perched around the nest. One of these 
 babies was put to rest in the nest, but he did not 
 stay there long. They all clambered up to the edge 
 and from time to time they changed places, sometimes 
 crossing over the edge of the basket from one side to 
 the other. 
 
64 HOW TO HAVE BIRD NEIGHBORS 
 
 It was fortunate that this happened during my 
 vacation, because the care of a baby bird demands 
 much time. He has to be fed regularly and often. 
 Having several birds to feed is about enough to take 
 up all one's time. 
 
 If they only had opened their bills when they were 
 hungry, it would have been much easier to feed these 
 swifts. Their very short but wide bills had to be 
 pried open every time and the food poked down their 
 throats. I tried to feed them every fifteen or twenty 
 minutes. It took so long to feed each one, that 
 usually, by the time I had finished with number 
 four, it was necessary to begin feeding number one 
 again. 
 
 The food I gave them was bread soaked in warm 
 milk, with plenty of flies mixed in. For a change I 
 mixed the bread with a raw yolk. I gave them warm 
 water occasionally. It seemed to me they needed it 
 after having come through that mass of soot. 
 
 At the end of the first day the young were as 
 chipper and bright as any young birds. Instead of 
 screeching they began to twitter, "Gitse gitse." The 
 mother was very still. She did not seem to care for 
 her babies at all, and did not go near to keep them 
 warm. She just hung in the one position. Several 
 times she tried to fly, but she could onlj' fly a few 
 feet; then she fell to the floor. 
 
 During the second day the young seemed to be 
 doing well. They preened themselves, and their 
 
THE CHIMNEY SWIFTS 65 
 
 blackish breasts were changed to gray. It was a 
 cool day, and I set the basket where the sun would 
 shine on the birds. They fluffed their feathers as if 
 they enjoyed the warmth. Once in a while one 
 tried to fly, but he always fluttered to the ground 
 and had to be brought back. The mother tried her 
 wings again and again. She got so she could fly a little 
 farther at every attempt, before she went to the 
 ground. At about five o'clock she flew far enough 
 to get out of sight. 
 
 All the next day I kept the peach basket with 
 these swifts in it outdoors, hoping the mother would 
 return and feed them. But she did not return. 
 
 On the following day these birds began to look 
 feeble. I went to the telephone and called up a 
 gentleman^ who is an authority on birds, and asked 
 him what I should do. He said the main thing was 
 to keep the birds evenlj'^ warm; that more young 
 birds die from chill than from hunger. To revive 
 them he said I should put a few drops of whiskey in 
 a glass of water and give them each a few drops; 
 then I should try to get them some gnats, or a 
 grub from the garden, mince it well, and feed it to 
 them. Flies, he said, had not much nourishment in 
 them. 
 
 On returning I found that two of the little birds 
 had died. I determined to try hard to save the re- 
 maining one. It was impossible to get whiskey 
 
 ' Dr Francis H. Herrick, author of " The Home Life of Wild Birds," 
 
66 HOW TO HAVE BIRD NEIGHBORS 
 
 because I live in a temperance town. I gave the 
 little bird a weak solution of baking soda because 
 he had a big lump in his craw. Then I wrapped him 
 in a silken scarf, and warmed him beside the cook 
 stove as I have seen baby cliicks revived when they 
 have been chilled by a sudden rain. The lump dis- 
 appeared. He brightened up. I could find no grubs; 
 but a few grasshoppers, some ant larvse, and several 
 juicy green cabbage worms were food enough for 
 the rest of that day. I kept the bird in his wrap- 
 pings all day, but fixed it so he could clamber on to 
 the basket. At night I put him away warm and snug, 
 and seemingly happy. The first sound I heard the 
 next morning was "Gitse gitse." 
 
 The little bird was ready for a meal. From an ant 
 hill near by I got more ant larvae, something which 
 all young birds like. For the first time now he 
 swallowed food just as soon as it got inside his bill. 
 Up to this time he had jerked it out unless it was 
 poked down. But he still refused to open his bill. 
 
 He did not care for the nest and never would stay 
 on it. So I fixed him again in the little basket 
 where he would be more snug. I had lined it with 
 cotton batting and woolen cloth so his breast would 
 be against a soft, warm surface. I also kept him at 
 an even temperature, and fed him regularly. The 
 little basket was on my work table. He seemed to 
 enjoy being near me and being talked to. Sometimes 
 he flew over on my shoulder. I fed him more cabbage 
 
THE CHIMNEY SWIFTS 67 
 
 worms and grasshoppers, and also gave him water 
 occasionally. 
 
 I could not forgive myself to think I hadn't asked 
 for advice sooner. I felt sure that, had I done so the 
 first day I took charge of these birds, and then fol- 
 lowed instructions, the two would not have died. 
 
 Again at the close of the day Baby Swift was put 
 away in his warm wrappings. In the morning I did 
 not hear the usual, "Gitse gitse." Baby Swift had 
 gone to the bird heaven. 
 
 It had been a big undertaking to adopt those 
 homeless birds; but I am glad for several reasons 
 that I did it. 
 
 First, I am glad that I helped them in their trouble. 
 
 Second, I am glad I relieved the boy and his busy 
 mother of caring for them. 
 
 Third, I am glad because I have since read in the 
 bird books that the chimney swift is a very useful 
 bird; that he feeds wholly on troublesome insects. 
 
 Fourth, I am glad because it gave me opportunity 
 to get acquainted with one more bird. I consider 
 that something worth while. 
 
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 A ROBIN S NEST 
 
 VIII 
 BIRDS NOT OF A FEATHER 
 
 One day, on looking up into a tree in the vacant 
 lot, what should I see there? A mother robin just 
 dropping a worm into her baby's open beak. 
 
 The nest was right in the crotch where the trunk 
 
 G8 
 
BIRDS NOT OP A FEATHER 69 
 
 forks into two main branches. So many robins' 
 nests are blown off the branches by the wind, or 
 washed off by heavy rains, that I was glad to see 
 this nest firmly saddled on that strong trunk. But 
 a second thought told me that it was easy for cats 
 and squirrels to get at, so I studied how to make it 
 safe. 
 
 All the tin sheeting had been used up; but I knew 
 where there was some old stove pipe. A kind 
 neighbor ripped it open. One piece was not wide 
 enough to go around the tree, so I had to use two. 
 Mrs. Cotton, who had again become my neighbor, 
 having built a bungalow on one of the vacant lots, 
 came to help me. She said it wasn't good for the 
 tree to drive nails into it, and fetched some wire. 
 Meanwhile, I got the stepladder; for the sheeting must 
 be high enough so that cats and squirrels cannot 
 jump from the ground to the trunk above it. We 
 used only two small nails, to keep the wires from 
 slipping. 
 
 Of course, the robins scolded while we were doing 
 this. They never liked to have anybody near their 
 tree. 
 
 After a week the young ones were sitting on the 
 edge of the nest. I knew then that they would soon 
 leave it, and I began to keep a close watch on them, 
 and on the cats of the neighborhood. 
 
 If all cats belonged to people, and had to be kept 
 on their own premises, little birds would be much 
 
70 HOW TO HAVE BIRD NEIGHBORS 
 
 safer. As it is, cats may roam wherever they please. 
 They can crouch in tall grasses, flower beds, shrubs, 
 and other places, ready to pounce on any bird that 
 comes near enough. Homeless cats who have to 
 hunt their living are the greatest menace to birds, 
 especially to young birds who are not yet wise to 
 the dangers that surround them. Now who is to 
 blame? Surely not the cats. Instead of continually 
 berating the cats, let the friends of birds secure laws 
 to license cats, to compel people to keep their cats 
 on their own premises, to punish people for putting 
 cats astray, and to put homeless cats out of their 
 misery. 
 
 One June day, while walking along the ravine, 
 I saw three robins on the ground. I went to the 
 tree to see if the young had all left the nest, and 
 found that one was still there. He looked down, as 
 if he would like to go to join his brothers; but he 
 seemed to be afraid to leave the safe little home. 
 The parents brought food to him and also to those 
 on the ground. Whenever the parents went to the 
 one on the nest, they urged him to come over to 
 some of the near branches; but he stayed on the nest 
 as if glued to it. Finally, one of the parents got be- 
 hind him and just politely pushed him off. He spread 
 his wings to fly, but fluttered to the ground. Instead 
 of continuing my walk that morning I stayed with 
 the robins. About a hundred feet away I could see 
 them well with my field glasses. My neighbor, 
 
BIRDS NOT OF A FEATHER 71 
 
 Mrs. Cotton, was just as much interested in these 
 birds as I was. They could not fly well yet. Be- 
 tween us we saw to it that no harm befell them that 
 day. 
 
 Towards evening the robins also sought the pro- 
 tection of those bristly thornapple bushes. One by 
 one they coaxed the young in that direction. 
 
 During that night a great storm came uji of light- 
 ning and thunder and rain. I was sorry for the young 
 robins, but had no doubt that their parents shielded 
 them. I have seen a mother bird sit faithfully on 
 the nest when the rain was pelting her mercilessly. 
 Mother love knows no discomforts. 
 
 I think all birds enjoy a good shower; they alwaj^s 
 sing joyously as soon as it clears again, and sometimes 
 while it is still raining. Some also enjoy a shower 
 bath. Sometimes they finish it with a ducking in 
 the basin. Those that do not care for the shower 
 usually know where to find a comfortable place during 
 a heavy downpour. On such occasions, I have seen 
 them take refuge in trees, close to the trunk where it 
 is steady and where the foliage is dense over them. 
 And I have seen them go for shelter under rail fences, 
 such as there are in the country, where the rails are 
 broad enough to protect a little bird. I have also 
 seen birds come out from under a corn-crib after a 
 rain, so I presume they had gone under it for shelter. 
 
 After the robins had left their nest I took the 
 sheeting off the tree. It is said that the bark of a 
 
72 HOW TO HAVE BIRD NEIGHBORS 
 
 tree is its lungs through which it breathes. I want 
 all the trees around me to breathe deeply of the 
 precious air, so I try always to save the bark. It is 
 much easier to take off the wires than it is to take 
 nails out of a tree. Alreadj^ some insects had made 
 nests and cocoons under this sheeting. 
 
 My way of getting acquainted with birds was by 
 keeping a notebook. In it I wrote everything I saw 
 any bird do: what he ate, how he sang, what he 
 looked like, where he was generally seen, etc. I 
 always watched a bird as long as it stayed in sight. 
 When it left I observed its flight and its shape. Then 
 I looked at the colored pictures in my bird books, to 
 see if I could find a bird similar to mine. If I did 
 find him, then I read all about him to see whether 
 that bird ate the kind of food, and acted, and flew, 
 and sang, in the way my strange bird did. If he did, 
 then I knew I had made the acquaintance of a new 
 bird. 
 
 For instance, I had written about one bird: 
 
 "Rather plump, head pointed, bill long. Head and 
 back olive. Front yellow. Wings dark with white 
 bars. Tail brown with dark marks. Is on the fence 
 getting strings. Also visits the basin. Never sings. 
 Likes bread crumbs. Nearly as large as robin." 
 
 Sometimes there came with this bird a beautiful 
 black and orange bird. In a little pocket guide I 
 found both these birds pictured as mates. They 
 were the Baltimore orioles. She was the bird I had 
 
BIRDS NOT OF A FEATHER 73 
 
 described in my notebook. While she was getting 
 strings, her mate was usually up in a tree somewhere 
 near, singing: 
 
 "Hee^ .hee, hee. yhee." 
 
 Ho^ ^ho ho'^ 
 
 It was no wonder that the orioles needed so many 
 strings. They made a baglike nest on the tip end of 
 a branch in Mrs. Cotton's elm. The wind used to 
 swing that nest like a hammock. I often thought 
 how nice it must be for those baby orioles to be 
 rocked by the wind and to have such a fine musician 
 for their father. 
 
 Mrs. Cotton was keeping her cat housed during 
 those days. Moreover, she threw bread out on her 
 lawn every day for any birds that might want it. The 
 orioles were among flie birds that went there; they 
 preferred graham or entire wheat bread to white bread. 
 
 Other birds that came to my yard were the brown 
 thrasher, the goldfinch, and the redheaded wood- 
 pecker. They had their nests along the ravine. 
 
 The redheaded woodpeckers' home was in a hole 
 of an old tree near the ravine. Their call was a 
 guttural "Chr-r-r," which was pleasant to hear. Near 
 the nest tree was a big stone which they used as a 
 convenient perch. The woodpecker babies did not 
 have the showy red head and neck of the parents; 
 theirs were of a rusty color, and the white on their 
 wings was barred with black. During the summer, 
 Father Woodpecker often brought the babies to the 
 food station. They could help themselves pretty well 
 
74 
 
 HOW TO HAVE BIRD NEIGHBORS 
 
 to suet; but the peanuts were a puzzle to them. 
 They just pecked into the shell and tried to eat that. 
 Usually, before the babies arrived, the father came 
 and perched on some high point and looked all 
 around. If all was to his liking, he sounded his 
 rattling tattoo. The babies always came so promptly 
 that it was evident he had hidden them somewhere 
 near, probably with orders to await his signal before 
 venturing farther. 
 
 I think the brown thrasher must have had a large 
 family; he used to tear off pieces of bread and carry 
 
 NEAR TIIK NEST TREE WAS A BIG STONE ^VHICH THE 
 REDHEADED WOODPECKER USED AS A PERCH 
 
BIRDS NOT OF A FEATHER 75 
 
 them away from the bird table. Once he carried off 
 a piece of cheese that kept him 'traiHng near the 
 ground, it was so heavy. A blackbird followed and 
 tried to take it, but the thrasher got away from him. 
 
 A queer thing about the brown thrasher is his song. 
 It is made up of real words and sentences, and he 
 sings everything twice or more times. If you should 
 ever hear a big brown bird, with a long reddish tail 
 and speckled breast, sing, "Beverly Beverly," "Peter 
 Peter," "Tell it to me! Tell it to me!" "Come 
 here! Come here!" and such things, then you have 
 heard the brown thrasher. If you will look high 
 enough you can almost surely see him too, in the 
 top of a high tree. He loves to be seen as well as 
 heard. 
 
 Mrs. Brown Thrasher looked just like her mate. 
 She had hidden her nest so well that I did not find 
 it until it was empty. It was in a dense thicket. 
 I knew it was hers because she was still near. "lo-it! 
 io-it!" she scolded, until I went away. One little 
 baby thrasher was on a branch of the thicket. The 
 mother was guarding him. 
 
 The goldfinches were very late with their house- 
 keeping. In July they were still gathering strings 
 and cotton for their nesting. They are just as polite 
 and gentle as the chickadees. Their name fits so 
 well that anybody who sees these yellow birds, just 
 like canaries with black wings and tail, ought to 
 know them at once. Their song usually starts with 
 
76 
 
 HOW TO HAVE BIRD NEIGHBORS 
 
 EACH LITTLE GOLDFINCH CALLED AS LOUD AS HE COULD 
 
 "Sweet sweet sweet," and the rest is a regular canary 
 song. They are sometimes called wild canaries. 
 
 The young goldfinches loved to sit on the edge of 
 their nest as soon as they were old enough. As they 
 sat there thej^ chattered to each other, "Ze bebe, 
 ze bebe," and fluttered their wings a great deal. 
 When I found their nest I was surprised that I 
 hadn't seen it before; it was low on a buckeye. 
 
 When the young goldfinches left their nest it 
 seemed as if they wanted to get acquainted with 
 people. They came down on the lowest branches, 
 
BIRDS NOT OF A FEATHER 
 
 77 
 
 and quite near the house. One alighted on the 
 clothesline. Whenever Father or Mother came with 
 food there was the greatest fluttering of wings. 
 Each one called, "Ze bebe ze bebe," as loud as he 
 could, and opened wide his bill to catch what the 
 parents tossed or squirted out to him. It was no 
 living, squirming thing, but a pulpy mass. 
 
 The young were yellow in front, olive on the back, 
 and they had black wings with brown and white 
 bars. The black tail was edged with white. 
 
 Goldfinches like sunflower seeds. But the main 
 reason why they are so useful and so well liked is 
 that they eat large quantities of thistle seeds and 
 dandelion seeds. 
 
 When cold weather came the parent goldfinches 
 were no longer so beautifully yellow, for they had put 
 on their gray autumn coats. 
 
 A YOUNG GOLDFINCH ALIGHTED ON THE CLOTHESLINE 
 
THIS MARTIN SCOUT BROUGHT A LADY WITH HIM 
 
 IX 
 THE MARTINS' AIRCASTLE 
 
 The purple martins like a house with many rooms, 
 so they can live together in a large company. Since 
 the martins belong to the swallow family, to call 
 them purple swallows would, it seems to me, be more 
 informing. 
 
 My friend who had sent me the wren apartment 
 
 78 
 
THE MARTINS' AIRCASTLE 79 
 
 house was so pleased with its success that he sent 
 me also a martin house. It is four stories high 
 and has twenty-six rooms. Around each story are 
 porches, some of them several inches wide. 
 
 It pleases birds to have their houses look, before 
 they occupy them, as if they had been out in all 
 sorts of weather. So, for several weeks before this 
 martin house was set up, it lay out in the yard to 
 be rained and snowed on. 
 
 One cold March day a purple bird came in at my 
 window. He perched on picture frames, twittered a 
 little, and went out again. According to the bird 
 books, my little visitor was a purple martin. Maybe 
 he had seen the martin house on the lawn, and came 
 to ask me to put it up. Anyway, the next day it 
 was mounted in the farthest corner of the garden. 
 For, according to the directions that came with the 
 house, martins want their houses to be fifty feet away 
 from any building or tree, and on a pole at least 
 sixteen feet high. 
 
 In early April another martin came; or maybe it 
 was the same one, returning to see whether the house 
 had been put up. Martins always send one of their 
 number ahead to look up a house for them. He is 
 called a scout. This martin scout perched on the 
 wires nearby, and tried repeatedly to alight on one 
 of the porches of the martin house. But some 
 English sparrows were there; they also wanted that 
 house. Every time the scout went near, these 
 
80 HOW TO HAVE BIRD NEIGHBORS 
 
 sparrows flew at him and kept him from getting a 
 foothold on the house. Sometimes he managed to 
 perch on the roof and there wait for a chance to 
 get inside. But the sparrows were too many for 
 him. Now and then he gave a sad note, as if he 
 were discouraged and calhng for help. Then again 
 it seemed as if something had encouraged him, and 
 he sang out clearly something like this: 
 
 "Whew whew whew 
 
 tr-i^r-r 
 
 cho cho cho cho." 
 
 After holding out against the sparrows for three 
 days, he went away. About a week later I heard a 
 sweet and happy twitter. Several martins were 
 flying around the house. I had named it The 
 Martins' Aircastle. By this time the English spar- 
 rows had begun nesting in some of the rooms. 
 
 The martins perched on the wires in front of the 
 house and made a saucy chatter, calling the sparrows 
 all sorts of names, I suppose. The sparrows jabbered 
 back at them. In about an hour the martins left. 
 
 Early the next morning another flock of martins 
 came. Some perched on the wires, some on the roof, 
 and some on the porches of the martin house. Others 
 flew around in big circles. All were twittering and 
 calling in their happiest manner. 
 
 I had driven the sparrows away the night before, 
 and this is how I did it: I put a few big nails into 
 
THE MARTmS' AIRCASTLE 
 
 81 
 
 THE MARTINS AIRCASTLE 
 
 a tin can, then closed the can and tied it to a long 
 stick. With this stick I banged the can against the 
 martin house pole again and again 
 
 It frightened 
 
82 HOW TO HAVE BIRD NEIGHBORS 
 
 the sleeping sparrows. By the moonlight I could 
 see six come out and fly away; but I think there were 
 more. 
 
 Two pairs of sparrows came back in the morning. 
 They had made their nests side by side in the third 
 story. Long grasses were hanging out from the en- 
 trances. Perhaps the martins were sorry for them; 
 anyway, it looked as if they were willing to play 
 fair. They did not chase them off any more; and 
 the sparrows, being now so few, no longer molested 
 the martins. 
 
 The martins now began to clean house. There 
 were wads of chicken feathers and some broken eggs 
 among the rubbish which they threw out. This was 
 soon replaced by straws and sticks which they 
 brought for their own nesting. I could only count 
 twelve pairs of martins, so that there were plenty of 
 rooms for them and the sparrows too. I suppose 
 one reason why the sparrows were unwelcome is 
 because they are such imtidy housekeepers as to 
 render close neighboring with them insanitary. 
 
 The more I see of martins, the better I like them. 
 They are always cheerful, always busy. Their shiny, 
 purple plumage, broad shoulders, and tapering body 
 give them a distinguished air. These purple birds 
 are the father martins. The mother martins' back 
 feathers, when exposed to the sunlight, have all the 
 shades of violet. In front they are cream-colored, and 
 finely speckled. 
 
THE MARTINS' AIRCASTLE 83 
 
 These violet-colored ones stayed around home 
 more than the others; this is why I took them to be 
 the mothers. The father martins flew around and 
 brought in the provisions, which they caught on 
 the wing. On returning a martin would sometimes 
 sit on the porch and sing into the room to his 
 mate; or she would come out to him, and the two 
 would coo to each other in the most affectionate 
 manner. 
 
 The martins were also friendly with all their bird 
 neighbors. But they were so high up that their 
 housekeeping was for the most part a secret which 
 they wanted to keep to themselves. It was hard to 
 tell what they had to eat, except when one caught 
 a dragonfly or a grasshopper. When one got a big 
 catch like that, he usually held it squirming in his 
 bill a while as if he was proud of it and wanted to 
 show it off. Or maybe he tried in this way to pro- 
 long the enjoyment of it. When it began to dis- 
 appear in his bill the body always went first and the 
 wings last. 
 
 Martins are not strong on their feet. Even when 
 walking around on the porches of their house they 
 just waddled, like ducks. But at flying they are 
 masters. They can soar high, almost out of sight, 
 then shoot straight down and skim along close to the 
 ground. 
 
 Sometimes the martins visited the basin to get a 
 drink or to bathe. One of their favorite pastimes 
 
84 HOW TO HAVE BIRD NEIGHBORS 
 
 was to roll in the sand in our garden. When around 
 home they loved to perch on the wires or lounge on 
 the porches. They also visited a bald tree not far 
 off, and there preened themselves. I never saw them 
 visit trees that had foliage on them. 
 
 Some more English sparrows tried from time to 
 time to come back. It seemed as if they watched 
 for the martins to go away. Then they would come 
 and peer into the rooms, and even go in. The mar- 
 tins, however, always left one of their number on 
 guard, for usually the intruders were soon chased 
 away. 
 
 Once a martin caught an English sparrow in his 
 room. He went in, but kept one wing outside, and 
 that wing flapped and fluttered just like a flag in a 
 high wind. No doubt the sparrow got a good beat- 
 ing with the other wing. Sounds of "Kr-r-r! kr-r-r!" 
 came from the room. "Kr-r-r!" is the scolding 
 word of the martins. It sounds as if someone, 
 walking beside a picket fence, were scraping it with a 
 stick. I have often heard the martins say it to the 
 sparrows, but never have I heard them use it among 
 themselves. They are the most contented birds, 
 always polite and kind to one another. For good 
 behavior I have put them on the honor roll with the 
 chickadees and the goldfinches. 
 
 The martins are also wonderful singers and 
 whistlers. They sing all day long, and often after 
 dark. Their song is made up of three parts: a 
 
THE MARTINS' AIRCASTLE 85 
 
 sibilant or smacking twitter, a trill, and a whistle. 
 To me it sounds something like this: 
 
 tr-r-r-r hee 
 
 "Hee^ y \ / \ho-ho-ho." 
 
 chut-chut-chut ho 
 
 They keep this up in a sort of conversational fashion, 
 and as they do so are continually changing places on 
 the housetop^ the porches, or the wires. 
 
 In June the baby martins began to lounge on the 
 porches and to sun themselves on the wires. After 
 a while there were more babies. The porches were 
 covered with them. My! how busy those parents 
 were! As babies increased in numbers, evidently the 
 parents felt that the older ones ought to become 
 self-supporting; but they preferred to spend their 
 days preening and twittering and being waited on. 
 The parents pecked and scolded them, and finally 
 pushed them off their perches to make them go and 
 hunt food for themselves. 
 
 One day after the second batch of babies had ap- 
 peared outside, two hawks came and perched on the 
 telephone wires near the martin home. My attention 
 was attracted to them by the guttural calls or scold- 
 ings of the martins. As they called, they flew swiftly 
 to and _from the house, and around in big circles. 
 Soon the wires were lined with martins that had come 
 from other colonies, and the air was rent with their 
 guttural shriekings. Evidently they felt that these 
 
86 HOW TO HAVE BIRD NEIGHBORS 
 
 big birds were a great menace to their young. To 
 the credit of the English sparrows it must be said 
 that they also flew around with the martins, and 
 tried to help them call attention to the danger. The 
 hawks stayed about fifteen minutes, looking con- 
 stantly in all directions; for they were completely 
 surrounded by the vigilant and frantic martins all 
 that time. Then they flew into a bald tree near by, 
 and after looking on from there a while they flew 
 away. They returned a few times after that, but 
 never again stayed long enough to cause such a 
 commotion. 
 
 After the young were all able to fly, the whole 
 company was usually away most of the day. Early 
 in the morning when they were getting ready to go, 
 and at sunset time when they returned, there was 
 always a great demonstration, with trilling, and 
 twittering, and whistling, about the house and on the 
 wires. The home-coming of the martins was a daily 
 event to which not only we, but our neighbors also, 
 looked forward. 
 
 Then, as night set in, there was a steady chorus of 
 cooing as if each martin mother were singing a lullaby 
 to her numerous babies. We used to wonder how 
 they all existed in those rooms, six inches square by 
 six inches high. For no matter how hot the night, 
 they all went inside before midnight. 
 
 One evening my former neighbor, Mrs. Daily, was 
 present when the martins returned. She also had 
 
THE MARTINS' AIRCASTLE 
 
 87 
 
 MMMMn\>1 1 
 
 M^4- 
 
 n^~^»MM4m44444M 
 
 Photo by 
 
 I H. Dodson 
 THE HOME-COMING OF THE MARTINS 
 
 put up a martin house, but so far it had not been 
 occupied. 
 
 "Your house has such wide porches, and mine 
 hasn't any," she remarked, as she watched the re- 
 turning birds sit on the porches and coo to each 
 other. "And," she added, "I have been told that 
 my house is too near the garage." 
 
 It is true that martins are not easily attracted; 
 but when once they have accepted a house they will 
 be steady summer tenants for years. When I think 
 what a pleasure it is to have a flock of these lovely 
 birds, year after year, from April to September, I 
 
88 HOW TO HAVE BIRD NEIGHBORS 
 
 wonder that any good-sized yard is without a martin 
 house. Martins are content to Hve anywhere, in 
 town or country. All they want is the right kind of 
 a house with plenty of room around it, and they like 
 some wires near bj' for perches. 
 
 It seems to me that a martin house, perched high 
 in broad sunlight, needs ventilation. But this must be 
 provided without causing drafts. It can be provided 
 by making a half-inch horizontal slit on the inner 
 walls just below the ceiling, something like the 
 ventilation in a steamer cabin. Martins will not 
 tolerate drafts. Then if the two topmost rooms in 
 the martin house are made to connect by means of a 
 hole two and a half inches in diameter, next to the 
 ceiling, this will greatly assist the visiting scout. 
 When English sparrows see the scout enter the house, 
 they will lie in wait where he entered, expecting to 
 molest him when he comes out. But if he can leave 
 at another exit and get his colony while the sparrows 
 still wait for him, they will have to surrender when 
 he returns. It is a question of numbers. This kind 
 of house, even though it have only six or eight rooms, 
 will attract martins, and promise a good beginning in 
 martin lore. 
 
 My neighbor, Mrs. Cotton, has now a martin house 
 also. It has ten rooms, ventilated as described above 
 and with the two upper rooms connecting. There being 
 no telephone wires near enough, a wire running over 
 the house on four uprights serves the same purpose. 
 
THE MARTINS' AIRCASTLE 89 
 
 The first martin that was seen to visit this house 
 brought a lady martin with him. Maybe he had 
 been there before, alone, without being noticed. The 
 pair inspected the rooms, then perched on the wire 
 overhead and preened. Every little while Mr. 
 Martin twittered: 
 
 This pair took possession of the upper east room. 
 The next day four more martins came. One pair 
 took a lower east room, the other took the south 
 room. It looked as though the wire on top and the 
 ventilation pleased them. I was overjoyed that this 
 house, which I had designed, proved satisfactory to 
 these notional birds. 
 
 The dimensions of the rooms in this house are six 
 inches square by seven inches high. The diameter of 
 the entrances is two and a half inches; the width of 
 porch five inches. The pole extends through the 
 
90 HOW TO HAVE BlKD NEIGHBORS 
 
 center of the house and is screwed to the roof. The 
 rest of this house is held in place by means of a bolt 
 underneath, which can be taken out and the house — 
 without its roof — let down to be cleaned.' 
 
 Now listen to the good that martins do: A martin 
 will eat mosquitoes by the thousand every day, be- 
 sides many insects that injure fruit trees and spoil 
 the fruit. To protect their young, martins will drive 
 away hawks and other big birds that come near. In 
 this way they also protect any poultry yard near by. 
 On moonlight nights they hunt the moths and millers 
 until midnight. 
 
 In late August the martins began to assemble in 
 ever increasing numbers, getting ready for the journey 
 to their winter home, which is said to be in Central 
 and South America. 
 
 During one of the days while those gatherings were 
 going on, the boy was here. The martins had, by this 
 time, become so confiding that we could go clear up 
 to the pole on which their house was mounted, — and 
 they would stay on the wires and look down at us! 
 I told the boy how I had driven the sparrows away 
 from the martin house, and showed him the stick with 
 the can tied to it. He tried it on the nearest tele- 
 phone pole, and instantly the martins flew from 
 the wires. It looked like a great gathering in mid- 
 air. 
 
 The father martins were much darker at this time 
 
 ' A still better plan for lowering a. martin house is described on page 129. 
 
THE MARTINS' AIRCASTLE 
 
 91 
 
 than in the Spring, — in fact, almost black. Mother's 
 pretty violet hues had faded to gray. Baby Martin 
 was brownish-gray on the back, and light in front. 
 
 One day the whole colony departed, a jolly com- 
 pany, leaving us sad indeed, but hopeful that they would 
 return with the Spring flowers. 
 
 
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 A GREAT GATHERING IN MID-AIR 
 

 
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 «^iife«' 
 
 
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 A BATH FOR BIRDS AND A LUNCH BESIDE IT 
 
 X 
 
 MORE ABOUT THE BOY 
 
 I AM sure that the farm at the end of our street is 
 like home to the birds of the neighborhood, and that 
 that good boy is big brother to them all. He always 
 has a bath for the birds set out on a table, and a 
 lunch beside it. 
 
 "You would be surprised to see how well the birds 
 like oatmeal mush and other cereals," said he, the 
 last time I was there. "Just watch that song spar- 
 row! 
 
 92 
 
MORE ABOUT THE BOY 93 
 
 The little brown bird was feeding on a shredded 
 wheat biscuit. She stayed long enough to eat a 
 hearty meal; then took away as much as she could 
 carry in her bill. While I sat there she returned 
 several times for more. 
 
 We were out in the boy's workshop. He had just 
 finished making what he called a food house. It was 
 a tray roofed over, "to keep out the rain and snow," 
 he said. 
 
 I remarked that it was early (it was in July) to 
 talk about snow. 
 
 "Oh," said he, "this is one of my vacation jobs. 
 After school begins I won't have time for these things. 
 I'll be a freshman in High, you know." 
 
 The tray was about a foot long and not quite so 
 wide. On each side there was a wire pocket to hold 
 suet. Four neat, round sticks supported the roof, 
 which he said was made out of the sides of a soap 
 box. 
 
 I asked where he got those fine round sticks and 
 that pretty tray. He said the sticks were scraps 
 from his uncle's cabinet shop, and that he got the 
 tray from the grocer. The name "Neufchatel" was 
 printed on the sides of the tray in big letters. 
 
 I said, "Wouldn't it be nice if all the Neufchatel 
 cheese boxes were made into food trays for birds?" 
 
 "Yes," he answered, "I know that our grocer 
 would rather give his boxes away for some useful 
 purpose than to burn them," 
 
94 HOW TO HAVE BIRD NEIGHBORS 
 
 I admired the little food house so much that the 
 boy gave me some sticks so that I could make one, 
 too. 
 
 Then he told me of a pair of cedar waxwings that 
 had nested in the orchard, and a pair of crested 
 flycatchers in a woodpecker's house. I was very 
 curious to see the waxwings, so we went to them first. 
 The nest was about ten feet up in an apple tree. 
 With our field glasses we could see it quite plainly 
 from under the nearest tree. Mrs. Waxwing was 
 sitting up there; we could just see her head and her 
 tail. Mr. Waxwing visited her ever^y few minutes 
 with some food. They were the quietest birds I 
 have ever seen. What they did say or sing was in 
 very soft tones, as if thej^ were telling each other 
 secrets. I hummed parts of the little song occasion- 
 ally. When I explained to the boy why I did so, 
 he smiled, and looked as if he didn't quite believe 
 me. 
 
 We went from the waxwings to the flycatchers. 
 They lived in what the boy called a Berlepsch house. 
 That means it was designed by a man named Ber- 
 lepsch who was a great friend of birds. The boy 
 said his uncle in New York had sent him the house 
 as a birthday present. What could be a nicer gift 
 for a boy than a bird house.'' It would make him 
 want to get birds in it, of course. And I can think 
 of nothing that would make a boj^ happier than to 
 have bird neighbors. 
 
MORE ABOUT THE BOY 
 
 95 
 
 THE CRESTED FLYCATCHER AND A BERLEPSCH HOUSE 
 
 The Berlepsch house was made so one could raise 
 the top, lid-fashion, and clean it when necessary. It 
 was mounted about twelve feet high on a brook 
 
96 HOW TO HAVE BIRD NEIGHBORS 
 
 willow that stood aslant in the ravine; and it had 
 been intended for woodpeckers. The crested fly- 
 catchers are brown birds with gray upper breast and 
 yellow below. Their headfeathers are always ruffed, 
 which gives the appearance of a crest. 
 
 The flycatchers were flying back and forth con- 
 tinually with all sorts of prey. The brown bugs called 
 "Canadian soldiers" were numerous that day and were 
 easy to catch. These parent birds evidently had a 
 large family, judging from the amount of food they 
 delivered. 
 
 Mr. Flycatcher had a loud, explosive whistle. It 
 sounded as if he were saying: 
 
 at .?" 
 a- 
 "Wha- 
 
 The young could be heard giving the same whistle, 
 but much more softly, and somewhat long drawn 
 out: 
 
 at?" 
 a- 
 a- 
 "Wha- 
 
 After our visit with the flycatchers we returned to 
 the waxwings. Waxwings are brown and about the 
 size of bluebirds. On the back of the head they have 
 a tuft. A black line extends across the bill, and 
 
MORE ABOUT THE BOY 97 
 
 around the side of the head. The front is yellowish- 
 gray and the tail edged with yellow. The name, 
 waxwing, is due to a shiny red patch on their 
 wings. The fact that these wax wings are very fond 
 of cedar berries must be what has given them also 
 the name of cedar bird. The nest was made of twigs, 
 strings, and various kinds of fiber. The boy said 
 that a few weeks ago he had cut his dog's hair and 
 left it lying on the lawn: that these waxwings then 
 came and carried every bit of it to their nest. 
 
 While near the birds I hummed the bird song 
 again, to let them know that the same persons were 
 there that had visited them before. The mother 
 bird was looking straight at us and sitting perfectly 
 still all the while. The boy said he believed the song 
 did help to keep her quiet. 
 
 On a cornice of the front porch a phoebe had made 
 two nests, one last year and one this. Both nests 
 were now empty. I said I hoped that a phoebe 
 would come to live on our porch next year. 
 
 "You can have this one," answered the boy; and 
 added, "I have to wash off the porch every day 
 while Phoebe is nesting: she scatters so much 
 mud." 
 
 As for me, I would gladly clean off our porch 
 several times a day if a phoebe would nest here and 
 sing as sweetly, "Phoebe, phoebe," as I heard that 
 one sing. Sometimes I noticed a slight trill in the 
 second syllable of her song, like "Phoebery." She 
 
98 
 
 HOW TO HAVE BIRD NEIGHBORS 
 
 sang "Phoebe" with the inflection generally down- 
 ward; but when she trilled it, "Phoebery," the in- 
 flection was always upwards: 
 
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 KITTY WATCHING FOR MICE 
 
 ee 
 "Pee- e- 
 
 e- e- 
 
 a- e- 
 
 wee- 
 came up from the ravine, clear as a strain from a 
 flute. On my way home I saw the pewee on a fence 
 picket. Every little while he flew after an insect. 
 
MORE ABOUT THE BOY 99 
 
 then back to a picket. As I walked slowly along, 
 he flew from picket to picket ahead of me, until I 
 came to where the houses on the street begin again. 
 Then he flew back. I think that pewee and phoebe 
 must be some relation, they look so nearly alike. 
 And both sing their own names. 
 
 Another bird who sings his name is Bob White, 
 the quail. "Bob Whit el" came ringing across the 
 meadow every little while. The boy could whistle it 
 exactly the same as the bird, and they answered each 
 other back and forth. Bob White was on a fence 
 post, — a large brown bird with a stubby tail. 
 
 On Thanksgiving Day I was up at the farm again, 
 and I saw a shelter which the boy had made for the 
 winter comfort of Bob White, and other birds who 
 wished to share it. It was tent-like, made out of 
 cornstalks, the inside filled with pea vines, bean vines, 
 morning-glory vines, and several sheaves of oats. 
 Kitty was watching beside the shelter, — for mice, 
 the boy explained! 
 
 The new food house was being visited by bluejays, 
 who nibbled at the suet. A smaller feedery on a tree 
 had corn in a tray and suet in a wire pocket. This 
 feedery was much liked by downies, and small gray 
 birds with white on lower front and tail — juncos. 
 Juncos came in flocks of a dozen or more, and twit- 
 tered, "Tut, tut, tut," to each other and to us, in 
 sociable fashion. They preferred to pick up the scat- 
 terings of chickfeed on the ground, rather than perch 
 
100 
 
 HOW TO HAVE BIRD NEIGHBORS 
 
 THE NEW FOOD HOUSE WAS VISITED BY BLUEJAYS 
 
 on the tray. Both of these food stations were pro- 
 tected with tin sheeting to keep the squirrel from eat- 
 ing the birds' food. This visit at the boy's home made 
 
MORE ABOUT THE BOY 
 
 101 
 
 me wish more than ever that some day I, too, might 
 live on a farm. 
 
 On that Thanksgiving Day I had quite a surprise. 
 Some dogs came barking from the ravine. Before 
 them ran a rabbit just as fast as he could. They 
 were the dogs that had so often chased Bunny, and 
 this rabbit looked so much like Bunny, that I felt 
 sure it was he. 
 
 "There's my rabbit," said the boy, as he went to 
 chase the dogs away. I was glad to know that 
 Bunny had such a nice home, and that the boy was 
 a big brother to him also. 
 
 A FEEDERY MUCH LIKED BY DOWNY 
 
piipv-^'WE,^^m9n!'"'°'««^i»;riK«^flHH 
 
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 Ty - - - 
 
 ^^ 
 
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 ^ Va -^ 
 
 
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 M^ 
 
 A THEE TRIMMED WITH PEANUTS FOR THE BIRDS 
 
 XI 
 THE CARDINALS 
 
 Having often seen cardinals feed in poultry yards 
 with chickens, I again started to scatter chickfeed, 
 hoping to attract those beautiful birds to my house. 
 Chiclcfeed is finer than chickenfeed, and I believe the 
 birds like it better. 
 
 Every winter I trimmed up an old tree with pea- 
 nuts for the birds' Christmas, and always after a snow- 
 
 102 
 
THE CARDINALS 103 
 
 storm I tramped the snow down; then scattered the 
 feed on it, with buckwheat and sunflower seeds added. 
 
 At first only nuthatches, chickadees, and juncos 
 came to my lunches on the snow. One stormy day 
 a cardinal ventured into our front yard; but he did 
 not go near the chickfeed. Several juncos were there, 
 and maybe he wanted to be genei'ous and leave it all 
 to the smaller birds. 
 
 He kept coming nearer to the house. At last he 
 flew pell-mell into our porch. It seemed as if the 
 wind had blown him in. On a little shelf behind the 
 windshield he alighted and stayed. 
 
 After a while another bird flew to the little shelf. 
 I hadn't noticed this bird before, my attention being 
 taken up with the cardinal. This second bird was 
 reddish green. In my little bird guide I had seen 
 pictures of the two cardinals, so I knew that she was 
 the red one's mate. 
 
 The cardinal pecked at her when she went to his 
 side, and the meek little bird just clung to the shelf. 
 The next day I made a shelf for her just below his. 
 
 At dusk the cardinals returned, silently, even 
 stealthily, as though they thought it unwise to pub- 
 lish their presence. Again he was a little ahead of 
 her, and he flew to the new shelf. She alighted on 
 the edge of the upper one. After a while she tripped 
 a little farther in, to a more comfortable place. When 
 she was settled, he went to her shelf and snuggled 
 down beside her. Maybe he was sorry that he had 
 
104 HOW TO HAVE BIRD NEIGHBORS 
 
 acted so selfishly the day before. I never saw him 
 peck at her again. 
 
 Every stormy day that winter the cardinals came 
 to our porch at evening. They became so confiding 
 after a week or so that he usually announced their 
 arrival with a few low hissing notes, something like 
 "Tset, tset, tset!" Sometimes he would perch on 
 the upper shelf, sometimes on the lower. Mrs. 
 Cardinal was a peace-loving bird. She always came 
 last, and took the empty shelf. Usually he would 
 change so as to sit beside her. They were always 
 gone in the morning, no matter how early I came out; 
 and when they came in the evening it was usually 
 dusk. So I never got a picture of my cardinals on 
 the shelves. 
 
 Mr. Cardinal finally got so he sometimes came to the 
 lunch on the snow; but his favorite feedery was a 
 tray in my neighbor's yard, which I kept supplied 
 with shelled peanuts and shelled corn. The English 
 sparrows could not manage these large kernels, so 
 the cardinals had this feedery to themselves. This 
 may be the reason why they preferred it to the one 
 on the ground. 
 
 But the cardinals must have procured much of 
 their food elsewhere, for they came only about once 
 in three or four hours to get a dainty at the tray. 
 Strange to say they never came together. Always 
 he came first and ate a while, then sometimes she 
 would come, too. It seemed as if she let him come 
 
THE CARDINALS 
 
 105 
 
 THE cardinal's FAVORITE FEEDERY 
 
 first, then, seeing that he stayed, she took it for 
 granted that all was well. 
 
 In March the cardinals stopped sleeping on the 
 porch. About that time I began to hear almost 
 daily a new song. It sounded like, 
 
 "D 
 
 r gilly gilly gilly gilly!" 
 
106 HOW TO HAVE BIRD NEIGHBORS 
 
 Immediately after it there would be a loose twitter: 
 "Cliuk-chuk-chuk-chuk, " — so soft and low, it 
 seemed it must be very near. Usually it brought 
 another song from the cardinal, and presently he 
 would appear with a morsel for Mrs. Cardinal, who 
 had a favorite perch in our little pear tree. I soon 
 learned that the twitter was her response to his call. 
 The winsome sight of seeing him feed her repaid me 
 for all the money I spent for peanuts at thirteen 
 cents the pound. 
 
 The pair began now to frequent the ravine more 
 than usual. On its edge lay a log from which the 
 outer bark had been removed. Here the cardinals 
 were often to be seen, peeling and tearing off strips 
 of wood-fiber, which they bore away in long flowing 
 streamers. 
 
 One morning Mrs. Cotton came in. "Here is news 
 for you," she said. "The red bird and a greenish 
 bird are making a nest in my syringa bush." 
 
 The birds went on with their nesting for several 
 days. Then Mrs. Cotton came over again, looking 
 sad. The birds were carrying away all their nesting 
 material, she said. They had probably seen the cat, 
 had become alarmed for the safety of their home, and 
 so changed its location. 
 
 The cardinal had several songs. One was: 
 
 d d whoit whoit whoit" 
 
 "Whit whit r r 
 
THE CAKDINALS 107 
 
 Another was just plain: t t" 
 
 i i 
 
 o o 
 
 h h 
 
 "W w sung from 
 
 three to ten times in succession. Sometimes, when 
 Mrs. Cardinal did not respond promptly, he "chuk"-ed, 
 himself, in imitation of her notes. 
 
 In late August I found the cardinals' deserted nest 
 in an evergreen on the ravine's edge. It was made 
 almost entirely of this stringy wood-fiber, lined with 
 fine rootlets, and interwoven with many leaves. 
 
 I never saw but two baby cardinals of this brood. 
 They were brownish birds, and they had the red bill 
 of the parents. 
 
 After August I saw nothing more of their mother. 
 I have suspected that a boy down the street was to 
 blame; his favorite plaything was an air-gun, and 
 he had been caught shooting a brown thrasher shortly 
 before. It seems to me the laws protecting song- 
 birds ought to be taught in every school, and that 
 children should be obliged to know that shooting 
 song-birds or their young, or spoiling or stealing their 
 eggs or nest, is a crime punishable by fine or im- 
 prisonment, or both. 
 
 Father Cardinal was seen tending the young 
 faithfully until October. Then he suddenly turned 
 on them. Whenever they followed him after that he 
 drove them from him. The young found peanuts 
 
108 HOW TO HAVE BIRD NEIGHBORS 
 
 which I had chopi^ed and scattered on the ground for 
 them. But whenever Father found the young birds 
 eating these nuts, he chased them away. Once a 
 baby cardinal found a whole peanut. He bravely 
 ventured to eat it, and in the attempt got the shell 
 partly open. He was just picking a nut out, when 
 his brother tried to snatch it from him. A struggle 
 followed, during which the shell broke in two, and 
 each contestant got a kernel. In November the 
 young cardinals disappeared. 
 
 Father Cardinal's persecution of his motherless 
 children seemed unnatural, not to say cruel. Can it 
 be that he tried thus to compel his young to seek 
 their natural food, rather than to subsist on dainties 
 furnished? Did he want to encourage them to be- 
 come self-reliant and useful? Only on this theory 
 can I account for his conduct. 
 
 Our cardinal was a widower for some weeks 
 longer. Only a few times during that mild winter 
 did he come to sleep on our porch, and on those 
 occasions he came alone. Then a lady cardinal ap- 
 peared, and she followed him persistently. But he 
 wholly ignored her. Finally she began to carry food 
 to him and to feed him. Whether this be a last re- 
 sort of wooing in birddom, or not, I do not know. 
 Anyhow, Mr. Cardinal relented. The next thing, he 
 was seen to feed her whom he had treated so coolly. 
 This was a pretty sure sign tliat the two had come 
 to an understanding. Again the old log by the 
 
THE CARDINALS 
 
 109 
 
 ravine was being visited for nesting material. Again 
 all his songs rang out, and he added a new one. It 
 seemed as if he were singing over and over: 
 
 here here here here here" 
 
 "Come come Come 
 
 
 
 
 
 ■-■ '■--■'\ 
 
 
 /.. 
 
 
 
 
 \ 
 
 
 
 m 
 
 t 
 
 r 
 
 .JL. 
 
 
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 '■'-• _ 
 
 ■HMBft 
 
 r^T' ■ -«>r«r.'^f:4'-*l^?5*5^.^^2^| 
 
 TmMlMMM 
 
 fjf^ 
 
 'K%ii 
 
 ll 
 
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 > \ ;' ■ 
 
 
 
 ALWAYS MR. CARDINAL CAME FIRST AND ATE 
 
 A while; then she would follow 
 
SONG SPARROW 
 
 XII 
 MY BIRD FAMILY 
 
 A GREAT big family — that's what my bird neigh- 
 bors are to me. This large family is made up of 
 smaller families. Let me set them all down in a row: 
 There are the bluebirds, meadowlarks, killdeers, song 
 sparrows, robins, purple martins, goldfinches, wrens, 
 orioles, thrashers, thrushes, waxwings, flycatchers, 
 pewee, phoebe, and the redheaded woodpecker. Oh, 
 there is one more. I would by no means slight the 
 humble chimney swift. When I hear that "Gitse 
 gitse" twitter, then I know that they, too, have come. 
 From early March when the first bluebird arrives, 
 until late May when pewee comes, I am like a mother 
 who waits at evening, unsatisfied until all her chil- 
 dren are in for the night, \^^len I hear the call of 
 the latest comer, the sweet-voiced pewee, then I 
 know that my absent ones have all returned. 
 
 Add to these the Bob Whites, the cardinals, blue- 
 no 
 
MY BIRD FAMILY 111 
 
 jays, and flickers, who stay the year round, and the 
 chickadees, nuthatches, downy and hairy woodpeckers, 
 and juncos, who come in autumn to spend the winter, 
 and you have my bird family, a wonderful family, 
 of musicians, of workmen, of homemakers — fathers 
 and mothers and children. 
 
 To me the ways of birds are more entertaining than 
 the best play I have ever attended. They enact real 
 life, not make-believes. Then, too, what music can 
 be compared to the sunrise and sunset concerts of 
 birds in springtime and in early summer.'' To know 
 each singer by name adds much to the enjoyment. 
 
 The ways of birds are also wonderful, past finding 
 out. Who can explain how they make their nests 
 so pretty, when the only tools they have are beak 
 and feet.'' Then, how gingerly they hide their nests, 
 some with dainty curtains of leaves, others by blend- 
 ing colors! To find a bird's nest alwaj's fills me with 
 reverence. It is a little home, a sacred place to its 
 owners. It shall be sacred to me. The mother-wit 
 and father-wisdom that birds show in rearing their 
 young and in protecting them from harm makes me 
 believe that they do think and plan and reason out 
 things much as we human beings do. The most 
 wonderful thing about birds is the long journey that 
 so many of them make every year, generally with 
 several babies only a few months old in the family. 
 
 It has been proved that birds will return year after 
 year to the same orchard, garden, yard, or porch. I 
 
112 HOW TO HAVE BIKD NEIGHBORS 
 
 know my birds by their actions. I do not need to tie 
 bands on their legs to know them. When they return 
 they visit all their familiar haunts, not cautiously as 
 a stranger would, but boldly, and with the joyousness 
 of those who have returned home after a long absence. 
 They call to me as if they would say: "Here we 
 are again! Are you still here, too.''" 
 
 Then what curiosity they display when they find 
 a new bath! How they fly over and around it, try- 
 ing to satisfy themselves that it is a safe place to 
 alight! What joy they express by their splashing! 
 
 It was while taking her bath that Mother Oriole 
 was caught one day by the camera. Most wonderful 
 to tell, her own babies whom she often brought with 
 her took this picture. How did they do it.'' They 
 tried to perch on the thread leading from the camera 
 over to the house, where I sat waiting for Mrs. 
 Oriole to come out of the water before taking her 
 picture. The thread was not strong enough to hold 
 the young birds. They went down with it, and in so 
 doing snapped the spring which operated the shutter. 
 This took the picture of Mother Oriole in the bath. 
 
 Those of my bird family who inhabit houses are 
 sure every spring to find either some new houses, or 
 their old ones cleaned and repaired. 
 
 I always keep two houses up for bluebirds, and 
 several for wrens. It is pleasant to watch them make 
 their choice, and after a fledging they can set up 
 housekeeping again in the same house, or take 
 
MY BIRD FAMILY 
 
 113 
 
 
 m'^"^ 
 
 ^^ 
 
 
 
 
 
 
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 s. 
 
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 ^'^,^^*^^ v'^iT^M'\' 
 
 41 
 
 .'■;;:^:„^#;^\:)'^ii> 
 
 Hi 
 
 MOTHER ORIOLE IN THE BATH 
 
 another. My experience has been that birds become 
 attached to a house where they have safely fledged 
 a brood, and if it is promptly cleaned they will re- 
 turn to it, rather than try a new one. But I have 
 known instances where a pair began a second nest- 
 ing before the young of their first brood were fledged. 
 In such a case an extra house is convenient. 
 
 My bluebird house is five by seven inches,^ and is 
 so shaped as to afl^ord depth. Sufficient height is 
 
 ' These dimensions have been accepted and approved not only by 
 my own bluebird neighbors, but by a bluebird pair reported in Bird 
 Lore for July-August, 1916, as having nested in a cemetery, in an earthen 
 jar that lay upon its side on a grave. The report goes: "The jar 
 measured five inches across the bottom and about seven inches in 
 length." There it is: five by seven! 
 
114 HOW TO HAVE BIRD NEIGHBORS 
 
 secured by means of a gable roof; and a half-inch 
 hole immediately under the roof affords ventilation. 
 
 The bluebird covers the floor of her house with 
 grasses to the depth of about an inch and a half. 
 Away back against the rear wall she makes the little 
 hollow in which she lays her eggs. I make her en- 
 trance one inch and a half in diameter, and just 
 below the middle front. While brooding she can 
 look outside, and this affords her some diversion 
 during that monotonous task. This certainly seemed 
 to be what one bluebird aimed at who nested in 
 Mrs. Daily's wren house. The wad of grasses in 
 that house reached clear up to the entrance, which 
 was about four inches above the floor. Apparently 
 this bird had tried to build her nest high enough so 
 she could look outside. 
 
 Wrens alwaj's make a litter several inches high of 
 twigs and other materials. In' this litter they embed 
 their nest of fine grasses and feathers. Hence I con- 
 clude that they want their entrance several inches 
 above the floor, so that, on going in, they can walk 
 over the litter and do not have to grope through it. 
 Being small birds they need only a small house. 
 After years of experimenting I have settled on five 
 inches by seven for wrens also, but their house is so 
 shaped as to afford height. The sides run up at the 
 back to twelve inches. A half -inch hole high on 
 each side affords ventilation. I make the entrance 
 one inch and an eighth in diameter, just too small 
 
MY BIRD FAMILY 115 
 
 for the English sparrow, but large enough to serve 
 some other small bird should no wrens come. A 
 smaller entrance makes it difficult for wrens to get 
 in their bulky nesting materials. My wrens raised 
 three broods in their little house in the pear tree last 
 summer. 
 
 A friend of mine bought a wren house which has 
 a low entrance. Some wrens nested in it. One day 
 Father Wren was very much excited, but no one could 
 understand what was the trouble. The next day, 
 believing that the wrens had fledged their young, my 
 friend ordered the house to be cleaned. To her 
 horror she found Mother Wren wedged in among the 
 nesting, dead. The babies were dead in their nest. 
 Evidently their increasing weight had settled the 
 nesting materials so the mother could not get out any 
 more and neither could Father Wren go in. Let this 
 be a warning to all who make wren houses, to make 
 the entrance several inches above the floor! 
 
 My houses for wrens and bluebirds are so made 
 that they can be easily opened after use, and cleaned. 
 The front on the wren house can be raised, that on 
 the bluebird house lowered. By means of a screw 
 eye, the front is securely closed while the house is in 
 use. 
 
 Of late I have also used an open shelter. It con- 
 sists of a tray about five inches square, roofed over, 
 and serves two purposes. For winter use I fasten a 
 small wire pocket on it, into which I put beef suet. 
 
116 
 
 HOW TO HAVE BIRD NEIGHBORS 
 
 so MADE THAT THEY CAN BE EASILY OPENED AFTER USE 
 AND CLEANED 
 
 Then I mount this shelter about five feet high on a 
 tree. Around the trunk I fasten strings of peanuts; 
 in the tray I keep shelled corn, of which cardinals 
 are especially fond. The English sparrow does not 
 care for the suet, and as he cannot manage the corn 
 nor the peanuts, this feedery attracts only desirable 
 
MY BIRD FAMILY 117 
 
 birds. In March I remove the wire pocket, and 
 mount the shelter a few feet higher, to serve as a 
 nest shelter for robins. The roof will ward off heavy 
 rains, which destroy so many robin's nests. A 
 similar shelter, if fastened in the shade on a wall, 
 might attract phoebes. 
 
 When one starts out to make bird houses he should 
 decide first of all what birds he wishes to attract by 
 means of them. Booklets containing drawings and 
 instructions for making houses for many kinds of 
 house-nesting birds can be had free by addressing a 
 postcard to the Biological Survey, Washington, D.C. 
 
 Whoever tries to attract birds should also protect 
 them from storms, from their natural enemies, and 
 from meddlesome people. Birds will sometimes re- 
 ject a good house because it is not properly mounted, 
 or because the location is objectionable. The boy 
 and I visited a park lately where about a hundred 
 bird houses had been put up, and but a few were said 
 to be occupied. These houses were so constructed 
 that, by turning a cleat underneath, the floor could 
 be pulled down and out. If occupied, opening them 
 in this way might have disturbed the nest. We 
 visited twenty -five of these houses. All except two 
 were mounted so low that the boy could reach them, 
 some with ease, and turn those cleats. Only the two 
 which he could not reach were occupied. 
 
 Some people have recommended tin cans as nest 
 boxes for small birds. I have tried the tin can, care- 
 
118 
 
 HOW TO HAVE BIRD NEIGHBORS 
 
 fully painted and placed in the shade. But, even with 
 these precautions, I would discourage its use. People 
 are so apt to forget about placing it in the shade! I 
 have seen birds' nests in tin cans with little skeletons 
 embedded in them, the birds having been smothered 
 by the intense heat which metal will store. 
 
 Enough wooden boxes are discarded by grocers, 
 druggists, and other merchants to stock the country 
 every year witli l)ird houses. If our fathers and 
 mothers will encourage the making of these discards 
 
 into bird houses, shelters, 
 and feederies, it will 
 mark a step forward in 
 bird protection. 
 
 Food houses should be 
 protected so that other 
 animals cannot mount 
 and monopolize them, 
 keeping the birds at bay. 
 The red squirrel will do 
 this unless the food tray 
 is at least five feet above 
 ground and the post well 
 sheathed in tin. 
 
 My newest food house 
 has the lid of a cheese 
 box as tray and the top 
 FOOD HOUSE, MADE OUT OF of a sugar barrel as roof. 
 WASTE MATERIALS This flat surface is a 
 
MY BIRD FAMILY 119 
 
 handy place for a basin of water. In each of the four 
 pillars supporting the roof is a hole, to be stuffed with 
 suet, cheese, peanut butter, etc. My grocer saves the 
 drippings from his peanut grinder for my birds, so 
 there is no extravagance in giving them this dainty. 
 Song sparrows and bluebirds like it as well as the 
 woodpeckers. On the side of the tray I tack nesting 
 material. So this food house, made out of waste 
 materials, serves several uses. The boy liked it so 
 well he patterned one after it for his birds. 
 
 Every autumn a lisping, whispered, dreamy bird 
 song coming from some low elevation has puzzled me. 
 The bird looked like the song sparrow, but this soft 
 warble was so different from his spirited spring and 
 summer songs that I could not believe my eyes. 
 After repeated autumn entries in my notebook, "I see 
 his heavy breastspot heave and swell, and his tail 
 quiver as the song sparrow's always does when he 
 sings," I was gratified to find my findings confirmed by 
 another observer.^ The singer was the song sparrow. 
 
 But to return to my bird familj'. 
 
 From the time the first birds arrive in the spring 
 until they leave again, my notebook and my field 
 glasses are my constant companions. Now here are 
 some little nature secrets. My notebook is a green 
 one. I have to buy the paper in large sheets of the 
 wholesaler, and make the books myself. A green 
 
 1 Chas. R. Wallace of Delaware, Ohio, in Bird Lore, March-April, 
 1915, p. 128. 
 
120 HOW TO HAVE BIRD NEIGHBORS 
 
 notebook on my lap does not make such a striking 
 patch on the Umdscape as a white one would. The 
 birds do not notice it so readily. Then, whenever I 
 am out "birding," except in winter, I wear green 
 clothes. When taking pictures I use green focusing 
 cloths instead of the usual black ones. These things 
 are great helps in bird studj'. 
 
 There now! For the first time in this book I have 
 used the word "study" in connection with birds. 
 Some people think they must study volumes on or- 
 nithology before they can enjoy birds. Nothing 
 could be farther from the truth. 
 
 Even the little tot in a family maj^ have an inter- 
 est in his bird neighbors that will provide him whole- 
 some pastime. I know one who, ever since he could 
 walk well, has faithfully kept the birds' bath in the 
 yard supplied with fresh water, and who saves all the 
 table scraps for them. He wears an Audubon button 
 and says he is "the birdies' policeman." 
 
 Love, look, listen, appreciate; let these be your 
 watchwords. Just love the birds. Look, as long as 
 they remain in sight. Observe their ways and their 
 appearance. Listen to their songs. Try to know 
 your immediate bird neighbors by appearance, name, 
 and song. Do them a kindness when possible. This 
 will lead up to recognition of birds, which creates a 
 desire for study of them. The rest will follow. You 
 will begin to record observations. You will 7insh for 
 field glasses and bird books. You will umnt to spend 
 
MY BIRD FAMILY 
 
 121 
 
 your holidays and your vacations where you can see 
 birds. Before you realize it you will be one of those 
 happiest of individuals, a nature lover, as all true 
 bird lovers are. It cannot be otherwise, because the 
 birds will draw you out to nature at all times, and 
 make you see her in all her moods. 
 
 Then some day, when everybody loves birds, 
 perhaps they will no longer hide their nests, and 
 may even fly to us, instead of away from us. 
 
THE BIEDIES POLICEMAN 
 
GLOSSARY 
 
 apartment, room, living quarters. 
 
 Audubon, John James Audubon, noted student of bird life, 
 authority, one who has commanding knowledge of a sub- 
 ject. 
 
 berating, scolding. 
 
 Berlepsch, family name of a nobleman who was noted for 
 
 his kindness to birds, 
 bewildered, confused, 
 birdling, a baby bird, 
 blending, mixing, 
 bluster, play the bully, 
 bungalow, a one-story house. 
 
 chickfeed, a mixture of cracked grain. 
 
 clamber, climb awkwardly. 
 
 commotion, disturbance. 
 
 conjecture, guess, suppose. 
 
 convenient, suitable, handy. 
 
 cornice, the fancy topmost part of a wall, usually over- 
 hanging. 
 
 courageous, full of courage, brave. 
 
 craw, the crop; part of a bird's throat through which his 
 food passes. 
 
 crouching, lying flat or very close to the ground. 
 
 delving, making holes by digging; working hard, 
 demonstration, a show, 
 distinguished, notable, unusually fine, 
 distressed, troubled. 
 
 123 
 
124 GLOSSAEY 
 
 entice, coax, persuade, 
 evidently, plainly, clearly. 
 
 fetch, go and bring back. 
 
 fledge, (fl bird) to reach the age when its feathers are grown, 
 
 so that it can fly; to care for a bird until it reaches that 
 
 age. 
 fledgling, young bird, just out of the nest. 
 forage, seek for food, 
 frantic, wild with fear or alarm, or even with joy. 
 
 genial, friendly, kindly, 
 gingerly, cautiously, carefully. 
 goal, the place one is going to. 
 guttural, throaty, hoarse. 
 
 hepatica, a spring flower, also called liverwort. 
 
 inflection, change in the pitch of the voice. 
 
 insanitary, unhealthful. 
 
 inspect, examine, look into. 
 
 intruder, a meddler, outsider, stranger. 
 
 larvae, caterpillars, grubs. 
 lore, knowledge. 
 
 mandible, a jaw, upper or lower, especially of a beak or bill, 
 manicure stick, a small smooth stick of orange wood, used 
 
 in caring for the finger naUs. 
 matins, morning songs. 
 menace, danger, 
 minor tone, low, soft, sad tone, 
 minstrel, a traveling musician. 
 monopolize, to own, to possess alone, 
 monotonous, tiresome, 
 morsel, a moutliful, a bit of food. 
 
GLOSSARY 125 
 
 Neufchatel, a city in Switzerland famed for the manufac- 
 ture of cheeses, 
 nimble, active, 
 notional, full of notions, whimsical, " cranky." 
 
 obedient, willing to obey, dutiful, 
 odious, disagreeable, unpopular, offensive, 
 opportunity, chance, 
 ornithology, the scientific study of birds. 
 
 pastime, amusement, play, 
 pergola, garden house. 
 
 persecution, pursuit with the object of punishing or hurt- 
 ing. 
 pilfering, thieving, 
 pleading, begging. 
 plumage, feathers. 
 
 preen, smooth down feathers with the beak, 
 premises, piece of land belonging to somebody, 
 primitive, old-fashioned, 
 prospect, view, outlook, scene, 
 provisions, food. 
 
 rasping, harsh, grating. 
 
 ravine, small valley made by running water. 
 
 relent, yield, give in, forgive. 
 
 revenge, return of evil for evil. 
 
 revive, bring back to life. 
 
 rippling, moving up and down or back and forth, like water. 
 
 rung, step (of a ladder) . 
 
 sanctuary, refuge, shelter, place of protection. 
 
 serene, quiet, calm. 
 
 sibilant, high, piercing, hissing notes. 
 
126 GLOSSARY 
 
 soot, a fine black powder left by smoke on the inside of 
 
 chimneys, 
 stealthily, secretly, 
 subdued, overcome, quieted, 
 subsist, live on. 
 suet, beef fat. 
 syringa bush, an ornamental shrub with very sweet white 
 
 blossoms. 
 
 tapering, narrowing to a point. 
 
 temporary, for a short time. 
 
 tenants, dwellers, occupants. 
 
 tethered, tied, leashed, hitched to a post or weight. 
 
 tinker, work at anything in an unskilled way. 
 
 tin-sheathed, enclosed in tin slieeting. 
 
 tolerate, put up with, endure. 
 
 transfer, remove. 
 
 trellis, lattice work for vines to grow on. 
 
 trilling, quavering (said of singing). 
 
 underbrush, small trees and bushes growing under large 
 trees in a wood. 
 
 ventilation, letting in fresh air. 
 venture, risk, attempt, 
 vespers, evening songs. 
 vigilant, watchful, 
 vise, clamp. 
 
 winsome, charming, pleasing. 
 
 yodeling, warbhng, singing with frequent changes from 
 high to low and low to high. 
 
DIRECTIONS FOR MAKING BIRD 
 HOUSES 
 
 The figures given below are based on J2" lumber, except the 
 backs of wren and bluebird houses and the base and roof of martin 
 house, which should be |" thick. 
 
 Back 
 
 Sides 
 
 Front 
 
 Fltior Roof Entrance 
 
 Air Hole 
 
 Bluebird 4"xl0" 
 
 5"x7" 
 
 4"x5" 
 
 4"x5j" 5"x8" l§"dia. 
 
 J" dia. 
 
 house 
 
 
 and 7 " 
 
 4j"x8" in 
 gable middle 
 front 
 
 in 
 peak of 
 gable 
 
 Wren 4"xl4" 
 
 5"x7" 
 
 4"x7" 
 
 3i"xi" 7"x8" 11" dia. 
 
 2" dia. 
 
 house 
 
 and 12" 
 
 
 sloping 5" 
 above 
 floor 
 
 in 
 each 
 peak 
 
 For picture of bluebird house, see inside back cover; for picture 
 of wren house, see page 39. The sides of both houses are nailed 
 to the edges of the back in such a way as to let the back project 
 below, about one inch. 
 
 In the bluebird house, the upper edges of the sides should be 
 beveled to fit the slope of the roof. The front of this house is 
 hinged upon a one-inch brad driven in, on each side, a half-inch 
 above the lower corner. To enable the front to swing downward, 
 as shown on page 116, the floor must be fastened in place three- 
 fourths of an inch above the lower edge of the sides. Before 
 nailing on the roof, see that the front swings easily. Bore half- 
 inch holes in the projecting back below and above, for wire to run 
 through to strap the house in place. Add a perch of doweling a 
 half inch below the entrance. See figure on inside back cover. 
 
 The wren house is also provided with a swinging front, hinged 
 like that of the bluebird house, but with the brads placed one inch 
 from the upper corners so that it opens up instead of down. This 
 is shown on page 116. The upper part of the back of wren house 
 is planed flush with the sloping sides, and the roof is planed flush 
 with the back. The air holes on each side will also serve for wire 
 
 127 
 
128 
 
 HOW TO HAVE BIRD NEIGHBORS 
 
 THE FINISHED MAKTIN HOUSE RAISING THE IIARTIN HOUSE 
 
 to run through. Other holes for this purpose should be bored in 
 the projecting back at the bottom. Again see figure on page 116. 
 Add a perch of doweling a half inch below the entrance. 
 
 The holes in the backs should be about an inch apart on the 
 surface and should be bored at an angle, so as to lead the wire 
 snugly around the trunk. When the houses are put up for use, the 
 front of each is securely closed by means of a screw eye on the side, 
 which can be easily removed for the purpose of cleaning. Bluebird 
 and wren houses should be in shade or part shade, about ten feet 
 above ground, and mounted so that the upper part tilts slightly 
 forward. 
 
 -, Box for „ „ , ^ , „ 
 
 ifa.yc , noovis tmrancRU I Die J Posl.i 
 
 loivrr .■ilorij 
 
 Miirtin 30"x30" 7"x20".k20" 6".\6"x7" 2|" dia. 4."xe"xl(i' t."x6"xll' 
 hou.ye 1" above 
 
 floor 
 
 In the center of the base a hole 4" x G" is cut to fit tjie pole 
 upon which the house is to be mounted. Two cleats are nailed 
 underneath the base, crosswise of the boards and plumb with 
 either side of the 4" X 6" hole. The box for the lower story is 
 partitioned into nine compartments, each 6" square and 7" liigh. 
 This gives eight outside rooms and a central space through which 
 the pole may go. In order to provide ventilation near the ceiling, 
 
DIRECTIONS FOR BIRD HOUSES 129 
 
 make the partitions only G}^" high. Thej' need not be nailed, but 
 may be dovetailed, like partitions in an egg box. 
 
 To make the house so it can be easily opened, for cleaning or 
 to rout the English sparrows, fasten the box for lower story in the 
 center of the base by means of screw eyes and hooks, two on a side. 
 The projecting part of the base will form a 5"-wide porch all around, 
 a convenience wliich martins greatly enjoy. The ceiling is allowed 
 to project 23^" at the front and back to form porches for the upper 
 rooms. Add a gable ample enough to afford at each end a room 
 C" wide and 7" high. In the upper end of the partition between 
 these two rooms, cut a hole 2,V2" in diameter. The reason for 
 this is stated on page 88, paragraph 2. The slanting roof should 
 project 2J^" all around. Finish it with a flat top as shown in the 
 first cut on page 128. Add posts 1" X 1" X 4" on which to staple 
 wire or doweling as perches for the martins. Fasten these little 
 posts to the flat roof by screws from beneath, before nailing it to 
 the house. 
 
 Now fit the pole to the central space and screw it securely to the 
 cleats under the base, and the pole with the house on it is ready to 
 be set up. The martin house should be at least fifty feet away 
 from a tree or building, and fifteen feet above ground. 
 
 To mount the martin house so it can be easily let down to be 
 cleaned or to rout the English sparrows, place the two posts four 
 inches apart and have them at least six feet high. Set the pole 
 holding the martin house between them and secure it with two 
 bolts about four feet apart, the lower bolt being 13 2 feet from the 
 ground. To lower the house, remove the lower bolt and tilt the 
 pole, as shown in the second cut on page 128. The posts should 
 be creosoted and sunk five feet in cement. 
 
 Tliis cut shows a block and tackle being used to tilt the pole. 
 A further precaution against having the house crash to the ground 
 would be a shears made of rough two by four scanthng, which can 
 be obtained in twelve-foot lengths. In making the shears, bolt 
 the scantlings two feet from the top with an ordinary half-inch 
 carriage bolt, and tie the bottoms so the legs will not spread too 
 much. 
 
INDEX 
 
 Bird Calls: Baltimore Oriole, 73. 
 
 Bluebird, 29, 3i, 34, 3.5, .56. 
 
 Bluejay, ,52. 
 
 Bob White, 99. 
 
 Brown Tlirashcr, 7.5. 
 
 Cardinal, 104-107, 109. 
 
 Cedar Waxwing, 94. 
 
 Chickadee, 16. 
 
 Chimney Swift, .59, 64, 06, 67, 
 110. 
 
 Crested Flycatcher, 96. 
 
 Downy Woodpecker, 12. 
 
 Flicker, 48-50. 
 
 Goldfinch, .56, 76, 77. 
 
 Junco, 99. 
 
 Killdeer, 52. 
 
 Meadowlark, 54. 
 
 Nuthatch, 14. 
 
 Pewee, 98. 
 
 Phoebe, 97, 98. 
 
 Purple Martin, 80, 84, 85, 89. 
 
 Redheaded Woodpecker, 73. 
 
 Song Sparrow, 54, 119. 
 
 Wood Thru.sh, 50. 
 
 Wren, 4, 8, 38, 41. 
 Blackbird, 75. 
 Bluebird, 18-20, 24-.35, 45, 46, 
 
 54-.5(), 110, 112-115, 119. 
 Bluejay, 17, ,52, 99, 100, 110. 
 Bob White, 98, 99, 110. 
 Boy, The, 18, 19, 38, 44-01, 07, 90, 
 
 92-101, 117. 
 Bunny (See Rabbit). 
 
 Canary, Wild (See Goldfinch). 
 
 Cardinal, 102-110. 
 
 Cat, 9, 10, 23-26, 32, 40, 41, 45, 
 
 57, 69, 70, 99, 106. 
 Chickadee, 16, 17, 20, 46, 52, 56, 
 
 103, 111. 
 
 Dog, 21, 22, 101. 
 
 Eggs, 8, 38, 47, 55, 60, 82, 107. 
 
 Flicker, 47-50, 111. 
 
 Flycatcher, Crested, 94-96, 110. 
 
 Food for Birds, 2, 3, 5-8, 12-17, 23, 
 24, 33, 34, 47, 52, 58, 60, 64- 
 67, 73-75, 83, 90, 92, 93, 
 99-104, 107, 108, 11.5-119. 
 
 Foodhouses, 93, 94, 99, 100, 115- 
 119. 
 
 Goldfinch, 56, 73, 75-77, 110. 
 
 Hawk, 85, 80, 90. 
 Hawk, Marsh, 48. 
 Helps in Bird Study, 11, 72, 119, 120. 
 
 .Tunco, 99, 103, 111. 
 
 Killdeer, 47, 52, 53, 110. 
 Kitty {See Cat). 
 
 A[artin, Purple, 40, 47, 58, 78-91, 
 
 110. 
 Meadcjwiark, 54, III). 
 
 130 
 
INDEX 
 
 131 
 
 Nest and Nestings: Baltimore 
 Oriole, 73. 
 Bluebird, 30-32, 35, 38, 45, 54- 
 
 56. 
 Bluejay, 52. 
 
 Brown Thrasher, 74, 75. 
 Cardinal, 106, 107, 109. 
 Cedar Waxwing, 94, 96, 97. 
 Chimney Swift, 59, 61-63. 
 Flicker, 48. 
 
 Goldfinch, 56, 75, 76. 
 Killdeer, 53, 54. 
 Phoebe, 97. 
 
 Purple Martin, 78, 82. 
 Redheaded Woodpecker, 73. 
 Robin, 3, 8, 9, 68, 69. 
 Wood Thrush, 50, 51. 
 Wren, 3-5, 8, 36-43, 45. 
 Nesthouses, 17-20, 24-26, 29-31, 
 111-115, 117, 118. 
 Berlepsch house, 94-96. 
 Bluebird, 18, 19, 25-27, 29-32, 
 
 35, 46, 112-115. 
 Chickadee, 46. 
 Crested Flycatcher, 94-96. 
 Purple Martin, 46, 78-91. 
 Woodpecker, 46. 
 Wren, 3-5, 18-20, 26, 29, 36-43, 
 45, 46, 112, 114, 115. 
 Nest Shelter, 117. 
 Nuthatch, 14-16, 103, 111. 
 
 Oriole, 58, 72, 73, 110, 112. 
 
 Pewee, 98, 99, 110. 
 Phrebe, 97, 98, 110, 117. 
 
 Pigeon, 2. 
 
 Protection, 10, 15, 23-27, 30, 32, 
 38, 45, 48, 56, 69-71, 117. 
 
 Rabbit, 21-23, 101. 
 Robin, 2, 3, 8-11, 47, 58, 68-71, 
 110, 117. 
 
 Sparrow, English, 2, 25-27, 32, 
 .35, 37, 38, 40, 45, 54, 56, 
 79-82, 84, 80, 88, 115, 116. 
 
 Sparrow, Song, 54, 92, 93, 110, 119. 
 
 Squirrel, Gray, 25. 
 
 Squirrel, Red, 15, 24-27, 45. 69, 118. 
 
 Swallow (.S'c<! Swift and Purple 
 Martin). 
 
 Swift, Chimney, 59-67, 110. 
 
 Thrasher, Brown, 58, 73-75, 110. 
 Thrush, Wood, 47, 50, 51, 110. 
 
 Waxwing, Cedar, 94, 96, 97, 110. 
 Woodpecker, 2, 11-14, 17, 20, 46, 
 
 52, 119. 
 Woodpecker, Downy, 11-14, 23, 
 
 111. 
 Woodpecker, Goldenwinged (See 
 
 Flicker). 
 Woodpecker, Hairy, 12, 111. 
 Woodpecker, Redheaded, 58, 73, 74, 
 
 110. 
 Wren, 3-8, 11, 18-20, 24, 26, 29, S3, 
 
 36-43, 45, 110, 112, 114, 
 
 115.