HOMES NEAR TO NATURE 



bird, there is nothing tedious in the 

 study, for hardly a day passes without 

 some delightful surprise having added 

 to your store of bird-lore. There al- 

 ways remain many birds you have not 

 yet identified; many songs heard while 

 the singer has kept hidden from view 

 making it impossible to know postively 

 from which bird the song came. Then 

 birds as individuals vary quite as much 

 as human beings vary; and it is great 

 fun to watch the extraordinary differ- 

 ence in the characteristics of two birds 



while I sat only a few feet away, talk- 

 ing over the telephone. I have attract- 

 ed birds that had never before made 

 their homes near my place, but that 

 accepted invitations the very first year 

 that I issued them. I have learned 

 from the books that orioles generally 

 select elm trees for their hanging- 

 basket-nests ; and I wondered why all 

 the beautiful elms I am lucky in pos- 

 sessing, had not attracted numbers of 

 these gorgeous singers. 



So one spring about five years ago 



THE PALM WALK IS A REVELRY OF NATURE. 



of the same family. There is all the 

 time something new to learn about the 

 birds. It is seven or eight vears since 

 I first took an interest in them and I 

 am just as keen as ever. I could fill 

 a small book with interesting exper- 

 iences ; yet I have not had the good 

 fortune to tame any bird so as to be 

 able to handle it ; but I have had a song 

 sparrow feed on a piazza floor within 

 a few inches of my feet ; and once a 

 brave little fellow flew in the window 

 of my sitting room and hopped leis- 

 urely about the floor searching for food 



towards the end of April I cut up a 

 quantity of silk floss, colored worsted 

 embroidery cotton, colored tie-strings 

 and walked about tossing the bits here 

 and there, dropping them on the grass 

 catching them to the shrubbery and low 

 branches of trees, with the result that 

 orioles promptly accepted my invita- 

 tion and many pairs now nest on the 

 place every year. I decided that some- 

 thing must be lacking, since I had no 

 house wrens : I discovered some nest- 

 ing in a stone wall near-by, so I knew 

 they could not dislike the locality I 



