304> KNOWING BIRDS THROUGH STORIES 



An interesting thing about these nests was that the birds 

 would spend three or four days piling sticks here and 

 there until they became satisfied that they had done their 

 duty. Then they carried just enough hairs and feathers 

 into the skull to make a snug warm nest without attempt- 

 ing to take any sticks in at all. I never could imderstand 

 why they should carry to such places a lot of sticks which 

 they could never use. 



Sally always looked upon the kitchen garden as her 

 special domain, and made it a business to attack on sight 

 any other bird that dared enter its sacred precincts. This 

 garden was a full hundred yards from her nest, but ex- 

 perience taught there might be luscious cabbage worms on 

 every head of cabbage or bunch of lettuce in that garden, 

 and from dark till daylight there were seldom fifteen min- 

 utes she was not to be seen searching those plants for 

 worms. 



Sally usually laid seven eggs at a clutch, though one 

 time I found nine in a nest. As the eggs almost always 

 hatch, it is no wonder that Sally and her husband had to 

 visit the cabbage patch frequently. They became so tame 

 that they went about their household duties without pay- 

 ing the least attention even tho I was standing within 

 ten feet. The hammock was not twenty feet from the well 

 end it was interesting to lie there and count the worms car- 

 ried to the nest in an hour, and to learn what kinds they 

 were. Sally fed her young three or four different species 

 of ^^measuring worm,'' caterpillars, at least two varieties 

 of cut worms, an occasional grasshopper, and perhaps a 

 few other small insects, but her main reliance was on cab- 

 bage worms. Five times out of six she would bring a 

 green one to her young. A fair estimate of the number 



