SS4 KNOWING BIRDS THROUGH STORIES 



all winter in the deep woods along Skunk River. Blue- 

 birds sometimes did the same thing, tho I do not believe 

 as many bluebirds did this as robins. The only bluebird I 

 ever saw in the dead of winter was in the thick under- 

 brush in an oak grove. These oaks did not shed their 

 leaves and consequently made an almost perfect wind 

 break. Brush so thick had grown up under those trees one 

 could scarcely get through it. The last drumming part- 

 ridge I ever saw killed in Iowa flew into this wilderness 

 of brush and trees, and while we were creeping through 

 the snow looking for it what should we see sitting on a 

 stump but a bluebird, looking like some beautiful blue 

 flower on a background of white. Perhaps the few blue- 

 birds that usually came about our homes the last of Febru- 

 ary or the flrst of March had stayed in such places all 

 winter. At any rate it was usually two or three weeks 

 after we saw the first bluebirds before they became 

 common. 



Like other children, sister and I always delighted to 

 hunt bird's nests, and the prize of them all was a blue- 

 bird's. We had been taught that it was wrong to take the 

 eggs or in any way to break up a nest, and we seldom did 

 so, but we often looked at the eggs and helped feed the 

 young birds. There are some birds that will promptly 

 desert their nest if it is bothered before the eggs are 

 hatched, and there are a few that will even desert their 

 young, but this was not true of mother bluebird. We 

 birds these were, and so seldom touched their eggs or 

 young, but this was not true of mother bluebird. We 

 never hesitated to handle the bluebird's eggs, but we were 

 careful not to do this more than once or twice in any nest, 

 and of course were most careful not to break the eggs. 



