128 Wild Bird Guests 



only this morning, September 19, 1914. A little 

 band of chickadees came into our lilac bushes, 

 and thence flew down to a bird bath made from 

 a huge shell and took their baths. Mrs. Baynes 

 went out and called them, and two of them 

 alighted upon her at once. One was dingy in 

 color and somewhat dishevelled, and looked as 

 though it might have just finished a very tedi- 

 ous nesting season. The other looked very 

 clean and fresh and by its voice alone we 

 knew it to be a young one. On the left leg of 

 the dingy one was a tiny aluminum band, and 

 as the bird preened its feathers we could read 

 on this band the number. Instantly we knew 

 her for an old friend of ours. Year before last 

 she nested in a Berlepsch nest box in our garden, 

 and was so tame, doubtless because we had fed 

 her the winter before, that she came straight 

 from the nest to Mrs. Baynes' hand for nut- 

 meat. On one occasion I went up a ladder to the 

 nest box, and this bird alighted at the entrance 

 hole. She was so fearless that I put my hand 

 gently over her, and placed the little band upon 

 her leg. That was over two years ago and here 

 she was back again, fearless as ever, and with a 

 young one, very likely one of her own. 



Some of us feed the birds all the year round, 

 because we like to see them about. Moreover, 



