Bird - Lore 



On another wall of the house in which the landlord lives is a flat box that 

 has served for several years as a foundation for the nest of a pair of Robins. 

 Here the mother bird "securely rears her young" — two broous each summer. 

 No neighbor's skulking cat has been able to disturb her, for she is out of his 

 reach. No pugnacious Bluebird, or darting Hawk, flies under the porch roof, to 

 invade her quiet home. A bird of peace, herself, she lives and toils in peace. 

 She, also, has posed, though rather unwillingly, for photographs — the only rental 

 the landlord asks of his tenants. In the first picture she is admiring her four Httle 

 ones, which are yet too small to show above the walls of the nest. But, later, 



they had sufficiently thrived on 



their diet of grubs and worms to 



^; .■- . be clearly in evidence when break- 



■mp fast was read}-. The mud worm 



which one favored, or rather, early 

 bird tried to swallow fell into 

 its throat like a coiled rope, 

 and threatened to choke it. The 

 watchful mother again seized it, 

 and safely lowered it down in a 

 straight line. 



One morning, after these birds 

 i^K ^Km Mim^m. vlj ^^^ ^^^^ home, the landlord was 



!^^"-' MU^^Hi ^(Ik watching them bathing in the foun- 



tain near-by, into which one of the 

 young birds tumbled. Looking up, 

 he saw the Robin's nest preempted 

 ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ by a Barn Swallow. The bird was 



■■iV' ^^^^^^^^^^^BH^ twisting itself about the 



^^^^^^^^^ just as its former occupant had done 



in making it round and smooth. 

 PROTECTION "Y\\t Swallow made a ludicrous 



appearance in the nest, which was doubly large for it; and when its ceased its 

 gyrations for a moment to get breath, nothing showed except the ends of its 

 forked tail and the tips of its primaries. Evidently, the Barn Swallow had been 

 working for some time on its new home, for the nest, showed a layer of mud built 

 partially around the top of the walls. Though the Robin's nest was at first much 

 too large for the Swallow, the landlord concluded that this additional mud wall 

 was the result of the building instinct that even prompts our domestic fowl to 

 throw pieces of hay over her back and around her sides, when thrown off the 

 nest where she is determined to sit. But the work of the claim-, or nest-jum- 

 per, was thrown away; for the next morning disclosed the rightful owner in full 

 possession, hning the old nest with dried grass. In four days more, as many eggs 

 were laid and in due time they added another fjuartet to young Robinhood. 



