Why Do Birds Bathe? 127 



rim of the pan to which they seem to have difficult}' in clinging while they 

 dip their heads two or three times into the water, and then suddenly plunge in 

 and make a thorough job of it, sometimes returning for a second dip to make 

 sure all is clean. 



"The Baltimore Oriole likes to plunge and play in the water, also the Gold- 

 finch, and once a Blackburnian Warbler came and took a dip. The English 

 Sparrows are the only Sparrows I have ever noticed go entirely into water; 

 and they never miss a chance any more than the Robins who like to sit right 

 down and stay in the water some time. Song and Tree Sparrows and Juncos 

 only care to be sprinkled." 



Mrs. Frederick A. Snow of Aiken, S. C, writes that both Blue Jay and 

 Cardinal take plunge baths. 



A SCREECH OWL THAT SOAKED 



The following account of an Owl bathing is of unusual interest: 

 "One evening, just at dusk, my attention was called to a great splashing 

 in the bird-bath near a spruce hedge. Hastily dodging behind a big tree, and 

 gradually crawling up to the bath, within eight or ten feet, there was visible 

 only a confused mass of feathers, wings, tail, and great flurry of water. Out 

 of this maelstrom came a Screech Owl, which hopped to a small shrub nearby, 

 preened and shook himself, then flew into the hedge. Not a drop of water 

 remained in the bath. Thinking it only a common occurrence for all birds to 

 bathe, the matter caused me to mention the affair to my family only as being 

 a most comical performance of a bird's bathing. The next night passed with- 

 out a \'isit, but in the morning there was no water in the stone bath while 

 another bath some fifty feet away was full. A few nights after, at a little later 

 hour, my good fortune came again just as he came on the scene. The Owl 

 (to me) seemed to find the water too shallow; at least his actions would so 

 indicate, for he (?) plunged his head dowTi into the water, then beat his wings 

 furiously and finally swirled his tail and belly round and round, over and over, 

 in one mad indistinguishable mass. No water was left in the bath after this, 

 and a more woe-begone looking specimen never greeted an observer of birds 

 as this Owl perched on the edge of the stone and finished his toilet. It certainly 

 afforded me then, as well as several times the next summer, much pleasure. 

 Some mornings last summer the water was all gone in this bath and probably 

 my friend had been too early for me. Now that you tell me it is a rare perform- 

 ance I shall watch for him when the warm nights come again, for there is the 

 same plaintive call as last year." — Dr. Josl\h Odin Tilton, M.D., Lexington, 

 Mass. 



THE KINGBIRD IS A DIPPER; THE BLUEBIRD A SOAKER 



"I have observed that Bluebirds and Kingbirds are my most frequent 

 bathers, and that they bathe in absolutely different ways. The Bluebirds 



