Bird Notes and News 



n 



From Correspondents 



ABOUT OUR SWALLOWS 

 Mrs. Smyth sends the following extracts 

 from a friend's letter: — 



S>lie came back, in the middle of the awful 

 April storms, alone. Some days she stayed 

 on the old nest, moping, till 10 o'clock in 

 the morning ; other days she went off at 

 daylight and came back at dark, looking 

 for her mate, I think. Then, ten days 

 later, he arrived. Perhaps he had been blown 

 out of his course in the storm. Such a chattera- 

 tion and excitement followed, after which they 

 began fussing over the house. It had come 

 away from the wall and was not very safe. 

 They decided on repairs, and put a coping of 

 mud bricks round the top. This made it 

 so much heavier that one fine night it tumbled 

 down when she was in it, but luckily she had 

 not started laying. It weighed over ^-Ib., and 

 the outside was full of long horse-hairs woven 

 into the mud. They decided to look out for a 

 new site, and devoted several days to the 

 search, at last deciding that the old place was 

 best. I was away at the time, and when I 

 came back they had made a good start. I 

 instantly put up a little shelf just below, as I 

 had heard they liked this, but I wondered if 

 this would frighten them away. They came 

 back together, rushed away, came back one 

 at a time, in and out, in and out, all commotion 

 and excitement. Next morning they were hard 

 at work and had started a new foundation 

 so as to rest it on the shelf. It reminds me 

 of nothing so much as a dentist stopping a 

 tooth, there is such an amount of poking and 

 prodding and fitting in. Then a straw is 

 brought and fitted down ; sometimes one end 

 jumps up and has to be forced down again and 

 again till it stays in the right place. . . . 



. . . (Later.) The young birds have been 

 a joy to watch, and during the first flight 

 neither the servants nor I could get any work 

 done. When they were learning the first day, 

 Thomas sat in the drive, and the mother-bird 

 flew into his face three times to get him to 

 move. He was not troubling his head about 

 her or her babies, and just went on washing, 

 and would have remained there an hour if we 

 had not called him in. It was funny to see the 

 excitement of the bird and the indifference of 

 the cat. 



ROBIN STORIES 



My Robin has spent the autumn and winter 

 with us — in and out of School all day long, 

 In School he comes on to my desk, and some- 

 times perches on the piano while I play. He 

 hops under the desks among the children's feet. 

 They are very fond of him, and he knows it. 

 Last year he brought his wife into the kitchen 

 on St. Valentine's Day and wanted to build in 

 a cupboard, and when I refused to let him he 

 went right away for months. — (Hants.) 



It may interest the Society to know that 

 a white Robin has taken up its abode close to 

 our house. Like all Robins, it is friendly and 

 easily approached, which enables one to examine 

 it closely. A most uncanny-looking little bird, 

 it appears silvered all over, but more pure 

 w^hite than silver is. The breast shines out red 

 through the silver, but head and all the rest 

 are white. An ordinary Robin is its close 

 companion. It does not sing, so that it is 

 probably a hen bird. — (Devon.) 



A pair of Robins last spring built their nest 

 in our tool-house, in the corner of the wall, 

 resting on some straw cases which I hung up 

 ready to put round the strawberry roots. 

 They did not mind us going in and out of the 

 house in the least. The walls are coloured pink, 

 and what I think was so clever of the birds is 

 that they put a bit of brown paper in the corner 

 so that the tail of the sitting bird should not 

 be noticed against the pink. One of the 

 little ones became so tame that after a time 

 he took crumbs from my hand, and would come 

 when I called " Bob," if he was anywhere 

 within hearing, landing on the ground a few 

 inches from my feet. — (M. C. P., Dorset.) 



Being a gardener, I am brought in contact 

 with birds and have always been one to protect 

 them. Last summer I made a pet of a young 

 Robin, which grew so tame and so fond of me 

 that he used to come and settle on my hoe 

 while it was in my hands, also settle on my 

 boots. It was a common occurrence for him 

 to perch on a basket which I was carrying 

 on my arm whilst gathering fruit and vegetables 

 and also come for his bath close to me, whilst 

 twenty feet away would sit Blackbird, Thrush, 

 Sparrow, Wren, Linnet, on a fence, wondering 

 how in the world he dared bathe in a flower 

 saucer at my feet. He stuck to me like glue, 

 but now he has mated and I see less of him. 

 —(A. H. B., Kent.) 



