Birds from a 8ick Man's Window 91 



BIRDS FROM A SICK MAN'S WINDOW 



BY W. ELMER EKBLAW 



Always interested in birds from the viewpoint of a 

 scientist, and as a Nature lover glad of their beauty and 

 song and companionship, I had never trul}^ appreciated 

 how much I owed to them until I was kept in my room, 

 an unwilling j)risoner, to recover from a minor operation. 

 Though my imprisonment lasted for but ten days of the 

 most delightful and pleasant May weather, I chafed rest- 

 ively against even so brief a period of restraint and con- 

 finement indoors, for I had ever been accustomed to wan- 

 der freely as I chose. 



Daring this time the birds were one of my chiefest 

 solaces as they came before my window, a window which 

 overlooked numerous war-gardens and service yards, long 

 lines of telepthone wires held up by three poles within view, 

 a garage, and a clump of witch-hazel and black cherry. 

 Many vacant lots overgrown by bluegrass and shrubbery, 

 and the University forestry, stretched away beyond the gar- 

 dens to the University farms. All about me were tall trees 

 that shade the streets and homes of the University resi- 

 dence section. 



I mention these surroundings of mine to explain in a 

 measure how it came to pass that so many birds came to 

 see me. The environment was somewhat unusual for some 

 city liomes, but not wholly unlike that of many suburban 

 localities. In many a neighborhood even more favorable 

 to bird life, an invalid might easily record a longer list of 

 feathered visitors ; but my purpose is to give due credit to 

 those who did so much to sustain my patience, and help 

 the days pass fast and pleasantly. 



When I was brought honie from the hospital I had 

 scarcely settled m^-self comfortably in my cot before a full- 

 voiced cardinal called to me from the tip-most branch of 

 a black cherry. It was his vibrant mating-song to which 

 he gave voice, every note coming in through my window. 



