16 OUR FEATHERED FRIENDS. 
Most of the birds we know think a great deal about 
their dress. They work much of their time to keep it 
tidy and in good order. ‘They mend their clothes, too, 
although they do not use a needle and thread. A little 
girl we know laughed heartily one day when we told 
her that the robin mends her dress when it is torn. 
The little girl had only to watch and see that Mrs. 
and Miss Robin, and other birds as well, smooth out 
and fix up the torn and rumpled feathers till they look 
as good as new. 
Different kinds of birds have different fashions, but 
these fashions never change. <A bird to-day dresses 
exactly as its grandmother did, and the birds never 
seem to make fun of one another for being old- 
fashioned. 
Once in a long while we find a solitary bird different 
in color from others of its kind. We have seen a white 
blue jay, and there is in our yard a brown towhee which 
has two white feathers in its wing. Such birds are 
very rare, as are people who have a spot of white hair 
on their heads when all the rest is dark; or albinos, 
that is, persons with pink eyes and very white skin, 
although they belong to a dark race. 
Two suits of clothes a year are quite enough for most 
birds, while one suit is all that others can afford. But 
birds are very careful of their clothes, although they 
never try to dress more gaily than their neighbors and 
friends. They only try to be clean, and so they set us 
a very good example. 
