HOW MADAM BIRD COMBS HER HAIR. 19 
enough, she smoothes it down in good order with her 
hair dressing, as you will see later on. 
Did you ever notice a bird wash its ears? That is 
enough to make you smile, but we assure you it does 
wash its ears and all around its mouth after its meals, 
and between meals as often as it is necessary. 
Watch your tame canary; he is very much lke wild 
birds in habits of neatness. See him stand on one foot 
and reach the other foot up quickly between the long 
feathers of his wing and dig away at his ears, just as if 
his mother had told him to “get ready for school.” 
We have laughed many a time to see him wash him- 
self, he does it so deftly and cheerfully, as if it were 
the greatest fun in the world. ‘Then, to get the corners 
of his mouth clean, he wipes them on his towel. His 
towel is his perch or any cross-bar in the cage. You 
may say he is “sharpening his bill,” but he is really 
wiping his face. He has probably washed it in his 
bath a few minutes before. 
Some birds wear their hair done up high on their 
heads like a “ pug,” —the “crest” as we call it, standing 
out like the twist of the fashion. Others, such as our 
mountain quail,! prefer something like a Chinaman’s 
queue or the revolutionary braids. Others still comb 
their hair down plain and neat like little Quakers. 
But whichever way a bird dresses its head, it is 
always becoming and pretty. We have watched birds 
dressing themselves, sitting or standing on the edge of 
1 In Southern California, Oreortyx pictus plumiferus. 
