How to Attract the Birds 



would be lost, unable to follow the travellers just 

 ahead through dusk or log. 



When he goes courting, the flicker takes ridiculous 

 pains to show only his beauty marks in front to the 

 well beloved. How sillv feathered Benedicts are, too ! 

 Many a modestly attired little bird is as conscious of 

 his charms at the wooing season, and displays them 

 with as much pride, as it he were a peacock. In human 

 beings, touch is the sense most acutely developed; 

 in animals, smell ; in birds, sight. Feathered lovers 

 charmed the eye ages before they appealed to the ear. 



OTHER MEANS OF PROTECTION 



To insure themselves against being overtaken in 

 a chase on land, some birds, like the ostrich, 

 have developed extraordinary powers ot running 

 and kicking. The loon dives at the flash of a gun, 

 several seconds before the shot reaches the place 

 where he disappears into the lake. Chimney 

 swifts and wild ducks, among others, travel on the 

 wing faster than the fastest locomotive, and woe 

 betide any wxakly or maimed bird that straggles 

 behind the flock, offering an invitation to dine that 

 hawks are not slow to accept Indeed, the weak 

 and sickly have little chance in Nature when all 

 laws converge toward perpetuating only the best 

 there is in life. Beside their foes of the air — ma- 

 rauding hawks that swoop upon them by day, and 

 stealthy, silent owls that snatch the dreamers from 

 their perches — prowling animals from mice to foxes, 

 and big and little snakes in the grass, are ever seek- 

 ing whom they may devour. 



io8 



