Birds of Oregon and Washington 255 



bond cats should be mercifully put out of life, 

 and neighbors' cats must be made unwelcome. 

 Birds soon learn that we are their friends. 

 They have been often reported as coming to the 

 windows of their human sympathizers for assist- 

 ance in time of distress. 



A word now about cultivating, with the birds, 

 an intimacy that will bring them to our feet and 

 possibly to our heads and hands. Celia Thaxter, 

 in " An Island Garden," tells us how the birds 

 used to rest on her person. In the following 

 extract, she is writing especially of the Hum- 

 ming-birds : 



" I shall never forget the surprise of joy that 

 filled me when one for the first time alighted on 

 my sleeve and rested, as much at home as if I 

 were a stick or a harmless twig. Sparrows and 

 Nuthatches had often alighted on my head as I 

 stood musing over my flowers, perfectly still, but 

 to have this tiny spark of brilliant life come to 

 anchor, as it were, on anything so earthly as my 

 arm was indeed a nine days* wonder. Now, it has 

 grown to be an old story, but it is never any 

 less delightful." 



