BIRDS OP THE WEST 85 



a brown thrasher came to my doorstep and ate some egg crumbs 

 that I threw to him. I believe it was Dick. 



The mocking-bird, the cat bird and the brown thrasher are the 

 birds that give us the greatest variety of songs, but they are very 

 shy and keep a distance from the abodes of men. If man were 

 gentler with them, they would soon trust him. Birds are not 

 afraid of horses and cows. You may ride a horse almost into a 

 flock of geese, the wariest of birds. I once saw a humming bird 

 take nectar from the flowers in the hand of a friend. 



Perhaps it is not wrong to keep canary birds in cages. They 

 have been reared in captivity and like Byron's prisoner of 

 Chillon may have lost the love of liberty. Perhaps to them 

 "Stone walls do not a prison make 



Nor iron bars a cell — " 

 for their song seems as buoyant as you could wish. 



The four pretty finely dotted brown eggs in the nest nicely 

 wrought of roots, grass and fibre is a mighty tempting thing to 

 leave alone and the sparkling yellow eye of the frightened mother 

 as you come upon her will help you on your way. Then they will 

 have a chance to go on digging for worms in your garden or your 

 lawn. They will charge you nothing for their services for the 

 only bill that they present they use for digging. 



CATBIRD. 



Some men go through the world on the theory that it is al- 

 ways best to avoid trouble either by never troubling trouble 

 till trouble troubles them, or by keeping so far in the background 

 that they are seldom seen, and some fight their way through the 

 world along the line of greatest resistance or try to make good by 

 running a bluff. It is just the same with birds. Our catbird is 

 not much afraid of snakes for her nest is not on the ground. She 

 is afraid mostly of other birds and thinks that a good cold bluff 

 is her best resource. When an enemy approaches she will imitate 

 a cat as well as she can by ruffling up her maltese feathers to make 

 herself look as large as possible and letting out a series of cat-calls. 



Tabby probably learned to hiss from hearing a snake and if 

 you should see a wild goose raise its long neck above the rushes 

 near the edge of a pond and hear the hissings that it will make at 

 you, you would be doing well if you did not feel that creepy 



