OUR FEATHERED NEIGHBORS. 



BERTON MERCER. 



SOME few years ago, while living 

 in the village of West Grove, 

 Chester County, Pennsylvania, 

 I observed an unusual number 

 of different birds in our own immediate 

 yard and garden, nearly all of which 

 built their homes within the narrow 

 limits of our property. 



Being deeply interested in the bird 

 kingdom, and appreciating their friend 

 ship and confidence, I carefully 

 watched the progress of their daily 

 labors and their respective traits and 

 individual habits. Our buildings con 

 sisted of a house, small stable and a 

 carpenter shop, and I was much grati 

 fied to observe so many pretty birds 

 nesting at our very doors. 



In the front yard stood three tall 

 pine trees. In one of these a pair of 

 black birds made their nest and reared 

 two broods of young. A goldfinch 

 also chose one of the lower branches 

 of the same tree, in the forks of which 

 the clever little fellow hung a most 

 beautiful cup-shape nest. It appeared 

 to be made of various mosses, lichens, 

 and soft materials, closely woven and 

 cemented together, and the lining in 

 side consisted of thistle-down. Four 

 pretty eggs were deposited in due 

 course and, as far as I know, the young 

 were safely raised and departed with 

 their parents in the fall. I had the 

 pleasure of seeing the entire family 

 frequently perched on the seed salad 

 stalks in our garden feeding in fearless 

 content. 



On both sides of the front porch was 

 a lattice covered with woodbine. In 

 the top of one of these a robin chose to 

 build her home, and showed rem^ark- 

 able tameness during the entire nesting 

 period. On the back porch, also 

 covered with woodbine, a pair of chip 

 ping sparrows built their nest, a beauti 

 ful little piece of workmanship, dis-, 

 playing skill and good taste. A happy 

 little family was raised here in safety. 

 Not ten feet from the chipping spar 

 row's nest, we nailed up a little wooden 



box which was tenanted for several 

 years by a pair of house wrens, in all 

 probability the same two. These little 

 birds afforded us many hours of pleas 

 ure watching their cunning ways and 

 listening to their cheery song. 



In another box raised on a high pole 

 in the garden, we had a pair of purple 

 martins for two seasons and they 

 helped to swell the population of our 

 bird community. Placed in a hedge 

 row bordering the yard, I observed the 

 nest and eggs of a song sparrow, and 

 their happy notes were to be heard all 

 day long. In a small briar patch in 

 the corner of the garden a cat bird 

 made her home, and became quite 

 tame, raising four little ones success 

 fully. In the eaves of the shop 

 (although not wanted or cherished) 

 the English sparrows held sway and we 

 destroyed their nests on two or three 

 occasions, as they repeatedly tried to 

 drive away some of our other pets. 



Summing up we have a total of nine 

 different birds which nested within our 

 small domain, and in each instance 

 they seemed to feel a sense of security 

 and protection from all harm. In ad 

 dition to those nesting on our premises, 

 we were favored with frequent visits 

 from many more, such as vireos, orioles, 

 cardinals, indigo birds, chickadees, 

 nuthatches, snow birds, sparrow hawks, 

 flickers, etc., according to the time of 

 year. 



Prior to the summer in question, my 

 father had been very ill, and as he was 

 then getting better he spent many days 

 on the porch. This afforded ample 

 opportunity for him to study our birds, 

 and they in like manner became so ac 

 customed to his presence that they 

 were quite fearless. Especially was 

 this the case with the chipping sparrows 

 above mentioned. They became un 

 usually tame during the season and the 

 mother bird finally ate out of father's 

 hand or would sit on the toe of his 

 boot and pick crumbs from his fingers. 



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