CHAPTER X 



BIRD BATHS AND DRINKING POOLS 



IN hot weather, especially in time of drought, 

 there is nothing more attractive to birds than 

 water. They need it to drink and to bathe in, 

 and when the natural pools and streams are 

 dried up, they will come from far and near to 

 visit a properly constructed bird bath. At the 

 very time this chapter is being written the 

 weather is very hot and dry and birds are coming 

 to the artificial baths in the village, not one at 

 a time, but by scores. Only this morning they 

 gathered at a little cement bath just outside my 

 study window, and gave it the appearance of an 

 avian Manhattan Beach. I saw two bluebirds, 

 a chewink, a white-throated sparrow, a song 

 sparrow, a junco, a chipping sparrow, and a 

 myrtle warbler, all bathing at once, and at least 

 a score of other birds were hopping about in the 

 grass or perched in the bushes nearby, awaiting 



their turn. There were similar scenes at nearly 



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