Bird Baths 223 



feet long and seven inches wide. There are five 

 of these steps, each one-half inch lower than the 

 last. So that when the water is half an inch 

 deep on the top step, it is two and a half inches 

 deep on the bottom one. The birds invariably 

 enter the water at the top step. Their favorite 

 steps are the second and third; they seldom go 

 lower than that. The bottom is covered with 

 clean sand and bright pebbles from a trout brook, 

 and here and there among them are strewn 

 beautifully-tinted shells. 



Close beside it is a wooden tray of earth, on 

 which are scattered every morning, bird-seed 

 of several kinds, bits of bread, a little suet, ripe 

 raspberries, and a piece of banana perhaps, as 

 additional attractions for the feathered guests. 

 Among the smaller visitors are the chipping 

 sparrows, gentle, modest little fellows, who come 

 to the food tray quietly as mice, crack a few 

 seeds, and then take a bath on the top step where 

 the water is shallow. Almost burly, in compari- 

 son, are the purple finches, which come, often two 

 or three at a time, make a full meal in the food 

 tray, and then souse themselves thoroughly in 

 the deeper water, regardless of theories concern- 

 ing the dangers of bathing too soon after dinner. 



Perhaps the most amusing visitor is a catbird, 

 who has a nest in the lilac bushes, from the top 



