FRIENDS IN FEATHERS 



I punctured the blisters with a needle and gave it some oil, but 

 it died. Another time I rescued a Robin that had hung five 

 inches below its nest by one leg securely caught in a noose of 

 horsehair, until the whole leg was swollen, discoloured, the skin cut 

 and bleeding, and the bird almost dead. Release was all it needed. 



Again I came across a Scarlet Tanager a few days before 

 leaving the nest, having both its eyes securely closed and hidden 

 by a thick plastering of feathers and filth. I took it home, 

 soaked and washed it perfectly clean in warm milk. Its eyes 

 were a light pink and seemed sightless. It was placed in the 

 dark, fed carefully, gradually brought to the light, and in three 

 days it could see perfectly and was returned to its nest, sound as 

 the other inmates. 



Once I found a female Finch helpless on the ground, and 

 discovered her trouble to be an egg so large she could not possibly 

 deposit it, so she had left the nest and was struggling in agony. 

 I broke the egg with a hatpin and she soon flew away, seemingly 

 all right. With the help of a man who climbed a big tree and 

 secured the egg of a Chicken-hawk, after the Hawk had been shot 

 by a neighbouring farmer, we played the mean trick on a Hen of 

 having her brood on the egg of her enemy. 



Another time some boys came to me with a lean baby 

 Shitepoke, scarce old enough to fly, that had landed aimlessly 

 in a ditch filled with crude oil, so the poor bird was miserable 

 past description. Warm water, soft soap and the scrub brush 

 ended his troubles: he was returned to the river clean, full fed 

 and happy, I hope. Walking through the woods one Sabbath 

 morning this spring, after a night of high wind and driving rain, 

 I was attracted by the sharp alarm cries of a pair of Rose-breasted 

 Grosbeaks. I followed them until almost mired in the swamp, 

 and there, on a small tuft of grass, between pools of water and 

 among trampling cattle, within two feet of each other, I found a 



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