FRIENDS IN FEATHERS 



There is no bird more friendly with man or more welcome; 

 a vision for the eyes, forever changing from almost silver lights 

 to deep turquoise and deeper indigo, as light and shadow effect 

 it; the earliest song bird, the song a minor strain made up of 

 a few notes resembling the Robin's in grouping, but the tonal 

 quality very different. The Robin holds up his head and sings 

 in ecstasy, for the pure delight of living, liquid, ringing notes; 

 the Bluebird wavers and quavers out almost the same notes, 

 yet so different in tone and delivery that few would notice the 

 similarity in the character of the song. Sometimes I wonder if 

 Bluebirds have acquired this plaintive song from the griefs that 

 so often befall them in their home life; for it has been my experi- 

 ence that nesting Bluebirds come to grief ten times to the Robins' 

 once. 



This, no doubt, comes from the nesting locations Bluebirds 

 choose, and the fact that they love to build in bird-houses placed 

 for them, where often they can be reached by cats and squirrels, 

 while it is impossible so to construct a box that it will admit a 

 Bluebird and exclude a Sparrow. My childhood home was be- 

 loved of Bluebirds, where they were protected and given encour- 

 agement, yet disaster seemed to follow them. The cattle pushed 

 their hollow rail from the fence, the red squirrel found the nest, 

 the wind broke the hollow limb from the apple-tree, or the neigh- 

 bour's cat came down and climbed the hollow post in the wood- 

 yard. In my own home the particular bane of the Bluebird is 

 the English Sparrow. I could fill a book with stories of their 

 encounters, the Bluebirds always being beaten out with one 

 exception, for we had no recourse against the Sparrows save the 

 little shot gun, the crack of which always frightened away the 

 Bluebirds. They would not defend themselves against the Spar- 

 rows, although they seemed large and strong enough. 



One nest I destroyed myself. Late in the fall I had the 



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