138 Song Birds. 



those stoues ; common though they might be when 

 -dry, they looked very pretty wet, and in a bird-bath 

 they have a chance of being so pretty often. If, then, 

 any of my readers wish for an amusing work, they 

 will pick up some pebbles and any shells they can ; 

 bits of spar, fossils, agate, jasper, cornelian, and all 

 the rest, and with these they will build up the most 

 ^charming baths. 



This, I am certain, will be a great delight, at any 

 rate to children, for it is pleasant to find a use for 

 things that are so pretty, and that remind us plea- 

 santly of some seaside holiday. On the Welsh 

 *eoast, and in Cornwall, many of these treasures are 

 easily to be found ; and even inland places often 

 ^afford us charming pieces of quartz or spar, or bits of 

 limestone, thickly strewn with beautiful fossil shells. 



The objection to grotto -building is, that it is of no 

 use, and not ornamental either ; but these baths are 

 useful, and may be veiy pretty, and if all the grot to - 

 builders now turn their minds to bird-baths, many a 

 bird will return them grateful thanks. 



2. Birds liVe always to have a good depth of 

 water ; at the same time, of course, they do not wish 

 to be drowned. Their greatest delight, then, is to sit 

 -on a stone and bathe. I had last winter a pair of 

 Goldfinches that regularly every morning bathed in a 

 small aquarium, standing on the top of the piece of 

 rock ; they bent down their heads, and dashed the 



