160 WESTERN SERIES OF READERS. 



own biddy hens. You stop and listen, and then 

 move softly towards the spot. There is the towhee, 

 scratching with both feet for insects in the litter! 

 The blackbird scratches like a hen, but the towhee 

 makes a quick hop-scratch with both feet at once. 



Towhee does n't mind your presence, provided 

 you stand perfectly still ; and you may find its 

 nest and mate by observing the direction it takes 

 when its beak is filled with food. But you need 

 not expect to see it fly straight to its nest. 

 Towhees, along with many other birds, have a 

 way of flying in an opposite direction a few feet 

 or yards, and then, turning a sharp corner, fly to 

 the nest. Our garden brown towhees often de- 

 ceived us in this way until we came to understand 

 their little tricks. 



In late summer-time, when the moisture has 

 dried out of the hills and canons and oak pastures, 

 the spurred towhees come to our grounds to 

 scratch in the mulching under the trees. 



Our custom of irrigating and then mulching 

 our trees in midsummer encourages insect-life of 

 many sorts, and this, in turn, invites the birds, 

 which would never think of visiting us on any 

 other account. 



We like to lie in a hammock beneath a fig tree 

 whose branches droop to the ground. It is a 



