44 ] How to Understand the Birds 



When your child collects deserted nests for a home exhibit, he 

 can give them quite an impressive setting with a few leafy twigs 

 and a background taken from the original location of the nest. 

 To complete the exhibit appropriately, add a label giving the 

 species, time, and place of the collection. 



Baby Birds 



THE CHICKEN AND THE EGG 



The best-known bird's egg by far is that of the chicken. 

 It is such a common sight on grocery shelf and breakfast table 

 that it really requires an effort of imagination on a child's part 

 to think of the egg in connection with bird life. 



Yet if, in this day of incubators, children could watch a hen 

 with her brood, they would soon realize she is one of the best of 

 bird mothers. When she takes her chicks into tall grass she clucks 

 constantly so that they will not stray away from her. Finding a bit 

 of food, she calls them quickly and they understand just what she 

 means. Should a hawk appear overhead, she gives a warning cry 

 which sends the chicks scurrying for cover. If a rat or other enemy 

 threatens her brood, she will fight to the limit of her strength 

 to protect the chicks. 



A newly hatched chick wears an odd little "bump" on the tip 

 of its upper mandible, or beak. This is the "egg tooth" that the 

 baby used as a pick to break its way through the eggshell. After 

 the egg tooth has served its purpose the chick has no further use 

 for it and it soon disappears. 



How MANY EGGS ARE LAID 



There is an almost endless variety in bird's eggs. There 

 are big eggs and little eggs; white, colored, and spotted eggs; eggs 

 that differ in shape and length of time required for incubation. 

 And so you need considerable information to answer the simple 

 question: "How many eggs does a bird lay?" 



We have no unconditional reply to this question. Each species 

 has a usual number that makes up a full set; but differences will 

 still crop up. Northern thrushes, for example, normally lay four 



