WILD CREATURES OF GARDEN AND HEDGEROW 



spare, and bathing as often as he can. How 

 birds do enjoy a good wash ! I have often 

 watched blackbirds and thrushes in the shallow 

 water at the edge of a ditch splashing the drops 

 far and wide and soaking their feathers until 

 they looked more like drowned rats than tidy 

 birds. Once thoroughly wet through they 

 fly off to some sheltered spot and there spread 

 out wings and tail and let the sun dry their 

 feathers. Nearly all birds love to wash them- 

 selves, and there is no doubt that the impulse 

 to bathe is truly instinctive. They do not 

 learn how to wash by experience or through 

 watching other birds, but it 6 comes to them ' 

 when they see water rippling. Why I say this 

 is that I have hand-reared several young birds, 

 and will mention in particular a young song 

 thrush which was taken from the nest while 

 still in that innocent stage when it did not 

 know a human hand from its mother's beak ! 

 I fed it on worms, three ounces a day being the 

 amount it ate, and it not only lived but throve 

 and became a beautiful bird. I know that it 

 never saw water until the day when, being fully 

 fledged, I put a pan of water before it. It 

 looked at it without any interest whatever, 

 until I made the water ripple, when Jack 

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