Young Hunters 



chievous microbes, all are warm with divine 

 radium and must have lots of fun in them. 



As far as I know, all wild creatures keep them- 

 selves clean. Birds, it seems to me, take more 

 pains to bathe and dress themselves than any 

 other animals. Even ducks, though living so 

 much in water, dip and scatter cleansing 

 showers over their backs, and shake and preen 

 their feathers as carefully as land-birds. Watch- 

 ing small singers taking their morning baths is 

 very interesting, particularly when the weather 

 is cold. Alighting in a shallow pool, they often- 

 times show a sort of dread of dipping into it, 

 like children hesitating about taking a plunge, 

 as if they felt the same kind of shock, and this 

 makes it easy for us to sympathize with the 

 little feathered people. 



Occasionally I have seen from my study- 

 window red-headed linnets bathing in dew 

 when water elsewhere was scarce. A large 

 Monterey cypress with broad branches and 

 innumerable leaves on which the dew lodges 

 in still nights made favorite bathing-places. 

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