OUR FEATHERED NEIGHBORS. 
BERTON MERCER. 
OME few years ago, while living 
in the village of West Grove, 
Chester County, Pennsylvania, 
I observed an unusual number 
of different birds in our own immediate 
yard and garden, nearly all of which 
built their homes within the narrow 
limits of our property. 
Being deeply interested in the bird 
kingdom, and appreciating their friend- 
ship and confidence, I carefully 
watched the progress of their daily 
labors and their respective traits and 
individual habits. Our buildings con- 
sisted of a house, small stable and a 
carpenter shop, and I was much grati- 
fied to observe so many pretty birds 
nesting at our very doors. 
In the front yard stood three tall 
pine trees. In one of these a pair of 
black birds made their nest and reared 
two broods of young. A goldfinch 
also chose one of the lower branches 
of the same tree, in the forks of which 
the clever little fellow hung a most 
beautiful cup-shape nest. It appeared 
to be made of various mosses, lichens, 
and soft materials, closely woven and 
cemented together, and the lining in- 
side consisted of thistle-down. Four 
pretty eggs were deposited in due 
course and, as far as I know, the young 
were safely raised and departed with 
their parents in the fall. I: had the 
pleasure of seeing the entire family 
frequently perched on the seed salad 
stalks in our garden feeding in fearless 
content. 
On both sides of the front porch was 
a lattice covered with woodbine. In 
the top of one of these a robin chose to 
build her home, and showed remark- 
able tameness during the entire nesting 
period. On the back porch, also 
covered with woodbine, a pair of chip- 
ping sparrows built their nest, a beauti- 
ful little piece of workmanship, dis- 
playing skill and good taste. A happy 
little family was raised here in safety. 
Not ten feet from the chipping spar- 
row’s nest, we nailed up a little wooden 
181 
box which was tenanted for several 
years by a pair of house wrens, in all 
probability the same two. These little 
birds afforded us many hours of pleas- 
ure watching their cunning ways and 
listening to their cheery song. 
In another box raised on a high pole 
in the garden, we had a pair of purple 
martins for two seasons and they 
helped to swell the population of our 
bird community. Placed in a hedge 
row bordering the yard, I observed the 
nest and eggs of a song sparrow, and 
their happy notes were to be heard all 
day long. In a small briar patch in 
the corner of the garden a cat bird 
made her home, and became quite 
tame, raising four little ones success- 
fully: In the eaves of “the ~shop 
(although not wanted or cherished) 
the English sparrows held sway and we 
destroyed their nests on two or three 
occasions, as they repeatedly tried to 
drive away some of our other pets. 
Summing up we have a total of nine 
different birds which nested within our 
small domain, and in each instance 
they seemed to feel a sense of security 
and protection from all harm. In ad- 
dition to those nesting on our premises, 
we were favored with frequent visits 
from many more, such as vireos, oricles, 
cardinals, indigo birds, chickadees, 
nuthatches, snow birds, sparrow hawks, 
flickers, etc., according to the time of 
year. 
Prior to the summer in question, my 
father had been very ill, and as he was 
then getting better he spent many days 
on the porch. This afforded ample 
opportunity for him to study our birds, 
and they in like manner became so ac- 
customed to his presence that they 
were quite fearless. Especially was 
this the case with the chipping sparrows 
above mentioned. They became un- 
usually tame during the season and the 
mother bird finally ate out of father’s 
hand or would sit on the toe of his 
boot and pick crumbs from his fingers. 
