no Bird -Lore 



This summer, 1916, more birds have rented my houses than the two last 

 summers could total. English Sparrows are seen little around the house, and 

 I am glad to say that I have more than twenty houses, besides food-counters 

 and -shelves, and I am planning to buy more houses and I hope to have many 

 bathing-places before next summer, so I can call our five-acre lawn a real 

 bird sanctuary. — Sarah W. Weaver (age 13), "Clynmalira," Monkton, Md. 



[We have few more active bird-students than the writer of this article which spells 

 enjoyment of nature in every word. "I now have a branch of the Audubon Society," 

 she writes, "and I belong to the Maryland Wild Bird Protective Association. I am 

 studying and hope to be a bird lecturer when I am older." We need more people who 

 are really acquainled with birds and nature to give talks in schools and elsewhere. — 

 A. H. W.] 



THE TRUTH ABOUT CATS AND BIRDS 



There is a very curious thing going on at our house. And what is it? You 

 shall hear about it now. 



There are two Mockingbirds around our home that started it all by chirp- 

 ing so much one morning that my grandmother looked out of her window to 

 see what all the fuss was about, and there was a cat, and one of the Mocking- 

 birds, and the Mockingbird would fly down and pick the cat and then fly up 

 before the cat could get it. 



And one day Mother came running and said, "Come out and see the 

 Mockingbird's nest." So I went out and there was the Mockingbird's nest. 

 And there were three huge mouths that belonged to the little Mockingbirds, 

 and we could see their heads sticking up out of the nest. 



One day there was a terrible downpour of rain. And next day there was 

 only one little Mockingbird left. And you see the Mockingbirds picked all 

 the cats that came near the nest because they were afraid the cats would 

 catch them. 



We are sure that the rain drowned the other two little Mockingbirds. 

 That afternoon Mother looked all around on the ground, but she didn't see 

 them. But one morning, before seven o'clock, I heard the Mockingbirds 

 calling, so I got up and looked out of my window, and there was one of our 

 cats, and there was the poor Httle Mockingbird and twice the cat attacked the 

 little Mockingbird, but we scared the cat away. 



Then when our cook, Ellen, came in she put the bird on the fence, but it 

 flew right down into the next yard. And this is the end. — Louise Robinson 

 King (7 years), Charleston, S. C. 



[If you have not read Sidney Lanier's delightful story about a pet Mockingbird, be 

 sure to get it soon. It would be a charming selection to read aloud at a Junior Audubon 

 Society meeting. As to cats and birds, don't try to apologize for cats or to excuse them 

 for wanting to destroy birds. It is their natural habit, and the sensible thing is to remem- 

 ber this and to discover some way whereby cats and birds can be kept apart. Mr. 

 Howard Cleaves in an admirable illustrated lecture upon matters connected with bird- 



