Bird Friendship.



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and peers up to the dish that is ready on the table, then trots after

the bearer of the dish like a little dog. The presence of a collie does

not disconcert him in the least, for if ‘ Bruce ’ joins the party to the

fowl-yard, the cock merely steps aside to let him go first. No more

is seen of this strange fowl till the afternoon, when, always about

4.30, he appears in the verandah and crows loudly, rushing round to

the garden door to see if the corn-bowl is likely to appear. He

escorts the bearer of it to the place where the corn is kept, peers in

to make sure that the bin really is being attacked, then rushes off to

a gate leading to the poultry yard, and calls the hens. He really is

what a Scotchman would call ‘ a proper nuisance,’ but who could

hunt him away? He has just had a fierce battle.


The Thrush began to come up to the verandah when first he

had a nest and young ones in a yew hedge across the lawn, no doubt

hoping for mealworms which he watched the caged birds being

supplied with. From the verandah, he ventured into the house one

day by the garden door, and hopped along a passage into the

entrance hall, and across it into a room, taking no notice of the collie

who is always about. He comes now regularly at tea-time for cake

and bread and butter, and now the young Thrushes rush up to us in

the garden, taught to beg, no doubt, like the gipsy children!


The garden abounds with Thrushes, one with half the wing

white. I have vainly tried to tame a pair of Blackbirds, but beyond

building a nest and hatching out young ones low down in a creeper,

quite close to the garden door, they do not honour us with their

presence.


Our most faithful wild bird friends are the pair of Bobins

which fly in and out of the house all the year round ; and, during

the nursery days of their young, ‘ Tee-weekie-wee ’ and mate have

sat on the top of the open window of the dining-room consulting

evidently as to the quality of the food they have helped themselves

to on the breakfast or lunch table. At breakfast, one at a time flies

in and perches on the ham or other dainties on the sideboard, or digs

its beak into the butter, always with the greatest boldness while

Prayers are going on and it knows it will not be disturbed. They

know their way about the house, and where the currants are kept

for the house-birds, and they follow us about the garden.



