My Bird Neighbors 



359 



My Crane eats raw meat, fried pork, and sometimes crackers, but his 

 favorite food is grape-nuts soaked in milk and formed into pellets ; he also eats- 

 insects. 



My garden and greenhouse are always full of birds. I feed them and they 

 hunt insects for me. My greenhouse is made of laths, and the birds can fly in 

 from top or sides ; when I am working there they keep me company. The Jays 

 fly on to my head or shoulder and beg, and if I don't pay attention to them they 

 pull my hair and pinch my ears, or pull the hair-pins out of my hair, until I 

 give them peanuts. When I sprinkle the plants, they fly back and forth through 

 the spray. They sit on top of the shed for me to give them a shower-bath, 

 fluff their feathers and stay until they are soaked. When I turn the water on 

 the Crane, he 

 dances. 



The Florida 

 Jays are most in- 

 telligent. If I give 

 them a whole pea- 

 nut and then hand 

 them a kernel or 

 two, they will look 

 at the kernels, lay 

 the whole peanut 

 in my hand, take 

 the kernels back 

 in their throat, 

 and then take the 

 whole peanut. 

 The Jays are not 

 afraid of snakes; 

 I have seen them 

 alight on a snake 

 and pick it and 

 scream. When one 

 gives the danger- 

 signal, the others 

 all fly to him and 

 join in the uproar, 

 showing us where 

 the snake is. One 

 day, while killing 

 an adder, one 

 Florida Jay was 

 on my head and jack; our sandhill crane 



