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Bulletin No. rj. 

 THE BIRDS AT HOME. 



I have been surprised at the tameness of wild birds here in our woods. 

 Perhaps you do not know that I am living in the midst of woods, and 

 many of the wood birds are familiar everyday visitors at my door. The 

 outlet from our spring spreads out into shallow pools, and in places just 

 covers the dead leaves with an inch or two of water ; across this is a fal- 

 len tree — now moss-grown, and a tiny bridge. It makes an ideal bathing 

 place for the birds, and last April and May I spent hours in my hammock 

 watching them, and found it the best place to see them all that could be 

 found. 



One day I noticed how close to me a Wood Thrush came, hopping on 

 the ground, and pausing to look at me, but ever coming nearer. Sud- 

 denly it picked up a dead leaf and flew with it into a small hemlock about 

 three yards off, and then I discovered that Madame Thrush was building 

 a nest there. After that for two days she worked hard carrying mud and 

 leaves and not minding in the least that I was so near. 



A Black-throated Green-back Warbler, in gathering materials for her 

 nest, came right under my hammock (when I was in it) picking up hairs 

 from the horses, which she gathered until she had six or eight, sticking 

 out of her bill both sides, and about four or five inches long. Then 

 twice in flying back and forth to her nest she passed so close to my face 

 that I felt the wind from her wings, and the sound from those tiny wings 

 was like the roar of the wind in the distance. It seemed incredible that 

 so small a creature could make such a commotion. 



This little warbler was especially fearless. Once one flew toward me 

 and poised on wing a few inches from me as if to find out what I really 

 was. I saw it do the same thing several times before alighting on a tree. 

 It would hang suspended in the air by the rapid beating of its wings, 

 as a Hummingbird does before a flower. 



Many of the other birds who came to bathe paid no attention to me 

 but dressed their feathers in the tree over my head, or just in front of 

 me. One bird alone tried to slip by unseen, or flew away at the slightest 

 movement ; this was the Chewdnk, or Towhee. But the Scarlet Tanager 

 flashed his fire before me recklessly, the Rose-breasted Grosbeak also, and 

 the Thrush, Oven-bird, White-crowned and White-throated Sparrows, 

 Chickadee, Nuthatches, Goldfinch, Indigobird, Phoebe, Pewee, Crested 

 Flycatcher, and many warblers and vireos came daily. 



Do you know that nearly all the birds go down for a second dip ? Af- 



