6 



cage for a day or ( ho and found that each one ate sixty-eight worms 

 a day. The length of those worms which I patiently toUed all day to 

 provide, was about fourteen feet. 



If you really wish to study birds, place a shallow vessel of some sort, 

 in your school or home yard, and keep it constantly filled with water. 

 For several summers I have had an old-fashioned iron camp-kettle in 

 my back yard under some peach trees. The birds soon found out that 

 there was always fresh water there and a secluded spot in which to 

 drink and bathe. Although few nested in the yard, the robins, blue- 

 jays, red-headed woodpeckers, cat birds, sparrows and many others, 

 came almost daily. Some must have come from quite a distance. I 

 thus had a good chance to watch the industry of father robin, whose 

 whole day was spent in putting worms in insatiable beaks at about the 

 rate of alioiit one in every three minutes. Watch the robins teaching 

 their young to bathe. The father keeps a lookout for cats and other 

 enemies, while the mother says as plain as bird can say to her children, 

 ^'Jump in. Jump in. Fm here. Fm here." Sometimes the bluejay 

 comes, and naughty, selfish fellow that he is, drives parents and 

 babies both away, claiming the bathing place as his especial right. He 

 was even very impudent to me. Several mornings in the hot summer 

 weather, I forgot to fill the kettle with fresh water. The bluejay 

 would come to the house and scold, and scold, until I came out, then 

 flying low over my head, as I filled the kettle, he would rate me 

 soundly for my neglect. I tried him on several occasions until I con- 

 'sdnced myself that his actions were due to design, not accident. 



Let us make a list of the birds we have seen to-day. We have seen 

 three — blue-bird, song-sparrow, and robin. What bird has been with 

 us of! and on all winter? He has a shrill whistle like "wheeo — wheeo, 

 wheeo." Everyone knofl-s him. It is our naughty favorite, the hand- 

 some, saucy, mischievous bluejay. He is a vain fellow, and you have 

 a chance to make many good sketches of him as he sits coquettishly 

 turning his splendidly crested head from side to side. All the birds 

 know his trick of stealing through the trees in May or June in quest 

 of eggs. Just watch the robins hustle him out of the tree that holds 

 their nests crying, "Thief, thief," at the top of their voices. Did you 

 ever hear him sing? It is said that he can sing as sweetly as a mock- 

 ing-bird, but his usual notes are harsh and ill-tempered and only 

 occasionally musical and sweet. Some people say he is a murderer, 

 that he is a regular cold-blooded assassin, killing the fledglings 

 of other birds, but the careful studies made by the Agricultural De- 

 pa itment at Washington seem to prove that much of his bad reputa- 



