154 THE HUMAN SIDE OF BIRDS 



use their bills for brush and comb, with an occasional 

 special brushing against a cedar, fir, or pine bough; 

 the blackbird has learned to dust his coat on a corn- 

 stalk, or on the cat-tails ; the finches, starhngs, spar- 

 rows, robins, and innumerable others not only bathe 

 every day, but take special sand-baths to cleanse 

 and shine their lovely clothes. 



The larger birds — such as wild turkeys, prairie 

 chickens, guineas, and quails — ^go to the same sand 

 spot day after day for their sand-bath. These 

 places are their beauty parlours. Water birds — 

 such as the ducks, swans, geese, herons, ibises, and 

 pelicans — all use the water as a mirror or looking- 

 glass. Every person who has studied their habits 

 closely knows that these birds, after finishing their 

 bath, stand by a clear pool of water, or on the mossy 

 bank above the stream, and arrange their feathers 

 before the mirror. 



Bird beauties will not run the risk of spoiling 

 their beautiful dresses in bad climates or in great 

 storms ; it is perhaps for this reason that they have 

 become so "weather wise." Many people even 

 use them as barometers. Ducks and geese invari- 

 ably throw water over their backs before a rain. 

 This is possibly done to prevent the drops of rain 

 penetrating to their warm bodies through the open 

 dry outer feathers. Swallows always foretell wet 



