24 
OUR HOME BIRDS. 
“ A great many grown people,” continued Miss 
Harson, “ are quite ignorant about the little, every- 
day birds that make such sweet music all around us 
on spring and summer mornings, and build their 
cunning little nests with as much skill and judgment 
as an architect shows in planning a house, while they 
could talk, perhaps, of eagles and ostriches and other 
huge feathered creatures that always appear to me 
more like animals than birds. I think we shall really 
enjoy finding out a great many things about our own 
little home birds, and perhaps, when we have become 
well acquainted with them, we may feel like being 
introduced to their foreign relations. What do you 
say to this idea, Malcolm ?” 
“ I want to know about them all,” was the reply ; 
“but won’t you throw in the eagles, please, and give 
us lots of stories ?” 
Miss Harson laughed as she agreed to throw in the 
eagles, although she said they were not birds to be 
handled with impunity ; and to give them as many 
stories as she could possibly remember or find that 
had anything to do with the subject. 
And this is the way in which the talks about home 
birds were begun. 
