Ibt RURAL NEW-YORKER 
1159 
Construction of Bird Bath 
Can you give me the necessary infor¬ 
mation I desire in the making of a bird 
bath? I have a form made from light 
sheet iron. I have made one. but found 
the pedestal and bath to be very dark in 
color. I have used cement one part, two 
parts of white beach sand, and also some 
lime in with the sand and cement. What 
I desire is a bird bath which is very 
light in color. Can you give me a for¬ 
mula for a good mixture of cement for a 
bird bath ? Would preference be given 
to the white beach sand rather than the 
ordinary yellow sand? Also what grade 
cement would be best to use? 
Brooklyn, N. Y. MRS. c. S. 
In the first place, the iron form would 
be likely to stain or darken the bird bath. 
We used a wooden form for ours, which is 
octagonal in shape, and has now a lily 
pool around its base. Lime would be apt 
to weaken the mixture. To make one 
very light in color it would be best to 
buy white cement, a professional tells me. 
That is rather expensive. Ordinary ce¬ 
ment used with the beach sand should 
give a pale gray shade; that, however, 
will darken and “weather” with age. 
You could use ordinary cement for the 
bird bath, the usual mixture, one part of 
cement to two of beach sand. Take off 
the iron frame as soon as possible and 
sprinkle the bath with water twice a day. 
so it will not dry too rapidly. When it is 
not too dry, put on a finishing coat of 
one part white cement and one part sand, 
painted on with a kalsomine or white¬ 
wash brush. If you will let a piece of the 
ordinary cement mixture dry somewhere 
so that it will be flat on one side, 
you can scour the whole outside of the 
bath with this fragment and take off all 
stains. Two pounds of white cement 
would be enough for this finishing coat. 
EDNA 8. KNAPP. 
Our Bird Bath 
It came from Chicago, and cost about 
$1G. It is made of cement and is painted 
to look like marble. The bowl is sepa¬ 
rate from the stand part,' # and weighs' 
about 30 lbs., holding about a pailful of 
water. It is really a beautiful ornament 
for a lawn, besides being useful to the 
birds. Ours stands about 30 ft. from the 
dining-room windows, and we have lots 
of fun watching the birds, and lvow they 
do enjoy it! 
There is a peach tree about 10 ft. from 
the bath. One day last Summer a young 
robin flew on the bath and gingerly waded 
down into the water; but the sun had 
warmed it nicely and soon he was dipping 
his head under the water and letting it 
roll off his back. Then he flew up into 
the peach tree. But before he had been a 
minute in the tree I saw him cock hie eye 
down at water, and down he flew and 
took another bath; then flew up in the 
tree again. But the bath tempted him; 
that water was so nice. Down he came 
again, and once more after that. Four 
times within 15 minutes did that bird en¬ 
joy .the water. One day later in the 
Summer a little brown mother bird with 
her family of five children flew down into 
the bath. The mother bird went into the 
water, the young birds stood on the edge 
of the bath. The mother would not have 
them there; she picked at them and drove 
them all off. The youngsters did not 
know where to go, and after flying around 
a minute settled back on the edge of the 
bath again. This time the mother bird 
went for them savagely ; it seemed to me 
that I could almost hear her say, “You 
shameless things, don’t you know you 
ought not to sit there looking at me while 
I am taking a bath?” This time the 
young birds stayed away, and the mother 
finished her bath in peace. 
Later my daug 1 ter reported that she 
counted 14 birds in the bath at one time. 
It’s a wonder that more people do not 
put up these bird baths. In mine the 
sides do not slope gently enough ; the wa¬ 
ter deepens too rapidly for the smaller 
birds. I am going to build an island in 
the middle, with a nice, gently sloping 
bathing beach of fine gravel. Haven’t de¬ 
cided yet whether to put up a little bath¬ 
house and charge for towel or not. 
GEO. A. COSGROVE. 
Sue: “I can’t help it if I’m not per¬ 
fect. There’s only been one perfect little 
girl." Mother: “Oh! And who was 
that?” Sue: “You, mummy, when you 
wuz little.”—Sydney Bulletin. 
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