HOUSE AND GARDEN 
December, 1911 
peevishness and peckingness, none sur¬ 
pass the white-striped headed sparrows 
of high degree, while even the dear 
chickadee is remarkably quick of temper 
and snippish. 
The poor English sparrow has been 
so persecuted and talked about he is very 
sensitive and especially grateful for kind¬ 
ness, showing actual devotion to a hu¬ 
man friend. When I go out under the 
apple trees and call, “Come on, little 
children, come on,” they flock to me from 
all directions, fluttering about my head 
like tame pigeons. The morning after 
a snow storm I find the embroidery of 
little feet all over the front porch up to 
the very door, where I suppose they 
would knock if they were stronger. 
There they sit or flutter about the porch 
bare vines, knowing they can count on 
us for food supplies dur¬ 
ing this stormy time. 
The sparrows suffer 
so much during the win¬ 
ter ; we always have a 
few cripples in our flock 
—poor birds who per¬ 
haps perched for the 
night on a bare bough 
and woke in the morning 
to find their feet frozen 
to the limb. 
For two winters we 
entertained a one-legged 
junco who, I'm sorry to 
say, was much perse¬ 
cuted by his kindred, but 
perhaps it was for some 
individual unpleasant 
trait that I didn’t know 
about. He eventually 
waited until dusk to 
come alone for his meal 
under the studio window, 
stumping about most 
pitifully, using one wing 
as a sort of crutch. 
The birds learn to 
look on us as protectors 
and it is a proud position to fill. 
I’d even rather be a bird pro¬ 
tector than a policeman on 
Broadway. 
When we are awakened, be¬ 
fore the workman’s whistle, by 
a hullabaloo at our window, and 
rush out in nebulous garments 
just in time to save our sparrow 
colony from a hawk, it is indeed 
a proud moment. 
During last summer we no¬ 
ticed that the sparrows deserted 
the drinking bowl for days and 
kept trying to raucously trying 
tell us some scandal about it, but 
it was only by a chance glance 
out at dinner one evening that 
we discovered the trouble. It was a 
rat who sneaked out to the bowl from 
the cellar, stealing the bird bread and 
perhaps pouncing on sparrow orphans 
and widows. 
A small child's rifle aimed nervously 
and amateurishly fired, only served to 
wound the rat, and then there was a 
frolic. All the family rushed at the 
rat with various nice weapons, such as 
a chafing-dish, brass poker and Samu¬ 
rai sword, and when the sparrows saw 
their enemy wounded and our efforts 
to slaughter him they joined us with all 
fear departed, diving down between our 
weapons, getting in the way of blows, 
pecking the rat’s back until somehow, 
somebody—sparrows or we-—killed the 
enemy. There was a general festival 
and a grand funeral which all the birds 
attended. 
Of course, taking the 
responsibility for the 
birds can be carried too 
far, if the birds begin 
to shirk responsibility 
themselves and expect 
you to look after the 
children who desert the 
nest too soon, the par 
e n t s demanding, 
“Where is my wander¬ 
ing boy?” every time 
you go into the garden, 
instead of feeding the 
little bawlers them¬ 
selves. 
Then, too, it’s a ter¬ 
rible responsibility to 
have to assist in the 
general pandemonium 
when an entire brood 
of post wrens fly the 
coop at once. 
There was “Spilly 
Willy,” the post wren, 
and his little wife, 
“Tildy.” He came to 
the back porch, then to 
the front porch, searching and 
begging for a home, having 
been unexpectedly accepted by 
Tildy the day before. We hur¬ 
ried and found a little stunted 
failure of a gourd that looked 
about the size of his necessity 
and broke a fine knife making 
a round door, and mashed a 
favorite finger nailing it up to 
the veranda post. Spilly Willy 
accepted it in three hours, and 
he and Tildy nearly killed 
themselves spilling over with 
song-joy while trying to fit 
four-inch twigs of wood cross- 
ways in an inch door hole. 
Then we found another gourd, 
A bird table with its bath and platform for 
crumbs makes friends with the birds 
Even the sweet voiced song sparrows were induced to stay late into the autumn 
The various attractions, especially the bath, brought cat-birds and 
made very tame companions of them 
