Chapter I: Foreword

This narrative of neighborship with birds is suggestive rather than exhaustive. It aims not so much to inform the reader, as to instill in him the desire to learn from the outdoors itself, to know _at first hand_ about the charms and the benefactions of birdlife. The observing reader will supply what has been left unsaid, and so experience the zest of initiative, the joy of discovery, in our mysterious and manifold bird-world.

S. L. P.

Waldheim,
East Cleveland, Ohio,
October, 1917.

CONTENTS

PAGE
List of Illustrations vii
I. My First Bird Neighbors 1
II. New Adventures in Birdland 11
III. Real Troubles in Birdland 21
IV. The Bluebirds’ Bungalow 28
V. The Wrens’ Apartment House 36
VI. The Boy 44
VII. The Chimney Swifts 62
VIII. Birds Not of a Feather 68
IX. The Martins’ Aircastle 78
X. More about the Boy 92
XI. The Cardinals 102
XII. My Bird Family 110
Glossary 123
Directions for Making Bird Houses 127
Index 130

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS

Strings and cotton and chicken feathers for the birds’
nestings _Frontis_
PAGE
Suet and doughnuts for downy, corn for the cardinal, cereal for
the song sparrow v
Goldfinch feeding babies vi
“Oh, where is Mother?” viii
The basin on the porch railing 1
They were making that can into a bird home 4
The baby robins 9
One winter day a pigeon came in at an open window 10
Vacant lots attract birds 11
The winter birds like peanuts and suet 13
When I did not have peanuts I gave the nuthatch doughnuts 14
The dear happy chickadee 17
The selfish nuthatch 20
Cats belong on their own premises 21
The basin was Bunny’s looking glass 22
The genial gray squirrel 27
The return of the bluebird 28
Sometimes she was just gliding through the entrance as he alighted
on the housetop with a choice morsel for her 31
Bluebird babies to feed and care for 33
The bluebirds moved into the pretty double house 34
Rented for the summer 36
The small wren house in the pear tree 39
A baby wren on the window sill 43
Bluebirds are great helpers in a garden 44
Baby flicker peeps at the outside world 49
Mrs. Wood Thrush on her nest 51
A killdeer’s nest in a potato field 53
The bluebirds in their primitive home 55
Every little while a goldfinch came to the “store” tree and got
some string 57
The chimney swifts’ temporary home 60
The flicker is also called golden-winged woodpecker 61
Chimney swifts’ nest 62
One of these Swift babies was put to rest in the nest, but he did
not stay there long 63
A robin’s nest 68
Near the nest tree was a big stone which the redheaded woodpecker
used as a perch 74
Each little goldfinch called as loud as he could 76
A young goldfinch alighted on the clothes line 77
This martin scout brought a lady with him 78
The martins’ aircastle 81
The home-coming of the martins 87
A great gathering in mid-air 91
A bath for birds and a lunch beside it 92
The crested flycatcher and a Berlepsch house 95
Kitty watching for mice 98
The new food house was visited by bluejays 100
A feedery much liked by downy 101
A tree trimmed with peanuts for the birds 102
The cardinal’s favorite feedery 105
Always Mr. Cardinal came first and ate a while; then she would
follow 109
Song sparrow 110
Mother Oriole in the bath 113
So made that they can be easily opened after use and cleaned 116
Food house, made out of waste materials 118
Maybe they will fly to us, instead of away from us 121
The birdies’ policeman 122
The finished martin house 128
Raising the martin house 128

HOW TO HAVE BIRD NEIGHBORS

HOW TO HAVE BIRD NEIGHBORS