File:Baby birds at home (1912) (14564781040).jpg

Identifier: babybirdsathomebb00kear (find matches)
Title: Baby birds at home
Year: 1912 (1910s)
Authors: Kearton, Richard, 1862-1928
Subjects: Birds -- Behavior Birds -- Juvenile literature
Publisher: London, New York (etc.) Cassell and company, ltd.
Contributing Library: American Museum of Natural History Library
Digitizing Sponsor: Biodiversity Heritage Library

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00 Baby Birds at Home vour to establish breeding haunts in placeswhere they are invariably shot by game-keepers. The nest is generally built in a talltree on the edge of a wood, or in someisolated situation affording the bird a goodoutlook. Sometimes it is placed on a ledgein the face of a precipice, and when thesitting bird is frightened off she very seldomflies straight away, but generally dropsstraight down for several yards and thentakes her departure. Sticks, twigs, mud,and occasionally bits of old rope, form theoutside of the nest, which is lined withdead grass, wool, horse-hair or cows-hair.It is a deep structure, thus preventing theeggs from rolling out when the branchesupon which it rests are being violentlyswayed by the wind. Four or five greyish green eggs are laid,spotted with smoky brown marks. The chicks are fed by both parents, andwhen the mother bird has been shot by agamekeeper, the writer has known the malego off and secure a stepmother to help himto rear his family.
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RED-BACKED SHRIKES. The Red-backed Shrike THE Red-backed Shrike, or Butcher Bird,as it is frequently called, on account ofits strange habit of spitting or hanging inthorn bushes the bodies of beetles, mice, andsmall birds upon which it preys. It is amigrant, arriving in May ; it rears its broodduring June or July, and takes its departureagain in August and September. Some ideamay be gathered of the immense journey madetwice a year by this winged traveller, when itis mentioned that the bird spends the wintereven as far south as the Cape of Good Hope.Although nowhere very common, thisspecies breeds generally throughout England,with the exception of the north and west, butis rarely met with in Scotland or Ireland. Itloves old chalk pits with thorn and otherbushes growing in them, and sunny hillsideswhere clumps of thorn and bramble grow,but may frequently be met with nesting inthick old hedgerows. :oi 102 Baby Birds at Home The Butcher Bird appears to be giftedwith wonderful eyesight, fo

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