File:Baby birds at home (1912) (14564789559).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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for warmth, until, at a littledistance, they look just like one bundle offluffy down. They are fed upon eels, frogs,trout and other kinds of fish, and, whenthey sit up to receive their food, look veryungainly. Our illustration shows a young Heronthat has just fledged, but is not able to flyvery far. When the breeding season is over Heronsscatter up and down the countryside, andmay frequently be seen fishing in ponds, bythe sea-shore, and in the shallow parts ofrivers. They do not dive and swim aftertheir prey in the same way that cormorantsdo, but just stand still in the water until afish swims close to them. Then the long neckis darted out, and the Herons lance-like billis driven right through the body of theunwary victim. A Heron is gifted with plenty of patience,and will sometimes stand stock-still in oneplace for hours. If a water-rat is rashenough to swim past, it is all the same tothe bird, he is speared through the head,shaken free and then swallowed whole with-out any trouble.
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I The Cole Tit F care is not exercised one is liable atfirst sight to mistake this bird for itsless widely distributed relative, the MarshTit. Both are of about the same size andgeneral appearance, and their habits do notdiffer very widely. There is, however, onepoint of difference which secures the identityof each. The Marsh Tit is all black on thecrown and back of the head, whereas theCole Tit has a broad white mark runningdown the back of its head. The call notes, too, differ, but it wouldbe hard to describe to what extent inwords; experience in the woods alone canreveal this. The Cole Tit is a frequenter of planta-tions, woods and spinneys, where you maysee it busy the livelong day industriouslyexamining crevices and crannies in thetrunks and branches of trees for larvae. It does not matter to this nimble little 52 Baby Birds at Home gymnast whether it is standing on a branch,clinging upside down underneath it, orswinging at the very tip of a long slendertwig, it is equally at hom

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