File:Baby birds at home (1912) (14728460946).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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to be giftedwith wonderful eyesight, for whilst seatedon a telegraph wire, or the branch of a treeat an equal height, it can detect a beetlein the grass below and swoops down tosecure it. The nest is built in a rough hedge orbush, and is formed of slender twigs, piecesof dead honeysuckle, dry grass stems andmoss, lined with wool, hair, or rootlets. Four or five eggs of a pale buffish white,spotted with reddish brown, are laid. Theseare subject to considerable variation inground colour, and the tint and distributionof the markings. The chicks are hatched in about a fort-night and are fed upon beetles, bees, andall kinds of winged insects. Although theButcher Bird is only some seven and a halfinches in length, it will defend its young oneswith great courage, and will not hesitate toattack and drive away larger birds, such asthe song thrush, from the neighbourhood ofits nest. On one occasion the writer was struck onthe head by a male Red-backed Shrike, indefence of one of its fledglings.
Text Appearing After Image:
The Great Crested Grebe TWO species of Grebes breed in the BritishIslands. The Lesser Grebe, or Dab-chick, and the bird under notice. The Great Crested Grebe measures abouttwenty-two inches in length. The facts thatits body is long and cone-shaped, and that itslegs are placed far back, render it an excel-lent swimmer, either on the water or underit, but a very poor walker. As a matter offact the bird does not often try the lattermeans of locomotion, and when it does soappears very awkward and ungainly. Al-though its wings are short and small it canfly well. The Great Crested Grebe inhabits lakes,meres, and large ponds, where reed beds, inin which it can take shelter and breed, grow.Its food consists of small fish, frogs, waterbeetles and aquatic insects. The nest is built amongst reeds or bul-rushes. Sometimes it is a floating structure 103 104 Baby Birds at Home moored to its surroundings, and at others itsfoundations rest upon the bottom of the lakeor mere. It is a kind of rough pla

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