File:Stories about birds of land and water (1874) (14748495974).jpg

Identifier: storiesaboutbird00kirb (find matches)
Title: Stories about birds of land and water
Year: 1874 (1870s)
Authors: Kirby, Mary, 1817-1893 Kirby, Elizabeth, 1823-1873
Subjects: Birds -- Juvenile literature
Publisher: Hartford (Conn.) : American Publishing Co.
Contributing Library: American Museum of Natural History Library
Digitizing Sponsor: Biodiversity Heritage Library

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grows so very large, that its foster mother has to settleon its back in order to feed it properly. Then the cuckoo turns its beak roundfor the food, as if it understood the whole process. The wagtail in the picture is called the mountain wagtail, and lives in themountains of Europe. It is a deep grey colour on the back, and the underparts are yellow. The throat is black, and there is a white line between itand the back. The mountain wagtails are met with in all mountainous countries. In the winter they migrate to the tropics, like their relations the friendlylittle wagtails we have been speaking about. They are very sociable, and runabout near the houses in the same quick and nimble manner as with us, andhave the same twittering note. THE WREA. 89 THE WREN. The appearance of the wren is very peculiar. Tlie little body is short andfull, the bill very slender, and the tail is generally erect. It jerks its wholebody as it hops about, uttering a note that sounds a little like chit! chit!
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THE WREN. It is always cheerful, and never in the most gloomy weather seems outof spirits. When the sparrows and the finches sit dolefully on the twigs,with their plumage wet and ruffled, the wren is as compact and as neatas ever, and hops about as if the weather made but little difference to it.When the great drops of rain are falling in torrents, its bright eye will peep c;o STORIES ABOUT BIRDS. from a hole, or its knowing little head pop from behind a wall, as merrilyas possible. The nest is such a wonderful piece of workmanship, that people havenever been weary of praising it. The clever little bird takes the utmost painsin its construction. All kinds of plants enter into its composition. Here are mosses to make the walls, and it is arched over with fernleaves, and stems of grass, and twigs of trees, all twisted and matted to-gether in the most beautiful manner. The nest is in the shape of a ball, and has an opening in the form of alow arch, just large enough to admit the wren, an

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