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A Birds’ Bath

AST summer I dug a little pond, about two feet wide. ﬁve feet long L and two or three inches deep. back of our house. Into this I let the hose How very slightly, the surplus water being Carried by a little trench which ran from the pond down into the woods where the water sank into the earth. All along the trench and pond weeds sprang up and, bend- ing over, kept the place cool so that it offered a double attraction.

The next day I made the pond about four times as big, and after that it was as great an attraction to me as to the birds, and Iwould advise any one who likes the birds around them to put out at least a shallow pan of water which is changed four or ﬁve times a day.

The elms and lindens in our neighborhood had been eaten terribly by worms, but soon after I made the pond the worms began to decrease, as the Orioles and Grosbeaks would go from the pond right into the trees and there take their meals, making, as Mrs Wright would say, ‘very good Citizen Birds, paying their taxes every dayX—Enuuxn Bi Duane, St. Paul, Minni

The Incredulous Veery

Two hunters chanced one day to meet Near by a thicket wood;

They paused each olher there to greet, Both in a playful mood.

Said one, “I had to wade a stream, Now, this you must not doubt,

And when I reached the other Share My boots were full of trout."

Whew.’ cried a Veery perched in View To hear it what they said _\\':re inlet Wilt-w/J

The other’s whit was now well whet. Said he, "Let me narrate:

I bought three hundred traps and set For lur both small and great;

Now, when next morning came, behold, Each trap contained a skin;

And other disappointed game Stood waiting to get in,"

The astonished Veery whistletl, lV/mwf ] hardly think that story true. Wherwf.” —F[.0RENCE A. VAN SANT.

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