Page:Bird-lore Vol 06.djvu/228

 Some Familiar Florida Birds

By MRS. F. w. RUE

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T our winter home in Florida. on the Halifa\ river. fund for both hard- and soft-billed birds is kept the year round on trees, the- ground. and on one veranda. where water for their bathing is kept

also: and in this way we have gradually attracted many V'Zlfil‘llt'\. and have been able to study them while only a few feet from us. Clme to one window of the cottage is a large live-oak. where Cardinals. Mocking- birds, Woodpeckers. Blue Jays and numerous \Varhlers. and other species, can be seen at almost any hour of the day: and it is on this tree. also. that

ILmtum awe Jan

a Brown Thrasher has made his nightly home during the past two winters. As the wife of an officer of the Regular Army. l have had an exceptional opportunity for the cultivation of the "seeing eye" in many states and territories, and l have found the birds of Florida not only more beautiful. but far more attractive and lovable. than thnsc to he seen north or west.

The young Mocking-bird rarely sings after the first cold winds in the fall: therefore, very few northerners know how beautiful the natural song of this bird is. or how perfect the tt-L‘hniquc. before he has learned to imitate other birds and has turned his own exquisite urid into a ragtime [VOL pourri of the notes of his neighbors And only a favored few of those who remain late in the season hear the delightful snug of the female Florida

nx;