Page:Bird-lore Vol 06.djvu/66



A Summer With the Bluebirds

By C. P. RODGE, Clark University

Wlih pmmyzpm irom naturt by the author

HE twenty-eighth of last March a Bluebird was seen in a cherry I tree over the study window. While he ﬂitted down to the bird bath and took a few sips of the water that had probably attracted him to the spot, I quietly raised the window-sash and snapped a big meal- worm far out onto the driveway. Scarcely had it touched the ground when two Bluebirds swooped down upon it, I had not seen the female before, and in the ﬂuttering scramble I failed to note which bird got the worm. For a minute or two you may be sure the worms fell thick and fast and the two birds apparently fought for every one. They must have been iamish- ing, for they ate more than a dozen large mealworms apiece. At last the female appeared to be satisﬁed and ﬂew to a low branch of the cherry tree and did not come down for the next worml The male dropped for it, however, but. instead of swallowing it, he ﬂew to the side of his mate and with a bewitching twinkle of one wing oFlered her the worm. She took it from his bill: and this scene was repeated with the next three or four worms until, when he oﬁered her another, she touched it daintin with her bill as if to say. “ They are delicious, but I really can't eat any more," and turned her head away. and he swallowed the worm himself. This exquisite little piece of bird etiquette was enacted live or six times, and then both birc‘s ﬂew away We christened the birds on the spot ‘Twinklewing' and ‘Bluet.’ but feared lest we had seen the last of our new acquaintances as they drifted out of sight among the tree-tops. Would they know enough to come back? The question was answered within the hour by a soft ﬂute-note from the cherry tree There they both were, evidently expecting another hail of lnealworms, nor were they disappointed. It was about eight o'clock in the morning when my story began I happened to be writing at my desk all day and the scenes just described were repeated hourlv until sundown,