Identifier: abirdingonbronco00bail (find matches)
Title: A-birding on a bronco
Year: 1896 (1890s)
Authors: Bailey, Florence Augusta (Merriam), 1863-
Subjects: Birds Birds
Publisher: Boston, New York, Houghton, Mifflin
Contributing Library: Smithsonian Libraries
Digitizing Sponsor: Smithsonian Libraries

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a did not seem greatly alarmed, and, throw-ing off the assumed indifference that alwaysmakes an observer feel like a wretched hypocrite,I called and whistled to him as I had done at thehouse, to let him know that it was a familiarfriend and he had nothing to fear. The beautifulbird started toward me, but on second thoughtretreated. I turned my back, but, to my chagrin,after giving a few low warning calls, my birdvanished. Alas, for the generations of murderersthat have made birds distrust their best friends— that make honest observers tremble for whatmay befall the birds if they put trust in but oneof the human species! It was plain that if I would get a study ofthese rare birds I must make a business of it.Slipping from the saddle, I sat down behind abush and waited. When the bird came back andfound the place apparently deserted, to my reliefhe seated himself on a twig and sang away as ifnothing had disturbed his serenity of spirit. Butpresently the warning call sounded again. This
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A RARE BIRD. 199 time it was for a schoolgirl who had staked outher horse on the edge of the island and was cross-ing over to the schoolhouse. A few momentslater the bell rang out so loudly that Billy steppedaround his oak with animation, but the phaino-peplas were used to it and showed no uneasi-ness. Before long a flash of white announced a secondbird, and then, after a long interval in whichnothing happened, the male pitched into a bushwith beak bristling with building material! Mydelight knew no bounds. Instead of nesting inthe top of an oak in a remote canyon, as I hadbeen assured the shy birds would do, here theywere building in a low oak not more than aneighth of a mile from the house, and in plainsight. Moreover, they were birds who knew meat home, and so would really be much less afraidthan strangers, whatever airs they assumed. Inthe photograph, the bare twigs of the perch treeshow above the line of the horizon; the nest treeis the low oak beside it on the risht. One thins1p

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