Identifier: babybirdsathomebb00kear (find matches)
Title: Baby birds at home
Year: 1912 (1910s)
Authors: Kearton, Richard, 1862-1928
Subjects: Birds -- Behavior Birds -- Juvenile literature
Publisher: London, New York (etc.) Cassell and company, ltd.
Contributing Library: American Museum of Natural History Library
Digitizing Sponsor: Biodiversity Heritage Library

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ugh platform madeout of wet flags, reeds, leaves, and differentsorts of plants, slightly hollow at the top,and never raised very high above the sur-face of the water in which it is built. The number of eggs laid varies from threeto five. These are white at first, but soonbecome stained and dirty, from contact withtheir owners feet and the decaying vege-tation upon which they rest. On leavingher nest the Great Crested Grebe covers hereggs carefully over with some of the materialsof the structure. This serves a twofold pur-pose. First of all it hides them from anywinged enemy, such as the carrion crow, flyingoverhead, and secondly it keeps them warm. Baby Grebes begin their education veryearly. Tumbling over the edge of the nestalmost directly after they are hatched, theyfind their father waiting to teach them howto dive. Mounting his back and seizingsome of the feathers at the back of the oldbirds neck with their bills, they hold onwhilst he plunges below and carries themdown with him.
Text Appearing After Image:
The Song Thrush THE bright, cheery notes of this familiarbird are better known than, perhaps,those of any other feathered vocalist. The Song Thrush is common nearly allover the country. In fact, wherever two orthree bushes grow together there the bird isalmost sure to be found. It sings early andlate, and loves to pour forth its wonderfulmelody from the bare branch of a tall tree.On islands such as those of the OuterHebrides, where only stunted bushes grow,you may sometimes hear it singing whilstit is perched on the top of a chimney-pot. The Song Thrush, or Throstle, as it iscalled in the north of England, feeds uponsnails, worms, and grubs. You may havenoticed a collection of broken snail shellslying round a stone in your garden. That issurely the work of a Thrush. If you watchthe stone some fine morning you will see thebird hop up to it with a snail in her bill and o 105 106 Baby Birds at Home hammer it on her anvil, until the shell isbroken and she can extract and swallow thefat cr

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