HOW MADAM BIRD COMBS HER HAIR.
Madam Bird is not able to smooth her head-dress with her bill. What
does she do about it? Why, she uses her foot, which serves also as
her hand.
Birds are either-handed; that is, they can use the left hand or foot
as well as the right. Some people think that a parrot is left-handed,
because she always takes in her left hand the cracker or sugar which
you offer to her. The next time you feed her, stop and see what you
are doing. You are standing in front of the bird and offering her the
cracker in your right hand. She is facing you, and of course takes
the food with her left hand. Everybody gives her things in the same
way, and she naturally uses her left hand, because we teach her to do
so.
But wild birds are either handed. Watch and see how they comb their
hair, first on one side and then on the other, scratching very fast,
as if to get all the tangles out, but never crying, "Oh, don't!" when
it pulls. We call the fine feathers "hair," because they grow on the
bird's head as our hair does on our own.
See how Mrs. Bird lifts her crown and separates the soft feathers,
and fixes her frizzes or bangs, if she wears them. After she has
combed her hair this way long enough, she smoothes it down in good
order with her hair dressing, as you will see later on.
Did you ever notice a bird wash its ears? That is enough to make you
smile, but we assure you it does wash its ears and all around its
mouth after its meals, and between meals as often as it is necessary.
Watch your tame canary; he is very much like wild birds in habits
of neatness. See him stand on one foot and reach the other foot up
quickly between the long feathers of his wing and dig away at his
ears, just as if his mother had told him to "get ready for school."
We have laughed many a time to see him wash himself, he does it so
deftly and cheerfully, as if it were the greatest fun in the world.
Then, to get the corners of his mouth clean, he wipes them on his
towel. His towel is his perch or any cross-bar in the cage. You may
say he is "sharpening his bill," but he is really wiping his face. He
has probably washed it in his bath a few minutes before.
Some birds wear their hair done up high on their heads like a
"pug,"--the "crest" as we call it, standing out like the twist of the
fashion. Others, such as our mountain quail,[3] prefer something like
a Chinaman's queue or the revolutionary braids. Others still comb
their hair down plain and neat like little Quakers.
[3] In Southern California, _Oreortyx pictus plumiferus_.
But whichever way a bird dresses its head, it is always becoming
and pretty. We have watched birds dressing themselves, sitting
or standing on the edge of the tub under the hydrant, or at the
brook or puddle, and we have wondered if they were not looking at
themselves in the water, flirting and twisting and turning about just
like real people at a looking-glass.
Most birds wear short dresses or skirts in true walking style, while
a few prefer the trail. But one thing we have noticed: they never
allow the trail to drag in the dust or mud, not even the road-runner,
whose train is sometimes twelve inches long.
[Illustration: Mountain Quail.]
A mocking-bird or a robin will let her train just touch the ground
when she stretches up to look about her; but when she begins to walk
again she lifts it. So you never see the tip of the longest tail one
bit draggled, unless the bird is wounded or sick.
If you watch closely, you will learn to tell a male bird from a
female bird by its dress. To be sure, his coat skirts are cut so
much like the dress of his mate that we sometimes have to imagine a
good deal to see any difference.
But, as a rule, you can tell the male or gentleman bird because he
dresses so much more gayly than his mate, although we do not think he
spends quite so much time as she in fixing and mending his clothes
and in bathing. The lady bird works harder than her mate in going to
market to get lumber and nails for her house or cradle, and so she
soils her clothes more. Then she sits longer in the nest and works
harder in many ways, never once thinking about putting on an apron.
You must not think too hard of the gentleman birds for letting their
mates do the most of the home work, for you remember that it is the
male who must always be ready for his place in the orchestra at a
moment's notice. He is obliged to make most of the music, and if he
should neglect his duty he would probably lose his place and be put
out of the choir.
A singer bird has no notes spread out before him, but must go over
and over his part, until he knows it by heart with no one to prompt
him.
You need not be surprised because we said a bird must get lumber and
nails for her house or cradle. If she did not have lumber and nails,
she could not do her work. Of course you never hear her pounding with
a hammer, still she uses what may be called nails, as you shall see
by and by.
I should not have to change my dress
Were I a bird in yonder tree,
And say, "Excuse me, if you please,"
When callers come to visit me.
But I would fly upon a bough.
And say, "My dear, come right up here."
And we would sit and swing and chat
Beneath the sky so blue and clear.
[Illustration]