WHAT BIRDS CARRY IN THEIR POCKETS.
Some birds wear on their heads plumes, or bright and showy hats.
These they sometimes lift in true bird style. There is the
ruby-crowned kinglet[4] which one sees in the garden trees. When this
little king lifts his hat, he shows what looks like a ruby crown or
jewel on top of his head.
[4] _Regulus calendula._
Other birds wear cocked hats, or tall silk hats with waving plumes.
You can imagine almost anything you like in the dress of a bird, from
his hat to his shoes. When a bird who wears a hat is surprised by
another bird, or is angry, or when he wants to "show off" to his mate
while paying his respects to her, he lifts the feathers on the top of
his head; and this is what we call "lifting his hat."
Many of our merry little bird friends, both male and female, wear
bonnets or hoods, which we think are tied closely under the chin.
Others, like the woodpeckers, wear collars of lace. This lace is
made of loose, filmy feathers, as different from the feathers of the
breast or back as embroidery is different from closely woven cloth.
[Illustration: Ruby-crowned Kinglet.]
When a warm day comes, you will see the birds lift their wings and
hold their feathers close, and pant with their bills open. How tired
they look, and the song or twitter which you hear is a weary one, as
if they were saying, "The oldest inhabitant never saw so warm a day."
In a cold snap the dress fluffs out, and the bird looks much larger
than he did on the warm day. It seems as if he were saying, "See me
make my wraps as big and thick as I can."
Many of the birds that sit up and fly about all the long cold night
are more warmly clothed than most day birds, who tuck themselves into
bed as soon as the sun sets. Examine the owls and see how warmly they
dress. Many of them wear trousers of feathers, reaching to the knees
or coming low down to the ankles. Often their feet are covered with
feathers down to their sharp claws. Their necks, too, are all wrapped
up with feathers, like comforters or woollen scarfs, so that only the
bill may be seen.
[Illustration: Short-eared Owl.]
It gets pretty cold in the middle of the night, and Mr. Owl knows
how to wrap himself up. Besides, with these thick, soft feathers he
can fly after his prey without making any noise.
A bird's shoes and stockings are strong and never seem to wear out.
If they become worn, they are mended so quickly you never know the
difference. The foot and leg are covered with scales, like the scales
on a lizard.
Birds and lizards are much alike; in fact, they are a sort of cousin
or distant relative, so that they dress alike in the matter of shoes
and stockings. Only the lizard wears scales all over, while a bird
wears them only for shoes and stockings. The bird has found out that
feathers are better for flying in the air, while the lizard, crawling
as he always does, is perfectly happy with only scales for clothes.
All birds, big and little, wear warm, fleecy underclothes, better
and softer than flannel. You can see bits of these underclothes at
the bottoms of the knee trousers or dresses, or, if you happen to be
holding a bird in your hand, you can part the outer clothes and see
and feel the delicate down. Sometimes, when a bird ruffles his outer
garments in washing himself, the soft warm underclothes are in plain
sight.
Birds never use complexion powders; that, no doubt, would seem very
vulgar to them. But they do use hair oil every day. They carry this
mixture about with them in their pockets. By pockets we mean little
pouches or sacks which always lie on the back, near the tail. Birds
would not be quite dressed without their pockets, and they know where
to find them without any trouble. We suppose this is because birds'
pockets have always been in the same place.
If it looks like rain, the "hair oil," as we call it, is used more
freely. Suppose the lady bird wishes to oil the back of her head and
around her face. Of course she is not able to take up the bottle and
pour the oil into her hand; but she squeezes a little out with her
beak, as you would press a rubber bulb. Then she lays the oil on her
back just above her wings.
To get the oil all about where she wishes to put it, she rubs her
head against it, twisting and turning her neck, until all the
feathers of her head are straight and shining.
When a shower comes, the water falls or slides down the bird's back
and shoulders on the oil, never finding its wet way beneath to the
underclothing. Birds are like those people who live in the cold and
wet north. The Eskimo are said to rub their whole bodies with seal or
fish oil to keep themselves from being wet.
Bird babies seldom have any clothing to begin life with. A few, such
as the walkers and waders and most of the swimmers, like quail and
sandpipers and ducks, are covered with thick down when they come out
of their shell.
Many of the bird babies in our yard have hardly a trace of the finest
down, while others have a little of it in patches, like tiny shirts
or bibs. Birds which have no clothes are hatched in the warmest
nests, and are close to the mother's breast almost all the time,
until their clothes have time to grow. They do not have oil in their
pockets until they have feathers to put it on.
[Illustration]
A baby bird has such a wide mouth that he looks very odd. But then,
you see, his mouth is wide on purpose, so that the parent birds can
drop the food in quickly. If the parents had to hunt around to find
six or eight little mouths, many a nice bug or worm would get away
and the babies go hungry.
Look into a nest and see that four or five open bills are as much of
the young birds as you can catch sight of above the edge of the nest.
Each is trying to open his mouth a little wider than his brothers
and sisters so that it can get the first mouthful. We have often
wondered how the mother knows which bird to feed when she comes to
the nest. We spent two or three days once to be quite sure that she
fed all alike. She fed them in turn, even though she returned many
times, not once giving the last one another bite until she had been
all around. We do not know whether she counts them or calls them by
name, but she makes no mistake in feeding them.
We saw a humming-bird mother one day stand on the head of one little
baby birdling while she fed the other. Not all of her weight was on
the bird, of course, but quite enough to make him keep out of her way
while she fed his brother.
A baby bird gains nothing by teasing and coaxing; it must wait for
its turn to come, no matter how hungry it happens to be. It is
probably more greedy than hungry when it wants to get more than its
share.
[Illustration]