Birds and All Nature, Vol. 7, No. 4, April 1900Various
History
Birds and All Nature, Vol. 7, No. 4, April 1900
Various
Birds -- Periodicals; Natural history -- Periodicals
One morning, when the birds were still quite small, one of them tumbled
from the nest. At first I thought the mother-bird might have pushed it
out that it might learn to fly, but after seeing the feathers of its
wings had only reached the tiny pin-feather stage, I knew it was too
young for such efforts and concluded that the nest was overcrowded. I
tried to put it in the nest for it was drenched with the dew from the
grass.
Jack and Jill objected so seriously to my assistance that I had to give
up this plan, for they flew at me just as they did at Mephistopheles.
Fearing the cat would hurt it I was compelled to take it into the
house.
Then my troubles began. It seemed to take all of my time to feed this
one bird, and I could not imagine how Jack and Jill could take care of
it and four others.
For awhile it seemed very much frightened, but at length began to
chirp. The old birds answered at once and soon came to the screen on
the window and called to it. Knowing they would feed it if they could
reach it I had to keep it away from them, for, should they discover it
was a prisoner, they would give it poison.
We named it Chippy and it soon became a great pet. Whenever anyone
entered the room where it was its mouth flew open, and from its shrill
"_chee-chee-chee_," one might easily imagine it was on the verge of
starvation.
When I had had it a week it would try to fly from the floor to the
lower rounds of a chair. When it had learned to fly, if left alone it
would call until someone answered, and then follow the sound until it
found them. I have known it to fly through two rooms, a downstairs
hall, up the stair-steps, through the upper hall, and into my room in
response to my whistle.
When it first made this journey it could fly only two or three feet at
a time and had to fly from step to step up the stairway.
Soon after this I took Chippy out of doors. He was very much delighted
when placed in a young hackberry tree, where he could fly from branch
to branch. When he reached the top of the tree Jill flew into a tree
near by and tried to coax him to come to her. I saw Chippy spread his
wings and supposed I had lost my pet. Imagine my surprise when he gave
a shrill scream and flew straight to me, lighting on my shoulder and
nestling against my face.
Jill followed him, resting in a vine some three or four feet from me.
When coaxing failed she flew away but soon returned with a grasshopper
in her bill.
I drove Chippy away from me, hoping he would return to his own family,
where his education could be carried on according to their ideas.
He flew into a tree, ate the grasshopper which Jill fed to him, and
then flew on the roof of the porch outside my window, where he sat
calling me. Going to my room I opened the screen to let him in, but
this startled him and he flew away.
The sun had gone down by this time and I supposed he had at last
returned to the nest. As I sat at the supper table I heard him calling
to me and went outside.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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