Part 1

GRAY LADY AND THE BIRDS [Illustration]

THE MACMILLAN COMPANY NEW YORK • BOSTON • CHICAGO ATLANTA • SAN FRANCISCO

MACMILLAN & CO., Limited LONDON • BOMBAY • CALCUTTA MELBOURNE

THE MACMILLAN CO. OF CANADA, Ltd. TORONTO

(Upper Figure, Male; Lower Figure, Female)]

Order—Passeres Family—Icteridæ Genus—Icterus Species—Galbula

GRAY LADY AND THE BIRDS

STORIES OF THE BIRD YEAR FOR HOME AND SCHOOL

BY MABEL OSGOOD WRIGHT

PRESIDENT AUDUBON SOCIETY, STATE OF CONNECTICUT AUTHOR OF “CITIZEN BIRD,” “TOMMY ANNE,” ETC.

TWELVE COLOURED PLATES AND THIRTY-SIX FULL-PAGE ILLUSTRATIONS IN HALF-TONE

New York THE MACMILLAN COMPANY 1914

All rights reserved

Copyright, 1907, By THE MACMILLAN COMPANY.

Set up and electrotyped. Published November, 1907. Reprinted March, 1909; April, 1910; April, 1914.

Norwood Press J. S. Cushing Co.—Berwick & Smith Co. Norwood, Mass., U.S.A.

WILLIAM DUTCHER

PRESIDENT OF THE NATIONAL ASSOCIATION

OF AUDUBON SOCIETIES

IN RECOGNITION OF HIS UNSELFISH DEVOTION

TO THE CAUSE OF

AMERICAN BIRD PROTECTION

TO THE CHILDREN

Greeting!

Oh, sweet is the whitethroat’s lay, As the banners of dawn unfold! The lovable, quarrelsome wrens all day Peep and prattle and scold: Skulks a blue jay hiding his grain; Blinks an owl with the crows in train— Courtship merry and combat vain The eyes of the wise behold.

* * * * * *

And Nature spreads wide her book, In a temple fair and free,— To all who may listen she cries, “Come, look! Come and learn at my knee. Watch the change of the finch’s vest, Note how the highhole carves his nest,— Come with light foot and loving breast, And bury your ills with me!”

—Dora Read Goodale.