Bird Stories

For help in planning this book, for sharing his bird-notes with the writer, and for a critical reading of the manuscript, acknowledgment should be made to Mr. Robert J. Sim. Certain events in the lives of Eve and Petro and little Solomon Otus are told with reference to his observations of eave-swallows and screech owls; his trip to an island off the Maine coast for gull-sketches added greatly to an acquaintance with Larie; and but for his six-weeks' visit with the loons of "Immer Lake," much of the story of Gavia could not have been told. Since Mr. Sim contributed not only the pictures to the book, but many items of interest to the narrative, it gives the writer pleasure to acknowledge his coöperation, both as artist and as field-naturalist. Edith M. Patch CONTENTS I. Chick, D.D. 1 II. The Five Worlds of Larie 18 III. Peter Piper 33 IV. Gavia of Immer Lake 49 V. Eve and Petro 66 VI. Uncle Sam 86 VII. Corbie 100 VIII. Ardea's Soldier 121 IX. The Flying Clown 133 X. The Lost Dove 150 XI. Little Solomon Otus 163 XII. Bob, the Vagabond 180 Notes Conservation 198 Notes to the Stories 199 A Book List 208 ILLUSTRATIONS Chick, D.D. in his pulpit Frontispiece Firs that pointed to the sky 2 "Woodland Music after an Ice-Storm" 4 Birds, too, that had lived in rough winds 25 Floated beside him in the sea another gull, to whom he talked pleasantly 28 After Larie found a clam, he would fly high into the air and then drop it 30 It was not for food alone that Larie and his mate lived that spring 31 One was named Peter, for his father 34 The spot she teetered to most of all 43 Dallying happily along the river-edge 47 Immer Lake 51 Two babies, not yet out of their eggshells, hidden among the rushes 53 While their children were napping, Gavia and Father Loon went to a party 61 At Work in the Plaster Pit 72 The Hunting Flight 74 They always chatted a bit and then went on with their work, placing their plaster carefully 77 Quaint Clay Pottery 81 A Famous Landmark 85 Above all other creatures of this great land he had been honored 87 The Yankee-Doodle Twins 90 In this Mother Crow had laid her eggs 101 "Kah! Kah! Kah!" he called from sun-up…