A TRUE STORY OF BIRDS

Timaru Herald, Volume CXXXIX, Issue 20065, 23 March 1935, Page 13

A TRUE STORY OF BIRDS

As a sit writing this little story, I can hear the pretty bell-like whistle of the bell-bird. This fellow comes here each year, at tho same time, to the trees by the river, and night and morning we can hear his pretty belllike notes. From the elderberry trees in the corner of the garden comes the chirping and whistling of numerous birds. They have been feeding there for some time on the dark berries that hang in clusters from the elderberry trees. From almost before daybreak, in the morning, until dark at night, their chirping continues. If we should make a noise, while playing on the lawn, blackbirds, thrushes, sparrows, and all kinds of birds fly in all directions. It is just two months since we used to sit on the river bank to get a glimpse of and listen to the pretty little kingfisher, calling to his mate. Across the field, in the bluegum trees, the magpie warbles out his shrill notes. In these trees they have just reared their young ones, and here they still stay most of their time. How vicious they used to be, when they had their babies. They would swoop down at our hens running about in the yard! My thoughts wander back to the time our own little dove cage hung on the wall of our shed, and I can still imagine I hear the pretty little Coo-Coo-Coo of the doves. We had two pairs of these pretty little ring doves, and they were such a pretty grey, with a black ring round their necks, and such bright eyes. They were very clean birds. Every morning, when we fed them, and put in their bath of water, they would come down from their perch, and have their bathe. They would get right in, and splash with their wings, and have water running everywhere! In the nesting season, we put in dry grass for them to build their nests. We had two small boxes hung on the outside of the cage, and a hole cut through [to their nest. They only lay two little white eggs, and did you know

that when they rear their young ones, there is always a male and female? If there should only be one hatch out of the eggs, the parent birds kill it, because it is an odd one. Both mother and father bird take their turn at sitting. When the mother dove comes off for a feed, the father dove sits on the nest until she comes back. It is very interesting to watch them feed their babies. They swallow the food themselves first, and then they get the little bird’s beak inside theirs, and bring the food back again into the mouth of the baby bird. I suppose they partly digest it for them. When we shifted we took our doves with us, but we did not have a suitable place to put them, and one night the cows knocked the cage down, and the doves got away. We were very sad when we found the remains of a few feathers, to tell us that a wicked old cat had eaten them. We missed them very much, and could often fancy we heard their Coo-Coo-Coo for quite a long time afterwards. (5 Marks and a Merit Card awarded to Joan Swap, Temuka).