Mother bird

“ But, as they grow older, the mother-bird wants them to learn to fly, that they may be able to soar up with her towards the sun. So she hovers over them and tries to persuade them to stretch their wings; but the nest is far too cosy and snug for them to want to leave it, and they nestle down again in the moss and hay. But the mother knows all they will lose if they do not learn to fly, so she rakes out the wool and feathers with her strong beak, and makes the thorns and briars come to the top. Then, when all the soft lining is gone, the young birds shuffle about uncomfortably. ”

“ For the mother bird, at least, the whole period of nesting, sometimes extending over several months, is a time of drudgery, anxiety, and, far too often, of disappointed hopes. I have heard a bird mother’s wail that went like iron into my soul, and told me all too plainly that it had come from a bereft and broken heart. When we remember how many tragedies occur in the feathered community, we scarcely care about singing, “I wish I were a little bird.” ”

“ On another occasion, the mother bird, trying this plan to no purpose, seemed to lose patience, and seizing one of them by the lower mandible, with the claw of her right foot, whilst it was gaping for food, tried to pull it out of the nest, to which, however, it clung like a squirrel. But the young, every one of them, fly in time, and a right joyous holiday they all have together. ”

“ And now there lies my home nest swung in a bower of blossoms full of the old sweetie birds, the boy, the calf, puppy babies, pester chickens and—and I'm going to take a large, gray, prowling night-bird back and tuck him away for fear his cheeks will look hollow in the morning. I'm the mother bird, and while I know He watches with me all through the night, sometimes I sing in the dark because I and my nesties are close to Him and I'm not the least bit afraid. ”

“ When the mother bird has made her nest, and sat long days and nights on her eggs, and heard the little ones chirp within, and helped them to break the thin shell, and felt their little warm bodies cuddling themselves among her soft feathers, and seen their yellow beaks open to ask her for the food that it gives such joy to her affectionate heart to put into them; oh, THEN, can you turn all her honest happiness into misery and mourning, and kill those baby-birds with a miserable death, by cold and hunger, if not by other tortures. ”

“ The birds, too, are all asleep in the tree; the mother-bird spreading her wings over the young ones in the nest, and the father-bird sitting on a twig close by with his head under his wing. Even the chattering monkey has curled himself up for the night. ”

“ Picture the family life of the innocent little creatures—a lesson indeed to people of larger growth; how they guard their nests with almost human care and wisdom, and how they cherish their young with as faithful and self-sacrificing love as parents of human families. Impress upon their young minds how many days of toil the mother-bird, aided by her mate, spent in building the nest which they purpose to rifle, of her joy and pride when the first egg was deposited, and all the patiently borne days of brooding which followed. ”

“ There is, of course, not enough food for all of them at once, but they all try to get it at once, and some of them are naughty and greedy, and try to get a second morsel before their brothers and sisters have had any at all. Now, the careful mother-bird knows this very well, and she, therefore, divides everything among them, so that each has a bit in turn, and while she feeds them she begs the rest to be as patient as they can, and not flutter, and chirrup, and gape so widely, and above all things, to mind they do not tumble, or push each other, over the edge of the nest. ”

“ So we promised mamma not to take a bird again, and we will keep our word, for when we took them we did not think a mother bird would grieve as our mamma would if we were stolen. The mocking-birds sing any song, and if they hear any one play on the piano, they will whistle the same tune; and one used to call like the little chickens, and papa hunted everywhere, thinking some little chick had lost its mother, when what should he see but a mocking-bird on the gate, making the same noise a little chick does when its mother is out of sight! ”

“ She had seen him pick up a little birdling that had fallen from its nest, lying with a bruised wing in the dust of the roadside, and restore it to the mother bird to be nursed back to health and life, and go out of his way to rescue a butterfly that had fallen in the millpond. ”

“ The bird mother is the bravest, tenderest, most appealing thing one ever comes upon in the fields. It is the rare exception, but we sometimes find the real mother wholly lacking among the birds, as in the case of our notorious cowbird, who sneaks about, watching her chance, when some smaller bird is gone, to drop her egg into its nest. The egg must [Pg 72] be laid, the burden of the race has been put upon the bird, but not the precious burden of the child. She lays eggs; but is not a mother. ”

“ His brawny arms give such an impulse to the axe, that at every stroke large chips are seen to fall off on all sides. The poor mother-bird, well aware of the result, sails sorrowfully over and around. She would fain beg for mercy towards her young. ”

“ Another parent, who may pass for the mother, stands a little behind one of them, and stretches out a wing. The little one, snuggling up to her, presses its little head amongst the feathers of her side, just under this wing. The mother immediately clasps him with it, and, with half of him thus concealed, he squats down on the rock and evidently goes to sleep. And so close and tight is the embracement that if the mother moves a little, to one or the other side, the chick, moving its little legs, goes with her, partly pulled and partly waddling, but as though all in one with her. ”

“ All the young fathers and mothers, with their little families, could not, at first, see the reason why. They had built nests, and their birdlings were just putting on their first coat of feathers, and their proud parents wanted to show them off in their varied colors and bright neck-sheen. In fact, every mother bird was sure that her fledglings were very accomplished young ones, and would certainly surprise the world when they made their début. ”

“ The mother-bird wears the protective colors of the sparrow, while young males seem to be of doubtful mind which parent to copy; and so a purple finch family presents diversity of attire puzzling to a novice. ”

“ The nest was here exposed to the direct rays of the noonday sun, and to shield her young when the heat was greatest, the mother-bird would stand above them with wings slightly spread, as other birds have been known to do under like circumstances. ”

“ When eggs are put into a nest in this way, it is the strange egg which thrives. The cow-bird hatches before the eggs among which it lies. Then the mother-bird at once begins to feed her adopted child, and her own eggs are left and do not hatch.
The young cuckoo is so big and strong that it pushes its foster brothers and sisters out of the nest, and lives there alone. The good mother-bird, perhaps only a little sparrow, tires herself out bringing insects for the wide-open beak of her big, greedy child. ”

“ Meanwhile the red-headed woodpecker's eggs in the hollow maple had hatched, and the proud mother had great tales to tell of her baby birds,—of how beautiful and knowing they were, and of what good, noble birds they were going to be when they grew up. The yellow-bird, too, had four fuzzy little babies in her nest in the lilac-bush, and every now and then she came to sing to the little boy and Fido of her darlings. ”

“ The mother bird and the father bird work together to build the nest, but while the mother bird lays the eggs and then must sit on them for a number of days, the father bird must bring her food and water and sometimes take his turn watching the nest while the mother goes for a little exercise. The mother bird's body resembles the plant, too, for it needs fresh air, food and water. Instead of leaves to take in the air it has lungs, which not only take in the fresh air but also send out the impure air. ”

“ And in many species its education is accomplished without any further care on the part of the mother than she bestowed when it grew in her bosom.
Far otherwise is the destiny of the bird. It would die if it were not loved.
Loved! Every mother loves, from the ocean to the stars. I should rather say anxiously tended, surrounded by infinite love, enfolded in the warmth of the maternal magnetism.
Even in the egg, where you see it protected by a calcareous shell, it feels so keenly the access of air, that every chilled point in the egg is a member the less for the future bird. ”

“ THE BIRD.
A boy was walking with his mother; he saw a bird fly past, with some food in its mouth.
Boy. Is not that bird hungry? for I [Pg 76] see that he carries his meat fast in his mouth.
Mother. She is a mother bird, and has young ones in her nest.
Boy. Who makes the nest?
Mother. The old birds.
Boy. How do they make the nests?
Mother. Some make their nests of sticks; some of dry leaves; some use clay; some straw: they use all sorts of things; each kind of bird knows what is fit for its use. ”

“ It has often been stated that the parent bird, if danger threatens, takes the young down beneath its wings, but I have never seen this done. When the young is on the back it can be held in place by the paternal or maternal scapulars or wings, but as a rule the little one, when not so held, comes bobbing up, astonished and doubtless much annoyed, when its parent has given it an unexpected ducking. At all times it is very much a mother's spoilt baby, following her about with incessant squeaky demands for attention. ”

“ The young bird twitters under the white-thorn in flower;
Its mother brings it sweet, soft food this hour;
Mine eyes are like an over-brimming cup.
Ah! Wherefore have I not a mother?
Wherefore am I not like that young bird
Whose nest is balanced on the boughs wind-stirred?
Nothing on earth is mine—no brother—
Not even a cradle had I ”

“ It is natural that the adult bird should delight to leave the family nest, and that the mother bird should have its heart-strings torn by the separation. It must be so, alas! even when the divulsions are made in the happiest manner. ”

“ You have heard so much about the mother-bird sitting on the nest, that I am sure you will be interested in seeing a father who broods the eggs and hatches out the little ones. I have five wives. They all lay their eggs in one and the same nest, which is a hollow pit scraped out by their feet, the earth heaped up around to form a sort of wall. They lay the eggs, I have said, sometimes thirty in a nest, and I—well, I do the rest.
We are dangerous fellows if disturbed when brooding; have been known to attack a man on horseback, trying to kick and leap on him. ”

“ The mother of a young mammal knows that it came from herself, and she can see that it is like her and others of her kind. It at once seeks her care and responds to her attentions. The egg which a bird lays is as lifeless—to all appearances—as the stones which it often so closely resembles. ”

“ The wild bird who takes her life in her wings to save her nestlings from the voracious serpent, and the mother bear away oil the Arctic snows who allows herself to be murdered in order to save her child, have just as genuine mother love and love just as sacred as that which burns in the breast of woman. ”

“ June 20th, I found one bird out of the shell and the next day all were out. The young birds are not fed until they are one day old. They are not great feeders like young robins, and the mother bird has an easy task to provide food. The birds grow rapidly. At first the mother can cover her brood while half hid below the brim of the nest, but before the young birds leave the nest she must stand with a foot on each side of the brim. ”

“ THE LAPWING. This little bird which is often called the Pewit, from its uttering frequently a cry resembling the sound of this word, builds its nest or rather lays its eggs, for it builds no regular nest, amongst long grass or heather on open downs. If any one goes near the nest, the watchful mother, who knows herself too weak to defend her young, tries by all manner of artful contrivances to draw away the stranger's attention. She will hover close to his ear screaming, or else flutter along the ground as if wounded and unable to fly. ”

“ The mother does so too, and then both birds, standing together side by side over the chick, pay it divided attentions, seeming as though they could not make enough either of their child or each other. It is a pretty picture, and here is another one. "A bird—we will think her the female, as she performs the most mother-like part—has just flown in with a fish—a sand-eel—in her bill. She makes her way with it to the partner, who rises and shifts the chick that he has been brooding over from himself to her. ”

“ The mother-bird is very patient all the long days, or weeks, while she must sit brooding her eggs. If you go near her, she may fly off, or she may cower close over her eggs, and look at you in a very timid way. ”

“ If her nest is searched for in the long grass, the mother bird will try by every means in her power to lure away the intruder, a favourite manœuvre being to simulate lameness to encourage pursuit and capture. ”

“ But the smaller species really display great art in framing their miniature dwelling, which they furnish inside with wool, blades of grass, or down, the male and female labouring in the common work. Their effort is to make a soft, warm, and solid bed on which to deposit the coming eggs. The mother-bird has recourse to all sorts of cunning devices in order to conceal her nest from prying eyes, choosing for this purpose the heart of a leafy bush, the forked limb, the concealed crack or hollow in the trunk of a tree, the chimneys of a house, crevices in a wall or under a roof. ”