GRAY LADY AND THE BIRDS
THE MACMILLAN COMPANY
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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.
To
WILLIAM DUTCHER
PRESIDENT OF THE NATIONAL ASSOCIATION
OF AUDUBON SOCIETIES
IN RECOGNITION OF HIS UNSELFISH DEVOTION
TO THE CAUSE OF
AMERICAN BIRD PROTECTION
FEEDING THE ORPHANS
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.