CHAPTER VI.
HOW TO MAKE A BACK-YARD AVIARY.
It was before the directors of the Brooklyn Institute had met with success in their silly work of introducing the house-sparrow (known here as the English sparrow) to this country, and long before these foreign pests were spread over the length and breadth of the United States, that the court-house in Covington, Ky., was surmounted by a wooden image of George Washington.
Bird’s-Nests in Washington’s Coat.
All boys know that Washington loved his country, but few know that he was a bird-fancier. That the father of our country loved the native birds is attested by the fact that they built nests in the wooden wrinkles of his sleeves and in the hollow ends of the roll of parchment which he held in his hand. His favorite bird was the red-headed woodpecker. He had it on the brain, and although each year a brood of little red-headed birds were hatched in his head, the dear old patriot never made a wry face, but with a benign smile he gazed over the roof of the livery stable across the street.
Bird’s-Nests in Speaking-Horn.
Upon the same lot with the court-house stood the fire-engine-house, with its old-fashioned lookout tower. On the top of the tower was a weather-vane, made of a great fireman’s horn, but the only voices which ever issued from this old speaking-trumpet were the voices of the purple martins, singing their bubbling love songs, the twittering of their mates, or the impatient piping of the young birds inside their revolving home.
It was in the swinging, moving weather-vane of the engine-house that these birds each year built their nests and reared their young.
Figs. 43 to 47.—The Log may be Rounded or Square.