BIRD STORIES

Chick, D.D. in his pulpit.

LITTLE GATEWAYS TO SCIENCE

BIRD STORIES

BY EDITH M. PATCH

WITH ILLUSTRATIONS BY

ROBERT J. SIM

BOSTON
LITTLE, BROWN, AND COMPANY
1926

Copyright, 1921, by

THE ATLANTIC MONTHLY PRESS

First Impression, May, 1921
Second Impression, May, 1922
Third Impression, March, 1926

The Atlantic Monthly Press Publications

are published by

Little, Brown, and Company

in association with

The Atlantic Monthly Company

Printed in the United States of America

TO

JUNIOR AUDUBON CLASSES

AND TO

ALL OTHER BOYS AND GIRLS THROUGHOUT THE
LAND WHO ARE FRIENDLY TO BIRDS

ACKNOWLEDGMENT

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