Animal Magic

A Blue Bird In An English Garden

A Blue Bird In An English Garden

A schoolteacher spoke to a roving reporter,

Of the nesting of birds in his garden.

One was a blue bird a-raising her chicks,

And hidden by ivy growing over his porch,

She lodged without favour or pardon.

The way to her nest was hard to detect

Said he, pointing up where with his stick,

High in the stonework the eggs safely lay,

And he told that his wife had lately discovered,

How the bird reached her nest-hole by way of a trick.

They watched at the window for the bird to fly home,

The teacher, his wife, and the newspaper man.

Patience rewarded, the blue bird they spied

As she swooped to alight on a leaflet below,

And began the first stage in her plan.

Swinging head down for a second or two,

She picked off an insect disguised by the leaves.

Then gaily she entered the basket of branches,

And spiralling upwards till reaching the top,

She bobbed into her nesting-hole under the eaves.

The reporter sped off, his deadline drawn close,

His crust must be earned, his copy to file.

He wrote of the teacher, his wife, and the bird

On the creeper-clad wall, whose acrobat tricks

Taught them a lesson and made them all smile.

A true story, adapted from a local newspaper article printed around 1920.