Page:Condor18(5).djvu/17

Sept., 1916 A HOSPITAL I?OR WILD BIRDS 191 gets, orioles, doves, sparrows and two Calliope hummingbirds rounded out the grist of this dreadful bombardment of icy bullets. The fatality in this group of patients was very heavy, due to exposure to the ice-water bath they were subjected to for so many hours, which seemed to have developed pneumohie conditions. A more pitiful sight than those forty-five injured robins, with their bound-up broken wings and legs, could hardly be imagined, and what touched my'heart most deeply was the immediate response they manifested to my efforts for the relief of their sufferings. Within thirty-six hours they had lost all fear of my presence, and when I would approach the hospital and call to them, "Hello birdies, do you want your dinner .?", every head would go up, and a joyous note in answer greet me. Then, as I opened the door to pass in the cherries, earth-worms and boiled bread and milk, they would rush pell-mell upon the waiter and begin devouring the meal in voracious man- ner. Their jousts at feed- ing time were highly amus- ing and revealed robin na- ture as I had never seen it before. T h e tug-of-war which ensued when two birds grabbed opposite ends of the same angle-worm, was the occasion of hearty mer- riment. A souvenir of this hail storm was brought to me but recently. It is a mother Yellow Warbler covering her nest with out-stretched wings, a record of vain en- deavor to save the lives of her infant babies. Her life w. Fig. !?0. A HOSPITAL FOR CRIPPLED BIRDS MAINTAI.?ED DR. W. W. AR?O?), I1?1 COLORADO SPRI!?G.S, COLORADO was blotted out instantly by the impact of an icy bullet on her head, and there in this attitude of loyal devotion to her home, she found her sepulchre, the dry atmosphere absorbing the liquids of the body and mummifying it. A fledgling robin suffering from a fracture of the right wing proved to be one of the most interesting of all my feathered patients. He was dwarfish not only in body but in mind, also possessing an irascible temper which was constantly in a state of explosion. He was so restless and fidgety, and dashed about so recklessly, that he kept his plumage in a dreadful state of dilapida- tion, and his wing feathers were so frazzled he could not fly, and his tail was