How To Tell The Birds From The Flowers. A Manual of Flornithology for Beginners.

Verses and Illustrations By Robert Williams Wood.

Published by Paul Elder and Company San Francisco and New York.

[pg i]

Copyright 1907 By Paul Elder and Company

[pg ii]

Contents.

[pg iv]

Burr. Bird.

The Bird and the Burdock.

Who is there who has never heard,

About the Burdock and the Bird?

And yet how very very few,

Discriminate between the two,

While even Mr. Burbank can't

Transform a Bird into a Plant!

[pg 1]

The Clover. The Plover.

The Plover and the Clover can be told apart with ease,

By paying close attention to the habits of the Bees,

For en-to-molo-gists aver, the Bee can be in Clover,

While ety-molo-gists concur, there is no B in Plover.

[pg 2]

The Crow. The Crocus.

Some are unable, as you know,

To tell the Crocus from the Crow;

The reason why is just because

They are not versed in Nature's laws.

The noisy, cawing Crows all come,

Obedient to the Cro'custom,

A large Crow Caw-cus to convoke.

You never hear the Crocus croak!

[pg 3]

The Rue. The Rooster.

Of Rooster the rudiment clearly is "Roo",

And the bird from the plant very probably grew.

You can easily tell them apart without fail,

By merely observing the Rue lacks de-tail.

[pg 4]

The Parrot. The Carrot.

The Parrot and the Carrot we may easily confound,

They're very much alike in looks and similar in sound,

We recognize the Parrot by his clear articulation,

For Carrots are unable to engage in conversation.

[pg 5]

The Pea. The Pewee.

To tell the Pewee from the Pea,

Requires great per-spi-ca-city.

Here in the pod we see the Pea,

While perched close by is the Pewee;

The Pea he hears the Pewee peep,

While Pewee sees the wee Pea weep,

There'll be but little time to see,

How Pewee differs from the Pea.

[pg 6]

The Pelican. The Panicle.

The Panicle and Pelican

Have often been confused;

The letters which spell Pelican

In Panicle are used.

You never need confound the two,

There are many ways of telling:

The simplest thing that one can do,

Is to observe the spelling.

[pg 7]