The Enid Blyton Society
Birds of Our Gardens
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Book Details...

First edition: 1940
Publisher: George Newnes
Illustrator: Roland Green, Ernest Aris and R. Westcott
Category: Non-series Non-fiction
Genre: Animals
Type: Non-Fiction Books

On This Page...

Review by Terry Gustafson

Tony and Mollie's parents have just left Southampton on a big liner bound for America where they'll be staying for a whole year. The children have waved them goodbye and are now on a train bound for Meadowfield where they'll be staying with relatives. Their Uncle Jack is waiting for them at the station in his pony-cart and once the children's luggage is loaded, they set off and it's not long before Sparrow Cottage comes into view and their Aunt Jane introduces them to a couple of snug bedrooms under the thatch.

After the children have unpacked Aunt Jane calls them down to feast on hot scones by an old brick fireplace so taking it all round, the setting couldn't be more English and it looks as the kiddies are going to enjoy their stay. Mollie remarks how quiet it is after the roar of buses and the clang of tram bells back in London but Uncle Jack tells them he was thinking the opposite because there's a singing thrush outside and a carolling robin on yonder bush.

The children cannot hear them and this is put down to the fact their ears aren't yet 'tuned' to listen for birds after all the noise they've been used to in a big city. Their observation of a chaffinch sitting on the lawn outside reveals just how ignorant the kids are of their feathered friends and Uncle Jack is quite shocked when Mollie tells him that all the birds look like sparrows to her only cleaner than the ones they have in London. Astonishment is rife when Uncle Jack informs them both that amongst the group of birds outside is a cock and hen chaffinch, two house-sparrows, one hedge-sparrow, and a song thrush.

This man knows his stuff and the following pages are set to impart a considerable amount of knowledge to any reader anxious to learn a little more about the various species of birds and their habits. Mollie, wanting to show her uncle she knows at least something, points to a bird and declares it as a crow - but she's wrong. Uncle Jack corrects his niece and informs her it's a jackdaw, and when Tony pipes up that he thought crows and rooks were the same his uncle calls out,

"Jane, these children don't know the first thing about birds. What are we going to do with them?"

This of course is the introduction to a period of enlightenment for the two townies. There are birds and more birds out here in the country so for the passing weeks we will follow Tony and Mollie's activities in the line of 'ornithology' - a word that has been used by Enid Blyton in at least a couple of her novels, so it can be used here. Uncle Jack and Aunt Jane have decided the kids need to know more about the birds of our gardens and they'll start tomorrow.

The first project is an appropriate one because it's designed to allow the children a way of observing birds more closely. A bird-table is just the ticket and it's to be constructed high enough from the ground to prevent cats from leaping up to catch any visitors.

"But you haven't a cat, Uncle."

"Perhaps not but other people possess them, and pets often wander into other peoples' gardens searching for food."

The table is completed by Uncle Jack with the children's help and very soon the hungry visitors begin arriving; so what with the new observation facility and Uncle Jack's answers to their questions, the children learn quite a lot in one chapter alone. Next morning, a visit to the seed-merchant results in various other foods being added to the table so that a greater variety of birds visit to take their pick of the goodies.

Britain has a diverse number of birds and they're well represented - sparrows, thrushes, robins, jackdaws, starlings and chaffinches and once a few pieces of cocoanut have been placed on the table and some nuts strung round the base, Mollie and Tony are thrilled to observe some acrobatic birds pecking at them. Uncle Jack names them as tits. Coal-tits, blue-tits, long-tailed tits, and some great-tits who are attracted to the brazil-nuts Uncle Jack has draped under the table

On page fifty-six there's a picture of the children getting stuck into making a bird-cake ... yes, the species are spoilt in Enid Blyton's world. Seeds, berries, nuts, currants, and dripping all go to make up this particular treat and it looks so delicious that Mollie wishes she could have a bite of it. This would seem a fairly harmless urge, but Auntie Jane tells them a bird-cake might contain yew-berries which are poisonous to children.

Roosting is dealt with in Chapter Nine and the children are taken to see where various birds pass the night and they even supply a few containers for them to huddle in.

A bitterly cold Christmas arrives and with the normal gifts, there are some bird-orientated gizmos which are explained to Tony and Mollie. One is a tit-bell into which melted fat is poured before hanging it outside the window. Two more presents are opened and the excited children behold a seed-hopper and pea-nut feeder. Like the tit-bell, these can also be hung from trees to allow the birds a few more nuts that are automatically replenished when consumed.

In Chapter Twelve the children learn that mistle-thrushes actually plant seeds. This bird loves the mistletoe-berries, but after a meal of them the sticky seeds need to be scraped of its beak. The bird flies to a tree (any tree) and rubs his beak on a branch to get rid of them whereby the seeds then send roots down into the branch of the host tree to feed on its sap and thrive.

A tiny quite distinctively shaped bird is the wren and according to Chapter Thirteen, it has a very loud ringing call that really surprises the children when they set eyes on this stumpy individual. Uncle Jack and Aunt Jane pass on a few salient facts pertaining to wrens and then, when an individual graces the bird-table one day but doesn't eat all that much, Uncle Jack explains to the children that it's more of an insect-eater.

The following chapter passes on information concerning the various footmarks birds make in the snow, and there are diagrams of those imprinted by the duck, skylark, moorhen, wagtail and sparrow. Later, Uncle Jack takes out a writing pad and draws all sorts of feet pertaining to birds and, going by the renditions, he's a reasonably competent illustrator.

Next day after making a snowman, Tony and Mollie are once again treated to some more pictures drawn by the resident artist, and this time they are of birds' beaks. Uncle Jack explains why there's such a variety of them and taking just one example, he draws a curious beak with a pocket of elastic skin underneath.

"It uses this pocket to store food in," Uncle Jack tells the kids, and Mollie recognises it as a pelican because she's seen one in the Zoo.

Bird songs have to be investigated of course, and these also reek of variety ranging from the 'Wheeze, splutter, click-click, skeeze. Skeeeeeze, kick-kick, eeee, produced by starlings, to the "Chip-chip-chip,cherry-erry-erry, chippy-you-EE-ar!" of the chaffinch.

Spring arrives which means it's time for the birds to begin families, and to that effect a couple of nesting boxes are purchased and hung up for prospective tenants. It's good that some control can be exercised over just what kind of birds will occupy the boxes because both children wants tits. A starling pokes its head into Tony's nesting-box but Uncle Jack tells him the entry space is too small for that particular breed, so sure enough Tony ends up getting what he wanted ... a pair of great-tits. Mollie is also lucky because a couple of blue-tits set up house in her nesting-box, and Uncle Jack whose nesting facility is made from a cocoanut shell with removable top-piece, is delighted when two coal-tits choose his innovative dwelling for their home. Eggs are laid and we all know the rest. Fluffy yellow babies appear after the required time and Mollie is overjoyed to think that her blue-tit babies are growing up in her own little nesting box.

The next two chapters deal with other kinds of nests and Uncle Jack gets the children to fill an old net bag with useful items such as hair from Mollie's brush, dead leaves, moss, sheep-wool and the like so the various birds can select according to preference. The bag is hung up and visited by those birds who're still in a nesting mood. The author never tires of informing us about the habit of robins to nest in odd places such as old saucepans, tins, kettles - and in this particular case - the inside of a roller is taken over by two birds of the species.

Chapter Twenty-Two deals with birds' eggs and their characteristics. Uncle Jack informs Tony and Mollie that a guillemot's egg is shaped so that it won't fall off of the cliff where it rests. If a strong wind blows the egg will simply roll around because it's markedly narrower at one end. Nature is very forward-thinking. Camouflage is another way that eggs are made safe from predators. Mollie asks her uncle about the white ones laid by owls and kingfishers and learns that as those birds nest in dark places it doesn't really matter if their eggs aren't camouflaged.

A rook and a jackdaw visit the garden and are spotted instantly by the vigilant children who besiege their uncle with all kinds of questions, which are dutifully answered. A skylark is also spotted and its 'sibilant' warbling song is well noted by Tony whose interpretation is as follows:

"Swee-o, sis-sis-sis-swee-o."

After Uncle Jack has explained how the tree-creeper's name describes its habit of creeping round tree-trunks to look for insects, there's a chapter dealing with that enigmatic and seemingly lazy bird known as the cuckoo. Aunt Jane surprises the children by referring to this visitor as a "bad bird!" Most wildlife students would know why she said that and the children are enlightened to the fact that cuckoos lay their eggs in other birds' nests, which of course saves them a considerable amount of work. Tony and his sister learn how the mother cuckoo lays her egg and then removes one of the host's eggs thus ensuring the extra egg won't be noticed. When the baby cuckoo hatches out it grows substantially and then, following the dictates of a seemingly cruel Mother Nature, it throws any other fledglings from the nest, and simply keeps on growing so that ma and pa sparrow (in this case) have their work cut out trying to sustain the monster.

Finally birds from far away are discussed - swallows, swifts, house martins and fly-catchers. These birds move out during the winter because of an insect shortage - emigrating to places such as South Africa, yet they always manage to find their way back. How? Enid Blyton explains it in her simple terms ... 'instinct,' although our scientific community have put forward a few more suggestions since the book was written.

The final chapter is entitled 'Goodbye, Swallows! Goodbye, Children!' and that's the way it is. Summer has passed and now the swallows are gathering on the telegraph wires preparing to launch themselves up up and away - bound for tropical climes; but they're not the only ones leaving Meadowfield because a week later it's also time for Tony and Mollie to go. As the children are setting off, Mollie hugs her aunt and says,

"We're migrating to London but perhaps we'll return next spring just as the swallows will."

Two children with an acquired wealth of knowledge on the subject of ornithology depart from Spring Cottage bound for the big city.

#1:

In the middle ages personal names were apparently given to birds such as the martin, robin, wren and others. One species of bird known simply as the 'Daw,' is now preceded by 'Jack.' According to the record, British children may refer to any small bird as a Dicky-bird.

Uncle Jack receives a nickname from Mollie when they arrive at Sparrow Cottage - Jack Sparrow.

#14:

Round The Year With Enid Blyton_Winter has a chapter dedicated to 'animal' foot-marks in the snow.

#16:

According to people supposedly in the know, pelicans actually use their pouches more as a means of capturing food and subsequent drainage, rather than as a place of storage for any extended period

#17:

Enid Blyton must have spent a lot of time listening to and analysing bird calls. Several times she has written down her interpretation of the sounds, and a well known one would be - "Chip-chip-chip, cherry-erry-erry, chippy-you-EE-ar." That's a chaffinch. Suspecting there was a slight alteration, 'Enid Blyton's Nature Lover's Book' was opened and sure enough, the chaffinch's call was marked down as beginning with - "Chip-chip-chip" and ending with "Ooo-ee-ar." A negligible difference.

The wren is frequently described as a small bird with a loud voice and very fortunately in this day and age, we are able to check it out. The common wren didn't seem all that noisy, but the 'Carolina' wren sounds unbelievably loud.

#19:

As Tony and Mollie had done, some other Enid Blyton characters also studied the nesting habits of birds. In 'EB's Book Of The Year' Miss Brown and her class of four children hung up a nesting box and took notes.

#26:

The final picture of Tony and Mollie portrays them walking from the cottage and waving goodbye to their aunt and uncle. When the children journeyed to Sparrow Cottage by train, Uncle Jack had collected them in his pony-trap so it's anyone's guess as to how they'll get to the station for the return home.

The book has piles of illustrations and also several photographic plates. There are two artists which might seem unusual but whereas one deals with the bird side, the other caters to any humans.

The bird photographs would have been even better in colour but not all that many children's books of the period contained them.

Just as many children may have been introduced to the word 'Ingots' by Enid Blyton (Five On A Treasure Island_The Box From The Wreck), the word 'Ornithology or Ornithologist' may also have followed the same route. In Island Of Adventure The Beginning Of Things, a knowledgeable young lady explained the meaning of 'ornithologist' to a boy she'd just met.

Blyton books by the thousands whether it be in the past or future, have been welcome presents on birthday anniversaries and at Christmas time. Here's the spiel on this one:

"To Maureen, Wishing you a Happy Christmas, with love from Shirley, Carolyn, and Allan - 1950. May this book be the start of a whole Enid Blyton collection and that you all enjoy them."