LOOK FOR A BIRD

Somebody's been napping in these experienced natural-science circles. Among the assorted facts about fourteen common birds are some that are very odd indeed. The Cardinal, we're told, ""is a very red bird""--while on the opposite page we see the (properly described) ""yellowish-brown"" female. The mother and father Pigeon, we learn--without any elaboration--feed their babies ""Pigeon milk."" The Robin, it is confided, ""may not hear or smell a worm."" And though the next sentence tells us that ""they can see worms,"" the question of their hearing or smelling one remains open. Other lapses are less blatant (""The Chickadee does not fly away for the winter""--though no bird has been said to), but none of this bespeaks the care one expects from the Hurds or the Science I Can Read series.