CHAPTER XI. 



CARE OF YOUNG AND NEST. 



I. 

 BROODING AND FEEDING THE YOUNG. 



WHEN the callow young are hatched, brooding is the order of the day as well as 

 of the night, and in some species the young seem to require this kind of pro- 

 tection as much as food. During the first days of life in the nest it is not 

 easy to distinguish a brooding from a sitting bird, but this is not the case when a little 

 later the mother begins to rest her wings over the rim, or spreading wings and tail stands 

 astride the nest with back to the sun. The young must be protected from heat, cold, 

 and rain, and the instinct to perform this duty is as strong with old birds as that of 

 bringing food. 



Cedar Waxwings and Kingbirds which I have watched, brooded regularly at night, 

 but I have known young Robins to be left alone in the nest. Should the day be cloudy 

 but with no rain, or sunny but not too warm little or no brooding has been observed 

 among the various species which I have studied, but let the sun beat relentlessly upon 

 the young, or the air become laden with moisture, and the faithful mother is promptly at 

 her post. I have seen the Robin brood the young when eleven days old for forty minutes 

 at a time, while her mate brought an abundance of food. As he approached with an 

 insect or cluster of worms, she would step aside, but immediately settle back on the nest 

 when the food had been safely disposed. As a rule, however, she would brood for five or 

 ten minutes, leave at the approach of the male, return promptly with food, and brood 

 until her mate again appeared. I have on several occasions seen a brooding bird leave 

 the nest when the sun became temporarily obscured and return when the clouds lifted. 

 It was not quite certain, however, that the element of chance did not vitiate the 

 observation. 



While camped beside a nest of Brown Thrushes whose photographs are shown, and 

 whose young were approximately four days old, the female came to the nest for inspec- 

 tion frequently on the first day of observation, and brooded intermittently, but fed her 

 young only once in the space of three and a half hours. When I frightened this bird 

 off with the hand stretched through the tent-window, she would dart at it, scold em- 

 phatically, but in a few moments return to her brooding again, as if her young required 

 this attention more than food. 



The Chestnut-sided Warbler who is represented in main- characteristic attitudes 



94 



