i6 



THE GUIDE TO NATURE 



yOUNG ROBIN SOON AFTER LEAVING NEST- 

 AN EASY PREY FOR CATS. 



both of the parent birds. Many young 

 perish thus while still in the nest; 

 others are preyed upon by nest vermin, 

 which sometimes become so bad as to 

 cause the abandonment of the nest by 

 the parent birds and the consequent de- 

 struction of the young. I have known 

 of such a fate befalling a brood of phoe- 

 toes whose home was in the sheltering 

 'crevice of a great rock in the woods. 

 The situations selected by these birds 

 for their nests unfortunately are too 

 often in places where conditions seem 

 to promote such dire consequences. 

 These birds, however, usually raise two 

 broods of young in a season and are 

 thus able to hold their own against 

 these destructive agencies. 



Crows and jays are probably respon- 

 sible for the destruction of many eggs 

 and young birds in the nest. Such was 

 the fate of the young robins from the 

 nest shown in our third illustration. 

 A great deal of pleasure had been de- 

 rived from watching the construction 

 of this little home in the maple tree. 

 The mother bird is here seen hollowing 

 out the structure with her breast, pre- 

 paratory to its final lining of soft grass- 

 es. Although this tree stood in the 

 yard within six feet of my window, and 

 as near to the house on the other side, 

 this close proximity to dwellings evi- 

 dently did not save its occupants from 

 an untimely end, and another tragedy 



PHOEBE'S NEST CONTAINING SKELETONS 

 OF YOUNG WHICH HAD STARVED TO DEATH. 



A ROBIN BUILDING ITS NEST. 



was enacted when, after watching 

 these happy birds through the days of 

 home building, incubation of the eggs 

 and feeding of the young, I one day 

 heard their cries of distress and looked 

 up just as a crow had swooped down 

 upon the nest and was making off with 

 some of the young birds in its beak. 



In the lowlands, especially among 

 the ground nesting birds, there are 

 many tragedies caused by severe and 

 unseasonable storms in the nesting 

 season. The red-winged blackbird 

 nestlings shown here have succumbed 

 to the cold and exposure caused by a 

 prolonged rain and heavy storm which 

 lasted for days, and which tore down 



