56 IIOMI-: LIFE OF THE Pi ED ST ART. 



tlie lower branches of his tree, dartiiif^ about in 

 perfect silence ; but once or twice I saw him ac- 

 tually loitering, a pleasant pastime of which I 

 never suspected a redstart. 



Six days appears to be the limit of time a 

 redstart baby can submit to a cradle. (I know 

 this does not agree with the books, so I ex})lain 

 that it was six days from the time constant sit- 

 ting ceased. If the young were out of the shell 

 before that, they were covered all the time, and 

 not fed.) The day that stirring urchin was six 

 days old he mounted the edge of the nest and 

 tried his wings. When mamma came, he asked 

 for food in the usual bird-baby way, gentle flut- 

 ters of the wings ; but this haste was certainly 

 not pleasing to the little dame, and upon her 

 departure I noticed that he had returned to the 

 nursery. 



However, his ambition was roused, — the am- 

 bition of a redstart to be moving, — and at seven 

 o'clock the next morning, his seventh day, he 

 came out with his mind made up to stay. First 

 a shaky little yellowish head appeared above the 

 nest ; then the owner thereof clambered out upon 

 a twig, three inches higher. One minute he 

 rested, to glance around the new world, and 

 quickly increased the distance to six inches, 

 where he stood fidgeting, arranging his feathers, 

 and evidently preparing for a tremendous flight, 



