A BIRD IN THE HAND. ill 



I managed this by putting a box containing ants 

 in the pahii of my hand, but letting it show between 

 my fingers. She wanted the ants and saw only one 

 way to get at them. She alighted, therefore, on my 

 finger and thrust her bill down into the box. She 

 also learned to eat from the box placed upon my 

 head. 



In order to photograph the bird in these character- 

 istic positions, we had to do an amount of climbing 

 and cutting in the tree, which was in itself a severe 

 test of her composure. The camera, too, on its 

 tripod, was tied in place only a foot or two away, and 

 remained there night and day, covered by a black 

 cloth ; but neither this strange object nor the removal 

 of twigs and branches all around the nest seemed to 

 disturb the vireo in the least. 



By the eighteenth of June the young were hatched, 

 and as soon as they no longer needed the protection 

 of her body, the mother treated herself to long and 

 well-earned absences. Once she was away so long 

 that I became greatly worried about her, but she 

 returned at length, and ate once more, the last time, 

 from my hand. 



She unconsciously gave me cause, during this last 

 interview, to think of her a little more constantly than 

 I liked. While I looked up at her as she fed, there 

 fell into my eye a fragment of the ant she was eating 



