ANIMAL BEHAVIOR, WITH EXAMPLES 

 Taking Spizella's Portrait 



265 



ARIOUS species of young 

 birds are leaving their 

 nests in the beginning 

 of August, and if one 

 desires to record their 

 portraits this is the last 

 opportunity of the nest- 

 ing season. This was 

 the conclusion I came to 

 as I started out in the bright 

 sunlight one afternoon, with a 

 view to photographing a nest of a field spar- 

 row. The nest which I had in mind was 

 near the top of a black raspberry bush and 

 it had been examined and found to contain 

 three nestlings. 



At the last inspection I noticed that their 

 bodies were nearly naked and that the feathers 

 of the wings were in the form of quills, not yet spreading 

 into feathers. After two days of absence I found on arriving 

 at the nesting site that the young had acquired a complete 

 covering of feathers. ^\Tio could have believed that in such 

 a short time the development of plumage could be so rapid? 

 Yet there were two sprightly little ones, with short tails and 

 brownish suits, whose precociousness led them to stand tri- 

 umphantly on the branches. How unconcerned they appeared 

 as I viewed them; their inconspicuous bodies showed scarcely 

 any signs of animation. 



But from another quarter I was being intently watched. 

 In an instant more the mother bird, which had been perched 

 upon a bare twig some distance away, now suddenly appeared. 



