216 WTTir NATURE AND A CAMETiA. 



regretted ever since the iiiifortiinate circumstance 

 that he was changing- his slides at the moment. He 

 waited nearly the whole of Easter Sunday and 

 Monday for a similar scene, but it never presented 

 itself. The hen fed the young birds twice for the 

 cock once. Indeed, the latter often came to gaze 

 in admiration at his chicks, and showed every signs 

 of the fond ])ride of an affectionate father. 



I believe 1 am in a position to boast what very 

 few ornithologists can. I have helped birds to 

 build their nests, hatch their eggs, and feed their 

 young. When a boy I used to collect feathers 

 and amuse myself by dropping them from the top 

 of a bridge and watching the Swallows and Martins 

 catch and carry them away for use in lining their 

 nests. I have kept birds' eggs warm in my hands 

 during the enforced absence of the sitting hen, and 

 have placed suitable food beside birds' nests and 

 watched them pick it u}) and give it to their youngs 

 ones. 



Even where a great amount of hard work is 

 entailed in feeding a hungry brood of young ones, 

 some female birds do not receive any assistance 

 from the males. At the end of last May I found a 

 Chiffchaff's nest, containing five young ones, at the 

 foot of a tiny thorn bush growing in an old copse 

 near my home. I ke})t it under close observation 

 a whole day, and made (juite sure that the male 

 bird did not render the slightest assistance, although 

 the female worked almost incessantly from morning- 

 till night. I was able to identif}' lier with cer- 

 tainty from the fact that one of her under tail 

 coverts had by some accident become bent upwards^ 

 and i)rojected Ijetween the quills on tlu^ vipper side 

 of her tail. I timed lier upon m\' watch on several 

 occasions, both (hiring the forenoon mid at'tenioon, 



