THRUSH COUSINS 



During the course of this fracas the young had one 

 by one crawled just outside the nest into the shade 

 close by, all but one, which was more puny than the 

 rest and could not get out of the rather deep cup. It 

 was fortunate for me that this one stayed, for the noble 

 parent was as ready to incur danger for one as for all. 

 His fine example at length seemed to inspire his rather 

 faint-hearted mate, for she began to grow more threaten- 

 ing and even ran out in front of the nest, where I 

 secured just one snapshot of her standing on a low rock. 



Having now used up quite a number of plates and 

 secured pictures of about every possible position, I 

 thought I would see what they w^ould do if I actually 

 handled the young. So I started to lay hold of the 

 chick in the nest. But no sooner had I touched it than 

 like a wdiirlwind, with shrieks of rage and despair, both 

 thrashers precipitated themselves upon me. Seizing 

 my fingers with their claws, they hung on, scratching 

 like vixens, nipping my hand here and there with their 

 sharp bills and beating it furiously with their wings. 

 Then they darted off into the thicket, and again and 

 again I tried to touch the young one, with the same 

 result. The whole thing so touched and interested me 

 that I felt no injury from their attack, but when I be- 

 thouglit myself to look at my hand I saw that it was 

 dotted with little drops of blood, where they had 

 scratched or bitten through the skin. Then I wrapped 

 a handkerchief around the injured member and let 

 them try to tear that for a change. If I stood up and 



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