WITH BROWN PREDOMINATING 



201 



fed and guarded both them and the mother, coming to 

 the nest every two or three minutes with butterflies in 

 his bill. But as soon as they are ready to try their 

 wings, he assumes full charge, teaching them to fly and 

 to catch insects on the wing in true flycatcher fashion. 



Two, and occasionally three, broods are raised in a 

 season. No sooner has the ftither fairly launched the 

 young on the world 

 than the industrious i 

 little mother repairs 

 the nest, and in it 

 lays a second set of 

 pretty w h i t e eggs. 

 Again she broods for 

 fourteen days, now 

 seldom or never fed 

 by her m ate; but, 

 since the days grow warmer, 

 leaving oftcner and for longer 

 intervals to forage for her- 

 self. W h e li the second 457. Say Phcebe. 



f{\niily is ready to fly, she ^^'^Ihemdustrious lUtle mother repairs 



takes charge of it unless the 



necessity of rearing a tliird brood should compel her to 

 desert them ; and then, from somewhere, the hitherto 

 unnoticed male appears, to assume care of them. It is 

 a mooted fiuestion whether any bird rears three broods 

 in one year, and this is the only species for which I 

 make the claim. While the same pairs usually return 

 each year to the same locality to nest, some instances 



