278 



LAND BIRDS 



bird is the building of dummy nests. I can find no au- 

 thority for this statement other than my own observation, 

 but am positive investigation will prove it to be true. 

 The male sometimes, if not invariably, sleeps in one of 

 these " dummies. " 



By cutting a slit in the roof of a nest containing 

 young, it was possible to watch the brood develop. 



713. Cactus Wren. 



'■'■A long, purse-shaped affair. ^^ 



This slit was closed and fastened after each examina- 

 tion. At first they were the usual naked, pinkish nest- 

 lings, with a sparse sprinkling of whitish down on crown 

 and back, but they soon took on the soft brown and 

 white plumage of young wrens, and were remarkably en- 

 terprising. While very young they were fed by regurgi- 

 tation, but on the fifth day, when their eyes had opened, 

 the parents carried insects in their beaks when they entered 



