OBSEEVATIOXS ON A PAIR OF BLACKBIRDS. 207 



off feline marauders. An armful of small branches, and a 

 stone on the top to keep all steady, served the purpose very 

 well.- 



Not to make this paper tedious by recording too many 

 details, I will simply say that three out of the four eggs 

 laid in the new nest were hatched in due course. 



It was while this second brood was being reared that I 

 noticed that when one of the parents had caught a worm 

 destined for nursery consumption, it was alwaj^-s divided on 

 the grass plot into as many portions as there were nestlings, 

 three pieces making a much more compact parcel than a 

 length of wriggling worm. 



I remember one afternoon we had a very severe hailstorm, 

 the ground being covered to a depth of nearly half an inch, 

 and as soon as the fall had ceased I hurried home to see how 

 the weather had affected my friends. To my relief I found 

 the nest warm and dry ; no doubt the faithful hen had 

 covered her defenceless brood, and had braved the fury of 

 the pelting hail. 



I have sometimes watched until the cock had flown to feed 

 the young ones, and have then climbed a pair of steps and 

 looked into the nest to see if he ever sat upon them. I 

 always found him standing quite still on the edge of the 

 nest, anxiously looking up at me to see whether he was 

 noticed. About this time it broke in upon the mind of 

 Father Whitehead that we had no wi$h to injure him or his 

 family, and he became very tame : he would sometimes sit 

 upon the bough of an arbutus shrub, and allow us to approach 

 within a yard of him. 



And now the fledgelings began to be too big for their home, 

 and the eldest would sit outside the nest, looking down upon 

 the strange new world in which he must so soon launch out 

 and shift for himself. Then he left the nest never to return. 



