"both birds tliat we could watch them at close range. Nature has given the 

 grosbeak a large and powerful bill, to crack seeds and hard kernels. It seemed 

 to me this would be an inconvenience when it came to feeding children. If it 

 was, the parents did not show it. The mother would cock her head to one side, 

 so that her baby could easily grasp the morsel, and it was all so quickly done 

 that only the camera's eye could catch the way she did it. She slipped her bill 

 clear into the youngster's mouth, and he took the bite as hurriedly as if he were 

 afraid the mother would change her mind and give it to the next babv. 



The three young grosbeaks left the nest the morning of July 6. They were 

 not able to fly more than a few feet, but they knew how to perch and call for 

 food. I never heard a more enticing dinner song. The minute a youngster's 

 appetite was satisfied, he always took a nap. There was no worry on his mind 

 as to where the next bite was coming from. He just contracted into a fluffy ball, 

 and he didn't pause a second on the borderland. It was so simple. His lids 

 closed, and it was done. He slept soundly, too, for when I stroked the feathers 

 of one, he didn't wake, but, at the sound of the parents' wings, he awoke as 

 suddenly as he dropped asleep. 



I have watched a good many bird families, but I never saw the work divided 

 as it seemed to be in the grosbeak household. The first day I stayed about tb 

 nest, I noticed that the father was feeding the children almost entirely, and when- 

 ever he brought a mouthful, he hardly knew which one to feed first. The mother 

 fed about once an hour, while he fed every ten or fifteen minutes. This seemed 

 rather contrary to my understanding of bird ways. Generally the made is wilder 

 than his wife, and she has to take the responsibility of the home. The next day 

 I watched at the nest, conditions were about the same, but I was surprised to 

 see that parental duties were just reversed. The mother was going and comin;' 

 continually with food, while the father sat about in the tree-tops, sang and 

 preened his feathers leisurely, only taking the trouble to hunt up one mouthful 

 for his bairns to every sixth or seventh the mother brought. To my surprise, tlir 

 third day I found the father was the busy bird again. Out of eighteen plates 

 exposed that day on the grosbeak family, I got only five snaps at the mother, and 

 three of these were poor ones. The fourth day I watched, the mother seemed to 

 have charge of the feeding again, but she spent most of her time trying to coax 

 the bantlings to follow her ofl:' into the bushes. It was hardly the father's day 

 for getting the meals, but. on the whole, he fed almost as much as the mother, 

 otherwise the youngsters would not have received their daily allowance. 



The Lapland LongSpur (Calcanus lapponicus) 



By W. Leon Dawson 



Length: G3-4 inches. 



Range: Northern portions of the northern hemisphere, breeding far north; 

 in America south in winter to the northern United States, abundantly in the 

 interior, to Kansas and Colorado, irregularly to the Middle States. 



438 



