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Bird -Lore 



side, that it seemed certain of discovery by any one passing that way. In 

 a stay of ten minutes, I did not see the bird again. 



My next visit was on June 21. From this date until July 6, 

 I made trips every few days, spending from three-quarters of an 

 hour to four hours or more near the nest, each time. How rich 

 and varied would have been such observations about the nest 

 of a Wren, a Robin or some Warbler, or any of a hundred others 

 of our common birds I And how comparatively little of real 

 insight did they yield in the case of these uncanny birds! 



At first, I usually found one of the old birds on the nest, and 

 occasionally when the young were several days old. The eggs 

 hatched between June 22 and 24. On the 29th both old birds 

 came about, and remained within several yards of me for the 

 forty-five minutes that I spent sitting twenty- 

 five feet from the nest. The young would 

 "beg" for food when I shook the bushes about 

 their nest; and, as they stretched up their heads, I could 

 see the broken egg-shells under them. The following day 

 I found only the female about. She called now and then, 

 as usual since my first ^•isit, but no mate appeared, though a 

 Cuckoo did occasionally call somewhere at a distance. Half an hour 

 went by, then an hour, and I had given him up for killed. Finally a 

 Cuckoo came, and swooped gently at the female perched in a locust 

 tree. He alighted on the branch she had left just in time to escape 

 him. There he stood, with slowly rising and faUing tail, the other 

 bird being a yard or two in front, he raised his tail beautifully 

 expanded. There was no attempt at pursuit, not a flutter nor a note; in 

 a few minutes the late comer sailed down over some bushes, and so out of 

 sight, as quietly as he had made his appearance on the scene. The sexes are 

 indistinguishable in the field, but I felt sure which was which in this apparent 

 courting scene. 



Two days later, one of the Cuckoos flew up from the bushes about the 

 nest, and, stfll I found a Cuckoo occupying 

 the latter. The suggestive scene in the locust 

 at once occurred to me, and I hoped to see, 

 after all, an instance of that remarkable 

 anomaly, weU known with Cuckoos, of 

 young birds and fresh eggs in the nest together. 

 From my accustomed seat eight or ten yards 

 away, I watched the sitter, patiently waiting for her to quit the nest. In the 

 meantime, the bird which had flown from near the nest had at once proceeded 

 to dress his feathers, as if he had been sitting — as, for aught I know, he had. 

 I have seen Waxwings sitting "tandem" on their eggs in cold weather. 



