I90 Bird -Lore 



on a bough, it showed a tendency to follow the coaxings of the mother, and 

 would flutter to the ground. The mother would then drag herself off through 

 the brush, with wings trailing, and tail bent curiously to one side, in a vain 

 attempt to attract my attention to herself — a humpback exhibition, quite 

 similar to the sham which I have seen an Ovenbird perform under like cir- 

 cumstances. 



The next step was to attach the camera so that it bore upon the nest, 

 after which I replaced the young bird, ran out thirty feet of rubber tubing, 

 and sat down amidst a clump of sweet ferns, though still in plain view, with 

 the bulb in my hand. 



For a while the mother resorted to coaxing tactics, in which she was gen- 

 erally successful. She would approach within a few inches of the nest, and then 

 would peep inducingly to the little one, while with wings fluttering rapidly, she 

 would retreat tail foremost to the farther side of the tree, with the fledgling 

 following her through the branches. After a while she varied her procedure 

 and began to bring the youngster food, and I was enabled to make several 

 exposures of the birds in the act of feeding. 



During all this time the male remained close at hand, singing frequently, 

 and sometimes flying close to me in order to inspect me with his beady eyes. 

 He never fed the young bird, nor did he take any part in the coaxing per- 

 formance, but whenever I went near the young one he did his best to draw me 

 away from it. 



The nest, which I brought away a few days later, was built in a cluster of 

 pine twigs, and was surrounded by needles. It was merely saddled on the sup- 

 porting bough, the attachments being confined to the branchlets and to the 

 needles. The limb was about a half-inch in diameter and less than three feet 

 long, and the nest was situated six inches from the trunk of the tree. The in- 

 side dimensions are two inches for both diameter and depth. It is made up 

 externally of fine rootlets and a considerable quantity of weather-beaten white 

 twine. Small cocoons and tufts of vegetal down are also inwoven. On the inner 

 edge there is a circle of horsehair, and the bowl is lined with buff and white 

 chicken feathers, some of which project above the rim. In the bottom, a mass 

 of down and feather sheaths is matted together. 



