Cultivating the Birds 



289 



of age have bird-baths and talk knowingly about the actions of Blue Jays, 

 Flickers, Catbirds, and many others. 



The birds build their nests as near our houses as possible. A pair of Robins 

 chose the bracket under my roof for their nesting-site, although the yard is 

 full of trees, and as I write, their fledglings are calling loudly for food from 

 the grape-vine trellis. During the cold spring rains those same fledglings, 

 which were then sightless, featherless, wriggling bits of birddom, were snug 

 and dry under the roof. While the mother brooded them the father proved 

 good provider, coming regularly with bug-steak and angleworm cutlets, and 



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A M.\LE ROSE-BREASTED GROSBEAK BETWEEN TWO FEMALES, 

 NONE OF THEM CONTENTED 



was quite unconcerned about high prices. When he came the mother would 

 raise herself up and to one side and he would feed their tender young under her. 



A sense of protection from enemies seems to induce birds to build on one's 

 bracket, or sometimes on one's window-sill. It can hardly be for protection 

 from storms, for just over my roof a Mourning Dove has placed her nest in 

 the corner of the eaves spout, which is on the roof, not under it. Drenching 

 rain and blazing sun do not disturb her in the least. 



A half-dead plum tree holds the nest of another Mourning Dove. I have 

 watched both of them at the work of nest-building. Most birds are yet in 

 the 'tribal stage' in the sense that their women do the drudgery, but the female 

 Mourning Dove has modern ideas. She sits on the nest, or rather where the 

 nest is to be, and the male brings materials for the nest to her, dropping it at 

 her side, and together they build the nest around and under her. He usually 

 brings a single piece at a time, and when he comes with it he is just as ap t 



