The Friendly Phoebe 77 



injured by frost during the previous winter, and many dead shoots extended 

 above the green foliage. Upon these shoots the Phoebes also very often 

 alighted, when bearing food to their young and, after the food was delivered, 

 it was common for them to drop again to one of these perches for a brief 

 reconnoissance of the field before starting off on another air-raid. As the rose 

 bushes were in the sun, we saw here an opportunity for photography, and 

 therefore pruned off all the bare shoots but one — a conspicuous and favorite 

 one below the nest. The sole resting-place we had left was entirely satis- 

 factory to the Phoebes, and they used it frequently. By setting the camera 

 on the veranda and focusing it upon the dead shoot, it was a simple matter 

 to secure close-up and characteristic portraits, without blind or concealment. 



When it became evident from the restless shifting of the young Phoebes in 

 the nest that they would soon be leaving their already overflowing cradle, 

 we>decided to add their picture to the series we had already secured of their 

 parents. So we gently removed them from their nest and arranged them on 

 a branch before the camera. During this operation one of the five escaped 

 from us by flying over the hedge and becoming lost in the standing hay, but 

 we photographed the four others in various poses, and then returned them to 

 their nest. Only two of them were content to remain in their old nursery, 

 however, and then only one night longer. For several days thereafter we often 

 saw all five of the birdlings, whose unceasing demands upon their parents 

 kept them hustling for food. We never observed any of the babies attempt 

 to gather a meal for himself, though sometimes one of them would follow the 

 flight of an insect with an interested movement of his head. 



Then, with that suddenness which is one of the mysteries of the bird world, 



