84 Bird - Lore 



In a few days they commenced a second nest which was quite different. This 

 was round, more like a Marsh Wren's, and was built around a slender branch, 

 \y 2 inches in diameter in its largest part, high up in a nearby elm. This nest 

 is truly remarkable. It measures thirty-nine inches in diameter one way and 

 thirty-three inches the other. It is firmly woven of small twigs, from which, 

 in time, the leaves fell. The branch runs through the nest, and on this the 

 birds roosted, as the bark is all worn off by their feet. In the frcnt of the nest 

 is a round opening about 5 inches in diameter and in this dcoiway both Parrots 

 would sit billing and cooing and talking to each other in Parrot language, 

 while we watched them from below. As cold weather drew near, we were 

 greatly distressed fearing they would freeze in our cold northern winter, and 

 we tried in every way to capture them with traps which the Bird Club had 

 made. Three different nights the Mayor had the firemen go up to the nest 

 on extension ladders but each time the birds were aroused and escaped. Every- 

 one became interested and there was hardly an hour in the day that there 

 was not an audience on the walk below watching the Parrots. In December 

 I went to California leaving the birds feeding on the snow under my window. 

 They had grown very handsome, their feathers thick and fluffy, and they had 

 plenty of food for everyone in the neighborhood had a place where food was- 

 kept for them. When they found something they especially liked they would 

 fly to a veranda railing or tree where the male would break off small pieces 

 and feed them to the female. Certainly they had had the time of their lives, 

 and I really believe that they might have lived through the winter, for the 

 nest seemed warm, but it was so large and en such a slender branch that we 

 feared it would fall when covered with ice and snow. Before Christmas word 

 reached me that both birds had been trapped. They were returned to their 

 owners, but alas during the winter one died, and in the spring the other 

 was liberated. It was pitiful to see him in his old haunts calling for his mate. 

 I believe he has now been captured again and I hope has a happy home. 

 The firemen again went up into the tree, sawed off the limb which held the 

 nest and saved it for me. 



